//------------------------------// // Meet and Greet // Story: Shadows of Friendship // by Codex //------------------------------// The following morning Twilight was awoken by the rising sun shining in her face which would not have been so bad if it had not been accompanied by the sound of Spike talking animatedly to some pony downstairs. Twilight groaned as she rolled out of bed, not yet ready to face the ponies of this small town. She wanted time to gather her thoughts and prepare for the craziness of the day ahead. It did not look like she was going to allowed to have that. At least the newcomer was accompanied by the smell of oat muffins. Fresh oat muffins. Twilight was pretty sure she could deal with what sounded like an overexcited filly if they were accompanied by oat muffins. Her stomach certainly agreed with her. She straightened herself out, using her magic to levitate her brush to she could get the knots out of her mane and tail and settle her coat. Taking the extra couple of moments to get herself looking presentable helped calm her down. She did not want to let Princess Celestia down by looking like she had been dragged through a hedge backwards. She was there as her representative after all. Even if she was supposed to be making friends, she could not forget that she was supposed to be overseeing the preparations for the festival for the Princess. Once she felt like she was ready, she headed out, pausing at the top of the stairs to see who the pony that Spike was talking to was. The pony below, practically bouncing around the room was a pale pink earth filly with a puffy, curly mane of a darker shade of pink, possibly magenta. She seemed happy and bouncy and Spike seemed to be getting on with her okay. Twilight felt a little guilty that her attention kept slipping to the basket the earth pony had brought with her. It just smelled so good. “There she is.” Spike waved up at her, “Morning Twilight.” “Hi!” The earth pony grinned up at her, “I’m Pinkie Pie and I brought you a surprise.” “Nice to meet you.” Twilight tried to remember everything her brother had taught her about introducing yourself to new ponies. It had been a long time she had gone outside of her bubble of companions and class mates so she was a little out of practise. Pinkie didn’t seem to mind though. “I’m Twilight Sparkle.” The unicorn introduced herself as she descended, just glad that it was only one pony she had to deal with right now, not several, “But Spike probably already told you that.” “He did but I like to get to know every pony so I like to introduce myself.” Pinkie replied, bouncing over to her basket, “I live in Sugarcube Corner and I saw you come into town last night but it would have been rude to have invaded that late at night, so I thought I’d come over first thing in the morning with breakfast since you hadn’t had the chance to go shopping yet…” Twilight blinked at her, a little lost for words. Not that she could have gotten a word in edgeways anyway. “So here you go.” Pinkie presented her with one of the oat muffins that Twilight had smelled from upstairs. “There’s more in the basket if you want them, I brought milk too.” The bright pink pony looked worried as she turned to Spike, “I didn’t know there was a dragon though…I’d have found a gem to bring if I had.” “It’s okay.” Spike smiled reassuringly back as Twilight tucked into her muffin and let out a sound of appreciation, “I mostly eat what Twilight eats, gems are a snack, not a necessity.” He took a bite of an oat muffin, “Ooh that’s good.” “I can introduce you to Rarity.” Pinkie beamed at him, pleased that her baked goods were going down well. “She knows where to get all the best gems and she’s the one decorating for the celebration tomorrow.” Twilight blinked at her, realising that knowing the bright pink pony could be an asset. She would be much less likely to get lost while looking for everypony she was supposed to be talking too if she had a guide, “Really? Do you know the ponies of Sweet Apple Acres too? I’m here to check on the preparations and...” “I know every pony in Ponyville.” Pinkie nodded, “And I plan the best parties so I’ve been helping out with everything.” That was fantastic news. The filly, whose cutie mark on closer inspection was a trio of balloons, would know everything Twilight needed to know about the ponies she was going to meet. Not only that but she had helped with everything so she already knew what the celebrations was going to be like. “I don’t suppose you’d like to help me?” Twilight asked hopefully, “I don’t know Ponyville very well, but...” “Sure!” Pinkie bounced across the room happily, reminding Twilight of a foal just informed that they could eat the entire cake by themselves. “We could start at Sweet Apple Acres and...” Twilight’s stomach rumbled again and the earth pony filly laughed, “Have some more, I made them for you.” “Thank you.” Twilight let the earth pony filly babble away happily to Spike as she helped herself to a second muffin. They really were good and she was lucky to have run into someone like Pinkie, even if she was a little loud for Twilight’s tastes. As she ate the pink filly gave her a rough outline of what as in the works for the festival tomorrow morning. It sounded pretty much like everything was on track, but Twilight was not just going to take her word for it. She knew she was being a perfectionist but relying on Pinkie Pie’s sense of ‘nearly ready’ felt like cheating. She was supposed to be overseeing the preparations, not relying on someone to do it for her. “I have a list.” Twilight told her companions before she licked her lips clean of crumbs, “Of places to visit and ponies I need to speak to. Sweet Apple Acres is first on the list, it apparently belongs to the Apple family.” “Yeap, you’ll want to speak to Applejack, she’s in charge.” Pinkie nodded rapidly. “She’s got a lot of her family over at the moment to help. They’re making lots and lots of food and it’s all so good. Applejack sometimes comes over and helps me in Sugarcube Corner when I’m making things with her apples and…” Pinkie was off again and Twilight knew she should not tune her out like she was, but as she prepared to leave, she could not help it. The bright pink filly was a lot like a couple of her classmates, if you aimed her in a direction she would quite happily start babbling on that subject and end up several pages away on a completely different topic. For some reason it did not bother Twilight as much here as it had in the classroom, possibly because here it did not matter as much. They were not supposed to be learning anything and she found that with the right question here or there, she could quite easily redirect Pinkie onto the topic of conversation she wanted. Then Pinkie saw Spike strap his deck belt on and she let out a delighted gasp and bounced over, pulling her own deck out of Celestia only knew where and letting the baby dragon see it as she babbled about the local Duellists. Spike handed his over in exchange, distracting Pinkie from the fact Twilight was using her magic to buckle her own deck pouch on to her front left leg. She was still not entirely comfortable wearing it like she used to. The poor cards had once been dragged around everywhere with her, they had even been put under her pillow at night, but after White Lightning’s accident she had barely touched them. Playing him again, for the first time since that day, had reminded her of her love of the game, but it had not entirely fixed the problem. Still she remembered her brother’s words. Duel Monsters was obviously popular here and could be the ice breaker she needed to pass the Princess’s test, so on went the deck holster. “You play too, Twilight?” Pinkie asked, putting her deck away as the unicorn came over to them and passed the list to Spike who carefully holstered his deck and took it, along with the quill she offered him. “Yes and no…” Twilight tried not to wince, “I gave up playing for a while so I’m a little rusty and my deck needs some upgrades.” “Don’t worry, there’s plenty of ponies to practise on in Ponyville. Almost everypony our age duels.” Pinkie thought she was reassuring Twilight, but she actually made the unicorn more nervous. Just because she was good against her classmates in Canterlot, it did not mean that she would be able to win here like she could there. “We’ll see what time there is.” Twilight tried to deflect her guide as she headed for the door, “There’s a lot to do before I have time to duel.” “Oh but we have to pass the town’s main rune grids on our way to Sweet Apple Acres,” Pinkie’s mane and tail seemed to lose a little of its bounciness, startling Twilight a little, “Are you sure you don’t have time for one little duel?” “I have a job to do.” Twilight was firm, “Princess Celestia sent me to oversee the preparations and...” “Oooh...” Pinkie perked up again, excitement obvious, “You know the Princess?” She asked, bounding around Twilight in a circle, “What’s she like? Does she hold good parties?” Twilight could not help the amused smile that emerged at the last question even she tried to prevent herself becoming dizzy at Pinkie’s antics. She answered Pinkie’s questions as best as she could as they trotted along, passing the DuelRune grids in question as they went. Thankfully, at least for Twilight, they were already in use. Several ponies of various ages were duelling against each other, using varied decks of cards with different themes and strategies. There were not many duplicates on the duelling fields in front of her and Twilight found herself pausing to watch as a young orange pegasus filly with a short windswept, magenta mane and messy tail and no cutie mark, activated a trap card that saved her from the fangs of the Silver Fang owned by the silver unicorn filly, whose cutie mark was a silver spoon, who was her opponent. “Twilight.” Spike chuckled, poking his friend in the side, causing her to side step in her surprise, “Work, remember?” “Right, right.” Twilight nodded, mentally berating herself for getting distracted as she caught up to Pinkie who seemed far too amused. “You sure you don’t want to stop and duel?” The earth pony asked with a bright and amused grin. “Later.” She told herself as much as she told Pinkie, trying to ignore the little voice in the back of her head grumbling under his breath about how ‘later never came.’ “Is it much further to the farm?” “Nope.” Pinkie bounded down the road, “It’s just this way. See?” She asked, gesturing with a hoof. Twilight looked in the direction she was pointing and paused as she took in the amount of apple trees that she could see and the logo on the sign over the entrance. When she had first gotten the list, she had just assumed that Sweet Apple Acres would be some small, locally selling farm that was maybe a couple of acres at most. It had not occurred to her that the Sweet Apple Acres she was visiting would be the same orchard as the famous farm that produced zap apple jam every year and whose cider was not only to die for, but was only released once a year and sold for ridiculous prices. She had only ever tasted it because her mother had bought some to celebrate Shining Armour’s promotion to Captain of the Palace Guard. Suddenly the confidence that Pinkie had in the farm’s produce made a lot more sense. As she entered the orchards she tried to see if she could see any of the really rare zap apple trees that, supposedly, only grew on the Apple family farm but all she could see were common varieties, all of which were heavily laden with ripening fruit. The trees with apples that were already suitable for consumption had quite clearly already been picked clean. Twilight knew what they had been used for too. She could smell the delicious scents of apple based products before she saw the production line of ponies making tarts and pies and fritters and Celestia only knew what else. Pinkie seemed to know a lot of the ponies there as she bounced over to the tables to see how things were going. Twilight would have followed her except an orange filly with a plaited mane and tail in a pale yellow, green eyes, a cowpony hat and three rosy red apples for a cutie mark, had planted herself in her path. “Hi, I dun think I’ve see yer in these parts before, if you’re here to buy I’m afraid I don’ have much in stock right now…” “No, no,” Twilight smiled at her politely, if a little nervously as she offered her hoof, “My name’s Twilight Sparkle, I’ve been sent to oversee the Summer Sun Celebration.” “Well howdy-doo, Miss Twilight.” The filly grinned, shaking the offered appendage so fast that Twilight took a moment to realise when she had stopped. “I’m Applejack, it’s a pleasure makin’ your acquaintance.” “Nice to meet you too.” Twilight tried, “I see you’re really busy and I don’t want to impose so I’ll…” “It’s no problem a’ all.” Applejack chuckled, “You want t’ sample some of the stuff for tomorrow?” “Uhh sure? I mean I just ate but…” Twilight did not get to finish her sentence as Applejack rang a triangle and suddenly they were swarmed by the entire herd of earth ponies who had been helping get the food ready. After an introduction to everypony there, all of whose names were related to apples in some way, shape or form, which Twilight supposed was a good way of showing your family ties, the purple unicorn, her dragonic friend and their slightly crazy bright pink guide found themselves sat at a table stacked high with a sample of every type of apple related produce she had smelled on her way up to the farm. “I don’t know if I can eat all of this…” Twilight eyed the pile nervously, kind of hoping that she was not expected to. “I can.” Spike looked upon it, just as eager as Twilight was apprehensive and no pony could tell what Pinkie was thinking and she had already started eating. Twilight tried things here and there, but let her companions do most of the eating. Even with doing it that way, she ended up eating far more than she had intended to and felt rather like an overfull barrel which was going to burst as she confirmed that everything was, indeed, in order and headed back to the main body of Ponyville. Pinkie, she was almost gratified to see, looked as weighed down as Twilight felt, and while the earth filly was too full to bounce along the road as she had been earlier, that did not stop her from chattering away with Spike about how good it had all been. Twilight’s attention was not really on the conversation. Instead she was trying to remember the name of the pegasus pony in charge of maintaining the weather for the duration of the ceremony because they were doing a lousy job of keeping the clouds at bay. When she asked Pinkie, however, the earth filly’s answer was “Oh that’s easy, her name is…never mind, there she is.” It was only through sheer dumb luck that Twilight narrowly managed to avoid the rainbow coloured blur that nearly collided with her when she looked in the direction that Pinkie was pointing. As it was she felt the breeze as a cold burst of air and watched with wide eyes as the rainbow blur crashed into a mud puddle, giggling like mad as they sat upright and looked around with pinkish purple eyes. “That’s Rainbow Dash.” Pinkie Pie informed Twilight as the mud covered pegasus shook herself off, revealing a filly with a pale, almost sky blue coat. The rainbow colours in the blur were quite clearly from the pony’s rather windswept mane and tail. Her style kind of reminded Twilight of the orange pegasus filly she had seen duelling earlier in the day. “You called?” Dash asked, trotting over. “Are you the pony in charge of keeping the sky clear for tomorrow?” Twilight frowned at her, disapproving of anyone shirking their duties. “Because there’s still plenty of clouds and…” “Yeah, yeah.” Rainbow Dash, somehow, swam backwards in the skies with her fore hooves tucked behind her head, confusing Twilight no end as she had never worked out how the pegasi race as a whole could do that. “I’ll have the sky clear but I’ve been busy practising.” “Practising?” Twilight asked, still looking unamused but forgiving her slightly if she had been busy working on something else rather than just loafing off, “For what?” “The Wonderbolts.” Dash’s reply made it sound as if that should have been obvious, “I’m going to show them my moves when they come to Ponyville tomorrow.” “You won’t be able to show them anything if the sky isn’t clear.” Twilight pointed out, coming up with an idea and trying not to smirk, “And they’re the best flyers in Equestria, I bet a pegasus that couldn’t keep the sky clear for an entire day wouldn’t even get a second look.” “I could clear the skies in ten. seconds. flat.” Dash snorted, ill amused by the threat to her dream. ‘Hook, line and sinker.’ Twilight thought with a smug grin, “Prove it.” She did. Twilight was left rather in awe as the pale blue filly cleared the skies of Ponyville of every cloud in them in about nine seconds in some incredible feats of acrobatics and fancy flying. Suddenly Dash’s dream of flying with the Wonderbolts did not seem as farfetched as Twilight had thought it had. “You should see the look on your face!” Dash crowed, giggling just as hard as Pinkie Pie who was used to ponies under estimating Rainbow like Twilight had, “I hope you stick around Twilight Sparkle, you’re a laugh.” With that Dash shot off to keep practising. “She’s amazing.” Spike sounded in awe as he watched her go. Twilight could not bring herself to disagree. Rainbow Dash’s speed could have been explained away as her ‘special talent’ as her rainbow coloured lightning bolt cutie mark showed, but the agility and skill spoke of a pony who had worked themselves every day for a long time to get as good as she had. It was something that Twilight could understand. “Rainbow Dash was practising before she moved to Ponyville and that was ages ago.” Pinkie shared with them in an oddly conspiratorially whisper. Twilight blinked at her, trying to work out the reason for the tone and beginning to wonder if the earth pony was a little out there. Twilight’s confused silence encouraged Pinkie to keep talking, giving the unicorn an insight into Rainbow’s prankster but loyal nature and the fact her deck was, apparently, full of griffins. Not that Twilight wanted to admit to herself that she wanted to know about the strengths and weaknesses of the Duellists in the area. She was still trying to kid herself that she was not interested in playing against anyone and that she did not want to take a break to see how good some of the locals were. Helpfully for her resolve, the DuelRune grids were still busy when they passed again on their way to the town hall where Princess Celestia was going to address the masses just before dawn and there was a queue building up. “Aren’t there any more girds in town?” Spike asked as he watched a few plain card battles go on, on the nearby tables. “Only a couple.” Pinkie did not seem bothered by the queues, suggesting that it was a regular occurrence, “We don’t get many merchants through here with DuelTech, so the town tends to band together and get a lot of stuff at once from the nearest city. We could really use a store around here for it but…” She shrugged. “Guess the right pony hasn’t moved into town yet.” And probably would not for a while, Twilight frowned thoughtfully. It was a shame, with no competitors in the town, whichever pony came out here would make a killing. She supposed that the fees for getting the goods would be quite high though, which was probably what stopped any pony in town that was interested from setting up shop. There was not much Twilight could do about it. She was not interested in running a store. Not only that but as Celestia’s private student she had her duties to her studies and that was what she had to focus on. Still that was not to mean that she did not feel sorry for the citizens of Ponyville. It was a lot easier to get things in Canterlot after all, where there were shops for everything. As they stepped into the town hall, it was clear someone had been busy. It was festooned with colourful banners and streamers with flowers in most corners. Twilight expected to have to prevent Spike from eying up the gemstones that were being used as accents in all the right places so that they caught the light. Twilight was willing to bet they would send cascades of light across the room at the right time of day. The pony responsible for the gorgeous decorations was a white unicorn with a well groomed, curly purple mane and tail and three diamonds as her cutie mark. She was the centre of Spike’s focus instead of the gemstones in the decorations. “She’s gorgeous.” Spike breathed dreamily, causing Twilight to roll her eyes at the young dragon and Pinkie to giggle. “The decorations are pretty incredible.” Twilight told the dragonet, trying to get his mind back on track before they stepped forward, “Excuse me, are you ‘Rarity’?” Twilight asked, double checking the name on her list. “Why yes I am darling, who...” The white unicorn spoke as she turned to look at them and let out a shocked gasp, “Pinkie Pie, you’re tracking mud right across the floor!” It was a bit of an odd response but it made Twilight pause and look at herself, only to wince when she realised that Rainbow Dash had shaken off most of the mud onto her and Pinkie Pie. “Sorry Rarity.” Pinkie looked properly contrite for a few moments before grinning, “I brought a new friend to see you though.” “I can see.” Rarity looked Twilight up and down curiously, “Though she’s just as muddy as you are, what have you two been doing?” “We had a bit of a collision with Rainbow Dash.” Twilight sighed, wishing she had thought to check her flank after Dash’s mud bath, “I’m Twilight Sparkle, it’s nice to meet you.” “You poor dear. Rainbow Dash is good at her job but when it comes to grooming she’s a nightmare.” Rarity sighed, “Come on, you can get cleaned up at my place.” “I don’t want to be a bother...” Twilight tried, not wanting to disturb her when she was working. “It’s no bother at all dear.” Rarity shook her head and herded the trio back out of the door, “I simply can’t leave you like that, the mud will dry and then you’ll be stuck and that’s simply not good enough.” “I suppose...” Now she was aware that she was dirty, Twilight really wanted to wash, “Do you mind if I ask you about how the preparations are going at the same time? You see I’ve been sent from Canterlot to...” “Canterlot?” Rarity practically squealed, “I’ve always wanted to live in Canterlot. The glitz, the glamour, the sophistication...you simply have to tell me all about it! Oooh, I have an idea.” Twilight did not get the chance to object before the excited unicorn changed course and herded them to the spa instead. “I don’t really have time...” Twilight tried before they stepped in the door. “Nonsense darling, you don’t have to have the full treatment, but I’m sure you’re used to a little pampering now and then and we can spend time getting to know each other.” Rarity giggled back at her. “Supposed to be making friends.” Spike whispered in her ear, “Remember?” “You just want to date her.” Twilight grumbled back at him at just as low a tone but did not fight when Rarity dragged her through the door and introduced her to Colgate and Berry, the two spa ponies. She had to admit that she felt a lot more relaxed after their spa session. Having spent most of it trading information with the unicorn, who had been happy to tell her exactly what she had done and what was left to do in exchange for information about the capital city, she was pretty sure that she had a much better grip on the plans than she had when she had heard them from the slightly crazy Pinkie Pie. It helped that the massage had worked the knots out of some of her stress tightened muscles and her coat had not shimmered like it did now since she had been a foal and gotten herself coated in glitter. “That was fun!” Pinkie grinned at her as she bounced along to where it had been suggested that they would find the last pony she needed to talk to, a pegasus pony who Pinkie had told her was called Fluttershy. “Yeah, it was.” Twilight admitted. If she was honest with herself, because she had been trying to get on with the ponies she was surrounded by rather than trying to ignore them like she normally would have done, she had had a lot of fun, more so than she had had in a while. She hated to admit it, but she was beginning to understand why the Princess had given her this test. She loved her books and that was never going to change, but the truth was that she had been getting stale, doing the same thing day in, day out. Life had not been a interesting as it could be for a while and she was pretty sure that it was the change of circumstance and location that had caused it. In Canterlot she was known as ‘Princess Celestia’s Student.’ Ponies were always a little wary around her if they did not know her and those who did were either her classmates who tended to ignore her when they were not making rude comments or her family, who she loved dearly but were always busy. Then there was Spike, who had to deal with her on a twenty-four hour basis and would never have thought that a spa trip was a good way to gather information, and the Princess who possibly would have done but could never have taken the time out of her busy schedule to take a spa day with her even if she had ever worked up the courage to ask. Getting out and meeting new ponies had made her broaden her horizons and that was great and she was actually dreading returning to the humdrum of Canterlot where the only thing she had to look forward to were her studies and any time she managed to steal with her brother or the Princess. That did not mean, however, she was not looking forward to going back the Golden Oaks Library at the end of the day and curling up with a good book, probably one about the Elements of Harmony in preparation for tomorrow. Just in case, of course. She did not think she had done as much walking as she had today for quite a while and between that and the fact it had been very late when she had gotten into Ponyville she was actually thinking about taking a nap between now and the start of the celebrations tomorrow morning. First of all though, she had a pegasus pony to meet. She was not very hard to find. They heard Fluttershy’s birds practising before they saw them and they just followed the sound until they came to a meadow where a pale yellow pegasus filly whose mane and tail were both straight and pale pink, was hovering in the air before a tree laden with birds and conducting the harmony. Twilight hesitated to interrupt her practising. The birds were in fine voice and there was only one bird who was consistently out of tune, a woodpecker who seemed determined to throw off the rhythm, though the purple unicorn filly could not tell if it was deliberate or not, having never dealt with birds before. She went to step into the meadow, only for Pinkie to get in her way. “Wait!” “What?” Twilight was confused. “You have to approach Fluttershy slowly. She spooks.” Pinkie informed her slowly but patiently, partly amusing Twilight since this was the first time all day the pink earth pony had done anything slowly and partly giving Twilight of some idea of why it annoyed her brother when she did the same thing. “Fluttershy...got it.” Twilight realised, stepping out quietly and introducing herself in a pause in the music by coughing politely rather than going up to the pegasus and saying ‘hi’ as she had been planning to do. The filly still jumped, but she landed gracefully at least which in Twilight’s mind was a bonus. She turned around to look at Twilight with huge, wide eyes and a nervous shuffle of her hooves, half hiding behind her mane. “Hello, I’m Twilight Sparkle.” Celestia’s student introduced herself, “I’m overseeing the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration. Pinkie,” She gestured behind her to the normally bouncy earth pony who was approaching with care, not wanting to spook the yellow filly anymore than she already was, “Told me that you’re Fluttershy and you’re in charge of the music?” Fluttershy glanced at Pinkie, a slight look of relief on her features when she realised she would not have to introduce herself to the stranger in their midst, then nodded shyly. “Well they sound fantastic.” Twilight informed her with a bright smile, “And I can’t wait for tomorrow. I won’t take up any more of your time, but I’ll tick you off of my list as ready, is that okay?” When Fluttershy nodded, Spike put a big tick next to her name. Then Fluttershy actually spotted Spike and all the nervousness vanished as she squealed, “A baby dragon!” and shot forward, swooping over Twilight and landing, in a somersault that Rainbow Dash would have been proud of, next to Spike. “Aren’t you adorable!?” “Why thank you.” Spike preened, making his friend groan as Fluttershy’s they trudged back to the town, Fluttershy in tow. Not that she thought it was a bad thing that the pale yellow pegasus was interested in the purple dragon riding her back, but Spike gradually got more animated the longer he and the filly, whose cutie mark was three pink butterflies, talked, making for an uncomfortable and vaguely painful load.