//------------------------------//
// A Date with Destiny 
// Story: The Mystery of a New World 
// by Fanthrose 
//------------------------------//

Chapter 41

“So you got your cutie mark when you finally confessed your feelings for Ditzy Doo?” asked Luna.  She was curious about how AJ had gotten his cutie mark.  It was actually kind of lucky that he had used his own face as a battering ram to break her room door.  She had wanted to spend some time with him to see how he was adapting to his new life.

AJ’s cheeks became lightly flushed as he remembered back to that night.  “Y-yea.  I’m not too sure what happened after I finished the finale, but I woke up the next morning to Ditzy’s beautiful smile.”  He scratched the back of his head.  “Apparently everypony loved the show.  At least that’s what Big Mac told me at breakfast.”

“Yet, you don’t seem too happy with it.”

He let out a dejected sigh.  “It was sloppy.  The shapes were all wrong, the sonic rainboom should have been bigger, and don’t even get me started on how much of a disappointment the finale was.  I’m just happy it was good enough to impress her."

“Sounds to me like you should have a talk with Flash Powder.”

“Who’s Flash Powder?” AJ asked in confusion.

“She’s a mare from Stalliongrad that sets up all the fireworks displays at royal events.  She is hooves down the best pyrotechnic magic expert this world has ever seen.  She has seen, and preformed every type there is.  If you’d like, I could ask her if she could give you a chance.”

“That really won’t be necessa…”

“Yes, she’s been looking for more recruits.  Seems as though some of her students couldn’t handle her training.  Oh how did she put it, ‘dose pathetic little failures vere too incompetent’ so she ‘booted dem out.’”

“Okay, now I know I don’t want to…”

“In fact, I think I’ll send her a letter to let her know I found her another student.”  Using her magic, Luna grabbed a piece of paper and pen from the table.  She quickly scribbled something down on the paper.  Once she was done, she rolled it up.  Luna took in a long, steady breath through her nostrils.  When she had a sufficient amount of air in her lungs, she blew through her mouth.  A gout of blue flames shot from her mouth and engulfed the letter, turning it to ash.  She watched with a smile as the wisp of ash and smoke danced around the room for a moment before flying out the window.

For a moment, the only thing on AJ’s mind was how much Luna’s method of sending letters reminded him of Spike.  Then he remembered just why Luna sent that letter.  “Luna, I’m not so sure about this.  I mean yea, I’m still pretty sloppy, but I don’t think I need any special training or anything like that.  It’s not like my job requires me to fire off rockets, or perform pretty little light shows or anything like that.”

“Not with that attitude it won’t,” Luna said with a smile.  AJ could only look on in confusion.  “But if you train with Flash Powder, and work your butt off, you’ll be performing with her and the group by next years Gala.  You’ll be paid for the performances of course.  The money’s good.  You will be working for the castle after all.”

“Performing  at the Gala?  In front of, not only you and your sister, but for the thousands of ponies in attendance?” AJ asked, the nervousness tingeing his voice.  “And what’s this about pay, and ‘working for the castle?’  Did you just apply me for a job that I didn’t even ask for?”

“Isn’t it great?” she asked with a big smile.  “Well first you’ll need to finish your apprenticeship under Flash Powder, and if she finds you good enough, then you’ll have the job.”

“But I already have a job. A job that I’m quite happy with I may add.”

“No worries, you’ll be able to keep your job at the farm.  As a member of Flash Powder’s team, you will only perform during special events.  Aside from those events, you are expected to attend a bi-monthly practice session.  The rest of the time you are free to do as you please.”

“But…I…you…” His body drooped in defeat.  “I really have no say in this, do I?”

“Not anymore,” she said; either ignoring, or not noticing the dejected look AJ had.  “Once Flash Powder has found a potential candidate, she’ll go to Tartarus and back to try to get them to the castle.  I believe she actually did go to Tartarus once to personally drag one of her students back.”  She giggled a bit.  “Her son was always running away from the training.”

AJ suddenly began fearing for his life.  “Should…should I be fearing for my life?”

“Oh don’t worry.  Nopony’s been hurt during her training.  Severely at least.”

“That makes me feel SOOOOO much better,” he said with a roll of his eyes.

“Great!”  With a bright smile, Luna got up off the couch.  “Now if it’s alright with you, I’d like to see your abilities for myself.”

Knowing he couldn’t win, he just sighed.  “How?  Even if they did allow us to go on the roof or something, it’s a bit too bright to properly see everything.”

“That’s why we’ll be going into you’re head,” Luna said as her horn began to glow.

“Into my…head?”  He noticed that Luna was beginning to lower her horn towards him.  “A-are you sure about this?”

“It’s perfectly safe,” came Luna’s voice; seeming much more soothing than before.  “Just lay back and relax.”

AJ closed his eyes and prepared for what was going to come.  He felt Luna’s horn tap his forehead just below his horn.  A cool sensation washed over his body for a moment followed by feeling very dizzy.

Once the dizzy feeling left him, he slowly cracked his eyes open.  The feeling of fear slowly began to consume him.  For miles, and miles, there was nothing but darkness.  Everywhere he looked was nothing but darkness.  Even looking straight down at the solid surface he was standing on yielded nothing different.

Something was strange about the darkness though.  It wasn’t dark due to the lack of light.  In fact, he could see perfectly fine.  He was standing in an endless void of blackness.

Or was it?

The landscape began to shift and change.  Dark trees quickly began sprouting all around him; growing to full size in a matter of moments.  The surface he was standing on was replaced with dirt and rocks.  The darkness turned from black to red as a blood red moon shone in the sky.  The more he looked around him, the more terrifying his surroundings became.  Dense foliage filled in the already crowded forest.

AJ was trembling fear.  Every direction he looked filled his vision with the dark, claustrophobic forest.  The stench of death filled his nostrils.  As he looked around, something caught his eye that made the blood drain from his face.  Standing amongst the trees was a pony.  But this was no ordinary pony.  Its coat was a sickly white color.  It was very tall and slender, standing almost twice as tall as Princess Celestia.  It was wearing a black suit coat, and a red tie.  No tail or mane could be seen.  Its face was completely featureless, only having the basic shape of an androgynous pony.  A circle with an X through it sat on its flanks.

AJ wasn’t even sure why, but just the mere sight of this strange pony absolutely terrified him.  The pony lifted a hoof and pointed it at AJ.  He could only watch, frozen with fear, as the pony’s mouth opened.  Jagged teeth lined its mouth as a black substance oozed from its mouth.  Many long tendrils shot from its back, and quickly reached out for him.

A blinding light suddenly erupted from behind AJ causing the forest, the red sky, and the pony to wither away.  After a few seconds, all that remained was the never-ending blackness from before.  He had no idea what had just happened, and was too confused to do much of anything.

“I apologize for that.  I had hoped to get to you before something like that could happen.”

AJ turned to see Luna coming up behind him.  “L-l-luna?”

Luna smiled when she stopped in front of him, and placed a comforting hoof on his shoulder.  “Are you okay?”  AJ was still visibly shaken up by what just happened.  He just slowly nodded his head.  Luna pulled him close with her wing to help him calm down.  “We are in your dreamscape,” she said as she looked around the blackness.  “Everything here comes from your mind.  Your thoughts and feelings control this realm.  It picked up on your feelings of fear, and shaped your dreams to match those feelings.”

“Dreams?  Th-that was all a dream?”

Luna nodded.  “The spell I cast on you put your body into a state of simulated REM sleep.  At this moment, you’re sleeping peacefully on the couch in the hotel room.  Once you were asleep, I pulled your consciousness into your dreamscape, and here we are.”

“W-why are we here?”

“Certain types of magic, such as pyrotechnic magic, are influenced greatly by our thoughts and imagination.  The dreamscape is plane of pure thought and imagination.  Like those fireworks you fired off, you control and shape this plane with your thoughts.”  Luna looked around the dreamscape once again.  “I’ve noticed that those that have…stranger dreams seem to be more creative when they are awake.”  She looked back at AJ with a smile.  “That’s why I brought you here.  To see first hand how your dreams play out.  Guess we already got a taste, huh?”

AJ shot Luna an uncomfortable glance.  Even knowing that was just a dream, he’d rather not remember it.  “Yea…a taste.”

“Why don’t we begin?”  AJ gave a slight nod.  “Great.  Here’s how things will go.  I’ll give you a situation.  Use your imagination to bring it to life.”

“That’s it?  Just imagine things up?”

“Mmhm.  Remember, be as creative as possible.  While you’re dreaming, I’ll be watching from afar.  I won’t step in unless things get out of hoof like they did before.  Chances are once the dreams start you’ll be consumed by them.  Sucked into the imagery you create.  You’ll most likely completely forget about this conversation until the end.”  AJ silently nodded in understanding.  “Now, why don’t we start with...”


********************


“Are you sure it isn’t noticeable?” Carrot asked as Maxie added the finishing touches to Carrot’s makeup.

“For the thousandth time, yes,” Ditzy said from beside Maxie.  Curious as to what Maxie was going to do with Carrot’s makeup, Ditzy sat to the side and watched as it was applied.

“You’re curly hair does a good job at hiding the bump honey.  So just stop worrying your pretty little head over it,” Maxie said with a smile.  “Now, do you have your ear piece?”

Carrot lifted her hoof, showing the small device to Maxie.  “Yea, right here.”

“Good.  Let’s get this in your ear so we can try the bad boy out.”  Taking the ear piece from Carrot’s hoof, Maxie clipped it onto Carrot’s ear.  “There, now to hide it from view, aaaand voilà!”

Carrot prodded at her ear a little.  “It feels weird.”

“You’ll get used to it as the night goes on.  Now for the test.”  Maxie turned his head to the bedroom door and nodded to Star.  Star nodded back before walking further down the hall.  He had on a separate Ear piece, but this one also had a mic.  He wanted to make sure she was hearing him through the ear piece, not from the next room.

Carrot recoiled and grabbed her ear as a loud wave of static and garbled noise suddenly blasted her eardrum.  She clawed at her ear for a moment until she dislodged the ear piece.  She rubbed her ear soothingly as she glared at the piece of tech that now sat on the floor.  “Ffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuck.”

“Jeeze!  Are you okay?” asked Ditzy who came up besides Carrot to make sure she was okay.

Carrot turned to look at the wall eyed pegasus when she felt a hoof on her shoulder.  “What!?”

Maxie picked up the ear piece with an apologetic look on his face.  “I’m sorry honey.  I guess I forgot to turn the volume down.”

Star walked into the room to see what was going on.  “Is everything okay?”  When he saw Carrot favoring her right ear as Ditzy tended to her, he knew something happened.  “What happened?”

“I think we may have made her go deaf in one ear.”  Maxie showed Star the ear piece.  “I forgot to turn down the volume before I put it in her ear.”

Star groaned as his hoof met his face.  “Wow.  We’re really batting a thousand today, aren’t we?  First we bust her head open on a sink, now we blow out her eardrum.”

With a look of concern, Maxie joined Ditzy at Carrot’s side.  “Honey?  Are you okay?”

Carrot looked at Maxie.  “What?!  Money?!  Yea I have money!  What of it?!”

Maxie looked at Carrot in confusion.  “I didn’t say money.  I said honey.”

“Sunny?!”  She looked to the window.  “I guess it’s still sunny, but the sun’s going to be going down pretty soon!”

“Not sunny, honey!”

“Bunny?!  If you want a bunny why don’t you go talk to Fluttershy!  She’s got plenty of critters that would love a good home!”

Maxie stared at Carrot for a second before his lips curled into a smile.  “That’s not what I said, but I’ll have to keep that in mind.”

“Well, whatever you’re planning on doing, we don’t have much time left before we need to leave,” Ditzy said as she pointed to the clock.  “We need to be there in 45 minutes.”

Star sighed.  “Right.  Maxie and I will go test the ear piece.  You make sure she’s ready for when we leave.”

“Good idea.  We wouldn’t want her to go deaf in both ears now would we,” Maxie said as he clipped the ear piece to his ear.

“Speaking of going deaf, did you remember to turn the volume down this time?” asked Star.

Maxie rolled his eyes.  “What?  Do you think I’m stupid or something?  Of course I…”  Maxie reached up to the volume control to find it still set to max volume.  “Didn’t.”  He looked over to Star who was just staring at him with an amused look.  “If you say one word I will smack you so hard,” he said as he adjusted the volume.

“I didn’t say a thing.”


********************


“Where the hell have you been!?  You missed the entire show!” asked Rainbow.  By the time Luna was finished testing AJ, the sun was already beginning to set.  In total, it took the two of them about six hours to finish.  Luna wanted to make sure she got a good grasp on things.

That’s not to say that Rainbow and Pinkie didn’t know he was missing.  They realized he was gone the moment they began eating breakfast.  In fact, they were beginning to worry something had happened to him…again.  There was a problem though.  Due to the massive amount of artists they had to set to play today, they had to start the activities early.

Rainbow was torn.  While she knew the right thing to do was to go find AJ, this was the day she was waiting for the most.  It was Pinkie that assured her that AJ was going to be just fine.  That didn’t stop AJ’s whereabouts from weighing on her mind.  It almost ruined her ability to enjoy the show.

Key word is almost.

It wasn’t until after the show, while they were in the walking through the lobby to begin their search, did they see him step out of an elevator with another pony.  AJ’s face was flushed red with a look of embarrassment plastered on.  The other pony was midnight blue with a flowing, ethereal mane and tail that looked like the night sky.  She had a long horn, and a loose fitting, white t-shirt with ‘I AM NOT LUNA’ crudely painted on it with midnight blue paint.  On her face she wore big, nerdy glasses, and a big, clearly fake, Fu Manechu mustache.  Sitting on her back was an anteater sporting much of the same attire.  Though his shirt had ‘NOT NOODLE’ painted on it, and his mustache was a handlebar.

“I was…uhh.”  AJ rubbed his hooves together nervously.

“He was with me,” said Not Luna; making her voice sound deep to try to mask her identity.

“Clearly, and why were you with Princess Luna anyway?” asked Rainbow.  “Why is she even here in the first place?  Shouldn’t she be in Canterlot or something?”

Luna’s eyes shrunk behind her glasses as sweat began running down her forehead.  ‘Oh no!  Somepony saw through my clever disguise!  I have to do something to hide my true identity.’

“Silly Dashie!  That’s not Princess Luna!” Pinkie said, still hyped up from the show.  “Her shirt even says so, see?  She is not Luna,” she said as she pointed at the words.

“Yes, she’s right!” Luna said; forgetting to disguise her voice.  Realizing this, she cleared her throat.  “I mean, she’s right.  Would this Princess Luna character have such a stylish mustache?”  As she prodded the mustache, it ended up falling from her face to the floor.  She looked between Rainbow and the mustache with a nervous look before quickly picking it up with her magic and placing it back on her face.

“Your uh…your mustache is crooked,” Rainbow said with a smirk.

Looking down, Luna saw that the mustache was indeed crooked.  ‘Oh ponyfeathers!  Got to think of something!  Can’t let her know it’s me!’  That’s when she felt the gurgling in deepest depths of her stomach.  Her face contorted in disgust at the vileness that she felt.  Not even Discord could match the sheer amount of chaos that was brewing up in her very body at this very moment.  “Oh Celestia I knew I shouldn’t have eaten that Hayspanic food.”

Rainbow backed up with a look of fear on her face.  “W-what are you doing?”  She watched as Luna brought a hoof to her gut; her cheeks bulging out as something threatened to escape her mouth.  “Are you going to hurl on me?!”

That’s when it happened.  Earthquakes pale in comparison to its Earth moving power.  Tornados could only dream of being even half as destructive.  Even an army of dragons would quiver at its unbreakable might.  Yes, there was no force in the world that was more destructive than a legendary belch from the Mistress of the Moon.

Dash held firm as she was blasted point blank by the explosive belch.  That’s not saying it was an easy task.  Her mane and tail were blown back by the sheer force as tears ran from her eyes.  The stench was an obstacle all by itself.  She felt the mustache smack her in the face as it flew through the air.

After what felt like forever, it finally died down.  All eyes in the lobby were now on Luna and Rainbow.  Both Rainbow’s tail and mane were stuck in the blown back position.  She sat there for a moment, her eyes both watering and twitching, before bringing a hoof up to cover her nose.  “Oh…sweet…Celesia!”

“I-I’m sorry!  I didn’t mean to…”

“Celestia damnit!” Rainbow said cutting her off.  “Okay, I believe you!  You’re not Luna!  No royalty would have a breath that smells that bad!”

“Hey!”

“Maybe we should have just called you to fight all our battles!  With a stench like that, I think even Discord would have folded!”

“My breath does not smell!”

“Maybe Applejack should call you next time she needs to repaint the barn!  One belch and all the old paint would just peel right…!”

Rainbow was interrupted when she was suddenly lifted into the air by a cobalt blue aura.  She was brought face to face with an angry Luna.  The glasses she was wearing were torn from her face by her magic.  The shirt she was wearing was torn to shreds as her wings extended in anger; sending Noodle flying.  He was quickly caught by AJ’s magic and brought over to safety.  “What do you say now Rainbow Dash?  Does my breath smell bad now?”

Rainbow just stared at Luna with wide eyes for a moment before her lips curled into a grin.  “Hah!  I knew it!  I knew you were Luna!”

Luna stared at Rainbow in confusion when she finally realized that she was no longer wearing her glasses.  She could also feel the open air on her wings letting her know that the shirt was gone.  Her mustache was firmly planted on Rainbow’s forehead.  That’s when she noticed that the room was suddenly very quiet.  Turning her head, she saw that everypony was now looking at her in awe.  Without thinking, she let go of Rainbow, who just dropped to the floor, and turned to the crowd.

A loud gasp filled the room.  “What?!” shouted Pinkie.  “But your shirt said you WEREN’T Luna!  Why would a crudely painted shirt lie to me?!”

“You mean you actually bought it?” Rainbow said as she removed the mustache.

“I’ve never known a shirt to lie to me before,” Pinkie said with complete honesty.

Murmurs could be heard throughout the crowd.  What was the princess doing here?  What’s with the anteater?  Where did she learn to belch like that?  How come Princess Luna of all ponies has a breath that could strip the paint off a wall?  These were all questions that could be heard and more.

“Uhhhhhh hello…everypony,” Luna said nervously.  This was the one thing she was afraid of happening during her vacation.  Now that the ponies knew she was there, word was bound to get to Canterlot where her sister would no doubt find out about her impromptu vacation.  Knowing this, she did the one thing she knew would get attention off of her.  “Hey!” she said loud enough to get everypony’s attention.  “I hear Fleur De Lis is offering free lap dances at the Eastside Lounge!  Better hurry if you want a turn!”

To say Luna’s plan worked would be an understatement.  Over half the room cleared out within’ a minute.  Those that were left, most of which were the angry fillyfriends of those that left, ran after them.  That’s not to say that they all left.  There were still a few ponies that didn’t fall for her ruse.  They pretty much just continued their business.

Luna let out a relieved sigh as she looked down at her disguise.  “Looks like I’ll need to find a new disguise now.  Maybe something with an afro.  I could be known as Trotsy!  Trotsy Cleopatra!”

As Luna contemplated a new disguise, Pinkie walked over to AJ who was just sitting quietly to the side.  He still had a light blush on his face as he cuddled Noodle to his chest; petting the anteater.  “Heya AJ!  Whatcha…”

“NOTHING HAPPENED BETWEEN US!!!” freaked AJ at the unexpected attention.  His hooves flew up, sending Noodle into the air where he safely flopped back down onto AJ’s head.

Pinkie just stared at AJ for a moment before giggling.  “Of course nothing happened between the two of you silly.  I would have gotten the combo if you would have cheated.”

The blush on AJ’s face grew, this time because of his overreaction.  “C-combo?”

“Yea!  Eye twitch, itchy ear, dancing dangly thingy in the back of my throat!”

“You mean your uvula?”

“Gesundhite.”

“Wub a dub dub Everypony!  Vinyl Scratch is in the house!”

Pinkie whipped her head around at the voice.  “Hey!  It’s Vinyl Scratch!  Hi Vinyl!”  Pinkie waved her hooves wildly at the white unicorn.

Vinyl had a bright smile on her face as she lifted her shades.  Her crimson eyes practically glowed when they fell on the pink pony.  “Pinkie Pie, what’s up?!”  Walking up to Pinkie, the two ponies hoof bumped.  “How’s my favorite party pony doing?”

“I’m doing great!  Hey, do you wanna meet some of my friends?”

“Sure!  Any friend of Pinkie is a friend of mine!”

“Yippee!  Okay, first let me introduce you to AJ,” Pinkie said as she pointed to the indigo unicorn.  “He’s pretty much Ponyville’s resident punching bag.”

“Hey!” AJ said indignantly before lowering his head with a defeated sigh.  “Yea she’s pretty much right.”

Vinyl looked at AJ with amusement.  “You do know there’s an anteater on your head, right?”

“Yes, yes I do.  Say hello to Noodle.  He is my hat.  Say hello Noodle,” he said with a deadpan look.  Noodle just stared at Vinyl with his beady black eyes.  “Noodle says hello.”

Vinyl just chuckled before turning to Pinkie.  “You guys were the ones that won the contest, right?”

“Yuppers!”

“Awesome.  Why don’t you introduce me to the rest of your group while we go to my dressing room?  I told Card I’d be back after the show.  The little guy must be worried about me.”

“We get to go into your dressing room?” asked Rainbow.  She had been too star struck to speak till now.

“Sure.  I don’t see a problem with it.”

“Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh!”

“Oh come on Dashie.  You act like you’ve never personally met Vinyl yet.”

“That’s because I haven’t!”

“What about the wedding?”

“Yea, but that doesn’t count!  I never got to actually TALK to her!”

“Sounds like somepony’s quite the fan,” Vinyl said as she put a leg around Rainbow’s withers.

Rainbow’s body froze at the contact.  “She’s touching me.  Vinyl Scratch is touching me!”  She let out a loud, fangirl squeal before becoming lost in her stupor.

“You coming with us Princess?”

“No, I have things to do.  But are you going to be free next week?”

“Next week?  I’ll have to check my schedule.  You have another surprise party for your sister planned?”

“Oh no, but she has one planned for some delegates from Saddle Arabia.  Though her get-togethers are always so boring.  I just thought I’d help make things a bit more interesting.”

Vinyl nodded.  “Alright.  Just tell me when and where and I’ll try to fit it in.”

“Thank you.  Now if you’ll excuse me, I must go find a convincing afro.”  Before getting too far, she turned to AJ.  “Do you think you could look after Noodle for now?”

“Sure, why not.”

“Thank you.  I want his new disguise to be a surprise.  I know he’s just going to love it!”  Without another word, Luna left the room.

“Alright, looks like it’s just us at this party,” Vinyl said as she replaced her shades.  “Everypony follow me and the real fun can begin.”  With a confident stride, Vinyl trotted across the room.  AJ silently followed; making sure Noodle was comfortable on his head.  Pinkie grabbed Dash’s tail before dragging the fangasming pegasus along with her.


********************


“So you’re the one that actually won the contest,” Vinyl said with a smile.

“That’s right.  Those ponies at Everfree Radio must have been able to sense just how awesome I am through my letter, so they picked mine over everypony else,” Rainbow said in an attempt to sound cool in front of the DJ.  “These two were on their knee’s, just BEGGING for me to take them with me.”

“Of course I was Dashie!” Pinkie said with her usual smile.  “I mean, it’s not everyday you get to see System of a Down live in concert.”

“Uhh no.  I call bullshit here.”  The rest of the group looked to AJ.  “If I remember right, YOU asked ME if I wanted to go because you thought Ditzy and I could use some time apart.  There was no begging involved.”

Vinyl had a smirk on her face as she looked to Rainbow who knew she was just caught in a bold faced lie.  With a chuckle she said, “No need to lie like that just to impress me.  Just be yourself.”

Rainbow laid her ears back in embarrassment.  “Heh, sorry.”

“It’s okay Dashie.  We forgive you,” Pinkie said as she wrapped Rainbow in a big hug.  “Isn’t that right AJ?”

AJ rolled his eyes before patting Rainbow on the head; chuckling as he said, “I guess I can forgive such a…heinous sin.  Right Noodle?”  Noodle just blankly stared back at AJ before lashing his tongue out; tickling his nose.  “Noodle forgives you too.”

“Alright everypony, my room’s just around the corner here,” Vinyl said just before rounding the next corner.

“Alright!  Time to party!” Pinkie shouted as she let Rainbow drop to the floor.

From her spot on the floor, she watched Pinkie hop around the corner after Vinyl.  Then an indigo hoof came into view.  “Huh?”  Looking up, she saw AJ standing there offering to help her up.

“Would you like some help?”

Rainbow took AJ’s hoof.  “Thanks.”  As she brushed herself off, the two of them heard a loud gasp come from around the corner.  “What’s Pinkie up to now?”

“Oh my gosh, hi Gilda!  It’s been so long since I’ve seen you!”

“G-g-gilda?!”

AJ watched as the color drained from Rainbow’s face.  ‘There’s that name again,’ he thought.  ‘Time to find out who this Gilda is.’  Walking forward a little, he poked his head around the corner.  Standing a little ways down the hall were two ponies, and a griffin.  The griffin had a look somewhere in between complete shock, and utter disgust.  ‘That’s Vinyl, that’s Pinkie, so that must be…’  He turned to Rainbow.  “I didn’t know Gilda was a griffin.”

“You were never supposed to find out,” Rainbow said as she took a step back.

AJ raised an eyebrow as he stared at the cyan pegasus.  “And just why not?”  Rainbow said nothing.  “Rainbow, what happened between the two of you?  I thought she was your friend?”

“Exactly.  She WAS my friend.”

“What happened?”

“None of your business, okay?  Just forget about it.”  Rainbow turned and began walking away with her head down.

She was about halfway down the hall when she noticed that she was no longer making any progress.  Her hooves were moving, but she was not.  That’s when she felt something tugging on her tail.  “Huh?”  Looking back, she saw an icy blue aura grabbing her tail; holding her in place.  “Hey, what gives?!”

As he continued to hold her tail, AJ walked up next to her.  “Maybe I don’t want to ‘just forget about it’ Rainbow.”  Rainbow could only glare at the unicorn.  “Maybe I know what it’s like to keep something bottled inside like that.  Maybe I don’t want to see anypony go through what I went through all those years.”

“Maybe I don’t care.”  Rainbow quickly extended her wing; smacking AJ in the face.  As he recoiled from the hit, the aura around his horn and Rainbow’s tail died down.  Letting out a frustrated snort, she continued down the hall.  “Stay out of my personal life and leave me alone.”

AJ rubbed the side of his face watched Rainbow as she walked down the hall.  He let out a sigh as he thought about what she just said.  ‘Why is she so adamant about this?  What happened between them?  Did Gilda steal her coltfriend or something?  Or was it…’  “You loved her, didn't you?”

Rainbow stopped walking, and turned her head.  She fixed AJ with a dagger like glare before turning back; violently lashing her tail out in anger.  “Just shut up.”

“Dash wait!”

“Oh come on, you’re here too?!  I thought that pink loser was bad enough.”

Rainbow froze mid step.  She slowly turned until she was looking the griffin in the eyes.  AJ stood, uncomfortably, in the middle of the stare down; looking between both parties.  Gilda stared at Rainbow with a look of contempt, while Rainbow stared right back with a mix of hatred and sadness.  A suffocating silence filled the hallway.

“And I thought this day couldn’t get any worse,” spat Gilda; ending the silence.  She continued down the hall towards Rainbow.  She stopped again when she reached AJ.  “And I suppose the lame-o with the anteater is your friend too?”

“So what if he is?”  The usual bravado in Rainbow’s voice was gone.

“Tch, I’m surrounded by losers.”  Continuing down the hall, her and Rainbow locked eyed once more as she passed.  Rainbow turned away; breaking eye contact.  Gilda snorted; quickening her pace to get away from the rainbow maned pegasus.

“At least he’s a better friend than you ever were.”

Gilda’s head whipped around, glaring death at the pegasus.  She grit her teeth hard as her glare turned to AJ who just stared right back at her.  She began lifting her claw; clenched in anger.

Gilda moved before either of them could react.  Using her wings to boost her, she leapt over Rainbow; landing in front of AJ.  In one swift movement, she grabbed him by the throat and lifted him off the floor; slamming him into the wall behind him.  Noodle, fear consuming him, grabbed onto AJ’s horn and held on for dear life.  “You’re no better than the rest of those loser ponies she calls friends.  You all stole her away from me!”  She tightened her grip around his throat as she lifted her clenched fist.  “No more!  I’ll pay you all back in spades!”

“That’s enough Gilda!”

Rainbow turned to see Vinyl Scratch standing at the corner.  Behind her stood Pinkie, and a short, scrawny, green pegasus stallion.  He had a blue mane with a silver streak in it.  His cutie mark was three cards.  He had a watch on his left ankle and round glasses over his rust colored eyes.

Vinyl’s shades were gone.  Instead they were replaced by a normal pair of glasses.  Her angry, magenta eyes fixed on the griffin in front of her.  “I thought I told you to control your anger!”  Gilda glared at Vinyl.  “Put him down Gilda!”

Gilda turned her attention back to AJ.  She clenched her fist so hard her talons drew blood.  She brought her fist back, looking like she was going to just ignore Vinyl.  “I said put him down!  Now!”

Gilda let out a loud, eagle like screech as her fist flew forwards.  AJ clenched his eyes shut at the oncoming fist.

CRACK!!!

When he felt no pain, other than the pain from the claw gripping his throat, AJ slowly opened his eyes.  Gilda’s fist wasn’t aimed at him.  He saw her arm extended just to the left of his head; planted into the wall.  The blood drained from his face when he realized that that could have been the fate of his head.

Gilda extracted her fist from the wall before letting go of AJ’s throat; letting him drop to the floor.  Without saying a word, she started down the hall; turning away from Rainbow as she passed.  Without acknowledging Gilda, Rainbow ran over to AJ to help.

Vinyl let out a deep sigh.  “I swear that griffin needs some serious help.”  She turned to Rainbow and AJ.  “You two okay?”

“We’ll be fine,” Rainbow said as she looked at AJ’s throat.  Aside from where Gilda’s talons started digging into his flesh, there looked to be no real damage.

“Yea.  Sad to say that I’ve been through worse than that,” AJ said as he rubbed his soar neck.  Rainbow and Pinkie could only nod knowingly.

“That doesn’t excuse what she did,” Vinyl said as she shook her head.

“I still say we should just commit her to a mental hospital,” added the green pegasus.  “I would love to see her reaction when the ponies in the white coats drag her furry ass to the happy hotel.”

“I’m inclined to agree with the kid.  She’s a fucking psycho,” AJ said as he stood up.

“She’s not a psycho!” defended Dash.

“And I am not a kid!  I just haven’t stopped growing yet.”

“Cool it Card,” Vinyl said as she put a hoof on his shoulder.  “Pinkie already met him, but this is my coltfriend, Fated Card.”

“Yea, that’s right!  I’m nailing this pony right here!” Card said with a look of pride.  “Bet you’re super jealous now, huh?”

“Nnnoooo, not really.  I’m quite happy with my marefriend.”

“I call bullshit.  I can see the jealousy in your eyes.”

AJ rolled his eyes.  “Piss off you sawed off Chihuahua.  I got a headache right now, and I really don’t feel like dealing with a little cretin like you right now.”

“Sawed off Chihuahua?!  Little cretin?!  Ffffuck youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!”

Using his magic, AJ lifted Noodle off his head; making sure he was okay.  He let out a relieved sigh when he saw that the anteater was just fine.  “I think I’m going to go back to the room.  Maybe go to the bar to get something to eat first.  I’ve had enough excitement for one day, and a hot tub is just what I need to relax.”

“You sure you’re going to be okay?” asked Rainbow.

“I’ll be fine.  As I said, I’ve been through worse than that.”

Rainbow watched with worry in her eyes as AJ walked down the hall.  “Yea, that’s right!  Just walk away!  Save yourself the embarrassment of getting your flank kicked by yours truly!”

Rolling her eyes, Vinyl clamped Card’s mouth shut with her magic.  “Not now Card.”  She let out a sigh before her usual smile came back.  “Looks like we’re down one pony, but that doesn’t mean the four of us can’t still party!”

“Alright!  I’ll get my party canon!”  Pinkie ran back into Vinyl’s room to set up the party.

“Card, could you go help her set things up?” Vinyl asked as she extinguished her magic.

“Yea, I guess.  But the next time I see that guy, I swear to Celestia I will kick him in the dick.”

“You do that.”  Vinyl watched as Card followed Pinkie into the room before walking up to Rainbow.  “You gonna be okay?”

Rainbow shook her head.  “I…I don’t know.”

Vinyl put a comforting hoof on Rainbow’s shoulder.  “If it makes you feel any better, Gilda really does miss you.”

Rainbow’s eyes got wide as she turned to Vinyl.  “She misses me?”

Vinyl nodded.  “You should hear her drunken ramblings when she’s at the bar.  It’s almost always about how she lost her only friend and how she wants her back.  And just think about what she just said.  She believes your new friends stole you away from her.  If she really didn’t care anymore, why would she feel so strongly about something like that?”

Rainbow just looked down and started to think.  “You think that we could still be friends?”

“Maybe.  Can’t be too sure right now,” Vinyl said with a shrug.  “For now, let’s just give her some space.  Now come on.  We can still make something of this night.  You know how awesome Pinkie’s parties are.”

“Yea, you’re right.”  With a smile, Rainbow stood up and started down the hall to Vinyl’s room.  “By the way, what’s with your eyes?”

“Hmm?”

“Well, during the show, they were red.  Same with before in the lobby.  Now they’re different.  And now you’re wearing glasses too.”

“Oh, that.  They’re called prescription contacts dude.  Plus, red looks a lot cooler than magenta does.”  She lifted her glasses and rubbed her eyes.  “Too bad they’re so uncomfortable, or I’d wear them all the time.”

“Oh.  Makes sense.  I guess.”

“You two may wanna hurry it up,” Card said as he poked his head around the corner.  “That crazy pink pony’s already eaten about half of the food.”

Vinyl and Rainbow looked at each other and rolled their eyes.  “That’s Pinkie Pie for you,” they said together before laughing and hurrying to the room.


********************


“I…don’t…wanna…go!”

“Too…bad!”

“You…can’t…make…me!”

“Yes…I…can!”  Maxie growled at the pale goldenrod earthpony.  “This is not the time to get cold hooves!”

“I don’t care!”

“10 bits Maxie wins,” Star said as he and Ditzy watched Maxie try to push Carrot out the door.

“I don’t know.  Carrot’s a lot stronger than she looks.  If she actually tries, she’ll easily win.”

“A little help you two?!” pleaded Maxie as Carrot began pulling at his hair.  “Hey!  Watch the hair!”

“Think we should help?” asked Star.

“Yeeaaaa.  I guess we should.”  Ditzy unfurled a wing, and grabbed a loose feather.  “Bah.  I really need to keep up with the preening.”  Feather in mouth, she walked over to the fighting earth ponies.

“I changed my mind, and that’s final!” Carrot shouted as she fought against Maxie.  “You can’t make meeeEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!!!”

Maxie jumped back to avoid Carrot’s wildly flailing hooves.  Utterly shocked from the unexpected tickle, Carrot fell backwards.  As Carrot flopped on the ground, recovering from the tickling, Star came up behind Ditzy.  “Impressive.”

Ditzy spit out the feather with a smug grin.  “Yup.  When you’ve known a pony for as long as I’ve known Carrot, you eventually learn all of their weaknesses.  Carrot’s biggest weakness is that she is extremely ticklish.”

“Hmm, that’s good to know if we need to persuade her to get moving again,” Maxie said with an evil grin.

“You wouldn’t dare.”

Maxie picked up the feather.  “Watch me.”

“Can this wait?” asked Star.  “Chances are we’re already going to be late.  Let’s not make things worse by making it a no show.”  He turned to Carrot with a stern look.  “Now Carrot, I know you’re scared about this, but you need to pony up.  If you don’t want to live the rest of your life alone, you’re going to have to take chances like this.”

“But what if it doesn’t work out?  What if I mess this up and they never want to speak to me again?” Carrot asked; the fear of yet another rejection looming over her.

“Then you get back up and try again,” Star said sternly.  “Just because one pony says no, doesn’t mean they all will.  Yes rejection can hurt at first, but you can’t let it get to you.  You need to shake it off and get right back on, do you understand me?”  The two ponies just stood there, staring into each other’s eyes.  “Now, are you going to go through with this blind date, or was this all just one big waste of time?”

Carrot began to quiver beneath Star’s hard gaze.  She was scared.  No mater what was said, the fear still continued to loom over her.  She didn’t know if she could take anymore rejection.  Then again, he was right.  Over the past couple days, these ponies in front of her worked hard to give her this chance.  To say no would just be rudely grinding all their hard work into the ground.  “I-I wanna do this.”

“Are you sure?  Just say the word and I’ll go down there and call this whole thing off.  I’d just hate to see your life in a couple years when you’re still all alone.  How horrible your life will be, just because you were too pathetic and scared to go on one, little…”

Star was interrupted as a hoof connected with his jaw.  The hoof was quickly retracted when Carrot realized Star’s body was a lot more solid than most.  She silently cursed as she shook the pain from her leg.  “I…am not…pathetic?”

Star, barely feeling Carrot’s retaliation, smiled.  “What’s that?”

“I’m not pathetic.”

“Again.”

“I’m not pathetic!”

“I can’t hear you!”

“I’M NOT PATHETIC!!!” shouted Carrot at the top of her lungs.  “I’m not a loser!  I will go on this date, and I will get laid!”

“There we go.  That’s the fire I was looking for.  Though maybe you should slow down a bit.  It’s only the first date.  Sex can wait.  For now at least.”

A light blush came to Carrot’s cheeks.  “Y-yea…right.”

“Good, can we go now?” Maxie asked impatiently.

“Aww, but things were just starting to get good,” joked Ditzy.

Star rolled his eyes before ushering Carrot down the path to the street.


********************


Despite the fiery passion Carrot had when they finally left the house, by the time they got to the restaurant, she was practically hyperventilating.  As Star went to go check them in, Maxie and Ditzy stayed behind to make sure she didn’t get cold hooves again.

“You going to be okay Carrot?” asked Ditzy.  She had never seen Carrot this nervous before.  Usually the situation is reversed.  She was the one that was freaking out over something, or passing out due to the lack of oxygen brought on by the hyperventilating.  It actually scared her to see her best friend in this position.

“Define okay!”

“Carrot, look at me,” Maxie said as he grabbed Carrot’s head, forcing her to look him in the eyes.  “You just need to take long, deep breaths.  It’ll help you calm down.  Follow my breathing.”  Maxie started instructing Carrot to take long deep breaths.  Carrot, in her worry, couldn’t control her breathing to save her life.  “No, not quick and shallow, long and deep.”

“Maxie, stop,” Ditzy said as she pulled Maxie’s hooves off of Carrot’s face.  “It sounds like you’re instructing her on how to give a better blowjob, not trying to calm her down.”  Nudging Maxie out of the way, Ditzy got in front of the pale goldenrod earthpony.

“Well what do you plan on doing then?”

“The same thing she does to me whenever I freak out like this.”  Without another word, Ditzy lifted her hoof.

SLAP, SLAP!!!

Carrot brought a hoof up to one of her, now sore, cheeks.  “Ooooow!”

“Well, that’s one way to do it I guess,” Maxie said, not quite sure how to react.

“It worked, didn’t it?”  Ditzy said triumphantly.

“I don’t know what the three of you are up to, but we can go in now,” came Star’s voice from behind them.

“Right.  Ready Carrot?”

“Not really.”

“Well too bad.”  Ditzy got behind the earthpony mare and began pushing her into the restaurant.  “It’s do or die, and I refuse to let you die.”

“Who said anything about dying?” asked Maxie who walked along side the two of them.

Ditzy stopped in her tracks as Maxie’s question hit her.  “I…well…look, don’t question things I say when I get all fired up like that.  Half the time they don’t make sense.”

“Noted,” Maxie said with a smile.  He winked at the doorpony as they passed who could only awkwardly stare as he watched Carrot get pushed into the restaurant.

They saw Star waving them over to a booth as a waiter placed three menus at the seats.  When the rest of the group got to the table, Star cleared his throat.  “Alright.  This will be our base of operations.  That table over there…” he pointed to a booth about two tables over, is where your date is.  We’ll be able to hear everything that goes on from here, and will instruct you if you ever need help.  You do have the earpiece in, right?”

“Yea.  And I made sure the volume was down before I put it in,” Carrot said; lightly glaring at Maxie.

Maxie smiled sheepishly.  “What?  I said I was sorry.”

“Good.  Just do what we say, and you’ll do fine.”

“Mr. Written Script?  One second sir.”

Maxie’s ears twitched as he heard Written Script’s name.  “Oh my gosh he’s here!” he said in a loud whisper.  “Everpony hide!”

“Here we are.  Looks like your date has already arrived.”  He motioned for a waiter.  “You will be at table 24.”

Carrot’s eyes got wide when she heard the table number.  She took another look at the table from her hiding spot behind Ditzy.  Table 24.  Her brain shut down for a moment as this information wracked it’s way through her head.  That’s when it finally clicked.  A heavy blush came to her cheeks.  “Oh sweet Celestia my blind date is…!”

“Shhhhhhh!”  Star stuffed a hoof in Carrot’s mouth to shut her up.  “He doesn’t know that the three of us are here.  You can’t bring attention to us.”  They watched as Written Script was lead to the booth.  When the waiter left, he removed his hoof from Carrot’s mouth.  “Alright.  Now that he’s here, things can start.  You’re going to go over there, say hello, and you will have a great night.  Do you understand?”  Carrot nodded.  “Good girl.  Now go and be happy.”

Ditzy stepped out from the booth to let Carrot out.  As Ditzy got back into her seat, she noticed Carrot looking at her with a big smile.  “Something wrong?”

Carrot shook her head.  “Remind me to kiss you all later.”  Without waiting for an answer, Carrot trotted towards her table.

Written Script looked nervously looked around the restaurant.  He took one last look at his appearance.  He was wearing a nice button-up shirt and a piano tie.  He knew this wasn’t the fanciest of restaurants, but he wanted to make a good impression.  “I thought he said my date was already here.  Where could they be?”  He started tapping his hoof on the table to try to pass time.  A smile started to form on his face when he heard some hoofsteps get closer and closer.

“Sorry I’m late.  I had to use the little filly’s room.”  The smile slowly began to drop when he heard the voice.  He turned his head to see Carrot Top standing in front of the table; a bright smile on her face.  He just watched as Carrot took a seat opposite of him.  “Were you waiting long?”

“Umm, no.  A couple minutes maybe.”  He got a better look at Carrot.  Like him, she wasn’t extravagantly dressed.  Her hair was done up nicely with a carrot shaped hair clip, and she was wearing a nice skirt.  The slightest touch of makeup adorned her face.  “You…look nice,” he said uncomfortably.

Carrot could feel her face heat up.  “Th-thank you.”

A bit of static started sounding from the earpiece.  “Remember to compliment him on his looks too,” came Star’s voice.

“Yea, you want to make him feel just as special as he makes you feel,” added Maxie.

“Oh, right,” Carrot whispered a little too loudly.

“Hmm?”

“N-nothing, heh.  Uhh, you look good too.  That tie is adorable.”  Carrot was internally screaming at her choice of words.

“Uhh, thank you?”  He looked down at his tie.  “It’s nothing special though.  Just a cheap tie I picked up in case I ever needed one.”

“Well it looks nice.”

An awkward silence filled the area around them.  With the initial interactions out of the way, neither of them knew what to talk about.  “Don’t just sit there doing nothing, ask him how his day went.  Maybe how things are going around the office,” said Maxie.

“But she already knows how everything’s going.  I told her,” said Ditzy.  Her voice could be heard in the background.

“But he doesn’t know that, now does he,” countered Maxie.

“I’m sure he knows that his co-workers talk about what’s going on at the post office.”

“Would you two keep your voices down?  He’s going to hear us if you keep talking like that,” chastised Star.

“Did you hear that?” asked Script.

“H-hear what?” Carrot asked with a sheepish smile.

“It sounded like some ponies are arguing,” he said as he began looking around restaurant again.  “And one of them sounded like Di…”

“So how was your day?!” interrupted Carrot in an attempt to change the subject.  “Anything exiting happen at the post office today?”

Just as he was about to look behind them into the other booths, he stopped and looked at Carrot with a curious look.  He had an uncomfortable look on his face as he sat back down.  “Uhhh, it was fine.  Nothing of interest really happened.”  He tapped his hoof on the table.  “I thought Ditzy would have told you.”

“Told you,” came Ditzy’s smug voice from the ear piece.

“Oh yea…forgot about that.”  A light blush came to Carrot’s cheeks.  “I, uh…I just thought maybe she forgot something.”  An uncomfortable laughter filled the air.

“No, no she didn’t.”

Another uncomfortable silence filled the area around them.  “Try to keep the conversation going Carrot.  Don’t let things get stale,” said Star.

As Carrot tried to think of something to talk about, she noticed something about her date.  He looked extremely uncomfortable.  He was looking at everything except her.  She could hear his hoof tapping nervously underneath the table.  “Is something wrong?”

His eyes finally met hers before he let out a sigh.  “Carrot, I don’t think this is going to work out.”

Carrot was pretty sure she felt a vice tightening around her heart.  Her eyes got wide as panic quickly began overtaking every other emotion.  “H-huh?”

“Boxxy was right.  This was a bad idea.”

“What do you mean bad idea?!  Star said you were exited for this!”

“Carrot, just calm down,” Ditzy said.

“I was, until a few minutes ago.”  He saw that Carrot was on the verge of tears.  “Look, I don’t want to make you feel bad, okay?  It’s not you.  It’s me.  You’re a nice pony.  You’ve always been nice to me when we’ve talked, but you’re not the pony for me.  I’m sorry.”

“Couldn’t we just give it a chance?!  Maybe we’ll be happy in the end!”

“Maybe if the situation was a little different,” he said with an embarrassed chuckle.  “But as things are, it just wouldn’t work.  I’m sorry I wasted your time tonight.  Tell Ditzy I said hi.”  As Script was about to get up, Carrot practically leapt over the table; grabbing his foreleg to keep him from leaving.  His somber look turned to one of fear as he turned to the mare.  “W-what are you doing?!”

At this point Carrot had hot tears pouring down her cheeks.  “Y-y-you can’t leave!  Please don’t leave!  I-I don’t want you to leave!”

“L-let go of me!” demanded Script as he tried to pry his leg away from Carrot’s vice-like grip.

“Ple-he-he-heas!  You have to love me!”

“Carrot let him go!” Ditzy shouted as she rushed from the booth.  She ran up to Script and tried to help get him away from the pale goldenrod mare.

Script looked at Ditzy with a mixture of fear and confusion. “D-ditzy?!  What are…”

“Reeeeally not the time for this Script!  Just pull!”

It didn’t take long for Star and Maxie to join in.  Star tried to pry Carrot’s legs off, while Maxie joined Ditzy in trying to pull him out.  “How…is one pony…this strong?” grunted Maxie as he pulled as hard as he could.

“Carrot, let go…of him!” demanded Star.

“No!  Not until he loves me!”

“But he doesn’t love you Carrot!  And this sure as hell isn’t helping!” said Ditzy.

“Why won’t it help?!  It has to help!”  Carrot took in a long, ragged breath.  “Why won’t you love me?!”

“Because I’m gay, alright!”

“W-w-wha…?”  In an instant, the vice grip on Script’s leg was released.  The three ponies currently attached to it landed in a pile of tangled limbs and grunts.

Star’s eyes were wide as he looked at the light grey unicorn.  He then looked around the restaurant.  All eyes were on them.  Not a single pony was paying attention to something else.  “Uhhhhh…”

As soon as she got her eyes under control, Ditzy turned to her co-worker.  “Wait, you’re gay?”

“We’ve worked together for years.  How could you not know this?”

“Well excuse me.  I don’t exactly make a habit out of learning every last detail about my co-worker’s personal lives.”

“I didn’t exactly hide it you know.  And what are you guys doing here anyway?” Script asked with a ting of anger.

“This was little Carrot’s first date,” Maxie said as he stood up; brushing his coat off.  “We just wanted to make sure everything went smoothly.”  He took a look around the restaurant.  “Which it most certainly did not.”

“That’s putting it lightly,” Star said as he sheepishly smiled and waved at the owner.

“Look, I’m sorry about everything Script.  Carrot’s always had a bit of trouble when it came to the love department.  We were just trying to help make her first date a good one.  Please don’t hold this against her.  She’s still a good pony.”

“Ditzy, I know she’s a good…”

“Please?”

“Di…”

“Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease?”  Ditzy tried her best to emulate Dinky’s impossibly adorable begging face.  The only thing she accomplished was losing her focus which caused her eyes to start separating.

Script sighed.  “Okay, I get it.  She’s not psycho…just desperate.”

Star, finally realizing he still had one leg on Carrot’s, felt her body tense up at the word psycho.  “You okay sweetie?”

Ditzy let out a sigh.  “We should get her home.  I think a good nights sleep is just what she needs right now.”

“That sounds like a good idea.”  Maxie said with a slight smile.

“Well, sounds like this is goodnight,” Ditzy said as she turned to Script.

“Yup.  See you tomorrow Ditzy.”

“See y…”  Before Ditzy could finish, a loud crack filled the room.

It took a moment for Ditzy’s brain to put things together.  The loud cracking sound.  All of the gasps that emanated from the crowd around them.  The spot where Script’s head once took up had been replaced by a pale goldenrod hoof with Maxie’s horrified face on the other side.  Her, now, unconscious co-worker lying on the ground with his face beaten in.  It took her about a second, but she was able to put together the facts and come to the conclusion that Carrot Top, her housemate, her buddy, her best friend in the whole world, had just caved in Written Script’s face.  Her face went from zero to freak out in record time.  “SWEET HOLY FUCK!!!”

Before anything more could be said, Carrot shook Star off of her before bolting from the restaurant.  Noticing this, Ditzy took off after her.  “Carrot, wait!  Come back!”

Star watched as Ditzy flew through the door.  He couldn’t help but wince when she hit the doorframe face first.  The words ‘stupid doorframe’ could be heard before she finally made it through.  He looked back to Maxie.  “You go with Ditzy.  I’ll take care of things here.”  Without saying a word, Maxie nodded before taking off after the two ponies.

“Ehem!”

Star swallowed the lump in his throat before turning to see the owner glaring at him.  “Eheh, hi.”


********************


Ditzy hammered on the door to Carrot’s room once again.  “Carrot, please open the door!”  There was no answer.  “Carrot?!”

“Isn’t there any other way into her room?” asked Maxie.

Ditzy shook her head.  “No.  She actually locked her window this time.  Unless we wanted to MAKE a new entrance, and I really don’t feel like paying for a new wall, there’s no other way in.”

Maxie tapped a hoof on his chin.  “Are you sure we can’t put a hole in the wall?”  Ditzy just glared at him.  “Okay, so that’s out of the question.”

Ditzy sighed.  “Let’s just give her some time.  Maybe she’ll be more inclined to talk tomorrow.”

“Or, just hear me out, Maybe we could just remove the door.”

Ditzy looked at Maxie with a deadpan look.  “What?”

“If you have the right tools, I could probably just take the door down.  That way we could just put the door back, and there would be no permanent damage.”

“Just…just no.”

“Can I at least offer her some food?  It’s not like she had anything to eat tonight.”

“Hmmmm.  That sounds like a good idea actually,” Ditzy said as a smile slowly grew on her face.  “And maybe we’ll be able to get her to talk while she eats.”

“Good idea honey!  I’ll go make her a sandwich,” Maxie said as he trotted towards the stairs.

“Remember to put some spinach on it if we have anymore.  She loves spinach.”

“Mmmm. She has good tastes.  Okay, I’ll add some then.”

After a couple of minutes, Ditzy heard Maxie coming back up the stairs.  When he rounded the corner, she saw that he had a platter on his back.  A plate with a sandwich on it, and a glass of milk sat on the platter.  In his mouth was also a leaf of spinach.  He happily chewed as he came down the hall.  He swallowed as he reached the door.  “Hope you don’t mind.  I couldn’t help myself.”

“It’s fine.  We can always buy more.”

Maxie knocked on the door.  “Carrot?  Honey we have some food here for you.  A nice spinach sandwich.  There’s tomato, daisies, spinach of course, and I even have a glass of milk for you.”

Silence filled the hall for a moment until the sound locks unlocking hit their ears.  The door cracked open and the silhouette of Carrot could be seen on the other side.  Her angry eye looked between the two ponies in front of her before zeroing in on Maxie.  Without warning, her forelegs shot from the room; grabbing Maxie and pulling him into the room.  A slight commotion could be heard from inside the room before Maxie suddenly flew from the room; landing on the floor with a loud thud.

“I guesh she wash hungry,” Maxie said before shaking the cobwebs from his head.

“And it got us no closer to getting her to talk,” groaned Ditzy.  “I’m going to go try her window again.  Maybe I’ll be able to get her attention this time.”

Maxie watched as Ditzy opened the window and flew out.  He was pretty sure he heard somepony knocking on some glass, followed by some mumbling from outside as Ditzy tried reasoning with Carrot.  Maxie wasn’t sure what happened, but a loud, monstrous roar filled the air.  Maxie stared at Carrot’s door with shock after the roar ended.  After about ten seconds, he heard hooves touch down at the end of the hall by the window.  “Ditzy, is everything oOOH SWEET CELESTIA!!!”

The color had completely drained from Ditzy’s coat making her look like a ghost of a pony.  Her eyes, which were going crazy in her head, were but the size of pinpricks at their biggest.  Her right eye was twitching as the rest of her body shook in fear.  Her tail stuck out completely straight.  “Not Carrot…not Carrot…fire…evil…teeth…sharp, evil teeth…”

Her incoherent rambling continued as Maxie walked up to her.  “Honey?  Are you alright?”  He got no answer other than more incoherent ramblings.  “That bad, huh?  Come on, let’s go get something to eat.  You can tell me all about it over dinner.”


********************


The atmosphere in Carrot Top’s house that morning was glum to say the least.  After the disastrous conclusion to Carrot’s date the previous night, no pony was feeling all too cheery that morning.

Ditzy was horrified to go into work today.  Not only did she not know if Script was okay or not, she didn’t know what Boxxy was going to say about everything.  Chances are Script was going to tell him about what happened.  They told each other everything.  Everypony at the office knew how close Boxxy’s family was with Script’s.  It’s why Script got his job in the first place.  Ditzy was sure Boxxy would flip his shit when he found out, so she psyched herself out and decided to just bite the bullet.  She was going to explain everything when she got there.

It’s been an hour since Ditzy left for work, and the only one stirring at the moment was Star who was trying to kill time by watching TV.  While he didn’t have too much trouble falling asleep, unlike Maxie, he found it hard to stay asleep.  Eventually he just opted to stay up.  He knew Maxie would kill him for it, but he made a pot of extra strong coffee.  If nothing else, Ditzy appreciated the extra boost it gave her.  She would need all the energy she could get.

He was on his third cup of coffee by the time Maxie came down the stairs.  A long yawn filled the air, causing Star to turn around.  He could immediately tell Maxie’s mood when he saw him.  Maxie would always make sure he was clean and proper before showing his face in the morning.  Today his mane was dull, and he was sporting bed head.  His coat was still dirty, at least as dirty as Maxie usually gets, from yesterday.  “You’re up already?” Star asked as Maxie reached the bottom of the stairs.  “You were up pretty late last night.  Go back to bed.”

“Says the pony that woke up at four in the morning,” Maxie groggily said.  “Did you get anymore sleep.”

Star shook his head.  “Third cup, extra strong.”

“Extra strong?  Star!” chastised Maxie.  Maxie was silent for a moment as his body sagged once again.  “Is there anymore?”

“Mmhm.  About enough for one more cup.”

Maxie let out a depressed sigh as he trudged his way into the kitchen.  After a minute he came back out with a cup full of piping hot coffee on a platter.  He took a spot on the couch next to Star before he took a sip of the coffee; his face scrunching up at how strong it was.

An uncomfortable silence radiated between the two of them as they sat there watching some TV.  Star wasn’t even paying attention anymore.  He just closed his eyes; taking sips from his coffee every now and then.  Maxie, on the other hoof, wasn’t paying attention for another reason.  He solemnly turned away from his husband.  “It…”

“Don’t blame yourself,” Star said; knowing what Maxie was thinking.

“And why shouldn’t I?  If I hadn’t been fretting over how she looked every minute of every day, I would have gotten to know him better.  I probably would have been able to tell that he was a colt cuddler.  I would have known that we should have found somepony else.  Maybe, just maybe we would have…”

Star silenced Maxie’s lips with his own.  The light rose stallion was practically in tears at this point.  He pulled away and looked into his eyes.  “Maxie, you can’t put everything on yourself.  This was a group effort.  We all had a hoof in it, not just you.”

“But I know personally how it feels to think that nopony loves you.  Nopony should have to feel like that.  I should have done more for her.  We just made things worse for her.”

“I know you have a personal stake in this, but you can’t carry the entire burden like this.”  Star felt his stomach grumble a bit.  “I’m going to go fix us up something to eat.  Maybe some food in your stomach will help you feel better.”

“Okay.”  Maxie felt naked as Star left his side.  It was moment’s like this he was happy he had Star.  Star was always a comforting presence to be around.  Maxie learned that a long time ago.  Without that presence, and with how he was feeling right now, Maxie’s world felt so cold and lonely.

Shuffle…shuffle…shuffle…shuffle…

Maxie’s ears perked up at the sound of hooves coming down the stairs.  He turned to see Carrot slowly coming down the stairs.  He wanted to smile.  He tried his hardest to curl his lips upward.  But seeing the condition she was in, all happiness was drained from his body.  Her body hung low.  She dragged her hooves with every step.  Her curly mane wasn’t as lively and poofy as it usually was, and it hung over her face; hiding her eyes from view.  Her head hung low as she refused to look at anything other than her hooves.  This was the look of a pony who had given up on the world.  There was no other way to take this.

Maxie just watched as Carrot reached the bottom of the stairs.  He swallowed the lump in his throat.  “Good morning Carrot.  Did you sleep well?”  Carrot said nothing.  Instead she just lifted her head; looking Maxie in the eyes.  Maxie felt his heart sink at the sight.  They almost looked hollow and empty.  It just confirmed his fears.

“Carrot’s up?” Star asked as he poked his head out from the kitchen.  “How you doing…sweetie…?”  His expression sunk when he saw her.

Carrot took a quick glance at Star before lowering her head again.  “Mmm goin’ out.”  She slowly started shuffling in the direction of the door.

Unsure of what to do, Star and Maxie looked at each other; hoping the other had an idea.  “Don’t, uhh…don’t you at least want something to eat before you leave?” asked Star.

“I said I’m going out,” Carrot said with a ting of anger in her voice.

Maxie put a fake smile on in hopes of brightening the mood.  “Why don’t you come sit on the couch with me and we can talk while Star makes…”

Carrot stomped her hoof on the floor as hard as she could.  “JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!!!”  Both Star and Maxie could only look on with wide eyes, and mouth agape after the outburst.  “Why won’t you just take the fucking hint?”  Without another word, Carrot increased her pace out the door.

“H-h-honey, wa…”

“Maxie!”  Maxie, practically in tears once again, turned to look at Star.  “That’s enough.  Just let her go.”  He walked over to the couch and drew Maxie into a hug.  “We’re only making it worse.”  Maxie buried his head into Star’s shoulder as the front door slammed shut.


********************


“Ah’m goin’ ta go see if Ah can’t find a job’er somethin’!” Finn shouted as he opened the door to their new house.  Feeling too depressed to do much of anything else he had diligently unpacked most of his stuff.  He figured that unpacking the rest of his stuff would be pretty pointless at the moment.  He needed a few pieces before he could set up his ‘special thing.’  Without those things it wouldn’t work properly, so it would just be a big waste of space at the moment.

“A job?  Already?” asked Cloud Feather from inside the house.  “Don’t you want to settle in a bit more first?

“Unlike y’all Ah don’t get free money from some hoity toity ponies sittin’ in an office somewhere.”

Feather poked his head out from around the corner; an annoyed look on his face.  “You know very well that the institute is in Cloudsdale.  Aaaaand, you know very well that if I don’t produce results, I don’t get paid.”

“Pulease!  Everypony knows that Cloudsdale is just a cover up fer some evil rainbow factory in th’ clouds!”  Finn looked around conspiratorially before fixing Feather with squinted eyes.  “They take little foals up there an’ grind’em up inta rainbows usin’ this really big, uhh…grindy thin’.  Where do ya think they get th’ rainbow juice fer them there rainbows ya always see?  Probably throw’em in there with some crayons, a puppy, an a picture’o their families too.”

Feather just stared at Finn with an unamused look.  “Finn, how much sleep did you get last night?”

“Sleep’s fer th’ weak!” Finn said proudly.  “Coffee an’ Red Minotaur are all Ah need ta keep me goin.  Why?”

“Because you only come up with crazy conspiracy theories like that when you’re either tired or after you drank enough of your shine to kill a bull elephant.”

“Whatever,” Finn said; waving an uninterested hoof at Feather.  He turned to start walking out the door.

“Are you sure you’re going to be okay Finn?  You still seemed pretty depressed yesterday,” asked Feather as he stepped out from behind the corner.  He had a box on his back.  Unlike Finn he still had quite a few things to unpack.

Finn tensed up as he passed through the doorway.  His head dropped.  “Ah’ll be fine.  As they say.  There’re plenty’o fish in th’ sea’er whatever.”  He let out a deep sigh.  “None’o them’ll ever be as beautiful as mah orange beauty though.”

As Feather walked towards Finn, he noticed the very pony they were talking about walking down the street beyond him.  “Speaking of Carrot Top, isn’t that her right over there?”

Finn’s eyes shot open as his head sprung up.  Sure enough there she was.  The very mare that had consumed his thoughts for the last day and a half was right there in front of him.  His mouth began to feel dry.  Sweat began to fall down his face.  Any and all words died in his throat before they could be freed through his mouth.  He felt his heart begin to pound in his chest as he stared at the pale goldenrod beauty.

As Feather looked Carrot over, he noticed a few things.  Her head was down.  Her entire body drooped.  Her curly mane and tail almost looked flat.  Her mood had taken a complete 180 compared to the last time they had seen her.  Two days ago she was happy and smiling.  Now she looked like she had just given up on life.

Feather was about to point this out to Finn, but... “Ah’m goin’ ta go talk ta’ her.”

Feather blinked.  “What?”

“Ah know Ah don’t stand a chance with’er, but Ah gotsta at least let’er know how Ah feel.  Ah’d be happy ta just be friends with’er.”

Feather took another quick glance at Carrot before looking back to Finn.  “Finn, I don’t think that’s a good idea.  Take another look at her.  Something’s wrong here.  Something’s very wrong.”  He sat there for a moment waiting for a response from Finn.  After a few seconds of waiting he turned his head.  “Finn?”  He just stared at the spot Finn had been standing.  Turning his head he saw Finn walking towards Carrot.  He sighed as he slowly shook his head.  “This can only end hilariously.”


********************


Finn ran this scenario through his head over and over again as he walked across the street.  A dumb looking smile came to his face because they always ended the same way.  He would confess his love to the mare of his dreams.  Her heart would melt and she would dump whoever it was she was dating.  He was probably a big jerk anyway.  Definitely not good enough for his pale goldenrod princess.  Instead she would pick the smoking hot Adonis that stood in front of her.  She would look over his rippling muscles.  His long, flowing mane.  She would fawn over his brilliant mind that rivals those of the greatest minds in all of Equestria.  She would spring forward and pull him into a big, wet…

His thoughts were interrupted as he tripped over somepony.  The two of them collapsed to the ground in a big heap.  Both of them groaned as pain wracked their bodies.  Finn shook his head to clear the cobwebs before looking down.  Due to his already white coat, it was hard to see the fact that the blood had drained from his face.  He had just tripped over the very pony of his affections.

Carrot Top, who was sandwiched between Finn and the ground, looked up at the face of the pony that had run into her.  Her eyes were full of anger.  “What the hell is your problem?!”

Finn swallowed the lump in his throat.  “U-uhh…”

The two of them just sat there for a moment.  “…Well?” grumbled Carrot.

“Well what?”

Carrot growled at the white earth pony on top of her.  “Get off of me you moron!”

Finn looked down to see that he was indeed still lying on top of Carrot.  A blush came to his face.  “O-oh!  Right!”  After maneuvering his hooves around, he managed to push himself up and step away from the mare.  “Sorry.”

“Yea, whatever,” Carrot said as she pushed herself up to a sitting position.  She started brushing the dirt from her coat.  As she stood up to continue on, she noticed that he was still staring at her.  She fixed him with a glare.  “What?”

Finn’s blush intensified.  “O-oh, well…”

“Out with it already!” shouted Carrot.  “I have things to do.”

Finn swallowed another lump in his throat as he steeled himself.  “W-well…h’llo.”

“Goodbye.”  Without another word, Carrot continued down the street.

Not taking the hint, Finn followed after her.  “Hi.  A-ah just moved inta’ that house over there.”

“Good for you.”

“An’ Ah wanted ta know if y’all wanted ta be friends.”

“Not interested.”

“’Cause…well…”  He scratched the back of his head.  “W-when Ah first saw ya a couple days ago, Ah thought ya were th’ most beautiful pony Ah’ve ever seen.”  Finn noticed that Carrot stopped dead in her tracks.  He smiled internally.  ‘Right.  Now ta lay on that ol Fine Tuned charm.’  He puffed out his chest as he came up behind her.  “Ah know yer goin’ out with somepony already, but that’s alright.  Ah would be more than happy ta jus’ be friends with such a beautiful mare such as yerself.”

He smiled to himself.  ‘Nailed it!’  He just stood there as he waited for her response.  ‘Just give’er a minute an’ she’ll throw’er hooves around me a plant a big, wet kiss on mah…’

His thoughts were, very rudely, interrupted as a powerful hoof connected with his lower jaw, sending him head over hooves.  He groaned as he lay there on the ground; tentatively bringing a hoof up to rub his jaw.  When he looked up, he saw Carrot Top glaring down at him.  She was grinding her teeth in anger as her body trembled.  After shaking the cobwebs from his head he stood up again.  He looked at her with an apologetic look.  “Was it somethin’ Ah said?”

His answer came in the form of another hoof colliding with the side of his head.  He was seeing stars as he, once again, sat sprawled out on the ground.  This time, however, he felt something wet land on his nose.  When his senses came to him, he looked up at the mare again.  She was standing over him; her tears falling from her cheeks to his face.  He saw that she was trying to say something, but due to the blow to the side of the head his ears were still ringing.  He rubbed his ears until the sounds of the world came back to him.  “W-what?”

She sniffled before speaking.  “M-maxie put you up to this…didn’t he?”

“Who?”

“Or was it Written Script?  Is this some kind of sick revenge for last night?  What, didn’t he humiliate me enough last night?!  Huh?!”  Finn just stared up at her; a look of utter confusion on his face.  “ANSWER ME!!!”

“Ah have no idea what yer talkin’ ‘bout.”

“So what?  Is this just some kind of joke to you?  Are you doing this on some sort of bet?  Are your friends around a corner somewhere ready to laugh at me?  Is that it?  Are you just trying to get a laugh at my expense?”  She took a deep, ragged breath as her tears became more frequent.

“No!  That ain’t it!” Finn said as he pulled himself from underneath Carrot; getting himself to his hooves.  “Ah just…”

“Well go ahead!  Laugh!  What does it matter?!  I’m nothing but a fat, dumb, ugly, obnoxious, freakish, o-old…”  Finn noticed that Carrot’s composure, what little she had left, broke down more and more with every insult she laid upon herself.  It broke his heart to see her tear herself down like this.  “…B-broken, ratty, no talent, p-piece of…piece of…of…”

She couldn’t take it anymore.  Collapsing under her own weight, she fell to the ground.  She broke down as she buried her head in her legs and cried.  “W-w-w-w-what’s wrong with me?!” she cried.  “Why won’t anypony love meheheheheheeee?!”

Finn felt his stomach churn with guilt and sadness as he looked at the emotional wreck of a pony in front of him.  He felt horrible.  He had, inadvertently, set her off.  He was the straw that broke the camels back.  She was having an emotional breakdown all because of him.

‘Why does this always happen ta me?’ he thought.  ‘Ah always stick mah hoof in mah mouth.  An’ look where it’s gotten me now!’

Suddenly something clicked in his head.  This was no longer about him chasing after a beautiful mare.  No, that train left the station awhile ago.  The urge to help her quickly grew.  Not because he was in love with her, but because she was another pony, and she needed help.  There was a bit of a problem though.  He was never good with this type of thing, and making this worse was the last thing he wanted to do.  Closing his eyes, he did the first thing that came to mind.

Carrot’s eyes shot open when she felt herself being lifted up off the ground, and a set of hooves wrap around her.  It took her a minute to realize that the crazy pony that had been following her now had her wrapped in a hug.  She looked at him with a mixture of confusion, anger, and sadness.

“It’s okay.  Jus’ let it all out,” he said as he tightened the hug.

A million things ran through Carrot Top’s head that moment as she stared at him; trembling in his hold.  Not knowing what to think, she clenched her eyes shut and tried to push him off.  “L-let me g-g-go!”

“No need ta worry.  Everythin’ll be jus’ fine.”

Carrot sniffled as she grit her teeth.  “I-I said let me go!”  She struck out at Finn yet again.  His only reaction was to tense up and cringe at the pain.  Nonetheless he kept hugging her.  She didn’t know what to think of this pony.  “Why won’t you let me go?!”

Finn cringed as Carrot struck him again and again.  His body was screaming at him to let the mare go; that her happiness wasn’t worth all this pain.  He promptly told his body to shut up.  Even if she didn’t return his feelings, he was willing to do whatever it took to make her happy once again.  He didn't care how battered and bruised he was going to be afterwards.

His goal clear in his head, he tightened the hug even more.  “No need ta feel sad anymore.  Just let it all out.”

Carrot’s assault went on for minutes before she finally began to slow.  It didn’t take long after that before her blows stopped inflicting pain.  She finally stopped fighting as her body went limp; tears flowing down her cheeks.  Slowly, she wrapped her legs around him, returning his hug.  “I just want to feel loved,” she said before burying her head in his shoulder; crying into it for all she was worth.

Finn finally let his back relax as he rubbed her back.  “Ah’m here fer ya.  Ah’ll be here fer ya as long as ya need.”


********************


Maxie let out a deep sigh of sadness as he sat on the couch.  He couldn’t help but feel that everything that happened last night was his fault.  If only he would have been more serious about this, it wouldn’t have turned out so badly.  The memory of the catastrophic ending to Carrot’s date ran through his head again.  The reveal that Written Script was gay.  The face punching.  It was all just terrible.

‘I’m usually so good at seeing these things.  Why wasn’t I able to tell he was a colt cuddler?  Maybe I should just pack up and leave.  I’m sure Star and Ditzy could handle everything if I wasn’t there to mess it all…’

Maxie’s thoughts were interrupted when a spoon full of something was stuck in his mouth.  His eyes shot open as chocolaty sweetness filled his mouth.  On instinct, he swirled his tongue around; coating his mouth in the substance.  A soft smile slowly formed on his face as he reveled in the taste.  “Mmmmmmm.  Chocolate.”

“You looked like you could use some comfort food right about now.”

Maxie looked to his left.  Star was sitting next to the couch with a smile on his face, and a bowl full of chocolate pudding in his hooves.  He bit his lower lip as he eyed the bowl; a hungry look in his eyes.  Clenching his eyes shut, he turned away.  “N-no, I shouldn’t…”

“You shouldn’t nothing.  All these years I thought you hated chocolate.  Now I know you just avoided it because you couldn’t control yourself,” he said with a chuckle.  He lifted a spoonful of pudding towards Maxie.  “Maxie, a little chocolate here and there won’t kill you.  You just need to make sure you don’t pig out on it.”

Maxie nervously rubbed his leg.  “I…guess you’re right.”  Maxie took another look at the spoonful of pudding before opening his mouth and letting Star feed him.  He let out a moan of pleasure as the chocolate once again tantalized his taste buds.

“Besides.  With how much you exercise, you don’t need to worry about putting on pound or two.  You will still have the same, perfectly rounded flank you have today even if you do indulge yourself every now and then.”

“You really think so?”

Star nodded.  “Besides, you were pretty cute when you were covered in all that sugar and chocolate.  I only wish I could have joined you in cleaning it off.”

Maxie giggled.  “Hey, it’s my job to say perverted things.  Stop stealing my shtick.”  After another quick look, Maxie grabbed the pudding out of Star’s hooves.

“Hey, you’re not moping anymore.  I’d say it got the job done.”

Maxie sighed before sticking a spoonful in his mouth.  “I just wish things would have gone better last night.  I feel like it’s my fault everything went awry.”

“It was all our faults.  I probably should have asked if he had a preference.  I just assumed Ditzy would have known after working with him for so long.  But don’t worry.  That was only one date with one pony.  There are still a lot of ponies we haven’t talked to yet.”

“If she’s even up to it anymore.  You saw how she was before Star.  She looked like she’s given up on the world.  Maybe it would have been better if we wouldn’t have helped in the first place.”

“Now I know you don’t believe that.”  Maxie kept his head down.  He was too depressed to even eat his pudding.  “Come on Maxie, let me see a smile.”  Placing a hoof under Maxie’s chin, he lifted his head up; turning it so he could stare into his pink eyes.  “If you don’t smile, I’ll go get the rest of the pudding and feed you until you do.  I made enough for the four of us, so trust me when I say there’s plenty left.”

Maxie couldn’t help but smile at Star’s attempts.  Then again, maybe it was the prospect of being fed chocolate pudding that made him smile.  He wasn’t too sure.  Regardless, He couldn’t deny that Star had managed to make him smile.  He deserved a reward for his actions.  Maxie leaned forward; kissing Star on the lips.

As their lips connected, they heard the front door open.  Maxie’s eyes shot open as he pulled away.  He looked at the clock.  It was still an hour before Ditzy would be getting home.  “Carrot must have come back.  Oh I hope she’s alright”

“Are ya sure yer goin’ ta be okay?” came a stallion’s voice.

“I’ll be fine,” came Carrot’s weak voice.

Star and Maxie looked at each other in confusion; silently asking if the other knew who the other voice belonged to.  Their answers were answered when the two ponies came into view.  A look of concern flashed across both their faces when they saw the ponies.  Carrot Top looked emotionally drained.  Her eyes were red and puffy, and her entire body drooped.  She had dirt all over her.

The other pony looked like he had just gone 12 rounds with the world heavy weight champion with all four hooves tied behind his back.  Big, painful looking bruises littered his white coat.  His lip had been busted open, and was lightly bleeding.  Both lenses of the goggles he wore on his head had been broken.  There was another lightly bleeding cut under his left ear.  Star figured the guy must have had a great tolerance for pain.  Maxie figured he was just ignoring the pain.  Technically, they were both right.

“Oh dear, are the two of you alright?”  Maxie got up off the couch and met the two ponies half way.

“Don’t worry ‘bout me.  Ah’ll be fine.”  He sat down with a grunt.  Now that he finally got a chance to relax, the pain in his body began to hit him once again.  By shear willpower, he endured the throbbing pain.  “She just needed ta do a little ventin’.  That’s all.”

“A little of venting?” Star asked as he looked Finn over.  He took another look at Carrot, not wanting to believe she did this to him.  “That looks like more than ‘a little’.”

Finn was about to reassure him when he was cut off by a small voice.  “He did it for me.”

Star and Maxie looked at Carrot.  “He let you…beat him?” questioned Maxie in an attempt to figure out what was going on.

“She had a lot’o emotional baggage she needed ta vent out.  Ah saw no reason she couldn’t use mah body ta do it.  It was th’ least Ah could do ta help’er out.”

“You realize there are a lot better ways to help somepony other than letting them use you as a punching bag, right?” Star asked.  He was beginning to wonder if this pony was suicidal, or just plain stupid.

“Ah don’t care.  She needed mah help, and whether she asked fer it’er not, Ah gave it.  Even if helpin’er meant gettin’ mah flank kicked, it was all worth it if it meant makin’er feel better.”

“If I may ask, why was her happiness so important to you?” Maxie asked, legitimately curious as to why he went to such lengths to make Carrot feel better.

“What do ya mean?”

“Well, I’ve met a lot of ponies that would give you the saddle off their backs if it meant helping you.  Not one of them would let the pony their helping beat the living tar out of them.”  Maxie put a hoof to his chin.  “Nooo…there’s something else to this.”

“We should save this little talk until later.”  Both Finn and Maxie looked at Star.  “Before we do anything else, we should take him to the hospital to make sure nothing’s broken.”

“Do you even know where the hospital is?”

“Of course.  Ditzy gave me a bit of a tour of the town when we went shopping.”

“Well you go do that,” Maxie said with a smile.  “I’ll take Carrot upstairs and get her washed up.”  Maxie moved up next to Carrot and placed a comforting hoof on her shoulder.  “Come on honey, let’s go run you a bath.  I’ll even let you use my lilac shampoo that you like so much.”  Carrot didn’t budge.  If anything, she just leaned into Finn a little more.  “Honey?”

Without thinking, Finn leaned down and nuzzled Carrot’s cheek.  A look of understanding quickly crossed Star’s face.  “It’s alright.  Y’all go get cleaned up.  Ah’ll be back when Ah’m done at th’ hospital.”

Carrot’s lips curved into a weak smile as she slowly nodded.  “Okay.”  She stood up and turned to Maxie.  “I’m ready.”

Maxie smiled at Carrot before turning to Finn.  “Despite the extreme lengths you went, I must thank you for helping her Mr…”

“Th’ names Fine Tuned, but y’all can call me Finn.  Feather always does.”

“Fine Tuned?  Feather?”  Maxie’s eyes lit up.  “Heeey, I know you!  You’re the friend of that pony we met the other day.  We weren’t properly introduced.  My name’s Maxie.”

“Pleasure ta meet ya m…”  Finn blinked his eyes before taking a closer look at Maxie.  He looked him over with his scrutinizing gaze for a moment before pulling back with a smile.  “Sir.”

Maxie’s eyes got wide, his jaw dropping slightly as he turned to Star.  Star, while slightly surprised, just shrugged.  He turned back towards Finn.  “How did…”

“Mah special talent,” interrupted Finn; his chest puffed out in pride.  “Ta properly tune instruments, ya need ta have keen eyes an’ ears ta notice even th’ smallest’o details.”

“Good enough for me,” Star said with a chuckle.  “My names Fresh Start, but you can call me Star.  We should be going now.”

“Right.  Lead th’ way.”

As they started to the door, Star motioned to Maxie.  When their eyes met, he gave a smile and a slight nod of the head.  Maxie smiled in understanding.  This went unnoticed by both Finn and Carrot as they were to busy staring at each other.


********************


To say Ditzy was confused when she got home would be an understatement.  She knew immediately that something was amiss when she heard laughing coming from inside the house.  She was even more confused when she saw Star, Maxie, and even Carrot smiling and having a good time, along with a bandaged up, white stallion she didn’t know lying on the floor.  He was lying on his back, with his legs sprawled out in all directions, and a look of pure, unadulterated awe on his face.

Maxie was the first to notice Ditzy as she stepped into the living room.  “Hello Ditzy.  How are you this fine day?” he asked with a bright smile.

Ditzy looked around with a look of uncertainty.  “Fine.”

“You’re over an hour late young lady.  Where have you been?” asked Star as he pulled Maxie close to him.

“At work…kinda.  Boxxy and I went to Script’s house, and we had a long talk about what happened last night.”

“How’s Written Script?  Is he okay?” asked Carrot whose smile dropped as the memory of last night hit her again.

Ditzy groaned.  “He’s about as okay as one can be when one’s face get’s pulverized in a fit of rage.”  She noticed Carrot’s body droop at the news and sighed.  “He’s got a broken nose, he’s in pain, and he’s understandably angry about what happened, but said he’d be willing to give friendship between the two of you another chance.  As long as you keep your inner demons at home next time.”

“That’s great!” Maxie said with a smile.  “I knew all along that everything was going to be fine.”

“Says the silly pony that was fretting all morning about how we ruined everything,” Star said playfully.

“Hey!  You were worried too!”

“Yes, yes we were all worried.  Now can somepony please tell me who that stallion is?  And why is he chewing on our couch pillow?”

Everypony looked down at Finn who was, indeed, chewing on the decorative pillow.  “Ah can taste rainbows.”

“Oh, this is Fine Tuned.  Finn for short,” introduced Star.

“And why is he like…that?”

“Oh, Carrot used him like a punching bag, so the hospital patched him up and gave him some pain killers.”

“Used him like a punching bag?”  Ditzy looked at Carrot in confusion who just smiled sheepishly.  “Do I even want to know?”

“Probably not,” said Maxie.

“Uhuh.  Last time I checked, pain killers don’t do anything like that unless you take too many.”

“He did it to himself,” Star said with a shrug.  “In his own words, ‘if’n one’o these thin’s can take away mah pain, four of‘em should fix me right up.’  So he grabbed the bottle away from the doctor and downed a few more.”

Ditzy looked at Finn like he was the dumbest pony in the world before hacehoofing.  “I don’t even…”

Ditzy was interrupted by a knock at the door.  “What now?”  Turning around, Ditzy walked to the door again.  She sighed before opening the door.  “Can I help you?”

The dusty red pegasus on the other side of the door greeted her with a smile.  “Hello ma'am.  My names Cloud Feather.  I believe you have something of mine, and I was hoping to get it back.”

Ditzy blinked a few times.  “This thing of yours, it wouldn’t happen to be that stallion on the floor eating our pillow, would it?”

Feather looked beyond the wall eyed pegasus to see Finn lying on the ground.  He looked back at Ditzy with a smile.  “That is indeed my thing.  If you’ll allow me, I’ll be happy to get him out of your hair.”

“Umm, I don’t know if he’s going anywhere at the moment, but you’re free to come in if you’d like.”

“Thank you.”  Feather walked into the house as Ditzy stepped to the side.  As he entered the living room, he smiled to everypony there.  “Hello everypony.”

“Oh, it’s you!  Hello again cutie,” Maxie said with a wink.

“Hello again Mrs. Maxie.  You’re looking as beautiful as ever.”

Maxie giggled and nudged Star.  “He’s such a charmer, isn’t he?”

Star chuckled as he put a hoof around Maxie’s withers.  “Oh yes, charming.”

Feather glowed with pride at the comment as he walked up to Finn.  “Alright.  Now how do I get you home?”  He put a hoof to his chin.  “I could carry you on my back, but I’m tired from all the unpacking.  I could always drag you home by your tail.  That could work.”

“Want some help?” asked Star.  “I got him home just fine before.  Wouldn’t be too hard to get him to your place.”

Feather looked at Star with a smile.  “The help would be appreciated.”

“Right.”  Star got up off the couch and came up next to Finn; leaning down so Feather could get Finn on his back.

“Ah can see angels Mr. Bubbles,” Finn said as he was resting on Star’s back.

Feather blinked before looking at Star.  “Mr. Bubbles?”

“I have no idea.  It’s just something he started calling me as I brought him here.”  Star shook his head.  “Kept saying something about ADAM in angel’s bellies or something like that.  I just stopped paying attention at some point.”

Feather nodded.  “Probably for the best.  He’s been known to spout random nonsense before.  You should hear him when he’s shitfaced.”

“I think I’ll pass.”  He turned to the rest of the ponies.  “I’ll be right back.  Just have to take him home.”

“Don’t worry hon, we’ll hold down the fort until you get back,” Maxie said with a smile.

“You always do,” Star said before he followed Feather out of the house.

Ditzy sighed as she heard the door close.  “If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go relax in the tub for awhile.”

“Okay Ditzy, what’s wrong?” Maxie asked knowingly.

“Whadaya mean?”

“Don’t you ‘whadaya mean’ me young lady, you know what I’m talking about,” chastised Maxie.  “Since you’ve gotten home, all you’ve done is sulk and be a downer.  You should be happy.  Despite everything that’s happened, Carrot’s able to smile and laugh.”

“He’s right,” added Carrot.  “You’ve been awfully grumpy so far today.”

“I have not been grumpy!”  She noticed the looks Maxie and Carrot were giving her before groaning.  “Okay, so I’m a bit grumpy.  Can you really blame me though?  It’s only 1:30 and I feel like an entire day has passed already.”

“Long day?” asked Carrot.

“You don’t know the half of it.  Right now I just wanna relax before I go to Carousel Boutique.”

“Why are you going there?”

“To play laser tag,” Ditzy said sarcastically.  “Why else would I go there?”  With a smirk, she trotted up the stairs.


********************


“Thanks for taking care of Dinky, Sparkler,” Ditzy said with a smile as Dinky hopped around her; a look of happiness and glee on her face.  On her head, she wore a pair of big mouse ears.  “I hope she wasn’t too much trouble.”

“Dinky?  Never,” Sparkler said with the wave of her hoof.  “She’s always been a perfect little angel.  Isn’t that right Dinky?”

“Uhuh!”

“Well that’s good to hear.  We should get going.”  Ditzy grabbed Dinky mid hop, causing a small ‘eep’ from the filly.  She pulled the little filly to her body in a hug.  “Are you ready to go home?”

Dinky nuzzled into her mom’s body.  “Mmhm.”  She looked up at her mom with an innocent look.  “Is daddy home yet?”

Ditzy shook her head.  “Not yet, but he’ll be home tomorrow.”

“Aww.”

“Now, now.  Don’t be sad my little muffin.  Once we get home, we’ll all go out for some ice cream.  How does that sound?”

“Can I have strawberry?!” Dinky asked as her face lit up.

“Of course.  But first, mommy needs to go to Ms. Rarity’s place to go pick something up.”

“Do you think Sweetie Belle is there right now?  She’s funny.”

“I don’t know, but if you’re good, I’ll make it a double scoop of strawberry ice cream.”  Dinky looked up at her mother with awe.  “Topped with whipped cream and a cherry.”

“Yaaaaaaaaay!  Ice cream!” Dinky shouted as she tore down the street.

Both Ditzy and Sparkler couldn’t help but laugh.  “You spoil that filly, you know that?”

Ditzy turned to Sparkler.  “You’ve seen her.  How can I not?”  They both laughed again.  “Well, I’ll see you later.  She’s probably half way to Carousel Boutique by now.”  With a wave, Ditzy took to the air.

It didn’t take her long at all to spot Dinky.  With a smile, she dipped down until she was just above the filly.  “Do you want a lift?”

Confused, Dinky looked up to see her mother’s smiling face staring down at her.  “Yeah!  I love flying with mommy!”

Ditzy needed no more encouragement.  Lowering herself a little more, she grabbed Dinky around the stomach before beating her wings; lifting the two of them into the air.

A couple minutes later, the two of them were at Rarity’s boutique.  After making a safe landing, the two of them entered the building.  “Just a minute!” came Rarity’s voice from further in the house.  Shortly after, she came out from the back with a smile on her face.  “Good morning Ditzy.  I was wondering when you were going to show up.  I was just putting on the finishing touches on your order.  Would you like to see it?”

“Sure.”  Ditzy turned to Dinky and smiled.  “Mommy has something to go take a look at something.  Be a good girl until I get back, okay?”  Remembering the promise of Ice cream, Dinky vigorously nodded her head.  “Alright, lead the way Rarity.”

“Right this way,” Rarity said as she led the pegasus into the work room.  “Now before you see it, I feel I must remind you that I’m not exactly used to making this type of…clothing.”

“I know, but I didn’t know who else to ask on such short notice,” Ditzy said apologetically.  “There’s no store’s that sell this type of thing in Ponyville, and It probably wouldn’t have been here on time if I ordered by mail.”

“No need to fret darling.  It feels nice to be able to test myself every now and then.”  She led Ditzy to a mannequin that was covered by a sheet sitting off to the side.  Using her magic, Rarity pulled the sheet off.  “Well, how do you like it?”

Ditzy stared at the mannequin in awe; her cheeks tinted red with blush.  “W-whoa.”

“It took a bit of thought, but I eventually thought of the perfect way to accentuate your…assets.”  After noticing how quite it was in the room, she turned to Ditzy.  “Well, what do you think?”

Ditzy took a moment think of the right words.  “It’s…much more than what I was expecting.  Or should I say less?  Do you think he’ll like it?”

“Oh come now Darling,” Rarity said with a laugh.  “He’d need to be blind not to.”

After a few more minutes, Dinky saw her mom and Rarity come out from the back.  She noticed that Ditzy now had a box on her back.  “Is that you’re new dress?  Can I see it?”

The blush on Ditzy’s face grew brighter.  “N-no.  It’s not something a little filly needs to see.”

“Awww.”

“If it’s not too much trouble, I’d love to hear his reaction when he sees you in this number” Rarity said with a sultry wink.  “Feedback is always welcome.”

“I’ll…keep that in mind.  Thanks again Rarity.”  Ditzy looked to Dinky.  “Are you ready to go home Dinky?  That ice cream won’t eat itself.”

Dinky’s face lit up as she turned to Rarity.  “We’re going to get some ice cream!  I get strawberry!”

“Ooh, sounds yummy.  Do have fun you two.”  With a wave goodbye, Ditzy and Dinky left the boutique.


********************


“How’s it feel ta finally be back?” Applejack asked as she watched AJ unpack his things.

“As fun as it was, I think I prefer Ponyville any day.”  He walked over to the closet and placed a duffle bag full of money inside.  “Besides, I’d be lying if I said I haven’t been missing Ditzy.”

Applejack nodded knowingly.  “Speakin’ of Ditzy, when she delivered th’ mail this mornin’ she asked me ta tell ya ta git yer flank over there.  Ah think she’s missed ya just as much.”

AJ smiled.  “I already planned to go over there.  I don’t work again till tomorrow, and I have to wait for word from Luna about the job in Canterlot.”

“Job in Canterlot?”

AJ let out an annoyed groan.  “Long story.  I’ll explain everything later.”

Applejack shrugged.  “Fair ‘nough.”

“So where’s Knight right now anyway?”

Applejack gave a nervous chuckle causing AJ to give her a questioning glance.  “Let’s just say that th’ Cutie Mark Crusaders thought it would be a great idea ta try ta toughen’im up.  They want’im ta stand up fer himself next time he gets bullied.”

AJ slowly brought a hoof to his forehead.  “This…can only end badly.”

“Th’ chicken’s will attest ta that.”

AJ looked over his stuff with a quick glance.  “This looks good enough for now.  Think I’ll go say hi to Ditzy now.”

Applejack nodded.  “You do that.  An’ don’t worry.  Ah won’t hold it against ya if yer a little…late tomorrow.”

AJ raised his brow as he looked at Applejack.  “Just what are you insinuating?”

“Ah ain’t sayin’ a thing.”  With a chuckle Applejack walked from the room.

AJ could only stare in confusion at the entrance of his room.  ‘Just what is she up to?’  With a shrug, he followed her out of the room.

It didn’t take AJ too long to get to Ditzy’s house.  He was exited to finally see his marefriend again after his time away.  With a big smile, he knocked on the door.  After a few seconds, The door was answered by the pegasus in question.  Her face immediately lit up.  She leapt through the doorway; wrapping her legs around him.

“Well hello to you too,” AJ said; returning the hug.

“I missed you so much,” Ditzy said as she nuzzled into his chest.

The two of them sat there for a moment before AJ thought of something.  “I’m kinda surprised Dinky hasn’t joined us by now.”

“Oh, she’s not home right now.  Star and Maxie took her out for dinner and a movie.  They’ll be gone for awhile yet.”

“Star and Maxie?”

“Come on, you remember them.”  AJ blinked in confusion.  “Remember?  You were running through Canterlot trying to find me?  The time you first met my parents?  You mistook Maxie for a mare?”

“Oooooh,” AJ said with a look of understanding.  “Not my finest moment.”

Ditzy giggled.  “Don’t worry, he’s not mad.  If anything he found it funny and cute.”

“Uhhhh cool?”

“Just get in here,” Ditzy said with a roll of the eye.

As the two of them walked through the house, AJ began to notice just how empty and quiet things were.  “Where’s Carrot?  I thought she’d be here.”

Ditzy’s smile turned warm.  “She’s been spending a lot of time with our new neighbor’s as of late.  I could be wrong, but I think she may have finally found that special somepony she’s been searching for all these years.”

“So does this mean no more face punching?”

“Yes, no more face punching,” Ditzy said with a laugh.  Her eyes suddenly got wide.  “Oh crap, I forgot something.  I’ll be right back.”  Without another word, Ditzy ran up the stairs.

AJ could only watch in confusion.  “Uhhhhh okay.  I’ll just…be here then.”

He could only sit there for a couple minutes as he waited for Ditzy to return.  As he did, he could only wonder what Ditzy needed to go get.  “Hey AJ, could you come up here and help me for a minute?”

With a shrug, he got up off the couch and headed up the stairs.  When he got upstairs, he saw that the door to Ditzy’s room was open slightly with some sounds coming from inside the room.  He pushed the door open.  “What do you need heeeeeeeee…”

AJ’s jaw dropped when he saw inside the room.  Lying on the bed, waiting for him, was Ditzy clad in lingerie.  She had on a sheer, burgundy camisole.  On her hooves she wore matching stockings.  She had a choker around her neck with a little bell attached that jingled whenever she moved.  It could barely be seen from where he was standing, but he was pretty sure he could see some underwear too.  “Ahbbuh duuh…”

“So I’m guessing you like it then,” said with a giggle.  “Well, I’m glad this has been worth it then.”  Ditzy stood up and turned around.  “Cause this thong has really been riding up,” she said with a sultry smile.  Her smile widened a bit when she saw his eyes bug out, along with something else spring to life.  “So, are you just going to sit there and stare, or are you going to join me in the bed?”  She wiggled her rump enticingly.

Without saying a word, AJ’s horn sprung to life.  The door was slammed shut and locked, ensuring they wouldn’t be interrupted.


********************


All the guards could do was gawk in confusion as the pony in front of them walked down the hall.  She strutted her stuff with each step.  She trotted down the hall like she owned the place.  Mainly because she kinda did.

As Luna passed the doors to the dining hall, they opened to reveal Celestia and some delegates from Zebrabwe.  To say they were a bit shocked by what they saw would be an understatement.  In front of them stood a midnight blue alicorn with a big afro.  She wore a skin tight, shiny, gold vest.  She also wore matching pants.  On her back sat an anteater dressed in a purple and blue striped suit with a pair of glasses.  “Luna, what are you doing?”

Luna stopped her strut to look at her sister.  A smile graced her features.  “Luna?  I’m not Luna.”

Celestia smiled knowingly.  “Oh, I apologize for the mistake.  To whom am I speaking to?”

A big, toothy grin flashed on Luna’s face.  Noodle levitated off her back as she stood up on her hind legs with a flair filled flourish.  “My name’s Trotsy.  Trotsy Cleopatra.  And I’m a whole, lotta mare!”  Using her magic, she made a backdrop of yellow and orange action lines appear behind her and Noodle.

“Well it’s nice to meet you Ms. Cleopatra.”  With a slight bow, Celestia continued out the door and down the hall.  “Oh, by the way…” she said as she turned around.  “If you happen to see my sister before I do, could you give her a message for me?”

‘A message for me?’  She cleared her throat.  “Uhh, of course.  Trotsy’s always ready to help a pony in need.”

“That’s wonderful.  Please tell her that she’ll have to sleep in the guest’s chamber’s for the remainder of the week.  Her room won’t be useable for a few days yet.”

Luna blinked.  “Excuse me?” she said; forgetting to change her voice.

“Oh, didn’t you know?”  An evil smile crossed Celestia’s features.  “An explosion rocked the castle a couple days ago.  Luckily nopony was hurt, but Luna’s room was completely destroyed.”  The look on Luna’s face made Celestia giggle.  “I hope to talk to you soon Ms. Cleopatra.”

Luna was so dumbfounded by the news, she didn’t even notice that her afro wig had fallen off.  “M-my room?”

“Oh yes.  I’m pretty sure everything was destroyed.  The clothes, the comic books…”  Celestia could barely hide her sadistic glee as she watched Luna’s face get more and more horrified.  “The video games.”

“NO!!!  MY SAVE FILES!!!”  With Celestia’s evil laughter filling the air, she teleported away to mourn the loss of her memory cards.

****************************************