The Pony Dialogues

by Knowledge

Dinner Time 4.4: Too Many Guests?

Chapter Context: Of livestock and Pets 3.6, Dinner Time 4.1-4.3

4.1 Filthy Rich goes to the Apple family house for dinner with Flim and Flam uninvited on the pretext of having his daughter apologize. Free dinner is a perk of being a business partner with the Apple Family.

4.2 Sophia and Apple Bloom wash up after a long day. Apple Bloom is surprised to learn that Sophia parent is not a pony but 'something else.'

3.6, 4.2 Bon Bon joins Granny Smith and Big Mac for dinner after a long days work digging irrigation ditches. (Ze was invited in 3.6)

4.3 Applejack also has a guest, Lyra, who couldn't say no to food after her own long days work protecting the harmony of Ponyville. Lyra only has Bon Bon left on her list of ponies she needs to harmonize who are still in town.

-------------------------------------Apple Family Bathroom----------------------------------------

Apple Bloom dried off next to her new friend Wisdom. They had gone through a lot that day. She reflected how the little filly had almost won in a magic duel against an adult unicorn. The farmer did not know much about magic, but she knew that most unicorns didn't have that much control over magic at that age. From what she remembers from Twilight's lectures, which was not much, unicorns magic power is the combination of their focus, understanding, and talent.

Speaking of talents, Apple Bloom waved her hoof in front of Wisdom's face because her friend was staring at the bathroom wallpaper. She got to response from Wisdom. I guess her talent isn't focusing, Apple Bloom concluded.

"Applejack is home. Time to say goodbye to yer friend," Granny Smith called from the kitchen.

"Come on, Wisdom. It is time for dinner, and I am hungry," Apple Bloom said, but got noncommittal grunts from the unicorn.

The earth pony grabbed Wisdom's forehoof, but it was like she had glued it to the floor. Her second attempt involved using both hooves to pick the salt-and-pepper filly from the barrel. It was ineffective. It is like liftin' a boulder! On the third try, Apple Bloom moved away so she could get a run up before charging her friend. She didn't figure out if it would have worked because, in the middle of her charge, Applejack entered the bathroom to wash her hooves.

In a mess of limbs, the two sisters rolled into Wisdom whose unyielding form stopped them.

Applejack glared at her young sister.

"Apple Bloom, how often Ah told yah 'No ruf-housin' in the house'?!"

"But sister, Ah...," the filly began to protest, but Applejack stopped her.

"No buts. Now Ah want you to march to the table and think about what you done," the older sister commanded.

Apple Bloom felt betrayed by her friend. After untangling herself from Applejack, she turned to where Wisdom had just been only to find that the filly wasn't there anymore. Looking around, she got a glimpse of Wisdom exiting the bathroom and heading toward the kitchen. Apple Bloom chased after her friend, leaving a very disappointed Applejack to wash her hooves.

--------------------------------------Kitchen--------------------------------------------

"Ah said, 'do yer parents know yah here?'" Granny Smith hollered at the filly who had walked into the kitchen and began inspecting the various apple dishes she had prepared for dinner. For the second time, the unicorn didn't seem to hear her.

Plus, her coat still had black splotches on it even after washing up. Did parents teach their foals how to wash up properly anymore? Granny Smith complained internally.

Apple Bloom entered the room.

"Is yer friend deaf?" Granny Smith asked her granddaughter. Before she got her answer, Granny Smith began imitating hoof language. This seemed to get a reaction from the filly, though not one of understanding.

"No," Apple Bloom replied.

"What was that?" Granny Smith inquired, continuing her hoof language assault on the small filly.

"No!" Apple Bloom yelped.

"Apple Bloom, no yelling indoors. Ah thought we raised you better than this," Applejack reprimanded. This was the second to the last straw before Apple Bloom would break down in tears.

A knock came from the front door. Applejack and Apple Bloom went to answer it. On the way, they past Lyra who was talking to Bon Bon in the family room. From what Apple Bloom could observe, Wisdom's notebook absorbed the majority of Bon Bon's attention. Lyra looked just as frustrated as Apple Bloom, and, deep in the filly's heart, it pleased her that someone else was suffering.

-------------------------------------Front Door-----------------------------------------------

Opening the door, Filthy Rich's face greeted them with his typical overconfident smile.

"Hello, there," Rich said. Applejack returned the greeting.

"So why are you here, if you don't mind me asking?" Applejack inquired.

The business stallion put on a sad face.

"I was in the middle of an important business meeting when I learned from my gardener that my daughter intended to hurt a new pony who is friends with your daughter," Filthy Rich explained.

"Is that so?" Applejack asked her sister.

"Yeah, we met this new filly, Wisdom. Diamond Tiara had her gardener duel her. He used flowers against her even though she has bad allergies," Apple Bloom answered. Applejack felt ambivalent. On one hoof, her sister was being honest. On the other hoof, her friends were getting in fights, which explained Apple Bloom's earlier behavior in the bathroom.

"I feel very horrible about this and would like to apologize with my daughter to this filly and her parents. Do you know where they live?" Filthy inquired superfacially.

"Wisdom is here right now," Apple Bloom divulged.

"But where are her parents?" Filthy inquired again. The filly sweated nervously.

"Her mom is sleeping."

"Sleeping? At this hour?" Applejack asked, doubt entering her voice.

"She had an accident...and needs to sleep to recover."

"An accident, oh dear. What happened to the poor mare?" Filthy inquired. Apple Bloom trembled as the questions seemed to never end. She didn't want to explain that Wisdom's mom was in the barn and not a pony. While she felt betrayed by Wisdom's earlier behavior, she did not actually blame the pony. Apple Bloom knew the Wisdom was special.

"Too much smoking," Apple Bloom said, wincing at the incredulous nature of the statement.

"Smoking?" Applejack asked. She leaned into Apple Bloom squinting hard. It took all the filly's will to look her sister in the eyes.

"Yeah. Smoking it is bad fer yah, or yah'll end up in the hospital," Apple Bloom responded.

"Oh that is sad to hear," Filthy Rich said. "What about her father?"

"Um...Wisdom only said she had one parent," Apple Bloom said honestly.

"Well, tell Wisdom that she can have dinner with us," Applejack said, suspicious in her voice

The filly was about to return to the kitchen when a voice stopped her in her tracks.

"Dad, how long am I going to have to stand out in the cold?" complained a very familiar bratty filly.

"Oh, I forgot to ask, would it be a bother for us to join you for dinner tonight?" Filthy requested.

Applejack looked behind her and quickly counted their current guests. There was her guest Lyra, Granny's guest Bon Bon, and now Apple Bloom's guest Wisdom. The dining table could only seat eight ponies comfortably. She guessed that she could squeeze the fillies together.

Before Applejack could answer, Apple Bloom interjected.

"No!" she whined. "We have enough guests as it is."

Diamond Tiara huffed and pleaded to her father to get her inside. Lucky for Rich, Applejack came to his rescue.

"Now, Apple Bloom, that is not how we treat guests. Ah'm disappointed in yah," Applejack reprimanded her sister. "Yah know we Apples can never have enough guests fer dinner."

Ah wish Applejack knew what it was like get in trouble for doin' nothin' wrong, she screamed internally, knowing full well that talking back would just get her grounded.

"Now yah come in and we will mix yah up some grub," Applejack said, inviting the ponies in the house. Diamond Tiara smirked in triumph. Apple Bloom couldn't believe what was happening. Tears started welling up in her eyes, but suddenly, Applejack became rigid.

Filthy pulled at his collar nervously.

"I thought you wouldn't mind if I brought some of my future business partners. They are very interested in working with both of us. Do you know each other?" he wondered, trying to diffuse the situation.

"No! Not yah! Yer not welcome here," the farm pony shouted out the door. Apple Bloom saw that there were two familiar unicorn salesponies out there. One was unconscious for some reason. Ah know Applejack can get loud when she yells, but Ah never seen her knock a pony out before, Apple Bloom thought.

Granny Smith came into the room at the sound of yelling. When she saw the unconscious pony, she glared at Applejack.

"What Ah tell yah about fightin' in the house?" Granny asked, moving to comfort the poor unconscious pony.

"But...Ah didn...he was already," Applejack tried to reply. The anger was still stuck to her tone.

"And what is with all this yellin'," Granny continued. "Ah didn't raise yah in a barn. Yah were raised proper and Ah expect yah to act like it."

Applejack wilted under the gaze of the matriarch of the farm.

"Finally, what is this with not being hospitable? We Apples never turn down anypony who come to our house for dinner. Ah don't care if the guest is Discord himself, an Apple always treats her guest with hospitality," Granny finished.

Applejack froze from shock as all the reprimands. As the grandmother passed her daughter, she had one last thing to say.

"Ah am not mad at yah, Applejack, just very disappointed."

Applejack couldn't shift emotions fast enough to deal with all these reprimands at once. Apple Bloom thanked Celestia for this justice.

Flam carried his brother into the house with the help of Granny Smith.

"You have a lot of guests. You are sure you have room for all of us at your table?" the salespony asked, avoiding the topic of what just transpired.

"Have yah ever seen an Apple family reunion?" Granny responded, politely putting rudeness behind her.

"No," he said.

"What yah need to know is that we can feed all of yah and don't worry about seats," the matriarch assured.

Author's Note:

Remember this is not a comedy. My position on the matter is that the status quo of pony culture is that they are prone hilarious misunderstandings. When we get to later sections of the story, it will become immediately obvious that this is a tragedy and very sad.

At least, I hope so.

Anyways, tell me what you thought about this chapter in the comments. There are probably grammar issues with this chapter, so I will get back to editing it tomorrow.

Comments

[Perteks]

Applejack crying... what? We have so big and fast changes in emotion of character that is strange, one moment she is raging and next she is crying? Do everyone of them are pregnant or what?

[Knowledge]

6737811

Yeah, It might not be realistic. I wanted Applejack to mirror Apple Bloom. Children are allowed to have volitile emotions, but Considering how Applejack wouldn't cry normally, I might have to change it to more of just shock. Granny Smith was pretty harsh to be fair. Also, This was a more comedic chapter than anything else, so the flipping between emotions was me experimenting with the genre.

I hope the chapter was enjoyable otherwise.

[Knowledge]

6737811

By the way, welcome back. It has been 90 weeks since I last saw you comment on the story. I knew I had seen your name before.

[Perteks]

6737832
Mostly because I read on phone and its very annoying to post any comment via phone

[Knowledge]

6737860 I get that. When I was getting my surgery done, I was editing chapters on my phone. It was a big pain.

As for your suggestion, I smoothed out the emotional coaster of the last bit of the chapter to make it more reasonable. The important thing is that the theme of acting first and never asking questions later continues.

Anyways, thanks for your input. It was very helpful now that my proofreaders have retired.

[Perteks]

6737876 Hah for sure I'm not that good replacement I can only point out logic/OOC problems, and maybe sometimes some small misspeling error. Grammar is something what I need to work on ;p problems of taught by using only.

But outside of this, not sure if you shouldn't use AU tag, this is one of those problematic stories, if it should have tag or not xD

[Knowledge]

6737888
Thanks for volunteering to help a bit. It takes me somewhere around 10 hours to write, edit, and revise a 5k word long chapter, so any help picking things out is very much appreciated. Finding a small logic issue can save me thirty minutes in the process.

I don't think the AU tag will be necessary for this story...perhaps.

As a reminder, this story is set completely between season three and four. I am planning on having a sequel starting during the season 5 finale. I wonder if it really counts as alternate universe if the plot device creating that AU is in the show.

Anyways, I always like hearing what got people into reading this story. It drives me to do my best knowing that something I am doing is valued by others.

[Perteks]

6737909
No problem, its quite unique story and sad that it don't have that much of recognition

[Knowledge]

6737946 It was hard enough learning how to write with changeling pronouns; I can imagine that many readers get frustrated with their extensive use. That or they hated the Enya reference in the prologue.