//------------------------------// // The things you miss, when you're away. // Story: House of Sun // by Riossumari //------------------------------// Sweetie Belle burst through the doors to the clubhouse announcing her presence to every pony inside. When she looked ahead she naturally recognized her two friends but also noticed three other ponies with them two of which she knew. The orange pegasus standing at the podium trot over to Sweetie as did the yellow earth pony giving Sweetie a big hug, “Sweetie! You’re back! I can’t believe your actually here right now!” the orange filly announced. “Who’s yer friend? And is...he a dragon?” the other asked. Sweetie Belle smiled and nodded she looked at Spike as he stepped forward to introduce himself. “Hi! I’m Spike from the house of Sun it’s nice to meet all of you.” he said, every pony except for Sweetie gasped in shock at Spike’s introduction. “From the House of Sun? Like, as in Princess Celestia’s family?” one of the filly’s asked. Sweetie Belle nodded and introduced Spike to her friends, “This is Applejack’s sister, Applebloom and this is Scootaloo.” Sweetie Belle looked past Scootaloo and Applebloom at the other ponies and asked her friends. “How come Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon are here though? And who’s that?” Applebloom walked over to the third mare and wrapped her hoof around her pulling her close for a hug. “This is my cousin Babs! She’s been staying with us, so we all been hanging out together trying to find ways to help out every pony in Ponyville.” Applebloom explained. "Hi there, its nice to meet ya, Applebloom's talked about ya alot. Never thought I'd get to see you though." Babs replied. “Silver Spoon and I are here because we’ve trying to help out too. We’ve been helping a lot of ponies get there cutie marks.” Diamond Tiara explained. “We’re pretty good at it too, we helped Applebloom get hers!” Silver Spoon explained. Sweetie immediately looked and noticed the cutie mark on Applebloom’s flank, a small potion bottle in the shape of an apple. “What?! When did that happen?” she shouted, Applebloom smiled and turned to explain. “I got it from helping out Zecora with her potions, I used to just bring her ingredients she needed but then she started letting me help and after a few tries I got my cutie mark!” Applebloom said. “Zecora? That scary pony who lives in the forest?” Sweetie asked, “She’s not scary, in fact she’s really nice! We visit her whenever we get the chance! She’s not a pony either, she’s a Zebra from Zebrica! She always talks in rhymes too, which is weird but also kind cool she can do it so naturally.” Scootaloo added. All the foals sat together in the clubhouse happy to explain all that had happened while Sweetie was gone, Sweetie Belle seemed to get a little upset though which Spike noticed. “Are you okay Sweetie?” he asked, the others turned their attention to the two as Sweetie spoke up. “Yeah...I just can’t believe how much I missed while I was gone. It’s only been a few months, not even a full year. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon are nice now, Applebloom has her cutie mark, and is Big Mac dating Ms. Cheerilee?” Applebloom nodded with a smile, “Yeah! We tried getting them together for Hearts and Hooves day, but everything we tried wasn’t working.” Scootaloo said. Diamond Tiara took a step towards Sweetie putting her hoof on her chest with a smile, “That’s where Silver Spoon and I came in, we talked to each other about what Scootaloo and Applebloom were doing and WE came up with a better plan.” Tiara explained. “Now they’re been dating for almost two months. It’s all because of us, of course.” Silver added. Sweetie Belle sat down and held her hooves up angrily shouting to them, “Well were not leaving until I hear the whole story now! I wanna know everything that’s happened since I left Ponyville!” Scootaloo and Applebloom both giggled before pulling up a table with a few snacks on it, “Well then let’s start with how we first met Zecora!” Applebloom said. Twilight and Sunset walked behind Applejack as they approached Apple Acres, Sunset carrying a basket full of snacks and other goods they’d gotten from Sugarcube corner. “Mmmm, so good...you didn’t tell us Pinkie knew how to make such good snacks Applejack.” Sunset said as she finished munching on a cookie from the basket. “Well I wasn’t expecting her to be there when we walked in to be fair. But I’m glad y’all have been makin friends here in Ponyville.” Applejack replied. “Should we go look for Sweetie Belle and Spike? I mean, they wouldn’t get into trouble while we were away would they?” Twilight asked. Applejack looked back at Twilight with a reassuring smile, “Don’t worry about those two none, I’ve got a pretty good idea where they might be. I’ll got get’em myself if y’all need me to.” she replied. As they finally got back to the farm Twilight and Sunset noticed their balloon parked out front of the farmhouse, Shining and Big Mac both working on patching the hole in the side. “Wait, if that’s here now...where’s Princess Celestia and Mom at?” Sunset asked. The three mares walked into Applejack’s home and found an older green mare sitting on the couch in the living room with the missing alicorns drinking tea, a half eaten pie sitting on the table in the middle of the room. “And that’s how we found out what an appetite Applejack had when she was just a foal.” the older mare said. Luna, Celestia, and Cadence all chuckled in response to her story and then noticed Twilight and the others walking in. “Oh Twilight, Sunset, so good to see you both.” Celestia said upon noticing her daughter walk in. “Is everything alright? We saw the hot air balloon outside.” Twilight asked before setting her saddlebag down. “Oh absolutely, we’ve just been sharing stories with Granny Smith while we waited is all. I must say though, this Apple Sweet tea she makes is absolutely divine. I hope you’ll let us know where we could get more.” Luna replied. “Hee hee, Sorry Princess, it’s an ol’ Apple family recipe. Ah can’t just give it to any ol’pony. Even if she’s a princess.” Granny replied. The three mares giggled with one another again at Granny’s reply, Twilight and Sunset sat down at the table setting the basket of goods they’d bought next to the pie on the table. “We got some snacks for the trip by the way, there’s a really nice bakery here. I’m thinking about coming back for more of what they have after our vacation.” Sunset said. Luna leaned over and looked at the small cakes and cookies in the basket, “They certainly look delicious, that’s for certain.” Luna said. Cadence looked around for a moment and then towards the front door, “Where’s Spike and Sweetie Belle at? I thought they were with you.” she asked, Twilight poured herself a cup of tea and took a small sip before answering. “They ran off while we were distracted by one of Applejack’s friends, she says she knows where they might be. So I figured we could go get them once the balloon is finished. It’ll be good for Sweetie to reconnect with her old friends too I think.” “That’s true, she and Rarity were from Ponyville originally after all.” Cadence replied. Sweetie and Spike walked towards Apple Acres, Sweetie having a little more pep to her stride than usual. “Are you okay Sweetie? You’re not upset about what your friends told you are you?” Spike asked, Sweetie stopped and looked at Spike and smiled. “Are you kidding? I’m so happy for them! The things they’ve been doing while I was away, I mean sure, I wish I was there with them for all of it. But think about what they did while I was gone! They made friends with Zecora, Diamond Tiara, and Silver Spoon. Applebloom got her cutie mark, they’re working day and night to help Scootaloo get hers. Plus they even got Ms. Cheerilee to date Big Macintosh! If any thing I need to step up my game and go on adventures with you and Twilight! Playing Ogres and Oubliettes is a good start, but I think I can do better.” Sweetie replied. Spike was happy to see that Sweetie Belle wasn’t upset like he was expecting, instead she was more excited than ever. With a happy trot Sweetie Belle and Spike made their way through the front gates of the Apple farm, the two approached Shining and Big Mac who were finally refilling the air in the balloon. “That should just about do it I think, the holes all patched and we can get things under way again.” Shining said. Big Mac walked up beside him and held up his hoof, Shining giving him a bro hoof in response. “Eeyup.” Sweetie and Spike ran up to Shining and Big Mac smiles on their faces, “Is the balloon finally ready? Are we going to get back to our vacation?” Sweetie asked, Shining playfully rubbed his hoof on Sweetie’s head in response to her question. “That’s right, the holes all fixed up so we can finally get moving again. You two mind getting Twilight and the others while we put all the luggage back in the basket?” Shining replied. Sweetie and Spike both eagerly rushed off to go get the others, Big Mac started to help Shining to put the bags into the basket one at a time. As he lifted one of the suitcases though he noticed a small black box fall out of Shining’s dufflebag. Shining watched Big Mac pick it up and open it to see inside was a pair of gold chain necklaces with a charm in the middle of both that was his and Cadence’s cutie marks. Shining took the box back from Big Mac and quickly tucked it away before any other pony could see it. He looked back at Big Mac a little nervous, “Sorry, I wasn’t trying to be rude. I just...want to keep it a surprise for Cadence. She means a lot to me and I figured this vacation was a good time to ask her. You’ll keep it a secret, right?” Shining asked. Big Mac simply smiled and gave his usual reply of course, “Eeyup.” A moment later the others came out of the house, Sweetie and Spike leading the way. Spike helped Sweetie into the basket and then climbed after her. Celestia and Luna stood with Granny Smith for a moment, “Well we had an absolutely wonderful time, and certainly hope we can do this again.” Celestia replied. “Oh I’d love to have ya come visit again. We hardly ever get visitors out here, and I’d love to share some more of my stories. Come back any time Princess.” Granny replied. Twilight shook Applejack’s hoof with smile, Sunset doing the same after. “Well it was nice meeting the both of ya, don’t be strangers now. Y’all still need to come back fer that party ya promised Pinkie Pie don’t forget.” AJ said. “Oh don’t worry, we’ll definitely be back for that.” Sunset answered. The House of Sun climbed into the basket and waved goodbye as the hot air balloon finally lifted off the ground, Twilight’s horn glowed with magic as she added more air to the balloon and guided in the direction of their destination. “Well, that was fun. It wasn’t quite how we planned our first day of vacation, but I don’t think it was a waste either.” she said. “I had fun, Applejack’s family were really nice. Maybe we should invite them to Canterlot some time, or at the least we should come back to visit again.” Cadence added. Celestia giggled before laying down on her belly and saying, “Well I certainly would like more of that tea Granny Smith made. But that’ll have to be for another day, next stop Costa Del Bronco.”