Lyla was walking silently next to Prism on the way to Sugarcube Corner. She hadn’t been there before, but she knew of it, and also knew it was where Candy and her family lived. She opened her mouth to start up a conversation with Prism, but he beat her to it.
“So’d I scare ya?” He turned to her with a smirk as if he already knew the answer.
“Um… Well, not really. Loud noises intrigue me more than frighten me. I’m more interested in finding out what made them.” She smiled a bit, hoping to make up for the disappointment. He seemed a bit more confused than upset, though.
“Well that’s dumb.” He took to a hover as he spoke, floating around a bit. His statement confused her, but he continued before she could question it.
“I scare ya all the time usually.” That was true wasn’t it? He had startled her a good number of times since they’d met.
“Well,” She thought out loud, looking down, trying to make sense of her reaction.
“I suppose its because you’re rather swift and quiet when you fly, so I don’t hear you. I’m not expecting you to be there, and when I look up and you’re right there, it’s quite a- Ah!”
She looked back up to see him almost muzzle to muzzle with her, causing her to jump back a bit in surprise. He did it again! When had he gotten that close?
Her shocked state was broken by laughter coming from the airborne colt.
“Hey, it worked.” He seemed to be the type of pony that found humor in others’ misfortune.
She had a feeling that wouldn’t be the last time he did that. And for an unknown reason, she wasn’t as mad as she felt she should be.
“Of course it worked!” She did her best to put on the façade of anger, though she was sure her blush wasn’t helping it. She looked away before continuing.
“If I’m expecting somepony to be in a certain place, and they’re suddenly beside me seemingly from out of nowhere, of course it would startle me.”
“Why do you do that?” His question confused her.
She thought she just explained it. Perhaps he was talking about something else? What could she have done that he would question? Did he want her to try to fly, maybe?
“…Walking?” It was the only thing she could think of. Apparently she was wrong, since his response was a face hoof.
“Yeah. Why do you walk when you can’t fly.” He rolled his eyes, voice dripping with sarcasm as he spoke, causing her to blush. When he put it like that, it was a rather silly assumption.
“Your talking.” He clarified. “I suppose, seemingly, mother, father, it startles me, all that stuff.” She arched an eyebrow at him as he landed. She wasn’t sure what he meant.
“I hadn’t noticed I spoke any different than any other pony.” She drew back slightly when he pointed a hoof at her.
“See!” It seemed as though she’d just said something rather proving..? “Any other pony I know would’ve said “I didn’t know I talked different than anypony else.” ‘Cept mabe Claire.” She looked around as he was talking.
She knew this part of town, as she’d been around here with Starburst a day or two earlier. Sugarcube Corner wasn’t far off at all.
“Does everypony in the Crystal Empire talk like that?” She turned her attention back to him when he spoke once more.
“Not all of them do.” She answered with a giggle. “I suppose I’m just one of a kind.” She looked back to the street.
Not many ponies were out, and she knew where Sugarcube Corner was from here.
It was a silly idea she got, but perhaps it would be a bit fun. She grounded her hooves, letting him get a bit in front of her, then took off full sprint.
“Race you!” Was what she was able to get out before running past him.
She turned to dodge a pony in her path, taking the opportunity to look back. He was in on it, and gaining quickly. She was a very good runner, being light and having long legs. She ran a bit faster, not taking any other chance to look back.
She was surprised when he caught up to her as quickly as he did, being bigger and supposedly less agile, and increased in surprise when she watched him dodge another pony.
Not a movement was wasted. She did the same, dodging a different one. They were keeping speed, neither pulling ahead or falling behind. She felt she was beginning to get winded, though.
She was a very good runner, but her lack of stamina kept her from keeping it up for too long. She extended her wings, using them to propel herself forward faster, as he was.
She spotted Candy in the distance, coming out of Sugarcube corner. If she had the breath, she would’ve laughed at the look on the blue mare’s face when she spotted them.
Now, being a Princess, she both won and lost with grace, but nothing said she couldn’t be as competitive as she wanted until then, so when she saw Prism beginning to pull ahead, she used the last of her strength to increase her speed to keep up.
They came to a stop in front of Candy, Prism first, of course, leaning back to screech to a halt, kicking up a dust cloud in the process.
Lyla wasn’t as graceful, not slowing as quick as she thought she could and overshooting the stop, tripping on the step and falling into a roll, landing on her muzzle with her back legs in the air.
Prism and Candy both burst out with laughter as she picked herself up off the ground, sure that a blush was quickly talking over her face.
She laughed as well, shaking the dirt out of her coat. Though she’d made a complete fool of herself and lost the race, it was the most fun she’d had in a while.
“That was great!” Candy was able to get out, still laughing.
“The hay was that?” Prism started, his laughter dieing down. “Ain’t ya ever had to stop running before?” She walked back over to them, her own laughter dieing.
“ No, the only other time I ran like that was yesterday, but that was an entirely different way of running. This was so fun!” She reared a bit, spreading her wings to properly express her enjoyment.
She was impressed with Prism however. She was winded and starting to sweat, and he looked completely normal. She could never tell if she had envy or admiration for him.
“Yeah, well that was pretty dirty, starting it like that.” Said pony spoke through a smirk. “But, since ya lost, I guess I can forgive ya.”
“Oh, well thank you.” She giggled as she spoke.
“But,” He started, “You are pretty good for a mare.”
“Oh, don’t take to well to being beaten by mares?” She had a feeling he didn’t take well to being beaten at all, but decided not to comment on it.
“Heh, “ He leaned onto his back in midair, hooves behind his head and a smirk on his muzzle. “As if a mare could beat me.”
She was in the process of rolling her eyes when Candy got her attention, nodding slightly towards a familiar pink dracony doing some in town shopping. She didn’t get the hint, but didn’t have to apparently since Candy spoke. Quite loudly too.
“But I thought Claire beat you in hoof races all the time!”
She watched as said pony, hearing her name turned to their conversation. She tried her best not to giggle, biting her lip as Claire came a bit closer. From what she heard, this wasn’t going to be good.
“Claire? Well, she’s not really a mare. She’s what ya call a female dragon, whatever the word is. And she’s just lucky most of the time.”
He obviously had no idea the dragon he was talking about was literally right behind him, and not looking happy at what he was saying.
“If she was jus a normal old mare, ain’t no way she could beat me. And she wouldn’t be able ta bully me with that fire either.” She had reached her limit, letting a smile escape.
“What’re you two smilin’ about?”
“Hm, not a mare am I?” Clare’s voice nearly startled him out of his skin. He backed up quickly, hiding behind the nearest thing, which happened to be Lyla and Candy. He flew up a bit, smiling nervously.
“Hey, Claire! Hows it… going? Heh, you know bout what I said…”
“I’m a female dragon bully?” She was smiling, but even Lyla was starting to get a bit unnerved at her tone. She closed her eyes continuing,
“Well, I’m sure you meant it in the best of ways.”
“Yeah!” He flew out a bit more. “You’re the best bully ever!” Prism seemed to miss the twitch in her smile when he said that.
“Well.” Her horns started to glow as she spoke, her magic lowering the saddle pack off her back. The gesture causing Prism to take cover once more.
“To show you how much of a bully I am not, I’ll allow you an extra five seconds of a head start.” Her face turned into that of … a dragon, for lack of better comparison.
“Wait, what!?” Prism didn’t seem to quite understand. Lyla either. What was she going to do to him? She took a stance, moving her front clawed hooves apart.
“Five…” Prism was off, but was unable to get too far before she said zero and started chasing him, blowing fire. It didn’t help him that she skipped four to one.
“Well, mares may not be as fast as him, but I think we may be smarter, huh Lyla?” Candy turned to her with a smile. So Candy was insulted by his comment as well? She looked over seeing him trying to fly out of reach of Claire’s flames.
“I’m pretty sure not only mares are smarter.” Her comment got a small laugh out of Candy.
‘I suppose he does deserve it. Somewhat.’ She justified it as Claire’s flames being the wrath of all the mares he insulted. Candy, Starburst, Whirlwind. Even herself a bit.
She did learn a lesson here, however, that she won’t soon forget. Never question Claire’s femininity.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Now as stated again and again, Starburst wasn’t a pony to complain, and though she resented the full barn, she was tackling it as best she could, and between the both of them, they’d made a dent in the …clutter.
“What about this?” She indicated a rusty pitchfork. She was pretty darn sure it was trash, but she wanted to consult him before throwing anything that wasn’t broken away.
He turned away from what he was doing, looking at the rusty old tool.
“Junk.” He muttered before turning back to the pile of tools he had. “Ya know, Star, if ya think they’re bad, ya’ll can throw 'em away. Ah trust your judgement.”
She moved around, sitting the pitchfork in the growing junk heap before she spoke. “I guess when I ask you, I’m just letting you know I’m tossing it.”
That was the best way to put it, since everything she asked about, he’d told her to toss. She went over to the chart he made, putting down another tally mark for the out of commission pitchfork.
She looked the chart over. They lost two hoes, two bailing hooks, a rake and a picthfork already… and that was only on her side.
“Ah’m thinkin’…” She turned her attention back to Del, dropping the pencil in her mouth back to its resting place on the upside-down bushel basket.
“Ah’m thinkin’ Ah might am gonna have ta go ta Appleoosa here soon.” She moved a shovel to the “needs repair pile” sitting it down.
Working with the Apples as long as she had, she knew very well the best farming tools were made in Appleoosa. She’d been there a couple of times, and had pretty neutral feeling towards the settler town.
“Ya’ll can come with me if ya want. I’d sure appreciate the company.” She watched him dig through the pile once more, pulling out some shears… or hedge trimmers. She wasn’t quite sure.
“When are you going to go?” He dropped the shears in the “keep” pile. She turned back to her pile, going through it. She wasn’t too good at talking and working at the same time when the work required her mouth.
Actually she wasn’t too good at talking and working much at all.
“'Ere in a couple days. Can’t wait too long. If we get another emergency an we ain’t got the tools for it, it ain’t gonna be pretty.” He paused to carry another rake to the “junk“ pile.
“Ah’ll plan for goin on day after tomorrah. Sound good?”
She thought on it for a minute, taking another rust-covered tool to the junk heap. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to go, the train ride just took a bit out of her.
Appleoosa wasn’t close. It was a whole day trip there and back, and trains didn’t sit too well with her. Small trains, especially.
She never had the room to do what she wanted, and staying in one spot for a whole day drove her crazy… but, it had been a while since she’d been.
“I guess I could do my exercises on the train.” Though his laughter was small, it took her by surprise.
“Ain’t that the truth. Ya ain’t never been one ta care bout place. Ya know how many ponies thought ya were crazy here while back when ya walked on your forelegs all day?”
She didn’t care. It helped. She felt strong enough to challenge him to a hoof wrestle again, even though she lost.
“They can think what they want.” She stated bluntly, moving to pull out another hoe and missing the warm smile he gave her. She walked over, setting it in the repair pile.
“Yeah, I’ll go. As long as Lyla can come.” There was no way she was leaving her cousin there by herself. Celestia knows what would happen… She shuddered at the thought.
“Ah don' mind a bit.” Was his simple reply. “Ya gonna stay for dinner?” She watched as he moved the last tool in his pile to the appropriate pile.
“Only if you’re cooking.” She said it without thinking, and sighed immediately after, knowing what was coming next.
“Awright, Ah’ll cook.” He smiled at her, going back into the barn, to get more tools she assumed.
She felt bad at that. After working all day, cooking was the last thing she wanted him to do. If anything, he should just get to bed early… but she knew better than to argue with him on things like that.
For some reason, whenever it was something he knew she wanted, he’d do it.
She didn’t quite understand, but she did the same for him. He just rarely wanted anything. Not that she wanted everything, he just wanted even less than she did.
It was odd.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“So,” Prism started, walking normally, though burnt here and there. He may have deserved it, but Lyla couldn’t help but feel bad when she looked at the red skin… She’d have to heal him when she could.
“Who’re we getting today?” Prism continued. Get? How do you get somepony?
“We could get Del. He’s usually a good sport.” Candy seemed to be thinking aloud. She still didn’t fully understand what was going on, but was too afraid to ask.
“Uh, yeah, I kinda already got him.” He smiled… very mischievously. “How about Claire?” … Surely he wasn’t serious? Candy seemed to be as shocked as she was.
“No way! You’ll be a piece of charcoal by the time she’s done with you!” Candy was right. Even she knew it. He seemed to be upset at the sense in her point.
“I’ll get her back for this somehow.” He muttered a bit. Lyla stood there, listening to the two debate, still too afraid to ask what a prank was.
“We could get my little brother.” Prism suggested after a few seconds of quiet.
He did have a little brother didn’t he? She vaguely remembered him comparing her to him at one point.
“Won’t your mom get mad at you?”
“Not if it’s harmless.” He paused for a second. “But there ain’t too much fun in a harmless prank. What about your mom?”
“Okay…. So what prank?” Candy looked thoughtful as she asked. Lyla wished she could help…
“We could do the lightning scare. Or switch the stuff they bake with in the kitchen.”
“Oh!” She started, accidentally cutting Candy off, and continuing after spouting a quick sorry, “That’s a prank?”
Her question was met with a smile from Candy, and a look of disbelief from Prism.
“Yeah.” Candy was the one to answer. “We’re just trying to mess with them.” She giggled. “It’s fun.”
“That is fun! I used to mess with the guards all the time as a filly.” She giggled as she thought back. It was another pastime she had grown to enjoy.
“Guards?” The two asked in unison, looking at her oddly. Her eyes went wide. She strained to keep a hoof from going to her mouth. What could she say? Where else would she see guards?
“Um, Yes! The guards… when they were out of the palace!”
“…. On patrol..?” Prism filled in.
“Yes! Yes… patrol… in the city.” She decided to change the subject, an idea hitting her.
“Oh. My. Gosh! I just got the best idea ever!” She smiled wide with excitement, Candy doing the same .
“What is it?” The little blue mare asked, bouncing slightly, obviously catching her excitement. Lyla couldn’t hold back her laughter.
“How’d you two like to play a prank on Ponyville square?”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Hey, Star!” She heard his voice from inside the barn, and went when he called. He had another pile of tools in the wagon, but wasn’t hitched to it. He continued talking when she arrived.
“Wanna take a break? We got something we need at get done here pretty quick.” If he needed it done so quickly, then why didn’t he do it earlier?
She kept the question to herself, following him to a different part of the barn. The part where the cows stayed if she remembered correctly.
“Ah’m warnin ya though, it ain’t gonna be fun.” The smell that hit her nose a few seconds later was completely repulsive.
The cows were out grazing, apparently, giving them a clear view of the hay-covered ground. There were things in that hay that nopony should have to smell…
She wouldn’t show it, but it almost did make her sick. The smell, more than anything.
It was odd for him to ask her to help him with something like this. She felt safe in assuming it was something he should’ve done yesterday, but didn’t get to.
She looked to Del, who had fetched a pitchfork from its place on the wall and was using it to scoop the bad hay and everything in it into a small cart, like it was nothing. It probably was nothing to him, doing it for as long as he did.
He obviously didn’t expect her to help much, not indicating her to do anything. But, being the gentlecolt he was, he wouldn't ask her to help...
She didn’t think it fair to just stand there and let him do everything though, so she took another small picthfork from against the wall, and went to a hay clump, held together by Celestia knows what…
She got it onto the end of her pitchfork, scooping it into the cart. Del seemed to be shocked to see her, for some reason. She didn’t pay too much attention to it, trying to watch her step.
Though, after a few minutes, she saw it was pointless. She just have to take a good bath later.
She continued on like that, shoveling hay, poo, and who knew what else into the cart. As she was working, she had noticed the stallion watching her every so often.
She wondered to herself what he could possibly be finding so interesting about her getting covered with … random filth.
“What?” She finally decided to question his behavior the fourth or fifth time she saw him watching her.
“What?” He repeated her question back. Did he not notice he was doing it? Maybe he just didn’t know what she meant.
“You keep watching me.” She clarified. He shook his head, going over to get an actual shovel.
“Sorry bout that. Reckon Ah’m just waitin ta hear how gross and horrible this is. Like aunt AB, Pop… June… Api…” He trailed off, coming back over with the shovel. Apparently, this wasn’t a very popular job.
“Well, it is gross,” She moved around to get a better angle with the pitchfork. “But complaining bout it ain’t gonna get it done.”
When she was happy with the angle, she moved to scoop it up, when her concentration was broken by Del’s laughter.
“Good one.” …. She gave him what she hoped to be a completely confused look. What was he talking about?
“…Uh, what?” She voiced her confusion. She went from confused to completely lost when Del gave her a look equally as confused as hers.
“Weren’tcha jus doin another impression a mah family?” Why would he think that..?
“No…” She answered slowly, with a rather blank look. Both sat there for a second, completely lost until Del just laughed.
“My mistake. Never ya mind.” He went back to work with that.
Why would he think she was trying to mimic his family’s way of speech again? The first time was such a disaster there’s no way she’d try again.
She picked the pitchfork back up. She did think She might’ve said what she thought out loud.
In her head, she did talk a bit more like them than she’d want to admit, though when she spoke, it went through the proverbial filter. Surely that wasn’t it.
She shoved the thought from her head, shoveling the defiled hay, completely unaware she had just made Del’s day.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“You think this’ll be enough!?” Lyla turned, hearing Candy’s yell from rather far away. Because of Lyla’s idea, their current location was a very big wild berry field.
Lyla had taken the opportunity moments earlier to heal Prism, and he, being so used to burns, had no clue they were gone.
Lyla giggled at the pink-maned mare.
“We can’t see from there Candy!” She yelled back to her friend. They had been picking berries for the last hour. Prism had retrieved his saddle bag and was currently sporting it. Lyla had borrowed Candy’s.
Both were being filled with bit bags full of berries.
Candy bounced over, bag in mouth. Lyla prodded it with her hoof before smiling.
“That’ll do fine. Would you be so kind as to lend Prism a hoof?” He seemed … not as invested as she and Candy were.
“Okie dokie.” Was Candy’s happy reply as she bounced over to the pegasus, who was picking a berry here and there. Lyla resumed her own berry-picking, though after a few minutes of silence, Prism spoke.
“So… How’re we gonna do this with just two pegasi?” He stopped picking altogether to ask the question.
“Well, its very cloudy today. Especially over Ponyville. After we get this done, I’ll explain further. You've closed the holes in the clouds, right?"
“Yeah. Man!” He laughed a bit. “If ya know what you’re talkin bout, this is gonna be awesome!” He finished with a big, excited smirk. She blushed a bit, deciding to go back to her berry picking when a thought hit her.
“Aren’t you supposed to be filling that bag?” She arched an eyebrow indicating the one Candy was carrying around. Prism looked over to where she was pointing, then shrugged.
“Eh, She got it.” This was the first time she was actually apt to call him lazy, though she was sure he’d heard that one too many times. Perhaps she could outsmart him? Shouldn’t be too hard.
“You’re odd.” She was satisfied that it wasn’t often he was called that.
“Me?” He took to a hover as he spoke. “This coming from the teen pegasus that can’t fly?”
“Yes. You’re odd.” She turned back to the berries, starting to pick more of them again. “You know, we’ll be done quite a bit quicker with your help.” She got no response, which was quite odd in itself. She looked back up to see if he’d heard her, to see he wasn’t there.
“Well,” She jumped to the side, away from where Prism had appeared next to her. She definitely regretted telling him of her fear.
“For a weird pony that can’t fly, you’re pretty alright.” He continued, ascending. “Call me when you’re done!” He yelled out before laying on a cloud. Lyla sat there where she jumped, blushing heavily.
“………Alright…..?”
“Lyla!” She turned to see Candy running up to her. “I got another bag, is this enough?”
“Hey Candy..?” She wasn’t really one to ignore somepony, but what he said was really … intriguing her. “Is it a good thing if somepony calls you “Alright” ..?”
The smile never left the blue mares face, though she did cock her head a bit in question.
“Usually. I think you’re alright!” She smiled a bit more when she said that. Lyla smiled in return.
“Thank you, I believe the feeling is mutual. Now, what were you saying?”
“I got another bag.” She picked it back up. It seemed she was quite a fast berry picker.
“Great, put it in your saddle pack.” Candy did as she suggested, pulling out an empty bag in the process.
“Hey, Lyla?” Lyla turned back to her hearing her name. “Are we going to fill all of these?”
“Oh, no.” She laughed a bit. “I suppose it depends on how long we want it to last. It can’t last too long, however, or we’ll get caught.”
Seemingly satisfied with that answer, Candy went back to berry picking. She followed suit, repeating the motion of pulling a berry from the vine. It was quiet for a small while, the only sound heard being Prism’s snores.
“Hey, Lyla?” Candy started again, this time not waiting for her to respond. “What was that monster-wolf-dog thing yesterday?”
It seemed nopony knew what it was, she and Starburst apparently weren’t the only ones. Perhaps some research before bed would help…
“I don’t know. I have never seen anything of the like. Not even in my books.” Perhaps research wouldn’t help too much. If such abundant and old books as were located in the Crystal Empire hadn’t mentioned them, she had great doubt the ones in Ponyville would.
“Has Annie said if she’d asked her mother yet?”
“She said Fluttershy didn’t know either.” So she had asked her mother. It sounded like Star’s only lead was a dead end.
“You think there are more?” Her eyes widened at the realization. She hadn’t thought of that. There very well could be. But there just as well couldn’t be.
“I doubt it.” She put on a smile. “I suppose thinking on it wouldn’t help. We aren’t going looking for more anytime soon, right?”
“Right.” Candy gave a happy smile, going back to her berry picking. Lyla did the same. There truly could be more. And if there were, it could be huge trouble for… all of Equestria, not only Ponyville.
But what could she do? Even if there were more, there was no way to prove it. There was no way to prove there was even the one.
But would she be able to live with herself if there were more and nopony was told?
She had a lot of thinking to do about this, but now wasn’t the time. She shook the thoughts from her head, focusing back on the prank of the decade. If not century.
She turned to put the now filled berry bag in her mouth into the saddle pack, to see it was half full. She put the berry bag in it and turned to Candy.
“Hey Candy, how many have we filled?” Candy turned back to her, then smiled.
“No clue. I filled…” She paused a second, looking quite thoughtful. “Ten or eleven.”
“And I filled six... So that’s seventeen.” She turned her attention to the cloud the snoring was coming from. “Prism!” There was no response.
“Prism! ...Prism!” Still nothing. She sighed. “Well, I suppose I’ll have to attempt this sooner or later to pull this off…” She extended her wings.
“You gonna fly?” She nodded at Candy’s question, going into a hover. She stabilized rather quickly and ascended to the cloud easily… for about five minutes.
She’d started out right under it, and going straight up, ended up about three feet under it. How was she going to land on it if she was under it?
She didn’t have to long to debate her options before her wings would tire on her, so she did the best thing she could, going back to a swimming/flailing motion, making it around the cloud.
… Now what? She was going to turn around and grab the cloud when she realized she had no idea how to turn.
She couldn’t swim for that, so she opted to start swinging her body to the side she wanted to turn to.
It was working, slowly, but she was tiring out quicker. She was halfway turned when she felt a hoof wrap around her swiftly and pull her up. She “eeped” in shock, rolling onto the cloud.
She opened her eyes to see Prism scratching his head.
“You know you have the loudest panting ever?” She blushed at the proximity. The cloud was not very big at all, though he didn’t seem to notice or mind, she couldn’t tell.
She moved, getting her hooves back under her, blushing when she had to move closer to do it. She moved her hoof again, poking at the cloud with it. It felt… airy and weightless. Like a ridiculously large pillow.
She missed Prism arching an eyebrow at her odd behavior, getting up himself.
“So, what were ya tryin to kill yourself for?” She didn’t honestly hear him, too preoccupied with bouncing on the cloud. She giggled as she did, laughing more when her hoof went through it.
“Oh, right.” He took flight, but didn’t go too far. “You never been on a cloud, huh?”
“No, never!” She laughed again, pulling her hoof out. “Fourteen years… I’ve wanted to do this…” She fell over on it, looking up at him with a smile.
“Thank you. I truly thank you, Prism.” He looked to be shocked at her gratitude. She momentarily wondered why before another thought came to her. She got up, frowning.
“You were awake the whole time?”
“Nah," He laughed a bit, answering with a smirk. “I heard ya, barely.” He leaned back. “I was just hopin you’d leave me alone. Wasn’t expecting ya to come up here.” He leaned over to her a bit.
“You’re pretty stubborn ain’t ya?” She tried to be upset. Truly she did, but it wasn’t working well. A blush made its way back to her face under his joking gaze.
“Not in the least.” She looked away, frowning.
Though he laughed, she said nothing else on the matter, moving to his abandoned saddle bag. After counting how many bags of berries he had, she came to the conclusion they had enough to go through with the plan.
She leaned over the cloud to see Candy, pretty far off and yelled. “Head to Ponyville square! Remember the signal!”
“Ok!” Candy yelled back before bouncing off towards the city. Prism flew up in front of her from under the cloud, startling her again, though not noticing.
“This is the most work we’ve ever done for a prank. This’d better be good.” She couldn’t tell if he was irritated or excited, but smiled anyway.
“It should be. The psyche of ponies is quite amazing. If Candy does her job right, it should work properly. And if we do our jobs right, we shouldn’t be caught.”
“Ok, then, lets go.” She watched him fly off, standing on the cloud.
What would be the best way to get there unseen? She couldn’t fly. She didn’t trust herself, and she’d most likely cause too much of a spectacle.
“What’re you doing?” Prism, having come back noticing she wasn’t following, she assumed, asked as he flew up to her.
“Well, I don’t trust myself to fly… Give me your saddle pack.” He gave her an odd look, but did so anyway. “Now go get Candy’s. We’ll have to just use them like this.”
“How are you even going to get there?” That was a good question… She smiled, spotting a cloud not too far off.
She moved to the edge of the cloud she was on, jumping. She used her wings to extend her jump, landing on the cloud. She smiled when it worked, though the smile was exchanged for a blush when she heard Prism laughing.
“What?”
“Never seen a pegasus jump clouds. It just looks funny, I guess.” She rolled her eyes slightly.
“Oh, go on.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Finally done..” Del said with a sigh. Starburst did the same, letting out a tired sigh, looking over their work. She swore she saw the barn sparkle. Them cows had sure better be grateful.
They’d finished cleaning the tools out as well. They’d lost a good number, but it was needed. The ones they had lost were a waste of space.
“We did pretty good huh?” She turned to him with a light half-smile. He smiled back before turning to head out. She followed quietly, hiding a yawn.
She was so tired. Sorting was a mental strain, but cleaning all that hay was hard labor. It took a bit out of her. Which reminded her she still had to shower.
“So, ya hungry?” She turned her attention back to Del when he spoke. She was, a little but…
“You don’t have to cook.” She said the thought out loud. He’d been at this longer than she had. He had to be about ready to pass out… though he didn’t look it a bit.
“So what do you want?” He turned back, asking her with a smile before looking away again. She let a small pout show, since nopony was around to see, when he ignored her statement. Stubborn mule.
“Mm.. How about those spicy apple muffins?” She was sure they, as usual had an over-abundance of apples, and she vaguely remembered him saying they were pretty easy to make.
“No prob.” They fell quiet as the farmhouse came into view. It was beginning to get a bit late. Not dark yet, though. She yawned again, and snorted when Del did the same. Now she knew he was tired.
She looked to him with a small smile. He didn’t seem to notice, being lost in his own thoughts. He was pretty dirty, she observed, most of the filth from the days work. Though she was sure she didn’t look much better.
She knew she was small, and had grown used to being referred to as such, but walking quietly next to a towering stallion like Del, she felt every bit her size. Or lack thereof…
“Ya’ll can clean up while Ah get ta cookin.” He said, entering the house. She followed with a nod, and held back another yawn.
Normally she’d object, but being covered in…. what all she was covered in, she really wanted to get it off. She went upstairs, already knowing where the bath and shower were located, and he left to the kitchen. She turned the water on, going through the motions, noticing she didn’t see anypony on her way up.
In all likeliness Apple Bloom and Api had gone home by now. Cheerilee had probably gone back to the school and was staying after…
Granny could’ve very well been sleeping in her rocker. She did that so often Starburst only noticed when she wasn’t there.
‘Come to think of it…’ She was sure they’d missed dinner. It was odd for nopony to try to come and get them. She yawned once more, stepping into the now heated shower, deciding to ask about it later.
Now, if anypony were to ask, she wouldn’t admit it, but she did start to nod off in the shower. She was sure she actually fell asleep through it, the reason being she didn’t remember most of it.
She shook herself awake a bit more before going to the kitchen, where she saw Del mixing up a batter. He looked completely normal. She went over and took a sat at the table before voicing her thoughts.
“How are you still moving?” She asked as she lay her head on the table. She tried her best not to show how tired she really was, but it was hard. Her muscles ached, her eyelids were heavy... She was exhausted.
As she closed her eyes, she barely heard him laugh.
“Ah’m used ta working like this. A farm don’ stop runnin' jus cause you’re tired.”
“Can I help..?” She felt she had to offer, though she didn’t even hear his reply…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lyla felt she was doing good, making it to Ponyville Square by cloud hopping. It took a bit of work, but it wasn’t too unlike how she had gotten to Ponyville in the first place.
She saw the giant blanket of cloud Prism had prepared right over the Square. It was perfect. She made a jump for it, falling slightly short. Her front hooves ended up on it, but her back end was kinda hanging off.
She felt a pull on the saddle bag she was wearing, and was rolled over onto the cloud to see Prism looking down at her with the usual arrogant smirk.
“You know, you’d so be dead without me.” She blushed at his comment, knowing full well how much truth it held. She got up quietly, looking away. She didn’t have much in the way of pride, but she really didn’t want to say he was right. She chalked it up to her struggle for independence.
“Thank you…” He waved her gratitude off with a “no prob”, then walked over to the middle of the cloud.
“So, we ready?”
“Yes,” She stopped. “Oh, no, not yet.” She moved over to him. “Get a bag out of your pack.” He did as she said, getting one out. She reached over and bit a small hole in the bottom of the bag.
Big enough for the berries to fall through with a small bit of force.
“Now, put it in the other side.” They did this until each bag had a small hole in it. Some seemed a bit too small, some a tad big, but all would work fine.
She left a bag in her mouth, and he left one in his. She giggled a bit as they started running.
It didn’t take too long for them to get up to a speed where the berries in the bag were forced out of the hole, and fell. They fell down through the cloud to land in Ponyville Square, where Candy was waiting.
After they had gotten up to speed, berry after berry after berry fell, a few hitting some ponies on the head.
After a few seconds, she heard Candy play her part perfectly.
“Its raining berries!!!! EVERYPONY RUN!!!!” She did her best not to giggle at the sound of the panic that ensued. When one pony panicked, all others would.
She pulled out another bag, letting the berries fall, hearing yelling, screams, crashing, and it went on after the last berry fell. She pulled Prism away from the cloud before they were caught.
The pair went to land next to Candy, who was just standing back and watching the mayhem. They joined her watching all the ponies run back and forth, freaking out. She swore she heard somepony say they were poisoned because they ate one.
When everything finally settled and everypony had “taken cover” the Square was dotted purple and red where berries had been smashed, and a few market stalls had gotten trampled.
She sat there in shock at everything. That was what she expected, but perhaps Candy did her job a bit too well.
“That was awesome!” Prism was the first to speak, laughing wildly. “I can’t believe it! All that over a bunch of berries! That’s great!”
Well, when he put it like that, it was rather funny.
“You have a point. If berries caused this much damage, imagine what would happen if it started raining fireballs of some sort.” She and Candy both laughed at that.
“That really was pretty cool. We had to have got the whole town.” Candy finally spoke. It was true, they got a lot of ponies.
“See?” She smiled a bit. “I told you it would be amusing. Was I right?”
“You totally were!” Prism took to a hover in his excitement. An amused smirk on his face, he reached his hoof out.
She knew this! She smiled, moving her hoof to his with a “clunk”. She and Candy both giggled.
“How did you come up with that? We prank all the time, and never thought of getting that many ponies.” She thought on Candy’s question.
“I’m not quite sure. It's somewhat of an epiphany. They just come to me.” She smiled it the two.
“Besides, it was a team effort. I suppose we should get going before we get questioned?”
“Probly a good idea.” Prism agreed, leading the way out of the square. Candy followed happily with a “yeah.”
She was about to follow when she looked back on the square. It was in need of a small bit of…repair. The fact that she was sure they wouldn’t get caught didn’t do much to assuage her guilt.
It was fun, but it might’ve gone slightly too far… She looked back to see Candy and Prism chatting back and forth about something. She wasn’t quite sure.
She turned back to town square, seeing it empty and broken… She slowly and quietly started backing up, turning behind a house. She’d catch up with them later.
She made sure one more time that nopony was watching before closing her eyes to let her horn glow, removing the berry stains, and repairing the broken stalls.
She was glad Princess Celestia had bestowed this gift upon her… but looking at what she did, it wasn’t exactly history worthy. She opened her eyes, the glow of her horn dying.
Her ascention was something that usually bothered her, but at times, she couldn’t help thinking on why the princess had chosen she and her brother to gift it with…
Neither were quite remarkable in much of anything. Well, Valiant more than she. Her brother had a lot of great ruling qualities. He’d make a wonderful prince when the time came.
She thought harder as she walked back to where she broke up with Candy and Prism. What was it about her spell that made her worthy of being a Princess..?
“Lyla!” Prism said her name, suddenly right in front of her. The shock caused her to jump back, landing on her haunches.
Where’d you go?” Candy asked, coming up from behind him. Still somewhat startled by their sudden presence, she lagged in answering.
“… Huh? Oh…. I…” She looked away, getting up. “I suppose I…. Got lost?” That seemed plausible.
Candy giggled a bit at the revelation. Prism was more vocal.
“You’re weird.” He said simply as he landed. She held back a pout as he continued.
“So guess we’re heading home?” Oh, that was right. It was about to be dark any minute now.
“I suppose it would be a good idea.” Candy nodded in agreement with her statement.
“I’ll walk ya home.” There was silence at Prism’s decision. She noticed he said it to her and immediately blushed.
“Huh?!” Candy’s shocked voice was the first one heard. She shared in the mare’s shock, though was a bit less loud about it.
“That’s… rather nice of you…” Oddly nice. He just rolled his eyes slightly, scratching the back of his head.
“D’ya want me to or not?” He looked back to her, a mischievous smirk on his muzzle. He continued, not allowing her to answer.
“I just figured knowing you, you’d get lost and end up back in the Everfree Forset. Or kill yourself trippin on a rock.” Candy moved a hoof up to her mouth, keeping the laughter she knew she was hiding behind it in. Lyla pouted slightly once more. Not at the fact that he said that, but that she couldn’t deny it.
“… Ok…”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-Del-
"Nah, Ya’ll don have ta help.” He got no reply from the little orange mare, though he didn’t think much on it, being that it was quite usual for her to give no response, and continued on with his baking.
As used to baking as he was, the task was like clockwork to him, talking nearly no time at all. He put the muffins in the oven with a small yawn, and turned back to see Starburst dead asleep with her head on the table.
After noticing she had, in fact fallen asleep, he rolled his eyes slightly with a warm chuckle. She always pushed herself too hard, but he ‘d be lying if he said he didn’t like that about her.
Though he didn’t like her working so hard when she was so tired, he was grateful to have her. Even June wasn’t that much help cleaning out the barn, and she was twice Star's size.
He took a few steps over, deciding to sit while the muffins were cooking, and laying his own head down on the table to watch the small mare in front of him.
She was so full of surprises. Never backing down from a challenge, no matter how hard, trying anyway, even though she knows she’ll fail for sure, having such huge dreams so unfitting of her image…
Mares don’t come like that anymore. She was one of a kind in every meaning.
He knew how he felt about her. He had for a while now. Six or seven months or so, and ever since he had known of them, they’ve been getting stronger… the opposite of what he wanted to happen.
He sighed, getting up to get to get the filth of the day off of him. He took a look back at her to see her snore. He smiled warmly, turning out of the room. He was pretty sure she wasn’t going to wake up. He’d take her home after his shower.
He took a very quick one. He was quick anyway, but with the oven going, he hurried even more. He’d burnt things before, of course. Who hadn’t? But there was no way he was burning Star’s muffins. Especially after she (most likely unknowingly) gave him so many compliments on it today. He arrived back at the kitchen to see it just as he’d left it. Applejack in the middle of it was new, though.
“That you, son?” He heard her speak softly. She turned a lamp on after she asked, being as he turned the lights off when he left, the oven wasn’t a very good light source.
“Yeah, careful a Star.” He went over to the sleeping mare he was pretty sure his mother wasn’t aware of.
“She still here?” He saw her look to the table, continuing when she saw Starburst was asleep. She chuckled softly. “That little mare darn near work herself ta death again?”
“Ah told ‘er she could go, but she wouldn’t hear none of it.” She never did hear it. He wasn’t even sure why he bothered telling her anymore.
He subconsciously smiled another warm smile, one that seemed hard to hold back whenever the little pegasus was around. A smile that didn’t go unnoticed by Applejack.
“Ya know…” She paused to get a drink of the water he assumed she’d come for. “ She’d sure make one heck of a marefriend.”
His face fell at her statement. He wasn’t angry by any means, it was just getting tiring to repeat it.
“She would. She’ll make some prince or guard a wonderful marefriend someday.” His mother and June were the only two who knew of his feelings for the princess, even then, he wasn’t sure they knew how deep they went.
He really didn’t know how deep they went. He did know he’d die before seeing her hurt. When he saw her pinned by that…. Thing the day before… even if he could’ve never used that leg again, it would’ve been worth it.
“I ain’t so sure them stallions are her style.” He sighed when his mother continued. They’d been over this… he didn’t even know how many times anymore.
“What,” He chuckled a bit, “Ya think them mares’d be more her style?” He didn’t mean it, of course. He just found it very annoying when his mom talked to him about her. Her face fell as she sighed.
“Ya know what Ah mean, boy.” He did. He knew all too well.
He walked over to the oven before it could go off, turning it off and opening it.
“An you know why nothins gonna happen.” He heard Applejack walk over, going around him. Thank Celestia, it looked like she was leaving. He sat the muffins in his mouth, oven mitt between it and the pan, on the stove to cool.
“Ya know, Gold,” He looked back when she started talking again. “You’re smart. There times Ah’m sure you’re the smartest colt came outta this here farm…” She looked back to him frowning a little, but she didn’t look mad.
“An then there times like these when Ah think you’re dumber than a pile a hay.” It wasn’t said with any anger, but she did leave after it. What the hay was that supposed to mean?
He shook his head, figuring his ma was just upset. He knew how much she liked Star, too. Like the daughter she never knew she wanted or something.
He got a brown bag out from the cupboard they were kept in, tapping the muffins out of the tin as quietly as he could. After he got through packing them, he sat the bag on the table. He then turned his attention to the sleeping mare.
Luckily, the way she’d fallen asleep left a good space for him to get under her. He did so, lifting her onto his back, and making sure he had her good before grabbing the brown bag and heading out the door.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lyla walked quietly through the abandoned streets of Ponyville, Prism at her side. It was quite a change from Starburst, but a welcome one.
Though around Star, she would’ve said something by now… She had no idea why her nerves always seemed to get the better of her around him.
“So…” She finally started. “I wonder what Whirlwind did today. After we split up, of course.”
“Not sure. She don’t usually come pranking with us anymore though. The first time she did, she got chewed out by her parents. I did too, but it didn’t bug me.” That definitely intrigued her.
“What did you do to get in such trouble?” She spoke her mind, causing him to snicker a bit.
“We put bleach in the rainbow pools. It was great.” She giggled a bit, giving him a knowing look out of the corner of her eye.
“Ah, so you’re a bit of a troublemaker, are you?” She smiled a bit as she said it, already knowing the answer.
“I try.” He said with a proud smirk. “But I’m an angel compared to some things Illusions done. From what I’ve heard.” Oh, Illusion. Now that was a troublemaker. Not that she didn’t like him, he just… had a playful streak that got out of control here and there. At least that’s what she told herself.
“Yes… I’ve been at the receiving end of quite a good number of his jokes…” She missed the look he gave her when she said that.
“You know Prince Illusion?” To her surprise, he seemed a bit shocked.
“Well, Yes. He and my brother are best friends.” She was confused when he arched an eyebrow.
“Huh, I always though Prince Valliant was his best friend.” Her eyes widened at the realization of what he'd said. He shrugged it off, most likely thinking he was mistaken. “Who is your brother anyway? You talk about him a lot.”
“Um…” She looked away a bit, thinking of what to say. “You… wouldn’t know him.” He looked at her a second before looking away.
“If you don’t wanna say, you can just say so.” He said it plainly, and didn’t seem to really care, but it seemed her statement had gotten the wrong meaning across…
“Well, he….. He works in the royal guard…. And he’s…. um…. He lives in the palace…” She tried her best to think of what all she could say, not much coming to mind.
“ He’s… very nice… though he used to be a bit of a… jerk? For lack of better word… and Star thinks the world of him…”
“What’s his name?” Prism finally spoke, watching her with an expression she couldn’t place.
“…………Um………….. Val? I suppose…” He arched an eyebrow,
“Prince Val?”
“No!” She thought a second, gathering herself. “No… not the prince…. Val’s short for…………. Valentine..?” She said the name slowly, trying to piece it together as it came out. To her surprise, Prism sat, giving her a look of disbelief.
“Wait, lemme get this straight…. Your brother is in the royal guard, lives in the palace, and his name’s Valentine?” Why is it he was able to make everything she said sound stupid?
“… Yes?” There was a bit of silence before Prism fell over laughing. Seeing how dumb her blatant lie was, rather than curl up into a bal as she wished, she just joined him, laughing as well.
“You’re so weird.” He said getting up, and resuming their walk. He seemed to say that quite a bit about her. She hoped it was a good thing.
The library came into sight a few minutes after. She was able to catch a small glimpse of who she thought to be Del before the figure disappeared behind a building. She only saw his back end though.
Not that she looked at it enough to know what it looked like, he was just the only pony she knew who styled his tail so, and whose hair color was brown and blond.
She turned to Prism when they came up to the door.
“Well, see ya in the-”
“Prism!” She cut him off, seeing he was about to take off to Cloudsdale. She blushed realizing she was a bit too loud…
“Um… well, that is…” She looked down, blushing a bit darker, poking at the ground with her hoof. Her nerves were not going to get the better of her this time. She’d been battling since she’d gotten to the cloud to ask what she was going to ask, and by Celestia she was going to ask it!
“Yeah..?” She was knocked out of her mini pep talk by Prism, obviously waiting for her to continue.
“… Well….. After tomorrows flying lesson…. If you and Whirlwind don’t have anything else planned…… And well…. Since I can fly up to clouds now…. Would you…” She trailed off again, then took a deep breath.
“Would you give me a tour of Cloudsdale tomorrow?”
She blushed, wondering if he would agree, since he and Whirlwind were obviously an item… but it was just as friends. She had no ulterior motives. None. At all.
She looked down during the small bit of silence. She’d face a whole hive of hornets to get this feeling to stop… She felt so vulnerable. Her heart jumped when she heard him sigh.
“Ya know…” He started, “You’re gonna be the end a my afternoon naps.” She looked back up in confusion. What was that supposed to mean? He flew into a hover.
“Sure. See ya.” She saw a smirk grace his muzzle before he flew off.
She sat there blushing quietly. Sure? That meant yes right? She let out a long calming sigh. She always felt as if she’d run a marathon around him… it was quite a foreign feeling.
She shut the door behind her as she went in. There was a lamp on, telling her Starburst must be home. She used her magic to flip on a few more lights.
She looked around, finally seeing all the books the library had to offer. After a certain amount of time, the books had a way of fading into the background. She momentarily wondered if any of them held the answers as to what that monster was…
She flapped her wings, flying up the stairs, deciding to get comfortable before beginning her research. She landed at the top of the stairs, seeing Starburst had gone to bed already.
She went over to the mirror, removing the invisibility spell from her horn, and letting her hair down. She used her magic to levitate a brush over to attempt to get the creases where the tie had been out.
After she was done, she flew back down, taking a few extra steps on her landing, but landing. She looked around at the books, then looked through the directory to see which books might be of assistance.
After gathering said books, and reading through most of them, she concluded that it had to have been some form of hell hound.
Though none of the books mentioned that breed specifically. They shouldn’t be able to breathe fire, nor should they be as big as a full grown stallion. ‘What if there are more?’
Candy had a very legitimate point. She was sure other ponies stood no chance against the demon.
She got a blank piece of paper, and quickly doodled what she could remember of the thing, then prayed her Aunt Twilight forgive her when she ripped the page on the hell hounds from the book.
She folded her drawing in with the ripped page, and a note. She decided she’d send it in the morning… and then it would be out of her hooves.
She sat the letter down on a small end table, and flew back up the stairs to prepare for bed.
It hadn’t taken her as long as she thought it would to find what she found on the demon, so when she got back to the room, sleep wasn’t quite ready to find her yet.
Writing the letter to her brother had let her mind wander to her family. ‘I cant believe how long I’ve been gone… Mother and father must be worried sick.’ thoughts of her mother loosing sleep and her father running the guards rampant plagued her mind. She trotted over to the window, opening it. One spell wouldn’t hurt. She didn’t put a return address on the letter…
She was sure she wouldn’t be found. She let her eyes close, her horn beginning to glow once more. A light pink heart made its way from her horn, and flew off in the direction of the Crystal Empire.
‘I hope it makes it.’ She’d never cast her spell over such great of a distance before.
She folded her forelegs, laying her head down on them, looking out the window to see the moon. Through all these years, she still didn’t know why she found the moon so comforting.
There were many things she didn’t know. Too many. Why was she chosen to be a princess? Why did she feel she had to run away..? What was she starting to feel for Prism..?
She wasn’t a dumb pony. She was very smart, in fact.. But when posed with questions such as this, she didn’t know what to think. None of it made sense.
She looked back to the moon one last time before falling asleep, as if it would answer her questions, though it never did.