***
“I can’t wait!” Pinkie kept saying as she and Rainbow worked their way together to Sugarcube Corner shortly after sunset. Pinkie bounced up and down, hopping along. Rainbow hovered at a smooth pace. “Everypony’s had nothing but nice things to say about their first flexchange. It’s supposed to be pretty special. Do you think it will be special? I hope it will be special.”
“Of course it’s gonna be special,” Rainbow agreed.
Pinkie went on, “I have a whole list of memories to be ready with already in my head, like that time we first hung out doing pranks and that time Cheese Sandwich and I gave you the best party ever and that time we went to Griffonstone and we became friends with Gilda again. And Dashie, what memories would you do if it were reversed? I know you told Rarity and Applejack because they told me. Fluttershy wouldn’t say, but do you know what she thought of?”
“Fluttershy likes to keep a few things about us between us, same as me,” Rainbow reminded Pinkie, “so even if I did know, it’s our little secret.”
“Okie dokie lokie. What about me? What about me?” Pinkie Pie prodded.
“Our first time pranking together, my birth-aversary party, Griffonstone, you got it covered. Those are all great memories,” Rainbow assured her.
“We’re here, we’re here! Should we do it in my room or my party cave? I think let’s do it in my room!” Pinkie decided aloud.
Up they went, and Pinkie continued to bounce in place.
“You should probably stand still,” Rainbow told her.
“Oh, I don’t know if I can. This is so exciting! I get to join your pack!” Pinkie continued to jump in place excitedly.
Rainbow sighed in mild annoyance and flared her wings out while sitting on the floor. She blew a small amount of air up into her bangs, then started patting them with her hoof to groom herself.
Something about these actions fascinated Pinkie. Her hops became smaller until they finished. “What is this?” she asked.
“I’m trying to help you settle down with what I’m assuming is a little extra vampire enchantment for cases like this,” Rainbow said.
Pinkie Pie looked on in wonder. “It’s working. I’m still, I’m still, and I’m ready!”
Rainbow Dash finally stood, letting the red replace the magenta before returning eye contact. She bit the neck and ate her magic for the night. After Pinkie Pie bowed, Rainbow gave her friend fangs, and let the magic return back.
When the process completed, Pinkie’s jaw dropped, leaving her speechless.
Rainbow’s smile looked confident and proud as ever.
Eventually, Pinkie found her voice. “THAT. WAS. AMAZING!” she screeched at the top of her lungs, and she bounced off the walls of her room. She eventually stopped, placing her front hooves on Rainbow’s chest, desperate to know, “Is it going to be like that every week?”
“No, probably not. The first time is very special,” Rainbow confessed. “I’m sure that over time, it gets better.”
“But will it ever be as good as that?” Pinkie spoke the question with utmost seriousness.
“I don’t know. It’s different for every pack and every bond. Twilight’s magic alone is going to be a really big deal for us since I don’t think an alicorn has ever been in a mev pack before,” Rainbow answered.
Pinkie’s open mouth quivered at that prospect. “Master, that means that we could have the most tastiest flexchanges ever once Twilight’s in the pack.”
“It does,” Rainbow agreed with a wicked smile, “and it was definitely tasty the first time.”
She paused then pointed a hoof at Pinkie. “Quintaza.”
Pinkie blinked, took in the word for a moment, then gasped, followed by a few small bounces in place. “My title! That’s it! That’s me! Oh, I love it Master.” She hugged Rainbow.
Rainbow hugged her back with a pleasant smile. Not long after, the two parted ways for the night.
***
“This is definitely not the spot I would have expected you to pick,” Rainbow said, staring into a familiar dark room with two decorative door-sized panels, one depicting the sun and another the moon. Twilight had chosen a hidden lounge area attached to the main library in the Castle of the Two Sisters.
“Well…I thought about where you and I first met, but that was outside in Ponyville,” Twilight began to explain. “I figured we should be indoors. And then a lot of the memories I thought of that are special to us that were indoors happened at the Golden Oak Library, which as you know, is gone. Sure, there’s my castle, and I did think about it. It certainly would have been easier, but I tried to think if there was any other special place for us.
“I remembered that this room was where we decided to start keeping a journal with our friends, the time we put into beautifying this castle together, the Power Ponies, and…well, now that you’re a mev, the sun and moon have special meaning to you. When I thought of all those things together, it just seemed fitting.”
“It’s definitely got an air about it to make a vampire feel at home,” Rainbow admitted as she hovered around soaking in the darkness of the room.
“So you like it?” Twilight hoped.
“It’s perfect,” Rainbow said and stopped her hover to land on the ground. “Get ready. You know what to do, right?”
“Right,” Twilight looked at the floor, gulped with only slight nervousness, and found a spot that she deemed optimal on which to stand. She made sure her mane was all on one side of her neck so Rainbow could easily bite her from the cleared other side. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and waited.
Rainbow likewise positioned herself, shifted into her vampire eyes and declared promptly, “Now.”
Twilight felt the familiar pleasurable drain from when she let Rainbow eat her unicorn magic as her first meal. She bowed and soon felt the new sensation of wingtips against her horn as she grew fangs. She bit back this time, feeling herself replenished and invigorated from everything built into Rainbow this past week. The process decided on its own when she should stop as she felt the fangs disappear. She stepped back quietly, not saying anything at first. She glanced up at Rainbow.
Rainbow stood with her head bowed, facing the ground, still and quiet. Her body started to shake as a hearty laugh took over her. It grew louder and louder, sounding sinister and bombastic. Rainbow raised herself upward into the air. She looked up, revealing a wicked smile, her eyes wild with victorious glee. Her mouth hung open as her fangs shined. Her laughter blared to a maximum pitch. A startling loud crack of thunder resounded through the room.
“Rainbow!” Twilight exclaimed, growing concerned.
The sky blue figure only laughed more, reaching a diabolical cackle.
“Master!” Twilight tried again.
Rainbow’s entire body twitched, and she immediately stopped laughing. She descended slowly, a small wind circled outward from her figure. “Whew. Okay, that was…fun and weird. I’m calm now, sorry about that.”
“What happened?” Twilight wanted to know.
“I just got kind of excited there now that my pack is complete, put me into a Master Frenzy I guess,” Rainbow answered.
“Is it dangerous?” Twilight asked.
“Nah, it’s just my nocturnivlair. Really, I’m good now. We’re fine, right?” She paused. “Rexa.”
Twilight’s eyes darted ever so briefly from the floor to Rainbow as she realized with a small smile, “A title.” She took another breath. “Right. I forgot you have nocturnivlair. I guess it’s not exactly a constant thing.”
“Yeah, that and it’s usually not so…well, frenzied. Let’s take just a minute or two to be still, let the moment pass…” Rainbow said, followed by a deep breath to match Twilight’s.
The two mevs did exactly that.
“Now…how are you feeling?” Rainbow asked.
“Amazing and powerful,” Twilight admitted. “And…I sense the completeness of what we’ve all done in making this pack together, not in a frenetic way but just…contented pride?”
“Awesome. Well, I’m staying to get some reading done. You do as you please,” Rainbow instructed.
Twilight considered and then offered, “I think I’ll stay too, to keep you company and get some extra night-time reading in as well.”
***
On Monday afternoon, the completed mev pack gathered. Rainbow explained to them she wanted to give the pack a name and offered up the idea of “Formidable Lightning.”
“It’s kinda long,” Pinkie said, not entirely convinced.
“You don’t have to say the whole name every time. ‘Mev’ is nice and short, but I don’t want it to be Pack or Team Mev. Putting ‘awesome’ in the name seemed too obvious and ‘formidable’ means like worthy of being feared but not necessarily a real threat…like me.”
“Not trying to rain on your parade, Master,” Applejack said, “but Team Awesome really wouldn’t be a problem, even if it is obvious. It’s very you. I know you like it more than ‘Formidable Lightning’ without you having to tell me…or all of us for that matter.”
“Oh, really?” Rainbow asked.
Applejack and the other ponies seated nodded, along with the standing Starlight Glimmer.
“It is easier to say with fewer syllables,” Starlight pointed out.
“I guess I wanted to work some part of my mev-ness into the name too,” the blue pegasus nervously tapped her hooves together as she slouched in her seat.
“Team Awesomev then,” Pinkie suggested. “Or would it be Team Awesomevs? Maybe just Awesomevs would do.”
“Oh, call it Team Awesome and then refer to ourselves as Awesomevs,” Rarity suggested.
Rainbow quietly nodded in contemplation.
“I think they’re all wonderful,” Fluttershy chimed in. “Formidable Lightning is still a cool-sounding name, Rainbow, even if it’s not your favorite. Maybe we could use it for something else later, some latent power we haven’t found yet or a front name to give to outsiders.”
“Heh,” Rainbow blushed and held her right hoof to the back of her head. “I’m certainly not going to argue against calling my own pack Team Awesome when my Awesomev fledglings are all for it. Applejack’s got me pegged.”
“Satisfied?” Twilight asked.
“Very,” Rainbow smiled in heartfelt agreement. “So be it. As Master, I hereby decree our pack’s name is Team Awesome.”
With authority, she smacked a hoof to the table to officiate the decision.
All the fledglings cheered in agreement.
Suddenly, a flash of light spread through the room from right before the set of doors closest to where Rainbow sat. When it cleared, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna stood and surveyed their surroundings.
“Most curious,” Luna uttered. “How did this happen?”
“Princess Celestia! Princess Luna!” Twilight trotted over to greet them.
“Twilight, it is good, though strange, to see you.” Celestia lowered her neck to nuzzle with Twilight. “We did not mean to teleport here. It was as if…” Celestia’s voice trailed off as her eyes finally saw Rainbow Dash.
Luna followed her line of sight and reached the same realization.
They both stepped forward, closer to Rainbow’s seat and bowed. “Master Rainbow Dash,” Celestia said.
Rainbow, for her part, had lifted herself above her throne during all this and soon settled into a standing position before returning a polite bow. “Princess Celestia, Princess Luna.”
“Per chance, could you tell us how or why we have been summoned,” Luna implored.
Rainbow lifted into a hovering state. “Oh, I didn’t mean to. We finished forming the pack last night and just decided on a name, Team Awesome. Must be a way of my powers making sure to keep you informed. So, yes, let me do that. I know you know us, but still…let’s go through the formalities.”
She placed her right forelimb to her chest and bowed her head as a means of polite gesture while still hovering. “As you know, I am the Master Mev for this area, Rainbow Dash.”
She ended her bow and returned to her usual stance. “Right now, my work is mainly here in Ponyville though I expect it to expand to possibly all of Equestria, maybe even beyond. Awesomevs,” she turned to the table to look at her seated fledglings with a tiny smile at being able to use Rarity’s suggestion so soon. “Line up. In order.”
The fledglings did exactly that, forming the line standing by each other in front of the sun and moon princesses.
Rainbow landed to Starlight’s right and lifted her own left forelimb in a gesture to point in their direction. “These ponies are the fledglings of my pack. You know their names but again, formalities. Their titles are for inner circle use, but you may know them. Primeva Starlight Glimmer,” Rainbow began and Starlight bowed.
The master mev continued with “Segunda Fluttershy.” Starlight stood back up as Fluttershy bowed.
The fledglings stood and bowed like a small wave as Rainbow listed them. “Mitria Rarity, Fyra Applejack, Quintaza Pinkie Pie, and Rexa Twilight Sparkle.”
“A pleasure to know these things, Master Rainbow Dash,” Celestia said.
“My power depends on day and night, so if anything ever happens to mess up the cycle, our pack needs to be informed ASAP. I have to eat magic at least once at night in the span of seven nights.”
“With six fledglings to feed you most nights, we do not expect that to be a problem,” Luna noted.
“That’s the idea, yes. Soon, I will be informing Spitfire of the Wonderbolts of my being a mev. I do not intend or wish to tell her about my fledglings though it might come to that. We do not expect to be able to keep our pack a secret but if we can manage with some discretion, we’d like that.”
“Perhaps we could assist you with informing Spitfire,” Celestia offered.