Chapter 8 (A Visit to Nibel?)
Relaxing from the chaos of the Gala, Espie and Ethos confabulated with Fluttershy, talking about the huge commotion of the Gala.
One thing popped up in Espie's mind while they had their conversation – going back to Nibel, her home.
She asked Fluttershy, "Would you and the rest of the Mane Six like to join me for a visit to Nibel, Fluttershy?"
"I would like to but I'm not so sure about my friends… I'll help you to ask them later."
"Great. But first I need to send a letter to invite Princess Celestia to the trip as well, but the problem is how? Do you know how, Fluttershy?"
"Ask Spike to help you. Write a letter, roll it up and pass it to him. He will deliver it for you."
"I shall do that. Meanwhile, can you help to inform the rest that we are taking a trip to my home tomorrow? While I'm visiting Spike, I would also inform Twilight, so you only need to send word to the rest of the four."
"Okay. Meet you back here after you are done."
Both of them left the cottage and headed in different directions, leaving Ethos alone in the cottage.
"Well Ethos, at least you're here with me… " Discord said to him, walking to the bathroom for his shower, wrapping a towel around his neck.
Ethos did not feel like doing anything productive as he was still lethargic from the previous night. He lounged around for a while before he got bored. He started fiddling with Malyne's staff, lifting it up from the table and inspecting it clearly, tapping on each part to see if anything interesting happens.
~Meanwhile~
Espie ran into Twilight's castle, finding Twilight and Spike resting on a couch. "What is it Espie? Anything wrong" Twilight asked, still slightly fatigued from the gala. Spike was standing beside her holding up a quill and a checklist.
"There's two things I need to inform you. Firstly, are you two interested in visiting my home tomorrow? Secondly, I need to borrow Spike to send Princess Celestia a letter to tell her that I'm inviting her for that trip to my home." she answered, hoping that they would accept the offer to her home.
She led them to the main room and sat on another couch.
"We would be interested to. Spike, do your thing..." She dozed off on the couch immediately after saying her sentence.
"Well, she's tired. We should leave the room and give her time to rest. Follow me to the library and we can start there."
Spike led Espie to the library, moving to a table and prepared the ink and quill, along with a sheet of yellowish paper, ready to write the message.
"Spike, here's what I want you to write in the letter…"
After conversing the message word-by-word to him, he rolled up the paper, ready to get it delivered.
Espie asked "How are you going to send it? I don't see any contraption that can help to send this letter to Canterlot…"
"Dragon magic…" Spike answered. She was curious to see how he would do, not knowing what 'dragon magic' looked like compared to her own.
He took the letter and breathed green flames at the letter, making it seem like it was burning. She gasped in horror as the paper turned to ash and disappeared. Spike reassured her that he was just sending the letter and not really burning it.
"Now we shall wait for any replies from her. It just takes a moment…"
A minute ticked by as they waited for things to happen.
Out of the sudden, Spike belched with green flames and a scroll popped out. "Let me see… It writes 'It would be a pleasure to go with you tomorrow, I will come in the morning. See you tomorrow at Twilight's castle.' Well, that means we can all go for a nice trip."
"Thank you, Spike. See you tomorrow for the visit to Nibel"
Spike waved goodbye to Espie before she ran back to the cottage, seeing Ethos and Fluttershy inside through the window "Good news Espie. They've all agreed to come along tomorrow. Anyway, Ethos has something to show you." Fluttershy told her.
He approached Espie and told her to follow him to the table by the couch.
"Hey Espie, I just placed the items close to each other and both items suddenly glowed and fused together, becoming this! " he lifted the amalgamation of the items and presented it to her.
She took it and examined it closely.
"Hmm… Yup! I actually knew that these two items would fit together already. Malyne's staff is a part of a relic stolen from the Spirit Tree during the days of decay. With both fitting relic parts finally reassembled together, we have the Staff of Spacetime. It has the capabilities to control of all the realms of space and time! Do you know what this means?"
Ethos shrugged, looking at her, clueless about what she was going to say.
Espie held the staff in a heroic stance, exclaiming "More adventure!"
"Yeah!" he joined in with her.
Fluttershy was entertained by Espie's cute stance, smiling in admiration.
"So now, we are able to customise the staff to where and when we want to go, not like how I used the cube like before to randomise my adventure."
Espie put the staff away and lolled around together with Ethos and Fluttershy for the rest of the afternoon, reenergizing themselves for the visit the next day.