//------------------------------// // Old Life/New life begins // Story: Friends Again // by Smrrt //------------------------------// "Pinkie Pie? Are you alright dear?" Mrs. Cake asked, upon finding the mare slowly tidying up her room. "Oh, hi Mrs. Cake. Uh...well, to be honest...I think I ate something bad this morning. I'm going to take a walk, okay?" "Of course dear. But come back as soon as your stomach aches or generally feel unwell." "I will Mrs. Cake." Pinkie gave the older mare a little smile. She was about to go out of her room, when she turned back and gave Mrs. Cake a hug. "I love you Mrs. Cake." Taking aback a little, the backer never the less hugged the party pony back. "I love you too dear." Pinkie Pie tightened the hug, before letting go of her boss and going outside. It wasn't unusual for Pinkie Pie to take a casual stroll through Ponyville every once in a while, usually though she would hum a tune to herself or at least greet everypony she met. This time however she did neither. Instead, she appeared to be lost in thought, which was unusual to say the least. "Pinkie Pie." One of the pony's on the street called out to her. Pinkie looked up to find Bon Bon approaching her fellow earth pony. "Are you alright? No offense, but you look a little out of it." "Hi Bonnie. Yeah, I think I ate something wrong. I guess I shouldn't eat snacks that are at the bottom of my chest." Bon Bon facehoofed. "Oh Pinkie." she shook her head. "You should know better than-" The candy maker was interrupted by Pinkie Pie all of the sudden shaking uncontrollably. "D-o-o-o-o-z-z-z-y-y-y-y-y-y-y!!!!" Everypony in earshot stared at Pinkie Pie for approximately 1.34 seconds, before screaming for 0.5 seconds and then taking cover as quickly as possible. While everypony was wondering what was going to happen and hoping not to get caught up in the crossfire, Pinkie Pie at this very moment had just one simple thought going threw her mind: That didn't happen the first time. The thing about doozies was that even Pinkie Pie had no idea what it might be. At least with her other twitches she could somewhat speculate of what was going to happen and her hit rate spoke for itself. Luckily this time the doozy didn't mean anything dangerous. 30 seconds after Pinkie's prediction of a doozy, a loud *BANG!* could be heard through the entirety of Ponyville, followed by rainbow colors waving through the sky. Everypony was awed by the spectacle and Pinkie Pie found herself reminded of the day she earned her cutie mark. "Wowza, thank you Dashie! That's exactly what I needed!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed, jumping excitedly into the air. With a new "bounce" in her steps, she made her way through Ponyville. The Sonic Rainboom was the topic of the town that day. Ponies speculated what could have caused such a wonderful spectacle. The pegasi of the town of course knew the legend of the Sonic Rainboom and soon speculation upon who could have pulled it off were running through the town. Four mares of course knew who was responsible for this. Said four were sitting on an outside table next to a restaurant. None of them has spoken a word, except when they picked their orders. Eventually it was Applejack who broke the silence. "Well, ah guess y'all said "yes" too, didn't ya?" Everypony looked at each other before nodding. "Yeah. It was totally weird, even for my standards." Pinkie Pie explained. "I was ready to give up on sweets and go into therapy!" The others looked at Pinkie Pie with worried/alarmed expression. "Pinkie Pie dear, are you feeling all right?" Rarity asked. "Oh don't worry, Rarity. Thanks to Dashie I'm feeling super duper again!" Everypony smiled, seeing Pinkie Pie's smile not being forced. By now they knew what a forced smile on their pink friend looked like. "Speakin' of Dash, where in tarnation is that filly?" AJ asked, looking around. "Umm...I saw her flying into the Everfree Forest." Fluttershy told the others. "The Everfree Forest?" Everyone else repeated. "Why pray tell, would she go there?" Rarity asked. "Ah hope it ain't 'cause we're time travelers, she thinks we're invincible or somethin'." The farmer muttered. "Oh, oh there she comes!" Everyone looked towards where Pinkie Pie was pointing into the sky. In fact Rainbow Dash was quickly zooming in towards the ground, slowing down only just before she was about to hit the ground. "Hey girls." she greeted the four other ponies, while adjusting her wings to her body. "And where in tarnation have you been? 'Shy told us ya've been in the Everfree Forest. That true sugar?" "Relax." Rainbow retorted, taking a seat. "I was just in the dusty old castle-" "What?!" "What were ya doing there?!" The farm mare leaned aggressively forward on the table. "Hay! Let me finish, 'kay? I thought I could get us the Elements of Harmony, but those bucking things were just too heavy." the cyan pegasus explained. Her friends' mouths turned into the shape of an 'o', understanding why their friend wanted to fly there quickly. "I think that was very thoughtful of you, Rainbow Dash." Fluttershy smiled towards her childhood friend. "Thanks 'Shy. Still couldn't carry them over, though." Dash frowned. "Whatever Dashie. We'll just get them like we did last time. Hey, do you think Twilight will be suspicious if I bring all of her favorite snacks and drinks to her party?" At the mention of their friend's/soon to be friend's name, everyone looked down. Pinkie Pie realized what she just said and slumped her chin on the table. "Oh...Twilight...AHH!" She jolted up, when Applejack slammed her hoof on the table. "Now come on, y'all! There's no use mopin' around the past...eh...future..eh...whatever! We all agreed ta this, so enough of the frowny faces! We want ta be better friends ta Twi', so let's be better friends!" "Uh huh!" Everypony agreed. "Oh, well I don't want to drop anypony's enthusiasm, but we do need to be careful." Rarity pointed. "Applejack, I know you pride yourself with your honesty, but this is one thing we absolutely cannot tell Twilight until the time is right." "Yeah, ah already know sugar. Ah knew since the time ah agreed ta this." Applejack titled her head, covering her eyes. "Doesn't mean ah have ta like it." "Nopony expects that of you Applejack." Fluttershy replied. "Um, if you don't mind me asking, what are we going to do now? About the Summer Sun Celebration, I mean." Again, everyone looked at each other uncomfortably. Rarity broke the silence by clearing her throat. "Well, personally I think there is nothing we have to worry about. We each fulfill our duties, meet Twilight and Spike, watch what we say around them and let things play out." "Seems like it's the best course of action." Applejack nodded. "No, it's not!" Everyone turned their gazes towards Pinkie Pie. "We definitely have to get Twilight to party with us this time!" The pink party pony declared. The others giggled at her antics, yet silently agreed. It was at that time that the waiter arrived with their orders. Rainbow used the opportunity to order herself a sandwich. "So how was your time?" she asked after the waiter left again. "What time?" Applejack asked to which Rainbow rolled her eyes. "Duh, how did it feel, you know....my muscles burned as if I jumped into a volcano and for the first 5 minutes I had all sorts of twitches in my wings. The only thing to make them go away was to perform the Sonic Rainboom. And mare, it felt good doing it again." Realization hit the other ponies once again. Pinkie Pie was the next who spoke up. "It was like the dooziest of the doozies times 10!" she exclaimed, but then became calm again. "But when I remembered everything..." she trailed off. Fluttershy being the closest to the earth pony hugged her with both her wings and forelegs. Pinkie in return tightly hugged back, pressing the air out of Fluttershy's lungs. "Thank you, Fluttershy." "You're...welcome..." "Pinkie Pie, ah think you should let her go, sugercube." "Woopsie!" Fluttershy greedily sucked in the air around herself, color slowly returning to her face. "Sorry Fluttershy." "It's *huff* okay *huff* Pinkie Pie. Haaah..." The animal caretaker's breathing returned to normal. "So shy, how was it for you?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Well...it was...strange." "Ah reckon we all agree that this ain't normal." Applejack stated. "Well...my body didn't hurt and neither did I feel depressed, I just felt...overwhelmed. I think..." Fluttershy trailed off. The others waited patiently for her to speak up again on her own. "It's...all that knowledge about animals and more importantly I...I'm not scared of my own shadow anymore." Rainbow and Pinkie Pie couldn't help it. They burst out laughing, falling of their tables. Rarity and Applejack tried to hide their snickers behind their hooves, while Fluttershy blushed a little. She knew her friends didn't mean to laugh over her. She was just a special case. "Ah, ow my sides! Sorry Shy, it's just...oh mare, whatever, know what I'm proud of you." To emphasize her statement, Rainbow Dash hugged her fillyhood friend. Fluttershy gently hugged back. "Well ah reckon ah go next." Applejack took drank from her cocktail before telling her part. "Truth ta be told ah was scared. Like real scared out of my willies, when it happened. An' ah reckon like Rainbow, my muscles were burnin' like marshmallows over a campfire. Ah also reckon ah felt a mighty stronger and real refreshed." "Why that must be it!" Rarity exclaimed in realization. "Not only did we gave ourselves our memories, but also our body traits and I assume for me a tad bit more magic and spells." "Now that you two mention it" Rainbow put a hoof under her chin "I don't feel as exhausted as I normally should be. I mean, don't get me wrong I am awesome after all" everyone rolled their eyes with a smile "but, that's 'cause of my training. I don't have nearly done as much as I had in the ....past-future? You know what I mean." Everypony nodded. "Hmm, I suppose I'm the only one left. I did experience something similar to Applejack and Rainbow Dash" she nodded towards each of them "only I felt a burning sensation in my horn and I had so much magic, I simply needed to release it somewhere. Urgh, I almost singed poor Opal. I have to make it up to the poor dear later." "Wouldn't have been a great loss." Rainbow whispered to Applejack, who snickered. Then Rainbow remembered something. "That's right. Shy? Do you already got Tank at your cottage?" "Oh! Yes, yes I do." "Awesome!" "But..." "Huh?" "Well...Twilight was the one who constructed the machine on his back." "Oh. Whatever I can still visit him, right?" "Mhm." "Cool." The rest of the day, the five friends simply continued with small talk and Pinkie Pie already planning Twilight's "Welcome to Ponyville Party". Afterwards they all left to prepare for tomorrow's Summer Sun Celebration or in Rainbow's case, visiting a new/old friend.