> Life Before Twilight
>  by Gnarlwood
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Friendship Archaeology
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


How D’Ya Like Them Apples?




        Applejack measured time more in events than in days, weeks, months, or years. The seasons danced their eternal dance, trees grew, flowered, and fell, Applebloom kept on learning, slow but sure, and Applejack herself got along with various ponies, sometimes in spite of quite a bit. So when Twilight came visiting again, looking for yet more material for her endless friendship research, she sighed and nodded.
        “Gonna have to talk while I’m working, sugar cube, I can’t afford to take any of today off. Hope that’s all right.”
        “Oh, of course!” Twilight assured her brightly. “Far be it from me to keep you from your work. You just do so much of it, I thought maybe you’d want a break.”
        The farm pony chuckled, shaking her head.
        “Well I sure would like one, but Big Mac and Granny wouldn’t take it very good. Heck, Twi, if I had my way I’d spend my days learning the banjo like I wanted to when I was younger and just picking away in the shade. But that ain’t any way to run a farm. No offense, but a lot of city ponies think that way. Don’t get me wrong, we love our work, but we’d always love to do less of it. We just can’t though, not if we’re gonna keep Equestria running and well-supplied with apples.”
        Twilight blushed.
        “Well, you make it look so easy. I always thought life on a farm was relaxing and not very complicated until I had known you for a while. I guess I’m still learning about it. But anyway, go ahead and begin, I’m ready.” She dipped a freshly sharpened quill pen in ink and held it poised above a blank sheet of parchment.
        Applejack’s powerful hind legs slammed into the gnarled bark of the next tree in line and the apples came tumbling down. Twilight had tried her hand at the work once and given up doing it the earth pony way within five minutes.
        “Well, Twi, it might surprise you, but I met Pinkie first of all of you. Our family knows hers in a distant kind of way and when we heard she was looking to do something other than rock farming, we steered her towards Ponyville, since we knew the Cakes could use some help.”
        “Do you have some sort of Equestria-wide earth pony support network?” Twilight asked, quill scratching away furiously as she followed Applejack to the next tree. “The logistics would be staggering.”
        Another hail of ripe apples narrowly missed her head, but the purple unicorn remained serenely oblivious, focused on her work. She heard Applejack’s warm chuckle, though.
        “Heck, no, Twi, we just have a lot to do with family! A lot of the time, it’s really who you know that helps you get a leg up, in the country the same as in the city. The difference being that in the country, you’re probably related to’em. Probably some of my relatives married some of that pink tornado’s at some point way back when. Anyhow, she was different then.” Applejack let her body take over the work as she unearthed old, treasured memories, like leaves in fall.

        Applejack scrutinized the bouncing pink pony that had appeared on her doorstep with all the caution of someone unafraid to count her teeth if that’s what it took.
        “Heard tell you were coming our way,” she remarked. “Pinkamena, ain’t you? Over from the Greenbroke quarry ponies up by Sheddinburgh?”
        “Oh, aye, that’s me!” the little bundle of energy answered with the distinctive highland burr. “But you can call me Pinkie Pie! It’s lots friendlier, don’t you think?!”

        “No way!” Twilight said, laughing. “Pinkie used to have a highland accent?”
        “I swear it’s true!” Applejack insisted, snickering. “She lost it pretty quick once she came south, but that’s where her family comes from. She hauls it out every once in a while for a joke or to scare somepony witless, same as I did with my Manehattan fancy-talk once I got back from there. Now let me get on with the story, would you?”

        Applejack heard a desperate note in that squealing voice and knew she’d have to draw it out and settle the source before things went too far. But she had to do it right.
        “I suppose it is that,” she allowed with a grin. “Welcome to Ponyville, Pinkie. I’m sure we’ll be glad to have you around.”
        “Oh, that would be just great!” Pinkie thanked her, bouncing higher than before. “I’m really sure that there are a lot of great ponies around here and that we’ll all be best friends forever and—“
        “Sugar cube, I’m sorry to interrupt you, but aren’t you getting a little far ahead, there?” Applejack asked. “Give it some time, why don’t you? No need to be all in a hurry.”
        “Oh no, but there is, because if I don’t make lots of new friends here, how can I help make all the ponies here happy and if I don’t make them happy, I’ll have to go back to the rock farm, and-and-and…” Pinkie’s string of dark predictions trailed off and her crazed mane fell limply down, straightening out as she sniffed back tears. This was the first Applejack had ever seen this sort of thing, but she knew what it was, having heard of it before. This was somepony, an earth pony, no less, leaving what her family had done for generations and going someplace new, risking everything to do what she loved. The farm pony knew what she had to do. She reached out and slung a foreleg around Pinkie’s shoulders.
        “Don’t you worry about a thing, sugar cube,” she said bravely. “We’ll take care of you. Heck, we’ll have a little welcoming party once you get settled in. Does that sound good?”
        Pinkie’s mane poofed back into its previous shape as she quivered with happiness. She still looked like she was about to cry, but for a different reason.
        “THAT WOULD BE THE BEST THING EVER!” she shrieked triumphantly to the sky, startling Applejack from the volume, but the farm pony still smiled nervously.

        “And that’s how Pinkie got the idea of throwing parties for everypony else who moved here, so none of them would need to be afraid of being unwelcome like she had been,” Applejack said fondly. “I’m ashamed to say not all of the Apples would have done what I did there, taking such trouble for a stranger in town, but it’s just something you have to do sometimes. You put up with ponies and be patient with them, no matter what, for as long as it takes.” She chuckled. “I’m still being patient with her, I guess.”
        “Why would you be ashamed about that?” Twilight asked, confused. “Surely it’s unreasonable to expect all your relatives to be as good as your side of the family.”
        Applejack sighed.
        “I know, I know, but consarn it, they’re still family and they ought to know better.”
“Well, it’s still a great story. Do you have any others like it?”
        Applejack, now spearing fallen apples too worm-eaten or overripe to sell with a pointy stick and tossing them into the little cart she hauled behind her, let out a laugh, nearly dropping the stick.
        “Bet your horseshoes I do. I got all kinds of good stories, same as any farm pony does. We like to laugh. I met Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy next at about the same time. The two of them moved down here together from Cloudsdale. Rainbow was just starting in with the Ponyville weather team, because she wanted to get enough experience to transfer to the Stormguard over on the east coast and Fluttershy was checking out that vacant cottage by the Everfree to see if she could make a go of living on her own for the first time. They made quite the pair, I’ll tell you that.”
        More memories came to light, and these ones had the feel of the wind in your face and the sun on your back.

        Applejack wasn’t quite sure what to make of the prismatic-haired pegasus that had just landed in front of her, with another winged pony in tow. The phrase in this case was quite literal, she was hauling the other pegasus along behind her, and that pony looked like she’d just as soon melt into the air and disappear.
        “Afternoon,” Applejack said, touching her hat in greeting. “Don’t think I’ve seen you around before. Heard we were getting a new weather pony. I’d guess that’s you, ain’t it?” She indicated the multispectral pegasus, who puffed up proudly at the recognition.
        “Oh yeah, that’s me,” she said. “I’m Rainbow Dash. I’m just going to be hanging out down here while I get my basic credentials. Then it’s off to join the Stormguard over east, and from there to the Wonderbolts! This little town is going to be famous as where I got my start. Pretty cool, huh?”
        Applejack frowned. She never did care for boasting unless the speaker could prove the truth of what they said and there was no way that was happening here anytime soon.
        “Well, missy, I suppose we’ll just have to see about that. Looks like we got ourselves somepony who talks mighty big, and if your say-so is bigger than your do-so, you might just get laughed out of town. Folk here don’t care much for those that are too proud to put their nose to the grindstone and get things done. You go talking like that and you’ll not make many friends with our weather team, I’ll tell you that right now.”
        “Eh, it’ll be fine,” Rainbow said, waving dismissively. “I’ll wow’em with my moves, we’ll be pals in five minutes. No, wait! Four minutes, because I’m just that much cooler. Anyway, the real estate ponies here in town told me that the place my friend here wants to look at is pretty close to your farm. That old cottage up by the forest, you know what I’m talking about?”
        Applejack raised an eyebrow. Rainbow’s ‘friend’ was still quivering and doing her best to hide behind the blue pegasus, with her mane draped over most of her face, saying less than nothing.
        “Yeah, I know what you mean. That used to be the Apple family house before we really got the farm going, way back in my granny’s time. Not for very long, of course. We’ve never been able to sell the darn thing, what with it being so close to the forest. All kinds of nasty critters in there, you know. You sure that’s the sort of place your friend wants?”
        Rainbow sighed.
        “I know, right? She wants someplace close to a lot of animals, and this is really the cheapest option we’ve got. Hey, Fluttershy, you sure you want to look at this place?”
        The other Pegasus, now identified, mumbled something inaudible, but Rainbow, evidently used to this, was holding her ear very close. She shrugged.
        “She says yes. Come on, then, I haven’t got all day.”
        Applejack hadn’t been out to the old house in years and was a little dismayed to see how much it had decayed during that time. It was going to take a good bit of work to make it livable again. Nothing that a determined homesteader couldn’t handle, but Fluttershy didn’t strike her as the type who could stick it out for that long by herself.
        “It’s a fixer-upper, all right,” the farm pony said, shaking her head. “And of course, you’ll have a job getting rid of all the rats and such. There goes one now! C’mere, ya varmint!” She moved to stomp the scurrying rodent, but was stopped by Fluttershy abruptly appearing in front of her, looking honest-to-goodness mad.
        “No, don’t hurt him!” she demanded.
        Applejack stopped dead in surprise, but at least the pegasus was talking now.
        “Well if you want to live here, you’ll have to get rid of’em,” she said, trying to be reasonable. “They’re a terrible nuisance and filthy dirty besides. Make you sick to have them around, it will.”
        “Oh, that’s all right,” Fluttershy assured her, a little, shy smile on her face. “I’ll be sure to keep them nice and clean. And I know we’ll get along just fine.”
        She turned to where the rat had vanished into a gnawed hole in the woodwork and began murmuring into it as Applejack watched in a kind of daze, head tilting.
        “Oh, um, hello Mister Rat. I’m sorry about that other mean pony, she didn’t know any better. But I’m really happy to meet you. Are there many more of you around? Really? That’s a lot of new friends for me.” She carried on in that vein as Applejack turned to Rainbow, who was looking resigned to the inevitable.
        “Yeah, she just kind of does that,” the other pegasus said, shrugging. “She really doesn’t fit in up in Cloudsdale and I hate seeing her be miserable all the time.” She sounded a little embarrassed about the whole thing, but Applejack’s answer was a little kinder than she’d been so far.
        “Well, it’s mighty kind of you to be helping her out like this, then. Might be we can get along. I’m Applejack, by the way. Nice to meet you, Rainbow.”
        Fluttershy looked up from the rat hole, smiling peacefully.
        “I think this is the perfect place for me,” she said happily. “Thank you, both of you.”
        Applejack chuckled.
        “This’ll be plenty interesting, at least.”

        “Huh. I don’t remember Rainbow ever telling me she wanted to join the Stormguard,” Twilight mused. The sun was on its way towards the western horizon and Applejack was trudging back towards the farmhouse, where the smell of Granny Smith’s cooking was drifting towards them and making Twilight’s mouth water.
        “Well, whenever I asked when she was leaving, she always found some excuse or some way of putting it off,” Applejack said. “I guess Ponyville sort of grew on her. It does that to you.”
        “Yes, it does,” Twilight agreed wistfully. “Um, Applejack, there’s something I’ve kind of wanted to ask you for a while.”
        The farm pony looked over her shoulder warily.
        “Is it about that doll of yours? Because I don’t know if Big Mac is too keen on giving it back.”
        “No, no!” Twilight said, laughing. “Nothing like that. I was just wondering—how do you stand living like you do? I mean, I know you’ve got a great family and you love your work, but I could never spend my whole life doing what you do. I’d have no time for studying or reading or much of anything else. How do you stand it?”
        Applejack thought hard about the question. It deserved an honest answer. Finally, she shrugged and said, “I guess maybe it’s an earth pony thing. All we’ve got to get things done is sweat and muscle and a lot of swearing sometimes. So when there’s work to do, there ain’t no use in whining about it, you might as well get on and start working, no matter how long it takes. Even if it takes the rest of your life. Part of it’s a pride thing. I’m darn proud of what I do and what my family does, keeping this part of Equestria supplied with apples in one form or another. The backbone of this country, you know? And part of it’s just enjoying simple things. I know I could never puzzle out half of those books of yours and honestly, I wouldn’t want to, because they’d be no use to me and not very interesting. What’s here, now, what I can see and touch and remember, that’s interesting. Does that answer your question?”
        “Yes,” Twilight said warmly. “Yes, it does. Thank you.” She paused. “You never told me how you met Rarity.”
        Applejack chuckled.
        “You were there for that. I never had anything to do with her beyond maybe selling her a few apples until you came along. Different walks of life, you know? And now I can’t imagine not knowing her. Life is funny that way sometimes. A funny, funny riddle.”


Eye of the Beholder


        “Why, of course!” Rarity exclaimed joyfully. “I would love to tell you all about how I met each of our dear friends. I only hope I can do the story justice, lacking your gift for literature.” She took a sip of tea. The two of them were seated in the seamstress’ kitchen, with the morning sunlight streaming in through the window.
        Well aware of her friend’s taste in fiction books, Twilight tactfully refrained from commenting.
        “I’m sure you’ll do just fine,” she said. “Just start from the beginning, and go on until you get to the end, then stop.”
        Rarity giggled, recognizing the reference.
        “You’re incorrigible, dear. Only you would open an account about past friendships with something from the depths of Wonderland. But enough prevaricating, I really must get on with the tale. It’s an astonishing coincidence, but I too met Pinkie first of all. There was a brief introduction after she moved into town—her welcoming party was held at Sweet Apple Acres and I was far too refined to attend in those days—so we truly met just after the grand opening of the boutique, which, I need hardly say, went fabulously.”
        Rarity, in idle moments of reflection, likened each of her friends to a rare gem, beautiful and brilliant wherever they were. Pinkie, naturally, would go perfectly with the hue of rose quartz.

        Rarity let out a grateful sigh as she changed the sign on the door from ‘open’ to ‘closed.’ While the deluge of customers had been wonderful beyond her wildest dreams, it was also dreadfully exhausting and she very much looked forward to a quiet evening at her new home. Then came a rapid hammering at the door and she sighed. She could hardly turn away a customer, the poor thing was probably thinking they had come just too late. But, opening the door, she beheld a lurid pink mare standing there, who proceeded to deliver a singing telegram, the gist of which was evidently that Rarity was invited to a party to celebrate the success of her business venture, as hosted by one Pinkie Pie. The seamstress suppressed another sigh.
        “But of course,” she told Pinkie, managing a grateful smile under pressure. “I can hardly refuse such a generous gesture.”
        She almost made it through the evening. But after one too many assaults upon her dignity and good taste by the erstwhile host of the gathering, and having had one too many stiff drinks to weather the storm of conversation, at last her composure cracked. Then it shattered.
        “Is something wrong?” Pinkie asked her anxiously.
        “Miss Pie,” she said, her voice slurred slightly, “It would be a simpler matter to list what is right. But since you have asked so nicely, I’ll tell you! Firstly, I am a grown mare and these juvenile amusements you continue to force upon me are demeaning and humiliating! Secondly, if you think I appreciate you dragging me out here after a very taxing day, you are just as mad as that rat’s nest you’re using as a mane! And third, I do NOT! WANT! CAKE! So stop trying to stuff it down my throat! Does that make it quite clear, or shall I use smaller words?!”
        Pinkie stood there quivering a moment, then ran off crying, leaving Rarity aghast at what she had just done.
        “Oh dear,” she said dazedly. Then it really hit her and she ran off after Pinkie, wailing for her to stop. Of all the things to have happen just after such a good day, this was truly the WORST! POSSIBLE! THING!
        At last, puffing heavily, she caught up with Pinkie just behind Sugar Cube Corner. She was well aware her makeup was utterly ruined and her coiffure was rather ragged from her headlong sprint, but none of that mattered now as much as saying something to the weeping mare in front of her.
        “Pinkie dear, I’m so terribly, terribly, terribly sorry for my behavior just now!” she said breathlessly. “Can you ever forgive me?! Oh, what am I saying, it’s impossible! I shall have to leave Ponyville forever!”
        “I don’t want you to go!” Pinkie protested tearfully. “I just wish you’d told me all of that earlier, before you went to the party! We could have changed everything and held it tomorrow night and then you would have been happy!”
        “I didn’t want to put all your preparations to waste,” Rarity murmured sadly. “And a lady must not complain about the nature of the entertainment, that’s simply rude. How could I say anything to offend my host?”
        Pinkie laughed.
        “That’s just silly! You don’t have to be that way with me or any of us! We still love you, warts and all! Well, maybe not, I don’t think you have any warts, do you? Because if you do, I might be able to get my hooves on a dead cat and we’ll need a graveyard under the full moon and—”
        Rarity finally, for the first time that evening, burst out in honest laughter at the absurdity and everything was, if not all right, at least not ruined.

        “And after that, we had each other’s measure and became fast friends,” Rarity said. “It also taught me a lesson about the proper place of refinement. That is to say, not at a Pinkie party.” The two unicorns shared a laugh at the idea.
        “It’s true, her default idea of a party is a little silly,” Twilight admitted. “That’s half the point, though. You can’t look dignified when you’re having fun.”
        “Never,” Rarity agreed.
        “Well, actually, I’m a little curious, then. How do you put up with those high society ponies and their terrible games and dull meetings? I managed to avoid most of them when I lived in Canterlot, but I heard enough to make me glad I kept mostly to my books for company.”
        Rarity was remarkably serene in the face of the question.
        “Twilight, darling, if I don’t play the game, I don’t have a reputation and therefore no patronage or high-profile sales to attract the attention of the fashion world. It’s an unfortunate necessity in my profession if you want to get anywhere. I admit to enjoying it a little, but by and large, I simply endure it so I can get past the games to what really matters—that is, the art and the design, bringing beauty out into the light. You mistake hard and tedious work for an ordinary social gathering. It’s well-disguised, but that’s all it is. I hope that answers your question.”
        Twilight shook her head with a sigh.
        “I could never do that.”
        “Nor would I wish you to, dear, it does get simply horrid sometimes and it takes a thick skin to handle some of what they say. Moving on to more pleasant matters, I met Rainbow Dash next. She wanted a storm-rated flight suit for when she moved east and so naturally, she came to me.”
        The memory gleamed in her mind. What better gem for that pony than a rainbow moonstone?

        Right at the first, Rainbow looked embarrassed to even be in the boutique. Her gaze flicked over the various dresses and display pieces and her cheeks grew red.
        “Hello there, dear, welcome to Carousel Boutique,” Rarity said, briefly leaving off her work on her present creation to welcome the new customer. “Are you looking for anything in particular?”
        “Uh, yeah, I need the most awesome flight suit to ever exist!” Rainbow said, attempting to reclaim her toughness. “Something that can take a lightning bolt to the chest and keep me dry under a waterfall. Think you can handle that?”
        Rarity’s eyes gleamed.
        “Oh, my dear mare, you do not know with whom you are dealing. Clothing suitable for any occasion, that is our promise and I shall not break it today!” Her horn lit up as she snatched up a tape measure and cleared the little dais for fitting. “Step right up there, if you please, and we shall make you the envy of any daredevil in history!”
        “Great!” Rainbow said, stepping onto the dais, but not sounding terribly enthusiastic. “Just great.”
        “I’m Rarity, by the way,” the unicorn said as she began measuring, carefully writing the numbers down on a notepad.
        “Rainbow Dash,” Rainbow said.
        “Oh, yes, you’re the new weather pony, are you not? News travels so fast in a small town, I know you’ve probably heard that far too many times.”
        “Yeah, no kidding,” Rainbow agreed. “It’s okay, though, I got that over with when I first moved in. So, you’re six months too late to really annoy me.”
        “Well, that’s good. So, whatever do you need such a fearsome piece of armor for?”
        “I’m gonna join the Stormguard, that’s what it’s for!” Rainbow declared proudly. “And from there to the Wonderbolts! Live the dream, that’s what I do!”
        “That sounds simply wonderful!” Rarity assured her, though for the life of her she could never understand what drove athletes that way beyond the surety of a shorter career than most other professions. “I know that if I could live my own dreams, the world would be a beautiful, fashionably-dressed paradise.” She sighed happily, lost for a moment in her grand vision of the future, then snapped out of it, cheeks tinged red. “I hope you’ll remember all of us back here in Ponyville occasionally, once you’ve gotten there.”
        “Yeah,” Rainbow said, “I’ll do that.”
        “Rainbow, forgive me for intruding, but you don’t sound terribly happy about your upcoming promotion.”
        “Hey, what’s it to you?” Rainbow snapped indignantly. “Nothing, that’s what. I don’t know you. Why do you even care, huh?”
        “It’s always something to me whenever I see somepony in need,” Rarity insisted, keeping up her measuring in the face of the cutting remark. “And it’s clear you need to talk to somepony about this matter. The who of it doesn’t matter so much as that you do talk about it. And that’s all I have to say on the matter.”
        Rainbow was quiet a moment, then said quietly, “Okay, look, you can’t tell anypony about this. I mean it, not anypony. I don’t want you blabbing about it to all your fancy friends, whoever they are, or writing it down in your cutesy diary you probably have, or anything! It doesn’t leave this room, all right?”
        “I’m the very soul of discretion,” Rarity promised sternly, standing up straight. “You may depend upon it.”
        Rainbow took a deep breath.
        “Okay…I don’t know if I actually want to leave. I…I kind of like it here.”
        Silence fell for a moment, but it was clear that the pegasus had nothing more to say.
        “Why should you feel badly about that?” Rarity asked gently.
        “Because it’ll totally ruin my awesome image!” Rainbow cried out, “No, it’ll ruin my awesomeness, period! I’m supposed to be going places, not spending years here in this nowhere town shifting rain clouds back and forth! If I want to be a Wonderbolt, I’ve got to dazzle’em with all the cool stuff I’ve done! Being a weather pony in Ponyville is not cool!”
        “If I might make an observation, dear,” Rarity said, “I can’t help but feel that actions themselves are not as, ahem, ‘cool’ as those who perform them. You know the Wonderbolts perform more or less variations on the same maneuvers and techniques in all the shows they do, yes?”
        “So what?! They’re still awesome!” Rainbow shouted angrily. “Nopony can do those stunts like they can! Except me! But they’re still awesome!”
        “Yes, that’s my point,” Rarity explained patiently. “Would they be any less, ahem, ‘awesome’ if they too had spent a few years in this ‘nowhere town’ and still performed as they do today?”
        Rainbow was about to answer, then encountered something that made the gears in her head begin turning and froze with her mouth open.
        Rarity smirked.
        “You see, you just got it, didn’t you? If shifting rain clouds here isn’t cool, then by Celestia, you shall make it cool!” She giggled at the overuse of the word, but Rainbow thankfully didn’t notice, instead fixating on the idea she put forth.
        “Yeah, that’s it! Rainbow Dash is totally awesome wherever she goes, even here! I can do this! Hey, what was your name again?”
        “Rarity.”
        “Rarity. You know what, you’re all right.” She said this as though it was an incredible compliment and the unicorn took in the spirit in which it was meant.
        “Thank you. Will you still be wanting that flight suit?”
        “Nah, maybe some other time. I’ve got to work on my moves! See you later!”
        And with that she was gone.

        “Huh. Are you sure you should have told me that?” Twilight asked.
        “Darling, you know Rainbow well enough by now to know she’s only afraid that you would think less of her for it and we both know you never would, so I think we’re safe. Moving on, though, I met Fluttershy last of all. I needed a model for some designs I had in mind for pegasi and Rainbow dragged her into it. I think she was tired of the poor dear hiding away at her cottage most of the time.”
        And lastly, for her other winged friend, amber, the lifeblood of trees turned to gleaming stone, would serve nicely.

        “Nice to meet you, Fluttershy,” Rarity said to the shivering wreck of a pony standing in front of her.
        “Well, go on, say hello,” Rainbow urged her friend, nudging her with a hoof. The other pegasus mumbled something under her breath that presumably was a greeting. Rainbow sighed.
        “Are you sure she wants to do this?” Rarity asked, a little worried, but Rainbow waved off her concerns.
        “Eh, don’t worry about it, she’ll be fine! She needs to get out more anyway. Hey, Fluttershy, I’ve got to go, I’ll be back to get you in a few hours, okay?”
        Another mumble and Rainbow grinned.
        “Right, I’ll see you then.” And she sped off, back into the sky, leaving Rarity alone with a very reluctant pony.
        “Well, um, if you could just step up there, I’ll try and get this over with as quickly as possible,” Rarity said, indicating the fitting dais. Fluttershy shrank down, hiding behind her mane.
        “My dear, I won’t know what’s wrong if you don’t talk to me,” the unicorn said. “If you’d rather not do this, that’s perfectly all right, no matter what Rainbow says. I know she can be a little pushy sometimes.”
        “Do I have to stand there where  everypony can see me?”
        “A little louder yet, please.”
        Fluttershy took a deep breath and at last spoke in a voice bordering on normal, if still very quiet.
        “Do I have to stand where everypony can see me? It kind of scares me.”
        “No, no, not at all,” Rarity said, aghast at the thought. “No! Here you shall be treated with every courtesy! Such is our great…” She trailed off as she saw Fluttershy whimper at the volume of her voice. “Um, that is to say, no, you don’t have to. Here, just let me draw the curtains.”
        Her horn glowed as she shut away the outside world for a while and switched on the magelight globes of the chandelier above to make up for the lack of sunlight.
        “Is that better?”
        Fluttershy nodded, walking up onto the dais slowly. Taking up her tape measure, Rarity began working.
        “So, what is it that you do?” she asked, making conversation. That simple question turned out to change the whole situation. Fluttershy’s face lit up.
        “Oh, I take care of all my animal friends and some of Applejack’s animals, too,” she said happily. “There are so many of them over where I live.”
        A few hours later, Rarity was thoroughly impressed with Fluttershy’s knowledge of animals and her surprisingly insightful thoughts on the world. It had taken quite a bit of coaxing to draw them out of her, but that shy exterior concealed quite a bit. Then, when Rainbow arrived and she left, Rarity saw the pegasus withdraw back into her shell like a turtle and she was saddened. It was the last she saw of Fluttershy for a long time.

        “I do wish I’d visited her or something,” Rarity murmured. “I feared I would be intruding and of course, she never came to visit me again on her own initiative. You’d have thought I learned my lesson at Pinkie’s party about the place of refinement.” Then she smiled again. “So, Twilight, you brought us together again and I’ll always be grateful for that.”
        “Well, you’re very welcome,” Twilight said. “I really liked your story.”
        “Oh, thank you! I did thought it came off rather well, but I was a little worried I dramatized things just a tad too much. I’m glad it worked for you. Once you’re finished with this little round of research, you’ll have to let me read the finished work, of course. I’m simply dying to know how it ends.”


Colors of the Wind


        The world made sense and it was awesome, or so Rainbow Dash had always thought, ever since she had made the decision to become a Wonderbolt. The actual getting-there was an afterthought, a foregone conclusion not worth worrying about unless it was actually time for the exam. And so she was confident, bold, reckless even, in her relentless assault on the waking world. She could nap like a pro. And right now she was doing it better than she had ever done before. The sun was bright and warm, her chosen cloud for today was soft and comfy, and she was snoozing away at blazing speed…relatively speaking, of course.
        “Hey, Rainbow Dash! I know you’re up there, I can see your tail sticking over the edge of that cloud!”
        Rainbow opened her eyes with a sigh. And there goes any chance for a new record in coolest nap taken by Rainbow Dash. The only category that matters in that field.
        Once she heard Twilight’s question, though, she was only too happy to answer it.
        “Well, it sounds like you’ve already heard how I met Applejack and Rarity, and I know you know that I know Fluttershy from back in Cloudsdale, so I shouldn’t have to repeat any of that, right?” she said. “I don’t want to make everything everypony else said about me even more awesome and embarrass them with my story-telling abilities.”
        Twilight nodded impatiently.
        “Yes, yes, that’s fine, if your account of those times would be more or less the same, there’s no point except for confirmation. I’ll give you the finished text and you can tell me if they got it right.”
        “Cool, that works. Well, that just leaves how I met Pinkie, then, since you were there when I met you. Hey, you want to see me clear the sky in three seconds flat this time?”
        “The sky is clear except for your cloud, Rainbow,” Twilight pointed out dryly.
        “And it’ll take about three seconds for me to fly back up there and buck it away, what’s your point?” Rainbow asked, grinning broadly. “Ha! Anyway, I avoided Pinkie’s usual welcome-to-Ponyville party because even then I was living up in the place I am now and she hadn’t come up with that whirligig thingy yet. Besides, I spent most of my time in the sky anyway except for when the weather team consulted with the mayor or the town council. So I only really got to know her the first time that I felt like getting a snack down at Sugar Cube Corner.”

        Rainbow trotted into the bakery and immediately had to clamp her mouth shut to keep from drooling at the wonderful smell of many baked goods wafting out from behind the counter. She had forgotten she was out of the necessary materials for a half-decent breakfast the night before and she was hungry.
        “Hello there!” a pony-shaped bundle of pink fluff chirped at her, popping up from behind the counter like a jack-in-the-box. “What can—GASP!” She leapt up in the air with surprise, then came back down, frowning. “Wait a minute, aren’t you the weather pony I haven’t seen yet?”
        “Yep, that’s me. Name’s Rainbow Dash. You got anything for somepony that missed breakfast today?”
        “I’m Pinkie Pie and yes, yes we do! I’m working on something that will help you go fast enough to catch up with your breakfast again, but until I finish it, I give you the Branchocstrawmarionberry Muffin of the GODS!” She retrieved an immense muffin from somewhere in the display case and stood up on her hind legs, holding it up over her head triumphantly, with the frosting nearly scraping the ceiling.
        “I’ll take it,” Rainbow said immediately, digging around in the pockets of her flier’s jacket for the requisite bits.
        “No, that’s okay, it’s free as a belated welcome-to-Ponyville gift!” Pinkie said. “I didn’t get to throw you a party then, so this is the next best thing.”
        “Hey, thanks!” Rainbow exclaimed, hardly able to believe her good fortune. “You don’t have to tell me twice!” The next few moments were taken up by intense explosions of frosting and flavor upon her tongue and she zoned out for a while.
        Upon sating her appetite at last, she looked up from the wasteland of crumbs in front of her and looked around for Pinkie. Not seeing her, she started to leave, and got a few steps outside the door before the earth pony materialized in front of her.
        “Oh, hey, before I forget, how come we don’t see you more often down here in town?” she asked. “There’s all kinds of fun things you could do!”
        “Well, I’m not going to be in town for all that long, you know,” Rainbow demurred. “I’ve got places to go, this is just for some starting job experience, to make my resume look good. I’ve kind of held off on looking into the joints around here.”
        Pinkie gasped again.
        “That’s terrible! You’ve been intentionally avoiding fun! Stop it! Stop it right this very minute! Or else!”
        Rainbow laughed.
        “Or else what, you’ll bake me into a pie?”
        “I will mobilize the town of Ponyville in a revolt against you and your fun-avoiding ways!” Pinkie vowed, the look of determination upon her face clashing horribly with her tilted baker’s hat and springy mane.
        Rainbow scoffed, just enjoying the show.
        “And why should they listen to you?”
        “Because,” Pinkie said, abruptly in possession of a thick highlands burr, “Unlike some other ponies, I can speak with a Greenbroke accent.”
        Rainbow burst out laughing.
        “You’re something else, Pinkie, you know that?”
        “Something else than what?” Pinkie asked curiously. “What would I be if I was just something instead of something else? Tell me! No, don’t tell me, I like riddles! I’ll get back to you on that one.”
        “Hey, I’ll tell you what,” Rainbow said, feeling generous. “I’ll come down and hang out here if you’re the one to show me the cool spots to be around town, okay? I don’t settle for second best!”
        “Deal!” Pinkie said, taking up her hoof and shaking it so fast it blurred, then zipping back into the bakery.

        “So after that, we just started hanging out together every so often, and I’ve never regretted it,” Rainbow said. “Every so often she still tells me she’s thinking about my ‘riddle.’”
        “So, Rainbow,” Twilight said, laughing, “if you don’t mind me asking, why didn’t you just get a weather team position at Cloudsdale or some other pegasi city? What made you choose Ponyville?”
        Rainbow looked uncomfortable.
        “I wanted to get someplace like Ponyville from the beginning, actually. Cloudsdale’s weather team has less to do than an ordinary team like the one down here. I wanted to learn everything about weather management, not just the technical parts of it. If I do something, I’m gonna do it all the way. I stayed in Cloudsdale because Gilda and I were still friends then. And then we kind of, you know, had a little fight and she left, so I left too, because Fluttershy wanted to move out to somewhere down below. I just picked Ponyville because it was close enough to Cloudsdale that I could go back whenever I liked. I heardit was an all right place, and it might have something for Fluttershy.”
        “Well, we’re glad you did,” Twilight said and Rainbow’s good mood returned.
        “Yeah, I know. With me here, Ponyville is an awesome place! Don’t you forget it!”



It’s A Kind of Magic


        Fluttershy was very willing to explain how she met everypony until she heard that Twilight had already gotten most of the story from their other friends. After that, it took another ten minutes of persuading her that yes, Twilight did still think her side of the story was important enough to tell. Naturally, Fluttershy had met Pinkie first as well, at least in Ponyville. It was a little unnerving how often Pinkie was emerging as the common denominator, but Twilight set that thought aside for later, in the event she ever resumed the Pinkie Pie Analysis Project.
        “When I first moved here, the Apple family helped me fix up the cottage,” Fluttershy began in her quiet, melodious voice. “And of course I knew Rainbow Dash. But I was too afraid to go into town for anything, not even to buy food or check on pets like I had thought I would. I was running out of money and things to eat and Rainbow Dash was getting very upset. I hated seeing her that way. So she said she would get somepony that would help me with my problem.”

        “Hello,” Pinkie whispered intently, standing very still, more still than Rainbow had thought possible. The result was just as unnerving as her usual bouncing around and Fluttershy whimpered, hiding behind her mane yet again.
        “Um, when I said you should be quiet and stand still, I didn’t mean quite that much,” Rainbow said, facehoofing. “Seriously, you sound like a zombie now. Come on, I thought you said you could handle this!”
        Pinkie turned around and gave Rainbow a wide smile.
        “Don’t you worry, Dashie, I said I’d do this and I will. We just got off on the wrong hoof. We’ll try again as many times as it takes until we get the right one. Since we each have four, that’s only sixteen tries at the most, or something like that.”
        She turned back to Fluttershy.
        “I’m Pinkie Pie, and you’re Fluttershy, right?”
        The pegasus managed a feeble nod.
        “I’ll bet you’re hungry. Why don’t you come over to Sugar Cube Corner and have something to eat? The first one’s free! Just follow me!”
        She began walking off towards town and Fluttershy, lured by the promise of food, hesitantly followed. As they walked, Pinkie kept up a stream of rapid-fire, mostly nonsensical chatter. At first it was scary, but ever so slowly, she got used to it, enough to pick up the pace.
        They were almost to the outskirts of Ponyville when finally, the pegasus couldn’t move another step, paralyzed with fear. Pinkie was there in an instant.
        “Come on, we’re almost there!” she said encouragingly.
        Fluttershy shook her head fearfully, unable to speak.
        “You don’t have to be afraid of anypony in town,” Pinkie assured her. “I told everypony that I was helping you with your problem and that they shouldn’t pay any more attention than usual just because you’re new. So all you have to do is walk right on in! Come on!”
        “I…this is as far as I’ve ever gone,” Fluttershy whispered. Somehow, Pinkie heard it.
        “Okay. Well, maybe you don’t have to go all the way in. But you should at least go one more step. If you can do that, I’ll run ahead and get you something nice to eat. Well, I’m going to do that anyway, but still! Just one more step! I’ll cheer for you!” She pulled a pair of pom-poms out of the ether and began a tumbling routine.
        “Fluttershy! She’s our mare! She can take one more step there!”
        A little smile appeared on Fluttershy’s face and she stretched out a trembling hoof, marshalling all her courage, and took just one more step.
        “Hurray!” Pinkie squealed. “Do it again! Do it again! That was amazing!”
        “O-okay,” Fluttershy agreed. And before she knew it, she was inside the town, and though it was still scary, it wasn’t quite as scary when she had somepony else with her.

        “She made sure to be there each time I needed to go into town after that for a month,” Fluttershy said, smiling, “Even when I kept telling her it really wasn’t necessary. It was thanks to her that I got to where I was when you moved in, in terms of not being scared of things or strange ponies. It also helped me get some experience for when I started helping out with Winter Wrap-Up and getting the animals to come out of their burrows. The technique is really very similar, if you’ve studied some basic psychology books. Oh, that is, I don’t mean to imply you haven’t done that, I’m sure you have.”
        “Yes, I have, I’m surprised to hear that you have. I thought animal psychology was more your thing,” Twilight replied.
        “Oh, well, it is. Animals are simple. But ponies are so complicated, I thought maybe if I learned a little more about how our minds work, I could understand other ponies better and not be so scared of them most of the time. It didn’t really help that much, but I learned some interesting things.”
        “You’re just full of interesting thoughts, Fluttershy,” Twilight said. “I wish you’d share them more often.”


Laughter is the Best Medicine


        Having heard how everypony had met Pinkie, Twilight nonetheless decided to stop by and talk to her about it for the sake of completeness. She found Sugar Cube Corner ominously empty with a sign out front explaining that the first pony to walk in the door would receive a free banana cream pie. While Twilight wasn’t actually that hungry or in the mood for one, she nonetheless walked in. Pinkie promptly popped up from behind the counter, with a mixing bowl for a helmet and her cheeks striped with caramel war paint, hefting an eye-searing yellow and lime green shoulder cannon of some kind.
        “Fire in the hole!” she yelled, and pulled the trigger. Twilight was instantly coated in liquefied banana cream pie. But through the thick coating of gunk, she could still here Pinkie laughing.
        “Hahahahaha! And they told me there wasn’t anypony in town who would fall for that one again! Well, they were wrong! Hiya, Twilight, nice to see you again! Thanks for helping me test-fire Mister Kotter Mark Two, I’ve just had so much trouble finding somepony willing to help with that.”
        “You’re welcome,” Twilight said flatly.
        After cleaning up with some overenthusiastic help from Pinkie, the earth pony was only too happy to talk about her friends before Twilight came to Ponyville.
        “But that would take a really long time. I’m friends with everypony in town, after all. I could just tell you about a few of them,” she offered.
        “You know, when you first said that, I didn’t think you were being serious,” Twilight admitted. “But you really do know everypony here, don’t you? I don’t know if my memory is that good when it comes to other ponies I haven’t read about. And I didn’t know you helped out Fluttershy like that. I wouldn’t have thought that was really your thing.”
        “Some things take time, that’s all!” Pinkie said. “You can’t just crank up the heat and expect things to bake faster. She just needed more help to be happy than most other ponies. I’ve seen and helped lots of ponies. Some of them needed better help than I could give them, so I made sure they got it. There’s a lot of sadness in the world. But as long as Pinkie is on the case, Ponyville is going to remain a bastion of fun and laughter! Heehee! That’s a funny word, ‘bastion.’ But you know, Twilight, what about you? Before you moved to Ponyville, didn’t you have any friends? Because if so, they are way overdue for some kind of party.”
        Twilight blushed, letting out a nervous laugh.
        “Yes, well, I think that would be going a little beyond the scope of this current research project and maybe it’s time for me to, um, compile and organize my notes thus far. I should probably get going! Goodbye!”
        But Pinkie blurred into motion and threw herself in front of the door.
        “I’m afraid I can’t allow you to leave, Twilight,” she said, still grinning unnervingly. “Not until you’ve told me about your first friend from Canterlot, at least!”
        “It’s really embarrassing and it wouldn’t make me happy to talk about it!” Twilight insisted, hoping that would be enough to convince Pinkie. It was not.
        “You can’t laugh about something later unless you admit it now,” Pinkie said confidently. “And you know I’ll find out anyway.”
        Twilight sighed, wondering how, when she had come here to ask Pinkie about her earlier friends, she had wound up talking about her own.
        “All, right, fine. But it’s not all that interesting, really.”

        It was Twilight’s first day as a student at Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, otherwise known as the Canterlot Magic Academy and it was just as glorious as she had imagined. The subjects taught were intensely interesting, their lessons often took the forms of practical demonstrations of skill, and she had unrestricted access to the Canterlot Royal Library, including whatever magical sections her grade level was cleared to access. She just wanted to pull down a whole book case and roll around in the resulting pile of knowledge.
        At the moment, she was happily reading away, tucked in a cozy corner of the library. She was so caught up, she didn’t hear the faint tread of heavy horseshoes on the carpeted floor.
        “You appear to be enjoying yourself,” an amused, warm voice observed. Twilight nodded absently, not taking her eyes off her book and wondering why the visitor sounded so familiar.
        “I was wondering, perhaps you would care to visit the statue garden? The flowers are quite lovely this time of year and I’ve heard you haven’t been there yet.”
        “No, thank you, I’ll go some other time,” Twilight said, before looking up to find Princess Celestia looking down at her, seeming quite tickled by the whole affair. Twilight panicked, practically throwing herself down into a bow.
        “Oh! Princess! I’m so sorry! Of course I’d like to go wherever you want!” She began hyperventilating and feeling the world go dizzy around her again.
        “Relax, Twilight. You can consider that a command, if it helps,” Celestia said firmly. “Take deep breaths.”
        Slowly, the purple unicorn brought herself under control, images of magic kindergarten dancing in her head.
        “You don’t seem to be spending a lot of time with your classmates outside of class,” Celestia said. “Why not?”
        “Well, um, it’s just, I can if you want me to!” Twilight assured her.
        “Twilight, this is about what you want and why,” the princess said. “There’s nothing wrong with spending your time here. I just want to get to know you better.”
        “Oh, I see,” Twilight said, breathing a sigh of relief. “Well, I there’s just so much to learn in the world, I have to spend most of my time here if I’m going to get anywhere.”
        “Yes, there is quite a bit to learn,” Celestia agreed. “So much, in fact, that it would take more than one lifetime to learn it all. With that in mind, learning about diverse subjects is always a good thing. You’re an excellent student of magic, Twilight, but you could stand to get out a little more. So, if you want to, and only if you want to, I thought I’d show you some of the parts of the castle you haven’t seen.”
        “Well, honestly, it doesn’t sound all that interesting,” Twilight said hesitantly, but then her mind, scrabbling for any excuse to spend more time with the princess, seized upon one aspect of the proposed excursion. “Oh! But I’ve heard that there’s a lot of history behind the various statues there! I’d love to learn about those!”
        Celestia’s smile made her want to jump for joy.
        “I would be happy to tell you of their history. And perhaps you’ll make some other friends while we’re there.”
        “Other friends?” Twilight asked.
        “I consider myself your friend as well as teacher,” Celestia clarified. “I hope you consider me yours as well.”
        Twilight couldn’t help it. She did the happy dance again.

        “So there you go, the princess practically had to order me to go make friends even before I got here,” Twilight said, blushing furiously. “We ‘coincidentally’ ran into at least three ponies she thought I might like walking around those gardens and I never paid any of them a second thought because I was waxing eloquent about the statue of Discord and the history of the Chaos War. Are you happy now?”
        Pinkie thought about it a moment, then nodded.
        “Yes! It makes me very happy to see how far you’ve come since then! And it should make you happy too!”
        “Well, when you put it like that,” Twilight mused, “I suppose it does.”