Slice of Velvet and Pear

by David Silver

25 - One Hoof Down

"This'll be fun!" Twilight was dancing from hoof to hoof with a big smile. "It's different from Canterlot."

"Please explain this to me." Moon was watching Twilight intensely with Spike at her side. "How does it differ, and why are you so excited?" A thought came rushing at her. "Are you in charge of the activities?"

"I am not in charge, I promise. I'm just taking part." Twilight jogged in place. "And all we have to do is trot! Our collective stomping will get the leaves to come down and let winter start on time. Unlike Canterlot, they invited all members of Ponyville to take part, fast or slow."

"Ah, I see." Moon rubbed her chin softly in thought. "I am not a fast member."

"Neither am I." Twilight swatted Moon's back. "So want to race with me? We'll do some good, get some outside time, and have fun!"

Spike wagged a finger between the two. "Against each other?"

Twilight bopped Spike gently on the nose. "No, silly. We'll race side by side. I doubt either of us is fit enough to really race against anypony but our own expectations, and that's fun enough."

"I would be delighted." Moon turned to Spike. "Are you also taking part?"

"Actually, I am!" Spike looked perhaps more proud than he deserved to. "I'll be with Pinkie, giving the, uh, you know, when ponies shout at sporting things about what's going on?"

Twilight inclined her head. "Announcers?"

"That's it!" Spike snapped his fingers with the joy of having the answer. "But yeah, I'll be with Pinkie when the race happens. Speaking of that, I hear Rainbow and Applejack are really going to go at it this year. That should be fun!"

"Really?" Twilight began towards the door. "Be ready for the race, Moon. I'll meet you at the track." She left them behind on her trotting jog towards the Apple orchard.

She smiled at the children playing outside for lunch, but it wasn't time to deal with foals, however adorable their little learning minds happened to be.

There was a farm in her future! Twilight had slowed to a normal walk as she advanced out of the town proper into the boonies that held the farms, including the orchard of her favorite apple-themed family.

"Ayup." There was Big Mac, watching her placidly. He angled his head and tossed it.

That was more than enough of a hint. "Thank you, Big Mac."

"No problem." Big Mac got right back to stacking baskets of apples. "She's real worked up 'bout somethin'."

Twilight sped up towards where Big Mac pointed her towards. "I was afraid of that." She found Applejack kicking the apples out of a tree adeptly. "There you are."

"There ah am." Applejack inclined her head at Twilight. "Ya lookin' fer something'?"

"You, mostly." Twilight closed, and they met in a brief hug. "Are you and Rainbow fighting?"

Applejack winced softly. "Just a little tussle. One race." She raised a lone hoof. "Just one and we'll settle it! That pegasus thinks she's faster an' better than everypony else! I'll prove her wrong."

She rearranged her hat in a fidget. "Will ya be there? Ya usually try it, right?"

"I'll be there with Moon." Twilight smiled brightly. "We'll both do our part with an easy but even-paced run along the racecourse."

Applejack swatted at Twilight's side, forcing her to rock in place. "That's the spirit! We'll knock down all them leaves!"

"I'll do my best." Twilight inclined her head. "But your heavy hooves usually knock more leave down."

Applejack blushed darkly as she tried to hide behind her hat. "Callin' mah hooves heavy ain't as much a compliment as yer thinkin'."

"It is no joke that the apples are the fittest family." Twilight stood tall and proud. "So run down those leaves!"

"Ya got it." They met with a loud clop of hooves. "Now ah gotta get ready, so vamoose!"

"Alright, I'm getting." Twilight wandered away with a little smile, but didn't escape the orchard without having to deal with another apple.

"Howdy." There was Granny Apple, rocking in her chair. "Our little studious family 'member, ah'm told."

Twilight dipped her head at the family elder. "Nice to see you. I hope everything is alright?"

"'bout well as they could be." She tipped the hat she wasn't wearing. "Thanks fer droppin' the word 'bout little Apple Bloom. She woulda just lost it if anythin' happened to her, 'specially if it was somethin' she coulda stopped."

"A pleasure." Twilight took a few steps towards Granny smith. "Everything alright on that front now?"

"Right as rain!" Granny nodded as she leaned forward, her chair creaking in its tilt. "Apple Bloom went and found herself some good friends. They're off getting inta trouble, as little foals will do." She laughed at the imagined vision of little children's trouble. "Ain't much point in tryin' to stop that, but it's a far sight better than crazy unicorn magic from crazy unicorns."

"Ha ha... crazy unicorns." She might have been one of those. "Can't keep them under control."

"You said it!" She waved a hoof at Twilight. "She's a friend of yers, ain't she? Get her to calm down and stay away from our foals!"

"She's a mother herself. It was just a foalish mistake." Twilight tried a smile at Granny. "Surely you've made a few silly mistakes before?"

"Once or twice." Granny rubbed at her chin. "But ah got over it! Now, yer a unicorn too." She was leaning in and staring at Twilight with newfound intensity. "You know them better than we do. What kinda magic was she tryin' to spin on our little filly?"

"Nothing harmful!" Directly. Twilight smiled nervously at the elder pony. "She was just trying to encourage early cutie mark production. It likely would have failed."

Granny raised a dubious brow at Twilight. "Whattaya put the chances of that are? An' if it did...?"

"Then, likely—" Twilight cycled her hooves frantically. "Nothing would have happened, but the same disappointed Apple Bloom. Now, don't get me wrong. She was wrong to try that. Though it rattled her, she deserved the chewing out she got in response to it."

"And maybe a tannin'." Granny sat in her chair with a smug grin. "But she's an adult, can make up her own mind. Just keep an eye on her, would ya?"

"She'll be with me today, since you bring it up." Twilight strode in place. "We'll be doing the running of the leaves together! We'll march side by side to get in a good workout and do our part."

"Now that sounds fun." Granny clopped her hooves in applause. "You two knock 'em dead!"

"We'll do our best." Twilight twirled away from Granny and got moving. No further challenges kept her from fleeing away from the --

"Twilight." Thought too soon. There was Pear Butter trotting towards her. "If it ain't you." She made it to Twilight and hugged her tightly. "Mah favorite daughta from another motha." They pressed their snouts side by side. "Are ya racin' Applejack this year?"

Twilight burst into laughter. "I should dream so large, ma—er, mom! Aunt? Can I call you aunt?"

Pear inclined her head. "Mighty accurate, couldn't rightly complain about you using that. That don't answer the question."

"I am not racing Applejack anymore than is standard in any two racers of the running of the leaves." Twilight snorted gently at the idea being put in front of her. "Will you be in it?"

"'Course ah will be." Pear squeezed her captive niece with an arm. "Oh, suppose that means ah'll be racin' Applejack."

"That you will be." Twilight waggled a hoof at her aunt. "Are you ready? You know she'll run for all she's worth. You don't want her to think she's already gotten ahead of you."

"That can't happen!" Pear released Twilight and started marching away. "Ah'll be ready, just you wait and see!"

It was only then that Twilight got to escape the farm.

---

Bouncing from left hooves to right and starting again, Moon Dancer was doing her best to be ready. Just next to her, Twilight was engaging in a similar act of preparedness. Applejack and Rainbow Dash were egging each other on, but neither of them were paying much attention to those two.

Twilight pointed ahead. "If you just follow the crowd, that'll get you through."

"You mentioned there were signs posted?" Twilight nodded at the question. "Then there should be no difficulties." She looked ahead and up. "There's Spike."

Spike waved down at them from the ride he was getting with Pinkie. "Looks like the racers are getting ready to give us a proper show." He pretended to puff a cigar for official proper points.

"Rainbow Dash and Applejack are looking ready for a different kind of show." Pinkie leaned dangerously out of the balloon, requiring Spike to hold her from falling. "Let's see how this goes!"

With a pop of a gun, the racers took off. Some galloping with all their might with Rainbow Dash and Applejack racing to take the lead to start. Others were quite a bit slower, with the last place going to an elderly stallion limping along the best he could, but still taking part in the falling of the leaves as best he could.

Twilight came out at a light jog alongside Moon Dancer. "Slow and steady."

"Wins the race," completed Moon with a nod. "Shouldn't we try to go a little faster?" She looked ahead at most of the racers, zooming ahead of them as if there were a fire chasing them. "They will leave us entirely behind."

"I've seen this a few years." She nudged aside into Moon. "They'll run out of their first bout of speed and start falling to the wayside. Only those that pace..." She kept up her breath with a moment of shallow panting. "Only those who pace themselves can actually reach the finish line. Win or lose, we will trot over that finish line, and that's a prize all by itself."

"I see your goal." Moon sped up, but only to match Twilight's pace better. "We will win by completing the race, which many others will not do because of running themselves ragged at the start."

"Precisely!" Twilight threw her head forward. "The leaves deserve to be shaken all along the track, not just at the front and middle."

"Sensible." Moon looked far happier about her place in the trial. Even if others tried their best to come in first, she would, for sure, reach that end alongside Twilight. Besides, she was racing with Twilight. That had to count for something... "Since this is my first time racing... May I ask for a winning prize?"

"Hm?" Twilight veered a little with a cocked ear. "What sort of winning prize? Neither of us is likely to win."

"Not that prize. For completing the course." She trotted evenly, keeping her breath nice and stable with her steps. "If I finish the course with you, I demand... I request humbly..." She rethought that phrasing with no nudging required. "I ask that you allow me the chance to court you. You may find it is not in your interest, and that's alright." Moon came a little closer with an unsure smile. "But I'd like a chance."

Twilight went a bright red and silent for a time as they ran together across the crunchy ground of fallen leaves they were helping to make thicker. "I... You know, I don't... know how I feel about that."

"I am aware." Moon inclined her head. "You have the power in this relationship. If you inform me I have displeased or dissatisfied you, I will break it off on request and without consequence on your part."

"But you want a chance?" Twilight perked an ear. "You know, you may not finish."

"If this is the prize, I will finish." Moon Dancer's steps were certain in their falls. "Is it so?"

Twilight licked over her unsure lips. She had never dated anypony, of any gender. "Um..." But she was being asked. There was no avoiding it. "A-alright. But I want backsies. I don't want to lose you, Moon, as a friend."

"Deal." She lowered her head and focused on the run. She had a race to finish.

Author's Note:

That was some chapter, I vote!

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Comments

[badninja]

That could be an interesting ship. Then again if this race goes the same way as it did in canon Moon Dancer will be shocked by the final results.

[YewUnicorn]

Yeah you go MoonMoon!! Woo!!!

[Venerable Ro]

11171502

If this goes the way it did in canon Pear Butter's gonna have words with her daughter.

[prism heart]

11171564
Not to mention Applejack not moving properly for a few hours due to tanned backside.

[Amethyst Dragonfly]

Applejack dipped her head at the family elder. "Nice to see you. I hope everything is alright?"

Twilight dipped her head

[David Silver]

11171723
Oops. Dang typos...

[Amethyst Dragonfly]

11171750
*pat pat*

[Toffee Tales]

I generally get the impression from this story that Twilight is more aroace than anything, here. That's the conclusion I see this coming to, generally. But that they will remain amicable regardless.

Now, then, I know it wasn't mentioned this chapter, but Twilight's cutie mark... it's bugging the hell out of me. I don't get it, and the author refuses to actually explain, thus far... I know it must inevitably be answered eventually, but there hasn't even been so much as a hint (just a bunch of Twilight repeatedly asserting that she's "just a librarian" ever since it was first brought up, in a fashion that's starting to sound like a broken record- a highly suspicious broken record at that). There's also the matter of Moondancer's cutie mark, but that one is less of an issue, since the difference is just the slightest bit more excusable.

Did Twilight do something to change her own cutie mark, some time after acquiring it? If so, why? Or is it possible that someone else did it? And again, what for?

Mostly it's just the obvious continuity flaw that's getting to me, because there has got to be a reason for it. I doubt it's permanent, because there was every indication that it was still mostly Twilight that was at the forefront, rather than just another sidenote.

[Reese]

"Granna clopped her hooves in"
"Granny clopped her hooves in"?

"crunchy ground of fallen leave they were"
"crunchy ground of fallen leaves they were"?

[David Silver]

11173566
Fixfix!