"Huh, did I never tell you? I was messing around with magic and then I had my first vision and I knew something cool was going to happen, so I ran to tell everypony to go out and see it! And they did, and I had my star."

"And what was the cool thing?"

"Was it by any chance a -"

"Sonic rainboom!"

"...For future reference, I really don't like being interrupted. But that's interesting!"

"That makes five of us, with Joy obviously not applicable. I do not have an explanation for this," says Streak.

"It could be lots of ponies, but if it is just us five it's very strange. Who else is around our age and might have gotten their cutie mark at the same time?"

"Uuuum, me and Cordy came in to school with our marks after the same weekend, but everypony else in our class either had them already or got them later. And Ponyville's a one-room schoolhouse kind of town."

"Blaze and I didn't have many close friends our own age, but I believe I would have noticed if an unusual number of nearby ponies got their cutie marks at the same time that we did, and I remember no such thing."

"And I was behind most of the sorts of ponies that were in my cohort at the School for Gifted Unicorns, if not actually the last. Huh."

"A mystery."

"Yep. Maybe I'll write the Princess and see if she knows anything, but I'm not sure a question like that will be a priority. I can tuck it into a friendship letter maybe."

"That seems like a reasonable strategy."

"It's cool how you're personally friends with Princess Celestia!"

"...I'm personally acquainted with Princess Celestia, but it's more of a teacher/student kind of thing, I think. Assignments and reports, not - chatting about things."

"Oh. Well, still, you can just write her letters."

"I can write her letters, yes. And I could usually get in to see her in person if I wanted when I was still in Canterlot. That just doesn't guarantee that she'll pay attention to me over the hundreds of other things competing for her attention - or tell me why, if she does ignore me. I didn't know at first why she was telling me to go make friends when I was trying to warn her about Nightmare Moon."

"...that seems irresponsible of her," says Streak.

"I mean, she gets lots of credit for it actually working," says Clarity. "It did actually work, and in that sense it's reasonably like you telling me to let go without explaining that I was going to land in a tree. I imagine if I asked her she'd say something about wanting me to make friends - authentically, instead of just recruiting ponies to go on a quest with me. Maybe the Elements wouldn't work if it was just quest-recruitment."

"I suppose. But I prefer explanations, where possible."

"Me too," Clarity sighs.

"But it all worked out pretty great, I think!"

"True. Still."

"Sure. I definitely get wanting to know what's going to happen!"

Clarity giggles.