Twilight Gets a Puppy
By TDR
Fall Weather Floofs,
part 2
[ The next day at the finish line.]
“So where was Spike again?” Pinkie Pie asked. “I wanted to ask if he wanted to help announce the race with me. Two commentators would be super awesome!”
“Woof.”Rahs shrugged from under his curtain.
“Headache ? That's too bad.” Pinkie Pie shrugged recalling the impacts from yesterday with a wince. “ Oh well, maybe next year.”
Any further conversation was interrupted by the sound of fighting a dust cloud of tangled limbs and angry shouts rolled across the finish line.
“And here's Applejack and Rainbow Dash.” Pinkie Pie announced.
As the smoke cleared a dusty and beaten pair of ponies faced off against each other.
“I won.” Dash snorted.
“No, I won.” Applejack snapped.
“Girls, girls, you both tied!” Pinkie Pie chimed up.
“What? We tied for first?” Applejack panted.
“Nope, for last.” Pinkie Pie grinned.
“Then.. who won?” Dash stammered.
“That would be me.” Twilight Smirked as she trotted up with a medal around her neck.
“WHAT!? Dash practically screamed..
“You said you never run in a race before!”Applejack protested. “ And every time we saw you you were in the back.”
“True, I haven't run in an actual race before. I did however spend a number of years running around with a hyper active puppy of a brother and after that I spent a few more years training with my oldest brother to help him get ready to be in the Guard. I also coached Lyra in track. She came in second by the way.”Twilight smirked pointing to a hopping lime green pony off to the side. “The books on racing I read years ago and one of the prominent bits of wisdom they all shared was to conserve your energy until the final stretch when every one else is tired.”
“Bwaaah?” Dash enunciated.
I still keep in shape, while I don't go on runs as often as I used to, I’m no slouch. Seriously do you think I keep this this flank as firm as it is by just reading?” Twilight grinned, taunting the pair by wiggling her rear at them.
“Eenope.” Big Mac stated from the other side of Twilight where he had walked up to check on his sister just at the right time to see the display.
The purple mare ceased her taunting turned her head to stare wide eyed at the large smirking stallion before her, eeped loudly and vanished in a flash of teleportation leaving behind nothing but a racer tag with the number 42 on it drifting to the ground.
“By Celestia's sparkly tail, will you two just get a room and get it over with.” Rainbow growled up at a confused looking Big Mac before Applejack swatted her with her hat.
“Seems I missed something interesting.” a regal voice commented. “ Particularly since my tail seems to be involved in it.”
A number of Ponies in the crowd gasped and bowed as Princess Celestia trotted up to the pair of disheveled ponies who had quickly ducked their heads. Pinkie Pie and Big Mac bowed and stepped out of the way of the pair Celestia was addressing, Rahs might have bowed a little but it was hard to tell under the massive curtain.
“There thou are!” another voice bellowed and a dark alicorn darted up next to her sister sweeping the bundled Moon Dog off the ground with her fore hooves.
“Umm Princess what are you doing here?”Applejack questioned as she glanced over at Rahs. The poor pup was flailing wildly as Luna ignored his actions completely slinging him around in a hug like a four year old with a large teddy bear.
“Luna wished to meet with Twilight and her brothers, though mostly Rahs. Spike pointed us here from the library, but it seems we just missed Twilight. “Celestia commented. “I also wanted to show Luna what The Running of the Leaves had become nowadays, rather than what it was before she was banished.”
“Huh?” Rainbow Dash put eloquently.
Celestia looked at Dash curiously tapping a hoof against her chin as she considered telling the story of how the event was started by a cruel lord who hated fall and just wanted it to end sooner than it should, forcing ponies to run themselves to death to shake free the last of the leaves each year, but the atmosphere was too festive for that sort of story.
“Do not worry about it my little ponies.” Celestia answered instead. “Though I do have to question why the pair of you were fighting like that. I was under the impression you two were quite close.”
Celestia raised an eyebrow as the pair of them tried to look any where but at Celestia.
“We got a little out of hoof with our competition Princess.” Applejack admitted as Rahs continued to flail behind them. The gathered ponies were not sure whether or not the conversation with Celestia was more or less interesting than the towns second largest canine being treated like a rag doll by a Pony Princess smaller than he was.
“I see. Well I don't need to remind you why your continued friendship is important. So if there are any issues I would like you to let me know so we can work through them. That goes for all of you, Pinkie Pie would you mind letting the others who are not here know that.”
“Okie Doki Princess!” Pinkie Pie chimed.
“Now then if you two are still in some sort of competitive mood there are still a number of leaves on the trees that could be shaken loose by two ponies who fought each other the whole race rather than actually run it.” Celestia suggested.
Applejack and Rainbow Dash winced though the pair glanced at each other before both smirked and the pair took off running back down the road.
“Well that seemed to be settled agreeably.” Celestia smiled.
“BWAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHA!!!” Pinkie Pie cackled looking past, the Princess as the others ran off.
Looking back Celestia had to hold back a snort of laughter herself as Luna had removed Rahs' curtain to continue to hug him.
The Moon Dog was indeed fluffier than usual, but only around his paws, ears, shoulders, head, and tail. The onset of his winter coat had poofed up those parts of him to look like pom poms and give him a fur do very much like Prench Poodle.
A number of other Ponies in the crowed were stifling their giggles or backing quickly away, depending on whether or not they were close enough to Rahs to hear his growling, or sensible enough to see the Moon Dog had death in his eyes.
Luna didn't seem to notice at all and still had him in a bear hug while rambling about something in old Equsish at a speed that made Celestia wonder if she had managed to get a hold of another quadruple espresso.
“Ahh I see Rahs' winter coat is coming in again.”Celestia smirked getting a glare from the Moon Dog.
“Also Lulu calm down, I don't think he can understand you and even if he can I am certain he needs to breath.”
Luna blinked, confused for a second before she seemed to catch on and let go of him. Rahs clearly had good self preservation instincts as he lept away as soon as he could, only to be scooped up again in Luna's magic and lifted flailing in the air. His attempts to bite his way out wound up as effective on the Princess's magic as it had on Shining Armor's shields after months of practice. Celestia frowned taking note of the immunity to Rahs' abilities her sister seemed to have.
“Luna.” Celestia sighed glancing around at the ponies who had taken the time to hide, but still hung around to see what was going to happen.
“He is released! How ever we cannot speak with him if he has scampered off?” Luna turned to look at the flailing Moon Dog. “Perhaps we should acquire a brush to fix his coat however.......”
“Luna I believe you are embarrassing him unnecessarily.” Celestia sighed trying to hide her smirk.
“Pish posh. We are his grandmother, we are supposed to embarrass and spoil our grand foals.... pups in this case.” Luna scoffed.
“WHAT!!!!!??” cried out every one present at the finish line, including Celestia.
“We have been officially made his guardian by his parents, and we have chosen the title of grandmother for said guardianship.” Luna stated flatly.
“Luna did you threaten Nightlight and Twilight Velvet for this....” Celestia sighed.
“Who?” Luna asked.
“His parents, well Twilight's parents....” Celestia offered.
“Ahh we had not considered asking them, we swore to his birth parents, as they cannot be here, that we would watch over him.” Luna responded.
Again the clearing echoed with a bellowed 'What', though not from Rahs as his jaw was hanging open too far.
“What? He is one of ours. How could we not offer such?” Luna commented glancing over to a Guard who had run off then returned with a brush for the Princess. “Ah thank you Guard.”
“You're Rahs' Granny!?” Pinkie Pie gasped.
“Something of the sort. “ Luna responded, pulling Rahs out of the air to start brushing him. “ We consider our selves something of a matriarchal figure to Moon Dogs any way given we are responsible for their existence. With Rahs' presence here however we decided something more personal was needed.”
“You do realize that with your status and with what Bleu said about Spike that this is.......” Celestia slowly blinked. An expression appeared on her face that made more than one grown pony in the crowd wet themselves and a number of others run off screaming thinning the crowd even more. Only the bravest or most fool hardy remained now, which was pretty much just Pinkie Pie and Lyra.
The smirk that had claimed the face of the Solar Princess was inaccurately described as diabolical, it was much worse than that and several witnesses swore she grew demon horns briefly. One was insistent that she grew a wirely mustache and twirled it with a hoof, but few listened to Pinkie. “Oh I am going to have so much fun with this.”
Luna who was used to her sisters oddities ignored it. Rahs who was also used to some of Celestia's oddities was worried, but far too, distracted. Pinkie Pie just giggled as if she knew what was going on.
“Woof?” Rahs questioned as he was brushed. He somewhat liked this, but he would never admit it.
“What does it mean?” Luna pondered. “ Honestly not very much at the moment, there are far too many legalities to go through and Tia took away the battleax we were going to use to cut this era's red tape.”
“Lulu you were going to cut the Ponies who set up the red tape.....” Celestia sighed.
“The result would have been the same, and we were only going to threaten them a little with Dr. Choppy.”
“Lulu....”
“Brushie brushie.......Tis fine, thou took Dr. Choppy away any way. Now then onto the meat of it.” Luna continued still trying to work out the odd floofs in Rahs' coat. “We have met thine birth parents and figured out the gist of how thou came here. We wish to speak with thou and thine siblings when able about this.”
“So wait does this mean that Rahs is a Prince?” Pinkie Pie chimed up putting 3 and 4 together and ending up with 34.
“Maybe.” Celestia sighed. His family was already of minor nobility so it might not mean anything much as my status means nothing in the long run for Twilight. “Plus, if my sister met Rahs' parents where I think she met them the legalities will be a nightmare. We will need to see what they say before a court.”
“Pfft what they said was simple, thine mother wishes for grand puppies.” Luna stated. “Thus we shall endeavor to seek out those that we find a good match for you.”
Rahs flattened his ears then buried his head in his front paws with a whine.
“Rest assured we shall find only the best of possible mates!” Luna cheered.
“Lulu I don't think that.......” Celestia sighed torn between trying to help the Moon Dog and wanting to see what would happen.
“We shall need to think of something impressive however. Thou art one of a kind and only the best shall do, perhaps only another as rare such as a goddess.” Luna pondered. “Hmm Cadence is claimed, Ahh perhaps my sister is to your liking, we have heard males today like those with wide posteriors!”
“LUNA.” Celestia snarled as Rahs curled up in a ball of embarrassment while Luna brushed out his coat.
“Yes?” Luna asked innocently.
“Aside from the fact that I do not have a big flank. I have no interest in a canine I practically helped raise!”
“Methinks thou protests too much.” Luna smiled.
“I don't date canines.” Celestia hissed.
“We have met all your previous lovers dear sister, and we can safely say ALL thou ever date are dogs.” Luna grinned.
Celestia growled as Pinkie Pie giggled.
Trixie Lulumoon paused as she was pulling her cart along the road. She lifted the brim of her hat looking around curiously. She felt something ominous in the air but she couldn't pinpoint what it might be.
She had not progressed far in her ultimate goal.... okay she had nada to show for it, but she felt she had best speed it up for some reason.
The mare trudged on for the first time feeling that the clock was ticking.