//------------------------------// // Jun.-Jul. 20 - A Town's Story 15.2 // Story: RoMS' Extravaganza // by RoMS //------------------------------// “So, that’s it?” “What do you mean ‘that’s it’?” Mare asked, not without a firm but playful stomp of her hoof against the grass. “Yeah, it all turned to white.” Cheerilee snickered in her hoof. “You’re underselling it, dear.” A sigh escaped her lips. “I’d not mind a glass of wine right now.” “Come on, don’t make me squirm and beg for the rest of the story. What happened when the Wall disappeared?” Luster groused.  “It all went crashing down.” “The most surprising thing,” Cheerilee noted, “was the silence. The storm and din inside the Wall shook the walls of the Castle itself. But when it all died down, that whole mess, we only heard a deep silence... I’d thought we’d gone deaf.” “You exaggerate a bit,” Pinkie said. “Me, called out by Pinkie Pie for exaggerating?” Cheerilee laughed. “Well, maybe.” “How was it?” Luster pressed on. “Quite noisy throughout,” Sweetie Belle offereed. “Like, bad noisy or–” “Happy noisy.” Sweetie Belle smiled. “Twilight and Starlight erupted with joy the moment the spell broke and the gaping portal faded. The ordeal for them was over.” “But didn’t it last about a few minutes for them?” “Yes, that’s why I said ‘for them.’ They were happy the cavalry had come in so quick. They still quirk some eyebrows at who came for them.” Sweetie Belle gave a sheepish smile to Cheerilee and Mare. “But, yeah, none of the rest of us were happy. And Twilight quickly caught on something was wrong. Then there was silence.” “You could hear Twilight’s heart thumping in her chest, faster and faster!” Pinkie said. “I’ve never seen Twilight so scared as when we walked down the marble stairs of the castle, down the hallway, and out its ripped open gates.” Stepping outside, the wind blasted their faces, rising in a twister where once an orange and blue dome stood. The clouds and the storm that accompanied them already fluttered away, while still a few lightning bolts flashed here and there.  What the Wall had taken was now free, and through the parting grey, blue sky shone down with the light of the sun. And warmth struck like a slap to the muzzle. “It was summer,” Mare sighed. “In the minutes we’d been in, months had passed… Months!” “Ponyville as it stood there was completely empty and abandoned,” Cheerilee said. “Not even birdsongs welcomed us. Those flying critters knew better than flying into the Wall.” “Spooky!” Sweetie Belle and Pinkie added together. “And there was a lot of water. Like, a lot-lot,” Sweetie instantly added. “With the river inflowing in the Wall for months, and the…” Mare turned to Sweetie Belle who shrugged before gazing back at Luster,” I really don’t know how unicorns would call it… time, space warping? Anyway, the water created a tsunami through Ponyville as there was no Wall anymore to contain it. It destroyed some houses, and buried the rest under a thick coat of mud.” “But at least,” Cheerille said with a smile, “nature and normal had finally come back.” “What about Twilight and Starlight?” Luster asked avidly. “We walked out in silence. And only after a minute or two or blankly staring, Twilight finally asked how long it had been,” Cheerilee said. “She totes knew the answer, mind you. Cheerilee, Mare and I had our winter coats on. Twilight can do a one plus one using category theory,” Pinkie said with a laugh that barely covered the tinge of sadness at the back of her throat. “But, you know her. Double-taking everything.” They had quickly emerged from the Friendship Castle, and witnessed further the destruction wrought to the town. Luster had expected descriptions of devastation, but Mare and Cheerilee had painted an even grimmer picture. Its banality. Mud. Water. Abandonment. Dead plants peeking through the thick layer of mud, already crackling under the summer sky. The town’s houses, empty, their windows cracked offered no signs of life. The brownish hue of dead grass extended to the hillsides that surrounded Ponyville.  “You could make out the edge of the Wall by where plants had withered,” Cheerilee said, not without a deep rumble in her voice. “Maybe as far as one, two miles out of Ponyville. The Wall had eaten a lot while we were gone. Seven months in total.” “And there was absolutely nopony,” Pinkie added, waving her hooves like a ghost. “Not a single Welcome Back party! Nothing planned.” “They discarded the town as a lost cause?” Luster asked, teetering forward to better hear. “Actually no,” Mare dispelled. “That’s the interesting part.” Luster frowned. “What do you mean?” “The first ponies we encountered were two guards.”  Her frown creased further.  "They were totally out of it," Cheerilee commented with a chuckle.  "Flabbergasted," Pinkie added. "Some ponies had volunteered to go inside in the months after you went it?" Luster deduced. “Royal guards actually,” Sweetie Belle said. “You could make out the shining gold under the mud they were covered with.” "They saw us before we did,” Cheerilee continued. “They ran like mad to us. I recall one skidded off in the mud." “Ah, yeah!” Pinkie exclaimed.  After that, silence came back between the four ponies. Luster looked away at the steep they sat on, the green grass, the town, the ponies she could see through windows. It was hard to imagine that ten years before, this was all different. She couldn’t keep her sigh in. “Something’s wrong?” Pinkie asked. “I don’t know, really,” Luster said, pouting, then she looked up at Mare. "And it just ended like that?"  Mare laughed dryly. "Of course, Dear. Whenever ponies like Twilight went on an adventure or caused some adventure to crash down on the town, they always left one big mess. A mess for us all to clean up." Luster looked down and nodded, and asked, “How long did it take to rebuild Ponyville?” “Roughly a year,” Mare said before inhaling loudly. “I resigned afterwards.” Cheerilee chuckled and glanced at Mare, a hoof reaching to her lap, “it kinda broke us, really.” “It sure did. I was due for a long, uneventful retirement.” “We did.” “And so Ponyville was normal again?” Luster asked, frowning. “What about the ponies that left?” “They came back, of course,” Sweetie Belle said, hoof-waving Luster. “Wait, really?” Luster shook her head. Of course, they came back. She wouldn’t be there otherwise. “I mean… How did you manage it?” “It was easy,” Mare huffed. “I did nothing.” “Trouble finds Ponyville, but Ponyvillians rise above it,” Cheerilee said. “But the Apple Acre?” Luster asked. “Replanted!” “The School?”  “Restored and staffed.” “And…” “Everything was fine in the end,” Sweetie Belle said with a smile. “It… It just took time.” Silence flushed back in between the group as a cool breeze flew over their head. The evening was upon the town. “It’s getting late,” Sweetie Belle said, standing up. “Gotta come back to Apple Bloom.” “Sleeping at the Acre?” Pinkie asked. Sweetie Belle stood still for a second, then broke into a full-smiled yes. She bid her good-bye and ran off in the streets of Ponyville. “It’s getting late indeed,” Cheerilee said, “and you’re welcome to stay at our home, Luster.” “Am I?” “Of course, you are,” Mare said with a smile. “And anyway, did you plan your overnight stay?” “I didn’t plan for a stay at all.” Mare closed her eyes and smiled. “Of course. Well, Cheerilee and I have to go grab some groceries again, catch you at the house.” She fished out a key and gave it to Luster. And quickly, only Luster and Pinkie remained. “Are you okay, Luster,” Pinkie asked. “You don’t look happy.” “I’m not.” Luster threw her hooves up. “I expected something else really. An actual punishment, really. Instead I just get a bizarre lesson.” “Twilight wouldn’t do something without some well-formulated intention, trust me on that.” Pinkie guffawed. “Like we said, she does like her to-dos.” “She sounds more like Celestia right now.” Pinkie laughed. “Well, you don’t get the job without picking some of the quirks, right?” Luster glared. “So did I pick some of Twilight’s?” “You, nah,” Pinkie said. “You were born with them.” Luster crossed her legs and turned around.  “I’m sorry if I hurt you,” Pinkie said, repressing a laugh. “No, it’s fine. It’s just that, again, I feel cheated out of a punishment. Weirdly.” “It happens.” Pinkie put her hoof on Luster’s shoulder. “Sometimes you get more than you wish, or a gift you didn’t expect. And you know what you can’t do with weird gift, right?” Luster shook her head. “Refuse them.” “How can I refuse something I don’t really understand?” “By not understanding them.” Luster looked down. She knew she couldn’t expect to always get something on the first try. Though, she was good like that. Even some lessons needed some extra work. But usually she had guidelines. This homework, this field trip, it was something else. “Come on,” Pinkie said. “It’s gonna be night soon. You must be hungry.” And right on command, Luster’s stomach growled loudly. She turned around and smiled back at Pinkie. “Thanks, Pinkie.” Luster held her breath, only to exhale through her nose. “I need to thank Mare and Cheerilee too.” “I really think you should.” Luster nodded. “Can I catch up with you? Give me five minutes.” “Alright-y.” As Pinkie trotted away, Luster nodded to herself and rummaged through her bag for Mare’s missive. Retrieving the now-crumpled envelope, she opened it, and removed the letter. With yet another sight, she unfolded it and went down to the post-scriptum. Lessons had to be worked on, multiple times if need be.” “That was one terribly long lesson, Teacher.”