Most ponies my age had to worry about stuff like getting to school on time and playing sports. Me? I get to try to hide my best friend from some stingy dragons that apparently smell like gum. I snapped awake, hoping this doesn't happen every pre-Hearts and Hooves Day. Zaanne gave fairly specific instructions to warn Applebloom about the baddies, then try and find a place where she wouldn't be thought to have any connections with me or Gabriel.

My bedroom felt strangely fictional compared to the constant moving and yapping of the other guys. The only thing that controlled itself was the chicken alarm clock, which rang ten minutes after I woke up. Before I left, i brushed my teeth, had another bath, made breakfast and read the engraving on my scooter once more. All of which Zaanne rushed me through.

"Hurry up; Gabriel doesn't even eat breakfast! Shower faster! Read that later! Your teeth are animated, it's not like they get dirty anyway!" I put a snow cap over my mane, since it was still wet, and rode off to Sweet Apple Acres.

I saw Zaanne run out of Fluttershy's house on my way there, but I didn't make any attention to him. He had things to do as well, so I accelerated downhill to the thousands of apple trees in the distance.

I could see Big Macintosh sitting idly on the front porch of their house, in the chair that Rainbow sat in yesterday. "Is Applebloom awake?" I asked.

"Nnnnope" he said simply.

"What will she be awake?"

He pointed to the clock hanging off the wall. "Soon enough."

I nodded and sat oppisite to him, waiting for AB to come downstairs. It had stopped snowing, and the world was blanketed in white, practically untouched besides my hoofprints. There was an odd silence that fell along the land; normally pigs and cows made a large racket. I realized that this was the most likely reason Big Mac had sat out there. He loved silence.

The chair had been caked with snow and ice as well, so I curled up like a cat to stay warm. I'd have to check the crystal's instruction booklet for "how to summon instant heaters" later.

Big Mac fell asleep in his chair, but I didn't notice at first because it looked like he was just closing his eyes for a deep thought. He had a stick of hay hanging out of his mouth, though it wasn't there five seconds ago.

"This is boring," Zaanne said aloud, "how does Big Mac stand the silence?!"

"Some ponies are patienter." I muttered. My tail was slapping my face, so i passed the time by blowing it away when it moved.

"Patienter isn't a word i belive," Ship spoke. "Try 'more tolerable'."

"I don't need a living dictionary in my head." I heard a door open and a pair of hooves travel slowly down some stairs.

"It'd be more accurate for me to be a thesau-, right, sorry." The hoof steps moved to the living room, and I could see Applebloom's head through the window. She wasn't wearing her typical bow, and her red hair split off down the sides of her neck instead of bundling in one place as usual. I found it cute, not that it mattered, but she also just woke up, most likely comming down for breakfast; not the perfect time to say hi.

I adjusted myself to be able to watch her through the window (it's not creepy if it's important), swishing my tail across my muzzle. I figured i should knock, but I was really comfortable being a cat, curled up like a ball, so I stayed just like that. Zaanne seemed to want to yell at me for being too slow, but i could feel his energy rising, like he just had one of Pinkie's secret sugar treats.

After a few short minutes, Applebloom walked outside to see Big Mac sleeping in one chair and a curled up orange and purple thing in the other. "S-Scootaloo?" She stammered, obviously not a morning pony, "why are you acting like a cat?"

Part of me wanted to meow at her, but the urge went away. "It was cold."

"Ya could have come inside." She saw Big Macintosh and sighed. "He slept outside again? He's afraid of his bedroom ever since a chicken landed on his window seal the night we told him about the cockatrice."

I couldn't help but laugh. AB threw a red blanket over Big Mac and brought me in. "Ya hungry?" She asked.

"Nah, i had breakfast before i came." She nodded and sat down to a plate of apple fritters and a basic red delicious. She smiled to the food, which saved the trouble of having to fully wake her up.

"Hi Applebloom." Zaanne said quickly.

"Hia Zaanne, hi Ship! Ya'll two being good to Scootaloo, right?"

Ship spoke softly, "Of course, Ms. Bloom. We wouldn't dare out her in anymore danger than we're already in."

"Wait wha?"

We took turns explaining the dragons about to attack and how I prophesied her abduction. Zaanne's story included three extra dragons and the alien begging for mercy. Ship's version was so spot on, you'd figure he was the one who dreamed about it, but he added so many details that the story was slightly boring, and my story seemed to trail more and more off the subject.

"He was all like, 'oh no, don't hurt me!' And cowered like a freaking dog!" Zaanne yelled.

Ship said, "The constant tone of his voice indicated that he most likely was trying to convince the beast with reverse psycology, using extra phrases to provoke him into comming to eat us."

"Gabriel saw a hippy talking to the dragon, and the dragon is about to come and-... Can dragons really talk? How could the alien communicate with that thing? What kind of apples do you use to make apple fritters?"

After a few well spent minutes of distorted speaking, Applebloom shook her hooves around frantically. "Okay okay! Dragons are comming, taking me, and those bad guys are about to do something, well, bad again.

"Sums it up pretty well." Zaanne said. "Gabriel is preparing our defences and buffing himself with random crap, and we're here to make sure you don't get caught."

Ship added, "Also there's a few more dragons, but that's aside the point for now."

AB's face paled. "And they're all about to come and attack ponyville? Can't they wait until, like, after Hearts and Hooves Day?"

"Dragons are about to attack, and you're worried about your date with Scootaloo?" Zaanne asked aloud.

She registered the selfishness and blushed like a red delicious (what, it's the name!) "S-sorry! It's just that, well, uhh..."

"What's wrong Applebloom?" I asked.

She studdered too much to understand her. "Me, you, date, girls, derp, fire, special, us..." I thought she was talking about some romance movie when she put her hooves to her face and took a slow breath. "Hard to explain."

"Especially to such an unknowing pony," Zaanne muttered.

"Applebloom," Ship said smoothly. "If you are too embarrassed to explain it properly to her, i could try to help."

She sighed slowly. "No, I'll get it soon enough, thanks."

"Get what?" I asked aloud, then in my head, Why don't any of you explain what's going on with her?

There are some things that you have to do on your own, Zaanne said, which didn't help at all for me.

I closed my eyes and cleared my mind, thinking through what Applebloom has shown. The red heart on the gifts. Her constant blush when she's around me. The fact that she's into mares.

"Ohhhhh, i get it! you really love the color red!"

The Earth pony didn't seem amused by my answer. "Well yes, but that's not it exactly."

"Hmmmm, right before Ship blew our school up, Sweetiebelle was trying to say something. 'Its that Applebloom li-' then BOOM! I'm assuming 'li-' means 'like', so what do you like?"

Zaanne interrupted. "Dragons are coming. walk and talk please."

"Where am I taking her anyway?"

"I'd head for Twilight Sparkle's lab," Ship suggested, "she'd be fairly safe from the dragons, and still in town to check up on her."

"And Gabriel's there getting a power-up." Zaanne added. "Let's go there."

Nopony argued, so we made our way to the library. Applebloom and I trudged through the snow glumly, staying side-by-side. The farm filly was silent for the entire trip, only speaking up when she remembered she forgot her bow.

I said, "It's alright, you look fine without it." Her face brightened and she trotted closer, which I was okay with. In my dream, she was trapped in a dark room with some giant star sheet as dragons destroyed Ponyville. Being close to me as we walk through the snow to a library sounded much more relaxing.

As I came closer to the building, something felt off. The ground under me had melted, leaving mud on my hooves, and the earth heated itself as we got to the door. "What's going on in here?"

Zaanne explained, Buffing up for the dragons. Twilight can give you more detail. So, without knocking, we cantered through the door and to the unicorn's basement.

If a giant yellow elephant stormed through the room, the sight wouldn't have been weirder. A dark shade of green had grown along the walls, like the place was sporadically caked in mold. Books and scrolls were frozen in the air, suspended by a translucent black haze swirling in the air. The cold dissapeard, changed to heated air which blew in my face. The floor hummed deeply, causing my hooves to vibrate soothingly.

The gentle hum of the ground made my eyes droop, sapping off my energy and leaving me as tired as when I fell asleep. Considering this not a good nap time, we entered Twilight Sparkle's lab.

Gabriel wasn't too hard to spot out, since he was a miniature green sun. A wave of heat dried my eyes out, so I looked away. Behind a flipped table, I could barely make out Twilight and Fluttershy in the shade of the intense light, eyes shut and muzzles to the floor.

Eventually, the blinding light faded, leaving a smoking pegasus on the floor. Me eyes adjusted to the dimmed light, showing Gabriel standing back up slowly. He looked, well, darker, even though he was still glowing along lines across his body. His breath slowed down, and the constant moving and nervous energy had dissappeared. He acted so much like himself that I thought Zaanne and him had switched places, but when he looked up, Gabriel's blue eyes still shone.

"Z-Zaanne?" Fluttershy stammered, walking to him. "Are you okay?"

"Y-yeah." He said, somehow as silent as the shy pony. He stopped talking after.

is he really alright? i asked the real Zaanne. I could feel the energy given off from outside!

He has some clinical depression, which is why he's like this sometimes. The majority of his energy was stored in the crystal.

He is correct, Ship stated, we are at 608% power now, 304% for each.

Don't i get an energy reserve? Zaanne asked.

So long as you don't fire all of our power out at once like last time, you'd each have about 152% in total.

Ohoh, say the full equation for Pi now! Zaanne chirped

"What's Pi?" I asked, not caring whether it's in my head or not.

Twilight and Ship answered with a copious string if numbers, the only one I registered being a three.

"-So, Zaanne. How do you feel?" Twilight said after she finished.

"I feel like it's Meteor Monday again." He joked softly. "The hot chocolate might help. Or perhaps another lullaby, that song was adorable." I was not sure what he was talking about, as usual, but since Fluttershy smiled timidly, I bet she did the singing.

"You can take a nap later," I said. "Twilight, can you watch over Applebloom in here while this goes down?" A.B. is pretty independent, so I figured she would say something about taking care of herself, but she stayed silent.

The unicorn nodded, with a slight smile ticking at her cheeks. "I'm happy to see that you care for your friends. She may stay here while I help everypony else in town." She then frowned. "That's a lot of ponies though. Fluttershy, would you mind helping me?"

"Of course." Fluttershy was still staring at Gabriel though. "Will you be okay, since you still can't fully fly yet."

Gabriel nodded earnestly. "So long as everyone is safe, I can deal with these baddies." He looked to the top of the room, having a quick conversation in his head. "Also, the problem here is dragons, so you should hurry up." Twilight didn't seen suprised, but fluttershy looked like she got hit in the face with a frying pan.

Fake Zaanne walked up to her and patted her shoulder. "Don't worry, if we hurry, nopony should get hurt. Go with Twilight and gather the towns people up."

She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and gave Gabriel a good-luck kiss on his cheek "Okay." Fluttershy whispered, and walked back upstairs with a baffled Twilight.

"Uhhhh... Gabriel?" I waved my hoof in front of home but he just stared at the wall. "Depression faded yet?"

Applebloom pulled up a chair and sat down on it. "Ah can't be entirely sure, but ah think he likes her."

"Touching, really." Zaanne scoffed, though his voice was light. "Can we go finish our job now?"

"As soon as Gabriel wakes up." I stride behind him and whacked him in the back of the head.

He jumped, backing up to the energy machine. "What!?"

"Dragons, Ponyville, hippy aliens. Time to go."

the time is 1:50 P.M. Ship informed. How the time passed so quickly from when I awoke, i had no clue. As a filly, my mom told me that time flies when I'm having fun. Nothing about this situation screamed "fun" to me.

Zaanne said, "It'd be a real dick move to bring someone else into this fight..." Then the room brightened up.

When the light faded, pony-Rayden was sprawled on the floor. He bolted up, looking around frantically. "Wha-?!"

The magic weapon thing had transformed into an intricate chest plate, like the ones the royal guards wore. "Scootaloo, Gabriel... You could warn me before you do that!"

"That was Zaanne, not us," Gabriel sighed. "and he had a good reason." The green pony summoned a cup of dark brown liquid. "But first, I'm gonna have some cocoa."