Rainbow Dash groaned and bonked her head into her seat in frustration. “Why does this have to take so long?” she groaned.
“Honestly darling, do calm down. It’s only a few hours until we arrive at Canterlot,” Rarity answered. Rainbow, Rarity, and a few others were riding the Friendship Express to Canterlot to attend a Buckball game.
“But that’s forever!” Rainbow complained, as Rarity just rolled her eyes and went back to reading her book. “Why can’t we just teleport there?”
“Some of us enjoy the train ride, Rainbow, and not all of us can teleport so many ponies so far. Twilight’s not here, after all,” Rarity countered.
“Who here actually enjoys a train ride?” Rainbow asked.
Sunny, Discord, Rarity, Fluttershy, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and Pipp all looked up from their various activities to glare at her.
Rainbow slumped back into her seat in defeat.
“Also,” Discord added, “I think Pinkie Pie and Izzy enjoy it as well. I would ask them, but last I heard they’re on the roof.”
“Of course they are.”
~~~
Octavia fumed and snapped her conductor’s baton in half.
The orchestra and other performers swiftly became terribly silent in terror as they watched Octavia march towards Vinyl Scratch and her booth.
“Vinyl, I have given you 3 chances so far,” Octavia growled. “Sweetie Belle needs to practice her singing, and the entire orchestra needs to be ready to perform for the Ponyville Music Festival. I was nice and let you come to the rehearsal, and all you’ve done is rudely cut off our practice multiple times now with your ‘wubs.’”
Most of the orchestra nodded in agreement with frowns.
“This is your last chance, Vinyl,” Octavia continued, slamming her front hooves onto the stand to further drive home her point. “If you cut us off with your wubbing one more time, I will take my cello, and slam it over your head. And then you will pay for the new cello I will inevitably need. Do you understand, Vinyl?” Impressively, Octavia’s voice did not raise a single time, though the stoicness of the statement made it questionable if she was bluffing.
Vinyl just gave a sheepish smile and shrugged.
Octavia calmly walked back to her stand. “Sweetie Belle,” she said, “would you pass me another baton?” Sweetie Belle obediently did so, and with a raise of her baton, the music was soon continuing.
Roughly 2 minutes into the rehearsal though, Sweetie Belle and the entire orchestra were cut off from a very high note by the booming sound of a subwoofer playing dubstep. Sweetie Belle fell over from the surprise.
Rather than snap her baton again, Octavia simply marched over towards her cello and lifted it up, before marching towards Vinyl. Realizing what was about to happen, the orchestra quickly took various actions.
None dared to watch the inevitable destruction. Minuette shielded Sweetie Belle’s eyes while closing her own. Pinkie Pie jumped off stage, and Lyra just froze stock still in place with her eyes slammed shut.
What they all heard though, was the sound of dubstep being cut off and what sounded like a cello being slammed into a unicorn’s head. When they all looked up, sure enough, cello fragments were scattered everywhere, with Vinyl out cold at her booth. Octavia was back at her stand, with her baton.
“I’ll have her clean up the mess later,” Octavia said. “Seeing as we won’t have any more interruptions, shall we continue?”
The rest of the rehearsal went on without incident.
~~~
Rarity grumbled as she magically dragged a stammering Applejack through Ponyville by the tail, back towards Sweet Apple Acres. It was a humiliating scene, a seamstress having to drag an apple farmer back home due to her being unable to walk.
Fortunately, most of the townsfolk were understanding, and conveniently made way for Rarity to come through or wishing her a nice evening. Applejack clearly wasn’t recovering anytime soon.
Carrot Top soon rushed up to Rarity from behind, clearly short on breath. Applejack was still uttering nonsense. “I’m so sorry, Rarity!” Carrot Top said. “Applejack said this wasn’t going to be a problem for her anymore.”
“Darling,” Rarity answered, “don’t you apologize. It’s just business, and you and I both know how the Apples can be about this sort of thing.”
Carrot Top couldn’t really refute that. “Still, is there anything I can do to help?”
“Well, if you could help me get her back home, that would do the trick. Granny Smith will understand the situation once we get there.”
Carrot Top conveniently propped up Applejack off the ground, making it where Rarity could move along without having to drag the farmer through the dirt. Soon enough the two were making good progress.
Shortly after, Pipp flew down with her phone, clearly taking pictures of pretty much anything that caught her interest. Upon landing though, she noticed the dazed farmer as well, it wasn’t exactly a normal sight.
Pipp looked up at Rarity and Carrot Top in confusion. “What happened to her?” she asked.
Rarity just answered with a blank expression. “Carrot Top beat her in market sales today, and she’s not taking it well,” she answered.
Pipp just took a picture of Applejack in response.
~~~
Twilight Sparkle looked at the smoldering ash within her classroom at the School for Gifted Unicorns. The fire had been safely put out without incident, though some cleaning and sweeping would need to be done. A few good spells would be able to effectively deal with the burn and scorch marks though, Twilight figured she could call Minuette and Twinkleshine in to assist. There were benefits to having close friends in Canterlot instead of exclusively in Ponyville, after all.
Sunny walked into the room, quickly donning a look of concern. “What happened here?” she asked. “It looks like somepony had a barbecue with the seating arrangements.”
Twilight shrugged. “Professor Autumn was giving a lesson to her class.”
Sunny’s face quickly shifted to one of understanding. “What did they say this time?”
“One of the students said standup comedy was a waste of time.”
~~~
Starlight Glimmer looked at the Student Six with a sharp glare, the kind you give as a principal about to drop the hammer on a student who goofed.
Sunburst and Trixie were also glaring. It wasn’t a pretty sight, having all 3 heads of the School of Friendship looking like they were about to give a lecture. 5 of the students had the expression of knowing they were in for it, barring Ocellus, who looked confused and likely to pass out from terror at any moment.
Starlight began by turning towards Ocellus. “Ocellus,” Starlight started, “why are you even here?”
“Counsellor Trixie told us all to come to the office,” Ocellus stammered.
Starlight facedesked. “You’re not always included by association, Ocellus,” Starlight responded. “You were literally reading when it happened.”
“So I’m not in trouble?”
“No,” Starlight answered. “You can go and continue reading your books.”
Ocellus quickly changed from a look of fear to one of relief as she waltzed out of the professor’s office, closing the door behind her.
The atmosphere in the room seemed to grow colder as the trio running the school turned towards the remaining students. “Now for the rest of you,” Starlight said in a much more menacing voice.
Numerous sheets of paper began floating behind her, labeled “extra assignment.”
~~~
After a 20 minute lecture and numerous instructions on how to properly complete the extra homework, the Student 6 (minus Ocellus) were just about free to go. However, just when it seemed Starlight was done, Trixie suddenly revealed her own mountain of paper.
“And on top of all that,” Trixie said with a bit of a vengeful smirk, “the Great and Powerful Counsellor Trixie wants you all to write ‘I’m sorry for spraying graffiti all over Counsellor Trixie’s office’ 200 times each. And you will also clean my office.”
The students groaned.
~~~
Sunburst rolled his dice and moved his dragon across the board, placing it on its proper space and drawing a card. “Fantastic!” Sunburst said with a grin. “I get to advance all the way to Fillydelphia!” With that, Sunburst placed his piece at Fillydelphia, all the way on the other side of the board. With that he gave Starlight the dice. “Your turn.”
Starlight’s dragon had been stuck in the pit for 7 straight turns. With a glum face she rolled the dice, and checked the results. “Still stuck,” she said.
~~~
Hitch looked through the comic book he had been reading before setting it down. “That was an alright issue, I suppose,” he said.
“I prefer issue #57, but #56 is fine enough,” Spike answered.
“Is Humdrum always this worthless?” Hitch asked.
“Yep.”