//------------------------------// // Chapter 15 // Story: The Angel of Equestria // by Robobrony //------------------------------// Chapter 15 It was now three in the afternoon and Charles was now off duty, he decided now would be a good time to follow through with what he told Applejack about checking on the three fillies that were nabbed by the timberwolves. He just arrived at the farm where the three were, he approached the house and knocked. The door opened and Applejack greeted Charles with a smile. “Well howdy Charles, you here to check on the girls like you said?” Charles answered back with a smile of his own. “Yeah, I’m hoping I can help them forget the incident they were through. Are they inside?” “They’re actually at their clubhouse right now, I’ll take ya to it, follow me.” Applejack stepped out of the house and led Charles away. “You’d think after what they’ve been through, they’d want to be at home with their families or something.” Charles mused. “They’re very dedicated to their club, even after what happened, they still wanted to continue with their club meeting.” Applejack responded. Charles then had another thought. “Wait, if today is a weekday, shouldn’t they have been in school, you do have schools right?” “Well of course we have a school. But their teacher, Ms. Cheerilee, was sick today so the kids had a free day.” Applejack led Charles back to the clubhouse where the timberwolf they first met today was. Applejack called out for them. “Girls, you have a visitor!” The three fillies came out of the clubhouse and looked down over the rafters of the porch. Applebloom was in the middle of the three as she greeted Applejack. “Oh, hey Applejack, what’s up?” She seemed to greet with a bit of nervousness. It was clear she was still bothered about their little scare. “Girls, Charles here wanted to come by and try to cheer ya’ll up, ta help ya ferget about yer troubles, why don’t ya come on down.” Applejack instructed. The three slowly made their way down and stopped in front of Charles and Applejack. Scootaloo was the first to speak up. “Applebloom, is this the guy you told us about earlier?” Sweetie belle spoke up. “It has to be, he’s the one who came and got us away from those timberwolves.” “Don’t reminde me, I just know I’m going to have nightmares for weeks after this.” Scootaloo said, clearly in a poor mood as she hung her head. Charles squatted down to speak to them, he did so with a comforting smile. “Hey there, you don’t need to worry about that anymore, it’s all over, I’m Charles, it’s nice to meet you two.” Scootaloo introduced herself. “I’m Scootaloo.” Sweetie Belle then introduced herself. “I’m Sweetie Belle.” “So, now that introductions are out of the way, let’s see what we can do to put smiles on your faces.” Charles announced as he stood back up. Applejack just watched the scene. “I don’t see how we'll feel better after……that.” Applebloom shivered upon remembering again. Charles frowned a little, but then it was quickly replaced with his smile again. “Let’s see, I think I know of one way to cheer you up.” Charles placed his hands behind his back, Applejack then noticed his hands start to glow white. Soon, the three fillies bodies were enveloped in the same glow, then without warning, the three lifted up off the ground. “WHOA!” Scootaloo was the first off the ground. “What the, Whoa, hey!” Applebloom was next. “What’s going on, hey.” Sweetie Belle was the last. Applejack became a little worried. “Uh, Charles, what are you doin?” The three fillies were surprised by the sudden elevation but started to enjoy the fly around they were doing as the air was filled with their laughter. Charles looked to Applejack as he had the three fly around him with Scootaloo in the lead. “Don’t worry Applejack, I won’t let them fall, I know what I’m doing.” “Yahoo, this is fun!” Scootaloo exclaimed. Charles had them fly around Applejack and around the tree house. “WOO HOO! This is great!” Applebloom cried out. “YAHOO!” Sweetie Bell yelled. Charles smiled bigger at their enjoyment. “You girls want to go higher?” He brought them back to him and had them hover in front of them. “Yeah.” Scootaloo. “Can we?” Applebloom. “I don’t know, what if we fall?” Sweetie Belle asked with a bit of fear. “Hey, don’t worry, I won’t let you fall, I’m the one making you fly remember, so what do ya say, wanna soar over the clouds for a while?” Charles assured. Sweetie Belle smiled then, she seemed to gain a bit of confidence at Charles’s words. “Well, all right.” “All right then, her we go.” Charles spread his wings out and took to the sky with the three fillies in tow flying around him. Applebloom above him with Scootaloo on his left and Sweetie Belle on his right. He went slow so as not to scare them too bad. As he went higher, the air was filled with the three fillies laughter as they enjoyed their flight. They drew closer and closer to the clouds above, soon, they burst through the cloud cover. Charles then just hovered there with the three in front of them. “Take a look girls, nice view isn’t it.” Charles let the girls get a good view of the area. They were greeted with what looked like a sea of white, the clouds below them and the blue sky and bright sun in front of them. “Woooooww.” The three exclaimed. “This view is amazing, look at it.” Applebloom commented. “It sure is, when I’m able to fly, I’ll get to see views like this all the time.” Scootaloo said. “You pegasai are so lucky, almost makes me wish I was a pegasus instead of a unicorn.” Sweetie Belle said. "All right, how about a few flying tricks." Charles said, he proceeded to fly forward with the three in front of him as they faced forward. he let them do barrel rolls and loop de loops all over. They were having a blast with the flying, they laughed and giggled away. Charles let them fly low so they could drag their hooves along the cloud cover, creating a wavy effect as the clouds were disturbed by their forward momentum. After a while, Charles figured it was time to head back down. “Well, we’d better head back down now, Applejack is probably getting worried, despite my reassurance that I wouldn’t let you fall.” Charles was met with a collective disappointing ‘AAAWWWWEEE’ from the girls. He just gave a light chuckle at the fillies. “Don’t worry, we can do this again sometime, let’s go.” That did cheer them up some but were still a little disappointed their flight was ending so soon. Charles began his descent with the three in his magic grasp slowly and came to a landing in front of Applejack. Applejack trotted up to Applebloom and hugged her. “Applebloom, are you okay?” Applebloom was feeling rather squished by her big sister’s embrace. “Applejack, I’m fine, you don’t have to hold me so tight.” Applejack released her hug. “That was a lot of fun sis, he even said we could do this again sometime.” “Yeah, I can’t wait for that. It was so amazing, you should have seen the view up there.” Sweetie Belle commented. “It was like a sea of clouds. We couldn’t even see the ground below us.” Scootaloo said. Charles then got their attention. “Before I go girls, there’s one more thing I’d like to share with you. A little song that has a bit of a message that I want you to remember.” The three looked at Charles with smiles. “What kind of message?” Applebloom asked. Charles took his staff from his back and formed his guitar. “No matter how bad a day you may be having, never give up and don't let it get to you.” The three then sat there and readied themselves to hear Charles’s song. Once again, he used his magic to produce all the instruments while he played the lead guitar and sung the words. Around the beginning of the song, the girls, even Applejack, started to bob and dance to the music Charles played. By the end of the song, they were all smiles. “That was awesome Charles, what a cool song.” Scootaloo said. “I’ll say, it was really great.” Sweetie Belle commented. “Thanks fer sharin it with us Charles, and we’ll be sure to remember the message. And thanks again fer takin us flyin too, that was a lot of fun.” Applebloom said. Sweetie Belle then got a thought. “Say, what time is it?” The two others looked at her for asking such a thing out of the blue. Applejack answered. “I think it’s almost four in the afternoon.” Sweetie Belle then got a little panicked upon hearing this news. “Oh my gosh, I’m going to be late, I’ll see you girls later ok, Bye.” She then took off for town in a rush. “What was that about?” Scootaloo asked. “Beats me.” Was Applebloom’s only answer. Charles was also a little perplexed by Sweetie’s sudden departure but figured it was none of his business, so he let it go and turned back to the other two fillies remaining. “Well girls, I need to get going too, I need to meet up with Pinkie Pie later, I’m going to try and help her make a dish from my world that you ponies don’t have.” Applejack looked to Charles curiously. “Really, what kind o’ dish?” “Sorry, but that is going to be a surprise for later, you’ll find out in due time, and I promise you’ll like it.” Charles’s voice then trailed into an unsure sounding one. “If it turns out how it’s supposed to. I’ll see you all later, take care now.” Charles gave a wave as the others waved back as Charles flew off to Sugarcube Corner. *** Spike had wondered about his secret admirer and decided it was just too intriguing to ignore. “Come on Spike, this could be your chance to find that special somepony, since it can’t be Rarity, you’ll never now if you don’t take a chance.” He said to himself. He decided to go for it, he made his way to the door and left the library to meet this secret admirer of his. As Spike neared the park where he was supposed to meet this secret admirer, a knot was starting to form in his stomach, he was starting to get nervous about this. “Come on Spike, you can do this, it’s just a meeting with some pony.” He thought to himself. As he drew closer to the tree where his secret admirer was waiting, a figure of a pony came into view, he was still too far off to make out any distinct features, but from what he could tell, it must be a little filly. Spike drew close and closer, soon, the pony started to look very familiar to Spike, she was definitely a unicorn filly. She had her back turned to Spike as he approached. He could make out a white coat and the mane and tail were a two tone color of light pink and light purple. “Sweetie Belle?” Spike asked as he came up behind her. She turned to face spike with a smile. “Oh, hey Spike, I’m glad you came.” Spike wasn’t sure if this was right or not. “Um, Sweetie Belle, what are you doing here?” “What do you think I’m doing here?” “Well, I don’t know, I mean…….are you the one that sent me that letter?” Sweetie Belle looked to the side for a moment with a blush. “Well, yeah, I sent you the letter, I’m your secret admirer Spike.” Spike went silent, he couldn’t believe that the sister of the unicorn he had a crush on was his secret admirer. “Gosh Sweetie Belle, um, I…….uh.” He couldn’t form words. He always thought Sweetie was cute, good looking and sweet, she was like a little Rarity, but not as dramatic and formal as Rarity. Sweetie Belle started to feel a little down as she took Spike’s silence as rejection. Her smile slowly turned to a frown as she began to turn her head away. “I see, I figured it was pointless, I understand if you don’t like me.” Upon hearing this, Spike finally found his voice. “Sweetie Belle wait, I….didn’t say I don’t like you, it’s just….this is so sudden, I mean, don’t get me wrong, I think your cute and all but.” Sweetie finished for Spike. “But you just can’t like me like the way I like you.” Sweetie’s eyes were starting to water. Spike just couldn’t stand to see her cry. He looked to the side for a moment in thought. He turned back to her and spoke. “Sweetie Belle, as you know, ever since I first came to Ponyville with Twilight, I had a crush on your sister as soon as I laid my eyes on her. But as you know, recent events have made it clear that I’ll never be with her in the way I wanted.” Sweetie started to sniffle at Spikes words. Spike continued. “But that doesn’t mean I’ve given up hope in finding that special somepony for myself and…..well, since you’re here and have made it clear that you like me, I suppose I could give it a try and see how it goes.” This perked Sweetie Belle up as she gave another sniffle and wiped her eyes with her forleg. “*SNIFF* Really, you mean it?” Spike smiled at her. “Really, I might as well look for somepony closer to my age, and it just so happens you are, so why not.” Sweetie’s smile grew bigger. “Oh thank you spike, you don’t know how happy you’ve made me.” She quickly went up to him and gave him a kiss on the cheek, she held it for a second and pulled away. Spike let out a blush of his own. “Thanks Sweetie Belle.” *** Charles was now entering Sugarcube Corner and was greeted by Mr. and Mrs. Cake. Mr. Cake was the first to say hello. “Well hello there Charles, good to see you again. I take it you’re here to see Pinkie?” Charles greeted the Cakes. “Good day Mr. and Mrs. Cake, yeah I’m here to see Pinkie, I take it she’s around here somewhere?” Mrs. Cake answered. “She’s in the kitchen, she’s been so excited for you to come, she wouldn’t tell us why, but it has something to do with trying a new recipe, do you know what she’s talking about?” Charles grinned at them. “Maaaaybe, I’m sure Pinkie wants it to be a surprise, am I right?” The Cakes looked at each other, then back to Charles. Mr. Cake responded. “Yes, she does, I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see what this surprise is then. Just remember to clean up afterwards if you make a mess.” “I promise Mr. Cake, I will.” “CHARLES, you’re here!” Pinkie called from the archway to the kitchen, she quickly rushed out and bounced at Charles, nearly tackling him to the floor in a hug. “Ooooh, I can’t wait to get started, come on let’s get to baking!” Pinkie released her hug and started pushing Charles with her head to the kitchen. Charles couldn’t help but laugh at her eagerness. “All right Pinkie, all right, I’m going, sheesh calm down.” “You two try not to make too big a mess in there.” Mr. Cake said as Pinkie pushed Charles into the kitchen so fast, his heels were skidding across the floor. Charles could only call back as he passed the Cakes with the wave of a hand. “I promise we’ll try not to, and if we do, we’ll be sure to clean up.” “Well, here we are, I remembered all the stuff you told me about what can go on a pizza and got what I could, along with the ingrediants.” Pinkie said as she gestured to the counter with all kinds of stuff sitting there, all of it was what was needed to make a pizza. “Let’s get started.” Pinkie cheered. “Just remember Pinkie, I’m no baker, I’m just here as a kind of advisor for this project.” Charles informed. “Awe don’t be silly, anyone can bake, it’s easy, you just have to follow the directions a cook book gives you. After a while, you’ll have it memorized and you’ll be able to do it from memory.” Pinkie encouraged Charles. “But Pinkie, we don’t have a cook book with a recipe for a Pizza since it doesn’t exist here. We’re going off of what I know about making a pizza and that’s it.” “Stop being such a negative nelly. We can do this, just tell me what to do and I’ll do it.” Charles couldn’t believe the positivity of this pink pony, it was starting to get infectious. “All right then, let’s make the first ever pizza in Equestira.” It was fairly simple, Pinkie made the bread dough, spread out the tomato sauce, put on the shredded cheese, then for the toppings, they went with Charles’s favorite, red and green peppers with onions. “All right, looking good so far, now we just need to stick it in the oven for a while until the crust is nice and golden brown and the cheese is all melted.” Pinkie was getting very excited that they were almost done. “It looks so good already. Are you sure it’s not done?” “Trust me Pinkie, it isn’t done yet, we need to cook it.” Pinkie then put the uncooked Pizza on a flat wooden slab and stuck it in the oven. “And now we wait.” Charles took to lean against the counter next to the oven while Pinkie sat on her haunches in front of the oven to keep an eye on it. Charles decided to take this opportunity to try and get to know Pinkie a bit more. “So Pinkie, for conversations sake, I don’t suppose you have a very special somepony do you?” “Nope.” Pinkie simply answered. “Really, some pony as happy and friendly and energetic as you doesn’t have a stallion in her live, I find that hard to believe.” “I did have one a few years ago.” Pinkie’s smile faded a bit. Charles noticed this and frowned. “Oh, I’m sorry, I hope I didn’t stir up anything sad.” Pinkie shook her head. Her smile returned, but it was a small one. “It’s fine, I do miss him sometimes, but I’ll be ok.” “Mind if I ask who it was?” “His name was Pyro, he’s Stunner’s brother. He was a great guy.” “Pyro, huh. I guess you two were close then?” “Yeah, we were, he really knew how to have fun and party. He always knew how to make me laugh and stuff. Once a year, me and Stunner get together to honor his memory.” “I’m sorry for your loss Pinkie, I didn’t mean to drudge up old memories and sad feelings.” Pinkie looked Charles in the eye. “It’s fine, really. You’re a great friend Charles, and I really like how your showing me how to make a pizza and telling me about a new kind of party to go with it.” Pinkie’s happy attitude returned. “And that’s why once we finish with this, we are going to start planning a pizza party to introduce every pony to Pizza.” Charles’s smile returned as well. “Darn right Pinkie, I just know you all are going to love it.” The two then just chatted while waiting for the Pizza to cook. After a few minutes, Pinkie Pie looked in the oven. “Oh boy, it looks like it’s ready, what do you think Charles?” Charles bent down and looked in the oven with Pinkie. “Looks ready to me.” “Then what are we waiting for, let’s get it out.” Pinkie moved to open the oven and take out the pizza, only to have Charles stop her. “Hold on Pinkie, don’t you realize what this is?” Pinkie looked at him with confusion. “A pizza?” She asked with a tilted head. “Yeees, but the very first pizza to ever be made in Equestria, we need to savor this moment while it lasts.” Pinkie perked up. “Oh my gosh your right. Let’s do this nice and easy.” Only then did Pinkie slowly open the oven, and with a padded heat resistant tool that was meant for hauling things out of the oven by mouth, she slid the pizza out and placed it on the counter. Charles closed the oven and shut it off. “Take it in Pinkie Pie, the sight, the smell, the warmth, THIS is a pizza, looks like we did it, only thing left is the taste test.” Charles said with a smile. Pinkie got close and took in a good long whiff of the new confection. “Mmmmm, it does smell good, I can’t wait to try it.” “Say Pinkie, you know who we should share this moment with?” “Who?” “The Cakes of course! This is their bakery and we just created a new dish in their bakery, I think it only fair that they get to revel in this new dish.” “You are so right Charles, I’ll go get them and bring them in.” Pinkie then bounded away out of the kitchen. “Now how are we going to cut it without a pizza cutter, guess we’ll have to make do with a knife or something.” Charles thought out loud. Then he had a thought. “DUH, I can just use my swords. I’ll wait for Pinkie and the Cakes to come back first.” A minute later, Pinkie reentered the kitchen with Mr. and Mrs. Cake in tow. “All right Pinkie, we’re here, now what is all this about.” Mr. Cake asked. Pinkie Stopped in front of Charles who was using his body to hide the new food item. Pinkie spoke in a rather dramatic fasion. “Mr. and Mrs. Cake, I present to you, Equestria’s very first ever…….” She paused as Charles stepped to the side and pointed his hands at what they had come to see. “….PIZZA!” Mr. Cake looked to his wife in confusion as she did the same. They both looked back at Pinkie and Charles, Mrs. Cake spoke up. “A what now?” Charles answered. “A pizza, it’s a dish from where I came from, it’s really good, I just hope it turned out ok. Me and Pinkie wanted you two to be a part of what is sure to be the hottest new food item in Ponyville.” Mr. and Mrs. Cake came close to look at the item better. They both took in the sight, they inhaled deeply at the smell. Mrs. Cake was the first to comment. “Well, it certainly looks and smells good, what is it made up of?” Charles listed off the items that were used to put it together. “Bread dough, tomato sauce, cheese, and topped with red and green peppers and onions. This is one of my personal favorites, but you can put other things you like on it as a topping.” “It does sound good, but how do we eat it?” Mr. Cake asked. Charles smiled with his plan. “Easy, we just need to slice it up evenly. Watch this.” Charles motioned for the three to stand back. Once they were away from the counter, Charles formed his swords. He surrounded the pizza in his white aura and levitated it towards him. In a few quick slashes and swipes of his sword, the pizza broke into ten evenly sliced triangular shaped slices. He moved it back to the board it was on and dismissed his swords, placing his staff back on his back. “Now Pinkie, would you mind getting us some plates please?” Pinkie gave a salute. “Sure thing.” She trotted over to one of the cabinets and retrieved four plates with her hooves, she placed them on her head and balanced them expertly as she made her way back to Charles. “Here you go, four plates.” Charles levitated the plates from Pinkie’s head, then one slice of the pizza for each of them on to the plates. “Here you go, this is a big moment in Equestrian history, the taste test. I hope you all like it.” All-together, they picked up a slice and took a bite. The kitchen was filled with a satisfied ‘mmmm’ as they enjoyed the new confection. “Oh my, this is amazing, this taste so wonderful, I’ve never had anything like it.” Mrs. Cake complimented. “I’ll say, this is amazing, this is sure to be a big hit.” Mr. Cake said. “No kidding, it’s so super duper fantabulously delicious! Thank you for sharing this with us Charles.” Pinkie said. “You are welcome Pinkie.” Charles said with a mouth full of pizza. Pinkie then had a brilliant idea upon realizing how many slices were left. “OH MY GOSH, Charles, do you think we could share the rest of this with our friends? There’s six slices left, I’ll bet the others would like to try it too.” Charles smiled at Pinkie’s idea. “I don’t see why not, we should definitely let our closest friends in on this momentous occasion.” “Great, I’ll go get a good sized box to carry the pizza in.” Pinkie started to rummage through the cabinets and such to find a box to use. It took a while but she found something. It was square and seemed big enough. “This is the best I could find, I hope it works.” Charles eyed it for a moment. “I think I can make it work.” Charles remembered the spell he used to resize the bed Twilight gave him in his room. He figured if he can resize a bed, why not a simple box. He took it in his magic grasp and levitated it up as well, he concentrated on the box and shaped it to the form needed to fit the pizza perfectly. Once done, he gave it back to Pinkie and smiled. “There we go a perfect pizza box.” Charles then levitated the rest of the pizza in the box. “Wow, nice work Charles, let’s hurry and get this to our friends before it gets cold.” The two then left the kitchen to share the new food item with their friends. On their way out, Charles called out to the cakes. “See you two later, I’m glad you like the pizza.” Their first stop, Golden Oaks Library and Twilight.