The sun beat down on Twilight’s shut eyes, the brightness beckoning her up even through the closed lids. She groaned long and miserably, rolling over on the uncomfortable pile of dresses and ribbons. But the growl of her belly gave her no respite and she eventually stood up, shrugged off the blanket and shook out her mane and tail.
“I declare.” Applejack yawned long and loud. “Celestia must be getting’ up extra early today.”
One by one, the ponies began to rouse. Applejack and Rarity rolled up the tint and revealed a still snoozing Pinkie Pie, limbs akimbo. Fluttershy stretched out her legs and peeked out of the box at the dawning sun.
“So, Twilight,” Applejack moved her saddlebags closer to where Twilight studied the map. “What’s the deal with cuttin’ through the forest?”
“I’m afraid we don’t have a choice, AJ. We’ve only made half as much progress as I originally planned, and every day we fall behind, the more likely it is the fae will turn the river into a swamp. Besides . . .” Magically flicking a pebble to thud against the box, Twilight motioned for Fluttershy to join them. “Fluttershy, you are the foremost expert on flora. If we travel into the forest, do you think we could find food?”
“Food?” Applejack hadn’t woken up enough to remember her plan to blank all her expressions. She straightened in surprise “From the forest? Isn’t that a might dangerous?”
“AJ, you and Rainbow Dash might be able to go another full days hike on what we have. Maybe Pinkie Pie, too. But Rarity and I are not accustom to this vigorous of a physical activity. Not only that, but I need to be at my best when negotiating with the Fae in order to secure the most fair deal. Now, Fluttershy . . .”
The box settled down, the legs disappeared under the flaps. A long silence passed before the large eyes appeared again, glancing nervously between Applejack and Twilight.
“Fluttershy?”
“I . . . think so.” She avoided their gaze. “Some wild flora may grow in the forest that I can recognize. I’ve seen it grow before, last time we were there.”
“Then it’s settled.” Twilight folded the map with finality, rising to her feet. “We’ll cut through the forest and scavenge a decent meal on the way.”
Applejack took in a deep breath and let it out in a sigh. “Alright, Twilight, if you think so.”
Unfolding a clipboard list, the town envoy surveyed each pony, one check for awake and one more for packed. Rarity went to work tapping on Pinkie’s flank, but to no response. Seeing no alternative, she attempted to pull the ribbons out from the heavy sleeper’s back.
“SNAKES!” Pinkie flew up into the air and ran blind for several moments before skidding to a stop. “No, wait! Just grass.”
But the outcry alone was enough to send Twilight’s fur frizzing in fright. With a shaking magical grip on her pin, she checked once for Pinkie. Had to be snakes. . . Straightening herself out, she approached the second tent and found a multi colored tail hanging out the edge.
“Rainbow dash? Rainbow Dash! Time to get up and pack.”
The tail disappeared under the canvas.
“No time to nap today. We’re already behind.”
The tent stood eerily quiet.
“Dash, don’t make me force you up.”
After no response came, Twilight’s horn glowed and the stakes popped from the earth, causing the tent to collapse and a surprised yelp to come from inside.
“Out you go, time to pack up.”
A figure scrambled out from the bottom of the tent and into the sunlight for every pony to see.
“CLOWNS!” Pinkie screamed and ran blindly forward. “Clowns in the tent! No, wait! Just Rainbow Dash.”
Dash’s wings clung as tight as possible to her sides and she shrinked away. Her blue face was replaced with one powered white as snow. Bright cheeks were painted unevenly in red blush. Her hooves evidently struggled to hold the lipstick as one side of her mouth had an unnatural red grin.
“What in tarnation?!”
“Oh my goodness, darling!”
Even the box rocked back with a timid squeek.
Pinkie giggled and started to sing. “Na na na na na na na na na Batpony!”
Dash only shrank further. “I-I-I had no mirror, okay? I’ve never tried it on before.” Her voice began to crack and tears welled up behind her magenta eyes as she rambled. “I forgot to pack a mirror and I don’t know how to wash it off and . . .”
Applejack walked slowly forward and threw a forelimb around her shoulder, hugging Rainbow Dash between one limb and her neck. “C’mon, sugarcube. Let’s take you down to the river and get you all washed up.” Together, they walked down to the water’s edge where Dash stared at her reflection. Before dunking her entire head and shaking it about, water splashing violently. Applejack soaked her tail in the water and used it to wipe away what she could.
“Well . . . now . . . that was unexpected.” Twilight stared after them.
“Poor darling just needs an experienced hoof.”
“No use just watching now.” Twilight made short work of the rest of the packs thanks to her organizational skills and a healthy talent in magic. After only a few minutes, everything was lined up, and all wore their packs except Applejack and Rainbow Dash. Twilight checked off those marks anyways and sat patiently for Dash to clean up. Some things were worth a delay.
“You two ready?” Twilight rose to her hooves seeing the pair approach. Dash’s face and Applejack’s tail still dripped with water, but they were clean and Dash had a small smile on her face once more.
“Yeah, oh wait!” Rainbow Dash flapped to her bag and pulled out a decorative saddle.
Both Twilight and Rarity watched in stunned silence as Dash slipped it on, though her inexperience with the strap was giving her trouble. Pinkie Pie was the first to act, giving the strap a tug and a snap into place.
“Oh, Rainbow Dash, you look so pretty now that you are pretending to be fancy instead of pretending to be a clown. Though I had some great hats to go with clowns!” Pulling a party hat out of her saddlebag, a minor explosion of confetti and streamers erupted from her pack.
The reminder of the makeup mishap was softened by the fact it was Pinkie Pie. Rainbow Dash just laughed and patted her on the shoulder. “Maybe for Halloween.”
All packed, Twilight led them to a low water crossing in the river, that only rose above their hooves. The hope was that they’d dry before long as they crossed into the Everfree Forest.
“Stay close now.” Applejack watched the canopy of the trees with caution. “We want none of ya gettin’ lost, deep in these woods.”
Applejack took it upon herself to keep eyes on the whole troop, making sure that Fluttershy didn’t fall behind or Pinkie Pie didn’t wander off. Twilight occupied herself with navigating through the jungle as it grew more and more dense. Rarity did her best to avoid various pitfalls to her coat or main.
“Hey, Fluttershy.” Dash hovered over the box, looking down at the other pegasus. “Can you even see what sort of plants are around you?”
“Yes, well . . . kind of.”
Dash rolled her eyes. “Then can you like . . . open a hole a bit wider or something? If a meal ticket is around here,” She swooped down in front of the box so Fluttershy could see Rainbow Dash’s serious gaze. “I’d rather have you able to see it for us.”
Fluttershy shrank back and let out a nervous mew.
“Wait justa minute you two.” Applejack gave Dash a nudge out from Fluttershy’s view. “Don’t hassle the hay-picker, or we ain’t gonna get hay picked. Best we keep walking so as to not get separated.” Already, Twilight half disappeared in brush.
Grumpy as an empty stomach made her, Dash shrugged and relented. “Oh fine.”
“Thank ya, kindly.” Applejack gave her a nod then continued on. “Oh, and Dash? Stay hoverin’ above Fluttershy if you can. Might make her a little more comfortable in the forest to have you watchin’ like that.”
Dash crossed her forelimbs over her chest, but took position over Fluttershy’s box. The forest grew thicker the deeper they plunged, though with only a tense quiet, boredom started to take over. With a casual movement, and a mischievous smile, Dash let her rear hoof sag low and bump Fluttershy’s box.
With a gasp, Fluttershy took off at a gallop.
“Whoa!”
“Goshdarnit, Dash!” Applejack had no time to chastise further and went off for the out of control box. After a short hop over a fallen log, in an attempt to cut off Fluttershy, Applejack’s leg caught on a vine. She tripped into a tumble, landing hard on the ground. Weaving around trees, Dash stopped, and together with Rarity, helped AJ to her feet.
Panting, AJ righted herself. “Which way did she go?”
“Darling, slow down. She ran into Twilight not far ahead.”
“Oh,” Applejack slowly cantered forward, catching her breath.
When she heard a scream of terror, Twilight, by the sound of it, it vaguely resembled “SNAKE! HUGE SNAKE!”
The trio took a single look at each other and then all dashed forward. In a small clearing, they caught sight of a frantic purple pony at full gallop. In her wake, a thirty foot long serpent with half a dozen hissing heads.
In silent horror, Applejack watched Twilight take a route that led right across Fluttershy. Fluttershy dropped, her legs sinking under the (un)protective layer of cardboard and stood dead still. Unable to turn away, yell, or act, AJ watched the snake barrel straight at the helpless yellow pegasus. And then, to her surprise, on around.
“Criminitly! That actually worked!” Between the wilting and the black kisses of flame, the box had become perfect camouflage in the forest. Applejack rushed in. After running an apple farm and Winter Wrap Up division for several years, she fired off orders like second nature. “Dash! Fly on up high and keep a sight on Twilight. She’s panicked and could run on anywhere. Last thing we need is to lose her in this mess.”
“Got it!” Rainbow Dash snapped to attention, the ex Jr Speedster, and in a streak of color, took to the sky.
“Rarity, you’re gonna need to take care of Twilight’s hysterics, I’m gonna distract that snake.”
Rarity gave a determined nod. Fashionista she was, artist she was, but she never batted an eyelash at any amount of danger. She pulled away and made a straight line for Dash’s location.
Applejack skidded to a stop and pulled the cardboard off of Fluttershy. “Sorry about that,”
She squeeked in surprise and curled up.
“Quick, snap out’a it. You know animals, and I need to know. What was that thing?”
“I d-don’t know! I was just in my box I couldn’t see anything!”
Antsy with adrenaline, Applejack hopped back and forth like a boxer while thinking. “Uhh, huge, really huge. Snake, had lots of heads. Chasin’ Twilight right now.”
“It must have been a Hydra!” Fluttershy stretched out her legs and unfurled her wings, blood flowing through them in fear and excitement.
“Whatcha know about them?”
“Uhh, they don’t hunt ponies, they just defend territory. If we can all go, he’ll leave us alone.”
“Right,” Applejack turned to go.
“Wait! This is very, very important. There is one thing that’ll drive a Hydra into a rage. Don’t, I repeat, don’t touch it’s nest.”
“Ooooooooooomelets ready!” Pinkie Pie’s voice echoed through the woods, the location hard to pinpoint.
The hydra’s heads jerked in unison to the sound, as if each one had be struck at the exact same moment. One by one, the heads all turned back to Twilight and the serpent doubled its speed, hissing and barreling with reckless abandon.
“Oh darn it, oh darn it!” Applejack said as fear gripped her chest. “Fluttershy! Get to Pinkie Pie NOW!”
The pegasus nodded, putting on a brave face and took to the air. Applejack ran for Twilight with a speed she’s only achieved once or twice before in her life.
Twilight zigged and zagged and screamed, allowing the path through the trees to dictate her direction rather than any strategy. Following the sight of Dash, Applejack caught up quickly by keeping her path straight. Shedding her bag for speed, she kept only her rope with her, which she turned into a lasso on the fly while hopping over logs and around vines.
Rarity ran off to the side, her white horn glowing in a pale blue light as she channeled magic spell after magic spell. But whereas Twilight had a natural skill for this sort of thing, Rarity’s was suited to small, detailed tasks. “I can’t get Twilight’s attention and I can’t slow down the creature!” She said to Applejack who pulled up alongside.
“I think I can corral Twilight to ya.” Veering off to the side, she began to twirl her rope with her tail, spinning it beautifully into an open lasso. Waiting for a clear shot, she let it fly, aiming for the panicked pony’s neck.
It was at that moment she realized how tired she really was from the day before, and how the lack of proper food effected her.
The strength sapped out of her and the lasso fell way short. As it went off target, a reptilian head slipped inside the open hole by luck. “Oh shoot . . .” The lasso jerked taut and flipped Applejack right off her feet. “Whoa!” The hydra didn’t slow a second with the added weight, dragging Applejack like a rag doll.
It’d only take a single misplace tree to severely injure the cowpony. Rarity banked hard and channeled another spell. In a moment of inspiration she focused on the knot in Applejack’s tail and untied the crude thing. Diverting the tail end of the rope, she chose a tree in front of her and made a bow of the lasso, around the trunk of a tall oak. As the Hydra surged forward, the rope yanked taut. The huge body snapped to the side, it’s massive weight turning it over in a wave that travelled down its tail for a crash.
Rarity reared up on her hind legs, kicking out in glee. “Yes!”
One of the Hydra’s heads shook itself while the rest glared at Rarity. In a roaring hiss, it bit the rope clean in two and launched forward in a winding slither.
“No!” Rarity planted her feet and turned the other direction. Trying to pick the most hazardous path for the beast, Rarity galloped through thick brush and around the thicker branches. The sticks and trees clawed at her perfect hair, snagged on her pack, but hopefully would be twice as difficult for the Hydra to follow. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a limb dig under the lid of her pack and snap the button. The wind from the gallop caught the flap, and carried out a single scroll of paper, with a bow that Rarity recognized.
“My guide!” With the grace of a waltz, she stayed light on her hooves and turned around, reaching down to snatch up the scroll with her teeth. As the paper crinkled in her grip, Rarity stared down six heads, mouths open and fangs dripping with poison. It sparked an unusually moment of clarity of mind to know avoiding the hydra was impossible now. A thought struck her then. The art that would come from /Co/ after she was torn to pieces would be especially horrific.
But Rarity was not a Jr. Speedster. Rainbow Dash had been keeping a close eye on how it unfolded and knew that turning around was a mistake for Rarity. Dash immediately rolled inverted and pulled back hard on her wings for a Split-S maneuver. Gaining airspeed in the half loop, she leveled out under the treetops, eyes finding a hole which to stream through and catch Rarity. She scooped up the unicorn the only way the path allowed, wrapping her hooves around Rarity’s back legs and clutching as tight as she could so as to not lose her in the minor pony collision.
The snake’s mouths snapped at Dash’s wake, but found no flesh to sink teeth into. Dash whooped to answer the hydra’s chorus of rage. Rarity, shaken by the force of the catch, recovered her senses while hanging upside down. Feeling something between her legs, she glanced down and saw a blue face with rainbow hair between her thighs.
Rainbow Dash’s ears rang with the scream of bloody murder. “Rarity, calm down, stop, OWW! Stop kicking!” But not a word of it got through as Rarity thrashed, kicked, struggled, and screamed. Dash went vertical to bleed off airspeed, but Rarity’s hoof hit Dash’s wing and sent them both into an uncontrolled spin. Too low to recover, Dash and Rarity tumbled through the treetops.
Applejack laid still. Every muscle in her body ached from bruises and over work. Her frame shook with a rapid pant, lungs trying to provide what lack of nutrition could not. With a painful effort, she raised her head and looked to the sky. Rainbow Dash had gone down. Twilight ran spooked through the wild woods. Rarity had disappeared. A giant monster still lurked, thirsty for blood. Each pony separate and alone in the Everfree forest. The worst case scenario realized. Applejack pinched her eyes closed and let out a quiet sob, true despair leaking into her heart. She kicked out her legs, willed them to move despite all. Despair was an alien feeling and it raised up Applejack’s defenses. She gritted her teeth against the pain and opened her eyes to see . . . Pinkie?
“There you are, silly goose.”
“What are you doin’ . . .” She trailed off. Listening for it, she heard Fluttershy’s timid voice doing its best to get attention.
“Pinkie, stop. Pinkie? Pinkie? This is in a hydra’s territory. Please, Pinkie, I’ve got something important to tell you.”
“No one came when I called.” Pinkie smiled.
Applejack attempted to get her feet under her. “It’s kinda dangerous here right now.”
Fluttershy leaped up and down, waving her hooves. “That’s what I’ve been trying to say.”
“Don’t worry, Fluttershy.” The pink one bent low and used her neck to help get Applejack to her feet. “Auntie Pinkie won’t just leave her friends in the forest.”
Fluttershy exhaled in frustration.
On her feet, AJ felt her knees sway, then stabilize. It was easier to keep in motion then it was to go from laying to standing. She started forward in a walk, to a trot, and then to a canter. “We need to get to Twilight, and find Rainbow Dash and Rarity. There is also a Hydra trying to chew our hides out there somewhere.”
Pinkie sprang up and down. “I know how to get Rainbow Dash to find us!” Pinkie nuzzled open her sack and pulled out a set of Roman candles with her mouth. “fis ill pe eefee pu fee.”
“A firework! That’ll be easy to see for Rainbow Dash!”
“fat’s wat aye faid!”
“But Twilight’s the one I’m worried about, she’s a spooked mare, runnin’ through the woods because of that gosh darn phobia of hers.”
“Umm, Applejack?” Fluttershy pulled up next to her, flying a few feet off the ground. “I think I can find Twilight.”
“How’s that?”
“Twilight’s making so much noise that I saw her startling all the birds she passes. If I fly above the trees, I’ll probably be able to point out where she is.”
A new found hope surged through Applejack’s being and gave her a burst of energy. “Alright, you do that, we’ll follow you from the ground.”
Fluttershy flapped her wings and soared above the canopy. After a short pause where she looked to all sides, she darted off. Applejack kept pace with knees she’d thought buckle at any moment. But with Pinkie at her flank, she went with a confidence that she’d have help if she fell.
But after a time all too short, Fluttershy drifted back below, a panicked fear on her face. “I don’t see any more birds. I don’t know where she went. I’m n-not sure what to do! I was just going to where I last saw them but I’m lost.”
Applejack slowed to a stop. “We can’t stop looking now.”
“Yes, you can.” A purple unicorn trotted forward. “I’m right here.”
“Twilight!” Applejack lurched forward, nearly falling, but caught herself with an embrace. “Thought I lost ya seven times over. Done panicking?”
A blush rose furiously on her cheeks. “I realized it wasn’t chasing me anymore and yes.” She straightened. “I’m quite done panicking.”
Applejack looked over her shoulder. “If we can find Rarity and Dash and quick, we can get outta here before you-know-who shows up.”
Pinkie Pie shifted her saddlebag. Sitting on her hindquarters, she dug through the bag with her forelimbs.
Rarity’s voice came from the underbrush. “There they are!” A galloping pale unicorn approached, ducking under a branch. Her well groomed hair now filled with leaves and branches, some even dragging on the ground behind her tail, all shattered off from the trees during the crash and stuck in the curls.
“Hi, Rarity!” Pinkie waved with a smile while digging through the bag.
A pegasus swooped down next, trailed by a rainbow tail and wearing a rumpled saddle.
“Hi, Dash!” Pinkie waved to her too, then resumed the bag search
“Pinkie,” AJ started. “We don’t need the fireworks any—never mind.” She breathed an intense sigh of relief. “How’d you find us? I saw y’all crash.”
“Yeah, about that crash,” Rainbow Dash crossed her arms and glanced down at Rarity. Rarity cracked a guilty smile. “After we recovered, I saw Fluttershy above the trees and just started following.”
“We got no time to lose.” Twilight stepped forward. “We’ve got to leave bef—”
A terrible thud shook the very ground. Creaking timber seconds before the of fall of a massive tree, felled by the stroke of a powerful snake tail. The trunk fell behind the ponies and displaced earth to the point it sent several to their knees.
“Dagnabit!” Applejack cursed. “He followed ya.”
The Hydra circled around, cutting off the main route of escape. It reared up twelve feet high, the heads making a sound close to a gleeful laughing. Twilight froze stiff in fear while several of the other ponies scrambled to their feet.
The serpent closed in and Applejack cast her eyes for an exit.
“Help!” Rainbow Dash’s voice squeaked, halting every pony. One of the limbs of the fallen tree had caught her dress-saddle and pinned her to the ground. Dash fiddled with the strap helplessly, then surged forward climbing with all her legs and flapping with all her might. But her hooves only kicked up loose dirt. A real, terrified fear in her eyes looked back at her friends.
The snake hissed in anticipation of at least one easy victim.
Applejack’s heart never had beat so fast or strongly with the knowledge of sudden, imminent death. “Twilight! Your ink! Dash, your powder!”
Her name shocked her out of some trance state, and Twilight magically hefted her ink over to AJ, who skid to a stop next to Pinkie Pie. Dash grasped for her bag, but to no avail. Rarity’s horn glowed blue and snatched the makeup powder from Dash’s saddle bag and tossed it, trailing the toss of the ink. Applejack caught both in Pinkie’s sack, and smashed the two bottles together underneath the canvas. Biting a loose string, she gave it a swift jerk and heard the delayed fuse of a firecracker come to life. With the last of her strength, she hefted the bag and hit the dirt, covering her ears.
The saddlebag sailed through the air, fizzing with life, and landed on the nest of heads at the front of the Hydra. For a second, nothing happened, and the snake reared back to strike.
But then the fireworks went off. Every party-streamer, every popgun, every confetti launcher, whoopy cushion, sound maker, spring-snake, and prank detonated at once, in a cacophony of party noise. And that excluded the concussive blasts of a firework grand finale.
The powder and ink mixed together in a thick black cloud that stained everything it touched, coating every pair of eyes the hydra had with ink. Streamers erupted everywhere, many on fire, or soon to be as burning embers and rockets of every color launched in all directions. And a rain of black inked marshmallows rained down in all directions.
As it all settled, the beast cried out in blind agony, thrashing through an ever expanding cloud of powder, ink and smoke.
“Can you get that tree off of her?” Applejack cried out as soon as the sounds of all but the blast died down.
First, Twilight had to get her jaw off the floor, a task that was by no means easy, magic talent or no. But she nodded, and concentrated on the limb that pinned Rainbow Dash. The horn and the branch glowed in a matching purple, and it began to rise off of her helpless friend.
As soon as the very inch allowed, Rainbow Dash slipped out from under. “Okay, Twilight, I’m out.”
The horn reached a second overglow and the entire tree was swallowed in magic light.
“Umm, Twilight?” Rarity began.
A third, massive overglow sprung from her horn and Twilight lifted the tree off the ground. Rotating it around, she launched the thick end into the smoke like a javelin. Whether or not it struck the creature, no one knew. But what they did know was that the wailing stopped. “Alright girls . . .” Twilight said between heavy breathes. “Let’s get out of here.”
One by one, they filed out, following Twilight’s navigation. The encounter made them wary of the dark woods, and the trees loomed around them, closing in thicker and expanding out. Native and exotic sounds called through the underbrush, understood only by the creatures that made them. Nary a word passed among them in that dark place, except for the occasional giggle of Pinkie Pie. Only once they saw the river’s edge did they breath a collected sigh of relief.
“CANON BALL!” Pinkie pranced forward and leaped high into the air, striking the water in a belly buster rather than actual canon ball. Rainbow Dash followed her and shrugged off her saddle. Cackling with glee and relief. She skimmed across the top of the water, dipping her legs in for a massive wake. Rarity, feeling filthy from the forest, set her bag aside and pranced neck deep into the clear waters. Exausted, Applejack was helped to the water’s edge by Fluttershy, and only dipped in a few feet to lay in the refreshing stream. Twilight made a check for every pony present, then carelessly tossed her bag and board aside, laughing playfully as she charged in.
“Hey, Applejack!” Dash finally broke the silence, swimming in the deeper parts with her head above water. “That thing you did with the pack. That . . . was . . . AWESOME!” She kicked out and threw her wings and limbs into the air, splashing the water high.
“That was so cool,” Pinkie joined in “I was all like gasp! And then I was ooooh, aaaaah, pretty, and then I heard the whoopee cushion and I laughed.”
“It weren’t much.” Applejack grinned to herself. “I thought that liftin’ the whole tree there was one mighty trick.” He gestured with her nose to Twilight.
“What can I say?” Twilight shrugged. “I don’t like snakes.”
“Oh, man!” Dash surfaced again. “I wish any of you could have seen me make that diving save on Rarity, just whoosh! And right in the nick of time, it didn’t even see that coming.”
“What really surprised me,” Rarity magically separated branches from her tail. “Was that box of Fluttershy’s actually hid her.”
Fluttershy laughed, and that laugh infected others, and pretty soon they were all splashing and laughing over that resilient cardboard box.
As the laughing died away, Twilight smiled. “Hey, girls. Come here, there has been something I’ve been thinking about over this trip. Though, might be useless to tell you now.”
Rainbow Dash swam closer. “What?” All the rest began to collect. “Going to tell us our lessons for this week?” The pegasus shot her a playful smirk.
Twilight rolled her eye. “Just . . . I’ve been thinking.” She stood up in the shallows and looked between them. “About this people-watching-us-thing we’ve been going through. I’ve noticed we all had our own way of dealing with it.” She turned to Applejack. “AJ, I know you’ve got your pride, and it may have been wounded a little by what you read. They might have enjoyed your silly side, but you have our respect. I owe you my life several times over. And the respect of Ponyville as a delicious cook, and number one athlete. You don’t need to pack gear and train to impress people you’ve never met, or hide your face behind a silly expression. You already impress us.”
“Yeah,” Applejack shyly kicked around the water with a forelimb. “I suppose the face thing was a hard trick to keep up.”
“Dash,” Twilight turned to the wading blue pony and shook her head with a smile. “I understand that words can hurt, and labels can have a great effect on how we perceive ourselves. But you shouldn’t let what others label you change who you really are. Be yourself. Do what you enjoy, despite labels. We like you for who you are. And when it comes to sleeping alone with you in a tent, there are none here I trust more.”
Finding feet on river bed, Dash removed the pink hair clip and fiddled it between her hooves, meanwhile Rarity let out a nervous chuckle.
“Fluttershy?”
The yellow pony shrank a little from her name, sitting down in a shallow part of the river with Applejack.
“This fear you have of those watching us is kind of silly. They’ve never hurt us, and seem to admire us, even. You’re letting an irrational fear of attention hamstring you. I bet you were a lot more comfortable without that box on, stretching your wings again.”
Fluttershy half covered her face with her long hair, but the corners of her mouth curved up in a small smile.
“Rarity,” Twilight turned to her fellow unicorn and raised an eyebrow at her. “You’ve become quite preoccupied with correcting the opinions of a faceless horde. It’s consumed your time you could have spent elsewhere. Instead of this . . . very long guide, what if you had spent the trip designing a new fashion line? How far could you have gotten?”
“Ehh,” Rarity tilted her head and furrowed her brow in thought. “a couple new pieces . . .”
“Or picking a campsite.”
“Alright, point made.”
“Pinkie?”
The pink equine bounced forward a step closer and sat back down. “Yes, bestest, smartest, most terrific pony?”
“Pinkie, you have got to be careful about some of the things you share. I know you love to talk, but occasionally, an unthinking word can cause hurt we don’t expect. We love that you’re outgoing and we can talk about anything, but when you’re trading what you’ve heard one person say about another, think twice on if it’s appropriate.”
“Okay!” Pinkie smiled, eyes, mouth, and soul.
Twilight sat back down, feeling the cool lap of the water against her body. More to all the ponies than any one in particular, she shared her last words. “And Celestia is not a tyrant.”
Several of the ponies exchanged glances. Rarity blinked several times. “None of us said anything about Celestia.”
“Oh, heh, heh, heh.” Twilight blushed. “Never mind that last part.”
“WHOO!” Pinkie leaped high into the air and splashed Rainbow Dash with another belly flop.
“But Twilight, we still have a problem.” Applejack gestured to the forest with a turn of her neck. “We’re still stuck a day’s march from nowhere, and we ain’t got any food at all.”
“Food!” Pinkie sprang up out of the water where Rainbow Dash tried to splash her back. “That’s right!” Twilight swore for a moment that Pinkie ran across the surface, but she couldn’t tell when the pink blur shot out of the river. Ducking behind a bush, Pinkie pulled out a still hot plate with omelets stacked like a tower, sticky maple syrup dripping all the way down.
“Where . . . how . . .?”
Pinkie set down the plate and stared at Twilight. “I’m a baker.”
It was a non-answer, but Twilight’s rumbling stomach gave the only answer she needed.
In Celestia’s private hall, the princess gathered her pile of official mail. Seeing a new arrival from Twilight Sparkle, she unraveled the binding and lifted it into the light.
Dearest Princess Celestia,
Today, we all learned a valuable lesson on the magic of friendship. Rumor and opinion can be a powerful tool of pride or destruction. Sometimes even if ponies have never met, their opinions can make us change who we see ourselves as. But, in the end, while words of others may have a power over you, the one thing they do not have power over is the feelings and thoughts of your friends.
Your faithful student
Twilight Sparkle
A smile dawned on the sun-princess’s face, and she rerolled the letter, filing it away with the other reports from her diligent student. “Twilight,” She sighed. “Sending you to Ponyville was one of my better decisions through these generations.”
Turning to her laptop, she levitated it close and began to type into the message field. /r/ more ApplexMac.
