Night One - Friday
"This meeting of the juvenile court finds the defendants guilty. The accused shall carry out the sentence of community service over a period of three days under the supervision of Twilight Sparkle. Case dismissed!"
The small gathering of ponies who had shown up for the hearing began to disperse from the courtroom in Town Hall, some slowly shaking their heads in silent disappointment. The two very familiar young mares upon whom charges had been filed stood in a small gated alcove in front of the judge's bench, staring at the now empty platform in shocked silence.
"Apple Bloom? Scootaloo?"
Twilight Sparkle slowly approached, her eyes filled with gentle sympathy. "You alright?"
The two fillies, although they could not be called that much longer, slowly turned to look at her. Apple Bloom had a stubborn look of almost-shame etched across her face, while Scootaloo had tears rolling down hers.
"We're sorry, Twilight, really!"
"I know. But you have to understand, it's been five years. The cute and precocious antics of children is not so innocently overlooked when a pony gets older, as the two of you are. You've been trying harder and harder to get your cutie marks, and I think what started out as a great idea has gradually overlapped into desperation."
Apple Bloom sighed. "We're just glad Sweetie Belle's still in Canterlot with Rarity for that fashion show. We wouldn't have wanted her to drag her into this."
"I still can't believer that guy filed charges," Scootaloo complained.
Twilight raised an eyebrow at her. "Did you really think anything that started out by announcing 'Cutie Mark Crusaders Pyrotechnics' would have ended successfully? You set his cart on fire."
"Only because our fireworks didn't go where they were supposed to!"
"Which you shouldn't have had in the first place," Twilight said. "Now I don't want to hear any more about it. What's done is done. You two will be helping me clean out the basement over the weekend. You'll be doing your homework and chores during the day, and helping me at night."
"But when are we going to sleep?" Scootaloo complained. She was a growing pegasus, after all, which meant increasingly long naps.
"I'm not a workhorse. You'll have appropriate breaks and naps in between. Go on home now and meet me back at the Library tonight at ten."
"Ugggggh." Scootaloo groaned.
"We had this comin'," Apple Bloom said regretfully. "It's only for a few days, Scootaloo. You'll be fine."
The two slowly filed out of the courtroom, and Twilight called after them. "And no more fire...anything!"
---
10:02 pm
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo arrived at the library almost right on time, and Twilight was waiting for them at the door. They were offered sandwiches and milk, both of which were accepted with gratitude. "Come on down," Twilight said. "Spike has offered to help you guys for an hour or two, but he can't stay up all night. That's what I have the owl for."
"Who?" Apple Bloom asked, and Scootaloo punched the shoulder of her foreleg. Apple Bloom let out a surprised cry, more of surprise than of pain, and the pair followed Twilight into the library, then down the spiral staircase into the dark basement.
The girls both gasped as they saw the state of the basement. Loose papers were lying everywhere, surrounded by enormous stacks of folders, newspapers and binders that seemed to be thrown together without any state of organization whatsoever.
"Aw, man!" Scootaloo complained.
"These were, are, the archives," Twilight said, an admiring tone of pride in her voice. "At least ten years of Ponyville history down here. Isn't it amazing?"
"Amazingly boring," Apple Bloom said, having no interest in history whatsoever.
Twilight frowned, but continued. "Over the next three nights, I need you two to go through every single paper you can, one by one, and organize them by date. I will go through later and sub-categorize the dates by location and event."
Spike came down the stairs and joined them, broom in hand. "Dang, it's musty down here," he said. "Smells like old cheese."
Twilight sighed. "Get to work, girls," she said. "I'll come get you in a couple hours for a break. I'm going to be up all night anyway working on a thesis." She trotted back up the stairs, and was gone, though could be summoned at any time should an emergency arise.
"This blows," Scootaloo said, shifting through a pile of papers on what was supposedly a desk somewhere underneath. "We've never been in trouble like this before."
"We've never burned down a vendor's kiosk before," Apple Bloom said. "Applejack says everypony makes mistakes, but it's the remarkable ones which learn from them. Or somethin' like that. We're not foals anymore, Scootaloo." The pegasus was silent for a while after this, not having a smart answer for that or perhaps not wanting to have one, and the three worked in silence.
11:15pm
"Hey guys, come here!" Spike called from the other side of the room, where he'd been sweeping. Scootaloo went over eagerly enough, and Apple Bloom followed.
Spike was standing near a vaguely pony shaped object covered by an old dusty tarp, standing in the darkened corner. Judging by the amount of dust and neglect on the tarp, it had been there for years.
"What do you think it is?" Spike asked.
"Only one way to find out," Scootaloo said. "We've earned a break anyway."
"You spend too much time with Rainbow Dash," Apple Bloom said. "We've barely started! Applejack once bucked trees for days, you can barely lift papers for an hour?"
Scootaloo wasn't listening, and whipped the tarp off of the figure. Underneath, a once-glistening white unicorn mannequin hardly bigger than they were stood motionless, its bright red eyes fixed directly on Apple Bloom. The country pony gave a startled yelp and stumbled backwards a few steps.
"It totally looks like Sweetie Belle!" Scootaloo snickered. "She's gonna be so mad when she gets back and sees this."
"It's a Sweetie...Bot?" Apple Bloom asked, taking a few careful steps forward. Something crunched under her hoof. She pushed a pile of papers aside, revealing what looked like a very old audio machine, the forgotten bulk of a cartridge sticking out of it.
"What's that?" Spike asked, peering to get a better look at it.
"I dunno," Apple Bloom shrugged, and pushed a button on the side.
The machine crackled to life, first with static, then snowy noise, then finally a very recognizable voice.
"That's Princess Luna!" Scootaloo whispered.
<"Uh... hello? Hello? Is this thing on? Confound these modern day contraptions. Uh... if you're hearing this, congratulations! You are now the proud owner of a prototype Friendship Buddy, your friendly guide to learning how to make friends in an easy, step by step basis. Chances are you're having trouble making friends and don't want to embarrass yourself, and Friendship Buddy will help you to practice without fear of judgement. Every Friendship Buddy has a memory chip with a limited intellectual capacity, allowing it to learn and respond to you the more you use it. Anyway, all you need to do is turn it on, and Friendship Buddy will spring to life, providing you with hours of entertainment, love, and more importantly, a new friend.">
Spike was overcome with a sudden burst of giggles. "Oh my gosh, this must be Twilights! She was such a dork when we came to Ponyville, Celestia must have given her a toy to practice on! I can't wait to tell her we found this!"
"We're telling her no such thing," Apple Bloom said. "She'd die of embarrassment if she knew we found this."
"Yeah... much as I hate to admit it, she's got a point. Twilight's already doing us a favor keeping us out of more trouble, it's the least we can do."
Spike was hunched over the filly sized robot, looking for the on switch. "This must be it," he said, reading the inscription on its underside. "North Central Positronics, Serial Number CLC-19." He frowned. "Huh. Bunch of gibberish..." He reached down and flicked a switch from OFF to ON.
Sweetie Bot's eyes blazed to life instantly with a bright and furious red, making whirring and grinding sounds as it powered up for the first time in years. Its horn blazed to life with illuminated artificial light.
"I can do magic! Can you do magic too?"
"Dude..." Spike whispered. "That's super creepy. Who would buy this?"
"No, we can't do magic," Apple Bloom responded hotly. "I'm Apple Bloom, an earth pony, and this is Scootaloo, a pegasus."
"And I'm Spike. I'm a dragon!"
"Greetings, Apple Bloom. Greetings, Scootaloo. Greetings, Spike."
Scootaloo shivered uncomfortably. "I don't like this thing," she said. "Make it stop."
Spike shrugged and reached underneath to turn the switch back to OFF, and all three just stood there for a moment. There was a chilly sense of unease lingering in the air, and none of them liked it.
"Let's get back to work," Scootaloo said. "I don't like looking at it anymore."
"You want to work?" Apple Bloom gasped. "Did that thing hypnotize you?"
"Shut up," Scootaloo snapped.
2:00 am
"Girls, break time!" Twilight called from the top of the stairs. "I have snacks!"
"About time," Scootaloo said, setting down the pile of papers she'd been sorting. She was surrounded by dust and stacks of old newspapers. Spike had gone up to bed a couple of hours earlier, and she'd been working with Apple Bloom in mostly silence, with the exception of the occasional wisecrack or comment on some amusing article that one of them came across. She cracked her neck as she got up and went to the stairs, with Apple Bloom following. Neither of them noticed Sweetie Bot's eyes slowly flicker and follow them as they left.
6:00 am
Following the snacks and battling slowly settling fatigue, the two girls were making slow progress. They were not used to staying up late like this, and by a certain point they were having trouble paying attention as words and numbers began blurring together. Apple Bloom had to shake herself with increasing frequency to stay awake, and Scootaloo yanked out one of her own feathers in order to allow the sharp sting to keep her eyes open.
Twilight Sparkle appeared at the top of the stairs as the first rays of sunlight slowly filtered in through the upstairs windows. "All done, you two!" She called. "Go home, get some sleep, and I'll see you back here again tonight at ten. How'd you do?"
"We did okay," Scootaloo said, yawning. Both of them were surrounded by stacks of papers, although these ones contained some resemblance of actual organization. Apple Bloom got up from where she'd been working, and stumbled towards the stairs.
"You both showed a lot of courage owning up to your mistake like this," Twilight said. "I'm really proud of you."
Scootaloo was halfway up the stairs when Apple Bloom tugged at her tail.
"What?" She snapped irritably.
Apple Bloom tugged again, and Scootaloo whirled around, nearly falling.
"What are you-"
She looked in the direction Apple Bloom was pointing. Beyond their stacks of hard work and carefully stacked papers, lay the large crumpled tarp, exactly where they had left it. The tarp, however, was laying by itself.
The Friendship Buddy was gone.