The Pony Dialogues

by Knowledge

Dinner Time 4.5: The Fillies' Table

Author's Note:

This isn't the Timeline and Glossary. There was a bug for some reason with the link and it sent some people to this chapter instead.

I wrote this all in a single sitting. Probably has a lot of problems, but after receiving so many unexplained dislikes over the last week, I am more interested in finishing this story than perfecting my grammar and lore consistency. If do spot mistakes, I will fix them. I will revise everything eventually to bring it up to the standards I want.

Revisions: Confused the name of the Magistracy with Dusk Shine's title. It is the Magistry of Magic and Science, not Harmony. He is the Prince of Harmony. Also, I accidentally called Twilight the princess of harmony rather than friendship. Sorry.

------------------------------Dining Room----------------------------

Lyra adjusted her tie before entering the dining room. The adult ponies were standing behind their respective chairs. The children had been sent to the kitchen where Big Mach had set up the 'Fillies' table'. The only exception was Flim who had joined the foals since he didn't seem well-enough for 'business talk.'

Lyra took a seat, sighing in relief. She had ran around town all day making sure ponies were harmonized. Luckily, Bon Bon, who was last on her list, ended up being at Applejack's.

The atmosphere of the room weighed down on the unicorn suddenly. Looking around, she noticed that all the other ponies were still standing behind their chairs. Worse, they were all glaring at her like she did something wrong.

"She doesn't know any better," Applejack and Granny Smith said simultaneously. Then they turned to stare at each other, and the oppressive atmosphere lifted from Lyra.

Everypony else seemed really uncomfortable standing around. Lyra didn't understand, and it surprised the unicorn that Bon Bon did.

Repetitive uses of the Mind Torch had seared much of the candy mare's intelligence, leaving her at a minimally functional state. It was certain that unless a new model of Mind Torch came out, that Bon Bon would have to be institutionalized.

Granny Smith and Applejack mirrored each other motions as they sat into their respective chairs at each end of the table. Sitting at the exact same time, everypony else sat down. Granny Smith and Applejack began filling their plates and then passed the food trays to the next pony to their right. Lyra was the last to receive a tray and there was only a filly's helping left.

"So Bon Bon was workin' on the farm today," Granny Smith said, initiating dinner conversation.

"Really?" Applejack asked. The farm mare studied Bon Bon, who had brought a little notebook with her to the table.

"Eeyup," Big Mac confirmed.

"What did you do on our farm, Bon Bon?" Applejack inquired further.

The questioned mare blinked a moment, processing the question. "Philosophy of holes," she replied.

"Filly softie what now?" Applejack was puzzled.

"Oh, Applejack, don't let the townmare get to you. That is just fancy talk for diggin' a ditch," Granny Smith explained.

"Why was she workin' in the irrigation ditches fer?"

"Because she wanted to, of course. While you were relaxing in town selling pies, Bon Bon did hard labor just like Ah did before we had livestock." Granny Smith's words had an palpable edge to them which made Lyra uncomfortable.

"Why would a townmare want to work with livestock?" The same edge appeared in Applejack's edge.

"Friend is livestock. Ze needs help digging holes. I want learn to. Good for zir. Good for me." Bon Bon explained in her broken Equestrian.

"Bon Bon, livestock are not pets. You don't make friends with livestock. Ah don't want to hear that you are playing with them again." Applejack was very serious. The farm mare basically doing Lyra's job.

"Let the mare be," Granny Smith said. The the assistant to Ponyville's Repersentative to the Magistracy of Magic and Science glanced at the elder with suspicion. "No harm can come from hard work. Does it really matter that she is doing it because she likes a bug?"

"A bug-" Applejack began, but Lyra interrupted.

"It is a big deal. It is important for the economy that animals do not get the idea that they are equal to ponies," Lyra said for the Granny Smith. Her hoof on her Mind Torch just in case she needed to use it.

"Why?" Bon Bon asked innocently.

"If livestock think they are equal, they will think they can do what ponies can do."

"So?" Bon Bon gave Lyra her undivided attention.

"If livestock do what ponies do, then ponies will be unhappy," Lyra explained. This left the farm mares confused, but Filthy Rich and Flam understood.

"Bon Bon, you have a talent, right?" Flam asked. Bon Bon blinked and nodded with uncertainty. "You know that there are only so many ponies that can have similar talents in Ponyville."

Bon Bon shook her head.

"Dear, there can only be so many candy mares in town before the competition gets out of control," Filthy said.

"What does this have to do with animals?" Bon Bon wondered.

"It has everything thing to do with animals. Our whole society is based on ponies living lives based on their Cutie Marks, and there are only enough Cutie Marks for do all the jobs necessary to keep Equestria at an economic equilibrium. If animals are allowed to do whatever they want, they take jobs from ponies," Lyra explained in an absolutely serious tone.

"Why bad?" Bon Bon barked, which surprised several ponies.

"Unhappy ponies is why. Cutie Marks tell ponies what they should do with their lives. If Applejack had Rarity's Cutie Mark, she would be making dresses because her Cutie Mark demand her to do it. If Applejack couldn't do what her Cutie Mark was telling her, she would become incredibly depressed. This means Equestria must make sure that she has a job available for her, and to do that, animals cannot be allowed to do anything that gets in the way of that. They must either be pets, who basically do nothing economic, or be livestock, who do hard labor that no pony would be happy to do."

"Animal's happiness?" Bon Bon wondered.

Lyra lifted an eyebrow. If Bon Bon hadn't been mind torched several times recently, Lyra would have taken her out of the room to recondition her right then.

"This is Equestria, not some backwater, chaotic non-equine country," Flam stated coldly. Filthy squirmed uncomfortably.

"The business unicorn is correct. This is Equestria, a country of ponies for ponies. We don't have to do anything for non-ponies," Lyra began. "But there is more to it. Anything that we let non-ponies do is a gift. They decide to immigrate to our country because there is Harmony here and disharmony where they live. We give them free food in return they don't compete with us for jobs. Those who can speak Equestrian are even given work on farms. They have no reason not to be happy."

Filthy coughed. "So did I ever tell you the story of how my daughter got her Cutie Mark?"

"We heard it, but they haven't. Yah should tell it, Filthy," Granny Smith urged.

Big Mac excused himself. Taking his unfinished plate, he exited to the kitchen.

--------------------------------------------------The Filly's Table--------------------------------------------------

"Ah hate the fillies' table," Apple Bloom whined. "Ah want to know what the adults are talkin' about."

At this, an unconscious adult unicorn fell on the farm filly.

"Diamond Tiara, stop it," Apple Bloom cried. She picked up the unicorn and sat him back up in his chair before an untouched plate. The school bully who sat on the other side of business stallion, took every opportunity to poke him, causing the tall unconscious pony to lean ever so slightly towards Apple Bloom. The farm filly had to poke the stallion back every time Diamond Tiara to correct his posture. It was quickly devolving into rapid fire kicks.

"Wisdom help!" Apple Bloom. The salt-and-pepper unicorn blinked and then cast a spell. Suddenly, the stallion didn't budge at all. It was as if the stallion became a beam cemented into the ground. Apple Bloom thanked Wisdom.

"What gives!" Diamond exclaimed. "What did that freak do?"

"She ain't a freak. She's Wisdom," Apple Bloom retorted. "Anyways she doesn't know what you said. She can't speak Equestrian."

"A pony who can't speak Equestrian is a freak." Diamond threw a bunch of insults at Wisdom only to get blinks and head tilts. "See a freak."

Apple Bloom took out a piece of paper that fillies and colts used at dinner to play tic-tac-toe and wrote a message to Wisdom.

What did you do? she asked.

Wisdom answered immediately with her own writing utensil. Grounding spell. Makes a person unable to be moved. I used it earlier when I was in the bathroom where I came up with it. I usually come up with my best ideas while washing up.

"That makes sense," Apple Bloom said, digesting this new information.

"What makes sense?" Diamond Tiara asked. She didn't like being left out.

"None of your bee's wax." The farm filly blew the bully a raspberry. Tell me more about your mother, she wrote.

My parent is a horsefly. Using emotions to shapeshift and then feed on your energy. Very rare species. What you say earlier was what they look like underneath their chitin. Ze teaches-

"That ain't no horsefly, that is a changeling," Apple Bloom exclaimed out loud.

"What is this about changelings? I demand you tell me what you two are talking about!"

"Again, none of your bee's wax!" Wisdom, do you realize that

"Apple Bloom!" bellowed a certain big brother.

------------------------------Dining Room----------------------------

"So it was Diamond's eighth birthday. My wife and I wanted it to be extra special, so I thought what would be more amazing than taking part of the fast trip across Equestria ever experienced by a pony ever." Filthy's story had quickly taken Lyra and Bon Bon's attention. "We considered train, pegasus, and airship, but all paled in comparison to the fastest form transportation known to ponykind."

"Teleportation," Lyra guessed.

Filthy nodded. "We had seen Princess Celestia teleport from Canterlot into the middle of Ponyville before, but there were no records of anypony, not even the princesses teleporting across the entire nation. When we asked the former librarian Dusk Shine if it was possible, he said no one unicorn or alicorn can handle such distances.

"Well, if one unicorn could no handle it, it was just a matter of getting multiple unicorns. Using the old Apple family reunion roads, which connect every corner of Equestria together (you can find them by looking for the Apple trees they plant along the way when they move to new villages like Appleoosa), we build little huts and employed hundreds of unicorn students from Manehatten and Fillydelphia off for the Summer break to teleport objects along these paths. Many of them were not good at teleportion when we hired them, so we had Dusk Shine give them lessons at a modest fee of supporting his projects in Canterlot."

"Dusk Shine, the Prince of Harmony, the Magister of Magic and Science? Giving lessons?" Lyra was genuinely surprised to hear that her boss did something like this.

"The same. He was such a helpful stallion and business partner," Filthy replied with a small chuckle. "Back to the story, ahem."

"We performed experiments first before we were going to do it on my daughter. We couldn't do ponies because the whole point was that Diamond would be the first, so we settle for fruit. First time, we tried an apple and it turned into an orange. According to Dusk Shine, even the most talented unicorn slightly distorts the object they teleport, though it is usually so slight as to be negligible. It took a month to figure out that one unicorn was using the wrong spell as a prank.

"With the hiccup in our teleportion fixed, we were ready to give our daughter an experience nopony has ever had before. The wife said goodbye to a brown filly with no cutie mark in Manehatten and I greeted a pink filly with a diamond tiara cutie mark in Appleoosa. We had to do blood tests just to make sure she was actually our daughter. And that is how our little princess did something not even the Princesses ever did."

"Better than the Princesses?" Lyra asked, summoning her Disharmony report pad.

"I didn't say that." Filthy Rich pulled at his collar. Sweat visibly ran down his temples. "Did I mention that Dusk Shine was a fan of my project?"

Lyra banished the report pad. If Dusk Shine is okay with Filthy Rich's behavior, then there is no reason to report him, she reasoned.

Granny Smith broke out in laughter. "That story always cracks me up. Your grandpa would be proud, Filthy."

Filthy thanked the matriarch. Finishing the last bit of food, he addressed Flim. "Why don't you tell them about our proposal while I talk to my daughter about that apology?"

Flim nervously agreed while Filthy mechanically left the table, carefully avoiding eye contact with Lyra.

--------------------------------------------------The Filly's Table--------------------------------------------------

"Ugh, Big Mac, ugh, why are yah here?" Apple Bloom deflected. The large stallion grumbled before plopping down in a spare seat. He was never one for many words.

"That bad?"

"Eeyup." Big Mac chomped down on a carrot and twirled it in his mouth while he thought.

"Um, Big Mac, you got anything against bug ponies?" Apple Bloom asked.

"Nope." Big Mac raised an eyebrow higher than the filly thought possible.

"Would you panic if you met one?"

"Nope."

"Have you ever met one?"

"Eeyup."

"Recently?"

"Eeyup."

"Was her name Ever?"

"Eeyup."

"No panicking when you met her?"

Big Mac took a moment to finish his carrot before frowning. He remembered Granny Smith and his response to their new livestock.

"Bad?"

"Nope," Big Mac frown deepened.

"Badder?"

"Worse, you hick," Diamond Tiara corrected.

Big Mac merely chewed on a piece of celery. He had nearly forgotten that they had came inches from squashing the poor horsefly or changeling or whatever she was.

Apple Bloom became scared. "Well, um Wisdom's mom is this bug pony."

"I knew she was a freak!" DT shouted.

Big Mac chewed on this.

"She will have to get back to her mom later tonight."

"Her mom was that egg in the barn. She almost died. Wisdom thinks it was emotional stress."

Big Mac took another piece of celery and really began to masticate his vegetables. His mind tried to wrap around what he was learning.

"Ah am worried what would happen if other ponies met Wisdom's mom. Ah don't want Wisdom to lose her only parent. What do you think would happen if Applejack learned about Ever?"

Big Mac swallowed prematurely.

"What would Applejack do, exactly?" Diamond Tiara asked.

"Yah remember how she went on and on about changelings after the wedding. She was bought so much bug spray from yer dad that we got a shed full of it. She would spray all of us every night until we convinced her that ain't no more changelings. It was worse than her dislike of fruit bats," Apple Bloom explained.

"So what are you going to do?" Diamond grinned as she gleaned more information.

"We need someone to take Wisdom to the barn where Wisdom is while pretending she is going to town, and we are going to hide this from Applejack. She barely talks to the livestock anymore, leaving the mules and Granny to manage them. Applejack will never know."

"What is to stop me from telling her myself?"

"Yah wouldn't kill a pony! We would have to be sprayed every night again!" Apple Bloom replied shocked.

"I am not killing a pony. A bug is a different story. And it would be hilarious to see you two getting bug sprayed." Memories of Diamond Tiara and Silverspoon tormenting ant hills with fireworks came to mind.

Big Mac didn't respond, picking up another carrot to chomp on. He needed to think, not worry about fillies squabbling. Wisdom had the same idea for a long time and had been eating her food in quiet contemplation.

"If yah say anything, Ah will tell Lyra on your father's less-than-harmonious beliefs!" Apple Bloom said. As an Apple, she had gotten to hear a lot of Filthy's ideas during their business meetings. To put it simply, the stallion literally believed his daughter could become a princess. Earth ponies were not supposed to have the ambitions of gifted unicorns as it would lead to competition between the races and, therefore, disharmony.

"There is no need for that when we could strike a deal," spoke a calm but very serious voice of a business stallion.

------------------------------Dining Room----------------------------

Flim began to sing and then realized his brother wasn't present. This made him a bit nervous because he then.

"Ahem, so I was saying. I am suggesting that we become partners during the next cider season," Flim said plainly.

"Yah needed a whole song to say that?" Applejack was incredulous.

"Ponies are easily persuaded by song and dance numbers. If you do business, you take every advantage you can get." Flim waved off criticism.

"Why yah think we need yer help in cider season?" the matriarch inquired.

"I have seen the lines for your cider. You either have to increase your prices--"

"Not going to happen." Applejack was adamant on this point.

"As Filthy explained to me. Or you will have to increase your production. The demand for cider is higher than you are producing. There is money to be made. If you let us help you make cider, we can easily make ten times as much as you did last year. With Filthy Rich's help, we can get excess all the way to Neighara Falls."

"Again, what makes yah think we let you help us with your machines and magic?" Applejack asked. If anypony had to describe Applejack as something other than honest, they would all say stubborn.

"I know for a fact that you haven't gotten help from other ponies, unicorns in fact. Last cider season, it was a unicorn who did the vast majority of the picking during our competition to which you agreed. Filthy informed me that you barely harvested your fields during Applebuck season because your brother was injured. It was again due to a unicorn who did more work than you did in moments that you finished on time. Last time I checked, magic was not a traditional earth pony way of harvesting. So I cannot see how our ways of doing things should be an issue for you."

He got Applejack, but she wasn't about to give up. "They were family."

"You are claiming a unicorn as your family? Last I checked the Apple Family were all earth ponies," Flim said. Filthy prepared Flim and Flam for these reponses, knowing Applejack and their farm inside and out.

"Who is this unicorn exactly that I keep hearing about?" Lyra inquired, summoning her report book again. Her squinting stare at Applejack spoke of the utmost suspicion.

"Twilight. Now put that away," Applejack said, commanding Evening Glimmer's deputy.

"Princess Twilight, the princess of Friendship, bearer of the Element of Magic. Your friend. I find no issue with this," Lyra stated, banishing her notebook again.

"As Ah was sayin', my friends are honorary family, which you accepted during our little bet," Applejack said.

"I had no intention with disagreeing with you here. I mostly wanted to point out how willing you are to bend traditions to fit your circumstances much likes us business stallions." Flim took a sip of water. He was not used to this kind of deal making and wished Filthy would return soon. "So let us make this clear, do you consider friends family?"

"That is what Ah said, and Ah stand by it," Applejack stated adamantly.

"Do you consider anypony who does work on your farm family?"

"Except when Ah let yah borrow our apples for our competition, yeah anypony else is considered family."

Flim blinked. He was hoping to catch her on that. Applejack looked satisfied.

Filthy reentered the room, sat down, and had a private whispered conversation with Flim. He took in the information of what he missed. He then coughed into his napkin and began to speak. "Applejack do you consider the friends of your friends friends?"

Applejack nodded.

"Do you consider me a friend? We have done business with the Apple family for more than a generation."

Applejack didn't respond.

"We are friends," Granny Smith said on her granddaughters behalf.

"Well, Flim and his brother Flam are my friends, so I guess this makes them your friends too."

Applejack didn't respond.

"Ah reckon yah are right," Granny Smith said with a small smile. There was a reason she liked Filthy; the stallion had a head on his shoulders. If he was forty years older and she hadn't already given her heart to somepony else, she might have fallen in love with him.

"Which would make them your family," Filthy said while correcting his tie.

"Again, ah reckon yah are right."

"Applejack couldn't possible disagree unless she was lying before," Filthy finished with a victorious smirk.

Applejack seethed. She hated Filthy. She couldn't stand him as a filly. If she ever found a stallion that she loved, he would be the opposite of Filthy in every way.

"Ah guess all there is left is the details," the matriarch said.

"Could we talk about this first?" Applejack asked. Filthy excused himself again, got up, and pushed in his chair. Taking his plate, he entered the kitchen.

"What questions do you have?" Flim asked.

"Could we talk about this?" Applejack repeated.

"Oh," Flim uttered before getting up and pushing in his chair quickly. Bon Bon mirrored the motions and followed them into the kitchen to put away their plates.

Lyra sipped her water observing what was going on. Applejack rubbed a hoof against her temple for the behavior of her guest.

"Lyra, you are excused," Applejack stated as politely as she could manage.

The unicorn looked confused before it clicked. She got up, leaving her chair and plate behind. The unicorn went to the front door, picking up her tin foil hat and suit before leaving.

When the door shut, Applejack sighed.

"Canterlot ponies don't know any better. Remember Dusk Shine's first time?" Granny Smith reminisced.

"Twilight was even worse. She thought Big Mac was a servant." Applejack smirked at the memory of the socially clumsy mare.

The humor helped the matriarchs of the Ponyville branch of the Apple Family ease into what would be a long, stressful night of discussing the future of the farm. Not to mention, Applejack was still recovering from a tongue lashing she received at the front door earlier.

------------------------------Fillies' Table (Kitchen)----------------------------

"What kind of deal?" Apple Bloom asked, failing at a poker face.

Filthy chuckled a bit before returning back to his slick old self.

"The deal is I do something for you, and no pony talks to the government dog," Filthy explained.

"The government dog?" Apple Bloom asked, her ears flattening against her head in nervousness.

"Lyra," Filthy answered. He turned to his daughter. "Is there something your friends need?"

"They need someone to take the freak to her mother and make sure Applejack doesn't know who the freak's equally freaky mother is," DT replied quickly.

"Freak?"

"Wisdom," Apple Bloom answered.

"And what is so strange of her mother?"

"She is a changeling," DT answered this time before Apple Bloom could stop her.

Filthy leaned against the wall. Closing his eyes, he chuckled for a good minute.

"Yah ain't going to hurt her? Tell Applejack about the changeling, right?"

Filthy shook his head. "I would sooner sell my business at book value than hurt such a glorious creature of change and possibility."

Diamond Tiara did not like any talk of setting her inheritance away. The other ponies, on the other hoof, did not know what to think of the response.

"Let us sweeten the deal then. I will take care of Wisdom, make sure she gets to her parent without Applejack knowing about anything. In return, all I ask that this changeling visit me for a small get-together at my mansion next week."

Extending a hoof to the filly, Apple Bloom considered the offer. She did not feel comfortable accepting deals as she was the second daughter, so the right to accept deals were really Applejack's right.

Big Mac took the hoof.

"Between us business stallions then?"

"Eeyup."

"Very well," Filthy said. Turning back to his daughter, he reminded her that they were going to apologize to the changeling. He chuckled one more time to himself before returning to the dining room.

Apple Bloom returned to talking to Wisdom on paper.

Diamond Tiara groaned. It was late, and she was exhausted. The filly didn't look forward to 'apologizing' to some freaks. Worst of all, her friend Silverspoon wasn't here.

"Tic Tac Toe?" Big Mac offered the little filly.

At least, she should wouldn't be left out.

Comments

[nighters]

I wonder if cannon twilight would be horrified by there behavior in this timeline off shot before having a stern letter to the rulers warning them this would be a path of ruin.

[Perteks]

disgusting the new information.
:D wat? Digesting maybe?