“Rainbow! Get your butt down here!” I shout, laughing. That stallion could sleep though a thunderstorm, I swear.

“Just 10 more minutes, Fluffy doesn’t want me to go.” Blaze moans.

“Fluffy, I’m not sure which is more silly, that you named that cloud, or that you named it fluffy.” I say sitting back on my haunches and watching.

Blaze rolls off of his cloud and drops down, after a long moment he starts flapping his wings to land when he gets close. Landing, he looks up longingly “Goodbye, you were just so fluffy and soft and…”

I put my hoof in his mouth, “Oye, I would say why don’t you sleep with it, but, you already did.”

“Jealous?” Blaze says jokingly.

“Why would I be, I’m seeing Night Light after all.” I say and hip check Blaze playfully.

“I still don’t understand what you see in that guy, all he does is make books. How boring is that.” Blaze snorts once. “There’s got to be something wrong with any pony that makes books.”

“He’s a book binder, he has a job at the castle, helping fix the books at the library.”

Blaze yawns in response.

“Ok Blaze, ok, I know how you feel about books. But mom and dad have been pushing…” I look down at my hooves as I walk.

“You’re doing this because of them? Twilight, you need to live your own life.” Blaze put his wing over my back.

“I know, but they even talked to Celestia about it.” I keep walking feeling more and more unsettled.

“That’s not fair, how does Night Light feel about it?” Blaze asks.

“He’s all for it, he’s been boasting to the others around town about it. How happy I make him, how happy it will make our families. Even that it is Celestia approved.“ I shake my head and look up at Canterlot in the distance.

“Twilight, you need a stallion who loves you for who you are, for what you do and can do.” Blaze says seriously, so uncharacteristically of him, “Not something that’s convenient.”

I turn to face blaze I don’t know why I say it but I say it. “Like you and your mare?” I feel the tears in my eyes and redness in my face. “Why couldn’t you have asked me instead.” The fear, the sadness, and the shame of what I said floods over me like a wave.

Blaze stands looking at me in shock, wings spread wide, and high, “Twilight…”

Looking back to Canterlot I teleport….

I wake up crying, I had just taken a little nap after our brunch, and now, I wish I hadn’t. I just feel so lost and alone for some reason. I have no idea why, or what was wrong but I just feel... lost.

“Your spirit is troubled.” Grandfather says, sitting on the ground beside me, holding out a cloth.

I take the cloth and wipe my eyes, then I take a big breath. “I wouldn’t know, I can’t remember anything when I wake up. “

“When a spirit is dis-joined, and just walks in this world it cannot remember the spirit world.” Grandfather says sagely, nodding once.

And with that, I now understand what Yiska meant, this guy speaks weird. I think he is just making stuff up as he goes but, he is our host. “Sorry, I was never really a spiritual person.”

“We are holding a ceremony tonight, you and the other lost ones need to attend.” Grandfather says, standing.

“Grandfather,” I hear Yiska huff as he walks over, “Leave her be, she’s not some lost spirit, she’s a Ranger and a close friend of mine.”

Grandfather looks between Yiska and I, “Interesting.” Was all he says before walking back to the house.

“Thanks Yiska,” I say and stand up.

“Rangers, front and center!” The LT calls out, then he looks around “Ponies too!”

Everypony trots up and joins the humans, we all sit or take a knee. The LT is on an old laptop, must have been Yiska’s but the thing was almost 10 years old. Apparently grandfather never throws things out.

"I’ve been doing searches on the internet, it been very very slow going, between very slow internet and someone's slow computer,” He says, looking at Yiska, “Now, we know that multiple people have changed thanks to Spectrum, but I can’t find any news stories, articles, or anything, with regards to this. Either there is a media cap on it, or worse, the NSA is sanitizing the net on us.”

“The only way they would have the authority to do that is under a Presidential order under the emergency measures act.” Jay said blinking, “That means the Whitehouse is aware of this.”

“I searched for the term cutie marks, it what the doctor and Spectrum called your marks.” He turns the laptop so we can see page after page of cutie mark pictures. “Apparently these are from some children’s cartoon from about 5 to 10 years ago. I don’t know why," He looks at all us ponies, " but you all seem to be lookalikes from this TV show.”

Strawberry Sunrise speaks up, “So we’re just lookalikes of some kids show?”

“I wouldn’t say that, but the appearance is uncanny. I cross referenced that with the term, five score divided by four.“ He turns the lap top around to face him while he works, when he turns it around, a youtube clip is playing, for us all to see…”

“That’s him.” Strawberry Sunrise says in shock.

“Discord.” Amber Waves breathes.

“He took Princess Cadence.” Blue Sky stomps a hoof.

“I couldn’t get away.” I say, lowering my head.

“Not again, please not again.” Arctic Lilly moans, closing her eyes tight.

“You’re going to pay for hurting her.” Yiska snarls at the screen, which shows the mismatched yellow and red eyes.

The LT closes the computer in the middle of the five score curse, blinking. “That, is not the response I expected there. I was going to suggest you ponies watch some of the series but I’m not sure if it's safe.”

I take deep breath after panting a bit and look to the others. “Maybe a few episodes might help get us an idea of what’s going on but, I think we should stay away from Discord's episodes.”

Everyone nods with vigor, “Ok, from what I saw Discord was only really in a few episodes, I can’t find the last episode in its entirety online, there are just a few clips from it, fans apparently hated it with a passion, and strangely no one can seem to agree on just how it ended or who the last pony cursed was. I guess after 5 years people forgot the order of the show.”

The ponies gather closer to the laptop, and the LT acts as our safety filter, reading the episode description before playing it. It was strange seeing what equated to myself, on screen, married to a stallion I didn’t recognize, with a 2 children I had never seen before. We all sit and watch, through dinner, right up until the point the battery dies.

I look over at the other ponies, they seem to be about as much in shock as I am. It is hard to comprehend that we had become something out of a cartoon… or was the cartoon something about us?

Everyone jumps at the sound of the pickup truck’s brakes squeal, another old Ford pulls up near us and several older men get out. It is strange, they don't react or respond to the fact that there is a bunch of cartoon ponies sitting there, instead they meet with grandfather, reaching out to shake his hand.

Grandfather looks at the LT, then at the group “It is time.” And walks quietly over to where a fire is being built. He sits down, while some of the younger men slowly build up a large bon fire, and a native man brings us over to sit in a circle around it.

“Time, for what?” the LT says, standing up and following Grandfather.

“Yiska, what’s going on?” I ask, more than a little worried.

“Grandfather wants us to sit through a ceremony, something like church I guess.” Yiska nods slowly and gives me a weak smile.

The LT and the Rangers are sat last around the circle. The drumming starts first, 2 of the men tapping out a rhythm on a large flat drum, next is the singing, or chanting, I wasn’t sure which to call it, I don’t speak a word of any of the Native American languages, so I didn’t even know if they were saying words. Grandfather sits, tapping an old Tortoise shell rattle in a steady beat, leading the chant.

I can feel the heat of the fire, the smoke is filling the air. There is something instinctual about the music, in the cartoon we had seen the ponies doing large song and dance numbers, but that is a cartoon right? This is real life, how is this possible? I glance at Blue Sky, he is sitting with his eyes locked on the fire starting to chant too.

Strawberry Sunrise is slowly spreading her wings, without knowing the words meaning she too has begun to chant.

I begin to feel a pressure in my horn, or behind it, the pressure is slowly building up, it's not painful, not like a headache, but I know it is there. Amber Waves and Arctic Lily begin stomping their hooves in time with the drum beats, and they take up the chanting as well. It is almost as if their hooves glow each time they strike the ground, firelight reflecting off them.

I look back to Blue Sky and his wings are spread, there is almost an energy building in his feathers, I can see it jumping from feather to feather. I look over at Strawberry Sunrise, it is the same thing, her wings are fully outstretched, the firelight and energy in her wings fighting for dominance in my eyes.

The smoke plays with my horn, wrapping around it, it caresses the curls twisting around and dancing on the tip. I could feel the smoke envelope me, my ears start twitching, as I look back into the fire. The light, the shapes, are all so real to me. Grandfather throws something into the fire and it flares up, the air thick with the smell of tobacco, of burning grasses.

I see a great white winged unicorn raising the sun. I see ponies cheering and stomping. I feel their joy, the pride in their movements. I feel the beginning of a new year. My son and daughter are there. Grandfather throws more herbs in the fire with another brilliant flash. I smell lemon grass, I smell wild flowers, Rainbow Blaze is laying in the grass, a wing over me. I feel at peace.

I hear an owl screech as grandfather throws another handful of herbs in. Discord, his miss matched eyes flare into view. I feel my horn flare in response. Fire everywhere, I scream and start backpedaling from the fire. I’m not the only one to panic, all the ponies back off at the same time. Even Yiska falls backwards and pushes himself away from the circle.

“What the hay!”

Admiral Volker sits behind his desk, the chatter in the Pentagon about suspected Russian attacks against US holdings has raised tensions to an all time high. US Marine task forces around the world and security detachments at embassies are on a defensive posture and at high alert.

He knows the Russians are likely having the same problems as the USA is, and how are they responding? Be it weaponizing, curing, or destroying, that would dictate how the USA had to act. The chances that Russia would gain some advantage over this are completely unacceptable.

The light flashes on his phone, line 3, he grumbles as he picks up the phone, he turns on his monitor “Admiral Volker.”

“Admiral, its Dr. Phillips with Spectrum.”

“Yes doctor?”

“We have found something regarding the pegasus type of pony. Removing their feathers seems to instigate some type of physiological and mental changes. Unfortunately the test subject has passed away. There may be a chance that if we strip their feathers we could force a change in them.”

“I see. I have the data on my computer now. What do you need?” Volker leans back in his chair, progress at last.

“Another pegasus test subject.”

“I understand, I will write up the transfer orders and have one sent to you immediately.” Volker hangs up the phone, beginning the paperwork. Maybe this would work for the president’s daughter, though she isn't a winged pony, but has a horn on her head.

***Yiska***

It is early morning; most of us needed sleep, needed to recover from what had happened the night before. What had happened? My wings are sore, neck and back hurt. I told my grandfather I never wanted to do rituals like that again. I wish he would…

I look back at my wings, spread wide. Quickly I look between my legs, yep that’s still there. Standing up I look at myself turning my neck to see my back and wings. I look like a moderate blue pegasus stallion, with a scruffy rainbow mane and tail. I’m about 2 or 3 shades darker than Rainbow dash, more like the colors of her father in the show. Maybe I am her father.

I prance in place a few times, stretching and unstretching my wings just to get the feel of them, before going over to starting to look at my tail. I find myself walking in circles looking at it, which, ends up with me hearing laughter.

“Chasing your tail already?” Velvet says with a giggle.

Stopping quickly I find myself blushing, “I, was just looking at it. So um, how do I look?” I say before going into one of Blaze or Dash’s 'I’m Awesome' poses.

Velvet giggles “Very cute, except you’re going to need pants. “

“Bah, you’re just embarrassed to see my junk.” I smile, standing proud.

Twilight giggles and turns her back to me, swaying her tail gently and even though she’s wearing pants I can still see the curve of her flanks. She looks at me through the bangs of her mane, a soft smile on her face.“See, pants are useful,” she says in a soft gentle voice and, for the first time, I begin to realize just how cute she actually is.

“Twilight…” I start.

Twilight starts laughing and sits on the ground, “Oh my gosh, Rainbow, oh man, look at your wings.”

Looking back, I notice my wings are straight out and rigid, locked in place… Going wide eyed I find myself blushing harder than I have in a long time.

“It’s not funny,” I say fighting to get control of my wings, finally folding them against my side.

“Not funny, one shake of my tail and your wings just poofed. It’s funny and adorable.” Twilight says.

“Ok maybe it was a little funny.” I say, and exhale.

“So how do you feel? With your fur out, your wings…” Velvet asked.

“Oh I feel great, alive, it’s so strange but, before the change I was worried, now, I just feel like me. “ I say, it’s not something that can be understood by most.

“So, are you going to try flying?” Velvet asked. “I know you’ve been watching the other Pegasus and I could see the urge in your face.”

Nodding vigorously I prance in place again, looking over, I see the other ponies watching me. Now, it’s my turn to make a fool out of myself. I spread my wings to feel the air, twitching my feathers. Stopping I reach over and preen one or two that didn’t feel right, then look up. I begin pumping my wings a bit to build up power, breath, gather…

Twilight yells out “Rainbow no, that’s too much…”

Leaping into the air, I rocket up, leaving a rainbow trail behind me before end up hitting the ground… The last thing I remember is the ground being extremely unpleasant tasting.

“Ok little ones, you are all speedsters.” I say, “Just like me. A speedster is a special kind of pegasus. One that is built for wingpower, as such we channel energy better than the others. Now this doesn’t dictate our lives, we can still be weather ponies, or delivery ponies, or even Wonderbolts.” I hear the foals cheer at that idea. “We can use our speed in any of the jobs, but we have to be careful.”

Several of the foals strike speed poses, “Oh yeh, I’m going to be a racer… leave everyone in my dust.”

“Wonderbolt for me, they are the best.” Another foal says.

“Little ones, little ones, pay attention.” I said slapping my wings against my side in a clap. “Now then, we have to be careful. Always watch how much power you are using on your take off’s. If you start too fast you could run into someone in front of you, and with a lot of thrust on the start, it can be hard to turn.”

“Yeh, just ask Rainbow Crash.” one of the foals says, laughing.

“Brawly, you are aware that she’s my daughter right?” Brawly looks a little worried.

“Yeh, but that’s why she’s here, cuz she’s your daughter right?”

“She’s here because she’s a speedster, and needs the training, like all of you” I say, standing up, "Now, what’s rule one for speedsters on takeoffs”

“Always watch your power!” The foals say in unison.

Yiska raises one forehoof and moans, “Rule one, for speedsters, always watch your takeoff power.” He then proceeds to cough up some dirt.

I giggle softly, using a wet cloth on his head, “You hit the ground so hard you carved a trench. You were out for almost half an hour.”

“Did I look good doing it?” Yiska moaned.

“Oh yeah, Rainbow, you crashed with style. Henry already checked you over and said nothing was broken.” I say as I finish washing his chest and forelegs. Serious ground in dirt issues there.

“Twilight, are you giving me a sponge bath?” Yiska asks, blinking and looking down at the cloth.

“Doctor’s orders, he wanted the dirt removed to check for cuts, bruises, abrasions.” I say sternly.

“Oh, well, Strawberry is right, the ground doesn’t taste good.” Yiska chuckles.

“So what’s a speedster?” I asked, always worth a shot.

“They are the fastest of the pegasi, able to reach really high speeds.” He says, “and how I know that, I have no idea… I just do.”

“Yeah that explains that, I knew there was something wrong when you were starting up, I could feel the power in your wings, and it was a lot more than Blue Sky, or Strawberry Sunrise built up, I tried to warn you.”

“But, I never listen, sorry Twilight.”

I blink a few times, “Yiska, you listen fine.”

Yiska blinks a few times “So am I Yiska or Rainbow?”

"Hmm, you’re both, you're Yiska, call sign Rainbow Blaze,” I say with a giggle.

“Would that make you Walter, call sign Twilight Velvet?” he says.

I poke his nose with my forehoof “No, sorry, I’m just Twilight Velvet. I’m still Wally, but, with my plumbing as it is, I don’t think I want to be thought of as a guy. It makes me uncomfortable in some ways. Treated as one of the guys is one thing, but actually thinking of myself as a guy… or reminded that I was a guy. That would cause more problems. “

“I understand,” Yiska says quietly.

“I haven’t had to deal with it yet but, really, walking into the guys bathroom would be really embarrassing. “

“True true, but can at least still pee standing up.” Yiska chipped in.

“Yes, and ew… having to aim like that would be… no thank you…” I giggle.

“ok, let’s try this again.” Yiska says, standing up, and spreading his wings, carefully he does a few low power jumps, trying to judge how much thrust he needs, before actually taking to the air.

Leaning back I watch him have fun, I can tell he’s just as at home in the sky as I have been on the ground. It's still amazing to watch though. Finally he lands, panting hard, and I pick myself up to head over to him, “great job, ready for some brunch?”

“Oh man yeah, think they have any more of that crunchy stuff?” he perks.

“Alfalfa bits? Yeah that was great.” I respond.

“Wanna race?” he says crouching a little bit.

I trot past ducking my head under his neck, rubbing my side against his chest. As I give his chin a gentle flick with my tail I move by and glancing back I see his wings locked up and go stiff. “Go!” I say and start running.

“ACK! Twilight you little…” he says and turns to chase me as we run back to the house.

Brunch today is a mix of carrots, Alfalfa crunch cereal, and an apple. “Alfalfa Bits, part of a nutritious breakfast.” I say with a giggle. “Given the Celestia Heart and Sun seal of approval.”

"Ok, that was just bad.” Yiska says, but he digs into his food with gusto.

Eric comes out, “I was just talking to my dad, apparently some ponies in Montana have shifted like you guys did, they have a little bit of a safe haven forming there.”

I nod slowly and look over at the crystal ponies “They need somewhere stable, safe. A life on the run isn’t healthy for them. What do you think LT?”

“I don’t know if any place is really safe but it might be the best bet. “ The LT says with a nod.

“I can drive the truck there, could take a few hours but we should be able to make it. I can take the civilians there.”

“I want to go.” I say firmly, the LT and Eric both look at me, “I want to make sure it’s safe for them.”

“Plus there might be more answers there for us,” Blaze says.

The LT blinks, looking at us. “Ok you three are a go, I’ll take the rest of the team with me, we’ll hit Special Forces command, see what we can find out there. And get our names cleared.”

I cringe “Oh yeah, we are AWOL aren’t we.”

“Well we are." The LT says, "You and Yiska are on medical leave, I think.”

I look at Yiska and blink. “Maybe it’s cuz I keep going green?”

“Could be worse, I have the blue flu,” Yiska says and we both just fall back laughing…

“You two have gone nuts.” The LT says, shaking his head.

“Sorry sir, I guess are both still adapting.” Yiska says.

“Can I go? I don’t want to be left alone?” Strawberry pipes up.

I turn my head and smile at her, “Sure thing Strawberry Sunrise. We’re not looking at abandoning you or leaving you without a way to support yourself.”

Strawberry comes over and hugs both of us tightly. “Thank you, thank you.”

“So, now that we are all here, does anyone want to talk about what happened last night?” The LT asks.

Henry nods “Yeah, that was just... strange. You all just flipped out at the same time.”

Amber Waves tilted her head looking at the… humans… “You mean you didn’t see it?”

“See what?” Jay says, taking a knee.

“In the fire, I saw my daughter get accepted into the Wonderbolts… well not my daughter, Rainbow Dash I guess, but I still felt the pride of it.”

Strawberry Sunrise, “I remembered the pride I felt, when with 7 pegasi down, our team still managed to pull off a water spout to transfer water up to Cloudsdale.”

“I remember the day I was selected to be one of Princess Cadance's royal guards, getting my golden armor.” Blue Sky chirps.

Amber Waves looks between everyone “I remembered the joy I felt when the crystal heart was returned, the feel of safety and purpose, the love and happiness filling not just me, but whole of the world.”

Arctic Lily sighs “I was at the equestrian games, I remember cheering on for our team, the hooves stomping. The cheering and chanting, the feeling of being part of some great herd, it was so special.”

“I remembered the summer sunrise ceremony, Princess Celestia raising the sun and looking down at my little Twi-Twi, and seeing the joy on her face, I remembered being a mom.” I said with a gulp, why did it seem that the others got off easy, and I got stuck with the whole mom thing? Though, Yiska remembered being a dad but… well at least I didn’t remember giving birth, or making the foal… thank Celestia. Either of those would have been just too traumatic for me to deal with.

“It was like we were getting a glimpse of who we were, I saw Discord.” Sunrise says with a shudder, a shudder that spreads to all the ponies in an instant.

“Yeah, I felt him coming for me, like he wanted to take away everything I had.” Amber Waves gulps out.

“And THAT my friends, is why I gave up on vision quests. Think of what that would do to a 6 year old.” Yiska calls out loudly.

All of the ponies looked at Yiska and nod sympathetically.

“It was more than that,” I start, “I could sense a magic building in the air, building around us. I could see our bodies gathering it and…”

Every pony looks at me, as does the Rangers. All of a sudden I felt very stupid for some reason.

“Sorry, I don’t know how to describe it or even if it was real. I want to say magic is real but…” I look down.

“Magic is real,” Grandfather stated, “to those who live in harmony with the land. There is a story, many years ago, when the earth was still covered with ice, a spirit of great evil roamed the world. The spirit sought to destroy man, it fed off of chaos and war, it fed off of the disharmony of man and nature. This spirit was not a trickster like raven, it was cruel and sought power. It pitted tribe against tribe, man against man, bringing corruption where ever it went.”

Grandfather stands to look over the ponies, “A few however saw this for what it was, and came up with a plan. A group of medicine men and spirit dancers called to the great spirits, and promised to live in harmony if they helped seal away this darkness. When chaos came to them, the medicine men began singing, and the spirits sung as well, the land, the sky sung all in harmony and the spirit of chaos had no choice but to escape, it fled into the dark hole of a great tree… where it was sealed up. Slowly the spirits turned to tree to stone, forever imprisoning chaos inside. From then on, we honored the promise to live in harmony, knowing that if we didn’t the spirit might escape.”

Everyone looks at Grandfather, blinking.

“Sometimes, truth can be found in memories or old myths. We have always known magic is real, it is part of our culture, or way of life. It is in our songs. Maybe you, like us are spirits of harmony, and last night that awoke in you.” Grandfather said.

“Well, if I hadn’t seen Wally levitating tablets or blocking an RPG I wouldn’t believe in magic either.” The LT says seriously. “But right now, my mind is open.”

All eyes fall on me again. “What? What did I do this time?”