//------------------------------// // 55. Lesson Zero // Story: Blaze the Pony Tale // by Wolven5 //------------------------------// A gorgeous morning arose Ponyville, courtesy of the Princess of the Sun, and in Sweet Apple Acres, a certain blue unicorn groaned as his eyes creaked open. For a moment, they closed, but then suddenly snapped open in realization. Aw… I woke up before the rooster?! I hate when that happens… Maybe I can catch another wink or two of… *Cock-a-doodle-doo!!!* “AAUUGH!!!” Midnight yelled in aggravation, an annoyed groaning alerting him to the bed above him. “Big brother… I’m trying to sleep!” Midnight sighed as he slid out of bed, knowing better than to try and sleep in. Big Mac would literally toss his rump down the stairs whereas Applejack would tan his hide. He levitated a brush from his desk and looked into a mirror as he reshaped his mane into its usual style, brushed back to the point of being a state between formal and casual. Then he did his coat to smooth it out. He looked to the bunk-bed he’d bought for Twinken after the colt had moved into the Apple Family house and settled into Midnight’s room with him. He smiled, and decided to let the colt sleep in, as school didn’t start for another couple of hours. He crept out of the room and made his way downstairs, smelling apple pancakes a’cooking, Applejack at the stove and she turned to see who had arrived. “Boy howdy, Ah thawt Ah or Mac would hav’ ta’ come up and apple-buck yer rump outta bed! Again.” “Morning to you as well, AJ,” Midnight returned her teasing with a smarmy look as he sat down at the dining table and levitated over a novel he’d set on the nearby shelf. “So what’s on the agenda today?” “Welp, you and Mac gotta see t’ th’ chores `round here,” Applejack said as she flipped one of the pancakes and caught it with ease. “And Ah gotta supervise destruction of tha’ old barn.” “Come again?” Midnight lowered his novel, giving her an incredulous look as he chuckled, “I could’ve sworn you just said ‘destruction of that old barn’.” “Ah did,” she confirmed, Midnight’s look clearly expressing ‘HUH?’ “Ah’ve been itchin’ t’ set up a new barn but tha’ old one’s gotta come down first. After th’ gala an’ all, we got quite a small fortune t’ spend an’ Ah aim to make th’ most of it.” “I suppose that makes sense,” Midnight accepted, “but tearing down the barn, I thought before you just wanted to fix that sagging roof.” “Well, now that we got some moolah, Ah think we can afford t’ set up a new an’ improved barn.” “Eeyup!” “Morning, bro,” Midnight greeted the big red farmer as he joined him at the table. “Mornin’ t’ you as well,” Big Mac responded as he pulled up today’s edition of the newspaper. “Ready fer some good n’ hard labor t’day?” “Am I ever?” Midnight quipped, the two stallions chuckling. “By the way, how’s things with Fluttershy lately?” “Jus’ dandy,” Mac replied with a smile. “We had plans but with all these chores, Ah won’t be able t’ see her today, but tha’s alright cuz’ a bear she knows is havin’ shoulder problems, and she’s gonna help the poor critter.” “Then, after th’ barn’s taken down, th’ girls an’ Ah are all gonna gather fer a lil’ picnic,” Applejack spoke up as she brought in platters of apple pancakes. “I’ll get the rest of the stuff,” Midnight offered politely, his horn flaring and in no time at all, a pitcher of apple juice, another with orange juice, a third with milk, a fourth with maple syrup, and plates and utensils all levitated from the kitchen and settled onto the table. “Thanks, Midnight, now for them rascals,” Applejack said sneakily as she made her way upstairs. Midnight and Big Mac gave each other a knowing smirk as they took turns counting, “Five.” “Four.” “Three.” “Two.” And they both said, “One…” before pointing their hooves towards the stairs and heard a a couple of indignant yells and whining as Twinken and Apple Bloom were sent bounding down the stairs, obviously having been just stirred from their sleep. Before long, everypony had their breakfast and Midnight was escorting Twinken and Apple Bloom to school. “…an’ after class gets out, we can go play ball in th’ park!” Apple Bloom proposed excitably to Twinken. “No thanks, I’m gonna hang with Rumble and Button,” Twinken declined. “Well, just be sure you stay out of trouble,” Midnight chuckled, “We’re here.” “See ya later, Midnight!” Apple Bloom and Twinken said together as they ran off to class just as Cheerilee was stepping out to call the students. As he made his way home, Midnight saw Thunderlane looking troubled. “Hey Thunder, what’s up?” “Twilight,” he responded. “Oh no, what’s the emergency this time?” Midnight cracked. “I wake up, the sun is shining, birds singing on the rooftop,” Thunderlane explained as they walked through town together. “I drop Rumble off at school, thinking all is right in the world, and I’m headed to Sugarcube Corner for a quick breakfast when Twilight shows up, asking if I have any problems, troubles, conundrums, or any other sort of issues, major or minor that she, as a good friend, can help me solve.” “Uh-huh…” Midnight gathered, wondering where this was going. “I tell her I’m just getting myself a morning bite and have no troubles at all and she throws a hissy fit and storms off!” Thunderlane griped. “What, she wants me to have some kind of crisis going on?” “Well, I’m sure there’s an explanation for her behavior,” Midnight assured. “I hope so, the way her eye twitched creeped me out,” Thunderlane sighed. Midnight simply decided to head back to the farm and do his part with the chores. He was still a fair distance away when he heard a loud explosion and saw what looked to be a color-shifting mushroom cloud. Hurrying, he soon happened upon Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Big Mac going through a big pile of debris and throwing it into a nearby wagon. “Is everypony okay?!” he called, worry lacing his tone, “I heard an explosion and saw some kind… rainbow-colored mushroom cloud!” “Ah no worries there, pardner!” waved off Applejack. “RD here jus’ helped smash down th’ old barn, like we discussed this mornin’.” “Now we’re getting rid of all the broken pieces and stuff to take to the dump,” Rainbow explained as she and Big Mac threw a broken beam into the wagon, as he said, “Eeyup.” “Phew,” Midnight sighed, “for a minute there, I thought someone was in trouble!” “Maybe you oughta see Twilight,” Rainbow Dash brought up, “she was here earlier, thinking I had an issue with AJ and tried to shrink me, like she was some psycho-analyst.” “That’s odd,” Midnight replied, rubbing his chin with his hoof in wonder, “after I dropped off Twinken and Apple Bloom, I ran into Thunderlane, who told me that Twilight was acting weird to him earlier today. Where is she now?” “Dunno, soon as Dash took brought down th’ house, Twilight just moseyed along,” Applejack answered, bucking more debris into the wagon. “Now, why don’cha and Big Mac take all this junk on over t’ th’ dump?” “But what about Twilight, she’s still acting weird,” Midnight reminded her. “If’n yer curious Ah’ll ask her at th’ picnic,” Applejack promised before shooing the boys off. Dumping the debris didn’t take too long but Big Mac had to get a bucket fixed. As Midnight pulled the wagon home, he gasped! The sun lurched to a new position in the sky, as somepony muttered, “Clock is ticking, Twilight!” The view changed, showing Twilight looking out her bedroom window, but her mane was disheveled, her eyes twitching, and she was grinding her teeth, “Clock. Is. Ticking.” She paced her room, muttering to herself, “Keep it together! If I can’t find a friendship problem…” She noticed an old trunk and a manic smile stretched across her face as she rubbed her hooves together and her aura surrounded the trunk as she giggled, “I’ll make a friendship problem!” …Big brother, are you alright? Wake up!” “Huh…?” Midnight shook away the fog of confusion and saw Twinken looking up at him. “Midnight, You’ve been standing there for at least a few minutes,” he explained, “I was on my way home and found you like this, strapped to that wagon!” “Uh…! Twinken, I want you to go home,” Midnight instructed, “I need to go see Twilight!” Forgetting the wagon and after making sure Twinken headed home, Midnight teleported into town and galloped towards the library. He knocked urgently on the door, and it opened to reveal a panicky Spike. “Midnight! Thank Celestia you’re here, Twilight’s gone off the deep end!” “I had a feeling,” Midnight replied as he walked in, “Where is she now?” “I dunno,” Spike replied. “But she took an old doll of hers and I heard her say she’s gonna make a friendship problem for her to solve!” “Spike, take a letter,” Midnight ordered, Spike acting in reflex as he pulled a quill and parchment from behind his back, ready to write. “‘Dear Princess Celestia, This letter comes to you from Midnight Blaze to inform you that I fear Twilight Sparkle is about to cause a major problem that may require your intervention! From what I’ve gathered, she is intending to cause a friendship problem for her to solve! I am about to head out and find her and hopefully prevent whatever she has planned but I fear I may not locate her in time, which means I cannot await your response! In case the situation goes south, I hope you will be standing by to step in. Your loyal subject, Midnight Blaze’” “Done!” Spike said, accidng the last letter. “Send it and await the Princess’s response!” Midnight ordered as he ran out. Midnight had no honest idea how to find Twilight before she caused any trouble, but perhaps he could locate her magic! Remembering a magic-detection spell Twilight taught him, he concentrated and released sonar-like pulses of pale blue mana from his horn. At first he detected only the internal magic of the ponies around town but as he focused and drove more of his own into the spell, his sphere of influence had it! “A ‘want it, need it’ spell, Twilight?!” Midnight groaned. He detected the spell to be at work in the local park and immediately galloped there. By the time he arrived however, Midnight’s jaw dropped at what he was seeing. A pile of pilfering ponies all squabbling, hearts in their eyes, and Big Macintosh was at the top, apparently trying to keep a doll away from them all but the hearts in his eyes showed he too was not himself, Twilight nearby watching in horror. As the ponies slowly overwhelmed Big Mac, Mayor Mare suddenly grabbed the doll and ran off. Somehow, all the other ponies were blown off of Mac as he growled, “Nnope!” And started chasing the mayor, Midnight going over to Twilight, screaming, “Twilight, what have you done?!?!” “Ooh! Never mind, we have to put an end to this,” Twilight groaned, “Come on!” The two unicorns chased after the spell-struck ponies as they passed the other girls and their picnic, Applejack yelling, “Wha’ in th’ name a’ all things oats `n apples is goin’ on here?!” At that moment, two pegasi who’d been fighting over the doll dropped it, and Rainbow looked in its direction. But the moment before the spell on it took hold… “Don’t look at it!” Twilight screamed as she tore Rainbow’s gaze away. “Don’t look at what?” Rarity asked. “That doll over there,” Midnight explained before giving Twilight the stink-eye, “The queen of neurosis here enchanted it with a ‘want it, need it’ spell so now everypony’s fighting over it!” Looking around, they saw several dustclouds of tussles, Fluttershy asking, “But Twilight, why would you enchant your doll?” “I had to do something!” Twilight insisted in worry, “I had nothing to report to Princess Celestia! I thought if I couldn’t find a problem, I’d make a problem!” “I’ll say you made a problem, Twilight!” Midnight yelled angrily. “And guess what?!” He pointed skyward and Twilight gasped in horror as the sun set, Midnight saying, “Time’s up!” Twilight sank in defeat when they heard… “Twilight Sparkle!” A shining light above them heralded the appearance of Princess Celestia, who did not look happy that everypony gasped as Applejack said, “Oh nelly!” Celestia’s horn flared with a blinding light, and in no time at all, everypony stopped fighting, all of them looking confused and at the doll as it landed at their hooves. They then dispersed while Celestia’s magic dimmed as she landed in front of Twilight, giving her a look while the others looked afraid. “Meet me at the library.” She flew off and Midnight walked over to Twilight, a look on his face mirroring the princess’s. “And I’ll be by tomorrow to pick up some magic books. I think I’ll be studying magic by myself from now on.” Twilight felt horrible. She’d disappointed her teacher as well as her own student, and her heart hurt a little as she saw him storm off. She sighed as she sensed her friends approach her. “Goodbye girls… if you care to visit, I’ll be in magic kindergarten.” She moped away, adding, “In Canterlot…” As he approached the farm, Midnight honestly felt bad for what he said. Twilight had been a great teacher, kind, encouraging, but today he was extremely disappointed that she’d allowed her neurotic need for perfection and punctuality to overcome her good judgment and cause a whole fracas of trouble that he had to alert the princess. Somehow, Midnight knew Celestia wouldn’t be hard on Twilight but he felt he had to say something to get her to understand just how immature and insane her actions had been. As he walked inside the house, he noticed Big Mac just outside the back door. He went out and caught Big Mac on the back porch, apparently playing with Twilight’s doll and the big red earth pony gaped back at him, like he’d been caught with his hoof in the cookie jar. For a few awkward moments they stood there staring at each other, not saying a word. “Twilight’s doll?” “Eeyup.” “You took it?” “Eeyup…” “Without asking?” “Eeyup!” “Still spellbound?” “Nnope.” “Another reason?” “Eeyup…” “You just like it?” “Eeyup.” “Embarrassed?” “Eeyup…” “You’re keeping it?” “Eeyup!” “And you would prefer that we keep this our little secret?” “Eeyup?” Midnight chuckled and held out his hoof. Mac got the idea and they hoof-bumped, Midnight saying, “To each his own, bro. Your secret’s safe with me.” “Thanks, haystack,” Big Mac said as he took the doll inside, missing Midnight mutter, “At least until I need a favor, heh-heh-heh…” Midnight found Twinken doing his homework and helped him before they got into bed, Midnight getting into his novel. As the evening progressed, he heard somepony come home and went out to see who it was. “Oh AJ, I take it the princess won’t be sending Twilight back to magic kindergarten?” “Nah, instead, she wants all of us to start sending friendship reports,” Applejack informed him, “but only when we learn something about friendship. She also mentioned how you got Spike to send her a message straight from y’all…” Midnight shrugged but then asked warily, “And Twilight? …How is she?” “Ah think she’s learned her lesson,” Applejack informed him, “but she was kinda down `bout what you said to her.” “I’m afraid I meant it, Applejack,” Midnight said firmly though he made sure she didn’t see the look on his face. “Twilight acted irresponsibly and so I cannot continue to study under her… for now, anyway.” “Well… g’night,” Applejack bade him as she went upstairs. Midnight stayed downstairs for a while, contemplating his decisions.