As we ate, Rainbow kept looking around as if something was missing. I just ignored it, but after ten minutes it started to get annoying, so I decided to asked her about it.

“Rainbow, the hell you’re doing?” I asked bluntly.

“Nothing, it’s just… I think we’re forgetting something…” She answered with furrowed brows, still looking around.

“Huh." I started to look around too, and I alsofelt like something was missing. Then it clicked. "Hey Spike, who you said were coming to the picnic?” I asked the drake at my side.

“I said it was me, you, our friends, Twi and the girls, the princesses, and the CMC.” He answered after a moment of thinking.

“Hey, that’s it! Where are those three?” Rainbow pondered.

I shrugged. “Spike didn't tell us much about them, so I have no idea.” I noticed three figures running towards us and pointed at them. "There they are, I think."

“Hey!” Yelled Scootaloo. She was wearing a short purple tank-top and indigo jeans shorts.

“Sorry for bein' late.” Apple Bloom said when they got near us. The farmer was wearing a white sleeveless shirt with a green coat wrapped around her waist, and blue jeans shorts. She also had a pink bow wrapped on her hair, making a ponytail.

“Our friend was crying hard and it took a while to get him to tell us about what happened.” Sweetie Belle added, sitting at her sister’s side. The unicorn was wearing a short black skirt and a pink-white striped sleeveless shirt.

“And what happened to your friend?” Fluttershy asked with concern.

“He was attacked by a timberwolf, but someone saved him and we’re trying to figure out whom. He said it was a wingless griffon girl with pink hair.” Scootaloo said, scratching her head.

I snapped my talons, making them look at me. “Hey, I’m Fairy.” I said, with a smile.

They looked at me for a moment before blinking and dashing towards me. “It was you who saved him?!” The three asked at the same time.

“Yeah, no big deal. Just did my job. Literally.” I said.

“Dude, that’s so cool! He asked us to tell you his thanks, by the way.” Scootaloo said.

“Wait, he said you used magic when he was in danger. Can you really do it?” Sweetie asked me.

My smile turned into a grin and I pointed a talon upwards. “Arcane Blaze.” A small pink fire ball ignited on my talon. They looked at it in surprise, but I could only maintain it for a few seconds and it disappeared quickly.

“Show off.” My friends said together, making me chuckle.

“To put it simple, everyone can use magic, but only people that live in Hybrios, or have a friend in Hybrios, can use it.” I said.

“But why they don’t teach it here?” Sweetie Belle asked again.

“Equestria doesn’t know how to do it and Hybrios don’t have good relations with anyone, except for a few trades.” I answered her.

“Hey, why did they get a resumed version and we got a history lesson?” Rainbow asked with an annoyed tone.

I chuckled and pointed at Twilight. “She was going to ask anyways, so I just explained it to save time.” Twilight blushed a bit.

“Yeah, that makes sense.” Rainbow said with a snicker. “But how did you know about it?”

“I know Spike for two years and half. We shared a few stories about our lives, and you all are in big part of his stories.” I said, looking at the purple alicorn.

Twilight glared at Spike, he returned her glare with a smirk. Twilight huffed and looked away, making the others snicker.

“Cheer up Twi, we weren’t saying anything bad about you. Just that you can get a little too excited about learning.” Spike said with a laugh.

Twilight grumbled a little before turning to me. “Two years and a half? How did you two even meet each other?”

“I met every one of them – except for Eclipse and Mirror – on a videogame.” Spike answered. “Eclipse and I met in real life when he moved here. One day he was playing a game called League of Legends; I already had heard about the game but never really stopped to play. Eclipse signed me in and we played together for a bit. On a match, we played with Fairy here and she played like she actually knew what she was doing, so we sent her a friend request so we could play with her again.”

“I accepted and we played for a while together, then I asked them to wait for a few minutes so I could call Scarlett and Dolph to play with us. I called them on Skype and we played almost every day together. But we don’t play just one game, when Spike and I were trying another game called Elsword, we me met Sapphyra and Soul. We played a lot and they ended up trying to play LoL too.” I continued for him.

“After a while Spike found Mirror playing HearthStone, and since Fairy and I played it too he asked her to send a friend request to us, and Fairy helped Mirror on the game, since she was just starting to play.” Scarlett added.

“Mirror ended up playing a lot of games we also played, and then the eight of us decided to create a team, and now we’re called the Guardians of the X! With X being an important thing for the game. Guardians of the Rift on LoL; Guardians of the Cards on HearthStone; Guardians of the El on Elsword… Oh! And Viper joined our group two weeks after its creation.” Dolph finished for us.

“Interesting… Who is this ‘Mirror’ you’re talking about?” Celestia asked us.

Scarlett looked at her before smirking. “You’re going to tell them, or I’ll have to?” She asked.

I looked at her in surprise. “Wait, you only mentioned Mirror for that?”

“Yup! I mean, Mirror plays videogames a lot, and the only reason we’re the only ones that know about it is because she trust that we won’t judge her, mostly because we also play.” She rolled her eyes. “Honestly, I think that’s bullshit.”

“Why would she think that?” Pinkie asked, clearly confused.

“Because she's older than most of you.” I answered matter-of-factly.

“Oh.” They said in unison.

“I can see why she would think that. But I’m sure her friends would understand if she told them.” Celestia said.

“You heard that, right? Come on, even your sister think it’s ok, Mirror Moon.” Scarlett said, looking at Luna.

“Yeah, I heard it.” Luna sighed.

The others looked at Luna in surprise. “Luna?” Celestia asked.

“After my return, I made a lot of research on the customs of this century. I maintained focused on law, news, music and other important things. At some point I read about videogames, but I ignored it until two years ago, when my curiosity got too big and I did not have much to do.” Luna explained. “I looked for something I would probably like and found HearthStone, a card game. When I finished the tutorial, Spike found me and instead of looking at me disblievingly because I was doing something labeled as 'childish', he actually just got surprised and helped me in one of my matches. He mentioned Fairy and said she could help me understand the game’s rules, playstyle, deck creating, etc, a bit better.” She smiled. “We played it for some time and she mentioned a few games she and her friends played and that I should try too. I loved playing action and strategy games. At some time I started Playing LoL, Fairy's fangirling about the game made me curious about it.”

"Hey!" I shouted with a smile.

She laughed and stood up, walking to our side and sitting near me and Spike. “Mirror Moon is the name I use on the games. But when Fairy visited Equestria the first time last year, I went too to meet her and used an illusion spell to disguise myself, using the nickname like it was my real name. After that we started calling each other by our nicknames as a joke, and I simply loved being called that. So much that I asked them to call me Mirror outside of the games too.”

My smile widened. “Yup, and now our group is together ‘irl’ too, so… Valkyrie.” I said, putting my fist between the nine of us. Scarlett and Spike got the ‘call’.

“That’s cliché as hell.” Scarlett said with a flat stare before she smirked and put her fist with mine. “Lilith.”

“Emerald.” Spike put his own fist.

“Siren!” Dolph almost punched our hands.

“Medusa.” Viper put her fist with ours gently.

“Spectre.” Soul joined us.

“Winter.” Sapphyra added with a smile.

“Stripes.” Eclipse turned to the others. “Yeah, no creativity whatsoever.”

Luna smiled before igniting her horn and being covered in light. When the light disappeared, a thestral sat in her place. “Mirror.” She put her hand with ours.

“Guardians!” We shouted, pulling our fists and punching together with our full strength.

"Gah!" I shouted and fell on by back, cluthing my hand. "Fuck, I forgot to protect my hand." I groaned. They laughed at me and I sat up to glare at them. "Laugh it up, assholes." I growled but couldn't contain the smile forming on my face.

After they calmed themselves, Scarlett looked at Luna. “Y’know, I always found your disguise funny. I mean, you just turn into a thestral, not even changing your colors. Your Cutie Mark is still the same, for fuck’s sake!”

Luna looked at her disguise and shrugged. “Ponies are stupidly dense.” She said before turning to Twilight and the others. “No offense.”

“None taken.” Rainbow replied, shrugging. “It’s kind of the truth.”

“So Luna plays videogames too?” Twilight asked with her head cocked to the side.

“Well, games are a lot of fun and it helped me to learn teamwork.” Luna said with a smile. “Fairy and the others even helped me to calm down a little when playing. Most times I would rage at the smallest errors.” She said with a sheepish smile before changing to a calm one. “And they also helped me with my studies about the changes that happened over the last years.”

“This is fun and all, but I’m going to swim a bit. Who’s with me?” Dolph said, getting up and stretching.

Applejack, Rainbow, Pinkie, the CMC and the Guardians minus Luna got up and changed to took off their clothes, showing the swimsuits that were beneath them. The boys were using black swimming trunks, which didn't surprise me in the slightest, and the girls were using bikinis of various colors.

Scarlett looked at me with a raised eyebrow. “You remembered to get our bikinis, right?”

“Nope, but after the same thing happened when we went to that event in Manehattan, I learned how to fix that.” I said with a smile, hugging the girls and closing my eyes. We were covered in a bright pink light and when it dissipated, we were clad on our swimsuits, and I was panting hard. “Man… This took… More power… Than I expected.” I said with a hand on my chest, winded.

The girls looked at me concerned. “You’re ok?” Viper asked.

I nodded and looked at our suits. Mine was a pink bikini with small chains acting as the cords and my top was still the shirt, but without the chain holding my Chasers. Scarlett’s bikini was black and red, with a metallic skull on the side. Viper’s was a purple bathing suit with a snake printed on the front, just below her breasts. Dolph’s also was a bathing suit, but hers was blue and with three dolphins forming a circle printed at the back. We turned to the others and saw that they were already swimming, except for the Guardians which were looking at us.

Viper blushed and tried to hide herself, while Scarlett and I smirked at them. “What? See something you like?” We asked together, making a pose and winking at them.

Spike chuckled while Soul slowly shook his head, both turning to the lake. Eclipse whistled and got slapped on the upside of his head by Sapphyra. Viper blush’s deepened when she looked at us and ran to the lake at Rainbow Dash speeds. Scarlett, Dolph and I laughed at their reactions and ran behind them.

Luna also laughed at our antics and shook her head. “They’re sure something.” Celestia said when we reached the lake.

“They’re idiots.” Luna said with a smile. “Good friends when you get to know them, but still idiots.”

“You shouldn’t be calling them that, Luna.” Celestia said with a frown.

Luna just shrugged. “They know it’s the truth, and they couldn’t care less.” The others looked at Luna in confusion. “They know their good sides and bad sides. Fairy is a great friend, very smart and has a good strategic mind, but she swears a lot, has a low patience, and is really, really, idiotic. Scarlett is smart too, but she also swears and often forgets to think and jump head first at things, this often leads to her losing a game or getting her butt kicked, as she would say. Dolph is as happy as Pinkie, and also goes on tangents pretty often. And Viper is…” Luna frowned. “She’s complicated. She’s very gentle, but she’s really reluctant; almost never speak up to us as if she fears we might get angry with her.”

“Why is that?” Fluttershy asked, she knew how it feels to be shy, but to think that your friends would be mad at her for such a small thing…

Luna bit her lip. “I… don’t really know... Every time I ask her about it she tries to change suject. She'll tell me when she wants to." She and the other looked and the venompony, trying to figure out her secrets.

Luna shook her head. “Well, but it isn’t just those four that know what bad habits they have. Spike is very loyal and honest, but he can be very sarcastic and two years being Fairy’s duo… well, he got a liking for a more adult humor. Eclipse is always trying to disarm fights and keep our spirits high, but he’s a bit dumb. Soul will always try to help you, be it with a problem or with a prank, but he’s a bit too quiet sometimes. Sapphyra and I are the only ones that are ‘normal’, as Fairy would say.”

“What do you mean by ‘normal’, darling?” Rarity asked, confusion plainly written across her face.

“Fairy’s family have a saying, ‘Everyone is retarded until proven otherwise.’ the two of us are the only ones that have proven otherwise. But if I really have to say something bad about us… Well, I also don’t have much patience, and Sapphyra is as discreet as a rampaging hydra.” Luna shrugged and stood up. “I'll join them. You're welcome to come too, if you want.” She was covered in a bright light and her clothes changed to an indigo bathing suit with her Cutie Mark on her belly. She walked to the lake and jumped in, then swam to the other Guardians.

“About time you joined us, Scarlett threatened to go there and bring you here by the hair.” I said when I noticed her.

Luna laughed. “Good thing I’m here, then. Let’s swim a bit, maybe find a game or two to play.” She suggested. I nodded and we went to the others. All the Guardians were having fun; we played multiple games, like seeing who held their breaths longer, racing and splashing water.

In other words, we were acting like children.

At some point, the others joined us and we made a big race. Dolph won it – fucking seaponies – and Pinkie was a close second. When everyone was getting out of the water, I stopped the other Guardians.

“Hey, let’s play one last game.” I said when they looked at me.

“Play what?” Spike asked.

I smirked. “Water Polo with a twist.”

They looked at me with interest and Scarlett snorted and rolled her eyes. "You don't even know what water polo is."

I shrugged. “To me, it's soccer on the water. Anyways, one of us will have to be out of the water to catch the ball, so we’re going to play four versus four. We all can use our elements to power up the ball, but only the goalkeepers can use spells, to protect the goal only, so no offensive attacks. The first to score wins.” I explained. “Who’s in?”

Everyone except for Luna lifted their hands. “I’m going to catch the ball, I can fly faster than any of you, so when the ball is about to exit the lake I’ll kick it back in.” She said, flying out of the lake.

“Ok, how about Team Equestria vs Team Hybrios?” Eclipse suggested. “Then Sapphyra and Dolph can be the goalkeepers. Since they’re both Water-wielders, they can stand on the water and it’ll be easier for them to protect the goal."

“Good to me.” Dolph agreed.

“Sure, why not.” Sapphyra shrugged.

“Ok, let’s create the goals.” Spike said.

Dolph jumped and stood on the water, then pointed at different lakesides. The water lifted and made two arcs. Sapphyra joined her and sent two beams at the arcs, freezing them. Scarlett, Dolph, Viper and I went to one of the goals while Spike, Soul, Sapphyra and Eclipse went to the other. I looked at the place where Twilight and the others were watching us. Luna flew down, her hooves stopping an inch above the water.

“The match is about to start and looks like we have an audience!” She shouted to her sister and friends, I looked at the others that were outside of the lake and noticed they were looking at us with curiosity. “The rules are simple; both sides can use their auras to improve their strength and speed, but only the goalkeepers and one more can use theirspells, and it’s just one goal to win!” I noticed Pinkie, AJ, Rainbow and Scootaloo getting interested. ‘She changed the rules?’ I thought, surprised. “The teams are Spike, Soul, Eclipse, and the goalkeeper Sapphyra as Team Equestria!” Said team waved. “Versus Team Hybrios! Fairy, Scarlett, Viper and the goalkeeper Dolph!” We waved too, Dolph jumping excitedly. Luna held her hand up, a blue aura covering it. “Stardust Creation.” The aura turner silver and formed a ball that floated a few inches above her outstretched hand. “This ball is made out of stardust, it’ll fly infinitely to any direction you throw it, and you can change the ball’s element to your own. If the ball flies out of the lake, I’ll kick it back in.” She concluded.

‘So I can kick the ball and it’ll change from Star to Arcane? And it’ll fly without falling? Mirror, you just turned this much more interesting.’ I thought while chuckling internally.

“Captains, come here to the middle.” Spike and I swam to Luna, she ‘kneeled’ and put the ball between us. “Who is going to use their spells?” She asked.

I looked at my team, and they were looking at me expectantly. A thought crossed my mind and I turned to Luna. “Scarlett” I said, ignoring the ‘Yes!’ that came from my team’s direction.

“Soul.” Spike said without much thought.

She nodded. “And who is going to start?”

“You can start, Spike.” I said, pushing the ball to him. He held the ball and nodded in thanks.

“Ok, in three, two, one… START!” Luna shouted, flying up high above the lake.

Spike threw the ball to Eclipse. He held the ball and swam to our goal; Spike was busy trying to get past me, and Viper doing the same to Soul. Scarlett tried to stop Eclipse, but he submerged fast and swam to the goal’s front, jumping out of the water and throwing the ball fast on the corner. Dolph reacted quickly and controlled the water of the lake to impact the ball, sending it back.

“You didn’t think it would be that easy, did you?” Dolph asked rethorically with a smirk.

Eclipse smirked too. “Not bad.”

Scarlett grabbed the ball and threw it at Viper, who caught and protected it from Soul. I took advantage of Spike when he was looking at them and swam around him. “Viper!” I shouted, she looked at me, nodded and threw the ball in my path. I grabbed it and powered up my aura and prepared a throw, but Soul was ready. “Shadow Ball!” He sent a sphere of Shadow energy at my path, surprising me and making me throw my ball too high. Luna flew to the ball and kicked it back to the center of the lake, where Scarlett grabbed it again and passed to Dolph. I swam back to the middle and stopped at Scarlett’s side, Viper joining us. Spike’s team did the same.

‘Heh, and here I thought this would be easy…’ I thought. “You guys are good.” I said to the boys.

“We try.” Spike smiled.

Dolph handed me the ball and my team all scattered, Dolph going inside the water unnoticed. I threw to ball at Scarlett and she also submerged, going behind the boys. Eclipse followed to try and stop her, but when tried to grab the ball it wasn’t with Scarlett anymore. Scarlett smirked at Eclipse's surprise and they emerged, looking to his goal. Dolph jumped out of the water, bringing the ball with her. She powered up an attack and water covered the ball. “Water Missile!” She shouted and kicked the ball, the magic expanding and rocketing towards the goal. Sapphyra pulled her fist back and powered it up. “Dracon Fire Punch!” A light blue fire covered her fist and she punched the ball with full force, sending in our goal’s direction and making Dolph gasp. I jumped out of the water and kicked the ball, and while I didn't have the strenght to stop the ball, I redirected it to pass over the goal. Dolph quickly dashed towards our goal in record speed while Luna kicked the ball back in, where Eclipse grabbed it.

“Phew, that was close. Great save, Fairy!” Dolph exclaimed.

“Yeah.” I looked at the boys who were passing the ball to each other, trying to confuse us. I turned to my team and smirked. “I have a plan.”

I proceeded to explain the plan to the girls, and they nodded at me. I submerged and swam fast toward the boys; when they noticed I wasn’t with my team anymore, I already had jumped out of the water and grabbed the ball mid-pass. “Now!” I shouted, powering up my strength and throwing the ball up with full force. Viper and Scarlett jumped out of the water; when they reached their aximum altitude, Viper powered up her aura and threw Scarlett higher. Scarlett began to twirl in the air multiple times very fast, and when she reached the ball she kicked it hard. The impact was strong enough to hurt Scarlett’s paw and blood started pouring out, making the griffoness smirk. Her blood covered up the ball and Scarlett sent her own spell. “Crimson Rocket!” The ball was sent towards Sapphyra with crazy speed, and Sapphyra quickly tried to stop it. “Winter Windstorm!” She sent a blast of frozen air towards the ball, but the ball just ignored the defense and passed a surprised Sapphyra, scoring.

“GOAL!” Me and my team shouted, while Scarlett dived back into the water and emerged with a smirk.

“And it’s a goal! The winner is Hybrios!” Luna shouted, ending the game.

We swam to the lakeside, and Scarlett got out limping, blood still getting out of her leg. She sat and the others ran towards us, getting surprised when they saw Scarlett’s leg.

Spike whistled. “What a kick, huh?”

Scarlett laughed. “Yep.”

Looks like no one noticed that we weren't caring much about the injury, becauseTwilight was panicking like she did when she got late for he friendship report. Yeah, Spike told me that. “Your leg! Ok, ok, calm down, I can fix this." She said defiantly before her shoulder slumped. "No, no, I can’t. I’ll teleport-” She was interrupted by a red liquid closing her mouth, noticing it was blood. She looked and Scarlett, who was pointing at her, a tendril of blood getting out of her hand and binding Twilight's muzzle.

“Call the hell down.” Scarlett said, snapping her talons. The blood that was out of her body returned to inside of her and she smirked. “I’m a Blood-wielder; that means I can use my own blood, and the blood that’s spilled, as my weapon. The perfect element to me, since I’m also a vampire." Scarlett noticed her slip when everyone took a step back in fear and rolled her eyes. "I don’t need to drink other people’s blood to live or whatever nonsense you guys believe. Well, if I do drink blood I can regenerate myself. Which reminds me.” She turned to me. “You sent my clothes to Bloodrier-Knows-Where, so can you return me one of my Bloodstone Pearls, please?” I shook my head with a smile and snapped my talons, a crimson red pearl appearing on her hand. She put it on her beak and ate it like candy while her wounds closed up, leaving nothing behind. She stood up and stretched. “Well, it’s getting late, so it would be better if we went to Twilight’s castle and helped her with that research, right?” The Guardians nodded. Dolph held her hand forward and the water that was covering us floated to her, forming a ball that was hurled back into the lake while I snapped my talons and our clothes returned. Luna did the same while the boys put their clothes back on and we walked towards the city with the others following close behind, except for Twilight and Celestia.

“I’m starting to question Spike’s choice of friends…” Twilight said with a frown.

“He and Luna saw something in those individuals. It would be better if we respected their choice, even if we don’t approve it.” Celestia said, also frowning. Twilight sighed but nodded, and they followed us back into the city.

Author's Notes:

Hehehe... I forgot to put the CMC on the group when Fairy fought the Timberwolf last chapter, but I remembered now!

Phew, I dodged a bullet here.

Also, HOW THE FUCK DID THIS REACHED THE 4000 WORDS?!

Seriously, I started writing yesterday and stopped when it was almost 2k, and finished today, but it jumped to the 4k without me noticing! And it took less time than last chapter to write.

Fuck logic.

Anyway, leave a comment with you opinion below, and if you noticed a typo, be sure to point it out!