The six friends hung out.

MEANWHILE

Upstairs, in the library, six more friends hung out. Fewer chains were involved.

“We should travel through that special mirror in the Crystal Empire to the human world and start a band,” Rainbow Dash suggested.

“No, that’s stupid,” declared Twilight.

“You don’t like the idea of having a band?” Rarity asked.

“No, the Crystal Empire was destroyed when Tirek got loose,” Applejack reminded the group.

“I didn’t really want to get turned into a human anyway,” murmured Fluttershy.

“Yeah, plus Valiant was the only one who could really play rock out,” said Pinkie. “So what do we do instead?”

“We should have a superhero team!” Spike shouted, bursting into the library and startling the six mares.

Twilight was about to repeat her earlier comment, but Spike went on. “I mean, we solve all these mysteries and stop all these bad guys anyway. This library is like a headquarters already. I’m sure Rarity has considered this before just for the costume aspect. We just got this cool new rainbow power stuff when we fought Tirek. We even have a secret lockup in the basement.”

Twilight shuddered as she remembered the six mares still chained on the level below. “We aren’t going to lock anypony up.”

“So we’ll just leave bad guys in front of the police station when we catch them.” Spike shrugged. “Come on, how bad could it be?”

Everyone winced, even Spike, as he realized what he had said. They didn’t use that phrase anymore, not after Valiant.

MEANWHILE

School was in session that morning. Foals crowded the desks in the classroom.

“Class, this is Cordoba, our new student,” Cheerilee said, gesturing to the young filly beside her at the front of the room.

At the opposite end of the classroom, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo were paying only slight attention.

“What’re we going to do to get cutie marks?” Apple Bloom whispered. This was the standard conversation starter any time she and her friends were bored.

“This time?” Scootaloo whispered back. “Dunno.”

“Me neither,” Sweetie Belle added. Nobody had really seemed to care that she was a ninja and she had recently returned to school.

Cheerilee raised her voice, likely overhearing the three fillies. “It is customary for new students to introduce themselves.”

The new filly hesitantly began, stumbling through a few heavily accented words.

Apple Bloom cocked an ear. “Where does she come from?”

“It doesn’t sound like a French accent,” Sweetie Belle said. “If Valiant were here, he would know.”

“We could try to find out,” Scootaloo suggested.

“Cutie Mark Crusader language figure-outers!” Apple Bloom declared.

“Linguists,” said Sweetie. “The word you’re looking for is linguists.”

“Her primary language is Spanish,” Cheerilee said. “Which you would know if you were actually paying attention.”

It was too late. The Crusaders were already out the door. “To the library to get linguist books!”

Cheerilee let them go. This was not a huge problem for her. Things had been much quieter since Valiant had left.

MEANWHILE

Guinness sat in front of the high chair doing his best to get the foal to eat. He muttered explicatives under his breath. Rainbow Catcher was literally a devil of a child, but at least she had been enthusiastic about food. This kid, on the other hand, was almost as troublesome as Valiant. Almost. At least Valiant had gotten Guinness a new one, just like he promised.

MEANWHILE

IN MILWAUKEE

A fist smashed out a few teeth from the geologist’s mouth.

“Where is he?”

“I don’ ‘ow!” he replied through bloody gums.

“Someone doesn’t just disappear! Not with what he owes us!”

The man had no reply to that. Once more, he cursed his roommate.

MEANWHILE

Trixie and Daring were happily having HLS.

“I…I think we should adopt,” Trixie panted.

“Not magic?” Daring replied breathlessly.

“You really want to try creating a child from two sets of female genes with my radiological magic?” Trixie asked, managing to enunciate clearly through a mouthful.

“G-good point,” Daring moaned.

MEANWHILE

Celestia and Luna reclined in their thrones, doing Princess stuff. A letter popped into the air and Celestia took it.

“So back to what I was saying,” Luna went on, continuing the conversation as Celestia read the letter. “It sure is nice being the only two Princesses.”

“Mmm-hmm,” Celestia acknowledged. “What with Twilight and Cadance both demoted.” She finished reading the letter and began to pen a quick reply.

“How did you manage to remove Cadance’s title anyway?” Luna asked.

“Well, what with her not having land to rule anymore, it was fairly easy to write a law around it.” Celestia finished the letter and sent it with a sparkle of magic.

“What was that?” Luna asked.

“Oh, just a message from Twilight and her friends. Since her own demotion she’s gone back to focusing on the small picture. She and the others are dressing up or something.”

MEANWHILE

The library door slammed open and three fillies rushed in.

“Linguist books!” Apple Bloom demanded.

She and the other two Crusaders stopped short. Six ponies and one dragon in costumes stared at them.

“This isn’t…” Spike paused. He looked around and then shrugged. “Okay, fine, it’s pretty much exactly what it looks like.”

MEANWHILE

Cadance jerked upright. The nightmare had ripped her from sleep almost as violently as her Empire had been razed.

“What is it?” Shining Armor asked, sitting up and worriedly touching a hoof to her shoulder.

She turned to him, eyes wide and horrified. “There’s been a disturbance in the force.”

Author's Notes:

MEANWHILE

TNaB drops hints for Season 5 and explains why Rainbow Rocks isn't feasible.