The Seventh Member of the Friendship Council

by SkystreamthePegasus

Rating: everyone
Tags: Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Second Person, Comedy, Starlight Glimmer, Random, Adventure, Alternate Universe, Twilight Sparkle, Main 6
Length: 5634

One night, a seventh throne grows out of the floor in the castle. One day, a Pegasi's wings told her it's time to go

One night, a seventh throne grows out of the floor in the castle. One day, a Pegasi's wings told her it's time to go

(This takes place right after the The Crystaling so none of the other episodes after will have any effect on the story)
This is my first fim-fiction as well as Fan-fiction, so, Constructive Criticism advised! As of Chapter 3, this story is edited by Short Stories! This story has been made in memory of Storme, Short Stories' deceased gerbil.

Published 2016-07-04 20:00:01 UTC
Last updated 2016-10-22 00:00:30 UTC

And so it begins...

On the outskirts of Las Pegasus, a young pegasi had taken a break from her frantic packing to watch the sunset that Celestia was putting on. She had never missed a sunset since she was a filly, and she wasn't letting some pesky moving get in the way of that. She could tell Celestia had a good day from the colors she was adding this time. There were many purples and oranges mingling and dancing, which meant that The Princess was in one of her best moods that afternoon. Celestia's sunsets always reflect her mood. When she set the sun quickly, she was sad. The sun usually set quickly before Luna came back, but in the days after the Summer Sun Celebration, Celestia put on some amazing shows those sunsets. Suddenly, the Pegasi's aching wings called her back to life and made her get back to packing.

As she packed, she thought why she was packing in the first place. On the last night of her latest show, Fly, Fly, Birdie, her wings ached and a voice whispered to her soul, I want to go home. The last time that happened was when she was in Canterlot, preforming in a production of Winged (Pronounced WING-ed), and it lead her to her home of the last ten years in Las Pegasus. Now her wings would guide her again. She put on her saddle bags and stole one last look in the full-body mirror that she was leaving along with the rest of her furniture. She looked from her messy mane of purple and turquoise, to her nature green fur, to her powerful wings the were literally shaking at that moment, and to her Cutie Mark. Ugh, why would an official name for such an important part of everypony's life be so... cutesy? If she had her way, she would call them Talent Marks, since that is what they basically were. Even though she despised the name, she adored her mark. A theatre mask, the one symbolizing comedy, with a musical note crossed behind it. It showed her love for musical theatre in a literal sense, and her love making ponies and others happy with that talent. She could have thought about her mark for hours, but, once again, her wings ached and pulled her back into reality.

She left the house and put on the sign she and her friend Bright Light had made on her door. It said, "Free house for anyone who needs it, Fully furnished". She thought it would be nice to leave just as she found it, with a sign this time of course. She looked over her flight plan once more. She said quietly to herself, "Alright Skystream, don't forget your plans like you did when you visited Crissy last fall! Just head to Canterlot in the correct Weather conditions. There's a light shower in Ponyville tomorrow, but you should miss it by a day. Then just let your wings guide you like last time. Just follow the plan and the map and you'll be fine". And with that, she gave her wings a few flaps, a quick hover, and then she took off for Canterlot.

At the same time as Skystream left for a new home, a magical event was happening in a not so humble living place. And by that I mean a giant crystal palace that looks so fake it could be a toy set! Anyway, A strong vibration has shaken a purple alicorn out of bed. Who is this purple alicorn you may ask? Why it's Crystal Princess of Friendship Twilight Sparkle the Alicorn! Or Twilight Sparkle for short, Twilight for shorter, Twilly for even shorter, and Twi for shortest! But, it's usually just Twilight. Twilight groggily got off the floor and walked out the door, slightly annoyed. She was annoyed because there's only two reasons that this could happen. One, Pinkie didn't have a party that day and decided to come here in the middle of the night and throw a party for merely existing and her party cannon hit the wall. It would the the 7th time in... I don't know... A MONTH! But, as Twilight ran from room to room, there was no sign of a party being thrown. And she checked everywhere, from the library to the kitchen to the many bathrooms (and there are 396!) yet, there was nothing.

That led her to believe the second option. A sleepwalking Applejack, Big Mac, Applebloom, or even Granny Smith had come to buck the largest Crystal Apples in the world. It had happened 28 times that year. So she walked down the stairs, prepared to wake up an Earth Pony and send them back to the barn, but, when she got outside and walked around the trunk of her Crystal tree (she never knew how large the perimeter of her tree's trunk was!) she found that there was no pony to be found.

Confused, she climbed up her stairs on her way to her bedroom. But, when she passed the Throne Room, an even larger vibration occurred. This signaled to her brain that, since the vibration was stronger here, the source of the vibration had to be in the Throne Room. She went into the room in time to see an amazing event. The thrones were moving, making a space where another throne was growing right out of the floor! Twilight was shocked and her mind was spinning. She was just below the Throne Room and she would have noticed a throne hanging from the ceiling! And why is another throne appearing? The only members were herself and her friends! And she had barley even started teaching Starlight about friendship! And what if she didn't know the pony this throne was meant for? Was this why The Map hadn't been working since Starlight moved here? If so, then why had it appeared now? Instead of the day Starlight moved? And the most important question, HOW WAS A THRONE-BASICALLY A GLORIFIED CHAIR-APPEARING OUT OF THIN AIR?!?!?!? (Well Twilight, it's actually growing out of the floor and it's actually very thick) Finally, when the throne was fully grown. She starred at it for a solid minute, unsure of what to do and paralyzed by confusion. Then, suddenly and without warning, Twilight did something she hadn't done in two years. She fainted.

Author's Note

IT'S FINALLY DONE!! YAAAASSS!!!! I hate writing for Twilight. Also, this Chapter and story is hereby in memory of Short Stories deceased baby gerbil, Storme.

On course to...

Skystream had never been more mad at her branch of the pony species than at that moment. It had been about a day and a half since she left Las Pegasus and she was flying over the Ponyville area, because Ponyville stretches far bigger than what we see, and you know the light showering that was supposed to happen the day before? Welp, they forgot...again. So they had to make it up with a massive storm...again! So the nice, peaceful weather Skystream had expected to fly in was now walls of water and lighting she was struggling to get through. And the worst part was that the inn she was supposed to stay at was miles away and she was supposed to check-in in an hour! While she wasn't the most punctual pony, she preferred showing up at an inn when she was supposed to. As she struggled to fight her way through the horrible storm, she felt her wings beginning to weighed down by he water that was soaking her to the bone. It was absolutely bone-chilling, for she knew that if she didn't get out of this storm soon, she would plummet to the ground. She looked around, praying to her princess that the storm ended somewhere, but the rain blurred out everything more then a few hooves away. And she knew her geography enough that she knew there was a meadow under her, where there would be no shelter from this torrential downpour. Then she realized, the only place she might be safe, is above the Everfree forest. Nopony could control the weather there, perhaps it was unaffected by the storm. And so, she flew to above the Everfree Forest, praying for safety.

Ponyville Weather Ponies? The Everfree sees your storm, and raises it. That's all that went through Skystream's mind as she was knocked around and drenched by this storm she could only describe as... Everfree. There were Parasprites flying by and leafs were going in her eyes, making her blink many times. Sky's wings were only getting heavier as time went by and Sky knew she needed to land. She spotted a small clearing and, as graceful as Rainbow Dash doing ballet, she landed and quickly dashed to the trees. "Well," she thought optimistically, "it's not the safest place to be, but at least there's shelter!" As she walked, she made a plan in her mind. Try to find the Zebra that Crissy had told her about (Zecobra was it?) and ask her to give her shelter until this storm passes. Sky knew it was a good plan, with one slight, minuscule, problem. SHE HAD NO IDEA WHERE SHE WAS. Any at all paths couldn't be seen in all the downpour, and she was exhausted. Her hooves were warning her that they might give out at any second. Just as she realized that she might want to just find an abandoned cave and sleep there, a crack sounded above her head. She looked up, and the last thing she saw was a huge branch falling down at her at very fast speeds before everything went into an inkwell.

Twilight was unsure how long she was out, but judging by the fact that she was woken up by her student, Starlight Glimmer who had been out for a few days making friends in Griffinstone, she assumed at least a day.

"Twilight! Are you alright?" Starlight cried nervously, "I just got back and I found you here unconscious! Did someone come in here? Did they take your memory? Why would this happe-" She stopped and the only reason Twilight could assume was that she saw the new throne.

As she got up, she asked her stunned student, "Do you see now? I saw it grow out of the floor!"

"But why would this happen, Twilight?" Starlight asked, hoping Twilight knew.

Twilight replied, "I don't know, Starlight, but I'm determined to find out!" She walked over to the new throne. "Let's start by finding out just who it belongs to- NO WAY!"

"What's wrong, Twilight? Does the Cutie Mark belong to somepony you know?"

"No Starlight, there is no problem with the Cutie Mark, mostly because there isn't one there!" Twilight was staring at the space where the Cutie Mark should be, instead there were words.

"There will be a new threat, and you need something the six of you do not have. It is found in the heart of every Manticore, yet has been lost in ponies, and without it, Equestria will lose everything." The first thing that came to Twilight's head was,"What a horrible Prophecy!", but after that, her mind was spinning. What could be in the heart of a Manticore that ponies have lost? Ponies are more intelligent beings... could we need primal instinct? But she could pull that out of a pony with a simple spell, so that isn't lost to us. And how would we know... would we just need the pony to sit on the chair and the Cutie Mark would appear?

"I could try that!" Starlight exclaimed.

"Did you just read my mind?" Twilight exclaimed. She knew that Starlight could do advanced magic, but this was new!

"No, you talking out loud again" Oh, that made more sense.

"Go ahead Starlight, maybe you're the pony we need to beat this unknown threat", Twilight said as she motioned to the throne. Starlight walked up to the throne and sat down.

Suddenly, her eyes glowed white and she started talking to what seemed like herself, "Huh? No, your wrong.... Twilight and her friends have already forgiven me...what do you mean...Twilight just sent me away to make friends with...well, you are right about that...NO! NOOO! NNOOOOOO!!!!" Starlight ejected herself from the throne, sweating.

"What happened?" Twilight asked nervously.

"Well, after I got on the throne, I was transported to a dark room. Then a light shown down on me, and a bunch of voices started talking to me in sync, telling me that nopony would ever forgive or forget what I had done, and when I told them that you and your friends had already forgiven me, they told me that you don't trust me not to steal Cutie Marks again, and then the voice surrounded me and chanted 'They will never forgive you' and got louder and louder and louder till I couldn't take it and had to get off the throne. It was my worst fear"

Twilight thought that was a regular test. There wasn't much that could be learned from that kind of test. There must be something more. Twilight's horn lit up as Spike suddenly appeared from thin air. "Spike, I need you to send five letters to Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Rartiy. Tell them to come tomorrow morning for a meeting, if that isn't to much trouble". Spike was already writing the letters. Good, Twilight knew she would need her friends help to figure this one out. As the thunder crashed outside, a new story was about to begin.

Author's Note

Yep, I did this. A storm, my first conversation between two ponies, and a brief appearance from Spike. Was the Dialogue in-character? Did they show good Chemistry? Also, second chapter! Wasn't sure this would happen so soon. Yay :yay:! Constructive Criticism appreciated. And once again, this Chapter and Story is dedicated to the deceased Gerbil, Storme.

COLLISION!

Skystream woke and in an instant she felt pain unimaginable by pony kind. This pain was everywhere, and nothing was quite like it. She was pinned under a log-like branch that had likely broke in the storm. She tried to move, hopefully in order to wiggle out, but when she did the pain doubled somehow. She felt her consciousness begin to slip away once more, and, in a last attempt to keep from blacking out, cried, "HEEELLPP!!! SOMEPONY PLEASE HEEEELLLP!!!". Unfortananitly, it seemed her cries of distress weren't loud enough, the pain became too much for her and she saw only blackness yet again.

Twilight looked over all of her friends sitting at the table, From Applejack, strong and steadfast, to Rarity, who was looking the throne with great interest and muttering to herself "What a horrible font to put on such a beautiful piece of furniture", to Pinkie Pie, who was looking forward to making a new friend. Her eyes shot upwards towards the ceiling as a smile played on her lips, though once she realized the author knows all, she returned her eyes to they're normal state. Rainbow Dash. was starting to show her impatience as Starlight zoomed around the table, balancing eight coffee's to give to each mare, and finally to her faithful assistant Spike, who was sitting next to her and staring at the newly grown throne between Pinkie's and Fluttershy's throne. At last, it was time to start the meeting.

"All right then. Welcome ,everypony, to the forth meeting of the Friendship Council. Reason? The new thro-"

"HOLD IT!" Cried Rarity, slamming her hooves on the Map, causing all attention to go towards her. She blushed at her sudden outburst and stammered out her question. "W-w-where, may I ask, I-is F-Fluttershy? She is a member, is she not?"

Twilight giggled slightly, but then regained her composure, "Fluttershy has informed me that she has to check on her animals after yesterdays storm and will try to join us later if she can. She deeply regrets having to miss the meeting, and she said so several times. If she does not show up, Spike is writing down everything we say, including now, for anypony who would like to see what happened in this meeting in the future. Now, shall we continue? We must discuss the apparent seventh member of the Friendship Council-"

"Did anypony else here, hear a ding?"

"No Pinkie, I don't think so," Twilight said, clearly annoyed, "Anyways, we've already tried Starlight and she refuses to go near that thing unless it's to bring somepony food or drink. Due to the use of pony in the prophecy, we do not believe that Spike is the Seventh Member, and besides, he's been raised to much like a pony to be like the prophecy, no offense Spike."

"Ugh, none taken, Twilight you know I don't care about that kind of thing!" Spike said whilst writing what he was saying.

Twilight gave him a motherly smile and continued, "It's obvious that none of you are this new member, since you are all members already. So, we need to brainstorm who we know, that has what a manticore does, and has good friendships. I have provided some paper, quills, and ink for you to write a list of possible candidates. We will now adjourn for a thirty minute period to jot down ideas." Twilight took a deep breath and calmed herself down. She had never really made such a serious speech, especially to her friends.

"Hey, Sparkle?" Rainbow whispered to Twilight, breaking her out of her little trance, "Nice speech, but don't be so boring and serious again, it's.. weird" O-kay, next time, bring some joy into your voice.

Fluttershy was doing one of her favorite parts of her life's work in animal caretaking, calming down the animals she cares for is a nice feeling. Seeing the animals she loves go from scared to comforted gives her this feeling that makes her feel like she's making a difference to these poor animals. And it made her feel close to herself, after all she got her Cutie Mark doing just this, and she knew that the only feeling that could compare to this is being with her friends. Being with her friends, is something that she might not be able to do today because as she was helping a shaking Angel into bed with a broken leg, she heard a scream. "HEEELLPP!!! SOMEPONY PLEASE HEEEELLLP!!!". Fluttershy ran through her thoughts. She had already helped all the animals with whatever problems the storm caused, and if somepony needs help then she should help them. She located the source of the shout, and when she locked on to it, she flew off in the direction of it. It wasn't until she almost flew straight into a tree that she realized that she was in the Everfree Forest. Instantly she started to panic. What if she was being lured by a Siren or some other type of scary creature who was trying to eat her. "No", she told herself, calming her shaking knees and wiping the sweat from her forehead,"there might be a pony in danger who needs me, and I've got to help them...somehow". And with that she went forward to find this poor pony who was in trouble.

She only had to run a short distance to find the scene of the crime. A giant branch had fallen on a poor pony, and she had fallen unconscious. Fluttershy went to the end of the branch and slowly lifted the end of the branch into the air, moved the end over to the side and off the poor pegasus, as she found out when she lifted the branch which revealed the horribly bent-out-of-shape wings, in order to cause the poor mare less pain. And then, Fluttershy picked up the mare, as gently as possible, and flew back to her cottage in order to help her.

Author's Note

I would like to say three things, one) Mirror's Image is one addicting story, I've finished chapter 10 as of writing this. Two) Most of this chapter was written whilst watching Clue and Project Runway. Make of that what you will. Three) The font that is on the throne for the prophecy is comic sans. Now, tis time for a little grim, yet nice note, this story, chapter included, is in deadication to the deceased baby gerbil, Strome, that belongs to Short Stories. Yes, I am aware of that horribly grim pun that I just made.

When a hospital is unavailable, Fluttershy's Cottage can be used as a substitute. Apparently.

Dear Fluttershy,

Thank you for informing me of the poor Pegasus Pony who had precariously perched panicked under a tree branch. Heheh... I have way to much time on my hooves. Anyway, I would be there right away, but I have to do paperwork because my assistant won't let me out of my office until I do. So I think I can get there in a few hours. Until then, please use these casts that I left in the box to keep her wing stable, to prevent further damage. I trust you can do this since you've put a bird's wings in casts before with the vets help. Trust me, it's the same thing, just bigger. I will be over to your cottage as soon as possible. See you then!

Sincerely,

Rose Redheart

Fluttershy had just finished reading over the letter that had been sent to her by Rose. The pigeon who carried the package and the note looked proud and tired before her as she opened the box to see what she had to work with. The casts were certainly, larger than she was used to. It would take her a lot longer than five minutes to do this one. She needed to ask a favor of someone who she knew might not accept.
"Um...Angel? I need to ask of you a favor," the small bunny slowly walked out of his hole in the wall on his newly healed leg, interested, "I know I usually give you whatever food you want today, but I'm going to be a bit busy with the Pegasus Pony here. Can that wait until tomorrow?" when Angel nodded his head understandingly, she continued, "Also, can you please check on the other animals for me and give them food? I would be ever so grateful!" the small bunny nodded his head and ran off to the shed where she stored most of the animals food.
With that taken care of, Fluttershy turned to the task at hoof. She picked up the casts and walked over to the mysterious Pegasi. Her wings were horribly mangled and out of shape, so much so she could barely look at them. She only hoped that the pain wouldn't be felt in whatever dream the poor mare was having.

It was darker than an inkwell and the air stunk of suffer and stinkweed. The land is barren and scattered with jagged rocks and all around are ponies - at least they look like ponies, kinda- that look exactly them same. Sky was right in the middle of it. Although no pony was speaking, a voice yelled triumphantly loud and clear, seemingly in her head. The voice was beautiful, yet blood-curddiling. It was screaming of how they were victorious over the Royal Guards, the Wonderbolts, Unicorn Shooters Division, and the Earth Strongponies. They now had control over all of Equestria! Though she had no idea why, she began to cheer at this news. At this point it became known to her that the voice was in all the other ponies, for they began to cheer along with her. Her mind was in terror and confused as to how this was happening. It was a nightmare. And then, in an instant, it all faded away.

Sky woke up startled, groggy, and confused as to where she was. Last she remembered, she was in the Everfree Forest, under what she thought to be a broken tree branch. Now it seemed she was somepony's couch in a cottage. Her wings were still sore, but at least hey didn't kill her with pain as they had when she last woke up. But no matter how welcome the change is, she still didn't enjoy the idea of that she had no idea that she had no idea where she was. She looked around, and saw what looked like animal homes. She drew the conclusion that she was in-
"Oh! You're awake! Are you alright? Ya know, besides your broken wings?" Fluttershy asked. Sky had seen her cottage here when she visited before. Sky nodded as she sat up on Fluttershy's couch. "If you don't mind me asking, what is your name? Mine's Flu-"

"Fluttershy," Sky said, cutting her off,"I recognized you, My name's Skystream! Relatively famous Actress. Nice to meet ya!" she exclaimed, holding out her hoof. Fluttershy hesitantly took up the hoofshake as Sky continued,"so...are you the pony who found me in the woods? Or, did somepony bring me here?" she asked hesitantly.

"Yes, I'm the one who found you and got you out from under that branch. I'm also the one who put those casts on your wings, if you were wondering" she said, soft-spoken as usual.

"What! Casts? Umm.. thank you?" Sky said surprised. How hadn't she noticed them? "You did these yourself? Their pretty good, for somepony who isn't a Doctor"

"Oh thanks! I've never worked on a pony before, only animals. So I'm glad that you think it's alright. Nurse Redheart will be here in a few hours to properly look and set your wings. Until then, you really shouldn't leave here and I should see that you're okay while here" And so, they began to wait for the next few hours.

Author's Note

UGH! Irene dang my horrible procrastination! Sorry this took so long! After the sixth, school will start for me. And after that, I will be less active in writing. I will try to write when I can, so thank you for being patient. :twilightsmile: As always, this story is dedicated to Short Stories' deceased gerbil Storme.

A Nurse, an Actor, and a Princess walk into a bar...

A knock on the door came as a surprise, for only half an hour had passed since they started waiting. It obviously startled Fluttershy as well, for she was on her back on the floor. She got up, blushed, and opened the door. Something white suddenly blasted across the floor. Or wait, was it the ceiling? How exactly did the world turn upside down? And how was Fluttershy standing upside down without using her wings?

"Oh! I am terribly sorry! In my rush to get in here, I accidentally flipped the couch over! Are you okay?" an earth pony in a nurse's outfit exclaimed. Skystream managed to set herself up right and nodded.

"I'm fine, just a little dizzy due to the blood rushing out of my brain right now" Sky said as she wobbled, "Are you Nurse Redheart?" The pony nodded, "Then how did you get here so fast?"

"Oh! That was easy! I just snuck out of the window when my assistant was resetting the spell on my office holding me back, and ran for the hills! For all he knows, I'm still there, begrudgingly doing paperwork!" Redheart smiled widely,"Now, where's my patient?"

"Right here! Standing in front of you?" Sky turned so Redheart could see the casts,"I was under a branch in the storm when I was hit by that very branch. I apparently broke my wings" Redheart looked over the casts and adjusted a few things.

"Good job Fluttershy, for your first time doing this on a pony, you did surprisingly well. I honestly thought you'd be too scared you'd do more harm than help" Fluttershy blushed profusely, "I think I can heal these wings now. Stand still please?"

Sky was confused, how can an earth pony heal her in this instant, but she did as she was told. Redheart put her hooves on the base of Sky's wings and started to mutter something. Sky noticed how Redheart's Cutie Mark, Sky internally screamed for calling them that, started to subtly glow.

Suddenly Redheart yelled out, "Celestia! Luna! Cadence! Twilight! Lend me your power, and use the Equality of Four to balance out the damage done to this poor, poor Pegasus!". Suddenly, Sky felt the bones in her wings knitting themselves together, but not in a painful way.
It was like..."it was strange, but gentile...how'd ya do that? Did you really call on the Princess to help you?" Sky scolded herself for not asking for her saddlebags, for she would have gotten a notepad out. This was to interesting for her! What, is Redheart is a spiritual envoy? With a direct line to the princesses...it would be a scientific and magic breakthrough!

"No, I just say that to be dramatic." Well, there goes that theory...,"My healing magic does the work for me. It makes it easier to jobs when it has to be quick. Now please, try and flex your wings" Redheart didn't even have time to take off the casts when Skystream made them explode off her wings. "Wow...such strong wings...I guess the magic worked! Haven't done that in a while so, that's good. Anyway, umm...I’m sorry, but… what was your name again?"

"Skystream"

"Right! Okay Skystream, I would like to look over your wings in a few weeks so I can make sure your wings are fully healed by then. So no long flights until then, okay?"

"But, I have nowhere to stay. As much as I appreciate Fluttershy letting me stay here so she could help me, I don't want to burden her. I am pretty sure that she has enough on her hooves with her animals. And I don't have any friends living here that I could stay with at the moment..."

"Actually, Twilight might be able to help you!", Everypony looked at Fluttershy, who had stayed silent throughout this whole time. "She and the others are having a meeting right now, and I bet if we hurry, we can make it over there before she disappears behind her latest book" Sky simply smiled, nodded and, as if there was some kind of unspoken agreement between them, they sped off towards the castle, leaving Redheart behind.
As they ran, they heard a very angry Unicorn screaming out the window, "REDHEAAAAAART!!!!", Sky and Flutters smiled at each other knowingly as they arrived at the door to the castle. Sky opened the door and they continued to run, Fluttershy leading the way until they reached the throne room. They burst through and heard Twilight saying, "And that's just the way it is"

"Are you KIDDING ME?!?!" Twilight’s shriek echoed throughout the throne room, making it sound quite loud and threatening. Twilight made a mental note remember that, "Nopony could think of anypony! I can't believe this! Out of all of the members of the Friendship Council, we should be able to think of at least one possible candidate? Not one possibility?!"

"Well, you couldn't either, Twilight!" Rainbow interjected, "And it's hard to think of ponies who have what a Manticore supposedly has. We don't even know what that means!" Twilight saw the reasoning in that. She felt warmth rush to her face as she realized she may have set an impossible goal.

"Twi, why don't we all think of what a gosh durn manticore could have that we don't?" Applejack suggested.

"I've tried that and ,unless Starlight has realized something from the test she endured, we don't have anything to go on,"

"Actually, I have thought of something" everyone looked at Starlight, bewildered, except for Pinkie, who seemed to know that she would say this,"Well, I was forced to face one of my greatest fears. And, after thinking about it, the voices were the ponies in Equalis, even though they had already forgiven me. So, perhaps it has something to do with courage" Twilight had only facehooved so hard once before in her life. “Of course it was courage!” She rambled blindly, “how could I not have thought of that!? Facing some pony's worst fear is a sure sign of courage! But had ponies truly lost courage? And why would a Manticore have it? They're propelled by instinct, nothing else!”

"You're doing it again, Twilight"

"Huh? Oh, I said that all out loud...oops"

"Well, to answer your question, Twilight, Ah reckon that it's referen' to how Lions or Manticores are symbols of courage. They always have been in every story ah told Applebloom when she was younger" Applejack inserted, "Even if they don't really have courage. it's used so much that most ponies would understand it as such"

"Except me, apparently..." Twilight sighed, "Well, armed with this new information, does anyone have any more ideas?". They all sat there for quite awhile, thinking, except for Starlight, who busied herself with refilling everyponys coffee, "Well, until we figure out who would sit on that throne, we will need to figure out what exactly could be a possible threat to Equestria. Everypony will need to be doing research on this," the door slammed open as Twi said, ''and that's just the way it is''; she turned around to see who had come through, shocked to see Fluttershy accompanied by a pony she’d never seen in her life.

Author's Note

AHHHHHHHHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHA I HAAAAAAAAAAAATE WRITING BORING MEETINGS!!! Gah, anyway... It's finally here! And it's the staaaaart, of something neeeeew! :derpytongue2: Anywho, this story and chapter is dedicated to Short Stories' fallecido pet Gerbil, Storme. Thank you for waiting so long!