***

In her adult sized and flying capable form, Scootaloo approached Rainbow Dash in a glide. “Is everything okay, Master?”

Rainbow Dash sat thoughtfully on her haunches and glanced up to meet the young pony’s eyes. “Well, tell me, Little Sister, how did it feel to watch me become that thing?” she asked.

“To be honest, it was kind of fun to watch,” Scootaloo confessed. “You could actually fight dragons hoof to claw, and they barely stood a chance against you!”

Rainbow Dash nodded and gave a confession of her own. “Felt like a cheat.”

“They’re cheating just by being bigger dragons. It’s a power up, and you do need a power up to take them on for actual combat,” Scootaloo argued. “Remember the Flash Magnus story that you can’t out-fight big dragons but you can out-think them. Here, the roles were reversed. None of them even thought of teaming up against you as a diversion.”

“I suppose you have a point,” Rainbow conceded with a small nod.

“It’s not like none of them struck you ever. Torch did manage to bat you away with his tail and claws. He had the right idea,” Scootaloo added. “He almost made it.”

“Okay, okay, I get it. I will savor the victory,” Rainbow said and playfully rubbed the top of Scootaloo’s short violet mane. “I am glad to have you with me on this trip and not scared out of your mind while we’re here.”

“Me too, Master. I offered my service just in time. I don’t think I’ll get a fly ability qualification for a long time again,” Scootaloo said.

“Sorry Little Sister, but I think so too,” Rainbow admitted. “We’re still working on the long-term fix for that,” she added with a playful wink.

“Does it always feel this awesome?” Scootaloo asked a familiar question to the master mev.

Rainbow Dash smiled warmly at that and gave the same answer. “Wouldn’t that be something?”

Sweetie Belle finished her drawing soon after, so Team Awesome Plus moved onto similar steps that took place in the Crystal Empire. Ember readied more bloodstone itself, similar to what was already in the scepter, along with the rock used for the staff.

Rainbow suggested she add something that could be molded to hold the staff upright since it would be contained in a case. Ember followed that advice and set the collection of assorted items on the ground. The master mev transferred the Bloodstone Scepter magic to her crown and channeled it out from there to meet the similar scepter items with magic channeled from Sweetie Belle. The white unicorn’s adult form channeled magic through the drawing, and together, they were able to create a smaller scepter.

Spike was a friend and ambassador to the Dragonlands, but he was not a known protector to have ever saved it from anything. Still, Rainbow Dash said that he was a protector for Ember during the Gauntlet of Fire, so that would help. He held the mini-scepter in his claws, filled it with that memory and energy from his friendship with the Dragon Lord.

Twilight Sparkle was still present so made the glass case, and Rainbow Dash sealed the deal with the extra layer of chaos magic for protection.

Ember looked at it. “Cute,” she remarked quietly and sincerely.

“You should name it,” Rainbow advised.

Ember carefully tapped her claw to her chin in contemplation. “Jasper. Its name is Jasper. This thing isn’t a boy or a girl; it is an ‘it’ or a ‘they.'”

Jasper twinkled in approval.

“Hey, look at that,” Ember said proudly as she noticed the items’ reaction.

The ground suddenly rumbled and shook beneath the group.

“An earthquake?” Ember asked.

***

***

“Master, it’s happening!” Rarity exclaimed with a gleeful smile, momentarily holding her cheeks in her two front hooves.

“This one sure was quick!” Applejack exclaimed.

“Huh? What’s happening?” Ember wondered.

“You’ll see,” Rainbow Dash told her. “It’s not dangerous at all.”

A small collection of reddish brown rocks lifted up from the ground and levitated near the case holding the smaller scepter copy. The rumbling of the ground ceased. Similarly to Amara, a white horizontal line shot out from Jasper into the rocks and turned the same red hue as Jasper while not becoming actual bloodstone gems.

The levitating rocks then approached Rarity. The white unicorn looked at Rainbow Dash as if she still needed her master’s approval.

Ember gazed on with silent curiosity.

“Jasper offers you the gift of earth, Mitria,” Rainbow Dash said to add formality. “Do you accept?”

Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo looked at each other with eager and quietly excited smiles.

Rarity nodded, and without further prompting, opened her mouth. The rocks entered, and she chomped down, easily grinding them to dust before swallowing the whole of the offer. Again, without prompting, she blew out some wind, as Rainbow predicted she would be able to do. That wind solidified into a pony of the same rock color as the ground they stood on rather than the Bloodstone Scepter’s red.

Rarity eyed it carefully with a raised eyebrow, and her unicorn magic was able to shape it into a large reddish brown rock diamond. She sent out a warm breath again with careful thought to see it turn into a red gem of the same color as the bloodstone in the scepter. She concentrated again with her unicorn magic, and the large red diamond split into three diamonds. “It starts off as rock, but I can change it with another breath to jewels after I manifest it,” she explained to the group. “I can still shape it in either form with unicorn magic since it’s from me. And you know what else?”

“What?” Rainbow asked for everyone.

“I think when it’s on or closer to my day for the pack, I can probably change the colors,” Rarity noted.

“Did you know this was going to happen?” Ember asked the group.

Spike replied for them, “Not all the details, but we thought Rarity might get something like this. We weren’t sure, and Team Awesome did know they had to focus on their work for the reserve to help out the Dragonlands more than getting this elemental power for Rarity.”

“Do other mevs in your pack have powers too?” the Dragon Lord wished to know and directed the question to the mevs still present.

“Whew, I’ve been holding it in here Dragon Lord Ember, but yes, we do. Watch this,” Applejack offered and blew out her fire.

Ember’s eyes widened, and her jaw dropped. “You can breathe fire like dragons can!”

“Thanks to our mutual friend Spike here, yes, I can,” the orange earth pony stated proudly.

“H-how?” Ember asked.

Rainbow Dash shook her head. “We can’t tell you more than that.”

“Oh,” Ember realized with slight disappointment though she would not press the issue. “Oh, I see. No, it’s fine. That is impressive. What about you?” She pointed to Twilight Sparkle.

Twilight blew out a pony of white light that walked over Ember’s shadow to demonstrate that part of its ability before Twilight sucked it back into herself.

“And these two?” Ember asked, referring to the fillies in their adult forms.

“We aren’t mevs,” Sweetie Belle admitted, “just outsider servants. We’re actually fillies.”

Ember blinked. “You are?”

The pair nodded.

“But you did that drawing thing,” Ember told her.

“I did, but that’s not a natural elemental power you will find from the land itself. It’s unicorn and mev magic I’ve been developing with Master Rainbow Dash,” Sweetie Belle explained.

“What about you?” Ember asked Scootaloo.

The orange pegasus blushed with a modest little laugh. “Heh heh, no special powers here,” she admitted.

“Oh. Sorry,” Ember said.

Scootaloo shook her head. “Don’t be. I’m really happy to be with Master regardless.”

Ember smiled warmly at that news. Then she looked at Rainbow Dash. “Besides all the obvious master mev stuff, do you have any kind of land elemental gift as well?”

“Not at the moment,” Rainbow answered, “but I do think it will happen when the time is right. All of my fledglings now have one.”

“And that’s not enough?” Ember wondered.

“There’s a very strong chance we all have to be with her at the same time,” Twilight Sparkle hypothesized aloud.

All present mevs silently agreed.

“Oh, cool. I’m sorry I’ll miss seeing that. I’m curious to know what it will be,” Ember remarked.

“It’s going to be lightning,” Spike said with authority.

“You sound sure of yourself,” Ember noticed with a lightly proud smile.

“Well, I’m not 100% sure, more like 99% sure,” the young purple dragon admitted. “The team will all be together Tuesday at the latest.”

“You know,” Twilight began thoughtfully, “I could teleport over to Ponyville and ask the other girls, then bring them here. The Dragonlands is actually a good place for Master to test out lightning power.”

“I could just summon them instead of you going to the trouble,” Rainbow Dash reminded her. “They can decline a summon if they are too busy. The magic will know. It’s not that important this be done right now.”

Rarity cleared her throat.

“What’s on your mind, Rarity?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“I’m really eager to see it, Master, I am, but I think we should enjoy the lava pool first,” the white unicorn mev suggested. “Twilight can gather the other Awesomevs in Ponyville and meet with us later.”

Applejack approached and spoke to Rainbow Dash. “I know she ain’t a mev or an outsider servant, but could we have my sister here, please? The dangerous part of this place is cleared away from us, and she knows a lot about our pack. It’s kind of special to me and her friends that she be with us.”

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle nodded in hopeful agreement.

“Very well,” Rainbow conceded. “And one more,” she decided aloud. The fledgling mevs present looked at her curiously. “Bring Discord if you can,” she told Twilight.

Her Rexa took a moment to absorb the request before bowing with a smile. “As you wish, Master.”

The group made plans for the exact time and place with Ember’s help on how to plan out this new idea. The Dragon Lord was invited to witness what would happen since her curiosity was the reason for gathering the others.

***

Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Spike relaxed in a lava pool. Scootaloo stood near and occasionally circled it, playing her role as the unnecessary bodyguard. Sweetie Belle sat on her haunches scribbling notes from their trip so far and doodling to practice her drawing if she needed a mental break.

“Are you two certain you don’t want to join us?” Rarity asked. “It’s not everyday a master mev can make you fireproof.”

“We have our jobs for Master,” Sweetie Belle said without looking up.

“I know, but it’s not like Rainbow would mind,” the white unicorn said.

“It’s not that,” Scootaloo noted. “We both want to use this chance to serve our roles properly.”

The Rhezenda nodded in agreement. “Maybe we’ll join you in a little bit.”

“Oh, I certainly hope so,” Rarity remarked. “Applejack, how are you enjoying this?”

“Better than a steam at the spa,” replied a very relaxed and contented Applejack.

“And you Master?” Rarity inquired.

“Quite a bit,” Rainbow replied with her eyes closed as she smiled, just as relaxed and content as her Fyra.

“This is way better than the last time I got to be in a lava pool from my first visit to the Dragonlands,” Spike added. “It was a cannonball competition, and I belly flopped in hard.”

“Oh yes,” Rarity said as she remembered it too. “You had us worried back then that you’d leave us for this place.”

“Sorry about that,” Spike apologized.

Sweetie Belle finished her notes. “Scootaloo?”

“Sure,” Scootaloo said, flew up to a cliff, and dropped herself in cannonball style with a wide grin.

The entire group laughed and started to lightly splash at each other as they enjoyed the rest of their time in the lava pool before leaving for the next phase of their visit.

***

Twilight Sparkle soon arrived with Fluttershy, Apple Bloom, Pinkie Pie, and Discord.

“Master Rainbow Dash!” Apple Bloom galloped to approach her. “I get to see it, really?!” she asked excitedly.

“Assuming it happens yes.” Rainbow turned her attention to the other two Crusaders. “You two should be in filly form with your friend,” she decided and transformed them back to their usual state. “Fly ability over,” she informed the young orange pegasus, who nodded in understanding. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle hugged Apple Bloom with big smiles.

“You won’t believe everything that’s happened since we got here,” Scootaloo said. She looked at Rainbow Dash. “We can tell her, right? This was like super public out here.”

“The pubic part another time,” Rainbow said. “We focus on why we’re all here for now.”

Discord approached her. “Master,” he said with a smile and tiny bow of his head.

“Lord of Chaos, I’m glad you are able to join us this afternoon,” Rainbow said with a small bow of her head in response. She fluttered over to Twilight. “Where is Primeva?”

“Our guess is that it’s going to start immediately once all seven of us are together, and with so many others with us to watch, we wanted to give everyone time to form up. The outsiders should be clustered together separate from us mevs,” Twilight explained.

“Allow me,” Discord stepped forward and snapped his lion paw to create seven lawn chairs, each with a small table to its right and a glass of lemonade with a straw.

The Crusaders grinned and immediately chose three seats by each other.

Spike quickly explained to Ember who Discord was and invited her to sit next to him. Ember complied with mild interest. Discord chose the last remaining seat.

“Can Penny watch too?” Pinkie Pie asked Rainbow Dash.

“Sure,” Rainbow replied with a smile.

Discord snapped his claws to make an eighth lawn chair set as Pinkie whistled Penny out.

Ember’s eyes widened, but she had seen too much weirdness lately to comment on everything at the moment.

The fledglings stood in their own separate cluster in view of the outsiders and Penny.

“You can summon her now,” Twilight suggested.

“Primeva,” Rainbow Dash called aloud.

Starlight Glimmer arrived in a flash and quickly joined the group of fledglings once she saw where they stood.

The storm clouds from the Challenge the Master game returned instantly, and lightning flashed. Wind picked up in the Dragonlands.

Instinctively, Rainbow Dash lifted herself up into the sky. Everyone gazed on with anticipation. The sky blue pegasus opened her mouth. A strike of red lightning shot from one of the storm clouds into her. Starlight herself glowed red all of a sudden. The other Awesomevs realized what happened and smiled.

Another lightning bolt, this time orange, shot into Rainbow’s open mouth, and Fluttershy glowed its same color.

“She’s getting them in rainbow colors!” Scootaloo eagerly informed everyone but in Spike’s general direction. It was his initial idea that involved a rainbow for the master mev’s natural element as something all-encompassing.

“We should line up in order,” Starlight told the other fledglings.

“Sorry Penny,” Pinkie said, “but you should actually be inside me for this. My instinct for it didn’t kick in until just now. I’ll call you out and tell you more when I can.”

“It’s okay,” Penny replied. “I got to see the first two, so that will help when I re-imagine it later. That’s probably why your instincts waited to tell you. Take care Pinkie.”

With that, Pinkie sucked Penny back into her body.

Awesomev fledglings not yet glowing moved clear to let only Starlight and Fluttershy stand next to each other.

Yellow lightning entered Rainbow’s mouth, and Rarity’s body took on a yellow glow. She joined the line. Blue for Applejack. Green for Pinkie Pie. At last, purple for Twilight Sparkle. Together, they all looked up at the small pegasus figure in the sky.

A rainbow formed from the lined up fledglings and shot up toward the master mev, surrounding her completely like a large ribbon of rainbow colors. It looked quite similar to wielding the Elements of Harmony.

Rainbow Dash felt the power from it enter her body as she momentarily glowed white from the collection of all the colors together. She laughed bombastically at the still dark sky. One of the laughs turned into a thunderous sound. Seven lightning bolts, one white, one red, one orange, and so on for the entire rainbow of glowing colors, shot down from the storm clouds.

Scootaloo yelped as it seemed the green bolt just missed her. She was not the only one. Discord’s tail curled in at the sight of a close red bolt. Rarity and Applejack saw a blue bolt shoot down right between where they stood. Even so, each bolt conveniently missed striking any of the living creatures directly.

“Formidable Lightning!” Rainbow Dash shrieked in joy.

The Awesomev fledglings collectively took a moment to look away from their master and at each other into huge smiles.

“Oh Master gets to use her alternative pack name idea for her power,” Fluttershy said happily.

Rainbow Dash descended as the dark storm clouds faded. Her fledglings closed in for a huge group hug. After that, the Crusaders did their own separate hug with her. Once they were done, Discord soon stood to approach, offered his lion paw for Rainbow Dash to bump, which she did. Then he went ahead and hugged her too. Rainbow hugged him back. Spike did the same thing as Discord, bumping claw to hoof, and then they hugged each other.

Discord chose to leave at that time and bade farewell to everyone, casting away the extra chairs, tables, and such, with him.

“Wow Spike,” Twilight said. “Maybe you didn’t get every detail exactly right, but still. It was definitely lightning, and it did involve a rainbow after all. Broadly speaking, you guessed quite well.”

Spike blushed. “Heh, I guess I did.”

Ember lightly glided toward Rainbow Dash but merely bowed her head, honored to be a witness to the special moment for the group. “That was awesome,” she said quietly with a small smile.

“More like THAT WAS SO AWESOME!” Scootaloo declared happily, fluttering up in place for a moment. Her two filly friends giggled.

Ember chuckled. “Yes, of course. Any other business today, Master Rainbow Dash?”

“A little practice if I may?” Rainbow asked. She held out a hoof gesturing to the open rocky terrain of the Dragonlands.

Ember nodded.

Rainbow’s friends took a few steps back. The master mev opened her mouth, and thunder blurted out. The seven different lightning bolts appeared again with the same effect despite the lacking storm clouds.

“Is it always like that?” Scootaloo asked.

“Let’s find out,” Rainbow said. She tried again and was able to do a single white lightning bolt that was not as formidable as her first two uses of the magic. It struck at a further distance from the gathered friends. She tried again, and she could do three different red lightning bolts.

Rainbow turned away from everyone. “All of you stay put,” she ordered. She made her thunder sound, and the seven bolts shot out straight from her mouth. She chuckled mischievously.

“Wow,” Sweetie Belle uttered for everyone.

“Is seven the limit?” Twilight asked her master.

“Most of the time,” Rainbow replied. “I might get a boost near and on my lacking flexchange night and on Nightmare Night itself.”

“Oh, maybe the rest of us get a boost on Nightmare Night as well?” Starlight asked.

“We’ll find out soon,” Applejack said with a smile.

“Nightmare Night is going to be the best funnest night party ever!” Pinkie Pie declared.

Rainbow Dash looked to Ember. “We are now finished with our business here, Dragon Lord Ember. Thank you very much for your assistance and hospitality.”

“Don’t sweat it,” Ember replied. “What’s Nightmare Night anyway?”

Twilight Sparkle gave her a brief breakdown.

“Can I come to the show?” Ember asked hopefully.

“Of course,” Spike said, looking guiltily to Rainbow after saying so. The master mev nodded quietly with full approval.

With that, further arrangements were made before Rainbow Dash assigned Starlight with teleporting everyone in their group back to Ponyville. Twilight had done plenty of going back and forth already, and it made sense given Starlight’s rank as Primeva.

They were ready to depart the Dragonlands.