Ponyville the Town of Youth

by Ironskull

Day 11: Close Call

"Twilight."

"Applejack?" said Twilight, concerned by the pony's tone. She noticed that Applejack was not alone. "Rarity? Fluttershy? Is everything okay?"

"No, Twilight," said Applejack. "Everything is not okay. And ah'm not the only pony who thinks so."

"I've had enough of these pranks," said Rarity. "Everypony else might still be laughing, but I for one don't think that this is funny anymore."

"I don't like it either," said Fluttershy. "We used to have fun together. But I feel like we're being left out. This isn't very fun."

"But what can we do?" asked Twilight in despair. "They don't want to stop!"

"Ah know," said Applejack, frustrated. "Ah'm growin' tired of this whole affair. Ah was thinkin' maybe it's time we go home."

"Go home?" cried Twilight in alarm. "Is that what you want? All of you?"

"I'm not going to stay here if everypony continues to act like this," said Rarity.

"What she said," said Fluttershy quietly.

"Oh, no," said Twilight to herself, lowering her head. "No, I knew this would happen! I saw this coming! This is just the first step isn't it? It's all coming apart!"

"What ever do you mean?" asked Rarity.

"I mean, it's like..."

Twilight hesitated. She tried to think of an analogy Rarity would understand.

"It's like threads of a fabric!" cried Twilight. "Once one thread comes lose, the rest will quickly follow! All it takes is one thread being pulled lose, and the rest just falls apart!"

"I don't understand," said Rarity. "What are these threads supposed to represent?"

"Ponies!" cried Twilight. "I'm afraid that, if you three leave, everypony else will lose heart and give up too!"

"Well, why not let them?" said Applejack. "I've had just about enough of this."

"But I don't want everypony to leave!" protested Twilight. "We were a part of something remarkable! Something that I enjoyed! I... I don't want it to end."

"Can't you enjoy it without us?" asked Rarity.

"No!"

Even Twilight froze in shock.

"No, I really can't!" she continued. "Not if you leave like this! If the three of you decide to leave because of everypony else being stupid and inconsiderate of your feelings, then... It would leave a bad taste in my gut! You know? It's not right! Please! Please stay? For my sake?"

Nopony spoke for a minute.

Finally, Applejack said, "What about the pranks?"

"We're going to put a stop to them," said Twilight determinedly. "Right now. I should have done so much sooner. But I was too scared to, because I didn't want to tell anypony what to do. But I don't care about that any more. We're going to make this right.

"Now, let's go grab Rainbow and Pinkie. They need to come too."

---

"Dinky? Rumble?" said Twilight. "What are you two doing out here?"

"Nothing much..." muttered Rumble, ignoring the looks that Twilight's friends were giving him.

Twilight didn't believe this for a minute. She made a quick deduction based on the pair's direction of travel.

"You're going home, aren't you? To the real world."

The two foals hesitated.

"We're just not having fun all of the sudden," answered Dinky. "And we miss our families. I just want to go home."

Rumble said nothing.

"Look," said Twilight urgently. "I understand that you two are unhappy with the way things have been going these past few days. But we're on our way to put a stop to this nonsense once and for all. Please don't leave. If you two leave, then we'll lose two of our most sensible ponies, and we'll be worse off than ever before!"

"I don't know..." said Rumble.

"Come with me," said Twilight. "Give me a chance. Let me try to talk some sense into everypony. Afterward, you can decide whether you want to go home or not."

Dinky looked to Rumble, who shrugged. "Alright, Twi," said Dinky. "We'll come with you."

---

"Hey, it's them!" cried Scootaloo.

"What are they doing here?" asked Apple Bloom. "They here to give up?"

"Whoa, Twilight looks like she means business," remarked Sweetie Belle nervously.

"Get everypony together" said Twilight as she drew close to the Crusaders. "Everypony."

"You want us to get everypony together?" said Apple Bloom in confusion.

"If anypony gives you trouble, tell them that Twilight told you to do it."

"Oh, well, okay?" said Sweetie Belle.

---

A few minutes later, Twilight found herself in front of the gym with the entirety of the town looking at her, some suspiciously. She gulped. She had never done this sort of thing before, but she knew that she had to, for the sake of the entire town.

At least she couldn't smell anything out here.

"Everypony listen!" she cried. "You may not realize it, but Ponyville is on the brink of a crisis!"

Almost everypony in attendance gave her a confused look.

"We have been pranking each other for three days now! And I know that most of you think it's all great fun and games! But it stops being a game when somepony is not having fun.

"This morning, I spoke with five ponies who have not been enjoying these past three days. Five ponies! Most of you have no idea just how close they were to leaving and going home, all over a bunch of silly pranks! How would that make you feel? If you knew that five ponies left, and you were partially to blame? You know that Ponyville wouldn't be the same after losing that many of us!"

"Ponyville is more than just a group of buildings in one place. Ponyville is a community! And a community is a group of ponies who work together for a common cause! We have not been a good community for these past few days!

"When Discord told us that we expected to last for thirty days, I didn't think there was a hope of a snowball in tartarus of that happening. I didn't want to be right, of course, but I wasn't expecting to be wrong. But, after time passed, I started to think, 'maybe we can do this after all!' I want Discord to be right. And I think that we have the potential to prove him right.

"But I fear that this foalishness might be the spark that ignites the dynamite! If we drive our fellow ponies away, it will fracture our community forever. I have no doubt that if we allow this to happen, if this community is destroyed, it will weigh on our hearts forever. And, furthermore, we will prove that a town of foals can't exist without our foalishness tearing us apart! I think I speak for everypony when I say that that is the last thing any of us want. And, please forgive me for being selfish, but I would prefer that nopony leaves this Ponyville and return to the real world early. Your presence here is helps keep this place alive, even if you don't realize it! We need you! I need you..."

"Ahem, so, for the sake of your fellow ponies, please. Let this be the end of it! Let's wipe the record clean, and nopony 'gets back' at anypony. There are much better ways that we could be spending our time, doing things that everypony thinks is fun! As a matter of fact, we've all been so busy, we have missed a very important fact:

"Tomorrow is Rumble's birthday!"

Twilight's audience gasped.

"Rumble!" whispered Apple Bloom. "Why didn't you tell us?"

"Didn't think it was important," muttered Rumble. "I mean, this isn't even the real world. So it's not my real birthday."

"Who cares about that?" cried Pinkie. "You are definitely getting a party!"

"How did you know it was my birthday tomorrow?" said Rumble to Twilight.

"Easy," said Twilight. "Adult me likes to keep lists. And I apparently have a list of every birthday in Ponyville. And your name was down for tomorrow!"

"Ahem," said Rainbow, looking at Pinkie.

"I need to say something," said Rainbow, loud enough that everypony could hear. "It was mine and Pinkie's idea to do start this whole thing, so... We're both sorry."

"I forgive you, Rainbow!"

"Pinkie," said Rainbow in deadpan. "Shut up."

Author's Note:

When I wrote these three chapters, they formed a decently long tale. But only if they were all together as one chapter. Because of the way that I've been separating these by day, the tale got chopped into three pieces, each rather small. Which is frustrating. In the future, I'll slip in a bonus chapter before this one that shows what all they tried to kidnap and trap Pinkie, partially because there has been a little less silly fun recently (Pinkie is a good source of that), and also to help give it needed length. But, for now, the days will tick onward.
I could blame the tight update schedule, but I know I could have wrote all three in one day. I think the truth is that my brain subconsciously found a loophole in my own rule that allowed me to do one day's worth of work over the course of three days. Procrastination.
Anyway, hope everyone is still enjoying.

Comments

[Twilight_Shimmer]

i cannot wait to read more! Keep up the great work!

[Ironskull]

6726114 Today was a busy day. I was away from home for the entire day, so I'll just have to do another two chapters in one day tomorrow. I hate letting it pile up like this. Thank you for the encouragement!

[Twilight_Shimmer]

6726290 Your quite welcome! I have to ask though, during which season does this take place? I am rather curious. Hehe, too bad we dont have a filly Luna and or Celly around, that could have been super funny!

[Ironskull]

6726315 It takes place some time after Twilight becoming an alicorn, but before the library was destroyed. Which also means that it happens before Discord learns his lesson with the Tirek incident...
I have had a few people tell me that they wished there were more 'foalified' characters here, but there just isn't a good reason that they would be there. Even the mane six being there is an exception. Not to mention the fact that if I add any more extra characters that really ought not be there anyway, the story becomes that much less about the kids.
How would I even write filly Celly and Luna? Who has the audacity to propose that they even know how they would act? I know that there are several people who have done so effectively, but I would be scared to give it a try myself.

[Twilight_Shimmer]

6726698 I think with Celestia and Luna it would be amusing to see Twilight's reaction to the two sisters acting like total kids. I do have to wonder, if Celly and Luna ever DO read Filly Twilights letters, what they will think of em?

[xoid]

"You may not realize it, but Ponyville is on the brink of a crysis!"

They’re on the brink of a triple-A first person shooter from 2007?

[Ironskull]

7138714 I remember that game. Once I figured out that I could edit the difficulty settings (which was nothing more than a simple text file) I couldn't stop myself from cheating my way through just a little. I changed the suit's speed mode to be infinite and go super insane fast. That was a blast.
Never did play the second one though. I heard it wasn't any good.

[xoid]

7138738

which was nothing more than a simple text file

Now that’s interesting. I always like it when a game gives you the option to fiddle with its settings without having to jump through hoops or using poorly coded editors.

Never did play the second one though.

Never played the first, let alone any sequels. Too poor.

Anyway, it seems you missed the point of my tongue‐in‐cheek reference to it; you wrote crysis when you meant to write crisis.

[Ironskull]

7138921 Whoa, you're right. Why does the spell checker not mark that as wrong? Anyway, thank you.