The next morning, Kairi and Lea woke up in the guest bedroom at Sweet Apple Acres. Kairi had slept in the bed while Lea slept next to her, trying his best to keep his distance. When it was only 6:00 a.m., the duo were woken up by the sound of a spoon hitting a pan.
“It’s time to wake up, you two! C’mon! You don’t want to miss breakfast!” A young filly wearing a bow in her red hair yelled out over the banging.
At this, both Kairi and Lea woke up groggily due to not getting a full night’s sleep.
“Man, that was one rough night. Do these people rise with the sun or something?” Lea was annoyed.
“Now, Lea. Remember that we’re staying with them for free in exchange for helping them with a few errands,” Kairi reminded Lea.
“Yeah, I remember. Let’s just hope that we don’t run into any trouble along the way,” Lea responded.
All of a sudden, Kairi’s stomach growled very loudly. “Well, let’s go ahead and eat. We’re going to need it after going to bed without food last night,” Kairi said as she left the room.
Before Lea went downstairs, he muttered, “I hope those apples taste good.”
Once they got downstairs, Lea and Kairi both saw that the family had prepared two chairs for the visitors. At the table was Applejack, the pony from last night, a large red stallion, the small yellow filly from a few minutes ago that had no mark on her flank, and an elderly green mare with a pie mark on her flank.
“I’d like y’all to meet my family since we didn’t get to meet last night. The red stallion here is my brother Big MacIntosh. He doesn’t talk much. Right Big Mac?” Applejack introduced.
“Eeyup,” the stallion simply said.
“The older mare over here is Granny Smith. She’s in charge of everything here at Sweet Apple Acres. Right, Granny?” Applejack asked the old mare.
“Yer darn tootin’! I must say though, Applejack. You did find some strange folk in our orchard last night. Still, I guess I did somethin’ right in raisin’ you since you offered them a place to stay for the night when they needed it,” Granny Smith said.
“Lastly, the young filly here is our younger sister Applebloom,” Applejack introduced.
“Applejack said y'all have business in Canterlot. Is that true?” Applebloom asked.
“Yes, it is. We’re going to talk with someone named Princess Celestia,” Kairi said, much to the shock of the rest of the family.
“Princess Celestia? You’re meeting with the princess herself?” Applejack asked in shock.
“Yes. Yes we are. I'm guessing she really is a big deal judging by the shock,” Lea commented.
“Of course it is! Princess Celestia is the ruler of Equestria! She raises the sun and moon every day!” Applebloom explained.
“Wow! We’re going to meet the big fish then. Hear that, Kairi?” Lea noted.
After this, the family and guests proceeded to eat the toast, pancakes, and other food set out for them to eat. Partway through the meal, Kairi decided to ask, “So, if you don’t mind me asking, what’s with the marks on your behinds?”
“Wait, you don’t know what a cutie mark is?” Applejack was confused.
“Well… you see-,” Kairi tried to think of an explanation only for Lea to come up with an answer.
“We hit our heads shortly before entering your orchard. We may have trouble with remembering certain things. Like cutie marks and what role Princess Celestia plays in Equestria,” Lea explained. The family looked a little suspicious, but ultimately they decided to trust the strangers as they didn’t have any reason to lie.
“Well, you see a cutie mark appears on a ponies’ flank when they discover the thing that makes them special. For me, I found out my mark means bein’ here in Sweet Apple Acres and helpin’ my family keep it in business,” Applejack explained.
“I don’t have a mark yet. In fact, a lot of my class has theirs,” Applebloom sadly noted. Before the duo could ask Applebloom if she was alright, she then changed the subject. “So, what do your marks mean?”
“Well, actually, we don’t know what they mean. Guess we also forgot what they mean,” Kairi responded.
“Oh,” Applebloom responded, a bit disappointed. As everyone was starting to get back to eating she decided to drop the subject.
After breakfast, which was delicious, Applejack gave Lea and Kairi a list of errands that they were to run while the rest of the family worked on chores. The errands were to obtain a weather schedule from a pegasus named Rainbow Dash, drop off Big Mac’s tux to be repaired by Rarity, and buy some dog food for their dog Winona from a pony named Fluttershy. After obtaining and looking over the list, the Keyblade wielding duo left to finish the Apple family’s errands.
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As the duo left to head towards town, Lea finally realized something. “Um, Kairi? Do we even know where to find these ponies?”
Kairi stopped for a moment before saying, “Well, we can just ask the civilians for help. Applejack said that the people of Ponyville are friendly.”
“Well, alright. Let’s go find this Rainbow Dash,” Lea decided to do the tasks in order.
For the next half hour, Kairi and Lea looked around town to try and find Rainbow Dash. However, in spite of their best efforts, they had difficulty finding her. Every pony that they asked said that she was at one place only for her not to turn up at the place that they went to. Either this Rainbow Dash was very fast or everyone they were talking to was lying. Eventually, they ran into an orange filly, who was sitting right under a cloud excitedly.
“So, young filly, what are you doing sitting in the middle of town like this?” Lea asked out of curiosity.
The filly turned towards Lea and Kairi with a huge smile on her face. “Oh, I’m in the presence of the greatest pony ever, Rainbow Dash!” She then proceeded to point up at the cloud above them. After backing up, the pair could see a blue pony with a rainbow colored mane lying down on the cloud. Snoring could be heard from the pony on top of the cloud. “Hate to break it to ya, kid, but she’s sound asleep.”
“Oh, I know. I’ve wanted to introduce myself to her for the longest time, but I never have the nerve to do so,” the orange filly said.
“Hey, don’t worry. I’m pretty sure once you introduce yourself to her she’ll be more than willing to spend time with you,” Kairi comforted the filly.
“You really think so? I-I mean, yes. Of course she’ll be willing to spend time with me! I just need to go and get my scooter and we’ll be able to race throughout Ponyville for sure! Bye, you two!” The young filly said as she began to run off.
“Bye! Wait! What was your name?” Kairi called out to the young filly.
“I’m Scootaloo! What’s yours?” Scootaloo answered.
“I’m Kairi and this is my friend Lea!” Kairi yelled out as Scootaloo disappeared from view.
“So, how do you suppose we wake her up?” Lea asked Kairi.
“Well, why don’t you try flying up and nudging her awake?” Kairi suggested.
“Wait! Why can’t we just call for her and see if she wakes up?” Lea asked, not wanting to fly when his only experience was in Neverland. After all, flying by pixie dust was different from flying by wings.
“Just give it a try, please,” Kairi asked.
“Fine. But don’t blame me if it doesn’t work out,” Lea began to try and flap his wings. It took a minute for his wings to be able to flap at the same time, but he eventually started to get it down. He slowly began to rise into the sky, only for him to suddenly fall to the ground. “Seriously?”
Kairi started to snicker, holding back her laughter at what just happened. “Sorry, Lea. I’ll call up to her. Hey, Rainbow Dash! Wake up! We need to talk to you!”
After a few moments, the duo noticed that Rainbow Dash was starting to move up on the cloud. “Alright, fine! I’m up! I’m up! I was just having the best dream!” Rainbow Dash complained as she flew down to see Kairi and Lea. “Who are you guys, and what do you want?” Rainbow asked, genuinely confused as to who the pair was.
“Well, this is Lea and my name is Kairi. We’re here in order to obtain the weather schedule for Applejack,” Kairi explained to the sleepy pegasus.
“Oh, that. Give me a second,” Rainbow said as she zoomed off to obtain the schedule for them. In no time flat, she returned with a scroll that had a seal on it. “Well, I hope you have a good day, you two.”
“Yeah, and sometime you’ll have to explain to me how you were able to sleep on that cloud,” Lea said, somewhat impressed, wanting to be able to nod off like the mare could.
“Wait. You don’t know how clouds work?” Rainbow Dash was confused. “All pegasi should know that we can interact with clouds! How do you not know that?!” She demanded, frustrated. All of a sudden, many nearby ponies turned to the conversation.
“Oh, well our memories were partly messed up due to being hit on the head. We don’t remember everything,” Kairi explained, not wanting to break the world order.
“Are you sure?” Rainbow suspiciously asked.
“Very certain. In fact, we should get going,” Lea said as he dragged Kairi away.
Everypony was quick to turn away and leave as Kairi and Lea left. However, Rainbow Dash looked over at them suspiciously. Meanwhile, a pink pony with three balloons on her flank was also watching from a distance and also wanted to follow the duo.
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Kairi was feeling awkward after the two’s encounter with Rainbow Dash. After all, it being made public that they didn’t know something that was common knowledge in this word was embarrassing.
“So, Lea, do you think that we should find a book about how this world is different from other worlds? We may be able to avoid another scene if we do so,” Kairi suggested.
“I guess. So, what is the next errand, anyway?” Lea asked.
“Oh, it’s to drop off Big Mac’s tux at Carousel Boutique. Someone-er-pony named Rarity will fix it,” Kairi answered. “Now we just need to find the place.”
After asking the ponies in town where Carousel Boutique was, they were quickly able to find the building. It had a carousel on the top of a fancy looking building.
“Wow. Everything in this world looks like it’s from a child’s storybook,” Lea muttered under his breath.
“Hey! Don’t be rude! I think this place looks vibrant and beautiful,” Kairi countered. “Well, we might as well knock on the door.”
Kairi proceeded to knock on the door three times. At first no one responded. However, after a minute, the door opened to show a white pony with purple hair on the other side. “Oh, hello there. My name is Rarity. It’s so nice to meet you two. Of course, I am very happy to be in the presence of a couple as nice looking as the two of you,” Rarity complemented the duo, much to their embarrassment.
“Wait! Hold on!” Lea tried to counter.
“We aren’t a couple,” Kairi tried to say.
“Oh. I thought for sure you two would be together,” Rarity said. “Well, to be fair, the red haired young stallion does seem to be older than you. By the way, what are your names?”
“My name is Lea. Got it memorized? And the pink unicorn is my friend Kairi. We’re here in order to drop off a tux for Applejack. It belongs to her brother,” Lea got out the tux and handed it over to the unicorn, whose horn proceeded to glow blue. The tux proceeded to be covered in a blue aura and was levitated over to Rarity. Both Lea and Kairi were surprised to see that Rarity was able to levitate the tux and Kairi knew what she would
“Oh, thanks you two. You know, Big Mac has torn up his tux in the past with his rugged muscles. I don’t know if it will only be a short time or not until I finally have to fix it again,” Rarity noted.
“Well, at least you’ll have a repeat customer,” Kairi pointed out before she realized something. “Oh, I’m sorry, but I don’t believe we have the Munny to pay for the tux.”
“Munny? What is that?” Rarity asked in confusion, much to the nervousness of Kairi. “Oh, never mind. Don’t worry about the payment. Applejack has already paid the necessary bits for the tux. It should be ready in a few days.” Just as Kairi and Lea were about to leave, Rarity interrupted to say, “Hey! Why don’t I make outfits for the both of you?”
“Really? Are you sure?” Kairi was amazed.
“Hold on, Kairi. How much will these outfits cost?” Lea cynically asked the white unicorn.
“Oh, they will be no charge at all. I pride myself on my generosity, so I allow new customers to have one free outfit,” Rarity explained.
“Really? That sounds great! We’ll be sure to return here once they are done,” Kairi said. “Well, we need to get going. Thanks again for the outfits!”
“You’re welcome,” Rarity said as the duo left her store. However, as it would turn out, there was also a pink pony spying on them and was watching them leave the boutique. She excitedly hopped after them, preparing to welcome them to Ponyville.