Fire and Ice

When I woke up I had the worst headache imaginable. It was worth it though. For the first time in a week I actually slept through the night. I just tried to ignore the dark pockets underneath my eyes. I slowly rubbed my eyes while sitting up. Despite having a nightmare free sleep, I also had a dreamless and didn't feel rested. Still thought, anything was worth not remembering that night. Slowly getting dresses i thought back to last night. We all met by the school and went to our usual hangout spot, a old mansion in the woods. It was owned by Queen Chrysalis who had property everywhere. So we were technically allowed to use it whenever we wanted. The place was pretty damn nice. It had a guest house, big porch, hammock, balcony, garage, green house, four stories, somewhere between twenty and thirty rooms, a flag pole with the Changling Flag on it, a Jacuzzi, and a wet bar. The last two didn't work because of no electricity, but it was the principle of the thing.

However on the way over there we came across a small pack of kids who were trashing our queens houses land. Needless to say that they were there looking for something since they had were tearing through bushes and such. What's more was that they looked more suprised to see us than we were. I mean come on! We strung ebony wolf amulets all over the place. Now we gave those kids a good thrashing when we smelled her.

She was alone in a clearing about a quarter mile to the west. My blood went cold when I realised what those kids were looking for. I might have went after them again, but we were already halfway there. "We need better warning signs," I grumbled while we were making a beeline for her.

"Dogs?" Claire offered.

"We're not dog killers," I replied.

"Wolves then," Claire said.

"That's so savage, I like it," I said while grinning.

Pretty soon we came to a clearing where we knew she was coming. "Who wants to bet on when she comes?" Claire asked.

'Too late to score some cash because I can smell her now," I replied. We all lifted our heads an took in a deep breath. She smelled nice like sweet summer nights full of smokey bonfires.

While standing just outside the clearing we watched Sunset Shimmer walk into it. This time she seemed different than when I first saw her outside the bus station. She no longer walked with swagger like Midnight. In fact Andrew reminded me of my fostor siblings more than she did. And Andrew acted like those crusader freshman.

She walked halfway to the clearing holding two bottles of some clear stuff. One was a large gallon glad bottle while the other one was a liter sized. "Wonder what those are," Claire asked. Sunset Shimmer finished one of the bottles when she fell to her knees and began to throw up. "That answers that," Claire said.

"How long until she notices us?" Ben asked.

"Let's find out," I said while pulling my hood up. After she finished throwing up she started to notice our ebony carved necklaces hung from the branches. And she still didn't notice us on the other side of the clearing. The look on her face was fear as she slowly took in the realization of where she was. And that's when she noticed us. Claire and I smiled from under our hoods. I knew that Sunset didn't know if we just got there or were watching the whole time, only that we were there now.

Claire walked up a little bit and said in the changling tounge "Took her long enough," to me. Then she turned towards Ben. "Wondered if she would ever catch on," Clair finished. We all grinned. Now I saw the bottle and I knew everyone else had the same idea. I let out a whistle and we all began to run towards her. Sunset' s face flashed with fear as she fell down. It was amusing, but I wondered why she was scared.

After several seconds I was back at the head of the crew and we formed a semi circle around her. Sunset Shimmer opened her mouth as if to say something. I waited patiently for a couple of seconds before I just went ahead and took the alcohol from her while falling to my knees. Quickly, but gently I grabbed the bottle and took off the lid and winked at her while I took a long drink of the sharpie tasting liquid. I took a nice long drink before handing it to my crew who finished it. When we finished we all stood up and began walking away. Was the world supposed to be swaying?

"Your not going to do anything to me?" Sunset asked. I saw Claire tense up in suprise ahead of me then keep walking. The rest of them weren't even sober enough to react. I turned around suprised. Did she not remember how we buried the hatchet earlier?

"Our score was settled a while ago. Not it would be useless going after you since you wouldn't do anything back," I replied.

"You do to everyone else,"Sunset pointed out. I grinned while walking away. 'That's because your different than them.' I thought.

Monday morning

Now as I walked into the lunchroom I was actually suprised to see Ben and Andrew there. "Your sure up early," I said. It was half past seven and they normally showed up to class with seconds to spare. "Feeling up to a new challege," Ben replied while yawning. Andrew almost choked on his orange juice.

"No your not, you just want to catch a glimpse of Rarity," Andrew said. Ben's face paled until he was a white as Rarity. Seeing that Andrew and I burst out laughing. At least until Ben socked us in the arms. Then we laughed even harder while holding our arms.

"Whats so funny?" Pinkie Pie asked while rolling up with Rarity. Ben's turned to us with a pleading look.

"Just a joke," I said while my laughter died down. Suddenly Pinkie Pie was there in front of me while holding me face close to hers. Ben, Andrew, and even Rarity jumped back in suprise while I choked on my biscuit.

"A Joke? I love jokes! Tell me! Tell me! Tell me!" PinkiePie screeched while pulling me even closer.

"Okay I'll tell you, just let me go," I said while shaking myself free. Ben and Andrew shot me worried glances. It was a unspoken agreement among us not to let Rarity know about his crush on her. And now me winging it was more crucial than ever. "In a men's locker room a guy's phone rang so he out it on speaker. Every other guy stopped to listen in on them. "Hey honey, I wanted to ask you if I could get that 2000$ leather coat we saw the other day?" She asked. "If that's what you want go ahead," he replied. "Good and the car dealership has the model that I want for 90,000$ could I please get it?" She asked her husband. "For that price I want everything included." He replied. "Thanks, and that house I wanted last year is back on the market for only 980,000$ could I please get it?" She begged. "Make a deal for 900,000$ if they won't take it we can stretch the last 80,000 if that's what you really want." He said then hung up. He turned towards the rest of the guys who were staring at him in surprise with their mouths hanging open and he asked. "Anybody know who's phone that was?"

Everyone at the table did nothing in a moment of silence before they burst out laughing. All except Pinkie who was judging the content of the joke. "Eh, I've heard better," Pinkie Pie replied. We all went silent in shock. Before I could say anything else she took out her packed breakfast which was primarily cupcakes. Man, I wasn't sure how she did it because I had a stomach ache just watching her eat.

After another couple of minutes Rainbow Dash walked up with Sunset Shimmer and sat down. The rainbow squad became really comfortable with us by now, but Sunset Shimmer sat down little nervously. Andrew glanced at Ben who was busy talking to Rarity, then to me. And I was chewing on my last biscuit.

"So can any of you guys make it to the book store with me?" I asked. We planned this week's ago and no one ever said if they were really going or not and I had to know.

"I'm so sorry darling, but I just got a large order for a wedding and I have to work overtime." Rarity said.

"Basket ball practice," Rainbow Dash said. Andrew began to laugh hardly earningwierd looks from the rest of us.

"Why even bother? Your not even that good," Andrew sneered. Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes.

"Want to put some money on that kid?" She asked. Andrew turned to me.

"Sorry, but I have a gameto win," he said.

"I have been hired to throw a party for a group of kids in sea greenish black clothes." Pinkie Pie explained.

" I have been blackmailed into 2 her," Ben grumpled.

"When?" I asked.

"Several seconds ago," Ben said.

"what about Claire, Beth, Applejack, or Fluttershy?" Rarity asked.

"Claire handles the paperwork or our changling presence here with the people up top. Applejack has to harvest apples at the farm, and Fluttershy has gotten a lot more animals to take care of at the shelter" I explained.

"I can go," A voice said shyly. We all turned and saw that it was Sunset Shimmer. She smiled then looked away nervously. I opened my mouth ready to thank her for helping me when a bitter voice said from my right.

"Sorry, but why would he want to go with you?" Andrew sneered then laughed. Sunset Shimmer looked down sadly. Neither Ben nor I gave our usual sadistic laughter, rage boiled inside of my for two reasons. First off I didn't like bullies. Not when they can't fight back. Second even Claire couldn't speak for me. Lastly, was Andrew forgetting his place in the crew. It was either me or Claire who picked the targets, not him.

"Shut the f*** up you little s***," I growled. Andrew stopped laughing immediately and gave me a defiant glare.

"We roast other people? Why stop now?" He growled. Ben almost fell off his chair in suprise. He was the third toughest of the group just under Rainbow Dash. A nd he wouldn't dare talk to me or Claire like that.

"Because I pick who to roast or not!" I growled angrily. Just then Claire and Beth decided to how up along with Applejack and Fluttershy. I wasn't sure how much they heard, but even if I couldn't smell the suprise in their scents I would have been able to tell by their facial expressions that they were as suprised at Andrews attitude as Ben was.

Ben and I gave each other death stares at each other while Ben, Beth, and Claire looked back and forth between us with curious glances. The rainbow squad however was at a roadblock in what to do.

"Should we do something?" Pinkie Pie whispered.

"Nothing we can do, it's a changling thing about the chain of command," Rainbow Dash said.

"I hate to admit it, but Dash is right. And I know y'all don't want to get into another brawl with the changlings since they would stop us from interfering." Applejack said.

"I don't like fighting," Fluttershy mumbled.

Suddenly Andrew's face changed from defiance to fear and his eyes cast downward. Little punk must have remembered how small he was compared to me. Not that It would matter if he yielded. This little duel for power was only ending one way when he lashed out at me. I rose rather quickly while Andrew paled while falling backwards in fear. Ben, Beth, and Claire all sat up straighter in anticipation. Before I could tear into the small freshman I felt a hand on my arm. "Couldn't you let him off with a warning?" A soft voice asked. I turned actually suprised one of them would risk my crew's wrath for Andrew. I was even more suprised when I saw it was Sunset Shimmer.

To my right I saw out of the corner of my eye Beth starting to close in with a clear intention on her mind. Across from me I saw Applejack and Rainbow Dash begin to rise from their seats. 'S***' I thought while coming to a crossroads. Let Beth pound the crap out of this fiery beauty while I rearranged Andrews face and let both groups of my friends have a free for all or-

I wedged myself between Sunset and Beth much to the suprise of both groups. "What are you doing?" Claire asked in the changling tounge more curious than irratated.

"She's from another world, let her have some freebies from time to time," I replied in the changling tounge. The rainbow squad looked at us in confused expressions, but they got the jist of it from what we were doing.

"Why can't I bust her up?" Beth asked angrily.

"Because we said so," Claire sneered. Beth looked even more pissed off.

"This isn't right, she us a outsider. We don't let them interfere in our affairs," Beth growled.

"Is that a challenge?" Claire growled. Beth paled and tensed up in fear at those words. "Sunset could save Andrew from Phoenix, but she can't stop me from wrecking your punk a**." Claire growled. Beth backed off after that.

Andrew seemed to relax which made Claire and I grin at each other. "Your not off the hook just because I'm not rearranging your face," I growled. Ben and Claire joined in on my sadistic laugh.

The warning bell conveniently rang at that time. "Time to go," I said while shoving Andrew to the side hard. Claire and Ben both shouldered him on the way out.

After my first period I left the weight room. It was a good strong workout that day. "Great, now science class. Osmosis notes again," I grumbled.

"What's that?" Ben asked.

"How cells take in nutrients," I answered. Ben's face fflashed in suprise.

"Wait, I thought cells were nutrients," Ben spat out in astonishment. Claire and I facepalmed ourselves. We didn't even explain it to him. We just walked off. "What, what did I say?" He asked us while we disappeared down the hall.

Halfway to my second period Claire broke off to her own class. So whem I got to my second class of science. I was alone. I took my usual seat towards the back of the room on the side of the door.

While I waited for class to start Sunset Shimmer walked in and took her usual seat across the room. People still insulted her. The next to walk in was a tall beefy guy in a white t-shirt and gray pants. He had medium length brown hair and was flanked by two lackeys. The first one was a crooked tooth ginger with a solid body build and the other was a blonde guy with a athletic body build. I instantly recognized them as the ones who were tearin into the manors lawn the previous night. Suddenly the tall beefy guy spotted Sunset Shimmer and gave a evil grin while he began to walk towards her. Blondie nudged ginger and they both began to smirk. It didn't take a genius to know what was going on in his head.

In one graceful motion I rose from my seat and took the seat next to Sunset Shimmer who looked as suprised as beefy boy. "You're in my seat," he growled.

"Find another," I replied while getting myself comfortable.

"Get out of my seat before I rearrange your face," Beefy growled.

"Good luck trying," I growled while stand in up. Beefy's school I.D. read Alex. Alex let out a smooth whistle and Blondie and ginger flanked him. Their school I.D's read James and Sebastian. The only threat of them was James. He was as a inch shorter than me, but he had just as much muscle. Alex and Sebastian both could have been prominent threats with all that muscle, but only if they quit smoking. I was able to smell the nicotine on them and saw their yellow teeth when they grinned. James however was a athlete all around.

"Three against one? Doesn't seem like a fair fight," I growled. Alex smiled like he won a brawl against a whole branch of changlings.

"So walk away," Alex said. I caught him sneaking a glance behind me.

"I meant it's not a fair fight for you," I said calmly while reaching behind my back. Nothing was there, but they didn't know that. My bluff worked because Alex and Sebastian both looked very nervous while James seemed on edge.

"I'll catch you later,"Alex growled while taking a seat across the room. James and Sebastian followed like the little lackeys they were.

"Thanks," Sunset Shimmer said.

"Anytime," I replied while pulling out my notes. Needless to say, I needed organization. I let out a groan of annoyance. This was annoying and I was still hung over.

"Here let me help you," Sunset Shimmer said while grabbing a few of my notes.

"Thanks," I replied.

After science was over we had lunch. It was then that I offered to walk her to the lunchroom. Alex, James, and Sebastian kept their distance, but everyone else kept on giving me confused looks. I knew that Sunset Shimmer was nervous, but I just kept walking with swagger. Soon after we came to the lunchroom. Applejack and Rarity were already sitting at our usual table.

"What's up partner?" Applejack asked.

"Still trying to pass science," I answered.

"Dont worry about that, you've been studying since school started," Rarity assured me. Next Claire and Ben walked up.

"So many things to do today," Claire huffed while Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie walked up.

"Like what?" I asked.

"Were cleaning the manor remember?" Claire asked. I facepalmed myself.

"Of course, were supposed to move in their sometime this week," I grumbled.

"If y'all want, we can help you if you want." Applejack offered. Ben, Claire, and I turned to each other in a silent debate. Claire looked at me with a wondering look. I shrugged my shoulders. She could decide this one.

"That would be awsome," Claire said.

"That's awsome, so where we meeting at?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"On, just follow the road put of town on the west side about three miles. Soon you'll come to a road with the sign that reads Chrysalis Manor." Ben explained. The rainbow squad all nodded knowingly. Beth and Andrew sat down on the end of the table.

"Alright time to go," I said while looking at the time.

After school ended we all gathered at the side of the school. This was how we didnit. Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash would go with Beth, Andrew, and Claire
Since we normally walked straight through the woodswe never used cars. The rainbow squad however did use cars and now we needed to direct them by the road. Ben, Rarity, and Applejack would go to Apple acres to grab a few things that Applejack said would help us.

Sunset Shimmer and I were making a quick stop to the store for food. After school we left for the store while I carried a duffel bag. "This is kind of exciting," I admitted.

"What's exciting?" Sunset Shimmer asked while we walked into the store.

"Moving into Chrysalis manor. Something about living in a mansion is pretty thrilling." I said. Sunset Shimmer smiled at me with her warm smile and we walked inside.

The first thing we did when we went inside was grab a few cases of soda After that we grabbed hot dogs, marshmallows, gramcrackers, chocolate, hot dog buns,a zippo, and a box of cupcakes for Pinkie.

"Why grab cupcakes?" Sunset Shimmer asked.

"Its the friendly thing to do," I explained while we walked outside. I waited until we pasted the security sensors before I put the food into my duffel. As soon as I did, I regretted grabbing so much stuff. It wasn't that I couldn't lift it. The problem was that it was really heavy and we had a four mile hike to do.

"So how long have you known Ben and Claire?" Sunset asked after a mile. By then my shoulders and arms were on fire and I needed a distraction.

"Ben for a month now, and Claire about years now," I said.

"Really? I would have thought you known Ben longer," Sunset Shimmer said.

"That was wierd how he fit in with Claire and me," I admitted.

"So how did you meet Claire?" Sunset asked.

"When I was old enough I wanted to go drifting like the older changlings. Most other changlings started drifting around fourteen and I was no different and neither was Claire. My siblings Corvis and Solstice started a year before and Midnight started two years earlier. I myself was insistent about touring towards the west before shooting up north to finally see the hive. My siblings were already at the hive with the exception of Midnight. He was going to go on a circuit with a dozen other changlings. I can't remember why, but he seemed more comfortable with those guys than he was with my group." I said.

"What? Why? Your his brother right?" Sunset asked.

"Dont really know, anyways he went down south and was taking a nice vacation through that area with his squad. My group was fourteen strong with all of us being from twelve to fifteen years old and Claire was with us. Only Claire and like three of us ever went drifting before so Midnight drew us a map with a series of routes to follow. In the end he showed us which routes were safe and told us it would be a bad idea to drift off these paths. And so we followed the paths. We were able to have a little adventure choosing which paths to take, but after only three days it became apparent that scores of changlings took these paths and we were on a changling drifting highway. We must have ran into at least a dozen other squads in the three days. That's when we all did a group vote and voted to go off route. It wasn't like we were going to war or anything. Lots of squads did it. Midnight himself wasn't going on the safe paths. In fact he was on a whole different circuit." I said.

"So what happened next?" Sunset asked me.

I stayed just outside of the light in the building. Next to me Claire watched as several Umbrum took over the field just outside. Back then she was shorter and not as pretty. The rest of or group were sleeping. "I don't think they know were here," I said.

"We should have listened Midnight," Claire said.

"Its alright, tomorrow we curve north and head to Manhattan and the hive," I said.

The umbrum below us worked with no organisation whatsoever. And in the moonlight i could see that they were pretty primitive. We wielded knives, but so did they. At least i didn't spot any guns. Those clubs and bats looked like they could hurt though. As the night waned on I counted around thirty of them.

"Midnight was right," I muttered.

After that we talked about other things. Much to my relief. We talked about Canderlot, science, chemistry, and arts. When we talked about chemistry i mainly just nodded my head and acted like i knew what she was saying. Eventually we came to Chrysalis manor. Like I suspected Claire was leaning against the porch eating an apple. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were piling up wood while Pinkie Pie giving verbal support to Beth and Andrew who were renovating the fire pit that we regularly used.

"Applejack and them get here yet?" I called.

"Not yet," Claire called.

"While we're waiting should we at least see inside now?" I asked. Claire shrugged and walked to the door. In the weeks we hung around here we never went inside. Never needed to. Now that we were moving in we just had to. "So why are you moving in?" Rainbow Dash asked us from across the yard.

"We could stay at one place for weeks at a time, but to live in one of our aueens estates. We need her permission. She almost always let her subjects live in her eststes, but it's the principle of the thing." I explained while Claire grabbed a key from under the welcome mat.

"You two want to see inside?" I called to Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy.

"Well yeah!" Rainbow Dash replied while half dragging Fluttershy after her. Beth and Andrew kept working.

"Want to see inside?" I asked Sunset Shimmer. She nodded with a bit of excitement in her eyes. Grinning I grabbed her hand much to the suprise of us both. I led her to the door and immediately let it drop and I hid my blush by pulling up my hood. As soon as the door opened we all rushed inside only to stop at the entry hall.

In the front hall was a grand staircase leading to the upper levels. It was pretty dark besides what light came through the windows. It was a good thing Claire and I came prepared with flashlights. The rest of the gang had to stick by us though. "Pinkie! Come on!" I called to Pinkie. She zoomed right next to us as we made our way into the manor. "First floor first," I said.

"Come on, I want to show you something," Claire said.

"Wait what?" I asked.

"I lived here for a few summers before." She said while leading us deeper into the mansion.

I shrugged and followed. Claire took us through a series of hallways until we came to a room isolated from the rest. When she opened it we all gasped in suprise. Inside the room the walls had neatly organized weapons, and weapon racks. All of them were filled with knives and short swords.

"You guys have a armory?" Sunset Shimmer asked.

"All these blades and no guns?" Rainbow Dash asked suprised.

"Changlings have to earn the right to hold a gun. Same goes for the Umbrum, but they're a lot stricter than we are with them," Claire said.

"How do you do that?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"By doing something really hard that many people can't do," I said.

"You know. Saving a life, carrying out a one man mission in Umbrum territory, killing a royal guard," Claire said.

"Hey just imagine what Queen Chrysalis will do for the changling who takes out the guy Shining Armor," I said.

"Jeez, might be promoted to the high tier guys. And they don't have to do anything." She replied. I would have went on, but the rainbow squad were getting a little scared.

The rest of the rooms went by rather quickly. We saw the ball room, kitchens, dining room, livingroom that had a side bar, and a Jacuzzi, and the rooms were all large ones with king sized beds. The library was all filled with new books that never been used and were covered in dust,

"Hey Phoenix look at this," Sunset Shimmer and Rainbow Dash said while Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie were in a particular room that Claire liked. While I walked to the other two in the hallway on the second floor I overheard the four in Claire'sroom talking about redecorating it.

"What's up?" I asked when I got to them.

"Isnt this your fostor brother?" Dash asked pointing to one of the pictures on the wall.

"Probably not, why would he come through here?" Unasked while shining my light on the photos. To my suprise she was right. In the photo was Midnight with a slender girl that had raven black hair and sea greenish black eyes. He had his arm around her neck like she was his best friend. In his other arm was a petite girl with sea greenish black hair and artic blue eyes. She was an inch shorter than the other girl who was at least three shorter than Midnight. I knew the photo was old because Midnight looked around fourteen years old. "Midnight was here?" I asked no one in particular.

"There's more over here," Dash called from a little down the hall. Much to my suprise I saw that quite a few changlings lived here before. There was several pictures of changlings living here. All had one thing in clmmon. All of them had the look of glee in their eyes. Now I wondered if they were also grew to be cold, mean, and cruel like Midnight did. Judging form Claire I knew my estimate wasn't far off.

There was dozens of photos on the walls and one group shot of a few dozen changlings all clustered in groups of who was close to who. Midnight was almost always seen with those two girls. 'When were these taken?' I wondered. Suddenly it came to me. It was around a year before that night. Solstice went drifting on the west coast and Corvis went with her. They tried getting me to come with them, but I declined. Midnight was heading north east for the summer and he tried getting me to go with him. I always thought he went drifting, but now I knew I was wrong. I remembered him bac then. He was gentle, kind, and wise. Now he was violent and unpredictable.

"Hey Dash! Come here real quick," Rarity called. Rainbow Dash walked towards Claire's room leaving Sunset and me alone.

"Wonder what's up there," I said while shining my light up some stairs.

"Attic maybe," Sunset offered.

"Could be, we're already on the third floor," I said while walking up them. Behind me Sunset Shimmer followed. Turns out the third floor was a suite with a kin sized bed that had curtains. There was a coffee table, two couches, a fifty two inch flat screen(nice) a walk in closet, delux bathroom, and it was still roomy.

"Its like a mine apartment up here," Sunset Shimmer said.

"I call dibs, just need to get a few generators up here so that tv can be used," I said while pointing to the blank screen. Sunset smiled warmly at me. And we locked eyes.

The whole room seemed to fade while we stared at each other. It could have been a minute or a hour, I wouldn't have been able to tell the difference anyways. We probably would have kept staring at each other. but that's when Pinkie called out. "Applejack and the others are here!" She yelled from downstairs.

Outside Ben and Big Mac were unloading a lawnmower and garbage bags. "Aww this shouldn't be too hard, those trees might need to go though," Applejack said while gazing at two rotten looking trees hanging over the driveway.

They brought with them everything we needed to fix the place up. From their lawnmower, weed wacker, shovels, axes, and seeds.

In total their was twelve of us working. Claire, Ben, Beth, Andrew, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Sunset Shimmer, Applejack, Big Mac, and Me.

I sent Beth and Andrew to pick up all the rocks and wood from the massive yard so they wouldn't break Applejack and Big Macs lawnmower. Claire decided to cut all the wild shrubs down with her machete. It was her favourite weapon.

Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie put on cleaning outfits and volunteered to start inside. Applejack decided to unload the lawn mover as well as till the soil or seeds. Big Mac got back into his pickup and left. Applejack told us he was bringing saplings.

Ben and I decided to cut down the trees and any others that made the place look wild. Sunset Shimmer and Rarity were dead set on helping Beth and Andrew clear the yard.

"Alright, let's do this," Ben said while driving his axe in. I did the same. To my suprise, I found that I actually liked it. While we were chopping the trees Ben suddenly tensed up and began chopping really hard and fast. At first I was confused until I heard Rarity and Sunset Shimmer laugh at a joke. That's when I tensed up too. Just how long was Sunset Shimmer standing there?

I immediately began muscling the axe faster and harder.

After several hours we finished chopping down the trees in the yard. Beth, Andrew, Rarity, and Sunset Shimmer cleared the yard while Applejack began mowing it. Beth and Andrew turned the fire pit into a resort one. When I saw that Claire and I decided to forgive them of their deeds earlier.

"Need any help?" I called to Applejack.

"Naw, I got this," Applejack called back. She was actually making good time. While Ben and I finished dragging the trees to the wood pile we leaned on the wall while Big Mac rolled up. True to her word he came back with a bunch of apple tree saplings.

The rest of us quickly went to work plantin them while Big Mac once again amazed me. He went to the tilled soil and planted the seeds they planted. Then he went and grabbed a fire axe and cut the trees we dragged to the firewood pile and cut them down to fire logs in about two minutes. Either he was the best ranch hand there was or I was going crazy. And seeing how I saw a talking dog the crazy thing didn't sound far off.

Around the time we finished planting Applejack finished mowing the lawn. Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie walked out of the manor all filthy looking. Or at least Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash did. Pinkie looked completely clean and overly exciting.

"We finished it!" She shrieked in joy.

"You finished the WHOLE manor?" Ben asked.

"She did, we did like two rooms and she was done," Rainbow Dash said pointing a thumb at her.

We all looked at Pinkie Pie who just smiled at us. Suddenly fro behind me I heard a spark and a slight glow of orange. Spinning on my heels I saw Andrew grinning a Pinkie Pie sized smile.

Immediately we all crowded around the fire while digging out the food. "Hey y'all, we brought some apple cider."Applejack said causing most of us to cheer.

"Is it twin cider? " Claire asked.

"Even better," Applejack said. The rest of the changlings scoffed.

"I doubt it," Claire said.

"You know Phoenix here and his brother Midnight said something very similar," Applejack said. Claire spun on her heels and looked at me astonished.

"Midnight was here? When?" She asked.

"Towards the end of summer," I replied.

"That can't be right, he was following those three girls who sang like angels," Claire said.

"He was only here briefly," I said back.

After that they tried the Apple cider and loved it. We all twelve of us sprawled around the bonfire and ate, drank, and joked around. After several hours I realized for the first time in months I was genuinely happy. I could tell my crew was too. Life as a changling was hard. Only Claire kept closed up to the rainbow squad. Or Rainbooms. Rainbow Dash decided to start a band with them.

Was this how it felt to have actual friends? Already these girls were better friends than my best friend Forrest. It wasn't his fault though. He went drifting as much as my siblings. It was when he came back that showed true friendship since we weren't even related.

We stayed at the bonfire eating and just chilling out. Maybe if I turned around or listened to my gut I might have saw the changling on the other side of the yard. He was tall, had emerald green eyes, slim, but muscular, he was wearing a black balaclava hat only had two eye holes like a black skull. He was also wearing black on black with biker boots so he was virtually invisible to us in the shadows. If I was him I probably would have freaked out since he would have been able to kill us all and have time to spare. He was wearing a tanto on his right hip, a clock on his belt along with two other black pistols in cross holsters, a ammo belt and bandolier belt. He was also carrying a Uzi with a silencer ands two long knives strapped to his back. He was only wearing a tanktop so if I did manage to find him I would have seen the three tribal cuts on each arm.