"Welcome home." You wave to the modest little dinner you'd prepared. You were not a huge domestic person before ponying up, and becoming a lady didn't magically transform that. The smell of freshly baked pizza filled the air, accompanied by a big bowl of salad, and the bubbly sound of a two liter of soda. Perfection.

Nick closes the door behind him, swatting it on the way in. "Missed you." He goes for you instead of the food. "You alright? It was kinda weird, living in your house without you here." He's patting you down like he might find something wrong if he just examines you hard enough.

It's flattering, but also kind of annoying. You swat him off. "I'm fine! Promise. I was just busy ponying it up and saving the day and maybe being the reason the day needed saving?"

"That sounds like a story." He goes for the food next, with you having set a boundary. "Hey, you cook this?" Nick snatches a slice and chomps into it with a pleased mmm. "I got home just in time. Not too hot, and not cold yet."

You join and dinner time is had, enjoying food and company. "Anything explode while I was away?"

"Only a lot of junk mail." He points to a stack of envelopes. "Didn't feel right sifting through not-my mail. Hate to ask, but you aren't showing off your tail to anyone you shouldn't, right?"

"The changelings." That wasn't a secret, right? "They already knew. About that, they want me to learn more about it. I made a big mess just by being a pony in the wrong place, and they want to know why. Any hints why the dreaming would get irate about a pony around?"

Unfortunately, he looks pretty clueless, and he finishes that slice of pizza. "I don't even know what a dreaming is. I've been teaching you what I know about ponies." He fixes himself a plate of greens and grabs some dressing to pop on it. "Name like that, sounds pretty trippy. You sure you're alright?"

"I'm fine." He was ready to defend you. It was... flattering a little. "To add to the kindness toolbox, an area heal is on the table."

He cocks a brow at that. "Seriously? I never heard of that." He crunches some of the salad. "Sure it was a kindness thing and not a unicorn thing?"

You point up at your absence of a horn. "I don't know unicorn magic that well that I could heal even one person with it, let alone a group. It took a lot out of me. I..." How to phrase it... "It was like I had something, and now I don't? Like I tapped into something that doesn't come back with a nap."

"Oh! Oh. Yeah." He takes a swig of the soda. "That's normal, and means it was probably a kindness."

"Gonna explain?" You go for some salad yourself. Salad and pizza seems to be working well enough. Some people put them together. Salad pizza? Nah... "How does that work?"

He drums fingers on the table. "Alright, so... When we do things that reflect on our purpose, we feel good, right?"

"Yep?"

"That's the stuff building up. I heard it called harmony before. You get it by doing your thing." He hiked a thumb at himself. "I'd get it for loyalty. You get it for kindness. The more loyal and the more kindness, the more you get. Give until it hurts and make it count to get the most. You use up that 'harmony' to do big things related to your purpose. Heal a room of people? Probably a big kindness."

"It was..." You could remember the fatigue you felt afterwards. "Took everything out of me... If that was such a big kindness, why didn't it get me any 'harmony'?"

"Cheater." He waves a fork with some greens speared on it. "You don't usually get harmony as you spend harmony. Look at it like a discount you're already getting. Besides, going on a limb here, I wasn't there... But I'm guessing you had some selfish reasons for needing to heal that room of people right now instead of one by one like you usually do."

"They could have all been dying," you counter, though it sounds lame even in your own ears. "It was do or die, for all of us."

"So it wasn't entirely kind. It wasn't selfless," explains Nick, finishing his salad. "You were surviving. Don't get me wrong, glad you did. But you can't count that the same as some of the other nice things you get up to."

"Makes sense enough," you admit, taking a second slice to chew on. "I warmed it up, by the way. I did not cook the pizza." That involved a lot more steps. "It alright?"

"Wouldn't have guessed." He puts his fork down. "Figures that a kindness could cook with love, and it shows. If you want to know more about ponies, ponies are the easiest place to look."

You point at Nick. "Found one."

"I'm already telling you what I know." He puts up his hands protectively. "But I'm not the only pony around. You met a few at the meeting. You swapped numbers with at least one of them, right?"

The mental image of Moon Streak leapt without further prompting. "At least one. She seems to know some stuff. Might be worth giving her a call."

"Go on. She can't bite you over the phone... Probably." He stands up, drink in hand. "Thanks for the pick me up. I'll probably peck at that later if it's still there."

You didn't plan on putting the pizza away just yet. "If I do, it's in the fridge, and you can have some."

"Cold pizza is almost as good." He gives a final thumbs up and heads for the living room coach to relax. "Have fun on the call."

You get the bluetooth in place and get the phone ringing. She picks up on the first ring. Fast! "Hi."

"Hey," she almost sings back. "I was hoping you'd call. How are things?"

"I did a big kindness, got tapped out a few days, but doing alright. You?"

"That must have been a big kindness. Look, phones, love 'em, don't trust 'em. Wanna meet?"

You glance at Nick. "Nick's here."

"Now you're rubbing it in. Is that a yes then? Text me an address." The line goes cold.

You flip the phone towards yourself and text out that address. "Moon Streak's on the way," you announce to Nick even as the phone chimes from her, announcing much the same.

"She seems nice." He's watching something... violent? Action-packed. You've enjoyed that sorta show before. You just don't feel in the mood right that second. Still, you don't feel like being alone, so you sit next to him anyway. "Full too?"

"Yep." Plenty of pizza and salad left. "Why does it seem like most ponies don't know a lot about ponies?"

"Funny that." He leans back into the couch. "We're a confused bunch. This isn't a nice world, and here we are, a nice kinda people. It isn't a good match. We've been on the backpedal just trying to survive more than anything else. It isn't even surprising a few notes got dropped along the way."

"Sure..." Wasn't too hard to argue that... "The changelings seem nice enough?"

"Are they doing well?" he countered. "Or are they on the back-step too?"

A fine question... "They're more organized than ponies... But under attack. Is anyone not under attack?"

"No idea." He shrugged and flicked the TV off. "How far's your friend?"

"Not sure. She could--" A knocking interrupted you. "--or that's her right now." You slide up to your feet and hurry to the door. When you look through the peephole, you see Moon shifting her feet, anxiously awaiting your arrival. You throw the door open, and the draft causes the curtains to billow in the breeze. "Hey!"

"Hey yourself." She pushes in without being specifically invited. That meant she wasn't a vampire, right? She closes the door behind herself, leaning back against the closed door. "I hear you have questions."

"Hey." Nick waved from the couch.

"Hey." Moon returns the mild wave. "Popular word today. Let's talk ponies, without the whole group crowding it out." She goes with you towards the couch, but doesn't take a spot. "It'd help if you have a specific question, or give me a run down on what you already know."

So you do just that, explaining all you know about ponies. "So I'm building 'harmony' by doing nice things, which I just spent a lot of keeping a small army on their feet."

"Wow." Moon shook her head slowly, clucking her tongue as she did so. "Laughter doesn't do that, but you hardly needed me to tell you. Congratulations on reaching a new kind level! So, yea, harmony, it's what binds all the purposes together. It's said that's how it used to be, ages ago, all the ponies working under harmony to make the world a better place." She steeples her fingers. "Long long ago. Like 'a land far far away' territory here."

"So.... how reliable is it then?" you ask, feeling uncertain about it.

"Your guess is as good as mine!" She leans back on her feet. "But I... Is that pizza?" Her eyes lock on the remaining pizza and she zips over. "They need to let you host the next get together. At least you offer refreshments that look decent." She snatched a slice. "As I was saying, I haven't run into anything that proves it wrong, so far. So there's that."

"One thing." You watch her enjoy the pizza, but remain on the couch, next to Nick. "I didn't get to pick Kindness."

"And I didn't get to pick laughter. That's the real joke." She swivels towards the both of you. "Our purposes are some serious destiny shit. We don't get to rewrite that. I think I mentioned before, but you could, in theory, learn other purposes, but the first one is your first, forever. You are a kindness pony, get used to it."

You look between Nick and Moon. "Well, I have two right here... I could learn loyalty and laughter?"

Moon shrugs. "Why not? If you can get either of us to spill the beans, and you get what we're saying, and you can start living it. You up to it? You ready to be the life of the party." She wags a finger at you as she closes, other hand bringing in that pizza for a fresh bite. "Even if you're not feeling it?"

Nick crosses his arms. "Hold up. Since you know something I don't, hold up. I can learn the others?"

"In theory," half-sang Moon. "I knew one pony that collected half of 'em."

"What... happens if you get them all?"

Moon leans in, half-draped over the couch. "We're back in story time, so don't take this as gospel. Come to think, maybe you should take it as gospel. Just as proven. Get all of them and you get friendship, and a lot less chance of exploding. In theory... A pony that has them all, and gains friendship, would be the pony that should be in charge of the whole thing." She lowers, chomping the last of her pizza slice. "That gonna be you? I can think of worse ponies for the job. Be kind to me, oh high queen of ponies."

Wait.. "What if you're already friendship?"

"Fine question. Problem, you have a friendship pony. They're exploding out their fuzzy ears with magic they barely comprehend. They're known for exploding, or imploding. Do you think a friendship is likely to collect all the other purposes before they self-destruct?"

She throws up a hand with a great sigh. "Even the most stable friendships are usually self-absorbed and lost in their own things. They're going to be the ones to pick up the other purposes? I doubt it. You, kindness, are already eyeing the others, and you have friends."

Feeding Moon Streak had gotten you some important tips... But there was still so much more to know.

Author's Note

The vote was quite spirited this time! But no reading books, or contemplating your own self. A friend? A friend.

Learned and confirmed a few valuable things. No official new assignment. What do we do?

Time to vote! Click here 👉https://forms.gle/B1wFTKXpaZMennRn8

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