> Ponyville the Town of Youth
>  by Ironskull
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Day 1: Chaos in Ponyville
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Applejack?"  There was the sound of a door creaking open.  "Applejack, are ya in here?"

"Mmmm..." muttered Apple Jack as she struggled to pull herself away from slumber.  "What time is it?"

"Oh, phew," continued the voice.  "Ah can't find Granny or Big Mac anywhere!  I was scared that you were gone too!"

Applejack frowned to herself under her bed sheets.  She didn't recognize the voice speaking to her.  But the owner of the voice clearly was at least acquainted with her.  She turned in her sheets and let her eyes fall on the owner of the voice, but recognition did not come.  Applejack began to feel embarrassed, feeling certain that she ought to know this filly.

Must be one of mah visitin' cousins, Applejack thought to herself.  Did she sleep over last night?  I suppose she must have.  Why can't ah remember?

"Did ya find a note or sumthin' in the dining room?" asked Applejack, trying to conceal the confusion in her voice.

"No!  I was hopin' you knew where they went?"

"Not a clue.  Don't worry though, I'm sure they'll be back in a jif."

"Um, Applejack, are you okay?  You sound kinda funny."

"Ah do?  I don't notice nuthin."

Applejack yawned and pulled herself out from under her bed sheets.

"Huh?  Applejack, what happened to you!?"

Applejack froze.  "Um...  What?"

She felt fine.  She looked down at herself to make sure.  Sure enough, she looked fine too.  Or, at least, nothing out of the ordinary.  She looked back at the unknown filly in confusion.

"Oh!" said the filly in realization.  "I know.  Applejack, ah think ya must have gotten into another patch of poison joke."

"Poison joke?" repeated Applejack, worried.  "What's poison joke?"

"You don't remember what poison joke is?" asked the filly in disbelief.

"Uhh...  Ah'm sorry, ah think ah've woke up with mah head in the clouds today," said Applejack apologetically.  "...  What was your name again?"

"What?"

"I know, this is really embarrassing!" cried Applejack.  "But... ah honestly can't remember!  Ah'm feelin' a little groggy today!"

"Applejack, it's me!  Apple Bloom!  Your sister!"

Applejack's eyes bugged out for a moment.  "Whoa, hang on, no.  No, you're not Apple Bloom.  Apple Bloom is so young she can barely speak.  So cut it out!"

"Applejack, why are you a filly?"

Applejack gave a bemused frown.  " 'Cause I wasn't born a colt?  What kind of question is that, 'why am ah a filly?' "

"No Applejack!  Ah mean yer only as high as I am!"

"What are ya talkin' about?" cried Applejack in annoyance.  "And, who are you, honestly?"

"Ah'm tellin' you the truth, Applejack!  It's me, Apple Bloom!"

Applejack started to express her annoyance once again, but the other filly's tone of voice told her that she might not be acting.  Now that she considered, the filly did have Apple Bloom's colors, and even the red bow.

Applejack couldn't find words.

Apple Bloom, sensing Applejack's hesitation, cried out, "I know!  Wait here for a sec, Ah'll prove it!"

With the filly that was possibly Apple Bloom removed from her vicinity, Applejack found that her brain had started working again.  She looked around the room that she had woken up in.  It was definitely the same room, but almost nothing within the room was the way that she remembered it.  In fact, the only familiar objects in the whole room were her mirror and wardrobe, but they were definitely not sitting where they had been the night before.

Actually, the bed that she was currently sitting on was also utterly unfamiliar to her.

And it was a little bigger than her usual, filly sized bed.

Suddenly, Apple Bloom rushed back into the room.  She pushed something in front of Applejack's face.

It was the Apple family photo.  Applejack wordlessly took the photo into her hooves and stared.

"You see?" insisted Apple Bloom.  "There's Big Mac and Granny, and there's me, and that right there... is you!"

Applejack continued staring.  Eventually, she set the photo down and turned to Apple Bloom.

"We need to find Granny an' Big Mac!"





The moment Fluttershy had woken up, she immediately became aware of one thing: This was not her parent's house in Cloudsdale.  The house that she was currently in was obviously sitting securely on the ground.

Fluttershy sat in her bed shivering in fear.  Where am I? she thought to herself.  Who's house is this?  Will they be mad if they find me here?  How did I get here?  Why don't I remember?

She continued quivering for what felt like hours.  Eventually, however, she reached a conclusion that helped partially put her mind at ease.  Obviously, she said to herself, I must have hurt myself in the head and a nice pony found me and took me to their home to recover.

This story was enough for Fluttershy to work up the courage to get out of her bed and try to find the owner of the house and thank them for their kindness.

Unfortunately, after searching every room in the small dwelling, Fluttershy had not managed to find a single living creature, much less a pony.  The main room was filled with a tremendous amount of food and water bowls as well as bird perches, small toys, and other accommodations for pets, but there were no actual creatures to be found anywhere, even in the mouse hole.  Which was a shame, because she could have asked the critters about where she was and how she had gotten there.

Fluttershy tried looking through the windows to the outside, but there was nopony to be seen.  She briefly considered going outside, but she quickly squashed this idea.  After all, she had no idea where she was, and she didn't want to risk becoming even more lost.

I didn't know that it was winter on the ground... Fluttershy remarked in the back of her mind.

The only thing to do would be to wait until the owner of the house came back.

It surely wouldn't be that long of a wait.

Suddenly, a paper with writing on it caught her eye.  Fluttershy picked it up off of the table it sat on.  She would feel guilty for reading it if the letter wasn't addressed to her, but even if it wasn't, she was hoping that the name of the owner of the home would be on the letter somewhere.

Dear Flutteryshy,

Fluttershy's heart skipped a beat.  Somepony knew her name.  She continued reading nervously.

If it does not interfere with your schedule, I would like to invite you to my boutique at 11:00 A.M. on the second day of next month.  I would like to treat us both to lunch.

-Rarity

Fluttershy stared at the letter in confusion.  Could 'Rarity' be the owner of this house?  Something told her that she was not.  This letter appeared to be written by somepony that knew her, but didn't know about what had happened to her.

Except Fluttershy didn't know anypony named Rarity.

Eventually, Fluttershy decided that she would solve the mystery of the letter later.  The first thing that she needed to worry about was waiting for the owner of the home to show up.





"Oh, what do I do, what do I do?"

Spike groaned into his pillow as he realized that Twilight's mumbling had taken him past the point of no return when it came to being conscious.

"What is it now, Twilight?" he said into his pillow without opening his eyes.

There was no answer.  "Twilight?" Spike repeated.

"Spike?" said Twilight hesitantly.

"Twilight?" repeated Spike.  "Are you okay?  You sound different."

He turned onto his back and looked at Twilight.

"Whoa!" he exclaimed.  "What happened to you?"

"What happened to me?" cried Twilight.  "What happened to you!  You're...  You're..."

Spike looked down at himself, and then looked back up in confusion.

"Literate!" Twilight finished.  "And you're bigger!"

"What?" cried Spike.  "I'm not bigger!  You're a filly!"

"Huh?" asked Twilight.  "What does that have to do with anything?  And where are we?"

"You don't know where we are?"

"I don't think so!"

"Twilight, you've turned yourself into a little filly!  And, worse, you've lost your memories!"

"Lost my memories?" cried Twilight.  "But I remember yesterday!  Princess Celestia began teaching me about the four 'G's of the thaumatic-"

"Twilight, listen to me!" shouted Spike.

A stunned Twilight found that she could only comply.

"That happened years ago!  You're a full grown mare!"

"What!?" cried Twilight.  "That is ludicrous!"

"But it's true!" insisted Spike.  "Or, you are supposed to be a full grown mare.  And this is your home!  Golden Oaks Library?"

Twilight gave Spike a stunned look.

"In the town of Ponyville?" Spike continued desperately.

"I live in a library?" Twilight whispered disbelievingly.

"Yes!" said Spike.  "Come see if you don't believe me!"

Spike led Twilight through the door.  Twilight stopped at the top of the staircase leading down into the main part of the library and looked down.

After Twilight finished gaping at the books, she turned to Spike.  "I live here?"

"Yes!"

"All by myself?"

"Well, I live here too.  And Owlowiscious, sort of.  He is an owl, so he comes and goes as he pleases."

"Owl?"

"Maybe Owlowiscious knows what happened!" exclaimed Spike.  "Owlowiscious!" he cried out.  "Are you there?"

There was no response.

Spike let out a sigh.  "He must be out right now."

"But..."  Twilight began.  Spike looked at her expectantly.  He could see tears threatening to form.

"But, if I've lost my memory," Twilight cried, "and I've been turned into a filly when I am supposed to be a grown up, then what is Cel-  Spike!"  Twilight shouted.  "I'm still Princess Celestia's student, right?"

Spike didn't get an opportunity to respond.  "You said that I'm living in a place called Ponyville?  As in, not Canterlot?  I've failed the princess as a student, haven't I!  And now she's banished me from Canterlot, and as punishment, she took away my memory!"

"Twilight, NO! cried Spike.  "Princess Celestia sent you to Ponyville to...  It's complicated, okay?  Basically, she wanted you to get some real world experience!"

"Real world experience?" asked Twilight in confusion.  "But why?  Doesn't living in Canterlot count as 'real world experience'?  Everywhere is the real world!  Except possibly right now!  Maybe I've gone insane!"

"No Twilight," said Spike in exasperation.  "In Canterlot, everyone treated you differently because you were Celestia's personal student!  And the only way to get away from that was to move to another town!"

"Spike, I..."  Twilight threw her hooves over her face.  "I don't understand anything that is happening to me today!"

"I don't either!"

"What do I do?" asked Twilight in despair.

"Well, you could write a letter to the Princess and ask her to change you back?" suggested Spike.

"Write a letter to the princess?" repeated Twilight in surprise.  "I've never done that before!  But if I send her a letter, we'll have to wait for days before she reads it!"

"Oh, right," said Spike.  "You don't remember.  I can send a letter straight to the princess in an instant, thanks to my dragon fire!"

"You can?"

"Sure!  Here, I'll go and grab a paper and quill right now!"

Spike zipped off and returned moments later with both objects in hand.

"Thank you Spike..." said Twilight as magic enveloped the paper and quill.

"Um, Twilight?  Don't you want me to write it?"

"Huh?" asked Twilight.  "Oh!  Of course, I forgot!  You know how to spell!  But, why do you want to write my letter?"

"Well..." began Spike, not quite certain how he should answer.  "You always have me write so that you can speak your mind clearly without worrying about writing the letter.  It... helps you to think.  Not to mention, I need the practice."

"Oh.  Well, I guess if you really want me to."  Twilight hesitated, and then released the paper and quill.

"Sooooo... said spike.  "What exactly do you want to say to the Princess?"

"Um...  Well.  I don't know!  What should I say?

"This is your letter!"

"But, Spike!  I'm not in my right mind!  I can't write a letter to the princess like this!  Would you be willing to write to the princess on my behalf, Spike?  Please!"

"Well, I guess so," said Spike uncertainly.

Dear Princess Celestia,

This is Spike.  I am writing to you on Twilight's behalf.  I'm very sorry to have to bother you, but Twilight has somehow been transformed into a filly and cannot remember how it happened.  She has also lost her wings.  Please help as soon as you possibly can.

-Spike

"Alright," said Spike out loud.  "Now I'll just send this off to the princess."

Green fire enveloped the letter.  When it cleared, the letter was gone.

"Now we just have to wait for the princess to send her response," Spike said.

A minute later, Spike burped up the another letter.

"Let's see what the princess has to say," said Spike as he held the letter up.

"Ahem.  Dear Spike.  This letter is for you only, so don't read this aloud to Twilight like I know you-  Um..."

Spike grinned at Twilight nervously.

"It would make sense that Celestia wants to talk to you and not me," said Twilight nervously.  "After all, the letter was from you, not me."

"Right," said Spike nervously.  "Um, just a second.  Let me read this."

Dear Spike,

This letter is for you only, so don't read this aloud to Twilight like I know you were just doing.

I know that you intended for Princess Celly to get your letter, but I'm afraid she isn't available to respond to you at the moment.  This is Discord responding to you instead.  I am already aware of Twilight's situation.  Actually, all of Twilight's closest friends are in a similar situation at this very moment.  Twilight won't remember this, but she more or less volunteered for this.

If you two want to figure out what's going on, be at the mayor's office at sundown.  I promise I'll tell you everything.

Your favorite Draconequus, Discord

"Twilight, we have a problem," informed Spike, his tone replete with worry.

"What's wrong?" asked Twilight fearfully.  "Is whatever is wrong with me irreversible?"

"I don't think so," said Spike, "But...  Well, first things first.  We need to go find the other girls as soon as possible!  It sounds like they all need help!"

"The other girls?" asked Twilight, confused.

"Your friends!"





Rarity was investigating the strange place she had woken up in.  The initial wave of terror that she had felt when she realized that she wasn't in her own bedroom subsided when she had snuck away from the strange room and found herself in a fashion boutique.

I guess there's no harm in sticking around for a little while.  These dresses are... intriguing..."

A moment later, there was a crash and Rarity found herself underneath a pony mannequin with fabric over her face.

"Hello?" said a voice.

Oh no! thought Rarity in panic.  This place isn't open right now!  I'm not supposed to be here!  She struggled to get to her hooves, but the fabric of the dress had wrapped around one of her legs.

"Rarity?  Is that you?"

Rarity paused her struggle in confusion.

"Oh no!" cried the voice, now closer.  "If Rarity sees you like that, she's going to throw a fit!"

Rarity said nothing.  Is... she talking to me? she wondered.

"Here, let me help you up!"

Rarity felt somepony pull the dress out from under her leg and then over her head.

"Hey!  Who are you?  I've never seen you around here before!"

Rarity stared back at the filly adressing her.

"You know, you look remarkably similar to my sister...  What's your name?"

"I'm...  Rarity."

"Huh?" asked the filly.  "Really?  That's my sister's name too!"

"It is?"

"Yeah!  And, you actually look... just like her, really.  Huh.  You're like her younger twin!"

"Does your sister... live here?  In the boutique?"

"Sure!  Hey, do you want to meet her?"

"I suspect I already have met your sister," said Rarity uneasily.  "When I woke up a few minutes ago, I was... here, in this boutique."

"You were?"

"I take it that you don't know what happened to me then?" asked Rarity gloomily.

"Well, let's just go ask my sister!"

"But won't she be angry with me for knocking over the merchandise?" asked Rarity, worried.

"Hey, if you don't say anything, I won't either," said the filly with a wink.  She began to walk away.  Rarity followed her.

The filly stopped in front of a door and knocked on it.  "Rarity!" she cried out.

"Why are you knocking on that door?" asked Rarity.

"Because this is my sister's room?"

"But that's the room I woke up in!"

"It is?  That's weird.  She never lets me stay in her room."

The filly pushed the door open.

"This is definitely the room?" she asked.

"Yes, most definitely."

"Hmm.  Well, I guess Rarity isn't here.  If she isn't asleep, and if she hasn't heard me shouting for her by now, I guess she must be in town or something.  You would think that she would have left me a note or something, at the very least."

She narrowed her eyes.  "Especially if we have a guest," she continued.  "Somepony stayed the night and she didn't even bother to tell me?  Why would she do that to me?  How hard would it be to at least write a note that says 'Dear Sweetie Belle, just so you know, there's somepony-"

"Dear who?" cried Rarity in surprise.

"Sweetie Belle is my name," said Sweetie Belle as explanation.

"Wait wait wait," said Rarity.  "Your name is Sweetie Belle?"

"Um, yeah?"

"And your sister's name just happens to be Rarity?"

"Yes?  What does that have to do with-"

"My little sister is named Sweetie Belle!"

"...  Rarity?"

"...  Yes?"

"No, I mean, you're...  Rarity, what happened to you?"

"What are you talking about?  You're talking to me as though I'm your sister!"

"You are my sister!  Your special talent is finding gems!  You discovered it when your horn started acting funny and pulled you through the countryside and took you to a rock full of gems!"

"How did you know about that?"

"Because I am your sister, Rarity!"

"But!  But my Sweetie Belle is barely more than an infant!"

"I know!" cried Sweetie Belle.  "You can't remember anything that happened recently because you've turned back into a filly!  Come on, Rarity!  We're going to go and get you help!"





Pinkie Pie was as surprised as anypony to wake up in a room that she didn't recognize, but since her pinkie sense was failing to sound alarms, she didn't worry about it too much.  The real surprise came when she opened the door.  Pinkie had been in Ponyville enough times to recognize Sugar Cube Corner.  And that was where she was now.

Strange that the Cakes are nowhere to be seen.  I wonder where they are?  Maybe they're in the kitchen?

Pinkie wandered behind the counter and took a sneak peek into the kitchen.  Again, there was nopony to be seen.

Suddenly her eyes fell upon a sack of flour.

It was too irresistible.





"Hello?" cried a voice into Sugar Cube Corner.  "Anypony here?"

"Helllllooooooooo!" cried Pinkie as she emerged from behind the cash register, a chef hat that was threatening to fall over her eyes upon her head.  "Hey!  Who are you two?" she asked enthusiastically.

"Holy hot sauce!" cried the colt.  The voice that had answered him was more shrill than any that he had heard before in his life.

"Pinkie?" cried the colt in disbelief.

"Have we met before?" asked Pinkie in confusion.  "I'm so sorry!  I've never forgotten a pony's name before, ever!  Please, please please please please forgive me!"

"But...  Pinkie, its us!  I'm Snips!  And that's Snails!  You are Pinkie Pie, right?"

"Yepperoni!  But I don't remember you two!"

"Pinkie, what happened to you?" asked Snips.  "Yeah," said Snails.  "How come you're not an adult any more?"

"Haha, you two are silly!  I've always been a filly!"

"You have?" asked Snails.

"But, Pinkie!" cried Snails.  "Look!  There's your picture on the wall over there!"

Pinkie looked in interest and then gasped, accompanied by her mane apparently inflating and sproinging out before returning to it's previous state.

"How did I miss that?" she cried.  She rushed over to the wall to get a closer look.

"Employee of the month?" she cried.  "And I'm in every single picture on the wall?"

"Of course you are!" exclaimed Snips.

"I work at Sugar Cube Corner?"

"Of course you do!"

"Oh!  Good!"

"It is?"

"Yep!" said Pinkie.  "That means that I won't get in trouble for using all the ingredients I've been using to bake all morning!"

"Speaking of the Cakes, have you seen them today?" asked Snips hopefully.

"Nope!"

"Oh no!  Snips, they got the Cakes too!"

"Who got the Cakes?" asked Pinkie in horror.

"The sludge monster!"

"The sludge monster?" asked Pinkie nervously.

"No they didn't!" said Snips.  "There is no sludge monster!  Why would a sludge monster only go after adults and not us kids?"

"You mean some of the adults in town are missing?" asked Pinkie.

"Yeah!  We've been searching all over Ponyville!  We saw lots of kids from class, but no grown ups!  Except for you, Pinkie.  Only... you're not an adult anymore!"

"So what did happen to all the adults?" asked Snails.

"They all went to celebrate 'No Foals' day!"

"No Foals day?" repeated Snails and Pinkie in confusion.

"Yeah!  The one day of the year when all of the adults in Equestria go and have fun by themselves and leave us behind!"

"I KNEW IT!" blurted Pinkie.

"But if they do that every year, then what about last year?" asked Snails.

"Oh.  Oh yeah.  Well, gosh," continued Snips.  "Wherever they are, I hope they're okay."

"Yeah..." said Snails gloomily.

"Hey, cheer up you two!" said Pinkie.  "They'll be okay!  Would you two like a snack to help take your mind off of things?"

"A snack?" the two colts asked in unison.

"Sure!  I've been baking all morning!  I've got cake and pie and cupcakes and bagels and muffins and brownies and cookies and pretzels and sweet bread and pastries and donuts!"

Pinkie leaned in closer from the register to the duo in order to whisper conspiratorially, "Just don't go into the kitchen!  I may have made a really big mess!"





"Dad!" cried Rainbow Dash.

No answer.

"Mom?"

No answer.

"What happened to my room?"

No answer.

"Where's my book bag?  It's not where I left it!  This is a school day, right?"

No answer.

Rainbow Dash finally decided that the only thing to do was to go and find her parents instead of calling for them.  She opened the door and stepped through.

"AAARGGHHHHHHH!"

Despite the unexpected plummet, Rainbow instinctively went into flight-mode and she pulled herself right-side up and forced herself to a stop.  She looked back up at the spot she had fallen from in shock.

A lone cloud house.

Cloudsdale was nowhere to be seen.

"What the hay?"





Silver Spoon threw the door to the Ponyville schoolhouse open desperately.  She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Diamond Tiara within.

And then she frowned as she realized that, other than Diamond Tiara, the schoolhouse had only one other occupant.

Scootaloo.

"Silver Spoon!" cried Diamond Tiara.  "Thank goodness!  I've been here for a whole hour and nopony has shown up at all except for her!"  She indicated Scootaloo, who ignored her.

"Did class get canceled today and we missed the memo?" Diamond continued.

"Not that I'm aware of," said Silver Spoon hastily, "But that doesn't matter right now!  My parents have disappeared!"

"Disappeared?" exclaimed Diamond Tiara in concern.  Scootaloo also wore an expression of concern, but said nothing.

"I've checked everywhere!" cried Silver Spoon.  "I even checked with the neighbors to see if they know anything, and they are all gone too!"

"What!?" cried Scootaloo in shock.

Silver Spoon ignored this outcry.  "But that's not all!" she continued, her voice growing even more upset.  I saw Pipsqueak and Featherweight out looking for their parents too!  And they aren't the only ones!  Nearly every colt or filly in town is out trying to find their parents!  We've searched all over Ponyville and we can't find a single grown up anywhere!  And...  And then I decided to come and find you!"

"But," began Diamond Tiara uneasily, "if every grown up in Ponyville is missing, then what about my daddy?"

"You didn't see him before coming to school today?" asked Silver Spoon.

"No!  I take care of myself in the mornings, even breakfast!  Daddy is already at work by the time school begins!  I need to find him!"

Diamond Tiara scrambled to her feet.

"Hey, Diamond!"

"What is it Scootaloo!" shouted Diamond Tiara.  "If you didn't notice, I have a problem here!"

"I just wanted to know if you want some help finding your dad?"

Diamond Tiara was taken aback, but after a moment of consideration, she said, "Very well then.  Three pairs of eyes are better than two."





"Apple Bloom!"

"Sweetie Belle!"

The two fillies ran to one another and embraced.

After they had released one another, Apple Bloom began to speak, "Sweetie Belle, there's something ah have to tell you.  This is going to sound crazy, but-"

"When you woke up this morning, you discovered that your sister has been transformed into a filly that can't remember being grown up?" suggested Sweetie, who was eyeing Applejack, who was standing a short distance behind Apple Bloom and silently observing.

"Actually..." said Apple Bloom.  "Yes.  That's exactly right.  Um, is that...?"  She pointed toward Rarity.

"Yep."

"So, we're having the same problem..."

"Hang on now," said Applejack, stepping forward.  "Am ah to understand that... that pony over there."

"Her name is Rarity!" said Apple Bloom.

"So, Rarity is also supposed to be a grown up?"

"Yeah!"

"... Am I supposed to know her?"

"Yer best friends!" cried Apple Bloom.

Applejack studied the purple maned filly, who was currently seemed to be trying very hard to not point her head in their direction.  She wasn't sure what to think.

"Apple Bloom!" cried a new voice.  "Sweetie Belle!"

They turned to see Spike.

"Spike!  Thank goodness we've found you!" cried Apple Bloom happily.  "We really need Twilight's hel-"

Apple Bloom trailed off as she realized that that Spike had two ponies awkwardly following behind him.

Twilight and Fluttershy.

"Oh no!" cried Apple Bloom.  "Not Twilight too!  How are we going to fix this now!"

"Why is it that you expect me to be able to fix this?" asked Twilight incredulously.  "Age magic is one of the most difficult magics to control!  You can't expect me to be able to reverse this!"

Twilight turned to Spike.  "Can they?" she asked, a hint of fear in her voice.

Spike let out a nervous laugh.  "Well, no," he said.  "You had to fake it one time, but you couldn't have actually pulled off an age spell.  At the time..."

Spike let out a sigh.  "Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle?"

"Yeah?"

"Come here for a second."

Once the three of them were away from the others, Spike whispered to Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle.  "Don't tell Twilight about the whole 'alicorn' thing.  She doesn't remember about that.  She actually doesn't remember anything about Ponyville at all, and if she finds out, I'm afraid she'll have a heart attack, or something."

"Yeah," agreed Sweetie Belle.  "Rarity can't remember anything that's happened in the last decade or so either.  Fluttershy too?"

"Yep," answered Spike.  "She had no idea who we were.  At first, she thought that she had a head injury or something, and that Twilight was the owner of her house.  Her own house!  We tried telling her that she's not supposed to be like this, but I don't think she understands yet."

"But what are we going to do?" asked Apple Bloom.  "If we can't change them back, they'll be stuck like this forever!"

"Don't worry," said Spike.  "All we have to do is be at the mayor's office by sundown.  And then we will get some answers."





By the time evening came, Spike had managed to locate Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie as well as all of the other colts and fillies that lived in Ponyville, a task that was possible because most of the foals had already gathered together in their mutual quest to find their parents.

Everypony was watching the Mayor's office with great interest.

As the sun dipped below the horizon, there was a gust of wind and the front door of the office was blown open.

Out stepped Discord, dressed in a tuxedo and monocle and holding a cane.

"Good evening fillies and colts!"  He cried out to his audience.

"I'm sure that everypony has had ample opportunity to notice that Ponyville has become an adults-free town," he continued.  "So let me begin by assuring everypony that your parents are all safe and sound.  The Ponyville that we are currently standing in is not the real Ponyville.  It is merely an exact replica of the real Ponyville!  You see, I need to settle a bet, and, for those of you all who are willing, you can help me do it!"

"Excuse me," said a voice from the crowd.

Discord turned toward the voice in interest and singled out the owner.  "Ah, dear Applejack.  What can I do for you?"

"Pardon me fer askin', but...  Who the hay are you?"

Discord's smile seemed to grow wider.  "Ah, of course.  Everypony here knows who I am... except for precisely six of you.  I am Discord, the spirit of chaos!  And I have power beyond your wildest dreams, which I have used to create this alternate reality!"

"Alternate reality?" asked Twilight, drawing Discord's attention.  "If this is an alternate reality, then what is happening in the real Ponyville right now?  Is it suddenly missing a few dozen children?" she finished with an accusing tone.

"Not at all, Twilight!" declared Discord happily.  For, you see, when your time in this alternate reality has come to an end, no time will have passed in the real Equestria at all!  You will all find yourself back where you were when this all began, doing whatever you were doing at the time, yet you will remember everything that happened here as though it were yesterday, and you wont be even one day older!"

"And just how long to you intend to keep us all here?" asked Twilight.

"A fair question.  The bet is as follows:  Ponyville would fall to pieces within thirty days if it was populated by only  fillies and colts.  I intend to prove that notion to be incorrect!  Therefore, all willing colts and fillies will stay in this Ponyville for thirty days, and you will all be free to do anything you wish whatsoever!  There is only one rule, and that rule is that nopony may leave Ponyville.  You will know that you have gone to far if your body is suddenly stopped by an invisible force field around the edges of town.

"There are also a few other things that you all should know.  First of all, if at any time you wish to return to the real Ponyville and end your time here, you have but to ask and I will send you home immediately.  Second of all, Ponyville General Hospital is obviously completely unstaffed here, and I myself am no doctor.  If anypony winds up getting hurt, they will likely have to be returned to the real Ponyville, where, I must add, they will be completely uninjured.

"Now, I'm sure that everypony is curious about one more thing.  You may have noticed how every adult in Ponyville is currently absent... save for Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Applejack, all of whom are younger than you are used to.  Each of them are actually from several years in the past.  Once the thirty days are complete, or, if any of them choose to leave early, their memory of this place will not be recalled by their filly selves, but rather by their adult selves.

"Now, does anypony have any other questions?"

A hoof shot into the air.

"Yes, Twilight Sparkle?"

"If we are going to be here for thirty days," said Twilight, "and if time isn't passing in the real world while we are here, then does that mean that I can spend all thirty days refining my studies?"

"Technically, yes, Twilight, you could do that."

Something about Discord's tone suggested that Twilight shouldn't get too excited just yet.

"But," he continued, "remember.  When the thirty days are up, it will be your adult self who remembers all that happens here.  And I assure you, the adult Twilight Sparkle has already mastered everything that you are currently studying.  So, basically what I am saying is that it would be a giant waste of time.

"Applejack!" cried Discord suddenly as he spun to face her.

"Yeah?" asked Applejack carefully.

"I'm sure the fact that Ponyville is currently in the midst of winter has not escaped you.  Which means that work at your farm is rather slow at the moment, and everypony will be outta here before there is any need to wrap up winter.  There's plenty of food all over Ponyville.  It should easily last you all for a whole month.  So, there's no need to do any actual work.  Feel free to loosen up a bit.

"Rainbow Dash!"

"What's up?" asked Rainbow as casually as she could.

"Just because this is not the real Equestria doesn't mean that the weather is going to take care of itself.  I'll take care of the moon and the sun, but I can't be bothered to deal with the stray clouds.  In the future that these colts and fillies are from, that's your job.  So, somepony has to do it here too, and it might as well be you."

"Aw, common!" cried Rainbow in annoyance.

"And Pinkie Pie!"

"YEEEEESIR!" cried Pinkie.

"There's nopony here to stop you from being as loud as you want.  Knock yourself out."

"Aye aye, sir!" said Pinkie in salute.

"Alright then," said Discord.  "Now, anypony else have a question?  Concerns?"

"I do!"

Discord sighed.  "Yes, Spike?"

"You brought us all here without anypony here at all to watch us," cried Spike.

"Yes, this is true," said Discord.

"Except," continued Spike, "for three of us!  Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and myself!  Because you decided to bring Twilight, Applejack, and Rarity along, nothing for us has actually changed!  I still have Twilight breathing down my neck!"

Twilight stared at Spike in astonishment.

"No offense," added Spike, addressing Twilight.

"Are you kidding?" cried Sweetie Belle.  "This is my chance to get to hang out with my sister for a whole month straight!  Right, Rarity?"

"Well, yes!" declared Rarity happily.  "This sounds fun!"

"Ah'm with Sweetie on this one," said Apple Bloom.  "Right sis?" she asked, offering her hoof to Applejack.

"Sure thing," answered Applejack, clapping her hoof to Apple Bloom's.

"So..." began Spike.  "Everypony here is okay with this?  It's just me?"

Everyone around him remained silent.

Spike sighed.  "Okay then.  Objection withdrawn."

"Alright then," said Discord.  "If there are no more questions, then if anypony needs me, I'll be in my office.  Until we meet again, my little ponies!"

Suddenly, Discord rapidly shrunk down to the size of a grain of sand and then disappeared entirely with a puff of smoke, much to the astonishment of six fillies.

"Now that I know that my daddy is safe," began Diamond Tiara, "I just now realized that I haven't had anything to eat all day except breakfast.  I'm starving!"

"I didn't even get breakfast!" declared Rumble.

"Wait a minute, do you even live here?" asked Scootaloo in confusion.

"I was just visiting, but I guess I'm stuck here now."

"Okay!" cried Diamond Tiara in a voice loud enough to draw everypony's attention.  "Show of hooves here!  Who here knows how to cook?"

Diamond Tiara lifted her own hoof and looked around at the others.  The only other ponies who had lifted a limb were Apple Bloom, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Spike.

"Really?" asked Diamond Tiara as she face hooved.  "Okay, I guess we can work with this."

"Can we have muffins?" asked Dinky.

"Oh, oh!" squealed Pinkie excitedly.  "I have muffins back at Sugar Cube Corner!  We can all eat there!"

"But... Pinkie Pie..." began Diamond Tiara.  She hesitated, her 'I'm speaking to an adult' instincts cautioning her despite Pinkie's present state.  "Most of the goods sold at Sugar Cube Corner are... desert foods.  I was hoping for something... reasonably healthy?"

"Why wouldn't you want to have mountains of sugar for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day?" asked Pinkie.  "And, besides, you heard Discord, everypony!" shouted Pinkie at the top of her lungs.  "There's nopony here to stop us from doing whatever we want!  It's party time!"

There was a loud cheer of approval from the majority.

"You can't be serious!" cried Twilight.

"Why not?" asked Pinkie.  "Isn't this a dream come true?"

"You foals are going to rot your teeth out of your heads!" cried Diamond Tiara.

"Nuh-uh!" countered Pinkie Pie.  "Discord said that after we go back to the real Equestria, we'll all be physically back to the way that we used to be!"

"Actually..." began Twilight, but then hesitated.  "You're absolutely right," Twilight admitted.

"She is?" asked Diamond Tiara in surprise.

"But!" cried Twilight in triumph, "That doesn't mean you won't need a trip to the dentist before thirty days!  And we don't have a dentist!"

"Well, true..." said Diamond Tiara.  "But one month isn't that long.  I don't see why we can't have some fun.  We just have to not eat sugar loaded baked goods every day for a whole month."

"How late are you planning on staying up?" asked Twilight.

"I dunno!" declared Pinkie.  "Until we get tired, I guess?"

Twilight grumbled in frustration.  "Well, I am going to get a good night's sleep," she declared.  She turned around and began walking away.  "Try not to over-indulge yourselves too much."





Dear Princess Celestia,

This is Twilight Sparkle, writing to you from Discord's alternate version of Ponyville that is populated exclusively by fillies my own age.  Spike informed me that these letters are something that my older self does, and I thought that I would give it a try.  My life has been turned completely upside-down in just one day.  Yesterday I was with you, learning about magic, and today, I am here.  Discord said that even though these letters cannot be delivered to you immediately, he did promise me that he would hold onto them for me and bring them back to the real Equestria. Which means that you won't receive these letters until I am much older.  I do wish to record these events for you all the same.

I'm not sure how I will cope with living in this place for thirty days, especially since it has been made clear that furthering my studies is a waste of time, since I won't be able to remember them until long after they would matter.  If it wasn't for the fact that this 'Discord' character will let us out of his crazy experiment at any time, I would question his motives.  As it is, I seriously considered his offer to return to reality, but I am too scared to actually do it.  Not because I will wake up as a full grown mare with all of my memories, but because I am afraid that, if I were to leave, my adult self would be upset with me for doing so.  So I have decided that I am going to try to stay for as long as I can.

I have decided to treat this entire affair as a test of my responsibility.  However, to be honest, I don't have much confidence in these colts and fillies.  They have already arranged to party until they collapse from exhaustion.  At least some of them have the common sense to not over-do it.  Never the less, even with the flaws in Discord's experiment that create a less than realistic experience, I estimate that we will last about a week, maybe two at most, before things fall apart.  Discord expects us to last for a whole thirty days?  We're doomed.

Against my better judgment, I am letting Spike stay up all night with the other fillies and colts in this mad town.  I know that he is going to stay up way too late, and I know that he is going to eat way too much, but at least when it happens, he will have only himself to blame, instead of me.  And also, to be honest, I'm scared to say 'no' to him.  I'm used to taking care of Spike the dragon that is still learning how to speak, not Spike the dragon that is capable of refuting my logic!

I myself did not spend very long at Pinkie's party.  Thankfully, there was more available than just sugar bombs disguised as food.  Unfortunately, the healthier food options were not very popular among the others.

As I was preparing to leave, Fluttershy asked me if she could spend the night with me, as she was not interested in staying at the party, and did not want to spend the night all by herself.  She seems to be one of the most sensible ponies in this crazy town, so naturally I accepted her offer.  I can't help but feel like I am somehow taking advantage of the filly, however.  I believe that the only reason that she chose to open up to me is because she initially thought that I had rescued her from a head injury, and even after I informed her that this was not true, she did not change her attitude toward me.  She openly speaks to Spike and myself, but appears to be terrified of everypony else.  I honestly don't know why she isn't choosing to take Discord's offer and leave, but I for one am glad that she is choosing to stay.  Maybe she will help balance the overload of crazy in this town from the dozens of unsupervised children.

I should get some sleep now.  I expect that many ponies tomorrow will be tired and have tummy-aches, but I won't be one of them.

Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle

P.S.  If I messed up and accidently failed to follow some sort of mandatory format for the writing of these letters, I beg your forgiveness!  It can't be helped that I am ignorant of such things in my present state!  I know that my future self surely must be far more proficient at letter writing than I am, but I hope that my letter has some sort of value all the same.
> Day 2: Refrigerator Trouble
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight was sitting in an armchair with a book held in her magical grasp.  She had decided that just because she couldn't further her education didn't mean that she couldn't enjoy a good book.

A movement caught her eye.

"Oh, Fluttershy!" said Twilight.  "You're awake!"

"Yes," answered Fluttershy.

Twilight hesitated.  "What time is it?"  She took notice of the clock.

"Ten o' clock," she remarked, not waiting for Fluttershy to answer the question herself.  "Wow, I can't believe it's so late!  I just couldn't keep my nose out of that book!  I wonder how things at the party are going by now.  I suppose I ought to forget about breakfast at this point and wait until lunch.  Which means that we'll have to see what the others have available."  The prospect didn't seem particularly exciting.  "Would you like to go see how everypony else is doing?"

"Okay."

Twilight closed her book and put it down before hopping out of the chair.





"Pinkie?"

Pinkie Pie stopped her strange dance and looked toward the new voice.

"Twilight!" she exclaimed, throwing her hooves into the air.  "And Fluttershy too!  You finally decided to come and join us!"

"But... everypony else here is passed out," said Twilight, motioning toward the tables and booths surrounding them.  There were far fewer faces here than had originally attended.

"Did you actually stay up the entire night?" asked Twilight.

"You bet I did!"

"... But nopony else did?" asked Twilight.

"Well, a few of the others almost did, but they got tired.  And a bunch of them also started complaining about how they ate too many sweets."

"I told you."

"Well, I feel fine!"

"I can see that..."

Meanwhile, Fluttershy had wandered over to the unconscious Spike.  The phrase 'Don't wake a sleeping dragon' ran through her head, causing her to hesitate.  However, she ultimately could not bring herself to see Spike in that light.  She carefully poked him in the side.

Spike responded by muttering and shifting in his sleep.

Fluttershy poked him again, just as gently as before.

"Stop iiit..." muttered Spike.

Another poke.  This time, Fluttershy whispered "Spike," into his ear.

"What is it?" asked Spike, his eyes finally blinking open.  He looked up at his oppressor.

"Oh, it's you Fluttershy..." he grumbled.

"Did Rarity leave?" asked Fluttershy quietly.

"Yeah, she was one of the first to go home..."

"Could you take me to her house then?" said Fluttershy.  "I don't know my way around Ponyville."

"Urgh, can it wait 'til later?" moaned Spike.

"Oh...  Okay..."

Spike groaned, this time out of frustration.

"No, wait, Fluttershy.  I'll help you.  Where did you say you wanted to go?"

"Um... Could you take me to see Rarity?"

"Rarity?" asked Spike in surprise, his overstuffed stomach temporarily forgotten.  "Well, I guess I can make the time to do that for you..."

Spike hopped down from his chair.  "Hey, Twilight."

Twilight stopped her conversation with Pinkie to look back at him.  Spike was startled to see that Twilight had an angry look on her face.

"Um..."  Spike hesitated.  "Fluttershy wants me to walk her over to Rarity's place..." he managed.  "Is that alright with you?"

"Yes, yes, go on," said Twilight.  She turned back around to Pinkie.

"Now, let me get this straight," Twilight said to Pinkie in an annoyed tone.  "You are already completely out of flour?"





"A note?" asked Spike and Rarity in unison.

"Yes, I have it right here."

Fluttershy gave Rarity a piece of paper.  Rarity read through it with an expression of confusion on her face.

"And, since this is the second of this month, I thought I should check to see if you still want to..." said Fluttershy.

"But I wasn't the one that wrote you this note!" protested Rarity.  "My future self did!"

"So does that mean that you don't want to have lunch together?"

"... Well I-  But how can we?  There's no place in Ponyville to get lunch from!  I mean, I guess I could check to see what's in my refrigerator...?"

"Well, only if you want to..."

"No, it's okay.  Come inside, lets go take a look."

Rarity stepped aside and motioned for Fluttershy and Spike to come into the boutique.

"These dresses are lovely," remarked Fluttershy.

"Well, thank you, but they're not mine.  Not really.  Sweetie Belle assured me that my adult self stitched every last one of these dresses, but it wasn't me.  Future me is so much more talented than I am..."

Fluttershy said nothing.

"Eleven O' clock is a little early to be having lunch," continued Rarity.  "I suppose the original intent was to not get food immediately after you show up, but I am hungry.  I didn't have breakfast, you see.  Um, I think the kitchen is... this way?"

Rarity peeked through the archway and, to her relief, saw that her guess had been correct.

"Whoa!" exclaimed Spike.

"Rarity!" exclaimed Fluttershy in a hushed cry.

"What?" asked Rarity.

"What happened to your refrigerator?"

"Huh?"

Rarity approached the refrigerator and quickly realized that something was very wrong.

"What in Equestria is that?" she wailed.  "Why is my refrigerator covered with rainbow slime!"

Rarity rushed toward the appliance with panic in her eyes.

"It's pooling on the floor!" she cried.  "And look!  It's just covering the lower door!  It's coming out of the freezer!  What is this stuff!?"

Rarity carefully avoided the pool of multi-colored slime on the floor and threw the freezer door open.

"Agh!" she screeched in a shrill voice.  "My ice cream!"

She stuck a hoof into the freezer and, to her horror, discovered that it was no colder than the room she was standing in.

"My refrigerator is broken!" Rarity wailed.  "Fluttershy!  What do I doo-ooo-oooooooo?"

"Well, first-"

"I know!" Rarity cried out.  "I'll ask the others for help!  Somepony in this town has to be able to fix a refrigerator!  They must!"

Rarity shot out of the kitchen and out the front door.

"Rarity!" cried Spike as he chased after her.  "Wait up!"





Back at Sugar Cube Corner, Twilight and Pinkie heard the front door fly open and a voice cry "Somepony help me!"

There were groans of annoyance from the surrounding sleeping fillies and colts.

"Rarity!" cried Twilight.  "What's wrong?"

"All of her ice cream is melting," said Pinkie.

"Pinkie!" chastised Twilight.  "This is serious!  What's the matter, Rarity?"

"My refrigerator is broken and all of my ice cream is oozing out!" cried Rarity!  "Somepony must help me!"

"Really?" asked Twilight bemusedly.

"What's going on?" sputtered a tired looking Sweetie Belle.

"I said, my refrigerator is broke and all of the ice cream is oozing out all over the kitchen!" cried Rarity.  "Somepony has to help me!"

"Whoa," said Rainbow Dash.  "Wait up, ice cream all over the kitchen?  Now this I gotta see."

Rainbow Dash flew up from the bench that she had fallen asleep on and flew to the door.  She wasn't the only one to start moving, however.  Before Twilight could wrap her head around what was happening, everyone in Sugar Cube Corner was following a tearful Rarity back to the boutique.

"Do any of you actually know how to fix a refrigerator?" Twilight called after them as she ran to catch up.

The group of colts and fillies eventually ran past Spike, who was running in the opposite direction.

"Hey!" he cried out as he braked to a stop with the back of his feet.  "Wait up you guys!  Argh!"





"Hey!" cried Rainbow Dash in annoyance, now inside Rarity's kitchen along with the others from Sugar Cube Corner.  "You said that it was all over the place!"

"It is!" insisted Rarity.  "Just look at that!"  She pointed at the puddle under the refrigerator.

"That puddle is like, two feet wide."

"It's icky!"

"So, you were serious?" said Twilight in confusion.  She turned to Pinkie Pie.  "Pinkie, how did you know about this?  You didn't have anything to do with it, did you?"

"Nah!" Pinkie answered.  "I just used my pinkie sense!"

"... You're what?"

"So I guess we're gunna need some tools to crack it open and see what's wrong," said Apple Bloom.  "Anypony know where we can get any?"

"First things first," said Diamond Tiara.  "Let's wipe this mess up so we don't get any on us.  Somepony open the freezer."

Rarity did so.

And then she screamed again.

"Good grief Rarity!" complained Sweetie Belle.  "Haven't you screamed enough today?"

"It's gone!" Rarity cried.  "It's all gone!  Where did my ice cream go!  Even the buckets are gone!"

"Fluttershy!" shouted Rarity in an accusing tone, whirling around to face her.  "You ate all of my ice cream while I was gone!"

Fluttershy let out an "Eeep!" and began to back away into a corner as Rarity approached her.

"How could you do this to me?" demanded Rarity.

"Whoa whoa whoa Rarity," cried Rainbow Dash as he flew to Fluttershy's side.  "Me and Flutters go way back.  There's no way she ate your ice cream.  Trust me!  That's not like her!"

"Then where is it?" shouted Rarity.

"Maybe if you'd back off, Fluttershy could tell you!"

Reluctantly, Rarity stepped away from Fluttershy.

"Fluttershy, do you know what happened to Rarity's ice cream?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"It's... outside," whispered Fluttershy.

"What was that?" demanded Rarity.

"Um..." began Rainbow Dash, her expression showing confusion.  "She said it's outside...?"

"Here it is!" cried Pinkie.  She stepped into the crowd of foals as they parted to make way for her.  She was carrying two buckets of ice cream in each hoof.  "They were sitting by the front door in the snow!  I thought you would have noticed!"

"You put them outside?" cried Rarity.  "Why would you do that, Fluttershy?"

"Um, because it's below freezing out there?" said Rainbow Dash.

"...  Oh.  Right.  I'm... sorry Fluttershy.  Thank you."

"What about the rest of the food?" asked Diamond Tiara.

"I never checked," said Rarity.  She opened the lower door (being careful not to get melted ice cream on her hooves) and stuck a hoof in.  "It's warm in here too."

"Alright, let's pile everything on the table and clean this mess up," said Diamond.  "Only, not in that order!"





"I got tools here!" shouted Apple Bloom as she came through the front door.

Everypony moved out of the kitchen to look.  Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo were waddling through the door while awkwardly carrying piles of various kinds of tools.

"Where did you get all those?" asked Applejack.

"We borrowed them from neighbor's tool shed!"

"Borrowed?" said Applejack.  "Without askin'?"

"It's not like there's anypony to ask," defended Apple Bloom.  "And besides, nopony actually even lives in the neighbor's house anyway!  This isn't the real Ponyville, remember?  Which means that all of this stuff isn't technically owned by anypony!"

"Well, ah guess so," answered Applejack reluctantly.

"Well then," said Apple Bloom, "let's get to work!"

Within minutes, the back of the refrigerator was pried off and a dozen colts and fillies were trying to make sense of the mess inside.

"What's this thing?"

"Is this supposed to be like that?"

"Where does this tube here go?"

Twilight decided that she had better things to do than listen to them argue about how to fix the refrigerator.

"Rainbow Dash!" she called.

"Huh? asked Rainbow, looking away from the refrigerator to look at Twilight.  "Whada you want?"

"Come here."

Rainbow did so, confusion in her face.

Twilight pointed out a window.  "You see that?"

Rainbow looked.  "Yeah."

"Discord said that you're the weather pony around here," continued Twilight.  "Don't you think that it's about time you cleaned up all of these clouds?"

Rainbow Dash grimaced.  "No, Twilight.  I don't.  Discord said that I should be the weather pony.  That doesn't mean that I have to.  And there's nopony around scheduling the weather, so I'll decide what kind of weather we'll be having around here.  And I say that today is going to be a cloudy day."

Twilight threw her hooves up.  "Alright, fine!"





One hour later, no progress had been made.  In fact, the refrigerator probably needed more repair than it did previously.

"I'm hungry!" announced Snips.

"Me too!" agreed Snails.  "What time is it?"

"It's noon," announced Sweetie Belle, who knew where to locate the clock.  "Should we break for lunch?"

"Where should we go?" asked Pinkie.  "Back to Sugar Cube Corner?"

"Pinkie," said Rainbow Dash in deadpan, "There's food right here."  She pointed at the table, which had several dishes with various food items in them.  "And if we can't get that stupid refrigerator fixed then its all going to go bad before too long, sooo..."

Soon everypony was grabbing food from Rarity's table like a buffet.

Rarity herself was trying to not think about the amount of dishes that would need to be cleaned after this was over.

"There must be a better way to do this," remarked Diamond Tiara.  "A solution to the problem that doesn't actually involve fixing the refrigerator."

"We could leave it like it is," suggested Rainbow Dash.

"No!" cried Rarity.  "My ice cream!"

"Well, we could eat all the ice cream and then you won't have to worry about it?"

"Absolutely not," continued Rarity.  "That ice cream is all mine!"

"Wait a minute Rarity!" said Sweetie Belle.  "I know what we can do!"

"You do?"

"Let's just take the neighbor's refrigerator!"





"How did you all rope me into this?" complained Twilight.

The front door to the neighbor's house opened and out came a crowd of colts and fillies balancing a new refrigerator on their backs, assisted by Twilight's magic.

"Hey," said Sweetie Belle.  "Where are Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash?"






"So," began Scootaloo.  "we're doing what exactly?"

"We're exploring, Scootaloo!" answered Rainbow Dash as they walked through the hallway of the neighbor's house.  "You saw the the others, they don't need our help!"

"But this is somepony's house!" protested Scootaloo.

"Didn't we already steal their tools and refrigerator?" countered Rainbow.

"That wasn't stealing!  But what if we come across somepony's secrets or something?  Shouldn't we respect their privacy?"

"Relax," assured Rainbow Dash.  "It's not like we're going to snoop through their personal stuff.  Hey, what's that?"

Rainbow and Scootaloo stopped to stare at a small brown object that was laying in the floor.  Scootaloo picked it up.

"It's somepony's money purse," she announced.

They both hesitated.

"Do you wanna..." began Scootaloo anxiously.

"Yeah!" answered Rainbow Dash.  "It doesn't belong to anypony, remember?  Spill it!"

Rainbow held her hooves out in front of Scootaloo.  Scootaloo opened the zipper on the purse and poured the contents into Rainbow's hooves.

"Holy googly moogly!" exclaimed Rainbow.  "That's gotta be, like, forty bits here!  That's more money than I've ever held in my life!"

"Yeah," said Scootaloo unexcitedly.  "But what are we going to do what it?"

"What do you mean?" asked Rainbow, looking at Scootaloo as though she was crazy.

"I mean, what is there to even spend money on around here?  There's nopony selling anything around here!  We just grab what we need when we need it!"

"But, But..." Rainbow stuttered.  "But there must be something we could use these for!"

"Hmmmmm..." Scootaloo sat back in thought.  Suddenly her face lit up.  "You're right!  There is one thing we could use bits for!  But we're going to need way more than just forty!"





"Everypony," said Sweetie Belle, "We forgot something."

There was a groan from the other ponies.  "What?" they all asked in deadpan unison.

"We have to get that old broken refrigerator out of here so we can put this one in it's place."

There was more groaning as the group carefully set the new refrigerator down outside Rarity's boutique.





"Good work, everypony!" announced Sweetie Belle as she stood in front of Rarity's new fridge.  "We have successfully replaced Rarity's refrigerator and placed the left-overs inside.

"There is just one problem.

"The freezer already had some stuff in it, so there is not enough room for all of the ice cream.

"Therefore," Sweetie raised a declaratory hoof and paused for effect.

"We need another refrigerator!"





"I can't believe you all roped me into this again," complained Twilight.

The front door to another neighbor's house opened and out came a crowd of colts and fillies balacing a second new refrigerator on their backs, assisted by Twilight's magic.





"Well.  So, where do we put this one, again?" asked Twilight in annoyance.

"Oh yeah," said Sweetie Belle.  "I forgot.  There's only a spot for just the one refrigerator.  Let's just... drop it in the middle of the floor, I guess?"





"Thank you all so much!" cried Rarity with happiness to her guests.  "I thought for sure that I was done for, but you all pulled through for me!"

" 'T'wern't nuthin'," said Applejack.

"Yes it was!" countered Sweetie Belle.  "That was alot of work, but we did it because we're all in this together, and we take care of each other!"

Each colt and filly took turns saying 'you're welcome' to Rarity.

"So," said Pipsqueak.  "Now that that's over, what do we do with ourselves for the rest of the day?  I don't really want to go home all by myself.  We should stick together!"

Several of the others nodded in agreement.

"Well," said Featherweight, "where should we go then?"

"First of all," said Applejack, "Ah think we should decide what to do for dinner."

"Really?" asked Twilight.  "You all just had lunch!  Good grief!  Is food all you ponies can think about?"

"Well, it is an every day part of life," countered Applejack.  "I'm just tryin' to be prepared for the future."

"Wherever we go," said Rumble, "let's make sure there's lots of room.  Staying at Sugar Cube Corner was fun and all, but it was rather cramped."

"Okay," said Diamond Tiara, holding a hoof up.  "I can take a hint.  How would everypony like to have a sleep-over at my place?  We have, like, a fifteen hundred square foot living room, so you can all crash in there."

"Yeah," said Sweetie Belle.  "While you sleep in your bedroom."

"She would not," countered Silver Spoon.

"Yeah," said Diamond Tiara.  "Of course I wouldn't!"

"What about dinner?" repeated Applejack.

"I don't know!  I'm certainly not going to cook for all of you!"

"Well, that's not being a very good host," said Sweetie Belle.  "You're inviting us to your house and you won't even take care of dinner?"

"Just because I can cook doesn't mean that I like to," answered Diamond Tiara in annoyance.  "Now are you going to be grateful and take me up on my offer or what?"

"Actually," began Applejack, "if you don't mind that is, Diamond Tiara...  Apple Bloom and I are sorta hopin' you'll let us take care of it."

"That would mean everything will have apples in it, right?" asked Diamond Tiara.

"Well... most of it?" answered Applejack, taken aback.  "If you don't like 'em, we could always-"

"No, I'm fine with it," answered Diamond.  "I was just checking.  If it means I don't have to worry about it, you two can go for it.  Just... don't make a mess in my parent's kitchen?"

"Of course not!"





"Well," said Scootaloo as she came to a stop and lifted a hoof.  "Here we are!"

Rainbow Dash dropped the sack that she was carrying, which landed on the ground with a thousand 'click' noises, and stared at Scootaloo incredulously.

"What are we doing at Ponyville General Hospital?" she demanded.  "I thought we were going someplace cool!"

"Don't worry," Scootaloo assured.  "Even though this is a hospital, they have one thing here that is really cool."

"What in Celestia's name could that possibly be?"

"Come on, I'll show you!"

Scootaloo ran toward the door and looked at Rainbow expectantly.  Rainbow reluctantly picked up the bag of bits again and followed Scootaloo.

After going inside, Scootaloo took Rainbow down a hallway, and then another, where she stopped.

"There's what we're after!" declared Scootaloo.

"This place has vending machines?" asked Rainbow Dash in excited disbelief.  "Why do they have vending machines in a hospital!  Aren't these places supposed to be all healthy and stuff?"

"I don't get it either," answered Scootaloo, "but they're here all the same!"

"Oh my gosh," said Rainbow, looking at the drink machine.  "They have Canterlot Mountain brand soda!  I love that stuff!"

"It's that good?"

"Oh yeah!  This was an awesome idea!"

Rainbow heaved the sack over her shoulder and dumped the contents onto the floor, which resulted in a very loud series of metallic noises as a small mountain of bits formed.

"Alright!" declared Rainbow happily.  "Let's start with the snack machine!  We're going to clear this place out!"





Twilight smiled to herself as she walked down the street, carrying a box.

The rest of the foals had decided to bring some board games to Diamond's house to pass the time until dinner.  Since Twilight had decided that she would rather have a proper meal than just eating lone fruits and vegetables for dinner, she had reluctantly agreed to also attend.

Of course, it would make Twilight feel that she was taking advantage of Diamond Tiara if she just showed up for dinner and then ran off, so she had chosen to spend the rest of the day playing games with the others.

Which she would have ordinarily found to be rather boring.  However, the game in Twilight's hooves was one of a few board games that she felt sure that she could enjoy.





"Alright, that does it for the snack machine!" said Rainbow Dash as she reached into the slot at the bottom of it and grabbed the wrapped candy bar and tossed it into the sack that had previously held the bits.  "Now the drink machine!  Hehehehe!" she laughed, rubbing her hooves together.

Rainbow took another bit and poked it into the machine and pushed the button to request from the first column, first row.

Nothing happened.

"Hey!" she shouted in anger, bashing the machine with a hoof.

Nothing continued to happen.

"Stupid machine ate my bit!" Rainbow complained to Scootaloo.

"Try another bit?" suggested Scootaloo.

Rainbow tried.

It didn't work.

"Well, what do we do now?" asked Scootaloo.  "It's not like we can go complain to the management."

"Scootaloo," said Rainbow Dash determinedly, not taking her eyes off of the drink machine, "You and me are going to get those sodas out of there."

Rainbow Dash lifted up a sledge hammer.

"No matter what it takes!"





"Candy Land, Pinkie?" said Twilight, now seated on a dining chair that had temporarily been relocated to Diamond Tiara's living room.

"Candy land is fun!" protested Pinkie.

"I guess if you are so easily entertained, go for it," Twilight sighed.  "Meanwhile, I am going to occupy myself with something a little more strategic and intellectual!"  She lifted the lid from her box.  "Chess!"

The other colts and fillies gave Twilight a variety of looks.

Twilight didn't notice.

"Now," began Twilight as she turned to the others.  "who wants to be my opponent?"

Nopony responded.

"Nopony at all?" asked Twilight in disbelief.

Silence.

"Why don't any of you want to play with me?" demanded Twilight.

"Wellllll..." began Sweetie Belle hesitantly.  Twilight shot her attention toward Sweetie.

But it was too late to turn back now.  Sweetie Belle knew that she had already spoken, and Twilight would not be satisfied until she had finished her thought.

"It's just that..." Sweetie continued.  "Everypony here already knows without a doubt that you'd... kick all of our flanks at that particular game."

Twilight's expression remained unchanged as she stared off into space to digest this information.

"I don't know how to play chest," said Dinky, "but I'd like to learn how!  Maybe you could teach me?"

Twilight broke out of her trance and looked at Dinky.

"I suppose so," she sighed.  "Lesson one.  The name of the game is 'chess', not 'chest'."





Some time later, there was a knock at the door.  Diamond Tiara arose from 'The Game of Life' to answer the door.

"What the hay?" she said.

Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo pushed a mobile hospital tray loaded with canned drinks and a bulging sack past Diamond.

"Attention everypony!" announced Rainbow Dash as they walked into the living room.  "We bring you good tidings of soda pop and individually wrapped candy!"

"Cool!" cried Sweetie Belle.  "But let's not dig into them just yet.  Apple Bloom and her sister are fixing up dinner.  We can dig into all that stuff later."

"Says you!" said Rainbow Dash.  She snatched a Canterlot Mountain soda off of the tray and started fiddling with the tab.

"Where did you get all of this?" asked Twilight.

"The hospital vending machines," answered Scootaloo casually.

Suddenly there was a loud squirting sound and Rainbow Dash got a face full of soda.

Everypony else in the room burst out laughing.

Rainbow's face started to turn red, out of equal parts embarrassment and anger.

Apple Bloom walked into the living room to see what everypony was laughing about.

"Hey, Rainbow!" she said.  "Are all of those cans like that?"

"Prooooobably..."

"Don't sweat it none, come get yerself cleaned up."

Rainbow wordlessly followed Apple Bloom into the kitchen.

"Whoa," remarked Applejack when she saw Rainbow's dripping face.  What happened to you, Rainbow?"

"Soda pop exploded in my face..." muttered Rainbow.

Suddenly, a grin popped onto Apple Bloom's face.

"Hey, Rainbow."

"What?"

"Why don't you put that can down and have a cup of apple juice instead?"

"Apple juice?" asked Rainbow in a tone of voice suggesting that she might have heard incorrectly.  "Why would I want a cup of apple juice?  There's no way that tastes as cool as this."

"Just try it," insisted Apple Bloom as she poured Rainbow a cup out of a pitcher.  "I insist!"

"Alright, fine," said Rainbow.

Apple Bloom ignored Applejack's suspicious gaze as she gave Rainbow Dash the cup.

She waited as Rainbow took a sip.

"Hmm," said Rainbow speculatively.  "Not bad, I guess."

She took a larger swig.

"Okay, this stuff isn't normal apple juice.  What did you two do to it?"

Apple Bloom grinned.  "Secret recipe."

Rainbow took another swig.  "Alright, I take it back.  This stuff is pretty good."

She held out an empty cup.

"Gimme more."





"Say!" declared Twilight in a voice loud enough to get the attention of the other ponies.  I just realized something!  Spike's not here, is he?"

"Oh, I know where he's at," said Scootaloo.  "Rainbow Dash and I ran into him at Rarity's botique.  He told us that all the rest of you had left and come to Diamond's house.  Huh.  I wonder why he was there all by himself."

"Ugh," grumbled Twilight.  "I better go check up on him."





Spike didn't notice the sound of the door opening.  He was too busy trying to comprehend a certain book.

"Air compressor..." he muttered to himself.

"Spike?"

"Agh!" shouted Spike as he jumped into the air in surprise.  He turned around to face Twilight.

"Twilight?  What are you doing here?"

"What are you doing here?" asked Twilight evenly.

"Still trying to fix Rarity's refrigerator," said Spike gloomily.  He picked up the book he had been reading and showed it to Twilight.

"I grabbed this from the library.  It's an appliance maintenance guide.  But I can't make heads or tails out of this stuff!"

"Spike, you do know that we just replaced the refrigerator in the end, right?" asked Twilight.  "There's no need to fix the old one."

"I know, I know!" said Spike in frustration.  "But Rarity wanted it fixed!"

"But you don't know how to fix a refrigerator!" Twilight pointed out.

"I know that too!  But...  I just wanted to do something nice for somepony, okay!"

Twilight wasn't sure how to respond to that.

"I don't care how long this takes!" continued Spike.  "I'll stay up all night fixing that thing if I have to!  ...  Twilight, I bet you can understand the instructions in this book!  Will you help me?"

Twilight gave Spike a funny look.  Is Spike always like this? she wondered to herself.  Why is he acting funny?

"Pleeeeeease, Twilight?"
> Day 3 Part 1: Weather Control
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"Rainbow Dash!"

"Ugh..." moaned Rainbow as she was roused from her sleep.  "Twilight?  What is it?"

"Come here!"

"I don't wanna.  Couldn't you see I was trying to sleep?  Hey!" cried Rainbow as she was lifted into the air by Twilight's magic.

"Twilight!  There's no need for that!" protested Scootaloo.

Twilight dropped Rainbow onto the floor.

"Alright, fine!" cried Rainbow in frustration.  "I'll come see whatever it is that you want me to see!"

"Look," said Twilight, pointing out the window.

Rainbow sighed.  "This again?"

She looked anyway.

"Oh.  Cool.  It's snowing."

"Haha," said Twilight, clearly unamused.  "Yes, snow is cool.  But, if you didn't notice, we already had as much snow as we needed.  It snowed all through last night, and when we tried to open the front door, we had to force a heap of snow to the side."

"What?" exclaimed Rainbow.  "The clouds have only been building up for a day!  The weather shouldn't have gotten out of control so fast!"

"Which is why I initially agreed to let you take yesterday off," said Twilight.  "However, I have recently been informed that Ponyville is a special case.  It is right on the outskirts of an 'Everfree Forest', which apparently has out-of-control weather constantly.  And, unfortunately, a good bit of it drifts over to Ponyville."

"So...  I guess that means I'm on clean up duty, huh?" asked Rainbow Dash bemusedly.

"If you can.  Frankly, this doesn't look good."

"Hey!" cried Scootaloo.  "Don't say that!  Rainbow Dash can do it!  Rainbow Dash is the fastest pegaus in Equestria!"

There was a chorus of agreement.

"You're all very confident about this, aren't you?" remarked Twilight.

"Come on, Rainbow!" said Scootaloo, moving to Rainbow's side and giving her a scarf.  "You can show her!  Why, you can clean up the sky on a normal day in ten seconds flat!"

"That is absurd," said Twilight.

"Then prepare to be amazed!" cried Scootaloo.  She threw the door open and ushered Rainbow outside.

Twilight situated herself at a window to watch.

Well, she thought to herself, I suppose Discord's is going to fail his bet even faster than I had anticipated.





"Alright, alright," said Rainbow Dash to herself.  "You've done this thousands of times in flight school.  This is just... bigger."

Rainbow turned around to look at Scootaloo.  "I don't suppose you'd like to help me out?"

"I wish I could," said Scootaloo, "but I'm not the greatest flyer.  You once told me that when you were a filly, your wings were no bigger than mine, but, at the time, I didn't believe you.  But I guess I can see for myself now," she continued with a small laugh.  "You're wings may be stronger than mine, but they are not really any bigger at all.  I guess that just makes you even more awesome, right?"

"You can't fly?" asked Rainbow sympathetically.

"Well, I kind of can.  I can get a decent take off, but I can't stay in the air forever.  It's okay though.  I try not to stress myself about it."

Rainbow Dash gave her a blank look.

"Now go on!" insisted Scootaloo.





"Well," declared Twilight weakly.  "I guess that will teach me to disbelieve what you all tell me in the future..."

"We told you," said Diamond Tiara with a smirk.

Twilight frowned, not at Diamond, but to herself.  She stood up and walked to the door.

"Where are you going?" asked Diamond.

"I'm going to have a word with Discord," answered Twilight.

"Discord?" asked Diamond.  "Why?"  Suddenly her eyes flew wide open.

"Wait a minute!" she cried.  "You're not leaving us, are you?  Are you going to ask Discord to send you home?  We need you!"

Twilight looked back at Diamond in surprise.  "You do?"

"Well, yes, we do!" cried Diamond.  "After all, you're a pr-"

"Diamond!" shouted all three Cutie Mark Crusaders at once.

"What?" asked Twilight, bewildered.  "What am I?"

"... I worded that wrong," said Diamond nervously.  "I just meant to say that we don't want you to leave!"

"Well, there's no need to worry about that," Twilight assured.  "I'm not leaving you all just yet.  I just want to have a discussion with Discord."





Rainbow Dash had almost finished removing all of the clouds from Ponyville.  It hadn't even taken her more than about ten minutes or so, but all the same, she had promised herself that she would dive head-first into all the candy and soda she wanted when she was done.

It came as a complete shock when she realized that Discord was laying on the next cloud, an arm supporting his head.

"Rainbow Dash!" he said happily.  "Good to see you!"

"Discord?  What are you doing here?"

"Well, I just thought I would swing by to let you know how much I have admired you these past couple of days."

"You admire me?" asked Rainbow in surprise.

"I do!  For instance, I admire you right now!  Putting off work until the very last minute is definitely my style.  It hardly does anypony any good to stress about every little thing from the moment they wake up to the time they go to bed, am I right?  Out of sight, out of mind, and all that?"

"Yeah," said Rainbow non-committedly, "but we came this close to having to deal with a blizzard.  If I had taken care of the clouds sooner, it wouldn't have been a problem."

"Hey," said Discord, "fillies aren't supposed to stress about this stuff!  You should be having fun!"

"How can we not stress out about stuff like this when there are no adults in town?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"Look at it this way," said Discord.  "Things get boring when there are no problems, so, I say let the problems pile up!"

"Really?" said Rainbow bemusedly.

"There must be some way you can find a positive thing in this," insisted Discord.

"Hmm...  Well, fresh snow is the best kind for a good snowball fight..." mused Rainbow Dash.

"There you go then!" cried Discord happily.  "The problem gets solved, and you even get to have some fun while you're at it!"

"I guess so."

"You know what else I admire about you, Rainbow Dash?"

"What?"

"The way that you handled that drink machine yesterday!  You had a problem, and you attacked that problem in one of the most direct ways possible!  Quite literally!  You smashed that thing into pieces!  I wish I had joined in on the fun, but unfortunately, I'm not allowed to help you fillies."

"Yeah, but you know I never would have done that if this was the real Ponyville," pointed out Rainbow.

"Yes, I know," answered Discord in a more melancholy tone.  "It's a shame, isn't it?  Always having to worry about what other ponies will think, worrying about the consequences of your actions.  It's a crying shame.  It's almost enough to make you wish you could stay here forever, right?"

"Sort of," admitted Rainbow.  "But we're not staying forever.  I mean, this is a nice vacation away from everything and all, but I think even I'll get homesick eventually."

"We'll have to pick this conversation up another time," said Discord.  "Twilight just stepped into the mayor's office."

Discord snapped his fingers and disappeared.





"So," began Scootaloo.  "Why did you want to talk to us both in private?"

"It's Diamond Tiara," said Apple Bloom, adressing both of her fellow Crusaders.

"What about her?" asked Sweetie Belle.  "The fact that she almost let slip that Twilight is a Princess?"

"No, not that."

"Well, then what?  She hasn't really done anything to us yet."

"That's just it," said Apple Bloom.  "She hasn't been herself these past couple of days!"

"I don't think anypony here is," pointed out Scootaloo.

"Yes, but she hasn't even tried to bully us once!" said Apple Bloom.  "And she's being... nicer than usual!  I'm not saying that she hasn't been..."

Apple Bloom paused to think of the right word.

"Abrasive?" sugested Sweetie Belle.

"Um, sure?" said Apple Bloom.  "But the point is, even though she's trying to be the center of attention, she's not being outright mean!  What's she up to?"

"Why do you think that she's 'up to something'?" asked Sweetie Belle.

"But she can't have had a change of heart overnight for no reason!"

"There must be some reason!" interjected Scootaloo.

"Well, what could be the reason then?" asked Sweetie Belle.

"She's probabily just scared to do anything around our sisters," said Scootaloo.  "They have been hanging out with us a lot."

"Maybe," said Apple Bloom uncertainly.

"Who cares what the reason is?" asked Scootaloo.  "I'm just glad that she's not giving us a hard time when we're supposed to be having fun."





"Twilight!" cried Discord as he watched the unicorn jump in fright.

"Discord!" cried Twilight in annoyance.  "I forgot that you can do that..."

"What brings you to my office?" asked Discord.  "I do hope you aren't here to ask me to send you home."

"Why do you care?" asked Twilight.  "What makes me so special?  The fact that I'm Princess Celestia's student?"

"Well, you see Twilight, out of all of the ponies in this town, it would be the most unfortunate if you were to leave."

"But why?"

"Well, to be perfectly honest with you, it's because the little bet that I am trying to settle...  I made that bet with you.  The adult you, to be specific."

"What?  You...  You did?"

"I did," assured Discord.

"But...  Why would I agree to something like this?" cried Twilight.

"Don't ask me.  Ask adult Twilight."

"You know I can't."

"Well, I suppose you will find out why in about twenty seven days or so."

Twilight narrowed her eyes.

"I could find out now."

Discord's expression actually looked a little worried.  "But are you going to?" he asked.

"...  No."

"Well, good!" said Discord.  "If you were to leave now, your adult self might not believe me when I inform her that I won our bet."

"Discord, I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I believe you have already lost."

"Really?" asked Discord, not showing any signs of worry or doubt, but only intrigue.  "Do tell."

"I should have known it would be the weather that would do us all in," continued Twilight.  "A town full of foals can't be expected to keep the weather under control!"

"And yet Rainbow Dash proves you wrong all by herself," countered Discord.

"Rainbow Dash is the most prodigious pegasus in all of Equestria!" cried Twilight.  "Any other colt or filly would not be up to the job!"

"Well," said Discord, "it's a good thing that we have Rainbow Dash living here in Ponyville then, right?"

"Rainbow Dash shouldn't even be here," Twilight pointed out.  "She's from Cloudsdale.  I shouldn't be here either!  But that's beside the point.  An average town like Ponyville could not last for thirty days because an average town doesn't have ponies like Rainbow Dash living in it!"

"This is what I love about you, Twilight," said Discord happily, earning him a glare.  "Even now, here in my little copy of Ponyville, you're debating this with me, and I love it."

"This isn't a debate anymore," countered Twilight.  "You've lost."

"Twilight, let me tell you a little something.  As it turns out, the whole of all of Equestria shouldn't be able to survive a whole year without falling apart."

"That's ridiculous!" cried Twilight.

"But I promise you it's true," said Discord.  "The only reason that Equestria isn't a disaster by now is because of a small hand full of pony prodigies."

"I don't believe you!" said Twilight.  "Who are these ponies?"

Discord grinned an unsettlingly large grin.  "Why don't you go ask your friends?" he suggested.

Twilight stared at the chaos spirit for a minute, and then huffed.  "Alright, I will."

She turned to leave.  But right before she was about to open the door, she turned back around.

"Just one more question, Discord.  If the bet was made with me, then what do I win if you lose?"

"Oh," said Discord mischievously.  "I think it would be far more enjoyable if you were to find out what you could have gotten only after it's too late."

Twilight rolled her eyes.  "Alright, whatever," she said as she opened the door.  "I didn't really want to know anyway."
> Day 3 Part 2: Snow and Cookies
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"So," began Rainbow Dash, now back in Diamond Tiara's living room and currently enjoying a soda (which had been opened much more carefully than the last one).  "Does anypony feel like having a snowball fight?"

Several of the others looked up from their conversations with one another in interest.

"A snowball fight?" asked Diamond Tiara.

"Yeah.  Fresh snow is the best time to do it."

Hmm, thought Diamond.  An opportunity to throw snow in each other's faces?

"Alright, I suppose that sounds fun.  Is everypony else coming?"

There was a chorus of agreement from almost everyone.

"No thanks."

"Aw, common Fluttershy," said Applejack.  "It'll be fun!"

"I'd rather not."

"Well, suit yourself then."

"We can't leave poor Fluttershy here all by herself!" protested Pinkie Pie.

"No, I'm fine, really."

"But what are you going to do while everypony else is outside?" asked Pinkie.

"I... I don't know."

"Hey!" cried Pinkie.  "I know!  While everypony else is outside in the snow, Fluttershy and I can whip up some hot chocolate and snicker-doodles for everypony!  Would you like that, Fluttershy?"

"But I don't know how make hot chocolate or snicker-doodles," said Fluttershy.

"Don't worry!  I can make the hot chocolate, and you can follow this recipe for snicker-doodles I just happen to have here!"

"I was actually going to just read a book..." said Fluttershy.  Pinkie didn't hear.





As soon as the foals stepped outside, snowballs began flying.  The Cutie Mark Crusaders immediately formed a team and quickly convinced Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash to join them with only a few snowballs being thrown at them during negotiations.

"Here come Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon!" announced Apple Bloom.  "...  And Dinky too?  How did she manage to team up with those two?"

"Defend the fort!"

Snowballs began flying.

"Take cover!" cried Silver Spoon.





Twilight arrived at Diamond Tiara's front yard and beheld the chaos in confusion.

A snowball smacked her in the face.

"Hey!" she complained.

"Hey Twilight!" shouted Pipsqueak.  "You shouldn't stand out in the open like that!"

Twilight hurried over toward Pipsqueak, who was apparently teamed up with Spike, Rumble, Featherweight, Snips, and Snails.

"So, you're all having a snow ball fight?" asked Twilight, as if the answer wasn't obvious.

"Yep!" answered Pipsqueak.  "I think there's five teams.  We're about to try sneaking up on the Crusader's group."

"Well, don't expect me to join you," said Twilight.  "I have something else to be doing right now."

"I wasn't going to ask you to join our team," said Pipsqueak.  "This is an all colts team.  So, you know what happens now, right?"

A flurry of snowballs flew at Twilight as she screamed and ran away from the colts.

She took cover behind a tree and stopped to think.

Eventually, she stuck her head out of her cover and shouted, "Alright you guys!  You're all going to regret that!"

She pulled her head back to safety to avoid another rain of snowballs.





"There we go!" cried Pinkie happily.  "The hot chocolate is all ready to go!  How are you coming along, Fluttershy?"

"Owky, I fink," replied Fluttershy, who was currently scooping up globs of dough in a wooden spoon held in her mouth and setting them on the baking tray.

"Cool!  I'm going to pour this hot chocolate into some mugs and bring them out to the others!"

"Awight."





"Well," said Twilight to herself.  "This may not have been the best idea."

She prepared another two snowballs and poked her head above the wall of her snow castle.

She got a face full of snow for her efforts.

"Ach!" she cried as she spat out the snow.  She threw her snowballs into the Cutie Mark Crusader's group, uncertain which particular pony had attacked her.

She ducked down again to gather up more snow.

"The problem with having the biggest fort," continued Twilight, "is that you attract the attention of everypony around you.  And I'm all by myself."

Suddenly, there was a blur of blue overhead and two more snowballs came plummeting down.

"Air strike!" shouted Rainbow Dash as she rocketed past.

Twilight hunkered down as she took the snowballs in the back.

After recovering from the impact, Twilight poked her head over the wall again and shouted, "No fair!"

She ducked back down again to avoid more snowballs.

"This isn't going so well."

Twilight decided that she would build up a reserve of snowballs before exposing herself again.

A few minutes later, Twilight had a pile of a couple dozen snowballs at the ready.

She realized that a significant period of time had passed without incident.

Bracing herself for another snowball in the muzzle, Twilight poked her head over the wall again.

To her surprise, no snowballs came.  The other teams appeared to be taking a break.

"What's going on?" Twilight wondered to herself.

"Well-"

"Yipe!" cried Twilight as she jumped up into the air in surprise.

"I brought everypony some hot chocolate, so everypony is taking a break for a minute."

Twilight turned around to face Pinkie Pie.

"I brought you a mug too!" continued Pinkie.  "This will keep you nice and warm!"

"...  Thank you, Pinkie.  But how did you get in here?  There's no entrance!"

"I burrowed under your wall and came in through the floor."

Twilight realized in shock that there was an enormous tunnel in the floor behind Pinkie.

"Pinkie!" Twilight cried.  "Now everypony else can get in here the same way you did!"  A field of purple magic enveloped a heap of snow and it began forcing itself down into the tunnel.

"So do you want your hot chocolate?" asked Pinkie, apparently indifferent to Twilight's actions.

"Well," mused Twilight.  "that would be nice, but then that would leave my castle undefended!  There's nopony else on my team to stay on the lookout in case of a suprise attack!"

"I could join your team," Pinkie offered.  "I don't have a team yet, since I just got through making hot chocolate for everypony."

"I guess that would be okay," said Twilight, taking her hot chocolate.

"Alright!  Now get over there!"

"What?" asked Twilight, bewildered, but moving regardless.  "Why?"

A moment later, there was a whooshing noise overhead and two more snow balls smashed into the ground where Twilight had been standing.

"Hey!" shouted Rainbow Dash's voice in annoyance.

"I got her!" cried Pinkie happily.  "I got her!"

"Huh?  Pinkie, did you just hit Rainbow Dash with a snow ball?"

"Yep!"





"That's the fourth time!" cried Twilight in astonishment as listened to Rainbow's cry of annoyance once again.  "Seriously, how are you doing that?"

"I don't know!" said Pinkie Pie as she grabbed an entire load of snowballs.  "I just listen to my Pinkie sense."

Twilight watched as Pinkie peeked over the wall and threw all of the snowballs in quick succession.  There were a lot of complaints from the foals outside.

"Again with your 'Pinkie' sense?" said Twilight.

"Yep!  Somehow I know stuff that's going to happen before it actually happens!"

"You mean like deja vu?"

"Nah.  I just... feel it, you know?"

"Not really.  Although, I can't deny, however you are doing it, we're suddenly dominating the battlefield."

Twilight did her best to keep up with the hyper-active pink pony, but she knew for a fact that she would be doomed without Pinkie's aid.





"That's the fourth time in a row!" complained Rainbow Dash as she landed, shaking snow out of her coat.  "How is she doing that?"

"Because it's Pinkie Pie," said Sweetie Belle in deadpan.

"Hey, girls!"

Everypony looked to see Spike standing nearby.

"We've been so busy trying to get Twilight and Pinkie, we forgot about their team!" cried Sweetie Belle in panic as she grabbed a snow ball.

"No!" cried Spike in panic.  "Wait!  We want to call a truce!"

"A truce?" said Sweetie Belle, not lowering the snowball.

"Yeah!" continued Spike.  "Us and you against Twilight and Pinkie."

"Deal," said Sweetie Belle without hesitation.





Fluttershy was sitting in an arm chair, reading.  Daring Do is so brave, she thought.

When she hit a good stopping point, she stopped to wonder if the cookies had cooled enough to eat.

There was only one way to find out.

She jumped down to the floor and entered the kitchen.

She approached the counter.  There were a lot of mouths that would be eager for a snack, so Pinkie had told her that she should make eight dozen cookies.  The two giant pans that they had set the dough on were barely enough to hold so many, and also barely fit into the oven together.

She put her hoof near a snicker-doodle.  It felt cool enough.

Fluttershy took one into her hoof and brought it to her mouth and took a small bite.

She grimaced.





"Remember, General Pinkie Pie," said Twilight as she scanned their surroundings.  "Constant vigilance.  We may have managed to hold them all off last time, but we haven't seen our enemy for some time now, and that probably means they are making plans for a sneak attack!"

"Here comes Scootaloo!" announced Pinkie.

"She's alone?" asked Twilight.

"Wait, hold your fire, Twilight!  She's carrying baked goods!"

"Baked goods?  It must be a trap!"

"Hey, Twilight, Pinkie!" cried Scootaloo.  "Let me in!  I brought you cookies!"

"That's not going to work!" cried Twilight.  "I know a trap when I see one!"

"But Twilight, we're not playing any more," said Scootaloo.

"You're... not?"

"No, we're not.  Everypony else went back into Diamond's house twenty minutes ago."

"Why didn't you tell us?"

"We couldn't!  Every time we tried, we got pelted by snowballs!"

"So that means that Pinkie and I won?"

Scootaloo let out a sigh.  "Yes, Twilight.  You won.  You swept the floor with us, in fact, thanks to Pinkie Pie."

"And now you're bringing your princess tribute!" declared Twilight happily.

"What?  Princess?"

"That's right," acknowledged Twilight.  "I won the snowball fight, so I hereby declare myself the Princess of Ponyville!"

"I'm the General!" added Pinkie Pie.

"..."

"Here, let me open up the wall so you can bring me my tribute!" said Twilight.

Twilight magically shoved a the section of the wall between herself and Scootaloo aside.

"So, what kind of cookies have you brought me?"

"Oh!" cried Pinkie.  "Those must be Fluttershy's snicker-doodles!"

"Yeah..." said Scootaloo hesitantly.  She held the plate of cookies out.  Twilight and Pinkie took one each and took a bite.

"Whoa," said Twilight as soon as her mouth was able.  "What did she put into these things?"

"It's..." began Pinkie.  She hesitated and held the cookie up, frowning at it.  "It's... okayyy...?"

Scootaloo let out a sigh.  "It's alright," she said.  "Nopony else cares for them either."

"Really?" asked Twilight in surprise.  "I like them.  They're... different, but I like this kind of different.  Well, no, actually they taste kind of familiar, but I just can't put my hoof on it."

"You actually like them?" asked Scootaloo in surprise.

"Yeah, I do.  In fact, these are delicious," said Twilight, taking another bite.

"Really?  Because it turns out that Fluttershy messed up the recipe when she was baking these."

Twilight paused.  "She did?"

"Yeah.  Apparently, when the recipe called for flour, she accidently used cornmeal instead."

"Cornmeal?" said Twilight.  "How did she mix that up with flour?"

Scootaloo shrugged.  "I don't know.  Fluttershy was apologizing like crazy for doing it though, and everypony tried a cookie just to see what they were like, but we all said that we liked them to try to cheer her up."

"But I was being honest when I said it before," said Twilight.  "I really do think that these snicker-doodles are delicious.  Everypony else is missing out!"

"Well, good then!" said Scootaloo.  "We were afraid that we would have to throw them away when Fluttershy wasn't looking, but if you want them, you can have them all!  There's like, a hundred of them.  They'll probably last you for forever."

"Well... okay, I suppose?  If really nopony else wants them."

"Trust me, nopony else wants them.  Come inside then, let's get out of the cold."

"What's everypony up to now, anyway?" asked Twilight.

"Oh, you know.  Just hanging out.  You and Pinkie really wore us all out."
> Day 4: The Decision
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Hey, Twilight."

Twilight looked up from her book to look at the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

"Hey you three," she said in a hushed.  "You're up early," she remarked, looking across the enormous living room at the other sleeping colts and fillies.

"Well, you are too," said Scootaloo.

"I know, but I can't help it," responded Twilight.  "I'm used to getting up very early every morning so I can go to the palace at an early hour for Princess Celestia's lessons.  That lasts until noon, and then the Princess has to attend to other things."

"I suppose that makes sense," said Scootaloo.  "Although, we're supposed to be used to getting up for school in the mornings too, but that hasn't been happening, has it?"

"Not really," said Twilight.  "Everypony is staying up well past midnight just because there is nopony to stop them from doing so, but then you're all just waking up late in the morning to make up for it.  You're not actually staying up any later than you usually do."

"Yeah," agreed Sweetie Belle.  "But not today!  Today we're going to go crusading!"

"Crusading?"

"Yeah, because we're the Cutie Mark Crusaders, remember?"

"Oh!  I should have realized what you were talking about!  So, you're going to hunt for your cutie marks today?"

"Yep!" answered Sweetie Belle.  "And we have all day to do it too!"

"What would actually even happen if you do manage to find your cutie marks?" wondered Twilight.

"Huh?  What do you mean?"

"I mean, after the thirty days are over and we go back to the real Equestria, you're all going to find yourselves exactly in the same spot you were in before this all started.  And physically unchanged.  So, if you get your cutie marks here, will you have them in the real Equestria too?"

"Huh," said Sweetie Belle.  "I don't know!  But we're going to still going to try.  Anyway, could you let everypony else know where we've went when they wake up?"

"Sure thing," answered Twilight.  "Have fun!"





The next pony to wake up was Diamond Tiara.

I guess I should let her know where the Crusaders are, thought Twilight.  She sighed and put her book down.  And I guess while I'm at it, I'll see what she knows about what Discord was talking about yesterday.

Twilight approached Diamond Tiara.  "Hey, Diamond Tiara?"

Diamond looked at Twilight in surprise.  "Um...  Yes, Twilight...?"

"I...  I was wondering if I could, have a word with you?"

"You want to talk to me?" asked Diamond in disbelief.

"Yes?"

"Is something wrong?" asked Diamond.  "Did something break, or something?"

"No, nothing's broken," assured Twilight.  "I was just supposed to tell you that the Cutie Mark Crusaders left the house earlier to go have fun by themselves."

"Oh," said Diamond.  "Well, good for them?"

"But that wasn't all," continued Twilight.  "I wanted to ask you about something."

"Why me?" asked Diamond.  She looked around the room.  "Why not Rainbow Dash, or Rarity, or one of them?"

"Look," said Twilight in a slightly frustrated tone.  "I know that I'm supposed to be friends with them, but just knowing that fact makes it awkward when I try to talk with them."

"So, you want to talk to me instead?"

"Is there something wrong with that?" asked Twilight, confused.

"No!  I...  Would you like to go to the kitchen?  We can grab a drink, or something?"

"Okay."

Twilight followed Diamond into the kitchen.

"Do you want some of that apple juice that the Apples made?" suggested Diamond.

"Sure," answered Twilight.  "And I may as well have one of these too."

Twilight popped the lid of of a large tin on a counter and withdrew a snicker-doodle.

"I can't believe you actually like those things," said Diamond as she poured out two glasses of juice.

She looked at the dining table and hesitated.  The table was huge.  There were far more seats than were usually necessary, but they were occasionally used when her father hosted meals for groups of important ponies.

If she placed the juice cups on opposite ends of the table, she would be so far away from Twilight that their conversation would be awkward and embarrassing.

If she placed the cups in front of chairs that were side by side, it would look like she was suggesting that she was Twilight's friend.

Which was not the case.

"Here," said Diamond, giving the cup directly to Twilight.  "So, what did you want to ask me about?"

"It's just something that Discord said to me yesterday," said Twilight.

Meanwhile, Diamond Tiara let out an internal sigh of relief that Twilight didn't seem to be offended at having the discussion while standing.

"It's silly, really," continued Twilight awkwardly.  "It can't possibly be true, but... I had to make sure."

"So... what is it?"

"Discord says that Equestria faces disasters all the time.  And he said that the only reason that everything always turns out alright is thanks to just a few ponies.  But that can't be true!  Can it?"

Diamond moaned and put her free hoof to her face.  "Discord told you about that?" she said.

"So it's true?" asked Twilight in shock.

"Um, sort of...?"

"Sort of?"

"Alright!" cried Diamond.  "It's one hundred percent true!  Look, I was told that I wasn't supposed to talk about this!"

"Why not?" asked Twilight.  "Are these ponies undercover or something like that?"

"No!  Not at all!  Everypony knows about them!"

"I don't know anything about them!" protested Twilight.  "Why won't you just tell me?"

"Because, one of those ponies... is you!"

Twilight froze.  "...  Me?" she whispered eventually.

"Yes!  There, I said it!" cried Diamond Tiara.  "It's not that surprising, is it?  I mean, you're only Princess Celestia's personal student!"

"..."

"And the others?  Rainbow Dash!  Pinkie Pie!  Rarity!  Applejack!  Fluttershy!"

"We protect Equestria from disasters?" asked Twilight in a whisper.

"Yes, you do!  The first time, you rescued Princess Celestia's sister!"

"Princess Celestia has a sister!?"

"Yeah, the Mare in the Moon is Princess Celestia's sister!"

"...  You're just pulling my leg right now, aren't you?"

"I'm sooooo not pulling your leg!" said Diamond in her most serious tone.  "You and your friends are famous for everything that you've done!  You've stopped a dragon from covering Equestria in smoke, saved Ponyville from eaten by parasprites, stopped a giant rampaging ursa minor the size of a house, and saved Canterlot from being overrun by bug ponies that can transform to look like other ponies!"

"... Parasprites?  And ursa minor?  Is that some kind of bear?"

"Parasprites are bugs that eat everything," said Diamond Tiara.  She shuddered.  "Trust me, it wasn't fun.  And an ursa minor is this huge transparent bear thing."

Twilight didn't speak.

"That's why it's so... awkward, I guess, talking to you right now!  You and your friends are national celebrities!  You're larger than life!"

"I actually did all of that?"

"Yeah!  I know!  I saw some of it happen, and sometimes I can't believe everything you all go through myself!"

Diamond sighed.

"And that's why we didn't want to tell you about all of this," she continued.  "I mean, now you know.  You know about how much better than all of us you are.  And now you won't want to hang around us."

This was enough to throw Twilight out of her state of shock.

"Hold on!" she cried.  "I am not better than anypony!  I would never think that!"

"But you are!" insisted Diamond Tiara.  "You're the most incredible pony in Equestria!  Scootaloo will try to tell you that Rainbow Dash is, but...  To tell you the truth, you're kind of a role model to me..."

"A role model?" asked Twilight in astonishment.

"Everypony adores you!  Everypony!  That's what I want.  I want to show Equestria that Diamond Tiara lives up to her name!"

"But I'm just a normal pony!" insisted Twilight.  "I'm no different than anypony else!"

Diamond Tiara sighed again.  "I know.  I've watched you go shopping out in the market!"

Suddenly, Diamond began laughing.

"What's so funny?" asked Twilight, confused.

"I just realized," began Diamond.  "I've been telling you why everypony acts nervous around you.  And about how unapproachable you are."

"Not everypony has been acting nervous around me," said Twilight.  "Yesterday, the colts were pelting me with snowballs without even thinking about it!"

"I know!" said Diamond in frustration.  "I don't get it!  And here I am, telling you everything.  Why am I telling you all of this?  There's just... something about you!  Somehow, you are super successful... and everypony makes friends with you!"

Twilight didn't respond.

"Anyway," continued Diamond.  "That's what's so funny.  I would never be having this conversation with you if it wasn't for Discord's crazy bet."

Which I was partially responsible for... thought Twilight.

"Diamond Tiara," said Twilight suddenly, "I need your help."

"What?" asked Diamond suddenly in disbelief.  "You need my help?"

"I know that you must think that I'm an amazing mare that can solve any problem, but I'm really not!" insisted Twilight.  "Look, something's been nagging me ever since this whole ordeal began!  Everypony keeps dropping hints about how I'm supposed to be best friends with Rainbow and Fluttershy and Pinkie and Applejack and Rarity, and it's making me feel... weird!"

"Because you're not actually friends with them right now?" asked Diamond.

"Yeah!  And I feel like-  I feel like after this is over, my adult self is going to look at me and be... disgusted, or something, because she'll think I've been treating everypony like dirt!"

"You haven't been treating anypony like dirt," said Diamond Tiara.  "Trust me!"

"But these are supposed to be my friends!" cried Twilight.  "I trust that my future self has good judgment when it comes to friends, right?  So, I need to stop being such an introvert and actually try to make friends with them!"

"So, you're... asking me to help you make friends with your friends?"

"Well, it sounds weird when you put it like that, but yes!"

Diamond Tiara gaped at Twilight.

"Um, Twilight.  You just might have asked the worst possible pony for help," she said.

"But I can't ask the others!" protested Twilight.  "I can't ask the Crusaders for help!  They're sisters with the ponies I'm trying to make friends with!"

"Actually, Scootaloo isn't really Rainbow Dash's sister.  They just say that they're sisters."

"Really?  Well, still!  And I can't ask Spike!  I just feel... so awkward asking Spike for help!  And I can't ask the colts for help!"

"Why not?"

Twilight gave Diamond a funny look.

"Well, because... they're colts!"

"Don't worry, I get it," said Diamond with  smirk.

"And I don't really know any of the others very well," continued Twilight.  "Besides, you seem like a sensible pony!  I'll bet you can help me if you try!"

"... You're really asking my help on this?"

"Yes!  Please?"

"Well, okay.  Okay.  But I need some time!"

"That's fine," assured Twilight.  "To be honest, I kind of need some time to think too.  But please don't take too long!"

"Don't worry," said Diamond.  "I'm not about to let Twilight Sparkle down."

"Are you just saying yes because I'm 'famous' ?" asked Twilight, upset.

"Uh-  No!  I'm just trying to help a friend!  This does mean we're friends now, right?"

"I... I guess so."

Twilight let out a sigh.  "I need a book.  Calm my nerves."





"Hey," said Sweetie Belle.  "Hold on for a second."

Scootaloo skid her scooter to a stop, causing the wagon that she was towing with Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom inside tap the scooter.

"It's Twilight!" said Sweetie Belle.  "I wonder what she wants?"

They waited for Twilight to approach.

"Hi, you three," said Twilight.  "What are you up to?"

"Not much, yet," answered Apple Bloom.  "We were just headed to a place called Barnyard Bargains.  Diamond Tiara's dad actually owns the place.  They sell all kinds of stuff there.  A lot of it is usually rather expensive."

"Usually," answered Twilight knowingly.  "Well, it's noon..."

"It is?" said Apple Bloom.  "Whoa.  Why does time always fly by so fast?"

"Time is perceived at an accelerated rate when there are more activities to fill one's day," explained Twilight.  "Anyway, I brought you all some lunch.  It's not much, just three sandwiches."

"Thanks a bunch, Twi!" said Apple Bloom.  The three crusaders each took a wrapped sandwich from Twilight's magical grasp.

"Hey," said Scootaloo.  "You want to come with us, Twilight?"  Scootaloo turned toward her fellow Crusaders.  "You two won't mind, will you?"

"Of course not," answered both fillies.

"I guess I could come," said Twilight.  "What exactly are you going to be doing?  You're not planning on ransacking that store you were talking about, were you?" she finished suspiciously.

"No!" said Scootaloo.  "We would never do something like that!  After we eat these, we'll show you!"





"Behold!" announced Scootaloo, waving a hoof in front of her.

Twilight looked at the objects in front of her in surprise.

"Unicycles?  This place sells unicycles?"

"They have all kinds of stuff here!" said Scootaloo.  "You can find all sorts of things you might not expect for sale here in Ponyville!"

"Only," said Apple Bloom, "we couldn't afford to buy a unicycle to try for our unicycling cutie marks before.  But, here, we don't have to buy them!"

"Unicycling cutie marks?" said Twilight, surprised.

"We've been trying for a really long time," explained Apple Bloom.

"So," said Scootaloo.  "You want to give it a try?"

"Sure!"





"Twilight," complained Apple Bloom, "stop cheating!"

"This isn't cheating!" insisted Twilight, her glowing horn preventing the purple unicycle that she had picked out from toppling over, or even moving in the slightest.

"Whoa!" cried Scootaloo as her latest attempt at riding her unicycle ended with her falling forward.

"This is way harder than riding a scooter," she remarked as she pulled herself off of the Barnyard Bargains floor and got to her hooves."

"Agh!" cried Apple Bloom as she met a similar fate.  "Well, at least I lasted a few seconds that time."

"Don't feel bad," said Twilight.  "You can't expect to be masters at this the moment you try.  It takes practice!"

"We would be able to unicycle if it was supposed to be our cutie mark," said Sweetie Belle.  "And I don't see you practicing!"

"Alright, alright!" said Twilight in an annoyed voice.  She dropped her magic and attempted to stay upright.

"Whoa!"

Twilight's horn lit up again as she caught herself and the unicycle in mid-fall.

"Lucky," said Apple Bloom.  "Alright girls," she continued, turning to her fellow crusaders.  "I think it's safe to call this one a bust."

"You're leaving?" asked Twilight.  "But we've barely started trying!"

"Well," said Apple Bloom.  "We obviously aren't destined to have unicycling cutie marks."

"But I was just starting to have fun!  I want to stay and keep trying!"

"Well..." said Apple Bloom hesitantly.  She looked at the other two, who shrugged.

"I guess we can keep trying for a little while.  We can always find our cutie marks tomorrow."

"When did you get interested in unicycles all of the sudden anyway?" asked Scootaloo.  "I couldn't imagine adult Twilight wanting to learn how to ride a unicycle."

"Well," began Twilight, "you three have taught me something."

"We did?"

"Yep!  I may not be able to further my magical studies, but that doesn't mean that I have to goof off all month long!  We're basically getting a whole extra month added onto our lives for free, and it would be a shame to waste it like that!"

"Whoa," said Apple Bloom.  "Holy pineapples.  You're right!  That's crazy!"

"Of course I'm right!" said Twilight with a smile, which quickly faltered as she lost control of her unicycle again.  She caught herself just before hitting the ground.

"So, you're saying that learning to ride a unicycle is a wise use of time?" asked Apple Bloom.

"Well, I figured that riding a unicycle was probably something that adult-me can't do," answered Twilight.  "And Scootaloo actually just confirmed that I can't.  So, I've decided to try learning things that are less... intellectual.  And, besides, I'm curious to find out whether or not I will suddenly be able to ride a unicycle when this is all over.  Wouldn't that be interesting?"

"I suppose so."

"Whoa!"

Suddenly there was a sound of thousands of tiny things spilling into the floor.  Everypony looked in alarm toward Sweetie Belle, who had fallen off of her unicycle.  Her front half was currently buried underneath a mountain of marbles that were rapidly spilling out of an enormous sideways box, scattering all over the floor.

"The middle of the store may not be the best place to practice," suggested Twilight.  "Especially now.  Let's go outside and I'll clear away a section of the street instead."
> Day 5: Hide and Seek
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Alright everypony!" cried Diamond Tiara as she pounded to frying pans together.  "Wake up!"

There were complaints from around the room as fillies and colts were involuntarily pulled from their dreams.

"Di-amond!" groaned Silver Spoon.

"What are you, our mom?" complained Sweetie Belle.

"No, I'm your gracious host!" shot Diamond.  "Apple Bloom and Applejack and I are making pancakes for breakfast and we need to figure out how much to make."

"Oh," said Sweetie Belle.

"Is everypony awake yet?" asked Diamond.  "No," she immediately answered herself.  "Pipsqueak and Rumble are still out.  Wake up, you two!"  She began rapidly bashing the pans together again as she approached the two sleeping colts.

"Maybe we should just leave them alone," suggested Twilight.

"Ugh," said Diamond Tiara.  "Fine."





"Rainbow Dash!" exclaimed Twilight, now seated on a couch with her plate of pancakes (Diamond Tiara had made it clear that she would not be cleaning up any syrupy messes).  "Don't just hork it all down!"

"Look," responded Rainbow, "you let me eat the way I want and I'll let you eat the way you want.  I want as early a start on the clouds today as possible so I don't miss out on whatever we're doing today."

"What are we doing today, anyway?" asked Rarity.

"I don't know," said Sweetie Belle.  "What do you want to do today?" she directed back to Rarity.

"I don't know!" repeated Rarity.  "What do you want to do today?"

"I don't know!" said Sweetie Belle.  "What do you want to do today, Scoot?"

"I don't know.  What do you want to do today, Bloom?"

"I dunno-"

"Will you all cut it out!" screamed Diamond Tiara.

"So..." said Apple Bloom.  "What do you want to do today, Diamond?"

"Gah!"

"Oh, oh!" said Pinkie excitedly.  "Let's play a game!"

"So you want to do the same stuff we've been doing for the past two days?" asked Diamond.

"Nah!  I mean, let's play a really big game, something that we can do all over Ponyville!  With everypony!"

"What did you have in mind...?"

"How about hide and seek?"

"Hide and seek," repeated Diamond Tiara.  "You want to play a little foals game?"

"It's not a little foals game," interjected Apple Bloom.  "We like to play it sometimes."

"Well, okay, but it doesn't matter!" said Diamond Tiara in frustration.  "We can't hide all over Ponyville!  It would take forever to find everypony!"

"Actually," said Twilight, "I think it could work.  If we make a rule that says nopony is allowed to hide outside."

"There's still way too much area to cover," said Diamond.

"What if we reduced the area even more then?" offered Featherweight.  "Nopony is allowed to hide... in a house!  They have to hide in a public building!"

"Does that mean that my library, Rarity's boutique, and Sugar Cube Corner are off limits?" asked Twilight uncertainly.  Those were the only places in town that she was familiar with yet.

"Yeah," said Featherweight.  "No homes."

"You all actually want to do this?" asked Diamond.

"Sure," said Rarity.  "If you don't want to hide, you could always seek instead."

"No thank you!"

"Well," said Apple Bloom.  "We need to figure out who is going to seek then."

"Hold on," said Diamond Tiara.  "I actually have an idea.  Let's get Pipsqueak and Rumble to be the 'seekers'."

"Aren't they still asleep?" asked Twilight, confused.

"Yeah," said Diamond.  She grinned.  "So everypony has plenty of time to scatter before they wake up."

"Oh," said Rainbow.  "Well, gosh, I better hurry up then!"

She abandoned her plate and rushed out the front door.

"Rarity!" cried Sweetie Belle.  "Hide with me!"

"Okay!"

"Applejack?" said Apple Bloom.

"Sure."

"I'm going to hide with Rainbow Dash then," said Scootaloo.  "As soon as she's done with the clouds, of course."

"Ooooh!" said Pinkie.  "Are we playing pairs?  Who wants to be my partner?"

Say that you do! Twilight thought to herself.

"I do!" cried Featherweight.

"Hey, Twilight," said Spike.  "Hide with me, okay?  I have a great spot!"

"Well, okay," agreed Twilight, slightly disappointed that the opportunity to become closer to Pinkie had been snatched away from her.

Look on the bright side, she thought to herself.  You get to get to know Spike instead!  I ought to become friends with him too!

"Snails will be my partner!" announced Snips.

"So..." said Dinky.  She looked toward Fluttershy.  "You wanna team?"

"I guess so?"





"So," said Pinkie as she bounced down the street, looking at Featherweight.  "Where you wanna hide?  Huh?"

"I don't know," answered Featherweight.  "Let's just keep running and see if anywhere looks good?"

"Okay!"

Featherweight considered the many shops and services as they passed through the heart of the town.  Nothing particularly stood out.  He eventually decided to pick one at random.

"Let's see if we can find good spots in 'Quills and Sofas' ?"

"Oooh!" responded Pinkie.  "Sounds great!"

"It does?"

"Yeah!  Let's go!"

Featherweight walked into the store and considered hiding places.  Most of the store was dedicated to housing numerous sofas, which were way bigger than the quills, which only had a couple of displays dedicated to their sale in the entire store.

Featherweight wandered through the store, hoping to find a good spot.  Finally, he found a place that would be sufficient.

"What do you think, Pinkie?" asked Featherweight.  "You think I should hide here?"

Pinkie didn't answer.

Featherweight turned all the way around and realized that the pink filly had already managed to disappear.

"Pinkie?" he called out.

"I'm right here!" called out Pinkie's voice.  Featherweight looked out into the sea of couches.  Pinkie was nowhere to be seen.

"Where is 'here' ?"

"Right here!" repeated Pinkie.  "Follow the sound of my voice!  La la la la la la la la la la la la la la la,"

Featherweight walked toward the sound.  It sounded as though Pinkie was near a particular couch, but a peek behind it failed to reveal the pink pony.

Featherweight listened to Pinkie's silly song and crept closer to her voice.

"Pinkie?" he asked in shock.

"Yeah?"

"That's your hiding place?"

"You'd better believe it!"

"Holy cow, Pinkie!  That has to be the best hiding spot ever!"





"Alright, Twilight," said Spike.  "This is the place."

"This is where you had in mind?" asked Twilight in disbelief.

"Trust me on this one, Twilight," Spike answered.  "We're going to win this!  I have a spot where nopony will ever find us!"

"Okay?" said Twilight doubtfully.

"I've been dying to show you this," continued Spike.  "This is going to be amazing!"

"If you say so?"

"Here!" said Spike happily, stopping in front of a shelf and reaching toward it.  "This is it!  This thing is going to win us the game!"

"Spike," said Twilight in deadpan.  "That's a graphic novel."

"I know!  These things are actually made in Canterlot, which means we're really lucky that this place has a few!  Just watch!"

"Spike," continued Twilight in protest.  "We're in a comic book shop!  How is a comic book supposed to help us?"

Suddenly the comic book in Spike's hands began to glow with an eerie green light.

"Told you!" he announced happily.

"What did you do?" asked Twilight in confusion.

"Just wait," said Spike.  "This is going to be awesome."

Suddenly, sparks began shooting out of the book.  Twilight backed away.

"What's it doing?" she cried in fear.

"It's... not supposed to do that!" said Spike.

The sparks ceased, and then the green light sputtered and died.

"What happened?" cried Spike in despair.  "Why didn't it work?"

Suddenly, Discord popped into existence next to the dragon and pony.

"Whoa now!" cried Discord in alarm.  "What in Equestria was that?"

"The Power Pony comic books aren't working!" complained Spike, holding up the one in his claws.  "Why aren't they working?"

"Comic books?" cried Discord.  He swiped the book from Spike materialized his monocle again to examine it.  After only a moment, he dismissed the monocle again.

"Oh!" he cried in relief.  "It was just one of these things!  I thought something was really wrong!  Silly Spike!  Don't you know that you can't open a portal into a simulated universe when you are already in a simulated universe?"

"What?" cried Spike in disappointment.  "I can't?"

"Of course not!  It would be fake universe inception!"

"Well, there goes my big idea..." muttered Spike.





"Ready Silver Spoon?"

"Ready, Diamond Tiara!"

The couch that Rumble and Pipsqueal were sleeping on suddenly tipped forward, dumping the two colts into the floor.

"AAAARGH!" they both screamed in shock.  They scrambled to get to their hooves, but found that they were tangled in their blankets.

"Diamond?" asked Pipsqueak in alarm as he noticed her.

"It's time to wake up you two!"

"Where is everypony else at?"

"Well, you see, they are all out hiding throughout Ponyville!  And you two have been nominated seekers!"

"Huh?" cried both colts.

"It's not hard to understand," said Diamond.  "Everypony is playing hide and seek.  And you two have to find everypony!  Got it?"

"We do?" asked Rumble.

"Yes, you do.  Everypony else has already found a spot while you two were snoozing.  Silver Spoon and I will go find some place after you leave."

"Um...  Okay..." said Pipsqueak.  "So...  Do we go then?"

"First," said Diamond.  "Let me explain the rules.  First of all, nopony is allowed to hide outside or in somepony's house.  They're all in public buildings, so don't even bother looking elsewhere.  Second, everypony is in groups of two.  If you find somepony, their partner is also somewhere at the same location."

"Do we have to stick together?" asked Pipsqueak, indicating Rumble.

"Not if you don't want to.  In fact, I'm ordering you to not do that.  It will take forever if you do that.  Now get going!  Time is wasting!"





"Hello?" asked Pipsqueak as he opened the door of the comic shop.  "Anypony in here?"

Of course, there was no answer.

Pipsqueak wandered through the shop, wondering if anypony had actually chosen to hide in the building.

He stopped in front of a rotating comic book rack in interest.

And immediately noticed something was wrong.

"I can see you, Twilight!" he announced.

"Gah," moaned Twilight.  She carefully crouched down and crawled out from under the rack.  "I told Spike we should have moved someplace else."

"So Spike's your partner?"

"Yeah..."

"Hmm..." said Pipsqueak.

"ACHOOO!"

Green fire suddenly enveloped an entire shelf consumed it in seconds.

Leaving Spike exposed.

"Spike!" cried Twilight in annoyance.

"Sorry," said Spike.  "Gosh, I was really hoping we would last longer than that!"

"So," said Twilight to Pipsqueak.  "Spike and I are the first one's you've found?"

"Yeah," Pipsqueak confirmed.  "You want to come with me and help me find the others?"

"Sure," said Twilight.  "I guess even though I was found first, I'll at least get a tour of Ponyville."





"Come in!"

The door opened.

"Ah!" said Discord.  "Rumble!  What can I do for you?"

"Well, we're playing hide and seek..." said Rumble.

"Really?" said Discord, perhaps too enthusiastically.

"And this is a place where somepony might be hiding," continued Rumble.  "So... have you seen anypony else around here lately?"

"I can neither confirm or deny that I have."

"Okay," said Rumble immediately.  "Somepony's here then."

"Why would you think that?"

"If there wasn't anypony here, you would have just said so," answered Rumble.

"Not nessasarily," said Discord vaguely.

Rumble didn't answer.  He looked around the room.  The mayor's office was fairy small.  Other than filing cabinets lining a wall, the only furnishings were two chairs that sat in front of the mayor's large wooden desk, as well as the chair behind the desk which Discord was sitting in.

There was also a door on the wall behind Discord.

"What the hay?" said Rumble, walking around the desk and approaching the door.  "Why doesn't this door have a handle?  They're in here, arn't they?"

"Don't go in there," said Discord.  "There's nopony in there.  That's my room."

"Your room?" cried Rumble in suprise.

"I have needs too you know," responded Discord.  "And no, you can't go in.  I promise you, there's nopony in there."

"Okayyy..."

Rumble stopped to think.

From this side of the desk, he could see that there were two cabinets in the desk at each end.

"How about in here?" Rumble said as he opened one.

There was nothing inside.

Discord said nothing.

"Then... How about this one?" asked Rumble as he moved toward the opposite side.

Suddenly, an entire shelf of comic books materialized in front of Discord and fell into the floor with a 'thud'.

"What in the hay was that!?" cried Rumble in alarm.  "Discord!  Stop trying to keep me from finding whoever you're hiding!"

"It wasn't me," said Discord in his innocent voice.  "It must have been Spike accidently sending me a whole book shelf by accident!  Everything that he breaths his green fire on comes to me in this world, you know."

Rumble gave Discord a disbelieving look before looking back at the desk cabinet.

He opened it.

"Aw," cried Snips and Snails together.  Snips was crammed into a corner while Snails was bending his head over.

"Good grief!" said Rumble in concern.  "That doesn't look comfortable!  Come outta there!"

"Yeah," said Snips as Snails climbed out first.  "But we didn't think you'd look in here!"

"You two do know that you could have hid in different spots, right?"

"Oh," said Snips in realization.  "Well, I guess it's too late now."

"Well," said Discord.  "At least I didn't give your position away."





"There you are!" said Twilight, standing in front of a storage closet.

"How'd you find me?" asked Scootaloo from the top of a shelf of boxes.

"Because you two can't keep your mouth's shut!"

"You two?"

"I know Rainbow Dash is in here," said Twilight.  "I heard her."

"If you say so."

Twilight shoved a stack of boxes aside and found nothing.  She tried again.  And again.

Then she started opening the boxes, just in case Rainbow had hidden inside.

"I know she's in here," said Twilight.  She grabbed a column of boxes and set it outside in the hallway.  She repeated this until the entire shelf was clear.

"Come out, Rainbow," said Twilight in frustration.  "I know you're in here."

"Hey, Twilight!"

Twilight dropped the next stack of boxes and turned to look at Pipsqueak.

Her jaw dropped when she realized that Rainbow Dash was accompanying him.

"What?" shouted Twilight.  "But I heard you in this closet!  You were talking to Scootaloo!"

"Yeah," said Rainbow.  "We heard you coming at the last minute though.  The instant you opened the door, I bailed.  I would have gotten away too, if Pipsqueak hadn't seen me flying down the hall."

"Why did the two of you decide to hide in the hospital, of all places?" asked Twilight.

"Scoot and I found that closet when we were looking for something to carry back all those snacks," answered Rainbow Dash.  "Sorry if you had to walk around what was left of the drink machine."

"What?" asked Twilight in confusion.

"Oh...!" said Pipsqueak in realization.  "I was wondering what all that... stuff was!"





"We've found you, Fluttershy!" said Snips happily.

Fluttershy looked past her makeshift wall of flower pots at the colts.

"Oh.  So you have."

"Are you coloring?" asked Snails in surprise.

"Mmm-hmm!"

"Where did you get a coloring book?"

"I found it in my... my future self's house," informed Fluttershy.  "I guess I must have foals over sometimes?"

"Hmm," said Rumble.

"I like the butterflies the best."

"So," said Rumble, deciding to change the subject.  "Who are you hiding with?"

"Dinky," answered Fluttershy.  "I'm afraid that she found a rather better hiding spot than I."

Fluttershy let a small smirk form.

"How many places to hide could there be in a flower shop?" asked Rumble.





"Okay, I was wrong," admitted Rumble.  "Where ever she is, Dinky found a good spot."

"Eyah!" cried a voice.

Rumble turned around and looked toward Snails, who was pulling his hoof out of a flowery bush in surprise.

"I found her!" he announced.

"She was in the bush the whole time?" cried Rumble.

"Yep," said Dinky from within the bush.

"How did you get in there?"

"It wasn't easy.  Help me out?  There's little sticks everywhere in here."





"Let's check here," said Scootaloo, pointing toward the spa.

"The spa?" asked Rainbow Dash.  "Do you really think anypony would hide in there?"

"I do," said Scootaloo.  "Because once she found out that it existed, Rarity was begging Sweetie Belle to show her this place."





Rarity watched as the door to the towel closet that she was hiding in opened.

"I was not begging", she muttered.

"We found you, Rarity," said Twilight.  "Come out."

Rarity walked out of the towel closet and shut the door.

"You were teamed up with Sweetie Belle," said Twilight.  "Where is she?"

"I'm not telling you that," protested Rarity.  "I will help you find the others, but not Sweetie Belle.  After all, I already know where she is."

"Alright," said Twilight.  "We'll find her eventually."





"Maybe we won't," Twilight said in a defeated tone.  "We've searched this place from top to bottom, and no Sweetie Belle."

"Yeah," said Rainbow Dash, annoyed.  "But I have learned the names of, like twelve brands of lotion while we've been here."

"Where is she?" asked Twilight.

"I can't tell you," said Rarity with a smile.  "Perhaps you skipped over her?"

"How could we have skipped over Sweetie Belle?" asked Twilight.  "We've been thorough!"

"I don't know..." said Rarity mischievously.

Suddenly, a suspicion formed in Twilight's brain.  She ran toward the towel closet and threw the door open.

"Took you long enough!" cried Sweetie Belle from within.  She burst out laughing.

"When you opened the door and found Rarity," said Sweetie Belle between laughs, "you all didn't even notice that I was standing right behind her!  She shut the door before anypony could notice!"  Sweetie Belle's laughter grew even stronger.

"We sure pulled a fast one on you, didn't we?" said Rarity with a smile.  "But next time, you're going to be the martyr, Sweetie."





"Found you, Diamond Tiara!" cried Dinky.

"Ugh," complained Diamond as she crawled out of a large basket.  "It's no fair that we didn't get as much time as everypony else."

"So, Silver Spoon is somewhere around here?" asked Rumble.

"Yeah."

"We found Apple Bloom!" declared Snips

"What?" cried Diamond Tiara in shock.  "Apple Bloom?"

"Yeah," said Snails.  "She was hiding behind a shelf in the dining ware section."

"Hey," said Apple Bloom as she walked into view.

"What are you doing in my daddy's store?" demanded Diamond Tiara.

"Same thing you as you?" said Apple Bloom.  "Hiding!"

"Is Applejack with you?"

"Yeah, she's somewhere around here."

"Are you kidding me?" cried a new voice.

Everypony looked toward the direction of Silver Spoon's voice and saw her emerge from under an expensive looking table with several chairs surrounding it, obstructing the view underneath.

"Those two were here the whole time and we didn't even know it?"

A guffaw of laughter suddenly emanated from a nearby box.  The lid popped open and Applejack popped out, laughing uncontrollably.

"Applejack!" said Apple Bloom in annoyance.

"It's too funny!" protested Applejack.  "We were already here watching you two fret over finding a spot, and you two didn't even know!"





"Aha!" declared Rainbow Dash in triumph.  "You thought you were safe behind this curvy couch, did you?"

Featherweight climbed over the top of the strange sofa.  Halfway across, it had a ninety degree curve.  It sat up against the corner of the 'Quills and Sofas' store.  As a result, there was a small triangular space behind the curved part where Featherweight had decided to hide.

"It was the best place I could find," said Featherweight.

"So, who were you paired up with, again?" asked Rainbow.

"Pinkie Pie.  You're never going to find her."

"Oh, great!" cried Scootaloo.  "Not Pinkie Pie!"

"You don't think we can find Pinkie Pie?" asked Rainbow.  "Just watch us!"

"This is Pinkie Pie we're talking about," explained Scootaloo.  "Featherweight isn't kidding.  We're never going to find her."

"We know that she is in the building somewhere," pointed out Twilight.  "She can't stay hidden forever."





"Hello everypony," said Diamond Tiara loudly as she opened the front door to 'Quills and Sofas'.  "We didn't find anypony at the post office, so we decided to come here next."

"Oh my goodness!" cried Fluttershy as she took in the scene around her.  The sofas had all been stripped of cushions, and the cushions were in random places on the floor everywhere.  "This place is a mess!"

"I know," said Twilight in frustration.  "But we found Featherweight in here already, which means we know for a fact that Pinkie Pie is in here somewhere.  We just can't figure out where!"

"Did you look inside the cash register?" asked Sweetie Belle, earning an incredulous look from Twilight.

"Yep," answered Scootaloo.

"Did you check the ventilation?"

"Good idea!" said Rainbow Dash.  "I'll check!"





"Featherweight," said Twilight in frustration.  "For goodness sake, tell us where Pinkie Pie is hiding!"

"No!" cried the Colt.  "Not unless you give up!"

"We've completely stripped these sofas!" cried Twilight.  "And we've searched underneath every single one!  And then we put all the cushions back to make sure Pinkie didn't decide to change spots while we were looking around!  We've checked in the bathrooms, we've checked in the ventilation, we've checked in the cash register for pony's sake!  We've searched everywhere three times over, and no Pinkie Pie!"

"So do you give up?"

Twilight sighed.  "Not my decision," she said.  "Pipsqueak is in charge."

Pipsqueak hesitated.  He turned to the rest of the colts and fillies.

"I told you.  We're never going to find her," said Scootaloo.

"Agreed," said Diamond Tiara in frustration.  "I'm ready to be done with this game!  Let's just give up and get this over with!"

"Okay," said Pipsqueak, slightly disappointed.  "We give up."

"We give up, Pinkie!" shouted Diamond, loud enough that she could be heard from across the store.  "Now where the hay are you?"

"I'm over here!" cried Pinkie's voice.

"Where?" shouted Twilight, moving toward Pinkie.

"There once was a little filly, who was rather silly, and really loved to bake," sang Pinkie.  "When she throws parties, they were very good indeed, but when she gets hungry, she goes for giant cake!"

"Pinkie?" said Twilight, magically lifting a sofa off of the ground and checking underneath.  There was nopony there.

"Where are you, Pinkie!"

"You're almost there!"

Twilight set the sofa back on the ground again and threw the cushions off for a second time.

There was no Pinkie Pie, but something did catch her eye.

Twilight's magic engulfed a metal handle that was now exposed and she pulled up.  The sofa's interior unfolded outward, revealing a hide-a-bed.  Twilight released the handle and pulled up on the top section with her hooves, pulling the portion intended for resting one's head up and locking it into place.

There was still no sign of Pinkie.

"Pinkie?" cried Twilight.  She stuck her head into the gap that she created and into the now empty heart of the sofa.

"You've finally found me!" declared Pinkie happily.

Twilight stared at Pinkie's upside-down form in astonishment.

"You were inside the HOOF REST this entire time?"
> Day 6: The Quiet Ones
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Dinky?"

"Oh," said Dinky.  "Hello Fluttershy."

"What are you doing here?  Is this your house?"

"Yeah.  This is my bedroom."

"I saw you leave this morning when I was going for a walk," said Fluttershy after a moment's hesitation.  "And you still hadn't come back yet, so I was starting to get worried."

"You saw me?" asked Dinky in surprise.

"Yes.  Do you miss your family?"

"...  Yeah."

Neither pony spoke for a minute.

"I've been looking through our album," said Dinky finally, indicating the said album which was on her bed.  "I haven't looked at it in months, but... I just wanted to see my mom again."

"You're thinking about going home," said Fluttershy.  "Aren't you?"

"Yeah," admitted Dinky.  "I am.  I really want to."

"But..." she continued.  "I really want to stay here too.  I don't usually have a lot of friends to play with."

"Don't you?"

"Not really," said Dinky.  "Getting the chance to play with everypony is pretty great.  Yesterday, it helped keep my mind off of my mom, but I started to get sad after the game was over.  Not that anypony would play with me if it was just me.  It's my fault, really.  I keep to myself.  I'm the pony that is nopony else ever notices."

"I've noticed you," said Fluttershy assuringly.

"You have, haven't you?" responded Dinky.  "That's the thing about sitting on the side and keeping quiet.  You tend to notice things nopony else does, right?"

Fluttershy didn't answer.

"Sometimes, I wonder if my special talent should have been 'being a ninja' or something," continued Dinky.  "I don't even have to try.  I can be in the same room as somepony else and they will keep on talking as though I wasn't even there."

"That's terrible," whispered Fluttershy.

"Oh, don't worry about me!" said Dinky brightly.  "It's actually way more fun than I made it sound.  Like I said, I tend to notice things that nopony else does.  And, sometimes, very occasionally, I learn about a secret or two."

"Well, you should still have a friend," said Fluttershy.  "I could be your friend.  If you want.  Do you want a friend?"

Dinky smiled.  "Yeah, that would be nice."

"Thank you," said Fluttershy gratefully.  "Actually, I don't really have any friends here either, except for Rainbow Dash.  But she spends so much of her time hanging out with everypony else, I don't get to speak to her alone very much."

"Hey," said Dinky.  "Want to hear a secret?"

"What is it?"

"A couple of days ago, I heard Diamond Tiara and Twilight talking in the kitchen," whispered Dinky conspiratorially.

"They thought that everypony else was asleep, but I wasn't.  I was awake, I just didn't have my eyes open.  I've been doing that every morning, actually.

"But, anyway, Twilight really wants to be your friend, Fluttershy."

"She does?" cried Fluttershy.

"Yep.  But she's too scared to talk to you about it.  Maybe you should talk to her."

"Oh!" said Fluttershy.  "I don't know if I can."

"Hey," said Dinky.  "If you're nervous, I could come with you.  But there's no need to be worried.  You are great at talking when other ponies actually stop to listen.  I know that I'm already feeling better."

"Huh?"

"My day has grown significantly brighter since you came to talk to me," explained Dinky.  "I still miss my mom, of course, but I think I can last for a while longer.  Plus, I want to see what happens to everypony!"

"I've made your day 'brighter'?" asked Fluttershy in surprise.

"And you can help make everypony else's day better too!" encouraged Dinky.

"But what am I supposed to say to Twilight?"

"You don't have to say anything," said Dinky.  "All you have to do is listen to her.  She'll open up, I'm sure of it."

Fluttershy smiled back at Dinky.  "I hope so," she said.  "Thank you."

"We should probably go back now," said Dinky.  "But, before we do, would you like to help me bring some food back with us?  Diamond Tiara said that she's actually starting to run low."

"She did?" said Fluttershy in surprise.  "But there was so much food in the pantry when we arived!  We can't have eaten everything that fast."

"Are you kidding?" said Dinky.  "There's so many of us!  And somepony raiding the pantry almost all the time.  Diamond said that once she runs out, we're either going to have to find another place to stay for a while, or else go out into town and bring food back to her place."

"But I don't think we can bring back enough food for everypony," pointed out Fluttershy.

"Maybe not, but at least we can have muffins today," said Dinky.  "Actually, I wouldn't mind staying somewhere else for a while.  Diamond's house is... huge, you know?  It feels weird staying with her."

"But where else would we go?" asked Fluttershy.

"I don't know," admitted Dinky.  "We should see what the others have to say about it.  Here, I'll lead the way to the kitchen, and then after we've grabbed as much as we can hold, we can head back."
> Day 7: The Fort
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Thank you all for coming, everypony!" said Twilight, currently standing in the middle of Golden Oaks Library and addressing her audience of five.

"As you all know," she continued, "we are on the precipice of disaster.  We cannot stay at Diamond Tiara's house for much longer.

"I have been tasked with finding a solution to this problem.   We have already determined that everypony else just simply does not have enough room for everypony at their own homes.  Therefore, the only solution is to make our own home.  But I know that I can't do this alone.  That is why I asked for help from you all!

"Rarity, there was a sewing machine in your boutique.  Could you please bring it here?  We're going to need it.

"Meanwhile, Applejack has agreed to go to her farm and grab as much rope and hooks as she can, and will bring it back here.

"Everypony else, help me get all of these books off of these shelves.  You can just pile them up in the floor for now, I guess, but be careful not to damage any of them."





"Behold!" cried Twilight.  "This is the place where we will be staying for the foreseeable future!"

"The community gym?" asked Applejack in surprise.

"Yes!" acknowledged Twilight.  "This is the largest interior space in all of Ponyville, from what I have managed to find.  The ceiling here is also much higher than usual, which is a plus.  It is also located in a central location in Ponyville, unlike Diamond's house, which means that we can easily bring things here from nearly anywhere in town without traveling too far.  Particularly food.  Now, we need to get all of this exercise equipment out of here so that we can make room for the Fort!"

"What is your vision for this 'Fort', exactly?" asked Rarity.

"Do you see those struts up there, near the ceiling?" asked Twilight.  "We're going to stitch together a whole bunch of blankets and hang them from the ceiling so that they drape down around us.  That is where you come in, Rarity.  Basically, we're making a really big tent.

"By the way, somepony is going to need to fetch blankets for Rarity.  Any volunteers?"

Nopony raised their hooves.

"Everypony else is going to have to help carry those heavy book shelves from the library all the way over here," added Twilight.

Fluttershy raised her hoof.

"Excellent," said Twilight, pleased.  "Now, while Rarity is putting the super-blanket together and Fluttershy is helping her, the rest of us will bring the book shelves from the library here and we are going to set them up in a big circle over there, pointing inward.  Once we drape the super-blanket over the shelves, they will serve as both a wall and as storage space.  Naturally, we need to leave a spot clear so that we can get in and out of the Fort.

"So, is everypony clear on what we each have to do?  ...  Alright then, let's move out!"





"So," said Twilight, carrying a bookshelf through the town with the help of Pinkie, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash.  "Applejack," she continued.  "You are the only one of us who was actually born here in Ponyville?"

"Ah suppose so," said the farm pony.  "Mah family has lived her fer generations."

"But you don't know anypony here?" asked Twilight.

"I sort of know Rarity," said Applejack.  "Not that well though.  More acquaintances, really.  I've also seen Pinkie's family visit town before, but before this whole fiasco, never spoke a word to the filly herself."

"And you are from Cloudsdale, Rainbow Dash?" asked Twilight.

"Yep," answered the pegasus.  "Both me and Flutters.  Can't say that my family has lived there 'for generations' though.  How would I know?"

"Did you like it there?" asked Twilight.

"Of course I loved it there," said Rainbow.  "Cloudsdale is incredible.  I mean, I can understand that an aspiring weather pony like me would have to move away to actually become a weather pony, but Cloudsdale is one of a kind.  You know?"

"Kind of," said Twilight.  "Actually, I'm from Canterlot, but I always wondered if I would move somewhere else when I grow up.  Canterlot is not an easy place to grow up, especially for me, I suspect.  I think Spike was right, I needed to move away."

"Yeah, Canterlot's full of snobs," said Rainbow.

"Not everypony is, Rainbow!" cried Twilight.  "Just... a whole bunch of them..."

Twilight shook her head.

"So, Pinkie," she continued.  "What about you?  Where are you from?"

"I live on a rock farm a few miles out from Ponyville," said Pinkie, earning her several strange looks.





"Congradulations everpony!" said Twilight.  "The book shelves are all in place!  Unfortunately, we're not done yet.  Now we have to go get a bunch of couches from that sofa store so that we have places to sit and sleep."





"I still can't believe you were hiding inside one of these things, Pinkie," said Rainbow Dash as the group hauled a sofa through Ponyville.  "I mean, how random do you have to be to come up with that?"

"And you all never saw it coming!" said Pinkie proudly.

"Spike tried to have us hide inside a comic book," said Twilight.

"Inside a book?" said Rainbow in confusion.

"Apparently, this particular kind of comic book is magically enchanted to suck the reader inside of it so that they can have a 'hooves on' adventure."

"So, the comic book would have just been there," said Applejack, "but you and Spike would have been nowhere to be found?"

"That was his plan, yes."

"Oh," cried Rainbow.  "that would have been sooooo cheap!  So, you made him pick a fair spot instead?"

"No," said Twilight.  "I didn't even know what he was trying to do at the time.  It didn't work anyway.  Apparently, the magic in those books don't work in Discord's duplicate version of Ponyville."





"We're almost done with the furniture," assured Twilight, once again in the gym.  "Now that the sofa's are in place, we just need to grab a few tables so that we can have solid and stable surfaces to set out stuff on.  Rainbow Dash, this time you stay behind and help Fluttershy and Rarity raise the roof.  By which, I mean hang the super-blanket up over the Fort."





"Rar-ity," said Rainbow in a complaining voice.  "Stop staring at those stupid blankets and just stick them together already!"

"This is a tricky business!" insisted Rarity.  "These blankets are all of varying themes and color schemes.  If I am not very careful in my selection, they will clash terribly!"

"Of course they're going to clash!" shouted Rainbow.  "They'll all just random colors!  Just do it!"

"Now rainbow," said Rarity.  "While there is value in abstract artistic style, it simply will not do to stitch them together at random.  There must be a method to the madness, so to speak.  Now please, let me concentrate!"

"Whatever," said Rainbow dismissively.  "It's your time that you're wasting, not mine.  I'm going to grab a cloud and relax."





"Rainbow Dash," said Twilight.  "What are you doing just laying around?"

"It's not my fault that I have nothing to do right now," protested Rainbow from atop her cloud that she had pushed into the gym.  "Rarity keeps on insisting on getting everything 'just perfect', so here I am, waiting."

"Well, I have a new job for you," said Twilight, grinning.  "Go outside and gather up some more clouds and bring them in here."





"Well," said Rainbow Dash, sitting on a sofa inside the now finished Fort and looking up.  "I gotta say, this is the biggest jury-rigged tent I've ever seen in my life.  And it's awesome.

"That's a compliment toward you, Rare," continued Rainbow, looking toward Rarity.  "I was seriously expecting the ceiling in here to look like a giant mess.  Which, I would have been totally fine with by the way, but still, I like this.  I don't know how you did it, but it looks more like...  um...  Cool, you know?"

"Thank you, Rainbow," said Rarity with a smirk.  "I told you that it would grow on you."

"The lighting, I was not expecting," continued Rainbow.  "The way that the light shines through the colors of those blankets, I mean, whoa.  It's like... a disco in here, or something.

"And the clouds were totally a must have.  This place was shaping up to be spacious already, but with those clouds up there, us pegasi can hang out up high and keep out of everypony's way."

"There is just one more thing to do," said Twilight happily.  "We need our stuff!  Everypony go back to their own places and grab whatever you want.  Food, games, books, blankets, decorations, whatever!"

"Oooh!" cried Rarity.  "Personalization?  This place could use a little something extra."

"But," continued Twilight.  "Before we actually do that, we should head back to Diamond's house and have dinner.  After that, we'll have everypony come see what we've set up.  And then after we get our stuff, we'll be ready for bed."

"Sounds like a plan," said Rainbow Dash.  "I'm starving."





"You've built a giant indoor tent," said Diamond Tiara in awe.  "You did this in just one morning and afternoon?"

"I had help," answered Twilight with a smile.  "So, do you have anything you want to add?"

"Hmm.  Well, I definitely want to grab my pillow.  And my makeup.  I need that."

"I know what I'm putting up!" cried Rainbow, holding up a Wonderbolts poster.  "I got this from my house.  I like the way my adult self thinks!"

"I think this calls for another party!" cried Pinkie.	"I've got balloons!" cried Pinkie as she released said balloons from apparently nowhere.

"Hey!" cried Rumble from directly overhead.  "Watch where you're releasing those things!  There are ponies up here, you know!"

"And a stereo!" continued Pinkie, apparently not hearing Rumble.  "And all kinds of goodies!"

"I skipped your first party," said Twilight.  "But I think I'll be staying for this one."

"Good!" cried Pinkie.  "Because we're going to party all night!"





"Think fast, Twi!"

Something soft hit Twilight in the face at high velocity.

"Hey!" cried Twilight as she grabbed at the pillow.

She stopped in confusion.  There was no pillow.

Her hooves slowly sank deeper into the cloud that Twilight only just realized she was holding.  She marveled at the fuzzy sensation for a moment before realizing she was rapidly losing her grip on it.

"You've never held a cloud before, have you?" said Rainbow Dash with a grin.

"No," admitted Twilight.  "I never have."  She decided that actually gripping it might not be the best idea, so instead she put a hoof under the cloud.  It seemed content to simply hover in place, so she put her other front hoof under it too.  "This is weird."

"Yeah, I suppose for you it would be.  I guess the only reason you can hold it at all is because two things can't exist in the same spot, otherwise you'd just phase through the cloud completely.  It would be way easier for you to hold clouds if you had wings like us."

The room instantly went awkwardly silent.

"Um, did I say something wrong?" asked Rainbow in confusion.

Suddenly, Twilight rapidly spun around, utilizing the centripetal momentum to sling the cloud away with force straight into Rainbow.

"Cloud fight!"
> Day 8: The Great Escape
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Hello, Twilight."

"Fluttershy?" said Twilight.  "Is that you?"

Twilight brought her unicycle to a halt and swiveled it around.

"Hello, Fluttershy!" cried Twilight happily.  "You're up early.  I thought that everypony would be sleeping in until noon again after staying up last night."

"You are up early too," Fluttershy pointed out.

"Actually, I never did go to bed," Twilight admitted.  "After things died down, I lost myself in a book.  And then when the sun rose, I decided to come outside.  I'm really getting the hang of this!"

"It looks tricky," said Fluttershy.  "I can't believe that it is possible for a pony to stay on one of those things without falling off!  It doesn't seem like we're built for it!"

"It is remarkable," agreed Twilight.  "The way our bodies can train themselves to keep the forces in perfect balance so that we never fall off.  Living creatures have a level of complexity that makes them beyond astounding, when it comes down to it, but we often take it for granted."

"I've never thought of it that way before."

"Well, it is true," said Twilight.  "The way that every muscle in our bodies has to constantly react in different ways to keep us on a unicycle, or even just to walk.  Ponies don't think about it because it is so common place, but it really is quite incredible."

"What about our hearts?" asked Fluttershy.

"Our hearts?" asked Twilight.  "Do you mean the blood pumping organ or do you mean our minds?"

"Um, our minds?"

"The mind is an incredible thing on a whole new order of magnitude," said Twilight.  "Nopony can even begin to understand it.  Because if we were simple enough that we could understand ourselves, we would be so simple, we couldn't."

"Huh?"

"It's just an old paradox.  It basically says that ponies may never understand ourselves."

"Maybe we don't need to understand," said Fluttershy.  "I think I like being friends with ponies a lot more when I don't have to wonder why."

"Yeah," said Twilight in acceptance.  "That's a good way of putting it.  In fact, that just might be the answer to my question!"

"What do you mean?"

"Well," began Twilight.  "When I found myself in this town last week and and was told that I live here as an adult, I didn't know what to think, or what to do.  But I wasn't the only pony in town in that situation.  There was also you, as well as Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack.  So, I kept my eye on you all.

"And, at first, I intended to stay away from everypony.  To remain a silent observer.  But then I ended up becoming involved with everypony else anyway.  And then, I quickly realized that, much to my surprise... spending time with you all is actually a lot more fun than I was expecting.  Nopony else is into the same things that I am, but I am actually having fun doing things that the others want to do anyway.

"And all of this time, I've been trying to figure out why.

"But, you're right.  I'm not going to worry about why any more.  Not when it comes to doing something that I enjoy."

Twilight let out a sigh.

"Fluttershy, I-"

"ARGH!" screaed the voice of a colt from inside the gym.  "WHO DID THIS?"

Twilight and Fluttershy looked at one another in alarm.

Suddenly, the front door flew open and out came Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Applejack.

"There's our escape vehicle!" cried Pinkie.

In an instant, Pinkie had jumped through the air and onto Twilight's back.

"Pinkie!" cried Twilight.  "What the hay is going on!?"

"No time to explain!" said Applejack hurriedly.  "Let me on!"

Twilight sat dumbfounded on the unicycle as she allowed Pinkie to help Applejack onto her back.

"I need on too!" cried Rarity.  "They'll be after us any second!"

"What did you do?" cried Twilight in confusion.

"Rainbow!" said Rarity hurriedly, ignoring Twilight.  "Help me up!"

Twilight felt the weight on top of her increase even more.

"Why are we doing this?" cried Twilight.  "This is crazy!"

"Alright Fluttershy!" cried Rainbow from somewhere over Twilight's head.  "Now you!"

"But I didn't do anything!" protested Fluttershy.

"I know that," said Rainbow.  "But they don't know that!"

Fluttershy's eyes became wider and she quickly flew up and perched herself on top of Rainbow Dash.

"What in the wide world of Equestria?"

Twilight now couldn't turn her head toward the door, but she could tell that the voice belonged to Sweetie Belle.

"Go, Twilight!" shouted Rainbow.  "Go go go go go go go!"

"Okay, okay!" shouted Twilight, giving in.  The unicycle lurched forward and began building up speed.

"Get back here!"

Twilight's pupils turned toward the side of her vision, even though she couldn't move them far enough to look behind her.

"How many of them are after you?" she asked nervously.

"Probabily all of them?" said Rainbow Dash.

"What did you do?" shouted Twilight urgently.

"We may have painted everypony's hooves while they were asleep," said Rainbow.

"With colors that clashed with their coats terribly," added Rarity with fiendish delight.

"You're kidding me!" shouted Twilight, secretly wishing that she could turn around and view the mob of colts and fillies giving chase.  "All of you were in on this?"

"No," said Rainbow.  "Just me, Pinkie, and Rarity.  But Applejack was watching us do it, and she wouldn't stop giggling!"

"Rainbow," said Twilight.  "Why did you decide to jump onto my back?  You could get away from everypony easily!"

"Yeah," said Rainbow, "but what about the rest of us?  I'm not going to fly away and make all of you girls fend for yourselves.  We're in this together!"

"You're in this together!" cried Twilight in frustration.  "Fluttershy and I didn't do anything!"

"It's too late to tell them that," said Rainbow.

"Go faster!" cried Pinkie.  "We need to lose them!"

"I'm carrying five ponies, Pinkie!" shouted Twilight.  "I'm doing the best I can!"

"Would it help if I got off and pushed?" suggested Rainbow.

"No!"





"I think we've lost them!" said Pinkie.

"Oh, thank goodness!" said Rarity.

"But what do we do now?" asked Twilight.  "Thanks to you all, we can't go back now!"

"I reckon they just need some time to simmer down," said Applejack.  "And to wash their hooves..."

"Why don't we just bake them a great big 'We're Sorry' cake?" suggested Pinkie.

"You just had the whole town after you," said Twilight.  "and you think that you're going to get them to stop by giving them cake and saying 'we're sorry'?"

"No, hold on, sugarcube," said Applejack.  "I reckon Pinkie's got a good idea!  If we come back with goodies in our hooves, they wouldn't dare pounce on us."

"And what about after we lose the goodies?" asked Twilight.

"Well," said Applejack smugly.  "After they have a taste of some good ol' fashion apple pie, they'll have no choice but to forgive us."

"You want to make them apple pie," repeated Twilight.

"Yeah.  We can hide out at tha farm til this evenin'.  And then, when we come back, everything will be as fit as a fiddle!"





Dear Princess Celestia

This is the eighth day of Discord's experiment here in his copy of Ponyville.  To my suprise, everypony still appears to be in high spirits.  Unfortunately, I cannot accurately report that the town itself is no worse for wear.  Many places in town are a mess after the plague of foals passed through.  I am certain that the knowledge of the fact that this is not the real Ponyville has affected our behavior.  But, even if we don't make it all the way to the end of the experiment, there is already one thing that has suprised me.  This is far more fun than I originally anticipated.

As much as I am enjoying myself, however, I must confess that I myself had other matters on my mind than the success or failure of Discord's experiment.  I have glimpsed my own future and I can scarcely begin to believe everything that I have been told.  The others do their best to hide it, but they don't quite treat those of us that they are used to seeing as adults the same way as they treat one another.  I don't blame them, but I still don't like it.  They see us all as heros of Equestria.  But I want to show them that we are just like them.

I am starting to miss my familly by now, but, it turns out that being with the other colts and fillies is a good way to fill that hole in my heart.  It doesn't replace them completely, but I think that it just might be good enough to get me through these thirty days.  I can't say the same for any of the others, but I think that, together, I just might be able to last the full thirty days.  And I hope that others feel the same way.

I really hope they do.  Because we all need them to stay.  If anypony decides to leave, it will make staying harder for all of the rest of us.  And I really want everpony to stay with us.  It wouldn't feel right having fun without everypony.  I didn't realize it before, but our best chance of lasting thirty days is to do it together, as friends.  I will do my best to do my part.  And I will also do my best to make everypony feel happy here, if I can.

I say that, but even as I write to you now, I am here with Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity, hiding from the others because of some silly little prank.  I swear that I didn't have anything to do with it, but when they asked me to help, I couldn't say no.  Now we're at Applejack's farmhouse and helping her to bake about two dozen different kinds of apple treats to use as a peace offering.  I really hope that everypony will look past this, and that this isn't the beginning of some sort of prank war.  I'll make sure that nopony takes this too far.  We've come too far let something dumb like this get between us.

I find it highly ironic that I am working so hard to disprove my own position in my bet with Discord.  How easily I could cause everything to crumble!  But I am above such underhoofed tactics.  Such actions lead to bad science.  I am going to try my best to see Discord's side of the argument win, even if it costs me the bet.  Because I am starting to think that he might be right.

Your faithful student,

Twilight Sparkle
> Day 9: Pranks a Lot
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash stood in front of the community gym.  It was still night out.

Rainbow Dash wordlessly held up two aerosol cans for Pinkie to see.  Pinkie started giggling.

"Shh!" said Rainbow quietly.

Pinkie made a motion as though zipping her lip and became completely silent.

Rainbow Dash hoofed over the cans to Pinkie and then approached the double doors and slowly opened one.  She grimaced as it made a creaking sound.

When the door was open sufficiently, she stopped to listen.  She could hear no sign of disturbance from within the building.

Carefully, Pinkie positioned the first aerosol can in the space between the two double doors, and then the other.  Holding the cans in place with her hooves, she gave Rainbow a nod.

Rainbow released the door and it tried to swing shut, but was stopped by the caps of the aerosol cans, which pressed in and began to eject vapors into the interior of the gym.

Pinkie released her grip on the cans.  They stayed in place and continued to do their work.

Rainbow started giggling, and Pinkie quickly joined in.

"Shut up!" whispered Rainbow, aware of her hypocrisy.  "Let's get out of here before anypony else notices!"





Twilight awoke to find herself in an unfamiliar location.  After a moment of thought, she remembered that the six of them had been forced to stay the night at Applejack's farm after all.

What happened yesterday? she wondered to herself.  Let's see.  After that ridiculous prank, we fled to Applejack's farm to escape from everypony else.  We spent the day helping Applejack cook apple themed deserts.  When we tried going back...

Twilight frowned.  When we tried going back, the others pelted us with water balloons.  They didn't even care that we were bringing them desert.  And we had to run before all of our hard work was ruined...

And Applejack was in a bad mood for the rest of the night.

Twilight saw that the kitchen light was on.  Doubtlessly, Applejack was already making breakfast for the six of them.

She walked inside.

"Good morning, Applejack," said Twilight as cheerfully as she could.

"Mornin' " said Applejack nonchalantly.

Twilight didn't speak.

"I wonder what the others are having for breakfast this morning," said Applejack.  "I bet you that they're lost without me."

"It wasn't a statement about the quality of your cooking," said Twilight assuringly.  "They were just upset with us.  They should be upset with Rainbow, Pinkie, and Rarity, not you.  It's all just a misunderstanding."

"Misunderstandin' or not," said Applejack, "ya don't waste good food.  We spent all day baking yesterday.  And then they ruined over half of it by gettin' us all soakin' wet!  How do you think that makes me feel?"

"Unappreciated, I suppose," said Twilight.  "But they are the ones at fault here, Applejack.  Not you."

"Perhaps," answered Applejack, "But they did it because of what we did to them.  Ah shouldn't have just watched and laughed, yesterday.  Ah should have put a stop to it."

"Well," said Twilight uncertainly.  "It was at least a little bit funny..."

"Yeah," sighed Applejack.  "It was real funny when our hard work got ruined too."

Applejack shook her head.  "It doesn't matter," she continued, speaking more to herself than Twilight.  "At least there are ponies here that appreciate a good breakfast."





There was a knock on the front door.

Applejack approached the door and peeked through the window to see who it was.

"Spike?" she said aloud in surprise.

She opened the door.

"Alright," cried Spike in a mirthful tone.  "Who did the thing with the air freshener cans?  That was hilarious!"

"Air freshener?" said Applejack in confusion.

"We did that," answered Rainbow Dash from behind Applejack.  "Pinkie and I, that is."

"Wait," said Twilight.  "What did you two do?"

"How did they all react?" asked Rainbow to Spike, grinning.

"Well," said Spike,  "This morning I was shaken awake by Apple Bloom.  And first thing that she says to me is 'Was it you?'  And I was about to tell her that I didn't know what she was talking about when suddenly that smell hit me.  It made me want to gag.  Everypony was putting their hooves over their faces and stuff.  I almost missed the fact that Diamond Tiara woke up Pipsqueak and asked if he did it.

"Anyway, everyone swore that they didn't do it, so we figured that it had to be one of you.  When we went to go find the source of the smell, we found two cans of air freshener stuck in the gym's front door.  One was 'fresh flowers' scent and the other was 'summer breeze'.  And they were both empty."

"Pinkie!  Rainbow!" cried Twilight.  "Why did you do that?"

"Hey," said Rainbow defensively.  "You have to admit that that is funny."

"But you're going to get them even more upset with us!" shouted Twilight.

"Hey," said Spike.  "I was one of the victims, and I thought it was hilarious."

"Yeah!" agreed Rainbow.  "Spike here knows what's up.  There's nothing wrong with a harmless prank or two.  It's all in good fun!"

"Oh yeah," said Spike.  "By the way, the fort is pretty much a no go until it has a chance to air out.  I'm pretty sure that some of the others are going to get back at you."

"Well," said Rarity.  "Then I'm going out to make sure everypony knows that I had nothing to do with this most recent incident.

"I'll go with you," said Spike eagerly.  "That way, I can tell everypony that you are telling the truth."

Rarity opened the front door and stepped through.

"Ahhhh!" she cried in alarm.  Her hooves started flailing in front of her.  "It's got me!  It's got me!"

The others rushed to her side, but Spike was quicker.

"Hold still, Rarity!  I'll get it!"

Rarity obeyed Spike's command and stopped flailing.  She looked down at herself in fright, which quickly changed to confusion.

"Plastic wrap?"

She carefully stepped away from the doorway, revealing the glare of sunlight on the plastic wrap that had been stretched across it, now stretched and warped in several places.

"They got you good, Rarity!" cried Rainbow, who began laughing.

"How did I not see that?" cried Rarity.  She grabbed at the plastic wrap and pulled with all her might, but all she accomplished was stretching the plastic further.

"Allow me," said Spike.  He jabbed into the plastic wrap with a claw and pulled his hand across, cutting through.

"There," he said.  "See?  No harm done."

"No harm done," repeated Rarity, "except I've made a fool of myself."

"Hey," said Rainbow.  "It could have been any one of us.  And besides, this just means that it's our turn to get them back.  You want to help?"

"No," answered Rarity.

"Are you sure?  You don't want to get back at them for doing that to you?" offered Rainbow.

"I'm sure."

"I'll help," offered Spike.  "I'd much rather be on this side, anyway."

"There are no sides!" cried Twilight.  "We're supposed to be working together!  Not 'getting back' at each other!"

"It's just a game, Twi!" said Pinkie.  "Nopony is getting hurt."

"You really need to relax, Twilight," said Rainbow.  "When we pull a prank, we don't hit and run.  That would be totally uncool.  We let the other's get us back.  Everypony else gets to have their fun, it's not just us."

"Fine," said Twilight, giving up.  "But please don't do anything that might hurt somepony!"

"Of course not!" protested Rainbow.  "Do you really think we'd actually hurt anypony?"

"Not on purpose..."
> Day 10: Fort for Two
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"Hello Rumble."

Rumble looked up to see that Dinky was speaking to him.

"Hi."

"What are you doing out here, sitting in the snow?" asked Dinky.  "Aren't you cold?"

"Not really cold," answered Rumble.  "Kind of tired, actually."

"Ah," said Dinky knowingly.  The foals had spent the night sleeping at the Quills and Sofas building, as the Fort still made one's eyes water just by being near it.  Rainbow Dash and Pinkie had taken the liberty of waking everypony with a duet performed over the loud speaker.

It was something that she was sure Rainbow Dash would only ever do as a joke.

It was also a performance she would never forget.

"So," said Rumble.  "The others are planning the next scheme, or something?"

"I guess so," said Dinky.  "I wish they would just stop though.  I have nopony to play with now."

Rumble could tell that she left the last statement hanging in the air on purpose.

"What you want to do?" he asked half heartedly.

"I don't know.  You want to go exploring?"

"Nah.  I would spend the whole time just brooding," said Rumble.

"Oh.  Um...  Do you want to try a game of chess with me?  Twilight taught me how to play, but I haven't had a chance to have a real game with anypony that I actually have a hope of beating without them letting me."

Dinky smiled at Rumble, hoping that the joke would at least cause him to smile, but it did not.

"I guess I could do that," said Rumble.  "At least it will take my mind of things."

"Take your mind off of what things?" asked Dinky.

"Nothin' " responded Rumble.  "Don't worry 'bout it."

"If you say so," said Dinky.  "Um... actually, Twilight's chess set is back in the Fort right now.  Do you... want to go get it?"

Rumble sighed.  "May as well."





"Huh," said Dinky.  "You know, the smell in here isn't so bad today."

"Yeah," agreed Rumble.

"We could actually stay here, if we wanted."

"Or we could take it someplace where there isn't a smell at all?" suggested Rumble.

"Well, nowhere else is as cool as this place," said Dinky.  "And we could have it all to ourselves.  All of this space."

"So?"

"We could pretend that it's a castle," suggested Dinky.  "And that I'm a princess."

Rumble snorted.  "Right.  And I'm Shining Armor."

"We could pretend we live together," said Dinky.

"I'm out," said Rumble, who immediately flew for the door.

"Hey!" cried Dinky.  "Wait!  I was just kidding around!  Why are you so mopey?"

"I told you, it's nothing."  He hesitated for a moment.  "I'm not playing castle with you."

"Well, you did agree to play chess."

"Let's grab it then."

"Are you okay with playing right here?"

"Sure, I guess."





"So," said Dinky as she moved her piece.  "You have a brother?"

"Yeah," said Rumble as he watched her make her move.  "He doesn't live in Ponyville though.  And even if he did, he would be too old to be here."

"Do you get along with him?" asked Dinky.

Rumble snorted.

"Sometimes."

"Do you wish that he was here?" asked Dinky.

Rumble didn't answer right away.  He picked up a knight and made a move.  Then, he said, "If my brother was here, he would definitely be helping the others pull off their pranks."

Neither pony said anything for a moment.

"Don't you find it silly that the knights are the only pieces that look anything at all like a pony?" said Rumble.

"I said the same thing to Twilight," said Dinky in surprise as she made her move.

More silence.

"Don't you miss him?  Your brother?"

"Not really."

Do you miss your parents?"

"Perhaps."

"I miss my mom."

"Check."

"What?"

"My knight is threatening your king," said Rumble.  "Check."





"What was that" said Rumble in annoyance.

"It's en passant," said Dinky uncertainly.

"You can't even move to that space!"

"It's a special move that Twilight showed me," explained Dinky.

"That let's you capture my piece without moving onto it?" asked Rumble disbelievingly.

"Yes?"

"That's totally unfair!"

"Well," said Dinky, "if you don't want to play with that rule, I can take that move back and we can ignore it."

"Yeah," said Rumble.  "Let's do that.  I'm definitely going to ask Twilight about that, later."





"I should have known that you would win, even without your fancy moves," said Rumble.  He thumped his king over.  "Anypony trained to play this game by Twilight has to win."

"You got close," protested Dinky.

"I guess so.  Anyway, good game."

"Good game," said Dinky.  "So, what now?"

"I don't know.  No, wait.  Actually, I'm hungry."

"I think there's some ingredients for some daffodil sandwiches around here somewhere," said Dinky.





"Ugh!" cried Applebloom's voice.  "Let's not stay here long!"

"No kidding!" cried Scootaloo.

A moment later, the Cutie Mark Crusaders entered into the fort.

"Oh, there you two are," said Apple Bloom.  "Good grief, how can you two stand it in here?"

"I don't know," said Rumble with a shrug.  "We've just gotten used to it, I guess?"

"What are you two playing?"

"Just a game called Desert Treasure," said Rumble with a shrug.

"What's that?"

"Daring Do and her crew get stranded in the desert and their only hope of escape is to assemble the magical flying machine that they came to the desert to find in the first place," explained Rumble.  "But if you're not quick, you'll get burried under the sand." 

"It looks... complicated," said Sweetie Belle.

"It is," said Dinky.  "But we're figuring it out."

"Huh," said Scootaloo.  "I didn't know that there were Daring Do board games."

"They are not as popular as the books," answered Rumble.

"Maybe I can convince Rainbow Dash to play.  Later.  We have things to do right now.  Are you sure you two don't want to help us try to kidnap Pinkie?" asked Scootaloo.

"Kidnap Pinkie?" cried Rumble and Dinky in unison.

"Well, not really kidnap," said Scootaloo.  "We just want to see if we can catch her and keep her from escaping.  Just for fun."

"That doesn't sound very fun," said Dinky.

"Well, Pinkie thinks it's great," said Scootaloo.  "We've already failed three times.  We came in here to see if there's anything here that might help.  Speaking of which, we need to hurry up with that.  It smells awful in here."

A few minutes later, Rumble and Dinky's game was interrupted again.

"So," said Sweetie Belle.  "You two have been in here all day?"

"Yeah..." answered Rumble.

"...Alone?"

Rumble's face turned red.

"Hey, Dinky's the only one who wants do something that's actually fun," he shot back.

"If you say so," said Sweetie Belle with a grin.

"Come on, Sweetie," said Apple Bloom.  "Let's go!"

Rumble and Dinky watched as the Crusaders ran off with several roles of tape and a bundle of rope.

"They'll never catch her," muttered Rumble.

"Never," agreed Dinky.

"Dinky..." began Rumble.  "I do miss my brother.  And my parents."

"It's okay," said Dinky.  "I miss mine too."

"...  Do you want to go home?"
> Day 11: Close Call
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Twilight."

"Applejack?" said Twilight, concerned by the pony's tone.  She noticed that Applejack was not alone.  "Rarity?  Fluttershy?  Is everything okay?"

"No, Twilight," said Applejack.  "Everything is not okay.  And ah'm not the only pony who thinks so."

"I've had enough of these pranks," said Rarity.  "Everypony else might still be laughing, but I for one don't think that this is funny anymore."

"I don't like it either," said Fluttershy.  "We used to have fun together.  But I feel like we're being left out.  This isn't very fun."

"But what can we do?" asked Twilight in despair.  "They don't want to stop!"

"Ah know," said Applejack, frustrated.  "Ah'm growin' tired of this whole affair.  Ah was thinkin' maybe it's time we go home."

"Go home?" cried Twilight in alarm.  "Is that what you want?  All of you?"

"I'm not going to stay here if everypony continues to act like this," said Rarity.

"What she said," said Fluttershy quietly.

"Oh, no," said Twilight to herself, lowering her head.  "No, I knew this would happen!  I saw this coming!  This is just the first step isn't it?  It's all coming apart!"

"What ever do you mean?" asked Rarity.

"I mean, it's like..."

Twilight hesitated.  She tried to think of an analogy Rarity would understand.

"It's like threads of a fabric!" cried Twilight.  "Once one thread comes lose, the rest will quickly follow!  All it takes is one thread being pulled lose, and the rest just falls apart!"

"I don't understand," said Rarity.  "What are these threads supposed to represent?"

"Ponies!" cried Twilight.  "I'm afraid that, if you three leave, everypony else will lose heart and give up too!"

"Well, why not let them?" said Applejack.  "I've had just about enough of this."

"But I don't want everypony to leave!" protested Twilight.  "We were a part of something remarkable!  Something that I enjoyed!  I...  I don't want it to end."

"Can't you enjoy it without us?" asked Rarity.

"No!"

Even Twilight froze in shock.

"No, I really can't!" she continued.  "Not if you leave like this!  If the three of you decide to leave because of everypony else being stupid and inconsiderate of your feelings, then...  It would leave a bad taste in my gut!  You know?  It's not right!  Please!  Please stay?  For my sake?"

Nopony spoke for a minute.

Finally, Applejack said, "What about the pranks?"

"We're going to put a stop to them," said Twilight determinedly.  "Right now.  I should have done so much sooner.  But I was too scared to, because I didn't want to tell anypony what to do.  But I don't care about that any more.  We're going to make this right.

"Now, let's go grab Rainbow and Pinkie.  They need to come too."





"Dinky?  Rumble?" said Twilight.  "What are you two doing out here?"

"Nothing much..." muttered Rumble, ignoring the looks that Twilight's friends were giving him.

Twilight didn't believe this for a minute.  She made a quick deduction based on the pair's direction of travel.

"You're going home, aren't you?  To the real world."

The two foals hesitated.

"We're just not having fun all of the sudden," answered Dinky.  "And we miss our families.  I just want to go home."

Rumble said nothing.

"Look," said Twilight urgently.  "I understand that you two are unhappy with the way things have been going these past few days.  But we're on our way to put a stop to this nonsense once and for all.  Please don't leave.  If you two leave, then we'll lose two of our most sensible ponies, and we'll be worse off than ever before!"

"I don't know..." said Rumble.

"Come with me," said Twilight.  "Give me a chance.  Let me try to talk some sense into everypony.  Afterward, you can decide whether you want to go home or not."

Dinky looked to Rumble, who shrugged.  "Alright, Twi," said Dinky.  "We'll come with you."





"Hey, it's them!" cried Scootaloo.

"What are they doing here?" asked Apple Bloom.  "They here to give up?"

"Whoa, Twilight looks like she means business," remarked Sweetie Belle nervously.

"Get everypony together" said Twilight as she drew close to the Crusaders.  "Everypony."

"You want us to get everypony together?" said Apple Bloom in confusion.

"If anypony gives you trouble, tell them that Twilight told you to do it."

"Oh, well, okay?" said Sweetie Belle.





A few minutes later, Twilight found herself in front of the gym with the entirety of the town looking at her, some suspiciously.  She gulped.  She had never done this sort of thing before, but she knew that she had to, for the sake of the entire town.

At least she couldn't smell anything out here.

"Everypony listen!" she cried.  "You may not realize it, but Ponyville is on the brink of a crisis!"

Almost everypony in attendance gave her a confused look.

"We have been pranking each other for three days now!  And I know that most of you think it's all great fun and games!  But it stops being a game when somepony is not having fun.

"This morning, I spoke with five ponies who have not been enjoying these past three days.  Five ponies!  Most of you have no idea just how close they were to leaving and going home, all over a bunch of silly pranks!  How would that make you feel?  If you knew that five ponies left, and you were partially to blame?  You know that Ponyville wouldn't be the same after losing that many of us!"

"Ponyville is more than just a group of buildings in one place.  Ponyville is a community!  And a community is a group of ponies who work together for a common cause!  We have not been a good community for these past few days!

"When Discord told us that we expected to last for thirty days, I didn't think there was a hope of a snowball in tartarus of that happening.  I didn't want to be right, of course, but I wasn't expecting to be wrong.  But, after time passed, I started to think, 'maybe we can do this after all!'  I want Discord to be right.  And I think that we have the potential to prove him right.

"But I fear that this foalishness might be the spark that ignites the dynamite!  If we drive our fellow ponies away, it will fracture our community forever.  I have no doubt that if we allow this to happen, if this community is destroyed, it will weigh on our hearts forever.  And, furthermore, we will prove that a town of foals can't exist without our foalishness tearing us apart!  I think I speak for everypony when I say that that is the last thing any of us want.  And, please forgive me for being selfish, but I would prefer that nopony leaves this Ponyville and return to the real world early.  Your presence here is helps keep this place alive, even if you don't realize it!  We need you!  I need you..."

"Ahem, so, for the sake of your fellow ponies, please.  Let this be the end of it!  Let's wipe the record clean, and nopony 'gets back' at anypony.  There are much better ways that we could be spending our time, doing things that everypony thinks is fun!  As a matter of fact, we've all been so busy, we have missed a very important fact:

"Tomorrow is Rumble's birthday!"

Twilight's audience gasped.

"Rumble!" whispered Apple Bloom.  "Why didn't you tell us?"

"Didn't think it was important," muttered Rumble.  "I mean, this isn't even the real world.  So it's not my real birthday."

"Who cares about that?" cried Pinkie.  "You are definitely getting a party!"

"How did you know it was my birthday tomorrow?" said Rumble to Twilight.

"Easy," said Twilight.  "Adult me likes to keep lists.  And I apparently have a list of every birthday in Ponyville.  And your name was down for tomorrow!"

"Ahem," said Rainbow, looking at Pinkie.

"I need to say something," said Rainbow, loud enough that everypony could hear.  "It was mine and Pinkie's idea to do start this whole thing, so...  We're both sorry."

"I forgive you, Rainbow!"

"Pinkie," said Rainbow in deadpan.  "Shut up."
> Day 12: Admiral Rumble
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

'Surprise!"

"Argh!" screamed Rumble as he awoke with a start.  The cloud he had been sleeping on had somehow been moved near the floor.  He looked around in confusion at the faces of his fellow ponies crowding around him.

And then he caught sight of the mountain of a birthday cake that was sitting on a table next to Pinkie Pie.

"Germane chocolate?" he cried out in astonishment.  "How did you know?"

"I just had a hunch," answered Pinkie.  "So, were you surprised?"

"Of course you surprised me, I was asleep!"

"We don't really have many presents for you," said Pinkie, "since you can just go take whatever you want, but we did agree to do whatever you want to do today, and we also made this for you."

Pinkie held out a wrapped present to Rumble.  It wasn't very big.

Rumble raised his eyebrows at Pinkie.  "It's not another prank, is it?" he asked carefully.

"Of course not!" cried Pinkie.  "We agreed yesterday to stop!  This is a for real present, from all of us, to you!"

Rumble took the gift from her hooves.  He shook it a couple of times, but this produced no sound.

He shrugged and tore into the packaging with his teeth.  Underneath was a small box, which he also opened.

Inside was a picture in a frame.  Every dragon, filly, and colt in town except for himself was huddled together in the photo, smiling at him, although some were definitely more enthusiastic than others.  Pinkie was naturally overdoing it the most.  Someone with good writing skills had written 'Happy Birthday Rumble' on the photo.

Rumble noticed another pony in the photo had put on an extra large smile.  Dinky.

He looked up at the real Dinky and raised an eyebrow at her, but she just continued to smile back.

"Thank you, everypony," he said sincerely to the group around him.

"You're welcome, Rumble!" cried Pinkie.  "So, since we all promised to do whatever you want today, what do you feel like doing now?"

"Umm..." Rumble began, but hesitated.  Why did you have to put me on the spot? he complained mentally.  Nothing came to mind.  "I don't know?" he said hesitantly.

"There must be something you can think of," said Pinkie encouragingly.

"Ahem!"

Everypony turned toward the speaker in bewilderment.

"The gift giving is not over just yet," said Discord.  He approached the foals, a large cube shaped present in hand.  The wrapping paper looked as though an artist had given up on trying to paint and simply slapped their pallet against the canvas and spun it in wild circles.

"What is that?" asked Rumble warily.

"Open it and find out!" said Discord, setting it in front of Rumble.

Rumble didn't move.

"Come now, it won't bite.  Open it up!"

Rumble slowly moved for the present.

"Wait!" cried Twilight.  Suddenly she found all eyes on her.

"If you are supposed to be an impartial observer in this town, then why are you giving us gifts?  Anything that you give us is something that we would not otherwise have!"

"It's not something that will effect things all that much," protested Discord.  "I just wanted to give Rumble a neat present!"

Discord turned back to Rumble.  "Show her.  Open it up!"

Rumble resumed opening the present, one eye narrowed in suspicion.

He opened up the lid and peered inside.

"Huh?"

Rumble looked back at Discord.  "Really?"

"Of course!" said Discord.  "Take it out and show everypony!"

Rumble did so.  Everypony stared at the object in his hands.

"What kind of birthday party would this be," said Discord, "without a really cool hat?"

"It's a top hat," said Rumble confused.

"Wait until you see what it does," said Discord.  "Put it on."

Rumble did so, half expecting it to explode.

Nothing appeared to happen.

"Did anything happen?" he asked aloud.

"No," said Dinky.  "But it does look nice on you..."

Rumble blushed.

"Nothing happened just yet," said Discord, "but check this out!"

Discord put a paw on the hat and gave it a twist.

"Whoa!" cried Scootaloo.

"What happened?" demanded Rumble, fearing what the answer might be.

"Now that's cool!" said Rainbow Dash.

"I have a hoof mirror over here," said Diamond Tiara, who was in front of a shelf.  A moment later, she came back, mirror in hoof.  She held it up so that Rumble could see.

"Huh?" cried Rumble, confused.  "That's not the way it was before!"

"That's right!" said Discord, apparently pleased.  "If you give it a ninety degree twist, your top hat transforms into a fedora!

"Now, if we twist it around again, so that the hat is backwards..." continued Discord, placing his paw on the hat again and giving it another twist.

"Whoa," said Rumble in surprise.  The former fedora suddenly fell over his eyes and there was a small 'thud' sound.

"It transforms into a cooking pot!" finished Discord.

"Um..." said Rumble, wishing he could see the looks everypony must surely be giving him now.  "Okay?"

"And last of all," said Discord, grabbing the pot and giving it another twist.

The metal rim of the pot receded upward and became soft again, much to Rumble's relief.

"Tah dah!"

"What is it?" asked Rumble, looking at the smirking Diamond Tiara.  She lifted up the mirror again.

"It transforms into an admiralty hat, just like the one you see Neighpolean wearing in all of those pictures!" said Discord.

Rumble looked at Discord for a moment, unsure what to say.

"This is the part where you say 'thank you'," said Applejack.

"Um, right," said Rumble.  "Thank you, Discord."

"It's my pleasure," answered Discord.  "I'm afraid I can't stay, however.  I'll just be grabbing some of this cake here, and then I'll be going."

A large triangle of cake detached itself from the birthday cake and floated up to Discord, who caught it in his claw.

"Discord!" cried Pinkie.  "That wasn't very polite!  Rumble was supposed to have the first piece!"

Discord hesitated, and then held the piece of cake out to Rumble.  "You want?"

"No, you can take it," answered Rumble.

"You see?" said Discord to Pinkie, taking a bite out of the cake.

"Well, you should have at least asked before taking!"

"I'm working on it," said Discord with a mouth full of cake.  "Goodbye everypony!"

Discord snapped his fingers and vanished.

"Well, that was interestin' " remarked Apple Bloom.

"Indeed," said Twilight, her eyes not leaving Rumble's new hat.

"An admiral's hat, huh?" said Rumble, looking up at the hat.  "That gives me an idea.  I know what I want to do today!"





"Welcome aboard, admiral!" said Scootaloo.  "The crew is awaiting your orders!"

"All hooves on deck!" cried Rumble.  "Prepare to set sail for treasure and adventure!  Let's get this-"

Rumble hesitated.

"Hey, Twilight!"

"Yes, admiral?"

"What kind of ship would you say this is?"

"Well," said Twilight, looking over the 'ship', which was actually just four tables pushed together with sofas lining the sides in all directions, plus one mop handle sticking out of the middle with a large white sheet stretched across it.  "Considering how narrow and long we are, and since we only have one deck, I would classify this as a sloop."

"Alright then," said Rumble.  "Let's get this sloop out to sea!"

"You're supposed to say "Aye aye, admiral!" said Diamond Tiara to the others in annoyance.

"Aye aye, admiral!"

Diamond smirked.  That's better.

"Set sail due east!" cried Rumble.

"Aye aye!"

"Pardon me, admiral?" said Twilight.

"Yes, sailor?"

"If we sail straight east, we will be sailing into the eye of the wind," said Twilight.

"What does that mean?"

"It means that we will be sailing in the opposite direction that the wind is blowing, and it will be almost impossible to move," answered Twilight.  "As a sloop, the most efficient use of the wind is to sail either broad reach or broad beam reach."

Rumble sighed.  "And what do those mean?"

"Broad reach is forty-five degrees from running before the wind, which is to say, sailing in the same direction of the wind, and broad beam reach is is halfway between broad reach and beam reach.  Beam reach is when we are sailing at a ninety degree angle to the direction of the wind."

Nopony spoke.

"Right..." said Rumble.  "So, which way should we go then?"

"We can go almost any direction you like," said Twilight, "except straight east.  Assuming that the wind is blowing to the west.  It does on an average day, after all.  The most effective use of the wind would be to sail either north-west or south-west."

"Okay, then," said Rumble.  "Let's go south-west!"

"Excuse me, admiral?" said Twilight.

"Yes?"

"May I examine your hat?"

"Why?" asked Rumble, confused.

"I want to examine the magic that Discord put in it."

"Well, okay," said Rumble.  He took it the hat off and hoofed it over to Twilight.

Twilight stopped paying attention to the game and carefully walked to the end of the row of sofas, being careful not to step on anypony.  Once she arrived at her destination, she sat down and probed the hat in search of magical energy.

Much to her surprise, the hat showed no signs of magic whatsoever.

That can't be right! she thought to herself.  She levitated the hat onto her head and gave it a twist.

It instantly changed from being an admiralty hat back into a top hat.

There was definitely SOMETHING there, but I've never seen anything like this before!

"Hey, Twilight!" cried Sweetie Belle.

"Hmm?" said Twilight, looking up.

"The admiral wants to know what the left side of the ship is called!"

"Port side," answered Twilight automatically.  "The right side is called the starboard side."

"Thanks!"

"Don't mention it."

Twilight returned her attention to the puzzling headwear.

BOOM

Twilight jumped in fright.

"What was that?" she cried.

"The admiral said to fire the cannon at the pirates on the port side!" said Pinkie, holding an enormous party cannon.

Twilight looked over the side of the sofas.  There was confetti all over the floor.

Twilight shook her head.  She carefully stood up and walked back to the front of the ship.

"Here's your hat back," she said to Rumble.  "I want to go ask Discord about how he made that thing.  So, I guess I'll be jumping ship."

"But what if I don't know the right words for something?" asked Rumble.

"I could grab a book about sailing from the library, if you like."

"Okay," answered Rumble, satisfied.  "That would be pretty cool, actually!  Thanks!"





"Chaos magic?" said Twilight to Discord in suprise.  "I've never heard of such a thing!"

"Of course you haven't," said Discord.  "In much the same way that earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns have their own unique magics, chaos magic is a unique form of magic possessed only by draconequii, such as myself.  And I am the only known draconequis, so I suppose you could say that it is a form of magic unique to me."

"But there must be some way I can study it!" insisted Twilight.  "I don't suppose you would be willing to undergo some tests?"

"Won't do you much good," responded Discord.  "You already tried that once.  I wouldn't have even agreed to it the first time if I hadn't been bored, and I must admit that your 'tests' were not a much better use of my time.  The only thing that you were able to determine by the end was that my magic doesn't like to be understood."

"But this is a new magic that I have never encountered before!" insisted Twilight.  "There must be something I can do to help myself to understand.  If testing you won't work, maybe you have an idea that would work better?"

Discord smiled.  "As a matter of fact, I do.  I can't give you my magic directly, but there are more ways to utilize magic than channeling it.  You are familiar with potions?"

"Yes, potions harness the magical properties of things from nature to give desired effects.  Are you saying that there are natural ingredients that have chaotic properties?"

"Bingo!" said Discord.  He snapped his fingers and a potted plant appeared in his palm.  "This little beauty is one of my favorites.  Poison joke."

"Poison joke..." said Twilight to herself.  "I could swear I heard somepony say those two together recently...  It sounds dangerous."

"Depending on how you define 'dangerous', it is.  I suggest that you don't touch," said Discord sternly.  "Although the effects vary from pony to pony, you have already come into contact with this plant in the past.  Which is to say, your future.  It will make your horn wither and become unusable."

Twilight paled.  "That's why I heard somepony talk about it!" she cried.  "Apple Bloom said that at first she thought her sister had touched poison joke, and she had to explain to me what she was talking about!  But what am I supposed to do with it?  Can I lift it with my magic?"

"It will not affect you if it does not touch you physically," assured Discord.  "So, yes.  You can lift it in your magic.  And, as for what you do with it, that is up to you.  Just remember that you will be responsible with what happens."

"I'm not going to use it on the other colts and fillies," said Twilight accusingly.

"You don't have to.  Ponies aren't the only ones affected by poison joke."

"I'm not going to ask Spike to touch it either!" shot Twilight.

"That is not what I was getting at," said Discord.  "You see, this plant will make a joke out of almost anything.  It can actually affect almost anything, living or not."

"Really?" said Twilight, intrigued.  Suddenly, she narrowed her eyes suspiciously.  "It's not contagious, is it?  If I were to, say, use it on an inanimate object, would it spread to anypony who then touches that object?"

"Nope!" answered Discord.  "All traces of the poison joke vanish within minutes.  However, it does take a few hours for the effects to become pronounced."

"Hmm," said Twilight.  "This might work then, actually."

Twilight hesitated again.

"Did this plant come from Ponyville?  Apple Bloom says it grows in the Everfree Forest."

"There's a little bit that grows on the outskirts of the forest," answered Discord.  "You could go and find some without being stopped by the invisible wall.  I'm not giving you outside assistance."

Twilight didn't believe that, but she was too intrigued to care for the moment.  "If you say so."  She magically lifted the plant off of Discord's desk, making extra sure to keep it far from her coat.  "I guess I should get going then.  Lots of ideas to try, you know how it is."

"Of course," answered Discord.  "I look forward to seeing how it goes."





Once Twilight was outside, she stopped to think.

I suppose I should go to the library before going back, she thought.  I did promise to grab a sailing book for Rumble.

Actually, the library would be the perfect place for an experiment.  I wouldn't want to risk destroying everypony else's stuff, after all.  It would be irresponsible of me to use it on anything other than my own property.
> Day 13 Part 1: Book Trouble
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rainbow Dash sighed to herself as she stopped in front of the spot where a cloud had been previously.

I wish that there was more action down there.  Anything to keep my attention!  This job is so boring!  Nothing interesting ever happens...

"Tweet."

"Huh?  Who's there?"

"Tweet."

Rainbow spun around, looking for the source of the noise, but saw nothing.

"Knock it off, guys," said Rainbow in annoyance.

"Tweet."

The sound was directly behind her.  Rainbow spun around in an instant and her jaw dropped.

There was a book flying in the air in front of her, open down the middle and flapping its pages and book covers to stay in the air.

"What the hay?"

Suddenly, more book birds came from nowhere and surrounded Rainbow, 'Tweeting' constantly.

"What do you want?" cried Rainbow defensively.

One of the book birds rubbed against one of her hooves.

"Hey!" cried Rainbow as her hoof lashed out.  The book bird flew out of the way and in front of her face.

A previously unseen red book mark stuck out from between the pages and started flapping at Rainbow, accompanied by an obscene noise.

"Why you... goofy... book bird thing!"

Rainbow stopped to contemplate the words that had just come out of her mouth.

"Where'd you all come from, anyway?"

Another book rubbed against her hooves, as though inviting Rainbow to hold it.

"Get away from me!" cried Rainbow.  She flew backward away from the flock, but the books followed her through the air.

"Gah!  Stop following me!"





"Guys!" cried Rainbow Dash as she flew through the opening of the Fort.  "We have a problem!"

"What is that noise?" said Dinky.  "It sounds like there's a bunch of birds outside!"

"There are, sort of," said Rainbow Dash.  "They won't stop following me!"

"Really?  I thought there were no critters in this Ponyville," remarked Apple Bloom.

"Why wont they be quiet?" asked Diamond Tiara, annoyed.

"Look, you guys aren't going to believe me if you don't see this for yourself," said Rainbow.

"See what?" asked Scootaloo.

"These aren't birds," said Rainbow Dash.  "They're...  Just come see!"

Suddenly, there was a flash of light in the middle of the Fort and a book bird appeared.

"AGH!" screamed Rainbow Dash.  "How did that one get in here?"

The book tweeted and began flying in circles around several of the colts and fillies.

"This was what was chasing you?" cried Sweetie Belle.

"There's more outside!" shouted Rainbow.  "I don't have any idea how this one got in here!"

"Gotcha!" screamed Diamond Tiara, who somehow managed to snatch the book out of the air.

"It's a spell book!" cried Diamond Tiara.  "Fundamentals of Teleportation!"

"Wha?" cried Spike.  "That's one of the books in Twilight's library!"

"Where is Twilight?" cried Rainbow.

"I don't think she ever came back after last night," answered Rumble.  "She promised me that she would grab a book from the library and she hasn't come back to give it to me yet."

"Do you think she's still there?" asked Rainbow.

"It's possible."

"I'm going to go find her.  She's got to know what the hay is going on here!"

Rainbow Dash flew out of the Fort.

Suddenly, the spell book vanished from Diamond's grasp with a flash of light and reappeared in the air.

"Ugh, what are we going to do about that thing?" cried Diamond.

The book let out a series of angry tweets.

Fluttershy whistled at the book in response.

Dispite being an object with no facial expressions, it somehow managed to appear to calm down.  It swiveled in the air to face Fluttershy, and then flew toward her.

"Are you kidding me?" cried Scootaloo in shock as the book eagerly flew to Fluttershy's side.

The spell book landed in Fluttershy's outstretched hooves.  She gently ran a hoof down the book's spine.  It shivered, and then fell open in her hooves.  It remained completely still.





Rainbow Dash stood in front of the door to the library, watching as the swarm of books that had followed her suddenly flew away.

"Thank goodness," Rainbow said to herself.

She opened the door.

"Twilight!" cried Rainbow in relief.  "Good, you're here!"

"Rainbow!" cried Twilight in suprise, turning her head to look at the pony.  "What are you doing here?"

"What am I doing here?" cried Rainbow.  "I'll tell you what I'm doing here.  There are books loose all over Ponyville!  Flying books.  From your library.  Would you happen to know anything about that?"

Twilight gave Rainbow an embarased look.  "Yes."

"What did you do?"

"That," responded Twilight, pointing toward the potted poison joke, which was sitting on a table.

"It's poison joke," explained Twilight.  "I was just experimenting on the effects that it causes, and it got a little out of hoof."

"No kidding!  What happened?"

"Well, at first, I only exposed a few of my possessions to the poison joke plant," began Twilight.  "But, it takes hours for it to take effect.  I admit, I got a little restless waiting and started exposing more and more of my things to the plant to pass the time."

"And you got poison joke all over all the books in the library?"

"Almost all of them.  I saved the sailing terminology guide for Rumble, like I promised.  And I didn't mean for the books to get loose, but I had no choice!"

"What do you mean, you had no choice?"

THUD

"Erm, Twilight...?" began Rainbow nervously, only now realizing that Twilight's horn was lit up.  "What do you have trapped in your basement?"

"It's nothing!" said Twilight quickly.

"You used the poison joke on more than just books, didn't you?" accused Rainbow.

"Well, yes.  The dishes all ran away with my spoons.  I don't have any idea where they went.  The forks all turned to rubber and their prongs are flimsy and useless.  The telescope now only shows you the back of your own head if you try to look through it.  But none of those things are actually much of a problem."

"So, what's in the basement?"

CRASH

As if in answer to Rainbow's question, the basement door exploded in a shower of splinters.  Both ponies watched in horror as a gigantic book smashed through the door and flapped wildly in an attempt to regain it's bearings.  It was easily the hugest book that Rainbow Dash had ever seen in her life.

Somehow, Rainbow was able to tell from the way it was vibrating, it was furious.

The thick book rotated around until Rainbow somehow knew that it was looking at her.

Suddenly, the book closed for a moment before opening again, revealing sharp teeth along it's edges.

"ROAAAAR!"

The force of the book's roaring was enough to knock Rainbow to the ground.  She watched in horror as the book turned around and threw itself through a window, shattering it.

Twilight was beside Rainbow in a moment, helping her to her hooves.

"What in Equestria was THAT?" screamed Rainbow in terror.

"That," said Twilight in a voice of terrified veneration, "was Thesaurus."
> Day 13 Part 2: Sugar Rush
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"We have a problem, everypony!" cried Twilight.  "My thesaurus is on a rampage through town!"

"Rampage?" said Dinky.  "You mean worse than the other books?"

"Trust me," said Rainbow Dash, "this thing is scary."

"Is it dangerous?" asked Sweetie Belle.

"Yes," answered Twilight, "but not to us, unless we try to get in it's way.  The only thing on Thesaurus's mind is catching the other books!"

"What?" asked Sweetie in confusion.  "Why?"

"I'm not sure," said Twilight.  "but I doubt it wants to be friends with them.  We need to catch Thesaurus before it can cause any damage!"

Suddenly, Fluttershy burst into the Fort.

"A book has been ambushed!" she cried.

"Uh oh..." muttered Rainbow Dash.





"What is that chattering noise?" asked Diamond Tiara.  "Is that the... books?"

"Yes," answered Fluttershy.  "They are worried about their friend!"

As they rounded a corner, Twilight saw a swarm of books hovering in the air a short distance away, making quite a lot of noise with their pages.

Twilight ran ahead of the group toward the swarm.  Once she drew close, she realized that the flying books were all facing a lone book sitting on the ground.

It appeared to be unharmed, except for the fact that it was quivering.

She grasped the book in her magic and lifted it up.  It did nothing to resist.

She read the title.

The Fable of the Mare within the Satellite

Twilight hesitated, staring at the bizarre book title.

"Is it okay?" asked Fluttershy.  "It looked okay to me, but it seemed so upset!"

"Something is not right," said Twilight uneasily.

She cracked the book open and read from the first page.

On one occasion on top of a stage, within the mystic acreage of Equestria, there subsisted twofold relatives.

"This can't be right," said Twilight aloud.

She continued reading.

The senior sibling elevated the sun for the duration of the day and the earlier sibling elevated the satellite all through the nocturnal.

"This book is not okay!" announced Twilight, slamming the book shut.  "Thesaurus has rewritten nearly every word with synonyms with almost no regard for sentence flow or logic!  It makes my head hurt reading this!  If I wasn't certain of it before, I am now.  That book is a monster!"

"Wait a second, Twi!" cried Apple Bloom.  "We ran off in such a hurry, ah didn't get a chance to ask, how is it that these books are alive in the first place?"

Twilight lowered her head.

"It's my fault.  I exposed them to poison joke."

"Poison joke!" cried Apple Bloom.  "Weren't you listenin' when I told you how dangerous that plant is?"

"I didn't think that using it on inanimate objects would be a problem," said Twilight.  "I didn't realize that the books would become animate."

"But why?  Why do this?"

Twilight sighed.  "Scientific curiosity.  I did learn a few things though.  The effects of the poison joke are highly unpredictable from a practical point of view, but the effects do make some ironic sense.  Which tells me that the poison joke somehow must have a mind of it's own, and is furthermore capable of understanding language and humor.  The most extreme example was with my thesaurus.  All I can say is that poison joke has a unique sense of humor."

"But if that thing is alive because of poison joke," said Applejack, "then can't we just use that cure that you told us about to get it to stop scaring everypony and destroying your books?"

"No," answered Apple Bloom.  "Most of the ingredients for the cure grow in the Everfree Forest.  Making a cure is not an option."

"But then what can we do?" cried Twilight.

"What's the big deal?" asked Rainbow Dash.  "They're just books.  Why don't we just let Thesaurus have them?"

"Rainbow!" cried Twilight in shock.  "Look at how scared they are!"

"That one seems fine," said Rainbow, pointing to the 'The Fable of the Mare within the Satellite' book.

"They don't want to end up like that, Dash!" cried Twilight.  "And besides!  Do you really want a monstrous Thesaurus tearing up the town while pursuing these little guys?"

"Well, I guess not," said Rainbow.  "That would be a little too chaotic."

"I don't think Discord would be happy to hear you say that," remarked Scootaloo.

"I think you're wrong about that," said Sweetie Belle.  "I don't think that Discord ever gets upset.  He'd probably just laugh."

"Twilight!" cried Fluttershy.  "There's something wrong with this one too!"

Twilight hurried to Fluttershy's side.  She was holding another book.

"Did it get rewritten too?" asked Twilight urgently.

"No, but it has stopped moving!"

"Stopped moving?"

"Yes!  It teleported into my hooves and snuggled up against me, and it hasn't moved an inch since!"

"Oh, is that the 'Fundamentals of Teleportation' book?  I was quite astonished to discover that it was capable of casting the spell written in it's pages, but it's no surprise that it wore itself out so quickly.  Teleportation is a rather taxing spell to cast even when traveling almost no distance at all, and that book was casting the spell over and over.  I certainly don't blame it.  If I was able to cast that spell, I would use it all the time.

"But, unlike me, the spellbook does not have a renewing energy source.  The energy comes straight out of the magic sustaining it's animation, and it runs out eventually.  The effects of the poison joke are now effectively dismissed.  It's just an- ordinary spell book now..."

"Are you thinkin' what I'm thinkin'?" asked Applejack.

"It might be possible to return Thesaurus back to normal by forcing it to expend all of it's energy," said Twilight thoughtfully.  "But that is not going to be an easy task.  Unlike the teleportation spell book, it does not expend it's energy in large bursts.  These books probably use energy for three things: First, it takes energy for the books to simply exist in an animated state, but the amount of energy that uses should be largely insignificant.  If they were to sit still and do nothing at all, there is no telling how long they would last.

"The second thing they require energy for is motion.  Flight is probably particularly taxing.  For most books, movement is probably the main use of their energy.

"And the last thing that they use energy for is magic.  As far as I can tell, only the spell books and Thesaurus have the ability to expend energy in this way.  Unfortunately, I have no idea how taxing it is for Thesaurus to magically rewrite texts.

"So, there are two things that we can do to cause Thesaurus to run out of energy prematurely.  We can force it to stay physically active, and we can intentionally let it alter texts."

"But we can't let Thesaurus catch these little guys!" cried Fluttershy.

"That won't be necessary," assured Twilight.  "I may have animated nearly every book in the library, but there must be more books that we can find around town!"





"Yoo-hoo!"

Thesaurus stopped in the air and swiveled around to face the cheery voice.  There was a pink foal waving at it.  But not with her hoof.

"I have books for you!" cried Pinkie Pie, waving a mundane book in the air.  She was wearing two saddlebags, both stuffed impossibly full of more books that piled up into the air as high as Pinkie was tall.

She tossed the book on the ground.  Meanwhile, Twlight, who was watching from afar with binoculars, felt her stomache clench, but desperate times called for desperate measures.

Thesaurus let out a roar and flew at the book.  It hovered in the air above the book and green magic shot from it's pages and into the book.

It then lunged at Pinkie, who immediately zipped out of sight.

Thesaurus stopped in confusion and looked in all dirrections.

"This way!" cried Pinkie, poking her head out of a snowy bush.  "If you can catch me, I'll give you another book!"





"Are you sure Pinkie Pie will be safe?" asked Fluttershy.

"Absolutely," answered Twilight.  "I've seen that filly in action, and there is no way that a brute like Thesaurus will get the best of her.  Even if Thesaurus manages to catch her, all she has to do is let it have another book and run off again."

"Ah just hope Pinkie can keep this up," said Apple Bloom.  "This might take a while."

"I hope so too," said Twilight.  "But if necessary, we can switch Pinkie out.  We can replace her energy with speed!"





"Pinkie!" shouted Rainbow Dash at a pink blur, which suddenly rushed toward her and then instantly came to a stop about a foot away, revealing a panting Pinkie Pie.

"You... called?" huffed Pinkie.

"Pinkie, you've more than done your part!  Switch with me!"

"Thaaaanks Rainbow Daaashhh, what a relief..."

Rainbow suddenly heard a growling noise.  She looked behind Pinkie and beheld Thesaurus.

Rainbow wasted no time in shooting off like a rocket and tackling the book.

"Be careful, Rainbow Dash!" cried Pinkie.  "Don't let it escape!"

As if on cue, Thesaurus flew free from Rainbow's grasp and began flying away.

"I've got this!" insisted Rainbow as she flew after the raging book.

"Wait!" cried Pinkie.  "I didn't give you any of the books!"

"I won't need them!" shouted Rainbow Dash.





"Wow-wee!" exclaimed Pinkie as she opened the oven in Sugar Cube Corner.  "All that being chased by a monstrous volume has made me hungry!  These cupcakes will hit the spot!"

She reached inside the oven and pulled out a large tray.

"Now all that's left to do is put on the icing!"

"Those look delicious!" remarked Twilight.

"They definitely don't look anything like what I always end up with..." muttered Sweetie Belle.

Twilight grabbed a plastic knife in her magic and started helping Pinkie ice the cupcakes.

"Do you think that Rainbow Dash is still okay?" asked Twilight.

"Applejack checked with her a few minutes ago," said Apple Bloom.  "She said she was fine."

"Well, I hope she doesn't over-exert herself," said Twilight in a worried voice.  "I understand that she want's to be helpful, but she doesn't need to expend herself unnecessarily.  I think we're going to have to switch her out for somepony else again!"

"Ah think my sister can handle it if it comes to that," assured Apple Bloom.

Twilight was about to ice another cupcake when she realized that there was one missing.

"Pinkie!" she cried in annoyance.  "Are you eating the cupcakes before we've even finished?"

"Yep!" cried Pinkie.  "You can too, you know!  Nopony is stopping you!  Just be careful, they're hot!"

"Well..." began Twilight reluctantly.  "I am rather hungry..."

She levitated a cupcake out of the tray and carefully took a bite.

"Whoa!" she cried out.  "Pinkie, even though I must have had your treats over a dozen times by now, they never cease to amaze me!  Um...  I think I'll just... have another?"

"Sure!" agreed Pinkie.  "That's what they're there for!  And I can always make more!"

"So long as we can keep finding ingredients," said Twilight, grabbing another cupcake.





"Common, common!" cried Twilight with glee, hopping up and down with energy.  "We should totally do something fun!  Let's do something fun!  You want to race to the Ponyville Tower?"

"Twilight, what's wrong with you?" asked Sweetie Belle.

"I think I might have put a little too much sugar into that last batch of cupcakes," admitted Pinkie.

"What?" cried Apple Bloom.  "What did ya go and do that for?"

"Well, I was just so tired after all that chasing that I wanted something super-extra strong to make up for it!"

"It was sooooo worth it..." said Twilight, still bouncing.  "So sweet and delicious!  I bet I could solve my homework in ten seconds flat!  You know, if I still had homework!"

"Okay..." said Sweetie Belle, backing away from Twilight.  "This is getting weirder than that time when we heard her cutie mark story..."

"Hey, that's it!" cried Scootaloo.

"What's it?" asked Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom in unison.

"Twilight!" cried Scootaloo, ignoring her fellow crusaders.  "Could you please tell us the story of how you got your cutie mark?"

"Huh?" said Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom.

Twilight made an exaggerated gasp.  "You want to hear my cutie mark story?"

"Yep!" said Scootaloo.

"Um, Scoot," whispered Sweetie Belle.  "What are you doing?  We've already heard this story, remember?"

"Yeah," whispered Apple Bloom.  "And you know what she was like when she was finished telling it!"

"Exactly!" whispered Scootaloo.





"It was unbelievable!" cried Twilight, vibrating with excitement.  "Way beyond even my wildest dreams!  And, of course, when I heard Princess Celestia's offer, there was only one possible answer!  YES!  YES!  YES YES YES YESYESYESYESYES-"

The Cutie Mark Crusaders watch in astonishment as Twilight's bouncing turned into an eratic blur and began shooting through the room like a ping pong ball.

"Take cover!" cried Apple Bloom, who rushed under a table and was quickly joined by Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and Pinkie Pie.

"Wow!  Look at how happy she is!" declared Pinkie.  "That looks like fun."

"Scootaloo, what in the wide world of Equestria were you thinking?" cried Applebloom, trying to make herself heard over the noise of pots and sacks being knocked into the floor.  "You've gone and pinkified Twilight!"

"We need to get her outside!" cried Scootaloo.

"Outside?" cried Twilight's voice.  "Are we going to play a game?"

The purple blur shot through the kitchen door and disappeared.

"After her!" cried Scootaloo.





Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash was playing keep-away with Thesaurus with its bookmark.  However, a strange sight near sugar cube corner caught her eye.

"What the hay?"

Rainbow charged toward the ground and landed just in time to see the Cutie Mark Crusaders burst through the front door of Sugar Cube Corner.

"What's going on here?" cried Rainbow in astonishment, watching as a violet tornado drifted down the street.

"Rainbow!"  cried Scootaloo.  "Good timing!"

Scootaloo turned toward Twilight.  "Hey, Twilight!  You want to take over for Rainbow Dash?"

"Sure!  Sounds like lots of fun!" cried the tornado.

Suddenly, there was a roar from above.

"Uh oh!" cried Rainbow Dash, looking skyward.  "Here it comes!"

Suddenly Twilight's whirlwind launched skyward and the unsuspecting tome was pulled inside.

"What should we do first, huh?" cried Twilight.  "I know!  Let's measure the time it takes to run around all of Ponyville, and then calculate the circumference of the town!"





Some time later...



"Here we are!" cried Twilight happily, clutching the massive book to her chest.  "Isn't the view from up here just incredible?"

Thesaurus didn't respond.

Or move at all.

"Hey, are you okay?" asked Twilight.  She held the book out.

"Oh, are you getting tired already?  I mean, that was what we were trying to do all along, but I was hoping that this could last a little while longer...  Oh well.  I guess I'll just have to watch the night sky all by myself."

Suddenly, Twilight realized exactly where she was.

"Huh?  How did I wind up on top of Ponyville Tower?  And how am I going to get down from here?"

Twilight looked all around, but there were no apparent footholds for her to use to even begin climbing down the large bell tower.

"I guess I'm stuck here," said Twilight.  "Oh, how ever did I get up here in the first place?  I... I just jumped up, right?  But that can't be!  Oh, I really hope somepony finds me soon..."
> Day 14: Tower Troubles
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Oh, how long have I been up here?" wondered Twilight aloud, her hooves wrapped around the tip of the pointy roof of the tower.  "I wonder if anypony is looking for me!  I bet they won't even notice that I'm gone!  And I'm cold, and I have a stomach ache, and I'm lonely..."

"Did somepony say... lonely?"

"Agh!" shrieked Twilight, now suddenly finding herself in between the coils of Discord's long body.

"Discord, you scared me!  I could have fell!  What are you doing, anyway?" she cried.  "Ever heard of personal space?"

"Oh, but Twilight," said Discord, not moving.  "I thought you just said you were lonely.  And as your good friend, I just wanted to ensure that you aren't feeling alone in your time of need."

"I am not comfortable with you hugging me like this!"

"But you are not alone anymore!"

"You're right!  I'm not feeling alone anymore, I'm feeling annoyed!"

"Well, it's an improvement."

"Discord, get off of me!"

"Oh, come now," said Discord.  "At the very least, you are suffering from this winter night temperature no longer, right?"

Twilight paused to consider.

"I suppose not..." she admitted slowly.  "But I didn't ask for this!"

"But Twilight!" exclaimed Discord in mock surprise.  "You should know that a good friend should be ready to lend a helpful paw!"

"Well, I suppose I was a little cold.  So...  Thank you?"

"What are friends for!" declared Discord happily.

"But do you think you could instead help me by getting me down from here?"

"It's not that simple, Twilight.  I can't just make this all right with the snap of a claw.  Well, actually, to be perfectly honest, I could, but I'm not going to."

"But why?" cried Twilight.  "Is this about 'not interfering with the experiment'?  I'm miserable up here!  If you really are my friend, you wouldn't just leave me here!"

"But I'm not leaving you here.  I'm right here at your side."

"Literally," remarked Twilight, rolling her eyes.  "Can you at least tell me if the others know that I'm gone yet?"

"Of course they know that you are gone.  They saw you leave!"

"That's not what I meant!  Have they realized that I have been missing for so long?  Oh, what if they forget all about me?"

"They are out there looking for you, Twilight."

"Oh, thank goodness..."

"Unfortunately for you, Ponyville is a fairly large place, and the Ponyville tower is on the opposite side of the town, and those foals aren't exactly organized in their search.  You might be stuck here for a while.  Unless..."

"Unless?" asked Twilight hopefully.

"Well, you could simply leave the same way you came up."

"But that's just it!" cried Twilight.  "I don't remember how I got up here!"

"Don't you?" asked Discord in surprise.  "How interesting.  Then what do you remember?"

"I remember being really excited when the others asked me to handle Thesaurus.  Actually, I didn't even consider that I wouldn't be able to do it.  Except... I did do it.  It's right here," motioned Twilight, pointing at the inanimate book laying beside her.

"Continue..." urged Discord.

"Well, I don't actually remember much of what happened after that," said Twilight.  "I guess I was just started running as fast as I could without even thinking about where I was going.  I was far too excited to pay attention to where I was going or what I was doing.  Perhaps my subconscious took over for me.  All I know is that when I finally was able to think straight, I found myself up here, and I don't know how I got up here because I wasn't paying attention when whatever happened to put me up here actually happened!"

"Why were you so excited in the first place?"

"Well, part of the reason is because I ate about half a dozen of Pinkie Pie's sugar loaded cup cakes.  They were good, but now I have a stomach ache...  And the other reason is that...  Well, I got to share the happiest moment of my life with some of the others.  I... kind of let myself get carried away?"

"Most interesting," said Discord.

"But why are you asking me all of this?" asked Twilight.  "You somehow know what we're up to all the time!  You must have seen what happened.  Please tell me what happened!"

"Oh, but it's simple!  You simply jumped!"

"Jumped!  But how?"

"That's the real question, isn't it?" said Discord in delight.  "Perhaps you are capable of feats that you thought you were not!"

"But the only way I could have reached this place is with magic!"

"Let me tell you a little something, Twilight.  I've been thinking, I know now that friendship is magic, but is magic friendship?"

"Huh?"

"Let me finish.  Clearly, not all magic is friendship; dark magic is a clear example of that.  Dark magic is fueled by hatred, so it cannot possibly be associated with friendship."

"I don't understand."

"I suppose you wouldn't.  I don't understand it myself, actually.  But it would appear to me that there is some kind of relationship between certain kinds of magic and one's emotions!  And, as you will surely agree, your friend Pinkie Pie has a very special kind of magic, and it's not the sort you would expect from an earth pony, is it?  And Pinkie Pie is in fact the happiest, most excitable pony in all of Equestria.  And I don't think that that is a coincidence."

"Well... I suppose you do have a point.  But as much as I hate to admit it, I'm not in the mood for this right now.  I just want to get down from here."

Discord's face turned concerned for the first time that Twilight had seen him.  Discord seemed to notice Twilight watching him however, because his expression quickly turned neutral.

"You know that you brought this on yourself," he said, as though trying to shift the blame away from himself.

"Yes, I know," said Twilight.  "If I had not been so curious about your magic, I wouldn't have tried studying poison joke.  And even though you are the one that gave the poison joke plant, I'm the one that actually used it, and it's my fault that my Thesaurus came to life and caused such problems, and I wouldn't have eaten those cupcakes and trapped myself on this tower if I had not been trying to do my part to fix it."

"I don't suppose you've considered just teleporting down, have you?"

"Discord, I don't know how to perform such a complex spell!"

"Oh, don't you?  Well, I'm afraid rules are still rules.  I can't help you down."

"What?  But you can't just leave-"

"What I mean is, I can't help you directly."

"What do you mean?"

"My dear Twilight, instead of focusing on what you can't do, focus on what you can do!"

Twilight shot Discord an annoyed look.  "I'm trapped up here.  There is nothing that I can do!"

"Perhaps you should try looking around."

Twilight gave Discord a suspicious glance.  "Well, okay, but first you need to get off of me."

Discord snapped his claw and disappeared.

Twilight let out a sigh and carefully climbed down the slope of the roof and approached the edge of the tower.

Let's see, she thought to herself, looking down.  There's lots and lots of snow, some houses, snow, a couple of abandoned carts, more snow, Discord waving at me from a lounger in midair, and snow.

Only one of these things might be helpful.

She magically levitated a wooden cart.





"Argh!" cried Twilight in frustration as her makeshift ramp made out of planks salvaged from the cart collapsed.  Of course, she had known that there was no way it could possibly work.  After all, it was way too long to be able to support it's own weight.

This was a stupid idea, Twilight thought.  It doesn't help that Discord is watching everything I do.  All I'm doing is making a fool of myself for his entertainment...

Suddenly, a way to improve the design occurred to Twilight.  But, just maybe, I'll be the one to have the last laugh.





This is so much better! thought Twilight, looking down at her work.  It had been tricky and time consuming, but she had managed to attach the planks of wood to the side of the tower in a spiral pattern, which meant that the ramp would be supported all the way up.

There is just one problem, realized Twilight.  There's no way I'm actually going to set hoof on that thing!  What if I didn't do a good enough job?  What if it collapses under me?

She looked over toward Discord again, who gave her a thumbs up.

I'm making myself look like a fool again, and now I've defaced this tower without actually making any progress at all!  It probably looks ridiculous from where he's sitting!  It probably looks like a giant screw-

Wait.

...  Would that even work?

Uncertainly, Twilight lit up her horn and magically gripped the entire tower.

And began to twist with all her might.

There was a grinding noise, and then the entire tower began to slowly sink.

Despite the enormous effort she was outputting, Twilight allowed herself to smile.





Eventually the edge of the rooftop became level with the ground.  With Thesaurus in hoof, Twilight carefully climbed off of the pointed rooftop and jumped to the ground.

"Bravo!" cried Discord, who began to clap.  His lounger suddenly zoomed through the air and halted in front of Twilight.  "Even I didn't think of that!  But then again, you don't think quite the same way I do, do you?"

"Actually, it was kind of an accident..." admitted Twilight.

"Your point?  Most everything that I do is unplanned.  And I'm sooo glad that you figured out your own solution!"

"What would you have done?" asked Twilight.

"In your position?  I would have rung the bell."

"What bell?"

"Well, I was trying to give you a clue about it when I told you to 'look around', but you never did notice.  This tower here is a bell tower."

Discord snapped his fingers and there was a very loud and resounding 'DONG' sound from inside the tower, now embedded deep into the ground.  The whole town would probably be able to hear it.

"Are you kidding me?!" cried Twilight.

"I expect your fellow foals will be here any minute!" shouted Discord over the sound of the enormous bell.  "I'll just be leaving you to it!"

He snapped and disappeared.





"Twilight!" cried Spike's voice.  Twilight looked up to see Spike riding on Rainbow Dash's back.  He hopped off and ran toward her and threw his arms around her neck.

"Thank goodness we've found you!" he cried.  "We've been up all night looking for you!  Everypony was getting really worried!"

"Especially Spike here," added Rainbow Dash.  "He kinda freaked out just a teeny little bit.  But, um...  Twilight?  I just gotta ask.  What the hay happened here?"  She pointed to the rooftop sticking out of a mound of displaced dirt.

"How about I tell you over breakfast?" suggested Twilight.  "I'm starving."
> Day 15: Turtles
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Hey Apple Bloom, hey Scootaloo."

"Hey Sweetie," answered both fillies.

"So," said Apple Bloom.  "Are you ready for another day of crusading?"

"Actually, I convinced Rarity to go with me to the boutique today," answered Sweetie Belle a little sheepishly.  "But I was wondering if you two wanted to come with us?"

"Oh," said Scootaloo.  "Uhm..."  She turned to look at Apple Bloom, who shrugged.

"I mean," continued Sweetie Belle, "we're just going to try sewing together, so I understand if you would rather go and do something else..."

"No, it's fine, Sweetie.  We can always find something to do no matter where we are.  We'll go with you."

"Alright, thanks!" answered Sweetie happily.





Twilight tried to ignore her headache as she felt herself awaken.  She felt herself under a blanket.  She cracked an eye open and cringed as beams of light intruded upon her eye ball.

She was in the Fort.  As she looked around, she realized that most of the colts and fillies were currently absent.  Spike, however, was sitting on the sofa next to her, reading one of his comic books.

He glanced away from his book and looked toward her.

"Twilight?" he said.  "Are you finally awake?"

"Nuh!" huffed Twilight, forcing her eye shut and crawling deeper under the blanket.

"Twilight, it's almost noon!"

"Don't care," Twilight answered from under the sheet.

"Twilight, you never stay in this late!"

"Nopony here to stop me.  No lessons, remember?  I can do what I want.  And I'm going back to sleep."

...

"Twilight?"

...





"So, Rarity, what do you think we should try making?" asked Sweetie Belle.

"Are you sure your friends are okay just being left on their own?" asked Rarity.

"I'm not leaving them on their own," said Sweetie.  "We can still talk with them while we work."

"Alright then, I suppose.  So... ah, do you actually have any... experience with this sort of thing?"

"Yep!  I used to be pretty bad at sewing, but then I...  Um, well I kind of destroyed one of your pieces, but then Princess Luna came along and helped me fix it.  She showed me step by step exactly how to do everything!"

"Princess... Luna?" asked Rarity in confusion.

"You remember, Nightmare Moon, only as a good pony?"

"Oh.  Of course...  My sister learned how to sew from Nightmare Moon..."





"I am a turtle!"

Scootaloo turned her head toward Apple Bloom's voice, her face displaying bafflement at the strange statement.

"I am a turtle!" Apple Bloom repeated.

"Why are you inside an upside-down laundry basket?" asked Scootaloo.

"Because I am a turtle!" cried Apple Bloom, declaring the obvious.

"Oh.  Hey, give me a ride!"  Scootaloo jumped on top of Apple Bloom's basket.

"Um, okay?"

The basket shifted a few inches.

"I can't actually seem to move with you sitting on top of it," admitted Apple Bloom.

"Well, can I have a turn then?"

"No!  Go find your own basket!"

"Are there any other laundry baskets?"

"Pff, yeah!  There's four of them!"





"So, this is where I do my work?" asked Rarity.

"Yep.  So, what do you think?"

"Has anypony been in here in the last two weeks?"

"I don't think so.  It doesn't look like it, anyway."

"So, it... always looks like this?"

"Yeah."

"But...  this place is a mess!"

"HA!" cried Sweetie Belle, startling Rarity.  She pointed her hoof at Rarity.

"I told you so, I told you so, I told you so!" Sweetie cried, shaking her hoof with each statement.

"What?" asked Rarity in utter confusion.  "Told me what?"

"You'll understand when we get back to the real world."





Twilight awoke with a start.  She pulled the blanket off of her head and peered up at the reason for her sudden awaking.

"Twilight!" said Spike.  "It's two o' clock now.  If you don't come and get your lunch right now, you won't be getting any at all."

Twilight looked around again.  There was a single plate of food on the table in front of her.

She slammed her eyes shut again.

"Did everypony else come in here and eat while I was asleep?" she asked.

"Yeah, they did.  You just kinda slept through all the noise."

"Hmm."

"Twilight, are you going to get up or what?"

"No."





"Alright," declared Rarity.  "Let's begin.  Oh, I hate this part."

Rarity carefully attempted to slip a piece of thread through the eye of a needle.

After a moment, Sweetie Belle said, "Wait, you do?"

Rarity failed to slip the thread in.  That one was Sweetie's fault, she thought.

"Yes, I do.  I can never get the thread in on the first try."

She tried again and failed.

"Or the second."

She failed again.

"Or the third.  Or the fourth or the fifth or sixth, seventh, eighth!"

...  "Really?"

"Yes, really!  Now please let me concentrate!"

The thread failed to pass through the needle once again.

"Gah!  You stupid piece of string!  Get- in- there!"

Rarity's now more violent approach was even less likely to succeed than before.

"Can I try, Rarity?"

"Sure!  Sure," cried Rarity in frustration.  "Be my guest."

Rarity watched intensely as Sweetie failed to thread the needle several times.

"Ugh, this is impossible!" complained Sweetie Belle.

"I know!" cried Rarity.  "Here, let me try it again."





"Turtle race!" cried Apple Bloom.

Two laundry baskets slid across the floor.

A short time later, one of them crossed into the kitchen.

"Victory!"  cried Apple Bloom.

"Aw," said Scootaloo.

"What next?" asked Apple Bloom.

"Let's try something... cool!"

"Like what?" asked Apple Bloom.  "How can we make turtles cool?  Ya know, without putting propellers on them."

"I have an idea," declared Scootaloo.  "You want to scare Sweetie Belle?"

"Maybe..."

"Follow my lead!"





"Let me have another turn Rarity," said Sweetie Belle.

Rarity looked up at her sister.  Suddenly, the frustration in her face vanished.  A moment later, a subtle grin crept into her expression.

"Um... Rarity?" asked Sweetie, taken aback by Rarity's unusual behavior.

"Hiayaaa!" screamed a voice as a screaming Sweetie Belle suddenly felt herself being pulled backwards by her hind legs.

A moment later it became much darker.

Sweetie Belle abruptly stopped screaming when she realized that she was sitting next to Scootaloo.  Rarity was also laughing uncontrollably.

"Scoot!" cried Sweetie angrily.  "What- are you doing...?" she finished, her tone shifting to confusion.

"I am a ninja!" declared Scootaloo, waving her hooves in mock scare.

"I thought we were turtles!" said the voice of Apple Bloom.

"We are!" answered Scootaloo.  "We're turtle ninjas!"

"You should have seen it from where I was!" added Rarity, still laughing.  "Thank you, I needed that."

This caused Sweetie Belle's brain to blank out.

"Sweetie, let's just forget about this whole sewing thing.  It's causing us nothing but grief.  We should do something fun instead."





"Twilight..." said Spike.

"Go away!"

"Twilight, you might want to-"

"Don't care!"

...

"Hiayaaa!"

Twilight screamed as she felt her blanket be thrown off and something jumped on her.

As she tried frantically to figure out what was going on, she suddenly realized that there was a pony sitting on top of her.

"... Rarity?"

"Oh dear!" declared Rarity casually.  "It would appear that I am caught.  Ninjas, retreat!"

Rarity jumped off of Twilight, flooding her with light.  Twilight scrambled to upright herself and then saw four laundry baskets sliding away on the floor.

"Spike?" asked Twilight, now clearly fully awake.

"Yes?" he responded with a smirk.

"What just happened to me?"

"I have no idea."

Twilight stared as she watched the baskets escape.

"But, it is evening," continued Spike.  "And you said that you wanted to write a letter to the princess every week, and today is that day..."

Twilight's pupils shrunk.





Dear Princess Celestia,

Today is the fifteenth day in Discord's recreation of Ponyville.  I am pleased to report that my letter is one hundred percent on time despite the crazy week I have had, because I am a responsible pony.  Even though I did have a brief episode in which I over-indulged on cupcakes and gave myself a terrible headache the next day, the experience has only served to reinforce my decision to keep myself under control.  I must admit that I did very briefly consider putting off my letter until the next day.  After all, I told myself, you would never know that I didn't really write it on the fifteenth day.  But that would be highly irresponsible of me.  Thankfully my headache is finally gone and I can carry out my duty unhindered.

This week was, to put it simply, crazy.  It started out with nearly everypony in town pranking each other, and unfortunately some ponies were caught in the crossfire.  However, together we put a stop to it once it became apparent that some ponies were suffering because of their antics.

After that, I learned a very valuable lesson.  Attempting to understand chaos magic can result in monstrous books causing chaos throughout the whole town, as well as bell towers being screwed into the ground, in a completely literal sense.  I will not be attempting it again any time soon.  Do not worry, the monstrous Thesaurus in question is now completely docile.

I believe things are back to normal, however.  After all, crazy disasters can't possibly strike every single week.  Even though I sometimes struggle to understand the ponies around me, I believe that we are functioning as an effective team.

This is the fifteenth day out of thirty, which means that we have passed the half-way point.  This feels like quite a milestone for everypony.  We have lasted for this long, so all we have to do now is last as long again!

Today I received an unexpected request from some of the others.  Apparently a few of these colts and fillies are finally beginning to miss their regularly scheduled classes!  They are quite surprised at this turn of events, but they miss school all the same.  Of course, most of the other colts and fillies think that they are crazy.  In any case, a few of them were practically begging me to give them any kind of lecture!

I have never done anything like this before!  Of course I know material, but I am less confident in my ability to actually teach!  All the same, I have agreed.  I feel that this is something that I simply must do.  I don't plan on lecturing for hours like what these colts and fillies are used to in school, but I think that a short lesson every now and then might be fun for them.

I wish I could tell you that everypony is happy and doing well, but unfortunately I received news today that two fillies have decided to leave.  Their names are Sunny Days and Peachy Pie.  I am trying to decide whether I am partially to blame for this.  I didn't speak to them very much, and neither did many of the others.  At the same time, they appeared to be content with staying together by themselves.  I am not sure whether somepony offended them in some way, or if they became homesick, or if they left for their own reasons.

Of course, I wouldn't have stopped them from leaving even if I had known, even though I really, really wish that they hadn't.  Nopony should be pressured into staying.  However, even though many of us didn't know them very well, we miss them all the same.  But what is done is done, and the rest of us are happy to stay put for now.  Is it strange that am missing a couple of ponies that I barely got to know?  It doesn't seem logical, but it is evidently true never the less.  As for the rest of us, I hope we manage to stay together until the very end.

Your faithful student,

Twilight Sparkle
> Day 16: Twilight Teaches
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Hey, everypony?"

The colts and fillies stopped eating their breakfasts to look at Twilight inquisitively.

"I have a question.  Does anypony here know if, when a pony is in full gallop, all four of their hooves leave the ground at once?"

There was silence for a moment. 

"Um, ah think they do?" offered Apple Bloom.

"Are you sure?" asked Sweetie Belle.

"But if all four of your hooves leave the ground at once," began Pipsqueak, "wouldn't you fall over?"

"How strange," remarked Rarity.  "I have never considered this before.  You would think that the answer is obvious, but I can't actually remember if they do or not!"

"Question," said Rainbow Dash.  "Who cares?"

"Ah do!" declared Applejack.

"Well, if you care so much, why don't you just take off running and we'll tell you if they do or not!"

"Now that you mention it, maybe ah will!" said Applejack.  "Ah didn't really care about this before, but now that Twilight brings it up, it's driving me crazy that ah don't know the answer!"

"There's just one problem," said Twilight.  "Our legs become too hard to follow when we gallop.  It's practically a blur.  We can't find out the answer by simply watching somepony run by.

"But, I do know of a way that we can find out.  But, I'll need a lot of help to make it work."

"Ah'll help," declared Applejack.

"Good," said Twilight.  "Why don't you be the runner?"

"We're coming too!" declared Apple Bloom.

"Alright, as soon as everypony finishes breakfast, meet me outside," announced Twilight.





Dinky was the first to come outside and behold what Twilight had planned.

"Cameras?" she asked.

"Yep!" answered Twilight.  "Twenty-four of them, all in a row!  Ordinarily it would have cost me quite a few bits to buy them, but..."

"Everything's free here," finished Dinky.  "But, what are they for?"

"We're going to take pictures of Applejack!"

"What?  Why?"

"Well, you see," said Twilight, "We'll have to have somepony behind each and every single camera.  We will then have Applejack gallop as fast as she can past the cameras.  At the exact moment she passes in front of a camera, the pony behind it will take a picture!"

"And you're just hoping to catch a picture of Applejack with none of her hooves touching the ground?"

"Well, no.  It should only take Applejack just a few seconds to run past every camera, but because there are so many cameras there should be a fraction of a second between each picture, assuming everypony does their job correctly.  If her all of her hooves do leave the ground at the same time, one of the pictures should show it."

"Really?" said Dinky in interest.  "This sounds like fun!"

"I was hoping it would."





"Come on, Rainbow Dash," said Twilight coaxingly.  "We need just one more pony on a camera.  All you have to do is push a button."

"Come on, just find somepony else," complained Rainbow Dash.  "I told you, I don't really care what the answer is one way or the other.  I already know that pony's hooves don't touch the ground when they fly."

"Are you sure you don't want to help, Rainbow Dash?" asked Scootaloo.  "You can be next to me..."

Rainbow rolled her eyes.  "Alright, I'll do it, but only as a favor to you all."





"Are you ready, Applejack?" asked Twilight.

"Ready as ah am for Granny's cookin'!"

"Are you nervous?"

"Nah."

"Oh.  Good then!  Okay, here we go...

"Ready," began Twilight, speaking loudly enough for the others to hear, "set... go!"

Applejack shot away at speed and began running past the row of cameras, which began rapidly flashing one by one.

As soon as she was past the last camera, Applejack skid to a stop.

"Well," she huffed.  "That sure was weird lookin'.  All those lights flashing in a line."

"Now all we have to do is gather up the photos and wait for them to develop," announced Twilight.

"So... is that it?" asked Diamond Tiara.

"Hopefully," answered Twilight.  "I think everypony did a pretty good job at taking a picture at the right moment.  Everypony can do whatever they like in the meantime."

"This was so cool!" declared Snips.

"And we haven't even got an answer yet!" said Snails.

As the colts and fillies began to wander off, a subtle cough drew Twilight's attention.  She turned to find herself face to face with Diamond Tiara.

Twilight smiled nervously.  "Um, can I help you?"

"So, this was your lesson?" asked Diamond.

"Well, yes?  I know it may not be what you're used to, but it is interesting, right?"

"I suppose so," said Diamond, "but what use is it?"

"What do you mean?" asked Twilight.

"I mean, how does learning whether or not a pony's hooves leave the ground actually help us in any way?"

"It... it's an example of using our brains to solve a problem?"

"But at the end of the day, the answer doesn't really matter, does it?"

"Well, everypony else seemed to like it.  What would you rather have me teach?"

"Do you really want to know?"

"Well, yes?"

Diamond Tiara took a breath.

"Okay," she began.  "So, I want to go to school in Canterlot when I'm older.  I don't know if you've noticed, but there aren't exactly a plethora of options in Ponyville when it comes to higher education.  If I'm going to find schooling in Canterlot, I have to prove that I'm smarter than the average pony!"

"Okay..." answered Twilight, prompting Diamond to continue with a hoof.

"A few weeks back, Miss Cheerlie, our school teacher, started teaching us about square roots."

Twilight let out a sigh.  Oh no, she thought.

"It's easy enough.  The square root of twenty-five is five.  Sixteen is four.  Nine is three.  But then- then, I asked what the square root of eight was.  And Miss Cheerlie told me 'I don't know'!

"Do you know what the most annoying part of square roots is?  Some of the answers, there's no end to the numbers!  They go on and on for infinity, and they're not even in any particular order, its just all random!  And worst of all, everypony keeps telling me that there is no easy way to calculate them!  That's soooo annoying!"

"Annoying, but true," said Twilight.

"But it's not true!" cried Diamond.  "You can do it!  I've seen you give the square roots of crazy numbers without even using a quill and paper!  There must be some sort of secret formula that you have!  How do you do it?"

"I... don't know if I can explain?" answered Twilight nervously.

"Try anyway," insisted Diamond.

"But there is no 'secret formula'," said Twilight.

Diamond Tiara sighed.  "Is it because you think I'm too stupid to get it?" she asked wearily.

"No!  I just mean-"

Twilight stopped and let out a huff.

"Okay, Diamond.  I kind of lied.  There is as special formula you can use.  And the best thing about it is that it doesn't require anything more complicated than division."

Suddenly, Diamond Tiara's eyes lit up and she looked at Twilight in near disbelief.

"You're kidding me," she said.

"I'm not.  The secret formula..."

"Yes?" asked Diamond impatiently.

"Is..."

"Is what?!"

"Number divided by guess, plus guess, all divided by two.  And then repeat."

There was a moment of silence.

"Okay, you know that I don't know what half of that means," said Diamond.

"The number means the number that you are trying to find the square root of," explained Twilight.  "The guess is a number that you think is close to the real answer."

"Okay..." said Diamond Tiara.  I guess that all makes sense.  So, the result is actually the square root of the number?"

"No," said Twilight.  "The real answer is infinitely long, so it would take you an infinite amount of time to calculate.  But, the answer is guaranteed to be much closer to the real answer than your first guess was.  So all you have to do then is use the formula again, but use that answer as your new guess."

"And you keep on repeating the whole process until you get the precision you want!" cried Diamond in realization.  "Right?"

"Right."

"Number divided by guess, plus guess, all divided by two.  And then repeat," said Diamond to herself, trying to commit the formula to memory.  "If this works... you'll be my best friend for forever."

"Um, your welcome?"

"I'm going to try it right now!"

Twilight watched Diamond run away in excitement.

"Well, I suppose now I have to find something to do with myself for a bit," Twilight said to herself.





"Twilight!"

Twilight turned her unicycle around toward Sweetie Belle's voice and rode to meet her.

"What's up?" she asked.

"What did you do to Diamond Tiara?" asked Sweetie Belle suspiciously.

"What?  I didn't do anything to her.  I just explained a math thing to her!"

"So why is she writing crazy huge complicated equations on a chalk board like a mad scientist?"

"What?"

"Come see!"

Twlight hopped off of her unicycle and carefully set it down in a safe place before following Sweetie Belle into the Fort.

Inside she saw Diamond, who was indeed writing on a chalk board.  Several of the others were watching in confusion or amazement.

"What did you do?" repeated Sweetie.  "Teach her calculus?"

"Actually, in a manner of speaking, yes, a little bit," admitted Twilight.  "She doesn't know it though...  But there's no actual calculus symbols in her equations.  Those are just really long division equations," said Twilight.  "Really, really long ones..."

"Twilight!" cried Diamond upon hearing her voice.  She stepped away from the chalkboard and ran up to Twilight.

"You were right, your formula is amazing!"

"Thank you?"

"But!" cried Diamond, startling everypony around her.

"But," she continued, "it gives me really freaky answers when I try to solve a negative number."

"Oh, Celestia's MANE, can we not get into this right now?" moaned Twilight.

Suddenly, an idea occurred to her.

"Hold on, I forgot something."

Twilight ran out of the gym and outside for a minute.  When she returned, she was levitating a stack of photographs in front of her.

"I have an announcement everypony!" she cried.  "I am holding photographic proof that Applejack's hooves did all leave the ground at the same time!"

"Let me see!" cried Applebloom.

"It's this photo right here," said Twilight.

"Whoa, cool!  She really does!"

"And, if we take the stack of photographs and flip through them rapidly, it creates an illusion and it looks like the picutures are actually galloping!" said Twilight.

Drat, thought Diamond Tiara as she watched Twilight get swamped with colts and fillies who wanted to see the photos.  I guess I'll have to ask Twilight about this some other time...
> Day 17: Food Restock
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Hellllooooo Applejack!"

Applejack lifted her hat off of her face and sat up on the sofa where she had been taking a nap.  "Oh, Pinkie Pie," she answered.  "Howdaya do?"

"How do you do what?"

"...  Huh?"

"I said, 'How do you do what?'  I can't really tell you how to do it until you tell me what it is!"

"...  Ah don't follow."

"Oh!  I know!  You want to know how to play 'Pillage the Village'!"

"What?"

"I could show you, if you like.  We play that game every few days, and we're going out to play it again today!"

"Hang on now, you want me to do what exactly?"

"It's easy!  We go out into Ponyville, go into pony's houses, grab all of the good food and ingredients, and bring them back here!"

Applejack raised an eyebrow.

"Okay, I get it," said Applejack in bemusement.  "We have no choice but to take food from the other houses.  Even though this isn't the real Ponyville, I know I can still get hungry as a shrew.  But do we really to call it pillage the village?"

"Of course not, you can call it whatever you want.  So, you want to come?"

Applejack considered.  "Are you the one in charge of this here venture?" she asked.

"Nope!" answered Pinkie.  Suddenly, one of her hooves stretched away out of sight and returned a moment later with a very startled dragon.  "He is!"

"Spike's in charge?" said Applejack in surprise.

"In charge of what?" asked Spike, bewildered.

"In charge of Pillage the Village, silly!" answered Pinkie.

"Pinkie, I told you, don't call it that!" complained Spike.

"So, you are in charge?" asked Applejack.

"That's right, I have this list that helps me keep track of what we need," confirmed Spike, producing the list out of nowhere.

"And who else is on your... team?" asked Applejack.

"Well, Snips and Snails always volunteer.  Sometimes others offer to help out.  Other than Snips and Snails, Pinkie and I, nopony else is really a permanent part of the... salvage team.  Sheesh, there's not really a way of saying it that makes it sound good, is there?"

"Hmm," pondered Applejack.  "Well, Ah suppose Ah'll try anything once.  Count me in."

"Alright!" cheered Spike.  "Let's go find Snips and Snails and get started!"

As Applejack followed Pinkie and Spike outside, they passed two of the three remaining ponies left in the fort.  Dinky and Rumble were once again playing a game of chess.

"There you go again," complained Rumble.  "Doing freaky moves that I don't know about!"

"It's called castling," answered Dinky.  "It's a thing.  Here, this time, I can prove it!

"Hey, Twilight!  Come here!"

Twilight, who was sitting a short distance away, sighed and carefully placed her book back on the shelf that she found it on, and then walked to Dinky.

"What's up, you two?  Having fun?"

"Yeah.  But, could you please tell Rumble that castling is a real thing?  And en passant?"

"They are real moves," confirmed Twilight.  "I'm pretty sure I saw a book on the rules of chess around here a few days ago, so I could find it and show you.  Only...  I think that was one of the books from the library..."

"Fluttershy probably knows where it is then," said Dinky.

"Fluttershy?" said Twilight in surprise.

"Yeah.  She's been spending the last couple of days with the... book flock," Dinky finished awkwardly.

"She has?  I haven't seen the books ever since the... incident."

"She goes on walks all over Ponyville and those books follow her everywhere," explained Dinky.  "It's kind of... strange?"

"Really."

"Yep."

"I'm going to go find her."





"Are y'all two sure that you're alright pullin' that thing?" asked Applejack to Snips and Snails, who were hitched to a wagon.

"This is easy!" declared Snips.

"Yeah, this is nothin' compared to pulling a cart without wheels," said Snails.

Applejack gave Snails a strange look, but didn't say anything.  Spike put a hand over his face.

"Alright," said Spike.  "We're coming up on our first house."

"Who's house is it?" asked Applejack.

"We have no idea," said Spike.  "It's not usually obvious who lives where, and I made everypony Pinkie Promise that we wouldn't snoop around.  We go in, find the kitchen, grab what we need, and leave.

"Speaking of which," he continued, "You promise not to snoop around too, right Applejack?"

"Sure.  Ah promise!"

"Make it a Pinkie Promise!" shouted Pinkie.

"A whut now?"





"Fluttershy?"

"Oh, Twilight!" answered Fluttershy happily.  "Hello!"

"You seem to be in a good mood..."

"Oh, I am!" answered Fluttershy.  "It's days like this that make me happy to be alive!"

"Are you... reading a book... to the other books?" asked Twilight, staring at the book flock surrounding Fluttershy, who was holding one in her hooves.

"Oh!  Well-  Yes.  They do seem to love it ever so much!"

"They... do?"

"Yes, they do!  I think it gives them a sense of fulfillment.  Being read is their purpose!  It makes them happy!"

"Really?" asked Twilight, baffled.  She shook her head.  "What are you even reading anyway?"

Suddenly, Fluttershy turned her arms away from Twilight, hiding the book from view.

"Um, it's nothing."

"Come Fluttershy, it's only a book from the library.  There's no reason to hide it from me."

Fluttershy didn't answer.

"I promise I won't judge you for it," Twilight offered.

Fluttershy hesitated, then turned and showed Twilight the book.

"Waterfalls of Equestria?" read Twilight aloud in surprise.  "That sounds like a guide book."

"It is."

"Well, that certainly wasn't what I was expecting you to be reading, but there's no reason to be embarrassed about it."

"You don't think that it's weird?" asked Fluttershy.

"Of course not!  Waterfalls are beautiful!  And, luckily, Ponies have photographed that beauty and published it in books like this one so that ponies like me can appreciate them without ever having to go and see them for ourselves!"

"I don't think that you can really experience the beauty fully if you don't see it with your own eyes," muttered Fluttershy.

Twilight looked at Fluttershy in surprise.

Fluttershy hunched down.  "I'm sorry.  I didn't mean to shoot down your opinion.  Please don't hate me."

"I don't hate you!" cried Twilight.  "In fact, I think that you're... right!  It would be better to see them with your own eyes.  It's just that, ponies like me don't usually have a lot of time for that sort of thing, so we have to settle for seeing them in picture form instead."

"I would like to see some of these one day," said Fluttershy.

"I'll tell you what, Flutters," said Twilight with a smile.  "When we get back to the real world, I'll take you to see some of those waterfalls."

"Thank you."

"You are welcome."

There was a few moments of silence.

"So, it's not weird that I read 'Unicorn Magic for Beginners' either?" asked Fluttershy.

"You read what?"

"Oh, I knew it!" wailed Fluttershy.  "It is weird!"

"No, Fluttershy, it's not!  It's just-  Why did you read a book like that?  Considering... you know, how... you're not a unicorn?" Twilight finished weakly.

"I couldn't help it," Fluttershy defended.  "The books just love to be read, and I didn't want any book to feel left out, and even though I normally wouldn't be interested in a book like that, making my friends happy is fun, and so reading that book suddenly became fun, and before I knew it, I had read through the whole thing!"

Twilight stared at Fluttershy for a moment.

"Say, Fluttershy..." Twilight said slowly.  "Quick question.  I don't suppose you know what the part of a unicorn's horn that controls magic is, do you?"

"Um... the thauma?"

"Correct," answered Twilight.  "How does energy use increase in class A type spells?"

"It goes up linearly with distance?"

"Correct..." answered Twilight in astoundment.





"Whoa," said Applejack.  "This isn't the kitchen."

Spike walked beside Applejack and looked through the doorway that she was looking through.

"I should say not.  It looks more like an exercise room.  Look at all this stuff!"

Spike wandered into the room.

"Wow.  They have an exercise bike, an exercise mat, and just look at these barbells!"

He stopped in front of one of the said barbells, which was as tall as he was, and attempted to lift it.  It didn't budge.

He sighed.  "When I grow up, I'll be able to lift these things without even trying."

"Hey you two!" cried Pinkie.  "We found the kitchen!"

"Alright, let's pack everything into the wagon," said Spike, abandoning the exercise equipment.

As they were walking toward the kitchen, they passed Snips and Snails in the hallway.

"What's that?" asked Spike, indicating the bags that Snips and Snails were carrying.

"Dried Pasta," said Snails.

"The kitchen has all kinds of pasta," said Snips.  "Square pasta with waves, pasta shaped like letter 'U's, pasta shaped like bow ties!  There is even some leftover pasta already prepared in the refrigerator."

"What else is there?" asked Spike.

"Not a lot," said Snails.  "I saw some cheese and milk though."

"Did you grab the milk already?" asked Pinkie.

"No."

"I'm going to go check it!"

Pinkie bounced away and disappeared into the kitchen.

"Why is Pinkie so interested in the milk?" asked Applejack.

Spike responded with a groan.

"Okay," he said.  "Most of the food in Ponyville is fine to eat.  It's either dry stuff that doesn't go bad, or it's stored in pony's refrigerators.  It will all stay good, for just one month at least."

"Ohhh," said Applejack in realization.  "But milk goes bad mighty quick, even when refrigerated."

"Exactly.  Last time we went out, we started noticing that some of the milk was starting to go bad.  Not all of it, just the milk that had already been in the fridges for a while before Discord created this Ponyville, but more and more of it is going to turn bad the longer we wait."

"Do we really need it that badly?" asked Applejack.

"Pinkie Pie does," answered Spike, beginning to walk toward the kitchen.  "It's an essential ingredient in her cakes and stuff."

"Ah suppose that makes sense..."

"Anyway, our number one priority is to grab as much of the milk as we can today," continued Spike.  "If you see any, first check the expiration date.  Trust me, you don't want to open a bottle that is past expiration."

"You don't have to tell me," said Applejack, making a face of disgust.

"Then," continued Spike, "if the date says that it's good, open it up and make sure."

"Well," remarked Applejack.  "Ah'm not looking forward to that, but I guess there's no choice."

"Oh, that reminds me, Applejack!" cried Pinkie, who was coming back through the hallway with two bottles of milk.  "When we finish up this job, you'll help me with the baking, right?  I need to work fast if I want to use up all of this milk before it goes bad, and I would really appreciate your help!"

"Sure, Pinkie," said Applejack.  "I'm always ready to lend a helping hoof!"
> Day 18: Bowling
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Pinkie Pie?  Are you in here?" cried Twilight into the lit interior of sugar cube corner.

"Hello, Twilight," answered Pinkie apathetically from behind the counter.

"Pinkie?" said Twilight, concerned.  She approached the counter.

"Pinkie, is everything okay?"

"Everything is just fine," said Pinkie.  "Today, that is."

"Pinkie, why are you hiding behind all of these boxes?"

Twilight shoved the a section of a wall of white boxes on the counter aside, revealing Pinkie Pie standing behind them and staring at the boxes intensely.

"This is all that's left, Twilight," said Pinkie.  "And this is all that there is ever going to be.  From now until forever."

"Um, Pinkie?" asked Twilight nervously.  "What are you talking about?"

"The cakes.  These are the last of the cakes.  No more.  No more cakes."

"Oh...  Well, I suppose we should savor them all the more when we end up eating them?"

"Yes.  We must enjoy these cakes to their fullest potential.  For we shall not experience their perfection ever again."

"I'm quite positive that you can make more cakes when we return to the real world," offered Twilight.

"But that's a whole dozen days away."

"Well, you won't have to wait that long.  Twelve days isn't an eternity."

"It is... when you have to live through them without delicious, delicious cake."

"Surely you can find more milk out there somewhere," said Twilight.  "It's only been a day since you gathered up the last batch."

"No.  There's no more."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure.  I found all the milk that was fit to drink already.  It's all gone.  Milk's all gone."

"Well, why don't we just eat them slowly and make sure they last for all twelve days?"

"I can't."

"You can't?"

"I can't.  These are the last cakes in Ponyville.  I'm afraid that if I move from this spot, I'll accidently eat every last one.  But I can't do that.  If I do that, nopony else in Ponyville will have any cakes."

"Come on, that's ridiculous," said Twilight laughingly, subconsciously wondering whether it really was.

"Twilight!" cried Pinkie suddenly, showing the first signs of emotion since the beginning of the conversation.

"Yes Pinkie?" asked Twilight fearfully.

"I need you to save me!"

"What?  Save you from what?  How?"

"I need you... to save me from myself."

"How do I do that?" asked Twilight, bewildered.

"I need to you to let me promise you something!"

"...  Sure!  Whatever you need!"

"Thank you Twilight!  I Pinkie Promise that Iwon'teatanyofthecakeunlessyoutellmeIcanhavesomecake!"

Pinkie paused to take a deep breath.

"Crossmyhearthopetoflystickacupcakeinmyeye Oh!  Oh, thank goodness that's over with!"

Twilight stared at Pinkie.

Pinkie slowly stepped away from the boxes of cake.

"Are you alright now, Pinkie?"

"Not quite," admitted Pinkie, "but at least I'll be able to carry all of these boxes back to everypony without eating them all.  Umm...  Twilight?"

"Yes, Pinkie?"

"May I please, please please have a slice of cake?"

"What?" asked Twilight, confused.

"I promised that I wouldn't eat any cake unless I get your permission.  So... can I?  Please?"

"Uh, when was the last time you had a slice?" asked Twilight.

"Twelve minutes, seventeen seconds ago.  I mean eighteen.  No, nineteen!  Please?"

"How about this, Pinkie," said Twilight.  "Ask me again when we deliver all of these cakes back to the Fort.  I'll let you have a slice then."

"Okay!" answered Pinkie instantly.  "We should go wake up Applejack so she can help.  The more help we have, the sooner it will get done!"

"Applejack is here?" asked Twilight.

"She stayed up all night helping me with the baking."





"That's the last of the cakes!" cried Pinkie in relief as she set a final white box down into a pile on a table in the fort.  "Now can I have a slice of cake?"

"Yes, Pinkie, you may have one slice of cake," answered Twilight.

"Yipee Dippy Day!" cried Pinkie, snatching the same box back up into her hooves and setting it on a different table and throwing the top off, revealing a cylindrical chocolate cake inside.

She happily bounced away and returned with a plastic knife, which she plunged into the cake and cut out a thin triangle.

She then heaved the entire remaining portion of the cake above her head and apparently unhinged her jaw as her mouth opened wide enough to engulf the cake in one bite.

"Pinkie!" cried Twilight.

Every part of Pinkie's body froze.  Her eyes swiveled in place to look back at Twilight.

"Pinkie," Twilight said critically, "You may have no more than a thirty degree angle wedge of cake."

"Awwwwww!"

"Hey, everypony!" cried Diamond Tiara's voice, capturing the attention of everypony present.  "I have an announcement to make!

"I'm throwing a party, and you are all invited!"

"Party?" cried Pinkie.

"The party is being held at the bowling alley," continued Diamond Tiara.  "Immediately!" she added.





"Hello, Fluttershy."

Fluttershy stopped humming and trotting and turned her head toward the voice in confusion.

"Hello?" she asked nervously.

"Down here."

Fluttershy looked down at her hooves and, much to her surprise, saw a horned rabbit.

"Oh!  I didn't see you there!  I could have stepped on you!  I'm so sorry!"

"No need," assured the rabbit.  "I'm used to being trod upon."

"That sounds horrible!"

"Well, yes, but I have to make do."

"Oh dear!  That's not very fair!" said Fluttershy in shock.

"Depends on who you ask."

"What's your name?"

"Why, Fluttershy, do you not recognize me?  My name is Discord!"

Fluttershy stammered.  "You're Discord?"

"Yes!  I assumed this form since I thought you might be more comfortable talking with me like this.  Did it work?"

"..."

"You know Fluttershy, if you want to see waterfalls so badly, you could have always asked me!"

"...  Really?"

"Of course!  You may not remember me, but I remember you, and you're my friend!  Why, just say the word, and I'll snap my fingers and we can leave this imitation of Ponyville behind and I will take you anywhere you want at all!  What do you say?"

"I'll- pass?"  Fluttershy squeaked.

"There you are!" cried a new voice.

Fluttershy turned to see Silver Spoon trotting toward her.

"Fluttershy, guess what!" Silver Spoon said enthusiastically.

"Talk about rude..." Discord muttered.

"Diamond Tiara is having a party at the bowling alley!" continued Silver Spoon.  "You're invited if you want to come!"

Fluttershy considered.  She looked back toward Discord.

"All your friends will be there," added Silver Spoon.

"Okay," Fluttershy answered quietly.

"I say," said Discord, drawing their attention.  "Fluttershy and I were just having a lovely chat.  But I suppose we can continue our discussion at the party, can we not, Fluttershy?"

"Eep!"

"That means yes," said Discord to Silver Spoon, who was staring at him in shock.  "She is ever so shy around ponies she doesn't know that well."





"This party was such a good idea!"

"Of course you think it's a good idea, Pinkie Pie," said Rarity.

"But this time it was a doubly good idea because not only are we having a super fun party, but everypony is also eating up all of the cake, and when the cake is all gone I won't have to resist the temptation to eat it all myself.  Selfish Pinkie Pie, how could you?"

"Especially after all the work Ah went through makin' 'em," said Applejack.  "Ah expect mah fair share!"

"Look, there's Fluttershy!" said Twilight happily, pointing a hoof toward the entry doors of the bowling alley.  "I'm going to go ask her to join us!"

"Cool," said Rainbow Dash.  "Good timing, I just finished my soda.  I am so ready for a game.  A bunch of the others have already gotten started."

Twilight returned shortly afterward.

"Alright everypony," she began nervously.  "Fluttershy has arrived...

"Plus one guest.  May I present Fluttershy's... friend...  Discord."

"Greetings everypony!" shouted Discord as his true form expanded outward from the previously unnoticed rabbit.  "Such a delightful affair, this is.  I trust you have room for one more?"

The fillies looked toward one another uncertainly.  They began to give Discord uncertain answers of affirmation.

"No."

Every filly's eyes fell upon Rainbow Dash in shock.

"Are you crazy?" whispered Twilight.

"No, I'm not crazy," said Rainbow Dash.  "We literally don't have room for one more.  The score sheet only has room for six per lane."

"Oh, I see!" said Discord.  "That is a problem, isn't it?  I know!  I can share with my friend Fluttershy!"

"I suppose that will work," answered Twilight uncertainly.  "Alright, we're going alphabetically, so Applejack is up first."

Applejack picked a bowling ball up in her mouth and threw it toward the pins.

"Eight points!" she declared upon seeing the results.  "Mighty respectable!"

The next throw missed the pins.

"Shucks," said Applejack.  "Still, eight points, not bad."

"Good start," said Twilight.  "Fluttershy, you're next."

Fluttershy nervously grabbed a ball in her mouth and tossed it down the lane, slowly.

The ball approached the right gutter.

And then it suddenly changed direction and ran into the center pin, knocking them all down.

"Woowee!" said Applejack, impressed.  "I never would have guessed you knew such fancy tricks, Flutters!"

"I...  Didn't know I did..."

Twilight, meanwhile, was watching Discord suspiciously.

He pointed a finger to the left when the ball changed direction, I'm almost positive!

She shook her head and decided to not mention it.  "Pinkie Pie is up next."

"A pro throws with her hoof!" declared Pinkie.  She grabbed a ball and began waving it around erratically.  When she released it, it rolled into the gutter almost immediately.

"I get points for style, right?"

"No," answered a laughing Rainbow Dash.

Pinkie made a second attempt, which ended very similarly to the first.

"You're up, Rainbow."

Rainbow achieved a gutter ball.

"You don't get any points for style," Pinkie reminded Rainbow.

"Shut up.  That was a warm up.  I had to get a feel for it.  I'll have the top score by the end of this game."

Rainbow's second throw knocked down nine pins.

"Argh, no!"

"What are you so upset about?" asked Pinkie in genuine surprise.

"I was so close to knocking them all down!"

"Rarity?"

Rarity walked up to her ball and gave it an uncertain look before grabbing it and throwing it down the lane.  It collided with the pins, causing a chain reaction that resulted in all of them being knocked over.

"Ten points!" she cheered.  "I can't believe I actually did that!"

"You just got lucky..." muttered Rainbow Dash.

"Which just leaves me," Twilight said.  She grabbed a ball and tossed it.

"Aaaaand I am now the proud owner of four whole points," she announced.  "Whoopee."

"Hey, you still got more points than I did," said Pinkie.

Twilight ignored Pinkie and tossed again, knocking down five more pins.

"There.  That's more like it," declared Twilight, satisfied.  "Applejack?"

Applejack managed to get another total of eight points.

"Is there a special rule or somethin' that gives you bonus points for knocking down the same number twice in a row?" asked Applejack hopefully.

"No," said Twilight.  "Not unless you get ten points twice in a row.  There are special rules for that.  Fluttershy?"

"I'm going to throw for Fluttershy this round," declared Discord.  He produced a solid black ball from nowhere and tossed it straight down the middle of the lane.

The ball managed to knock down three pins.

"Oooooh," said Rainbow Dash.

Suddenly, Discord's ball violently exploded, throwing all of the pins across the room and leaving the lane in pieces.

"Are you insane!" shouted Twilight above the screams of her peers.

"Everypony calm down!" cried Discord.  "It's fine, really!  Look!"

He snapped his claws and the bowling lane returned to it's normal state, completely undamaged.

"That was totally a strike by the way," said Discord as he returned to his seat.





"Oh, no!" said Diamond Tiara.  "When did Discord show up?  This is not good!"

"Look on the bright side, Diamond," said Scootaloo.  "At least he's not bothering us."

"I would prefer it if he was!" cried Diamond, causing the three crusaders to give her strange looks.

"Why?" asked Apple Bloom slowly.

"Because I promised Twilight that I would help her to arrange time to spend with her friends, that's why!  I actually learned something new for the first time in at least a year because of her, and I mean to see the favor repaid!  And now Discord is ruining everything!"

"Oh," said Sweetie Belle.  "That does sound pretty bad."

"Somepony has to do something!" said Diamond Tiara.

"Like what?" asked Silver Spoon.  "We can't just ask Discord himself to leave, can we?"

"No, we can't..." said Diamond ponderingly.

Suddenly, she stuck her hoof out at the crusaders.

"You three!"

"Huh?" asked the three fillies.

"You three need to create a distraction!"

"A distraction?" asked Scootaloo in disbelief.

"Yes.  Something that will get Discord's attention.  Something that will hold his interest for a while.  Something destructive.  Something chaotic!"

"You've got to be kidding me!" cried Apple Bloom.  "How are we supposed to do that?"

"I don't know!  You three are the experts, aren't you?  I honestly can't believe you three haven't earned cutie marks in destruction!  Go blow something up or something!"

"You're really asking us to do this for you?" asked Sweetie Belle.

"Just do it, for Pony's sake!  Just distract Discord, quick!"

"But we were beating you!"

"Bowling isn't honestly my cup of tea anyway," answered Diamond dismissively.  "Besides, none of you are beating Silver Spoon.  So there."

The crusaders looked at one another.

"Hey, Apple Bloom," said Scootaloo.  "Remember that idea that we had about what we should definitely never ever do ever?"

"Yeah.  I think we still have it in the tree house somewhere.  Let's go."





A little while later, the three crusaders found themselves in town square, wearing protective pillows in addition to their usual outwear attire of knitted caps and scarves.

"Alright, let's make sure that everything is in place," said Apple Bloom.  "Strainer?"

"Check," answered Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo.

"Boiler?"

"Check."

"Wood chipper?"

"Check."

"Leaf blower?"

"Check."

"That should be everything then," said Apple Bloom.  "So... are you ready?"

"Umm... is this... safe?" asked Sweetie Belle nervously.

"Not in the slightest," answered Scootaloo immediately.

"Yeah," agreed Apple Bloom.  "As soon as we flip the knob and throw the switch, we should run for cover."





Diamond Tiara watched as Discord cheered Fluttershy's bowling prowess as she landed a seventh strike.

What is taking those three so long? she thought desperately.
































KERBLAM

Dozens of high pitched screams sounded through the bowling alley, and Discord suddenly and involuntarily stood up straight and stiff as a board.

"Twilight!" Pinkie screamed.  "I just remembered something!  May I please have another slice of cake?"

"What in Equestria?" shouted Twilight, ignoring Pinkie.  "Discord, what did you just do?"

"That wasn't me!" defended Discord, confused.

"It sounded like it came from outside!" cried Rainbow Dash.

"Fluttershy?  Be a dear and take my turns?  I simply must go and investigate this."

Discord snapped his fingers and disappeared.

"Oh, thank goodness he's gone!" cried Diamond Tiara.  "Don't worry, everypony!  Everything is one hundred percent fine!"

"What do you mean?" asked Twilight.  "Do you know what just happened out there?"  She gasped in realization.  "Did you do that so that Discord would leave us alone?"

"Well, the answer to the second question... is yes.  But I'm afraid the answer to the first question is no.  I don't actually have any idea what happened.  I asked the Cutie Mark Crusaders to create a distraction and, well, I guess sometimes those three have their uses..."





Discord stared at the mess in the town square with his jaw hanging open.

"My dear fillies, what have you done?" he cried.

"Ummm," began Apple Bloom.  "We can explain!"

Discord stuck his paw into the sticky substance coating the snow under him and then brought it up to his mouth.

Tree sap.  Tree sap everywhere.  

Discord's eyes began to water.

"It's...  It's...  It's beautiful!"

Discord produced a paper cone and dipped it into the snow.

"And look!  Tree sap flavored snow cones!  Ingenious!  A true work of art!  It's reminiscent of Equestria back before Celestia and Luna imprisoned me in stone!  Ah, the sweet, tasty memories!"

He turned and looked the sap drenched Crusaders.

"How did this come to pass?  You simply must tell me!  If I had been watching, I would have been positively bouncing in my seat!

"But I missed iiiiit!" Discord wailed.
> Day 19: Breakfast Talk
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pipsqueak awoke with a yawn and looked around the fort.  He wasn't quite the last one awaken, but none of the others who were awake were in the Fort.

It didn't take him long to find the giant sign sticking out of the floor.

Breakfast will be served at sugar cube corner today.  We are having pancakes and waffles.

"Hmm," he said to himself.  "I wonder why we have to walk all the way to sugar cube corner."

"Probably because nopony wants syrup stains on our sofa cushions," answered Featherweight's voice.

Pipsqueak looked up and saw Featherweight sitting on one of the clouds that they kept in the fort and looking down at him.

"How long have you been up?" asked Pipsqueak.

"I don't know.  Not that long.  Want to go grab breakfast together?"

"Sure thing."

"Alright," said Featherweight, gliding down.  "Just let me grab something."

Featherweight approached a shelf and grabbed one of the cameras that Twilight had acquired for her experiment.

"What are you going to do with that?" asked Pipsqueak.

"I just thought I would take a few pictures of some things.  And I'm definitely going to take a photograph of that giant mess in the town square!" answered Featherweight.





The door to Sugar Cube Corner opened and Featherweight and Pipsqueak came in.  The other colts and fillies already seated at booths gave them both a greeting.

"We're not late, are we?" asked Pipsqueak.

"Noperoni!" cried Pinkie Pie from behind the counter.  "You're just in time!  Will you be having waffles or pancakes?"

"Pancakes," answered Featherweight.

"I'd rather have a couple of waffles," answered Pipsqueak.

"Comin' riiiiight up!"

Twenty seconds later, two plates of pancakes and waffles were placed in front of them.

"Enjoy!" cried Pinkie.

Pipsqueak grabbed his plate in his mouth, recoiling slightly at the unexpected heat it gave off.  It was far from unbearable however, and he turned to find a place to sit.

As he was scanning the room, he noticed Rumble waving at him.  Strangely, Rumble was sitting in a booth opposite of Twilight, and there was nopony else at their table.

Pipsqueak approached the table and put his plate down so he could speak.

"Hey Rumble."

"Hey Pip," answered Rumble.  "Hey, I don't suppose you've seen that hat that Discord gave to me for my birthday?"

"Ufgbh," moaned Twilight, her mouth full of pancakes.  "Diphcorb..."  She rested a front leg on the table and leaned her head into her hoof.

"You're still upset about yesterday?" asked Pipsqueak.

Twilight nodded.

"Sorry Rumble, I haven't seen your hat," Pipsqueak continued.

"That's okay," answered Rumble.  "You two want to sit here?"

Pipsqueak looked beside him and realized that Featherweight was still following him.

"These seats aren't taken?" he asked Rumble.

"Nah."

"Well, okay."

Pipsqueak took a seat next to Rumble.  Featherweight hesitated, but then took the only remaining spot next to Twilight.

"Where are your friends?" asked Pipsqueak to Twilight.  "Don't you want to sit with them?"

"Rainbow Dash inhaled her breakfast and is outside taking care of today's weather," answered Twilight.  "Everypony else is over there."  Twilight pointed to another booth.  "They keep talking about Discord.  I have had just about enough of Discord.  What's with the camera, Featherweight?"

Featherweight didn't respond for a moment.  Then he realized that Twilight had suddenly spoken to him.

"Hmm?" he murmured, swallowing his food.  "Camera?  I was taking some pictures of the town square.  I've never seen anything like that, and that's saying something."

"It really is something, isn't it?" agreed Twilight.  "I can't decide whether or not I should thank Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo for getting rid of Discord-

"Argh!  We're talking about Discord again!" Twilight complained.

"Sorry, we can talk about something else," said Featherweight.

"No, it's fine.  I'm the one who steered it toward Discord again," assured Twilight.  "Anyway, I can't decide whether to thank them for getting Discord to leave us alone, or to be mad at them for doing something dangerous and creating such a giant mess!"

"Well, this version of Ponyville technically belongs to Discord," said Rumble.  "Consider it to be his problem."

"He doesn't think it's a problem," Twilight pointed out.  "He loves it."

"Well, it's not really a problem for us either," said Rumble.  "Nopony is going to make us clean it up, anyway."

"I suppose..." said Twilight with a sigh.  "I just can't believe that those three were able to cause that much chaos in so little time!"

"Believe it," said Featherweight.  "I go to school with those three.  You should see how much chaos they cause when they're not trying.  I've always wondered what it would be like if they ever did try.  Now I know."

"At least we were able to have some fun after all that," said Twilight.  "Fluttershy started doing much worse of course.  Discord was cheating and making sure that she scored a strike every time, no matter how badly she tossed the ball.  Once he was gone, that all stopped.  She still won the first game though."

"Is she mad at him?" asked Pipsqueak.

"Fluttershy?  No.  She's convinced that Discord's cheering her on was actually helping her somehow.  She thinks that that's the reason she started doing worse."

Twilight put a hoof to her face.

"Fluttershy insists that Discord means well.  I suppose I have to accept that he honestly does, but he sure has a strange way of showing it."

"He must be getting lonely," offered Featherweight.  "Everypony knows that Fluttershy is his best friend.  The grown-up Fluttershy, that is.  I mean, we all know.  I don't know if you know.  Do you know?  Stop giving me that look!" he cried at Twilight.

"Yes, I am well aware of the fact that Discord and Fluttershy are such great friends in the real world.  But he's not dealing with that same Fluttershy right now.  He probably is lonely, and he's letting his emotions cloud his judgment," muttered Twilight.  "I'm sorry, can we discuss something else now?"

"Sure," said Pipsqueak.  "So, um...  Pinkie Pie seems to be back to normal.  Did she get over the whole cake thing then?"

"Not exactly," said Twilight.  "But apparently the only differences between cakes and pancakes is that one doesn't require milk and is cooked in a pan instead of a sheet.  Far from the truth, but I didn't argue."

"Hey, Rumble?"

The ponies turned their heads up to look at the newcomer.  It was Pinkie Pie.

"Pinkie!" said Twilight in surprise.  "We were just talking about you."

"Rumble, I have something to tell you."

"You do?" said Rumble in confusion.

"Yes.  I'm soooo sorry."

"Erm...  Sorry for what, exactly?"

"I just discovered that I have been using your hat to make waffle mix."

Pinkie held up a top hat.  There was batter lining the interior.

"Aw no, Pinkie!" cried Rumble.

"I'm sooo sorry!  It looked like a regular cooking pot at first and I'm sorry, sorry, sorry!"	

"No, it's fine.  If we just wash it out, it will be fine.  I'm just glad I know where it is now.  Pip, can you stand up for a sec'?"

"Sure," answered Pipsqueak, who stood up and let Rumble pass.

Rumble took the hat from Pinkie's outstretched hoof and grimaced.

"I'll be back in a while," he said.  "I have to go take care of this..."

A little while later, the door to Sugar Cube Corner opened once more and in walked Rainbow Dash.

"Hey Twilight!" she said as she approached her table.

"Hello Rainbow.  How are those clouds looking?"

"I made them turn invisible."

"Is that all?" asked Twilight sarcastically.  "Well, if we get snowed in by invisible snow, I'll know who to blame."

"Discord?"

Twilight paused.  "I didn't think of that.  But yes, actually.  If that really does happen, Discord would almost certainly be the one to blame."

"Good, just so long as my good name is in the clear," said Rainbow Dash.  She flew up into the air and landed again in Rumble's seat.

"Rumble was sitting there," Pipsqueak said.

"Really now?" asked Rainbow, intrigued.  "I'll give it back to him if he comes back.  So Twi, what are you doing sitting at this table surrounded by colts?"

"Nothing!" said Twilight in annoyance.  "We're just having a conversation."

"Were you talking about me?"

"You wish."

"Well, whatever you were talking about wasn't important then," said Rainbow with a smirk.

"So the town square getting coated in tree sap isn't important?"

"Eh, maybe a little."

Twilight sighed.  "I'm going to go get something to drink."  Featherweight stood up and let Twilight out of the booth.

"You want to grab me something too?" asked Rainbow.

"No.  Go get your own drink," said Twilight as she walked away.

"I'm good."

There was a few moments of silence.

"Sooo...  Rainbow Dash," began Pipsqueak.

"Yeah?"

"I've been wondering something."

"No, I don't like you in that way."

"What?"

Rainbow burst out laughing.

"I'm just messing with you," she huffed out.  "But seriously, what did you want to ask?"

"Um...  I was just wondering.  Are you nervous about the last day at all?"

"Nervous about the last day?" asked Rainbow in confusion.  "What are you talking about?"

"I mean, Discord said that after day thirty, most of us will find ourselves back in Ponyville exactly where we were before we came here.  But for you, it will be like you've suddenly turned into an adult.  Does that make you nervous?"

"I see what you mean," said Twilight, who had returned.  She didn't attempt to return to her seat.  Instead, she set her glass of apple juice on the top of the seat, keeping a hoof on it to hold it in place.  "I've been thinking about that a lot actually.  And I am rather nervous about that, to tell you the truth.  What if my adult self suddenly starts acting really immature for her age?  And what if she feels like I, me, the filly Twilight, am a totally different pony than she is, and that I was the one who did all of these things here, and not her?"

"Why would we do that?" asked Rainbow Dash.  "I'm definitely not nervous or scared or anything.  I'll just wake up one day and know all kinds of stuff and be able to do stuff without ponies telling me what to do, and I'll be even more awesome.  Can't wait, really."

"Well, that's one way of looking at it," said Twilight uncertainly.  "But do you know what's really annoying?"

"Me?" suggested Rainbow smugly.

Twilight froze and stared off into space.

Rainbow Dash burst out laughing once again.

"You should see your face right now!" she exclaimed.  "Priceless!  But really, what is so annoying, other than me?"

"I don't remember," said Twilight, who appeared to be staring at something several hundred feet away.

"You don't remember?"

"It's like my whole brain shut down the moment you said that," said Twilight.  "I honestly can't remember what I was just thinking at all."

"Something about waking up as an adult or something?"

"No, I don't remember.  You made my mind just stop functioning."

"Um, sorry?"

"I am sure it was on the tip of my tongue just a few seconds ago," continued Twilight.  "It's going to drive me nuts all day if I can't remember what it was.  This is your fault, Rainbow Dash."

"Hey, I said I was sorry."

"But do you really mean it?"

Rainbow cracked a giggle.  "Not really."

Featherweight and Pipsqueak exchanged glances, and then finally burst out laughing themselves.
> Day 20: Friendly Competition
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"So," began Rainbow Dash, looking at her competitors.  "Are you all ready to watch us get first place?"

"Don't count yer chickens before they hatch," warned Applejack.  "Me an' Apple Bloom intend to give you two a run for yer money."

"Speaking of money," said Silver Spoon, "I have just finished distributing bits between all three of your groups."

Rainbow Dash looked behind her and smiled at the small mound of money bags in the wagon that was hitched to Scootaloo and herself.

"Frankly Rainbow," said Rarity, who was also hitched to a wagon of bits alongside her sister, "I wouldn't expect you to win first place at this particular game.  You don't have the same, shall we say, business sense that I do."

"There is no game that I can't win," countered Rainbow.

"Hey, Silver Spoon," said Apple Bloom.  "Where did all of these bits come from anyway?"

"You mean this?" asked Silver Spoon, indicating a giant pile of coins next to her.  "Apparently, when Discord created this world, all of the things that ponies were carrying were also brought into this world, even though their owners were not.  You know how we keep finding pony's money pouches all over the place?  And on top of that, there is also all the money that we found at all the businesses across the town.  All of that money put together creates quite a respectable sum.  And now, I'm in charge of it all!"

"Just we've made you banker doesn't mean you get to keep it all for yourself," said Sweetie Belle.  "Just make sure that we get our two hundred bits when we finish a lap and you won't hear any objections from me."

"Now then," continued Silver Spoon.  "If you are all done antagonizing one another.  Featherweight?  Rumble?  Could you two please inform the judges that we are ready?"

"Sure thing," answered Rumble.  He turned to Featherweight, who had a bag slung over his shoulders, just like he did.

"Let's go."

He and Featherweight took off flying toward the hot air balloon currently parked over the town in the sky.





"Everypony is ready!" Rumble informed Twilight.

"Thank you.  I guess it's time to start then.  Ready Spike?"

"I'm ready!" Spike answered confidently.

"Attention everypony!" boomed Spike's voice across Ponyville.  "The game will begin momentarily.  However, before we get started, allow us to thank you for agreeing to take part!  This wouldn't have been possible without everypony's cooperation!"

"Well said, Spike," said Twilight, keeping her voice from broadcasting through Spike's megaphone.

"Now for the moment we've been waiting for!" continued Spike.  "Here goes the first move of the life-sized game of maneopoly!"

Twilight threw a couple of square dice, which wobbled around on the floor of the hot air balloon's basket before coming to rest.

"Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo move to the market stalls!"





Rainbow and Scootaloo stopped in front of the market stalls and saw that Snips was sitting behind one of them.

"Wow, Scoot.  I've said it before, but I'll say it again.  You really did a number on this place."

"Is that a complement?" asked Scootaloo uncertainly.

"I'm not sure," said Rainbow.  "I mean, look around.  This place is kind of a dump now."

"So," asked Rainbow Dash of Snips.  "How much?"

"Sixty bits!" answered Snips.

"You see what your tree sap machine has done to this place?" said Rainbow to Scootaloo jokingly.  "All of the property values have plummeted."

"Which means we can afford it easily," pointed out Scootaloo.

"Cool.  So, we're buying this, right?"

"Of course we are," answered Scootaloo.

A few moments later, the transaction was complete.  Rumble and Featherweight flew down to Snips and collected the bits, then flew away again to return them to the 'bank'.

"Wave the flag, Scoot," instructed Rainbow.





"Twilight," said Fluttershy while looking over the edge of the balloon's basket.  "I think Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo are done with their turn."

"Alright, now its Applejack and Apple Bloom's turn."

Twilight tossed the dice.

"Applejack and Apple Bloom move to Quills and Sofas!" announced Spike.  "Or, as it has come to be known ever since the incident with Thesaurus, Feathers along with Loungers."

"This is the most unusual board game I have ever been a part of," declared Twilight.  "And I use the term 'board game' very loosely."

"It's exciting though, isn't it?" asked Spike.  "I wonder where Rarity will go?"

"Well, it is her turn next, so we will find out in a moment."

"I hope she wins!"

"Why?"

"Uh, no particular reason!"

"I'm cheering for Rainbow Dash," said Fluttershy.

"Hmm.  I guess I should be rooting for Applejack and Apple Bloom then," said Twilight.

"They just waved their flag, Twilight," said Fluttershy.

"That means it's Rarity and Sweetie Belle's turn," said Twilight, tossing the dice once again.

"Rarity and Sweetie Belle move to the Railroad Station!"





Several turns later:



"Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo move to Carousel Boutique!"

"Yes!" cried Rainbow Dash as she pumped a hoof into the air.  "Did you hear that Scoot?  I told you we're going to win this!"

"We are?" asked Scootlaloo.

"This is the last property before we pass Silver Spoon again," explained Rainbow.  "That makes it the biggest money maker.  I know it doesn't make much sense.  It's a cloths shop, it's really not that great.  But the rules say that this is the best place on the board."

"And the most expensive," declared Diamond Tiara.

"Diamond?" said Scootaloo in surprise.  "You're in charge of Carousel Boutique?"

"Well, Rarity can hardly do it when she's a competitor," pointed out Diamond Tiara.

"So, how much?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"Four hundred bits."

"Oooh," said Scootaloo with a wince.  "That is a lot of money.  Should we do it?"

"Aw yeah."

"Fork over some bits," said Diamond.

"Couldn't we just pay two hundred instead and not collect when we pass Silver Spoon?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"No.  Featherweight and Rumble are waiting and I'm going to give them four hundred."

"Alright, I was just asking," said Rainbow.

Diamond reached into their wagon and pulled out four large bags marked as one hundred bits.

Featherweight looked at the bags and then turned to Rumble.

"You'll carry two of these, won't you?"

"Sure."

Once Featherweight and Rumble had crammed the bits into their shoulder bags, they took off and landed again next to Silver Spoon who was only a block away.

"So Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo bought the Boutique?" asked Silver Spoon.  "They had better hope that the others start landing on their spots soon.  By my count, they must be running low on bits after this."

"You mean they shouldn't have done it?" asked Rumble.

"It's a risk," said Silver Spoon.  "It might pay off.  Then again, it might not."

"Rumble, we should hurry to Applejack and Apple Bloom," reminded Featherweight.  "They're all the way at the flower shop.  The Blossom Emporium, I mean."

"Right," said Rumble.  "I'm ready."

The pair took off flying once again.

"Isn't this fun?" asked Featherweight.

"It's a little fun," admitted Rumble.  "I am pretty curious about who is going to win.  You and I are getting quite a workout too."

"It's a lot easier when you don't fly alone," said Featherweight.  "This would have been a drag if I had to do it all by myself."





When it was time for Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo to move again, they had a nasty surprise in store.

"Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo move to Town Hall," boomed Spike's voice.

"Uh oh," said Scootaloo.  "That's not good."

Rainbow Dash sighed.  "Well, let's get this over with."

As they passed Silver Spoon, she gave them a mischievous grin.

"Here's some bits," she said as she tossed a bag into their cart.  "You'll need them."

"Yeah yeah," said Rainbow Dash in annoyance.

Rainbow and Scootaloo kept walking until they finally reached town hall.  They stopped in front of it and waited.

The front door burst open and Discord emerged, carrying an oversized horseshoe magnet over his head.

"Do you know what time it is?" he asked.  Without waiting for an answer, he continued.  "It's incooooome tax tiiiiime!"

"We know, Discord," muttered Rainbow Dash.

"So, what will it be?" asked Discord.  "Two hundred, or ten percent?"

"Um... The ten percent would be cheaper, right?" Rainbow asked Scootaloo.

"Yeah, I think you're right.  The ten percent is cheaper this time."

"Alright, we'll do the ten percent thing," said Rainbow Dash.

"Are you sure?" asked Discord.

"Yes, we're sure," said Scootaloo.

Discord stuck the magnet over their cart and three bags of bits shot out and attached themselves to it.

"Be a couple of dears and deliver this to the bank?" Discord said to Featheweight and Rumble, prying the bags away from the magnet with ease.

"Scoot," said Rainbow Dash.

"What?"

"Wave the flag."

"Oh yeah."

A moment later, Spike began announcing the Apples' next move.

"It appears that we get to hang out for a while, does it not?" asked Discord.

"Yeah, it does," said Rainbow.  "Let's talk about Fluttershy, shall we?"

"One of my favorite subjects!" declared Discord, intrigued.





"Diamond Tiara!" cried Rarity.

"Yes?  Do you need something?" asked Diamond.  "This isn't your stop, you know."

"Did Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo buy the Boutique?"

"Yes, they did."

"Oh, I knew it!  Come on, Sweetie!"

Rarity and Sweetie Belle continued on, barely stopping to say hello to Silver Spoon before accepting two hundred more bits from her and pressing onward.  Finally, she spotted Rainbow and Scootaloo, talking with Discord in front of town hall.

"Rainbow Dash!"

"Hmm?" asked Rainbow, turning to Rarity.

"You..." Rarity cried as she approached.  She walked beside Rainbow Dash and stopped.

"You do realize that you purchased my house?"

"Um, yeah.  It's part of the game.  You agreed to it."

"But I was supposed to be the one to buy the Boutique!"

"Well, you can't have it now!" declared Rainbow Dash snidely.

"I can too!  Prepare to be run out of business, Rainbow Dash!"

Without another word, Rarity and Sweetie Belle continued onward.

"Forcing Rainbow to sell us the Boutique might be easier said than done," said Sweetie Belle.  "We aren't exactly rolling in bits ourselves."

"I am prepared to do whatever it takes," said Rarity.  "I'm sure that Applejack will assist us."

"I doubt it.  They don't want us to win any more than they want Rainbow to win.  Annnnnd, here we are at the train station again.  At least we won't lose anything."





"I don't think Discord listened to me at all," muttered Rainbow Dash as she and Scootaloo moved on to their next destination.  "He might think this is all a game, but it's not funny.  He can't just laugh off what he did at the bowling alley."

"He may have laughed you off, Rainbow, but I promise that he remembered everything you said, even if he didn't appear to take you seriously at the time," said Scootaloo.  "He might not admit it, even to himself, but he values the opinions of other ponies.  Especially when it comes to Fluttershy."

"Yeah?" asked Rainbow doubtfully.  "Why would he listen to me?"

"I'll give you two good reasons.  One: because you are Fluttershy's friend.  He knows that you want what's best for her.  And two: He thinks of you as a friend too.  I know that you think he's a nut, but you do have all kinds of fun together, as an adult.  Mostly by pulling pranks together."

"Hmm," said Rainbow, considering.  "He would be a pretty great pranking partner, wouldn't he?  Look, I don't have a problem with Discord.  We'll be cool as soon as he apologizes to Fluttershy."

They stopped as they finally reached their destination.

"Oh," continued Rainbow, "and I don't think we can afford to buy the water tower either.  We'll have to let it go for now."





"Are we going to buy it or not, Applejack?"

"Ah dunno Apple Bloom," said Applejack.  "We aint got an endless supply of bits.  Ah was thinkin' we might oughta play it safe and keep a good supply."

"But if we don't buy up as much property as we can, we might fall behind!" Apple Bloom protested.  "We can't play it safe.  If we try, the others will just run us out of business!"

"Alright, ah see yer point.  We'll buy the spa."

"Sanatorium," corrected Pipsqueak.  "That's what it says on the sign now.  That will be two hundred and forty bits."





"You're kidding me!" cried Rainbow Dash.  "Now we have to pay luxury tax?"

"That's right," said Discord.  "Seventy five bits."

"What luxury are we paying for exactly?"

"I have no idea!" answered Discord happily.  "I'm just doing what I'm asked.  I must admit, this little game of yours is fun."

"Rainbow, umm...  We can't pay." muttered Scootaloo.

"I know."

"We'll have to mortgage something."

"Can we mortgage the market stalls?"

"No.  That would only get us thirty bits.  We'll have to mortgage either the bowling alley, the joke shop, the pizza place, or Rarity's Boutique."

"Alright, we'll do the bowling alley then."

"Alright then," said Rumble, who was watching from above.  "I'll go to the bowling alley and tell Dinky to take a break, and Featherweight will go get your bits."





Many more turns later:



"This, this is why I prefer athletic competition to board games," cried Rainbow Dash in annoyance as she hovered near the hot air balloon.  "Skill doesn't help you to win at all.  The only thing that matters is how lucky you get."

"That was quite a run of bad luck," admitted Twilight.  "I'm sorry that the dice seem to be so against you."

"You know what?  I don't care.  I really don't.  This whole game is really just not my thing."

"Rainbow, I'm sorry that you didn't win."

Rainbow Dash sighed.  "No, Fluttershy, it's fine, really.  Besides, if I won at everything, nopony else would ever get to have any fun, right?  And besides that, it did keep me from getting bored for the whole morning."

"Speaking of which, this game is probably going to last until at least the afternoon," said Twilight.  "Why don't you go to sugar cube corner and see about bringing everypony lunch?  That will give you something to do for a bit."

"Didn't Applejack and Apple Bloom buy Sugar Cube Corner?  Doesn't that mean that I would be working for them?"

"Do you have a problem with their team?" asked Twilight.

"Well, no, but Applejack pressured me into selling her Carousel Boutique when Scoot and I ran out of money again.  I hope that Rarity takes it from her."

"Well, I'm getting hungry, and I think a bunch of the others probably are too.  It doesn't matter who owns Sugar Cube Corner in this silly little game."

"Alright, I was just messing around.  I'm going."





Later that afternoon:



"Apple Bloom?"

"Yep?"

"Ah figure it's time we face reality and declare bankruptcy before this here game drags on fer too much longer."

Apple Bloom sighed.

"I really think that if we just keep going we could make a comeback, but...  You're right.  This has gone on long enough."

"You're just saying that because Twilight rolled doubles three times and you know you will go to jail if you don't," complained Discord, clad in a police officer's outfit.





"Congratulations, Rarity and Sweetie Belle!" said Twilight, now on the ground, as she approached her two friends.  "Through aggressively choking out the competition, you now have an exclusive monopoly of most of the businesses in central Ponyville!"

"Yes, we do," answered Rarity, sensing Twilight's sarcasm.  "And then we generously donated all of it back to the township of Ponyville.  Except for the Boutique, of course.  That's mine."
> Day 21 Part 1: Das Boot
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Okay Fluttershy, just do it," mumbled Fluttershy to herself encouragingly.  "There is nothing to be frightened of.  All you're doing is stepping into your own home.  You're not doing anything wrong."

Fluttershy finally built up the nerve to push the door open.  She stepped into her home.

She had long since learned that the house was not, as she had first assumed, somepony else's property.

What then, she thought to herself, is there to there to fear?

She had returned to the building more than once since the first day, but every time, she had rushed herself and kept looking around nervously, as though somepony might catch her trespassing in her own house.

This time was going to be different.  This time, she was going to walk through her home as a home owner, not as a trespasser.

She looked around the home, not looking for anything in particular.

Eventually, she discovered a small blue food bowl.

It had the name 'Angel' written on the side.

She tilted her head and simply said "Hmm," to herself.

She rubbed the inside of the bowl, which left the part that she had rubbed slightly more vibrant and colorful than the rest.

My, this whole place could use a good dusting, she thought, looking around.





Fluttershy hummed cheerfully as she waved the feather duster that she was holding in her mouth back and forth in time with her tune.

She had been at it for nearly an hour now, and had dusted most of the house.

Suddenly, she realized that she could hear another noise.  She stopped humming and stood still and listened.

There sound was quiet, but audible to her ears.  It was coming from outside.

She moved to a window and looked out, hoping to see the source.

Outside was Discord, marching through the snow using tennis racquets as snow shoes.

He was walking toward the Everfree Forest.

She watched him disappear into the trees.

Even though she could no longer see or even hear him, Fluttershy kept watching the spot where Discord had disappeared.  Having him nearby was making her uncomfortable, and she didn't want to be unaware of his whereabouts if he was anywhere near her.

She didn't have to wait very long, however.  Less than five minutes after he first disappeared, Discord came back out of the forest in exactly the same place where he went in.

After a moment, he stopped in his tracks and held out a clawed finger into the air, as though he suddenly had an idea.  However, he immediately began shaking his head and he put his claw back down and began trudging off through the snow again.

He eventually passed rather close to Fluttershy's house.  Fluttershy felt as though her heart had stopped for a moment when he looked in her direction.  She didn't move a muscle.

Discord looked at her house for only a moment before looking off into the distance and stroking his beard, muttering to himself.

He started walking off again without giving Fluttershy a second glance, still talking to himself.

Suddenly, without warning, his expression turned into one of annoyance and he snapped his claws.  A wooden mallet manifested over his head, which, to Fluttershy's horror, proceeded to bonk him on the head in rapid succession.

Discord snapped and dismissed the hammer, and then began to walk off once again.

Had he seen her?

When Discord was out of sight from the window she had been watching from, Fluttershy moved to the door and opened it a crack and watched him for a while longer.

The moment he was out of sight completely, Fluttershy actually opened the door and stared after him.

"What was that about?" she whispered to herself.

Fluttershy walked away from the door, but did not shut it; she would be back momentarily.

When she did come back, she had her scarf and hat on.

She stepped outside and closed the door, and then began walking toward the forest.

Toward the exact same spot that Discord had come from.





Fluttershy didn't get very far.  Not long after she stepped behind the tree line, her muzzle unexpectedly and somewhat painfully collided with something invisible.

"Ow," she said to herself in reaction.

She looked and looked, but could not figure out what she had run into.  She tried poking a hoof in front of her.  It bumped into something immediately.

Whatever her hoof was touching, she couldn't see it.  Fluttershy put her other hoof out and met the same results.  She began to move both hooves side to side and up and down.

She never found an opening.  Whatever it was that was stopping her, it was big, and flat.

Like a wall.

Oh, of course, she thought to herself.  Discord said that there is an invisible wall all around Ponyville.

Why would Discord come here?  Could he have walked through the invisible wall?

Considering who she was thinking about, it was a possibility.

Or maybe there is more that I am not seeing yet.

She began to walk along the wall, keeping one hoof leaning against it.

After just a short distance, she stopped and stared in confusion at what she was seeing further ahead.

There was a wooden boat.

The strange part wasn't that the boat was sitting at the edge of the forest.

The strange part was that it was sitting at a ninety degree angle, it's front sticking straight up into the air.

What in Equestria?

On the side of the boat was the sloppily painted white words 'Das Boot'.

She moved closer and realized that there was a double ended paddle sitting on the floor of the rowboat.

It shouldn't have been.  It should have been falling out and into the snow at that angle.

The practical side of her brain told her that this was not especially out of the ordinary for Discord.

The rest was begging her to get a closer look.

She touched the boat with a hoof and suddenly felt a strange sensation.

She applied more pressure to her hoof and the rowboat began to tilt sideways, ever so slightly.

When she withdrew the pressure, the boat returned to it's original position.

She applied the pressure again, and then placed her other front hoof on the boat as well.  The boat began to slide upward into the air slightly this time.

Fluttershy panicked and pulled her hooves away.  She looked up and watched the boat continue to float upward, slowly.

Despite its slow speed, it wasn't slowing down.  It seemed to be drifting away.

In fact, if she didn't know better (and she didn't), Fluttershy would swear that the boat was floating in the invisible wall.  At a ninety degree angle.

The boat was still drifting away.

Beginning to panic once more, Fluttershy grabbed at the boat once more.

The moving of the boat caused her grip to slip.

For a moment, Fluttershy felt as if her stomach suddenly flew into her chest, and then she fell into the boat.

Fluttershy quickly regained her bearings and then looked back at where she came from.  Her jaw fell open and she nervously looked upward.  She tilted her head further and further back, staring.

The ground was much more imposing when it suddenly turned into a giant endless cliff towering above her.

Fluttershy realized that the boat was still drifting away.

She grabbed the oar, which wobbled uneasily in her hooves.  She looked over the boat uncertainly at the sideways trees below and then lowered the oar.

It passed under the boat easily and the boat began to spin in response to the oar paddling against... something.

If the oar is going under the boat thought Fluttershy, confused, then that means it's passing through the wall too!

Fluttershy tried paddling again, watching under her as she did so.

The oar passed straight through a tree branch as though it didn't exist.

What is all of this? Fluttershy thought.  To her surprise, some of her fear had disappeared.  After all, as far as she could tell, she wasn't in any immediate danger, and she could always fly to safety if the boat drifted away.

In fact, some of the fear that she felt before was now replaced by amazement.

Unfortunately, Fluttershy had no idea how to actually steer the rowboat and for the most part succeeded in spinning it around in circles.  And when she did manage to actually get the boat to move, it was in the wrong direction.

She could see over the tree tops now.

And she could see Discord.  He was coming in her direction.

Upon realizing this, Fluttershy froze up with fear once again.  Discord was sure to catch her.  What if she thought that she was stealing from him?  She had never stolen a thing in her life!  Would the chaos lord believe her?  What sort of penalty would an almighty and terrifying creature like Discord give her for stealing his boat anyway?

Oh no!  Now he's looking up at me! Fluttershy thought in panic.  I wonder if the others will try to ask him to go easy on me?

Suddenly, Discord appeared floating next to her in a poof.

"Fluttershy?" he said in shock.

"I- I- I- I- I-"

"Slow down, Fluttershy!" said Discord.  "Any more 'eyes' and you'll turn into a spider!"

"Spider?" cried Fluttershy fearfully, not understanding Discord's joke.

"What has gotten into you?" asked Discord in confusion.  "I know for a fact that you aren't scared of spiders."

"But- but- but- but- but-"

"Now you sound like a broken motor boat!" cried Discord.

Suddenly he stopped and stroked his beard in thought.

"Hmm, what an interesting idea," he pondered.  "Why didn't I think of that?"

"Please don't throw me in a dungeon!" Fluttershy whisper-cried.  "I didn't mean to do anything wrong!"

"Hurgh?" cried Discord, his jaw falling off in confusion.  "You?  Do something wrong?"

Fluttershy stared at him in wordless fright.

"Ohhhhhh!" cried Discord, finally catching on.  "The boat!  Flutershy, I assure you that you have nothing to fear from me!  Why, you could shave me bald in my sleep and I wouldn't throw you in a dungeon!  For one thing, I would probabily deserve it..."

Fluttershy stared back at him in utter confusion.

"I'm not mad!" insisted Discord.  "Really!"

"You're not?" whispered Fluttershy.

"I'm not!"

Fluttershy continued to stare.

"Alright, how about this!" cried Discord desperately.  "Stay here with me on a little trip and I'll call it good!"

"O- Okay!" answered Fluttershy, eager to appease Discord's possibly hidden rage.  "W- Where are we going?"

"Oh, I just thought we could park ourselves over Ponyville and take everything in, and relax...  I'll be needing this, if you don't mind," said Discord, placing his paw on the oar in Fluttershy's hooves.  She allowed Discord to slide it away from her hooves without resisting.

"Did you say over Ponyville?"

"The invisible wall is actually a giant dome over the whole town," explained Discord.  "If we paddle out far enough, we'll end up upside-down over the whole town and we'll be able to see everything!  I can't wait to show you!"

Fluttershy decided not to question it.  Instead, she attempted to try to get Discord to forget about her transgression by distracting him with small conversation.

"So, um..."

Fluttershy found her mouth suddenly unwilling to speak.

"What is it, Fluttershy?" asked Discord.  She didn't respond.

"Please!" he insisted, almost desperately.  "I care about what you have to say!"

"Um... I was wondering," began Fluttershy.  "When did you learn to speak Germane?"

"Germane?" asked Discord in confusion.  "I can't speak Germane!  You would think that after living for thousands of years I would take the time to learn, but I quite simply couldn't be bothered."

Fluttershy squeaked incoherently.

"What?" asked Discord.

"I just assumed, I saw the name of your boat and..."

"What does that have to do with Germane?" asked Discord in confusion as he tapped the side of the boat a couple of times.

The rowboat suddenly transformed into a literal giant boot, with Discord and a bewildered Fluttershy sitting in the heel, only the top halves of their bodies visible.
> Day 21 Part 2: Confession
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fluttershy watched silently as Discord used the oar to move the boot up the invisible wall.  Discord was aware of her staring.  He kept glancing back at her every once in a while, but he would quickly turn away again, staying silent all the while.

As Fluttershy watched Discord's motions, she realized that the way the paddling moved the boat was beginning to make sense.

Which, naturally, was unusual.

"Discord..." she began.

"Yes, Fluttershy?" asked Discord.

"Why are you using that oar to paddle the boat- I mean, the boot along?  Couldn't you make it move all by itself?  Or just teleport it to where you want to be?"

"I could," answered Discord without stopping his rowing.  "But that would go against the whole point, wouldn't it?"

"It would?  What point?"

"It would," confirmed Discord.  "While I could bring inanimate objects to life and not have to lift a claw to do anything for myself, it takes a lot of the fun out of everything.  I like to give things a personal touch."

"But I thought you like watching others create chaos without your help."

"I do!" he declared.  "What I don't like is for chaos to happen automatically.  It doesn't tend to be very creative that way."

"But this seems... somewhat normal?"

"Well, I could fire an anchor from a cannon and then use a winch to pull the boot toward the anchor, but I think that would be a little loud."

"Oh.  I would prefer if we don't do that, if that's alright with you?"

"I thought you would say that."

"Discord, um, if I accidently fall out, will I fall to the ground, or will I be stuck here on the... the dome?"

"You won't fall out," assured Discord.  "Not unless you climb out on purpose.  And if you do, you'll turn upright as soon as you leave the magic field."

Fluttershy watched Discord for a while longer.

"Um, Discord?"

"Yes?"

"I'm really sorry, I just have one more question.  I promise I'll stop bothering you after-"

"Please ask away!" interrupted Discord.  "I love to be pestered!  Anything you like, as many questions as you want!"  His tone was completely without sarcasm.

"Oh.  Um...  Everything outside of Ponyville.  Is it all fake?"

"Yes, actually, it is," said Discord in surprise.  "How did you figure that out?"

"Your oar goes through the wall," answered Fluttershy.  "And it went through everything on the other side of the wall too.  But it doesn't go through anything on this side of the wall."

"Well, yes, it does that because, as you guessed, nothing that you see outside of Ponyville is real.  I can't push myself to create the entirety of Equestria for real.  It's much easier to just create an illusion."

Fluttershy thought for a moment.

"What about the sun and the moon?" she asked.  "Are they illusions too?"

"Actually, no.  They're completely real.  They're not nearly as big as the real real things, but I need them to physically exist, otherwise they don't do their jobs."

"But they're behind the wall."

"They're allowed to be, are they not?" asked Discord.  "My world, my rules."

"I guess so."

Fluttershy fell silent again and considered her fellow passenger.  He was clearly trying very hard to make sure she was comfortable.  He had even made sure that she had her own personal space.

She was beginning to suspect that the chaos lord wasn't just putting on an act. 

"We're getting to be quite high up," remarked Discord.  "Oh, look!" he cried.  He stopped rowing the boot and pointed upward.

"Your friends are up to something down there," continued Discord.  "Maybe if we watch them for long enough, they'll do something hilarious chaotic.  Do you want to get a closer look?  I can give you a spy glass."

"Discord?" asked Fluttershy.

"Yes?" asked Discord, now holding a spy glass out to Fluttershy.  She made no attempt to take it.

"Where are we?" asked Fluttershy.

"What do you mean?" asked Discord, confused.  "We're in the sky over Ponyville.  Or a recreation of Ponyville, anyway.  Upside-down, I might add.  Did you notice?"

"But where is everything else?" asked Fluttershy.  "Is there really nothing behind the dome other than empty space?  Is any of this even real?  Or are we in a dream?"

"Well, you are a clever one," remarked Discord.  "I can't do the dream thing.  That little trick is something that only Luna could pull off, and I don't think you could ever convince her to do anything like this.  Yes, everything here is real.  I created it, but it is all real.  If you want to know where we are in relation to the original Ponyville however, that... could be difficult to explain.  We're in another world, in a manner of speaking, but this world is inside of Equestria.  It's a part of Equestria, in fact.  I don't really like it very much."

"You don't like it?" asked Fluttershy in confusion.  "But it sounds like you're saying that we are in that world!"

"We are," answered Discord.  "It's called the Realm of Reorder.  Which explains why I don't care for it.  However, it's also the only place in Equestria where I am free to create whatever chaos I want without getting in trouble for it.  So, I live there."

"You live in a realm of order?" cried Fluttershy in astonishment.

"The Realm of Reorder," corrected Discord.  "I can understand why you are so surprised.  I did say that I don't like it in there.  It's called the Realm of Reorder because everything in it tries to 'fix' itself all the time.  Equestria is the opposite.  Things fall apart around you ponies all the time, and it produces the most hilarious reactions from everypony."

"Everything fixes itself?" asked Fluttershy in confusion.

"You know how your dishes get dirty after you use them, and how dust builds up in your home over time?  I have the opposite problem.  I have to really work to keep the chaos.  Of course, the one upside is that I can really make a humongous mess and everything will go back to the way that they used to be and I don't even have to do anything to clean it up.

"Sometimes, when I get really mad, I just start smashing things in my house.  Not very creative, but it is strangely satisfying.  Everything fixes itself pretty quickly.  Sometimes I set my house on fire.  It goes back to the way it was after that too."

"That sounds very useful," said Fluttershy.

"All things in moderation, dear Fluttershy," responded Discord.  "If left unattended, it gets bad.  I could scarcely entertain the thought of going back there after being trapped in stone for over a thousand years for thought of what a mountain of cleanup I would have to do if I did.  In fact, I wouldn't have even considered it if you didn't tell me one day that I couldn't keep sleeping over at your place forever."

"You stayed at my house after your reformation?" cried Fluttershy, shocked.  Why did the others leave that part out when they told me about Discord's reformation?

"Yes, I did.  Thank you again for that, by the way.  But, as I was saying, eventually I worked up the nerve to go into the Realm of Reorder and assess the damage.  And it was dreadful.  Everything had crystalized.  I mean everything!  Sombra would have been in heaven.  There was literally nothing but crystals left.  And all of my beautiful creatures?  They were simply gone!"

Fluttershy gasped.

"So, naturally, I spent the next few days shattering everything and turning it all into piles of slime or lava or pineoctopi, things like that."

"But isn't that the kind of thing that you enjoy doing?" asked Fluttershy, confused.

"Maybe in Equestria," Discord admitted.  "It's not very much fun when there is nopony around to watch though.  It's even worse when you know that all of that hard work undoes itself eventually, even though there's nopony who dislikes it.  All things considered, I much prefer Equestria over that place, if I can help it.

"It's ironic, actually.  Equestria is naturally a world of entropy, and yet you ponies have gone to great effort to make it a place of peace and harmony.  In a way, I have done the same thing.  This realm is one of perpetual order, and yet I have made it a place of chaos through my efforts.  The few ponies who have seen my realm, not counting this false Ponyville, will tell you that it is the realm of chaos, and they are right.  But not because it is that way naturally.  It is the realm of chaos because of my efforts.  And Equestria is a realm of harmony through the efforts of ponies."

Suddenly, Discord stopped paddling the oar.

"This seems as good a spot as any," he declared.  He jumped out of the boot heel and laid himself out across the foot of the boot and put his paw and claw behind his head.

"This is an excellent way to relax," he remarked.  "We can lay on our backs and look up and see all of Ponyville and admire all that everypony has accomplished.  That's why this is 'Discord's All Seeing Boot'.  Which is to say, Das Boot.  Well, the boot itself isn't all seeing, but good enough.  You notice anything?"

Fluttershy looked up at the town.  "I can see the tree sap all over town square...  My goodness, there is a lot of it, isn't there?"

"That was a masterpiece, truly," said Discord nostalgically.  "But there's more to see than that.  Here, take this spy glass and see!"

Fluttershy finally accepted the spy glass and held it up to her eye and began scanning Ponyville randomly.

"What if somepony sees us?" she asked.

"They probably won't," answered Discord.  "We're just a speck in the sky to them, and you ponies don't look up very often.  Well, actually pegasi do.  If one of them comes flying up here, I'll just figure out what to do as it happens, just like I always do.

"You can't see from where we're at," continued Discord as he pointed a claw skyward, "but right there is the hospital, and that's where Rainbow smashed the vending machine!  And over there is where the bell tower used to be.  It still is, in a way."

"Discord," began Fluttershy as she continued to spy on the town.  "If this Ponyville is in the Realm of Reorder, then why don't all of these disasters fix themselves?"

"Ah, that.  I'm using my own power to counteract the effects of this Realm of Reorder.  I can't do it forever, however.  Even my energy isn't endless.  In fact, I had to save it up to do all this.  It took quite a bit of preparation to make all of this happen, you know."

"Did you freeze time?"

"Freeze time?" asked Discord, surprised.  "You've managed to list one of the very few things that I can't do.  The Realm of Reorder does have a funny idea of time though.  You'll find that several rules about how the world works are a little bit different here.  If you compare it to time in Equestira, sometimes it speeds up, sometimes it slows down, and sometimes it even runs backwards for a little while, and it doesn't stay the same time in all areas, which is a handy little trick for creating the illusion that no time has passed from the perspective of ponies in Equestria, if you know how to utilize it correctly.  But I can't actually make time stop.  No more than I am capable of true time travel."

"What?" cried Fluttershy, putting the spy glass down.  Now she was really confused.  "But I thought you had to travel into the past in order to bring me here!"

"It doesn't work like that," answered Discord, shaking his head.  "It would be more accurate to say that I pulled you from a memory.  You are the adult Fluttershy.  I just...  shall we say, reminded you what being a filly is like again."

Fluttershy said nothing as she processed this information.

Discord sighed.  "I wish I could do that for myself.  I don't even remember if such a thing as a juvenile draconequuis exists!  You wouldn't like the old me anyway."

Discord groaned and put his paw over his face.  "Not that the new me is so great," he muttered.  "I don't even know how to control myself anymore."

"What are you talking about?"

"You know," continued Discord, "thirty days seems like a lot less time when you aren't waiting for the last one.  I thought I could keep myself from doing something stupid for thirty days.  But then I started getting bored and I started meddling when I specifically said I wouldn't meddle."

"I don't understand."

"At first, I only cared about proving a point," explained Discord.  "But as time went on, I realized that- I don't know.  Maybe, maybe I could show you that I could make you my friend, just like how you made a friend out of me.  Guess I proved myself wrong!  I went and did something rash, and stupid, and now you're terrified of me, and everypony else hates me!  What else is new?"

"Discord, I don't hate you!"

He looked at her.  "But you are terrified of me."

Fluttershy hunched down a little in embarrassment at this.  "Maybe a little," she admitted.  "but you have been doing your best to be nice to me."

"Fluttershy, I invited myself to your bowling party," Discord pointed out.  "That wasn't very nice of me."

"You were just lonely!"

"I was making everypony uncomfortable!"

"I'm sure everypony will forgive you if you apologize."

"I was cheating!" Discord cried out.  "I was making sure that you got a perfect score with every throw!  I was trying to help you to have fun by making sure you won!  Too bad I was thinking of what would make me happy instead of you!  And what did I care about ruining it all for all of your friends?"

"I know."

Discord looked at Fluttershy in surprise.

"You do?"

"I know you cheated.  I just didn't know why."

"But... but... but-"

"Come on now, Discord," said Fluttershy, smiling despite her uncertain feelings.  "You're starting to sound like a motor boat."

"But Rainbow Dash told me that you didn't know!" cried Discord.

"Rainbow Dash isn't always correct," reminded Fluttershy.  "I just didn't want to accuse you of being selfish.  I was sure that you had a reason for it."

"Fluttershy I..."  Discord stammered for words.  "I have known you for quite some time now, and you have left me astounded by your kindness once again!  But I can't let you just pretend that I wasn't being a jerk!"

"I almost set your boat adrift!" pointed out Fluttershy.  "I'll forgive you if you forgive me."

"What?  No!" cried Discord.  "There was no comparison!  The boat problem was solved just like that!"  Discord snapped as he finished, miniature fireworks shooting from his claws.  "Relationships are not so easy to fix!  I would know!  I told you, I don't care about some silly boat!"

"Then why won't you accept that I don't care about what happened in the bowling alley?"

"Because!" cried Discord.  "Even if I did care about you bumping D.A.S. Boot and setting it adrift, the transgression is utterly miniscule compared to what I did!  It's not a fair trade!"

"Friendships are not about keeping track of who owes who," answered Fluttershy.  "I feel awful about what I did.  I think you feel awful about what you did.  Can we both agree to forget about both of those things, for both of our sakes?"

"But... I-"

"Please?"

Discord considered.

Why is it that she always wins? he thought.

Probabily because she's an expert at this and you're not.

"Alright, Fluttershy.  I can do that."

"Thank you, Discord."

Discord sighed in relief.

"You know, I tried thinking of over a dozen different ways I was going to apologize to you.  I never thought it would happen like this."

Discord started stroking his beard again.

"Of course, I never expect that anything that I do will happen the way I plan it out.  Which is why I only ever make very loose plans."

"Well, with that off your shoulders, what do you want to do now?" asked Fluttershy.

"I suppose I should bring you back to the ground where you belong," said Discord with a sigh.  "Strictly speaking, I'm not supposed to have you up here.  It goes against my own rules.  I have been doing entirely too much of that recently, for selfish reasons."

"But I was just starting to enjoy this!" protested Fluttershy.

"You were?" asked Discord in mild surprise.  "You see, this is just another part of the problem with me!  I can't tell what kind of chaos you enjoy and what kind I should leave at home!"

"Well, this is harmless enough.  Look at us!" said Fluttershy, a small amount of laughter bleeding into her tone.  "We're boating in the middle of winter!  It doesn't make any sense!"

"Exactly!" cried Discord.  "You know, forget my rules.  We can stay up here for as long as you want."

"Could I try the oar?" asked Fluttershy.

"Of course!  Actually, how about-"

Discord vanished and then suddenly a second boot appeared next to the first.  On the side was written 'Das Other Boot'.

"Every boot has a partner!" declared Discord, now in the heel of the other boot and holding an oar of his own.  "Why don't you lead the way and I'll follow you?"

Fluttershy almost missed dinner that evening.
> Day 22: Monster in the Night
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Scootaloo was outside early in the morning, taking some time to play on her scooter before deciding what to do for the day.  She reveled in the feeling of the air blowing through her mane as she attempted her most daring tricks.

She could feel the speed, the air blowing through her mane as she sped along.  The adrenaline that came with pushing herself.  The excitement of feeling awesome while doing it.  The knowledge that not a single other pony in the whole town could do what she could do on a scooter.  True, not that many tried, but even if they did, they wouldn't even compare to her own skill.

Using a scooter wasn't Scootaloo's special talent.  If it was, it would have undoubtedly shown up on her flank by now.  She used her scooter so frequently that if it was destined to be her talent, she would have received it by now.

Her skill with the device had come purely through practice and persistence.  And she loved it.

After pausing for a short break, Scootaloo noticed that three ponies were now outside with her.  Twilight and Fluttershy were sitting together in the snow.  Rainbow Dash was also with them, but she was standing.

When Rainbow saw that Scootaloo was looking at her, she started walking forward to meet her.

"Hey Scoot," she said once she came close.  "You having fun?"

"You know it!"

"That's cool...  So, um, you got any plans for today?"

"Not yet.  Why?  Do you want to hang out?"  Scootaloo secretly concealed her delight.  She always prefered for Rainbow Dash to be the one to ask to hang out, since she always felt like Dash might want to be elsewhere when she herself was the one to ask and was just too polite to admit it.  Well, technically Rainbow hadn't asked to hang out, but she was implying it, so that still counts, right?

"That would be good with me.  You want to just go on a stroll?"

Scootaloo scrunched her face in confusion.  'Stroll' meant going slow.  Rainbow Dash didn't do things slowly.  Not as an adult and not in her current form either.  That meant that something was on her mind.

"Yeah, sure," answered Scootaloo, trying to sound indifferent.

For Rainbow Dash, 'stroll' actually meant flying alongside Scootaloo as she slowly rolled along on her scooter.

They traveled along in silence for a bit, but it was quickly becoming awkward, and Scootaloo was getting overwhelmed with the urge to say something.

"So, uh, how are things?"

"Things are good," said Rainbow.  "Well, almost everything...  It's just...  Well, I found something that has me a little confused is all."

"Huh?  What do you mean?  What did you find?"

"Well, you see... argh, okay, you and me, we're cool, right?"

"Of course we are!  But what's wrong?"

"Alright, I'll tell you, but seriously, you can't tell anypony else what I'm about to tell you!"

"Wow, this sounds serious," said Scootaloo, no longer hiding her concern.  "Alright, I promise."

Rainbow sighed, and then said, "The thing is, I was poking around my future self's house last night.  I haven't spent much time there since this all started.  I did go back to take a few things out of it, but I never actually thought much of it.  I decided to poke around this time, you know, to see what sort of things my future self gets up to.  And when I did, I found a book."

Scootaloo waited, but realized that Rainbow Dash wasn't continuing.

"Yeah?  And?  What was the book?"

"What?  What does it matter?  It was a book!  And not just a short little thing, it was a novel!"

Suddenly, Scootaloo realized exactly what the problem was.  She was not ignorant to her idol's previous aversion to books.

"The worst part is that when I looked around for more, I found out that my future self has several more of them.  I have a whole book series!  I mean, is this a prank?  You would tell me if one of the other pegasi had flown up to my house and planted those there to humiliate me, right?"

"I would have, but, er, I already know that those books are yours.  It's the Daring Do series, isn't it?"

"Oh no, that's really not good!  My future self turned into an egghead!"

This really is not good! Scootaloo thought to herself frantically.  The adult Rainbow Dash loves those books and thinks that they are cool, and I know that they are too, but if I tell her that right now, I'd be going against my sister's opinion!  I can't just tell her that she's wrong!

"Wait a second," said Rainbow Dash.  "How did you know that my future self owns those books?  You already told me that you can't fly good enough to visit my place."

Uh oh.

"Um...  Um..."

Scootaloo tried desperately to think up a lie, but no ideas would come to her.

" 'Um' what?" prodded Rainbow.

She was out of time.  She would have to answer with the truth.

"We've read them together?"

Rainbow Dash stared for a second, and then stopped turned and looked into the distance.  Scootaloo had to do a one-eighty to come back to her honorary sister and then come to a stop.

"It is official," she Rainbow Dash declared.  "My future self is insane."

"Hey!" cried Scootaloo, hurt.  "Those books are great!  They're adventure stories!  If they weren't cool, do you think I would waste my time with them?"

Rainbow's eyes widened as she realized her mistake.  "Oh, ponyfeathers, I-  Look, I didn't mean it like that!  You're still cool with me!  I mean, you do have a pretty weird hobby for somepony who..."

She trailed off at Scootaloos disapproving look.

"Okay, that's not what I meant either.  Look, flying is what I love to do!  There is nothing else that I can do that I will love more, right?  So why would I spend time reading when I could be out being awesome?  I don't mind you being into books and stuff, but I like to take it to the extreme!  And if I start reading in my spare time instead of practicing my flying, I'm going to go soft!"

"That's not true!" insisted Scootaloo.  "The adult you is the fastest pegasus in Equestria!  She isn't soft!  Which is to say, you're not soft!"

"Well, maybe.  I mean, there is no way that the older me just totally lost her mind, right?  So I guess if she likes them, then maybe that particular book series might not be so bad..."

"Fluttershy was reading one of the Daring Do books a couple weeks back when we were all living with Diamond Tiara.  She likes them."

"Fluttershy likes... fluffy stuff though!"

"Well, apparently even she enjoys a thrilling tale as well, because that's what Daring Do stories are!  How about this, why don't you find out for yourself?" said Scootaloo encouragingly.  "You go fly up to your house and grab the first book and bring it back here and we can read it together!"

"What?  There's no way that I'm bringing those books out where everypony can see me with one!  Can't you just come wi-  Er, no wait, duh, of course you can't."

"We could always take them somewhere where we're alone," Scootaloo offered.

"I guess so...  But it still feels weird!  Besides, didn't you say that you've already read those books?"

"Well, yes, but I don't mind rereading them.  Plus it will be fun to read them with someone who wasn't read them before!"

Rainbow Dash hesitated for several seconds, clearly weighing her options.

"Okay, fine, but don't say a word to anypony!"

"I won't!"

"Alright then.  I'll... be back, I guess."





"This is so fascinating!" Twilight exclaimed to Fluttershy.  "This whole world is actually in another dimension!  But are you sure that Discord didn't tell you more about how it all works?"

"I've told you everything I can remember," said Fluttershy.  "If you want to know more about how it works, you could always just ask Discord yourself.  I know that talking to him can be overwhelming, but he is actually quite friendly."

"Except for when he is making a mess of things," muttered Twilight.  "I guess you are right, though.  If I want to learn more, I'm going to have to ask him.  I think I'll go and do that right now, in fact."

"Oooh, can I come?" cried Pinkie from behind Twilight, causing her to jump.

"Pinkie, when did you get here?" asked Twilight in confusion.

"Just now!"

"Uh, okay.  But why do you want to come with me?  Are you curious about the nature of this dimension as well?"

"I have no idea what that means, but it sounds fun!"

"Pinkie, this isn't for fun."

"It isn't?"

"I seek out knowledge in all things in order to further my understanding so that I can approach situations in the best manner possible!  It's not for fun!"

"It sounds fun to me!"

"Well, it's not!"

"But Twilight, isn't it true that 'fun' is defined differently for each pony?  It's totally arbitrary to declare what is and isn't fun in such an objective manner!  It is possible for me to find fun in things that you don't find to be fun without the whole universe exploding or something!"

Twilight stared for a few seconds.

"Do you actually know what you just said?"

"Of course I do!  It's not like I'm just a random output machine that consistently makes coherent sentences by complete coincidence!"

Twilight stared for a little while longer.

"Okay, point taken.  You can come with me, even though I don't really understand why you think it will be fun."

"Terrific!  Are you coming Fluttershy?"

"Oh, I don't think so.  I don't mind Discord, but I think the book flock misses me."

"If you say so!  Let's go, Twilight!"





"Hey Scoot, I'm back.  I've... got it."

"Rainbow, why are you holding a book titled 'The History of the Wonderbolts'?"

"It's just a book cover!  Its perfect!  Even though I still want to keep away from everypony else, if somepony does happen to come along, it will look like we're studying Wonderbolt stuff instead of reading some book!  It's a good thing it fit over the real book cover so well."

"Well, okay then, I guess if it makes you feel better.  So where do you want to go?"

"Huh?"

"Where do you want to go to read the book, of course!  You're not suggesting we read it here in the middle of the street are you?"

"Of course not!  It's just that I... don't really know where to go."

"We could just read it in the park near town hall.  The fresh air and scenery will be nice."

"I guess that works."





"Hold on for a tickeroo, Twilight!" declared Pinkie.  "There's something funny with that bush!"

"Bush?" asked Twilight in confusion.  She looked at the bush in question.  "It looks fine to me."

Pinkie didn't reply, but instead reached inside the bush and pulled something out.  She whirled around to face Twilight again and was suddenly wearing a pair of glasses with a moustache and puffy nose attached.

Twilight did a double take.

"That was inside that bush?"

"Mm-hmm!"

"Who in the world would...  Oh, right, of course, Discord would."

"Nah, it wasn't him.  I'm pretty sure it was the adult me."

"What?  Why do you say that?"

"Because I already make sure to stash things in special places just in case.  But I don't get very much allowance back at home, so I don't have a whole lot of stuff stashed.  But here, my future self works at sugar cube corner and probably makes plenty of money to buy stuff with.  Which would explain why there are stashes all over all of Ponyville!"

"What?  That's unbelievable!"

"Where do you think I got that cannon I used when we were playing sail the sloop?"

"I... didn't think about it, but fair enough.  What else is stashed around here?"

"Well, we certainly don't have to look far.  Hold on."

Pinkie reached inside the same bush again and pulled out a long, thin, blue object.

"A bendy straw!" Twilight declared in disbelief.  "I need to see this for myself!"

Twilight poked her head into the bush, but unfortunately found her vision rather obstructed in all of the leaves and sticks.  She tried feeling around for anything unusual, but found nothing.

"You aren't searching in the right place," she heard Pinkie say.

"Well, where am I supposed to look then?" Twilight grumbled, pulling her head back out.

She gasped.  Pinkie Pie was now wearing a life preserver underneath her scarf and snorkel which was over the funny glasses she was still wearing.

"What?!"

"What?"

"Is there any more junk in this thing?!"

"Nope, nothing else in this one.  Although...  Hmm...  That tree hollow looks suspicious..."

Pinkie bounced away toward a tree with a hollow in the side.  She reached inside, grunted, and then heaved out something cylindrical.

"That's a telescope," stated Twilight.

"It sure looks like one," agreed Pinkie.  "Oooh, oooh, what's inside this bush!"

Pinkie repeated the process once more and produced two items.

"An abacus and a bottle of chocolate pudding mix.  Why exactly are these two things paired together?"

"I don't even know what this thing is!" said Pinkie, pointing at the abacus.  "Is it a toy?  It looks like a toy!"

"No, an abacus is a device that helps you to do math."

"Cool!  Hey, Twilight, you want to have pudding?  It doesn't go bad when it's just the mix, and all we have to do is add some water.  It's easy!"

"Um, no thank you...?"

"More for me then!  Oh hey, look, we're here at the mayor's office!  I hope Discord has a bowl I can use."

"You're going to make it now?"

"Yep!  HEY DISCY!"

A window on the side of the building popped open and Discord stuck his head through.

"HEY PINKORD!"

"I know I have said this a lot today, but... what?" said Twilight.

Pinkie snickered.  "It's funny because I said Discy which is like if you stuck the last part of my name to the first part of his name, so he took the last part of his name and stuck it to the first part of my name!"

"Oh, good grief, I don't even want to imagine what it would be like if you two switched places."

"It would probably be something like this," said Discord, and then he snapped.

Suddenly, Twilight found that she was no longer standing next to Pinkie , but instead it was Discord next to her.  She looked and, yes, Pinkie was poking her head out of the Mayor's office, and apparently unaffected by the sudden teleportation.

Twilight turned back to Discord.

"That was a pretty dumb joke."

"I liked it!" declared Pinkie.





"Scootaloo, I hate to admit it, but...  You were totally right.  This book is completely unputdownable!  I didn't realize it was actually possible for there to be this many words in a row on paper that wouldn't bore me to tears, but somehow this book manages it!"

"I told you!"

"I know you did, no need to rub it in," said Rainbow Dash with a smile.  "Seriously though, are there more books like this?"

"Well, there's a good number of Daring Do stories, but even in the future you are still pretty picky about what you read."

"I guess that explains why the only story books in my house were Daring Do.  I still can't believe how good this book is!  I love it!  My confidence in my future is completely restored!"

"That's great!"

"Look at how much we read through already!  It's almost over!  I don't want it to be over, but... I just can't stop!"

"Yeah, you kept almost leaving me behind, you were in such a rush."

"Sorry, It's just..."

"Yeah, I know, it is pretty great."

"How long did it take us to read all of that anyway?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"Rainbow, I grabbed us both lunch and dinner, just so you could keep out of sight.  And I know you reread parts of the book when I did that too."

Rainbow blushed slightly.  "I'm allowed to, aren't I?  Besides, it would still be super embarrassing if I got caught by anypony else."

"You know, everypony else will probably react the same way that I did:  They won't think any less of you just because you like reading Daring Do."

"Maybe you're right, but why take the chance?"

"Well, they'll find out eventually.  The adult versions of your friends already know about how much you love these books."

"Oh.  Um, do they...?"

"They do.  The only pony who treats you any different in the future is Twilight, and in her case, she's happy to have someone that she can talk about the book with.  And then you would tell me the stuff that she told you."

"Well, of course Twilight would...  um..."

Suddenly, the sun started moving across the sky toward the horizon.  Within seconds, it vanished and was replaced by the moon.

Unfortunately, the moon did little to light the world below.

"That's not good!" cried Scootaloo.  "Gosh, Ponyville is really dark when there's nopony putting out lights at night."

"I can barely see my hoof in front of my face," complained Rainbow Dash.  "There's no way I can read like this!"

"That's what you're worried about?  How are we going to get back to the fort?  None of us have ever been far from the place we were staying at in the night before!  How are we going to find the others?"

"Well, we don't have to."

"But where are we going to sleep?"

"Oh.  Um, that's a good question.  I guess there is one place nearby where we could go..."

There was a breif moment of silence.

"You know that I can't see your gestures right now, right?"

"I'm talking about Discord's place!  It's the only place with a light on!"

"You're seriously suggesting that we spend the night with Discord?"

"Yeah?  What's wrong with that?  Sure, he's weird, but he did apologize to Fluttershy like I asked, so he's cool.  And it's not like we have to hang out with him, I just want a place where we can finish this book!"

"I guess there's no harm in trying.  I don't have any better ideas."

"Alright, I guess let's go.  Oh, and stay with me so that we don't lose each other."





"Ah, light!" declared Rainbow Dash as she stepped inside.

"Yeah, lets agree never to get stuck outside on a dark night like this again."

"Where is Discord?  Shouldn't he be here?"

Maybe he is in his... room?" said Scootaloo uncertainly, indicating the knobless door in the office.  "Let me try knocking."

Knock knock knock

The top half of the door suddenly flew open separate from the bottom half revealing Discord appeared behind it, wearing a party hat impaled on his horns.  He put his claws on the bottom half of the door and peered down at them.

"Hmm, what have we here?" he declared.  "What are you two doing here at this time of the night?"

"We sort of got stuck here when you changed it to night," explained Scootaloo.  "So, we were wondering... um, do you have a place where we can pass the night here?"

Discord blinked at them in shock.

"You mean stay?  Here?  All night?"

He suddenly turned away from the pair and looked back into the room he was standing in.

"Did you hear that?  We have guests!  Ahahahahahaha!  And they expect to stay all night!"

"Who are you talking to?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"Oh, Twilight came by earlier and spent all day asking me questions!  Well, not all day, but it felt like it."

"Oh.  Huh.  Small world."

"Of course it is.  Ponyville all by itself is the whole world!  Or, at least, it's your whole world."

"Right..."

Scootaloo gave Rainbow Dash a worried look.  In response, Rainbow just shrugged.

"So, does that mean you'll let us stay?" asked Scootaloo.

"Certainly!  I have several lovely sweets!  Want one?  Or maybe all of them?  Why should I care, I can make them in a snap, and you two don't have to worry about your teeth!"

Discord lowered a claw full of wrapped candies in front of the two fillies.

"They aren't going to do anything weird to us, are they?" asked Rainbow Dash skeptically.

"No, they're perfectly ordinary, I assure you."

"I'll take them then."

"Here you go!" Discord declared, poofing the candy into a bag which he slung over Rainbow's back.

"Okay, I don't know where that came from," said Scootaloo in confusion, "but we were talking about you letting us have a place to stay?"

"Oh yeah!  I'll show you to your room!"  He opened his door fully and walked out, allowing Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo a brief glance of the plaid interior with chairs a tables on the ceiling.  He shut it before they could get a closer look.  "Walk this way!"

He walked to one of the walls of the office and reached up toward the ceiling and pulled on a pull chain that had probably not existed moments before.  As he pulled it down to the ground, a door came sliding in from nowhere on the wall.

"This room should be sufficient!"

He cracked the door open, revealing a rather ordinary looking bedroom.

Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo were both partially relieved and partially disappointed.

"Um, thanks Discord," said Rainbow Dash.

"Wait a minute," said Scootaloo.  "Where is Twilight staying the night?"

"She's in the room opposite of yours."

The two fillies turned to look at the other side of the office.

There was another door.

"How did we miss that?" asked Rainbow.

"I don't think we did..." answered Scootaloo.

"Well, I hope you two enjoy your stay!" said Discord.  "Just beware of the sludge monster!"

Scootaloo jerked back to look at him in surprise.

"The what?"

"Relax, Scoot, he's obviously just making a lame attempt to scare you."

"No, I swear I've heard that name before!  Recently!"

"It's completely ridiculous!"

"That's what you think," said Discord.  "You wouldn't believe some of the... somethings that I know, and that doesn't even include inter-dimensional eldritch horrors.  The sludge monster is very real.  You see...

"It lurks in dark mysterious places,

"Making ugly faces!

"The sludge monster!

"Under the bed,

"Or just behind the curtain,

"It'll be there for certain,

"The sludge monster!"

"Okay, you've made your point!" cried Rainbow.  "Thanks for the warning!  We'll be certain to remember that when we go near the curtains and stuff.  Thank you!"

"Hmph.  My sarcasm senses are tingling."

"Look, I don't want to listen to your stories.  I have a much more interesti-I mean I'm tired and want to go to bed!"

"If you insist.  Sleep tight!"

Discord's body suddenly folded into itself until it formed a paper airplane, which proceeded to fly out the door, which shut behind him.

"Rainbow, I can't believe you just did that!  Now he's going to actually summon up some slime thing or something!"

"Big whoop.  I'm not scared of something like that."

"Oh...  Right.  That is pretty dumb actually, being scared of a sludge monster.  I mean, what's it going to do, sludge me?"

"Besides, if Discord does anything dumb, I'll just give him a piece of my mind."





One hour later:


"Hold on Rainbow Dash, do you hear that?"

"The sound of someone stomping around outside the door?  It's probably just Discord walking around."

"Well, whatever it is, its really loud.  I'm going to go tell him to stomp softer."

"Umm... okay then, I'll just wait here.  Hurry back!  We're right at the end of the book!"

Rainbow watched as Scootaloo slid off of her chair that they were reading at and walked over to the door.

She cracked it open.

She took a look around at the room outside.

"Hello?" Scootaloo called.  "Who's doing that?"

There was no response.

"What was that noise?" she called.

The door slammed shut.

"Aghhhhhhh!"

Rainbow Dash was on her hoofs in an instant.

"Scootaloo!"

She ran toward the door, but then hesitated when she heard choking noises from the other side.

Rainbow Dash paled.  Was it possible that Discord had actually created some sort of freaky sludge monster just to spite her?

It has Scootaloo!! Rainbow thought in panic.  And it's going to come for me next!

She looked back behind her and spotted exactly the thing that she needed.

She grabbed Scootaloo's chair and jammed it between the floor and the doorknob, preventing anything from getting into the room.

Poor Scootaloo! she thought.  What a way to go.  Sludged...

...

Wait a minute, what the hay am I doing?!

Rainbow flung the chair aside and pulled the door open.

Scootaloo was on the floor on the other side and standing over her was indeed a sizable blob of moving brown slime that seemed to be trying to smother her.

"Get off of her, you slimy freak!" Rainbow cried.  She dove at the creature, but it suddenly dodged out of the way with unexpected agility.

Before Rainbow could see it coming, she suddenly felt something cold and slimy grab onto her back.

No!  I'm going to wind up just like Scoot!

"Hey Rainbow Dash!"

Rainbow froze for a moment before turning to look at the monster.

"Pinkie Pie?" she cried in annoyance.

"Yep!"

"Holy ponyfeathers you almost gave me a heart atta-I mean, why are you helping Discord with this stupid prank?"

"I'm not helping Discord.  He's helping me!"

"She's telling the truth, you know," came Discord's voice from the door to his room.  The top half opened revealing him standing behind it.

"I got the idea from when Snails told me about the sludge monster on the first day we were here!"

"Exactly!" said Discord.  "How could I have even known about that?  I wasn't even there!"

"Pinkie!" cried Scootaloo.  "You made me choke on chocolate pudding!"

"I know!  I'm really sorry about that.  I didn't mean to, I promise!" said Pinkie apologetically.

"Chocolate pudding?" asked Rainbow.  "Pinkie, why in the world are you covered from mane to hoof with chocolate pudding?"

"That's a long story," answered Discord.  "But you see, Pinkie and Twilight came here together earlier today.  I wasn't lying when I said that Twilight was here by the way.  But she's been sleeping in the other room since before you even got here.  Pinkie didn't want to leave, so we decided to throw a private little party with just the two of us, and we whipped up some delicious pudding that Pinkie brought over, only to make it more fun we were having a dance contest at the same time.  We managed to finish making the pudding, but then when I tried to pick up the bowl while squat dancing, I accidently dumped it on Pinkie.  I was going to magic the mess away, but then she decided it was fun to walk around covered in pudding since she could never get away with something so bizarre at home, and then when you two showed up she thought up the idea of pranking you."

"We made more pudding though!" said Pinkie happily.  "You want some?  You can join in on the whole party!"

Rainbow took a look around her.  At Discord, with his annoyingly smug face, at Pinkie Pie, the true perpetrator all along, and at Scootaloo, who had no idea what thoughts had been running through her head just a minute before, and would certainly never find out.

And she burst out laughing.

"Oh, what the heck," she declared after calming down some.  "Sure.  Only, uh, can wait for just five minutes or so?  Scoots and I have got this, uh, thing we want to do real quick.  Wash this pudding off.  Yeah."

"You don't have to!" Pinkie said.  "You can do whatever you want, and if you want to run around covered with delicious edible goo, then you can do that!"

"No, that's okay, we're just going to go wash the off now!"

"Okay, see you in five!" said Pinkie.

Rainbow and Scootaloo disappeared back into their room.

"She's totally finishing that book," Discord stated.

"Oh, come on Discy, don't embarrass her!"

"I didn't!  I waited 'til they were gone, didn't I?"





Dear Princess Celestia,

It is now the twenty-second day in Discord's recreation of Ponyville.  The fact that we foals have lasted this long is inspiring.  We are close to the thirty day mark.  At this point, I suspect that even the more homesick among our number will continue to the very last day, since they have already lasted this long and there is not much left to go.  I personally feel a strange mix of homesickness and wanting to stay here forever.  Of course, I will not be here forever.  I think I will ask Featherweight to help me photograph and commemorate our experiences here.  I'm sure that Discord would be willing to bring those back to the real world in addition to these letters, and it would be nice to have when this is all over.

This week was far calmer than last week.  The closest thing to a disaster that occurred was Discord suddenly deciding to take a more active roll in town, and his attempts to do so were highly disruptive.  However, the situation has already been resolved.  At appears that the solution was simply for Fluttershy to befriend him, for a second time.

My experience with teaching was quite successful, and I am also pleased to learn that it is fun and fulfilling as well.  The fact that I tailored the lessons to subjects that the others find interesting was obviously helpful, as was the fact that it was not obligatory, and furthermore, short.  Of course, I do realize a full-time class cannot always fulfill those aspects at all times.  That really is a shame, because keeping the interest of the students is extremely cohesive to the teaching process.

I have also observed both here and at your school that teachers and professors who are well liked have a much easier time with keeping students interested.  I know that I cannot escape the fact that I am something of a celebrity among these ponies, and probabily always will be, but if they insist on following me, I can at least try to steer them in the right direction, to the best of my ability, and hope that I do not make a mistake.  I must not make a mistake.  If I do, then others will suffer by my example.  It isn't right, but it is the situation I find myself in.  I don't suppose you ever feel that way?  If so, I think that I might understand your position a little better than I did before, and my boundless respect for you has increased to even greater heights.

At this very moment, I am visiting with Discord himself.  I suspect you will not disagree if I say that he is difficult to interact with, but he has proven to be at least somewhat helpful when he is in the mood for it.  During Fluttershy's bonding with Discord, he explained some of the technical details of how this world works, and she in turn relayed that information to me.  By further questioning Discord, I have been able to translate his words enough to deduce a very startling fact:  Although he cannot travel through time using his own chaos magic, Discord has achieved this state of existence in which time does not progress externally through a very clever exploitation of a strange loop, which are apparently not uncommon occurrences in his dimension.  Time for us is moving like a circle instead of like a line, and after our thirty days are over, time will suddenly be back to the point at which it began, without ever moving backwards.  The strangest part however is that Discord says that events will not always play out the same way every time the loop 'restarts'.

This apparently can cause some very strange events, the primary example in this case being Discord crossing paths with his 'past' self who comes to construct our recreation of Ponyville immediately after Discord destroys it as it is no longer needed.  He says that when he first arrived to create this place, the other Discord threw a peach cream pie in his face, and now he vows to get revenge on himself by assaulting the next Discord with something.  Something that is not a peach cream pie, because that would be unoriginal.

Furthermore, I learned that after a short duration of real time passes, all access to this place will be lost to even Discord forever, as the strange loop will be fully contained in the past.  Although, in theory, he could always just find another one.  And all of this occurs without any application of time travel; it is merely a strange phenomenon that occurs in the dimension that he calls home.  It all sounds too fantastic to be true, but I have watched him for long enough that I am willing to believe it.  It is truly astonishing what Discord is capable of, if what he says is to believed, and I shudder to think what difficulties he caused before being reformed.  Pinkie Pie is also here and she and Discord are pestering me to play a game now.  So I suppose shall have end this letter here.

Your faithful student,

Twilight Sparkle
> Day 23: Flattened Fruits
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight emerged from her temporary room at Discord's place mid, yawning.

As she closed her mouth again and opened her eyes, she stopped in her tracks.

The mayor's office was covered with blobs of pudding all over the place, with pony tracks in the floor and Discord's tracks on the floor, ceiling, and walls.

"It's too early in the morning for me to have to deal with this sort of thing..."





"Good morning, Applejack!" declared Apple Bloom as she stepped outside.  "What are you up to?"

"Good morning, Apple Bloom.  Ah'm not doin' much, just enjoying the fresh air.  Are ya ready to cook up some breakfast?"

"Ah'm always ready.  What're we having?"

"Ah thought we could give jelly rolls a go.  We won't have to go to down to the bakery to make em, we can just fix them up right here at our fort.  Sound good to you?"

"Sure, but, ya know, most everypony else is still asleep in there."

Applejack gave Apple Bloom a quizzical look.  "Yeah?  They aint goin' ta wake up if you keep quiet."

"Yeah, but it's just...  I've been thinking.  We're not going to be here much longer, right?"

"One more week after today, if we've been keeping track correctly."

"Well, that just means that we won't have much time left to spend together like this.  I don't mind doin' the chores with ya and cleaning up and all, but we do that every day, and I was hoping that today we could relax a little and have some fun doin' other stuff."

Applejack looked surprised.  "That mean that ya don't want to help me make the jelly rolls?"

"Of course not, ah'll definitely help ya with that, but perhaps we could do it outside so that we can talk with one another?"

Applejack considered.

"Ah suppose there's nothin' wrong with that.  We'll have to nab a table or two to bring out here, but that's fine.  Here, lets go get what we need."

"Alright then!" answered Apple Bloom happily, following beside her sister as they returned to the gym.  "Ah can't wait to tell you what happened yesterday.  Scootaloo was off doing something else, so it was just me 'n' Sweetie Belle."



"Howdy y'all!" said Applejack to Rainbow Dash, Scootaloo, Twilight, Pinkie Pie, and Discord as the group approached to speaking distance.  "We was wondering where y'all run of to, 'specially when you didn't show up by nightfall.  "Did you spend the night with him?" she finished, indicating Discord.

"Yeah, it wasn't as bad as I thought," said Rainbow Dash.

"Rainbow, you and Pinkie were laughing so loud all night that you woke me up three times!" Twilight pointed out.  "I think you enjoyed your stay a little more than 'not bad'."

"Yeah..."  Rainbow Dash paused and grabbed a jelly roll from the table that the Apples had set out.  "Pinkie and Discord are willing to do the craziest things in truth or dare."

"The game might as well have been just 'dare'," said Discord.  "Almost nobody even bothered with truth."

"You want one, Discord?" asked Apple Bloom, indicating the jelly rolls.

"Oh, you don't have to feed me, my dears," answered Discord with a laugh.  "It would hardly be fair of me to snarf up your limited resources, even if they are way more than you actually need.  I'm perfectly content with my persimmon cookies."

"Hey," said Pipsqueak, who had broken away from the other colts and fillies (who were eating breakfast outside today) and had approached and joined in on the conversation.  "Where were you last night?"

"We were just explaining that," said Rainbow Dash.  "Scootaloo and I had decided to hang out, just the two of us, and we accidently stayed out for so long that we got stuck when it turned night time.  And so we spent the night at Discord's place.  And then it turned out that Twilight was already there because she wanted to ask Discord some stuff, and Pinkie Pie came with her just because, and so we just decided to turn it into a party."

"The kind of party that covers entire rooms with pudding" said Twilight in exasperation.  "You know, I was really impressed by how mature everypony was capable of being lately.  And then I wake up to that..."

"I did clean it up afterward," said Discord.  "I was just waiting to see your reaction first."

"So Apple Bloom," said Scootaloo.  "You want to try more crusading today?  I know I was gone yesterday, but we're all three here now."

"Well, maybe," said Apple Bloom reluctantly.  "That is, if we can find something that Applejack will do with us.  Ah was going to spend some time playing with her today."

"Well, what does Applejack want to do?"

Applejack didn't answer right away.

"Uhmm...  I don't really know."

"Come on, Applejack," whined Apple Bloom.  "We're offering you a break from all of the work you do every day and you don't even know what you want to do?

"Er, no?"

"Well, this won't do," said Discord.  "Applejack, have you not been enjoying your time here?"

"No, of course I have!" Applejack countered.  "Ah just don't know what ah want to do, alright?  Nopony ever asked me what to do when it comes to games.  Ah just don't know what to say!"

"But you play games with us all the time," pointed out Pinkie Pie.

"True, but ah didn't have to choose!  Ah have lots of fun playing games with all y'all!  But ah usually just go with the flow!"

"If you don't know what to choose, I could choose for you," said Discord.

"Ah'm not sure I'd-"

Discord snapped his claws and suddenly a stage appeared out of nowhere.

This instantly grabbed the attention of all of the foals, who quickly gathered to see what would happen.

Discord inflated into existence atop the stage with a microphone in hand.

"Thank you all for being here!" he spoke into the microphone, amplifying his voice.  "Even though I came to you.  Let me ask you something.  What is the deal with those thingies that you use to clean windows?  A squeegee?  Who even thought that up?"

His audience stared back in silence.

"Have you ever noticed how the sun comes out only during the day?  Why can't it come out during the night when it would be so much more useful?"

More silence.

"Ahem.  How about this:  A red giant is a kind of star, right?  But have you ever compared them to green giants?  The green ones just seem so much more jolly, am I right?"

The foals all looked even more confused than ever.

Discord let a sigh and snapped his fingers.

A sizable rock appeared on the stage with a watermelon atop it.

"I just wanted to ask you water you going to do today?"

A large hammer appeared in his hands.  He reared back and then brought the head of the hammer down on the melon, causing it to explode in a shower of bits and pieces and juice.

Some of the foals suddenly burst out laughing at this.

"What the hay is so funny?" asked Applejack in confusion.

"I don't know!" said Pipsqueak.  "The watermelon was just sitting there and suddenly its just... 'splat'!"

"Ah can't believe he wasted a perfectly good melon like that," remarked Apple Bloom.

"Oh, relax, it was just one I conjured up," said Discord.  "And if you liked that, you'll go bananas for this!"

A banana appeared on the rock and a moment later it too met a splattery fate.

"You're bananas!" cried Applejack, causing some of the other foals around her to laugh a bit.

"Well, yes, even I'll admit that I'm a little bit of a fruitcake."

A fruitcake appeared.

SPLAT

"How is this funny?  This is dumb!"

"And this is the apple of my eye!"

SPLAT

"Oh come on, that one was aimed at me!"

"Well, I guess I'll just have to keep going until I'm plum out of fruits!"

SPLAT

"Your plum joke is dumb."

Several other foals laughed in agreement.

"Don't tell me you've got to go before you see this avocado!"

SPLAT

"Seriously... What is wrong with you?"

"Here is something else I'll smash durian this performance!"

Discord swung the hammer down again, but stopped it right before the impact.

"Just kidding!"

"Oh, thank Celestia!" groaned Twilight, to the confusion of the ponies around her.

"So that means yer done now, right?" said Applejack.

"Nope!  Lettuce continue on with the show!"

SPLAT

"The only thing you're showing me is that some ponies laugh at the weirdest of things!"

"Wow, Applejack is so mean, but don't you hate her!  Now lets flatten this tomater!"

SPLAT

"Okay, now I know yer pickin' on me!"

"Everypony say cheese!"

SPLAT

"... Yeah, that was sure cheesy alright."

"Don't take it for granted, here's a pomegranate!"

SPLAT

"How are you even thinking all of this up?"

"I could make a different joke here, but that would be really rude to Applejack and her kin.  Next up is this Pumpkin!"

SPLAT

"Ah know what you were thinkin'."

"For now it's in its prime, but now it's over for this lime!"

SPLAT

"What am ah even watching right now?"

"I know you can't help but stare.  Hey, look, a pear!"

SPLAT

"The only thing more puzzlin' than why y'all think this is funny is why y'all keep laughing at everythin' ah say!"

"What's the matter?  Is this all a little too cucumbersome for you?"

SPLAT

"No, ah just can't believe that ah know you!  Yer a quack!"

"Everything up here is just fine and peachy!"

SPLAT

"Actually, I don't suppose yer part duck?  Yer definitely part coo-coo."

"I'm also part antelope.  Time to flatten a cantelope!"

SPLAT

"You know, you'd make a good barn wrecker."

"Prepare to be peppered with even more juices!"

SPLAT

"This really never ends, does it?"

"Don't be late-o or you'll miss this potato!"

SPLAT

"I think you were late-o when they were passing out brains."

"Now pay berry close attention, here's a whole pile!"

SPLAT

"The snow is turning rainbow colored!  Just look at this mess!"

"Orange you glad this act is at its end?"

SPLAT

"It is?  Oh, thank Celestia, I was about to drown in both juices and your bad jokes!"

Discord looked around at his audience.  Every single pony was laughing at this point.  Well, except for Applejack, but she couldn't very well do her job if she was laughing too.

"Thank you for attending everypony!  You've been a wonderful audience!  But please also give my heckler Applejack your applause!"

Applejack looked around in surprise at her peers as they stomped in cheer.  "Ah, thank you?"

When the applause ceased, Discord continued.

"Now then, I've been in your manes for long enough, and I suddenly have a craving for a mix-of-everything salad.  See you later!"

The stage folded in half with Discord still inside and then shot into the ground, disappearing.

"Wow Applejack!" said Apple Bloom.  "You were actually pretty funny!"

"Er, thanks..."

"So...  We still have the rest of the day to do stuff together."

"Can't we do something simple, like build a snow pony or somethin'?"

"Sure, we can do that.  Wait, you're suddenly able to make up your mind now?"

"I'm afraid of what will happen if I don't."