//------------------------------// // Spike Up Your Life, Part 1 // Story: Twilight Gets a Puppy, Season 6 // by TDR //------------------------------// Twilight Gets a Puppy Season 6 By TDR Spike Up Your Life, Part 1 [ Ponyville, Seshat, Mid Summer, one week after the Comic Sans issue was fixed with much yelling and screaming.] “Sunset are you ready?” Twilight called. “Yep. Wasn't too hard to figure out what was wrong.” Sunset offered, her horn glowing.” The table was pulled slightly out of sync when you guys rode it out of here.” “Thank everything, the itch was driving me crazy.” Seshat offered. “Well thankfully Starlight remembered enough about the spell she used for us to realign it.” Twilight nodded. “Given she's been faking being traumatized for the last couple of days or so to avoid anyone's attention, I am glad she is helpful rather than plotting.” Tempest offered, sparing a small glare at the sheepish looking mare on the other side of the table. “Don't give me that, I still have nightmares.” Starlight offered. “Well Rahs says that's because you don't have a Moon Dog.” Twilight offered. ”He's looking to see if he can fix that, though it's rather hard to find one without a previous connection.” “Can we do this please. I cannot move and yet I must scratch!” Seshat grumbled. “Yeah sorry.” Twilight replied, her horn flaring as Sunset prodded something under the table. After a few moments the 3-D map shut off then turned on again flaring brightly for a moment before settling back into place while Seshat offered a relieved sigh. “Classic tech bullshit, turn it off then back on again.” Sunset chuckled. “Much better.” Seshat muttered. ”Oh...” There was a moment of silence as a pair of cutie marks appeared over the map and swirled together before stopping over Canterlot, showing they were Rarity's and Pinkie Pie's marks. “Huh....” Twilight muttered. “And they just got back too.” [ Canterlot, the Next Day ] Rahs tilted his head slightly, returning the glare of the noble who had been walking on the street and taken offense when the group of 'lesser' ponies and creatures would not move out of her way forcing her to go around. The two Thestril Ponyville Guard that accompanied Rarity, Pinkie, and Rahs also returned the mare's glare as she walked around them. Pinkie didn't seem to notice and Rarity ignored the mare, though the two were in a rather heated discussion as they all stood on the corner. It still surprised Rahs that there was some pony who didn't recognize everyone in the group, or at least the Guard's armor markings given how many papers, and stained glass windows that had images of the Element Bearers, himself, and images of the Ponyville Guard after some of the stuff they had done. Shards, one would think everyone would show any Guard more respect after the Tirek thing, though many nobles were pushing to remove funding from them after the 'failure' against the storm king and changelings, despite the fact both had been beaten back, BY the Guards. “I still think we should check with the Princesses.” Rarity offered.” They might know something.” “It's a big city and they can't know all the friendship problems in it.” Pinkie Pie pointed out. “Arff.” Rahs added making the two mares look at him and consider. Neither of the Guards had any idea what he said. “True, our marks were hanging over the city not the palace.” Rarity hummed. “Right so what we need to do is set out and see what we can find.” Pinkie Pie offered. “ A friendship problem's not gonna drop in our laps unless we sit like Lyra does... of which I'm kinda hungry, lets start with the restaurant row.” Rahs shrugged. “Well it's not like I have a better idea.” Rarity shrugged before turning to the Guards. “ Miss Night Sky I know you stated you needed to check in with the local branch, if you want to do that we'll head to the restaurant row, I'm curious to try out one of these 'Star' restaurants that are being flouted as the best there is.” “Of course Miss Rarity.” the thestril Guard nodded before glancing to her partner.” Dew Leaf stay with them, I'll be back after I make my report. Shouldn't take too long.” “Not a problem Sarge.”the thestril stallion Dew Leaf nodded. “Don't worry dear we'll order you a plate.” Rarity offered. “Yay food!” Pinkie Pie cheered. [Sweet Apple Acres] Sunset glanced up from the table as Applebloom stormed into the room, slammed the door behind her and flopped down on the old couch pushed back against the wall. “Spike?” Sunset asked. “Course it was, she's on a kick about him, an nothin any pony says ken change her mind.” Applebloom huffed. Sunset nodded and went back to looking over her notes. The crystal tower had become something of a safe haven for Applebloom as of late. After the events of the Crystaling which had been one hell of a party, even by Pinkie Pie standards, the tower no longer carried the energy from the Crystal Empire, the Heart's destruction not relinking to the errant piece of castle that wound up at the farm. Big Mac and Applejack were rushing to prep now that the area of effect warming was gone. The plan was to put up a large number of green houses to cover the crops that had been set up to take advantage of the year round growing season the tower produced. It wouldn't matter until late fall, but Applejack was of the mind that it was better to prepare early than late, as once the harvest hit, even with help, there wouldn't be enough time for building, particularly since Zapapples were predicted sometime this year as well. Due to her curse Applejack had found that she could predict when the season was going to start due to an overwhelming urge to howl. Sunset had claimed the towering monolith as her own, bribing Jynx to hollowing out an apartment in the solid crystal of the upper parts of the tower. There was even a fireplace/ terrarium for Ray. Sunset would owe the Diamond Dog god some enchanting on some mining tools later, but it was a fair trade and neither of them was willing to try and bring Rahs into the deal. Once the plumbing had been set up, Sunset had moved out of the house. She was not very comfortable with how many were in the main house now. It was fairly crowded with the siblings, Granny, and herself, adding in the two parents made it a bit worse. With the spire losing it's power, Sunset had decided to take advantage of it. Another effect to having a large tower structure that tickled her unicorn nesting instinct, was that she saw frequent visitors of the Apple siblings. Mostly Applebloom and AJ, though Mac had been up here once or twice as well. All trying to get away from Pear Butter and Bright Mac who were both leery of both the strange tower, and the mare now living in it. Family or not. Bright Mac was about as verbose as his son most of the time, but he was if possible as well read as Twilight, though she still had the advantage due to her portfolios and living in a library. His main issue seemed to be trying to adjust to how the farm was being run now, as well as all the magical upgrades to things that Sunset had adjusted, and constantly had to reset due to Applejack eating them. Nothing that would bother the crops, but reinforcements that cut down on mending time and allowed Big Mac to go all out with some of his duties Pear Butter seemed to be alright with most things, she was leery of Sunset due to her being a unicorn, or maybe the pyro tendencies... one of those. The biggest issue with Pear Butter though, was that she absolutely hated the fact that her children were dating, a dragon, a 'trumped up Diamond Dog', and a Princess. She was certain Twilight was just stringing Mac along, and claimed that a Princess was way too high maintenance for him, She was also horrified at his draconic attributes, that Twilight seemed to like. Bright Mac had asked if Twilight made him do that to himself, and when Big Mac said no, he shrugged and never brought it up again. Applejack constantly got an earful, though Pear Butter nearly lost her damn mind the first time she saw Witch-Jack. Applejack had been spending a lot more time in her witch wolf form because having fingers and claws as well as the scent tracking and magic eating helped with quite a few different tasks around the farm, mostly keeping pests away. Pear Butter wanted to rush her to a doctor to figure out how to remove the curse, getting rather upset when she found the only cure was to kill Applejack in a fire that would leave nothing left, and that would only kill her daughter not the curse. That didn't stop the complaining though, particularly when she found out Applejack and Sunset were both interested in Rahs, along with four others. Sunset had shut her down near instantly when Pear tried to say anything to her, pointing out that Pear was many years her junior as she was Granny's sister and Princess Celestia's daughter. The look on Pear Butter's face was currently the background image on Sunset's tablet. Applebloom got it the worst though. Pear Butter was adamant that not only was she too young to be dating any one, but that she should find a nice colt, and not a fire breathing dragon. While Big Mac and Applejack were willing to put up with, or deal with their mother's ranting, Applebloom was only a few months old when they 'died' and barely even knew them. As such she was quite pissed at this veritable stranger she didn't even remember telling her to do anything, let alone telling her to stop dating the dragon that saved her life and that she got her cutie mark working to save in turn. “So how's tha tower progressing?” Applebloom asked. “Designs are done, I can set up this place as a relay point, though I want to use Seshat as the main transmitter for Ponyville. Her connection to the mana lines make her perfect. “Sunset explained. “I've got everything set up, I just need to get the work started. Aria's plans for the relay line are still the best as far as I can see. Mare has waaaaay too many engineering degrees.” Sunset looked up from her notebooks and tablets, the mass of them spread across the table she had hauled up three flights of stairs to get to her new living room. Her plans to set up a 'wireless' network of towers for the crystal tablets, and other products currently in the design phase. There was already radio in Equestria and episodic 'TV' if you could afford to have a crystal player. Sunset's plan was to skip VHS and DVD and go straight to the internet. She had actually progressed further than she thought she would by including Aria. Seems the Siren had quite a few engineering degrees from the human world. While Sunset doubted she could build a suit of powered armor from scraps she found in a cave, Aria was rather knowledgeable about cell towers and what was needed to build one to last. Despite Sunset's plan being mostly magic and crystal based, the set up and tower construction would be the same either way. With the plan explained, Aria was quite interested in getting involved with it, as it would be a source of income away from her mother. Once again Sunset had to wonder how gods who became parents were so BAD at it. If not for Chrysalis she would be a little worried about her new cousins. Though that was a weird feeling too. Speaking of weird cousins, through marriage and odd uses of body altering spells, Saturnia was in on the idea as well, if for no other reason that she could provide the man power... bug power, needed to build all this. Still the issues on the farm were going to come to a head, possibly a explosive one before long. Sunset had asked her sister why she hadn't reigned in Pear Butter yet and Granny had simply told her that she was leaving that to Big Mac and Applejack. But she also mentioned that Pear Butter probably still recalled the whole dating and wedding fiasco with her son and Granny would happily tear the mare a new one if she did more than gripe. Granny approved of the Sparkles, and didn't care what any one else said. Sunset followed suit and washed her hooves of it, simply focusing on her project, some farm work, and the plans for her next date with Rahs.