It had taken a bit of coaxing but Owlowiscious finally got Twilight to go up and see Pinkie Pie.
"Twilight! Owly! It's so nice to see you!" Pinkie chirped.
Twilight groaned but held a cheerful face regardless. "Ugh...It's nice to see you too, Pinkie."
Owlowiscious didn't share his owner's irk and was legitimately happy to see one of their friends. "Yes...ugh, a great pleasure. Pinkie Pie?" He asked.
"Yes?" A big smile graced her face.
"Could you please let us down? You're crushing my wings."
Pinkie considered the request and agreed with a quick nod. She lowered her friends to the floor and released them from her deathly bear hug. Twilight staggered her first few steps and had to sit down, gasping for air after being squeezed by her, too happy, friend. Owlowiscious also staggered but managed to stay upright. Pinkie didn't seem to notice this and returned to bouncing happily around the room.
The room, her room, to be precise, was decorated with typical Pinkie Pie flair; multicolored streamers hung from the rafters and stretched down around them, balloons were tied to basically everything and were in various stages of deflation, and confetti was strewn across the ground like a layer of dust. Pinkie came to a stop and wiped her brow, looking tired for a second.
"Phew, I know it's hard to entertain normal ponies, but it's even harder to entertain kids. Luckily, Pound and Pumpkin have the greatest party pony in the universe looking after them." She was silent for a moment before pointing at herself. "Me."
Twilight's eyes scanned the room, something was missing. "Uh... where are the Cake twins?"
"They're right here silly-" Pinkie froze when she realized that the spot of floor where she was pointing was, in fact, empty. "Hold on a sec." She said quietly before she zipped off. Pinkie moved like a blur as she sped across the room, searching for the foals she was supposed to be looking after.
Owlowiscious leaned over to Twilight. "I can certainly see where Gummy gets his...skills." Twilight nodded in reply.
"Found them!" They heard Pinkie cry from the other side of the room, near a mound of confetti. She jumped into the air, somersaulted a few times, and swan dived into the pile for no reason other than she probably just wanted to. Pinkie emerged a moment later with two foals on her back; happily jumping up and down and babbling Pinkie's name.
"And you two wanted to play Hide and Seek without me." Pinkie talked to the babies. "Gummy, I thought you were going to help me look after them!" She shot a glare at one of the corners and Twilight was surprised to find that Gummy was in fact in the room, silently watching everything with his fish-eyes. She quickly averted her gaze and started to talk.
"So... you're certainly being responsible by looking after the twins." She noted.
"Yeah, I really learned my lesson there." She pointed an accusing hoof at Twilight. "And you didn't think I could do it. Gummy says he believes in me."
"Well I'm sorry, but I just wasn't sure and-" Twilight stopped when the full understanding of what Pinkie said hit her. "...Gummy... talked to you?"
"Yeah!" Pinkie nodded exuberantly. "Ever since he turned into a pony, he would not stop babbling. He's a total chatterbox!"
She turned away momentarily to talk with Gummy. Twilight took this moment to look to Owlowiscious, her silent, bewildered expression demanding an explanation.
"I don't know!" Owlowiscious whispered, his deeply confused expression mirroring her own. "I've never even heard him speak!"
"You're right Gummy." Pinkie nodded happily to her now-pony pet and turned her gaze back to her other friends. Twilight and Owlowiscious quickly returned their attention to Pinkie as she walked over to them. She looked to Owlowiscious. "Gummy told me that you've never actually seen the twins before!" She turned to her side; the two foals were now looking up at Owlowiscious in that blank way all babies did. "Owly, meet Pound, and Pumpkin Cake."
He smiled and crouched downward. He was basically eye level with them now. "Well hello there."
The twins, a pegasus and unicorn which seemed odd to him since their parents were earth ponies, were giving him somewhere between some attention and no attention at all. The pegasus, who he was fairly certain was Pumpkin, wasn't paying any attention at all, instead choosing to suck on a part of Pinkie's mane. Pound Cake though was looking right at Owlowiscious, or at least in his direction.
Twilight was looking on, a small grin on her face. "Aww... I think he likes you."
Suddenly, Owlowiscious was pushed back from the group, sliding back a few feet. He staggered for a moment and crumpled to the floor, his hooves covering his face.
"Owlowiscious!" Twilight was instantly by his side. "Are you okay?!"
Muffled groaning was her reply.
She leaned in closer. "What?"
He mumbled something once more but it sounded distressed.
"What!?" She asked again.
He pulled his forearms from his face, a large bruise hung around his left eye which he tried to cover with his arm.
"Oh my..." Twilight gasped.
"I said..." He mumbled, there wasn't any anger in his voice, only surprise. "That little pegasus punched me!"
"Aw!" Pinkie was smiling despite the revelation. She was hugging the twins, they seemed to like it more than Twilight and Owly did. "That means he likes you. I remember when he first did that to me!"
The two watched her with varying levels of understanding. Owlowiscious let out a sigh and Twilight just rolled her eyes.
"Are you ready to leave yet?" She asked with a small smirk.
"Ugh... not yet." He attempted to stand but it turned into a weak push-up. "It'll take more than that to stop me."
Just then, a blast of magical energy collided with Owlowiscious, sending him sliding along the floor and crashing into the back wall.
"Sorry!" Pinkie called apologetically. "Pumpkin still hasn't gotten control of her magic-y stuff!"
Twilight walked over to her fallen pet once more, she looked down at him with concern and didn't say a word.
"Okay..." She heard him moan in pain. "We should probably move on now."
***
Applejack and Winona stood in a grove of apple trees, the many trees towering over them like the legs of giants. Large buckets were arranged around the trunks. "Alright Winona, it's time we got to work and finished harvesting these here apples. Are you ready?"
Winona saluted. "Yes ma'am-Ah mean, Applejack!"
"Good. Now, watch this." She walked over to one of the trees, positioning herself right in front of it, she raised her hind legs while aiming carefully, and struck the tree with a powerful kick. The kick caused the tree to shake and above her, ripe apples were shaken off their branches and tumbled down into the many buckets that sat around the tree.
"Okay, now Ah want to see you do exactly what Ah did." She turned and noticed that Winona was running right at another tree, head first. "Winona, wait!"
"Raaaaaaah!" Winona shouted as she rammed herself into the tree, causing it to shake and a few apples to fall down. Winona slowly slid down the side of the tree and Applejack heard her quietly moan "Ow".
Applejack facehoofed. "You weren't even looking, were you?"
"Ah was so!" Winona jumped up, relatively unfazed by the collision, she reached down and picked up an apple, biting into it hungrily. "It just got sorta boring around the end part."
"Well you really need to listen now, we're supposed to harvest these apples for the celebration and Ah need you to help me."
"Fine." She pouted adorably for a moment. The moment passed in silence which was replaced when both of them burst into laughter, the sounds echoing through the trees.
"Alright, alright. Let's get to work before something else happens."
"Look out!"
No sooner had a voice cried out had three shapes bounded out through the trees towards Applejack and Winona. Applejack barely had time to dive out of the way before the three shapes crashed into the ground where she stood a second ago. She and Winona looked down at the pile confusedly.
Applebloom, Sweetie belle, and Scootaloo were piled one on top of the other, Scootaloo's scooter somehow perfectly balanced on top of them. Applebloom looked up at her sister and waved sheepishly. "Hi Applejack."
"Applebloom?!" A very confused Applejack sputtered.
"Hi Applebloom!" Winona excitedly waved back. "What're you doing here?"
"Um, actually, we were looking for you, Winona." Sweetie belle spoke up. She attempted to get out of the pile, which only caused all of them to fall out onto the ground.
"So this is what an animal turned into a pony looks like?" Scootaloo looked up from the ground at Winona, sizing her up. "I guess it's pretty cool. Can you smell really good?"
Winona nodded. "Yeah, but right now Ah probably need a bath."
Sweetie Belle looked up at Applejack. "What are you guys doing?"
"Winona and Ah were just gonna start harvesting these here apples, you know, for the sun celebration?" Applejack said dryly to the crusaders. "It's that thing that we've been preparing for all this time?"
Applebloom righted herself and stood up. "We know that but we wanted to ask Winona a few questions."
Applejack was more confused than angry. "Ya'll want to ask Winona something?" To which Applebloom nodded.
"You want to ask me something?!" Winona grinned happily at the news.
"Don't ask me." Scootaloo was picking her scooter back up, shaking her head. "I'm just going along with it."
"Sure!" The dog-turned-pony hopped excitedly on the spot. "You can ask me whatever you want!"
"Awesome!" Applebloom was basically mirroring Winona in her enthusiasm. "What can you tell us about cutiemarks?"
"That depends..." Winona said with the same, excited tone. She tilted her head confusedly. "What's a cutiemark?"
An air of silence crossed over the ponies, noticeable to everypony except Winona. The hopeful smiles of the crusaders disappeared.
"Um..." Applebloom stuttered. "The uh..."
"The cutiemark is a unique symbol that appears on the flank of every pony, usually around Applebloom's age, that is often related to the pony's personality, proclivity, or talent of the pony." Applejack stepped in and explained. Everypony stared at her in silent astonishment causing her to blush slightly and turn away. "At least, that's what Twilight told me."
"Do I have a cutiemark?" Winona turned around and around, trying to look at her side.
"Ah don't know, you're covered in too much fur and Ah don't think dogs get cutiemarks."
Winona became depressed. "Aw..."
The crusaders let out a collective groan. "You mean we came all this way for nothing?"
"Well, you know..." Applejack smiled lightly. "We could use some help harvesting these apples."
"Or..." Winona jumped in. "Or you could go into Ponyville and ask the other pets!"
Sweetie Belle gasped. "Yeah! We could go see Rarity and Opal!"
"Oh, oh! Can I come too?" Winona asked.
Applebloom nodded. "Sure! Let's go!"
The three took off, Winona chasing close behind. Applajack was left in the dust and could only shout at them. "Winona! You're supposed to be helping me!"
Winona stopped and looked back, her face showing guilt. "Ah will, Ah promise, but Ah wanna go see the others too!"
She ran off, leaving Applejack alone, amidst the apple trees. She looked at the filled and empty buckets and at the settling dust, brought up from the crusaders departure.
"Dagnabbit."
She chased after them.