“Well that didn’t go as well as I had hoped,” muttered Twilight
Earlier that day , Twilight was helping Applejack move some apples from the barn into the cellar. The lavender pony had just sent the last bushel down the hole with her magic before closing the cellar door. Unfortunately her tail was not totally clear of the door, and it was shut in between the door and ground. She tried to pull it out but pulling too hard was uncomfortable and she really didn’t want to go around with a ripped tail. She couldn’t use magic because the night before she had tried a few new spells and they had been more taxing on her magic than she had thought. That and the fact she had used the last store of her magic to help Applejack, she had only a little magic left, and it was not enough to get her out of this mess.
“Applejack Help,” Twilight called. Her friend had been walking towards the barn where she had left their snacks.
“Whu,”the pony spun on her back feet and ran back to her friend,” are you ok? What’s the matter?”
The lavender unicorn hung her head and blushed,” I didn’t mean to startle you, it’s just, well.” The blush grew in intensity as she pointed her hoof over shoulder.
Applejack looked where Twilight was pointing; she raised an eyebrow as she walked to the edge of the door and inspected the situation.
Twilight sighed and for a few moments it was quiet, then she raised her head and looked behind her only to be met with Applejack with her back to her shaking. What is she doing Twilight thought to herself? She backed up so she could see her friends face, and the sight that met her eyes made the blush deepen, even further, and change from one of embarrassment to one of indignation. Her friend, who she had been in many situations with, was shaking from laughter, a grin plastered on her face.
“Applejack,” the unicorn yelled,” I can’t believe your laughing at me. I need your help right now.”
“Ahm s-s-sorry heh Twi Ha Ha Ha Ha.” The orange pony tried to stem the flow of both laughter and tears as she rolled around on the ground. She soon quelled the tears and mirth enough to sit up and look at the other pony. The grin that had been on her face moments before fell from her face. What she saw was enough to break her heart in two. Twilight was digging at the ground around her tail trying to free it from the door, but the look on her face felt like a lasso around her heart, tightening till it hurt. Her eyes were clenched shut, tears streaming from the corners falling on to her tail.
Twilight heard and felt her friend’s hooves digging into the ground around her tail. She opened her eyes and looked at the pony now digging to free her. The pain in her heart eased slightly as she saw a look of determination was on the earth pony’s face. They worked at the ground for a while, Twilight not having the position to get too deep in to the ground so Applejack was doing most of the work.
With a slight jolt, her tail being freed while she was pulling, Twilight was sent reeling backwards into the bushes. She got herself in to a sitting position, back towards the barn, and for the third time a blush spread though her face.
“Hold on, ah-m on mah way.” Twilight heard her friend jump through the bush behind her, though she didn’t turn around, she was sure that there was some kind of a grin on Applejacks face. Looking at the ground all she saw was Applejacks hooves come into view, as she watched one was offered to her. Twilight looked up into the face of her hard working friend and saw a genuine look of regret and kindness in her eyes.
The unicorn took the offered hoof, and then Applejack pulled her in to an embrace saying, “Ahm mighty sorry sugar-cube. I should have considered your feelings, so I hope you’ll forgive this here pony?”
Twilight looked at her friend and nodded her head, and the two friends walked back to the barn. However a small lingering pain was left in Twilights heart, forgotten for the moment, but there nonetheless.
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“She did say she was sorry. AAHH why did I have to use all my magic last night, I could’ve been stuck there for hours until Big Mac got back with the keys.” Her thoughts were interrupted as a young filly dashed in front of her. Looking around and noticed she had walked all the way to the town square. She looked at her tail, which was now creased a little from being in the doorjamb, and decided to sit on one of the benches and try to straighten it out. She walked to the bench and took off her saddle bags stetting them on the ground next to it. She opened the left side up and took out a small bag of sliced apples, then sat on the bench with her tail laid out next to her.
She was sitting there running one hoof along her tail using the warm bench to work out the slight crease. She worked on this task while eating the apple slices from the bag. The first bite had a sweeter than normal taste, it was enough to melt away the last of the pain that was in the lavender unicorns heart. A few months past a happy accident caused a few apple slices to make their way into her cider glass and they sat there while she went for a walk. When she got back an hour later she had downed what cider was left and found the slices. She had bit into one and found it to be a delicious treat. She had taken one to Applejack to see what she thought. The earth pony had said they just didn’t taste right after the soaking, and Twilight had asked her if she could get a jar so she could make them at her own place. Applejack said she might make some to sell in the market if they were that good.
“I guess she made some after all.” Twilight let out a sigh and with it any hard feelings towards her friend. Wait did something just move over there…..no it must have been a shadow. “I guess it could have been funny, and she is really a good friend. I hope I didn’t make her feel that bad.” There it was again out of the corner of her eye she saw a patch of ground get darker. She looked up and saw the weather ponies moving the clouds to cover ponyville. There was a hole that was letting a ray of sun directly over her, however that was about to change as she saw a cyan Pegasus flying towards her with a cloud in front of her.
“Hey Twi, I saw you sitting on the bench and thought that you would like the sun for as long as possible.” Rainbow Dash stopped in front of Twilight and sat on the cloud she had been pushing along.
“Hello Rainbow Dash, sorry but I don’t have any tickets this time, how about a slice of apple?” Twilight said this as she offered the small bag.
Rainbow Dash took one of the apple slices offered, however she had a quizzical look on her face. Then she remembered what had happened a few years ago, the incident with the gala tickets. “Na I just thought you looked a little in the dumps. Thought you could use some extra sun before we make it rain for a while.”
“Oh is that scheduled to happen now? I should get home; I don’t want you getting in trouble because you’re holding the storm so I can get some sunlight.” Twilight hastily moved to grab her saddle bags.
“Whoa, not so fast, it’s not supposed to happen for a few more hours.” The cyan Pegasus looked at Twilight with a discerning gaze, trying to figure out what it was in Twilights attitude that was off. Rainbow Dash dismissed it, thinking that the unicorn just didn’t want to get rained on. “Though I was going to see how long you were going to stay here. This cloud is kind of meant for the hole up there.” However as she said this a black Pegasus was heading towards the hole with a cloud of his own. “Well it looks like Thunder Wing is going to get this one, which is a firs….” Rainbow Dash stopped talking and squinted up at Thunder Wing.
“Hm, that cloud look a little too small for,” Rainbow Dash stopped short and sighed. As soon a Thunder Wing had the cloud underneath the hole it was sucked upwards with an updraft. “I’ll see you later Twilight, I need to go plug up that hole. I’ll stop by later to chat if I have the time. Don’t forget the storm isn’t for another two hours, so no need to rush.”
Twilight waved her friend off, and she thought she heard something about, needing to remind him to measure the clouds before placing them. Twilight sat there for a few more minutes removing the last of the crease from her tail. She picked up the small bag of apples and saw that there were only five left. She took on out and smelled, the sweet smell of apples and cinnamon filling her nose with the beautiful aroma. She placed it lightly on her tongue savoring the taste. She would have to remind herself to thank Applejack the next time she saw her.
Her ears perked up at a very slight sound. Was somepony calling her name? She looked around her and, when she gazed along the road that ran all the way to sugar cube-corner, saw a pink dot rapidly approaching her. “Twilight,” There it was again, and this time the voice was unmistakable, Pinkie Pie. Twilight put the bag down and waved to the quickly approaching earth pony. Suddenly, it looked like Pinkie started moving faster, her head down charging towards her.
Twilight watched Pinkie get closer, wondering what was going on. Then from five yards away the earth pony jumped towards her, on her face was not the goofy smile that she was expecting, but one of pure desperation. Just before they collided, Twilight saw something like a round chunk of what seemed like glass, fall next to her. The wind was pushed from her lungs as the pink blur knocked her backwards. At they fell backwards she felt a sharp pain in her front left leg and then the two of them hit the ground. From somewhere there was the sound of cracking of wood and clanging of metal.
When Pinkie Pie finally got off of her Twilight felt winded but otherwise she felt fine. A hundred questions were working their way up into her mouth when she caught Pinkie rubbing her head and looking back towards the bench. Twilight followed her gaze and in place of the questions a gasp escaped her mouth. There instead of a bench lay dented metal and splintered wood. In the dirt around the carnage were chunks of glass, wait, no ice the size of apples.
There was a long pause as Pinkie let Twilight catch her breath. “My tail started twitching so was walking around to see if I could find what was going to fall. Then a few more twitches happened and in the past I figured it had something to do with you, and that it was dangerous. So I ran over here and you know the rest.” The pink earth pony was still rubbing her head where a bump was starting. “To bad my Pinkie-Sense didn’t warn me about my head hur Oooffff.” Twilight had pulled Pinkie into a tight hug squeezing the breath from her.
“OH thank you, thank you, thank you. I could have been really hurt if you hadn’t saved me. I owe you one Pinkie.” The shock was slowly wearing off, only to be replaced by relief and a sense of gratitude for her smiling friend.
Pinkie returned the hug just as vigorously. “Oh I am sure that you would’ve been ok, I mean I have seen some evil doors and they have nothing on you. You would have been fine.” Pinkie helped Twilight up on to her feet, but when her friend tried to put some weight on her front left hoof she almost lost her balance, leaning into Pinkies side for stability.
“Ow, I guess when I hit the ground I twisted my hoof.” Twilight said as she stared at her hoof. Then she looked up and noticed the ever growing bump in the middle of Pinkies forehead. “Oh Pinkie, I am soooo sorry. I guess it wasn’t the ground that my hoof hit. We should get some ice-packs on these before they get too bad. I know I have some in my library, If you can get me there, I’ll make some tea and we can let the ice-packs do their work.”
Pinkie giggled and lightly flicked the tip of Twilights horn, “Okie-Doki-Poky, oh are those your saddle bags?”
Twilight looked at the spot next to the mess, and saw that her bags were undamaged, though the ice had kicked up some dirt and grass. Pinkie let Twilight lean on her as they hobbled over to them. When Twilight went to swing the packs on her back, Pinkie quickly grabbed them from her mouth and instead put them on her own back.
“Nope, you need keep as much weight off of that hoof as you can, nurse Pinkie says so.” The pink pony nodded and smiled.
“Thank you again Pinkie for the help.” Just as they were about to leave, Twilight noticed a small piece of brown paper sticking out from under a chunk of ice. Dear Celestia please give me this. She lifted the chunk of ice, and with a groan let it fall back onto the carnage. She silently berated herself for getting her hopes up over such a small thing. I could really use that tea.