Author's Note

This chapter was NOT supposed to take this long. It was supposed to be done before July, then I needed to rewrite a section of it completely, then July 4th came around so I got a bit busy...

And then I got INCREDIBLY sick afterwards. As I'm uploading I'm only now finally feeling like I'm not being drained of all life...

Well, other then the negatives we're steadily approaching 1500 likes, which is pretty cool at least. I think that's a pretty awesome and impressive milestone to be close to hitting. Thanks everyone.

25 - A Golden Lining

Discord sighed greatly after stepping through the door and shutting it. The world he was in was nothing but a large, winding staircase that led downward infinitely. Floating in an endless swirling void of purple, blue, and silver. Of course, it would change colors often.

Discord swiftly looked over the edge with a raised brow, seeing the infinite stretch of the staircase. With a grumble and a snap of his fingers, his suitcase and tie had disappeared. He walked down only a few steps before coming to the bottom of the impossibly large staircase, without a moment to wonder how.

He came upon a large door shaped in the image of a great tree, with branches expanding outward in each direction seemingly endlessly. Shimmering with bright crystals and hued gemstones. He gave the large ornate door a swift knock, tapping his hoof impatiently against the ground as he looked at the watch materializing onto his wrist.

After a long moment, the door seemed to shine before giving passage. Discord made a very swift movement through the door. Entering a large, well-decorated palace made of crystal, which was so pristine and perfect, it made the draconequus sick.

He always hated this part, as he couldn’t simply snap himself to the end of the hallway with a single motion. Instead, having to trudge through the hallway as nothing but a regular—almost mortal—being. He only briefly stopped in the hallway to misalign one of the paintings on the wall.

Once he passed through the end of the hall, he quickly came into a large crystal dome, which had a peculiarly accurate planetarium that seemed to display whatever it wished from the entirety of Equestria. The view was fixated on the exact wall he’d just passed through in the country house.

With a large sigh of indignation and crossed claws, Discord announced himself, “Are you satisfied yet?” He huffed, “You know, it isn’t often I enact favors on another’s behalf. The least you could manage is a thank you.”

He waited a moment in impatience; they were always so late to respond. Eventually, a pair of glowing eyes appeared before him, squinting oddly before seeming to scowl. “Rather, you could have just never interfered, and all would be well.”

Discord shrugged his shoulders greatly and growled, turning his head away from the invisible figure. “If I’d known that my little relapse would cause such a disturbance, I would’ve agreed. Of course, you never gave me any heads-up, did you? You never do.”

The figure’s head turned away from him. “We do not care whether you help or not. We simply want what is best-”

“-For our ponies.” Discord finished for them with an exaggerated roll of his eyes. "Heard it, heard it again, and again. If only your personality had as much effort as your persistence.”

The figure eventually found itself on a large crystal throne and seemingly sat down as it gazed down at Discord in an almost bored manner. “Do you insult us as a way to handle guilt?” It asked with an evenly monotonous voice.

Discord grumbled as he made his way around the large device, to be closer to the throne. “Why should I feel guilty? I’ve told you this whole time that your little act of always assuming you know everything is so tiring. Kieran clearly didn’t want to be anywhere near them.”

The figure seemingly tilted its head. “Just as you wish to be away from us right now?”

Discord nodded swiftly. “You’re boring to talk to; I’ve finished your task, and quite frankly, it’s freezing in here.” He said as he grabbed both of his sides and shivered.

The figure stared oddly. “Very well,” it hummed. “Thank you then.”

Discord smiled gratefully and turned around. “Finally! It takes so much work to get recognition these days.” He began to march his way out.

For once, the many voices coming from the being seemed to silence, and out came a very clear and analytical feminine voice that resonated through the dome. “I do hope that you won’t be meddling with my new alicorn any time soon again. We should presume.”

Discord felt a chill run up his spine, and he turned again. “Yes, yes. I’ll stay a million realities away from him if you wish. I wouldn’t want to be with that storm nearby anyway.” He hummed unsurely. “Which I’m still not sure you completely believe that your plan will work.”

The being tilted its head and said, “That is to say, you doubt me.”

Discord took a second to give a scrutinizing brow towards the being, “Your ideas behind how to handle this are so chaotic you’d think we’d swapped roles.”

“It’s called efficiency,” they quickly replied, “a thing that I am very happy you lack.”

Discord snorted, “Efficiency is the antithesis of chaos.”

The being nodded. “Yet you reacted with harmony when I offered for you to help.”

Discord wagged his clawed finger. “I still did that for my own good, not yours. Don’t get it twisted, darling.” He huffed with a smirk, “You better hope your little plan comes true, or you’ll be in hot water just as me, Miss Perfect.”

Suddenly, the voices returned and surrounded the being, leaving its more direct and powerful voice by the wayside. “We know how to handle this. We will be fine.”

He sighed and turned for the doorway, grumbling to himself as he left, “Always gotta bring out the creepy voice when I least expect it.”

As he exited through the hallway and back out the door, the being couldn’t help but look down at its crystalline reflection. “Creepy voice?” It asked in confusion to nobody in particular.

I have to say, I wasn’t used to this… Any of this... Whatsoever…

It wasn’t long after I’d been taken downstairs by Sage. I was sitting in the dining room with a plate of tooth-achingly sweet treats. From a cookie to fudge, chocolate-covered hay—which was surprisingly good—and a glass of chocolate milk to go with all of it.

But that part, while rare, wasn’t the weird part.

No… it was their family.

It was so… normal, and almost peaceful in a sense.

It was such a large family, with so many foals running around, that it made my head want to spin. Rose was mostly trying to direct the foals to make less of a mess. Though Rose was clearly leading them in a bit more of a rambunctious state than Arbor was expecting, I even spotted Ivy and Rue in the stampede of foals.

But I was contained in the kitchen, with Heath, Sage, Arbor, and Flitter surrounding me at the table. Among other things, I felt completely anxiety-induced, which was quelled quite a bit due to the plate of goods in front of me.

However, there was still a large, glaring issue I came across as the adults around me made small talk. I still couldn’t hold anything in my hooves. The feeling and ability were completely gone, as if they’d never been there.

I tried to rub my hooves together in some sort of vain hope, as if they were a lighter and all I needed to spark the magic in them was friction. This did not work as well as I’d hoped.

Of course, having such a plate of goods in front of me yet not touching them was causing all the adults to look at me like I’d grown a second head.

Sage finished cleaning some dishes and came up behind me, “Can you eat honey? Feeling okay?”

I just nodded as I looked between her and the deserts warily. “Y-Yeah.”

Arbor chuckled. “I can’t say I’ve ever seen your cookies last that long n’front of a foal before, Sage.”

Heath hummed in agreement. “Dontcha worry, Ashy; everypony eats at their own pace.”

Flitter and Sage were a bit more resigned to watching me, which didn’t help my growing nerves as I rubbed my hooves together under the table as I tried to keep a vague hint of a masked voice due to Flitter’s presence, "I-I don’t really like sugary foods.”

Sage furrowed her brow and leaned in. “That’s not what you said upstairs, pumpkin.” She hummed, “Let me see your hooves."

“What? Why?” I asked defensively, pulling them closer to myself with a hint of fear in my voice.

Sage just giggled and grabbed them gently as she placed her hoof against mine. “Grip, dear.”

I wilted, as I’d become completely stuck on what to do at that moment. Fearing that it was all over. I looked between her looming next to me and our two hooves set against each other. I could feel her hoof gripping mine with her magic.

I couldn’t do anything; I couldn’t grip back. My mind began racing as I looked up fearfully at Sage.

But her face was beaming. “That’s why!” Sage chirped with a giggle. "Dear, you don’t have to be embarrassed. I used to have a friend like you back when I was a filly.”

“W-Wha… huh?” I voiced as I stared at her with a wildly confused face.

Heath’s eyes widened for a moment. “Ah, I see. It ain’t nothin’ to worry ‘bout Ashy.”

But I continued to look between them all with a wildly confused and helpless look as Sage set my hooves down. Sage and Flitter held a glance between each other before Sage turned back on me and stroked my hair. “You can’t use your hooves right now, can you? You have Starswirl Syndrome.”

I just sat completely dumbfounded for a moment before awkwardly laughing, “Haha… yeah, I might.” I said getting quieter by the second.

Arbor leaned in with wide eyes and said, “I ain’t ever heard of that.”

Sage nodded. “It’s common in young foals but can happen to adults as well. It’s when heightened anxiety or trauma can cause them to inadvertently block off the magic streams in their hooves. Making them unable to grip things.”

I just laughed very awkwardly and nodded along with the completely convenient nature of such a thing existing. There wasn’t a single thing in the world that was luckier at that moment. “Y-Yeah. It’s really tough and happens a lot when I’m at school sometimes.” I mumbled quietly. “It’s weird! You’re just grabbing things, and suddenly you can’t anymore. Really annoying.” I added to sell the deal a bit more.

Arbor tilted his head, seemingly just as surprised as me, as he huffed with intrigue. “What’s with that name, though?”

Flitter chimed in for the first time, casually leaning her head against one of her hooves as she kept her eyes locked on me. “They say Starswirl had it. Even with all of his magic, even a great mage like him would occasionally become unable to grip things. It’s just a way to help give confidence to foals when they hear the story.”

Arbor shrugged to himself before hoisting himself out of the chair and stretching, an audible crack echoing in the room. “Well, I’m gonna check on Rose and the little’uns.” He commented as he sauntered off.

But seemingly, the aspect of my inability to grip things was dropped entirely. And without question, Sage’s horn lit up, and she levitated one of the cookies up for me. “Here you are, pumpkin.”

Heath had returned to his own plate of treats, and Flitter, though she had been staring at me oddly, had returned to her own plate as well. I figured there was no harm and leisurely took a bite of the cookie.

It was one of the best cookies I’d ever had. It was one of those sugar cookies that just completely melts in your mouth, and the frosting on it had a lemony tang. When my eyes widened after the first bite, I almost immediately leaned in for another, and then another.

Sage just giggled as she continued to wipe the counters in the dining room. “Slow down, honey, you’ll choke.” I was almost sad when she levitated the cookie away and instead held the glass of chocolate milk up for me.

To my surprise, Flitter began questioning me as she helped herself to her own treats. “So, Ashy. What year of school are you in?” She asked leisurely.

Again, I felt myself getting pale. Would a pony my age still be in elementary school? Middle school? Or would they be in high school or… She did ask what year, not grade… So I just have to guess what age ponies start school, right? I have to answer quickly.

“I uh… I’m in year eleven.”

If my answer seemed off, she showed no reaction. “Ah, how are you liking it? Are you in any sports or clubs?”

I finished another bite of cookies and shook my head. “It’s fine, a bit boring as always. I’m not into any extra stuff, though.”

Flitter hummed, “Yeah, I never found any of them very fun either back then.”

Heath chuckled. "Yeah, I remember bein’ on the Appeloosa track team. I tried to get her out with me couple ah times. She never budged from Pop’s side, always helpin’ with the hives.”

“How did you get your mark?” I asked curiously, finishing off the cookie and moving onto some fudge at Sage’s decree.

She blushed. "Well, it was actually an odd and kind of upsetting story…”

Heath shook his head. “Is not. Gotta be one o’the best mark stories I’ve heard.”

She shrugged and leaned back in the chair quite a bit as she seemingly thought to herself. “Well, Pa went into town late one night. I was just a filly, so I was doing regular filly things like playing in my room and helping Mom with the younger ones.”

She furrowed her brow. “And there was this odd sound coming from the fields all night, sort of like a ticking sound from an alarm clock. I’d looked out the window a bunch, but nothing seemed off really, just the corn fields, the barn, and the hives out past them.”

Sage came over, sat down next to me, and listened as well.

Flitter hummed, “And you know how they say when you’re about to get your cutie mark that something feels off or different around you? Sometimes you’ll be wandering around feeling crazy because there is just something in the back of your mind itching.” She huffed, "Well, I didn’t have to wonder for too long, honestly. I went down to help Ma with dishes for the night, and she was mighty tired as this was near the end of the fall harvest. She was barely standing at that point. I promised her I’d help put all the foals to bed so she could turn in early.”

Flitter leaned in closer to the table, staring down at it as she focused. “And I did; I helped her into bed and even tucked her in; she was mighty grateful. So I went down, looking for my little brothers and sisters. My two youngest sisters were where they always were, playing house in the living room, but they asked about our dog. I told them I hadn’t seen her and shooed them off to bed. Afterwards, I knew it was just our dog and four rambunctious brothers left.” She gave a poignant raised brow and a slight glare up at Heath.

Heath rubbed the back of his head. “In ma defense…” He started, “Ah was always trying to stop them as well. Sometimes ya just get caught up in it.”

Flitter rolled her eyes playfully. “Anyway, Heath ran up with two of the little ones tailing behind him and told me that our youngest brother Chaser was missing. I asked them where he’d last been seen, and they said they were playing hide and seek outside right at dusk. Which they weren’t supposed to do!” Flitter said sourly, giving another glare to Heath.

Heath just laughed sheepishly. "No, we weren’t,” he admitted. “Rules were that we shoulda been close to the house and inside once the sun passed the top of the treeline.”

Flitter nodded resolutely. “Anyway, I ordered them upstairs to tell Ma and went running out into the fields, calling Chaser’s name, but didn’t get nothing back. No matter how much trouble I said he was in. But I felt an odd chill up my back, and I knew something was off. I stood still in the corn field to listen, and I heard that ticking sound from farther out past the barn. So I took it up into the sky and flew overhead.”

Flitter put a hoof up to her mouth, “And I didn’t really ever expect to see something like what I did.” I leaned in a bit in intrigue.

“Around our apiary, I could see a dark shadow stalking in circles, just going back and forth around the backside of the hives. And as I got closer, I could hear a bunch of growling clearly coming from our dog, and she never growled. Nicest dog we ever knew.”

“I knew that whatever was stalking the apiary wasn’t good. I called out Chaser’s name again: ‘Chaser! Chaser, are you down there!?’ And I saw the thing that was stalking around glance up at me in the sky with its piercing green eyes. It had to be one of the most awful feelings of terror I’d ever felt.” Flitter shuttered and shook her head. “It was a timberwolf, no doubt. But thankfully, I heard a muffled voice calling out from down inside the apiary, so I knew Chaser was in there somewhere with the bees. And right outside the apiary door was our dog. I didn’t want the wolf going after our dog or Chaser, so I swooped in and grabbed the dog. Then I…” Flitter had to stop and giggle to herself. “I put our dog on top of the barn roof because she was scared of heights and I knew she wouldn’t budge.”

She finished laughing after a second, “So I ran and grabbed my pa’s good ol’ fashioned timberwolf repeller.”

Heath huffed a laugh. “It was a woodcutting axe with candles tied to it.”

Flitter just shrugged. “Either way, I lit that thing in an instant and came flying back faster than I ever had before with that thing blazing in my mouth. I swooped down and began swinging wildly at it. Thankfully, timberwolves are scared beyond belief of fire, so it turned tail and ran with an angry growl.”

I was fascinated by the story, especially the timberwolves. They sounded really, really dangerous. “So was your brother okay? And did you catch the wolf?” I asked.

She giggled, “Other than my brother being covered in honey and bees, he was alright. A little bit shaken. I realized afterward that the ticking sound I thought I heard was him banging on the inside of the apiary door with a stick. Thankfully he did, or I wouldn’t have found him, and our dog would’ve been done for. So after I saved the dog from the rooftop, pulled Chaser out of the apiary, and escorted him back home to our mom’s panicking grasp, that’s when I got my cutie mark. It just appeared like that as I got home.”

She paused for a moment to look back at it—the green shield that covered the honeycomb on her flank. “As for the timberwolf, our pa got home later that night, and we told him the story. He went out the very next night with some of the townsfolk and tracked down their den, burning it to the ground. We haven’t heard a howl from nearby in the forest ever since then.”

I just sat in silence for a minute as I thought over her whole story. It was genuinely impressive how brave she would’ve had to be as just a filly to save her dog from a timberwolf’s grasp, then go back to fight it off with just an ax and some fire. It really made me appreciate what a good guard Flitter was surely to be.

Sage pulled a hoof around me and squeezed. “Not everyone gets their cutie marks in such heroic and terrifying ways, Ashy; don’t worry. I was just helping my mother out in the garden one day after one of my plants bloomed, and all of a sudden it was there. I didn’t have to go through much to get it.” She said with a laugh.

Heath nodded, “Got mine while helpin’ Pa out in a neighbor’s fields. Some of my best work to this day.”

“Well, the important thing,” Flitter began, taking a bite of her cookie. “Is that you keep doing whatever makes you feel right and happy. Eventually it’ll show up one day, and you’ll feel silly for ever doubting yourself.”

After a moment of thinking about those words, we were interrupted by Rose carrying Ivy inside, with Rue following at her hooves. “Someone had a tumble,” Rose remarked sadly as Ivy’s bawling became apparent.

Sage quickly ran over and scooped the filly into her grasp, cooing and nuzzling her. Thankfully, I had finished the sweets a few minutes ago. Heath walked away to get Sage’s bandages at her request, and Flitter pursed her lips before looking down at me. “Hey, whatdya say we head out and have some fun?” She said this while giving me a short wink.

I felt a bit apprehensive about the idea, yet I accepted it anyway as I nodded swiftly. Flitter gestured with her head for me to follow, and I climbed down carefully with my good hoof as she patiently waited for me near the entrance.

As I trailed behind the much larger mare, she slowed to fall by my side. “Want to see our bee hives?”

I looked up a bit nervously and asked, “Are they… nice?”

She huffed a laugh. “Bees are harmless, unless you’re swatting them out of the air or destroying their hives.”

I slowly nodded my head. “Okay… sure then.”

She wasted no time, leading me towards the front door. I followed her out into the cold air, but with the warmth of the sun still beating down on us. As my eyes adjusted to the light, I found myself looking over the valley that Appaloosa sat in. I hadn’t been able to see it last night, but the house and farm sat on a very large hill that overlooked the town and desert in the distance. It was quite an impressive view, and I couldn’t help but stop and stare in awe.

I found myself suddenly getting hoisted up by Flitter’s wing, and she sat me on her back with my hooves on top of her head and my back hooves standing. I looked down in confusion as she glanced up at me and giggled, “Figured I’d give you a better viewing spot.”

I nodded slowly and looked up again. The town of Appaloosa was just this small little place in the desert, with these large and impressive snowy peaks behind it that made the little town look even smaller than normal. “Wow…” I uttered in awe.

Flitter laughed, “Agreed.” She sighed contentedly, “I never get tired of home; no matter how much time I spend away from it now, I never don’t miss this view.”

“You’re a guard, right?” I asked innocently.

She hummed in affirmation, “For the Crystal Empire. Quite the switch up for a little farmer filly from the forest outskirts of a desert, huh?”

“Mhm…” I slowly sat myself down on her back and asked, “Do you… like it?”

She stayed silent for a few moments, repositioning her wings to keep me more steady on her back. “Yes,” she answered, “I don’t know much about the experience of a real guard yet, as I just graduated from the academy. But I’m really hoping that whatever position I end up with feels fulfilling and maybe just a little bit crazy.”

“Crazy?”

She laughed again. “Yeah, of course! What is there to like about a job where nothing interesting happens?”

“I guess so,” I said with a small shrug.

We’d finally walked past a cornfield and the barns, and she swiftly held a hoof up and glanced back at me as she gestured. “That’s our apiary; it’s a bit bigger than when I was a foal, but you can’t find better honey anywhere else.”

The building she pointed to was a large wooden building, structured on the outside much like a honeycomb in design, where they kept supplies. It was surrounded by large metal fences to keep animals out. And the roof above it had a pointed tower-like shape to it. “How big is the hive?”

She hummed as we walked closer. “Well, it’s been about two generations, so… quite large. We keep having to expand for them to build more combs.”

“Two generations!?” I asked in surprise.

“Yep, ever since my great-grandmother was a filly.”

I shook my head in slight disbelief. “That’s crazy.”

She finally stopped at the gate, gently setting me on the ground, and quickly unlatched the lock. Afterwards, she gestured for me to walk inside. I warily eased myself forward, and Flitter quickly closed the gate behind us. I could already hear a concerning amount of buzzing from inside the building, and I could see bees flying overhead and entering through multiple different entrances.

Flitter walked over and opened a bunch of side panels on the building, which revealed the inside of the building. I nearly went white as I was suddenly looking at at least two thousand bees, maybe more. Flitter just giggled and gestured for me to come over, but I kept my flank firmly planted against the fence behind me.

“They don’t sting, I promise.” She remarked. As a demonstration, she gently poked at a clump of bees inside, and other than parting away from her hoof, they didn’t seem to care.

I sighed before taking a few wary steps forward, until I was close enough that Flitter put a wing behind me and gently prodded me the rest of the way over. As I got next to her, only a hoof away from the bees, Flitter giggled loudly. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost!”

I shuddered a bit. “No, just a… lot of bugs.”

Flitter huffed with amusement. “Friendly bugs,” she gently placed a hoof inside, scooping up an entire hoofull of the bees. My back went rigid as I tried backing away, but her wing was still firmly pressed behind me. She just laughed and held her hoof closer to me. “Look, they’re just sitting there, being bees.”

I let the fear pass by me for a second to watch, and those bees didn’t seem to care whatsoever. They continued to act naturally as they fluttered around and crawled on her hoof. “Here,” she chirped, “hold your hooves out.”

“What?” I hissed, “I can’t hold them! They don’t know me.”

She shook her head, “Trust me.”

I sighed greatly as I felt a nervous feeling in my gut. I held both hooves up and out as far from myself as possible, turning my head away. Flitter wasted no time and immediately shook the bees off her hoof and onto mine. I immediately froze at the feeling and tensed up, but after a few moments of nothing bad, I glanced with a single eye open.

Sure enough, they were just as friendly and unbothered by me as well. All of their legs on my hooves were even a bit ticklish. I slowly eased myself forward as I pulled my hooves closer, maybe a bit too close as a few of them crawled up and attached to my muzzle instead. I looked up excitedly at Flitter, “They like me!” I laughed.

She reached a hoof down, scooping up a few of the bees and placing them onto her own muzzle. “Me too!” She said, making a silly face. The sight of the bees on her nose and face made me lose it as I began laughing. Quite a few of the bees quickly flew off of me as I disturbed them.

For a long time after that, Flitter showed me all the things about the bees that were possible. She showed me how they harvested honey, how the hive worked, how they managed the large building, and how they kept the bees happy… Every little part of it.

We eventually ran out of things to do with the bees, and she had led me to a small hill overlooking the entire farm and valley below. We just sat there for a while, taking in the sights and the silence. She eventually wrapped her wing around me, as it was still quite chilly out.

“Flitter,” I started, grabbing her attention as she glanced over with one eye. “What does your cutie mark mean? I sorta don’t get what it means…”

She hummed as she tapped her chin with one hoof, staring up at the clouds. “Hmm…” She pondered for a bit, “I don’t know.”

I nearly fell over in exasperation and tilted my head at her as I leaned forward. “Huh? How do you not know? Doesn’t it represent your special talent?”

She smiled but continued to think as she looked forward. “That’s the thing,” she responded. “Does my cutie mark mean I’m good with bees? Good at harvesting honey? Does it mean I’m good at guarding things? Am I only good at guarding bees?” She laughed at her own words.

After giving it a few more seconds of thought, she turned and looked down at me. “So what is my special talent?” she said with a shrug.

“Well,” I started unsurely, “can’t it be all those things?”

“It could,” she said, tilting her head back and forth in thought, “or none of them.” There was a large bit of silence for a while after that.

“Then…” I started quietly, “What does it mean to you?” I asked as I looked up at her.

She smiled down at me, “Now you’re getting it…” She hummed gently. “I like to interpret it in a silly way.”

She began to giggle. “I’ve always told myself that it means I need to guard those I care about with the sweetness of honey and the tenderness that a bee attends to her hive.”

She huffed and playfully rolled her eyes. “Heath always said it was a silly idea. Not that he was wrong or trying to be mean about it.”

I giggled. “It is silly…” I admitted, “But I kinda like it.”

I felt her wing around me pull a bit tighter for a second before loosening again. “Thanks.” She quickly began to look at me scrutinizingly. “What about you? What do you think you’ll get a cutie mark in?”

I tilted my head, “Oh, I… have absolutely no clue.”

“Come on,” she nudged me gently, “there has to be something you like doing more than anything else.”

I shrugged. “Judging by my colors, I'm probably pushing rocks, right?” I said sarcastically.

She hummed with her own shrug, “If that’s what makes you happy. There’s a rock farm not too far from here.” At my face of horror, Flitter quickly laughed and shook her head. “No, no. You don’t have to be a rock pusher.” She continued to giggle as she held a hoof to her mouth.

“I… uhm…” I felt the edges of my face drain color as I tried to think genuinely about what I wanted to be or do. I’d spent so long just trying to be normal that I’d rarely thought about simple things like this. You know, in school, they always tell you that by the time you graduate, you need to have a plan for your life. Of course nobody ever does, except for the truly gifted… Maybe that’s normal for humans.

But still, even for both humans and ponies, it seemed like such a monumentally monstrous task.

I genuinely began to think about the question with much more seriousness than I think Flitter expected. Not wanting to sit awkwardly and have an existential crisis, I shrugged slightly. “I've never really thought about it this much.”

“Right, hmm...” Flitter said with a short nod. “But don't you have any hobbies? Anything that piques your interest?”

I hummed inquisitively and shrugged. “I’ve always sort of looked for something like that. I tried art, but I’m not patient enough to learn. I tried sports, but realized I didn’t like the sports and just wanted to play with other ki…- foals my age.”

She hummed, “I get that, feeling like you have to fit in by doing something popular.”

I tilted my head a bit, “The only thing I used to do a lot that I can think of is exploring.”

“Exploring?”

“Yeah,” I muttered, “I used to find abandoned places and sort of just hang around them, watch the sky, and make up my own games.” Why was I telling her all this? “Not that it’s a talent, but that was my favorite thing to do.”

Her face brightened. “That sounds like fun. Like going on a daring adventure and pretending to be a hero.” She said this while wiggling her brows and nudging me.

I failed to hold back a small laugh. “Kinda like that. I just liked the peace and the feeling like the whole world was open for me to discover.” I closed my eyes to take in a large breath as I felt the wind on me. I sighed, “But I highly doubt walking around and loitering is a talent.”

Flitter laughed gently. “Well, maybe not before, but surely this world is more accepting of a talent like that. Like the first real-life Daring Do.”

I stayed silent for a little while. As we sat, the wind around us quickly began to pick up and get a bit chillier. The dark clouds looming in the distance over the horizon and the town of Appaloosa were obvious culprits, and I felt a prickling of fear in the back of my mind as I remembered the storm Discord spoke of. But it wasn’t a literal storm, right?

My thoughts were cut off as I looked over at Flitter, her eyes closed and head elevated as her wings stretched out to catch the breeze on the edge of her wingtips. She seemed quite at peace in the moment. My eyes traveled down to something I’d never seen before, and it completely baffled me and made me recoil and freeze for a moment.

Sitting on the other side of her was a small orb of light blue coloration that seemed to glow. It seemed completely unaffected by the wind but continued to ripple and morph around itself in a swirl of energy that both confused and fascinated me. Like some odd lava lamp with no glass.

I looked up at Flitter, who was still in her own mind, and then back down without a clue of what exactly I was looking at.

The orb then moved, much to my sudden shock, pushing up the side of Flitter’s body slowly with an odd jittery movement. Then, soon after the little wisp zipped down the hill, somewhere I quickly lost sight of. I stood up quickly to try and keep my vision of it, but it was too late, and it had disappeared. I quickly chalked it up to weird Equestria magic things.

“Everything alright?”

I turned my head back and blinked in confusion as Flitter lowered her wings and gave me a raised brow. After giving it another second of thought, I quickly shook it out of my mind and nodded. “Mhm. It got sort of cold, though.” I admitted.

We soon after saw a flash and quickly heard the accompanying sound of thunder coming from the looming clouds in the distance. Flitter hummed with a bit of a confused look before she stood and stretched her limbs. “Looks nasty; I think we should head back. Do you like hot chocolate?”

I continued to stare back at the storm and say, "Yeah, I think I do.”

“You think?” Flitter teased with a huff of laughter. She quickly hoisted me up onto her back with her wing. I was incredibly surprised at how dexterous her wings were; she was using them better than hooves, it seemed. “Well, you haven’t had my hot chocolate. I’ll have that uncertainty of yours begging me for more later.” She said, booping my nose with her wing.

I laughed and rubbed at the itch she left on my muzzle. “Deal.”

But as she began our trek back to the house, I couldn’t take my eyes off the dark wall of clouds that was steadily approaching. I didn’t know if it was something to worry about, but there was a deep sinking feeling in my gut just by staring at it.

And as we were at the house, I could see the small blue wisp again on the hill we’d just come from.

Just sitting there… It almost felt like it was watching me, oddly enough.

…

…

And Flitter was completely correct.

She did indeed make the best cup of hot chocolate ever…