NaNoWriMo2015 Oneshot Colletction

by Fiend from the Darkness

Rating: teen
Tags: Comedy, Random, Slice of Life
Length: 36732

A spot to store practice minifics I write to improve on various things, as the reading mechanics are so much nicer than other places.

A spot to store practice minifics I write to improve on various things, as the reading mechanics are so much nicer than other places.

All of these were written in November 2015 as my way to participate in National Novel Writing Month 2015.

Character Tags square bracketted in OneShot titles

A Word Count Tracker!

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2015-12-01 01:19:54 UTC

Winter's Antics 1 [OC]

Winter stared down at the desk below her grinning. She turned to look back at the colt currently scrunched up in the air-ducts of Canterlot Palace with her. His look was somewhere between deadpan and nervous. “Are you sure this is a good idea? What if we get caught?”

“Stormy, we will not get caught. I might, but we won’t,” she assured him. “Right?” She gave him a hard glare. The type of glare that the mares and fillies of Equestria seemed to know just to mess with the males of the nation.

Storm responded by nodding rapidly. Winter just grinned once more. “Besides, don’t you want to know what it takes to become a Solar House Guard? Guard the very Princess of Equestria herself?”

He sighed. “Yes, but I also worry that getting caught breaking into the office of a Lieutenant OF said guard will end up in us in jail. Or expelled from the Junior Guardian Academy. Or worse!”

“No, I can’t be expelled. I’m not a Junior Guardian, remember?” she said impishly. Her statement was greeted by a long pause as he just looked at her.

“You get my point,” he grumbled somewhat petulantly.

“You sure? I’m not sure I do,” she shot right back with a grin. Then she dropped out of the airduct into the office below, ignoring the gasp of her friend as she did so. Now… where to find the files on how they chose ponies….

She looked around at the office, frowning somewhat There was a large, nice desk in the centre, just below her hooves. Around her there were bookshelves, locked file cabinets including those massive bars that stopped the drawers from opening…. Those were the same things that stopped her from figuring out what it was her mother was leaving out of her awesome mission stories!

Winter immediately went looking for the easiest to get at files, grinning as she searched. If she could give Stormy the edge in getting into the House Guard then he could be super awesome all that much sooner.

It wasn’t long, though, before she began to hear hoofsteps. Giving a quiet gasp, she immediately colourmatched her surroundings. Winter wasn’t exactly an ordinary filly to begin with, and not just because she was breaking into the office of a Lieutenant of the Solar House Guard for what most would consider nothing more than giggles. No, she also had the ability to alter her appearance, though not her mass, at will. A half-changeling on her father’s side had given her some unique abilities. Most of those being encompassed in the ability to change her appearance at will. And that was what she did now, acting almost like a chameleon as she vanished from the sight of the casual observer, though any real close scrutiny wouldn’t have to work too hard to pick her out.

To combat this, she slipped over to the side of the room, in a relatively shadowy corner, ensuring to be out of easy line of sight. That wouldn’t stop any proper looking from giving her away, but it would at least stop her from being immediately outed after breaking into the office of an officer in the Royal Guard.

The door opened almost as soon as the filly was settled to admit a unicorn with a sunny yellow coat and darker yellow mane. Her eyes were a bright dancing blue, and she was humming something Winter didn’t recognize. She moved around and sat in the desk, seeming not to see Winter, much to the little filly’s relief. Though now came the hard part… Waiting the unicorn out and hoping she wasn’t noticed in the meantime.

Unfortunately, almost as soon as she’d thought it, the unicorn spoke. “Are you just planning on standing there until I leave?” she asked brightly.

Hoping it was just a fluke, or that she had a spell to look at ponies beyond the door, Winter kept quiet. She hadn’t been seen. She couldn’t have been. She was practically invisible!

Once again, she was quickly disabused of that notion as the unicorn turned and looked directly at Winter, an eyebrow raised. Winter squeaked and shut her eyes, as if her not seeing the Guard would mean the Guard couldn’t see her. She could practically feel the amused smile that began to make its way over the Guard’s face. “You know, that logic really doesn’t work in real life, right?” she asked in amusement.

“Yes, but it helps me,” Winter huffed, seeming to forget herself. Almost immediately a forehoof shot to cover her mouth and she realized that even if the logic of I can’t see you then you can’t see me DID work, she’d just let the guard hear her!

The unicorn laughed. “Well then, who am I to stop you? So, would you mind telling me what exactly you’re doing in here?”

“Trying to find out how to make it into the Solar House Guard,” Winter immediately answered, though it wasn’t with the same kind of attitude. She figured that if she was already caught, she might as well cooperate. It would mean that she’d be less angry—hopefully—and maybe not call the guard on Winter! Or… would that be her superiors? Winter decided not to think on it before she ended up on another tangent.

“And you thought looking in my office would help you how?” the unicorn asked. She sounded more curious than angry, and that made Winter open her eyes, the filly looking almost hopeful now. Maybe the Lieutenant wouldn’t be mad?

“Well, I thought that since you ran this section of the guard, you might know what it takes to get into it!” she explained with enthusiasm.

The unicorn nodded, giggling seemingly in spike of herself. “Okay, so if you wanted to know that, why didn’t you just ask one of the recruitment officers?”

Winter shrugged. “This seemed easier,” she said, seeing no flaws in her logic. She heard the sound of face meeting hoof above her and her grin got just a little wider. Stormy did see the light eventually! That’s why he was there with her!

“We come in, see what has gotten the ponies before transferred to the House Guard, then we work on making him the model guard!”

“Uh huh…” the unicorn said, seemingly at a loss for words at the filly’s logic. She continued to grin before the unicorn finally shrugged. “I really don’t know what to say to that. Though, I do have to ask why exactly you are exactly the colours of the wall behind you.”

“Oh, super illusion spell my Uncle’s friend can do! She refused to give me an invisibility spell, but I took this one from her desk… it sorta sucks.”

The unicorn sighed once more, before bringing a hoof up to rub the bridge of her nose. “You know what, I’m just going to let you go,” she finally said. “You’re like a miniature Lovey and one of those is enough.”

Winter giggled, before buzzing back up to the airducts, much to the unicorn’s confusion and beginning to make her way away from the office. Once out of earshot of the officer, she turned to her friend. “Sorry we didn’t get you the info. Maybe we should just talk to a recruiter.” He facehoofed. Heavily.

Sunrider's Job Offer [OC]

Obsidian Sunrider, usually known as Sun, stood at the edge of Canterlot’s cliffs, overlooking a huge chunk of Equestria below. He smiled. The day hadn’t yet begun and the sun was just barely beginning to colour the horizon, and the sky was a deep, beautiful purple that was beginning to make its way towards red.

Sun took a deep breath and closed his eyes, his sunny yellow sides expanding, the muscle of his wings becoming a little more pronounced. He exhaled, and opened his eyes, the sharp green orbs now showing a pinpoint focus. He opened his wings bringing them up into position with a slow, careful, precise motion. Then he powered into a single downstroke, hitting the cruising speed of the average Pegasus almost instantly. That wasn’t even a good fraction of his top speed.

He angled up, going far faster than the majority of pegasi could even hope to hit. As he got to what he judged high enough he pulled in his wings, angling his nose to lead him into a dive, the lazy arc he inscribed into the air far understating the speed he was travelling. As he began to descent, he started to travel faster. Faster. Sharper descent. Faster speed. Sun opened his wings into a sharp V shape, accelerating even more, the mach cone behind him quickly forming, then getting sharper. Closer to his body. He began to feel the familiar resistance of the mana barrier. This time… this time he would break it.

The resistance started to get tougher. He went harder. The harder he pushed, the tougher the barrier began to feel. And then, it happened. That familiar doubt began to wiggle into his mind. What if he couldn’t make it? What if he wasn’t meant to? All of one flyer had broken the mana barrier in the last thousand years. What make it possible for him?

Just like that, the barrier began to solidify again. It was solid and unyielding. And the barrier seemed to turn Sun’s mach cone into a spring. A catapult. And another familiar feeling took hold. That of tumbling uncontrolled through the air, backwards, head over hooves over wings. A feeling of such familiarity he barely had to do any sort of reorientation before he snapped out his wings and twisted himself, easily catching himself on the air and causing barely any strain as he reoriented himself into a fast dive, pulling up in a way that seemed almost lazy, though anypony that knew anything about stunt flying would understand that the angle and speed of his recovery would knock the majority of untrained and even amateur flyers right into unconsciousness. As he rose into the air, the sun rose behind him, and from the right angle, he rose with the very sun itself, like a phoenix out of the ashes as he ascended. And then he once more descended, though this time he spiraled down in a lazy circle, like the reverse of a thermal glide, landing outside a small building in the middle of the International District. The Obsidian Martial Arts Academy.

Sun gave a smile, and unlocked his school, slipping inside and locking up behind him. He breathed a deep breath in and made his way into the back, not even turning on the lights. It wasn’t like he had to. He knew every nook and cranny of the building. Every obscurity. And so, when he heard a creaking that shouldn’t have been. When he saw the ghost of a light that wasn’t usually there, he knew something was up. He sidestepped, his left wing shooting out in a single, fast strike. It hit the pony beside him in the throat, dropping him like a sack of potatoes, unable to say anything as another precision strike knocked him out.

Sun then began to move carefully, silently, towards the kitchen of his martial arts school. The light within was on. He slipped his eye around the corner to see who was within… and gave a soft sigh as he  noted the soft green Pegasus with the jade green mane. She had a rather curvy figure, mostly consisting of what many might call ‘cuddle padding’, and had her left, good, eye facing away from him. He turned on the lights in the dojo itself, and noted the unconscious pony on his floor was Moonlight Dancer. A white Pegasus, with a thick, wavy black mane and the petite body of a dancer or gymnast. She was also unconscious on the mat, though Sun failed to feel too bad about it. She knew him, and had still attempted to sneak up on him in the dark of his home in the early morning.

He turned back off the lights, figuring she’d wake in a few minutes and fully entered the kitchen. “Hi Hope,” he greeted the mare in the kitchen.

She gave a light jump and glanced over at Sun, before she smiled softly. “Hey Sunny,” she said quietly, before turning back to the stove and breakfast. Though why Dawn had woken up not only early enough to make him breakfast, but also come over to his house to do that in the first place was a little mystifying. Something that was very quickly demystified when she spoke next, keeping her nearly floor length mane in the way as sort of a shield from him. Not out of fear of him, but out of fear of the look he might end up giving her when she told him her news.

“What is it, Dawn?” he asked her softly. She rarely got that look around her friends. Especially not around Sunrider.

“So, the Princess asked about you yesterday,” Dawn started, sounding nervous. “Not you specifically, but of the pony that flew every morning at sunrise.”

Sun nodded. “And?” he asked, his voice not sounding nervous quite yet, as he watched his friend.

“She knows I know who you are because I might have said something a little angrily about a week and a half ago. When you were trying to break the mana barrier without a spotter. Again,” she said, shooting him a glare with her left eye. Her right one was hidden behind her mane.

Sun nodded nervously, decidedly not mentioning what he’d been doing that morning. There was really no need to add any more to the mare’s ire than already there. “What did she ask?”

“She just wanted to know what it was you did. It’s not every day you find a pony capable of nearly breaking the mana barrier.” Sun knew there was a catch. After all, nothing could be that easy. Nothing. Sure enough, Dawn continued after only a short pause “And now that she knows who it is that can pull that off, and what you do, she’s wondering if you might be interested in teaching some advanced flight lessons for pegasi going in for advanced training. Especially the ones in the air force,” Dawn continued, glancing over at Sun.

“No. Dawn, I told you, I’m not that good a flyer.”

“That’s bullshit,” a new voice wheezed from the doorway as Moonlight entered, glaring at Sun. “Total and complete bullshit. I saw you outrace a Wonderbolt once. Oh, and let’s not forget the time you took out an Intelligence Sector Guard when you thought he was breaking into your home. When he attempted to fly away.” She gave him a deadpan at his look of surprise. “If you remember, I came over to visit you? Was here when you got back?”

Sun nodded. “Still doesn’t count for much. Why would I be good enough to teach advanced lessons? Wouldn’t it be better to get another pony?”

“Most of the rest of them are almost always on active duty, or part of the Wonderbolts,” Dawn interjected. “We need more dedicated instructors and you’re too nice to become an Elite Airforce Flyer and too self-conscious to join the Wonderbolts.”

“I still remember his reaction when that scout found his practice spot in high school,” Moonlight laughed, causing Sun to turn a glare on her. She just looked unrepentant. “But come on, Sunny, you can still run your dojo! It pays real good, too,” Moonlight explained.

“No. Not unless I lose my contract with the Hospital for Therapy,” Sun told them flatly.

Dawn’s eyes widened. “Oh… I forgot about that,” she admitted apologetically. “I’ll… let the Princess know then.”

Sun nodded. “Thanks,” he said softly. “Besides, I don’t want to teach others how to hurt better. I want to help.”

Dawn opened her mouth to answer, but paused. She shut it again and nodded, the expression on her face that of no wanting to reopen an old argument. When Moonlight looked like she was going to say something, Dawn just shook her head, and the other mare backed down. It was rare enough for Dawn to get assertive outside work that it usually did evoke a cooperative response from her friends. Moonlight didn’t exactly look like she was happy to put her words to rest, though.

“So, you came and cooked breakfast just to give me the offer?”

“No,” Moonlight said with a smirk. “It was also to inform you the Royal Equestrian Ballet picked up a couple new ponies and I’m going to set you up on a blind date with one.”

Sun’s face almost immediately burned bright red as the two mares giggled. “And if I say no?”

“Too late! First one’s tonight, good luck, now I’ve got to get to the studio. See you guys later!” And on that note, Moonlight turned and bolted from the building before Sun could gather his wits.

Dawn giggled. “Pancakes?” she offered, stepping to the side and showing a skillet with a bunch of the fluffy round things on it.

Sun blew out a breath, and, ignoring Dawn’s teasing smile, nodded, walking over to the already set table in the room. She laughed once more, before pulling out a towering stack from his oven and adding the ones on the skillet to it, bringing it over.

“This is going to end badly for me, isn’t it?” Sun asked as Dawn sat down with him.

“Probably,” she admitted. “This is Moonlight we’re talking about, after all.”

Sun sighed once more, giving Dawn a long level look. He then turned to his pancakes so he didn’t have to respond. Dawn only giggled.

Ponyville, Everfree [OC]

Shadow flew down from Canterlot, quickly flaring his wings as he raised an eyebrow. He’d been down there not even a month ago and Ponyville was easily visible… now, though, below him was spread not only Ponyville, but also a large chunk of the Everfree forest.

He frowned as he began to search for the house he was looking for, taking a few minutes in the air, before sighing and looking for a clearish spot to land. It took a couple of minutes, but once Shadow angled for where he knew town square to be, he found that clear space.

The market of Ponyville was just as lively as he remembered it, if not more so. There were ponies down there hawking their wares, ponies buying, and the other expected things. What wasn’t expected was a manitcore sitting in the fountain like it was nothing, and the ponies walking by it like it was just another day and it wasn’t a freaking manticore sitting in the fountain!

After taking the obligatory moment to digest that little fact, he angled downwards towards the crowd below, leveling out a little above their heads so as to continue to fly, but beneath the canopy instead of above as he searched for the house he was looking for. It was, odd, that these ponies were so calm about being in one of the most feared forests in Equestria.

Shadow sighed, wondering if it really was as weird as Goldie’s Night’s letters described. He entered the forested town from the marketplace clearing, and was rather surprised at how roomy it was under the canopy. It was nothing like the open skies the black stallion preferred, with the wind running through what little there was of his short cropped white mane.

It wasn’t long before Shadow came to the house he was looking for. It was a small one, almost a cottage really, but it fit with the aesthetic of the tow quite well, and it was hard to notice those extra little security features Shadow knew were there. The wards, the extra solidity of the door, and a spear hole to name the few Shadow knew about for sure.  He raised a hoof to knock, giving three quick, concise, knocks.

About a minute later the door opened to reveal a massive zebra. He had a midnight blue Mohawk, matching his stripes, and with eyes a few shades lighter. He was at least a head taller than Shadow and made of almost a pure wall of lean, hard muscle. All of this was almost enough to cause most observers to miss the massive set of wings on the stallion’s back. He had a large scare that ran across the middle of his left eye, though the eye was still sharp and focused.

Shadow grinned at the massive stallion, not in the least bit intimidated. “Hey, Nighty,” he said cheerily. “How are you doing?”

Night sighed. “Alright, but for the slipping sanity,” he answered with a shudder.

“Oh come on, it can’t be that bad. Sure the forest is a little bigger than normal, but nopony can be acting all that different, right?” Shadow asked as Night stepped out and locked the door behind himself. Some Canterlot habits wouldn’t die.

“That the thing,” Night said as they began to walk. “Nopony is acting any different. They’re all just taking it in stride like it’s nothing. Just another day in Ponyville.”

“Shouldn’t that be a good thing?” Shadow asked curiously.

“Normally, yes, but we’re living in the Everfree forest now, and nopony even bats an eye at young fillies and colts running off to play. The manticores and Dire Wolves strolling through town. Nothing about living in this place seems weird to them!”

“Oh come on, it’s not like you’re in a town with a monster of the weak, like those magical filly comics Moonlight’s reading all the time,” Shadow said dismissively. He began to get a sinking feeling as Night looked at him in deadpan. That sinking feeling was confirmed with Night’s next words.

“Maybe not a monster of the week, no, but a problem of the weak, courtesy of our friendly neighborhood Princess,” Night answered in complete seriousness.

Shadow groaned. “Oh, come on, you can’t be serious,” he complained. “There is no way. You’d have to live in a comic or stage show.”

“Sometimes I think that’s exactly what’s going on,” Night said in a sort of resigned tone. “There is no other way that the universe hates me this much.”

Shadow rolled his eyes. “Oh come on. The universe doesn’t hate you.”

“The local Police Guard branch has a filing cabinet dedicated our local Princess and the various problems caused in association with her and her group,” Night deadpanned. “I am the Chief Warrant in charge of all emergency responses. About fifty percent of those end up being caused or inclusive of the Princess.”

Shadow nodded slowly. “Really. You’re town is that crazy? In just day to day life?”

“The horror! The horror!” suddenly came a new set of voices. Night sighed, as there was a singly thud and pair of earthponies bolted past screaming in fear at the top of their lungs. Naturally, the pair started up a mass panic in the nearby market that Shadow and Night had been walking towards. The two turned around only to find a trio of rabbits hopping down the street. A trio of rabbits with massive sabre teeth.

Night sighed. “Nope, not gonna deal with it. Those two and their sister causing false alarms make up another quarter,” he added resignedly.

“I see…” Shadow said slowly as he blinked, before just following Night’s lead, wondering what it was he’d just seen. This town was already proving to be extremely odd. If he really was going to move down here for the off seasons of racing, then it might be best to spend a couple vacations down there, he decided. He hadn’t even been there for a half an hour and already things were getting insane…. Maybe he’d just stay this season and see how it went… he did want to be closer to his sisters and friends…. Now he only had to hope that it wasn’t as bad an idea as his sinking gut told him it would be….

A Night on the Town (Part 1) [OC]

Velvet Step grinned as her and Nightingale approached the bar. The Midnight Symphony was a small karaoke bar in the middle of the Sapphire District of Canterlot, and one of the better karaoke bars around the city. The night was young and the two mares really just wanted to have some fun and celebrate Velvet’s induction into the Royal Equestrian Ballet. What they walked in on, however, was a little unexpected, at least for Velvet.

On stage, already in the middle of rocking out to a hard hitting metal track was a Pegasus of snow white coat, and raven black mane. Her cutie mark was that of a leaf on the wind, and her eyes were a deep, forest green. Nightingale glanced back at Velvet as the pink mare came to a halt in surprise, Nightingale’s eyebrow rising questioningly.

“That is the lead pegasus in the royal ballet,” Velvet stated. “And she’s singing metal…. And head-banging.”

The brown Pegasus nodded to her friend, before pulling the pink earther over to a table off to the side. One next to a sunny yellow Pegasus grinding his hoof into his forehead in a facehoof. Nightingale giggled at the look on the pegasus’ face. “Are you alright?” she asked him.

“She has no shame,” the Pegasus groaned. “No shame at all.” Nightingale only raised her eyebrow. He glanced up to who he was speaking to and paused. He blinked a couple of times, before asking, “Um… are you with the Canterlot Ballet?”

Nightingale gained a small smile as she nodded, surprised that he recognized her. “Yes,” she replied. “I am.”

Sun nodded, blushing slightly as he looked to the side, taking a drink. “I’m Sunrider,” said pegasus introduced himself after a moment, “can I get your name?”

The mare smiled, a little quirk of the lips that didn’t fully show the grin of the little mare as she held back a giggle. “Nightingale,” she said.

“You know, he’s clearly not drunk enough for this,” a new voice cut in. “And neither is she.” Nightingale turned to see the mare who’d previously been on stage not even a few minutes ago now beside her, carrying four clear shots in her wing.

“And you are?” Nightingale asked, taking the offered shot, smiling at the mare’s energy.

“Moonlight Dancer, skydancer and karaoke queen,” the mare immediately answered. “Oh, and matchmaker for sunny here,” she added, motioning a wing to Sunrider.

Nightingale nodded with a smile. “And you’re trying to do matchmaking now? What if I’m not into stallions?”

“Then I’ll turn him into a mare,” Moonlight immediately answered, causing poor Sun to choke on nothing, as he’d already downed the shot, clearly agreeing with Moonlight that he wasn’t drunk enough to be dealing with this.

Nightingale sputtered out some giggles, the words she was going to say dead on her tongue. It took her a minute to find her voice again. “Don’t worry, I play for both teams,” she said, “no need to turn him into a mare.”

“Ah… that’s too bad. We could have all had some fun together then,” Moonlight pouted, though there was something wicked in her eyes. Nightingale laughed. Velvet seemed to finally find her brain and made her way over to them, taking back the shot Moonlight had brought over. It helped a little with loosening her up, but Velvet was clearly having a hard time with something, considering she couldn’t seem to fully get back into the groove. Moonlight sighed, muttering something about needing more drinks, and slipped back into the crowd, coming back not even a minute later with twelve shots held on her wing.

She grinned around at them. Nightingale didn’t see the problem with it and took three of them for herself. After they were distributed, the quartet took back the shots together…. And it suddenly it seemed like an amazing idea to drag the yellow stallion… Sunrider was it? It seemed like a great idea to do a duet with Sunrider! After dragging the stallion to the stage, she got up on it, and cleared her throat, getting ready as she grinned at the nervous looking stallion. Why was he nervous? The Pegasus looked like he could be a Wonderbolt with a build like his! Better even!

She took a quick glance through the track list, before selecting the track. On came a song that Sun was not in the least expecting, though he still began to sing as the blush exploded over his face. Broken played as the pair began. While Nightingale knew she wasn’t the best, especially while drunk, Sunrider appeared to be either really amazing, or she’d had way more than she thought. It didn’t really much matter, as they were still having an amazing time singing.

The next ones to take the stage were Velvet and Moonlight, the Pegasus pulling the earther up in much the same way Nightingale had pulled Sunrider, though Velvet seemed a little less reluctant, seeming to be actually drunk enough to take whatever had been making her nervous around Moonlight in stride. They sang something far more upbeat, though neither was any good at it. Laughably bad, almost, but Nightingale didn’t laugh while they were onstage. No, the laughter would only come once they were back down with them.

The song was thankfully not too long, and it was in short order that Velvet and Moonlight were back down with Sun and Nightingale, who was leaning against Sunrider. Mostly for balance, somewhat to get a good look at the bright red blush across his face. It was really no fair that he still seemed so close to sober while she was smashed out of her mind. Though maybe he was just really good at acting? Nightingale mentally shrugged and just continued to have some fun with Velvet, Moonlight and Sunny. It was within the next few drinks, however, that two things happened. The first, Sun finally properly loosened up and played along with her flirting, flirting right back without quite as much blushing, though it was still quite clearly there. The second was that all memory from a little after that point on would be completely black until she woke up the next morning…

A Night on the Town (Part 2) [OC]

Sunrider awoke with a groan. His head was roaring like an angry dragon had taken up residence, his mouth was dry as the badlands, and he just knew it was a bad idea to open his eyes. So instead, he buried his muzzle further into his pillow. His soft, lavender scented, warm… pillow?

Sunrider froze from the sudden realization that he was holding somepony. Somepony that was not Moonlight. That, he could deal with, as Moonlight was both totally and completely into mares alone, and it had happened more than once. This, however, was him holding a pony he had no idea the identity of at the moment—though he had a couple of guesses—and whom he wasn’t sure wouldn’t feel the same way about suddenly waking up in a strong embrace.

He then realized something else rather suddenly. Sunrider was no longer his normal he… he was now a she. There was a moment of mental short circuiting as he realized how little else had changed despite the plumbing.  She was still just as powerful, and only slightly smaller in overall size, but she was still a she. Sunrider also was of the serious opinion he didn’t want to open his eyes now more than ever and find out who it was in his arms.

That choice was quickly taken out of his hooves as his ‘pillow’ giggled. “Finally awake?” the amused, feminine voice asked.

“No…” Sun groaned. “I can’t be awake. That would mean I’ve have to accept this is reality…”

There was another giggle. “Oh, and you don’t want to do that?” the mare asked, her voice becoming more recognizable. “Why not?”

“Because it would mean that not only am I in bed with a surely beautiful mare, I’m also female… again, and probably somewhere completely unknown in Canterlot,” Sun answered, still not removing his face from thoroughly buried in the mane of the mare. If he couldn’t see it, it wasn’t happening, it didn’t matter what the rest of his senses were saying, he couldn’t see, then it wasn’t happening. No matter how foalish that logic was.

“Ah,” the mare giggled in understanding, though didn’t say anything. If Sun wasn’t wrong, though, she just got herself more comfortable. That wasn’t supposed to happen!

“So, is she awake yet,” Moonlight’s voice asked from off to the side, her amusement far more obvious in her tone.

“Yep, but he’s in denial,” Nightingale answered, the name to the voice finally making its way into his mind. “I think she wants to hide from the world in my mane.”

“Yep, sounds like Sunny,” Moonlight replied. “I’m surprised she hasn’t fainted again. Well, whenever you convince her that this isn’t a dream, breakfast is ready.”

“So, are you going to believe this isn’t a dream yet?” Nightingale asked Sunrider after a moment, amusement still in her tone.

“Do I have any choice?” Sun asked resignedly.

“Not really. This isn’t a dream, so the sooner you accept it, the sooner we can eat.” Sun was certain she imagined the suggestive undertone to that. She had to be, otherwise she might just faint.

Sun took a deep breath. The sudden flood of the lavender scent did not do ANYTHING to help her nerves. Right after, she pulled her head back and opened her eyes. It was worse on her nerves when she opened her eyes, as it was at that point she was forced to accept that fact that she was in bed, holding another mare close.

The mare had a soft brown coat, a variegated mane of a darker brown, while her eyes were a soft, honey brown colour as she looked right back into Sun’s eyes. Sun felt his face skip red and fire straight to maroon at the mare held strongly in her arms.

Sun slowly disengaged both legs and wings from the mare with him on the large, messy bed, and slowly stood up, clearly working very hard to hold herself from fainting. Nightningale giggled as she rolled off the bed and to her feet. She didn’t recognize the place, so figured she was at one of the other three’s place.

Sun led the way to kitchen, Nightingale following close behind. They entered to see Moonlight working in the kitchen, whistling away as she worked. Sun quickly moved over to help, clearly trying to distract herself from Nightingale and Velvet, the latter of which was sitting at the table. A table quickly made her way over to as well, ducking out of the way of Sun and Moonlight, the two of which seemed to be working extremely well together.

Nightingale grinned at Velvet, who quickly returned it. “Just what happened last night?” she asked. “All I remember is that it was fun.”

Velvet giggled. “Basically, we got really drunk, Sun got turned into a mare, we ended up back at her place, and I had amazing sex with Moonlight,” she summarized. “And I think you might have done the dirty with Sunny, but I’m not completely sure.”

Nightingale nodded. “And you remember all that?”

“No. Moonlight told me what happened,” Velvet said with a laugh. “How it is she remembers, though, is something I don’t know. “

“Magical recall,” Sun said, coming over with two large plates of breakfast, one on either wing. She stuck one in front of Nightingale and one in front of a seat she took. Moonlight was right behind, doing the same, but with Velvet. “Her sister is extremely gifted with magic, and extremely paranoid. It resulted in a fair few mental wards she’s told me about.”

Moonlight giggled. “Oh, now you’re talkative.”

“Not the same situation, Moon,” Sun immediately retorted. “Not the same situation.”

“Oh?” Nightingale asked curiously. “Why not?”

Sun sighed. “Romantic attentions,” she stated. “It’s weird, and probably not healthy, but it’s what words.”

Nightingale nodded, some amusement hidden beneath her expression. Something teasing as well. “So if I flirted with you…?” she began with a giggle. Sun nodded. “Ah, that’s too bad. I was kind of looking forward to a round I could actually remember.”

Sun’s face immediately exploded into a massive blush, before she shook her head quickly, though it didn’t seem like there was really any real head behind it. More trying to get an image out of her head than actually deny Nightingale. “I… I don’t think that’s a good idea,” she said. She took a breath, before glancing over at the clock. “I… I really should be getting to work. Moonlight, can you lock up?” she asked, standing up and seeming to be eager to get out of the room, discomfort clear in the way she help herself.

“Yeah, sure,” Moonlight giggled. Sunrider immediately took that opportunity to bolt, an afterimage of her almost visible in the air as she did so.

“Uh, won’t she need to grab something to turn her back into a stallion?” Velvet asked curiously, though not seeming too worried.

Moonlight shook her head. “I think Sunny keeps a set of antidotes for that potion at the hospital,” she explained, giggling.

“Hospital?” Nightingale asked curiously.

“He’s a physical therapist that works primarily with foals and teens. It’s one of the few places I can see him actually confident in himself,” Moonlight replied with a small smile.

The other two mares nodded. “So, will we get to see her again?” Nightingale asked curiously. Sun seemed like a pony she might want to get to know better. And not necessarily in the sense of innuendo.

“Well, since Velvet here is now my coworker, we can definitely see plenty more of each other,” Moonlight answered with a smirk.

“Wait, you’re with the Royal Equestrian Ballet?” Nightingale asked in surprise.

“Lead skydancer,” Moonlight answered without any real hint of arrogance or even just plain pride.

Nightingale nodded, her eyes suddenly wide as she realized just why Velvet might have taken so long to loosen up. “Oh, come on, it’s not that big of a deal,” Moonlight complained quietly, blushing.

“Not that big of a deal? With how competitive the Ballet is!?” Velvet practically yelled at the mare. Nightingale had to agree, though she wasn’t quite so vocal about it.  She did have to hold back a small smirk at the increasing blush on Moonlight’s face. The little Pegasus was cute like that.

“Fine, so I’m okay,” the white mare admitted. Velvet looked like she wanted to argue about Moonlight being more than okay, but held her tongue.

“I should probably be getting home,” Velvet said after a moment. “Thanks for the great night, and breakfast.” She smiled at Nightingale and then took off.

Nightingale looked over at Moonlight. “You really think it’s not that big of a deal?” she asked honestly.

Moonlight sighed. “No, I understand how big of a deal it is,” she admitted quietly. “I just say that because I don’t want to sound arrogant. To be thought of as that diva mare. I’m not the kind of mare that goes around flaunting things like that.”

Nightingale nodded in understanding. “You know that making it out like it’s not as big a deal as it really is almost makes you sound more arrogant, right?”

Moonlight sighed and nodded. “Yeah, I know,” she said, “but I can’t let it go to my head. Or I’ll end up like the first Prima Donna I ever worked with.” Moonlight made a face. “A bitch and a half, that one.”

Nightingale giggled. “I think I understand that,” she said, thinking of her own Prima Donna. “But we don’t control our Primas.”

Moonlight nodded. “We really should get together. Go out another time, this time sober.”

Nightingale nodded. “Yeah we should.” She glanced at the time. “I should be going. I need to check in with my roommate before she starts worrying. I guess I’ll see you around?”

Moonlight smiled. “You bet. It was great meeting you, and I hope we have a chance to get to know each other a little better another time,” Moonlight said with a giggle and a wink.

Nightingale stood up, laughing. “You and me both,” she said as she left. “See you around Moonlight!”

“See you around,” Moonlight called after Nightingale, laughter clear in her voice as well as Nightingale left the building, smiling with a small skip in her step. That had been fun, and she really did hope to meet those two again another time. Hopefully with Velvet Step as well, though for now they’d go their separate ways.  She couldn’t wait until they met again.

Equestrian Zombie Apocalypse - Escape - Dawn and Sun [OC]

Dawn and Sun ran. The castle had been destroyed, the Princesses didn’t seem to be the Princesses, and the very fires of Tartarus seemed to be on their heels. The two pegasi took to the air almost immediately on reaching a courtyard, wanting to get the hell out of the place, hoping their pursuers couldn’t do the same. The fact the unicorns hadn’t yet cast any sort of magic seemed to be a good sign.

They made it into the air quickly, but heard that some of those fleeing weren’t so lucky. Those who were just a little too slow. Sun heard their screams but didn’t turn back. He didn’t allow Dawn to, either. Neither of them were armed and they had quickly seen that direct contact with these fiends was conversion. They couldn’t do anything, so it was useless to turn back now. Useless and only heartrending.

The first stop was Sun’s home to pick up supplies. He had a panic room, but he knew that using it in this situation could very well kill them, as there was no bolt tunnel to go with it. Instead, he packed up the small sky-sled. A sky-sled had a few differences from a sky-chariot in that the sled didn’t have wheels, primarily, but it was also smaller, lighter, and designed to carry plenty of supplies through far more difficult flights than the average sky-chariot. It was also designed better in the three dimensional movement category. It was exactly what they needed. He began to pile lots of dried, freeze-dried, and stasis bagged foods onto the front of it. The stove went into the middle, along with the winder gear, and weapons.  Weapons such as a few sets of wingblades, spring activated combat claws—Sun wasn’t about to risk magic—plenty of arrows and bolts, along with several old fashioned grenades. In the back of the sled went the napalm.

All of it was tied down, with several staves, a trio of swords, and a large tent on top, Sun hitched himself up to the sky-sled and made his way to the door of the room. He took a breath and peered out. Canterlot was in chaos. It seemed in the twenty minutes he and Dawn had been in the panic room, the chaos had spilled out into the city streets and was now reaching further. Sun sighed as he realized the chaos and terror in the streets was unlikely to stop reaching further outwards anytime soon, and glanced to Dawn. “Everfree forest?” he asked his companion softly. He knew how little she was going to like that suggestion, but it was the only one he could think of at the moment. Better the monsters in there—the ones that could be defended against—than this new enemy—one of fire, brimstone, and impervious to the touch of the living.

Dawn nodded. “It… almost seems safer than this place,” she said softly, walking over to the wall of the dojo that made up the front of Sun’s home and putting on a harness. To it, she added several daggers, a shortsword, a morning star, and a short flail, before walking back over to stand with Sun. She danced from hoof to hoof nervously, but showed no signs of backing down.  “Let’s go,” she said softly. “Before I lose my nerve.”

“Just think of it this way,” Sun said, as he began to head towards the back of his house, and an extra set of stairs that ran up the back, big enough to get the sled up. A set he’d originally installed for convenience of take off with said sled. “It’s probably actually more dangerous to stay here. It would take more nerve, and perhaps a little idiocy to stay here with the world in this state.”

Dawn nodded, nervously smiling at Sun. Though he was right, she really didn’t like it. It still meant flying in the open air when the weather was clear. If it was partly cloudy or overcast, it wouldn’t have been so bad. They could have hidden among the clouds. But then again, so could have the enemy.

“We’ll make it,” Sun assured her, leading the way up the stairs. He paused at the landing to the second floor, the area his living quarters were contained on. “But we’ll wait for nightfall,” he said after a moment. “No use risking going out now and getting caught in broad daylight.”

Dawn nodded. If they were going to wait out the rest of the day, though, they’d either have to stay on the stairs or find a way to draw all the curtains in his house. Sun loved the open and air being in the air as much as possible, and, due to that, the curtains in his home were almost always as wide as they could possibly go. Unfortunately, the current situation made that a very big liability for them. Sun frowned once more, before steeling himself. “Call if anything goes wrong or anyone breaks in,” Sun told Dawn, before slipping into his home.

He moved carefully, keeping low as he went from window to window, taking a quick peek out to ensure nopony was watching the houses, and then pulled each curtain carefully, keeping the movement slow so as not to attract attention. Short, jerky movements just tended to catch the eye, and that was the last thing Sun wanted at that moment. He did manage to eventually get all the curtains drawn, even with his slow progress.

Thankfully, due to how little he actually used them, the drapes were big, thick, heavy things that blocked out all light. In the rare instances he did use them, he needed it to be as dark as equinely possible. Now that the drapes were shut tight, all there was left to do was wait out the rest of the day. And hope the sun set on time, otherwise, they would have wasted a lot of time and a valuable distraction for nothing. It was a lot of hope to hang on an event that might not even happen, but Sun knew it would provide better chances than leaving now if night did fall. While it was chaotic, it was in the middle of the day, and visibility was amazing. A great day for flying. A truly horrible one for attempting to escape a city on a mountain when some of the enemy might still retain the ability to fly.

And so, the only choice left was to wait out the day and hope. Hope that night came. Hope that night came with the promised new moon, allowing Dawn and Sun might escape under the cover of the darkness. First to the Everfree, then, with luck, to Equestria’s borders and beyond. Preferably beyond the ocean.

Sun went back to the door and opened it to let Dawn into the house. He gave her a small, comforting smile. She returned it, a small spark of hope igniting in her eyes. They would make it. They would be alright. All they had to do was believe.

Winter's Reminiscence [OC]

Winter stood in the sewers of Canterlot, a small smile on her face. It was almost a decade ago today, that she’d met Stormy. He was out on patrol at the moment, leaving her to herself. She’d gone for a walk and her hooves had led her to here. It was an unremarkable stretch of sewer, with nothing more than memories to set it apart.

She smiled as she began to retrace the original route she’d taken after meeting him. It was a funny meeting, that day. Storm hadn’t even wanted to be around her at first. Winter giggled. Oh, how quickly he’d changed his tune. She smiled softly, shaking her head.

Nothing bothered her as she walked. Everything down there knew better than to attempt anything. Even with foal, she could still take anything that tried to attack her apart. She whistled softly, coming to the place she was looking for. She reached up to the wall and poked the brick. The door melted from the wall as the illusion broke. The sign was in disrepair, but it was still perfectly readable. “Maintenance personnel only. Keep out,” Winter read. She knew that beyond the door was no longer the bottom of a duct system. Now, all that was beyond the door was a brick wall. Somepony had gotten wise several years ago to that and fixed it up. Winter turned and kept moving, retracing those steps she’d made so long ago as a little filly.

It wasn’t long before she reached the exit she was looking for and slipped out of the sewers. The white mare not seeming to have picked up any stray dirt or debris from her time down there. She shook her spiky, messy blue mane out, and kept moving. She paused in front of the shop, smiling. Still there, just like for as long as she could remember, was Mteja Chambo Apothecary, her aunt’s traditional Zebrican Apothecary, carrying all manner of alternative magic, potions, alchemy, and non-unicorn magical items.

That first day had been fun. She’d found a new friend—and special somepony, though she didn’t know it at the time—she’d met a Princess, and she’d gotten Stormy to loosen up. She let out another giggle as she began to walk again, not caring what the average Canterlot citizen might think of a full grown mare giggling. She could have her fun if she so chose.

As she walked, she looked around. Down she went, to the Lower Westfall District. The district wasn’t nearly as run down and dirty as it had been ten years ago, though the demographic hadn’t changed at all. Instead, Winter still remembered the legal war that had taken place between her honorary cousins and the dirty business pony that had tried to buy up the place. Winter grinned, looking at one of the few buildings that had been replaced, rather than upgraded or repaired. Even if they hadn’t ended up together, Winter delivering Shadow to Tesla in a crate had done a lot of good for the community.

She passed through without trouble, wondering whether Tesla was even there at the moment. Maybe Static could tell her. She’d have to find out later. She kept walking, slowly moving through Canterlot once more, beginning to hum tunelessly to herself. It wasn’t long until she was through the district and onto her next random destination. She turned and began to head towards the edge of the city. Her wings rippled slightly as she did so. Winter was not a changeling, nor was she a Pegasus, but something in between the two. Due to that, her transformation was severely hampered and her mental magic would never be that of a full changeling’s. Her alteration had simply moved her wings from those of the styling of a humming bird to that of a normal Pegasus.

Winter reached the edge of the city and jumped off, spreading her wings as she did so, grinning as she turned the free fall quickly into a controlled dive, altering her heading as she went out over into the outlying plains and valley. She passed over the cloud storage facility for Canterlot, grinning as she thought of all the times her and Storm had broken in there in their youth. It had always been so much fun. She soon altered her trajectory once again, heading off in another direction, seemingly at random.

It took a while, but soon, Winter was flying over a set of marshlands outside Canterlot almost opposite from the cloud facility. She drew her wings in close and dove down, soon coming to a hidden entrance to a crystal cavern. Though they were grown up, Winter had always found time to keep coming down here, or found an excuse to bring Storm with her.

She slipped down the hole in the ground easily, found the stash of thunderstones, rebreathers, and heat potions. Quaffing a potion and pulling on a rebreather—a sort of snorkel that went around in a circle around the head and somehow recycled the air—Winter jumped into the water, altering her night vision so that she could see properly. The cavern was made of pure crystal that sparkled, even in the absence of light, so that Winter didn’t even need a lantern or glowstone. She paddled through the underground cavern, still finding it just as mesmerizing as the first time she’d seen it with Stormy almost ten years back.

She reached the other end of the cavern, soon entering into the large chamber beyond. The chamber was about the size of a modest size living room, with two offshoot rooms. Winter smiled, remembering when the little cave beyond had held barely enough room for two foals. It had been a lot of painstaking effort to excavate the cavern, but it held so many special memories. It had been where Stormy had asked her to the Junior Guardians Graduation Dance. It had been where she’d first told him she loved him. It had been where they’d shared their first time truly together. It had been where Storm proposed.

Winter sighed happily. This little cave held so many memories. So many things she’d done, so many things she never wanted to forget. Her secret grotto, just her and Storm. She went into one of the rooms and lay down on the cot, just losing herself in the memories. Before she knew it, she’d fallen asleep.

A hoof shaking her shoulder awoke Winter from her nap. She blinked awake blurrily, working hard to see as the blurry grey blob came into focus. She smiled as she saw Stormy’s grey coat and charcoal black mane. “Hey,” she said smiling up at him happily.

“Hello to you too,” he said with a laugh, slipping onto the bed with her and pulling her close. “I thought I’d find you here.”

“I always seem to end up back here, don’t I?” Winter asked softly, looking over at Storm, a soft smile on her face at the strong stallion.

“Yeah, you do. I’m not sure whether I should be worried at all this reminiscing,” Storm admitted, some worry seeping into him. Winter might not be the best at Mental magic, but she had a high level of empathy, and she was right up next to him, regardless, so it didn’t take much for her to sense the worry.

“I’ll be fine,” she assured him with a little laugh. “You don’t need to worry. I guess I’m just reliving the memories. The present is all fine and good, but the past had so much in it.”

Storm laughed, the rumble of it carrying though Winter’s back, causing her to giggle with him. “That it did,” he said. “I still don’t know how you managed to get a hold of that cheese, but I think that one sticks out the most.”

Winter burst into laughter. “Of course that one does,” she said softly. “That’s one of the only ones I never managed to actually drag you into. Which is probably a good thing, with how much trouble I was in.”

“And yet you tell me it was worth every minute,” Storm said with a laugh.

“Totally worth it,” Winter agreed. “Totally worth it.” She snuggled up a little closer to Storm. “Can you believe we’ve come this far? That life has brought up to where we are?”

Storm chucked. “Don’t go getting philosophical on me, but no, I can’t believe it at times. Sometimes, sometimes I worry I’ll wake up and it’ll all have been a dream.”

Winter nodded. “But it wasn’t. I’m here with you, and you with me. And we’ll get to go into the future together,” she said softly.

“Together,” Storm agreed. He tightening his hold just a little, before reaching a wing down and grabbing the comforter from the end of the bed to pull up over them. “I’ve got tomorrow off. What do you say we stay in the grotto? For old time’s sake?”

Winter nodded. “Yeah. It won’t be long until we can’t come back here anymore, will it?” she asked him.

“No. Pretty soon we’ll have a beautiful bouncing foal taking up all our time,” he agreed.

Winter giggled once more, before snuggling just a little deeper into Storm’s arms. There was nothing in the world that could beat it. Nothing was better than falling asleep next to her special somepony, and feeling the caring he felt for her. The caring he would continue to feel for her. A peaceful, happy smile settled over her face as she fell asleep. Storm wasn’t far behind.

To Heal Alicorn - The Ritual [OC] [Dark]

Strength. Power. Might. None of these words meant a thing to Starlight as she put together the finishing touches of the spell she was working on. She slowly drew the chalk lining on the floor, every line exacting. Everything precise. The angles measured down to the hundredth of a degree, the lines to the millimetre. The array was something she’d been working on for years.

She looked at the array as the last line was finally finished. It wouldn’t take too much more time now. All she needed was a few more ingredients now that the array was laid down. She began with the candles. One candle at each of the seven equidistant points of the heptagram. Then, she spread some powdered bone of dragon within the inner heptagon, connecting each point to the five others that were not already connected via chalk line. Next came the ash of oak—held in a sacred urn—that were spread in a circle so that the heptagram was inscribed within it.

Then, at each cardinal direction, she drew the ancient arcane symbols for Air, water, earth, and fire at north, east, south, and west respectively. Next, she lay a dagger made of purest silver next to the northern candle.

The next step in the process began the hard part. Starlight stepped within the array and began to cast. The spell was long and complex. Even more so when Starlight’s power saving modifications were added in. It began with a chant and channeling. The bottom half of her horn began to glow an iridescent grey, the top half completely inert. Soon, the array came alight as well. The dome of magic formed exactly as expected and the energy drain on her was normal and sustainable. She picked up the knife and cut into her wrist, carefully avoiding any veins and not going deep enough to even leave a scare. She dropped the blood from the knife onto each point of the heptagon, into each candle flame.

Up to there, everything had been going perfectly. This was the point that everything began to go wrong. There was a small line in there. A bit of spell coding that cut out the caster as anything more than a battery after the blood-letting. It wasn’t something she’d found in going over the array for almost a week continuously. Months of work. She then felt the magic begin to dig. It dug into her very being, and Starlight threw back her head into a silent scream. Or maybe there was sound? If there was, she couldn’t hear it over the roaring agony in her ears as the probes of the spell kept going. It seemed they were unable to find what they were looking for.

Deeper and deeper they dug, feeling like they were physically digging into her soul. She longed for unconsciousness but it wouldn’t come. She wondered how long it had been. A minute? A second? An eternity? It was hard to judge through the haze of pain.

Eventually, the magic seemed to find what it was after. It found a seed at the core of her being. Another seed was there as well, even smaller, but present. And the magic jammed into them. And it opened up into those seeds. That wasn’t supposed to happen!

Before her thoughts could go any farther, another wave of pain hit. It was probably worse, but at this point, Starlight really couldn’t tell the difference. The wave was almost like taking a firehose and trying to fill a titanium water balloon. Too much going into the thing too fast.

As if from a great distance or through water, she heard voices. They sounded as if they were calling her name. She tried to focus through the haze of pain. To see the ponies calling to her. There was a brown blur in front of her. It seemed to be trying to bash through the dome of the spell. But that was impossible. The spell was unbreakable while it was in progress.

Behind the brown blur was two of blue, one mixed with green and the other mixed with yellow. She couldn’t make out anything else. They, too, seemed to be yelling. Starlight couldn’t understand what for. The pain had stopped. She didn’t know when. Or maybe she’d just relegated it to the background… agony seemed to be subjective that way.

Just then, a new wave broke over her. Right from her shoulders and firing up and down her spine. The fresh wave caused Starlight to whip back her head. The scream couldn’t have been silent, but still she couldn’t hear it. Not over the symphony of agony sounding through her body.

She began to feel magic interweaving with her own. Or maybe it was her own? Starlight couldn’t tell anymore. All she wanted was for it to end. For the ability to sleep. But that relief wasn’t coming anytime soon. It wasn’t going to grant her wish of blackness. Instead, another wave of roaring agony ripped through her body. Starlight opened her mouth, but nothing came out. She was tired. So tired now. But still the pain wasn’t stopping. It wasn’t receding. It just continued onwards.

Once again, it seemed to recede into the background. Starlight wasn’t going to trust that, however. She wasn’t going to trust that the pain was gone. That it wasn’t just biding its time, ready to come up and blindside her when she was least expecting it. And yet… and yet, that’s exactly what it seemed to be doing. The magic was receding, the pain as well. Starlight felt herself floating down. She felt the perfect agony of the spell leaving her. Depositing her gently into a strong set of forelegs. She could feel, more than hear, the care in the words spoken to her, muffled as though she were underwater.

But even as her world faded into blackness, she knew. The spell had been successful. She had healed her horn. She was now whole.

To Heal Alicorn - From the Outside [OC] [Dark]

Doctor Neutral Charge jerked his head up at the sudden blast of magic that washed over him. While that level of magic was not unheard of in Canterlot, let alone Equestria, that level of magic and a magical signature that he recognized were far lower. For it to be Starlight, a pony he knew to have an output of about half that of the average unicorn, should have been impossible.

He looked up across the room and met another pair of eyes asking for confirmation, and receiving it in kind. Doctor Thermal Flux, a coworker of his and Starlight’s, had felt it too. “Was that-“

“Yes,” Flux answered.

Confirmation received, the three of them took off at a run towards where the signature was coming from, not one of them willing to risk making the problem worse through a badly timed teleport. The magic seemed to be pulsing almost, getting more and more powerful.

That only drove the trio faster. There was no way that spell was going as planned. Perhaps wrong, perhaps horribly, horribly right, but that kind of output was risking mana poisoning. Death or worse. “Starlight!” Neutral yelled as a particularly powerful pulse was accompanied by a blood curdling scream.

That got everypony’s attention in the area, and Flux quickly began clearing ponies out while Neutral and Event began to put up barriers around the hallways and doors clearly labelled with orders to keep the buck out. While the task was needed, it took way too long in Neutral’s opinion, and it was almost three minutes later that the hallways were clear. It was hard, but monitoring the pulsing magic let Neutral know that Starlight was still alive within in the spell.

As soon as the work was done, though, Neutral led the way into the room. It was one of the testing rooms for when a spell might end up devastating a room, though never the caster—those spells were not to be cast until they were safe for the caster.

Neutral slammed open the door, leading the way in. What he was caused him to freeze in shock. Starlight was floating within an array. One he’d seen bits and pieces of before, but seeing the physical aspects having been put together. “Starlight!” he yelled, trying to get her attention. She opened her eyes and looked towards him, though it was clear she wasn’t truly seeing him.

Then, before he could do much more than stare and prepare to try and get her to answer something, she whipped back her head and screamed once more. Seconds later, there was a sort of red mist that extended from her shoulders, shortly followed by wings of pure light.

In a way, that kind of power, pulled into that kind of structure and spellcasting was beautiful. In another, it was horrifying. That kind of power was never meant to be channeled by ponies. Controlled, sure, but never channeled all at once. He tried to begin interweaving his own magic with hers, to try and cancel the spell, or at least ease her pain, but instantly knew he was out of his depth. This was the sort of things ponies spent years working on, and Neutral had to wonder just how long Starlight had been working on it. And how exactly she’d kept it a secret.

He still tried his best to interweave a sort of nervous system numbing spell into it, the closest he could get to a magical or medical anesthetic in the current situation. It didn’t seem to work, however, and there was another massive pulse of magic and the dome began to dissolve.

It started slow, though rapidly began to speed up, until Starlight was about halfway to the ground. Then the spell abruptly cut out. “Starlight!” Neutral yelled as he caught her. “STARLIGHT!” He watched as, without seeming to hear him, her eyes fluttered shut and she exhaled softly. On her face was a peaceful smile. Not daring to give up, Neutral’s hoof flew to check for a pulse at her throat and he sighed in relief when he found one.

He glanced up at Event and Flux, who were giving him a dumbfounded look and knowing smile respectively. “Yes?” he asked, suddenly sounding a little nervous.

“I knew it,” Flux said smugly. “I totally knew it!”

“Knew it?” Neutral asked nervously, as he looked up, cradling Starlight’s head in his hooves.

“Knew it. You’re sweet on her, aren’t you?”

Neutral instantly went red. “Can we focus on what’s important?” he squeaked, standing up quickly and lifting Starlight up in his magic. “We should get her to the hospital.”

“Agreed,” Event said, finally seeming to find his voice. “We can talk to Neutral about his soon to exist sex life once we know the damage this spell did.”

“You mean besides the wings?” Flux asked with a nod.

Both stallions paused, before looking over at Starlight’s back. The wings of magic and light seemed to have solidified into the real deal. Event blinked dumbly and Neutral’s eyes rolled back in his head before the timid stallion up and fainted.

Flux caught Starlight in her magic easily, then glanced at Event. “Come on. Grab Neutral, he was right, we really should get her to the hospital as soon as possible.

Event nodded, quickly picking up Neutral and following the diminutive unicorn out of the room and nearly running her over as she paused. Pressed right up against the safety barriers was a veritable mass of students and faculty trying to rubberneck at what was going on. “Risk it?” Event asked.

“There’s no way we’re going to make it through that mass in a timely manner,” Flux answered. He nodded and there was a flash of light as they teleported themselves and their loads to the entrance of the University and the wards that prevented teleportation over the boundaries. They then took off at a run towards Canterlot general hospital. There was only so much they were willing to risk at once. They just had to get Starlight to the hospital. Maybe they could help or tell them what the back had happened and what kind of forces Starlight was playing with.  Come to think of it, once Starlight was conscious, they’d be having a long, long talk about magical safety and when to get your coworkers help on whatever the hay that was so that one did not get themselves hurt of worse!

On reaching the hospital, they were admitted with a minimum of fuss, the doctors not even raising an eyebrow as they brought Starlight into the Emergency room. Well, not until Flux had to deal with the secretary. Then, while the tone and questions were standard and professional, the eyebrow of the secretary seemed to be bound and determined to escape.

However, it wasn’t long until all that was left was to sit in the waiting room and wait. And wait… and wait some more. During this time, Neutral awoke from his fainting episode and

It was almost three hours later when a Doctor came out of the back, the medical kind of doctor. “Neutral Charge?” Neutral stood up quickly. “Come with me please,” the doctor requested. Neutral complied and they went into the back.

“It’s about your friend, Miss Starlight Dancer,” the doctor began…

To Heal Alicorn - Explanations [OC] [Dark]

“It’s about your friend, Miss Starlight Dancer,” the doctor told Neutral. Neutral was torn. On one hoof, he wanted nothing more than to find out what happened to Starlight, but on the other, he wasn’t sure he wasnnted to find out if something was wrong with his friend.

After a moment, though, he realized there really wasn’t a decision to be made. “Yes?” Neutral asked.

“She’ll be fine, but there were several traces of magics that we’re required to report to the Guard present on her. Do you know anything about what might have put her in this state?”

Neutral shook his head. “No,” he replied. “The magic was outside the scope of what I’ve seen before. I can’t say I’m completely surprised by that, though.”

“No?” the doctor asked, raising an eyebrow.

“We’re both doctorate holders in the fields of Arcana, and I hold no illusions about seeing everything. I have never seen anything like what she had cast, though with time my coworkers and I could probably figure it out.”

The doctor shook his head. “That won’t be necessary. We can help her without knowing what the spell was meant to do. It just would have been faster, but if you’ve never seen anything like it.” The doctor shrugged as Neutral gave an apologetic look.

“So, do you know what happened to her?” Neutral asked.

“Well, that’s where I’m no longer allowed to say anything but to next of kin,” the doctor said. “Are you?”

Neutral paused, debating the merits of it, but shook his head. The mental debate had only taken a few seconds, but Neutral wasn’t going to risk it coming back to bite him. That and… he wasn’t about to claim to be Starlight’s signifigant other, no matter how worried he was. That was… too much. He quickly shook his head again to banish the image. “No,” he said after a moment. “I’m her coworker.”

The doctor nodded. “Do you know of any way to contact her next of kin?”

“The university should.”  Neutral said. “We’ll contact her next of kin and see about getting them here.”

The doctor took a breath, before suddenly looking awkward. “And, maybe advise them to contact a lawyer,” he advised, looking suddenly very much out of his comfort zone. “The traces of magic we found, when I say forbidden, I mean, it’s the kind we don’t even have a name for, just a signature to watch for.”

Neutral frowned, unsettled a bit by that, but not really having anything to say to that. He knew Sttarlight was a little paranoid at times, as her fortress of a home did well to prove—the one time he’d seen it before knowing it was hers had given him the mental image of the magical equivalent of a star fort, armed to the teeth, and on twenty-four seven high alert—but he hadn’t thought, or hadn’t wanted to think, that Starlight would ever do something like going into forbidden magic. Forgotten, sure, legally grey, he could see that, but forbidden?

Neutral eventually just nodded to the doctor. “I’ll be sure to let them know,” he said as he turned to head back out to the waiting room. He paused, glancing back to the doctor. “When are your visiting hours?”

The doctor looked, once again, rather uncomfortable. “You’ll have to ask the guard,” he said awkwardly. “Once they get here, she’s going to be in their custody, even if she’s here.”

Neutral nodded, and then once more began the walk back out to the waiting room. What exactly could have happened? Neutral didn’t know of any forbidden arts that he couldn’t at least recognize the basic arrays of. Death spells, torture arrays, blood magic; it all had a core that he could read and decipher, at least in the most basic of ways, without much trouble. Whatever it was the Starlight had used, it had been so strange. So alien, that Neutral hadn’t known where to start. Not in the head of the moment.

Maybe now that Starlight was no longer hanging in the balance, he could figure out what exactly it was she was willing to risk herself for. What exactly the spell did. Lost in thought as he was, he almost ran over Flux when the little mare stepped in front of him. Neutral hadn’t even realized he’d made it back to the waiting room until that point.

“So?” Flux asked worriedly.

“She’ll be fine physically, but she was using forbidden magic of some kind, so the Guard is going to be involved. More than they probably already would have been,” Neutral explained with a note of sadness. If this really was this big, then this would probably cost Starlight her career.

Flux nodded. “I figured as much. I’ve never seen that array before, but something about it felt… off. If I could get another look at it I could tell you just what it was that felt so weird.”

“Hopefully none of the other teachers have taken it apart yet, then,” Neutral said softly, worry clear in his eyes.

“Or the guard. I think that would almost be worse. They might not take it down, but they don’t know Starlight’s casting style, so they might make things worse or hurt themselves,” Flux said, frowning, more worried about the ramifications that something like that would have on Starlight than the fate of an overconfident Guard mage.

“So who’s going to go stop them from doing something stupid?” Event had come over but hadn’t said anything, finding he had nothing—necessary—to say.

The stallions both looked to Flux, who sighed. “Yes, I’ll go make sure nothing bad happens. Neutral can wait here in case anything comes up about Starlight they can give to him. Event, you want to talk to the Doppler about Starlight’s next of kin?”

Event and Neutral both nodded, though Neutral looked like he’d rather be doing something. Unfortunately, they both knew Event was better suited to dealing with Doppler, and Flux was the one for talking to the guard. Which left him with the job that amounted to sitting around and worrying until somepony came back with news. Neutral only hoped it wasn’t worse news. “Meet back here when you guys are done?” Neutral asked, more for confirmation than anything.

“We’ll be back,” Flux assured Neutral. “Wish me luck.”

“Like you’ll need luck,” Event commented, rolling his eyes as he turned to head out. “It’s Neutral I gotta worry about.”  Flux sighed, muttering something under her breath as she followed after Event. Neutral watched the duo leave at a brisk trot, before he walked back over to one of the waiting room chairs and settled in, knowing that this was going to be a long, long wait. He only hoped that the wait ended on a good note, rather than the one the sinking feeling in his gut was telling him was going to happen. Optimism, like Starlight in Manic Scholar mode. Neutral shuddered. On second thought, maybe just normal optimistic hope… he thought.

To Heal Alicorn - Investigations [OC] [Dark]

When Flux arrived back at the University, she quickly found that the Guard had already quarantined off the area Starlight’s spell, and were interviewing several ponies she’d seen at the scene when her and Event had run Starlight to the hospital. That wasn’t a good sign in her opinion. Cordoning off the area was standard practice, but using a quarantine shield wasn’t in any recent case she’d heard of involving unknown or lethal use of magic.

She turned back around and began to make her way the long way around down towards the Theoretical Arcana Department lab, where her and her coworkers all kept workstations. She figured she’d be able to get Starlight’s notes, at least, or even just some idea from something in Starlight’s desk. She reached the Arcana wing and didn’t go any farther. There was a pair of guards waiting. While Flux didn’t mind the guard, per say, this was not a situation she wanted to be delayed by something. She had wanted to grab the stuff and get back to Neutral and Starlight. It looked like the guard had already gotten at least an idea of who had cast that spell.

She shot off a quick scanning spell, keyed to the wards around the lab she worked in and found it empty. Giving a relieved sigh, she teleported down into it. Even if she couldn’t get anything directly from the room the spell was cast, then maybe she could get something from Starlight’s workstation here. She quickly made her way over to the workstation. It was in perfect order, as seemed slightly unnatural to Flux, whose own station was a disaster zone of papers, journals, thunderstones, and other magical items.

She began to quickly go through Starlight’s drawers, feeling just a little guilty for doing so, though not too much, looking for anything that might have some connection to the spell Starlight had cast. Something that could tell Flux just why it was her friend and coworker was now an alicorn. There were folder upon folder of magical notes, several journals in which Starlight kept her finished spells—Flux made sure to take the novelty one with her due to the dubious nature of some of the arrays—and a couple of dozen thunderstones with various spells preloaded onto them. There was also a large, bright pink, bushy, large fake beard and a ten step guide to taking over the world in the event of a zombie apocalypse. Neither of those were things Flux wanted to know the origin of in the least.

After skimming through anything that looked promising and coming up empty, Flux frowned. There was every possibility that Starlight had done all the research from home, and left all the references there, but Flux had a hard time believing that. She sighed glancing around, as if looking for something, before her eyes landed on an unassuming coat hanger near the door. It took all her effort to resist facehooving as she came to a realization. “Her summoning spell,” Flux groaned in annoyance. Starlight had a spell that was tied to a shelf or other holder at her house that she could put something on and then she’d be able to summon it with barely more effort than lifting her hoof. The perfect way to have references on her, and yet not in a place that could be easily broken into at the same time.

She glanced up as she heard the distinct sound of a teleport in the room, only to find Event there looking more than a little annoyed. “Guard isn’t letting anyone into the Arcana wing until the caster of that spell is found,” he told Flux in consternation. “Does she have any emergency contact information in her desk?”

“I wasn’t looking for that, but it doesn’t look like it. And if the Guard is stopping ponies, shouldn’t there be an anti-teleportation field around the wing?” Flux asked, taking another look over Starlight’s workstation, this time looking for contact information for any other ponies, both magically and with her eyes. It wasn’t long before she found an information storage and projection matrix in one of the thunderstones that seemed just a little… off, to her. She pulled it out and frowned, looking over it, before her eyes widened.

What was out of place about the thunderstone was one of Flux’s pet peeves about spell casting. There was a single line that was just ever so slightly off. Not extremely off, like the caster had no idea what they were doing, but of enough that the spell would never work. Enough of that it… would almost certainly be found if Flux was the one looking.

“What?” Event asked, causing Flux to realize she’d just started deadpanning the stone.

“I think Starlight meant for me to find this. The spell inside is loaded with the exact sort of spell that would pass most other ponies’ attention…”

“But catch yours? It’s an array that has one line slightly off, isn’t it?” Event asked, chuckling as Flux shot a glare at him.

“Oh shut up. Let’s see if there’s anything else, and then we can go grab Neutral and see what’s on this,” Flux said in annoyance.

“Not going to turn it on here?” Event asked, raising an eyebrow.

“No,” Flux said, shaking her head. “One, there’s too much risk of being interrupted, and two, it might not necessarily be contact information. It might actually be a message,” she explained.

“And if that message is a one-time view…”

“…which, knowing her, it probably is…”

“…then here and now is not the best time, and if not here and now,” he said, trailing off with a frown.

“We should probably grab Neutral to here whatever it might be as well,” Flux finished for him, nodding.

“I don’t like how fast the Guard came. I mean, I trust the guard and the Princesses to know what they’re doing, but the speed and level of lockdown for that spell. It’s been what, two, three hours?” Event eventually said. “We don’t know what that is, and you and Neutral have both worked with some pretty dark magic, no?”

Flux nodded, thinking on it for a long moment. “Let’s get back to Neutral. That is a very, very good point,” she eventually said in an uneasy tone.

There was a twin flash of light as the two exited the room, going to one of the back entrances to the university as Event piggybacked Flux’s teleport signal. One there, they exited the grounds and teleported the rest of the way to the hospital, though only to the entrance, a set of wards stopping them from teleporting right into the hospital.

They walked quickly into the waiting room, and found Neutral quickly, the stallion over on the edge of the room, looking rather antsy. He moved to meet the two halfway.

“We’ve found something, though we’re not sure it’s contact info. It was designed in such a way as to catch my attention if I went snooping,” she told him.

Neutral nodded. “And what is it?” he asked nervously.

“Dunno yet. We have to activate it, but figured we’d do so with you, in case it was a single sight message and had something significant for you to catch,” Event explained.

Neutral nodded, still looking rather nervous, but he steeled himself. “Where do you think is the best place?” he asked them. “I guess the lab probably isn’t an option if you didn’t just watch it there,” he said, assuming that if ‘when they found it’ wasn’t an option, and the likely place they found it was there, then the lab was out.

“Lab’s out,” Event said, confirming Neutral’s thoughts, “but we could use one of your places if you’re close by. Maybe one of the nearby roofs to keep close, if not.”

“Maybe just a roof,” Flux agreed. “I’m almost across the city from here.”

“And I… am not sure Event would survive my house,” Neutral admitted, scratching the back of his neck nervously.

Seeming to just accept that, Event turned and led the way out. “Up there?” he asked, gesturing a hoof towards one of the larger public buildings nearby. “Teleport to the top and put a privacy field up?”

Neutral and Flux nodded in agreement. A moment later, there was a trio of flashes as the three ponies teleported themselves to the top of the suggested building. A privacy field went up around them, courtesy of Neutral, and Flux pulled out the thunderstone.

She looked around at the other two. “Ready?” she asked. Two nods of agreement later, she reached out to the spell array preloaded into the stone and pushed the line that needed to be corrected into position. The stone activated and a holographic illusion of Starlight appeared in front of them, her horn just fading from having cast something.

The illusionary, unicorn Starlight took a deep breath and began, “Hey guys, chances are, if you’re seeing this, something in my latest spell haywire…”

To Heal Alicorn - The Message [OC] [Dark]

“Hey guys, chances are, if you’re seeing this, something in my latest spell attempt haywire…”

One Sentence, and already Neutral had a mixture of feelings. Sadness, worry, anxiety, and—surprisingly enough even to him—anger.

Before he could say or do anything, however, the Illusionary Starlight went on. “This is one I don’t want to record name or use of where any random pony might find it, though, so I hope you guys can forgive me. Instead, I’ll tell you who to tell something went wrong. My next of kin, as it were.” The illusion paused and took a breath. “My sister is the only one in Canterlot with me normally. Unit Sixteen, seven-thirty-two Silverwood Crescent in North Pointe. Her name is Moonlight Dancer. If she’s not in her apartment, check with her friend, Obsidian Sunrider. He will be at 1563 Twenty-First Street, in the International District. Obsidian Martial Arts Academy. One of them will be home. Just… tell Moonlight I tried my healing spell. She’ll know what you’re talking about. And…” Starlight paused for a moment. “And don’t hate me too much. Please?” With that, the illusion ended. Not with some dramatic exit, or even any warning, but simply a wink out that caused them all to jump slightly.

Event was the first to find his voice. “I get her not telling us she had a side project, that’s not what surprises me, but why didn’t she tell us she was casting something possibly dangerous? “

Neutral was in shock at the message, a mixture of emotions roiling in his gut. On one hoof, he couldn’t expect Starlight to tell them all her projects, and he knew she often didn’t considering a different novelty spell carried her into the lab nearly every week, but this was dangerous! It was something she should have told them about, told him about! He could have helped her!

“Are you okay, Neutral?” Flux asked, jolting him back into the real world.

“Why didn’t she tell us?” he asked Flux helplessly, stating his thoughts. “We could have helped her.”

“Fear?” Event suggested. “Worry about what we’d say or think? The same reasons she didn’t tell us about taking Arcanex until we caught her in the act?”

Neutral paused, finding himself unable to argue immdeiately. Arcanex was a highly, highly illegal and volatile potion that there were very little legitimate uses for. One of those uses was the control of a black hole effect on magic created by burnt alicorn via the simple method of oversaturation of it. The solution was temporary and not considered ‘necessary’ by doctors, but Starlight had taken it anyway to be able to work in the field of magical research around other unicorns, as well as function in day to day life without dealing with the stigma it would bring her. That stigma came almost completely from the misconception that she must have brought it on herself. “I guess… but after we accepted that, why would she feel the need to hide this from us.”

“Because that was illegal,” Flux suddenly said, her eyes widening. “But this is Forbidden. That’s why we don’t recognize the base structures, this isn’t just illegal magic to defend against and help the Guard in some capacities….”

Event picked up as Flux trailed off. “…this is magic that all copies of are to be destroyed and to practice is at least the rest of your natural life in prison.”

Neutral’s own eyes widened at that fact. Was Starlight really so desperate to heal herself that she’d recreate Forbidden Magic? He looked over between Event and Flux. He’d truly had no idea. She’d never shown any signs of it. “Let’s… let’s just go grab Moonlight,” Neutral finally said. He hoped that doing something useful might distract them. “Teleportation or walking?” he asked. Personally, he’d prefer to teleport, but he didn’t have any real good landmarks or places to use as a destination to bring them closer, and he didn’t like the idea of line-of-sight teleportation chaining. That tended to be very tiring over any real distance, unless one had a knack or talent for it.

“Unless either of you have a destination I can use to piggyback your teleport, I think we’re going to have to walk,” Flux answered. Event just shrugged somewhat helplessly.

“Walking it is,” Neutral said. “Let’s just get down from here.” There was another trio of flashes and the three were on the ground in front of the building.

“So, do either of you even know where North Pointe District even is?” Event asked as they began to walk.

Flux shook her head, though Neutral nodded. “I lived there when I was younger,” Neutral explained. “I just haven’t been back in several years.” As he said that, he rather suddenly found himself in the lead, though he did expect it to happen.

The trio trotted at a quick pace, none of them suggesting somepony wait at the hospital now that they had a better idea of what might have happened to Starlight and just what she might have cast. There wasn’t likely to be anything coming from the doctor now that they didn’t already know, especially if it was something they didn’t need a next of kin to disclose it to.

The walk was mostly silent as they trotted towards North Pointe District, none of them really having anything to say while they traveled. It wasn’t too long before they arrived in front of a large apartment building towards the north edge of the city. Above the main entrance, it read Sky High Apartments: Live Where You Can Touch the Sky. The place was of high class, high quality, and really felt more like stacked mansions on entrance to the lobby than an apartment building.

“I knew her family was loaded, but this is ridiculous,” Event stated after a long moment, the trio having come to a shocked halt on entry.

“Let’s just figure out where Unit Sixteen would be,” Flux said, sounding just as shocked as Event.

They walked over to the wall containing the directory, and came to a half again in surprise. The first six floors of the building were divided into five units each. The next six were divided into two units. The top four floors of the building were a single unit. Unit Sixteen was the sixteenth floor of the rather large building.

It took a couple more seconds for the trio to reign in their surprise enough to actually get moving, and even then, it was Neutral that did so first, as he turned away from the directory and walked over to the elevator, the other two close behind. It was a quiet ride up to the sixteenth floor, as the speaker in the corner of the elevator was hanging from a couple of wires. Once they stepped out of the elevator, they found themselves in a lobby like space about a hundred square feet in area, with a door on the other end.

On the door there was a sign. “Solicitors and Epona’s Witnesses, knock at own risk? Filly Scouts, I will buy all your cookies, so please knock?” Neutral read off in confusion. Shrugging, Flux walked up to the door and knocked. Three hard raps, before she stepped back.

There was a short wait, before the door opened to reveal a mare. Her coat was white as snow and her mane was long, thick, wavy, and raven black. She had the build of a ballet dancer, all firm, muscular lines and graceful curves. Neutral’s face exploded into a blush and he looked straight at the ground, unable to meet the mare’s piercing green eyes as they ran over the three unicorns with a discerning air. “Yes?” she asked them, her voice neutral.

“Are you Moonlight Dancer?” Flux asked. Neutral glanced over to see why Event hadn’t gotten in the first word, only to find that he was very clearly keeping him mouth firmly clamped shut so as not to say anything stupid. It seemed he did have an understanding of where the line was sometimes. Or at least, he had his own lines for appropriate flirting even he wouldn’t cross.

“Yes,” the mare answered. “Why?”

“We’re here about your sister, Starlight,” Flux explained. “She left a message to tell you something went wrong when she attempted her healing spell. Do you know what she’s talking about?”

Moonlight’s eyes widened visibly and she nodded, swallowing thickly. “Yeah, I do,” Moonlight answered, stepping back and to the side into her apartment, motioning them inside. “What happened?”

To Heal Alicorn - Moonlight [OC] [Dark]

Neutral, Flux and Event all took Moonlight’s invitation and entered the apartment. Inside was just as nice as the outside. They went through a small front hall with closets for outdoor clothes, shoes, boots, scarves, and other things not meant to be worn indoors. Once though the short hallway, the apartment opened up into a huge open concept design. Off to one side was a wooden ballet floor with a barre, mirrored walls, and a record player. Beside the miniature dance studio was a set of mats, a heavy bag, a dummy, and a continuation of the mirrored wall. Off to the side of that mat, against the wall after it turned a corner was a rack containing weapons—both real and practice—sparring pads, practice pads, and various other equipment that a well-stocked dojo would have, though only enough for three or four ponies to practice one thing at one time. And only enough room for maybe eight ponies in all. The dance studio part was big enough for maybe the same amount.

On the other side of the room was a living room set consisting of two couches, a loveseat, a pair of chairs and a few seating pillows off to the side, with a long, glass coffee table in the centre. In the last sort of corner of the room was a formal dining set, made of wood, and set out with silverware and china. Behind the living room set was a big glass case containing several awards, trophies, and certifications. On the other wall, also by the living room set was another case containing dozens of pictures of other ponies, sometimes with her in them, more often without. A sort of friends and family case.

On the living room/dining room side of the huge room was a trio of doors along the wall. The one in the far corner was shut. Of the other two, the middle one opened into a huge bathroom in which a Jacuzzi, alicorn sized shower, and granite counters were visible. Though the other one, a large kitchen with stainless steel appliances, granite counters, and nice tile floors were visible.

Moonlight let them over to the sitting area, taking one of the chairs. Flux took the loveseat, Neutral took another chair, and Event took one of the couches. “So, what happened?” Moonlight asked the three unicorns, looking worried, though not overly dreading anything. She looked pretty confident that Starlight was okay.

“You don’t want to know if she’s alright?” Event asked in surprise.

“She’s alive,” Moonlight said confidently, holding up her front hoof. Around it was a platinum inset with five stones, four were shining with an inner light, and the fifth, while shiny, was clearly only reflecting and refracting light from without. The comparatively dull one was a topaz. The rest, in order, were a diamond, an amethyst, an alexandrite, and a ruby, all of which were shining with an inner light. “The amethyst is Starlight,” she explained. “And since you’re not the guard or a pony dressed in a suit, she’s not dying either. I don’t know how well you know her, but suffice to say she tries to account for everything with her paranoia.”

The three nodded. “We’re her coworkers in the Theoretical Arcana Department of the School of Arcana at Canterlot University,” Flux said. “We’re not entirely sure what happened, only that something went seriously wrong with what we now know to be her healing spell. It… did something, and turned her into at least a winged unicorn.”

“She’s at the hospital now, and the doctor said the Guard was going to need to get involved,” Neutral put in.

“Did he say what for?” Moonlight asked.

“Just that she had traces of ‘Forbidden Magic’ on her,” Neutral responded softly, looking towards his hooves and avoiding looking at Moonlight.

“That could be any number of things. Her wards weren’t exactly legal once you get past the surface, and her time studying at home involves some of the same things, I assume,” Moonlight said casually.

“You’re being rather trusting,” Flux noted after a moment, eyeing the other mare suspiciously.

“She’s already in trouble. You can’t get in any worse trouble than dealing with or in forbidden magic,”  Moonlight explained without hesitation. “Plus, I know you’re most likely who you say, anyway.”

“Really, how?” Event asked curiously.

“My wards are designed by Starlight. They let me know if there is any sort of identification spell on you, you’re carrying anything that can summon a guard badge, or the badge itself, and other enchantments that in combination or alone would label you as a guard. You’re not a Private Investigator, for the same reasons. If I’m wrong about it and charged with being an accessory, I have enough money and public influence that I will ensure that both cases will not be kept under wraps.”

Forgetting himself, Neutral looked up to gape at Moonlight. In his periphery vision, he could see that his coworkers were doing the same. There was an angry, determined light in her eyes and her face was set. There was no moving her.

This brought a question to Neutral’s mind, and he asked before really thinking, “What makes you think they’d try and do a completely private trial or keep the public from knowing about something like this?” Almost immediately after, he snapped his mouth shut, realizing how skeptical he sounded.

“Forbidden Magic is a little different from illegal, as you three should well know,” Moonlight explained, tone hard.

Neutral blinked for a second, before a realization dawned. He had been thinking that illegal and Forbidden were one in the same, however, while all Forbidden Magic was illegal, not all illegal magic was Forbidden. Illegal magic could be studied or practiced with the right credentials and licencing. Forbidden Magic was never to be cast on pain of death. The only capital punishment still in Equestria’s books. And that moment made Neutral realize that more than just Starlight’s career and freedom was at stake. The trails were also never public or publicized, although Neutral knew that going through the right law books in the Equestrian National Archives would yield a list of names and years of trial for the crimes. “Oh…” was all the poor stallion could manage in response as the realization hit.

The other two also seemed to be just getting what was actually at stake. It seemed like they’d been thinking the same way as Neutral. Forbidden and Illegal being interchangeable in that context. Moonlight nodded as she saw the realizations evident on the unicorns’ faces. “You were thinking I meant illegal weren’t you?” she asked with a humourless smile. “My sister is a massive magic nerd. I can’t have a sister like that and not have at least some basic knowledge on various areas in the arcane studies.” Neutral nodded dumbly. “So do you have any ideas about what happened past the fact she’s now possibly an alicorn?”

“No. We came over because you’re listed as next of kin, and the doctor will be more forthcoming with you, as well as the fact you’ve got a right to know something happened, as her family,” Flux explained. “You now know everything we do, and probably more.” None of them asked if she really did know more, simply due to the fact it would most likely because it probably wouldn’t go over very well. That’s why Neutral didn’t, at least.

Moonlight nodded. “Let’s go see what the doctor knows then,” she said to them, standing up and motioning for them to follow.

“How do you feel about teleportation?” Flux asked, standing up with her, and the stallions right behind them.

“Not my favourite mode of transport, but between that and walking, I’ll take it. Just not in here. Bad things will happen if you attempt to teleport within my condo unit, itself,” Moonlight replied, leading them toward the door once more.

After they were all back in the atrium, Moonlight ran her wing in a quick, five point pattern over a spot beside the door, and there was a small increase in energy though the wards, though just a surface scan gave Neutral the mental image of a bank vault.

“There, now we can teleport,” Moonlight said, turning back to them.

“How do you know?” Event asked, sounding somewhat nervous.

“Starry gave me a list of rules with what do and not to do with the wards she made me. One of those things is that the atrium can be used to teleport so long as the rest of the unit is locked down. I’m not going to try and get you guys hurt or otherwise. Not when you’ve done nothing to harm me or make me distrust you,” Moonlight explained unhesitatingly.

Even nodded, before Flux cut in, “Let’s get to the hospital now. See if they know anything more.”

There was a collective nod, then, with another series of flashes, the foursome were on their way to Canterlot General Hospital.

To Heal Alicorn - Repurcussions [OC] [Dark]

In the time it had taken the original trio to grab both Starlight’s message and Moonlight herself, it seemed that the guard had figured out who had cast the spell, as well as where they were. There was a pair of Royal Guards standing in the waiting room, just outside the doors into the back. This wasn’t the City Police Guard, or the even the Equestrian National Police Guard, but a full Elite Equestrian Royal Guard.

That didn’t bode well in the slightest to Neutral. Huge, imposing stallions in armour weren’t a good thing to begin with, but the fact that those two looked like they’d at least partially been chosen specifically for the intimidation factor.

Moonlight, however, seemed to be unaffected by the sight of the huge stallions. She walked unhesitatingly up to the front desk, Event and Flux following behind, forcing Neutral to hurry up to catch up to the other three after he realized he’d slowed down to gawk.

He got up just in time to hear the receptionist’s answer to whatever Moonlight had just asked. “I’m sorry, but Starlight Dancer has been quarantined and her files sealed by order of the Princesses.”

There was a sudden sense of absolute calm radiating off Moonlight with those words. It was the sort of air that Neutral rarely saw ponies have. It was a similar type of air he’d seen Starlight or Flux have just before they exploded. The aura practically screamed ‘calm before the storm’. When she spoke, her tone was just as forebodingly calm and level. “Is that so? I’m sure I must have missed something, but as next of kin, in the event of an incapacitating injury or illness, I have every right to know what’s going on unless expressly locked out by Starlight beforehoof. Was I expressly locked out?”

The receptionist seemed to get the same feeling that Neutral was. The feeling that she’d better have a damn good answer for Moonlight. “Ma’am, the seal says everypony. It overrides other legislation and is a Royal Decree. If you wish to see her, you must talk to the Princesses,” she explained quickly, eyes darting around.

Moonlight nodded slowly. “Of course,” she said, still far too calm. “And is there a reason given for this seal?”

“Um… well…” the pony said, somehow looking even more nervous. “That’s actually been sealed too…”

There was an exceptionally long pause, before Moonlight spoke, that calm, level tone suddenly becoming darker, and a whole lot scarier to Neutral, and he wasn’t even the one it was directed at. “You tell the guard that if they try and do anything to her for Forbidden magic without due process, I will ensure the entire world knows. And before you say I have no way of knowing, let me ask you this: How hard is a last second memory transfer to a preselected target using preselected memories?”

The receptionist looked confused, but Neutral paled. “Anypony that has basic competency in Mental Magic would find it easy. Adding a little array coding here and there would make it virtually impossible to erase,” Flux explained to the receptionist, sporting a similar expression to Neutral. “Basically, what she’s promising is that if they try anything, then something embarrassing to the Crown will be released on a nearly unstoppable memory wave.”

“Threatening,” the receptionist corrected.

“Promising,” Moonlight argued right back. “A threat is something you don’t intend to follow through on, and I can guarantee you that the array she needs to carry that out is already in place. Now, thank you for your help and passing that message along, but I really should let the rest of my family know what’s going on.”

With that she turned around, and Neutral blinked, quickly looking around, realizing he’d been watching the back and forth like a tennis match. As he turned to follow Starlight, he found a pair of rather burly looking guards standing right behind them. “Come with us, please,” the big unicorn on the left ordered. Though the words were phrased like a question, there was no mistaking the tone.

Moonlight, still looking very tightly coiled and controlled, smiled at them. “And if I don’t?”

The earther on the right tensed at Moonlight’s words, though the unicorn didn’t appear overly worried. “You will come with us. You have just threatened a government official, are in league with a pony known to use Forbidden Magic, have expressed intent to violate a Royal Decree, and are currently disrespecting a Royal Guard.”

Neutral blinked at the list, though didn’t say anything. He really would rather get out of there, but something told him the guards had been speaking to him, Flux and Event as well as Moonlight.

“Oh?” Moonlight asked. “No, no, I telling her would happen, Starlight is only suspected of using Forbidden Magic, because to confirm it, you’d have to know it, which is against the law, I wasn’t the one violating the decree, and I’m giving you as much respect as you deserve,” Moonlight argued calmly.

The unicorn’s eye twitched, and the earther gaped, neither of which expecting such a biting retort. ”I will hold you in contempt,” the unicorn stated, stepping forward.

“I wouldn’t,” Moonlight said as a smile slowly made its way over her face. It was not a smile that Neutral liked the look of in the least. “You touch me, and you will not be using that hoof for a few months.”

“Threatening a Royal Guard,” the unicorn added, though didn’t make any other moves towards Moonlight, something about her smile unsettling him. To be fair, Neutral found the smile highly unsettling and he wasn’t even the one facing it.

“Promising,” Moonlight repeated with a smile. “I’m giving you a promise of what’s going to happen.”

“You will come with us,” the unicorn repeated. “So it’s your choice whether you come quietly, or you come cuffed.”

“You see, there’s a problem with that second choice,” Moonlight told him cheerfully. “I’m actually into mares.”

The unicorn’s face went red, though the way his face twisted, it obviously wasn’t from embarrassment. Before he could bring his body or any magic to bare any more than his single step forward, Moonlight was in motion, her wing firing up and out, the leading edge impacting the unicorn’s horn with an impressive sounding impact, causing the stallion to drop forwards as his hooves flew to his horn, his pained cry ringing out. Even as that happened, her other wing shot out and there was a rather nasty sounding crackle as she twisted his hoof on landing, the sound of breaking bone prominent.

Moonlight didn’t bother moving as the earther tackled her, just taking it as he quickly and professionally shacked her wings to her side and put the leg irons on her hooves. “You are under arrest for-“

“Assault of a Royal Guard. Don’t go any farther. I don’t care,” Moonlight cut him off, her voice back to perfectly calm. “So, lead the way.”

The earther glanced around at Neutral, Flux, and Event. “You three come along as well, please,” he said, deciding it was just easier to listen to Moonlight’s request. His tone was far less order-like than the unicorn’s as he began to lead the way. Neutral followed along behind, looking side to side to see Flux and Event doing the same, the unicorn behind them already being brought into the back of the hospital on a stretcher.

The earther brought them to the closest Guard Station in the city, one that just so happened to be a Police Guard one and left them in an interrogation room. The room was grey all over, with steel walls, a steel table, steel chairs, and a stone floor. It was only broken by the two way mirror on the one wall, and the brass doorknob.  Moonlight smirked at the three unicorns. “So, that was fun. What do you think they want?”

To Heal Alicorn - Starlight [OC] [Dark]

Consciousness stirred. That fundamental spark of awareness. Starlight groaned and attempted to beat that spark back into unconsciousness. Her head hurt like the worst hangover she’d ever had combined with the worst magic headache she’d ever had to create a lovely percussion of raw pain. It was almost enough to drown out the full body ache from overexertion of her mana muscles and feeling of the too tight restraints on her wings.

...wait a second, wings? Starlight’s eyes shot open, the surprise doing more than enough to punt aside whatever will she had to remain asleep. She looked around to find herself in a the high security lockdown area of Canterlot General Hospital. That did not bode well.

She tried to life her forelegs to rub her head, already feeling her headache worsening from the stress that was sure to come. The movement was quickly arrested. She turned and looked down to find that there was a set of padded restraints cuffing her forehooves to the bed. There was also a padded restraint preventing her new wings from opening or even moving. Wings she hadn’t had prior to the spell she’d used in attempt to heal her horn.  She went cross-eyed to look up, checking she still had her horn and sighed in relief when she found it there. She didn’t know what she’d do without the ability to do magic. It was what drove her, and what gave her life.

She frowned when she noted the limiter on her horn, wondering why she didn’t feel it. She didn’t feel any weaker than normal, and figured she could still do all her normal magic, so what was the point of it. Deciding to leave it for now and just ask the doctor what the meaning of this was whenever she walked in, she gave her room a more thorough look over. It was the standard hospital room for this particular area, with a single bed, a nightstand, a call button for a nurse, and lacking in any windows. The bed was standard hospital fare, and there was a door off to the side that presumably led to a bathroom.

That thought led to the next, rather obvious, question. How did she get to the washroom anyway? Deciding not to think on it since it wasn’t an urgent question at the moment, she frowned, looking for any way she might be able to at least escape her restraints. Even with a defective limiter, she still didn’t have the magical power to effectively jimmy the locks on any of her restraints open, and that was going to bother her. Though maybe she could just break one off with the right array and positive feedback power source. Sort of cascading array? A bunch of little impacts setting off a bunch more until the restraints broke?

She frowned a little more. No, she’d have to try her best to keep the things undamaged in case they were needed for somepony that actually required them to for the safety of the staff. And if they removed the limiter, she’d have to let them know it was defective, too. Though not before they removed it.

She blinked, and looked up as she heard a distinct buzz from her door. A second later it opened to reveal the odd, though not unexpected, combination of a kindly, nervous looking nurse, and a scowling orderly. The nurse paused in the door as she saw Starlight awake and watching her.

“Oh, hello, you’re awake! How are you feeling?” she asked, approaching carefully, pulling out a clipboard from beneath her wing.

“Like I was run over by the entire participation of the Canterlot Open Airathon,” Starlight answered honestly, eliciting a wince from the nurse. The open aerial marathon usually had a hundred or more pegasi participate each year, so, while it sounded like an exaggeration, it unfortunately was not.

“Do you want any painkillers?” the nurse asked.

“No,” Starlight immediately answered. “I don’t want anything that might affect my thinking in any way, and most certainly not painkillers.”

The nurse nodded, making a note on her clipboard. “Do you know why it is you’re here?”

“Apparently I either miscast or mistranslated a spell. Either that or it set off or revealed some of my legally grey wards,” Starlight answered without hesitation. Those were the only things she could really think of, though there might have been others. Other things, however, would have required an invasion of her privacy in such a way that if they were still used against her, then things would end very badly for them unless they were part of the Equestrian Special Intelligence Service.

“The spell you cast used Forbidden Magic-“

“You mean, that stuff nopony knows is Forbidden until you attempt to access or cast it?” Starlight cut in with a dark tone.

The orderly tensed and the nurse swallowed nervously. “The spell you cast used Forbidden Magic,” she restarted, causing Starlight’s eye to twitch. “You’re now under investigation for knowing use of Forbidden Magic, Illegal Casting, and some other offenses under the Acceptable Magic Usage Act and the Criminal Code of Equestria.”

Starlight nodded, a small smile coming onto her face. “Which gives me the right to a lawyer, speaking to a family, and, with Forbidden Magic Offenses, to be heard by the Princesses themselves,” Starlight said, thinking of the implications. Perhaps some of this could work in her favour.

The nurse glanced at the orderly. “Yes, that’s true,” he said in a deep voice. “Why are you smiling at that?”

“Because, everything can be excused with a halfway solid excuse if you see her. Just ask the Ponyville Police Guard,” she said with a smirk. “Want it, Need it spell, destruction of property, just about everything else under the sun.” She shrugged. “It’s a great thing.”

The orderly had gained a suddenly very angry look, while the nurse frowned, clearly unsure of what to say now. Starlight just continued to smirk. “Oh, and you don’t have to keep me restrained, I’m not going to leave here. It would be far worse for my case if I did, rather than just staying here.”

The orderly frowned and shook his head and the nurse looked apologetic. “Sorry, but those need to remain on,” she answered. “Hospital policy for the Confinement wards.”

Starlight nodded, understanding, but a little annoyed. It would be nice to be able to move around, or at least stretch a bit, rather than be confined to the stupid bed, but she wasn’t about to argue. Instead, she’d figure out how to break the damn things. Maybe via blinking out of them? That seemed like the best idea. While similar to teleportation, blinking had several more limitations, on top of having a far more complicated array. The good part about it, though, was the fact that it needed far less power to cast than standard teleportation. To the point that it was almost negligible.

She’d try it once the orderly and nurse left the room. Though, on that note… “What were you coming in here for in the first place?” Starlight asked curiously.

“To check your vitals and see if you’d woken yet,” the nurse answered. “And if you had, request that you remove the wards around your mind in preparation for a magistrate investigation.”

“No,” Starlight said flatly. “I don’t care what the regulations are, a mind ream is against every moral and ethical code there is. If you want to try it, you’re going to have to break in, and trust me, that’s not going to happen for anypony short of the princesses.”

“And you’re sure of that?” the orderly asked in his deep, level voice, while his scowl somehow got even angrier.

“I’m sure,” Starlight assured him. “I’ve got several dozen layers, years of experience, and some real effective memories to back it up. Unless somepony comes along who’s either a changeling with Infiltrator level training or alicorn levels of brute force, you are not going to enter my mind.”

“You know that will only make things worse for you.”

“Yes, I’m sure. My wards will remain up unless you can break them down,” Starlight answered him levelly. The orderly nodded. “Now, unless you have something else to say, please leave.” She didn’t say it like a question. Sure she was being a little short with them, but what they’d just asked her to do. They’d just asked her to allow herself to be violated in that way. It wasn’t going to happen.

The nurse hesitated for a moment, before she nodded, turning around and leaving the room, the orderly following behind.

Starlight sighed and leaned back against the bed. This was going to be a frustrating stay. She could already see it. At least she didn’t have to worry too much about what was going on anymore. Now all she had to do was figure out how her spell—meant to heal her alicorn—had done something as unexpected as turn her into an alicorn. Or, at the very least least, a winged unicorn.

To Heal Alicorn - Arrested Search [OC] [Dark]

Flux could only look at Moonlight. “Fun? Fun?!” she asked in a tone Neutral knew well. And really wished Moonlight hadn’t been able to bring out. “That was not fun! What made you think in any way that it was a good idea to antagonize a Royal Guard like that!”

“That he was a Royal Guard in the first place, part of the Solar House Guard, rather than a Police Guard, Intelligence Guard, Lunar Agent or even MP,” Moonlight answered without anything that could be called hesitation or nervousness. Neutral was beginning to think she had something against Royal Guards. “Those ones at least ostensibly follow enforce the law. Royal Guards are traditionally the right hand of the Princesses,” she explained with a shrug, causing Neutral to amend his earlier thought to her having something against the Princesses.

“Why?” Event asked, voicing the question all three of them had. “What do you have against them or the Princesses?”

Moonlight looked between the three of them with a frown for a moment. Then, she gained a sort of dawning look of comprehension. “She never told you, did she?” Moonlight said more than asked. “Well, suffice to say it is direct relation to Starry’s roasted alicorn. I’m pretty sure a Royal Decree prevents me from saying any more, if even that much isn’t blocked.”

It took a moment to process, but very suddenly, Neutral had at least some idea of what had made Moonlight so easily angered by the Royal Guards. “And what do you mean, what do they want us for?! You broke a Royal Guard’s leg!” Flux added, finally answering the second part of Moonlight’s question Neutral couldn’t help but agree with both the question tone it was delivered in.

“Oh, I mean before I gave them a real reason arrest us,” Moonlight explained cheerfully, letting Flux’s frustration and Event’s incredulity roll right off her. “I can’t think of any reason. If we were going to talk to Starry, then they wouldn’t have tried to arrest us, right?”

Flux and Event just continued to stare at the mare, as if unable fully comprehend her audacity. Neutral finally voiced all three of their thoughts. “True, but did you really have to give them more reason?”

Moonlight shrugged. “No, I needed to give them an actual reason,” she explained. “Getting to deal with that plothole like that was just a bonus.”

Before any of them could pull together enough thought to actually respond to that, a gigantic Pegasus entered the room. He was easily half again as big as the average stallion, build of almost pure, rippling muscle that Neutral could see. The pony’s wings were probably almost proportional to what a pony might actually need to fly, versus the normal size. He was also striped like a zebra, his stripes a navy blue to match his Mohawk and short cropped tail. He walked in, took one look around at them, and sighed. “Moonlight, why are you in my interrogation room?” he asked her with a flat look.

“Because the Royal Guard put me here?” she suggested impishly. Neutral frowned, wondering just how the two knew each other. There was something familiar about the guard, but he just couldn’t think of what at the moment, which was rather odd, considering that the Zebrasus seemed like one that would leave quiet an impression. Neutral figured it would hit him later.

“And why did the Royal Guard put you in my interrogation room?” the Guard asked with a sigh.

“Because they were going to bring us with them anyway, so I made one a promise for the wrongful reasons he was dragging us along, and he forced me to follow through on it,” Moonlight explained concisely and confidently.

“Right… and the rest of you?” he asked, looking at Neutral, Flux, and Event with a flat expression, before his gaze tracked back over to Neutral with a raised eyebrow. “Dr. Charge?”

“Oh… we’re here for associating with Doctor Starlight Dancer, who supposedly did forbidden magic,” Neutral explained softly, after glancing around to find Flux and Event currently speechless, the latter staring at the zebra with dumb amazement and the former blushing a fair bit.

“She did what now?” Night asked, before turning to look at Moonlight, giving her a look that clearly asked her to Explain.

“She tried her healing spell without supervision, telling any of us, or giving any sort of notice that she might be making the attempt,” Moonlight said to him, going a little more serious, which just seemed odd to Neutral. He couldn’t even say he really knew her, but already she seemed like the type of pony that should always be happy.

“I told her to at least have one of us around when she went and attempted that,” Night groaned angrily, turning around. “I’ll be back in a bit. Right now I need to go make sure actual protocol is being followed at the hospital,” the zebra said, leaving the room. When he left the room, Neutral heard a pair exhales, one sounding relieved, while the other sounded somewhat wistful.

“He means he’s going to go smash some heads if they’re doing anything in a Police Guard Facility that’s Intelligence Guard style,” Moonlight put in after the door was shut, going back to perfectly cheerful.

“You know him?” Event asked, his tone a little shocked. “How?!”

“Oh, that’s Nighty. His family and mine are good friends, and he’s personally a great friend,” Moonlight explained cheerfully.

Then it dawned on Neutral with the name. That’s where he knew the pony from! Just as suddenly as the memory surfaced, it was perfectly understandable why he’d repressed it. The zebra was dropping off a double ended dual bladed crescent axe that could probably cleave a pony in half by the weight of it alone. “He’s been to the lab before to talk to Starlight. You two were out at the time,” Neutral said to Flux and Event. “You know Balance? That thing is his.”

The look of comprehension on their faces would have been hilarious if Neutral didn’t know full well the looks of that ridiculous axe. “He carries that thing?” Flux asked, somehow sounding unsure whether to be impressed or scared.

“Yeah, and wields it with quite a bit of skill,” Moonlight answered Flux impishly. “It’s quite amazing, actually. You’d think it would be unwieldly.”

Neutral shuddered. That thing was not something he was a fan of. “So, how long do you think we’re going to be stuck in here?” he asked his companions. He really hoped it wasn’t too long, but given what they were being accused of, he really couldn’t be too sure. He’d really rather be beside Starlight, ensuring she was alright. He didn’t like being stuck where he couldn’t do anything, especially when he couldn’t do anything productive.

“No clue. Until the Royal Guard comes to grab us?” Moonlight suggested with a shrug. “I’m banking on Night coming back first and dragging us to proper cells. Whatever the Royal Guard is up to is probably going to take a while. It might actually take longer now that it’s just that Earther, and he needs to go make sure his partner is fine.”

Event groaned. “So we’re stuck here?” he asked with a sigh. “What about my running experiments?” He paused, before his eyes widened. “They won’t go through my experiments, will they?! A lot of that is sensitive,” he said, suddenly sounding far more worried.

When Neutral thought about it, there really was plenty of stuff among their experiments that qualified as very sensitive, at least magically speaking. On the bright side, Neutral new for a fact that all of the ones of extreme sensitivity were labeled as such, and any risk was assumed by the one making an attempt to crack it, though that would also mean plenty of redoing of a lot of magic, something Neutral was not looking forward to.  He glanced over at his companions once more. “There really isn’t much we can do about it now, is there?” he asked them with a resigned shrug.

“We’re stuck here until they either come get us or let us go,” Flux added in with a resigned look. The inability to do anything about their situation was going to grate on her almost as much as Neutral. More so when she still had no proper idea of why the buck they were in the interrogation room in the first place.

It was some time before somepony came to get them, and when that pony did come, it was most definitely not the Zebrasus from earlier. The unicorn slipped into the room with silent grace, the noise of the shutting door causing the four ponies to jump. “Hello, I’m Agent Shade Stalker,” he greeted them in a polite, amicable tone. “I have a few questions for you, if it wouldn’t be too much trouble.”

To Heal Alicorn - Shade Stalker [OC] [Dark]

Neutral, Event, and Flux looked at Shade warily while Moonlight outright glared at him. That level of stealth seemed just a little much for a room they were already locked in and that Neutral was almost certain locked from the outside.

Neutral eyed the unicorn, and took careful note of the pony’s almost glossy, deep purple coat, the bluish black mane, and the eyes that were far too calculating for the amicable way the stallion was holding himself.  “And what questions would these be?” Flux asked after a long moment, her tone reflecting the same wary look that was in her eyes. Neutral found himself rather more thankful for his coworker’s care than he was expecting. Something about him was just setting off far too many of Neutral’s internal alarms.

“Just some questions involving your relationship with Miss Dancer-“

“Doctor,” Moonlight cut in. “I’m miss, she’s Doctor.”

“Your relationship with Doctor Dancer, and your knowledge about her project,” Shade continued with the amended title, giving Moonlight a curious look. She returned his look with an angry glare, her expression not changing in the slightest since he’d stated who he was.

“And why would you assume we know anything about that?” Flux asked curiously. “It came as a shock to us that she had a spell of that nature and power. It’s more than a little scary to think she is able to pull off something that major.” Neutral silently agreed with Flux. That Starlight had a spell of that level that she was not only willing, but able to cast was more than a little sobering. Neutral knew it wasn’t even raw power, either, as Starlight had about half the power output of the average unicorn last he knew, so it was a combination of efficiency boosts, positive feedback arrays, and other little things to boost the input power or reduce the required amount.

“You might know something because you worked beside her every day, worked with her frequently, and had ample opportunity to realize something was wrong,” Shade answered, his tone confident and friendly, though there was something just a little firmer under their, as if he was holding himself back from getting pushy.

“All the more reason we have not to notice,” Flux answered Shade just as easily, though there was an undertone that was more wary than before. It seemed like Flux had picked up on that firmer undertone as well. “We’re around her most of the day, almost every day. The gradual changes easily go unnoticed, since we don’t see much difference, day to day.”

Shade Stalker narrowed his eyes. “So you haven’t noticed anything? Didn’t know that she might try something like this? Were there any indications what so ever?”

As Shade asked, Neutral felt a sudden urge to answer. One he might have followed if several of his mental wards hadn’t suddenly been screaming at him that a pony was attempting to use mental magic on him.

“Nope, nothing whatsoever, but I do know that if you make another attempt like that, you’re in the room with three ponies who have spent several years studying various forms of magic, and one with a serious dislike of your organization, and now you personally. That’s not a threat either, that’s facts,” Event said, his voice perfectly cheerful and friendly, though there was an edge underneath it. An edge that Neutral had rarely heard, but the few times he had, somepony had actually managed to cross a line with event. Though he had relatively few of them, they were most definitely lines in the sand, rather than just boundaries.

Shade glanced around, and his amicable air went away, leaving behind a hard expression, though he didn’t lose any of his confidence. “You really want to argue with me what are threats and what aren’t? I am an Agent of the Intelligence Service-“

“In a Police Guard building. I really don’t suggest you finish that sentence,” Moonlight cut in smoothly once more. “It’s not a good idea.”

Shade took a breath, though his composure never once wavered. “Custody is no object.”

“But unlike your precious Secret Intelligence Service, these recordings get reviewed,” she said to him with a smile. “So if you go too far, these recordings are not classified, they are not yours to take with you and do as you wish to them. They are public to anypony that knows where to look. It wouldn’t be too hard to give the media a tip to know where to look, would it?”

“That is extortion, Miss Dancer,” Shade said coldly.

“No, it’s knowing how the system works and giving you fair warning, seeing as you’re prepared to go below the belt, so will I,” she answered in a tone that actually managed to chill Neutral. This mare wasn’t acting like they were being wrongfully imprisoned, or even just pissed that they were imprisoned period, she was acting like Shade was personally taking a pee on her family legacy.

Shade’s eyes somehow managed to harden even more. “Do you really want to push this?” he asked her.

“No, I just want to delay you for a bit,” Moonlight answered, suddenly cheerful in a way that scared Neutral even more than her anger. She had something over him, or would have something, that he wouldn’t be able to do anything about. That was the only thing that Neutral could think of for Moonlight’s sudden ‘cat with the canary’ smile.

“And why do you want to delay me?” Shade Stalker asked, seeming to realize that he was dealing with somepony far more tactically savvy than he’d originally anticipated. Neutral couldn’t help but feel at least a little satisfied at that. The Guard had come in, clearly expecting to take them by storm, only to run into resistance from the beginning.

“Just wait. Five. Four. Three. Two. And… one,” Moonlight said, gesturing to the door. Which remained firmly shut. “That was supposed to be a cue for the door to open,” she complained to the world at large, rolling her eyes.

It took another ten seconds, but finally, then the door blasted open, coming within about a quarter inch of knocking Shade Stalker straight into a wall at high speed. Neutral quickly crushed down the feeling of disappointment at the lack of high speed wall impacts, not really wanting it to show on his face. That would be a little embarrassing for his coworkers to see.

“It is I, HABEUS CORPUS!” the minotaur declared with a booming voice that practically shook the room. And most assuredly shook everything not nailed to the floor within it, including Moonlight. “Sorry, got lost,” he explained in an apologetic tone that would still manage to be heard clear across a hoofball field. “This building is a maze. But nothing can stop me from getting to my clients!” he declared, once more with earthshaking volume, and fluxing.

It took another moment for Neutral to gather his senses, but when he finally did, he had to wonder if the volume of the bull had actually damaged his sight, as there was no way he was seeing what he was seeing.

The minotaur in front of him was about average size for a bull, which was absolutely massive compared to the average pony. His biceps looked big enough to bend steel, with was almost a requirement for minotaur bulls, and his horns were sharpened to a point, and sparkled with polished ivory. He was wearing an immaculate green dress shirt beneath a grey vest and jacket, with a grey bow tie to set it off. On his lower half, he wore a kilt with what had to be the strangest combination of green, pink, and turquoise Neutral had ever seen, but it was done up in proper tartan style, so he could only assume it was family colours. It did not, in any way, make them less painful to look at, however.

“And why are you here?” Shade asked slowly, his confidence actually sounding shaken at the minotaur’s appearance, though Neutral found it rather understandable. Not even the bravest of ponies were ever really prepared for a being as in your face as the minotaur race on no notice.

“I am here to represent Misss Moonlight Dancer and company in… whatever trial this will be for!” the minotaur declared.

“Law suit was out of town?” Moonlight asked.

“I got the call by emergency teleport. I don’t have all the information yet,” the minotaur answered grouchily.

“Ah, in that case, you’re going to be representing me, Starlight, and whoever else gets dragged into this in a case having to do with Forbidden magic,” Moonlight explained.

“And that explains why they didn’t ask Law Suit,” Habeas answered. “Anyway!” he went on, turning back towards Shade. “I assume you have read my clients their rights, offered them a lawyer, and have not, in any way, put them under any duress, magical, mental, or physical, right?”

Neutral had to work to hold back a laugh at the way Shade’s coat seemed to go pale. This was most definitely not the place  for him to be having this conversation, in a Police Guard base. Neutral glanced over at Moonlight, suddenly wondering if this had been the plan in removing the unicorn guard from the beginning… He then glanced up as the minotaur’s boisterous smile slowly gained a sharper edge as he prodded, “Right?”

To Heal Alicorn - Habeas Corpus [OC] [Dark]

Unfortunately for Shade, it seemed like he was not, in any way, used to or prepared to deal with lawyers. Especially not in a room where absolutely everything in the room was magically recorded and the lawyer was a seven foot tall wall of beefy muscle whose sharp smile was beginning to turn into a glower.

“We are in a Police Guard station, they are in the custody of the Police Guard. There are certain rights my clients have when within that custody. You have at least read them their rights, correct?” Habeas repeated, the glower now fully present.

Shade sputtered. “Excuse me, I’ll be back for you later,” he said, glaring at the four ponies before turning, and stalking out of the room, nearly running into Habeas Corpus in the process.

“Did he really just leave us here?” Moonlight asked suspiciously.

“Probably to go demand you get moved to Intelligence Guard custody. Only problem is, he has no reason, or ability, to take me, and I’m exceptionally good at getting around tricky legal situations outside courtrooms,” he said without a hint of arrogance, and his voice actually taking on a more normal tone and volume.

Neutral blinked. Twice, then stated rather than asked, “You were playing up the whole Minotaur Culture thing, weren’t you.”

Habeas smirked. “No, I am strong, proud minotaur, however, there are times I realize that quiet is needed, as well as preferred by the pony race. I can’t exactly represent a baut and side beside them while bellowing like a good, proper minotaur, can I?” he asked. Moonlight gave him a look. “I stand by my words,” he stated confidently. “Objections are a different case.”

“Why is that a problem that they can’t take you?” Flux asked, not sounding worried so much as hopeful at that. A problem for Shade was how he seemed to have phrased it.

“Oh, problem for them, good for us. Means I can go make a lot of noise—more so than expected of your average minotaur—and hopefully get the case moved to a more forcibly transparent Guard branch,” Habeas answered. “I’m not going to let them do any more than they are absolutely legally allowed to. Especially not while we’re sitting in a Police Guard station. I cannot believe the stupidity of whoever left you here. Makes my job easier, though.” He looked around at everypony.

“So, who exactly am I representing?” he asked, sounding more business-like.

“You… don’t know who you’re representing?” Event asked, his tone a mixture of surprise and confusion.

“I am kept on retainer by the Dancer family, formerly the Nights family, in case of legal troubles in Canterlot, so I know I’m representing Miss Dancer, however given you four are also here.” He paused, looking to Moonlight.

“Yeah, they’re your clients too,” she answered his look. “Neutral Charge, Thermal Flux, and Event Horizon. They all work with Starlight. Titles are probably Doctor as well.” She glanced at the three unicorns and received small nods of confirmation from each.

“Understood, now then,” Habeas picked back up, “there were a few fairly obvious things right there and then that needed to be addressed, and allowed me some wiggle room. This is going to get a whole lot harder pretty fast here if you ponies do end up in an Intelligence Service facility. Their supposed deniability is a pain in the arse to work around.”

“It can be worked around?” Flux asked in surprise.

“Never doubt Habeas. It usually ends badly for the doubter,” Moonlight answered with a mischievous smirk.

“Well, the primary work around is your conversation in here. For example, they now cannot deny an Agent… did he give his name?”

“Shade Stalker,” Neutral supplied.

“They cannot deny an Agent Shade Stalker took you into custody, they cannot deny he questioned you. They cannot deny anything that went on in this base. When they take you, they will not be able to deny that they did,” Habeas finished with a far too smug look.

“And why will they not? Couldn’t they just not say anything?” Moonlight asked, frowning in concern.

“No, if they do not announce themselves, I will be very loud about it. And the Police will do one of two things. Either they will tell me who is taking you, or they will stop those ponies from taking you,” the minotaur explained calmly. “Or stun me,” he added casually, “but that would be basically the same thing as admitting it was the Intelligence Service, so I’m not too worried.”

“Not worried about being stunned?” Flux asked in surprise.

“I have won the right to represent my family five times at the Minotaurian Games in the Caber toss. It takes a lot more than a few stunners to slow me down,” Habeas declared proudly. Neutral blinked at that… he would never have seen a Caber tossing Minotaur lawyer as a possibility in a million years, and yet here was one, right in front of him. “So you do not need to worry about me, nor about for fate, for I will be on the case!”

Neutral could only nod—as did Moonlight, Flux and Event—at the minotaurs confident, booming declaration. “Is there anything we should do while we’re stuck?” Event asked after a long moment.

“Yes. Do not, under any circumstances, answer any of their questions without me present. Do not discuss Doctor Dancer’s work or condition while under their custody, be very careful with all your food and drink, do not, under any circumstances, do anything hostile towards them, and finally, demand the Princess oversee the trial loudly and frequently,” Habeas answered levelly.

“And what are you going to be doing?” Flux asked.

“In the long run? Getting four out of trouble, especially undeserved trouble. In the short run? Grabbing Miss Dancer’s monstrosity of a chariot, renting a driver, and making a day trip to the Ponyville Police Guard station to pick up several files to use in your favour, then getting to work on getting you something more than a show trial,” Habeas answered.

“And if I was taken in for association with Starlight, what about mom and Shadow?” Moonlight asked the minotaur, sounding worried again.

“Don’t worry about your mother and brother. Your mother’s residence and work in Vanhoover protects her from any more than Guard questioning, which she is more than smart enough to ensure happens on the right terms for building a case in her favour if needed. Your brother is in the company of Final Appeal in transit out of Equestria until this blows over.”

“Isn’t Final Appeal a unicorn?” Moonlight asked. “How would they have gotten passage on a ship on such short notice?”

“If you remember, Final Appeal is about the same size as Doctor Flux, so I doubt it would be much worse than carrying a little extra in a rucksack for flight,” Habeas stated with an assured nod. “So, don’t worry about them. Right now, we need to worry about you, and your friends here.”

Moonlight nodded to Habeas. “Got it,” she said.

The door opened and Neutral jumped slightly, looking towards it, having been focused on the massive minotaur. Through the door stepped a trio of unicorns in matching black suits, with matching grey coats and darker manes. There were several more visible through the doorway. The first one gestured to Moonlight, Flux, Event and Neutral as he spoke. “You four, come with us.”

To Heal Alicorn - Taken [OC] [Dark]

“You four, come with us.” The works were not a request as the lead pony seemed to ignore the fact Habeas was in the room. No easy feat, considering the gigantic minotaur and his eye searing kilt.

“And you would be?” Habeas  asked, his tone a low, impossible to ignore rumble.

It was impossible for Neutral to ignore, at least. The ponies in suits seemed to be just fine with ignoring him, as they continued to look at Neutral and his pony companions without even seeming to bat an eye at the suddenly angry looking minotaur.

“You will come with us now,” the lead pony repeated.

“And who would you be?” Moonlight asked, seeming to decide that if they were going to ignore the large angry minotaur, they would be less likely to ignore the one they were focused on… as backwards as Neutral found that thought. The suited ignored her, his steel grey eyes never wavering as he glared at the quartet.

“My clients will not be leaving with you until you declare yourselves and you destination,” Habeas stated, his deep voice perfectly normal in volume and his expression flattening from its previously boisterous smile, as he lowered his head slightly. Somehow, Habeas going quieter managed to scare Neutral worse than any loud screaming, yelling or posturing could.

The suited ponies seemed to decide now was a good time to answer, Habeas, too, which confirmed the danger in Neutral’s mind. “You are not authorized to know that,” the lead pony said. “All you are authorized to know is that they are coming with us, and we have the authority to take them.”

“You are in a Police Guard station,” Habeas answered then, his voice still low and level. Still radiating ‘danger’. Yet, he hadn’t done a thing other than lower his voice and his head. “There is protocol to follow. I am also their lawyer. I have the same authorization as them. Now, who are you and where are you taking my clients?” he asked once more.

“You are not authorized to know either answer. None of you are,” the suited pony answered.

Habeas’ response was not something Neutral would have expected of him at this point in the least. “POLICE! I WANT AN OFFICER HERE NOW!” he bellowed with earth shaking volume. Volume enough to cause a couple of the ponies outside the doorway to flinch slightly. At least it proved the things weren’t golems. Neutral really didn’t want to deal with the possibility of golems.

There was no immediate response, be a moment later, a surprisingly well composed Police Guard trotted in, the insignia on his armour making him a Warrant Officer. “What can I do for you, Mr. Corpus.

“Just who are these ponies, and where are they taking my clients?” Habeas demanded, his voice still low and level. Unlike the yell, this seemed to actually shake the guard, though he quickly regained his composure.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Corpus, but nopony here is authorized to know that. Authorization comes straight from ESIS,” he explained, his voice containing no hint as to any undermined confidence. Neutral expected the minotaur to lose it. To actually have that sense of pure danger prove reality.

What he did not expect was for the minotaur’s terrifying glower to turn into a smile. It wasn’t a nice smile either, but the smile of a pony that just watched somepony slip up in their favour. The sort of smile Neutral would expect on a noblemare as she watched a rival crash and burn. It was not a smile that he would expect on the so far forthright and unsubtle bull. A smirk like that was something that bespoke of subtlety.

“Oh, if that’s the case, go right ahead,” Habeas said to the suited ponies. He turned to Moonlight, Neutral, Event, and Flux. “Don’t resist. Makes things easy for yourself, and remember what I said,” he told them.

Neutral nodded, trusting the lawyer was their best bet and hoping his trust wasn’t misplaced. He followed Moonlight and Flux, with Event beside him, as they walked out into the hall where they were quickly surrounded by the large number of suited ponies. “We strongly suggest you don’t try anything,” the leader recommended as they walked through the station, before falling silent. They were escorted to a carriage in an underground garage, and made to get in. The carriage was windowless, had no internal door handle, and the only light source was a dim thunderstone in the room. The stallions sat on the seats on one side, while the mares took the others.

The long, featureless ride to their destination was done in silence.

As soon as the suited ponies left the room with his clients, Habeas turned back to the Warrant Officer, who had a suspicious look on his face. “I’ve seen that smile a couple of times. What exactly did I just do?” he asked, a note of concern in his voice.

Habeas’ smile slowly went from smug, back to boisterous. “Why, my dear Guard, you’ve done absolutely nothing wrong! That’s the beauty of it!” he informed the Guard. “So, Warrant officer, I want a copy of the recording of everything that has happened in this room from the moment my clients stepped inside to now. I don’t want a clone. I’m not stupid, I want a copy, with the date and time of copy clearly stamped. An exact copy of the recording as it sits in the recorder right now.”

The warrant nodded. “Are you sure you don’t want a clone? That way you don’t need to worry about damaging the recording if the stone gets damaged,” the guard suggested.

“No,” Habeas stated firmly. “I want a copy. A clone can also be remotely cut off via its connection to your central record storage. I will not risk losing my clients to such a rookie mistake. Actually, make that copy up to the point in which we leave the room.”

The guard nodded. “Of course, Mr. Corpus. If you would follow me.”

“You are going to get me a copy, no?”  Habeas asked in a low tone

“Yes, we’ll get you a copy of the recordings,” the guard confirmed firmly.

“Thank you, Warrant!” the minotaur said, his tone whiplashing back to boisterous in an instant, following the guard out and down the hall.

The guard let Habeas to a small room in the basement of the Station, below the carriage garage, to a room full of monitors receiving video and audio feeds from around the station via magic. The guard quickly got Habeas a copy of the times he wanted, and stowed them on a thunderstone. A small crystal or gem that held a store of magic in it that could be shaped into a spell array. In this case, a combination of an audio-video illusion and a storage matrix.

Habeas smiled. “Thank you, Warrant. I think I’ll be on my way know,” he declared, turning and leaving the station with a smile on his face as he whistled happily.

While things might be hard, and the hardest was going to come, the Minotaur couldn’t help but feel optimistic about his clients’ chances. He had a recording that would make it impossible for the Secret Intelligence Service to deny taking, or at least authorizing the taking of, his clients, he knew where to get the best evidence to support their case, and if he could get them before the Princess, especially with the cases he was going to collect, then it wouldn’t just be Moonlight and her friends off the hook, that would mean Starlight had a fighting chance as well. Now, if only he could get in a room with her to discuss this little event and find out the entire story behind it, then he’d know how to defend her properly as well.

Something much easier thought than done, so Habeas just stuck it a little farther down his list of things he needed to get done. He’d start working on getting some time to speak with Starlight when he got back from Ponyville with the copies of the cases he needed.

Nodding firmly to himself, he resumed his walk to the train station, his smile broad and his tune never wavering.

Swapped - Part 1 [OC]

Sun smiled. It was rare that there was a large gathering that he felt any comfort in, but this wasn’t so bad. It was a party for an old friend of his. Really, it was more of a friend of a friend, but Sun knew just about everypony at the gathering, so it wasn’t truly like he was at a party, per say, so much as a group of friends just meeting up for a bit.

Moonlight was hosting the party. She really was one of his oldest friends, and had come barrelling into his life when they were only in primary school, not even old enough to have their cutie marks yet. He glanced over at her across the room. Thick, wavy black mane thrown back as she laughed, green eyes sparkling with mirth at whatever Night had just said. Her normally snow white coat was currently dyed an ashen grey for reasons she refused to tell Sun.

Across from her, smiling teasingly, was probably one of the biggest ponies Sun had ever met. Taller than the average stallion by about a head, Night Stryker’s traditional Mohawk added another six inches to his height. His midnight blue stripes matched his mane, and his wings, folded at his side, were nearly proportional to what a pony would need to fly via physics, rather than the magic they actually used. It was good to see the normally so serious half-zebra smile. Sun slipped around the edge of the exceptionally large room that made up the vast majority of Moonlight’s apartment leaving them to their conversation.

He’d congratulate Night on his Honours graduation from the Royal Equestrian Police Guard academy later. For now, he’d find another pony to speak with. He looked around the room, finding Shadow, moonlight’s palette swapped, blue-eyed brother at the snack table speaking with Zekkonia, Night’s full-blooded zebra mother. In another part of the room, Clear Night’s, Moonlight’s mother, was speaking to Thunder Strike, Night’s Pegasus father and—oddly enough—Sun’s boss at Obsidian Martial Arts Academy.

A few feet from them, Starlight, Moonlight’s unicorn sister, was speaking animatedly with one of the few ponies Sunrider didn’t recognize at all. She was a turquoise Pegasus with a short, practically cut orange mane, with matching eyes alight with energy. Moonlight had told him it was one of Night’s friends from the Academy. Her family and a fair few of hers and Night’s mutual friends and classmates were scattered around the room, too, but Sun knew enough ponies there that the ones he didn’t weren’t overwhelming as they might have been.

Finally, he found who he was looking for. Hope Dawn was on the other side of the room. She was standing by a wall, keeping quiet and generally just being herself. Her long, thick, deep green mane covered the right side of her face, completely covering her right eye and reaching almost to the floor. Jade, right eye was carefully focused in such a way that she wouldn’t meet anypony’s eyes, and her general bearing simply didn’t bare notice. To most ponies. She was an average sized mare with a curvy figure, and would have been drop dead beautiful if she could find any confidence in herself.

Even as it was, with the complete lack of said confidence, she was still a very pretty mare. One of the few mares that Sun found himself able to talk normally to. It was almost humorous that the mares he had as friends, the ones he could actually hold a conversation with, were usually the ones considered to be some of the more beautiful types of mares in Equestria.

He smiled at her, grabbing a pair of cups with the punch from the table as he passed it and brought them over, smiling at her. “Hey Dawn,” he greeted once he was in earshot.

She turned over to look at him, smiling softly. “Hi Sunny. Enjoying the party?” she asked.

“Yeah. I am, actually,” he stated softly. “I know most of the ponies here and I can stay in the background. That’s always nice.”

Dawn giggled. “Of course it is. How you manage to do that with a bright yellow coat is a little beyond me,” she replied. “Bright yellow coat, orange mane, and yet, in a room painted back you could blend in.”

Sun chuckled. “It’s a gift,” he told her teasingly. “I have the gift of invisibility.”

“And somehow, that talent never seemed to extend to the high school wrestling coach,” Dawn shot right back, eye twinkling with mirth.

Sun groaned. “Please don’t remind me. The number of ways I came up with to dodge that pony….” Sun shook his head to banish the memory.

Dawn just giggled again. “Oh come on, would it have really been so bad to join one team?”

“Oh, and you didn’t join the debate team because, Miss Political Science Super Genius?” Sun answered, his smile starting to stretch into a grin.

“Point taken,” Dawn answered, smile getting a little wider. “But it still doesn’t make it any less funny.”

Sun grumbled, offering her the thing of punch he’d brought over. She accepted, her smile now well into the realm of smug as she looked at him. “It was hilarious and you know it,” she asserted.

Sun could come up with no comeback to that, as looking back, it really had been hilarious the lengths the coach had gone to try and get Sun on the wrestling team.

Dawn smiled smugly at Sun, giggling once more. “So what have you been up to?”

They descended into small talk for a bit, Sun telling her about his time working at the hospital, working with foals and teens recovering from serious injuries and illnesses. He was a physical therapist, working to get the little ones going full speed once again after something major.

Dawn was training to become a full Aide to the Princesses, and was already proving herself to be a valuable asset to the castle staff. She also seemed to be enjoying it, something which Sun was glad for.

They were in the middle of swapping some of their more interesting stories when there was a dinging of dozens of spoons on glasses. Sun raised an eyebrow, looking down at his distinctly plastic cup, before he looked towards the front of the room where the noise was coming from.

Moonlight stood at the front, wing held over her head, and visible between two of her primaries was a thunderstone. A thunderstone was a small gem that was designed to hold a magic charge or precast spell that would activate on some sort of trigger. The spell, in the case of the one that Moonlight held, seemed to be that attention grabbing noise.

“Thank you all for coming, and congratulations to Nighty on graduating from Tartarus on Equestria,” she said with a smile, as laugher spread through the room, particularly from those that had done the graduating. “Now, I’m sure everyone is having fun, but this is a party, where too many ponies don’t know each other. So, to remedy that, I made a special blend of punch,” she explained. There was confused muttering throughout the room, but Dawn and Sun shared a look. They had a very good idea of what was about to happen. Sun would put bits on the abuse of Starlight’s alchemy knowledge.

Sure enough, Moonlight went on. “This blend, made special for this party, is, of course, spiked with alcohol, but you all knew that. What you didn’t know, is that it’s got a bodyswapping potion that builds up a charge through the ambient magic being radiated from the lights. What you also didn’t know was the reason for the ultraviolet lights sitting around the edges of the room. Shall I demonstrate?!” she asked excitedly.

There was a long, shocked pause, before the sound of several hooves impacting foreheads echoed throughout the room. There was plenty of nervous laughter, as well as genuine laughter as well, as various other ponies thought she was joking. As sun looked around though, he caught sight of the resigned looks on Clear Nights, Starlight, Night, and Shadow. They, at least, knew  that Moonlight was completely serious.

Zekkonia, the zebra in the room, though, had a surprised look on her face. Not a look of disbelief that came from not believing Moonlight, but from not believing that somepony would actually use it. Sun could believe it. All too well…

At the front, Moonlight grinned, and brought the thunderstone back down, placing it on the table while her other wing darted out and hit a button on the wall.

There was a flash of purple and Sun knew the potion had worked…

Swapped - Part 2 [OC]

Sun did not open his eyes immediately after the violet flash left his vision. Instead, he mentally began to get a feel for the body he’d ended up in. Plenty of weight up on his head, so he had a long mane. Most of it was pulling towards his right. Not a whole lot of weight in the back half… it appeared that he was no longer male. He wondered if the mental pronoun corrections to ‘she’ would really help all that much.

Sun sighed, finally opening her eyes. Eye, as she quickly found out, noting that she was missing about ten percent of her vision on the right side. She looked beside herself and experienced something extremely surreal as she looked at her normal body without the aid of a mirror. “Oh, hello,” she said with a nod, wondering if she could have gotten so lucky as to have just reversed bodies with Dawn.

“Oh, hey there,” Not-Sun said cheerfully in a flirty tone that was distinctly not Dawn. Unfortunately, it was also most definitely not Moonlight, as the mare, while a fillyfooler, also knew better than to flirt with the terminally shy Pegasus whom normally owned the body Sun was inhabiting.

Sun, of course, was just as bad as Dawn for completely different reasons and went bright red. “These two weren’t a couple,” she said to the pony within his body. “I’m… I’m Sunrider. Um… who are you?” Somehow, Sun found himself completely unsurprised at how much he sounded like his friend. Some things were constant, no matter what else might happen. One of those things seemed to be his ridiculous levels of social anxiety now that he knew practically nopony at the party anymore

Not-Sun laughed, a mischievous light behind his eyes. “I thought this prank was all about getting to know ponies we don’t yet, though,” he replied. He paused a moment, seeming to think on that, before deflating slightly. “Though I guess if that’s the case, you’re going to need my name anyway aren’t you?” he asked, seeming a little put out at that.

Sun couldn’t help but chuckle… giggle as the case turned out to be to his chagrin. “Yeah, that’s pretty much right,” she said mirthfully.

“Fine. My name is Mythic Aurora, and I’m guessing you’re in the same position as me?” he asked curiously.

“Inhabiting the wrong gender? Yeah, that’s about right. Actually, you’re in my body,” Sun informed Mythic, small smile on her face.

He laughed. “Oh, well, I’m thinking a conversation with yourself must be pretty surreal, then,” he noted, eyes twinkling. “I know it would for me… actually, I’m kind of curious who’s in my body right now. As well as where in Celestia’s name Moonlight is… why in the buck did she do this without informing any of us?” he grumbled.

Sun found a small grin coming to her face, though she knew she shouldn’t find it all that funny. “This is Moonlight we’re talking about. You’d be better to ask the question why she wouldn’t do this,” Sun answered, earning a surprised look from Mythic. “I’ve known Moonlight for a while,” Sun answered the unasked question. “She was probably waiting for a chance to do something like this, and it’s relatively tame compared to what she could have done.”

Mythic raised an eyebrow at Sun, then paused, both eyes going up to focus on said eyebrow. “I have always wanted to be able to that,” he said offhoofedly. “Anyway, you, the shy guy in the corner, are friends with the party mare? Really?”

“It’s not that hard to believe, is it?” Sun asked, blushing a bit.

“If it were a pair of mares, no, it wouldn’t, but a stallion and a mare? How did that even happen?”

“I have the same question sometimes,” Sun answered, giggling… and once again wishing he could properly chuckle. “She came barrelling into my life in primary school, and hasn’t left it. Are you one of Night’s friends?”

“Team mates, actually. We got assigned to the same squad,” Mythic answered easily. “We’re going to meet the rest of our squad in a few days. I would have thought you’d have known. Aren’t you a guard?”

Sun shook her head. “Martial arts instructor and youth physical therapist, actually,” she answered. “I debated doing personal training for a while, but it wasn’t as interesting.”

Mythic nodded, smiling. “I can see that. You’ve definitely got the build.” He glanced around the room, as if looking for something. Sun followed suit and found that while a bunch of ponies were looking around for Moonlight, a fair few had also settled in to speak with their new conversation partners in a similar manner to Sun and Mythic. “Where do you think Moonlight is?” he asked after a moment of searching.

“Better question is who do you think Moonlight is,” Sun corrected. “There is no way she’s going to have been left out of this.”

“I just hope there wasn’t any poor sods that went off to get closer in a corner,” Mythic replied, mischievous smile on his face.

Sun paused for a second to think on the implications. Then a crimson blush overcame her face almost immediately after. “So do I,” she managed to squeak softly.

Mythic burst into laughter at Sun’s reaction, shaking his head. “So, you want to see who else is all around? I actually kind of want to know where Night ended up, and who ended up as Night.”

Sun nodded, rather curious herself, and trotted after Mythic as they searched the room, going straight for the pony that might as well be an elephant in the room. The Not-Night was still speaking to the pony that may or may not be Moonlight as Mythic and Sunrider approached.

“So, I told him, ‘come see me if I ever sprout wings.’ I think I’m going to have to eat my words,” Not-Moonlight was saying, teasing grin on her face.

Not-Night snorted as he burst into laughter. “So, who’s who?” Mythic asked as he entered the group, Sun not far behind.

“I’m Starlight,” Not-Moonlight answered, smiling over at them.

“Silent Step,” Not-Night answered.

“Well, I’m Mythic Aurora, and this here is Sunrider,” Mythic introduced, turning his grin up at Silent. “So how’s standing head and shoulders above the rest?”

“Distinctly weird,” he answered. “Weirder than the Spaghetti Incident last month…” Mythic and Silent shuddered in concert.

“Spaghetti?” Sun asked.

Starlight shook her head, an oddly serious look on her face. “When an Incident gets a name like that, don’t ask,” she said. “It’s usually best you don’t know. Trust me.”

Sun raised her eyebrow at Starlight. “That sounds like experience speaking.”

“Magic has a sense of humour, and often schadenfreude. We’ll leave it at that,” Starlight answered seriously.

Sun just nodded, intrigued as to what could make the normally terminally curious mare not want to delve into something. “So, do either of you have any idea where Moonlight went?” Sun asked them after a moment, looking between Starlight and Silent.

“No, but odds are she’d keeping her head down,” Starlight said. “There’s no way she wants her prank to end soon.” Sun rather wished she could disagree, but that fit Moonlight’s methods far too well. That also thankfully left him fairly certain she had something set up to get everypony back to their own bodies.

“How well do you know her?” Silent asked curiously.

“She’s my sister,” Starlight replied. “And believe it or not, this isn’t the first time I’ve ended up in the control of her body. I’m pretty sure this is the same potion, too.”

“So you know the antidote?” Sun asked hopefully.

Starlight sighed. “Know it, yes. Getting my hooves on the ingredients, brewing it, and distributing it in a reasonable amount of time in Moonlight’s body? There lies the problem,” she answered.

“Is it just me, or is this way too well thought out for a prank?” Mythic asked with a sigh.

“No, if it was less thought out, I’d go find my sister and beat her with the punch ladle,” Starlight said perfectly seriously. “Magic isn’t something you mess around with lightly.”

Silent Step nodded. “You don’t mess around with magic unless you’ve thought of every possibility,” he said seriously. “More, actually, considering what happens when you don’t.”

“Moral of the story, don’t mess with magic?” Sun asked the two.

“Unless you’ve got a super smart sister that can bail you out when you get in over your head,” a new voice answered. The four turned to look at the newcoming stallion, and Sun didn’t even need to ask who was behind the eyes. The grin on the black muzzle and sparkle in the ice blue eyes was all Moonlight, even if the body was Shadow’s.

“Hey Moon,” Sun sighed, unable to stop the smile from spreading across her face. Even with the prank, it was still perfectly her. “Are you saying you need Starlight to bail you out of this?”

“No. I thought of that. Antidote is keyed to a flash of another coloured light. That was also in the punch. Who’d trust anything from me for the rest of the night, anyway? Had to have that ready,” he explained easily.

“How much thought did you put into this prank?” Sun asked her with a sigh.

“Far more than you really want to know,” was the answer. “Well, now that I’ve got everypony talking to each other, I think it’s time to switch it up again!” he said, grinning, and before they could say anything, his wing darted out and hit a button on the wall situated right beside the original one.

Another violet flash of light, and Sun sighed as she was made male once again, and felt the familiar feel of his own body. The nice feeling of having plumbing that was his own again. To his left, he caught sight of a pony of green falling towards the ground, and deftly slipped underneath and caught Dawn before she could hit the ground. Sun turned to say something to Moonlight now that he, and presumably she, were back in their own bodies only to find her no longer there. The mare had vanished, and most likely for good reason as the grumblings went up around the room.

Sun glanced between Shadow and Night, and the trio burst into laughter. None of them could deny that, despite personal feelings about who they might have been, the stunt and the results had been absolutely awesome…

Extradimensional Coolers [OC] [Comedy] [SoL] [Random]

Night Stryker was beginning to wonder if it was just better for everypony’s health if Starlight just stayed away from coolers. First, there was the portal to the Crystal Empire that was now in place of his mother’s freezer. Then there was the taco geyser. The dye incident. And now… whatever this was.

“On the bright side, the portal isn’t into an apocalyptic Equestria,” the mare beside him commented casually. Night turned to look at her. Standing just a little shorter than Night, she was still taller than just about every stallion Night had ever met. She had midnight blue zebra striping that mirrored Night’s own, and a nine inch tall Mohawk to Night’s six inch one. She also just so happened to be one of four ponies to have come through a portal to another dimension that Starlight had created in a cooler.

“You have me there,” Night admitted as the pair looked over at the animatedly chatting quartet on the other side of the room, while the other duo was over by one of the workstations in the room. The room was a good sized theoretical arcana lab with about a dozen workstations, though only four looked to be in active use.

“We should probably check that they’re remaining on the right topic,” Dawn suggested after a long moment of just watching the chat.

“And that the Dancers aren’t at risk of making the Charges faint,” Night added, following behind his doppelganger with a resigned sort of look.

“Oh, I don’t think your Dancer is a danger to my Charge, and vice versa. I think it’s just the idea of a universe following the supposedly fictional sixty-third rule of alchemical experimentation,” Dawn said with a shrug.

“Supposedly fictional? What were your male colours when Midnight did his poison joke experimentation?” Night asked with a laugh.

“Red and black,” Dawn admitted reluctantly, frowning and giving Night a look. She was saved from Night’s reply by them having reached Neutral Charge, Positive Charge, Starlight Dancer, and Midnight Dancer. The former two were shades of brown with darker brown manes while the latter two were a deep blue with raven black manes.

“Oh, hey Nighty!” Starlight greeted happily, her grey eyes shining with a cheerful light. “You know, it’s really weird to see you made female without the pink on purple colours.”

Midnight snorted, chuckling as he shot a teasing grin at Starlight. “I could say the same for Dawn without the red on black,” he noted, tone matching grin.

“Don’t remind me,” complained Dawn. “I looked like a bad Long Lost Brother parody.” She shuddered, while Night, Starlight, and Neutral all looked curiously at her. “A bunch of bad plays and books that involve a long lost third brother to the diarchy,” she explained.

“Oh, looks like the colours for bad male characters don’t change across universes, at least,” Starlight said cheerfully.

“Probably the same for the females, though the roles are most likely reversed,” Midnight noted, “though I’m not going to go through your literature to find out.” He made a rather disgusted face that nearly mirrored Starlight’s own at the thought of reading those stories. Night had to hold back a snicker at it, wondering if they realized just how twin-like they were acting. The Charges seemed to have no problems with snickering and giggling, however, at the Dancers’ expressions.

The Dancers both glanced over at the Charges in surprise, causing the latter pair to blush suddenly, and badly, which in turn set the Dancers laughing.

“So, have you guys figured out how to reopen the portal yet?” Night asked with a sigh, almost certain the four had gotten severely off topic after only having actually been speaking to them for a few minutes.

“No, we haven’t. We’re not entirely sure that doing so is a good idea, either,” Neutral explained, his voice soft, but confident.

“We’re not certain that doing so won’t suck through another group of ponies, or that the portal is even two way,” Positive went on, “we were sucked through from our end, remember? No portal here. Though I think we can all agree that coolers will never again be brought into either lab, right?” She narrowed her eyes at Midnight.

“Hey, I brought burritos!” he complained. “You liked them no?”

“I think it’s definitely safe to say she liked your burrito,” Starlight told her doppelganger impishly, causing poor Positive Charge to go bright red in the face as she let out a squeak that Starlight found quite adorable. Midnight sputtered and glared at Starlight in annoyance.

“Was that really necessary?” Night asked, deadpanning Starlight, though the corner of his mouth was quirked.

“Yes, yes it was,” Starlight answered, completely unaffected by the looks being sent her way. “I could not let that joke go unmade! Would Moonlight?” Night frowned, knowing immediately that Starlight was right, and her sister would never leave that joke unmade. Shadow, Starlight’s brother and Moonlight’s twin, might, if only out of consideration for Positive Charge.

“Yes, yes she would,” Midnight answered, “it’s Shadow I have to worry about. He refuses to leave any joke unmade.” There was a short pause, and then a look of comprehension spread across the Dancers’ faces. “If you swapped Moonlight’s and Shadow’s names and genders, everything probably would probably line up,” Midnight stated.

“That has to be the weirdest thought I’ve had in a long time,” Starlight stated numbly.

“Weirder than-“

“Yes,” Starlight cut him off definitively. “Definitely weirder than that.” Midnight did not try and go on, the tone of Starlight’s answer seeming to have been enough for him as he gave a smug smile. Night knew more than enough not to question what the incident might be, and apparently so did Dawn, as she kept silent as well.

“So, we’re just going to remain here?” Dawn asked Midnight, frowning. “I do have work, you know, and Bass isn’t going to let me go so easily.”

“Neither will any of our relatives, but if we fail, or worse, bring more ponies over, what then?” Positive said sadly.

Night frowned thoughtfully, before perking up. “Zebrican traditional magic. I know not much stock is put in it by most ponies, but that might hold the answer,” he said. “That way, we don’t need to worry about whatever you are worrying about. We can ask a master.”

“A master or a scholar?” Neutral asked, looking troubled. “There’s a pretty big difference sometimes.”

Night smiled. “A true master. My mother,” he said, a twinkle in his eye.

“Don’t you mean… no, there is no way,” Dawn interrupted herself. “I’m not entirely sure I’m ready for this! Seeing my genderswapped self from another dimension is weird enough, but I do not want to see my father as a mare!”

“How does that work anyway? He a warrior?” Night asked curiously.

“Spirit walker, but that’s really not the point,” Dawn answered. “The point is that I really don’t want to be seeing what my father would be like as a mare!”

“Don’t worry, we can introduce Positive to her sisters later. That should make things even,” Starlight said with a smug smile.

There was a short silence as both Positive and Neutral took a moment to complete this. Then they both proceeded to pale considerably. Six siblings gender reversed would do that to a pony. Starlight and Midnight both burst into laughter at the expression on the pair’s faces. “Poor mom and dad,” they said in concert.

“Oh come on, it really can’t be that bad, can it?” Midnight suggested. “Sure Shockwave’s a little boisterous, and Bronze and Gold could stand to be a little less rough… you know what, it’s probably worse…” he admitted as he went on, his look starting to pale a bit the more he thought about the topic.

Positive giggled. “See, we need to get this fixed as fast as possible before you end up scarred any worse,” she said to him teasingly, grinning with a look that was far too pleased with herself.

“I fully agree. Dawn, let’s go see Zepher’s female self and get home,” Midnight said, looking to the big female zebra expectantly. “Hopefully before everypony starts worrying too much.”

“Or before you think too hard on the implications of an Equestria following the sixty third law of alchemy?” Dawn suggested.

“That too,” Midnight agreed shamelessly. “So let’s go.”

Dawn snorted out a laugh, nodding to Midnight, before looking to Night. “How do you want to play this out?”

“We walk out of here like nothing’s out of the ordinary,” a new, male voice suggested as two supremely short unicorns with blue coats and sunny yellow manes approached, one male and one female. “If this lab is this close to the one back home, nopony will question it, and some of them will go out of their way to not question it,” Temporal Flux went on with a chuckle.

“Hate to say it, but Temporal’s right,” Starlight admitted, allowing herself a giggle. “Nothing around here is ever something anypony wants to question, even under normal circumstances.”

“And a clone of yourself showing up here isn’t normal?” Thermal Flux asked, her tone jokingly pointed.

There was a short pause, before Starlight rolled her eyes. “A double of you guys isn’t normal,” she pointed out with a huff.

“Fine fine, let’s just get to wherever, and get this fixed,” Thermal conceded with a laugh.

Night turned to lead the way, Dawn beside him. As they left the lab, Starlight spoke up. “How much trouble do you think I’m going to end up in?”

After it All Went Wrong [OC] [Mystery]

Moonlight Dancer limped backstage, the last five minutes playing through her mind on a loop. These sorts of things weren’t supposed to happen to the Royal Equestrian Ballet. Unfortunately, they did, which is why the normally snow white mare was covered in dust, her raven black mane was knotted and tangled, and her wings looked like they hadn’t seen a preening in months.

She looked around at the rest of her troupe, noting that they didn’t seem up better. Then again, nopony would if an entire stage came down on them. Moonlight glanced back out at the stage where everything previously affixed to the ceiling now lay. That they had all made it out with little more than a messed up ankle was a miracle.

Looking forwards again, she finished approaching her troupe, putting on a reassuring smile. Given the uncertain looks she got in return, she wasn’t sure it worked. “Is everypony okay?” she asked. Sure, she knew there was no physical injuries, but that didn’t mean mental ones couldn’t be just as bad.

She got a general murmur of ascent to her question, though like the expressions, it wasn’t exactly definitive. Still, it was a start, at least. “Well, everyone got out more or less in one piece, and I think the worst injury is the couple sprained ankles. Unless somepony has fractured ribs we find out about later,” she added with a frown.

“I think we escaped anything worse than the sprain, Miss Dancer,” an earther mare said, approaching from the side. She was in a red vest with a white medical cross on the back, denoting her position as the theatre’s first aid attendant. “I’ll let the doctors tell you for sure, but I didn’t find anything that looked like a break or fracture.”

Moonlight smiled in relief, nodding. “Thank you. That is an amazing relief to here,” she said with a sigh. That was a massive load of her back for worry. She might not be the owner, manager, or coordinator of the Ballet—the first two were back in Canterlot and the last was making a fuss with the Theatre staff—but they were still her dancers. She was the Prima Skydancer—there was a Prima from each of the three races—so she felt a responsibility to all her fellow dancers.

She turned her relieved look into a confident smile, this one much more believable in that Moonlight believed it herself. “So, we’re mostly fine. Anypony with nothing more than a few bruises, head back to the hotel. I’m going to bring Silent and Velvet to the hospital.” Moonlight’s head jerked towards the snigger in the group, her eyes falling on Velvet Step, one of the soloists in the troupe and one of the ones she’d just mentioned. “What’s so funny?” Moonlight asked with an uncertain frown.

“Sorry,” she apologized. “A friend of mine is named Silent Knight. Your wording just struck me as funny.”

Moonlight nodded, leaving it be for now. She turned her attention back to the troupe at large. “Light Hooves, you’re with me. The rest of you… I’m not sure, maybe the boss will be down in a bit. Until then.” She shrugged helplessly, before walking over to Velvet Step as Light Hooves came over, Silent Dreams already on his back. The baut mare was pouting slightly as she lay on the silver stallion’s back, not enjoying needing the help in the least, but neither arguing that she did need it.

Moonlight glanced at Velvet. “So, three legged, or on my back?” she asked the little pink earther with a grin.

Velvet Step was about the same size as Moonlight, both of them extremely petite—Moonlight had met all of one mare shorter than her—though both also extremely fit from the demands of dancing. Even so, Moonlight smiled and crouched when Velvet answered, “You should carry me.” Moonlight was glad she at least she knew when to take the help.

“Light Hooves, let’s go,” Moonlight said, leading the way, not seeming to be slowed down by Velvet even a little.  A fact that was no surprise any of the dancers, but got double takes from even the most oblivious of Manehattanites.

About halfway to their destination, Velvet spoke up. “You’re enjoying the attention far too much,” she told Moonlight, giggling.

“And you’re not enjoying it nearly enough,” Moonlight retorted with a grin. “Besides, how often to you see a small mare being carried by an even smaller one and not missing a step?”

There was a short pause as Velvet thought that over. Light Hooves was the one that spoke up, though. “Not nearly often enough,” he teased. There was a good sounding whack a second later and Moonlight laughed, not even looking back to see where Silent had hit him.

“Oh, come on, let him have his fun,” Velvet laughed. “Besides, I don’t think Moony minds the attention too much.”

Moonlight gained a mischievous smile, before suddenly firing a set of bedroom eyes at Light Hooves. The expression didn’t have the desired effect, as the stallion only smiled, raising an eyebrow in return. There was a flash of light from across the street that made Moonlight and Light Hooves stop in their tracks.

As one, they turned to watch a reporter scurry off down the street. “Well, that’ll be tabloid fuel for weeks,” Light Hooves stated after a momentary pause. There was another moment of silent contemplation before Velvet burst into laughter, quickly followed by the other three.

“Are you sure this won’t make your coltfriend jealous?” Velvet asked curiously.

“Who, Sunny?” Moonlight asked in surprise, before giggling. “Oh, he’s not my coltfriend. Just a friend. In fact, I’ve been trying to get him set up with somepony for a while!” She glanced hopefully over at Silent, who immediately shook her head.

“Nope, not happening, not a chance in Tartarus,” the baut immediately answered, deadpan. “You’ve already tried to set us up once.” She glared at Moonlight with narrowed eyes.

“Yeah, tried. You’ve never actually gone on a date,” Moonlight complained.

“Oh, hey, look the hospital!” Light Hooves said quickly, speeding up before the argument could actually go anywhere. He was clearly not keen on Moonlight and Silent entering another one of their arguments.

Moonlight rolled her eyes as she matched Light Hooves pace. His distraction had done its job, though, and Moonlight did not start the argument again.

They checked in quick, and in barely any time at all, Velvet and Silent had been looked at and bandaged up. Unfortunately for the baut, though, something had also clipped her wing bad enough that it was going to be out of commission for a bit. How Silent hadn’t felt that pain was beyond Moonlight.

As the quartet made their way back towards the theatre, they were in good spirits. Velvet had a bandage around one of her forehooves and instructions not to use it for a cold of days. Silent had the same, plus one of her bat-like wings was tied to the side of her body, but there were no breaks or fractures, and it was only a couple of days that they’d be out. Nothing like Moonlight had worried that it could have been.

“This is going to put me out for the rest of our Manehattan tour, isn’t it?” Velvet sighed, frowning.

“Probably,” Moonlight readily agreed, “but better that than you do something that screws it up bad enough that you’re no longer able to dance at all. “And if I have to tie you to your bed to keep you off that hoof, I will. I like you.”

There was a short, contemplative pause from Velvet. Light Hooves answered the look Moonlight knew Velvet would be giving with a resigned tone,” Don’t ask, you’ll be happier.”

Moonlight laughed. “Oh come on, I’m not that bad,” she complained, though there was no real heat in her voice.

She could feel Silent and Light Hooves’ deadpans. She ignored them. Velvet was still new enough to the company that she didn’t quite know all of Moonlight’s quirks. Not yet, anyway. It was going to be fun when Velvet finally realized that Moonlight wasn’t the pure little Pegasus she often liked to portray for her public face.

Moonlight could practically feel Velvet’s confusion, and decided to fuel it with an enigmatic smile. The earther had been herself from the beginning. She was a fun little pony. Moonlight, however, was only herself in the privacy of the Canterlot practice studios or when they were outside of a theatre they were performing at. Due to this, Moonlight knew that Velvet had yet to get a full picture of her personality, and she had no problems taking advantage of Velvet’s unsure position for a little teasing.

It wasn’t long before they got back to the theatre, only to find a large number of guards out front. Moonlight wasn’t all that surprised the guard had gotten involved,   but the number of them was surprising, as well as the fact it looked like the theatre was shut down.

“The theatre is closed, please move along,” one of the guards said to them as they approached the doors. Moonlight looked over to see a Manehattan Police Guard approaching.

After a quick glance at his rank, Moonlight smiled at the unicorn. “Inspector, we’re members of the Royal Ballet. If you want to confirm it, talk to Scripted Grace, the choreographer, or any of the others in the Company. Are they within or somewhere else?”

The Inspector frowned. “Moonlight Dancer, Velvet Step, Light Hooves, and Silent Dreams?” he asked them. Moonlight nodded. “Come with me please,” the inspector stated. “The rest of your company is with us inside. The lighting didn’t fall down. It was cut.”

There was a long pause after that, before Moonlight stated quite eloquently, “What?”

“The Detective will explain it inside, but the equipment falling was, unfortunately, no accident,” the inspector repeated.

Moonlight nodded somewhat numbly as she glanced around at her fellow dancers. That was not good news. Someone hated them or someone in the Company enough to drop thousands of pounds of lighting and sound equipment on their heads, and Moonlight had no clue who it could be.

The inspector let the quartet into a room where the rest of the company was gathered, everypony shifting nervously, glancing towards one of the doors nervously. There was no conversation in the air at all, and Moonlight could instantly feel the palpable nerves in the air.

She looked around at everypony with a slight frown. There was simply too much angst in the room, and she had to find a way to get rid of some of it. Unfortunately, there was very good reason for it, and she wasn’t entirely sure how to remove that angst without making light of the reason for it in the first place. She thought for a moment, before gaining a slight smile. “So, they dropped an entire rig up of theatre lighting on us and the worst that happened was a fractured wing. I think we’re doing pretty well, no?” she asked cheerfully, hoping to lighten everypony’s spirits at least a little.

“Yeah, but the fact is, somepony dropped that lighting in the first place,” somepony within the troop argued. It was not an argument that Moonlight had a quick and easy rebuttal for.

“True, but we’re all okay, and we know to watch out. Besides, we shouldn’t be feeling down right now. Everypony’s alive and mostly intact. We should be delighted!” Moonlight called.

There was a short pause, before the collective groan made its way around the room and she received a firm smack on the shoulder from Velvet. “That was horrible,” Silent stated from Light Hooves’ back. “That was bad and you should feel bad.”

Moonlight smiled unrepentantly around at everypony, glad the pun had at least drawn some kind of a reaction. “Hey, we don’t leave anypony to provolone! We all prove together.”

This time the swat was to the back of her head. Moonlight just turned to grin at Velvet, not even looking a little bit phased.

The door on the other side of the room opened and a Guard with a detective insignia on his armour stepped out. “Miss Dancer? Let’s spare them any more of your puns. I’d like to get your statement please,” she requested.

Moonlight nodded, sobering slightly. “Of course detective,” she said. She left Velvet with the rest of the dancers, before walking over and going into the room with the guard stallion, confident she’d done at least a bit to help raise the spirits of her coworkers. Now to see if she could pull anything out of the Guard about what they knew. She really wanted to know what the hay had happened…

The New Assistant [OC] [Comedy]

I approached the Alchemy Wing of Canterlot University with hesitant steps.  I’d recently graduated from Manehattan Technical Institute with a degree in Alchemy, majoring in Medical Alchemy, minoring in the Dark Arts. Most ponies called me crazy for pursuing it. My parents had as well, though they supported me every step of the way. Dad had even taken a transfer from Cloudsdale to Manehattan with the National Police Guard so we could remain close.

I stepped through the doors to the wing, and began looking at the room numbers. The Professor that had hired me was supposed to be in room 374-B. Sighed as I caught sight of the numbers on the closest door, one hundred two. I was on the wrong floor. Instantly, I began to search for a set of stairs, wondering if I should have just checked for an entrance on the roof first. It would have been so much easier just to fly than try to navigate the rat maze that was the majority of the University.

Finding my staircase, I ascended and three four flights of stairs later, I was at my destination. The third floor was no different from the rest of the university so far. The hallways were all painted a beige colour, and the doors were all purple. Though, as I began to head down the hallway in search of the exact room I needed, I couldn’t help but note that several of the doors had dents and dings in them. Some of them were even notably warped, and one was an alarmingly bright pink. I firmly pushed out of my mind the curiosity of how the colour pink could be alarming. Not worth it.

Not too far down the hallway, I found the room I was looking for. Three-seventy-four. The door had a note taped beside it that drew my attention in a manner I’d come to understand to be related to various attention grabber spells. I looked over at it and raised an eyebrow. The only thing on it was the words ‘tap here’ inside a round, red circle. I frowned as something struck me as odd about it. Looking a little closer, I laughed as I saw tiny, yellow lines connecting to each other and the outer circle within. The paper taper had made themselves a doorbell.

As I reached for the doorbell, I paused, noticing something written beneath the doorbell button. It was in small print, and somewhat differently coloured than I was used to seeing. It took a moment to click, before I blinked. Pegasus vision tends to extend slightly into the infrared and ultraviolet ends of the spectrum naturally, giving us a larger range of vision than earthers and unicorns. What I was seeing was something written in ultraviolet ink. A colour that was far removed from what I’d been seeing in Manehattan for the last four and a half years.

Looking closely at the small print, I read:

Sky Runner, give the circle a quick jolt of weather magic. It should unlock my door. Be careful on entry, as I’m running a rather volatile experiment involving a decent amount of poison joak. So long as you don’t get hit by any of it, you should be fine. There’s a glass shield as you enter that should help. It’ll be nice to meet you! Sincerely, Mystic Sapphire.

The letter worried me more than a little about the type of pony I might be working for. While I loved alchemy, I didn’t know if it would be enough if I disliked my boss. While she seemed nice enough in her letters, this one was making me wonder. I stepped back and lifted a wing to, touching the tip of my outer primary to the button as I ran a small amount of magic through it. Just enough to be able to stir up a small breeze if I used it to move the air.

There was a sharp click a moment later and I pushed the door open, and proceeded to nearly walk face first into the glass shield Mystic had just warned me about. Don’t get me wrong, I was ready for the shield, I just wasn’t ready for it to be sitting only a couple of centimetres beyond the furthest point the door swung forward.

Beyond the shield was one of the more unique ponies I’d ever seen, and coming from Manehattan, that really says something. She was a big mare. She wasn’t fat. In fact, she was actually extremely slim. Rather, she stood about a half of a head taller than the average stallion, and sported statuesque lines that many a professional model would kill for. Her coat colour was, sapphire blue, and was striped with oceanic green. I couldn’t tell if the stripes were real or dyed in, bet they matched her mane perfectly. The mane was pulled back and out of the way in a tight braid that was then doubled up and around into a bun at the back of her head. The bun was thick enough that it made me wonder just how long her mane was out of the up do.

She stood stirring some sort of a potion in a cauldron. Not in small amounts in a beaker or even a large amount in a containment device, but an honest to Celestia cauldron over a Bunsen burner. I blinked a couple of times, unsure of how to react, before her eyes suddenly widened, and I reacted to what I knew to be coming. I hit the deck as the cauldron more or less exploded. The lights were pretty, but that really didn’t make up for the fact that the noise might as well have blown out my eardrums. That probably would have been less painful.

Slowly, I raised my head out of its hoof and wing protection, looking at what had happened. Sadly, my ability to observe was rather limited. Anything the potion might have done was obscured by one of its effects. The glass wall was now bright, neon orange. The lack of any screaming, or even sound, from the other side was not very reassuring to me, but I took a breath, not even thinking about panicking. Panicking in an alchemy lab could get ponies killed. My professors that some nice horror stories to drive that little point home.

I began to search around the glass for some kind of door or hatch to use to get out of it and check on Sapphire. It took a couple of minutes, by I eventually found it. Without the orange paint… dye…whatever it was, I never would have even hoped to find it, so flush was the glass door to the wall. Such minimal refraction at the seam made me curious, but I had more important things to worry about right now. Namely, if my boss just get herself killed by a potion right in front of me.

I opened the door slowly and cautiously, only to find Sapphire right there, about to open the door, looking a little disgruntled. I didn’t blame her. Getting a lab absolutely soaked in any substance was a pain in the flank. The cleanup took forever and you still ended up finding the stuff around for weeks more. “Doctor Mystic Sapphire?” I asked. “I’m Sky Runner.” I gave her what I hoped was a friendly smile as I worked to hide my trepidation.

“Hello, Sky.” Sapphire greeted professionally, despite the painfully orange lab behind her. “Found my lab alright?” I nodded to her. Truthfully, it was the wing of the school that had been hard to find, not the lab once I made it that far. “I’d make an offer for you to come in, but I’m not entirely sure that’s a good idea right now.”

“If you don’t mind me asking, what were you trying to do?” I asked curiously, wondering what she could have been trying to do to end up with such spectacular results. Then again, anything involving poison joak tended to have spectacular results if it was so much as looked at funny.

“Honestly? I was trying to replicate my mother’s tie-dye serum. It has some really amazing results if you make it right. And yes, before you ask, these stripes are authentic,” she finished in a tone that bespoke of having to answer that question many, many times before, before adding, “You want to go grab a coffee and we can get properly acquainted before I have to clean up this mess?”

I nodded. “Sure thing. Maybe I can get to know what I’ll be doing now that I work for you,” I said with a smile.

Sapphire nodded. “I can answer any questions, and I’ll have a few for you. Just one thing before we go, though.” I backed up to let her step into the little bubble shield beyond the external door, and she closed the door to the bubble and led the way outside the lab. Once there, she quickly banished the doorbell parchment and summoned a new one, writing on it, “Out for a coffee. Entering the lab is an extremely bad idea right now, even if you’re authorized. Will be back in a bit. Doctor Sapphire.”

With that, she turned back to me. “Alright, let’s go. There’s a Moose Hortons nearby,” she informed me with a smile, before leading the way. I followed behind, already thinking that this would most definitely be a very eventful job…

The New Assistant Part 2 [OC] [Comedy]

Going out for coffee with Mystic was not nearly so interesting as the five minutes in her lab had been, Then again, I wasn’t sure that was an entirely fair assessment, considering what had happened in those first five minutes. I don’t think much could be as interesting as, and definitely not more interesting than a lab exploding into orange.

We went to the local Moose Horton’s, and I ordered a trio of donuts and a tea. She ordered an extra-large, extra-black coffee. I didn’t even want to know how a pony was supposed to make a coffee ‘extra black’. It was probably one of those things that mortal minds best not ponder.

“Have you been in Canterlot for long?” Mystic asked me, smiling curiously across our table.

“Just got in last night,” I answered easily.

Mystic raised an eyebrow. “You didn’t take any time before to get yourself set up in the city?” she asked curiously.

I shrugged. I hadn’t really seen the need. I’d have time on the weekends. “No. there’s no need for me to. It’s just setting up my apartment, really, and I don’t have much I need or want right away,” I explained. “I’m not a high maintenance pony.”

Mystic frowned, but didn’t say anything, simply seeming to accept it. I was glad. I didn’t really want to explain why I needed so little time. I didn’t really have a whole lot, and hadn’t felt the need for it. A cloud bed and an alchemy set was all I really needed to keep happy.

“I can accept that,” Mystic said, her thoughtful frown turning into a smile. “It’s nice to meet a pony that doesn’t have the same need for status and stuff as most of Canterlot seems to have.”

I smiled in return, glad she’d let it go. “Um… if you don’t mind me asking, why are you taking on an assistant? You’ve been one of the top researchers in Canterlot without one, and using primarily your grad students, why are you taking on an assistant now of all times?”

The mare smiled. It was the sort of smile I really didn’t like. It normally came before a big reveal of some sort of project that was going to put me through some kind of trial. More than likely severely bruising to an alchemist’s ego and sometimes dignity. At the same time, I couldn’t help but return the smile. Those kinds of projects were almost always exciting, and usually either failed miserably or succeeded gloriously.

“Why, we’re going to be creating Liquid Emotions,” she said with a far-too-wide grin.

I snorted, raising an eyebrow. “You kidding?” I asked. Her grin remained in place. For a long moment I just looked at her, before my own smile twitched. “You’re crazy. And I’m crazy for going along with this, but it’s too good a possibility to resist,” I stated, already excited. This was going to do one of two things… I just hoped it was the glorious success.

Going back to the lab unfortunately meant clean up. The orange dye was easy enough to clean off all the surfaces, though my lack of magic forced me to use my wings, and that unfortunately ended up with me having about the first foot or so of my left wing brightly tie-dyed. Without a single elastic or string being used.

It was honestly kind of cool. Unfortunately, Mystic had no clue how long it would take to wash out or if I’d have to wait until I molted those feathers. I really, really hoped it wasn’t the latter. Have a foot of tie-dyed feathers would just be plain weird to deal with.

Once the lab was clean, however, Mystic started showing me around, showing me where to find everything, and letting me know about the various storage regulations for some of the ingredients and solutions. For some odd reason, it looked like Arcanex, a rather dangerous magical potion and drug in the wrong hooves, didn’t seem to quite meet all the regulations required of similar potions.

I figured it best to talk to Mystic about that later, however, since the rest of the stuff was so meticulously packed and stored. There might be a reason for it, though I couldn’t think of it off the top of my head. I figured it might be better just to talk to her in case of some kind of a misunderstanding.

The lab itself was fairly standard for an alchemy lab. There was about a half dozen work tables in the centre of the room, each one octagonal with a sink in one corner of them and plenty of workspace for beakers, flasks, burners, and various other alchemical tools. There was also a space at the front of the room for anything bigger that might be required for experiments of various types. Such as the big cauldron that Mystic had been using earlier.

I smiled as I looked around. I was a research assistant to a highly respected alchemical researcher and my first project with her was going to be something supposedly impossible. This would be awesome, I could feel it.

I walked over to the station Mystic had said would be mine for any side projects I wanted to run. I was surprised she was giving me that kind of freedom. I’d have expected her to keep a tight eye, and leash, on me for at least the first few months. That I was getting that kind of freedom already was amazing. I’d had a few things in mind that I’d really been wanting to try out for a while. Number one was just how effective it was to infuse Pegasus magic in various things.

These experiments would take a little while to set up, however, as it required materials I didn’t have ready access to outside of a lab. Not legally, anyway.

“Oh hey, there’s some left!” Mystic said happily. The one place we hadn’t really done much to was the cauldron, and that was what she was currently looking into. I walked over and looked down into it just in time for her to grab a beaker and dip it into the left over potion.

Unfortunately it seemed that the potion reacted to contact with magical auras. The stuff in the bottom of the cauldron exploded. I felt it spatter all over my muzzle, face and mane. I turned to look at Mystic, deadpan to see she’d just gotten the same treatment. She wore a slightly sheepish grin on her face.

I sighed, already seeing my employment under her would be interesting to say the least, and that wasn’t including the project she was about to undertake. I walked over to the sink and began to rinse the dye off my face. “I’m not going to look in the mirror. It will end badly,” I informed her as I began.

“Well, look on the bright side, it’ll make for a great story,” Mystic suggested, rinsing herself at another one of the workstations. I really couldn’t deny that.

I turned to see just what she looked like after the rinse down and snorted. I tried to hold it back, but in a couple of seconds, I burst into laughter. Mystic Sapphire was now, from the neck up on the front side of her head, a wonderful combination of orange, blue, and yellow tie-dye, to compliment her normal stripes of green on the rest of her. It was actually pretty hilarious to see.

“Don’t go laughing, Sky. You sure don’t look any better,” she informed me with a teasing smile of her own.

“Oh, but I’m not going to look into the mirror until tonight, so I’m going to be just fine,” I informed her cheerfully. She gave me a look, but didn’t continue the argument.

I smiled smugly as I went back to looking around my workstation, and getting familiar with the lab while I waited for her to give me my first real duty. I refused to go near the cauldron again. But somehow I knew, no matter how careful I was, interesting would be the absolute mildest way I would be able to describe my new position. Probably in a very short time.

And somehow, I was just fine with that.

Sweetie and Rumble Clean Up a Stable [Sweetie Belle / Rumble] {Sex}

There was few places in Manehattan more repulsive than the stables of the Red Light District. Unfortunately for up and coming singer Sweetie Bell and her friend, Rumble, that was exactly where they found themselves, doing the daily cleanup of the Domination-Submission rooms, the worst of the worst jobs there was there.

They weren’t all that hard to do, as most of that involved topping the toys and harnesses into a laundry shoot, and running them through an exceptionally large washing machine. While it wasn’t so much the cleaning itself that was nasty, as Sweetie’s magic and tongs in Rumble’s wings prevented direct contact, there was the knowledge of the kinks of anonymous members of the rich and famous of Manehattan.

Sweetie shuddered as she picked up a particularly oddly shaped piece of long floppy rubber. “That’s nasty,” she complained, tossing it into the bucket they were using. The chutes weren’t in the rooms themselves, sadly, so the two twenty-year-olds were stuck loading the stuff into a bucket and taking it to the end of the hall where the chute WAS located.

“Well, look on the bright side. At least nothing double ended was used in the stallion only rooms,” her companion noted with a shudder. Sweetie gave a disgusted squeak and flung what was in her magic at him for that comment. They’d already finished those rooms, thank Luna, but he could easily have jinxed them if they hadn’t!

The large ball gag smacked him on the nose, eliciting a jump and deadpan at the mare as he picked the gag up with the tongs and tossed it into the bucket. “Really?” he asked her deadpan. “You really want to start this?” He picked up something beside him, and then proceeded to brandish it at Sweetie. The riding crop caused them both to blink, before they burst into laughter at the ridiculousness of the device. He tossed it into the bucket, shaking his head, before jumping back as something whistled by his head and into the bucket. He blinked at the oddly shaped… thing he couldn’t put a name or use to—thankfully—before turning to look at Sweetie once more.

She grinned innocently at him, before sticking he tongue out. He took a step forward, raising a single eyebrow at her. “Oh?” he asked her. “You really want to?” he asked her challengingly.

“Maybe,” she giggled, her horn lighting up. There was no warning before a set of—thankfully clean—straps shot out from the closet and bound Rumble up. The hooks on them shot up and in far less time than the poor stallion could react, he was hanging from the roof, unable to use his wings to free himself, and his hooves bound together. The tethers were long and loose, but he’d never manage to lift them in a way to release himself. Sweetie grinned at the suspended colt.

He looked back at her nervously. “Come on Sweetie, are you sure this is a good idea?”

“Come on, this is the last room we have left to do,” she said softly, enticingly, as she licked her lips. “We’re practically done. As long as we clean up after ourselves, we’re the last ones in the building,” she whispered, approaching him slowly, putting plenty of sway into her hips. Sway that quickly captured and kept Rumble’s attention as she put a little extra wave in her tail.

He licked his lips, which had suddenly become exceptionally dry… “Are… are you sure we’re the last ones here? Nopony will walk in on us?” he asked, his tone high pitched and nervous, though at the same time, he was quite clearly unable to look away from the mare that was now right in front of him.

She leaned forwards and captured his lips in a kiss. A kiss that was all too short, as Sweetie pulled back before she had done much more than teased him. “I’m positive,” she purred. “This is all cleaned up and we can just put our stuff through with the last load, right?” she said to him, running her muzzle down Rumble’s neck and shoulder, eliciting a shuddering gasp from the stallion.

“Right,” Rumble finally managed. “Yeah, we’ll just clean up after.”

Sweetie giggled. “Glad you agree,” she said, slipping beneath the stallion after shooting one more impish smile at him.

And then they banged.