Apple of My Eye- Ch. 30
Mares About Town The Sequel
AKA- Weirdness and More…
“Stupid fucking idiot…” Orion swore, for about the umpteenth time since leaving the Library, wandering around town. “Why did I say that stuff? I’m just being a whiny little brat now… as much as they’ve helped me out, and I go and bite their heads off because I’m the one acting strange…”
“… You know… you keep walking around looking like that, you’re going to empty the streets…” a voice said, right next to Orion and causing him to almost jump out of his skin.
“Gah! How long have you been there?” he asked, skittering to the side and turning to face the unexpected visitor, an all too familiar white Unicorn with almost neon blue hair. “And what are you doing in Ponyville, Vinyl? Don’t you and Octavia live in Manehattan?”
“Meh…” She replied simply, shrugging and winking genially at him over the edge of her glasses, “Me and Octy are in town to visit her parents. I wasn’t really feeling the whole ‘sit around and listen to stories about my marefriend as a baby’ thing, so I decided to go for a walk, and then I saw your gloomy rump walking by and decided to see what’s up… so what’s up?”
Orion sighed, glaring at the dirt road beneath his hooves. “Nothing, everything… I don’t know… Apparently I’m not safe even walking around town on my own, because I keep getting hit on, and I don’t even realize it to give off the right signs or whatever I needed to do to tell them that I wasn’t interested… And the girls aren’t helping things by treating me with kid gloves…”
“… What are ‘kid gloves’?” Vinyl asked, frowning slightly.
“It’s an expression from my old home…” He replied, brushing the comment aside, “But what should I do?”
“Well, for starters, I’d start off my quitting my moping… You act like you expected Ponyville to be some ideal little town where nothing can go wrong between ponies and everyone loves one another and everything’s safe no matter what.” Vinyl answered, smirking and sacking his side with her tail. “But this is reality dude, things aren’t going to be perfect all the time, and there’s always going to be shades of grey when it comes to dealing with others. I’m not saying that you’re in the wrong by wanting to be on your own, but you have to recognize that your friends are just trying to look out for you because they care. How long have you lived in this town?”
“Uhhh…. Around two months?” Orion guessed, doing some quick math in his head. “And I was in Canterlot in the palace for a couple of weeks before that…”
“So you’ve lived here less than a year, and you’re still learning what everypony is like here and what’s safe and what’s dangerous… and you’re upset because you have friends who are trying to look out for you and make sure that you can learn what is and isn’t cool, and how to stay safe… Starting to see things a bit different yet?”
Orion frowned, scuffing his hooves against the dirt and trying not to look the white Unicorn in the eye, “……I guess I was a bit of a jerk… huh?”
Vinyl shrugged, nudging his hoof with hers and making him look up with her magic, “I wouldn’t sweat it too much…. If they’re your friends, they’ll understand. And besides, everypony makes mistakes, the thing that separates the cool folks from the jerks is whether or not they choose to learn from their screw-ups.”
“I have to say Vinyl, that almost sounded mature…” another voice said, startling both Orion and his impromptu counselor.
“Will everyone quit sneaking up on me?!” Orion exclaimed, trying to calm his heart rate down until it wasn’t hammering in his chest anymore.
“Heh, sorry about that Orion, honestly, most ponies see me coming form about a block off these days, so I guess I haven’t had to really worry about sneaking up on anypony for a while.” Spike replied sheepishly, trying not to laugh at his friend’s reaction.
“Geez dude, you need to loosen up.” Vinyl noted, turning to Spike, “And good to see you again big guy, me and Octy never really got to hang out with you after that party last month, what’s new?”
“Meh, nothing much. By the way, I liked the new album.” Spike replied casually, plucking a small pebble that had gotten under his scales out with a claw. “Anyway, Orion, the girls wanted me to just check in with you, see how you were doing… I missed most of what you were all talking about, but I gathered that it wasn’t too pleasant… wanna talk about it?”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa… First, I want to know how you know Vinyl Scratch. From what I hear, you’re like, a celebrity, right Vinyl?” Orion said, stopping in the road and looking back and forth between the dragon and the DJ. “Secondly, and I can’t stress this enough… I don’t need a babysitter, got it?”
“Relax there big fella… I’m here partly because Twilight was worried, and so was just about everypony else, but also because you’re one of the few guys I know in this town that I can relate to, so I’m here for my own interests too. And yeah, Vinyl’s a celebrity, but she’s pretty relaxed about the whole thing, so I got to meet her and we hang out when I visit Canterlot.”
“Not to mention that you’re technically the Princess’s adopted son, and the hero of an entire empire…” Vinyl chipped in, making Spike blush and duck his head a bit.
“I was trying to avoid talking about that stuff…” he muttered, looking around to see if anyone had heard. “I already had one incident with greed growth because I started to get an ego, I don’t need a repeat…”
“Hold up, you’re Celestia’s son? How did that happen?”
“Long story short, After Twilight hatched me, Celestia took me in, because nopony else really knew how to take care of a baby dragon, and I started helping Twilight out because she wanted somepony to help keep an eye on her student. Next thing I knew, I started being seen by Twilight and her family like a little brother… my family tree’s really screwed up… And quit dodging the question, talk. What’s going on with you?” Spike answered pointedly, quirking an eyebrow at the grey Pegasus expectantly.
“Hey Spike, how about I fill you in… I’m just guessing here, but I’m pretty sure that talking about it right now will only make him more frustrated with the whole situation.” Vinyl said, well aware of the tactic Orion was using to try and avoid the inevitable rant.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
One Explanation and two blocks later…
“Well dang… Orion, if you were feeling like that, you could have come to talk to me about it…” Spike said, having listened intently as the strange looking trio walked down the slowly emptying street.
“I couldn’t very well tell you something that I wasn’t aware of myself, now could I?” Orion countered, shooting Spike a sarcastic look.
“Well… still… You know that they’re just trying to look out for you the best way they know how, right?”
“Yeah… I know… it doesn’t mean that I have to necessarily approve though.”
“Well, like it or not, you’re going to have to get over it pretty soon. I’ve seen what some of the mares in this town are like when it comes to romance, and I have to say, you’re likely to end up in a relationship faster than you can blink if some girls have their way…”
“Well what if I don’t want a relationship?!” Orion exclaimed, huffing, “I can barely get a grip on my own life between trying to stop mooching off of Applejack and her family, Princess Luna casting spells while drunk, Pinkie Pie shooting me with every kind of edible artillery you can imagine, and don’t even get me started on the freaking eldritch creature I’ve somehow got sealed inside… Do you have any idea how scrambled my brain is right now?!”
“…Okay… We get it, you’ve been through a bit lately… but you know, stressing out about it isn’t going to help. And take it from me, there are some things that you just can’t go through alone. And it’s not some kind of mark of shame if you let the ones who care about you help.” Spike said, backing away slightly. “Trust me on this, the last thing you want is to be isolated…”
“…… I know…” Orion replied hollowly, glaring at the ground and trying to keep his voice steady, “I just… I don’t know… I just need to get my head screwed on right or something…”
“Well you know, when Octy’s had a bad time with stuff, I take her to get some comfort food… You wanna grab a bite to eat?” Vinyl suggested, taking the usual raspy quality out of her voice.
Orion’s stomach rumbled loudly, reminding him that he hadn’t actually eaten since breakfast. “…You know what…. That’s actually a good idea… Where were you thinking Vinyl?”
V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V
“HELLOOOO SUGARCUBE CORNER!” Rainbow Dash belted out, standing on top of the table. “How’s everypony doing tonight?”
“Will you please get down from there this instant, Rainbow Dash!” Rarity exclaimed, trying to hide her face while simultaneously tugging at the sky colored Pegasus with her magic in an effort to get her friend off the furniture. “Pinkie, what exactly was in those cupcakes?”
“I don’t know, Pound and Pumpkin made them and they wanted us to try them out, then Dashie beat me to the tray and the next thing I know, this happened!” Pinkie explained, a worried look on her usually carefree face as she looked around for help. “POUND! PUMPKIN! You two better get out here and help us with this!”
“Where in Equestria did Luna wander off to?!” Rarity asked, exasperated at trying to get a grip on the wriggly Pegasus.
“Heheheheh, maybe she went to ‘moon’ some fancy pants pony.” Rainbow said, hovering in place shakily, her eyes unfocused as she kept giggling to herself.
“That doesn’t even make any sense!” Rarity shot back, glaring at her friend as she finally managed to grab onto Rainbow’s ear and pulled her back down to the floor, kicking and protesting every inch of the way. “Now, you’re grounded until we figure out just what in the world got you riled up like this…”
“You put what in the where?!?!” Pinkie exclaimed from the kitchen, having finally found the pranksters Pound and Pumpkin.
“BAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Oh! Oh geez… Rarity you can’t say that’s not funny! It’s like a ‘That’s what he said’ joke without the punchline!” Rainbow howled, rolling on the ground and hiccupping between breaths.
“Rarity! I need some help in here!” Pinkie said, poking her head through the kitchen doors, looking worried. “Bring Rainbow with you…”
“Ughhh… wherever you’re taking me, just make sure there’s something to drink, those cupcakes had a heck of a kick that I need to rinse out…” Rainbow groused, Rarity dragging her by her tail into the kitchen.
“Pinkie… please tell me you figured something out…” Rarity said, stepping into the kitchen. “And do you know where Luna wandered off to?”
“I don’t know about Luna, but I figured out why Rainbow’s being all……excited…” Pinkie answered, glaring slightly as she pushed Pound and Pumpkin forward, along with a large, empty glass bottle. “You two, explain.” She said, looking down at her young assistants.
“Well… we didn’t mean anything by it…” Pound started off saying, sharing a look with his sister, “We just wanted to make some stuff for Hearts and Hooves Day, and Mom and Dad said that they needed some more treats for adults, and we thought-”
“What’s more adult than going out at night?” Pumpkin said, interrupting and continuing the story from her brother. “And from what me and Pound heard from Button Mash, most adults drink when they go out, so we tried to make a batch of cupcakes with the stuff Mom and Dad keep in one of the secret cabinets they think we don’t know about, and-”
“The next thing we knew, the bottle was… empty… and we didn’t want to waste the batter, so we just used what was in there with the recipe for cupcakes that Pinkie always uses and… well, they came out solid, so we didn’t think about it and iced them…” Pound picked up.
“…And?” Pinkie prodded, shooting them both a seriously un-Pinkie Pie glare.
“…And then Rainbow ate half of them in one go…” They finished in unison.
“… Just how much of that bottle did you use?” Rarity asked, looking worriedly at Dash, who was currently lying on her back and absolutely fascinated by the ceiling of the kitchen.
“Um… Probably all of it…” Pumpkin guessed, looking at Pound Cake, “How much did you pour in?”
“Me?! You were responsible for measuring it and telling me when it was enough.” Pound retorted, looking hurt.
“I didn’t expect you to just tip it upside down!” Pumpkin shot back, butting heads with her twin and gritting her teeth.
“ENOUGH!” Rarity shouted, telekinetically separating the two children. “There’s no point in trying to blame each other, you’re both equally responsible for… this…”
As she spoke, Rarity shot an annoyed glance at Rainbow Dash.
“Now, I need to go somewhere less public to get her sobered up… So if you will excuse me Pinkie, I’ll take my leave, and if you could please keep an eye out for Luna.”
“Sure thing Rarity. And if Rainbow Dash asks what happened, just tell her that it was an accident in the kitchen.” Pinkie said, ushering her friends towards the back door, “As for you two… You’re going to be cleaning up the kitchen, apologize to Rainbow Dash tomorrow, and I’m going to have a talk with your parents about what you did… understood?”
“Yes Pinkie Pie…” the two troublemakers said, looking appropriately contrite. “And we’re really sorry…”
“We’ll let Mr. and Mrs. Pie figure out how sorry you are.” Pinkie said coolly, walking over to the broom closet and grabbing the bucket of cleaning supplies. “For now, get started by cleaning the kitchen up, and come get me when you’re done.”
“Yes Pinkie.” Pound said, taking the brook and getting started while Pumpkin grabbed a bucket and sponge and went to fill the bucket at the sink.
“Honestly, I feel like I’m one of their parents sometimes…” Pinkie mumbled to herself, walking out to the front of the shop again and looking around at the dwindling clientele. The shop would pick up a huge amount of customers when Hearts and Hooves Day actually arrived, but until then… “Well, I guess this is as good a time as any to find Luna. Now if I were an immortal Alicorn of the night… where would I be?” she wondered, sitting down in the middle of the floor and trying to think.
“Did you try checking the roof?” a voice thick with the eastern Trottingham accent said beside Pinkie Pie, poking her with a hoof. “You’re looking for Princess Luna, right?”
“No I haven’t Pip, but what would she be doing up there anyway?” Pinkie replied, looking at her unexpected guest curiously. “And when did you get here? I didn’t hear the bell ring when you came in…”
“Oh, sorry about that.” Pipsqueak said apologetically, smiling at the pink party pony of Ponyville, “I came to see if Scootaloo and her friends were around… and I may or may not have seen a certain Weather Pony being dragged out by Miss Rarity. Have you seen them though? The girls weren’t at the clubhouse or the boutique… and they like to come here a lot, so I decided to check here, and I saw the Princess sitting on the roof. She wouldn’t even say hello when I tried to get her attention. Is everything alright?”
“Hmmm… give me just a half a jiffy and I’ll let you know…” Pinkie responded, pulling a periscope down from the ceiling that Pip could have sworn hadn’t been there at all ten seconds ago. “Hmmm… mhmmm… Hey Pip… Is it still daylight out?”
“It was a minute ago, It’s getting close to dusk, sure, but it’s still plenty light out… why do you ask?” he responded, sitting down and waiting patiently for the pink enigma to reveal her secrets.
“Well… if it’s still light out, and I can see the moon… I’m willing to bet that Luna is sitting right on top of my periscope…” Pinkie answered, sticking her tongue out and doing some quick calculations. “This calls for my emergency defensive measure… time to unleash the S.M.O.R.E…. You wanna help?”
“Uhh… what exactly is this ‘S’more’ you’re talking about…” Pip asked cautiously, he’d seen some of her more intricate party supplies before in passing… and was always amazed that there weren’t a platoon of royal guards confiscating them as weapons on a regular basis.
“Oh silly, not s’more, S.M.O.R.E.” Pinkie said, grinning and pulling a plank with a red button attached to some strange looking wires out from under the counter, “It stands for Sugar-cube-corner Make Over in Royal Emergencies. And since Luna’s a royal, and this is an emergency, this seems like a perfect time to test it out!”
“Pinkie… what exactly does that little button do?” Pipsqueak asked uneasily, a glimmer shining in Pinkie Pie’s eye… an almost infamous glimmer that heralded frosting, sprinkles, explosions, giggles, and destruction…
“It does this!” Pinkie answered dismissively, blowing a raspberry and punching the button, the whole shop shuddering like it were a stampede or an earthquake, closely followed by a yell that shook the rafters even more than before, and a wave of… well, there was no really good description for it, but the windows were blacked out and covered with…something…
“…… Pinkie, how have you not been in trouble with the law before?” Pip asked seriously, too stunned to really emotion into his words. “Who did you make a deal with and when?”
“Oh no you don’t young colt… I made them a promise never to tell, and as long as I keep the property damage to a minimum, and the party output to a maximum, we’re all squared away with the paperwork.” She replied, hiding the button and bouncing towards the door, somehow failing to notice the few customers in the shop now cowering under their tables wondering when things would be safe enough to go outside again.
V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V
“You know, I have to admit Vinyl; that was a pretty good place to eat at… what’d you call it again?” Orion said, letting out a small burp and smiling at the comfortable feeling of a stomach filled with food.
“I thought you’d like it. Humble Pie and his wife make the best cinnamon pear turnovers you’ll ever find, and I have a bit of a running joke with Octy that if either of us finds a better place, that they get to drag the other to any music show they want.” Vinyl said, smirking at the thought of another satisfied customer being turned onto the small snack shop. “A better question is, how did you not even know about that place until I took you? It’s not like Ponyville’s a huge town or anything…”
“He’s the kind of guy that doesn’t worry about too much outside their routine.” Spike volunteered, picking a loose shard of emerald from between a couple of his teeth with a steel toothpick. “In fact, I had to fight tooth and claw with him just to get him to go somewhere besides his job, the library, and the apple farm. We ended up only going to the park, but that still took some convincing.”
“I keep telling you, I like what I like, and I’m not opposed to new things… I just don’t always go looking for new stuff to happen… besides, my life’s already spontaneous enough working with Pinkie Pie and the Cake twins…” Orion contested weakly, sounding whiny even to himself. “…But yeah, I guess I could stand to explore Ponyville a bit more… And that reminds me, I still need to actually go to the Realtor’s cottage sometime soon.”
“You can do that tomorrow.” Spike said, smiling brightly, “It’s not like the houses around here just randomly disappear, and it’s too late to go there anyway, everypony’s wrapping up business for the day and going home to see their families.”
“I guess you’re right… Still, I’m pretty excited… I remember the first time I got an apartment to myself, but this is going to be a full on house! I don’t even know where I’d start in terms of living there.” Orion conceded, looking around at the town full of smiling pony’s all milling about and carrying on with their lives. “I wonder if it’d be in bad taste to ask for help form the girls with picking a place to live…”
“Actually, I have a feeling that a few of them would be more than happy to help you look at bedrooms…” Spike muttered, nudging Vinyl and sharing a knowing smirk.
“Heh. Something tells me that if they’re as good of friends as you make them out to be Orion, they’ll help you out, and they’ll even understand what the whole ‘fight’ thing from earlier.” Vinyl said, trying to downplay the whole conflict that had started their afternoon hanging out together.
“…I hope so… Hey Vinyl, what time is it? Any idea?”
“Not a clue Orion… I usually wait for my clock to yell at me before I worry about that kind of stuff.” The frizzy, blue maned Unicorn said, shrugging slightly.
“Your clock yells at you?” Spike asked, looking at the DJ curiously, “This I have to hear…”
“Sure, just follow me.” Vinyl said, veering a sharp right towards a house at the end of one of the larger side roads and opening the door to a cottage that looked like the glass windows had been cracked and repaired… multiple times… “Hey Octy! I’m back! Did ya miss me?”
“You have some nerve coming back now after disappearing like that for three hours Vinyl Shimmer Scratch!” came the reply, the words coming from a decidedly pissed off Octavia, her hair standing on end in odd places and her bow tie askew. “I don’t care that Ponyville is safer than Canterlot, or even Baltimare or Manehattan, you do NOT just disappear without warning! It’s already almost 7:30, and it’s about to get dark!”
Orion had to give credit where it was due, Vinyl didn’t bat an eye in the face of a raging marefriend, despite his and Spike’s decidedly less courageous tactic of trying to hide behind the mailbox.
“… You feeling better now?” Vinyl asked, smiling at Octy and winking, “I just stepped out for some fresh air, and I bumped into a friend.” She continued, dragging Orion over from his hiding place with her magic.
“Oh… well then, I’m sorry you had to see that Orion… I’m a bit protective, you might say, when it comes to Vinyl being out by herself… Anyway, it’s lovely to see you again, and if she’s with you, then I’ve no doubt that even her usually uncouth behavior was calmed down somewhat.” Octavia said, smoothing her hair down with a hoof and adjusting her bow tie. “Now, it’s nearly time for tea, and you will be staying for the entirety of the stories Vinyl, understood?”
“Sure thing Octy, just let me say goodbye to Spike and Orion before you throw me to the inlaws…” Vinyl joked, kissing Octavia on the cheek and nuzzling her comfortingly.
“Hmmm… very well… but be quick about it, you know how my father is about punctuality.” Octavia relented, turning around and walking back inside, looking over her shoulder at the last minute before walking into a side room inside, “And Orion, it was lovely to see you again. We’ll be in town for the next week or so if you wish to meet up for lunch or tea.”
“Sure thing Octavia…” Orion said, still a bit wide eyed at how quickly the situation had been diffused by Vinyl, and smiling convincingly enough for Octavia to turn around and walk back inside, shutting the door.
“See? I told you my clock yelled at me.” Vinyl said, giggling, “Honestly, I have no idea how the hay she knows exactly what time it is, but she’s never wrong. Anyway, I gotta get going, but I’ll see you guys around town sometime, right?”
“Yeah, just stop by the Library sometime, or Orion’s new place once he gets one.” Spike said, smiling back in a friendly manner, “Meantime, Orion, I don’t know about you, but I could use some real dinner.”
“Yeah, see you around Vinyl. And uh, thanks… I really appreciate the talk earlier…” he said, looking down awkwardly.
“You’re gonna be fine big guy, now get out of here before Octy comes back and gives me an update on the clock.”
Their goodbyes said, Spike and Orion walked away from the home of not one, but two strange musicians, wandering again through the fast emptying streets.
“So where do you wanna go now dude?” Spike asked, looking sideways at Orion, who was currently zoned out and staring idly at the horizon.
“Huh? Oh… well, I suppose I should check in at Sugarcube Corner, see if the Cake’s need me tomorrow, if not, then I can plan to sort out my housing situation then…” he responded, looking around. “Uhhh… just where is Sugarcube Corner from here anyway?”
“We can go just up this street here, about two blocks and we’re there.” Spike responded, angling towards the street he had pointed a claw at, the two of them walking in silence for a bit.
When they finally reached the bakery, something seemed off… maybe it was the pony’s standing outside looking up at the roof, or maybe it was the fact that there wasn’t any baked artillery firing off… or maybe it was the fact that there was a taller than average Alicorn sitting on the roof and looking through a telescope like a lookout on a pirate ship…
“…Spike…” Orion said flatly, stopping in place.
“…Yeah dude?”
“…You see her up there, right?”
“…Eeyup.”
“…Why is she up there?”
“… Don’t know… wanna ask her yourself?”
“… Not really…”
“Mmm…… Wanna just go inside?”
“…Not sure yet…… Is that a periscope?”
“…I think so… Pinkie?”
“…Probably… Should we tell Luna that there’s a periscope looking at her butt?”
“… Probably…”
“Mmm…Well, I guess I’ll do it…”
Before he had a chance to holler up to Luna though, Orion was frozen in place by the strangest architectural feat he could ever recall witnessing… The roof of the cupcake shaped tower had just swung open like a hinged lid on a toy box, and a vat of who-the-hay-knew-what was raised out of the depths of Pinkie’s room above the bakery. Any activity on the street stopped in its tracks and watched dumbfounded as the vat extended outwards, the roof closing, and what could only be described as a giant mechanical arm started to slide up an unseen track to the top of the building. It stayed still for a second, seemingly frozen in time before suddenly upending itself and dumping the entire contents of the vast vat over the exterior of Sugarcube Corner in a flood of pastel goop and what looked like glitter.
…Lune never even had a chance…
“GAAAAAAAH!!! TIA! THE ROYAL PERSON IS UNDER ATTACK BY A SLIME!” The Lunar Princess howled before going under in the torrent of glop and being pushed off the roof, landing on a pile of haystacks in a passing cart as everypony on the street started to run for their lives from the multi colored flood.
“This town is a bucking magnet for weirdness!” Orion yelled to Spike as they ran back up the street they had just come from, trying to escape the flood of color and barely managing to avoid the small flood by hopping up onto a stack of crates near the back of one of the shops. Having found a small refuge, they took a moment to look back towards the bakery, and saw the entire building now looking like the love child of a house, a giant cake, and a paint palette.
“……Should… should we go see what happened?” Spike asked, looking fearfully at his friend.
“I have no idea… I’m not too worried about Luna, she’s taken worse and walked it off… but I’d like to know if that’s now a regular feature of the shop that I need to learn to look out for…” Orion answered cautiously, stepping down from the crates and wading through the fetlock high muck, which he was pretty sure was made of some kind of liquid frosting… either that or edible paint… he wasn’t too keen to lean down and get a taste to find out for certain.
“Well, I suppose we should go see if anypony else got hurt at least.” Spike reasoned, dipping his own feet into the warm pastel liquid and following the grey Pegasus back to the main road to survey the damage.
“Hey Orion!” Pinkie said, poking her head out the front door, the rest of her soon bouncing along afterwards, “Didn’t expect to see you around here so soon, anyway, did you see the S.M.O.R.E. go off? How did it look from the outside? Were you excited cuz I was excited, and I mean, I knew it would be a big thing, but I didn’t expect it to shake the whole shop, I mean wow, who could have guessed that!?”
“Pinkie… you did that? You PLANNED that?!” Spike asked, stunned as he pointed a claw at the now empty, but still extremely large, bucket hanging over the bakery.
“You betcha! It’s in case anypony ever tries to break in through the roof, or the shop needs a quick paintjob, in case of paintjob emergencies, or if we have a Princess playing lookout on the roof! And Luna was sitting on the roof, probably playing lookout, so I got to push the button!”
“…… You know what… that was actually logical, or as close to logic as I think logic is willing to get to you Pinkie…” Orion conceded, looking around at the damage, which was surprisingly limited… the worst parts seemed to be the occasional pony that had been caught in the mini deluge, and not had a more technicolor color scheme than normal… but nothing that a long shower couldn’t fix.
“What in tarnation happened here?!” Applejack asked, walking up the street, “I was just about ta come lookin’ fer everyone with Fluttershy, and the next thing we knew, there was a mare running away screamin’ an covered in gunk! Pinkie, did you have somethin’ ta do with this?”
“Maaaaay-be!” Pinkie said, bouncing in a circle around everypony and splashing the technicolor goop with each bounce.
Applejack just shook her head. “Did ya at least check ta make sure that nopony got hurt?”
Pinkie stopped dead in her tracks. “Huh… I knew I forgot something…” she said, pulling a megaphone out from her mane and hopping up on a nearby lamp post, “IF ANYPONY WAS INJURED BY THE S.M.O.R.E. WILL YOU PLEASE SOUND OFF SO THAT YOU CAN RECEIVE HELP?”
After listening intently for a few minutes and hearing nothing, Pinkie happily slid down the pole and hopped over, continuing her little circular bounce.
“There you have it AJ, nopony hurt, and the S.M.O.R.E. worked perfectly!” She said, grinning and giggling.
“…Did anypony check on Luna?” Orion asked, giving Pinkie a tired look.
She stopped mid bounce, zipping over to the hay bale pile to check on the goop covered Princess, digging into an empty pile of muck and hay.
“She… She’s not here...” Pinkie said, surprised. “Where’d she go? She should have landed right here… right?”
“Well, that’s where I saw her fall…” Spike said, scratching his head in confusion. “Where could she have gone to?”
“Did anypony think to check up here…” a shaky voice said from a particularly low hanging cloud, a deep blue horn and mane poking out of the fluffy material. “Is… is the slime gone?”
“It wasn’t slime Luna, you’re okay… Were you that surprised?” Pinkie answered, looking up at the low hanging puff of cloud curiously, Applejack, Orion, and Spike exchanging looks of worry.
“…Methinks that ‘Surprise’ is not the best word to use in this case… but yes Pinkie Pie, you certainly managed to grab my attention… Please never do it again lest I do more than teleport to safety…” Luna said, her voice still shaky, but starting to sound more confident as she peeked through the cloud and surveyed the scene. “Oh! Orion, you’re safe… that’s good… And Applejack, are you feeling better as well?”
“Uhhh… yeah… You alright there Princess?” AJ responded, not really sure how to respond to the obviously shell shocked royal.
“Oh that’s good to hear… I am… I will be fine… I think I just need to take a nap for a bit… don’t mind me…” Luna responded, hopping down from her cloud and landing on shaky hooves, walking towards Sugarcube Corner, “Is it alright if I just lay down for a bit inside?”
“Sure thing Luna, there’s a spare bed in my room at the top of the stairs.” Pinkie said, the pink party pony finally having sensed that something was off about the Moon Princess and even making the effort to calm herself down a bit.
“Thank you… I will see you all later, and Orion, I apologize for earlier, and beg your forgiveness in the matter of your personal space…” Luna said, turning around and trying to regain her composure.
“Oh! Uh, I mean, it’s okay Luna… I know that you all were just looking out for me and doing what you thought was right… but you should probably get some sleep… you don’t look so good…” He replied uneasily.
“Yes, sleep… that would probably be a good idea right now…” she said, a weak smile on her face as she walked into Sugarcube Corner and shut the door behind her.
“…Well… that was stranger than normal…” Applejack noted.
“…Yeah, yeah it was…” Orion agreed, Spike nodding right along with him as Pinkie stood there, still staring at where Luna had been standing. “Um, AJ, if you don’t mind me asking, what are you doing here? And where’s everypony else? Weren’t you hanging out with the group?”
“Oh, that, well… Everyone kinda went off inta separate groups after ya… left… and Fluttershy was talkin’ ta me about some things, and how Ah had been treatin’ ya. And Ah figured that it wasn’t right… Yer different from other Stallions, and Ah shoulda respected that… So Ah wanna-” Applejack said, taking her hat off and trying to look everywhere except at Orion.
“AJ, it’s cool… we both said stuff we shouldn’t have, and I should have been more open to things being different in Equestria. It’s just ignorant of me to assume that things will work the same here as they did in my old home… you don’t have to say you’re sorry or anything.”
“Maybe you don’t think so, but Ah gotta do something ta make it up to ya, even if Ah’m selfish and just doin’ it ta help me feel better… So Ah wanna take ya out sometime, show ya that Ah ain’t gonna smother ya or nothin’… Just the two of us…” She continued, now blushing. “Ah guess Ah wanna show ya how much ya mean ta me, an’ get ya ta see that Ah don’t wanna lose ya cuz Ah started ta get all… weird… Ah wanna show ya that Ah ain’t like every other mare in town Ah guess…”
“Ummm… Sure, I guess that would be fine… what did you have in mind?”
Applejack immediately started to brighten up, smiling broadly, “Ah was thinkin’ that Ah’d take ya someplace special, say, tomorrow afternoon? We could start at the farm house, and go from there if ya want.”
“That sounds okay. Is there anything else on your mind?” Orion asked, ruffling his wings, not really sure why he was suddenly uncomfortable with how he was standing all of a sudden.
“Nope, ya just meet me at the house tomorrow right after work, and we’ll go from there.” AJ said, leaning in and giving him a quick affectionate nuzzle. “And thanks fer the second chance big guy… Ah can’t tell ya yet just how much it means…”
“No problem…” he replied, blushing slightly. Applejack wasn’t usually so… touchy, was she?
Just as quickly as she’d left, Applejack took off back up the road, and Orion could have sworn he heard a ‘Whoop’ come from her as she raced up the street into the setting sun.
“Congratulations dude…” Spike said, chuckling and nudging him with an elbow.
“On what?” Orion asked, looking at his friend like he’d grown a second head.
“You got yourself a date.” Spike answered, chuckling to himself as he watched Orion’s face blanch.
“……I DID WHAT?!”