//------------------------------// // New Friends // Story: Sparkle Sky: The Stardancer // by nightshade13 //------------------------------// Sparkle Sky Decided to head down to Ponyville to at least thank the six heroes that saved Luna's life. She stayed in there for week, checking out the six friends and found that even a princess was welcomed in that town. It was a harrowing week,each of the ponies there had a million questions about Canterlot, as if it was some secret club. She Spent one day with each of the Six heroes, and learned that they all worked hard for a living and each offered a little training if she'd want to stay. On the first day of the week she worked with the White Pony with the blue mane and the three diamonds mark, Rarity. Under Rarity's watchful eye Sparkle was enlisted to pull Fabric and design a special dress for Luna. It wasn't bad work and she soon found out that she was pretty good at fashion. At the end of the day Rarity packed the dress into a special Bag and handed it to Sparkle, who put it in her saddlebags. Rarity stopped Sparkle before she went out the door . "Princess" **Sparkle turned around a little annoyed and said, " Rarity you can call me by my name or my nickname "Blue Streak, i'm not in princess mode right now. " Rarity Corrected herself " Sorry, Sparkle it's getting dark, and rainy, you won't see a moon tonight why not stay here with me until tomorrow." "I'll do it " the princess said excitedly again thise few hours she was "asleep" she did not remeber. The Blue alicorn left rarity's wondering " did we have fun" " did we sleep? " She then felt a weird tightness in her belly "Did we...do more? Wow i hope not." Her next Stop was "Sugarcube Corner, a great bakery and home of the Excentric Pink tornado of a pony. She knocked on the door "Pinkie Pie are you in there, it's Sparkle Sky, you may not know me but i was there when you defeated Night Mare Moon. The door popped open and the pink Pony smiled wildly "0h HIIIIYA i am pinkie pie and you look like... FUNNN! come in i;ll show you how to make cupcakes" The pink Pony then Laughed oddly and with a hint of darkness. This display kinda scared The Princess who backed up a step or two. Pinkie reassured her " Sorry Sparkle, i love cupcakes and get all excited when someone wants to learn." The latter giggled and stepped forward " Ohhh ok well i'm here to help if i can. " Pinkie Pie showed her in and they started baking up cupcakes. " You're doing really good , you need some practice, but you're good." Sparkle smiled at her and noticed the night was coming. Pinkie took the last batch out of the oven and packaged them up handing them to Sparkle who puts them in her Bags. "That's for Princess Luna, as a welcome home gift from me. " The pink one smiled. you can sleep here hey i know lets have a slumber party tonight" The offer came for her. " That sounds like fun! of course i'll stay" The princess replied. In the mornig the same issue arose, what happened last night, her tail felt wet , as if she'd been swimming " Did we go swimming last night? and why do i feel so relieved? " She saw crimson goo on her face and hooves and took a deep terrified breath as she hear a pony was killed near a lake outside of ponyvile. " Did we...hurt that pony? Did We do worse? Did we EAT her?": She had heard all those rumors about a killer who made cupcakes out of other ponies " No No, we didn't" The princess calmed a little and licked some of the red stuff . " Whew She just put Strawberry jelly on me " After she cleaned up she headed out to the everfree forest, stopping at a small cottage there. this was the home of the Kind, and soft spoken yellow pony named Fluttershy. She didn't have to knock on the door since fluttershy was just walking up the path to the house, seeing the Blue Stranger she hid behind her mane. "Hey there I'm Princess Sparkle Sky, you saved my best friend what's your name?" Sparkle asked. Barely a whisper came in reply "I..I'm Fluttershy" The princess scratched her head " Umm Say again ? I ididn't get that" "F.....Fluttershy" The yellow pony replied with a little more of a whisper. "Please could you speak up? I won't hurt you " The princess prodded on. The shy one gave a little angry look and said it once again, just loud enough to hear " My name is fluttershy". Oh well hello Fluttershy pleased to meet you." Princess Sparkle answered. She was very good with pony to pony skills and after a couple minutes her and Fluttershy where chatting away. Sparkle was learning so much from the expert animal caretaker. Night had come and Luna had raised the moon , it was sparkles turn. She danced through the sky with her horn glowing and shooting beams of purple . For each purple beam a star appeared, this was a perfect night and she remebered it because she didn't sleep. Three days passed and three new friends met, now it was day four she had to choose between the strong work horse or the fast pegasus. Again she was amazed at the reception in town she got, and everyone was helpful in guiding her to "Sweet Apple Acres" The huge farm where that workhorse lived. " Howdy princess, Ah'm Apple Jack and yer jest in time ta have brunch wiff da family" Again the Alicorn was startled and jumped "Umm Hi AppleJack, i'm Princess Sparkle Sky. I just stopped by to thank you for saving my Best friend." Now Applejack was startled and looked at her " Y'all Call dat nasty ol' pony a friend? Shoot she was no friend ta us, tried ta take over and make us see only her." Aj Paused. " Ah know ya dun understand why we hate er so much, "cause all she ever did was try ta take over Queen Celestia's kingdom" To The princess this annoying little Earth pony was a traitor, talking that sort of stuff about a princess. Then she realized, here in ponyvile, they didn't know Luna, only Night Mare Moon. Sparkle chose to defend her friend now. " Listen you old hayseed, All ponies need love and care, Even Princess Luna. Celestia's New rank and fame left her alone without her big sister. I give you this, She did not have to resort to the means she used, but after being ignored, dismissed , and knocked down by her sister, lonliness, anger, jealousy and despair, broke her once grand spirit and consumed her. I know you have a sister that your close to as well, what would YOU think if the same thing happened to you ? After that strong Barrage from The Star Princess, Applejack looked at her seeing she was telling the truth. "Ah'm Sorry princess, er ah mean SS ah dinna know it was dat deep, we all lahk Luna here, we jest hope Night mare moon nevah comes back. SS replied " I highly doubt you'll ever see Night mare Moon again." She smiled " so I raise the stars you see in t the sky at night, what do you do? I'm here to learn about it." " Ah "Applebuck" and sell our fine products in the marketplace in town, ya look purty tough, not lahk a princess normally is." AJ laughed a little. " Oh i'm tough as you mebbe even tougher, and i got magic to help me too" Sparkle smiled " you teach me how to Applebuck and i'll show you what a princess is made of. " after a quick lesson in the skill, sprkle and AJ backed up to their own apple trees and had a little game. Aj First threw down the gauntlet " Ah can buck once and clear a tree and get 75% of the apples in the basket. Betcha you will take three or four Bucks to clear a tree with a 20% Apple basket shot" The princess smiled and looked serious " I know it'll take me one buck to clear a tree, and i gurantee a 100% catch rate" " yer on, an i'll even let ya use yer magic ta help, ah'll still do better. " AJ boasted," here are the rules We do ten trees, you will buck only once to clear it, and you will basket every apple, none will touch the ground. " " Fine! The princess replied, " here's the reward, if you win i will do one week of your work here on the farm while you enjoy one week of my life in canterlot. if I win you gotta tell everyone a princess beat you and you get to be my servant for a week, is it a deal " She extends her hoof smiling, "Deal." AJ spit on her hoof causing SS to do likewise and they shook hooves. The contest raged on between the two ponies and it seemed nothing short of a tie would happen . Ten trees became Twenty became forty. Day ended and so did their bet Forty-Four trees later . AJ was the one that seemed exhausted " Ya know " She panted heavily " ah nevah had dat much of a challenge in Applebuckin' and ya did exactly what ya said you would. Sparkle looked back at Applejack. " and you did exactly what you said you would do. so we'll just call it a tie, and i'll reward you anyhow i'm the one who puts the stars up every night Watch. " She danced through the night sky putting up the stars and slowly coming down landing next to the already sleeping applejack and snuggling close to her for warmth. Morning came and sparkle again forgot everything that happened at night, she looked over at applejack then looked around. " What did we do yesterday, and why am i so Sore? " she didn't expect it but AJ was awake * " aw ya dinna do nuthin' much , ya an Ah jest applebucked eighty-eight trees and basketed forty-four bushels of apples each" she smiled " an no matter how sore ya are we gotta haul the apples back. So they worked to do that and in the early afternoon Sparkle headed way up into the clouds she was going to visit the fast pegasus pony. She was looking for the self proclaimed "fastest pony in the world" it has been awhile since she was here and still she is impressed with Cloudsdale. While she was looking around something flashed past her. There you are " Sparkle took wing and followed Rainbow Dash catching her easily. "Who are you and how did you ever catch me, you're just a princess, not even Celestia can catch me. The princess giggled " yeah I'm not Celestia and you are just slow, anyhow. Thanks for saving Luna from Nigh Mare Moon, you don't know how much that means to me, to everypony." "I know this." Dash says proudly. Sparkle Nods " so what do you do up here? seems all the other pegasus ponies have specific things." Dash just looks at Sparkle " I do whatever i need to do, just faster then everyone. " OH? so basically you do nothing specific? " The princess queried. " if you can keep up I'll teach you how to set up the next storm" Dash boasted. "Keep up, come on I'm the fastest princess ever, i put all the stars up in 30 seconds, so i can enjoy them. " Sparkle Laughed and continued, " lead on Oh great rain maker." The two fast fliers raced through the clouds setting up the clouds and when Thunderbolt made the first clap of thunder the race was on, the pegasus ponies and Sparkle sky started bucking the clouds to make it rain. The night passed for Sparkle sky Cold and wet, and again she didn't remember it . What a week she had, and she was glad it was the end of the week, she made five new friends, now it was time to reunited with an old friend. The Dragon Keeper, Twilight Sparkle welcomed Sparkle to her library with a nuzzle and a hug. "It's been sometime since i saw you, how are you doing ? " The princess Smiled warmly " it's been a very long week i came here to meet up with you and your new friends, and thank you for saving Luna. " She Continued " but i found work and many surprises, just wish i could remember them all . " "oh no" Twilight Seemed alarmed " You still forgetting stuff? that's bad. yet you do remember me, perhaps it's only in your short term memory" Sparkle Was confused and said " What are you talking about Twilight? it only started when Luna was saved." "I believe that it's due to the stress you've been under this week, as you have never been this active during the day, normally you sleep during the day so you can do your job at night. Hence that could be Messing with your harmony" Twi said "Twilight you're crazy, what does that have to do with Luna? we still decorate the night together, it's just since she came home I've been forgetting stuff. " Sky stated. "OHH well that's quite simply explained." The unicorn started " For a thousand years you and Night Mare Moon where connected, in the fact that you are both night princesses and you decorate the sky as does she. When She was imprisoned on the far side of the moon, it was as if a piece of you was put there as well, but there was a harmony in your being even though there was a split." Sky nodded as her friend continued on. " When she was freed and came back, so did the piece of your spirit, this upset your new harmony, but as it happens for everyone's spirit that piece had to return to you. Once you got used to it again you returned to a harmonious place. " Twilight paced the room and kept talking. "When we destroyed Nightmare Moon, and left Luna, it really messed up your spirit as you had lost that thousand years piece, however a new piece forced itself itp your Spirit to try to balance your harmony, and to this day, it is not integrated. Soon it should be, but for now you will always have those forgetful feelings, until your harmony is restored." The Alicorn nodded and looked at her friend. " Well it is good that i'll stop forgetting stuff. She yawned and looked at the time " Hey Twilight can you make sure i get up at dusk to raise the stars i really need a nap. " Of course i will" Twi Promised "mind if i join you?" "I can make gossamer wings" I have always wanted to see you work , but i was always asleep when you did" Twilight seemed very excited.. The Stardancer nodded and wrote down everything she could remember . She wrote about how many surprises she saw, and how she was hoping there was more.