The Fiction of a Fan {public, so very public}

[Lorelei Summer-Lac]

It was a dark inn. The sort of dark inn where dark people slept and did dark things. People inside were all dark and mean and growling and sort. They were also space pirates. Lots of space pirates. So while they were being dark and mean they were also grumbling about space and the new rule of the cruel Empress Norwana. Empress Norwana had a thing about pirate ships, and so they kept getting shot down and that was causing problems since it's really hard to be a pirate without a ship.

A man burst out of one of the rooms in back where they keep all the loose women of low virtue. He too looked dark, but darker than the rest of them, and far handsomer than most. He had that darkly handsome dark look that drew women to him by the droves. One woman clung to his belt as he walked forward, whimpering with the raw need to just be in his presence. Everyone in the bar shut up and looked at him, knowing who he happened to be: the son of Dracula and the great thief Tulio, none other than Costin.

"I am done having my standard four women at a time," he said, tossing a sack of loot at the barkeep and moving toward his sword. No one knew what exactly he did with four women, since he could at most have two organs that would do the work since that's how sex works and stuff. Just as Costin was stalking toward his sword, however, someone showed up.

She was pretty in a pretty sort of way. Her dark hair had lank, wet sort of look about it, and there was something very penguin-esque in the way she held herself, like she could be cuddly or something but was just barley hiding it in. She looked around, looking scared, and despite himself Costin could feel the warm rumblings in his dark heart chamber. He seemed to remember her.

"Costin," she breathed in a sexy breathless way, throwing herself forward. "I'm not sure if you remember me, since you are always draped in loose women of ill repute, but--"

"Aiden," said Costin, his arms going to her shoulders, "I couldn't forget you."

But he released her, knowing that she was a penguin-mermaid-princess and he a lowly space pirate doomed forever to be alone and sulky and having lots of sex with various loose women.

"My kingdom was just taken over by the evil Empress!" gasped Aiden. She remembered then that she wanted to be all aloof and stuff so as to still seem appealing. "And we need this jewel of power to unlock my special penguin-mermaid powers, and I figured that since you were a renowned space pirate, you could help or something."

"I could help or something," agreed Costin. "But I am not tied to people, because being tied to people only leads to pain."

"I figured,' said Aiden. And they both stood there being aloof and stuff because neither wanted to confess the big warm feeling things they had deep within their hearts. The other pirates were watching because it's not every day you see a sexy pirate and a sexy princess being awkward. One was even like "wow, they have a lot of sexual tension, right?" and another was all "Shh, I want to hear what they're saying, Todd. God, you always talk at just the wrong times."

Then these bad Empress men showed up. Except it wasn't just standard soldiers, they were led by this glowing knight wearing gold.

"Gasp," said one of the women still hanging around Costin. "It is the enchanted prince Tristian, enchanted to serve his sort of evil not-relative and fight for evil despite being a totally good guy and definitely not evil."

"My code of honor says I should fight him," said Costin.

"Forget your honor, we've got to get out of here," said Aiden, tugging at his sleeve.

"I just remembered that I like living more than I like having honor," agreed Costin. And they started to sneak away and might have made it despite having lots of attention, but stupid Todd was all "Oh my God, they're escaping!"

And so the evil enchanted Prince Tristian focused his now fiery eyes of fire and stuff right at them, and he raised his sword to unleash some darkness!

What will happen to the dark and sexy Costin and the reserved but still sexy and definitely not loose Aiden? What about Tristian? and where is everyone else? Tune in next time!

[Lorelei Summer-Lac]

Setting: a seedy bar in a nondescript Asian town. The people inside are all these seedy types that would be at a seedy place doing seedy things. Several of them lacked teeth. The women looked more dangerous than the men, holding daggers and glaring at one another. The general atmosphere was as filled with deadly tension as it was from smoke. Because nearly everyone there was smoking with a reckless disregard for their health and personal wellbeing. These were definitely not good people doing not good things.

"So, gentleman," said a woman at a gambling table in the middle. She leaned forward with a confident smile on her confident face, radiating raw awesomeness from every pour. See, she definitely looked different since she was all pale compared to most of the swarthy ruffian types. There was little doubting that she was beautiful in this striking way, and even littler doubt that she'd strike you in a beautiful way. Also she was awesome. Pure awesome distilled in a human form and currently wearing a sleek Chinese style dress. "I'm thinking we go all in on this one, shall we?"

She tapped the game tiles in front of them. Because they were playing a game involving tiles and strategy which of course she was super awesome at doing. She was so awesome that she didn't even have to look at her tiles. She simply moved all her chips into the center of the pile.

"Wow, she is awesome," said one of the men, but he did it under his breath since he didn't want anyone else to hear him. Of course she heard him because she had awesome hearing and stuff. So she simply smiled a little confident smile that made her look about twice as awesome, which nearly made this man faint on the spot because it was like, wow, just too much awesome in one distilled gesture.

"She's bluffing," said this gruff, buff dude with lots of tattoos and a scar on his face.

"Then call me on it," she said awesomely.

The gruff buff dude, who was probably named Todd, glared at her with his tiny beady eyes. He shoved his chips in, and of course everyone else followed because he was the sort of alpha thug guy. The tiles started flicking out, each one landing in the pile one after the other, while people shouted out things in some Oriental type language. Of course her intonation was awesome, more awesome and perfect than the guys' around her. People kept dropping out of the game, one after another, till it was just Todd and her, staring each other down. Just as she reached for her tile, however, her phone started ringing.

"Hold on," she said, shifting to take it. "Yes?"

"Agent Locksley?" said the voice on the other end. It was a very smart voice with this really smart accent. "This is the Crown, and we need your help for another top secret mission."

"I'm currently being awesome," said Gwyn, tapping her tile. "Can this wait?"

"I'm afraid you need to be awesome on our time," said the voice. "The queen needs you."

"She is so needy," said Gwyn, flicking her tile, she smiled at the boys. "Sorry boys, but it looks like I win this one. Sorry to keep you in suspense," and she reached for her tiles, but Todd started to reach for them.

Just as his hand got near, however, Gwyn whipped out a knife, stabbing it between his fingers. "Next time you'll lose them," she said, grinning. People started rising and it looked like it would totally be time for an awesome fight sequence.

"Hello Gwyn, I just adopted this Chinese Chinchilla!" said Gwyn's comedic sidekick and sometimes companion Jesse. He was holding a mouse wearing a little Chinese hat.

"Jesse, that's a mouse in a Chinese hat," Gwyn said awesomely.

"That's what makes him Chinese," said Jesse. He looked around. "Are you about to kick these guys' butts in a truly awesome fashion for the fourth time this week?"

The men paused at that, looking to Gwyn.

"That is the plan," agreed Gwyn, smiling an awesome smile.

"Oh," said Jesse, "then Vincent and I should probably get out of the way." Vincent of course being the name of the Chinese Chinchilla. Jesse started to move when a thug attacked. The thug knocked Jesse over, which caused Vincent to go tumbling toward Gwyn. Gwyn caught the Chinese Chinchilla and threw it at Todd, who it turned out was scared of Chinese Chinchillas.

"I'm allergic!" he cried, flailing wildly with wild flailing. Vincent went flying and Jesse calmly walked toward him. A thug tried to punch Jesse but he ducked at just the right time so that the thug hit himself instead. So while that was happening Gwyn did this cool martial arts thing where she pulled the knife out of the table while kicking a guy and spinning.

"She really is awesome," said Jesse matter-of-factly. He gathered Vincent up, turning to look at the guy standing next to him. "Did you know that she's the top agent for the Crown?"

Of course the guy was totally stunned by this awesome revelation, but before he could finish, Gwyn had punched him in his not awesome face. "We need to get out of here," she told Jesse. She grabbed him and he grabbed Vincent and they ran out of there.

Just as they got outside, Gwyn heard a voice on her mobile device thing: "A car should be there shortly."

"I hope it's red," said Jesse, petting Vincent. "I like red cars. And they are at least twenty percent more awesome."

Gwyn agreed, but she wasn't about to let Jesse know that, since she was too awesome. She instead turned back to the bar, where thugs were starting to come out. She and Jesse and Vincent started fighting them, but just as things were going bad, the car pulled up, a window sliding down. "Get in losers, we're going shopping," said the driver, looking up at them. She was Jenny, who was wearing sunglasses despite it being night.

"You really shouldn't wear sunglasses at night," said Jesse. But Gwyn threw him into the backseat, Vincent squealing as they landed.

"Right, time to spend someone else's money," said Gwyn in the coolest possible manner, while Jenny floored the gas.

What is Gwyn's super secret mission for the crown? How will Vincent end up saving the day? How much more awesome could this story be? When will the awesome adventures of pirate Costin and Princess Aiden return? Tune in next time to find out.

[Lorelei Summer-Lac]

Once upon a time there was a wonderful magical world filled with wonder and magic known as Trenale. It was a wide place that had several countries: Dragonlot, Guinattle (home of the penguin people), Atlantica, France, Surewood Forest, Wonderland, the Dark Country, and of course the Summer Country. Despite the slightly creepy names and disparate peoples that often occupied these places, everyone got along for many thousands of years. Peace has reigned and everyone was quite happy and content, or so people thought. Thus our story begins.

It begins in the Summer Country, ruled by wise queen Summer Dragon, who was a beautiful majestic pony who just happened to be married to Arty Dragon, the monarch of Dragonlot. The great queen was renowned for her many suitors: the dragon king, the great stallion hero of France, even one of her bravest, most loyal knights. With her suitors she had many children: True Summer Dragon, the noble and wise pony/dragon; Summer Gem, the glamorous pony princess; Summer Star, the benevolent if nerdy pony prince; Summer Heart, the gentle princess known for her caregiving magic; Summer Odd, who was the oddest but most fun of the princess; and the youngest pony princess, born of the loyal knight, Summer Lore.

Summer Lore was not allowed to leave the Summer Country for many years. Her brave father Lances Lots had tried to train her, but Summer Lore was always interested in the world. She memorized and learned all about the world around her. She did have friends: Mere-Dragon, the magical dragon daughter of Arty Dragon and his faithful wizard Merlin; Princess Victory Heart, the magical fairy ruler of Wonderland; and Leezaril, a shy dragon from Dragonlot (she was also friends with most of her siblings). They would often come to visit and play with Summer Lore growing up, and eventually would tell stories of their lands. So Summer Lore would heard of magic from Mere-dragon; of boys and love from Victory Heart; and would share close stories with Leezaril. Together they grew quite close as friends and had many adventures.

One day, Summer Lore was studying the ancient texts in the library, like she so frequently did. Her friends came to find her. "I told you she'd be reading," said Mere-dragon confidently, swishing her beautiful tail (for Mere-Dragon was a very pretty and very smart dragon).

"That's just because she's always reading," said Leezaril, though not very loud. She was quite small for a dragon, and used to be made fun of for being a black dragon until her friends stood up for her and taught her to stand up for herself.

"She'd have a lot more fun if she went out," said Victory Heart, hovering around and looking at the books.

"Guys," said Summer Lore, "I was just looking up information on ancient history for my stories that everyone loves."

"We do love your stories," admitted Mere-Dragon.

"Very much," agreed Leezaril.

"But as I did research, I found this!" Summer Lore held up a scroll.

"Great, it's written in dragon," said Victory Heart, huffing and crossing her tiny fairy arms.

"It says that there's going to be a black dragon that tries to take over Dragonlot!" said Mere-Dragon. They all gasped and looked at Leezaril.

"It's not me," she said, lowering her gaze and shuffling in the dust, no doubt remembering all the people who used to pick on her.

"of course it's not!" said Victory Heart, landing on Leezaril's beautiful crest of scales. "It probably means that mean and awful brother of yours."

That caused both Mere-Dragon and Leezaril to shift awkwardly, for reasons.

"Yes," said Summer Lore, "or it's just another black dragon that we haven't heard of. It definitely doesn't have to be one of the two black dragons that we just happen to know. It could totally be another dragon out there."

"But it probably won't be," mumbled Leezaril. Secretly everyone agreed with her.

"But there's a solution!" said Summer Lore, brightening. "Beyond of course saving More Dread with the magic of friendship and love. Because that might be possible! No, we have to journey to the Dark Country and rescue the Heart of Light!"

"But we're just a motley crew of friends!" protested Leezaril, gasping.

"We are pretty motley," agreed Victory Heart.

"Yes, but we're also super magical," said Mere-dragon. "Also we're friends, and friendship can do lots of things and is more powerful than almost anything besides love!"

"Right!" said Summer Lore, stepping forward. Summer Lore was less a beautiful pony though she did kind of look like her much more majestic mom (since I just remembered that I didn't describe her very well). She had this soft coat of sort of light blue with a white mane. On her rump was a storybook representing her awesome stories that everyone liked to read. "We should go on the journey!"

"Shouldn't we ask our parents for help?" asked Leezaril. She was a cute dragon, very small, with black scales that often hid her pretty eyes whenever she got shy and stuff. She had a beautiful crest atop her head though, which made her look quite splendid.

"Our parents are busy ruling the lands,' Victory Heart said. She mostly looked like a floating ball of red and pink light, but if you looked close you'd see a very pretty and kind of sexy fairy with shimmering wings and a gown made of red leaves that were clipped to look like hearts.

"My dad isn't," said Mere-Dragon. She was a thin dragon with beautiful golden scales that looked sort of like her royal dad dragon but had the intelligent eyes of her magical dad dragon, who of course is who she was talking about.

"Yes, but we know that parents are never helpful in this," said Summer Lore. "And they sometimes show up when you just wrote them a letter telling them what you're going to do. So we should probably head off without telling anyone."

"We could tell True Summer," offered Leezaril.

"True Summer would make sense," agreed Mere-Dragon. "he looks out for us and covers us and stuff. I wouldn't mind telling Summer Star or Summer Odd, or maybe even Summer Heart."

"Summer Heart is my favorite," said Victory Heart.

"Guys, we need to move," said Summer Lore. She used her magic (she had a unicorn horn) to summon four sets of bags. One was sized for a pony, two for smallish dragons, and one was an itty bitty fairy bag. "If we don't find the Heart of Good the black dragon will take over and all will fall to darkness!"

"Don't you think you're being a little dramatic?" asked Mere-dragon. She'd seen her friend be super dramatic before. "This isn't one of your stories!"

"Yes!" said Summer Lore. "Because it's actually happening! So let's get going on an adventure!"

And so they all set out for the adventure to find the heart. They'd have to travel through the land of Guinattle, and through Surewood Forest, to eventually arrive at the Dark Country. It would be a journey filled with wonder and probably a song or two. Who knows what they'll encounter as they journey out? What sort of wonder and magic and song awaits them? Why was Mere-dragon kind of embarrassed at the mention of More Dread? What waits for them in the lands they must pass? Tune in next time!

[Lorelei Summer-Lac]

When last we left our daring space pirate and the dashing mermaid penguin princess, they were being assaulted by an enchanted Prince Tristian who was totally under the control of the evil sorceress Norwana (otherwise he most definitely would not wear golden armor as that would clash with his hair and it really doesn't make for very protective stuff).

"Watch out!" yelled Todd, waving his arms in an arm-waving gesture. The warning gave Costin and Aiden just enough time to duck underneath a table, which immediately flicked upwards.

"You cannot run from the magic of Nowana,' intoned Tristian in a voice that really didn't sound like Tristian because he wouldn't talk like this. "She is all encompassing and will rule all with great darkness. If you surrender, Pirate, then we shall surround you with darkness."

"I do long for the kiss of darkness," admitted Costin. "I wish nothing so much as to sip darkness and take it into my very soul." Hearing this, Aiden grasped his face between her hands, locking eyes with him.

"You don't want this darkness, surely."

"But my heart longs for dark," insisted Costin, very weakly now. He was trying not to think about the fact that the princess was totally holding his face and that they were like a quick head turn away from a kiss. Then again, he did realize that if he kissed her, that might shut her up, which could be quite effective in getting what he wants.

"Plus you'll be under Norwena's control, and that will totally suck," said Aiden.

"I do like not being tied to people or under their thrall," admitted Costin.

"Are you two done having a lovers' chat?" asked Tristian. "I didn't want to interrupt, so I've mostly been standing here glaring at Todd."

"It's really creepy!" agreed Todd.

"We are not lovers!" said both Costin and Aiden at the same time. They exchanged a quick look and then looked away, feeling embarrassed slightly. Mostly because they were both wondering what it would be like to be lovers in the night time. But Aiden started moving for the door, possibly because she totally wanted the dark embrace of the dark Costin. And he followed, because he totally wanted a piece of that fine mermaid/penguin tail. After all, it had been like a week since he'd slept with a princess.

"To the back!" said Aiden, using her smart smarts to guide them. They headed toward a back door and burst from the back of the inn. Aiden turned to Costin. "Where's your space ship?"

"At the space dock, in space pier six," said Costin. They weren't far from the space dock, since the dingy space bar was just a few spaces away. Space.

The guards showed up out of the front while the two not-lovers started running like crazy for the dock. They were firing their space laser things at them. But Costin had one of those space swords that were made out of light and made a "vrrm" noise when you pulled them out. You know: beam sabres. He used it to deftly reflect them using his cool, dark, vampire training in swordsmanship, because everyone knows he had that. Plus he's totally a count of Wallachia, a forgotten planet on a distant system. And counts totally know swordsmanship. It's required. And since this is space, everyone fights with beam sabres that make weird noises, because that part actually makes sense, unlike talking furry creatures that literally nobody can understand and stuffy gold droids that for some reason are dragged along on every single adventure despite having zero impact on the actual story and why is there both a princess and a Senate?

So they were running toward the docks. "Which ship is yours?" asked a breathless Aiden.

"The dark one," said Costin, nodding. Sure enough, there was a medium sized dark space ship sitting in the dock. It looked more like a traditional ship than the ones you'd see in other sci-fi stuff, with a pretty dark deck and a dark gargoyle figure on the front. Really it just dripped with darkness.

Aiden got their first and was trying to hop on while they were shooting at her. While she flailed, Costin tried deflecting all the laser blasts, but one got through and hit Aiden in the arm. She let out a hiss, grasping her wound, and Costin was there. "Forget your pain," he whispered, holding the arm up and giving it a kiss. "Pain just makes us darker." And he picked her up on the hips, making her gasp. Of course he did it to put her on the boat, but there was totally a moment where he lingered just a bit too long. But there were laser blasts, so he just helped her get up. Then he jumped onto the ship all by himself.

"How do we get this thing moving?" asked Aiden, running around. The ship had a special field that was at least blocking laser blasts, but Tristian's crew was getting closer by the minute.

"It responds to my voice,' said Costin, striding confidently over in a dark strut. Said strut and his dark voice made Aiden remember his hands on her hips and she nearly swooned. "Ship, away," and the ship took off, leaving the port behind them. Costin turned to Aiden then. "Where are we going?"

"first we need allies," said Aiden, moving up to look at a star map that was to the side of the ship's wheel. "So we need to go somewhere we can get help."

"I have no friends. For the dark is lonely," said Costin darkly.

"So we'll have to head to the most wretched hive of scum and villainy and see what's there,' said Aiden, tapping the map.

Where is this wonderful place? What will our two do next? And how many installments until they make out? Tune in next time!

[Lorelei Summer-Lac]

Meredith hated moving. She hated leaving her old home behind. She hated having to go somewhere new and different. She wasn't the sort of person who made friends easily. Not because she was awful, or at least she didn't think so, but because she was just sort of shy and reserved, more comfortable with books than people. But her dads had gotten a new job in the cloudy city of Wallachia. Sure there were rumors about the place, something about how maybe the mayor was a vampire or something, but everyone knew those were just rumors.

Now Meredith was heading to her new school for the first time. She gulped as she looked around, already seeing the people in their little groups. There was the nerds looking all nerdy, which were kind of tempting. There were the jocks in their jock clothes. And the popular crowd with the pretty brunette laughing and talking about how she would conquer Todd at all costs. But of all the groups, the one that caught her gaze was this oddly pale group that seemed to travel together.

She couldn't quite help it: they were just eerily beautiful, with pale skin and chiseled features. Two of them had to be siblings: one a shy girl that kept glancing at her, the other a darkly handsome young man with piercing eyes. He must have noticed Meredith looking toward him, because he turned, catching her eyes. She felt her heart leaping to her chest, and she flushed. He stared hard, just kept staring in a staring manner. As Meredith watched, however, a patch of sun pierced through the cloudy clouds around them. It hit his skin just so, and for a moment, he seemed to almost... shimmer.

"That's Mordred," said a cheery voice, making Meredith jump. She turned to look, and almost jerked. The girl she looked at had lots of bright colors on and was obviously the type who didn't think about the way she dressed. But she smiled a friendly smile. "Hey there, I'm Lorelei, and we are going to be friends!"

"We are?" asked a dazed Meredith. The glittery awesomeness of the boy she'd just seen was still leaving her a little loopy. She glanced over at him.

"We so are,' said Lorelei. "You really shouldn't be staring so much at him. He's very mean and wounded and I think he stabbed me once."

"What?" gasped Meredith. "That's awful, are you okay?"

"It's alright. I got better. But that whole group is kind of weird. They only show up on cloudy days and they have pale skin and they're all super pretty and I'm pretty sure they're vampires and Mordred is, like, sort of their leader? That's his sister," Lorelei pointed in a fairly obvious pointing manner, "Leela. She sort of avoids people, which seems kind of sad in a sad way."

"Oh," said Meredith. "So that's... Mordred?" she looked at him again, and she swore he met his eyes. But they kept on walking, and Lorelei soon hustled Meredith into the building. She knew she shouldn't be thinking about Mordred, but he just couldn't leave her thoughts. That was especially impressive since Lorelei stuck around and Lorelei was just filled with great stories and information about all sorts of fun things. Like she knew that the mayor's son Costin was definitely not a vampire despite the fact that he sort of acted like one and listened to Vampire Weekend and wrote in a Vampire Diary and insisted that his dad was Dracula or something. There were other people too, like the super-popular Gwyn or Lorelei's several siblings, all of whom were mostly nice except for Jenny who made up for niceness by being popular because that was the choice she made in life.

Then she got to science, which was her first class without Lorelei. So Meredith had to find a seat all on her own and sure enough, there was only one open space. And it was next to Mordred. So she had to sit next to Mordred.

"You shouldn't be near me," he growled as she got close in a sexy growling way.

That startled Meredith. "Why shouldn't i?" she said, suddenly feeling a little defensive.

He looked into her eyes. "Because I'll hurt you."

Which was really creepy but his eyes were all soft and puppy-ish so Meredith sort of wanted to hug him but of course she knew she had to play it cool. "Well, so long as you engage in proper lab safety procedure, that shouldn't be a problem," she insisted, putting on goggles and giving him a super confident look.

Mordred had to recoil, because of course he hadn't had anyone be super confident in front of him besides when he did it in front of a mirror to practice. It was definitely hot but he of course couldn't let her know that. So instead he sort of shifted and grumbled some more. But they did the experiment together and it turned out that their chemistry was great. Meaning that they did great at chemistry, though they also had great chemistry in another way if you know what i mean.

So Meredith went through the rest of they day and met up with Lorelei who wanted to introduce her to her friends and siblings. So Meredith got to know Gaston Jr who was pretty cute in a nerdy sort of way and turned out to be king of the nerds and a super Jedi, and Vivi, who was the sweet younger sister who had a sort of mothering nature and immediately wanted to invite Meredith to tea, and Jesse who was odd and had a pet Chinese Chinchilla that he insisted was named Vincent, and even people who weren't related to them: like a very cheerful, pretty girl named Tori and some other people. Meredith was feeling overwhelmed by all the people and how they were all quite nice and clearly everyone was getting along. She kept finding herself drawn away.

They were outside near the parking lot which had all these cars and teenagers driving them. In one car Todd was trying to drive but Jenny was all over him, being handsy and stuff.

Meredith didn't notice that though. Because instead her attention was focused on Mordred, who was standing by his sister and a few other people, talking in a low voice. Again he must have noticed, because again their eyes met. But Meredith was determined not to show that she'd been looking. So she looked up and purposefully strode away.

She didn't see the car, and by the time she heard Lorelei yelling it was much too late. The car was right in front of her, and she was staring at the lights, and then suddenly there was someone there. Mordred stood right in front of her and he grabbed her, holding her tight in a way that made her stomach do these little flip things and he crouched over her. The car sort of crumpled around him, the lights flickering. And Meredith looked up, seeing him glittering, looking down at her.

"I told you," he whispered, "So get out of my head already. I can't stop thinking about you," before rising up and running away, leaving Meredith breathless and not at all sure what she had just seen or what was going on.

What is going on? Did Meredith just totally meet a vampire? Why can they not get out of each other's minds? What about that chemistry? Tune in to find out!

[Lorelei Summer-Lac]

"I'm bored!" whined Victory Heart.

"We've only been traveling a few days," said Mere-Dragon. The dragon looked over at the fluttering fairy princess, who seemed to never quite hold still. Victory Heart clearly wasn't made for the whole questing thing: she alternated between all but fluttering over her more grounded friends and resting, generally on one of the dragon's crests (she seemed to favor Leezaril, which made the shy dragon blush a purple color that was admittedly pretty adorable).

"We're close to Guinattle," said Summer-Lore. "It's the home of the penguin people, the followers of the Great Guin."

"Isn't that the religion that really relies on singing to praise the ruler?" asked Mere-Dragon.

"We should probably practice our singing then!" said Victory Heart, fluttering up and bobbing in the air. "I'll be the toast of the town, the girl on the go/I'm the type of fairy every pony, every pony should know~" she did have quite a lovely singing voice, clear and a little tinkling.

"I don't know if I'd feel comfortable singing in a group of people," admitted Leezaril, her frill visibly shrinking. She was probably not thrilled about having her first line of dialogue in the story being doubt either.

"It's okay, Leezaril," said Mere-dragon, moving over to nuzzle her friend. "We'll all be singing together, and with Summer-Lore and Victory Heart, nobody will care about your singing. Victory Heart's lovely, and nobody can hear anything whenever Summer-Lore bellows. Plus, we all harmonize well together."

"That is part of being friends,' agreed Summer Lore. The unicorn pony frowned then. "Hey, are you saying I'm a bad singer?"

"I'm saying you would need a lot of magical autotune," said Mere-dragon, smiling teasingly at her friend. Summer Lore glared while Victory Heart and Leezaril both giggled. Soon Summer Lore couldn't quite hold back either. They all laughed for a few more steps, only to start to realize something;

"It's getting quite cold," said Victory Heart. She fluttered down to tuck between Leezaril's scales. The dragon shivered her agreement.

"We must be getting close," agreed Summer Lore, looking forward. "Yes, see! There's Guinattle."

The four friends stopped to stare at the impressive city before them. It looked like a very large city with a lot of large buildings shaped like amphitheaters. It looked like it should be rather bright and shiny, except:

"That's odd," said Summer Lore, tilting her head. "I thought that the city of Guinattle was supposed to be covered in snow? That's what I read."

"This isn't one of your stories, Lore,' said Mere-dragon gently. "But it does seem odd. Isn't this a place for penguins to live?"

"Maybe they just decided they didn't like all the gloomy snow fashions," said Victory Heart, shivering. "It's still cold though."

"Maybe it's part of the magic," said Leezaril quietly. "Isn't that what we're worried about? Magic affecting different lands."

"That is the reason for our journey," agreed Summer Lore, frowning. "We should..."

But Summer lore didn't get to finish, because that's when they all noticed the grumpy penguin waddling their way. The four friends looked at the lean, sort of pretty, penguin. The pretty penguin looked up at them.

"I don't want anything to do with this," she said, trying to waddle forward. "I'm just trying to get out of Guinattle."

"Wait!" said Mere-Dragon shuffling into the penguin's way. "We're new here, and we were wondering if you could tell us what's going on in this town!"

"I'm Leezaril, by the way," the shy dragon said, moving to smile. "I figured we should actually be polite and introduce ourselves."

"Yes, just because we're in a hurry doesn't mean we need to be rude,' agreed Victory Heart. "I'm--"

"Yeah, I don't care,' said the penguin, shaking her head. "I'm just trying to get out of town."

"Maybe you could tell us why?" asked Summer lore, tilting her head. "The town does look a little warmer than--"

The penguin sighed loud enough to cut Summer Lore off, which was pretty impressive for a sigh. The four friends gathered around her, and she sat. "If I tell you my story, will you let me pass?"

"That depends," said Mere-Dragon, "on whether or not you need our help."

"We are a motley crew of friends out to help people," added Victory Heart.

"And it makes us sad to see you so sad," offered Leezaril.

"So what's the story?" asked Summer Lore, already starting to get out her books. After all, she did love taking down stories.

The penguin sighed. "My name is Ada Mumbella. See, the problem is that Guinattle? We're big on singing. We believe that the Great Guin listens to our songs and offers up his blessings, which often seem to come in the form of friendship sticks,' she shuffled. "Those taste awful.'

"They sound delicious," said Leezaril. Summer Lore made a hushing noise, and Leezaril flushed, her frill shifting again.

"But yeah, so, there's this evil penguin choir that's taken over the city or something," said Ada, sighing. "They're saying the Great Guin is stupid and their songs are more powerful than anything.'

"I bet it's not more powerful than friendship!" chimed Victory Heart. Summer Lore made a hushing noise, but Victory heart just flashed her a smile.

"RIght, so my dad, he tried to stop. But the thing is our family isn't actually great at singing? Well, my mom is, but she's a mermaid, so she can't often--"

"Your mom's a mermaid?" asked Mere-dragon. "But your dad is a penguin? How does that work exactly?"

This time Summer Lore didn't hush, because that was a very important question very much worth asking.

"It's love or something," said Ada. "Don't think about it. But yeah, my dad tried dancing, and my mom tried to sing, but they weren't enough for the evil penguin choir. So now they're captive, and I'm going to give up. I tried asking my vampire pony boyfriend, Costly Fangs, but he's all the way in the dark country, so it'll take him forever. I figured I'd walk out and meet him and we could maybe figure out a plan between lots of making out."

Summer Lore was making notes while Mere-dragon wondered about the logistics of a penguin and a vampire pony making out while Leezaril blushed and Victory Heart squealed at the adorableness of it.

"We can help?" said Leezarill, though she made it sound like a question.

"it might be hard to get through a town if an evil penguin choir has taken over," debated Mere-Dragon. 'Plus, I don't like the idea of someone evil doing something."

"It would let us sing," said Victory Heart.

"We'll need a lot of magic auto-tune," said Mere-Dragon, making Summer Lore glare again.

"Wait a moment," said Summer Lore, looking to Ada. "Why didn't you sing or dance to help your parents?"

"Yeah, I don't dance in front of people,' said Ada. "it's a thing."

"Well, that's just silly,' said Victory Heart, fluttering out. "If you have a talent, you should let it show."

"Yeah, I don't--"

"It's settled then!" said Summer Lore. "We'll all sing together, Ada will dance, and together we'll beat the evil penguin choir!"

"I don't think it works like--"

"Yes, that should work,' said Mere-Dragon.

"You are a literal dragon, why don't you just eat--"

"I like it," said Victory Heart.

"There's literally a vampire pony coming in a few days. He's super dark and sexy and--"

"Okay," said Leezaril, nodding.

And the four friends put their various limbs up to sort of high five, everyone looking expectantly at ADa. The penguin sighed, but raised her flipper to touch it all the same.

Can friendship really beat an evil penguin choir? Will Ada dance for the first time in front of everyone?

"No."

What lays ahead for our new group of friends? Tune in next time to maybe find out! Or read about space pirates! Or glittery vampires!

[Lorelei Summer-Lac]

(so the following is actually something a little different, because I'm trying something different for a moment because of reasons and stuff. Don't worry, I'll totally pick up doing stories again really soon.)

the writing is in the dark
candle lighting the way
you write out your heart
ink spilling blood onto the pages
i creep near, too shy
the work draws us in
a whirlpool

in my hands i clutch a heart
bleeding the blood
it drips along our fingers
in it you dip your quill
and write your words on the parchment

the heartsblood forms the words
ideas through bloodied ink instead of speech
the blood spills
words simply rising
forming blood red symbols on the page

we fall into the dark
no candle at all
flickering flame dies
drowned in the blood
thoughts rising out of ink
tied together with verse