The Minuet

by Noble Phantasm

The Troubled Dentist

The Minuet
-The stories of a pony with extraordinary magic who only wanted to be a dentist.

Time and space await…

Chapter 1: The Troubled Dentist

Brushie…Brushie…the mare brushed her teeth as the day began with princess Celestia raising the sun. Her name was Minuette, but her friends liked to call her Colgate because her mane looked like the toothpaste that she was so fond of, a calm mix of blue and silver. Brushie…brushie… Colgate rinsed and grinning into the mirror, made sure her teeth were pearly white like they needed to be. After all, who would trust a dentist with dirty teeth? She had a hard enough time getting anypony to agree to let her clean their teeth. It wasn’t that she was a bad dentist, but Colgate wasn’t like other mares. Any normal pony would assume that if she was a talented dentist, then her cutie mark might look like a tooth or something. Not Colgate’s. It was like her soul was confused. All she ever wanted to be was a dentist, but her special talent, according to her cutie mark, was not dentistry, but magic. Her cutie mark was a plain, mild brown hourglass that stood out against her pastel blue fur.

Being a unicorn, Colgate was of course capable of using magic, but had never taken the time to study it like she had dentistry. Her cutie mark came from a day when she was a filly and she and Berry Punch had been playing around Sugarcube Corner when a boulder that had apparently been knocked loose from the force of an explosion n the sky nearly crushed them. By no intention of her own, Colgate used magic for the first time and somehow inadvertently teleported both of them back to her own home out of fear. When she opened her eyes to realize she was okay there it was, that nonsensical cutie mark. Since then it had gotten worse. It was like her magic developed a will of its own and it would pull her from place to place. She would be trotting along and suddenly her horn would light up and spark and she would end up a street over or one time randomly in Canterlot with the ground at her hooves scorched and the feel of a sort of static cling in her mane. One time she had even woken up to find that the day was exactly the same as the last. Her power had actually reversed the flow of time while she had been asleep.

At one point she had even been offered a place in Celestia’s school for gifted unicorns being told that she had more raw power than any other unicorn, but had declined. Not an easy thing to do when the Princess asks you herself, but all Colgate wanted even as a filly was to be a dentist. It fascinated her. She didn’t want to learn anymore about her power, in part, because it frightened her. She only wanted her power to go away so she could be a normal dentist and so ponies could trust her not abruptly vanish halfway through cleaning their teeth or accidentally pull a tooth because her flow of time suddenly fell out of sync with everypony else’s. She found recently that if she concentrated enough when she knew her magic was beginning to act up she could stop it. This made for a few awkward silences or perhaps dramatic pauses when having conversations, but it was better than ending up in a field of slime in Froggy Bottom Bog or crashing one of Fancypants’s dinner parties again. It was a fix Colgate hoped would last.

Time and space were complicated things and so on this breezy Equestrian day, instead of getting a headache over the implications of time travel or getting tied up in string theory, Colgate trotted across Ponyville to help her friends Berry Punch and Bon Bon harvest fruit. It would be a run of the mill exercise, the products of which would likely be used by Berry Punch to mix up her fruity cocktails that she was not only known for selling but consuming as well. She mentioned that she had been growing something new in her garden this year, but had refused to tell Colgate what it was saying that it was better to wait until it was ready. Perhaps she had just been trying to avoid any shame under the circumstance that whatever it was she was trying to grow died because she couldn’t take care of it properly. This way if it didn’t pan out, no pony would be able to judge whether or not her gardening skills were actually bad or the plant was just temperamental. But Colgate was probably reading far too into things like she always did.

When Colgate arrived Berry Punch was in her garden rolling watermelons around and picking blueberries from bushes that were so green they made the grass look pale. Berry Punch waved to her friend as she saw her approach glancing strangely from left to right.

“Hey there Colgate,” Berry Punch greeted.

“Hey,” Colgate answered.

“So, are you ready to find out what I’ve managed to-”

“Wait,” Colgate interrupted. Berry Punch sunk a little bit looking worried. “Before you show me anything, let’s see those teeth.”

“Oh…” Berry Punch looked around shyly, casting awkward glances and giving Colgate an uneasy close-mouthed grin. “I’m sure they’re fine Colgate. Don’t you want to-”

“No excuses,” Colgate demanded. “Give me a great big smile. Like this.” Colgate smiled as wide as she could, showing off a set of pure white chompers that she was proud to declare that she brushed every day. Berry Punch lowered her ears sheepishly trying not to make eye contact. There was a moment of silence in which the only sound was Colgate muttering the words “Brushie Brushie” through her grin as she stared glittery eyed at her friend who had resorted to twiddling her front hooves still refusing to show her teeth. Colgate frowned.

“Come on,” She egged on.

“You don’t have to check everyday.”

“I don’t. But I care about my patients. Now give me a nice healthy smile.” Berry Punch waited a few moments and seeing no way out gave her friend a reluctant and self-conscious smile.

“Hmmm,” Colgate squinted.

“You make me nervous,” Berry Punch stated through clenched teeth.

“Berry?”

“What?”

“Have you been brushing like I told you?”

“Well…” Berry Punch closed her mouth and put her hooves over it. “You can te- I mean of course every…well most of the…every other day…perhaps…I’m not sure.”

“Berry…” Colgate raised her eyebrows.

“Okay, not everyday! It’s hard to keep track.”

“Well you need to brush if you want to drink all that fancy wine.”

“Um…okay…” There was an awkward silence which was only broken by the approach of Bon Bon with two full bags strapped over her back.

“Oh hey Bon Bon!” Colgate said excitedly and rushed over to her. “Your turn. Give me a big grin!” Colgate put her hooves to Bon Bon’s face and forced her lips to a smile. “Hey you remembered!” Bon Bon turned abruptly tripping Colgate with one of the full sacks of fruit her face falling back to a stoic expression. Colgate toppled onto her back as Bon Bon simply acted as if it were natural.

“So what’s in the bags?” Colgate inquired as she rolled herself over. Berry Punch rushed straight over throwing a hoof across Bon Bon’s back.

“Glad you asked!” She said excitedly, all too eager to change the subject. Berry Punch reached into one of the bags and yanked out one of the small fruits inside balancing the small shiny red sphere on the flat of her hoof. The thing sparkled in the sunlight and had Colgate perplexed over what it was supposed to be. At first her eyes had assumed it to be a ruby, but those didn’t grow on bushed and someone like Berry Punch wouldn’t be interested in gems.

“Well?” Berry Punch held the fruit proudly. “What do you think?”

“Hmmmmmm…” Colgate narrowed her eyes, stretching her neck to squint at the object as if moving from her place would break her concentration. There was a pause in which the only movement was Bon Bon rolling her eyes at Colgate’s confusion.

“Bet you thought I couldn’t do it,” Berry Punch commented boastfully. Colgate, giving up on identifying whatever it was Berry Punch was holding that made her brag so, simply looked her friend in the eye and asked,

“What is it?” One might have thought that the words Colgate spoke somehow held their own weight in Kilos, as upon hearing them Berry Punch nearly toppled over backwards like the force of them entering her ears shoved her away. She, was so to speak, floored.

“What are-” Berry Punch attempted a stammered repeat. “What are they!?” Colgate lowered her ears from the intensity of her shout and went wide eyed. At this point, Bon Bon attempted to chime in, only to be interrupted by the flabbergasted pony who wanted to be the one to deliver the grand enlightening explanation.

“They’re c-”

“Shh!” Berry Punch shoved her hoof into Bon Bon’s mouth and effectively, the fruit as well. “Quiet Bon Bon.” Bon Bon let out an uninterested huff and contently chewed on the fruit that had been so graciously presented to her.

“These-!” Berry Punch began, taking her hoof away from Bon Bon to brandish the fruit before Colgate only stopping short once she realized she wasn’t holding anything. She stared at her empty hoof for a second and then to Bon Bon who chewed away noisily with a smug expression on her face. Berry Punch’s jaw dropped as if she felt somehow betrayed. Bon Bon swallowed and gave her lips a single lick and stared over Berry Punch’s head ignoring her crestfallen face. Berry Punch shook her head several times to cast off her daze and quickly swiped another one of the small spherical fruits from the sack at Bon Bon’s side.

“These,” Berry Punch began again holding up a now blue sparkling fruit for Colgate to see. “These are crystal berries.”

“Ohhhh” Colgate breathed out.

“Courtesy of princess Cadence.”

“I didn’t know you could grow those here.”

“They’re…different.” That didn’t really provide any insight into how difficult they were to grow. Berry Punch was either being humble by not revealing how painstaking it was or hiding how simple it actually was so that her friends’ lack of knowledge might make her look more impressive. Whatever the case, Colgate knew what was coming next.

“Can you imagine the punch I could make with these?” Berry Punch swirled about elated with the berry on her hoof as if she were dancing with it. Colgate gave a snicker and it was as if Berry Punch suddenly became aware of what she was doing. She stopped immediately and flustered a response.

“It’ll be delicious and you know it.” Berry Punch swiftly put the fruit back into the bag pausing as she did so. She looked confused, like the bag had something in it that it shouldn’t have. Berry Punch reached into one of the bags and pulled out three different colored apples.

“Bon Bon,” Berry Punch frowned. “These aren’t crystal berries.” Bon Bon looked even more surprised than Berry Punch to see apples come out of a sack that was only supposed to have berries in it.

“I didn’t put-” She started, but seemed to realized something and frowned. “Ah screw it…” She started over in monotonous speech, “I didn’t put those in my ba-”

“Surprise!” came a unison shout. Bon Bon still didn’t finish her sentence and fell to her stomach in astonishment, stirring up a thin cloud of dust about her and spilling a few berries as three fillies grinned wolfishly behind her.

“Hey you guys,” Colgate greeted the three. The Cutie Mark Crusaders. That’s what they called themselves and as usual it seemed they were up to anything they could think of.

“Did you three put these apples here?” Berry Punch asked.

“We sure did,” Applebloom beamed with pride.

“We were gonna get our cutie marks in being sneaky,” Scootaloo exclaimed. “Bet you didn’t even see us huh Bon Bon?” Scootaloo smirked bringing her eyes so close to Bon Bon’s that their noses almost touched.

“Not at all,” Bon Bon puckered her brow.

“See!” Scootaloo bounced about energetically.

“But still no cutie mark,” Sweetie Belle sighed checking her flank.

“Hey don’t worry,” Colgate reassured them. “You’ll get there. And here’s your first test. How many of you remembered to brush your teeth?”

“Ooo! Ooo!” Sweetie Belle squeaked perking up instantly. “I did!” She smiled as wide as she could.

“Great,” Colgate exclaimed enthusiastically. “You’ll have perfectly white teeth for when you can’t stop smiling when you do get your cutie mark.” Sweetie Belle looked pleased. “What about you Applebloom?”

“Ah sure did,” She grinned as proof. “Ah made Applejack try it too.”

“Really? What’d she say?”

“She told me ah was weird.” Applebloom’s grin changed to a soft puppy-eyed look.

“Persistence is key. What about you Scootaloo?” Scootaloo brushed her hoof through the dirt.

“Well…I have been using the mouth washy stuff you showed us.” Scootaloo donned an expression that said “good enough” and seemed satisfied.

“That’s good Scoot,” Colgate advised genuinely. “But you really should brush too you know.”

“But with the washy stuff you can blow bubbles!” Scootaloo exclaimed.

“You what?” Before Colgate could pry any deeper for an answer she felt a sharp pain in her forehead. She flinched as a blue spark jolted from her horn and flew into the air. Her vision closed in and the worried voices of her friends became muffled. It felt like a rubber band had wrapped itself around her head and was slowly squeezing. This was her magic acting up again. Still mysteriously beyond her control, it took any senses she had left to fight against being borne away to the crystal empire or having to re-experience the entire incident that had just happened. It wouldn’t be a problem, but it did hurt a little. In fact it hurt more than it usually did this time and her line of sight seemed even more narrow and tunnel-like. It was also taking longer for her to get rid of the sensation. And even though her eyesight had close in on her she could still see the frantic patter of hooves about her.

Eventually it began to subside. The invisible band about her head began to loosen, the feeling in her limbs began to return, and her vision brightened and as everything became clear, Colgate was met by the worried eyes of everypony that had been near her. They were all standing to her left, either with a concerned or shocked expression. Even Bon Bon who had seen it necessary to abandon the bags of crystal berries to move out of the way, looked like she had just seen a dragon. What had surprised them? It should have just looked like she cringed from a migraine or something, but the look in their eyes betrayed that it wasn’t that simple. Colgate looked down at her hooves. She had physically dug all four of them at least an inch or so into the soil and next to her right hoof was what used to be a crystal berry only instead of having its normal gem-like gleam it was singed and black as if someone had thrown it into a fire or roasted it for too long.

“Golly Miss Colgate,” Applebloom said shakily. “What was that all about?” Berry Punch walked up to her slowly and placed a hoof around her back.

“You okay Minuette?” Berry Punch whispered. Now Colgate knew something was wrong. Berry Punch rarely used Colgate’s real name unless it was something serious and now Colgate could only imagine what could have spurred such a reaction while she was struggling against her own magic. “I think you should run along now fillies,” Berry Punch suggested.

“O-Okay…” Sweetie Belle agreed halfheartedly. Applebloom trotted over and picking up one of the apples they had snuck into the berries with her mouth, laid it at Colgate’s feet.

“Maybe it’ll help?” She suggested tentatively. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle began to walk off, Scootaloo reluctantly turning to follow her friends.

“Gosh, hope you feel better Colgate,” Scootaloo parted with Colgate’s gaze with worried eyes. Once the fillies’ backs were turned Colgate felt the urge to cry wash over her. It hurt to think those three were actually afraid of her. They had seemed terrified and it was her fault. It was her stupid magic. She hadn’t meant to do whatever it was she did that frightened them. She stomped a hoof and suppressed any tears that might have betrayed her feelings. Berry Punch was thankfully empathetic to her friend and knew she was upset. Bon Bon was still at a loss for words.

“Was that your magic?” Berry Punch asked.

“Yeah…” Colgate admitted. “But what happened? Usually I just get a big headache and it goes away after a bit.” Even as she said this though, Colgate had to admit that it had been much more difficult to resist this time. And usually the pain subsided after an episode. This time it lingered like a stuffy nose after you sneeze too many times.

“Beats me,” Berry Punch shrugged. “Your horn just stated shinning and throwing sparks everywhere. Me and Bon Bon had to stomp out some small flames so the bushes didn’t catch fire.”

“Really?” Colgate looked down sullenly. She hadn’t meant to cause such chaos and such a thing had never happened before. Was her power actually beginning to fight back against her attempts to repress it now? It sure looked that way.

“Hey…you okay?” Berry Punch’s concern made Colgate’s chest twinge. She was grateful, but at the same time felt bad for making her friends worry. It was a useless predicament.

“I just need a few moments,” Colgate sighed lifting Berry Punch’s hoof from her back and wandering off, not really knowing where she was going and leaving the apple that had been placed at her feet undisturbed.

“Hey. We could really use your help Colgate,” Berry Punch appealed after her friend.

“Nah. I need a bit to think. Besides, I don’t want to set your garden on fire.”

“Hey don’t say that. You can have the first glass of crystal berry punch.” Berry Punch gave a placid grin, but Colgate didn’t turn back to see it.

“I’ll pass.” Colgate floated off, her hooves listlessly moving themselves as she walked. Berry Punch’s face saddened and she lowered her ears. Colgate didn’t know what else to do though. She didn’t want to risk ruining all the fruit Berry Punch had worked so hard to grow, especially the crystal berries. She seemed especially proud of them and in light of what had just happened, Colgate didn’t trust herself around them. Perhaps that wasn’t the way to phrase that though now that she thought about it. It wasn’t herself that she didn’t trust. It was her magic, which from the very start Colgate never really considered a part of herself. It was like a separate spiteful force inside her even more its own entity now than ever. It pained her to think that the solution she thought she had found to her problem was turning out to only have been temporary.

Colgate found her solace under a lonely tree outside Ponyville. From the start, she didn’t really know where she was headed when she left her friends to harvest the rest of the crop without her. She didn’t want to go home. It would have made her feel lazy and unaccomplished going home so soon. To add to this, it didn’t seem like coming back the next day to help with whatever didn’t get done was really plausible as Colgate observed from the activity of the Pegasi, it looked like they were planning a rainfall in the near future. She sat there under a leafy shade tree in the grass needlessly pondering what she would do if she couldn’t get her magic under control for far longer than she should have. She knew it wasn’t good for her and she knew that no matter how hard she thought about it a revelation wasn’t going to just fall into her head out the tree she wallowed underneath.

A twitch at first. It was in her eyebrow. Then, the sensation of that band around her head began creeping back. Colgate cursed her luck. It was happening again. At least this time there was nopony around for her to hurt. The first spark shot from her horn and her vision tunneled down to a cylinder again, all other noise masked into a muffle like the band around her head was squeezing her brain in a way that was preventing certain signals from reaching it. Her limbs locked up as she struggled against the biting pain, a fierce pounding in her head as if her heart had decided that was where it was supposed to be. It was even worse now. At this point, she was practically blind, but too fearful of what might happen to give up and let the magic run its course. Her entire consciousness was locked up. Was she even breathing? She couldn’t tell. It was taking every cell in her mind to stop her magic.

Then it was like something clicked. She felt that constricting feeling around her head begin to loosen and the pounding of her pulse slowly make its way back into her chest where it was supposed to be. She could feel her joints soften from their stiff state like oil being poured on creaky gears. Her eyesight rippled like pond water as it recovered from its comatose state. Her head spun for a few moments and Colgate clapped her hoof against her skull to fight the disorienting dizziness. Then, her hearing began to come back to her as the final pressure in her head was released like steam was coming out of her ears. They popped and then she thought they popped again. As her dizziness faded she could make out what she first thought was her ears popping but now discerned it as a crackling noise accompanied by snapping sounds. The air was hot. Abnormally hot. At first Colgate assumed it was her body reacting to the surge of magic she had just experienced. But the heat wasn’t coming from her body, but from a different source, namely behind her. Colgate had recovered enough at this point to think logically and see plainly although still slightly dizzy. She turned around merely out of curiosity

Her eyes were met with a brilliant display of red and orange light blinding even against the sun behind it. The whole tree she had been standing under was ablaze in a sweltering pillar of fire. It was a good thing Colgate hadn’t stayed to harvest fruit. She was right not to have trusted herself. She had no doubt caused this. She attempted to back away instinctly, but tipped back onto her hindquarters due to lack of balance. The dizziness was still affecting her. For a moment she thought the flames would lash out at her and that would be the end of it. What a terrible way to go. But before she even had time to recover herself a large rain cloud overshadowed the blaze from above. And then a distant screaming gradually getting closer.

“aaaaaaaAAAAHHHH!” from above something struck the rain cloud and a waterfall’s worth of torrent plummeted to the hillside extinguishing the inferno with a fierce hiss that let off a column of smoke that was swallowed by yet more water. Something poked a hole in the cloud and plummeting through the falling torrent collided with Colgate. There was no time for her to react. She saw a few stars, but at this point they were comforting and the feeling of landing in water logged soil was preferable to fire any day. Colgate shook her head a few times to get the water off and orient herself as the rain cloud dissipated and the last of the water dripped from the charred tree branches. Now who was the pony who landed on top of her?

“Oops. My bad.” a voice said. Why was she apologizing Colgate wondered? The mare, as evident by the voice, had probably saved her life. The unknown Pegasus got off Colgate’s back and settled into a sitting position next to her in the wet grass. “Ohhhhhh” She seemed to be in wonder, looking up at the tree that was practically a giant twig sticking out of the ground now. “Did I do that?” Colgate got to her feet and took a look at her apparently inadvertent savior. It was a gray Pegasus with a blonde mane and bubbles for a cutie mark. Colgate recognized her. Everypony knew this mare somehow.

“Derpy?” Colgate meant it as a greeting but it came across as a question in her slight surprise.

“Oh hi,” Derpy replied. Then she put on a sad face and looked at the ground skimming the water with one of her hooves in a shy apologetic manner. “Sorry about this Colgate.” Why she was apologizing? Colgate affirmed that Derpy had done this on accident, but couldn’t let her look so sorrowful in light of saving her.

“No, no,” Colgate reassured her. “Thank you.” Colgate took one of Derpy’s hooves into two of hers and shook it. Derpy looked at her hoof curiously, a sense of bewilderment in her eyes.

“What?”

“I kind of set the tree on fire,” Colgate admitted. “If you hadn’t dumped all that water on me things might have gotten a bit ugly.” Colgate smiled at her and paused. “So thank you.” Derpy tilted her head, blinking at Colgate. This expression turned quickly into a grin
.

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“Oh good,” Derpy sighed. “I thought you’d be mad at me. I bet they’ll be mad at me though. I lost all the rain water in that cloud.”

“I wouldn’t worry about that. Your timing was perfect.” A drop of water fell from Derpy’s mane onto her nose. She sneezed and shook herself dry.

“So I helped?” Derpy asked.

“Most definitely!” Derpy beamed with pride at this acknowledgement.

“So what happened to the tree?”

“Oh,” Colgate glanced away. “ Well I…I don’t…or…I don’t know, I just…” She trailed off and looked away from Derpy. The Pegasus tilted her head again in curiosity.

“What’s wrong?” Had it been anypony else, the question might have seemed pretentious or an attempt to only appear empathetic, but in the light of Derpy’s innocent wall eyed expression it was as earnest as anypony could have possibly been. She was asking honestly because she sensed she had touched on something that made Colgate upset and her sincere concern put Colgate at ease.

“It’s my magic,” Colgate said after a pause. “I can’t seem to control it now. Just this morning I almost set Berry Punch’s garden on fire. I keep screwing things up.”

“Oh I know how you feel,” Derpy smiled. “I screw things up all the time. Like this rain cloud you know. It was supposed to go to Cloudsdale, but here it is.” Derpy poked at the mush below her with her hoof. Colgate gave a faint smile. It was strange how Derpy had somehow managed to relate to her, but at the same time, very touching. It was enough to make Colgate forget, for the moment, that the problem with her magic wasn’t actually solved.

“Looks like both our screw ups made this mess,” Derpy giggled. Colgate giggled with her. Not because she thought it was funny, but because she was glad to have someone understand her on some level.

“Thank you Derpy,” Colgate gave her a light embrace simply because she thought she needed a better way to say thanks that was more than just saying it.

“awh,” Derpy seemed a bit flattered. “Hugs!” Derpy returned the hug with fervor taking flight a bit before letting go so that when she did Colgate flopped back into the swamp that the hillside had turned into. “Well I have to get back to Cloudsdale.”

“Okay Derpy,” Colgate smiled. “Tell them the water was well spent.”

“Will do!” Derpy waved and with that, fluttered off in every direction towards Cloudsdale. Colgate didn’t move from where she was despite the fact she was practically sitting in mud. It’s strange how little things can give one the hope in conquering larger obstacles. That, and the scent of wet grass was one she was quite fond of.

Just then, Colgate spotted Berry Punch trotting toward the hill balancing something on her head. Upon reaching the top she grabbed it with her hoof and presented it to Colgate with a clink. It was a glass with a purple liquid in it with a pungent smell of ripe fruit.

“What’s this?” Colgate asked.

“Well…” Berry Punch explained glancing to side. “I felt bad and…well I did tell you, you could have the first glass of crystal berry punch so…Here it is!” She held it up for Colgate to take. Colgate hesitated for a moment, deciding against using even a simple levitation spell to take the glass and took it with her own hoof.

“Thanks Berry. I’m sorry I walked off like that. Do you still need help?”

“Well of course. Do you feel better?”

“Yeah. I just needed a bit to cool off.” This, Colgate realized when she said it, had happened in more ways then one and now Berry Punch was just realizing what she had stepped in by coming up the hill to give her punch.

“Wh-Why is it all muddy up here?” Berry Punch asked, looking a bit perturbed at the sight of a muddy hoof she had lifted from the mire.

“It rained,” Colgate explained. Berry Punch raised an eyebrow in disbelief and Colgate decided to omit the part where she had set the tree on fire. Berry Punch somehow hadn’t noticed, so instead Colgate took a sip of the punch she had been given. It was indescribable. It was a sweet and tangy myriad of natural sugars that made her taste buds jump around. Even the drink itself still had that crystal sheen that the berries did.

“You have to try this!” Colgate insisted presenting the glass back to Berry Punch. She eyed it with a quirky smile.

“Well…I may have taken a sip before you…on the way here…and…ihadtogobackcauseIdrankawholeglass!” It took a moment for Colgate to process Berry Punch’s mach speech, but somehow she had understood it. But after tasting the marvelous fruity potion, Colgate could hardly blame her friend for drinking a whole glass. The stuff was irresistible, especially, Colgate imagined, for someone like Berry Punch. She couldn’t be mad at her.

“Well let’s go make some more!” Colgate exclaimed.

“What about your magic?” Berry Punch asked.

“It shouldn’t be a problem now.” There was no way Colgate could be entirely sure of this, but somehow she said it with perfect confidence and not only meant it but believed it. It didn’t seem like another incident was going to happen. Not after Derpy had done such a simple, but perfect job at lifting her lowered spirits.

“You sure?” Berry Punch wasn’t asking because she was worried about her crop, but because she was worried about Colgate herself.

“I’m sure,” Colgate affirmed. “Now let’s go make some more of this awesome punch!” Colgate drank the rest greedily, licking her lips as she swallowed the last of it.

“You bet!” Berry Punch hopped up and down in excitement, splashing in the mush she had seemingly forgotten about. “Besides, even right here is far too close to the Everfree forest for my comfort.” Colgate glanced behind her. The Everfree was distant, but still visible and she knew Berry Punch hated the place. Mostly because of the spiders. Of course, having creepy insects poke at one in the dark might scare anyone, but Berry Punch especially.

“Careful,” Colgate teased. “One of those spiders might get you from here.” Berry Punch cringed at her comment, not finding it as funny as Colgate did.

“Ewww,” Berry Punch wiggled uncomfortably. “Don’t say that. It’s…just…ewwww!” Obviously she had no words for her phobia.

“Hiss!” Colgate enunciated the word and splashed a bit of water at Berry Punch.

“Gah!” With that the two left the hillside and after Colgate had successfully chased her friend all the way back to her garden and angry glares were cast, they met back up with Bon Bon and made a day of picking fruit and making punch. To Colgate’s pleasure, she didn’t have another episode that day. Her magic stayed quiet after the incident with the tree and while she did avoid using it at all the rest of that day, her friends didn’t seem to mind or notice. The day was great and by the end, if a pony were capable of getting drunk on sugary punch, Berry Punch might have accomplished it. Crystal berry punch was probably her new favorite drink in Equestria and at the end of the day she bragged that she had drank nine entire glasses. It was more surprising that she actually kept track. She even poured some into a jar to save for princess Cadence to thank her for letting her attempt to grow them.

It was a success and as the moon came into the sky that night Colgate knew Berry Punch would demand that they go to the Crystal Empire in the morning to deliver her prized new concoction to the princess pony to pony. Colgate would of course agree and closed her eyes with her magic out of mind and quiet as the stars Luna had raised into the sky. It seemed improbable, but it was nonetheless a relief.

Comments

[Ponysopher]

Well, I will say this style stands apart from those of most of the stories I am used to reading. While the general style of most writers here is to write scene after scene in sort of a block fashion, with each one being distinctly divisible from another and having an immediate and easily recognizable purpose, your style seems to connect and interweave them. It's a tad odd to see that after reading in another style for so long, but I will say it it has an almost magically immersive effect. I look forward to seeing where this goes, and to see if your ability at characterization with characters that have a pre-established personality is consistent; for the question remains, what other new elements of your style await the reader, and indeed how well does it match up with your skill as a writer?

As a veteran on this site, if I may, I would suggest that you include an extra space in between paragraphs. It wasn't so bad for me, but many readers I know of express great disdain over the "wall" of text that is created otherwise. Similarly, you may want to consider shortening your paragraphs. More casual readers might see your first monster of a paragraph and be immediately deterred before giving the quality of your story a chance. Half of the time, good formatting means much more in adverting than good grammar.

[Noble Phantasm]

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Ah. Thank you for your feedback. It means a lot.This is the first time I've really thrown my writing out for random people I don't know to read. Also, I'm glad you pointed out the paragraph thing. You're actually not the first person to tell me this. Text block syndrome has always been a bad tendency of mine, a habit I need to break. I'm used to reading large blocks of text, so when I type them it doesn't look that bad to me. I'll certainly keep this in mind when writing future chapters.