Talent Trouble

Chapters

Prologue: Xanth
Chapter One: Equestria?
Chapter Two: Magic
Chapter Three: Talent

Prologue: Xanth

Ben Eve Maya

(Not necessarily to scale.)

Eve's nose was suddenly very itchy. Or tingly. Or...or whatever you call it when you know you're about to sneeze. Her eyes widened. "I - I'm gonna..."

Her words were cut off by a sharp "A-CHOO!" as Ben grabbed her hand at the last second -

and the two of them disappeared from the outskirts of the woods, where they had been looking for more talentweed. It didn’t grow in the winter, so they had to make sure to get extra in the fall, so Mom could dry it. When the dizziness wore off, they found themselves deep in a forest. Eve blinked quickly several times in succession to clear away the last remnants of disorientation, her younger brother shaking his head for the same reason. She sat down under a Pome Tree, her brother joining her; they rested there for a while, relaxing in the relief its shade provided from the summer heat. "So...d'you think we're above or below the Gap Chasm this time?" she speculated.

If they were above, that was good, because they wouldn’t have to cross it to get back to North Village. If they were below… She shuddered. She and her brother might be brave and adventurous and all, but that didn’t mean they wanted to face the steaming, ferocious Gap Dragon.

"Above," he answered easily.

She grinned mischievously; as she cocked her head, her hair fell in her face to cover an eye. "You wanna bet on that?" she challenged.

Confidently meeting her gaze, he returned the sly smile. "Tonight's dessert."

"You're on," she affirmed.

Of course, Eve could always just teleport to their home in North Village, but that meant giving up at least an day's worth of adventure. Her talent was easy to control, unlike her brother's - which could never be turned off - but she could only go somewhere entirely random if she sneezed, and you couldn't really make yourself sneeze. So when she did, and Ben managed to make contact with her by the time it happened, they wouldn't turn down a priceless opportunity to be completely lost, and have to find their way back through exploration. 'Course, it would only be OK if Ben had -

"Ben?" she asked, brows furrowed in sudden worry.

"Uh-huh?" Her brother turned to face her.

"Do you have your talentweed pouch?" The dried herb inside was vital if they wanted to prevent his talent from re-manifesting, which would be a disaster.

He frowned. "I think so...Let me check."

Glancing at the belt loop where the pouch normally hung from, the nine-year-old's eyes widened. "I don't have it..." He turned to Eve. "I know I had it when we left,” he frowned.

Eve sighed. "Well, we should probably go home. We don’t want to stay out too long and have it wear off, and you know how mad Dad gets if he catches you without any talentweed…”

“Yeah, well, we can explore until it starts getting dark, and then go back. I’ve started taking it in the mornings instead of at night, so we don’t have to worry about it wearing off any time today,” he argued. “And besides, you know that Dad’s away right now.”

His sister shrugged. “I guess…”

Ben grinned. “That’s settled, then. We keep exploring, and then –”

His sentence was cut off by a yelp as he recoiled from a falling pomegranite from the tree above. The two stared at the stone fruit for a couple seconds, until Eve broke the silence. “That was close…” she said shakily.

Her brother nodded slowly, eyes wide. “Yeah…” He blinked. “Hey, I’m hungry. Wanna find something to eat?”

“Sure,” Eve replied.

The two rose and stretched, looking around. “Nothing here, ‘side from that pomegranite, but those are always way too seedy,” Ben commented.

“Well, yeah, they’re too seedy, the parts that aren’t rock are nothing but seeds. Well, I guess we’ll have to go looking.”

They picked a direction and began walking. As they cleared a path for themselves, they began noticing that the flora and fauna were starting to get larger, and looked a bit strange. A growling dandelion actually had paws instead of leaves, and there was a Holey Cow so full of holes you could barely see it. Ben frowned. “What’s with the weirdness?”

Eve shrugged. “Maybe there’s more magic here, or something?”

“I guess.”

As they wandered, they could tell that the magic was getting even stronger, if that was what it was. A swarm of fris-bees, spinning from flower to flower, were large enough to hold in your hand comfortably, as opposed to their normally tiny stature. For some reason, the pairs on the pair tree weren’t in pairs, but were hanging in groups of four instead. Eve tried to pick a pair of pairs, but she couldn’t pull it off the tree unless she picked all four at once, which was what normally happened when you tried to only pick one of the green fruit instead of both. And a soda tree, when punctured, spurted out a blast of frothing cherry soda instead of just pouring out, like what would happen if an ogre or invisible giant picked it up and shook it really hard. But that hadn’t happened to this one, as evidenced by its roots still in the ground and the lack of nearby destruction or huge footprints. The two siblings paused in their journey for a lunch of pairs and soda, then continued on their way again.

“Hey, is that a magic path? Let’s follow it!” Ben pointed out.

Eve sighed. “Not every path is a –”

She didn’t bother finishing, as Ben had already left. Letting out another sigh, she shook her head. Sometimes Ben seemed too dumb to live. Well…he wasn’t really that stupid, just idiotically headstrong and reckless. Not every path was of the magic, safe variety. That one in particular looked too safe to be safe, really. Undoubtedly it was a – “Eve! Heeeelp!”

She followed the path herself, then facepalmed. Of course. She had been right. It was a tangle tree. And much, much bigger, as a result of being in a higher-magic area or whatever. Her brother knew about tangle trees, they weren’t like the rarest plant ever, but he never seemed to get that you could actually find one. The carnivorous trees magically created enticing paths for unaware creatures to follow straight to them. When their prey got close, they could use their tentacle-like branches – which Ben was currently trapped in – to capture it and bring it to their gaping maws. She shook her head slowly, then teleported onto one of the branches. Before the tree could react, she grabbed Ben’s arm and teleported both of them out of the monster’s clutches. When they were safely on the ground, back to where they had been before Ben acted rashly, she told off her brother sharply, emphasizing each word by shaking him from her grip on his shoulders. “What. Were. You. Thinking?”

“…It was a magic path?”

“…Really? REALLY?! That was a TANGLE TREE PATH, you IDIOT! You should KNOW that! You need to pay more attention; I won’t always be there to teleport your butt out of danger! You could’ve been eaten!”

Ben rolled his eyes. “Whatever. Let’s just keep going.”

Eve shook her head in defeat, giving up. “Fine.”

The two continued making their own trail, hacking through the underbrush; it was clear that they were, in fact, heading towards whatever it was that was affecting everything. The magic was getting even stronger. Soon, they came across a pool of water.

“I’m thirsty,” Eve commented, “and I think this is just water, and not anything I wouldn’t want to drink. The plants are getting it, you know, through the soil, and they aren’t trying to fight each other, if it was a hate spring, and they’re not trying to…do plants even know how to summon the stork? Because I don’t think it works that way for them, but then how are baby plants made?...I dunno, I don’t even know how people do it, because of the stupid Adult Conspiracy, why aren’t kids allowed to know how to summon the stork? The Adult Conspiracy is just stupid…ANYWAYS, they aren’t trying to, so it’s not a love spring, and they’re not all baby plants, so it’s not the Fountain of Youth. If that even exists. So it’s safe.”

She knelt down and, cupping water in her hands, took a drink. “It’s good. Want some?”

Ben shook his head. “Nah, I’d rather just get some more soda from the tree back there.”

His sister glanced at the sky. “It’s getting dark. Let’s get you more soda, then go home.”

He shrugged. “Okay. So…tomorrow morning, can we come back here and continue our adventure?”

Eve nodded affirmatively. “Of course! We still need to find our way back, without just teleporting…I guess it’ll be tomorrow’s dessert, or the day after’s, or whenever we get back home from here.”

She clasped her brother’s hand in hers, teleported them to the soda tree, let Ben drink, and brought them out of the forest and into the middle of North Village.

Eve blinked. “Wait a sec…what?”

The soda tree was right next to them. Neither Ben nor Eve had been touching it when they teleported, so how in Xanth had it gotten there? Oh well. Now the village had a soda tree – that would certainly make all the kids happy. She picked up an acorn, fallen from a nearby acorn tree, and plugged it into the hole in the soda tree as a stopper.

As Eve and Ben raced to their house through the orange light of sunset, they were stopped by Maya suddenly stepping into their path. Eve screeched to a halt, Ben slamming into her, and she stumbled. Picking himself off the ground, Ben rubbed his head. “I’m fine!...wait, why are you laughing?”

Indeed, Maya was cracking up at the siblings’ reactions to her getting in their way. She finally calmed down, although a wide smile still split her face in two. “That was fun. But you know what’s also fun?” Her smile grew wider, if that was even possible, and Eve took a step back, eyes widening. “No.”

Her friend pulled out some pepper-tree bark, holding it out to Eve. “Yes.”

Eve took another step back. “Nonononononononono. Not right now. We need to get Ben’s talentweed and –”

“YES right now.” Maya held it closer, the inane grin still on her face.

“But when I teleported back, I took something I wasn’t even touching with me! Something's wrong with my talent!”

“TOO BAD!” Maya lunged out, grabbing Eve’s arm, and forced the peppery bark under her nose. “Ben! Grab on!”

Ben was all too happy to comply. Hey, nothing wrong with even more adventure in a day, right?

Eve couldn’t hold her breath much longer and, against her will, took a deep breath of air and spicy pepper. “No…noooo…n-naaaaa–”

She sneezed.

Author's Note

My first fanfic!
I know that none of this is in Equestria yet, but this is how they get there.
Constructive criticism will be appreciated.

Chapter One: Equestria?

Ben

Eve

Maya

Credit goes to xXFIODRAGONXx on Deviantart for the bases.

Eve blinked her bleary eyes open. Whaa? Normally when she teleported it was a bit disorienting, but now…ugh, she had a headache… She attempted to rub her head to try to get the pounding sensation out of it, but everything felt wrong. Her head felt different, her hand was completely nonexistent, and she still had a headache.
“Excuse me?” a voice came from somewhere, regal and commanding. She knew who that was…
She tried to stand up, but everything was all wrong and she collapsed. “I’m sorry, King Samantha, I didn’t know you were coming to North Village today…”
The voice sounded utterly confused. “What?”
Eve looked around the purple room until she found the source of the voice. “Hey…you’re not King Samantha…you have a crown though…And you’re a – a thingy. Like a unicorn and a pegasus mixed together…Did a unicorn and a pegasus meet at a love spring and the stork brought you? And so, did…did all the Magicians and King Samantha go away, and they made you King, like Imbri the nightmare? She wasn’t human, either, but she got to be king…” Her rambling trailed off. She wasn’t thinking as clearly as she would normally like to when speaking with royalty.
The unicorn-pegasus thingy spoke. “How do you not know who I am? I am Celestia, Alicorn of the sun, ruler of the ponies of Equestria! I have no idea what you’re talking about, but who are you, who are your friends there, and what are you doing in my room?”
Eve blinked. “Wha?”
Looking down, she saw that she was on the top of a pile. Underneath her was a tan thing that was like a unicorn with no horn, a pegasus with no wings, a pooka with no chains, or…something. Also a silvery unicorn. She also noticed that she now, apparently, was purple and had fur and hooves. Wait, what? Panicked, she turned back to the thingy. “What happened to me?!”
Celestia frowned. “What are you talking about? You look just fine to me.”
“Do you have a mirror?”
“…It’s over there…”
Eve shakily stood up on all fours – she was an equine now, she couldn’t go on two feet without falling, that was why she fell earlier – and stumbled over. She gasped. What had happened to her?! She was a purplish-blue-furred unicorn with a lavender horn. Her mane and tail were the same blonde color as her hair, and she still had her blue eyes, though they were much larger. She whirled around to face Celestia, although she crashed into and broke the mirror as she clumsily spun. “Look at me! I’m a purple unicorn!”
“…Okay, what were you before?”
“A human!”
“What’s a human?”
Eve stared at the alicorn disbelievingly. What? What’s a human? This ‘Celestia’ was crazy! “Wait. You mentioned something earlier. What’s Equestria?”
Now it was Celestia’s turn to be confused. “How do you not know what Equestria is? It’s where we are right now!”
“No, we’re in Xanth!”
“What’s Zanth?”
Eyes widening in horror, Eve realized what had happened. Her talent had been acting weird after she drank from that pool – she had brought something she hadn’t even been touching with her. Now it must have taken the three of them to a whole different place entirely. But then, it couldn’t be Mundania, since magic didn’t work there and there weren’t any unicorns. So they were in a place which they had never heard of, ever, and didn’t seem to have anything at all to do with Xanth. She turned from Celestia to the two ‘ponies’, now starting to woozily wake up. So those must be Ben and Maya!
“You still haven’t answered my questions, you know.”
“I’m Eve, those are my brother Ben and my friend Maya – I think Maya’s the unicorn, because she had black hair, and the other one’s mane and tail are the color of Ben’s hair, and the eye colors are about the same – and then…I guess I’m…standing?”
“How did you get here?”
“I teleported.”
“Why did you teleport here?”
“I don’t know, I wasn’t even trying to.”
“How do you teleport by accident?” Celestia was confused.
“Maya made me sneeze.”
“What does sneezing have to do with teleporting?”
“When I sneeze, I teleport to somewhere entirely random. Except I still stay in Xanth, I just go somewhere else in it. Except my talent wasn’t working right and I went here instead of somewhere else in Xanth.”
“What’s Zanth?” Celestia asked again.
“You mean Xanth. It's where I’m from.”
“Sorry. Zanth. What’s a talent?”
“What?” Eve asked incredulously.
“What’s a talent?” Celestia repeated.
“Um…your talent is…your talent, I don’t know, it’s something you can do that no one else can.”
“Oh, like what ponies’ cutie marks mean?”
“…What’s a cutie mark?”
“The mark on your flank. See, like the sun on mine, or the…what is that?...on yours.”
Eve turned in circles, trying to see her ‘cutie mark.’ She finally caught sight of it through the corner of her eye. “That? Huh! That’s what Ben says it looks like when I teleport.”
“So, it does seem that they are related, then.”
“I guess so.”
“Hey, wha? Were you guys saying something about me?” Eve and Celestia turned to see Ben, shakily standing and blinking at them. “What happened?”
“My talent wasn’t working right and brought us here. And apparently turned us into ‘ponies,’” Eve told her brother as she glared at Maya, who was yawning and sleepily running a hoof through her mane. “And it wouldn’t have happened if SHE hadn’t stuck that bark under my nose.”
The accused pony stuck out her tongue at Eve. “Why don’t you just bring us back?”
“I already tried that!”
“Did you?”
“Look, I’ll try again!” Eve focused on North Village, willing herself to teleport there. She put more and more effort into it – but nothing happened. “See?”
“Whoa! Your horn glowed!”
“What?!”
“That’s what happens when you use magic,” Celestia sighed. She turned to the window. “Okay, I really have to make the sun set right now.”
“What?!” the three former humans said in unison, disbelievingly.
“…” Celestia closed her eyes. As her horn glowed golden, the sun began to descend in the sky, the shadows stretching in the twilight.
Maya took a step forward. “Wait!”
The sun halted its progress. “What?” Celestia sighed.
“Can I try?”
“Um…” Celestia didn’t really know how to respond to that. Only an alicorn could raise the sun, a unicorn certainly couldn’t…
“Pleeease?”
Eve and Ben shared a glance and a knowing smile. If Celestia thought their friend couldn’t do it, she was in for a big surprise…

Chapter Two: Magic

“Well…you could try, I guess…” Celestia told Maya uncertainly, giving her permission. Did the unicorn actually think she could do this? A single unicorn couldn’t lower the sun…unicorns weren't that powerful...right?

“Cool!” Maya trotted over to Celestia and nudged the alicorn with her elbow. Did ponies even have elbows? Well, she nudged the princess with whatever a pony’s elbow was called. Celestia stared at the unicorn. “What in Equestria are you doing?”

“You’ll see.”

Setting her hoof back on the floor, Maya gazed at the sun. The glow that shone around her horn was the exact same shade as Celestia’s had been, and the sun resumed its descent. When the sun had left the horizon and all was dark, the moon began to rise. “Is someone else doing that? Because I know I’m not,” Maya frowned.

“Yes. My sister Luna is,” Celestia replied, staring at the pony who was definitely not an alicorn. “How in Equestria did you do that?!”

Maya smiled smugly. “Because of my talent.”

“Your talent is to control the sun?” the alicorn asked incredulously.

“Noooo…Look at my pretty spot.”

“Cutie mark.”

“Yeah, that.”

Celestia glanced at Maya’s flank, seeing two stars. One was silver, the other gold, and the silver one overlapped the other.

“Hmm…you can control the whole sky, then?” Silver would be the moon, gold the sun, and the stars were obvious. Well, it was a bit of a stretch, but it was the only thing she could think of.

“Not even close!” Maya giggled.

Ben grinned. “Her talent is –”

“Don’t spoil it!” Maya pouted.

“Maya can copy anyone’s talent. Exactly,” Ben said quickly, getting it out just in time to avoid being muffled by a silver hoof. Not that it didn’t cover his mouth, but he managed to finish talking first.

“She has to touch them with her elbow to do it. We don’t really know why, but I think it’s because if she just had to touch them at all, it would be way too hard to avoid getting someone’s talent if she didn't want - mmph!,” Eve added, not finishing in time to avoid Maya's hoof.

“Well, that’s certainly interesting. But Eve…You said your talent was teleportation, right?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Well, now you’re a unicorn. I don’t know if there are unicorns in Zanth–”

“Xanth,” Eve corrected for the second time. “And yeah, there are, but I doubt they’re quite the same as here.”

“Right, Zanth, but here in Equestria, unicorns can use all magic. Of course, some are stronger than others at it, and some magic can only be done by an alicorn – although Maya seems to have disproved that – but a unicorn is not limited to one thing. I’m sure that, now you’re here, the same rules apply.”

“…I kinda doubt that.”

“How about you just try lifting this quill,” Celestia suggested, raising it to hover in the air. “Focus on it, try to keep it up by yourself.”

“I’ll try…” Eve said doubtfully.

She concentrated on the feather in mid-air. Although her horn glowed, purple did not join the golden glow around the quill. Concentrating harder, she teleported on top of it, and both she and the quill fell to the floor. She looked up at Celestia, getting back to her feet.

“Told you,” she sighed.

“That’s so strange…” Celestia frowned. “I’ve never seen anything like it…In the thousands of years I’ve ruled Equestria, all unicorns under my rule have at least been able to lift a feather…”

Eve glared at the princess. “Hey! I’ll have you know that in Xanth I’m Magician-level talent. Teleporting is really powerful, ’specially when you compare it to some other people’s talents.”

Maya stuck out her tongue at Eve. “Hey! You’re not Magician level!”

“Yeah I am!”

“No you’re not! I’m a Magician and you know it, Prince Andrew came to North Village to find Magician people and he said so! And he didn’t say you were!”

“You know I was off exploring that day! And you would’ve been too, if you hadn’t gotten in trouble!”

“Yeah, well, I’m a Magician, and my talent is more powerful than yours is!”

“Is not, but even if it was, I would still be a Magician ’cause some Magicians can be weaker than other Magicians!”

“It is too!”

“Is not!”

“Is too!”

“Is not!”

Ben rolled his eyes. “Sometimes it’s hard to believe these two are friends…” he muttered.

“Well, my talent is like yours and everyone else’s combined!”

“Yeah, but you need to touch them with your elbow first, and then if you touch ANYTHING else with your elbow, you get its talent and lose the first one!”

“So? I at least have more talent than you!”

“You aren’t even as strong with people’s talents as they are! That’s why your cute thingy is the silver one over the gold one! Gold is better than silver and you’re the silver!”

“Well, you’re the stupid!”

“That doesn’t even make sense!”

“Does too!”

“Does not!”

“Does too!”

“Does not!”

“Does too!”

“Does not!”

Celestia’s eye twitched.

“My talent is still way more powerful than yours is!”

“Is not!”

“Is too!”

“Is not!”

“Is too!”

“Is not!”

“Is too!”

“Is not!”

“Is too!”

“Is not!”

“Is too!”

“Is not!”

“Is too!”

“ENOUGH!” Celestia yelled in the Royal Canterlot Voice, bringing their intelligent discussion to an immediate halt.

The two fillies looked up at Celestia, startled into silence.

“Look. I don’t know what a Magician is, as you mean it, and I’m not sure I want to know. Let’s just drop this topic of conversation, all right?”

The fillies nodded slowly, eyes wide.

“…So…your talent is copying others’, yours is teleportation,” she nodded to Maya and Eve respectively, “and neither of you can use other magic, although I assume Maya can, when she has copied someone who can…So what’s your brother’s talent?” Celestia asked, half curious, half wanting to relieve the tension in the room.

Silence fell, each passing second leaving her more confused and the others more terrified. Finally, Maya broke the silence with a fearful whisper. “Oh no…”

Author's Note

Sorry about the wait. Homework and stuff. Hopefully I can get the next one out sooner :)

Chapter Three: Talent

“What?” Celestia felt completely bewildered. “Why are you all so scared?”

Eve lifted a trembling hoof to point at Ben. “H-his talent…” she breathed.

Ben took a shaky breath. “Do you…do you know of a plant called talentweed?” he asked Celestia.

“No…we might have a different name for it, though. What does it look like?”

“It looks like…It’s a smallish plant, with big green leaves that look a bit like ivy. And it has bright orange flowers on the leaves.”

“On?”

“Yeah. Like...growing out of the middle,” he explained slowly.

Celestia frowned. “No, there’s no plant matching that description in Equestria. At least, none that I know of.”

Ben stared at Celestia. “Are you sure? Are you absolutely sure?” he whispered in horror.

Celestia nodded, uncertain as to why it mattered so much. “What does this…talentweed do?”

“It makes you lose your talent for a day,” Maya answered, shuddering.

Celestia frowned. “Why would you want that to happen?”

Eve and Maya turned towards Ben.

“So…why does everyone seem to want Ben to have no talent? What is his talent, anyway? You didn’t tell me earlier…”

Eve gritted her teeth as she returned her gaze to Celestia. “We’ll have time for explaining later. In the morning, maybe. But this just can’t wait. Is there any place that you know of – any place at all – in which there are no sentient creatures or anything important that depends on magic for anything, and that is still able to be lived in? Predators or other things like that that need magic don’t count.”

“Well, there’s the Everfree Forest…Zecora lives there, but only in part of it. Her hut is on the outskirts…”

“Great. Can you describe a particular place in it for me?”

“I could just teleport you there myself, you know.”

“You can teleport?”

“Yes, I can. All alicorns, as well as more powerful unicorns, can, as well.”

Maya let out a shaky laugh. “I guess you’re not Magician-level here, then…”

Eve nodded. “Okay then. Can you bring the three of us there? Make sure it’s deep in the middle, and nowhere near that Zecora person. And I mean nowhere near her.”

“Person?”

“Pony. Whatever.”

“Actually, she’s a zebra.”

“A what?”

“A zebra is like an earth pony – your brother is an earth pony, by the way – except that all zebras are white with black stripes. Or black with white stripes – it can be seen either way.” Celestia closed her eyes, the three ponies clustering around her.

When she opened them, they were in an uninhabited part of the Everfree Forest. Ben trotted away from them, looking around. “Okay, so, ponies eat plants and stuff, right?”

“Yes,” Celestia confirmed. “We do. Among other things.”

Ben nodded. “Okay, so I’ve got food, then. Hopefully I’ll be able to avoid any monsters or anything like that until morning, and after that I should be fine.” He yawned. “Ooookay, I need to find a good, safe place to sleep. Can’t let something find me while I’m sleeping – what in Xanth is that?!” He coughed. “Err…what in Equestria, I guess?”

Celestia frowned. “That? That’s a sunflower.”

“What? That’s not a sunflower!” Eve argued.

“…Yes, it is.”

“How is that possibly a sunflower?”

“How is it not a sunflower?”

“Sunflowers are bright!”

“It is a bright yellow…”

“No, they’re bright bright! They make light! And they make heat, too!”

Celestia groaned, the realization hitting her. “Oh. SUNflower. I see. Of course a sunflower would be exactly like the sun. And let me guess – dandelions have claws?”

Eve shook her head. “No, but they do have manes. Although, there was that one dandelion I saw when we were near the pool…That one did have paws, where the leaves would be…But that’s not normal.”

Celestia facehoofed. “I hate puns…” she grumbled.

“What’s a pun?”

Celestia opened her mouth to respond, but thought better of it.

Eve frowned. “Hey, where did Ben and Maya go?”

Ben walked out from between two trees, a large clump of grass in his mouth.

“What were you doing over there?” Eve asked.

He made a few muffled, unintelligible noises. Swallowing, he looked sheepishly at Eve and Celestia. “Sampling the local cuisine?”

Eve giggled. “You’re so silly.”

Ben stuck his tongue out. “I am no-”

He was cut off by Eve’s laughter. “Whaaat?”

“Your tongue!” she laughed.

“What about it?”

Celestia chuckled. “Apparently, grass doesn’t just stain clothing.”

Eve and Ben stared at Celestia. “Ponies wear clothing?” Eve asked disbelievingly.

“Yes, we do.”

“Then why are you naked? And why are we naked? And why didn’t you say something earlier?!”

Celestia sighed. “Clothing is optional. You don’t need to wear it all the time. Most ponies just wear it to special occasions.”

“…oookaaay…” Eve turned to Ben. “So, you think you’ll be fine here?”

“Yep!” Ben nodded.

Eve looked around. “Now where’s Maya?”

“I’m not sure…” Celestia frowned. “Why, exactly, is everyone so set on leaving Ben here? Do you even plan on coming back for him?”

Ben shrugged. “Maybe she went back to your room? Because, you know, she last copied Celestia, so she can teleport.”

Eve nodded. “Probably.”

She touched a hoof to Celestia’s leg and brought them both back to the princess’ room.

“You know, I could have brought you back myself,” Celestia commented.

Eve shrugged. “Yeah, I – well, I think I know where Maya went!”

She raised a hoof, pointing straight in front of her towards Celestia’s bed, which was currently being used by a certain bouncing unicorn. Seeing them, Maya froze, her momentum gradually bouncing to a halt as the grin was wiped off her face mid-laugh.

“This isn’t what it looks like!” she squeaked quickly, jumping off the bed.

“Sure it isn’t,” Celestia sighed. “And you got mud all over my blanket…”

She turned to Eve. “Eve, would you please tell me what Ben’s talent is? Every time I’ve asked, you haven’t answered.”

Eve nodded. “Ben’s talent is –”

Author's Note

Cliffhanger! :pinkiehappy:
Next chapter, you'll finally find out what his talent is. Definitely. For sure. Maybe. Probably. Possibly.
...Fun secrets that the author knows and the reader doesn't are fun.