The New Six

Part 1

Flurry Heart has always loved her parents, and her parents have always loved her too. And that was great! But perhaps they loved her a little..too much? Not that Flurry Heart didn’t appreciate it; Not at all! But sometimes she thought they could be… a bit much? Overbearing? Too omnipresent? A teensy weensy eensy bit sanity-draining?

Flurry Heart could barely remember a time that she’d left her parents’ sights for any extended period of time. Every day was the same. Wake up, be forced to follow her parents on their daily activities (yawn), go to bed. Repeat. Over and over again for the past 14 years.

It was like they didn’t trust her to do anything, and the sad part was that they had a pretty good reason not to. The most important thing Flurry Heart had ever done was blow up the Crystal Heart– a magical artifact keeping the Crystal Empire from being engulfed in an eternal snowstorm and freezing everypony to death. And that outcome might’ve come about had it not been for the Elements of Harmony, Sunburst, Flurry Heart's parents, Celestia, and Luna. Even from birth, she’s been a massive inconvenience to many of the most powerful ponies in Equestria. And how was she repaid? With unending love and adoration! WHY???? And the cherry on top? She was born an alicorn– a role historically only magically bestowed (somehow) once somepony does something that truly makes them worthy of the power. Flurry Heart was a fraud who had never worked for any of the wonderful benefits she was given and it drove her CRAZY. It’s practically insulting to be so unendingly praised when you’ve done literally nothing to deserve it, and Flurry Heart has lived that feeling for her entire life.

But that was all going to change soon! The moment Flurry Heart was old enough (actually even before she was old enough), she begged her parents to let her go to Twilight’s school of friendship. Did she already have plenty of 'friends'? Sure, but she got the feeling they weren’t really her friends. She hadn’t earned their respect in any way other than being born powerful and rich, and that made her relationships feel fake, which was not fun.

It took a while, but she eventually broke her parents, and they agreed to let her go to the school of friendship. It was the BEST DAY EVER, at least until she got to actually go to Ponyville, and then it was the BEST DAY EVER each time it got a day closer to the opening of the school, which would be the BEST BEST DAY EVER!

Flurry Heart had rode on the train to Ponyville yesterday with her parents in tow. When they’d gotten there, she’d met “Cheerilee” (Flurry Heart could tell they were a changeling because they got Cheerilee’s color 3% wrong, and if they were rookie enough to make that mistake then they were probably young, and if they were young then they were probably going to the friendship school, and if they were going to the school then that was SO EXCITING BECAUSE SHE WAS GOING TO THE SCHOOL TOO!!!) and even better was that this changeling DIDN’T KNOW WHO FLURRY HEART WAS OR CARE AT ALL! This changeling– whoever they were– was the perfect chance to befriend somepony for real– not just because of her status!

That was the problem, though. Flurry Heart didn’t know who that changeling was. They’d, well, been disguised. Obviously. Flurry Heart paces in one of the guest rooms at the friendship castle. She was staying here for the last few days before the friendship school opened. Her parents, Cadance and Shining Armor, had to leave for the Crystal Empire as soon as they finished unpacking Flurry Heart’s stuff, because they had diplomatic mumbo jumbo to deal with, and yesterday had been one of the last days they’d be free to drop her off before school started. She was here with Starlight Glimmer, who was somewhere. That wasn’t important right now, though. She was trying to deduce who the Changeling she’d met was.

Flurry Heart has met quite a few Changelings in her time, or at least had a lot of Changelings meet her when she was dragged along to meetings involving them, which occasionally happened at the Changeling hive. That’d mean she’d have to have met most Changelings in some capacity, so who was this strange Changeling she’d met yesterday that didn’t know her? It was weird. And exciting! She ponders. She paces more. Maybe this changeling lived in Ponyville? It’d be a little strange– most Changelings she knew were plenty happy to live in the hive– but it was plausible. If they lived here, then maybe Flurry Heart could ask around for a lead.

The most logical starting point would be Starlight Glimmer. She’s lived in Ponyville for several years and was right here in the castle! Flurry Heart makes her way out of her room. She wasn’t sure exactly where Starlight would be, but she figures the best places to start would be the study or the library. As she’s thinking this, Starlight walks past, her face buried in a book simply titled ‘Genetics: A Study’, and accidentally bumps into Flurry Heart.

“Watch out, I’m busy.” Starlight says absent-mindedly, continuing to walk past while reading. Well okay, a little bit rude, but she was clearly preoccupied. Probably with something important. Time for a plan B.

Flurry Heart knew there was a post office in town. If anypony knew where to find somepony in Ponyville, surely it’d be someone working there! She skips out of the castle, figuring Starlight wouldn’t miss her on her little adventure. She prances down the streets, doing her best to ignore the looks she gets from passersby. It takes a little bit of searching because she’s never actually been to the post office in Ponyville before, but she finds it eventually. She walks in to find it conveniently empty. Flurry Heart strolls up to the counter, behind which is a light gray pegasus with messy blonde mane and a gaze that appears to be looking in two different directions. She’s reading(?) a magazine of some kind and doesn’t appear to notice Flurry Heart.

“...ahem!” Flurry Heart clears her throat to get the pony’s attention.

“Hm?” She looks up from her magazine. “Oh. Hi..!” She says happily.

“Hi! I was wondering if you could check something for me?” Flurry Heart asks politely.

“Sure..!” The Pegasus says slowly.

“I was hoping you'd be able to tell me if any changelings live in Ponyville!” Flurry Heart says.

“Oh. Ummmmm…” the pony looks around a little confused, before finding a parchment of some kind under the counter. She reads(?) over it, squinting as she scrolls down what Flurry Heart presumes is a list of names and addresses.
“I don't see any deliveries to a changeling in Ponyville…so I don't think so..!” The Pegasus declares. Flurry Heart sighs. Seems like she needs a plan C. She hadn't quite thought this far. The pony behind the counter seems to notice her disheartenment. “Muffin..?” She inquires, pulling up a basket of them.

“Ooh, yes please, thank you!” Flurry Heart says, taking a muffin.

Flurry Heart steps out of the post office. It was time for a new course of action. The post office pony had only said that no packages had been delivered to a changeling in Ponyville– not that there necessarily wasn't a changeling in Ponyville. She also seemed to not know of any changelings in Ponyville period, but (not to be rude to the pony) she didn't seem like the most… cognizant… of individuals.

Hmm… if the changeling is as young as Flurry Heart expects, they might go to the normal non-friendship school in town. After all, they'd been disguised as Cheerilee the other day– the teacher at said school! It'd make sense for the changeling to disguise as a pony they see often, which could be Cheerilee!

…Unfortunately, it occurs to Flurry Heart that Cheerilee was probably busy teaching a class right now. It'd be rude to barge in and interrogate her about her students. Maybe she could just…spy on them. Not in a creepy way, though! Just long enough to see if any of the children appear to be changelings!! Totally normal behavior from a princess!!!

…

Oh, who was she kidding; that'd be pretty weird, especially for a princess. The last thing she wants to do is get in trouble as soon as her parents finally trusted her enough to be alone for longer than absolutely necessary. She was NOT going to mess up her chance to be in the friendship school for something as trivial as this. She could just… be patient. Yup. Totally patient. Patience extraordinaire, that was Flurry Heart.

…

Oh, who was she kidding?

Part 2

So spying was off the table, and sitting and waiting patiently for Cheerilee to finish teaching was too, but the only thing Flurry Heart wanted to do right now was try and figure out who that changeling was, and she was fresh out of ideas.

Maybe she could find some way to pass the time by doing other stuff! Flurry Heart was sure she could find somepony in town that she knew and had something she could do with them.

The first pony who came to mind when Flurry Heart thought of ‘fun’ was Pinkie Pie! She trots across town to the well-known Ponyville bakery. Flurry Heart had fond memories of playing games with the excitable pink element of harmony whenever Flurry Heart had been over for Hearthswarming with her parents. When she steps through the door of the bakery, though, she's surprised to see not Pinkie Pie, nor Mrs. Or Mr. Cake, but a sorta yellow colored unicorn with an orange mane. Flurry Heart thinks she recognizes her though… oh right, Pumpkin Cake! She'd seen her a few times while they were both babies.

Pumpkin Cake sees Flurry Heart as she comes in, and a flash of recognition crosses the unicorn’s face. “O-oh! Hello, princess!” She starts, trying to quickly bow but evidently forgetting she's standing behind a counter as she bonks her chin on it. “Ow.” She says, backing up before bowing again.

“You don't have to do that, by the way.” Flurry Heart says, eyebrow raised as she comes up to the counter. Pumpkin Cake rises nervously.

“What can I get you, your highness?” She asks, looking around almost a little frantically. “I hadn't been planning for this oh no we don't have any special desserts at the moment..!” She whispers harshly to herself.

“No, no, no! It's fine! I'm not here for any desserts!” Flurry Heart scrambles to save this unicorn from having a panic attack. Pumpkin Cake stops hyperventilating.

“O-Okay…What did you need?” Pumpkin Cake asks.

“I was just wondering if you could tell me where Pinkie Pie is?” Flurry Heart questions. Pumpkin Cake starts hyperventilating again. “No, NO it's fine if you don't know where she is! Stop panicking!”

Pumpkin Cake does not stop panicking.

Flurry Heart leaves. Flurry Heart sighs. This was the problem with being a princess. It was so hard to have a normal conversation with a normal pony! Nopony acted NORMAL when she was around. If only she were a changeling, then she could look like anypony and not have to worry about them FREAKING OUT. Whatever, Pinkie Pie wasn't the only pony Flurry Heart could try and find.

Unfortunately for Flurry Heart though, Pinkie Pie would not be the only pony apparently busy today. Fluttershy was busy tending to the animals at Sweetfeather Sanctuary. Rainbow Dash was flying with the Wonderbolts. Rarity was showcasing a new clothing line at her Canterlot boutique. Applejack was taking over her brother's chores for the day since he had something he'd be busy with later, and Twilight was, well, currently being a princess and also in Canterlot. Siiiiggghhh. Today was supposed to be the best day ever, but so far, it wasn't very different from a normal day.

Flurry Heart looks up at the sun. It wasn't even close to school being out yet. It'd barely been two hours since she’d had the idea to spy on the school. Her stomach grumbles. Yikes. It'd also been 2 hours since the muffin, which was all she'd eaten today. Flurry Heart briefly considers buying a meal, but she was worried her existence would make somepony faint if they were tasked with serving her food. She'd probably be better off finding something at the castle. Flurry Heart slinks sullenly back to the castle, still ignoring the sidelong glances she gets from other ponies. Once back inside, she makes her way to the kitchen.

Flurry Heart had never really cooked for herself before, but it couldn't be that hard– at least to make something simple. Flurry Heart opens the pantry and has to dive out of the way as a dozen bags fall out towards her. “Eep!” she squeaks, turning back to see what had fallen out. She looks incredulously at the pantry, seeing that it is filled to the brim almost solely with junk food– most notably bags of potato chips. Evidently, Starlight didn’t do a ton of cooking either. Or at least not under the pressure of a new school year starting. If only Starlight weren’t still busy; Maybe she could, like, magically transmute these chips into something a little more nutritious…or maybe Flurry Heart was just being a needy little princess.

She struggles, but eventually succeeds in stuffing the fallen chip bags back in the pantry, keeping one for herself. She opens it, levitating a chip into her mouth. Crunch. Hm. Credit where it was due, they were pretty tasty. Flurry Heart looks idly around the kitchen, bored, and drops the chip bag in shock when she sees… it.

She darts towards it excitedly. She’d only heard rumors of their existence… It was a… Freeze Box!

Flurry Heart had heard about the development of these things. They were surprisingly fascinating! Their purpose was for storing objects (usually food), and the time stasis spell inside would keep whatever it was from decaying/ going bad! They were still quite rare, as the only maker of them was Star Swirl himself with his impressive time manipulation capabilities, and the Freeze Box was still a bit of a prototype. They were quite small so that you couldn’t accidentally stuff yourself inside and freeze yourself in time, but they were certainly still incredibly handy tools! Flurry Heart opens it, and her expression drops as she sees there are just more chips inside. She tries not to roll her eyes at Starlight, wherever in the castle she is.

But wait, there’s something in here that isn’t chips! Flurry Heart leans in to read the label on the small glass bottle filled with some kind of orange substance. It reads ‘Zecora Potion: SAVE FOR LATER!’.

Zecora… where had Flurry Heart heard that name before? She thought on it for a moment, before it came back to her. That was right! Zecora lived out in the Everfree forest in her own hut and made, like, neat potions and things! Flurry Heart had heard a hoof-full of stories about her during her trips here.

Suddenly, an idea comes to Flurry Heart. What if she visits Zecora? If the stories she’d heard were true, it sounded like Zecora could whip up many different kinds of potions. Maybe she could make some kind of disguise potion or something for Flurry Heart! Then she could eavesdrop on the school and/ or get food besides potato chips and it would be significantly less of a hassle for her! All she has to do is get to Zecora. How hard could it be?

…At least that’s what she’d thought before she found herself standing in front of the Everfree forest. Even during midday, it was eerily dark in there. Flurry Heart steels herself. She’d been faced with existential threats like King Sombra before. No forest was going to scare her away from finding her new would-be friend! She runs into the forest, determined.

While she’d been back at the friendship castle, she’d gathered some supplies for the trip. She was aware that the Everfree forest could be dangerous, so she brought all the essentials: A bag of chips (sustenance), The thickest/ heaviest book from the library that Flurry Heart could lift (weapon for dire circumstances), and a saddlebag to carry them in. She’d also left a note for Starlight in her room telling her where she’d gone just in case. Anything else she would need could surely be accomplished by her wings and horn, right?

At the moment, Flurry Heart was following a makeshift path of sorts through the woods. She assumes it leads towards Zecora’s hut, because she doesn't know why else there would be a random path into this dangerous area.

Despite the presence of the path, it was still remarkably overgrown, and Flurry Heart is constantly having to push past undergrowth to progress. There was nothing like this back at home. Maybe that should have made her more scared, but it only made her more excited to continue.

After an indefinite amount of time, she comes to a clearing with a pond in the middle. Flurry Heart stops to look in the water, seeing her reflection. She contemplates making a funny face, but whips around when she hears a branch snap behind her. However, she doesn’t see anything out of the ordinary… except a hut in the distance! She found it!

Flurry Heart sprints towards the hut, screeching to a halt at the front door, before politely knocking thrice. She hears hoofsteps approaching from the other side of the door, before it swings open, and a white and black striped head pokes out.

Zecora’s eyebrows raise as she sees Flurry Heart. “I’m not sure I believe my eyes; This is quite the royal surprise!” Zecora remarks. Flurry Heart beams.

“Can I come in?” She asks.

“You may step inside, my dear. I’m sure you’ve a query I’d like to hear.” Zecora ushers Flurry Heart inside the hut. Flurry Heart gazes around in awe at the interior. The walls are adorned with colorful masks, and there are many shelves stocked to the brim with all manner of strange ingredients. A large cauldron bubbles in the center of the hut, and Zecora goes to stand beside it.

“Um, alright, so I don’t know if this is a weird thing to ask for, but I was wondering if you could make some kind of potion to change my appearance for the day or something?” Flurry Heart stammers out, suddenly realizing the slight absurdity of her request. “I'd like other ponies to just act normally around me.” Flurry Heart looks down a little sheepishly. Zecora smirks knowingly.

“Being treated differently? With that I can sympathize. Perhaps I can brew you a potion of disguise.” Zecora begins to pick out ingredients from the shelves. Flurry Heart couldn't begin to name any of them, but Zecora seems to look them over with a well-trained eye. Over the course of a few minutes, she adds the ingredients to the cauldron in the center of the hut, stirring it expertly. Flurry Heart watches with fascination as it bubbles, colorful smoke rising from the cauldron and tinting the room with different colored hues. Eventually, Zecora dips a sort of ladle inside, scooping out a bit of the potion and pouring it into a small vial, which she then corks.

Flurry Heart reaches for the potion, but Zecora stops her. “You shouldn't drink potions willy-nilly, unless you're feelingly foolishly silly.” Zecora chides. Whoops. Flurry Heart retracts her hooves to her sides. “If you wish to achieve the desired effect, then listen and heed as I direct.” Zecora instructs. Flurry Heart sits down, listening intently. “This potion here has quite the power. When drunk, it lasts for but one hour. Just think of how you want to look, and a new appearance you will have took. But do be careful while it's in the bottle, for this brew you may have to coddle. If shaken and too well mixed, I fear that its effects will… disappear.” Zecora explains through rhyme.

“...So I just need to avoid jostling the potion around too much, and when I drink it, I think of what I want to look like and that's what I'll become for an hour?” Flurry Heart asks. Zecora nods, smiling. She passes the potion to Flurry Heart, who carefully tucks it in her saddle bag. “Thank you, Zecora!” Flurry Heart says gleefully. Zecora begins to speak up again as Flurry Heart excitedly trots for the door.

“When you leave, I advise you to be cautious and limber, for you may just encounter…” Zecora trails off, as Flurry Heart has already left, eager to try out the potion when she gets back to Ponyville.

“...Wolves of timber.” She finishes, mildly annoyed, though Flurry Heart is already too far away to hear her.

Flurry Heart travels back down the path she'd followed to get to the hut, humming happily to herself. In her jolly mood, she fails to notice the glowing green eyes watching her from the foliage as she gets farther from Zecora’s hut. Flurry Heart is startled out of her joyous state as a loud, almost whistling howl sounds from behind her. A chill creeps down her spine as she turns, seeing a large timber wolf behind her.

There's one, but then another emerges from the undergrowth, and then another one. Panic time. Flurry Heart runs in the opposite direction, and the timberwolves give chase. Suddenly, Flurry Heart remembers the potion and tries to slow down so as not to mix it around, but then she also re-remembers THE GIANT WOODEN WOLVES CURRENTLY CHASING HER and teleports forward a few pony lengths, narrowly avoiding getting her rear bitten off as the timber wolf directly behind her snaps its jaws around where she'd only just been.

Flurry Heart runs into a clearing, able to see the open sky. That's it! She teleports up out of reach of the timberwolves, hovering above the clearing with her wings. Below her, the timberwolves growl, looking up at her. She turns away, trying to survey the forest from above to see if she can figure out where she is. However, while she's distracted, the timberwolves begin to combine their mass, shifting and combining into each other to become much larger. Flurry Heart doesn't immediately notice, instead now preoccupied with checking on the potion to make sure it wasn't too mixed. It still looked the same, right?

Flurry Heart turns back around just in time to see the dire timber wolf lunging at her from the ground. Her eyes widen in surprise and fear, and she barely has time to make a magical shield before it's impacted by the heavy wooden claws of the beast. Flurry Heart is sent flying, though mostly unharmed because of the shield, landing on the ground and sliding through the mud at the edge of a bog.

Beside her, the potion lands, smashing on the ground. Okay, now this so-called dire timber wolf had made her mad. It begins to charge at Flurry Heart again, but she stands her ground, firing a powerful beam of pink and yellow energy at the beast from her horn. It hits, but the creature doesn't seem fazed by the blast at all as it penetrates through its midsection, before simply beginning to regrow back.

Okay, so now this dire timber wolf had made her VERY scared. It was closing it fast, but now Flurry Heart needs a plan B and OH CRAP THERE'S NO TIME–

Flurry Heart scrambles backwards, turning to run as the dire timber wolf descends on her. Miraculously, as the monster attempts to bite down on her, it instead gets its fangs lodged in the big dumb heavy book she'd been carrying in her saddlebag. Flurry Heart wriggles away, once again teleporting up and trying to fly away, but the dire timber wolf bounds towards her, catching her by the tail with its claws and sending her crashing to the muddy ground.
Flurry Heart twists onto her back, blasting the thing with her magic several more times as it pins her down, but it's no use. She's trapped and too exhausted to muster the energy to teleport again. The dire timber wolf, seemingly sensing its victory, slowly opens its jaws, relishing in Flurry Heart's weakening struggles as it inches its gaping mouth towards her. Was this the end?

Suddenly, a purple blur steaks by overhead. The giant timber wolf’s ears twitch, and it looks up warily. From Flurry Heart's angle, she sees a figure diving directly towards them both. It rears back, before exhaling a large plume of swirling green fire at the timber wolf.

It howls in pain, its body combusting. It breaks apart into several smaller timberwolves again, which all run away, whimpering and smoldering.

“FLURRY!” The newcomer yells with concern as he lands, and Flurry Heart finds herself staring up at Spike the dragon. “Are you hur- OOF–!” he grunts as Flurry Heart abruptly pulls him into a tight hug.

“That…was… AWESOME!!!” Flurry Heart exclaims with none of the fear that should be normal for having just experienced a life-threatening scenario, pulling back from the hug and flying up to shake Spike by the shoulders excitedly.

“IiIi’LlL tAaAke thAaAaAt aAs a nOoOo–” Spike says as he's being shaken violently by Flurry Heart.

“How did you do all that??” Flurry Heart asks with wonder in her eyes.

“Well, being the assistant of the princess has its perks,” Spike says, scratching the back of his head as he looks away, grinning. “I've been getting combat lessons from Princess Ember!” he beams, crossing his arms proudly.

“Woooaah.” Flurry Heart gawks. “So what are you doing all the way out here?” She asks.

“I could actually ask you the same thing, but uhh,” Spike says, looking around at his surroundings. “Why don't you hold that thought until we're out of the Everfree forest? C’mon, I'll lead you back to Ponyville.”

Flurry Heart breathes a sigh of relief as she finally steps back into civilization. “Okay, now that we’re back in Ponyville, why were you in the Everfree Forest?” Flurry Heart asks Spike.

“Oh, I was heading to Ponyville for my weekly game of Ogres and Oubliettes with my friends!” He explains, pulling a pack off his back and opening it to reveal the scattered pieces of some kind of.. board game(?) inside. He returns it to his back. "I had something to deliver to the Treehouse of Harmony first though, which is why I was above the Everfree Forest. I probably wouldn’t have known you were in danger if I hadn’t seen the giant yellow-pink energy beams rocketing into the sky.” He says. “Speaking of which… you’d better have a good explanation for wandering into the Everfree forest on your own.” He says, his tone becoming a little harsher as he plants his claws on his hips.

Uh oh. Despite her best efforts, Flurry Heart was about to get in trouble, wasn’t she? "PLEASE DON’T TELL MY PARENTS!!” She pleads. “They barely trusted me enough to come here as is! If I got in trouble, they might un-enroll me from the friendship school!”

“Still waiting for your explanation first.” Spike says, looking slightly unimpressed. Flurry Heart proceeds to exposit everything that happened today, and how she needed this freedom from her parents to make a new friend or she’d go CRAZY. When she finishes, Spike seems deep in thought.

“...Well?” Flurry Heart asks worriedly.

“...I can relate to how it feels being dragged around by a princess,” Spike admits. “I love Twilight a lot, but it certainly gets boring sometimes being her assistant. That’s why I’m here, honestly– I need a break every once in a while.” He looks over at Flurry Heart. “It sounds like you don’t get breaks much though. I mean, you don’t seem even a little traumatized by almost being eaten and that says a LOT.” He sighs. He contemplates. He sighs again. “Alright, I won’t tell anypony, but you gotta promise to be more careful, alright? Definitely no more doing obviously dangerous stuff– ESPECIALLY without anypony watching your back!” He points a claw at her.

“Oh, thank you!!” Flurry Heart hugs Spike again.

“Urk–!” He gasps at the sudden force. He peels Flurry Heart off of him with some effort.

“Alright, well I have to get to Starlight's castle to meet the other players, and I think it’s about time you got back to the castle too.” Spike begins to walk. “Oh wait, that reminds me. Couldn’t you have asked–” He’s cut off as a flash of teal light appears, leaving a frantic Starlight Glimmer in its wake.

“FLURRY HEART!??” She calls out, panic written on her face. She turns, seeing Flurry Heart and Spike standing just about a stones’ toss away. “Oh, thank Celestia.” She sighs, looking faint. She trots up to Flurry Heart, looking her over for injuries and dusting some of the dried mud off her. “I'm so sorry I brushed you off this morning. I got unnecessarily distracted with a project and kind of forgot I was supposed to be taking care of you.” Starlight laments, looking down shamefully.

“It's alright!” Flurry Heart says cheerfully.

“It's really not!” Starlight quickly retorts, a bit manically. “Mostly because I care about you, but also if your parents knew I let you wander into the Everfree Forest unsupervised and probably almost get eaten by something, I'd likely be locked in a dungeon for eternity or something.” She says ruefully.

“...I wasn’t unsupervised… I uh, was… being watched by Spike!” Flurry Heart lies. Starlight blinks at her, and then squints, before looking at Spike for confirmation of the story.

“Uhh.. Yeah! I was watching her!” He lies too.

“I can tell you’re both lying.” Starlight says, unimpressed. “But if you two weren’t planning on telling Cadance and Shining Armor either, then that’s fine by me, too!” She says, a little manic again. Flurry Heart giggles. Wait a minute. She looks at the sky. It's already sundown.

“Oh no!” She exclaims suddenly.

“What is it?” Spike and Starlight ask simultaneously.

“...I forgot to spy on the school for the young changeling that I think lives here in Ponyville because I met them yesterday and want to be friends but they were disguised so I don't know who they are.” Flurry Heart says in a small voice.

“Oh, are you talking about Chimney Cricket? She's a half-changeling living in Ponyville right now, and she's going to the friendship school.” Starlight explains. Flurry Heart's ears perk. Chimney Cricket, huh? “You know, I'm the Headmare of the school,” Starlight says. “You could've just ask–” She stops as Flurry Heart makes a pouty face at her. “Right, yeah, sorry. Again.” Starlight looks away sheepishly.

With that, the trio begins to walk back to the Friendship Castle. Even though today had been hectic and dangerous and a bit scary, it had also been awesome and a wonderful break from the monotony of life in the Crystal Empire for Flurry Heart. As it stood though, she was very tired from running around all day. Grumble. And also hungry. The bag of chips had unsurprisingly failed to satiate her. She couldn’t wait to, like, eat something. And then curl up in bed with her Whammy. But most importantly, she couldn’t wait until the friendship school opened in a few days! It was going to be awesome, and she was going to befriend whoever Chimney Cricket was.

And when she did, it was going to be the best day ever.