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// 1 Groundhog 
// Story: Spook For Yourself 
// by Brass Polish 
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	Of all the strange surprises to await Vinyl Scratch upon waking up after a night of blasting tunes and downing drinks, finding a hole in her floor had to be one of the worst. She always has to hide some kind of mess while Octavia is away in Canterlot filling in for the symphony’s first chair cellist, but covering up a missing chunk of wooden floorboards would be difficult and costly. Needless to say, Vinyl wasn’t in a good mood today.

“Hey Fluttershy, look what I fished outta Vinyl Scratch’s place,” Crosspatch called through an open cottage window.
Fluttershy looked at the animal riding on Crosspatch’s back.
“Oh, my. This groundhog looks like he only just became an adult,” she remarked. “How did you end up in Vinyl’s house, little guy?”
Crosspatch envied Fluttershy for being fluent in other animals’ languages. All she could do was listen to her squeaking passenger’s incomprehensible explanation.
“So, what’s his excuse?” she asked when the young groundhog was done.
“He says he left his family two days ago, found a sweetheart yesterday and tried to dig a den for the two of them this morning,” said Fluttershy. “It was his first time doing it and he his sense of direction isn’t quite in tune yet.”
“That’s for sure,” Crosspatch grinned. “I don’t think he and his sweetheart would like to live with a DJ.”
The young groundhog started squeaking again.
“He says his girlfriend likes it just fine. Apparently, she doesn’t mind loud noises as long as she can live somewhere with a view of the pond,” Fluttershy translated.
“So he started close to the pond, eh?” asked Crosspatch. “I hope he didn’t dig too close. The tide rises at night and their new hovel might get flooded.”
Fluttershy caught the worried look on the young groundhog’s face and knew that he had done just that.

Fluttershy went to inspect the spot where the young groundhog had started digging and sure enough, it was too close to the pond’s shore to be safe during the night tides.
“You’ll have to start again, little guy,” she said bluntly to the young groundhog, who squeaked an exasperated response.
Evening was just over an hour away now. When Princess Luna raised the moon, it would surely raise the water level and flood the freshly made den.

Enter Rainbow Dash and her weather crew.
“Well, it’s not like making it cloudy all over Ponyville goes against the schedule or nothing,” Rainbow Dash said hesitantly when Fluttershy had made her request, “but it’ll be pretty hard to mesh a buncha clouds together without making it rain.”
“Oh, I see,” Fluttershy looked down at her hooves.
“But we’ll give it a try,” Rainbow Dash said confidently. “Right, team?”
Derpy, High Note, Cloud Chaser and Cloud Kicker agreed and immediately set off into the sky to collect some clouds.
“We can get rid of them in the morning, right?” Rainbow Dash asked Fluttershy for clarification on the plan before setting off herself.
“Definitely,” Fluttershy nodded. “I just need the moon to be hidden so it doesn’t make the pond’s tide rise. Then my little groundhog friend can make a fresh start on digging his new home first thing in the morning.”
“Got it,” Rainbow Dash winked and took off.

Vinyl Scratch was on her way from Hay’s Hardware carrying timber for repairing her floor when she found she was having trouble seeing. She took her shades off and looked up.
“It can’t be night yet,” she said. “Why’s the sky so dark?”
She spotted Rainbow Dash shoving a cluster of clouds together. She cast her loudening spell on her own voice.
“Hey!! Dash!!”
“Kinda busy here!” Rainbow Dash called back. “And you might wanna keep it down!”
Rainbow pointed, and Vinyl spotted Fluttershy wincing close by.
“Oh, it’s the fragile one,” Vinyl cancelled her volume spell.
Fluttershy picked up the thin, steel poles she dropped in her fright.
“It’s not supposed to snow tonight or something, is it?” asked Vinyl Scratch. “Are those poles for marking out the paths?”
Fluttershy shook her head. “That groundhog who tunnelled into your house today needs the moon to be hidden so his den doesn’t…”
“Could ya speak up?!” asked Vinyl loudly, digging her hoof into one of her ears.
Rainbow Dash looked down in annoyance.
“You wouldn’t have so much trouble hearing if you didn’t stretch your eardrums from here to Canterlot with your blaring music!” she called from above.
“If I didn’t play it as loud as it can go, everypony at the rave would complain!” Vinyl yelled back, this time not using her loudening spell.

Vinyl held her ears open as Fluttershy explained about the flood risk.
“I’m helping the groundhog map out his new den with these melon-scented poles,” she finished.
Vinyl Scratch scowled. “Why don’t you just take him and his sweetheart in?”
“The only animal I’ve taken in as a permanent houseguest is Angel Bunny,” Fluttershy replied. “I’ve never kept an animal in my house for longer than it needed. This groundhog is a perfectly fine digger. He just took a wrong turn, that’s all.”
“Maybe you could get him to dig into a burger joint so he can make some money to pay for my floor,” Vinyl Scratch groaned.
“He told me he’s apologized to you a few times when you found him,” said Fluttershy.
“I couldn’t understand his annoying squealing!” spluttered Vinyl. “I don’t have some kinda freaky supernatural ability to understand animals.”
Rainbow Dash snorted and yelled to Vinyl Scratch from the cloudy sky.
“Don’t make fun of my friend’s special talent!” she ordered. “I don’t care if you are an honourary member of Ponyville’s Royal Taskforce. Me and her are legitimate taskforce members. So watch yourself!”
“Bah! I better get outta here before your best buddy makes her thunderclouds chase me,” Vinyl rolled her eyes and turned away from Fluttershy. “Have fun making your little rat friend’s life easy for him.”

Fluttershy frowned as she watched Vinyl Scratch leave with her lumber.
“I’m not making his life easy for him,” she insisted quietly. “I’m just giving him a chance to start over. He deserves a chance to prove that he’s grown up. Every creature does.”
Rainbow Dash’s keen ears easily picked this up. She and her weather crew had been careful to keep the clouds from combining and causing a storm. Now Rainbow herself was more likely to fire lightning than the clouds.
“That little twerp,” she grumbled. “How does she not know how sensitive Fluttershy is? I thought everypony in town knew by now.”
She watched as Fluttershy carried on with her melon-scented poles.
“You OK, Fluttershy?” Rainbow called.
“Oh. Sure,” replied Fluttershy.
Rainbow Dash wasn’t convinced. She was certain that Fluttershy was really hurt.
“I’ll get Vinyl for that,” she growled as she went about her work.

Soon, Ponyville was shielded from the sky, which was quickly turning dark purple. Of course, it was hard to tell due to the layer of clouds. Rainbow Dash was inspecting the weather crew’s handiwork.
“Great. This’ll definitely keep the tide from going up,” she said. “Good job, guys. Let’s call it a day, huh?”
“Sure. See you tomorrow,” High Note replied.
“Yeah. See ya,” answered Cloud Kicker.
Rainbow watched as his coworkers descended down towards Ponyville.
“Wait. Where’s Derpy?” she asked.
She looked around. She knew Derpy had been helping with this last minute job, but she hadn’t seen her since they’d started.
“Derpy?!”
No reply. All Rainbow Dash could hear was a train whistle coming from Ponyville station.
“Where’d ya go, Derpy?!” Rainbow shouted.
“I’m over here!” Derpy’s voice replied.
Rainbow Dash followed the sound. “Where?!”
“I’m above the clouds!” answered Derpy’s voice.
Rainbow Dash groaned. “You’re on the wrong side of the cover!”
“I know! I can’t find my way around all these clouds!” called Derpy.
“Just body slam them!” Rainbow suggested.
“Oh. OK!” Derpy responded.

Rainbow Dash descended a little bit as she didn’t know exactly where Derpy would be colliding with the blanket of clouds.
Poof!
Derpy came pelting through Ponyville’s cover. A tiny bit of moonlight shone through the Derpy-shaped hole. Rainbow Dash flew to the hole and repaired it easily. Derpy hovered close by, shaking her head to recover from the light but firm impact.
“Problem solved,” Rainbow Dash patted the covered hole in the clouds.
“Great,” smiled Derpy. “See you later, Rainbow Dash.”
“Yeah. See ya,” Rainbow waved as she and Derpy parted ways.
They didn’t get too far before they heard a terrified scream coming from below.
“What’s that?!” cried Derpy.
“Come on!” Rainbow ordered.
The two pegasi dived down to see what the trouble was.

They found Octavia lying on the ground shivering and covering her eyes with her hooves. They saw her cello case was lying next to her as they approached.
“What is it?!” asked Rainbow Dash. “What’s going on?!”
Octavia looked up and pointed.
“It’s a ghost!” she whimpered.
Rainbow Dash and Derpy looked. There, hovering next to a tree outside a shop, was a fluffy, white pony.
“That’s not a ghost, Octavia,” chuckled Derpy. “That’s I piece of cloud I punched out of the sky.”
Octavia watched as Derpy flew next to the floating, white pony and took hold of it so they could compare size and shape.
“Oh,” Octavia blushed and stood up. “I’m awfully sorry. I saw it go right through one of those tree branches and thought it had to be a ghost.”
Rainbow Dash picked up Octavia’s cello case.
“Just get back from your gig in Canterlot?” she asked
“Yes,” Octavia nodded. “In fact, that’s where I heard the ghost story that’s made me so nervous.”
“What ghost story?” inquired Rainbow.
“It’s about the spirit of an earth pony who roams Equestria looking for a horn to steal from a unicorn,” Octavia said.
“Well what are you worried about?” Derpy giggled. “You’re not a unicorn. You’re safe.”
“That doesn’t make ghosts any less terrifying, thank you,” Octavia frowned.

Rainbow Dash looked at the stamped out cloud that Octavia had mistaken for a ghost. Derpy had body-slammed the overcast on her side, so the white, fluffy copy had no wings. If Octavia wasn’t nervous before, she certainly was when a devilish grin crept across Rainbow’s face.
“Please, Rainbow. Don’t you know I often go through this sort of thing?” frowned Octavia. “Vinyl Scratch is always making me jump with her loudening magic. At least once a week, I get a fright from something as simple as a door handle.”
This only intensified Rainbow Dash’s grin.
“Well then, wanna get some payback?” she asked.
“Payback?” Octavia repeated. “Oh, I don’t know.”
“You just said Vinyl’s always scaring you. Why not prank her back?” insisted Rainbow Dash.
“Well, she hasn’t played a trick on me lately,” reasoned Octavia.
Derpy chuckled. “That’s because you’ve been out of town.”
Octavia considered. “Well, it’s not just her volume spell that gets me. It’s also things like sneaking hot sauce in my food and not telling me when something about the house needs to be seen to.”
“So?” Rainbow Dash pressed.
“Alright,” Octavia smirked. “You’re the authority on pranks in this town, so what would you suggest?”