Chapter Five
Sunset paused as she stepped out of the carriage, taking a deep breath of the air down here. It was a cool, comfortable feeling, tinged with the scent of... sugar?
Then a pink pony was right in her face. "Hiiiiii!"
"Gah!" Sunset recoiled for a moment, stumbling and attempting to regain her balance, before she shook it off and saw the pink pony still there. "Good grief, you startled me," she muttered as she tried to calm her racing heart. "Where'd you even come from?"
The pink pony grinned. "Mom and Dad always said the stork brought me," she said in a giggling tone. "But Granny Pie set me straight on that."
"Right..." Sunset shook her head. "Give me a second, would you?"
Trotting over to Zephyr and Soft Breeze, she thanked them for the lift, then watched as they took off again. That done, she turned back to the pink pony. "I never got your name..."
"Oh, I'm Pinkie Pie!" the pink pony said cheerfully. "So I can ask you a question now?" Sunset nodded her head at the request and said to go ahead. "Chocolate, vanilla or tabasco?"
Sunset blinked. "What?"
"What cupcake flavors do you like?"
"Oh. Um..." Sunset blinked. "Most anything."
"Cool! Be right back!" With that, Pinkie dashed off, leaving Sunset blinking.
"Why do I suddenly feel like I just got hit with a whirlwind made of sugar?" she asked herself, taking a few steps before Pinkie reemerged from the opposite direction she had left.
"Here's your cupcake!" she said cheerfully, hoofing one with a bright red frosting over to Sunset, who accepted it and, after taking a careful sniff, brightened considerably. Happily gulping it down, she waited for a moment, and then released a burst of flame from her mouth.
"Mm, spicy!" she said gleefully with her tail shaking behind.
Pinkie beamed. "Tabasco cupcakes always hit the spot!"
Nearby, two other ponies shook their heads. "Never thought Ah'd see the day," one said.
The other was too busy snickering to make a comment, so Sunset decided to give her a minute and turned back to Pinkie. "I'm Sunset Shimmer," she said. "Nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you too," Pinkie giggled. "Here for the big Summer Sun Celebration?"
Sunset nodded. "I'm actually here to make sure everypony's got everything set up," she said.
"Then you came to the right place, partner," the other pony who was not still snickering said. She came over and extended a hoof. "Ah'm Applejack, and mah family's providing the food for this here shindig."
"Pleased to meet you," Sunset said, accepting the hoofshake. "You wouldn't happen to be one of the Apple family that first settled this area?"
"Sure am," Applejack said. "Mah granny's Pa was the one who first brought his family here all those years ago."
Sunset smiled. "I thought so," she said. "I've heard all the stories about how Princess Celestia personally gave Sherwood Apple the land grant."
Applejack smiled back, then gestured behind her. "An' that there's Rainbow Dash," she said.
Sunset checked her notes. "Ah yes, the one who's supposed to have the skies clear in time for the big event," she said.
"I'll get it done," Rainbow Dash said as she finally calmed down, flapped her wings a few times, and then came drifting over to hover in front of them. "Weather board says the skies still need 'em up for a few more hours today."
Sunset noted that on her list. "Right."
"Well, what say you come over to mah place and sample the food?" Applejack asked. "We've got everything ready, except for a few bits that need to be made fresh in the mornin'."
"Sure thing," Sunset said.
The pair started trotting along, with Pinkie and Rainbow Dash following after them.
"So," Applejack said as they walked. "They just sent one pony down to check up on things?"
"Well, actually my assistant's coming later," Sunset said. "He had a party to go to this afternoon, so I let him do that and came on ahead."
"A party‽" Pinkie suddenly looked excited. "What kind?"
"Just a few friends getting together," Sunset told her. "Nothing too wild. He's still only twelve, and his species ages slower than ours."
"What species is he?" Applejack asked a little cautiously.
"Oh." Sunset looked at her. "He's a dragon. I hatched him myself!"
"Say what?" Applejack looked startled.
"Yeah, the traditional final test of the entrance exam at Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns is to try and hatch a dragon's egg," Sunset said. "I was the first one in a few hundred years to pass that part by actually succeeding in hatching the egg; most other entrants just get in by impressing the judges with their innovation or by accepting when to give in. I was different." She looked at the other ponies. "Anyway, Spike's been... well, like a little brother to me ever since, and my trusted assistant too. He helps me with a lot of stuff."
Applejack smiled. "Ah can respect that," she said. "Family's always been important to us Apples."
They chatted more as they headed down the road, and Sunset smiled. If everypony here was as welcoming as these three, she knew she was going to have a good time.
"Okay that was some of the best food I have eaten in a long time," Sunset said, with a wide smile on her face. "Princess Celestia will be over the sun when she gets to try some of your family's cooking."
Applejack responded to that with a grin bigger than Pinkie's. "Ah, shucks," she said.
Sunset smiled, then brought her notes out. "So with you three, I have just two more ponies to meet, along with Mayor... Mare?" she asked in confusion as she read the list.
Applejack chuckled. "Mayor Ivory Scroll, actually," she said. "But everypony calls her Mayor Mare. Ah think somepony was tryin' to call her Madame Mayor one time an' got their words mixed up, then somepony else called her that to be funny an' the nickname stuck. She just ran with it after that."
"Right, right," Sunset said. "Well... next up is decorations, by a Rarity Belle?"
"Eeyup." Applejack nodded. "That'll be down at Town Hall, so if'n you don't mind, Ah'll lead the way."
"Sounds fine to me," Sunset said with Pinkie Pie perking up and beginning to twitch. "Are you okay?" she asked, concerned.
"Twitcha-twitch... twitcha-twitch..." Pinkie's body shook a bit more, then she looked at Sunset. "Somepony very important is going to meet us soon!" she said. "Pinkie sense is never wrong! I had it before you arrived, after all."
Sunset blinked, then nodded slowly. "I think I've heard of this phenomena before," she said, recalling some records of ancient Earth Pony magic allowing them to scan the earth to tell who was approaching. It was possible that Pinkie was a savant in that field and others. "I'll take your word for it, Pinkie. Do you know just who it is?"
Pinkie shook her head. "Just that it's gonna be big," she said. "I don't always get the specifics. Sometimes, but not always." She perked up. "Like, when my shoulder's achy, that means there's an alligator in the tub!"
Sunset blinked, then it hit her. "Your pet, right?"
Pinkie gasped. "How'd you know?"
"Wild guess," Sunset said. "And logical deduction. This isn't exactly alligator territory, so I'd assume one would only be around here if it was somepony's pet. Probably yours."
"You betcha!" Pinkie giggled, then reached into her mane and pulled out a tiny alligator, who stared at Sunset and then licked his eyeball.
Sunset smiled keenly at the alligator, reminding her of Ray. "Cute little fella."
"Yeppers!" Pinkie chirped. "This is Gummy! He isn't even a year old yet."
Sunset smiled again. "Nice to meet you, Gummy."
The little alligator blinked slowly, and Pinkie beamed. "He says it's nice to meet you too."
Then she tucked him back into her mane, and pronked ahead a few steps, Sunset hurrying to catch up with her.
The foursome chatted happily as they headed back into town, finally reaching the town hall.
And that was when Sunset laid her eyes on a certain lavender unicorn for the first time, and something told her life was about to take a turn for the interesting.
Twilight's ear flicked as she heard another message beep on her PCA, which was a sign that her mom wanted to talk to her before she made her decision known to Luna. And if she had to face either an angry Luna or angry mom... she would take her chances with Director Luna anytime.
Waiting for the guards to finish screening her so she could enter the Lux Aeternam, Twilight set another message off to her mom that she would talk to her as soon as she could. Hopefully, it would placate her mom long enough so she could talk to Luna and avoid that whole lecture.
"You're good to go," one of the guards finally reported.
Twilight nodded, thanked him and headed inside, making a beeline for Luna's office and doing her best not to get distracted like she did this morning. Trotting along the carpeted hallways, Twilight lifted her hoof towards the door only for her teacher to call out to her to step in. After opening the doors, she blinked at the sight of Onyx Plate standing beside Shining and Vinyl, who was wearing a scarf around her neck, no doubt to cover up her implant, with Luna behind her desk.
"Good evening, dear Twilight," Luna said with warmth while Shining smiled fondly at his L.S.B.F.F., and Vinyl grinned wider at her while Onyx simply nodded his head with a gentle look on his face. "I take it you have made your decision?"
Twilight nodded. "I'm doing this," she said. "What's the plan?"
"The plan is that while we could use some of the transport shuttles that Director Wheel is working on, they are quite noticeable to the naked eye and still in their experimental stages," Luna said. "Both are unnecessary risks to the mission. Instead I will personally teleport you down to the planet and to the cities. I have no doubts you all understand what your tasks are but I will repeat it once more. You are to observe and gain knowledge of Equestria's values but not at the risk of your lives or your partner's lives. The purpose of this mission is to see if we should open ties to them, if they have grown in the last thousand years or not. We are not to pass judgment until we have sizable data." Luna gave them all a hard look. "Even if you hear a dozen or so ponies speak nothing but bigotry and hatred for those who do not match them, that could only be a small ugly portion of themselves." Luna flicked an ear, pausing for effect. "Or it could be the standard."
She turned her head to Shining and Vinyl, addressing them. "I expect you two to see the most of this, being sent into their capital. Vipers and sycophants are always drawn to power and those tend to hold a dim view to others that stand in their way or whom they see as lesser. Be that as it may," Luna paused once more, looking at them intently. "I still want to know how their nobles are, if you can find out without revealing who you are or what you are attempting to do. Your cover story, all four of you," Lunar tilted her head to address Twilight and Onyx now. "Shall be a truth, from a certain point of view. You are travelers from a remote township for which its name does not translate well and you are simply trying to get a better understanding of what the wider world is like. Understood?"
All four nodded, serious expressions on their faces.
"Twilight, Onyx, yours is to get a clearer grasp of how the common folk are like. Ponies, by nature, are untrusting to new things and outsiders so this town should be a decent starting point for information gathering, a task I do believe you are most suited for Twilight," Luna said with a smile and laugh that was shared among the four of them before Luna turned dark coated stallion. "Onyx, while I expect you to learn as much as you can in your stay in Ponyville, I wish you to keep a closer eye on Twilight, in case something goes awry." She caught the indignant look Twilight had suddenly developed. "I have faith in you, Twilight. But I am still taking precautions considering how little training you have done." She looked down. "Besides, despite all the reassurances I have given her, my... housing director would have my hide if something happened to you, or to your brother."
Twilight and Shining groaned with Vinyl snickering before paling and gulping. "I guess she'd come after me too if something happened to Shiner here, right?"
"Nothing's going to happen," Shining Armor assured her. "And if it did... well, I'd make sure I had some way of telling her to back off, even if I had to come back from the other side to do it."
Vinyl cringed even worse at that, and Luna frowned. "The goal is to make sure such a thing is unnecessary, Assistant Director Armor," she said. "I cannot stress this enough: Be. Careful. All of you; retrieving you will not be easy or quick, especially not if it needs to be done quickly."
The four nodded, and Luna looked around. "Are there any more questions?"
"How long are we expected to be planetside, Director Luna?" Onyx asked, meeting her eyes.
"Three days at most," Luna replied before levitating four bags onto the table. "Equestria operates on a monetary system and if I am to guess correctly, the manner has not changed since our departure those long years ago. In addition, you will need to leave your PCA behind; I would rather not have any of our technology slip out of our hooves, however benign it may be."
She turned to look at Vinyl and added, "And if things should escalate to the point where they try to separate you from your implant then you have my permission to do whatever you deem necessary to safeguard yourself until either Shining or myself can retrieve you. Let me restate this; you are only permitted to react with force if the situation outright demands it and even then I would prefer you retreat instead of staying to try and fight. Am I clear in this?"
Vinyl saluted. "Absolutely," she said.
"This goes for all of you," Luna said sternly as she looked around. "I repeat: when dealing with your fellow ponies or other sapient beings, do not utilize force unless it is the absolute last resort. Retreat to safety." She tilted her head. "Now, should a non-sapient animal attack, using force to defend yourself from it would be acceptable. But again, given you are all being sent into settled and civilized areas, you should not find yourselves in such a situation."
She looked at them, more calmly this time. "If there are no more questions, I will allow you all time to make some last-minute calls before we go planetside."
Twilight nodded, and then stepped away, looking at her PCA and sighing.
"It'll be okay," her brother's voice said as Shining Armor looked at her. "You going to call Mom?"
"Might as well," Twilight said before looking at him. "Unless you want to?"
"Nope; not going to put my hoof into that trap," Shining Armor replied, shaking his head.
"Should I be concerned that my second is still scared of his mother?" Onyx teased with a grin.
"Well, to be fair Director Onyx, would you wish to face her?" Luna asked with Onyx blinking and stopping to consider the proposal.
"I do consider that she might be the third pony, in that case Director Luna," he said with Luna chuckling as Twilight began to call her mom.
"Mom? Hi, I-" She was cut off as Velvet began frantically asking where she was.
"I'm in Director Luna's office, Mom," Twilight said with a sigh. She glanced over at Luna, then mouthed a question. At Luna's nod, she turned back to her PCA. "Mom. Mom! It's going to be fine. I'm not going to be alone for this, and we'll be back in three days at the most."
She listened for a bit, and then sighed. "Mom, I've already made up my mind. I'm going. And I promise, I'll be back safely." There was another pause, and she sighed again. "I have to go now. Give Dad my love, okay? Bye." Hanging up, she groaned. "Urrgh..."
"Velvet is being rather overprotective again, isn't she," Luna said. It was not a question, and Twilight nodded.
"I wish she'd remember that I am a legal adult," she said. "I do know what I'm doing."
"Parents are always protective," Luna said with a small smile, turning sad. "My own mother was always like that for us, even at the end. She was right though, risking ourselves like that was the height of foolishness."
"Director Luna?" Twilight asked with Luna blinking in complete surprise.
"I'm sorry; the ancient past overtook me there for a moment," Luna said, dabbing away tears from her eyes. "My point is that no matter how old you get to be, you are still her child, and she will always wish to keep you safe."
Twilight nodded understandingly, then removed her PCA and set it down on Luna's desk. "I'm ready," she said.
Luna nodded. "Gather around then," she said to the four of them.
All four unicorns did so, and Luna's horn lit up, generating an energy field surrounding the five, herself in the center.
There was a flash.
And then all five were gone.
They rematerialized some distance outside a small, rural town, and all five immediately looked around themselves, rather wide-eyed.
"Twilight, Onyx," Luna said after she'd had a moment. "This is Ponyville. Remember your mission and take care of each other. I must take Shining and Vinyl to Canterlot and return to the moon before she realizes I am down here."
Twilight nodded as she and Onyx stepped back out of range, then watched as Luna's teleportation field formed again, transporting herself and her last two passengers away.
Then, turning back to the town, she looked at Onyx. "Let's go."
Onyx nodded his head, walking towards the settlement with Twilight following behind him. Thankfully, he was not going at a hard pace that she was forced to match, allowing her to examine what Equuis was actually like. Everything was so different and weird but in a good way. She had never seen a blue sky or felt actual wind along her coat or see the horizon go on without the glass walls breaking it up. It was breathtaking and she wished she had brought along a notepad to take down what she was witnessing.
And then the ponies they saw, they seemed so normal and friendly. Most of them offered greetings as Twilight and Onyx passed by, with the stallion asking how they were and how nice their town looked while they got some questions themselves.
"That's an odd accent," a filly with a large bow said next to two other fillies, tilting her head at Twilight.
"We're from a village very far away," Twilight said with Onyx nodding his head. "We haven't had much interaction with others from outside our village."
"Which is why we're here," Onyx said with a smile. "To learn about our distant neighbours. So I do believe that learning each other's names would be a good start. I am Onyx Plate and this is my friend Twilight Sparkle."
"It's nice to meet you," the filly with the big bow said, her two friends smiling as well. "Ah'm Apple Bloom, an' these here are Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo."
"And we're," the three paused to gather their breaths for a loud shout. "THE CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS!"
Twilight blanched at their loud voices while Onyx just smiled and chuckled. "Rocket would have loved to have seen that," he said.
Twilight nodded, though still cringing from the volume. "What exactly is a 'Cutie Mark Crusader'?" she asked.
The trio's eyes lit up. "Well, we're Crusadin' for our Cutie Marks!" Apple Bloom exclaimed.
"Tryin' out new stuff, figure out what we're good at," the unicorn who'd been introduced as Sweetie Belle said.
"'Cause we really don't want to be just known as 'Blank Flanks' forever," the pegasus, Scootaloo, said as she looked rather crestfallen.
"Most of our classmates got theirs already, an' we don't wanna be left behind," Apple Bloom concluded.
Scootaloo muttered something under her breath, and Twilight could guess what it was about. "One of the ones who got theirs is bullying you about it, isn't she," she said.
All three nodded sadly.
Twilight smiled. "Well, don't worry so hard about it," she said gently. "I had to deal with ponies like that when I was growing up too. Most of the time, they're just trying to make others feel bad so they can feel better about themselves. Try to ignore them, and focus on what really matters to you. If you don't let them see how badly it affects you, they should give up sooner or later."
The three little fillies looked up at her in surprise, and she blushed. "My friend Moondancer taught me that when we were little," she said.
The three of them frowned at that. The unicorn, Sweetie Belle, tilted her head and said, "That's an odd name. Most ponies don't name their foals on moon stuff."
"And why is that?" Onyx asked in such a tone that Twilight nearly believed it was genuine curiosity.
"Well from what I've heard is that that way they don't get bothered by those mean avengers ponies," Scootaloo said.
"And who are they?" Twilight asked, sharing a look with Onyx.
"A really mean bunch of bad ponies who dislike other ponies who don't match up with their way of thinkin'," Sweetie said. "I'm pretty sure they do other stuff that my sister won't tell me about."
"Ah know there's this one family on the edge of town that's had trouble with them," Apple Bloom said, sounding rather disgruntled. "Got their melon patch messed up real bad 'cause that family said melons grow better in the moonlight, and that 'avengers' group didn't like that." She blinked and looked around before leaning up to whisper. "Ah ain't suppose to say this but one of mah kin was thrown out of the clan for turning out to be one of them."
"Really?" Scootaloo asked in surprise. "Who was it?"
"Ah don't know and as far as Granny is concerned, they never existed ta begin with," Apple Bloom said. "Said any pony who acted like a bully towards other ponies for dumb reasons didn't deserve to be one of us." She then turned to face both of her friends. "Ah'm serious here; Ah ain't suppose ta mention this at all. Applejack, Granny and Big Mac will all give me the riot act if they hear about them."
Both fillies nodded, and made a series of strange gestures and a phrase Twilight had never heard before, each swearing not to repeat what they'd been told. Once they finished, they turned back to Twilight and Onyx. "So, want us to show you around?" Scootaloo asked.
Twilight nodded. "That'd be great," she said. "Thank you all."
"Come, let's go introduce you to my sister," Sweetie Belle said eagerly. "She's settin' up the decorations for the Summer Sun Celebration in Town Hall this afternoon."
"Summer... Sun Celebration?" Twilight repeated.
Apple Bloom nodded. "It's the longest day of the year," she said. "Princess Celestia chooses a different town each year for raisin' the sun, instead of doin' it from her castle lahk she does most days. An' there's always a big festival to celebrate."
"Well, we might be here to see it before we go home in a few days," Onyx said. "When is it?"
All three fillies looked at him oddly, but shook it off. "It's the morning after tomorrow," Scootaloo said. "Everypony gets up way early and comes down to watch the Princess raising the sun, and then we go and have fun all day long. There's food, there's games, and there's a lot of other great stuff."
"It sounds like fun," Onyx said, tipping his head. "So please, lead the way."
The trio grinned, then trotted off, Twilight and Onyx following after them.
"That was... interesting advice you gave them," Onyx said quietly to Twilight as they walked.
"Well, it was the truth," Twilight said. "I... I had a lot of issues when I was little, and some of the other foals... they were a big part of it."
"Really?" Onyx said. "Did you ever mention this to... no, if she knew, she would have had done something about it." He shook his head. "In any case, you have grown into a mostly well developed mare, though like every other pony, life has made its mark on you." He chuckled with Twilight smiling at the joke.
"Yes, it has," she said. "The truth is, I didn't want to tell an adult, because if I had, the bullies... they'd have been even uglier to me. They do that to any foal who tells on them."
"I get you; it was why I waited until I was out of school before I came out," Onyx said with a sigh. "My parents already knew; they were surprised that I thought it was still a secret. But in any case, I think we should come back to this later and meet with this Rarity Belle."
"Yeah," Twilight said before she looked at their guides, who were still looking cheerful as they trotted along, approaching a large tiered building.
"There it is," Sweetie Belle said. "Town Hall. Come on, let's go inside." She tilted her head and the five of them entered inside.