Author's Notes:

Much better. Today is now a great day. I hope you all enjoy...I seem to have broken brain though by agreeing with him. isnt that right brain.

*Blue screened*

Wow blue text with blue screen...blue-cep-

NO, BAD AUTHOR! *Slaps*

D-did my sense of humor just slap me?

The Alter Accords

Chapter Seven: Corrections are not always needed

It was Saturday and Velox was flying through the air relaxing, it was the first day since the stare incident and the first time the girls were going to try the training without him. He had decided to relax and not think about anything and just enjoy the day, though he did have things he wanted to do so he was lazily riding the air current over to the farm of Ponyville to see everypony there especially Apple Bloom as he wanted to check up on her and how her injuries were coming along and if they were healing ok.

‘I know I shouldn’t but every day I feel like I could have gotten to her a bit quicker, a tad sooner, and she wouldn’t have gotten hurt.’ If he had to be truthful with himself, it was part of the reason he had chosen not to be Velox as much the last few days for he knew he would dwell on it. ‘They are all me, but I think differently in each form, Lego looks at everything and tends to look at the situation more than the pony, Novo looks at some detail but not really at the consequences, he is looking already to the results of everything and wanting to see that happen. Meanwhile Velox here is about reactions, tending to think and act in the now and buck the consequences.’

Those thoughts made him think back to a conversation that he had with Photo Finish a couple of years ago as he was shifting back from Lego to Velox. “Tell me, why do you change?”

His form had settled and he shook his coat out as he looked at the accented pony. “Honestly I woke up as Lego, my second form is Novo, and Velox is the last I discovered. But if I had to choose why I prefer to stay as my Pegasus form I would have to say a couple of things. One: my other forms think too much, as such they tend to look on what we don’t have while this form likes to be in the now. Two: cloud beds…sooooo soft. Ya I do have forms that are better suited to things and will try to make the best of each situation but at the end of each day, only one can sleep on something that makes my body feel so nice.”

Starshifter couldn’t help himself and he started laughing as he landed. ‘The more things change the more they stay the same. I have a cloud bed in my cave, I will always have a cloud bed if I have my way no matter where I am at if I can.’

As he approached the farm house he smells some wonderful smells coming from it and found himself trotting a bit faster towards it. “Howdy Apple folks I came to drop in on y’all.”

There was a moment when he thought he heard running then the door calmly opened as Applejack came out of it and smiled wider then he could remember seeing her. “Howdy stranger, been a while I reckon. Come on in.”

He gave a smile and once inside found himself in a hug from a small filly that he leaned down to return the affection to. “Hey there Bloom, you are just the filly I wanted to see.”

Her eyes got huge as he said that and she just asked in a stunned voice. “R-really?”

Nodding he picked her up and settled her on his back with a smile. “Of course.” For some reason in the corner of his eyes he had seen AJ give a look then a soft smile as he did this. “So how are you holding up, everything healing ok?”

She smiled and hugged him around the neck holding and snuggling into him some the filly would nod. “Mhm, doc says ah’m real strong so ah heal up real quick.”

“Why don’t you come and join us for breakfast Sugarcube?” AJ asked slightly interrupting the moment though when his belly rumbled he decided not to debate with her.

He had met Granny Smith only a couple of times before and each time she was either asleep or seemed not to mind his presence even if she did watch him at times which slightly bugged him at times. “Come on in and dig in sunny, the least we can do is feed ya for what ya done did for our kin.”

A nod was all he could manage as he seen the layout of the breakfast, all mouthwatering in their smell, pancakes with a dab of butter on them melting with a dribble of syrup, a few apple slices around them soaking up some of the syrup enriching its flavor, a tall glass of juice, no doubt apple, some oatmeal, as well as a few other items though his eyes we already consuming his favorites.

“I guess I wouldn’t mind a bite or two.” He could hear laughter from all around him and some against his neck as he helped the filly down so he could sit down and eat.

Breakfast was…well if had asked him then and there he would have said ‘I need to expand my vocabulary to find the best word for awesome that fits this breakfast.’ Instead he was just lying down on his back, wings stretched out, and rubbing his belly. “So good.”

He found himself being cuddled up to by a small filly and found his hoof going right to her mane to pet gently before he found the world vanish as he dozed off.

“Now darling, there is no need to be nervous I am a bit out of practice when it comes to this sure, and really only have tried it a couple of time, but I will take it slow to start with alright?” Rarity asked her partner in this.

Twilight was taking notes while Rainbow nodded and lay down in the grass as before. “A-alright.”

Anypony could tell the multicolored mare was nervous about this as Rarity pressed her forehead to her friends head. “Alright here we go dear.”

The Unicorn observing and writing down her observations started noting things right away as the light blue glow appeared around the horn of the seamstress. ‘Observation one: it seems that the replacement Unicorn in charge of training has her horn aglow where the previous one could mostly go without charging his horn completely, could this be due to compatibility and sync ratios?’

Rarity was keeping a calm look on her face though Twilight could see she was having to put more effort into her work to do what was needed that and the look on Rainbow’s face. Dash looked to be uncomfortable in nearly the extreme with her face scrunched up and her ears pinned back.

‘Subject seems to be in discomfort to the reception of the new mana from another Unicorn though this process is known when somepony goes from a higher sync rate to a lower one.’ She continued her scribbling for a moment before her quill stopped in its tracks as she heard the ‘subject’ speak.

“S-stop.” It was in a low voice that Twilight barely heard. “Please, no more, stop, I don’t want this.”

The mage was about to ask her friend if she was ok when she seen something she thought she would never see from Dash ever: tears. “RARITY!”

The loud yell caused the white prim mare to pull away. “What darling I was barely doing-OH Dash are you alright?”

The mare of their concern just placed her head on the grass and wept for a good while before she found her voice again. “S-sorry I don’t know why I reacted like that, I mean it’s just a stupid experiment.”

Rarity had been hugging her the entire time as she silently cried only just now getting a hug in return. “Ponyfeathers darling, you felt it was wrong and didn’t like it was all.” The elegant pony just sighed and hugged again. “Twilight had said this might happen.”

Dash looked to her friend who had come around to hug her as well. “Yes, when a pony who is Mana Merges with another pony who is less compatible it can range from uncomfortable, to painful, and in some cases where the differences is large enough, can make them feel well…violated.”

The multitoned mare just looked away at the last one and seemed to shrink away into the hugs more. “D-darling I didn’t make you feel that way did I?” When there was no response to Rarity’s question she just hugged her tighter. “I am so terribly sorry, so so sorry. I promise to never do this again.”

Both of her friends hugged each other and started crying again as they held each other. ‘That feeling only happens in extreme cases, in sync ratios of ninety percent or more. This is bad, it means she may not be able to do this with another Unicorn at all if she ever found her special somepony as another Unicorn besides Novo. If what I suspect with her and Novo being Perfect Syncs is right then it will be impossible for her to do so unless she found herself with another that she was meant to be with.’

Twilight never voiced her thoughts aloud for now as she just let her friends cry out their hearts to feel better about what had happened here.

“So this is your clubhouse huh?” Velox asked the filly on his back who nodded. “You and your friends did a real good job building it then.”

She seemed to shrink some into his back hiding in his neck. “It was my sister’s before she gave it ta us. Ah just repaired it cause it was run down so it aint nothing special.”

“Looks good to me honestly.” He told her sincerely. “It looks brand new to me so much so I truly couldn’t tell. So you must have done a real good job.”

He could feel her practically glowing under the praise on his back “Ya thank so?” When he nodded again she yelled a giant ‘Hurray!’ to the sky.

The filly decided to let him into the club house to show it off even more as he smiled at all the hard work she put into it. ‘Who knows maybe she will get her cutie mark in this. Either that or something to do with apples maybe.’

“Um Velox?” Bloom called out, making him turn his head around to face her as best as he could considering their position. “Why don’t ya come to the farm as much, ah mean it’s just your brother that comes around now.”

He got this question from her sister as Lego so he would answer her just as honestly. “You see Bloom, your sister works very hard on her farm, as do you most likely right?” After she gave a nod he smiled. “That is why. Lego can do the job so much better than me and haven’t you seen your sister and brother more often since he started working?” She gave a frown then nodded. “I let him work in my place cause I rather lose out on a job and make others happy and give them free time to be with family then to take away that time, understand?”

“But why cant ya and him work here ta-gether?” The inquisitive filly asked him as he silently sighed.

Setting her down with a smile he gave her a hug. “Bloom right now you guys can’t really afford it, you all make enough to support the farm, repairs and such, mostly cause of how much you all grow, but the taxes for all this land, combined with the effort of maintaining it as well as harvesting all of it is disproportionate with the income from what you sell.” ‘Least for now, but if those letters I sent out come back positive it should open up some nice exporting possibilities to other towns for the Apples.’ “Now if for some reason your sister and brother could reach out to other places and sell to them, not only would it bring in more bits but it would mean there would be more of a demand for the apples and the price would go up. It would allow you to hire on more hooves, not one of mine since honestly I am terrible at it, and it would mean your family will finally be able to afford better things to help with taking care of the land here. As for why I can’t do it, it’s simple, me and my brothers are doing a couple of secret projects in the Everfree, and well its dangerous to go in alone so we always go in pairs which leaves one of us free to do whatever it is we want. Right now I am the free one.”

He felt bad lying to her like that for the last part but it was the best he could come up with, plus if she told it to her sister it wasn’t like she was lying to her. ‘Weird freaky internal lie detector, I swear if I hadn’t heard the details from Twilight how all the Element Bearers had something in their nature comparable to their Element I would have never known. That and Pinkie is a blabbermouth and spilled the secret.’

Hearing a distant call Bloom sighed and climbed back up on his back and spoke in a disheartened voice. “Seems like my sister needs us.”

“Seems so, and she seems like she is saying it loud enough for it to be important, either that or lunch. If its lunch I think my stomach thinks it’s important.” That got her to smile as he came out of the club house and winked. “Hey want to have some fun?” She gave a nod right away. “Alright then hold on.”

He launched himself into the sky with her on his back. It was awkward to be sure but he was able to make up for the lack of range on his flaps by beating them a few extra times to generate the lift needed.

The delighted laughter was all he wanted to hear as he made sure to take the scenic route back to the farm house, from in the sky he could see the farm pony in with her Stetson talking to her lavender friend. ‘Oh Twilight is here, wonder if she is looking for Novo to report on the success of Rainbow’s training. It will mean more free time for me at least and less reason to have awkward dreams.’

Landing gently he smiled to the two as they both wore frowns on their faces, definitely not a good sign. “Hey Bloom mind heading inside while I see what your sister and Twilight want?” AB also seemed to take the hint from their faces and nodded as she slowly walked into the house. Motioning for him to follow the two mares headed towards the barn.

Once there Twi spoke in a gentle tone. “Do you know about your brother and how he is teaching Dash ‘The Current’?” With a blush he found rising to his face he nodded. “I guess he really did tell you…well the thing is we were trying to avoid discomfort and had Rarity try in his place but it kind of failed spectacularly. We were hoping you could find your brother and get him to meet us at the library to help fix things.”

This had Velox concerned especially at the word of fix. “What happened?” when neither of them said anything he just got the point. “For his ears only?” He got a nod and sighed. “Means I will have to stay with Lego today so I will see you next time AJ, take care of Bloom and make sure she heals up just fine.”

“Sorry Sugarcube but this is important even if ah rather ya take some time off to see m-us ah rather Dash be helped more. Plus ya can come right back when ya find him.” She said confidently.

‘Guess I have to put AB into action sooner than I thought.’ Shaking his head he motioned to the farm house. “Not really, I told Bloom why I can’t help out and she can explain it better right now, as I best be on my way to find my bro.” taking wing outside the barn he flew off to ‘find’ Novo.

He took a good forty five minutes before he showed giving time for the illusion of being found to take place, and for AB to explain it to the mares if they asked. Novo was sour on having to change but it took a back burner to his concern for one of his friends which is why he was here.

Rarity answered the door to the library with a forced smile. “Hello Darling, Spike is out as we don’t want him around for this, so I sent him on an errand for a tad while.” The green Unicorn could understand that with Spike being too young for this as he came in.

“So, mind telling me what went wrong?” His voice came out concerned though calm as he could make it almost half afraid they might have bucked up badly.

Taking a deep breath she let it out slowly before speaking. “Well after my failed attempt to help ‘train’ Rainbow Dash as it were, Twilight scanned her and found that well her channels became clogged cause of what I did. And since you are so in tune with her channels more than either of us we were hoping you could flush it out so to speak.”

‘Makes sense, Twilight most likely flushed her out the time I left my mana in her but why couldn’t she do so this time unless Rarity really bucked up in how much she left.’ “Right, I suppose I can do that.” He was lead upstairs where Twilight was comforting a distraught RD who seemed to be sweating more than normal.

Twilight heard the hoofs on the stairs and looked and was relieved to see the pony that could help her friend staring with concern towards the bed ridden mare. “Thank goodness you are here, Rarity left some mana in-.”

Novo cut her off with a smile. “Rarity explained already, I am to give RD a nice scrub down, lather her mane up, and pretty her cute self up even more than normal.”

She knew that he was trying to lighten mood up and it somewhat worked as out of the corner of her eye she seen her friend blush bright red at being called cute causing a giggle to come from her own mouth. “Right. Rarity left her mana in some hard to reach places and I honestly don’t know enough about this to help out. So I don’t want to go in blind with my power and damage something.”

Novo bought that as he moved over to the bed and laid on it with Dash and smiled at her trying to comfort her best he could. “Um sorry about, you know, last time.”

Twilight felt bad lying to him about not being able to flush her system out, but she reasoned it wasn’t technically a lie. She could flush out the mana Rarity left, but it would practically drain Dash to where she would be bed ridden for a week at least. ‘With how close his mana is in sync with hers, it shouldn’t take much and she should recover by tomorrow.’

Rainbow though didn’t say anything about his apology just instead she looked away and muttered softly. “Um c-can you just fix this please.”

The Unicorn nodded as he placed his forehead to hers and started. Twilight observed again that his horn didn’t need to glow in order to sync up with Dash like Rarity’s had, what is more she could see her friends face relax and grow content as she started to smile. The mage hated how Dash had described Rarity’s left over mana inside her saying it felt like she needed a bath and felt dirty with it there.

‘Hopefully this helps her to feel cleansed and put her back in a good mood. Usually the left over mana that is left inside ponies isn’t a problem as its usually only Unicorns that do this and that is cause they each leave some in each other and the resulting discomfort a pony feels when its one way is cause they have more mana then their bodies know what to do with. It’s worse feeling if it’s not one with high sync as the body can’t process it to use, which I noticed happen one time when Novo left some of his mana in Dash but it was processed and filled in as if it was nearly her own. Worst case scenario is that if a pony leaves some in there it’s like a poison.’ Twilight watched as the colt that was such a match with her friend pulled away slowly.

His horn started to glow but not its normal forest green, instead it was the light blue of Rarity’s magic. “Rarity I have to say your magic tastes horrible.” He spoke in a playful tone. “Anyways I sucked out all of your mana ummm…Twilight what do I do now?”

For a moment the student of Celestia was caught up in jealousy with how Dash looked so peaceful and was gazing over at Novo that she didn’t hear him at first; when he repeated himself she smiled. “Oh just use up the excess mana, since you are a Unicorn it should be easy till all of Rarity’s left over mana is gone.”

Suddenly Novo was laughing loudly which caught all of their attentions. “Rarity your mana is fattening and Twilight is telling me to exercise it off.”

The prim mare looked slightly offended even though by her look it was clear she was faking it. “Why I never, the mana of mwah is not ‘fattening’ it is just rich in flavor and meant to be savored slowly and in portions, not like you who just gorged yourself on it.”

Dash was laughing up a storm at this and Twilight too was having a hard time controlling herself. “PFFT, please you’re just calling a hayburger a royale from Prance and expecting ponies to think it’s a delicacy.”

A ball of metal was levitated from his saddle bags as it started to change shapes rapidly which Twilight suspected was him transmuting quickly, thing was, she had honestly never seen anypony able change the shape of something so quickly before and was mesmerized by it.

She wasn’t the only one either as Rarity had stopped speaking as had Rainbow had stopped laughing. “Pretty neat right? I love changing somethings shape like this though I should say it’s not my fastest time.” Twilight just felt her mouth gape open at that. “Ya I can change it so fast I have made a dynamic version of it too.”

‘He is lying, that would be a high mage level of transmutation and as far as I read only a few ponies had ever-oh my glob!’ The small metal ball had taken the shape of a small pony and was moving, actively changing shape quickly enough to look as if it was moving seamlessly as if it was trotting. The form then of course levitated to the outstretched hoof of the pony in question as it seemed to flow and distort over his hoof becoming first a griffon’s claw, then a dragon’s, it then proceeded to flow over his body and thin out becoming as thin as spider webs that flowed across his body before ending up at his tail where it flicked and the ball reformed in the air to be caught by his green levitation aura, having seemingly burned off Rarity’s power.

“That trick took a long time to perfect, had to use it a few times to earn some bits as a traveling show pony when I was down on my luck.” The Colt told them as he put the ball away.

Twilight wanted to ask him to show her the process he had used to perfect it but her question would have to wait as some other pony spoke. “Um Novo can we…um train some more, I really didn’t get a work out from Rarity there so…”

The lavender mare just looked wide eyed at her as did Rarity. Twilight wasn’t sure if Dash knew the connotation of her statement but what she had just asked him was the equivalent of asking for sex.

“No.” All eyes turned to him at that point. Twilight nearly felt rustled at his statement for turning her down and was about to tell him off when he spoke. “You are still recovering from foreign mana inside you, best not to take any chances and have something be hurt inside you know?”

Guilt rose up quickly in her at this point as she hadn’t even considered that he was looking out for her by his refusal. “He is right Dash, you have to take a day to recover at least before you can train again.”

He shook his head at her statement making her second guess her second guess. “I mean no cause right now I have stretched her out quite abit, she still has a way to go yes but it would be best for her own mana to generate enough to fill in all the new space.”

“S-so we cant…train for a while?” She couldn’t help but smirk at how cutely Dash had asked that before shaking her head of the thought of her mind calling Dash cute.

Giving off a yawn even though it was early in the day he shook himself and looked to her. “Just some relaxing for a while, plus with how Velox goes on about it, I figured you would want to sleep on a cloud bed again soon.”

Reluctantly the Pegasus agreed even though she huffed at it. “Ya, would be nice to do that and to fly again, who knows I might be a whole lot faster with how much mana I will have.”

Heading to the stairs he nodded. “Right, now I think I will get to my own bed now to sleep off working my mana so much in such a short time. A short nap should do me.”

Rarity nodded yawning herself and Twilight knew how exhausting using fine manipulation could be in such a short amount of time, it was just as bad as using up a lot of power in a short amount of time. “Where do you sleep though?”

Dash’s question caught everypony by surprise; Twilight had never asked where Velox had moved after his bed was destroyed or had she thought of where any of the brothers slept. “That is a good question; I don’t think I have seen your place yet.”

His face became a bit nervous at the question and he shrugged. “Oh we are doing fine, got a nice little place all to ourselves where no pony bugs us.”

Rarity’s face took on a look of suspicion as he said that, though Twilight didn’t see the problem. “Darling that didn’t answer the question, it just avoided it.”

‘She is right; he didn’t answer and instead just made us focus on his condition not his location.’ Twilight’s eyes now narrowed along with Dash’s as they all stared at him.

He levitated a small ball out of his pack with a smile. “Well I could answer your question, but first a chemistry question for you Twilight. What do you get when you combine black powder, a magnesium fire striker, potassium nitrate, a metallic object, as well some sand infused with silver fulminate and stabilized with corn starch with an impact?”

Twilight not able to resist thinking about it smiled as she came up with the answer. “Oh the answer is smoke bomb!”

He just grinned and threw the ball at the ground with a poof filling the room with smoke making them all cough for a moment only to hear the distant sound of hooves and a door opening and closing.

When the smoke cleared Dash was the first to respond. “Did he just ninja his way out?” Her friends just nodded as she chuckled “Definitely twenty percent cooler.”

Novo found himself tired as he came back to his cave, he wanted to change to Velox and take a nap but he just didn’t care enough right now. “Note to self, see Zecora for more chemical supplies, need to stock up and ask her to redo whatever she did to keep the animals away from the cave, saw some droppings close and that makes me nervous.”

As he drifted to sleep he found himself thinking of things he hadn’t considered before. ‘Dash sure was cute back there all weak as a kitten, though I honestly miss the boastful version of her more.’

It’s amazing how the days pass by when you are training, bucking apples, and pretending to be doing stuff when no pony can see you, in other words many days that left him not able to do much. But as much as hated himself for doing this he had come to Twilight now to ask a favor this day.

“So I need a loan.” His request obviously had thrown her for a loop as she had a mind boggled look to her face. “I know its abit much but we are kinda running out of food supplies.” ‘Been fishing a lot more recently and even then kinda running low on bits since I only work a few days a week at the farm, damn Lego and his efficiency.’

“I don’t understand.” Was all she said and when he tried to explain again she held up her hoof. “No I mean what are you and your brothers doing with the pay you get from Celestia.” When he gave her a ‘huh?’ she sighed. “The check you get biweekly to monthly from Celestia for your guard work for the Elements?”

“What check?” It was a simple question that spoke volumes of him have no clue of what she was talking about.

Sighing she stood up and looked at him seriously. “Oh come on, you can’t honestly tell me you don’t get an envelope in the mail that…oh…you don’t have an address here anymore that anypony knows do you?” Again giving a sigh as he shook his head she dragged him to the post office where Derpy was currently sorting through the mail.

He looked at the hard working mailmare he first met when coming to town and smiled. “Hey Derpy, I was wondering, do you have any mail for me?”

The bubbly gray mare smiled and ducked behind the counter with a nice sized stack of mail. “Here you go, I don’t know where to deliver it so I just keep it here in hopes you would pick it up.”

Velox took the stack and started to sort through it to put the most important envelopes on the top before he found the one he was looking for and opening it. “Yada yada yada, for services rendered we hereby reward the Starshifter brothers the monetary value of…Um Twilight?” The Unicorn slipped up to the Pegasus to see what he was looking at. “I think there is one too many zeros in this check, I am not mistaken am I?”

She took a moment to read it before gasping. “Um we may want to send a letter to Celestia to tell her somepony made an accounting error.”

Back at the library they had sent the letter to the sun raiser via dragon fire as Twilight had made him a cup of tea. When the burp of a dragon announced that a letter had arrived, Twilight read it first thinking it was a response to something she sent a while ago since it would be too soon for a recently sent letter.

Instead she just gasped and hoofed it over to Velox. “Dear Starshifter brothers.” he read out loud. “There is a correct amount of zeros in the check you all have been sent, after all you three are guarding perhaps Equestrias most valued ponies and as such compensation is due in equal amounts to that service. We appreciate the concern in that we made a mistake but we once again assure that it is the proper amount. Also we will be giving this payment in double but only once a month from now on as this was the first payment to help you three get settled into your stations in Ponyville. Sincerely, Princess Celestia.”

Not sure what to say at this point he merely looked to the student of the Alicorn who just sent the response. “We can get your check cashed at the local bank in town, follow me.”

Twilight could see that he hated the bank after they seen how much he was being paid and had to open up an account to hold it they became ‘too’ nice and friendly. It was creepy and they found themselves leaving as quickly as possible before taking out some bits from the account for spending during the week.

“How is Dash doing Twilight?” The Pegasus asked of the brainy unicorn as they headed back to the library. “I know Novo stopped her training and it’s been a few days.”

Twilight didn’t want to think about it, Dash had become surly and short-tempered after a couple of days and it was only getting worse. “I don’t think she likes being on down time to recover, it’s worse than when she was in the hospital and couldn’t fly.” She had the suspicion though that it wasn’t for that reason she became surly but didn’t voice it out loud. ‘I know stallions have that thing where if they go without their partner and…intimate relations for a while they get into a sour mood but I didn’t think it happened to mares…well till now.’ She giggled for a moment into her hoof when he wasn’t looking. ‘Would be nice if those two got together, but I don’t want them to get together only for that reason. That and they really haven’t spent much time together besides training what if they aren’t compatible except in sync rates?’

While Twilight’s thoughts were spiraling more and more into ‘what if’s’ they had arrived back at the library which she discovered by running into the door. “Ouch that looked like it hurt, you ok there Twilight?”

She was about to say she is fine when two of her friends found her as well and had seen what had happened. “Twilight, that isn’t how you knock on a door, plus it’s your own door, unless you somehow cast that time leap spell again and are waiting for yourself to answer it.”

Twilight turned to see Pinkie Pie bouncing in place looking excited and hoofing over an envelope for each of them while Rarity her mane styled and immaculate was watching them. “I am alright Pinkie and no I was just lost in thought and didn’t see the door.”

Pinkie’s large grin of a smile was heartwarming. “Oh you silly filly, that is why I keep a map for my mind so I never get lost.”

Everypony there took a moment to absorb what she had just said but understanding is one of those things a pony gave up on when coming to know Pinkie after a while. “Anyways Darling.” Rarity said as she levitated a few of things to Velox. “While its nice seeing you out and about I came to give Velox a gift as well as some for his brothers.”

Twilight noticed Velox looking at Rarity funny for a moment before looking at the items, they were saddlebags all done up to be personalized for each of the brothers, more than the center piece of their marks it was the outlining theme she put on each. For Velox it was a feather motif, Novo’s had a rainbow of gems, and Lego’s had his stone groves.

“Rarity I can’t accept these for myself or my brothers and before you ask it’s for a few reasons.” The Pegasus sighed for a moment before going over them. “One: we really haven’t interacted much so I don’t think I deserve the gift, I can’t speak for my brothers, but Lego looked to be spooked when your name comes up, I have a feeling why but won’t say for…obvious reasons.” Twilight wondered what he was talking about but noticed Rarity blushing up a storm. “Two: this bag has seen as much travel as I have…it’s an old friend that is comfortable and I am not sure I could get rid of. Three: this bag is enchanted as a bag that has more space on the inside then the outside.”

Her blush having gone down but not away Rarity managed a polite cough before smiling. “Then don’t think of it as a gift but as an apology to your brother, I acted like a foolish filly in the way I acted and when I look back to it I realized just how terrible I acted towards him. I made these cause I noticed that you and your brothers use the same bag, not ones that look the same but the same bag so I figured I would make one for each of you. You don’t have to use those all the time, but it surely might be easier if you all had your own to rely on when the others were using that one.”

All eyes were on Velox now as he looked at the bags and smiled, Twilight was happy he accepted the gift however she seen Pinkie Pie frown as she seen his smile. “Thanks I am sure we will make good use of them though the one that usually comes to town wears this bag so if you’re looking to see us modeling the chances are it’s when you aren’t looking.”

Another blush came to the seamstress’ face as she pawed at the ground sheepishly with a hoof. “While I wouldn’t mind a model that has modeled for Photo Finish I wouldn’t want to take up your time.”

They all saw him shudder visibly before he looked at her. “Trust me, I am not proud of that and neither is my brothers, especially Lego. We all really needed the money at the time; she offered us some good bits for little work so we took it. Never again though, modeling for her was just terrible.”

“Thank you dear, well I must be off, hopefully you and Pinkie can settle on a day. Au rivoir.” With that the white unicorn left them all to their own devices, which was now the envelope they held.

“So, is it another party Pinkie?” With that she nodded to the two toned maned unicorn. “Whose it for?”

“Why it is for Waffles and Coffee.” The two ponies were looking at her and just blinked at hearing that. “Lego and Novo, you see Lego is a type of waffle and Novo is a coffee company so I thought, those are perfect nicknames for them just like I am nicknaming Velox, Puddles, cause he leaves puddles when he does that current thingie.”

After that was said no pony could stop laughing.

Lego walked home, he had split from Twilight and Pinkie earlier and changed to his current form since it was easier to carry supplies with all of his strength, that and Lego was the one that was most likely to remember all what they needed. Right now though he was absolutely looking forward to his home and bed to get some well deserved rest.

Checking the area outside, after he heard a bush rustle nearby, he was pleased to see that whatever Zecora had done was working. He wasn’t seeing any new droppings around his cave, though he hoped it meant it was working. He trusted Zecora and had come across so many like her in Zebrica that knew what they were doing even if how they did it seemed bizarre. “Never question a good thing or you might find it leaves you when you need it the most.”

An old nag’s tale for sure but one that he often found worked against him the most when he least wanted it to. Heading into the cave he moved to place his saddle bags down and grab a striker from it to light some candles that he bought to replace the ones that had burned down. “Let there be light.” He said to himself out of habit when he was alone. “I really need to buy some land to build a house on…maybe not entirely out of clouds but the bed one-hundred percent has to be a cloud bed. There is just no other way to sleep.”

Yawning he considered calling it a night there and then but he had a bit of writing to do. One of the duties he quickly found out he had to do, which he neglected before hoof, though was let off the hook for not knowing, was write the weekly report to her Royal Highness Princess Celestia.

“Dear Princess.” He spoke out loud to himself as if to better help his thoughts flow. “This is my weekly report on the Element Bearers, so far nothing odd or strange seems to be up with them, even though I have heard some strange stories every now and then. Twilight is diligent in her studies even if Novo and even Lego sometimes swear she has a dozen new questions for them each minute of the day. I usually get by through shrugs and such so I don’t know why they have to explain things. Rarity is nice, almost too nice, just today she gave me and my brothers some new saddle bags which I gave them later, and while they are very nice, the main one we use has a particularly useful and expensive enchantment that is very much needed for us. Fluttershy I think still doesn’t forgive us for what we had to do to save little Apple Bloom that day and I often find her looking away from me. She talks to Lego and Novo easily enough though so that is good.”

Dipping his quill in the ink well to refresh the black substance he continued. “Applejack has been getting more and more free time to spend with her family since Lego drops by, his methodology has really helped them out though their stubborn nature won’t let them correct a few small things which could add up to be a good sized helping to their efforts. Rainbow Dash is currently taking a break from her training with Novo, he says everything is going as planned and I believe him. Twilight has said though, that Dash has grown restless and temperamental with her lack of training as advised by Novo. Though she swears this is normal as it happened when she had a hospital stay before. Finally Pinkie is….Pinkie. I still have no clue how she does the things she does but the three of us intend to find out. The girls all say we are crazy for trying and Twilight advises for our sanity we just let it go. Nope, sorry, but it is not our style.”

He once more dipped his quill into the inkpot to finish up the letter. “In summery all the girls are doing great, nothing seems to be wrong and Ponyville, despite the rumors and past evidence, is really peaceful. I, myself, am thinking of buying a home, something I have not had, nor has my brothers had, for as long time now. We wish you a wonderful day, or evening depending on when you read this letter and give our best wishes to your sister as well. Signed Velox Starshifter.”

Smiling to himself Lego stood up and stretched. “I am glad I don’t let Velox write these things, he would just go, ‘alls good’ and just send that.” Giving a tired yawn he decided he would change then blow out the candles to call it a night.

The universe decided tonight was the night to take something from him though for what he thought earlier when he was examining the work Zecora did and wondering about it.

As he finished changing he heard a distinctive noise and turned quickly to face the pink pony who had just gasped at seeing him change. “Oh buck.”