"So where are your friends?"
In the twenty minutes that Applebloom had been in Pinkie's kitchen things had been a blast of ordered chaos. Pinkie Pie rattled off ingredients and directions and Applebloom followed. It didn't take long for their cookies to be mixed and placed in the oven, followed by two dozen muffins and a batch of tarts, but at that point they'd run out of ovens to bake things in and just started storing things in the fridge to keep fresh while they waited for their turn in the oven.
All was going great workwise, but as far as conversation was concerned, nothing could be worse. Pinkie had tried a few times to spark a dialogue, but Applebloom gave non-committal answers, that were both short and disengaging. So after a false start or two, she cleared her throat and asked about the two whoevers that Applebloom liked to spend her time around.
Applebloom though, was only confused by the question, "huh?"
"You know, your two friends that you're always with," She clarified, "You three are never apart."
The look on Applebloom’s face was immediate, she spun her head to stare at Pinkie like a deer in the headlights. And while her eyes and slight frown may have given off the impression of being confused, a frantic mental debate was sparked just under the surface.
"WHAT?!" Applebloom screamed internally, "How can she know about them? NOPONY knows about them, they-HOW CAN SHE KNOW?! It doesn't matter now, just fix it! Nopony can know! If they ever found out anything I'd become outcasted. My entire life ruined! They'd call me crazy and spray paint my windows and I'd be exactly like PINKIE!"
"Just deny it, that always works. What friends?" Applebloom asked, her eyes narrowing as she glared up at Pinkie. "I don't have any friends. I'm always alone, didn't you know that?" She allowed herself a slight smirk at her lie. Pinkie was just another adult, and that meant she could be easily manipu-
"Right," Pinkie rolled her eyes knowingly, all but crushing Applebloom's smug grin in a fiery blaze of destruction. "Then how do you explain the orange one and the girl that looks like a younger Rarity?"
Applebloom had to forcibly stop her eyes from darting in every direction in search of an escape. Apparently Pinkie wasn't just some stupid adult and would probably notice if she acted suspiciously...more than she already had, anyway. "I don't know what you're talking about," Applebloom thought about saying before she changed tactics.
"So anything new in your life?"
This immediately stopped Pinkie in her tracks as a beaming smile overtook her features, Applebloom sighed in relief. "I haven't told you yet? Oh wow, okay! So I've had this pen pal for four years named Twilight Sparkle."
"Good," Applebloom thought, "she's distracted, now to think of an escape."
"And yesterday she came into town to help us fix some of the problems that have been going on around here! I bet she's already out there asking questions and piecing together different bits of information!"
---
A loud snoring sound could be heard from the second floor of the bookstore. Sun shone in through the cloudy windows, illuminating Twilight as she clung to one of her two pillows.
It seemed though that the sandpaper-on-bare-flesh of a sound that was coming out of Twilight’s throat was not meant to be as she stirred slightly, the light of the sun being a natural alarm clock. Slowing she began to open her eyes, only to close them again immediately and turn her head, groaning. She pulled the pillow over her head to get a semblance of darkness back.
She laid there unmoving for five minutes before she finally came to the conclusion that apparently her body wanted to betray her and wake up. She mentally cursed the fact that she hadn't decided to build a dependency on coffee to get up in the morning. "I wonder what time it is," Twilight threw the pillow aside, hearing it clatter to the room below. "I should probably get up."
Twilight opened up her eyes and slowly rose to sit on the bed, lazily looking at the room in front of her. "I wonder where Spike got off to last night, hope it wasn't too far, we need to get back to the warehouse."
She blinked as she saw the dust covered space in the daylight. Not much about it was different, though it did feel somewhat more comforting during the day. Less like a hostel and more like a safe house. With the only entrance being below her, it'd be easy to keep out of sight of anyone entering, and the windows were opaque enough to mean no one outside could see her unless they were looking for her. Really, it was sort of perfect, and with an assortment of books, she'd be well entertained.
But she shook her head before bringing her hoof up to rub her eyes, "No sense in dwelling on this place, I won't be seeing it again." she thought before she pushed herself off the bed and onto the landing. With her magic, Twilight brought the pillow back up onto the bed before she walked down into the room. She paused in thought, wondering if she forgot anything before she rolled her eyes at the assumption that she brought anything and made to leave the building.
On the first floor she blinked at the shelves being back where they belonged. She didn't remember hearing anyone moving furniture, whoever did it was good for something. She looked over at the cash register to see a single pony look up from a magazine and nod. Twilight briefly wondered why whoever this was didn't care that she spent the night in their shop, but didn't question the inaction. There was something to be said about keeping your mouth shut.
Twilight then considered for the shortest of moments that whoever guy was, he had an ulterior motive for not speaking out against her. She narrowed her eyes at him. He was a brown stallion with a goofy looking smile that was either genuine or an incredibly well practiced mask. His eyes spoke of sincerity, and he had a curly blond mane on his head.
His expression, the way he held himself and his body language spoke of somebody quiet but eager to please. He brought his hoof up to wave at Twilight, but she scowled and made to leave the building. She knew it was all an act, he probably intended to sell her organs on the black market for a quick profit. Wouldn't be the first time somebody tried.
"Well looks like I'm good to get out of here." She said to herself as she left the bookstore, making a note of the hours of operation, in case she ever planned on buying or stealing anything from here in the future. When she saw that there were no hours and instead just a sign taped to the inside of the glass door that said Always Open, she glared at the place.
After a second of being upset at the sheer idiocy of an always open business strategy, she turned back to the streets of Partyville and rolled her eyes. "I should probably find Pinkie and say goodbye, but really I like her better as letters anyway."
Without a second thought, Twilight turned and started walking in a direction, confident that, even if she couldn't find Spike, she could at least find someone she could ask about having seen him. Dragons weren't exactly common, she was confident that under different circumstances one wouldn't be caught dead spending time with a pony.
She'd been walking for about five minutes before she stopped and looked around, other than the actual trees a bit down the road and mountains behind them, Partyville basically looked like every part of St. Orangeberg. It was filled with shops, houses, and people walking around doing whatever they want. Twilight hated it more and more the longer she was here.
"Okay, where's Spike? He has the map," she said, concerned that she might have to actually talk to one of the people in the area, "Maybe he's this way? Where even am I?" She looked at everyone within eyesight, contemplating if she should care that they could hear her talking to herself. Opting to use the I'm-insane-I'll-gut-you-while-giggling excuse if she was threatened at any point, Twilight continued on, prepared for danger.
She looked around the buildings in the area, most having opened their doors at some point before she woke up, the people here looked chipper and happy to see each other. It made her question their motives. Not only the people though, it was the buildings, they all looked inviting, like the shop owners trusted whoever walked into their doors.
Walking to the end of the street Twilight came across something she didn't think could exist. A crop field. Obviously she knew food had to be grown, but she'd never been far enough out to see one in person. It was a surreal experience she hoped would end soon. Which was a sentence that could accurately describe her entire trip, actually. "This Partyville district is stupid, I can't believe ghosts apparently even gather here."
"GHOSTS?!" An excited voice abruptly shouted as the face it belonged to invaded her personal space. "What do you know about ghosts? Are you some kind of hunter or something?" The blue blur was less than a foot away from Twilight's face and this shocked her.
After a second Twilight glowered at this new pony. "Who are you?" She asked, not even trying to keep the disdain out of her voice, "But more importantly, why are you in my face?"
The mare smiled and stepped back, looking not at all guilty for the invasion of personal space, "I'm sorry, I couldn't help but overhear you talking to yourself." She unfurled her wings in excitement, "I'm Rainbow Dash!"
Twilight immediately didn't like her, she was loud, obnoxious, and the prismatic hair was kind of giving her a headache. Not only that, but just her inability to keep a distance from Twilight made her want to resort to violence, but she held back from defending herself for now.
"So you said something about ghosts?" Rainbow asked, to which Twilight rolled her eyes. "I love ghost stories and horror books. My favourite author, Dark Alley writes so many, I love all of them."
"Right," Twilight returned, Rainbow leaning in as she spoke, which was upsetting her. "Well as good as that is, It'd be better if you could move. You're in my way and I want to get as far away from here as possible."
Rainbow Dash looked like she was about to say something else before a new voice interrupted. "Wstrzymać!"
Both the unicorn and the pegasus stopped and turned to look in the direction of the shout. Much to Twilight's surprise, Rainbow actually seemed to get irritated at whoever this new person was. It didn't make her any less annoyed herself, but it was noteworthy that the last 45 seconds of excitement were ground to a halt in an instant.
Rainbow Dash turned her body completely to interact with an orange earth pony, and Twilight almost left, but it'd been awhile since she heard anything but English, so she watched this possible train wreck unfurl. "I told you I'm sorry! Jeeze!"
The mare, Twilight guessed based on the feminine voice, shouted angrily at Rainbow. "Nie jest ci przykro, gdybyś nie wpadł w mój cholerny sposób!" It sounded almost accusatory, but Twilight was busy focusing more on the language than anything, she couldn't place it.
"Why do you even respond!" Rainbow Dash shouted back, taking a defensive stance. "You know I can't understand!"
Twilight didn't care what the argument was about, or that it was one sided, or about any of the situation, really, but she did find herself wondering who this earth pony was. If for no other reason than because she was speaking a different language when no one else had so far. "Excuse me for sounding like I actually care," Twilight interrupted, "But who is this?"
The argument stopped immediately, which Twilight considered interesting, since this new mare had been acting as if she understood what was said. Rainbow Dash was the one to respond, having calmed down the instant Twilight spoke. "Oh, this is...I don't actually know her name. She ju-"
"Nazywam się Applejack," The orange mare interrupted, smiling warmly.
In response, Rainbow Dash spoke louder to drown Applejack out. "SHE JUST SHOWED up one day. But she does all our farming, so we don't really mind...even if we can't understand her."
"Why do they put up with her if no one can understand her?" Twilight thought. The ponies of Partyville just kept getting worse the more she thought about it. They're either too trusting, or up to something, or both. They made Pinkie feel like she wasn't wanted which...Twilight was still figuring out her feelings for. They're small thinkers, loud, quick to invade personal space, and for a reason she couldn't figure out, ghosts gathered here. Which infuriated her.
Finally, there was this Rainbow person who was emotionally unstable, and this farmer who...just showed up one day? That didn't make any sense. "Can you repeat that?"
Rainbow blinked in confusion, "Which part?"
Twilight stopped herself from rolling her eyes. "Nevermind, so she just showed up one day and nobody thought to question that?"
"Well we tried," Rainbow's eye twitched as her smile widened, "but we can't understand her."
About to say something say something in response, Twilight heard what she knew to be the thoughts of Applejack. "You'd probably understand me if you tried! It's not my fault English is impossible."
"Interesting..." Twilight thought, thankful that thoughts weren't actually bound to language and were instead abstract ideas at the best of times. Losing her scowl, Twilight looked back over to Rainbow, considering the situation. "And she only does farming? Nothing else?"
Rainbow closed her mouth as she thought about the question. She closed her eyes for a couple seconds before she gave a noncommittal shrug, "Well, I mean, I don't know. That's all I've ever seen her do."
Looking around the area for a moment, Twilight took in the fields of...she guessed corn. They spread out far into the distance. "Have you ever seen her anywhere except these fields?" Twilight asked curiously, bringing her attention back to the pegasus.
"...not really, why?"
"So she's Bound," Twilight thought, looking over Applejack for a second. "The language barrier is notable, given she understands what we say. I need to do some reading before I can leave." The life drained from Twilight's face as she lowered her head in defeat. "UUUUUUGGGGGHHHH...Why does this always happen whenever I want to leave a place?"
Rainbow looked at Applejack before she brought her attention back to Twilight, "Um, hello?"
Twilight raised her head and for a brief moment her eyes widened before she pulled up an embarrassed expression. "Shit, I can't let on that I know anything." She pulled a hoof to the back of her neck and rubbed up and down slightly, attempting to look bashful "Sorry, but I'm in kind of a hurry, can we talk later?"
Rainbow tilted her head to the side in ever mounting confusion, "Uh...well, sure?"