Hùndùn

by LoZLttP13

I-VII. The Ticket Master

The birds' chirping as dawn rose over the Golden Oak Library awoke Twilight, who found that like most mornings a book was laid across her chest. She usually read until she fell asleep, and then as her arms fell her book would rest over her blankets until morning came. The book she had been reading was a horror play called Song of the Spider by Ellen Nevermore, which was one of her favorites.

As she yawned and closed the book, she sat up and called across the room, "Get up, Spike."

There was some light moaning from the bed against the opposite wall, then Spike rolled over and looked at Twilight. His hair was dreadfully messy, and he still looked rather tired. "Come on, Spike," Twilight said, turning and standing up. "I'll take my bath first, and while I'm doing that you need to get ready for your turn."

Spike nodded blearily. "Alright...." he muttered, then he sat up and stretched as Twilight went to their dresser and gathered some clothes and retrieved her black Mary Janes from under her bed.

Once Twilight had gotten some towels, she entered and locked the bathroom. She set her clothing and towels on an aluminum clothes rack in the opposite corner from the tub, then turned the tub's hot water on and allowed it to begin filling as she turned on the shower and sat on the stool beneath it.

Twilight pleasured herself, soaped her body down, shampooed and conditioned her hair, then rinsed herself off. She then stood up and stepped into the tub, where she relaxed for about ten minutes before stepping back out, picking up one of her towels, and drying off her body. She then wrapped the towel around herself and picked up the other one, which she used to dry her hair.

Twilight put on her underwear, then buttoned a short-sleeved light blue blouse over her torso and slid her pleated skirt over her waist. She then pulled a pair of long, purple, diamond-patterned stockings over her legs before sliding her feet into her polished black shoes.

Twilight gathered up her laundry and exited the bathroom, and just outside the door she saw Spike waiting with a pile of his own clothes held under his arm. "Your turn," she said, then Spike entered the bathroom as Twilight placed her towels and pajamas in their woven wicker laundry hamper.

Twilight opened her top drawer of the dresser and pulled out her purple hairbrush, which she used to straighten out her hair. She was often told that her hair was beautiful and would look absolutely stunning if she would style it in something other than her usual plain straight cut, but she didn't much care about that, so she usually only styled her hair for formal occasions.

Once Twilight had combed out her hair, she placed the brush back in her drawer. She then drew a wide violet ribbon from it, which she tied in a bow beneath her blouse's collar.

Spike took some time to style his hair after he was done bathing, so Twilight went downstairs and began cooking breakfast; she and Spike had the understanding that Spike would wash the dishes once they had finished eating. Once Twilight had finished their eggs and hash browns, Spike came downstairs as well, then they ate.

At eight o'clock, Twilight flipped the "Closed" sign nailed to the outside of the front door around to read "Open." Spike sat at the writing-desk, where he read manga volumes while Twilight reentered the library and took inventory of the books.

A few patrons came to the library, who Spike attended to. He stacked the books they returned on the desk and listed the books they checked out on some parchment, and at eleven o'clock Twilight took the list and added it to her records. After she had shelved and took note of the returned books, she made peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches that they ate for their lunch break.

At twelve thirty, Twilight dismissed Spike to spend the next few hours as he pleased. During the school year he would be spending this time studying Magic, and last year he had spent every day since he began his apprenticeship to Twilight sitting with her on her bed, studying spellcasting textbooks while she read one of her recreational books. Since they had studied in Twilight's bedroom together, Spike had been able to ask her questions about any concept he was having trouble with during their schooling hours. Now that they'd moved to the Golden Oak Library, Spike would probably have to continue his studies on one of the library's cushioned chairs while Twilight did research for her mission from Celestia at the library's writing-desk.

When her mission first began, Twilight devoted the hours between twelve thirty and five in the afternoon every day to researching organizations dedicated to releasing Sealed Gods. She had chosen the perfect profession, as being a librarian allowed her to order rare and ancient manuscripts relating to the subject from other libraries to search for anyone who might have wanted to release Luna. As it turned out, organizations dedicated to releasing the Sealed Gods had existed since they were first imprisoned; as Twilight poured over the ancient Elvish writings on the delicate, crumbling pages of millennium-old volumes and the primitive cuneiform characters of primordial tongues etched perhaps ten thousand years ago into clay tablets, she saw the genesis of many such ideologies, some of which still had adherents to that very day.

It seemed natural to Twilight that even the Sealed Gods would still have followers who swore loyalty to them and their ideologies- after all, each of the Gods was the personification of a primal force; an aspect of nature. Beings had an instinctive longing to be one with nature; that was why most Beings accepted Gods as their leaders and modeled themselves in appearance and behavior after them. However, as Celestia had taught Twilight, nature is always in conflict with itself, and each force has a will; likewise, every God had their own vision of how the Earth should be, and if left unchecked by the others, they and the forces they personified would battle for the planet's complete domination.

"Everything must be in balance, Twilight," Celestia had once said to Twilight as she was sitting on her bed and Twilight was sitting on the cushion beneath her. "It's very delicate, and it's very hard to tell what the right balance is. The Earth needs the Sun, for instance, but if it got too much sunlight, it would become dry and unable to support life. Likewise life needs the Sea, but if the oceans grew too great then the world would become over-flooded.

"The Gods cannot die, Twilight, any more than the sea or sky or life itself can. That is why the Dark Gods are Sealed; they will never die, at least not while there is still lightning or war or lust or chaos. Even the Sealed Gods have a purpose; lightning storms create ozone, which defend the world from my Sun's harmful rays; lust is the attraction that allows new lives to be created; and chaos is how everything was first created; the stars and planets and skies and even life itself. All things were born from conflict and chaos, and they allow life to continue. Life, in fact, is conflict and chaos.

"However, Twilight, though we Gods are nature, you must still sometimes rebel against us. We rule you because we are wiser and more powerful- but we are not all-knowing or all-powerful. There is much we know, but mortals and immortals alike are equals in all that we don't know. That is why we Gods share rulership over the world; though each of us has a vision of how the world should be, none of us are- nor ever will be- correct, and so we must depend upon each other to provide us the wisdom that we ourselves lack. Likewise, you mortals each possess within you a little wisdom that is yours alone. After all, you mortals are nature, as well- smaller parts of it, of course, but still parts of it, just like we Gods are, nonetheless. The other Gods and I rose up against Discord because we all believed that the world would be better without his rule, and each of the other Sealed Gods believes- like I do- that they themselves are best suited to ruling the world in his stead. I believe that they are wrong, and I have acted upon that belief, though I might myself be wrong and have myself committed the error. Decide for yourself what the truth is, Twilight, and work to be in harmony with that truth."

Each of the world's kingdoms reflected in its make and culture the God who ruled over it; Atlantis, the kingdom of the Sea-God Poseidon, was a beautiful tropical island nation of swimmers and fishermen; Shangri-La, the kingdom of the Goddess of Flowers Persephone, was an extremely ecologically diverse land at the southern end of the Eastern Pillar vibrantly filled with wildlife that its Being inhabitants shared a close bond with; the Dragon Empire, the domain of the God of Philosophy Kong, was a vast kingdom deeply seeped in tradition and populated by cities of inquisitive scholars and scientists and temples of contemplative, martial monks. Likewise, each of the Sealed Gods once had an empire of their own that reflected them and the ideologies they espoused when they were free; Scorpan had once co-ruled the city of Asgard with his twin, the Sky-God Horus; and Scorpan's passion, impulsivity, and focus still resonated through the Asgardian civilization's modern culture. Griffonstone was the Angelic mountain-kingdom founded and once ruled by Tirek, whose inhabitants had since Tirek's imprisonment remained violent and barbaric and refused to accept a new leader, and thus remained perpetually in anarchy. And of course, the entirety of the Earth was once the domain of Discord, and naturally during his rule it was filled with mayhem and destruction, the echoes of which continued to be felt to the present day.

Twilight's first guess as to who had Unsealed Luna was that it was a group of ideological descendants of the citizens of one of the Sealed Gods' old kingdoms. Such movements were known as "cults," and their devotion to their Sealed Gods was known as "worship." There were cults for most Sealed Gods, some first formed immediately after the God they worshiped was imprisoned.

However, there were two exceptions to this: Sombra and Luna, who both were so unanimously hated and feared by all mortals that their Sealing in Tartarus was met with nothing but joyous celebration. Since Luna had never had a cult dedicated to Unsealing her, Twilight had discarded her early theory that it was a cult that worshipped her that was responsible for her release. However, there were some Beings who wished to free Luna when she was first Sealed: the Gods who had agreed with her and sided with her in her war against Celestia. Twilight had suggested in one of her letters to Celestia that perhaps one of these free Gods had commissioned the hooded Elves to Unseal Luna, but Celestia had written in reply that it was possible, but unlikely; during the thousand years after Luna's Sealing, Celestia was able to persuade all the Gods who had rebelled against her that Luna was wrong, and they lost their desire to usurp her. With the advise to keep that possibility in mind, Celestia suggested that Twilight look for other ones.

Twilight searched more, and soon came up with another theory: that it was one of the cults for the other Sealed Gods who had released Luna; Twilight speculated that they had freed her because they desired her aid in releasing the God they worshipped in exchange for her Unsealing. When Twilight wrote to Celestia about this theory, Celestia wrote back that it was fairly likely and that it was a line of query worth pursuing, so Twilight immersed herself more deeply in her research of the cults of the other Sealed Gods.

Twilight found that the cults for Sealed Gods had very fascinating and long histories; they were filled with intrigue, infighting, schisms, and mergings similar to those of polities and other ideological movements. The leading figures of cults were prone to passionate arguments over the finer points of their God's teachings, and several wars had broken out between the cults of differing Gods, or even rival cults worshiping the same God, though cults worshipping the same God usually had the same general beliefs and practices.

Cults to Scorpan were usually small and ill-organized; they tended to be gangs of violent delinquent Angels who held the personal philosophy: "I'll do as I please and let no one stand in my way." Their preferred method of solving conflicts was fist-fighting, they were highly sexually promiscuous, and they were usually radically homophobic; a large fraction of the few remaining modern hate crimes against LGBT Beings were usually implicated to them.

Cults to Sonata were particularly rigid and controlling of their adherents' lives; they held order above all things and demonized individualism, demanding their members' absolute obedience to the heads of their communities, known as "priests," who acted as their societal, cultural, and intellectual leaders. Members of cults of Sonata were usually identifiable by the long pants, sleeves, and gloves they wore to conceal their Marks. If you were a Sonatian, the priest of your community determined every aspect of your life, from who you were allowed to befriend to whom you would marry to what profession you would have, even if that profession didn't align with the talent signified by your Mark.

Cults to Chrysalis were libertine communities of pure hedonism. At the heart of their cultures was Chrysalis's most fundamental teaching, the simple proverb: "Take who you will, what you will, when you will." They fully lived up to it; all sexual taboos were abandoned by Chrysalists, who would use literally anything or anyone for their own pleasure. They also held the belief that consent wan't a concern, and so Chrysalists had made much progress in such fields of study as the science of predatory drugs, the art of kidnapping, and the economics of trafficking other Beings in the sex trade.

Cults to Tirek were little more than more extreme, compounded versions of cults to Chrysalis and Scorpan; their philosophy was, essentially, "Rape, pillage, and kill whatever you please." Needless to say, Tirek's cults were "cults" only in the loosest sense of the term, and were as such by far the least organized and most violent of the Sealed Gods' followers.

However, Twilight was shocked and more than a little disturbed to learn that even Discord had worshipers who had founded cults to him. She had assumed that, like Luna and Sombra, Discord would be simply too terrifying to have any mortals swear loyalty to him, but nevertheless she found that some such Beings, though surpassingly few in number, did exist. However, she learned one intriguing fact about Discord's cults that differentiated them from those of the other Sealed Gods: that there were two distinct, contrasting schools of thought that they fell into. The first school of Discordian cults, which historians had dubbed the "royalists," worked for Discord to be Unsealed and placed back on the world's throne by virtue of the fact that he was the Earth's King, which was their sole motivation and justification. The smaller, more chaotic, more unpredictable, and more insidious school, which historians knew as the "opportunists," wished to release Discord so that he might then reward them with some of his power when he resumed his rule.

To Twilight's great relief, however, all known opportunist cults to Discord had been discovered and forcibly disbanded personally by Celestia many thousands of years ago, and the royalists had gradually faded away on their own over time. Celestia usually held the tenet to never infringe upon the ideological or behavioral freedoms of the mortal Beings, but the opportunist Discordians were so murderous and dangerous that Celestia made a borderline exception to this rule in their case by deeming them a significant threat to the world and enacting a law that no organization may again be formed for the purpose of worshiping or working for his release. This was the first and only time that Celestia had passed such a ruling, and mortal Beings were permitted to worship any other Sealed God they pleased, though she strongly advised against it; maintained that it was still unlawful to actually release one of them; and personally interfered in any more cults showing signs of attempting to or engaging in any other forms of criminality.

In modern times, the only cults known to remain in the world were to Scorpan, Sonata, and Tirek; the cults to Chrysalis had long ago disbanded of their own volition, as they had eventually realized that there was little point in having dedicated orgy organizations, so what now remained of her cults were individual admirers who continued to espouse her philosophy that life was primarily for the pursuit of carnal pleasures.

The most successful of the cultic movements was Sonatism, which had grown to become a significant philosophical and cultural ideology of the modern era. Many attributed their considerable growth to their high emphasis on evangelization and creating large families, teachings which were motivated by the philosophy that all Beings should convert to it.

A common saying among intellectuals opposing Sonatism was that they weren't so much a cult for Sonata as they were a cult against Discord. Sonatian cults were the first ones to be formed even before the God they worshipped was Sealed; Sonata had organized her first cult by proclaiming that Discord would be Unsealed unless all Beings came together and formed a perfectly orderly and peaceful worldwide society. After gaining many followers, Sonata rallied them into an army, and with them attempted to usurp Celestia and forcibly convert all who didn't follow her (who Sonatians knew as "infidels" or "heretics") into her philosophy to form a perfect world utopia. Celestia, of course, defeated her and Sealed her in the Fifth Hell of Tartarus, but that didn't stop the movement Sonata had started; her teachings lived on, and her followers into modern times continued to evangelize and preach her philosophy.

However, once Sonata was Sealed, there was a great deal of infighting over who should succeed her as the leader of her cult in her absence. The end result was that her single cult fractured into multiple smaller cults; this event was known by historians as the "Great Schism." Several of those smaller cults had died out, and over the ages more schisms and fractures would occur. In modern times, the fragment cult which had grown dominant within the Sonatian movement was known as the School of the Teachings of the Goddess Sonata, though most (including their own members) knew them for most purposes as simply the Cult of Sonata. They were the most orthodox and traditionalist of the Sonatian cults and controlled Salem, the Arcadian city which Sonata had founded as the capital of her empire, which they continued to use as their own cultural and organizational capital.

The Cult of Sonata was Twilight's current primary suspect as the organization responsible for Luna's release; after all, if they could gain Luna's alliance, they would be far more likely to be able to Unseal Sonata and fulfill their ancient prophecy of her glorious return and conquest of the entire Earth. In addition, when Luna was Unsealed, the Cult of Sonata's High Priests had proclaimed it to be proof that Celestia's rule was insufficient to prevent the Unsealing of Discord, and so Twilight concluded that they had also likely Unsealed Luna to lend weight to their claims and gain more followers.

Twilight's current primary area of study, therefore, were the Sonatians. She knew that the Pie family was one of the world's oldest Sonatian clans, so she had asked Pinkie if her own immediate family were. Pinkie, with a rare depressed frown, had replied that they were, but that she didn't want to talk about it further. Twilight's curiosity only grew, but she honored Pinkie's wishes and didn't ask her more.

Twilight had then went to Applejack, inquiring about how her own family had splintered away from the Pies. Applejack had replied that her family was old-fashioned, but the Cult of Sonata was too strictly traditionalist for even her great-grandparents. Applejack had said that when Granny Smith was a little girl, her parents Mud Pie and Applesauce got so fed up with the Sonatian laws forbidding dancing and recreation that they had set off to settle somewhere far away and establish their own clan.

"My Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa traveled across the Central Pillar until they found this land where they could see Mt. Olympus, then they built Sweet Apple Acres here," Applejack had told Twilight. "Our family and farm grew, and soon enough there were enough folks workin' for us that a little town with saloons and blacksmiths and cabins was built around us, and that's how Avalon was founded."

Twilight was fascinated and intrigued, and had further inquired into Applejack's family history. Applejack told her that Granny Smith and her brothers and sisters had married other Human farmers and made families of their own; Granny's family had remained at Sweet Apple Acres while her brothers and sisters went all across the world with their families to start farms in other lands. Granny's niece and nephew, Apple Tart and Apple Bumpkin, had brought their family to a land near the Arcadian capital of Philadelphia and started a farm there that, much like Sweet Apple Acres, had a town grow up around it that came to be known as Appaloosa.

"Wait," Twilight had said, interrupting Applejack. "Granny Smith's niece and nephew started a family together?"

Applejack had hesitated for a moment before nodding. "Yeah."

Twilight's eyes widened. "So- they're brother and sister...?!"

Applejack turned slightly red. "No, they ain't brother and sister."

"Oh," Twilight said, herself turning a little red with embarrassment. "So... one's only her niece or nephew-in-law...?"

Applejack's blush deepened. "Well, no," she replied. "They're her niece and nephew by blood. Apple Bumpkin's her sister's son, and Apple Tart's her brother's daughter."

"So they're... cousins?" Twilight asked.

"Yeah," Applejack replied, her face now deep scarlet. "My parents are, too."

"Oh," Twilight said. Applejack was now looking away, deeply flushed with embarrassment, and Twilight recognized that this was very touchy territory for her, so she didn't breach the subject again.

Nonetheless, Twilight was able to learn a great deal about Sonatians by talking to Applejack about her family history, so she had spent a great deal of time over the last few days continuing to converse with her about it, though she tactfully avoided bringing the topic of the Apples' intermarriages back up. She didn't need to, anyway; she was able to quickly deduce that marriage between cousins was common in the Apple family because, though they were no longer Sonatians, they still strongly encouraged their children to only marry Beings of the same race, class, and worldview, which were naturally far easier to find within their own family than outside of it.

Twilight planned to go to Sweet Apple Acres to help Applejack with her chores and continue speaking to her about her family once she was done researching at the library and Spike had returned. Until five o'clock, she read about the culture of Sonatians, particularly their daily life. Just before the clock on her wall rang to signal the hour, Spike entered the library and called, "Hey, Twilight!"

"Hey, Spike," Twilight replied. She removed her reading-spectacles and folded them as she said, "What have you been up to?"

"I went with Scootaloo to the skate park. She's fantastic on her scooter; you should she the stunts she can do when she's in the air!"

Twilight grinned. "Wow, she really does idolize Rainbow. Is she as good as her?"

"Not quite, but she's pretty close. She told me that she just wished she could fly so that she could do even better tricks and do everything Rainbow can."

Twilight nodded. She felt a stab of sympathetic pain; she didn't like remembering that Scootaloo's small wings were disabled and that she might never fly.

"Anyway," Twilight said, standing up, "are you ready to go over to Applejack's?"

Spike grinned. "Yeah."

"Alright then, let's go."

Spike and Twilight exited the library, locked its door, and flipped the sign nailed to it around to read "Closed." They then walked to Sweet Apple Acres, and after searching around the farmhouse and barn for a few minutes they found Applejack at a small, wooden shed. She and Bic Macintosh were loading barrels from it onto a donkey-pulled cart, and upon seeing Spike and Twilight Applejack's face broke into a wide smile. "Howdy there, Twilight! Hey, Spike!"

"Hi, Applejack," Twilight replied, smiling back. "We're here to give you any help you'll need. What should we do?"

"Well," Applejack said as she and Big Mac heaved another barrel up onto the cart, "if you and Spike could help us stack these up on the cart, we'd be much obliged."

"Of course," Twilight said, and she and Spike began jointly channeling Ether into the barrels to telekinetically lift them onto the cart. It was significantly more strenuous for them than it was for Applejack and Big Mac, and soon Twilight and Spike found that sweat was rolling down their foreheads. Soon enough, however, the barrels were all loaded on. "There," Applejack said, clapping her hands together to clear the dust off of them. "Can ya'll help us unload these at the market?"

"Of course," Twilight replied. She and Spike climbed up onto the cart and sat on two of the barrels, and Applejack climbed up as well and sat on a barrel beside Twilight. Big Mac went to the driver's seat and picked up the reigns before urging the donkey forward. With a snort, it began trotting forward and jerked the cart into motion.

Twilight and Spike were able to casually converse with Applejack for several minutes. Twilight learned some more of the family traditions the Apples had carried over from their time being Sonatians, such as embroidering, quilting, and playing the guitar and fiddle. One of the biggest reasons the Apples had spun off from the Pies, Applejack said, was that Sonatians were allowed to play and sing songs only from the Sonatian canon of hymns, but her great-grandmother and great-grandfather wanted to play energetic folk tunes to dance to. Since non-hymnal music and dancing were forbidden in Sonatism, or "sinful," as Sonatians called it, Applejack's ancestors had declared, "Well then, we'll be sinners and lead lives full o' sin then!" and embarked in search of new pastures.

Big Mac drove the cart to Avalon's market, which was at the southern end of town. Twilight found going in to be a rather peculiar experience, as it was very old-fashioned; all of the shops were tents lined over a brick plaza, under which the shopkeepers sold their wares from folding wooden counters, upon which were chalkboards displaying their prices. Twilight was used to Olympus's sprawling streets of shining malls of crystal and glass, so coming into Avalon's market of simple canvas tents was a bit like stepping into a previous century.

Nonetheless, Twilight had soon found that she loved it; their vegetables were fresher and their fruits more juicy and delicious than anything she'd tasted in Olympian shops, and the prices were usually far better, too. Twilight said to Applejack as they were driving between the tents, "In Olympus, markets are filled with malls owned by landlords who rent out shop space; does someone own this land, too?"

"Yeah," Applejack replied, nodding. "It's owned by Filthy Rich, our Baron. All the shopkeepers work for him, too; he manages and distributes all the wares. He lives in a small mansion just east of the market."

The cart soon reached a beverage-shop, where it stopped. Twilight and Spike helped Applejack and Big Mac unload the barrels and stack them behind the shop's keeper, alongside other barrels of several different sodas and liquors. After the shopkeeper thanked and paid Applejack and Big Mac, Twilight said to Applejack, "Hey, would you like to come with Spike and me to the library for dinner? I'm pretty hungry."

Applejack grinned. "Why, thank ya'll kindly, Twilight! Much obliged."

Big Mac hopped back onto the cart's driver's seat, then drove it off as Applejack followed Twilight and Spike back to the library.

Once Twilight entered the library, she gestured Spike and Applejack in before closing the door. As she was turning back towards her friends, however, her eyes fell on the letter-box on her writing-desk, in which an envelope bearing Celestia's Royal Seal rested.

Curious, Twilight picked up the envelope, broke its red, phoenix-emblazoned seal, and pulled out a folded piece of parchment. After reading it for a few moments, she gasped.

"What is it?" Spike and Applejack said together, walking towards her.

Twilight smiled, then read the letter aloud:

"My dearest student Twilight Sparkle,

I hereby cordially invite you to the annual ball of the Grand Galloping Galla at Camelot Castle on the evening of the twenty-second of August. You may bring one guest, and I would be delighted and honored for you both to attend.

Yours,
Princess Celestia."

Applejack gasped. "The Grand Galloping Gala?! Celestia invited you to that?!"

"Yep," Twilight said. She reached back into the envelope and pulled out two tickets, pounded from a gold-steel alloy and inscribed with small, elegant writing.

"Land's sakes!" Applejack exclaimed. "That's only the most prestigious party of the year! All the most important nobles come to dance and talk and eat there- why, if Ah was able to sell food there, Ah could drum up a heap o' money for my family! We could finally get new plows, fix that saggy old roof on our barn, and Granny Smith could replace her saggy old hip! Do they let folks sell food at the Gala, Twilight?"

"Of course," Twilight replied. "The nobles are sold some of the finest delicacies there, but they don't pay for it directly; everything they eat is magically recorded on their tickets, then it's billed to them and the shopkeepers are paid by their banks afterwards. Of course, everyone there's so wealthy that they don't have to worry about how much they pay. Shopkeepers just need to register themselves and their menus there before the gala begins."

Applejack's smile faded a little. "Well, Ah hope you two have fun there...."

Spike shrugged. "You can go if you want, Applejack; balls aren't really my thing."

Applejack turned astonishedly to Spike. "R-really?" she said. "You'd give up your ticket for me?"

Spike smiled. "Yeah. If you want it, you can have it."

Applejack embraced Spike. "Thank ya'll so much!" she cried.

Spike grinned. As Applejack released him, however, there was a knock on the door. It opened to reveal that Rainbow Dash stood on the other side.

"Yo, Spike! Yo, Twilight!" she called in with a wave. "You two wanna hang?"

Before Twilight or Spike could respond, however, Rainbow's eyes fell upon the tickets Twilight was holding. "What're those?" Rainbow said, pointing at them.

"They're tickets to the Grand Galloping Gala," Spike replied.

"What?!" Rainbow shouted. She rushed forward, came to a stop before Twilight, then asked, "You got invited to the Gala?!"

"Yeah," Twilight said, her eyes narrowing. "Why?"

"The Wonderbolts are gonna be there!" Rainbow cried, squealing excitedly. "I'd get to meet 'em and talk to 'em if I went there! It'd be so cool!"

Twilight raised a brow. "Why would you want to meet them? Your dad was a captain."

"Yeah, yeah," Rainbow replied, waving her hand dismissively. "But he isn't anymore. Besides, he wasn't the only member; I'd like to meet more than just one."

"Well," Twilight said, smiling, "I do have an extra ticket-"

"Hold on!" Applejack cried, stepping forward and frowning. "Ah thought ya'll were takin' me to the Gala!"

"You wanna go?" Rainbow said, narrowing her eyes. "What the hell for?"

"So Ah can sell some apple treats to help out my family," Applejack replied. "You said you were gonna take me, Twilight!"

Twilight frowned at Applejack. "No, I didn't," she said. "Spike said you could have his ticket, but it was never his to give; it's my ticket, to give to a guest I decide to bring, and I'll decide who I give it to!"

"Yeah!" Rainbow said, smirking at Applejack. "Besides, you're not into girls; I'm gonna be Twi's date to the Gala!"

Applejack flinched, paling, and Twilight blushed. "N-no!" Twilight stuttered. "She wasn't going to be my date! And you might not be either, Rainbow! I still haven't decided who I should give it to!"

"Please, Twilight!" Applejack said distressedly. "We could really use the money!"

"I've been waiting my whole life to meet all the Wonderbolts!" Rainbow cried. "Please let me be your date, Twi!"

Twilight looked between her two friends' imploring faces, then sighed. "I'll... have to think about it," she said quietly. "Can you two leave me alone for a while, please?"

Applejack and Rainbow sighed. "Fine," Rainbow muttered, then both of them exited the library, with Applejack closing the door behind them.

Twilight sat at the table, folded her arms over it, and groaned into them. After a few moments, Spike said, "Hey, you want me to cook us dinner, Twilight?"

"Yes, Spike, thank you," Twilight replied. Spike patted her shoulder, then went into the library's kitchen to finish preparing a potato pie they were having that night.

Twilight sighed, then turned her head. She saw that Pinkie Pie was smilingly standing next to her, causing her to yelp and jump.

"Pinkie!" Twilight gasped. "What are you doing here?"

Pinkie replied, "What do you think, silly? I heard that you got invited to the Grand Galloping Gala, and that you got two tickets to it! Oh, can I go, can I go, please please please pleaaaaaase?" She knelt and pouted to Twilight, giving her the widest, most adorable imploring eyes that she could.

"You want to go too, Pinkie?" Twilight said surprisedly.

Pinkie immediately jumped up, grinning and nodding vigorously. "Of course I want to go, silly! It's the Grand Galloping Gala! It's the most amazing, incredible, tremendous, super-fun, terrifically humongous party in all of Equestria! I've always, always, always wanted to go!"

Pinkie began skipping around the library, confetti and streamers raining down around her as she sang,

"Oh, the Grand Galloping Gala is the best place for me
Oh, the Grand Galloping Gala is the best place for me
Hip hip, hooray!
It's the best place for me
For Pinkieeeeeeee...."

She excitedly continued gushing, "With decorations like streamers and fairy-lights and pinwheels and piñatas and pin-cushions! With goodies like sugar cubes and sugar canes and sundaes and sun-beams and sarsaparilla! And I get to play my favoritest of favorite fantabulous games like Pin the Tail on the Donkey!"

She danced around the library as she continued singing,

"Oh, the Grand Galloping Gala is the best place for me
Oh the Grand Galloping Gala is the best place for me
'Cause it's the most galarrific superbly terrific gala ever in the whole galaxy
Whee!"

Just as Pinkie finished her song, however, the front door was slammed open again by Rainbow, who shouted, "Hey, get in line, Pinkie! I was here first!"

She walked in, and Applejack soon ran in behind her. "Ah'm not here for any special consideration, Twilight! I'm just here to make sure Rainbow here doesn't butter you up!"

Rainbow scoffed. "Fine. Let's settle this, right here, right now," she said, glaring at Applejack.

Applejack nodded. "Ah agree," she replied. "Let's arm-wrestle. Winner gets the ticket."

Both of them stood at opposite sides of a desk, joined hands, and began grunting as they strained to force each other's arms down. Twilight then walked between them and forced them apart, saying, "That's not how it's going to be decided, girls!"

"Yeah!" Pinkie shouted indignantly. "What about me?!"

Rainbow groaned. "Fine. The three of us play Rock-Paper-Scissors, then."

"You're not competing for the ticket!" Twilight shouted. "It's my Gala ticket! Mine, got it?!"

"What's that?" they all heard a voice call from outside. They all looked out of the door to see Rarity standing outside, looking curiously in at them. "Did I hear you say something about a gala, Twilight? You weren't speaking of the Grand Galloping Gala, were you?"

Before Twilight could respond, Pinkie said, "Yeah! Celestia just sent her two tickets to it!"

Rarity gasped dramatically. "Are you taking Spike, Twilight?"

Again, Pinkie interrupted Twilight, "No! Twilight said she's gonna give it to one of us!"

Twilight frowned at Pinkie, but before she could correct her, Rarity said, "Really, darling? Oh, would you please consider taking me? I would absolutely love to go!"

Twilight sighed wearily. "Why do you want to go, Rarity?" she asked quietly.

"Why, so that I can meet him, of course!"

"Him?" all of Rarity's friends chorused in unison.

"Him," Rarity sighed dreamily. "I would stroll into Camelot's ballroom, and everyone would wonder, 'Who is that mysterious Elf?' Of course, they'd never guess I was just a simple girl from little old Avalon. I'd cause such a sensation I'd be invited to meet Princess Celestia herself, and she would be so taken with my grace and elegance that she'd introduce me to her nephew, Prince Blueblood!

"Our eyes would meet, our hearts would melt! Our courtship would be magnificent, and it would end with him asking for my hand in marriage, and of course I'd say, 'YES!!' Ours would be a wedding befitting of a Princess, which, of course, is what I'd become upon marrying him!"

"Blueblood?" Twilight said, looking out one of the library's windows. "I've seen him around Camelot. He doesn't really leave the castle much, though...."

"Which is why that would be my only chance to meet him!" Rarity cried.

There was a small rapping on the door, then they heard a soft voice say, "Umm, Twilight, if you haven't given your other ticket to anyone else yet, would you maybe, um... if it's not any trouble...."

"You too, Fluttershy?!" Twilight groaned irritatedly. "Why do you want to go?"

"Oh, well, um... I don't really, um, want to go to the Gala-"

"Then why are you bothering us about it?!" Rainbow shouted.

Fluttershy anxiously took a step back. "Well, actually, I do, kind of... but, um...."

"Go on, spit it out!" Rainbow shouted.

Touching her forefingers together nervously, Fluttershy said, "Well, see, Princess Celestia has a private garden that nobody else is allowed to go into, except on the Gala. She uses it as a rare animal preserve, and some of those little creatures don't live anywhere else anymore. I'd love to go there and study them and feed them and make friends with them." She beamed as she added, "I can't imagine a more wonderful way to spend an evening."

"Oh, come on, Fluttershy!" Rainbow said exasperatedly. "You can study those things in books or something!"

"Why don't you just get your dad to introduce you to the Wonderbolts if you wanna meet them so much? You don't need to go to the Gala, either, Rainbow!" Applejack retorted.

"It's not that simple, AJ!" Rainbow shouted back. "The Wonderbolts have an extremely tight schedule, and there aren't many other times I can-"

The rest of Rainbow's words were lost to Twilight, as Applejack had started arguing back over the top of her, and soon Pinkie and Rarity joined in. Fluttershy quietly closed the door and excused herself before Twilight shouted, "QUIET!!"

All the girls stopped shouting, except Pinkie, who yelled, "And I said, 'Oatmeal? Are you crazy?!'"

"Shut up, Pinkie!" Rainbow shouted, then Pinkie nervously shrank away as she said, "Wha-? ... oh."

Twilight pointed at the door. "You may all leave!" she said. "I'll decide who I'm going to give the ticket to, by myself, then I'll let you all know tomorrow!"

Twilight's friends resentfully relented and grumblingly opened the library's front door and filed out. Twilight closed the door behind them, then slid against it down to the ground with an exhausted sigh.

Spike exited the kitchen and walked up to her, wearing a green apron and carrying two plates of potato pie with forks sticking out of the top of them. "Want some?" he said, giving her a sympathetic smile.

Twilight sighed. "Yeah, thanks, Spike," she replied, gratefully smiling back as she took one of the plates.

Spike sat on the ground beside Twilight, then asked, "You alright?"

"Yeah," Twilight muttered, taking a bite from her pie slice.

"You know who you think you'll give it to?" Spike asked.

"No," Twilight replied. "They all have really good reasons to want to go. It'd probably be Applejack, since her family really needs the money, or Fluttershy, because she was the most polite and civil one. But even if I gave up my own ticket and gave one to both of them, I'd still disappoint my other three friends and hurt their feelings!"

"Yeah," Spike said. He shrugged. "Maybe you just need to sleep on this."

Twilight sighed. "Yeah. I'll figure this out." She groaned, poking her pie with her fork. "Somehow...." she muttered.

Comments

[Mujaker]

Twidash Bye.

[ElCazadorDeHistorias]

That was a really frigging and bulking load of lore at the beginning of the chapter! I adore lore and world-building! There' s never too much lore!

And now, here starts the race to butter Twilight in giving the ticket. I hope to see Dash doing a seduction plan! That would be hilarious!

[LoZLttP13]

7416513 I don't know what to tell ya, except that Rainbow won't necessarily end up with Twilight. Besides, might the rest of the story be worth one frustration? After all, a lot of people still love Harry Potter even though Harry ends up with Ginny instead of Hermione.

[Mujaker]

7417266 It is Unjustified Hatred.

[LoZLttP13]

7417281 ... Huh?

[Mujaker]

7417286

I Hate TwiDash unjustifiably.
I just hate.

[LoZLttP13]

7417294 Alright...

[He23t]

Love the chapter!

[Titan Commander Sebaste]

Well this got awkward for Twi...

[Nevermore777]

Twilight pleasured herself, soaped her body down, shampooed and conditioned her hair, then rinsed herself off. She then stood up and stepped into the tub, where she relaxed for about ten minutes before stepping back out, picking up one of her towels, and drying off her body. She then wrapped the towel around herself and picked up the other one, which she used to dry her hair.

The casualty in which you say “pleasured herself,” without any context what so ever is hilarious.

[Nevermore777]

Spike shrugged. "You can go if you want, Applejack; balls aren't really my thing."

Okay, in a story with as much sexual humor as this, that got me

[LoZLttP13]

9432774 Probably because it was unintentional that time, haha.

[FishingCrossing]

"Yeah," Applejack replied, her face now deep scarlet. "My parents are, too."

So, are they alive or....