The Sour Grapes Chronicles

by The Incredible Werekitty

Princess' Pet Proposes Party Planning Preperations

Grapes lay in pleasant slumber when a light fluttering occurred near her. Her internal clock was trying to tell her it was nearly time to wake up anyways and the sound was a good a reason to do so. She pried her eyes open and looked up at Twilight Sparkle's owl, perched on her bedpost and looking at her expectantly. Grapes yawned, and levitated her glasses over to make sure it's the owl, and not something less savory.

"Morning. What can I do you for, Owlawishes?" she asked looking at the avian calmly.

"Hoo," he said, in a matter-of-fact tone, before turning to look out the window at the sun, freshly past the horizon. His shift of watching over Twilight had just ended and it was time for his own sleep-cycle to begin.

"Thanks for the warning," Grapes said yawning, and pulling herself out of bed, and doing a series of very limber stretches. "I'll check on our universal oracle, and see how she's doing."

"Hoo!" he agreed before fluttering off to the area she had set aside for his improvised perch. If he took issue with using a coat rack with newspapers below it as a perch he didn't bring it up. When all was said and done he accepted his accommodations with the same stoicism Spike did. Spike had set his little box just in front of her hearth the night before and seemed content being that far away from Twilight. She yawned, stretched, scratched herself then got out of bed and did a quick hygiene regimen before checking on her primary guest. She nosed open the door, and looked into the guest room, checking to see if Twilight was up, already. The purple pony lay there in bed, looking rather disheveled. Her flu quilt had wrapped around her like a multicolored cocoon from all of the tossing and turning of a fitful sleep. She must have been wrestling alligators in her nightmares to look like that. Grapes carefully unwound her guest from being cocooned in the quilt, spreading it back out to cover the bed.

"Hmm... Maybe an oatmeal smoothie for brekkers," Grapes mused in undertone, as she looked over the lavender unicorn. Once you got past the matted hair, the sweat-stained nightshirt and tangled mane... not to mention her fairly academic personality, Twilight was a fairly attractive mare. Grapes dabbed her brow with a damp cloth, the feeling causing her to murmur in her sleep. Grapes chuckled a bit, then went downstairs to whip up an oatmeal smoothie with banana. Halfway down she was greeted by the smell of fresh-brewing coffee and what she was sure were pancakes. Entering the kitchen she saw Spike, in an apron, standing on a chair at the stove with every burner doing something. He glanced over and smiled.

"Oh, good morning Miss Grapes! How's Twilight doing?” the young dragon asked.

Grapes blinked, looking at the spread in shock. "She had a rough night, it looked like. But then, magical exhaustion does come with nightmares."

"I hope you don't mind but it looked like your farmhooves were up early so I started making breakfast for us all. They've already started," Spike said with a grin, as he put the finishing touches on Grapes’ breakfast.

"Works for me. I was going to make Twilight an oatmeal smoothie... I, honestly, wasn't expecting this," Grapes said as she made her way into the kitchen, proper.

"Oh you can still do that." he said grabbing the boiling coffee pot in both hands and hopping down off the chair to set it on top of a pot holder on her table. Instinctively she wanted to pick him up and put his hands in the icebox before he started screaming from burns... then she remembered he may be a baby dragon, but he was still a dragon and no-doubt fairly fireproof. "I mean that sounds pretty good, actually. Twilight might like one."

"Well as far as I know, she's still on ‘no solids’. But a thick liquid would be good for her, and fill her up," Grapes explained, as she got out the ingredients.

"If you'd like to make an extra one... and if your grinder can take it I got some rubies that would probably be nice ground up and mixed into one."

"Ah.... I'm not exactly set up to take care of grinding gemstones,” Grapes said grinning sheepishly at Spike. “I don’t have dragons as house guests often.”

"Oh... well... The smoothie sounds good anyways."

"Sorry, Spike," Grapes said as she set about making the smoothie, a double batch so Spike could have one, as well.

"If you want I know this great little shop in town that has great cooking items that I got my kitchen grinder from. It's called Hard Hat's Industrial Supply," Spike suggested.

"Hoof one here, and let me try something..." Grapes said, deciding to make an attempt. He pulled one glittering red gem from a small bag he had on the counter and handed it to her. Grapes took it in her golden levitation field, and looked at it. She braced herself against the floor, then brought all her magical strength to bear upon the gem, obviously trying to crush it. The gem crumbled easier under her attention than she thought. Although hardly soil she let her earthsense seep into the crystalline structure feeling out for an explanation... and found one. The Ruby was deeply flawed. Every facet was riddled with flaws... which would explain it's weakness and perhaps how Spike got ahold of it instead of Rarity. She ground the crumbling pieces against one another, encouraging it to turn into the smallest pieces she could before setting the sand-like particles into a bowl.

"Whoa... that was neat. How did you do that?" Spike asked as he watched in fascination.

"I'm half earth-pony," Grapes said, taking up another ruby. "I have earthsense, along with unicorn magic, though neither are as strong as they would be if I went one way or the other, fully." Again she felt it out and found it was equally as flawed as the first. She tilted it to another angle for more efficient use of pressure and repeated her actions from before. The glittering red sand that filled the bowl was gorgeous, like a million tiny red stars twinkling on her countertop. She repeated the process until she had a good amount to mix into Spike's smoothie. Once the oatmeal and banana was liquified enough to suit the stipulation of "no solids", the chocolate brown mare poured it into two glasses. The second one she added the ruby dust to, and stirred vigorously, then handed to Spike. "There you go. One oatmeal-banana-ruby smoothie."

"Gee. Thanks Miss Grapes." he said before sipping at it. Grapes couldn't help but feel jealous at Spike's drink. The way it sparkled in his glass made her actually wish she could risk a taste.

"No problem. Enjoy, Spike," Grapes said, as she put a straw into Twilight's smoothie, and took it upstairs.

Twilight was awake when she came up, rubbing her head and squinting at her bookshelf with pained expression. "Oh yeah... magic strain... ow."

"Need a book, Little Miss I Can See the Universe?" Grapes asked with a smirk.

"I'm not gonna live that down am I?" Twilight asked looking a bit sour.

"Probably not," Grapes said with a smirk, as she set the smoothie down on the nightstand. "But it does seem like the perfect thing to say when you're having a small bout of hubris."

"Yeah. I woke up in a strange bed, saw books I hadn't seen before and then I saw Ironflank's guide to home medicine and ironically tried to... 'reach' for it with my horn... and regretted it," the purple unicorn said with a small groan, as she flopped into the pillow.

Grapes looked at the bookshelf in what was her old room, and pulled out the book with her levitation. "Not a bad read. Not as thorough as Super Naturals, but it's a nice compendium of remedies that can be concocted from household foodstuffs."

"Show-off," Twilight grumbled before looking over at the glass. "So what do we got here?"

"An oatmeal and banana smoothie. Spike's having one with powdered ruby."

"Oh that was nice of you. Do I get one?"

Grapes simply pointed at the smoothie on the nightstand. "That one is for you. Sans ruby, of course, considering the havoc it'd play with a pony's digestive system."

Twilight stared at it a moment and then shuddered "Like swallowing broken glass... yeah. I'll leave that for Spike's indestructible digestive system, thank you. You're sure this is the right one?"

Grapes simply held it up to the light, to display a lack of red sparklies. "I'd say so yes. It if were Spike's, we'd see red glittery bits."

"Then, yes please and thank you."

Grapes gave the glass to Twilight, and set the book on the nightstand. "There you go. Reading material, and breakfast."

"Mmmm... Paradise... if paradise included the feeling that your own horn was being reverse-screwed into your brain. What was I THINKING?" Twilight uttered with an exasperated gesture.

"You weren't," Grapes said simply.

"And who even DRINKS tea that caffeinated? On a regular basis no less?"

"Redline," Grapes said simply. "He's being weaned off of it, though."

"You want to know what the worst part is?" Twilight asked looking up at Grapes with this annoyed look on her face.

"Oh DO tell."

"It was the best tea I ever tasted."

"Redline did say he chose for flavor as well as caffeine content. Maybe the blend can be duplicated with less caffeinated varieties," Grapes suggested with a shrug.

"I hope so," Twilight sighed before sipping her smoothie and blinking. "Although this is a close second for flavor."

"I do try," Grapes said with a bow.

"Um... thank you for all of this. You really didn't have to take care of me and everything."

"You're my friend, Twilight. The second one I've ever had. SO... yeah, I did have to take care of you."

"Thanks... um.. so... What's Spike doing?"

"He was cooking breakfast for the farmhooves," Grapes said, looking out the window at their picnic area."

She looked out the bedroom window down at the picnic table where the farmhooves usually ate and as usual marveled at how close the group was. Discussing a wide range of topics, teasing, joking, laughing as only a family could. Then it happened. A swirling burst of Gray smoke and Red flame appear before each one and down drops a scroll in front of each of the Riders. The mood instantly changes. In that moment all the joking is gone and their faces suddenly serious as each unrolled their scroll and read it. Eyes meet and silent nods are exchanged. The group stood and almost as one head to the Bunkhouse leaving Thistledown at his seat, watching.

"That's new," Grapes said. "I've never seen them get dragon mail before."

"Dragon mail?"

"Like you get from the Princess via Spike," explained Grapes.

"That is strange... I didn't know anypony else had access to a dragon."

"Lady Weathervane, the head of the Emergency Rogue Storm Response Team, has one, if I remember correctly," Grapes explained. "Stormy told me about her."

"I... I remember meeting a Lady Weathervane once,” Twilight observed thoughtfully. “She helped me greatly during a project around the principles of weather generation. I remember being a pretty and very proud mare."

"From the stories told to me," Grapes said, as she watched them all stand, and move as a unit into the bunkhouse. "She's a quite the character... And they just got a weather emergency."

"Wow... You know I DO remember her telling me about the theories about Rogue weather formation. We were on a break and she was trying to explain to me what she did for a living. Being as young as I was I couldn't help but imagine clouds wearing masks," Twilight remarked with an eye-roll at her childish notions.

"But now you know it's all about weather that gets beyond the control of the usual weather teams. Like storms from the Everfree, or hurricanes from the oceans."

"Yeah... Although I wondered how they do it. I mean... it's dangerous work getting right up a storm's nose like that... so to speak," Twilight mused, looking a bit worried.

"It is," Grapes said simply. "Stormfront got seriously injured trying to save Earshot from being sucked into a tornado. That's how he ended up here."

"He... Yeah I could see him working with tornadoes with wings like that. He must be a monstrously strong flier. What about the others?"

"They all have their specialties. Earshot's is sonar, for low visibility situations. Squall's is seaborne storms. Queenie specializes in ice and snow storms. Firestormer deals with unusual weather patterns created by forest fires and other heat events. Stormfront's is thunderstorms, and tornadoes," Grapes explained. "Sirocco's specialty is high winds, and sandstorms."

"Wow... So who leads?" Twilight asked, sounding fascinated.

"It depends on the storm they're going to tackle," Grapes said. "They switch, and follow the lead of the specialist for that particular storm."

"Wow again. The amount of trust they must have for one another must be... amazing."

"It is. They are very close-knit. But it does make sense to have the specialist taking the lead for each type. This way the one with the most knowledge and experience is giving the orders," Grapes explained. "On the vineyard, I'm the specialist, so naturally I'm the one in charge."

Twilight sipped her drink and thought about it. "That's incredibly convenient. They default to the most learned pony in a given situation. Now if only all of Equestria could be so wise."

"That would be difficult. All of Equestria tends to have this slight difficulty with its ego," quipped Grapes with a knowing smirk.

"Tell me about it... Although I have to admit even I'm not immune. I probably know more about anything than most ponies I meet... but all of it from books. No real-world experience. So I almost always want to take charge of a situation."

Grapes chuckled. "Not surprising. But not everything can be learned from books."

"Yes. Although a lot of that book-learning is best from a book instead of experience. Learning from others' mistakes and all that."

"True. Especially if the author wasn't shy about admitting their mistakes," Grapes observed.

"It certainly helps... makes you feel less... small when you screw up. I was scared my friends might think I was a big magic show-off when that one pony came to town. You know.. the one that inspired two foals to lure an Ursa Minor into Ponyville just so she could defeat it?"

"Oh yes,” Grapes uttered with obvious distaste. “That one."

"Yes. I realized I didn't give my friends enough credit. That they wouldn't think less of me for such a display of magic. But they reminded me that they were, above all else, my friends."

"And it would have prevented a lot of later problems. Though, it is said that hindsight is twenty-twenty," Grapes observed.

The Storm Riders strode out of the bunkhouse wearing their signature cream-colored scarf with the Storm Rider logo upon it in a deep brown. Each had streamlined saddlebags also bearing the logo, they also wore goggles and, strangely enough, the filter-masks similar to the one she remembered from Firestormer's room. Walking in single file with Firestormer in the lead, they pause momentarily at the breakfast table to pour coffee into thermoses and sandwich what they can between slices of bread and stuff them into their bags. They stride with purpose, perhaps not synchronized but they seem to know what to do and where to be. Their pace quickens as they now run down the front road, wings extending as one by one they take to the skies.

"Wow." Twilight said staring through the glass, able to see them slowly vanishing into the blue from her place in bed. "They look... heroic."

"Equestria's second group of under-sung heroes," Grapes observed, releasing the curtain.

"I wonder where they're going?" Twilight asked.

"There is a way to find out," Grapes said. "I'll be back. I probably should help clean things up, anyway." Grapes excused herself from Twilight's bedside and headed down to the table where Thistledown was still seated. By the time she got there he was reading one of the scrolls, frowning. She momentarily wondered if she should tell Thistledown he was being rude, but then again she was dying of curiosity herself.

"Hi Sour Grapes." Thistledown said quietly, motioning to the letter before him. "I... don't think the others will be helping out today. Can't say I blame them. This is heavy stuff."

"What do you mean, Thistle?"

"Well... they work for you. I think they left the letters here so you would know why they had to fly so fast. At least they were smart enough to pack a lunch. You won't believe what they're up to."

"I would presume it's a weather emergency," Grapes observed casually as she picked up what was probably Queenie's scroll with her magic and began to read. It was actually pretty good paper. Not exactly Vellum grade but you could tell from the feel this was a very high grade of paper. Perhaps a standard for all government offices under the 'Royal' title. She scanned the writing over. Rich, flourishing lines with well-practiced loops and swirls that indicated a practiced writer who prided themselves upon their calligraphy.

"My good Storm-Riders" it began. An interesting beginning. the word "My" indicated a certain pride or possessiveness towards the pegasai. She continued down the paper. "I have received news from three of the foremost Earth-Pony seismologists and geologists that the normally quiet Mount Ashbringer is awakening from dormancy and is due to erupt soon. Several Unicorn sorcerers in conjunction with the vulcanologist Dr. Pumice have been working to weaken the lee side of Mt. Ashbringer to cause it to erupt away from the local populace who are currently rushing to evacuate, but I fear the worst. Please have Firestormer mobilize the team immediately as the last time this volcano erupted, the weather disruptions, according to historians, were felt far across all of Equestria. Fly fast and fly Safe my Storm-Riders."

"For some reason I'm reading this in Princess Celestia's voice."

"It does kinda have that sort of tone to it doesn't it?" Thistledown smirked over his coffee mug at her. "I knew what they did for a... well sorry to say it this way but for a REAL living, but this... A whole volcano. This is beyond just my mental imagery of bucking blizzards and fighting flash-floods."

"I hear you. But conflagration weather patterns are Firestormer's specialty."

"Yeah. The team is more than happy to talk about their specialties if you're willing to ask. They got a lot covered if you ask me... and to be honest I don't think I could do their job for any amount of bits. I think there's only a very few special ponies who would risk their lives for the safety of others like that."

Grapes shrugged. "There are probably more positions in the Storm Riders than weather bucker," Grapes observed, indicating the note. "After all, somepony's got to coordinate the effort. Well we'd better get this cleaned up. I'll let our house-guest know what's going on."

"Right. I'll start by finishing the Jumble-berry muffins. Yum."

"My oatmeal and banana smoothie went over very well with Twilight," Grapes observed, as she gathered the plates, carefully making piles.

"Is that what it was? I saw that dragon boy with one... what's his name? Spike? Yeah. His looked a little sparkly for my appetite. "

"That's because it had crushed rubies in it, Thistle," Grapes explained, taking the piles into the kitchen to be washed. "He's a dragon, and dragons, apparently, need the minerals present in gemstones to grow properly."

"Good to know, even if it looks a little tacky for my tastes... pun unintended. "

"Heh. You can only wear so much, eh, Thistle?"

"Exactly. I must admit though, Spike certainly has a way around the kitchen. You think when he hits full size he might become a kind of gargantuan gourmet, building a temple-like kitchen in a cave somewhere?"

Grapes chuckled, as they went into the kitchen. "What d'ya think, Spike? You going to be a giant gourmet?"

"Me? You think I could? I mean... I sorta always imagined myself with a big horde like most adult dragons do but... wow. That could be a pretty cool hobby to have," Spike said smiling at the thought of being a draconic gourmet.

"We may have started something." Thistledown said popping a muffin into his mouth

"And even before you reach your full size, you could probably be a fantastic chef," Grapes observed, as she started to wash the dishes. "It's something to shoot for, that's for certain, Spike. You got hundreds of years stretched out in front of you. You might not get a cutie mark to tell you what to do like ponies, but that means you can be good at whatever you want to put the effort into."

"I like that. And like you said I'm in no big rush... I got ages ahead of me."

"Keep reaching for that rainbow, little guy," Thistle said encouragingly, as he and Grapes continued to help in the kitchen.

Grapes hummed cheerfully, glad for the brief distraction, but was quickly brought up short by the memory of her first heart-to-heart with Stormy after she discovered his wings. How he said a 'big piece of scenery' knocked him out of the sky during a tornado. As strong and powerful as he seemed in flight she felt her gut drop like a rock at the thought of a fiery glob of melted stone dashing him from the sky. She sighed, having to stop for a bit.

It was a curse of being so well-read. She knew that the world had no guarantees. No Absolutes. That any time Stormfront... or... the rest of the Storm-Riders went out, there was a very real possibility that they might not come back. But then again... she forced into her head... there was no guarantee that they WOULDN'T come back either. It was a comforting thought.

She wondered, though, why she was so concerned about Stormfront. He had come into her life, and now that he was in it, she had a hard time imagining life withOUT the big gray lug... And life before, seemed dull.

She wasn't really the praying sort... Even she realized that prayer should not be done with snark and so she kept out of that sort of thing. But she looked out the window a moment in the direction of where Mount Ashbringer lay and found herself remembering that final line from the letter.

"Fly Fast, Fly safe... my Storm-Riders."

================================

After the kitchen was cleaned up, Grapes and Spike went back up to check up on Twilight. Thistledown had gone out to the rows, to do what he could on winterizing the roots of the precious vines. Grapes, herself, was not sure what she was going to do, just yet, but she was pretty sure that it would involve her getting away from Grapevine Hills. If she stayed here, she’d fret herself into a lather worrying about Stormfront and the others.

“Ugh,” Twilight uttered, as she huddled beneath her flu quilt. “I just realized I’m probably going to be in no condition to even THINK of attending my first Ponyville Nightmare Night.”

“If its any consolation, neither are your friends,” Grapes observed, casually.

“Yeah... oh crud. I just realized I’ve been so deep in my own misery that I completely forgot that they’re all suffering too. Oh poor Rarity is probably as burnt out as me... OK maybe not QUITE as burnt out but she’s probably really strained her magical limits.”

“Well considering that Rarity was going around dressing ponies in fashions created with awnings... I’d say a close second, given her power level,” Grapes observed thoughtfully. “What she lacks in sheer power, she makes up for in pure finesse.”

“They’re ALL probably going to have to sit out Nightmare Night this year too... great. Not only do I get to miss the festivities, I can’t even surprise my friends with my great costume concept.” She dropped her voice to a conspiratorial tone. “It’s a recreation of Long Horn the Pointy, straight from the Obscure Unicorn History book I’m going to give Spike on his next birthday.”

“Long Horn the Pointy... He’s the one who looks like he’d gotten his horn caught in a pencil sharpener... Invented something to do with horn-care, right?” Grapes asked.

“That’s right. he invented the modern horn-brush. Before that clever stallion’s innovation it wasn’t unusual for horns to be yellowing or suffer from waxy build-up or even ugh... Horn-Rot. Not many unicorns realize they have him to thank for modern horn hygiene.”

“So you and your friends would have to sit out Nightmare Night in the Square... Hm... I think I have an idea,” Grapes observed. “The Storm Riders may want to head to town, but I could always hold a sedate little party, here.”

“That... “ Twilight said, struggling to sit up. “That could actually work... ooh... sat up too fast... world is wobbly.” Grapes chuckled, and waited for Twilight’s dizziness to pass.

“Well it’s a great way for you to still have a Nightmare Night celebration, even if you can’t get to the shindig in town. It won’t be crowded, and you don’t have to worry about your costume, and you can just enjoy some snacks, and scary stories,” Grapes mused, thoughtfully. “I’ll go and invite the others, then we’ll see about setting things up.”

“You’d do that, Sour Grapes?”

“Why wouldn’t I?” Grapes asked with a shrug.

“Because... uh... okay I got nothin’. But thank you for doing this.“

“We’re friends, Twilight. And just because you got all floaty and weird doesn’t mean I wouldn’t help you out. I’m letting you stay in my house, after all,” Grapes observed.

“All right... my hoofwriting is a little out of practice but I think I can make a list of things we might need for a decent Nightmare Night... provided I’m provided a pencil and paper or parchment to pen my pensives on pony party preparations.”

Grapes blinked and chuckled. “Threading thoughts on thoroughly thrilling those that will be there to take in the tantalizing treats?”

“Was I just... being alliterative? I haven’t done that since I was a foal.... It was sort of a phase I went through and my big brother Shining Armor teased me about it a lot.“

“Well yes, you were, but I love to alliterate. It’s fun, and you get to exercise your vocabulary. Okay. Pen and parchment for party pensive perusal,” Grapes said, fetching said items, and making sure to include the portable desk that she had as a foal. “Here you go. Said supplies, sans situational silliness, but with a savvy surface for scrawling.”

Twilight lay the portable desk and paper on her lap and took the pencil between her hooves and paused a moment, the tip hovering over the blank sheets. “Boy, it HAS been a while... You never really appreciate your horn until you’re in a situation where you can’t use it.“

“I’ve never had that problem,” Grapes observed. “I’ve had to hoofwrite, hornwrite and lipwrite whenever the situation called for it.”

“Really? But your ponykinesis is so STRONG. I’ve seen you juggle casks and... “

“No, dear, you’ve only seen me lift casks. I can only lift things one-at-the-time, because my ponykinesis is limited. I can lift piles of casks, because a pile counts as one thing, as long as I’m thinking of the pile, not the cask,” Grapes explained. “The strength is a bleedover from my earthsense. I have some of the Earth Pony stamina and strength, just like I have some of the unicorn ponykinesis.”

“So the strength of your ‘lift’ is a little too raw for a pen, huh?”

“Oh no. Actually hornwriting is the only fine-tune thing I can do with my ponykinesis. It’s just because I’m at half power, I can’t do it for very long,” Grapes explained patiently with an air of having had to explain this before. “Half power means half the magic pool, so... half the writing time.”

Twilight paused a moment before scrawling on her page and speaking out loud with each word. “Note to... self. Find time to... put... no, ASK Sour Grapes if she would... please sit in brain-scan machine left over from Pinkie Pie research.”

“Why?” Grapes asked. “Haven’t you read On the Confluence of Magics by Starswirl the Bearded? Oh wait... Yeah you said chapter six was hard for you to get past the introduction.”

“It got so... sordid-sounding.” she said with a blush. “But there’s just some things that are best discovered through good old-fashioned research... accompanied by state-of-the-art equipment. I’m surprised that Redline was able to create what I needed so readily.”

“Okay... I am not coming within ten feet of that equipment, then,” Grapes observed. “No way in Equestria.”

“But it’s perfectly safe. I put Pinkie in it and nothing bad happened... granted her ‘Pinkie Sense’ is still a mystery but still... no adverse effects.”

“Yes, but the contraption was constructed by a caffeinated colt,” Grapes uttered.

“Wait... you mean he’s THAT Redline? I never made the connection... he seemed so... stable.”

“How many stallions named ‘Redline’ do you know?” Grapes asked. “And you’ve got to remember, he’s built up a tolerance to that high level of caffeine. True he said that drinking it was like jumping into an icy pond, and it gave his heart a jolt, but yeah, he’s the same Redline.”

“There’s a lot of ponies in Ponyville I haven’t met yet, you’ve lived here your whole life while I’ve only just arrived a few months ago. Every day I go out I meet somepony new. It kinda feels like any time the ponies of Ponyville have a need, you turn around and there’s a Pony to fill that gap. As for our caffeinated inventor... I really have no idea how common the name Redline is. Well, other than there used to be a Stallion in the running against me for Valedictorian at Celestia’s School for Gifted young Unicorns. Supposedly he was on the Artificer course fast-track. He vanished a while back though. Always wondered what happened to him.“

“Wonder if he’s the same pony?” Grapes mused thoughtfully.

“Hard to say. I only knew about him because they posted the grades on the big board in the lobby. Always wondered what he was like. ...well seeing as he was giving a bookworm-slash-personal apprentice to the Princess a run for her Bits you can imagine his intelligence level,' Twilight said with a shrug. “They could be, though. It’s a big country but a small world.” She wrote for a minute before looking back at her friend. “This is just a basic list. Nothing really special but hopefully it will have all the basics covered.”

“Mind you, I’m no Pinkie Pie, but I was pretty sure I could put together a party... Though you may know your friends and their preferences better than I would,” Grapes observed with a grin. “So this is sure to help a lot.”

“Just let her know that WE want to throw this party... I don’t want her to get all excited and try to rush over and hurt herself.”

“Oh... Right... Good point,” Grapes observed. “Don’t worry I think I’ve got a way to spin this.”

“Great.” Twilight added a few more items to the list and then gave it to Grapes. “Please let me know how the others are when you see them.”

“Well... Pinkie was doing well, when I saw her. Note to self, check in with Redline about that special delivery,” Grapes said thoughtfully, looking amused. “Applejack was being stubborn as usual. Threatened to tell Crabby on her.”

“Oh that’s mean, but fair. Applejack has to learn how to let go and let other ponies do a job she can’t.... I thought she learned that lesson, or something like it. So... what was she doing?”

“Riding around on Mac’s back, checking the damage she did while on her caffeine high,” Grapes explained.

“That’s actually clever.” she giggled. “It’s hard to imagine her being lugged about like a sack of potatoes but yeah... if she was too ill to walk she would at least want to see it all with her own eyes.”

“Yes, but ‘bedrest’ doesn’t mean ‘ride around on your big brother’s back’,” Grapes uttered with a roll of her eyes. “My cousin is the most stubborn mare in Equestria, I swear.”

“Practically speaking... probably but statistically speaking probably not. Still. Good you were there to force her to take it easy.”

“Unless I find her out and about again. Still... Maybe I should save her for last. Got Fluttershy, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie to invite,” Grapes said thoughtfully. “I’ll swing by AJ’s on the way back home.”

“Nice to have a plan. Oh... can you pick up some sherbert from Lovin’ Spoonful’s shop? I think that qualifies as a non-solid.”

“I think I can do that,” Grapes chuckled, as she headed out, list in ponykinesis. “Enjoy the book. Oh, see any others you want to look at, before I go?”

“Uh... well... The Adventures of the Fuzzy Wuzzy Pony in the Lost Land of the Brush People?” Twilight asked with a slightly embarrassed smile. “...Foalhood Favorite.”

“You too?” Grapes asked with a grin, as she hoofed over the book in question. “I’m saving it in case I have foals, someday...”

“I’m glad you did. Books have always been my ‘comfort food’,“ Twilight said hugging the little foal’s book with a sheepish grin. “Thank you again for this, Sour Grapes. I can hardly remember a time when I felt this... Ineffectual. It’s nice to have something I can affect even while there’s so much I cannot. Guess that’s why AJ was on Big Macintosh’s back. She couldn’t help physically but she could at least get everypony on the farm in line to get things done.”

Author's Note:

It's been a while, hasn't it? And yes, the title is alliteration.

Comments

[i_am_the_jam]

Excellent work again!!!

[Midge]

No wai I was just thinking about this story today wishing there was a new chapter. Good job on this one though, totally worth losing an hour of sleep

[Sylvian]

Awesome chapter! I totally understand Twilight wanting to read a childhood favorite book of hers, always brings me comfort when I am sick.

Just hope the Storm Riders are okay after this volcano.