Something's wrong with the Elements of Harmony. Sometimes you can have too much of a good thing.
Life has been mostly the same for the girls ever since they had to give up their Elements to the Tree of Harmony. Of course, this couldn't possibly last too long, and strange things begin to happen to our intrepid heroes.
Let it never be said that you can't have too much of a good thing.
Twilight Sparkle had never seen a sunnier day. Or at least she couldn't remember having seen a sunnier day. It was quite possible that she had; applying a quantitative value to the degree of sunniness was difficult without the proper tools. Had she the forethought to bring such tools along, she could at least take a step towards finding such a thing out. Spike would certainly have reminded her about them, had he not been away in Canterlot for the day. Even if she had brought them, she didn't have very much data from previous sunny days to compare it against. Without the information needed to definitively declare it as the sunniest day, she was relegated to simply referring to it as "quite sunny."
Twilight paged through the book resting on the grass in front of her. It was an interesting read; she wasn't much of a writer, but she still found it exciting to read about the mechanics and trends of the written word. She had just finished a paragraph on the strange tendency of many stories to begin with a paragraph describing the weather, and vowed to herself that she would never do such a thing if she were to become a writer. If she were to take up that profession, she wanted to be above such things.
Twilight hummed to herself as she glanced at the clock she'd set next to her book. It was still five minutes until the meeting time that she and her friends had agreed upon, which meant that it was still about twenty minutes before they would all arrive. Applejack would likely arrive right on time, or at least close to it. Fluttershy would arrive shortly after, apologizing profusely for being late. Rarity would be about ten minutes late, most likely delayed by indecision on which outfit to wear. Rainbow Dash, despite being the fastest flier in all of Equestria, always came about fifteen minutes late. And Pinkie Pie...well, it was entirely possible that she was already here, waiting for the right moment to emerge from the least-likely place.
Twilight pondered that last bit for a moment, then opened the picnic basket with a knowing smile. She had packed the picnic basket herself, and there certainly was not a Pinkie in there when she did. There was also no way for Pinkie to fit into the basket. Neither one of these things, however, had ever stopped Pinkie before.
"Hello, Pinkie Pie," Twilight said to the basket.
"Hi Twilight!" Pinkie shouted as she burst out from under the book that Twilight had set down moments earlier, causing the startled alicorn to topple over. The tickled pink pony burst into laughter as Twilight shook her head out. She thought it best not to question Pinkie's ways; no answer she would ever get could possibly be satisfactory.
As Twilight pulled herself to her hooves, she noticed a blue streak burst through the sky. She checked her clock, just to make sure it wasn't on the fritz. It was working fine, so the surprised unicorn had no possible explanation for Rainbow Dash actually being on time for once.
"Rainbow Dash!" Twilight said as her friend settled next to her. "You're early! What happened?"
"Oh, ha ha," Rainbow responded, her voice a bit strained from the tight hug that Pinkie had just locked onto her. "I promised you last time that I'd be on time next time we did this, and Rainbow Dash doesn't break promises!"
"Of course not," Twilight responded with a smile. She had nearly forgotten about that promise; her arrival predictions would have reflected it if she'd remembered.
Twilight watched Rainbow attempt to pry herself from Pinkie's grasp as she reassessed her predicted order of arrival. With Pinkie and Rainbow already here, Applejack was sure to be the next to arrive right around the meeting time, and Rarity had taken Rainbow's position as the most likely to arrive last.
"Good afternoon, everypony!" Rarity sang as she arrived on the scene. Twilight decided that she must have fallen into an alternate dimension. This was the only possible explanation for the two friends who were usually the latest to arrive this early.
"I do apologize for being so early," Rarity said, setting her basket down. "I was simply too excited to waste any more time at home. You must see what I made for you girls! I'm positive you'll find them delectable." A light of her horn removed the blanket from atop her basket, revealing a bevy of blondies.
"Ouh! Thanks, Rarity!" Pinkie bubbled as she bounced around the basket. "A big bountiful basket of breathtaking blondies! Beautiful!" The happy pink mare giggled at her own wordplay.
"Yes, they're very nice, Rarity, and we appreciate it," Twilight said. "But you really didn't have to do that. Pinkie usually brings the desserts."
"Oh, but I wanted to!" Rarity answered. "The joy on my friends' faces makes the time and effort put into these completely worthwhile." Twilight smirked as she took a blondie from the basket. Rarity wouldn't be Rarity if she weren't doing things like this.
Twilight raised a brow as the blondie she had chosen seemed to be putting up a resistance to being chosen. It wasn't like any desserts she knew to resist being eaten, although upon consideration, she could understand why they would do so. Being chewed couldn't possibly be a pleasant experience, and she wasn't sure she could live with the knowledge that she existed simply for the sustenance of another. Then a thought occurred to her: how, exactly, did Rarity manage to bake a sentient blondie? She would have to bring both Rarity and the treat home for questioning, testing...
"Oh...I'm sorry..." Fluttershy said quietly. Twilight looked towards the basket and noticed a yellow hoof holding onto the blondie she'd believed to have ascended to sentience. Yes, this made far more sense.
"Fluttershy!" Twilight exclaimed. "I didn't even hear you arrive!"
"Oh...should I have been louder?" Fluttershy asked. "I'll try to be louder next time..."
"No no, that's not necessary," Twilight said. The two stared at the blondie for a moment, both Twilight's magic and Fluttershy's hoof still upon it. All of the blondies in the basket looked delicious, but this one had the largest peanut butter chips in it. It was clearly the fluffiest of the treats, and if such a thing as an awards ceremony for desserts had existed, it would have swept the majority of the categories that it qualified for.
"You can have that one," Fluttershy said quietly, letting go of the delicious delight.
"Oh no, it's alright," Twilight said, going to set it down. Fluttershy shook her head, nudging it back towards Twilight.
"I insist," Fluttershy insisted. "You were eyeing it so hungrily...I couldn't possibly take it from you." Twilight rolled her eyes and smiled, taking the treat. She knew better than to get into a back-and-forth like this. Fluttershy wasn't usually particularly willful, but when it came to a situation like this, she would never allow herself to take from a friend who seemed to want so badly.
Twilight chewed on the delicious treat while her other friends conversed. It baffled her that everypony but Applejack had already arrived. It wasn't like Applejack to be late to anything. She always made a point of showing up right on time, and would even playfully poke fun at Rainbow for her usual tardiness. Being late was simply not something that she did, unless...
Something had happened to Applejack. That had to be it. She had gotten lost, or injured, or worse. Twilight could barely concentrate on eating her blondie, too wracked with worry to even chew. How could she and the others sit here, eat treats, and enjoy themselves with cheerful conversation when Applejack was possibly trapped under a fallen tree, or caught up in a patch of bramble or something? Or maybe she was sick at home? Maybe they could relocate the whole picnic to Sweet Apple Acres? Sure, that would make the picnic begin even later, and it might be a pain to cart the whole setup across town, but it would all be worth it to know that Applejack was present and okay.
"Howdy girls," Applejack said as she trotted hurriedly up to the group. "Sorry I'm late."
Twilight took a brief moment to consider that perhaps the world was doing this to her on purpose. Maybe it had taken note of her good fortune in becoming Princess Celestia's student, finding the best friends she could ask for, and becoming a princess herself, and decided that a little bit of dressing down via shooting all of her predictions and thoughts down was in order. She would have worried about this longer, but she was still curious over what had kept her usually-punctual pal.
"Applejack!" Twilight exclaimed. "Is everything okay? Are you hurt? Did you get lost?"
"Uh...no, everything's fine," Applejack said, raising a brow.
"Are you sure?" Twilight asked, studying her friend's expression carefully. "It's just not like you to be late. You can tell us if something's wrong."
"I appreciate y'all worrying," Applejack said with a smile. "But I'm fine, honest. I just kinda overslept." Twilight nodded with a relieved sigh. That was just how Applejack was. Twilight had given her a good excuse to use for why she was late, but she wouldn't take it.
"So what are we having this whole picnic for anyway?" Rainbow asked, nomming away on a blondie.
"Who needs a reason for a picnic?" Pinkie answered, bouncing in circles around the blanket.
"It is a lovely day," Rarity said, adjusting her sun hat. "Is that not reason enough?"
"Works for me!" Applejack said with a grin, snatching up a blondie for herself. Fluttershy just nodded, content to let the others speak.
"Well, it is partially because of the nice weather," Twilight told the group as she removed the blanket from her own basket, which housed a number of daisy sandwiches. "But more importantly, it's been a month since we gave up our Elements, and so far Equestria has been problem-free! Now that's a reason for a picnic!"
Twilight smiled proudly, certain that her friends would share in her elation. She did not expect the stone silence that she received; the only sound that permeated it was the slap of Rainbow's hoof against her own face.
"You've got to be kidding me," Rainbow said with a groan. "Why would you say that?"
"Say what?" Twilight asked, confusion coloring her expression. "What's wrong with what I said?"
"A lot of ponies think that it's bad luck to point out that nothing's gone wrong," Fluttershy spoke up.
"And if you say that nothing bad has happened, then everything bad is gonna happen!" Pinkie chimed in. "But if you say bad things are happening, then it doesn't make good things happen, even though it should! It's a pair of ducks!"
"I think you mean a paradox, darling," Rarity corrected her. "Although I'm still not sure that's the proper term for this situation. And other than that bit, Pinkie is correct, Twilight. As odd as it seems, that is the way it tends to work out."
Twilight stared at her friends, dumbfounded. She couldn't believe that she was having this conversation.
"That's ridiculous," Twilight said, shaking her head. "That sounds like a silly superstition. Haven't we been over this kind of thing back with Zecora?"
"That was different!" Rainbow insisted.
"How?" Twilight asked. Rainbow opened her mouth, then stopped. She clearly had not thought that far ahead in her previous statement.
"Exactly," Twilight said proudly. "You girls are all smart. You should know that silly superstitions like that aren't real." The others all looked at each other sheepishly. Only Applejack spoke up on the subject.
"I don't know, Twi," Applejack said. "It just has a way of being the case is all. But never mind that. Ain't it time to eat?" It was true; all six ponies were far too hungry to keep such a line of conversation going. Sandwiches were passed around, drinks were served, and it was indeed time to eat.
~~~~~~~~~~
Applejack was the first to leave after the day's events were over. This wasn't much of a surprise; she was typically the first to arrive and the first to leave. She was a very diligent worker, after all, and with the busiest harvesting season of the year fast approaching, there was certainly no shortage of work to do on the farm. She wouldn't eschew time with her friends in order to work more, but as soon as their activities were done, it was straight home. Friends and family always came first, but work was a close second.
The farmer sighed quietly to herself as she spotted two fillies in the distance. She hadn't dealt with Diamond Tiara and Sliver Spoon too much herself, but she'd heard enough stories from her sister to put together what was probably a fair assessment of the two. They were two bullies, the types of young ponies who would act all sweet to grownups, but then tease and insult their classmates when they were alone. She knew the type all too well.
Applejack saw them turn their gazes in her direction, and she knew exactly what was going to happen. The two were in the same Filly Scout troop as Apple Bloom and her friends, and with cookie season in full swing, she knew that a sales pitch was coming her way. She loved Filly Scout cookies, but had no intentions of purchasing from the two fillies who always messed with her sister when she could just buy them from Apple Bloom instead. She quickly devised a plan as she neared them. Since she didn't want to be mean to children even if they were bullies, she would simply tell them that she didn't have any money on hand. She wasn't normally a fan of lying, but this was a special case. Those two didn't need to know about the ten bits in her saddlebags.
"Hello, Applejack!" Diamond Tiara said, putting on her best "make the adults think I'm a sweetheart" voice.
"Howdy there, girls," Applejack responded, putting on a smile. "What are y'all up to today?"
"Oh, we're just selling Filly Scout cookies," Silver Spoon responded. "I'm sure your sister's told you about the contest to sell the most cookies, right? The winner gets free tickets to the amusement park!"
"Yup, she's been talking all about it," Applejack said. "Well, good luck with that."
"Thank you so much!" Diamond Tiara said. "But you see, we haven't been selling too many, so somepony else is probably going to win. I know you can always buy them from your sister, but she's already sold a lot from what I've heard. It would mean so much to us if you just bought a couple of boxes to help us look better to our scoutmaster? If you have any money on you..."
Applejack had her answer all set in her head. She opened her mouth, preparing to tell them as politely as possible that she didn't have any money on her.
"I've got ten bits in my bag," Applejack said.
Wait, that wasn't right.
"Great! Each box is four bits, so you can afford two!" Silver Spoon said with a smile.
Applejack stood there for a moment, dumbfounded. That was not the answer she'd meant to give at all. The other words just seemed to vanish out of her head, and she had absolutely no explanation for it. The confused pony looked down at the faces of the two fillies. Even though she wasn't a big fan of them, she couldn't just leave without buying any after telling them she had the money. That would be flat-out mean.
"Two boxes, then," Applejack said awkwardly. This was going to be difficult to explain to Apple Bloom when she got home, partially because she didn't even have an explanation for herself.
~~~~~~~~~~
Rarity strode home, trying her best to not look too excited. Showing excessive excitement was improper and unladylike, and with so many ponies roaming the streets of Ponyville, she couldn't afford to look improper.
Her excitement was difficult to contain, though, given the circumstances behind it. As usual, she had made sure to not eat too much at the picnic. The last thing she wanted to be known as (alongside improper) was gluttonous, and a lady had to watch her figure anyway. When leaving, however, she had made sure to procure a single apple tart from Applejack's basket. Applejack's tarts were quite possibly the most delicious, delectable treats she had ever had the extreme pleasure of tasting. She had already eaten enough at the picnic, though, and to down another sugary morsel would lay waste to her image. No, the scrumptious delight had to be preserved until she was safely in her house, where nopony could witness her voracity.
After a walk that seemed to stretch on for miles, made worse by the irresistible scent emanating from her forbidden delight, Rarity reached the front door of Carousel Boutique. She looked left and right, making sure that nopony was watching her. Once she was confident that the coast was clear, she threw the door open and galloped inside. Slowly, deliberately, she floated the succulent morsel out of her bag. She let it drift under her nose, taking in every bit of its aroma. Yes, it was hers. All hers. Her mouth watered as she imagined its texture and flavor on her tongue. The time for waiting had ended; now was the time for action. Rarity opened her mouth, preparing for the consummation of this forbidden tryst.
"Hi Rarity!" Sweetie Belle's voice rang out. Rarity froze in place and turned her gaze to her approaching sister. She stared at her, looking quite undignified as her mouth hung open in front of the treat.
"Ahem...good afternoon, Sweetie," Rarity said, offering her sister a warm, albeit slightly impatient, smile.
"Ooh, is that an apple tart?" Sweetie asked excitedly.
Yes, it was an apple tart, Rarity thought. An apple tart whose time was running out. The seamstress simply nodded, unwilling to speak so rudely to her sister.
"Can I have it please?" Sweetie asked, her eyes having transitioned into full-on begging mode. "I love apple tarts! And I haven't eaten all day!"
Rarity frowned. She knew that there was plenty else for Sweetie to eat in the house. Maybe nothing as delightful as an apple tart, but certainly plenty nonetheless. There was no way that she was giving this tart up. If there was nothing else for Sweetie to eat, then it would be a different story, but with a stocked cabinet, she had no reason to give up the treat that she wanted so badly.
"Here you go, darling," Rarity said, setting the tart down in Sweeite's hooves. The filly's eyes lit up.
"Thank you so much, Rarity!" Sweetie swooned. "You're the best sister ever!"
Rarity stared blankly at her sister, wondering what had just happened. She was positive that she had prepared to say no to Sweetie, but that was certainly not what had happened. She watched, practically traumatized, as Sweetie devoured the apple tart, barely even taking a moment to savor its ambrosial flavor. Rarity sighed lightly at the loss of her snack. At least Sweetie was happy.
~~~~~~~~~~
Fluttershy was in a terrible rush to get home. She was admittedly not the fastest of pegasi; she didn't even come close. Her typical speed could be generously described as "leisurely." Right now, though, she was doing her best to escape that reputation. Her wings flapped with unbridled determination, her mind focused on nothing but her goal. Nothing was more important than arriving home on time, especially since the picnic had gone a little longer than planned. She was already running slightly late; any later would be a problem.
Fluttershy knew very well the importance of keeping her animal friends on a steady, consistent diet. The menu could be slightly altered here and there, but not too much or it would throw their metabolism off kilter. Even worse than that was straying from a set meal schedule. They had to be fed right at the same time each day, or they would end up tired, hungry, and cranky. "Cranky" was especially true in the case of Angel. She loved Angel with all of her heart, but the little scamp had quite a temper when he wasn't fed on time.
"On time" was the issue, though. At the rate Fluttershy was going, "on time" was looking to be a bit of a lofty goal. If she kept up this pace and didn't stop for anything, she could make it with a minute or so to spare. Her wings, though, were already feeling overtaxed, not quite used to working at this level for a sustained period of time. Her typically sedentary lifestyle didn't exactly call for bouts of speed like this one on a regular basis, and yet here she was, pumping her wings as fast as her muscles would allow. Nothing short of her muscles rebelling against this use could stop her.
"Excuse me, Miss Fluttershy!" a small voice called out as the pegasus flew past the park. Fluttershy slowed her pace enough to turn and look towards the source of the voice. A number of fillies were gathered around a tree. Most of them were staring up at the tree's leaves, but one, whom Fluttershy recognized as Ruby Pinch, was staring right at her. Ruby was a sweetheart, and her mom, Berry Punch, was always kind to her when they talked. Fluttershy sighed lightly to herself and slowed down, changing directions to head towards the group. She couldn't just ignore a little filly who was calling her, and she had a minute or two to spare anyway.
"Yes, Ruby?" Fluttershy asked, settling near the group. "Is there something I could help you with?"
"Our ball got caught up in this tree!" Ruby said, frowning. "And none of us can fly, and my magic isn't working well..."
"Oh, I'd be happy to get it for you," Fluttershy said with a smile, relieved that what they needed her for would only take a moment. One quick flight into the tree's branches, and the ball was freed from its leafy prison.
"Thanks, Miss Fluttershy!" Ruby said, beaming.
"You're welcome, girls," the pegasus responded, already beginning to turn so she could continue on her way.
""Hey, do you wanna stick around for a bit?" Ruby asked. "We could use a referee!"
Fluttershy smiled awkwardly. She never liked saying no to anypony, especially not a group of little fillies. This time, though, she didn't really have a choice. She was on a tight schedule, and that schedule unfortunately didn't allow for time to referee a ball game.
"I'd be happy to," Fluttershy responded. She blinked, uncertain of what had just happened.
"Great!" Ruby said. "It shouldn't be too long! It's still the first quarter but we play fast!"
Fluttershy hummed quietly to herself. She couldn't just say no after saying yes, even though she had no idea why she'd said yes in the first place. She was sure about one thing, though: she wasn't looking forward to the frown on Angel's face when she did get home.
~~~~~~~~~~
Rainbow Dash, in a rare moment of responsibility, had decided to spend the rest of her day training. Her recent time at the Wonderbolt Academy had ended with assurance that they would consider her if she kept up her training, and that was exactly what she planned to do. Every single maneuver in her book of tricks had to be crisp, clean, and utterly perfect if they were going to fall under the scrutiny of Spitfire. She knew she was awesome; she just needed to be sure that she made Spitfire know it too.
Pinkie Pie, meanwhile, had none of these concerns. Not to say that she didn't want Rainbow to wow the Wonderbolts; she definitely did. For some reason, though, she didn't feel too concerned with anything at the moment. She had woken up giggling today, which wasn't exactly a strange occurrence for her. What was strange was that she couldn't remember having a particularly funny dream, and that was what usually caused the waking-up giggling. It didn't bother her too much, though; laughing was almost never a bad thing. She had giggled lightly through breakfast, planning her little surprise for Twilight for when she arrived at the picnic site. She had giggled through a fair amount through the picnic itself, though it was usually in response to one of her friends saying something funny. And here she was, giggling now.
"What's so funny, Pinks?" Rainbow asked, swooping down to her friend.
"I have no idea!" Pinkie answered cheerfully.
"Then...why are you..." Rainbow began. Then she thought better than to question Pinkie. "You know what...never mind." Rainbow knew her marefriend well enough to know that it was sometimes much easier not to ask. Besides, a slightly excessive amount of laughter wasn't really that big an issue.
"Ouh! Dashie!" Pinkie suddenly exclaimed, bouncing around in front of her. "You...said...we...could...go...pranking...soon...remember?"
Rainbow tried her best to keep eye contact as Pinkie bounced in front of her, speaking one word each time they came face-to-face.
"Yeah, I remember," Rainbow replied.
"How...about...right...now?" Pinkie asked, giggling with excitement.
Rainbow hated saying no to Pinkie, but the next Wonderbolt audition was fast-approaching, and she needed every bit of practice she could squeeze in. Pranking with Pinkie was fun, but it would just have to wait.
"Yeah, sure," Rainbow blurted out. She stopped in midair, trying to figure out exactly why she had just done the opposite of what she'd intended.
Rainbow furrowed her brow, but decided not to worry too much about it. She guessed she could spare a little time for pranking.
~~~~~~~~~~
Twilight, in one of the few things today that did go as predicted, was the last one to leave the picnic site. She rarely asked for much help in cleaning up after their festivities; she had her own very specific ways of packing her supplies up, and her friends knew better than to mess with her order. Their part in cleaning up was simply throwing their own garbage out. That was all Twilight asked of them, and they were more than happy to oblige.
Twilight couldn't help but chuckle a bit to herself as she thought over the things she and her friends were discussing. The idea of them entertaining any superstitions after their situation with Zecora was ridiculous to her. There were plenty of times where she'd expressed how nice a day it was or how things were all going well, and not all of them ended disastrously. Some of them certainly had; the mixed-up cutie mark debacle came to mind. As she stretched her wings, though, she figured that it all ended up good in the end.
No, there was no way that such a thing could be true. It was all a silly superstition, not even worth devoting an iota of time to worrying about it. And considering how many iotas of downtime she had before she had to go pick Spike up from the train station, that was saying something. Those iotas would likely go towards studying, as her time away from the library had taken away from her usual studying time. Not that she complained; it was always great to spend time with the girls.
Twilight approached the door to the library, only to find that it was already open. She cleared her throat, beginning to worry. Who would break into a library? Her worry faded slightly when she noticed the purple aura of her magic around the door. The alicorn crossed her eyes to look up at her horn, which was also glowing. She didn't remember casting a spell to open the door, though she certainly had intended to do so at some point so as to not walk face-first into it. She hummed lightly to herself, supposing that it wasn't much to worry about. It was entirely possible that the act had become so autonomous that she'd done it unconsciously. She entered the library and turned around to shut the door, only to find that she had apparently already done that too.
"Huh," Twilight said. She was actually quite impressed; she'd never unconsciously cast a spell before. It was certainly something to read up on. She smiled to herself as she sat down with one of her favorite books on magic. An opportunity to try and gain new knowledge about herself? Wonderful! If she wasn't already certain that there was no truth behind her friends' superstition, than she certainly was now. Nothing was wrong at all.
Rarity hummed quietly to herself, refusing to let anything get her down. She was usually a cheery pony to begin with, but right now, she was determined o be even more cheery than usual. Yesterday had been rather decent for the most part; picnic days with her closest friends always were.
Well, actually, that wasn't entirely true. Picnic days with her friends were usually better than decent. In fact, they typically ranged from joyful to downright euphoric, depending on everypony's moods, the condition of the weather, and the quality of the foods provided. With those things and nothing else taken under consideration, yesterday should have certainly been more than decent.
And yet it wasn't.
Rarity could not bring herself to award a greater title to the day, and she couldn't quite explain why. It wasn't a bad day, which was always good. But it wasn't a good day, which was somewhat bad. The only impetus she could possibly come up with for the less-than-excellent rating was the loss of her delicious apple tart, but that didn't seem like enough to mar a day completely. Besides, it had made Sweetie Belle quite happy, so she couldn't bear to think ill of the situation. There had to be something else...but whatever it was, it was clearly something she couldn't quite put her hoof on.
As it was, though, she had decided to stop trying to put her hoof on it. If it was something that she couldn't figure out, then there was a fair chance that it was just a silly, baseless feeling. Besides, her hooves were needed for far more important matters. After all, there were many ponies who depended on her brilliant fashion mind to guide them along the path to dressing for success, and what would they do without their finest seamstress and her fabulous designs? Rarity didn't want an answer to that question, to be truthful. To receive an answer would mean subjecting her mind to torturous ideas; not only the concept of ponies that she cared for being unfashionable, but the idea of said ponies needing her help and her not providing it. Such a concept was unthinkable.
Rarity's ears perked as the bell above the boutique door rang. She figured it would be Minuette coming to pick up her dress. Rarity thanked her lucky stars that she hadn't let yesterday's strangeness distract her from her work today, otherwise she never would have finished this dress on time.
"Good afternoon, darling~!" Rarity sang as she turned to face the entering unicorn. "I've just finished up your ensemble! What impeccable timing you have!"
"Comes with the territory, I guess," Minuette responded, smiling and indicating the hourglass cutie mark on her flank.
"I suppose it does!" Rarity said. Her horn lit up, and the now-finished dress lifted from its resting place, hovering before Minuette. "I worked so hard to make it perfect just for you! I feel this particular shade of green compliments your coat wonderfully, and the trim is a special little design I've been working together. Isn't it just fabulous?"
Minuette looked over the dress that floated before her. Rarity smiled eagerly, trying not to show the worry that hid deep within her. Minuette was not exactly knowledgeable when it came to fashion matters, but she was very opinionated and hard to please. It didn't help that she was ridiculously obsessive when it came to small details, even moreso than Rarity herself. Every single time she'd make something for Minuette, they'd end up haggling over the price, with Minuette citing these tiny imperfections as her reasoning. Rarity took pride in the fact that, while she'd relent a little on the price, she'd never let it get out of hoof. She could already see her customer's mind working intently, and she steeled herself for the upcoming battle.
"It's lovely," Minuette said. "Really, it is. But I dunno...the trim here isn't entirely symmetrical. And I kinda had a slightly different shade of green in mind. The saturation in this green is around a 56, but I was envisioning more of a 87."
Rarity stared blankly for a moment. This was a whole new level of specificity for Minuette. She wouldn't let this ruin her resolve, though.
"A more saturated color would direct attention away from your lovely coat, darling," Rarity said through an uncomfortable smile. "And really, nopony will notice the very slight asymmetry when they're too busy focusing on your beauty."
"It's really, really gorgeous, don't get me wrong," Minuette asserted. "But I kinda just had something a little different in mind. I mean I'll still take it if you'll give me a discount."
There it was. She knew it was coming. Still, she kept her smile.
"I could always make it over, darling," Rarity said, knowing that she could probably just sell this dress to somepony else. Making a new dress really wasn't an issue for her at all.
"No no, it's fine," Minuette responded. "It really is a great dress, other than those little bits. Nothing that a little discount wouldn't cover."
Rarity's smile faltered further. It had started. She cleared her throat, ready to begin the haggling process. She was never a very good haggler; she always consented a bit more than she wanted. This time, though, she was determined. There was no way that she would allow a major discount on this fabulous dress just because of some very minor problems that a pony without Minuette's discerning eye would never notice. She would placate her customer with a little bit off the price, but a little bit was all that she would allow.
"What kind of discount were you envisioning, darling?" Rarity asked, holding in the little bits of frustration she was feeling with the grace of a proper lady.
"Maybe 25% off?" Minuette responded, a cool, calm look on her face.
Rarity couldn't believe what she was hearing. A 25% discount for a slightly-greener green and a barely-noticeable asymmetry in the trim? It was preposterous. Even 10% was a little much. 25% was right out.
"Nonsense," Rarity said, giving a small flip of her mane. "If you are dissatisfied, then I must abide. 50% off."
Rarity had no clue where that came from. Both the bigger discount and the nearly-Iron Will-esque rhyming phrase were completely unexpected to the poor, confused mare.
"Really??" Minuette asked, taken aback. Before Rarity could think of saying another word, the blue unicorn had given her half of the dress's original asking price. "Thank you so much, Rarity! You're fantastic!"
"You're...welcome?" Rarity responded, blinking slowly. She watched as the elated Minuette skipped out the door, dress floating alongside her.
The stunned fashionista sat where she stood. Something was certainly wrong, and if any of her past experiences with things that she couldn't explain being wrong had taught her anything, she knew what she had to do.
Rarity rushed out of the boutique, locking the door and turning the sign to its "closed" side. She needed to see Twilight.
Fluttershy had heard this song before. About six times before, to be specific. It was safe to say that she was growing tired of it by this point.
It wasn't a bad song, not by any means. In fact, she'd thought it was quite good the first time she heard it, and even the second time held a bit of charm. After that, it lost a bit of its luster.
She supposed it could have been worse. In fact, compared to how things had been going since she got home from yesterday's picnic, it was quite alright.
It had started with the incident with Ruby Pinch and her friends. Fluttershy had gotten stuck refereeing the fillies' ball game for forty minutes. She barely knew anything about the sport to begin with; she wasn't even sure that the fillies were playing by any normal set of rules. She had told them that she'd stay and help, though, so there she remained. She cheered quietly when it looked like something good had happened, and any rules disputes between the fillies that deferred to her judgment were decided based on who was yelling the least.
Once the game finally ended, Fluttershy raced back to her home as quickly as her wings would take her. She hoped beyond hope that Angel wouldn't be too upset with her tardiness, but she knew him better than that. There was nopony--or nobunny, she supposed--more strict than him when it came to dinnertime. It had been that way ever since he was a little bunny, and she supposed there was little chance of him having a change of heart today.
Sure enough, she was greeted by Angel as soon as she entered the door, his greeting coming in the form of stomping on her hoof. She apologized as warmly and gently as she could, explaining the situation with a level of patience that few ponies who knew Angel would be willing to grant him. Angel, of course, would have none of this. His angry rant, which only he and Fluttershy could understand, made the poor pegasus blush profusely. She couldn't even bring herself to scold him for his language; she knew she had wronged him, and allowed him to let all of his frustration out without protest.
Once Angel's profanity-laden tirade was quelled, Fluttershy went to prepare his dinner. Upon seeing the simple salad presented for him, the angry bunny scoffed and demanded something sweeter. Fluttershy wanted so badly to say no; Angel was one of the many animals under her care who was currently on a strict diet. Try as she might, though, she just couldn't deny his request. She wasn't sure why; this was hardly the first time that Angel had rebelled against his diet, and not even the first time that he'd done so after she'd done something else to rile him up. So why, she asked herself, was she preparing this large ice cream sundae for him instead of the nice salad she'd made? It was all terribly confusing.
Once Angel was satisfied, Fluttershy had tried to relax. Of course, she hadn't quite expected the backlash that letting Angel cheat on his diet would have. Barry the bear, who had witnessed the whole scene and was also on a strict diet, wasted no time in informing the other dieting critters of what had gone down. By the time Fluttershy had rested herself down on the couch, she found herself crowded by critters, all requesting a temporary reprieve from their diets as well. Try as she might, she couldn't bring herself to deny the requests of her animal friends. One by one, she prepared sundaes for them as well. When she ran out of ice cream halfway through, she found herself traveling out to the store to pick up some more. By the time she was done, eleven dieting critters were dining on heaping helpings of sugary delights. They were all grateful, but Fluttershy was too baffled to understand what had just happened.
Bedtime was no better. A few of Fluttershy's animal friends enjoyed sleeping on her bed while she was up and about, and it often took a little gentle coaxing to remove them from their positions when she wished to sleep herself. After a long evening of her attempts to relax with a good book being interrupted by one animal or another wishing to play with her, it was finally time for bed. Fluttershy ambled up the stairs, glad that this strange evening was coming to an end. Upon seeing three cats, two ferrets, and an anteater strewn about her mattress, Fluttershy found herself sighing in resignation. Waking those animals up when they were so comfy wouldn't be nice. The poor yellow pegasus turned tail and headed back downstairs. She'd slept on the couch before; doing so again wasn't the worst thing in the world.
Unfortunately for her, Angel had already taken up residence on the couch. There was plenty of room on the couch for Fluttershy to settle down; bunnies were not known for their immense size, after all. Angel, however, did not like others trying to use his favorite part of the couch while he was sleeping on it, and since his favorite part of the couch was the entire couch, that made things rather difficult. Fluttershy let out a quiet whimper, but did not dare wake Angel up or invade his space. Left without much of an option, the pegasus laid down on the floor. It was a long time before sleep came.
Fluttershy awoke the next morning to a sore neck and the beating of Angel's furry little paw on her head. She had overslept; not much of a surprise, considering how late it was when sleep had finally overtaken her last night. The weary pony took some solace in the fact that Angel did not demand a fatty meal this time, as she wasn't sure if she could bring herself to refuse and she was out of ice cream once again.
Once Angel and all her other animals friends had eaten, Fluttershy went out for a walk to clear her head. She wasn't quite sure what was going on, but things just seemed wrong. After a trip to the flower shop, during which she found herself giving up the beautiful hyacinth plant she'd already paid for because another pony looked like they wanted to buy it more, she decided that something had to be done. Whenever one of her group of friends was having a strange problem, they talked to Twilight, and that was what she was going to do.
Then she saw the poor street musician. There he sat, right by the Quills and Sofas shop, playing his little steel drums and singing his heart out. He did both so passionately, yet not a single pony had stopped to listen, and that broke poor Fluttershy's heart. She had to let the stallion know that somepony appreciated his music. Which brought her to where she was now.
"Wow, lady," the musician said as he packed his drums up. "Did you really just stay here and listen to me for an hour and a half?"
Fluttershy blinked, looking up at the nearby clock.
"I...guess I did," the confused pegasus said.
"That's real kind of ya," the musician responded. "Nopony ever even stops to listen to me at all. Thanks!"
"...You're welcome?" Fluttershy answered. The musician gave her a big smile and a wave before departing.
Why were trees funny, exactly? They were just big, tall plants with really hard trunks, and sometimes fruits grew along with the leaves. That shouldn't have been funny.
Whether or not it should have been funny didn't seem to matter at the moment, though. Pinkie Pie was laughing at it either way.
The ponies of Ponyville didn't seem to find this behavior to be the least bit odd. If somepony else was doing it, then sure, it might have raised more than a few eyebrows. But this was Pinkie Pie, the ever-joyful party pony. She could find the humor in practically anything. In fact, some of the ponies who passed her even stopped to have a laugh at the tree as well. They didn't see anything particularly funny about it, but chances were that whatever Pinkie was laughing about had gone right over their heads. Sure, they were confused, but her joy was infectious. Plus, they didn't want to look like they didn't understand the joke, and it rarely hurt to enjoy a good laugh.
The one pony who was the most confused by Pinkie's behavior, though, was Pinkie herself.
There was absolutely no reason for her to be laughing at this tree. Other trees? Maybe. There were some trees that warranted laughter. She'd seen trees that were growing diagonally, and that was kind of funny. Some trees had silly-looking shapes, like that one weeping willow whose leaves looked like a green version of Fluttershy's mane if you squinted and looked at it from the right angle. And even though the incident was forever linked to her marefriend getting hurt, Pinkie could never hold her giggles in when she passed the one spruce near Pokey Oaks Elementary that Rainbow Dash had crashed into fifteen Tuesdays ago. She could swear that part of the trunk had an indentation of Dashie's nose in it, and if that wasn't funny, she wasn't really sure what was.
But she was sure of what wasn't funny, and that was this one particular tree. It grew straight up into the air. It wasn't shaped like anything but a tree. And although it was entirely possible that Dashie had crashed into it at some point, given her tendency to do things like that, it certainly didn't have any lasting marks to show for it, especially not a Dashie noseprint.
It was the third-oldest tree in Ponyville, and it topped the list of Ponyville's most boring trees (a list which Pinkie created by taking Twilight's list of Ponyville's most interesting trees and flipping it upside-down). To make things even less funny, it was clear by the shape it was in that it was dying, and if there was anything that made something unfunny, it was that something beginning to die. Pinkie couldn't think of a single instance in which death made something more funny; a situation made all the more confusing by the fact that a pony who was very good at stand-up comedy was often said to be "killing." This was of little relevance to the matter at hoof, though, and she chose to store that thought away and ponder it further another time.
And it wasn't even the first object or situation of dubious entertainment value that she had laughed at since yesterday's picnic. She and Dashie had gone pranking right after the picnic, which was always fun and worth its fair share of laughs. Everything had been going just fine and dandy until the last prank of the day. Pinkie had painted a door on a nearby wall and hung a sign advertising free churros on the other side of it. She and Dashie then hid in a bush, waiting for somepony to fall for it. When they noticed Bon-Bon approaching, they figured that she would attempt to use the doorknob, only to find that it was painted on. What they certainly did not expect her to do was rush at the door and attempt to burst through it. The first thought Pinkie had was to apologize profusely to the poor mare as Dashie helped her up, but she instead found herself doubled over with laughter. Laughing at a pony in pain was not nice at all, but she couldn't get herself to stop, and was thankful for Dashie defending her when Bon-Bon was understandably angry.
The two agreed (once Pinkie's laughter died down) that they had done enough pranking for the day, and returned to their homes. Pinkie was still a bit thrown by her uncharacteristic actions before, but decided that something unrelated must have just tickled her brain at the same moment. Luckily, the Cakes had cooked a nice, tasty dinner that would surely take her mind off of it. She would often give a little laugh at the sub-par jokes Mr. Cake would make at the dinner table so his feelings wouldn't be hurt, but her raucous laughter at what may very well have been his worst joke yet was enough to even raise the twins' eyebrows. Once she finally realized that the entire family was staring at her, Pinkie decided to excuse herself. Perhaps she needed sleep.
It took a good few hours for Pinkie to finally fall asleep. Each time she was nearly there, she found herself thinking of something funny. Then she would spend a good five minutes trying to stop the little giggles that would spill out of her, and by the time she did, she was wide awake again. She had laid down at about 7:30, and the last time she remembered seeing on her clock before falling asleep was 11:24. Granted, she would often stay awake until later, but the fact that she was making a conscious effort to fall asleep earlier and couldn't just made it seem later than it was. To make things even stranger, Mrs. Cake informed her the next morning that she'd overheard her giggling in her sleep. This in itself wasn't strange; she often laughed in her sleep when she was having a particularly funny dream. What was strange was the fact that it had been loud enough for the Cakes to hear.
Pinkie chose to eat her breakfast on the run; things were getting too weird for her, and even she had to admit that when things got too weird for Pinkie Pie, they were definitely too weird overall. She had every intent to see Twilight, because whenever something strange happened, Twilight knew exactly how to fix it, or at least had a good idea. It was then that she was interrupted by the sight of the funny tree that wasn't actually funny, and it was here that she found herself overflowing with laughter.
"Pinkie Pie!" a voice called out. Pinkie turned her attention to the source of the voice; her friend Carrot Top
"Oh, hi Carrot Top!" Pinkie said between laughs.
"Hello..." Carrot said, head tilted. "You're not...laughing at this tree, are you?"
"I..." Pinkie started to answer, but she was interrupted by a guffaw. She covered her mouth and tried to innocently shake her head.
"Why?" Carrot asked, clearly not buying it. "Of all things to laugh at! You do know this tree's dying, right? It's being cut down tomorrow. It's a shame, isn't it? It's been here so long, even longer than most of the ponies in town, and after tomorrow, it'll be gone."
Pinkie Pie exploded into laughter. Before the befuddled Carrot could question her further, Pinkie took off on a wild dash towards the library.
Rainbow Dash stared, unbelieving, at the blood on her hoof. She took a deep breath, momentarily wondering exactly where everything had gone wrong.
Things had been just fine before and during the picnic yesterday. Everypony had a great time, the food and company were the best she could ask for, Pinkie was being her usual adorable self. It was all awesome, and awesome is what Rainbow Dash strived for, in herself and in everything she did.
Heck, even the time immediately after the picnic's culmination was pretty decent. Sure, she hadn't exactly planned on going pranking with Pinkie all afternoon. The next Wonderbolt audition was a scant couple of weeks away, and she'd had every intent of spending the afternoon practicing. As perfect as her executions were, they could always stand to be...perfecter?
For some reason, though, she had found herself utterly unable to turn down Pinkie's request. Granted, when Pinkie Pie wanted her to do something, she'd more often than not end up doing just that. When it came to something really important like training for a Wonderbolt audition, though, responsibilities came first, and Pinkie was usually understanding enough to let it be. Pinkie knew when no meant no, and in a situation like that, no certainly meant no.
Of course, if no no was given, then there was no no to mean no, and just like no meant no, no no meant no no. And thus, Rainbow found herself going pranking with Pinkie for a good few hours. They had a fine time for the most part, but a little piece of Rainbow's brain kept reminding her to tell Pinkie that the prank they'd just finished was their last. Each time Pinkie asked her to pull another, though, she couldn't help but go along with it. She'd tried to convince herself that it was just because she couldn't resist Pinkie's happy smile and infectious, albeit oddly persistent, laughter. The more she acquiesced, though, the more she started to believe that something might have been up.
Thankfully, the pranking did eventually end, but even that was a problem. Pinkie had come up with a master plan to paint a door on the side of the wall and try to get ponies to try to enter it with the promise of free churros. In all honesty, it was a pretty good prank in theory. Rainbow was looking forward to watching ponies try to turn the doorknob and realize their error. Everything went wrong, however, when an over-eager Bon-Bon barreled straight into the wall instead of attempting to open the "door" like a normal pony. Rainbow had been having fun, but the fun quickly ended as she ran over to see if Bon-Bon was okay.
As Rainbow helped Bon-Bon up, she heard a sound that she couldn't believe. Pinkie Pie had followed her over and was actually laughing at the poor mare. It was totally unlike her, and Rainbow was about to say something about it when Bon-Bon did instead.
Rainbow had initially agreed with Bon-Bon; laughing at her pain was wrong, there was no doubt about it. But when the candy shop owner's words began to adopt a bit of a sting, Rainbow felt a rage burning in her heart. This was Pinkie Pie Bon-Bon was insulting, and she would not stand for it no matter what Pinkie had done wrong. Before she knew what was going on, Rainbow found herself shouting at the poor, startled, injured pony. It only took a few loud words for Bon-Bon to quiet down, apologize, and remove herself from the situation. Rainbow couldn't believe what she'd done; Bon-Bon was the one wronged here, and she had just scared her off to defend her marefriend, who was laughing at her pain. The two ponies looked at each other for a moment, before deciding that perhaps that was enough pranking for the day.
Rainbow sighed as she headed home to eat. Not only was her mind heavy with the incident from before, but her entire afternoon had been spent. She still needed to have dinner, and by the time she finished with that, it would be a bit dark to practice her tricks safely. With an utter lack of anything interesting to do, Rainbow decided to finally get to cleaning her room. It had gotten rather messy recently, and now seemed like as good a time as any to take care of it. Bit by bit, she sorted through the things in her room, trying to figure out what could be thrown away.
As it would turn out, the majority of the items strewn about Rainbow's room were silly little gifts that Pinkie had given her. Some of them had legitimate sentimental value, but the vast majority were pointless things, like a newspaper clipping with the word "rainbow" highlighted or a balloon whose shade of green happened to exactly match that of her mane. Rainbow had thrown away plenty of things like that in the past (though she didn't dare tell Pinkie), but as she looked at each one today, she couldn't bear to discard them. Pinkie would be sad if she found out that her Dashie had thrown away a gift from her, and Rainbow just couldn't bring herself to think of hurting Pinkie's feelings. By the time her room tidying had finished, the garbage bag she'd brought in barely had a thing in it. Frustrated with yet another bizarre occurrence that resulted in a complete lack of progress, Rainbow decided to go to sleep.
After breakfast the next morning, Rainbow decided to go for a stroll to clear her head. Yesterday's oddities were still very fresh in her mind, and she had come to the conclusion that something was wrong. Making Pinkie happy shouldn't have made her feel wrong in any way, but the strong nagging feeling that something just wasn't right just wouldn't go away.
Rainbow's thought patterns were suddenly interrupted by a giggling pink streak. She watched, dumbfounded, as Pinkie bolted in the opposite direction, looking worried while laughing all the while. The other townsponies watched as well, all a befuddled audience to this oddity. Rainbow was about to follow after her when a pony's voice made her stop.
"There is something wrong with that pony," a light brown stallion, who Rainbow recognized as Caramel, said.
Rainbow felt a sudden rush of anger. Sure, Pinkie was a little...unique...but Caramel had no business saying that about her. She turned and stepped right up to him, sneering.
"Don't you dare say that about Pinkie Pie," Rainbow growled. Caramel raised a brow in response, then rolled his eyes.
"I'm just telling the truth!" he responded. "Running through town laughing like a madmare? That's looney-bin behavior."
Rainbow's hoof swung out before she could even think about what she was doing. A collective gasp from the other townsfolk cut through the anger in her head, and she looked down at her hoof, noticing the blood on it. It took a few moments of disbelief before she looked to Caramel. The stunned stallion stared at her, blood dripping from his nose, almost as startled as she was.
"I...I'm so sorry..." Rainbow stammered out, gaze darting back and forth between Caramel and her hoof. Caramel looked at Rainbow in fear, a scared stare that burned itself into Rainbow's memory, before taking off.
"I'M SORRY!" Rainbow shouted desperately after the fleeing pony. She then looked around at the other ponies around her. Their faces showed a healthy mix of shock and disdain.
"...I'm sorry..." the confused Rainbow whimpered. Then she took off, quick as a flash, towards the library.
Twilight Sparkle had been having a great couple of days, if a bit strange.
The picnic was a perfect example of that. She'd had a wonderful time with her friends, although the entire event had been punctuated by an air of strangeness. She had often been able to predict her friends' behavior fairly accurately in a number of situations. Yesterday, though, it was as if the five of them had made a conscious effort to act outside of their norms, at least as it pertained to their arrival times. In fact, knowing Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie's pranking ways, it was entirely possible that they had arranged the whole thing to mess with Twilight's perception of her friends' habits.
On second thought, that wasn't really much of a possibility. The more Twilight ruminated over it, the more holes there were in that theory. Fluttershy was too kind and sweet to participate in a prank that stood any chance of upsetting its recipient. As for Applejack and Rarity, while they both enjoyed having fun, their ideas of fun were usually not as...immature, to be frank...as those of Rainbow and Pinkie. Besides, AJ was far too honest. If it was a prank, she never would have been able to make it through the whole picnic without spilling the beans.
Despite the odd beginning, the picnic was a huge success overall. Everything had been just fine, despite how much her friends seemed to be against her verbalizing such a thing. The idea of things going awry simply because she had called attention to the fact that they hadn't was absurd, and it surprised her that her friends would believe such baseless superstitions after the incident with Zecora. Even the silliness of this was not enough to dampen the mood of the picnic, and all ponies involved had a wonderful time.
Then came the post-picnic events. Twilight had found it quite odd when her horn had lit up of its own accord to open her front door. She couldn't remember a single time prior to that day where such an event had occurred, and it fascinated her. The majority of her afternoon and evening were spent reading over books on magical lore, searching intently for another example of a unicorn or alicorn's magic acting on its own. While she did find a few examples of such things happening, none of them seemed to fit her current situation. She was showing no signs of any illness, physical or magical, and she was certainly not experiencing a foal's magical outbursts. Try as she might, she couldn't find a single thing in any of her books which matched up to what she seemed to be dealing with.
This excited Twilight even more. If there wasn't a precedent for her predicament, then that meant it was undocumented. If it was undocumented, that meant that it was something that needed documentation, and if it was something that needed documentation and she was dealing with it, then that meant that she could be the first pony in history to document it! Visions of books written to educate others on her discovery, important scholars congratulating her, and awards granted to her for her amazing discoveries danced through her head. Or rather, they danced around her head. The alicorn squealed with delight as her horn lit up and created illusions of her celebratory thoughts that orbited her little purple head. She still had no idea what was causing this, but she figured she could get used to it.
She had briefly considered the possibility that there was some negativity behind this. She couldn't possibly have considered her studies to be thorough if she hadn't. As far as she could tell from her experimentation, though, these strange new abilities were having no ill effect. The phenomenon, which she'd begun referring to as passive magic (she would come up with a catchier name once her research was complete), had only cast either spells that she'd intended to cast, such as the door manipulation, or harmless spells, such as the dancing illusions. She wasn't feeling pained or wearied from it. Her ability to actively cast spells had not been hindered. She'd even asked Spike to assist her with putting a magic-restraining ring on her horn in order to see if the passive magic would work through it. Sure enough, it did not. If there was a downside to all of this, Twilight sure wasn't seeing it. Everything seemed to be just fine.
"Twilight!"
Twilight tilted her head at the panicked shout of Rarity upon her arrival. The poor unicorn looked absolutely frazzled, but it wasn't as if this was a wholly uncommon occurrence. Twilight glanced over to retrieve a fainting couch for Rarity, only to find that her horn had already taken care of it for her. She took a quick mental note of the passive magic's ability to still work under conditions of mild stress before addressing her friend.
"Rarity, what's the matter?" Twilight asked gently as Spike rushed in with a glass of water for her. She was used to Rarity freakouts, but something in her gut told her that this wasn't one of her typical dramatic outbursts over a missing spool of thread or a torn dress.
"I don't know!" Rarity exclaimed. "And that is just the problem! I've been acting strange ever since yesterday!"
"You've been acting strange?" Twilight asked, her magic bringing a towel over to wipe the sweating mare's forehead.
"Yes!" Rarity responded. "And I do not know why! I gave Sweetie my last apple tart when I wanted it for myself, and I gave Minuette a huge discount on her dress!"
"I'm...failing to see the problem," Twilight said, head tilted in confusion. "So you think something's wrong because you gave things to other ponies?"
"I know it sounds peculiar," Rarity said with an exasperated sigh. "But I did not intend to do these things, and yet I did them anyway!"
"I still don't think I understand," Twilight told her. "If you didn't want to do those things, why did you?"
"If I knew that, Twilight, I would not be asking you the very same question," Rarity said with a frown. Before Twilight could give her a response, the front door opened again.
"Twilight!" a very flustered Fluttershy whimpered as she entered the library. "Something's wrong!"
"You too, Fluttershy?" Twilight asked, her horn fluffing a pillow for her while simultaneously refilling Rarity's depleted cup of water.
"I'm sorry for interrupting," Fluttershy said, sitting down on the pillow. "But I've been doing things without meaning to, and they're not bad things, but they keep inconveniencing me and I don't know what's happening..."
"So have I!" Rarity insisted. Twilight let out a sigh.
"Like what?" the alicorn asked.
"I was late getting home yesterday because some fillies asked me to referee their hoofball game..." Fluttershy said. "And I went out of my way for food for Angel, and..."
"Those don't sound like bad things," Twilight offered with a slightly-bothered smile. The door flew open again, and Twilight let out a groan as she watched both Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash barrel through the doorway.
"Twilight!" the two shouted in unison. They both tried to skid to a stop to avoid crashing into Fluttershy, but a quick magical grasp from Twilight's horn stopped the two in place. All involved parties breathed a sigh of relief as Twilight once again silently thanked whatever it was that was causing this passive magic.
"Let me guess," Twilight said as the two ponies were placed back on the ground. "Something's wrong?"
"Really really REALLY wrong!" Pinkie whined through little giggles.
"Then why are you giggling?" Twilight asked. Everypony was doing a stellar job of confusing her today.
"I don't know!" Pinkie cried. ""And that's the problem! Usually when I'm giggling it's because something funny happened, or I was thinking of something funny, or maybe there was a good chance that something funny WAS gonna happen, but nothing like that was happening at all! There was even some really UN-funny stuff going on and I was still laughing!"
"And I've been getting really mad at anypony who says anything bad about my friends!" Rainbow cried. "I punched Caramel!"
"You PUNCHED Caramel?!" Rarity exclaimed.
Pinkie burst into laughter.
"It's not funny!" Rainbow shouted.
"I KNOW!" Pinkie whimpered between guffaws.
"Poor Caramel..." Fluttershy sighed. "Maybe I should go help him..."
"I could give him my bed to rest in if he needs," Rarity offered.
"Hey, I hurt him, and it's my responsibility to help!" Rainbow demanded.
"Everypony calm down!" Twilight shouted into a megaphone that her magic had summoned. The room fell silent, save for a few lingering giggles from Pinkie.
"Okay," Twilight said evenly, trying to keep her calm. "Now...let's all just sit down and discuss things calmly, like civilized ponies, and we'll try to figure out what to do about these problems." The girls all nodded and did as was requested of them. Twilight took a deep breath, getting ready to get her research on. She understood quite well why her friends had come to her, and she considered it her duty to solve their problems. They were her best friends, after all.
Applejack was not, as some might have claimed her to be, a silly pony. She knew a lot of things. She knew that it was 12:06 PM. She knew for sure that the apple in her hoof was green. And she knew when there was something wrong with her.
Some ponies might have viewed her as simple. They may have heard her accent, taken into account her farming job, and assumed her to be a simpleton. It was a stereotype she neither enjoyed not exemplified, but it was a stereotype nonetheless, and she couldn't deny that.
The fact remained, though, that Applejack did not validate this stereotype. She was a smart, insightful pony. She loved her friends and valued their help when needed, but overall, she was an independent pony, capable of handling herself and her own business, as well as able to discern when something was wrong with her. And right now, something was wrong with her, although she was fairly certain it was something she could handle.
Her inability to lie to Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon on her way home from the picnic yesterday was disquieting. She certainly didn't enjoy lying as a normal practice; anypony who knew her knew this to be true. Honesty was a quality that she held near and dear to her heart. That did not mean, however, that she never lied. There were certain specialized situations where she felt a little white lie was better than the truth, few and far between as said situations might be. As far as she figured with Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon yesterday, it was easier to try and tell them that she had no money on her, rather than to say she was intending to buy cookies from Apple Bloom. If the two really tormented her and her friends as much as she was led to believe, then doing so would have just added more fuel to the fire. Her intended decision, in her mind, was the easiest way to go about things without causing anypony any grief.
So why, then, had she found herself unable to lie to those two? It was clearly what she intended to do. It was clearly the best option of the ones she could think of. And it was clearly not what she ended up doing, as her saddlebag, now lighter by the weight of exactly eight bits which were supposed to be going to Apple Bloom, could prove. Or perhaps the added weight of the two boxes of cookies would make for better proof. Their weight was a little easier to measure than that of a few bits. Either way, all signs pointed to her intended decision being one of the best decisions she'd never made.
She'd ruminated (a fancy word she learned from Twilight, and certainly more proof that she was not a silly pony) over this upon arriving at home, once she'd finished enduring Bloom's complaints. Try as she might, she couldn't come up with a good reason for it, and entertained the idea that it could possibly have been a slip of the tongue and nothing more. This, of course, was all before the events of that evening's dinner.
Granny Smith had bought a new hat the previous weekend, and she had spent quite a bit of time talking about how stylish it was and how "hip and with the times" she was for making such a purchase. Neither Applejack nor Apple Bloom had the heart to tell her that it looked positively ridiculous. Or at least they hadn't before today, and Bloom's stranglehold on the truth's release was still strong. Applejack, however, was another story. As soon as Granny sat down at the table with the offending headwear securely in place atop her head, Applejack quickly let her know exactly what was wrong with the garment. For the second time that day, the words escaped her mouth before she even found the opportunity to try and stop them. This number quickly grew to three when she deftly deflected Granny's glare to Big Macintosh by admitting that he'd convinced Granny to purchase the hat for the sole purpose of chuckling at her. This made Big Mac a rightful target for Granny's frustrations, but somehow that fact was lost on him as he stared daggers at the sister who'd sold him out to save her own hide.
Applejack decided to head to bed early that night, having successfully upset all of her immediate family. By this point, she'd dismissed any prior notions that the incident with Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon was a fluke. She was a very honest pony, sometimes to the point of bluntness, but she wasn't one to just blurt out insensitive truths without thinking her words over first. Talking without thinking was a Pinkie Pie thing; it often seemed like that mare was incapable of logical thought. She felt bad immediately upon thinking such a hurtful thing about a wonderful friend like Pinkie. It seemed that this whole unerring honesty thing was making its way into her active thought processes as well. Her frustrations with this odd affliction carried on well into the night.
By the time she woke up this morning, Applejack had decided that she knew pretty much what was going on. Something, although she didn't know what, was compelling her to tell the truth without fail. While telling the truth was a fine thing and typically nothing to be worried about, a complete inability to lie just wouldn't do, and any strange affliction like this needed to be taken care of regardless. She spent her morning work time thinking about exactly what was to be done about this, a process which was made easier by her family's general reluctance to talk much to her after last night's events.
Applejack eventually decided that she would have to power her way out of this mess. She was always a willful pony; sometimes a bit too willful, as her overly-honest mind reminded her. She had briefly considered going to Twilight for help, but decided against it in the long run. Twilight was very knowledgeable, always managed to figure out solutions for any problems that they or their friends came up upon, and was always happy to help. This didn't sway Applejack's decision in the least. She didn't want to bother Twilight with what she perceived to be such a silly thing. If she wanted to stop telling the truth, then by gosh, she would do just that. She was a strong, stubborn mare, and she would beat this herself without forcing her problems upon her friend. After all, how hard could it be to lie?
Applejack stared at the apple in her hooves. It was a beautiful pippin, a perfect specimen if ever there was one. The pippin apple, also known as Newtown pippin and Albemare pippin, was one of the oldest apple varieties to come out of Equestria. It was believed that there were both green and yellow varieties of pippin, though the differences between the two were very subtle and dependent upon growing conditions. This one, however, was quite decisively green, and thus made an ideal test subject to help overcome this affliction.
She stared the tart treat down. Her belly was rumbling; she hadn't even gone to have lunch yet, her mind too focused on dealing with her malady. Its greenness invaded her brain, stunning in its vibrancy. Truly, it was an exemplary fruit, worthy of the Sweet Apple Acres brand. Her concentration right now, though, was on its color. Or, rather, its not-color.
The farmer flooded her brain with images of juicy red apples, bright red wagons, and large, soft-spoken big brothers. She thought of her sister's mane, her own cutie mark, and the strawberry jam she'd put on her toast this morning (an image which did nothing to relieve her hunger). Anything she could think of with that particular coloration was allowed residency in her mind for the moment, for red was what she needed to concentrate on right now. She kept her eyes closed, visualizing all the reddest of the red things she could dream up. Then, with another breath, she opened her eyes, focusing on the apple. She spoke as immediately as she could, lest the images leave her head,
"This apple is green."
Applejack cursed under her breath. She knew the apple was green, but right now she needed to deny it. She was strong. She was stubborn. There was nothing that could beat her indomitable will. She was Applejack, who aided in the defeats of Nightmare Moon, Discord, Queen Chrysalis, King Sombra, and a bunch of vines. She would not be defeated by unrelenting honesty.
"This apple is green."
Darnit.
"This APPLE is GREEN."
Darnit.
"This apple is r...r...rrrrrr..."
Almost there...
"...Rrrrrreally green!"
Applejack bucked her chair into the wall, leaving a scuff on it. Granny Smith would be incensed when she saw the damage, but she couldn't worry about that now. She needed to beat this thing. She was determined to do it without getting anypony else involved, and each defeat only served to fuel her determination. She didn't need help from Twilight or anypony else. This was her problem, and she would deal with it.
She glared angrily at the delicious fruit, the delectable delight which did not deserve the rage she was exuding towards it. Her hoof shook as it held the treat whose flawless pigmentation mocked her so. She gritted her teeth, digging her rear hooves into the ground with relentless determination. It would work this time. She would accept nothing else.
"This...apple...is..."
She filled her lungs to capacity, then shouted, a yell that nearly shook Granny Smith's fine china from the kitchen shelves.
"...RED!"
Applejack opened her eyes, feeling all the tension melt away at the utterance of that marvelous word.
"Hah!" she laughed triumphantly. "Now that's what I'm talking-"
Her voice failed her as she looked at the apple in her hooves. Her mouth went dry as she watched its brilliant green skin shimmer and shift to a deep red.
There was a wet thud on the floor as the apple fell from its perch, followed by a frantic clip-clopping of hooves as Applejack galloped out of the farmhouse and towards the library.
Twilight hated to admit when she couldn't figure something out.
She had gained a reputation—and rightfully so, although she did not possess the ego to admit it—for solving, or at least helping to solve, her friends' problems. Whether it was something as simple as settling an argument between Rainbow Dash and Rarity or as complex as writing a brand new spell to fix their accidentally-swapped cutie marks, Twilight tended to be a beacon of solution for the group, despite how capable they tended to be on their own.
And that made her inability to solve this problem that much worse. The last thing she ever wanted to do was let her friends down, and unless she could fix things, that was exactly what she would be doing.
But what kind of problem was being too nice?
Most of the situations her friends had described to her sounded like they had simply done something a little nicer than usual, and she couldn't see the problem in that, nor could she understand why they perceived them as major issues. Sure, Rarity had given Minuette too much of a discount, but she made a fair amount of bits as it was, and she was pretty much guaranteed a repeat customer from how happy her generosity must have made her. Fluttershy being kind to others was nothing new, and although she sounded like she was being more of a doormat than she should have been, it didn't sound like anything to be terribly concerned about. Something would happen soon enough to teach her to assert herself. Something always did. Pinkie's issue was a little odd, but it wasn't like a bit of laughter was out of the ordinary for her. Although it was kind of strange for her to laugh at a pony getting hurt...but it had to be a fluke. She'd probably just happened to think of something funny as it happened.
Rainbow's issue, though...that one did seem problematic. She was known to be very defensive of her marefriend and her other close friends, but her loyalty had never led to a physical attack on another pony before. At the same time, she supposed it was entirely possible that Rainbow had just gotten caught up in the moment. It wasn't like she wanted to hit Caramel; she was clearly incredibly distraught that she had done so. But outside of suggesting an anger management class, Twilight was at a loss for what to do about it.
It was admittedly a bit odd, upon further consideration, that all of these "problems" had happened right around the same time. Even odder still was the fact that they had all happened around the same time as the new little situation she was dealing with. She glanced over at the large dry-erase board next to her. That hadn't been there before, but her horn had not only summoned it without her input, but written down notes on her friends' goings-on as well. Her magic was now acting before she commanded it to, and she was both perplexed and amazed by it. She would have been more concerned about it, but it wasn't doing anything she wouldn't have wanted to do. It was actually more convenient than anything. Now if it could only poof up an answer to what her friends' problems were and a solution to said problems, that would be just wonderful.
The library door burst open once again, and Twilight rolled her eyes as she turned towards it. Just as she expected, Applejack had finally arrived, and probably had a dubiously-problematic situation of her own to ask Twilight to solve. What she did not expect was the look of absolute panic on Applejack's face or the cold sweat she was experiencing. The others had looked upset, but strong, stable Applejack looked downright terrified. This detail had not gone unnoticed by the others, who were now flocking over.
"Poor, poor Applejack!" Fluttershy whimpered, wrapping her forelegs around her.
"Can I get you anything at all?" Rarity asked. "I brought this water for myself but you may have it if you like."
"Did somepony do something to you?" Rainbow asked, fire in her eyes. "I'll destroy them!"
Pinkie just laughed.
"Girls! Give her space!" Twilight insisted. She felt her magic light up suddenly, and watched helplessly as it shoved the other four away from Applejack. She had considered trying to excavate Applejack from the group, but apparently her magic had different plans. She gulped and offered a hoof to help the group up, all of whom were now glaring at her. Once they were all standing again, she made her way to the terrified farmer.
"What is it, Applejack?" Twilight asked gently.
"I..." Applejack began, shaking a bit. "...I can't lie."
Twilight's eyebrow rose.
"Well...yes, you're a very honest pony..." Twilight began, but Applejack cut her off.
"That didn't mean I couldn't lie before!" Applejack shouted. "Just that I didn't like to...but now I flat-out can't!"
"That's...that's impossible..." Twilight said, even though with all the strange things going on, she had no reason not to believe her, even without factoring in her typical honesty.
"Well apparently it ain't!" Applejack yelled. "On account of I can't! I tried to, and it was near impossible! And then..." Her ears fell as she recalled the final moments before she left the farm. "I finally managed it...but then my lie wasn't a lie no more."
"What do you mean it wasn't a lie anymore?" Twilight asked. Applejack sighed heavily, then reached for the water that Rarity had offered her earlier. As the others watched, she stared at it, concentrating. She had the same difficulties at first that she had with the apple back at home, but was eventually able to break through again.
"This is apple juice!" Applejack shouted. The faces of the others went from confusion to utter shock as they watched the water shimmer, pigmentation flowing into it until it had indeed become apple juice.
"T'ain't a lie no more," Applejack said, her trembling beginning anew. She looked up at Twilight with pleading eyes. "What's happening, Twi?" Twilight found herself unable to form words, completely unprepared to respond to such a phenomenon.
"Whoa! Awesome!" Rainbow suddenly shouted. "Quick, say I'm a Wonderbolt!" Rainbow's enthusiasm was not matched by her friends, who—save for Pinkie's unstoppable, uncomfortable chortling—were silent as they glared at her.
"This is even more serious than I thought," Twilight mused as she comforted her distraught friend. "What in Equestria could be causing all of this?"
"You're the bookworm, Twilight!" Rainbow said. So now that you've seen what the heck is going on with us, why don't you hit the books and figure it out?"
"I think that might be the best course of action," Twilight agreed. Her magic lit up and suddenly granted Rainbow a little sticker on her chest that read, "Thoughtful." Twilight blushed at the little glare Rainbow gave her. "I promise I didn't do that on purpose."
"Probably the first time anypony's said that about her," Applejack said. She gasped, covering her mouth with a hoof. Her mumbled apology was only barely enough to quell Rainbow's anger, and Pinkie's giggling reminder that Applejack couldn't lie didn't help matters.
"Alright then," Twilight said once the awkwardness passed. "You girls head home, and we'll reconvene at 3:00. With all the books on magical maladies I own, I'm certain I'll find something useful by that point. Just try to lay low and keep out of trouble, okay?"
The others gave Twilight uncertain looks, but as they were well aware, there was never a problem that Twilight couldn't find a solution to. Plus, knowing Twilight's study habits, they were better off keeping out of her way. The more room they took up by being there, the less there was for the books she needed. It was a slightly uneasy agreement, but an agreement nonetheless.
Twilight sighed as she watched her friends depart. She could already tell that this was going to be quite the undertaking. She just hoped that she would be able to find something, because from the looks of it, unless this was fixed soon, things would get worse before they got better. Applejack's issue had already taken quite a turn. She had to fix this before the same happened to the rest. Part of her thought she should have maybe asked the girls to stick around so she could keep an eye on them, but surely they couldn't get into too much trouble in two hours.
~~~~~~~~~~
Twilight was just as surprised as the others when, at precisely 3:00, her horn suddenly lit up and teleported her friends into the library. Locating and teleporting five ponies from five different places was a particularly strong effect for her magic to do without her input, and it was starting to be more worrisome than intriguing.
A glance around the room at the others proved to be even more worrisome. All of them looked varying degrees of frazzled, and even though Twilight had expected Applejack to be the most frazzled of the bunch, she was surprised to see Rarity looking much worse for wear.
"Twilight!" Rarity cried out, throwing her forelegs around the alicorn. "It's...terrible! The worst possible thing!"
Twilight was accustomed to Rarity's bouts of exaggeration at this point. Everything had to be dramatic with the seamstress, and even the littlest things could often send her into hysterics. This time, though, Twilight had enough reason to believe that she was being truthful.
"What is it, Rarity?" Twilight asked, hugging her friend close. Rarity looked up to Twilight, her mascara already running down her cheeks.
"I-I ran into a drifter on my way back home..." Rarity whined, only just barely keeping her composure. "He had nowhere to go...he had lost his home and I...I just..."
"You what?" Twilight asked, her voice shaking a bit.
"I gave him the deed to my house!" Rarity cried out, before bursting into tears. "He-he insisted I just give him a meal and send him on his way, b-but I simply could not stop myself...Twilight fix this no-ho-hooooow!!"
Twilight's jaw dropped as she clutched her sobbing friend. She had been certain that leaving the group alone for a scant two hours would be a short enough time for them to keep out of trouble, but clearly she had misjudged the situation. As their friend, she should have known better, and the fact that she had allowed this to happen was tearing away at her.
"Oh, um, I should probably throw him a housewarming party..." Fluttershy said, before looking about as shocked that she said that as the others did.
"What?!" Rainbow shouted. "Rarity's your friend, Fluttershy! What the hay is wrong with you, saying something like that?"
"Yeah," Applejack chimed in. "That's about as insensitive as something Rainbow Dash would say."
"I want to!" Pinkie whimpered between giggles. "I really, really do!"
"Enough!" Twilight shouted, her magic setting off a loud siren sound to get everypony's attention. "You all know as well as I do that we don't mean to say the things we're saying! If we get mad at each other because of it, we're never going to get anything done!"
"Twilight's right," Applejack agreed, as Fluttershy scooped Rarity up into a hug. "So you brought us all here. That must mean you found something, right?"
"Well...somewhat," Twilight said, looking embarrassed. "My magic kind of brought you here on its own. But I do think I figured something out that might help."
"What is it?" Pinkie asked, only just barely managing to keep from laughing long enough to get the full sentence out.
"Well," Twilight started. "I looked in every book I could find, but couldn't find anything that matched what we were going through. But after a bit of critical thinking, I think I might have realized something that could help get to the bottom of this."
"Well, spit it out already!" Rainbow shouted. Then she blinked. "Sorry for yelling, I just..."
"It's fine, Rainbow," Twilight said. "And as far as I can tell, it fits with my theory."
"Theory?" Fluttershy asked.
"Theory," Twilight repeated, her magic spelling the word in glowing letters behind her. "And the more I think about it, the more sense it makes."
The others made sure to find comfortable places to sit. They'd seen this look in Twilight's eyes plenty of times before. She was about to go into drawn-out exposition mode, and finding a nice place to sit and listen was imperative when Twilight got like this.
"You see," Twilight began, "We've each been dealing with our own odd phenomena since yesterday. And while they might seem unrelated at first..." Her horn was having a field day with this as it brought to life little magical illustrations of each of her friends' happenstances. "They all share one thing in common."
"What's that, Twilight?" Rarity asked, having somewhat calmed down by this point.
"Simple, Rarity," Twilight responded. "Each of our problems has been linked to the element we bear. Rarity's being too generous for her own good. Fluttershy's kindness is getting out of control. Pinkie can't stop laughing. Rainbow's loyalty is fiercer than ever. Applejack literally can't not be honest, and my magic is acting without me even invoking it."
"I was kind of wondering about that," Applejack said as she grabbed at her hat, which Twilight's magic had apparently decided was better purposed on the head of the Applejack it had created to illustrate Twilight's earlier point.
"I thought it was a good thing at first," Twilight said, grinning sheepishly. "Something interesting for me to study. But it's clearly gotten a bit out of control."
"So what we do about it?" Pinkie asked. "I need to stop laughing this much! Laughter is special and should only be used when there's something worth laughing at!" She unintentionally accentuated her point with a loud laugh that she was clearly trying to hold back.
"That part, I'm not completely sure about," Twilight responded, watching the no-longer-needed illusions from before fade out. "But I do have a hunch. If the Elements are involved, then it would only make sense to go check..."
