open Rediscovering Equestria (G5)

[Skylight Scintillate 1,850]

OOC: 

Plum Blossom admired the rainbow explosion of colors dissipating across the evening sky in Maretime Bay. The burst of colors light up the sky like it was the middle of the day. Earth pony turned alicorn Sunny Starscout had just returned magic to Equestria, and the air felt alive with excitment and activity. In the main plaza of Maretime Bay, ponies of all three species can be seen interacting with each other. Pegasi can be seen flying with their newfound magic. Some fillies were admiring Alphabittle and Queen Haven. There was a pair of unicorns putting the trolley back in it's tracks. In addition, Pipp could be seen taking a picture of all three species together before gathering with the rest of the Mane five.

The past week had been a whirlwind of change leading up to magic being restored. First, Izzy the unicorn showed up in town, then she ran off with Sunny. Soon afterwards, Hitch ran off too, and Sprout was determined that in order to prevent the other species from doing anything to them, they must create a giant army and a robot of Sprout. However, Sunny came back from her adventures and somehow managed to convince the three pony species to try and stop Sprout, which caused the robot to destroy Sunny's lighthouse and three crystals to reintroduce magic to Equestria.

"Oh my gosh! This is so exciting! Earth pony magic is back! We are going to be able to do so many new things and stuff... Wait, what kind of things can you do with Earth pony magic?" Plum Blossom asked herself. She noticed a young filly pegasus about her age and approached her. "Hi new friend! My name is Plum Blossom! Isn't this so exciting?" she greeted.

Edited January 8, 2022 by Ocean Wavedream

[North Star 4,540]

Mango experimented cautiously, trotting a few paces and flapping a few more - barely paying attention to the unfamiliar earth pony town of Maretime bay. Like everypony around her she was tingling with excitement 'so this is what is like to fly... to really fly!' she was thinking to herself.

She almost bumped snout to snout with a cute purple earth pony. A naturally gregarious pony, Mango eagerly responded to the friendly greeting, ignoring decades of species rivalry - after all, weren't they all just frightened steeds even if they were different breeds. She fluttered over, orange feathers imbued with magic, catching the breeze with an unnatural strength: "Yes! I can fly...ish!" she says. "I've always flapped these stupid things but nothing happened and then suddenly whoosh, flying! Crazy right?"   

[Silly Druid 6,136]

Life in Bridlewood wasn't very exciting. Most of the ponies there were always depressed and apathetic, as if something was missing from their lives. And indeed, something was missing, and Dusty knew exactly what it was. It was magic. They didn't have it for a long time, yet still that loss was affecting them severely. So when a group of unicorns left the forest and headed to Maretime Bay, he went with them, hoping that a change was coming.

And a change did come, far better than he ever imagined. Not only the magic was restored, but also the three pony races, after years of isolation and mistrust, started to become friends with each other! It was all so exciting: the magic, the different kinds of ponies, the lands of Equestria waiting to be explored... so much new things to learn!

He looked around, searching for somepony his age. He found two fillies talking to each other, and decided to join their conversation. "Pretty awesome, isn't it?" he said to them excitedly, while levitating a pebble found on the ground using his newly acquired magical ability. Then he remembered that he should introduce himself. "I'm Dusty Scrolls, nice to meet you!"

[Reality Check 627]

As he looked at the sky with his head on his hooves, Reality wondered what Izzy, his childhood friend, could be up to ever since she left for Maretime Bay, it has been a while since he's seen her after all. He was snapped out of his thoughts when he saw a wave of colors appearing over Bridlewood. All of a sudden, he felt something returning to his horn, like something that was originally gone was now back. "Is that magic? But how...?" He drifted on what could've happened that led to magic returning, but he couldn't think of anything. Reality didn't care about that however, as he felt the sudden urge to head to the place where Izzy left to, Maretime Bay.

With that in mind, he quickly grabbed the sketchbook that he always brings with him with his newfound magic, and ran straight out of Bridlewood. As he did, he noticed that there were other ponies who had their magic returned as well, even some that were leaving Bridlewood as well. Reality didn't stop running until he finally reached his destination, Maretime Bay. He went to take a closer look and was surprised when he saw not just unicorns and earth ponies, but pegasi as well.

He was looking around the town in awe and astonishment, so much that he accidentally bumped into another pony. Reality looked and saw it wasn't just a single pony, but rather a trio, one from each pony race. "Oh, uh... sorry about that."

Edited December 24, 2021 by Reality Check

[Skylight Scintillate 1,850]

Plum Blossom looked around at the other foals that have gathered with her. A yellow pegasus talked about flying for the first time, and a light brown unicorn introduced himself as Dusty Scrolls. In addition, a older-looking mint colored unicorn bumped into her. They all seemed quite excited about what was going on with the evening sky glowing and magic being returned. In addition, while she knew that the pony species used to be separated, she couldn't remember why; Being the cute, innocent, and naïve filly that she was, she didn't particularly care either.

"Oh wow, is this exciting, or what? With magic back I'll be able to do... things!" Plum Blossom exclaimed. She realized that she had no idea what having magic as an earth pony meant, but she was sure she would figure out. It probably had something to do with farming. She turned towards the other ponies in the group. "I don't think you two have introduced yourselves yet," Plum Blossom said to the yellow pegasus and the mint unicorn, "I'm Plum Blossom. What's it like to fly? Or being able to lift things using magic?" Plum Blossom asked them. She was very curious about what the other species could do.

[North Star 4,540]

Mango became aware of the two unicorn colts and smiled, noticing that the pink one was, like her, practising his newfound pony abilities. As the two unicorns came closer, she shuffled back from Plum Blossom to make room for the others to join the impromptu multi-breed gathering. She replied with her own name to Plum, before doing the same to Dusty. She waved away Reality's apology - nodding for him to introduce himself also, before addressing Plum's question, "It's, um... it's the thing you know." Mango said, trying and failing to convey many complex emotions, while also feeling a little sorry for the purple earth pony - what would it be like at this moment for nothing to have changed!? Unthinkable! "Hey with a little help from these guys maybe we could get you flying so you can see for yourself!" Mango said enthusiastically, hoping that between her wings and the combined power of the unicorns they could get the little purple earth foal airborne.

[Silly Druid 6,136]

Another unicorn joined the group. Dusty saw him in Bridlewood, but they weren't close friends and he didn't know his name. He said hello to him, and turned to Plum Blossom to answer her questions. "You mean earth ponies have magic too? There was nothing about it in the books I've read..." Dusty was not happy that he couldn't provide any help in this matter. "I think you will have to discover it yourself."

When Plum asked how it feels like to be able to lift things, he frowned, thinking. "It's a strange feeling, like you have another part of the body, which is invisible but able to grab stuff. It makes me feel a little dizzy to be honest, but I hope I'll get used to it." When flying was brought up, Dusty smiled. He liked the idea to show the filly how it is to fly. "We can try to lift you with Mango's wings and our magic. But we need to be careful, these abilities are still new to us, so I hope you won't fall down and get injured or anything like that."

[Reality Check 627]

He took a good look at the other ponies of the group, who then introduced themselves. The yellow pegasus was Mango, a pink earth pony was Plum Blossom. Reality then looked at the light brown unicorn, who he remembers seeing in Bridlewood. After a bit a remember of recollection, he remembered his name was Dusty Scrolls. "Earth ponies have magic too? How does that work?" Just like Dusty Scrolls, he knew nothing about earth ponies having magic, let alone what they could do.

"I'm Reality Check. As for what it's like, well..." Reality thought for a short while on how to describe it. "I'm not exactly sure how to describe it... but I'd say it's like you're grabbing something with an invisible limb, kinda like a puppet." He then turned to Mango, who brought up the idea of using his and Dusty's magic to help Plum Blossom fly. "I mean, I think we could, but it's Dusty Scrolls said, this is still new to us, so we gotta be careful with it."

[Skylight Scintillate 1,850]

Plum Blossom noted the names of the other ponies as they introduced themselves. She tried to picture how the unicorns described magic. She tried picturing having invisible hooves being able to grab things, which seemed very strange in her mind. She shrugged it off when the rest of the group moved on to other things.

"Well I mean, my hooves are glowing a bit, kind of like the way your horns are glowing," Plum Blossom replied, gesturing to her hooves, "I'm not really sure what kind of things earth ponies would be able to do with magic either." She examined her hooves carefully. Other than the glow, they didn't look different, and while they felt slightly different, Plum Blossom didn't know what it meant. Perhaps it meant her hooves were stronger now? She would have to find some way to test that out.

She listened to Mango propose the idea of using magic to make her fly. "Really? You would do that for me?" Plum Blossom asked. She felt touched that these ponies that she just met would be willing to do this for her. "How do we do this? What do I do?" Plum Blossom said, getting all excited.

Edited December 24, 2021 by Radiant Reindeer

[North Star 4,540]

Mango listens with half an ear to the unicorns explaining about their magical 'invisible hooves' - it was interesting, but she too worked up about flight just now to take in other pony powers. At the ready assent to her suggestion, she prances happily and flaps into the air a little. As she contemplates wonders what the best way to do this was she pokes her tongue out  . She doesn't contemplate long: "So if you guys," she nods to Reality and Dusty, "push her with those invisible hoofsies," she giggles at the idea, before turning to Plum, "I'll hug you and try to flap upwards. How does that sound?"

[Silly Druid 6,136]

"Glowing hooves? That's interesting..." Dusty looked at Plum's hooves closely, and indeed they were emitting a faint light. "Let me know if you find out anything about that, I'm going to write a research paper, so the unicorns can learn about the earth pony magic. I know I'm just a school student, but I want to be a great scientist someday, and it's a good place to start." He surely was an ambitious young pony, saying things like that.

"Anyway, I'm ready to help with the lifting!" He said, looking at Plum and waiting for the experiment to start.

[Reality Check 627]

After hearing Plum's explaination, he was a bit more curious as to what earth pony could do. When Mango brought up the idea using magic to help Plum fly, Reality was hesitant at first, as this is the first time he used magic on any pony, though his concerns weren't as big as he did use his magic to lift his sketchbook before arriving in Maretime Bay.

"Well, if you insist." Reality then turned to Plum. "Just let us know if you want us to let you down." The teenage colt said as he lit up his horn, ready to hold Plum Blossom via levitation.

[Skylight Scintillate 1,850]

"If I find out anything about earth pony magic, I'll tell you all," Plum Blossom replied to the unicorns. They seemed interested in learning about earth pony magic. She didn't know anything about earth pony magic, and she was pretty sure the same could be said about most of the other earth ponies in Maretime Bay. However, maybe Sunny Starscout would know something. Plum Blossom would have to ask her about it later.

Plum Blossom felt herself being surrounded by the unicorns' magic and lifted into the air with Mango helping to hold her up. She looked around from this new view. "Oh my gosh, everything looks different from up here, even though it's the same," Plum Blossom said. She could feel the adrenaline flowing through her and nothing but the feeling of air under her hooves. It wasn't like anything Plum Blossom had experienced before. "I get why you are so excited about being able to fly!" Plum Blossom said to Mango.

She looked around some more. She could see the smoothie shack, Canterlogic, the lighthouse, and her house from where she was flying above the main plaza of Maretime Bay. She saw some other pegasi in the flying around in air near her. She also noticed some earth ponies on the ground staring up at her with their mouths open in shock. There were some fillies staring at her jealously, so she waved back at them with a smile. Then, she noticed Sunny, Hitch, and Izzy talking with the pegasi princesses near the edge of the plaza. "Hey look, there's Sunny, Hitch, Izzy, and the others!" She exclaimed. 

[North Star 4,540]

Mango enjoyed taking her furry pony charge up into the sky, although it was taking all her itty bitty filly strength to hold both herself and Plum up. With each wing beat she was breathing heavily. Without the lift from the unicorns she doubted whether she would have been able to get Plum's hooves off the ground.

At Plum's exclamation, Mango looked over to the trio of older ponies and joined in Plum's excited cries. She was pleased to see them all - especially Zipp - her new favourite Princess. (She had been an ardent Pipsqueak and had felt very let down by the deception by Princess Petals - the only reason she wasn't more angry is that she had heard that Pipp had helped her sister restore friendship and magic to the Ponylands.) "Have you ever met a pegasi Princess?" Mango asked rhetorically, "Well here's your chance!" she calls down to the unicorns. "Let's go over to them." she suggests and tries to flap unsteadily over to the famous group.

[Silly Druid 6,136]

Dusty used his magic to push Plum up, focusing on stabilizing the flight to prevent any accidents. She looked very happy about being able to see things from a bird's perspective, which brought a smile to his face. When others mentioned meeting the heroes that restored friendship and magic to Equestria, he was all for it. "Yes, I want to meet them all! But first, I think we should end this flight, you look tired." He said to Mango, who struggled with carrying Plum over to their destination. He was feeling somewhat tired too, due to the continuous use of magic and focused attention.

[Reality Check 627]

The idea of making Plum fly was going smoothly, she seems to be having fun and plenty of excitement from seeing Maretime Bay from the air. Their magic seems to be working just fine too, as him and Dusty were able to lift her up fairly easily, though he will admit that he probably wouldn't be as secure if it was just him levitating the filly up.

As soon as Plum told them that Sunny and the others were nearby, Reality immediately looked towards the group of ponies that are standing with each other. He was surprised and a bit excited to see the five ponies standing with each other. Reality was especially glad to see Izzy since he hasn't seen her after she left Bridlewood, and now he smiled happily from seeing that she accomplished the very thing she came here for. It was then Mango spoke up about going up to them. "Yeah, let's go do that."

[Skylight Scintillate 1,850]

Plum Blossom landed back on the ground before heading over to meet the five ponies. While flying was an exhilarating experience, she could feel Mango Eve feeling quite exhausted from trying to lift her. "Thank you so much, that was like the most epic thing to happen ever!" she said to the other three ponies.

Whatever conversation the five were having must have ended by then, because Pipp was facing away from the rest of the group and talking to her phone again. Izzy was the first to notice the group and she turned towards Reality Check. "Hey Reality! It's so nice to see you again! It's only been a few days, but it feels like so much has changed, am I right? Everypony's sparkle is shining so bright right now! What have you been up to? Are these your friends?" Izzy asked him, giving him a brohoof.

Hitch and Sunny were casually chatting like old friends again, so Plum Blossom didn't interrupt them. Instead, she turned her attention towards Zipp Storm. Zipp was hovering casually. If she was excited about flying, she was doing a very good job at playing it cool. She noticed Mango Eve and the others and waved casually before settling back down on the ground. "Hello there, what brings you young fillies here?" she asked.

[North Star 4,540]

Mango was unused to the Zephyrina Storm's new, friendlier, demeanour - she had always seen her as Princess Pipp's cooler, quieter and more imposing older sister - the Queen in waiting. Mango blushed a little but wasn't about to be shown up in front of her new friends, "Oh-I-just-wanna-show-them-a-Princess!" she gushed. Her large dark orange eyes and furry orange pony ears were full of Princess at the moment and she could barely take in the unicorns and earth ponies.

[Silly Druid 6,136]

After helping bring Plum safely back to the ground, Dusty turned his attention to the Heroes of Equestria, as he called them in his mind. Apparently these five ponies managed to unify the three races and restore the magic somehow. He had no idea how they did it, and he had so many questions to ask them... But it would be rude to bother them too much, he thought, I'm sure soon we'll all know what happened.

Reality Check was talking to Izzy Moonbow. Everypony in Bridlewood knew Izzy. Her cheerfulness and creativity made her stand out among the unicorns. Her sparkle was always much brighter than the others', although that changed lately due to the recent events that brought happiness to everypony. Dusty waved his hoof towards Izzy and left the two talking to each other.

He looked at the rest of the group. They approached another one of the Heroes: Zephyrina Storm, a formidable looking pegasus princess. Dusty didn't really know how to talk to royalty. "Your majesty... I'm honored..." was all he managed to come up with.

[Reality Check 627]

As soon as they got to the group five, Izzy immediately started rapidly firing out comments at him. In which Reality just chuckled, most at the fact that she hasn't changed much despite not being in contact with each other for several days. "Heh, nice to see you too, Izzy." he said as they brohoofed each other. "As for what I've been up to, I just figured I'd come here. Haven't exactly been in anywhere beside Bridlewood after all." Reality then glanced at the other ponies he met with earlier. "We just met each other, but... yeah, I guess you could say we're friends"

A question then arose on his mind, mostly out of curiosity. "What about you though? Mind telling me what you've been doing ever since you left for Maretime Bay?"

[Skylight Scintillate 1,850]

Zipp Storm let out a light chuckle in reply to Dusty Scrolls and Mango Eve, but made no further comment.

Izzy immediately answered Reality Check's question, though she turned to address the whole group with her summery. "Well, when I first arrived in Maretime Bay, everypony there freaked out. It was like they were terrified of me. They even tried to trap me in a box! Then Sunny Starscout freed me and we went to Zephyr Heights and my hometown of Bridlewood to try and restore magic, and we ran into the others along the way. Finally, we came back here to Maretime Bay just in time to stop Sprout, reunite the crystals, and restore magic to Equestria!" Izzy exclaimed, throwing her hoof into the air dramatically.

"Well, while all the grown-ups were super scared of you being here, I wasn't." Plum Blossom said proudly, "I think that everypony was just being overly scared because Canterlogic said so. Why are all the adults so scared of different species anyways?"

Edited December 29, 2021 by Ocean Wavedream

[Reality Check 627]

After hearing Izzy's story, the mint unicorn was a bit taken aback by her story of how they restored magic, though just for a moment. If Reality didn't know her any better, he would've thought that she was exaggerating the whole thing. "Knowing you, that definitely sounds like something you'd go through."

Reality then looked towards Plum, regarding her comment about Izzy's arrival in Maretime Bay. "Somehow, I'm not surprised. Also, Canterlogic?"

[Silly Druid 6,136]

Dusty was very interested in Izzy's story. "Crystals, you say? I wonder how the magic was lost in the first place, perhaps these crystals had something to do with it too?"

Then he thought about Plum's comment regarding the fear of different species. "Seems we had a similar attitude. Our teacher was saying the worst things about earth ponies and pegasi. But I never believed it, these caricatural versions of them didn't seem real to me. And my parents said we actually didn't know much about them. So I kept my mind open, and I always wanted to see what they are really like. And now I see you're just like us, only with different abilities. I'm so happy we can finally work together for the bright future of Equestria!"

Edited January 1, 2022 by PawelS

[North Star 4,540]

Mango tried to play it a bit cooler with the enigmatic Princess, "They probably think we pegasi are all..." Mango stopped, unsure what other ponies actually thought about pegasi. She was listening with half an ear to Izzy's fantastical story and to Plum, Reality's and Dusty's conversation (and she had nodded over to Reality and the others when she mentioned friends - she had always wanted friends beyond Zephyr heights). Waiting for a lull in the others' conversations, she asks the unicorns and earth pony, "Say, what did your teachers say about us pegasi?" she asked. 

[Skylight Scintillate 1,850]

"Oh, Canterlogic? Well I'm not the expert here; Hitch and Sunny know a lot more, but basically, Canterlogic is this gadget company run by that funny Phyllis lady. Their motto is like 'To be scared is to be prepared' which apparently means that we should be scared of everything or something like that. I don't get their gadgets anyways. I'm surprised Hitch hasn't fined the company for creating goggles that trip ponies, an escape plan that ponies can't control, and a slime slinging something that is ineffective at... well literally everything," Plum said, gesturing to the two earth ponies that were still deep in conversation.

"Yeah at first I thought they made games, but it turns out that they wanted to trap unicorns. TRAP UNICORNS!" Izzy shouted.

"Right. Anyways, since I was quite skeptical of Canterlogic, I didn't exactly believe what they said about the other species. I mean, why did we separate? Why did we dislike each other and avoid each other? Their reasoning didn't make any sense, they just said that it was always like that and that we always avoided each other. Canterlogic did say some pretty nasty things about pegasi, saying that they are really aggressive and mean for some reason. I mean, look at this poster," Plum Blossom said, pointing to a Canterlogic propaganda poster, "They believed that pegasi like to attack cute and innocent fillies like me. However, as soon as I meet you, I realized that you weren't like that. You were friendly, and not like whatever this poster is trying to say you are." Plum Blossom said to Mango Eve.

"Oh I don't think I have seen this one before," Izzy said, making a funny face at the unicorn poster, "Is that supposed to be a unicorn?"

"Yeah we should probably tell Hitch to have these taken down soon," Zipp said.