//------------------------------//
// Day 8: The Great Escape 
// Story: Ponyville the Town of Youth 
// by Ironskull 
//------------------------------//

"Hello, Twilight."

"Fluttershy?" said Twilight.  "Is that you?"

Twilight brought her unicycle to a halt and swiveled it around.

"Hello, Fluttershy!" cried Twilight happily.  "You're up early.  I thought that everypony would be sleeping in until noon again after staying up last night."

"You are up early too," Fluttershy pointed out.

"Actually, I never did go to bed," Twilight admitted.  "After things died down, I lost myself in a book.  And then when the sun rose, I decided to come outside.  I'm really getting the hang of this!"

"It looks tricky," said Fluttershy.  "I can't believe that it is possible for a pony to stay on one of those things without falling off!  It doesn't seem like we're built for it!"

"It is remarkable," agreed Twilight.  "The way our bodies can train themselves to keep the forces in perfect balance so that we never fall off.  Living creatures have a level of complexity that makes them beyond astounding, when it comes down to it, but we often take it for granted."

"I've never thought of it that way before."

"Well, it is true," said Twilight.  "The way that every muscle in our bodies has to constantly react in different ways to keep us on a unicycle, or even just to walk.  Ponies don't think about it because it is so common place, but it really is quite incredible."

"What about our hearts?" asked Fluttershy.

"Our hearts?" asked Twilight.  "Do you mean the blood pumping organ or do you mean our minds?"

"Um, our minds?"

"The mind is an incredible thing on a whole new order of magnitude," said Twilight.  "Nopony can even begin to understand it.  Because if we were simple enough that we could understand ourselves, we would be so simple, we couldn't."

"Huh?"

"It's just an old paradox.  It basically says that ponies may never understand ourselves."

"Maybe we don't need to understand," said Fluttershy.  "I think I like being friends with ponies a lot more when I don't have to wonder why."

"Yeah," said Twilight in acceptance.  "That's a good way of putting it.  In fact, that just might be the answer to my question!"

"What do you mean?"

"Well," began Twilight.  "When I found myself in this town last week and and was told that I live here as an adult, I didn't know what to think, or what to do.  But I wasn't the only pony in town in that situation.  There was also you, as well as Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack.  So, I kept my eye on you all.

"And, at first, I intended to stay away from everypony.  To remain a silent observer.  But then I ended up becoming involved with everypony else anyway.  And then, I quickly realized that, much to my surprise... spending time with you all is actually a lot more fun than I was expecting.  Nopony else is into the same things that I am, but I am actually having fun doing things that the others want to do anyway.

"And all of this time, I've been trying to figure out why.

"But, you're right.  I'm not going to worry about why any more.  Not when it comes to doing something that I enjoy."

Twilight let out a sigh.

"Fluttershy, I-"

"ARGH!" screaed the voice of a colt from inside the gym.  "WHO DID THIS?"

Twilight and Fluttershy looked at one another in alarm.

Suddenly, the front door flew open and out came Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Applejack.

"There's our escape vehicle!" cried Pinkie.

In an instant, Pinkie had jumped through the air and onto Twilight's back.

"Pinkie!" cried Twilight.  "What the hay is going on!?"

"No time to explain!" said Applejack hurriedly.  "Let me on!"

Twilight sat dumbfounded on the unicycle as she allowed Pinkie to help Applejack onto her back.

"I need on too!" cried Rarity.  "They'll be after us any second!"

"What did you do?" cried Twilight in confusion.

"Rainbow!" said Rarity hurriedly, ignoring Twilight.  "Help me up!"

Twilight felt the weight on top of her increase even more.

"Why are we doing this?" cried Twilight.  "This is crazy!"

"Alright Fluttershy!" cried Rainbow from somewhere over Twilight's head.  "Now you!"

"But I didn't do anything!" protested Fluttershy.

"I know that," said Rainbow.  "But they don't know that!"

Fluttershy's eyes became wider and she quickly flew up and perched herself on top of Rainbow Dash.

"What in the wide world of Equestria?"

Twilight now couldn't turn her head toward the door, but she could tell that the voice belonged to Sweetie Belle.

"Go, Twilight!" shouted Rainbow.  "Go go go go go go go!"

"Okay, okay!" shouted Twilight, giving in.  The unicycle lurched forward and began building up speed.

"Get back here!"

Twilight's pupils turned toward the side of her vision, even though she couldn't move them far enough to look behind her.

"How many of them are after you?" she asked nervously.

"Probabily all of them?" said Rainbow Dash.

"What did you do?" shouted Twilight urgently.

"We may have painted everypony's hooves while they were asleep," said Rainbow.

"With colors that clashed with their coats terribly," added Rarity with fiendish delight.

"You're kidding me!" shouted Twilight, secretly wishing that she could turn around and view the mob of colts and fillies giving chase.  "All of you were in on this?"

"No," said Rainbow.  "Just me, Pinkie, and Rarity.  But Applejack was watching us do it, and she wouldn't stop giggling!"

"Rainbow," said Twilight.  "Why did you decide to jump onto my back?  You could get away from everypony easily!"

"Yeah," said Rainbow, "but what about the rest of us?  I'm not going to fly away and make all of you girls fend for yourselves.  We're in this together!"

"You're in this together!" cried Twilight in frustration.  "Fluttershy and I didn't do anything!"

"It's too late to tell them that," said Rainbow.

"Go faster!" cried Pinkie.  "We need to lose them!"

"I'm carrying five ponies, Pinkie!" shouted Twilight.  "I'm doing the best I can!"

"Would it help if I got off and pushed?" suggested Rainbow.

"No!"





"I think we've lost them!" said Pinkie.

"Oh, thank goodness!" said Rarity.

"But what do we do now?" asked Twilight.  "Thanks to you all, we can't go back now!"

"I reckon they just need some time to simmer down," said Applejack.  "And to wash their hooves..."

"Why don't we just bake them a great big 'We're Sorry' cake?" suggested Pinkie.

"You just had the whole town after you," said Twilight.  "and you think that you're going to get them to stop by giving them cake and saying 'we're sorry'?"

"No, hold on, sugarcube," said Applejack.  "I reckon Pinkie's got a good idea!  If we come back with goodies in our hooves, they wouldn't dare pounce on us."

"And what about after we lose the goodies?" asked Twilight.

"Well," said Applejack smugly.  "After they have a taste of some good ol' fashion apple pie, they'll have no choice but to forgive us."

"You want to make them apple pie," repeated Twilight.

"Yeah.  We can hide out at tha farm til this evenin'.  And then, when we come back, everything will be as fit as a fiddle!"





Dear Princess Celestia

This is the eighth day of Discord's experiment here in his copy of Ponyville.  To my suprise, everypony still appears to be in high spirits.  Unfortunately, I cannot accurately report that the town itself is no worse for wear.  Many places in town are a mess after the plague of foals passed through.  I am certain that the knowledge of the fact that this is not the real Ponyville has affected our behavior.  But, even if we don't make it all the way to the end of the experiment, there is already one thing that has suprised me.  This is far more fun than I originally anticipated.

As much as I am enjoying myself, however, I must confess that I myself had other matters on my mind than the success or failure of Discord's experiment.  I have glimpsed my own future and I can scarcely begin to believe everything that I have been told.  The others do their best to hide it, but they don't quite treat those of us that they are used to seeing as adults the same way as they treat one another.  I don't blame them, but I still don't like it.  They see us all as heros of Equestria.  But I want to show them that we are just like them.

I am starting to miss my familly by now, but, it turns out that being with the other colts and fillies is a good way to fill that hole in my heart.  It doesn't replace them completely, but I think that it just might be good enough to get me through these thirty days.  I can't say the same for any of the others, but I think that, together, I just might be able to last the full thirty days.  And I hope that others feel the same way.

I really hope they do.  Because we all need them to stay.  If anypony decides to leave, it will make staying harder for all of the rest of us.  And I really want everpony to stay with us.  It wouldn't feel right having fun without everypony.  I didn't realize it before, but our best chance of lasting thirty days is to do it together, as friends.  I will do my best to do my part.  And I will also do my best to make everypony feel happy here, if I can.

I say that, but even as I write to you now, I am here with Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity, hiding from the others because of some silly little prank.  I swear that I didn't have anything to do with it, but when they asked me to help, I couldn't say no.  Now we're at Applejack's farmhouse and helping her to bake about two dozen different kinds of apple treats to use as a peace offering.  I really hope that everypony will look past this, and that this isn't the beginning of some sort of prank war.  I'll make sure that nopony takes this too far.  We've come too far let something dumb like this get between us.

I find it highly ironic that I am working so hard to disprove my own position in my bet with Discord.  How easily I could cause everything to crumble!  But I am above such underhoofed tactics.  Such actions lead to bad science.  I am going to try my best to see Discord's side of the argument win, even if it costs me the bet.  Because I am starting to think that he might be right.

Your faithful student,

Twilight Sparkle