My little Pony- Keeping Friendship is magic

by DreamWings

Chapter 7- Her Majesty's Melancholy

Chapter 7- Her Majesty's Melancholy

Twilight stared around her little Tree House and groaned at the amount of mess lying over the floor. Usually by now either Spike or her faithful pet, Owloicious would have cleaned this up but right now they weren't thinking of doing anything of the sort. Both had fallen out in a major dispute over who should be on duty when and if one should spend more time on duty than the other. Twilight had tried to stop the argument the best she could but it had only managed to end in being ridiculed herself and told 'She wouldn't understand; Princess's don't need to clean up when they have somepony else to do it for them.'

The young ex-unicorn didn't like to think that was true. She'd never been spoilt before, so why would she be now? Unless-- Unless she'd been abusing her power without even realizing it. Maybe she'd become some kind of tyrannical pony without even noticing any change. After all she had always had some over-powering tendencies; like not wanting to make friends or ignoring the one pony who could've been her friend when she was younger, and possibly made her so mad that she made a rash decision to try and destroy Canterlot. Could that happen? Could she have created a monster inside of a nice pony? And if she'd managed to make one out of one of the ponies could it be that her other friends would turn into monsters as well? She hoped not. She liked being friends with them; she didn't want them banished as well.

This afternoon was the visit of the other Princess's to Ponyville. The argument needed to have stopped by then to show them that they were still brilliant members of 'The Elements of Harmony' club. Twilight was extremely nervous about how the events today were going to play out. Dream Wings had thankfully left this morning before she had woken up; just as she had promised. At least there was no danger of the Princess discovering her harboring a known convict. There had to be a few positives at this moment, but as for now that seemed the only one.

The whole entire Town Center needed cleaning up and fixing but there was no use asking anypony to do it at the moment; it wouldn't ever get done between all of the catcalling and arguing. She supposed she'd have to do it all by herself, a task she was not looking forward to in any way. 'Might as well make a start', she thought.

Slowly she began to shuffle around the room collecting up items and placing them on their respective shelves and stands. It pained her to not put the books in some kind of chronological order but she couldn't afford to at the moment; there wasn't enough time to be fussy when Celestia was coming to check on things.

A light tapping came at the front door, frantic in its pace. 'Perhaps it was Spike come to apologize'. Twilight could only hope. She stepped forward and tugged on the handle. A handsome, young stallion peered at her from the outside. Well, she assumed he was handsome; the mud slathered over him made it hard to tell what he may have once looked like.

"Miss Sparkle, could I please have a word?" She nodded her violet head and the polite pony waltzed through the door. The door was pulled to behind him. He stared at the mess she had yet to tidy up.

"Here, let me assist you." The stallion began to place things neatly into spots, cleaning up the floor. Twilight began to do the same again. Her curiosity broke through the silence.

"Excuse me for asking and all, but who are you?"

"Oh, pardon my manners; Sour Apple. Relative of the Apple Family."

He held out his hoof to shake hers but quickly changed his mind, remembering the soil sliding over his leg.

"I must look utterly repulsive in my current state. That's what I'm here about Miss Sparkle." Sour stopped and looked over at her with begging eyes. "Ever since I have got here I have been in the mindset that there was nothing good about this place and that I would be merely greeted by the rudest ponies, such as yourself."

Twilight pulled a face. That wasn't a very nice thing to say to anypony, let alone her. Sour saw her expression.

"I don't know whether I believe that anymore Miss Sparkle. I believe my mind wanted this place to be horrible because of how perfect everypony always made it sound; how perfect they made you sound. It took plenty of hard work to realize that I have not been too pleasant to any of you in my head. I am sorry for this."

The violet mare frowned. "It seems you got your wish though, everypony at the minute is behaving horribly."

"Yes," Sour said, "it is exactly as I had made myself to believe it would be. That's the problem."

"Problem?"

"Most definitely. It's just that everypony appears to be too rude and unruly; much more so then I ever imagined. It's like a nightmare. One that I can't wake up from."

"What do you want me to do about it?" Twilight asked. She hoped he wasn't going to suggest this was all of his making; he was an earth pony, he couldn't do any of this.

"I want you-- Well, I want you--" Sour stuttered, barely accepting the words he was about to say, "--I want you to help--me--be good. If I try to do something nice maybe the other ponies will accept their manners back as well."

Twilight looked at the desperation written upon his mud-covered snout. He was serious about this, she could tell. But she didn't see how a small change in his attitude would persuade the others to do anything. They would only follow somepony they found to be important in the town. It was almost like Sour could read what she was thinking.

"I know they'd usually only follow somebody they found to be important, but as of right now they find only themselves to be important. But what if somepony who was just as bad took a step in the right direction Miss Sparkle? Would that not dissuade them from their horrible actions?"

She pondered. There was certainly something in it; not much, but something. And he really did seem willing to do this. Maybe they could both get what they wanted. She smiled at him.

"There's something you can help me with. I need to clean up the Town center before this afternoon. The Princess's will be here then. It needs to be perfect."

Sour grinned back; a most charming smile coming from somepony who hadn't often smiled before.

"Making things look perfect is what I do best." He bowed his head. "Miss--Princess Sparkle, it would be an honor to assist you."

----------------------------------------------------

It was time for the arrival of the other Royals. Much to Twilight's surprise Sour had really come through. The whole of the town looked beautiful again. Somehow he had even managed to collect all of her disgruntled friends and make them look just right as well; though how she had no idea. The mud coat he had been wearing previously had been washed away and now he looked more like the white pony she had seen before; only this time wearing a smile rather than a frown. He certainly knew a lot about appearances.

The carriages flew through the air and landed on the ground in front of them. Sour watched in awe. This was his first time seeing the Royal ponies. They moved with such elegance and grace, their manners appeared exquisite; these were qualities he very much admired. Twilight ran over to Celestia and they both hugged briefly. Then Princess Cadence too, received a large welcoming hug. When she got to Luna they stopped and stared at each other for a few seconds. They'd never hugged before. Did Luna even like hugs? The Princess of the Night bowed her head, so Twilight did the same.

"So," Princess Celestia said in her gentle voice, "is everything okay down in Ponyville recently?"

Twilight smiled and politely lied to her idol that it was fine. She couldn't admit to the arguments and such, it would only make her question letting Twilight stay there with her friends. Cadence looked in the direction of the ponies stood at the side. Nopony smiled back at her. Odd. She was just about to tell Luna when Sour, noticing her look, grinned at her. All thoughts about talking to Luna gone; at least one had smiled. Even if she wasn't actually sure who he was.

Twilight finished her conversation with Celestia and came over to Sour and the others.

"How's it going Miss Sparkle?"

"I don't think she suspects anything. Hopefully this will all go off without a hitch."

"I wouldn't count on it." A large voice echoed across the ground, followed by a loud crushing sound. Celestia and Luna lifted into the air surrounded by a large cloud, unable to move from the thickness of the condensed water. Cadence watched as plants shot up at her ankles and pulled her down to the floor, clinging onto her side and refusing to let go even slightly. And all of this time Twilight couldn't do anything about it. Nopony could. They were all trapped in a large cage of magic, seemingly come from nowhere... Just like the voice.

A thunder crack came from behind them and the outline of a pony moved into view. A scar across her left cheek and many more over the rest of her body, a disfigured wing on her side, a garish eye-patch across one eye, and a mane falling in dark blue and white flames above her head.

Sour looked in horror. Dream Wings?