//------------------------------// // Charity // Story: Cutie Mark Charity // by Such A Chlorbag //------------------------------// Time had passed quickly, and before anypony knew it Saturday had come. The Crusaders spread the word to their relatives, and they spread it to their friends and family as well. By Saturday, everypony in Ponyville was aware of the charity and was out and about to see what the festivities were. The headmasters of the charity were Twilight Sparkle and her friends, and each had set up a booth to raise money for their respective causes. Twilight had a small booth set up that had obviously been made by Spike, due to its misspellings and all around mediocrity. A small filly walked up to the booth in order to talk to the unicorn. “Hey, little girl!” began Twilight. “Are you wanting to donate to our cause, the Student Pony Assistance Receptacle for Kreating Lifetime Egotism?” The little filly looked up at Twilight with large, unassuming eyes. “The… wha?” she asked. Twilight giggled. “The SPARKLE foundation!” “… That’s a stupid name.” Twilight’s ears flopped down. “Yeah, well… I didn’t make it up.” She looked over to Spike who was sitting on a barrel behind her and smiled proudly at his “genius” anagram. “Well…” the filly continued “what does it do?” Twilight raised her head up high and put on a smug face. “It is becoming much more expensive for students such as myself to afford to go to college or some alternative schooling. And so, I have decided to start a fund that would give some help to the genius ponies that wish to make more of themselves in the future.” The filly continued to stare. “That’s a stupid idea.” Twilight furrowed her brow, stood on her hind legs, slammed her forelegs on her booth, and leaned down to speak closer with the filly. “Do you wanna donate or not?” she asked, obviously becoming annoyed at the little girl. “Haha…. Nah” said the filly, who turned around and walked off to see the other booths. Twilight sighed and laid her hoof upon her cheek, dreading the long day that she knew she was bound to have. A few yards down from her was the Apple family booth, brilliantly labeled “Sweet Apple Acres Charity.” Since Applejack had to continue her work on the farm, the booth was headed by Apple Bloom, Granny Smith, and Big Macintosh. Behind them they had bushels of apples, stacks of apple pie, apple tarts, apple fritters, apple ice cream, jars of zap apple jam, a few select barrels of apple cider (with one set aside specifically for Rainbow Dash), apple tarts, apple crisps, and other assortments of apple based eateries. “Come one, come all, to the Sweet Apple Acres Charity booth!” Apple Bloom announced. “We gots a whole bunch o’ apple foods fer ya to try, and all of the money goes to feedin’ the starvin’ throughout Equestria! An’ y’all can count on us, right Granny Smith?” She nudged Granny Smith in the ribs, who awoke form her nap startled and confused, but still managed to promote the group quite well. “Er, uh, yes! That’s right, lil’ Applefritter! Y’all can count on Sweet Apple’s quality and care in our products! We’re not just another flim flam out to get your money! We’ve been ‘round since… oh, well, Ah was a little girl, and so that must’ve been before the great mushroom-“ Apple Bloom interrupted before her grandmother could get out of hand. “Uh, yeah! What mah granny said! We have the best apples in the business! An’ if we raise enough money, we’ll even have Big Macintosh over here put on a little dance for y’all.” “Eeeeeeeee-WHAT?” Next to the Apple family was Rarity and Sweetie Belle’s booth. It comprised of a long windowed compartment with a long line of jeweled clothing, masks, beads, and scarfs all prepared for Masquerade. The two sisters stood outside and smiled at the strangers that walked by. “Rarity…” said Sweetie Belle through her smile. “When are ponies gonna start buying from us?” While maintaining her smile as well, Rarity said “In time, Sweetie Belle! As I always say, fashion cannot be simply rushed! We just need a pony with the right eye to come by and realize how stunning my work is!” As if on cue, Pinkie Pie arose from the floor in front of Rarity until their noses were touching, causing her to scream and fall backwards. “Hi Pinkie Pie!” greeted Sweetie Belle. “Hi Sweetie Belle! Hi Rarity!” responded Pinkie Pie with a meter wide smile. “Gee Rarity, I know the dirt is fun to roll around in, but I didn’t know you like doing that kind of thing! Let me join you!” Pinkie slammed down on the ground next to Rarity and stuck her tongue out when the unicorn gave her a scornful look. Rarity quickly got back up and dusted herself off. “Really Pinkie, how can you handle being so hyper all the time?” Surprisingly, Pinkie was already up by the time Rarity had risen, causing her to emit a small yelp. “Well, it’s actually pretty easy. See, I wake up in the morning and have some hot chocolate, with extra chocolate, OH, and extra hot too! Then I do my calisthenics with Gummy. Boy, does that alligator know how to stretch! Then I go downstairs and help the Cakes out with Pound Cake and Pumpkin Cake. Sigh… they sure do grow up fast, don’t they? THEN, I have a few cupcakes, serve a few customers, have a few more cupcakes, help Twilight with her theories in quantum physics, maybe have a couple of cookies, and-“ “That was a rhetorical question, Pinkie Pie!” interjected Rarity. Pinkie stopped and opened her eyes wide. “Oh… right…” Sweetie Belle, who was laughing through the whole ordeal, looked up at Pinkie Pie and said “Gee, Pinkie Pie, you sure are random!” Pinkie looked at the filly and smirked. “Well… I try” she said with a wink. “So, Pinkie Pie” said Rarity, taking control of the conversation, “what do you think about my new fashion line?” She gestured to her masquerade themed clothing behind the glass, to which Pinkie Pie stood with mouth ajar. “OoooooOOoooh, Rarity, they’re beautiful! I could totally see myself in that! Oooh! And that one too!” Pinkie Pie pressed her face up against the glass and began to ogle all of the dresses. “Why thank you, Pinkie Pie! Care to buy one?” “No.” “Oh… well then… Uh, still, can you believe that this pinnacle of fashion was turned down by Masquerade himself? Pinkie Pie turned to Rarity and gasped quite loudly. “NOT MASQUERADE! Also… who’s Masquerade?” Rarity planted her hoof to her face and closed her eyes. “Uh… Pinkie Pie… don’t you have a charity to attend to as well?” When she opened her eyes, she found that Pinkie Pie was no longer in front of her, or anywhere in sight for that matter. “I-uh, huh?” “Over here, Rarity!” Rarity looked across the street to see that Pinkie Pie had somehow set up a vaudevillian stage in the middle of the charity, full with a curtain in the back. Pinkie was standing on her hind legs with a record in her hoof. “Hi there everypony!” she shouted into the crowd. “Welcome to the Smile charity! What I have here in my hoof is a record of all of my greatest hits, plus a few more tossed in for an added bonus. “ Rarity walked up to the stage with a confused look on her face. “Pinkie Pie… what is all this?” Ignoring her, Pinkie Pie continued. “Every bit that goes for these records is given to the Make a Note foundation, helping schools fund their music departments! Isn’t that fun?” “Well…” said Rarity, “it’s much more important than I would have thought.” Sweetie Belle walked next to her sister and looked up at Pinkie Pie. “I’ll say! I think music is really important! I love singing!” Pinkie Pie continued to describe her product. “That’s right folks. We got ‘Giggle at the Ghostie,’ we got ‘Grand Galloping Gala,’ ‘Bareback,’ ‘Evil Enchantress,’ ‘Dig a Pony,’ ‘Wild Pinkie Pie,’ and all the rest! Pick it up right here, or fill out an order to have it sent by… pony express! Heeheehee!” Rarity groaned at the bad pun. “Come, Sweetie Belle. We’re going back to our booth now.” As the two walked away, Pinkie Pie took notice and began to call out to them. “What’s wrong, Rarity? Don’t like the pony express?” Rarity kept on walking. “You know, if you keep making me yell like this, my voice might get a little… hoarse! Haha! Get it? HOARSE! Ahhhh…. I’ll stop now, only ‘cause I don’t want to cause any horseplay and have to call the foalice! HaHA! Somepony stop me!” A while down was Rainbow Dash’s booth, which was only a table with a jar on it for donations. Rainbow was standing on the table calling out to those that passed. “Hey, you there!” she said to a random pony. “You wanna be awesome? And I mean cooler than being cool? And I mean ice cold? Then donate to my charity!” The stallion became intrigued and walked up to Rainbow Dash. “Well, uh… what does it go to?” Rainbow Dash gave him a cocky smile and flared her wings. “Only the most important charity that you’ll ever see in your life. My charity supplies books to hospitals, mostly filly’s hospitals, for the patients to read. I call it: Reading Rainbow! Clever, huh?” The stallion deadpanned. “Extremely. Bet nopony’s ever thought of that before.” Rainbow put her hooves to her cheeks. “I know! Aren’t I awesome?!” “Sure. Have five bits.” He took out his wallet and tossed five coins into her jar. “Oh, uh, thanks! And remember to tell your friends: with Reading Rainbow, you can be anything!” “I’ll be sure to remind them” he said before walking off. A few minutes later, everypony’s favorite mail pegasus walked up to Rainbow’s booth. “Uh, hi Rainbow Dash!” she said to her friend. “Oh, hi Derpy! How are you?” responded Rainbow Dash. Derpy took out a clutch bag and poured twenty bits into Rainbow’s jar. “I wanted to help out with your charity!” Rainbow gave a thankful chuckle at the surplus of coins flowing into her jar. “Wow! Thanks a lot! That’ll buy at least twenty books!” Putting away her clutch bag, Derpy looked back up at Rainbow and smiled. “Anything to help a good cause, Rainbow Dash! I sure do love books!” “You do?” asked Rainbow Dash. “Nope!” A middle aged mare walked up to the booth and stood next to Derpy. “Hello, ma’am. What would this charity be going for?” Rainbow Dash looked to her and politely said “Well, my charity goes for helping all the little fillies in hospitals get some good books to read!” “Oh, how nice.” “Yeah, go Rainbow Dash!” shouted Derpy. The mare turned to the gray pegasus and tilted her head. “Oh my, you sure are energetic, aren’t you? What’s your name, young mare?” “I’m Derpy!” she replied, eyes crossed. “Derpy?” the mare responded. “Well, I must say, I find that name offensive little girl!” Derpy lowered her posture and looked to the ground, obviously feeling guilty and upset. “Oh… I’m sorry.” “Hey lady!” shouted Rainbow Dash. “Yes?” she replied. “Go suck a lemon.” Finally, a few yards down was an empty booth that was created from a hollowed out tree trunk. Hiding behind it was Fluttershy, looking at herself in a puddle of water that had formed around some foliage. “You can do this Fluttershy” she said to herself. “Be more assertive, like Masquerade said… as long as it doesn’t hurt anypony… or frighten them… or make them angry…” Before she could talk herself out of the situation, she stormed to the front of her booth with a determined look on her face. An old stallion was walking by her booth as she happened to point somepony out. “Excuse me, sir!” she shouted over to the pony. “Would you like to donate to PETA? That is… Ponies for the Ethical Treatment of Animals?” “Um, excuse me?” asked the stallion. “I am involved with animals every day, so I know that donating to their good will is a meaningful charity.” Fluttershy smiled and batted her eyes, trying to play the cuteness factor for a donation. The stallion thought for a moment. “I… I think I’ll pass, young mare. I have other donations that I was planning on making today.” And with that he began to walk away, leaving Fluttershy standing alone, thinking about the next step she should take. Assertive. “Um, excuse me sir!” she called out to the stallion as she walked up to him. “I really think you should donate to my charity. It’s for the greater good.” The stallion gave a disgruntled face to her and shooed her off. “I told you, I want to donate to other charities!” He turned away from her again and started to walk off. Fluttershy grabbed his shoulder and forced him to turn around. “No, I really, really think you should donate.” Her gaze fixated on him, and the poor stallion ended up in one of Fluttershy’s “stares” that the animal kingdom was so afraid of. “Oh. S-s-s-s-s-sure” muttered the stallion. He pulled out a wallet and handed ten bits to Fluttershy. “J-just take them.” After she took the coins from him he cautiously backed off into the crowd, hoping that she wouldn’t follow. Still staring in his direction, Fluttershy’s stare turned into a bright smile. “Thank you!” she called out before turning back to her booth to hassle the next passerby. ooo As the hours flew by, ponies went through the charity and each booth got some donations, albeit not as much as they had hoped. After a while Twilight and her friends began to become weary of the long task they still had ahead of them. Twilight groaned as she slammed her face against the desk that is her booth. “Spike…” she began, “this was a horrible idea! We haven’t even gotten ten donations.” Spike, who was blatantly napping on the barrel he was sitting on, was startled awake by Twilight’s complaining. “Hey, it’s not my fault! You were the one who said you wanted to ‘do something… for the children, Spike’!” he mimicked. “Mmmmm” mumbled Twilight as she wiped her face along the table. “No I didn’t.” Spike hopped off the barrel, placed his index fingers to his thumbs to mimic sophistication, and spoke in the best girly voice he could muster. “Oh Spike,” he began, “I really, really want to do something for the ponies that are as smart and as talented as me! Oh, books, books, Princess Celestia, books, books!” Twilight chuckled as she picked up her head and looked back at him. “That sounds nothing like me!” “You know, Spike, if I could marry a book, I would!” he continued. “In fact, if it weren’t for the stud of a dragon I have to take care of me, I would probably marry an encyclopedia right now!” “Hehe… Spike!” “We’d have a child… call it George.” “You’re so funny!” Twilight said sarcastically. “You’re the one who’s laughing.” Twilight hopped off of her stool and walked up to Spike. In the deepest voice she could, Twilight said “Oh, Rarity! How I love you so! If I could show you all of the drawings I drew of us together, I would.” “Hey!” said Spike. “How’d you know about that?” Twilight began to walk in a circle around the stationary baby dragon. “Alas, it cannot be! For you… are a pony! And I… am a lowly dragon!” Spike furrowed his brow. “Hey, she totally has it out for me! You just can’t see it!” “Maybe if I use that weight set I hide under my pile of toys I could buff up enough for her to swoon all over me!” “Wha? I… no!” “And I don’t even know that my guardian keeps tabs on me all the time! How sad…” Spike grinded his teeth in frustration. “I hope she didn’t notice that dream I had last night where I called out Rarity’s name out loud and began to kiss her.” “I WHAT?” ”Smoochie smoochie smoo!” “Stop that!” “Smoochie smoochie!” “Twilight!” “Smoo!” “It’s not funny anymore!” Twilight stopped circling Spike in order to come face to face with him and whisper clearly. “Maybe if you put on that cute wittle sailor suit she made for you that you hide in your closet. That might do the trick.” Spike threw his hands in the air and walked off. “Jeez, Twilight! Give me some privacy, will ya?” Twilight couldn’t help but laugh at her little joke. As he walked off, Twilight called out to him. “Don’t worry, Spike! I think she likes guys with a little anger in them!” She proceeded to laugh some more as he rounded the corner, until she turned around and saw a unicorn filly looking up at her. “Oh! I’m sorry little one!” Twilight said. “How long have you been standing there?” The filly looked up with her bright blue eyes and said “Long enough to see you hurt your friend’s feelings…” Twilight scoffed. “I didn’t hurt his feelings. We’re just messing around!” “Oh…” said the filly, who then looked at the ground and began to play with a rock using her hoof. “Um… are you wanting to donate to the SPARKLE foundation?” asked Twilight. The filly looked up and nodded. She walked up to the counter and placed five bits on it. “I… I want to go to a good school when I grow up… I figured this would be a good place to start.” Twilight, intrigued, bent down closer to the filly. She noticed her cute tuft of dark blue hair, blue eyes, and blue coat. “What’s your name, sweetie?” “I’m Starlight” she replied. “Starlight…” said Twilight with a smile. “I like that name.” Starlight nodded. “I do too. My mommy said that I reminded her of Princess Luna, so she named me Starlight in honor of her. I think Luna is really pretty.” “I do too” said Twilight. “Tell me, what do you want to do after going to school?” Starlight smiled in excitement. “Well… I’ve always wanted to be a doctor!” ooo In the Apple family booth, Granny Smith and Big Macintosh had decided to take a nap for the duration of the charity. Not that it mattered much, as Apple Bloom hadn’t made a sale in over an hour. “Come on!” she shouted to no one in particular. “Does nopony want apples or apple based products no more?” “That’s a stupid question” said a voice from above. Apple Bloom looked up from her duties to see Rainbow Dash flying circles overhead. “Apples are Ponyville’s main export. Of course the townspeople are gonna get tired of them eventually.” “So you don’t want any cider, is what you’re sayin’?” asked Apple Bloom. Rainbow touched down in front of the booth and flaunted her wings. “Of course I do! Doesn’t mean I’m not right.” She quickly grabbed a barrel of cider and hungrily chugged it in front of Apple Bloom. “Why are you over here?” asked Apple Bloom, disgusted. Rainbow Dash set down the barrel and wiped her mouth. “Well, the way I see it, you’re not serving any customers. So… I figured I’d take anypony over here and… direct them my way.” “You wanna steal mah potential customers?” asked Apple Bloom. “But y’all’re doin’ so well already!” Rainbow chuckled. “Yeah… I know.” With that she took to the air and looked down at the ponies in front of the Acre charity. “Hey everypony! Enough of these lame-o charities tryin’ to squander money from you! Come over to mine if you really want to make a difference!” She flew over to her booth and set down, smiling at the large group of ponies heading towards her. “Hey!” shouted Apple Bloom. “Y’all can’t do that!” “Yeah!” said another voice from behind the crowd. Rainbow Dash and Apple Bloom turned to see Pinkie Pie at the end of her stage looking directly at the Reading Rainbow booth. “Dashie! You can’t steal our customers!” Rainbow Dash looked at the three jars filled with coins that lay on her table. “Gee, Pinkie, I beg to differ!” Pinkie furrowed her brow. “Do you know how hard it is to make a record? They haven’t invented ways to make this easy!” She held up her “Smile” record to prove her point. “I’ve sold barely enough as it is! You’re going to have to make me sing and dance for everypony, aren’t you?” Rainbow started flipping coins between her hooves. “Knock yourself out.” Rarity sighed. “Well, Sweetie Belle… there goes the peace and quiet.” Pinkie disappeared behind the stage’s curtain for a moment, only to emerge wearing her saloon girl outfit she wore in Appleloosa a few years back. As she walked to the front of the stage, she heard numerous cat calls coming from the male audience, causing her to blush. “We may be divided But of you all I beg To remember we’re all hooved At the end of each leg” “Pinkie, please!” shouted Rarity. “You gotta share You gotta care This is for you, Rainbow Dash You gotta share You gotta ca-“ “Pinkie Pie!” screamed Rarity. “I’ve had enough of your annoyance today! Your booth is much too close to Sweetie Belle and I’s, so I insist on you keeping quiet!” Sweetie Belle looked up at her sister. “I don’t mind. I like it when Pinkie sings!” “I do too, Sweetie Belle,” said Rarity, “but we’ve only sold half of my clothing line. I’d like to sell all of it by the end of the charity.” Pinkie Pie continued. “When I was a little filly and the sun was going down” “Ugh!” moaned Rarity. “See what you started, Rainbow Dash?” she shouted across the way. Rainbow laughed and laid back on a cloud she had brought down. “Sounds like sweet, sweet music to me!” “Hey Rainbow Dash!” a voice called from below her cloud. Rainbow peeked over to see Scootaloo eagerly watching her from the ground. Rainbow Dash smiled as she rolled off and landed next to the filly. “Hey kid!” she said. “What’s up?” All of a sudden Scootaloo looked nervous and broke a sweat. “Uh… well… I don’t have a charity set up… don’t really have anypony to set one up with, so… uh… I was thinking… maybe…” Rainbow wrapped her wing around Scootaloo and brought her in tight. “Kid, you’re always welcome to hang with me. Especially if you’re planning to help!” Scootaloo beamed as Rainbow Dash let her out from beneath her wing. The two hopped up on the table and began shouting out to the crowd once again. Which was when Fluttershy came up to their table and caught their attention. “Hey!” she called. Rainbow Dash looked down at Fluttershy and raised an eyebrow. “Uh… hey?” she asked, surprised at Fluttershy’s tone. “Would you mind… um… being quiet, please? I mean… you stole my customers too, and I really don’t appreciate it.” “Psssh!” said Rainbow Dash. “Like anypony would donate to you anyways! You take care of our animals just fine! We don’t need to donate to some organization!” Fluttershy furrowed her brow. “I said… be quiet. You’re ruining my business!” “Woah, hold on there!” said Rainbow Dash. “Business is business, don’t take it personal!” “Don’t make me give you the stare!” Rainbow Dash scoffed. “Are you threatening me, Fluttershy?” Scootaloo hopped off the table and stood in between the two. “Hey, guys! Maybe we should calm down.” “Shut up!” shouted Fluttershy, to the surprise of the two pegasi. “Fluttershy?” asked Scootaloo. “I… I refuse to be pushed around. I’m going to be assertive” she replied. “’Cause that worked so well last time” said Rainbow Dash under her breath. Fluttershy’s face began to turn red. “That was different. I… now it’s different. I’m stronger than that.” “If you’re stronger” interjected Scootaloo “then maybe you shouldn’t be taking stuff out on us.” Fluttershy did just that. “Why don’t you go fly off somewhere? Oh wait, you can't!” Scootaloo instantly became self-conscious and looked ashamed. Rainbow Dash, on the other hand, became very red in the face as anger spread over her. Fluttershy cringed. “That… that was too much. I-I-I- I’m sorry, Scootaloo. I don’t know what I’m doing, and-“ “How dare you!?” shouted Rainbow Dash. She walked up to Fluttershy and jabbed her in the chest, forcing her to fall back on her back. “I don’t want to hear you ever, EVER, talk that way to anypony again! You hear me?” Rainbow’s yelling had caused the entirety of the charity to stop what they were doing and look over at her. “Scootaloo is young, okay?” she asked, jabbing Fluttershy in the chest again. “If I remember correctly, you weren’t too good at flying yourself when you were her age!” Fluttershy had begun to sob. “I-I’m sorry! I didn’t mean- I didn’t want- I…” “Whoever it is you’re trying to be, Fluttershy, it’s the opposite of who you are! You’re not a bully, Fluttershy. Why are you acting like this?” Fluttershy wiped her eyes and looked at Scootaloo. “I… a few days ago… a stallion said things to me… things that were true. He said I’d never make it in the real world unless I… Unless I pushed ponies around a bit more, instead of taking orders all of the time. But Scootaloo… I never meant to say something like that before… honestly, I… I’m so sorry.” Rainbow Dash extended a hoof to Fluttershy, who took it and stood back up. “Fluttershy,” Rainbow began, “you’re my oldest friend. We’ve known each other since we were… what, four? And I always thought you were so awesome because you were nice to everypony. Not just the ones that were nice to you… but the mean ones too. I always admired your ability to do that. And now… you’re letting some random guy define who you are? That’s not you! What’s wrong with you?” Fluttershy shrugged. Rainbow Dash continued. “I don’t want a Fluttershy that pushes ponies around. Sure, you can stand up for yourself when you’re being bullied. Hey, that’s what I’m all about! But you can’t let others get to who you really are. You can’t let others change you.” “I know” replied Fluttershy. “Scootaloo… can you ever forgive me?” Scootaloo nodded her head and gave Fluttershy a small smirk. “Well… I guess so. I’m sure you didn’t mean it.” Fluttershy turned around to see Twilight, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, Granny Smith, Big Macintosh, and Spike all smiling at her. Twilight came out of the crowd to walk next to Fluttershy. “I think we’ve all had enough of this charity” Twilight said, to which everypony nodded with agreement. “It seems we all forgot that it wasn’t about how much money we each gained, it was about helping the community through donations and awareness.” Rainbow Dash guiltily scratched the back of her head. “Yeah, all this money might have gone to my head a bit.” Rarity nodded. “I suppose I don’t have to sell all of my attire. Although I did spend… quite a while on them.” She feigned a sniff. “And I guess the reason I didn’t sell many albums” said Pinkie Pie “is because I did annoy a lot of the customers. I guess I should tone down the crazy sometimes, huh?” Fluttershy sighed. “And I… I did horrible things just to prove myself. I’m sorry everypony.” “Well we didn’t do nothin’!” interjected Apple Bloom, causing everypony to look her way. “We fillies were the ones that make this whole thing up, and we did it just like Ms. Cheerilee told us!” “We’re sorry, Apple Bloom” said Twilight. “We need to remember that charities are about the ponies we want to help, not the amount of money.” She looked over at Starlight and smiled, causing the small unicorn to wave at her. Sweetie Belle smiled. “Sounds like a pretty good letter to Princess Celestia!” “Already got it down” said Spike, coming out from the crowd with a quill and scroll in his claws. “I also added in the Fluttershy being herself, the Pinkie Pie being appropriate, and the Rainbow Dash not ruining stuff for everypony.” Spike then stretched exaggeratedly in order to show off. “Yeah… no need to thank me.” Everypony rolled their eyes as Spike threw the letter into the air and set it aflame, causing it to swirl in midair and fly off to the Princess’s Palace. Twilight turned back to the group and said “Alright everypony, let’s get this whole thing cleaned up.” The other ponies nodded and all turned to their respective booths. Spike put his hand to his stomach as he and Twilight began to walk back. “Ugh… I don’t feel so hot.” Just then he belched and a letter formed in front of him. “Oh, hey! It’s a letter from the princess!” Twilight stopped so Spike could dictate what was written. “Dear Twilight Sparkle, I regret to inform you that your hometown of Canterlot is…. Under attack?” “WHAT?”