--- Six Days Later ---
“So you’re telling me that Applejack, the Applejack showed up and saved the day?” asked Honeycrisp with disbelieving eyes.
Smarty Pants shook her head, “No, I’m only telling you what Princess Twilight told me. That four of the Elements of Harmony all sprang out of her chest, fully formed, and saved the day. Oh, and the Crystal Empress helped too.”
Honeycrisp let out a huff of air and kicked a rock down the newly repaired street. “And I missed it.”
“You didn’t miss it,” offered Sandy as the three girls made their way through Canterlot’s Grand Central Plaza. “We were all there when it happened.”
“Well yeah I know we were there... we just weren’t there there, you know? We were all corrupted and didn’t get to see them.”
Smarty Pants sighed, “Just like how I didn’t see Pinkie Pie.”
“I think I saw them. But the only thing I remember for sure was the rainbow that hit us.”
Smarty Pants and Honeycrisp nodded at Sandy as the three girls passed the halfway point to the train station from the castle. They took a moment to stop and gawk at the construction that was underway in the center of the plaza. A gathering of ponies of all shapes and sizes were working frantically on the installation of four twenty foot tall statues of the Alicorns that saved Equestria.
Honeycrisp shook her head in bewilderment. “If anypony told me last Friday that we’d have four Princesses before the that weekend was up, I would have called them a liar.”
Sandy’s wings fluttered in agitation. “Actually, there’s not four Princesses...”
Honeycrisp rolled her eyes. “Sorry Sandy. I know your momma’s not interested in being a Princess, but she’s got wings and a horn. That makes her a Princess.”
“Actually that makes her an Alicorn,” said Smarty Pants matter-of-factly.
Honeycrisp cocked an eyebrow at her earthpony cousin “A what now?”
“Never mind, you’ll learn all about them soon enough,” said Smarty Pants with an encouraging smile.
A steam whistle sounded in the distance and Smarty Pants began to walk towards it. “Come on, let’s get going before we miss our train.”
They walked through the plaza, which looked nothing like it did just six days ago. Last Saturday was one of the most intense days of their young lives. Not to mention that it was almost their last. But what a party afterwards! There must have been fifty thousand ponies from cities as far as Hoofston and Manehatten that suddenly found themselves in Canterlot that fateful afternoon.
To suddenly find yourself in a city hundreds of miles away, surrounded by faces both strange and familiar, was entirely unnerving. The girls could attest to that fact. But to wake up and see the glory of two ‘new’ Goddesses in all their splendor as they move the Sun and the Moon on their own, well that’s something else entirely.
The party lasted well into the night, and the four Goddesses of Equestria provided more than enough food and accommodations, while folks from all over booked themselves into hotels, arranged travel back home, or found themselves invited to stay with total strangers. A few lucky souls were even invited to stay at the palace.
It was a party that would be long remembered in the minds of and hearts of ponykind. A party that cemented the existence of not two but four Alicorns back into the living memory of a country.
“So,” said Smarty Pants breaking the brief silence, “are you excited about starting Princess Twilight’s School for Gifted Unicorns on Monday?”
Honeycrisp let out a sigh. “I am, it’s just well... Why’s it gotta be so soon? My new little brother’s only been around for a week, and Mom and Pop will need a helping hoof around the homestead what with the year’s final harvest coming up, and—“
“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you’re nervous,” said Sandy with a knowing smile.
Honeycrisp scrunched up her face and looked back and forth between her two friends before flattening her ears in resignation. “You’re right. I mean, what if they don’t like me? What if they think I’m a country bumpkin and they all make fun of me?”
“Honeycrisp, you silly filly,” admonished Smarty Pants. “You’re the best unicorn ever! Why would they make fun of you? Plus if they did, Sandy and I will totally beat them up. Right, Sandy?”
Honeycrisp looked over at Sandy, who lowered her head to the ground.
“Grr!” growled Sandy with about as much menace as a startled kitten.
The two other fillies fell in a soft furry pile of giggling ponies at Sandy’s adorably awful display.
“You girls are the best!” proclaimed Honeycrisp.
The train whistle sounded again, and the girls helped each other up. They could see Canterlot’s train station from here, and all the ponies milling about. A nearby cart vendor was selling Sun and Moon t-shirts, hats, and buttons. Tourists just off the train were eagerly buying up everything they could get their hooves on.
Smarty Pants pointed at the commotion. “How’s Celestia handling all the attention, Sandy?”
Sandy smiled a weak smile. “She says she’s okay with it, for the most part. But I can tell that it bothers her. The other day she walked into the pastry kitchen and discovered a stallion stealing one of her soup spoons.”
The light-brown earthpony tilted her head at that. “Why the hay would anypony steal a soup spoon from a goddess?”
“Apparently, his daughter was sick and he thought that if he used it to make her soup, she’d get better faster.”
“Did it work?” asked Honeycrisp.
“I don’t know. Momma and the stallion went to get Princess Twilight, and the three of them went to his home. Twilight was apparently able to heal her with her magic and momma gave her the spoon as a gift.”
“Crazy.”
“Yeah.”
The girls walked in silence as they moved against the excited throng spilling out into Canterlot from the train station. Once they were through the station’s historic archways and standing within the large marble station itself, Sandy spoke up again.
“Thanks for inviting us to your house for the weekend, Honeycrisp. I can’t wait to meet little Applewood!”
“Don’t mention it.”
“A-and thanks for agreeing to take the train this time.”
“I still think we should have flown,” huffed Smarty Pants.
Honeycrisp rolled her eyes and whispered loudly to Sandy. “That’s ‘cause she’s got a thing for pegasus stallions.”
“I do not!” she squeaked in blushing consternation. “I just don’t like trains... They make me sleepy.”
A sudden shadow loomed over the girls and they turned as one to look up and see who it was.
“Don’t like trains? Scared of flying?” asked a certain slyly grinning draconequus. “Sound’s like there’s only one solution to me, girls.”
Honeycrisp raised a suspicious eyebrow at Discord. “And that is?”
“We walk.” He said brightly.
“We?” asked Sandy nervously.
Discord nodded and reached down to push on the protesting rumps of the three girls.
“But won’t that take forever?” asked Smarty Pants.
“Oh no, not at all! I know a shortcut, you’ll see. The time will just fly by.”
Princess Twilight opened the door from her royal chambers. Wearing her favorite pair of Sun and Moon print pajamas, she wiped the sleep from her eyes and willed a brush over from her nightstand to begin restraining her otherwise unfettered ethereal locks.
As consciousness began to take hold with its many unforgiving claws, she realized that there were dozens of unknown faces looking back at her. Looking is not the right word. It was more like ‘burning the sight of an unkempt goddess in pajamas into the part of their memory usually reserved for the birth of children or the passing of parents.’
Twilight forced her eyes closed. “Ruby Star?”
“Yes Ma’am?” asked the orange mare from behind a desk.
“Why is there a blessing of unicorns standing outside of my bedroom at ten in the morning?”
“We’re interviewing.”
“Interviewing?”
“Yes Ma’am.”
“Interviewing for what?”
“For the open position in the Arcane Guard? You said you wanted it done by the end of the week.”
“It’s Friday.”
“Still technically not the end of the week.”
“Cutting it a little close aren’t we?”
“I like to live on the edge, Ma’am.”
Twilight nodded. “Okay. I’m going to go back into my room now. Please have somepony come up with a pot of fresh coffee and those little jam biscuits I like.”
“Uh...”
The Goddess of Magic opened her eyes, ignoring the other unicorns in the foyer, and gave Ruby Star a worried look. “I don’t like the sound of that ‘uh.’”
“It’s just that—“
“The pastry chef has told us that you’re no longer allowed to have sweets in the morning, Your Grace.” Blurted Spellbound, who was sitting in a seat behind the desk next to Ruby Star.
There was a snicker from somepony in the pool of applicants.
“What?” asked Twilight, the hurt apparent on her face. “Why would Celestia do that?”
“She, uh, mentioned something about a... paunch?” said Ruby Star, looking away as desperately as she could.
The snicker turned into laughter.
“A paunch? I’m as fit now as I was the day I became a Princess! I just saved the world last week! Surely that deserves a little something special for breakfast every now and again, right?” Twilight implored the ponies standing before her.
All but one of them was nodding vigorously at their potential employer. The other was rolling back and forth on the ground, still laughing.
Twilight groaned and rolled her eyes. “Oh come off it Luna, you aren’t fooling anypony.”
The mare on the ground was still laughing, but not as hard. “Alright, alright, you found me out, Twilight Sparkle.”
With a deep blue poof, the giggling mare on the floor was no longer a unicorn, but Princess Luna, timeless Moon Goddess of Equestria. The auburn stallion that had been chatting her up in line earlier, fainted. Luna looked at him and frowned.
“Pity. He was cute. A bit full of himself, but cute nonetheless.”
There was another poof, this time purple. The unicorns that were still conscious turned to see Princess Twilight standing in all her regalia, looking picture perfect. Except for the scowl on her face.
She walked up to Luna and offered her a hoof. “Come on, let’s go find Celestia and figure out what I am allowed to eat for breakfast.”
Luna took the hoof and smiled apologetically. “I would but I have a job interview.”
The sound of a pony clearing her throat caught the two Princesses off-guard and they turned to look at Ruby Star sitting at the front of the line of applicants. She pointed a hoof at a sign on the wall:
ALICORNS NEED NOT APPLY
“WHAT? What manner of— Discrimination, that’s what this is!” The blue Alicorn bellowed.
Twilight just shook her head as she dragged her old friend out of the foyer and down the stairs towards the rest of the castle. Luna was shouting about how ‘death would not save them’ all the way down.
Spellbound leaned over and whispered into Ruby’s ear, “Which one was she?”
Ruby said nothing but pointed to the application on the top of the pile labeled ‘Possible Alicorn.’ He looked at the name field.
“She crossed out Princess Luna and wrote in... Moony Midnight. Really?”
“Really.”
Spellbound sighed. “Is it just me, or has the whole world gone crazy?”
Ruby Star turned and gave Spellbound a quick peck on the cheek. “It’s just you.”
“Cadence, your mane looks beautiful. It always looks beautiful, stop fretting about it.”
Princess Cadence turned her head and shot her husband a look.
He just stared back and blinked. “What?”
He knew he said something that upset her, but for the life of him, he didn’t know what it was. She turned back to the face the mirror on her vanity and went back to brushing her ethereal mane.
“Are you feeling okay, love?”
“No,” she said trailing off.
He watched as she pulled a gumball out of a nearby dish with her magic. It floated over and popped into her mouth. He grabbed one for himself and smiled at the flavor. He loved cotton candy.
“My stomach hurts. And I’m cranky. Why do you have to leave?”
Before he could answer, the clock on the wall chimed in the top of the hour and Cadence willed one of her brushes to slam into the flat top of her vanity. She spun around and looked at Shining Armor with fresh tears in her eyes.
“Please don’t go.” She begged.
Shining Armor sighed and walked over to hug his wife. She hugged him back with all her Alicorn strength. He winced painful. Thankfully, she released him and he crumpled to the floor.
“I’m sorry, love, but I have a job to do. I’m the only one that can judge those poor souls back in Tartarus and let them move on to the Elysian Fields.”
Cadence pouted as she scooped Shining Armor up off the floor with her wings. “But what’s another week? Stay with me for just a few more days, my love.”
Shining Armor screwed his courage to the sticking place, and looked the love of his life in the eyes. “I... I can’t. I’ve been away for too long as it is. Who knows what kind of trouble the demons have gotten... into...”
He lost track of his train of thought. He lost track of the tracks too. Cadence was nibbling on his ear in that way she did that made his mind go blank. She was also making the cute little chewing noises that made his legs flop about uselessly.
The door opened and an old mare stuck her head in. “Cadie, are you ready for breakfa—“
She stopped when she saw the Goddess of Love set about her craft with the intent and focus of a mare sending her stallion off to war. Not sparing another moment, she pulled her head back out and shut the door. Then she pulled a small flask out of her saddlebag with a wing.
“Can’t unsee that,” said Love Note as she twisted the cap off and lifted the container to her mouth.
Twilight was no longer dragging Luna by the time the two Princesses exited the Moon Tower and entered the Celestial Courtyard that stood between the two highest spires in Canterlot.
“I should have been more authoritative with Ruby Star from the beginning. The mare lacks discipline and respect. She was always one to skirt the very boundaries of what was and what was not appropriate behavior.”
Twilight rolled her eyes. “I know. That’s one of the reasons I hired her, Luna. The castle doesn’t need any more yesmares walking around. I thought a little bit of rebellion and free thinking was just what the doctor... Rarity?”
The two Alicorns stopped their walk as they approached the singular tree that stood in the center of Twilight’s side of the Celestial Courtyard. The tree that now housed five of the six Elements of Harmony. It was only missing one, and that one was around the neck of the Crystal Empress.
She turned and smiled sadly at her two old friends. “Hello.”
“Rarity, what are you doing here?” asked Twilight, “I thought you left yesterday to go back to the Crystal Empire.”
“I decided to stay for one more night and make up my mind.”
“Make up your mind? About what?”
“About what to do with this,” she said, pointing to the Element of Generosity hanging from her neck.
Twilight smiled. “Rarity, I told you that you’re more than welcome to take it with you. If we need it, we need you after all.”
“I know Darling, I know. It’s just that... Well something inside me is telling me to keep it with the others.”
Twilight’s ears flattened at her admission. “Are you hearing voices again?”
Rarity scoffed disarmingly. “Oh no, nothing like that,” she lied, “I just mean that I have this feeling, like I should keep them all together. What if Canterlot needs them again soon?”
Twilight blinked at her old friend. “But what if the Crystal Empire needs them? What if they’re needed in Trottingham or New Appleoosa?”
She walked over and gave her friend a reassuring nuzzle, trying her best to ignore the biting cold of their brief contact. “If there’s anything I learned last Saturday, it’s that it doesn’t matter where they are. When we need them, they’ll be there. That’s what friends are for.”
Rarity smiled at that. “You’re right Twilight. Thank you. In that case I think I shall take my leave.”
“Oh,” said Twilight suddenly, “Well, now that I think about it, Luna and I are on our way to see Celestia for some breakfast. Care to join us?”
“No thank you, Twilight. I just finished up a lovely picnic brunch with Spike here in the courtyard. He’s off returning the basket and dishes. Celestia made us quite the meal. There were even these little jam filled biscuits,” she said with her eyes sparkling. “Oh, they were simply divine!”
“You don’t say,” growled Twilight flatly.
“Twilight!” exclaimed an old familiar voice from down the packed dirt path back towards the rest of the castle. The Goddess of Magic turned, and all her grumbling was gone in a flash.
“Spike!”
She ran over and embraced the baby-sized dragon, who hugged her right back with all his stubby might. She hugged him and nuzzled him affectionately. And to her long standing surprise, he did not squirm or fight against it. The last few hundred years of living among his scaly and often traitorous kin had taught him to truly appreciate a good pony nuzzling.
They parted and Spike spoke up. “It’s good to see you, Twilight. It’s been too long, you know?”
“I do know Spike. I still can’t believe that you slept for almost a whole week.”
“Yeah, well...” he said, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly, “I blame the Beacon of Order. That jerk left me with one serious headache. What else could I do besides sleep it off?”
Twilight laughed a good natured laugh, mimicking his tone of voice “Oh, of course. What else could you have done?”
Spike sneered playfully, “Careful, you don’t know who you’re messing with. I’m a big dragon now, remember?”
Twilight nuzzled him again, “Oh Spike. You’ve always been my big dragon.”
Spike hugged her back and then turned to waddle over to Rarity. “Did you make a decision, Milady?” he asked with an adorable little bow.
“Yes Spike, I believe I have,” she said smiling at the two other mares. “I am ready to go.”
Spike stood back up, nodded, and ran back up the dirt road a ways. Before Twilight could ask what he was doing, Spike’s body began to shimmer and twist. Spike had long ago learned to control the transformative magics he inherited from Twilight when she hatched him.
Where once there was a diminutive purple and green baby dragon, really an overgrown lizard, there was now a slender and streamlined drake. His overall shape more closely resembled a draconequus, but with massive wings connected to proportionally huge pectoral muscles.
Like a snake homing in on its prey he turned his tremendous head to gaze at the three immortals he towered over and smiled a fang filled smile at them.
Twilight faced Rarity. “Spike’s leaving with you?”
Rarity nodded as the three ponies walked towards Spike. “He offered to fly me back to the Crystal Empire over brunch. Of course I said yes. How could anypony refuse such a gentlecolt?”
Once they reached him, he lowered himself to his armored belly and draped a wing down his side so Rarity could climb it like a staircase. Before she did so, she turned to look at the two other mares.
Reaching out for one last hug, she and Twilight embraced. “I’m not going to say goodbye, because this is not goodbye, Twilight Sparkle. More like a farewell or an au revoir. I know that we haven’t always seen eye to eye, but you are and always have been one of my dearest friends. Your open invitation to the Crystal Palace stands. You will visit soon, won’t you?”
Twilight nodded in silence, watching her few tears fall on Rarity’s coat and freeze on the spot.
They parted, and Rarity turned to address Luna, who stood a bit more stoically than usual, though the hint of a smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. They did not hug, but Rarity returned the gesture in kind.
“Princess Luna, my invitation extends to you as well. It has been far too long since I’ve had the pleasure of a proper viewing of the Moon from my Imperial Suite.”
Twilight cocked her head at that, but said nothing. Now wasn’t the time. Instead she smiled bittersweetly as she watched the living Element of Generosity climb onto Spike’s back and adjust her saddlebags so they wouldn’t fall off during flight.
Spike saluted one last goodbye and with a mighty flap, he and Rarity were off, bound for the Jewel of the North.
Princess Twilight Sparkle nodded her thanks to Bubbles and Buttercup as the two guardsmares opened the door for her and Princess Luna.
Luna stopped dead in her tracks and wrinkled her nose. “Ugh! Sister, must you make that wretched concoction again? Did you not make it last week as well? It’s like you hate me.”
Celestia did not answer her sister right away, but offered an apologetic smile as she turned back to the mare she was already in the middle of a conversation with. “I’m sorry Senator but I’m just not interested in your proposal,” she said.
Twilight’s attention was drawn to Luna’s horn lighting up. She watched as magic enveloped a lone pot of soup, boiling on one of the stovetops that lined the left wall.
This got Celestia’s attention. “Excuse me, Senator –Lulu, let go of that alfalfa soup right this instant! I’ve almost perfected the recipe.”
Princess Luna grimaced. “Tia, it smells like unwashed hooves and moldy hay. Why do you insist on making it?”
Celestia walked over to the pot and inspected its contents. A spoon floated over to her and dipped in, allowing her to taste her work. “Needs a dash of nutmeg,” she said absentmindedly with a nod.
“Tia, I’ll go no further until you get rid of that soup.”
Celestia furrowed her brow and sighed. “Fine. Fine.” The spoon, pot, and its contents poofed out of existence and a fresh pot was summoned into its place. As the ingredients for chocolate crème marched themselves through the air and into the vessel, Celestia walked back over to the Senator.
“Now is there anything else I can help you with Ms. Skies, or—”
“But it’s not fair!” said the dusky orange unicorn with a petulant stomp of her hoof, “The House of Commons has an Alicorn, why not join your betters in the Noble House?”
Celestia stared down in amazement at the Senator’s audacity. “Join my betters? I knighted the first of your noble line after a changeling invasion almost five hundred years ago. Grey Skies was a good stallion, noble in every sense of the word. I’ve watched you and your ilk turn your backs on everything he stood for over the last two hundred years. I wonder what he’d say about your actions today.”
Satin Skies puffed out her cheeks, “But... But you—“
“I’m not interested, and that’s my final word on the matter,” Celestia said as she turned back to her recipe. “You can leave now if you’d like, or you can pull a chef’s hat out of the pantry and help me make this cake.”
The Sun Goddess looked back where Satin Skies had been standing, but the spoiled mare was already gone. Instead she saw Twilight approach the pot of chocolate crème with a spoon.
“Twilight, that’s not for you. Your breakfast is over here.”
The hungry Princess frowned, but lowered the spoon and walked over to where Luna and Celestia were standing in the center of the kitchen.
When she reached the table that they were standing around, she saw a single small plate. On the plate was a caricature of Twilight Sparkle’s head, made of purple cabbage leaves, eggplant slices for eyes, a cherry tomato for the nose, and a carrot for a horn. The toothful smile on this breakfast nightmare was made of several carefully arranged corn kernels.
“My!” said Luna with a snicker. “Doesn’t that look delicious.”
Celestia beamed. “Oh Luna, I’m so glad to hear you say so,” a second plate was summoned to the small table, “Because I made one for you too! Bon appétit.”
It took every ounce of Twilight’s willpower to stop herself from laughing at the horrified look on Luna’s face. Instead she buckled down and went to work on her own plate, starting with the carrot.
Celestia, humming a happy little tune as she worked, went back to her cake order. Mixing a batch of dry ingredients by hoof as a dozen eggs cracked themselves into a whisking bowl beside her.
“So,” said Twilight, poking absentmindedly at the cherry tomato nose of her breakfast impostor. “Are you and Luna going to go into hiding again?”
Celestia stopped stirring her bowl and set it down on the counter. She looked up and away, out of the window on the far wall and stared out into the royal gardens. She always loved this view.
“You know we did it all for you and Cadence, don’t you Twilight?”
Twilight tsked dismissively. “Yeah right.”
Celestia turned to look at her former protégé. The mare that she gambled so much on, and gained so much from. She opened her mouth to speak, but Luna beat her too it.
“Tia and I wanted you two to live the lives you wanted to. She didn’t want you trapped in a gilded cage, like she was during my banishment. You have much to live for and much living left to do, Twilight Sparkle.”
“So you both left because it would free me? Equestria almost fell apart! There were riots. Ponies were seriously hurt and we almost had a Civil War!” Twilight slammed her hoof into the table, rattling the dishes that sat upon it.
She turned to face Celestia who was now looking back at her. “You tore down everything in the blink of an eye, and you expect me to believe that you did it all for me?”
“Yes.”
Twilight didn’t have an answer for that. Instead she turned back to her plate. She rearranged the corn ‘teeth’ that were knocked out of place by her attack on the table. After an uncomfortable silence, Twilight spoke again.
“Then why the charade? Why the hide and seek?”
Luna spoke again. “Make no mistake, Twilight Sparkle, we did not intend to leave when we did. Not at first. In the beginning, it was truly a game to us. But after the first week, we realized that we had an opportunity. One that we knew we’d never have again.”
“It was the second hardest decision I’ve ever made,” said Celestia looking at her dark blue sister.
“Did... Did you get my letters?” Asked Twilight, squeezing her eyes closed.
Celestia nodded and turned to look back out the window. “Yes. I’ve read and kept them all.”
“Dang, you girls need some serious therapy,” scoffed a new voice from the doorway, halfheartedly.
Twilight turned to see Cadence leaning against the doorframe, smiling a queasy smile. She looked awful, but she had a strange glow about her. The Goddess of Love took a step forward, but stumbled to her foreknees with a pained look on her face.
“Cadence!” shouted Twilight in alarm, “Are you okay?” she ran over to her sister-in-law.
Wide-eyed, Celestia tried to stop her. “Twilight, wait, it’s—”
But it was too late. Twilight ran face first into the worst thing that had ever happened to her in the last six days, as Cadence emptied the contents of her stomach where she stood.
“Morning sickness.” Celestia finished, wincing sympathetically.
Luna looked down at her plate and pushed it away from her with a dainty hoof.
“Where are we? Where’s Discord?” asked Smarty Pants, looking around at the unfamiliar trees around her. The scent of fallen leaves and the last few apples ripening on nearby trees filled her senses.
“I’d bet my horn that we’re near Sweet Apple Acres,” said Honeycrisp with her face scrunched up in concentration. “But I don’t recognize this road at all.”
Sandy pointed at a trio of mares approaching from up the road. “What if we ask those ponies? Maybe they’ll know how to get to the homestead,” she trotted off towards them.
Smarty Pants looked down the road and her eyes followed Sandy’s carefree walk towards the three ponies she pointed out. Then she blinked in utter shock. She recognized those three mares. She’d had their every feature memorized ever since she got her cutie mark.
Smarty Pants grabbed her cousin and stifled her complaints before they started with a hoof over her mouth. Then she tucked into a silent roll and the two ponies bounced into an adjacent bush.
“Pants! What are you—“
“Shh!” hissed Smarty Pants under her breath, her eyes watching the three mares keenly. Not bothering to look at her cousin, the little earthpony whispered back, “I think we’re in trouble.”
Then she turned Honeycrisp’s head with a free hoof so that the two girls were watching the same life-altering scene.
“Well shoot, Fluttershy. If there’s a stallion that makes your heart all a twitter, why not ask the feller out?”
“Oh no Applejack, I couldn’t do that,” said the particularly bashful pegasi.
The farm pony clicked her tongue against her teeth. Then she rolled her shoulders a bit to adjust the hitch on the empty cart she was pulling back to Sweet Apple Acres. She was determined to help her friend get this mystery stallion she’d been so worked up over for the last few weeks.
Or help her move on. Whichever it was, she didn’t rightly care, so long as Fluttershy was happy at the end of the day. She tried a different approach.
“I don’t see what the problem is, Sugarcube. I mean, it’s just like dealing with bears. They’re more afraid of you than you are of them.”
“But I’m not afraid of bears.”
“Then you shouldn’t be afraid of stallions, neither!” Applejack beamed, proud of her own flawless logic.
“She’s right you know, Fluttershy,” nodded Pinkie Pie. “You should march right on up to him and tell him that you’re the birdsong to his bee’s knees! The lock to his key! The whey to his cheese! The—”
“I think she get’s the point, Pinkie,” interupted Applejack.
“Yeah...” Fluttershy said, fidgeting apprehensively.
“Also, why won’t you tell us his name? Is it a secret? Is his name really silly like Chet or Bumbo and you’re afraid that all your friends will judge you? Does he even have a name?”
Before Fluttershy could answer, Pinkie Pie began to bounce in place, eyes wide and shouting out a more shocking realization.
“Oh! Does he not have a name because he’s a wild animal from the Everfree Forest that you found wounded, and then nursed him back to health and then your friendship blossomed into forbidden love and then your shared shame of that love drives the both of you further and further from the edge of sanity?”
Fluttershy stared at panting pink pony, with a blank expression and wide eyes. “He’s a regular stallion.”
“Oh.” Pinkie said dejectedly. “Well then is he coming to Twilight’s birthday party tonight?”
Fluttershy nodded uncomfortably.
“Great! I’ll— oh my gosh, look!” Pinkie Pie blurted suddenly, pointing at an unfamiliar green pegasus filly approaching them on the road.
The pink party pony ran up to Sandy and grabbed her hoof and began to shake it vigorously. “Hiya, I’m Pinkie Pie and I know everypony in Ponyville! But I don’t know you so that must mean that you’re not from Ponyville, or that you’re new to Ponyville, in which case allow me to—“
“Pinkie,” said Applejack.
“—ome you to Ponyville! Like I said I’m Pinkie Pie and this here’s Fluttershy and over there’s Applejack and w—“
“PINKIE PIE!” said the Element of Honesty a bit louder than she probably should have.
Pinkie looked over her shoulder at her friends. “Yes, Applejack?”
“You’re scaring the feathers off the poor thing.”
Pinkie Pie looked back down at the unknown green filly. She laid there on the ground, shivering with her fluttering wings spread to cover her face. She was curled up in a ball, with the exception of the one hoof that Pinkie Pie was still holding.
Fluttershy walked up and sat next to her pink friend. “Hi there, I’m Fluttershy. What’s your name?”
The green pegasus whimpered out a series of high-pitch noises.
“Oh, I think Sandy is a lovely name. Are you lost, Sandy?”
Sandy nodded and mumbled a few more words from under her wings.
“Two friends?” asked Fluttershy, looking up and away down the road.
Still hiding in a nearby bush, Smarty Pants shot a worried glance at Honeycrisp. “Oh yeah, we’re in trouble. We are in so much trouble.”