MLP: FiM - The Talent Tournament - Chapter 1

*The following story is an original, written-up fan fiction based on the very popular TV series, “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic”. Nearly all of the recognizable characters that were used in this story rightfully and mainly belong to the many creators and owners of MLP: FiM, particularly Lauren Faust and HASBRO. No copyright infringement of any kind are intended nor were ever intended nor will ever be intended during the creation of this story. This story is simply something for viewing and/or reading audiences to enjoy, as well as something fun to do.

*This story takes place between the ending of MLP: FiM’s Season 6 and the beginning of Season 7, and is and/or was meant to be at least somewhat canon-like with the actual TV series. However, I am afraid that in order to fully enjoy this story and its content, it is mostly required that reading fans read my earlier MLP: FiM fan fictions in my gallery. Of course, that is entirely up to you.

*I would like to take this opportunity to warn you all that at the very highest, this MLP: FiM story would probably be rated PG due to certain content in this story; nothing bad for the normally targeted viewing/reading audiences of course, mind you, but still.
Also, whatever unrecognizable characters and objects being used in this story are most definitely original creations made by or owned by me and/or Sonic-fan17 of DeviantART. All of that being said, my main story partner and I have been working on this story since Very Late 2015 / Very Early 2016. It was a lot of work, but we think it was worth all of the effort. We hope all of you readers out there who do choose to read this story will find this story to be quite enjoyable. Thank you all for your time, and please enjoy.

- saber360 of DeviantART



My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
The Talent Tournament




Chapter 1: Is My Bad Past Still a Part of Me?


It was a nice and wonderfully sunny day in Equestria… well, for most parts of the land, it was nice and wonderfully sunny… NOT including Ponyville, however. At the time, Ponyville was having a rainstorm. Nothing too serious, of course, just some SLIGHTLY heavy rain and wind, BUT definitely nothing that could result in a flood nor even a flash flood, let alone a hurricane. Simply put, it was just a simple rainy day in Ponyville, if a just little bit blustery.

Just as importantly, of course, everypony in Ponyville was safe indoors and keeping themselves that way in their homes, especially for a particular group of friendly Ponies – which of course included a particular baby dragon – in a particular crystalline castle of a particular Princess of Friendship.

What was happening was that the one and only Princess Twilight Sparkle, along with Spike, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity… they were all gathered together in the main hall, hanging out together and talking while spending such a rainy day indoors with a little fun pony-pet play date going on. As you may have guessed by now, this meant that this group of friends was having fun spending time with each other and their pets: Angel Bunny, Tank the Tortoise, Gummy the Gator, Winona, Opal, and Owlowiscious.

Even to this day, that last pet name is a bit much, isn’t it?

Anyway, what made this pony-pet play date more special was that this group of friendly Ponies and pets were spending it with not only each other, but also the Cutie Mark Crusaders: Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and even Babs Seed herself who had chosen one heck of time to come to Ponyville for a visit. Of course, to be fair, the rainstorm happened just after Babs Seed had gotten off the train ride from her home of Manehattan to her cousin’s family’s home in Ponyville.

Of course, what made this visit all the more unique was, well… believe it or not… it was possibly THE very first time that they actually decided to invite BOTH Diamond Tiara AND Silver Spoon to their little fun day at Princess Twilight Sparkle’s castle. I know, I know, it seems pretty hoofin’ weird here, right? Well, believe or not, ever since the main three CMCs first got their Cutie Marks ALL at the same time together after helping Diamond Tiara realize that how she was looking at her own Cutie Mark, talents, and identity was all wrong AND convinced her to at least try to be nicer from now on FOR REAL – as well as treat Silver Spoon better, and Silver herself realized that she could be nice from now on, too – things between the CMCs and both “formerly mean” fillies all seemed to be smoothed out and they were all okay with each other for real now.

And I know what you’re thinking… FINALLY, am I right??

But just to throw a big ol’ cherry on top of this unique day, another “formerly mean” Pony who had been convinced a long while back to see the error of her own ways and mistakes AND start changing for the better… she herself was playing with all of her new friends, their pets, and their little sister-figure friends. And the name of this {ony was a certain light pink, female unicorn with a long, very stylish, purple and cyan-streaking mane and matching pony-tail… and her name was Starlight Glimmer.

Come to think of it, I do of course realize now that Starlight Glimmer shares a very similar color scheme to Aria Blaze, but THAT is a mean girl story for another time.


ANYWHO… all of the friendly characters that had just been listed here were all in Princess Twilight Sparkle’s castle on such a rainy day, staying safe and having fun together.

Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were checking out Rainbow Dash’s pet turtle- I MEAN, tortoise… Tank… when Diamond asked Rainbow Dash, “So… let me get this straight: you chose Tank… a very slow-moving reptile… to be your pet because he seemed to be the nicest out of the bunch of animals you had been competing against each other?”

“Well, yeah,” said Rainbow Dash, “But it’s a bit more complex than that: I chose Tank here because 1) He had the most ‘tenacity’, as Twilight once put it… 2) Because Tank actually seemed to have a spirit that my own could relate to, and 3) He DID pretty much get me out of a huge rock slide I trapped myself in, sooo… if THAT last part alone wasn’t enough reason to have him as my pet, I don’t know what would be… other than the first two good reasons I listed, of course.”

“Wowzers!” said Silver Spoon, just as surprised as Diamond Tiara was, “I never thought a turtle could even be capable to DO such heroic acts at all. OH, uh, no offense, of course. * squee * ”

“Well,” said Rainbow Dash, “It just goes to show you that ANYONE can surprise you at ANYTHING at any time. I should know… I surprise people with my awesomness ALL the time. Oh, and uh, Tank’s a tortoise, Silver Spoon. Common mistake, really. ^^ ”

“I gotta say,” said Diamond Tiara, “You Ponies really do have some totally amazing pets, don’t you?”
“Indeed we do, darling,” Rarity said proudly, as she gave the fur of her pet white cat, Opal, a gentle brushing.

“If y’all want,” said Applebloom, “Maybe you two could get yerselves some pets, too.”
“Yeah!” said Babs Seed, “That way, you two can add more to the pet fun! Next time I come here, I have GOT to bring my pet grasshopper, Hoppy, with me.”

“Eww! You have a pet grasshopper back home?” Diamond Tiara replied.
“Yeah, I do,” said Babs Seed, looking at Diamond Tiara a bit strictly, “Got a problem with that, toots??”

“Now, now, Babs, simmer down,” said Applejack, standing in front of the two fillies, “There’s no need fer you two startin’ any fights… not after you Crusaders had already gone and made yer peace with Diamona and Silver here a fairly long while back… basically.”

“Sorry, Couz…” said Babs Seed.
“Same here…” said Diamond Tiara, “So… tell me more about this… uh… grasshopper pet you have, Babs. ”

Diamond was clearly trying to get over her problem with bugs, Heaven bless her soul.

Babs Seed replied to Diamond’s question, “Well, Hoppy just loves hoppin’ all over the place when he’s out of his cage. Heck, half the time, he decides to jump into everypony’s manes when the opportunity presents itself! And gettin’ Hoppy out of a mane that he finds incredibly soft and warm and perfect to snuggle in? Forget about it.”

Babs Seed gently blew the side of her adorable dark pink mane as she then said, “In fact… in a very weird way….I guess seein’ Hoppy jump into all of those manes all the time is part of the whole reason I decided to get into hair-stylin’… and how I finally got my stylist Cutie Mark here.”

“Oh,” said Silver Spoon, “Well, that’s… nice. ”
Babs Seed replied, “Nowhere near as nice as the Crusaders here finally gettin’ THEIR Cutie Marks, and at the exact same time, no less!”

“I know, right?! ” Scootaloo said, as she jumped up with her tiny little Pegasus wings flapping with cute excitement.
Sweetie Belle then said, “And all we had to do to get them was finally convince Diamond Tiara here to stop being such a heartless little monster. ^3^  OH, uh, no offense, of course. ”

“None taken,” said Diamond Tiara, “I, uh… kinda had that one coming. <:///)”
Starlight Glimmer then spoke up saying, “Trust me, Diamond Tiara… when it comes to Cutie Marks and being mean… I know what THAT is like.”

“Oh, COME ON, Starlight!” Pinkie Pie replied, as Gummy was gnawing on her fluffy pink mane, “You’re still not dwelling over THAT are you?? I mean, YES, you were wrongly forcing Ponies in a small village out in the middle of nowhere to NOT have Cutie Marks and THEN you tried to change Equestria’s past which almost led straight to wiping out all life in Equestria as we know it, ALL because you had major issues regarding Cutie Marks back when you were a little girl and what was even worse was that nobody really bothered to even think about how YOU felt about it all, quite painfully in fact, and badly dwelled on that pain for like, what? 15 to 20 years? Instead of just growing up and learning from it THE RIGHT WAY and moving on with your life until Twilight managed to convince you that what you were doing was wrong? But come on… It could happen to pretty much ANYBODY, right? * squeak * ”


“Uh… yeah…” Starlight Glimmer replied a bit sheepishly, but then had a bit of a grimly sad frown on her face.
“Oh, Starlight, don’t be so gloomy about it,” said Fluttershy, as she gently nuzzled Starlight Glimmer sweetly, “It’s nothing to be dwell on anymore. < : ) ”

“Yeah, Starlight!” said Spike, as he walked up to her, “I mean, that whole time-travel loop fiasco AND it being completely settled for the better, especially the part about YOU finally realizing the error of your ways AND also getting all of that settled and squared away with Sunburst when you reunited with him after so many years… It’s been a pretty long time since all of that happened AND you got it all smoothed out, right? Not to mention that it’s been about 3 weeks since you rescued every crucially important Pony in Equestria AND helped Thorax show the entire Changeling species that it’s better to share feelings of love with someone than to try forcibly taking them from that someone, and you did it all with just a small hoof-ful of ‘secondary characters’, as Discord put it, I think. You don’t have ANYTHING to feel guilty about anymore… or at least, not as much as you think you should. The past is in the past, and you’ve done some real good for both yourself and those you care about, so no need to worry anymore. ”

“I know…” said Starlight, as she gently petted Winona’s furry forehead and then Angel Bunny’s floppy little ears, much to the little white furball’s adorable happiness since he probably had a TINY yet cute crush on Starlight.

Anyway, Starlight continued speaking as she walked up to Spike, “I know I should’ve put my bad past behind me by now… but even after everything that’s happened since I first moved here to Ponyville and started being Twilight’s personal pupil… it’s just not THAT simple… not when I spent so much of my life dwelling on the pain from my past and doing so SO badly, that I let it take almost full control of me for almost ALL of my life up until that whole time-travel loop fiasco, and well… * sigh * Pretty much half of ALL of Equestria already knows about me AND what I’ve done AND what I almost did to pretty much the entire world that we all live in… I mean, YEAH, I’ve definitely done some real good since I first started living with Twilight and my new friends here in Ponyville… but all the same… everypony knowing about the bad and good things I’ve done in my life has pretty much made me look, well… controversial… whether they say anything about it or not. I mean, maybe it’s all just in my mind, but even so… nopony could deny such realistic facts about me. < : ( ”

“Whoa…” said Babs Seed, “Sounds like you kinda really have had it pretty rough, huh? ”
“Pretty much, yeah…” said Starlight, as she then saw that all 6 of the little fillies were looking at Starlight Glimmer quite sadly, including even both Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon.

Still being sincere, Starlight Glimmer said to them all with a sad smile, “I’m sorry, my little Ponies. I don’t mean to drop all of this on you out of nowhere. It’s really meant for my friends here that are more around my own age, but… it’s just…”
“Just a lot to deal with, isn’t it?” Princess Twilight asked Starlight gently.
“It is…” said Starlight, hanging her head down near the ground and feeling very sad, as she then walked over to the tall glass window where she could see the rain pouring down upon it from outside.

Starlight then looked up and said, “I just really wish there was a way to show everyone that I really, truly have learned the error of my ways… that when it comes to having Cutie Marks and the special talents that represent them… none of THAT is as black-and-white as one would think it is nor would be… that no matter how strong or simple or big or small or complex or practical your abilities are, they can help you make your own identity… and they can help you realize where you stand in this world and how you can further develop yourself into a truly great living being or idol or icon or role model or everyday good being that everyone can look up to and learn at least one or two things from…. But what exactly COULD I do to make everyone realize ANY of THAT…?”

Everypony looked at each other, then the rest of the Mane Seven started to really think on what Starlight Glimmer had just said.

Rarity then said, “Hmmm… A way to show everyone that Starlight Glimmer HAS changed for the better… AND that she wants to share what she’s learned from us with everyone else… by having them show what they can do as a way of making their mark before everyone and standing out in an iconic way while also being an idol that everyone can look up to! * deep gasp * III-DEEE-AAA~ ”

Approximately 24 hours later, WAY after the weather cleared up and was completely better… Princess Twilight, Spike, Starlight Glimmer, and the rest of the Mane Seven were all in Canterlot Castle, speaking before both Princesses Celestia and Luna in their royal throne room with the idea that they – mainly Rarity and possibly Starlight Glimmer – had come up with.

Once the idea was announced for consideration, Princesses Celestia and Luna both asked, “…A TALENT TOURNAMENT???”

"Exactly!” answered Rarity.
“After talking about it yesterday,” said Princess Twilight, “We all agreed that it's a perfect way for Starlight Glimmer AND everypony else in Equestria to show off their own unique, individual skills and talents to help them all show what great things each of them is capable of accomplishing.”

“Hmm.... well, I think that sounds like a wonderful idea, Twilight!” Princess Celestia said sincerely.
“Here, here!” Princess Luna agreed, “A Talent Tournament sounds most incredible indeed! ”

“You… really think so, Your Majesties?” Starlight Glimmer asked a bit timidly, feeling pretty nervous since A) she was talking to basically the top two rulers of ALL of Equestria, and B) Starlight was still feeling guilty about everything she had done during her entire “Obsessed With a Future Where There Are No More Cutie Marks AT ALL” problem.

“Yes, we really do think this Talent Tournament could be a great idea, and also… I'd like to see if you really are as powerful as Twilight says you are, Starlight Glimmer,” answered Princess Celestia, “Granted, you DID prove that quite well during the last incident regarding the Changelings, but I’d still like to see MORE of what you’re capable of. ”

“OH, she’s capable of doing a LOT of awesome things! ^^ ” said Pinkie Pie, “I mean, DUH, she HAS to be if she really was able to use that Time-Travel Spell that THE one and only Starswirl the Bearded created in the first place! Not to mention that – technically speaking – she was able to use that spell in a way that could have very well led to the end of Equestria and all life in the land as we know it, just to try and misguidedly get over a bad friendship that she KINDA foolishly dwelled onto for about maybe the past two decades of her life, BUT like I told her before, it could have happened to ANYBODY, right? * squeak * ”

Everypony just stared at Pinkie Pie with slightly shocked expressions on their faces, with Celestia and Luna’s expressions being possibly the most hilarious of the bunch.

Pinkie Pie then said, “What?? I did say ‘technically speaking’, didn’t I?”

Twilight cleared her throat before saying, “ANYWAY… I think that what Pinkie Pie is trying to say, Starlight Glimmer, is that if you want to truly prove that you DO have a lot of REAL good to offer everypony – and want to do so THE REAL RIGHT WAY this time around, even though you kinda did already with the last confrontation we had with Chrysalis – this Talent Tournament could be your chance to do just that. So, what do you say? ”

Starlight Glimmer wasn’t entirely sure about this, but she did look at how everyone was looking at her with faces that clearly said that they all believed in her.

Starlight Glimmer then took in a deep yet calm breath, exhaled properly, and said with a more confident tone in her voice, “Alright then… Count me in! ”
The rest of the Mane Seven and Spike all cheered happily as they surprised Starlight with a great big group hug around her.

Starlight was a still just a LITTLE nervous and unsure, but she sincerely smiled and hugged Princess Twilight back.

Everypony in that group then talked about making arrangements for this “Talent Tournament” to be set up in Canterlot. Afterwards, they decided and agreed upon to continue their meeting on the matter tomorrow afternoon. Princess Twilight then thought maybe it was now a nice opportunity for Starlight Glimmer to meet one of Twilight’s old friends, one that could probably relate to Starlight on the matter of “trying to understand how true friendship works.”

That meant that it was time to pay a surprise visit to none other than the one unicorn in all of Equestria that was nearly as much of a brainy yet adorable bookworm as Twilight Sparkle herself was… and who apparently STILL hadn’t cleaned up her house’s weed-and-vine filled front lawn just yet, much to Rarity’s disgust.

“Oh my… O.o; This place could REALLY use a lot of spring cleaning!" said Rarity, looking around at the weeds and crumbling fence around the yard.

Spike added, “I guess Moon Dancer still hasn’t gotten much of a chance to fix this place up since the last time we were here, huh Twilight?”
“Well,” said Twilight, “Hopefully, it’s because our old trio of Canterlot friends have been helping Moon Dancer become more social and do all kinds of fun things with friends.”

Twilight then knocked on the house’s front door, hoping that Moon Dancer would answer.
The door slowly opened up and then Moon Dancer stepped out.
“Twilight Sparkle! It's so good to see you again!” said Moon Dancer, as she pulled the princess into a big hug… as surprising as that might sound since it WAS Moon Dancer of all Ponies.
Spike then said while folding his arms, “Yep. I’d say that she’s definitely doing good these days. ^^ ”

Twilight introduced Moon Dancer to all of her Mane Seven friends – excluding Pinkie Pie and Spike since they knew her already, mainly from the big party they held for Moon Dancer near the end of their little “Amending Fences” episode.
Finally, Twilight introduced Moon Dancer to Starlight Glimmer, and vice versa.

“Nice to meet you ” said Moon Dancer, as she adjusted her glasses and then held out her front right hoof to Starlight.
“It's nice to meet you, too  < : ) ” said Starlight, as she shook hooves with Moon Dancer.

“How have you been, M.D.? ” Spike asked Moon Dancer.
“I've been pretty good, Spike, thanks for asking,” answered Moon Dancer, “And all of these friends of yours are the famous Mane Six I’ve heard so much about, Twilight?”

“Indeed we are, darling,” Rarity replied, “Though, these days, we are pretty much called ‘The Mane Seven’ since Starlight Glimmer has been in the mix for quite some time now.”
Starlight Glimmer replied with a grateful smile, “Thanks, Rarity.”

“Well, come on inside, everypony,” said Moon Dancer, as she let everyone inside of her house. The inside was definitely better than the outside.
Moon Dancer then said, “Sorry that my front yard is still a mess. I’ve been a little preoccupied for a good number of Moons now, as you can see from the pictures everywhere.”

Moon Dancer was speaking the truth: there were pictures of her and also Minuette, Twinkleshine, and Lemon Hearts hanging out together in Canterlot and having fun, all thanks to the wonderful influence Princess Twilight Sparkle had on all of them after Twilight and Moon Dancer’s first meeting in a long time. The magic of friendship was clearly strong with Twilight’s old Canterlot friends these days. ^_^

Oh, and there were also a few pictures of Moon Dancer spending time with some of her other Canterlot neighbors AND her sister. Heck, there was even one picture of Moon Dancer spending time with both Lyra and Bon Bon. Quite a real treasure of a framed-up selfie if there ever was one.

“Wow, Moon Dancer, you might be closer with these ponies than I am!” said Twilight, very impressed and proud of her old friend’s apparent progress.
“Oh, well… I don’t know about THAT, but thanks… Princess Twilight <:///) ” Moon Dancer said, blushing as she was getting embarrassed adorably.

“Sorry to break up the reunion, but how exactly can Moon Dancer here help me learn about friendship again?” asked Starlight, a little confused, “I don’t mean to be rude, of course, I’m just trying to understand. ”

“Well,” said Princess Twilight, “I figured that you two could really relate to each other because you two are quite similar to each other in a good number of ways… part of which being… because of me. The whole ‘not understanding you or how you feel or what kind of pain I’ve probably put you through or what you’ve been through all your life’ thing, I mean. ”

Now understanding what Twilight meant… she, Moon Dancer, Starlight, and all of their friends then got to talking about how Moon Dancer was once one of Twilight’s childhood friends, more or less. They also talked about how Twilight Sparkle just ditched Moon Dancer and it left her hurt pretty badly, though it wasn’t all that intentional…

On the very fateful day that Twilight Sparkle first read about the Elements of Harmony AND first moved to Ponyville under Princess Celestia’s orders – which of course, turned out to be because all of Equestria was going to probably be plunged into eternal nighttime and darkness thanks to the return of Nightmare Moon, and someone had to stop it – it was also the day of Moon Dancer’s birthday party. The very party that Moon Dancer herself had really hoped Twilight would come to because Twilight was somepony that Moon Dancer felt like she had a real connection with… and when Twilight didn’t show up, even if it turned out to be for good reasons concerning Equestria’s own safety and future, Moon Dancer pretty much became a grouchy shut-in who didn’t see any point in friendship nor even trying to make any friends... not anymore at the time, anyway… kinda like how Twilight herself used to be before the purple unicorn girl realized how powerful and wonderful friendship could. For Moon Dancer, she shut herself away from practically everypony else in the world because she herself felt incredibly afraid of putting herself out there for anypony else that could just end up hurting her, whether it would happen unintentionally or not.

Now, granted, Twilight and Moon Dancer eventually and FINALLY came to understanding terms and forgave each other for being so dang ignorant for so dang long about ALL of that stuff between them, but even so… it was pretty similar to how Starlight Glimmer herself had felt about friendship when her dear childhood friend named Sunburst ended up leaving her for discovering something really important: what kind of future he would have now that he had finally gotten his Cutie Mark. Although, Starlight Glimmer didn’t get hers at the time, and when apparently nobody bothered to consider how all of that change happened so suddenly when Starlight wasn’t ready for it at all, let alone wanted it to happen, Starlight Glimmer shut herself away from everypony else because she was afraid of another Cutie Mark getting in the way of having a friend or two in her life… and needless to say, that alone messed Starlight up psychologically enough to be… well… I kinda want to say, “she became or let herself become a psychotic sociopath that nearly destroyed all of Equestria and could have been just one bad generation away from becoming a new Equestrian villain, just like Queen Chrysalis or Lord Tirek or the Sirens or Nightmare Moon before she returned to being Princess Luna after 1,000 years of being banished to the lonely moon”… but then again, saying such a thing would be too much because this IS supposed to be a story based off a kids’ show, right? * squee *

ANYWAY…. The point here is that Starlight Glimmer and Moon Dancer shared something in common: when it came to the things about friendship that were too complex for them to understand at the time that different things happened to them individually, Starlight and Moon Dancer just let themselves become, well… extremely troubled. OH, wait, “extremely troubled” was the term I was looking for earlier! ^^

Well, anyhow, with that common thing shared between Starlight and Moon Dancer stated, they could both agree that they do know what it’s like to be afraid of making friends, especially when it comes to the fact that friendships of any kind or kinds can tend to be pretty complicated, as can the things in life that sometimes tend to affect friendship in general. And when it all seems to become so complicated that it becomes just too overwhelming to deal with… it can make you do something to yourself AND to others that you could very well end up regretting, especially if it’s something that could hurt others… such as, in Moon Dancer’s case, just assuming that everyone in the world is a total jerk and nothing more and you want to be alone forever because it “saves you the pain of being hurt”… OR WORSE, in Starlight Glimmer’s case, that anyone who doesn’t understand you or your pain at all right away is an enemy that must be destroyed.

With EVERYTHING just stated amongst the group of friends, Rainbow Dash said with a slightly sad look on her face, “WHOA… that’s, uh… that’s really heavy, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, ah can't believe y’all never really told us 'bout this sort of thing ‘til now, Twilight,” said Applejack.

“Well, we can definitely see your point, Princess,” said Moon Dancer, as she looked to Starlight Glimmer and said to her with a gentle smile, “It looks like you and I are kinda like kindred spirits or something, huh Starlight?”

“Yeah, I guess so,” said Starlight, smiling back at Moon Dancer a little bit, “And ironically enough, we have Twilight here to thank for it.”
“Oh, come on, girls, I don't know about that…” said Twilight, starting to blush a fair shade of pink and her ears flopped down a bit as she felt embarrassed quite cutely.
“Aww, now no need to be so modest, Hon,” Applejack said to Twilight, as the cowgirl pony proudly wrapped her right arm around Twilight’s neck.

“Yeah, you've done lots of great and cool stuff, Twilight!” said Rainbow Dash, “I mean, technically, they would have been about 20% cooler if I had pulled them all off myself, but still! ”

“Well, I really owe it all to everyone I’ve become friends with, especially you guys ^^ ” said Twilight, “And Starlight, I know for a fact that YOU yourself have already become somepony truly great. You’ve been that way ever since you’ve proven that you really are willing to learn true friendship is all about. OH, and the same goes for you too, Moon Dancer. < : ) ”

“Thanks, Twilight,” Starlight and Moon Dancer said at the same time, as they then said, “Jinx! Double Jinx! Triple Jinx! Quadruple Jinx! Infinity Jinx!”
Everyone just laughed together, then just for the heck of it, they all formed a big group hug together.

Everyone smiled happily as they kept hugging. After that was done, Starlight Glimmer said, “Well, Moon Dancer… I guess what we’ve both learned from Twilight is this… Even though the past can hurt, we can’t let it keep us from living life to the fullest OR from making friends. It’s certainly not easy… and there are times when we may feel like we should just give up on friendship and on ourselves… but if we keep moving forward and have faith, things WILL turn out for the better. And clearly, that’s already happened to both of us at this point, am I wrong? ”

“You’re not wrong, Starlight Glimmer,” said Moon Dancer, “And I agree with you 100%. ^_^”

Starlight smiled adorably in response to that, then she said, “So anyway, Moon Dancer, tell me: what DO you do for a living here in Canterlot anyway? ”
“Well,” Moondancer replied, “Believe it or not… these days, I’m studying to be a-”

“ROOOOOOOAAAAAAAAARRRR!!!” said a wildly loud noise or voice coming from outside the house.
Everypony was shocked and surprised by that, as they all then ran to the window that had a view of the front yard while Applejack said, “Just what in tarnation was that noise??”

When they all looked out the window, they saw that practically everypony in Canterlot was running and screaming scared, and for good reason…

…There was actually three big, scary, and mean-looking Manticores roaring and causing all kinds of property damage in the city!

And this trio of Manticores… well, they weren’t “putty tats” like the one Fluttershy calmed down in the Everfree Forest when she and the other mares first found the Elements of Harmony WAY back then.

The trio of Manticores that were currently attacking the city… they were about 5 times bigger, stronger, fiercer, wilder, and meaner. Plus, they had thick black manes, bright yellow eyes, tan brown fur, big red wings sticking out of their backs, and long red scorpion tails that looked even sharper and deadlier than those of your average Manticore.

“Oh, my goodness!” Fluttershy said, “A trio of fully grown Manticores is attacking the city!”
“Fully grown?? ” said Rainbow Dash asked, “Aren’t ALL Manticores like that?”
“Not exactly,” said Fluttershy, “Remember that Manticore I calmed down back when we all first met Twilight and were looking for the Elements of Harmony? THAT Manticore was really just a young adult… a newly full-grown adult at best. THESE Manticores here are nearly old enough to be grandparents!”

Spike then said, “So, basically… there are three old guys acting crazy right now? ”
Rainbow Dash laughed out loud at that as she then said, “Good one, Spike! ”
“ROOOOOOOAAAAAAAAARRRR!!!” said all three of the wild and crazy Manticores outside, as they then sent a haydog cart flying and crashing right outside of Moon Dancer’s house, right on her front lawn, in fact.

Rainbow Dash then said, “Uh… then again, MAYBE right now isn’t exactly the best time for jokes. ”
“Ya think?!” said everypony else, as there was even more property damage being done outside, along with one or two ponies actually screaming Wilhelm-style.

One thing was for sure now… it was about to be just another crazy yet exciting day in the life of THESE little Ponies.