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A Float and a Wish7,575 words
The Princess and the Minty9,336 words
The Scouring of Ponyville11,344 words

A Float and a Wish

A Very Minty Hearth's Warming Eve
or
King Sombra and the Runaway Rainbow

The first rainbow…? Are you sure?

Well… the First Rainbow wasn’t a pretty thing in the sky, darlings, but a terrible weapon. This was a very long time ago, you see, before our darling Ponyville itself. In those days, there were all sorts of just dreadful monstrosities in Equestria, monsters with terrible names and worse breath. Truly, darlings, we live in the golden age of ponies, even though there do seem to be so few of us still around! I can’t think of a single calamity that has befallen us, aside from your little accident at our last Winter Wishes Festival, darling.

The ponies back then were in almost constant danger, however! Titans and giant bees and big mountainous dogs and icky purple lakes and oh, I shouldn’t go on. You wouldn’t believe me, darlings, and even if you did, it’s simply too dreadful to talk about! But those ponies had the First Rainbow, and they used it to defend themselves. Nowadays a rainbow is just a beautiful collection of simply darling colors… not that I’m complaining, darlings! But the First Rainbow was a collection of the very best parts of the ponies who made it, and the ponies who made it were the very best ponies themselves. There was this one white pony, for example, named Surprise, and she gave the First Rainbow laughter. Really, I think Surprise would fit in quite well in our little Ponyville today, except of course she had wings.

Oh, yes, wings, darlings! Didn’t I say already? Not only was Equestria so much scarier back then, we ponies had various little touches of our own, to make us readier for battle! Some of us could fly, and we called them flutter ponies, or later pegasus ponies when their wings became less strange-looking. And others had horns – yes, on the tops of their heads! – that they could use to cast magic spells, and those were called unicorn ponies. Haven’t you heard Kimono talk about them? Oh, but darlings, she does sound so nostalgic all the time…

What?

Well… no, darlings, I can’t say that I do. We’re happy now, aren’t we? And small wonder… can you really imagine those ponies of old having time for a Friendship Ball, for instance, or a Princess Coronation? And think how much time I’ve had to put into making sure my house is the most rainbowy, rainbow-covered, rainbowtacular house of them all! I couldn’t have done that if we were constantly under attack by monsters, and I’m quite sure the monsters were why our ancestors had such strange deformities. So no, I’m quite happy to live a normal life here in Ponyville, with no wings or horns to worry about.

Oh, but the First Rainbow, darlings! They stopped using it eventually, you see. I think the monsters had finally died down – or died off? – and they wished to live normal lives again. So the Rainbow Ponies – yes, darlings, another group! – took the First Rainbow, and they sent it far into the heavens to shield the entire earth. One end was nestled in the sun, and the other in the moon, and now the sun and the moon keep the First Rainbow to themselves while we get to enjoy our nice proper rainbows, full of all the colors of… the colors of… well, all the colors of the rainbow, darlings! Purple as the sunset, and blue as the sky, and green as the grass, and yellow as the butterflies, and orange as the fire, and red as… as your jamboree ladybugs, darling! Haha!

Yes, of course, not the first rainbow of the season, no. That’s only pink and purple and blue and yellow. But every last darling rainbow after that is just so sumptuously colorful and perfect!

No, I’m afraid I don’t know why the first rainbow of each season is different, darlings. Perhaps… perhaps there are some things we’re not supposed to know about the world?

Really, darlings, why this sudden fascination in our history? So much of it is so dreadfully disturbing, and the Rainbow Celebration is supposed to be a time of joy and wonder!

One sunny morning in early spring, three little ponies stood on an ordinary street in Ponyville, talking energetically. One had an all-blue coat, adorned with the symbol of a perfect rainbow stretching between two full, puffy clouds. Her deep pink eyes were soft and emotive, but were made almost invisible by her most distinctive feature: her vibrantly multi-colored mane. All the colors of the first rainbow of the season flowed gracefully from her head, layered with such obvious care that the effect looked completely natural, and the deeper colors of the season’s later rainbows had collected themselves into her curly tail. This was Rainbow Dash, and she lived in the house that they were all outside of, a small, rainbow-bearing building that ventured just a little bit into gaudiness, though nopony would ever be cruel enough to say so.

To her left was Minty, a mint-green pony with shockingly dark purple eyes that were just then screwed up in concentration. Her own mane and tail were wild and pink, daringly ranging all the way from dark pink in some areas to light pink in others, and her special symbol showed three small round candies: one green, one pink, and one fully in-between. Her hooves rolled back and forth erratically in a set of roller-skates even as she steadied herself against the fence outside of Rainbow Dash’s house, but perhaps her most distinctive feature was inside the rollerskates: two perfectly matching pairs of striped socks, embroidered in all the colors of the rainbow. Minty was the most avid sock collector in all of Ponyville, helped more than a little by being the only pony in all of Ponyville to wear socks to begin with.

Finally, and also in roller-skates (but no socks), was Pinkie Pie. While Minty’s mane and tail were admittedly fully pink, Pinkie Pie looked like the result of a helpless pony meeting someone with a paintbrush, a full bucket of pink paint, and no sense of restraint. Her mane, curly in a way that betrayed a secret desperate longing for straighter hair, was certainly a somewhat brighter pink than her solidly built body, yet still, little but the blue and yellow balloons on her side broke up her monochromicity. She was the most serious-looking of the three, despite the (pink) roller-skates, but there was still a twinkle of amusement in her wide, closely set blue eyes. It was no wonder that, in lieu of any willing and responsible local authority, so many of Ponyville’s administrative duties fell directly to her. The fact that most of those same administrative duties were various parties and festivities didn’t hurt.

“Well, darlings?” asked Rainbow Dash, for it was she who had been their storyteller. “What prompted you to come and talk to me?”

“Oh, that’s easy!” said Minty, and she took in a deep breath. “Pinkie Pie and I decided to build a float together for the Rainbow Celebration tomorrow, because she likes candy, and I like parties! Gosh, no, wait, that’s not right. I like parties, and she likes candy! No…”

Pinkie Pie laughed, not unkindly. “Because I like parties, Minty, and you like candy. And you can’t have a party without candy…”

“Right! And you can’t have candy without a party, or, heheh, at least I know I can’t! Sometimes I just invent parties, to make sure that I’ll get to eat candy. Heheh.”

“Don’t tell anyone,” said Pinkie Pie, “but sometimes I invent parties to make sure that I get to have parties.”

Rainbow Dash smiled beatifically. “Yes, but, the rainbows, darlings, the rainbows?”

“Ooh, right! The rainbows! We were doing a great job of making the float, right up until we tried to paint it. I wanted to paint it green, but Pinkie Pie wanted to paint it, ewww, take a guess, yep, you guessed it, pink! Then we started fighting and hitting each other with our paint brushes and paint buckets, and that’s why we’re all painted up with green and pink.”

Rainbow Dash blinked. “I’m afraid I hadn’t actually noticed, darlings. So then what did you do?”

Pinkie Pie cut in quickly while Minty was looking down at her green and pink self in clear confusion. “We talked to Kimono! You know how she’s the wisest and cleverest pony in all of Ponyville, right?”

“…of course, darling.” Rainbow Dash’s voice was a little frosty.

“Well, Kimono suggested that we each take half the float: I’d get one side of the float to load up with party things, and I’d paint it pink, but Minty would get to fill her side with candies and socks and things and paint it all green.”

“Of course she suggested that. And then?”

“We gave it a try. And it was working really well, right until Minty broke it.”

“Darling! You broke the float?”

“Honest, I only broke it a little! Okay, a lot. Well, a little a lot! No, yeah, yeah, no, yeah, a whole lot. See, Pinkie Pie thought the division down the middle was perfect, but I thought it was just a smidgen biased to the pink side, and a little bit more of the float was pink than was green! So I painted it over again, but then just a little bit more was green than pink! So I fixed that, but then there was too much pink! And I painted it and painted it and painted it, and then suddenly I guess there was just too much paint and the whole thing split WHAP, CRACK!, like that!, right down the center! …waaaaaaaaaaaa!”

Minty, who’d raised her sock-enclosed front hooves from the fence and waved them wildly in both directions to illustrate her story, had suddenly lost her balance and was beginning to roll away backwards. Only Pinkie Pie quickly grabbing her and bringing her back down to the ground saved her from careening down the remainder of the street, straight into Fizzy Pop and Bumblesweet some few dozen feet away. “Whew!” said Minty, after scooting back over to the fence again. “Thanks, Pinkie Pie!”

“What are friends for?”

“For presents!” Minty was briefly in danger of rolling away from the fence again, but thankfully recovered herself. “So, Rainbow Dash, I thought that instead of talking to somepony who knows everything about everything, heh, gee, we should talk to somepony who knows everything about colors! And, uh, then I guess we got side-tracked, and started talking about the Rainbow Festival instead, and I asked you where rainbows came from.”

“That you did, darling.” Rainbow Dash looked thoughtful. “Well, darlings, clearly I cannot hope to compare myself to the fabulous Kimono, but I can help you! This is the Rainbow Festival, after all, so who better to help than Rainbow Dash?”

Minty utterly squeaked with glee. “Oh, I knew you could help us out, Rainbow Dash! No, I guess I was only pretty sure. No, I was totally sure! No, I had my doubts. No, I believed in you all along! No, I had all sorts of different thoughts about it in my mouth all at once. No, I mean in my head. No…”

“In your case, darling, I suspect there is very little difference between the two. But darlings, how is this even an issue? It is the Rainbow Festival, so you two should have been building a rainbow float.”

“Oooh!” The other two ponies gaped at her in clear admiration. “You’re so right, Rainbow Dash,” they said in unison. “A rainbow float it is!”

“And fortunately, I happen to have a simply darling rainbow float in my backyard, left over from the coronation ceremony. You can both ride with me for the festival, and not worry about patching together your old float after Minty, hm, painted it too hard.”

Pinkie Pie clicked her tongue. “Er… of course, I want to celebrate the Rainbow Festival properly! And a rainbow float does sound right for a rainbow party. But isn’t you liking rainbows just the same as me liking pink and Minty liking green?”

“Why, darling, not at all!” Rainbow Dash raised herself to her hind legs, and rested one forehoof comfortably across each of her friends’ backs. “You see, darlings, what Kimono doesn’t understand is that rainbows are more than a bunch of different colors! Green, pink, blue, purple… they’re all beautiful, of course! But the point of the Rainbow Festival is that little spark that happens when you bring them all together at once, and they become more than the sum of their parts.”

Pinkie Pie was now enraptured. “A spark? What kind of spark?”

“A magic spark, darling! Magic makes it all complete.” She frowned; Minty had one hoof raised in the air. “Yes, darling? Did you want to say something?”

“Oh, no, no!” said Minty, shaking her head furiously. “I didn’t want to say anything! But my tummy wants to, in a couple seconds!”

“Your… tummy?”

There was a sudden gurgling sound from Minty’s torso, loud enough even to draw the irate attention of Fizzy Pop and Bumblesweet farther away. “That’s my tummy saying that it’s hungry!” said the pony. “Hey, I’ve got a great idea! Do you girls want to go to the Sweet Shoppe with me?! I bet Sweetberry’ll be using her very last rainbowberries from last season.”

Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie laughed happily. “Hooray! To the Sweet Shoppe!”

Sweetberry’s Sweet Shoppe was two stories tall, with the top floor set aside for eating delicious pastries under a big, pink, frosted, ice-creamy ceiling. The pink, four-windowed door was rarely left shut, and everypony felt invited to come in and sample Sweetberry’s latest creations around her many little round pink tables. It was probably Minty’s favorite place in all of Ponyville, and because Ponyville was her favorite village in all the world, that meant that Sweetberry’s Sweet Shoppe was her favorite place in all the world.

Although now that she thought about it, heheh, she was pretty fond of her house. That was where she kept her socks, after all! And the Celebration Castle was really special too, and ooh, she couldn’t forget about Cotton Candy’s Café either, or Twinkle Twirl’s Dance Studio. And she’d gotten kind of used to sneaking in to visit Pinkie Pie after the Winter Wishes Festival, although Pinkie Pie was almost never home when she did that, only when she was sleeping. But that just meant that Pinkie Pie was out of the house doing other stuff all day, stuff that wasn’t with Minty, since Minty was busy breaking into her house at the time. So she was doing something else with somepony else. Minty wondered what it was.

Standing there in the Sweet Shoppe, gazing hungrily at the menu full of awesome candies and pastries, roller-skates safely hung up on a hook on the wall, Minty then came to two startling conclusions for the very first time. First, Pinkie Pie was her best friend. And second, she didn’t know what Pinkie Pie did with herself when they weren’t hanging out together. Tennis with Sunny Daze? Roller-skating with Scooter Sprite? Ice cream with Triple Treats? Reading with Waterfire? All of the above?!

The more Minty thought about it, the more Pinkie Pie started to feel like one big mystery. Usually she was really cool and friendly and playful, but sometimes she got kind of peeved. Peeved? Angry? Angry worked. The first time, of course, was the Winter Wishes Festival incident, and that was totally fair. Minty would have been angry with herself too! In fact, she had been angry with herself! So angry that she’d almost stolen a balloon and run away from Ponyville forever, just so that nopony would ever have to deal with her awful clumsiness again. She’d chickened out, but still… running away had been Pinkie Pie’s idea, hadn’t it? Sort of? ‘Leave town,’ she’d said, those exact words, and Minty had almost almost almost left just like she’d said.

But what kind of best friend tells you to leave town?

“Are you all right, darling?”

Minty blinked several times and discovered Rainbow Dash nuzzling her gently about the neck. “Huh?” she asked. “Ooh, yeah, all right, me all right, yep, that’s what I am! How are you?”

“Why, I’m simply darling, darling! But you looked so worried all of a sudden.”

“Oh, nah!” Minty giggled helplessly. “Gee, I can’t wait for Sweetberry to show up and take our orders! Aren’t you hungry? Heheh, I know I’m hungry. Ooh, wow. Where is she?”

On cue, a little blue door opened at the back of the shop, letting in Sweetberry. Sweetberry was a chubby, short-muzzled, dark pink pony with heavy purple overtones, plus a few strands of minty green in her mane and tail that Minty had always adored. Her eyes were thin, blue, and in Minty’s opinion unnaturally worried. “Oh, good morning!” she said. “You’re all here for my last rainbowberries of the season, aren’t you? How sweet!”

“But of course, darling!” Rainbow Dash ducked her head politely, and then graced them all with a radiant smile. “You wouldn’t have any of your special rainbowberry cake, would you? And a rainbowberry muffin? Oh, and I’d just love some of your darling rainbowberry juice as well.”

“Cake, muffin, juice, check!” Sweetberry gave Rainbow Dash a look just slightly sterner than her usual smile. “Nothing else?”

Rainbow Dash giggled. “Oh, darling! If I ate any more, you’d think I was an exceptionally large rainbowberry myself, and then where would we be?” All four ponies laughed gaily for several seconds at this idea.

Pinkie Pie sidled over toward Sweetberry. “Do you… er, do you have anything rainbowberryish, but in more of a pink color?”

“Sure, how about a mixed rainbowberry and strawberry milkshake?”

Pinkie Pie beamed. “Pinktastic!”

“Sweet!” Sweetberry stomped her hooves for a second in delight, though her eyes still looked upset from before. “Well, then I’ll be right out with all that for you.”

“Hey!” Minty lurched forwards toward Sweetberry, accidentally knocking both Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie to the side as she went. “Uh, I mean, what about me? I didn’t get to order yet! Ooh, gee, and there’s so much to choose from, too!”

Sweetberry glanced around at her three morning customers, two of them picking themselves up from the floor, and now looked more worried than ever. She ran a hoof through one of the purpler parts of her mane. “Well… I guess that’s right, isn’t it?” she asked, after pausing a little longer. “You didn’t. But really, Minty… don’t you think maybe it’s better this way? If you don’t order, I mean?”

Minty’s face scrunched up in confusion. “Uh, no? If I didn’t order anything, I wouldn’t get anything to eat, and then I’d just waste away until I was nothing but a thin mint!” She burst out laughing. “Thin mint! Oh, wow, that’s just too perfect, heheheh.”

Sweetberry, it seemed, wasn’t laughing along with her. And she still wasn't looking at Minty, which felt like a pretty weird way to have a conversation. What was up with her? “Now, that’s not true, Minty. You could eat at Cotton Candy’s Café, after all! You know, I bet she and Triple Treat are doing some really sweet things with kiwis, uh, even though they’re not in season…”

“But I like eating here!” Minty frowned. “I had my Special Day here, remember? You baked all those cakes in your sock-shaped cake pans, and I got to decorate them, and even got most of the frosting on the cakes?”

“That was a lovely party, sure.” Sweetberry looked desperately at Pinkie Pie. “But, Minty… you know you’re not exactly the most popular pony in town anymore, right?”

Minty’s face fell. She'd really hoped that everypony had just forgotten about that, or moved on, or something. Part of being a pariah was never being told if you were still a pariah or not, because either you were, so they wouldn't talk to you, or you weren't, so there'd be nothing to tell. But this conversation wasn't looking very sweet, or tasting very pretty. “No,” she said, a little dolefully, “I know I’m not. But Sweetberry… you still like me, right? I mean, gee, I like you…”

Sweetberry placed a careful hoof on Minty’s right shoulder. “I look at you and see the same well-intentioned pony I know and love. And clearly Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie do, too. But… Twinkle Twirl, for example. You know how much she wants things to be in their right order. And Fiesta Flair was really looking forward to the party, and Spring Fever is always looking to try new things, even if that new thing’s disliking you, and…”

“So!?” Minty stomped her hoof at the floor, and Pinkie Pie let out a quick squeal of pain. “Sweetberry, you’re not Twinkle Twirl!”

“No, but she’s a customer! My life is about baking lots of tasty, floury treats for all my friends here in Ponyville. And if enough ponies like Twinkle Twirl see that I’m serving you, they may decide to stop coming in here. That little Scooter Sprite girl has already moved on. Dropping you is just what’s best for me. You do understand, right, Mints?”

“Darling,” said Rainbow Dash, quietly, adding her own hoof on top of Minty to Sweetberry’s, “you did ruin the entire Winter Wishes Festival, you know.”

“Not just that,” said Pinkie Pie, laying down a third hoof. “We’ll never be able to have another one again. And, er, you haven’t done much since then to make everypony like you better. You’ve just been the same old Minty.”

Minty stared into the sympathetic faces of her three friends and gulped. The same old Minty was all that she knew how to be! But the same old Minty definitely cared about her friends, and if she was making Sweetberry unhappy, then she needed to do the right thing and get out of there. And Cotton Candy would totally welcome her in! Cotton Candy was clumsy too, and had lots of great stories to tell, and they could laugh and laugh and maybe talk about green things! Sweetberry had the best plans, even when she was kicking ponies out of her life. She giggled. “You’re right, girls! Heheh, I should definitely get going. Time waits for no mint! I’ll see you two on the rainbow float tomorrow, okay?”

Rainbow Dash interrupted her as she left, one foreleg crossed over the other in an apparent sign of worry. “Are you sure you’ll be all right, darling? I could come with you to Cotton Candy’s darling little Café, if you’d rather…”

“No, no, you stay right here!” Minty planted her hooves firmly next to the front door, slipping just a little from the socks but quickly recovering herself. “If you come with me, then Sweetberry’s losing business again, and she’s sending me away so that doesn’t happen! Eheh, gosh, what kind of friend would I be if I tried to ruin somepony’s life like that?” Without waiting for an answer, she dashed outside and shut the big pink door behind her. Maybe Sweetberry liked to keep it open, but she didn’t quite feel like encouraging them to watch her walk away.

Minty looked down at the rocky road beneath her socks. She hadn’t actually been to Cotton Candy’s Café in quite a while, and it was nearly across town, but of course she knew the way. She lifted her right forehoof and set it resolutely down in front of her. Yes, Cotton Candy was an old, old friend and would definitely welcome her in with open hooves! Laughter and friendship and deliciousness! But… wasn’t Sweetberry just as old a friend? And what about Triple Treat? She didn’t actually know Triple Treat all that well, and couldn’t remember talking to her since the Winter Wishes Festival…

Minty lifted her second hoof and moved it forward as well. Sunny Daze! Brilliant white Sunny Daze was definitely still her friend, no question about it. Maybe she should visit Sunny after the café trip, and they could play at hoofstands together. Peachy Pie was really nice, ooh, and Piccolo too, and they were sure to remain happy about everything. But Sparkleworks, who loved stars so much? Forsythia? Daisyjo? Minty had spent the last several months resisting any urges to try and sort the other ponies in Ponyville into pro-Minty and anti-Minty camps, but with Sweetberry’s explanation, that was suddenly becoming impossible. Especially since there wasn’t anypony in Ponyville that she wasn’t likely to see all the time! Well, except Kimono, who lived on the outskirts of town, of course, or her new hidey friend.

A third hoof lifted and set down. It just wasn’t fair! She hadn’t wanted to ruin the Winter Wishes Festival for the whole village! How could anypony think that? She’d only been trying to make it better. And okay, yeah, so she was a little clumsy. Okay, a lot clumsy. And okay, so she knew that at the time, and didn’t ask anypony else if they thought it was a good idea, and didn’t go and get anypony else’s help either. So it really was entirely her fault in every particular. And she’d gone and upset a whole lot of ponies over something that was entirely her fault, by wrecking something they’d been looking forward to, and so it made perfect sense that they’d be unhappy with her about it. So really the most unfair thing of all was just how completely fair it all was!

The fourth hoof, faltering. What was she supposed to do now? Like she’d thought in the Sweet Shoppe, there was exactly one pony that Minty knew how to be, and that was Minty. Giggling, sock-collecting, accident-prone, clumsy, destructive, stupid, untrustworthy, better-off-exiled Minty.

Minty raised her first hoof again… and fell down beside the Sweet Shoppe door, sobbing, her trip to the Café and plans for visiting Sunny Daze forgotten completely. Hot tears of repressed shame rolled down her muzzle and splashed to the pavement below. Everything. She, she alone, had ruined everything, and now Ponyville was finally making its disapproval clear, and what in Equestria was she supposed to do about it?! She’d planned to paint Celebration Castle green for her birthday, but nopony was likely to find that funny, unless they already were on her side.

And what else was there? Everything she knew how to do, she already did, all the time! Except crying. Crying was a new skill, but she was getting pretty good at it pretty fast. The pain in her heart probably just meant that she was doing a really good job. Or that she had broken it, which made perfect sense too… why should Minty’s heart get a free pass from getting broken by Minty?

Some time later, the door creaked open. Minty blinked back her tears and looked upward to discover Pinkie Pie, looking concerned, her half-finished pink milkshake cradled in one hoof. Neither spoke for several seconds, and the only sounds were Minty’s sniffles, the breeze in the trees, and the faint sound of Rainbow Dash talking to Sweetberry from inside.

“Oh… hi, Pinkie Pie,” said Minty eventually.

“Hi Minty. Er… you don’t look so good.”

“Nope.”

“Er… want some milkshake?”

Minty eyed the drink with distaste. “Nah. It needs more green.”

“Yeah, I guess I can see that.” Pinkie Pie took a long sip, apparently unashamed of her drink’s utter pinkness. “It’ll all get better, Minty. Everypony’s just a little riled up right now, but they’ll calm down soon. Nopony’s ever hated anypony in Ponyville before.”

Minty stared at the ground. “Nopony’s ever ruined the entire Winter Wishes Festival before, either. Besides, it’s been three whole months and they’re only getting madder, not less madder!” She blinked. “Pinkie Pie, aren’t you afraid that ponies are going to be mad at you too if you keep hanging out with me, like Sweetberry?”

Pinkie Pie gave her a reassuring clap on the back. “Nope! I’m much too popular for that! Hay, if you want I could even tell you who’s on your side or not, as far as I’ve been able to tell. What do you say?”

Minty was silent for some time. That was a funny word. Popular. Minty was horribly unpopular by any realistic measure, but her best friend was really popular. And Pinkie Pie had always been popular, so it wasn’t just a question of who had or hadn’t ruined everything. But how? And why? She looked up again. “Pinkie Pie… what do you want?”

“Huh?” Pinkie Pie looked hurt. “Balloons! And parties! And right now, to make you feel better, which I guess could involve balloons and parties!”

“No!” Minty gave a half-hearted giggle as she attempted to organize her swirling thoughts. “I mean, I want parties too sometimes, and I want socks, and candy, and green things. But those are just… hobbies, aren’t they? Nopony’s mad at me about any of that stuff, it’s something deeper! It’s like, what makes me special, not just different? Sweetberry doesn’t just bake stuff… she wants to make everypony happy! And Twinkle Twirl wants everypony to be better, and Razzaroo wants to know everything even before it happens. So what do you want? What makes you special?”

Pinkie Pie took another long sip from her milkshake. “Well… personally, I want to be everypony’s best friend. But what about you, Minty? You’re the one in trouble here!”

Minty leaned back against the wall of the Sweet Shoppe. Pinkie Pie’s answer was a strange one, she seemed to feel, but then she had an answer of her own to figure out. Did she want anything? Didn’t she spend her time grabbing on to each new adventure as it came? But whatever she had been wanting, clearly it wasn’t working just now, so… “I want nopony to hate me.”

“That sounds like a pretty big wish!”

“Heheh… yeah, I guess it is.”

Pinkie Pie grinned. “Well, I know whom you should be talking to about big wishes…”

“Wow, Minty! I don’t know… that kind of feels like it’d be cheating, don’t you think?”

A bright blue river ran through the east side of Ponyville, and over the river was a short, grassy bluff, and on top of the bluff sat Skywishes. Her coat was much like Pinkie Pie’s, but her colors descended farther into dark purples, and her mane was straight and tended to wrap itself about her leaner and taller body. Her eyes were wonderfully green, surprisingly shiny, frequently unfocused, and presently concerned. Beside Skywishes stood Minty, mane blowing freely in the wind as she tried to bring Skywishes around to her position, and around them both flew a troupe of butterflies in several wide, curious circles.

“Cheating!?” Minty’s eyebrows shot upwards into the roots of her mane. “I don’t think it’d be cheating! I just want you to wish that I had my friends back, because you like wishing, and your extra special wishes come true! How is that cheating?”

“I do like wishing!” Skywishes’s smile was vague. “But I’m not sure how that wish would come true. It would be a pretty big job for them!”

Minty sat back on her haunches in confusion. The pretty green grass tickled. “Them? Who’s them?”

Skywishes flashed a toothy grin, but was looking up at the sky. “Uh… you know, my wishes! My wishes would have a hard time making that fly. I mean, making it happen. Making this one wish of all those other wishes happen. …oh, you know what I mean!”

“I… don’t think that I do.” Minty followed Skywishes’ gaze upwards, but didn’t see anything worth marveling at. Some ponies called Skywishes scatterbrained, and Minty supposed they weren’t actually wrong, though her wishes really were great and she was very nice. Secretive, maybe, but nice.

Skywishes laughed, a happy laugh that Minty was glad to laugh along with. “You know what?” she asked once they had both calmed down. “Neither do I! My wishes are very powerful, after all! I should trust in them. That’s what friends do, right?”

“Yes! Definitely! …um, so you’re friends with your wishes?”

Skywishes looked up at the sky yet again, but swiveled back to face Minty. “Oh, let’s stop talking about me, please! Wishes aren’t about the pony who makes them; they’re about the pony they’re for.” She took a moment to look very satisfied with herself. “And your wish is for everypony to stop hating you?”

“Not quite.” Minty rolled over onto her back and stared at the sky. She truly couldn’t tell what Skywishes had been looking at. There were clouds, and butterflies, and a big green kite – she glanced across the river and saw Forsythia on the other side, piloting it – but nothing strange-looking. Of course, Skywishes had always liked the sky, so maybe she didn’t need anything strange to look at? That felt right. “It’s not like everypony hates me now,” she continued. “Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie don’t, and I bet Sunny Daze doesn’t either, and you don’t, do you, Skywishes?”

“Of course not! You were only trying to help.”

“Right? Gosh, Skywishes, why are you so great? Is it because, oh, you won the Best Friend Ever Award? I know I’d be pretty great if I won one of those, heheh.”

Skywishes’ purple coat turned an attractive maroon. “I didn’t really win it, Twinkle Twirl did! But she gave it to me because she said I was a better friend, so I won it, but I didn’t win win it, or win it win, but only second-win-hoof… oh, you know what I mean!” Her maroon grew deeper as a cloud floated in front of the sun. “Minty, I wish we could all win one of those awards, so we could all be the best friend ever to each other all the time.”

Minty gasped, but then realized that had only been a regular, mill-variety, run-of-the-garden-type Skywishes wish, not an extra special Skywishes wish that always came true. And the Best Friend Ever Award was much too pink for her tastes anyway. But none of that seemed important, so she just giggled.

“Well… Minty.” Skywishes lay down on the grass beside her, absently playing with a little blue flower. A glistening white butterfly landed on the flower, and Skywishes stared at it fondly. “I got that award for something I did. I helped Twinkle and all her students to dance in the clouds for the Friendship Ball, when her own dance plans were too complicated for everypony to remember. And if anypony hates you now, it’s because of what you did.” The butterfly took flight, rejoining its many colorful companions in the sky above. “If you want to win them over again, you’re going to have to do something, something extra special. I can’t just wish it all away!”

“Sign me up!” Minty flung a hoof happily around Skywishes’ back. “I like doing things, heheh! Doing things is practically all I ever do!”

Skywishes smiled warmly, and her emerald eyes smiled too. “I wish you all the luck in Equestria.” She bowed her head towards the ground, and Minty felt the air around them go still as the whole world prepared itself for Skywishes’ extra special wishes. Even the butterflies had stopped their circling and were hovering in place, waiting to hear her words.

“I wish, I wish, I wish… that Minty will find something to do to make her a hero instead of a villain.”

There was a long moment of silence as the world understood its new duty. Then Minty heard a small grunt of frustration from across the river, and watched as Forsythia’s big green kite escaped its owner and took off into the sky on its own.

“Run,” said Skywishes.

“Yes, I’ll do it, I’ll run, I’ll run! …wait, run where?”

Skywishes leaned forward to look directly into Minty’s eyes. Her muzzle was slightly crinkled, and Minty could feel Skywishes’ warm breath tickling her face as she spoke. “Catch a kite… catch a wish.”

Minty looked up. Minty gave Skywishes the biggest hug she could from their awkward position. Minty ran.

Butterflies streamed around her, keeping Minty company as she chased the kite. She began to laugh. She couldn’t help herself – she was on the road to salvation, and after all, running was so much fun! Ponies watched her as she passed them by, some curiously, some with disapproval, but she couldn’t spare the time to stop and talk with them, not when there was a kite to catch. A kite, and a wish! The kite remained stubbornly over the center of the river, dipping and bobbing up and down with the winds but never coming closer to land, and Minty ran along the river’s bank, dodging rocks and trees and heart-shaped pedestals as she went.

She wondered what would happen if she caught the kite. When! When she caught the kite. Minty wasn’t usually a pony who worried too much about the future, so she’d never had cause to try for one of Skywishes’ extra special wishes before. Would there be an explosion of light and color? Would the perfect plan suddenly appear in her head? Would nothing happen at all? So many possibilities, and all of them counting on her chasing down that kite, though she was stuck on the green grass and it was still firmly in the sky.

Two minutes in, Minty was feeling tired and the kite was showing no signs of coming closer to her, only remaining above the river. She was getting slower, her legs complaining each time she pushed them forward after the elusive kite. The sun had emerged from behind its clouds and she was feeling hot beneath her green coat. Worst of all, the kite was approaching the sandy island in the middle of Ponyville’s wide river, and on that island were a bunch of trees, and… yep. It happened. Minty skidded to a welcome stop and watched as the kite became stuck in one of the trees.

“Well… that’s not too bad!” she said, out loud to keep her spirits up. “I mean, heh, look at that kite. It’s pretty low down, yeah, I could reach that kite no problem. If I were on the island, I mean, heheh. Which I’m not. No, I’m over here, not on that island. Oh, what if I swam over there? That would work if I could swim. Can I swim? Whoops, I don’t think I can. Swimming sounds hard. Heh. Okay. Now what?”

“Have you considered sailing?”

Minty blinked. She hadn’t realized she was talking to anypony else! Was she? But no, there a few feet away was Seaspray, a beautiful blue pony with a blue, purple, and gold mane that rolled off her head in, appropriately enough, sea-like waves. She was fishing, but more importantly, she was sitting beside a dock, and at that dock was a little blue and orange wooden sailboat, rocking on top of the river’s mild current, starfish-patterned sail fluttering gently.

“Seaspray,” said Minty with a gasp, “you’re a gorgeous genius!” She ran to the deck and leapt head-first into the boat, barely avoiding splitting her skull against its wooden planks. “Uh, whoops! Heheh, don’t worry, I’ll bring it right back, I just need that kite!”

Seaspray threw down her fishing gear and walked quickly forwards. “Minty… do you know how to sail a boat?”

Minty untied the mooring rope – she was really good at untying things – and gave a whoop as the boat slipped away from shore and began floating along the river. “Uh, nope! But don’t worry, it’s not like flying a balloon or anything up in the sky like that! How hard can it be?”

“No, Minty, wait!” cried Seaspray, but by then the little boat had already sailed too far from the dock. “Minty, come back, don’t try it! Minty! Minty! Miiiiiiiiiiiiinty!!!”

“…inty? Minty? Minty. Can you hear me, my dear friend?”

Minty forced her eyes open. She hurt all over. She was soaked. She was clutching an equally soaked green kite, and she was caught in a big fishing net. Also there was a tall pony, head to hoof purple but darker than Skywishes, staring at her through large green eyes. “Oh… hey again, Kimono,” she said, spitting out river water as she did so. “Wait… Kimono?! What are you doing here? Where is here?”

Kimono gestured behind her with a smile. “This is my riverside hut, Minty. I heard noises from my net and came to investigate, but even I was surprised to find you here, drawn in from the river! How did you come to fall in? Did you and Pinkie Pie have another disagreement while painting your float?”

Minty tried to cross her forelegs, but found it difficult while still wrapped up in the net. “I didn’t come to fall in, I came to get this kite! Ooh, and I found it too!” She thought back to the slowly returning memories of her dangerous river voyage. A boat that had been surprisingly hard to steer; a kite just a little too high to reach; standing on top of the boat; reaching for the kite; grabbing the kite; feeling the boat give way… oh dear, she’d gone and done it again. “Kimono… I think I capsized Seaspray’s boat. Uh, whoops, there’s another pony who’s gonna have reason to hate me now.”

Kimono patted her softly on the head. “I’m sure we’ll work something out, my friend. But first I need to attend to the other surprise visitor caught in my net.”

Minty twisted around to follow Kimono’s line of vision, and discovered a small pink pony trapped in the netting beside her, with waterlogged curls nearly as colorful as Rainbow Dash’s own mane and tail. The pink pony didn’t look familiar, which was very odd considering Minty had thought she recognized every single pony in the whole village. But odder still was the short, bony horn protruding from the top of her head. Rainbow Dash’s story from earlier that morning suddenly flashed into her head.

“Kimono, is that… gee, is she a unicorn pony?”

Kimono nodded solemnly. “She is. Oh, I’ve waited so long to see one of her kind with my own eyes!” She pulled firmly at the cords of the net several times, until the strange unicorn pony began to stir. “Welcome to Ponyville, young one. With whom do we have the pleasure?”

The pink unicorn blinked wild, crystal-colored eyes at them. “Huh, me? I’m Rarity, that’s who! And you’d better watch out… King Sombra just took over everything, and I’d bet he’s on his way here too!”

Minty gulped involuntarily. “King Sombra?”

“Yeah! Are you royal ponies? Can you fight back? Why don’t you have horns on your heads? Do you have any food? I’m hungry.”

Minty realized that she was still quite hungry herself, but suspected now was not the time to say so. Forsythia's kite, unfortunately, did not appear to be edible. Kimono in the meantime was fully in charge of the conversation. “We are neither of us royalty, no,” she said. “What can you tell us about this ‘King Sombra,’ friend?”

“Uh… if you’re not royals, you’d better take me to somepony who is, got it? This is heavy stuff.” There was a silence, and Rarity’s eyes narrowed. “You ladies do have someone in charge, right? I dunno if I should go blabbing to just anypony.”

Minty looked uncertainly at Kimono. Kimono looked thoughtfully back. “Yes,” said Kimono, “I suppose we do. She has spent time enough ducking her responsibilities, and this sounds like a serious matter. Come, Minty, and little Rarity…

“…it’s time to speak to Princess Wysteria.”

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Theater Critic

Theater Critic #1 · May 30th, 2013 · · ·

A G3 story? Seriously?

It's actually pretty good! Can't wait for more!

Normal

Normal #2 · May 30th, 2013 · · ·

SOCKS.

Bico

Bico #3 · May 30th, 2013 · · ·

Definitely sounds like G3 Original Flavor. It's weird to have ponies placed in the G4 universe, even 1,000 years ago, that have the saccharine sweet personalities that G4 ponies already have turned up to eleven. Interested to see how this ties into FiM aside from King Sombra. I can already see some hints of Celestia and Luna as well as the Elements of Harmony in there.

Fluttermac36