> Sugarcoat Interferes In Pony History
>  by Twinkletail
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Friendship is Magic
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight Sparkle sat in her bedroom, unable to sleep. She had never before seen a sight quite as terrifying as the sight she'd just fled from, and worse yet, it was exactly the situation that had been told of in prophecy. She didn't understand why Princess Celestia had sent her out on this ridiculous mission to find friends instead of believing her about Nightmare Moon's return, and now they were in a terrible bind. Not to mention the fact that the ponies who were insisting on trying to be her friends were now crowding her room as she was trying to work things out. Unwanted attention while she was trying to study never worked out well for her.

"Elements, elements, elements...ugh!" Twilight groaned. "How can I stop Nightmare Moon without the Elements of Harmony?"

"And just what are the Elements of Harmony?" Rainbow Dash demanded. "And how did you know about Nightmare Moon, huh? Are you a spy? ...Whoa!" Rainbow's accusations were interrupted by a pull from Applejack.

"Simmer down, Sally," Applejack said calmly. "She ain't no spy. But she sure knows what's going on. Don't you, Twilight?" Twilight let out a small sigh. She didn't want to deal with this, but she needed to clear her name.

"I read all about the prediction of Nightmare Moon," Twilight said softly. "Some mysterious objects called the Elements of Harmony are the only things that can stop her, but I don't k ow what they are, where to find them; I don't even know what they do!"

"The Elements of Harmony: A Reference Guide," Pinkie Pie said cheerfully. Twilight's attention immediately turned to her.

"How did you find that?!" Twilight asked.

"It was under E!" Pinkie sang.

"Oh," Twilight replied. She took the book, flipping through the pages. "There are six Elements of Harmony, but only five are known: kindness, laughter, generosity, honesty, and loyalty. The sixth is a complete mystery-"

Twilight's reading was interrupted by her door opening again. A bluish-purple unicorn walked in, one she'd never seen before—although she hadn't seen any of the ponies in town before, so that wasn't particularly surprising. The pony's long blue pigtails bounced as she walked in, giving the ponies in the room a flat stare.

"You're the Elements of Harmony," the pony said bluntly. "There's six of you and there's six of them. Friendship is what brings them together, and that's the last element. So you have to become friends and use your power to stop Nightmare Moon. Think about it."

The six ponies stared at the newcomer, stunned. It didn't make sense...but then it suddenly did. They had to have been brought together for a reason, and this must have been it.

"...It makes so much sense now!" Twilight exclaimed. "Thank you...uh..."

"Sugarcoat," Sugarcoat said. "I know a human who looks and sounds like you."

"A what?" Twilight asked. Then she shook her head. "Never mind, let's go stop Nightmare Moon!"

"Yeah!" the rest shouted. Except Fluttershy, who wasn't really into shouting. The six ponies galloped out of the room, but Sugarcoat reached out a hoof to stop Rarity.

"What is it, Sugarcoat?" Rarity asked.

"Spike has a crush on you," Sugarcoat replied. "You should talk to him about it before it becomes a problem."

Rarity blinked. Spike, the baby dragon, had a crush on her? She certainly did have to take care of that. The age difference between the two was simply too large to facilitate a healthy and legal relationship. But she would take care of that after Nightmare Moon was stopped.
> The Ticket Master
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Spike, what am I gonna do?" Twilight lamented. "All five of my best friends have really good reasons to go to the gala. Applejack, or Rainbow Dash? Pinkie Pie or Fluttershy, Rarity... Oh, who should go with me?"

It was the question that had been on her mind ever since receiving those two tickets to the Grand Galloping Gala. Twilight had never paid all that much attention to the trials and tribulations of friendship until now, and it was already looking to be a headache.

"Have you made your decision?" Savior Fare, the waiter, asked the beleaguered purple pony. Now random ponies were asking her? The stress was too much for her.

"I can't decide!" Twilight shouted at the top of her lungs. All action in the cafe stopped at her shout, everypony's attention now squarely on the loud unicorn with her forelegs in the air.

"Twilight, he just wants to take your order," Spike said, a twinge of frustration in his voice.

"Oh," the sheepish Sparkle said. "I would love a daffodil and daisy sandwich."

"Do you have any rubies?" Spike asked. He continued once the waiter's flat stare made the answer clear. "No? Okay, I'll have the hay fries, extra crispy." Savior Fare took the orders and quickly made his exit, clearly not wishing to be around the two wackos anymore.

"What do you think, Spike?" Twilight asked.

"I think we have to try another restaurant," Spike answered. "I mean, I like grass just fine, but would it hurt anybody to offer some gemstones?"

"I mean about the gala and the ticket and who I should take," Twilight said. It was her turn to be frustrated.

"Oh, you're still on that?" Spike asked. Once food was on the baby dragon's mind, it was hard to get it off.

" Spike, listen," Twilight said. "How do I choose? And when I do choose, will the other four be mad at me? I mean, I could give up my ticket and give away two, but that would still leave three disappointed ponies. What if I–"

"Just ask Princess Celestia for more tickets," Sugarcoat suddenly interjected, having been trotting by. "You're her prize student and you're just learning about friendship so I doubt she'd say no to giving you seven tickets instead of two."

Twilight turned to Sugarcoat and gave her a stare.

"Oh, I don't know if I could bother the princess for..." Twilight began.

"You're her prized student and it's a good lesson in friendship," Sugarcoat said simply. "She won't care."

Twilight felt like a weight had been lifted off of her shoulders. Of course Pincess Celestia would be fine with it. It wasn't like she was asking for much.

"Thanks, Sugarcoat!" Twilight bubbled. "You just made this so much easier for...wait, seven tickets?"

"One for Spike," Sugarcoat replied. "He's one of your friends too. Don't leave friends out."

"But I don't want to go to a dumb gala," Spike said.

"Yes you do," Sugarcoat told him. "Stop worrying that a party is going to threaten your masculinity and go have a good time like you want to but you won't admit." Spike stayed silent for a good long while. Was he really doing that? He could go to the gala and still be masculine...in fact, that was just what he was going to do.

"...You know, you're right!" Spike exclaimed. "I'm gonna have a great time! C'mon Twilight, let's go write to the Princess!"

"Thanks, Sugarcoat!" Twilight called as she and Spike headed off. "I don't know what we'd do without you!"

"You'd take 22 minutes to solve a problem that could be solved in two," Sugarcoat replied. Then she shrugged and continued on her way.
> Applebuck Season
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Boy howdy!" Applejack exclaimed, her gaze traveling over the fields that lay before her eyes. "I got my work cut out for me. That there is the biggest bumper crop o' apples I ever laid eyes on." Truer words had never been spoken by the farmer; a wonder, considering how much she valued honesty. Rows upon rows of trees upon trees sprawled out over the grassy hills of Sweet Apple Acres. Each row had to be bucked clean, its bounty gathered and sorted, and Applejack knew she was up to the task.

"Eeyup," Big Macintosh said, surveying the fields as well. "Too big for you to handle on your own." Applejack rolled her eyes slightly. He might have been her big brother, but Big Mac was always far too protective of her. Someday, he had to realize that she wasn't the little filly he used to know. She was a grown mare, practically as strong as he was and arguably tougher overall. Considering the fact that he was the one injured at the moment and not her, she had a fair argument on her hooves for being the tougher one. Knowing him, though, he'd want to work through it instead of leaving the entire job to her.

"Come on, big brother!" Applejack insisted. "You need to rest up and get yourself better. I haven't met an apple orchard yet that I can't handle." She reached over to pat him on the side, but her hoof ended up catching him right in his injured rib. A wince from the big galoot set her back to her senses. "Oops, sorry. I'll take a bite out of this job by day's end." She instantly regretted those words. Big Macintosh, despite his simple appearance, had a bit of a dry wit to him, and he would surely capitalize on that.

"Biting off more than you can chew is just what I'm afraid of," Big Mac replied.

"Are you sayin' my mouth is makin' promises my legs can't keep?" Applejack snarled. She loved her big brother, but that kind of snark was the last thing she needed to hear right now.

"Eeyup," Big Mac replied.

Applejack amended her previous thought. That was the last thing she needed to hear right now.

"Why of all the...this is your sister Applejack, remember? The loyalest of friends and the most dependable of ponies?" Applejack wasn't normally one to brag, but her frustration was getting to her something fierce. She pushed her face right up to her brother's; a tall order, considering his height.

"But still only one pony, and one pony plus hundreds o' apple trees just doesn't add up," Big Mac told her. Despite his resistance, she could almost taste the little hint of nervousness in his voice. Big and tough as he was, he wasn't really one for confrontation, especially when he knew he couldn't do anything to hurt his little sister.

"Don't you use your fancy mathematics to muddy the issue!" Applejack demanded as she backed off. "I said I could handle this harvest and I'm gonna prove it to you. I'm gonna get every last apple out of those trees this applebuck season all by myself."

"No you're not," a voice spoke up. Both Apple siblings looked over to see Sugarcoat sitting against the closest tree.

"I beg your pardon?" Applejack snorted, turning her glare to her. "What in Equestria gives you the right to..."

"You're really stubborn," Sugarcoat said simply. "You should try calming down and actually using your brain. That's a lot of apples to pick and you've got a bunch of friends who would gladly help you. But if you want to be hardheaded and overwork yourself just to prove a point, then go for it. Just don't expect to be walking much afterwards."

Applejack snarled at the newcomer, but her snarl slowly faded. As little as she wanted to admit it, Sugarcoat's words did make sense.

"...Am I really that stubborn?" Applejack asked.

"Eeyup," Sugarcoat replied. She ignored Big Mac's stare; she had every right to use that word too.

"...Well then...I guess I could use some help," Applejack finally admitted. "All these trees would take me forever by myself. I'll go gather the girls and Spike up." She began to head off, but stopped and looked at Sugarcoat. "You wanna help out too?"

"No," Sugarcoat said.

"Why not?" Applejack asked.

"I just don't want to be helpful," Sugarcoat said plainly. The blunt refusal caught Applejack off-guard, but she let it slide.

"Uh...right..." Applejack said. "I'll be back." And with that, she was off, leaving Big Macintosh and Sugarcoat standing there.

"Thanks," Big Mac said. "Anything I could do to repay you for that?"

"Dinner and a movie," Sugarcoat replied. Big Mac sputtered, stunned at her brashness.

"I...uh...gotta rest up," the surprised farmer said, before heading back towards the farmhouse. Sugarcoat simply shrugged and went on her way.
> Griffon the Brush Off
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"So Pinkie Pie, are you sure that this friend of Rainbow Dash is really so mean?"

Twilight Sparkle stared at her book as her usually-exuberant friend paced back and forth. It wasn't like Pinkie Pie to be this upset about something. Granted, she hadn't known her terribly long yet, but this still seemed outside of the norm for her. Then again, not much was normal about Pinkie Pie. Twilight continued to flip through the pages of her book, rather confident she already knew what the problem was.

"Um, yeah," Pinkie insisted, continuing her pacing behind her studious friend. "She keeps stealing Rainbow Dash away, she pops my balloons, and she told me to buzz off. I've never met a griffon this mean." Pinkie paused for a moment to reflect upon this. "Well, actually, I've never met a griffon at all, but I bet if I had, she wouldn't have been as mean and grumpy as Gilda." Pinkie stood defiantly, sure that Twilight had listened to the evidence and would be taking her side within moments.

"You know what I think, Pinkie Pie?" Twilight said, finally looking up from her book. Pinkie looked at her expression and was hit with a little twinge of worry. That face didn't look like the agreeing type. It looked more like the "I agree but actually there's a catch to my agreeing but it's still agreeing but kinda not exactly" type. Pinkie liked to think she was quite good at reading facial expressions, and this wasn't the expression she was hoping for.

"Hmm?" Pinkie muttered, starting to worry slightly. What was Twilight going to say after she agreed with her? It had to be something troubling if Twilight was looking at her like that. The one raised eyebrow with the other one down, the little frown...those were all patterns she'd quickly caught in Twilight's behavior, all patterns that indicated the old "IABATACTMABISABKNE" expression she'd discerned earlier. Upon further introspection, she would decide that the previous acronym was too clunky, but for now it would have to do.

"Well, I think... you're jealous," Twilight responded, turning back to her book.

Pinkie felt like the ground had fallen out from under her, which bothered her for two reasons. First, ground couldn't fall, because it was already on the ground and would have nowhere to fall to. Second, she couldn't believe the words Twilight had just said.

"Jealous?" Pinkie repeated. The word even sounded alien coming from her mouth.

"Green with envy," Spike chimed in. "Well, in your case, pink with envy." Pinkie felt like she had been backstabbed as she stared back at the baby dragon. How could they accuse her of such a thing?

"Well, yes. Jealous," the betrayer Twilight said, finally stepping away from her book. "Listen Pinkie, I don't want to upset you, but just because Rainbow Dash has another friend doesn't make Gilda a grump. I mean, perhaps it's you, Pinkie, who needs to improve her attitude."

Brutus. Benedict Arnold. Tokyo Rose. All names that meant absolutely nothing to Pinkie Pie. Although that last one sounded pretty cool. But she didn't have time to think about those random names. Right now, all she could think about was how badly she'd been betrayed. Before she could respond, though, another voice spoke up.

"Or, you know, she could be telling the truth," Sugarcoat said, looking up from the book she'd been reading in the corner of the room. Both ponies and dragon looked over to the pigtailed pony, whom they hadn't even noticed there before.

"Well...I appreciate your input, Sugarcoat," Twilight said. "But clearly..."

"Clearly nothing," Sugarcoat replied. "You're really bad at this friendship thing if you think Pinkie's the problem. So a griffon suddenly shows up and one of your best friends says she's being mean and you just instantly take the griffon's side and dismiss everything your friend's saying? When has she ever done anything to lose your trust? Seriously, you stink at this."

Twilight stammered, then looked at Pinkie. Pinkie's insistent look had only barely changed.

"Ummm...well I mean I wouldn't have said it like that but she's kinda got a point," Spike said.

Twilight sighed, blushing lightly, and hung her head.

"Well...yes...I suppose she does," Twilight said softly. She looked back to Pinkie, eyes filled with regret. "I'm sorry I accused you of misjudging Gilda, Pinkie Pie. Can you ever forgive me?"

"Of course!" Pinkie said with a smile. "I mean it hurt but I know we're still friends to the ends!" She wrapped Twilight in a big hug, causing the unicorn to giggle softly.

"Thanks, Pinkie," Twilight said, hugging back. "Now how about you bring me to meet this Gilda and I'll judge her with my own two eyes?"

"And my two eyes will help!" Pinkie added. "Four eyes are two times as effective as two!"

"Heehee...that's right, Pinkie," Twilight said with a smile. She looked to Sugarcoat, giving her a smile. "Thanks, Sugarcoat. Do you want to come meet Gilda with us?"

"No," Sugarcoat said. "Not really a fan of griffons."

"Alright then," Twilight said. "You ready, Pinkie?"

"Ready!" Pinkie said, bouncing towards the door. "Ready Freddy Eddie Betty spaghetti..."

"Stop rhyming so much," Sugarcoat said. "It's irritating."

"Okie dokie lokie!" Pinkie said cheerfully as she bounced out the door. Sugarcoat just shook her head and went back to reading.
> Boast Busters
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight Sparkle watched as Rarity, absolutely grief-stricken at her sudden mane-related disaster, ran off in hysterics. She couldn't believe that the unicorn bragging on stage had done such an awful thing to her friend. Granted, Rarity was probably exaggerating just a bit, but that didn't change how utterly rude it was for Trixie to do what she had done. Not only that, but she'd embarrassed and harmed both Applejack and Rainbow Dash as well. She'd never encountered a pony so braggadocios before. Well, except for Rainbow Dash. But it was somewhat endearing coming from her. With this Trixie pony, it was nearly unbearable.

"Well Twilight, guess it's up to you," Spike said. "Come on, show her what you're made of." He had been complaining the entire time about Trixie's bragging, and if it weren't for the fact that three of her other friends had gone up on stage in an attempt to stop Trixie, she might have thought that he was the most bothered of all by it. As much as Spike wanted her to go up, though, she simply couldn't. Her friends' words from earlier rang in her head; showing off one's talent as Trixie had been was unbecoming and reprehensible, and she just couldn't change her friends' opinion of her.

"What do you mean?" Twilight asked timidly, her eyes darting around to the ponies who were now staring at her. "I'm nothing special."

"Except for being Princess Celestia's prized student," Sugarcoat said, her head popping out of the crowd. "You know, that thing you can only be if you're really good at magic." All eyes now turned to Twilight, whose cheeks had turned pink enough to nearly mistake them as transplants from Pinkie Pie.

"Excuse me?" Trixie spoke from the stage. "Did you say that she's Princess Celestia's..."

"Shut up for once in your life," Sugarcoat said, waving a hoof dismissively in her direction. Then she focused back on Twilight. "You're about as good at magic as you are bad at friendship, and that's saying something."

"So...you think I should go up there?" Twilight asked. "And risk losing my friends because I'm showing off?"

"Oh, you mean the friends who already all went up there and tried to show off?" Sugarcoat asked.

"Um...Pinkie and I didn't go up there..." Fluttershy pointed out.

"The others did," Sugarcoat said, practically ignoring Fluttershy. "You realize you're totally interrupting a stage magician whose entire act is based around showing off, right? You should really get a clue."

"Yeah, but..." Rainbow stammered.

"But nothing," Sugarcoat said plainly. "Just let the pony do her act and leave."

"Thank you!" Trixie said from her position on stage. "Thank you for finally pointing that out!"

"Still talking," Sugarcoat said. She looked back to Twilight. "Friends don't stop being friends just because one of them is good at something. Why do I have to tell you these things? Aren't you supposed to be smart?"

Twilight, for what felt like the fifth time since she'd known Sugarcoat, stared at her in awe, wondering how she'd made the problem's solution seem so simple.

"...Wow," Twilight responded. "You're right. You're absolutely right."

"Duh," Sugarcoat said. "Now can you let the mare finish her show?"

"Yes!" Trixie bellowed. "The Great and Powerful Trixie must continue!"

"Your bragging's still really annoying," Sugarcoat told her. "Them making mistakes doesn't change that."

"I know!" Trixie responded with a flourish.

"Just making sure," Sugarcoat said as she sat down to watch the rest of the show.
> Dragonshy
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"What in the name of all things cinnamon swirled is a full-grown dragon doing here in Equestria?"

Applejack raised a very good question there, albeit with a countryism that Twilight Sparkle likely wouldn't have used, seeing as swirls of cinnamon didn't really pertain to the situation at hoof. Dragons had their own land outside of Equestria to inhabit. Having one hanging out within Equestrian borders was almost entirely unheard of.

"Sleeping," Twilight responded. She wished she had a better answer for Applejack, but the answer she was given was the only answer she had.

"Huh?" the girls asked, in what Twilight thought was a rather impressive display of synchronicity. She kind of wished she'd gotten in on that.

"According to Princess Celestia, he's taking a nap," Twilight told her friends. "His snoring is what's causing all this smoke."

"He should really see a doctor," Pinkie Pie said, a worried look in her baby blue eyes. "That doesn't sound healthy at all." Twilight wanted to roll her eyes as Pinkie completely missed the point, but let it slide. She was just being Pinkie Pie.

"Well, at least he's not snoring fire," Rarity said, clearly imagining how much the ensuing soot would sully her pristine white coat. "What are we meant to do about it?"

"I'll tell you what we're meant to do," Rainbow Dash interjected. "Give him the boot. Take that. And that!" Rainbow immediately set to accosting Twilight's favorite wooden horse head, which perturbed Twilight greatly. She lifted it out of the way of an aerial dive, causing Rainbow to crash into a stack of books. Twilight would have been concerned, but Rainbow was made of tough stuff and was averaging 2.41 crashes a day at this point, at least if her studies were to be believed.

"We need to encourage him to take a nap somewhere else," Twilight responded. She was all set to go into mission briefing mode, a mode that she'd been looking forward to ever since getting this assignment. "Princess Celestia has given us this mission, and we must not fail. If we do, Equestria will be covered in smoke for the next one hundred years."

"And why are you supposed to do it?"

Twilight looked at the others, but all of them looked equally confused as to who had said that. Further inspection revealed a slightly annoyed-looking Sugarcoat sitting on the library stairs.

"Um...because Princess Celestia assigned us to take care of it?" Twilight answered.

"She's a princess," Sugarcoat said. "She can raise the sun. She can take care of a dragon."

"But..." Twilight stammered.

"I didn't know prized student was synonymous with errand mare," Sugarcoat said, adjusting her glasses. "Just write to the Princess and tell her she's better-equipped to do this."

Fluttershy couldn't have nodded in agreement any quicker than she did.

Twilight stared at Sugarcoat. She'd been right so many times before...but...

"...No," Twilight said. "I can't do that. The Princess asked us to take care of this, and that's what we're going to do." She nodded insistently, her nod copied by everypony but Fluttershy. Sugarcoat raised a single brow, eyeing Twilight for what felt like forever.

"Fine," Sugarcoat finally said. "Do what you want. I thought Fluttershy was the doormat."

"What...?" Fluttershy said quietly. Sugarcoat just waved her off.

"We can take care of this all on our own," Twilight insisted. "Princess Celestia doesn't have to get involved."

"Uh-huh," Sugarcoat said, standing up. "If you think you're impressing me, you're wrong." With that, she left the library. Twilight watched her go, snorting a bit before looking back to the others.

"Okay, girls, you heard her," Rainbow said. "The fate of Equestria is in our hooves. Do we have what it takes?" Applejack, Pinkie, and Rarity cheered in affirmation, a sentiment that Fluttershy didn't quite share. But the decision had already been made, and within moments, the group was off to their separate homes to go prepare.


~~~~~~~~~~


Dear Princess Celestia,

I am happy to report that the dragon has departed our fair country, and that it was my good friend, Fluttershy, who convinced him to go. This adventure has taught me to never lose faith in your friends. They can be an amazing source of strength, and can help you overcome even your greatest fears.
Always your faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle.

Twilight nodded a satisfied nod as Spike sent the letter off. She left her room, trotting downstairs to go outside and meet her friends. As she passed through the main hall of the library, she saw Sugarcoat sitting and reading. She wasn't normally one to rub things in others' faces, but she felt compelled to speak up as she stepped towards her.

"Thank you for your advice, Sugarcoat," Twilight said, smiling brightly. "But just like I told you, we were able to take care of the dragon ourselves. We didn't need Princess Celestia to do it for us like you said. Even though you thought we couldn't do it, we proved that we could." She grinned triumphantly, quite proud of herself and her friends.

"I didn't say you couldn't do it," Sugarcoat said, not even looking up from her book. "I said you shouldn't, or else you'd be a doormat. You did, and you're a doormat. Congratulations."

Twilight rolled her eyes and frowned, quickly turning away from Sugarcoat with a little grunt and exiting the library.
> Look Before You Sleep
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Wow!" Twilight mused as she trotted along the path from the library to Carousel Boutique, Applejack and Rarity on either side of her. "I still can't believe how wonderfully that slumber party went! That was the best slumber party I've ever had! Well, I mean, it was the first slumber party I've ever had, but still!" She knew she was gushing, but she really didn't mind. After how satisfied she was with the slumber party, she found herself on cloud nine. Sure, it started off a bit rough, but overall it was a huge success, and judging by the smiles on Applejack and Rarity's faces, they seemed to agree.

"Heh, yeah, it was pretty great," Applejack responded. "Don't you think so, Rarity?" Twilight grinned, even as Applejack's look seemed to pass right over her and towards the unicorn on her other side. Twilight may not have been the world's leading authority on interpersonal relationships, but even she could discern the meaning of that kind of look.

"Mm, it was a good time," Rarity agreed. Twilight glanced sideways at Rarity and held back a giggle as she saw Rarity giving Applejack the same look.

"You weren't saying that last night," Sugarcoat said as she joined the ponies. All three sets of eyes turned to her.

"What?" Applejack asked. "How would you know?" Sugarcoat gave Twilight a pointed look.

"Oh...ah...heh..." Twilight said weakly. "Um...Sugarcoat is staying in the library until she gets her own place."

"Seriously?" Rarity asked, more surprised than annoyed. "How did we not notice her? Why didn't she join in on the slumber party?"

"I was doing my own thing," Sugarcoat answered. "That being not attending the slumber party you two ruined." Applejack and Rarity frowned, but Twilight stepped in front of them.

"Things might have gone badly at first..." Twilight began.

"Yeah, they did," Sugarcoat told her. "Because those two were too stubborn and too focused on competition to have a good time."

"Now listen here," Applejack said, standing in front of an about-to-shout Rarity. "We already realized that, so you don't gotta go telling us what we already know. We patched up our differences, and now we're both getting along real well."

"Mhm," Sugarcoat said, giving the two a look. "Defending her doesn't make you look tough, it only makes it look like you don't think she can do it for herself." This clearly incensed Applejack, a frustration that only grew when she noticed Rarity's eyes narrow at her.

"I can defend myself, Applejack," Rarity said curtly.

"I know!" Applejack responded, quickly backpedaling. "It was her that said that, not me!"

"Oh, but you didn't have to say anything, darling. You were clearly thinking it." Rarity said, glare fixated on her. Applejack sighed and shook her head.

"Don't let her do that to you, Rarity," Applejack said. "She's just trying to stir up trouble. I know you can defend yourself." Rarity stared Applejack down for a moment, then relaxed.

"Hm...yes, I suppose you do," Rarity said, smiling a little.

"That was really condescending," Sugarcoat pointed out. "Just because you think you're better than her doesn't mean you have to act like it."

"What?!" Applejack shouted, snorting. She turned to Rarity. "Oh, so you think you're better than me?"

"No!" Rarity insisted. "You're doing what you just told me not to!"

"You're right, Rarity," Sugarcoat said. "That is pretty dumb."

"So now I'm dumb?!" Applejack yelled.

"Well, you did and still are falling for the same trick I fell for!" Rarity answered.

"And now it's right outta the horse's mouth!" Applejack sneered. She turned her look to Twilight. "I'm going home. You know, where the lower class ponies live." Rarity's jaw dropped, and she gritted her teeth in a very unladylike fashion, then also turned to Twilight.

"Perhaps I'll head back to my house as well," Rarity growled. "I wouldn't want to be in the presence of those who think I am too snooty!"

"Hmph!" Applejack hmphed.

"DOUBLE HMPH!" Rarity retort-hmphed. The two ponies stormed off in opposite directions, leaving an absolutely bewildered Twilight alone with Sugarcoat. She looked to the only pony left with her.

"...Why?" Twilight asked.

"They'd be terrible for each other," Sugarcoat said simply, before trotting off.
> Bridle Gossip
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Did you see her Twilight? Did you see... Zecora?"

The fear in little Apple Bloom's eyes was palpable, and Twilight Sparkle just couldn't understand why. She'd looked out the window at the figure that the ponies were all so terrified of, and it didn't look all that scary to her. Maybe a tiny bit unnerving, but not enough to warrant this kind of reaction.

"Apple Bloom!" Applejack exclaimed. "I told you never to say that name."

Even Applejack seemed scared, and she didn't seem like the type to scare easily. And yet this unassuming hooded figure had done it. This all seemed so preposterous to Twilight. Her nature made her want to understand, but it just wasn't adding up.

"Well, I saw her glance this way..." Twilight said.

"Glance evilly this way," Pinkie Pie added. Twilight opted not to dignify that with a response. Sure, the look may have been a bit sudden and a smidge intimidating, but she didn't think there was anything evil about it.

"...And then a bunch of you flip out for no good reason," Twilight continued.

"No good reason?" Applejack interjected, the displeasure clear in both her face and her tone. "You call protecting your kin no good reason? Why, as soon as my sister saw Zecora ridin' into town, she started shakin' in her lil' horseshoes."

"Did not!" Bloom insisted, although the shakiness to her tone did her argument no favors.

"So I swept her up and brought her here..." Applejack continued, paying no heed to her sister's denials.

"I walked here myself!" Bloom insisted to the emotional wall that was shaped like her big sister.

" For safe keeping," Applejack finished, proud of herself for being so responsible.

"Applejack, I'm not a baby!," Bloom pouted. "I can take care of myself!"

"Not from that creepy Zecora," Applejack chided, unwilling to be shaken from her stance.

"She's mysterious," Fluttershy chimed in.

"Sinister," Rainbow Dash added.

"And spoooooky!" Pinkie said.

Twilight groaned. She couldn't believe how ridiculous her friends were being. It was almost like they were...

"You're all being really racist right now," Sugarcoat suddenly spoke up. She had somehow gone unnoticed until now, but nopony could miss her after that declaration.

"Racist?!" Applejack exclaimed. "No way! I ain't no racist, and neither are any of us!"

"You're looking at someone who's different from you and judging them based on superficial, mostly physical qualities without even trying to get to know them first," Sugarcoat explained. "Racist."

The ponies were agog. Such an accusation was unheard of in Ponyville, a town which proudly heralded the union of earth pony, unicorn, and pegasus as equals.

"But...she's a witch!" Applejack insisted.

"She's a zebra," Sugarcoat said. "There's barely a difference between zebras and ponies."

"But look at those stripes!" Rarity cried. "So garish!"

"Not helping your case right now," Sugarcoat said.

"We're not..." Rainbow started, then groaned in frustration. "Twilight! Help us out here!"

"Actually, I agree with Sugarcoat," Twilight said. She waited for her friends to finish that unison gasp that always managed to impress her before she continued. "I mean I wouldn't call you racist, but more insensitive. Zecora is different than you and I, but that doesn't mean we should hide from her and assume terrible things about her. We should get to know her and learn about what makes her different. In fact, I think I know just the way to do it."


~~~~~~~~~~


The sun began to set on Ponyville as the day's celebrations came to a close. Twilight couldn't have been more proud of her new hometown. With help from Mayor Mare, the town's first Cultural Awareness Day had been a whopping success. There had been a bit of shock amongst the townsfolk when Zecora was introduced, but by the time things were wrapping up, many of the ponies in town had warmed up to her rather well. Even the Flower Trio, who had probably been the most vocal about their nervousness relating to her, were speaking cheerfully to her by the end of the day, happy to learn about the various flowers of the Everfree from her wise mind.

"This has been fantastic for our town, Twilight!" Mayor Mare said. "And you organized it practically all by yourself!"

"I guess I just have a knack for organizing," Twilight responded.

"Well neither of us will ever forget that after today!" Mayor Mare said with a smile.

Sugarcoat watched as Twilight left the mayor's side and walked towards her. She had mostly kept to herself during the festivities, although she did particularly enjoy hanging around while Big Macintosh while he was helping build some of the stands.

"So this was a success, huh?" Twilight asked, giving Sugarcoat a grin.

"Sure," Sugarcoat said, her tone noncommittal. She looked to the largely-grinning Twilight with a raised brow. "What?"

"We agreed on something!" Twilight said proudly. "Without you having to point out what I could have done better! Isn't that great?"

"You have a piece of spinach in your teeth," Sugarcoat said before walking off. Twilight groaned, then headed off to the nearest restroom.
> Swarm of the Century
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Pinkie Pie, what have you done?"

This was not the first time Twilight Sparkle had to think this exact thought. If her experiences with Pinkie were anything to go off of, it certainly wouldn't be the last either. This was, however, the first time that she verbalized it. And it was a good first time too, seeing as Pinkie had managed to not only ruin the tornado that Rainbow Dash had created to rid the town of their parasprite infestation, but almost grievously injure Rainbow as well. She chose to ignore how unnecessary the question was when she already knew the answer. That wasn't important now.

"I've lost a brand new pair of cymbals, that's what I've done," Pinkie responded. Twilight was shocked that a pony could miss a point so wildly. She adored Pinkie, she really did, but that pony had a way of just grabbing the logic portion of her brain and smashing it to bits.

"Will you forget about your silly instruments for one second?" Twilight said, managing to rein in most of her frustration. "You're ruining our efforts to save Ponyville." She knew that Pinkie would be hurt by such harsh words, but sometimes directness was the best way to deal with these things.

"Me? Ruin?" Pinkie asked, her voice rife with incredulity. "I'm not the ruiner, I'm the ruin-ee! Or is it ruiness? Ruinette?" The pink mare pondered her word selection while her friends fumed.

"Come on girls, there's no reasoning with that one," Applejack said, urging the others on. "She's a few apples short of a bushel." Her last sentence was half-whispered, but Twilight could tell that Pinkie had heard it from her reaction.

" Hey!" Pinkie shouted desperately. "I'm trying to tell you all that the ruining is on the other hoof. If you'd just slow down and..."

"Listen to her," Sugarcoat insisted, stepping in front of the others as they attempted to leave.

"Yeah, what she said!" Pinkie agreed.

"Sugarcoat, we don't have time for this!" Twilight said, glaring at her.

"You don't have time to listen to a friend?" Sugarcoat asked. "A friend who seems to have an idea of what to do?"

"What do you mean?" Twilight said. "She's just gathering musical instruments!"

"Mhm," Sugarcoat replied. "So you're not going to listen to her. Because last time you weren't listening to her went so well, right?"

"W-well..." Twilight stammered, remembering Sugarcoat's advice when Pinkie had been complaining about Gilda. It turned out that Pinkie was right about her after all.

"Finally!" Pinkie exclaimed.

"And you," Sugarcoat said as she turned her attention to Pinkie, "Need to learn that ponies aren't going to listen to you if you're really vague and doing things that don't make sense without context."

"I thought I was being pretty clear..." Pinkie said, looking confused.

"Asking for musical instruments without explaining how they could possibly solve the problem isn't being clear," Sugarcoat told her. "It's being annoying. You girls really need to learn to communicate."

Twilight marveled at the fact that Sugarcoat had actually managed to silence Pinkie Pie, a task previously thought to be impossible. She looked at Pinkie and gave her a smile.

"I'm sorry, Pinkie Pie," Twilight said, as the others nodded in agreement. "What do you need the instruments for Pinkie?"

"Oh, my sisters and I used music to get a swarm of parasprites away from our rock farm when we were young," Pinkie said. "And I'm super-sorry for not explaining that better! But you have to understand that I had to move quickly, and a Pinkie in motion tends to stay in motion! But I'll try to explain better next time, okay?"

"Okay," Twilight said, giving Pinkie a hug. "Now let's go get the band together!"

"Uh-huh!" the rest of the group agreed, and headed off without hesitation.

"Not even going to ask me if I want to help this time?" Sugarcoat called out. Twilight stopped in her tracks and turned around.

"Sorry, Sugarcoat," Twilight said. "Do you want to help?"

"No," Sugarcoat said, then walked off. Twilight rolled her eyes, then continued on with the rest of her friends.
> Winter Wrap-Up
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Thank you, everypony, for being here bright and early. We need every single pony's help to wrap up winter, and bring in spring."

Twilight Sparkle cheered along with the other ponies in the crowd. She couldn't even find words for how excited she was for today. Today was her first Winter Wrap-Up, and the concept of helping out thrilled her. Sure, doing it without the use of her magic would be tough, but she was positive she could handle it.

"Now, all of you have your vests, and have been assigned to your teams," Mayor Mare continued. "So let's do even better than last year, and have the quickest Winter Wrap Up ever!"

"Oh, this is so exciting!" Twilight bubbled to the half-asleep Spike as the crowd cheered. It only took a moment, though, for part of Mayor Mare's statement to catch in her head. Mayor Mare had said that everypony had their vests, yet Twilight was left without one. As far as she was aware, she was part of "everypony." What team was she supposed to be on? Where was she supposed to go?

"Oh gosh, where should I go?" Twilight asked out loud. "I'm not sure where I fit in. What exactly does everypony do?"

Twilight felt a song begin to blossom in her heart. It started slowly at first as she strode through the snow, but it didn't take long before the urge to sing overtook her.

"The time has come to welcome spring, and all things warm and green
But it's also time to say goodbye; it's winter we must clean
How can I help? I'm new, you see. What does everypony do?
How do I fit in without magic? I haven't got a clue!"

Twilight felt relieved as she saw the other ponies around her burst into song as well. Part of her had expected to be the only nutty pony walking through the streets and singing, but she was more than pleased to see that she wasn't the only one with a song in her heart. Each of her friends seemed to be singing the same song as she was, as well as all the ponies in Ponyville. As happy as the singing made her, though, it also reminded her of just how lost she felt in all of this. Watching all the other ponies confident and knowing their place served to make her more and more self-conscious about figuring out her own. Luckily, her sentiments worked well with the melody of the ending of the song.

"Now that I know what they all do,
I have to find my place.
And help with all of my heart,
Tough task ahead I face.
How will I do without my magic,
Help the Earth pony way?
I wanna belong so I must
Do my best today,
Do my best today!"

Twilight sighed as the oddly-well-choreographed-for-being-something-so-impromptu song came to a close. Singing was nice, but it didn't help her figure things out any more.

"You should just organize the whole thing," Sugarcoat said, looking down from the snowbank she'd sat herself upon.

"Yah!" Twilight shouted. She knew that by this point she should no longer be surprised by Sugarcoat's sudden appearances, but she was all the same.

"Eloquent," Sugarcoat said.

"Ugh..." Twilight said, rolling her eyes. "So you think I should organize things for Winter Wrap-Up?"

"Duh," Sugarcoat said. "We just talked about this recently. You're good at organizing things. Much better than you are at remembering things, apparently."

Twilight hesitated. They had talked about this earlier...how did she forget?

"You're absolutely right!" Twilight exclaimed. "I am good at organizing things! I'll go talk to the other teams right away and try to optimize their performance! Thanks, Sugarcoat!" She began to leave, but then stopped in her tracks. "Wait...how long were you hanging around me?"

"Throughout the whole song," Sugarcoat said.

"Then...why did you let me sing that whole song?" Twilight asked. "Why didn't you just tell me that earlier?"

"You have a nice singing voice," Sugarcoat said simply.

"Wh..." Twilight stammered. Had Sugarcoat just...said something nice about her?

"Being blunt doesn't mean I can't say something nice," Sugarcoat said, as if she had read Twilight's mind. "I thought you were smart enough to understand that, but I guess not." Sugarcoat rolled off of her snowbank and trotted away, leaving Twilight staring after her.

"...I just can't win with you, can I?" Twilight muttered as she went off to talk to the wrap-up teams.
> Call of the Cutie
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Apple Bloom took a deep breath. For what felt like the hundredth time today, she was about to pour her heart out to somepony over her problems. She had already tried to get advice and help from so many ponies, but nothing had helped. Selling apples with Applejack did nothing. Trying next to everything with Rainbow Dash yielded no results. Baking cupcakes just gave her a tummyache, and Twilight's attempts proved to be fruitless. Right now, she needed somepony who could really take care of her problem, somepony who she'd seen approach problems and solve them without issue.

"Tiara's cute-ceañera's today and everypony in my class will be there and they'll all have their cutie marks and I want to get my cutie mark but I'm no good at selling apples or hang-gliding or making cupcakes an' magic doesn't work, but I wanna go to the party but how can I go to the party if I don't have my cutie mark, which Pinkie Pie says I can't just make appear, but I need it to appear, RIGHT NOW!" Apple Bloom panted as she finished that diatribe, staring desperately at the pony whom she'd come to for advice.

"I don't care," Sugarcoat responded.

"What?!" Bloom cried out. "What do you mean, you don't care?"

"I don't care," Sugarcoat repeated. "And you shouldn't either."

"How could I not care about getting my cutie mark?" Bloom asked desperately.

"You'll get it eventually," Sugarcoat said. "Whining won't do anything. And you're letting yourself get all riled up by two annoying little fillies whose special talents are being spoiled brats. Just go to the stupid party, and ignore them if they bother you. Now can we stop talking about this? The less I talk about childrens' butts, the better."

Bloom stared at the powder-blue unicorn. The way she said it made it sound so simple...and yet she still didn't quite feel it. Cutie marks were super-important and she knew it. She'd have to come up with some manner of plan to still go to the party and not have her lack of cutie mark noticed. Either way, though, she felt the need to thank Sugarcoat for her advice. It was just the way she was brought up.

"Thanks, Sugarcoat," Bloom said, getting ready to head off. She turned back to her, giving her a smile. "You gonna go to the party?"

"Is Big Macintosh going to be there?" Sugarcoat asked.

"Uh...no, he's gonna be working," Bloom responded.

"No," Sugarcoat replied. Bloom shrugged and gave her a wave before heading off.
> Fall Weather Friends
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight Sparkle felt her chest fill with pride as she made her way to the starting line. Athletic competition might not have been her forte, but the concept of participating in the Running of the Leaves, one of Ponyville's long-standing traditions, excited her greatly. Besides, she wasn't approaching it as a competition. She was approaching it as an experience; a place to not only apply her recently-gained knowledge of running technique, but to bask in the opportunity to experience a Ponyville tradition first-hoof. Nothing could possibly get her down as she stepped up to the starting line.

"Twilight? What in tarnation are you doin' up here?" Applejack asked. It wasn't exactly "hello," but Twilight let it go. Applejack wasn't one to intentionally be rude.

"I'm racing!" Twilight exclaimed proudly. The smile she wore was one of honest excitement; one that quickly faded when Rainbow Dash began laughing.

"Good one, Twilight," Rainbow scoffed, giving Twilight a nudge that was just a bit more painful than she'd intended. Twilight was a bit miffed, but wouldn't let her enthusiasm vanish so easily.

"I'm not joking!" Twilight responded, her smile returning.

"What?" Rainbow asked, as if Twilight had just admitted to murder. "You're not an athlete, you're a...well...you're an egghead." For somepony who she considered a friend, Rainbow was doing a wonderful job of dashing her happiness and confidence, and Applejack's little smirk at that moment didn't help matters either.

"I am not an egghead," Twilight insisted. "I am well-read." Her smile made a tentative return, testing the waters to see if it was safe.

"Egghead," Rainbow whispered. Applejack began to snicker, causing Twilight's heart to sink. She could understand Rainbow acting like this, but Applejack was the more mature and reasonable of the two. Her reaction actually hurt a bit.

"But have you ever run a race?"  Applejack asked.

"Well...no," Twilight admitted, trying to ignore the blossoming snickers from the two. "But I do know a lot about running."

"And you know this from..." Rainbow asked.

"Books!" Twilight replied proudly. "I've read several on the subject." That was the final straw for Rainbow, who proceeded to literally fall over laughing. Twilight glared at her overacting "friend" as she dramatically convulsed on the floor. She was sure it was Rarity who was the overdramatic one of the bunch, but apparently she had a new contender to her jewel-encrusted throne.

"What'd you read, 'The Egghead's Guide to Running?' " Rainbow said through laughter, eliciting a sigh from the purple unicorn. "Did you stretch out your eye muscles to warm up?" She once again collapsed to the ground, guffawing like a goof. "Get it? Eye muscles."

"And she's supposed to be your friend?" Sugarcoat asked. Twilight jumped a bit, wondering how in Equestria Sugarcoat managed to show up without them noticing every single time.

"Hey!" Rainbow said, standing up. "I am her friend!"

"It's true, she is," Twilight said, rolling her eyes a bit. "Despite how she may act."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Rainbow demanded.

"You're dumb if you can't figure it out," Sugarcoat said.

"Why, I oughtta..." Rainbow sneered. She attempted to lunge at Sugarcoat, but Applejack held her back.

"She's right though, Rainbow," Applejack told her. "Not about the dumb thing. But you're being a might mean to Twilight."

"You were laughing too!" Rainbow said. Applejack smiled awkwardly.

"I...I was laughing with her, not at her," Applejack offered.

"Well she wasn't laughing," Sugarcoat said. Twilight looked back at Sugarcoat, a bit shocked. Was she really defending her?

"Okay, fine," Applejack said with a sigh. "I guess I was being a bit mean too. Sorry, Twilight." She looked pointedly at Rainbow, who resisted for a few moments before sighing herself.

"Ugh...sorry, Twilight," the begrudging Rainbow said.

"It's okay, girls," Twilight said, giving a little glance back at Sugarcoat. "So, what advice are you here to give us today?"

"None," Sugarcoat stated. "I just wanted to tell your friends that they're being jerks to you." As Rainbow and Applejack grumbled, Twilight tilted her head, now giving Sugarcoat a full-on stare. The starting bell for the race jolted her out of her train of thought, and she quickly got to trotting, leaving Sugarcoat behind.
> Suited For Success
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rarity couldn't think of a time where she'd been more proud of her work than she was at this very moment.

When she'd come up with the idea of holding a fashion show for herself and her friends, she knew it would be a lot of work. She wasn't about to admit that to the girls, but it was true all the same. There was no reason to make her friends worry about her overworking herself when she knew she could get the work done without issue. The extra work, she knew, would be worth it if only for the opportunity to create for her best friends and the chance to see the joy on their faces when they saw the finished products. The joy, after all, was a foregone conclusion. Each dress had been perfectly tailored to their unique personalities and appearances. There was no chance that they would be dissatisfied.

"Wow... They're..." Twilight Sparkle started.

"Yeah, they're..." Rainbow Dash added, failing to help.

"They sure are... something," Applejack offered. At least she was making progress.

"Yes! Something!" Twilight quickly agreed.

"I love something!" Pinkie Pie bubbled. "Something is my favorite!"

"It's...nice," Fluttershy said quietly.

Suffice to say, these were not quite the reactions Rarity was looking for.

"But what's the matter?" Rarity asked, dumbfounded. "Don't you like them?"

"They're very nice..." Twilight said, smiling apologetically.

"And we're plumb grateful cause you worked so hard on them," Applejack was quick to add.

"Mine's just not as cool as I was imagining," Rainbow said. The glares from her friends threatened to bore holes through her. "She asked!"

"I guess what we're all saying is that they're just not what we had in mind," Twilight said, trying to soften the blow.

The blow, however, had not been sufficiently softened, at least if Rarity's expression was to be believed. It simply didn't make sense to her. These dresses were positively perfect, tailored to fit each of their bodies and personalities. She had poured her heart into each one. How could they not appreciate them?

Rarity took a moment for her mental faculties to return. The solution, however nonsensical it was, was clear.

"That's okay," Rarity said, despite her brain telling her it wasn't. "Not a problem. There's plenty more where that came from. They were only a first pass. You're my friends and I want you to be 110% satisfied. Not to worry, I'll redo them."

"Do you ponies just take turns being doormats?"

All six heads turned to the door and were not surprised to see Sugarcoat standing there.

"Doormats?" Rarity asked incredulously. "Darling, I was just..."

"You spent all this time making dresses for your friends and instead of appreciating them they're guilting you into making them new ones," Sugarcoat said. "A fancy frou-frou doormat is still a doormat."

"Now see here!" Applejack demanded. "We are appreciative and we ain't guilting her into anything!"

"If you were appreciative then you'd just thank her for the dresses and wear them," Sugarcoat replied. "Because that would make her happy. I thought you wanted to make her happy? Don't think I haven't seen the looks you give her." Applejack's face turned as red as her favorite fruit, and she quickly hid her face with her hat when Rarity looked in her direction.

"Are we really coming off as unappreciative?" Twilight asked.

"I just said you were," Sugarcoat told her. "You should really try listening better." The others hung their heads in guilt.

"We're sorry, Rarity," Twilight said. "The dresses you made are beautiful, honest. We'll be more than happy to wear them." The others nodded and murmured in agreement.

"Oh, I know you meant no harm by it," Rarity said, smiling warmly. Then she turned to Sugarcoat. "And thank you for pointing out my behavior. I pride myself on my generosity, but perhaps sometimes that can lead to ponies taking advantage of me, even if they don't mean to. I'll try to remember that in the future."

"You won't remember it," Sugarcoat stated.

"Oh, nonsense," Rarity replied with a smile. "Now, is there anything I could do for you to thank you? Oh, I could make you a dress to join in on our fashion show! Would you like that?"

"No," Sugarcoat responded. "It's nice being able to walk around naked."

"Finally, somepony else says it..." Fluttershy muttered to herself.
> Feeling Pinkie Keen
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Wow! That was amazing! Pinkie Pie predicted something would fall, and it did!"

Spike clearly couldn't contain his excitement over Pinkie's bit of future-telling moments earlier. Twilight Sparkle figured she could give him a bit of leeway for his enthusiasm. He was a baby dragon, after all. Simple happenstance like that was much easier to impress a young guy like him with than somepony older and more mature like her.

"Oh, come on," Twilight said as they walked along. "She said that something would fall, and a frog just happened to fall right around the same time. A coincidence, nothing else to it." She took a breath to continue, but the breath was knocked out of her when she found herself colliding with Sugarcoat. Twilight yelped and stumbled backwards, just barely managing to stop herself from falling.

"You need to work on looking where you're going," Sugarcoat said, barely looking bothered by the collision. "Maybe you can work on that after you work on actually listening to what I tell you."

"Sorry," Twilight responded, primarily to the first part. Then the second part hit her. "Wait, what? What did I not listen to?"

"I've said this twice before," Sugarcoat said, rolling her eyes. "And I get the feeling I'm gonna say this a lot more. Listen. To. Pinkie."

"Oh, come on!" Twilight groaned. "You mean to tell me that I'm supposed to just believe that random motions in her body can predict the future? That a "Pinkie Sense" exists? It's preposterous."

"It's Pinkie," Sugarcoat said. "Your friend."

"Just because she's my friend doesn't mean I have to believe every word she says!" Twilight insisted. "Besides, there's no scientific proof to back it up!"

"Who cares?" Sugarcoat asked. Twilight hesitated for the briefest of moments, but would not be swayed from her scientific approach.

"I do!" Twilight responded. "It's ridiculous, and without clear, non-circumstantial evidence for it, I can't allow myself to believe it!" She stared confidently at Sugarcoat, Spike watching the tension build between the two. Sugarcoat stared hard at Twilight, but then backed off.

"Fine," Sugarcoat said. "I know I'm right. You do what you want. Just don't say I didn't warn you." She then turned around and left without another word. Twilight watched her go until she vanished down the road, then nodded resolutely. She knew she had won this one.


~~~~~~~~~~


Twilight laid down in the pile of wreckage. The flower pot would have been painful enough. The anvil was overkill, and the cart and piano were just ridiculous. Every bit of her body was in a terrible amount of pain, but it might have been her pride that was hurt more considering all of those things had fallen after one of Pinkie's twitchy-tails. Twilight let out a groan, not even feeling good enough to move. She watched, even her eyes somehow hurting, as a shadow moved over her.

"Told you," Sugarcoat said. She began to walk off, then looked back at the pitiful pained pony. She rolled her eyes slightly before lighting her horn up, lifting Twilight onto her back, and starting towards the hospital.

"You're heavy," Sugarcoat said. "You should cut back on the hayburgers."

Twilight just groaned.
> Sonic Rainboom
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rainbow Dash was nervous.

That wasn't something she admitted easily—to herself or otherwise—but it was clear as day today. The mere concept of needing to win the Best Young Flyers competition was stressful enough, but that was the kind of stress that Rainbow usually thrived on. It was the fact that she hadn't been able to pull of the Sonic Rainboom in what felt like a thousand tries that was really causing a problem. Her performance today, while phenomenal without it, really hinged on the Sonic Rainboom to make it a clear-cut victory. She had thought that a cheering section comprised of all of her best friends would help reduce the stress, and thanks to Twilight Sparkle's magic, she was a blue to get just that. However, that came with its own set of problems...

"Rarity! What're you doing talking to these guys?"

Rainbow scowled at her friend as she caught her speaking to the three stallions who had been her childhood bullies. Of all the ponies for her to choose to talk to, it just had to be Dumbbell, Hoops, and Score.

"Oh, they were just admiring my wings, Rainbow Dash," Rarity told her. While Twilight, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack had been enchanted with a cloud-walking spell, Rarity had been the lucky recipient of a spell that granted her a set of gossamer wings. The wings were attention-grabbing, and Rarity, always one to enjoy attention, had taken to them very fast. A little too fast, in Rainbow's opinion. The way Rarity was acting was certainly not helping to put Rainbow at ease.

"Yeah, you should forget the Sonic Rainboom and just get yourself some wings like these!" Dumbbell said. He and his friends began laughing, which certainly didn't help Rainbow's mood nor her nerves. She grumbled under her breath, an action which was enough for Fluttershy to take notice of her sour mood.

"Uhh...c'mon, girls. Why don't we go see how clouds are made?" Fluttershy offered helpfully. She waited for the others to begin towards the cloud factory before moving next to Rainbow Dash. "Don't listen to them. You're gonna win that competition for sure!"

"Are you kidding?" Rainbow moaned. "I can't do the Sonic Rainboom, and just look at these boring, plain old feathered wings. I'm doomed!" She began to walk off, but was stopped by a powder-blue hoof.

"Let me take care of this," Sugarcoat said.

"Sugarcoat?!" Rainbow exclaimed. "How are you walking on clouds?"

"I asked Twilight to cast the spell on me too," Sugarcoat said simply. All heads turned to Twilight, who smiled awkwardly.

"What?" Twilight said. "She asked."

"Never mind that," Sugarcoat said, then turned her attention to Rarity. "You. I thought you wanted to help Rainbow Dash."

"What?" Rarity asked. "I do! That's why-"

"That's why you're flying around with your fancy wings and drawing everypony's attention?" Sugarcoat offered. "That's why you're making the ponies who are going to be watching her later go all gaga over your wings and pretty much forget about her completely? That's why, instead of focusing on calming her nerves like you claimed to want, you're basking in the attention of the three ponies who she gets along with the least up here? If that's how you help ponies you care about, I hope you never help me with anything."

Rarity stared at Sugarcoat in shock. She stammered, trying to respond to that, but she couldn't find the words. She finally gave up on words, looking pitifully at Rainbow to confirm this.

"Well..." Rainbow said softly. "Uh...I wouldn't have worded it like that...but she's kinda right."

Within moments, Rarity was in tears, wrapping her forelegs around Rainbow.

"I'm terribly sorry, Rainbow Dash!" Rarity exclaimed. "I've been a horrible, horrible friend!" Rainbow groaned a bit, but dealt with it. It was Rarity's nature to overreact.

"Nah, you're not a horrible friend," Rainbow said. "Don't worry about it, Rare. Just...I dunno, relax?" She sat still, tolerating Rarity's hug. It was just a bit sappy for her.

"Very well, Rainbow Dash," Rarity said, finally releasing her. "You concentrate on your act. I'll stay out of your way and cheer you on."

"Thanks, Rarity," Rainbow said with a smile. "I think I'm already feeling a little more confident." The girls smiled, then began on their way towards the cloud factory. Sugarcoat, however, stopped Rarity.

"Hey," Sugarcoat said. "You know what would really help Rainbow Dash?"

"What?" Rarity asked.

"Just fly up high in the sky like two thirds through her routine," Sugarcoat said.

"How would that help Rainbow Dash?" Rarity asked, looking quite confused.

"Trust me," Sugarcoat said. "It'll help a lot of things in the long run." Rarity raised a brow, but shrugged and took it under consideration. Sugarcoat wasn't wrong too often, after all.
> Stare Master
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Here, chick-chick-chick-chick-chick! Brawck, bawk-bawk-bawk, brawck!"

Apple Bloom was immensely proud of her chicken call. It might not have been as excellent as her brother's turkey call, but it was near-flawless. Frankly, she was shocked that she hadn't gotten a chicken-calling cutie mark—though at the same time, she was kind of okay with that. She was nearly as proud of her plan to get herself and her friends out of Fluttershy's cottage. She felt a bit bad for escaping, and the thought of how worried Fluttershy would be did upset her slightly, but it would all be worth it when the three of them came home with her chicken and three brand-new cutie marks to show for it.

"What are you doing?" Scootaloo asked.

"Callin' for the chicken!" Bloom replied. Of course Scootaloo didn't understand that. She wasn't nearly as smart about farming stuff as Bloom was.

"That is not how you call a chicken," Scootaloo insisted.

"Oh, and you know how to call a chicken?" Bloom asked sarcastically. As far as she knew, Scootaloo had not grown up around chickens like she had.

"I know that's not the way," Scootaloo answered defiantly. As far as she knew, Bloom had not grown up around cool books with animal pictures that played the sounds they made like she had.

"Then show me," Bloom said, a smug grin on her face.

"I don't have to show you!" Scootaloo retorted.

"You're just chicken!" Bloom told her. There was that good old Apple wit, once again showing up when she needed it most.

"Am not!" Scootaloo replied. She was planning on joining the school debate team, and this was excellent practice.

"Oh, wait, now I know how to call a chicken!" Bloom said with a devilish grin. "Scootaloo! Scoot-scootalooooo!"

"That's so funny I forgot to laugh!" Scootaloo shot back, clearly unamused.

"You also forgot how to call a chicken," Bloom said through a cheshire grin.

"Why, you..." Scootaloo growled, glaring at her nemesis. Bloom stuck her tongue out at her and blew a raspberry, then looked to Sweetie Belle for approval. Sweetie, however, was not amused by their antics.

"Come on, guys," Sweetie said. "We're not gonna find the chicken or our cutie marks by arguing."

"There's a lot more you're not going to do if you don't go home," a voice said. All three fillies jumped in surprise, though Scootaloo tried to play it off as just a jump for the sake of jumping.

"Wh-who said that?" Bloom asked, backing up against her friends.

"I did," Sugarcoat said, stepping out from behind a tree.

"Oh..." Bloom responded, relieved. "It's just you, Sugarcoat. I thought it was some kinda monster."

"Now you're worried about monsters," Sugarcoat said dryly. "That didn't matter to you three when you decided to walk into the Everfree Forest all by yourself? You're not too bright."

"Hey!" Scootaloo responded. "We're not scared!"

"Tell that to your scaredy wings back there," Sugarcoat said, pointing at Scootaloo's outstretched wings. Scootaloo coughed and blushed lightly, folding them down.

"Look, we'd love to listen to you," Bloom said. "But we've got important cutie mark business to take care of in there."

"A-actually, I wouldn't mind going back..." Sweetie said, a bit shakily.

"Looks like she's the smartest of the bunch," Sugarcoat responded. "Because if I were one of the myriad monsters living in this forest, I'd look at three young fillies walking around all by themselves and see them as a good snack. You can't get a cutie mark in a monster's belly, and even if you could, you'd never even get to see it."

The three fillies looked at each other, gulping in unison. As much as they wanted to get their cutie marks, they didn't want to get them for being monster food. That kind of talent was the type that only came into play once.

"So you're going back to Fluttershy's, right?" Sugarcoat asked.

"Yes, Miss Sugarcoat!" the three answered hastily. The sounds of riffing capes accompanied the girls' speedy gallop out of the forest. Sugarcoat smirked a bit. She didn't usually care about doing good deeds, but they were just kids. She smiled a satisfied smile as she followed them out of the forest, confident that she'd stopped things before something terrible could happen.


~~~~~~~~~~


A ladybug crawled across Twilight Sparkle's eye.
> The Show Stoppers
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo couldn't have possibly felt more downtrodden as they trudged off of the stage. They had spent so very long putting this act together, practicing it, and making sure everything was perfect. This was supposed to be their crowning moment, the moment that made everypony stand up and cheer as they earned their cutie marks in front of a live crowd. Instead, they'd been shamed, laughed mercilessly off stage. The mere concept of a bunch of grownups laughing a group of fillies off stage was inconceivable to them, but it sure had happened, and they couldn't possibly feel worse.

"Wow," Scootaloo said with a sigh. "That did not go as well as I expected." It might have been the understatement of the century, and that sentiment was rather evident on the faces of the three.

"I can't believe they're laughin' at us," Bloom said dejectedly.

"Was it that bad?" Sweetie asked. Scootaloo closed her eyes and shook her head as Bloom stared at Sweetie, wondering if it was possible to ask a question with a more obvious answer. She couldn't blame Sweetie, though. She was in a state of disbelief, just like the rest of them were.

"Back on stage, girls," Miss Cheerilee said as she and Spike walked up to the group. "It's time for the awards."

"Back on stage? No!" Sweetie replied defiantly.

"They'll just laugh some more," Bloom insisted, her eyes glistening and looking ready to leak at any moment.

"Yeah, what's the point?" Scootaloo asked, not even able to make eye contact with Cheerilee.

"Now girls..." Cheerilee began, but she stopped when she saw Sugarcoat suddenly step into view.

"I've got this," Sugarcoat said. She walked right between Cheerilee and Spike, stepping up to the Crusaders.

"Who is that?" Cheerilee whispered. "And how did she get backstage?"

"Just let her do her thing," Spike said. "She's got this crazy way of giving good advice." The two stared at Sugarcoat as she gave the fillies a look.

"You should really stick to what you're good at," Sugarcoat told the three. They looked at each other, confused.

"What do you mean?" Bloom asked.

"Seriously?" Sugarcoat asked. "You had all your silly little reasons to not do what you're actually pretty good at. Maybe if Sweetie Belle was the lead singer, your song wouldn't have sounded so gravely."

"Hey!" Scootaloo said. "My voice isn't gravely!"

"And maybe you should have done the choreography so it wouldn't have been a bunch of awkward kicking," Sugarcoat said, pointing to Scootaloo.

"What was so awkward about my choreography?" Bloom said, frowning.

"It was a lot worse than how your set design would have been," Sugarcoat said. "But maybe better than what Sweetie did with it."

"Hey..." Sweetie said, looking a little down. Sugarcoat rolled her eyes.

"This all could have been avoided," Sugarcoat said. "Who cares if ponies always expect you to sing? Maybe there's a reason for that, huh?"

"Well...maybe..." Sweetie said softly.

"And you're really good on your scooter, yet you didn't want to do the dance moves because why, exactly?" Sugarcoat asked.

"Uh..." Scootaloo began.

"Rhetorical question," Sugarcoat interrupted before looking to Bloom. "And you can build stuff, but of course you let Sweetie do that instead."

"I just thought..." Bloom said.

"Just stick with what you like," Sugarcoat said. "Now go out on stage. Your teacher probably wouldn't be this insistent on you being out there if you didn't win something." The three looked at Cheerilee, who smiled awkwardly.

"Well...alright," Bloom said, before leading her friends out onto the stage. Cheerilee breathed a sigh of relief as she walked up to Sugarcoat.

"That was a little more harsh than I would have gone with," Cheerilee said. "But thanks for taking care of that. I'm sure they'll remember this lesson for years to come."

"Doubt it," Sugarcoat said before exiting the backstage area.
> A Dog and Pony Show
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Enough! Search, pony!"

The grating, gravely voice of Rover—although she certainly hadn't cared to ask for his name—had long since gotten on Rarity's nerves. It had been quite a while since the Diamond Dogs had dragged her underground, and while she had been pretty terrified at first, her keen wit had allowed her to come up with a plan to get them off of her back...much like she wished she could do with the harness they'd placed on her. For now, though, the harness would stay. It was integral to make the Diamond Dogs think they had the power before showing them that they were woefully mistaken.

"Well, since you insist..." Rarity said coyly. "But I must say the working conditions in here are simply dreadful. Musty and damp, it's going to wreak havoc on my mane. And this air is stifling, suffocating. And when I try to take a deep breath, the stench of all you dogs makes me nauseated." She tried to remain the picture of nonchalance as she went on, wanting so badly to grin as she tricked a group of dogs into dropping rocks on themselves but knowing that feigned ignorance would pay off in the end.

"You look and smell like you haven't bathed in weeks," Rarity continued. "Have you never heard of soap? You could all do with a good round of soap and water. Oh water, oh water, I'm terribly thirsty. Could I please have some water?" 

"Good gracious, I can't take this anymore," Spot groaned. "Be quiet, pony!"

"And that's another thing," Rarity said haughtily. "I would appreciate if you stopped calling me 'pony.' I am a lady and I wish to be addressed as such. So you may call me 'Miss' or 'Rarity' or 'Miss Rarity.'"

"Enough!" Rover shouted "Your whining! It-it-it hurts!" Like a seasoned fencer, Rarity caught the opening and seized it.

"Whining?" Rarity asked flatly "I am not whining. I am complaining. Do you want to hear whining?" She took a brief moment to prepare, enjoying the worried looks on the dogs' faces, before throwing herself headlong into the role. "Thiiis iiis whiiining! Oooh, this harness is too tiiight! It's going to chafe. Can't you loosen it? Oooh, it hurts and it's sooo ruuusty! Why didn't you clean it first? It's gonna leave a staaain! And the wagon's getting heeeavy! Why do I have to pull it?!" Rarity made a little hop in the air to accentuate her last question. Actions were just as important as words, if not more so.

"Aaah! Make it stop!" Spot cried, covering his ears.

"Stop whining!" Rover insisted.

"But I thought you waaanted whiiining!" Rarity whined, stomping her front hooves. She idly thought back to her old drama teacher and how he said she was prone to overacting. If he could see her now...

"Geh!" Rover groaned. "We'll do anything, pony!" A glare from Rarity made him recoil. "Oh, uh, uh, we'll do anything, 'Miss Rarity.'" He laughed nervously at the idea of causing another whining fit.

"Anything?" Rarity asked dreamily.

"Hold on a minute."

All heads turned to the nearest tunnel as Sugarcoat walked onto the scene.

"Sugarcoat?" Rarity asked. "How in Equestria did you get here?"

"I fell," Sugarcoat said plainly. "You know, it's really not nice to manipulate others."

"What?" Rarity said, shocked. "You're taking their side?"

"I'm just telling it like it is," Sugarcoat replied. Then she turned to the Diamond Dogs. "Are you going to let a pony boss you around like this just because she's loud and annoying?"

"Miss Rarity is not bossing us!" Rover insisted. "We are in charge!"

"Yet you're calling her Miss Rarity like she owns you," Sugarcoat stated. "How could you be this dumb?" The dogs began to murmur to each other, and Rarity stared at Sugarcoat in shock as her plans looked to fall apart around her.

"You're right!" Spot shouted. "We are in charge, pony! Pull the wagon!"

"But..." Rarity stammered, trying to regain control. She quickly snapped back into whining. "It's so heavy and..."

"Just put a muzzle on her," Sugarcoat said.

"Of course!" Rover responded. "Why didn't we think of that?"

"Because you're stupid," Sugarcoat told them. They ignored her as Rover quickly clamped a muzzle over Rarity's mouth, fastening it behind her head. The muted unicorn squealed through it, giving Sugarcoat a death glare as she was prodded and forced to start pulling.

"And now we will get our work done much faster," Rover said with a grin, as the dogs moved closer to Sugarcoat. "Now that we have two ponies..."


~~~~~~~~~~


It had taken quite a bit of trial and error, as well as a bit of confrontation with some particularly nasty dogs, but Twilight and company were sure that they'd finally found the right path this time. Led by Spike riding on Twilight's back, the group charged into the cavern, ding face to face with Rover, Spot, and Fido. They stared at the dogs angrily before Spike noticed a muzzled Rarity looking miserable behind them. Thinking quickly, Spike launched himself over Twilight's head. The dogs tried to grab him, but his leap was too mighty, propelled by the need to save his damsel in distress.

"Get him!" Rover shouted. The dogs attempted to converge on Spike, but the ponies sprang into action. Applejack used a piece of rope she'd gotten from the dogs they'd confronted to tie up Fido's feet, and Fluttershy made sure to tie it nice and tight so he could be easily reeled in. Pinkie Pie bounced in front of Spot, distracting him just long enough to allow Rainbow to tackle him to the ground. As for Rover, he was quickly incapacitated by Twilight's magic and pulled straight up to her face.

"Diamond Dogs," Twilight said sternly. "I feel I should inform you that I am the prized student of Princess Celestia, and these are my friends and her bearers of the Elements of Harmony that you're dealing with. If you'd like to enter a war against our people, then by all means, keep doing what you're doing. I, however, would advise against it." Rover gulped slightly as he struggled in Twilight's magical grasp.

"Fine! You win!" Rover cried. "You can even take some of our jewels!"

"Good choice," Twilight said with a smile. "We make better friends than enemies."

Meanwhile. Spike leapt onto Rarity's back. He quickly unfastened her muzzle, letting it drop to the ground before grabbing either side of the harness. With a mighty pull, he hefted the heavy harness from her back, letting it clatter to the ground.

"My hero!" Rarity swooned. She lit her horn up and pulled Spike in front of her, squealing happily. Spike began to breathe heavily, preparing to deliver a suave line that would capture his lady's heart. However, staring into her eyes proved to be counterproductive.

"B-bwuh..." Spike stammered. Rarity giggled softly and gently turned his head, placing a delicate kiss on his cheek. With that, the mighty, manly savior instantly fainted into Rarity's forelegs. Rarity rolled her eyes and smiled, carefully depositing Spike on her back and joining the group.

"Go on then," Rover insisted to Twilight. "Take both of them!"

"Both?" a confused Twilight asked. It was just then that Sugarcoat walked out from behind a pillar, harness still on her back.

"I'm keeping this harness," Sugarcoat said as she stepped past the dogs. "I like it." Twilight just shrugged as she led the group and their treasure out of the room.
> Green Isn't Your Color
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight Sparkle closed her eyes and rested back into the hot tub, happy to finally get a moment to relax. Dealing with an upset Rarity was never a good way to relax, and with Rarity's tendency to be overdramatic, it was something she had to deal with fairly often. At least today's issue seemed like something worth being upset about. Rarity had worked so hard to get the attention of Photo Finish, and in the end, it was Fluttershy that she wanted instead. In many situations, a friend would have been happy for their friend's success, but Rarity was having trouble with that step, seeing as she'd worked so hard for this. Not helping matters was the fact that Twilight was apparently honor-bound not to tell Fluttershy how jealous Rarity was of her. Pinkie Pie had made it absolutely clear that losing a friend's trust was the fastest way to lose a friend forever, and she certainly didn't want that. She'd worry about it later, though. For now, she welcomed the opportunity to relax.

"Rarity!" Fluttershy called out as she flew into the sauna. "I'm so sorry I'm...Oh no. She's already gone, isn't she?" Twilight opened her eyes and let out a small sigh. So much for relaxing.

"Sorry," Twilight said. Despite her disappointment, her sentiment was genuine.

"Oh, I can't believe this," Fluttershy lamented. "I am so frustrated, I could just scream." She took a deep breath, then let out what was, in Twilight's mind and probably the mind of anypony else who would have heard it, the least-intimidating scream in existence. To classify it as a scream was doing a disservice to the word.

"Feel better?" Twilight asked, doing her best not to comment on the scream. Fluttershy let out a sigh which was almost as loud as her attempt at yelling.

"No," Fluttershy said, picking herself up into the air and hovering over the hot tub. "Can I tell you something?"

"Of course," Twilight responded.

"You promise not to tell Rarity?" Fluttershy asked.

"I swear," Twilight answered, a resolute look on her face.

"Pinkie Pie swear?" Fluttershy asked.

"Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my..." Twilight began, going through Pinkie's motions. "Waaah!" Twilight removed her hoof from the eye it had poked, deciding that she needed to get better at imitating ponies. Fluttershy gave her a look, then took a deep breath, looking away.

"I don't like being a model," Fluttershy said, before deciding to amend that. "No, I hate being a model. All this attention is awful, just awful. And I'm only doing it because Rarity told me I must. I must! I MUST!" The pegasus let out a forlorn sigh. "I must..."

"Oh, really?" Twilight asked, a smug grin crossing her face as she saw a way out of everypony's problems. "Well..." She looked left and right, then waved for Fluttershy to get closer, waiting for her to do so before continuing. "If you wanna know the truth, Rarity..."

Both ponies were startled by a pony head suddenly popping out of the basin of sponges next to the sauna. Having seen her there before, Twilight was fully expecting Pinkie to be the one popping out. That made her all the more surprised when she realized it was Sugarcoat's head she was staring at.

"Sugarcoat?" Twilight asked, confused. "How did you get in there?"

"I'm not in there," Sugarcoat said, glancing at the basin. "I'm behind it."

Twilight and Fluttershy tilted their heads over to look behind the basin. Sure enough, Sugarcoat was standing there, having just poked her head over.

"Oh," Twilight said. "That makes sense." Then she smirked. "And I bet I know what you're here for."

"I bet you don't," Sugarcoat responded.

"Well, you'd bet wrong!" Twilight said proudly. "Because I know that you're about to say..."

"Don't listen to Pinkie," Sugarcoat said.

"Exac-" Twilight started. Then she stopped in her tracks. "Wait, what?" Sugarcoat rolled her eyes and leaned right in towards Twilight's ear.

"Don't listen to Pinkie!" Sugarcoat said, making sure she was loud enough for Twilight to hear.

"But...but..." Twilight stammered. "You told me the other times to listen to Pinkie!"

"And?" Sugarcoat asked. "Just because somepony's right a lot doesn't mean they're always right. Are you really that black and white about everything?"

"N-no, but..." Twilight started.

"Good," Sugarcoat responded. "Now like I said, don't listen to Pinkie." Twilight thought this over for a moment, then glared at Sugarcoat.

"Well what if you're wrong this time?" Twilight asked. "You yourself said that just because somepony's right a lot doesn't mean they're always right."

"Except me," Sugarcoat said. "I'm always right. But hey, do whatever you want. You want to make the wrong choice? That's all you." With that, she turned tail and exited the sauna. Twilight stared after her, speechless.

"Um...what are you not supposed to listen to Pinkie about?" Fluttershy asked.

"Nothing," Twilight said defiantly.
> Over A Barrel
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight Sparkle breathed a long sigh of relief as she watched Fluttershy pounce on Pinkie Pie. It was a surprising amount of exuberance for the typically-quiet pegasus, but Twilight could understand where she was coming from. She and the others had all been quite worried over the whereabouts of Pinkie, Rainbow Dash, and Spike. Ever since Spike had been kidnapped by a herd of buffalo and Rainbow and Pinkje had gone to find them, they were having trouble thinking about anything else. Meeting Applejack's cousin Braeburn and being led around Appleloosa was a decent enough distraction, but it wasn't enough to quell their worries. Thankfully, seeing their friends' faces was.

"How did you escape from the buffalo?" Twilight asked. She didn't really know a whole lot about buffalo, but from what she did know, they weren't typically a violent people. Of course, that didn't mean that they couldn't have stumbled across a tribe that were.

"We didn't!" Pinkie exclaimed. Just then, the small female buffalo that had attacked the train stepped into view. The ponies gasped, and Applejack started moving into a defensive stance.

"We promised the buffalo a chance to talk," Rainbow said.

"Oh yeah? 'Bout what?" Applejack asked, eyeing the buffalo warily.

"We brought our new pal Little Strongheart here to explain to the Appleloosans why they should move the apple trees off buffalo land," Rainbow said, putting a foreleg around the buffalo and nudging her towards the group.

"That information would be quite help–" Braeburn started, but Applejack quickly cut him off.

"That's weird," Applejack said with a frown, shoving Braeburn so he was nose to nose with Strongheart. "'Cause my cousin Braeburn here wants to explain to the buffalo why they should let the apple trees stay." Braeburn smiled awkwardly, almost apologetically, at Strongheart.

"That would be a useful thing to–" Strongheart began. She too was cut off, this time by Rainbow.

"The land is theirs!" Rainbow shouted. "You planted the trees not knowing that. Honest mistake. Now, you just gotta move 'em, that's all."

"Well...heh..." Braeburn said. Yet again, Applejack interrupted him.

"They busted their rumps here!" Applejack hollered. "And now they're supposed to bust their rumps again, just 'cause some buffalo won't stampede someplace else?"

"Plant the trees somewhere else!" Rainbow insisted.

"Where?!" Applejack asked, more than a bit annoyed. "It's the only flatland around these parts!"

"The buffalo were here first!" Rainbow shouted, getting nose-to-nose with Applejack.

"The settler ponies need it to live!" Applejack yelled, pushing right back.

"Geez, just make out already," came Sugarcoat's voice. Applejack and Rainbow backed up quickly, blushing brightly as the powder-blue unicorn came into view.

"Where did you come from?" Applejack asked.

"A place of reason," Sugarcoat shot back. "I can see neither of you have ever been there." The two ponies glared holes through the intruder, but managed to control their tempers.

"Come on, Sugarcoat," Twilight said, trying to restore order. "How long have you been listening?"

"Long enough," Sugarcoat said. "Long enough to hear you not even bother listening to each other. You know that those two..." She pointed to Braeburn and Strongheart. "...Want to listen to each other's points and learn from them? But you two are too stubborn to give them a chance. Maybe if you'd shut up for a few minutes, you could all work out a compromise."

Applejack and Rainbow gave each other a look, then both took a step towards Sugarcoat. Twilight stepped in front of them, cutting them off.

"You know, she's right, even though she's being impolite about it," Twilight said. "Let's give hem a chance to speak things over." Applejack and Rainbow frowned, but relented.

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Applejack said.

"Uh-huh," Rainbow reluctantly agreed.

"Good," Twilight said. She gave Sugarcoat a sweet smile. "Thank you, Sugarcoat. You're as helpful as always." She kept the sweet smile going, but Sugarcoat turned away.

"Uh-huh," Sugarcoat said, beginning to walk off.

"So..." Strongheart said, looking Braeburn in the eyes. "Let's go talk...and maybe when we're done, we could go for a bite to eat?"

"Don't bother," Sugarcoat called as she strolled off. "He's not into girls."
> A Bird in the Hoof
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I don't understand! What is that thing? What happened to Philomena?"

To say that Fluttershy was baffled would have been a tremendous understatement. The day had been a rather tumultuous one, what with nearly missing the big meal with Princess Celestia and borrowing her pet bird Philomena to give her the care that the Princess was too busy to do. Once word had gotten out that the Princess was searching for Philomena, things had gotten far more stressful, but not nearly as stressful as when she watched Philomena suddenly burst into flame, then land in a pile of ash in her hooves. The trauma of it all was nearly too much for her to take, but then her emotions were taken for another ride as Princess Celestia appeared and spoke to the ashes, inconceivably convincing them to reform into a majestic birdlike creature. It certainly was a strange day.

"This is Philomena," Celestia responded. "She's quite a sight, as I said. But nothing unusual for a phoenix. Isn't that right, Philomena?" The bird let out a rather majestic caw in response.

"A...a phoenix?" Fluttershy asked, quite confused.

"A phoenix is a majestic and magical bird," Celestia said. "While it appears healthy and happy most of the time, every so often it must renew itself by shedding all of its feathers and bursting into flame." She leaned in towards Fluttershy with a little grin and whispered. "Rather melodramatic, if you ask me." Then she stood straight again, returning to a regular speaking volume, "It then rises from the ashes, fresh as a daisy. All just a normal part of the life cycle of a phoenix. I'm afraid mischievous little Philomena here took the occasion to have a little fun with you, Fluttershy. Say you're sorry, young lady."

Philomena, for her part, looked a bit ashamed, and let out an apologetic caw. Fluttershy gave her a little nod, but her worries still remained.

"So...aren't you gonna banish me?" Fluttershy asked. "Or throw me in a dungeon? Or banish me and then throw me in a dungeon in the place that you banish me to?"

"Of course not, my little pony," Celestia answered, raising a curious brow. "Where on Earth would you get such an idea?" At this, Twilight Sparkle smiled sheepishly. Perhaps she had overreacted slightly when she put those ideas in Fluttershy's head.

"I guess I have some imagination," Fluttershy responded innocently, giving Twilight a little wink. Twilight breathed a sigh of relief.

"Fluttershy really did do everything she could to try to take care of Philomena for you," Twilight told the Princess.

"And I do appreciate that your heart was in the right place, child," Celestia said.m"But all you had to do was ask me and I could have told you Philomena was a phoenix and saved you all this trouble."

"Excuse me?" 

All heads turned towards the fountain, where Sugarcoat was standing.

"Please, not now..." Twilight said under her breath.

"Did you really just say that?" Sugarcoat asked, trotting past the others and right up to Celestia.

"I'm sorry?" Celestia asked, more than a bit surprised at the pony's bravado.

"You should be," Sugarcoat responded.

Twilight nearly fainted on the spot.

"For what, my little pony?" Celestia asked, a bemused smirk on her face. If this was bothering her, she was doing a good job of hiding it.

"You know she loves animals," Sugarcoat answered. "If somepony who cares that much about animals sees an animal that looks sick, they're probably gonna want to do something about it. You could have avoided all of this by telling her right off the bat what a phoenix was all about, instead of acting all high and mighty and playing the 'you didn't ask so I didn't tell you' card. For a thousand-plus-year-old princess, you sure are pretty immature sometimes."

Twilight didn't say anything, for she had fainted dead away.

Princess Celestia, meanwhile, set a stony gaze upon the unicorn in front of her. The area fell silent, not a single pony daring to speak. All eyes were now glued on the sun princess, some shocked and some terrified as they waited for her response. Seconds passed by like minutes as the silence hung in the air. A small clearing of Celestia's throat finally broke the silence, but the tension was not broken until she spoke a moment later.

"...I shall take that under consideration," Celestia responded. Her face was unreadable, holding the calm little smile that she seemed to carry around so often, the one that could have been hiding nearly any emotion under the sun. She then turned to her guards and gave a nod. "Let us return to the castle."

"Y-yes, ma'am," one of the guards said. The Princess, her guard, and her phoenix then left the scene.

"Well...th-that was tense," Fluttershy said quietly once they had gone.

"Wwwwow..." Rainbow Dash said. She glanced over to Sugarcoat, who seemed completely unbothered. "You sure that was the best idea?"

"What?" Sugarcoat asked. "Somepony had to say it." Then she walked off, the others staring at her as she went.

"What happened?" Twilight said as she woke up with a start. "Was she banished?"
> Cutie Mark Chronicles
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"See anything?"

Apple Bloom's question, like many of the things that the Cutie Mark Crusaders did or said, was met with the three of them instantly turning to stare at their rumps. And, as was usually the case when they looked at their own rumps, they were filled with a crushing sense of disappointment.

"Tree sap and pine needles, but no cutie mark," Scootaloo lamented. The trio had been trying anything and everything they could think of to earn those all-important marks, but had yet to succeed. Their latest endeavor, ziplining, had been no different. No matter what they did, their cutie marks just seemed to evade them.

"Plan B?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"Yeah," Scootaloo replied. "You know where we can find a cannon at this hour?" Then she groaned. "It's no use! No matter what we try, we always end up without our cutie marks. And, surprisingly often, covered in tree sap."

"Maybe we should do something less dangerous," Sweetie offered. "Like pillow testing or flower sniffing."  Sweetie smiled innocently, hoping beyond hope that Scootaloo would like her suggestions. Knowing Scootaloo, though, it would never happen. As much as they wanted to do anything and everything, it was really mainly the dangerous things that Scootaloo liked doing. She'd made these same suggestions multiple times and the result was always the same. Except for that one time when she mixed them up. "Pillow sniffing" certainly garnered a fair amount of laughs.

"This town is full of ponies who have their cutie marks," Bloom said. "Why don't we ask them how they did it?"

"That's a great, safe idea," Sweetie exclaimed.

"Yeah!" Scootaloo agreed. "And we can start with the coolest pony in Ponyville."

"Applejack!" Bloom shouted.

"Rarity!" Sweetie yelled. Scootaloo rolled her eyes.

"Come on, guys, I said cool!" the annoyed pegasus said. "You know who I'm talking about. She's fast. She's tough. She's not afraid of anything!" Bloom and Sweetie stared at their friend blankly.

"Pinkie Pie?" they asked.

"No!" Scootaloo shouted, having had about enough of their nonsense. "The greatest flyer ever to come out of Cloudsdale."

"Fluttershy?" Bloom and Sweetie asked. Scootaloo was about ready to smack a filly. They had to be messing with her now. Fluttershy was really nice and Scootaloo liked her a lot, but her flying left just a little to be desired.

"No!" Scootaloo groaned. "Rainbow Dash!"

"Oh!" Bloom responded. "Yeah, that makes much more sense."

"Of course!" Sweetie said.

"Let's do it," Scootaloo exclaimed, glad that she finally got through to the knuckleheads. "Let's find out how Rainbow Dash earned her cutie mark!"

"Yeah!" Bloom and Sweetie shouted in response, both reaching up and hoof-bumping with Scootaloo. All three seemed to have forgotten about the tree sap until that very moment, when they found themselves stuck to each other by the hooves. The three groaned and began to work towards freeing themselves.


~~~~~~~~~~


"Ain't there something you're supposed to be doing?"

Big Macintosh eyed the powder blue unicorn warily. She'd been sitting there watching him work for quite a while now, and frankly it was starting to make him uncomfortable.

"Probably," Sugarcoat said. "But I already told them I don't want to talk about their butts anymore."

"What?" Big Mac asked, quite confused.

"Just keep working," Sugarcoat replied. Big Mac rolled his eyes and got back to work with a slightly-irritated "eeyup." She'd go away on her own sooner or later.
> Owl's Well That Ends Well
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Waah! I overslept!"

Spike made a mad dash down the stairs, nearly stumbling over his own feet as he did. Twilight Sparkle was far from the tyrannical type, but the last thing he wanted to do was come off as lazy. He was a hard worker when he wanted to be, and he wanted to make sure that was recognized.

"I know it's already ten, but I'm scaly-tailed and bright-eyed and ready to work twice as fast!" Spike said hurriedly as he arrived downstairs. "Oh please, don't be upset, Twilight! And what do you want for breakfast? Oatmeal? How about a sunflower smoothie? Grass pancakes?" Spike was not above trying to butter Twilight up to save his hide.

"Spike, don't worry," Twilight said. Her voice was the definition of calm, and if Spike didn't know better, he would have figured that her even voice was just a facade to hide her disappointment. It still had the potential to be the calm before the storm.

"But my morning chores..." Spike started.

"It's okay," Twilight said. "Owlowiscious did them for you."

Spike tilted his head. That combination of words did not make sense to him. Especially that one word.

"Who?" Spike asked.

"He's our new junior assistant," Twilight explained. "He's gonna help out with your chores so you won't be so tired all the time."

"Wha..." Spike stammered. "Wh...What do we need a junior assistant for? I'm not tired. I do fine on my own. I don't need sleep, I..." The baby dragon was in panic mode, seeing his position and his future flashing before his eyes.

"Spike, don't worry," Twilight reassured him. "He's just here to help out a little. Now, I have to go out, so why don't you introduce yourself to Owlowiscious? He's in the library." She smiled serenely as she headed off for her studies, confident that Spike would understand.

"Worried?" Spike asked loudly. "Do I look worried? I'm not worried. Who's worried?" His sweating and stammering certainly spoke the opposite.

Twilight, meanwhile, sat down to read. She had a fair amount of studying to do, and with Spike meeting his new junior assistant, she had all the free alone time she could want.

"Do you seriously think everything's fine?"

Twilight sighed as she turned to look at Sugarcoat. She had practically forgotten that she was staying there.

"What do you mean, Sugarcoat?" Twilight asked calmly.

"You're telling me you didn't hear the way Spike was talking?" Sugarcoat asked. "He clearly thinks you're replacing him."

"He's fine," Twilight said. "Spike is a smart baby dragon. He'll understand what's going on."

"Baby dragon," Sugarcoat stated. "You expect him to be completely mature about everything? Let me put this in perspective for you. Imagine you're a kid and you're doing lots of things to make yourself useful to your mom who you idolize. Then suddenly she has another daughter. Now there's another pony running around with the same title as you. Yeah, if your brain is mature, you'll understand that you can both exist together, if you're a little kid, though, you're gonna think your parents are replacing you."

"B-but he said..." Twilight tried to interject.

"And then when you're in front of your mom," Sugarcoat continued. "You'll say everything's fine, because the other daughter isn't complaining, and if you're complaining and she's not, then obviously she'll look like the better one to keep around. This making sense to you yet?"

Twilight sat, motionless, no longer even trying to look at her book. She looked straight at Sugarcoat, mouth hanging open.

"So are you going to go reassure him?" Sugarcoat asked.

"I am," Twilight said softly.

"Good," Sugarcoat said, getting up to head out. "Sometimes I think you're all looks and no brains." Then she exited the room without another word. Twilight's jaw fell open.

"...She thinks I'm all looks?" Twilight asked nopony in particular, a light blush appearing on her cheeks.
> Party of One
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Thank you all so much for coming! It means so much to Gummy."

Pinkie Pie stared across the table at her "guests." Whether or not she was genuinely happy to see them was uncertain. If there was anypony in Equestria who could possibly be happy to see a bucket of turnips, a stack of rocks, a ball of lint, and a bag of flour as her party guests, it was definitely Pinkie Pie. Granted, she would have rather had her friends attend, but they had all made up excuses not to come, and to make things worse, Spike had told her that they didn't like her parties and they didn't want to be her friends anymore. Nothing could have hurt more than that, but at least she had her new friends to assuage the pain.

"Could I have some more punch?" Pinkie asked, putting on a voice for the bucket of turnips.

"Well, of course you can have some more punch, Mr. Turnip," Pinkie responded. She placed a full cup of punch in front of the turnips, then twitched violently. Thinking nothing of it, she continued on with her party.

"This is one great pahty!" the rocks "said" with a heavy Bucklyn accent. "You really outdone yourself!"

"Why, thank you, Rocky," Pinkie replied, smiling sincerely.

"I'm having a delightful time as well," the ball of lint "informed" Pinkie.

"I'm so glad, Sir Lintsalot," Pinkie said. Another twitch seemed to not concern the pink pony in the slightest.

"Might I trouble you for anozer slice of cake?" the bag of flour asked. Her thick Prench accent was unmistakable.

"Anything for you, Madame le Flour," Pinkie told her. It was always nice to help a real friend.

"I'm just glad none o' them ponies showed up," Rocky said, emphasizing the word "ponies" with a derisive tone. Pinkie began to doubt Rocky's words; an impressive feat, considering she was the one voicing him.

"Oh, they're not so bad," Pinkie said, trying to reason with him.

"Not so bad?" Rocky asked. "Pug-lease! They're a buncha losers!"

"Oh, c'mon now," Pinkie said softly. "Losers might be a little strong, dont'cha think?"

"After the way they treated you?" Sir Lintsalot joined in. "I say losers isn't strong enough."

"Well, it was pretty rude..." Pinkie said quietly, her feelings beginning to sway.

"Pretty rude?" Madame le Flour scoffed. "It was downright deespicable!"

"It was, wasn't it?" Pinkie asked, though the question seemed more hypothetical than anything.

"If I were you, I wouldn't speak to them ever again," Mr. Turnip told her. Pinkie frowned a deep frown. Everything she...everything they were saying was absolutely right.

"You know what?" Pinkie said with a sneer. "I'm not gonna speak to them ever again. And I'm not gonna invite them to another party as long as I live! They don't deserve to be invited to my parties." Her tirade was interrupted by another twitch. "Not after the way they've been acting."

"You're acting crazy. Stop it."

Pinkie's eyes refocused as she looked across the table at Sugarcoat. She was positive she hadn't seen her there before. Though to be fair, she had also spent the last few minutes talking to inanimate objects.

"What?" Pinkie asked.

"You heard me," Sugarcoat said. "Your friends aren't going to stop being your friends just like that."

"But they all cancelled on my party!" Pinkie insisted. "And they're all being super-secretive about what they're doing instead! And Spike said that they don't like my parties and don't want to be my friends anymore!" Her ears dropped at that last part, and she looked about ready to cry. Sugarcoat rolled her eyes and groaned.

"You'd better not tell anypony I'm about to do this," Sugarcoat said. She waited for Pinkie to nod in agreement, then gave her a small hug. "Calm down. Your friends must have good reasons for what they're doing. Friends don't just stop being friends cause they don't go to one party, and Spike probably just said that cause he was being pressured or something. So just calm down right now, because you're acting crazy." She let go of Pinkie, giving out a little hmph. "And I only hugged you so you wouldn't cry. Don't look too much into it."

Pinkie sniffled a bit, starting to smile. Now that Sugarcoat had put it that way, it made much more sense. Her flat mane and tail puffed back up to their usual fluffiness, and she tried to tackle Sugarcoat in a big hug. Sugarcoat, however, held a hoof out to stop her.

"One's enough," Sugarcoat said simply. Just then, the two heard a knock on the door.

"Hey there, Pinkie Pie!" Rainbow Dash said as she entered Pinkie's room. "Sorry I was in such a rush earlier. Had some place to be and couldn't slow down and say hello. You know how it goes. So why don't you come with me over to Sweet Apple Acres?"

"I'd love to!" Pinkie responded. "You wanna come too, Sugarcoat?"

"Nah," Sugarcoat said, taking a bite of a turnip. Pinkie's jaw dropped.

"Mr. Turnip! Nooooooo!"
> The Best Night Ever
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I can't believe we're finally here!" Twilight Sparkle said, smiling from ear to ear. "With all that we've imagined, the reality of this night is sure to make this... The Best Night Ever!"

Twilight and her friends had been looking forward to this night for what seemed like ages. It felt like forever ago that Twilight had initially stressed over who to invite to go with her (before Princess Celestia allowed her a set of extra tickets), and it wasn't too much later that Rarity had made them their dresses. All of that anticipation had led up to this very day, and each pony had their own gameplan to enjoy the evening to the best of their ability. The group of friends was so excited about their prospects that they just couldn't help but sing about them.

"At the Gala, in the garden, I'm going to see them all," Fluttershy sang, imagining all the little critters she'd meet in the palace. "All the creatures, I'll befriend them at the Gala! All the birdies and the critters, they will love me big and small! We'll become good friends forever, right here at the Gala!" The idea of meeting so many new little friends was intoxicating to Fluttershy, so much so that she was willing to brave a huge social gathering for the opportunity. With everything that she'd heard about the palace's menagerie, this really was looking to be the best night ever.

"At the Gala, I will sell them, all my appletastic treats!" Applejack sang, visions of pastries and bits floating through her head. "Hungry ponies, they will buy them! Caramel apples, apple sweets! And I'll earn a lot of money for the Apple family!" Applejack didn't like to sound greedy, but as truthful as she was, she had to admit that she was in this largely for monetary reasons. To be fair, though, her intents were honorable. The money she'd surely earn was going to go to helping out her family. New farm equipment, new integral joints for Granny Smith...all the bits she would earn tonight were sure to cover those costs and maybe even leave a few left over to get herself a nice little something. No other night could compare to how great tonight was going to be.

"At the Gala, all the royals, they will meet fair Rarity," fair Rarity sang, dreaming of increasing her social status. "They will see I'm just as regal at the Gala! I will find him, my Prince Charming, and how gallant he will be! He will treat me like a lady, tonight at the Gala!" Rarity didn't mean to sound superficial, but she had fallen for Prince Blueblood the moment she'd laid eyes on his handsome face. Even if he wasn't royalty, that gorgeous visage would have won her over. The whole prince thing was just an added bonus to enhance her fantasy of meeting her Prince Charming. She was going to meet him tonight, and it would make this the best night ever.

"Been dreamin', I've been waitin', to fly with those great ponies!" Rainbow Dash sang, her head in the clouds over how awesomely amazing she would be. "The Wonderbolts, their daring tricks, spinning round and having kicks! Perform for crowds of thousands! They'll shower us with diamonds! The Wonderbolts will see me right here at the Gala!" From the moment she'd heard that the Wonderbolts were going to be at the Gala, she knew that she had to be there. It had long been her dream to meet them, and that dream had been realized back during the Best Young Flyers competition. Meeting them wasn't quite enough, though. Impressing them was almost enough. Flying with them was her penultimate goal just before joining the team, and doing that tonight was sure to make it the best night ever.

"I am here at the Grand Gala, for it is the best party!" Pinkie Pie sang; bouncing along cheerfully to the music. "But the one thing it was missing was a pony named Pinkie! For I am the best at parties, all the ponies will agree! Ponies playing, ponies dancing, with me at the Grand Gala!" The other ponies all had big aspirations of specific events they wanted to happen at the Gala. Like usual, Pinkie was different. The party itself was all Pinkie needed to be happy. Any party would have made Pinkie happy, but this was possibly the biggest party known to ponykind, and the fact that she was going was just fantastic. The idea of seeing the smiles on the faces of the attendees when she added her own j price mends to the party was enough to convince Pinkie that this would be the best night ever.

"At the Gala, with the princess, is where I'm going to be!" Twilight sang, excited beyond belief to spend time with her teacher and mentor again. "We will talk all about magic, and what I've learned and seen! It is going to be so special, as she takes time just for me!" Save for a few quick encounters here and there, it had been quite a while since Twilight had gotten some alone time with Princess Celestia. While she loved spending time with her new friends, time with the princess was the thing she missed most of all about studying in Canterlot. Tonight, though, she would be spending the Gala with her, and that was enough for her to preemptively declare it the best night ever.

Before the ponies could sing another word, they were interrupted by the sight of Sugarcoat appearing on the scene. As far as the others knew, she wasn't showing up tonight. Twilight had offered back when she got the other tickets, but been denied. All six ponies and one baby dragon watched Sugarcoat curiously as she took a breath.

"At the Gala," Sugarcoat began to sing. "Disappointment is what you're going to see. Expectations will be shattered at the Gala! You will not get what you wanted, and how upset you will be! And if anypony asks you, just say you heard it from me!"

The ponies were stunned for multiple reasons.

"Wh-why would you think that?" Fluttershy asked.

"How did you even get here?" Rainbow wondered.

"Where did you learn to sing so nicely?" Twilight asked. Her cheeks colored as the others gave her a look.

"You're all too excited about this for it to ever live up to what you're expecting," Sugarcoat replied plainly, before going down the line of ponies. "The animals here aren't used to being bothered and probably won't take kindly to it. The ponies here are used to higher-class food and aren't going to go for yours even if it's tasty. Prince Blueblood is an insufferable jerk who's even more stuck up than you pretend to be. The Wonderbolts are celebrities and have more to worry about than just hanging out with a hopeful. This isn't the kind of party you think it is and ponies here aren't going to want to bounce around like goofs and dance to children's songs. And if you think for a moment that Princess Celestia will be able to escape royal duties at the Grand Galloping Gala for very long just to talk about magic with you, then you're delusional."

The six ponies looked between each other, feeling their hearts fall. Sugarcoat wasn't done though.

"And as for you," Sugarcoat said, her gaze falling on Spike.

"Me?" Spike asked. He was a little shaky now, nervous about what she was about to say.

"You're the only sane one here right now," Sugarcoat told him. "And if these ponies would listen to you, maybe they'd stop getting unnecessarily psyched up over unrealistic expectations and realize that they should be spending this time enjoying the Gala with each other. Your friendship got you all into this position. You don't have to do everything together, but you'd think that with all of you going to a huge event like this together, you'd spend it together. But I guess the dragon and I are the only ones thinking that way."

Silence filled the area. The six surprised ponies stared at each other, then looked to Spike.

"Thank you!" Spike shouted, running up to Sugarcoat and hugging one of her forelegs. Sugarcoat rolled her eyes and tolerated it for a few moments before nudging him off.

"Uh-huh," Sugarcoat said. "So are you all going to enjoy yourselves or what?"

"Yes," Twilight said quietly, her friends nodding in agreement. "Yes we are."

"Good," Sugarcoat responded.

"Would you care to join us, Sugarcoat?" Twilight asked. "I'm sure Princess Celestia wouldn't mind too much if I asked for a plus one..." Her cheeks colored brightly as she smiled at the powder-blue unicorn.

"Not really a big fan of fancy parties," Sugarcoat replied. Then she walked past the ponies and into their carriage, closing the door before it took off. The ponies stared after the carriage, Twilight's gaze a bit wistful.

"That girl is something else," Applejack said.
> Interlude: Something Else
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"That girl is something else."

Indigo Zap frowned heavily as she paced back and forth outside the door of the dormitory. Ever since the latest Friendship Games ended yesterday, everything had gone topsy-turvy for her and her friends. Granted, it had managed to pull them together a bit more than they had been, but the degree to which it brought them together couldn't compare to how it had pulled them apart. On one hand, it was nice to actually be friendly with Twilight Sparkle now. They couldn't possibly stay mad at her after knowing that it was due to Principal Cinch's pushing (and their own as well) that she had gone off the deep end. She wasn't a bad person, she just ended up messing with powers beyond her control. Nothing she had done was intentional, although that knowledge didn't help fend off her feelings of guilt.

"Is she almost done in there?" Sunny Flare asked.

Indigo didn't respond. She didn't know the answer, which played a large factor in her silence.  It didn't help that she wasn't quite in the mood for conversation. She enjoyed the company of all of her friends, but there was one whom she seemed to get along with better than all the rest.

"It's been a really long time now," Lemon Zest sighed, leaning against the wall. "She's gotta have something by now."

Lemon Zest was always optimistic. It was a good attitude to have sometimes, but "always" was pushing it a bit. Indigo really wished she could have that attitude right now though, because her demeanor had been decidedly negative ever since her best friend had vanished.

"I'm sure she's doing the best she can!" Sour Sweet said with a smile. Then her expression grew dark. "But she needs to do better!"

"At least I'm not as negative as Sour Sweet," Indigo thought as she gave Sour a look. That girl was always dampening the mood. It just so happened this time that the mood was already too low to be dampened further.

It had been an entire day since Sugarcoat had vanished. In the chaos that had ensued from Twilight succumbing to the magic and becoming a reality-rending demon, she had fallen through one of the many tears in the fabric of time and space that had been created. The others had tried to save her, but they hadn't been strong enough. Indigo could still clearly remember the feeling of Sugarcoat's fingers slipping through her own, the shouts of worry from the others as they watched her plummet. The last words she'd heard from Sugarcoat had been, "You really shouldn't have lost your grip on my hand." It was such a Sugarcoat response, and the words refused to leave her head. She knew...she hoped Sugarcoat didn't mean to wrack her with guilt like that, but her guilt was only a fraction of the guilt felt by-

"Twilight!" Sunny shouted, knocking on the door. "Come on! Have you found anything yet?"

"You need to say yes!" Lemon said, wringing her hands together.

"I understand it's not easy..." Sour said gently. Then she reared back and slammed herself against the door. "But we're coming in there!" Indigo groaned as she watched the door fly open, Sour collapsing through the doorway. Indigo didn't exactly agree with her methods, but that didn't stop her from running into the room herself, the others close behind her.

"Twilight..." Indigo said as she approached her chair. "C'mon, tell me you found something."

The chair slowly turned around, revealing a very distraught Twilight. Papers and notes cluttered her desk, frantic scribblings all over them. Post-its were tacked to the corkboard in front of her, strings and tapes leading between different ones. The layout made no sense to any of the other girls, but it was pretty likely that they made perfect sense to Twilight. If they did, though, she wasn't showing it. The worry showed on her face, her hands shaking slightly.

"I've tried everything I could," Twilight said, barely able to make eye contact. "I...I just don't think I have enough knowledge of the magic I was forced to deal with to know what happened to her at all, let alone how to get her back." She buried her face in her hands. "And if it wasn't for wanting her back, I don't even know if I could bear to look into these things after what I did." The others looked at each other, some sighing and some groaning.

"Twilight, stop blaming yourself," Indigo said with a frown.

"But it was me who-" Twilight began, but her mouth was quickly covered by Indigo's hand.

"Stop," Indigo said. "That wasn't you doing those things. You wouldn't have done that. You would fix it, and you...we need to figure out how to fix it."

"But I just don't think I know enough about magic to manage this..." Twilight moaned. Indigo frowned, then put a hand on Twilight's shoulder.

"Then we need to go talk to someone who does," Indigo said. "When's the next bus to Canterlot High?"
> The Return of Harmony Part 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sugarcoat let out a soft, annoyed grunt as she walked through the hedge maze outside Canterlot Castle.  She had noticed a bit of activity in the area as she was walking by, and had intended to only glance into the labyrinth for a few moments before continuing on. She certainly hadn't expected to get lost that quickly, and yet here she was with no clue where the entrance she'd walked into had gone. She made a mental note to herself to ask Princess Celestia for the address of the ponies who had made the maze so she could give them a piece of her mind, but that would obviously have to wait until she found the exit.

Sugarcoat groaned again as she turned a corner, a corner she was certain she'd already turned before. As she trudged her hooves through the dirt, her ears perked. There were sounds coming from the end of this corridor. Voices, although she couldn't make out what they were saying or who they belonged to. At this point, any change from the solitary searching was welcome, so she took off down the path as quickly as her hooves would take her.

The sight that greeted Sugarcoat was stranger than anything she'd seen since being transported to this world. Gone was the soil that had covered the rest of the maze's ground, replaced with a fine white powder. Upon closer inspection, it appeared to be sugar. Sugarcoat resisted the temptation to lift a hoof and lick the sugar from it as she gazed over the clearing.

"Do you like this little oasis?" a haunting voice asked suddenly.

"Actually it's kind of annoying," Sugarcoat responded, eyes darting left and right in an attempt to locate the source of the voice. "It's a gigantic waste of sugar and it's going to attract tons of ants. Whoever made this section of the maze really needs to have their pay docked." Sugarcoat was not about to be pushed around by some disembodied voice.

"So cold and blunt..." the voice called out, almost mocking the unicorn. The sugar towards the end of the enclosure began to swirl, gathering together and gradually forming the shape of a large pony head. The sweet creation grinned a toothy grin at Sugarcoat. "Such an abrasive tongue...I do hope you know the effect such bluntness has on your friends."

"My friends?" Sugarcoat asked. As if in response, the field of sugar around her began to rise up, forming the shapes of familiar ponies. Color began to drip into the pony forms to accent them further.

"I can't believe Sugarcoat would say that to me..." the grainy form of Twilight Sparkle said sadly, her voice surprisingly authentic. "I try to be nice to her and all she does is hurt my feelings and tell me I'm not smart..." She sniffled pitifully, leaning into the orange pony next to her.

"It's okay, Twi," the false Applejack said. "She says the same things to me too."

"To all of us," the impostor Rarity said. She also moved to console Twilight, who had begun to cry sugary tears.

"We're just trying to be her friends..." fake Pinkie Pie moaned.

"And all she does is push us away," Fluttersugar sighed.

"Well if she's gonna be like that to us, then we don't need her!" the fake Rainbow Dash said, crossing her grainy forelegs. The others all grumbled and agreed, throwing out little barbs about their shattered friendship with Sugarcoat.

"Aww..." the giant head cooed, staring Sugarcoat down. "Look where your bluntness has gotten you...sometimes it's just easier to be less honest, isn't it?" The head's eyes began to swirl, but Sugarcoat seemed unfazed.

"They're more like acquaintances," Sugarcoat said plainly. "If they can't take the way I talk to them, then they need to grow backbones." The head looked surprised that it hadn't gotten to her, but wouldn't let up.

"Surely you can't really feel that way," the head sneered. "You spend so much time with them."

"Who cares?" Sugarcoat asked. "I'm spending time with you right now and you certainly aren't my friend. If you think I care about them, you're more stupid than you look. And considering you're a giant head made out of sugar, that's saying something."

The head frowned, letting all of the pony forms melt back into the ground. Its form began to swirl once more, a creepy laugh echoing in the clearing as it began to take the form of a horribly mismatched creature. The mishmash of claws, talons, and horns cackled as it colored itself in, staring down at Sugarcoat.

"You're a tough egg to crack, aren't you?" Discord asked. He snapped his fingers, and an egg colored like Sugarcoat appeared in his lion paw. With one quick motion, he crushed it in his grip.

"Eww...now why in the world did I do that?" Discord asked nopony in particular as he waved his dripping hoof in the air. "I guess the yolk is on me, hm?" He let out a guffaw, clutching his stomach in mirth. After a few moments, he stopped, noticing that Sugarcoat was not laughing. He let out a little hmph. "No respect for comedy in this one."

"I laugh at funny things," Sugarcoat stated.

"Oh, you are a card," Discord said, flipping a deck of cards in Sugarcoat's direction. The queen of hearts landed in front of her, its face replaced with hers. "But never mind that. We've got other business to attend to." He poofed a briefcase into existence, opening it up to reveal a number of headshots of Twilight and the others. "You're saying that these ponies aren't your friends?"

"They're not bad," Sugarcoat said. "But they're not my friends." Discord quickly turned away from Sugarcoat, pointing the tip of his tail at her.

"Then perhaps I'm approaching this from the wrong direction," Discord said, his face appearing on his tail. "Let's flip the script a bit." With a level of agility surprising for a creature of his size, Discord did a quick flip, landing to face Sugarcoat. "Perhaps this will have a bigger effect." A snap of his talon opened a portal in the air in front of Sugarcoat's face, and what she saw made her jaw drop.

"I'm so glad she's gone," Sunny Flare said, relaxing in Sugarcoat's old dorm. "Wasn't she so annoying?"

"Totes," Lemon Zest replied. "The way she was always insulted everyone all the time? Such a pain."

"She wasn't awful," Sour Sweet said gently. Then she sneered. "She was worse!"

"I bet you're especially glad she's gone, huh?" Sunny asked, looking to Indigo Zap. "She was your roommate. You had to deal with her like ten times more than we did." All eyes turned to Indigo, who was sitting on Sugarcoat's bed. She smirked lightly.

"She really shouldn't have lost her grip on my hand," Indigo said in a mocking fashion. The girls laughed and laughed.

The portal closed, leaving Sugarcoat stunned, mouth hanging open.

"Ohh, how sad," Discord moaned, holding out a handkerchief. "That's just the effect your bluntness has on others, isn't it? You should really cut that out." He reached over and dabbed a tear from Sugarcoat's eye, and as he did so, her colors began to dull, spreading from the point of contact until she was left a bland gray.

"It's okay, little Sugarcoat," Discord cooed. "You won't have to worry about that anymore."
> The Return of Harmony Part 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Wh-what happened?" Rainbow Dash groaned, taking a look around. Then she let out a gasp as realization struck. "How's Ponyville? Where are the Elements?! Did we stop Discord?"

Twilight Sparkle and her friends grabbed Rainbow in a group hug. This wasn't exactly strange behavior for them, but considering the day's events, it was a wonder that it was even happening. In their efforts to find the Elements of Harmony and stop Discord from turning Ponyville into his own chaos capital of the world, Twilight had watched each of her closest friends become something they were not. Applejack became a liar. Pinkie Pie turned into a grump. Rarity transformed into a hoarder, Fluttershy a brute, and Rainbow a deserter. The stress from their behavior had been too much for Twilight to bear at one point, and she too fell to Discord's influence. However, thanks to a helpful reminder from Princess Celestia and Spike about what true friendship really was, she was able to not only recover herself, but figure out a spell to help her friends recover too.

The six friends let out a hearty cheer as they reunited under their right minds, sharing a clear sense that victory was at hoof. The cheering gradually faded as they looked around at the still-chaotic landscape that was the town they loved, its current state punctuated by a herd of buffalo in tutus dancing past them in a line.

"Maybe it's a little early for a group hug," Twilight said, smiling awkwardly. "So what's the gameplan? We can't go up against Discord without a plan."

Just then, the ponies noticed a familiar bluish-gray unicorn walking towards them. Twilight's eyes lit up as she waved her over.

"Sugarcoat!" Twilight exclaimed. "You're just in time! We need to figure out how to defeat Discord, and you always know just what to do in practically any situation! So what should we be doing?"

Six sets of eyes stared eagerly at Sugarcoat, waiting for whatever disarmingly blunt response she had for them. She gave the six a look, then a grin.

"Oh, I know what to do," Sugarcoat said.

"Great!" Twilight responded joyfully. "What is it?"

"Well," Sugarcoat started, "You should do anything it takes to defeat him!"

"Right!" Twilight said. "And that would be?"

"There are lots of different options," Sugarcoat stated. "I know the right one, and that's the one you should do."

The ponies looked to each other, a bit confused.

"Yes, I'm aware that we should...do the right thing," Twilight said, uncertainty coloring her tone. "What is the right thing?"

"The one thing that isn't wrong," Sugarcoat said simply. "It's so obvious if you just think about it."

"I am thinking about it!" Twilight said, her frustration building. "Why are you being so vague? This isn't like–"

Twilight stopped, giving Sugarcoat a look over as realization began to dawn.

"Sugarcoat, would you say that I make bad decisions sometimes?" Twilight asked.

"I wouldn't say that," Sugarcoat answered. "I mean, as long as it's done with the best of intentions, it's not really bad. Not that I would call them bad anyway. I'd go with 'full of potential.' At least with that, you give some leeway as to whether it's good or bad potential, opening it up to–"

"Use the spell," the other five ponies said simultaneously.

"Right!" Twilight exclaimed. Before Sugarcoat could react, Twilight descended upon her, horn lit and ready to go. Sugarcoat felt a warm wave of magical energy wash over and into her, and visions began racing through her mind. Visions of her friends back home at Crystal Prep, the bonding experience of the Friendship Games, and all the experiences she was having here in Equestria flooded her mind, reminding her of her true self. Her colors began to saturate again, slowly and gradually, until she was back to her regular hue. The unicorn slumped to the ground, looking rather exhausted.

"Are you okay, Sugarcoat?" Twilight asked. Sugarcoat peered through her glasses at Twilight, rubbing her temples with her front hooves before she finally spoke.

"Did you shower today?" Sugarcoat asked. "You smell like you just left the gym." Twilight squealed happily and grabbed Sugarcoat in a hug.

"Thank goodness you're back to normal!" Twilight bubbled.

"Uh-huh," Sugarcoat said, a faraway look in her eyes. "Now shut up, stop wasting time, and take care of that jerk Discord. Just blast him with your Elements."

"I figured that was all it would take!" Twilight said. She and the others turned to leave, but then Twilight stopped. "Let me guess: you don't feel like helping."

Sugarcoat stayed silent for a good while, long enough to make Twilight consider asking her question again. Just as she opened her mouth to do just that, Sugarcoat stopped her.

"Let's go," Sugarcoat said coldly. "I've got business with him."


~~~~~~~~~~


Discord couldn't help but be jovial. That was his typical demeanor, after all. The fact that he was currently looking over his new chaos capital of the world also helped. Floating pies, dancing yaks, stampeding bunnies, cotton candy clouds pouring chocolate rain onto the checkerboard ground...what reason was there not to laugh? He had won. His strongest opposition had been dispatched in the most simple and entertaining manner, and Equestria would soon be his.

"Chaos is a wonderful, wonderful thing," Discord mused before taking a sip of chocolate milk.

"Not as wonderful as friendship," a voice spoke. Discord paused, a bit disappointed at the interruption of his sipping. He glanced over at the seven ponies who stood before him, and a bemused expression crossed his face.

"Oh, this again?" Discord groaned, finishing his milk and tossing the glass behind him. The sound of an explosion echoed throughout the air, but Discord paid it no mind. Applejack stepped forward to speak, but before she could get a word out, Sugarcoat stepped in front of her.

"Let me handle this," Sugarcoat said, staring coldly at the draconequus. "Just what do you think you are?"

"Oh, a feisty one!" Discord said, grinning. His head transformed into that of Cheerilee as he repeated her description. "This creature is called a draconequus. He has the head of a pony and a body made up of all sorts of things!"

"It was a rhetorical question," Sugarcoat said, a hint of venom in her voice. "Because I know what you are."

"Oh?" Discord asked. He snapped his fingers, bringing a beach chair into existence so he could recline on it. "Do go on."

"You're a gigantic jerk," Sugarcoat spat. "A jerk who thinks he's all high and mighty because he's got a bunch of powers. You sit there and you wave your powers around and you think that'll make ponies respect you, but you're just doing all of this for respect that you'll never earn as long as you keep acting this way. But it doesn't matter that I'm saying this, because you won't listen. You won't listen and you'll claim that I'm wrong, and you might even actually believe yourself when you say that. But the truth is that behind all of those fancy powers, there's an insecure jerk who plays games with ponies' emotions and takes everything they love from them because he can never truly have what he wants so badly: friendship."

The seven ponies and the draconequus stood silently for a few moments.

"...Wow," Twilight said quietly. "That was a pretty good friendship speech. I'm impressed."

"You should be," Sugarcoat said.

"Oh, bravo, bravo," Discord said, frowning. "It's adorable that you think that way, but I'm happy to tell you that you couldn't be any more wrong. So go ahead and try your little friendship attack on me. It's not going to work, because I have no want nor need for friendship."

"Trust me, you're wrong," Sugarcoat said. The other six began to glow, raising up into the air by the power of the magic of the elements. To their surprise, the same began to happen to Sugarcoat. Discord's face turned from bemused to worried as the magic began to take effect, but there was no coming back from it now. A magical rainbow burst from the Mane Six, raising into the air and beginning to arc towards Discord. Before if descended, a series of magical firecrackers erupted from Sugarcoat's horn, traveling along to the rainbow's apex. The rainbow then came crashing down on Discord, the firecrackers bursting around him. Discord cried out and struggled, but the magic was too much, and he soon found himself trapped in the same stone prison that he had escaped from. Bursts of magical friendship energy flew about Ponyville, transforming it back to its original state.

The seven ponies found themselves slowly descending back to earth, their hooves gently touching down on the restored green grass.

"Great job, girls!" Twilight exclaimed, beaming at her friends. She turned her attention to Sugarcoat, smiling playfully. "Thanks for, y'know, actually getting involved and helping us. But how did you do what you did? I thought only the Element bearers were able to use powers like that."

"Why are you asking me?" Sugarcoat asked. "I have no idea. You're the magical expert."

"Well, I guess I'll have to research that," Twilight responded. "Thank you again for your help with defeating Discord. It's nice to know that you truly value us as friends."

"You're not my friends," Sugarcoat said, turning to walk away. The others watched her go, and Twilight shook her head with a grin.

"That's our Sugarcoat," she said softly.
> Lesson Zero
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Everything was in chaos.

Thankfully, it wasn't the type of chaos that Discord had been sewing recently. But it was chaos nonetheless, and Twilight Sparkle knew that it was all her fault.

Well, mostly her fault. The fact that nopony she knew had a friendship lesson to learn in time for her to send a letter to Princess Celestia certainly wasn't her fault. But the herd of hypnotized ponies rampaging through town in hot pursuit of a fillies' toy...if one looked particularly closely at the situation, they could likely find some shred of evidence that could implicate her.

Twilight wasn't fooling anypony, especially not herself. That stampede was all her fault. Her need to find a friendship problem to solve and write about, combined with the sheer lack of said problems occurring naturally, had made for a deadly combination. To be fair, all Twilight had intended to do with the Want It Need It spell was make Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo argue over her Smarty Pants doll. Three fillies arguing over a doll and needing to learn to share would have been the perfect little problem to write to Celestia about. To say that things had gotten out of hoof was a vast understatement, though, as more and more ponies fell under her spell. Twilight could do nothing but watch with her friends as the town descended into madness over the toy.

"Oh, I've messed up big time," Twilight lamented.

"You didn't even need me to say it this time."

None of the ponies even needed to turn around to know who had said that.

"I know, I know," Twilight sighed as Sugarcoat came up to join the group. "This is all my fault."

"Mostly your fault," Sugarcoat corrected her.

"Okay, mostly," Twilight acquiesced. "If only there had been an organic friendship problem..."

"I don't mean that," Sugarcoat said. "I mean it's all of their faults too." She pointed to the other ponies, who shared a look of surprise.

"Our fault?" Rainbow Dash asked. "How in the hay is this our fault?"

"How are you this blind?" Sugarcoat replied. "Your best friend comes up to you looking more upset than she's ever been, and then when she tells you what she's upset about, you laugh it off like it's nothing?"

"But it didn't seem like something to be concerned about," Applejack said. "How is being late sending a friendship report that huge of a problem?"

"Just because it doesn't seem like a problem to you doesn't mean it's not a problem to anypony," Sugarcoat answered, rolling her eyes. "You could have easily asked Twilight why she thought this was such a problem. But apparently you girls couldn't even bother to do that for your best friend, huh?"

Guilty looks were passed between the group as they absorbed what Sugarcoat had said. In retrospect, the way they had treated Twilight was pretty awful.

"Sorry, Twilight," Fluttershy said quietly.

"We didn't mean to dismiss your feelings, darling," Rarity agreed.

"Well, we kiiiiinda meant to because we thought it was a silly problem," Pinkie Pie said. "But we didn't mean to mean to!" The girls shot a look at Pinkie, but had to admit that she was right, albeit in her own Pinkie Pie fashion.

"It's okay, girls," Twilight said. "I forgive you." The six shared a hug, one which Sugarcoat made a point of staying out of.

"Now, why is it such a problem?" Applejack asked.

"Because if I'm tardy, Princess Celestia won't think I'm taking my studies on friendship seriously," Twilight said, beginning to panic again. "And if she doesn't think I'm taking my studies seriously, she'll take me back to Canterlot and put me back in school and make me prove I'm taking them seriously with a test, and if I don't pass the test then she'll send me back to magic kindergarten!" 

Twilight shuddered as she recalled all the fears she had been dealing with all day, but the rest of the group stayed silent.

"Okay, now you can tell her she's being stupid," Sugarcoat said.

"What?!" Twilight exclaimed. "I thought you agreed with me!"

"I agreed that your friends should have been concerned with your problem and heard it out," Sugarcoat stated. "Now that we have, we can see that it's a dumb concern. There's no way Princess Celestia is going to get that upset over a letter being late."

"But I'm supposed to send a letter every week!" Twilight shouted.

"Well, Miss Smarty Pants," Sugarcoat replied, most likely unaware of how pertinent to the situation that name was. "Did you ever consider sending a letter to Princess Celestia explaining that no friendship problems had come up, but that you were still studying and keeping an eye out for them?"

Twilight opened her mouth, but no sound came out. It sounded so simple when put that way.

"I didn't think so," Sugarcoat said. "You can tell her that when she gets here. I'm pretty sure she's on her way to fix your mess.

"Right..." Twilight said softly. "That would make sense, wouldn't it?"

"Mhm," Sugarcoat said. She began to walk off, but stopped when she saw Big Macintosh run by. He was currently in possession of Smarty Pants, and the devotion he was showing to that doll was unparalleled. He stared at it and regarded it with a level of affection that seemed almost impossible to come across naturally. Sugarcoat hesitated, then turned back.

"Hey Twilight...where did you learn that spell?"
> Luna Eclipsed
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Citizens of Ponyville! We have graced your tiny village with our presence, so that you might behold the real Princess of the Night! A creature of nightmares no longer, but instead a pony who desires your love and admiration! Together we shall change this dreadful celebration into a bright and glorious feast!"

Overall, Princess Luna thought that it was a marvelous opening speech. Every single bullet point she had wanted to hit was touched upon, and in a succinct manner to boot. Too often had she bemoaned her bad luck in the past when forced to listen to some dignitary ramble on for what felt like eons. It was not her intent to bore the citizens of Ponyville to sleep with her diatribe...although given her rule over the dreamlands, it likely would not have been a bad tactic to enforce for those willful enough to resist slumber.

Luna looked out upon what she had hoped to be her adoring public. Surely the citizens of Ponyville would be most pleased to see their reformed princess not only visit them, but suggest a celebratory feast.

"Did you hear that, everypony?" Pinkie Pie asked, clearly not expecting an answer. "Nightmare Moon says she's gonna feast on us all!"

Luna watched in shock as Pinkie and the other ponies screamed, some of them bolting off in all different directions. What was happening?

"What?" the baffled princess asked, a bit softer than her previous introduction. "No, children, no! You no longer have reason to fear us! Screams of delight is what your princess desires, not screams of terror!" Still, the ponies before her trembled and backed off. Frustrated, Luna stomped a hoof and turned to the mayor. Surely she would be able to restore order to her town and talk some sense into its citizens.

"Madame Mayor, thy Princess of the Night hath arrived." Luna stated. Much to her chagrin, Mayor Mare seemed just as terrified as the others. One by one, Luna turned to the other nearby ponies, only to be met with fear from each direction.

"What is the matter with you?" Luna asked, her frustration growing until it reached its breaking point. "Very well, then. Be that way. We won't even bother with the traditional royal farewell." The princess then turned to leave with a huff.

Meanwhile, Twilight Sparkle and Spike had been watching the entire situation, with Twilight in particular feeling quite disappointed with how it had gone down. She understood the initial worry from the ponies in town, but it made no sense to her that they were still freaking out. Luna had made it clear that she was only here for celebration. Didn't they understand that she was good now?

"I'm gonna go talk to her," Twilight said.

"You can't talk to her!" Spike insisted. "She's Nightmare Moon!"

"No, she's not," Twilight said, rolling her eyes. "I saw the Elements of Harmony change her back to good. But it seems like she's having some trouble adjusting after being gone for a thousand years." Just as Twilight was going to walk over, she stopped at the sight of Sugarcoat walking up to her and Spike, pulling a reluctant Pinkie by the tail.

"Lemme go!" Pinkie insisted.

"First you're going to listen to me," Sugarcoat said. She pulled Pinkie over to the group and gave Twilight a look. "Hold this for me."

"Uh...okay?" Twilight responded, a bit befuddled. She lit her horn up and gently held Pinkie in her magic. "I'm sure there's a reason for this, Pinkie, so please just hold on."

"There's a very good reason," Sugarcoat said. "You're running around like a chicken without a head-"

"But I have a head!" Pinkie insisted.

"I'm talking," Sugarcoat replied. "You're running around and getting every pony worked up over Nightmare Moon when Nightmare Moon isn't here."

"Uh, hello?" Pinkie said. "Earth to Sugarcoat? She's right over there!"

"Pinkie," Twilight chimed in. "You were there when we defeated her and turned her back into Princess Luna. Don't you remember?"

Pinkie stayed silent for a few moments, then rolled her eyes.

"Sheesh, you girls are pouty-pants tonight," Pinkie said. "I'm just having fun and getting in the spirit of Nightmare Night!"

"What?" Twilight asked. "But you were yelling about how she was going to gobble you up!"

"Sheesh, Twilight," Pinkie said. "I'm almost as big as her, how's she gonna gobble me up?" Twilight let out a sigh, a mixture of relief and frustration, but Sugarcoat wasn't done yet.

"And you don't realize how much you're upsetting Luna with the way you're acting?" Sugarcoat said. "How would you like it if you were evil and gone for a thousand years and then when you finally came back and you were good again, somepony was running around and making everypony else be scared of you?"

"I'd be dead if I was gone for a thousand years," Pinkie replied simply.

For what might have been the first time that Twilight had seen, Sugarcoat was left speechless. The sight of it made Twilight giggle softly.

"She's got you there, Sugarcoat," Twilight said with a smile.

"I...well...yes, you would be," Sugarcoat stammered. Then she cleared her throat, regaining her composure. "But if you weren't dead, wouldn't you feel bad if there was a pony making everypony else scared of you?" Pinkie tilted her head, looking pensive.

"...Yeah, I guess that wouldn't be fun," Pinkie said.

"Well that's what you're doing to Luna," Sugarcoat said. "Cut it out. It's mean."

"I don't wanna be mean!" Pinkie whined.

"Then stop it and go apologize," Sugarcoat said. Pinkie didn't have to hear another word. As soon as Twilight released her, she zipped off in the direction that Luna had gone.

"That was great, Sugarcoat," Twilight said with a smile. "Hopefully that will help Luna fit in better. Thanks."

"Uh-huh," Sugarcoat said. She turned to leave, but Twilight stopped her.

"Wait a minute..." Twilight said, getting a better look at Sugarcoat. "...Are you dressed as my Smarty Pants doll?"
> Sisterhooves Social
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rarity couldn't believe her luck.

Usually when ponies couldn't believe their luck, it was due to said luck being incredibly good. Unfortunately for Rarity, this time was the exact opposite. She had so much planned for this week, so many things that needed to be done and so many things that didn't need to be done but would have been nice to accomplish anyway. All of that had come crashing down when her parents informed her that their vacation, which she had believed to still be some time off, was in fact starting that very day. As such, Sweetie Belle would be staying with her for the week.

Rarity loved her sister dearly, but there were occasions where she liked her slightly less that usual. Having to work some quality sister time into her busy schedule was irksome, but she could work around it. What she couldn't work around was the way that Sweetie seemed to be incapable of staying out of her way. Sweetie always wanted to help her with whatever she was doing, and she kept finding new and inventive ways to mess everything up. If Rarity wasn't so frustrated at her well-laid plans being dashed left and right, she likely would have been impressed at how creative Sweetie was in her destruction. As it stood, though, it was more a nuisance then anything.

Rarity grumbled softly to herself as she trotted towards home, her new bag of baby blue sapphires safely in her saddlebags. She'd already had a nice bunch at home, but apparently Sweetie had decided that they were better suited for a silly little picture instead of the dress she was making for her client.

"What's your problem?"

Rarity glanced sideways at Sugarcoat. She wasn't sure where she had come from, but she'd learned a while ago that Sugarcoat had a way of showing up unexpectedly. She had already gotten used to that with Pinkie Pie. One more couldn't hurt.

"Oh, just sister issues," Rarity said, rolling her eyes. "I swear, that Sweetie Belle will be the death of me one day."

"I'm sure you're overreacting," Sugarcoat replied. "Like usual."

"Oh, shush," Rarity said. "And I am not."

"Okay, so what is it she's doing that's apparently so terrible?" Sugarcoat asked.

"Everything!" Rarity told her. "She ruined the meal I was making for the two of us. She washed my one-of-a-kind crocheted sweater and made it shrink. And to top it all off, she used the gems I needed for a client to make a picture! She is my sister and I love her, but she's been underhoof so much today I'd swear she's auditioning for a role as a slipper." Rarity glanced again at Sugarcoat and was disappointed at the lack of even a smile. She thought that line was quite clever.

"You call that a problem?" Sugarcoat asked. Rarity stared at her like she had three heads.

"Of course!" Rarity replied. "She keeps interfering in my work!"

"I don't see the problem in your sister loving you and wanting to hang around you," Sugarcoat told her.

"What?" Rarity said. "Of course that's not the problem. I love her too. It's just..."

"Let me guess," Sugarcoat said with a frown. "You got upset with her when she messed your things up."

"Well, yes, a bit," Rarity admitted. "I held my tongue as best I could but–"

"Wow," Sugarcoat interrupted. "So your little sister who looks up to and idolizes you tried her best to help you with the things you had to do and you got mad at her because she didn't do them perfectly?"

"It...sounds rather bad when you put it that way," Rarity said sheepishly.

"You think?" Sugarcoat snapped.

"W-well..." Rarity said quietly, before regaining her confidence. "It's nice that she wants to help, but she should realize that if she's constantly messing up when she tries to help, then she would be more helpful by staying out of the way." Sugarcoat groaned, clearly not swayed by Rarity's words.

"What was your relationship with your parents like?" Sugarcoat asked. The question caught Rarity off-guard, but she shook it off.

"I have a wonderful relationship with them," Rarity answered.

"Okay," Sugarcoat said. "So are you trying to tell me that you never had a time when you were young where you wanted to be around your parents but ended up messing something up because of it?"

Rarity was quiet for a few moments, her face changing from contemplative to wistful.

"Once when I was a filly, my father was watching a hoofball game," Rarity said softly. "I adored my father and wanted very badly to show him the new steps I had learned in dance class. I jumped in front of the television to show him, but in my haste I made him miss some manner of monumental once-in-a-lifetime play."

"Mhm," Sugarcoat said. "Did he get upset?"

"Goodness, yes," Rarity answered.

"Didn't feel good, huh?" Sugarcoat asked. "You just wanted to spend time around him and that's the reply you got."

Rarity sighed softly, the dots beginning to connect. She let out a little sniffle.

"Oh, Sweetie Belle!" Rarity cried, diving straight into theatrics. "My one and only sister! What have I done? All the time I could have spent with you was wasted complaining and–"

"Shut up and go apologize to her," Sugarcoat interrupted. "Your overreactions are really annoying."

"I shall!" Rarity declared, seemingly ignoring the insult. "Sweetie Belle! Your big sister is coming!" With that, she dashed into the boutique.

"Sweetie Belle!" Rarity called as she walked in. "I'm back!" She looked about the place for her sister, then remembered that she asked her to clean. Hearing sounds from the direction of her inspiration room, she went to inspect. "Sweetie Belle?"

"Surprise!" Sweetie shouted, smiling a big, proud smile. Behind her was a sight that Rarity thought she'd never see: a completely clean inspiration room.

"My...ee...bleh..." Rarity stammered, before finding words again. "My inspiration room! What did you do? What did you do?!"

"When I saw the big mess in your room, I thought I'd clean it up for you," Sweetie replied. She was still feeling quite proud, but her sister's reaction was a bit confusing.

"This wasn't a mess!" Rarity insisted. "It was organized chaos! I was just about finished planning my new fashion line, and, and you, you, you went and, and you...and you put everything away!"

"But every time I make a mess, you get upset!" Sweetie cried.

"But this was my mess in my house!" Rarity said. "And now I have to start from scratch!"

"But I thought it would make you happy!" Sweetie moaned, utterly baffled by the situation.

"Happy?" Rarity asked. "Happy?! I..."

Then she took a breath, remembering Sugarcoat's words. She looked down to Sweetie, seeing herself in the little filly who just wanted to spend time with the family she looked up to. She took another breath to center herself, then sat down in place.

"Sweetie Belle," Rarity said calmly. "I know you want to help, and I very much appreciate it. I'm dreadfully sorry for yelling, but you must understand that if you do things to help without asking first, you might end up altering something that needs to not be altered."

"I-I'm sorry, Rarity..." Sweetie said softly. "Y-you're not mad at me, are you?"

"Of course not," Rarity said, reaching out to hug her sister. "I'm a little upset, but I can never stay mad at my wonderful little sister." Sweetie breathed a sigh of relief and hugged back, giving Rarity's cheek a nuzzle.

"Thanks, Rarity," Sweetie said. "I'm sorry I messed your inspiration room up...by, um, un-messing it up."

"It's fine, Sweetie Belle," Rarity said with a smile. "Because you know what you get to help me do now?"

"What?" Sweetie asked, eyes full of wonder.

"You get to help me mess it up again," Rarity said, grinning as she opened a drawer and dumped its contents. Sweetie gasped, then beamed.

"I'm good at messing things up!" Sweetie shouted. She took this opportunity to kick a stack of fabric, knocking it over.

"You certainly are," Rarity said with a wink. She didn't bother telling Sweetie that she wanted that particular stack to stay stacked. She'd fix it later.
> The Cutie Pox
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Nope. Not getting involved."

The Cutie Mark Crusaders stared at Sugarcoat in shock. Had she really just denied them so quickly and easily? Did she not understand how important a problem this was?

"What do you mean, 'nope?'" Apple Bloom asked desperately. "This is a matter of life and death!"

"No it's not," Sugarcoat said curtly, continuing to trot.

"But it's still really important!" Sweetie Belle said.

"I'm not getting involved," Sugarcoat replied.

"You always help the others!" Scootaloo shouted. "What's so terrible about trying to help cheer Apple Bloom up after she didn't get her cutie mark?"

Sugarcoat finally stopped walking, much to the Crusaders' delight. Their positivity quickly vanished when they saw the look she was giving them.

"Let me explain something to you," Sugarcoat said. "I don't know what kind of laws you have here in Ponyville, but back where I come from, if someone my age is talking about children's butts, they find themselves in a whole lot of trouble. So even though I seriously doubt that this will stop you from coming to me in the future about these things, I'm telling you right now that I have no interest whatsoever in any problems regarding your butts, and there's no amount of convincing, pleading, or crazy magic potions that will change my mind. This is a problem you'll have to solve yourselves." With that, Sugarcoat turned tail and walked off, leaving the Crusaders in the dust.

"Ugh," Scootaloo said as she began to walk off. "What a meanie."

"Totally," Sweetie agreed as she followed her. "I thought she was nice after how she got Rarity to be nicer to me before the Sisterhooves Social, but I guess I was wrong." The two trotted off, but Apple Bloom hung back, eyeing the entrance to the Everfree Forest. A lightbulb had gone off in her head.

"Crazy magic potions, huh?"
> May the Best Pet Win!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Wait! Come back! Don't leave me!"

Rainbow Dash struggled desperately, but it seemed escape from her predicament was impossible without help. Her slight mistiming during the avalanche had left her with a wing pinned under a rock, and any hope at salvation seemed to fade as the animals who were all striving to be her pet zoomed into the distance. Either they didn't hear her or they were too determined to win the race to be her pet to notice her or hear her cries. It didn't matter what the reason was right now, though. Neither option would end in her freedom.

"I'm the one who's supposed to win!" Rainbow moaned, trying in vain to pull herself free. "I don't wanna end up stuck here...forever!" The more she struggled, the more despondent she became. How long would it be until somepony decided to check down here for her? She didn't want to think about the possible answers to that.

"Oh no, nonono, th-this can't be happening," Rainbow groaned, already beginning to lose hope. "Forever is way too long to be trapped in Ghastly Gorge. I mean, it's like, forever! Somepony! Anypony! Help me!" All logic and rationality had gone out the window for the poor pegasus. Her overactive imagination had gone into full swing, and it was doing a spectacular job of showing her all the terrible things that could–and probably would–happen to her. A vivid image of herself with a withered face and long beard popped into her head. It didn't matter to her brain that mares didn't grow beards. All that mattered was that it was a very telling depiction of the ravages of age. Maybe she would be stuck here so long that her genes would mutate and allow her to be the first mare to grow a beard. Her name would be in the Whinness Book of World Records as the first mare ever to grow a beard naturally, and scientists–probably even Twilight–would flock to get to her and learn her secret. She would be world famous...that is, if anypony ever found her. Until then, she would just be a sad, lonely bearded mare.

"What are you doing here?"

Rainbow's ears perked as she heard a voice call out to her. She looked desperately down the path as she saw a familiar pigtailed form walk into view.

"Sugarcoat!" Rainbow exclaimed. "You're here! I didn't think anypony would find me!"

"That's stupid," Sugarcoat said as she approached. "You really thought your friends would notice you were missing and not go to the last place you were supposed to be? Are you really that dense?"

Rainbow frowned. Whether it was in response to the name-calling or the realization that Sugarcoat was right was uncertain.

"Well..." Rainbow said awkwardly. "When you put it that way, I guess it is silly, huh?"

"Stupid is the word you're looking for," Sugarcoat repeated. The two stared at each other for a good five seconds.

"...Let me guess," Rainbow said, sinking to a sitting position. "You're not gonna help me."

"What?" Sugarcoat answered, raising a brow. "I'm blunt, not evil. You might not be my friend but I'm not going to just walk away. Thanks a lot for assuming that though." She lit her horn up, grabbing the rock in her magic and lifting it into the air. She barely had time to set it down safely before Rainbow grabbed her in a hug.

"Thank you!" Rainbow shouted, giving Sugarcoat a squeeze. Sugarcoat, meanwhile, did not look amused.

"Uh-huh," she answered. "You gonna apologize for assuming I was going to leave you here to rot?"

"Oh!" Rainbow said, blushing a bit. "Sorry. I didn't mean to offend you or anything."

"You still did," Sugarcoat replied. "But I'm over it. Come on, your friends are waiting for you."


~~~~~~~~~~


"Hm," Twilight Sparkle hummed. "Something's not right here." All the animals, save for the tortoise, had already finished the race, but Rainbow was nowhere in sight. She was definitely the fastest of the group, and yet the falcon, eagle, owl, and bat had all beaten her.

"Where's Rainbow Dash?" Fluttershy asked.

"Great galloping galoshes!" Applejack exclaimed. "There's been an avalanche in there!"

"Rainbow!" Spike cried, not wanting to think about what could have happened to their friend. The six waiting for her expressed various feelings of worry as they stared hopelessly into the gorge.

"Wait!" Pinkie suddenly shouted over the others. "Look!" The friends breathed a sigh of relief as they saw Sugarcoat leading Rainbow up to them. Rainbow's wing was bandaged, but she looked just fine otherwise. She was quickly brought into a group hug by her friends.

"What happened to you?" Spike asked, looking around to Rainbow's bandaged wing. "Are you okay?"

"Oh, it's nothing major," Rainbow said, shrugging. "My wing got trapped under a rock. It hurts a bit, but I'm fine thanks to Sugarcoat."

"What a hero!" Twilight said, fluttering her eyelashes at Sugarcoat, who either didn't notice it or didn't care.

"So who won the race?" Rainbow asked. "Who's my new pet?" The falcon perked up quickly, flying over and perching on Rainbow's shoulder, giving her a quick salute with a wing.

"A falcon sure looks good on ya, Rainbow," Applejack said.

"Yeah..." Rainbow replied. "But I mean, he didn't stop to save me. None of them did."

"Are you serious?" Sugarcoat asked. "Exactly what did you expect a falcon to do to move that huge rock?"

"Well..." Rainbow said, then hesitated. "...Good point. You're forgiven, new pet!" She grinned, patting the falcon on the head. "I'm gonna call you Arrow, cause you kinda remind me of one when you're zooming through the sky with your pointy beak out in front." Arrow let out an appreciative caw, signifying the start of a new friendship between pet and owner.

Fluttershy, meanwhile, had moved back to the gorge's exit, where the tortoise had just managed to arrive. She smiled sadly at it.

"It's okay, little guy," Fluttershy said softly. "You did your best, and that's all that matters." She patted the tortoise on the head, but that still didn't seem to raise his spirits. Sugarcoat glanced over to the two, then broke away from the group, trotting over. She leaned down and gave the tortoise a thorough look-over, then turned to Fluttershy, who was already starting to wince at whatever cold reaction Sugarcoat was going to have to her little friend.

"Cool tortoise," Sugarcoat said. "Can I keep him?"
> The Mysterious Mare Do Well
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rainbow Dash grinned with grim satisfaction as she pinned the Mysterious Mare Do Well to the ground. This pony had swooped into town and stolen her thunder by performing the acts of heroism that were meant for her, and now she had her exactly where she wanted her. All it would take was one quick pull on that mask to reveal her secret once and for all. Although a cool one-liner to accompany it wouldn't hurt.

"Alright, Miss Mysterious!" Rainbow said, grabbing the mask and pulling. "Mystery... solved!" Rainbow's grin faded as a coif of pink mane cascaded from beneath the cowl, and her jaw dropped at the realization.

"Pinkie?!" Rainbow shouted. "Whudda-hud-d-duh-hud-d-duh-huh?!" Her eloquent statement was halted when she noticed a second Mare Do Well appear and unmask herself as well.

"Twilight?!" Rainbow gasped. She stared in disbelief at her two costumed friends. Just when she thought things couldn't get any stranger, a third Mare Do Well entered the scene and removed her mask.

"Applejack?!" Rainbow exclaimed. "There were three of you?!"

"Yup," Twilight responded simply. "We all played Mare Do Well at different times."

"I stopped the carriage bus with these babies, Bucky McGillicuddy and Kicks McGee," Applejack said, motioning back to her hind hooves. Part of Rainbow felt like asking why Applejack had named her hooves, but it wasn't exactly high on her list of priorities.

"I saved the construction workers with my Pinkie Sense," Pinkie explained. A sudden twitch caused her to jump out of the way just as a flower pot crashed to the ground.

"Sorry!" Cherry Berry called out from the window above.

"It's alright!" Pinkie called back cheerfully.

"And I used my magic to fix the dam," Twilight stated.

"Ooh, ooh!" Fluttershy interjected, entering the scene and wearing her own Mare Do Well costume. "And I did the flyby afterwards."

"I made the costumes," Rarity stated as she walked in. For once, she was practically the only one not dressed up. "Fabulous if I do say so myself!"

"I don't understand," Rainbow said, although such a sentence wasn't even necessary to anypony who could see the look on her face. "Why? Don't you want me to be a hero?"

"Of course we want you to be a hero," Twilight responded.

"But a real hero doesn't brag," Applejack added.

"Do I even have to say anything this time?"

All eyes turned to Sugarcoat. Nopony had seen her arrive, nor knew when it had happened, but this was nothing new for her.

"What do you mean?" Twilight asked. Sugarcoat gave her a flat stare.

"Seriously?" Sugarcoat said. "This one is so obvious that you really shouldn't need me to point it out for you. So you five, instead of trying to talk to one of your best friends and tell her that she's being a braggadocious twit, decide to go through the trouble of making up a fictional character and all taking turns playing her? Is there some vital bit of friendship I'm missing here? It's okay to lie to your friend and deceive her and take away something that makes her feel happy and accomplished just because you think she's bragging too much about it? I'm glad you're not actually my friends. I neither need nor want that kind of garbage in my life."

"B-but..." a dumbfounded Twilight stammered. "...She was bragging..."

"You mean like you all were back at the library?" Sugarcoat asked. "Did you forget I'm staying there? I seem to remember all this talk about Mare Do Well's heroic feats, and how impressive her spell was, and how much she cares for ponies' safety and how her costume was to die for. So bragging is okay when you do it?" The others' ears fell, but Twilight wasn't done.

"But that was different!" Twilight said desperately. "She didn't know it was us so it wasn't really bragging."

"Listen to yourself for a minute," Sugarcoat said. "It's okay because we lied." Twilight drooped, hanging her head in shame to match her friends.

"...I'm so sorry, Rainbow Dash," Twilight said softly, the others muttering in agreement. "I guess we weren't really thinking. We just got so caught up in the bragging that-"

"Save it," Rainbow replied. "I mean, it was kinda rotten what you all did, but I guess I still could have watched the bragging a bit. We're both in the wrong here–though what you did was a bit worse."

"Right..." Twilight said sadly. Rainbow gave her a little nudge:

"Stop looking so sorry for yourself," Rainbow said. "You girls can make it up to me by treating me to lunch, alright?"

"Of course," Twilight said, her smile returning. "Anything for Ponyville's resident hero." Then she turned to look at Sugarcoat. "Are you coming?"

"No," Sugarcoat said. "I'm taking Tank for a walk to the park. See you in a week or so."
> Sweet and Elite
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Dearest Rarity, your presence is requested at the Canterlot garden party tomorrow afternoon. Yours, Jet Set and Upper Crust!"

Rarity let out a gasp, one which nearly caused her bag boy to drop the load he was carrying on his back, "The Canterlot garden party! Why, next to the Galloping Gala that is the premier event in Canterlot!" The squeal of delight from the fashionista was almost loud enough to break glass. Not since Twilight giving her the ticket to the Gala had she been so excited for a party. As fast as her mood went up, though, it whiplashed back down at the thought of Twilight.

"Oh, but if I go, I'll miss Twilight's birthday..." Rarity lamented. "But if I don't go, my new reputation in Canterlot as a Very Important Pony might be ruined! I might never be invited to another high society event again!" The worried unicorn went back and forth over her options frantically. "Friend's birthday...Very Important Pony..." She winced, pained by the decision she had to make. Neither one was optimal, but she had to make one and obviously couldn't do both. The more she thought about it, the more intangibles came into the equation. Upon further consideration, she figured that Twilight was more likely to forgive her than the Canterlot crew. With a heavy heart, she knew she'd made her decision,

"It's just too important," Rarity said softly. She retrieved a quill and parchment, taking a deep breath as she began to write. "My dear Twilight, I am afraid I won't be able to make it to your birthday party tomorrow, because... because poor Opal is quite ill, and she is in no condition to make the long journey back to Ponyville! I do hope you understand. Your friend, Rarity."

"You're not actually sending that, are you?"

Rarity let out a soft sigh as she heard that familiar voice.

"Please set my bags down," she said to the bag boy. She turned around just as she heard the loud thump of suitcases hitting the ground and gave Sugarcoat a look. "How long have you been here?"

"Long enough to hear you making a stupid mistake," Sugarcoat said. "Though I figure that's bound to happen to anypony who spends more than five minutes around you."

"I'll let that slide, darling," Rarity said coldly. "Now, I'm sure you were going to tell me anyway, but let's hear what you have to say on the matter, hm?"

"I can't believe I have to," Sugarcoat replied. "Though given your track record, I shouldn't be. You're actually ditching one of your best friends' birthday parties to go to some fancy-schmancy party full of prissy ponies?"

"I wouldn't use the term ditching," Rarity said. "And I can't help it! Twilight would forgive me much faster, and a soirée like this is a must for my status! If I cancel on them..."

"What?" Sugarcoat shot back. "What'll happen? You won't get an invite to the next one? What a pity."

"But I have a new reputation as a Very Important Pony here in Canterlot!" Rarity insisted. "And all the Very Important Ponies attend these events!"

"You already were a very important pony," Sugarcoat said. "To your friends." Then she groaned. "Ugh, this place is already making me dangerously corny."

Rarity, however, did not find the words as corny as Sugarcoat did. Her reaction was quite the opposite as she felt tears begin to form.

"...You're right, darling," Rarity said. "You're absolutely right." With that, she crumpled up the letter to Twilight and threw it in the trash.

"Thank you, Sugarcoat," Rarity said, wiping the corner of an eye with a handkerchief. "For showing up just in time to stop me from making a grievous error."

"What can I say?" Sugarcoat replied. "You're good at making mistakes."

"Very funny, darling," Rarity said. "But I'll be watching myself more carefully from now on. No more episodes of freaking out and making bad decisions."

"Yeah," Sugarcoat said. "I have a feeling we won't be seeing another Rarity episode any time soon."
> Secret of My Excess
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Look! The Wonderbolts!"

Rainbow Dash's exclamation was not a strange one for her. She would have been excited to see the Wonderbolts no matter what the situation. This time, though, the Wonderbolts were a very welcome sight for the entire group of friends. Things had really gotten out of control, and anypony who could potentially help calm the situation down was more than welcome.

Twilight Sparkle and her friends had been trying to deal with a new threat that was rampaging through Ponyville. Unlike their previous threats, though, this was one that was very close to their hearts. Spike's greed following his birthday had gotten way out of hoof and caused him to mature rapidly, and now a fully-grown Spike was wreaking havoc in Ponyville, taking anything and everything he could get his claws on. Stopping any rampaging greed-driven dragon would have been tough for the group already, but this was their friend, and as such, excessive force was out of the question. Not that they were likely to employ it otherwise, but to know that it wasn't a viable option at all was a bit frustrating. To make matters worse, they were one pony down, as Spike had ponynapped Rarity. Even if Twilight was able to bring herself to take a magical shot at him, the risk of hitting Rarity was too great.

The Wonderbolts zoomed through the skies, preparing for another strike on the massive dragon that was threatening the town. The three on task had hoped that their two close shaves would have convinced him that they meant business, but all they had served to do was trim some of the scales on his neck. With their two warning shots having been fired, it was time to show him that they meant business. The three moved into a tight divebomb formation, hurtling towards the dragon at full speed. Before their forceful charge could make contact, the dragon whipped out the top of the water tower he'd ripped up. The three Wonderbolts slammed one after another into the cold metal, becoming so dazed that they couldn't even dream of stopping the dragon from slamming the tower against the mountain wall and trapping them.

"And what was that supposed to accomplish, exactly?"

The Wonderbolts turned to look at the source of the voice, although the darkness made it difficult to locate. It wasn't until Blaze's face made contact with a giant pigtail that they found their pony.

"We were trying to stop the dragon!" Surprise said.

"With a haircut?" Sugarcoat asked.

"We thought we'd intimidate him and show him we meant business," High Winds said with a frown.

"This might come as a surprise to you ponies," Sugarcoat said, with a roll of the eyes that couldn't be seen in the darkness. "But dragons are big and you are not. If something small tries to attack something big, the big thing might not necessarily be scared of the small thing. Plus, three small ponies divebombing into a huge dragon probably won't do anything more than annoy him, something you already managed to do with your little barber routine. If angering an already-rampaging dragon is your idea of protecting Equestria, then maybe Princess Celestia should look into funding an actual military instead of sending the local performing troupe into the front lines."

The Wonderbolts were dumbfounded. Nopony had ever talked to them like that before. None of them wanted to admit it, but perhaps their attack plan hadn't exactly been perfect. In fact, it had left quite a bit to be desired. If they were lucky, the divebomb would have stunned the dragon, but if not, they could have been in a lot of trouble. Being trapped in a mountain wall under a water tower was much better than what could have happened. This realization, however, was not enough to break through their pride.

"Uh-huh," Blaze said. "And if you're so smart, why are you trapped here too?"

"Because dragons apparently don't listen to blunt truths when they're in the middle of a greed-induced rage," Sugarcoat responded simply. "So just sit back, shut up, and wait for Twilight and her friends to save us. Maybe we'll luck out and this will be one of their less incompetent days."

The Wonderbolts groaned and sat down. If the reckless manner in which Rarity had acted at the Best Young Flyers Competition was any indication, this was going to take a while.
> Hearth's Warming Eve
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

For what had to be the umpteenth time, the sounds of arguing filled the banquet hall. This was no surprise to anypony involved; with such diverse ponies who held such opposing opinions, arguments were bound to happen. The leaders of the three pony tribes had been bickering back and forth for a while now, and had made no progress at all in their deliberations.

"All I wanna know," demanded Commander Hurricane, ruler of the pegasi. "Is why the Earth ponies are hogging all the food!" The pegasi accompanying her shouted in agreement.

"Us?!" shouted Chancellor Puddinghead, the leader of the earth ponies. "We're not hogging all the food, you are!" She hesitated a moment before continuing. "Oh, wait. You're right. It's us. Well, it's only 'cause you mean old Pegasusususes are making it snow like crazy!"

"For the hundredth time, it's not us!" Hurricane insisted. "We're not making it snow! It must be the unicorns! They're doing it with their freaky magic!"

"How dare you!" shouted Princess Platinum, daughter of the unicorn king. "Unlike you Pegasi ruffians, we unicorns would never stoop to such a thing! Hmph!" This was accompanied by a loud echoed "hmph" from the unicorns in attendance.

"Well, if you non-Earths aren't gonna stop using your weirdo powers to freeze us all, then I'm just plum out of ideas," Puddinghead stated.

"What a shocker," Hurricane scoffed. "An Earth pony with no ideas."

"Commander Hurricane, please cease with the insults!" Platinum demanded.

"You're not the boss of me, your royal snootiness!" Hurricane shot back.

"I beg your pardon?" Platinum exclaimed. "I am a princess! I won't be spoken to that way!"

The room devolved into shouting once more, but said shouting suddenly came to a halt when a new unicorn entered the room.

"I am Sage Sugarcoat," the new arrival said. "And I am here to tell you that you're all acting like idiots!"

The three tribe leaders gasped at the Sage's declaration. Who did this pony think she was, coming in here and speaking to them like this?

"Who do you think you are, coming in here and speaking to us like this?" Platinum insisted.

"I'm a voice of reason," Sugarcoat stated. "Something you're sorely missing in here. You know you're all ponies, right?"

"Uh, duh," Hurricane said. "Pretty sure we all have that down."

"I've been a pony as long as I can remember!" Puddinghead chimed in. Sugarcoat gave her a look, then continued.

"Yeah right," Sugarcoat said. "If you had it all down, then you'd stop arguing over petty nonsense and get along like ponies should."

"But this isn't petty nonsense!" Platinum said. "It's very cold and nopony is taking responsibility for it, and the earth ponies will not share their food appropriately unless it's fixed!" She glared across the table at Hurricane. "And if the pegasi would admit that they're doing this..."

"We're not doing this!" Hurricane shouted. "It's your unicorns!"

"Is not!" Platinum shot back.

"I can yell too!" Puddinghead yelled.

"All of you, shut up!" Sugarcoat bellowed. "You're all acting like idiots, and if any of you would have paid attention to the world around you instead of trying to figure out how to undermine the other tribes, then maybe you would have noticed that it gets colder the more you argue! Have you even heard of windigos?"

The three tribe leaders fell silent, now staring at Sugarcoat. Not a single one seemed to know what she was talking about.

"Ugh," Sugarcoat groaned. "Windigos are winter spirits that feed off fighting and hatred. The more hate the spirit feels, the colder things become! So the more you yell and scream at each other and accuse each other of awful things that they didn't do, the more you doom yourselves and everypony around you! If you're really looking forward to being icicles, then keep doing what you're doing, but personally, I prefer a body temperature higher than absolute zero."

Silence filled the banquet hall. The silence persisted for a good ten seconds before Princess Platinum finally spoke up.

"You are absolutely right, Sage Sugarcoat," Platinum said. "We have all been ridiculous. I would like to apologize to both of you for my words."

"Yeah, me too," Hurricane said. "It was really uncool."

"Me three!" Puddinghead added in. "We're all ponies!"

"And for solving our problem," Platinum said, walking over to Sugarcoat and placing her crown on her head, "You are the new princess of the unicorns!"





"Uhh...Sugarcoat?" Twilight Sparkle said as she and the others looked over the script. "I...uh...well...we appreciate your efforts, but I don't think we can present this version of the play. It's not exactly historically accurate."

"Maybe not," Sugarcoat replied. "But it's better this way. I can't help it if your country's founders were argumentative buffoons."

"Right..." Twilight responded with a small sigh. "Anyway, we're off to Canterlot for the play. Are you coming?"

"No," Sugarcoat said with a frown. "Have fun putting on your silly play." Twilight sighed softly as she stepped onto the train.

"Happy Hearth's Warming, Sugarcoat," Twilight said before the door closed. The train soon took off, but Sugarcoat had already turned her back to it.


~~~~~~~~~~


Sugarcoat sighed softly as she sat on the park bench. This was the first time that she was spending a holiday away from her family, and it wasn't sitting well with her. She had been getting more and more comfortable with being in this strange new world, but that didn't mean that she never missed her home. Discord had done a painfully fantastic job of reminding her of what she was missing a while back, and now all the holiday things around her weren't helping, nor was the fact that her stubbornness had prevented her from spending time with the closest things she had to friends in this world.

"Hey."

Sugarcoat looked up, surprised at the sudden other voice. She was even more surprised to see the large red frame of Big Macintosh standing before her.

"Look kinda lonely," Mac said. "How come ya ain't in Canterlot with yer friends?"

"They're not my friends," Sugarcoat said, looking away. Big Mac rolled his eyes a bit.

"Eeyup," he responded, though he didn't seem like he really believed her. "You got anypony to spend the holiday with?"

"No," Sugarcoat said bitterly.

"Well that won't do," Mac responded. "C'mon. Got plenty to eat down at the farm."

Sugarcoat looked back to Big Mac, a bit taken aback by his offer. She opened her mouth slightly, but no words came out just yet. It only took about two moments for a sarcastic reply to hit her, but it only took one moment for Mac to speak first.

"C'mon now," Mac repeated, reaching forward and taking Sugarcoat's hoof. "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth now. It's the holidays."

Sugarcoat slowly rose to her hooves, looking at the unshorn fetlocks on the hoof that was holding hers. She nodded silently, for once finding herself at a loss for words.
> Family Appreciation Day
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Thanks so much for stopping to listen to my problem, Sugarcoat! I'm sure you'll be able to help!"

Sugarcoat rolled her eyes as she stared at the little yellow filly and her two friends. All she had wanted to do was go about her own business.

"First off, I didn't choose to stop," Sugarcoat said. "You three just surrounded me and wouldn't let me get back to the library."

"Eh, same difference," Apple Bloom responded with a sheepish smirk.

"Uh-huh," Sugarcoat said. "Second, does this have anything to do with your cutie marks?"

"No!" Bloom answered, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo shaking their heads along with her. "Nothing at all!"

"Good," Sugarcoat said. "Alright, you've got a minute before I stop pretending to care. Go on and tell me what the problem is." Bloom took a deep breath, and Sugarcoat began to regret her decision before a word was even said.

"We're having Family Appreciation Day at our school," Bloom began. "And everypony's gotta bring in a family member to tell stories and I wanna bring Applejack or Big Macintosh but they're both busy with the Zap Apple harvest and the only one left is Granny Smith so Miss Cheerilee is making me bring her in but she's super-embarrassing and if I bring her in I'm gonna be the laughing stock of Ponyville and I tried pretending to be sick and picking the Zap Apples early and using Granny Smith like a puppet to tell Miss Cheerilee she couldn't come in but none of it worked and I don't know how to get out of this so I need your help!" She caught her breath, then gave Sugarcoat a sweet smile. "Any ideas?"

The three fillies were shaken by the cold stare that they received from Sugarcoat. They knew that she wasn't always the nicest pony in the world, but to see such a look from her was unlike anything they'd seen from her before. She'd often looked at them with derision–a word none of them knew but somehow understood the sentiment of–but this look trumped any they'd received from her. If her gaze had taken physical form, they would have found themselves in danger of being pierced where they stood.

"U-um...Sugarcoat?" Bloom said, just above a whisper. "...Is everything alright?"

"You're kidding me," Sugarcoat said coldly. The three fillies looked at each other nervously.

"What do you..." Bloom began, but she was swiftly cut off.

"It's called Family Appreciation Day," Sugarcoat said. "Do you realize how lucky you are to have a grandma who loves you and wants to help you out? One who's right there for you whenever you want or need her? Who cares if she's old and says some weird things? She's your grandma and you're lucky to have her, because one day, you're going to want her around and she won't be there anymore. It might not be for a while, but it'll happen, and you'd better appreciate her now while you still can."

A silence swept through the air, cold enough to chill one's spine. The fillies stared at Sugarcoat, slack-jawed. Sugarcoat, however, did not stare back. Her stare was locked intently on the ground.

"...M-maybe you're right..." Bloom said quietly. "She might be weird...but she's my granny, and I love her."

"I kinda wanna talk to my grandma now," Sweetie said softly.

"Same here," Scootaloo agreed. "We'll see ya later, Apple Bloom. Bye Sugarcoat." The two gave quick waves before turning around and heading in separate directions.

Bloom turned to leave, but stopped and looked back at Sugarcoat. Sugarcoat hadn't said a word or even looked back at them since finishing her rant, and now she was also turning to leave, still staring at the ground.

Apple Bloom was a young pony, and there were a lot of things about the world that she didn't fully understand yet. That didn't mean that she was completely naive, however, and she knew that look from Sugarcoat when she saw it. Before Sugarcoat knew it, she had a small filly hugging her tightly.

"Thanks, Sugarcoat," Bloom said quietly. "I don't know what you're going through, but I'll help you too if you need it, alright?"

Sugarcoat looked down at the filly. Her first instinct was to roll her eyes, but she suppressed it. After a few moments, she relented and patted the filly on the back.

"Thanks," Sugarcoat said. "Just don't ask me to help with your butt again."
> Baby Cakes
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Oh! Thank goodness they're home!"

The sound of the doorbell was the most wonderful thing that Pinkie Pie could have possibly heard. She had been tasked with foalsitting the Cakes' one month old twins, and while she loved Pound and Pumpkin dearly, watching them all by her lonesome was a lot harder than she had expected. Nothing that she had done, save for dumping flour on herself, had managed to calm the foals down. Even changing their diapers had proven to be a major issue. She had no idea exactly how she had ended up in a diaper as well, but that was all in the past now that the Cakes were home. Not even caring about the diaper around her flanks nor the one on her head, she rushed to the door and threw it open.

"Hi!" Twilight Sparkle said cheerfully. "I finished up the work I had to do, so I thought I'd stop by and see if you needed any help. Whoa!" Twilight didn't normally make a habit of shouting "whoa" at the end of sentences, but she felt it appropriate this time as Pinkie yanked her into the house.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you for coming!" Pinkie exclaimed, shaking the foal garment from her hips. "I can't begin to tell you what my day has been like! I mean, these babies just won't listen to reason, and don't even get me started on their taste in stand-up comedy."

"It's okay, Pinkie," Twilight reassured her. "I figured you would need some help. That's why I stopped by." Twilight smiled warmly, but the gesture was not returned by her friend.

"Ex-cuse me?" Pinkie demanded, but Twilight remained undaunted.

"Babies take a lot of work, and some ponies are just not cut out to handle the responsibility," Twilight said simply, lighting her horn up and tidying up some toys that had been left out. Pinkie couldn't believe her ears. Did Twilight seriously think that little of her level of responsibility? This would not stand.

"Is that so?" Pinkie responded. Before Twilight knew what was going on, she was being pushed out the front door.

"Well, thanks for stopping by, Twilight," Pinkie said, giving her rump one more little push. "Sorry, I don't have time to visit. I'm very very busy with my responsibilities here."

"I'm happy to help!" Twilight offered. "It's no trouble–" Before she could finish her sentence, the door was closed in her face.

"Well of all the..." Pinkie grumbled once the door was closed. "She thinks I can't handle things on my own?"

"She's right," a voice spoke out.

Pinkie whirled around to look for the source of the voice. As expected, she found Sugarcoat standing at the counter.

"When did you get here?" Pinkie asked.

"Little while ago," Sugarcoat said. "A bit before Twilight came here and was completely oblivious to what she was saying to you. I'd have been proud of her if she was at all conscious of it."

"But she was..." Pinkie started.

"But nothing," Sugarcoat interrupted. "Come on, seriously? How are you at all fit to watch children? Taking care of kids is more than playing with them. You have to actually be responsible and take care of their needs, and you clearly don't understand what it is to be responsible."

"B-but I..." Pinkie tried to speak again.

"I'm surprised the Cakes didn't hire somepony to foalsit you," Sugarcoat continued. "I mean, you're about as responsible as their twins are. I understand that the Cakes only picked you as a last resort, but maybe they should have tried a bit harder. With all the ponies in this town, there were about a hundred better choices than you. But hey, you're the one who they chose, so maybe you could learn how to actually take care of foals instead of just being zany and silly at them and thinking that'll fix everything."

On another day, in another situation, Pinkie might have taken Sugarcoat's words differently. While she might have still been hurt by them, she would have likely found a way to respond to Sugarcoat like she and her friends often did, to tell her that she was right in her own blunt manner. However, the stress she'd gone through today was simply too much, and Sugarcoat's tirade seemed to be the straw that broke the camel's back. Pinkie's lower lip began to tremble, her eyes beginning to brim with tears.

"...Hey, wait..." Sugarcoat said quietly, taking a step back. "No, hold on. You'd better not cry..." It was too late, however. The floodgates opened, and Pinkie began to sob. Loud wails filled the room, causing Sugarcoat's ears to fold back.

"Come on Pinkie...don't do this..." Sugarcoat said, nudging her with a hoof. Pinkie, however, was inconsolable. A strange feeling fell over Sugarcoat; one of remorse and regret. She let out a heavy sigh. She had a mess to clean up.


~~~~~~~~~~


"Pinkie Pie! We're back!"

Mr. Cake entered the house first, followed closely by Mrs. Cake. The two had just finished up a long day, and they were looking forward to seeing their children again. They had been a bit trepidatious about leaving the twins in the care of Pinkie Pie, but in the end, they'd really had no choice. Of their close, trusted friends, Pinkie was pretty much the only available one. Things couldn't have gone too terribly...

"How did everything go?" Mrs. Cake called out. Then the two of them gasped, stopping in their tracks. Knowing Pinkie Pie, some manner of mess was to be expected, but the place seemed utterly spotless.

"Are we in the right place?" Mr. Cake asked his wife as the two headed upstairs towards the foals' room. Just before they could open the door to their room, it floated open.

"Shh," Sugarcoat said. "I just got them to sleep."

The Cakes looked at Sugarcoat, quite confused, before looking past her. The lights were shut in the foals' room. Both Pound and Pumpkin were fast asleep in Pound's crib. Across the room, tucked into Pumpkin's crib, was a sleeping Pinkie Pie.

"Wh...what's going on here?" Mrs. Cake asked, clearly baffled.

"She got worn out," Sugarcoat said. "She'll be fine next time. Maybe." Then she walked past the two, glancing back for just a moment. "Just check her in an hour. She might need a change."
> The Last Roundup
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rainbow Dash wasn't usually the type of pony to clean messes up. More often than not, she preferred the making of messes to the fixing of them. That was on a small scale, though. Minor crashes made minor messes, but when there were major damages to fix, she didn't mind lending a hoof when and where she could–as long as it didn't interfere with training or naptime. So when she heard that the town hall needed some sprucing up, she was happy to do what she could to help. Her partner, however, was proving to be a bit more of a detriment than an aid.

Muffins was a wonderful pony. Rainbow and the others valued her friendship dearly, but she had a great tendency to be clumsy. Her clumsiness was so prevalent that she had earned the affectionate nickname of "Derpy" from her pegasus friends. Today was no different for her, as she'd nearly caused more damage to town hall then she'd helped to fix.

"Huh?" Rainbow exclaimed as she narrowly avoided a sudden lightning bolt. "Now, careful, Derpy!" She zoomed over to her friend, who was bouncing on a nearby cloud as if she didn't have a care in the world. As much as Rainbow liked her, she couldn't deny that Derpy needed to focus just a bit more.

"Don't want to do any more damage than you've already done," Rainbow said, motioning to the town hall as a piece of the roof collapsed.

"I just don't know what went wrong!" Derpy responded, continuing to bounce until she received a shock from the cloud.

"Yeah," Rainbow said with a roll of the eyes. "It's a mystery."

Meanwhile, two ponies watched the goings-on from the ground. One, a unicorn mare named Tamino, was looking on with particular disdain. The other, an earth pony stallion named Strawman, didn't seem to share that sentiment.

"That's unbelievable," Tamino said, frowning in the direction of the pegasi.

"What's unbelievable?" Strawman asked.

"The way Rainbow Dash is making fun of poor Muffins!" Tamino answered. "Just listen to the name she's calling her! 'Derpy?' That's horribly offensive! The derogatory meanings behind that nickname are terrible, and I've never been more offended in my whole life! Somepony should stop her!" Strawman opened his mouth to respond, but was interrupted by the arrival of a third pony.

"Why should she be stopped?" Sugarcoat asked.

"Because it's offensive!" Tamino insisted.

"I don't think it's offensive," Sugarcoat replied simply.

"Well I do!" Tamino shot back.

"That's your problem then," Sugarcoat told her. "Just because you find something offensive doesn't mean everypony does."

"Well everypony should!" Tamino shouted. "Rainbow Dash is calling her hurtful names!"

Sugarcoat rolled her eyes and looked up towards the pegasi. Judging by the large smile on Muffins's face as she cheered Rainbow on, she couldn't be happier.

"Does that look like the face of somepony whose feelings are being hurt?" Sugarcoat asked. Tamino looked up as well, frowning a bit as she observed the pegasus's grin.

"Well...she probably doesn't realize how hurtful Rainbow Dash is being!" Tamino insisted. "Because..."

"Because what?" Sugarcoat asked. "Do you think there's some reason that she wouldn't be able to understand things as well as you think you're capable of?"

"W-well..." Tamino stammered. "It's...because she's..."

"Ohh," Sugarcoat said. "I see now. You think there's something wrong with her, so you're projecting that image onto her, judging others for how they react to your idea of her, and getting offended over it. So in essence, the only pony that's truly being offensive in this situation is you."

Tamino coughed and sputtered as her arguments were handily shut down. She tried desperately to come up with a comeback, but found nothing.

"Hah! Way to show her!" Strawman said, laughing heartily. "That would have been horrible if we couldn't call her Derpy! It would have been the worst thing in the world!"

"Why?" Sugarcoat asked, now turning her attention to the stallion.

"Because it just would have been!" Strawman replied. "I like that name for her, and if that name had to be changed, I don't think I'd be able to watch her or the rest of the town hall fixing team the same way ever again!"

"That's stupid," Sugarcoat said. "No matter what name you call her, she's still the same pony, and the team she's on is still the same team. If you stopped watching something you enjoy just because a name had to be changed, then you're just as dumb as this mare here."

Now it was Strawman's turn to be at a loss for words. He shook his head out, looking quite upset.

"But...I thought you were on my side!" Strawman whined.

"Nope," Sugarcoat replied. "I'm on the side of calling ponies out for being stupid, and that's why I'm glad I found you two." She then left without another word, leaving the two ponies stunned.
> The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Congratulations to y'all. The cider business in Ponyville is yours. C'mon, Apples. Let's go pack up our things."

Throughout the entire cider competition between the Apples and the Flim Flam Brothers, the ponies of Ponyville had been cheering for whoever happened to win. Their top concern had been getting the most cider they could, with no regard for who the winner would even be. Now that it looked like Applejack and her family would have to leave town, though, everything had changed. Save for Flim and Flam, there wasn't a dry eye in the field as the Apples prepared for their exile from their home.

"Fear not, everypony," Flim said, either completely oblivious to the reason behind the town's sadness or choosing to ignore it. "There's more than enough cider to go around." Flim and Flam began to laugh cruelly as the townsponies stood in silence.

"Go ahead everypony," the selfless Applejack said, looking away from the bunch to hide her tears. "Go on, y'all. It's okay." The silence was broken by a loudly-sobbing Pinkie Pie as Rainbow Dash attempted to comfort her. Unsurprisingly, Flim and Flam were unfazed by the sad scene. All that mattered to them was their sales, and with the elimination of their only competition, they would be rolling in bits before they knew it. The dastardly duo was quick to set their stand up, passing out mugs of cider to the ponies of Ponyville. The ponies looked at the offerings, finally noticing the chunks of tree and other debris that had ended up in the cider due to the brothers' hasty performance.

"Drink up, Ponyville!" Flam encouraged, grinning haughtily. "Down the hatch!" The three front most ponies eyed their ciders cautiously before picking their mugs up and drinking their contents. It only took a moment before all three spit their cider all over the shocked brothers' faces.

"I can't get the taste off my tongue!" Cherry Berry cried.

"Mine's got rocks in it!" Bon Bon moaned.

"I wouldn't pay one cent for this dreck!" Comet Tail shouted. Flim and Flam looked at each other in a mild panic.

"You wouldn't pay even one cent?" Flam asked. He knew the answer already, but hoped beyond hope that asking would somehow change it.

"No!" the crowd shouted in unison. The brothers mumbled to each other, trying to regroup and save themselves.

"How about two cups for one cent?" Flam asked nervously.

"No!" the crowd shouted again. The two conferenced another time before turning back to the crowd.

"Two bits for a barrel?" the brothers meekly offered.

"NO!" the crowd screamed back.

Applejack, meanwhile, was watching all of this with grim satisfaction. It wasn't like her to take pleasure in the suffering of others, but this was a different case. Those two had coerced her family into taking a bet that seemed completely unwinnable. Even the combined effort of her family and her five best friends couldn't produce as many barrels of cider as the Flim Flam brothers' machine had. Thankfully, their expedience was their downfall. If they had left the quality control on, they would have been outperformed by the Apples' efforts. Without it, they'd produced more barrels, but their product was unsellable. They had tried to run Applejack's family out of town, and seeing them dejected and about to leave themselves wasn't exactly something that she objected to.

"So you're just gonna stand here and let that mob throw them out like that? Some friend you are."

Applejack whirled around to face Sugarcoat. She wasn't sure if it was physically possible to glare any harder than she was right now.

"They ain't no friends of mine!" Applejack insisted.

"And they never will be if you treat them like this," Sugarcoat stated plainly.

Applejack was incensed, to say the least. After everything she'd just been put through, Sugarcoat had some nerve talking to her like that.

"Are you seriously taking their side?!" Applejack snorted.

"Oh, no way," Sugarcoat responded. "They were huge jerks. But if you don't go forgive them, you'll be a jerk too."

"Are you out of your consarned mind?" Applejack exclaimed. "I ain't got no reason to forgive them!"

"Except to be the bigger pony," Sugarcoat said. "Heck, maybe you could even be nice enough to cut them a deal."

"Cut them a deal?!" Applejack shouted back. "Did you even see what they tried to do? Ain't no way I can forgive them for that, let alone cut a deal! It's unforgivable!" She huffed, glaring daggers at Sugarcoat. Sugarcoat, though, was unfazed.

"I guess you're right," Sugarcoat responded. "I mean, it's not like they did something totally forgivable like trying to plunge the world into eternal night."

If Applejack's previous glare was hard enough to break stone, this one could cleave a diamond.

"Th-that was completely different!" Applejack said, although she found herself faltering.

"Yeah, it was," Sugarcoat agreed. "That was a jerk trying to doom your entire world and this is two idiots trying to make money at your expense. And you forgave the potential world-ruiner, but you can't forgive the overenthusiastic entrepreneurs? There's something seriously wrong with your morality."

Applejack sputtered, finding herself at a total loss. Try as she might, she couldn't find a response for that. Sure, it was a slightly different situation. Princess Luna wasn't exactly herself when she did what she did. The fact remained, though, that they were all willing and ready to forgive her for nearly causing a world-ending scenario.

"Besides," Sugarcoat continued. "If you strike a deal with them, you'll be able to get more work done faster. And since you've got the upper hoof, you can really get one over on them and make a lopsided deal." Visions of extra bits danced in Applejack's head, but she was able to ignore them with some effort.

"Nope," Applejack said simply. "If we're gonna make any kind of deal, it'll be a fair one. I ain't the type to cheat nopony." With that, she turned sharply towards the brothers. Sugarcoat rolled her eyes a bit before following the farmer.





"Hey Flim! Hey Flam!"

The two brothers were just about to abscond when they heard Applejack calling their names. The two gulped as they turned to face her, nervous about whatever she had in mind for them. They could tell that she was no pushover, and they weren't much for fighting. Flim found himself suddenly being pushed out ahead by his brother. He gave Flam a little glare, then turned to Applejack once more.

"Yes, Miss Applejack?" Flim asked. "I hope you're not here to gloat over your victory." Then he let out a small yelp as his brother elbowed him in the side.

"Yes, we do hope that!" Flam whispered. "It's better than dealing with her physically!"

"Oh, calm down, you two," Applejack said. "I ain't here to gloat. Detestable as your behavior was, I'm here to forgive you for it."

"Forgive us?" Flim and Flam said simultaneously.

"Eeyup," Applejack said. "Figure I'll be the bigger pony here. And seeing as we've got the apples you need and you've got the machine to help us make our cider faster, what do you say we make a deal? You make what we can't get done fast enough, and we'll split the profits, 65-35 in our favor. You can't do it without our apples and we can work without your machine, so I figure that's fair. Deal?"

Flim and Flam stared at each other. They certainly hadn't expected even the slightest bit of friendliness, let alone an offer for a deal. The two considered their options for a few moments before identical diabolical grins crossed their faces. If Applejack could come back from almost being forcibly evicted and try to make a deal with them, then she clearly was a pushover, too friendly and kind to avoid being walked all over. Flim smiled mane openly at the farmer.

"How generous of you, Miss Applejack!" Flim hissed. "But the way I see it, you'd never be able to get this level of work done this quickly without our technology."

"Our modern marvels make your olden ideals obsolete!" Flam added, coiling around to Applejack's other side.

"So we'll take that deal of yours," Flim said with a grin. "But I can't help but think we deserve the 65. What say you, dear brother?"

"Oh, I must concur, brother of mine!" Flam agreed.

"What say you, Miss Applejack?" Flim asked. "Will you be the bigger pony?"

Applejack turned to Sugarcoat, who wore an expression of disgust.

"Let's take care of them," Sugarcoat said.

Children would go on to insist for months afterwards that they had seen two skinny unicorns fly through the air that day, followed closely by what could only be described as a giant mechanical monstrosity. Ponies would refute that claim, but only those who were there could say for sure.

"You know, you're not that bad, Sugarcoat," Applejack said with a grin as the two began heading back towards the farmhouse.

"Yeah, you're right," Sugarcoat agreed.
> Read It and Weep
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ten minutes.

In the grand scheme of things, ten minutes wasn't very long at all. Many things could be accomplished in ten minutes. A small lunch could be made and eaten. Rainbow Dash could clear the sky of clouds roughly 60 times, give or take a few seconds. Twilight Sparkle could finish about one third of a typical speech.

These ten minutes, though, we're not one's typical ten minutes. These were the most insane, unbelievable ten minutes Rainbow had ever experienced, and the reasons for such a designation were twofold.

On one hoof, she had just spent said ten minutes reading what might have been the most excitingly amazing book in the entire world.

On the other, she had just spent said ten minutes reading. A book.

Rainbow couldn't believe that she'd succumbed to such a terrible temptation. Or rather, most of her couldn't. A small part of her wasn't surprised in the least. Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone was the most exciting book she'd ever heard of. It was filled with action and adventure, headed by a super-cool hero who Rainbow could totally relate to. Daring Do was fearless, athletic, and even suffered from a wing injury just like the one that was keeping Rainbow grounded and in the hospital. But she didn't let that stop her from traversing the jungle, running from vicious jungle cats, and swinging over a ravine on a vine. Nothing would get in Daring's way as she went to retrieve the Sapphire Stone, and Rainbow surmised that Daring was nearly as cool as she was. Just like Twilight had said, she was adventurous, fierce, and undeniably, unquestionably unstoppable.

"I hate to admit it to myself," Rainbow mused as she set the book down. "And would really hate to admit it to my friends, but...I love this story!" She took it a step further. "I, I... I love reading!"

Then, in the manner of a scant few seconds, her entire world came crashing down.

"I'm an egghead."

Rainbow felt her heart sink. She was way too awesome to be an egghead...but the proof was right there. She'd just admitted it, plain as day. She loved reading. If there was one thing that defined an egghead, it was a love for reading, and she had just literally used those very words. Her fate was sealed. Rainbow sighed a heavy sigh as she thought about all the athletic endeavors she'd have to abandon, all the trophies she'd have to trash, all the health food she'd have to throw out. Eggheads didn't compete in physical competitions and keep in top condition. They stayed at home, read books, and got themselves a small, yet cute paunch to their bellies like Twilight had. Such was the life of an egghead, the life she'd have to get used to.

"Are you kidding me?"

Rainbow sat up, not having expected another visitor. She rolled her eyes slightly as she watched Sugarcoat walk into the room. She hadn't wanted anypony to see her reading a book, but she had been caught by surprise and had no time to hide it. Besides, based on what Sugarcoat had said, she'd clearly heard her. She groaned and let it be.

"Hey Sugarcoat," Rainbow said. "And no, I'm not kidding. I read a book and I liked it. I'm an egghead."

"You think you're an egghead just because you liked a book?" Sugarcoat asked, rolling her eyes. "Thinking that actually proves that you're too dumb to be an egghead."

"You know, part of me actually takes that as a compliment," Rainbow said, crossing her forelegs. "But there's no two ways around it. I'm an egghead now."

"Who invented the hot air balloon?" Sugarcoat asked.

"What?" Rainbow asked, caught offguard. "Uhh...I have no idea."

"What's 254 times 119?" Sugarcoat asked.

"I don't know!" Rainbow shouted. "What am I, a calculator?"

"You're not an egghead," Sugarcoat said simply. "An egghead would have gotten those answers immediately."

"W-well..." Rainbow stammered. "...But I like reading!"

"Okay," Sugarcoat said with a roll of her eyes. "So I guess Twilight's an athlete, huh?"

"What?" Rainbow said, tilting her head. "No way! Twilight's no athlete."

"But she ran with you in the Running of the Leaves and liked it," Sugarcoat stated.

"So?" Rainbow shouted. "Just because she did one athletic thing doesn't mean she's a..."

Rainbow stopped in her tracks. She looked to Sugarcoat, slack-jawed, and Sugarcoat gave her a pointed look.

"So you're not an egghead," Sugarcoat said. "Read as much as you like. You're still just as much a dummy as you want yourself to be." Rainbow sighed a slightly annoyed sigh, but as much as she disliked the insult, she was glad to be given solace that she could continue enjoying this book without being designated as an egghead.

"Gee, thanks," Rainbow said. She picked the book up and focused her attention back on it, when she suddenly felt something land by her hind hooves. She set the book down again to look, and was surprised to see a small box of chocolates.

"Where did these come from?" Rainbow asked. She picked the box up, inspecting it. The words "Get Well Soon" were written on the top in glitter. She looked to Sugarcoat in surprise. "Did you give this to me? I thought we weren't friends."

"Just because you're not my friend doesn't mean I'm heartless," Sugarcoat said. "Thanks for assuming that though." Then she turned around and left without another word.
> Hearts and Hooves Day
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo were three very busy little fillies.

It had only been mere minutes since the three had gotten out of school, and their plates were already full. They had learned in school that their beloved teacher, Miss Cheerilee, was without a special somepony, and they refused to let that stand, especially on Hearts and Hooves Day. Their determination to find the perfect stallion for her had led them all over town. Each stallion they had run into had some manner of imperfection, and that was unacceptable when it came to finding the right stallion for Miss Cheerilee. With how great she was, she deserved nothing less than perfection in a special somepony. Thus far, though, their search had proven fruitless, even with the employment of a catchy little song on the subject.

"I don't think that we're mistaken," Bloom sang, looking a bit disappointed. "It seems all the good ones are taken." The three leapt towards a stack of hay bales, hopping their way up the structure.

"I really feel that at this rate, we'll never find the perfect date," Sweetie sang as they closed in on the top of the stack.

"Don't wanna quit and give up hope!" the three fillies sang together as they reached the top of the stack. Scootaloo then noticed a stallion out of the corner of her eye. The color scheme was immediately recognizable; it was Bloom's big brother, Big Macintosh. She smirked to herself. He was definitely worth asking.

"Doing anything special for Hearts and Hoo-" Scootaloo started. Then she stopped abruptly. The other two looked over to see what was the matter and quickly found themselves speechless as well. There behind the stack of hay bales was Big Macintosh, but he wasn't alone. Wrapped in his forelegs was a powder-blue unicorn mare, engaged in a rather deep kiss.

None of the fillies knew what to say. Bloom attempted to speak, but all that came out was a squeak. The squeak was still enough to call the attention of Sugarcoat, who pulled away from the kiss long enough to glare at them.

"This one's taken," Sugarcoat said simply.

"Eeyup," Big Mac agreed.
> A Friend in Deed
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I just can't believe it. Cranky said he would never forever be my friend. It was awful."

Pinkie Pie looked absolutely defeated. She had never ever ever encountered somepony in Ponyville who had so decisively rejected her attempt to kindle a friendship. Well, except Gilda, but that was a special case. She was only there for a visit, while Cranky Doodle Donkey seemed to be here to stay. If he was staying in Ponyville, then she'd see him around a bunch, and if she saw him around a bunch then she wanted to be able to smile and greet him and maybe even hug him if the occasion called for it. None of that would be welcome if they weren't friends. Especially not the hugging part. That kind of thing could result in restraining orders, and those were Pinkie's least favorite kind of orders by a wide margin.

"I know this is hard for you, Pinkie, seeing that you're friends with everypony," Twilight Sparkle said. "But you just have to accept that Cranky is gonna be an exception. He just... doesn't want to be bothered." Twilight looked with pity at the poor dejected pink pony. She remembered all too well how upset Pinkie had been when she thought her best friends didn't want to be her friends anymore. She could at least take some solace in the fact that she was taking this far better, but that didn't make her feel any less bad for her.

"Yeah, he doesn't want to be bothered by your over-the-top super-hyper antics," Rainbow Dash said casually, barely even looking up from her Daring Do book.

"Rainbow!" Twilight exclaimed.

"Oh come on, Twilight," Rainbow said with a roll of her eyes. "You never ready like that when Sugarcoat says things like that! Why is that, exactly?"

Twilight blushed profusely in response to the question. Thankfully, she found herself not having to respond.

"No, no, it's okay, Twilight," Pinkie said softly. "I get what you're saying. What you're both saying. And I guess...I can leave Cranky alone."

Twilight nodded with a proud smile on her face. Pinkie was a smart pony, but sometimes her unique perspective on life made it hard for her to learn from her mistakes and see the obvious solutions to her problems right in front of her face. Seeing her come to the correct conclusion filled Twilight's heart with joy.

"...Right after he accepts my apology!" Pinkie said resolutely. Twilight's face fell into her open book.

"Stop it."

Pinkie raised a brow as she turned to watch Sugarcoat walk down the stairs. She had nearly forgotten that Sugarcoat was staying at the library for the time being.

"Sugarcoat!" Pinkie said. "I'd nearly forgotten that you were staying at the library for the time being!"

"Makes sense," Sugarcoat responded. "You're pretty scatterbrained."

"My brain's too peppy to stay in one place!" Pinkie said with a smile.

"Right..." Sugarcoat said, shaking her head. "Anyway, back to what I was saying. Stop it."

"Stop what?" Pinkie asked. Her head tilted to one side as she tried to think of just what Sugarcoat might have been referring to.

"Everything you're doing," Sugarcoat said plainly. Pinkie raised a brow, staring at Sugarcoat. Sugarcoat looked a bit confused at the intense stare Pinkie was giving her. It was unlike any look she'd ever gotten from Pinkie before. It was only when Pinkie began to turn red and her eyes began to water that she understood.

"You can breathe and blink, Pinkie," Sugarcoat said with a groan. The relieved pink pony quickly squeezed her eyes shut and took a deep breath. Sugarcoat looked to Twilight, who gave her a sympathetic shrug.

"Anyway..." Sugarcoat continued. "This guy clearly doesn't want to be your friend. So instead of bugging the hay out of him, you should back off and give up."

"But I don't wanna give up!" Pinkie whined. "There's still a chance I can..."

"It must be nice living in a fantasy world like you," Sugarcoat said, turning away from Pinkie. "Not everything has a happy ending, and you need to learn that sometime. Might as well be now."

Sugarcoat fixed her mane with a hoof, then looked back at Pinkie. The poor pink pony looked like her world had been shattered, tears threatening to pour at any moment. Sugarcoat was taken aback by that reaction, and even more so when she caught the glares that Twilight and Rainbow were giving her. She let out a long sigh, then moved forward and hugged Pinkie.

"Don't cry," Sugarcoat said. "Maybe...maybe he just needs some time off from dealing with you."

"I know I do sometimes," Rainbow said, eliciting another glare from Twilight.

"I like your style," Sugarcoat said to Rainbow, before turning her attention back to Pinkie. "Give him a few days, then try again, okay?" She looked back in the direction of the others. Something about seeing the approving smile on Twilight's face felt good.

"But I can't leave him without any friends for a few days!" Pinkie lamented. "Nopony should live like that, even if they're not a pony at all! What should I do?"

"Ugh..." Sugarcoat groaned. "I don't know...I saw another donkey in town before. Why don't you introduce them or something?"
> Putting Your Hoof Down
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pinkie Pie and Rarity watched Fluttershy get pushed around in the marketplace with increasing worry, then decided to step in and help their friend.

"Fluttershy," Rarity said after a succession of rude ponies cut in line ahead of Fluttershy at the asparagus stand, "you mustn't let them treat you that way."

"Oh, it's...it's really no big deal," Fluttershy said meekly.

"It's bigger than big!" Pinkie exclaimed. "It's double big! You are a pony with a problem."

"What problem?" Fluttershy asked. Pinkie Pie and Rarity exchanged a glance; Pinkie turned Fluttershy to face the asparagus stand, then pushed ahead of her in line with enough force to send Fluttershy spinning to the ground. "Oh...go right ahead, Pinkie Pie. You first."

"Right there! That's the problem," Pinkie said, leaning down and poking Fluttershy in the forehead for emphasis.

"You've got to stop being such a doormat," Rarity added.

"A doormat?" Fluttershy asked, drawing back in disbelief.

"Yes, a doormat," Sugarcoat said as she left one of the other vegetable stalls. A black marker pen floated out of Sugarcoat's saddlebag. She uncapped it and wrote 'WELCOME' on Fluttershy's forehead.

"Err...yes...I believe that's pushing the metaphor a bit far," Rarity said.

Pinkie started giggling. "It's...I shouldn't be laughing because that was really mean, but...heehee..."

Fluttershy crossed her eyes, trying to look up at the graffiti. Her ears drooped. "That bad, huh?"

"You just let me write 'welcome' on your face," Sugarcoat said. "You tell me."

"Oh..." Fluttershy looked down, rubbing the back of one hoof with the other.

While they were talking, Gizmo bought the last asparagus. They all watched him trot away. "Watch and learn," Rarity said.

Sugarcoat, Fluttershy, and Pinkie watched Rarity charm Gizmo out of the asparagus. Then, they walked over to the tomato stand, where Pinkie used her Pinkieness to cartoonishly con Roma into selling two bits' worth of tomatoes for a single bit. All the while, Sugarcoat watched with an amused smirk. While there were certainly things she wanted to say about their methods, for once it was just too much fun watching them to interfere.

Then Fluttershy tried to use what her friends had shown her on Crafty Crate at the cherry stand. Sugarcoat's smirk faded into a thin frown as, between Fluttershy's admission of desperation, Crafty Crate's attempt to take advantage of her, and Fluttershy's utter failure to be Rarity or Pinkie Pie, she somehow managed to drive the price for a single cherry up to twenty bits.

Finally, Sugarcoat couldn't take any more. She stepped up to the cherry stand. "I'll give you two bits for the cherry."

"Sold!" Crafty Crate said, eagerly scooping up the two coins Sugarcoat floated out of her saddlebags. Sugarcoat picked up the cherry in her magic, then hovered it over to Fluttershy. "Tough break, kid," Crafty Crate said to Fluttershy. "Next time, don't be such a doormat."

"Here, I'll sell it to you for two bits."

Fluttershy blinked. "Oh. Umm...okay. Thank you!" She fished two bits out of her bag and exchanged them for the cherry.

"HEY!" Crafty Crate shouted. "You can't do that!"

Sugarcoat turned and gave him a stern glare. "I just bought this cherry from you fairly and legally," she said. "It's my cherry now, and I can do whatever I want with it, including sell it to another pony for the same price I paid. And just for your information, everypony who watched you try to scam Fluttershy today is going to talk about what a terrible pony you are. Good luck making a profit in Ponyville ever again." She then turned to Fluttershy. "And you. Seriously. You need to stop being such a doormat." With that, she walked over to a stand selling oranges, bought three, and headed off.


* * * * *


The next day, Sugarcoat happened upon a bizarre scene. For whatever reason, Cherry Berry and Bon Bon were blocking the creek bridge with two huge wagons full of garbage while they stood around chatting. Behind them, Fluttershy looked like she was about to blow a fuse.

"A-hem," Fluttershy said. "Can you move? You're blocking my path."

"Yeah yeah, in a minute!" Cherry Berry snapped. Turning back to Bon Bon, she said, "So the donkey says to the mule..."

"When somepony tries to block, show them that you rock!" Fluttershy growled, bracing herself to buck the garbage carts.

"You could just fly over them," Sugarcoat said.

Fluttershy wheeled angrily on her. "What did you say?" she snarled.

Sugarcoat remained unimpressed by her ire. "You're a pegasus. You have wings. You're not pulling a wagon. They're not blocking your path at all. Just fly over them."

Fluttershy blinked, then calmed down. "Oh. Right." Shaking her head, she took wing and flew over the two mares yammering on the bridge.

Sugarcoat walked up behind the two carts and cleared her throat. "Excuse me," she said. "You're blocking the bridge. Other ponies can't get around you. You should really get your carts off the bridge and move someplace out of the way if you want to keep chatting."

"Gosh, what is WITH all these rude ponies today?" Cherry Berry complained.

"You're the one being rude," Sugarcoat said. "Take a look around you. Think about how you'd feel if you were trying to get across this bridge and two ponies with huge garbage carts were just standing on the bridge talking and blocking the path."

"Umm...she's kinda got a point," Bon Bon said. "Sorry." With that, the two mares hauled their carts off the bridge and over to the side to continue their conversation, and Sugarcoat crossed the bridge.


* * * * *


By the following morning, Sugarcoat had heard of Fluttershy's bizarre rage-fueled rampages around Ponyville. She ran into Rarity and Pinkie Pie in the town square. "Oh, good morning, Sugarcoat!" Rarity said. "Would you please come with us to try to talk some sense into Fluttershy?"

"Yeah, she's kinda let this whole assertiveness thing get the best of her," Pinkie said. "We think she might have gone overboard."

Sugarcoat frowned thoughtfully. "Normally, I don't really care what you and your friends get up to," she said. "On the other hoof, I probably helped cause this problem, so..."

When the trio arrived at the edge of Ponyville, they witnessed Fluttershy assaulting an innocent tourist. They exchanged glances, then confronted her about it. Unfortunately, Fluttershy was less than willing to listen to reason, and delivered a scorching rant which reduced Pinkie Pie and Rarity to tears.

"And YOU!" Fluttershy shouted, rounding on Sugarcoat as Pinkie and Rarity ran away crying. "All you ever do is follow other ponies around criticizing them! Do you even have a life? You're always saying we're not your friends, so why don't you butt out of our lives and live your own for once!"

Sugarcoat stared up at her. Her composure held...for almost thirty seconds.

"You're right," she said. "I don't belong here. I'm just...I'm just trying to cope the only way I know how." She frowned. "And yes, I criticize ponies, but in case you haven't noticed, ponies do stupid things and somepony needs to point it out to them." She narrowed her eyes. "Kind of like how you're doing something stupid right now, acting this way to your friends. You just ran two of your best friends off in tears. Is that really who you want to be?"

Fluttershy blinked, then glanced back the way her friends had run. "I...I..."

"You can be assertive without being a bullying jerk," Sugarcoat said. "Just tone it down a bit."

Fluttershy sighed. "I...I should just go home and—"

"No," Sugarcoat said. "You should go apologize to your friends. And that tourist you just attacked, if you can find him."

Fluttershy nodded. "You're right." She sagged in midair. "Will you go with me?"

"No," Sugarcoat said. "I have my own things to do today." She trotted off into Ponyville alone.

Nopony noticed the few tears that trickled down her cheeks.


* * * * *


As Iron Will and his goats were leaving Ponyville, they encountered Sugarcoat standing in the middle of the road, a deep frown on her face.

Iron Will snorted and flexed his pecs. "Do you have something you wanna say to Iron Will?" he rumbled.

"Actually, I do," Sugarcoat said. "You're full of bull—"
> It's About Time
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Twilight, you've got to listen to me!"

Calling her own name so desperately felt very strange to Twilight Sparkle. After everything she had been through in the past week, though–up to and including the previously unheard of notion of traveling through time–calling her own name out and expecting an answer was rather low on her personal list of wacky occurrences. Hearing herself respond, though, was likely to land just a bit higher.

"Nope."

Nope? That certainly wasn't the kind of answer Twilight was expecting from herself. Sure, there was likely to be a modicum of disbelief, but such a dismissive answer to this kind of phenomenon was not like her. The eye that wasn't currently covered by an eyepatch, still a bit blurry from the wild whirling effects of the time travel spell, widened in surprise at this egregious response.

"What do you mean, nope?" Twilight demanded of herself.

"I mean I'm not Twilight," the voice responded. "You are. I'd rank this as one of the more ridiculous things I've ever heard you say. Also, you could really stand to take better care of your mane and your clothes."

Twilight repressed the urge to groan as she recognized Sugarcoat's voice. Not that she minded seeing Sugarcoat; by this point it was quite the opposite. With how urgent this mission was and how limited her time was, though, it wasn't an optimal situation.

"Sugarcoat!" Twilight shouted as her vision adjusted itself. "I don't have time for this. I'm from the future and I only have a limited time to give you this very important message!"

Sugarcoat gave Twilight a stare over her glasses. The idea that she had come from the future was preposterous...but considering how Sugarcoat had gotten here, perhaps stranger things had happened.

"What is it?" Sugarcoat asked. "And make it quick. My interest in what you have to say probably isn't going to last very long."

"It's very important!" Twilight exclaimed. "I need you to tell me to..."

"Stop right there," Sugarcoat interrupted.

"I can't stop!" Twilight said desperately. "I need to..."

"I've lived here with you long enough to know when your freakouts are real and when they're over dumb things that aren't actually important at all," Sugarcoat explained. "This is one of the dumb ones. So just go back to whenever you came from and stop worrying about whatever it is you're worried about. And seriously, fix your mane. It looks like you stuck your head in a furnace."

Twilight stared in shock at Sugarcoat. As the spell began to wear off and time flashed around her once more, she felt her heart skip a beat. Sugarcoat knew her so well.

"What in the world was all that shouting and noise?" Twilight asked.

"Just you from the future with some unimportant message for you," Sugarcoat stated plainly as she walked towards door.

"Me from the future?" Twilight repeated. "I learned to travel through time? That's amazing! I can't wait to time travel!"

"Yeah sure," Sugarcoat said as she departed. Twilight was filled with wonder and amazement. To think, she'd actually learned to travel through time! This was sure to be a valuable tool in her studies...

"Wait..." Twilight said to nopony in particular. "I came from the future with a message for myself? I wouldn't just frivolously time travel with no important reason. Which must mean..."

Twilight let out a sudden gasp.

"Something horrible must have happened in the future!" the panicked unicorn exclaimed. "Future me must want me to prevent whatever horrible thing happens in the future!" Another gasp was left hanging in the air as the worried Twilight instantly rushed to her lab.
> Dragon Quest
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I don't act like other dragons?"

The words hit Spike harder than he could have anticipated. Sure, Rarity and Twilight had just finished defending him from Rainbow Dash playfully calling him lame and said that he was perfect the way he was, but that one comment still managed to get under his scales worse than the lame comment.

"Oh, not even close!" Pinkie said, the statement's cheerfulness at about the same level as its unhelpfulness. Sure, he wasn't rude and destructive like the few other dragons he'd met before, but Spike still was a dragon, and being told that he didn't act like one stung.

"But why would you want to, Spike?" Applejack asked. Even that question, asked earnestly by what was arguably the most level-headed of the bunch, didn't feel good. Applejack meant it in the best way possible, he knew that to be true. That didn't make listening to his kind being used as a negative comparison subject any more fun.

"Yes," Rarity agreed. "You've got something those dreadfully fierce dragons can only dream of!"

"What's that?" Spike asked. His spirits started to rise. Surely Rarity–beautiful, sweet, empathetic Rarity–was in touch with how he was feeling and had the perfect words in mind to cheer him up.

"The cutest widdle chubby cheeks!" Rarity cooed, pinching those very cheeks. "Ooooo!"

Betrayal.

"Cute?!" Spike said, shocked. "Dragons aren't supposed to be cute! Right?" His own hesitation almost frustrated him more than his friends' statements. Did he really know that little about his own kind?

"Oh sweetie, you are turning the most delightful shade of red," Rarity said with a smile. "It is very becoming."

Spike had taken all he could stand. With an annoyed grunt, he got up to leave. Before he could do so, though, he found himself up close and personal with a powder-blue hoof.

"Hold it," Sugarcoat said.

"Sugarcoat?" Spike asked. "Where did you even come from?"

"I've been here the whole time," Sugarcoat said. She made note of her camouflage attire, stepping back against the wall and seeming to vanish entirely before revealing herself once more.

"Whoa," Pinkie said. "She's good."

"I am," Sugarcoat said matter-of-factly. "And you know what isn't good?"

"Garbanzo bean ice cream?" Pinkie asked. "Although I've never had it. I'm just guessing, really. I mean I like garbanzo beans and I like ice cream, but I don't think I'd like them together. Although now that I think about it, if you mash them up and make a paste out of them, they're pretty good. And probably still would be if they were cold! Can I take my answer back?"

Every head in the trench turned to Pinkie. Spike opened his mouth, but closed it just as quickly. There really was nothing he could say to that.

"Does anypony else know what isn't good?" Sugarcoat asked. This time, she didn't bother waiting for a response. "What isn't good is when you have someone who's supposed to be your friend sitting here clearly upset about something, and instead of comforting him, you make fun of him for the very thing he's upset about. Even saying nothing would have been better than what you did."

"But we weren't..." Rarity started.

"Don't," Sugarcoat interrupted. "Just his body language alone should have been enough to show you he was having an identity crisis, but I guess all you were looking at was his widdle chubby cheeks."

Rarity hung her head in shame. The others remained silent, feeling about as low as Rarity did.

"I'm sorry, Spike," Twilight said. "We all are." The others nodded in silent agreement. "Would you like to do some research when we get home on dragons and their history?"

"Sure," Spike replied, beginning to smile again.

"So you've lived in a library for pretty much your whole tenure as Princess Celestia's student and you haven't even tried to look anything on dragons up for him?" Sugarcoat asked. Twilight replied with a glare and nothing more. Spike, on the other hand, walked up to Sugarcoat and gave her a hug.

"Thanks for sticking up for me," Spike said.

"Yeah yeah, don't get too sappy," Sugarcoat responded, giving him a pat on the back. "Somepony's gotta do it."
> Hurricane Fluttershy
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Whoa, girl, take it easy!"

Fluttershy suddenly found herself face-first in a cloud. Of all the things to end up face-first in, she supposed a cloud was one of the better options. She'd seen Rainbow Dash end up face-first in things far less optimal than a comfy cumulus, and frankly she wanted no part of that.

"Whuh, what?" Fluttershy asked. "Did we do it?" Absence of pain notwithstanding, the sudden stop still took her by surprise. The last she'd known, she was hurtling through the sky at speeds she didn't know she was capable of, working in tandem with Rainbow and the other Ponyville pegasi to create a funnel strong enough to propel a supply of lake water to Cloudsdale. Things had looked bleak for the group when Thunder Lane, Blossomforth, and a number of other pegasi came down with a sudden bout of the feather flu, prompting Fluttershy to finally join in despite her earlier reluctance.

"Yeah, we did it!" Rainbow said, a proud smile on her face. "You did it!" It was rare for Rainbow to pass the praise for something she was involved in to another pony, but it  was warranted here. It was Fluttershy's extra wingpower that had finally pushed them over the top; without her, the entire effort would have been for naught. It was no record like Rainbow was aiming for, but they had succeeded, and that was all that mattered. A timid high wing shared between friends finished the deal before the two touched down.

"Great job, Fluttershy!" Flitter exclaimed as Fluttershy and Rainbow landed beside them. "That was awesome!"

"Yeah, we couldn't have done it without you," Cloudchaser agreed. To hear this praise from two mares who had earlier been giggling at her efforts was cathartic for Fluttershy, and while she wasn't usually one for basking in attention, a little piece of her was admittedly starting to enjoy it.

"Nice job, Rainbow Dash," Spitfire said as she flew up behind them. "You may not have set a new record, but you showed a lot of guts." Spitfire had come to town to observe the goings-on, and Rainbow was more than happy to see one of her idols. Rainbow opened her mouth to respond, but a voice made whatever she was going to say get caught in her throat.

"You're in no position to talk."

All the color drained from Rainbow's face as Sugarcoat's voice cut through the air. She quickly looked to Spitfire, terrified over what her reaction would be. For her part, Spitfire held her calm, relaxed demeanor, raising a brow at the unicorn.

"What was that?" Spitfire asked. Rainbow found herself unable to speak, and was left trying to silence Sugarcoat through sheer mental force of will. Shockingly, it didn't help.

"I said, you're in no position to talk," Sugarcoat repeated. "Remind me again why you were just standing there instead of helping them out?"

Rainbow tried once again to say something, but her throat had gone completely dry.

"I'm here to record the team's top speed," Spitfire replied simply.

"And yet when the team didn't look like it could make the minimum wingpower needed to funnel the water, you just stood there," Sugarcoat said. "You'd think the captain of the Wonderbolts would get off of her rump and help if it meant actually getting the water that Cloudsdale needed. Your wingpower could have easily covered the gap, instead of making Fluttershy push herself. Maybe Fluttershy should be the captain of the Wonderbolts instead of you."

Rainbow silently began preparing for life without being a Wonderbolt. If Spitfire knew that she was friends with Sugarcoat, then her chances at joining the team were dead in the water. The silence was deafening as Spitfire and Sugarcoat glared at each other. It was a good ten seconds before the tension was lifted by a tiny upturn of one corner of Spitfire's mouth.

"You know, you're right," Spitfire said. "Probably should have helped. Good that Fluttershy was able to show her stuff and help out, but I shouldn't have put her in that position when I could have easily done my part." She gave a salute to Sugarcoat. "Thanks for that, and sorry, everypony. Good to know even an experienced pony like me can still learn something here and there." With that, she spread her wings and took off.

"She seems cool," Sugarcoat said casually as she walked past Rainbow, who was still trying to pick her jaw up off of the ground.
> Ponyville Confidential
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Were you guys feeling guilty about all the gossip too? Like...maybe we could be hurting other ponies' feelings?"

Sweetie Belle could tell from the looks on the faces of Apple Bloom and Scootaloo that such a question didn't even need to be asked. Guilt was written all across the fillies' faces, clear as day. Publishing a gossip column under the pseudonym "Gabby Gums" had seemed like such a good idea at the time, back when it was simply talking about a silly mishap involving two of their classmates. The wild success and the pressure from Diamond Tiara to keep it going, though, had led to it spiraling out of control.

"Yeah, I didn't wanna say anything because everypony loves Gabby Gums so much," Bloom said, ears folded sadly against her head. "But...I was sorta hoping we could start writing more stories like this one."

"Me too," Scootaloo sighed. The article they'd written on Spike had been a nice, informative piece, devoid of the sensationalism found in their earlier articles. For that very reason, it had been summarily rejected by Diamond.

"If we're gonna get our cutie marks," Sweetie said, "we've got to give the ponies what they want." She wasn't sure if she could remember a time where she was so disappointed about doing something that could potentially earn her her mark, but here she was. From the disappointed "aww" that she shared with her friends, she could tell that she at least wasn't alone in feeling like this.

"Just write the piece you want to write."

The Crusaders looked up to see the familiar face of Sugarcoat standing by the door.

"Sugarcoat?" Bloom asked. "I thought you weren't helping us with our cutie mark stuff."

"Yeah, cause you didn't want to talk about our butts," Sweetie said.

"Eh, I'm over that," Sugarcoat stated. "This world's a lot different than mine and apparently the adults here help kids with their cutie mark problems and don't get arrested, so whatever."

"Well that's great!" Scootaloo said. "Because we're trying to figure out what to do about-"

"Like I said," Sugarcoat said simply. "Write the piece you want to write."

"But Diamond Tiara said..." Sweetie began, but she was quickly cut off.

"Yeah, about that," Sugarcoat said. "I went to your teacher and told her that Miss Pretty Crown was busy making unfair demands and taking advantage of her position. She made that Featherweight kid into the new editor. That's the kind of thing that happens when you actually tell a teacher that another student's being unreasonable. You should really consider that in the future."

The three fillies' jaws dropped. As was becoming the norm with those who interacted with Sugarcoat, they found themselves at a loss for words.

"You probably won't though," Sugarcoat said as she turned tail, leaving the stunned fillies to their work.
> MMMystery on the Friendship Express
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Fine, I'm guilty! I wear false eyelashes!"

Rarity's shame was plainly evident as she whined, but she had to hesitate as she looked at the faces of the ponies around her. "Oh, and I took a bite of the cake." Perhaps that was the answer the others were looking for, seeing as Pinkie and Twilight had been conducting an extensive investigation into finding out who had eaten part of the Marzipan Mascarpone Meringue Madness that was meant to be entered into a contest tomorrow, but Rarity still believed the first thing was the bigger transgression.

"So did I," Fluttershy admitted, looking quite ashamed of herself.

"Aw nuts, so did I," Rainbow Dash added.

"You just made it sound so delectable!" Rarity offered, her mouth practically watering just from recalling the taste.

"So tasty," Fluttershy agreed, visions of the delicious cake dancing in her head.

"And boy, was it!" Rainbow exclaimed, tongue licking at her teeth in hopes that a bit of the flavor still remained somewhere on them.

"I only meant to take a little, lady-like bite," Rarity said, her awkward smile trying and failing to mask her guilt.

"And it was so good," Fluttershy said, staring at the rest of the cake with an intense sense of longing.

"Yeah, I just dove right in!" Rainbow chimed in.

"But I'm really really sorry," Fluttershy said, ears drooping in embarrassment.

"Terribly sorry," Rarity agreed.

"Sorry, Pinkie," Rainbow said. It was often difficult to get a sorry out of Rainbow Dash, but there it was.

Pinkie's eyes darted between each of her friends as they offered their rapid-fire justifications for what they had done. The entire situation was endlessly frustrating, but in the end, these ponies were her friends. As much of a problem as their behavior had caused, it wasn't nearly enough for her to stay mad at them.

"That's okay," Pinkie said. "At least this mystery is finally solved."

"Yeah, it's really not."

Pinkie's head whipped in the direction of the nearby door, where a familiar pigtailed pony stood.

"Sugarcoat?" Pinkie asked. "When did you get here?"

"Why does everypony always ask me that?" Sugarcoat asked. "I'm a person, not a clock."

"That's true," Pinkie said. "You don't even have any hands!"

"I used to," Sugarcoat said coldly.

"Huh?" Pinkie asked. Then she shook her head. "Never mind that for now! You were probably right. This mystery isn't solved yet! We still have to-"

"That's not what I meant," Sugarcoat replied. "I meant that what the others did isn't okay."

"What?" Twilight asked. "I mean, they did something wrong, but they apologized. Are you saying Pinkie shouldn't forgive them?"

"Of course not," Sugarcoat said, pointing away from Pinkie and Twilight and to the others. "But are you really going to let them get away with a simple apology? The Cakes trusted you to bring this cake thing to this competition and are hoping it wins a prize, and those four can't hold onto their hunger for long enough to not ruin everything?"

"Hey!" Applejack exclaimed. "I didn't eat any of it!"

"Hm," Sugarcoat said. "Okay, fair enough. I'm sorry."

Applejack stared in shock. Seeing Sugarcoat admit to being wrong about something was surprising in itself. Getting an apology was even more so.

"Don't act so shocked," Sugarcoat said with a frown. "Unlike your friends here, it doesn't take a giant investigation for me to admit when I was in the wrong."

"But we apologized!" Rainbow said, starting to get frustrated.

"Don't you listen?" Sugarcoat groaned. "Do you even realize how important this cake is? The Cakes are trying to win a contest with it, but that's not even all. This is about trust. The Cakes trusted Pinkie to get it there safely and she trusted her best friends in the world to not ruin that for her. You broke that trust, and you're risking making Pinkie's employers think she can't be trusted with important jobs. All because you were hungry and the cake sounded tasty."

Rarity, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash looked utterly deflated as the magnitude of what they had done was thrust upon them. Fluttershy looked about ready to burst into tears, and Rarity wasn't far behind.

"Oookay..." Pinkie said, walking over to the three and looking at Sugarcoat. "Ummm...I'm really glad you're defending me and stuff, but maybe that was a little harsh?" She put a foreleg around Fluttershy to comfort her.

"The truth can be harsh sometimes," Sugarcoat said with a shrug. She watched as a tear fell from Fluttershy's eye, then sighed. She walked over to the group and patted Fluttershy on the back. "It's not the end of the world."

"Yeah!" Pinkie said, smiling. "I wouldn't want to live in a world that ended because somepony ate cake! I'd be ending the world every afternoon!" She gave Fluttershy a nudge and a smile, and Fluttershy managed to smile back.

"Have you ever heard of diabetes?" Sugarcoat asked.

"Sure!" Pinkie replied. "Ponies use that word whenever I do something really cute!"

Sugarcoat just sighed and departed the train car.