Chibi Flan's Foalsitter 2 A new Foalsitterby Lucky Star Kona-chanChaptersChapter 1: The meeting.Chapter 2: What is going on?Chapter 4: The chapter where nothing really happens.Chapter 5: Moving into the new house.Chapter 6: Feeling.Chapter 7: Cheering up, or at least trying to.Chapter 8: Clutz Central.Chapter 9: Breakfast at Flan'sChapter 10: Caffeine Craze!Chapter 11: Happy Birthday!Chapter 12: The mischievous mystery of the Sun, Moon and Star part 1.Chapter 13: Twilight's bond and the mischievous mystery of the Sun, Moon and Star part 2!Chapter 14: Pinkie's arrival, and the mischievous mystery of the Sun, Moon and Star part 3!Chapter 3: The official caretaker (Foalsitter)Chapter 1: The meeting.Author's Note Yo, Kona-chan here! This turned out way different as how I was planning it at first. But hey! I can probably have some fun with this, also I'm sorry if I don't get Trixie's or Starlight's personalities right, first time I try them. Any advice is appreciated as always. So, until next time guys, Kona-chan out! Chapter 1: The meeting. Today was a very nice day: it wasn’t too hot or too cold, not that any of that was a bother for our chibi vampire. Flan enjoyed any type of weather as long as it wasn’t too sunny, but having some help from Rainbow during the sunnier days made it easier for her whenever she chose to visit Ponyville. After all that happened with Twilight and the ponies in the past, she considered Equestria her second home: Remilia actually gave her permission to stay there all the time she wanted. And, just for that, she didn’t bite her that day. Anyways, since Flan now had all the time in the world to be with her friends, she started thinking where to go first. The only exception being Twilight’s castle, mostly because Twilight’s choice of entertainment was reading boring books about useless spells or history. Don’t take it the wrong way, Flan was up for a good reading, but didn’t like those particular topics. She was more of a fantasy/comedy girl. The thought of going to visit Applejack and maybe play with her some like they planned the last time she visited crossed her mind, being the most athletic earth pony around, she was a good playmate. Sure, Flan had to hold back a whole lot in their little contests in order to not hurt Applejack, but it was good fun for both of them and even Rainbow joined them from time to time. But a strange sound caught her attention, and then smoke could be seen coming out of the clearing where she and her friends had their picnics during her weekend visits. Being the curious little cutie she was, Flan decided to check it out: maybe something interesting could be happening for once. Well, it certainly was something, but of very little interest: there were two unicorns in the clearing practicing magic of some sort, but Flan couldn’t figure out what they were trying to do. She was curious so she approached the pair and recognized the pink one from her visit at the gems cave that one time. But the blue one was a new pony she hadn't met before. “Why is this so complicated?” the blue one grumbled, being the primary source of the smoke. “Maybe because you should take it easy and relax some? It’s not that hard to pull off, Trixie,” The pink one said; Flan probably heard her name from Twilight maybe once but she couldn’t remember it, and she wasn’t around during Flan’s entire stay, so she just forgot about her. “What are you…” Trixie started but her eyes caught Flan’s little silhouette approaching them, “Starlight, what is that?” The one Flan now knew as Starlight turned to see what her friend was pointing at and saw Flan's approach. Her pupils shrunk while she backed away from the little terror. Trixie was confused by this, but before she could ask, she felt something softly pulling on her mane. She looked at it and saw the little two-legged thing next to her, looking up at her eyes with innocence and overall cuteness. “Awww... you are such a cute little thing, what do you require from the Great and Helpful Trixie?” The way she said that made Flan give her a confused look, but then she took her ever helpful chalkboard and wrote something to show to Trixie. “You seem confident, but I feel sorrow in you. Did something happen to you, miss Trixie?” was written on the board and a sympathetic look on Flan’s face. Trixie was somewhat touched by this. ‘How did this little thing know?’ she thought as she sat down and brought a hoof to her chest, a single tear escaping from one of her eyes. Flan then opened her arms like asking for a hug. Trixie then lifted her from below her arms, forgeting all about her telekinesis, and gave her a big hug. Starlight snapped from her panicked stupor and looked at her friend, noticing now the midget that bit her was now latched onto to her friend. Afraid about what that thing could possibly do, she ignited her horn and teleported only Trixie to where she was, causing Flan to fall on her butt. “Trixie are you okay?" Starlight asked, checking her friend all over, "that… thing didn’t hurt you, right?” Trixie blinked and looked at her, confused. “What are you talking about Starlight? Trixie is always okay. Also where did Trixie’s little admirer go?” she asked while looking around for Flan, “oh, there she is!” “Trixie no!" Starlight grabbed hold of her friend, "that thing is dangerous. Don’t get close to it!” “Oh don’t be ridiculous; my little admirer is nothing but a real charmer who gets Trixie....probably better than anypony else,” Trixie said the last part with a bit of sadness. “Hey, I get you too Trixie, I’m your best friend, remember? So please leave that hideous thing alone and let’s go practice somewhere else.” Flan didn’t take that comment too well. She honestly could have broken Starlight right then and there, but Trixie took action before her. “How dare you insult Trixie’s little admirer! I thought you were better than this!” Trixie said, angrily. “Trixie, this thing bit me for no reason over a week ago, how do you expect me to react? Go and hug it?” Starlight replied with her own anger. “Why not!? Look how cute she is!” “Are you even listening to me!? That thing bit me! Also, why are you calling it a ‘she’?” “She’s wearing a dress, that’s reason enough!” Starlight facehoofed, this argument wasn’t going anywhere and just made her angrier. Flan, on the other hand, was just sitting on the grass enjoying the show; this was quite amusing to her. “That’s it! We’re leaving right now!” “You can leave if you want, but Trixie isn’t going anywhere!” “RIGHT NOW!” Starlight’s anger was mixing with her fear, which was never a good sign. Feeling that something was off, Flan got up and walked over to where Trixie stood, standing in front of the blue unicorn. “What are you doing?” Trixie asked Flan, but the little vampire just waved a hand, dismissively. “YOU!” Starlight ignited her horn and Flan’s expression changed to a serious one, because she felt this pony was about to do something very dumb and she would have to correct it. But before anything went off a blue blur with a rainbow trail tackled Starlight to the ground getting a loud “Oof!” from the unicorn. Starlight shook her head a few times, some of the steam left her, when she noticed Rainbow standing over her, a little anger came back “What was that for?!” “It’s nice to see you too," Rainbow muttered, "and I just stopped you from being totally bucking killed in a gruesome and bloody way. You’re welcome.” Rainbow then faced Flan and gave her a smile “ ‘sup? Flan, What are you doing with these two? I thought you would be in A.J's like we promised last time.” “Uuuuu,” Flan said while throwing up her arms. “Oh, so you thought something weird was happening and found them, then you took interest in Trixie, but Starlight was being a butt and monopolized her?” Rainbow said it in question to make sure she got it right. Flan nodded. “Hey!” Starlight took offence on that. “Just getting the message across, don’t take it on me,” Rainbow put her hooves up defensively. “How does ‘uuuuu’ translates into all that?” Trixie asked, curiously. “Flan has a unique way of speaking, but I think all the time I spend with her helped me learn how to understand it, with some help from Fluttershy too,” Rainbow explained. “I don’t care. Trixie we’re leaving-” Starlight began, but saw the serious expression on Trixie’s face. “Trixie is not going anywhere with you. Especially with that tone!” “Trixie, I'm trying really hard to keep it together, so -please- don’t do this to me right now,” Starlight snapped, stomping closer to Trixie. Only for Flan to stand between them in a completely casual manner. Starlight stared angrily at her, but Flan just boringly stared back. “Believe me when I say you don’t want to mess with her, Starlight,” Rainbow extended a leg to block Starlight’s path. “And why would that be, may I ask?” Starlight looked uninterested. “Flan will kick your flank. You -really- don’t want to make the same mistake Twilight did,” Rainbow warned, which made Trixie perked up. “What mistake did Twilight make? And why is she so dangerous? She doesn’t seem to be aggressive,” Trixie proved her point by casually lifting Flan from behind, again without magic, and holding her close to her. “Well, I think it’s better if you ask her yourself… hehe…” Rainbow nervously chuckled while rubbing the back of her head with a hoof. “Don’t be like that, tell Trixie what is that about," Trixie begged in a whiny voice, "you know Twilight will never tell Trixie about her mistakes." It was an adorable sight, especially with Flan being like a doll on Trixie’s hooves. Until Flan tapped Trixie’s leg to get her attention. “Hmm? Is something wrong?” the blue unicorn asked, prompting Flan to point to a group of bushes in the distance, “what about those bushes? Is something in there?” Flan nodded and slipped out of Trixie’s grasp. Ignoring Starlight’s death glare, Flan walked towards the group of bushes, stopped just in front of it, and stared at them. “What is she doing?” Trixie asked Rainbow. “How should I know?” “Well, first of all you’re her friend. And second, you said you understand her.” “I understand her way of speaking, I can’t read her mind you know.” “Ugh, you’re so useless,” Trixie said in disappointment. “Don’t push your luck Trixie: Flan may like you, but I still don’t trust you a bit. If I’m keeping my cool here, it's because of her, so you probably should be thankful if anything.” Rainbow said with a hint of annoyance before following Flan. Trixie was taken aback by that statement, and made her remember the situation she was in. The sneers she still got from the Ponyville populace, the isolation, and how lost she actually felt deep inside. It was tearing her apart, but she held strong, and somehow meeting the little vampire made her lose her worries for a moment. “Starlight?” Trixie called. “What?” “Do you think I will ever be forgiven?” “Huh?" Starlight broke her death glare to look back at her friend, "why do you ask that so suddenly?” “Because… now I’m starting to believe I will,” Trixie looked at Starlight with a serene expression before turning and following Rainbow to where Flan was, leaving a confused Starlight behind. Chapter 2: What is going on?Rainbow got to Flan’s side and looked at what the little vampire was staring at: a group of bushes that twitched slightly, but she seemed annoyed by something. “What’s wrong Flan?” Rainbow asked. Flan looked at her with disappointment and shook her head before looking away. “Huh? Why are you mad at me? What did I do?” Rainbow was confused at her little friend’s change of behavior. Flan looked at her again with the same expression before pointing to the side with her left wing. Rainbow raised an eyebrow at that, but when she looked at that direction, she saw Trixie approaching. Then it hit her. “Oh, so you heard me?” she asked. Flan nodded and turned her back at Rainbow with a ‘humph’. “Come on, Flan. She did a lot of stuff to Ponyville and to us too!" Rainbow tried to justify herself, "if you knew what she did, you would treat her the same way.” Flan kept her disappointed look on Rainbow, but soon after let out a tired sigh and lifted one finger. “A chance?” Rainbow asked, to which Flan responded with a nod. Rainbow smiled and tried to pet Flan, but the chibi vampire held up a hand to stop her. “Huh?” Rainbow was confused. Then Flan did a half turn to the left and jumped. A yelp was heard. Rainbow turned her head to see what happened just to see Trixie on the grass, holding Flan in her hooves. “You’re a playful thing, aren't you? But don’t surprise Trixie like that again. What would have happened if Trixie wasn’t so Great and Skillful to catch you?” Trixie said while resting on the ground, lifting Flan playfully over her face. Flan just looked at her with an equally playful smile. Rainbow wouldn’t admit it, but she was kind of jealous of just how cosy Flan was getting with Trixie. Starlight on the other hoof kept eyeing them cautiously from afar. She still didn’t trust Flan, but she didn’t know Twilight knew that thing either, and apparently something happened between them. Starlight had to discover what happened and if that could give her something to get Trixie away from the little thing. Rainbow’s ear flicked at a faint branching sound in the bushes behind her. Flan noticed the sound as well, wriggling out of Trixie’s grasp and started looking for something in the grass. Trixie got up and watched Flan curiously, “What are you looking for?” “Uu,” Flan said without stopping her searching. Trixie didn’t know what that meant, so she turned to Rainbow, “What did she say?” “I could tell you, but where’s the fun on that?" Rainbow shrugged, "and besides I don’t want to.” “Alright, alright. You don’t have to be rude about it.” “You already know what I think of you, so…” but Rainbow got interrupted by Flan placing a hand on her rainbow head, “eh…? Flan? What’s the deal here?” Then Flan started rubbing her head. Rainbow felt a little flustered at the intimate gesture, “Flan, I’m not complaining or anything here. Heck this feels kind of nice, but… can you keep it for another time?” Flan thought about it for a moment and a devious idea came to her mind. Suddenly Rainbow felt ticklish: Flan had moved fast and had begun tickling her barrel. With a yelp, she jumped back to get some distance, but her hoof collided with a very convenient placed stone and she ended up in the grass. Rainbow saw Flan floating over her, wiggling her fingers quite deviously. “Flan, don’t you dare.” Flan didn’t stop. Trixie watched Flan pounce upon the blue pegasus and couldn’t help smiling at their antics. “I swear to Celestia, if you tickle me you’re going to… hee… hee hee-hahahaha! Please! Hahahaha... stop!” Rainbow begged between laughts while Flan mercilessly tickled her. This continued for another painfully ticklish five minutes, Starlight and Trixie watching as Rainbow Dash was utterly owned by the two-legged chibi. Even the paranoid Starlight had to admit that it was a sight to be seen. “Well, that was certainly something,” Trixie said as a very satisfied Flan hopped off a heavily panting pegasus. “Y-you’re awful, y-you know that r-right?” Rainbow said to Flan, who smugly looked at her and hold her chalkboard with something wrote on it. “You were being a jerk,” she said via the board. “Ok, ok. I got the message, jeez,” Rainbow let out a sigh and looked at Trixie, “I’m sorry, ok? Maybe I was being unfair with you, but you really messed up, you can’t deny that, Trixie.” She looked at Flan. “That’s good enough?” Flan shrugged. Trixie's expression couldn't be any flatter. “You’re terrible at apologizing, but Trixie knows better, so the Kind and Merciful Trixie will forgive you Rainbow Dash,” she said, smirking, "be grateful." Dash glanced sideways at Flan, “She still ticks me off.” Flan rolled her eyes, and then noticed another sound. Deciding it was time to get back to business, she picked up a sizeable pebble from the grass and threw it at the bushes. The bushes quickly shouted ‘Ow!’ in the recognizable voice of Twilight. “Twilight?" Rainbow's ears perked up, "what are you doing in the bushes?” “...Miau?” the voice in the bushes were trying very hard to sound convincing. Flan, Rainbow and Trixie frowned. Starlight facehooved. “Come on, Twi. We know you’re there.” “Miau, miau!” Flan was not amused, her eyes lighting up and extended one arm in front of her with her hand open. One second later, a purple alicorn quickly shot out of the bushes. “I’m out Flan, I'm out! Please don’t use Destroy!” Flan’s eyes went back to normal and crossed her arms with a serious expression. She didn’t like doing this to Twilight, but after what happened before, Flan had to keep the alicorn in check. This didn’t mean Flan didn’t trust Twilight: she understood that what happened was something out of Twilight’s control and in part was her fault too. But now she was worried about that pink pony named Starlight. She had the feeling that Starlight was going to do something dumb at some point, it wasn’t a matter of -if- but -when-. “'Destroy'? What is 'Destroy'?” Trixie asked. “Twilight your naming skills suck,” now it was Rainbow's turn to facehoove. “Emm… What is 'Destroy'?” Trixie asked, again. “Well, it’s still better than the name -you- wanted to give it, Rainbow,” Twilight retorted. “Um, excuse me? Hello??” Trixie started to wave a front leg to try and get their attention, but it was to no avail. “The Scarlet Stare of Death was an awesome name!” Rainbow insisted. “What is even going on right now?” Starlight asked, raising an eyebrow. “That name doesn’t even make sense! It’s misleading; Flan doesn’t blow up things just by looking at them!” Twilight stamped a hoof to prove her point. “She could do it if she wanted to!” Rainbow shouted back. Trixie and Starlight exchanged looks of utter confusion while Flan, expression deadpan, decided it was time for action before the ridiculousness got out of hand. *Slap x2* Flan slapped both Twilight and Rainbow on the back of the head with a giant paper fan, nearly sending them toppling face-first into the grass. Shaking their heads and grumbling as they came back to reality....and reality stared at them through Flan's angry eyes. “Sorry.” The two of them replied, sheepishly. “Oh thank you for stopping that nonsense,” Starlight thanked Flan on reflex...then remembered she was scared of her, "wait, why am I even -thanking- this thing?” “What is Destroy?” Trixie demanded, exasperated. “Why are you still here?” Rainbow snapped, still sore. “Hey! Don’t yell at her!” Starlight jumped to her friend's defense. “Why are we even yelling right now?” Twilight yelled. And thus Pointless Argument #2 began. Flan stared, utterly dumbfounded at the four ponies. Unhappiness fell over her as she massaged the bridge of her nose and walked away from the circle of yelling. Finding a good spot in the grass she sat down, she took out pen and paper from her dress pocket, and started writing a letter. With a serious expression, the first words she wrote were “Big Sis.” Chapter 4: The chapter where nothing really happens.Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.Chapter 5: Moving into the new house.As Twilight walked to the doors of her castle, she felt a disturbance on the magical force: it was a weird sensation that made her feel uneasy. ‘What just happened?’ she thought while looking in the direction she just came from, ‘something is not right… Please tell me Flan didn’t bite Starlight again?’ With that terrifying thought, she then hurried about in search of her (stalking) researching equipment. Rainbow was inside her room, in bed with the envelope that Remilia gave her open, the note resting on a bedside table, having read it quite a few times already she was deep in thought. Well it looked like that, but in reality, she was brimming with unexpressed excitement. She sat there for a few moments more before taking off, fetching her pet tortoise Tank and hugging him tightly, then landed back on her bed with her eyes closed and let out a contented sigh. “If I don’t mess this up, soon I’ll be ready for that test, Tank!” She let Tank go and sat up. “I have to give it my best. Remilia counts on me to look after Flan from the sidelines: she’s even paying me! She didn’t have to do that, but going against her will is not a good idea.” Tank just looked at her, smiling that loyal tortoise smile. “I mean, there’s nothing bad with that, those 1000 bits per week will come in handy for some things I plan to buy, but like I said, the help she’s willing to provide me if I do this right will prepare me better than any money would for the royal test.” Suddenly, Rainbow froze, a chill going down her spine. Something had happened, she didn’t know what, but she had an idea of what it could possibly be related to. Adopting a determined face, Rainbow got out of bed and flew out the closest window, in the direction of Trixie’s wagon. ‘Mission start!’ Meanwhile... Flan covered her blushing face with her tiny hands: she didn’t know how high-pitched her voice was in her chibi form. Then again she hadn’t been sure if she could speak at all while like this. Unfortunately, she was wrong about that and she let out the most squeaky voice ever. After some moments, the awkward silence in the area picked up her attention. Taking a curious peek from between her fingers, she noticed the two mares standing still with no recognizable expression on their faces. Flan tilted her head in confusion, wondering what happened to them. It was similar to the state in which Trixie was a few minutes ago, just without the silly grin. Remembering how Starlight got a reaction from Trixie, she shrugged and flew up to head-level before she slapped them both in the back of the head veeeeeeery gently, since hitting them with no restraint would hurt them very badly. “Wha…” a dizzy Trixie blinked. Starlight shook her head, “What happened?” Starlight didn’t look much better. Flan showed them her chalkboard, “You two spaced out.” “Really?” Starlight asked and Flan nodded in response. They thought about it for a moment. “I think I had a strange, yet adorable dream,” Trixie started and Flan froze, cheeks heating up once again. “What was it about?” “I heard Flan speak and she was so CUTE,” Trixie practically squealed, holding a hoof to her chest, “I felt as though my heart would explode… twice!” Flan deadpanned and showed Trixie her chalkboard, “Did you really have to say that?” “Yes I had,” Trixie simply stated and Flan rolled her eyes. “Well, what do we do now? It will be getting dark soon,” Starlight commented. Flan thought about it, then nodded and wrote something on her chalkboard and held it up for Trixie. After waving it in front of her face for a few seconds, Trixie took the hint and levitated the chalkboard from Flan’s hand before the chibi vampire went ‘poof’. Taboo: Four of a Kind. Four Flans appeared out of the little smoke cloud, each one showing a different expression: sadness, happiness, annoyance and indifference. Saying that Trixie and Starlight were impressed was an understatement. The Flans formed a line in front of Trixie and gave a salute. “Umm…” Trixie didn’t know what to do: she was taken by surprise. Then the happy looking Flan took a step forward and signaled the chalkboard. Trixie looked at it and then smiled sheepishly at the four adorable vampires, “Heh, sorry.” Starlight went to Trixie’s side to read the chalkboard, “Let’s buy a house?” She read it in question form for some reason, but the Flans nodded nonetheless. After that, the happy looking Flan turned around to look at the other three and pointed at the wagon then at Trixie. Trixie herself lifted a hoof to try and say something, but before she could, one of the Flans tied a rope on the front of the wagon and pulled it while the other two went behind and pushed. Starlight was going to question what they were doing, but before that, she saw the Flans move the wagon with no effort whatsoever. “Ok… unnatural strength, noted,” she said calmly. “Wait!” Trixie said, suddenly the others looked at her with confusion, “you!” She pointed at the sad looking Flan in the back of the wagon. “Come closer, please.” The specific Flan approached Trixie. Just to be quickly pulled into a tight hug by the magician mare, “You’re staying close to Trixie while we look for a house.” The other Flans and Starlight facepalmed/hoofed. “Let’s just… move on,” Starlight suggested, getting the approval of every Flan, even the one being squished by Trixie. With that everyone left the area and went towards Town Hall to see what houses were on sale. Nopony questioned how the Flans just casually pulled Trixie’s wagon through town: they were rather accustomed to weird stuff since their last addition to the neighborhood. Derpy even went out of her route to greet them. Being the owner of one herself, she wasn’t impressed by most things anymore, she just accept it as a normal everyday occurrence. Rainbow got back to the clearing, a second after Twilight appeared via teleportation, and the two looked at each other. “Did you felt that too?” the two said at the same time. They nodded and started looking around, but Starlight, Trixie and Flan weren’t anywhere around the area, even Trixie’s wagon was missing. “Where did they go?” Rainbow asked. Twilight thought about it, searching for any information that could help them in her mind. ‘Let’s see, Trixie is now in charge of Flan and just received a big amount of bits... Also Miss Remilia said they won’t be living in her wagon, so…’ She then looked at Rainbow and said aloud, “Town Hall.” “Town Hall?” “Yes, Town Hall. Trixie needs to buy a house, and every transaction goes through there. That has to be the place where they went.” “Let’s go then,” Rainbow said before quickly flying off. “Wait!” Twilight shouted, but Rainbow was out of hearing range by that point, she slowly lowered the hoof she had raised. She sighed, “I was going to teleport us there…” She then did just that for herself. Meanwhile... Trixie and company had just gotten their papers for their new house. Mayor Mare was kind of hesitant at first when she saw Trixie, but ‘sad’ Flan reassured her that everything was fine. “She was a little rude, don’t you think?” Trixie mentioned. “It’s disappointing to see ponies holding a grudge like that,” Starlight pointed out with a sad sigh. Trixie and the Flans just looked at her with unamused looks. Starlight took notice of this, “What?” “Nothing, nothing at all,” Trixie waved a dismissive hoof in her direction. Starlight was about to ask again, but the ‘happy’ Flan stopped her by shaking her head, meaning that it wasn’t worth the bother. Starlight took the hint and just sighed. When they turned the corner on the way their new house was, Rainbow flew over them overhead without noticing. “I was a little skeptical, but since she’s done nothing bad so far and having one of your otherworldly guests with her, I decided to comply in her request for a living place. Besides, she paid the full price for that two story house at the edge of the lake, which nopony wanted to buy for the longest time, it was quite the relief if I must say so myself,” Mayor Mare finished telling Twilight what happened just as Rainbow all but crashed through the doors. One big apology and a Twilit recap later, Rainbow got filled on what happened, “She likes to burn that money doesn’t she?” Twilight still couldn’t believe Trixie’s lack of money management, shaking her head, “It seems like it. There were more economic houses in better locations; why she chose that one spending more than half of what Miss Remilia gave her is beyond me.” “Well, at least we know where Flan would be from now on, that’s a plus in my book,” Rainbow prepared to fly away once again, but a lavender hoof stopped her. “What?” Rainbow asked in confusion. “I have an idea of where you’re going, but what do you intend to do there?” Twilight replied with a question herself. “Obviously I’m going to call Trixie on her-“ “Language!” “Jeez Twilight, you’re too picky, it’s not like there’s anyone here to listen or anything like that,” Rainbow complained, then she remembered something, “Oh… right…” Meanwhile... Once they arrived at their new home, Sad Flan freed herself from Trixie’s grasp and set out to explore the inside with the rest of the Flans. “You really had to buy this place? It was kind of pricey,” Starlight looked at her friend’s new abode. “Flan wanted this house for some reason. I can’t say no to her, just look how cute she is!” Trixie said the last part with some weird enthusiasm. “But you still need some furniture here.” “I know, thanks for stating the obvious,” Trixie nonetheless smiled at her friend, “but yes, especially for Flan. I have my personal belongings with me in the wagon, but she doesn’t have anything here.” Then some light in the second floor caught their attention. Arriving at the only room that was lit for some reason, they were greeted by a room covered in bright red coating. On one wall rested a long shelf with multiple stuffed animals carefully placed on top; next to it a big four door wardrobe that had an ancient design carved into its surface. In the center of the room was a queen-sized bed with red and black covers, the window next to it had some light yellow curtains, standing out sharply among the other colors. Next to the window were a couple of chairs and a single potted plant, healthy and green. The floor was adorned with a smooth blue carpet, not a speck of dust in sight. Finally, from the ceiling, a very expensive looking chandelier hung. The mares were slack-jawed. “Emm…” Trixie tried to say something when she heard some noise downstairs. Going down, they saw the Flans placing tables, chairs, a fridge, some cabinets, and decorations on the living room, kitchen, dining room, bathroom, etc. After some time, the Flans reunited outside and cleaned their foreheads of some non-existent sweat. Both mares stared down at the Flans with unreadable expressions, turned to look at one another...and shrugged. This wasn’t the weirdest thing that’s happened today, after all. “Uuu!” all four Flans suddenly ran out the front door. Curious, Starlight and Trixie followed them, looking in the direction that they saw all four Flans looking. The unmistakable color palettes of Twilight and Rainbow could be seen approaching just some meters away. Spellcard Cancel The Flans went ‘poof’ and after the smoke cleared, the original Flan stood there, looking greatly satisfied. She stretched some with a smile, faced Trixie, and with timid blush, she said “Twank you, Twixie!” Trixie and Starlight froze and a chill went down their spine after hearing that. “So… It wasn’t a dream…” Trixie said, at which Flan responded with shake of her head. Trixie dropped to the ground soon after, unable to take so much cuteness. Some feet away, just within earshot, two other bodies could be heard hitting the ground as well. Starlight, the only one who could resist the D’aww Attack, recovered enough to say, “You should be careful with that. It can be disastrous in the wrong situation.” Flan just shrugged and proceeded to pull the unconscious ponies inside the house, one at a time. Author's Note Weaponized cuteness always wins Chapter 6: Feeling.Twilight found herself sitting in her dining room with a simple toast and coffee breakfast in front of her. She blinked, once. Twice. “Wasn’t I going after Flan?” she asked herself, confused, “was that a dream?” No sign of Rainbow Dash or Stalight. Or Trixie for that matter. “Was I always this hungry?” The breakfast looked quite good, simple as it was: it would be a shame to let it go to waste. Her stomach rumbling was the deciding factor, in the end. She levitated the cup of coffee and was about to take a sip out of it- “Twilight, Twilight!” A familiar voice called for her. Turning her head in the direction of the voice, she saw a young girl standing beside her: she looked exactly like Flan, older. A teenager, from the looks of it. But that wasn’t right... “Uh… who are you?” Twilight asked. The girl tilted her head to the side, cutely, just like Flan would do whenever she got confused. “What do you mean, Twilight?” the girl said with a big smile, her enlarged canines revealing her vampire heritage, “I’m Flan!” “Oh no…” The realization came down on Twilight like a brick wall. Her coffee splattered against the floor, the cup shattering into a million pieces just before everything went to black. Meanwhile in the living room, Flan sat clad in her light blue pajamas, staring at Twilight. The purple alicorn lie twitching on the couch, a very distressed expression on her face, like she was having a nightmare. On the other hand, Rainbow lay at the other end of the couch, drooling like no one’s business with the silliest smile on her face. With a little yawn, Flan decided that they could stand to sleep a little longer and made her way towards the kitchen, dragging a teddy bear behind her. In the kitchen, she found Starlight with a yellow mug of coffee levitating in front of her, reading the newspaper. “Oh, good morning,” Starlight noticed Flan enter. Flan held up her chalkboard, “Good morning.” Starlight giggled with amusement while Flan rubbed more sleep out of her eyes. “Hey,” Starlight decided to ask something, now that she wasn’t terrified of the chibi-vampire, “why do you keep using the chalkboard? You can talk just fine.” Still groggy, Flan wasn’t sure if she got the question right and wrote an equally groggy response, “Yes, I’m hungry.” Top notch answer everypony. Starlight stared at the chalkboard with a dumbfounded expression. “But that wasn’t…” she sighed, realizing she wouldn’t be getting an answer like this, “go wash your face and wake up already. I’ll make you something.” Flan nodded with a sleepy smile and went to the bathroom. ‘Even if this is Trixie’s job, but she’s out cold like the other two,’ Starlight took a sip of her coffee, watching Flan’s retreating form, ‘might as well get used to this. I have the feeling that I’ll be visiting more often.’ Starlight put down her mug, got up, and looked for something to make for Flan. And their other guests, too, now that she thought about it- “Gah!” Twilight shot up into sitting position in her spot of the couch, breathing heavily as she put a hoof over her racing heart. Once her breathing had regulated itself, she looked around the room she was in, and obviously didn’t recognize it at all, in which a strong case of deja vu hit. That was until Starlight appeared from the doorway. “What happened Twilight? Are you okay?” Starlight asked, worried for her friend. “Starlight?” Twilight was still confused, looking around, “where are we?” “In Flan’s house,” Starlight pointed at Flan as she re-entered the room, face clean and eyes clear. Twilight looked at the vampire and received a friendly wave from her as she snatched up a slice of Starlight’s toast and began eating it like a chipmunk. Twilight stared at Flan for several seconds before suddenly tearing up. Before Starlight could ask what was wrong, Twilight jumped at Flan and pulled her into a tight hug. “Thank Celestia you’re okay!” Twilight cried while squeezing Flan. Flan didn’t know what to think of this, glancing over at Starlight, only to see the pinkish unicorn just as lost as she was right now. “Twilight? What happened” Starlight tried to get an answer from the distressed alicorn once again. “It… it was horrible…” Was the only answer Twilight gave while still rubbing her face against Flan’s cheek, disrupting her eating even further. “What was horrible?” Starlight was a little bit upset, not just because she had no context to the situation, but also because she just noticed that Flan had stolen her toast. “The-“ Twilight started, but was cut short by a grumpy azure colored pony. “What is all this noise in Trixie’s house at such early hour of the morning!?” a grumpy Trixie yelled from the stairs before approaching. Starlight just facehoofed. “Oh…” Trixie realized something. She looked at Twilight with narrowed eyes as she kept Flan in a tight hold. “Twilight? What are you doing in Trixie’s house and why are you hugging Trixie’s Flan?” Annoyance entered Trixie’s voice. “Unhoof her at once!” Obviously, Twilight didn’t take this well. “I don’t know why I’m here Trixie, but technically, this isFlan’s house, not yours,” not letting up on her grip, Twilight managed to keep a hold of Flan and glare at Trixie all in one go, “So don’t go giving orders to others when you’re not even the owner of the place. Besides, you’re speaking to royalty. I hope you know that there’s consequences to that if you keep it up.” “Oh, forgive me, your highness, but Trixie very much prefers unwanted guests to leave as soon as possible,” Trixie said, in a polite manner of speech laced with as much venom as possible. Flan did not approve of this budding argument, but she couldn’t do much without Rainbow awake to translate for her It didn’t help that her current position prevented her from using her chalkboard. Fortunately Starlight had something to say. “Calm down you two,” the pinkish unicorn put herself between the two rivals, “let’s not say something we would regret later. Besides, didn’t you make up already? What happened to that?” “Trixie was sincere, but this mare still didn’t accept Trixie, so Trixie’s not willing to back off anymore,” Trixie was getting angry. “Oh please,” Twilight was already there, glaring holes into the blue unicorn, “everypony knows you’re a trickster and a liar Trixie. You only apologized because it was convenient for you.” She narrowed her eyes. “Remilia’s not here, so I’m going to say it: I don’t accept you as Flan’s foalsitter either. You don’t have what it takes to take care of her.” Trixie stared in heartbroken shock at the revelation. Starlight couldn’t believe Twilight, of all ponies, would say such a thing and, opened her mouth to defend her best friend- *Slap* Shocked, Twilight reared back, putting a hoof to her now red and pained cheek. Before her, Flan floated with angry, teary eyes. “...Flan?” Twilight tried to apologize. But Flan only gave one last disappointed look before she turned her back and flying to her room. Soon after, they heard a door slam on the second floor. “Flan, wait!” Twilight was about to go after her, but Trixie blocked the way. “Get out of our house,” Trixie said in a monotonous voice trying to restrain herself from losing it. “Move, Trixie, I need to-” Twilight was cut by another slap, heavier this time with the weight of a hoof. “Get out of our house!” Trixie looked ready to unleash her anger on Twilight at any moment now. Mouth open, but no sound coming out, Twilight saw Starlight going at Trixie’s side. “Starlight?” “It’ll be better if you go back to the castle, Twilight,” the dissapointment in her voice was obvious, “you’ve done enough.” “But-” “Twilight, please leave, before I have to force you,” Starlight was doing a big effort to sound calm and composed in this stressful moment, “I still consider you a friend, so please don’t make me kick you out, because I don’t want to.” Twilight looked at the two for a moment, the tense silence making it easy to hear Flan crying. This broke their hearts in so many levels. “Go to her,” Starlight told Trixie and signaled with her head towards the stairs, “she needs you.” Trixie nodded. “I know, but she better not be here by the time I come back,” the venom in Trixie’s voice was thick before she turned and went upstairs. Starlight just had to look at Twilight for the princess to back off, her self control was basically out of the question right now “Please. Go.” Twilight, with the heavy weight of guilt on her shoulders and a broken heart, used her magic to teleport away. Not soon after, Starlight turned and headed upstairs. And through it all, Rainbow slept like a log, dead to the world. Meanwhile, a worried mare galloped through Ponyville. ‘Flan, Ah’ don’t know what happened, but Ah’m gonna help ya, promise,’ Applejack thought as she searched for Flan, worried as to why Flan didn’t come to the farm as she promised. A pain in her chest made her worry even more: she knew that something bad had just happened. Author's Note Poor Flan Chapter 7: Cheering up, or at least trying to.Author's Note This chapter is patrocined by Flan pocking her head out of the covers, because we all need a cuteness heart attack every once in a while. Flan is sowwy! Chapter 7: Cheering up, or at least trying to. Spike was a little worried when Twilight didn’t come back the day before. Fortunately, Flan came to tell him she was going to spend the night at her place. He planned on visiting later, after he finished sweeping the floor. He missed spending time with Flan, but for now he was just waiting for Twilight to come back. "....When did Flan get her own house?” he found himself asking nopony in particular, broom temporarily forgotten. Talk about your delayed reactions. Spike just shrugged, deciding to get to whole story when he went over to visit. It was then that the doors to the castle swung open with a -bang- and Twilight galloped past him, in the direction to her room, with tears on her eyes. “That can’t be good,” eyes wide, Spike went after her. The second she passed the threshold, Twilight locked herself in her room, practically diving atop her bed, sobbing. ‘H-how did this happen?’ She buried her face in her pillow, Flan's reaction continuing to replay itself over and over in her mind. ‘Why did I lose my temper there? Flan… I didn’t think about her at all… what is wrong with me? How could I done that to her… I could’ve handled that situation in a better way…’ She heard knocking at her door, interrupting her internal self-torture, “Twilight, what happened?” “Leave me alone Spike!” Twilight cried. “....If that’s really what you want, I’ll do it Twilight, but if something is wrong, you know that you can talk to me, right?” “Sorry Spike…” “Don’t worry, I’ll be cleaning the library if you need me.” As she heard the sound of footsteps grow fainter and fainter, Twilight finally lifted her face off her pillow. ‘Thank you, Spike,’ Twilight felt a little better knowing that somepony was here for her right now, ‘I’ll let him know what happened after I organize my thoughts. I just hope he won’t be too upset with me.’ Meanwhile, Trixie stood outside Flan’s new room. She had seen Flan cry and she knew she'd never get used to it. She felt like a stake was being driven through her heart, repeatedly. And that just made her even angrier at Twilight. ‘How dare that mare make Trixie’s little Flan cry,' it took the blue unicorn a minute or two to wipe the scowl off her face, 'now is not the time for that. Flan needs Trixie.’ Trying to hide her anger behind a determined stare, Trixie knocked on the door. When she got no answer, she tried the knob and, surprisingly, the door was unlocked. Slowly Trixie made her way to the bed side, where she saw the curled up form of her little vampire under the covers. “Flan?” Flan’s form twitched slightly, slowly crawling out just enough to poke her head out of the covers and look at Trixie. It was heartbreaking for Trixie to look at that face, the tears coming out of those pure scarlet eyes, the sobbing and just her sad expression in itself. Trixie stared back with a light blush and quivering lips, but not for the reason you would think. ‘S-she’s so cute! I want to hug her so much!’ She then nearly slapped herself, ‘What am I thinking!? I have to cheer her up! But she’s so cute!’ “Ahhh! What is wrong with me!?” Trixie grabbed her head in exasperation, ruffling her mane before settling down. Flan just stared at her. Trixie lifted her head to look at Flan for a moment, then adopted a determined stare and quickly darted out of the room...just to come back almost a minute after with her magician outfit on. ‘I hope this works.’ Trixie cleared her throat. “Behold! As the Great and Powerful Trixie attempts the greatest acts ever seeing by pony eyes!” Trixie proceeded to do a variety of tricks, but due to her nervousness and simple lack of planning, every single one ended up terrible. While juggling, she tossed one of the balls so high that it bounced on the ceiling and hit her in the head. When she tried a card trick, she shuffled them wrong and all the cards fell on the carpet. Finally, when she tried to spawn flowers on her hat, only for smoke to come out. With each consecutive failure, her mood was worsened bit by bit; with the last trick failing, she threw her hat to the side, and then sat on her rump looking down in shame. Flan looked at her, sympathetically, and got out from under the covers. Hopping off the bed, she slowly made her way closer to Trixie, which is when she noticed the sobs. “Flan, I’m sorry,” Trixie said suddenly, “I…I can’t even do this right…” She covered her teary eyes with her hooves. “T…Twilight was right… I don’t have what it takes to take care of you.” Shortly after, she felt something stroking her head, and looked up to see Flan in front of her with a sad smile. She was the one stroking her mane and also had her hat on the free hand. “Twixie, Twixie good, don’t cwy?” Flan made the effort of saying that in her current voice. “Heh heh, you’re adorable Flan, thank you…” Trixie smiled back, “thank you so much…” Trixie then hugged her little vampire, who took advantage of this and put Trixie’s hat on its rightful place. Flan then rubbed Trixie’s back to make her feel better. This continued for a couple more minutes before they let go of one another, both calmed down. “Heh, Trixie was supposed to make you feel better, Flan, but you made Trixie feel better instead,” a hint of disappointment could be heard in Trixie’s voice. But Flan shook her head while smiling. Then wrote something on her chalkboard and showed it to Trixie: “That’s not true. You made me feel better. You just tripped a little here and there. Thank you Trixie.” Trixie giggled, “Trixie is not that good but thank you, Flan.” Flan gave her a thumbs up. Then a round of knocking came to the door. “Uuu!” Flan said to whoever was on the door. “Starlight, if that’s you, she said ‘come in’” Trixie translated, perfectly. Starlight was indeed outside the door, but Rainbow was the one who entered first. “Wait, Trixie you can understand Flan now?” Rainbow asked in disbelief. Just now, Trixie noticed that as well, “I…I did understand her… but how?” Starlight turned to the pony who understood Flan first, “Rainbow Dash, what happened when you were able to understand her for the first time?” Rainbow went stock still before saying, hurriedly, “I…I don’t remember.” Seeing as how she was suddenly sweating, Trixie and Starlight stared at her, suspiciously. But before any weird conclusion would be made, Flan showed the two of them her chalkboard, “We were playing and Rainbow was practicing one of her aerial stunts, then…” A panicked Rainbow Dash snatched the chalkboard from Flan’s hands and erased what was written with her fetlock. “Hey! Trixie wanted to read that!” Trixie complained. Starlight had managed to read the whole thing, but kept silent because apparently that was a big deal for Rainbow. Still she had her muzzle scrunched by the silliness alone. “Flan! Don’t go telling ponies about that!” Rainbow was flustered. Flan waved a dismissive hand in her direction, as Trixie kept complaining. Applejack, after looking for Rainbow the whole morning without success, decided to go to Twilight’s castle in search for Flan. She was a little surprised when she found Twilight and Spike leaving the castle, Spike being with this look of annoyance. After asking what happened, Spike explained everything and Twilight, recognizing the look in Applejack's eyes, tried to escape...only to be wrapped by a wild rope, tying her up in a way that prevented movement. Twilight felt a weird sense of déjà vu coming over her. Midday Ponyville was greeted with a peculiar view: Princess Twilight tied up and being dragged by her friend Applejack. “Applejack, Spike. Stop this! I’m not ready yet!” They ignored her. “Nope, yer not escaping this one Twilight," Applejack shook her head, Spike mimicking the motion from atop her back, "ya’ll going to apologize ta them right now, no excuses." In her worried state, Twilight forgot she could use magic, but then again, she’s not the brightest pony ever when it comes to stress. Chapter 8: Clutz Central.Rainbow got filled on what happened while she was sleeping downstairs. She shook her head and facehoofed, “It had to be Twilight, of course,” she groaned, “she never learns, does she?” Trixie wasn’t amused, “That’s a little hypocritical of you to say after the way you treated Trixie before.” “Wait a minute there, Trixie,” Rainbow put up a hoof defensively, “I apologized at least. Doesn’t that count for something?” Trixie faked an offended expression, but then opened one eye to look at Rainbow sideways, “Well, yes. That does count for something and Flan would be mad at Trixie if Trixie were to hold a grudge against you. Besides what Twilight did is dozens of times worse.” “You’re right Trixie, but I can’t help but feel bad for her,” Starlight added sadly, but quickly changed to a more neutral tone, “don’t get me wrong, I’m angry and disappointed of her, but she’s still my friend.” Flan looked down: she thought if maybe she overreacted earlier. A reassuring hoof was placed on her shoulder. “Don’t feel bad Flan, we will fix all of this,” Rainbow said with an encouraging tone. Flan looked up and gave her a smile. She nodded to herself and started to go to the door of her room. “Where are you going?” Starlight asked with confusion. “Uuu!” Flan said and threw an arm forward directing them to follow her. “What? Right now?” Trixie and Rainbow said in unison. “Wait, what did she say?” Starlight asked to the blue duo. Flan left the room and the two blues hurried after her, Trixie faced a confused Starlight before leaving, “She wants to find Twilight.” It took Starlight a moment to process that. “Hey! Wait for me!” Applejack didn’t know where Flan’s house was, so she ended up dragging Twilight all over the town. At this point Twilight didn’t even care anymore, “Are we done yet?” “It could be done faster if ya told me where ta find Flan’s house, Twilight,” Applejack still looked around for any clues. “Well, I can’t do that. Because if I do, you’re going to drag me there,” Twilight explained. “Why are ya so stubborn? Just apologize ta them. They’re our friends,” Applejack sounded rather annoyed. Twilight took offense of that “Did you just really said that to me, Applejack?” “It’s the truth; ya're being stubborn an' childish.” “Oh, well then, let me ask you something,” Twilight who managed (with a lot of effort) to let her forelegs free from the rope dug her hooves into the ground, forcing Applejack to stop walking and face her, “you said ‘they’re our friends’. I assume that includes Trixie as well?” “Ah… well…” Applejack stuttered. “Ha! See?” Twilight pointed an accusatory hoof in Applejack’s direction, “I’m not the only one who doesn’t accept Trixie.” Applejack huffed and averted her gaze, “So what? Ah’ wouldn’t mind being Trixie’s friend if that makes Flan happy. Why can’t ya leave that grudge of yers behind?” “Because she’s obnoxious and annoying,” Twilight crossed her legs in protest. Applejack raised an eye-brow, “Ya said the same thing about our new friend, but ya were the first ta befriend her, Twilight.” Now it was Twilight’s turn to stutter. “Oh… well… y-you know… I don’t…” Finally, she threw her hooves up in frustration, “argh! Alright, I get! I’ll apologize, ok? Can you untie me now? It’s quite uncomfortable to be like this, and the dirt on my coat is starting to itch.” Applejack eyed her suspiciously, looking for a sign of dishonesty, her gaze diverted slightly to something behind Twilight in the distance. Closing her eyes she nodded. “Ok, Ah’ll untie ya Twilight. Y’all will see how this was the right choice.” With her teeth, she took a hold of the knot and pulled, breaking its hold Twilight, freeing the lavender Alicorn once again. But before she could go, AJ had a question on her mind, “Tell me, why didn’t ya just teleport away when I tied ya up?” “It flew over my head at first, but when the idea came to me I realized I was in contact with the rope, the rope was in contact with you, if I teleported I’d have dragged you with me," Twilight deadpanned. “Can’t ya teleport only yerself?” “That’s not how teleportation works Applejack,” Twilight, then ignited her horn, “but now I’m free, in that case… so long!” She planned to show off by teleporting after turning around all dramatic style, but upon turning she saw two scarlet orbs staring at her soul. “Howdy Flan!” she heard Applejack greet the chibi vampire, cheerfully. Flan waved at her before focusing on the sweating and paralyzed Alicorn, slowly licking the tip of her thumb and index finger. Slowly she brought her hand to Twilight’s horn and pressed those fingers on it, the magic disappeared off the horn before making a hissing sound. After letting it go, the horn expelled a trail of smoke, pretty much like when you put off a candle. Then Flan pointed a finger at the ground with a stern expression. Twilight, as if it was a natural instinct, sat down, her face still frozen on indifferent shock. Flan smiled and patted her head a few times. Spike just watched as this whole situation happened. “I didn’t know Twilight had dog instincts,” he pointed out. Rainbow decided to fetch a cloud for herself and got closer, “Hey Flan what else can Twi-dog do?” she asked, barely containing her laugher. Flan showed her chalkboard, “Try something. She would probably do it.” “Really?” Rainbow asked getting a nod from Flan just as Trixie and Starlight finally caught up, “cool!” Rainbow tapped her chin in thought. “Let’s see if this works.” She looked at Twilight, “Twilight!” She got the attention of the inexpressive mare. “Back flip!” Surprisingly, Twilight did a back flip. “Oh my gosh, she really did it!” Rainbow said before falling backwards into her cloud, laughing. “What happened to her?” Starlight asked, but everyone shrugged. Applejack looked at Twilight critically, “Hmm…” she squinted, “down girl.” Twilight lied down. Trixie giggled amusingly, “Trixie has to say this is a fitting position for her to be in.” Flan showed Trixie her chalkboard, “Don’t go overboard.” “Rest assured Flan, Trixie would never do something like that,” Trixie tried to be reassuring. But Flan didn’t believe that one bit; she would be ready in case something strange showed up though. Trixie cleared her throat, “Twilight! Roll over.” Twilight rolled once on the ground. “Stand up.” Twilight got up. “Left hoof,” Trixie extended her hoof. Twilight put her left hoof on top of Trixie’s. “Right hoof.” Twilight withdrew her left hoof and then put her right hoof. “Spread wings.” Twilight spread her wings. “Retract wings.” Twilight retracted them. “Speak!” “Books!” Twilight said. Silence followed for a good three minutes. “Trixie made a mistake,” she looked at Flan, “fix her please.” Flan nodded, put one of her hands close to Twilight’s ear and then snapped her fingers, soon after Twilight shook her head rapidly a few times before looking around. “Wha…” Her eyes focused on Flan. “GAH!” Flan rolled her eyes. “Sorry…” Twilight said by force of habit. Flan sighed and showed her chalkboard, “Twilight, I’m still mad at you for what you did.” “Flan, I’m…” Twilight tried to speak, but Rainbow landed in front of her. “Shh! Let her finish,” Rainbow said with a frown. Flan gave her a thankful nod and rewrote on her chalkboard, “But you’re my friend. I overreacted. I'm sorry for lashing out the way I did.” Twilight was about to say something, but stopped herself. Flan handed her chalkboard to Rainbow, stepped in front of Twilight with open arms, and she smiled sympathetically. Twilight returned the smile and softly yet firmly she put her legs around Flan, bringing her closer to her for a hug. “D’aww…” Everypony else said, including Rainbow and Spike. “T-thank you Flan… I-I don’t deserve your friendship after everything I've done…” Twilight said between sobs. Flan patted Twilight’s back in support. After a while they broke the embrace, Flan took her chalkboard back from Rainbow and wrote something else, “There’s still one last thing you have to do Twilight.” Flan smiled brightly. Trixie sat at Flan’s side smiling as well. “Alright, I understand,” Twilight sighed as she faced the smug looking unicorn, “Trixie, I shouldn’t have told you the things I did…” Trixie only nodded. “I acted on jealously; I couldn’t accept that you were the one chosen as Flan’s foalsitter instead of me," Twilight continued, "I thought I had all the answers, I got obsessed to the point where I forgot about the most important thing…” “And that is?” Trixie asked, her smug look dropped for a more serious one. “Flan’s feelings,” Twilight was the only one supposed to say that, but everypony say it alongside her. Trixie smiled, but it was sincere this time, “Good answer.” She put a hoof on Twilight’s withers. “Trixie forgives you.” “Thank you, Trixie.” Starlight went and gave Twilight a sideways hug, “I’m proud of you Twilight.” Twilight was rather resilient to compliments right now though, “I should have known better, honestly. But thank you anyways.” “You’re probably right,” Starlight started as she fired up her horn, not a second after a silly pink magician hat spawned on Twilight’s head, “you have to prepare for the show.” “Wait, what?” Twilight was sincerely confused. “Your punishment," Starlight said, non-chalantly, "you didn’t expect to make a scene like that and just go off with a simple apology did you?” “Punishment? Nopony said anything about that.” “Oh, that’s because it was my idea,” Starlight acted playfully. Flan patted Twilight on the back with a look that said ‘Good luck, you’re gonna need it.’ “W-what is this about?” Twilight felt something off about this. “But of course, you’re going to be Trixie’s assistant on today’s magic show,” Starlight pointed at the crowded stage in the distance, “have fun!” Twilight’s ears dropped, “Oh, horse apples.” The rest of the day was spent seeing Trixie performing proudly and Twilight trying to put up a show and failing. It annoyed her at first, but she started to get a kick out of it and at the end of the day, even if it was awful, she enjoyed performing for town and her friends. But Flan stole the show by popping out of a cardboard box at the center of the stage wearing fluffly ears, blushing, holding a sign with a cute heart drawn on it and finally she said, “Flan woves you!” That was a magical moment and amazing as well, seeing hundreds of ponies hitting the ground in unison by those three simple and straightforward words was incredible. It was a good day indeed. Chapter 9: Breakfast at Flan'sSomething has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.Chapter 10: Caffeine Craze!Rainbow quickly stepped outside. “Flan, Flan!” she called out loud while looking around frantically. Twilight followed, “Rainbow, please calm down!” A few strands of mane poking out, showing her own nervousness. “We have to find her Twilight and quick!” Rainbow yelled back. Starlight joined the conversation, “Why are you in such a rush? Yes, she’s in hyper mode due to the caffeine, but what’s the worst that can happen? We already saw that she’s still herself,” she pointed out. “Have you ever seen a hyper active foal before, Starlight?” Rainbow asked with a deadpan expression. With confusion pretty much present in her features, Starlight said, “Emm… not really. I don’t really have that much experience with foals.” Showing a small frown, Rainbow looked at her, “That’s what I thought.” Then, she looked at Twilight, “I’m off to find her Twi, get your act together before something bad happens.” With that, Rainbow took off at full speed. “Rainbow, wait!” Twilight yelled in hopes of stopping her, but Rainbow was already too far away. Though deep down she knew Rainbow wouldn’t stop. Nopony noticed Fluttershy leaving or approaching by that matter, as she heard the commotion from a distance she knew she had to help and swiftly left. “Flan! Wait!” Derpy tried desperately to stop Flan, who at this point took her mailbag and went all over the place. Flan on the other hand was having a lot of fun doing Derpy’s job, a bit too much fun to be precise. Multiple mailpost have been broken. Derpy looked at the massacre and shed a single tear as she hugged her hat, “Poor things, they had so much to live for.” “Hey!” a random mare yelled at her to get her attention, “Stop daydreaming and stop her!” “Eh… me? But…” Derpy tried to catch a glimpse of the barely visible vampire still going rampant, “I’ll try!” with determination in her heart she flew towards her hyperactive friend. “Flan, wait!” She called for the little vampire, this apparently worked as Flan stopped and turned to see her flying her way. In her over energetic state she smiled happily while opening her arms as if asking for a hug. Derpy looked relieved and went ahead for the hug. Only for Flan to go poof at the last second, causing Derpy to totally miss her and crash in some bushes. Taboo: Four of a kind. Four Flans appeared after the small smoke cloud dissipated. Normally each would show a different emotion, but this time it was less noticeable. Three of them looked almost the same, with just minor differences. These three flied off, leaving one that looked like she was having a headache. After shaking her head, the one left behind turned to the bushes and digged Derpy from them, other than having a few small sticks and leaves in her mane and fur she didn’t saw any injuries. Sighing in relief this Flan with rather sad eyes smiled. Derpy groaned and brought a hoof to her head, “Ouchies… what happened?” she asked to no one in particular. “Uuuh,” Flan replied to her. Shaking her head a bit, Derpy looked at the sad looking Flan, “Flan? Are you ok now?” Sad Flan shaked her head and pointed towards the central plaza. Derpy looked that way to see three barely visible red dressed shapes going crazy all over there. “No! Not my flowers!” Daisy screamed in despair as one of the Flan was overly watering her beloved flowers. “Hmm,” Derpy tried to say something but couldn’t find the right word. Meanwhile sad Flan deadpanned at the overly dramatic display. “Hey come back here with that candy!” Then, they heard Bon Bon yelling and chasing another Flan that was peeling off some type of round hard candy, swiftly throwing the paper on a trashcan close by, before continuing their silly chase. Sad Flan nudged Derpy to get her attention and flew towards Bon Bon’s candy shop with Derpy following behind. They found Lyra walking out with a worried expression. “Bonnie, calm down!” She screamed to her friend still furiously chasing the candy eating Flan. She let out a sigh, “Why does she never listens?” Lyra then took notice of another Flan and Derpy approaching, “Wait, Flan? How are you here when you’re there?” she pointed at the one chased by Bon Bon, “And there?” then at the one in Daisy’s shop, “And eeeeh…” she started thinking she was going crazy. But some headpats from sad Flan brought her back to reality. “Lyra are you ok?” Derpy asked with worry. Lyra slightly shook her head to clear her mind, “Yeah, I’m good now. Why is there four of you though? Flan” Sad Flan picked up a stick and wrote on the something on the ground, “It’s a skill,” getting an ‘oooh’ from Lyra. “What happened in the shop, though?” Derpy wanted to know what the chased Flan did, hoping it wasn’t something bad. “Well…” Lyra started, “That Flan Bonnie is chasing entered the shop and before we noticed she took some candy. Bonnie just had about a second to catch a glimpse of her, so she thought that Flan stole the candy.” Derpy gasped, “Did she?” Lyra shook her head, “No, Bonnie didn’t saw it, but that Flan left enough bits for the candy she took. It would have been better if she made us know she paid to avoid all this, but at least she didn’t stole anything.” “Flan!” a new voice quickly approached the area. The mischievous Flans looked at its direction. They saw Rainbow landing in the middle of the road, soon after a purple flash popped up beside her, revealing Twilight. Everyone blinked at the whole situation. “Emm…” Twilight awkwardly started. Rainbow just sat down on her hind legs and opened her front legs as if wanting a hug, while smiling warmly. Twilight didn’t know what to make of that, “Rainbow, what are-“ but before long, three red blurs tackled Rainbow to the ground getting an audible “Oof” out of the prismatic mare. “Oww…” Rainbow grunted, “I know I asked for it, but you could have held back a bit…” The three identical vampires got off her and floated around playfully. “Stop right there, give me back the candy you stole!” Bon Bon ran towards them. “Stole?” Twilight asked with a lifted brow to the three Flans. “STOLE!?” Trixie’s voice resounded, making Twilight jump a bit. “Trixie don’t scream in my ear, you scared the feathers out of me!” Twilight complained with a scowl. “Sorry Twilight, but when Trixie hears such hearsay then Trixie shall do something about it!” Trixie yelled back, “YOU!” Trixie pointed at Bon Bon. “You dare accuse my dear Flan of stealing!?” Trixie frowned at the mere idea. “Yeah! I want the candy that thing stole, back!” Bon Bon on her anger replied. “Thing…” the three mares with the Flans murmured. “Oh-oh,” Derpy had a very bad feeling. “Bonnie wait!” Lyra got in the middle of the situation. “Go away Lyra, I’m gonna get my candy back!” Bon Bon stomped on the dirt. “But Flan didn’t stole anything!” Lyra stomped back, “I’ve been trying to tell you, she left the bits in the corner. You just didn’t see them before jumping to conclusions.” “What? When? Why didn’t she wait before running off then!?” Now all of Bon Bon’s anger turned to confusion. “That may have been Starlight’s fault for giving Flan coffee,” Trixie started, “That aside, Trixie thinks you just called Flan a thing, is that correct?” Her tone of voice being strangely calm. “Yes, I think that’s what she did,” Twilight joined. “Yup, Bon Bon messed up yeah,” then Rainbow joined. Bon Bon started retreating slowly as she gulped, the three mares in front of her having intimidating auras. Before anything could happen sad Flan floated in front of them and held an arm with her palm open to stop them. The mares with killing intent suddenly changed to warm and caring. “Do you need something, Flan?” Trixie smiled brightly, the other two nodding behind her. Sad Flan then pointed in the opposite direction. Upon turning they saw the other three Flans flying away in the distance. “Oh…” they said in unison. Sad Flan rolled her eyes. They started to chase them, “Trixie is not done with you! Mark Trixie’s words!” Trixie Threatened as she ran away with the others. 3 Hours Later. No matter how much they tried, the Flans didn’t seem to slow down, they as energetic as they have ever been. Unfortunately the same couldn’t be said about the three mares chasing them. “H-How are they still going?” Twilight was trying to reason this, as she tried to catch her breath. “Really, Twilight? After all we have been through do you think Flan has normal stamina?” Rainbow said while lying on a cloud. “We gotta hoof it to Trixie though, she doesn’t surrender easily,” she added with a laugh. “Please come here…” Trixie was still trying to catch the three Flans, her body was crying for her to stop, but she still continued. The Flans just circled and slightly dodged her every time Trixie tried to grab them. Rainbow then noticed somepony was missing, “Where is the last one?” “Girls~” Fluttershy’s soft voice made act of presence followed by the pony herself with sad Flan on her back, “I came with some drinks and snacks. I’m sure you must be hungry after playing so much, please come over and rest a little, please?” That picked the interest of the hyperactive Flans, they then flew over to Fluttershy while avoiding Trixie one last time making her face plant in the dirt. Fluttershy gave a motherly smile, “Can you help me set up?” she asked the Flan on her back getting a positive nod from her. Sad Flan took out a picnic sheet from Fluttershy saddle bags and both of them set a box of cookies and cups with drinks from a thermo. The Flans took a cup each and looked at Fluttershy. “Enjoy~” She smiled warmly. All the Flans took a sip and gave a satisfactory sigh, this made them calm down. They enjoyed the snacks and had an overall good. After that they were quite relaxed and just decided to rest around Fluttershy and then… Poof! With a poof the four Flans were gone leaving only an adorable sleeping one on Fluttershy’s side. “Enjoy your nap, Flan,” Fluttershy cooed to the sleeping vampire, “And that is how you do it.” She said to the others, who had their jaws hanging open before falling backwards and grunting in annoyance. The afternoon was spent doing the groceries and playing in Sweet Apple Acres when Flan woke up. Meanwhile Trixie spent that time trying to learn how to make herbal tea for the future. Chapter 11: Happy Birthday!Author's Note Happy Birthday my beloved Angel, I love chu so much Chapter 11: Happy Birthday! Starlight noticed the faint sunlight going through the curtains of her room, telling her it was time to wake up. She didn’t want to, since the last few days were quite strange for her liking, the new responsibilities that came with taking care of a certain little vampire was something she wasn’t prepared to tackle. Especially when it was her friend’s job to take care of Flan and not hers. She slowly opened her eyes, knowing she had to go downstairs and prepare breakfast, “You could have waited ten more minutes, princess,” she told to the sunlight from the window. After her mental prayers for a more normal day, her mind wandered a bit at the recent events. How all of this started when she bumped on the little vampire on her way to the mines, how painful the subsequent bite was and how angry she was at Flan. But then as she spent time with Flan to help Trixie out, the little interactions and bonding moments she and the others were part of. An image of a happy smiling Flan flashed for a brief moment, bringing a smile of her own, “I guess it hasn’t been that bad after all, heh,” she remained in bed watching the ceiling, “it’s way harder than just being a princess’ student, but I don’t regret being here. Well, enough self reflection, time to make breakfast,” she sat and stretched her limbs when suddenly her ears caught a subtle sound coming from downstairs. “What is that?” clanking sounds and shuffling around were prominent, “more importantly, how did I miss it?” after a moment she shrugged, “I guess it wouldn’t be Flan’s home is something weird didn’t happen.” With that she jumped off bed and made her way downstairs. On her way there she noted that the noise was coming from the kitchen, poking her head on the doorway she saw Flan sitting at the kitchen counter munching on some leftover cookies from Fluttershy’s meal the day before. She was also watching Trixie trying to do… something. “Hmm… Trixie what are you doing?” “Gah!” the focused mare let out a surprised yelp and quickly turned around, “oh Starlight, good morning… hehe, I was just hmm… making some breakfast, yeah!” she said very convincingly as Flan waved at Starlight in a friendly manner. Looking behind her friend Starlight saw the unspeakable horror of Trixie’s craft, “I see that, yeah…” then looked at Flan, “Good morning, Flan. I’ll make you something in a minute, just let me fully wake up first.” Trixie relaxed a bit not being the center of attention, until Starlight pointed at her. “As for you, Trixie. Clean all this mess,” Starlight ordered. “Oh come on Starlight, Trixie didn’t do that bad!” Trixie whinned. “You managed to put water inside fire somehow, how did you even do that!?” Starlight asked in exasperated confusion. Trixie lifted a hoof as if to explain but then nothing popped up in her mind, “Emm… Trixie has no idea…” After a nice breakfast, caffeine free this time, Flan went outside to feed the few birds that nested close to the house. Meanwhile Trixie begrudgingly cleaned the big mess she made in the kitchen, feeling sympathetic for her friend Starlight went to help Trixie after sighing. “Next time ask me for help Trixie, ok?” Starlight said as she tried to unstick some unknown substance from the oven. “Trix…” Trixie sighed, “I thought I could at least do this for Flan, you know? Make her a good meal to start the day in a positive way,” hints of sadness present in her voice as she cleaned the counter. Starlight gave Trixie a sideways hug, “I know what you mean, even I warmed up to her despite our unfortunate meeting, but you don’t have to try and do everything on your own if you’re unsure Trixie, you can rely on me to help. After all we both want Flan to be happy,” they both looked out the window and saw Flan talking with Fluttershy, the latter giving a gentle wave to them which they returned. “Hmm…” Starlight rubbed her chin on thought, “what if we prepare her a good lunch together Trixie? How does that sound?” She proposed. Trixie let out a giggle, “Sounds good to Trixie.” “Oh, so you want me to help with that, Flan?” Fluttershy asked receiving a nod from Flan. “Alright, I’m not the best at it, but I can do it,” Flan then hugged her thankfully. Fluttershy then left with a wave and smile. Soon after Flan saw Starlight leaving the house with her saddlebacks. “Oh, did Fluttershy leave?” Flan nodded, “Ok, I’m going to Twilight’s, if something happens come let me know, alright?” “Uuuu(I will, have a nice day)” Flan held a fist on her chest confidently. Starlight just stood there staring at the small vampire, ‘did she just…’ she shook her head some, “Ok, I’ll see you later, Flan.” With this said Starlight left aswell. Trixie was sitting on the living room with a cold towel over her eyes, she tend heard the door open and poked an eye out, she saw Flan coming back in. “Uuu,” Flan sounded a bit worried. “It’s ok Flan, Trixie is ok. But next time I will avoid doing five things at once in the kitchen,” Trixie said regretfully. “Still, we a couple hours before lunch, is there something you want to do Flan?” Flan thought for a moment and then nodded. In the Central Plaza, Flan was looking for a particular store, but there was no luck. “What are you looking for, Flan?” Trixie asked, sensing the annoyance in Flan’s behavior. Flan pointed her ever helpful chalkboard to Trixie, while still thinking. “Magic props? Like magic canes and hats?” Flan looked at her and nodded giving her a hopeful look. “Well, Trixie doesn’t think there are anything like that on Ponyville, seeing as how Rarity’s boutique is the main source of costumes for festivities. Magic props aren’t very popular around here, the few that could possibly be here are made by order. I have some because of my work, but if you’re looking for a magic wand I don’t think I have one, never found a good trick to play out with one,” the news were a bit of a disappointment for Flan but nodded thankfully regardless. Not having any other options, Flan took a piece of paper out of her pocket, wrote something on it and used the low rank spell material transfer to send it to Patchy. “What was that?” Trixie didn’t really know what Flan just did. Flan wrote on her chalkboard and showed it to her again, it read, “If there isn’t one, then I’ll just have one made by my friend Patchy.” Getting an “oooh” from Trixie. Having nothing else to do but wait, they went back home. Starlight came back home at mid-day, together with Trixie they made lunch and enjoyed a nice meal, around two hours later Flan received the package she wanted, decorating it with a cute red bow she went out with the others in tow. On the way to their destination they found Fluttershy carrying a simple cake with white frosting and some strawberries on top on a small cart. Soon enough they arrived in a house in the middle of town, Flan knocked at the door, an amber colored mare with a long black mane looked down from the second floor window noticing who was at the door she waved and both nodded. The door opened and the mare was covering the eyes of a light bourdeax mare with disheveled pink mane and appaloosa spots on her flank, then she uncovered her eyes and then... “Happy Birthday Speckle!” they shouted at once. Smiling Flan gave Speckle her gift. Inside there was a pink magic wand with a blue crescent moon on the tip. Squeeing, Speckle scooped up both the wand and Flan, giving the little vampire a big hug. The rest of the afternoon was spent having some cake, and it wouldn’t be a party without Pinkie Pie spontaneously appearing, the pink mare bringing boardgames and even a pinata. Chapter 12: The mischievous mystery of the Sun, Moon and Star part 1.Early morning in Ponyville was going as normal. Ponies were waking up and doing their daily routines, preparing for a nice day full of activity. But something felt strange for some reason, one earth pony mare was watering her garden when suddenly she couldn’t hear the sound of the water falling from her watering can into the plants, even though she could see the water falling. She raised an eye-brow in confusion and stopped to check her watering can, but couldn’t find anything out of place. Shrugging she went back to it, this time she could hear the water falling on the plants, thinking it was just her imagination she smiled and started humming a little song. That was… until she looked again. She could hear the water falling yes, but she couldn’t see the water this time. She shook her head and blinked many times, re-checking her watering can once more, still not finding anything weird. She tried again, the water fell without a noise once more. Then the next time she couldn’t see it, this continued for a couple more attempts until she couldn’t either hear or see the water. Overly confused at this, she sat down and shook the watering can a little, she couldn’t hear or see water on it but it still felt as if it still had water inside. With nothing else to do, she lifted the can over her head to see if there was a hole or something on it with the sun light, but she yelped in surprise when soon after doing this she got drenched entirely by all the water that fell on her. Even more confused, wet and pretty annoyed, her ear twitched at some giggling that was going further and further away. But no matter how much she looked around, she couldn’t find anypony close by, “What just happened!?” she yelled, getting some weird looks from the neighbors on the other side of the road. Somewhere close by, “Heh, that was fun. Let’s see what else we can find,” said a childish voice that didn’t seem to have the best of intentions. “What about that orchard over there?” another more cheery and composed voice added. “Sounds good… maybe we can get something to eat there too, my tummy is not exactly cooperating with me here,” a third quite boorish voice joined in. “It’s decided then, to the orchard!” the first voice commanded, receiving a ‘Yeah!’ as response from the other two. Applejack was finishing the preparations for today’s morning harvest, she just needed to put a couple more baskets and she could start. “Alright, with this all’s ready for today,” she said to herself as she placed the last baskets down on their respective tree. She positioned herself and readied to start, but then she heard a subtle leaf shuffling noise, making her stop mid kick. “Is somepony there?” she asked with a raised brow, while scanning the area around her for any movement. But everything in the orchard was dead silent. Thinking it may have been her imagination she got in position once again and kicked. Applejack waited for that satisfying sound of apples neatly falling in the baskets… and waited… and waited some more… With a frown she turned and saw the apples in the baskets as expected, “Why didn’t Ah’ hear the apples falling?” she asked out loud while rubbing the side of her head with a hoof, she was quite confused at this event. “Is mah hearing going bad?” she said in a higher volume, she could hear her voice just fine. Then she hit another tree and she could also hear the hit and shuffling of the tree. But this time, she heard apples falling and hitting the baskets too, but upon seeing the baskets she saw no apples. Perplexed and quite annoyed, she once again started looking around. But nothing was there, it was just a silent orchard. It was so silent in fact, that AJ couldn’t even hear the breeze that was refreshing her as she worked… “What in tarnation is going on!?” she yelled exasperated. She didn’t like complicated things, she was a simple pony after all. That was until a droplet of something fell on her muzzle, swopping it with a hoof she felt the smell of apple juice. This is when a realization came down to her, ‘it’s not that Ah’m going crazy, something is doing this. Whatever this thing is, is also eating mah apples!’ with a hard frown now present on her features she looked even harder. It wasn’t until she looked to the top of the trees that she noticed something a little distance away, focusing and squinting she saw the tip of something transparent behind a tree top. Carefully and as silently as she could muster she approached the tree in question, she could tell this tree in particular had some apples taken from it, there were even some apple cores next to the trunk. A smirk made its way to AJ, ‘Found ya!’ it was even clearer when she looked up once again and could see a bit more of the thing and a little bit of another one, ‘are those… changeling wings?’ regardless of what they were, she needed to catch these apple stealing thieves. She got into position and delivered a nice strong kick, with enough force to violently shake the tree. “Woah!/Ahh!” AJ heard a combination of female screams ending with a resounding *thump* in the grass below, “owwie…” “Ha! Got ya!” Applejack stated before jumping in front of the tree to see her thieves, only to barely catch a glimpse of something red, white and blue before turning invisible. “No you didn’t!” A bratty child voice said mockingly, “Scramble!” Applejack could then hear multiple footsteps going away from the area, “hey! Come back here ya apple thieves!” “Catch us if you can!” the three combined voices said at once followed by a *Bweh!* A vein bulged in Applejack’s forehead, not only were these things stealing her apples, they were making fun of her as well. They were invisible but she could still hear their steps albeit very faintly, taking this into consideration she came up with a plan. In a swift movement she picked one of the apple cores and kick it in the direction one of the set of steps could be heard, she had her ears high up to pick up the direction of any sound more precisely. Hoof prepared with another apple core as she started to chase them. “Ha! Missed!” The childish bratty one mocked from somewhere, but this was what AJ wanted to begin with. Ear twitched at the mockery, giving her a more accurate direction. With that she kicked the other apple core, “Thank ya fer telling me where ya were!” The apple core flew swiftly through the air, soon enough it collided with something “Wah!” it bonked whatever it was and from the shuffling of the grass Applejack could tell it was knocked down from the hit. She made a full speed gallop to where the grass was flattened, “Ah… my head… Hey, blows to the head are no joke! Be more careful you idiot horse!” the thing complained to her very audibly, whatever the thing was it was clear that it wasn’t very smart. Taking advantage of the situation, AJ jumped at the invisible thing that she assumed was getting up from the movement of the grass, when she collided with something soft she closed her legs around it to grab it. The thing wasn’t something too big from what she felt and also whatever it was it wears clothes, if the feeling of fabric was anything to go by. Both of them rolled on the ground from the momentum of Applejack’s jump and started to wrestle each other. “Hey! Get off me!” Said the bratty thing as she trashed and tried to get AJ off her. “Serves ya right, ya thief!” AJ replied back as she tried to pin the thing down, which was hard to do since she couldn’t see her. But from the trashing and grabbing, she could tell the thing had hands and fingers. It didn’t have claws since the digits weren’t sharp but soft instead. “Now y’all will give me back the apples ya stole!” AJ ordered between grunts. “In your dreams!” The thing shot back defiantly, “hey! Stop just staring and help me out here!” she called for the others. “I don’t wanna, horses are stinky,” the boorish flat voice replied, earning herself a bit more of AJ’s anger. “What did y’all just say!?” Glancing in the direction of the voice, AJ could now see silhouettes with wings. “And have anger issues, I don’t wanna get bitten by it,” the cheery one added more salt to the wound. Applejack’s left eye twitched, these things just keep on insulting her. In a fit of anger and having enough of the insults, using all her strength she picked the one on the ground and was about to throw it to the others. “Ah! What are you doing!” the invisible one screamed, “I had enough of you!” “That’s mah line!” AJ said as she threw the one on her hooves just as it was releasing a very bright light, for a brief moment she could see a red and white dress before being blinded by the light, “Mah eyes!” “Catch me! Ahh!” AJ could hear the voice as she tried to recover her sight, also the subsequent *thud*and a collective ‘oof’ A few moments passed and Applejack still couldn’t really open her aching eyes. “Now, run for it!” the bratty one commanded and AJ could hear them running away. “Hey! Come back here!” With that, the chase continued. The morning continued as normal on Flan’s house, the little vampire was fresh out of bed and wanted to change things a bit today. She suggested Trixie and Starlight to have breakfast outside next to the lake they had close to the house. Flan even had her favorite tea delivered to her from the mansion, courtesy of her friend Patchy along some chairs and a nice round table that could hold a big parasol which they could use for this occasion. Setting the table outside just in the right spot Flan let out a satisfied sigh and went inside to see how her friends were doing. Going inside she could tell the water would be ready soon, but as Trixie was about to get some cups from the cabinets, “Uuu,” Flan called for her attention. “What is it Flan?” Trixie asked while being midway opening the cabinet with magic. Flan beamed at her and pointed at a specific cabinet which sported a multitude of red bat symbols and a lock in the middle. Flan scribbled in her chalkboard and waved it at Trixie for the mare to pick up as she looked for something in the drawers. Trixie held the chalkboard in her magic, “I think it is a nice opportunity to use my tea set, it will make the flavor even better,” but was Starlight who read it out loud. Getting a small key with the same bat symbol as the cabinet, Flan open it and took out a tea set that temporarily blinded the two mares from the reflection of the sun hitting it. After the assault on their eyes subsided they saw something that left them with their jaws hanging. Shiny white ceramic pieces with scarlet red bat decorations, but the most eye catching thing was the pronounced red spear and flaming sword set in the middle of each piece, the edge and handles of each being pure gold. All of it in a pristine ceramic tray with the same design as the pieces resting above it, making it the wet dream of any respectable tea set enthusiast. “Uuuu,” Flan held the tray in Starlight’s direction, so she could get the tea ready. But she saw the hesitation in her pony friends, she tilted her head to the side in confusion. Trixie lifted a shaky hoof, “F-Flan a-a-are you s-sure we c-can use these?” she stuttered. Starlight nodded as in agreeing with the question, but she didn’t stutter like her blue friend, “Just by looking at them, those pieces look extremely valuable. We wouldn’t want to ruin something so beautiful.” Flan waved a dismissive hand in their direction, setting the tea set in the corner she picked her chalkboard for another message. Showing it to them they could read, “Yes, I want to use these. It’s the first time I have my tea from home with friends.” She got an awww from them, but the message wasn’t finished. “Besides these aren’t as fragile as you think, just look.” Flan casually grabbed one of the cups and toss it behind her getting a look of terror from the mares, their eyes widening as they followed the trajectory of the cup midair. In a showing of both dexterity and also lack of common sense, Trixie launched herself skidding in the floor and catching the flying cup as it was descending. She let out a sigh of relief, totally forgetting that she could have just levitated the cup instead. Flan rewrote in her chalkboard with a toothy smile, “see? These are safe, there’s always someone jumping to catch them from falling.” Starlight deadpanned and Trixie felt kind of silly. Finally accepting to use the super duper expensive tea set, they prepared the table with some toast and jelly to accompany the tea. Totally oblivious of the chase happening close by in town. Chapter 13: Twilight's bond and the mischievous mystery of the Sun, Moon and Star part 2!With everything set on the table, the three friends got comfortable in their chairs. But there were two extra cups along two extra chairs set in the table. As if it was on sync with the clock inside, the moment it rang at 8 AM a purple flash happened close by. After the light show ceased, the forms of Twilight and Rarity were there. With a short trot, they joined the rest of the group in the table. Except for Rarity who was caught off guard by Flan jumping at her, getting a surprised yelp from the fashionista. She almost tripped backwards but a quick response from Twilight’s magic stabilized them, Rarity then proceeded to give Flan a nice hug. “Oh you little devil, you~” She said with a giggle, “you know I don’t mind cuddling with you, darling. But please don’t surprise me like that, ok?” “Uuu…” Flan muttered with a hint of sadness while burying her face into Rarity’s chest. “I know, dear. I have been pretty busy with the many orders not just from Equestria, but also a couple from Álfeimr. I’m sorry we weren’t able to hang out as much as before Flan, I really am.” Rarity cooed while caressing Flan’s back. But soon enough a smile came back to her, she then held Flan in front of her, “But I have good news for you, Flan.” She got a curious look and head tilting as response, “I’m almost done with the orders, so I will have more free time to spend with you, dear.” After Flan processed that information, her eyes started glistening as hints of tears formed at their edges, “Uu?” she asked in a hopeful tone with quivering lips. Rarity nodded with a motherly smile, “yes deary, really really.” The expression on Flan’s face upon hearing those words was probably the most adorable one the ponies have ever seen her make, but now nothing stopped Flan from hug tackling Rarity to the ground. “Flan really loves Rarity, doesn’t she?” Trixie asked with a somewhat envious tone as the wholesome scene played in front of her. Twilight wiped some tears that formed under her eyes and nodded, “it is a close contest between Fluttershy and Rarity. But honestly after seeing this and so many other things, I’m sure Flan likes Rarity the most out of all of us.” She used a somber tone that wasn’t characteristic of her, “Rarity was the first pony to befriend Flan when she arrived in Ponyville, the first to do activities and play with her, the first to make her feel safe and welcomed here. The first…” she paused for a second as she bit her lower lip slightly, “to understand Flan without any kind of help.” She hanged her head down in shame, “something I haven’t achieved, even with all the help I could gather.” Twilight felt a hoof in her back, turning her head she saw Starlight, “Twilight, I don’t think this is the time for dwelling in the past. Look,” she pointed in the direction where Rarity and Flan were. “Uuu…?” just to see Flan looking at her with worry in her eyes. Rarity let her go and she flew closer to Twilight. “See? You’re worrying her, Twilight. She worries about you, about her friend.” “Starlight is right, darling. Maybe it’s time to finally let go of the past.” Before she could say anything, Twilight felt Flan hugging her. The princess of friendship tried to keep a strong front but, “Flan… is this my punishment for making those mistakes back then? My punishment for just focusing on the goal and not the methods that lead me there? My punishment… for trying to patronize friendship?” She tried very hard to stay strong, she really did. But the tears didn’t stop, not tears of sadness, tears of guilt. Guilt and anger towards herself, for doing all those stupid terrible things. “I’m sorry! I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to! I’m sorry!!” she screamed at the top of her lungs. Trixie and Starlight were shocked at what they just heard. Rarity on the other hoof knowing quite well what happened, just cleared some tears of joy she had with a handkerchief, she was happy that her friend finally accepted what she did and was willing to move on from it. That’s when she noticed the presence of somepony that also shared the same joy from hearing this. Rainbow Dash having heard the commotion landed next to Rarity. The princess of friendship cried for several minutes, holding onto Flan for support. All the pain she bottled up inside herself, coming out all at once. Her friends surrounding her, with knowing smiles just waiting for her to let it all out. To let all that suffering go away. When Twilight finally started calming down and just quietly sobbed, Flan let go and floated in front of her. Caressing her mane, they locked eyes. “Uuuu… (Thank you for finally forgiving yourself, Twilight…)” Twilight’s eyes widened in surprise, “Flan… I… you…” she couldn’t find the words but Flan just nodded at her with a reassuring smile. “Took you long enough… Egghead,” Rainbow tried to joke but her own sniffles betrayed her. “Congratulations, darling. It must have been horrendous to be with such negativity inside you,” Rarity said in the best way she could muster while trying not to cry her eyes out of happiness. “Twilight, the fact that you admitted all of that in front of Trixie, already speaks tons about your conviction,” Trixie held a hoof in front of her, “so to respect those feelings of self-improvement and forgiveness, Trixie want us to start anew. Not half-assed tolerance or pettiness, but a genuine friendship.” “Didn’t you two do that, a couple of days ago?” Starlight pointed out, bringing back that other incident. Trixie shrugged, “Yes, but we didn’t get an official decree from the princess of friendship, now did we highness?” She ended with a playful wink in Twilight’s direction. The tension in the air just completely banished, as Twilight started snickering then went into full out laughter, soon joined by Rainbow’s, Rarity and Starlight just giggled amusingly while Trixie just kept her hoof in the air with the same smile. After calming down, Twilight connected hooves with Trixie, “Trixie, as princess of friendship and with everyone here present as witnesses, I declare our friendship as official. Nice to meet you, Trixie Lulamoon.” She gave a firm shake. Both shared the same determined stare, “Nice to meet you too, Princess Twilight Sparkle.” This lasted for a good couple of seconds until they both broke character and laughed out loud once again. Finally they shared a group hug, all those negative thoughts and feelings going away with the wind. “Hmm… Trixie thinks the tea may have gone cold by now,” until Trixie pointed out the obvious. Followed by a third round of laughs. With everyone calm and composed once again, they took their places in the table now with the addition of Rainbow Dash into the mix. “Sorry for ruining the mood,” Twilight said sheepishly while rubbing the back of her head. “I think I should be the one to re heat this,” she grabbed the tea pot in her magic but saw Rainbow hold a hoof up. “Twilight wait,” she said while focusing on Flan. “Flan, was this tea set made by Patchouli too?” Flan nodded. “Then it’s cool Twi. The tea inside should still be hot.” “Pray tell, how do you know that Rainbow, darling?” Rarity asked, surprised by this never seen before knowledge that Rainbow seemingly had. “And who’s this Patchouli, you mentioned?” Twilight added. “Patchouli is… hmm…” Rainbow rubbed her chin in thought, trying to think of a comparison, “She is the Twilight of Flan’s home, but twenty percent cooler.” This elicited a giggle from Flan. “Since the cooler Twilight made it, she used her egghead powers to magick it in a way that whatever goes inside remains at the same temperature that it was before it was poured in.” Flan nodded in agreement and showed them her chalkboard, “It’s a good tea pot. It will keep things warm and nice. Just like a good friendship will keep everyone together and happy.” With a warm and fuzzy feeling inside them, everyone got a cup of tea and some toast with strawberry jelly. “I have to admit though, of all ponies to be on a tea party I didn’t expect you to attend one, Rainbow dear.” Rarity pointed out, remembering all the times the prismatic mare would refuse to go to any tea party because it was ‘lame girly stuff’. “If this is the tea I think it is, then there’s no way I’m missing a chance to drink it Rares.” She took a sip of her cup, smacking her lips to savor it. Then a content smile adorned her face, “yep, this is the stuff. The Scarlet from Flan’s house never lets you down. This thing is like Ricolt-ta, Claw cola and Tartarus Soda mixed together but better!” She said excitedly. Then she noticed Flan’s chalkboard with the message, “It also never gives you up.” Getting a snort from the cyan Pegasus. Rarity and Trixie were next to try it, they lifted their cups and gave it a good sniff, the smell alone being temptation enough. So, same as Rainbow they took a sip and smacked their lips to feel the full flavor of it, their eyes widened at the sensation. “Sweet Celestia, what is this!?” they said in unison. Twilight and Starlight just looked at each then shrugged, they went ahead and took that testing sip. Without changing their expression they nodded once and slowly put their cups in the table over their respective plates. The moment their cups were back on their spot, both teleported next to Flan, “Where can I buy this tea!?” they asked with crazy expressions. “Heh, lightweights,” Rainbow said as she got comfier in her chair and sipped away the delicious nectar. As Flan pried the two needy mares off her, the rest of the tea party was filled with chit chat and relaxation. Twilight of course was planning to try and recreate this tea if she can’t directly buy it. It would be the next best thing if she can do it!. Meanwhile in the middle of Ponyville, Applejack was seen running around with seemingly no clear direction. Many ponies just saw her running one way, just to stop suddenly then running the opposite direction, always having her rope in her mouth while keeping a pretty serious expression. Applejack herself was paying close attention to the road, looking for a specific thing to happen. Then she saw it, a group of small dust clouds that weren’t provoked by anypony, moving further away, ‘Y’all aren’t goin’ ta escape, ya thieves!’ with this in mind she ran with all she got to close the gap. Jumping over ponies, sliding under carts, zig sagging in multitudes, just to not lose track of her targets. In a streak of luck, she saw a big dust cloud in the road that leads to Fluttershy’s cottage. Meaning one of them tripped, ‘Now’s mah chance!’ with a precise movement of her head she threw her rope made in a laso, “wah!” yelped the voice that AJ recognized as the boorish one that was hiding in the bushes. “Yee-haw!” AJ yelled as she pulled the rope. As the end of the rope got closer and closer, a figure was eventually revealed. The figure of a small blonde girl with curly short hair wearing a long white dress with many black ribbons adorning it, black shoes and on her head she had a white beret with a black line in the middle ending in two black ribbons at the sides. In her back having two pairs of transparent wings and she was desperately trying to crawl away from the farm pony. As she got her at leg’s reach AJ turned her around getting an ‘eep’ from the girl and seeing her scared red eyes. “Well, what do Ah’ have here? A thief, that’s what!” AJ yelled in her face, the girl curling up while covering her face with her arms. “Ah’m waiting, why did y’all stole mah apples!?” “Applejack?” Fluttershy’s soft voice came from the road ahead, “what are you doing?” as she approached she noticed the trembling girl below her friend letting out a gasp. “Ah’ caught an apple thief, Flutters. This rascal here with her two friends were pulling some weird tricks and stole mah apples!” Applejack explained, making sure to have her catch pinned down. “But look at her!” Fluttershy said in a higher volume, “she looks so scared Applejack, I’m sure she must have a really good reason to do that.” “That’s what Ah’m waiting ta hear, but she’s not saying a thing.” Fluttershy frowned, “she’s not going to cooperate if you keep using that tone, Applejack.” “What Ah’m supposed ta do then?” she gave her friend a look of exasperation. “You do it nicely,” Fluttershy stated as if it was the most obvious thing, she then focused on the downed girl. “Oh… you poor little thing,” she said softly with a motherly tone, “don’t worry, you are safe now. Applejack will apologize to you for tying you up, then we can calmly talk.” AJ tensed up at some of that. Fluttershy shortly paused, “If that’s ok with you…” “Eh…?” The girl muttered quietly as she looked at Fluttershy with more confusion than fear. “Now wait a gosh darn second he-” Applejack was trying to protest but Fluttershy cut her mid-sentence by getting in her face. “Oh Applejack, please don’t be mad…” Fluttershy used a more neutral tone, “we are just trying to get a peaceful resolution to this, right?” she asked the girl receiving a vigorous nodding from her. She smiled warmly and directed her attention to her friend once more, “See? She wants it too, why don’t we give the apology a try?” Applejack grumbled. After a few moments AJ sighed in defeat, thinking that getting more worked up over this would just give her a headache “Alright Flutters ya win, Ah’ll Apo-” But then got interrupted once again. “Stop bullying Luna!” An energetic war cry could be heard, then Applejack was pushed away from the girl by something that was slowly revealing itself, the sudden movement made her lose balance and trip on her hooves, falling down. Fluttershy jumped away and cowered in surprised. “Sunny!” The girl screamed in joy for seeing her friend came to rescue her. This Sunny was also a pretty small girl, no taller than a full grown mare. She had blue eyes and ginger short hair braided on both sides of her head with red ribbons, she wears a white and red dress with frills and a yellow neckerchief, black and white shoes, on her head a maid headdress was adorning her hair and like her friend she had two pairs of transparent wings on her back. Then another one appeared next to the one now known as Luna, “You should be more careful Luna, your clumsiness could have get us all caught,” the new girl said with gentle voice. “Sorry Star,” Luna apologized meekly. “Shut up Star, you wanted to run away while the horses captured Luna!” Sunny complained to the one now called Star. Star was about the same height as the other two. She had grey eyes and dark brown long hair with a big blue ribbon on top, her dress was a frilly blue one with white sleeves and a white string tied as a ribbon below her neck, she also wears black boots and like the other two she sported two pairs of transparent wings on her back. “It was tactical advantage!” Star protested while flailing her arms, her friends deadpanned. “Enough of this, we’re out of here!” Sunny pointed a finger at the rope in Luna’s ankle while having her other hand raised to the sky, soon after a ray of light came out of her finger and burned the rope until it was cut from the heat. “I’m still mad you two didn’t want to help me earlier though!” Applejack recovered and stood on her hooves once more and stomped one in the dirt angrily, “who the hay are you!?” “Luna now!” Sunny ordered while she and Star covered their ears. Luna clapped her hands while closing her eyes, the resulting sound the ponies heard was an equivalent to having a needle poking you in the ear, suffice to say it was super effective as both ponies were low in the ground squirming with their hooves on their ears trying to block the sound. “Good Job, Luna! Now let’s go,” With a satisfied grin all three of them started to float and slowly became invisible again. Soon after a panting AJ recovered from the devilish assault on her ears. But she didn’t see any of the thieves in the area anymore, even scanning the road gave no clue as there were no more random dust clouds appearing, the hamster inside her head stopped running the gears and knocked on her skull, ‘psst, they escapeeeeeeeed’ it whispered to her. Her eyes shrunk at the realization, as she started growing a very angry scowl. Fluttershy could only hide herself with her mane as her friend was getting red in the face from anger. AJ sat on her haunches and scrunched her muzzle, then throwing her legs forward “You F-” she let out some rather colorful words in unconceivable rage as the town’s bell rang for 9 AM. The three girls flew in a random direction, looking for something else to do. “That was a close one,” Sunny sighed tiredly, but quickly regained her enthusiasm, “but was still fun, did you see the look on that orange horse’s face? That was the best!” “That one was scary though,” Luna muttered, reminiscing her previous situation with a shudder. “Leave it to miss clumsy to trip when there was nothing to trip with,” Star remarked with a flat tone as she deadpanned at her friend. “I said I was sorry!” Luna quickly replied with flailing arms, “at least the yellow one was nice…” “Luna, did you just get swooned by a horse?” Sunny asked out of nowhere. “Wha…?” Luna’s cheeks got a tint of red by the implications. The other two grew mischievous smiles, “Oh my goddess! You totally did!” they both said in unison while laughing out loud. “What? No!” Luna now sported a totally red face from embarrassment. “You did!” “Did not!” “You did!!” “Did not!!!” In the middle of their little argument, Star suddenly stopped laughing, “Girls!” she called, “Something is getting closer.” “Wait what?” Sunny looked around, seeing nothing near them, “Are you sure? But even then I’m reflecting the light around us so we won’t be spotted!” “And I’m cancelling any sounds from getting out, so we won’t be heard either,” Luna shared Sunny’s look of confusion, then she saw Star pointing at sunny with a worried expression, upon looking she started worrying too. “What?” Sunny noticed the weird looks her friends were giving her, “Do I have something on my face, why are you looking at me like that?” she rubbed her face with her sleeve but it was still clean. Then she saw both her friends point slightly above her. That was when she felt a slight pressure on top of herself, “Wha…” she decided to look upwards, but as she did so… pink invaded her vision. “Hi! I’m Pinkie Pie, who are you three!?” the pinkest pony asked with her head now hanging upside down in front of Sunny’s face. *SHRIEK* Chapter 14: Pinkie's arrival, and the mischievous mystery of the Sun, Moon and Star part 3!Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.Chapter 3: The official caretaker (Foalsitter)After Flan finished writing her letter, she sought out Spike, who was on his way to do the groceries. Having sent the letter to her sister, she returned to the clearing, the group of mares having finally stopped arguing. Rainbow approached her first, “Where did you go, Flan?” Flan wrote something on her chalkboard and showed her. Rainbow read the first part about the letter, “Oh, but then…” Flan signaled her to keep reading, which she did. “Oh… so, she’s coming?” Flan replied to her question by nodding once, this put a smile on Rainbow’s face. “Awesome!” “What’s awesome?” Twilight was the next to approach them. Rainbow was brimming with excitement, “Remilia is visiting!” Twilight raised an eye brow. “Really?” she asked Flan, who nodded, “I see. But why are you so excited, Rainbow?” Rainbow looked at her friend as though she asked her who the Wonderbolts were. “Are you kidding!? Remilia is like one of the most -awesome- members of the Academy! She’s strong, she’s fast, she has magic and this giant red spear named Gungnir!” “I don’t think Flan’s sister would feel flattered by you admiring her for just her powers, Rainbow. Besides, that still doesn’t explain your excitement. It’s not like you’re actually friends with her,” Twilight told to her prismatic friend. “Just because you were too scared to befriend her doesn’t mean I can’t do it, Egghead.” “I’m not scared of her! I’m just being careful,” Twilight protested. “Who are you scared of? And why are you being so friendly with that thing?” Starlight asked while closing the distance between them. Trixie just went to Flan’s side and picked her up, holding her like a doll again. Flan didn’t protest. “Oh come on, Flan! You bit me the first time I tried to pet you, and now you let Trixie just pick you up?” Twilight was not okay with this development. Flan just shrugged, which made Twilight pout. “Don’t be jealous Twilight,” Trixie said with a smug smile, “some of us just have the special touch.” “We’re not doing the whole ‘I’m-ignoring-you’ routine again, are we?” Starlight asked, giving her friends a deadpan look. Rainbow flicked away a stray of her mane that got in the way, “We were just talking about how Twilight is scared of Flan’s big sis.” “I’m not scared of her!” Flan wrote something on her chalkboard somehow, and showed it to everyone present, “We have to go to the castle; Big Sis is probably there already.” “Oh, it’s better if we go then, right?” Trixie asked her, Flan nodded. “’We’?” Rainbow and Twilight asked in unison. “Trixie is coming with you, of course.” “Of course,” Rainbow muttered. They reached Twilight’s castle after a quick walk, a walk that was pretty uneventful... Besides Starlight complaining about Flan, the latter just ignored her. “Starlight, please, I know you are upset with Flan, but I think you’re being unfair with her,” Twilight commented while they approached the doors, in which a familiar person was waiting. “Unfair? It attacked me for no reason! I have the right to be mad,” Starlight countered. “That very unlikely, Starlight. Even when Flan and I weren’t on good terms, she never bit me without provocation. But you did something to her that she didn’t like and that's why she bit you,” Twilight tried reasoning with Starlight. Looking away from the bickering pair, Rainbow noticed Remilia at the door and flew over there to greet her, grinning like a fangirl already. That was when Twilight noticed her too and she gulped nervously, worried that Rainbow could do something reckless to upset Remilia. “That person at the entrance is your sister, Flan?” Trixie asked and Flan nodded. “Alright, the Nice and Wonderful Trixie will go and greet her.” Rainbow approached, carefully, so to not startle Remilia, who was examining the castle, parasol open over her head. Needless to say, the prismatic mare was not successful. “Are you trying to sneak on me, newbie? You’re still ages away to even try that,” Remilia said from behind Rainbow, scaring the primary feathers out of her. Letting out an embarrassing girly yelp, Rainbow found herself cowering against the castle wall. Remilia leaned forward while putting the index finger of her free hand below her chin as she smiled innocently. “Oh~ did I scare you?” she giggled some, “you should see the look on your face right now.” Rainbow composed herself and let out a heavy sigh with a hoof over her heart, “Y-yeah, very funny. You got me good there.” “Excuse me, miss?” Trixie asked from behind Remilia. Remilia turned to see Trixie and Flan on her back waving at her. “Flan!” she quickly snatched Flan from Trixie’s back. Trixie was left confused on what just happened, but didn’t think about it too much: this was Flan’s older sister after all. She could see the resemblance between them and opened her mouth to introduce herself, but Remilia beat her on that. “You have to be Flan’s new friend, Trixie, right?” Remilia asked, casually. “Yes. The Great and Powerful Trixie, to be exact. But formalities can be avoided,” Trixie used her professional voice. Remilia and Flan exchanged stares for a moment and then giggled together. Trixie just stared at them, not knowing whether or not be be offended. “Miss Remilia,” Twilight greeted her formally, stepping forward. “Greetings, Sparkle. It’s nice to see you again in a better condition than last time,” Remilia told Twilight in a more refined way. “Thank you, and again I apologize for what I did,” Starlight and Trixie eyed Twilight suspiciously, but the purple alicorn kept her eyes on the new arrival, “um, why don’t we make ourselves comfortable inside the castle?” “That is rather kind of you. Lead the way.” The six entered the Castle of Friendship without any fanfare, making their way to the main hall, where Twilight and Rainbow sat on their respective thrones and, after a polite inquiry, allowed Starlight, Trixie, and the Scarlet Sisters sit on the rest. “Well, since I’m sure you have no idea why I came all the way here, I’m going to be as brief as I can,” Remilia was the first to speak from where she sat on the Throne of Honesty, “and no interruptions, please.” At everyone’s nod, her expression changed to a serious one and spoke with a grimly tone, “No, really, I’m serious about that.” Twilight became a little nervous; she knew Remilia could be dangerous if they upset her in any way. Rainbow, on the contrary, was completely chill; you could even say she was almost excited for some reason. Starlight was confused as to why Twilight was wary of this creature, and Trixie could swear that she saw Remilia’s red eyes shine for a moment. “I don’t know if you’re aware that I gave Flan permission to stay here as long as she wants to, but we didn’t decide -where- she would be staying while she’s here,” Remillia spoke in a more casual tone, “that’s what we’ll be deciding today.” Not wanting to interrupt, Twilight silently raised a hoof to ask something. “What is it?” Remilia asked to the polite princess. “I don’t mean to sound like a know-it-all or anything...” Twilight’s eye twitched at both Rainbow and Trixie’s ‘yeah right’ coughs, but kept her professional cool, “but since Flan is going to stay in Ponyville, isn’t obvious that she will stay here in the castle?” “What!?” Starlight shouted, standing up from her seat on the Throne of Generosity, “there’s no way I’ll share my living space with that thing!” Remilia, Rainbow and Trixie were clearly annoyed by that comment. Twilight started to sweat when Remilia threw her an annoyed glare. But her face soon returned to a neutral expression, “Well, that puts the castle out of the question.” She looked to her sister. “So Flan, where will you go?” Flan, sitting atop the Throne of Kindness, looked to her pony friends. “What about me Flan?” Rainbow offered with a grin, “we could do lots of awesome stuff together!” “Rainbow, you live in the clouds, and Flan can’t walk on clouds,” Twilight pointed out. “You could use the cloud walking spell on her. Problem solved.” But Flan got up and went to Trixie’s side at the Throne of Laughter. Looking her sister in the eye, she pointed at the blue unicorn. “Well, there you have it,” Remilia said with a wide smile, “Flan chose her. Time to go home.” “Wait!” Fear forgotten, it was now Twilight’s turn to jump to her hooves, “this makes no sense! Are you really leaving Flan with -Trixie- without knowing the living conditions?” “I don’t really care: Flan made her decision and I’m not going to stop her if that’s what she wants,” Remilia told her sincerely. Twilight’s ears fell at that. “-But-, you do have a point there too.” Twilight’s ears perked back up. “It wouldn’t hurt to check out where my little sister will be living. Besides, I’m bored.” “Yes!” Twilight threw a hoof up in excitement, Rainbow was containing a laugh, the rest were looking at her with raised eye brows, at which point the purple princess noticed how silly she probably looked and slowly lowered her hoof with a slight blush on her face. Getting up from their seats, the group filed outside and made their way outside of town, taking a route where they wouldn’t attract too much attention: one blond vampire in the town was more than enough and Twilight didn’t want to attract any unwanted attention. Once the township was cleared, Trixie lead everyone to her wagon, which was a short ways from where she and Starlight had been practicing earlier. Remilia inspected it immediately: she saw that the wagon wasn’t broken or in any danger of breaking, but it sure had seen better days. Trixie showed Remilia inside: it was decent, but there wasn’t much of anything in there, just a little bed, a little locker, a couple of boxes in a corner, and a starry blue carpet on the floor. “What do you think?” Trixie asked with a hint of sadness on her voice, knowing that her ‘house’ wouldn’t impress Flan’s sister. Remilia stared at her unimpressed, but her next question threw her off, “Why do you live so far away from the town?” “The residents of Ponyville don’t like me. A lot of them pretend that everything is forgotten, but I see the accusing looks and they seldom speak to me,” Trixie explained, fighting the tears that threatened to flow. Flan looked at her with sympathy: she knew she was right at choosing Trixie, Flan felt the sadness in her and wanted to help. She looked at her sister with pleading eyes. Remilia searched for any doubt in those eyes, but saw none. Pursing her lips, she turned back to Trixie. “I see,” she said, nonchalantly, “before I leave, I want to be sure of something.” She looked Trixie in the eye. “Are you sure you want to take care of Flan while she lives here, Trixie?” That question was the total opposite of what Remilia’s actual carefree expression gave away. Trixie knew that she needed to consider this seriously, after all, even if she had some experience with foals before, she never really took care of one. Ever. But… Trixie really wanted to take this responsibility. She hadn’t been so sure before, but when Flan chose her instead of Twilight and Rainbow Dash, she felt happy. Her mind was made up with that realization. “Yes, Trix- I want to take care of her as long as she lives here,” Trixie’s throat nearly went dry at the proper use of pronouns, but this was important, “I will do better to improve the conditions of my home for her, so please don’t worry.” Remilia was rather pleased by her response, “That won’t be necessary.” She snapped her fingers, but nothing seemed to happen. Flan smiled, knowingly. Trixie was about to say something but… “Did you call me, my lady?” a polite voice said from behind everyone scaring Trixie. Twilight, Rainbow and Starlight were waiting just outside of Trixie’s wagon until they finished their business, though Starlight wasn’t happy to be left out of this decision. “Gah!” they heard Trixie’s scream after hearing a ‘snap’ sound. Rainbow knew that feeling very well, “That’s totally Sakuya.” “Who’s Sakuya?” Twilight asked while searching any relation to this name in her memories. “Well…” Rainbow started. “I’ am Izayoi Sakuya, chief maid of Koumakan it’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance,” the maid that appeared out of nowhere gave a courteous bow to Trixie, who stood there, mouth still agape. This new person was a young silver haired, blue eyed woman, a little over 5.5 feet of height; she was wearing a blue French maid outfit with long sleeves and had a clipboard on her hands. “Sakuya, this pony will be hired as Flan’s new caretaker, take care of the details please,” Remilia ordered, getting a polite nod from the maid. With that, Sakuya proceeded to ask Trixie various questions to fill her form. Ten minutes later..... Twilight and company watched as everyone stepped out of Trixie’s wagon, with the addition of the one she now knew was Sakuya. “Miss Remilia did you came to a decision?” Twilight eagerly asked. “Yes I did,” was the only thing Remilia said, and nopony said nothing else for some moments. Twilight grew impatient, “Well?” “Well what?” Was the response she got from the older vampire, which only served to annoy her even more. Starlight raised an eyebrow while Rainbow grinned a knowing grin: she knew about Remilia’s antics. Twilight stared with a twitchy eye, but restrained herself from saying anything reckless, “What is the decision you made?” “Oh that,” Remilia said dismissively, taking the time to stretch, causing a few strands of Twilight’s mane pop up. Rainbow’s face scrunched holding back the laughter. Starlight facehooved. Remilia decided that the Princess of Friendship had been tortured enough, “I hired Trixie as Flan’s official caretaker. She’ll be living with her during her stay here.” “What? On this rickety mess?” Twilight pointed at the wagon, getting a nasty look from Trixie. “Of course not,” Remilia then gave a note to Sakuya, who bowed before vanishing again. “Wait, what?” Twilight was confused, this wasn’t making any sense. “Ask Trixie if you want to know. I have business to attend to, but before that...” Remilia motioned for Rainbow and the blue pegasus stepped closer. Receiving an envelope, Rainbow looked curiously at it: it was a plain white envelope with nothing written on it. “This is -only- for -you- to read. Do not disappoint me.” Rainbow gave her a salute, “You can count on me, Miss Remilia.” With that, Remilia took her leave. Flan was glad that everything ended up fine: she didn’t expect her sister to help Trixie just like that. Maybe she was misjudging her, maybe she actually… Then she felt something in her pocket, which she quickly fished out. It was a piece of paper that read, ‘I hope you’re happy with this, Flan, because I expect a little more cooperation from you when you return home.’ Followed by a drawing of Remilia’s face with a silly expression. Flan stared at the piece of paper with a blank expression. Trixie noticed that, “Flan? Are you okay?” Flan squashed the paper into a ball and threw it behind her where it exploded mid-air. The ponies stared, jaws dropped and ears flat on their heads...except for Rainbow, who was grinning again.
Chapter 1: The meeting.Author's Note Yo, Kona-chan here! This turned out way different as how I was planning it at first. But hey! I can probably have some fun with this, also I'm sorry if I don't get Trixie's or Starlight's personalities right, first time I try them. Any advice is appreciated as always. So, until next time guys, Kona-chan out! Chapter 1: The meeting. Today was a very nice day: it wasn’t too hot or too cold, not that any of that was a bother for our chibi vampire. Flan enjoyed any type of weather as long as it wasn’t too sunny, but having some help from Rainbow during the sunnier days made it easier for her whenever she chose to visit Ponyville. After all that happened with Twilight and the ponies in the past, she considered Equestria her second home: Remilia actually gave her permission to stay there all the time she wanted. And, just for that, she didn’t bite her that day. Anyways, since Flan now had all the time in the world to be with her friends, she started thinking where to go first. The only exception being Twilight’s castle, mostly because Twilight’s choice of entertainment was reading boring books about useless spells or history. Don’t take it the wrong way, Flan was up for a good reading, but didn’t like those particular topics. She was more of a fantasy/comedy girl. The thought of going to visit Applejack and maybe play with her some like they planned the last time she visited crossed her mind, being the most athletic earth pony around, she was a good playmate. Sure, Flan had to hold back a whole lot in their little contests in order to not hurt Applejack, but it was good fun for both of them and even Rainbow joined them from time to time. But a strange sound caught her attention, and then smoke could be seen coming out of the clearing where she and her friends had their picnics during her weekend visits. Being the curious little cutie she was, Flan decided to check it out: maybe something interesting could be happening for once. Well, it certainly was something, but of very little interest: there were two unicorns in the clearing practicing magic of some sort, but Flan couldn’t figure out what they were trying to do. She was curious so she approached the pair and recognized the pink one from her visit at the gems cave that one time. But the blue one was a new pony she hadn't met before. “Why is this so complicated?” the blue one grumbled, being the primary source of the smoke. “Maybe because you should take it easy and relax some? It’s not that hard to pull off, Trixie,” The pink one said; Flan probably heard her name from Twilight maybe once but she couldn’t remember it, and she wasn’t around during Flan’s entire stay, so she just forgot about her. “What are you…” Trixie started but her eyes caught Flan’s little silhouette approaching them, “Starlight, what is that?” The one Flan now knew as Starlight turned to see what her friend was pointing at and saw Flan's approach. Her pupils shrunk while she backed away from the little terror. Trixie was confused by this, but before she could ask, she felt something softly pulling on her mane. She looked at it and saw the little two-legged thing next to her, looking up at her eyes with innocence and overall cuteness. “Awww... you are such a cute little thing, what do you require from the Great and Helpful Trixie?” The way she said that made Flan give her a confused look, but then she took her ever helpful chalkboard and wrote something to show to Trixie. “You seem confident, but I feel sorrow in you. Did something happen to you, miss Trixie?” was written on the board and a sympathetic look on Flan’s face. Trixie was somewhat touched by this. ‘How did this little thing know?’ she thought as she sat down and brought a hoof to her chest, a single tear escaping from one of her eyes. Flan then opened her arms like asking for a hug. Trixie then lifted her from below her arms, forgeting all about her telekinesis, and gave her a big hug. Starlight snapped from her panicked stupor and looked at her friend, noticing now the midget that bit her was now latched onto to her friend. Afraid about what that thing could possibly do, she ignited her horn and teleported only Trixie to where she was, causing Flan to fall on her butt. “Trixie are you okay?" Starlight asked, checking her friend all over, "that… thing didn’t hurt you, right?” Trixie blinked and looked at her, confused. “What are you talking about Starlight? Trixie is always okay. Also where did Trixie’s little admirer go?” she asked while looking around for Flan, “oh, there she is!” “Trixie no!" Starlight grabbed hold of her friend, "that thing is dangerous. Don’t get close to it!” “Oh don’t be ridiculous; my little admirer is nothing but a real charmer who gets Trixie....probably better than anypony else,” Trixie said the last part with a bit of sadness. “Hey, I get you too Trixie, I’m your best friend, remember? So please leave that hideous thing alone and let’s go practice somewhere else.” Flan didn’t take that comment too well. She honestly could have broken Starlight right then and there, but Trixie took action before her. “How dare you insult Trixie’s little admirer! I thought you were better than this!” Trixie said, angrily. “Trixie, this thing bit me for no reason over a week ago, how do you expect me to react? Go and hug it?” Starlight replied with her own anger. “Why not!? Look how cute she is!” “Are you even listening to me!? That thing bit me! Also, why are you calling it a ‘she’?” “She’s wearing a dress, that’s reason enough!” Starlight facehoofed, this argument wasn’t going anywhere and just made her angrier. Flan, on the other hand, was just sitting on the grass enjoying the show; this was quite amusing to her. “That’s it! We’re leaving right now!” “You can leave if you want, but Trixie isn’t going anywhere!” “RIGHT NOW!” Starlight’s anger was mixing with her fear, which was never a good sign. Feeling that something was off, Flan got up and walked over to where Trixie stood, standing in front of the blue unicorn. “What are you doing?” Trixie asked Flan, but the little vampire just waved a hand, dismissively. “YOU!” Starlight ignited her horn and Flan’s expression changed to a serious one, because she felt this pony was about to do something very dumb and she would have to correct it. But before anything went off a blue blur with a rainbow trail tackled Starlight to the ground getting a loud “Oof!” from the unicorn. Starlight shook her head a few times, some of the steam left her, when she noticed Rainbow standing over her, a little anger came back “What was that for?!” “It’s nice to see you too," Rainbow muttered, "and I just stopped you from being totally bucking killed in a gruesome and bloody way. You’re welcome.” Rainbow then faced Flan and gave her a smile “ ‘sup? Flan, What are you doing with these two? I thought you would be in A.J's like we promised last time.” “Uuuuu,” Flan said while throwing up her arms. “Oh, so you thought something weird was happening and found them, then you took interest in Trixie, but Starlight was being a butt and monopolized her?” Rainbow said it in question to make sure she got it right. Flan nodded. “Hey!” Starlight took offence on that. “Just getting the message across, don’t take it on me,” Rainbow put her hooves up defensively. “How does ‘uuuuu’ translates into all that?” Trixie asked, curiously. “Flan has a unique way of speaking, but I think all the time I spend with her helped me learn how to understand it, with some help from Fluttershy too,” Rainbow explained. “I don’t care. Trixie we’re leaving-” Starlight began, but saw the serious expression on Trixie’s face. “Trixie is not going anywhere with you. Especially with that tone!” “Trixie, I'm trying really hard to keep it together, so -please- don’t do this to me right now,” Starlight snapped, stomping closer to Trixie. Only for Flan to stand between them in a completely casual manner. Starlight stared angrily at her, but Flan just boringly stared back. “Believe me when I say you don’t want to mess with her, Starlight,” Rainbow extended a leg to block Starlight’s path. “And why would that be, may I ask?” Starlight looked uninterested. “Flan will kick your flank. You -really- don’t want to make the same mistake Twilight did,” Rainbow warned, which made Trixie perked up. “What mistake did Twilight make? And why is she so dangerous? She doesn’t seem to be aggressive,” Trixie proved her point by casually lifting Flan from behind, again without magic, and holding her close to her. “Well, I think it’s better if you ask her yourself… hehe…” Rainbow nervously chuckled while rubbing the back of her head with a hoof. “Don’t be like that, tell Trixie what is that about," Trixie begged in a whiny voice, "you know Twilight will never tell Trixie about her mistakes." It was an adorable sight, especially with Flan being like a doll on Trixie’s hooves. Until Flan tapped Trixie’s leg to get her attention. “Hmm? Is something wrong?” the blue unicorn asked, prompting Flan to point to a group of bushes in the distance, “what about those bushes? Is something in there?” Flan nodded and slipped out of Trixie’s grasp. Ignoring Starlight’s death glare, Flan walked towards the group of bushes, stopped just in front of it, and stared at them. “What is she doing?” Trixie asked Rainbow. “How should I know?” “Well, first of all you’re her friend. And second, you said you understand her.” “I understand her way of speaking, I can’t read her mind you know.” “Ugh, you’re so useless,” Trixie said in disappointment. “Don’t push your luck Trixie: Flan may like you, but I still don’t trust you a bit. If I’m keeping my cool here, it's because of her, so you probably should be thankful if anything.” Rainbow said with a hint of annoyance before following Flan. Trixie was taken aback by that statement, and made her remember the situation she was in. The sneers she still got from the Ponyville populace, the isolation, and how lost she actually felt deep inside. It was tearing her apart, but she held strong, and somehow meeting the little vampire made her lose her worries for a moment. “Starlight?” Trixie called. “What?” “Do you think I will ever be forgiven?” “Huh?" Starlight broke her death glare to look back at her friend, "why do you ask that so suddenly?” “Because… now I’m starting to believe I will,” Trixie looked at Starlight with a serene expression before turning and following Rainbow to where Flan was, leaving a confused Starlight behind.
Chapter 2: What is going on?Rainbow got to Flan’s side and looked at what the little vampire was staring at: a group of bushes that twitched slightly, but she seemed annoyed by something. “What’s wrong Flan?” Rainbow asked. Flan looked at her with disappointment and shook her head before looking away. “Huh? Why are you mad at me? What did I do?” Rainbow was confused at her little friend’s change of behavior. Flan looked at her again with the same expression before pointing to the side with her left wing. Rainbow raised an eyebrow at that, but when she looked at that direction, she saw Trixie approaching. Then it hit her. “Oh, so you heard me?” she asked. Flan nodded and turned her back at Rainbow with a ‘humph’. “Come on, Flan. She did a lot of stuff to Ponyville and to us too!" Rainbow tried to justify herself, "if you knew what she did, you would treat her the same way.” Flan kept her disappointed look on Rainbow, but soon after let out a tired sigh and lifted one finger. “A chance?” Rainbow asked, to which Flan responded with a nod. Rainbow smiled and tried to pet Flan, but the chibi vampire held up a hand to stop her. “Huh?” Rainbow was confused. Then Flan did a half turn to the left and jumped. A yelp was heard. Rainbow turned her head to see what happened just to see Trixie on the grass, holding Flan in her hooves. “You’re a playful thing, aren't you? But don’t surprise Trixie like that again. What would have happened if Trixie wasn’t so Great and Skillful to catch you?” Trixie said while resting on the ground, lifting Flan playfully over her face. Flan just looked at her with an equally playful smile. Rainbow wouldn’t admit it, but she was kind of jealous of just how cosy Flan was getting with Trixie. Starlight on the other hoof kept eyeing them cautiously from afar. She still didn’t trust Flan, but she didn’t know Twilight knew that thing either, and apparently something happened between them. Starlight had to discover what happened and if that could give her something to get Trixie away from the little thing. Rainbow’s ear flicked at a faint branching sound in the bushes behind her. Flan noticed the sound as well, wriggling out of Trixie’s grasp and started looking for something in the grass. Trixie got up and watched Flan curiously, “What are you looking for?” “Uu,” Flan said without stopping her searching. Trixie didn’t know what that meant, so she turned to Rainbow, “What did she say?” “I could tell you, but where’s the fun on that?" Rainbow shrugged, "and besides I don’t want to.” “Alright, alright. You don’t have to be rude about it.” “You already know what I think of you, so…” but Rainbow got interrupted by Flan placing a hand on her rainbow head, “eh…? Flan? What’s the deal here?” Then Flan started rubbing her head. Rainbow felt a little flustered at the intimate gesture, “Flan, I’m not complaining or anything here. Heck this feels kind of nice, but… can you keep it for another time?” Flan thought about it for a moment and a devious idea came to her mind. Suddenly Rainbow felt ticklish: Flan had moved fast and had begun tickling her barrel. With a yelp, she jumped back to get some distance, but her hoof collided with a very convenient placed stone and she ended up in the grass. Rainbow saw Flan floating over her, wiggling her fingers quite deviously. “Flan, don’t you dare.” Flan didn’t stop. Trixie watched Flan pounce upon the blue pegasus and couldn’t help smiling at their antics. “I swear to Celestia, if you tickle me you’re going to… hee… hee hee-hahahaha! Please! Hahahaha... stop!” Rainbow begged between laughts while Flan mercilessly tickled her. This continued for another painfully ticklish five minutes, Starlight and Trixie watching as Rainbow Dash was utterly owned by the two-legged chibi. Even the paranoid Starlight had to admit that it was a sight to be seen. “Well, that was certainly something,” Trixie said as a very satisfied Flan hopped off a heavily panting pegasus. “Y-you’re awful, y-you know that r-right?” Rainbow said to Flan, who smugly looked at her and hold her chalkboard with something wrote on it. “You were being a jerk,” she said via the board. “Ok, ok. I got the message, jeez,” Rainbow let out a sigh and looked at Trixie, “I’m sorry, ok? Maybe I was being unfair with you, but you really messed up, you can’t deny that, Trixie.” She looked at Flan. “That’s good enough?” Flan shrugged. Trixie's expression couldn't be any flatter. “You’re terrible at apologizing, but Trixie knows better, so the Kind and Merciful Trixie will forgive you Rainbow Dash,” she said, smirking, "be grateful." Dash glanced sideways at Flan, “She still ticks me off.” Flan rolled her eyes, and then noticed another sound. Deciding it was time to get back to business, she picked up a sizeable pebble from the grass and threw it at the bushes. The bushes quickly shouted ‘Ow!’ in the recognizable voice of Twilight. “Twilight?" Rainbow's ears perked up, "what are you doing in the bushes?” “...Miau?” the voice in the bushes were trying very hard to sound convincing. Flan, Rainbow and Trixie frowned. Starlight facehooved. “Come on, Twi. We know you’re there.” “Miau, miau!” Flan was not amused, her eyes lighting up and extended one arm in front of her with her hand open. One second later, a purple alicorn quickly shot out of the bushes. “I’m out Flan, I'm out! Please don’t use Destroy!” Flan’s eyes went back to normal and crossed her arms with a serious expression. She didn’t like doing this to Twilight, but after what happened before, Flan had to keep the alicorn in check. This didn’t mean Flan didn’t trust Twilight: she understood that what happened was something out of Twilight’s control and in part was her fault too. But now she was worried about that pink pony named Starlight. She had the feeling that Starlight was going to do something dumb at some point, it wasn’t a matter of -if- but -when-. “'Destroy'? What is 'Destroy'?” Trixie asked. “Twilight your naming skills suck,” now it was Rainbow's turn to facehoove. “Emm… What is 'Destroy'?” Trixie asked, again. “Well, it’s still better than the name -you- wanted to give it, Rainbow,” Twilight retorted. “Um, excuse me? Hello??” Trixie started to wave a front leg to try and get their attention, but it was to no avail. “The Scarlet Stare of Death was an awesome name!” Rainbow insisted. “What is even going on right now?” Starlight asked, raising an eyebrow. “That name doesn’t even make sense! It’s misleading; Flan doesn’t blow up things just by looking at them!” Twilight stamped a hoof to prove her point. “She could do it if she wanted to!” Rainbow shouted back. Trixie and Starlight exchanged looks of utter confusion while Flan, expression deadpan, decided it was time for action before the ridiculousness got out of hand. *Slap x2* Flan slapped both Twilight and Rainbow on the back of the head with a giant paper fan, nearly sending them toppling face-first into the grass. Shaking their heads and grumbling as they came back to reality....and reality stared at them through Flan's angry eyes. “Sorry.” The two of them replied, sheepishly. “Oh thank you for stopping that nonsense,” Starlight thanked Flan on reflex...then remembered she was scared of her, "wait, why am I even -thanking- this thing?” “What is Destroy?” Trixie demanded, exasperated. “Why are you still here?” Rainbow snapped, still sore. “Hey! Don’t yell at her!” Starlight jumped to her friend's defense. “Why are we even yelling right now?” Twilight yelled. And thus Pointless Argument #2 began. Flan stared, utterly dumbfounded at the four ponies. Unhappiness fell over her as she massaged the bridge of her nose and walked away from the circle of yelling. Finding a good spot in the grass she sat down, she took out pen and paper from her dress pocket, and started writing a letter. With a serious expression, the first words she wrote were “Big Sis.”
Chapter 4: The chapter where nothing really happens.Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.
Chapter 5: Moving into the new house.As Twilight walked to the doors of her castle, she felt a disturbance on the magical force: it was a weird sensation that made her feel uneasy. ‘What just happened?’ she thought while looking in the direction she just came from, ‘something is not right… Please tell me Flan didn’t bite Starlight again?’ With that terrifying thought, she then hurried about in search of her (stalking) researching equipment. Rainbow was inside her room, in bed with the envelope that Remilia gave her open, the note resting on a bedside table, having read it quite a few times already she was deep in thought. Well it looked like that, but in reality, she was brimming with unexpressed excitement. She sat there for a few moments more before taking off, fetching her pet tortoise Tank and hugging him tightly, then landed back on her bed with her eyes closed and let out a contented sigh. “If I don’t mess this up, soon I’ll be ready for that test, Tank!” She let Tank go and sat up. “I have to give it my best. Remilia counts on me to look after Flan from the sidelines: she’s even paying me! She didn’t have to do that, but going against her will is not a good idea.” Tank just looked at her, smiling that loyal tortoise smile. “I mean, there’s nothing bad with that, those 1000 bits per week will come in handy for some things I plan to buy, but like I said, the help she’s willing to provide me if I do this right will prepare me better than any money would for the royal test.” Suddenly, Rainbow froze, a chill going down her spine. Something had happened, she didn’t know what, but she had an idea of what it could possibly be related to. Adopting a determined face, Rainbow got out of bed and flew out the closest window, in the direction of Trixie’s wagon. ‘Mission start!’ Meanwhile... Flan covered her blushing face with her tiny hands: she didn’t know how high-pitched her voice was in her chibi form. Then again she hadn’t been sure if she could speak at all while like this. Unfortunately, she was wrong about that and she let out the most squeaky voice ever. After some moments, the awkward silence in the area picked up her attention. Taking a curious peek from between her fingers, she noticed the two mares standing still with no recognizable expression on their faces. Flan tilted her head in confusion, wondering what happened to them. It was similar to the state in which Trixie was a few minutes ago, just without the silly grin. Remembering how Starlight got a reaction from Trixie, she shrugged and flew up to head-level before she slapped them both in the back of the head veeeeeeery gently, since hitting them with no restraint would hurt them very badly. “Wha…” a dizzy Trixie blinked. Starlight shook her head, “What happened?” Starlight didn’t look much better. Flan showed them her chalkboard, “You two spaced out.” “Really?” Starlight asked and Flan nodded in response. They thought about it for a moment. “I think I had a strange, yet adorable dream,” Trixie started and Flan froze, cheeks heating up once again. “What was it about?” “I heard Flan speak and she was so CUTE,” Trixie practically squealed, holding a hoof to her chest, “I felt as though my heart would explode… twice!” Flan deadpanned and showed Trixie her chalkboard, “Did you really have to say that?” “Yes I had,” Trixie simply stated and Flan rolled her eyes. “Well, what do we do now? It will be getting dark soon,” Starlight commented. Flan thought about it, then nodded and wrote something on her chalkboard and held it up for Trixie. After waving it in front of her face for a few seconds, Trixie took the hint and levitated the chalkboard from Flan’s hand before the chibi vampire went ‘poof’. Taboo: Four of a Kind. Four Flans appeared out of the little smoke cloud, each one showing a different expression: sadness, happiness, annoyance and indifference. Saying that Trixie and Starlight were impressed was an understatement. The Flans formed a line in front of Trixie and gave a salute. “Umm…” Trixie didn’t know what to do: she was taken by surprise. Then the happy looking Flan took a step forward and signaled the chalkboard. Trixie looked at it and then smiled sheepishly at the four adorable vampires, “Heh, sorry.” Starlight went to Trixie’s side to read the chalkboard, “Let’s buy a house?” She read it in question form for some reason, but the Flans nodded nonetheless. After that, the happy looking Flan turned around to look at the other three and pointed at the wagon then at Trixie. Trixie herself lifted a hoof to try and say something, but before she could, one of the Flans tied a rope on the front of the wagon and pulled it while the other two went behind and pushed. Starlight was going to question what they were doing, but before that, she saw the Flans move the wagon with no effort whatsoever. “Ok… unnatural strength, noted,” she said calmly. “Wait!” Trixie said, suddenly the others looked at her with confusion, “you!” She pointed at the sad looking Flan in the back of the wagon. “Come closer, please.” The specific Flan approached Trixie. Just to be quickly pulled into a tight hug by the magician mare, “You’re staying close to Trixie while we look for a house.” The other Flans and Starlight facepalmed/hoofed. “Let’s just… move on,” Starlight suggested, getting the approval of every Flan, even the one being squished by Trixie. With that everyone left the area and went towards Town Hall to see what houses were on sale. Nopony questioned how the Flans just casually pulled Trixie’s wagon through town: they were rather accustomed to weird stuff since their last addition to the neighborhood. Derpy even went out of her route to greet them. Being the owner of one herself, she wasn’t impressed by most things anymore, she just accept it as a normal everyday occurrence. Rainbow got back to the clearing, a second after Twilight appeared via teleportation, and the two looked at each other. “Did you felt that too?” the two said at the same time. They nodded and started looking around, but Starlight, Trixie and Flan weren’t anywhere around the area, even Trixie’s wagon was missing. “Where did they go?” Rainbow asked. Twilight thought about it, searching for any information that could help them in her mind. ‘Let’s see, Trixie is now in charge of Flan and just received a big amount of bits... Also Miss Remilia said they won’t be living in her wagon, so…’ She then looked at Rainbow and said aloud, “Town Hall.” “Town Hall?” “Yes, Town Hall. Trixie needs to buy a house, and every transaction goes through there. That has to be the place where they went.” “Let’s go then,” Rainbow said before quickly flying off. “Wait!” Twilight shouted, but Rainbow was out of hearing range by that point, she slowly lowered the hoof she had raised. She sighed, “I was going to teleport us there…” She then did just that for herself. Meanwhile... Trixie and company had just gotten their papers for their new house. Mayor Mare was kind of hesitant at first when she saw Trixie, but ‘sad’ Flan reassured her that everything was fine. “She was a little rude, don’t you think?” Trixie mentioned. “It’s disappointing to see ponies holding a grudge like that,” Starlight pointed out with a sad sigh. Trixie and the Flans just looked at her with unamused looks. Starlight took notice of this, “What?” “Nothing, nothing at all,” Trixie waved a dismissive hoof in her direction. Starlight was about to ask again, but the ‘happy’ Flan stopped her by shaking her head, meaning that it wasn’t worth the bother. Starlight took the hint and just sighed. When they turned the corner on the way their new house was, Rainbow flew over them overhead without noticing. “I was a little skeptical, but since she’s done nothing bad so far and having one of your otherworldly guests with her, I decided to comply in her request for a living place. Besides, she paid the full price for that two story house at the edge of the lake, which nopony wanted to buy for the longest time, it was quite the relief if I must say so myself,” Mayor Mare finished telling Twilight what happened just as Rainbow all but crashed through the doors. One big apology and a Twilit recap later, Rainbow got filled on what happened, “She likes to burn that money doesn’t she?” Twilight still couldn’t believe Trixie’s lack of money management, shaking her head, “It seems like it. There were more economic houses in better locations; why she chose that one spending more than half of what Miss Remilia gave her is beyond me.” “Well, at least we know where Flan would be from now on, that’s a plus in my book,” Rainbow prepared to fly away once again, but a lavender hoof stopped her. “What?” Rainbow asked in confusion. “I have an idea of where you’re going, but what do you intend to do there?” Twilight replied with a question herself. “Obviously I’m going to call Trixie on her-“ “Language!” “Jeez Twilight, you’re too picky, it’s not like there’s anyone here to listen or anything like that,” Rainbow complained, then she remembered something, “Oh… right…” Meanwhile... Once they arrived at their new home, Sad Flan freed herself from Trixie’s grasp and set out to explore the inside with the rest of the Flans. “You really had to buy this place? It was kind of pricey,” Starlight looked at her friend’s new abode. “Flan wanted this house for some reason. I can’t say no to her, just look how cute she is!” Trixie said the last part with some weird enthusiasm. “But you still need some furniture here.” “I know, thanks for stating the obvious,” Trixie nonetheless smiled at her friend, “but yes, especially for Flan. I have my personal belongings with me in the wagon, but she doesn’t have anything here.” Then some light in the second floor caught their attention. Arriving at the only room that was lit for some reason, they were greeted by a room covered in bright red coating. On one wall rested a long shelf with multiple stuffed animals carefully placed on top; next to it a big four door wardrobe that had an ancient design carved into its surface. In the center of the room was a queen-sized bed with red and black covers, the window next to it had some light yellow curtains, standing out sharply among the other colors. Next to the window were a couple of chairs and a single potted plant, healthy and green. The floor was adorned with a smooth blue carpet, not a speck of dust in sight. Finally, from the ceiling, a very expensive looking chandelier hung. The mares were slack-jawed. “Emm…” Trixie tried to say something when she heard some noise downstairs. Going down, they saw the Flans placing tables, chairs, a fridge, some cabinets, and decorations on the living room, kitchen, dining room, bathroom, etc. After some time, the Flans reunited outside and cleaned their foreheads of some non-existent sweat. Both mares stared down at the Flans with unreadable expressions, turned to look at one another...and shrugged. This wasn’t the weirdest thing that’s happened today, after all. “Uuu!” all four Flans suddenly ran out the front door. Curious, Starlight and Trixie followed them, looking in the direction that they saw all four Flans looking. The unmistakable color palettes of Twilight and Rainbow could be seen approaching just some meters away. Spellcard Cancel The Flans went ‘poof’ and after the smoke cleared, the original Flan stood there, looking greatly satisfied. She stretched some with a smile, faced Trixie, and with timid blush, she said “Twank you, Twixie!” Trixie and Starlight froze and a chill went down their spine after hearing that. “So… It wasn’t a dream…” Trixie said, at which Flan responded with shake of her head. Trixie dropped to the ground soon after, unable to take so much cuteness. Some feet away, just within earshot, two other bodies could be heard hitting the ground as well. Starlight, the only one who could resist the D’aww Attack, recovered enough to say, “You should be careful with that. It can be disastrous in the wrong situation.” Flan just shrugged and proceeded to pull the unconscious ponies inside the house, one at a time. Author's Note Weaponized cuteness always wins
Chapter 6: Feeling.Twilight found herself sitting in her dining room with a simple toast and coffee breakfast in front of her. She blinked, once. Twice. “Wasn’t I going after Flan?” she asked herself, confused, “was that a dream?” No sign of Rainbow Dash or Stalight. Or Trixie for that matter. “Was I always this hungry?” The breakfast looked quite good, simple as it was: it would be a shame to let it go to waste. Her stomach rumbling was the deciding factor, in the end. She levitated the cup of coffee and was about to take a sip out of it- “Twilight, Twilight!” A familiar voice called for her. Turning her head in the direction of the voice, she saw a young girl standing beside her: she looked exactly like Flan, older. A teenager, from the looks of it. But that wasn’t right... “Uh… who are you?” Twilight asked. The girl tilted her head to the side, cutely, just like Flan would do whenever she got confused. “What do you mean, Twilight?” the girl said with a big smile, her enlarged canines revealing her vampire heritage, “I’m Flan!” “Oh no…” The realization came down on Twilight like a brick wall. Her coffee splattered against the floor, the cup shattering into a million pieces just before everything went to black. Meanwhile in the living room, Flan sat clad in her light blue pajamas, staring at Twilight. The purple alicorn lie twitching on the couch, a very distressed expression on her face, like she was having a nightmare. On the other hand, Rainbow lay at the other end of the couch, drooling like no one’s business with the silliest smile on her face. With a little yawn, Flan decided that they could stand to sleep a little longer and made her way towards the kitchen, dragging a teddy bear behind her. In the kitchen, she found Starlight with a yellow mug of coffee levitating in front of her, reading the newspaper. “Oh, good morning,” Starlight noticed Flan enter. Flan held up her chalkboard, “Good morning.” Starlight giggled with amusement while Flan rubbed more sleep out of her eyes. “Hey,” Starlight decided to ask something, now that she wasn’t terrified of the chibi-vampire, “why do you keep using the chalkboard? You can talk just fine.” Still groggy, Flan wasn’t sure if she got the question right and wrote an equally groggy response, “Yes, I’m hungry.” Top notch answer everypony. Starlight stared at the chalkboard with a dumbfounded expression. “But that wasn’t…” she sighed, realizing she wouldn’t be getting an answer like this, “go wash your face and wake up already. I’ll make you something.” Flan nodded with a sleepy smile and went to the bathroom. ‘Even if this is Trixie’s job, but she’s out cold like the other two,’ Starlight took a sip of her coffee, watching Flan’s retreating form, ‘might as well get used to this. I have the feeling that I’ll be visiting more often.’ Starlight put down her mug, got up, and looked for something to make for Flan. And their other guests, too, now that she thought about it- “Gah!” Twilight shot up into sitting position in her spot of the couch, breathing heavily as she put a hoof over her racing heart. Once her breathing had regulated itself, she looked around the room she was in, and obviously didn’t recognize it at all, in which a strong case of deja vu hit. That was until Starlight appeared from the doorway. “What happened Twilight? Are you okay?” Starlight asked, worried for her friend. “Starlight?” Twilight was still confused, looking around, “where are we?” “In Flan’s house,” Starlight pointed at Flan as she re-entered the room, face clean and eyes clear. Twilight looked at the vampire and received a friendly wave from her as she snatched up a slice of Starlight’s toast and began eating it like a chipmunk. Twilight stared at Flan for several seconds before suddenly tearing up. Before Starlight could ask what was wrong, Twilight jumped at Flan and pulled her into a tight hug. “Thank Celestia you’re okay!” Twilight cried while squeezing Flan. Flan didn’t know what to think of this, glancing over at Starlight, only to see the pinkish unicorn just as lost as she was right now. “Twilight? What happened” Starlight tried to get an answer from the distressed alicorn once again. “It… it was horrible…” Was the only answer Twilight gave while still rubbing her face against Flan’s cheek, disrupting her eating even further. “What was horrible?” Starlight was a little bit upset, not just because she had no context to the situation, but also because she just noticed that Flan had stolen her toast. “The-“ Twilight started, but was cut short by a grumpy azure colored pony. “What is all this noise in Trixie’s house at such early hour of the morning!?” a grumpy Trixie yelled from the stairs before approaching. Starlight just facehoofed. “Oh…” Trixie realized something. She looked at Twilight with narrowed eyes as she kept Flan in a tight hold. “Twilight? What are you doing in Trixie’s house and why are you hugging Trixie’s Flan?” Annoyance entered Trixie’s voice. “Unhoof her at once!” Obviously, Twilight didn’t take this well. “I don’t know why I’m here Trixie, but technically, this isFlan’s house, not yours,” not letting up on her grip, Twilight managed to keep a hold of Flan and glare at Trixie all in one go, “So don’t go giving orders to others when you’re not even the owner of the place. Besides, you’re speaking to royalty. I hope you know that there’s consequences to that if you keep it up.” “Oh, forgive me, your highness, but Trixie very much prefers unwanted guests to leave as soon as possible,” Trixie said, in a polite manner of speech laced with as much venom as possible. Flan did not approve of this budding argument, but she couldn’t do much without Rainbow awake to translate for her It didn’t help that her current position prevented her from using her chalkboard. Fortunately Starlight had something to say. “Calm down you two,” the pinkish unicorn put herself between the two rivals, “let’s not say something we would regret later. Besides, didn’t you make up already? What happened to that?” “Trixie was sincere, but this mare still didn’t accept Trixie, so Trixie’s not willing to back off anymore,” Trixie was getting angry. “Oh please,” Twilight was already there, glaring holes into the blue unicorn, “everypony knows you’re a trickster and a liar Trixie. You only apologized because it was convenient for you.” She narrowed her eyes. “Remilia’s not here, so I’m going to say it: I don’t accept you as Flan’s foalsitter either. You don’t have what it takes to take care of her.” Trixie stared in heartbroken shock at the revelation. Starlight couldn’t believe Twilight, of all ponies, would say such a thing and, opened her mouth to defend her best friend- *Slap* Shocked, Twilight reared back, putting a hoof to her now red and pained cheek. Before her, Flan floated with angry, teary eyes. “...Flan?” Twilight tried to apologize. But Flan only gave one last disappointed look before she turned her back and flying to her room. Soon after, they heard a door slam on the second floor. “Flan, wait!” Twilight was about to go after her, but Trixie blocked the way. “Get out of our house,” Trixie said in a monotonous voice trying to restrain herself from losing it. “Move, Trixie, I need to-” Twilight was cut by another slap, heavier this time with the weight of a hoof. “Get out of our house!” Trixie looked ready to unleash her anger on Twilight at any moment now. Mouth open, but no sound coming out, Twilight saw Starlight going at Trixie’s side. “Starlight?” “It’ll be better if you go back to the castle, Twilight,” the dissapointment in her voice was obvious, “you’ve done enough.” “But-” “Twilight, please leave, before I have to force you,” Starlight was doing a big effort to sound calm and composed in this stressful moment, “I still consider you a friend, so please don’t make me kick you out, because I don’t want to.” Twilight looked at the two for a moment, the tense silence making it easy to hear Flan crying. This broke their hearts in so many levels. “Go to her,” Starlight told Trixie and signaled with her head towards the stairs, “she needs you.” Trixie nodded. “I know, but she better not be here by the time I come back,” the venom in Trixie’s voice was thick before she turned and went upstairs. Starlight just had to look at Twilight for the princess to back off, her self control was basically out of the question right now “Please. Go.” Twilight, with the heavy weight of guilt on her shoulders and a broken heart, used her magic to teleport away. Not soon after, Starlight turned and headed upstairs. And through it all, Rainbow slept like a log, dead to the world. Meanwhile, a worried mare galloped through Ponyville. ‘Flan, Ah’ don’t know what happened, but Ah’m gonna help ya, promise,’ Applejack thought as she searched for Flan, worried as to why Flan didn’t come to the farm as she promised. A pain in her chest made her worry even more: she knew that something bad had just happened. Author's Note Poor Flan
Chapter 7: Cheering up, or at least trying to.Author's Note This chapter is patrocined by Flan pocking her head out of the covers, because we all need a cuteness heart attack every once in a while. Flan is sowwy! Chapter 7: Cheering up, or at least trying to. Spike was a little worried when Twilight didn’t come back the day before. Fortunately, Flan came to tell him she was going to spend the night at her place. He planned on visiting later, after he finished sweeping the floor. He missed spending time with Flan, but for now he was just waiting for Twilight to come back. "....When did Flan get her own house?” he found himself asking nopony in particular, broom temporarily forgotten. Talk about your delayed reactions. Spike just shrugged, deciding to get to whole story when he went over to visit. It was then that the doors to the castle swung open with a -bang- and Twilight galloped past him, in the direction to her room, with tears on her eyes. “That can’t be good,” eyes wide, Spike went after her. The second she passed the threshold, Twilight locked herself in her room, practically diving atop her bed, sobbing. ‘H-how did this happen?’ She buried her face in her pillow, Flan's reaction continuing to replay itself over and over in her mind. ‘Why did I lose my temper there? Flan… I didn’t think about her at all… what is wrong with me? How could I done that to her… I could’ve handled that situation in a better way…’ She heard knocking at her door, interrupting her internal self-torture, “Twilight, what happened?” “Leave me alone Spike!” Twilight cried. “....If that’s really what you want, I’ll do it Twilight, but if something is wrong, you know that you can talk to me, right?” “Sorry Spike…” “Don’t worry, I’ll be cleaning the library if you need me.” As she heard the sound of footsteps grow fainter and fainter, Twilight finally lifted her face off her pillow. ‘Thank you, Spike,’ Twilight felt a little better knowing that somepony was here for her right now, ‘I’ll let him know what happened after I organize my thoughts. I just hope he won’t be too upset with me.’ Meanwhile, Trixie stood outside Flan’s new room. She had seen Flan cry and she knew she'd never get used to it. She felt like a stake was being driven through her heart, repeatedly. And that just made her even angrier at Twilight. ‘How dare that mare make Trixie’s little Flan cry,' it took the blue unicorn a minute or two to wipe the scowl off her face, 'now is not the time for that. Flan needs Trixie.’ Trying to hide her anger behind a determined stare, Trixie knocked on the door. When she got no answer, she tried the knob and, surprisingly, the door was unlocked. Slowly Trixie made her way to the bed side, where she saw the curled up form of her little vampire under the covers. “Flan?” Flan’s form twitched slightly, slowly crawling out just enough to poke her head out of the covers and look at Trixie. It was heartbreaking for Trixie to look at that face, the tears coming out of those pure scarlet eyes, the sobbing and just her sad expression in itself. Trixie stared back with a light blush and quivering lips, but not for the reason you would think. ‘S-she’s so cute! I want to hug her so much!’ She then nearly slapped herself, ‘What am I thinking!? I have to cheer her up! But she’s so cute!’ “Ahhh! What is wrong with me!?” Trixie grabbed her head in exasperation, ruffling her mane before settling down. Flan just stared at her. Trixie lifted her head to look at Flan for a moment, then adopted a determined stare and quickly darted out of the room...just to come back almost a minute after with her magician outfit on. ‘I hope this works.’ Trixie cleared her throat. “Behold! As the Great and Powerful Trixie attempts the greatest acts ever seeing by pony eyes!” Trixie proceeded to do a variety of tricks, but due to her nervousness and simple lack of planning, every single one ended up terrible. While juggling, she tossed one of the balls so high that it bounced on the ceiling and hit her in the head. When she tried a card trick, she shuffled them wrong and all the cards fell on the carpet. Finally, when she tried to spawn flowers on her hat, only for smoke to come out. With each consecutive failure, her mood was worsened bit by bit; with the last trick failing, she threw her hat to the side, and then sat on her rump looking down in shame. Flan looked at her, sympathetically, and got out from under the covers. Hopping off the bed, she slowly made her way closer to Trixie, which is when she noticed the sobs. “Flan, I’m sorry,” Trixie said suddenly, “I…I can’t even do this right…” She covered her teary eyes with her hooves. “T…Twilight was right… I don’t have what it takes to take care of you.” Shortly after, she felt something stroking her head, and looked up to see Flan in front of her with a sad smile. She was the one stroking her mane and also had her hat on the free hand. “Twixie, Twixie good, don’t cwy?” Flan made the effort of saying that in her current voice. “Heh heh, you’re adorable Flan, thank you…” Trixie smiled back, “thank you so much…” Trixie then hugged her little vampire, who took advantage of this and put Trixie’s hat on its rightful place. Flan then rubbed Trixie’s back to make her feel better. This continued for a couple more minutes before they let go of one another, both calmed down. “Heh, Trixie was supposed to make you feel better, Flan, but you made Trixie feel better instead,” a hint of disappointment could be heard in Trixie’s voice. But Flan shook her head while smiling. Then wrote something on her chalkboard and showed it to Trixie: “That’s not true. You made me feel better. You just tripped a little here and there. Thank you Trixie.” Trixie giggled, “Trixie is not that good but thank you, Flan.” Flan gave her a thumbs up. Then a round of knocking came to the door. “Uuu!” Flan said to whoever was on the door. “Starlight, if that’s you, she said ‘come in’” Trixie translated, perfectly. Starlight was indeed outside the door, but Rainbow was the one who entered first. “Wait, Trixie you can understand Flan now?” Rainbow asked in disbelief. Just now, Trixie noticed that as well, “I…I did understand her… but how?” Starlight turned to the pony who understood Flan first, “Rainbow Dash, what happened when you were able to understand her for the first time?” Rainbow went stock still before saying, hurriedly, “I…I don’t remember.” Seeing as how she was suddenly sweating, Trixie and Starlight stared at her, suspiciously. But before any weird conclusion would be made, Flan showed the two of them her chalkboard, “We were playing and Rainbow was practicing one of her aerial stunts, then…” A panicked Rainbow Dash snatched the chalkboard from Flan’s hands and erased what was written with her fetlock. “Hey! Trixie wanted to read that!” Trixie complained. Starlight had managed to read the whole thing, but kept silent because apparently that was a big deal for Rainbow. Still she had her muzzle scrunched by the silliness alone. “Flan! Don’t go telling ponies about that!” Rainbow was flustered. Flan waved a dismissive hand in her direction, as Trixie kept complaining. Applejack, after looking for Rainbow the whole morning without success, decided to go to Twilight’s castle in search for Flan. She was a little surprised when she found Twilight and Spike leaving the castle, Spike being with this look of annoyance. After asking what happened, Spike explained everything and Twilight, recognizing the look in Applejack's eyes, tried to escape...only to be wrapped by a wild rope, tying her up in a way that prevented movement. Twilight felt a weird sense of déjà vu coming over her. Midday Ponyville was greeted with a peculiar view: Princess Twilight tied up and being dragged by her friend Applejack. “Applejack, Spike. Stop this! I’m not ready yet!” They ignored her. “Nope, yer not escaping this one Twilight," Applejack shook her head, Spike mimicking the motion from atop her back, "ya’ll going to apologize ta them right now, no excuses." In her worried state, Twilight forgot she could use magic, but then again, she’s not the brightest pony ever when it comes to stress.
Chapter 8: Clutz Central.Rainbow got filled on what happened while she was sleeping downstairs. She shook her head and facehoofed, “It had to be Twilight, of course,” she groaned, “she never learns, does she?” Trixie wasn’t amused, “That’s a little hypocritical of you to say after the way you treated Trixie before.” “Wait a minute there, Trixie,” Rainbow put up a hoof defensively, “I apologized at least. Doesn’t that count for something?” Trixie faked an offended expression, but then opened one eye to look at Rainbow sideways, “Well, yes. That does count for something and Flan would be mad at Trixie if Trixie were to hold a grudge against you. Besides what Twilight did is dozens of times worse.” “You’re right Trixie, but I can’t help but feel bad for her,” Starlight added sadly, but quickly changed to a more neutral tone, “don’t get me wrong, I’m angry and disappointed of her, but she’s still my friend.” Flan looked down: she thought if maybe she overreacted earlier. A reassuring hoof was placed on her shoulder. “Don’t feel bad Flan, we will fix all of this,” Rainbow said with an encouraging tone. Flan looked up and gave her a smile. She nodded to herself and started to go to the door of her room. “Where are you going?” Starlight asked with confusion. “Uuu!” Flan said and threw an arm forward directing them to follow her. “What? Right now?” Trixie and Rainbow said in unison. “Wait, what did she say?” Starlight asked to the blue duo. Flan left the room and the two blues hurried after her, Trixie faced a confused Starlight before leaving, “She wants to find Twilight.” It took Starlight a moment to process that. “Hey! Wait for me!” Applejack didn’t know where Flan’s house was, so she ended up dragging Twilight all over the town. At this point Twilight didn’t even care anymore, “Are we done yet?” “It could be done faster if ya told me where ta find Flan’s house, Twilight,” Applejack still looked around for any clues. “Well, I can’t do that. Because if I do, you’re going to drag me there,” Twilight explained. “Why are ya so stubborn? Just apologize ta them. They’re our friends,” Applejack sounded rather annoyed. Twilight took offense of that “Did you just really said that to me, Applejack?” “It’s the truth; ya're being stubborn an' childish.” “Oh, well then, let me ask you something,” Twilight who managed (with a lot of effort) to let her forelegs free from the rope dug her hooves into the ground, forcing Applejack to stop walking and face her, “you said ‘they’re our friends’. I assume that includes Trixie as well?” “Ah… well…” Applejack stuttered. “Ha! See?” Twilight pointed an accusatory hoof in Applejack’s direction, “I’m not the only one who doesn’t accept Trixie.” Applejack huffed and averted her gaze, “So what? Ah’ wouldn’t mind being Trixie’s friend if that makes Flan happy. Why can’t ya leave that grudge of yers behind?” “Because she’s obnoxious and annoying,” Twilight crossed her legs in protest. Applejack raised an eye-brow, “Ya said the same thing about our new friend, but ya were the first ta befriend her, Twilight.” Now it was Twilight’s turn to stutter. “Oh… well… y-you know… I don’t…” Finally, she threw her hooves up in frustration, “argh! Alright, I get! I’ll apologize, ok? Can you untie me now? It’s quite uncomfortable to be like this, and the dirt on my coat is starting to itch.” Applejack eyed her suspiciously, looking for a sign of dishonesty, her gaze diverted slightly to something behind Twilight in the distance. Closing her eyes she nodded. “Ok, Ah’ll untie ya Twilight. Y’all will see how this was the right choice.” With her teeth, she took a hold of the knot and pulled, breaking its hold Twilight, freeing the lavender Alicorn once again. But before she could go, AJ had a question on her mind, “Tell me, why didn’t ya just teleport away when I tied ya up?” “It flew over my head at first, but when the idea came to me I realized I was in contact with the rope, the rope was in contact with you, if I teleported I’d have dragged you with me," Twilight deadpanned. “Can’t ya teleport only yerself?” “That’s not how teleportation works Applejack,” Twilight, then ignited her horn, “but now I’m free, in that case… so long!” She planned to show off by teleporting after turning around all dramatic style, but upon turning she saw two scarlet orbs staring at her soul. “Howdy Flan!” she heard Applejack greet the chibi vampire, cheerfully. Flan waved at her before focusing on the sweating and paralyzed Alicorn, slowly licking the tip of her thumb and index finger. Slowly she brought her hand to Twilight’s horn and pressed those fingers on it, the magic disappeared off the horn before making a hissing sound. After letting it go, the horn expelled a trail of smoke, pretty much like when you put off a candle. Then Flan pointed a finger at the ground with a stern expression. Twilight, as if it was a natural instinct, sat down, her face still frozen on indifferent shock. Flan smiled and patted her head a few times. Spike just watched as this whole situation happened. “I didn’t know Twilight had dog instincts,” he pointed out. Rainbow decided to fetch a cloud for herself and got closer, “Hey Flan what else can Twi-dog do?” she asked, barely containing her laugher. Flan showed her chalkboard, “Try something. She would probably do it.” “Really?” Rainbow asked getting a nod from Flan just as Trixie and Starlight finally caught up, “cool!” Rainbow tapped her chin in thought. “Let’s see if this works.” She looked at Twilight, “Twilight!” She got the attention of the inexpressive mare. “Back flip!” Surprisingly, Twilight did a back flip. “Oh my gosh, she really did it!” Rainbow said before falling backwards into her cloud, laughing. “What happened to her?” Starlight asked, but everyone shrugged. Applejack looked at Twilight critically, “Hmm…” she squinted, “down girl.” Twilight lied down. Trixie giggled amusingly, “Trixie has to say this is a fitting position for her to be in.” Flan showed Trixie her chalkboard, “Don’t go overboard.” “Rest assured Flan, Trixie would never do something like that,” Trixie tried to be reassuring. But Flan didn’t believe that one bit; she would be ready in case something strange showed up though. Trixie cleared her throat, “Twilight! Roll over.” Twilight rolled once on the ground. “Stand up.” Twilight got up. “Left hoof,” Trixie extended her hoof. Twilight put her left hoof on top of Trixie’s. “Right hoof.” Twilight withdrew her left hoof and then put her right hoof. “Spread wings.” Twilight spread her wings. “Retract wings.” Twilight retracted them. “Speak!” “Books!” Twilight said. Silence followed for a good three minutes. “Trixie made a mistake,” she looked at Flan, “fix her please.” Flan nodded, put one of her hands close to Twilight’s ear and then snapped her fingers, soon after Twilight shook her head rapidly a few times before looking around. “Wha…” Her eyes focused on Flan. “GAH!” Flan rolled her eyes. “Sorry…” Twilight said by force of habit. Flan sighed and showed her chalkboard, “Twilight, I’m still mad at you for what you did.” “Flan, I’m…” Twilight tried to speak, but Rainbow landed in front of her. “Shh! Let her finish,” Rainbow said with a frown. Flan gave her a thankful nod and rewrote on her chalkboard, “But you’re my friend. I overreacted. I'm sorry for lashing out the way I did.” Twilight was about to say something, but stopped herself. Flan handed her chalkboard to Rainbow, stepped in front of Twilight with open arms, and she smiled sympathetically. Twilight returned the smile and softly yet firmly she put her legs around Flan, bringing her closer to her for a hug. “D’aww…” Everypony else said, including Rainbow and Spike. “T-thank you Flan… I-I don’t deserve your friendship after everything I've done…” Twilight said between sobs. Flan patted Twilight’s back in support. After a while they broke the embrace, Flan took her chalkboard back from Rainbow and wrote something else, “There’s still one last thing you have to do Twilight.” Flan smiled brightly. Trixie sat at Flan’s side smiling as well. “Alright, I understand,” Twilight sighed as she faced the smug looking unicorn, “Trixie, I shouldn’t have told you the things I did…” Trixie only nodded. “I acted on jealously; I couldn’t accept that you were the one chosen as Flan’s foalsitter instead of me," Twilight continued, "I thought I had all the answers, I got obsessed to the point where I forgot about the most important thing…” “And that is?” Trixie asked, her smug look dropped for a more serious one. “Flan’s feelings,” Twilight was the only one supposed to say that, but everypony say it alongside her. Trixie smiled, but it was sincere this time, “Good answer.” She put a hoof on Twilight’s withers. “Trixie forgives you.” “Thank you, Trixie.” Starlight went and gave Twilight a sideways hug, “I’m proud of you Twilight.” Twilight was rather resilient to compliments right now though, “I should have known better, honestly. But thank you anyways.” “You’re probably right,” Starlight started as she fired up her horn, not a second after a silly pink magician hat spawned on Twilight’s head, “you have to prepare for the show.” “Wait, what?” Twilight was sincerely confused. “Your punishment," Starlight said, non-chalantly, "you didn’t expect to make a scene like that and just go off with a simple apology did you?” “Punishment? Nopony said anything about that.” “Oh, that’s because it was my idea,” Starlight acted playfully. Flan patted Twilight on the back with a look that said ‘Good luck, you’re gonna need it.’ “W-what is this about?” Twilight felt something off about this. “But of course, you’re going to be Trixie’s assistant on today’s magic show,” Starlight pointed at the crowded stage in the distance, “have fun!” Twilight’s ears dropped, “Oh, horse apples.” The rest of the day was spent seeing Trixie performing proudly and Twilight trying to put up a show and failing. It annoyed her at first, but she started to get a kick out of it and at the end of the day, even if it was awful, she enjoyed performing for town and her friends. But Flan stole the show by popping out of a cardboard box at the center of the stage wearing fluffly ears, blushing, holding a sign with a cute heart drawn on it and finally she said, “Flan woves you!” That was a magical moment and amazing as well, seeing hundreds of ponies hitting the ground in unison by those three simple and straightforward words was incredible. It was a good day indeed.
Chapter 9: Breakfast at Flan'sSomething has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.
Chapter 10: Caffeine Craze!Rainbow quickly stepped outside. “Flan, Flan!” she called out loud while looking around frantically. Twilight followed, “Rainbow, please calm down!” A few strands of mane poking out, showing her own nervousness. “We have to find her Twilight and quick!” Rainbow yelled back. Starlight joined the conversation, “Why are you in such a rush? Yes, she’s in hyper mode due to the caffeine, but what’s the worst that can happen? We already saw that she’s still herself,” she pointed out. “Have you ever seen a hyper active foal before, Starlight?” Rainbow asked with a deadpan expression. With confusion pretty much present in her features, Starlight said, “Emm… not really. I don’t really have that much experience with foals.” Showing a small frown, Rainbow looked at her, “That’s what I thought.” Then, she looked at Twilight, “I’m off to find her Twi, get your act together before something bad happens.” With that, Rainbow took off at full speed. “Rainbow, wait!” Twilight yelled in hopes of stopping her, but Rainbow was already too far away. Though deep down she knew Rainbow wouldn’t stop. Nopony noticed Fluttershy leaving or approaching by that matter, as she heard the commotion from a distance she knew she had to help and swiftly left. “Flan! Wait!” Derpy tried desperately to stop Flan, who at this point took her mailbag and went all over the place. Flan on the other hand was having a lot of fun doing Derpy’s job, a bit too much fun to be precise. Multiple mailpost have been broken. Derpy looked at the massacre and shed a single tear as she hugged her hat, “Poor things, they had so much to live for.” “Hey!” a random mare yelled at her to get her attention, “Stop daydreaming and stop her!” “Eh… me? But…” Derpy tried to catch a glimpse of the barely visible vampire still going rampant, “I’ll try!” with determination in her heart she flew towards her hyperactive friend. “Flan, wait!” She called for the little vampire, this apparently worked as Flan stopped and turned to see her flying her way. In her over energetic state she smiled happily while opening her arms as if asking for a hug. Derpy looked relieved and went ahead for the hug. Only for Flan to go poof at the last second, causing Derpy to totally miss her and crash in some bushes. Taboo: Four of a kind. Four Flans appeared after the small smoke cloud dissipated. Normally each would show a different emotion, but this time it was less noticeable. Three of them looked almost the same, with just minor differences. These three flied off, leaving one that looked like she was having a headache. After shaking her head, the one left behind turned to the bushes and digged Derpy from them, other than having a few small sticks and leaves in her mane and fur she didn’t saw any injuries. Sighing in relief this Flan with rather sad eyes smiled. Derpy groaned and brought a hoof to her head, “Ouchies… what happened?” she asked to no one in particular. “Uuuh,” Flan replied to her. Shaking her head a bit, Derpy looked at the sad looking Flan, “Flan? Are you ok now?” Sad Flan shaked her head and pointed towards the central plaza. Derpy looked that way to see three barely visible red dressed shapes going crazy all over there. “No! Not my flowers!” Daisy screamed in despair as one of the Flan was overly watering her beloved flowers. “Hmm,” Derpy tried to say something but couldn’t find the right word. Meanwhile sad Flan deadpanned at the overly dramatic display. “Hey come back here with that candy!” Then, they heard Bon Bon yelling and chasing another Flan that was peeling off some type of round hard candy, swiftly throwing the paper on a trashcan close by, before continuing their silly chase. Sad Flan nudged Derpy to get her attention and flew towards Bon Bon’s candy shop with Derpy following behind. They found Lyra walking out with a worried expression. “Bonnie, calm down!” She screamed to her friend still furiously chasing the candy eating Flan. She let out a sigh, “Why does she never listens?” Lyra then took notice of another Flan and Derpy approaching, “Wait, Flan? How are you here when you’re there?” she pointed at the one chased by Bon Bon, “And there?” then at the one in Daisy’s shop, “And eeeeh…” she started thinking she was going crazy. But some headpats from sad Flan brought her back to reality. “Lyra are you ok?” Derpy asked with worry. Lyra slightly shook her head to clear her mind, “Yeah, I’m good now. Why is there four of you though? Flan” Sad Flan picked up a stick and wrote on the something on the ground, “It’s a skill,” getting an ‘oooh’ from Lyra. “What happened in the shop, though?” Derpy wanted to know what the chased Flan did, hoping it wasn’t something bad. “Well…” Lyra started, “That Flan Bonnie is chasing entered the shop and before we noticed she took some candy. Bonnie just had about a second to catch a glimpse of her, so she thought that Flan stole the candy.” Derpy gasped, “Did she?” Lyra shook her head, “No, Bonnie didn’t saw it, but that Flan left enough bits for the candy she took. It would have been better if she made us know she paid to avoid all this, but at least she didn’t stole anything.” “Flan!” a new voice quickly approached the area. The mischievous Flans looked at its direction. They saw Rainbow landing in the middle of the road, soon after a purple flash popped up beside her, revealing Twilight. Everyone blinked at the whole situation. “Emm…” Twilight awkwardly started. Rainbow just sat down on her hind legs and opened her front legs as if wanting a hug, while smiling warmly. Twilight didn’t know what to make of that, “Rainbow, what are-“ but before long, three red blurs tackled Rainbow to the ground getting an audible “Oof” out of the prismatic mare. “Oww…” Rainbow grunted, “I know I asked for it, but you could have held back a bit…” The three identical vampires got off her and floated around playfully. “Stop right there, give me back the candy you stole!” Bon Bon ran towards them. “Stole?” Twilight asked with a lifted brow to the three Flans. “STOLE!?” Trixie’s voice resounded, making Twilight jump a bit. “Trixie don’t scream in my ear, you scared the feathers out of me!” Twilight complained with a scowl. “Sorry Twilight, but when Trixie hears such hearsay then Trixie shall do something about it!” Trixie yelled back, “YOU!” Trixie pointed at Bon Bon. “You dare accuse my dear Flan of stealing!?” Trixie frowned at the mere idea. “Yeah! I want the candy that thing stole, back!” Bon Bon on her anger replied. “Thing…” the three mares with the Flans murmured. “Oh-oh,” Derpy had a very bad feeling. “Bonnie wait!” Lyra got in the middle of the situation. “Go away Lyra, I’m gonna get my candy back!” Bon Bon stomped on the dirt. “But Flan didn’t stole anything!” Lyra stomped back, “I’ve been trying to tell you, she left the bits in the corner. You just didn’t see them before jumping to conclusions.” “What? When? Why didn’t she wait before running off then!?” Now all of Bon Bon’s anger turned to confusion. “That may have been Starlight’s fault for giving Flan coffee,” Trixie started, “That aside, Trixie thinks you just called Flan a thing, is that correct?” Her tone of voice being strangely calm. “Yes, I think that’s what she did,” Twilight joined. “Yup, Bon Bon messed up yeah,” then Rainbow joined. Bon Bon started retreating slowly as she gulped, the three mares in front of her having intimidating auras. Before anything could happen sad Flan floated in front of them and held an arm with her palm open to stop them. The mares with killing intent suddenly changed to warm and caring. “Do you need something, Flan?” Trixie smiled brightly, the other two nodding behind her. Sad Flan then pointed in the opposite direction. Upon turning they saw the other three Flans flying away in the distance. “Oh…” they said in unison. Sad Flan rolled her eyes. They started to chase them, “Trixie is not done with you! Mark Trixie’s words!” Trixie Threatened as she ran away with the others. 3 Hours Later. No matter how much they tried, the Flans didn’t seem to slow down, they as energetic as they have ever been. Unfortunately the same couldn’t be said about the three mares chasing them. “H-How are they still going?” Twilight was trying to reason this, as she tried to catch her breath. “Really, Twilight? After all we have been through do you think Flan has normal stamina?” Rainbow said while lying on a cloud. “We gotta hoof it to Trixie though, she doesn’t surrender easily,” she added with a laugh. “Please come here…” Trixie was still trying to catch the three Flans, her body was crying for her to stop, but she still continued. The Flans just circled and slightly dodged her every time Trixie tried to grab them. Rainbow then noticed somepony was missing, “Where is the last one?” “Girls~” Fluttershy’s soft voice made act of presence followed by the pony herself with sad Flan on her back, “I came with some drinks and snacks. I’m sure you must be hungry after playing so much, please come over and rest a little, please?” That picked the interest of the hyperactive Flans, they then flew over to Fluttershy while avoiding Trixie one last time making her face plant in the dirt. Fluttershy gave a motherly smile, “Can you help me set up?” she asked the Flan on her back getting a positive nod from her. Sad Flan took out a picnic sheet from Fluttershy saddle bags and both of them set a box of cookies and cups with drinks from a thermo. The Flans took a cup each and looked at Fluttershy. “Enjoy~” She smiled warmly. All the Flans took a sip and gave a satisfactory sigh, this made them calm down. They enjoyed the snacks and had an overall good. After that they were quite relaxed and just decided to rest around Fluttershy and then… Poof! With a poof the four Flans were gone leaving only an adorable sleeping one on Fluttershy’s side. “Enjoy your nap, Flan,” Fluttershy cooed to the sleeping vampire, “And that is how you do it.” She said to the others, who had their jaws hanging open before falling backwards and grunting in annoyance. The afternoon was spent doing the groceries and playing in Sweet Apple Acres when Flan woke up. Meanwhile Trixie spent that time trying to learn how to make herbal tea for the future.
Chapter 11: Happy Birthday!Author's Note Happy Birthday my beloved Angel, I love chu so much Chapter 11: Happy Birthday! Starlight noticed the faint sunlight going through the curtains of her room, telling her it was time to wake up. She didn’t want to, since the last few days were quite strange for her liking, the new responsibilities that came with taking care of a certain little vampire was something she wasn’t prepared to tackle. Especially when it was her friend’s job to take care of Flan and not hers. She slowly opened her eyes, knowing she had to go downstairs and prepare breakfast, “You could have waited ten more minutes, princess,” she told to the sunlight from the window. After her mental prayers for a more normal day, her mind wandered a bit at the recent events. How all of this started when she bumped on the little vampire on her way to the mines, how painful the subsequent bite was and how angry she was at Flan. But then as she spent time with Flan to help Trixie out, the little interactions and bonding moments she and the others were part of. An image of a happy smiling Flan flashed for a brief moment, bringing a smile of her own, “I guess it hasn’t been that bad after all, heh,” she remained in bed watching the ceiling, “it’s way harder than just being a princess’ student, but I don’t regret being here. Well, enough self reflection, time to make breakfast,” she sat and stretched her limbs when suddenly her ears caught a subtle sound coming from downstairs. “What is that?” clanking sounds and shuffling around were prominent, “more importantly, how did I miss it?” after a moment she shrugged, “I guess it wouldn’t be Flan’s home is something weird didn’t happen.” With that she jumped off bed and made her way downstairs. On her way there she noted that the noise was coming from the kitchen, poking her head on the doorway she saw Flan sitting at the kitchen counter munching on some leftover cookies from Fluttershy’s meal the day before. She was also watching Trixie trying to do… something. “Hmm… Trixie what are you doing?” “Gah!” the focused mare let out a surprised yelp and quickly turned around, “oh Starlight, good morning… hehe, I was just hmm… making some breakfast, yeah!” she said very convincingly as Flan waved at Starlight in a friendly manner. Looking behind her friend Starlight saw the unspeakable horror of Trixie’s craft, “I see that, yeah…” then looked at Flan, “Good morning, Flan. I’ll make you something in a minute, just let me fully wake up first.” Trixie relaxed a bit not being the center of attention, until Starlight pointed at her. “As for you, Trixie. Clean all this mess,” Starlight ordered. “Oh come on Starlight, Trixie didn’t do that bad!” Trixie whinned. “You managed to put water inside fire somehow, how did you even do that!?” Starlight asked in exasperated confusion. Trixie lifted a hoof as if to explain but then nothing popped up in her mind, “Emm… Trixie has no idea…” After a nice breakfast, caffeine free this time, Flan went outside to feed the few birds that nested close to the house. Meanwhile Trixie begrudgingly cleaned the big mess she made in the kitchen, feeling sympathetic for her friend Starlight went to help Trixie after sighing. “Next time ask me for help Trixie, ok?” Starlight said as she tried to unstick some unknown substance from the oven. “Trix…” Trixie sighed, “I thought I could at least do this for Flan, you know? Make her a good meal to start the day in a positive way,” hints of sadness present in her voice as she cleaned the counter. Starlight gave Trixie a sideways hug, “I know what you mean, even I warmed up to her despite our unfortunate meeting, but you don’t have to try and do everything on your own if you’re unsure Trixie, you can rely on me to help. After all we both want Flan to be happy,” they both looked out the window and saw Flan talking with Fluttershy, the latter giving a gentle wave to them which they returned. “Hmm…” Starlight rubbed her chin on thought, “what if we prepare her a good lunch together Trixie? How does that sound?” She proposed. Trixie let out a giggle, “Sounds good to Trixie.” “Oh, so you want me to help with that, Flan?” Fluttershy asked receiving a nod from Flan. “Alright, I’m not the best at it, but I can do it,” Flan then hugged her thankfully. Fluttershy then left with a wave and smile. Soon after Flan saw Starlight leaving the house with her saddlebacks. “Oh, did Fluttershy leave?” Flan nodded, “Ok, I’m going to Twilight’s, if something happens come let me know, alright?” “Uuuu(I will, have a nice day)” Flan held a fist on her chest confidently. Starlight just stood there staring at the small vampire, ‘did she just…’ she shook her head some, “Ok, I’ll see you later, Flan.” With this said Starlight left aswell. Trixie was sitting on the living room with a cold towel over her eyes, she tend heard the door open and poked an eye out, she saw Flan coming back in. “Uuu,” Flan sounded a bit worried. “It’s ok Flan, Trixie is ok. But next time I will avoid doing five things at once in the kitchen,” Trixie said regretfully. “Still, we a couple hours before lunch, is there something you want to do Flan?” Flan thought for a moment and then nodded. In the Central Plaza, Flan was looking for a particular store, but there was no luck. “What are you looking for, Flan?” Trixie asked, sensing the annoyance in Flan’s behavior. Flan pointed her ever helpful chalkboard to Trixie, while still thinking. “Magic props? Like magic canes and hats?” Flan looked at her and nodded giving her a hopeful look. “Well, Trixie doesn’t think there are anything like that on Ponyville, seeing as how Rarity’s boutique is the main source of costumes for festivities. Magic props aren’t very popular around here, the few that could possibly be here are made by order. I have some because of my work, but if you’re looking for a magic wand I don’t think I have one, never found a good trick to play out with one,” the news were a bit of a disappointment for Flan but nodded thankfully regardless. Not having any other options, Flan took a piece of paper out of her pocket, wrote something on it and used the low rank spell material transfer to send it to Patchy. “What was that?” Trixie didn’t really know what Flan just did. Flan wrote on her chalkboard and showed it to her again, it read, “If there isn’t one, then I’ll just have one made by my friend Patchy.” Getting an “oooh” from Trixie. Having nothing else to do but wait, they went back home. Starlight came back home at mid-day, together with Trixie they made lunch and enjoyed a nice meal, around two hours later Flan received the package she wanted, decorating it with a cute red bow she went out with the others in tow. On the way to their destination they found Fluttershy carrying a simple cake with white frosting and some strawberries on top on a small cart. Soon enough they arrived in a house in the middle of town, Flan knocked at the door, an amber colored mare with a long black mane looked down from the second floor window noticing who was at the door she waved and both nodded. The door opened and the mare was covering the eyes of a light bourdeax mare with disheveled pink mane and appaloosa spots on her flank, then she uncovered her eyes and then... “Happy Birthday Speckle!” they shouted at once. Smiling Flan gave Speckle her gift. Inside there was a pink magic wand with a blue crescent moon on the tip. Squeeing, Speckle scooped up both the wand and Flan, giving the little vampire a big hug. The rest of the afternoon was spent having some cake, and it wouldn’t be a party without Pinkie Pie spontaneously appearing, the pink mare bringing boardgames and even a pinata.
Chapter 12: The mischievous mystery of the Sun, Moon and Star part 1.Early morning in Ponyville was going as normal. Ponies were waking up and doing their daily routines, preparing for a nice day full of activity. But something felt strange for some reason, one earth pony mare was watering her garden when suddenly she couldn’t hear the sound of the water falling from her watering can into the plants, even though she could see the water falling. She raised an eye-brow in confusion and stopped to check her watering can, but couldn’t find anything out of place. Shrugging she went back to it, this time she could hear the water falling on the plants, thinking it was just her imagination she smiled and started humming a little song. That was… until she looked again. She could hear the water falling yes, but she couldn’t see the water this time. She shook her head and blinked many times, re-checking her watering can once more, still not finding anything weird. She tried again, the water fell without a noise once more. Then the next time she couldn’t see it, this continued for a couple more attempts until she couldn’t either hear or see the water. Overly confused at this, she sat down and shook the watering can a little, she couldn’t hear or see water on it but it still felt as if it still had water inside. With nothing else to do, she lifted the can over her head to see if there was a hole or something on it with the sun light, but she yelped in surprise when soon after doing this she got drenched entirely by all the water that fell on her. Even more confused, wet and pretty annoyed, her ear twitched at some giggling that was going further and further away. But no matter how much she looked around, she couldn’t find anypony close by, “What just happened!?” she yelled, getting some weird looks from the neighbors on the other side of the road. Somewhere close by, “Heh, that was fun. Let’s see what else we can find,” said a childish voice that didn’t seem to have the best of intentions. “What about that orchard over there?” another more cheery and composed voice added. “Sounds good… maybe we can get something to eat there too, my tummy is not exactly cooperating with me here,” a third quite boorish voice joined in. “It’s decided then, to the orchard!” the first voice commanded, receiving a ‘Yeah!’ as response from the other two. Applejack was finishing the preparations for today’s morning harvest, she just needed to put a couple more baskets and she could start. “Alright, with this all’s ready for today,” she said to herself as she placed the last baskets down on their respective tree. She positioned herself and readied to start, but then she heard a subtle leaf shuffling noise, making her stop mid kick. “Is somepony there?” she asked with a raised brow, while scanning the area around her for any movement. But everything in the orchard was dead silent. Thinking it may have been her imagination she got in position once again and kicked. Applejack waited for that satisfying sound of apples neatly falling in the baskets… and waited… and waited some more… With a frown she turned and saw the apples in the baskets as expected, “Why didn’t Ah’ hear the apples falling?” she asked out loud while rubbing the side of her head with a hoof, she was quite confused at this event. “Is mah hearing going bad?” she said in a higher volume, she could hear her voice just fine. Then she hit another tree and she could also hear the hit and shuffling of the tree. But this time, she heard apples falling and hitting the baskets too, but upon seeing the baskets she saw no apples. Perplexed and quite annoyed, she once again started looking around. But nothing was there, it was just a silent orchard. It was so silent in fact, that AJ couldn’t even hear the breeze that was refreshing her as she worked… “What in tarnation is going on!?” she yelled exasperated. She didn’t like complicated things, she was a simple pony after all. That was until a droplet of something fell on her muzzle, swopping it with a hoof she felt the smell of apple juice. This is when a realization came down to her, ‘it’s not that Ah’m going crazy, something is doing this. Whatever this thing is, is also eating mah apples!’ with a hard frown now present on her features she looked even harder. It wasn’t until she looked to the top of the trees that she noticed something a little distance away, focusing and squinting she saw the tip of something transparent behind a tree top. Carefully and as silently as she could muster she approached the tree in question, she could tell this tree in particular had some apples taken from it, there were even some apple cores next to the trunk. A smirk made its way to AJ, ‘Found ya!’ it was even clearer when she looked up once again and could see a bit more of the thing and a little bit of another one, ‘are those… changeling wings?’ regardless of what they were, she needed to catch these apple stealing thieves. She got into position and delivered a nice strong kick, with enough force to violently shake the tree. “Woah!/Ahh!” AJ heard a combination of female screams ending with a resounding *thump* in the grass below, “owwie…” “Ha! Got ya!” Applejack stated before jumping in front of the tree to see her thieves, only to barely catch a glimpse of something red, white and blue before turning invisible. “No you didn’t!” A bratty child voice said mockingly, “Scramble!” Applejack could then hear multiple footsteps going away from the area, “hey! Come back here ya apple thieves!” “Catch us if you can!” the three combined voices said at once followed by a *Bweh!* A vein bulged in Applejack’s forehead, not only were these things stealing her apples, they were making fun of her as well. They were invisible but she could still hear their steps albeit very faintly, taking this into consideration she came up with a plan. In a swift movement she picked one of the apple cores and kick it in the direction one of the set of steps could be heard, she had her ears high up to pick up the direction of any sound more precisely. Hoof prepared with another apple core as she started to chase them. “Ha! Missed!” The childish bratty one mocked from somewhere, but this was what AJ wanted to begin with. Ear twitched at the mockery, giving her a more accurate direction. With that she kicked the other apple core, “Thank ya fer telling me where ya were!” The apple core flew swiftly through the air, soon enough it collided with something “Wah!” it bonked whatever it was and from the shuffling of the grass Applejack could tell it was knocked down from the hit. She made a full speed gallop to where the grass was flattened, “Ah… my head… Hey, blows to the head are no joke! Be more careful you idiot horse!” the thing complained to her very audibly, whatever the thing was it was clear that it wasn’t very smart. Taking advantage of the situation, AJ jumped at the invisible thing that she assumed was getting up from the movement of the grass, when she collided with something soft she closed her legs around it to grab it. The thing wasn’t something too big from what she felt and also whatever it was it wears clothes, if the feeling of fabric was anything to go by. Both of them rolled on the ground from the momentum of Applejack’s jump and started to wrestle each other. “Hey! Get off me!” Said the bratty thing as she trashed and tried to get AJ off her. “Serves ya right, ya thief!” AJ replied back as she tried to pin the thing down, which was hard to do since she couldn’t see her. But from the trashing and grabbing, she could tell the thing had hands and fingers. It didn’t have claws since the digits weren’t sharp but soft instead. “Now y’all will give me back the apples ya stole!” AJ ordered between grunts. “In your dreams!” The thing shot back defiantly, “hey! Stop just staring and help me out here!” she called for the others. “I don’t wanna, horses are stinky,” the boorish flat voice replied, earning herself a bit more of AJ’s anger. “What did y’all just say!?” Glancing in the direction of the voice, AJ could now see silhouettes with wings. “And have anger issues, I don’t wanna get bitten by it,” the cheery one added more salt to the wound. Applejack’s left eye twitched, these things just keep on insulting her. In a fit of anger and having enough of the insults, using all her strength she picked the one on the ground and was about to throw it to the others. “Ah! What are you doing!” the invisible one screamed, “I had enough of you!” “That’s mah line!” AJ said as she threw the one on her hooves just as it was releasing a very bright light, for a brief moment she could see a red and white dress before being blinded by the light, “Mah eyes!” “Catch me! Ahh!” AJ could hear the voice as she tried to recover her sight, also the subsequent *thud*and a collective ‘oof’ A few moments passed and Applejack still couldn’t really open her aching eyes. “Now, run for it!” the bratty one commanded and AJ could hear them running away. “Hey! Come back here!” With that, the chase continued. The morning continued as normal on Flan’s house, the little vampire was fresh out of bed and wanted to change things a bit today. She suggested Trixie and Starlight to have breakfast outside next to the lake they had close to the house. Flan even had her favorite tea delivered to her from the mansion, courtesy of her friend Patchy along some chairs and a nice round table that could hold a big parasol which they could use for this occasion. Setting the table outside just in the right spot Flan let out a satisfied sigh and went inside to see how her friends were doing. Going inside she could tell the water would be ready soon, but as Trixie was about to get some cups from the cabinets, “Uuu,” Flan called for her attention. “What is it Flan?” Trixie asked while being midway opening the cabinet with magic. Flan beamed at her and pointed at a specific cabinet which sported a multitude of red bat symbols and a lock in the middle. Flan scribbled in her chalkboard and waved it at Trixie for the mare to pick up as she looked for something in the drawers. Trixie held the chalkboard in her magic, “I think it is a nice opportunity to use my tea set, it will make the flavor even better,” but was Starlight who read it out loud. Getting a small key with the same bat symbol as the cabinet, Flan open it and took out a tea set that temporarily blinded the two mares from the reflection of the sun hitting it. After the assault on their eyes subsided they saw something that left them with their jaws hanging. Shiny white ceramic pieces with scarlet red bat decorations, but the most eye catching thing was the pronounced red spear and flaming sword set in the middle of each piece, the edge and handles of each being pure gold. All of it in a pristine ceramic tray with the same design as the pieces resting above it, making it the wet dream of any respectable tea set enthusiast. “Uuuu,” Flan held the tray in Starlight’s direction, so she could get the tea ready. But she saw the hesitation in her pony friends, she tilted her head to the side in confusion. Trixie lifted a shaky hoof, “F-Flan a-a-are you s-sure we c-can use these?” she stuttered. Starlight nodded as in agreeing with the question, but she didn’t stutter like her blue friend, “Just by looking at them, those pieces look extremely valuable. We wouldn’t want to ruin something so beautiful.” Flan waved a dismissive hand in their direction, setting the tea set in the corner she picked her chalkboard for another message. Showing it to them they could read, “Yes, I want to use these. It’s the first time I have my tea from home with friends.” She got an awww from them, but the message wasn’t finished. “Besides these aren’t as fragile as you think, just look.” Flan casually grabbed one of the cups and toss it behind her getting a look of terror from the mares, their eyes widening as they followed the trajectory of the cup midair. In a showing of both dexterity and also lack of common sense, Trixie launched herself skidding in the floor and catching the flying cup as it was descending. She let out a sigh of relief, totally forgetting that she could have just levitated the cup instead. Flan rewrote in her chalkboard with a toothy smile, “see? These are safe, there’s always someone jumping to catch them from falling.” Starlight deadpanned and Trixie felt kind of silly. Finally accepting to use the super duper expensive tea set, they prepared the table with some toast and jelly to accompany the tea. Totally oblivious of the chase happening close by in town.
Chapter 13: Twilight's bond and the mischievous mystery of the Sun, Moon and Star part 2!With everything set on the table, the three friends got comfortable in their chairs. But there were two extra cups along two extra chairs set in the table. As if it was on sync with the clock inside, the moment it rang at 8 AM a purple flash happened close by. After the light show ceased, the forms of Twilight and Rarity were there. With a short trot, they joined the rest of the group in the table. Except for Rarity who was caught off guard by Flan jumping at her, getting a surprised yelp from the fashionista. She almost tripped backwards but a quick response from Twilight’s magic stabilized them, Rarity then proceeded to give Flan a nice hug. “Oh you little devil, you~” She said with a giggle, “you know I don’t mind cuddling with you, darling. But please don’t surprise me like that, ok?” “Uuu…” Flan muttered with a hint of sadness while burying her face into Rarity’s chest. “I know, dear. I have been pretty busy with the many orders not just from Equestria, but also a couple from Álfeimr. I’m sorry we weren’t able to hang out as much as before Flan, I really am.” Rarity cooed while caressing Flan’s back. But soon enough a smile came back to her, she then held Flan in front of her, “But I have good news for you, Flan.” She got a curious look and head tilting as response, “I’m almost done with the orders, so I will have more free time to spend with you, dear.” After Flan processed that information, her eyes started glistening as hints of tears formed at their edges, “Uu?” she asked in a hopeful tone with quivering lips. Rarity nodded with a motherly smile, “yes deary, really really.” The expression on Flan’s face upon hearing those words was probably the most adorable one the ponies have ever seen her make, but now nothing stopped Flan from hug tackling Rarity to the ground. “Flan really loves Rarity, doesn’t she?” Trixie asked with a somewhat envious tone as the wholesome scene played in front of her. Twilight wiped some tears that formed under her eyes and nodded, “it is a close contest between Fluttershy and Rarity. But honestly after seeing this and so many other things, I’m sure Flan likes Rarity the most out of all of us.” She used a somber tone that wasn’t characteristic of her, “Rarity was the first pony to befriend Flan when she arrived in Ponyville, the first to do activities and play with her, the first to make her feel safe and welcomed here. The first…” she paused for a second as she bit her lower lip slightly, “to understand Flan without any kind of help.” She hanged her head down in shame, “something I haven’t achieved, even with all the help I could gather.” Twilight felt a hoof in her back, turning her head she saw Starlight, “Twilight, I don’t think this is the time for dwelling in the past. Look,” she pointed in the direction where Rarity and Flan were. “Uuu…?” just to see Flan looking at her with worry in her eyes. Rarity let her go and she flew closer to Twilight. “See? You’re worrying her, Twilight. She worries about you, about her friend.” “Starlight is right, darling. Maybe it’s time to finally let go of the past.” Before she could say anything, Twilight felt Flan hugging her. The princess of friendship tried to keep a strong front but, “Flan… is this my punishment for making those mistakes back then? My punishment for just focusing on the goal and not the methods that lead me there? My punishment… for trying to patronize friendship?” She tried very hard to stay strong, she really did. But the tears didn’t stop, not tears of sadness, tears of guilt. Guilt and anger towards herself, for doing all those stupid terrible things. “I’m sorry! I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to! I’m sorry!!” she screamed at the top of her lungs. Trixie and Starlight were shocked at what they just heard. Rarity on the other hoof knowing quite well what happened, just cleared some tears of joy she had with a handkerchief, she was happy that her friend finally accepted what she did and was willing to move on from it. That’s when she noticed the presence of somepony that also shared the same joy from hearing this. Rainbow Dash having heard the commotion landed next to Rarity. The princess of friendship cried for several minutes, holding onto Flan for support. All the pain she bottled up inside herself, coming out all at once. Her friends surrounding her, with knowing smiles just waiting for her to let it all out. To let all that suffering go away. When Twilight finally started calming down and just quietly sobbed, Flan let go and floated in front of her. Caressing her mane, they locked eyes. “Uuuu… (Thank you for finally forgiving yourself, Twilight…)” Twilight’s eyes widened in surprise, “Flan… I… you…” she couldn’t find the words but Flan just nodded at her with a reassuring smile. “Took you long enough… Egghead,” Rainbow tried to joke but her own sniffles betrayed her. “Congratulations, darling. It must have been horrendous to be with such negativity inside you,” Rarity said in the best way she could muster while trying not to cry her eyes out of happiness. “Twilight, the fact that you admitted all of that in front of Trixie, already speaks tons about your conviction,” Trixie held a hoof in front of her, “so to respect those feelings of self-improvement and forgiveness, Trixie want us to start anew. Not half-assed tolerance or pettiness, but a genuine friendship.” “Didn’t you two do that, a couple of days ago?” Starlight pointed out, bringing back that other incident. Trixie shrugged, “Yes, but we didn’t get an official decree from the princess of friendship, now did we highness?” She ended with a playful wink in Twilight’s direction. The tension in the air just completely banished, as Twilight started snickering then went into full out laughter, soon joined by Rainbow’s, Rarity and Starlight just giggled amusingly while Trixie just kept her hoof in the air with the same smile. After calming down, Twilight connected hooves with Trixie, “Trixie, as princess of friendship and with everyone here present as witnesses, I declare our friendship as official. Nice to meet you, Trixie Lulamoon.” She gave a firm shake. Both shared the same determined stare, “Nice to meet you too, Princess Twilight Sparkle.” This lasted for a good couple of seconds until they both broke character and laughed out loud once again. Finally they shared a group hug, all those negative thoughts and feelings going away with the wind. “Hmm… Trixie thinks the tea may have gone cold by now,” until Trixie pointed out the obvious. Followed by a third round of laughs. With everyone calm and composed once again, they took their places in the table now with the addition of Rainbow Dash into the mix. “Sorry for ruining the mood,” Twilight said sheepishly while rubbing the back of her head. “I think I should be the one to re heat this,” she grabbed the tea pot in her magic but saw Rainbow hold a hoof up. “Twilight wait,” she said while focusing on Flan. “Flan, was this tea set made by Patchouli too?” Flan nodded. “Then it’s cool Twi. The tea inside should still be hot.” “Pray tell, how do you know that Rainbow, darling?” Rarity asked, surprised by this never seen before knowledge that Rainbow seemingly had. “And who’s this Patchouli, you mentioned?” Twilight added. “Patchouli is… hmm…” Rainbow rubbed her chin in thought, trying to think of a comparison, “She is the Twilight of Flan’s home, but twenty percent cooler.” This elicited a giggle from Flan. “Since the cooler Twilight made it, she used her egghead powers to magick it in a way that whatever goes inside remains at the same temperature that it was before it was poured in.” Flan nodded in agreement and showed them her chalkboard, “It’s a good tea pot. It will keep things warm and nice. Just like a good friendship will keep everyone together and happy.” With a warm and fuzzy feeling inside them, everyone got a cup of tea and some toast with strawberry jelly. “I have to admit though, of all ponies to be on a tea party I didn’t expect you to attend one, Rainbow dear.” Rarity pointed out, remembering all the times the prismatic mare would refuse to go to any tea party because it was ‘lame girly stuff’. “If this is the tea I think it is, then there’s no way I’m missing a chance to drink it Rares.” She took a sip of her cup, smacking her lips to savor it. Then a content smile adorned her face, “yep, this is the stuff. The Scarlet from Flan’s house never lets you down. This thing is like Ricolt-ta, Claw cola and Tartarus Soda mixed together but better!” She said excitedly. Then she noticed Flan’s chalkboard with the message, “It also never gives you up.” Getting a snort from the cyan Pegasus. Rarity and Trixie were next to try it, they lifted their cups and gave it a good sniff, the smell alone being temptation enough. So, same as Rainbow they took a sip and smacked their lips to feel the full flavor of it, their eyes widened at the sensation. “Sweet Celestia, what is this!?” they said in unison. Twilight and Starlight just looked at each then shrugged, they went ahead and took that testing sip. Without changing their expression they nodded once and slowly put their cups in the table over their respective plates. The moment their cups were back on their spot, both teleported next to Flan, “Where can I buy this tea!?” they asked with crazy expressions. “Heh, lightweights,” Rainbow said as she got comfier in her chair and sipped away the delicious nectar. As Flan pried the two needy mares off her, the rest of the tea party was filled with chit chat and relaxation. Twilight of course was planning to try and recreate this tea if she can’t directly buy it. It would be the next best thing if she can do it!. Meanwhile in the middle of Ponyville, Applejack was seen running around with seemingly no clear direction. Many ponies just saw her running one way, just to stop suddenly then running the opposite direction, always having her rope in her mouth while keeping a pretty serious expression. Applejack herself was paying close attention to the road, looking for a specific thing to happen. Then she saw it, a group of small dust clouds that weren’t provoked by anypony, moving further away, ‘Y’all aren’t goin’ ta escape, ya thieves!’ with this in mind she ran with all she got to close the gap. Jumping over ponies, sliding under carts, zig sagging in multitudes, just to not lose track of her targets. In a streak of luck, she saw a big dust cloud in the road that leads to Fluttershy’s cottage. Meaning one of them tripped, ‘Now’s mah chance!’ with a precise movement of her head she threw her rope made in a laso, “wah!” yelped the voice that AJ recognized as the boorish one that was hiding in the bushes. “Yee-haw!” AJ yelled as she pulled the rope. As the end of the rope got closer and closer, a figure was eventually revealed. The figure of a small blonde girl with curly short hair wearing a long white dress with many black ribbons adorning it, black shoes and on her head she had a white beret with a black line in the middle ending in two black ribbons at the sides. In her back having two pairs of transparent wings and she was desperately trying to crawl away from the farm pony. As she got her at leg’s reach AJ turned her around getting an ‘eep’ from the girl and seeing her scared red eyes. “Well, what do Ah’ have here? A thief, that’s what!” AJ yelled in her face, the girl curling up while covering her face with her arms. “Ah’m waiting, why did y’all stole mah apples!?” “Applejack?” Fluttershy’s soft voice came from the road ahead, “what are you doing?” as she approached she noticed the trembling girl below her friend letting out a gasp. “Ah’ caught an apple thief, Flutters. This rascal here with her two friends were pulling some weird tricks and stole mah apples!” Applejack explained, making sure to have her catch pinned down. “But look at her!” Fluttershy said in a higher volume, “she looks so scared Applejack, I’m sure she must have a really good reason to do that.” “That’s what Ah’m waiting ta hear, but she’s not saying a thing.” Fluttershy frowned, “she’s not going to cooperate if you keep using that tone, Applejack.” “What Ah’m supposed ta do then?” she gave her friend a look of exasperation. “You do it nicely,” Fluttershy stated as if it was the most obvious thing, she then focused on the downed girl. “Oh… you poor little thing,” she said softly with a motherly tone, “don’t worry, you are safe now. Applejack will apologize to you for tying you up, then we can calmly talk.” AJ tensed up at some of that. Fluttershy shortly paused, “If that’s ok with you…” “Eh…?” The girl muttered quietly as she looked at Fluttershy with more confusion than fear. “Now wait a gosh darn second he-” Applejack was trying to protest but Fluttershy cut her mid-sentence by getting in her face. “Oh Applejack, please don’t be mad…” Fluttershy used a more neutral tone, “we are just trying to get a peaceful resolution to this, right?” she asked the girl receiving a vigorous nodding from her. She smiled warmly and directed her attention to her friend once more, “See? She wants it too, why don’t we give the apology a try?” Applejack grumbled. After a few moments AJ sighed in defeat, thinking that getting more worked up over this would just give her a headache “Alright Flutters ya win, Ah’ll Apo-” But then got interrupted once again. “Stop bullying Luna!” An energetic war cry could be heard, then Applejack was pushed away from the girl by something that was slowly revealing itself, the sudden movement made her lose balance and trip on her hooves, falling down. Fluttershy jumped away and cowered in surprised. “Sunny!” The girl screamed in joy for seeing her friend came to rescue her. This Sunny was also a pretty small girl, no taller than a full grown mare. She had blue eyes and ginger short hair braided on both sides of her head with red ribbons, she wears a white and red dress with frills and a yellow neckerchief, black and white shoes, on her head a maid headdress was adorning her hair and like her friend she had two pairs of transparent wings on her back. Then another one appeared next to the one now known as Luna, “You should be more careful Luna, your clumsiness could have get us all caught,” the new girl said with gentle voice. “Sorry Star,” Luna apologized meekly. “Shut up Star, you wanted to run away while the horses captured Luna!” Sunny complained to the one now called Star. Star was about the same height as the other two. She had grey eyes and dark brown long hair with a big blue ribbon on top, her dress was a frilly blue one with white sleeves and a white string tied as a ribbon below her neck, she also wears black boots and like the other two she sported two pairs of transparent wings on her back. “It was tactical advantage!” Star protested while flailing her arms, her friends deadpanned. “Enough of this, we’re out of here!” Sunny pointed a finger at the rope in Luna’s ankle while having her other hand raised to the sky, soon after a ray of light came out of her finger and burned the rope until it was cut from the heat. “I’m still mad you two didn’t want to help me earlier though!” Applejack recovered and stood on her hooves once more and stomped one in the dirt angrily, “who the hay are you!?” “Luna now!” Sunny ordered while she and Star covered their ears. Luna clapped her hands while closing her eyes, the resulting sound the ponies heard was an equivalent to having a needle poking you in the ear, suffice to say it was super effective as both ponies were low in the ground squirming with their hooves on their ears trying to block the sound. “Good Job, Luna! Now let’s go,” With a satisfied grin all three of them started to float and slowly became invisible again. Soon after a panting AJ recovered from the devilish assault on her ears. But she didn’t see any of the thieves in the area anymore, even scanning the road gave no clue as there were no more random dust clouds appearing, the hamster inside her head stopped running the gears and knocked on her skull, ‘psst, they escapeeeeeeeed’ it whispered to her. Her eyes shrunk at the realization, as she started growing a very angry scowl. Fluttershy could only hide herself with her mane as her friend was getting red in the face from anger. AJ sat on her haunches and scrunched her muzzle, then throwing her legs forward “You F-” she let out some rather colorful words in unconceivable rage as the town’s bell rang for 9 AM. The three girls flew in a random direction, looking for something else to do. “That was a close one,” Sunny sighed tiredly, but quickly regained her enthusiasm, “but was still fun, did you see the look on that orange horse’s face? That was the best!” “That one was scary though,” Luna muttered, reminiscing her previous situation with a shudder. “Leave it to miss clumsy to trip when there was nothing to trip with,” Star remarked with a flat tone as she deadpanned at her friend. “I said I was sorry!” Luna quickly replied with flailing arms, “at least the yellow one was nice…” “Luna, did you just get swooned by a horse?” Sunny asked out of nowhere. “Wha…?” Luna’s cheeks got a tint of red by the implications. The other two grew mischievous smiles, “Oh my goddess! You totally did!” they both said in unison while laughing out loud. “What? No!” Luna now sported a totally red face from embarrassment. “You did!” “Did not!” “You did!!” “Did not!!!” In the middle of their little argument, Star suddenly stopped laughing, “Girls!” she called, “Something is getting closer.” “Wait what?” Sunny looked around, seeing nothing near them, “Are you sure? But even then I’m reflecting the light around us so we won’t be spotted!” “And I’m cancelling any sounds from getting out, so we won’t be heard either,” Luna shared Sunny’s look of confusion, then she saw Star pointing at sunny with a worried expression, upon looking she started worrying too. “What?” Sunny noticed the weird looks her friends were giving her, “Do I have something on my face, why are you looking at me like that?” she rubbed her face with her sleeve but it was still clean. Then she saw both her friends point slightly above her. That was when she felt a slight pressure on top of herself, “Wha…” she decided to look upwards, but as she did so… pink invaded her vision. “Hi! I’m Pinkie Pie, who are you three!?” the pinkest pony asked with her head now hanging upside down in front of Sunny’s face. *SHRIEK*
Chapter 14: Pinkie's arrival, and the mischievous mystery of the Sun, Moon and Star part 3!Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.
Chapter 3: The official caretaker (Foalsitter)After Flan finished writing her letter, she sought out Spike, who was on his way to do the groceries. Having sent the letter to her sister, she returned to the clearing, the group of mares having finally stopped arguing. Rainbow approached her first, “Where did you go, Flan?” Flan wrote something on her chalkboard and showed her. Rainbow read the first part about the letter, “Oh, but then…” Flan signaled her to keep reading, which she did. “Oh… so, she’s coming?” Flan replied to her question by nodding once, this put a smile on Rainbow’s face. “Awesome!” “What’s awesome?” Twilight was the next to approach them. Rainbow was brimming with excitement, “Remilia is visiting!” Twilight raised an eye brow. “Really?” she asked Flan, who nodded, “I see. But why are you so excited, Rainbow?” Rainbow looked at her friend as though she asked her who the Wonderbolts were. “Are you kidding!? Remilia is like one of the most -awesome- members of the Academy! She’s strong, she’s fast, she has magic and this giant red spear named Gungnir!” “I don’t think Flan’s sister would feel flattered by you admiring her for just her powers, Rainbow. Besides, that still doesn’t explain your excitement. It’s not like you’re actually friends with her,” Twilight told to her prismatic friend. “Just because you were too scared to befriend her doesn’t mean I can’t do it, Egghead.” “I’m not scared of her! I’m just being careful,” Twilight protested. “Who are you scared of? And why are you being so friendly with that thing?” Starlight asked while closing the distance between them. Trixie just went to Flan’s side and picked her up, holding her like a doll again. Flan didn’t protest. “Oh come on, Flan! You bit me the first time I tried to pet you, and now you let Trixie just pick you up?” Twilight was not okay with this development. Flan just shrugged, which made Twilight pout. “Don’t be jealous Twilight,” Trixie said with a smug smile, “some of us just have the special touch.” “We’re not doing the whole ‘I’m-ignoring-you’ routine again, are we?” Starlight asked, giving her friends a deadpan look. Rainbow flicked away a stray of her mane that got in the way, “We were just talking about how Twilight is scared of Flan’s big sis.” “I’m not scared of her!” Flan wrote something on her chalkboard somehow, and showed it to everyone present, “We have to go to the castle; Big Sis is probably there already.” “Oh, it’s better if we go then, right?” Trixie asked her, Flan nodded. “’We’?” Rainbow and Twilight asked in unison. “Trixie is coming with you, of course.” “Of course,” Rainbow muttered. They reached Twilight’s castle after a quick walk, a walk that was pretty uneventful... Besides Starlight complaining about Flan, the latter just ignored her. “Starlight, please, I know you are upset with Flan, but I think you’re being unfair with her,” Twilight commented while they approached the doors, in which a familiar person was waiting. “Unfair? It attacked me for no reason! I have the right to be mad,” Starlight countered. “That very unlikely, Starlight. Even when Flan and I weren’t on good terms, she never bit me without provocation. But you did something to her that she didn’t like and that's why she bit you,” Twilight tried reasoning with Starlight. Looking away from the bickering pair, Rainbow noticed Remilia at the door and flew over there to greet her, grinning like a fangirl already. That was when Twilight noticed her too and she gulped nervously, worried that Rainbow could do something reckless to upset Remilia. “That person at the entrance is your sister, Flan?” Trixie asked and Flan nodded. “Alright, the Nice and Wonderful Trixie will go and greet her.” Rainbow approached, carefully, so to not startle Remilia, who was examining the castle, parasol open over her head. Needless to say, the prismatic mare was not successful. “Are you trying to sneak on me, newbie? You’re still ages away to even try that,” Remilia said from behind Rainbow, scaring the primary feathers out of her. Letting out an embarrassing girly yelp, Rainbow found herself cowering against the castle wall. Remilia leaned forward while putting the index finger of her free hand below her chin as she smiled innocently. “Oh~ did I scare you?” she giggled some, “you should see the look on your face right now.” Rainbow composed herself and let out a heavy sigh with a hoof over her heart, “Y-yeah, very funny. You got me good there.” “Excuse me, miss?” Trixie asked from behind Remilia. Remilia turned to see Trixie and Flan on her back waving at her. “Flan!” she quickly snatched Flan from Trixie’s back. Trixie was left confused on what just happened, but didn’t think about it too much: this was Flan’s older sister after all. She could see the resemblance between them and opened her mouth to introduce herself, but Remilia beat her on that. “You have to be Flan’s new friend, Trixie, right?” Remilia asked, casually. “Yes. The Great and Powerful Trixie, to be exact. But formalities can be avoided,” Trixie used her professional voice. Remilia and Flan exchanged stares for a moment and then giggled together. Trixie just stared at them, not knowing whether or not be be offended. “Miss Remilia,” Twilight greeted her formally, stepping forward. “Greetings, Sparkle. It’s nice to see you again in a better condition than last time,” Remilia told Twilight in a more refined way. “Thank you, and again I apologize for what I did,” Starlight and Trixie eyed Twilight suspiciously, but the purple alicorn kept her eyes on the new arrival, “um, why don’t we make ourselves comfortable inside the castle?” “That is rather kind of you. Lead the way.” The six entered the Castle of Friendship without any fanfare, making their way to the main hall, where Twilight and Rainbow sat on their respective thrones and, after a polite inquiry, allowed Starlight, Trixie, and the Scarlet Sisters sit on the rest. “Well, since I’m sure you have no idea why I came all the way here, I’m going to be as brief as I can,” Remilia was the first to speak from where she sat on the Throne of Honesty, “and no interruptions, please.” At everyone’s nod, her expression changed to a serious one and spoke with a grimly tone, “No, really, I’m serious about that.” Twilight became a little nervous; she knew Remilia could be dangerous if they upset her in any way. Rainbow, on the contrary, was completely chill; you could even say she was almost excited for some reason. Starlight was confused as to why Twilight was wary of this creature, and Trixie could swear that she saw Remilia’s red eyes shine for a moment. “I don’t know if you’re aware that I gave Flan permission to stay here as long as she wants to, but we didn’t decide -where- she would be staying while she’s here,” Remillia spoke in a more casual tone, “that’s what we’ll be deciding today.” Not wanting to interrupt, Twilight silently raised a hoof to ask something. “What is it?” Remilia asked to the polite princess. “I don’t mean to sound like a know-it-all or anything...” Twilight’s eye twitched at both Rainbow and Trixie’s ‘yeah right’ coughs, but kept her professional cool, “but since Flan is going to stay in Ponyville, isn’t obvious that she will stay here in the castle?” “What!?” Starlight shouted, standing up from her seat on the Throne of Generosity, “there’s no way I’ll share my living space with that thing!” Remilia, Rainbow and Trixie were clearly annoyed by that comment. Twilight started to sweat when Remilia threw her an annoyed glare. But her face soon returned to a neutral expression, “Well, that puts the castle out of the question.” She looked to her sister. “So Flan, where will you go?” Flan, sitting atop the Throne of Kindness, looked to her pony friends. “What about me Flan?” Rainbow offered with a grin, “we could do lots of awesome stuff together!” “Rainbow, you live in the clouds, and Flan can’t walk on clouds,” Twilight pointed out. “You could use the cloud walking spell on her. Problem solved.” But Flan got up and went to Trixie’s side at the Throne of Laughter. Looking her sister in the eye, she pointed at the blue unicorn. “Well, there you have it,” Remilia said with a wide smile, “Flan chose her. Time to go home.” “Wait!” Fear forgotten, it was now Twilight’s turn to jump to her hooves, “this makes no sense! Are you really leaving Flan with -Trixie- without knowing the living conditions?” “I don’t really care: Flan made her decision and I’m not going to stop her if that’s what she wants,” Remilia told her sincerely. Twilight’s ears fell at that. “-But-, you do have a point there too.” Twilight’s ears perked back up. “It wouldn’t hurt to check out where my little sister will be living. Besides, I’m bored.” “Yes!” Twilight threw a hoof up in excitement, Rainbow was containing a laugh, the rest were looking at her with raised eye brows, at which point the purple princess noticed how silly she probably looked and slowly lowered her hoof with a slight blush on her face. Getting up from their seats, the group filed outside and made their way outside of town, taking a route where they wouldn’t attract too much attention: one blond vampire in the town was more than enough and Twilight didn’t want to attract any unwanted attention. Once the township was cleared, Trixie lead everyone to her wagon, which was a short ways from where she and Starlight had been practicing earlier. Remilia inspected it immediately: she saw that the wagon wasn’t broken or in any danger of breaking, but it sure had seen better days. Trixie showed Remilia inside: it was decent, but there wasn’t much of anything in there, just a little bed, a little locker, a couple of boxes in a corner, and a starry blue carpet on the floor. “What do you think?” Trixie asked with a hint of sadness on her voice, knowing that her ‘house’ wouldn’t impress Flan’s sister. Remilia stared at her unimpressed, but her next question threw her off, “Why do you live so far away from the town?” “The residents of Ponyville don’t like me. A lot of them pretend that everything is forgotten, but I see the accusing looks and they seldom speak to me,” Trixie explained, fighting the tears that threatened to flow. Flan looked at her with sympathy: she knew she was right at choosing Trixie, Flan felt the sadness in her and wanted to help. She looked at her sister with pleading eyes. Remilia searched for any doubt in those eyes, but saw none. Pursing her lips, she turned back to Trixie. “I see,” she said, nonchalantly, “before I leave, I want to be sure of something.” She looked Trixie in the eye. “Are you sure you want to take care of Flan while she lives here, Trixie?” That question was the total opposite of what Remilia’s actual carefree expression gave away. Trixie knew that she needed to consider this seriously, after all, even if she had some experience with foals before, she never really took care of one. Ever. But… Trixie really wanted to take this responsibility. She hadn’t been so sure before, but when Flan chose her instead of Twilight and Rainbow Dash, she felt happy. Her mind was made up with that realization. “Yes, Trix- I want to take care of her as long as she lives here,” Trixie’s throat nearly went dry at the proper use of pronouns, but this was important, “I will do better to improve the conditions of my home for her, so please don’t worry.” Remilia was rather pleased by her response, “That won’t be necessary.” She snapped her fingers, but nothing seemed to happen. Flan smiled, knowingly. Trixie was about to say something but… “Did you call me, my lady?” a polite voice said from behind everyone scaring Trixie. Twilight, Rainbow and Starlight were waiting just outside of Trixie’s wagon until they finished their business, though Starlight wasn’t happy to be left out of this decision. “Gah!” they heard Trixie’s scream after hearing a ‘snap’ sound. Rainbow knew that feeling very well, “That’s totally Sakuya.” “Who’s Sakuya?” Twilight asked while searching any relation to this name in her memories. “Well…” Rainbow started. “I’ am Izayoi Sakuya, chief maid of Koumakan it’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance,” the maid that appeared out of nowhere gave a courteous bow to Trixie, who stood there, mouth still agape. This new person was a young silver haired, blue eyed woman, a little over 5.5 feet of height; she was wearing a blue French maid outfit with long sleeves and had a clipboard on her hands. “Sakuya, this pony will be hired as Flan’s new caretaker, take care of the details please,” Remilia ordered, getting a polite nod from the maid. With that, Sakuya proceeded to ask Trixie various questions to fill her form. Ten minutes later..... Twilight and company watched as everyone stepped out of Trixie’s wagon, with the addition of the one she now knew was Sakuya. “Miss Remilia did you came to a decision?” Twilight eagerly asked. “Yes I did,” was the only thing Remilia said, and nopony said nothing else for some moments. Twilight grew impatient, “Well?” “Well what?” Was the response she got from the older vampire, which only served to annoy her even more. Starlight raised an eyebrow while Rainbow grinned a knowing grin: she knew about Remilia’s antics. Twilight stared with a twitchy eye, but restrained herself from saying anything reckless, “What is the decision you made?” “Oh that,” Remilia said dismissively, taking the time to stretch, causing a few strands of Twilight’s mane pop up. Rainbow’s face scrunched holding back the laughter. Starlight facehooved. Remilia decided that the Princess of Friendship had been tortured enough, “I hired Trixie as Flan’s official caretaker. She’ll be living with her during her stay here.” “What? On this rickety mess?” Twilight pointed at the wagon, getting a nasty look from Trixie. “Of course not,” Remilia then gave a note to Sakuya, who bowed before vanishing again. “Wait, what?” Twilight was confused, this wasn’t making any sense. “Ask Trixie if you want to know. I have business to attend to, but before that...” Remilia motioned for Rainbow and the blue pegasus stepped closer. Receiving an envelope, Rainbow looked curiously at it: it was a plain white envelope with nothing written on it. “This is -only- for -you- to read. Do not disappoint me.” Rainbow gave her a salute, “You can count on me, Miss Remilia.” With that, Remilia took her leave. Flan was glad that everything ended up fine: she didn’t expect her sister to help Trixie just like that. Maybe she was misjudging her, maybe she actually… Then she felt something in her pocket, which she quickly fished out. It was a piece of paper that read, ‘I hope you’re happy with this, Flan, because I expect a little more cooperation from you when you return home.’ Followed by a drawing of Remilia’s face with a silly expression. Flan stared at the piece of paper with a blank expression. Trixie noticed that, “Flan? Are you okay?” Flan squashed the paper into a ball and threw it behind her where it exploded mid-air. The ponies stared, jaws dropped and ears flat on their heads...except for Rainbow, who was grinning again.
