Twilight paced about outside the library’s entrance, slowly getting more and more frustrated. Looking into the library window, she caught a view of the clock, which declared that the time was approaching 10:30. She groaned in frustration, and continued pacing. Spike peeked out of the window Twilight had just looked into, and upon noticing the unicorn’s expression, went to the door to see what the matter was.
“Twilight?” Spike asked. “Something wrong?”
“They’re an hour late!” Twilight shouted. “An hour! Can you believe that!? It’s ridiculous! I try to be nice to them and they just blow me off!”
“Who are you talking about?” Spike asked again, stepping outside.
“Who else? Panty and Stocking!” Twilight returned to her pacing, then sighed, collecting herself. “I’m getting too worked up over this,” she admitted. “I should have expected something like this to happen, they aren’t exactly the friendliest of ponies. Oh well, it was a nice idea, but in hindsight, it was doomed to fail.” Twilight’s head drooped with disappointment, and she trotted slowly inside. “Come on, Spike, no sense wasting this newfound free time. I’ve got some studying to catch up on.”
Spike sighed, and turned to follow Twilight. However, he stopped as he saw a pair of figures approaching the library.
“Hey, Twilight, come out here a second,” Spike said.
“What is it Spike?” Twilight asked, looking out the door. Her mood suddenly brightened when she saw Panty and Stocking touch down in front of the library.
“We’re here,” Panty said, looking somewhat bored. “Now what do you want?”
“Oh, hi!” Twilight said brightly, practically leaping outside. “You showed up!”
“We kind of had to,” Stocking said. “Garter wouldn’t stop hounding us about it all morning.”
“Well, what’s important is that you’re here,” Twilight said, her horn glowed, and she magically retrieved a scroll from inside, and unfurled it. “Now, I’ve got a whole schedule planned for today, but we may have to cut a few things out, seeing as you showed up late-“
“Hey, hold on a second,” Stocking said. “Late?”
“Uh, yeah,” Twilight said, looking up from her list. “I mean, it’s no big deal, but you did show up about an hour late-“
“There’s no way we can be late,” Panty said. “You said 9:30. Garter had notes plastered all over the place, and he pretty much bucked us out the door twenty minutes early!” Panty shook her head. “No, you better check your clock again, lady, because we are definitely not late!”
“Alright, I will,” Twilight said, getting somewhat defensive. She led the two pegasi inside, and pointed a hoof at the grandfather clock she had looked at earlier. “See? It’s now ten thirty… six!”
“Then how come this clock over here says otherwise?” Stocking said, pointing a hoof at a small clock sitting on a table. Twilight trotted over to see what she was talking about, and saw that this clock read 9:36.
“What? But how- Spike!” Twilight called.
“I’m right here Twilight,” Spike said, standing just beside her.
“Spike, I thought I told you to put all the clocks one hour back for Daylight Savings?”
“Well, I got most of ‘em, but I couldn’t reach the grandfather clock to change it!” Spike said. “You always do that one, remember?”
“Oh…” Twilight said, blushing lightly. “Right…” Her horn glowed, and the hands on the clock spun backwards until they were in their proper place. She grinned sheepishly at Panty and Stocking, who merely smirked.
“See? Not late,” Panty said smugly.
“Okay, well, now that that’s settled…” Twilight said hastily, trotting out of the library. “Why don’t we get started? I’ve got a lot of stuff planned for today, and I’d hate for us to miss out on any of it!”
The smirks slid from the pegasi’s faces, and they followed her outside, with expressions that showed that they just wanted to get the day over with.
“First stop: Sweet Apple Acres!”
Applejack was out in the orchard, bucking apple trees and harvesting apples, as usual. The Apple family had fallen behind on their harvesting somewhat, due to a recent injury Big Macintosh had suffered. He’d recovered by now, but his absence from the field had slowed their work substantially. Hopefully, she’d have a day free from distraction, so she could get caught up.
Applejack went back to the barn for a moment, to get something to drink, when she saw three ponies approaching the gate. She went over to greet them, smiling as she recognized the lead pony.
“Well howdy, Twilight! Fancy seein’ y’all over he-“ Applejack stopped as she saw the two pegasi following her. “An’ jus’ what d’you two think yer doin’ here?”
Panty looked ready to go at it with the farm pony, but Twilight promptly intervened. “Applejack, I’m showing the Anarchy sisters around Ponyville, and helping them get to know everypony better. I figured that Sweet Apple Acres would be the best place to start, seeing as this is where the town started.”
Applejack looked between Twilight and Panty, unsure of how exactly she should proceed. Eventually, she decided that turning them away would be unfair to Twilight. “Well, I suppose y’all can visit fer a while, but y’ain’t gonna just be lazin’ around, understand? I could use some help harvestin’ the southern orchard, we’ve fallen a bit behind.”
“Seriously?” Stocking said. “You’re making us work? As if we’re gonna-“
“Yeah, sure, I guess we can kick some trees for a bit,” Panty cut across. Stocking (as well as Twilight and Applejack) looked at her incredulously.
“You feeling alright, Panty?” Stocking said.
“I didn’t kick y’all in the head too hard yesterday, right?” Applejack said. “Yer actually agreein’ t’help me out?”
“Sure. Maybe Big Mac’ll see me working, and he’ll finally agree to go behind the barn and-“
“Okay! So, it’s settled!” Twilight interrupted. “We’ll help you out for a couple hours, Applejack. And we can all talk and get to know each other better while we work!”
“Sounds like a mighty fine idea, Twi,” Applejack said. “Come on everypony, we need t’take some buckets out with us.”
About an hour later, the ponies were out in the south orchard, working and talking away. Panty had found an old straw hat in the barn, and she had decided to do her hair up in a pair of braided pig tails (with Twilight’s help, of course). She, Twilight, and Applejack were steadily working away, knocking the apples from the trees.
“Gotta say, Panty, the farm girl look suits ya,” Applejack said. “and yer workin’ real hard, t’boot, which I really appreciate.”
“Thanks, and no problem,” Panty said, as she bucked another tree and let the apples drop neatly into the buckets beneath. “It just felt right, for some reason, y’know? And it kinda feels good to let off some steam like this. ‘Course, I can think of better ways…”
“Yeah, yeah, we know,” Twilight said. She paused for a moment, as she levitated a few bushels over to where they had put all the apples they had harvested. “Say, has anyone seen Stocking?”
The three stopped for a moment, and looked around. When they couldn’t find her, Panty flew up to the tops of the trees, and called out.
“Hey! Stockin’! Get out here!”
For a moment, there wasn’t much movement, save for Panty’s hovering and the wind blowing through the leaves of the trees. Then, one of the trees’ branches rustled a bit, as if there was something hiding inside.
“Aha!” Panty suddenly shouted, before she dove into the tree, the straw hat flying from her head. Twilight and Applejack watched as the tree exploded with movement, apples and leaves being shaken from the tree. After a moment, two pegasi fell from the tree, though the colours that accompanied the light peach and yellow weren’t the white and purple they had been expecting. Rather, the other pegasi wore a sky blue coat, with a rainbow-streaked mane.
“What’s the big idea?!” Rainbow Dash shouted as she managed to separate herself from the other pegasus. “I take one little nap in one of AJ’s trees and suddenly I get attacked?”
“Look, it was a mistake, alright?” Panty retorted. Her mane had lost its braids in the scuffle. “I thought you were Stocking, trying to hide and skip out on helping AJ! And besides, who sleeps in a tree, anyway?”
“It’s comfortable, alright?” Rainbow Dash shouted back. “And sleeping in a tree’s a whole lot better than sleeping on every stallion in town!”
“Watch it, Rainbow Crash!” Panty warned, wings flaring.
“What’re you gonna do, fight me?” Dash said, her own wings spreading. “You’ll have to catch me first!”
“Girls, please, just settle-“ Twilight started, finally stepping forward to intervene, but it was too little too late as a rainbow streak whizzed past her, followed by a golden-blonde blur.
The two pegasi weaved and twisted all over the orchard, with Rainbow taking complicated routes through the trees in an effort to throw Panty off. They barrelled through the leaves of one tree, where Rainbow knocked Stocking loose from one of its branches. The white pegasi looked around to locate what hit her, and saw Panty streaking overhead. With an angry expression, she took off after her sister, a dark purple contrail joining the dogfight.
Rainbow eventually curved back toward their starting point, whizzing right between Twilight and Applejack. The two ground-bound ponies took cover as Panty and Stocking soared past close behind, and turned to see Rainbow headed for the stack of apple buckets they had collected. Rainbow looked back to Panty with a smirk, and mere inches before impact, Rainbow Dash pulled up at a near-impossible ninety degree angle. Panty, though close to Dash in speed, had nowhere near the manoeuvrability of the rainbow mare, and as a result, crashed right into the stack. The damage wasn’t done, however, as Stocking dove right into the midst of the apple-based wreckage, and began scuffling with her sister, kicking up a cloud of dust. Dash merely hovered in the air a bit of a distance away, laughing.
“Stop! STOP!” Applejack shouted, galloping towards the pair. Immediately, the two did as they were told, and the dust settled, revealing the full extent of the damage.
Ruined and squished apples were strewn all about, with Panty and Stocking dripping with their juices. Splinters of wood joined the mushy mess, the remains of the buckets that had stored the previously intact apples. Twilight ran forward as Applejack stood speechless.
“Applejack, I am soooo sorry-“ Twilight began, but she was cut off. This seemed to be a recurring theme in these past couple of days, Twilight thought.
“Twi, you don’t need to apologize fer nothin’. They do!” The farmpony said, pointing her hoof at the Anarchy sisters.
“Us?!” Panty said incredulously.
“That’s right, you. All three of you.” Applejack said, looking up toward Rainbow Dash. The blue pegasus looked down incredulously.
“Me?” Dash said. “What did I do?”
“Yer th’one that goaded Panty into chasin’ you!” Applejack shouted.
“But she attacked me for no reason!”
“Which she admitted was a mistake! Now you apologize!”
“…Alright, I’m sorry, AJ.” Rainbow Dash said, touching down to the ground with her head hanging.
“Thank you. Now, as fer you two,” Applejack said. “I don’t want to see y’all within a hundred feet of my property ever again, understand? Any time you two are here there’s nothin’ but trouble!”
“Applejack, don’t you think you’re being a bit harsh?” Twilight said, stepping forward. “I mean, this wasn’t entirely their-“
“No, no, it’s fine,” Panty said. “I wasn’t planning on coming around here again anyway. I’ll just have to find Big Mac while he’s in town. That way, I won’t have AJ constantly chasing me away.” She turned to leave, with Stocking behind, before she turned to Twilight. “Come on, what’s next on that list of yours?”
“Well,” Twilight said, taking out the schedule. “I was planning on us going to Sugarcube Corner next, but we might want to get you two cleaned up first.” She turned back to Applejack. “Again, I’m really sorry about what happened here.”
“It’s okay, Twi, it’s not yer fault,” Applejack said. “I’ll just get Rainbow Dash to help me harvest what’s left of the field.”
Nodding, Twilight turned and left Sweet Apple Acres, with Panty and Stocking following behind her.
Some distance away, near the edge of the Everfree Forest, a pair of red figures watched from the shade the tall trees cast on the ground below.
“Did you see them, dear sister? They positively destroyed the hayseed’s apples!”
“Of course. Those two always were a pair of fools.”
“It would seem that unicorn is going to be dragging them all over town today, as well.”
“I see. Well, do you think it’s time we put our plan into action?”
“Of course, dear sister.”