The Third Princess

Run. Hide. Fly only when your horn is covered. Do magic only when your wings are bound. Change your color between each town.

Trust nopony...

The small, grey "unicorn" crept through Ponyville. Suddenly, a yellow blur zipped by. A purple unicorn came out into the open.

"Fluttershy! Fluttershy, come back!"

The gray pony crouched deeper in the alleyway. The purple unicorn walked toward a house that looked like it was made of cake.

"Pinkie, didn't we agree not to make any more of that after the caramel incident a few weeks ago?"

A pink pony stuck her head out and giggled.

"Ohhitwilightdoyouwantsomeesspressodaitsawesomeandtastyandreallyreallygoodandyummygottarunbye!" A pink blur shot right past the little grey pony. This is interesting, she thought. And I'm hungry... Alright. One day. The grey pony's horn sparkled with gray magic the exact color of an overcast day. And... She was lime green with a yellow mane! She couldn't do anything about her cutie mark, though. It remained a gray cloud with a yellow lightning bolt with a circle of mist behind it. She walked toward the bakery, her stomach growling. The green pony paused in front of the door. She brought her hoof up, and stopped. Then, gathering her courage, she opened the door. "Hello?" she asked. A pink pony was standing there. Well, maybe standing was the wrong word, because she was tied up and vibrating.

The purple unicorn was saying "Pinkie, you need to stay like that until the esspressoda gets out of your system. I don't need the library full of caramel again. Again! I had to buy a lot of books to replace those ruined, and some of those were expensive! Now, where's that apple... Ah! Found it!"

The pink pony, presumably Pinkie, said "Is that the sleepytime apple?"

"No, it's..." The unicorn sighed. "Yes Pinkie Pie, it's the sleepytime apple." The purple unicorn sighed. "Of course you wouldn't be interested in the Golden Apple of-" Mistmane. The disguised alicorn knew. This was where her apple was. The purple unicorn, however, was tied up, and Pinkie was bouncing around.

"Little berry cupcakes, little berry pies! Esspressoda, Spressoda, I will not lie!" Pinkie sang off key.

The purple unicorn sighed. "I should never have lent you that book of songs." Pinkie bounced out the door. Mistmane sighed. That was close. She walked into the library, hoping to hide amongst a crowd. The library was annoyingly bereft of crowds.  The unicorn had managed to teleport there. She was looking with a quizzical...look at Mistmane's cutie mark.

"I-" Mistmane stammered. "I, uh, want to borrow a book!" she shouted. It was the only thing she could think of. The purple unicorn's horn glowed, and the ropes fell away.

"Sure thing! Always nice to meet another pony who likes to read! I'm Twilight Sparkle, by the way." The purple unicorn, Twilight Sparkle looked at Mistmane's cutie mark. "That seems familiar... I know I saw that somewhere... I just can't think where. Are you injured? Those bandages around your waist..." Twilight walked over and prodded at them. Mistmane looked nervously at the ceiling. Twilight had a confused look on her face. "It doesn't hurt?" the unicorn said quizzically.

Mistmane was visibly sweaty. "N-no. I, I just keep it there so nopony can see the scar. It's really ugly..."

Twilight grinned. "What's something like that among friends? Besides, I might have a helpful spell. Judging from your cutie mark, you probably do best with weather spells. Beauty spells probably aren't your specialty, if you put bandages around your scar instead of making it go away." Twilight started to unwrap the bandages.

"No! No, I tried those and they didn't work! Please, no!"

Twilight stopped and looked up. "Look, I'll take you to a specialist in beauty spells. She probably knows a bit more than you or I do about them, and at the very least can make you an outfit to hide the scar. Her name... is Rarity."