Chapter 4
Open Buffet
Twilight made her way down the road to Fluttershy's house, making all kinds of plans to help fix it as she walked with her friend. During the walk, she pulled out a blueprint and began drawing on it.
Some, namely Fluttershy, would have said that she was going a bit overboard with the repair plans. But Twilight insisted on putting an observation deck on the cottage, stating that a clear view of her property from there would be ideal. When asked what it would be ideal for, Twilight only kept rattling off more additions to the house.
"So then we can put in a patio area next to the pool. But first, we have to calculate the space you have so we know how big to make both. That way we'll still have room to make an aviary for all of your bird friends." She was so caught up in her work that she didn't even notice the cat who was trying to get her attention.
"Hey! I'm down here! What does a cat have to do to get some attention," Garfield pestered her. This was going nowhere for him. "Alright, this calls for the big guns," Garfield said to Odie, before he spat into his own paws and rubbed them together before he began his work.
Quickly, he stepped in front of Twilight, got down on all fours, and rubbed his side against her forelegs, making her trip and fall. Garfield moved before she could land on him and moved in front of her fallen form. "Some cats around here are trying to get home," he said as he picked up Twilight's head in his paws, "A talking, purple-eyed cucumber with a teething problem told me that you were supposed to be smart, and I don't think it takes a Ph.D to give directions back to Muncie, Indiana!"
Odie interrupted with a bark, and despite the dog's thick canine accent, Garfield caught what he said.
"What do you mean 'cross-dimensional travel and fourth dimension particle shifts?' You don't even know how to spell your own name."
Twilight was a little more than taken aback by the rough way the cat was treating her. She always knew cats were fussy, but this one was more like a mafia enforcer with his treatment of her. "Fluttershy, what does this cat want," she asked nervously as she looked into his eyes.
"I don't know! Cat's can't talk," Fluttershy quickly answered. Even though it was very fuzzy, she could almost swear that the cat was trying to speak plain Equestrian, even if it was only expressed through his actions. It scared her slightly to think that she might actually be able to communicate directly with an animal, as opposed to the usual one-sided conversations that she had with them. New things were scary, after all.
It was strange to Twilight that Fluttershy couldn't translate what an animal was saying, but she couldn't focus on that at the moment: she still had plans to make for the house. "Alright. I guess he just wants some attention. Now, as far as visitors go: you need to be able to accommodate anypony who comes by. So your living room will need to be nice and roomy for all the guests you have over."
"It's nice of you to suggest it, but don't usually have guests."
When they reached Fluttershy's house, they immediately got to work on fixing the damaged property. Twilight started by assessing the area, but her concentration kept getting interrupted by Garfield pestering her.
"Hey! I'm a lost little kitty, who's miles from home! I'm cold and hungry, and I want to go back to my own house," he yelled at Twilight. She only acted like he was some kind of bother and used her magic to put him down somewhere else.
She did so with much difficulty, as it turned out that the cat weighed much more than he looked. After much sweating and straining, she placed him out of the way, and went panting back to work.
"How's that for compassion!? Does she do that to all strays!? P.E.T.A.'s going to hear about this," Garfield grumbled.
As the repairs went on, the others who Pinkie went to receive came to help with the project, and brought a cart full of supplies. After a look at the blueprints Twilight made, she assigned each one of them a job so the project would be finished faster.
"Hey, Twilight: I just finished the newest Daring Do book last night. Got anything to hold me over until the next one," Rainbow Dash asked as she set up a foundation for the observation deck.
"I'm so glad you asked that. I found the most interesting book last night," Twilight enthusiastically answered as she helped with the foundation. She moved the lumber she was lifting before Garfield could jump on it and pester her for information. "It's about ancient Sumare-ian culture, and I just got to a legend about an orange, world-devouring monster before I went to bed last night."
"Aw, I never liked history books. But that thing about the orange monster would make a great horror story."
"Save it for the book club! I need help here," Garfield interjected.
"You're right. You should try your hoof at writing a story sometime."
"I already did. I tried writing a Daring Do fanfic, but I got stumped before I finished the first chapter."
"You took up a hobby and failed, like so much Arbuckle! Now pay attention to me," Garfield shouted as he stepped into the foundation they were building.
Garfield was beginning to become a bother. Like any cat who wanted attention, Twilight knew he wasn't going to stop until he got it. Any other time, she would have been delighted to play with him, but she had work to do. She would have magically lifted him away, but after she nearly passed out from last time, she decided to leave that to somepony else. "Rainbow Dash, could you take the cat somewhere else? Maybe Fluttershy can figure out what it wants."
"Sure thing, Twi," Dash said as she flew over to Garfield and put her hooves around him. When she tried to gain altitude, she found herself weighed down by her furry passenger. Even though she flapped her wings as fast as she could, she felt like she was carrying an entire carriage that was loaded with passengers. Eventually, her wing strength gave out, and she had to push Garfield the rest of the way. Even then, it felt like she was pushing a house around by its foundation.
Fluttershy came into sight, as she, Odie and Rarity were putting the animal's homes back into place and salvaging the potted plants. Dash decided she was close enough, and stopped pushing Garfield, then went back to Twilight, heaving and wheezing.
Garfield knew when he wasn't wanted, and that purple unicorn obviously wasn't as smart as Gummy touted her to be. He decided that he had better try his luck with the yellow pegasus, since she seemed to understand him better.
"Oh, Rarity: I almost forgot that I have something for you," Fluttershy said as she reached between the feathers on her wings and pulled out the stone she found earlier. "I found this, and I thought maybe you could make something with it." She then turned her head so her face was partially hidden by her mane, "I mean...if you want to."
Despite the kind offer, the truth was that Rarity didn't want to. It was a very beautiful stone that would make a marvelous finishing touch to any dress that matched the beautiful spectrum of reds and oranges the stone had, but at the same time, there was something about it that she couldn't explain. She always had an affinity for jewels and precious stones, and knew a good one from a bad one. But she couldn't tell which one the stone Fluttershy had was. Whatever it was, it felt ancient and terrible, but why, she didn't know.
"Th-That's alright. You keep it." Rarity answered hastily.
"Thank you," Fluttershy quietly answered.
Any other time, she would have insisted that Rarity take it, since she knew she would be able to make something amazing with it. But not this time. Instead, Fluttershy felt a small, strange kind of relief that she would be able to keep it. She held the stone before her, and got lost in its vivid colors, which seemed to come alive and swirl before her. Soon, she was approached by another orange thing.
"Hey! I--"
When she was snapped out of her trance, Fluttershy answered with, "Eep," and covered her ears, so that she wouldn't have to hear anymore phantom voices from the cat. The more she heard, the more she doubted her sanity, and didn't want to be carted away in a strait jacket. Since her front legs were covering her ears, her chin dropped to the ground, so she could only use her back legs to scoot away from the scary talking cat.
"Does everyone around here hate animals," Garfield asked aloud.
Odie gave his usual barking answer.
"She was only nice to you because girls think stupid is cute."
"ARF!"
"Tell you what to say to her? That's so stupid, only you would think of it. We'll go with my idea where I ask you to translate for me."
Even Odie knew that plan was redundant, but he happily went with Garfield to try once more to talk to Fluttershy.
When they got to her, she was setting up a few of the potted plants that had been knocked over before Odie announced himself with a couple of barks.
"Oh, hello, doggie," she greeted him when he approached her. She became more apprehensive when she saw him accompanied by the orange cat from before, "Um...hello, kitty."
"Ask her if she knows how to get back to Muncie from here," Garfield said, starting with something simple and to the point.
Odie let out a single bark to ask his question.
Fluttershy only cringed as she faintly understood the cat telling the dog what to say. "No..." she answered with a tremble.
"Okay. Ask her if she's seen someone named Jon Arbuckle," came Garfield's next question.
Odie barked once more.
"No..." Fluttershy said as she slowly backed away.
"Does she know anyone who can help?"
Odie translated again.
"No..." It was too much for her. Not only was she faintly hearing a muffled statement from a cat, but the dog was translating what she thought she heard in a language that was much more clear to her. "Please, go play with the chickens," she whimpered before she shuffled off somewhere to crawl into a fetal position.
"Play with the chickens," Garfield repeated, intrigued by what he heard.
He looked over to the nearby chicken coop, where all the chickens inside reacted with a startled 'buck-aw!?'
It was too perfect. He had been handed the first ingredient for deep-fried drumsticks, and they were all trapped in a small, confined area for the fun to begin.
"It's like I died and went to Kentucky," Garfield said with a malicious grin. He opened to coop to enter it, but as soon as he did, the chickens inside ran out in a panic.
As usual, Odie was delighted by what was happening. Now the chickens were out and about for him to play with, instead of in a cramped pen. He chased them around the yard, crashing into anything and everything that was present, until one of them led him into a deep hole that was being dug by Applejack to make the pool, which made the farmpony jump high with a loud shout.
Odie then chased the chicken out of the hole and around the perimeter of it. As they ran, they knocked over all of the tools and supplies that were needed to finish Applejack's project into the hole.
Everything that fell, Applejack saved by putting it in its proper place. She laid the plumbing and set up the support walls as all the tools she needed to set it up fell.
When she looked ahead, Applejack saw them rushing to the cement mixer which was knocked over by Odie when he passed by it. She saved it by pouring its contents around the pool before it hit the ground.
When she was finished, the two animals ran off and she decided to go back to work. Looking back at her project, she saw what would have taken hours had been completed in a few seconds. Since that was finished for the time being, Applejack decided to do something else while the concrete foundation set.
"Gangway! Cacciatore on the loose," Garfield shouted as he ran after the chickens he intended to devour.
His chase led him into the area where the aviary was being built. Pinkie and Spike, who were in charge of that project, shouted loudly as the two animals began climbing the metal caging. They regretted making the aviary so big, now that they climbed far out of their reach, but Pinkie had an idea.
She erected another tall piece of caging and shouted to the chicken, "Jump! You can make it!"
The chicken, of course, didn't think it would do much good, but it sure beat being eaten. It fluttered from one piece of caging to the one that Pinkie held up, and held on tight while Pinkie lowered it down. As she did, Garfield jumped on as well, and brought the whole twelve foot panel crashing down on top of her.
Pinkie was alright, but the panel was balanced atop her head, and it wobbled back and forth as the animals on top of it ran about. She would have done something, but she was afraid if she moved, she might hurt one of them. All she could do was move from side to side as she tried to keep the panel balanced. "Spike! Do something," she asked in a panic.
Of course, Spike had no idea how to handle such an outlandish situation, so he went with his first instinct and jumped on with them. His extra weight only added more gravity to the wobbling panel, and Pinkie had to work doubly hard to keep everypony on top safe.
Meanwhile, the three on top bounced and rolled over one another in a mad jumble. Spike tried to catch either one of the animals, Garfield kept reaching for the chicken, and the chicken was determined to get away.
Eventually, the animals ended up on one side, and Spike had been pushed over to the other. He landed with such a force that he ended up making the caging panel spring upright with Garfield and the chicken at the top of it.
Garfield opened his mouth wide to take his first bite of the bird, only for his open mouth to catch on a branch of one of the trees. Meanwhile, the chicken fell off of the panel it was on, and saw that it had landed in the unfinished cage, which closed itself when the piece of panel it was balancing on landed in its proper place. Now safe within the completed cage, the chicken sighed as it could finally relax.
Garfield pulled himself onto the branch and was about to curse a blue streak until he noticed the tree he was in was loaded with birdhouses.
"A sparrow appetizer would nicely compliment a chicken dinner," he thought to himself as he reached inside one of the wooden houses. It was soon followed by a sharp pain as whatever was inside bit him, and with a scream, he pulled his arm out to find some kind of snake had latched onto his hand.
He ran around the treetops, knocking down any of the small houses up there as he tried to shake off the snake.
Down below, Pinkie and Spike caught any of them that dropped, and ended up arranging them in the style of an apartment building as they stacked them up.
On the other side of the house, Odie ran through the property as he chased after the chickens.
The one he was currently after had wised up to the game, and realized that as long as she kept running, Odie would keep chasing her. She came to a sudden halt, but that still didn't stop Odie.
No, the dog kept on running, and tripped over the bird, which sent him tumbling across the lawn and towards the fallen pots, animal feeders, and any other loose object that fell earlier that day.
Each one of them was pulled out of his way by Rarity or Fluttershy before he crashed into them, and was put in its proper place as they went.
Fluttershy gasped when she saw that Odie was going to crash into a tree, but her fear for his safety proved unfounded, as something much worse happened.
Odie rolled up the trunk of the tree, and his momentum carried him back the way he came, where he landed in a large, metal washtub. The tub ended up on its side, with him still in it, when he saw another one of the chickens. He began to run after it, still in the washtub, so that he became a spinning wheel of destruction when he ran.
He and the chicken ended up inside the house, with Fluttershy running in after them. There, she arranged all of the furniture so that they wouldn't break anything in there. She took the extra time to arrange it the way she had it before the disaster, but while her attention was turned, the two went upstairs.
Fluttershy chased them through the various rooms up there, all the while clearing a path for them. As much as she tried to politely ask them to stop, neither one of them listened, and headed right for a closed window.
Outside, Rarity could see the chicken going toward the window, and used her magic to open it, knowing that the dog was close behind it. Sure enough, the chicken came fluttering out for her to catch in her hooves.
Rarity tried to console the frightened bird, but the two began screaming when Odie's tub of terror came barreling out the window.
They barely had time to move out of the way when he came crashing down to the ground and took a splash in the river.
The tub landed on its bottom in the river, which allowed Odie to ride inside of it and peek over the side to look at the fish, otters and frogs in the water. He would have jumped in to make friends with them, but the fact that he was headed right toward the water wheel drew his attention.
Odie attempted to run from it, but that only put the tub on its side again, and made it spin in place as it drifted to the wheel.
Despite his valiant effort to escape, Odie got caught in the wheel.
The tub was flung away, and landed where Fluttershy kept all the other utilities. Meanwhile, Odie was spun around and around on the water wheel until he was sent back to the property in front of Fluttershy and Rarity, who he licked unmerciful.
Fluttershy would have stopped him from destroying Rarity's makeup and mane, but it kept him busy while she rounded up the chickens.
At the back of the house, Garfield had gotten rid of the snake, and was making his way to eat some robins. Even if the birds eluded him, he would soon find others and chase after them.
His progress was stopped when he saw a large eagle land on the branch in front of him, while the little birds all hid behind it.
The eagle glowered at Garfield, letting him know that if he wanted any of the smaller birds, he'd have to go through it. Its courage shook slightly when it saw the way the cat hungrily smiled at it.
Garfield had never eaten eagle before, and wondered how it tasted. His gourmand curiosity somehow crept its way into the mind of the eagle, and made the large bird sweat nervously as Garfield eagerly made his way toward it.
"Every bird for himself," the eagle shouted, and all the birds on the branch scrambled as Garfield pounced and missed completely, so he fell through the air.
The cat landed on the table that had all the supplies Dash and Twilight were using to make the observation deck, which sent them all flying into the air. On the ground Garfield saw one of the chickens from earlier and started chasing after it.
Twilight would have used her magic to save the airborne supplies, but she was tied up with stopping the cat. She was horrified to find that even though the cat was enveloped in her pink aura, the cat wasn't slowed down in the slightest. The cat's determination to catch its prey was too great, and she began to get dragged around behind it as she tried to stop the mad feline.
Up in the air, Dash put her flight speed to good use by saving the lumber the only way she knew how: mid-air flair with a special twist of cool.
She started putting the deck together piece by piece, and in record time, she had the whole thing finished. She landed on the ground, expecting to get some kind of applause for her work. Less than a second later, her eyes glanced upward as she realized she was standing underneath a finished observation deck, which came down on her with a loud splat.
Twilight wasn't having a much easier time. She felt like she had been dragged all around the property before Fluttershy interjected by picking up the chicken, and putting it back in the coop with all the others.
Garfield was finally stopped when his entire front smashed against the door on the coop, which was followed by Twilight sliding into him.
"This is a disaster," Twilight shouted as she stood up. The whole time, the yard was being destroyed by the running animals, and they seriously set the work schedule back.
Everypony was present to see Twilight flailing about, and Rarity couldn't agree more. She was right in the middle of a spa treatment when Pinkie got her, and it was all undone by a tongue with eyes.
"It's going to take us at least a week and a half to fix everyth--" When Twilight actually got a look at the damage, she saw that everything was in its proper place. Not only that, but most of the day's work had been done. The pool's foundation had been set, the aviary had been built, the observation deck was completed, and the entire yard had been cleaned up. "Well, I think we can get to the interior an the third story sooner than I thought," she said as a huge weight was lifted from her mind.
"We should let the chickens out again for that," Pinkie suggested.
She was only trying to be helpful, but everypony answered with a loud, "NO!!"
"Let's just finish what we have to do without anymore excitement," Twilight said as she tried to get her friends back to work. Except one of them was missing, "Where's Rainbow Dash?"
A quiet groaning led her to the observation deck, which she lifted with her magic to find Dash underneath in a daze.
"Oh, no you don't. You're not sneaking out of this work," Twilight said, admonishing her friend's lazy nature.
Dash had hoped having a whole deck crash down on her would excuse her, but it seemed she wasn't going to get off that easily. She crawled out from under it and staggered away to her next assignment.
They all would have went back to work, until Spike burped up a mass of green embers, which became a scroll for Twilight.
"Holy moly! What did you eat," Garfield asked in wonder of the spectacle.
"What's it say," Spike asked, eager to know what Celestia wanted.
After not even a second of reading Twilight answered, "We need to go to Canterlot immediately!"
"But why? What did the note say?"
"It said to go to Canterlot immediately," she said as she hurried her friends away.
Odie was going too, but stopped when he saw that Garfield wasn't coming. He whined quietly as he nudged Garfield in their direction.
"Forget it, Odie, those ponies are a dead end for getting home."
Odie tried convincing Garfield with a bark.
"What makes you so sure the princess would know a way home?"
Odie decided that he would have to find another way to convince his friend to go with him. He did so with a show of pantomime, where he stood up tall and regal, then started stuffing his face.
"Royal banquet, you say? Hm, I guess the idea has merits."
Without a second to lose, he grabbed Odie by the tongue and led him away after the ponies.