I walked into school and took a moment to appreciate it. After all the chaos that had happened, the familiar halls brought me a feeling of order and normalcy. It was something I’d missed.

Some students were standing around with their friends. A number of them gave me a friendly nod or wave, which I returned. I recognized them from when they helped in the recovery efforts, and like me, they had worked hard. I still didn’t know most of their names, though. There were also a few of Skyla’s friends that couldn’t quite make eye contact with me.

A herd started forming around me as I walked around. It was hard to tell who was saying what, but I could tell it was all thankful voices for what I’d done to help during the disaster. The gratitude felt great, but it was a bit much. While I wanted to ask everypony to go back to their own business, I couldn’t find it in me to do that.

A familiar taunting voice silenced my adoring fans. “Well, look who’s back from skipping school.”

The herd around me silently glared at the offender. “I’ve been busy, Nightshade,” I politely informed her. “Besides, I really don’t have time for you. I’ve got to get to class and see what I missed.”

“You’re going to make time for me right now.”

“Oh go clean some dishes. You can’t stop me anymore. Maybe briefly inconvenience me, but not stop me.” I addressed the herd. “It’s been an honor everypony, but I must go now.”

Nightshade’s indignant ranting was drowned out by the herd telling her to clean the dishes. As I went into my History classroom, I couldn’t help but wonder if Principal Hall could actually make her do such a thing.

Mr. Forger had an announcement in Artificing. “There’s been some developments in the artificing field recently. In light of this, I’m asking everypony in my classes to meet here after school today. You won’t lose anything if you don’t attend, but you won’t learn about this development as quickly. I’m also turning today’s class into a study hour. You can study, go to the library, do some artificing work, or go to the commons. Just don’t cause a commotion.”

Most of the class went to work on their artificing projects. Some left the room to do other stuff. I went to Mr. Forger and quietly asked, “Switchyard System?” He nodded once. “Can I help?” He nodded again. “Can do.”

With the switchyard system on my mind, I went back to my desk and started working on some variations of it. The selection bolt was effective, but other selection methods would be good to have as well.

I was getting a grilled cheese and salad for lunch when something caught my attention in the kitchen. That something was a miserable Nightshade washing dirty dishes alone. As I paid for and took my lunch to eat with my friends, my feelings on the sight were conflicted.

“Are you okay, Inova?” Sunflower asked. “It looks like something’s bugging you.”

I considered my words for a bit. “Well. . . Did you see Nightshade washing dishes?”

“I did, and it’s hilarious! She’s earned that one.”

“There’s a bit more, isn’t there?” Brooke asked.

“I sent the nobles to wash dishes because they arrived with too little too late and thought too highly of themselves and their actions. That was related to something that affected everypony. Nightshade. . . I don’t think she really deserves it.”

“She’s just as dumb as those nobles,” Girder said.

“I’m not denying that. It just. . . Doesn’t feel entirely right.” I did my best to try and change the line my train of thought was on. “So, Sunflower, Girder, tell me about your cutie marks.” Both of their marks resembled their names.

“Mine is all about how I can keep smiling and cheer everypony up, even in the worst of times,” Sunflower happily said. “I got it after that fire in the market. It took some work and a lot of hugs to cheer up the ponies who lost so much, but we all got through it.”

“Strength,” Girder said.

I waited for the tale. “That’s it?”

“Yes. I am very good at being very strong. I got my cutie mark when I pulled a fully loaded wagon to somepony’s home for Hearthstone by myself.”

“How fully loaded are we talking?”

“At least twice as much stuff as what we had for Hearthstone’s cute ceañera, and Hearthstone was on top to keep everything steady with his magic. Multiple tons of cargo, no weight reduction, no help pulling.”

I took a moment to try and imagine myself doing the same thing, and that alone made me start to feel tired. “Okay. . . Why were you pulling alone?”

Girder shrugged. “Everypony else was busy.”

“I’ve got a new H&H idea,” Brooke said, drawing my undivided attention. “A band of villains are out to conquer the world. It’s up to the heroes of the land to stop them. The twist: we play the villains, and everyone’s doing their best to sabotage each other’s plans without getting caught. Your character is out if they’re killed or your plan gets revealed by someone else in-character. I’m still ironing out some details, so we’ll see what happens. I’ll let you know if I change the rules before we begin.”

“Ooh, that sounds like fun,” Sunflower said. “Quick Quip’s already won before it’s begun, hasn’t he?”

“Hey, I’m here too,” I pointed out. “I think I can put up a good bit of sabotage.” Already, a new character was starting to form in my head. A trickster, a schemer, a laughing blue mass of vaguely humanoid psychic tentacles.

I had no idea where that visual came from.

After my last class, I went to the artificing classroom. I saw all my classmates there, along with other students who had to be from other artificing classes.

Mr. Forger looked over all of us after a few minutes. “Good, everypony’s here. I’ll get right to it. The new development in the field of artificing is called the Switchyard System.” I had to keep myself from getting too excited about it. “It’s a way to incorporate multiple functions into one item without using a logic command enchantment. For the new artificing students, that allows multiple inputs to affect the output, usually with no more than two inputs, as more inputs make the enchantment more difficult to apply.” Some of the students began thinking about what could be done with that. “To help explain the Switchyard System, on very short notice and at great expense, we have its original designer with us today: Princess Inova.”

Everypony applauded me as I walked up to the chalkboard. I wasn’t feeling quite as nervous as I had expected to. “Thank you, thank you. I’ll get right to it.” Once the applause died down, I got started. “The Switchyard System works by the breaking and completing of conduits.” I began drawing out the original diagram I’d made back in Canterlot. “The selection bolt has a small section of conduit built in, and it’s placed between the activation mechanism and the functions. When triggered, it only activates whatever’s on the complete circuit.”

“What’s the bottom one that leads nowhere?” A colt asked from near the back.

“That is the safety setting. It’s deliberately devoid by design as an approach to averting accidents. Imagine if you had a fire setting on a device and it fell to the ground. It could start spewing fire and burn something down.” My explanation got lots of understanding nods from my classmates. “I don’t have anything with me to demonstrate this, but I can-” There was a sudden flash of light. “-bring my. . .” I was suddenly looking at the familiar space of the living room.

“Flurry, no!” Mom chided. “You can’t just teleport Inova home because you want to be with her!”

“Noba!” Flurry objected.

Mom sighed. “I’m sorry, Inova. I’ve been trying to slow her down, but she’s just. . . I thought her magic would take longer to recover from what Sombra did.”

“I get it,” I said. “I’ll just have to explain why I disappeared tomorrow.” I got down to Flurry’s level to play with her a bit. If she could teleport me to her so easily, there wasn’t much I could do to escape.

As the week went on, Artificing class focused on the Switchyard System, and with the gravity gauntlet, I sort of became a second teacher for it. As much as I wanted to help demonstrate it in the other classes, I had my own classes to attend and catch up on.

I strongly suspected that Flurry learned to tell time faster than anypony else in the history of telling time, because shortly after school was done, almost like clockwork, Skyla and I would end up getting teleported to her. It made the trip home much faster, but it kept me from my friends and the new H&H campaign.

On Friday night, there was a knock on the door. “I’ll get it!” I answered it, and there was an orange unicorn stallion wearing a dark blue cape with stars on it. “Can I help you?”

He gave a light bow. “Princess Inova. My name is Sunburst, and I am here by request of Princess Cadence. May I come in?”

I shouted into the house, “Mom, did you summon a stallion named Sunburst?”

“Bring him to the living room!” Mom called back.

I shrugged. “Well, come on in. Would you like some tea?”

He smiled. “Yes, I’d like some.”

As I went about making the tea, I listened in on the conversation. “Thanks for showing up, Sunburst,” mom said. “I’m glad I could talk Luna into sending you out here from Canterlot.”

“The honor is mine, Princess Cadence.”

“I’m off the throne right now, so Cadence is fine. The same for my family.”

“Of course. I heard you’re in need of my knowledge, but Princess Luna didn’t tell me very much.”

“I’ve tried to come up with some way to safely restrain Flurry’s magic, but so far, nothing’s worked.”

“She’s been teleporting me and Skyla home after school,” I added.

“Where’s Flurry right now?” Sunburst asked.

“She’s taking a nap,” mom said. “She’s a deep sleeper too.”

I finished the tea, poured three cups, and joined mom and Sunburst. “So, what’s going on? What’s the plan?”

Sunburst sipped his cup for a few seconds. “I know of multiple spells that, individually, could safely restrain Flurry’s magic, but based on what I’ve heard, she could simply overpower any of them, should she notice them. I also know of some that could inflict mild pain if she tries to cast certain spells, but I doubt you’d like those.”

“Those will be a last resort,” mom decided.

He thought about it for a bit. “I believe I do have a few spells that should work well together without hurting her. However, Flurry will need to be awake for it to work, and one of you, Skyla, or Shining will need to be the one to cast them.”

“Not me,” I said. “But why not you?”

Sunburst’s posture fell a bit. “Because I can’t cast anything more advanced than basic single item levitation. Not for lack of trying, but it just doesn’t seem to work for me. And aside from that, there’s a linked limiter spell in the mix, and whoever casts that will have control over how much magic she can use at a time. That is something I would rather be left in the hooves of a family member.”

I suddenly felt sympathetic for Sunburst. I found his difficulties very relatable to my own.

“There’s no need to be ashamed of your skills, Sunburst,” mom assured. “Do you have copies of these spells?”

“Not with me, but the books are on the way to the castle right now.”

Mom stood up. “Inova, I’ve got an errand to run. Flurry’s formula is on the top shelf of the fridge if she needs some.”

“Okay, mom,” I said. As mom and Sunburst left, I cleaned up the tea set. There was some leftover, and I didn’t feel like finishing it myself. “Skyla, I’ve got some tea I’m going to send down the drain~”

“Wait a minute!” Skyla showed up a moment later and claimed the beverage. “You will not waste good tea like that, sis.”

“I wasn’t planning on it.” I booped her snoot. “Thanks.”

The next day, I had a very important job: playing with Flurry. Skyla was handling court and dad had his own work to take care of, so the task fell to me.

Flurry was a menace to her toys. She did not hesitate to crash them into each other, nor crush them underhoof. I was no thaumaturge, but it didn’t take a genius to tell that her earth pony magic was incredibly potent.

There was one toy, however, that she did treat gently. Of all the plush toys she had, of the myriad of soft animals, the only one to still be intact and have all the stuffing in it was a snail the size of her head. It was the one thing she treated well, and she called it Whammy.

While I was spending time with Flurry and keeping her busy, mom sneakily put the magic limitation spells on her. The effect wasn’t immediate. The plan was to slowly decrease how much she could use so she would be less likely to notice it.

As much as I’d have preferred a less sneaky approach, I went with it. Having experienced and cleaned up the damage she caused, along with her not being able to negotiate, there weren’t any other options short of leaving the Empire.

At the first chance I was given, I left to go run an errand of my own. It was nice to get a breath of fresh air, so I took my time as I wandered around.

“Hi Inova!” Sunflower happily called out.

“Sunflower!” I was happy to see her, even though I’d seen her just the day before. “Where are you going?”

“I’m going to the medical school to see if they have any courses on counseling. I think I’ll be able to use my talent that way.”

“That is how you earned your cutie mark. I’m going to the toy store to get some new toys for Flurry.”

“Aww, that’s so nice of you. What are you getting her?”

“I’m planning on a couple of plush animals. I’ll tell you how it went on Monday.” After a parting hug, I resumed my mission.

I came back home with a bag in my magic. "Oh Flurry~" I sang out as I found her with Whammy and Skyla in the living room. "I brought some friends for Whammy."

Flurry looked up at me. "Frens?"

"Friends." I opened the bag and brought out the two plush snails I’d picked up and even named on the way home. All three, while similar, were different enough to easily tell apart. "These are Karstodes and Custodisi."

"Frens!" She took Karstodes and Custodisi and put both of them with Whammy. She didn’t immediately destroy the new ones, which was a good sign.

Skyla got up and walked over to me. “What’s with those names?”

I shrugged. “I dunno. It was just one of those things that kind of felt right, you know?”

I raised an eyebrow as Skyla came home with a big box in her magic the next day, shortly after I’d gotten home from running court. “What’s that?”

“You may have gotten Flurry two more snails, but I got her a big one!” Skyla walked past me, then I followed her to Flurry’s room. “Oh Flurry, I got another friend for Whammy and. . .”

“Karstodes and Custodisi,” I supplied.

“Yes.” She opened the box, got the huge stuffed snail out, and set it in front of Flurry. The thing towered over her. “This one’s name is-”

“SANTODES!” I bellowed out.

“What? No, it’s-”

“Satodees!” Flurry leapt at the giant plush snail and hugged it with all her might.

I grinned at Skyla. “I win.”

Skyla gently slugged my shoulder with a wing. “Seriously, where did you get those names?”

I shrugged. “Dunno.”

As the week wore on, mom slowly decreased the amount of magic Flurry could use. There were some hiccups along the way, such as the tantrums she threw once she was unable to teleport Skyla or me home.

Sunburst and his wife, Starlight Glimmer, became the official Flurry Heart Foalsitters™ once mom started going back to the throne more regularly. By that point, Flurry seemed to accept the limits that had slowly come down on her, though she didn’t like it.

Author's Note

This took as long as it did because I was busy writing things that'll happen later on. Once again, I find myself having to fill in space between the currently numbered chapters and future chapters.