//------------------------------// // 5.4 - Les Mareserables - Comedy; SPOILERS // Story: Pony Stories: Season 5 // by lunabrony //------------------------------// The school bell rang, and with it came the wild cheers of schoolchildren who were finally let go from their daily duties after an agonizingly long wait of learning history, math and science. There was the loud, thundering pounding of little hooves as a dozen or so children raced out of the one room schoolhouse, followed by Cheerilee, who looked happy, but more than a little relieved. "Don't forget!" She called. "I want all of you to read Chapter Two by Friday!" Very few heard her, or if they did hear her, there was little recognition and acknowledgement that they heard her. Every single one of her pupils had gathered in the yard around Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo and Apple Bloom, and all were babbling excitedly. "Is Princess Luna really visiting all of you?" was the generalized, awed topic of the day. "Well, not so much visiting as visited," Scootaloo said, her chest puffed out with a bit of pride. She liked the attention, and loved the look of loathing contempt on Diamond Tiara's face. "We had lessons to learn, like when I was having nightmares." She blinked suddenly, and quickly added "Not that I have nightmares anymore. I'm totally not scared of anything." "Suuuuuuuuure you're not," Silver Spoon sneered, and Diamond Tiara laughed. "And mine was more of a warning after I almost destroyed my sisters career and her life in an act of revenge," Sweetie Belle said. "Revenge doesn't solve anything, and I still feel re*squeak*ALLY bad about it." "And Ah was overreactin' a little bit, and Princess Luna came to make sure Ah knew that everythin' was alright so Ah'd stop freakin' out so much," Apple Bloom said. "So what you're saying is," Snails said slowly, gears turning in his head. "If we all do what we're not supposed to do and defy authority, we'll get all get visits from Princess Luna too!" "Yes," Sweetie Belle said automatically. "Wait no!" "Awweeeeesooooome," Snips whispered. That started up a general rumble of agreement from the schoolchildren. "I'm going to go break my mom's favorite vase!" "I'm gonna stay up all night and watch scary movies!" "I'm gonna stop eating my vegetables!" The three Crusaders began to strongly protest, but their cries went unheard as their classmates scattered in all directions, running for their respective homes. "...Uh oh," Apple Bloom said. --- Silver Spoon was the first to get home. Her parents ran Ponyville's only pawn shop, which took in small knickknacks and strange items and gave bits for them, as well as selling the items back to the consumer market for a considerably higher price. She flung her schoolbooks on a chair in the corner. "Dad, I'm home!" She called. "I'll be there in a moment!" came the voice from the backroom. Silver Spoon worked her way around the counter, glancing this way and that, before reaching into the display case and pulling out a bronze, decorative chain. It was horribly tacky and not worth very much, but she slipped it into her saddlebag anyway. It was the first time she'd stolen anything in her life. Then she went into the back room to greet her father. --- Snips and Snails walked home together, kicking rocks and laughing doofishly. Snips levitated a large stick with his horn and tattered it back and forth against the rails of a picket fence until the old mare who lived there yelled at them to stop before she called the constable. They made a run for it after that, further into town towards the square. Here there was the usual wide circle of kiosks and vendors, and Snails grinned, pointing towards the fireworks cart. "We don't have enough bits for that, dude," Snips said. "You want a visit from Princess Luna, right? Let's just light it and run." "That's terrible. It might work though... you always have the best ideas, Snips." The two colts squirmed their way towards the cart, remaining unseen, and Snips gave a nod. Snails scrunched up his face as if he was dealing with severe constipation, and after an enormous amount of effort, magically managed to light the wick of one of the rockets. "Go, go, go!" Snips hissed, and the two made a run for it. The rocket sizzled and hissed, the vendor suddenly jerking awake and trying to put a stop to it. He was unsuccessful, and the rocket screeched, whistled and popped in a wide spiral, narrowly avoiding an unfortunately crosseyed pegasus at the muffin cart, before slamming into the produce cart across the path and obliterating it. Tomatoes, cabbages, lettuce and cantaloupes exploded everywhere in a juicy, delicious massacre. "My cabbages!" The vendor cried. --- Diamond Tiara returned home to her sprawling estate, and the butler opened the door as she approached it. She stuck her nose in the air and walked past him without a word, going up to her room and throwing her books on the table. She was having a harder time thinking of something defiant to do, which was so unusual that it infuriated her. She was always coming up with schemes and ploys, but the one time she actually NEEDED one, nothing came! "Miss Tiara, will you be joining us for dinner?" the butler called. "No! Go away!" she snapped. There, that'd show him! "Very good, Miss Tiara," the butler said flatly without the slightest bit of agitation, and she heard him receding. Why wasn't he angry?! He was supposed to be angry! Diamond placed her hooves on the underside of her work desk and flipped it over on its side, sending her books and papers flying everywhere. --- On the other side of town, in the lower class district but not quite 'ghetto', for lack of a better word, Pip and Rumble were walking home together. They lived close enough to each other that they usually traveled to and from school together, but their living situations were more on the poorer side of things. "You wanna come over and watch a scary film?" Rumble asked. "Would I!" Pip exclaimed. "Would you?" Rumble asked. "Would I!" "Would you?" "Would I!" "...Would you?" They both stared at each other for a moment. "Would I what?" Pip countered, he'd forgotten. "Would you want to come over and watch a scary film?" Rumble asked again. "Oh, yeah! I love a good scary flick, I do!" The two turned to the walk and entered Rumble's house. "My folks are still at work, so we might have just enough time to watch this before they find out!" Rumble said. He set up the projector, and got a scary film from the cabinet. "Bloody Barbecue III!" He grinned. "I think it's about these folks at a party who run out of things to eat, so they start eating each other! It's my brother's." Pip looked pale. "Maybe we shouldn't..." "Aw, don't be a foal," Rumble said, and placed the spool in the projector. Half an hour later, with Pip and Rumble clutching each other in terror but unable to stop watching, the front door burst open so suddenly that both colts screamed like fillies. Thunderlane glanced at the film, then at the two of them. He'd gotten home early. "I'm telling mom," he said. --- Twist was coming home from the schoolhouse as well, as they all were. She wanted to stop at the candy shop first, however, and see if she couldn't become inspired to create some new form of sweet that would sweep Equestria and make her millions of bits. Thus far, nothing had. Today, she looked at all the rows of jelly beans lined up in their little cubicles, and was struck with inspiration. Perhaps there was a way for her to get her own visit from Princess Luna right here in the candy shop! She looked up at the proprietor, a kindly enough stallion named Sweet Tooth. "Wouldth you kindly grab me some licorith twith, fizz poppers and jaw crutherth from the back?" she asked. "I like the freth ones." This was an unusual request, but Twist was in here so often that Sweet Tooth recognized her and her business, bowed deeply, and nodded cheerfully. "It'll be a couple minutes, I have to get them out," he said, and vanished through the hanging curtain. Twist looked over at the rows of jelly beans, all sorted by flavor, and subsequently, color. One cubicle had nothing but blue jelly beans, one had nothing but red, one had nothing but black, and so on. She set to work almost immediately, taking the plastic scoop and mixing all of the jelly beans together! Blueberry went with Popcorn, Popcorn went with Cotton Candy, Cotton Candy went with Apple Pie, Apple Pie went with Vanilla! She worked quickly, mixing colors and flavors into all the wrong receptacles! She finished mixing colors only moments before Sweet Tooth returned with her candy, and paid for it with a charming smile. He couldn't seen the beans from here. "Gee, thankth!" She said quickly, and made a run for it with her candy. A few moments later, a young colt named Neat Freak entered through the door after she had left. He had the unfortunate condition of liking things very much to be a certain way, organized and properly sorted. It was he who liked to come in and see all the jelly beans sorted by color, and for a moment all was right with the world. It was he who began to twitch with horror upon seeing the travesty of the jelly bean tragedy, and such a loud wail escaped his lips that Sweet Tooth had to run over to see what was wrong. "Oh the horror, the horror!" Neat Freak wailed, and it took the next two hours to calm him down. --- Finally, over in Canterlot, the majority of all of these events were being watched through a large glass ball on a pedestal. It was dusk by now, Celestia had finished her audiences and reports for the day, and Luna had not yet begun hers. It was one of two moments in the day, the other being just after sunrise, when their routines clashed. And here they were both observing through the glass what had begun with a harmless enough visit to a little orange pegasus on a camping trip. Celestia turned her head, and glared at her sister. "This is why we can't have nice things." Luna just grinned sheepishly.