11 - Intervention is Intentional
Two muscular orange legs struck out in reverse to slam a tree into giving up its treasure. Precisely eight of those shiny red treasures fell with seven dropping into a basket and one troublemaker bouncing off the lip and rolling a few hooves away. Not that the pony was paying too much attention at this point.
“Hewee!” the Earth pony breathed out the stress of the day with an accent so think it would make the snobbier of the Canterlot nobles shudder in fright. “Where in tarnation is that lug? He could sure be doin' his share right about now.”
She was, of course, talking about her large red-coated relative that had gone to town on a shopping errand earlier. He was supposed to be back already and helping her with the harvest. Only the appearance of the pony in question striding up the shadowy path of the inner orchard kept the mare from promising the male a piece of her mind.
“About time,” she called out to him as he walked up to her. “I didn't know carrots had legs and could run so darn fast it took you half the day to catch 'em.”
He knew she meant it as a joke because the two of them had a sense of humor all their own. “Wasn't the carrots, sis,” he started explaining in that deep voice of his that few heard more than once every one of Luna's blue moons. He walked steadily up to the stray apple that had fallen earlier and tossed it up into the basket with his nose. “Your friend Twilight was goin' through town like she had a tail alight,” he said with wonderment. “Golden Harvest struck up a conversation for it. Thought I'd have to marry her to get out of it.”
Applejack raised a brow and then both of them laughed lightly. “Oh, Mac,” she shook her head, still laughing. “Just sounds like plain ol' Twilight. But where in Everfree do you keep pickin' up these hitchin' jokes? You hardly leave the farm.”
Big Mac backed around and bucked the tree with his own powerful hooves. The apples all fell off and into the basket. Every single one. It was at a Pinkie Pie level of improbability. “Every time I have to pick somethin' up in town, somepony tries to invite me to sharin' a few mugs. Keeps talkin' and askin' me even though I always say no.”
“Ah,” Applejack exclaimed, knowing who would do that. There weren't a whole lot of single stallions in Ponyville that would keep poking Big Mac to be their drinking buddy. Caramel used to do that sort of thing before he managed to lasso a special somepony. Now it was just Thunderlane. Nopony ever seemed to be with him for long. Probably had the marital jokes to blame for. “You know you can be out late if you want,” she said more seriously as she grabbed an empty basket and made her way to the next tree as Big Mac hefted the full one onto his back.
“You and your friends keep lookin' after all of Equestria,” he argued. “But ain't nopony lookin' after you. Least I could do is make sure my world-savin' sis don't go killin' herself on the farm.”
Applejack paused her bucking, her eyes watering just the tiniest bit. “Consarnit,” she complained more to the wateriness than her brother to whom she walked over to. “Why you have to be such a perfect carin' stallion,” she poked him in the ribs. “I'm never gonna see any nieces or nephews if you keep it up.”
That made Big Mac pause as well. His eyes wandered for a moment before his cheeks went redder than they were already.
“I knew it!” Applejack exclaimed proudly, as if she had won some prize. “You do have somepony you like. Thunderlane's lil' bug ain't got to you. Who is it?”
The big stallion's lips sealed tight and he looked elsewhere, rear hooves bucking the tree one last time to get the remaining apples off. But the kick looked more like a resolution of silence than real work.
“Aw,” Applejack whined. “C'mon. I'm your lil' sis, right? You always tell me everything. Even about Smarty Pants.”
Big Mac fell over and onto his face. He recovered and, in an especially rare instance, he spoke in a surprised and quick tone. “Ya'll remember that?!”
Applejack gave a “pfft” of dismissal. “How could I not? That and a half bushel other things. Now who is it? Or do I have to ask Twilight about her doll? You know she still ain't lookin' for it. I'm sure a jog to her memory would-”
“Fine,” Big Mac mumbled and sighed. He really didn't want to lose that doll, after all, and he would have to if his sister went and made a deal out of it. “But you got to promise not to laugh and to take me seriously.”
“Hmph,” Applejack puffed out her chest. “Course I'd take ya seriously. And I'm not one to poke fun at somepony else's expense.”
“Just,” the bulky Earth pony added, “I know you speak your mind. Be good or bad.”
“I can be sensitive too, you know,” the mare countered, as if her character was on the line for it. “Now spit it out already!”
Big Mac sighed and started naming off some attributes of the mysterious pony. In the end, it was actually his sister who voiced the name. She guessed who it was by his increasingly detailed descriptions. It wasn't any pony that she would have thought of, so she was a tad surprised. It seemed her big brother could still throw her for a loop every now and then.
Applejack was about to voice her opinion that she considered it a perfectly acceptable pony to be interested in but, as Celestia would have it, two siblings could never speak together for long without something catastrophic happening. This time that something catastrophic was actually the third sibling running by at lightning speed with two other young ponies in tow. None of the three ran much further than two trees distance from the orange and red siblings before they stumbled to an exhausted halt.
The Cutie Mark Crusaders practically face-planted into the tree leaves on the ground, huffing and puffing and absolutely out of breath. “I could have,” the orange filly wheezed, “done this with my scooter no problem.”
“I can't believe you convinced Cheerilee,” Sweetie Belle gasped for air, “to consider this phys ed.”
“Maybe,” Applebloom groaned in pain on the ground, “Cutie Mark Crusader Marathon Runners wasn't such a good idea.”
The two older Apples walked up to the crashed fillies.
“Applebloom,” the orange mare spoke sternly. “What are you doin' here?”
Applebloom's face froze as she realized where they were and who was now standing over her. She hadn't raced the others back to the farm on purpose. It was just such a habit with her coming back after school everyday whether it be for home or the clubhouse. “Uh...”
Big Mac didn't have to talk for this one since Applejack was already on it.
“I told you this here crusadin' wasn't to get in the way of school,” she chastised.
The other two fillies started babbling on about how it was legitimate and such but Applebloom had few words to say herself. She knew that the whole “phys ed” thing was a cheat. “But-” she tried anyways.
“No buts,” Applejack's eyes narrowed as she ignored the other two young ones. “Now you're goin' to go back and apologize for foolin' around when yer supposed to be doin' some proper learnin'!”
The non-Apple Crusaders may have been more vocal in their excuses but Applebloom knew her sister and she knew not to argue about anything with her, especially when it came to education. “Yes, Applejack,” she winced, nodded, and affirmed in a stiff voice.
Seeing Applebloom heave her tired body to its hooves, the others did likewise with hanging heads. Even if they tried making excuses, the fact remained that they still didn't have their cutie marks and Cheerilee didn't allow them to take the rest of the day off. They had to be back in ten minutes.
“Twilight was just running so fast,” Sweetie Belle remarked, depressed. “It sort of gave us an idea...”
“And Fluttershy was too!” Scootaloo commented with a less apologetic tone, whipping herself around in clear excitement that was reminiscent of the pony she idolized. “I've never seen her run so fast before.”
Applejack would have disregarded any sighting of a racing Twilight Sparkle. That mare was always doing something, running one way and another, experimenting, stressing out, and doing things for Princess Celestia. She was a given but Fluttershy was not. Why would that shy pegasus be racing anywhere? And why the same day as Twilight? Was something up? This was one of the few times that she wished she had been in town herself to know. It just seemed that every time she was in town, some disaster came up that she had to fix along with her friends.
“Applebloom,” the orange Earth pony called to her younger sister as the trio trotted off exhausted to their next destination. “Where were they goin'?”
The yellow filly with the big pink bow had a pout on her face but she answered all the same. “Twilight was runnin' to Fluttershy's earlier this mornin' and Fluttershy was runnin' to the train station. At least I think that's where. She kind of zoomed out of sight.”
Applejack gave a terse nod and thought to herself. This was rather peculiar. Now, she wasn't one to pry into the matters of others or poke her nose where it didn't belong but how many times had strange or extreme things happened to Ponyille and greater Equestria? At the very least, it would be prudent of her to ask around if anything was going on.
“Need to check on your friends?” Big Mac asked when the Crusaders were out of sight again.
Applejack turned and faced him as she gave a “heh” that showed he read her. “Just real quick. Be back before you know it,” she tipped her hat and started trotting down an alternate path out of the orchard and on to Ponyville.
“The apples will still be here when you get back,” the red stallion shrugged as he resumed work, not the least bit worried or lonesome. He was used to being alone on the orchard while Applejack saved Equestria from certain doom every Saturday.
It would have been nice to go out and topple Twilight as she strode by. Pinkie Pie, after all, could not in a million centuries have not known when one of her friends was strolling right past the front of Sugar Cube Corner. Why in all of Equestria would she want to miss the fun of yanking her unsuspecting friends into the shop for a quick treat and chat?
But this time was different. This time Twilight was talking to one of her guardponies with something akin to seriousness. Pinkie was rarely socially sensitive but, as Rarity often stressed, it was something she needed to work on. At the very least, it would help her from hurting or upsetting her friends. She didn't like that at all and the few times it had happened had made her feel terrible.
Now this was not all to say that the pink Earth pony wasn't about to get in on the potential fun that shadowed her closest friends like a ninja pickpocket short on bits. Oh, Pinkie Pie was going to get a slice of that inevitable fun cake, that was for sure. But she couldn't shadow her friends as the fun did unless she was outfitted in the appropriate ninja suit. She already had one on since she kept them stashed all over Equestria in case of ninja costume emergency.
The only question that remained with her now was if she was going to eat that last piece of pineapple turnover before her super-honed stealth skills kicked into full effect. The answer was an empty plate and a Sugar Cube Corner suddenly and inexplicably devoid of the pink wonder.
“Time to save the world,” the Earth pony whispered as she slunk impossibly throughout Ponyville. She was far enough behind Twilight and her two escorts that they wouldn't notice how everypony was saying “Hello Pinkie Pie” as she passed them by. Either her ninja skills were getting rusty or else it was not sufficient enough to simply be wearing the suit as she hopped straight and clearly down the street as she normally did. But she didn't mind because she loved greeting everypony in return.
When Fluttershy later showed up at the train station, Pinkie was careful to keep out of the pegasus' line of sight. She had no clue why the clerk gave her such a bizarre look when she ordered a ticket after waiting for her prey to board the land vessel. Perhaps black was not in this season. Rarity had said that last year. Or was it the year before?
The Element of Laughter almost missed her ride as the train started taking off on the rails without her. Thankfully, her standard level of bounciness allowed her to spring into the back-most car at the last second. “This world-saving ninja stuff is too hard,” she remarked as she wiped a bead of sweat from her forehead and slumped to the floor.
Moments before, three ponies boarded the stopped train. Next stop was the Crystal Empire and nopony could argue how that worked when there were so many places in between that should have been the next stop. It was Pinkie logic and Pinkie logic solved everything. It also, though only occasionally, gave tasty birthday-cake-flavored cupcakes to everypony free of charge. The royal on board, the lack of any other passengers, and the month's unusually low traffic statistics may or may not have been the real motivations behind the stop changes.
“Are you sure?” the yellow pony meekly asked the purple one as the dark blue one followed quietly. “I mean, what if the others are upset that-”
Twilight Sparkle turned sharply to her pink-maned friend and brought a hoof to her lips to silence her. “They're our friends, Shy. They won't get upset because I didn't invite them on a research errand to the Crystal Empire. Pinkie Pie might have at one point but she's learned to find her fun with whoever has it and not just with us,” the alicorn winced as she heard her own words. Theoretically it was true, but when did such reasoning ever stick with Pinkie Pie?
“All aboard! Last call, leaving for the Crystal Empire!” a station attendant yelled from the boarding platform.
“Oh,” Fluttershy lowered her eyes and spoke with not the least bit of doubt. Mostly it was in relation to the party pony, who she had never been certain of in regards to calmness. “I suppose.”
“Now,” Twilight dropped her hoof and resumed walking to their seats, “I should probably tell you why we're going and what I expect to find.”
All three ponies were seated, Midnight Strike being a few rows back where he had a better view of the room and the pony he was supposed to protect. Fluttershy waited patiently for her queen to speak, exhibiting that endless reserve of serenity that she seemed to have. Save for a few bouts of unusual excitement, that is to say.
The alicorn adjusted herself in the less-than-plush age-worn seat to face her friend as she spoke. Nevermind that she was royalty because the train they were on apparently had no special seating. “Chrysalis informed me just recently,” Twilight began to explain. Unfortunately, and to prove there was no limit on the number of times she could receive a surprise or break in plans, one of the station attendants ran over to their seating row and looked her straight in the eyes. The rest of what the mare wanted to say promptly jumped off a cliff, thoroughly done with the world and all of its cruelness.
“Queen Twilight Sparkle,” he addressed her as his form started to glow. “How dare you run off right after you started taking charge! And endanger yourself while abandoning me!”
The royal mare didn't need to watch the attendant finishing transforming back into a changeling to know who it was, though she was a bit surprised Chrysalis would spend so much of her energy on such a thing merely to sneak onto the train. “How dare you disobey a direct order from your queen!” Twilight countered, her commanding tone more a natural result of being upset than trying to intentionally control.
Chrysalis was now in her full and tall original form, Fluttershy watching in awe not for the first time and Midnight Strike sitting back down in his seat after being roused to a potential threat. The changeling was taken back from her queen's snap reply but she was not totally discouraged. She knew she was in for it already and had nothing much to lose now. “You're endangering your hive, which has hardly even hatched! Being reckless does not mean you are brave. I won't let you throw everything away to satisfy your-”
“That's enough!” Twilight rose her voice as she sprung from her seat. “It's not for you to decide what is brave or foolish! Now sit down,” she pointed to a spot next to her that was opposite of Fluttershy, leaving the alicorn in the middle. The poor pegasus hid behind her mane but really wanted to disappear altogether.
The changeling opened her mouth again and her queen intensified her narrowed expression. It was an impasse and Chrysalis finally closed her mouth, lowered her head, and sat in the seat that had been pointed to.
“I should have expected this,” Twilight shook her head as she seated herself as well. The three were now a row of yellow, purple, and black. “You can be impossibly stubborn and selfish at times. I understand you have your own lengthy experience as queen of a hive but you are not queen anymore. I think that's part of the problem.” Twilight turned fully and struck out a forehoof to tap Chrysalis' chest. She wanted to make her next statement perfectly clear. “You've never been just a normal member of a hive.”
Once more Chrysalis started to open her mouth and Twilight snuffed out the chance.
“I know I've never been a hive queen before. But that goes without saying and it's not the point here. Even if it was, this whole hive thing is not changeling. It's different and we both know it.”
Chrysalis breathed out, defeated.
“Now,” the purple pony stated conclusively, “that's that. I didn't plan on it but I'm going to have you accompany me on this errand. I could use some help as long as you're not content to stay at the library and my word won't keep you there. I will wait to issue your punishment until we get back.”
When she was finished speaking, the silence was deafening. Thankfully, the train started up and out of the station before that silence had any time to become a vice.
“It's going to be a long ride,” Twilight changed the mood, lightening her tone. Having been properly and absolutely derailed from what she was originally going to tell her sun-yellow friend, the topic became temporarily deceased. “Should we do something to pass the time?”
Remarkably, Fluttershy peeped out from the cover of her pink mane to offer a possible suggestion. Her voice rang true with its unique spice of quiet “hard-to-hearness.”
“What was that?” Twilight smiled as she leaned to her side and closer to the mare's face.
“I said,” Fluttershy whispered louder, “Truth or Dare?”
Twilight blinked twice. “That's...kind of odd,” she remarked with a mix of surprise and curiosity. What was going through the pegasus' mind for her to suggest something like that?
“What's the point?” Chrysalis commented harshly from Twilight's other side. “Truth got swallowed whole when you two connected in the hive.”
Twilight was going to say something as a knee-jerk reaction when a light bulb went off instead. She had looked over to Chrysalis but now turned her gaze back to Fluttershy. It was something of a double-take moment. “Is there something you wanted to dare me with?” she asked with not the least bit of shock. The shy mare desiring to dare anypony with anything was akin to a six ounce sparrow wielding a weapon of rapid fire and fatal result. It was a scientific impossibility with an improbability percentage of zero raised to two billion powers.
“I,” the Element of Kindness choked, having apparently been caught. Whatever else she said devolved into some kind of whimper as she hid once more behind her pink locks.
Chrysalis stared on indifferently with two flat-line brows as her queen brushed aside the pegasus' offending locks to find the mare beneath. “What is it?” the alicorn asked blankly.
“Let me join you,” Fluttershy answered in a tiny voice that was even smaller than her usual one. Truly she was a master of the lowest of possible volumes.
“Huh?” Twilight twisted her expression in confusion. Whatever the mare meant was probably not in the spirit of Truth or Dare but, then again, Fluttershy was one to use anything as an excuse to not be direct. She was anything but direct. “What do you mean 'join?'”
“I saw it,” she drew up the courage to lean towards Twilight. “You, Chrysalis, and Spike. All sleeping in your ring at the library.”
Oh, ponyfeathers. Luckily, Twilight didn't voice that one. She had forgotten that she had slept that way before they had touched in the hivemind. She was surprised that it didn't cause some issue earlier but then maybe it had and Fluttershy had been thinking about it this whole time. Wait, did she want to join them in her ring at the library?
“Oh, I know it's a walk from the library to my house,” the pegasus hurriedly admitted. “But I'll walk it every morning if it means I can be with you.”
Twilight drew back and Chrysalis laughed. Was the changeling's sense of hearing that good that she could hear the super-quiet mare from across an extra seat? Chrysalis even spoke before the royal could.
“Well done, my queen,” she buzzed in what was either a congratulating or sarcastic voice. “It's a good thing I made your ring as big as I did.”
Twilight's left eye twitched. “Nevermind her, Shy. I already told you I'm open to you. If you want to sleep over at my place then I'll be happy to have you over. If you're willing to put up with a little craziness. From the others, I mean. I never get crazy.”
Chrysalis' brows flattened again. Was this princess-queen oblivious or just deluded?
Fluttershy beamed a smile every bit as elegant as her normal composure. “Thanks, um...Twi...”
Had the sunny-coated pegasus ever called her by nickname before? If she had then it had been fleeting and unnoticed by her. But it felt right. Twilight brushed more of the mare's pink locks over one of her ears so that her face would remain visible. “No thanks needed, Shy.”
“Favoritism,” Chrysalis puffed a cheek out as she refereed from her lonely seat on the other side. There was practically a rainbow over the purple and yellow ponies' seats and a rain cloud over hers.
“You,” Twilight turned and looked the changeling in the eyes, “still have a pending punishment. I'm not going to-”
Chrysalis didn't give the speaker time to finish before leaning over and draping her larger body over the other. Twilight didn't react fast enough and their horns touched with a spark. The alicorn's mind raced with a feeling of dull throbbing. It was a repressed form of exhaustion emanating from the shape shifter and this was not the first time she had felt it and far from the last by any logical reckoning.
“You're hungry again?” Twilight winced.
Chrysalis mumbled as she peered down upon Twilight's face. “That transformation was more than my last meal could handle.”
“That's what you did it for?” Twilight breathed out in disbelief as she caught on to what was really going on. Her changeling was sneaky indeed. “You did something unnecessary just to drain yourself and force me to go easy on you because you'd get weak?”
Fluttershy mumbled something to herself that thankfully neither mare picked up. It was something rather uncharacteristically jealous for her to mouth.
“Queens have to think of everything and I used to be one. You said so yourself,” the changeling smirked.
Twilight mentally repeated her calming exercise. Sure she was upset at Chrysalis but that shouldn't impede on either the duty or friendship she had with her. Twilight had promised to take care of the non-pony and that was what she was going to do. Celestia help her.
“I don't expect you to listen to me anymore now than you did with my last order,” Twilight disclaimed, “but stop trying to be clever and maybe I'll just give you what you want without you going through any scheming.”
“Mm,” Chrysalis hummed as the mare embraced her in a warm hug.
“Honestly,” Twilight shook her head over the changeling's shoulder. “What I do for you.”
“I love it,” the taller female purred.
Twilight had a final thing to address as she spoke straight into the other's ear. “One more thing.”
“Yes?” Chrysalis buzzed innocently as the two separated, the simple gesture hardly satisfying.
“You didn't pay for a ticket,” the alicorn deadpanned.
“Heh,” she blushed and twirled a holey hoof through her blue mane. “It's bygone, right? Can I have some love now?”
For not the first time that would be had that day, Twilight facehoofed.
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I can't wait for season 4.
NEED MOAR DISCORD! Changelings too... I know that they did the comic, but I would appreciate more backstory and more hilariousness.
At least a few episodes have been confirmed to contain Discord.
D'aww, you just can't stay mad at Chryssy~
S4...
3504218 so is pinkie bot
As of now...
70 hours remain... (Legend of Zelda reference
)
Countdown (Closed)
3515238
Any kind of countdown or mention of time in a game makes me nervous. Zelda timers are bad enough but Earth 2150 nearly had me in a breakdown.
Glad the premier countdown is over. I'm much cooler with the whole weekly thing. As for the first two episodes of season 4, I'm hardly one to post spoilers even if I can safely consider the masses have already seen it. Let's just say that I loved it. If you've already seen it then I hope you did as well.
3529744
I agreed to watch it with my friend the day after 'cause he was stuck at his dad's house and couldn't connect to the internet to voicechat
So, no... I haven't watched it yet
EDIT:
I have seen it and it was awesome.
3529744 try super mario sunshine
3529744
Are you my mummy?
3504148 I CANT WAIT FOR SEASON 5!!!
4859467 I cant wait for season 8
3504677 If you do, she'll starve.
knowing Twilight, I'm going for both
5227425
Please, I'm ready for season 12 
put the volume up to max and then listen to the video. that is what is going through my mind.
scontent-ord1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfa1/v/t1.0-9/12642767_983531041737096_975284390569935336_n.jpg?oh=a2d3cefa122cf52a7aac270e554af174&oe=57263002 (double laser mini-gun)
You
_____________
Ya'll = you'll / you will.
Y'all is a plural pronoun.
_____________
Applebloom >> Apple Bloom
______________________
I'll leave a comment on the stories capitalization problem later. I'm too caught up in the story to stop every few mins to point them out.
8186983
Sorry but Y'all is correct in this case. Welcometo country talk. It's confusing.
8650841
Dude. I'm a southerner. And actual Southerners know what they're talking about.
Check out the link. And the LunaVerse link at the bottom. You can have implied plurals, which trips up a bunch of the wanna be southerners, and is what gets misappropriated by the Yanks. But it is a plural pronoun. Both dictionaries, actual southerners, and even usage guides can all admit to that. And are in that link.
8658619
Wow guess I, having lived in Southern states practically my entire life, must be a fake wannabe Southerner since I oftentimes use y'all as a singular.
Heheh, that whole scene was fun.
It's nice to see just how much even a semblance of a hive mind helped Chryssie's mood and confidence.
I wonder who Big Mac loves.