Wednesday, AM: Lazy Days, Crazy Dolls
Once again, Sunset found herself waking up at sunrise, though at least this time she wasn’t as sleep deprived.
Hopefully I’m not needed to help in the bakery again, she thought, going through her usual motions of prep in the morning. Her crippling self-awareness about not having anything to cover up her exposed sex was also much less than it was yesterday. Though she could only figure it was more out of a need to adapt to her situation because of the simple lack of anything close to “pony panties” being available. Still, she would have preferred walking around in just underwear to walking around not in underwear.
“Morning, Miss Shimmer!” greeted Mr. Cake as the unicorn descended the stairs.
“Good morning, Mr. Cake! How’s Mrs. Cake?”
“Oh, she’s still down with the pox, unfortunately, and Pinkie’s off visiting her family on the Pie rock farm today, so Sugarcube Corner will be taking the day off since it’s only me here who can bake.”
Naturally, her recently increasing stance on being as helpful to all as could be led to Sunset speaking before thinking. “B-but what about yesterday? I can help!”
“If it hadn’t been for you, yesterday would have been an unmitigated disaster, but as it is, I can’t possibly ask you to help out again. Not when we’re down Pinkie as well. Besides, it’s probably for the best; I really need a day off and I can’t imagine a better way to spend time with my kids.”
“Oh, okay then!” Sunset chirped as she made her way out the door. Once out of earshot of Mr. Cake, she sighed with relief.As much as I would have liked to help again, I can’t afford to lose more time, I gotta check out Raspberry to see if she-
As if on cue, that very same pony happily trotted past right in front of Sunset, not noticing the maize unicorn’s wide-eyed stare. Nor did the magical green phoenix that seemed to be following the red-hued mare’s path.
Well, shit, that’s convenient, thought Sunset, stunned. But I can’t just walk behind her, she’d make me in a moment. Invisibility spell would help, but what if she can see through that? I need a disguise…. Fortunately for the pony-turned-human-turned-back-again, her eyes noticed something in the back of a shop nearby Sugarcube Corner. A wide, devilish grin formed on her muzzle, for she had found the perfect disguise.
It had been months since her last…”incident”…and so to Raspberry Beryl it was great to have the confidence to be able to happily trot around town without being looked down upon. Plus, she was out running errands for Cashmere, which was also good as she really didn’t get out much. Of course, she hadn’t got out much before the incident last Nightmare Night where her very literal “dark secret” had come to light. That said, Raspberry preferred her current hermit status to the one she held before. At least now, she no longer had to worry about ponies finding out about what she could do and burning her at the stake.
Plus, she thought, I didn’t have to lose Heliodor. Glancing up at the soaring green avian, Razz smiled. She thought the world of the bird, who had been her only family for nine years until she’d been taken in by Ascot and Cashmere to live at the Traveler’s Retreat. Indeed, he had risked his life numerous times – almost truly losing it at her trial from hell no thanks in small part to Bluebood’s greed.
But then she noticed something unusual: There, partially hidden behind a wall and partially inside the alley was a box. A typical, large cardboard box, it had no markings other than a giant red exclamation point on each side. Idly, Raspberry noted the box was large enough to hold a pony underneath it, but she shook her head before looking up to her pet, who had found a perch on a lamp post.
“Think I’m just seeing things, Heelee?” she asked. Heliodor nodded playfully in response, and she groaned. “Of course you do. C’mon, still got some things to pick up. Fixture forgot to put in the order for that dumb toilet part so we gotta go pick it up.”
As Raspberry and Heliodor left, Sunset risked letting out the built-up breath she’d been holding. Amazingly, she’d forgotten to cast an invisibility spell, so without further ado she cast one, the box melting into nothing and concealing its secret cargo, then as an added layer of stealth cast invisibility on herself. Unfortunately, Sunset wasn’t quite as skilled as she believed. While true, she honestly was still a very good spell caster, invisibility spells had always been a difficult matter for her. As a recently returned unicorn who hadn’t even tried to cast an invisibility spell since before going through the mirror the first time, her prowess with that particularly difficult kind of magic had degraded further. The end result of this being no more than five minutes after casting the spell when it wore off, bringing the box back into view. Sunset, being on the inside, didn’t realize her disguise’s first layer had already been stripped away, much less the second soon after.
“Come on, Diamond!” called out Silver Spoon. “Seriously, it’s like you normally don’t do this much walking.”
“Well, that’s normally because I don’t!” retorted the pink filly. “Honestly, I still don’t see how you all convinced me to go along with this little project, anyway.”
Apple Bloom groaned, “Ah’m sorry, but back when we were all you-know-whats Ah’m pretty sure you were perfectly capable of-“
“I thought we agreed never to talk about that again, you cou-er, sorry, Apple Bloom.” Diamond mentally facehoofed. This whole “being nice” thing was probably the most difficult thing she’d ever had to do, but given everything she’d done wrong by the Cutie Mark Crusaders and to Silver Spoon, having to deal with being part of their little club was Diamond’s penance to pay. Besides, given the monster she’d become - both metaphorically and physically - the last time she’d gone against the Crusaders, it was the preferable option.
“See? You’re getting better at it!” praised Scootaloo. “Maybe there is hope of you not trying to insult any of us on a daily basis!”
“I’m not going to justify that with a comment,” snorted Tiara, the urge to shoot a nasty look at the pegasus almost too much to keep down by sheer force of will.
“Yeah,” Silver piped in wryly, “at this rate she will have easily toned it down to, like, insults every other day or something.”
“Girls, come on, we’re losing sight of what we need to be doing!” chided Sweetie Belle. “If this is going to work, we need a box of some kind!”
“You mean like that one?” said Silver, pointing to a box with a large red exclamation point. Immediately the box lifted up, aglow with a flickering pale green aura.
“Y-yeah! This will do!” said Sweetie, straining to keep the box up. She failed, the box becoming dull again and fell to the ground. It would have crumpled had it not been for Silver and Apple Bloom’s quick movements to balance it on their backs.
“That was a close one!” laughed the farm filly.
“Yeah, I’ll say. Now, come on!” replied Scootaloo, “we gotta get this back to the Fortress of Awesomeness!”
“The what now?” remarked Diamond in a perfect deadpan.
Sweetie facehoofed. “The treehouse.” She then turned to Scootaloo, who had a large grin. “You know if Babs was still here she would have decked you, right?”
“Yep! That’s why I said it, because I know she’s the only Crusader who would-“ started the orange filly, only to receive a light punch to her left foreleg. “Ow, what was that for?”
“Well somepony’s got to take Babs’ place, don’t they?” snarked Diamond, leading the way back to the treehouse.
“I’d be mildly angry at that if it wasn’t for the fact you used to do a lot worse, Diamond,” admitted Scoot.
“Yeah, she might have filled your room full of cats!” whimsically suggested Apple Bloom, glancing devilishly at Silver.
“Hey, look, we apologized for that!” retorted Silver, only to get more laughter out of Apple Bloom.
“Yeah, Ah know, Ah’m just givin’ y’all a hard time!”
None of them had noticed the yellow unicorn with the flame hair - the one who had been under the box - still crouching low to the ground and slowly moving forward. Sunset looked around, perplexed that her cover had mysteriously vanished the moment she blinked. After some thought, the maize unicorn decided it didn’t matter. As long as her invisibility spell was still up, she didn’t have anything to worry about.
“I do not mean to offend you, your highness,” profusely apologized Pear Blossom, as the pale beige earth pony looked at her pear stand’s best customer, “but I do not think you can carry so many pears.”
“Seriously, Pear, just call me Razz,” the pony in question insisted. “The whole ‘princess’ thing is just formality and given my magic handicap it usually only really needs to be mentioned if I need to scare somepony.”
Pear adjusted her lightish red cap. “Ah, merci then, Razz. But still, how will you get so many pears back to the Retreat?”
Razz laughed. “Simple!” With one fluid motion of her head, her horn lit up with its hazy, bubbly dark aura of purple and green…sans her eyes. Noticing Pear Blossom’s look of confusion, she sighed. “Let me guess, you’re expecting the eyes thing, too?”
“Well, yes, isn’t that part of dark magic use?”
“Normally, but that crap irritates my eyes, so I figured out how to nullify it.” The several crates of pears that had been behind Pear Blossom’s stall suddenly became uniformly shrouded in a black aura, before they all winked out of existence. “And there we go!”
“Go? But…but where?”
“Why, to the Retreat, of course! I just teleported them to the back so Mom can sort them into the kitchen. Just because my magic is of the dark persuasion doesn’t mean it can’t be used for mundane purposes.”
“Oh, I’d say that’s hardly mundane, Razz!” laughed Pear, impressed with Raspberry’s minor demonstration of her mundane powers of darkness. Suddenly, she saw some movement just behind her customer. “Ay, what was that?”
Razz blinked in confusion, “What was what?”
“That mare, over there!” Pear pointed with her hoof. As Raspberry’s gaze drifted to follow, she saw…Sunset Shimmer. For whatever reason, the yellow mare was crouching as if trying to hide, her face oriented towards where Raspberry Beryl was standing, but her eyes were closed. As if she stupidly believed that would help her hide.
Don’t know how she lost the box, but obviously I was right, thought Raspberry with a smirk, a knowing look on her face as she glanced up at Heliodor. He merely bowed and waved a wing around as if graciously accepting defeat for being wrong. Razz just laughed as her attention went back to Pear Blossom, being sure to use a tone that sounded conversational but was reduced in volume enough that Sunset wouldn’t hear. “I do believe she’s following me, but don’t worry. I’m sure there’s a rational explanation for her behavior and, if for whatever reason there isn’t, she’s just one pony. That’s nothing compared to the entire towns I’ve had to outrun in the past.”
“Well, uh, I trust you know what you are doing, then. Oh! And I will send the bill by mail later today.”
“Yeah, hopefully it arrives this week,” joked Razz. “I mean, Derpy’s good at her job, but there’s always that one letter she ends up losing for weeks. Anyway, gotta go, so I’ll talk to you later.”
As Sunset watched Raspberry Beryl leave once again after what may have been her looking in the general direction of the maize unicorn’s location, it appeared she didn’t notice anything different or out of the ordinary.
Man, Solid Snake really did know what he was doing! thought Sunset, slowly inching her way past the pear stand. From behind said stand, a very confused Pear Blossom watched Sunset sluggishly pursue Raspberry, which was odd considering the unicorn in question was invisible. She must be looking at something behind me. Sunset thought, doing her best to keep up with her darker counterpart…
...At least until said darker counterpart suddenly darted into a side alleyway, which judging from the phoenix circling above must have meant she’d taken a wrong turn. But as Sunset slowly clip-clopped her way up to the entrance, she saw that there was no trace of Raspberry Beryl.
“Boo,” suddenly came the voice of Raspberry Beryl from behind Sunset, scaring her a foot into the air and subsequently trapping her between the end of the alley and Raspberry herself.
“H-how did you see me?” blurted Sunset, “I was invisible and everything!”
Raspberry, in turn, looked at Sunset as if she was stupid in ways not yet discovered by ponykind. “No…no you weren’t. In fact, I’ve known you’ve been following me for the past hour. Even Pear Blossom saw you for Celestia’s sake!”
Shit, thought Sunset, trying to come up with an excuse. “Well, uh, okay then….”
“So you gonna tell me why you’ve been following me around?”
Sunset wanted nothing more than to call out the mare in front of her. To demand that she stop tormenting Twily with nightmares or else. But if Pheonix Wright had taught her anything, it was that she couldn’t convict without evidence. Thus, Sunset decided to pursue another course. “Yes, it’s a simple explanation, actually.”
“Oh?”
“SMOKESCREEN!” shouted Sunset, quickly casting an obscurity spell (that happened to create a cloud of smoke) in the hopes she could run past the blinded duplicate of herself and escape. And it almost worked, too, had it not been for her face smashing into a wall of black crystals that had somehow spontaneously erupted from the ground.
“Trust me, Sunset,” chided Razz, “I basically mastered that trick during my time living alone in the Sierra Neighvada Desert a few years back. Smokescreens were the only way to outwit those damn snakes.”
“You don’t say,” replied the dazed unicorn, reeling from having gotten her first direct taste of dark magic.
“Now, I believe you were about to tell me why you’re following me around?”
Chewing her lip, Sunset looked from the scrutinizing glare of her lookalike and the wall of obsidian-like dark crystals blocking her only escape. It was clear she wasn’t getting out of this one with more cheap tricks. Fortunately, Sunset thought of a way she could both explain her strange behavior to Raspberry, and try to get some information at the same time.
“Alright, you caught me!” Sunset exclaimed, raising her forelegs in mock surrender. “Princess Celestia has instructed me to keep an eye on you.” Technically, it’s not a lie!
Raspberry squinted suspiciously at Sunset. “Is that so? So, are you two buddies again?”
Sunset flinched. “Well, n-not exactly. But she did ask me to watch you! You can check with her yourself, if you want.”
Raspberry’s skeptical look remained unchanged. “Fine. Why does she want you keeping tabs on me?”
Drawing on all of her experience intimidating the students of Canterlot High, Sunset did her utmost to look as casual as possible, idly inspecting her hoof as she dropped what she hoped would be the wham line. “Lonesome Dove.”
It got the reaction Sunset was hoping for. Raspberry furrowed her brow and tilted her head back. “I went over that with her a dozen times. It’s finished.”
Sunset took a step forward as she pressed her attack. “Celestia doesn’t seem to think so. Hence… me,” Sunset then began to stalk around Raspberry, like a predator circling its prey. Sunset could see the other pony’s confidence slip away, just like with the teens she used to bully and manipulate. Her tall shadow loomed over Raspberry, and the person Sunset swore would never show her face again was out in full force, much to her shame. But this is for Twily!
“Now, I don’t actually have all of the details of what happened in your hometown. You’d be making my job a lot easier if you told me what exactly happened,” Sunset grinned. “Of course, I’m going to find out sooner or later, so you might as well just spill the beans now!”
To Sunset’s surprise, Raspberry stomped a hoof down and gained a bit of ground. “If you think you can just bully me into telling you all about my personal life, you have another thing coming!” Raspberry stepped back and collected herself. “If you must know, exclusively being able to use dark magic made for a very… difficult childhood. Twilight and I went back to Lonesome Dove a couple of months ago to try and set some of it right. Get me some closure. Unfortunately, things didn’t exactly go as planned.”
Raspberry’s horn glowed with the bubbly, creepy ichor indicative of dark magic and in an instant, the wall of dark crystals blocking the entrance to the back alley vanished. “That’s all I feel like saying,” Razz said as she stepped aside. “You can go.”
Sunset wanted to know more, but she figured that was all she was going to get out of the warlock. She’d have to learn the rest on her own. “Fine,” But before departing, Sunset went right up to Raspberry and pressed her face into hers. “But just know, I’m watching you… like a hawk!”
Evidently, the statement didn’t have the desired effect, as a big stupid grin formed on the dark unicorn’s face. “ ‘Like a hawk’? Why don’t you watch me like a pon-”
“Razz, Sunset, Ah’m glad Ah found you!” suddenly came the voice of Applejack, who emerged from out of view. Both unicorns turned toward her, suddenly completely affable. “Listen, Ah hate t’ ask y’all about this, but Big Mac’s sprained his right hindleg and so we need yer help to harvest the apples.”
“Did you ask Twilight or the others?” suggested Raspberry.
“Yeah, Ah tried to, got everypony ‘cept Twi. Turns out she’s doin’ some official ‘princess business’ or what have ya.”
“Well, I’d love to, but I’ve still got some errands to run. However….” Raspberry gave a sly look at Sunset. “I’m sure Sunset has nothing better to do today, right?”
“Well, I, um…” sputtered the flustered unicorn. She wanted dearly to keep an eye on Raspberry, but with her box gone, Raspberry aware of her intentions, and the fact telling Applejack anything at all related to what she’d been doing would look like insanity and alienate the earth pony, she was at a loss as to what to say.
“Ah understand if you have stuff to do,too, Sunset,” said Applejack, a touch of caution in her voice, which was not unexpected given her reaction to meeting Sunset just two nights ago under the pretense she was still a power-hungry wannabe princess. “But Ah would really ‘preciate the help. Plus, since it might take a while, Ah was gonna bring out one of the reserve apple cider barrels for everypony, too.”
“Did you just say ‘apple cider’?” asked Shimmer, her priorities suddenly shifting.
“Eeyup. And no, it ain’t the non-alcoholic stuff we usually sell, either, this is the Apple Family private reserve Ah’m talkin’ about. ‘Course, if you’re one of those ponies who don’t drink alcohol for whatever reason, we got the regular kind, too.”
“Screw that, you have no idea how badly I’ve wanted a good, hard cider!” blurted Sunset, faint hints of desperation in her voice. “Yeah, I’ll come help with the apple harvesting.”
“Thank ya kindly, Sunset. C’mon, we gotta get started right away or else we’ll be at it all night!”
As the farmer led the unicorn away, Raspberry gave Sunset a wink. “Trust me, you’ll probably thank me for volunteering you once you taste that cider.”
We’ll see about that, thought Sunset, as I’m not done with you yet, Raspberry. Not by a long shot.
“My, we’ve really let the place go, haven’t we?” asked Luna as she surveyed the decayed ruins of Castle Everfree.
“Well, not like there was any choice, Lu-Lu,” said Celestia. “After your rise as Nightmare Moon and subsequent banishment, nopony wanted to remain here in the capital. By the time the original fears of your presence still lingering in these walls had vanished, the forest had already begun to reclaim the area. Plus, with Canterlot nearly built, there was no need for our old castle beyond hiding the Elements of Harmony.”
“Indeed. Though I must say somepony’s been doing a little work here and there. For a ruined castle that nopony lives in, it is remarkably well kept.”
“Well, my friends and I have been doing some cleaning up of the place,” said Twilight, blushing. It had been her idea to bring Celestia and Luna to Castle Everfree for the purposes of trying to locate the supposed mirror that Sunset claimed to have come through. “Much of the castle remains in desperate need of TLC, but the path from the main entrance to the library and the secret private library is mostly cleaned up as far as either me or my friends can accomplish.”
“And all the traps are still in working order?” asked Celestia, noting Luna’s ears perking up at the possibility of hearing something she was really interested in.
“Of course, princess, didn’t I say as much in the letter I wrote to you? Oh wait, that might have just been in the journal.”
“Pardon me, but…” interrupted Luna. “When you mean ‘all’ the traps, you do actually mean all of them, yes?”
“Yes, they’re all functional. They’re all marked, since they can still give ponies quite a scare, but-“
“Actually, hold that thought, Twilight,” interrupted Luna once again. “I need to, er, use the little princess’s room for just a quick moment!” The Princess of the Night then darted away into the castle interior before Twilight could reply.
“B-but…this castle doesn’t have indoor plumbing,” blurted the purple alicorn. “It didn’t exist when this castle was built!”
“No, it doesn’t,” confirmed Celestia with a smile, “but it does have a slide.” Subsequently, the sound of a very happy princess was heard echoing from somewhere within the castle.
“OH, HOW WE HAVE MISSED THIS!” boomed Luna, momentarily using the majestic plural by accident as she was caught up in reliving memories of childhood.
Celestia just shook her head in amusement. “You wouldn’t believe how upset she was when she learned Castle Canterlot wasn’t built with a slide, Twilight,” said the eldest princess to her faithful protégée. “Though now that she knows the original is still in working order, I fear there’s going to be a new levy being pushed for restoring this old castle and possibly even slide extensions.”
“While I’m all for the preservation of history,” replied Twilight. “I think it would be prudent to learn all the secrets of this castle first. After all, the very reason we’re here is because of one such secret, no?”
Celestia’s smile quickly dropped into a hard line, though not in regards to Twilight. “Indeed, though if what I suspect is true, that one secret may be but just the beginning to a whole collection of revelations which could help paint a larger picture of just what went wrong those many, many years ago.”
As the princesses started to walk – they both were confident that Luna would easily find them again once she was done with her beloved slide – Twilight couldn’t help but be unnerved by Celestia’s words. “I…I don’t understand, what exactly do you mean by ‘painting a larger picture’?”
Celestia took in a deep breath, choosing her next words carefully. “Twilight…who am I?”
The question only made the young alicorn even more confused. “Huh? You’re Princess Celestia, the beloved ruler of Eq-“
“Sorry, that may have not been the right thing to ask,” apologized Celestia. “I guess the more appropriate question would be: what am I, in your opinion?”
“Oh, that’s easy! You’re a great ruler, wise and kind, but you’re also my teacher and just as much part of my family as my friends and blood relatives. A second mother to me, really.”
“You flatter me, Twilight,” Celestia demurred, though it didn’t stop her from blushing a little at Twilight’s answer being so personal. Though I wish I had been able to do the same with Sunset, the solar avatar lamented within her thoughts, instead of having only learned from my mistakes with her far too late. That in turn led to her next question for Twilight. “Now, I need to ask you one more thing, but I want your honest opinion.”
“Princess, why would I ever be dishonest with you?”
“Out of well-placed but misguided attempts to spare me painful truths,” Celestia said, giving Twilight a knowing grin. “Don’t worry, I can take it.”
Twilight shifted her wings uncomfortably. “I…see. Alright, then, what do you want to ask of me?”
“Twilight…do you think of me as infallible?”
Oddly, Twilight looked at Celestia as if she’d grown a second set of wings. “No offense, Princess, but I’ve never thought of you as perfect.”
The blunt honesty caught Celestia off guard. Admittedly, I did ask her to not hold back
Not noticing Celestia’s momentary shock, Twilight started listing her reasoning: “Looking at your history as princess objectively, your first years on the throne were a complete disaster! First off, you let Sombra’s ambitions go unchecked beyond maintaining your position on the throne, which led to him going over to the Crystal Empire and we both know how well that went. Ditto for how Sable Loam was allowed to leave to join him which in turn resulted in the creation of werewolves, the problems stemming from those fleabags of course not needing to be mentioned. Then you spent quite a while having to deal with Discord when he forcefully took over and only used the Elements of Harmony as a last resort, leaving much of the country in disarray. That in turn prompted Sombra to accelerate his build up in preparation for war, which you plunged the country into only for the Crystal Empire to be lost and you didn’t actually kill that bastard anyway. And then you fail to notice your own sister’s growing resentment to the point she becomes corrupted by her own animosity and jealousy towards you and once again plunges Equestria into war, this time a civil war which you only were able to stop by banishing Nightmare Moon a.k.a. your own sister to the moon for a thousand years, thus ensuring she endure a millennium of the very things that caused her to turn into Nightmare Moon in the first place. Oh, and then when every single one of those heavy hitters from a thousand years ago showed up within recent history, you relied upon me and my friends to deal with them because you for whatever reason couldn’t finish the job!”
Celestia could only stare at Twilight, as if the smaller mare had up and slapped her clean across the face. Twilight quickly realized this and, naturally, went into a mad panic.
“OhnoI’msorryIwasfartoobluntpleaseforgivemePrincessIdidn’tmeanto-“
The presence of a golden shoe placing itself on Twilight’s muzzle silenced the younger princess, though her eyes were still fearful. But surprisingly, Celestia wasn’t at all angry. “There’s nothing I need to forgive you for, Twilight; you’ve done nothing but what I explicitly asked you to do.”
“B-but!” sputtered Twi, “I made you sound really, really bad, when in reality you had justifiable reasons for doing what you did!”
“I appreciate the vote of confidence, but with all the justification possible for any of those actions, it doesn’t change the fact they reflect poorly on my leadership, my age and inexperience notwithstanding. Nor do my other mistakes during my solitude on the throne become any less poorly judged as the years progress.”
Twilight looked at her mentor with a sad frown. “Princess, why are you being so hard on yourself? You and you alone are the reason why Equestria has enjoyed centuries of peace, often with you personally making sure the necessary actions were done. Even when you couldn’t, you made sure that the ponies who could were in the right place at the right time. After all, that’s why you sent me to Ponyville to meet the ponies who would be my closest friends, to save both Equestria and Luna by rejuvenating the Elements, right?”
“Indeed. Please do not think I’m being hard on myself just at random, however. A pony’s worst critic is more often than not themselves and I have over a thousand years of mistakes and regrets that I must bear silently in order to keep this land safe. As you are a princess yourself, Twilight, you must remember that though you are an alicorn, rarest of the pony species, you are not infallible. I asked you to be brutally honest to me, because I needed that slap of reality. It…grounds my judgement in reality.”
“I see…but why are you telling me this?”
“Because as I said before, I was hardly fit for the throne when I claimed it in place of my mother, with my concerns being more in line with fighting off potential usurpers than really being an effective leader,” Celestia’s gaze grew distant, and in that moment she was no longer in her mother’s old castle, but elsewhere entirely. “It is only too easy for things like this supposed mirror to have skirted around my awareness, but the fact something as powerful as a gateway between entire realities lay hidden for a thousand years…it could have let anything through and nopony would know. Worse still, the world Sunset has come to call home? It and our world of Equus may be far more connected in history than anypony could have guessed.”
“Yer kiddin’ me,” flatly stated Applejack, not fully convinced of what Sunset was saying.
“Nope, that’s honestly the truth,” replied the unicorn, trotting in-step with Applejack along the well used road to Sweet Apple Acres.
“Well, Ah can’t say Ah know yer lyin’, but all the same Ah can’t imagine mah family willin’ to sell the farm and go run a freakin’ store. Ah mean, that’s what Mr. Rich does for the Apples, workin’ as a middleman to sell Zap Apple jam outside of Ponyville an’ all.”
Sunset’s eyes widened slightly. “Mr. Rich? As in Filthy Rich? As in ‘the one who founded Barnyard Bargains and probably is on Walmart’s hit list’ Mr. Rich?”
“Ah don’t know what a ‘wall mart’ is, plus Ah think it was Mr. Rich’s grandfather, Stinkin’ Rich, that founded the company, but otherwise Ah’m guessin’ we’re talkin’ about the same pony.”
“I didn’t know Barnyard Bargains worked so closely with independent farms. Though really, the closest I’ve ever been to a Barnyard Bargains anything was a distribution center that was being built on what had been my home.”
“Say what now?!” exclaimed AJ, stopping dead in her tracks. “Ah know Mr. Rich, so Ah also know he would never go in and knock somepony’s house down just to build somethin’ on top of it! At least not without askin’, first!”
“Huh? I don’t…” Sunset then dawned on the realization, chuckling a little at her silliness. “Oh, sorry, I wasn’t being clear. Back in the human world, my home had really been an abandoned warehouse that I was kinda, sorta illegally living in. At least until the property got sold.”
“Oh, well Ah can’t say there’s much to be done ‘bout that. Though Ah’ll bet whoever built that place was a might angry at it being torn down.”
“The company that built it had long since gone out of business before I came along. It was some appliance company, ‘Flim-Flam Bros. Manufacturing’ or something, I don’t remember.”
Now it was Applejack’s turn to be wide-eyed. “Did you just say somethin’ along the lines of the ‘Flim Flam Brothers havin’ gone outta business years ago’ or somethin’ of that nature?”
Sunset raised an eyebrow. “Uh, I guess?”
Applejack’s mouth seemed to waver before the farmer erupted into laughter. “AHAHAHAHAHAHA! At least there’s some place out there that those two-timing scammers got their just desserts!”
The unicorn, in turn, put on a nervous smile. “I take it you’re not on good terms with them?”
Applejack wiped a tear from her eye as she got herself back under control. “Considerin’ they have caused mah family no end of trouble, rangin’ from almost scammin’ us outta our farm to nearly gettin’ Granny Smith to do somethin’ incredibly dangerous because their dumbass fake ‘cure-all’ made her think she was indestructible? Ah guess you could say Ah wouldn’t mind them havin’ to find ‘alternative’, or should Ah say ‘honest’ employment that don’t involve mah family encounterin’ more misfortune. We got enough of that from….” Applejack mysteriously trailed off for some reason, piquing Sunset’s curiosity.
“From what?”
Applejack just shook her head. “They weren’t involved in that matter, which Ah’d rather not talk about since it’s private, family business. Ah hope ya understand.”
“Sure,” Sunset returned her attention to the road in front of her. A large red structure had since come into view in the distance. Alongside it were rows of trees as far as Sunset Shimmer could see. “Is that it?”
“Eeyup, it’s just-“ Applejack was cut off as a large explosion suddenly sounded off not too far away.
KRAKA-DOOOOM
The sound seemed to shake the ground beneath the two mares’ hooves.
“That didn’t sound good!” said Sunset, taking note of a trail of black smoke starting to rise up near the distant red barn.
“Ah swear if it’s who Ah think it is that’s responsible…” Applejack muttered as she took off at a full gallop.
A hunch formed in Sunset’s mind as to the identity of the culprits as she took off after Applejack. Considering the haste at which the farm pony was moving, it could only be one group of fillies. Assuming the versions of Applejack’s sister and her friends who Sunset was familiar with were anything like the ones at the base of the distant column of smoke.