“Thanks for helpin’ me out, Spike, Scoots. I bet Babs I could get all these apples into the barn by lunchtime. If I win, she’ll have to do all the chores for a week, heheheh.” Apple Bloom chuckled as the trio walked down the dirt pathway from the orchard, the saddle baskets carried by each of them overflowing with the last batch of apples that they’d spent the morning picking, bucking, collecting, and carrying.
“Not a problem Bloom. I’m just glad the goal is lunch. I’m beyond hungry.” Scootaloo said, her stomach growling as if to emphasize her point. Spike nodded silently in agreement.
“I promised Applejack I’d help her get her cutie mark if I had the time. I’m not really sure where to start with her if I’m honest, so this week’s gonna be mighty interestin’.”
“She seems like a strong kid. I wouldn’t be too shocked if her special talent had something to do with hard work. What do you think, Flame?”
“I don’t have too much of an idea on how cutie marks work, plus I haven’t talked with Applejack a whole lot, so I’ve got no clue what it could be. Actually, I had a couple questions about your-” Spike felt warmth well up involuntarily within his chest. His fire. He paused, contemplating whether to hold the flame for later or to release it now. It was likely a message, possibly from his parents. Twilight Velvet in particular had been bombarding him with congratulatory messages ever since he became Princess Luna’s personal student. Of course, it could just as easily be a message from the princess herself, finally deciding to send him out on a specific assignment rather than just allowing him to sit around idly, waiting for him to accumulate friendship related wisdom through some kind of social osmosis.
He stopped, letting his friends get a bit of distance away from him before blowing out a small jet of his signature green flames. They curled into themselves, transforming into a ball of smoke before exploding in a bright flash, leaving a rolled up scroll it its place, a thin sparkling aura keeping it afloat in the breeze. Spike carefully snatched the paper from the air and unfurled it, a pair of golden tickets revealing themselves and beginning to float lazily in front of him, held by their own golden glow.
“Oooh!” The two mares voiced in unison at the display.
“Learn a new trick? I thought you could only send things away.” Scootaloo asked, marveling at the somehow unburnt un-burnt scroll in Spike’s claws.
“Nah, this always happens whenever someone decides to teleport a letter my way. Plus I can use it to move stuff I don’t wanna carry.”
“I really wanna study your breath, man.”
“Sure.” Spike half-jokingly accepted while shrugging. “Maybe you can make sense of the random theories that Twilight’s been writing up since she was six.”
Looking back down to the scroll, he began to read it aloud and continued walking. The other two kept up beside him. “Hear ye, hear ye. Her Grand Royal Highness, Princess Luna of Equestria, is pleased to announce the Grand Galloping Gala to be held in the magnificent capital city of Canterlot, on the twenty first day of July of the one thousand one hundred and sixth year, in honor of the return of her younger sibling, the ever-radiant Princess Celestia. Because of his involvement and efforts in reuniting the Two Sisters, it is with pride and honor that Princess Luna cordially extends an invitation to Spike The Dragon plus one guest.” Spike squinted at the paper quizzically. “The Two Sisters... Odd thing to capitalize. Also, ever-radiant is kind of a poor choice of words, considering what her whole goal was when she escaped.”
“Nevermind that! You got invited to the Grand Gallopin’ Gala?!” Apple Bloom exclaimed, brushing off Spike’s critique of the invitation. “Shoot, Spike! You’re darn lucky to be invited to somethin’ that big.”
“It’s not too grand, believe me.” He said, waving her off. He took another short breath and lit the scroll ablaze. Scootaloo watched as the flames raced across the parchment, burning it away into sparkling yellowish-white smoke before it floated from Spike’s open grasp and back towards Ponyville to be deposited on some desk in the Golden Oak Library. “You want the tickets?”
“Now why the hay would you say somethin’ like that? If I could set up an apple stand up there at that gala, I’d be able to drum up enough business to fix up the entire farm! I could replace the saggy ol’ roof for the barn, and Babs could replace that saggy ol’ plow for the fields, and Grand Pa could replace his saggy ol’ hip for, well, him! Ab-so-tutly I want those tickets!”
“I had to help organize the last couple gala’s. The only thing ‘grand’ about it is the Wonderbolts performance at the start to get all the celebrities and nobility hyped for the party. It’s all downhill from there, really. It’s mostly just an excuse for the prudes and snoots to mingle.” Spike explained, the glowing tickets slowly drifting their way to hover next to Apple Bloom.
Before she could grab the floating slips, a bright blue flash appeared in front of her, another scroll falling to the ground in front of her. Confused, she snatched the scroll from the dirt and unfurled it, scanning the page as a second pair of golden tickets floated idly from the page next to her. “Hear ye hear ye. Her Grand Royal Highness, Princess Luna of Equestria... cordially extends an invitation to Apple Bloom plus one guest. Huh. Looks like I’ve already gotta ticket, Spike.” Apple Bloom smiled, pushing the first pair of tickets back towards the dragon.
“Lucky...” Scootaloo pouted. Another blue flash and a third scroll fell to the ground in front of her. “Yo, nice.”
“Guess we’re all getting an invite. Lucky us.” Spike said, rolling his eyes before sending his tickets away to join his scroll with a quick breath. “Who’re you guys gonna bring?”
“I’m not sure.” Apple Bloom paused, stuffing her scroll and tickets in her saddle basket with the apples. It had seemed like each of the newly founded ‘Elements of Harmony’ had been given an invite. She wasn’t sure of the options for her friends, but for her it left only three ponies to pick from.
Apple Bloom smirked when she glanced over to her fidgeting cousin, watching her anxiously roll a pebble under her hoof while Bloom poured empty her saddle baskets and closed the lid of the fully filled apple barrel. Babs’ eyes kept flicking between Bloom and the sky, looking as though she were trying to will the sun to move faster, begging for that new day princess to hurry it up to noon already.
“Uuuugh!” Babs Seed growled as soon as Apple Bloom pushed the barrel inside, Spike shutting the barn door behind her when she returned. “Now dat just ain’t no fair, Cuz! Ya got help.”
“You said, and I quote, ‘I bet you couldn’t win with all the help in the world’. Spike and Scoot are a bit short of the world, Bab.”
“Ugh. Me and my big mouth...” Babs hung her head and walked back to the house to sulk.
“Ah-ah! You’ve gotta go pick AJ up from school!” Apple Bloom called, a triumphant smile plastered on her face. Babs grumbled as she turned around and started off towards the archway in the fence. She took comfort in the fact that the schoolhouse wasn’t too far from Sweet Apple Acres.
“AJ?” Spike asked.
“It’s what they call Applejack.” Scootaloo explained. “It’s tiring to say the word ‘apple’ every four seconds. Same reason I call Apple Bloom just Bloom, or AB.”
“I’ll keep that in mind. Wait a second, why is Babs leaving to get ‘AJ’ already? It’s barely noon.”
“Ponyville doesn’t have many, or really any, transport options.” Scootaloo explained. “It’s better to let the foals out earlier than to let them stay and spend whatever’s left of the afternoon light trying to get home.”
“I’d better join Babs then. Looks like I need to get Twilight home.” Spike sighed. “Kicking and screaming, probably.”
“I’ll join you. See if I can’t figure anything out about your weird fire before night falls.” Scootaloo offered, joining Spike as he too turned and made his way to the arch. “Later, Bloom!”
“See you later.” Apple Bloom waved goodbye and made her way into her house. Four generations now have lived in the home. This was an important place to not just the Apple’s, but to all of Ponyville. And, of course, to the Pear’s as well.
Apple Bloom spotted an old, light amber stallion dead asleep in his rocking chair, slowly moving forward and back from the force of his snoring alone. Her Grandpa, Grand Pa. Or, as she knew him, Grand Pear. In the absence of the Apple’s matriarch, he’d taken up responsibility as head of the house, raising herself and Applejack, as well as her younger brother before he’d moved away with other relatives, much like how Babs had done to come and help out at the farm.
Grand Pa had taken care of the Apple’s, and supported them all despite being from a rival family. If that wasn’t gala worthy, Apple Bloom didn’t know what was. He’d be the perfect pony to bring to the gala, she just needed to give him the extra ticket. She paused. Confusion grew as patted through her mane. Confusion turned to anxiety when she scanned the table, and anxiety turned to panic when she ran back outside, accidentally slamming the door as she did so, and searched the ground. “Oh no. Oh no, oh this ain’t good.”
A quiet creaking behind her notified her to Grand Pa’s exit. “Everything alright, Apple Bloom?”
“Everythin’s fine Grand Pa!” Bloom panicked.
“Hmm.” Grand Pa hummed in suspicion. They both stood there staring at each other for a moment before Grand Pa slowly turned back around and shut the door. “Whatever you say, Sweet Pea. Just be careful.”
Apple Bloom took a second to breathe and calm herself before rerunning the events to herself. She and Spike picked, bucked and then collected the apples from their buckets while Scoot ran them back to the barn and dumped them into the barrels that Apple Bloom had opened the night before. After they got to the last bucket, they all put on a pair of saddle baskets and walked back together. Midway through their walk, the invites got sent to them. After that they made their way back to the barn and filled the last barrel, closed them up, and put them in the barn.
Apple Bloom started trotting towards the barn to search around the barrels. Maybe she accidentally pushed the tickets under one of them or something. She hoped that they hadn’t ripped.
Apple Bloom thumped her head against one of the many, many apple trees. She’d spent the entire afternoon looking for her tickets. She even went back to the orchard and looked in, under and around the apple buckets. It got to the point that she climbed into some of the trees to look for those stupid little papers. She’d lost hope for finding them, accepting that she probably dropped them on her walk and they got picked up by a breeze.
She sighed, wondering if she might be able to convince Scoots or Sweets to come help her out. “Maybe I should’ve just asked Sweetie if she knew any fancy findin’ magic.” He ears twitched as she heard the sound of hooves on grass approaching, turning her head to see her cousin.
“There ya are!” Babs called. “I’ve been lookin’ everywhere for ya.”
“Hey.” Apple Bloom said sadly before turning back and resuming her forehead based abuse of the tree in front of her.
“Yeesh. Somethin’ bad musta happened for ya t’get like this. What’s wrong, Cuz?”
She opened her mouth to speak but stopped as a thought occurred to her. Could Babs have taken the tickets after losing the bet? Bloom shook the thought from her mind. Her cousin wasn’t a sore loser, nor was she any kind of thief. “It’s nothin’, Bab. It’s nothin’ you need to worry yourself about.”
“Well c’mon back inside. Gramps made pie.”
“What kind?”
“Threefold Fruit Pie.”
“Blech.”
“Hey, don’t knock my favorite food.”
“Babs, I love you, but oranges, apples, and pears do not belong anywhere near each other in a pie.”
“Pie is perfect no matter what’s in it. Besides that, you know how important that pie is to him.”
“It’d probably mean a lot more if it didn’t taste like he poured sour milk in it every time.”
“Aight, that’s it, c’mere. Nopony makes fun of my Grandpa’s lack of baking skill.” Babs said, stomping over to Apple Bloom. Before Bloom could flee she was put in a headlock and noogied vigorously.
“Ahk! Babs Seed! Get offa me!”
“Not until ya tell me what’s goin’ on, ya dork!”
“Uncle! Uncle!” Bloom surrendered. Babs immediately let her younger cousin go and stared her down, waiting for Apple Bloom’s reluctant explanation.
“I got an invite to the gala earlier today. Got a pair of shiny gold tickets and I uh... I lost ‘em. I wanted to bring Pa to the gala with me, let ‘im meet the princess, y’know? I got real excited for it all.”
“When and how the hay did you get tickets to the freakin’ gala?”
“Just before I got back home. The princess wanted to thank us for reunitin’ her with her sister.”
“Before ya got home..?” Babs rewound events in her head, a small detail she noticed suddenly coming to mind. “I think I know what mighta happened. C’mon.”
Apples scattered the barn floor as Babs poured empty one of the many, many filled apple barrels.
“What makes ya think it’s in there?”
“Somethin’ hit the light and glinted when you poured out your baskets. I thought it was just a screw’re somethin’ at first, but if your fancy shmancy tickets were gold...”
“They’d reflect the light just as well as a metal screw!”
“Bingo.” Babs said, popping off the lid of a barrel to find the corner of a wrinkled scroll, mashed by the surrounding apples. “This it?” She asked, pulling out the paper.
“Yes!” Bloom exclaimed, running over to the barrel and tossing aside the many, many apples held within until the barrel was practically empty in her frantic search for the golden glint of the tickets. Babs held up a candle to help light the inside of the barrel.
“Yesh!” Apple Bloom celebrated, pulling her head from the barrel, a pair of glowing tickets held in her teeth. Quickly stashing them in her mane, she hugged her cousin. “Thank you, Babs! I don’t know what I would’ve done if you didn’t notice them!”
“Don’t think anything of it, Cuz. I wouldn’t have thought anything about it if you didn’t say anything. Remember, you can always come to me if you need help with somethin’.”
Apple Bloom looked out to the now apple filled floor and sighed as she let go of her cousin. “Whelp, looks like I have my work cut out for me for the next week.”
“What’ve ya got planned?”
“Nothin’ now. Just look at these barrels! Completely empty and it’s way past lunchtime.” She winked before beginning to clean up the barn.
Babs cocked her head in confusion for a moment before realizing what Apple Bloom was saying. “Oh! Heh. Thanks Cuz.”
“Don’t worry about it Babs. As far as I’m concerned, I still owe ya for this. Now go get your pie before Pa eats it all. I’ve got barrels to fill.”
Babs just smiled and nodded before leaving the barn to get some food.
Spike heard a knocking at the door as he flipped the contents of the pan. He quickly switched off the stove and moved the pancakes onto a plate already stacked high with them, carrying it over to the kitchen table and setting it in front of a groggy Twilight. She and Scootaloo spent the majority of the previous night poking and prodding him. By the end of it he was missing a few scales around his jaw, Scootaloo having yanked a few of them off by accident. He was pretty sure at least that it was an accident anyway. Either way she collected them up saying something about verifying a magical signature that she’d need to check out in the morning.
He yawned and scratched his side as he grabbed for the door handle, his claws eventually landing on it after a few failed attempts. While wondering just what weird magic nonsense Scootaloo was about to bring him, he opened the door to reveal, to his surprise, Apple Bloom.
“Howdy Spike. You got a minute?” She asked. Spike glanced back to the kitchen, where he watched Twilight tiredly lay her face into her pancake stack like a pillow while simultaneously chewing it.
“Depends on if I can make food or not.”
“Yeah, I just wanted to tell you about somethin’ I learned last night. Thought you might wanna hear about it, you studyin’ friendship and all.”
The drake stepped aside and motioned for her to come in. “Sure. You look exhausted. Have you had anything to eat yet?”
“Not since yesterday morning.”
“Go ahead and grab yourself a plate. I’ll make breakfast while you talk.”