//------------------------------// // At Least You Have A Bed For Tonight // Story: Two Adorable Fillies Lost In Canterlot // by Cyndaquil //------------------------------// “We’re going in circles,” Apple whined. The two fillies had taken to calling each other Rainbow and Apple. Rainbow’s name was obvious on account of her polychromatic mane. Apple almost got saddled with the name Orange, until Rainbow told her she smelled like Apples. “We’re not going in circles,” Rainbow insisted. “We’ve passed that coffee shop three times.” “No we didn’t. There are just three coffee shops that look alike.” “No way. That’s just silly. Stop being silly” “I’m not being silly. You’re being silly.” Rainbow continued on for a bit, before realizing that Apple hadn’t made a snappy comeback. She turned to see if her friend had fallen behind. Apple was indeed behind, only she made no effort to catch up; instead she was staring wide eyed at a poster on a fence. Rainbow flew back to get her. She nibbled on Apples ear, urging her to keep moving. When Apple barely acknowledged her, Rainbow turned to see what was so interesting. It was a poster of the Rodeo. Rainbow thought for a moment, then turned to her friend. “Apple, you’re a genius.” “Am not,” she insisted. “You’re the genius, you genius.” They’re memory loss was oddly selective, and Apple somehow came out even younger than Rainbow, so it happened that she didn’t know what the word genius meant. “Every pony in towns gonna be watching the Rodeo, right?” “Maybe.” “If we get into the Rodeo, then someones sure to recognize us.” “Like our mom?” Rainbow thought about this. She couldn’t even remember having a mom. Did Apple know something she didn’t? Both were concerned about who they were, only Apple seemed to have a much stronger longing for family. She looked again at the poster. It showed a big strapping stallion, trying to keep his balance and avoid being bucked as he sat on the saddle of a bigger stallion. They looked awfully big, Apple thought. In contrast, her and Rainbow were very little. “Do you think they’ll let us play?” Apple asked. “They will when they see how awesome we are.” At this time, Twinkle was talking with the local constabulary. Apparently a neighbour saw smoke coming from her basement, and contacted the fire ponies before Mrs Sparkle and her husband had even arrived home. “Where’s Applejack? Where’s Rainbow Dash?” she asked in a fluster. “We don’t know ma’am. Was there anything dangerous in your storeroom.” “Oh yes. We have many dangerous chemicals down there. The most potent potion ingredients are poisonous in there untreated forms.” “Then I assume your licenses are up to date?” She turned to her husband, who took a moment before giving an affirmative nod, which might have been a shrug. “Is this really the time to worry about that. Those girls could be hurt.” The officer grunted. He was a stern and suspicious stallion, who had more than once been reprimanded for badgering victims. “How old are your foals ma’am?” “Oh, they’re hardly foals. They’re adult mares.” The officer seemed to think for a moment. “We found some footprints downstairs. Judging from they size they could only belong to little fillies, probably too young to be vandals, though I wouldn’t dismiss the possibility.” “Little fillies you say.” “Hey boss,” they were interrupted by an excited looking colt. “Gusty tore his hazmat suit on one of the blue flowers thorns, and got exposed to the gunk down there. That goo is doing something really freaky to him.” Twinkle turned to her husband. “Fillies. Do you think the youth potions could have…” “Oh come now Twinkie. You know there’s no restorative powerful enough to shrink a ponies bone structure.” “What if it got mixed with that poison joke pollen. We already know that poison joke made Applejack shrink once before.” Hoots and hollers could be heard from their basement storeroom. A statuesque mare who looked like she could be a runway model emerged from the staircase. “Looking good Gusty,” one of the stallions called from behind. Gusty gave a very unladylike response and stomped off. “How the heck am I gonna tell my wife about this.” she grumbled. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Grumble. Rainbows stomach rumbled. Her inability to stay on the ground had caused her to work up more of an appetite then her travelling companion. Apple was hungry as well. Neither knew what to do about it. They considered grazing on grass or flowers, which would be fine except it was rude to eat out of a strangers lawn. At the moment they were trying to find the way out of Canterlot. The Canterlot stadium was actually a little bit outside of city limits it towered over a field of otherwise open prairie. Open prairie, Rainbow thought. Though it seemed like a chore walking across a mile of grass, they could snack all they wanted on the way to the stadium, and it would all be free. “Be strong,” Rainbow told Apple. “We’ll have all the food we can eat, as soon as we get out of this dirty city.” Apple smiled, mostly to encourage Rainbow who herself was trying to lift Apples spirits. “How much further?” She asked. “Just a sec.” Rainbow ascended into the air, trying really hard not to lose track of her launching point while getting high enough for a proper view. She looked ahead in the direction they had been going. It was the way out of Canterlot, which seemed to border mountains, a moat and a cliff. There was only one way out of the city, yet the stadium didn’t seem to be in that same direction. She turned around, and in the opposite direction was the stadium. “Oh horse apples.” When she descended back towards equestrian soil, Apple was talking to some pony that Rainbow didn’t recognize, not that she recognized many ponies. This pony was dressed up in golden centurion armour. Perched on a lamp post, Rainbow listened in. The centurion spoke about helping Apple find her home. He thought it was odd that she didn’t know who her own parents were, and suggested they ask the princess. He spoke of how Equestria has two great princesses and both know the names and families of every pony. One watched over the dreams of all her subjects, and the other simply loved her subjects enough to know every life her sun touches. It sounded to Rainbow like the centurion was trying to rope Apple into some kind of weirdo cult. The centurion turned and walked away, and in that moment Rainbow leaped to the ground in front of Apple. “We gotta get out of here,” Rainbow exclaimed. “Why?” “Why! Didn’t anyone ever tell you not to talk to strangers.” Apple thought for a moment. She couldn’t remember anyone ever saying that before. When Apple wouldn’t come Rainbow nipped on her ear. Apple tried to push her away with her hooves. Soon they were on the ground chasing each others tails. In the two ponies minds all attempts to be civil had failed and they had erupted into a fight. To onlookers their tussle seemed less like a fight and more like two kittens at play. A few people even stopped to watch, swept up in the cuteness of it all. When the guard returned, he watched for a minute or so, his heart exploding. Finally he told them to settle down and presented the fillies with some sweet potato fries and a side of daffodil petals. Rainbow wanted to object but her stomach objected to the objection. They ended up accepting the food and agreeing to go with him to meet the princesses. Might as well, Rainbow thought. The Rodeo’s not till tomorrow anyway. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx At that time Fluttershy was having her weekly tea with Discord. Most think that Discord decided to live outside of Ponyville, and only exchanges letters with Fluttershy. That’s not exactly wrong. Discord decided to travel, and see how the worlds changed in his long absence. For awhile the draconequus was content to simply exchange letters with Fluttershy. The problem was that he always had to outdo his own past efforts. Each letter needed to be more vivid and paint a broader picture than the previous. He didn’t write longer letters. The idea of boring anyone was aberrant to the creature. Instead he wrote poetry, then songs, then sent packages with keepsakes from his travels. He sent her a pin with an odd insignia, that made beeping noises when she tapped it. She was still trying to figure out what that thing was wen he sent her a betamax video cassette. Fluttershy explained in her next letter that she had no idea what that was either. Finally she received a normal looking envelop. She handed the mail pony a muffin as a tip, and opened the letter. When she opened it Discord himself erupted from inside, blowing on a party favour. From then on he’d pretty much just been appearing in her house for weekly tea time. She was finally getting used to the house being upside-down and spinning while he was there. She told him about all the weekly happenings, like how misses pork belly was pregnant again, Rarity started a new line of medieval tapestry inspired hats, or how the CMC tried synchronized water ballet. Desperate to get away from boring topics, he actually asked how the other ponies were doing. She told him about how Rainbow Dash and Applejack were in Canterlot, and should by now have given some poison joke seeds to the Sparkles. “Ah yes, poison joke. How is that little experiment of mine? Is it blooming across Equestria. Has it surpassed the dandelion in potency.” “Experiment?” “Yes. It was sort of a prototype for those vines that attacked the tree of harmony last year. A valiant effort, only I tried to put too many jokes in one perennial, and it ended up weakening the magic.” How callous, thought Fluttershy. Does he have any idea how much trouble that plant causes. Does he even know what it did to my voice that one time. I should say something cross. I should get mad right now. Fluttershy breathed in preparing for what she had to say. “Would you like some honey in your tea.” “Please.” At that moment Spike rushed in. The little dragon had been running as fast as his legs would carry him. He was eager to say something yet needed a moment to catch his breath. “Fluttershy. Something happened in Canterlot. Applejack and Rainbow Dash are missing.” xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Apple admired the stain glass window’s. She was looking at a window painting that depicted the second defeat of Discord. The actual discord felt it was awfully rude that Celestia still kept that particular mural around. Poor Apple never would have guessed that it was her depicted in the stain glass wielding the element of honesty. “The centurion exited the throne room.” “Good news girls.” “You know who we are.” “No.” “You talked to the princesses.” “I will when they get back. They’re overseeing preparations for the rodeo.” Rainbow and Apple eyed one another, both thinking they were wrong to follow this doofus. “What I did do is talk to my superiors, and they talked to the people in another department and we found a nice foster couple that will take care of you until we can get this sorted out.” “You suck.” “Hey, at least you’ll have a bed tonight.” “you were right Rainbow. We should have stuck with your plan and joined the rodeo.” xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx “Are you sure about this darling,” asked Jet set. “We only signed up for the foster program last week, and I never thought they’d actually find us children.” “Oh how hard can it be to handle a pair of little fillies. We’ll clean them up, put some nice clothes on them, show them off to our friends, then maybe Mint Julep will stop acting so superior just because she adopted that Buffalo calf from the Appolosian territory.” xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx “So you’re saying that, according to Twilights mother, Applejack and Rainbow Dash may have been transformed in some way, and no pony knows what they look like.” “Do they still have their cutie marks?” Discord asked. Fluttershy was a bit surprised at what a reasonable question that was. On the other hand, she’d never heard of a pony actually losing a cutie mark, aside from the exchange incident. “I don’t know,” Spike answered. “Nobody saw the accident, or knows what really happened.” “Do you know something Discord.” Discord took another sip of his tea. “Just thinking it through my dear Fluttershy. If they have their cutie marks you can identify them no matter what they look like.” “Oh that’s good.” She was relieved. After all she now knew that Discord was somewhat of an expert on poison joke. “Though if they don’t have their cutie marks…” Discord paused, probably well aware that he was creating dramatic tension. He waited for his cue, and waited. Eventually Spike took the bait. “Then what?” “Well, two things could happen. They can rediscover their special talents. When the cutie mark reappears the magical jolt might even snap them at least partially back to normal.” Discord waited for his next cue. Nobody played along, so he decided to bait them a little bit more. “A cutie mark tells a ponies destiny, however it’s not destiny in the predetermined sense of the word. Therefore, it’s possible they might find a different destiny.” “Then what?” “Well obviously, with a different destiny they’d never be the same ponies again.” xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Rainbow felt ready to gag. She knew that Apple had some longing for family, but how quickly Apple clung to her new foster mom was just disgusting. Perhaps it was because they both had yellow coats. An outsider would probably think they really were mother and daughter. At that moment Upper Crust was fixing Apples hair to look like her own. Upper had tried to do the same with Rainbow but couldn’t catch her. Apple, on the other hand, revelled in the attention. It was clear Rainbow would take longer to warm up to the couple, so Jet Set decided to put forth a bit more of an effort. “You know, the whole towns in a tizzy about this RO-DE-O. Perhaps we should go. You kids might get a laugh out of it. “Really.” “Oh sure. In fact, they have some junior events. You could even play if you want.” Upper Crust looked like she wanted to argue. She bit her tongue when she saw how excited the fillies looked. “Well I suppose it’ll be fun for you children.” She couldn’t leave it at that. “Although I don’t see why they even have a rodeo in a refined city like Canterlot. Every year we have to put up with rowdy country yokels flooding our hotels, and restaurants, just so they can go play in the mud with cows and pigs.” “I think Rodeo’s are silly.” Apple commented. She looked towards upper hoping for approval. “Of course you do dear. You’re well on your way to becoming a fine and refined young lady.” She gave her a little hug and Apple was quick to squeeze back. Rainbow looked like she was about to cough up a hairball.