The Night Before Everything Went Wrong
It is night time in Equestria. All through the land ponies were closing shop, ending the days work, heading home, making dinner, doing homework, or being a nuisance to their big sisters.
In the town of Ponyville, many were already in their homes, enjoying the little family time left before heading off to bed for the night. In the building of Carousel Boutique, two ponies are winding down after a nice meal of tulip casserole. The elder, Rarity, a snow white unicorn mare with a royal purple mane and tail with three diamond gemstones as a cutie mark is still in the kitchen, finishing up the dishes and wiping down the kitchen table. In a few more minutes it'll be time to put her sister to bed, the Princesses know she herself could use a good night sleep. The younger, Sweetie Belle, a young white unicorn filly with violet and pink mane and tail was up in her room doing the much hated math homework. Spelling and grammar she never got anything less than an A in, but math took it out of her. But at least she was on the last problem of the night. She'll have Rarity take a look at it in the morning, she was feeling exhausted.
At last the dishes were done and drying, the kitchen was clean and everything put in their place. Rarity moved on into the store front to make sure her dresses were neatly on display or folded carefully in their boxes waiting to be shipped to the buyers who ordered them in the morning. Once satisfied she turned off the lights and headed up to her sisters room. She knocks on the door only to be allowed entrance by a "huh" and enters.
"Sweetie. What have I told you about chewing quills? It's not good to ruin a perfectly good quill."
"I'm sorry, Rarity. But this last problem doesn't look right." Rarity moves to stand over her sister and leans in to view her homework. After a few seconds Rarity moves her head near Sweetie's ear and whispers "You forgot to carry the 1 over the 5." At this Sweetie looks back down to see that indeed, she did forget about the 1, and redoes the problem. Properly this time.
When Sweetie was finished, she put her homework into her book and stuffed it into her saddlebag for tomarrow. Rarity gets the bed ready and asks if she brushed her teeth and rinsed her hooves.
"Yes, Rarity." Sweetie gets up and heads towards her bed.
"Did you get all your homework done?"
"Yes, Rarity." She answers, getting up into her bed.
Rarity waits til Sweetie is settled before tucking her sister in and kisses her on the forehead, then heads over to the lights and turns the light off. As she makes her out out of the room she turns, with a magical hold on the doorknob.
"Good night, Sweetie dreams."
"Rarity!"
Giggling, Rarity closes the door and sighs in mirth before heading down the hall to her room. Once there she heads to the bathroom. An ordinary affair. White walls, white tile. Beauty products on the counter and expensive shampoos and conditioners in the bathtub cubbies. But she's here to remove her makeup she put on this morning, and to put curlers in her hair to help keep that bounce in it. It's hard work being beautiful. Expensive too.
When that is done she head over to her collection of novels. It isn't late enough for her to go to bed, but this is the only quiet time she gets when she's not working or keeping a watchful eye on Sweetie. Two books immediately catch her interest. 'The Prince and The Rose,' a story about a country mare getting lost in the Everfree Forest only to come across a castle where she explores and meets a fearsome looking creature. She runs away and is attacked by timberwolves only to be saved by the creature. In the end it turns out the creature is actually a cursed prince, where her love cures him and they live happily ever after. The second book, 'The Mare in The Tower' is about a princess foalnapped at birth and hidden away in a secret tower with an elden mare that uses a song to reclaim her youth. One day the elden mare goes away and a dashing rogue stumbles upon the tower. Curious he climbs the tower only to find a young frightened mare. A journey takes place and the young mare discovers shes a lost princess. She returns to her kingdom, the elden mare is defeated and she and the rogue get married.
Both books are two of her favorites but she's feeling a little roguish today. Oh to have some dashing stallion come and sweep her off her feet, wouldn't that be grand. As long as it doesn't ruin her mane.
Giggling at the thought, she retires to her bed, book in tow, and settles down for the night.
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In another part of Ponyville, a slate grey Pegasus with pale blonde hair and bubbles for a cutie mark is walking into her home. She is tired, exhausted after a day of mail delivery, or in nine cases, the lack of mail delivery. Then she was nearly an hour late finishing her route and strongly suggested to make up that time tomorrow by her manager. Tossing her saddlebag into the corner, she trots into her kitchen. There is a tray of six muffins on the table, and by the smell they are all different flavors. The note next to the plate reads "Dinner - love Dinky."
Taking the muffins onto her back she heads out into the living room and places them on the end table. Ditzy seats herself into her chair, extending a wing and lifts a muffin to her hooves. She takes a bite, only to groan in bliss at the taste of banana nut. This is what she has waited for the entire day. A moment lasts for eternity when you finally relax after a difficult day.
When all the muffins have been eaten, Ditzy heads over to Dinky's room and checks on her. She is asleep, her homework books and papers are done and set up next to her saddlebags, the room is clean and everything is peaceful.
Leaving her daughter's room, Ditzy goes to the bathroom and washes up. The dust of the day leaves her nice and clean. She dries up, not easily mind, towels aren't as dangerous as a hairdrier, but take longer. Leaving to the bed, Ditzy leaps up to flop down on the mattress, tossing the blankets into the air to have them cover her perfectly. Sleep takes her quickly.
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Further from Ponyville, pass the many hills and fields of apple trees lies the home of the Apple family. Inside the old wooden house are 3 ponies finished up their dinner and a forth rocking in her rocking chair.
The old green mare was slowly drifting to sleep. The big red stallion, Big Macintosh, was setting the dishes into the sink and turned the water on. It was his turn to do the dishes today since he found the bay leaf in his stew. It seemed that lately hes been finding those leaves more often then not. The young beige filly with a red mane is heading up to her room to finish up her history assignment. The orange mare with blonde hair and three red ripe apples on her flank was carrying a few bags of flour from the storage closet. Today they finished harvesting the east field and tomorrow will be a bake day for the farmers market on Saturday. Moving the dry ingredients into the kitchen now means the baking can happen that much sooner. After depositing her burden, Applejack goes to leave the kitchen and notices Winona laying next to the couch, a smile on her muzzle and a big belly. She looks over to Big Mac only to see him quietly picking up a dish from the floor. It seems somepony gave her some leftovers. The big lug is such a softy to puppy eyes.
Up the stairs she sees Apple Bloom yawn and close her door. The filly has the right idea, it's time for some shut eye. Entering her room she takes off her hat and places it on her bedpost. Before she turns off the lights, she looks at a picture of her and her friends. Her eyes linger on Rarity for a second longer before moving onto her lamp. Grabbing the chain with her teeth, she switches the light off and gets in bed. When settled, Applejack calls goodnight to her family. Apple Bloom and Big Mac call muffled nights, and Granny Smith gives an extra loud snore as if she was sitting right next to her. Smiling, Applejack drifts off to sleep.