Aegis Flare sighed as she sorted through all the receipts and paperwork that had collected over the past year as she sorted out that years taxes. While simple, it was still rather time consuming especially when compared to the simple lessons she gave on the Everfree during Family Appreciation day, despite the comments of a certain pink filly of her being a jobless bum. Of course it wasn't just her own taxes she was figuring out as Big Macintosh had come to her for help after the bank statement from Applejack's new Canterlot account had arrived which he had no idea how to deal with and had him panicked at not having the bits for this year. The unicorn had him bring over everything from previous years as well so she had something to compare to.
“Okay, now carry the five and then... done! Not too bad this year now that I have decent contacts in place after cutting my ties with Filthy Rich. It's just too bad I had to cut all business with him since he can't control his daughter at all.” With a languid stretch she looked over to a nearby clock before letting out a small smile. “Looks like there is plenty of time to bring Big Mac's stuff over before stopping by Sugarcube Corner. I wonder if Pinkie had time this year to finish or not.”
Gathering up the paperwork, she headed out through town towards the apple orchard while she took in the decorations around town. Many ponies were out and about for Hearts and Hooves day and showed a good amount of excitement though the orange unicorn was mostly neutral about the holiday, mostly as the day had other meaning for her. She had to shake her head at the antics of her sister and her friends as she saw them blaze by using Scootaloo's scooter and wagon and wondered what trouble those three were going to get up to today and if Spike would be around to slow them down.
Arriving at the farm, she quickly found the red stallion at the main house as he read through a pile of paperwork. “Hey Big Mac, I just finished everything like you asked and things are not as bad as you thought. In fact after looking over everything for the last couple years you actually paid too much and are owed bits instead.”
The Apple stallion looked back at her in confusion at the news before his deep voice rang out. “What about that account in Canterlot?”
She shook her head as she pulled out the relevant information from the stack of paper she had brought. “Everything in it except for the interest from savings was tax free as it all falls under the Crown's Gift laws. Applejack earned it all with the work done for the princesses as well as the modest stipend from her noble title. I'd suggest being careful with all those bits though, maybe invest it in something to just build it up some more in case of emergencies. Who knows when she might get called away again for an emergency and it could be during an important time for the farm.”
After a moment of consideration Big Macintosh gave his customary response as he accepted the paperwork. “Eeyup.” With a nod Aegis Flare left the stallion to what he was doing as she headed back towards town.
Coming up on Sugarcube Corner the mare came upon the familiar figure of her friend Twilight walking by who quickly greeted her. “Good Afternoon, Flare. How have you been today? And have you seen your sister around lately? Her and her friends borrowed a book and I'm hoping that they bring it back in one piece.”
Aegis Flare felt a bit of worry at the news before shaking it off and joining the line that was in front of the building. “Well I saw her with the other two speeding around town earlier but not since then. Do you think Spike will be around to keep them out of trouble, or at least lessen it from what they usually get up to?”
The purple mare just shook her head before sighing. “Spike volunteered to sort out a stack of books that just came in recently. I think he is trying to avoid those three recently after they managed to turn his scales pink on accident. I'm still trying to figure out how they even managed that.”
The orange unicorn had to chuckle lightly at the thought while Twilight finally noticed where they were and looked around awkwardly. “Huh, was there a reason for you to be here with it so crowded? I haven't heard that you found a special somepony or were even trying to find one.”
As she rolled her eyes at the curious look she was getting from Twilight the two were interrupted by the appearance of Pinkie Pie who was glaring at Aegis Flare and which neither had noticed approach them. She looked extremely exhausted and was barely staying on her hooves but still managed to put some force behind her look. “You! You win this time, but one of these days... one of these days I WILL get you that party!”
Twilight just looked confused as Pinkie teetered off drunkenly back to the kitchen after leaving a box on Aegis Flare's back. “What in Equestria was all that about?”
Her friend just shook her head with a slight look of amusement on her face. “She's just annoyed that she'll have to miss throwing a party for my birthday for yet another year. Today is always so busy for the bakery that she had been too worn out to set anything up beyond making a small cake. She looks even worse this year though, probably because of how far along Mrs. Cake is with her pregnancy. Oh well, maybe she'll have better luck next year.”
Twilight just nodded before her head whipped around to stare at her friend. “Wait, you mean your birthday is today!? Why have you never told me about that; in fact how do you even know when it is if you don't remember anything from before earning your cutie mark?”
Once again rolling her eyes, Aegis Flare started walking towards her home as she explained. “Yes it is, and it was during a medical examination that I found that out, some kind of age detection spell put my birthday around there even though there were some odd errors with it. I never really mentioned it though since it never was really important to me especially with all I was doing to take care of Scootaloo.”
Twilight's mouth hung open as she stared at her friend until their gazes were drawn off to the side where Big Macintosh was pulling a house through the streets with Applebloom chasing after him. “Twilight? Just what was that book about the those three borrowed from you?”
With that simple question Twilight froze as her mind ran through what she had already read before her eyes widened. “It was all about the history of Hearts and Hooves Day, but it also described the potion that was used which started the holiday. It was labeled as a love potion but the effects were so extreme that it might as well have been a poison instead!”
As her hoof met her face Aegis Flare let out a groan of disappointment at her sister's actions. “I really wonder who though this was a good idea, do you have any idea how to fix it?”
With a shake of her head Twilight looked worried as she gazed after the runaway stallion. “Not that I can think of but I'm sure that it's in the book but I haven't read that far in it yet. We need to catch up with Applebloom and find out where the others are as well as the book.”
The two took off after the mobile home but luckily for them the trio had already cleaned up after there own mess by breaking the spell on the two ponies that they poisoned. While Big Mac took Applebloom and Twilight was bringing Sweetie Belle to her sister, Aegis Flare was walking home with Scootaloo trailing behind her. The elder sister hadn't said anything to the younger so far, but the look of disappointment was enough to caused her to wince and follow her home.
When they arrived the elder of the two started preparing dinner while the younger busied herself picking up the rest of the lower floor of the house. As they sat down to eat Aegis Flare finally spoke up giving Scootaloo a light sense of relief. “Three weeks this time, but I'm bringing out some of the harder courses after this time. Also I'm going to be picking up a couple books that you will be required to read since I've told you before to plan for what could go wrong as well as get all the information on something. If you had actually read a bit further in that book you would have known why what you were doing was a bad idea.”
Scootaloo sighed before nodding about her punishment, though she internally winced at have to run the obstacle course every morning again for a while. “We didn't mean for all that to happen. We were only trying to help find Ms. Cheerilee a special somepony since she is such a great teacher. We almost thought there weren't even any stallions good enough for her in town with how odd many of them were.”
Aegis Flare paused in her eating to think on her sisters comment about the stallions around Ponyville before she shook her head. “You may have a point about many of the stallions, but using artificial means to bring ponies together is always a bad idea since when it fades there will be a lot of anger, or even worse if it doesn't fade. Besides, how did you know that Cheerilee wouldn't rather have found a marefriend instead? With how there are more mares than stallions most mares form their own groups before finding a stallion that they all like.”
The young pegasus blushes as the thought had never occurred to her or her friends. With a sigh Aegis Flare shook her head once again before floating the dirty dishes into the kitchen sink. “You'd better head to bed now, you're going to have an early morning and you will definitely need all your energy for the new additions to your punishment.” With a shudder the younger sister nods before leaving the older to finish cleaning up for the night.