Several weeks have passed since Twilight Sparkle returned from the Castle of the Two Sisters with Spiracle. In that time, she has done her best to follow the advice practically everypony close to her has given her, finally opting to spend more time focusing on the present and less fretting over a future that she cannot rush. To this end, she has devoted much of her time to Rainbow Dash and finally establishing their relationship in a more formal way. During her time with the pegasus she never would have imagined herself falling in love with, her anxieties have seemed to be drifting further and further away.
Alas, not even Rainbow’s soothing presence is enough to chase away her fears in full. Subdued though they may be, they still linger in the depths of her mind, simmering softly and waiting for the time when they might make themselves known again...
Twilight’s breath came in heaving gasps as she galloped down the road. Sweat poured down her brow, her lungs strained for air, and her legs burned with every step she took. It was dark out, or very nearly, with only the faintest hints of sunlight breaching the distant horizon. The world around her was very quiet, to the point that, save for her own labored breaths, the only sound audible was that of her hooves pummeling the soil, and those of another’s just to her side.
She grit her teeth and focused forward, pumping even more power into her legs. She couldn’t afford to let anything distract her. She had to move faster! If she didn’t, then-
“Aaand I win!” Rainbow’s voice declared from her left as the pegasus pulled ahead at the last second, crossing their arbitrary finish line in Ponyville’s marketplace with a whoop and an only slightly awkward front flip.
Twilight slid to a stop, gasping for breath and glaring at the pegasus in spite. “Ugh. Darn you! I was this close to winning!” she complained, using the tips of her feathers to emphasize her point.
Rainbow took a breath and smirked back at her with a shine in her eyes. “Yeah, you were. Gave me a run for my money,” she acknowledged between her own labored breaths. “But ya still got a long way to go before you can match my speed.”
Twilight puffed up her cheeks indignantly, then dragged herself over to slump against a tree that sat beside the road. Rainbow joined her a second later, reaching into a pair of saddlebags she was wearing to withdraw a couple of bottles of water. She passed one to Twilight while keeping the other for herself.
Twilight sighed as she took the bottle. “I guess… I just thought I’d be faster by now, you know?” she asked quietly. “I mean, we’ve been running together like this for how long?”
“A while,” Rainbow answered vaguely, shrugging her shoulders. “But ya gotta remember, you were out cold for a few days there back in Canterlot. Your muscles kinda lost some progress during that.”
“Oh, right,” Twilight muttered, her brow furrowing at the subtle reminder of her little stint with unconsciousness after returning the Elements to the Tree of Harmony. She had almost died doing that, she recalled. Then, of course, pretty much as soon as she woke, up she went and turned into Midnight and everything just spiraled out of control after that.
Thankfully, Rainbow didn’t give Twilight much of a chance to get lost in the past. The pegasus reached over and gave her a friendly nudge, smiling. “But hey, you’re definitely getting better. Who knows? A few more weeks of you really pushing your limits and you might actually get faster than me on the ground!”
Twilight returned the smile. “Heh. What about in the air?”
“You’re an alicorn, so that’s cheating, and we don’t count that,” Rainbow dismissed matter-of-factly.
Twilight snorted in amusement. “Cheating?” she asked playfully, leaning over slightly and lowering her voice. “Oh, it sounds to me like you’re just a little jealous…”
Rainbow rolled her eyes before turning and poking Twilight directly on the nose with her hoof, causing the alicorn to go cross-eyed and shut up. “Nah.”
A few seconds passed before Twilight shook her head and puffed up her cheeks in mild annoyance. “Oh, why you…” she muttered under her breath. Rainbow’s smirk did not let up in the slightest.
Before the situation could ‘deteriorate’ any farther, a high-pitched gasp echoed through the air from not far away. Twilight recognized that voice and immediately braced herself before turning her head to face the source.
“Dashie! Twily!” Pinkie Pie squealed from the now open door of Sugarcube Corner, her mouth stretched wide into an ecstatic grin. “Oh, sweet! I didn’t know you two would be here this early! This totally saves me, like, thirty seconds!”
Rainbow raised a hoof in greeting. “Sup?”
Twilight tilted her head. “Saves you thirty seconds?”
Pinkie vibrated for a second before perking up as if remembering something. “Oh! Wait, hold on a sec!” she declared before sprinting back inside. Twilight stared at the doorway for a moment, narrowing her eyes expectantly. She picked a number in her head and began counting down.
“Six… Five… Four… Three… Two… One-”
Pinkie Pie came sprinting back out, a miniature tray balanced on her back with six vibrant blue cupcakes on it. She slid to a stop in front of the two resting mares. “Sorry, had to get your cupcakes!” she said, setting two of the cupcakes down in front of them.
“Cupcakes? This early in the morning?” Rainbow asked with a raised eyebrow. She did not refuse hers, though, taking it without hesitation.
Twilight frowned as she looked over hers. “It’s Pinkie. Sugar is good for literally any meal of the day.”
Pinkie nodded emphatically. “Uh-huh! Eat up, you two! I wish I could stay and chat, but I gotta bounce! Gotta deliver these to the rest of our friends!” she sang before replacing her tray on her back and sprinting off at a full-tilt gallop, soon fading from sight.
Rainbow and Twilight shared a bewildered glance. A second passed before they both shrugged at the same time and dug into their newly acquired snacks. It would probably completely undo all of the calories they had just burned off from their run—and then some—knowing Pinkie Pie. It was worth it, though, as far as Twilight was concerned.
She was proven correct as she sank her teeth into the soft, moist, delightfully sweet frosting. A little shiver wiggled its way down her spine at the divine taste. Ever and always, Pinkie was the finest baker Twilight had ever met. So good was the little pastry, in fact, that Twilight’s usual table mannerisms decided now was an appropriate time to take a vacation, much as they did whenever Spike was brave enough to make her hayburgers.
As she began to mercilessly devour her cupcake, Rainbow leaned slightly away from her with a face that couldn’t decide if it was entertained or a little scared. Nevertheless, she gave a tiny smile. “Heh. Jeez, Twi. You hungry?”
“Shush. Cupcake,” Twilight dismissed through the food in her mouth before going in for yet another bite. As her teeth bit into it again, though, she paused. There was something else in the cupcake. Something that was decidedly not as tasty as the rest of it. It was long, soggy, and felt exceptionally out of place.
Resisting the urge to gag, Twilight pulled back and stared at the offensive ingredient with a critical eye. She blinked in confusion when she saw that it was, in fact, a narrow slip of paper. “...What the hay?”
“What? What is it?” Rainbow asked before taking another chomp out of hers. Judging by the scrunched up face she made afterward, Twilight knew she had found the same thing.
“That,” Twilight said simply. Her horn lit up, and she carefully extracted her own piece of paper in her magic. There was something written on it.
“Pinkie Pie is assembling the squad! Please meet in her room in Sugarcube Corner at your earliest convenience!
P.S: Sorry about the paper in the cupcakes. There are more in the room. One for everypony!”
“So… we’re ‘the squad,’ now?” Rainbow asked with a hint of mirth as she cast aside her slip. “What’s Pinkie want us for? Something come up, you think?”
Twilight hummed in thought, turning the slip this way and that in curiosity. Eventually, she shrugged, rolled it up, and rose to her hooves. “With that mare, who knows? But let’s go see what she wants. She went to all the effort of bribing us with more cupcakes, and I, for one, don’t intend to refuse.”
Rainbow snorted, following Twilight for the door. “Wow. You that easy?”
“When it’s Pinkie’s cooking,” Twilight said as they stepped aside, flinging her rolled up ball of damp paper into a trashcan nearby. “Always.”
Just like Pinkie promised, there were yet more cupcakes to be had in the second-floor room that served as Pinkie’s bedroom. It wasn’t long after Rainbow and Twilight took theirs and got comfortable that the others began to pile in, one at a time. Each looked suitably tired for the hour, frazzled by Pinkie’s all-too-early exuberance and grumpy from the unexplained summons.
First came Rarity who, in spite of her best efforts, was unable to hide her exhaustion from the rest of the room. If Twilight had to guess, she would assume that the fashion designer must have been in the middle of some multi-day project and was behind on her sleep. It would go a long way in explaining her sagging posture and the fact that her makeup was not at all up to standard.
Then came Fluttershy, who was far more animated than the unicorn. Though still clearly waking up, she at least had the energy to sit down with Twilight and Rainbow and strike up a conversation. It was mostly mindless small talk and idle speculation about what in Celestia’s name Pinkie Pie was up to. Their theories ranged from the mundane to the comically absurd.
One such idea was that Pinkie’s pet alligator, Gummy, secretly wanted to take over the world and Pinkie was assembling his greatest threats in one place so they could all be eliminated at once. Rainbow in particular took that idea and just ran with it for far longer than was needed, really diving into the details.
“Hey, if you’re so into the idea, why don’t you write it?” Twilight jokingly asked, interrupting Rainbow just as she was getting to the part about evil crystals powering a coffee machine.
Rainbow paused and glanced over at Twilight with a wrinkled muzzle. “What? Me? Write? Ya do know who you’re talking to, right? I’m not an egghead writer.”
“Coulda fooled me,” Twilight replied with her lips curling up into a predatory smirk. “With the creative tangent you’ve been on? You could write a whole series of silly short stories around that concept.”
Rainbow spluttered incoherently for a moment, her wings ruffling at her sides. “Well, I mean, y-yeah, but… having a good idea isn’t the same thing as, ya know, making it good.”
“Hm, Fair,” Twilight conceded with a shrug. “Knowing you, you’d need an editor… or twelve.”
“Hey!”
Before Rainbow’s indignation could be acted upon, Pinkie Pie and Applejack finally entered the room, the former leading the way while the latter pronked along cheerily behind her.
“Pinkie snared y’all too, huh?” Applejack asked with a tired smile.
“Oh, um, I don’t know if snared is the right word, but… yes,” Fluttershy replied.
“Naw, she just lured us here with sugary treats,” Rainbow replied casually, leaning back in her place. She turned her attention to the pink mare in question and nodded in greeting. “So, Pinks. What’s going on? What’cha need all of us for?”
“Yes, I would quite like to know that as well,” Rarity agreed with a curt nod, drawing Twilight’s attention to how one or two hairs in her mane were out of line.
Pinkie Pie happily cantered into the center of the room before slowly spinning in a circle, as if to ensure she had everyone’s attention. Then, once she was sure she had them all focused, she spoke.
“I’ve called you all here because my big sister Maud is coming to Ponyville in a few days to spend the week with me and I need all of you to help me prepare everything I’m gonna need!” she belted out in one long breath.
Applejack raised an eyebrow. “Huh. Pinkie bein’ to the point. Never thought Ah’d see the day.”
Twilight hummed in thought, tapping a hoof to her chin. “Maud, Maud… I don’t think I’ve heard of that one, yet…”
“Oh, she is the best!” Pinkie declared while thrusting her hoof into the air. “She’s super smart and likes poetry like you, Twilight! she’s really strong and fast, like Rainbow and Applejack! She has a pet she loves to bits and takes good care of, like you Fluttershy! And she’s totally into fashion, like you Rarity!”
Rarity’s eyes widened. “Oh, is that so? My oh my, that is quite an impressive assortment of skills and traits, Pinkie Pie. She sounds remarkable!”
“Darn straight!” Pinkie replied with a sharp nod and happy quiver of her tail.
“Okay, so- what was her name again? Maud?” Rainbow asked slowly.
“Ya-huh!”
“Okay, so, Maud’s pretty awesome according to you, that’s great. But, uh… why do you need all of our help?”
Pinkie turned to Rainbow, bouncing in place with a mixture of excitement and anxiety. “Because, Dashie, I haven’t had a chance to pick up all of the things I need! I don’t have all of the rock candy I need to make her rock candy necklace!”
There was a moment of silence. Fluttershy leaned in. “Um… Rock candy necklace?”
Pinkie Pie nodded. “Mm-hmm! Here, lemme show ya,” she said while withdrawing a notebook and a pencil from her mane with a hoof. She took the pencil in her mouth and quickly began to sketch.
After a second, she spat away the pencil and held the notebook out for all to see, revealing a series of simple-yet-charming depictions of Pinkie and another mare, presumably Maud.
“It all started when Maud and I were fillies on the rock farm,” Pinkie began, pointing to the first sketch, which showed off a crude, but charming, view of a farm in the middle of a largely-barren field surrounded by big boulders.
“Ah never really got the point of rock farms, to be honest,” Rainbow said with a shrug of her shoulders. “I mean… you can’t eat rocks.”
“Not with that attitude you can’t!” Pinkie shot back.
Twilight chuckled before nudging Rainbow in the side and whispering in her ear. “Rock farms are basically just another word for a permanent home for miners. They’re built in regions that are exceedingly rich in natural mineral resources, like metals and precious gems but are otherwise too inhospitable to sustain a large community like a city. Rock farmers are ponies, typically earth ponies, with enough endurance and survival knowledge to survive in environments like that while getting at the rare and highly sought after resources right beneath their hooves.”
“Oh… so, Pinkie’s a miner, then,” Rainbow confirmed slowly.
“Her family’s a mining family,” Twilight clarified. “But we all know she’s a baker.”
“Kay, I think I gotcha,” Rainbow said before nodding back at Pinkie. “Sorry, you were saying?”
Pinkie took that as her cue to continue and went on, pointing to the next picture in line. “You see, when I was reeeaaally little, Maud taught me the Pie family rock candy recipe. She even told me the secret ingredient! Which is a secret, but it’s totally rocks.”
Applejack snorted in amusement. “Sounds like somethin’ Spike’d like.”
“Oh, absolutely!” Pinkie agreed, pointing to the next sketch that showed her and Maud dropping large pieces of colorful candy onto a needle on a string that was three times their size. “But anyway, after that, she showed me how to string them together into a necklace! And once we were finished, we’d trade!”
Pinkie closed the notebook and stashed it back in her mane. “Maud and I have been trading rock candy necklaces ever since I moved to Ponyville. They’re how we make sure we’re always on each other’s minds, and that no matter how far away I am from her or the farm, she’s still my big sister and bestest friend!”
“Aaaw, that’s a real sweet lil tradition there, Pinkie Pie,” Applejack said, a warm smile replacing her groggy frown.
“It certainly is,” Rarity agreed. She leaned forward, her smile being replaced by a skeptical frown. “But, and not to be rude, Pinkie, darling… are you positive you require our aid to make one for her?”
Pinkie turned to Rarity and tilted her head. “Well, I’m not making one just for Maud, silly! It’d mean the world to me if you could all meet Maud when she turns up! Ever since the Plundervines—and even since all of that sad stuff with Chrysalis and the Empire—she’s been super duper worried about me all the time! I want her to meet all of you and get to be friends with you! That way, not only does my sister get to have five of the very best friends a mare could ask for, but she also gets to see that, with all of you, I’ve never been better, and she really doesn’t need to worry about me so much! And with how much she has in common with all of you, I just know you’re all gonna be getting along great!”
“And to commemorate that,” Twilight went on, the realization clicking into place. “You’re going to want all of us to trade necklaces too?”
“Not quite, though that is a fantastic idea!” Pinkie replied without missing a beat. “What I’m actually gonna do is make one for each of you, too! It’s a super special tradition in my family, something only the closest of ponies share, so showing Maud that I can share it with all of you will let her know that I have the best ponies in the world looking out for me!”
Pinkie turned in place, her eager smile slowly morphing into a more uneasy grimace. “Buuut… she’s gonna be here in, like, two days. And If I’m gonna make and taste-test enough rock candy to find the perfect flavors for each of you, I’m not gonna be able to do it all on time!”
“Oh, so that’s what ya want our help with?” Applejack asked, raising an eyebrow. “Making the candy?”
“Goodness, how much candy do you need if it will take six of us?” Rarity asked, taken aback.
Pinkie spun around to face her. “Yes!”
“Yeah, saw that comin’,” Rainbow muttered under her breath with an amused smirk.
Twilight giggled at that, not quite picking it up as Pinkie began to go into a long-winded spiel about different flavors and how to make them. A few seconds passed before Fluttershy suddenly intervened, trotted timidly up to Pinkie, and putting a hoof on her chest to stop her. “Pinkie Pie, um… maybe you’re working yourself up a little too much over this?”
“Yeah,” Rainbow agreed, glancing sideways at Twilight again. “Like, ‘Twilight with a late return’ worked up.”
Twilight’s face lit up with red, her eyes glaring daggers into Rainbow’s very soul. “Wha- HEY!”
Rainbow snickered before leaning back in her spot and casually throwing her hooves behind her head. “I get that this tradition is a big deal Pinkie, but I gotta agree with Flutters on this one. You’re kinda overthinking it.”
“Ya don’t need a mountain of rock candy,” Applejack agreed with a nod. “Ya know yer sister better than any of us. And ya know all of us really well, too. Ah don’t think yer gonna need as much help as yer makin’ it out to be.”
“We’d be delighted to meet Maud, though,” Rarity chimed in. “Perhaps we could arrange to meet her in the grassy hills just past the train station? The view of the mountains is simply divine—an ideal place for a picnic!”
Pinkie looked around at everypony for a moment before taking in a long, deep breath, then letting it out in a relaxed sigh. “Whooo… Thanks, guys. I’m just really excited cause I haven’t seen her in a while and I’m really nervous because she’s always so worried about me over here after everything we went through. I just don’t want her to keep worrying so much, and I really want her to meet all of you and like you and know that I’m okay so she doesn’t have to feel so worried for me.”
“Pinkie, Pinkie,” Twilight cut in gently, bringing the mare’s tangent to a halt. She smiled gingerly at her before nodding. “We understand. And we’d love to meet her.”
“She’s coming in a few days, right?” Rainbow asked.
“Uh-huh. The day after tomorrow, if her train doesn’t get delayed.”
“Well, then that gives you plenty of time to whip up the rock candy,” Applejack said with a nod. “And while Ah don’t think ya need the mountain ya were makin’ it out to be, Ah wouldn’t mind helpin’ with a batch or two. Apple Bloom could use the treat if ya don’t mind me takin’ some home.”
“Much the same for Sweetie Belle,” Rarity agreed. “The poor dear’s been having nightmares ever since those Plundervines came through town…”
Pinkie smiled at all of them, beaming from ear to ear. “Eeee! Thank you girls so much! We don’t have any time to lose!” she declared before turning and sprinting down the stairs at full speed. “Follow me, everypony! We got ROCKS to make!”
Twilight rolled her eyes at Pinkie’s enthusiasm, falling into stride with the others as they descended the steps. A nice distraction was just what she needed, and this was proving to be pretty distracting.
“Trying to forget me already?”
Twilight briefly froze at that tell-tale whisper. She shook her head, doing her best to push it aside, and followed after the others, ready and eager to lose herself in the chaos that was anything involving Pinkie Pie.