Canterlot was as lively as never before. There were colours and decorations everywhere. This was a very important day, for the day of Twilight´s coronation had finally arrived. And just as there was happiness and illusion, there was also lots of nervousness and paranoia.
“NOOOO!” a big scream was heard from Canterlot´s castle. It was so loud that the ponies who weren´t present at the castle could hear it. It even made Fluttershy´s birds fly away.
“Hey, wait! Don´t go!” Fluttershy exclaimed as she pursued the birds.
“What? What´s the matter?” Twilight asked worried after opening the door abruptly.
Rarity, who was inside the room Twilight had opened, threw herself dramatically at Twilight.
“It´s awful!”
“Tell me, tell me! I´ll do anything!” Twilight reassured Rarity desperately. “Just tell me what´s wrong!”
“The cloth stretched… and the machine broke.” replied Rarity while pointing the broken sewing machine.
Twilight sighed in relief.
“Ok, don´t worry. I´ll make sure that they bring you another one. Guards!”
A female guard nearby heard the call. She gasped and immediately ran to Twilight and Rarity. When she felt it was too near, she abruptly slowed down. Her eyes were closed when she stopped running, so she felt relieved that she didn´t hit the princess or her friend when she opened them. Or both!
“Phew...” she muttered. She noticed Twilight and Rarity raising their eyebrows at her, so she quickly came back to her “guardian” mode.
“Your majesty!” she elevated her hoof.
“Could you take this sewing machine and replace with another new?” she laid the broken sewing machine at the guardian´s back.
“Yeah sure! I mean.... Yes, your majesty!”
“Oh no no! Please, it´s not necessary. I can go by myself.” Rarity stepped in front of the guardian. “Besides, I need some new materials.”
“Are you sure, Rarity? I wouldn´t want you to get hurt.” Twilight said a bit sadly.
Rarity widened her eyes in surprise.
“Hurt? But, why?”
“Well, you know. You might bump against somepony and suffer some minor injuries. Not great, not terrible.” Twilight laughed nervously.
Rarity blinked.
“Ok… Well, I´m sure that I´ll be fine.”
“Oh, and if you´re going, please check on the others. Just to… make sure that they´re relaxed and they don´t feel too burdened.”
“Sure, don´t worry, darling. See you soon.” Rarity said as she put some bits inside her bag.
She was relaxed until she looked at the hour. She gave out a huge gasp.
"OH MY! The shop closes in fifteen minutes! I´ve got to go."
“So… Do I get another machine or…?” the female guard asked confused as she watched Rarity leaving.
“No, it´s not necessary. You can rest. But before you go, what´s your name?”
“Oh! Meghan, ma´am. I´ve recently joined the royal guard.”
“Well, Meghan, you don´t have to be nervous. I appreciate that you want to do your best, I can see, but it´s ok to take it easy. Just make sure everything´s done the right way.”
Meghan smiled.
“Thank you, your majesty.”
“One more thing, could you please check around Canterlot? Just to make sure everything´s ok.”
Meghan nodded.
“Right away.” she said confidently before leaving the room. She blushed when Twilight smiled at her confidence.
Meanwhile, Spike was flying in the corridor, holding a huge list on his hands.
“Ok, let´s see: Decorations? Check. Tables? Check.”
He was so focused on the list that he didn´t see Rarity in front of him and bumped against her.
“Oops!” Rarity exclaimed.
“Oh! Hey there, Rarity. Sorry, didn´t see you there.”
“It´s nothing darling. One question, are going to see Twilight?”
“Yeah, just to inform her about everything that´s done so far.”
“Well, I´m saying it because I noticed that she was… worried.”
“Like twilighting?”
“No, not exactly. Like a little sad. I don´t know, just make sure she´s ok, darling.”
Spike nodded and waved goodbye at Rarity. He looked around to find Twilight. He smiled when he saw her on a room.
“Twilight!”
Spike´s voice distracted Twilight from her thoughts. She panicked, as she was holding with her magic a surprise from him. She quickly teleported it to the drawer.
“Spike! Didn´t expect you to see here.”
“I´m here to tell you some updates: the decorations are finished and we´ve made sure that there´s enough tables, chair and food for everypony.”
“Thanks for the report, Spike. You may go now.”
“Also, Rarity told me that something´s going on with you. So…” he flew in front of her. “What´s wrong Twily?”
Twilight sighed.
“It´s not that I´m worried about the coronation not being perfect at all. In fact, I´m sure it will be great! But…”
“Yes?”
Twilight sniffed.
“What will happen to our friendship after the coronation?”
Spike was a bit estranged.
“What do you mean?”
“Think about it! Each of us will have our own lives. Fluttershy with her sanctuary, Applejack with her farm, Rarity with her boutique, Rainbow with the Wonderbolts and Pinkie with her parties. We won´t have time to spend together like before.” Twilight´s eyes got watery. “Some of us we´ll be far away from Ponyville, making it more impossible to see each other again. And what´s worse…” her voice started to tremble. “What if I outlive my friends?”
Spike gasped.
“Don´t say that…”
“Who knows how much time I´ll be alive. Celestia and Luna have been ruling for a thousand years! I don´t want to live a life knowing that I´ll be alone forever.”
Twilight broke down to tears.
“Well, we´re not sure about that. Maybe Celestia somewhat changed the spell so you wouldn´t be inmortal. I´m pretty sure she thought of that before hoof. She knows perfectly well the loneliness inmortality brings. Especially with having sent her sister to the moon for a thousand of years.”
Twilight sniffed.
“You sure?”
“Of course.”
Twilight smiled warmly. She hugged Spike tightly.
“What would I do without you?”
Spike shrugged.
“I don’t know. Cry and panic, I guess.”
“There´s… also another thing.”
Spike reacted with surprise.
“What is it?”
“Doesn´t seem weird to you that no villain hasn´t done anything against us? What if they waited for the coronation to attack? I mean, maybe somepony has been spying on us and we don´t know it! I´m afraid they might attack my friends.”
“Hmmm… Seems likely, yes. But that´s why we put extra security in Canterlot, didn´t we?”
“Um… Yes. But I´ve told the guards to keep an eye. Specially on my friends. Just in case.”
“Not letting your guard down while being calm, huh? Just like a good ruler would do.” Spike gave her a nudge.
Twilight blushed.
“Oh please, it´s not that much.”
“Humility! Another virtue of a good ruler.”
“Stop it!” Twilight laughed.
Meanwhile a strange known creature was lurking around Canterlot. Luckily, he wasn´t a menace, despite looking so.
Discord was observing Canterlot´s surroundings in detail with his binoculars. He didn´t care if he scared some ponies along the way. He teleported himself from place to place every second. After so much time looking around Canterlot, he got frustrated. He couldn´t find what he was looking for.
“Well, I don´t see anything weird here. Will you shut up now?” he said aloud.
Ponies who were around stared at him in an estranged manner. Discord rolled his eyes angrily.
“What are you looking at?”
After Discord said that, they went back to their businesses. He sighed sadly and looked at the sky.
“I hope that means that nothing´s wrong.”
His thoughts were interrupted by some tweets. He quickly grabbed the binoculars to watch what was happening. He saw a group of birds flying towards him. Discord yelled, and without thinking twice, he quickly wrinkled like an accordion when he bent down to avoid them.
“Phew…” he wiped out the sweat on his forehead.
“Stoooop!” a female voice yelled from the distance.
Discord´s ears perked up.
“That voice…” he whispered.
Once again, he took his binoculars and from the distance his saw a buttercream Pegasus.
“Flutters?”
“Discord! The birds! Help!” she told him as she ran.
Immediately, Discord snapped his fingers and the birds were in a cage. Fluttershy gasped when she saw the cage falling but Discord quickly caught it and handled it gently to Fluttershy.
“I hope every one of them is in there.”
Fluttershy checked the cage.
“Yes they are, thank you so much, Discord. Are you busy? Just to know if you can help me.”
Discord bit his lips and started fidgeting his fingers.
“Actually… I am busy. I´d love to, but I can´t. I´m sorry.”
Although he was trying to hide it, Fluttershy noticed Discord´s sadness in his voice. Was something wrong with him?
“It´s ok, really.” she held his paw to comfort him.
Then, she walked towards the castle. However, Discord flew in front of her.
“But I´ll be near you! You know, so you don´t feel lonely.” he laughed nervously.
Fluttershy´s feeling of something being wrong with Discord grew stronger.
“Discord, are you feeling alright?” she asked as she let the birdcage on the ground.
“Me? Of course I´m fine! I am the lord of chaos! I never feel bad.”
“Then why do you seem sad and concerned?”
“I´m not sad or concerned!”
Discord could have been pretending for ages but Fluttershy´s eyes were begging for the truth. They were full of sadness and concern, just like him. He sighed and grabbed her hoof.
“Fluttershy, did you see something weird around you lately?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well… was one of your animals or somepony behaving in a strange manner?”
Fluttershy put her hoof on her chin.
“Um… Not that I remember, no. Why? Is it because you think that somepony is going to attack us?”
Discord widened his eyes.
“How did you know?”
“Well, you seemed pretty worried and insecure after we rescued Spike, and since you´re the one that can notice when things are wrong apart from Pinkie, I came to that conclusion.”
Discord clenched his teeth and looked away.
“So, tell me, am I right?”
“I-” he sighed “You wouldn´t believe me.”
“Tell me, please.”
“Ok, I do have my suspicions, yeah. Do you see these earbags?” Discord lowered his eyelids.
“Uh huh.” Fluttershy nodded.
“Well, it´s because I´ve been hearing a voice throughout the whole night!”
“A voice?”
“Yeah! And what´s worse, I have the weird feeling of having heard it before. The case is that I began hearing it after the night we rescued Spike.”
“Too much of a coincidence, I guess.” Fluttershy said.
“I know, right? And I still can hear it. I think it´s telling me something. But I´m not so sure what.”
Discord´s ears perked up. He put his horns on his ears.
“Oh, shut up! Pleaaase!” he exclaimed in frustration.
“What? Is it the voice?” Fluttershy asked concerned.
Discord nodded. When the voice stopped, Discord put his horns back on his head.
“But I´m starting to think that this is all in my head. I´ve been looking around Canterlot and I haven´t seen anything weird.” he started smiling nervously and sweating. “It must be my mind, yeah, I´m just bored and thinking up stories. That must be it, yes.”
“Well, it´s not too far-fetched. If there´s something that I´ve learned throughout all these years is that villains attack when you least expect it.”
She put a hoof on Discord´s shoulder.
“Don´t worry, I´ll have a look around, and if I see something weird, I´ll tell you. Besides, I might tell the girls what you said.”
“I don´t think they´ll believe me.”
“Well, I won´t stop until they do. But first, I´ll look for odd behaviours.”
Fluttershy took the cage and flew away as fast as she could. But then, she came back.
“You stay here. We will meet here so I can tell you what I´ve seen.”
“Ok, good idea.” Discord smiled sadly.
This time, Fluttershy left for real. Discord watched how she faded in the distance.
“Be careful, Fluttershy. I´m so worried about you.” Discord muttered.
“And you´re certainly right to do so.” a deep growled voice said behind the draconequus back.
A chill ran through Discord´s back. He knew perfectly well that voice. It was a voice that he wished to never hear again. He slowly turned around, trembling in fear, and gasped when he saw who was standing in front of him.
“Hello son.” Grogar said with a wicked smirk.
Pinkie Pie was making her way throughout the ponies around Canterlot.
“Outta my way! Outta my way!” she cheerfully said while bouncing.
She took a glance of the castle´s garden. It was so beautifully decorated. There were colourful ribbons attached to the streetlights, the cutlery set on the tables was the fanciest Pinkie had ever seen… Everything was so gorgeous! Nonetheless, as beautiful as it was, Pinkie wasn´t completely convinced.
“Hmm… Something´s lacking here…” she murmured with her hoof under her chin.
After some time of thinking, Pinkie finally concluded.
“I know!” she exclaimed after giving a gasp. “A party cannon full of confettiiii!” she yelled as she took the cannon out of nowhere.
What Pinkie didn´t notice, however, were two unicorn mares walking in front of her. One was yellow and the other blue. So, all the confetti inside the cannon was projected on them.
“Hey, watch out!” the yellow unicorn said.
“Oopsie! Didn´t see you there.” Pinkie apologized.
“You didn´t see us here? How?! We were literally in front of you!”
The blue unicorn put his hoof on her companion.
“It´s no use, don´t you see? Earth ponies don´t understand basic things. It´s beyond their understanding.”
Pinkie heard those words.
“Hey! Are you calling me stupid?” she asked while confronting them.
The unicorn who insulted her chuckled.
“Didn´t you get it at once? That proves my point.”
“Well, miss `I´m smarter than you´, I´ll let you know that we, earth ponies, are very smart and capable of anything!”
“Ooh! For example? Harvesting? That´s the only thing you can do or were born for, deary. That´s nothing compared to magic.”
“Well. I can see things other ponies don´t.” Pinkie answered in a mysterious tone
The two unicorns raised their eyebrows
“Excuse me, what?”
“It´s pretty easy to understand, really.” Pinkie leant on one of the unicorns as she explained her abilities. “I don´t know why ponies think it´s weird. The thing is that I know that I know that there are monkey-like creatures watching us. They have witnessed all our adventures, and they know everything about us. Even our most intimate secrets.” Pinkie looked at them on the eye. “I call them… The audience.”
The unicorns, who were creeped out by Pinkie, shoved her out, throwing her to the ground.
“You´re crazy!”
“I´m not crazy. I´m Pinkie Pie.”
The yellow unicorn pulled Pinkie´s hair towards them with her magic.
“Ouch. That hurts!”
“Listen here you earth scum, we know that you have been taking us, the unicorns, for fools.”
“Why do you say that?”
The unicorn pulled harder, making Pinkie Pie complain.
“You´re harbouring all the food for yourselves, aren´t you?”
“What?”
“Leave it. This one´s dumber than the rest. She won´t give us any useful information. Come on.” The blue unicorn said to the yellow unicorn.
Finally, the unicorn let go of Pinkie´s mane and left her alone. Pinkie felt so relieved when the two of them were gone. Even though ponies had always seen her as weird, nopony had ever messed with her only for being an earth pony. It was a very strange and frightening situation.
“Did you guys see that?” Pinkie asked what she called audience. “What is wrong with them? Who messes with somepony for just being an earth pony? These ponies are craaazy.”
Suddenly, she felt something vibrating.
“Huh? Is the earth shaking?”
She looked at her tail.
“Oooh! It´s just my Pinkie sense.” Pinkie said calmly. Then, she gasped at the realization. “It´s my Pinkie sense! Something´s fishy is around here. I just know it! I´ve gotta tell the girls.
Pinkie left running. However, after a few seconds, she came back.
“Wait. You guys know the answer, right? No? Come on, you must have witnessed everything. Ok fine! I don´t need your help. Also, I don´t have time for this.”
Pinkie Pie finally went to look for her friends.
In the surroundings of Canterlot, Applejack was pulling a cart full of cider bottles. Her family and her had been working hard weeks before the coronation to produce enough cider for every creature invited. That meant Equestria, the changeling kingdom, Yakyakistan, the hipogriphs, Griffonstone, the Dragon lands… countless creatures from countless places. She was pretty sure this was the most stressful harvest she and her family had ever witnessed. Nevertheless, the results were even more satisfying. They had accomplished the biggest harvest in Equestria!
Pulling the weight of a cart full of thousands of cider bottles was somewhat livelier by the company of Big Mac. Both were dying on the inside but at least they had each other.
“A.J!” Big Mac said between pants. “I don´t think I can do this. Not anymore!”
“Come on, Big Mac.” Applejack replied, also panting. “One last effort!”
She was right. Just some more pulls and they were in Canterlot. Their exhausting journey was over. Applejack and Big Mac smiled in relief when they saw the castle front of them.
At Canterlot´s gates, there was a male pegasus soldier controlling who was passing and who wasn´t. He blocked Applejack´s and Big Mac´s way with his wing when they arrived.
“Hault! Who goes there?”
Applejack frowned. She, along her friends, has saved Equestria dozens of time. How could he not recognize her? Still, she didn´t want to cause any trouble, so she maintained her posture.
“I am Applejack, a good friend of our next ruler of Equestria, Princess Twilight Sparkle. Me and my brother bring the cider y´all love so much.”
The pegasus inspected the carts carefully, something which estranged the two siblings.
“Um… If you´re wondering, this is real cider. One hundred percent made by Sweet Apple Acres.”
“It seems like cider, yes. But the thing is… is it in real good state?”
Applejack frowned.
“What do you mean?”
“If it´s poisoned.”
Out of annoyment, Applejack made a horse noise.
“Are you suggesting that me, one of the most reliable ponies in Equestria, and the bearer of the element of honesty, is pretending to poison ponies?! Especially Princess Twilight?!”
“Yes. You can´t trust earth ponies in these days.”
“What. Did. You. Say?”
“Don´t take me for a fool, you just want all the food to yourselves. Just like so many years ago. You don´t want to share it with the other ponies. So, the only solution is to poison pegasi and unicorns. I don´t care about the unicorns but I´m not willing to let an earth pony poison the pegasi!”
After he explained his motives for not letting them in, he turned his back on them. Applejack scoffed.
“Are you hearing yourself, mate? That´s the most stupid thing I´ve ever heard!”
“Well, it is not to me. I´m not letting you enter!”
“You can´t do that. I´m Princess Twilight´s friend!”
“Like I said, I don´t care about her. I only care about the pegasi.”
“Well, I have two pegasi as friends.”
“HA! I can smell that´s a lie from miles.”
Applejack´s face turned red as she growled in frustration.
“FINE! Don´t let me enter if you want. I´ll find a way to make it in myself.”
Big Mac, who was super confused by the situation, finally spoke.
“Are you sure that´s a good idea?”
“We´ve been working weeks and we´ve also travelled miles to get these here. I ain´t giving up for some arrogant jerk.”
Big Mac sighed as he observed his sister making up plans to enter the castle.
“Whatever you say…” he muttered.
Rarity ran to the notions store, hoping it wasn´t closed.
“It has to be opened! It has to be opened!” she kept telling herself.
Luckily, her hopes came true. The shop was still opened. That was until the shop owner, who was an earth pony, saw Rarity. The earth pony gave out a yelp and immediately changed the sign from open to closed in front of Rarity. After closing the shop, she quickly hid bellow the stall.
“What the-” Rarity said to herself.
She knocked the door. Rarity could see that the shop´s owner was scared for some reason, for she took some time to answer Rarity. Finally, the owner opened the door slightly.
“Uh… excuse me, maybe I´m late and everything, but I seriously need some materials right now. So if you were so kind, could you open the shop for a moment?”
“No unicorns allowed!” the owner replied. Then, she slammed the door on Rarity´s face.
Naturally, Rarity did not take that slightly. After scoffing, she knocked the door again, in order to make sure she heard well, although deep down she knew that the owner wouldn´t be willing to talk to her. Surprisingly, she did. Once again, the shop´s owner opened the door slightly.
“Darling, did you just say that unicorns are not allowed?”
“Yes, I did.”
The owner was going to slam the door again, however, Rarity held the door with magic before she did. The earth pony showed some repulse when Rarity did that.
“May I ask why?”
The shop´s owner scoffed.
“It´s quite simple, really. You unicorns always expect us earth ponies to serve you in things you can do yourselves with your freaky magic.”
Rarity blinked in shock.
“Darling, are you hearing yourself?”
“Yes, I am. I don´t need an unicorn to tell me what I´m saying.” the earth pony laid a hoof on Rarity´s nose. Then, she started walking towards Rarity, making her walk backwards. “You think that because you have magic, you´re smarter and better than all of us! Well, let me tell you something miss unicorn: We´re very intelligent and capable of doing everything. More than you ever will! We are far more hard working than unicorns, you lazy snobs!”
Rarity gasped. Throughout her life, she´s been called many things: vain, drama queen… She could stand those. But never ever in her life she had been called lazy. No adjective belittled her work like that. That´s the reason why after the moment the earth pony called her that, she lost it.
“How dare you! Do you know how much have I worked to get where I am today? Running in the world of fashion is not an easy task! I spent entire nights to revise every little tiny detail perfect in every design. Don´t you ever call me lazy!”
The shop´s owner shrugged.
“I´m sure an earth pony would have been more hard working.”
Rarity clenched her teeth. Without realizing it, she ignited her horn. Nevertheless, she was quick to notice and stopped immediately.
“You know what? If I believed myself a superior, I would have blasted you with my magic. However, since I respect earth ponies so much, I decided not to do that.” she said with a smirk as she left.
“Oh. Since you respect us so much, then why are you spreading rumours about us harbouring all the food, huh?”
Rarity stopped walking abruptly.
“I beg your pardon?”
“Don´t play the fool around me. I saw how one of your kind said those mean things to some unicorns. Since then, every unicorn has been staring at me or wishing me harm.”
“Oh, my goodness! Tell me who said that, please. I´ll have a little chat with them.” Rarity opened her bag and took out a fountain pen and a notebook. “Would you kindly describe them?”
The earth pony threw Rarity´s notebook and fountain pen.
“Ha! Nice try, you just want to take some information out of me so you can tell your unicorn fellows about this.”
“No. I´m just trying to-”
“Get away from my shop.”
“But.”
“GET AWAY FROM MY SHOP!” her yell was so loud that it threw Rarity to the ground.
After yelling at Rarity, the shop´s owner slammed the door.
“How rude! I am certainly telling the girls about these nasty rumours about earth ponies.” she said as got up and kept her notebook and fountain pen inside her bag.
“Ok. This is it. The day my best friend gets crowned.” Rainbow Dash said to her wonderbolt comrades.
“I thought Applejack was your best friend.” a wonderbolt interrupted her.
“Well, one of my closest friends. Which means this is our last rehearsal. Remember, this performance must be the most awesome performance ever!”
“Thanks for the pressure, Dash.” Soarin said jokingly.
“No. I´m giving the most awesome and inspiring speech ever given to the wonderbolts. Spitfire is the one who only does pressure.”
The wonderbolts snickered at Rainbow´s comment. Spitfire shrugged.
“It´s true, though.” she said.
“And to assure you that I´m not pressuring, let me tell you that I´m pretty confident that we´ll do perfectly. We´ve been practicing this for weeks! There´s nothing to worry about.”
Rainbow´s chill attitude changed when she saw Spitfire raising her eyebrow. She cleared her throat.
“Still, I expect nothing but your discipline and the best you can give. Is that clear?”
“Yes ma´am.” the wonderbolts raised their hoofs to their foreheads.
“When I blow the whistle, you take off. Understood.”
“Yes, ma´am.”
“Louder!”
“Yes, ma´am!”
“LOUDEEEEER!”
“YES, MA´AAAM!”
As soon as Rainbow blew the whistle, no single wonderbolt was in the ground. Well, no wonderbolt except Spitfire. She had to talk to Rainbow.
“So, how did I do it?” Rainbow asked with a huge grin on her face.
“Not bad. Although, next time don´t be that laid-back.” Spitfire advised.
Rainbow blushed and chuckled.
“Yeah… sorry about that.”
Spitifire smiled at her and nodded. Then, she spread her wings and flew. Rainbow paid attention to every pirouette and analysed them, making sure it was perfect. And so far, it was going great. The only thing lacking was her Sonic Rainboom, but she wasn´t worried about that. She was more than confident that she would nail it. Her time was getting nearer, nearer, and just when her clew arrived, something happened.
“Hey you, pegasus!” a masculine voice yelled from behind.
Rainbow, who had her wings spread, and was ready to fly, turned her head back. There were two male earth ponies calling her. One was green and the other was brown. Seeing that she had to talk to those ponies, she flew towards them, instead of joining the rest of their wonderbolts.
“What is she doing?” Spitifire asked to herself, seeing that she wasn´t joining them.
The other wonderbolts shrugged. They watched the scene in detail from the clouds.
“Yeah? Is there anything wrong?” Rainbow asked once she reached the earth ponies.
“First of all, don´t fly! Flying is a pegasi form to express that they´re better than us.” The brown earth pony complained.
Rainbow snickered.
“Really? How so?”
“You´re looking down at us. Literally.”
Rainbow raised an eyebrow confused. Applejack, nor Pinkie Pie were bothered when she talked to them while flying. No earth pony she talked to twitched an eye on that! However, if they felt that way, she had no choice.
“Ok.” she said while she flew down. “Let´s get down to business, what´s the matter?”
“We know about your plan!” the green earth pony said as she touched Rainbow´s nose.
“What plan?”
“Why, the messing the weather up plan, of course! For some reason, you don´t want earth ponies to succeed in their crops. So, in order to achieve that, you want to change the weather to make it impossible for our crops to grow!”
Rainbow snickered and gave out a huge laugh. She was laughing so hard that she felt to the ground.
“Oh my goodness, I can´t breathe! That´s one of the best jokes I´ve ever heard, really.”
Rainbow had her eyes closed, so she didn´t notice the earth ponies´ expressions. When she opened them, she saw that they were frowning and angry. That´s when she knew they weren´t joking.
“Wait. You´re serious.”
“Of course we´re serious!” the brown earth pony exclaimed furious. “I knew your kind couldn´t be trusted. You never take things seriously!”
“I do take things seriously, and so do all pegasi.” Rainbow Dash said with a serious tone. “But what you´re saying is one of the most stupid things I´ve ever heard! We´re not plotting anything against you.”
“If that´s true, then what are your pegasi friends doing up there, huh?” the green earth pony pointed at the wonderbolts.
“Rehearsiiiing. For Twilight´s coronation. We´re the wonderbolts, for goodness sake! We´re always doing this.”
The brown earth pony gasped and hid behind his friend.
“So it´s true. You´ve allied with the unicorns to destroy us!”
Rainbow scoffed.
“Wha- Are you hearing yourself?”
“Dash!” Spitfire yelled from the sky. “Are you coming out or not?”
Rainbow would have kept arguing with those earth ponies, but Spitfire reminded her that she had better things to do.
“Look, I don´t have time for you two. I´ve gotta practice.”
“Yeah, go on with your plans. If we find one of you, we´ll make sure that you won´t have those wings no more.” the green earth pony told Rainbow as she left.
Rainbow stopped flying. At first, she thought they were two harmless prejudiced earth ponies. They did sound like morons, to be honest! However, just after they said that, she knew they were dangerous. She shivered when she imagined what would happen if they caught an innocent pegasus. Specially Fluttershy!
Seeing that Rainbow wasn´t coming, the wonderbolts flew to her.
“Hey, are you alright?” Soarin asked concerned when he saw Rainbow´s face.
“What were they telling you?” another wonderbolt asked.
Other wonderbolts comforted her by putting a hoof on her shoulder.
“Those two… They don´t like us. They want to harm pegasi.”
Rainbow was convinced that if they were going to Canterlot, they would find Fluttershy. She didn´t wanto to imagine the rest. Instead, she needed to take action.
“I´ve gotta go.”
“Dash!” Spitifre called her out. “Where are you going?”
“To Canterlot! I have to see if Fluttershy is alright.”
“But what about the rehearsal?” a wonderbolt asked.
“Keep practising! I´ll catch up with you guys.”
Fluttershy flew around Canterlot, looking for her friends. Meanwhile, she paid attention to her surroundings, like Discord told her to. She was a bit nervous of not getting the slightest detail or not being able to see anything weird at first, however after going round Canterlot for some time, she did see weird things.
Ponies walking around had grumpy faces. Or were avoiding ponies from a different species. For example, she saw an earth pony changing sidewalk when she saw Fluttershy flying towards her direction. In the worst of cases, ponies were arguing for no reason or calling each other by their species´ name.
“There sure are weird behaviours today…” Fluttershy told the birds while raising an eyebrow. “Could this be related to what Discord said?”
She was so distracted assessing the situation, that she didn´t notice the two unicorn guards in front of her, bumping against them as a result.
“Oh my! I´m so sorry. Didn´t see you there.” she apologized gently.
One guard fixed his helmet, while the other paid attention to the encaged birds.
“Are those Celestia´s birds?” he asked.
“Um… Yes?”
The two guards looked at each other and nodded in determination.
“You have to come with us.” a guard said while holding her wing with his magic. “Be careful, she´s a pegasus. Pegasi are brutes.” He told the other guardian.
“Ouch! But why?”
The other guard held her other wing. He was holding it tightly, so she clenched her teeth.
“How did you steal them?”
Fluttershy gasped.
“Steal?!” she asked annoyed. “For your information, I asked Celestia permission to borrow them to do a surprise for Twilight´s coronation.”
“Pegasi don´t ask permission.”
“They steal.”
Fluttershy looked at the tow guards and then she looked at her birds.
“I´m so confused.” she told them.
Fluttershy couldn´t believe that those two guards were just capturing her just because she was a pegasus. Something must have made them think that way. She could figure out all those weird behaviours by getting to the heart of the issue. So, she decided to ask them.
“Um… Excuse me. Why do you have the assumption that pegasi steal things? Because… I am pegasus, and um… we don´t do that.”
A guard scoffed.
“You tell me. You´re the pegasus.”
Fluttershy was starting to lose her patience.
“And because I am a pegasus, I can assure you that we´re no thieves.”
“Yeah, right. Tell that to your ancestors. They used to steal all the time. And now, you´re doing that again!” the other guard said.
“That was many moons ago. Times have changed, and now we work for own resources. We don´t steal.”
The guards laughed.
“Do you believe her?”
“Of course I don´t. I don´t trust brutish thieves.”
“I. Am. Not. A. Brutish. THIEF!”
Fluttershy kicked both guards on the legs with all her strength. From the pain, they released her. She flew away as fast as she could. The guards chased her, limping somewhat.
“Come back here pegasus!”
Fluttershy saw a hiding spot in a dark corner. She bended inside the darkness, hugging the birdcage as tight as she could and hoping they wouldn´t see her. Luckily, they didn´t. They only passed by. Once they were away from sight, Fluttershy inclined slightly. She sighed in relief.
“What were they thinking? Arresting me just because I am a pegasus.” she said in indignation.
The birds shook their heads, also indignant by the guards´ actions. Fluttershy gasped.
“What if something similar happened to my friends? Ponies are very intolerant towards each other today. I must warn them.”
Fluttershy was getting ready to start flying but the birds started tweeting. They were reminding her about the guardians.
“Oh you´re right. I can´t fly around just like that after what happened. And I can´t walk just like that either. Oh… What am I to do?”
While she was thinking, she saw an old abandoned dark blue cloth and a rope. She raised her eyebrow and smirked.
“Hmm…”
“Come on, A.J. You can do this.” Applejack told herself.
She took the lasso with her mouth. She span it and threw it to the top of the wall, in hopes that it would get stuck in a battlement. She had made so many attempts, and all of them failed. But she wasn´t giving up. She knew that sooner or later, the lasso had to get stuck. And luckily, it did. Applejack gasped in contentment.
“Yeehaw! Big Mac! I finally did it. I finally did it! Didn´t I tell you I would make it?” she yelled out to her brother.
Big Mac´s expression went from seriousness to surprise. He nervously smiled at her sister. On the one hoof he was happy for his sister, but on the other hoof he was concerned about her safety. However, he knew that as much as he tried to convince her, Applejack wouldn´t change her mind. So, he stayed quiet.
Meanwhile, Applejack grabbed the rope tightly with her hoofs and began to climb. She went up slowly and carefully, step by step. The top was getting closer, and closer.
“Almost there.” Applejack muttered in determination.
But something interfered to reach her goal.
“A.J?” a feminine voice asked from bellow.
Applejack recognized that voice and gasped.
“It can´t be.”
She lowered her head and saw a yellow earth pony waving her hoof.
“A.J!” she exclaimed.
Applejack gasped, and from the excitement, she let go of the rope.
“Meghan!” she exclaimed cheerfully.
However, her happiness went away once she realized she wasn´t grabbing the rope.
“Uh oh.”
She yelled as she fell to the ground. Fortunately, Meghan caught her on time.
“Phew!” Applejack cleaned the sweat on her forehead. “Thank you, Meghan.”
“You´re welcome.” Meghan replied.
She caught Applejack´s hat and handled it to her.
“Didn´t know you were part of the royal guard.” Applejack said to her as she put her hat on.
Meghan blushed.
“After so many years, my dream came true.” she sighed melancholically. “I still remember playing as a knight when we were kids. My papa would be so proud.”
Meghan realized that she was getting lost on her memories and shook her head. She cleared her throat.
“Sorry about that. You know how I am. I remember something and I disconnect from the world. I almost forgot what I was going to tell you!”
“It´s ok, Meg. What did you have to tell me?”
“Why were you climbing the wall? You know that the gate´s always open.” Meghan said with a smile.
“Huh. Tell that to Mr pegasus.” Applejack pointed at the pegasus guard.
“What about him?”
“He doesn´t let me in because he thinks that the cider my family and I have been working so hard on, is poisoned.”
“Your cider. Poisoned.”
Applejack nodded. Meghan scoffed.
“That´s just stupid.”
“I know, right?”
“Why would he ever think that?”
“Because he thinks that earth ponies want the good food to themselves and that we´re trying to wipe out pegasi by poisoning them.”
“He told you that?”
“Yup.”
Meghan blinked and then frowned in indignation.
“Don´t worry. I know how to handle this. Come along.”
Meghan went to confront the guard, Applejack following behind.
“You!” Meghan took the guard by the beard. “Are you seriously not letting enter my friend just because she is an earth pony? Really?! Didn´t your mother teach you respect?!”
“An earth pony on the guard? How? Don´t they know how dangerous that is?”
“Exactly!” Meghan widened her eyes. “Well, actually no. Earth ponies aren´t dangerous. But I can be a dangerous one if you keep treating my friend like that! Understood?!” she pulled the pegasus´ beard harder.
The pegasus had no other choice than obey. He nodded. Once Meghan released his beard, he left the scene in a matter of seconds.
“Yeehaw! Well done, Meghan! That was impressive.”
Meghan blushed.
“Oh, it wasn´t that much…” she laughed nervously.
“Applejack, darling!” a voice exclaimed from the distance.
The two friends turned around and saw Rarity.
“Rarity? What are you doing here?” Applejack asked confused as she approached Rarity. “I thought you were busy doing Twilight´s dress.”
“I was. However, I had a little problem with the sewing machine and had to go to get new materials. But the shop owner.” Rarity rolled her eyes. “Oof, that mare! She didn´t let me enter because I was an unicorn.”
Applejack made a horse noise.
“What?”
“It happened to you too?”
“Don´t tell me the same happened to you.”
“Actually, yes. A pegasus guard thought that my cider was poisoned. Apparently, he thinks that earth ponies are trying to poison everypony to keep the food.”
“Oh my goodness! This is much worse than I imagined.”
“Wait. You know what happened?”
Their conversation was interrupted by Rainbow Dash, who landed between them.
“Girls! Did you see Fluttershy?”
“No. Sorry, sugarcube.” A.J answered.
“Why are you looking for Fluttershy, dear? Rarity asked concerned.
“She´s in danger! There are two earth ponies who want to cut any pegasus´ wing!”
“What?” Applejack and Rarity asked in chorus.
“I must find her immediately!” Rainbow lowered her eyelids. “I hope they haven´t reached her.”
In the meantime, Meghan watched the three friends chatting from the distance.
“So those are Applejack´s friends… They seem nice.” she said to herself.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a little bump.
“Oh dear….” a hooded pony muttered.
The hooded pony took some steps backwards.
“It´s ok.” Meghan reassured the pony. “Nopony is arrested for bumping into a guard. May I help you?” she said with a warm smile.
The hooded pony´s worried eyes became calm and full of relief.
“Wait. Let me get this staright.” Rainbow said. “Everypony´s hostile against everypony?”
“It seems so, yes.” Applejack confirmed.
“And I might have an answer for that.” Rarity claimed.
“Girls? I´m so sorry to interrupt but here´s-”
Rainbow and Rarity became defensive.
“What do you want?” Rainbow asked in an accusing tone. “Do you want to cut my wings?”
“Or are you going to expel us from Canterlot because we´re not earth ponies?” Rarity asked as she ignited her horn, ready to fire in case things went wrong.
“Girls, girls!” Applejack stood on their way. “She´s no foe! She´s Meghan, a friend of mine. She´s with us.”
“Oh. Sorry.” Rainbow apologized.
“Me too.” Rarity stopped glowing her horn.
“It´s ok.” said Meghan. “I would have acted like that if somepony had treated me like that. Anyways, as I was saying, here´s somepony who wants to talk to you.
“Oh girls, I´m so glad to see you!” the pony in cover said, while removing the cloth.
“Fluttershy! Oh, I´m so glad to see you´re ok.” Rainbow hugged Flutttershy. Fluttershy hugged in return.
“Why on earth are you wearing that?”
“Because…” Fluttershy sighed. “I kicked two unicorn guards.”
The four ponies were left astonished.
“Really? You? Of all ponies?” Rainbow asked. She couldn´t believe that Fluttershy did that.
“Oh… I didn´t want to do it, I swear. But they were calling me a brutish thief and they said that I stole Celestia´s birds. All of it because I was a pegasus.”
“Wow. The royal guard is sure behaving like real jerks today.” said Rainbow. “No offense, Meghan.”
“Don´t even apologize. I quite agree with all of you.” Meghan reassured Rainbow. “Fluttershy, now that you were talking about the birds, where are they?”
“Here.” Fluttershy removed the cloth to show that she had the birdcage tied around her back. “Are you ok?” she asked to the birds.
The birds nodded. Fluttershy smiled back at them.
“Rarity, you said that you knew why this is all happening. Care to tell us?” Applejack said.
“Why, yes of course. Apparently, the shop´s owner told me that an unicorn was responsible for spreading those nasty rumours about earth ponies. And based on what you told me, it´s not too far-fetched to say that this unicorn might have also spread rumours about pegasi as well.”
“And what about the unicorn´s rumours?” asked Rainbow.
Rarity stayed silent.
“I have no idea.”
“We´ll look for the responsible for the rumours about unicorns, later. We must do something about that unicorn! I´ll tell Princess Twilight about this.” Meghan stamped her hoof against the ground.
“Yeah!” everypony said.
“Girls! Now that you´re going, could you take the birdcage?” Fluttershy asked.
Meghan nodded, untied the rope, took the birdcage and the rope, and asked Applejack to tie the birdcage to her.
“You´re not coming?” Rarity asked.
“I´m going to warn Discord.”
“But why Discord? The only thing he´ll do is shake things up, like he always does.” Rainbow said.
Fluttershy frowned.
“Hey! He´s the one who told me to look for something strange, and these behaviours are quite strange, if you ask me. He´s not sure if he´s right, but I think he´s right about something bigger happening. Something bad, very bad. He needs our help to make sure his predictions are right.”
“I think it´s only his imagination.” Rainbow theorised. “Who knows? His mind is pretty chaotic.”
“Yeah, maybe.” Applejack agreed.
“Could be, yes.” Rarity also agreed.
“You don´t believe him, do you? Girls, when are you going to trust Discord? Maybe he´s a bit odd and sometimes has trouble understanding friendship, but he´s not a monster with bad intentions! He´s trying to improve. Each time I talk to him, he becomes more honest. Don´t you remember that the whole Spike incident began because of his honesty? I´m pretty sure if Pinkie was the one sensing something much bigger, you wouldn´t doubt it.”
“But Pinkie is not here.” stated Rainbow. “So there´s no need to worry about something bigger.”
Suddenly, Pinkie appeared out of nowhere.
“MY PINKIE SENSE IS TINGLING!”
“Oh no.” Rainbow flew towards Pinkie. The others also approached Pinkie. Fluttershy followed them behind after rolling her eyes.
“What is it Pinkie?” Rarity asked.
“Something´s wrong.”
“Well, yeah. We know that already. Ponies are being hostile against each other.” Rainbow said sarcastically.
“No no! Something much bigger.”
Fluttershy gave Rainbow an angry glance for doubting Discord. Rainbow laughed nervously.
“Ok. He was telling the truth.”
“Something bigger? Do you know what that is?” Applejack asked.
“Actually, I don´t know. And you know why? Because the audience won´t tell me.”
“The what now?” Meghan whispered in Applejack´s ear.
“It´s Pinkie Pie. Don´t try to understand her because it´s impossible.” Applejack whispered in return.
“It doesn´t matter why, Pinkie. We must tell Twilight. NOW!” Rarity said.
“You tell Twilight and I tell Discord. I´ll see you on the castle.” Fluttershy added as she took the cloth and covered herself.
The ponies nodded their heads and split to their destinies.