//------------------------------//
// II 
// Story: A New World, An Old Promise 
// by Dilos1 
//------------------------------//

	The morning came far too early for Cherry Jubilee as streams of sunlight cascaded through the drapes of her bedroom window before hitting right where her head just so happened to be located on the foot of the bed. While some would note this is as an odd habit of hers, Jubilee purposefully oriented herself like this each night just for the sole purpose of rising early. That, and it was too much effort to move the bed. 

It was a ritual that the mare adhered to almost religiously. Unfortunately it also came with the annoyance of being unable to do anything about it except get up. The sun was not like an alarm clock that she could push off the dresser or throw something at. If she wanted to hit the snooze button on the sun, she was going to have to bring it up with Celestia, and it was too much effort to go to Canterlot and back just for an extra five minutes of sleep. 

Burying her muzzle in the folds of her blanket, Jubilee let out a muffled groan, thinking that maybe if she tried hard enough she could ignore the obligation to rise, and go back to her blissful slumber. It was not be however, as soon enough the suns rays began to to feel hot on her back, prompting the pony to move away, dragging herself across the mattress in an effort to find a more comfortable spot. This unfortunately resulted in her sliding right off of the edge and falling to the wooden floor with all of the care and grace of a snorlax. 

A typical morning in the life of Cherry Jubilee. 

groaning not so much from the fall and more from a lack of sleep, Jubilee began the slow and drawn out process of getting on her hooves, one limb at a time. After a small eternity filled with the moaning and groaning of a mare who sounded like she should be among the ranks of the undead, Jubilee was eventually able to peel herself off of the floor. She remained where she stood though for a few moments as she slowly regained her sense of self.

Her crimson mare, normally done up in a large bun on the top of her head, cascaded around her face and shoulders like a waterfall, swaying a little as she finally started to move forward. As she slowly walked to her bedroom door, she noticed an odd, though not unpleasant, smell reach her nose, steadily coaxing the pony into alertness. Something was cooking downstairs, and whatever it was, it smelled good, which prompted a low growl to sound from her stomach. Letting her nose guide her through the house, Jubilee followed the scent out of her room and downstairs, her hooves clicking on the floorboards with each step. Eventually she found herself in the kitchen, in the presence of what at first glance looked like a chefs poltergeist. 

All manner of cooking utensils could be seen floating around, with an occasional egg or milk carton added to the mix, each of them enveloped in a light blue aura. At the center of the nexus of kitchenware was none other than Mavis. She was standing in front of the stove with a measuring cup filled with batter hovering next to her head, and the sound of something sizzling could be heard. Without even looking at Jubilee Mavis mentally greeted her in a cheerful tone, "Good morning, lazy flank!"

Too brain dead to offer any sort of witty retort, Jubilee merely responded with a low grumble that, if one were to listen carefully, sounded vaguely like the phrase, "Screw you too."

Mavis chortled from her place at the stove while she continued to manipulate the pan with her thoughts. Jubilee trotted over to an empty seat at the table that looked to have set up for her, sitting upright for all of five seconds before her forehead met the tabletop with a dull thud. The clatter of a plate being set in front of her drew her out of her torpid state enough to look at her breakfast with bleary eyes. Mavis had apparently taken it upon herself to decorate her meal to resemble a smiling face with whipped cream eyebrows, strawberry eyes and mouth and scrambled eggs in place of hair. Below it, written in maple syrup was the hellish phrase, "GOOD MORNING!"

"What kind of sick joke is this?" Jubilee muttered. An amused laugh made her look to see Mavis attempting to stifle herself with a hand placed over her mouth as the gothitelle sat down at the opposite end of the table, her own breakfast consisting of a collection of berries and something that resembled a muffin. 

"Still not a morning pony I see," Mavis said in an observant tone as she skewered one of the berries with a fork. It was one of the few times Jubilee saw the gothitelle use her hands for anything. Mavis was vehemently opposed to using her telekinetic abilities at the table, as she considered it to be very poor manners. Jubilee was glad that she never had to contend with that herself, but to this day she still cringed whenever she thought of the time her aunt Ivy, who just so happened to be a unicorn, decided to pay a visit. 

Shaking her head to dislodge the thought, Jubilee finally answered, "Never was." Bending her head down, she took a small bite of her meal. Mavis merely nodded as she ate, and a long silence followed. 

"So," Jubilee spoke up, "how did you handle bein' in charge while I was away? The others didn't give you any trouble I hope."

Mavis shrugged. Still chewing, she answered, "They were fine for the most part. They know better than to get on my bad side, so there were hardly any problems. Although, there was one instance when of the stallions, Dusty I think is his name, tripped while he was hauling a load of cherries and landed on Brooke. You could have probably heard him screaming all the way from the other side of town. When we got there we found him stuck on her thorns in a rather. . . compromising position."

Jubilee nearly choked on her food as she fought to keep herself from laughing, and she felt her sour morning mood disappear entirely.

When she finally recovered she asked, "Really?!"

Mavis nodded as she cut up the muffin thing with a butter knife. "Yup. You really should have been there to see it. . . . Actually, now that I think about it, you can."

At first Jubilee was confused what Mavis meant by that, until she felt a presence that was both alien and familiar enter her mind, and thoughts, feelings and emotions that were not her own became present. The first time it had happened Jubilee had outright panicked as thoughts of old legends regarding soul stealers and their methods were remembered from stories told around the campfire. Shhe had of course quickly learned that was not the case when Mavis explained what was going on. Now the gothitelle used this method of communication on a regular basis.

Jubilee could no longer contain herself as she saw the image of a brown coated, black maned stallion and a maractus, both of them blushing quite profusely. They appeared to be stuck together like velcro in an awkward position that one would think was actually quite romantic, were it not for the fact that the pony was grimacing from the contact. Jubilee howled with laughter as she banged a hoof on the table, much to Mavis's displeasure as the silverware and plates rattled violently.

"Feeling better, I assume," Mavis said as she set about rearranging the scattered items. Jubilee nodded, attempting to rein in her mirth a little so she could finish her breakfast. Mavis nodded back as a content grin grew on her face. 

Jubilee took a moment to spare a glance at the grandfather clock in the next room, noticing that it was now approaching eight. Deciding she had enough time left to talk before she had to get to work, Jubilee cleared her throat and asked, "So, did anything else happen while I was away that I should know about? Like maybe a certain friend o' yours has decided to take a literal dirt nap right in the middle of my orchards?"

In less time than it took for her to blink, Mavis's face morphed into a scowl, and she let out a frustrated sigh.

"How many times do I have to tell you ma'am? I am not friends with that garchomp. It's just that no matter what I do or tell him he refuses to leave me alone, like he's got rocks in his head or something." Mavis shook her head. "I swear, of all the things he could have done, h chooses to pursue this weird dragon code of honor. I don't even know where he learned that either. How many times do I have to tell him to get lost before he gets the message?" 

Mavis's frustrated rant was interrupted when she heard the sound of Jubilee chuckling. 

"What?" she demanded.

"Oh nothin'," Jubilee replied. Mavisdid not buy that for a moment, and she shot the mare a sour look, but chose to let it go this time. Just then, Mavis seemed to recall something.

"Ah yes, before I forget," she said, her tone suddenly changing dramatically as her eyes began to glow a bright blue. Within moments a large stack of envelopes floated into the view before stopping directly over the table. The blue aura surrounding them vanished, causing them to fall in a heap onto the table. Some spilled over the edge before fluttering to the floor. Jubilee had to hold her plate above her head to save it from the avalanche of paper, after which she gave Mavis a disapproving look that the pokemon seemed all too happy to ignore as she took a dainty sip of tea from her glass, although they way one the corners of her mouth were turned upward was hardly inconspicuous. Jubilee sighed and rolled her eyes before moving some the envelopes to clear a spot for her plate before sorting through the mail she had missed while she was away. 

Most of it appeared to be bills, unsurprisingly. They unfortunately came with the territory of owning a business, and were consistently an unwelcome sight for Jubilee. A few however looked like payments for cherry shipments, a good number of those originateing from Ponyville. Each of those ones had a little note card attached decorated with little heart shaped stickers. Jubilee did not even have to wonder who those came from. Ever since she contributed a good portion of her stock to that wedding a while back she had received a number of similar letters.

As she continued to sort through them, one envelope stood out among the others, a white one with her address written somewhat crudely on the back. Jubilee recognized the hoof writing almost immediately, and a small smile adorned her face as she reached for it. Tearing the top away with her teeth, Jubilee quickly pulled out a folded piece of parchment and began to read eagerly.

"Well, ain't that just so sweet o' her," Jubilee said aloud happily, causing Mavis to look at her with a curious expression.

"What is it?" the gothitelle asked.

Still grinning like a little school filly, Jubilee answered, "It's a letter from my niece. Ya remember little Peach Blossom right?" Immediately upon hearing that name, Mavis's face turned into a scowl, but Jubilee either did not notice or did not care as she continued to speak. "Why, it's been ages since I last saw her." Looking at Mavis she added, "I remember she took a real likin' to ya when y'all first met."

"I remember she liked to pull on my feelers all the time," Mavis muttered before realizing that she had unintentionally let that thought be broadcasted to Jubilee. It was the perfect example of thinking aloud.

"Oh come now, there's no need to be like that,"Jubilee admonished, although her tone sounded more playful than harsh. 

"These things are sensitive, I'll have you know," Mavis retorted, indicated the black disc like appendages on either side of her teardrop shaped head. "Now don't get me wrong, I do like her, but how would you like it if you had a six year old filly tugging on you so much it felt like you were going to have a brain aneurysm?"

Jubilee could not help but grimace at the very thought of the experience. "Ooh, I see what ya mean there," she conceded. "But ya still gotta admit, that filly adores ya to pieces, and it's likely she's learned some restraint since ya last saw her, so it wouldn't do ya any good to hold grudge over it."

Now it was Mavis's turn to concede the point to Jubilee, as she could not find anything to say that would disagree with that statement. "I suppose your right," she eventually admitted, giving the pony a slow nod as she brought a cut off portion of the muffin up to her mouth.

"Course I am," Jubilee stated, happy to hear that from the pokemon. "Which is why I'll be so happy when she comes by to visit us next week so you two can spend some quality time with each other."

The moment she heard this, Mavis accidentally inhaled some of her food. Her eyes were bulging, and she began to cough and sputter violently. She began hitting her chest with a fist in an attempt to dislodge the obstruction in her throat. Jubilee meanwhile simply sat and watched the spectacle with a small, smug grin plastered on her muzzle. Mavis was eventually able to get herself to breathe normally again. Breaking her own code of conduct, she refilled her empty glass with her telekinesis and promptly downed the entire thing.

"Gothi-" she began to say, only to remember that Jubilee would not be able to understand in this way. "Would you mind repeating that?" she asked mentally while she continued to clear her throat. Still grinning, Jubilee slid the letter over to her as she began to explain. 

"Apparently Peach's folks are sendin' her on over for a visit. Seems that that both she and them want her to spend the week with her favorite pokemon."

"My name is not spelled with a 'y'," Mavis stated as she examined the letter in her hands. Setting it down she let out a sigh and stood, levitating her empty plate over to the sink. "It's kind of odd though, don't you think? Usually whenever we see her it's when we're the ones visiting, not the other way around. Is there something going on that I don't know about?"

Jubilee shrugged her shoulders and replied, "Don't know, but I'm sure it's nothin' to get worked up about. In any case I guess we'd better get movin'. Don't wanna waste the day chattin' after all, and you still got your friend in my orchard to take care of."

Shaking her head, Mavis continued to grumble. "I swear, if that girl even looks at me weird. . ." she began to say before trailing off as she head for the door. 

"Oh come now, don't be like that," Jubilee called after her, unable to stop the grin from splitting her face. "It'll be good for the both of ya."

Mavis muttered something in her native tongue that Jubilee was sure was sure was some variation of swearing. All she could do was chuckle at her friends behavior, secretly wondering how long it would be until she blew something up.