//------------------------------// // Paying it Back // Story: Run Filly Run // by Inkquilly //------------------------------// Twilight woke up to a harsh sneeze from her snout. When she checked, her hoof was sticking out of the warm pile again. She pulled it back in and pulled Spike close to her to try and return to sleep again. She never wound up stopping after Spike fell asleep so she kept on reading Septimare Hoof until she finished it, which led her to be awake all night. “Um, excuse me.” Funny, that almost sounded like somepony trying to talk to her. But surely no one was inside the building right now! “E-excuse me…” ”WHA- HUH?” “Eeep!” Twilight shot up, afraid of being caught by somepony. She broke right through the barrier of cushions and looked toward the source of the noise. Which was a yellow pegasus filly cowering by the door with her hooves over her head. Twilight took a moment to process her surroundings. She was on the 2nd floor of the library. It was day. She had been caught here when she shouldn’t be. “I-I-I d-d-don’t think y-you’re supposed to b-be up here…” The pegasus said. Twilight just stared at her, and began to slowly move to pick up Spike. The pegasus gasped in surprise when Twilight had retrieved him from the pillows. “A baby dragon! I-I’ve never seen one before!” The yellow filly quickly opened up and began to approach as Twilight set him on her back. “W-What’s his name?” “This is Spike, I’m Twi- Sp-Sparkling Cider!” Twilight said in a rushed fashion. “A-Anyway we’ll be going now-” “Wait! He’s so cute, where did he come from?” The pegasus asked as Twilight made her way down the stairs. “I hatched him.” Twilight responded, before she left the library she stopped to grab a book she wanted to read yesterday. “Really? That must’ve taken some time, he seems very happy though! Hi there! I’m Fluttershy, you adorable little thing you!” Fluttershy spoke to the hatchling who giggled happily as the filly played with him while he was on Twilight’s back. Fluttershy didn’t even notice as they wandered out of the library as she kept Spike entertained. Twilight let out a light sigh as she felt Spike wiggling around on her back as he played. Fluttershy seemed nice though, definitely an animal lover. Now that she thought about it she seemed a bit tall. “Hey Fluttershy?” Twilight turned around abruptly, now face-to-face with the filly. She yipped in surprise. “How old are you? You’re a bit tall and I thought you were about twelve like me…” She said, tilting her head as she observed Fluttershy, who became flustered and blushed as Twilight looked at her. “I-I am t-tall…I’m only a y-year older…” Fluttershy explained, Twilight let out a small ‘oooooh’ at the information.  “Well, it was nice to meet you. I’ve got to be going now, I have some things I’ve gotta return.” Twilight explained as she shifted Spike on her back, with the hatchling grabbing on to her mane. “O-Oh! I-I’m sorry to have kept you, I didn’t mean to. It was nice to meet you two as well! A-And f-feel free to visit with Spike. I live in a tree-cottage over that way.” The pegasus spoke softly. Despite still being soft-spoken Twilight could detect that she was a little more comfortable. Twilight continued on, she wasn’t lying when she said she had to return something. It was a favor to Granny Smith for letting her and Spike both sleep in her barn (without permission) and feed them. Speaking of, Spike only had one bottle left and would need to eat soon. She was lucky she could save it from how much food there was around for him yesterday. As she saw the gates to Sweet Apple Acres she spotted Applejack out on the fields, she was busy bucking apple trees like there was no tomorrow. Twilight just stood by the gate awkwardly until Big Mac came by and opened it for her. “You gave our granny quite a scare yesterday.” The red colt said, leading her to the house. Twilight scratched the back of her head with her hoof. Twilight walked inside, finding Granny Smith on her way to the kitchen. “Twiligh’! You had me n’ the kids worried when you disappeared like that!” The old mare said, trotting over to Twilight. Twilight looked down a bit ashamed before speaking up again. “Sorry, I know you said I didn’t have to worry about it but I wanted to pay you back for taking care of us.” “Ah-” “I know you’ll say it’s fine, but I want to!” Twilight said firmly, her face taking on a little pout. Granny Smith stared her in the face with equal firmness before relenting. “Fine, fine. You can help us out ah’ suppose. Righ’ now it’s all jus’ chores the kids r’ doin’, so ahead n’ see what cha’ can help out with. Ah’ll jus’ take this lil’ one off ya’ fer’ now!” Granny said, taking Spike off Twilight and depositing him on to her own back with Apple Bloom who was happy to see him again. Twilight trotted her flank back out to the field where she caught up with Applejack, who was obviously glad to see her. “Twiligh’! Where’d you run off to yesterday?!” She said running over to her, abandoning the buckets of apples she had on her back. Twilight found herself caught in a tight hug she could barely breath in. Jeez Applejack was a little short for a filly her age but she was still crazy strong. “Uh, h-home?” She lied, unsure. Applejack pulled back and looked at her. “...Really?” “OHLOOKLEMMEHELPYOUWITHTHOSEAPPLES!” Twilight said, slipping past her over to the two buckets held on a bar. She went to try and lift them on her shoulders, but found them incredibly heavy for someone like her. “You uh…you good there sugarcube?” She said as Twilight barely lifted the buckets of the ground and shuffled forward. “Yep!...I got-” Thump “Ow. No…my shoulder’s hurt.” Twilight said pitifully on the ground. Applejack chuckled as she took off one of the buckets from the rod and helped Twilight up. She carefully put a bucket on her back, and put another bucket on the rod. Applejack and Twilight worked to get apples put away in the barn until Twilight began to look like she was dying. “Alrigh’ Cider, why don’t you jus’ go an’ take a break. Ah’ can fetch the last round of apples m’self.” Twilight opened her mouth to speak. “An’ no buts!” Twilight promptly closed her mouth and pouted. Shining Armor stroked his beard in boredom. His girlfriend had stopped her cute reactions to being on a common train, so now he had nothing else to do but wait until they reached the station, which luckily was coming up just now. “Finally…” “Aw, I liked the train.” Cadance, or as she was known in her disguise, Carl, spoke with sadness. “You know, I never asked. Why did you suggest we start in Ponyville? It’s a nice place but I think she would’ve gone to Manehatten. No wait, Dodge.” Shining asked as they got off the train. “Well, Twilight is still just a filly even if she ran away. She’d probably still end up seeking the comfort of being around other ponies. If not that then she came here looking for a library to calm down in.” Cadance explained, shrugging at the end. “Hey, do I know you?” A random pony said as they almost passed by Cadance. “I-I- u-uh…no?” “You sure because you kinda look like one of the princesses!” “N-No, I’m a uni- I-I mean, pegasus named, u-uh…” She quickly looked at her hoof and barely could read the smudged writing of the name Carl. “C-Carl.” “Carl?” “Carl.” “...huh, sorry then!” Cadence shuddered with relief as the pony then walked off. She looked to Shining Armor, who had a look of pride at her. “You nailed that!” Big Mac watched Twilight struggle so hard to pull a plough that she was starting to turn the same color as his fur. “Stubborn, ain’t she?” Applejack said beside him. “Almost as much as you.” Applejack grumbled at that retort. Twilight was barely tugging the equipment along a few inches, luckily she had only joined on the last line that needed to be dug. Otherwise this would take a few days. “C’mon…c’mon…c’mon!” Twilight said, each c’mon emphasized with a mighty tug that pulled the plough another inch. As she repeated the motion, the swirl carved in her horn began to flicker as she tried harder, the magic beginning to slip out the more she exerted herself. The grooves in her horn flashed to life as with one more tug and Twilight suddenly shot forward. Her hooves and legs flashed a spiral pattern for a moment letting her shoot forward three feet and falling on her face. “Nice job there! Now why don’t cha’ let Big Mac finish up, ya’ look like death. C’mon, we can get some juice inside!” Applejack said as she freed Twilight from the farming tool. Twilight panted as she shambled towards the house. Applejack however saw her chance and let Twilight use her side to lean on. Twilight found herself back in town with flyers on her back a while later. Since it wasn’t a school day, Big Mac and Applejack sold apples and handed out flyers. Usually, Granny came with them and ran the stand while they handed out the flyers, but with Twilight volunteering it meant they could run it themselves today with Twilight taking over Big Mac’s place in handing out flyers. “Ya’ look a lil’ shabby but it should be fine! Now git’ out there and lets offer up some apples!” Applejack said enthusiastically. Twilight found herself full of determination as she went off in a direction to pass out some flyers. Now that she looked at herself, she looked pretty messy. Wow, she really hasn’t had a shower in about two days. Applejack watch as Twilight offered a flyer to someone, who seemed to take pity on her poor appearance and took the flyer, and walked over to the stand and bought some apples from Big Mac. She smiled and watched as Twilight’s face lit up with joy that she was able to do something as she turned a corner to hand out some more flyers. “Excuse me, mind if we get one of those?” Applejack turned around to a voice behind her. She looked up to see a pink pegasus pony with purple and yellow hair in a ponytail, as well as sunglasses, a fedora, and a black mustache with a decently long beard. Applejack just stared at her intensely. “Is that’a horn pokin’ outta yer’ hat there?” “U-Uh, no!” Cadence said, quickly putting a hoof up to pull her hat back down, and also suddenly adopting an accent. “Th-That’s just Carl! H-He’s an… uh- an intern!” Shining Armor said, coming to his girlfriend’s aid. “Uh-huh. Internin’ what.” Applejack said in a deadpan fashion, not buying the obvious lie. “Princ-Pruh- Uh- P-Prench…cheese?” Cadence said awkwardly, mentally kicking herself. Twilight was honestly proud of herself and how many flyers she was getting through, the stack was almost gone! Just a few more then she could- WHOOSH And now she was face down in some mud with her flyers scattered. “Hehe, sorry! Need a hand?” Another pegasus filly came into view. This one was blue with a rainbow-colored mane. She helped Twilight up, and wiped the mud off her face. “Again, sorry. I’m Rainbow Dash. I know, I know, just by looking you can tell I’m pretty awesome.” Rainbow Dash said boisterously, doing a little posing. To Twilight she just seemed a bit egotistical, but Rainbow Dash was actually just trying to impress Twilight out of the blue due to a sudden case of a filly crush. “Yeah, I guess. What would be really awesome is a shower right about now.” Twilight said, mostly muttering to herself. Dang, there was even mud in her beard! “Shower? No problem!” Twilight instantly realized what was about to happen. Then she was soaked in rainwater. “No need to thank me, I’m just awesome like that. But you can still thank me anyway if you want.” The prisma-color pegasus spoke smoothly as sandpaper. “Thanks.” Twilight said, voice dripping with sarcasm as she shook herself off. She then looked around for the flyers than were blown off her, only for them to be offered in a stack right beside her. “Lookin’ for these?” Rainbow said confidently. “Yeah, thanks again.” Twilight repeated, now a bit more genuine. “I never got your name, your the pony Pinkie threw that party for yesterday right?” Twilight nodded. “Sparkling Cider.” “Hmm…Applejack your cousin?” “What? No, why?” “Just sounded like an apple name to me.” “I think we got out of that without suspicion!” Cadence said optimistically. “I think we just made up a new career field in Prench cheese.” Shining Armor thought aloud. Cadence interrupted his thoughts by pointing her hoof as she bit an apple. “Oh look! A Library! Twilight’s sure to be in there!”