“Morning, doll,” a voice crooned into Dash’s ears. She curled up slightly, moving towards the source of the voice in search of warmth, and murmured incoherently under her breath. The response was a breathy chuckle, heat dancing along the side of her face, and she groaned again, savouring the feeling.
A split-second afterwards, she launched ten feet into the air in shock.
Beneath her the sound of smooth, throaty laughter bubbled up, loud and hearty, and she couldn’t help but feel ever so slightly annoyed.
“What was that for?” Slowly lowering herself to the ground, Dash glared at the Wonderbolt with all the intensity she could muster. He didn’t look fazed at all.
“Trust me, cadet,” he laughed, shaking his head, “it’ll be a cold day in Canterlot when you can scare somepony acquainted with the captain of the Wonderbolts!”
Huffing, Dash scraped a hoof through the dirt beneath her legs. Apparently she’d been so thoroughly shocked she’d fallen asleep standing. Who could blame her, though, right? One of her idols had just asked her to get him a date with her best friend! That was so cold-
“Wait.” Dash raised her dirty hoof for silence, pondering his last few words. “Cadet?”
“That’s what you could be if you help me out.”
Dash wasn’t quite sure what to do with that. On the one hoof, the coolest pony she’d ever met had just offered her an easy avenue to the fulfilment of all her dearest dreams and wishes! What could possibly be worth more to her than being a Wonderbolt? It wouldn’t hurt any of her friends, and she’d be a Wonderbolt, and any sacrifice wouldn’t be too much to ask for that!
Unfortunately, the other hoof wasn’t quite so clean as that one. Literally, for that matter. She rubbed it along the side of her belly, trying to get some of the particularly matted dirt off of it as she mulled over the consequences of helping the blue pegasus.
Getting a date for him with AJ...would that be hard? Did AJ’s barn door even swing that way? What if she already had somepony she was interested in? She might say no! That would be the worst disappointment. She might make Dash beg, and then what? And having her superior dating her best friend would be a real tough one too. What could she do?
In front of her, Soarin' couldn’t help but do everything but sit still, nervously fidgeting around on the tips of his hooves, almost dancing in anticipation. Much as he might have seemed cool and collected to her, his stomach was churning furiously enough to make him feel slightly sick; he really wanted an in with the orange pony and this seemed like the only one he could get.
Years spent within the crushing grip of a devious orange-ish pony of his own had taught him every trick in the book when it came to winning ladies over. No one could escape his devilish charms or sly good looks. He was Equestria’s finest Casanova, and one farmer from the boonies would not be able to elude him.
Right? Right. His mom had always said that, anyway.
“So?” he said, leaning in to stare deeply into her pretty rose eyes. “You gonna help me out, or do I have to blacklist you forever?”
“Can you do that?” The thought was enough to make Dash queasy. If this pegasus had the power to make sure she’d never see her dream come true...she had to do it. Whatever AJ wanted didn’t matter, not compared to her dream!
“Me? I can do whatever I want.” Soarin’s smug grin fit his face rather well, for some reason, and that, combined with his arrogance and good looks, made her blush, a strange tingling sensation coursing through her body. She hoped the red she knew must be on her face didn’t show through. “So what’s it gonna be, cadet? You going to fly your first formation or what?”
It only took the cyan mare a second of hesitation before she made up her mind for good.
“Okay,” she said, eyes sparkling with determination. “What do we have to do?”
The Wonderbolt stomped his hooves appreciatively, entirely unsurprised. He hadn’t lost his touch! Soon enough he’d have the orange pony, and this one was already putty in his hooves. It was time to get the ball rolling.
“Here’s the plan, cadet,” he said, whispering, and Dash moved forward, eager to listen.
“Morning, Mac!”
“Mornin’, Soarin',” the red stallion chuckled, deftly manoeuvring a wheelbarrow full of fresh ripe apples around a dip in the dusty dirt road. The hoofpath from Sweet Apple Acres down to Ponyville and the market was a fairly hazardous one, and Mac hadn’t bothered going down it or maintaining it since they’d bought the cargo truck seven or eight years prior; now, with the main road out of commission and the truck itself in need of repair, he regretted his indolence ever so slightly. The road stretched off long into the horizon, twisting, turning and winding through the orchards, cutting around the hillsides and through the scenic route, down into the town. And not a spot of shade anywhere in the midday sun.
Wiping a bead of sweat from his brow, Big Macintosh turned to face his new companion, who sat suspended in the air on his wings, hovering in place beside him. Every flap sent a cool blast of air Mac’s way, for which he was grateful, but at the same time, he knew this meant company, and he dreaded every moment of time spent with Applejack’s new boyfriend.
It wasn’t that Soarin' was a bad colt, by any means. He had charisma, certainly, and a whole lot of flair. Nice guy. He just didn’t know when to stop talking.
“What brings a city kid out here?” he chuckled dryly, carefully sidestepping a pile of rocks someone had left in the middle of the road. Presumably rock farmers refusing to move onto the new routes. Those gosh-darned elderly folks behaved like they owned the place. “Come to help me drag these apples down into town?”
“A little, yeah,” came the reply, as the blue pegasus swooped under a low-hanging branch, pushing it up into the air to allow Mac to pass. The crimson earth pony ducked beneath it, but in so doing, snagged the end of his mane on one of its offshoots, and for a minute he stood there, tugging at it before it freed itself. Soarin' looked amused as he dropped the branch he’d been holding on to. “I wanted to see how my future brother in law’s doing this morning, offer him a little help.”
“Future brother in-” Mac froze, seizing up at that. More Soarin'? All the time? It took the blue pegasus’ sudden gasp to make him realise he was about to overturn the wheelbarrow, and he steadied it, doing his best to steady himself in the meantime. “I thought you’d only be here a couple more weeks?”
“Actually,” the pegasus stammered, grinning sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his neck with a wry forehoof, “I was sort of thinking that...maybe...”
“Maybe what?” Macintosh’s eyes narrowed as his legs began to move once more, pushing the wheelbarrow forward. It was so full with delicious apples of all kinds that no other solo pony would have had the strength, nor the skill, to get it to town; even for him it was something of a challenge. Truth be told, he sorely missed his truck. “You were thinking of settlin’ down here with my sister?”
“Well, sort of!” Now Soarin' looked even more sheepish, laughing a grim, humourless laugh that made Mac’s bones rattle. How someone so cheerful could suddenly be so unnerving he didn’t know. “I was just thinking, you know, maybe, possibly, perhaps you could, maybe, kind of, help me out a little?”
“Help y’all out with what?” The other pony threw Mac a cursory glance. It felt like he was being appraised, but he shrugged it off, turning the corner around the edge of the orchard. Still a ways further, which meant he had the Wonderbolt on his back a while longer. It was almost painful.
Soarin' stopped, and sighed heavily, glumly settling himself on the floor. In the corner of Mac’s eyes, he saw the blue pony give up, and that made him turn.
“I just wanted to ask if you’d help me marry your sister, you know?”
Mac kept his silence.
“I mean, look,” Soarin' said, waving his hooves around frantically, and then he started babbling. “I know we haven’t gotten along great so far, and that’s fine, you think I’m trying to steal your sister from you and hurt her, I respect that, you’ve got the whole ‘big brother’ thing going on and that’s cool, but come on, man, she’s a girl too, and I bet she wants to have foals of her own some day, and I’m not a bad guy, well, all right, not that bad a guy, and I do try my best, and all I want is just-”
“Whoa,” Mac interjected, raising a hoof for silence. The querulous pony stopped immediately, body frozen in a gesture of exasperation, and Mac, ever the kind one, motioned for him to relax. He did, though with trepidation. “Slow down there, bronco. You’re tellin’ me,” and then he raised another hoof, and started poking at the first hoof, as though he was counting off sums. “First all, you want to marry my sister. Right?”
Soarin' nodded.
“And you want to give her kids of her own. Yessir?”
He nodded again, slightly more anxious.
“And last of all, you want me to believe you’re not a bad guy. Am I right?”
The blue pony held his head in his hooves, almost clawing at his temples in frustration. This was going to give him a headache, but he knew he had to get through it if he wanted to get anywhere with his plan to complete his wooing of the orange pony.
“So tell me, stud,” Mac groaned, bemused, “why exactly did you think I’d say no to someone wantin’ to make an honest mare out of my sister?”
“Oh, come on!” Soarin' cried, jumping up into the air. Then a look of clarity came over him, as though he’d just realised what had happened. “Wait.”
“Go on,” was Mac’s response. “You can figure it out, I reckon.”
“You...” This was confusing. He’d expected to be rebuffed, beaten up, thrown off their land and told never to return. It’d happened to him the first time he’d proposed to a girl and asked for her father’s blessing, and that time it’d been the girl herself that’d ejected him, quite forcefully, from the premises. He’d expected even less with AJ’s brother. And now here he was, being told...what, exactly? “You’re...giving me your blessing?”
“Nah, that ain’t it,” Mac grumbled, returning to sullenly pushing the cart forward. That was disappointing.
“What, then?”
“I’m sayin’,” he sighed, tapping the side of his head, “if AJ wants to marry you, I won’t get in the way. So go ahead an’ ask her, not me. You get it?” The red pony hurried off towards the town, and soon enough, was out of sight. He’d seemed to be a bit pent-up. Soarin’s first thought was that he needed to get laid - maybe he’d do well if he introduced him to Spitfire, they could both use a roll in the hay. His second thought was pure gibberish and uncontained joy.
“Yes!” he screamed, pumping both hooves in the air as he leapt about. His luck had come through! Soon enough, he’d have AJ all to himself!
Scheming, the dastardly young pony dashed off, heart filled with thoughts of love.
“So, what do we do first?”
Two blue ponies - one male, one female, and both pegasi - were huddled together in the bushes outside the Sweet Apple Acres barn, whispering quietly to each other as they peered through the leafy foliage and into the building itself. Someone had left the doors wide open, and they swung about wildly in the stiff morning wind, banging and battering against the barn’s sturdy oaken frame. Inside, the sound of sawing and singing rose and fell with the wind; Rainbow Dash recognised the song. It was the same one Applebloom and her friends had sung for the school’s talent competition.
“Catchy,” Soarin' muttered, raising the binoculars they’d swiped from Twilight Sparkle during a session of heavy petting they’d caught her in with a certain rambunctious pink pony. It had been awkward going for all four of them (well, maybe not Soarin', who’d looked to be enjoying himself far too much for the occasion), but when they’d told her they’d only come for her spying gear, she’d packed it all up into a sack, shoved it into their hooves and sent them off without even a goodbye. Apparently she’d been quite eager to get back to what she was doing. Soarin' sympathised.
“Are you going to answer me or what?” Dash herself looked unamused, cheeks still lightly brushed a rosy red. Catching two of her closest friends in the act had been enough to silence her for quite a while, lost in her own presumably salacious thoughts. Soarin' made note of that, promising himself to sell the information to her friends later on. “I mean, it’s cold, and I could be napping. I don’t want to be sitting out here trying to help you win my friend’s heart when I’ve got better things to do.”
“Didn’t they ever teach you a cadet doesn’t speak to her superiors like that in flight school?” Soarin' snapped back, eyes still firmly trained on the entrance to the barn. Dash recoiled, remembering who she was with, but it wasn’t quite enough to put the flame of bitter envy inside her out, and she sat there grumbling to herself for a while afterwards, complaining about nothing and no one in particular aside from her situation.
The entire thing felt unfair. She was the beautiful one, everyone said so, and she was the athlete, the talent, the future Wonderbolt. Why couldn’t Soarin' just love her and get it over with? Then there’d be no problems. She wouldn’t have to camp outside her closest friend’s house, watching her do her stupid earth pony chores all morning.
In fact, they’d been there for hours, just watching. As the sun rose, as the day started in earnest, through the crowing of the roosters and the melodic birdsong and even a few owl’s hoots, they’d been there, watching AJ go about her business, trying to get a bead on her. All they’d learned were things Rainbow knew already, that Soarin' had refused to hear from her, had been desperate to find out for himself.
He was a creepy pony, and certainly an extreme stalker, and yet Dash couldn’t deny that she was jealous. Why couldn’t a Wonderbolt obsess over her like that? She was so much more worth it than her friend!
“Lame,” she mumbled callously under her breath, stifling a peal of laughter that threatened to burst from her throat when she heard the sound of loud, if muffled, cursing from the barn. Maybe AJ had hit herself with a hammer or something? She deserved it for being so honest all the time, and so arrogant, and having such a holier-than-thou attitude. It wasn’t fair!
“She just hit herself with a hammer, poor girl,” Soarin' cooed, eyes full of pity. Conversely, the cyan mare could barely contain an elated squeal, haughtily throwing her mane back with a shake of her head. Now she knew how Rarity felt.
“So?” She couldn’t keep the tone of boredom and disapproval out of her voice, so she decided to go all the way. “If you’re done being weird and following my best friend around all day, I’d like to go home now.”
Soarin' gave her a flat look, then returned to watching the barn.
“Oh, come on!” Rainbow cried, throwing her forelegs up in the air in resignation. “I’m cold, and I’m hungry and I want a nap! Why are you being like this? Is she worth that much to you?”
“Yeah,” the Wonderbolt shot back, barely moving his eyes. “I really want to get to know her better.”
“Then why not go in there and talk to her, you weirdo?”
Soarin' looked surprised at that, as though the thought had completely eluded him.
“That’s a good idea,” he said quizzically, scratching the underside of his chin with a thoughtful hoof. Then he lifted the binoculars back up to his eyes and carried on watching.
That was the last straw for Dash, and with a pronounced sigh, followed by a mournful cry, full of irritation and despair, she rose to her feet, stomping towards the barn. Behind her, Soarin' sat still for a few moments, focused solely on the doorway himself and the beautiful singing voice that floated on the wind towards him; when the cyan pegasus came into his field of vision, he yelped, dropping the binoculars and zooming forward.
“Hey! Cadet!” He screamed, stretching his forelegs out towards her. He knew he had nowhere near the speed he needed to catch her up, but she was dallying along as daintily as such a rough, yet pretty mare could, almost as though she was taunting him. It wasn’t funny, even when she cast a gloating look back at him. “Missy, you get back here right now! Cadet! Slow down!”
“Now what’s all this darn commotion?”
The sound of the orange earth pony’s voice, Applejack, as she sauntered out of the barn, made him stop in mid-air and drop out of the sky, slamming into the floor with a loud boom. Rainbow was glaring at Applejack, who looked perplexed, dressed in overalls and a welding mask; in her hooves she carried a lit blowtorch, flame sputtering and dancing in the harsh breeze.
“AJ, what are you doing in there that’s so important anyway?” the blue pegasus girl fumed, eyes full of disdain. Soarin' had seen this situation before, almost by the numbers - this was textbook envy, though he had no clue why. Was the blue mare interested in him? It only made sense, true, considering he was probably the most dashing stallion in Ponyville, but...if she wanted to be a Wonderbolt, surely that came first?
“I’m just workin’ on the truck,” was the orange mare’s reply, lifting the mask off her head. Through the mask’s visor he hadn’t quite been able to tell what the strange dirt that dotted her cheeks was, but now he could see the soot and ash smeared across her face, covering her adorable freckles up with black dust. It was a fitting addition to her appearance. Dressed up like a working girl, she oozed a certain sort of industrial sexiness that he’d never encountered before and definitely needed more of. Easily the most beautiful mare he’d ever known.
“Workin’ on the truck, huh?” he parroted, smiling nervously as he glanced over at Dash. It was a tough enough job taking his eyes off Applejack, having to watch the blue mare smolder over some perceived slight was almost painful. “Okay, that’s cool! Nice to see you again, AJ, hope it happens again, now come on, Dash, let’s go!”
“No way!” Dash’s response was swift and brutal. “She needs to hear what’s been goin’ on this morning, and you need to talk to her so I can get out of this stupid-”
Soarin' interrupted with one hoof over Dash’s mouth to silence her, and the other around her withers, as he pulled her away, smile now even wider and more brittle. AJ herself seemed even more confused, and Dash was desperately trying to bite down on Soarin’s hoof over her mouth, struggling to spit out some more words that would almost certainly be slanderous and incriminating. He couldn’t have her ruining his chances with Applejack. He’d need to be firmer with the discipline and the threat of lost Wonderbolt candidacy if he wanted her to play along.
“Cadet Dash and I were just about to head off, right, Rainbow?” he laughed, staring fiercely into the blue pony’s eyes and hoping the unspoken message would get through. Apparently it did, because she melted quickly enough after that, eyes downcast and half-lidded as she stared at the ground in silence. Soarin' began pulling her away.
“Now hold on there a moment, flyboy,” AJ interrupted, taking a few steps forward, “where are you takin’ my friend and what exactly do you plan to do with her?”
“We were just about to...to...” Oh, horsefeathers, Soarin' thought, unable to find an answer. This was it, the moment of truth. What could he possibly do to fix this situation?
Suddenly, and completely without warning, Dash broke free of his grip, springing to life.
“We were just about to come ask you if you wanted to join us for dinner this evening!” she laughed, voice lilting under the strain of the lie. Soarin' crossed his hooves and prayed that Applejack would buy it.
“Dinner? Tonight?” Now it was Applejack’s turn to look flatly between the two, both of whom had the widest, most fake smiles plastered on their faces that any two ponies could ever have had. “Are the rest of us comin’?”
“Nope, just us three, a little private get-together!” Rainbow chuckled nervously, moving to sling a foreleg over Soarin’s shaking withers. “Three friends, a nice restaurant, maybe a gig, Mister Riches here’ll be springing every bit! How about it?”
That last bit made Soarin' ever so slightly worried, but he pushed his fears aside, hoping his throat would soon unclench and he’d be able to breathe easy again. If he used his bitcard here, Spitfire would no doubt be able to track him down eventually, but...at the same time, the idea of getting dinner was palatable, to say the least. Dash was pretty cool. Somehow she’d been able to turn failure into success, snatch victory from the jaws of defeat; now they only needed AJ to buy it, to say the least.
In fact, Soarin' reminded himself, he was saying nothing of the least. The worst case scenario here would totally kill his chances with the orange mare and he did not want that under any circumstances. AJ was still humming, thinking, and Dash was murmuring next to him. Probably death threats. Afterwards he would owe her a heck of an apology.
Eventually, though, AJ gave in.
“All right, that sounds dandy,” she laughed smoothly, pulling the mask down over her face. “When should I expect y’all to come get me?”
“Seven o’clock,” Soarin' and Dash chorused in unison. Then they looked at each other, surprised. Great minds, the male pegasus supposed, then reminded himself that at this rate he was certainly going to be a dead mind very soon. The thought was sobering.
“Sounds good to me,” AJ laughed, chiming in and breaking his thoughts as she turned back into the barn. “I’ll see y’all then.”
“Lookin’ forward to it!” Soarin' supplied, Dash brightening ever so slightly.
“Oh, and by the way,” the earth pony added in low tones, “next time, I recommend y’all pick a better spot to hide in when you want to watch an honest pony do an honest day’s work. Y’hear me?”
With that, she pulled the doors closed, slamming them, and Soarin' relaxed, gawping stupidly. Dash hit the underside of his jaw, closing his mouth forcefully, and he rubbed the spot where she’d hit him, glaring at her as he worked his tongue around in his mouth. He’d bitten it, somehow. It’d certainly hurt in the morning. She was smirking, very smug, and somehow, the look fitted her. It felt like a role reversal.
“Told ya she was a sharp one,” Dash laughed, “and next time, don’t ever do that again or I swear things won’t go so smoothly for you. Got it?”
“Yes, ma’am,” he stuttered, following after her as she walked away. They had a lot of preparations to make and not altogether much time to make them in. “You’re making me feel like I’m the cadet here!”
“When it comes to Applejack, you are!”
Soarin' looked forward to the day ahead of him.
“Fluttershy, dearest, could you be a dear and get the door? I believe that’s little Applebloom for Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, and you know how children hate to waste time!”
“Of course, Rarity,” Fluttershy said, smiling her kindliest smile as she darted over to the door, wings beating hard to carry her in the stale air of the Carousel Boutique. The white unicorn, picky and fussy as she was, refused to pull apart the curtains and open the windows to let the sun and the cool, fresh spring air in. Apparently the bleaching process on the dresses she had piled up in the corner would be ruined if she allowed any excess of natural light to harm her precious garments, and it was simply too dratted cold for her to deal with any natural air. Instead they’d resorted to turning on the heaters and the lights, and though Fluttershy could deal with that, she wasn’t sure she liked it.
She’d been spending all her time with Rarity ever since the Gala, to make sure that her favourite pony in the whole world didn’t suffer in silence or alone. Sure, she had her sister and her parents, but they weren’t enough, not by a long shot, and she’d vowed to do her best to be there as much as possible. Rarity still looked shattered, coat messy and matted, hair dishevelled, eyes watery all the time...it was enough to bring Fluttershy to tears, but she refused to abandon her friend.
In truth, she hoped she could be the one to reassure her in these dark times. Then, maybe, she’d be able to tell her how much she loved her, how she needed her, and wanted her to be happy. Maybe it wasn’t the right time, and maybe Rarity would never love her the way she loved Rarity, but she had to try. Holding her feelings back any more would soon start to be physically unhealthy, as well as mentally, and she didn’t want that, not when the thought of it would only add to the classy mare’s ever-increasing pile of troubles and tribulations.
Shaking those inappropriate thoughts out of her head, Fluttershy seized the handle of the door, twisted it, and hefted the thing open, reeling back to catch the spray of wind in her face. It was reinvigorating. They said all pegasi had a connection to the wind, and it certainly felt like it at times: going without it was enough to drive her batty.
“Hi, Fluttershy!” Applebloom cheered in her curious accent. It warmed Fluttershy’s heart to hear, and she could barely restrain herself from sweeping the little filly up into a great big hug, the way she would her animal friends. She wasn’t sure she could even lift Applebloom, in truth, but the urge was still powerful. Sometimes she felt like a bit too much of a matron. “Is Rarity home?”
“Of course, little Applebloom, let me just go get her.” With that, Fluttershy closed the door behind the two ponies and rushed back off to where Rarity was still working feverishly on a gown and a suit. Beautiful garments, to be sure, but everything about Rarity and her work was beautiful; Fluttershy had learned to keep her eyes shut, at best to squint, or she’d be blinded by how gorgeous and perfect everything the fashionista touched became.
“What is it, Fluttershy?” The white unicorn’s eyes roved over the seams of the gown she held up in the air in her magical grip, applying sequins here and there with no discernible pattern, at least to Fluttershy’s eyes. It wasn’t haute couture, but then, she’d come to quite dislike haute couture after finally wearing the dress Rarity had made for her, all those months ago.
“Applebloom has a message for you,” she replied, moving aside to invite the little earth pony in. She had a great big grin on her face, and behind her, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle stood on the threshold of the doorway, peering into the room in obvious interest.
“Hey, Rarity!” she laughed, and Rarity looked over at her, smiling. Her smile itself was frayed and lopsided, as though she were incredibly fatigued, but they’d come to expect that from her after the Gala. “Rainbow Dash wanted me to ask you a favour, for her and Applejack!”
“Oh?” was all Rarity said, still eyeing Applebloom with concern. Fluttershy wanted to interrupt, ask if Rarity was really ready to be doing anything heavy-duty, but she knew better than to speak for the beautiful pony. It was her own business and nothing anyone else said could ever change her mind about that. She was too strong to be tied down.
“They want to know if, uh,” and then Applebloom paused, trying to recall what she’d been told to ask, before continuing. “You’d mind passing them some of your evening wear, and somethin’ for the new guy. The flyin’ one Rainbow likes.”
“‘New guy’?” Rarity looked perplexed.
“Yeah, the Wonderbolt!”
“You mean that nice pony Soarin'?” Fluttershy cut in, meeting eyes with Rarity, whose own eyes glimmered with sparks of life. The idea of making dinner clothes for colts had always been simmering away in the back of her mind, and this was her opportunity. And for a Wonderbolt to be caught in Carousel Boutique wares! It would bring massive popularity and fame to her store, recognition on a scale she’d never known before. It was perfect. Fluttershy was glad for her, though she didn’t like the idea of Rarity working herself to the bone so soon after such a disappointment.
The look in the white unicorn’s eyes, though, was enough to tell her that she didn’t have a choice.
“Yes! Yes, this is exactly the opportunity I have awaited!” Rarity cried, already dashing about the room in search of pencils, papers, materials. Fluttershy soared through the air over to her, catching her in her forelegs and directing her over to her table. Rarity was too busy blabbering to realise she was being dragged over to sit, and Fluttershy carefully massaged the white pony’s withers as Applebloom stood on tiptoes behind them, patiently waiting.
With zeal, Rarity swept aside all the clutter on her desk, summoning her gear with her magic.
“Oh, Applebloom! Tell them they will have their clothes, though they shall need to be here at six tonight to retrieve them.” Rarity was already zealously working away at the paper, drawing out her ideas and fitting them together. It seemed as though the embers of creativity had been ignited into something of an inferno inside her; that made Fluttershy happy, despite her worries. Seeing Rarity alive and kicking again was all she’d wanted. “It would be my pleasure!”
“Great!” came the response, as Applebloom bounded out of the room, followed by the rest of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. “I’ll tell them all to be here then! Thanks, Rarity!”
“See you later, Rarity, Fluttershy!” the three fillies cried in unison as they ran out the door of the boutique, screaming “Cutie Mark Crusaders Messenger Service!”
Fluttershy waved after them, sighing in delight. It seemed as though things were beginning to pick up. They were rousing themselves, and this was what they needed - a stroke of good luck in the aftermath of so much bad.
“How wonderful,” she cooed dreamily, shutting the door behind her. Then she fell backwards, leaning against it, about ready to doze off. It had been a long day, and she needed some rest. The only thing that would make her get up again would be-
“Fluttershy, darling, I need you here, now!” Rarity sang in a sharp soprano, and with that, Fluttershy sprang into action, ready to get back to work.