"When are you going to introduce everypony else to your new friend?" Pinkie asked as we gathered for our weekly training session. "You should show everypony else your new summon."

"I haven't shown most of them my first one, either," I mentioned.

"Sure, but everypony's seen the parasprites. Besides, they're just gross. And they don't talk much," she said. "Come on! I want to finally see Diamond Dust! It's not fair to make us wait all the way until the Hearth's Warming Eve party."

"Who or what is a Diamond Dust," Applejack asked. "Have you been foalnapping ponies and stuffing them in those little jangly balls o' yours?"

"Wait, are you talking about the windigo that attacked us?" Rainbow asked. "She deserves to just rot in there."

"Aww, she does still care,~" Diamond Dust purred. Even if she no longer ate conflict and strife, she still had a sadistic appreciation for it.

The word 'windigo' got Twilight interested, and she set her reading material aside and approached to see for herself. "That's not possible. Windigos have been extinct for centuries, since shortly after the unification of the tribes."

"She tells me she was trapped by a dragon most of that time," I explained.

"Tells you? Have you been summoning her alone? I warned you!" Rainbow growled.

"What? No. She just kind of floats around pestering me all day long," I complained.

"That's not a very nice way to put it," Diamond pouted. I wasn't inclined to take the gesture sincerely.

"That's it, Cloud, turn me into a summon so I can beat the snot out of her!" Rainbow demanded.

"Oh, oh! Maybe we can all be summons? Or all be a group summon, like Knights of the Round!" Pinkie said.

"What are you even talking about? No one can summon more than one being at a time," I objected.

"It'd be better for us all to be separate summons, anyways. An array of sparkling jewels, gleaming in the starlight," Rarity said wistfully, "of course I would be the most stunning of them all... perhaps the centerpiece of a magnificent necklace to complement your tiara..."

"Okay, no. I'm not turning any ponies into summons, ever," I said, "least of all my friends. Now can we get back to it?"

"Certainly, darling, don't leave us hanging any longer. Show us this new friend of yours," Rarity invited.

"Alright. Rainbow, you're with me," I said, calling her out of the line of ponies. "And Diamond, I swear, if you hurt them I swear you will never see the light of day again," I muttered under my breath.

Once Rainbow was at my side, I drew on my magic, pulling the two of us into the ether, letting us fade from reality even as Diamond Dust emerged into the physical world. She seemed a lot more 'real' than when we had fought her. She could sense it as well, and squealed with joy as she flew all around the clearing, surging with energy, laughing. She finally settled down before my friends.

"Why'd you pull me in here with you, Cloud?" Rainbow asked.

"Because you and Diamond Dust get along about as well as fire and ice," I answered. "I don't want either of you using the opportunity to antagonize each other."

"Don't leave me hanging, double D," Pinkie called out, holding up her hoof. Finally noticing it, the windigo swooshed up to her and gave a loud clop.

"This is great! I feel so alive, so... powerful," she said.

"If you think this is great, just wait till the party!" Pinkie replied.

"Yes the... party," Diamond said, looking away. "I'll be there."

"You better not wreck Pinkie's party!" Rainbow challenged. Diamond didn't respond. I still wasn't sure if summons could hear their callers from the ether. I wouldn't put it past Diamond to simply pretend not to hear.

"You're actually a real, live Windigo?" Twilight asked in amazement, even as she stole the tape measure from Rarity's saddlebags and began recording every detail of the creature she could measure. "How is that even possible?"

"A good question," Diamond responded. "I even seem considerably less dead than before I fought master Strife."

"You were dead before? Oh dear," Fluttershy commented with a shiver, hiding behind her hair.

"Can you explain how your kind are able to eat abstract concepts such as conflict?" Twilight inquired.

"Nope," Diamond answered.

"So where do you live when you're not bein' summoned?" Applejack questioned.

"In master Strife's dreams,~" Diamond answered. "I know Rainbow Dash is her official marefriend, but I'm the mare of her dr-" Only I heard the last syllable as the summon magic faded, removing her from reality as Dash and I reappeared. Only I heard it but nopony had any trouble guessing it.

Rainbow in particular made her feelings known with a hoof to my face. I caught her leg in my hand before she could pull back from her strike. "So you're dreaming about her now? What? Every night?"

"She invades my dreams. It's not like I have a choice about it," I said.

"Sure you do. Give somepony else the materia," Dash demanded.

"Oh! Oh! Pick me, pick me!" Pinkie volunteered.

"I'd love to be able to further interview the specimen," Twilight said.

"Diamond?" I asked.

"Why are you asking her?" Rainbow demanded.

"I'd rather not be with somepony that calls me 'specimen'," the windigo pointed out. So I removed her materia from my sword and tossed it to Pinkie Pie, losing sight of the windigo when I did.

"Woo hoo!" Pinkie yelled before singing a happy song about it. "Oh, oh! Can I try doing a summon attack? I wanna see how powerful my new materia is!"

"Woah, now, you're not trained in magic at all," Twilight objected, but Pinkie wrapped her up in a hug.

"Come with me! We'll have a private party in the ether! Oh, let's make it a threesome!" she said before dragging Applejack into it as well. Ignoring all objections, she vanished from view, dragging the two other mares with her.

As Diamond Dust reappeared, Rainbow Dash broke free from my grip, blurring through the air to strike the summoned Windigo. But Diamond was as elusive as the wind, slipping aside time and again as the infuriated pegasus tried and failed to lay a hoof on her.

"How was an earth pony like Pinkie able to use magic like that?" Rarity questioned, surprised, as she watched the exchange.

"That's what materia is," I said. "Knowledge of magic or other skills in physical form. I wasn't sure yet if ponies could use it, or just humans, but you can see for yourself."

Rainbow smashed into a tree in her haste to strike at the slippery winter spirit, stunning herself for a moment, and wasting more of her time untangling herself from its branches.

"I was called here for a reason," Diamond Dust said as she began gathering power into a growing, glowing ball of pale blue light. "You might want to stay out of the way, Rainbow Crash," she suggested. She pushed the ball forward and it expanded into a rushing onslaught of wind, blowing close enough to ruffle Rainbow's feathers while otherwise avoiding any of us. Where the wind blew ice crystals rapidly grew on ground and trees, coating them several inches thick.

"Augh! You too?!" Rainbow cried in rage. She tried one more charge, but rather than slam into the windigo fading from view, she slammed full force into an unmoving wall of orange fur fading back into existence. The earth pony rocked a bit on her hooves from the impact, but the pegasus was laid out on the ground. "Ugh, what hit me..."

"Maybe y'all should take the rest of the day off, sugarcube," Applejack said as she simply rocked back to fully upright. "Cool yer head a bit."

"That was simply amazing," Twilight said, clopping her hooves excitedly. "Can I try next? Perhaps with your other summon?"

"No. If you want to summon the win- Diamond Dust, then fine, but the parasprites are too destructive. I don't think I'll be summoning them again in any but the most dire circumstances," I said.

"Oh. So those poor creatures will just be locked up in that little gem all alone forever," Fluttershy questioned sadly.

"Sort of... I mean, they do creep into my dreams," I said with a shudder.

"Oh! Do you think... would you mind if..." Fluttershy quietly failed to ask.

I sighed, before unfastening the other summon and tossing it to the butter colored pegasus. "Don't summon them. They clearcut the space for my house in a single calling. And there's no way to... okay, well it is you. Maybe you could command them to not be so destructive."

Fluttershy began giggling and looking around and things only she could see as she held the materia in a wing. "Why hello there! I remember you little guy! I'm not sure about you. What's your name?" Another pegasus no longer able to train.

"I'm still amazed that an earth pony was able to work such powerful magic untrained. This materia of yours is incredible. It could revolutionize Equestria!" Twilight gushed.

"It's done impressive things where I'm from too," I said, though I couldn't help but frown at the thought. Shinra had done amazing things with materia, but not all of it was good.

"How hard is it for you to make more of it?" Twilight asked. "And how many different kinds are there? I know you have that green one that makes fire."

"The summons I can only make from defeated monsters, I think. That's a matter of opportunity," I said. "As for the green one? I made it from an oven. I think when I can put up the money for it, I'll be able to make more from other appliances. There's something about the way your technology works that interacts with me strangely. It's kind of a pain for me, though, since I can't use your modern conveniences myself."

"It's true, she can't even open the fridge without freezing everything on the shelves," Applejack added. "We lost a week's worth of groceries just from her grabbing the handle.

"The handle? I believe that's the charge point," Twilight mentioned. "Modern technology works by having certain charge points. When a pony touches them with a hoof or other part, even the magic from a unicorn's horn, the device draws some of their magic to keep it functioning."

"Let me guess, for the oven it's the control knobs," I said. When Twilight nodded I continued. "So when I touch the control point, the devices go haywire. I guess it's reacting to the mako inside me."

"We should do some tests to find out," Twilight suggested. "It's better to research it with proper scientific methodology than simply speculate."

"We'll get a few suitable devices to test on, then see if I can make more materia from them. We should all be outfitted with at least a few each, especially once we can get suitable weapons made for each pony, with materia slots like my sword," I said.

"That all sounds lovely," Rarity said, "but appliances don't come cheap. Nor weapons, I'm sure. Where are we going to get all the bits from?"

"What did you think Celestia was paying us for?" I asked. "Now let's focus, we're here to train."

"Let's start with something simple," Twilight suggested. Looking around her library, her eyes settled on a desk lamp. "There."

On Gaia, such a device would be plugged into a wall, taking electricity from a Shinra corp Mako reactor to power the light. Here there was no cord. "Alright," I said. "Let's see what we get." I started by touching the knob that must have been the charge point. I felt a little shock and the light went from off to blinding in an instant before dying out.

"Wow, you haven't even twisted the knob yet," Twilight said, recording notes with a levitating quill and scroll. I noted with fear that it matched the one from my home. An innocent coincidence; I had no doubt Sofas and Quills had a surplus of identical quills, but I also had no doubt my marefriend was going to take offense when she saw it.

Further experiments showed the lamp had become useless for the pony, but I could get more outburst from it. I started disassembling the fixture, and soon identified the little bit of crystal responsible for its function. Crystal in hand, I could draw the tiniest bit of magic to make a glowing orb of pure light that I could direct about. "This is draining me, almost imperceptibly slowly," I said. "I feel like it could do more... it's not uncommon for materia to grow with use and gain more abilities. Let's glass it, and move on. This should be handy around my house, even if it doesn't grow."

"Alright," Twilight said. "I ordered a new freezer, the smallest and cheapest I could find. It should be delivered soon. In the meantime, let's look at this sewing machine Fluttershy volunteered." Even as she spoke, she placed the crystal into one of the molds we had brought and poured green molten glass over it.

"Fluttershy can sew?" I asked as my hand touched the controls and the needle moved fast enough to create an ominous hum before breaking down.

"Apparently seriously enough she spent a month's salary on a new sewing machine, and didn't need her old one anymore," Twilight answered. "I wonder what this one will do?"

I started taking apart the machine, this one more complicated than the lamp had been. "A good question. Something to do with motion, I guess." Something drew me to the piece that would react, like an instinct. Another control crystal, this one a different shape and color, but recognizable enough. When I grasped it, I felt the power within. It wasn't like the others. This one granted a physical skill, rather than ordinary magic. "Put this one in yellow glass," I told Twilight as I handed it over.

"Why yellow?" Twilight asked, even as she did as I requested.

"This one's a 'Command' materia, not a 'Magic' materia. It allows the user short bursts of speed to make multiple attacks in quick succession," I explained. "Striking repeatedly like a sewing machine."

"That's... a rather strained analogy, but I see why you'd make it," Twilight said with a groan.

"I just wish there was a way we could convert the Element of Magic like this," I mentioned. "The tiara's far too vulnerable."

"I'm not sure it'd be a good idea to mess with the Elements like that, anyways," Twilight said. "I don't have any other appliances around we can spare to take apart. But, I do have some equipment downstairs in my laboratory. If you don't mind, I'd like to do some measurements on you, especially while you're activating some of this materia. It'd be great to be able to put some detailed scientific observations along with our more casual findings."

It was my turn to groan. "Alright... just no trying to put me in a glass tube, alright?"

"Why would I do something like that?" Twilight asked curiously as she lead me downstairs.

I was a bit surprised as I looked around at her equipment. It was bizarre looking, to my eyes at least, with blinking lights on what looked to be a sad mockery of a computer amidst the beakers and plumbing built in among the roots of the giant tree. Fortunately, none of the glass tubes were nearly large enough to contain me, making me more at ease.

"Here, just put this on your head, and place your hooves, I mean arms, here," the unicorn directed, providing me with a metal bowl covered in blinking lights. I followed her directions, trying not to tense when she strapped my arms in place. I trusted her, of course, but the metal restraints made me a little uneasy. Leather I would certainly be able to bust free from, but metal might prove a problem if things somehow went south.

"Alright, now what?" I asked. With my hands restrained, I couldn't swing my sword if I wanted to, but the materia within were still usable.

"First we take a baseline," she said. She wheeled over the computer-like contraption and started attaching wires. The first connected to my head without incident. The second attached to the thing holding my hands in place and immediately caused the machine to go haywire, spewing papers with wild, nonsense printed on them until the spool ran out, and the machine started smoking.

"I... I guess I should have seen that coming," Twilight said sadly. "At least maybe you can salvage something useful from it."

"I'll try," I offered. Once I was unrestrained, I got to work, though it was a much harder search before I found what I could use, another crystal formation deep within the insides.

"What about those others?" she asked, pointing out several other crystals within.

"I don't know. They're not reacting to me," I said with a shrug. "This is the part that's useful." Focusing on it, I could see it was another Command materia, though a very different nature. I used it to focus on Twilight, quickly learning her name, age, weight, height, race, as well as an estimate of her overall combat potential, physical durability and the depth of her magic pool. While some of that was known to me, some of it I would never have dared to ask. "This could be quite useful," I said with a grin even as I turned the power on myself.

That I was older, heavier, and taller than Twilight was no surprise. The difference in our physical durability was a bit shocking in its magnitude, but easily attributed to Mako conditioning. Likewise the difference in our combat level. I was surprised, however, to see her magic pool was deeper than mine. It made me wonder a moment why I was the one with the Element of Magic. But surely there was more to it than that. A deeper aspect of fate. After all, Rarity wasn't exactly the most generous mare in the world.

"What does it do?" Twilight asked after a minute. "Are you going to use it?"

"I already have," I said, tossing it to her. She tried holding it in one hoof but just shook her head. "Does it actually need the glass to function? That's another yellow one."

"Maybe it does. Let's go get it finished," she said, starting the way upstairs.

"Oh, there you are, sugarcube," Applejack greeted from upstairs, sounding a bit down despite her words. When I rounded the corner I could start to see why. She had Rainbow Dash with her, thoroughly tied up and fuming, and Pinkie Pie looking as down as I'd ever seen the mare. The black eye and other obvious bruises probably explained her low mood. "Seems we've got another 'discipline issue' on our hooves."

"Who wants to explain first?" I asked, directing my words toward Rainbow Dash.

"She laughed at me!" Rainbow accused Pinkie.

"So you beat her up?" I asked.

"I wasn't laughing at you, I was laughing at Diamond Dust," Pinkie countered. "She just happened to be near you at the time."

"Well... then she said there was no way I'd ever be a wonderbolt," Rainbow claimed.

"I was talking to DD then too," Pinkie explained. "She was saying she wished she could be a stunt flyer but she has trouble going in straight lines."

"Uh huh, and she just happened to be right where I was at the time?" Rainbow asked in disbelief. "Admit it, you were mocking me. Or she was and you were helping." The pegasus strained against her constraints, looking ready to pounce the earth pony again, but Applejack tightened the ropes and kept her pinned down.

"Now now, RD, this ain't helping your case none," the farmer pointed out. "Settle down and let's get this sorted out."

"That wasn't the worst of it, though. She was asking Diamond about your wet dreams!" That one got a blush out of me.

"She told me it rains sometimes in your dreams," Pinkie claimed.

"And then she asked the damn ghost what it was like licking your cock in your dreams!" Rainbow yelled. That one got Applejack and Twilight to blush.

"She... said there was a rooster in your dreams. And that she licked it," Pinkie said, giving a hopeful grin.

"That's... sounding pretty unlikely Pinkie," I pointed out.

"Well she did," Pinkie said before sighing. "Okay... I admit, by that point I was just enjoying egging you on. I'm sorry," she told Rainbow Dash, sounding at least somewhat repentant.

"So that's when you attacked her?" I asked.

"No. It was when she told the windigo she was going to have a private party with just the three of you," Rainbow said.

"Well, she did say she still wanted to have a welcome to Ponyville party even though I already told her nopony liked to show up for those for ghosts," Pinkie said. "I walked right into that one, didn't I?"

"It'd be hard to do so more completely if you tried," I said. "Pinkie, there's such a thing as jokes that are best left unsaid. Taunting someone into attacking you might be a decent combat strategy at the right time, but it's never called for with friends. Your punishment is, well, I'd say you've been punished for it. But if you can't handle having Diamond Dust around without letting her taunt you into things like this..."

"You should give me the summon materia," Rainbow said.

"That sounds like the worst possible idea," I pointed out. "If she can do this to you when you can't see or hear her, what makes you think you can keep your cool when you can?"

"It'll be easier. She can't sneak around pulling any of these stunts like that if I'm the only one that can hear her," Rainbow countered.

I looked to the others for opinions. "Why don't I hold onto her instead? I still want to interview her," Twilight said.

"She did say she didn't want to be with a pony that called her a 'specimen'. Alright, that will have to suffice for Diamond's punishment for now," I said. I took the materia from Pinkie, noting as the windigo faded into my vision.

"A punishment, huh? Do your worst," Diamond said, sticking her tongue out.

"If you're going to continue to cause strife within our group, you'll end up locked in a safe somewhere for the next thousand years," I said before handing her off to Twilight. "Behave and you'll at least always have somepony to spend time with."

"Oh! There you are," Twilight said. "Now, I'd appreciate your honest answers on some questions I have about the pre-unification time period," the librarian said as she started to trot away from us.

I started to untie Rainbow Dash. "As for you, Dash. Your punishment is... we're taking a break. After Hearth's Warming, if you want to try again I'll take you on another date. In the meantime, you need to get some help getting that temper under control."

"What?! No! Don't do this! That's almost a month away!" Rainbow complained. "Come on, I'll do better! I promise!"

"You will do better, or you're out of the Elements entirely," I said firmly. "Your jealous outbursts have been bad enough, but attacking a teammate like that? That is completely out of line, and I can't have it in my team. You have another chance, but you're going to have to prove yourself. Prove you're better than this," I said, pointing to the injured mare.

"I will," she said firmly, determined. I just hoped that determination would stand up to the next temptation.