Cheerilee was a little late getting to the Ponyville schoolhouse, and by now, her students were inside waiting for her.
“Where’ve you been?!” called Day Star, flying down from the bell tower.
Before Cheerilee could answer, they heard screaming. Cheerilee looked up, and was shocked to see Applejack and Pinkie Pie falling out of the sky.
“Catch them, Day Star!” she exclaimed.
Day Star shot upwards and grabbed each of the falling earth ponies by their tails, one in each hoof.
“Thanks, Day Star,” sighed Applejack. “You okay, Pinkie?”
Pinkie hadn’t been screaming during their decent. Her face was blank. It seemed she’d been scared stiff, but once Day Star had lowered her and Applejack to the ground in front of Cheerilee, they all saw that her expression was that of utter confusion.
“How did that happen?” she said.
“I was just about to ask that,” said Cheerilee.
“Twilight just put the spell on us,” Pinkie went on. “Why didn’t it work?”
“Did Twilight give you two wings and they burned off?” asked Day Star.
“No, no,” said Applejack. “See, me and Pinkie have a mission in Cloudsdale, and…”
“Cloudsdale?! Oh, no! My son’s already causing trouble, isn’t he?” groaned Day Star.
“Oh, I forgot that today’s the day Polar Star starts Flight Camp,” said Cheerilee. “Did you say causing trouble? I’ve never had any trouble from him. He’s a good student.”
“That’s because you don’t have a flight class,” frowned Day Star. “He’s such a nitpicker when he watches pegasi his age flying around.”
“We’d go visit him,” said Applejack, “but first we gotta find out why the cloud-walking spell didn’t work.”
And off she and Pinkie went.
“You’re done already?!” exclaimed Twilight when Applejack and Pinkie Pie came bursting into the castle for the second time that morning. “That’s got to be a record!”
“No, no, we ain’t even started yet,” said Applejack. “The pair of us fell right through the clouds.”
“What? That’s impossible!” cried Twilight. “It worked perfectly the last time.”
Starlight waddled sleepily down the stairs. “What’s the fuss?”
“Me and Applejack just went skydiving,” said Pinkie Pie. “Without parachutes.”
“I can understand you trying that, but not you, AJ,” smirked Starlight.
“The Cutie Map called these two to Cloudsdale,” Twilight explained. “So I cast a cloud-walking spell on them. But it didn’t seem to work.”
“Want me to try?” Starlight grinned.
“No, no,” said Twilight quickly. “I’ll just try again. Maybe my aim was off or something.”
“Well, third time’s a charm,” shrugged Pinkie.
“Third? You’ve done this before?” asked Starlight.
“Yeah. We went to cheer for Rainbow Dash a while ago, back when I was a unicorn,” explained Twilight, “and I put a cloud-walking spell on these two and myself.”
“Did you take it off afterwards?” asked Starlight.
There was a pause, then Twilight smacked her forehead with enough force to shatter the gates of Tartarus.
Before long, Applejack and Pinkie Pie were on their way to Cloudsdale again.
“At least one good thing came out of us falling outta the sky,” said Pinkie Pie as the hot air balloon carried them upwards. “We’ve got us a lead.”
“You mean what Day Star said about her son starting Flight Camp today?” asked Applejack. “I’ve heard Apple Bloom talk about Polar. She said he’s a nice enough guy.”
“I’ve heard Scootaloo talk about Polar Star,” said Pinkie Pie. “She said he said something kind of a backhooved to her when she was trying to fly once. Something about picking a place to go.”
Applejack remembered that Day Star mentioned Cheerilee not having a flight class.
“If he’s a jerk to young flyers, this probably is what the Map called us for,” she agreed. “Okay. We’ll try the camp first.”
Pinkie Pie noticed Applejack’s face light up when she said the word “camp”.
“You liked that summer camp you went to where you met RaRa, didn’t you?” she asked.
“Heck, yeah I did,” smiled Applejack. “I made quite a few friends there. RaRa was far from the only one. It didn’t get its nickname for no reason, you know. Did you ever go to camp as a filly?”
“Yep,” grinned Pinkie. “Me and all my sisters. We got to make lots of awesome friends as well. And the camp directors’ foals were so cool… although one of them was kinda annoying. She kept saying ‘I got this’ over and over. And she hardly ever did. She was a bit of a bungler. And come to think of it, the other one was kinda hammy. But still, me, Maud, Marble, and Limestone liked them. And heck, where else were we gonna make friends our age? We never went to school as fillies. Ma and Pa taught us everything.”
“Huh. Me and Big Mac didn’t go to school either,” said Applejack. “We were always needed on the apple farm, just like you and your sisters were always needed on the rock farm. But me, Big Mac, and Granny Smith agreed that Apple Bloom oughtta get to go to public school. The farm’s doing just fine with the three of us doin’ most of the work.”
“That’s because apples are lighter than rocks,” remarked Pinkie. “I mean, you never see anypony bobbing for rocks, do you?”
When they got to Cloudsdale (and found they were able to walk on the clouds this time), they spotted Spitfire and decided to ask her for directions to Junior Speedster’s Flight Camp.
“Why am I always being interrogated for you guys’ friendship missions lately?” chuckled Spitfire. “Though I’ll bet I know what the problem is.”
“How do you know Polar Star?” asked Pinkie Pie.
“Uh… I don’t,” shrugged Spitfire.
“But you know somepony who might be having a friendship problem?” asked Applejack.
“Snowdrop.”
Applejack and Pinkie Pie exchanged glances. The fuss of a nationwide icon seemed to have died down lately, and now it seemed all was not well with the famous returnee.
“She’s been living in my house ever since the knighting ceremony, and I don’t think she’s ever left,” Spitfire told Applejack and Pinkie. “Since she didn’t choose to be resurrected, I think she feels she’s being unfairly pressured to start a new life for herself. I’ve been trying to make good on my vow to help her adjust to modern-day Equestria, but she’s making it hard for me.”
“What could she be afraid of?” wonder Pinkie Pie. “She’s got eyesight now. She can do things she never could in her time.”
Applejack frowned.
“I don’t mean because she has to,” said Pinkie quickly. “I mean just because she can.
“That’s pretty much what I’ve told her,” said Spitfire. “But she just keeps telling me she’s not ready to enrol in public school or Flight Camp.”
“Speaking of Flight Camp,” said Applejack, “we’re gonna need directions. We wanna start there. Got a tip from a friend of ours in Ponyville.”
“One of us could talk to Snowdrop while the other visits the camp,” suggested Pinkie Pie.
Applejack shook her head. “I’d rather we stuck together for now.”
“Flight camp’s closer than my house,” said Spitfire, pointing the way. “Maybe it’d be better if you two visited in an hour or so. I’ll be back home by then. Snowdrop’ll probably be more comfortable with me there. We are pretty close now, even though I do sometimes make her nervous.”
Applejack’s and Pinkie Pie’s journey to Flight Camp was interrupted when a pegasus filly burst from a house and stopped right in front of them, causing them to stop jerkily.
“How are you two earth ponies walking on clouds?” she asked.
Pinkie Pie overbalanced trying not to fall forward and squash the interloper.
“How about a little tact, kid?” she grumbled, prompting Applejack to roll her eyes. “Don’t stop jump out and stop in front of ponies when they’re walking. Especially if you don’t know them. You gotta introduce yourself first.”
“Oh. Sorry. I didn’t know,” said the unabashed filly.
“That being said,” said Pinkie, picking herself up and forgetting her annoyance instantly, “I’m Pinkie Pie, this is Applejack, and we’ve got a spell on us so we can walk on clouds.”
“Oh. Okay,” said the filly. “I’m Hyssop.”
And she promptly turned tail and headed back towards her house.
“Hey! Aren’t you even gonna say bye?!” called Pinkie. “Man! Don’t you have any social skills?”
Applejack felt dizzy.
PINKIE PIE is lecturing someone on social skills, she thought.
Hyssop turned back towards them.
“I never knew there were requirements for just talking to ponies,” she said, showing no sign of embarrassment or regret.
Applejack saw that in the doorway, a stallion who could only be Hyssop’s dad was looking embarrassed and regretful.
“I should’ve expected this,” he groaned, stepping outside.
He introduced himself to Applejack and Pinkie Pie as Impatiens, and told them that his daughter Hyssop was a homeschooled foal.
“Oh. I’d never have guessed,” remarked Pinkie.
“Me neither,” said Applejack. “I mean we were both homeschooled, but we… well, I don’t know about her, but I had plenty of social skills when I was Hyssop’s age.”
“So did I. I was just telling you,” said Pinkie. “I went to summer camp, just like you, so I got plenty of experience interacting with ponies my own age.”
Impatiens sighed. “Camp. Oh, how I’d like to send my Hyssop there.”
“But you can’t afford it?” ventured Applejack.
“No, he’s just scared to send his daughter off into the world to discover for herself what a cruel place it is,” scoffed Pinkie Pie. “Come on, AJ. It’s obvious.”
Applejack’s jaw dropped when Impatiens nodded.
“I know I can’t keep my little filly cooped up in that house forever. But you’re right,” he said. “I’m terrified at what the wicked world is going to give her.”
Applejack pulled herself together and said “You know, Snowdrop’s starting Flight Camp soon. It’d be a perfect time to enrol Hyssop.”
Impatiens and Pinkie looked to Applejack.
“I wondered,” said Impatiens, cracking a smile, “if Snowdrop would go to Flight Camp.”
“And I doubt you don’t know her story,” said Applejack. “She overcame teasing from ponies her age and went on to make history.”
“She’d be a good influence on any bullies in Flight Camp,” nodded Impatiens.
“So am I going to Flight Camp, or what?” asked Hyssop.
Impatiens scratched his head for a second, and then said “Yes. I’ll enrol you at once.”
“Pinkie,” Applejack said as the two earth ponies made their way through Cloudsdale, “I can tell when you’re holding something in. Your face is all comically distorted.”
“No, it’s not,” lied Pinkie with a misshapen mouth.
“Come on. Spit it out,” insisted Applejack.
“I don’t want to,” Pinkie groused. “It’s getting old.”
“Oh. That,” frowned Applejack. “Well, the thing is, the Map obviously wants us to convince Snowdrop to go to Flight Camp. It came to me right after Hyssop jumped out at us. Here we have a foal with no… what’s the word Rarity uses?… decorum, another foal who criticizes others, and a national treasure with plenty of life experience who still has a lot to learn.”
“Okay, so just to be clear,” said Pinkie Pie, “that wasn’t really a lie?”
“No,” said Applejack flatly. “It’s just jumpin’ the gun a bit. We’ve got a duty to convince Snowdrop to give this millennium a try.”
“Alright, good,” grinned Pinkie. “Cause like I said, this was getting really old.”
Applejack and Pinkie Pie were surprised and glad to find that Spitfire and Snowdrop were waiting for them outside Spitfire’s house.
“Wow. We never had earth ponies in Cloudsdale in my day,” smiled Snowdrop.
“How…?”
Pinkie Pie gave Applejack a subtle kick to stop her from asking how Snowdrop knew there were never any earth ponies in Cloudsdale if she could never see them.
“A lot’s changed in over a thousand years,” Pinkie said quickly. “But if you don’t experience it for yourself, you’ll end up like a sheltered homeschooled foal.”
“Oh, dear,” Snowdrop gulped. “I’d hate to be a social outcast all over again.”
“So what do ya say, Snowdrop? Will ya sign up for Flight Camp?” asked Spitfire.
“Well… I think you should sign me up,” Snowdrop suggested.
“Oh, come on. I’m not your mom. You’re practically still an adult,” said Spitfire. “You’ve got all your memories from your life as the head of snowflake production. You’re only the size of a foal.”
“But there’s so much I’m going to see for the first time and a great big world I’ve never known, that I might as well be a filly all over again,” insisted Snowdrop. “You may not be my mother, but you look after me like one. I’ll leave it all to you… for now, anyways.”
Spitfire sighed. “Alright. I’ll sign you up.”
Applejack and Pinkie Pie brohoofed.