The sun reached its zenith at exactly noon as it did virtually every day. Its bright light poured through the hole in the roof onto the silver flower statue in the temple. As the sunlight pounded away at the centerpiece of the flower statue, the flower began changing color. The petals soon took on a shade of chalky white, much like the color that Fluttershy was at the moment with the mask on. The centerpiece of the flower soon faded from silver to black, before revealing that it was an emerald the size of Celestia curled up in a ball.

Fluttershy, who had been laying upon the flower statue for the past four hours, yawned and stood. Her claws scratched lightly against the emerald, doing no damage but making a sharp tapping sound. She smiled, feeling new energy flowing through her.

ÀRT THÔÜ FĪNÀLLY RÈADY FÖR ÈXÅMÎNÆTIÖN? An audible voice rang out from everywhere at once. Fluttershy closed her eyes, a relaxed smile upon her lips. She opened her wings as wide as they could and lifted her chin towards the sky. The emerald beneath her filled with light, casting a green luminance upon her pale scales and feathers. THŸ FAÏTH SHÅLL BE TÈSTÈD TÔ ITS ÅBSÖLÜTE LÎMÎTÆTIÖN.

With a flash of absolute blackness, Fluttershy disappeared.

In Sugarcube Corner, four friends were pestering a fifth more than most would find tolerable. Rainbow Dash continually asked, "Why?" Applejack remained silent, still semi-awkward since the earlier verbally explosive exiting of the proverbial closet. Rarity persisted with, "How did it happen?" and Pinkie simply bounced from one solid surface to the next with no discernible pattern. As Rarity asked for the seventeenth time that morning, Twilight struggled to not explode a third time.

"I'm Pinkie Sworn to secrecy," she growled, the unrelenting assault now fraying her nerves.

"Can you at least tell us why Fluttershy?" Rainbow countered, continuing the assault.

"All I'm allowed to say is we had tea," she sighed, about ready to lay down and take a nap.

"Lavender tea?" Pinkie asked, holding still for just over a second before bouncing again and standing on the wall like normal ponies would the floor. Twilight stared at her askance, her eye twitching at Pinkie's constant defiance of physics. "OOOOOOHH! I knew it! She doesn't drink lavender tea unless—" She interrupted herself as she gasped intensely. "Oh my Celestia how did I not notice that?! It was sssooooooo obvious!"

Pinkie went off on a tangent about Fluttershy's matching of teas to her thoughts and other such things. Within a minute the subject of her rant changed from tea to tea herbs she found tasty to general food items she found tasty to cupcakes. The four other ponies in the room that were within earshot of the constant stream of virtually useless babble stopped paying attention as soon as Pinkie had begun. Well, all except Twilight, who hadn't quite mastered tuning her out yet. As she stared at Pinkie, who was still standing on the wall, her left eye twitched repeatedly at the lack of physics applying to her friend.

"Pinkie," she barked percussively.

"Yeah?" the pink pony chirped brightly.

"On the floor, please," she pleaded, as though for mercy.

"Okie dokie lokie!" Pinkie yipped cheerfully, walking the long way up the wall, across the ceiling, down the opposite wall and onto the floor. Twilight's eye held a twitch for ten seconds.

"I wish I could stay longer, girls," Twilight began, shaking her head to unsuccessfully excuse the breach of physics, and addressing the group as a whole, "but I have to go find Fluttershy."

Rainbow chuckled deviously as the unicorn turned to leave. Just as she was opening the door, she called out in good humor, "Good luck with your new marefriend."

Just as the door shut behind her, Twilight blushed furiously.

Fluttershy awoke in her bed, peacefully, as though she'd overslept until just past noon. Her eyes fluttered open, consciousness lethargically filling her. A small, warm smile clung to her face like the last stubborn leaf on a tree before winter. As she rose to stretch and get up, she noticed her mask in her hooves. She smiled, seeing a mark upon the forehead that wasn't there before: the very mark that was engraved in a plaque at the forsaken temple in the Everfree Forest. The seven-pointed star was carved precisely like neither master carver nor machine could replicate, the seven crescents that blossomed forth from between the points curling to their second tips counter-clockwise. To her, the star reminded her somewhat of Twilight, but not quite, as it had seven points instead of six.

Good morning, Fluttershy, a deep male voice echoed within her mind. It seems we have passed.

Fluttershy smiled, I bet my head is a little more spacious than that mask you gave me.

A sort of warmth passed through her, silently confirming her assumption. As the initial warmth of the gesture passed, the voice began again, It only took a decade.

Oh stop it, Lux, Fluttershy mentally pouted. We met on the last possible day to seal our bond.

Well, the Tea won't have its usual effect, the voice acknowledged as Lux began, changing the subject entirely. I wonder what it'll do now that we're Sealed.

I don't know, Fluttershy replied. Anyway, I'm headed to Twilight's to—

To pretend to research the ingredients to the Tea in a façade so you can convince her to help you gather said ingredients, Lux finished. I know. I'm in your head now. We are one.

Eventually, I'll get used to that.

Fluttershy stood up, the early afternoon sun shining through her window. She smiled, taking the mask downstairs with her to place it back on the wall. As she hooked it back onto its rightful place on the wall, a chalky white smile formed on the mask, as the eyes had many years before. As soon as it had appeared and was seen by the pegasus, the smile faded away like chalk in the rain.

She smiled with it, old memories resurfacing.

Author's Note

It seems to be time for me to thank a very heavy influencer. Laarsgaard. He håth givèn me the ideä to üse thêse åccènt màrkîngs. I tried to remain consistent with them, only putting certain ones on certain sounds, so if you see the pattern and see that I have strayed from it, please let me know. :3 Now go give Laarsgaard some love.

Anywho, I have multiple issues going on so updates will be slow. I am writing at all possible opportunities, because honestly, I love this story more than you guys do.