Chapter 1: New Location, New Day, New Looks

The next morning, Aaron was waking up in the tent he was sharing with Smolder. Unaware to the changes that happened to him or Smolder, he had gotten out to prepare breakfast. He still hadn't noticed the changes he went through.

Aaron was setting up breakfast. He brought out a skillet and some pre-made pancake batter. He then started up the barbecue and started cooking the pancakes. The skillet could only cook three pancakes at a time. Just then, the sound of a tent opening came in.

"Need some help?" Ocellus's voice came.

"Sure, Ocellus," Aaron said, not seeing her. Aaron then turned his head to look at her. "I need you to..." He then got surprised and yelped, causing Ocellus to yelp as well.

"Aaron!" Ocellus shouted. "You changed!"

"What?!" Aaron asked. "Me, too?!"

"What?!" Ocellus asked. Aaron then brought out his phone and a stylus. He then turned on the camera on his phone and put it in selfie mode, seeing his new look.

"Oh, my God!" Aaron said. Ocellus then looked into the phone and saw her new appearance as well.

"Why is my horn red?!" Ocellus asked.

"Wait," Aaron said. "If we changed..." He and Ocellus then looked at the other tents.

Aaron and Ocellus then looked towards each other and in unison, they said, "Uh oh."

"Okay, we need to wake them up and explain to them..." Aaron said before Ocellus made the sound of an air horn. Just then, Smolder came out of the tent she shared with Aaron.

"What the heck is going...?!" Smolder asked. But then she saw the new appearances of Aaron and Ocellus. "What the heck?!"

"Whoa!" came Gallus's voice from the tent. Silverstream yelped inside the tent she was sharing with him as well. "Silverstream! You're...!"

"You, too!" Silverstream said inside the tent.

Aaron ran over towards the tent and said, "You're not the only ones!" He then headed for the tent that Sandbar and Yona share just as Gallus opened up the tent. They were surprised by the appearances of their friends. Aaron opened up the tent that Sandbar and Yona share. Sandbar was awake, but Yona was still snoozing. Sandbar saw Aaron's appearance and was surprised at it.

"We're all different?!" Sandbar asked.

"Yeah," Aaron said. "I didn't even notice until Ocellus and I saw each other." He then saw that Yona was still asleep. "Sheesh. She can sleep through the sound of an air horn?"

"When did we get an air horn?" Sandbar asked.

"That was Ocellus," Aaron said. "Vocal manipulation is a part of her shapeshifting abilities."

"Right," Sandbar said.

Aaron then put his dragon claws to wake up Yona like Gallus pranked her before the Tree of Harmony tested the Young 6 to face their fears. Yona then started squirming, making her shout out.

"Gah! Stop it, Spindle!" Yona shouted before waking up. She then saw Aaron and Sandbar's new appearances. "Friends try new look?"

"No!" Aaron said. "We've all changed over night!"

"What?!" Yona asked before looking at herself. "Yona not liking this!" Then Aaron, Sandbar and Yona came out of the tent. Everycreature was looking at each other.

"How could this have happened?!" Gallus asked.

"This is really freaky!" Ocellus said.

"Yona scared!" Yona said. "Yona wanna go home!"

"Me, too!" Sandbar said. "How could this have happened?"

"I don't know," Aaron said. "This is getting freaky. Where are we?" Just then, the sound of a muffled voice came in.

"Who's out there?! Release me at once!"

The group looked at each other in confusion. Silverstream then asked, "Who's voice was that?"

"I know you can hear me! Get me out of here!"

The group looked towards where the voice was coming from. They saw it was coming from the tree. "The voice is coming from the tree." Then they all ran towards the tree. Aaron, Smolder and Sandbar leaned the sides of their heads onto the tree.

"Hello?" Aaron asked. "Is someone in there?"

"Get me out of here, or I'll burn you all alive!"

"Really?" Aaron asked. "Is that the best you can think of?" He then got a realization. "Wait a minute. I know that voice. Opaline?!"

"That's right you fool!" Opaline's voice came from the tree. "Release me at once!"

"You know what, we're not gonna do that," Aaron said. "Although, I am wondering something. How did you get stuck in a tree?"

""Those blasted ponies used my Unity Trees against me!" Opaline said, furiously. But the tree was muffling Opaline's fury. All the magic of Equestria is rightfully mine! But then those ponies thought that using their unity on the trees against me will be what they need to take back what's mine for their own personal things!"

"You've been wanting to take all the magic of Equestria for yourself for... who knows how long!" Aaron said. "You've dug up your grave, so lie down in it!" Aaron then walked away from the tree. Smolder and Sandbar following. Aaron then grabbed Sandbar's hoof and looked at it.

"Let me out of here! Let me out! Curse you ponies! I shall get my revenge on you first! Then move onto Sunny Starscout!"

Aaron looked at the bottom of Sandbar's hoof, seeing a heart in the center of it. He then said, "Now I know where we are. We're in Equestria, but not in the time we know."

"We're in the next generation," Smolder said. "Which... actually makes sense." She then pointed at her new horns and ears. "My horns and ears kinda look like Sparky's."

"Who's Sparky?" Gallus asked.

"He's the new dragon character that made his first appearance in Make Your Mark," Aaron said. "He's just a hatchling, so he probably won't understand us."

"So, what happened?" Ocellus asked.

"Heck if I know," Aaron said. "The latest we got of Make Your Mark was the episode where Misty got her Cutie Mark, and that was the end of Chapter 4 of the Make Your Mark series. If Opaline is trapped, that means we're way past that."

"So, what friends do?" Yona asked.

Aaron then sighed and said, "We have to find Sunny Starscout."

"Okay," Gallus said. "How do we do that?"

Aaron and Smolder then looked around for something. Smolder then smiled, pointed at what she found and said, "We follow that!" The group looked towards where Smolder was pointing and saw a rainbow beam heading straight up.

"The Prisbeam!" Aaron said. "That will lead us to the Brighthouse in Maretime Bay. There, we'll find Sunny Starscout. Perhaps she can find some answers."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Ocellus asked. "Let's pack up and head there, ASAP." Just then, the sound of a stomach growling came in. "Right after breakfast." Everyone there nodded.

In the town of Maretime Bay, at the Crystal Brighthouse, Zipp Storm was waking up from her bed in the room she shared with her sister, Pipp Petals, and her friends, Sunny Starscout, Izzy Moonbow and Misty Brightdawn. And she was flying around the room waking them all up.

"Morning, everypony!" Zipp said. "A new day has arrived!"

Sunny woke up and, as usual, she had a serious case of bedhead. She didn't care because she was smiling. She then got out of bed, fixed up her mane, and went downstairs to make breakfast.

Zipp then bounced on Misty's bed, saying, "C'mon, Misty!"

"Whoa!" Misty shouted, bouncing out from under her covers, the two of them starting to jump on the bed together, which was causing Misty to laugh.

"A new day has arrived!" Zipp said. She then flew off the bed towards Pipp's bed.

"Okay, Zipp!" Misty said, still laughing a little.

Pipp was still in bed, trying to drown out Zipp's sudden awakening. Zipp then said, "C'mon, sis. You can't still be tired already."

"Five more minutes, Zipp," Pipp said, her voice being muffled under the pillow.

"I thought you had something planned with Ruby Jubilee today," Zipp said. That got Pipp up and out of bed.

"Oh my hoofness!" Pipp said. "I completely forgot it was today! Gotta get ready! Fast!" She then flew out of the room towards the bathroom to get herself cleaned up.

Zipp then saw Izzy was still in bed. She then flew over towards Izzy's bed and said, "We can't forget about you, Izzy. Not after what happened with the whole 'Blockywockys' phase." She then uncovered Izzy's covers, only to find that Izzy wasn't there, but her dummy, Señor Butterscotch. "What the...? Señor Butterscotch?" Zipp then looked around in confusion. "Izzy?"

What Zipp didn't know was that Izzy was already downstairs, preparing herself breakfast. Sunny came down with a smile, trotting to the kitchen area.

"Izzy!" Sunny said. "You're up early."

"Oh, yeah!" Izzy said. "Well, for some reason, I woke up at 5:30 in the morning, and I just couldn't go back to sleep. So, in my spare time, I decided to make everypony breakfast!" She then used her magic to hover five plates of pancakes. Pipp, Zipp and Misty came down. Then they all started enjoying their breakfast.

"Let me make some fresh orange juice," Sunny said, walking over towards her juicer. She grabbed a bunch of oranges from a small crate and started juicing them. The juice from the oranges were being dispersed into glasses so she could hand them over to her friends.

Eventually, everypony there was finished with their breakfast and they all headed for the door.

"So, what's on everypony's agenda?" Zipp asked.

"Comet and I are working the smoothie stand at the Boardtrot," Sunny said.

"I got a lot of creative things to make there as well," Izzy said.

"I was thinking of going to the beach," Misty said.

"Okay, so Pipp's working on a project with Ruby Jubilee, Sunny and Izzy are working at the Boardtrot, and Misty's enjoying a beach day," Zipp said. She then sighed. "Oh, well. I guess I can see what Hitch is up to."

"You do that, Zipp," Sunny said.

"See ya girls later," Zipp said. Then she flew out the door towards. She then headed out the door.

Zipp flew towards town to meet up with Hitch at the Sheriff's station. She went inside.

"Hey, Hitch!" Zipp said. "What are you up to..." She then saw that Hitch was still asleep in his bed. Sparky was snuggled up to him. "Aw. That's cute." She then headed back out the station. She stood outside and said, "Maybe... maybe I should take a break from being a detective today." She then checked around to see that barely anypony was in town. She then said, "Perhaps a day at the beach would do me some good. Misty probably needs some company." She then trotted towards the beach.

Unbeknownst to her, coming in from in front of Canterlove Studios, Aaron and the Young 6 were checking out Maretime Bay from a distance.

"Huh," Aaron said. "That's weird. Not a lot of ponies are out, today."

"Did something terrible happen?" Ocellus asked.

"I'm not sure," Aaron said. "But for now, we can't take chances. Not everypony here has seen creatures that aren't ponies. Except for Sparky."

"So, we better stay out of sight," Sandbar said.

"Well, not you or Ocellus," Aaron said. "In her pony form."

"Good idea," Ocellus said. She then shapeshifted into her pony form. It also changed form to fit in with the current time. She then looked at herself. "Huh. That's weird."

"You might want to cover up the Cutie Mark on the left side," Aaron said.

"What do you mean?" Sandbar asked.

"The ponies of G5 have Cutie Marks only on their right flanks," Aaron said.

Sandbar and Ocellus looked at their flanks. Ocellus then changed again, making her Cutie Mark on her left flank vanish on that side. She then checked her right flank, seeing the mark on that was still there.

"Okay, I'm gonna have to hide that if somepony comes," Sandbar said. Then the seven of them started walking down the road towards the Brighthouse. Just then, the sound of a tram came in.

"Down this alley!" Aaron said. They all ran down to the alley behind of the Sheriff's Station before the local tram came up the road. As soon as it went past the alley, Aaron and the Young 6 came out with the stuff they packed. "That was close."

"Well, Aaron, should we keep going?" Gallus asked.

"Yona really worried Yona and friends get caught," Yona said.

"That's why we need to get to Sunny Starscout," Aaron said. "There's a high probability chance that... she's heard of us."

"Why would you think that?" Silverstream asked.

"He means if she has heard of Twilight and her friends, there's a good chance she'll know about us," Smolder said. "Let's get going." Then they all walked out of the alley and headed towards the front of the Sheriff's Station.

Aaron pointed down the road across the bay, saying, "If we take this road, we'll get a straight shot towards the Brighthouse."

"Well, let's get going," Smolder said. Then the seven of them started walking down the road towards the Brighthouse. Unbeknownst to them, about 15 seconds after they left, the doors to the Sheriff's Station opened up, and Sparky walked out, rubbing his right eye with his right hand, also holding his blanket in his left hand.

Sparky gurgled tiredly. He then yawned. And when he opened his eyes, he spotted Aaron and the Young 6 walking down the road. He looked at them confusedly. Without them seeing him, he followed Aaron and the Young 6 down the road.

Eventually, Aaron and the Young 6 were passing the path that leads to the beach. Aaron and the Young 6 looked towards down the path to see the beach.

"The beach," Aaron said. "Haven't seen that much of that. Only in a few episodes of Tell Your Tale, and the first Make Your Mark special."

"Perhaps we can check it out sometime," Sandbar said. "Especially Silverstream here."

"I would love to go swimming!" Silverstream said.

"C'mon," Smolder said. "Let's get going to the Brighthouse already." Then they continued walking towards the Brighthouse. Without any of them seeing him, Sparky ran towards the folding wagon and climbed into it, making sure no one saw him. Sparky was trying to keep quiet until Aaron and the Young 6 could get to the Brighthouse.

Eventually, Aaron and the Young 6 arrived at the Brighthouse. Ocellus changed back to her normal form. Aaron then said, "Let's check if someone's home before entering. Sandbar, Yona, stay here and watch our stuff." Sandbar and Yona nodded as the group put their stuff down. Aaron, Smolder, Gallus, Silverstream and Ocellus started flying around the Crystal Brighthouse. They checked every window to see if anypony was home. Ocellus wasn't just trying to find anypony with her sight, but with her smell as well. Eventually, all of them landed back at the front door.

"No sign of anyone," Gallus said. "I checked the upstairs bedroom and the top floor." He then thought of something. "There were a lot of stain-glass windows in the bedroom there."

"Yeah, four of them," Aaron said. "Sunny's had a sun, Izzy's had a crescent moon, Zipp's had a lightning bolt coming out of a cloud, and Pipp's had a star."

"I counted five," Gallus said.

"Five?" Aaron asked.

"Yeah," Gallus said. "There were three pictures on it. One was a unicorn head, one a teapot, and the big one has a butterfly."

"Butterfly?" Aaron asked. He then snapped his finger. "Misty."

"She must've moved in with the others after betraying Opaline," Smolder said.

Yona was looking at something that was parked in front of the Brighthouse. She pointed her cloven forehoof at it and asked, "What that thing?"

The rest of them looked towards what Yona was pointing at. She was pointing at the Marestream. Aaron then said, "Oh, that's the Marestream. It's the personal vehicle of the Mane 5." He then chuckled. "Better make that Mane 6 now that Misty's on the team."

"Oh, right," Gallus said. "New generation, new Mane 6."

"Anyway, it's a flying Mobile home," Aaron said. "It has has a small living room area-slash-kitchen, exterior dining area, driving area. But as far as I know from Bridlewoodstock, it doesn't have a bathroom."

"Why?" Sandbar asked. "Aren't mobile homes supposed to have bathrooms so the sleepers can bathe themselves?"

"Sandbar's right," Ocellus said. "Mobile homes are required to have bathrooms."

"C'mon, let's get inside and wait for them," Aaron said.

"Uh, Aaron, isn't that breaking and entering?" Gallus asked.

"Yeah, we could go to jail for that," Sandbar said.

"Make Your Mark, Chapter 4 episode 3: The Jinxie Games," Aaron said. "Misty was sent over to the Crystal Brighthouse to get Sparky, but Sunny, Hitch, Izzy, Pipp, Zipp and Sparky were all out of town that day. And they forgot to do one thing with the Crystal Brighthouse."

"What was that?" Silverstream asked.

Aaron then opened the Crystal Brighthouse doors and walked in. He then said, "They forgot to lock the door." The Young 6 looked at each other and followed Aaron inside, carrying the stuff they brought in. The Young 6 looked around at what was inside. To the left, they saw Izzy's Crafting Corner and a door to the basement. In the middle, they saw a living room area undernead a couple ramps that head to the upstairs bedroom. And to the right, there was the kitchen.

"Wow," Sandbar said. "This place is just as nice as your house, Aaron."

"So, where should we put our stuff?" Smolder asked.

"Into the basement," Aaron said. "Let's go."

Sparky, who was still hiding in the folding cart, was listening in on them. Sparky was getting a strange sensation with Aaron and Smolder. Almost... as if he knew who they were because of their voices.

Aaron opened the basement door and they all headed in. Aaron and Smolder went in front of the cart to keep the wagon from going down the ramp too fast.

"Whoa, Mama!" Smolder said. "This thing is heavy."

"Just keep it steady, Smolder," Aaron said. "We just gotta put it down here until Sunny and her friends come back here." They eventually got it down to the flat part of the basement and left the wagon out in the middle of the basement. "Alright, let's get back upstairs."

Smolder nodded. Then she and Aaron started walking back towards the bottom of the ramp. But something grabbed the end of Smolder's tail. She then asked, "Huh?" She looked back at her tails and saw that something was inside the wagon, pulling on her tail. "Uh, Aaron, I think we got a stowaway."

Aaron looked at the wagon. He then reached into the cart and pulled what was grabbing Smolder's tail. He couldn't believe what he grabbed. Or rather, who.

Sparky laughed at the two dragons in the room. Aaron then said, "Sparky?!"

"Oh, no," Smolder said. "That's not good." She then ran up the ramp, Aaron following her, taking Sparky with him. "Guys, we got a problem!" Sandbar, Gallus, Ocellus, Silverstream and Yona looked towards the two dragons, seeing they had Sparky.

"Who is that?!" Sandbar asked.

"Guys, this is Sparky," Aaron said. "He's... well, he's basically the Spike of the new Mane 6. And... well, legally, he's Hitch's adopted son."

"Uh oh," the Young 6 all said in unison.

Back at the Sheriff's Station, Hitch was finally waking up. He yawned while stretching his forelegs. He then rubbed his right eye with a foreleg.

"Morning, Sparky," Hitch said. "Time to..." He then looked down to see where Sparky was sleeping with him the previous night, but he was not there. Then he looked at the cabinet where Sparky's bed was. He wasn't there either. "Sparky? Sparky?!" He was starting to panic. He then put a hoof to his chest and started breathing nice and slow. "You know what, it's fine. It's not like... he could've been... taken to Allura or something. He's fine. Totally fine. Perhaps I should... text the others to see if they seen him." He then went over to his desk, grabbed his cell phone, and started texting his friends.

Where the others were, their phones and Izzy's tablet were receiving the group text from Hitch. They all went over to check the message to see what it said. All of them gasped. Then they all headed away from where they were, Sunny leaving Comet at the Smoothie Stand at the Boardtrot, and Pipp leaving Ruby Jubilee with Rocky and Jazz at Mane Melody.

Eventually, all of them arrived at the Sheriff's Station with panicked looks. Sunny then said, "We checked all over town for Sparky. There was no sign of him anywhere."

"I even checked the cave where Allura is living," Zipp said. "It's still sealed up."

"Sparky could still be captured inside," Hitch said. "Allura has those mind control powers of hers."

"No, no," Zipp said. "I checked." She then brought out her phone. It was showing footage of the drone going inside of the cave through a hole over the cave. It was the same cave that Misty had trapped Pipp and Zipp in after they were getting to curious about Opaline. The footage of the drone looked around the cave, but there was no sign of Sparky. But it did catch Twitch. But then, the footage caught Allura coming into view of the drone camera. Then ice started filling the sides of the camera view. Then it lost connection.

"Yikes," Hitch said. "Is it me, or is Allura getting scarier every time?"

"I agree with you, Hitch," Misty said. "But right now, we need to focus on finding Sparky."

"Well, we looked everywhere in town except for the Brighthouse," Zipp said.

"Okay, yeah," Misty said. "When I was still working for Opaline, the first time I tried getting him, he ran away from me, and he ran straight for the Brighthouse."

"Why would he go to the Brighthouse?" Sunny asked.

"Maybe it's because he trusted you all before I became an official part of the group," Misty said.

"That's a good point," Hitch said. "Alright. Let's get to the Brighthouse." Then they all headed out the door and started running as fast as they could to the Crystal Brighthouse.

Aaron was trying to pull Sparky off of Smolder's tail. Sparky thought it was a game.

"Sparky. Sparky, let go of Smolder's tail," Aaron said. Sparky then let go, and both of them landed on the couch. Sparky laughed at that and snuggled up to him. "Uhhhh... Is there something we don't know?"

"Well, we don't know much about what happened between now and when Sparky was taken to Opaline's castle by Misty to now," Smolder said. "We're gonna need some answers. Soon."

"Guys!" came Ocellus's voice. The three dragons looked towards Ocellus, who was looking out the door. "I see ponies coming."

"How many?" Aaron asked.

"Six ponies," Ocellus said. "Five mares and a stallion."

"Is one of the mares orange with a purple mane?" Smolder asked.

"Yeah," Ocellus asked.

"It's them," Aaron said. "Alright, everyone upstairs." Then the Young 6 headed upstairs. Aaron then put Sparky down on the couch, leaving him there. Just then, the new Mane 6 came up to the Brighthouse, seeing the front door wide open.

"Okay, who forgot to lock the door?" Sunny asked.

"Sorry, that was my bad," Pipp said. "I was the last one out. I was in a rush to get to Mane Melody, and I forgot to lock the door."

"Sparky!" Hitch called out. Sparky then looked towards the door, happily. He then jumped off the couch and ran towards Hitch. He then tackled Hitch with a hug. "Whoa! Careful, buddy!" He then hugged Sparky. "Don't scare me like that ever again."

"Uh, guys," Zipp said, looking down at the ground. On the ground, there was a large, blue feather. Zipp picked it up and inspected it. "I think somepony was here. More likely a Pegasus."

The group looked at the feather. Sunny then said, "Do we even know any pegasi with this type of blue feather?"

"Um, I know all the pegasi with blue feathers, but none of them were this long," Pipp said. "Not even the members of Electric Blue."

Zipp then put on her Z-Goggles and scanned the feather. She was looking through every database about any possible match of who's feather it was. But, it came up zilch.

"Nothing," Zipp said. "I can't find a pegasus match of who's feather it could be." She then noticed something. "Wait a minute. This... this isn't a pegasus feather."

"It's not?" Hitch asked. "What kind of feather is it?" Sparky then jumped out of Hitch's hold and ran up the ramp to the upstairs area. "Sparky! Wait!" He was about to chase Sparky up the ramp, but then he gasped at what he saw upstairs. "What the heck?! Who or what are those guys?!" The five mares looked up and they gasped at who they saw. They saw Aaron and the Young 6 at the top of the ramp. Sparky had jumped up onto Smolder's torso.

"Sunny Starscout, Hitch Trailblazer, Zipp Storm, Pipp Petals, Izzy Moonbow and Misty Brightdawn," Aaron said. "A pleasure to meet you."

The new Mane 6 looked up there with shocked expressions. Sunny then got confused and inspected them. She then said, "You all... look... familiar."

"Then that probably means you might have heard of us," Aaron said. "My name is Aaron Blazer. These are my friends." The Young 6 nodded when their names were said. "Sandbar. Gallus. Smolder. Yona. Silverstream. And Ocellus. And we need your help."

Author's Note

Okay, Aaron and the Young 6 have officially met the new Mane 6. And it seems that Sparky has some kind of special connection with Aaron and Smolder. This is going to be very interesting, wouldn't you say?