The loud whistle of the train roars behind the yellow mare and her companion as they leave the train station at the edge of the Crystal Empire and walk down the road ahead of them.  Everything in their sight is made of crystal, from the tiny blades of grass, to the massive castle in the far distance, to the large and fancy buildings, to even the ponies that walk along the gemstone streets. Everything glimmers in the sun‘s limitless light, without a cloud in the sky to shield against the light.

“…So that’s what that super powerful punch was?” Fluttershy asks Relv, continuing from their conversation in the train. “It was some chemical you were injected with for an experiment by Celestia."

He coldly replies, "Yes."

"Quadrangulation was one of them right? What are these other types of ‘powers’ as you put it.”

“Correct, but you’ve only seen its leaked strength. Unleashed, I see everything. My other powers include speed, stamina, mental processing, multitasking, sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste,”

“How many do you have?”

“Forty two.”

“That’s quite a lot of injections. Did it hurt a lot?”

“Only the first eight times, then I got used to it.”

“What’s your strongest one?”

“Power #42: Night-”

“Fluttershy?” A young male’s voice sounds out from ahead. On the side of the road, in front of a large marketplace, stands a small purple dragon with a wicker basket in his claws.

“Spike!” Fluttershy exclaims back. “Hurry up Relv, I want you to meet Twilight’s closest friend and assistant, Spike. Talk to him.” Quickly the two ponies gallop towards Spike, stopping a metre away from him.

“I didn’t know you were coming to the Crystal Empire as well. And who’s the stallion with you?”

“I just came by here to relax and to introduce you to Relv here. He’s going to be-”

“Relv?”

“Yes.”

“Wait, Celestia send Twilight a letter regarding a pony named Relv. So… You’re-”

“Looking after him and reforming him, yes.”

“Huh, I was expecting him to look a lot scarier to be honest, and a cutie mark on him. No offense Relv, you still look cool with that mane thing going on.”

“None taken,” Relv calmly replies.

“Have you talked to Twilight yet? If you did, what did she think about you?”

“She hates me.”

“Oh… That was a bit, sudden.”

“Spike,” Fluttershy asks to the baby dragon, “can we join you in your gem shopping?”

“Sure, but I’m just looking for one more at this point.”

“That’s not a problem. Relv could probably help you find it. Relv, please use your, quadrilateral to find the best gemstone in the market.”

“It’s quadrangulation. Follow me.” The trio soon take off into the bustling market area. They walk past several rows of tents, seeing the various items being sold by the various ponies.

“Thank you.”

“Quardangu-what?”

“One of Relv’s… special talents,” Eventually, after a good minute of walking, they finally stop in front of a seemingly normal tent with a light blue pony running it. In front of him on the desk rests a massive green crystal in the shape of a diamond.

“Hello sir,” Spike says to the shop owner, “is this your best gemstone?”

“Why yes it is,” the clerk responds, “best one in the market I can say for certain.”

“I can confirm for that. Look at the size of this thing.”

“And thick as well.”

“How much is it?”

“For you young lad, I’d say a hundred bits.”

“Oh! I think I might still have that much left.” Rapidly, the dragon reaches into the gem filled basket and pulls out handful by handful of golden coins, dropping them onto the counter before reaching back in. After several minutes of digging, Spike thinks he has pulled out every last coin from the bag.

“Sorry sir, you seem to be ten short.”

“Drat…”

“Allow me.” Relv responds, revealing ten bits from his open hoof.

“Oh thanks Relv!”

As Spike finishes his transaction with the shop owner, Fluttershy leans her head next to Relv and whispers to him, “Where did you get those bits?”

“Thirteen shops behind us, from an open bag sitting on the front counter.” Relv whispers back.

“You stole them?”

“It is only fourteen bits, a tenth of what was in the bag.”

“Why?”

“The owner of the shop is going to notice her loss of profit and will actually secure the bag the next day, stopping some ponies from stealing all of it.”

“But stealing is wrong, you could’ve just told the pony to secure the bag.”

“She wouldn’t of taken my advice, at least until she’s robbed from all of it.”

“How did you even take them in the first place? You were walking the entire time, not stopping for a second.”

“Electromagnetic Telekinesis,”

“Oh yeah, you can do that thing with metal, like your swords and the sewing needles from Rarity’s.”

“Correct.”

“But that isn’t an excuse for stealing. Don’t steal!”

“Is everything okay?” Spike asks as he walks towards them with the gem in both of his claws and the basket sitting on top.

“Oh, yes Spike, everything’s fine, nothing to worry about.”

“Okay. Thanks Relv for helping me find and buy this thing. Hey, got an idea of what we can do next?”

“There are several things we can-” Relv attempts to reply.

But before the stallion could finish his idea, Fluttershy immediately interrupts him, “-We should go dancing! I heard several ponies talking about a dance party somewhere in the market on the way here. Yes, dancing. Relv was probably going to suggest ‘robbing open bags’ or something like that…”

“Okay then. Follow me.” Immediately, the red Earth pony starts walking off away from the shop, soon followed by Fluttershy and Spike.

“Must be that hearing power he has.”

“Fluttershy,” Spike says, “aren’t you afraid of dancing in public?”

“Oh, well, it’s all part of the reformation process I have. Idiot me, why did I say dancing of all things…”

“Okay.” After several minutes of quiet walking, the three come across the dance party on a street on the edge of the marketplace. Celtic music booms as at least a hundred ponies, both crystal ponies and non-crystal ponies, dance to it in the street. From stamping their hooves, to dancing with their partners, everypony seems to be in sync with the upbeat music created by a band of ten ponies with various instruments in the center of all of it. “That’s a lot of ponies…”

“Come on Fluttershy.” Spike then drops off his things into a nearby bush and runs into the crowd of ponies and begins to dance with them. Fluttershy takes a moment to swallow her fear before also entering as well. Making her way to the less crowded portion of the mob, she takes a moment and looks back to see Relv, still quietly standing outside of the dance party.

“Relv, don’t you want to dance?”

He simply replies, “No.”

“Well okay, at least he won’t see me when ponies soon block his view. No, wait, he still has that seeing thing.” As the music starts to picks up, Fluttershy slowly sways from side to side in a stiff manner, too afraid to do anything dramatic or draw attention to herself. Her eyes dart everywhere as she grows more and more paranoid of anypony watching. “Is he looking at me? Is she looking at me? Are they looking at me? Did somepony laugh at me? Oh…” Slowly, the pegasus stops her dancing and crotches down on the road, attempting to avoid being seen at all. She covers her eyes and begins to quietly whimper as her paranoia consumers her thoughts for what seems like hours. A hoof then gently taps her on the shoulder, prompting her uncover her face. She sees Relv looking over her with the same still look he always does, but this time however, Fluttershy thinks she notices something in his eyes as he’s looking into hers, perhaps pity. “Relv,” The stallion lifts his right hoof in front of her, gesturing for Fluttershy to take it. Slowly, Fluttershy grabs Relv’s hoof with her right and she gently gets up from ground. “What are you doing?”

“Dancing,”

“But I never commanded you to. To be honest, I don’t really feel like dancing myself.”

“Do you want to?”

“Yes but, everypony’s probably looking at us. I can’t do it. Besides, I’m not good of a dancer anyways.”

“You are.”

“How do you know?”

“Your muscles, your mind, your eyes, they tell me that you can.”

“They should also be telling you I’m too scared.”

“Perhaps you require some support.” A small smile appears on the mare’s face as confidence begins to pulsate through her body.

“Relv, will you please help?”

“Yes Fluttershy.” Leisurely, with their hooves still locked, the two ponies start to circle each other, gradually picking up speed to that of the beat. “Desire to take a step up?”

“I guess so. Nothing too fast please. I feel so brave now! But why? Is this Relv doing something to me?”

“Follow me.” With the duo still circling, Relv begins to add some quick side steps and small jumps. Fluttershy then attempts to replicate what he did, only to miss the third sidestep and stomps on Relv’s hoof. However, the stallion’s face remains static, showing no pain from the mistake.

“I’m so sorry!”

“No need to be.”

“Can’t you do some nerve thing to make me dance better? This has to be humiliating!”

“I can. However, I must advise you, the art of dancing is all about progress, learning, and experiencing, as with other things. Perhaps you should, try again.” Fluttershy tries again, only now failing to time the small jump properly. She ends up smacking into Relv’s face, creating a very loud slap in its wake.

“Sorry!”

“No need to be.” Eventually, after many tries, Fluttershy soon perfects every move and becomes synchronized with Relv’s movements. The mare’s small smile grows into a wide grin as she becomes one with the party. “This is so much fun! Isn’t this fun?”

“Perhaps,”

“What does that mean?”

“It mostly depends on your preferences.”

“How about your preferences? Is this fun to you?”

“…Yes…”

“Really?!”

“…Yes…” Time seems to no longer exist to Fluttershy as the two partners continue dancing with the party. She is enjoying herself now more than ever before over the past few days. After several loops of their perfected routine, Fluttershy thinks she notices a small smirk growing on Relv’s face. She then begins to note that his pupils have grown a little and his face appearing less tense. Finally, the music begins to die down, and the world of time soon returns to Fluttershy. The band starts to pack up their instruments and the crowd of ponies split up to go back to whatever business they have to attend to, leaving only Fluttershy, Relv, Spike, and a few other ponies left. Spike, now being able to see them, rushes up to them.

“Hey Spike, how’d it go?”

“It was awesome!” Spike proclaims, “What about you two?”

“Well,” However, before she continues, Fluttershy looks back at Relv, noticing that their hooves are still together. In one swift motion, she bashfully pulls her hoof away from him and into her chest. “It was fine, nothing much happened.”

“Well, okay then. Ready to go back to Ponyville?”

“Sure.”

“Just let me grab my things an-” However, before Spike can finish his sentence, a queasy feeling erupts in his stomach. It travels to his mouth and forces itself out, causing Spike to belch out a scroll onto the crystal road.

“A letter from Celestia?”

Spike then grabs the paper and unrolls it. He clears his throat and then begins reading it out loud to Fluttershy and Relv,

“Dear Spike,

Please read the following to Fluttershy: Fluttershy, I have forgotten to inform you about Relv’s powers. You do not need to know what they are, and I’m not sure if he has already unleashed them yet. But that does not matter. The point is that they are dangerous if he uses them more and more. I request, no, I command that you command him to never ever unleash them. I have great faith in you to keep control of him.

Your royal highness,

Princess Celestia.”

“She wants me to command Relv to not unleash his powers?”

“Apparently. I’m not sure what they are, but I wouldn’t question her.” Slowly, she turns her attention to Relv, whose smile and gentler face had disappeared as soon as the party ended.

“I don’t want to though. I’m so curious about his powers. Maybe they can even be helpful. Ooh! I know what I can tell him. Relv,”

“Yes?” The red stallion replies.

“I command that you never unleash your powers unless I command otherwise.”

“Yes Fluttershy.”

“Good, that’s been taken care of.”

“Uh, Fluttershy,” Spike hesitantly asks, “I don’t this this is exactly what Princess Celestia wants.”

“I’ve seen Relv’s powers. They can be useful if used right. And besides, it’s not like I’m going to be using them.”

“Okay… I guess I’ll send a return letter confirming that you did it…”

“Thank you.”

Suddenly, a mare’s voice can be heard screaming from the far distance, “Help! The bank’s been robbed!”

“The letter has been sent.”

“Good. Now, how about we get back to your story?”

“Quite. After his forty second experimental injection, we were unable to properly see what it did. An immediate call came for all military personnel to defend Canterlot from an invasion of satyrs. I was kept inside the castle while Relv fought in the field alongside his fellow hundreds of sentries. However, I was able to peek from one of the tower windows and used a telescope to watch him, making sure he wasn’t hurt. The fighting continued for weeks, with shifts then becoming developed to horde off the seemingly endless pour of enemy troops. Occasionally at night, I was able to sneak out of the palace and meet with Relv while he was off his shift on the frontlines, and both he and I were growing more and more tired of this war. Finally, after five weeks of fighting, Relv had enough of it and decided to unleash his powers, despite our previous promises of not using them for violence and not revealing them to the public.”

“Did he win?”

“We won alright. Unleashing only fifteen of his powers, even sometimes unleashing them all at once, Relv decimated the satyr army in less than a fortnight. Our military and the rest of my family both discovered and became astonished at Relv’s abilities. They all wanted to know how he became so powerful so that they could become just as, if even more powerful than him. However, things were seen very differently from Relv’s side. Instead of a gift that could advance the world by possibly thousands of years, Relv saw his powers as a weapon. He became a weapon, the means to an end that he desired.”

“What was it?”

“Total utilitarianism… by force…”