Blazing Jealousy

by inSpired

Hoofsteps

A cyan Pegasus soared through the air, inhaling the thin gas from where she was- way high up. Thousands of feet above the earth, the air was light and thin, almost like champagne. Below her, Ponyville looked weensy, a foal’s playset. The huge taxi busses were ants, the ponies smudges of color. Rainbow Dash relished her freedom as she bashed a cloud into nothingness, feeling the air whip through her rainbow mane and tail and fill the feathery parachutes that were her wings. She flew straight through a dark, stormy looking cloud and tingled with the lightning electricity that rippled through her body as the cloud disapated.

A loud call came from the ground, magically enhanced to reach the pegasus’ high up hovering. “Rainbow Da-ash!” The blue Pegasus turned in the air and narrowed her eyes at the pony on the ground, her Pegasus magic sharpening her vision to falcon status. She could see Tank, her pet tortoise, in his helicopter harness nearby the pony. He could not come up high enough to stay by Rainbow Dash while she was on active weather duty, so napped in the clover below until she was done.

As her eyes picked out the details of the ground, she recognized the pony. It was her friend Twilight Sparkle.
Rainbow tilted her body downward with a powerful stroke of her wings and allowed herself to plummet towards the earth, an unaerodynamic pony falling from the sky. At about treetop height, she spread her wings once more. Dash felt them fill with air like sails as the abruptly jerked upward. Gently cursing at the sharp pain in her joins caused by the sudden unfurling, she flapped over to Twilight leisurely. Once within normal hearing distance, Twilight spoke to the Pegasus once again.

“Beautiful day, Rainbow Dash” she complemented her friend’s cloud clearing with a nod of her head to the clear sky. Rainbow landed nearby the purple unicorn and nodded, closing her pink eyes and raising her face to the warm sunshine above.

Looking back at Twilight, she grinned. “Thanks, Twilight! It takes practice and a lot of work, but I’m the best weather Pegasus Cloudsdale’s ever seen!” she gloated, stretching her wings to the side a bit before folding them on her flank. “So, what brings you over here?” Rainbow Dash inquired. This close to the Everfree Forest, the only ponies who came were weather pegasi to clear the skies or keep tabs on the feral forest clouds or Fluttershy.

“I wanted to tell you that Princess Celestia needs us in Canterlot” Twilight commented, as if it were not a big surprise to her or just an invitation to an ice cream social. Rainbow Dash, on the other hoof, paled and laid back her ears. Wings spread wide and nostrils flaring, she placed her face inches from her own and gazed at Twilight Sparkle with worried and determined eyes.

“Is something wrong? Is Discord back? Do we need to get the Elements again?!” she cried. Her dedication to the Princess and her friends made her the perfect Holder of the harmonic element, Loyalty. But it also could cause high levels of stress and worry to the usually carefree Pegasus in times of possible trouble.

“No, no, nothing like that” Twilight explained. Rainbow Dash visibly relaxed, her wings loosening and ears rising once more.
She exhaled in a huff of relief as Twilight continued. “Celestia wants to honor us at the Summer Sun Celebration for our use of the Elements against Nightmare Moon and Discord. She says that multiple towns pitched in to build us a mansion for us and our families to live in from now on.”

Plesantly surprised but also extremely curious, Rainbow Dash put on an indifferent mask. “Well, that’s cool. Fluttershy should be free,” she added, “I was going to give her flying lessons this week and next so she could help me, Thunder Lane, and Blossomforth perform our routine at the Summer Sun Celebration, but if we won’t be there we can do without.”

“Excellent” Twilight said, turning away. “Will you tell her what is going on? Oh- and we board the train at five o’clock this Thursday” she added. Rainbow Dash nodded and bid Twilight goodbye before once more taking to the air. Twilight stood still for a bit while she watched Rainbow slowly fade into the distance as she flapped towards Fluttershy’s cottage.
Mentally searching a checklist, Twilight marked off both pegasi’s names. Next on the list was Pinkie Pie, who she could visit at Sugarcube Corner on her way to Rarity’s. She would make a final stop at Sweet Apple Acres before returning to the library and writing out their RSVP letter and sending it to Canterlot with Spike.

The purple unicorn closed her eyes and concentrated for a heartbeat, then opened her lids to see the busy Ponyville marketplace she had teleported to. Normally she had only short range maneuverability, but since she knew the location so well she could go there from far away. The ponies milling around and shopping looked somewhat surprised at Twilight’s sudden appearance, but having the most powerful unicorn in Equestria had gotten them used to her sudden comings and goings.

They agreeably called their cheerful ‘Hello!’s and ‘Good Morning!’s to their friend before turning back to barter or continue their walk. With a friendly smile and waving hoof, Twilight replied to their greetings and headed towards SugarCube Corner.
Stepping from the bustling street into the even more crowded square, Twilight hopped through spaces and threaded around lines to the opposite side of the square where the bakery rested.

Spilling from the doorway down the steps and looping back into the alley was a lengthy line of pastry craving ponies, some with whining foals and others with large bags to bring their purchase back to the office. Gently pushing past the yellow mare in the doorway, Twilight was met with yet more chaos than the outdoors. Steam and smoke billowed from the kitchen, where Mr. and Mrs. Cake were presumably baking. From the clouds, a finished treat would fly on to the counter where Pinkie Pie
relieved the groaning counter with speedy hooves.

The pink mare dashed between ringing up fresh orders at the register and hastily hooving out finished goods to waiting mares and stallions. Her mane and tail were even more disorderly than usual, with random pink curls springing from their poufy masses. Splatters of icing in a rainbow of pastels coated her fur and continued to multiply as Rarity’s frantic icing sprayed everywhere.

The white mare had her purple mane tucked into a manenet and was frosting up to five things at once, using magic and her own hooves. Pound and Pumpkin Cake snoozed in baby baskets draped over the counter, with Pound facing the customers and Pumpkin facing the kitchens and Pinkie’s rushing body.

Pinkie Pie looked up briefly and spotted Twilight Sparkle, grinning at her and waving before she turned back to her next customer and bashing the order in on the register. While she gave orders to their various consumers, she spoke to Twilight in a rushed voice that was nearly uninteligible.

“Hey, Twi! Good to see you today! Sorry we’re so busy, this Monday market always brings in a huge amount of ponies getting their bakes for the week ahead!” She dumped a huge cake box into Colgate’s pale hooves and darted back to the register. Rarity peeked up from her rushed work to smile briefly at Twilight Sparkle.

“I need to talk to you both!” Twilight hollered over the noise of all the customers at the two mares. She ducked as Pinkie tossed a muffin through the air and rose just in time to get a facefull of blue icing from Rarity.

“Ooh, sorry, Twilight!” Rarity said in her dainty voice, quiet but still loud enough to be heard. “But it’s a bit busy just now and we haven’t any time to speak!”

“Yeah, what Rarity said!” Pinkie agreed, coming over to hand out more orders.

“Let me help!” Twilight said, not loud enough to be heard by her friends. With a shower of rosey sparkles, all of the treats lifted from the counter and landed in the hooves of their owners. The shop cleared somewhat, but the ponies still waiting for their food that remained unbaked looked indiginant. “Please? It’ll only take a minute!” she pleaded to her friends. They looked at eachother and nodded, then hurried around the counter to be face to face with Twilight.

“Princess Celestia wants us to come to Canterlot for the Summer Sun Celebration to thank us for defeating Nightmare Moon and Discord. We’re leaving by train at five on Thursday, and Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy already say they can come” Twilight took a breath and looked straight into her friends’ eyes intently. “Can you?” she asked. Pinkie Pie nodded enthusiastically and so did Rarity, if more slowly.

“I do believe that we can” Rarity said, smiling and blinking gently at Twilight Sparkle. “I know I can.”

“Pinkie?” Twilight regarded her bouncy pink friend.

“Yeah, sure! I’d love to! A party’s not a party till the right party pony’s there!” she chirruped. Then, before Twilight even had time to smile or blink in gratitude, Pinkie was back behind the register and taking orders.

“I had better return to my job as well. I had no idea that volunteering to assist Pinkie would involve frosting…” Rarity murmered to Twilight. She turned and returned to frosting, taking it slower as to not spray frosting through the entire bakery in her haste. Twilight herself grinned and mentally checked off those two, then squeezed her way out of the bakery and directed herself towards Sweet Apple Acres’ stand, where Applejack was guaranteed to be selling the reddest, sweetest, and best of the Apple family’s apples on market day.

Once again, Twilight shoved through the crowds. In the center of the plaza, she gave up searching through the crush of bodies and hopped in the air. She landed on the outer rim of the fountain with a huff of breath, bending her knees drastically to absorb the weight of her impact. She swayed, off balance, on the concrete for several excruciating heartbeats before pulling herself up on to her back hooves.

Twilight found her head far above the other ponies’ fray, with a clear avenue of vision. She turned her head from side to side slowly to scan the crowd for her friend’s tangerine coat. There, on the very edge of the square, stood Applejack’s cart. Twilight lowered herself slowly and leapt off the fountain. She turned in the general direction of the stand and pressed forward, buffeted on every side by hurried ponies and their baskets.
She finally burst from the mash in front of the Sweet Apple Acres cart, her mane touseled and directions in a jumble.

Applejack saw her friend instantaneously, and trotted around the cart to greet her.

“Howdy Twilight!” she yelled above the clamor, “How’re you doin’ today?” Twilight smiled weakly and glanced back at the surging wall of ponies.

“I’m… okay…” she said exhaustedly in a thin voice. She straightened up and smiled for real at Applejack. “Busy day, huh?”

“Abso-lutely!” Applejack agreed with a smile, jingling the heavy saddlebag at her side. The clink of many bits could be faintly heard by Twilight. “We’re havin’ the best day all season fer some reason! I don’t have an inklin’ why, but I sure am enjoyin’ the business!”

Almost as if to accentuate her words, a burly stallion burst from the crowd cooly and scooped a dozen apples into the burlap sack hanging at his side. Applejack turned to him and smiled warmly.

“That’ll be twenty bits, sir” she reminded the stallion, who nodded in assent and tossed the money for his purchase into the air with his mouth. Opening the pack with her own mouth, Applejack positioned herself to have the bits clank against the other coins in her saddlebag.

“Thank ya’ kindly for yer business!” the tangerine mare called after his receding back, waving one hoof in the air. She turned back to Twilight. “Things have been that busy all day!” she explained. “Anyhow, sorry ‘bout interupptin’ ya’. What were ya sayin’?”

Twilight chuckled. “Actually, I wasn’t saying anything, yet. What I was going to say, though, was that Princess Celestia would like us to come to Canterlot for the Summer Sun Celebration. She said in her letter that there would be a celebration in our honor and that the ponies of Equestria had chipped in to build us a mansion.”

“Well, sure I’d like to come!” Applejack cried, anticipating Twilight’s next words. She nodded to back up her statement, eyes unfocused in thought.

“Why, Ahm sure there’s all sorts a ponies there durin’ the Celebration, and we have ta come if the Princess asked us to.

“Besides,” she added, “it’d be real rude to miff them ponies who sent money just ta build us a house an stuff.”

“Great. We leave at five on Thursday, via train” Twilight said. “Everypony else can come too, so I guess the gang’s all rounded up!”

Applejack pulled the unicorn into a brief hug before another customer walked up to her stand. With a quick apology, she returned behind the counter to attend to her. Twilight also bid her friend goodbye and then dove back into the crowd.
The first hoofstep off the train was a deep lavender one, bathed in the rich sunset light coloring all of Canterlot. As five more ponies disembarked behind Twilight Sparkle, their eyes were met with a heaving surge of ponies screaming their names. The six of them lined out, eyes gaping, with their backs to the train cars to absorb the scene in front of their noses.
Gigantic torches the size of a large foal lined the platform, supported by iron posts as thick as a pony’s leg, acting like a barrier between the celebrities and the ponies pressed against the train station walk with their hooves frantically waving blank sheets of paper. The horde screamed their names deafeningly, snapped photographs with nimble hooves and wiped tears from the corners of their eyes. On the buildings around them, posters boasted larger-than-life images of each of their
faces.

Applejack’s winking and grinning expression was topped by her trademark Stetson, splashed against a green background. In ‘old west’ style writing was the word ‘Honesty’ and a sketch of three red apples- her cutie mark. Rarity’s poster was smiling lushly, her eyes partially closed. Rarity’s curled mane deposited itself just above the swirly lettering of ‘Generosity’, her cutie mark of three diamonds also advertised. Fluttershy’s image ducked halfway behind its long pink mane, but the eyes behind it sparkled with love and her mouth lifted in a gentle smile. The depiction of Pinkie Pie grinned energetically at the camera.
The bouncy, jumbled letters of ‘Laughter’ accentuated the blue and yellow balloons below her face. Rainbow Dash’s cyan face held a smile and part of one wing could be seen, blurred with motion. Twilight’s poster was the largest, displayed directly across from the train platform. Her modest grin seemed contrary to the brightly gleaming horn protruding from her mane, and her writing was in Celestia’s own script.

A stone alicorn was placed, life size, on either side of a walkway cleared through the crowd like guards. Police ponies held the pressing crowd back from the red carpeted pathway, and a stout stallion waited at the steps leading down from the deck. The stallion coughed noisily, drawing the attention of Twilight Sparkle and her friends from the adoring ponies.

Twilight led, she and her friends slowly walking towards the grey stallion across the platform. They reached him faster than they thought they would, and looked expectantly at him.

“Why are all these ponies here?” Twilight asked the pony in a low voice. She had to practically yell to be heard over the din, but she kept the sound to a minimum. Perhaps they should have expected crowds like this. The same ponies had, Celestia said, pitched in and pressed for the house and celebrations. The stallion looked at her almost scornfully, and didn’t answer the question.

“You are Miss Twilight Sparkle?” he asked brusquely, scanning the unicorn mare in front of him. “And her friends, too?” This hasty addition produced a sniff of disdain from Rarity as she tossed her purple mane over her shoulder. Twilight glanced back at her friend before turning back to the guard stallion, who was somewhat shorter than she.

“We are” Twilight answered in a cool voice, letting him know her friends were just as important as she was. Ignoring her icy tone, he went on.

“You’re supposed to come with me. I’m escorting you to Princess Luna, and then to your quarters for the night. Look sharp-
Princess Luna still needs to help raise the moon all the way.” Without another word, he turned and walked down the three steps to the red carpet and moved straight forward along the path. Twilight followed closely, with the other five mares trotting behind to keep up with their friend’s pace.

As she moved along, Twilight peeked back at each of her friends briefly. “I wasn’t expecting such a crowd” she murmered to Rainbow Dash, who was bobbing along in the air behind her. Rainbow blasted the routine out of the water, blowing air kisses with her hooves and taking deep air bows to the crowd, thoroughly enjoying the attention.

“Are you kidding?! This is awesome!” the Pegasus cried brightly. After rolling her eyes slightly at Rainbow, Twilight moved to the next pony in line. As they traveled single file, each seemed to be taking the events in a different way. Rarity seemed a bit overwhelmed, but batted her eyes at drooling stallions and tossed air kisses like Rainbow Dash. And only somepony very familiar with her could detect the discomfort underneath Pinkie Pie’s giggly, hyperactive exterior. Applejack displayed her typical modesty but seemed all right. Fluttershy though, trailing along in the back of their single file line, looked terrified. She had her bright face hidden behind a pink curtain, wings pressed tightly to her sides, and her body seemed to be trying to curl small on itself as she walked.

“Flutterhsy doesn’t seem to be enjoying it” Twilight retorted to Rainbow Dash dryly, once more looking back on her shy friend.

“Well, you know Fluttershy,” Rainbow Dash brushed aside Twilight’s rebuttal with the air of somepony famous. Which, considering their current situation, they all were. Twilight Sparkle groaned low in her throat and opened her mouth to chide Rainbow Dash, but before a breath of air had passed her vocal cords the navy Princess of the Night emerged.
Luna stood, in all her alicorn regality, on a small stone pedestal at the end of the platform. The back of the pedestal was pressed against the bleak beige wall of a building. Torches surrounded this platform, as well, burning with a cool blue flame instead of the bright orange which was common. Despite the impressive setting, Luna smiled at Twilight and her friends and offered a small wink to them.

“Step on the podium, Twilight Sparkle,” she said in a loud voice that echoed through the crowd. Most of the ponies there stopped pushing and became still, their yells fading into hushed whispers or silence. “I wish to make a speech, but I must be brief so I may attend to my duty as Princess of the Night.”

“Of course, Princess” Twilight agreed, stepping on to the stone and standing nose to nose with Luna. Her friends followed uncertainly. Twilight herself felt nervous and awkward in this unfamiliar setting, but slipped a blank façade into place both for her friends and herself.

“These six ponies freed me from the prison that held me and grieved Equestria greatly. Nightmare Moon had trapped me in its dark grasp, and, were it not for these mares, I would still remain dreading eternity with my guilt. They have not just saved Equestria and its citizens, but also me myself. Not only Nightmare Moon was defeated by their bravery, but also Discord despite his efforts to turn them against their very natures.

“So, tonight, it is my honor and not theirs to stand here. We all owe these friends a deep measure of respect and gratitude which I eagerly bestow. It is my pleasure to formally begin the celebrations we hold this week to praise them for their great deeds!” Luna turned her head from the audience to smile at the six once again, then went on.

“Tonight, I thank Rainbow Dash for her loyalty, Pinkie Pie for her laughter, Rarity for her generosity, Applejack for her honesty, Fluttershy for her kindness, and Twilight Sparkle for her magic! Their tenacity, integrity, love, and spirit has saved us all twice over.”

“Amen!” Twilight heard the grey stallion huff from his position in the corner of the stage. His voice did not sound reverent or awed but scornful. Twilight Sparkle decided that she did not particularly like this stallion.

“I must leave you to perform my duties now, but I shall see you all tomorrow. In the meantime, you all have rooms awaiting you in the castle. Greymalkin can show you all there.” The stallion in the corner, Greymalkin, straightened up and gazed at Luna benevolently.

“You said my name, Your Highness?” Luna ignored the sarcasm in his voice as he spoke her royal title.

“Please take them to their rooms in Canterlot Castle promptly, and tell the bathmares to prepare Princess Celestia a soak for when she returns.”

“Yes, Your Highness” Greymalkin fell into a deep bow, his nose nearly brushing the stone platform they all stood upon. Luna nodded at the seven of them and crossed horns with Twilight before spreading her dark wings and soaring to the skies. Greymalkin watched her go until the alicorn could no longer be seen against the colorful sunset and turned to the six.

“All right, ladies. You heard the Princess- I’m supposed to show you to your rooms. Let’s go so I can get to bed” he growled, suddenly exasperated. He walked over to the blank wall at the back of the podium and pressed his horn to the plaster gently. A red aura surrounded the appendage and crimnson lines appeared on the wall in a rectangular shape. With sweat beading on his forhead, Greymalkin stepped back from the plaster and used his magic to swing open a door.

“Very complicated spell,” he grunted in response to Twilight’s questioning look, “only the top guards are allowed to learn or use it.” He then gestured a grey hoof to the yawning doorway. Just inside it, a dark tunnel opened up. Damp, cool air wafted from the opening as Twilight Sparkle stuck her head in, observing a long flight of stairs going down. She gasped in recognition and pulled her body around to face Greymalkin, who was leaning against the door and inspecting his hoof.

“Are these…” she breathed.

“The mythical tunnels underneath Canterlot?” Greymalkin finished her question. The lavender unicorn numbly nodded. “Yes. Now go!”

Greymalkin stepped in first, then stood to the side as six mares bustled past him into the dark tunnel. As soon as Fluttershy’s lengthy tail had passed the doorframe, a shimmer of red magic closed and sealed the door, leaving the seven ponies in absolute, unbroken blackness.

Comments

[RainbowdashEpicness]

This looks like it might have a lot of potential. #Follow.

[xTSGx]

Bluack! Tyrantlestia. Will not read.