The Mystery of a New World

by Fanthrose


Specters of the past

Chapter 19

Twilight yawned as she woke up. She rubbed her eyes with her forelegs before opening them. It was still dark out, probably about three in the morning if she had to guess. She wanted to go back to bed, but nature was calling.

She got out of bed and slowly made her way to the door. In her sleepy state she stumbled over her hooves and face planted into the door. Rubbing her muzzle she used her magic on the door. She almost forgot where she was when she looked out into the hallway. She shook some of the cobwebs from her head so she could get her bearings. Using the light of her horn she made her way to the bathroom.

Once that was taken care of Twilight decided to make her way down to the kitchen to get a glass of water before returning to bed. Being more aware of her surroundings now, Twilight made it down the stairs no problem. She gave herself silent praise for not collapsing down the stairs before going to the kitchen.

That’s when she heard something. ‘What’s that? It sounds like…crying?’ she thought to herself. As she listened a bit more closely she could tell it was coming from the living room. There was only one pony who would be in the living room right now. Since Twilight’s old room was the only available bedroom left in the house, AJ opted to sleep on the couch.

Twilight quietly made her way into the living room. The crying got louder as she got closer to the couch. As she reached the front of the couch she saw that it was indeed AJ who was crying. With the soft glow of Twilight’s horn she could see the matted hair on his cheeks and the fairly large wet spot on his pillow. His eyes were clenched shut as his entire body quivered. At some point he had tossed the blanket off of himself in his sleep. “AJ?” Twilight asked in a quiet voice. “AJ, are you Okay?

“Daddy?”

Twilight was taken aback by this. ‘Daddy? Is he…dreaming?’

“Daddy, please I didn’t mean it. I’m sorry daddy, please don’t go. Don’t leave us daddy.” AJ started shaking even more as the nightmare seemed to get worse. Twilight could only sit there as AJ’s mind seemed to emotionally tear him apart. “Don’t do it daddy, please.” Suddenly AJ’s entire body tensed up. “NOOOOO!!!!!” He began thrashing around uncontrollably nearly striking Twilight forcing her to back up.

Twilight had to act fast. If she didn’t stop him he was going to end up hurting himself. Using her magic she bound all of his legs to keep him from hitting her. She placed her hooves on AJ’s shoulders and started lightly shaking him. “AJ, wake up! Snap out of it! It’s just a dream!”

AJ’s eyes shot open. As he stared up he could see Twilight looking down at him with both concern and fear in her eyes. “T-t-twilight?” He slowly stopped resisting Twilight’s bindings; his body going limp.

Seeing that AJ was now starting to calm down Twilight undid her magical binds. AJ’s body slowly curled up into a ball; burying his head as he continued to cry. Twilight sat in front of the couch rubbing his back trying to help him calm down. “Don’t worry, everything’s fine now.”

“Twilight, is everything Okay down here?” Twilight looked over to see her dad was now standing at the bottom of the stairs looking on in concern. “I heard all the yelling, what’s going on?”

“I’m not sure,” Twilight said as she looked back down at AJ. “I came down to get a glass of water when I heard some crying. He kept talking about his dad when he suddenly screamed.”

Night light walked over and sat next to Twilight. “Maybe he just misses his dad. Do you know where he lives? We could send him a letter. Let him know that AJ misses him."

Twilight looked down, the sadness clear in her face. Twilight had been there when Luna asked about his family. AJ had even showed her the grave he had made when she asked at a later date. Though she found it odd that he refused to give anypony any specific details about what happened. He even refused any information to Luna. “We can’t.”

“Why not?” Night Light asked in confusion. “It wouldn’t be hard at all.”

“You can’t send something to somepony who’s dead.”

“Oh.” Night Light suddenly felt awful as he looked at AJ. He had cried himself to sleep and was lightly snoring. “Do you think he’ll be alright?”

“I don’t know. For his sake I hope so.” Twilight levitated the blanket off the floor and back onto AJ.

Night Light nuzzled Twilight. “Don’t stay up too late.” Twilight watched her dad walk back up the stairs.

Twilight breathed a heavy, exhausted sigh. She got up and headed into the kitchen to get some water. As she got to the bottom of the stairs she took another glance at AJ before walking back up; only to come back down a minute later with her pillow and blanket in tow.

She brought them over and placed them in front of the couch. She looked at AJ and brushed some hair out of his face. “You need to talk to somepony about this. It’s tearing you apart,” Twilight whispered before laying her head down. It wasn’t long before she was once again asleep.

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

Ditzy woke up to the smell of breakfast wafting into her room. She gave a great big yawn and stretched before heading downstairs. The smell got even stronger as she reached the bottom of the steps. “Hey wait, I know that smell.”

“I sure hope so. Your mother was more than happy to give us the recipe,” Maxie said as he came out of the kitchen. “I was just about to come get you. Breakfast is just about ready, and I wasn’t about to let you sleep through it.”

Ditzy smiled as she took in the scent of her mom’s special French toast. “I haven’t had mom’s French toast in so long.” It was always her favorite breakfast when she was a filly. She didn’t even realize she was drooling.

Maxie was holding back his laughter as he went to grab a napkin. “Honey, take this. You’re drooling.” Ditzy blushed in embarrassment as she took the napkin and dabbed up the drool, giggling all the while. “ Come on, Star’s probably waiting for us.”

They walked into the kitchen just as Star placed a big plate piled high with French toast on the table. “About time you got up. I thought Maxie and I would have had to eat all of this by ourselves.”

Maxie raised his eyebrow as he looked at Star. “Excuse me? Are you trying to make me fat? I thought you liked how I look?”

“Oh Maxie, you know I love how you look,” Star said as he tried his hardest to backpedal.

Maxie got an evil grin. “Or maybe you’d like a little more ‘cushion’ back here, hmm?” he said as he teased Star with his tail, wiggling his rump as he did. Both Ditzy and Star’s faces burned with blush at the implication Maxie had just made. Maxie just laughed at the two.

“OKAY!!! Why don’t we eat hmm? Sounds great!” Star loudly said in an attempt to derail the conversation. He wanted to change it to something a little less ‘private.’ “So Ditzy, were you going with Maxie after breakfast? Or do you want to surprise your parents when they get here?”

Ditzy thought for a moment as Maxie placed some French toast on her plate. “I think I’ll surprise them here. It’ll give me some time to make myself presentable.”

“Oh honey, you know they won’t care what you look like. Just seeing you again will make them happy,” Maxie said with a caring smile.

“I know, but I haven’t seen them in so long. I want this to be special.”

A tear came to Maxie’s eye as he got up to hug Ditzy. “That’s so sweet. Oh Star, I hope our foal will be like Ditzy.”

Ditzy was, once again, confused. “Your foal, are you adopting?”

Star facehoofed. “That’s right, we didn’t tell you. Well Maxie and I really wanted a foal of our own, but there was the obvious problem. We thought it over for a long time, and decided we’d look for a surrogate mother. Maxie’s best friend Buttercup Blossom was more than happy to accept.”

“She’s four months along.” Maxie started clapping his hooves together. “Eeeeeee I can’t wait!”

With a bright smile, Ditzy hugged Maxie who was still next to her. “Congratulations!”

Star smiled to himself as he watched them celebrate. He was glad Ditzy and Maxie were getting along so well. “I have an idea. Maxie, why don’t I go get Ditzy’s parents, while you help Ditzy get ready. I know you’ll be able to make her beautiful for her parents.”

Maxie thought for a moment. “How about it Ditzy, would you like some help getting ready?”

“I would like that.”

“Eeeee girl time!” Maxie cheered, clapping his hooves together again.

“Alright, alright, let’s finish breakfast first. Afterwards you two can go have fun.” Star said with a laugh.

The three of them had a nice breakfast. Ditzy made sure to eat her fill, almost eating as much as Star. She put a hoof to her mouth as she let out a little burp. “Excuse me,” she said slightly embarrassed.

Maxie giggled at this. “My, my. Somepony must have been hungry.”

“I’m sorry. It was just soo good I couldn’t help myself,” Ditzy said trying to defend herself.

“Oh honey, no need to apologize. That just means Star did good.” Maxie nodded to Star.

“It would be hard not to. Your mother wrote very detailed instructions when she gave me the recipe.” Star said as he started cleaning up.

Maxie took the plates from Star. “Don’t worry about cleaning up. We’ll take care of it. Between the two of us it shouldn’t take too long. You just worry about getting Ditzy’s parents over here.”

“Alright. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” Star gave Maxie a quick kiss before heading for the door.

“Don’t rush too much, we’ll need time to get ready,” Maxie called out. When he heard the door close, Maxie turned to Ditzy with an excited smile. “We, are going to have soo much fun today. Now, why don’t you tell me a bit more about this coltfriend of yours.”

Ditzy felt her face heat up. “H-he’s not my coltfriend!”

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

Night Light woke up to find Twilight sleeping on the floor and AJ, while awake, was just laying there staring forward with a blank look on his face. The events of the early morning ran through his head. Maneuvering around Twilight he sat in front of AJ in an attempt to get his attention. “Hey, how are you doing? Are you going to be okay?” Night Light got no response. AJ didn’t even look at him, he just kept staring forward. “Come on, you can tell me anything.” Same thing.

Twilight woke up when she heard her dad speak. “Huh, what’s going on?”

Night Light turned his head. “Oh, sorry for waking you.”

Twilight got up to stretch; her spine could be heard cracking as she did. “How’s he doing?”

Night Light looked back to AJ. “Umm, better? He’s no longer crying if that’s what you’re wondering, but…” He motioned to AJ who still hasn’t moved.

Twilight sat down next to her dad. “He hasn’t moved at all?”

“Not since I’ve come down.” Night Light sighed. “I should go get breakfast started.” Before getting up he placed his hoof on AJ’s shoulder. “If you need somepony to talk to, don’t be afraid to ask.”

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

After they finished with the dishes, Maxie all but dragged Ditzy upstairs to begin the pampering. He washed and styled Ditzy’s mane, leaving the blond locks shining and curling around her ears and neck. Maxie gently parted her bangs and placed the locks in a pretty clip that sat beside her ear, making it seem as if she had couple of jasmine blossoms sitting in her mane. Her tail was soon matching and the two spoke candidly as Maxie applied a little bit of eyeliner and mascara to bring out the natural amber of Ditzy’s eyes.

They heard the door open just as Maxie was getting ready to start a hooficure . Multiple voices could be heard downstairs. Maxie looked at the clock and realized an hour and a half had passed since Star had left. “Oh goodness, where did the time go! They’re here!” Maxie proclaimed excitedly. “Okay, you just wait up here, I’ll call you down.”

“Umm, Okay,” Ditzy said as she watched Maxie trot out of the room.

Maxie came down to stairs to see Star talking to an amethyst earth pony mare with a blue mane and a grayish blue pegasus stallion with a blond mane. “Nimbos, Amethyst you made it!” Maxie rushed over and hugged Amethyst.

“Maxie, it’s so good to see you again,” Amethyst said returning the hug. “It’s been awhile since we’ve gotten together.”

“Well we haven’t really had the chance,” Nimbos added. “Especially after the malfunction a while back, they’ve been keeping us busy at the Cloudsdale Weather Factory making sure that doesn’t happen again.”

Star nodded. “Yea, we heard about that. Apparently Ponyville got pretty devastated by that storm.”

“At least nopony was seriously injured,” Amethyst said with a sigh. “I hope.”

“You hope?” Star asked.

Nimbos put a hoof around his wife’s withers. “We haven’t gotten a letter from Ditzy since the storm.”

Amethyst nodded. “It’s not the first time this has happened, but after something like that it would have been nice to hear from her. I hope she’s Okay.”

Maxie had a bright smile on his face. “Well why don’t you just ask her how she’s doing?”

“I wish it was that easy,” Nimbos said.

Maxie giggled. “Oh trust me, it is.”

Star sighed. “Maxie, stop teasing them about this. I think we should just get this over with,” Star said with a smile.

“Get what over with?” Nimbos asked, raising his eyebrow.

“Aww Star, you’re no fun,” Maxie said with a pout. He turned to the stairs and shouted, “Okay honey, you can come down now!”

Nimbos and Amethyst looked to the stairs as they heard the clip clopping of somepony coming down the stairs. Their eyes grew wide and their jaws dropped when they saw Ditzy reach the bottom of the stairs. “Ditzy?”

With a smile Ditzy ran forward and wrapped her parents into a big hug. “I missed you two so much.”

A tear of happiness rolled down Amethyst’s cheek. “Oh Ditzy.” She released the hug as a stern look adorned her face. “And why haven’t you sent us a letter young lady?”

Ditzy looked dumfounded. “What?”

“After the storm! We were so worried about you and you didn’t even send us anything.”

Ditzy looked down in shame. “Oh, that." Ditzy sighed. "I’m sorry. A lot of things have been happening lately.”

“Like finding a very special somepony to take all of her time,” Maxie said with a giggle.

“He’s not my coltfriend!” Ditzy shouted with a blush. She turned back to her parents who looked surprised. “Why don’t we go talk about this.” She smiled. “We do have a lot to talk about after all.”

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

“So he’s just been sitting there all morning?” Velvet asked as she ate some leftover breakfast. She starts work really early in the morning, so she hasn’t seen AJ acting weird all morning. She didn’t get too much sleep last night due to the show, but it was worth it. Lucky for Night Light it was his day off.

Night Light nodded. “Yup, he wouldn’t even eat anything. Twilight tried, but he refused. Just kept saying he wasn’t hungry.”

“Well, if he isn’t over the death after nine years, something really bad must have happened.” Velvet looked over to the sink. “Do you know anything about this Twilight?”

Twilight, who was washing dishes, came over and sat in another chair. “Nopony knows. He refuses to tell anypony about what happened. You should have seen him earlier this morning. I’m worried about him.”

Night Light stood up. “I think I’m going to try talking to him again. Maybe I’ll be able to get something from him.”

Walking into the living room he saw AJ sitting there with a blank, unreadable look on his face. He was lifting a coaster with his magic. His eyes were following the movements of the coaster. He walked over to the couch and sat down. AJ turned his head to see who it was, dropped the coaster as he did. Dropping his gaze to the floor, he started levitating the coaster once again. “So, what are you doing?”

“Practicing.”

“Why are you practicing? I think Twilight would be fine with you taking the day off.”

AJ placed the coaster back on the coffee table and sighed. “To take my mind off of things.” His voice got low. “If I concentrate on this, I can’t think about…” He quickly lifted the coaster back up.

“Maybe talking will help. If you talk about what happened maybe it’ll help you through this all,” Night Lightight suggested.

“No.”

Night Light thought for a minute. “Maybe you’d like to talk about something else? Conversation is a great way to get your mind off of something.” AJ just shook his head. “Not even the magic show? That was amazing wasn’t it?” He said with a bright smile hoping bring up AJ’s mood.

AJ said nothing causing him to sigh. “You’re not comfortable being here right now, are you?”

AJ shook his head. “…No.”

“Why?” Silence filled the room. Since AJ wasn’t answering, Night Light decided to take a wild guess. “Is it because of me?”

The coaster dropped as AJ sat still. “Yea.”

Night Light sighed. “Alright, if I make you uncomfortable I’ll leave you alone then.”

Night Light started lifting himself off the couch. “Do you think…do you think my dad would be proud of me?”

He stopped and looked back at AJ whose face was now one of sadness. Seating himself back on the couch he thought for a moment. “I’m not going to lie. Never having met your dad I can’t really speak for him. Why?”

AJ took a deep, ragged breath. “I’ve made a lot of stupid choices over the years. Choices I wish I could take back. It seems like no matter what I do I fuck up. If he was alive, my dad would probably be disappointed in me. Probably think I’m worthless.”

Night Light put a hoof on AJ’s shoulder. “Hey, don’t say that about yourself. I may not have known your dad, but for the short time I’ve known you I can tell you’re a pretty good pony. So you’ve made a few bad decisions. So what? Everypony does, and you don’t see that stopping them do you?”

A tear rolled down AJ’s cheek. “He was so mad. I couldn’t even say sorry.”

“Say sorry for what?”

AJ shook his head. “Nothing.”

Night Light got off the couch. “Alright. I’m going to go. Remember, if you’re in Canterlot and you ever need to talk, I’ll be more than happy to help.” AJ nodded as he watched Night Light walk back into the kitchen.

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

“I’m sorry Twilight,” said AJ who was still moping as they walked back to the castle. After hearing what AJ had told her dad, Twilight suggested they leave.

“No need to be sorry. If you were feeling uncomfortable around my dad I wasn’t going force you to stay.” Twilight smiled. “And besides, you still have studying you have to do mister.”

“Yea, I guess I do.”

Twilight sighed. How was she going to get him out of this funk? Then it hit her. ‘How did I not think of this before?’ “Just wait till we get back. I’m sure Ditzy will be happy to see you. She’s probably waiting for us to come back.”

A small smile graced AJ’s features. “Yea, she probably is.” He slowly started to perk up. “We should hurry. We don’t want to keep her waiting.” He quickened his pace wanting to get to the castle as fast as possible.

Twilight silently cheered to herself. ‘Twilight you are a genius.’ She quickened her pace to keep up with AJ.

At the faster pace it didn’t take them very long to get back to the castle. Smiling the entire way, AJ made his way through the halls until he got to their rooms. He knocked on Ditzy’s door. “Hey Ditzy, it’s me. Can I come in?” After getting no response he knocked again. “Ditzy, you there?” Opening the door he saw that nopony was there. “Hmmm. Oh, maybe she’s in my room.” He walked to the opposite side of the hall and opened the door. His smile fell when he saw that it to was empty.

Twilight came up behind AJ with a smile on her face. “Is Ditzy in here?” She got no answer. AJ just rushed passed her into her room and started looking around. “Umm, what are you doing?”

AJ looked at Twilight with worry. “She’s not here.”

As he started pacing around in the hall, AJ didn’t notice Proper Manners come up behind him. “Is there anything I could help you with sir?” Needless to say he freaked; jumping into the air.

AJ took a minute to make sure his heart was still beating. Turning around he grabbed Proper Manners by the shoulders. “Do you know where Ditzy is?”

“Ah, Miss Ditzy Doo left for a walk yesterday afternoon. She has yet to return. Anything else I can help you with?”

“I think that will be all Proper Manners, thank you,” Twilight said after seeing the look on AJ’s face. She removed AJ’s hooves from his shoulders to allow him to leave before sitting AJ down. “Are you okay?”

Before Twilight even knew what had happened AJ had grabbed her by the shoulders and was shaking her around. “What if something happened to her?! What if she’s hurt?! What if she’s laying in an alley somewhere bleeding out with nopony there to help her?!”

Twilight pushed AJ off of herself. “AJ calm down! I’m sure she’s…” She didn’t have time to finish as AJ bolted past her. “Where are you going?!”

“Can’t talk, Ditzy in trouble! Cant lose her too!” AJ blew past some maids and turned out of sight.

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

AJ ran through the streets, almost knocking over multiple ponies on his way. He checked every nook and cranny he ran past; making doubly sure to check the alleyways. He ran into Pony Joe’s and rushed to the counter. “Hey, your Twilight’s friend.” He noticed AJ’s bedraggled look. “You okay? Anything I can do for ya?”

“Have you seen Ditzy? I can’t find her anywhere?”

“Ditzy? Isn’t that the mare who’s been coming in with you?” AJ quickly nodded. “Haven’t seen her since you all came here yesterday.”

“Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiit,” AJ groaned before turning and dashing out the door. Only to run into somepony who was entering the store. The two of them laid there in a tangled pile of pony for a minute before AJ finally came to his senses. “Shit, I’m sorry. I wasn’t paying attention.” He untangled himself from the pony and got a better look at him. He was a pegasus colt. From his size he looked like he was probably in high school. He had a dark grey coat and a two tone black and icy blue mane. His cutie mark was a dove in front of a black heart.

The pony lifted his dazed head. “Nnnno worryz. Izz okhay.” He shook his head and AJ helped him up. “Umm, thanks.”

“Are you okay?”

The pony sat back and shuffled his hooves. “I’m fine.”

AJ sighed. “I’m sorry. I’m looking for somepony and I’m just so worried about her.” AJ plopped down and buried his head in his hooves. Today has just been a bad day.

The pony watched as AJ sulked. He was about to speak up, but Pony Joe beat him to it. “You two are free to talk here if you’d like, but if you could please be somewhere else other than in front of the door I would appreciate it,” he said with a bit of a laugh.

“Oh, um I’m sorry Mr. Joe,” the pony said with a bit of a blush. He and AJ moved to a table near the door.

As AJ sat down he, once again, buried his head under his hooves and groaned. “I just don’t know where she could be.”

“If you’d like, I could help you find her.”

AJ’s eyes shot open and he looked at the pony. “Excuse me?”

He looked around nervously. “Well, I don’t have to be home for awhile yet so I thought maybe I could help you out for a bit.”

“You’d do that for somepony you don’t even know?” The pony nodded. “Oh my…thank you…” AJ stopped mid sentence. “I don’t even know your name.”

“Oh, my name’s Shadow Breeze.”

“AJ.” They extended hooves and shook. “Okay. We’re looking for a bluish grey pegasus mare with a blond mane and amber eyes. Bubbles for a cutie mark.”

“Is she your fillyfriend or something?”

“She’s not my fillyfriend!” AJ shouted with a blush. Shadow had jumped and hid behind his chair at the sudden outburst. AJ cleared his throat. “Sorry.” He waited till Shadow was back in his seat before continuing. “Okay, here’s what we’ll do. Since you can fly, you fly above the north part of the city and look for her. I’ll take care of the south. We’ll meet back here in a couple of hours. Sound good?” Shadow nodded. “Great! Let’s go.”

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

Two hours later AJ came trudging back into Pony Joe’s, head down. He ambled to the table and unceremoniously plopped down in the seat. Burying his head in his hooves he let out a loud frustrated groan. “No luck huh?” AJ looked up at the sound of something being placed in front of him. Pony Joe had brought over a cup of hot chocolate for him. Knowing just how hot it was, AJ left it to the side so it could cool for awhile

“No. Nopony’s even seen her,” AJ groaned out.

“Don’t worry. I’m sure you’ll find her soon.” Just then Shadow came trotting through the door, head held high with a smile on his face. “There you see, he looks like he has something.”

AJ looked up as Shadow reached the table. “Did you find her?”

“Nope,” he said with a big smile on his face. Seeing the exhausted scowl on AJ’s face made him shrink back. “Um, while I didn’t find her, I-I did find somepony who knows where she is.”

AJ suddenly looked hopeful. “You did?”

“Yup.” Shadow turned around to see nopony behind him. “He was behind me a minute ago.” After a couple of minutes Shadow saw the pony he was talking about walk into the shop. “Ah, there he is.”

“That’s him?” The pony had a purple coat, silver mane, and two morning glories tied together in a heart as a cutie mark. His jaw looked to be a little swollen and he had a bruise under his left eye. AJ eyed him suspiciously. He was pretty sure he knew this pony from somewhere.

“Mmhm. This is Mr. Morning Glory. He said he…”

AJ’s hooves slammed on the table as he stood up. His eyes full of disbelief and hatred at the same time. “I knew I knew you from somewhere! You’re the rat bastard who hurt Ditzy!”

Morning Glory lightly facehoofed and sighed. “Oh Celestia, not this again. Two days I have to deal with this. Fine, lets get this over with.” He walked over and sat at the table. “Alright, what do you want to know?”

“Just tell me where she is. The less time I have to spend with you the better.”

Morning Glory laughed. “Demanding aren’t we? Tell me, why should I just tell you where that bitch is?”

AJ was glaring death at Glory. His voice was low and dangerous. “What did you just say?”

“What’s in it for me? What do I get for leading you to the bitch that did this to me?” He motioned to the damage on his face.

“Today has NOT been a good day for me, and right now you’re looking like a damn good punching bag to help relieve some stress. Now tell me where Ditzy is or I swear I will…”

Glory cut AJ off. “Or you’ll what? I’ve been threatened before. There’s nothing you could do that would make me want to help you right now.”

AJ lost it. He lifted the still very hot cup of hot chocolate and threw it in Glory’s face followed quickly by the cup itself. Glory went down screaming as he grabbed at his face. “Hey, easy with the cups! You break it you buy a new one!” Pony Joe called out when he saw the cup flying.

AJ jumped onto the table and then on top of Glory. “Tell me where Ditzy is right now!” Glory was too busy screaming to answer. “Answer me!” AJ swung and hit him on the left side of his head.

“SHE’S AT 1492 ORCHARD STREET!”

AJ got off Glory and kicked him in the ribs before walking to the door. “Shadow!”

“Eep.” Shadow had been hiding under the table since AJ flung the hot liquid at Glory.

“Do you know where 1492 Orchard Street is?”

Shadow poked his head out from the table. “Umm y-yes.”

“Awesome, come on.” AJ trotted out the door on a mission.

Shadow slowly made his way out from underneath the table and looked at Glory who was still writhing around and clawing at his face. He eventually made his way to the door where he flew after AJ.

Pony Joe sat there snickering to himself. “Well, at least today wasn’t boring.” He helped Glory up and took him to the back where he helped him get cleaned up.

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

“So little Dinky is okay, right?” Amethyst asked.

Ditzy giggled. “For the hundredth time, yes. The cast came off and she’s just fine.”

“She’s just worried Ditzy,” Nimbos said. “We both were.”

Maxie came into the room wearing an apron. “Lunch is almost ready everypony. Hope your all hungry.” As Maxie was about to turn back into the kitchen somepony knocked on the door. “I’ll get it!” Trotting to the door Maxie opened it. “Hello, what can I do for you?”

“Yea, hi. I have a question. Is there a pony named Ditzy Doo here?”

Hearing her name Ditzy looked over the couch. Maxie smiled. “Why yes there is. Ditzy honey, somepony’s here to see you.”

Ditzy came over to the door. She was surprised when she saw who it was. “AJ?”

“Ditzy!” AJ ran past Maxie and drew Ditzy in a big hug. “Thank Celestia you’re okay!”

Everypony in the room was looking on in confusion. Even Star who had come out of the kitchen. “Ditzy, who’s this?” Nimbos asked.

AJ, who hadn’t noticed the other ponies in the room, let go of Ditzy with an intense blush on his face. “Oh, um hi.”

Ditzy had a sheepish smile on her face. “Mom, dad, everypony, this is AJ.” She turned back to AJ. “AJ, what happened to you?”

“What?”

“Well to be frank, you look like shit,” Ditzy bluntly said.

“Hey, language young lady,” Amethyst said in a stern voice.

“Sorry mom.”

Confused AJ looked himself over. His tail was a mess, his coat was dirty, and a look in a mirror showed that his mane was disheveled. Sighing he said, “Let’s just say this hasn’t exactly been a fun day.”

Maxie came up behind AJ. “Why don’t you go upstairs and get washed up. I’m Maxie by the way.”

AJ smiled. “That sounds great right about now. You’re a nice mare.” Maxie stared at AJ for a second before giggling to himself. “What, was it something I said?”

Ditzy tapped AJ on the shoulder. “Um, AJ?”

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

A couple of ponies were trotting down the street talking to each other.

“Did he really say that?”

“Yes he did.”

“O.M.G he did not!”

“I swear to Celestia he did!”

Then they passed by 1492 Orchard Street. A stallion could be heard shouting, “WHAT?!?!?!”

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

((Shadow Breeze is the product of AnonJ17
My little pony © Hasbro
Friendship is magic © Lauren Faust))