It was a typically beautiful sunny Saturday morning in Ponyville. The weather pegasi had worked hard and cleared the azure blue sky. Ponies went about their business; families had picnics in the parks, merchants opened their stalls in the marketplace. Everything was right in the sleepy town. However, the sunny day didn’t do anything to brighten the mood of the six ponies assembled in the Castle of Friendship. Twilight Sparkle looked worried as the Cutie Map flashed up the Badlands. “Oh no!” she fretted on her throne, “It looks like we’ve got a long trek ahead of us…”
“Um…all of us?” whispered Fluttershy, eyeing the map nervously. While she was no stranger to friendship missions; she preferred being sent to Las Pegasus or the Kirin island, not somewhere like the Badlands, of all places.
“All of us!” said Rainbow Dash determinedly. In stark contrast to her friend, who was trying hard not to hide behind her pink mane, the sky blue pegasus was hovering in the air she was so excited already. “Look, all of our cutie marks are showing there. And we need to look out for each other if we’ve got to go into the Badlands.” She could hardly wait to get started.
Fluttershy just shivered at the name and wished that her friends would please stop saying ‘Badlands’. Rarity reached over and placed a comforting hand on her friend’s shoulder. “But what about the pampering party we promised our pets this weekend at Fluttershy’s cottage?” asked the unicorn with a delicate toss of her mane, “My darling Opal will get all in a huff if I let her down, and she will be insufferable for the whole week, I just know it!”
“And my poor little Gummy will cry crocodile tears,” squealed Pinkie Pie, “He’s been telling me all week how much he’s looking forward to it!”
“And besides,” Rarity added with a well-rehearsed and overly dramatic huff, “I hate epic adventures! They’re murder on my coat and they play havoc with my mane!”
“I guess I’ll have to stay behind and pet-sit,” Spike offered helpfully – and hopefully – he had no desire whatsoever to leave the lush crystal castle and his four-hour bubble baths to go adventuring in the Badlands. The Dragonlands were bad enough and that was where he was from!
“No, we’ll need you with us Spike,” Twilight said, damning the little dragon’s only hope of escape to a comfortable pillow for the rest of the day, as well as Rarity’s hope for an adventure free near future. “I suspect this curse of the statuettes mystery might be really challenging and, if I’m right, we all need to stick together, especially in the Badlands.”
Silence fell across the assembled ponies sat on their respective thrones in the Castle of Friendship’s map room. Each pony stared intently at their glowing cutie marks hovering over the Badlands. Across Equestria, ponies had been popping into miniature figurines of themselves for no apparent reason. The ‘curse’ as it had become known, had no discernible pattern.
Young, old, stallion, mare, poor, rich, earth pony, pegasus, unicorn, all had been affected over the past two weeks. Most of the time, the popped back to normal after an indeterminate amount of time – some took minutes, some took hours, a few took days – but they all remembered nothing of their ordeal.
Now, at last, the Elements of Harmony had been summoned.
“Hey, I’ve got an idea, y’all!” piped up Applejack, “Why don’t we ask around Ponyville for some fine ponies who’ll look after our pets for us while we’re gone?”
“Sounds like a plan,” smiled Twilight. As it happened, the head mare of the School of Friendship had just some ponies in mind. Stonecutter and Cloudburst, an earth pony and pegasus respectively, had been best friends since they had been foals. Sparkler, admittedly, was a unicorn new to town but she had excellent test results at her school. They would be perfect. And it was a Saturday, so their studies wouldn’t be affected! It was a win-win for everypony!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Ponyville sucked.
Sparkler knew this as soon as she opened her eyes in her bedroom and saw the three spiders on her ceiling. The bright yellow mare had been enjoying a dream filled with textbooks, new scrolls and an untouched ink well when the morning sunlight had invaded her bedroom and woke her up. Screaming like a terrified filly, the sixteen-year-old unicorn grabbed her fluffy white bathrobe and ran out onto the landing. "Stupid damn mud bowl of a town!" she cursed Ponyville under her breath. So scared was she that she didn’t even bother to put on her slippers, instead she stood bare-hooved on the upstairs landing, trembling hands tying the bathrobe around her slim waist.
Downstairs in the kitchen of the two-storey house, Corona had been about to cook breakfast for herself and her daughter when she heard the scream coming from her room upstairs. The middle-aged unicorn gave a short giggle before calling out, "Everything okay, sweetie?"
"Mom!" In a bad mood, Sparkler stomped downstairs, her poorly tied bathrobe flying open to reveal her pink bunny pyjamas, "There are spiders in my room!" There were always spiders in her room. Thanks to having a thatched roof, like almost every damn building in this hateful town. If it wasn’t spiders, it was some bug or other.
Swallowing her chosen retort before it could leave her lips, Corona rolled her eyes before she said, "Sweetie they are harmless. They are probably garden spiders." Unfortunately, this morning routine was not unfamiliar. The middle-aged orange unicorn sighed and smoothed her mane behind her ears. It seemed the pancakes would have to wait a moment.
"I don't care!" Sparkler pouted and hugged the robe around her slim frame, "you know how much I hate creepy crawlies!" shuddering at the memory of her three latest invaders, she sat down on a chair in the kitchen.
Corona did her very best to not get annoyed. Even so, her petulant daughter was fast getting on her last nerve. "Well, you need to get used to them.” She stated in a very motherly matter of fact manner, “Especially as one of the teachers at your new school teaches animal and critter care.”
"Stupid Ponyville..." Sparkler muttered sullenly but not quite under her breath, "I miss home! There weren't any bugs in Canterlot..."
As she had been interrupted in the process of making breakfast for them both, Corona set the freshly mixed batter to one side beside the hot stove before saying, "I know, okay? I know you hate it, Sparkler. But I just couldn't afford to live in Canterlot. And this place is super friendly. Just give it a chance, please."
"I know, mom, I know," she sighed, not looking up. She really hadn’t intended to piss off her mother. It was just, hard, since everything had happened. "Mudtown is cheaper than home since the div...since daddy...I’m sorry."
Moving around the kitchen, which even the optimistic Corona had to admit wasn’t nearly as modern or as nice as the one they had left behind, the older unicorn hugged her daughter. The move had been a hard one, there was no denying it. "It’ll get better,” she said gently, “All new starts are hard."
"I'm sorry, mom," she looked up at her mother with an adorable pout on her face that Professor Rarity would have been proud of. "If I make us some coffee, can you get rid of the creepies from my room, please?"
Sighing, Corona nodded. Sometimes it was better to compromise. Otherwise her daughter would be sleeping on the couch again in the living room for two days like last time. "I'll just go and put them outside." She said before going upstairs.
In Sparkler’s distinctly pink and Princess-style bedroom, it was as she suspected. The three ‘monsters’ were laughably tiny and, lighting her horn in her glowing green aura, Corona gently levitated them in her magic. Heroic task completed, she straightened her pyjama top and headed back downstairs so she could safely deposit them a good distance from the house.
Pointedly, in the kitchen, Sparkler looked away as her mother de-spidered her bedroom. Instead she busied herself with making the morning coffee and pretended that spiders didn't exist. Not in her world anyway. The coffee was another reason she hated this miserable town. The circle on the stove under the kettle took forever to heat up. The kettle took an age to boil. The whistle was infuriating.
Everything just sucked.
As she came back in, Corona almost purred with delight when she smelled the coffee waiting for her in her ‘number 1 mom’ mug that had been last year’s birthday present. "Mmmmm thank you for making the coffee." She said, turning her attention back to cooking the breakfast. She needed those pancakes! Thankfully the stove was still hot, so she poured the batter of eggs, milk and flour into the pan and began cooking at last.
"Anything for my saviour," Sparkler beamed, setting the steaming hot coffee on the breakfast table. Glancing at the clock, she saw it was only just eight in the morning. "You're up early, for a Saturday." She eyed her mother suspiciously even as she breathed in the scents of coffee and blueberry pancakes that filled the kitchen. That at least was like home.
Corona had been dreading this moment. She had promised her daughter a spa trip later that day but, of course, the universe hated her, didn’t it? Almost as soon as she had gotten up, she had received a message from her new boss. For what felt like the hundredth time already, she sighed, her ears pinned down to her scalp. "Mr. Rich called me into work today. We'll have to go to the spa tomorrow instead," she said sadly.
"Oh, come on!" Sparkler cried and threw her fork down and banged the table, for the moment ignoring the freshly cooked pancakes that her mother had just placed on a plate before her. This was just yet another indignity of this crappy town. Her mother had to work as a maid! A maid of all things! "I've been looking forward to the spa all week!"
"I know you have,” Corona had braced herself for the outburst, and she wasn’t disappointed. “But you know he also pays well. Another maid called in sick. I'm sorry, we can go tomorrow I promise." She said in an effort to diffuse the situation before it grew into yet another row.
"But it's supposed to be our day!" Sparkler whined, and then, she let out a thunderous “Aaaaacho!” which was followed up by three more equally loud sneezes. Looking around the room through suddenly teary eyes, she saw the window was open. Damn her allergies! As if she needed another reason to dislike Ponyville.
"I know. And tomorrow is going to be it." Corona stated firmly in a manner which said that was that. She wasn’t in a position to turn down extra hours, especially not at the rate Filthy Rich paid. And he paid well. "Did you take your allergy medication?"
"No, obviously," the bright yellow mare muttered, levitating her meds over to her from the sideboard in the kitchen. A task that took her two attempts because her magic kept fritzing due to her sneezes.
"I'm sorry sweetie, I really am. I promise I will make this up to you tomorrow.” Eating her own pancakes, Corona had an idea. It was underhanded, perhaps. It was definitely sneaky. But, she was almost out of options. So, with fork in hand, she deployed her secret weapon. “How about when I get home tonight we get ice cream?"
When she had stopped sneezing and the fast-acting meds had taken effect, Sparkler wiped the tears from her eyes and nodded her head. "I want chocolate flavour.”
“Of course.”
“With caramel.”
“Goes without saying.”
“And chocolate chips.”
“Naturally.”
“Deal!”
Finishing up her breakfast, Corona knew she had at last won the battle for that day. Getting up from her chair, she bustled into the living room and started to get dressed in her maid’s uniform. ‘Uniform’ made her snigger. Her dress, while not revealing to the degree of the more adult ones on sale in more…select shops, still showed off more of her body than was decent, at least by Canterlot standards.
As she watched her mother pulling up her white stockings and slip on her black horseshoes, Sparkler asked, "Um, mom?" she tentatively fidgeted her yellow fingers together, "It's market day and um, if you're going to be out all day, can I have my allowance, please?"
For a moment, she was tempted to say no, but as she pulled down the black maid’s dress in an attempt to get it down past her ass cheeks – an attempt that was futile, thank Celestia she had underwear on! – she decided against it. "Yes, I don’t see why not. Just don't spend it all in one place." She said as she went to her purse.
Now it was Sparkler’s turn to sigh. "I won't, I promise." The young mare had that look on her face, the one she always had when she was faced with the prospect of going outside. She didn’t like ‘outside’. Outside in Ponyville was dirty, and noisy, and full of ponies who she swore had never heard of things like decorum and personal space.
"Good!” Corona said, giving her daughter the modest two hundred bit allowance she was owed for a week of good homework grades. "I hope you have fun. Maybe you can try making some friends here?"
"Uuuuugh!" Sparkler snorted as she ate the last of her pancakes, "What IS it with this place?” she banged her hand on the breakfast table, upsetting the salt and pepper pots, which she caught in her telekinetic field. “At least in Canterlot ponies left you alone, but here everypony wants to be your friend! Like that annoying pegasus from school, Cloud...thingy, invading my space all the time!"
Corona heard her complaining about the ponies in town, which caused her to roll her eyes and count backwards from ten to one, four times. Ponies just did things differently here than they did in Canterlot, and that was that. "Well it wouldn't hurt for you make friends here," she said while heading toward the door, "I'm going to be late. See you later sweetie. I love you and I'll see you later today." she said as she quickly nuzzled her and levitated her long dark brown coat around her shoulders. She didn’t care if it was summer, there was no way she was walking through town in her maid’s dress, with her chest all but hanging out like her behind.
"Ponyville sucks!" Sparkler yelled to the now empty house. By Celestia she hated this dirty backwater of a town. “They don't even have proper roads!” she fumed to herself as she got busy washing the breakfast dishes with her magic and her hands.
“Seriously,” she grumbled sourly, “How hard is it to make proper paved flat smooth clean roads!” For a neat freak like her, She hated the dirt roads. “Great…now I’m talking to myself!” Once the dishes were clean and the worktops wiped down to her satisfaction, which was to say they were gleaming clean with not a mote of dust or dirt anywhere, she went to the shower.
Of course, the shower took a lifetime to warm up. Of course, it did. Everything else was an inconvenience, why should the shower be any different. In there, as she soaped up her hands and ran them over her naked body, she couldn't help but think of Stonecutter. Blushing, the unicorn realised that her hands were wandering to places they shouldn’t be wandering to. It happened every time she thought about Stonecutter.
Sparkler thought about Stonecutter a lot.
She thought about the earth pony so much that she had to be careful with her underwear afterwards. Her mother still washed her clothes, after all.
Stonecutter wasn't just her classmate at the School of Friendship, she was her sexy classmate at the School of Friendship, though the thought of doing something about it gave her cold chills. Thankfully the warm shower eased those chills. As did her wandering hands.
Just picturing the earth pony made her core quiver. She loved her fat pudgy belly, how round it was and how it stretched her school shirts just so. She loved her breasts, which were honestly huge. Sparkler had no idea how big they were, but they put her B cups to shame. Next was her ass. Oh, Celestia her ass. It was sweet torture watching it jiggle with every step the tall mare took.
With her shower completed, and left wetter between her legs than when she started, Sparkler got dressed in her Saturday clothes, which were a white shirt, light blue sweater with the school logo on its breast and a plaid skirt as well as knee high white socks and last but not least, her black horseshoes.
She had her allowance, and she knew what she wanted to buy; namely a new telescope to replace the one that the oafish moving ponies had broken in the van. Maybe the market would be fun, after all. Maybe she would bump into Stonecutter.
Maybe today she would come out and confess her feelings to her.
Maybe.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"Damn it, CB!" Stonecutter exclaimed, snorting an exasperated gasp of breath through her nose. Again. The tall slate grey earth pony looked up from the white garden table she was sat at in her backyard. She had been trying to do her homework, for the third time that morning, when a lightning bolt had landed a few feet away. Also, for the third time that morning. "Will you knock it off?"
Circling above her best friend, effortlessly flying on her wings, a pale blue pegasus giggled like an overgrown filly. "Oh, come on, Stone!” Cloudburst did a perfect backflip, “You don't need to study anymore! You already know all that stuff." Idly, she clapped her hands together and, using her magic, she produced another lightning bolt that landed close to where the first had on the grass.
"CB, if you get another bolt on my momma's lawn, I swear to Luna I'll clip your wings!" she yelled back, trying to lay protectively over Professor Rainbow Dash's essay that she had spent all morning putting together. It didn’t help that thanks to her friend’s ‘help’, it had taken so long.
Realising her chubby friend was serious – clipping wings was a serious threat – Cloudburst eventually stopped doing what she was doing, namely loafing about in the air. "Finnnnneeee! Party pooper. So, which assignment are you doing?" She asked as she floated down to the ground.
"Professor Dash's Rainbow Falls loyalty essay, when she had to choose between representing Cloudsdale and Ponyville at the Equestria Games." Stonecutter moved a seat out for her best friend to sit on and she poured her a glass of chilled lemonade. "Why aren't you working on Professor Applejack's essay?"
Cloudburst groaned, "I already know what I am going to write, so I don’t need a lot of time to get it done.” She said softly, shrugging her shoulders. That, and she saw no need to bother herself with schoolwork when she could be playing in the sky.
"Featherbrain," Stonecutter snorted. "Don't come to me on the morning of school again asking me to help you out." She took a sip of her own lemonade, which was as a cold hand across a fevered brow, "So why're you bugging me? I thought you were hanging out with Seafoam today?”
Cloudburst blushed, her pale blue hand brushing across the turquoise collar that she wore around her neck – it was an almost permanent accessory now, she had worn it every day over the last six months. She loved and adored her hippogriff with all her heart. "Eh,” she breathed airily, “Master said I could do my own thing today,” she said while sipping her lemonade happily. She decided to tease her friend, if she couldn’t play. "What about you? Any colts or stallions you like?"
Stonecutter's slate grey cheeks immediately coloured up in a huge, intense, deep red blush at that. Suddenly all thoughts of her homework evaporated from her mind like water through a sieve. "Um...well, um, ah, well..." she muttered, staring down at the paper. Unfortunately, the paper remained silent and didn’t offer the answer to her situation.
"Ooh tell me!” Cloudburst squeaked happily, it wasn’t often she saw her friend all flustered like she was right then. She was determined to make the most of it. “Tell me! Tell me!" she said, getting closer and closer across the table with each word.
Unusually, Stonecutter didn't say a word, but her blush got more and more intense by the second. Internally, she was wresting with a hard choice. 'Do I tell her or not?’ she asked herself. While she hadn’t ever hidden her sexuality, she hadn’t exactly screamed it from the rooftops either. Who she fancied was her business. ‘Can I trust her? She is my best friend...'
"Hey,” even the usually dense pegasus could tell her friend was struggling with something, “is everything okay? Is it someone like Smolder?" she asked, now eager to be the first to get some gossip. Not that she gossiped. Much. Hardly ever. All the time.
"It's not a dragon," Stonecutter replied so very quietly, staring down at her unfinished Loyalty paper.
"Who is it then?" She asked eagerly, so eagerly she fluttered her wings and lifted off from her chair by a clear few inches.
"Promise you won't make fun of me?"
Now, Cloudburst was a teeny bit offended. She had never, ever made fun of her best friend. She had always defended her against the plotholes that bullied her for her weight. "Stone,” her voice was as serious as she could make it, “I promise I won’t do that. I'm just very curious to know now."
"It's a mare," Stonecutter admitted at last, her cheeks blazing red.
"Ooh who is it?” Cloudburst didn’t care in the slightest her friend had just said she liked mares. So, what, right? You do you, that had always been the pegasus’s outlook on life. She wore a collar and called her coltfriend Master, who was she to judge anypony? “Is it me?" She asked playfully, her head tilted to side.
"You're straight, CB," she gave her friend a sour deadpan look. Stonecutter didn’t know why she was making a bigger deal out of this than it needed to be. "No, it's not you. It's...Sparkler."
"I know sillyhead. But it would be flattering." Cloudburst had to admit, even though she was straight, she was jealous of her friend’s rather generous breasts. Who wouldn’t be when she herself was flat as an ironing board? Her ears perked though when she heard that. "Oh, the new girl, miss grumpy pants?"
Stonecutter nodded her head. "Yeah, that's the one. Cut her some slack though, I hear she's had a bit of a rough time lately."
"I know. I wanted to throw her a party, but she wasn’t all that happy with the ‘Welcome To Ponyville’ one Professor Pinkie Pie threw her."
"I overheard her talking with counsellor Starlight,” Stonecutter admitted like it was something scandalous. “Something about her daddy leaving them, that's why they're here in Ponyville."
"Aww that's so sad. Poor thing…” Cloudburst’s ears pinned back to her head and then, in what was typical for her, they shot up again along with her wings. They did that when she was excited. “We should be her friends! That way she can smile more! Might get you two closer…" she giggled brightly and a little suggestively.
"Good idea CB, for a featherbrain," the slate grey earth pony gently nudged the pegasus in the shoulder. This gentle nudge almost sent the mare falling from her chair. Still, her friend’s idea had a degree of merit to it. "What say we stop the homework, go call for her, and have a shopping trip at the market?"
Taking the momentum from the ‘gentle’ nudge, Cloudburst took to the air and flew lazy figure eights above the table. This was why she wore yoga pants. Nothing for anypony to look up when she was flying. "What is with ponies thinking we’re feather brains? Our feathers are on our wings not inside our heads!" she giggled, moving forward to land on her hooves.
"I know your test results, remember?" Stonecutter snickered, closing up her papers and taking them back inside her parents’ house. Like all Ponyville houses, it was white walled, black timbered and with a thatched roof. As it was a weekend, her parents were out. "It's Nightmare Night next week,” she said, thinking ahead to what they could buy at the market, “You know what you're going as?"
"Aww thanks for that. Aren't they great? F is for Fantastic Flyer, after all." Cloudburst just burst out laughing when her friend gave her the most severe glare she could muster. “And yeah, I'm going to dress up as Captain Celaeno, from the movie."
Stonecutter rolled her eyes at her best friend. "I still can't believe Applewood made a movie out of the attack on Canterlot! But seriously, Celaeno, again?" she winked, "I know what I'm going as."
"What she was awesome in her role as the captain!" Cloudburst countered. The fact that she had gone dressed as the pirate for the last four years straight was neither here nor there. Celaeno was awesome and that was that! "Who are you going as, then?"
"A cow," Stonecutter answered with a straight face as she put her school stuff away in her bag in the living room. "Momma gave me my allowance before she and daddy went to Appleloosa for the Cowboys and Buffalo weekend." She smiled at that. Her folks were always off doing crazy stuff. Last week had been skydiving from an airship, the week before had wild river rafting. Not to mention the time they had barrel jumped from Rainbow Falls. As for her, she was happy with a hammer, a chisel and a block of stone.
Far from being put off though, Cloudburst’s eyes were wide with delight. With her eyebrow raised, she asked, "Really? Can I ask what the idea for that was?" She then nodded at her friend’s suggestion, "That sounds good to me and a lot of fun too."
"Well," Stonecutter smiled, jiggling her hefty breasts – she just loved the way her friend’s eyes tracked the movement of her melons back and forth. She wondered if she could hypnotise her with them. "I already have the build for it. Besides, I've seen a good suit in Filthy Rich's Barnyard Bargains."
Cloudburst nodded, subconsciously she wiped the drool from her chin. Like, really? Did her tits have to be that big? Really? There wasn’t even a bit to share out when she was being made? Anyway. "Well, where should we go to find her?"
"Sparkler? I don't honestly know.” Stonecutter really wasn’t sure. She was only just aware of where she lived. “We can try at her home?"
"Sounds good to me. Let's go then, slowpoke!" Spreading her pale blue wings, Cloudburst zipped up her School of Friendship hoodie and took off, swooping out of the house and climbing up into the air.
"Hey, wait up!" running out of her house, Stonecutter grabbed her everyday backpack from beside the back door and, making sure she locked up behind her, followed after the flying mare. She didn’t try to keep up, she didn’t have the build to run.
"Come on, we got a mare for you to impress!" Cloudburst yelled behind her, not even trying to be subtle about it as she barrel rolled through the skies above Ponyville. Noticing though that the earth pony was being left behind, she turned back and landed in front of her.
"CB, please, not a word to her okay? Let me do it in my own time?"
"I promise I won’t say it to her. She'd be worse than a stubborn neat freak if she wasn’t interested in you." Cloudburst admittedly didn’t know much about the unicorn, but she did know she was a book smart neat freak. Considering Stonecutter was as messy as they came when she was sculpting, she knew this would be an interesting pairing.
"Come on then, let's get going. How about the three of us go to the Hayburger, my treat, then we do some epic shopping?"
"Sounds good to me." Cloudburst said as she bounced excitedly in place by her friend’s side.
"So, CB, how's your momma and daddy doing at the Academy?" Stonecutter asked as they walked through the town.
"They are doing good.” Cloudburst’s good mood seemed to leech from her. At the mention of her parents, Wave Chill and Misty Fly, who were both full time Wonderbolts and lived in the academy, the bouncing mare’s shoulders visibly slumped. “I miss them when they have to be gone for days and weeks at a time," she said softly. Lately she had only seen them at Wonderbolts performances.
Seeing her drastic change in mood, Stonecutter pulled her best friend into a dangerously tight earth pony hug. A hug that threatened to break bones. "I know CB, and I know they love you something fierce." They walked together in silence, eventually pausing at the Goldenoak Library memorial. It was their custom to pause for a few moments every time they passed the remains of the great library tree which had been preserved inside a railing. "When's the next Wonderbolt show?"
"I know and I'm glad for it. And for the fact I'm not sure what I want to do yet." She said softly while staring at the memorial as they pass it, "In two weeks’ time in Canterlot. I've already got the tickets for it. Momma sent me three in the post, I’m sure I can get a fourth."
"Well we'll be there, no worries about that." Stonecutter assured her friend, squeezing her hand just to make sure. Presently, they found themselves outside Sparkler's house, a nice clean white building with black timbers and a thatched roof, just like most of the other houses. This one though had a pretty pink weather vane on top. Without waiting to be told, Cloudburst ran up to the door and she knocked eagerly.
Sparkler was quick to open the door. "Oh!” her green eyes went wide indeed. She had been hoping to bump into her crush, and here she was, on her doorstep! “Oh, hey you two! I um…ah, I…was just…was just going out to the market." She kicked herself. Hard. ‘Real smooth, Sparks!’
Fortunately, Stonecutter seemed to not notice her flustered babbling. "Hey, we wanted to invite you out for a hayburger. Want to come with?"
"Oh um..." Sparkler was about to say no, which was her natural defence, when she saw Stonecutter and she decided to take the plunge, as it were. That, and she had already said she was going out, had she not? "Are you going too?"
"That I am," the earth pony beamed, ignoring Cloudburst’s leap of glee.
"Then yes, I'd love to come!" Sparkler, grabbing her own shoulder bag, quickly fell in with the other two ponies. It was a pleasant enough morning; getting to sit and make small talk at the Hayburger joint with Stonecutter enabled her to tolerate the loud noisy presence that was Cloudburst.
Once the lunch had been eaten and their bellies were full, the three mares went about the arduous task of shopping. To her great delight, Sparkler was able to get a new telescope from, of all places, Astronomy & Pots. Then again, there was a Quills & Sofas here, so who was she to judge? Even though it had left her with just fifty bits of her allowance, she had been able to get a stack of scrolls, quills and ink along with it, so she was immensely happy.
Likewise, Stonecutter had also purchased what she wanted, namely more sculpting supplies. Sparkler had been very interested to learn that was the chubby mare’s talent. Of course, the slate grey earth pony had also taken the time at the fruit stall to stock up on some tasty snacks. In case she got hungry later, was her excuse.
Cloudburst meanwhile had been something of a surprise to Sparkler. While the unicorn had seen the pale blue pegasus as nothing more than crude, crass and annoying at school, having spent a little time with her she found she was all those things and also rather funny. When she had told Sparkler her joke about the alicorn, the griffon and the dragon, the unicorn had laughed so hard she almost peed in her panties.
All in all, it had been a successful sunny Saturday morning. Now though, it was fast approaching noon and the marketplace was starting to fill up. From just having a handful of ponies – including themselves – milling around looking at the stalls, the square was now bustling with creatures of all shapes and sizes: ponies, griffons, hippogriffs, yaks, dragons and even the odd changeling were all parting with their hard-earned money. It looked like the gloriously sunny day had bought out the whole of Ponyville!
Sparkler didn’t like crowds.
Which was unfortunate for her because right at that moment, when the market square seemed at its busiest, Cloudburst’s attention was drawn by a great crowd milling around the large fountain by the town hall. The thing itself was impressive, depicting the six Element Bearers in various heroic poses, hand carved from a single block of stone. What had garnered the pegasus’s attention though was the street performer in front of the fountain.
‘Cosmo the Conjuror’, as the purple robe wearing unicorn had introduced himself, was wowing the audience with stage magic tricks. The assembled crowd were playing their part, oooohing and aaahing at all the right moments, especially when the doves he pulled from his sleeves turned into magical fireworks before appearing whole again in a cage.
Sparkler, her own talent being the creation of fireworks, had really appreciated that one.
They had just watched Cosmo the Conjuror skilfully conjure apples from thin air and juggle with them before handing them out to the crowd to prove they were real – Stonecutter managed to snag two. She was eating one as she watched the magician pull colourful flowers from his great big floppy hat which, with a tap of his wand, became glittering rainbows above their heads.
In short, so focused was she and her friends on the great act that Stonecutter wasn’t looking at her shoulder bag. That was until she felt it start to get heavier and heavier! “What the…” she muttered, convinced it was part of Cosmo’s act. Shrugging it off her shoulder, the slate grey mare looked inside expecting a shower of sparks or ribbons to pop out. What she wasn’t expecting to see was an adorably cute, white fluffy bunny rabbit with great big black eyes sat in her bag munching away at the fruit she had bought!
“What the hay?” Stonecutter’s surprised yelp had drawn the attention of Cloudburst and Sparkler.
“What is it, Stone?” Cloudburst asked, her eyes reluctantly drawn from the performance. The crowd’s applause telling he she had just missed something good.
“There’s a rabbit in my bag!”
“There’s one on the stage too!” the pegasus snarked, pointing to Cosmo who had just succeeded in producing a rabbit from his large floppy magician’s hat.
“No, there really is, look!” Sparkler pointed out, backing off with a loud sneeze as her sensitive allergies were set off by the furry white invader to Stonecutter’s bag.
“Hey, you, you thieving little bunny…” Stonecutter groused as the rabbit had found its way into her jar of pear butter that she had bought for her pancake dinner later that day, “Get outta there!” The bunny though, while he certainly looked cute, was apparently far from well behaved. When Stonecutter attempted to liberate the pear butter from him, he growled fiercely and, baring his teeth, stared at her angrily.
“I think the bunny’s won,” Cloudburst snickered, much to her friend’s ire. It didn’t help when the pale blue mare began singing “Bunny one, pony zero!” to an accompanying little dance.
Seeing a chance to be helpful, and to maybe strike up a conversation with the earth pony that would lead to declarations of love, Sparkler spoke up. “Come over here, out of the crowd. I have an idea.” By the time they had extricated themselves from the crowd, it was alas too late for the pear butter. It was looking like the fresh strawberries would go the same way too.
“Hurry Sparkler,” Stonecutter urged, “The damn thing’s eating all I’ve got!”
“Just a moment,” she held up her hand in a request for quiet. She had to concentrate. Lighting her horn, she levitated the errant rabbit out of her new friend’s bag. This was a harder task than it first appeared because the foul beast did not take kindly to being separated from his free meal. “Ngggggh!” Sparkler grunted with the effort of maintain her glowing green telekinetic field, thanks to his kicking and thrashing about.
“You did it!” Stonecutter whooped in delight as she zipped up her bag and hefted it onto her shoulder in an attempt to safeguard what was left of her food.
“Excuse me,” came a quiet voice that all three mares recognised instantly as belonging to their Kindness teacher, Professor Fluttershy. It was odd to see her in a white top and green skirt as opposed to her uniform, but it was a Saturday. The yellow pegasus looked extremely happy with herself that she had found the three students that Twilight had mentioned back in the castle map room. “Thank you for rescuing my rabbit, Angel…”
“He’s yours?” Stonecutter asked grumpily, “The da…” she didn’t get to finish her sentence, thanks to Cloudburst practically shoving her fist into her best friend’s mouth. On reflection, it was probably best to not insult their teacher’s pet in front of its owner. Detention sucked.
Fluttershy nodded eagerly, the yellow pegasus either not noticing or not caring what Stonecutter had been about to say in regard to her precious Angel. “He scampered away from me and I’ve been looking for him all over the place!” When Sparkler levitated the rabbit over to its owner, Fluttershy took her bunny in her hands and gave him a welcome cuddle. ‘Precious’ Angel glared at the three mares, making a very rude face indeed.
“You’ve obviously got a way with animals,” Fluttershy continued, a shy smile spreading over her muzzle. This was perfect! “I think my little Angel really likes you.” At this comment, Angel shook his head furiously, still glaring at the three students. Not that Fluttershy noticed.
Personally, Stonecutter thought her teacher had lost her mind, but she chose not to voice her opinion, though she knew perfectly well what she wanted to do with the precious little bunny. A stew came to mind. Fluttershy wasn’t done though. “I think you’re just the ponies my friends and I have been looking for. You see, we’re going away on an important mission, and we need reliable trustworthy ponies like you three to look after our pets while we’re gone.”
At the very mention of looking after six pets, Sparkler popped an allergy tablet like it was a candy. Stonecutter shared a look with Cloudburst and the sneezing unicorn. She was up for it, after all, she had nothing planned for the rest of the day. “Well, I guess we could help you out, Professor.”
Fluttershy’s face lit up like a Hearths Warming tree and, as Stonecutter and Cloudburst shared a fist bump and even Sparkler nodded her head in agreement – though that was because she wanted to spend more time with her crush than she wanted to be with a bunch of…animals. “Thank you, my friends!” the older pony then placed Angel in her own shoulder bag before turning on her hoof, a large yellow wing pointing off in the direction of her cottage, “Come on, we have no time to waste. I’m sure the pets will just love you!”
Sparkler wasn’t at all sure about that but, as she walked through Ponyville with one of her teachers, her crush and now, her grudging friend in the annoying pegasus, she wondered, ‘How hard can it be, just to look after some pets for a while?’