Author's Note

Taking care of some details before proceeding…

Thunderlane

Thunderlane answered a knock at the door and found Rumble and Scootaloo. "That didn't take too long. Good. Rumble, get back to work."

Scootaloo held up a wing. "About that. Twilight seems to have cured him. I don't think there'll be any more of… what he was probably doing in there."

Thunderlane gave her a level look. I suspected they might say something like that. After four seconds, he said, "He did this because of magic?"

"It was a, what do you call it… where's Sweetie Belle when you need her?"

Rumble suggested, "Significant contributing factor?" Scootaloo nodded.

Thunderlane shrugged. "At the very least, he ought to clean up after himself."

Scootaloo offered, "If this is what I think it is… unicorns are much better at that. Sweetie Belle would be very unsurprised about whatever she'll find here, and I know she can help. If the main point is getting it clean, I think asking her a favor would be more effective."

Thunderlane facehoofed gently in thought. I remember the lessons. Freaking unicorns with their super convenient powers. Now, as for the excuse… It's not like I can't remember when Sombra took me over, and there was the incident with that doll… under that kind of influence I couldn't blame him. But there are weaker influences, and we can't just be off the hook if we've been nudged. "How does this rate on a scale from 1 is a shot of hard cider to 10 is Sombra?"

Rumble coughed. "Three or four? I should have restrained myself better. It seems like everypony else did."

Scootaloo put in, "Sweetie didn't, and we never asked what Apple Bloom did, but given what she probably would have done, I wouldn't be surprised if she tried it… and we don't know anything about the others."

Rumble swallowed and nodded. "Okay, maybe they just didn't get caught."

Thunderlane asked Scootaloo, "What about you?"

She grinned puckishly. "I wasn't affected in the first place. Got nothing to hide, nossir." Her gaze shifted away from him, suddenly nervous. Of course a kid that age has something to hide. Outside the scope of the spell, though.

Thunderlane took a deep breath. "All right. Let's see how clean Sweetie Belle can get this. As long as you understand this was–"

Rumble supplied, seriously, "Absolutely unacceptable."

Thunderlane gauged his look, then nodded. "Okay."

Scootaloo and Rumble ran off, and Rainbow Dash immediately dropped off of a cloud. "Hey."

Thunderlane raised an eyebrow. "Were you listening in?"

"Yeah, I was hit too, I'd say it was a four myself. Say, are you single?"

Thunderlane's eyes widened. "We can't date. We're both Wonderbolts."

"Not me, I'm just the go-between."

"Umm. Go-between? Like in the early chapters of the kamare sutra? Ponies actually do that?"

"They do if they're really timid and they have an awesome friend like me. So, are you single?" To his nod, she replied, "Great. So, want to date Fluttershy?"

He gulped. "Wow. Umm. She asked you to approach me?"

Rainbow Dash nodded. "Yup, you lucky dog, you."

He blinked, then exclaimed, "Yes! Uh, shall I go over and arrange it, or does she want you to keep ferrying messages for us?"

"I'll ask her. Dinner after tomorrow's practice?"

Thunderlane considered. "Works for me."

"Sweet!" Rainbow Dash exited at mach 0.8.

Thunderlane goggled. "Fluttershy asked me out. Sweet Celestia. That's one heck of a groupie."

He turned and found that Discord was standing in his front door, coiled up so as to take up the whole frame. "Gah! Oh no. Do you not want me to?"

Discord held up his paw. "I want her to be happy. If you stay together and you are good to her, that's good. If you end up breaking up, and you are thoughtful and decent about it, that's all right. I admit I will be a little jealous of her attention, but I, the spirit of chaos, am about as interested in sex as your toaster is, so I'm going to have to let some other pony in to her life at some point or watch her being miserable."

Thunderlane nodded, controlling his terror.

Discord unwound a little. "That said, it'd be best if we got along between us. I'm not going anywhere, and it just might make me less jealous. Do you play… Ogres and Oubliettes?"

Thunderlane blinked in confusion, then shook his head. "I could." To get the Lord of Chaos on board with my dating Fluttershy? Definitely.

"All right. Come by the castle at 7 in two days." He snapped his talon and vanished.

Thunderlane tensed, then relaxed. A deep breath. This has been a completely insane day.

Then, of course, Sweetie Belle trotted up. "Hi! Ready for me to clean up?"

Thunderlane shuddered. It's not over yet. "I guess so?"

She nodded and slipped in past him. "All right, where is it?"

Thunderlane pointed to the sofa, which had a fairly broad sudsy spot. Sweetie zeroed in on it. "That's all? I was expecting him to have turned the room into a Jackson Fetlock painting." Her horn lit, and there was a slight crackling sound. Then another spell, and the soap lifted off. As she carried the soap glob off to the kitchen, she said, "Too bad I can't tell if it worked. Practice on casting that properly is good, but it's a lot less helpful if I can't tell if I did it right. Let's check to see if you missed any spots…" She lifted the cushions. "Aha! Found one!" She put the cushion down, focused, and the small spot disappeared with a small crackle. She hoofpumped, then set about searching the area. "Got it after all. Thought that sound wasn't just soap bubbles popping."

Thunderlane looked on, mildly stunned. She seems to be taking this… with an unexpectedly low level of embarrassment. A side-effect of… whatever it was? "So, Twilight said it was cured?"

Sweetie Belle nodded without interrupting her search for stray bits of Rumble's spooge. "Yup. Still not sure how it happened, but at least we can get rid of it if it crops up again. Okay, looks like this is all clean." She looked back at it, then pulled a cloud of dust, hair, and feather fragments out of it with her magic. "Well, now it's all clean." She looked to the door. "I have some other things I need to get done, so…"

"Yes, you can go. Thank you." After a minute, Thunderlane finally relaxed, convinced that nothing else dramatic was about to happen. And this time, he was correct.