//------------------------------// // The Breakfast Group Date Gone Wrong // Story: Everything is Ruined // by Chaotic Note //------------------------------// Nothing can go absolutely wrong today; nothing at all. Oh how wrong Twilight was when she happily thought of those words when she woke up. She should have stayed in the warm folds and comfort of her fluffy mattress, but the bright sun compelled her to open her eyes and smell the fresh daisies of the morning. It was as if Princess Celestia herself was prodding her favorite student to wake up, and dear Faust she was trying hard. It was a perfectly nice morning in Ponyville like any other day in the rural town, with the open skies being pretty much blank-blue today. Only a few fluffy clouds were there to dot its canvas like splotches of white paint. The Princess of the Day was also kind enough to make the atmosphere mildly warm, basking the village into a comfortable environment. Twilight loved how unlike Canterlot, Ponyville was relatively calm at the start of each day. As a dedicated lover to books and smarts, she naturally appreciated the peace as it meant there were no distractions. However, Twilight knew today was way too beautiful to be wasting it nesting inside her house, with her purple head stuck inside a book. It was the perfect time to spend with friends. “Spike,” Twilight softly spoke to the bundle of blankets in a basket next to her bed. “time to wake up.” The covers shuffled around until a purple, scaly head popped out from underneath. “Come on, just five more minutes?” Spike rubbed his tired eyes. Twilight giggled a bit. “Don’t be such a lazy bum, Spike. You know we have a lunch date planned today with our friends.” Spike just groaned softly and crashed his head back onto his pillow. Twilight gently tapped her chin a couple times, thinking of a way to get the little drake out of his sleep zone. After a moment or two, she decided to point out, “Rarity will be disappointed if you’re not there.” At the mention of the gorgeous seamstress’ name, Spike swiftly zoomed out of his bed, leaving only a smoky outline of his body behind. Twilight walked into the bathroom where she found Spike brushing his teeth vigorously. “You should have just said that earlier!” Spike quickly spat out the minty foam into the bowl of the sink, and washed out any remaining paste with water. Twilight simply smiled. “I just wanted to make sure if you remembered.” The little dragon didn’t really sound amused, and seemed more interested in brushing his green spines to a sleeker style. “Well we’re going to be late if we don’t hurry,” Spike said, now rushing out of the bathroom to put on some suitable clothes. “Do you think I would catch Rarity’s eyes with a tux?” Twilight rolled her purple eyes a little, unable to suppress her increasing chuckle. “I’m sure you’ll look fine in a suit, Spike.” Twilight finished up her business in the bathroom, brushing her mane, teeth, and everything, and started her decent down the stairs with Spike in a sharp, black, gentlecoltly suit trailing behind her. “I mean, I’m sure Rarity would love you dressed in anything. She liked that apron of yours, didn’t she?” “That was only for a special occasion,” Spike grumbled, blushing a bit when he remembered the moment Rarity cuddled his cutest wittle chubby cheeks. “The Dragon Migration calls for confections, and I didn’t want any crumbs on my scales.” Twilight snorted a little as she levitated a saddle bag over her back with telekinesis, filling it with what the bookworm considered to be light reading material. Despite all of the magic in her arsenal, she could never tell when she’ll need a book, and it probably wouldn’t hurt to bring some in case of an unforeseen emergency. She could time travel, but she could only travel back to the past, and the spell never really did any big favors for her. The back of Twilight’s neck grew cold as she remembered how her mind nearly broke into a state of paranoia when her future self had tried to tell her something drastically important. Future Twilight didn’t have the chance to finish what she had to say, but with the rugged appearance Future Twilight was in, Twilight assumed that something horrible had happened. Like the possibility that the peaceful land of Equestria was going to be bashed into a terrible state of war with another country, or maybe an entire apocalypse was forced upon the land, caused by the means of multiple, destructive mega spells. Of course, the whole thing turned out to be for nothing as the entire absurdity was all based on false pretenses that Twilight made herself. It was quite the paradox that she had to resolve. And absolutely nothing bad had happened on that Tuesday morning. “Well Spike,” Twilight said as she opened the front door, revealing the lively day outside. “I’m sure Rarity would like you in the tux. We should probably go now. Rainbow Dash will tease us for being slow if we’re late.” Spike nodded, and walked out the door before Twilight. “Doesn’t she do that every day?” With a serious expression strong enough to lift mountains, Twilight responded, “Exactly.” Before Twilight could follow Spike, a shine had caught her attention from the left side of her vision. She looked to see it was her picture frame propped next to one of the windows. The frame held a huge group photo of her family. The ones that made it on that day the picture was taken had huge smiles on their faces, including her favorite grand-aunt, Creamy Milk. Creamy Milk was a fantastic business leader in the ever huge milk industry. Her milk was the greatest in all of Equestria. That is… until Chocolaty Milk came into the picture. The old mare that was destined to be Creamy’s greatest enemy had a brilliant, devious idea to put Creamy Milk out of business. Her plan of attack was to have her company buy Creamy Milk’s amazing milk, stir it with her organic chocolate spices, and sell the altered milk in masses. Creamy Milk eventually caught onto Chocolaty’s plan, but it was already too late as Chocolaty’s fortune had grown into an ocean of golden bits. It devastated Creamy’s role in the milk industry, and slowly placed her out of business. The day Creamy was forced into retirement was the day Twilight vowed to avenge her grand-aunt and rid the land of chocolate milk! Of course, that was a long time ago and today was far too important for the bookworm to start expressing her eternal hatred for chocolate milk. After taking one last look at the picture, Twilight ran after Spike. The pair had shortly made their way across the town, arriving at Sugar Cube Corner, hoping that they weren’t late to the planned gathering. Apparently, it seemed that one of them had already noticed. Upon arriving at the front door of the gingerbread house-like shop, Pinkie Pie had made her flashy entry by bursting through the doorway, tackling the purple pony to the ground. Twilight let out a small yelp after the ecstatic party mare rushed into her in a hug that had the force of a hundred soccer balls kicked towards her. Or perhaps it was more appropriate to compare Pinkie’s strength to the might of a couple bowling balls; bowling balls that were launched from several cannons. “Pinkie Pie,” Twilight groaned, rubbing the back of her head. “you could have shouted a warning.” Pinkie Pie tightened her hug in response. “Sorry! I was just really excited for today, and you weren’t here, and we all had to wait forever, and then you came along, and I was just so happy you got here, so I–” Pinkie’s long speech was put to a stop as a purple hoof stuffed itself into her mouth. Twilight smiled, despite the fact that her hoof was covered in saliva. “I think I get the message, Pinkie.” Pinkie nodded her head to show she understood, and released Twilight from her grip. The peppy mare then, with a vigorous burst of energy, shook her body, liberating the specks of brown dirt from her cherry-pink coat and the curls of her mane. Twilight covered her face to avoid having a face full of ground-brown dirt get in her eyes. When Pinkie was done, Twilight started to clean herself as well. Spike aided her with his nimbler claws, able to pick out the tinier dots of dirt out of her striped mane. “Jeez Pinkie Pie, how long were you girls waiting?” “We jus’ got here about a few minutes ago.” Twilight’s and Spike’s ears perked at the sound of the new, but familiar voice’s intrusion. They both looked at the Sugar Cube Corner to find an orange mare propped against the inner frame of the doorway. The pony lifted her Stetson hat up, revealing the brilliant, emerald eyes and snow-white freckles she hid. Brushing her golden locks of mane, Applejack called out to Twilight, “You gonna stay out there for jus’ a bit?” Twilight shook her head, still smiling from what just happened. “No, I think I would prefer to be inside.” Inside the sweet shop, Twilight saw her other friends sitting at the central table. Some of them were more relaxed in their spots. The light sky-blue mare known as Rainbow Dash was laid back on a cushy beanbag chair, her arms were stretched out as if the pegasus was attempting to cover as much space as possible. Rarity, with a royal-purple mane to compliment her alabaster-white coat, appeared regal in her seat like a queen. Fluttershy, yellow coated and pink maned, silently sat with the peace of a monk in mind. “Hello, darling,” Rarity greeted. “Glad you could make it.” She took a look at Spike, and formed a small circle with her lips. “Oh Spike, you look absolutely marvelous!” The small gentledrake’s cheeks turned perky red as his blush pierced his purple scales. “R- Really? Thank you, Rarity.” “There’s no need to thank me. You always look very dashing.” Rarity motioned him over to sit by her since there was a free spot beside her. This only produced more red pigments to rise underneath Spike’s face as he blushed. Starting his initiative to be closer to Rarity, Spike took a spot next to her, taking a look at her every few seconds like a nervous school filly having a love crush in the middle of spring. It was very tense to watch in one’s sitting, so Twilight turned her attention to the other mares while she sat down next to Rainbow Dash. In turn, Applejack sat next to Twilight, getting herself as comfortable as possible. The mares talked amongst each other, recounting the stories and gossip they had to tell. Whether it was about that one time they saw a mare did that, or when they had their crush; nothing was really off limits. They were all free to talk about what they want to say. Of course, there were invisible, iron chains around their chatting. Chains that could be pulled on if one of the girls let something slip out of their mouths, for should somepony in the room accidently let out a dark secret, then the others would demand to know the full details. “So here’s the thing I found out about my brother last night,” Applejack said, reeling in the others’ attentions. “You know he’s usually silent, calm, and stallionly? Well on that night…” Applejack leaned forward towards the table, prompting the others to do so as well. The apple farmer whispered softly with a mischievous tone, “I saw him having a tea party with a doll, with the little dresses and everything!” The other mares allowed the information to be absorbed into their minds before bursting out into snorts, laughter, and giggles. Fluttershy was the only one who didn’t really find it amusing at all, and was more intrigued on why a stallion would have a doll. After all, stallions weren’t really known to be interested in filly things. Except for... the mares themselves. “What did it look like?” Fluttershy asked, trying to hide the pink touches on her cheeks. “Well, I didn’t catch a good look at it,” Applejack admitted. “but I could tell that it was homemade, like as if my own granny stitched it together. It had mismatched buttons and was grey I think.” The description of the doll raised Twilight’s ears. Why that that sound so familiar to her? Now that she thought about it, she didn’t remember finding Smarty Pants anywhere after that… horrible incident that happened a few weeks ago. Maybe the doll Big Mac had was really Smarty Pants? Twilight fiddled her hooves together the more she thought about it. “Um, Applejack? Would you do me a favor and look around for the doll?” Applejack raised her eyebrows. “Why would you want me to do that? I think it was more than enough to tell you about my brother’s secret.” “Well AJ, the thing is that I lost Smarty Pants a few weeks ago,” Twilight explained, as if her reason was really obvious. It didn’t. The explanation passed right over the apple farmer’s head. “I don’t get what you’re trying to say here, Twi. Who’s Smarty Pants?” Twilight smacked her hoof on her forehead, performing the legendary facehoof expression. “My doll. I think Big Mac has my Smarty Pants.” Applejack made a small ‘O’ with her mouth, surprised by the new revelation. “Well shucks, I’m sorry Twi. I didn’t know. I’ll look around for Smarty Pants when I come home. I’ll have to give Big Mac lecture too about taking other ponies’ stuff.” Applejack’s eyes wandered upward as she stroked the back of her mane. “Now I’m just wondering why he would keep it. My brother isn’t the type to go around holding dolls and everything.” “Maybe Big Mac just wanted the doll,” Fluttershy quietly suggested. “Did he receive a lot of gifts when he was a colt?” “No. Big Mac was learning the ropes when we were little. Ma and Pa were teaching us how to handle the farm so that we can take it over later.” Fluttershy nodded, understanding the why. “Maybe Big Mac felt like he needed to doll for a little comfort. It sounds like he didn’t have a carefree foalhood.” “I’m pretty sure Big Mac was fine,” Applejack assured, with a big stretch of a smile on her face. “When we weren’t helping around the farm, our parents would play with us in the fields. I remember that one time when Big Mac scored his first touchdown in hoofball. At the time, I felt like he was the happiest colt in the world.” It looked as if Applejack was on the verge of talking about her life story, which would pretty much take a while. The mares would probably be senior citizens if they spent the time to listen to every single detail of Applejack’s childhood, and honestly, Twilight wasn’t looking forward to it. Luckily, Mrs. Cup Cake had intervened just in time, delivering a platter of sugary sweets to them. “I know you all would like to talk some more, but I bet you can’t do it on an empty stomach,” Mrs. Cake said with a motherly smile. Using her mouth, she gingerly picked up the platter off her back and placed it on the table. “Here you are, and don’t worry about paying. It’s on the house.” “Really?” Rainbow Dash asked with a devilish grin. “Ha ha, don’t mind if I do.” The cyan pegasus reached out for the delectable, tasty treasure that was a blue cupcake showered by sprinkles. Rainbow Dash could feel the value of its high calorie content just by looking at it, but the possible diabetes causing penalty didn’t really worry her. She could always fly off the calories in ten seconds flat. However, before Rainbow Dash could even have the chance to deliver the cupcake to her hungry mouth, a disapproving purple hoof smacked it off course, denying it of the tasty goodness. She glared at the hoof’s owner, angry that she was being deprived of the cup cake. It looked really good. Good enough to get huffy over. “Hay, what gives?!” Rainbow Dash reached for the cupcake again, but Twilight pushed her hoof away again. “Rainbow Dash, you know that we can’t just take it. It doesn’t feel right to me to take these for free. I insist that we pay for them,” Twilight reasoned, with her morals standing high. She opened her saddle bag to bring out her purse, but her bag was soon closed by Mrs. Cake. “It’s alright Twilight, there’s no need to bring out your bits.” Mrs. Cake said. “After all, you girls have saved Equestria more times than any other hero in history. I think you’ve done more than enough to deserve these cup cakes.” Twilight sputtered, “B- But—” The blue earth pony placed a hoof over Twilight’s mouth. “No buts, Twilight. I can imagine you’re all hungry right now, so you better eat up!” Mrs. Cake let go of her hold on Twilight’s lips, and walked away into the interior of the kitchen. With silent agreement, the all of them took a cupcake from the platter and started munching them at their own paces. All of them had a treat, except for a certain unicorn. Twilight reluctantly prodded one of the cupcakes, her stomach growling in response. She knew that she was considered to be a national hero in Equestria, and that there were probably a lot of ponies who wanted to say their thanks, but it still didn’t feel right to her to abuse their thanks for free food. Applejack, noticing Twilight’s uncomfortable uncertainty, pushed the plate towards her, encouraging the bookworm to start indulging herself in a free treat. “There’s no shame in taking in free stuff if you’ve earned it,” Applejack said, her mouth full of heavenly delight. “Heck, I’m pretty sure this was the least Mrs. Cake would do to thank you. If she wanted, she’d probably bake you a year’s worth of cake. Isn’t that right, Pinkie?” “Totally!” Pinkie shouted with glee, already finished with her pink treat. “Mrs. Cake is really nice, and she’s always wondering how she should thank you, Twilight. If it wasn’t for you, Mr. Cake would still be in the dog house!” “Mr. Cake was arrested?” Rarity gasped, unable to see the orange stallion as a criminal. “No, I meant literally in a dog house. You remember ole Dizzy back then, don’t you?” The fashionista raised her eyebrows. “Ditzy Doo the mailmare?” “No no, I meant Discord! You remember how he made Ponyville all wonky-donky right? How he caused the sky to rain chocolate milk?” Chocolate milk. Twilight narrowed her eyes as she loathed the mention of chocolate milk. Suddenly, she heard something crack in the distance. It was a really quiet crack, but was apparently distinct enough for only Twilight to hear it. She looked around to see what the cause was, but couldn’t locate the source of it. She turned her attention back to the conversation, not wanting to miss out on the details. “Of course, how could I forget?” Rarity grumbled, aggressively taking a chunk out of her white frosted cupcake. “He had me carrying a rock on my back for half the day. A ten ton rock, Pinkie.” Pinkie giggled. “Well, Mrs. Cake said that the only thing she remembed was Mr. Cake acting really strange, and that he was hanging around inside somepony’s dog house.” “Wait,” Applejack interrupted. “I remember Big Mac doing that too! He was acting like a hound as well, digging a bunch of tunnels underneath the farm. It took weeks to fill them up!” She rested her unfinished treat on the table, and then pointed at her orange hooves. “My dogs were barkin’ like mad when we were done. You can’t believe how long those tunnels go! About as long as a stretched neck of a hydra, or even more!” Pinkie Pie nodded. “You see, Twilight? We helped Equestria a lot! If it wasn’t for us, then Discord would still have been a baddie!” Twilight stared at Pinkie for several moments, and then looked down at the cupcake in front of her. She thought about her status as a hero before. A lot of times actually, but she never once considered how her actions ultimately affected the course of history. Everything Pinkie said was true. She and her friends did help ponies’ lives, and it was obvious that some ponies (if not all) would be grateful to them. And… she is feeling a bit hungry now. Still hesitant about the entire thing, Twilight closed her eyes and carefully picked up the cupcake as it if was a very delicate vase, or a bomb that could set off at the slightest of movement. With precision, she slowly drove her teeth towards the fluffy topping, preparing for the incoming taste. As soon as the frosting landed on her tongue, a succulent tidal wave of pleasure washed her taste buds into sugary bliss. The creamy aftertaste was very delightful, and her now insatiable lust for the cupcake yearned and cried out for more to come inside her mouth. Twilight took another bite, and she was glad to see the second intake of the sweet mini cake didn’t disappoint. Now completely at the mercy of the cupcake, the librarian allowed the flood of sugar envelop her into its control, letting it explore every sense of her body. She didn’t know why she was enjoying this so much, but it was clear to her that free food tasted better than paid food. When the aftertaste slowly faded away, she opened her eyes to take a look at the cupcake. She only gone less than halfway through the frosting, and there was still the main part of the mini cake to get to. Twilight was about to indulge herself again to the warm sweetness, but she then noticed a few pair of eyes staring at her. She looked up to see some of her friends giving her baffled looks. Why were they staring at her? Did she grow a couple wings while she was munching on the delightful treat? None of them dared to make the first move, until Rainbow Dash started to snicker. “Wow Twilight. I didn’t know you had a thing for… food.” “W- What do you mean?” Twilight stammered. As soon as Twilight’s word came out, Rainbow Dash burst into a fit of laughter, rolling all over the floor as her giggles overtook her body. Applejack rolled her eyes while Rarity shook her head. “Well darling, how should I put this?” Rarity was tapping her chin as she searched inside her mind for the correct words to use. Finally, she then said, “You were moaning the entire time while you were eating.” “… Oh.” Twilight sheepishly chuckled, trying to give her friends her best smile. “I didn’t know.” It was then Pinkie Pie’s turn to giggle. “You still got a bit of white left on your teeth.” “Really? Where?” “A bit to the left… okay now up. No, no! Go a bit towards the right now. There you go!” Twilight slurped up the remains of the frosting that blemished her pearly whites. “Thank you, Pinkie. Err, and sorry for being so rude. You know… about the moaning.” “It’s alright, sugarcube,” Applejack said, tipping her hat towards her. “It’s not as if we all had our own moments. I’ll admit that I really like these cupcakes too.” “Did you make these yourself, Pinkie?” Rarity asked. “Yes and no. I helped Mrs. Cake make these.” Pinkie Pie took a candy cane from her personal candy jar that she pulled out of nowhere, and stuck it in her mouth like a Coltban cigar. The party mare then developed a serious look. “It was a fantastic night; baking cupcakes and all. After we delivered them right out of the oven, we left them out to cool over night underneath the moon. It was a full moon on that night, and was the perfect temperature at the time to cool down the piping hot cakes with. A freezer wouldn’t do these cupcakes justice. The cupcakes that we’re eating right now.” Pinkie Pie took out the candy cane out of her mouth, and slowly blew out some air. “What are you doing, Pinkie?” Fluttershy asked. “Oh, I was just doing my monologue!” Pinkie Pie piped up, back into her cheerful expression. “You should try doing that sometimes. It’s really fun!” Fluttershy took a tiny bite out of the fluffy, sweet bread of her cupcake. “This is really delicious. What did you use to make this?” “Oh nothing really special,” Pinkie Pie said. “Just some flour, sugar, eggs, milk, some grounded chocolate— ” *crack* There it was again! Twilight looked around as soon as Pinkie said chocolate. Suddenly, she clutched the side of her head as a wave of pain flowed through her head. The headache was a level more unbearable than the time she had that time travelling crisis. What was happening to her? Was this headache an omen of bad things to come? “Twilight? Are you alright?” Spike asked, his face had concern written all over it. Twilight shook her head. “I’m fine, Spike. It must have been just a tired spell or something. I didn’t exactly get much sleep last night.” “What were you doing?” Rainbow Dash asked, finishing up her cupcake. “Well I was… “ Twilight blushed. “I was studying some new spells.” “Really? I say, Twilight. You have to keep your head out of those books,” Rarity insisted. “I admire your thirst for knowledge, but in all honesty, I say that you need your beauty sleep.” “I’ll get through this, Rarity. You don’t have to worry about me.” Twilight winced as she rubbed the crown of her head. But in any case at all, something didn’t seem right to Twilight. Was something coming back from her past to haunt her? It didn’t seem like it before, but now that she was noticing all this talk about choco— “Agh!” Twilight cried out. The pain was really bugging her now! “Twilight!” Everybody in the room cried out. “Maybe you should take a breather.” Applejack took Twilight’s hoof to carry over her back, wanting to help her walk back to her library/house. However, Twilight backed away as soon as the farmer touched her. “That won’t be necessary, Applejack.” Twilight took some deep breaths. “I am perfectly fine. I’m one hundred percent, girls.” Some of them frowned at Twilight. They didn’t really want to believe it, and wanted to see her well again. “Come on, don’t you trust me? Can’t I just have the time to spend with my friends?” Twilight asked, almost pleading. Her friends all looked at each other, confused on whether they should agree with Twilight or not. They all agree that Twilight needs some sleep, but the unicorn was rock solid on staying awake to spend her quality time with them. When none of the mares really wanted to speak up, Spike cleared his scaly throat with a cough to get everypony’s attention. “Twilight, if you really think you’re okay, and then I’m fine with that.” Twilight smiled, but then Spike lifted a claw up to add something. “However, if you’re getting another headache, then I think we all agree that we’re going to taking you straight home. I don’t want to see you like this.” The others, except for Twilight, all nodded their heads at Spike’s conditions. They had spent a long time planning for this breakfast date. It’s not like they all had time for each other and Twilight was the main leader of this social plan. She was the one who took the time to figure out when was the best possible time they could all hang out together. Shouldn’t it be fair that Twilight should stay? It seemed to be that way right now. “Well if Spike is fine, then so am I,” Rarity said. “Same here,” Applejack seconded her motion. The others said their words of agreement. “Okay then,” Twilight smiled. “Now, can we just go back to our normal day? I didn’t get the chance to finish my—” “OH girls?” Mrs. Cake called out from the kitchen. She walked in with another huge silver platter balanced on her back. This time, the platter was carrying an army of glasses full of chocolate milk. “I know you all would be thirsty from the cupcakes, so I brought some chocolate milk!” *CRACK*