By the next day, the afternoon came much quicker for the princesses then they thought. They agreed to wait for the guys in their room when they would come to meet them. It was almost two and they started to wonder where they were at. Then out of nowhere, Discord popped in with the colts and dragon each wearing a prince's get-up (From Disney).
Flash was wearing a dark blue suit with a white collar. Discord was wearing a black and gray outfit, brown pants, black boots, red cape, and a red hunting hat. Fancy Pants was wearing a white royal-like jacket, red pants with a yellow stripe, golden belt, and black boots. Soarin' wore a white turban and clothing with brown Arab style shoes. Cheese was wearing a dark gray blouse and pants, brown sweater, red belt, dark brown gloves and boots. And Spike wore on a light green outfit with a lily-pad design.
"What are you guys wearing?!" Rainbow pointed out.
"Wasn't my idea." said Spike as he and the stallions looked over to Discord.
"Oh, look!" Discord snapped his fingers, "Now, you're dress up, too!"
Sure enough, Twilight was wearing a golden yellow off-the-shoulder ball gown, long golden yellow opera gloves with matching pumps. Fluttershy was wearing a gold tiara and gold necklace to a pink off-the-shoulder dress. Rarity wore a sparkling light blue petticoat-dress with rounded sleeves on the corpet, hair in an up-do style with a light blue headband, light blue opera gloves, black choker and glass slippers. Rainbow had on a bedlah outfit that had a bandeau-style off-shoulder top and billowed pants of light blue. Pinkie wore a winter dress with a pink cloak and hat and Applejack was wearing a green ball gown with lily-pad designs.
"Discord! Change us back!" Twilight commanded.
"Oh, very well…" he snapped and their attire was gone. Fluttershy went up to him and kissed his cheek.
"I liked it." she whispers in his ear.
He gave her a grin, "I knew you would."
"So, what are we waiting for?" Pinkie jumped, "Let's go!"
"As you wish." Discord snapped again and they were blinded by a white flash and the next they knew they were in a small town of ponies going in and out of wooden houses or moving around in the marketplace and the vendors selling stuff.
The girls looked in awe of the quaint village and each quickly took a different way leaving a trail of dust. The boys each other call out their mares name and took after them.
Cheese finally caught up to the bouncing pink princess as she made it to a cake-like building he heard other ponies call Sugar Cube Corner, she went to the counter countlessly ringing the bell.
A blue mare with pink icing like hair came to take the bell away and faced the princess even if she didn't know who she was, "May I help you?"
"Oh, right, sorry, I just really liked your bell."
"That's nice… My name is Cupcake or Mrs. Cake if you like. Now what can I getcha?"
"Hmm… Um…" Pinkie looked over the glass and pressed her face to it, "Everything looks so super yummy that I can't chose!"
"What about the chocolate cupcake? That looks good enough to eat." Cheese pointed out.
"Hm, that would go well with a chocolate chip cookie!"
"Or chocolate cake?!"
"Chocolate pudding!"
"Chocolate fudge!"
"Chocolate shake!"
"Chocolate truffles!"
"Chocolate muffins!"
"Chocolate sticks!"
They kept blathering on different chocolate combos and that eventually they just got all of them.
Discord was portraying as a grey unicorn stallion as he was searching relentlessly for the butter-colored pegasus that was way ahead of him.
"How hard is it find a beautiful princess in a town this size?!" he asked to himself. Suddenly he heard a haunting voice he recognized all too well, he follow the enchanting voice as it got louder to where she was at.
Fluttershy was in a meadow near the Everfree Forest and was surrounded by all sorts of animals ranging from birds, mice, squirrels, and even a bear! She was singing to them.
He couldn't help but smile and went towards her. When she saw him however she gave out a gasp and said, "Oh, hello, can I help you with something?"
She didn't even recognize him! Of course he was in disguise after all, but still, it amused him that she would think of him as a stranger. So he decided to play along.
"Um, yes," he used a regular stallion's voice making sure there wasn't a hint of the spirit's original voice, "I could not but help admire from afar as you are quite beautiful, perhaps you would like to go out sometime?"
She was taken aback for a moment then she frowned, saying, "I'm sorry, but I'm seeing someone at the moment, and I don't think he'll take it kindly if he saw you asking me out so it be best if you go."
"But… am I not handsome? Surely some pony like you would like a handsome stallion go with that beauty of yours…"
"Sorry, even if you are good-looking, you can never be as handsome as him…"
This intrigued him so he kept on asking her, "Oh, is he a pegasus?"
"No, but he does have wings."
"Is he a unicorn?"
"No, but he does have magic."
"Is he an earth pony?"
"Far from it, he's a very special creature."
"He sounds hideous."
She gasps and shouted in anger, "How dare you! I'll have you know he's the sweetest, most charming being I have ever known! Why if he was here right now he would give you a piece of his mind! Now please go or you'll have to face my wrath!"
He started laughing in his normal voice which she took to noticed right away.
"Wait… That laugh…"
"That was priceless! 'Now please go or you'll have to face my wrath!' Now I know why I fell for you all this time! You're every bit as chaotic as I am!"
"Discord…? It was you along?"
"Sorry for the deception, sweetie, but when you didn't figure it was me at first I wanted to see how you would react to an attractive stallion asking you out."
"You were testing me?"
"Somewhat, although I'm not going to lie I would have been more than upset if you had accepted the offer but I just knew you would pull through. I have to thank you…"
"Thank me?"
"You could've had your pick of any colt and yet you choose me… Fluttershy… why is that?"
She began blushing, "Oh, well… I never could talk to any colt mainly because I was afraid to… but when you were released, you helped me feel braver and I can talk to you without fear getting in the way… Now I have to ask you something, do you really think of yourself as hideous?"
"Most days… Especially the days I look in a mirror that cracks on me."
"Is that why you still have the disguise on?"
"Well we are close to the town and we can't risk ponies seeing me or else they might run away in fear. And that's one of the things I find fanactaing about you, you never ran away from me when I got out, you're all I have in this world…" he turned his head away, but felt a hoof under his chin moving him to face her with those teal eyes that were filled with tears of joy.
"I need you just as you need me… I will always pledge me heart to you because I know you'll keep it safe."
He had his own tears welling up by her words, "And I pledge my heart to you knowing you'll keep it safe…"
They sealed that oath with a kiss.
Rarity and Fancy walked around taking in the sights of the village.
"It is quite simple isn't it?" she said.
"Charmingly rustic from what I see." he told her.
"All this place needs is a fashion bouquetue and it would be perfect. The townsfolk are really so lucky… Having freedom wherever they go…"
"I'm sure their life isn't easy either…" the moment he said that, they saw a family of a stallion, mare and filly having to board up a house and put up a 'For Sale' sign. They picked up what things they could carry and gone.
Rarity felt her heart breaking and was feeling sorry for the family.
"Oh…" she put her hoof to her heart as she thought how as a princess, she had it all and because of the dilemma of having to marry a prince she had almost forgotten there were some ponies that had it far worst then she did.
"Are you alright?" Fancy look on with concern.
"Yes… I just… I've been only thinking of myself for the past couple of weeks, forgetting that some of my subjects have to deal with worst problems than an arranged marriage."
"Are you going to do something about it?"
"Indeed I am! When I get back I'm starting a fund for foreclosure houses! No pony deserves to be homeless or be force to move away! Perhaps I was wrong about the freedom… While it's true my ponies have the right to marry whoever they like where unlike me at the moment but they are force to work hard just to make sure they have enough bits for food and shelter."
"Rarity… you must know… there's another reason why I told you we couldn't be together at first… Was because I needed the job as Head Butler or else if your mother had found out I would have gotten fired and I wouldn't have been able to see you again…"
"Oh darling… I wish you had told me that a lot sooner, because than I would have made sure that Mother couldn't do that to you."
"But that's just it; I didn't want you to help me when you had your own problems as it was. I couldn't burden you with the fact that it's my job as the royal family's servant to look after you."
"You know you can be too chivalrous you know, and I can be too proper as well. I think it's about time we both loosed up a little." she smiled.
He returned the smile as they kept walking.
Twilight and Flash took in the sights until something caught Twilight's eye that made her hyped up. Before her was a tree house that had a sign saying it was the Golden Oak Library. She rushed into the place with Flash tailing right behind her. When walking in she saw all sorts of books in a pile on the floor. Some were just laying there and others were in a messy order on the bookshelves. Even some of the shelves were bare.
Twilight could not believe the condition of this fine library and started to wonder who was responsible for it, she called out, "Hello? Any pony here?"
Suddenly there was a bump on the upper floor with a voice saying, "Coming!" A grey pegasus with bubbles for a cutie mark and yellow lop-sided eyes started wobbly flying down to them as she did she kept bumping into things and knocked more books down. She crash landed at their feet and gave out a friendly greeting, "Hi! Name's Derpy Hooves!"
"Uh…" Twilight reached out her hoof to help her up, "Nice to meet you, my name is Twilight Sparkle, and this is…"
"Flash Sentry." Flash said as he took Derpy's hoof to shake.
"Please to meet ya!"
Twilight questioned, "Are you the one in charge of the library?"
"Yup! Just me and me alone."
"Well, um, it seems this place could use some help."
"That would be great! It's kind-of hard on where these books should go on the shelf."
"Oh, well, I'm sure I can figure something out."
"You sure you won't mind?" Derpy asks.
"I'm sure." the princess smirked knowing too well she loved organizing just about anything.
"Great! I have to go to the market so feel free to do whatever's nessarcy to get this place cleaned up."
"You can count on me!" saluted Twilight.
"And me!" Flash also saluted.
"I'll be back soon! See ya!" she left out the door.
Twilight turned to Flash, "You don't have to stick around if you don't want to."
"But I do want to, besides there's so many books you're going need all the extra hooves you can get."
She smiled sweetly at him then kissed his cheek much to his surprise, "Thank you… Let's get to work."
They started looking over books to shelve.
Rainbow and Soarin' were up high in the sky looking at Pony-Ville from an above angle. The blue pegasi saw so much activity going on that Rainbow even caught a few of her sisters going about with their colts. They saw the schoolyard full of fillies and young colts, one of the colts was small and white having brown hair and a brown spot over his eye. He spotted them and gave a wave, the couple returned it.
"Hey Dash?"
"Yeah, Soar?"
"Do you find this strangely relaxing?"
"Actually… I do. The winds are so calm here and the sky is so clear. Makes you want to take a nap."
"You know, we should! The last few days were pretty hectic for us."
"You got that right! Hey! I see a puffy cloud up ahead, that would be perfect to lounge on!" she sped up to land on it, sighing in relief, "Just right…"
"Got room for one room?"
"Sure do." she scoots over for him to sit next to her, "First pony to wake up has to wake the other."
"Deal." they shook on it before going to sleep.
Applejack and Spike found themselves walking on a road leading to an area full of apple orchards.
AJ exclaimed, "Hoo-wee, this is a lot more then what's in our garden back home."
"It goes on for miles and miles!" proclaimed Spike, and then he notices she has something in her eye, "Uh, Applejack? Are you okay?"
"Sorry…" she wiped her eye, "It's just, so beautiful…"
He gave her a small smile and patted her back.
That one touch made her body heat up and started clenching her teeth holding back the words she wanted to say to him and scolded herself, Not yet! Not until I know for sure he loves me!
Spike's own thoughts were preventing him to speak from the heart, She seems so distant from me… I want to tell her but what if she doesn't feel that way to me? And our friendship could be ruined!
Suddenly they heard a thump and went to go see what it was. Nearby was a big red stallion using his hind legs to buck apples into buckets his face was sweating from the hardship but he didn't care.
"Hi there!" Applejack came up to him, "What's your name?"
The stallion answered, "Big Mac."
"Well howdy, Big Mac, I'm Applejack and this is Spike."
Spike gave him a friendly grin and wave.
"Do you need help?" Big Mac asks.
"No, but it looks like you could use the help, how about it?"
"Hmm…" Big Mac look over to the rest of trees that needed backing he turn back to them and replied, "Eeyup."
"Alrightly then, tell us what we have to do and we'll get it done!"
"Eeyup." he said before telling them their instructions.
Luna paced back and fore outside of her sister's throne room. Figuring out how she was to tell Celestia that she seen her nieces being with other stallions then princes without giving away the fact that they were already deeply in love. By then the door open of Kibitz going out with a stack of papers. Luna peeked her head in seeing her sister was still magically signing a few more scrolls.
Looks like she's still busy, I'll come back later… she turned to go but was stop when a wise voice said.
"Luna?"
Drat! She thought with a grimace and slowly turned to face her towering sister.
"I didn't expect you to be up this early before going to your night duties."
"I couldn't sleep." Luna quickly replied.
"Well, then, come in."
"But if you're still busy, I can just-"
"On the contrary," she said as she signed the last scroll, "I had just finished."
Luna gulped, "So you have…"
"Luna, you seem troubled, are you… keeping something from me?"
"Keeping… something? Why, whatever do you mean?" she batted her eyes innocently.
"Okay, something is clearly up…" Celestia's eyes slatted at her sister and spoke in a low tone, "What is going on…?"
The Princess of the Night gulped again and sweat rolled down her brow. She couched down and covers her eyes with hooves, shouting out, "Your daughters are in love! All of them!"
There was silence before Celestia yelled, "What?! No!"
"It's true… I saw them last night in the underground kingdom we created for them… They brought along the ones that hold their hearts with them…"
"Why didn't you tell me sooner?!" she demanded.
"I wanted to… but they deserve to live in happiness… I just couldn't take that away from them…"
"As noble as your intentions were, but that doesn't change the fact that they're in greater danger now than they were before…"
"I know… I'm sorry…"
"Which is why we must hurry to get them away from here, once they are separated that should stop the changeling queen from tracking them down and won't be able to reach any of them."
"Understood, Sister…" she lowered her head in sadness.
Celestia called for a nearby guard, saying, "Have my daughters brought to me at once."
The guard bowed, "Yes, Your Highness." and he rushed out of there. But when he came back ten minutes later and with a couple of other guards, they bow before their majesties while he gave a bad news, "We can't find the princesses, my Queen…"
Celestia gasped in terror and immediately said, "Then find them! Find them at once! Search everywhere if you must!"
"Yes, Your Majesty." they responded and galloped on out to alert the other royal guards to begin a search for the princesses.