Author's Note

The last paragraph is Toola-Roola's POV

III x II: The Magic Outside Of You

"Sweetie Belle?"

Scootaloo galloped over to her friend. "Sweetie Belle?"

Cheerilee stared expectantly at Pinkie Pie, who glared. "Ith it alwayth my job to deliver the expothition?"

"Can't you ask the narrator?" asked Minty.

"Don't be thilly! Why would the narrator reveal thuch an important plot point?"

StarSong, Toola-Roola and Rainbow Dash all kneeled over the young Unicorn. "Sweetie Belle?" asked StarSong. "Can you hear me?"

"Wake up!" snapped Scootaloo, shaking her younger friend. Cheerilee gasped. "Stop! You don't know what you're doing!"

Yet it was only a second before Sweetie Belle's eyelids fluttered open. "Thweetie Belle!" gasped Pinkie Pie. "Are you okay?"

The filly opened her mouth weakly. After a few seconds her horn began to glow. Cheerilee stared. "Doesn't that happen when Unicorns do magic?"

Before she could think of an explanation she was knocked backwards by something. Looking up she saw the area around Sweetie Belle seemed to be glowing. The little filly stood up, looking uncertain, and before any of the others knew what was going on the sky was covered in rainbows, which then seemingly melted into liquid and fell down. Cheerilee instinctively covered her sister, glaring as soon as there were no more rainbows. "You almost killed my sister!"

"She almost killed you, too!" remarked Scootaloo.

The older mare rolled her eyes. "I thought your favourite superhero was Batmare, not Captain Irrelevant!"

"Sorry," apologised Sweetie Belle. "I-I just- I don't know what happened- it was like- I couldn't control it- there was this pressure-build up- I don't know how it happened- I'm so sorry-"

"It's alright, darling," reassured Rainbow Dash. "And I must say, I do hope you can pull off that trick again.....How dashing! Rainbows, darling, rainbows!"

She pulled a few blades of grass out of the ground, grinning. "I'm trying to make a dress," she explained, "since we won't be able to buy any more clothes now that- now that-"

She collapsed to her knees and burst into tears. "We're never going to see Ponyville again!" she sobbed. "And- and what about all of the ponies that were in Ponyville when- when it was erased? Are they gone too?"

"Don't worry, Rainbow Dash," assured Minty. "We can always go to Butterfly Island and make friends with some Pegasi-"

"I DON'T WANNA BE FRIENDS WITH PEGASI!" screamed the blue pony. "I WANT MY OLD FRIENDS BACK! I DON'T KNOW HOW TO MAKE FRIENDS WITH PEGASI! THEY'RE ALL WEIRD AND SHY AND-

"You do know I'm right here?" asked StarSong.

Rainbow Dash stared at the indignant mare behind her and blushed furiously, wiping the tears away. How had she been so insensitive? "StarSong! I'm so sorry, darling! I didn't meant to offend you like that!"

"It's fine," mumbled StarSong. "I'm the only Pegasus in Ponyville, I've heard worse."

"Gee," muttered Minty, looking up. "It's getting pretty dark......Where are we gonna sleep?"

"I don't know," muttered Pinkie Pie. "We might have to thleep outthide."

"Cool beans!" yelled Scootaloo. "We can go camping!"

"Not really," muttered Cheerilee. "It's not camping like that....We won't have tents, or food, and you haven't brought your night light....."

"Oh yeah," muttered Toola-Roola anxiously. She bit her lip, staring at Sweetie Belle, Minty and Scootaloo. They had stayed in Ponyville when she and the others had gone to rescue Twinklewish from Whimsey Weatherbe. She did not want them to know she was scared of the dark.

Cheerilee read the look in her eyes and turned back to her younger sister. "Hey, Scoots, I'll go and see if there are any fireflies or things like that to use as a night light."

She trotted off, winking at Toola-Roola. They waited around for a few seconds before they heard her.

"Hey guys, guess what?" called Cheerilee's voice, and they saw the dark pink mare trot into view. "I was just walking around and for some reason a bunch of glowing rocks came towards me and started levitating around me!"

Toola-Roola stared as a bunch of glowing rocks zoomed into view and started levitating around Cheerilee. "That is, by a wide margin, the least likely thing that could ever happen!"

They noticed that the rocks were all glowing in different colours. One was dark pink, like Cheerilee's coat, and another was pure white like Sweetie Belle's. One was the exact same shade of blue as Rainbow Dash and one matched perfectly with Scootaloo. There was a StarSong-coloured purple one and one that looked just like Toola-Roola, along with a green one that matched up with Minty.

But there wasn't a stone that reminded them of Pinkie Pie.

The seventh stone was magenta and took the form of a six-pointed star. It was a little larger than the others and the second Pinkie Pie saw it, it zoomed towards her. She grinned. "Get off! You're meant to help Thcootaloo!"

After a few seconds, all the rocks were zooming around the pony whose colours they resembled. "What?" asked Scootaloo. "That's not how it works!"

Pinkie Pie opened her mouth and moved her lips like she was talking, but not a single sound came out. Cheerilee raised an eyebrow. "You have no idea what you're talking about, do you?"

"Eh?" asked Rainbow Dash. "She didn't say anything!"

"Wait," asked Toola-Roola. "You didn't hear that?"

"Nope," answered Scootaloo. "I didn't hear a thing!"

"Me neither!" added StarSong. Sweetie Belle and Minty nodded in agreement. Pinkie Pie blushed. "Oopth! I wath thpeaking pink my mithtake!"

"What?" choked StarSong.

"Remember? When we went to thave Twinkle Wish and I rounded up ththse fireflieth? I told you, I thpeak pink!"

"I didn't think you could actually speak pink!"

"Well I can! I think in pink all the time. That'th why when it'th my POV, the writing is pink."

"What- oh forget it. Can you repeat that in English?"

"Sure! Ath I wath thaying, ......."

"You're doing it again!" snapped Scootaloo.

"Oh, am I? Weird, it normally doethn't happen on itth own like that.....Cheerilee, can you tell them?"

"Errr.....sure....." Cheerilee muttered. "Apparently it's some thing called the-"

She too trailed off into nonsense. "Oh!" shouted Pinkie Pie in realisation. "Thomepony mutht have catht a thpell on them tho that you can't thay the name in English. Well, they're thuper important, or I'm not pothitively pink!"

"How important?" asked Minty. "Because if they're so important then I think I should get rid of this little smudge..."

She grabbed her rock, which stopped floating, and started rubbing at it with her hoof. Of course, this being Minty, it was about half a second before it fell and shattered, no longer glowing. "Minty!" snapped Pinkie Pie. "You jutht dethtroyed the motht important object in the univerthe!"

"Sorry...." mumbled the clumsy mare sheepishly. The stone started to glow again and rose up out of the ground before putting itself back together. "That'll be the Element of Apology," whispered Pinkie Pie to herself.

"Okay, darlings," announced Rainbow Dash. "I'm going to sleep now. You probably should too, darlings."

She curled up on the ground. Toola-Roola stared at the grass beside her and had an idea.

I grinned and blew my mane out of my eyes, staring at my creation. Perfect. Rainbow Dash is going to love it, or mum wasn't drunk when she named me. Seriously, Toola-Roola 'Bhruis-Pheantaidh Gaileiridh-Ceàird? What was she thinking? What does that even mean? It took me years to even be able to pronounce it.

I forced my thought track back to the dress in front of me. If you can call it a dress. I just weaved together some grass. Well, some is an understatement, there's a massive part of the area with no grass at all. And I managed to add some flowers and things to the neck. And I even put together some crappy paint and covered it with pretty patterns!

.....I know, I couldn't help myself.

I kneel down over my blue-coated buddy. "Rainbow Dash! Wake up!"

Nothing. I tried a different approach. "The dress is black and blue!"

"THE DRESS IS WHITE AND GOLD!"

Rainbow Dash sat up straight, staring around and rubbing her eyes. "Toola-Roola! You're awake!" She added, in a whisper, "Are the rocks not bright enough, darling?"

I shrugged the question off, blushing slightly. "No, I- err- I made you something."

I smiled warmly, holding up the dress. "What do you think?"

"It's- it's-" she stammered. "It's....It's simply fabulous, darling! Thank you so much!"

"It's fine....." I mumbled.

"No, really, I must repay you, darling! Do you need anything?"

"Err.....not really....."

"Okay then, let me know what you want me to do in the morning."

I smiled as I curled up on the glass next to her. My stone and hers were both glowing brightly.