Of Geldings And Gems

by Hergest Ridge

Rock the Night

"Wait, so you're telling me that the guy was actually the SHERIFF?"

"Eeyup!" he answered with a subtle but sincere grin on his face. "An' that's also how he found out that Ah was the one who'd gone to his home durin' the night. Ah didn't say anythin' bout Braeburn, though."

"Oh Celestia, I just wish I could have seen that!" I exclaimed.. "What did... what did he say?"

"Ah reckon he'd have taken it a bit better if the mare who'd gotten it all over herself wasn't his wife."

I burst into laughter as soon as the punchline made sense to my neurons, tears almost forming themselves in my eyes. The Big One chuckled along with me, as I tried to control my hilarity, attempting to breath in a healthier way.

"Hahaha, oh man... really, you're not making that up?" I asked.

"Eenope. Ask Braeburn, he'll tell ya the same story."

"Gosh, that's freaking... that's just hilarious, dude! Is that why you didn't want to go to Appleloosa with us, last time?"

"Eeyup, ah don't think they'd be very happy t'see me 'round here."

"Eh, you missed some fun stuff." I declared, with the amazingly annoying tone of the kid-who-thinks-he's-seen-it-all. "Not as fun as that, though.

You know what? I've got to admit, I would have never imagined Big Macintosh could be such a fun colt to be around.

Being as calm and introvert as that giant was, you would expect him to be a rather boring kind of pony, but man, how wrong would you be!

Okay, "fun" wasn't really the best word, but hell, he actually had a shitload of things to say, general opinions on any subject, hilarious anecdotes from when he was a teenager...

I found myself spending more time with this sweet bastard than I would have ever imagined, during the following week. Applejack obviously hadn't appreciated finding us both completely intoxicated and sleeping in the middle of her barn, but her bro and I ended up finding some kind of appreciation for each others, so it was absolutely swell.

This guy, he's very serious about his job at the farm, always keeping on working, buckin' dem apple trees as if it would always remain his main priority in life, and you could feel was still shocked about his sister's kidnapping, but if you caught him at the right moment, you'd manage to get pretty fun conversations out of him, which, I repeat, was unexpected.

I guess finding another guy - that is neither Snips nor Snails - to talk to about male things is always nice, in a town mostly populated with mares.

On his side, I think he was just thankful for me trying to help, so he didn't mind me hanging out with him too much.

The stallion looked at the sun, and somehow concluded that we had been talking for a long time, already. He excused himself and told me that he had to get 'dem trees bucked or Applejack would kill him, so we said goodbye and short story short, I was making my way back to the library.

Although I managed to find some rare but enjoyable moments in Sweet Apple Acres, the next week was a real pain in that one part of the body, generally speaking. It'd started the morning right after we got the letter - and I spent the night with the Big Macintoshosaurus:

"Suffer all you want, I'm not going to be sorry for you." My purple sister had told me. "You deserve this."

"Aw, come... come on Twilight, it's... it's hard enough, you don't have to..." I mumbled as I drank a warm cup of tea, trying to ignore the feeling that my skull had been filled with a thousands of razor blades, and that my scales had grown backward during the night.

"I don't have to what?"

"Well, rub it... in my face."

"You're right, I don't have to." she had agreed. "But I'm sure you didn't have to go and get drunk while our friend's sist-."

"I know, I'm... sorry. I swear, I..."

"No, don't even... don't even TRY to find an excuse, I don't wanna hear it." she'd interrupted, slightly hysterical, looking at me like I was the most pathetic thing she'd seen in her life. "Just... just stay quiet. I'd be a terrible friend if I told Rarity about this, but you'd deserve it, you really would. Actually, I don't even know why I don't."

Yeah, I had deserved being sick and all, I can't argue against that, but it's never really pleasant to be reminded how much of a worthless piece of shit you are while your digestive system is trying to puke itself out of your body.

Anyway, I got back from Sweet Apple Acres to the library way faster than it usually seemed, and didn't think of knocking before entering.

I simply opened the door and kicked it open, shouting "Twilight, I'm home!" with the originality I'm well-known for, when I noticed the lavender mare was sitting on the floor, surrounded by a dozen of books, one of which Owlowiscious was standing on, in front of her.

I understood way too late how focused the mare was on whatever she was doing, when she jolted in shock, letting out a surprised scream in reaction to my interruption of her experimentation. The owl had a similarly startled reaction, letting out a weird noise and proceeding to fly away. The Unicorn's horn, which was already glowing, suddenly emitted a way brighter light, which only missed the bird by a few inches.

"Spike!" exclaimed Twilight, when she realized who she had affair to. "Don't come in like that when I'm practicing spells! I could have hurt him!" she added, as she pointed a hoof toward the bird, who had found refuge on top of a book shelf.

"Sorry," I apologized, actually regretting the bird wasn't hurt. "Didn't know you were practicing spells."

"Well, this is a library anyway, libraries are supposed to be quiet."

"When was the last time this library was ever quiet, anyway?"

"5 minutes ago, when the general IQ in this room was still above 80." she replied.

"What were you practicing, anyway?" I asked, ignoring her gratuitously insulting remark, "That chameleon spell?"

"Oh, no, I've already got this one down." answered the Unicorn, already forgetting she was offended as soon as she had an occasion to talk about magic and friendship and shit. "I was just doing some researches, you know, that old book about magic and the mind I showed you, some days ago? Well, I've found some other old volumes" she levitated two even older books closer to herself as she talked.

"Wow, wow, wow." I interrupted. "So you're still continuing these researches? I thought you were supposed to practice spells to help the girls."

"Well, I have of course, but really, I'm convinced there's some real progress that can be made in that particular field of..." she paused for a second. "No, I don't think that field of magic has a name yet, but I was practicing with a Owlowiscious here, and I think I can already feel some kind of magic emerging from him."

"And?"

"And that's the barrier the book mentioned!"

"Twilight, what are you trying to do?"

The old filly stopped for a second, probably realizing she was sounding way too excited about the subject. She took a slow breath, and answered in a calmer tone:

"I... I'm pretty sure I can manage some kinds of spell to... well, not to read minds, that'd be oversimplifying, but..."

"Let me guess, detect a lie?" I asked.

"Yeah, kind of. I'm sure it... I'm sure we could need that, wouldn't we?"

"Well, yeah, but, that sounds kind of..."

"Kind of what?"

I looked over to my adoptive sister, choosing my word carefully:

"Scary."

"How so?"

"I don't know, it doesn't sound right. I know you're not going to try and do anything bad with it, but..."

Well, that was a lie, of course. Twilight was an intelligent pony, but she was as prone to committing stupid acts as anypony else. More than anypony else, actually. Her usual magical abilities were always a problem when she wasn't feeling well, but any kind of spell that would come even remotely close to reading or controlling thoughts would be a pure disaster.

But I've got tact, my friend. And I'm going to use it.

"... but still, maybe something bad can happen? I mean when you grew mustaches, the worst thing that could happen was, well, not having a mustache, but thi-"

"Spike, you don't have to worry about that." she replied in a slightly annoying tone. "Of course I'd be careful, what do you think?"

"You almost hit him with a spell 2 minutes ago. That's what I think."

"Ha ha, very funny, Spike." she retorted, before saying in a slightly more apologetic tone. "Seriously, I'm telling you, I can take care of this. Beside, I'm probably not even close, it's just research. Maybe it's not even possible, but at least I'll know why."

"Pff, if you say so." I concluded, deciding to drop the subject before the conversation got out of hand and hoof.

I guess she was right, the fact that her researches sounded ambitious indicated low probability of success rather than anything. But I still didn't like the idea that somepony who had once cursed the entire town simply out of fear of sending a letter too late could hold such power. Also, I just didn't feel like arguing.

The week had been long, very long, and one dragon can only take so much pain in the butt before wanting peace and quiet. We'd made some plans together, with the girls, regarding whatever shall be done for this whole kidnapping thing (you know, the main thing about this story), and we quickly agreed on how the night would go down:

Rarity would follow exactly what the letter said. Get the money, put it in two saddlebags, walk out of town, put the bags on the ground, walk back home, the end. We'd all agreed that, if everything failed, we may as well try to get the fillies back the way the kidnapper wanted. It would be good enough, since the Cutie Mark Crusaders were still the main priority of the operation.

Getting the money may seem rather hard in only one week, but we managed it. An aspiring fashionista doesn't earn as much as the ones you read about in fashion magazines, of course, but with her recent connections to Canterlot, the white unicorn managed to live very comfortably these days. It took some help from her parents and the Apple family - who were the only ponies we allowed ourselves to tell about the letter - but very soon, the 100 000 bits were gathered, ready to be given when needed!

The mention on the letter that the money should be put in brown saddlebags with no decorations seemed pointless at first, but an explanation was soon found by Applejack.

"They don't want no proof, that's why. If Rarity used one of her fancy bags with gems an' all, we'd just need to find a pony with bags like that. Everypony's got plain brown, simple and practical bags, so ah reckon it'll be harder for anypony to find later."

However, that is only Rarity's part in this amazingly thrilling operation.

We went to check out the place of the rendezvous, and found out it was full of places to hide, since the Everfree Forest got dense very close to its edge. Some trees seemed easy enough to climb, and some bushes were big enough to hide ponies, so while it was perfectly moronic of the kidnapper to choose this place, it was quite fortunate for us.

Twilight had locked herself up in her library for most of the week, trying to find some kind of magic that would be useful for the sneaking up - or ambushing, depending on how well the plan would go. When she found - thanks to Pinkie Pie bouncing all over the room and smashing herself into a random book shelf - a book that included an invisibility spell, it seemed as if every one of our problems were suddenly solved, but it wasn't as good as it sounded: I didn't really turn anypony invisible, it just changed the skin and fur color, just like a chameleon. And didn't last long.

But that was better than nothing, and I wasn't enough of an ingrate bastard to complain about that.

The girls did most of the job making plans for Monday, though, so I was finding myself which much more time on my hands than I liked. One of the first things I did, hoping to pass some time in a useful way, was to go with Pinkie Pie to ask that other pony, Flower Shine, whom Bon Bon had told us about.

She was a thirty-something single mare, possibly divorced, definitively not lonely. She wasn't even close to Rarity's level of beauty, but she was the kind to take care of herself, too. Although she was still young, you could already picture her as an old lady, covered in make up, dyeing her mane the same color as in her youth and wearing clothes that emphasize disturbing parts of her anatomy, refusing to believe that she isn't twenty anymore, with so much enthusiast that you'd actually believe her, until you actually take a look at the parts you'd expected to be functional, at least.

The mare was almost as energetic as Pinkie Pie, but she seemed to spend that energy in talking, instead of hopping around everywhere and melting other ponies' brain. Sorry? Yes, I am implying that she was more talkative than Pinkie Pie.

And yes, it was this bad.

"Oh well, you see, I was going to the market to see my friend, Abi. You see, she was selling some vegetables there, since her friend Carrot Top was way too sick for that. Anyway, she had seen Blue, a stallion she used to date, and he acted like he hadn't seen her, so she was feeling rather sick. You know, the poor thing, she's still got feelings for him, even though I've always..."

Well, you get the picture.

While learning about which pony in town was most likely to have transmitted this bad case of gonorrhea to Berry Punch's cousin was very interesting - and was sure to make great conversation later - it didn't really help us solve the problem one bit, so we soon excused ourselves and managed to leave before the rumors started to be about us or our friends.

So it was a long, painful, stressful, anxious and many more adjectives week, but inevitably, time passed and it was Monday evening.

Almost time.

"So, we got everythin' ready?" asked Applejack.

"I think we do." answered Twilight. "I practiced that chameleon spell, I think I can make it last for about half an hour. It's not time yet, so I'll cast it at the last moment... we've got the bits right in the bags" she said, pointing to two saddlebags on the ground. "And we've checked out the place, there's only 3 ways to leave : the Everfree Forest, the path back to Ponyville or toward South, but it leads directly to Gashtly Gorge."

"Four, there's also the sky." added Rainbow Dash. "I've put some clouds all over the place so that Fluttershy and I can hide, in case Twilight's spell wears out, too."

"Good idea. So, I guess that's all, then?"

"I don't understand, Twilight." I protested. "Why do you absolutely want me to come along?"

"If there's any problem, Spike, you can send a letter to the Princess." Twilight stated, looking at me seriously. "That pony obviously isn't.... isn't normal, so I've written this letter here, so in case of a big problem, it'll take you one second to send it!"

I sighed.

"Don't you have some kind of spell to send letters to Celestia?"

"No, Spike, you know your fire is the only direct magical connection with Celestia anypon- anyone has. Safer and faster than anything else."

Of course I knew that, good old Celestia had spent so many hours teaching me how to do that. But to hear Twilight remind me of this almost made me feel like I was of any importance, at the moment.

"So, what will we do?" I questioned, pointing to myself, her, Applejack and Pinkie Pie.

"Hide in th' forest." answered Applejack. "We've found a perfect spot with lots of trees an' stuff so they won't see us. Big Macintosh can't come, though, yer way too big." she added, turning to him.

He simply nodded.

"Ah reckon ya shouldn't stay too far away, if we need some good ol' flank kicking." she added enthusiastically.

He happily eeyuped his sister.

"So, what time is it?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"10:20." answered Twilight. "Rarity, you should probably be going to your house, already."

Rarity pulled the bags from the ground and put them on her back, giving us all a rather worried stare.

"I... thank you so much for all your help, girls.. I mean, everypon... I mean, everyone." she told us, with the most sincere smile I'd seen on her face in a while. "I hope this will work." she added before leaving the library.

We only had to wait for a few seconds before Twilight exclaimed:

"Alright everypony, let's go!"

---------------------------

"So, what time is it?" I whispered.

"Almost eleven, Rarity will arrive soon." replied Twilight in a soft voice. "Applejack, are you here?"

"Yeah" we barely heard her voice answer. "Ah reckon ya should cast yer spell already, we're pretty much hidden but it can't hurt, ah guess."

Pretty much hidden would be the right words, yeah. Twilight and I were huddled up inside a small bush, while Applejack had managed to climb on top of a rather huge tree, under which we'd decided Rarity would be leaving the bags.

As for Pinkie Pie, she was hidden too, but we couldn't seem to figure out where exactly. Every time we heard her voice, it seemed to come from a different place. (and generally expressed her enthusiasm about the situation being "just like playing hide and seek!")

"You're right, Applejack, hold on."

She got her horn slightly out of the bush, pointed it toward Applejack and closed her eyes in concentration for some seconds. A purple light emerged from it, and disappeared as quickly as it had appeared.

"Did... did it work?"

"Woa, nelly." the farm pony's voice exclaimed quietly. "Ah reckon that's pretty impressive, Twi."

I poked my head out of the bush and looked up at Applejack, and witnessed the effects of the spell on her: I could see her, of course, but for the one and only reason that I knew she was there.

"Alright, Spike, your turn."

She casted the spell on me, herself, and we called the pegasi as quietly as possible.

"I'M HERE!" answered proudly the rainbow-maned mare as she flew down in front of the bush.

"Dashie-no-offense-but-will-you-please-just-shut-the-HELL-up." whispered Applejack angrily.

"Sorry." she apologized.

Two spells casted, and the barely visible pegasi were hovering over the forest, hiding behind strategically positioned clouds. We waited for a bit longer, perhaps 5 minutes, when we finally saw Rarity arrive, walking hesitantly.

She was looking rather scared, and kept looking behind and around her, either to try and see us or anypony else. She apparently didn't notice anypony, since she quickly approached the spot, untied the saddlebags off her back, put them on the ground, and left without even looking past her shoulder.

It's on!

Hidden into the forest, we waited quietly for the kidnapper to pick up the bags. We had chosen to try and sneak up on them instead of plainly attacking, hoping to manage to get the fillies AND the money back, but we all knew that some kind of fight may be somewhat expectable, if anything went wrong. None of us wanted that, but there was a risk.

...

11:10

Nopony arrived, yet. The wind was blowing into the trees, making our the sound of our breath much less noticeable. We hadn't even thought of this particular aspect of hiding, until this moment. I looked up and noticed a slight deformation in the sky, in the shape of a pegasus tail.

The forest is pretty scary at night, I'll admit. We were only at the edge, but we already felt kind of oppressed, as if something was watching us, its stare always focused right where we were, just waiting for the right moment to attack.

Kind of like us.

The minutes kept on passing, each longer than the previous one.

11:30

The saddlebags were still laying on the ground. We could hear more noises coming from the forest, probably some critters passing by, maybe something bigger, but we tried not to care, as much as we were all shitting our metaphorical pants right now. Priorities first.

It was also getting cold, or so I though from feeling Twilight slightly trembling. That's one of the good things about being a dragon, your body produce fire. You don't get cold easily.

I thought about blowing some of my fire on her, but mentally slapped myself for this retarded idea when I realized it may cause a good part of the forest to burn down. Which wouldn't be really good for both discretion and our survival.

So I didn't, and contented myself of inspecting the forest as well as I could only with my stare.

And still we waited.

00:15

Bugger all.

None of us dared talking, but we all thought something wasn't quite right at the moment. We were getting really cold, and the spell had started wearing out a bit for Twilight and I. Applejack could be seen in the tree, from my point of view, but still not if you didn't know she was there.

We waited, waited and waited, hidden like idiots, silently, until about half an hour later, when Fluttershy flew silently above us, completely visible this time, and whispered for the first time, as quietly as she could (which meant we could barely hear her)

"Erm, I'm sorry to... disturb you but... why are they... taking so ... long?"

"I... I don't know." murmured mah sistah. "It's weird, they wouldn't ask her to come at such an precise time but be late to pick up the bags. Maybe they saw us?"

"D'ya reckon we should get 'em back already?" we heard a certain voice from a certain tree ask.

"I... I don't know. Wait, I'll check around a bit. Spike, stay here, if you hear me having any kind of problem, send the scroll."

I nodded silently, holding the parchment in my hand, staying hidden in the bush as the unicorn casted her own spell on herself a second time, got out of her hiding spot and started walking toward the bags.

She looked around the environments, making sure that nopony was arriving, and opened the bags, to check out the content.

Although it was pretty dark, with Luna's moon hidden behind clouds that were too high for the Pegasi to control, the look of surprise and shock could be seen on Twilight's face, and before we had the time to ask, she told us, without even bothering to whisper:

"Guys, come out, right now!"

"What, why?" we all exclaimed.

"Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy!" She shouted to the sky "Don't stay here, go searching around, the money is gone!!"

"What?" asked Applejack as she jumped out of the tree and almost fell onto Twilight Sparkle. "What in tarnat..."

She opened the bags fully, and after walking a few steps toward them, we could see what inside.

Rocks.

Dumb rocks.

---------------------------------

"How in tarnation is that even possible?" asked Applejack.

We were back in Twilight's library, all 7 of us plus Big Macintosh, shouting more than discussing, wondering what the heck had actually happened here.

"Ah don't understand, we're sure nopony approached the bag, right?" asked the farm pony.

"We were all watching, nopony could have gotten close unless they were ACTUALLY invisible. And they'd have to open the bags anyway..." answered Twilight. "That makes no sense."

"Maybe it was another unicorn?" suggested Fluttershy. "I mean, Twilight can teleport objects, maybe that's what they did?"

"No, you can't teleport anything without the aura showing. I didn't see any aura, did any of you?"

We all answered negatively.

"Guys." started Rainbow Dash. "Did we even CHECK there was money in it?"

"Well, yeah, we all saw them when we-" started Twilight.

"I mean when Rarity got them to the forest." she interrupted. "Are we sure she brought money and not rocks?"

We all turned to the white unicorn, who seemed astonished..

"Well, of course I didn't bring rocks, Rainbow Dash." she answered defensively. "Are you... trying to imply something?."

"What? No, I'm not implying anything," answered the angry tomboy. "Why do you always have to assume I'm trying to imply something?"

"Oh I don't know, why are you asking as if I-"

"Girls!" silenced Twilight. "So, Dash, what do you mean, exactly?"

"I mean that the money could have been stolen before Rarity got the bags to the forest." answered the pegasus.

"Hm, that sounds plausible, yeah." agreed Twilight. "Rarity, you checked the bags before leaving, right?"

"Of course I did, my dear." she answered.

"When was the last time?"

"Just before I left home."

"Nothing happened before?"

"Well, no. I...I did go to... to the bathroom, but... I don't think anypony could have came in, I really just went to pick up a tissue."

She rubbed her eye subconsciously with one of her hooves, obviously trying to hide any trace of tears she made have cried earlier.

"But ya didn't check the bags again before leavin', didya?" asked Applejack.

"Well, no, as I said I wasn't in the bathroom for long, and I didn't hear any noise."

There was a bit of a silence.

"I... I guess a unicorn could have stolen it, I mean, unicorn magic doesn't make any noise." stated Twilight, unsure. "Your door and windows were closed, right?"

"Yes, they were."

"Well, can't you unicorn just open windows with your magic?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"She'd have heard it, ah'm sure." added Applejack.

"So, let me sum this up." concluded Rainbow Dash. "The money wasn't stolen in the forest because we would have seen it, it wasn't stolen at Rarity's house because she would have noticed, and it wasn't stolen before because ALL of us would have noticed, right?"

"Yeah." answered Twilight Sparkle.

"Then how in the hay did we end up with freaking rocks?"

We all though silently for a moment, trying to determine what to make out of the situation. A general feeling of fear, anxiety and incomprehension was invading the room, but most of all, the sentiment that we had been massively screwed had imposed itself in our mind and wasn't going to leave soon.

The silence was broken by Applejack:

"Well, ah... ah reckon this... this bastard tricked us good, but..." her voice was slightly cracking, and the curse wasn't enough to hide her discomfort. "But at least they ... they got the money now."

"I... I agree, darling." said Rarity.

"So what, you're just gonna let that pony get away with it?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"Rainbow Dash, it's... it's not about letting anypony get away with something." answered the unicorn. "The only thing that matters is that girls are fine. If it takes a ransom, then so be it. It's... I think we just want our sisters back, really." she finished.

Your bet your ass they want their sisters back! It had been more than one week since nopony had seen the fillies, they were in the hooves of some weirdo who had the will to kidnap children and potentially hurt them just to get money, and who was apparently smarter than all of us reunited. I don't think saying that they wanted them back was really needed.

We all turned to Applejack, who nodded in agreement, and then to Big Mac, who spared us of any commentary about the situation, not even a little "eeyup".

When we came to the conclusion that all we could do was wait to have more informations - as the letter had specified - Applejack proposed we headed to Sweet Apple Acres to have some drinks, a dinner or something similar.

We were all feeling very tired, so apart from Pinkie Pie and I, everypony politely declined the invitation, but agreed it would be a good idea to do that tomorrow. A nice dinner together to try and calm down a bit about the whole situation.

Alcohol and food is the answer to all of your problems, kids, always remember that!

The goodbyes were said, and soon all of the ponies were walking out of the library and heading to their respective homes.

I tried to say something reassuring to the beautiful white unicorn, but I don't think she really listened to me.

Big Macintosh, on the other hand, asked me if ah wanted t'come earlier to th'barn t'morrow an' have a drink or two 'fore th'others arrived, to which I gladly agreed.

And so we went to bed, trying to look at the bright side of the situation. The ransom had been payed, the fillies were coming back. Everything wasn't going as well as we'd expected, but it was still better than yesterday, right?

Eeenope!

A big fucking mistake had just been committed. Now obviously, you only realize that kind of stuff later, don't you?

----------------------------------

"Applebloom?"

The young pony turned her head to the origin of the voice, and found herself facing two fillies.

It took her way longer than usual to identify them, but once she did, a huge smile spread itself on her face.

"Heeeey, Scoooooot." she was instantly surprised at how slowly she seemed to talk. She forced herself to focus on her speech to be able to speak at a more normal speed. "An'... an' Sweetie Belle! How're you... doin'?"

"Great." answered the unicorn, in a rather tired voice.

"Yeah... me too." added the pegasus.

They looked at each others without saying anything, smiling, for maybe 5 seconds, or 10 minutes.

"What... where do you think we are?" asked Scootaloo.

"Ah've got no idea." replied the young earth pony. "Ah just... woke up."

"It's so... beautiful." stated Sweetie Belle, in a fascinated tone, looking around herself in admiration.

"Yeah." answered the orange filly, when she suddenly felt a pair of hooves wrapping themselves around her. "What are you... what are you doing, Bloom?" she asked, amused.

"Ah dunno, ah'm just happy t'see you girls." she said as she squeezed her friend tighter.

"Aaaaaw." exclaimed Sweetie Belle as she turned the embrace into a group hug. "We're happy to see you too, Applebloom."

"Yeah...." added Scootaloo.

They let the hug last for as long as they could, simply enjoying each other's presence, not saying anything.

It was weird. Never before had it occurred to any of them how awesome the simple fact of having each others was. Right now, it seemed like the only thing they could think of, so expressing it was obviously their most important priority.

Why it wasn't all the time was actually a good question.

The young pegasus eventually broke the silence and the hug all at once. She looked around herself a bit, at both of her friend and, with a mischievous smile forming itself on her lips, she reached a hoof forward to touch Applebloom's muzzle and declared, before running away in laughter:

"Tag! You're it!"

Comments

[Brony 2-Ma-Ro]

Not bad. Some spelling errors here and there, but good.
I really like Spike's "teenage" attitude. I mean, we don't really know how old he really is, so maybe he's like this with all his internal monologues in the show.

Keep it up.

[spikethed]

255946 i did the math asume pony years are the same as human years and twilight was not even in school yet when spike was born she would be about 5. its made canon that the poines are in thier late teens about 17 and 18 and spike has begain to grow after season 2. spike about 13 plus or minus a year

[spikethed]

dude is this the end?

[Kitnomara]

261356 It's incomplete.

[Hillbe]

It's like the CMC entered the afterlife & The kidnapers got away. . ,

[OmniFox]

He knew.