//------------------------------// // Vanhoover III // Story: About Last Night // by Darth Link 22 //------------------------------// Applejack stood in shock for a few moments… and then burst out laughing. “They put a spell to lock us in? On you?” “Yeah, it’s pretty basic… I can get rid of this is no time. Just give me half a minute and I can undo it.” “Heh… sounds good ta me. Them… them varmints… won’t know…” The sound of Applejack hitting the floor was enough to break Twilight’s concentration. She looked over to her wife, now on her side with her eyes closed. “Applejack? Applejack!” She ran over to her, carefully rolling her onto her back. Her cheek was a bit swollen from where she had been hit, but there wasn’t pain in her face, or at least it wasn’t the most noticeable emotion. Applejack looked like she had attempted another Applebuck season on her own. “Mmm… soup’s on, ev’rypony…” “Applejack, stay focused!” “Mmm… I’m… sleepy…” Twilight took a few deep breaths. Her mind raced for a few moments, until she hit the spell she needed. Her horn lit up as she trailed it over Applejack’s body. “Come on, come on…” Twilight had never performed this spell on an actual live pony before, and practicing it on a cadaver had been one of the most unpleasant bits of teaching Celestia had given her. But as bad as it was, seeing a pony’s insides while they were still moving was ten times worse. Still, her mind was focused enough on her duties that it found what it was looking for instantly. The foreign substance. A lot of it, seeping in Applejack’s cardiovascular system, and going in and out of her lungs. She stopped immediately. First she cast an air bubble over her own head, then did the same to Applejack. Then, she lit up her horn again. As she suspected, it was all over the room. A spell designed to put ponies to sleep, one that would take a while to somepony as magically inclined as Twilight, but would come easier to an Earth Pony, even one as strong as Applejack. Gritting her teeth, she floated Applejack up and placed her on her back. She was a bit of a load, but she needed all her magic focused. Ponies heard the explosion, of course, but with no noticeable damage anywhere they had no clue where to look. They all began panicking until a tall Unicorn reminded folks that a movie theatre was nearby, likely playing a movie a little too loud. Bystander syndrome set in quickly enough, and everypony returned to their duties. Inside, Twilight walked through the now destroyed wall, carefully levitating Applejack off her back. After sweeping a counter clean she laid her wife on top of it. Almost immediately she began coughing. She opened her eyes. “Twi? Wha happened? Did Pinkie slip us sleepin’ powder again?” “No, Flim and Flam did,” she said. She lit up her horn. “Flim? Flam? Where are you two?” She trotted around the store. “You two are in a lot of trouble!” As she spoke, a purple mist began to appear. It was simply there one moment, then was moving toward the door. “Looks like they left… and thankfully, not too long ago. We can still catch them if we hurry. Are you okay to run?” Grinning, Applejack rose to her hooves. “You know it, sugarcube.” The Apple family dining room was looking like it did on Hearth’s Warming Day, at least in the number of tables. The main table was set up with Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash occupying Apple Bloom and Applejack’s usual spot, while the kids table was dragged out to make room for Spike and the five fillies, all of home were sporting bruises and blisters from the day’s activities, not that any of them seemed to mind. As the group was deciding what to do tomorrow, the adults were chatting. Big Mac was glancing over at Pinkie every few minutes, but Pinkie seemed to have dropped her fancies… almost. “See, now they’re at the relationship building part of the story, where they all become good friends and Spike sees something good in each of them so the final choice will be that much more difficult!” … “Pinkie, life isn’t a romance movie,” Rainbow Dash said in a flat tone. “It’s sure looking like one lately,” Pinkie said. Rainbow Dash opened her mouth… and then closed it. “Yeah, I guess.” Granny couldn’t help but laugh. “And here I thought it’d be borin’ with Applejack outta town!” Fluttershy giggled as she looked over at the children. “It’s nice to see Spike playing with ponies his own age. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that.” “Yeah, Twilight does work him pretty hard,” Rainbow Dash said. Then she thought a bit. “How old is Spike anyway? I never see him in school.” “I think Twilight said he was about twelve…” Fluttershy said, looking over at the group. “But he’s not even a year old in dragon years…” “Ah, what’s dragon years matter here?” Granny Smith said. “Why, I betcha he don’t leave for…” The conversation was cut off by Pinkie suddenly shaking all over, to the point where her chair rattled along with her, the legs hitting the floor in several little hops. “Pinkie…” “I…” Pinkie was actually speaking rather slowly, “my Pinkie Sense went off.” “With what? A doozy?” “Yeah, something’s about to happen…” “Whatever it is, we can handle it,” Rainbow Dash said. She lifted her cider mug up and began to drink. “Rainbow,” Fluttershy said, still looking at the other table, “how many foals do you think we should have?” Luckily, Pinkie had an umbrella ready before Rainbow Dash spit all over her. “Come on, hurry,” Flim said, cracking his whip. “Hurry, before they catch up!” Silver Shill breathed heavily. “You know, we could go faster if one of you helped with the pulling…” “We don’t pay you to complain,” Flim said from up in the carriage seat. “Just go!” “Hold it, you two!” The twins jumped and looked behind them. Twilight and Applejack were coming up to them fast. “Quick, Shill, come on, faster!” In a panic, Shill doubled his speed, pulling with all his might and vigor. It would have been impressive, if he wasn’t simply a small Earth Pony pulling a large carriage filled with Flim and Flam’s valuables. “Okay, seriously?” Twilight said, barely trotting next to the carriage. “What were you expecting was going to happen? Did you really think you could trap me?” The two brothers looked at each other. “Well, you see... uh... smokescreen!” The flash was down before anypony could do anything. However, that did not mean Twilight and Applejack were vexed for long. Twilight instantly summoned up the wind necessary to clear the area. “Where’d those varmints…” “There,” she said, pointing down the street. “Hurry!” The pair ran off in their direction, shouting thief. Silver Shill coughed up the last of the smoke that had entered his lungs. Then, he looked at the retreating figures in the distance. He stood awkwardly for a few minutes. Then, he threw his yoke off and walked away. Then he came back, grabbed two of the abandoned saddlebags full of bits that the pair had abandoned, and left for real. “Stop them! Thieves!” Twilight’s cries were heard, but largely fell victim to the bystander effect, as several ponies watched the scene in awe but didn’t intervene. Flim and Flam, in their years of grifting and scamming, had acquired good endurance for running. Applejack could keep up, but Twilight, used to sitting in the library and quick sprints at best, was already running out of breath. Taking heavy gasps, she began to slow down. “Twi?” “Keep going…” she took a few breaths. “Just keep going. I’ll be fine.” “Gotcha Twi,” she said, pulling out her second wind. Soon she was gone too. Taking a deep breath, Twilight lit up her horn for a signal. If she couldn’t catch up, then calling backup was the next best thing. Flim and Flam were at top speed when they found a cab to pile in. “Take us to the outskirts of town, and hurry,” Flim said. Without another word, the cab took off. However, Applejack was still keeping speed. “Hold on! Hold on!” she yelled. She was fast, but she knew somepony who did nothing but pull ponies around was going to be faster. And indeed, it was just inching ahead. Flim looked back, smiling as Applejack slowly got farther away. “We did it! We lost her!” And then the cart stopped. Flim and Flam blinked. “What the… why did we stop?” Flim said. “Uh, red light?” the driver said, confused. “Like we usually get.” “We’ll pay you double to ignore them.” “Yeah, I don’t think so,” the driver said. “That’s not worth the risk to my job or my safety.” “Triple your pay!” “...Seriously? I’m not stupid.” “How much money!” “Uh, Flam, I think we left all our bits in the other carriage.” Before they knew it, the twins were on the curb, the carriage going off, with Applejack right beside them. “Alright, look you two,” Applejack said. “There ain’t anyway yer gettin’ outta this one. Just tell us what you know.” “No way!” Flim said. “It’s us versus you! There’s no way…” “Eh hem.” The two brothers stopped. They turned to see Twilight with the two pegasus guards that she brought. “…I think we can work something out,” Flim said. Angel grinned as he nicked some of Fluttershy’s lipstick. He hopped up to wear Rainbow Dash’s flight suit was sitting. He was stopped by Owlowiscious swooping in and snatching the tube from his paw. Over Angel’s indigent shout, he dropped it back on Fluttershy’s dresser. <…I don’t get it.> The owl rolled his eyes. Since the Creator had a sense of humor, the door opened at that moment. “Rainbow! Don’t you think having children would be good for us?” “We already have Scootaloo! She already looks up to both of us, isn’t that enough?” “Scootaloo’s not our foal. Come on, we could have a little one to mold into an upstanding pony.” “No way! Do you know the things Twilight would have to do to let us make a foal? I’m not adding anything to my anatomy!” “…What? Rainbow I was just thinking about adopting.” “…Oh.” "Why was something like that the first thing you thought of?" "…All those Daring Do fanfictions… never mind, we don't really need kids." "But I want kids! Are you saying you won't give them to me?" "I… I hadn't really thought about it…" "Why don't we go upstairs... we really need to talk about this." “What? But... we just started dating? Do we really need to do this now?” “Well, is there any point in us dating if we’re going to break up later?” As the two Pegasi flew upstairs, Angel rubbed his paws together. Owlowiscious groaned. "So… you didn't actually commission those pictures?" Flim and Flam hung their heads. They were finally in a police station, something half the authority figures in Equestria wanted to see, and there didn't look like any way out. "They were delivered to us from an anonymous source," Flam said. "We don't know who took them or why they sent them. It just came with a note saying it thought we could use them." "So why'd you try to run?" the guard asked. "Well… we started getting photos of… of Twilight Sparkle in secret proceedings. Day Court and stuff like that. We knew those were illegal. We destroyed them, but since she came to question us we figured she was already suspicious." As the guard wrote the answers in their notebooks, Twilight and Applejack watched on the other side of the one way mirror. "This is great," Applejack said, stopping just short of a "yee-haw". "Flim and Flam aren't getting out of this one. They're ending up in jail for sure." "Not for long, I'm afraid," one of the officers said. The pair look at him. "Huh? Why not?" "The charges against them are pretty weak. Mostly it's not reporting the photographs and resisting arrest. And given that they mostly resisted what amounts to a citizen's arrest, that's not much." "Wha? But… they attacked us." "Using non-lethal and relatively non-damaging means. Altogether, the most we can hold them is a year, and given how good they are in court it likely won't be that long." "Wha? But… but…" Applejack was silenced by Twilight putting a hoof on her shoulder. "Let it go, AJ. We have more important things to worry about." "But… they're just gonna get out an' scam again." "And there are people dedicated to stopping them. They can deal with them. Our time is better spent looking for the one behind the wedding. If they have all these resources then it's officially time to start worrying." "I… I guess." "Good. Now let's just get to the hotel room. I don't think he's going to tell us anything else." Silver Shill smiled happily as he signed the final papers. "Alright Mr. Shill, it's your lucky day. Everything's in tip top order," the mare behind the desk said. "The property is now yours." Shill grinned as he looked over the caravan. Nothing particularly big or fancy, but it was his. He spent the money, and he still had enough for goods and to hire somepony to pull it. And with Flim and Flam already paranoid of guards, they'd never report the money missing. He hitched up and began to trot away. He'd get everything in the next town. Flim and Flam had dealt with a lot, but there was one thing they weren't prepared for: honest competition.