Secret Stash Recovery
Late in the morning of yet another fine day in the Winter Village, Sunset Shimmer led her friends to a rather sparse forest just beyond the edge of the settlement. She hadn’t explained much to them, only stating that it was for something important that she felt they deserved to be informed about. They weren’t sure what could be so important that she refused to specify much else, but since she insisted they accompany her, they figured they would soon get some answers.
“So what exactly are we doing out here?” asked Rainbow Dash.
Sunset stopped walking and glanced around, then sighed and muttered, “Well, I don’t see anyone else around, so I might as well get it over with.” As her friends came to a stop behind her, she glanced back at them and replied, “Let’s just say I’d like to right an old wrong from my past.”
Applejack hesitantly spoke up, “Uh, no offense, Sunset, but ya did a lot of wrong things in the past. You’re gonna have to be a bit more specific than that.”
Sunset glanced around and took a few steps forward as she explained, “Well, it kinda has to do with those secret stashes that I’ve kept hidden all over the world. As I’m sure you know, the old me used to do a lot of robbery, and since it was never practical for me to carry around all that loot, I decided to hide away much of it in all kinds of places.”
“Yes, I’m familiar with that,” noted Twilight as she adjusted her glasses. “And if what I’ve heard is true, you’ve since been allowed to keep all those stashes for yourself, despite the illegal means you had used to collect them.”
“Yes, that’s all true,” confirmed Sunset. She paced around in various directions and continued glancing around as she explained, “Although I would’ve preferred to return everything I stole, I guess the authorities acknowledged that I had stolen so much from so many different places that it would’ve been impossible to properly determine where all that loot should be returned to, and after how essential one of those stashes had helped me during that Memory Stone incident, the law and I reluctantly agreed to let me keep everything.”
“Informative, but what exactly does this have to do with us being out here in the forest on the outskirts of the Winter Village?” asked Rarity.
“I typically hid at least one secret stash in every single region of the Lego World,” replied Sunset as she continued slowly wandering around aimlessly, forcing her friends to follow after her. “The one that I hid in this region is unique in that it’s not just a pile of cash. The vast majority of it happens to be a bunch of various toys that were originally intended to be given out to all the little kids in the area during a previous holiday season.”
Fluttershy gasped in shock and asked, “Are you saying you… r-r-robbed all those poor innocent children of their holiday gifts?”
“Why would you do something like that?” asked Pinkie in disbelief.
Sunset shrugged and answered, “Just to see if I could, I guess.” She then sighed and shamefully continued, “As you can imagine, I’ve felt really bad about that ever since I stopped being mean to everyone. So I figured since we’re in the area, this would be a perfect opportunity for me to redeem myself by not only offering all those toys to this year’s gift giveaway, but also spend the loot I stashed away with it to buy even more toys for the giveaway.”
“That sounds like a great idea,” said Applejack in approval with a smile.
“Indeed,” agreed Rarity. “Such a gesture of generosity is sure to bring goodwill to any who might recall that heinous past misdeed of yours.”
“And if there’s anything we can do to help, you can count on us,” assured Rainbow Dash.
“Thanks, girls,” said Sunset with a smile. “I knew you’d be with me on this.” She then frowned as she glanced around yet again and quietly muttered, “Now if only I could figure out where I left it…”
“Are you saying you can’t remember where to find that stash?” asked Twilight worriedly.
“Oh, no, I do know where to find it,” assured Sunset. “Specifically, I know exactly where it is in relation to three landmarks.” She put her hands on her hips as she glanced around at the surrounding snow-covered open woodland and stated in disbelief, “But the thing is, even though I’m sure this is the right area, I can’t seem to find any of those landmarks.”
“Maybe we can help out,” offered Applejack with a friendly smile. “What kind of landmarks are ya lookin’ for?”
Sunset turned to her friends and explained, “First of all, I know for sure that it should be in the woods just west of the village, which is where we are now.” She pointed eastward past her gathered friends back towards the village. “Right at the edge of the village, there should be an outhouse not far behind one of those cabins right over there.” She next pointed to her left. “To the northwest, there should be a beaver lodge in the middle of a frozen pond.” She then pointed to her right. “And to the southwest, among the trees over there should be one with my initials carved into the side of it.” She turned back to her friends and continued, “Those three landmarks should create a perfect triangle, and right in the exact center of that triangle should be the site of my secret stash, buried underground.”
“So if we can find those three landmarks, we can find your lost stash,” concluded Rainbow Dash.
“In that case,” stated Twilight, “I suggest we split up so each group can focus on locating just one particular landmark.”
“Ooh! Ooh! I’d like to go look for that tree!” Pinkie Pie eagerly offered.
“And with my super speed, we’ll find it in no time!” boasted Rainbow Dash.
“I’d prefer to search for that beaver lodge,” Fluttershy spoke up.
“I’m sure I can find ways to help out with that,” offered Twilight.
Applejack turned to Rarity and noted, “Then Ah guess that just leaves us to find that outhouse.”
Rarity let out a groan of disgust and complained, “Do I really have to?”
“Not to worry,” assured Applejack. “Ah’ve got somethin’ in mind that should make this search go much easier.”
“And while the rest of you search for those landmarks,” stated Sunset, “I’ll go grab some flags so we can mark the locations of those landmarks, if you’re able to find them. I’ll also grab some shovels so that if we do find the site, we can start digging right away.”
“Alright!” declared Rainbow Dash with enthusiasm. “We’ve all got our game plan, so now let’s get out there and find that secret stash!”
Rainbow and Pinkie quickly headed off further into the woods, while Fluttershy and Twilight made their way into the other side of the woods. As Applejack led Rarity back into the village, Sunset also returned to the village on a different path. The team of seven best friends was now on a mission to recover Sunset’s lost secret stash.
“Castor Canadensis,” stated Twilight contently as she and Fluttershy walked further into the woods. “The beaver is a semiaquatic rodent identifiable by their long incisors, webbed feet, and flat tails. Their preferred habitats are typically woodland streams and rivers, ideal environments for gathering small trees and large branches with which to build dams in order to create a pond, where they are most protected from predators. Not to mention, those ponds generally provide numerous ecological benefits and higher biodiversity.”
“I think it’s amazing how their works as nature’s engineers can have such a positive impact on the environment,” noted Fluttershy.
“It sure is,” agreed Twilight. “Did you know that the largest recorded beaver dam has a total length of over eight hundred fifty meters?”
“Wow!” responded Fluttershy in astonishment. “I bet it must have taken those beavers many years to build that, if not multiple generations!”
Twilight giggled and remarked, “I have to say, Fluttershy, it sure is nice to be able to share some of my scientific knowledge with someone who’s genuinely interested in actually listening.”
“Why would I not?” responded Fluttershy with a smile. “I love everything involving animals! I just think it’s so fascinating how much we can learn from observing nature.”
“Despite my wide range of other scientific interests, that’s an appreciation I share, too,” acknowledged Twilight. “We should consider setting aside some time for just the two of us to discuss all kinds of things in the field of biology.”
“I’m looking forward to it already,” agreed Fluttershy.
Twilight and Fluttershy continued walking through the wintery woodland. Less than a minute after they finished their conversation, Fluttershy stopped and stared at something over to her left.
Twilight also stopped walking and asked, “What is it, Fluttershy?”
Fluttershy gestured for Twilight to follow as the shy girl began walking towards whatever it was that caught her attention. It wasn’t long before they came over a slight rise in the land and saw on the other side was a frozen pond, and in the middle of that was what seemed like a large mound of sticks and mud rising up above the ice. In addition, they also saw three beavers roaming around near a hole in the ice close to the nearby shore.
“Look!” Fluttershy called out cheerfully as she pointed at the structure in the pond. “There’s the beaver lodge!” She then began to quickly make her way towards the shore of that frozen pond.
“Really?” asked Twilight in confusion. She glanced back and quietly noted, “We’re pretty far away from the village…” She turned her attention back to Fluttershy and skeptically asked, “Are you sure this is the right one?”
Fluttershy ignored Twilight and rushed over to the three beavers, but as soon as those beavers noticed her, they suddenly began angrily chattering at her. Thanks to her magical power allowing her to understand them, she hesitated for a moment before she spoke up, “S-Sorry! We didn’t mean to disturb you. We were just trying to find the location of your lodge. You see, one of my friends used it as a landmark to help her find something she left behind.”
One of the beavers stepped forward and chattered in a seemingly irritated tone.
“Oh? Really?” asked Fluttershy in confusion.
That beaver chattered some more and made a few gestures with his forelegs.
Fluttershy nodded in acknowledgement, then turned back to Twilight and explained, “It turns out these beavers made this lodge and pond only this past summer. The old lodge they used to live in was much closer to the village, but they kept getting bothered too much by the villagers, so they tore it down and drained the old pond, then built a new dam and lodge further upstream.”
“So that means this lodge is not the correct site for one of Sunset’s landmarks,” concluded Twilight in disappointment. After another thought quickly crossed her mind, she then asked, “Do any of them happen to know where the old lodge used to be?”
Fluttershy turned back to the beavers and asked, “Could you show us the site of your old lodge? We promise to not bother you anymore once we know where that is.”
The three beavers huddled together and chattered quietly amongst themselves. After almost a minute, the beaver that had spoken with Fluttershy turned away from the huddle and scurried past her.
Fluttershy smiled at Twilight and explained, “Zeke has agreed to take us there, so we’d better follow after him.”
Twilight was momentarily confused by the name that particular beaver seemed to identify himself as, but then she just shrugged and spoke up, “All right, then. Lead the way!”
Zeke the beaver scurried down the shallow hillside with Fluttershy and Twilight following close behind. As they ran, Zeke would occasionally stop and chatter something quick before continuing ahead.
“He says they ended up redirecting the stream,” explained Fluttershy, “so there won’t be any water at the old site.”
“I guess that explains why the original site was so hard to find,” noted Twilight.
The two girls followed the beaver though the snow-covered forest for a few more minutes. Eventually, Zeke came to a stop atop a small mound, sniffed around it for a minute, then pointed down at it as he turned to Fluttershy and chattered something quick.
“This is it!” declared Fluttershy excitedly. “This is the site we’re looking for!”
Twilight turned her attention to the beaver and contently stated, “Thank you so much, Zeke. I promise that as soon as we find the other landmarks and grab what we came here for, you’ll never have to worry about us ever again.”
Zeke nodded in approval, then turned back and began scurrying back towards the new lodge.
Once that beaver was out of sight, Fluttershy glanced around — noting that they were in fact close enough to the edge of the village to see some nearby structures — then turned to Twilight and asked, “So, um… now what?”
“I guess we just wait here until Sunset returns with those flags,” replied Twilight with a shrug. “Until we have a way of marking the site, we can’t afford to lose track of where it is.”
“Makes sense to me,” agreed Fluttershy with a nod.
Pinkie Pie, with her typical cheerful smile on her face, stood in the middle of the woodland and watched as Rainbow Dash used her magical super speed to rush from tree to tree and quickly checked for any markings on any of them.
Whoosh! “No.” Whoosh! “No.” Whoosh! “No.” Whoosh! “No.” Whoosh! “No.”
“Keep it up, Dash!” Pinkie cried out excitedly. “You’re doing great!”
Rainbow scoffed and irritably retorted, “I wish! I’ve lost count of how many trees I’ve checked and I still haven’t found any sign of the one we’re looking for.” She then turned to Pinkie and raised an eyebrow. “Besides, you’re not exactly doing much to help me out here.”
“Oh, I’d love to, Rainbow,” responded Pinkie with that blissful smile still on her face, “but you seemed so confident that you’d find it in ten seconds flat that I decided to simply stay out of your way.”
Rainbow let out a sigh of frustration as she rolled her eyes and facepalmed. “Fine,” she grumbled. “I’ll check another part of the forest. You keep searching in this area.” She then zoomed off through the woods as a rainbow motion blur.
Pinkie hummed a cheerful tune to herself as she skipped towards a random nearby tree. As she inspected the trunk and found no markings, she frowned and muttered, “Wait… did Dash already check this tree?” She glanced around at some of the other nearby trees and scratched the back of her head. “Maybe I should’ve payed more attention…”
Whoosh!
Rainbow Dash suddenly arrived right beside Pinkie and had a look of concern on her face. “I think we might have a problem in that next area,” she reported before zooming off back in the direction she just came from.
Pinkie stared blankly at where Rainbow had just stood, then just shrugged and followed after her at a more modest running speed. About a minute later, she was a little surprised as she came across a small clearing in the woods with tree stumps scattered all over the place. “Whoa. Looks like there’s been some logging going on here recently,” she noted. “Which I guess kinda makes sense when you consider that a lot of cabins in the village are made of logs.”
As the two girls looked around at the clearing in front of them, their gazes eventually fell on a nearby stack of logs lying on the ground. They both glanced at each other, then quickly made their way over to those logs.
“Please no markings, please no markings…” pleaded Rainbow Dash quietly as she and Pinkie approached the logs. She inspected the log on top of the stack and, sure enough, close to one end of that log was an etching deep into the bark in the shape of the letters S-S. She let out a roar of frustration and beat her fist against the side of that log. “Just our luck,” she grumbled. “Now we’ll never know where this landmark is supposed to be!”
Pinkie frowned and tapped her chin as she thought deeply for a moment. She then smiled and snapped her hand. “I got it!” she cheerfully spoke up as she pulled out her phone. “I’ll just call a guy I know who happens to be a super expert on trees. If there’s anybody who can help us figure out where this tree used to stand, it’s this guy.”
“I don’t think a tree expert is gonna be of much help to us in this situation,” muttered Rainbow skeptically.
“Trust me,” insisted Pinkie as she tapped away on her phone, “this guy isn’t just any tree expert. This guy is the biggest source of know-how on all thing wood, trees, and sticks. This guy’s as obsessed with this stuff as Maud is with rocks.” As she held out her phone and awaited a response on it, she casually added, “I should know. He happens to be Maud’s boyfriend.”
Rainbow gave Pinkie a blank stare and raised an eyebrow. “Maud has a boyfriend?” she asked in both confusion and astonishment.
Pinkie ignored Rainbow’s question as a live image came up on her phone, showing the face of a minifig with light brown skin, a short dark brown hair piece on his head, and a dull expression on his face. “Hi, Mudbriar!” she cheerfully greeted with a grin and a wave of a hand.
“Greetings, Pinkie Pie,” responded Mudbriar on the phone in a monotone voice. “I must confess that I never expected I would ever receive a video call from you, especially in light of your questionable behavior the last time we personally met.”
Pinkie giggled awkwardly as she tried to turn away from Rainbow Dash in a futile effort to hide her embarrassment. “Yeah, well, I’m pretty sure we’ve got nothing left to argue about after what happened back then,” noted Pinkie with a shaky smile. She then dismissively waved her free hand between her face and her phone as she swiftly spoke up, “But that’s not important right now. I actually could really use some of your tree expertise right about now. You see, one of my friends is trying to find something she hid somewhere a long time ago and the only way to find it is to locate some nearby landmarks, one of which happens to be a tree with her initials carved into it.” She then turned the phone around to show Mudbriar the log with the initials carved into it. “Unfortunately, we just discovered that tree was recently cut down, as you can see.” She then turned the phone back to her face. “Obviously, this makes it a little tricky to figure out where that old landmark is supposed to be. Do you happen to know if there’s any way we can figure out where this tree used to stand?”
Rainbow Dash crossed her arms and impatiently grumbled, “This is a waste of our time.”
Mudbriar turned his gaze upwards and remained silent for a few seconds, then looked forward again and responded, “Technically, there is a way to determine the exact site of where that tree once stood. First of all, you’ll notice that the carved initials are close to one end of the log. I’m going to assume your friend carved them near the base of the tree, as I seriously doubt she would go through the overly excessive effort of climbing to the very top of a tall tree just to set a barely noticeable landmark for some other site that would be relevant only to her. Anyway, take a look at that end of the log.”
Pinkie walked around to face the end of the stack of logs and turned her phone around the show Mudbriar the end of the log of interest.
“You will notice there is a pattern of concentric rings on that surface. These tree rings indicate the unique lifelong history of that tree’s growth rate, year after year. Wider rings indicate years of abundant growth, while narrower rings indicate years of lesser growth. It’s basic dendrochronology, really. For the purposes of your search, you will need a way to precisely record the exact pattern of those tree rings. If you can then find a tree stump on which the tree rings are a perfect match to the ones on this log, then you will have found the exact site of where that tree once stood.”
“Wow!” remarked Pinkie excitedly as she turned the phone to her face again. “That’s a great idea! Thank you so much for your help! I’ll let you know latter how it turns out. Oh, and say hi to Maud for me. Happy holidays!” She then ended the video call and put away her phone.
“I don’t know, Pinkie,” muttered Rainbow Dash skeptically as she stared at the patterns of rings of the end of the other logs on that stack. “They all look the same to me.”
“You mean like all those white towels Rarity brought to the beach that one time?” quipped Pinkie. “Just because you can’t look hard enough to see any difference doesn’t mean that nobody else can figure it out either.”
“Whatever…” grumbled Rainbow as she rolled her eyes.
“Now let’s see…” muttered Pinkie thoughtfully as she stared closely at the pattern of tree rings on the log of interest. “How are we gonna make a perfect copy of these rings that’ll be easy to carry around with us? Hmm…” After a few seconds, Pinkie removed her hair piece and stated, “I’d better check my inventory.” She then reached into the underside of that magenta hair piece and began pulling out and tossing aside all kinds of random objects, such as an air horn, a teddy bear, a steering wheel, a toaster, and a kayak paddle.
Somehow, all of those random items ended up being tossed towards Rainbow Dash, who was forced to dodge each of them as they were flung through the air. She successfully dodged all of those first five items and briefly glanced back at them in confusion, only to then suddenly get smacked in the face with a rubber chicken. She held out the floppy yellow object and asked, “Why do you always seem to carry one of these around?”
Pinkie just shrugged and replied, “Because it’s funny.” The next item she pulled out was a cupcake with grey frosting on it, to which Pinkie excitedly remarked, “Hey! It’s that special cupcake I misplaced three weeks ago! I was wondering where it went.” She then tossed that cupcake into her mouth and quickly ate the whole thing in one bite, then resumed digging through her seemingly limitless inventory storage.
Rainbow Dash tossed aside the rubber chicken and placed her hands on her hips as she looked around impatiently. When her gaze fell on a certain kind of object not far away, she began to smile.
“Come on,” grumbled Pinkie Pie as she pulled out and tossed aside a plunger from her hair inventory. “There’s gotta be something in here I can use to make a perfect copy of those tree rings.”
“I’ve got a better idea,” Rainbow Dash spoke up contently as she began walking away. “Why bother trying to make a perfect copy when we can just take the real thing with us?”
Pinkie glanced back and forth between Rainbow and the log with a baffled look on her face before she pointed out, “Uh, in case you haven’t noticed, the real thing happens to be part of a really big and heavy log. Even if we had Applejack’s super strength to help out, there’s no way we’d be able to easily carry it around to check which stump it matches with.”
“It’s actually pretty simple,” explained Rainbow Dash as she picked up the object of interest to her — which happened to be a chainsaw — and began walking back to the stack of logs. “Let’s just say that I’m sure no one will care if we take only a one inch section away from the end of that log.” Once she arrived at the logs, she held up the chainsaw and gave a cocky grin as she added, “And I’m sure no one will mind if I borrow this thing for a little bit.” She then started up the chainsaw, revved up the motor, and promptly began cutting into the log of interest.
Pinkie quickly put her hair piece back on and backed away from the logs to avoid getting showered with sawdust flying through the air. Rainbow Dash didn’t mind getting coated in all that sawdust as she continued using that powerful tool to slice through the log, all while she had confident grin on her face.
After a little over a full minute, Rainbow Dash finished slicing through the log, and the one inch thick section fell away and landed flat on the snowy ground near the base of the stack of logs. She then shut off the chainsaw and set it down on a nearby stump as she let out a light cackle of triumph. She reached down and easily flipped the log segment over onto its edge, but then let out a grunt of pain as it proved to be too heavy to completely pick up off the ground. After taking a moment to catch her breath, she sourly concluded, “Fine, we’ll just roll this thing along the ground.”
“Great work, Dash!” praised Pinkie Pie. “Now all we have to do is find the stump that perfectly matches with this log section and we’ll be one step closer to uncovering… la caleta!”
Right after Pinkie dramatically spoke that final word, there was a noise of a rapid strumming of a guitar. Pinkie and Rainbow turned to the source of that brief musical tune and saw sitting on the ground against another stack of logs was a guy wearing a red sombrero, a colorful poncho over his torso, a black large mustache piece around his neck, and holding an acoustic guitar in his hands. This stranger waved at the two girls and cheerfully greeted, “Feliz Navidad!”
Rainbow and Pinkie stared blankly at the unexpected stranger for a moment, then glanced at each other. Rainbow Dash then shook her head and grumbled, “Let’s just roll out and get this over with.” She then began rolling the log section along the ground as she headed off towards a different part of the clearing. Pinkie just smiled and shrugged, then followed after her friend.
“If I’m not mistaken,” Rarity spoke up as she followed Applejack through the middle of the Winter Village, “Sunset specified that the outhouse among her landmarks was located at the outer edge of the village. Perhaps you might care to explain why we are not searching anywhere close to that area at this time?”
“We’re just gonna grab somethin’ that’ll make it easier to find the site of that outhouse,” explained Applejack. “Once we’ve got it, then we’ll head on back over there to start searchin’.”
“We’re looking for an outhouse, darling,” argued Rarity. “I think such a structure should be fairly obvious to identify.”
“An outhouse ain’t like one of those porta-potties ya normally see in the city,” Applejack pointed out. “It’s basically a big pit in the ground with a shack built on top of it. Once the pit eventually gets filled in, the shack is torn down an’ the pit is covered up. Mah guess is that’s just what happened to Sunset’s landmark, in which case our only hope of findin’ that site is to find the filled-in pit underneath where it once stood, an’ Ah can think of only one tool that’ll give us a realistic chance of findin’ it.”
Applejack stopped in front of one particular shop and smiled as she faced it. Rarity stopped beside her and saw the sign hanging from the side of the building that read “Prospector’s Hardware”. Rarity raised an eyebrow as she turned to Applejack and incredulously asked, “Surely you don’t expect me to do any extensive digging in the dirt? You know how adverse I am to such intensive and filthy manual labor.”
Applejack chuckled and assured, “Relax, Rarity. We’re not here for picks an’ shovels. Ah’ve got mah eye on somethin’ a li’l more high-tech.” She walked forward, opened the door into the shop, and stepped inside.
Rarity followed Applejack inside and glanced around at the contents of the shop. In addition to countless shovels and pickaxes, there were also numerous gold pans, metal detectors, basic sluice boxes, and some small generators and water pumps. This first impression left Rarity doubtful there was anything here that could help them locate the former site of an outhouse, let alone anything that she might consider “high-tech”.
“Ah-ha! There it is,” Applejack spoke up as she walked over to something that Rarity would best describe as resembling a small lawn mower. “This here’s a ground penetratin’ radar,” explained Applejack. “These things are used to scan up to several feet underground, allowin’ us to find any large objects without havin’ to scoop out any dirt.”
“Yes, I’ve occasionally heard of this form of modern technology,” acknowledged Rarity as she inspected that special tool. “Though I have my doubts that either of us could afford to purchase something like this.”
“Yeah, same here,” confessed Applejack. “Ah was kinda hopin’ we could arrange to borrow this thing for a li’l bit, then return it once we found that outhouse site.”
“Are you certain this shop would permit that?” asked Rarity.
“Don’t count on it, partner!” spoke up the store’s clerk as he approached the two girls. With his brown pants, black vest, and big cowboy hat, he seemed like someone from the Old West Region rather than the Winter Village. “In this here store, if ya break it, ya buy it, an’ if ya ain’t willin’ to pay up for this here model, then Ah can’t let ya just scurry off with it.”
“But sir, this thing would really save us a lotta effort,” pleaded Applejack. “Ah promise we’ll be real careful with it an’ return it as soon as we’re done usin’ it.”
The store clerk shook his head and firmly stated, “Ah can’t just take ya fer your word like that. Either ya buy the darned thing or y’all can high tail it outta here.”
“Perhaps you might be interested in an arrangement of collateral,” suggested Rarity as she stepped forward.
The store clerk raised an eyebrow and asked, “What are ya willin’ to offer?”
Rarity removed the tote bag from over her shoulder and held it out as she replied, “This high-end custom designed specialty tote bag, along with all of my possessions stored within.” She then reached into the bag and quickly removed a few plastic cards. “With the obvious exception of my credit cards. I’ve heard plenty of identity theft horror stories to know better.”
The store clerk took a hard look at that bag for a moment, then looked up at Rarity and asked, “Ya really sure ya wanna do that?”
“We believe that ground penetrating radar will be of significant assistance towards helping one of our friends locate something of great importance,” explained Rarity. “Never let it be said that I’m unwilling to make sacrifices for the sake of my friends.”
“Ah’d rather have some actual business done with y’all,” muttered the clerk in displeasure.
“Alright, ya know what? Throw in a purchase of that auger over there an’ ya got yourself a deal,” offered Applejack as she pointed at the simple drilling tool that she believed would be both affordable and possibly useful.
“Done,” agreed the clerk as he held out his hand.
With the deal agreed upon, Applejack handed over twenty dollars for the auger and Rarity handed over her tote bag as a loan in exchange for borrowing the ground penetrating radar device. Once the exchange was complete, Applejack picked up the radar device and carried it out the door, with Rarity following behind with that newly purchased auger in her hands.
A few minutes later, the two girls returned to the western edge of the village. As Applejack set down the ground penetrating radar device behind one of the cabins, Rarity asked, “Have you used one of these before?”
“Nope,” answered Applejack as she switched on the display screen atop the handlebar.
“What?” asked Rarity aghast. “Then how can you be so sure this device will be of such vital assistance in our search?”
“Mah family an’ I watch a lotta shows on TV where they occasionally use one of these things,” explained Applejack. “From what Ah know, all we gotta do is push this thing around like we’re mowin’ the lawn, an’ this screen will show us a color-coded image of what’s underneath us as we move it around. For this search, what we’re lookin’ for is a large area of disturbed ground, which should show up as a jumbled mess rather than the smooth layers of virgin ground.” She then furrowed her brow as she stared at the settings being displayed on the screen. “If only Ah could figure out how to get this thing goin’ properly…”
“Perhaps you should allow me to handle this piece of advanced technology,” insisted Rarity as she handed the auger over to Applejack. “After all, my designer tote bag is being used as collateral for this device, so I should have a say in how it’s utilized.”
Applejack was momentarily stunned as she was practically shoved aside with that auger shoved into her hands. “Uh… sure,” she responded with uncertainty. “Ah guess ya can go ahead an’ try it out.”
Rarity took a moment to study the options that were displayed on the screen before she tapped one of the buttons on the side of it. She smiled in satisfaction as the screen went dark with the exception of a notification to begin the scanning process. With this device now seemingly all set to begin the search, she proceeded to push the radar forward along the ground, much like how she had observed her father mowing the lawn throughout her childhood.
Applejack walked beside Rarity and guided her across the ground while Rarity kept her focus on the colorful images being displayed on the screen. As they slowly made their way past one cabin after another, the displayed images were mostly of just smooth layers that were to be expected of undisturbed soil, with only the occasional minor irregularities very close to the surface.
After several minutes of careful searching, they eventually reached an area where the smooth layers on the screen suddenly transitioned into a scattered mess that extended from the surface down to just over halfway down the screen. “Oh!” Rarity spoke up and suddenly stopped. She pointed at the screen and asked, “Is this what we’re looking for?”
Applejack glanced over at the screen. What she saw certainly seemed promising, but as she knew from how she had seen this device in action, one could never be certain of what was really in the ground based solely on those radar images. “Only one way to be sure,” responded Applejack before she stuck her auger into the ground and began twisting it around to start drilling down.
Rarity pushed the ground penetrating radar device a little further ahead to provide her friend some space to work.
It took Applejack about half a minute to twist the auger as far down as it would go, then she yanked it straight upwards, pulling out a sample of the soil underneath. She brought the tip of the auger close to her face and took a sniff of the sample, then immediately recoiled in disgust. “Eyup,” she spoke up with a slightly strained voice. “That’s definitely the stench of an outhouse alright. Hoo-wee!”
The awful stench quickly reached Rarity, who practically gagged before she complained, “Ugh! Was that really necessary?!”
“Hey, at least now there’s no doubt we found the site we’re lookin’ for,” argued Applejack. She then stuck the auger into the ground close to the borehole she had just drilled and walked over to Rarity and the ground penetrating radar device. “Alright, now that we’re done usin’ that thing, Ah’d better return it to that hardware store right away. You stay here an’ wait for Sunset to arrive with those flags.”
“There is no way I am staying here with that horrid aroma!” insisted Rarity furiously. “Especially seeing as I don’t have my can of air freshener with me!”
Applejack rolled her eyes and declared, “Fine. You can return that thing an’ Ah’ll wait here for Sunset.”
“Fine by me!” Rarity shot back as she immediately began pushing the radar device back towards the village. “After all, I should rather take back my custom designer tote bag and its contents personally to ensure that clerk has committed no foul play of any sort!”
Applejack watched her friend storm off with the borrowed radar device, then shook her head in disapproval as she walked back to the recently discovered site of where an outhouse once stood.
Sunset Shimmer returned to the open woodland just west of the edge of the village by the middle of the afternoon. She had been able to gather three flagpoles the height of a minifig to mark the locations of the three landmarks and seven shovels for herself and her friends, but since all of that proved to be a little cumbersome to carry around in her arms, she had also obtained a small red wagon that she was now using to haul those supplies around. She still wasn’t quite sure where her secret stash was possibly located, so she pretty much had no choice but to just wander around the area and hope that some of her friends were successful in locating at least one of those landmarks.
“Sunset!” cried out the voice of Twilight Sparkle. “Over here!”
Sunset followed the source of her friend’s voice and quickly made her way towards a small clearing, where Twilight and Fluttershy stood atop a shallow mound in the center of it.
“The beavers built a new lodge further upstream,” explained Twilight, “and according to what they told Fluttershy, their old lodge used to be located right on this site.”
“Nice work, girls!” praised Sunset. “I knew those landmarks had to have been somewhere in this area, and now you’ve proven that at least one of them definitely used to be here.” She then grabbed one of her flags and firmly jabbed the pole into the ground atop the mound. “One down, two more to go.”
“Sunset!” cried out the voice of Applejack. “Over here!”
Sunset followed that other voice to some open ground behind a row of cabins, where Applejack stood alone beside an auger stuck into the ground. Since the site of the old beaver lodge was now marked, Twilight and Fluttershy were now free to follow after her to meet up with the apple farmer.
“Ah figured that ol’ outhouse must’ve been torn down,” explained Applejack, “so Ah borrowed a ground penetratin’ radar to look around an’ found a lotta disturbed ground right here. Ah then used that auger to take a quick soil sample an’ Ah can say for sure there used to be an outhouse here.”
Sunset waved her hand around in front of her face in disgust and remarked, “Sure smells like it alright. Whew!” She quickly grabbed one of her two remaining flags and firmly jabbed the pole into the ground beside the auger. She walked back to her wagon, but then suddenly paused for a moment before she turned back to Applejack and asked, “You borrowed a ground penetrating radar?”
“Sure did,” confirmed Applejack proudly. “Rarity had to put up some collateral to make it happen, but it was worth it.”
Sunset raised an eyebrow and asked, “And it never occurred to either of you to consider using it to just directly find the site of my secret stash instead of that old outhouse?”
Applejack’s expression of confidence quickly fell as she hesitantly responded, “Uh…”
It was at this moment that Rarity returned, the radar device now traded in for her designer tote bag. With all of her personal items within that bag now back in her possession, the very first thing she did upon arrival was pull out a can of air freshener and vigorously sprayed it all over the site of that former outhouse.
The scent of that air freshener was applied so thickly that the other girls started to cough from the irritation it caused them. “Jeeze, Rarity,” wheezed Applejack. “Ah think ya just made the air ‘round here even more toxic.”
“You can never have too much air freshener,” argued Rarity as she finally finished spraying the air and stuck that can back into her bag.
Before yet another lengthy argument could break out between the farmer and the fashionista, Sunset spoke up, “Okay, so that’s two out of three landmarks identified. Great work, girls! Now let’s go see if Rainbow and Pinkie had any luck finding that last one.” She then grabbed her wagon and hauled it behind her as she walked away in what she believed was the approximate direction of that third and final landmark. With the first two landmarks now identified by those flags, Twilight, Fluttershy, Applejack, and Rarity followed after their friend.
The five girls soon arrived in a clearing full of tree stumps, where they found Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie apparently hauling around a wide and short log segment as they wandered from one tree stump to another.
“This is getting ridiculous, Pinkie!” complained Rainbow. “Can’t we just pick one of them at random and call it good enough?”
“No, because we still won’t know for sure if that’s really the site of Sunset’s landmark,” argued Pinkie. “For all we know, identifying the wrong stump could throw the whole search over a hundred feet off course!”
“I’m telling you, Pinkie, this is hopeless!” grumbled Rainbow, looking visibly exhausted from rolling that big log section around. “We’ll never be able to figure this out!”
“We will find the right tree stump,” insisted Pinkie. “The one that perfectly matches that tree slice we took from the log has to be around here somewhere.”
“Fine!” snapped Rainbow furiously. “If you’re so confident, then maybe you should take a crack at it!” She then rolled the log section directly towards Pinkie.
The one inch thick and two foot wide log segment knocked Pinkie over backwards and rolled between her legs and up onto her torso. “Ow, my lasagna,” muttered Pinkie in a strained voice as that heavy log segment pressed down on her body.
Applejack quickly rushed over and effortlessly lifted the log segment off of Pinkie. As the rest of the girls also arrived, Twilight spoke up, “Pinkie, lasagna is the name of a meal dish, not a major organ.”
“I know that, silly,” responded Pinkie as she reached into her pocket and pulled out a large serving dish with a fully cooked lasagna on it that was now smooshed flat across the middle. “I’m just saying my lasagna’s ruined and now I’ll have to make something else for dinner tonight.”
Twilight raised her hand and opened her mouth as she was about to ask something, but hesitated upon realizing who exactly she was speaking to, so she reluctantly lowered her hand and remained silent.
Applejack continued to hold up the log segment in her grasp as she turned to Rainbow Dash and asked, “So, uh, any reason why you’re carryin’ this thing around?”
Rainbow Dash sighed in frustration and explained, “The tree that Sunset marked was cut down recently, so Pinkie called some tree expert who told us we could figure out where that tree used to stand by finding a perfect match in the tree rings between that log and one of these stumps. I sliced off that section so we could carry around a perfect sample from the log to match with these stumps, but I just don’t see how that’ll be even possible. They all look the same to me.”
“Don’t be so quick to dismiss a search for an identical match, darling,” retorted Rarity as she walked over to Applejack and began closely inspecting the log section in her grasp. “One must simply have an eye for detail and an abundance of patience.”
While Fluttershy helped Pinkie back up onto her feet, Rarity took some time to carefully study every subtle imperfection in the pattern of rings she could identify. Once the fashionista was confident she knew what to look for, she turned away and began inspecting every tree stump in the area. The rest of the girls silently followed after her, anxious to find out if she could succeed where Rainbow and Pinkie had failed.
After several minutes of searching over a dozen different stumps, Rarity smiled and gestured for Applejack to bring that log segment closer. She glanced back and forth between the stump and the log to double check the tree ring patterns on both wooden surfaces, then gently guided Applejack into rotating the log section around and then finally setting it down atop the stump.
“Et voilà!” declared Rarity triumphantly. “A precisely perfect match!”
Sunset grabbed the last flag from her wagon and stepped forward. She looked closely at the stump and the log segment resting on top of it and was astonished to see that from every angle, the outer edge really did seem to be an absolutely perfect match. She smiled and stated, “If you’re really that sure about it, then I guess this is the one.” She then firmly jabbed the flagpole into the ground beside that tree stump. “And with that, all three landmarks have now been located!”
The rest of the girls all cheered in excitement at this remarkable accomplishment.
Once all the cheering calmed down, Applejack turned to Sunset and asked, “Now what?”
“These three landmarks form a perfect triangle,” explained Sunset, “and my secret stash should be buried at the exact center of that triangle. To identify where that is, I suggest we tie a string to each flagpole and rung those strings out to the exact center between the other two flagpoles. The three strings should all cross together in a single location, and that’ll mark the site of where we need to dig.”
“I can take care of that!” volunteered Pinkie Pie excitedly. She swiftly removed her hair piece, then pulled out and tossed aside a banana split and a pogo stick before she triumphantly held up three rolls of ribbons in different colors. After putting her hair piece back on, she tied the end of the blue ribbon to the flagpole beside the stump, then quickly unrolled it as she ran off towards the space that was equally between the other two flagpoles.
The rest of Pinkie’s friends watched as she dropped the roll of blue ribbon, ran over to the flagpole behind the cabins, and tied a red ribbon to it. After she unrolled and ran that ribbon out to the space between the other two flagpoles, she dropped the roll of red ribbon and ran over to the flagpole on the mound. She tied a green ribbon to that final flagpole, unrolled and ran that ribbon out to the space between the other two flagpoles, and dropped that roll of green ribbon on the spot.
With that task now complete, the seven Equestria Girls made their way towards the site where those three ribbons crossed over each other. “This is it,” declared Sunset in awe. “This must be the spot.” She let go of her wagon and retrieved one of the shovels in it. “Everyone, let’s get digging!”
The rest of the girls each quickly grabbed a shovel and stuck them into the ground around that central site, then began scooping out dirt and soil from under the snow-covered surface. Some worked faster than others, but they were all equally committed to uncovering that lost secret stash.
“Dig a hole, dig a hole, dig a hole!” said Pinkie cheerfully as she flung shovelful after shovelful of dirt away from the dig site.
After several minutes, the girls had created a shallow pit in the ground, but had yet to find any signs of a secret stash hidden below. Fluttershy paused and wiped her brow in exhaustion, then stuck her shovel back into the dirt.
Thunk!
Everyone immediately froze as soon as they heard that noise. “Oh!” a startled Fluttershy spoke up. “I think I hit something!”
The rest of the group of friends quickly gathered around Fluttershy and began digging in that particular location, where they quickly heard that same impact noise repeated with every strike of their shovels. They had definitely struck something solid.
It took the seven girls a couple minutes to fully uncover what turned out to be a wooden trap door in the ground. Sunset stepped forward and pulled on the handle to open the trap door, exposing a ladder that descended down into the darkness below. “This looks promising…” sang Sunset with a smile as she pulled out a flashlight, switched it on, and began climbing down the ladder.
Sunset climbed down only a dozen rungs of the ladder before she reached the bottom. She then turned around and aimed her flashlight ahead. Right in front of her was a large chamber that was packed full of giftwrapped boxes of various shapes and sizes, along with a few briefcases and sacks, the latter of which had a few gold coins spilling out from some of them. This was all she needed to see to immediately recognize the contents of this chamber. She laughed triumphantly and excitedly proclaimed, “We found it!”
Up on the surface, all of Sunset’s friends cheered and danced with enthusiasm upon hearing their search for the lost secret stash of the Winter Village had been a complete success.
Later that evening, a large crowd had gathered around the center of the Winter Village, where the Equestria Girls were handing out all of the gifts from Sunset’s secret stash to all the children in the village. The numerous children were all very thrilled to be receiving so many gifts before the proper holiday, and they eagerly waited in several lines for their turn to be handed one holiday gift. While many were excited with what they got, not all of them were entirely satisfied with the surprises they received, so Fluttershy, Rarity, and Pinkie helped those kids find other displeased kids to trade for more desirable gifts.
Some residents had remembered Sunset’s heinous crime from a few years ago, so it really warmed their hearts to see her going through all this effort to make up for her awful past behavior. As she had promised, Sunset had also spent the sacks full of coins and briefcases full of cash on even more gifts for the kids, practically buying out the entire inventories of many toy shops. Some local newspaper reporters had even done a few interviews with each of the girls, all of whom were very proud of this wonderful deed they were doing for the entire village.
After the last of the gifts had been given away and words of gratitude had been shared with all of the villagers, the seven girls finally had a moment to themselves to reflect on the positive outcome of this day.
“This sure has been a productive day, hasn’t it?” remarked Applejack.
“Indeed,” agreed Rarity. “I must say, this act of generosity far exceeds anything I could have ever envisioned myself capable of accomplishing.”
“And to think this was all possible because Sunset finally decided to do something good with all that stuff she stole a long time ago,” quipped Rainbow Dash
“Best redemption ever!” Pinkie Pie excitedly declared.
Twilight turned to Sunset and stated with a smile, “I’ve very proud of you for giving away the entirety of that secret stash to brighten up everyone’s holiday.”
With a faint smile on her face, Sunset reached into her pocket and muttered, “Actually…”
All of Sunset’s friends dropped their smiles and looked to her in confusion. “What is it?” asked Fluttershy.
“I know I promised to spend all of the loot on more gifts for the kids, but, well…” replied Sunset as she pulled out a small handful of green 1x2 tiles, each labeled with a white “100” on the top surface. With a slightly guilty smile on her face, she confessed, “I just couldn’t resist keeping a tiny portion of that loot, just for us.” She then began handing out those pieces of cash to her friends. “A hundred dollars for each of you.”
All of the girls initially smiled as they received that little gift of cash from their friend, muttering various words of thanks in response.
It didn’t take long before Fluttershy frowned and shamefully muttered, “I-I not sure about this. I mean, I’d much rather see this being spent with all that other money to help the kids.”
Rarity sighed and confessed, “Yes, I suppose I would prefer to donate my share towards additional charity for the children.”
“Money never buys me happiness,” remarked Pinkie Pie, “unless it ends up making someone else happy, which means I’ll be better off giving my share to the kids.”
“Ah oughta donate mah share, too,” acknowledged Applejack. “It’s just the right thing to do.”
“I already make a fortune on royalties for my inventions,” Twilight pointed out. “I can do without an additional hundred dollars.”
Everyone now turned their attention to Rainbow Dash, who looked down at her hundred dollars with an indecisive look on her face. Eventually, she smiled and shrugged as she conceded, “Oh, what the heck? I guess I’ll throw in my share, too.”
“So that’s what you’ve all decided on?” asked Sunset as she glanced between each of her friends. She glanced down at the hundred dollars in her hand, then smiled. “Well, in that case…” She turned around to face the crowd of villagers still present and held up her share of the cash as she proudly declared, “Another seven hundred dollars for the kids!”
Everyone in the village, children and adults alike, cheered in excitement at the news of one last donation of goodwill from Sunset Shimmer and her friends.