//------------------------------//
// Chapter 23 - Epilogue 
// Story: 10 Days, 3 Adventures - Part 2 - "Manehattan Crime Story" 
// by TP Night 
//------------------------------//

Rarity and Sweetie went early to the party, just as the first few guests started arriving.
They found Applebloom preparing a long scroll of paper and a quill.

“Hi there, Applebloom.” Rarity said as they approached. 

“Hi, miss Rarity. Hi Sweetie. Welcome!” She said, smiling. As she did, she also
dotted off their names on the long scroll. “Applejack put me in charge of the
guest list. You’re now officially here.” Applebloom said, nodding at the scroll.

“Ah, I see. Good to see you’re helping out.” Rarity smiled, and looked around into
the orchard. “We seem to be early though, not many ponies here yet...”

“I told you so, Rarity! We didn’t need to hurry at all.” Sweetie said in a matter-of-factly
tone, teasing her older sister. She took immense pleasure in being right for once.

“Fine, you were right.” Rarity rolled her eyes and giggled a little.

“So you’re gonna be here signing names all night?” Sweetie asked Applebloom.

“No, just for a while, and later Applejack or Granny’ll take over so I can have some
fun too, so I’ll be with you and Scoot later!”

“Good, that’s what I was wondering about. See ya later.”

Rarity and Sweetie entered the orchard, and was soon jumped by Pinkie.

“Weeelcome!” She shouted as she bounced up to them.

“Hi Pinkie!” Sweetie smiled widely. “Any games or something anywhere?
I feel like doing.. something, anything!”

“She had some candy before we came here, and now she’s overly energetic due
to all the extra sugar...” Rarity explained.

“Hm, let’s see what we got then!” Pinkie smiled. “We have Horse shoe tossing
inside the barn, and also hay-stack jumping from the upper level.
outside we have apple bobbing in a pool, and I set up a hoofball field for later,
when we have enough ponies here to form teams. Oh, and Scootaloo is already here,
she’s in the barn jumping in the hay stack, doing all sorts of trick jumps!
Just stay away from the south wall, that’s where we keep the supply of
cider, to keep it cold. shadowy and nice in there. Plus Dashie is there
already too. She said she’d make sure the cider’s safe.”

“Oooh, I wanna see Scoots stunts!” Sweetie said. “Rarity, we can split up right?
I can go anywhere as long as I stay within the orchard? And you can mingle
and be boring and just talk to ponies instead of having real fun, like you always do 
on parties, right?”

“Now listen here young lady, I am not boring, I am an adult. Adults party calmer
than fillies do. I happen to enjoy mingling more than... haystack stunt jumping.
But yes, that does sound fair enough. I’ll just find you when it’s time to leave,
or you can come find me if you get tired before that.”

“’Kaythanksbye!” Sweetie said as she quickly ran off into the barn. Meanwhile,
Rarity noticed a table filled with various cakes and cookies along a few
tables on the outside of the barn.

She thought to herself, “I might as well have something to eat.”
She went over to the table, and looked over it. She realized there was a problem.
She wasn’t sure what she wanted. Everything looked good. Well, almost everything
anyway. She heard hoofsteps behind her, and then Twilights voice. 

“Hi Rarity. Trouble choosing?” Twilight said, and nodded to the table.

“Oh, Hi Twilight, Hi Spike.” Rarity replied with a smile as she turned her head
and noticed Spike was with Twilight too. “Everything looks quite delicious,
and I’m not sure what I feel like. I can’t quite decide if I want the apple and pecan pie,
or if I want a piece of that apple cream cake.”

Spike went up to the table. “I’ll have some of that cake!” he grinned and started cutting a
piece. A rather large one.

Rarity made her decision. “Hmm... Oh, I shall have the same! Spike, would you mind...?”
Rarity asked, giving Spike a look with her puppy eyes. She knew he couldn’t resist those.

Spike almost blushed a little. “Of course!” he said, and cut a piece for Rarity as well,
giving it to her. She used her magic to take hold of the plate.

Then they heard another voice behind them. “Keep cutting, I want a piece too!”
They all turned to see Rainbow Dash, holding a tray of cider mugs, one each for the
whole gang. Behind Rainbow, Applejack and Pinkie Pie stood, and they also noticed
Fluttershy on her way toward them. 

They all joined up and sat down at a table, each with a mug of cider and a piece
of the cake.

“So, how was your week guys?” Pinkie Pie asked openly.

“Well, I had quite an adventure. Or rather, me and Applejack.. and princess Luna.”
Twilight began.

“We had an adventure too!” Pinkie interrupted. “We solved a crime!”

“What?” Rainbow Dash cut in. “Me and Flutters too! well, sort of... more like a sabotage,
but still!”

“Well, We fought Nightmare Moon inside the Dream world.” Applejack said.

Spike interrupted everyone. “Okay, okay! Let’s all stop talking in each others mouth.
Let’s take turns telling our stories! Who wants to go first?”

“ME!” Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie all yelled at the same time.

Twilight, Rarity and Fluttershy all laughed. Shortly after, the others joined in too,
and after they stopped laughing they all told their stories.


* * *


Meanwhile, Spike decided to go find the Crusaders instead. He heard familiar voices
coming from inside the barn, so after he finished eating his cake, he went inside to see
if they were still there. Just as he entered, he saw Scootaloo dive from the upper
area, do a two-and-a-half turn front flip, and crash face first into the hay piles.

She crawled out of the piles slowly, but seemed unhurt.

“You okay?” Spike asked.

“Yeah, think so. Nothing hurts, at least. I... kinda miscalculated the distance to the
ground, and didn’t get enough momentum in the flip.”

“I didn’t know you knew words that big. Maybe you’re the encyclopedia, Scoot?”
Sweetie Belle teased.

“Shut up, Sweetie!” Scoot replied with fake anger, followed by all three laughing.
Spike joined in. “So what’re you all up to, except watching Scoot crash?”

“Well...” Sweetie began. “I’ve been thinking about something, and you’re the only
one we can ask about it, ‘cause you’re a dragon, and we don’t know any other dragons,
and it’s dragon-related.”

“Sure, go ahead.. I’ll answer if I can.” Spike said, and waited for the question.

“Well, we’re curious to know what gems actually taste like. I mean, do they have
taste at all?”

“Hard to answer. They do have taste, but I can’t really describe it. See, there’s nothing
ponies can eat that tastes even remotely similar, so there’s nothing I can compare it to
that you’d know the taste of.”

“Hey, I have an idea. Why didn’t we think of this earlier...” Sweetie said.
She ran over to a saddlebag she had brought with her, and pulled out a blue gem,
a sapphire. “We’ll just try it ourselves!” She exclaimed, smiling widely.

“Bad idea. Ponies can’t digest minerals like that, and your teeth and jaws are
not strong enough to break them either. And unless you crack it, the taste doesn’t come
out. It’ll be like sucking on a piece of glass, and if you swallow it you’ll get a
stomach-ache.” Spike said in a almost Twilight-y tone.

“Nah, It’ll be fine” My jaws are the strongest among us!” Scootaloo said, grabbing the
sapphire and putting it in her mouth. “You’re right, it is like glass.. gotta bite.” she
mumbled. Spike looked at her with a ‘told you so’ face, expecting her to fail.
And then, he heard a cracking sound, and then more... as Scootaloo chewed the gem
with only minor effort. Spikes eyes widened. “How... impossible... Do you have more
of those? Must be something wrong with the gems...”

Sweetie gave Spike a sapphire too, and he inspected it. “Flawless... How did you DO
that? Ponies shouldn’t be able to eat gems!”

Spikes eyes were wide, and he almost looked a bit panicked, mixed with confusion.

All three fillies started laughing, and as they did, Spike noticed something.

“Hey, Scoot...” he said, now in a very calm tone.

Scootaloo stopped laughing and replied, “Yeah?”

“Your tongue is blue.. it wasn’t earlier. And sapphires don’t cause any coloring
on the tongue. No known gems do. You guys tricked me somehow.”

Sweetie smiled and blushed. “Yeah... Rarity gave me these rock-candies that look
exactly like real gems, but they're basically just sugar crystals and food coloring...”
The three fillies smiled awkwardly. Applebloom added, “Sorry.. we couldn’t resist..
you know how we always prank each other.. And after that thing you did with our tea
during the board games last week, we wanted some revenge...”

“I only did that because you guys were cheating.” Spike defended himself.

Sweetie channeled her ‘inner Rarity’ and suddenly became very, very over-dramatic.

“How dare you accuse us, three innocent cute little fillies, of such things?
Calling us cheaters?! Have you no shame?”

Spike just gave her a completely deadpan look. “There is no possible way in Tartarus
you could be that lucky in ‘Battle-Clouds’. It shouldn’t be statistically possible to
make that many point-blank hits in a row. I don’t know how you cheated, but I know you
did, somehow.”

Sweetie kept imitating Rarity, and fell backwards into fainting-position,
but due to the lack of fainting-couch, she instead ‘fainted’ unto the hay piles.
“Woe is us, falsely accused for crimes not committed...”

“Okay, fine, enough of this. Spike. You, me, hay-dive contest!” Scoot said,
pointing at the upper level of the barn.

Spikes face turned serious. “You’re on. Sweetie, Applebloom, you keep scores.
And girls...”

Sweetie and Applebloom nodded and spoke at the same time. “Yes?”

“NO cheating this time.”


// The End