//------------------------------// // Chapter 29 // Story: Long Distance Friendship // by Drag Orion //------------------------------// Twilight, Fluttershy, and April stood alone on Macintosh Hills. The sky was getting darker by the second as the sun got lower in the sky. “We’re almost out of time,” worried Twilight. “I thought at least Starlight would be back with Rarity by now.” “Maybe they didn’t get a chance to read the letters yet,” considered April. “Or maybe they just decided they weren’t coming or they just couldn’t make it.” “If what Twilight told me how special this place is to you and your friends then they’ll definitely be coming,” Fluttershy said to comfort her. “Let’s just give them a few more minutes.” “And when they do, we’ll all be able to enjoy the sunset together,” Twilight added walking over to April and hearing the ground beneath her hooves crunch with each step she took. Looking down, she saw that all the grass around them was dried out and black. “Was the grass always like this over here?” asked Twilight. “Well, since you’re here to see it too,” April told her with a little smile. “I guess it’d be alright to tell you our little secret. The truth is-” “We’re here!” hollered Applejack as she trudged along. Her legs wobbled like jelly, barely managing to keep her standing. Fire Wheel looked even worse, dragging his body a few meters behind Applejack, but still coming nonetheless. “D-Did we make it?” wheezed Fire Wheel trying to lift himself up, but couldn’t find the strength. “Are you two okay?” cried Twilight as she and the others hurried over. “What happened?” “Got on the wrong train,” answered Applejack sitting down as they approached her. “Had to run all the way here. Then we had to jog, followed by walking, trudging, and finally stammering, but we made it… we did make it, right?” “You did, and I’m glad you made it,” smiled Twilight. “Now, hopefully the others will make it here in time.” “Look out below!” warned Rainbow Dash as she and Gale came down to the ground very quickly, the rainbow still trailing behind them, albeit faded. They were running in midair as quickly as they could as they prepared to land. When their hooves connected to the ground they worked to slow down, running in circles around Twilight and the others to keep from getting too far away. Little by little they slowed till they finally came to a complete stop and the rainbow vanished entirely. After taking some time to catch their breath, Gale retrieved her coat from Rainbow Dash and then headed over to April and Rocky. “Rainbow Dash, you made it,” Twilight said excitedly as she and Fluttershy helped Applejack over to greet her. “You look pretty tuckered out,” panted Applejack to Rainbow Dash. “You kidding,” she wheezed, too tired to even lift her wings and barely had the strength to even stand. “I could’ve flown around the world if I wanted to. It just happened that I only had to fly this far. You look a lot worse than me.” “A brisk jog over here was hardly any trouble for me,” argued Applejack. “I hope the others get here soon,” commented Fluttershy as she looked at how close to sun was to touching the horizon. “There’s barely any sunlight left.” “Oh, come on!” complained Applejack and Rainbow Dash collapsing to the ground. “I had to run faster than a speeding locomotive to get here in time,” complained Applejack. “And I had to fly so fast I think I’m actually younger than when I started,” groaned Rainbow Dash. “Please don’t tell me all this was for nothing.” “It doesn’t look like it was nothing to me,” commented Twilight as she looked over to Gale and the others. “It’s great to see you, Gale,” smiled April tearing up a little. “Nice to see you too,” replied Gale looking winded from her flight over, though not quite as much as Rainbow Dash was. They then looked down at Fire Wheel. “You too.” “I’d get up to say hello,” he groaned. “But I think my legs are on strike now. Is Rocky here yet?” “Not yet,” April answered looking around. “Everypony else better hurry,” worried Twilight as the sun was already dipping over the horizon. “The sun! It’s already setting!” “No! Bad sun!” scolded Rainbow Dash like it was a disobedient pet. “Stop setting!” “I think that if Celestia owes you a favor, Twi, now would be a good time to use it,” suggested Applejack. “It won’t work like that,” Twilight replied as a dark shadow was suddenly cast overtop of them. “If we miss this then we miss it. We can’t just get a do over.” “Uh, everypony,” Fluttershy said noticing the shadow first and looked up. “Isn’t that one of the Storm King’s airships?” “Fluttershy, why would one of the-” Twilight began to say before looking up and saw that was exactly what it was. “Why is one of the Storm King’s airships here?!?” “Oh, great!” groaned Rainbow Dash. “What now?” The anchors of the ship dropped down to the ground and dug deep into the earth, shaking the ground as they chained the airship in place. Then Starlight appeared in a flash of light. “Twilight, I looked for as long as I could, but I wasn’t able to find Rarity anywhere in Canterlot and the sun’s already setting so I-” she tried explaining, but none of them were paying attention as they all stared up at the airship looming above. A rope was then tossed over the side and they could see three figures slide down it and come into view. “Is that Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and… some other pony I don’t know” asked Rainbow Dash. “Looks like it,” answered Applejack as they made it to the ground. “Don’t forget where we parked,” giggled Pinkie happily. “Seems we’re fashionably late to the party,” commented Rarity as she made it down next followed by Rocky who was carrying the cooler down with him. When he spotted his friends he hurried right on over to them. “You stole one of the Storm King’s airships to get here?” cried Twilight looking back and forth between Pinkie and the airship. “What were you thinking?!?” “It wasn’t my idea, even though it was a fun one,” replied Pinkie Pie. “Rarity was the one who suggested it, but now I’m thinking of painting it pink and stealing it too.” “The ghastly thing was casting a terrible shadow over my boutique in Canterlot,” Rarity told everypony like that justified grand theft airship. “And if correcting a crime against fabulousness is wrong then I don’t want to be right.” “Let’s just let it go,” suggested Starlight. “We can worry about it later. At least it looks like we’re all here… at least almost all of us.” “Oh, yes,” realized Rarity. “Where’s my Spikey Wikey?” “He’s already out doing something with Ember,” Twilight reminded them. “I don’t even know what he’s up to now or where to look for him.” “Are you okay with that?” asked Starlight. “As much as I would have loved everypony to be here,” she sighed. “I guess-” Twilight then noticed the last bits of daylight were leaving and turned toward the sun as it vanished. “Oh no! No! No! No! We missed it?!?” “But we were all here!” complained Rainbow Dash. “We made it in time!” “Did we do something wrong?” wondered Applejack. “We made it in time and brought the four of them back together again.” “Where are they anyway?” asked Starlight looking around then saw them a bit away, at the top of the hill next to each other. They had their coats on and were licking some of Rocky’s popsicles that he had in the cooler. “Now I’m really confused,” stated Applejack. “We got them here to see the sunset, but they didn’t even look at it. They aren’t even facing to where the sunset should be.” “Well, let’s go ask them then,” suggested Twilight. “Almost didn’t make it,” Fire Wheel told Rocky. “Took us a while to figure out how to fly an airship,” he replied. “We were lucky we made it here at all.” “Uh, huh,” smirked Fire Wheel. “What’s her name?” “Who’s name?” Rocky asked. “The name of the pony you got a crush on?” he specified. “Is it the pink one or the white one?” “W-What are you talking about?” he blushed. “It isn’t either of them!” “So you admit you do have a crush,” he chuckled. “It just isn’t one of them.” “Shut up,” Rocky told him bopping Fire Wheel on his spike mane and bending some of them. “Feels like we were never apart,” commented Gale happily. “I know, right!” cried April as the tears flowed. “Isn’t it wonderful!” “Don’t start the waterworks now,” warned Gale. “Or you’ll miss it.” “Uh, what are we going to do about all of them?” questioned Fire Wheel. “It doesn’t look like any of them know what’s about to happen.” “Guess we’ll have to run for our lives when all this is over again,” Rocky answered. “Ugh! More running?” Fire Wheel ached not liking the sound of that. “Can any of you tell us what the hay is going on?” Applejack questioned them. “You said you all became friends at sundown,” Twilight told April. “But it doesn’t look like any of you were even interested in seeing it.” “That’s because it was after sunset that we became friends,” April explained. “We just look at the sunset because it reminds us of the second sun.” “The second sun?” the Mane Six asked. “It only appears here on this day,” Gale continued. “Nopony else knows about it except us and this is the best spot to watch it at.” “There’s a second sun?” asked Twilight very curiously. “So you all discovered it when you ran down here? And that was your big secret? Why wouldn’t you want to tell anypony about it?” “Because if they knew the whole truth,” April told them. “Nopony would allow us to come back. They’d say it was too dangerous.” “‘Dangerous?’” repeated Starlight growing worried. “Why is it…” Her words trailed off for a moment as they could all see something faintly in the dark sky coming closer, a lot of something. As they got close, they landed with quite a lot of force, shaking the ground and scaring the ponies to huddle closer together fearfully. “....dangerous?” Lights suddenly started to started to appear all around the hill they were on. This allowed Twilight and everypony else to see just what was approaching them. “Well, well, well, look what we have here,” said a familiar voice that didn’t look very happy to see them. “A bunch of puny ponies. I don’t remember inviting them here. Do any of you?” “No.” “Nope.” “Not at all.” “That voice,” realized Twilight turning to Rarity. “Isn’t that Garble?” “So, the ponies know my name,” the red, teenage dragon said as he got close enough for them to see him. A couple of his dragon companions were using their fire breath to provide some illumination. “Seems we get to have a little fun before the show starts.”