Previous Chapters
Close
Chapter 1: Meeting Bob Nightwalker & Patrick Moonbeam3,453 words
Chapter 2: Making New Friends Part 14,827 words

Chapter 2: Making New Friends Part 1

After leaving the cottage, the four were walking up to the Ponyville Post Office. While they were walking, they passed by some of the stores and stands in town. First, they walked by the flower shop which was run by three mares named Daisy, Rose and Lily. Those three mares were sometimes referred to as the flower sisters and they were often in charge of certain floral arrangements for special occasions. Next, they passed by the sweet shop called Sugarcube Corner, where they made the best desserts in all of Equestria. Sugarcube Corner was run by an earth pony couple named Mr. and Mrs. Cake. Patrick Moonbeam was often regarded as their favorite customer since he practically almost eats the entire store from time to time. While they got closer to their destination, Bob was explaining to the newcomers about the new system they’ve been presented by Doctor Whooves in order to keep special information safe from strangers.

“You see, Doctor Whooves invented a special kind of systematic computer technology that prevents strangers from stealing important information, and he gave it the Ponyville Post Office for that very reason,” Bob explained. “The number code the princess gave me is 8-9-0-7-1-2-8-3. And Craig McHoofen is the fastest pony in there. If you want something done snappy, then he’s the one for the job.”

“Good, because the quicker we get the preparations checked on, the sooner I can get to the library and started studying” Twilight smiled.

“Is she really enthusiastic when it comes to books?” Patrick asked the baby dragon.

“You should see her when she has to prepare for a test or quiz. I barely get any sleep at night” Spike chuckled.

“Ha, ha, very funny” Twilight rolled her eyes.

Eventually they reached the Ponyville Post Office and walked through the doors. YET WHAT Twilight noticed was that there were two ponies behind the counter on the far side of the room. The first one was a brown stallion who had a dark brown curly mane and tail and hazel eyes. The second pony was a female white unicorn who had a red mane and tail and had teal eyes. To Twilight’s dismay, the brown pony that they were walking over to didn’t seem to be moving very fast.

“I thought you said this was going to be quick” Twilight practically hissed.

“Oh, are you saying that just because he’s a little slow on the uptake, he can’t be fast?” Bob smiled. “Technically you can do anything if you set your mind to it.”

“Craig McHoofen, my man! It’s nice to see you, pal” Patrick smiled as the four reached the counter and the brown pony slowly lifted his head up and smiled back at the striped cat.

“Nice...to...see you...too” Craig spoke slowly.

“This lovely lady has some important business here in Ponyville. Twilight, would you like to explain to him what that is again?” Bob asked with a playful smirk.

Twilight rolled her eyes at the gray cat before she gave a forced smile to Craig. “I’m Twilight Sparkle, the prized pupil of Princess Celestia. How are you today?”

“I am...doing...just...” Craig said slowly.

“...Fine?” Twilight asked.

“...Well. What...”

“Hang in there” Bob whispered amusingly to Twilight.

“...can I...do...”

“Well, I was hoping you could

“...for you...”

“Well, I was hoping you could—”

“...this morning?”

Twilight paused to make sure he was finished speaking. “...Well, I was hoping you could give us the list of requirements for the preparations regarding the Summer Sun Celebration that Princess Celestia delivered here for me. We are in a REALLY big hurry.”

“Sure...thing. What’s...the...code...”

“8-9-0-7—”

“...numbers?”

“...8-9-0-7-1-2-8-3” Twilight smiled.

The brown pony slowly began typing in the numbers on the computer next to him. “8...9...0...”

“7-1-2-8-3” Twilight finished.

As both Craig and Twilight kept up the scenario, Twilight was growing restless and miserable with every passing second.

“...7...”

“1-2-8-3.”

“...1...”

“2-8-3.”

“...2...”

“8-3.”

“...8...”

“3!”

Bob, Spike and Patrick were having some difficulty trying to hold in their laughter at Twilight’s misfortune. Patrick then decided to make the whole situation even more interesting.

“Hey Craig, you wanna hear a joke?” Patrick asked with a smirk.

“NO!” Twilight gasped with widened eyes.

“...Sure” Craig looked up to face the striped cat, while the lavender unicorn groaned with frustration.

“Okay, what’s green and says: hey, I’m a frog?” Patrick asked.

“I don’t...know” the stallion replied.

“A talking frog,” Patrick laughed. “Did you get it?”

The brown pony’s eyes slowly widened and his mouth was turned into a huge smile, before he laughed at the unfunny joke. “...Ha...ha...ha...ha...”

“Ha ha! Yes, very funny, very funny,” Twilight laughed sarcastically. “Now, can we please get back to the—”

“Hey...Lauren...Frost?” Craig turned to the side, to look at the white unicorn with a red mane.

“W-w-wait, oh no!” Twilight squealed with worry.

“Yes, Craig?” Lauren Frost asked with a smile as she looked over to him.

“What’s...green...and says...” Craig started to repeat Patrick’s joke to her.

Twilight butted into the conversation to speed things along, which didn’t seem to work well for her. “Hey, I’m a frog? A TALKING frog! Now can we please just—?”

“‘Hey, I’m a...frog...?”

“Grrrrr!!!!!” Twilight growled as she banged her head on the counter multiple times.

“Does she always flip out like this when she’s in a bad mood?” Bob whispered to Spike.

“Just be thankful that you don’t have to live with it” the baby dragon nodded.

A while later, Craig finally got the list to print and slowly lifted it up and put it on top of the counter without changing his calm expression.

“Here...you...go” Craig handed the list of instructions to them, before Twilight frantically swiped it out of his hoof with her magic and bolted towards the doors.

“Well, we hate to rush, but my senses are telling me to follow her” Bob gestured to the purple unicorn.

“Bye Craig, bye Lauren!” Patrick waved to the two ponies behind the counter.

Outside, the lavender unicorn was trying to spot the Ponyville clock tower. “Well, that didn’t take long, since...IT’S NOON?!”

True to her claim, the two hands of the clock were pointing straight up and the bell began to chime twelve times until it fell silent.

“Well, you know what they say: time does fly when you’re having fun” Patrick chuckled.

“You wasted my time on purpose!” Twilight started to berate both cats right on the spot.

“Princess Celestia requested for us to make sure that you get the instructions, but she didn’t say how” Bob raised his paws in defense.
Twilight’s blood boiled until she took a few deep breaths to regain her composure.

“Well, you did help me get the instructions, so I suppose I should thank you for that. I guess I should also thank you for slowing me down so far” Twilight said with a slight hint of anger in her voice.

“You’re welcome” Patrick smiled.

“Come on, Spike. Let’s check on the preparations for the celebration and get to the library ASAP” the purple unicorn spoke sternly.

“Roger that” Spike saluted while he held the scroll in his claws.

“Well, Mr. Nightwalker, Mr. Moonbeam, it’s been a pleasure getting to know you, but my number one assistant and I should really get going on overseeing those preparations. Thank you and good day” Twilight said politely before she gestured for Spike to follow her.

Twilight took a peak at the list Spike held in order to find out where they were supposed to be heading for the first stop. The first thing on the list regarded to the provision of the food at Sweet Apple Acres. The unicorn looked around for any road signs that could point her in the right direction, but saw nothing helpful. During every passing second, she began to sweat and tap her hoof impatiently. The two cats saw this and exchanged amused glances before walking up to the mare and dragon.

“Do you even know where you’re going?” Bob asked with a hint of amusement in his voice.

“Uh...no” Twilight blushed nervously.

“Tell you what, since you don’t know your way around here, how about Patrick and I show you the way to your locations” Bob offered.

Twilight thought about this for a moment in her head. As much as she hated to admit it, she definitely had no idea where any of the locations were. She could also tell that Bob and Patrick were actually being genuine to her at the moment. Maybe with their help, she could be able to reach the library faster than she predicted.

“Hmmm...Alright, just don’t slow anything up again” Twilight warned them.

“We promise” both cats replied with a smile.

After a few minutes of walking, the four were walking on a dirt road and found themselves surrounded by numerous rows of apple trees. A few yards ahead of them was a spectacular farm ever known to pony kind. From left to right, there was a large red farm house and next to it was a large red barn. Scattered around the farm area were multiple haystacks, hay bales and wooden barrels. As far as crops go, besides apple trees, there was also a large field of corn stalks, tomatoes and pumpkins. In a small garden area of the farm, there were also carrots and grapes, both purple and green. Near the front gate of the farm was a decent sized wishing well, complete with a wooden bucket attached to a rope.

“Alright, the Summer Sun Celebration official overseer’s checklist; number one, banquet preparations: Sweet Apple Acres” Spike read aloud from the parchment of paper.

“Sweet Apple Acres is one of the best apple orchards in all of Equestria,” Bob explained as they got close to the farm up ahead. “The apples here are delicious from red to green. The apples here are used to make all kinds of delectable dishes like apple juice, applesauce, apple butter, apple cider, apple cider cookies, apple fritters, apple cakes and candy apples on a stick, just to name a few.”

“They also make the best apple pies in all of Equestria right here” Patrick added.

“Yee-haw!” a female, southern accented voice cried out.
The four looked over to see an earth pony running over to some of the apple trees. The pony had orange fur, a blonde mane and tail, and hazel colored eyes. Once she finished bucking the apples off the tree, she crossed her fore legs with pride.

“Let’s hurry and get this over with,” Twilight said as she walked over to the orange mare and began to introduce herself. “Good afternoon. My name is Twilight Sparkle and—”

Twilight never got to finish her introduction, because her body immediately started to shake violently. She looked over and saw that the orange mare was shaking her right hoof with a lot of enthusiasm.

“Well, howdy-do, Miss Twilight! It’s a pleasure to makin’ yer acquaintance,” the orange pony beamed. “My name is Applejack. We here at Sweet Apple Acres sure do like making new friends!”

After a few more seconds, Applejack released her grip on the unicorn’s right hoof, but it still wobbled up and down continuously.

“Friends? Actually, I—” Twilight tried to protest but seemed to have trouble getting words out since she was trying to settle her front right leg down since it continued to wobble like crazy.

Spike grabbed ahold of her hoof and slowly brought the wobbling to a stop. The baby dragon then chuckled at the ordeal, much to Twilight’s annoyance. Applejack looked over and noticed the two felines standing there, watching everything unfold.

“Howdy Bob, howdy Patrick!” Applejack greeted the two cats as well.

“Afternoon, Applejack” Bob smiled.

“What he said” Patrick also smiled.

“And I’m Spike” the baby dragon politely introduced himself.

“Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you too, Spike!” she grinned before she shook his claw similar to how she shook Twilight’s hoof earlier.

“Well, to get back on track, I’m actually here to supervise preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration. And I take it you’re in charge of the food?

“We sure as sugar are! Would you care to sample some?” Applejack asked hopefully.

“As long as it doesn't take too long...” Twilight grinned uncertainly.

“Brace yourself” Bob said to Patrick, who nodded in agreement. Then the two cats made a beeline for one of the trees and climbed up it and sat on a limb.

“Brace yourself for what?” Spike asked, having heard the gray cat speak.

Applejack then rang a triangle attached to a pole really loudly, which caused Twilight and Spike to wince. “SOUP’S ON, EVERYPONY!”

With that being said, a huge stampede of earth ponies ran through the trail, dragging the lavender unicorn and baby dragon along with them. When the dust cleared, Twilight and Spike were placed in front of a round, wooden table while the herd of earth ponies surrounded them on all sides with huge smiles on their faces. Once they saw that the coast was clear, the two cats came down from the tree and walked over to the unicorn and dragon with calm smiles on their faces.

Applejack suddenly popped out in between them like a jack-in-the-box. “Now, how about I introduce y’all to the Apple family?”

Twilight gulped nervously and tried to avoid wasting anymore time there. “Thanks, but we really should get going so—”

However, Applejack went ahead and started to introduce the members to her family. As each pony was introduced from left to right, they each left their trademark apple-related desserts on the table. First, they were approached by a mare with light yellow fur and a green mane and tail with lighter green highlights, then another mare with light yellow fur but with a bright red mane and tail, and then by another mare with a light pink coat and a bright green mane. Next, they were approached by a stallion with a light yellow coat and a blue mane and tail, then by another stallion with a light amber coat and a dark grey mane and tail, by a mare with a pale yellow coat and orange mane and tail, and by an elderly stallion with a brown coat and a white and gray mane. In the third round, Twilight and Spike were approached by a mare with golden fur and a light green mane and tail, a stallion with a bright orange coat and a two-tone reddish brown mane and tail, and a stallion with a dark red coat and a lime green mane and tail.

“This here’s Apple Fritter, Apple Bumpkin, Red Gala, Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Caramel Apple, Apple Strudel, Apple Tart, Half Baked Apple, Apple Cinnamon Crisp...” After that, Applejack had to take a deep breath after saying all of those names before continuing. “...Big McIntosh, Apple Bloom and Granny Smith.”

Applejack finished the last part while shoving a green apple into Twilight’s mouth. The farm pony then looked over to see an elder female earth pony with green fur and a white mane and tail snoozing in a rocking chair.

“Up’n’attem, Granny Smith, we have some new visitors” Applejack called out to the sleeping pony.

The elder pony known as Granny Smith awoke from her slumber and got off of her rocking chair. She looked over towards the newcomers with a warm smile and walked slowly over to them.

“Wha..? Soup’s on? I’m up, here I come, ahm comin’...” Granny Smith spoke slowly.

“Why, just like Bob and Patrick, I reckon these newcomers are practically part of the family!” the orange pony beamed.

Twilight’s eyes widened in shock before she spit out the chewed up bits of the green apple and chuckled nervously, desperately trying to figure out a way to get out of making any new friends. “Okay, well, I can see the food situation is handled, so we'll be on our way now.”

When the lavender unicorn wasn’t looking, Patrick quietly walked over to a small filly with light cream-colored fur and a red mane and tail, and a pink bow on top of her mane. The striped cat whispered something into her ear, and she gave him a wink and a knowing smile.

“Aren’t ya gonna stay for lunch and the tour?” a young, female voice asked.

Twilight looked down to see Applebloom looking up at her with sad, puppy-dog eyes.

“I’m sorry, but we have an awful lot or prepping to do...”

“Awwww~” all of the members of the Apple family whined.

Twilight couldn’t believe it. She was insistent that all of the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration are in check, and all of these country ponies who wanted to treat her to lunch and a tour would only slow her progress down. She also thought that a lunch and tour of an apple orchard could probably take hours to complete at the very least. However, she looked over at Patrick and immediately started to sweat. The striped cat’s eyes were all big and sad, just like the look Applebloom made, only slightly cuter. Twilight was definitely familiar with this trick since Spike would often use it on her from time to time. Soon, Twilight started to cave in to the sad cat’s eyes.

“...Fine” Twilight groaned in defeat after a few moments of silence.

“YAY!” the Apple family cheered.

“For starters, how about I show ya around the farm?” Applejack asked, practically eager to start the tour.

“Okay” Twilight grumbled.

“Alright, we’ll start with the orchard. Just follow me!” the orange mare smiled brightly.

The lavender unicorn groaned silently while she walked after the farm pony, followed by the baby dragon and two felines respectively. True to her word, they began to walk through the apple orchard. As they passed by the many trees, the apples that hung from looked absolutely delectable. From red delicious to gold delicious, Twilight’s mouth secretly started to water. However, she shook it off and regained her composure.

“I gotta admit, this place is pretty beautiful” Twilight smiled a little.

“Thank ya kindly, Twilight. We here at Sweet Apple Acres always aim to please! Just listen while I tell ya all about it!” Applejack beamed before she started to sing.

Next, she took them through the animal section of the farm. When they walked past the pig pen, there were at least a dozen pink pigs inside the muddy, enclosed area. Some of the pigs inside the pen watched the new comers walk on by, while the rest of them were busy relaxing in the cool mud puddles. In the hen house, most of the chickens were snoozing on their nests containing eggs, but some of them were outside the hen house pecking at the ground for chicken feed. A small herd of sheep were located in another pen just a few yards away. Besides there being white sheep in the pen, there were also a few black sheep amongst the herd. Up above the area, a friendly swarm of bees flew by to find flowers to pollinate and a few butterflies also fluttered by.

Just then, around the corner of the barn came Winona, the cheerful female Border collie with brown and white fur.

“This here’s Winona. She can be quite a hooful, but she works just as hard as any of us when it comes to herding other animals” Applejack explained while petting her furry, faithful companion on the head.

“That’s nice” Twilight said with a fake yet polite smile before the orange pony began to sing once more.

Finally, she showed them inside the big red barn itself. There were a few stables that were each filled with a few bales of hay. In one corner of the barn there was an old crop plow along with a few other farming type of equipment. In another corner, there were some large wooden buckets that were used to catch the apples when they fell down from the tree after being bucked. In a third corner were a few more wooden barrels most likely filled with either fresh water or fizzy apple cider. Once Applejack finished her song, Spike looked very impressed while Twilight struggled to remain as polite as possible.

“Well, that was a very nice tour, but I think it’s time for my assistant and I to go” the unicorn said with a forced smile.

“But we haven’t had lunch yet” Patrick grinned innocently, which made Twilight shoot him an angry look.

“Land sakes, Patrick’s right!” Applejack wrapped a leg around Twilight’s neck. “Right this way, Twilight. We’ll treat you to a meal you won’t forget.”

“Oh, boy” Twilight whimpered.

After the tour was complete and they had multiple helpings of the many different apple treats, the four set off to complete the remaining steps in the preparation list.

“Since the food’s all taken care of, the next thing on the list is weather” Spike announced as he looked over the list once more.

The baby dragon and cats looked behind them to see that Twilight’s stomach was filled up with food and she was moving at a very slow pace.

“Ugh...I think I ate too much pie back there...” Twilight groaned.

“Twilight, there’s one thing I’ve learned since Bob and I moved here many years ago: you can eat and eat, but nothing will ever fill the void deep inside yourself” Patrick said proudly.

“My stomach says different” the unicorn grumbled.

“Okay, there’s supposed to be a Pegasus pony named Rainbow Dash clearing the clouds” Spike spoke while glancing up at the blue sky containing white, fluffy clouds.

Suddenly, Bob’s ears flicked around, indicating that he heard something on the wind, something that was heading their way. “Patrick, take cover.”

“Roger that” the striped cat in question nodded.

The two cats sped over to a nearby tree and hid behind the wooden trunk, while Spike looked over at them with a dumbfounded expression.

“Well, this Rainbow Dash doesn’t seem to be doing a very good job at keeping the sky clear, is she?” Twilight asked skeptically.

Without warning, something really fast piled into the unicorn’s side, knocking her into an adjacent mud puddle. When a cloud of dust caused by the crash cleared, Spike and the two cats, who had returned from behind the tree, looked to see that the thing that crashed into Twilight was a female, cyan Pegasus that had a rainbow colored mane and tail. Both mares were currently dripping with mud, but the blue mare was more amused instead of disgruntled.

“Uh...heh, heh...excuse me?” the Pegasus chuckled, but Twilight could only grumble in response.

“Here, let me help you” the Pegasus replied before flying off and brought back a small storm cloud.

She then got on top of the cloud and began bouncing quickly up and down on it. When she did that, a bunch of water poured out of the cloud and landed onto the lavender unicorn. Once all of the water was drained out of the cloud, the color of the cloud faded from dark gray to pure white. When the cyan Pegasus peeked over the side of the cloud and saw that Twilight was dripping wet from the water, with a still not amused look on her face. This only seemed to amuse the Pegasus even further and she chuckled sheepishly again.

“Oops, I guess I overdid it, didn’t I, Bob?” she spoke to the gray cat.

“Maybe just a tad” Bob chuckled as well, while Spike and Patrick started to sicker.

“Um, uh, how about this? My very own patented Rain-Blow Dry!” the Pegasus then flew around Twilight very fast, creating a small, rainbow-colored tornado. Eventually, she stopped flying and landed on the ground with ease. “No, no. No need to thank me. You’re quite welcome anytime.”

The Pegasus then did a double take on her progress to dry up the unicorn, only to see that her mane was not only dry, but it was also enlarged and poofy. The unicorn in question was still not very pleased with the ordeal and still wore a sour frown on her face. The cyan Pegasus tried to hold in her laughs, but she immediately let them out while she collapsed onto the ground. Spike and Patrick also fell to the ground, laughing their heads off, but Bob remained standing and chuckled lightly. Twilight’s mood was completely the opposite of the others.

“Let me guess, you’re Rainbow Dash” Twilight conjectured straightly.

The Pegasus leapt onto her hooves faster than a speeding cheetah. “The one and only. Why, you heard of me?”

“Not until just recently,” Twilight sighed. “I’m Twilight Sparkle and the Princess sent me to check on the celebration arrangements.”

“Hold on, I thought Bob and Patrick were supposed to do that” Rainbow Dash said in surprise.

“Apparently, the princess requested for her prized pupil to help out with it” Bob explained.

“Oh, I guess that makes sense” Rainbow shrugged.

“You see, Twilight, Rainbow here is the toughest of the ponies here,” Patrick explained. “She tends to have a bit of a reputation to uphold.”

“That’s true, but I usually don’t give a dang about it most of the time” Rainbow bragged before she started to sing.

While she sang, Rainbow burst off of the ground and started to perform all different kinds of flying tricks that she created herself. She flew a few large hoops, dove into some wild spirals, and finally she zipped from cloud to cloud like a pinball game. Bob and Patrick were impressed, Spike was in awe, and Twilight was flabbergasted, but maintained her composure.

“That’s really impressive, but I thought that you were supposed to be keeping the sky clear for the celebration tomorrow” Twilight pointed out.

“Yeah, yeah, that’ll be a snap. I’ll do it just as soon as I’m done practicing” Rainbow stopped flying and rested on a nearby cloud.

“Practicing for what?” Twilight asked.

“The Wonderbolts! They’re gonna perform at the Celebration tomorrow and I’m gonna show them my stuff!” Rainbow clarified.

“Loosely translated: it’s her dream that will never be if she continues to be Ms. Lazy Bones every single day” Patrick whispered to the unicorn.

Twilight smirked when she heard this, since it gave her an idea in order to get Rainbow to clear the sky a lot faster.

“The Wonderbolts? The most talented flyers in ALL of Equestria?” Twilight questioned.
“Yep, that’s them!” Rainbow nodded.

The purple unicorn could only playfully scoff in response. “Oh, please. They’d never accept a Pegasus who can’t even keep the sky clear for one measly day.”

When Rainbow heard this, she immediately whipped her head around and gave Twilight a sour look.

“Hey, I could clear this sky in ten seconds flat” Rainbow claimed.

“Alright, prove it” Twilight challenged the cyan Pegasus.

“Oooohhhhh!” Patrick covered his mouth with his paw.

The pony with wings accepted the challenge in a heartbeat. Wasting no time, she burst off of the ground and started kicking the clouds with a strong force. Every time she kicked one of the clouds, it would instantly just disappear into thin air. While Bob and Patrick stood there feeling like nothing was new, Twilight and Spike were very surprised to no end. True to her word, Rainbow managed to clear the sky of the clouds in only ten seconds.

“Loop-de-loop around and wham! What’d I say? Ten...seconds...flat. I’d never leave Ponyville hanging,” Rainbow beamed with her usual pride until she noticed that Twilight had a huge dumbfound expression plastered all over her face. “You should see the look on your face. Ha! You're a laugh, Twilight Sparkle. I can't wait to hang out some more.”

Before Twilight could respond, the cyan Pegasus zipped away through the air until she was out of sight.

“Rainbow Dash, you’ll learn to like her” Bob shook his head with a smirk.

“Yeah, she’s amazing!” Spike noted in awe before he and Patrick resumed to laughing at Twilight’s messed up mane.

“I don’t think I’ve ever laughed this hard in my life!" the striped cat chuckled while Twilight only glared at him.

Author's Note:

Twilight has met the farmpony and the athlete, but she still has more ponies to meet before the day is over. Now for those of you who want to visualize what Bob Nightwalker and Patrick Moonbeam look like in comparison to their pony co-stars, imagine that Bob and Patrick look similar to the design of Puss in Boots from the Shrek movies and they don’t wear clothes. Also, Craig McHoofen and Lauren Frost are spoof characters of Craig McCracken (creator of The Powerpuff Girls and Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends) and Lauren Faust (creator of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic), who are married in real life. Catch ya later!