A pair of black shelled, equine creatures with bug wings burst through the brush together. They ran for another few meters, hoping to lose their pursuers, without really caring where they went. They ran past trees and bushes through the forest, until they eventually both tired out and collapsed in a small clearing in the woods.

"I think... we lost them..." One of them noted, breathing heavily.

"G- *huff* Good. I'm *huff* really tired." Replied the slightly higher pitched voice from the one next to it. The first one lifted its head and looked around, realizing for the first time how lost they were. It struggled through the fatigue to its hooves.

"Where do you think we are, Mirrer?" It, or rather, she asked.

"How should I know? I was following you." Mirrer replied, from the ground. "Besides, Meta, even if I had known, I think I would've lost track when those guards spotted us." She started making her way to her hooves again as she spoke.

"Right..." Meta nodded, looking around the clearing for some sign of where they were. It shouldn't have been this dark in here. The sun had barely begun to set when they'd entered the forest. She glanced up at the canopy, noting how thick it was.

There was a sudden snap and scamper behind her, and both of them turned to look. They watched the darkness of the foliage for several seconds, but nothing breached the brush to threaten them.

"M-Meta? This place is kinda creepy..." Mirrer said. The older of the two looked at her now, noting that she was shivering slightly in fear.

"Right... we should keep moving..."

"O-okay."

They made their way through the forest for several minutes, not knowing which direction to go or where they were even making their way to. They worked their way through thick foliage, up and down hills and cliffs, and even swam through a bog before they finally found another clearing to rest in.

Normally, the two of them would have lifted off and flown over this forest, but Meta had injured a wing three days ago and the membrane was still tattered and damaged.

"This needs to change. We can't keep this up." Meta muttered.

"What?" Mirrer asked in confusion.

"We've been running for weeks, Mirrer. We need to find a place to hide. Somewhere where we can find a good source of love to live off of."

"There isn't much love for us, Meta. Not after the wedding all those years ago." It was true, that accursed wedding had been Chrysalis's scheme to claim Equestria for the changlings. After the failure then, it had only been a matter of time before bitterness and hatred took over Chrysalis's mind. She got obsessed and, long story short, the changlings got fed up with her and many left. Meta and Mirrer included. It took seven years, but eventually it happened.

The two had been traveling across Equestria for a few weeks, mostly undetected, feeding off any love they came across, generally from ponies passing on the road while they hid in the bushes. This lasted up until three days ago.
A unicorn had spotted them flying overhead and had grabbed Meta's wing with his magic, tearing through the delicate membrane of the wing easily. The two had been grounded since and, due to her pain, couldn't disguise themselves.

"Yeah, but they won't question another new face or two in a town. There's gotta be one near here, right?" Meta said.

"I guess... but what about disguising? Are you sure you can manage?"

"No, but we may as well try, right?" Meta replied, turning to continue

Mirrer gave her an unsatisfied look, but followed her nonetheless.

---

"Come on, mom, I'll be fine. I promise."

Fluttershy's resolve wilted under the hopeful eyes of her daughter. She glanced over at Twilight, who simply shrugged. The two looked back at their daughter, who was now officially reaching impatience as she fidgeted and squirmed. The green pegasus glanced up at the rainbow-maned one floating lazily above them.

"O-okay... but be careful, Dew Drop." Fluttershy finally answered. The young mare punched the air in excitement.

"Yes! Don't worry, I'll be careful. Promise!" Dew Drop said as she pumped her wings and followed Rainbow Dash toward their basic practice area, above the park.

" 'Kay, Squirt, you sure you wanna try a sonic boom? I'm not sure you ca-"

"I can do it. Don't worry." Dew said confidently. Rainbow stopped in midair, Dew following suit beside her.

"If you say so, kid. Okay, I've done this a lot since I joined the Wonderbolts, so I know it's really simple. All you need is enough speed, good form, and powerful wings." Dew nodded after each point as Dash spoke, attempting to assure the stunt veteran that she was ready. "Alright fine."

They landed on a cloud, getting ready to take off. Dew Drop gave Rainbow a brash grin before she started the count down.

"Three." Dash glanced at her, realizing that she was turning this into a race.

"Two." Dash said with a small grin.

"One." A small moment of silence. Dew Drop glanced down from the cloud, spotting Twilight and Fluttershy standing on the edge of the park in front of them. She looked back up, noting the few clouds she'd need to dodge, then glanced over at Rainbow Dash to wait for the final signal.

"GO!" The cyan pegasus shouted, pumping her wings hard. Dew Drop followed suit, barely keeping pace with her. For a moment, it seemed as though they were of equal speed, until Rainbow pulled ahead, just slightly at first, but gaining distance on Dew Drop.

The distance between them was only around a few meters when the cones started to appear around them. Dew Drop felt some resistance from it, but it didn't seem to slow her down any. It was an odd sensation; feeling resistance, but not being slowed down by it. She pushed harder and harder until she could actually feel the sound barrier about to give way...

But something went wrong... She barely heard the boom of Rainbow Dash breaching the sound barrier over the wind in her ears, but that wasn't the problem. She felt herself suddenly jerk to the side, then begin to loose control. She tried her best to control her path, but she veered off course, lost speed, and lost control, veering towards the nearby trees of the Everfree Forest.

---

Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy stood side-by-side, proud as any two mothers could be, watching their filly fly. She seemed to keep pace with the Wonderbolt, although she fell behind after a few seconds...

Then something went wrong.

They watched in horror as Dew Drop suddenly jerked to the side, veered off, then completely spun out, spiraling towards the nearby edge of the Everfree Forest. The two mothers started running after their daughter as she crashed through several trees and eventually hit the ground. Twilight closed her eyes for a second, then teleported the two of them there in a pop.

Dew Drop got to her hooves slowly, shaking her wings to make sure they were okay, then turned to brace herself for the impending hug from her mothers. She barely managed to stay on her already shaky hooves against the powerful assault that was (as she called it) The Flutterhug.

"Oh, are you okay, Droplet?" Fluttershy asked, giving her an array of kisses on the cheeks, while Twilight started examining.

"I'm fine, mom, I swear." Dew said with a half-hearted chuckle. As she said it, Fluttershy pulled back to examine her closely, seemingly not having noticed that Twilight had already done this. She lifted her wings and checked her legs for scratches, cuts, bruises, sores, and whatever else she could find. When she discovered that there was nothing but a few minor cuts that would heal in a day or two, she finally stepped back, beaming with relief.

Dew Drop took a moment to shake her flank slightly, so as to bring attention to her cutie mark; a set of three four-leaf clovers. "I doubt I was in much danger, mom."

"Being lucky is no reason to risk your life, Droplet!" Twilight said.

"Well, the way I see it, my natural luck is a tool to accomplish things, and there is no reason not to use every tool at my disposal, right?" Dew replied, but was met with a cold, slightly humored, stare. "Oh, fine. I promise to be more careful..." She mumbled, looking at the ground.

---

The two changlings watched from the woods as the green pegasus crashed near them. They'd run to the edge of the woods upon hearing a loud boom, but dived back in when they saw the pegasus coming. They watched the exchange between the pegasus and the two other ponies that ran up.

She seemed uninjured, which caused the two to seem irrationally concerned to the two changlings. They watched the two older mares examine the younger one for injuries, find nothing, then continue to scold her in a motherly fashion.

Of course! They could sense it now! The two older ones were probably married, or at least carried that level of love for each other, while the younger was their child. The two changlings glanced at each other, practically watching the others hunger fade as they both fed on the love they could feel. The two older mares slowly turned and left, whilst constantly assuring themselves that the younger mare was okay.

The two changlings stepped back from the edge of the woods, and Meta turned to lead the way to a clearing they'd passed on the way here.

"This can't be! We actually have come this close to the Elements!" Meta said.

"I can't believe they look the exact way they do in the stories..." Mirrer noted.

"They have a child... How did we not know this?" Meta asked. "The child seems to be close to their age... this isn't possible. That child was not there at the wedding..."

"That's really weird.... It's like she was born in the seven years since the wedding...." Mirrer frowned.

"She has to have been, or else Chrysalis would've known. There would be no way to keep it secret."

"So... how did they...?" Mirrer trailed off.

Meta thought hard for a moment. It occurred to her that it wasn't important where the child had come from; what was important was that they found somewhere safe to stay.

"I think we should worry about her later. Right now we need to disguise ourselves and get into town. I'll go first, I suppose..." She stepped away from Mirrer, then suddenly burst into a column of green fire.

She was replaced by a tall, elegant, unicorn mare. Her coat was a light, icy purple, her eyes were lavender, and her mane was almost snowy white and thick. She started looking herself over, paying close attention to her left side. "Did I miss anything?"

"Nope. My turn." Mirrer said. Another green column of fire erupted, and she was replaced with an earth pony. Her coat was a creamy red-orange, her eyes a lime-green, and her mane a bright, messy red. She started bouncing in a circle, practically chasing her tail, to look at herself. "How'd I do?" She asked.

"You didn't miss anything." Meta commented, slightly entertained by her companion. She took note that both of their voices had changed to be more similar to a pony's. She glanced at her flank, then at Mirrer's.

"Hmm... Matching cutie marks... How would we explain that?" They both had an ancient acting mask on their flanks, the difference being that Meta's was frowning, while Mirrer's was giving a vibrant smile. Mirrer stopped bouncing and glanced at them thoughtfully.

"Uhm... That looks like acting... So, we're an acting team?"

"I suppose..." Meta muttered. She looked back at Mirrer again. "Well. Might as well make our way to town." She said, walking back towards the edge of the woods.

"Yep!" Mirrer bounced after her with enthusiasm in her again.

---

A grey pegasus landed near the green one who was still sitting in the small area she'd crashed at. She immediately straightened up and brushed herself off. She watched him approach, wondering if he'd seen the crash, or just how fast she was going.

"You okay? I saw you crash and was wondering if you're okay." He said, dispelling all hope of dignifying this.

"O-oh... you saw that? Uhm... yeah I'm fine. I just uhm..." She frantically tried to find a way to make it seem less like she just failed. When nothing came, she resorted to the truth. "I lost control, and spiraled out. It wasn't that bad, really."

"Oh. Alright. Well, if you're sure, then I'll see you back at town then?" He asked as he started to lift off.

"Y-yeah." She answered. She watched him fly away, then sat down, sighing the words "Dang it." under her breath.

She sat there a few seconds then decided that it'd be best if she got back to town soon before ponies start worrying that she'd run off or something. She pumped her wings and took off towards town.

Once she was out of sight, two ponies walked out of the forest slowly and stealthily. They looked around, spotted Ponyville nearby, then headed towards town.

---

Pinkie Pie was working in Sugar Cube Corner happily and peacefully, but was interrupted by a sudden fit of shivers in her back left leg, and she knew:

There were new ponies in town. She waited a moment as the shivers lasted another few seconds, and she mentally totaled the time up. She mulled over it for a moment then came to the conclusion that there was exactly two new ponies in town.

She zipped out of the Corner in a flash, and in a moment a creamy orange earth pony and her purple unicorn companion were startled by a pink party pony suddenly appearing in front of them.

"HI!" She yelled, catching the new ponies off guard. They both screamed, startled at the pink mare's sudden intrusion. "Oh, sorry! But you two are new in town, right? I got this shiver in my leg, and we all know what that means, right?" She turned her sky blue eyes to Meta, who attempted to reply.

"Actually, I hav-"

"So, if my leg was shivering, then I just had to meet whoever it was telling me about. So I just had to come out here and meet you two. I'm Pinkie Pie, pleased to meet you!" She continued with a huge smile. She stuck out her hooves in a cross pattern in front of her, and the two strangers in front of her shook them gingerly.

"I'm Meta, an-"

"Hiya, Meta!" Pinkie gave her a grin, then turned her eyes on the lime green ones of the earth pony.

"U-uhm- I-I-I'm-" Meta gawked as Mirrer actually stuttered. The sporadic, fun-loving, younger changling had never been at a loss of words, nor had she ever stuttered, sputtered, blanked, or been nervous about anything, but here she was, tripping of her own tongue in the face of this pink earth pony.

The pink mare suddenly frowned in confusion. She backed up a few steps and looked at Meta. "Did I say something wrong?" She looked back at Mirrer awkwardly. "I-I'm sorry..." She said quietly.

"N-no, no. I just uh... wasn't expecting you to get that close..." Mirrer said, but Meta could tell she was lying. Then she got a twitch in the back of her head.

She sensed something. It was one of the instincts that changlings carried; the ability to sense strong feelings. It was an ability they had to help them feed, and she could sense something now. It was faint but there. She mentally shrugged, assuming it was a strong sense of nervousness from the two in front of her, or maybe their combined nervousness... Oh well.

"I'm Mirrer." She finally said after an awkward pause, wrenching Meta from her thoughts. Pinkie's smile returned instantly.

"Okay!" She zoomed over to a nearby tree, then zoomed back with a few envelopes, some papers, and a pencil. She started scribbling on the papers, then on the envelopes. She proceeded to seal the envelopes quickly, then handed two of them to the two newcomers. "You're invited to your 'Welcome to Ponyville, We're Excited You're Here!' double-party! I'll go invite a bunch of ponies and see you two there!!!" She started to turn away, her sky-colored eyes lingering just a second on Mirrer's lime ones, then she trotted off with a bounce in her step.

"Well.... that was odd." Meta noted dully.

"Was it? I didn't really notice..." Mirrer said distractedly as she watched the pink mare walk away. Meta stared at her for a second, then shook her head to clear it.

"We need a place to stay..." Meta said. Mirrer suddenly jolted at her, as if realizing she was there.

"Oh! Right! Yeah...." They looked around the town square they were in. Meta spotted an orange earth mare running an apple stall nearby.

"Let's ask her." She said, gesturing to the stall. Mirrer followed her over to the orange work horse quietly, with her head held down a little bit in a sheepish way.

"Well, howdy! How can Ah help ya?" The orange mare greeted.

"Hello. We were just wondering, since we're new in town, where a good place to stay would be..."

"And have ya met Pinkie yet?"

"Uhm, yes. She was certainly a character..." Meta said.

"Ya... anywho, Ah expect she invited ya to a party. All 'er friends'll be there. Try askin' around at the party."

"Okay. Thanks. Oh, I'm Meta and this is Mirrer."

"Howdy. Pleased ta meet ya. Ah'm Applejack." She said with a broad smile.

"It's a pleasure... When do you suppose the party will be?" Meta asked.

"Here, lemme see that." Applejack said, gesturing towards the note that Meta had. She gave it to her and Applejack opened it up and read it. The whole thing was hastily scrawled, and was apparently done on a pre-designed template. "It says the usual time. That'd be around seven at night, for ya newcomers. She's never on time with these things, so Ah'd say get there ten minutes early." She explained politely.

"Thank you very much, Applejack...." Then something occurred to Meta. A detail she hadn't noticed yet. She looked at Applejack carefully, noting her blonde mane and her freckles, as well as her hat and the cutie mark. "Wait... Applejack, Pinkie Pie... you two are two of the Elements of Harmony, aren't you!?" She sounded excited, but she was slightly fearful to be this close to one.

Applejack bowed her head so that her hat covered her face. "Yeah... Ah ain't one for braggin', but yeah me, Rarity, Rainbow, Pinkie, Shy, and Twi are the Elements. Local heroes and all that nonsense." She didn't look proud, or arrogant as the changlings constantly claimed the Elements were. She didn't sound overbearing or self-centered as the changlings expected. She sounded modest and looked embarrassed. Meta was flabbergasted by this turn of events, and immediately found herself liking the Element of Honesty, and if what she'd seen of her was anything to say about her, then she'd probably enjoy Pinkie Pie much the same way as she enjoyed Mirrer's foalish antics and pranks.

"Will the other Elements be there?" Mirrer asked.

"Well, yeah. We're all bes' friends ya know." Applejack answered, looking back up.

"Wonderful! I can't wait to meet them." Meta said, not quite sure if she was lying. "In any case, we really must be going."

"Alighty then. See ya at the party." They turned and made their way through the square to a park nearby. Meta sat down on a bench while Mirrer looked inside the hollow of a tree.

"This is crazy! They're nothing like we'd imagined!" Meta exclaimed.

"Who would hide a ball in here?" Mirrer muttered. She pulled out said ball and started playing hacky sack with it. "I guess we just blew them out of proportion, eh Meta?"

"Mm... Yes, we appear to have. All accounts of the Elements of Harmony described them as fierce warriors. I suppose we just began to give them an imaginary personality to match..." Meta said thoughtfully. "Perhaps we have nothing to fear from them?" The two fell into a thoughtful silence for a while.

Their thoughts were interrupted by a loud crash in the tree nearby. They jerked away and looked up, finding a familiar green pegasus caught in the branches. Another pegasus, this time a cyan blue one, flew down from above them and floated near the tree, about eye level with the first one.

"Now, squirt, you gotta NOT crash into trees to do that trick." She chided.

"Yeah, well, usually there won't be trees in the way when I try to do seven barrel rolls in a row." The green one said without moving. She fidgeted just a bit, and immediately came crashing down, landing on the bench.

It gave under her weight and the two ponies on it tumbled to the ground, rolling into Mirrer and dragging her into the mix.

"*oof* Oh... Oh! So sorry, miss..." The green pegasus looked up from the ground at the two mares next to her, and realized she didn't recognize either of them. "Oh! New in town?" She asked with some excitement.

"Uhm... yes." Meta answered.

"Oh cool! Have you met Pinkie Pie yet? She's th-"

"Yes. We met her." Meta deadpanned.

"She was awesome!" Mirrer added enthusiastically, to which Meta replied with a quirked eyebrow. She bowed her head sheepishly and started pondering on the dents and bends in the bench.

"Oh yeah, she is pretty cool. So I take it you two have your party invites then?" The pegasus asked, not noticing their exchange.

"Yep." Meta answered, looking back to the young pegasus.

"Hmmm... Guess I'll see you there!" The pegasus said. She lifted off flying towards a lazily backstroking cyan pegasus above their heads. She stopped halfway, and looked back down curiously. "Oh! I'm Dew Drop, by the way. What's your name?"

"U- I'm Meta."

"And I'm Mirrer." She said, finally looking up. Dew Drop smiled brightly back down at them.

"Oh, that's Rainbow Dash. She's teaching me to fly better and stuff." She said with a bored tone and a wave of the hoof. "Anyway, see ya!" She flew up to Rainbow again, and they flew up higher before performing a series of complicated stunts and tricks.

The two friends watched for just a moment, then turned and trotted into town.

---

Twilight and Fluttershy were in the library together, Twilight looking over some letters about Dew Drop from the princess, while Fluttershy and a few squirrels and some birds tended to the library.

There was a knock at the door, and Twilight hastily folded the notes and put them on a nearby table, while Fluttershy hovered over and opened the door to admit an excited Pinkie Pie. She zipped into the room in a flash, causing the critters to flee to the outdoors.

"Hey girls! Guess what? There's two new ponies in town! I'm gonna throw them a party tonight so here's your invites!" She reached into her cotton candy mane and tossed a set of three envelopes into the air. They glided through the air and safely landed on the table next to Twilight. "See you there!" She turned to leave but collided with somepony else in the doorway.

They both fell on their rears, looked up, and realized that they'd come face to face again. And so Pinkie Pie and Mirrer were caught in a staring contest by accident again.

Meta stepped around them, attempting to ignore the situation as best she could. She examined the array of books around her for a moment before her thoughts were interrupted by the librarian.

"Uhm... Hello there. Welcome to the Ponyville library. Are you the new ponies Pinkie was telling us about?"

"Mhm. I'm Meta and that's Mirrer." She looked at her distracted earth pony companion, who had scooted a little bit closer to the pink one, and had even started to go at a quiet, high speed chatter with the mare about things that Meta perceived to be nonsense.

The three ponies watched the two go at it for a moment, seeing as none of them had ever seen either of the two act this way with anypony, they simply shrugged it off as them being 'Pinkie' or 'Mirrer', and then continued their conversation.

"Hmm... Well, how can I help you?" Twilight asked politely.

"This didn't look like a library from the outside... it seemed too homely. I thought it was a hotel or something." Meta commented, examining the building around her.

"Oh... well, yes it's the library." Twilight said, slightly confused.

"D-do you need a hotel?" Fluttershy asked.

"Yes, indeed. We are new in town and have nowhere to sta-"

"Oh! I have some room!" Pinkie blurted suddenly, bouncing up just as suddenly. Mirrer followed suit, shortly after, with a glitter of hope in her eyes. Pinkie stopped in midair, sudden realization on her thought. "Oh... but I only have room for one..." She said as she slowly floated to the ground at a rate that Meta was sure a feather could beat.

"That's okay. I'm sure Mirrer would be glad to stay with you." Meta said. Mirrer gave her a look as her face flushed. Ha! Meta had caught something earlier, and it wasn't just nervousness.

"Er- S-sure." Mirrer stuttered slowly. The three watched as the two playful, sporadic, impossible, sugar-rush ponies were suddenly subdued and flustered by the thought of living together for a short time.

"Well, it's settled then! Alright, then... Do either of you know where I could stay for a while?" Meta asked, turning from the sputtering pair to the couple before her. Fluttershy glanced sidelong at Twilight. She whispered something to Twilight, who listened closely to the suggestion. She looked a little surprised at the notion, but nonetheless, considered it.

"... I guess..." She started. "The library does have a bedroom in it you could use. Nopony's lived there since I moved out, so I guess you could stay there..."

"You wouldn't mind? I could find somewhere else..."

"No. It's fine. You can stay there." Twilight didn't sound too excited at the idea, but Meta took it for what it was.

"Thank you very much Miss...?"

"Mrs. Twilight Sparkle." She answered. Fluttershy smiled shyly as Twilight leaned over and kissed her. "And this is Fluttershy."

"Oh..." Meta said. She wasn't surprised, but she pretended to be, which wasn't hard. Changlings were born actors after all.

There was the sound of hooves hitting the ground hard outside the door, followed by a slightly lighter version of the sound, then the door opened to admit an entertained looking Rainbow Dash, and a slightly frazzled Dew Drop.

"I'm telling you, RD, I coulda done the trick if Ditzy hadn't dropped that muffin!"

"Sure, kid, that's what went wrong." Rainbow replied with a smirk. Dew stuck a lip out indignantly, but didn't pursue the argument.

"Hey, M-" She turned to face the other five, noticing Meta and Mirrer for the first time. "Oh, hi again!"

"Droplet, dear, this is Me-"

"Oh I've already met them, Lav. They're new in town!" She looked over at Pinkie, not even thinking about the fact that she wasn't jumping, bouncing, sprinting, dancing, eating sugar, laughing, grinning so much it made your cheeks hurt, or even getting ready to do those things, and asked, "When's the party, Pinkie?"

Meta took note of two things at that exchange. One: Dew Drop had just called Twilight 'Lav' not 'Twi' or 'mom'. Two: Dew Drop had been carrying an almost childish behavior most the day. Everything about this child was beginning to perturb Meta more and more.

"U-uhm... It's supposed to be about seven..." Pinkie answered slowly.

"Cool..." Dew said slowly, not quite understanding why Pinkie was acting weird.

"Okay, squirt, you wanna try that trick again?" Rainbow asked, noticing something up with Pinkie.

"Sure." Dew said, following her out of the building.

"Right, we'd better get going, too." Meta said, pulling Mirrer towards the door. They walked out of the library, down the block, the stopped out of site.

"Mirrer, what's wrong with you? Why are you acting so strange around that mare?" Meta asked when she was sure nopony could hear.

" 'Cause she's kinda cute." Mirrer stated simply. Meta gave her a blank stare. She'd expected that (or at least something simlar) was the case, but hadn't expected her to be quite so blunt or forward about it.

"E-excuse me?" Meta finally choked out.

"*sigh*..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pinkie swung her gaze to Mirrer's eyes and suddenly everything froze. Mirrer could feel a kind of nervous fluttering in her stomach, as well as some kind of odd tickle on the bottom of her gut and along her spine. Her voice caught in her throat and she couldn't speak normally. She stuttered out a failed attempt to speak her name, then watched as the pink mare's adorable smile faded away and was replaced by a frown as she took a few steps away.

"Did I say something wrong?" She asked Meta, who was watching this whole things in silent curiosity. She merely shrugged, but Pinkie was already looking at Mirrer again. "I-I'm sorry..." She said softly.

"N-no, no. I just uh... wasn't expecting you to get that close..." Mirrer tried to assure her. There was an awkward silence as the two stared into each others eyes again. "I'm Mirrer." She finally worked out of her lips.

"Okay!" Pinkie replied with a huge grin returning to her face. "I like that grin." Mirrer thought to herself. She considered the thought for just a moment, then simply resigned to the idea that she probably just developed an instant crush.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Just like that?"

"Yep." Mirrer answered.

---

"Simply because her eyes are pretty and her smile is cute?" Twilight asked. She and Fluttershy had been having much the same conversation with Pinkie as Meta had been having with Mirrer.

"Well, not JUST that, but yeah..." Pinkie answered. She angled her head oddly, probably attempting to hide behind her mane the same way that Fluttershy did, but her hair was far too puffy to even cover her eyebrows. So she simply started examining the floorboards while she answered the questions.

"Th-then what else? I-if you don't mind..." Fluttershy asked, starting with an interrogative tone, but it faded away as she asked her question.

"N-not much. We just had a nice chat..." Pinkie said shortly. She didn't go into detail about what they talked about seeing as in those short two or three minutes, they probably touched down on almost every subject even Celestia could think of.

"Okay, fine." Twilight interjected. "How about you go throw her one heck of a party, and see where it goes from there?" She asked.

"Yeah... Yeah! I'll do that!" Pinkie said with great enthusiasm, then she was gone in a flash.

---

Dew Drop performed another sequence of rolls, flips, spins, and other tricks of varying difficulty in the air while Rainbow Dash watched. The Wonderbolt admired the kid's tenacity in the sport, but had to admit that the younger pegasus wasn't quite good enough to try out yet. Of course, she was about where Rainbow was at that age, and considering that she'd hit 'that age' at the real age of five, it was actually impressive.

But impressiveness didn't stop the next crash from coming, nor did it help you get back up and not crash again. No, it merely highlighted your skill, and skill was what you needed to make in the stunts world. Impressiveness also highlighted the crashes and the shortcomings of your skill. If you couldn't live up to how impressive you seemed, then you wouldn't make it.

Rainbow watched the impressive display of Dew Drop's stunts, scanning for the hint of finesse that showed she had the skill for this. It was there.... but it wasn't right. The kid was good and all, but she wasn't quite ready for this. She had the mind of a younger pony, and she didn't seem to realize she did. It wasn't gonna work out right if she joined the team. No matter how good she did, she'd still be acting like a foal, and the team would think the recruiter had played favorites.

The recruiter being Rainbow Dash...

Rainbow was suddenly ripped out of her thoughts when Dew Drop spiraled out of control again and slammed, face-first, into a large cloud, and ended up halfway buried in it. She flew up to help her get herself out of the clouds, thinking to herself that that would have to never happen in front of the Wonderbolts, or else even her status as a recruiter wouldn't get Dew in.

---

It was seven'o'clock now, and the two new ponies in town walked into Sugar Cube Corner for their first time, glancing about at the decor that matched their mane and coat colors. It was an odd match- Meta's cold colors and Mirrer's warm ones -coming together and making some kind of hot-cold design. Meta had to admit that Pinkie had thrown together some good decorations in such a short time.

Mirrer spotted Pinkie from across the room and immediately took a step closer to Meta, who rolled her eyes in response.

"Oh, just go talk to her. I doubt she'd reject you." Meta said assuringly.

"What makes you so sure?" Mirrer asked indignantly. Meta responded by blinking hard, causing her eyes to revert to changling form on purpose for just a moment before blinking again, putting them back to the normal-looking purple.

"Hello?" Meta said sarcastically.

"Oh..." Mirrer mumbled, looking over at Pinkie again, still unsure of herself. Meta rolled her eyes again, thinking to herself, 'This is going to be fun...'

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