The Sun, the Moon and the Cushion

by Bunnybooze79

Chapter 1

Traveling by train was usually a very relaxed affair for ponies to cross Equestria.

Every town, city and village had at least one station. From small stations like the one in Ponyville, to the huge multi-tracked station in Manehatten they gave ponies the opportunity to reach faraway places in a relatively short amount of time. Only travelling by air was faster, but the airways were strictly governed by the pegasi of Cloudsdale who only allowed travel by air in rare cases, claiming that too many flying devices in the sky would mess up their meticulously planned weather.

The steam powered vehicle moved tirelessly across the landscape in a reasonably smooth manner as to make the ride as comfortable as possible for its passengers. Which in theory was fine, but one always had to take into account the other passengers onboard the train. Some of them were hardly noticeable, while others seemed to draw attention just by being there or by their actions.

A group of nine ponies definitely belonged to the latter type of passengers. The six adult mares and three fillies most certainly drew attention to themselves, something that they failed to notice as they were too wrapped up in thinking about their destination.

The antics of a particular pink pony were more outrageous than anything the slightly worried passengers had seen before. What started as a nice try to get all the ponies to sing along to a song the pink pony had started soon became uncomfortable when she seemed insistent to befriend every single pony in the same cart. Soon they fled the cart when they had the chance leaving the strange pink one with her friends.

“Hey! Where did everypony go?” Pinkie asked and seemed only now to realize that they had been alone in the cart for the last hour. She had been too busy trying to bounce up to the ceiling to notice them leave.

“Perhaps they left to go to the buffet in the food cart.” Rarity frowned at the thought of eating anything offered by the onboard kitchen. In her opinion you really had to be desperate to eat anything on the menu, since everything always tasted like lukewarm soggy cardboard. Or if you liked to play guessing games you could also go to the buffet and tried to match the object offered to the pictures on the menu. A game that even the most cunning of detectives had long given up on trying to win.

Rarity decided to focus her attention to more pleasant things and made a few last minute corrections on the dress that Fluttershy was currently wearing. The timid Pegasus did not mind at all that they were now alone in the cart. Unfamiliar ponies always made her nervous. Then again so did familiar ponies, but only much less than unfamiliar ones.

On the far side of the wagon another pegasus sat and grinned in a smug way. Rainbow Dash was playing a card game of poker against Applejack and had won three games in a row. The orange mare sitting opposite her frowned at the new cards she had been dealt and mumbled something under her breath.

“What was that? Did you just compliment my awesome skills with cards?” Rainbow Dash intensified the smugness of her grin. Applejack shot her an angry look.

“No. What Ah said was that yer cheatin’.” Applejack laid her cards on the table showing her laughably poor hand she was dealt. “Go on. Let’s see what ya have.”

Rainbow Dash proceeded to lay her own cards down, revealing that she had a full house. Applejack merely raised an eyebrow and continued to glare at her friend.

“That was pure luck.” The Pegasus tried her best to keep a straight face. Her friend however wasn’t convinced in the slightest.

“Spread yer wings.”

“What? I..uh..can’t.”

“And why would that be?” Applejack crossed her forelegs in front of her chest waiting for a good explanation.

“’Cause I….uhh. Because Twilight said I was not allowed to do so inside.” Rainbow Dash gave her friend an apologetic smile.

“She said ya were not to fly around inside. Didn’t say anythin’ about spreading them.”

“I have a wingcramp right now.”

“Wingcramp?” Pinkie Pie randomly appeared behind Rainbow Dash startling her. “Ooooooh…those can be nasty I heard. I wouldn’t know, because I don’t have any wings, but I bet it’s just as bad like when I get a cramp in my jaw from talking or eating too much. You know what help in those cases? Stretching them! Here let me help.”

Without waiting for permission and ignoring the beginning protest of Rainbow Dash, Pinkie grabbed one of her wings and stretched in out. Rainbow Dash let out a grunt of pain as she felt Pinkie tugging of her wing with earthpony fueled strength.

A selection of cards slowly fluttered to the ground, previously having been safely tucked away under her wing.

“Oh look! That’s what was giving you the cramps I bet.” Pinkie happily pointed towards the cards on the floor.

“Thanks Pinkie.” Rainbow Dash muttered towards her friend while not taking her eyes off Applejack.

“Glad to help!” Pinkie said and hopped over towards Rarity and Fluttershy.

“Ah knew it!” Applejack glared at Rainbow Dash, who began sweating bullets having been caught redhoofed cheating. After a few tense moments she sighed and shook out the cards she had stowed away under her other wing.

“Fine. You caught me. Sorry about that.” The Pegasus let her head hang in surrender and glanced up at the pony opposite her. “Best of seven?”

“Ok.” Applejack answered after a few seconds worth of hesitation. “But Ah’ll deal this time.”

_____________________________________________________________________

Away from the other ponies on the far side of the compartment the final adult pony was in the middle of sharing something she valued greatly. Knowledge! Unfortunately her audience was less than enthralled by her efforts.

“We’ve been over this before Twilight.” Scootaloo tried to reason with her unexpected teacher during the ride towards Canterlot.

“Yeah. We went over all of this when we were flowerfillies during yer brothers wedding. Don’t ya remember?” Applebloom in particular had been less than thrilled to be subjected on lessons about proper court etiquette, especially on a school free day.

Only Sweetie Belle remained somewhat attentive. Partly due to the fact that she enjoyed the complex social behaviors of the upper classes. It made her feel more grown up. And in other parts she wanted to do her best for her sister. Rarity had hinted often enough in the last few weeks how important the party was and how it could potentially increase her business. If it would help her sister then Sweetie Belle was determined to at least try her best to leave a good impression of the Canterlot ponies.

“Well see this as a refresher course.” Twilight ignored the protests and flipped over another page on the flip chart she had brought along. “Let continue with page 176: The proper way for asking if there are any napkins available.”

At that moment Spike entered through the door. He had been exploring the train in hopes of finding something edible that appealed to dragon tastes. After deducing that anything sold in the buffet was not acceptable for dragons and possibly not even acceptable for ponies, he had tried his luck with the vending machines dotted throughout the train. One helping of peanut butter on crackers later he made his way back towards the compartment where they were staying.

He eyed the situation in front of him cautiously. Twilight was obviously in the zone once more and had a more than bored audience. Applebloom saw him standing in the doorway and silently mouthed the words “Help us” while giving him a pleading look. Spike smiled and made his way towards the lavender unicorn.

“Hey Twilight, shouldn’t you be getting ready?” the purple dragon asked as he stood beside the unicorn.

“Ready? What do you mean?” she asked and stopped her lecture for the moment.

“Well we are only one hour away from Canterlot.” Spike explained and casually examined the current chart.

“Yes, so? We have plenty of time to get dressed once we are there.”

“Have you forgotten? We are being picked up from the station by a carriage sent by the princess. We’ll be heading straight to the castle.” Spike emphasized his point by waving his arms around in a theatrical fashion.

Twilight froze as the implications sank in. Without warning she suddenly burst into action.

“Sorry girls. Refresher course is over. We have to get ready! Spike clear this up please….oooh there isn’t much time left.” Twilight bolted towards her luggage and feverishly searched for her dress, all the time muttering that she had to be prepared.

Spike knew how Twilight had to have everything just perfect, especially on an occasion like this. She would no doubt be ready in only a couple of minutes, but would be fussing about the small details for at least half an hour. She was worse than Rarity in that matter in his opinion at least.

“Thanks Spike.” Applebloom gave the dragon a friendly pat on the back. “We couldn’ta lastest much longer. We owe ya one.”

“Hey, no problem.” Spike shrugged it off as no big deal. He knew what it was like to be subjected to lengthy lessons by Twilight.

The crusaders decided to investigate what the others were up to. Applebloom and Scootaloo decided to join in on the game played by Rainbow Dash and Applejack. Sweetie Belle was not too interested in playing a card game at the moment and made her way towards her sister who was still making last minute adjustments to Fluttershy’s dress.

_____________________________________________________________________

“Does your dress need any adjustments?” Rarity asked Pinkie Pie who with nothing else to do decided to help with Fluttershy’s dress. Help being more accurately defined as sticking her nose between Rarity and Fluttershy to get a closer look at what the fashionista was doing.

“Nah, I’m good.” Pinkie happily exclaimed and fiddled around with one of the artificial butterflies that were dotted throughout Fluttershy’s mane.

“Are you sure? It’s been a while since you wore it.” Rarity decided to tighten the fabric around Fluttershy’s midsection and began unweaving some of the stitches.

“Hmmm. Well I have been eating quite a lot of Mrs. Cake’s double glazed donuts with cream filling lately. Shouldn’t really matter though, all that sugary calorie laden goodness never sticks to me.” Pinkie beamed at Rarity.

“Aren’t you lucky.” Rarity deadpanned and made point not to look at the pink pony. How she maintained her figure was a mystery in itself considering that all she apparently ate were baked goods made at Sugar Cube Corner.

Sweetie Belle sat down behind Rarity and carefully and silently observed what she was doing. The filly knew that Rarity despised being interrupted during her work, something that Pinkie Pie obviously did not know or didn’t care too much about. Yet strangely Pinkie’s antics didn’t seem to bother Rarity as much as the filly thought they would. Then again it was nearly impossible to be mad or angry at her for too long. How angry could one be at a pony that just wants others to smile and be happy?

“Aren’t you just super excited?” Pinkie propped herself onto Fluttershy’s back and was now nose to nose with Rarity. Fluttershy let out a small “Eep” in surprise.

Ever in control, Rarity merely pushed Pinkie back with a hoof before answering her question.

“Yes, I am looking forward to meet some old acquaintances and hopefully meeting some new ones.” Rarity began tightening the fabric around Fluttershy’s midsection a bit more.

“Old ones? Oooooh, like your Prince from the Gala?” Pinkie asked innocently.

“No…. not him.” Rarity’s voice became frosty at the mere mention of Prince Blueblood. She tightened the fabric some more now with a bit more force than necessary.

“WHERE IS MY HAIRBRUSH?!” Twilight yelled in frustration from the other side of the compartment.

“I wonder what Twilight is doing? Better go check it out!” Pinkie’s attention was now tuned to the hairbrush searching lavender unicorn and thus did not hear that Rarity kept quietly mumbling to herself as she hopped away.

“Prince… if there ever was a pony that is undeserving of such a title it must be him. That big oaf with his pristinely groomed coat and mane.” Rarity was now beginning to grind her teeth and wasn’t paying too much attention on what she was doing.

“Too….tight….” Fluttershy barely managed to squeak out those two words. It was enough however to shake the fashionista turned impromptu torturer out of her trail of thought. Instantly she released the fabric from her magical grasp. Fluttershy took a huge gasp of air in return.

“Oh my. I am terribly sorry, Darling. I don’t know what came over me.” Rarity put a comforting hoof on her accidental victim. Fluttershy gave her a quick small smile indicating that there were no hard feelings.

“I guess he is still a bit of a sore spot for you?” she correctly stated. Rarity rolled her eyes at the thought of him, but kept her cool this time.

“You could say that. It just annoys me to no end that such a shallow buffoon parades around thinking he is the best that Canterlot has to offer. Not to mention that he ruined my very first Grand Galloping Gala AND made me ruin a perfectly fine dress.” Rarity snorted in disgust, a very unladylike gesture but appropriate in this case. “I just wish somepony would teach him a lesson.”

The last sentence was spoken quietly and was not meant to be heard by anypony. Fluttershy had heard it but chose not to comment on it. Unbeknownst to both of the mares Sweetie Belle had also heard the sentence and took mental note of it.

_______________________________________________________________________

“Yer cheatin’.”

“Me? Why do you think I am cheating?”

A very similar discussion and taken place not too long ago at the very same table. This time on a smaller scale however as Applebloom pointed an accusatory hoof at Scootaloo.

“Spread yer wings!”

“I can’t do that indoors!”

Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but giggle at the display in front of her. A quick glance to Applejack told her that the farmpony was equally amused by the very similar back and forth that they had had on the very same subject.

“Says who?” Applebloom demanded to know and glared at her friend sitting opposite her and between the adult mares.

“Twilight. Weren’t you paying attention to her lessons? Chart 65 was about not flying in ballrooms.” Scootaloo explained and returned the glare full strength.

“Ah was payin’ attention, ‘cause it wasn’t chart 65. It was chart 72! And this ain’t no ballroom.” Applebloom waved a hoof around to make her point.

“Fine! Here!” Scootaloo buzzed her small wings. The blurring motion concealed a lone card that fell down alongside her flank onto the floor where she quickly covered it up with her tail. Had Rainbow Dash not been sitting on the side where the card fell and had she not been paying close attention, she would never have seen that clever move.

Good trick! Rainbow Dash couldn’t fight the grin spreading on her face.

“Seems like ya haven’t just been practicing flyin’ lessons with her.” Applejack smirked as both pegasi tried in vain to look offended by that remark. Applebloom tried her best to keep up her angry glare, but couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Allright ponies. Show me watcha got.” Applejack laid down her cards revealing a full house.

Applebloom sighed and laid down her cards that were nothing but a meager pair of sevens. Scootaloo fidgeted around a bit before laying her cards down. With a look of surprise she glanced at the three of clubs that somehow shouldn’t have been there and ruined her hand.

Rainbow Dash casually laid down her own cards. “Four aces! Read em and weep!”

“Hey! That was my….” Scootaloo managed to stop herself from revealing anything more. Rainbow Dash had carefully snuck the Ace of Spades that Scootaloo had hidden under her tail away by using her own tail, replacing it with the three of clubs.

Rainbow Dash gave her a wink. “Never play with a master of cards, Scoot.”

“Pfft. Master of cards….yeah right.” Applejack shook her head, but couldn’t help smiling. The reason for it was based more on the interaction between the two pegasi. It was obvious to her that the bond they shared was getting stronger and she fully approved. Scootaloo was happier and Rainbow Dash had lost some of her egoistical sometimes downright narcissistic behavior.

“We need to get READY! There isn’t much time!” Twilight was in the middle of styling her mane when she voiced her concern with maybe too much volume.

The four ponies at the table glanced at each other and mutually decided that they had better get ready too. Not because of too little time, but rather wanting to avoid another one of Twilight’s little episodes when she got too stressed out by something.

Once the train pulled into Canterlot station the mares and fillies were ready for the Garden Party hosted by Princess Celestia. One by one the exited the train and made their way towards the awaiting carriage.

“Friends! Let’s make this an evening to remember!” Twilight happily exclaimed joined soon after by her friends.

Comments

[OmniFox]

Why do I get the feeling that Twi's parents will make an appearance?

[Soft Shell]

Dont make me angry!
You wouldnt like me when im angry!
Rawr!
Soft Shell Smash!
*Attempts to smash a wall,
however as soon as his hooves make contact,
several cracking sounds are heard*
Ha take that puny ....wall?
*Looks at the perfectly smooth wall*
But if that didnt crack....
*Looks down at his hooves*
oh.......
Ahhhhhhhh!!!

[Siras-chi]

Can't out cheat the Dash Scoots. Sorry/

[QuantumWalker]

Dash and Scoots playing cards together --- priceless!