//------------------------------// // 111. The Smokey Mountains // Story: My Little Pony - The Legend of Friendship // by Danieru //------------------------------// At the Iron Hammer... In the middle of the day, Star Twinkle and Steel Hammer were setting up everything for the rest of their workday. Steel Hammer was carrying a cart filled with tools and wooden boards and pulled it next to the entrance to the workshop before wiping away some sweat from his forehead. This cart was clearly meant to be pulled by two stallions given how many things were on it. "That is a lot of stuff..." Star Twinkle said, sensing a lot of work marching towards him. "It sure is!" Steel Hammer said. "Today we are going all around Ponyville to make some inspections. Mainly on almost every building where we worked on so far, which is a lot," the stallion admitted much to his own surprise. "Great..." Star Twinkle replied with a nervous smile on his face. This all sounded like a lot of work, a lot of work for Star Twinkle that is. He is gonna be very exhausted by the end of the day, this much he could tell, which is why he was not looking forward to all of this. Secretly, Star Twinkle was praying to Princess Celestia herself that something would come up that would prevent him from this exhausting day of work. Then, by some weird and fortunate coincidence, something actually did come up. Twilight, who appeared in a magic flash in front of the two stallions was looking around the place confused until her eyes made contact with Star Twinkle's. "You!" She said. "Me!?" Star Twinkle replied confused. The mare then grabbed his shoulder. "You. Come with me!" She said before she used her magic to teleport herself and Star Twinkle away from the scene. Needless to say, this sudden appearance of Twilight confused Steel Hammer. The stallion looked at the pile of work that was supposed to be shared between him and Star Twinkle and there was a heavy sigh coming from him as soon as he realized that he had to do it all on his own now. "Welp...gotta start early I guess..." Steel Hammer said before he decided to get to work, feeling a little bit abandoned right about now. He couldn't say that he was too surprised about this though since it happened quite often after Star Twinkle befriended the girls. Meanwhile... Star Twinkle and Twilight appeared inside the castle, in the throne room to be exact. Inside there, Fluttershy was already present as well. Of course, everything was going a little too fast for Star Twinkle to figure out exactly what was going on but soon he started to get a pretty good idea. It took him not too much time to notice how the flanks of Twilight and Fluttershy were both glowing, meaning that they were called by the map just like the rest of their friends before. That meant that Star Twinkle was invited to go along with them. Twilight didn't even bother explaining the situation and went towards a bookshelf in one corner of the room to fetch some books that she put inside some bags standing not too far away from her. It was just now that Star Twinkle realized what a mess this room was, there were books scattered all over the place and things written on blackboards which looked like some kind of formulas that the stallion didn't even remotely understand. What he did understood though was why the place was in this state. Knowing Twilight, she probably did a lot of research to prepare herself for this trip. "I bet you are pretty excited to be finally called by the map, judging by how this place looks," Star Twinkle guessed. "Of course, I am!" Twilight said in a highly excited tone. "Ever since the map called us, I've been doing a ton of research," she added before she teleported all over the room to show how her preparing looked like. "Testing out potential friendship problems. Diversifying my solution portfolio..." This confused, Fluttershy who, for the first time spoke up after waiting patiently for everyone to get ready so far. "Ever since the map called us? But that happened five minutes ago," she mentioned. Star Twinkle's eyes widened as soon as he heard that. From what it looked like around here he figured that it Twilight was spending the whole morning setting all this up but that apparently was not the case. "I know!" Twilight replied happily, not realizing what the two ponies were so shocked about. "But I wanna be one hundred percent prepared! I mean, I'm the Princess of Friendship. How would it look if I couldn't solve a friendship problem?" She explained with the later sentence sounding a little bit more nervous. Knowing Twilight, she was worrying way too much about failing at this mission and felt pressured. A very typical Twilight behavior. "Don't worry too much, Twilight," Star Twinkle said. "We two are going with you too after all," he assured. Fluttershy couldn't agree more. "Oh, I'm so lucky I'm being sent with you two," she expressed happily. "Speaking of which, where are we going?" She then asked, which is the same thing that Star Twinkle was wondering too. Twilight pointed towards the map in the middle of the room. The Cutie Marks of Twilight and Fluttershy were still hovering above a certain spot, and as expected, Star Twinkle's Cutie Mark was nowhere to be seen. "What is this place?" Star Twinkle asked, hiding his disappointment of not being called by the map again. "The Smokey Mountains!" Twilight replied. "Oh, I've never been there before," Fluttershy said as she took a look at the place herself which looked like two smaller mountains standing not too far away from another. "Neither have I," Twilight said. "And there isn't a lot of information on them. All I could find was this," she said before she showed the two ponies a book with a picture from those mountains on them. "The Smokey Mountains harbor the most beautiful valley in all of Equestria between its two majestic mountain peaks," she explained. "That's gorgeous. And where there's nature, there's a ton of animal friends!" Fluttershy said happily, getting a lot more excited about this trip now. The same couldn't be said about Star Twinkle though. When he was being "called" to Griffonstone, Twilight was telling them how majestic and amazing that town would be but then he arrived at the place and it was the complete opposite. He figured that if the map was calling them to this place then there was obviously something wrong with it. The stallion decided to not point it out to not kill the excitement of the two girls. "I can't wait to get started!" Twilight said, proving Star Twinkle's point. "I'm a little nervous since that's all I could find. I usually like to be a bit more prepared," she added. Star Twinkle and Fluttershy just looked around themselves after hearing that. "Even more prepared?" Star Twinkle asked. "Yeah, you seem pretty prepared to me," Fluttershy agreed on. But the three wasted enough time and decided to finally get going. Twilight already prepared some things for the group to take to the Smokey Mountains. Three heavily filled saddlebags were waiting for the ponies, the emphasis was being put on the words "heavily filled". "Are those for us?" Fluttershy asked confused, fearing that she would collapse instantly after attempting to lift her bag. "What did you put in there?" Star Twinkle asked. "Oh, just some snacks, books, blankets, books," Twilight casually listed. "You said "books" twice," Fluttershy pointed out. "There are a lot of books," Twilight replied. Star Twinkle couldn't say that he was surprised to hear that but realizing that he had to carry one of those bags did not really make him feel too well. But before he knew it, Twilight used her magic to put a saddlebag on him and one on Fluttershy, the later one clenching her teeth and shaking from the weight on her back. The stallion had to admit that it was not impossible to wear that thing on his back but knowing that he had to carry it for a pretty long time was making already feel pretty exhausting. Still, looking at Fluttershy made him think that it could be a lot worse. The saddlebag was clearly too heavy for the little and petite Pegasus. As a more than average strong Earth Pony stallion, he should offer his help but that would mean that he had to carry two saddlebags, and one of them was already pretty heavy. "Why do I have to be like this?" Star Twinkle thought to himself before he went over to Fluttershy. "You want me to carry your bag?" He offered. Fluttershy looked back at the stallion with hesitation in her eyes. "Oh no, that would mean that you have to carry two bags," she replied, trying to talk the stallion out of this crazy idea. Star Twinkle regretted saying his next words. "It's not that heavy for me, I can manage another one," he straight out lied right into Fluttershy's face. The mare was still having some doubts but she just had to face that this saddlebag was way too heavy for her so, in the end, she took upon Star Twinkle's offer. "Thank you," she said happily. Twilight overheard all of this and used her magic to remove the bag from Fluttershy and placed it on Star Twinkle's bag. One of those ponies felt highly relieved and another one was immediately regretting his decision. Here Star Twinkle thought he avoided a hard day of work after Twilight took him to the castle only to be dragged into something equally exhausting. As if all this wasn't bad enough, Star Twinkle got another headache as he followed Twilight outside. She was leading them to her balloon, which was most likely their way of traveling for this trip, much to Star Twinkle's dismay. "Great...first those bags and now this?" He said in his frustration while breathing heavily because of the weight on his back. But Fluttershy tried to calm down the stallion. "Flying is not that bad," she said, with some low confidence in her voice. "Unless you are flying way too high or under bad circumstances...like into a storm or something..." she further pointed out. "Thanks..." Star Twinkle replied, feeling not one bit better after those words at all, something that Fluttershy noticed as well but didn't comment on. In the meantime, Twilight was still highly excited about this trip. "What do ya think our friendship problem's gonna be?" She asked. "Do you think it'll be a problem about lying?" "I'm sure we'll find out when we get there," Fluttershy pointed out. "Yeah!" Star Twinkle agreed before he threw his two saddlebags in one corner of the balloon. The good thing was that he didn't have to carry them on his back all this time but having to travel like this was almost as bad for him. The stallion decided to lay down on the ground until they would arrive at the Smokey Mountains to avoid having to look down from this height. It couldn't possibly take that long after all... Later... "Ooh! Could it be about when two friends just randomly decide to do something together, but they forget to invite the third friend, and the third friend feels left out?" Twilight asked. "I don't know..." Star Twinkle replied with his eyes covered by his hooves as he laid on the ground, waiting patiently for the balloon to arrive at their destination. "Or where one friend tells another friend's secret after they asked them not to?" Twilight asked. Questions like this made up the majority of this trip, much to the dismay of both Star Twinkle and Fluttershy. The first one being a little bit more focused on the trip with the balloon than the mission itself. "I'm sure we'll find out once we get there," Star Twinkle said. "Um...about that..." Fluttershy said. "We are here," she pointed out as she left the balloon. Star Twinkle opened his eyes and looked outside the balloon to find out that it already landed on the ground and that the two girls were already on their way. "Oh..." Star Twinkle said in his realization before he stepped outside the balloon in relief to follow the two girls. There still seemed to be some way to go for the three though. Again, Twilight was leading the way while Star Twinkle carried both, his own, and Fluttershy's saddlebag again. Seeing how Twilight was flying up at the air, and how Fluttershy followed her right behind, Star Twinkle already felt more exhausted. Now he had to carry those two bags while flying, something that he was not too good at in the first place. Fluttershy saw how the now into a Pegasus transformed stallion was groaning and panting heavily and was getting a little concerned. "Should I carry my bag again?" She offered, fully knowing that she would have problems carrying it. Shortly after, Twilight also noticed the trouble that Star Twinkle was having with those two saddlebags. "Here. Lemme get that," she said before she used her magic to levitate the bags in front of her, something that Star Twinkle wished she should have done earlier. "Thanks," Star Twinkle said in gratitude, now he could finally relax his muscles again without the two bags on his back. "Sorry I've been a little skiddly-bopty-boo," Twilight said, which made no sense to Star Twinkle and Fluttershy at all. "I just can't believe this is finally happening!" She said in excitement. Star Twinkle was glad to see that Twilight was having fun at least. But despite her claiming to have done a lot of research, Star Twinkle was having his doubts about this mission being easy. In fact, it wasn't even his experience from the last mission but rather his pessimism that caused him to think like this. Just now, without Star Twinkle realizing it at first, the three ponies were flying right between the Smokey Mountains up in the air. He was so focused on following Twilight with those heavy bags on his back that he must not have noticed it so far. "Watch out!" Twilight then suddenly shouted towards the stallion, causing him to get quite startled because of this. Out of reflex, Star Twinkle turned his head around to where Twilight was looking at and he noticed something coming flying towards him. "Whoa!" The stallion let out before he ducked under whatever that object was just now. It didn't end anytime soon, more and more things came flying towards the three ponies, forcing them to dodge out of the way each time. "Whoa! What in Equestria is happening?" Twilight asked in her confusion. By now, Star Twinkle noticed that the things, that were launched at them, were all one specific object. "Are those...pumpkins?" Star Twinkle asked in confusion. "It's nothing like your book said it would be!" Fluttershy pointed out. There was probably not a single book in all of Equestria that would have prepared them for a situation like this. "Oh, boy. I'm feeling very unprepared. Where do we even start?" Twilight asked, feeling pretty helpless already. Of course, all this talking happened while the three were still dodging in midair. Not the best place to have a talk, that much they could agree on. "How about we get out of here before anyone of us gets hit!?" Star Twinkle suggested. He desperately wanted to get away from this bombardment. The three decided to one of the mountains, the one where the flying pumpkins were coming from. Maybe it was because they were busy dodging most of the time but they just now noticed some houses on top of the mountain they were flying towards, something that Twilight's book did not inform them about. As the three ponies came closer to the mountain, they noticed some ponies loading another pumpkin into a wooden cannon, ready to fire it across the sky. An elderly mare was taking charge of this situation. She was an Earth Pony with a light brown coat, a beige-colored mane, blue eyes, and, fittingly, a pumpkin as a Cutie Mark. She was also wearing a blue vest. "Ready... Aim... Fire!" She ordered, sending another pumpkin across the valley of the Smokey Mountains. On the other mountain, far in the distance, there was a fortress. This must have been their target all along and Star Twinkle, Twilight, and Fluttershy just happened to be in the way of whatever that was. Once, the three ponies were out of guesses what exactly those ponies were doing, Twilight asked away. "Hello. Excuse us, but what are you doing?" The elderly mare looked back at Twilight and gave a short answer. "We're pumpkinin' our neighbors!" That was the only information that the three could manage to figure out themselves. "Yes, but, um, why are you... "pumpkining" your neighbors?" Fluttershy then asked. This should have been the first question that they should have asked, in hindsight. The mare threw a glare over to the other mountain. "Well, because the McColts are just plain rotten," she simply said before looked back at the three ponies and came to a realization. "Hey, wait a tick. Who are you three?! You're not spies for the McColts, are ya?" She asked, getting a lot more suspicious now. Twilight then introduced herself proudly. "I am Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship. And I am here to solve your friendship problem," she said. The other two quickly followed with their introduction. "I'm Fluttershy, and... um... I'm here, too," Fluttershy said. "Star Twinkle," Star Twinkle simply said. It was just now that they realized how not important they seemed compared to a princess right next to them to the normal folk of Equestria. "Ma Hooffield," the mare said while shaking hooves with Twilight. "Pleased to meet ya, but you're wastin' your time. We don't have a friendship problem. We have... a McColt problem," she said in a serious tone. "And there's absolutely no friendship there," another pony added in agreement. The situation seemed a little bit tense already but Twilight was not letting herself get pressured by it and took a quick look into one of her books to find some answers. "Well, maybe there could be if we figure out what the McColts did to make you so mad," Twilight then suggested. But Ma Hooffield was not too sure about that. "Oh, they done so many things. Why, just today, they shot pebbles at our farmhouse an' wrecked it," she said before she pointed towards said farmhouse which was completely in ruins. "See, we're not very good at buildin', so all it took was a little pebble. But still!" She explained which Star Twinkle, with his schooled carpenter eyes could see already. During all this talk, one of the ponies already prepared another pumpkin to be launched. What that pony did not notice was how one of those pumpkins was serving as a mouse for a bunch of mice, much to Fluttershy's shock who quickly came to the rescue before the poor animals would have been launched across the valley. In the meantime, Twilight already figured out what would be the solution to all of this. "I know what to do. We're gonna talk with these McColts and hear their side of the story. Once we have all the facts, we can put an end to this using reason and rationale," she suggested. Star Twinkle, Fluttershy, as well as Ma Hooffield, all seemed to agree to this idea, even if the later one was a little bit against it. "And while we are there, could you please stop launching your pumpkins?" Star Twinkle asked. The reason for him to ask that was that he was not looking forward to getting a pumpkin thrown at him while being over to the other mountain. "Oh, alright," Ma Hooffield finally agreed. "Thanks," Twilight replied before she was already on her way to the other mountain. "C'mon, Star Twinkle, Fluttershy." The two followed right behind. They were hoping that it would go as easy as Twilight thought it would be but Star Twinkle had his second guesses. It couldn't be that easy. Later... The three flew over to the other mountain across the valley. Twilight knocked on the giant wooden doors and waited for a response. "State your business!" A stallion shouted down to the three ponies. Another pony, a mare, also appeared next to the stallion. "Don't even bother. They're probably spies for the Hooffields," she figured. "Pumpkin!" She then shouted, which sounded like an order towards someone inside the fort. "We are not Hooffields. We are-" But before Star Twinkle could finish his sentence, a pumpkin was dropped directly on his head, which splattered on impact and leaving quite a mess on him, not to mention giving the stallion quite a headache. "Hey!" Twilight then said seeing how Star Twinkle was pretty much attacked for no reason. "Please stop this!" The stallion from before took a closer look at Twilight and then gave a little signal to everyone to hold off the attack for a moment. He later came to a surprised realization. "Hey, wait! You're an Alicorn! I thought just the three princesses were Alicorns," he said. "There are four Alicorn princesses in Equestria now. I am Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship," Twilight said, again in a proud tone. "And I'm Fluttershy," Fluttershy said. "And the one you threw a pumpkin on is Star Twinkle," she added, seeing how Star Twinkle was still a little too mad about that to introduce himself. "We have a new princess? When did that happen? A-A-And how did the Hooffields come by a princess spy?" The stallion on top of the gate asked in confusion. "We are not spies!" Twilight replied before she turned towards Fluttershy and Star Twinkle, the later one still removing some remains of that splashed pumpkin that was thrown at him. "Why does everypony assume we're spies?" She asked. Shortly after, the gate started to open after some sounds that could be heard on the other side, indicating that there were a lot of locks that had to be unlocked in order to open it. When the gate finally opened, someone appeared in front of the three ponies. A rather short Earth Pony stallion with a pale blue colored coat, dark blue colored mane and beard, and lemon green colored eyes. He was also wearing blue dungarees and a hat that was a little too big for a stallion of his size. "Because we don't get a lot of visitors. I'm Big Daddy McColt. You caught us at a weird time. We're in the middle of a giant feud with our...TERRIBLE NEIGHBORS!" He screamed towards the other mountain in a loud voice, causing the trees to shake and a building to collapse simply be the impact of his voice. Hopefully, this will not trigger another pumpkin bombardment from the Hooffields while the three ponies were still here. "Well, actually, that's why we're here – to solve your problem with the Hooffields," Twilight explained. "So you're here to help us get rid of 'em," Big Daddy McColt concluded from those words which caused the rest of the ponies inside the fort to cheer in happiness. "No!" Twilight exclaimed, putting a stop at this immediately. "That's not what I meant at all!" She said. This caused quite the mood change of Big Daddy McColt, who was now looking rather serious. "Well, if you ain't fer us, you're agin' us," he told the three ponies. Star Twinkle, Twilight, and Fluttershy looked rather nervous after hearing that. They wanted to help and not get into trouble with anyone but so far no one was making it any easier. The McColts invited the three into the fort, despite still being a little bit suspicious of them. Twilight took this opportunity to explain the situation more clearly. "We are not on anypony's side. We're here to help you become friends again," she said. "Well, that's gon' be hard," Big Daddy McColt replied. He did not like this idea one bit. "I don't believe we've ever been friends with the Hooffields!" He added. "But you could be!" Twilight said. "They're just really upset you ruined their farmhouse," she explained. "Wait a hog-wogglin' minute!" Big Daddy McColt replied in his surprise. "We only did that because the Hooffields pulled the pin out of our wagon wheel!" He explained before he pointed at said damaged wagon. "A whole week's worth of food rollin' down the mountain. Us McColts are mighty fine builders, but we don't know the first thing about farmin'. We have to travel a ways away to buy our food," he further explained. "Well on the upside, you are getting food to eat launched at you," Star Twinkle pointed out. It was not the best thing to get out of this situation but at least it was better than nothing. Unfortunately, Big Daddy McColt was not sharing the same optimism on this as Star Twinkle did. "Yeah, really nice," he said in a sarcastic tone. "Now, we'll be stuck eatin' the pumpkins the Hooffields launched at us. Pumpkin bread, pumpkin soup, pumpkin quesadillas, pumpkin paella, pumpkin cheese, pumpkin pie, pumpkin frittatas... Actually, that all sounds pretty good. But it'll get old!" He exclaimed at the stallion. "Yeah...I guess you're right," Star Twinkle agreed with a nervous voice. Just like Twilight, Star Twinkle didn't want to take any side. At least Twilight now had both sides of the story which would indicate that the Hooffields started all of this but that didn't really matter since both of those groups didn't really were into the idea of talking to each other. Twilight, once again, took her book filled with notes and tried to find a solution for all of this. Star Twinkle decided to not interrupt her and took a look around the fort. Most of the ponies were busy cleaning up all the pumpkins and making them into something edible. In the meantime, Fluttershy was taking care of a squirrel that had problems gathering the food that the McColts gathered and gave it a piece of pumpkin to help it out. Fluttershy seemed to take care more of the animals around here than anything else, which was not surprising, it was Fluttershy after all but it didn't help the situation at all. Finally, Twilight was done reading and came up with a solution. "Have you tried meeting at a neutral location, talking about your problems, and really listening to each other?" "Yeah, that actually sounds like a good idea," Star Twinkle agreed. But that was not to Big Daddy McColt's liking. "What?! No! They'd sooner launch their dinners at us than listen to us," he said. For some reason, Star Twinkle had a feeling that the McColts were not too much about listening as well. But Twilight was confident enough to take care of this issue. "Well, they'll listen to me. I'm an impartial third party," she said. "Not to mention a princess," Star Twinkle added. For him, it was worth a shot trying that at least. If they were not listening to each other then the words of a princess couldn't hurt. It's not like Star Twinkle or Fluttershy had any other idea right now. So Twilight was flying right between the two mountains and prepared a spell. This spell was amplifying her voice and making it easy to hear for everyone who was present. The mare then started to make peace between the two groups. "Attention, Hooffields, and McColts! I'm not on anypony's side, but I can see you're both wasting time and resources on being mean to each other. Ponies are supposed to help each other and be kind. So let's stop this senseless fighting!" She said across the valley in a loud voice with everyone listening and not interrupting her. There was a bit of silence after that speech, making it hard to see if her words reached everyone. Twilight landed next to Star Twinkle and Fluttershy with a victorious smile on her face. "There. That should do it. Ready to go home?" She said, believing that everything was taken care of already. It was too good to be true, which made Star Twinkle really suspicious. "I think we should wait a little bit to see how things turned out, don't you think?" He suggested. Fluttershy then pointed something out that Star Twinkle didn't think of until she mentioned it. "But if we solved the problem already, shouldn't our cutie marks be glowing again?" She pointed out as she looked at her flank. "Oh, yeah," Twilight realized before she looked at her flank as well. "They should be glowing any minute now..." she said as she patiently waited for that to happen. But instead of a glowing, there was a tomato appearing on it, much to the confusion of everyone. "What?" Star Twinkle wondered as he began looking to where that tomato came from only to get one smashed right into his face. What followed was a rain of tomatoes, that flew all over the fort, forcing everyone to take cover inside. Since Star Twinkle was pretty much blinded, he had to be dragged by Twilight until they managed to get inside a building to escape all of this. "At least they are providing the McColts with some different food now," Star Twinkle said before he removed some remains in his mane with an annoyed look on his face. Twilight sighed in defeat before she ripped a page out of her book. "So much for potential friendship solution number twenty-eight," she said. "What do we do now?" Star Twinkle asked. "I guess we should find out why the Hooffields are launching tomatoes now," Fluttershy figured. With that in mind, the three went across the valley one more time to talk with the Hooffields and why they stopped their ceasefire even though they agreed on stopping it. When the three ponies arrived there, they could see the Hooffields placing more tomatoes into some slingshots to fire them at the McColts. "One at a time, Greenhoof," Ma Hooffield advised to one of the ponies. "If you smoosh them tomaters in the slingshot, they won't break on the McColts," she added. Twilight approached Ma Hooffield with a stressed-out expression on her face. "What are you doing? I asked you to stop fighting," she said. Ma Hooffield seemed a little bit surprised to hear that. "Oh, is that what you were hollerin' about? We thought the McColts rubbed ya the wrong way. So we tomatered them for ya. My mistake," she replied. Star Twinkle face hooved after hearing that. This sounded more like as if those ponies were too eager to start fighting than anything else. But at least they listened to Twilight now and stopped the attack for now. That was until some haystacks came flying towards them and buried some of the Hooffields and Star Twinkle, Twilight, and Fluttershy beneath them. Ma Hooffield was not taking that too well and responded accordingly. "Reload the tomater slingshots! We're gonna paint their mountaintop red!" She screamed, getting this little war started once again. In the meantime, Star Twinkle, Twilight, and Fluttershy emerged from beneath the haystack. "Well, that didn't work. I was so sure it would," she concluded. Seeing how many haystacks came flying towards them made it clear that it didn't change the situation at all. It almost felt as if it was even worse now. Just like before, Fluttershy was more worried about the animals around here than anything else though which was understandable but it didn't help. It almost made Star Twinkle wonder why Fluttershy was called by the map in the first place. "It was a good plan," Fluttershy said as she helped a little tortoise to get some cover under a bush. "We need to think of another one. And soon. This fight is really affecting the animals around here," she explained. "Not to worry. I'll just, uh..." Twilight said before she flipped through some more pages to find an answer in her book. "...find the root of the problem and work from there," she then said after getting a helpful hint from her book. Star Twinkle lowered his eyebrows. "You needed to look into your book to come up with that?" He wondered, feeling that this was a more obvious approach to this situation. But Twilight ignored the stallion's words and went on ahead to find this root. "Pardon us, Ma, but do you remember what started this whole feud in the first place?" She asked towards Ma Hooffield. If there was one pony who would know the reason then it would be her. "They know what they did," is what they got as a response from Ma Hooffield. "...And...what is that?" Star Twinkle asked, demanding a better explanation from the mare. Ma Hooffield turned towards the stallion. "Why don't you go over and ask them yourselves!? We are busy firing at them at the moment," she explained before she went on and continued firing tomatoes across the valley. Because Ma Hooffield was not providing the three ponies with a good enough answer they had no choice but to go over to the McColts and ask them. "They know what they did!" Big Daddy McColt told them. "This is not helping at all..." Star Twinkle said annoyed after he heard that answer. "I'm starting to think neither of you know what either of you have done," Twilight concluded after "hearing" both side's stories now. "Sure, we do," Big Daddy McColt claimed. "Them Hooffields did us a grave injustice some time ago for some reason," he said. "Okay, backup plan to the backup plan," Twilight said, coming up with another idea. "Maybe we can find some common ground that you can bond over. What do you do when you're not fighting?" She asked. Big Daddy McColt had a simple answer for that. "That's easy. Gettin' ready to fight," he said determinedly. Star Twinkle's head started to hurt listening to both of those families. The worst thing was that no matter what they asked or who they asked there was no end in sight of this battle. ... "What do you hope to get out of fighting?" Fluttershy asked Ma Hooffield. "The satisfaction of winnin'!" Ma Hooffield replied. ... "Of winning what?" Twilight asked Big Daddy McColt. "The fight, of course! To prove our family is the best!" Big Daddy McColt replied. ... "The best at what?" Star Twinkle asked Ma Hooffield. "Winnin'! Haven't you been listenin'?!" Ma Hooffield replied. ... All this walking back and forth between the two mountains was not only exhausting but also frustrating since it was not getting anywhere. The three were already back on their way to the Hooffields and Twilight was drowning in notes that she was writing throughout this whole trip. Looking through all of those notes though only got the mare to one conclusion "The only thing they have in common is that they both want to win a fight, and neither of them know what it's over. How can I end this feud if I don't know what it's about?" She asked. "Yeah, really," Star Twinkle agreed. "Besides, I don't think they really know why they are fighting in the first place," he said. The stallion was starting to get a little bit annoyed by this whole mission already. Luckily, Fluttershy seemed to still be willing to come up with an idea. "Ooh! Maybe somepony just needs to say they're sorry," she suggested. Twilight liked the idea. "That's a good idea. And friendship solution number forty-eight. But we can move it up," she casually added. Star Twinkle couldn't believe what he was hearing and felt as if he was the only one seeing the problem here. "There is no way someone is gonna apologize to anyone around here. Have you not seen how fixated they are fighting with each other!?" The stallion pointed out. But Twilight insisted on trying it anyway. "It's still worth a shot," she simply said before she walked up to Ma Hooffield to get her into apologizing to the McColts. There was no way that Ma Hooffield would listen to Twilight but just like she said before, it was worth a shot. That made it all the more surprising once the elderly mare gave her answer. "Okay, let's apologize," she replied after Twilight was asking her. "Really?" Twilight asked in her surprise. "Really!?" Star Twinkle asked in surprise and shock. "Sure," Ma Hooffield casually replied. "Give us some time to prepare a present as a surprise for the McColts and then we head right over," she explained before she went off to get to work at said present. Star Twinkle was surprised that this idea actually worked. He was pretty sure that they were all way into fighting to even consider apologizing to each other. Or maybe that was the reason why they wanted to apologize so that the fighting would finally stop. It must have been pretty tiring to fight each and every day after all. This made it all the better to see how Fluttershy's plan worked. A little later... Equipped with a freshly made carrot cake that was three times the size of a pony, Ma Hooffield, Star Twinkle, Twilight, and Fluttershy were on their way to the McColt fort to end this fighting. All it took was for the McColts to accept this cake and everything would be over, meaning that the three ponies could finally go home. "I'm so glad you agreed to do this. This apology cake will go a long way to making amends between you two," Twilight expressed happily. She was really glad that her words seemed to have reached Ma Hooffield at all. "Which part of my argument changed your mind? The part where I said the benefits of friendship outweigh the cost of war or the part where I said forgiveness is an investment in happiness?" She then asked the mare who was walking next to her, pulling the cake behind her. "Yeah, yeah. All of it," Ma Hooffield responded, showing little interest in Twilight's words now. It didn't take long until Twilight noticed the lack of interest that Ma Hooffield was showing towards her words. "Wait. Are you even listening to me?" "I think there will be enough time to talk about this later..." Star Twinkle pointed out. The was no guaranty that everything would be settled with a cake, even if its size was pretty ridiculous. After what felt like an eternity of walking, the four ponies finally arrived at the fort. "Who goes there?!" They were greeted by the same pony that talked to Star Twinkle, Twilight, and Fluttershy before, from on top of the gate. "It's Ma Hooffield," the elderly mare shouted back. The McColt stallion reacted accordingly. "Hooffield alert! Arm the cannons!" He ordered. Shortly after, a bunch of cannons appeared from over the walls and were aimed at the four ponies in front of the gate. Star Twinkle quickly jumped behind the cake to take cover before something was thrown at him again. Ma Hooffield then quickly explained the situation."I came with an apology cake!" Is all she needed to say to get the attention of the McColt. The stallion, on top of the gate hat spit running down his mouth as soon as he noticed the cake behind the four ponies. "Did you say "cake"? As in...cake?" "Consider it a gesture of goodwill from us to you," Ma Hooffield offered. More guards, who overheard the whole thing, appeared next to the stallion on top of the gate, all of them starting to slurp as soon as their eyes made contact with the cake. "I haven't had cake in ages," a mare said from on top of the gate. "Open the gates!" The stallion guarding the gate then ordered before the giant door then opened and the four ponies could enter the fort along with the cake. The McColts started gathering around the cake admiring it and taking in the smell from it. They really looked happy about seeing that cake inside their fort and could barely contain themselves from jumping at it and taking a bite off of it. "Oh, it's such a bee-utiful cake," one of the McColts said, speaking pretty much out what everyone else was thinking right now. This was a good sign. It didn't look as if the McColts were refusing this cake anytime soon. Star Twinkle himself had to admit that the cake looked rather delicious. There was a lot of work put into it from the Hooffields. "Think of this as more than just a cake. It's the first step in the long road to forgiveness," Twilight explained. "Nothing says "let's be friends" like a cake that says, "Let's be friends!"" Fluttershy explained. "I wrote that in icing on the top," she then whispered to Star Twinkle with a happy grin on her face. And with that, the situation was handled pretty well. It seemed as if the McColts accepted the cake, and therefore, the apology, meaning that the fighting was over and that Star Twinkle, Twilight, and Fluttershy could return home again. ...If it wasn't for something that the three ponies were unaware of... The cake started moving and out of the top of it, members from the Hooffields emerged. "For glory!" They shouted before they threw cake pieces and frosting at every McColt that they could see, forcing them to run away. As soon as the ponies jumped out of the cake to plan their next attack though, a trap was triggered beneath their hooves, causing them to get captured by a net that Big Daddy McColt set up. He most likely saw through the trap of the Hooffields long before they stepped into the fort. "McColts! Assume Delta Force formation!" Big Daddy McColt then ordered. The McColts formed a triangle-shaped formation with Big Daddy McColt in front of it and began charging right at Ma Hooffield, causing her to run outside again. "What is even happening here!?" Star Twinkle exclaimed in his frustration as he continued to watch the battle unfold outside of the fort along with Twilight and Fluttershy. Ma Hooffield kept running away from the McColt family but not without luring them into another trap. The rest of her family was already waiting with some more catapults and slingshots to ambush the unsuspecting family. "Ready... aim... fire!" Ma Hooffield then shouted, giving her family a signal to attack. The catapults fired multiple vegetables, like corn, melons, carrots, and even self-made muffins at the McColts, who barely managed to save themselves from this rain of food by covering their heads with their wooden shields. Shortly after, Ma Hooffield ordered the rest of the Hooffields to charge at the McColts to continue the fight. By now, Twilight caught up to her and confronted her about what happened inside the fort. "Ma Hooffield, you planted ponies in that cake?!" She asked. "Yeah!" Ma Hooffield replied, accompanied by some maniacally sounding laughter. "Wait. Were you serious about apologizin'?" She then asked in complete obliviousness. "Urgh!" Star Twinkle groaned in his frustration. He was pretty sure that he never met anyone more stubborn and hard to deal with as in the few hours he was here. "Why in Equestria would we apologize?" Ma Hooffield said as she pushed both Star Twinkle and Twilight out of the way before shaking her hoof aggressively at the McColts. "We didn't do anythin' wrong!" "What're you talkin' about?!" Big Daddy McColt said angrily after overhearing those words. "You done so many things wrong!" He said as he walked up to the mare. "Not as many as you!" Ma Hooffield returned with an angry glare. The two ponies growled at each other angrily and it was only a matter of time until they started fighting just like everypony else around them. Soon the whole valley was filled with ponies beating each other up, one could say that things escalated rather quickly. Either that or this is how it looked around here every single day. Star Twinkle attempted to talk with some of the ponies in order to stop them from fighting but it didn't work out too well. The Hooffields and the McColts were just too focused on fighting each other that they didn't pay any attention to him at all. The stallion had the bright idea to position himself between two ponies. "Would you stop with all this!?" He asked of them but as soon as he was done talking the two ponies charged at each other which meant that Star Twinkle was caught up in their little fight as well. He managed to get out of that rather quickly and was greeted by a rather worried Fluttershy. "Are you okay!?" She asked in concern after seeing the stallion barely escape that clash. "Yeah, yeah," the stallion replied annoyed. This whole situation was starting to take its toll at the stallion. "I suppose you don't have any idea how to stop all this?" He asked. Fluttershy shook her head. "No...I tried talking to them but they wouldn't listen," she said in a sad tone as she watched all this unfolding in front of her. "I just wish that all this fighting would stop. IT really is hurting the animals living around here. I just barely managed to save this little fella," she explained before she showed Star Twinkle a little squirrel, that he just noticed was sitting in her mane. As usual, Fluttershy seemed to be more worried about the animals than the Hooffields and the McColts. This led Star Twinkle to believe that she was not going to be a great help in all of this and the Twilight needed to be the one to come up with a solution. But Star Twinkle just now realized that Twilight was nowhere to be found, at least not nearby. It didn't take him too long to find her though. Twilight decided to sit down in a quiet corner, far away from the fight where she ripped out one page after another and threw them away with a frown on her face. Star Twinkle and Fluttershy got a little worried about seeing that. "Um, Twilight? We should probably get back there. I mean, if you need a break, that's fine, but we really can't do this without you," Fluttershy pointed out. Twilight sighed in frustration. "I don't know if we can do this at all. Even if I make things right, they're just gonna fight again," she explained. Star Twinkle walked up to the mare, trying to cheer her up again."We still have to do something. That's why we...err...you two were sent here after all," he pointed out. But it didn't look as if Twilight was convinced by those words. She kept looking down with a frown on her face. She didn't know what to do and gave up. Star Twinkle couldn't really blame her. She was so excited to finally be called by the map and then she ended up failing completely. This must have been really difficult to take in for her. The stallion had to admit that he was at a loss as well. In his desperation, he turned towards Fluttershy who, just like so many times before, was rather attending the animals in this valley. She was looking under a bush to see a few critters hiding under it, shaking in fear. "Hey, little fellas. Oh, that's okay, you can come out," Fluttershy assured them with her gentle voice. It did not take long for those animals to come out, seeing how Fluttershy was putting no harm to them, unlike some ponies who still were busy fighting not too far away from them. Some more animals showed up from everywhere and approached the mare. This was the first time since their arrival that the three ponies saw that many animals in one spot. It was a pretty refreshing sight compared to what they've seen so far. Star Twinkle was about to appreciate this sight but then a weird noise was completely taking him by surprise. Twilight, as well, heard that noise. "What was that?" She asked confused. As it turns out, that weird sound came from a squirrel, one of the animals that surrounded Fluttershy and was still holding its belly. Fluttershy, as an animal expert, instantly knew what was going on. "Oh, you poor things! There isn't enough food here for you!" She concluded before she took a closer look at some of the critters. "And you're freezing! I'm gonna take you all home with me and get you all hot cocoas. How do you feel about book clubs?" She asked the animals who seemed to not be entirely against that idea. Twilight stood up from her spot and began thinking. She remembered what she read about the Smokey Mountains before setting off on this trip. It was just now that she realized that nothing here was the way it was described in this book. "I don't get it. This was supposed to be the most beautiful valley in all of Equestria. What happened?" Twilight wondered. It was true that Twilight's book was depicting this valley in a much better light and who knows from when the picture inside the book was, things are bound to change over time after all, but this whole place looked vastly different. Dry rivers, dead trees, the flowers were trampled, only to mention a few things. Something happened that ruined this place completely. All it took to figure out how this place ended up like this, was Star Twinkle taking a quick look around, towards the battlefield to be precise. "I guess "they" happened," he figured. This place might have been a beautiful and peaceful place before but if the Hooffields and the McColts kept fighting here over and over again, then it made sense that the place must have taken a turn for the worst. As the stallion watched the ponies fighting in the distance, he noticed that there was plenty of food for everyone but it was used in the fight instead of being eaten. This was a little messed up to watch actually. The critters then tried to say something to Fluttershy, who was listening carefully and after they were done, she looked as if she came to a realization. "They know what happened here!" The mare then said with wide-open eyes. "What?" Twilight replied in surprise. "You mean they know why the valley ended up like this?" Star Twinkle asked. "Yes!" Fluttershy answered. "They even know why the Hooffields and the McColts are fighting!" She further added. "Really!?" Star Twinkle replied. This was very valuable information that could fix this whole mess. "Then we have to tell everyone!" Twilight said, feeling as if this could be their last chance to solve this problem. "But how?" Star Twinkle asked. "They are too busy fighting each other, they'll never going to listen to us!" He pointed out. Twilight looked more determined than ever which was surprising since she was about to give up a few minutes ago. "Leave that to me," she said before she spread her wings and flew towards the battlefield to put her plan in motion. Star Twinkle was not sure what exactly she was trying to do but he trusted her enough to follow right behind with Fluttershy coming with him as well. Not much has changed around the battlefield, the Hooffield and the McColts were still at it without mercy and with no end in sight. Twilight was hovering in the air between the ponies in hope that her voice reached them. "Stop! You have to listen to me!" She shouted but no one listened to her. All the ponies were too busy fighting to even take notice of the princess. In fact, she accidentally got hit with a cupcake in the face. There is a lot that the Princess of Friendship was ready to endure but now she started to get fed up by all of this and took some more drastic actions. "Everypony freeze!" She shouted, her voice echoing through the whole valley, accompanied by a magic blast that engulfed everyone around her. She used a spell to keep everyone frozen in place. It was highly effective and actually stopped everyone but it put a lot of strain on Twilight in return. Star Twinkle had to admit that he was impressed by this. "Whoa," was the only thing he could say after witnessing this. But there was no time to be impressed. "Fluttershy! You have to tell them! It's a lot harder to freeze an army of ponies than just six of them!" Twilight said prompted. Fluttershy was a little nervous to speak to so many ponies at once but it only took a glance over to Star Twinkle who was putting his full trust in her right now. The mare took a deep breath before she walked between the ponies to speak to them. "Before you keep fighting, there is something you should know!" She said in a raised voice. The mare then shared her story with everyone and hopefully, whatever the critters told her hopefully would put a stop to all of this. "...Long ago, there were two best friends...Grub Hooffield and Piles McColt... When they found the valley between the Smokey Mountains, they knew it was something special. So they made a promise to each other to protect and preserve the valley for all its adorable furry inhabitants. But they disagreed on how to go about it. Grub wanted to start by planting crops so that everypony would have something to eat. But Piles thought it would be better to start by building a shelter to protect them against the cold and wind. The two ponies were unable to come to an understanding, so Piles went ahead and built a shelter anyway, exactly where Grub was gonna start his farm! Grub was upset, so he tore down Piles' shelter so he could plant his crops! They kept fighting back and forth until it turned into a feud! The valley suffered from the constant destruction until finally, the Hooffields and McColts moved to separate mountains. Even then, the valley and all the animals in it continued to be caught in the crossfire." Listening to Fluttershy seemed to have taken some effect on the Hooffields and McColts. Their battle-ready expressions were replaced with regret and it was clear that their will to fight was gone as well. "You see? By fighting, you're destroying the very thing that brought you here in the first place! So it's time you both put your differences aside and come together!" Fluttershy said. "If not for yourselves, then for the sake of these cute and cuddly guys!" She asked of them as she showed them all the critters that were affected by the fights in this valley. Ma Hooffield and Big Daddy McColt looked at each other. They were both frowning and felt bad about everything. Fluttershy's story was definitely affecting them. "Aw, shucks, we never meant to hurt you little critters," Big Daddy McColt said. "Yeah, we're sorry!" Ma Hooffield apologized. One of the critters, a squirrel, was saying some words into Fluttershy's ear. "They say they accept your apology," Fluttershy then translated. Star Twinkle was certainly happy to hear that and walked over to Twilight who was still straining herself to keep up the spell. "I think you can unfreeze everyone now," the stallion said, figuring that everything was settled now. "Oh, right!" Twilight then said in her surprise, she must have been a little bit too focused on keeping up this spell to notice what everyone was talking about. The spell then got lifted and everyone was freed again. No one made any attempt to continue the fight and everyone helped each other up, it was the most peaceful thing that Star Twinkle has seen since he came here. Both leaders of the group then decided to have a serious talk about the future of this valley, a rather short one at that. It was not as if there was much to agree on in the first place anyway. "Ma Hooffield? We promise we won't fight you no more," Big Daddy McColt said. "Us too, except we promise not to fight you. I suppose it doesn't matter who's right. We're both wrong," Ma Hooffield replied. "That's one thing we can agree on," Big Daddy McColt said. The two leaders then sealed everything by spitting into their hooves and shaking hooves with each other. A little bit disgusting but not any less meaningful. Star Twinkle sighed. "I guess that takes care of that," he said while looking over to Fluttershy who was happy that everything turned out this way. Twilight shortly joined the two leaders and congratulated them on acting this way. "This is wonderful! I am so proud of you two!" She said happily. "Aw, thanks, princess," Ma Hooffield replied happily as well. "Though I would just like to point out that I was the, uh, first to admit I was wrong," she then added. "Oh-oh..." Star Twinkle said, sensing some problems coming up again. "That may be, but I promised not to fight first. That counts for more!" Big Daddy McColt said, countering the words of Ma Hooffield immediately. "Oh, yeah?!" Ma Hooffield then replied annoyed. The two ponies growled at each other. It was only a matter of time till a new fight would break out, much to everyone's dismay. However, the critters quickly put an end to this by scolding the two ponies, combined with the scolding looks on everyone's faces. It didn't take long until Ma Hooffield and Big Daddy McColt apologized to each other again. "Oh, all right. We don't have to speak animal to know what y'all are sayin'," Ma Hooffield said before she turned towards Big Daddy McColt once more. "Truce?" "Truce," the stallion replied. Later... This time the fighting and arguing came to a complete end and the Hooffield and the McColts worked together to restore the valley to its former glory. In the matter of a few hours, the place looked a lot more lively again. From growing new crops to building shelters for the animals, both families worked hard together to make the place look the way their ancestors wanted it to be. Speaking of their ancestors, a fountain of their very image was created in the middle of the valley to remind everypony what the Smokey Mountains were intended to be. Star Twinkle, Twilight, and Fluttershy were also helping out a lot to make this all happen and looked at what could be archived by simply working together. It sure was beating all the fighting and arguing that they had to watch for the majority of this day. "Woo-hoo! Ain't that a pretty sight?" Big Daddy McColt said. "Sure is!" Ma Hooffield replied. "The McColts are gonna help us rebuild our homes! Good ones this time," she added. "And the Hooffields are gonna help us grow some crops!" Big Daddy McColt said. "Not pumpkins," One of the McColts pointed out. They sure were having enough of those for a long time after all. Of course, hearing all of that put a smile on the three ponies that came to this valley. "And best of all, no more fighting," Star Twinkle further pointed out. "That's right!" Ma Hooffield agreed. "Thanks for teachin' us that friendship is so much better than winnin' a silly argument," she said before she and Big Daddy McColt walked away to took charge of more tasks that needed to be done around here. In the meantime, Twilight's and Fluttershy's Cutie Marks started to glow, a familiar sight for Star Twinkle which confirmed that their work here was done. "Yay!" Fluttershy expressed happily with a bright smile on her face. "I told you we'd figure it out," she said towards Twilight, who wanted to give up not too long ago. "We did, and we didn't need my friendship portfolio to do it. We just needed each other," Twilight admitted before she gave Fluttershy and Star Twinkle a big hug. "Right," Star Twinkle agreed. In fact, he realized that Fluttershy seemed to be the only one that knew what to do from the very beginning by just looking at the animals around the place. He felt bad for thinking that she was wasting time taking care of the animals instead of the ponies around here. "So..." Twilight then said before she looked over to Star Twinkle with an excited look on her face. "That only leaves you to be "officially" called by the map." For some reason, hearing the word "officially" made Star Twinkle feel a little bothered. He secretly wished that someday he would be called by the map as well but as of now, all of his friends were called and he was still left out. Even if he was about to be called by the map now, all of his friends were called before which could mean that he would be called alone and that was not making him feel too good. The stallion did his best to hide those thoughts and luckily, Twilight was too caught up in her excitement to notice that. "So, what do you think will happen next? What will your mission end up being?" She asked. "Who knows?" Star Twinkle replied, trying to show some optimism in front of the girls. "I'm sure we'll find out when we get home," Fluttershy said. "Yeah," Star Twinkle said. "So let's go and- Oof!" The stallion said in a straining voice after Twilight used her magic to put the two saddlebags from earlier this day on the stallion's back again. "What if it summons all seven of us to another place? Or another pony we weren't expecting? What if it wants us to solve other kinds of problems, like quantum physics, or why the apple doesn't fall far from the tree?" Twilight suspected, getting lost in her own thoughts after a while. Of course, Star Twinkle and Fluttershy did not know the answer to those questions. All that Star Twinkle knew now was that he had to carry two way too heavy saddlebags on his back and that he had to fly back on Twilight's balloon. And that was not too his liking at all...