//------------------------------// // What Could Have Been a Perfect Day... // Story: Northern Lights // by MysteriousStranger //------------------------------// The next morning, after practicing magic, Twilight, Fluttershy, Aurora, and Spike were discussing their plans for the day. “So, your mother and I are having a picnic with our friends today. What are you going to do today, dear?” Fluttershy asked to her daughter. “I’m also going to hang with my friends. If you're going to the park, we're going to the fields outside Ponyville. That way, we'll have plenty of space to play hide and seek!” “Okay, but please…” Twilight began, but she was interrupted by Aurora. “I've learned my lesson, mom... I won’t do anything dangerous again.” “Just making sure, Aury. Have fun with your friends!” “You too, mom and mommy!" The older mares giggled and Twilight looked at Spike. “Will you look after the cottage and the critters while we aren’t home, Spike?” “Don’t I always? I’ll gladly do it again, Twilight. You can trust me!” The young dragon stated, puffing out his chest in pride. “I know I can!” Twilight and Fluttershy prepared a basket of food while Aurora sat on the couch and read about various types of critters and how to take care of them. She found the critters which one of her mother looked after fascinating and wished to spent her life with them, but she also loved magic and wanted to follow in Twilight’s hoofsteps. She spent most of her days inside studying magic, using her free time to hang out with friends, which meant that she wouldn’t be able to look after any critters. She wouldn’t be able to study magic and look after the critters at the same time. She talked about it with Fluttershy once, but the mare only told her: “Do what you want to do. You don’t have to be the same as us, dear. It can be anything and we will support your choice no matter what." Since then, Aurora spent some of her free time investigating other things. But so far, only magic and critters caught her attention. She tried fashion and baking, but she either got easily bored or she wasn’t able to do it. Finally, the time came and the family was ready to go their separate ways. They said goodbye to Spike and Angel Bunny and they left to Sweet Apple Acres. Aurora hugged her mothers and trotted to the clubhouse. Twilight and Fluttershy left to the park with Applejack and Rainbow Dash shortly after. “Roses are red.” “Come in, Aurora!” Scootaloo stated, allowing her friend entry. “Aurora! Good, we're all here!” Apple Bloom said when she saw the blue Unicorn. “Now we can go to the fields to play!” “Yay!” The fillies yelled excitedly and left the clubhouse, heading to the outskirts of Ponyville. When they arrived, they had plenty of space to play and there were a lot of hiding places: trees, bushes and piles of branches everywhere. “Alright, who starts countin'?” Apple Bloom said. Sweetie Belle looked around and picked five branches at random. “Let’s use this; whoever gets the smallest one counts!” “Good idea, Sweetie Belle!” Scootaloo exclaimed. Everypony took one and showed them at the same time. “You count, Feather!” Aurora said with a smile. “Ugh, fine!” Flying Feather said, frowning in irritation. She turned to face the tree and buried her face into it. “Count to one hundred!” Apple Bloom said. The pink Pegasus grumbled in response and began to count as the rest trotted away. Aurora had to take Cutie by the hoof to make her hurry. “Ninety seven, ninety eight, ninety nine, one hundred! Alright, ready or not, here I come!” *** “Thanks again for doing this, girls… I’m glad to have friends who care about me somewhere!” Trixie grinned as she magically took a cup of tea which Rarity had served her. “You don’t have to thank us, darling. This is what friends are for!” Rarity exclaimed as she served another cup of tea to Rainbow Dash, whose belly was being used as a pillow by Applejack. Pinkie Pie was sitting beside Trixie, eating a sandwich with her usual smile. Twilight was resting her head on Fluttershy’s lap, who was caressing her mane. “I love picnic days with my friends... Just sitting and relaxing, enjoying the beautiful sun which Princess Celestia gave us.” Twilight commented. “Yup! It’s good to rest from the hard work at the farm and enjoy ourselves, don’t ya think, Dashie?” Applejack said. “Are you kidding? I was born to rest!” Rainbow Dash said with a smirk. It was a wonder how she could sound proud for that. “Ah’m surprised that your cutie mark isn’t a pillow!” The farmer pony laughed. “Hey, take that back!” The cyan Pegasus exclaimed, trying to sound offended but she was smiling. “Do it or I’ll make you!” “Make me then!” Rainbow Dash tried to stand up, but was too lazy to do so. “You know what? Say what you want; I don’t care…” “My lazy Dashie.” Applejack cuddled into Rainbow Dash’s belly, making the pegasus wrap her hooves around her in an embrace. Everypony else watched the scene with a warm smile until Pinkie Pie suddenly exclaimed, “Hey, I have an idea!” Everypony jumped in surprise. “Why don’t Trixie and Twilight have a friendly magic duel sometime? We could go outside Ponyville and have it there!” Trixie and Twilight (who was sitting up now) glanced at each other. “Actually, that’s not a bad idea!” Twilight began. “We never actually had a fair one since you had the Alicorn Amulet. What do you say, Trixie?" “I like the idea… Just for fun! No jealousy nor mystical amulets. I’ll be glad to have one someday!” The blue Unicorn replied. She, then, used her magic to take a muffin. Twilight did the same, but took two and gave one to her wife. “Thanks, love.” Fluttershy said before taking a bite of the muffin. “Pinkie, you always make them delicious. How do you do it?” She asked after swallowing. “I can’t tell you, silly. It’s my secret and I can’t share it, even to my friends!” The party pony giggled. They began to talk about random things; Trixie mentioned how everypony loved her acts now and that she was thinking about heading to Maneice. “Maneice?” Twilight commented. “Do you know how to speak their language?” “Sì, Twilight lo parlo fluentemente.” Trixie said with a perfect Italian accent. “Wow, I didn’t know that!” The lavender Unicorn exclaimed in amazement. “I speak many languages, Twilight. I have to since I go everywhere! But I’m afraid that I will be away for a long time; I don’t know exactly how much, but I’ll let you know when I do.” “I see… Then we better have fun before you leave!” Twilight said, trying to hide her sadness. Everypony else wasn't as good at it and Trixie noticed, so she cleared her throat. “But we have three weeks to have fun, so we’ll make them worth it! Enough about me, though.” She turned to Pinkie Pie. “I was wondering how your husband is, Pinkie.” “He actually wrote to me yesterday. He said that he misses us and will try to come next week or the one after that!” The pink pony said, recovering her smile. “Then I'd better stay; I want to see him! I've only seen him once.” The Blue Unicorn grinned. Everypony had recovered their smiles. “Really? Why didn’t you tell us before, darling?” Rarity said, unable to contain her excitement. “I wanted to save it for today, since we were going to have a picnic!” “I can’t wait for him to be here. I'm sure that Cutie was happy to hear about it, right?” Fluttershy asked. “I didn’t have the chance to tell her yet! I got the letter when she was playing with her friends and when she got back, I had too much work and she was asleep before I'd finished. I tried to tell her today but she told me that she was heading out and when I was about to tell her, Flying Feather appeared and took her by the hoof and left, so I’ll wait for her return!” Pinkie Pie explained almost incoherently, but her friends understood. “She will love to hear this!” Applejack commented. “Do you have something planned for when he comes?” Rainbow Dash smiled. “Not yet, but I’ll think of something!” They spent the rest of the picnic talking about random things again, enjoying their time together. *** “I found you, Feather!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed, pointing at her friend in a tree. “How did you know?” The pink Pegasus questioned as she climbed down the tree. “It’s not hard to find a pink pony in a green tree… Besides, one of your wings was poking out!” The white Unicorn giggled. Flying Feather sighed and slowly walked to the tree where the seeker counts, and sat with her hooves crossed while Sweetie Belle continued with her search. She headed to a bush near the tree where she'd found Flying Feather. She could hear breathing coming from within it. “I found you, Cutie!” Sweetie Belle chirped excitedly, forcing the timid pony out of her hiding spot. “A-At least I wasn’t found first this time…” The cyan pony said while she headed to the seeker’s tree. Sweetie Belle now headed to a pile of branches and removed some with levitation, but there was nopony there. She continued on her search elsewhere. She trotted to a mud pool and saw hoofsteps, so she decided to follow them and eventually found Apple Bloom behind a rock. “Hey there, Apple Bloom! You know, mud leaves a trace!” “Ah knew you would follow them, but it was too late when ah saw mah hooves dirty!” The farmer pony said as she headed to where her discovered friends where. Sweetie Belle soon found Scootaloo under a pile of leaves and Aurora on another tree. They all gathered together at the seeker's tree. “So, what do we do now?” Aurora asked curiously. “...How about you little fillies come with us?” A strange voice echoed from behind them. The crusaders turned to find four hooded ponies. “W-Who are you?” Sweetie Belle squeaked, shaking. “We only want to help. Come with us.” One of the hooded ponies said. The crusaders galloped away, but the ponies gave chase. “Let’s split up girls, they can’t chase us all!” Apple Bloom shouted and they went different ways. When they did so, the hooded ponies focused on Aurora, Flying Feather, Scootaloo and Apple Bloom. When Sweetie Belle realized it, she called for Cutie to follow her and both of them hid inside a pile of branches nearby. The Unicorn put a hoof in her friend’s mouth. They watched helplessly as the hooded ponies reached their friends, and couldn’t do anything to stop it. One jumped on Aurora, causing her head to hit the ground, leaving her unconscious. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo made a wrong turn and hit a dead end. But the last stranger wasn’t so lucky. Flying Feather was fast and dodged every time the hooded pony tried to grab her, and finally hit him by taking the branch of a tree and letting it go when the ponynapper was close enough. The hooded pony clutched his nose, giving Flying Feather enough time to gallop to Ponyville. After seeing this, one of the hooded ponies tried to chase her, but was held back by his partner. “Leave her… We’ll catch her soon enough. We have these three to take to Damashooves.” “What about the other two?” “They're clean; we just want them. Now let’s go to the meeting point... Our other partner should have the foal by now” Without another word, the hooded ponies helped their partner and left with Aurora, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo. They hadn't realized that Sweetie Belle and Cutie had heard it all. “We have to go back to Ponyville and tell everypony!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed once the ponynappers left and took Cutie by the hoof and galloped as fast as she could back to Ponyville. *** The seven friends were still having their picnic when Flying Feather arrived, exhausted. “Easy there, Fly! What’s wrong?” Applejack said, noticing her daughter's expression. “P… Problem… s… something bad… happened.” The pink filly panted out as she tried to catch her breath. “Where are the rest of your friends?” Twilight inquired, starting to get worried. “Ponynapped!” Sweetie Belle shouted as she and Cutie cantered to their friend's side. “Some hooded ponies came and took Apple Bloom, Aurora and Scootaloo away!” “What?!” All the mares exclaimed at the same time, shocked.