The Fluttershy Effect

by banjo2E

Rating: everyone
Tags: Main 6, Slice of Life, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Alternate Universe
Length: 10940

One small change can sometimes ruin everything forever. This is not one of those changes.

Everypony has a special connection with their friends, sometimes before they've even met. What most ponies fail to realize is that this connection will always be there, no matter what happens. Or fails to happen.

A speedster fails to break her barriers, and in so doing learns how to move them.
A timid animal lover, prevented from following the dreams she only just found, resolves to chase them anyway. 
Two tearful foals meet, forming a partnership more enduring than any mountain.
A country mouse adapts to the city, and discovers how to bring two worlds together.
And a lonely filly fails her trials, only to pass the greatest test of all.

Though Rainbows may hide from the weather, Harmony knows not defeat.
For Magic may bind souls together, but Friendship makes it all complete.

Published 2012-08-22 19:54:02 UTC
Last updated 2013-03-16 00:38:58 UTC

Racing in Style

There is a theory put forth in certain circles called the "Butterfly Effect". Put simply, the idea is that a single, seemingly insignificant choice can potentially cause vastly different scenarios to occur. By choosing not to flap its wings, a single butterfly may cause a hurricane to form.

The proponents of this theory, by and large, fail to realize two things. The first thing they do not account for is that a single change can only impact so much; one butterfly might, in theory, create or prevent one hurricane, but it won't prevent the oceanic conditions that propagate hurricanes, and it definitely won't stop Applebuck Season from happening.

The second thing is that, generally speaking, if butterflies really want to change the outcome of an event, they put an entire swarm on the job.

That one day at Flight Camp started out just like any other. Rainbow Dash got up early to hit the practice courses as she always did. She'd been pushing the camp records for over a week, and felt confident she'd be able to break them soon.

As she prepared to run the slalom, she heard a certain pair of annoying voices. She looked to the side and saw two colts, one a dark brown and one a lighter tan color, standing in front of a creamy-yellow filly with a pink mane; her friend Fluttershy.

The first voice sounded like it belonged to the brown colt. "Nice going, Klutzershy! They oughtta ground you permanently!"

Rainbow thought she heard Fluttershy mumble something (Fluttershy wasn't easy to hear on the best of days) but the tan colt just laughed. "My baby brother can fly better than you!"

The more Rainbow heard, the angrier she became. Every single day, these jerks would pick on Fluttershy, and as far as she could tell, they just did it for kicks and giggles. She had had enough of this crap.

Rainbow broke off her routine, buzzed the colts' heads, and landed hard in front of her friend. "Okay, I know I've told you to stop bugging Fluttershy. Leave her alone!"

The tan colt snorted. "Ooh, what are you gonna do, Rainbow Crash?"

Rainbow's eyes narrowed. "Keep making fun of her and find out!"

The brown colt smirked. "You think you're such a big shot? Why don't you prove it?"

Well, this was new. They were actually challenging her, instead of backing off or tricking one of the counselors into helping them. "...Whaddya have in mind?"

Brown's smirk widened. He walked over towards the edge of the cloud, and gestured downwards. "Nothing hard, or anything. You just have to beat us in a race through the expert course. If you win, we'll play nice with your little friend here. But if we win..."

"You have to dress like a girl for the rest of camp!" finished Tan.

Brown blinked. "Hey, that's not a bad idea, bro! Well, you gonna race us, Crash? Or are you chicken?"

Rainbow Dash smiled.

Word of the race had spread like wildfire amongst the camp's attendees. It seemed as though the entire population of the camp had shown up at the starting line (which, on this course, was also the finish). A few of the braver campers had joined the three contestants in the race; apparently this race was the best opportunity for some unofficial ranking in ages. Fluttershy, oddly enough, was acting as timekeeper, and was sitting on a cloud in front of the line holding the checkered flag. Even Gilda had shown up; she was on the sidelines, surprisingly enough. Being honest with herself, Rainbow felt pretty nervous with all the attention, but refused to show it in front of her opponents.

Rainbow glanced to her left. Noticing her gaze, the tan colt smirked. "You're going down!"

Rainbow laughed. "In history, maybe. I'll see you boys at the finish line!" She looked back at the course just in time to see Fluttershy wave the flag. The race was on.

The first leg of the course wasn't any more difficult than Rainbow's daily practice runs, which meant she would be able to keep track of her opponents without endangering her chances of victory. Looking behind her, she noticed that half of the other racers had already disqualified themselves in one way or another. Brown had managed to get himself halfway stuck in a cloud pillar. Laughing, Rainbow didn't notice the shape coming up beside her until she felt a smack on her flank. "Ow!"

Rainbow whipped her head forward and saw Tan ahead of her, clearing the last few hoops in the first leg. "Later, Rainbow Crash!" he shouted above the wind, flipping her a lazy, sarcastic salute as he dove down.

"Hey!" Rainbow surged forward, blazing through the last few obstacles and turning toward the second half of the course. This was the difficult section; a steep, swift dive through staggered rings with a decent crosswind. Fly too slow, and you'd be blown away by the wind; but if you dove too fast, you'd crash into a ring. If you were really unfortunate or just really dumb, you'd slam into the ground after the last ring, which floated a mere ten meters above the grass.

Fortunately, Rainbow had been focusing on her agility just for this segment. She rocketed through the hoops at top speed, blowing Tan away with her wake. In no time at all, she'd cleared all but the last ring. Rainbow had never felt this great in her life. She felt like she could do anything. She knew she could do anything. It was for this reason she dove at top speed for the last ring. When asked about it later, she swore that not only was she entirely confident that she would have been able to handle a hairpin turn at ten Gs, but that the only things she were aware of were the ring she was aiming for, and a rainbow swirl of colors filling the rest of her vision.

She might have even pulled off that stunt, were it not for the totally unexpected distraction that came entirely out of nowhere.

"...Rainbow Dash?"

Rainbow's head snapped to the side. Somehow, Fluttershy was standing on the ground barely ten meters from that ring, just in front of a patch of trees.

Unfortunately, this minor lapse of attention was enough to utterly ruin her record-breaking dive. For just afterwards, before she could touch that last ring, there was an almighty stretch, and an almighty snap.

Rainbow was released from the nurse's office the next day, partly out of her own stubbornness but mostly because the nurse just couldn't find anything physically wrong with her beyond a few bruises. She opened the door outside, exposing the camp's air to the tail end of the nurse's ranting. "...And you'd better believe your parents will be hearing about this, young mare!"

Rainbow sighed. "Yeah, yeah, whatever..." She let the door bang shut, and turned towards the small audience at the foot of the stairs, comprised of Fluttershy and... "Oh, it's you two."

Brown chuckled. "Aww, what's the matter, Crash?"

Tan smirked. "You feel like chickening out on our bet?"

Rainbow rolled her eyes. "Look, I lost fair and square, all right? I'll wear the stupid outfit, but I'm picking it, all right? Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some...ugh...princess fillies to talk to."

Rainbow didn't really like the lavender blonde. Being obsessed with fashion at the cost of everything else was bad enough, but Cloud Kicker's voice was just so shrill. Rainbow took solace in the fact that at least her voice was better than that. "Oh, I'm so glad you're finally entering the world of fashion! I've been waiting for this day for ages! Here, I've got just the perfect outfit for you!"

Cloud Kicker wasted no time in shoving Rainbow in front of a mirror and grabbing a bunch of random pieces of clothing from a box. Rainbow quickly shut her eyes, wincing as she felt Cloud shoving things onto her body "Hey! Watch the mane!"

Cloud just giggled. "Oh, you don't need to worry about that! I wouldn't dream of ruining a mane with such good colors as yours!" Another giggle. "You can open your eyes now, silly!"

Rainbow slowly opened one of her eyes, then paused. A moment later, both eyes shot wide open at the sight in front of her.

She looked good.

She'd never have believed it if anypony had just told her, but the hat matched her face perfectly and the scarf managed to somehow make her long neck look like a good thing. Indigo and beige weren't bad colors, either.

Several moments passed. Cloud Kicker's image in the mirror fidgeted, then sighed. "...You don't like it, do you."

A moment later, Cloud Kicker let out a strangled yelp as Rainbow tackled her. There was a flash of light, and when it cleared, the first thing Cloud noticed was the freshly rainbow-branded flank in her face.

A bit of shoving and some congratulations later, Rainbow finally got around to saying the words she'd meant to say when she first launched herself at Cloud Kicker.

"I wanna keep these."

Amusingly enough, Brown and Tan were struck speechless for a full second before they remembered to laugh at her. That pause pretty much ruined the effect of the taunts they attempted to toss at Rainbow. She just stood there, smiling at them, until they trailed off uncertainly.

"Okay, here's the deal, you two. I actually like this hat, which means I'm wearing it on purpose. That means I won the race, and THAT," she jabbed a hoof in Brown's face, "means YOU," she jabbed it at Tan, "are gonna leave Fluttershy and me alone for the rest of camp. Got it?" When the colts didn't react, she clapped their heads together. "I said, GOT IT?"

The colts nodded quickly. Rainbow smiled, and adjusted her new hat. "Good. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go figure out how to keep hats from coming off while you're flying, and after that I've got some friends to hang with. Smell you later, dweebs."

As Rainbow flew off, Hoops murmured, "...She really is hot, isn't she?"

Dumbbell just nodded.

Unwavering

Her name was Fluttershy. This was an appropriate name for the filly, because she was shy, and her conviction wavered under the slightest of uncertainties. Despite being a pegasus, she couldn't fly at all; whenever she tried, her wings would just lock up and send her into an uncontrolled tumble. The other foals teased her constantly for this, of course.

At the moment, she stood on a small cloud in front of Flight Camp's expert course starting line. So many people had shown up for this event, and she felt rather intimidated. However, there wasn't really any way for her to get back to the solid clouds of the campground at the moment, since she was acting as the timekeeper for the race. It would be awfully inconvenient for everypony else if the race had to be delayed for ten minutes while somepony else was found for the position, after all.

Fluttershy's gaze turned to the rainbow-maned cyan filly in the middle of the starting line. Her name was Rainbow Dash, and she was Fluttershy's best friend in the whole world. Admittedly, this wasn't too difficult, since Fluttershy hadn't actually managed to speak a complete sentence to anypony else in camp, but that didn't make Rainbow any less of a friend. Rainbow didn't just want to fly in this race; Rainbow was flying it for Fluttershy, just to try to get those two colts to stop teasing her so much. Acting as timekeeper was the least she could do to help her friend.

With that thought, Fluttershy tightened her grip on the flag, closed her eyes, raised her head, and waved it, counting out loud.

"One...twoooooooOOOOOOOOH!"

Fluttershy's eyes shot open as soon as she felt herself falling. She quickly realized that one or another of the racers must have buzzed the cloud she was sitting on, throwing her off it. She looked down, and immediately regretted the decision; the ground was just so big and it was coming up so fast! She tried to flap her wings, but all she managed to do was collide with a cloud, which she fell straight through, barely even slowing down.

When Fluttershy was about 100 meters above the ground, she gave up flailing her limbs entirely, and just closed her eyes, praying for some way out of her predicament.

Fortunately for her, Causality answered.

Contrary to popular belief, midsummer butterfly swarms are not in any way unusual for Equestria's fields and forests. Nor is it particularly difficult to imagine that they could hold a pegasus' weight; butterfly antennae are rather sturdier than water vapor, after all.

What is unusual, however, is the fact that this particular swarm of butterflies, upon receiving a dumbfounded filly passenger, made an immediate 90-degree turn and began to increase their velocity, as if they had to get somewhere in a hurry.

They even shaped themselves into a lounge chair and a stool.

Her name was Fluttershy, and she was confused.

Oh, she was certainly glad that the butterflies had caught her, and had thanked them profusely for it. She just wasn't sure why they'd thought it was necessary to carry her half a kilometer away from where she would have otherwise landed. She hoped they weren't trying to avoid something dangerous.

Fluttershy shook her head, and looked clearly at her surroundings for the first time since the butterflies had caught her. It was beautiful. The forest was so amazing; the plants were gorgeous and the critters were absolutely adorable. The sheer wonder of the ground's life made her heart soar like it never had before.

In fact, she felt almost like she could burst into song. But she didn't, because that would scare away the animals, and she wasn't a very good singer anyway. Instead, she opted for a quiet stroll along the edge of the trees.

Before she got very far, however, she heard a loud noise coming from overhead. She turned her head, and saw some sort of extremely fast rainbow-colored...something, diving in her general direction. In fact, it seemed to be headed for a cloud hoop that was hovering barely ten meters away.

...An extremely fast rainbow. "...Rainbow Dash?"

Fluttershy was never entirely sure what happened next, but what she was sure about was that the rainbow missile quickly became some kind of cloud wall that stretched, and stretched. As the stretching reached its limit, Fluttershy could make out the figure of Rainbow Dash reaching a hoof out towards the hoop, which was barely a half meter away from her.

Then the wall snapped like a rubber band, dissipating quickly.

Rainbow Dash had been catapulted into the air at a very, very steep angle, and at high speed, and there weren't any clouds or other pegasi around to catch her. All Fluttershy could think about was her own fall, and what would happen to Rainbow if no one caught her. It was for this reason that Fluttershy didn't notice she was no longer touching the ground.

The only thing that mattered was that she catch Rainbow, like the butterflies caught her. And so, she did.

Fluttershy was so focused at this point that it took her a few seconds to become aware of her surroundings. When she did, she nearly dropped Rainbow in shock.

She was flying.

Okay, so it wasn't very good flying; she hadn't caught Rainbow until she was already most of the way to the ground, and by the time she'd managed to come to a hover, the force of Rainbow's dive had sent the pair of them right back to the treeline. But it was flying, all the same.

"I'm flying...I'm flying, Rainbow! Can you..." Fluttershy's cheers died quickly when she saw just what state her friend was in. Rainbow was completely unconscious, and seemed to have been bruised, at the very least. Fluttershy looked back up at the distant clouds of camp, then gulped. "...Just hold on, Rainbow, I'll...I'll get you to the nurse's office. You're gonna be OK."

Luckily, Fluttershy only had to carry Rainbow halfway back up to camp before several councilors came down to help. As it turned out, they were astounded at what Fluttershy had accomplished; she had been flying straight up through some of the fiercest crosswinds in the area, but hadn't been pushed an inch. When they got back to camp, one of the councilors took her aside and explained that, as far as he could tell, she hadn't been flying well because she was taking the wrong classes. Apparently Fluttershy had been trying to learn quick, agile flying when what her wings were built for was slow, but powerful flight.

After helping her correct her schedule, the councilor told her to take the rest of the day off. Fluttershy headed straight for her bunk; it really had been a long day.

The next morning after breakfast, Fluttershy ran straight for the nurse's office to check on her friend. To her surprise, there were already a couple of ponies waiting there. They turned to see who was coming, then froze.

The darker brown one fidgeted a bit, then said, "Uh...look, this isn't easy for us to say, but..."

The lighter tan one stepped forward. "We'll stop bugging you if you promise not to let your friend go on that course again."

Fluttershy blinked. "Um...not that I don't appreciate it, but...why would you..."

The tan one sighed. "We just wanted to take her down a peg, all right? We didn't actually want to hurt anypony. We aren't jerks."

The brown one nodded. "We just wanted a laugh, you know? But two of you guys almost went splat yesterday and...well, that just isn't cool no matter how you slice it."

Fluttershy paused for a bit, then nodded. "All right, I promise. Um...if you're going to be nice now...that is, I'm sorry, but I don't know your names yet..."

Brown blinked. "Seriously? I could've sworn...well, I'm Dumbbell."

"And I'm Hoops."

Fluttershy smiled softly. "It's nice to meet you two. I'm sure you already knew, but I'm Fluttershy."

It really was quite a nice conversation, but the opening of the office door put a halt to any further discussion.

The nurse had let Rainbow go, mostly because there didn't seem to be anything physically wrong with her. It seemed as though either Hoops or Dumbbell had managed to finish the course, which meant that Rainbow had lost . All this was explained while Rainbow and Fluttershy ate breakfast.

Rainbow Dash sighed. "So, Fluttershy, do you know anypony in camp who's got any...urgh...spare outfits?"

"Hmm...Well, one of my bunkmates, Cloud Kicker, really likes fashion. I think she's asked me a few times if I could ask you to try on some of her outfits, actually..."

Rainbow facehoofed. "Man...if she's who I'm thinking of, I'm really not looking forward to being stuck in the same room as her. I swear, she has the worst voice ever." She sighed again. "Well, I made the bet, and I lost, so I guess I shouldn't complain, but..."

A taloned hand came down on Rainbow's shoulder. "Ehh, if you lost a bet, you deserve to be able to gripe about it a little. That's how we do things where I'm from, anyway." The griffon smirked, then sat down next to Rainbow.

Rainbow smiled and shook her head. "Man, if my town was half as cool as yours, G...Oh hey, Fluttershy, you haven't met Gilda yet, have you?"

Fluttershy gulped. "Um...no, I haven't. It's nice to meet you, Gilda."

Gilda chuckled. "Cute mascot, Dash. Hey, when exactly did you need to show those two losers your stylish shoes, or whatever?"

Rainbow blinked. "Crap, I gotta get going! You guys just, hang or something, I'll be back later!"

Fluttershy watched Rainbow fly off, then turned to face Gilda. What she saw was a griffon with the most thoroughly predatory look she'd ever seen. "Okay, dweeb, here's what I think. I think you're too much of a wimp to hang with Dash. You'll just cramp up her style and slow her down, so you're gonna go away and leave her alone whenever you aren't in the cheering section. Got it?"

Deep within Fluttershy's psyche, a small, quivering part of her, much reduced in size and thickness over the past day, snapped. And the part of Fluttershy it had been holding back rushed out.

Fluttershy's eyes snapped wide open. "Now you listen to me. I didn't know how to fly until yesterday. I almost died yesterday because of it. Rainbow Dash almost died yesterday because I didn't know how to fly. But when she was falling down after that cloud shot her into the sky, I flew up and caught her anyway, because I didn't care that I couldn't do it. The only think I could think about was what would happen if I let her go splat, and I was not going to let that happen. Do you know what I learned yesterday? I learned that, if I think I can do something, I probably can. I think I could be a pretty good flier, by doing it my own way. I think I could go live on the ground and help take care of the plants and animals down there, and do a really good job. I think I am going to keep on being friends with Rainbow Dash, no matter what you have to say about it. And right now, I think I could hit you twice as hard as you hit me, if you tried anything. Which is why you aren't going to try anything. GOT IT?"

The cafeteria was so quiet, you could hear a fork hit the floor. Made of clouds.

After a moment, Gilda began to chuckle. The sound made Fluttershy realize she was standing on the table; she blushed heavily and sat back down in her seat. Gilda just smiled, shaking her head and laughing. "Heh...man, no wonder Dash likes you! For a total softie, you sure can toughen up when you want to! I think we could be pretty good friends." She extended a fist. "Put 'er there, dude!"

After a moment, Fluttershy bumped Gilda's fist with a hoof of her own. There was a pause. Fluttershy fidgeted, then asked, "Why is everypony still staring?"

Gilda shrugged. "Dunno. Hey, why are you dweebs staring at us?"

There was a pause, and then from somewhere to Fluttershy's left, somepony said, "...she just got her Cutie Mark."

And so she had. It was three roses, and they meant exactly what she said.

Her name was Fluttershy. Not for being shy and wavering, but for shying from wavering.

It's a Gem

Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria, there were two normal fillies...

It was a day just like any other on the rock farm. Pinkamena Diane Pie was working the fields with her sisters, pushing the rocks from one field to another to make sure they got the right amount of sun. Her gaze turned skyward as it often did; it wasn't as though the rocks were particularly impatient or difficult to move. Pinkamena loved watching the clouds drift across the sky. Sometimes she would even see a pegasus pushing them.

In another place, Pinkamena's cloudwatching would have given her a cutie mark in having her personality radically altered by rogue thaumic energies. In this place, however, this day was just like any other day on the rock farm.

Rarity was not having a particularly good day. She knew her special talent was fashion, or at least something related to making clothes, but she still hadn't received a cutie mark. The costumes for the school play that she had designed weren't good enough, she had no idea why, and nopony else she'd talked to thought they weren't done yet so she couldn't even get any advice. Her horn had spontaneously cast a spell she didn't know and dragged her halfway across Equestria for no readily apparent reason; her hooves where in such a terrible condition from all of that dragging that, far from not looking good, she wasn't sure it was even safe for her to walk at all!

And the thing her horn had been dragging her to seemed to be...a rock. Certainly, it was a very large rock, with a somewhat unusual shape, and being perfectly balanced on the edge of a cliff was nothing to sneeze at, but...it was a rock. A boring, ordinary, unfashionable, nothing-to-do-with-clothes rock.

This would have made Rarity incredibly angry, were it not for the fact that she'd already yelled herself hoarse. At this point, she'd decided to try another tactic.

"Come on, horn, light up again and bring me to...oh, I don't know, a mattress factory or something! I'll polish you every day if you do! ...Well, unless you don't want to be polished, in which case I won't! Come on, please?"

It wasn't going well so far.

The two fillies had been denied their destinies through no fault of their own. But fate is a funny thing. There are more than two destinies in the world...

Pinkamena stopped to catch her breath. One of the rocks had gotten really big, and it had been pretty hard for her to push it to its current resting spot. She looked it over, making sure that it was sitting in the right place and facing the right direction, before sighing and gazing skyward once again. She couldn't explain it, even to herself, but she felt as though she had missed something important, but she didn't know what it was. Her gaze drifted for a while, before her eyes fell on something very unusual.

"Why is there something purple on top of that cliff?"

Rarity was nothing if not thorough. Her grief had passed denial, gone through anger, attempted bargaining, returned briefly to denial when bargaining didn't work, then gave anger and bargaining a miss and dove straight into depression.

And oh, boy, did she know how to be depressed. A full-blown Rarity tantrum was a force of nature, capable of making even stone wince with volume alone. She'd even been trying to learn a couch-summoning spell so she'd have something to collapse on dramatically, but for the moment she had to settle with rolling backward onto the apathetically warm stone of the cliff instead. Rarity knew for a fact that dramatic collapses had to be done with one's eyes closed, which is why she didn't know she had an audience until she heard the clapping.

"You're pretty good at that! But why're you so upset?"

Rarity squealed and jumped a foot in the air, a pretty impressive feat given that she'd been lying on her back when she did that. She sputtered, then asked, "Who are you and what are you doing here?"

The thoroughly pink filly in front of her replied, "I'm Pinkamena Diane Pie. I know it's kind of a mouthful, but I haven't thought of any good nicknames yet. And I came up here because I saw something purple, and I wanted to know what it was. I think it was probably you. But now I kinda want to know what you were crying about for. I mean, it must've really been bad, right?"

Rarity blinked, then sighed, sitting back against the rock her horn had dragged her to. "I suppose it couldn't hurt to talk about it...Well, I've been trying to get my cutie mark for a while now. I know what my special talent is, and I've been practicing it every day, but...nothing. This morning my horn just cast a spell by itself, so I assumed it was going to show me how to get my cutie mark, but all it did was drag me halfway across Equestria, to this rock, and leave me here." She groaned. "I'm starting to think that maybe I really don't know what my special talent is, but...what kind of a special talent involves finding a rock?"

Pinkamena frowned. "Well...I'm actually a rock farmer." After seeing the look on Rarity's face, she facehoofed. "Yes, rock farming is a thing. I don't know why so many ponies think it isn't."

She laid down next to Rarity and pointed to a fenced-in, barren-looking patch of land in the fields below them. "Do you see that field over there? That's where the rocks start growing. You take some pebbles and sprinkle gold dust on and around them, then you leave them there. A few months later, they'll be bigger, so you have to start pushing them around and letting the sunlight hit them all over. After a lot of pushing and some other boring stuff, the rocks turn into different kinds of gems depending on what kind of rock it was before you started."

Rarity blinked. "Wait, gems come from fields? Then what are the Diamond Dog mines for?"

Pinkamena seemed a bit surprised at Rarity's question. "I...don't actually know? I think it might have something to do with earth pony magic, I mean it's not like I told you everything there is to know about rock farming or anything. It's actually really complicated, and I'm pretty sure Pa would get mad if I talked about it too much."

She looked up at the rock looming above them, and frowned. "The thing is, though, this rock's just sitting here. Nopony's been cultivating it, and it's not even one of the kinds of rocks we grow at all. So if you were supposed to be a rock farmer, it wouldn't make any sense for you to get dragged to this rock. But there's got to be something special about this rock, because you wouldn't have been dragged all the way out here

Rarity was silent for a bit, then said, "What if this rock somehow grew gems by itself, without any ponies to help it? How could we check that?"

Pinkamena blinked. "Um...well, I'd probably have Ma or Pa take a look at it, but I don't think they'll be able to climb up here...maybe we could try and push it down off the cliff?"

Rarity fidgeted. "Won't that mess up my hooves even more than they already are?"

Pinkamena raised an eyebrow. "They seem fine to me. I guess they're kinda scuffed, but it's not like they're chipped or bent or anything."

Rarity looked at her hooves, then sighed. "Well, I suppose they won't get any worse from this..." She stood up and pressed her arms against the boulder. "Ready?"

Pinkamena placed her forehooves next to Rarity's. "Ready. Push on three?"

Rarity nodded. "One...two...three!"

The two fillies pushed with all of their might, and ever so slowly, the boulder moved towards the edge of the cliff. It took five whole minutes of the hardest effort either of them had ever gone through, but the rock did finally fall...

As soon as the rock tipped over the edge of the cliff, the two fillies collapsed, panting. After a minute or so, Pinkamena turned her head to look at the white unicorn next to her. "...you all right?"

The unicorn raised her head and groaned. "Is rock farming...that hard...all the time?"

Pinkamena felt her lips twitch. "Not...usually, no..." She laid there for a while, resting,until a thought occurred to her. "Hey, now that I think about it...I'm pretty sure I don't know your name yet."

The unicorn looked at her for a moment, then facehoofed. "Ugh. I'm sorry, Pinkie, that was really rude of me. I'm Rarity. Well, Rarity Burbage, but nopony ever uses my surname, so just call me Rarity like everypony el–why are you staring at me like that?"

Pinkie blinked. "Oh, sorry, Rarity, it's just, you found my nickname! I've been looking for one for ages, and you just found a really good one right after you met me!" She paused, then put a hoof to her chin. "Actually, now that I think about it, it's really kinda obvious, isn't it?"

Rarity just sighed, but Pinkie swore she heard chuckling. "Let's go see what happened to that dumb rock, shall we?"

The two fillies walked over to the edge of the cliff and leaned over the edge. When they saw just what sat at the bottom of the cliff their jaws dropped and they gasped.

There were hundreds of perfectly-formed gems of all different colors and sizes glittering in the sunlight.

Pinkie felt her face split into a grin wider than she'd ever thought possible. "Look at all those gems! They're so beautiful! I've never SEEN this many gems at once before!" On impulse, she pulled Rarity into a crushing hug. "Rarity, you're best pony! No, wait, I helped, WE'RE best pony!"

Rarity remained silent and motionless for a moment longer, then began to chuckle. Her chuckles turned into giggles, and then became full-blown laughter. Pinkie began to laugh, too, and the pair of them rolled backwards.

Eventually their laughter stopped. The two fillies laid there for a while, gazing at the sky, until Rarity's irritated voice pierced the calm. "Darn it, I still don't have my cutie mark!"

Pinkie turned to look at her friend, still smiling. "That's all right. I don't have mine yet either. We can help each other find them."

Rarity was still for a moment, then turned her smiling face to Pinkie. "Thanks."

Pinkie giggled. "No problem. Now, let's go find Pa and show him what we found."

Pinkie's father was speechless when he saw the gem pile; all he could do for a while was smile broadly. He decided to let Pinkie and her sisters take the rest of the day off, and asked Pinkie to go into town and help Rarity send a letter to her parents, so they would know where to find her. Thusly did Pinkie and Rarity walk into town in high spirits...

"...so I've basically got eight straight years of allowance saved up that's just sitting here! Trust me, Rarity, it's not gonna be a problem!"

Rarity smiled and shook her head. "Fine, fine, you can buy me whatever you like, but you'd better believe you're getting something even better come next Hearth's Warming. What were you thinking of buying, exactly?"

"Well, I found a new friend, and we found the biggest harvest of gems Pa's ever seen by accident, so I figured we should celebrate! I just don't quite know how yet."

It was at this point that the two fillies walked in front of a store selling party supplies, and Pinkie's brain short-circuited. Rarity had to shake Pinkie's shoulders for several seconds before Pinkie noticed. "Whoa! Uh, sorry, Rarity, what is it?"

"Pinkie, your mane just changed shapes! Hang on, there's a mirror right over there." She grabbed Pinkie's hoof and dragged her to the window of the adjacent shop, which appeared to sell furniture and writing supplies.

Pinkie looked her reflection over, giggling softly. "You know, Granny's a real prankster, and her mane is really curly, but everypony else in the family has a totally straight mane! If I didn't know better, I'd say my mane couldn't decide whether it wanted to be straight or curly, and tried to be both at the same time!"

Rarity chuckled. "Well, I think it's a good look for ya! I'm actually a bit jealous, t'be honest; I've always wanted a wavy mane..."

Pinkie giggled again. She could get used to giggling. "Thanks! Your change isn't half bad either!"

Rarity blinked. "Er...what?"

"Your voice, silly! You sound totally different now!"

Rarity froze, then gasped, her voice quickly switching back to her old accent. "Oh no oh no oh no that did not just happen, you did not hear that, my voice is perfectly normal there is nothing wrong with it I do not sound like a MRPHRGL"

"Rarity, stop freaking out! I like both of your voices just fine! There's nothing wrong with having two of them like that, in fact, I think it's neat!" Pinkie removed her hoof from Rarity's mouth.

"...ya really meant that, didn'cha?"

Pinkie rolled her eyes and laughed. "Of course, silly! I don't get why you have to be so melodramatic about it, but hey! You're good at being melodramatic, so why not?"

"...Thanks, Pinkie."

Pinkie beamed. "No problem! So, I figured out how we're gonna celebrate. Wanna help?"

"Yeah. What'cha need?"

The party was in full swing. Pinkie's parents were dancing like they hadn't danced in years, and her sisters had discovered the joy of party games and were taking full advantage of their newfound knowledge. Giggling, she turned to Rarity. "Well, I guess this isn't cutie mark quality, but it's still pretty good, isn't it?"

"Oh, definitely."

Pinkie beamed, then her face fell. "Uh...I just realized something. Isn't it gonna be hard for us to stay friends if we live in different towns and don't see each other at all?"

Rarity looked up at the ceiling innocently. "Oh, that's not gonna be a problem."

Pinkie's heart plummeted. "...you mean, we aren't friends?"

Rarity beamed, and raised a hoof. "Nah. We're bestfriends. And that lasts forever." Pinkie laughed. Their hooves met, and there was a flash of light.

Pinkie's vision cleared to a wonderful sight. On Rarity's flank were two cyan diamond-cut jewels, loosely bound by a silver thread. Pinkie turned her head to her own and saw a large, heart-shaped blue crystal, surrounded by five multicolored balloons. After a moment, Rarity said faintly, "Remember how ya asked me why I'm so melodramatic? It's 'cause the world keeps doin' things like this all the time."

It was a night just like any other on the rock farm. While the days were filled with quiet, determined work done well, and did not permit anyone to slack off; the nights were cool and calm, providing rest, relaxation, and a chance to have some fun with friends and family.

And that's how Equestria was made.

Graf on Family

Manehattan was a bustling city. Many called it the Sleepless City, and for good reason. Ponies walked the streets at all hours, and as long as the sun was up none of the main roads ever caught a break from the onslaught of hooves pounding their stones.

Were one to travel to the more residential districts, the roads would become much less busy, but there were always one or two ponies wandering about. This was something the orange filly gazing out the third-floor window knew very well; watching the roads had become one of her favorite hobbies during her stay there.

Her name was Applejack, and at that moment she missed her family more than anything. She lifted her gaze from the streets to the distant horizon. Somewhere in that direction was her family's farm. "I wonder what Granny Smith and Big Macintosh are up to..."

She sighed. "I bet they're applebuckin' their way through the Red Delicious trees. Oh, what I wouldn't give for just one bite..."

Applejack stared out the window for a minute longer, then shook her head and turned back inside. It wasn't that she didn't like the city, not at all. She actually loved it even more than she had when she'd first left the farm. Sure, she hadn't quite mastered the high-society ways of speaking yet, but she was doing all right on the whole, and even though ponies laughed when she didn't get it right, it was because they thought her slip-ups were adorable and not because they wanted to hurt her feelings. The suppers (pardon, dinners) didn't have nearly as much food as she was used to in them, but that was partly because a lot of these dinners happened during really long parties that kept serving snacks the whole tie; partly because a lot of ponies went home from these parties early and made bigger, tastier meals just for themselves and their families; partly because sometimes the food just wasn't any good, like that time when the main course had been alfalfa (eww, just no), and nopony wanted to eat more than a little bit of something they hated; and partly because there wasn't as much hard work in the city, so nopony needed to eat as much. Not that city ponies didn't work hard, they just didn't use their muscles in their kind of work.

Aunt and Uncle Orange told Applejack she was a very perceptive pony for her age, and that she was learning how the city worked much quicker than they had expected; she guessed maybe they were right, but she still thought she could maybe do a bit better at the whole "fitting in" thing. Maybe it'd be easier if she met some foals her own age and got to talking to them. She'd only been in the city for a couple weeks, and a lot of that was spent practicing for the fancy party the previous night, so there hadn't been a chance to do that earlier.

With this in mind, Applejack walked out the door, through the rest of the Oranges' apartment, down the stairs, and out into the streets beyond. Her Aunt had said it was all right for her to wander around, as long as she stayed in the neighborhood. Unfortunately, there didn't seem to be any ponies her age around, so she settled for just getting a good look at the area.

A few blocks later, Applejack noticed a building a bit shorter than the others, with a very distinctive aesthetic. The walls were completely covered in what looked like grape vines, and plant boxes sat below all of the windows.

She had never guessed you could grow a farm in the middle of the city, and walked over to have a closer look. As she drew near, the front door opened, and a griffon walked out. It was a bit hard for her to tell, but Applejack thought he was probably an old griffon; his coat was grey and none of his feathers had a trace of color in them. He wore a brown bowler hat and held a thick wooden cane with a spiral cut into it to look kind of like a unicorn's horn. His eyes were closed and he was whistling as he closed the door and locked it. When he turned around, his eyes were open. His gaze fell upon Applejack, and he smiled broadly. "Ah, now who do we have here? I think I have not seen you before, young one."

Applejack fidgeted. "Uh, I've only been here f'r a week or two. Sorry if I'm bothering ya, I was just looking at your house."

The griffon waved dismissively. "Oh, do not worry, I am in no hurry today, and I always enjoy the company of young ones. My grandchildren always tell me how much they enjoy visiting me, so I think I am doing something right." He chuckled. "What is your name, may I ask?"

"Oh, uh, I'm Applejack. Do you take care of all these plants yourself?" Applejack gestured towards one of the raised beds, which had strawberries in it. She was pretty sure you didn't have to be formal to someone who was talking all friendly-like to you.

The griffon smiled broadly. "Ah, now that is a lovely name! If there is one thing ponies are good at, it is names! I think the closest thing in my native tongue is Apfelschaumwein, but that is a bit of a mouthful, I think." He winked, and Applejack giggled. "As for me, most of the ponies I meet call me Count Ludwig von Hendungen. But my grandchildren, and many of the children who play in these streets, call me 'Opa Lui'. I would not mind if you called me that too."

He extended a clawed hand. Applejack smiled and shook it. "It's nice to meet you, Mister Louie!"

Louie smiled, let go of her hoof and lifted one of the berries with a claw. "As for your question, I don't quite take care of all of my plants myself. I would have, years ago, but I am not quite so young anymore!" He laughed. "In my homeland, these are called Erdbeere, which if I remember correctly means 'earth berries' in this language. I have never quite managed to find out why you ponies call them strawberries, which is a shame, because I am sure that name has a wonderful story behind it."

Louie looked the berry over on all sides, then let it go and turned to face Applejack. "However, I do have another story about these berries that I am quite fond of, if you wish to listen?"

"Well, sure, Mister, but...well, why're you being so helpful? I mean, you probably had some kind of plans when you headed out that I had nothin' to do with, right?"

Louie leaned on his cane. "Because the look on your face as you gazed at my plants is a look I have seen before, on my own face, a long time ago. I believe you have a love for the city, but also for the countryside, and cannot choose which one to give up. Am I correct?"

Applejack blinked. "...Yeah, that...wow, I didn't even realize that was what I've been thinking about, but..."

Louie chuckled. "As I said, I was once in a position much like yours. I'd grown up in the city, but one year I went to visit a cousin in the countryside, and I fell in love with the land. The plants were so beautiful... I spent hours in the gardens on my uncle's estate, just looking at the plants. Well, one day, I saw two little bushes growing in planters on opposite sides of the garden path, and they had such tasty-looking berries on them. But, alas, the berries from one plant were too small for me to hold without crushing them, and the berries on the other were large, but very sour.

"Well, I sat there on the path and just glared at them for denying me a tasty snack, and then I noticed something interesting. Both of the plants had these little vines growing from them, and after a few inches they would split off . I had a very clever idea: I would put the planters next to each other, put two of the vines touching each other, and see what happened. So I did that, and walked away.

"About a week after that, one of the gardeners came to my uncle saying he'd found a kind of bright red berry, growing in the earth. He thought what had happened was two of his other plants had grown together to become one plant. I believe the word is 'grafting'? Well, anyway, he knew for a fact that the two plants hadn't been anywhere near each other the last time he'd checked them, and none of his workers would admit to moving the plants.

"Well, I didn't want him to get in trouble for something I did, so I walked up and told my uncle what I'd done. And he sat there for a moment, and then asked me what I wanted to call the berry. And, since I was still very young and couldn't think of any good names, I just said 'earth berry'. And that is how those little red berries were named Erdbeer."

Louie looked at Applejack's expression and chuckled. "Oh, it is not that hard to believe a griffon could grow fruits, is it?"

Applejack blinked. "Uh, sorry, it's just...you invented strawberries? I'd always thought somepony'd just found them growin' somewhere."

Louie laughed. "And so I did! But they wouldn't have become what they are now if I had not given them that little push at the start. Well, eventually I had to go home, but my relatives gave me some few seeds and cuttings of plants, to see if I could grow in the city as well as I could in the country." He gestured at the house behind him. "And, obviously, I can.

"Now, as you know, my 'berries of the earth' became quite popular, both here and in my fathers' lands. It has been many years since the day I gave them their name, and I am told that those little red berries have become a staple of many gardens." He chuckled. "Now, whenever I visit my relatives on their estate, they all call me Erdbeergraf. In this language, it means something like Count of Strawberries. I think it is a bit funny how I am the graf that grafts, don't you?"

Applejack giggled. "Well, when you put it that way, sure!"

Louie smiled and shook his head. "Ah, but I've gone off track. The point of my story, at least when I started it, was that if you can't decide what to pick, why not find a way to pick both?"

Two months later...

The wizened green mare glared at the immaculately-groomed orange filly before her. "So. Yer sayin' that ya want ter stay in th' city after all. Ya only came here jes' long enough ter tell us."

"That would be entirely correct, Granny Smith." The filly's face was blank as a card shark's.

The old mare kept up her gaze for a bit longer, then bowed her head and sighed. "...How long're ya stayin'?"

With her head bowed, she couldn't see the twinkle in the filly's eyes, or the broad smile on her face. "Oh, only 'bout nine months or so. Wouldn't want ta overstay my welcome, or nuthin'."

Granny Smith's head snapped up, her eyes wide with shock. She sputtered for a moment, then fell back on her haunches, raised her head, and laughed. It didn't take long for her granddaughter to join in.

Applejack, her brother Big Macintosh, and Granny Smith stood in front of an apple tree. Half of its branches were perfectly healthy, but the other half sagged and the leaves on those branches were yellow. The red colt gazed at the tree for a moment, then looked over at the tree in the wagon Applejack had pulled to the spot. "You sure this'll work, sis?"

Applejack grinned. "Well, it's at least worth a shot, right? I mean, the roots," she tapped the base of the trunk with a hoof, "are just fine. It's the branches that're dyin', and only on the one side. And we'd have already just cut off the bad side if there weren't the problem that the winter snows might make the tree fall over if all the weight was on the one side."

"Well, one of the things I learned in the city is that two plants can actually grow together into one plant if you do things just right. They call it 'grafting', and it's pretty reliable as long as the two plants aren't too different from each other." She gestured at the tree in the wagon. "And call me crazy, but I'm pretty sure that Apples and Oranges can get along just fine."

Her grandmother snorted. "Yer crazier than a timberwolf in a volcano, Jackie, but it ain't a half bad kind of crazy. Let's get crackin'!"

Some minutes later, the bad branches had all been cut off, and Applejack was moving the branches from the orange tree into position. "All right, Granny, get ready to tie 'em togeth..." She trailed off as she noticed a sort of greenish glimmer at the point where the apple trunk and the orange branch met. "What in the Sam Hill..."

There was a green flash, and the next thing she knew she was lying on her back, with two concerned faces looking down on her. Granny Smith blinked, then smiled. "Well, looks like yer all right. Shoot, I ain't seen that kind of magic since I discovered the Zap Apples way back when!"

Applejack blinked. "Hang on, what magic?"

"See for yourself, sis." Big Macintosh helped her to her hooves, then turned her around to face...

Well, it sure wasn't an apple tree no more.

Harvest time for this particular variety of apple had finished over a month ago. Despite this, the branches on the left side bore a full load of apples. Similarly, the ones on the right had a full complement of oranges. But the middle, the middle had a completely new kind of fruit that didn't look all that much like either of the other fruits on the tree, but was definitely related to them both. Applejack was sure it would taste just like it looked.

There was another flash of light, this time from behind her. Applejack turned her head.

Two apples...and an orange.

Applejack stared at her flank for a moment, then chuckled. "I tell you what, I'm gonna have such a story ta tell Louie next summer..."

Powerless

It was a scene of highest horror, of tremendous thaumic terror, and Twilight Sparkle was completely powerless to stop it.

Cadence poked her head through the door and sighed. "Shiny, stop teasing your sister, or I'll keep calling you Shiny."

The barrier surrounding the donkey doll held strong as the adolescent unicorn smirked. "I just had a sudden, violent urge to keep teasing my sister..."

Two lavender hooves slammed an encyclopedia down on top of the barrier, producing a clear bell tone. Twilight glared at her foalsitter. "Cadence, stop helping!"

The pink alicorn in question giggled. "Well, if you insist!" Her head vanished from sight.

Her attention no longer divided, the filly turned her annoyed gaze on her brother. "Can't you find something else to practice your shield on?"

"I probably could," Shining Armor conceded, "but this way I get to test how strong the shield is, and not just how much I can cover with it!"

Twilight stamped a hoof. "You leave logic out of this!"

"No." Shining stuck his tongue out at her.

Twilight's jaw worked wordlessly for a few moments, before she hung her head in defeat. She'd tried everything she could think of to take down her brother's barrier, and they both knew it. "...Fine, you win. I'll..." She gulped. "I'll stop studying for the exam. Now can you please give Smarty Pants back?"

Her brother chuckled as he dropped his barrier and levitated her beloved doll into her arms. "There, now, was that really so hard? Don't answer that," he added hastily, seeing the look on his sister's face. He sighed, continuing, "I know how much you want to get into the CSGU, and I know you want to do as well as you can on the entrance exam. I really do. But if you don't stop studying and do something to relax before your tests, you'll just end up being too tense to focus properly." He smiled. "Besides, you're more than good enough to get in already."

Twilight rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah, you keep saying that, despite both of us knowing that the only reason I can use telekinesis at all is because of that time I reflexively prevented a full set of gold-bound encyclopedias from falling on my head!"

Shining just smirked. "Well, that just means you're one of the few ponies they've ever tested who really, truly knows the disadvantages of having too much knowledge!" He dodged the book she threw at him with ease and ran laughing out of the room.

The entrance exams were taking place in one of the school's solitary towers. This was as much to keep any rogue magic that might manifest during the exam (which had been known to happen in the past) as isolated as possible, as to keep the dozen or so nervous colts and fillies away from prying eyes for the test.

Twilight fidgeted in her seat, waiting for the proctor to arrive. Finally, a golden-brown unicorn stallion entered the room, levitating a test neatly onto each student's desk as he did so. "Good morning, everypony, my name is Gilded Tomes, and I will be overseeing the written portion of your exams. Instructions on how to complete the test are printed on the front page of your test booklets. You have up to one hour after the time I sit down to finish this portion of the test. Once you are done, please turn in your test to me and head upstairs for the next portion of the test. You may begin whenever you're ready."

Fifty-eight minutes later, a somewhat disheveled filly handed in an immaculate test paper to a somewhat confused-looking Gilded Tomes, then slowly walked upstairs to find a comfortable-looking waiting room with punch and cookies. A sign on a door at the end of the room read "Please wait here for your name to be called. Once it is, please enter this door."

There were a couple other fillies whispering to each other in a corner, but Twilight paid almost no attention to them. All she could think about was how powerless she'd felt when she knew she'd made a mistake somewhere on her test, but couldn't find it after spending two-thirds of the exam time on the issue. She grabbed a cookie and a cup of punch, and sat down to wait.

"I-I'm sorry, sir, could you please repeat that?"

The stern grey unicorn looked down his nose at her before responding. "Is it really so difficult to understand? Miss Sparkle, you must hatch a dragon egg. That dragon egg, in fact." Twilight turned her head to see a purple spotted egg the size of her head be wheeled up next to her.

Twilight glanced at her parents (why were her parents here) who smiled awkwardly at her. She then looked up at the examiners, smiling nervously. They responded by scribbling furiously on their clipboards.

"Well, Miss Sparkle?"

Twilight began to sweat profusely. She had absolutely no idea how to hatch this thing. She barely knew anything about dragons at all, let alone their eggs! Twilight quickly began wracking her brains for anything that might be even vaguely useful for hatching an egg of a species that regularly bathes in lava.

"Well, Miss Sparkle?"

Twilight backed up, aimed her horn at the egg, and attempted to incubate it via immolation. Her horn sparked angrily, but nothing else happened.

She tried to knock on the shell with her telekinesis (having read once that some egg-laying species assist their young with hatching in this manner), but couldn't get any sort of grip on it.

One of the proctors yawned. "We don't have all day."

Twilight was beginning to panic. She tried an awakening charm (fetuses aren't awake, right?), an unlocking spell (an extremely long shot, but maybe eggs count as doors), and even attempted a Zebrican ritual dance (she wasn't sure what, if anything, it was supposed to do, but you never know). Nothing caused the egg to so much as budge. Most of her attempts didn't even cause her horn to light up.

Finally, after one last attempt at setting the egg on fire (for completeness' sake), she sat on her haunches and hung her head in defeat. She'd failed, utterly, at a task the examiners clearly considered to be easily doable by any unicorn who was actually good enough for the school. She had to be the least powerful unicorn ever. "I'm sorry I wasted your time."

There was a bit more scribbling, then after a moment one of the proctors cleared her throat. "Well, I do believe we've seen enough."

"Congratulations, Miss Sparkle. You've been accepted into the Canterlot School for Gifted Unicorns."

Twilight stood completely still for a moment, then fell over onto her side.

The mint-green filly walking at Twilight's side chuckled. They'd met shortly after the exams, and had been assigned the same room in their dormitory, so they'd struck up a conversation as they walked through the tour of the grounds. "Yeah, I can believe it. You're way too logical for your own good, I wouldn't be surprised at all if the kind of nonsense they throw at you in those exams actually did make your brain shut itself off. But seriously, they actually gave you the dragon egg?"

Twilight moaned in frustration. "I don't get why everypony thinks it's so significant that I had the dragon-hatching test instead of the sphere-inverting test or whatever! It's just another impossible task, designed to ascertain how well we deal with an unwinnable scenario, right?"

"Well, that's the thing, though. The dragon egg's the only one that nopony's ever done. The rest of them actually are possible for somepony with just the right spells or Cutie Mark to pull off. Actually, I think there's a filly in our year that managed to pass the 'invisible basketballs' test, now that I think about it..."

"...So you're saying they specifically wanted to make sure I couldn't pass under any circumstances."

The green filly shook her head, smiling. "No, I don't think you get it. Nopony has ever hatched that egg. I think Princess Celestia even tried way back before she gave it to the school, but nothing happened. They've been giving the egg test to the most promising kid each exam, just on the off chance that they'll have their magic go haywire or something and manage to hatch it!"

Twilight blinked. "...Kid?"

The green filly blushed. "Er, sorry, I...kinda spent two years living in a mountain goat town, I keep using their words for things by accident...but you get my point, right?"

"No, I don't! How can I possibly be the most promising new student? I spent forty-five minutes on the real test just rechecking my answers!"

"You spent forty-five minutes, out of sixty, rechecking a perfect exam," the filly deadpanned.

Twilight blushed. "Well, it only took me fifteen minutes to complete it! You can't just stand there and tell me that completing an exam in one-fourth of the allotted time is a sign of accuracy!"

"...You have a point, I guess, but I still say you're selling yourself a bit short, buddy."

Twilight stopped walking. It took the other filly a few seconds to realize Twilight wasn't next to her anymore, at which point she stopped as well, glancing quizzically behind her. "You okay back there?"

"...You think we're buddies?"

The green filly cocked her head. "Uh...yeah? We've been getting along pretty great, and that's pretty much exactly what buddies are, last time I checked?" Her ears slowly drooped at the expression on Twilight's face. "Okay, uh, that's probably the third-creepiest smile I've ever seen..."

"Thank you, Lyra."

Lyra stared at Twilight for a moment, then began to chuckle. "That's it, I am going to educate you about friendship, before you become a book hermit or something."

Nopony was in the CGSU's entrance hall at sunset; the new students were all busy unpacking, and all the other students were enjoying the beautiful weather outside. A door at the end of the hall creaked open, and a lavender filly walked nervously into the room.

Twilight walked up to the stand upon which the purple egg rested, and laid her hooves on either side of it. She glanced around to make sure nopony was watching, then leaned forward.

"Hi, I...uh...well, you aren't born right now, so you probably can't hear me, and you almost certainly won't remember this, but...well...I need to thank you. I..." Twilight glanced at her hooves nervously, then continued, "I've never been that good at magic, to be honest. I mean, I'm great at books, and I love magic. I even have a really big magical reserve, apparently. But I've always had a hard time accessing that reserve, so I was only ever below average at actual spell casting. The worst part is, I'm really, really bad at talking to ponies, so I couldn't get any help for it outside of books. But now I'm in the school, I'm going to be taught how to get past my limitations, and I even have a friend. And in a way, I guess it's all because of you. So...thank you."

"Crack."

It would eventually be discovered that the egg had been more or less ready to hatch for months before that day. It is true that, in theory, given her magical reserves, the lavender filly might have been able to hatch the egg a few hours early at her examination. But she did not, and as a result the egg did not hatch in a loud, brightly lit, magic-inundated classroom. Instead, it hatched in a quiet, dimly lit, vaguely cavernous entrance hall, an environment much closer to its native habitat, supervised only by a single foal. Therefore, the filly watching it had no reason not to focus entirely on the small, purple dragon hatchling as it stretched, yawned, and opened its large, green eyes.

Their gazes met; and for the fourth time that day, Twilight Sparkle was completely powerless.

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