The mane six's pets become ponies! What do they do now?
It's nearing the summer sun celebration, one year after Twilight arrived, and things are not going according to plan. Preperation is behind schedule, supplies are still needed, And to top it off, Twilight has accidently turned her friend's pets into ponies! Without an easy antidote and time growing short, the mane six decide to let the pets help them in the celebration. And they'll need all the help they can get.
Twilight Sparkle stood in an open field. Just standing there and taking everything in. The brilliant sun shined down on the unicorn, warming her lavender fur. White clouds dotted the sky, looking fluffy enough to sleep on, and not a single black cloud was present. If Twilight had to say, she would have said that this day was the best day ever, simply because of the perfect weather. Closing her eyes, Twilight sighed happily and-
A random bolt of lightning, and a flash of thunder, shook Twilight Sparkle from her daydreams. The student was sitting at an open window of her tree house, a storm raging just outside the confines of her wooden home.
Twilight looked around in confusion. Remembering what was really going on, the librarian let out a sigh as she watched the rain fall. "Why can't the weather ponies put the storm somewhere else?"
Spike, who was dusting the shelves for the third time today, basically out of boredom, answered plainly with a sigh. "For the last time, they're moving the excess rain from Canterlot here so nopony gets flooded. Besides, we need the water for the plants and crops."
"I know that," Twilight sighed again. "I read the notice too." She glanced outside just as another bolt of lightning came down, briefly illuminating the dark town.
She sighed a third time. "Can't we just let the plants starve for one day?"
"Hoo."
Twilight's pet owl, Owlowiscious, cooed as he flew down from upstairs and fluttered down to the stand that sat on the desk in the middle of the room. "Hoo?" He called again, looking at Spike.
Spike shrugged as if he knew what the bird was saying. "I dunno, she's having trouble waiting for this year's summer sun celebration or something."
"I'm going to miss it!" Twilight snapped, dropping to the floor, despairing fully by this point. "This was going to be the anniversary of my coming to Ponyville and the defeat of Nightmare Moon! I was going to be the chief organizer!"
Twilight curled up into a ball on the floor, a distressed expression painted on her face. "Think of the unchecked checklists..." She looked up at her assistant. "The checklists, Spike."
Spike and the owl shared a look of exasperation at the unicorn's worries.
"Sheesh Twilight, you really need to calm down. The celebration will still be held later."
Twilight groaned into the library floor, her voice coming out muffled by the floorboards. "It won't be the same."
Owlowiscious cooed again and fluttered threw the air, landing without a sound on Twilight's head. He sat there and preened his feathers.
"Hoo."
Spike climbed down from the shelves and walked over to the fallen librarian, stopping just in front of her. He didn't like seeing his sister figure like this.
"Come on, Twi, why don't we try practicing some new spells instead? You can you can try a few new moustache spells on me!"
"New spells..." Twilight mumbled, her eyes widening slightly.
"Yeah, I actually found a new moustache spell that I wanted to try and-"
"Spike!" Twilight gasped. She jumped to her feet, accidently knocking the owl atop her head to the ground, though she was too excited to notice. "You're a genius!" She said.
"Thanks!" Spike grinned, enjoying the fact that she recognized his genius. "Now, I've been having ideas about one of those handlebar moustaches, only a huge one like five feet-"
"I'm going to use my magic to stop the storm!" Twilight ran to the shelves, darting all around the room gathering books of all sorts.
The expression on the assistant's face dropped. His joy dissipating "Of course."
Twilight moved to the desk in the middle of the room, a swarm of books floating around her, all of them painted in the purple glow of her magic.
"Okay..." she spoke hastily, "I'm going to combine a teleportation spell with a time traveling spell, so I can go back in time to Canterlot, so I can talk with the Princess and avert the storm, so that the celebration can go on schedule!"
"Or..." Spike butted in, motioning to the raging downpour outside. "You could simply get rid of this storm instead."
Twilight went silent, gazing at her assistant with widened eyes.
"Right!" Twilight said louder than necessary. About half of the books that were floating softly in the air suddenly shot around the room and into their respective parts on the shelves only for an almost equal amount to fly out again to Twilight. "Right, of course! I mean that would obviously be my real plan," She hastily inserted her face into a book to avoid the other's suspiscious looks. "Right."
Spike responded with a raised eyebrow that Twilight ignored. Owlowiscious, sensing something was happening, got up from his position on the floor and flapped over to Twilight and Spike, landing on the desk without a sound. Twilight flipped rapidly through the books, one by one, looking for the right spell.
"Okay..." Twilight muttered as she set up the proper incantations in her head, feeling the buildup of magical energy in her body. She focused it into her horn causing it to glow and spark.
"Okay, Spike." Twilight spoke through gritted teeth as her horn glowed brighter and brighter. "If my calculations are correct, and I have complete focus, my spell should go off without a hitch."
Spike couldn't talk; he was in the middle of building a bunker out of extra thick books. By now the buildup of magic was intense; the air around Twilight began to crackle and pop, electricity building up with Twilight's magic. Unknown to the two, the storm outside was also getting worse, lightning bolts striking closer and closer to the tree house.
Owlowiscious waddled back from the unicorn, sensing something was going to happen.
"Okay." Twilight grunted. "Just one blast and the entire storm is gone."
From inside his book bunker, Spike spoke up. "Don't you think that's a bit dangerous?"
"Only if something breaks my concentration, but nothing can do that."
Just then, as if the universe just wanted to spite her, a bolt of lightning came down through the open window and struck the unicorn. Twilight's convulsed and spasmed as the electricity coursed through her rigid body.
"Twilight!" Spike shouted, concerned.
"Herga-flerga-herg!" Twilight grunted.
The added electricity from the bolt ran through her entire body all the way up to her horn mixing with the built up magic and unfortunately causing havoc with Twilight's concentration.
The strain on Twilight was too much; stray bolts of charged magic shot out of Twilight and around the room, knocking books off their shelves and sending papers flying. With the build up at critical level, Twilight's charged magic was released in a wave that spread out around her, knocking down Spike's book bunker on top of him. The wave passed effortlessly through the library's walls and into the town all around it, blowing out the light in the process.
Darkness and silence overtook all of the residents of the library for what seemed like forever, only the sounds of the disappearing storm let them know that they were still conscious.
Sunlight coming in from the windows caused Twilight to groan. She rose weakly to her hooves and examined the damage. Her body was covered in black splotches of ash and her mane and tail were singed at the ends but other than that she seemed to be okay.
"Twilight?" Spike called from inside his fortress of charred books. "Are you okay?"
"Spike?" She groaned quietly at the sound of a voice, at least she thought she heard a voice, the ringing in her ears made it hard to figure out. "Where are you? I need you to clean up this mess."
Spike groaned loudly as he quickly dug himself out of the pile of doorstoppers and went about picking up anything that wasn't burning. Twilight, slowly and shakily, got to her hooves and surveyed the messy room, flinching somewhat from the sunlight now pouring in.
"Well...on the plus side, I think the storm stopped."
"Yeah, and on the minus side I think you almost destroyed the town."
"Almost only counts with horseshoes and explosion spells Spike"
As the duo continued fixing up the room again, something began to stir in a dark corner of the room, the sounds reaching the ears of the librarian and her assistant.
"Spike, I know that you're not hurt that much. You can stop groaning now."
"Uh..."
"...It's not you is it?"
They turned as one towards where the noise originated from; a dark form in the corner that was covered in books.
"Owlowiscious!" Twilight gasped. She rapidly crossed the room and found the familiar feathers of her owl buried underneath a mountain of books.
"Has..." Spike spoke up suddenly, confusion washing over his face as he watched Twilight dig him out. "Has he always been that big?"
Twilight didn't reply but was surprised that he was correct. Her second assistant was suddenly very big instead of the little pet owl that she had taken in. As she picked more and more books off of Owlowiscious, the form started to stir more and more.
Eventually all of the books were cleared away, allowing Twilight to see the owl and inspect if he was hurt.
"Well?" Spike asked over her shoulder. "Is he alright?"
Twilight gulped and searched for the words.
"Well... he's not hurt."
Spike sensed distress. "But...?"
The pony on the floor looked up at both of them. It was a Pegasus, his fur was light brown while his wings were darker shades, but the strangest thing was his eyes, light grey iris like a normal pony's except for the yellow sclera around it.
"T-twilight?" Spike stuttered in shock. "Is-is that...?"
"Twilight's log; first entry." Twilight scribbled furiously into her notebook while reading aloud. "It is eight thirty in the morning; I had a healthy breakfast, Spike helped me clean the library, and I accidently transformed my pet owl into a pony, a Pegasus to be exact. Spike and I hastily assembled another book fort on the opposite side of the room to protect ourselves from the possibly destructive side affects of an owl-turned-pony."
"Uh, Twilight?" Spike butted into her monologue. "You do know that he just turned into a Pegasus right?"
"You don't know that, Spike. He could have some kind of laser eyes or something! He could turn you inside out with his mind!"
Twilight and Spike, both wearing helmets/kitchen pans procured from the kitchen, peered out of their mighty book fort at their friend who was still sitting in the same spot from before. He seemed content to sit there and curiously look around the room, occasionally glancing back at the two of them.
She continued. "We must be diligent and observe him."
He almost didn't want to ask. "And why do we need to do that?"
"Because at any moment something unexpected might happen and he could destroy us!"
"Excuse me?"
Twilight and Spike stopped talking and looked up. In the time that they had spent talking, Owlowiscious had rose to his hooves and had shakily marched across the room to the fort, and was looking in at the both of them, his yellow eyes shone with intelligence.
"I was wondering..." He spoke haltingly, like somepony who had never spoken a lauguage before but knew how. "...If I could speak to Twilight?"
They took one look at him and ducked back into the fort.
"This is the discovery of the century!" Twilight squealed, scribbling more and more notes in the small pad of paper. "I'll be famous!"
"Twilight?" The Pegasus called into the fort, trying to see the two. "We really need to talk-"
He was cut short as Twilight teleported next to him in a flash of magic, startling the owl-turned-Pegasus.
"Are you still Owlowiscious?" She asked rapidly. "What do you think of when you're an owl? Can you see colors? Do you get dizzy if you turn your head too fast?"
Owlowiscious stepped back from Twilight in surprise. "I...what...Twilight, please calm....ah!"
In his surprise, Owlowiscious had been stepping back from his frantic owner and had accidently tripped over his own hooves; falling to the hard wooden floor with a thump.
"Oh my!" Twilight gasped, now concerned. "I'm sorry! Are you okay?"
He looked up at her, his face showing no amusement. It was like that for a good minute or so before he laughed quietly, breaking the silence.
"I'm fine, Twilight please do not worry. I've seen what has happened when you worry."
Twilight laughed at that in spite of herself. Even though he had only started talking, Owlowiscious spoke in an intelligent, humble tone. Pretty good for somepony that was a bird earlier.
"I'm sorry," She apologized, offering him a hoof. "It's just that I didn't think this would happen."
Owlowiscious took it and stood up quicker than before. He seemed to be getting used to his hooves at this point. "What did you expect to happen when you try to go against the laws of nature?" He said dryly.
"Was that sarcasm?"
"Maybe," Owlowiscious said truthfully, clearing his throat. "I've never been sarcastic before, never had the vocal cords for it."
Spike had climbed out of the fort at this point and cautiously came up beside Twilight. "How did this happen anyway?"
"That's a very good question." Twilight and the Pegasus said as one. They paused and stared at one another, laughing it off.
"I suppose we both know already?" Owlowiscious hazarded a guess.
"I suppose so," Twilight giggled, "Why don't you explain? I would, but I've already done so much"
"Well..." He considered merrily, jokingly thinking about it for a moment. "If I must."
He walked over to the center table and inspected the many spell books. "The weather spell you used was twice as powerful as what you should have used."
Twilight smiled sheepishly, knowing that she had done something wrong. "I...wanted to be thorough."
"Everything you did was correct and the incantations were precise, but something slipped and you changed the very structure of the spell."
"Probably when she was struck by lightning." Spike mumbled under his breath.
Owlowiscious flipped a few pages before closing the books. "The spell is reversable, but only if you have enough power or can recite the incantation in reverse."
"No problem, I memorized the entire spell." Twilight proudly proclaimed.
Owlowiscious narrowed his yellow eyes at her, a single eyebrow raised questioningly. "Oh really? Even the part where one million volts of electricity were rushing through your cortex?"
"Oh..." The student exclaimed softly.
Spike sighed, slamming the palm of his hand to his face. "Well there goes that plan. Got any others?"
A light went off in Twilight's head, sparking an idea. "I got it!" She exclaimed, stamping her hooves in excitement. "The summer sun celebration; Princess Celestia will be there, and she can reverse the spell!"
She put a lavender hoof on the Pegasus's shoulder, giving him a reassuring look. "I'm sorry but you'll have to wait until the end of the day for the Princess to arrive."
He shrugged, using his wings for the expression. "Fair enough. At least nothing else has gone wrong."
At that moment, a small pony walked into the room. Well, crawled really. The ponies very quickly noticed the new presence and looked over at it. Everyone gasped.
On the ground, sitting in the doorway to the kitchen, was a baby Alicorn. The Alicorn had bright colored fur; a light orange coat and a yellow mane. Little wings and a stubby horn poked out from the fur.
"Spikey!" It babbled innocently.
Spike nearly choked on his tongue. "Peewee?!"
Owlowiscious groaned. "Oh dear."
Twilight shook her head. "Nothing else has gone wrong, huh?"
***
Outside of Ponyville sat the apple fields of Sweet Apple acres. It was before Twilight had cast the spell so the storm raged overhead. Lightning crashed down every so often on one of the trees, splitting it in two but never catching on fire, the rain took care of that. The apple family had gotten a message to bunker down until the storm was over, so all of them had gone inside the house to wait it out. All of them, except two.
Applejack the earth pony braced herself against the strong winds, bringing a hoof up to her head to keep her prized hat from flying away in the gale.
"Winona!" Applejack shouted to the trees. "Where are you?!"
Unfortunately, nothing replied. All noise was swallowed by the storm and howling winds. Applejack groaned angrily and continued through the trees.
"Come on out Winona. Big Mac an Applebloom are already in the house," she shouted, "We need to get in before the storm gets worse!"
A random bolt of lightning struck the tree above her; a smoking branch tumbled out and smashed into the ground beside the farmer.
She gulped. "If that's even possible."
Applejack searched through the trees for her loyal dog, eventually the sound of whimpering reached her ears and she followed the sound to a large apple tree. Her dog, Winona curled up at the base, shaking like a leaf.
"Winona..." Applejack spoke softly. She inched towards the frightened animal, every clap of thunder causing Winona to flinch.
"It's okay girl." Applejack said soothingly. "Ah know that you're terrified of the thunder. You should really stop running off like this."
The pony's kind words reached the dog's ears and Winona looked up at her questioningly. She seemed to calm down in Applejack's presence, but turned her head and looked off in another direction, ignoring the thunder, lightning, and Applejack.
"Winona? What's wrong girl?"
Winona ignored her owner and continued staring off in one direction. Applejack looked that way as well but saw only trees. All around them, the storm seemed to get worse; the rain was pounding on their heads and the flashes of lightning constantly lit up the dark sky.
"Come on Winona!" Applejack shouted above the rising storm and attempted to grab her dog. "We need to get to the house before the storm takes us out!"
Winona didn't listen, or rather, she couldn't. The storm was reaching its peak, the clouds above them getting bigger and darker. Despite what Applejack thought before, the storm seemed to actually be getting worse, almost as if it was building up.
And that's when she saw it. Winona had sensed it before it has showed up but now it was visible to her as well. A wall of magic energy pushing the storm clouds in her direction. The wall passed through the apple trees, tearing bark and leaves off them as it went. Applejack quickly figured out that she and Winona would be caught in the chaos.
"Winona!" Applejack shouted. She jumped forward and wrapped her arms around the dog, shielding her from the wall of magic that soon overtook them.
It was all a blur as the force slammed into Applejack, sending the pony and her little dog too through the air. The world seemed to turn upside down for Applejack, but that was probably because the world was upside down for her.
Unfortunately the force of the magic blew the earth pony and her dog into one of the many apple trees, crashing into the hard bark with a crunch and knocking Applejack out cold.
The magic passed and an unconscious Applejack fell to the field floor, slumping over in the dirt and completely oblivious to the also unconscious canine that was beginning to glow and morph.
Rainbow Dash wiped her furrowed brow and clapped her hooves together.
"Alright, now I know that the last few tries... didn't go so well." She rubbed the back of her head, embarrassed by the repeated failures she's faced. "And I'm sorry about that. But this time..." she grinned enthusiastically, "This time, it's going to work!"
She tried to sound encouraging, which was hard when they had already failed at least four times today. it was even harder when you're trying to encourage a Tortoise.
Rainbow Dash stood on the cloud lawn that stretched out from her floating house. The fluffy clouds felt good on her hooves. In front of her stood her pet Tortoise, Tank. Tank was in fact not standing; thanks to the balloons strapped to his shell he was floating.
One of the hindrances of being a Pegasus, and having a non-flying pet, was that Rainbow Dash could never have Tank in the house, and after one too many tortoise shaped holes in the floor, Dash had decided that enough was enough.
Originally, Twilight had promised her that she would work on the walk-on-clouds spell so Tank wouldn't have this problem, but after waiting for three weeks for the results, Dash had decided to take matters into her own hooves. It had taken four hours, two helium containers, and a whole box of balloons borrowed from Pinkie Pie, but Rainbow Dash had finally figured out the perfect amount of helium and balloons necessary to keep the turtle from floating up into the ceiling or down into the floor.
"Okay Tank..." Dash grinned at her pet. "With those balloons, you'll totally be able to fly around the house." She prodded the animal's shell. C'mon, give it a try!"
Tank slowly poked his head out of the opening in his shell and looked up at his owner, then to the multicolored balloons holding him in the air. Hesitantly, he brought his legs out as well and began kicking the air, eventually succeeding in moving him forward slightly.
"Excellent!" Dash applauded herself for a job well done. "And finished a lot faster than Twilight."
Rainbow Dash turned and looked towards Ponyville. From the vantage point of her cloud home she could see the entire storm, stretching over the town like a giant, dark blanket. Dash could even hear the roar of thunder from there.
Tank floated over to Rainbow Dash and bumped into her, as if to get her attention.
"I know Tank," she sighed. "I know that the celebration was today, and that Twilight had been preparing for it all year, and that she had been up all night working on her speech for the princess but come on..." She lifted herself into the air with one flap of her blue wings and pointed towards the swirling clouds. "This is necessary, and Twilight really needs to chill out sometimes."
Tank just stared at the Pegasus questioningly, a small gust of wind blowing him next to her.
"And besides..." She continued, speaking more to herself then Tank now. "What can Twilight do? Use her magic to affect the laws of nature and clear up the storm?" She snorted at the idea.
A sudden blast of thunder drew Rainbow Dash's eyes back to the town where something seemed to be going on. The black clouds began to swirl around the center of Ponyville and the thunder and lightning increases. A purple beam of magical light shot up out of the clouds and into the sky. Dash watched all of this with mild surprise.
"To be honest, I knew this was going to happen."
The beam of light shot back down into the clouds and for a moment disappeared from Dash's eyes. Then, the clouds began to move on their own, spreading out from Ponyville. Rainbow Dash quickly noticed the magic walls, spreading out from Ponyvile and pushing the storm clouds away.
"Darn it, Twilight." She groaned. Her eyes quickly whipped back and forth, from the hastily moving storm to her cloud home. "Oh no..." She gasped in realization. "No, no, no, no, no..."
Rainbow Dash dived off her house and down under it, she had no time to lose. She quickly reached the bottom of her house and slammed herself into the soft exterior. She risked a quick glance at the rapidly moving wall of clouds, coming right at her.
"No you don't!" She shouted at the clouds as if that would deter them. "I just redecorated the living room!"
She strained against the ironically heavy clouds, her wings flapping erratically against the winds. It took a surprising amount of effort but the house began to move up through the air, pushed out of the way of the magic by Rainbow Dash. After pushing it far enough out of the way of the advancing wall, Dash floated back up to her cloud-lawn.
"Now we're safe." She panted, landing on the clouds without a sound. "No need to thank me, Tank. It's all in a day's work for Rainbow Dash!"
She looked around expectantly for her pet. He was gone.
"Tank?" She looked around slowly, not wanting to believe it. "Tank?" She called loudly. She ran to the edge of the clouds and looked down. Tank was still down there, left behind when the house was moved. He was kicking slowly through the air, trying to paddle towards her, the wall of clouds speeding up to him.
Dash instantly jumped off her house and soared towards her pet. She was too late though, the wall of magic passed through the tortoise; the energy popping the balloons and causing him to drop out of the sky.
"Tank!" Dash went into a steep nosedive, speeding like a rocket towards the falling tortoise. As Tank fell, he began to glow, the magical energy coursing through his body, turning him into what looked like a very bright rock. Rainbow Dash didn't need another reason to go fast. The air seemed to rip apart as Dash soared through it, her mane whipped back in the wind and the G-forces tugged at her wings.
She speed downward and when he was within reach, Dash grabbed onto her glowing pet and held tight, spreading her wings wide to slow them down.
"Come on...!" She groaned, flapping her wings with great effort to fight the G-forces pulling them down, as well as the heaviness of her pet. Soon enough, the winds began to subside and Dash and Tank were able to drift through the air to the ground below. Dash let out a sigh of relief.
"Okay Tank, now I think we're gonna be alright."
The mini star that was her pet didn't reply. She thought that she saw a head move but she couldn't tell.
She suddenly realized that Tank was really quite heavy and gave a grunt of exertion.
"Tank, what have you been eating?" She said jokingly but nervously. They were nearing the ground and tank seemed to be getting heavier.
Dash looked down at her pet questioningly. "Tank is it just me, or are you getting...bigger?"
It was true, the glowing animal was not only getting bigger, but it was morphing as well, expanding out in all directions and causing the exhausted Rainbow Dash and Tank to fall faster. Dash could only hold on and be dragged to the ground by the now much bigger Tank; they landed in a clump on the dirt. When the dust finally cleared, Dash opened her eyes and looked around.
"Okay..." She coughed. "I've had worse landings. Tank?" She called out. "Are you okay? Sorry I landed on top of you and stuff."
She looked down and was relieved to see that Tank had stopped glowing and found two eyes looking up at her.
Two, big, pony eyes.
"What the..."
***
"Oh no...Oh no..."
Twilight Sparkle ran around the circular room in a frantic manner, Her face showing the textbook example of panic. Spike and Owlowiscious watched her with mild curiosity. Peewee the tiny Alicorn was nestled in Spike's arms.
"I know I haven't been here long but does she...always do this?" Owlowiscious asked confusedly, gesturing to his panicking owner.
Spike shook his head. "Only when she's really freaking out."
Twilight stopped at their words and turned towards them. "Do you know why I'm freaking out?!" She walked up to them and pointed an accusing hoof at Peewee. "This! This is why I'm freaking out!"
Peewee babbled happily at Twilight, not registering her anger, and tried to grab the unicorn's hoof with his own.
"Peewee wasn't anywhere near the spell and yet he was also affected." Twilight noted. "Do you know what that means?"
Spike's mind drew a blank but Owlowiscious nodded. "Yes, it means that others may be affected as well."
"Exactly! I mean if it was just you then it would be different!" Twilight shouted, she looked up at the ceiling in fear, as if it could crash down on her at any moment. "And if the Princess finds out..."
"...Then she'll understand and help us." Owlowiscious cut her off. He walked off to one of the windows and peered out, ponies were starting to emerge from their houses, surprised by the sudden disappearance of the storm but shrugging it off.
"Celestia is wise and caring, I'm fairly certain that she will not punish you for something that went out of your control." He turned from the window and put a comforting wing over Twilght's shoulder. "You really must give yourself more credit. Even the greatest of ponies must make mistakes sometimes."
Twilight silently considered her pets words with a sigh. "I guess."
He nodded. "Great, now, what do you think we should do?"
She thought about it for a moment. What should they do now? "We should probably go out and assess the damage."
"Excellent, let's be off then. I want to test out this now body anyways." Owlowiscious walked to the door and opened it. Twilight quickly stepped though and he followed.
"Wait!" Spike's voice made them stop. "I'm going with you right?"
They paused and looked to one another for an answer. "Um, actually Spike, you should probably stay here and work on this mess." Twilight stated.
"What!?" Spike shouted.
She shrugged. "Sorry but it's probably for the best."
"Look on the bright side Spike." Owlowiscious noted cheerfully with a wink. "At least you have company."
With that, the two took off out the door and away from the library. Spike looked down at the Alicorn in his arms who was looking up at him with large eyes.
Spike felt himself melting. "Do you know that you're adorable?"
Peewee giggled and to Spike's surprise, his horn began to glow a soft orange. All of a sudden an old library book on the floor near them burst into flames, it was reduced to cinders in a few seconds.
Spike's eyes widened in shock. "Oh dear..."
Peewee giggled at the smouldering ashes and waved his hooves in the air. "Marshmallows!"
***
Twilight and Owlowiscious walked through the slightly damp streets of Ponyville, eyes searching for anything that might be out of place. Other than a few ponies that they had walked past and had been given weird looks, they had found nothing yet.
"Found anything?" Twilight Asked her companion.
"Apart from a few perfectly perplexed ponies?" Owlowiscious eyed one such pony who quickly scampered off.
"I just don't get why everypony has been looking at us like this."
"Well, it could be that they rightly think that you're responsible for the magic wave earlier or..." He smiled wryly. "It could be the fact that you're walking through Ponyville, talking with an unknown colt."
"W-w-what?!" She stammered.
He couldn't hide the humor in his voice. "Someponies might start talking."
Twilight blushed profusely and looked away. "Really?" She whispered to herself. "Now my pets doing it to me?"
"Oh come on Twilight." He continued, on a roll. "I bet everypony thinks that we're a couple of lovebirds."
If it was even possible, she blushed harder. "I'd rather had Rarity doing this to me!"
"AAAAAHHH!!"
A shrill scream of fear echoed in the streets, quickly reaching the two's ears. Twilight's ears instantly perked up.
"Speak of the Draconequus." She said quietly.
Owlowiscious groaned in pain and rubbed his ear. "Huh, that was so much louder when I was a bird. Still hurt though."
"That came from Carousel boutique!" Twilight estimated. "Rarity must be in trouble!" She ran down the street and motioned for him to follow. "Come on!"
For once, Owlowiscious looked uncomfortable. Very different from his usual gentlecoltly and stoic manner.
"Yeah, uh, I think I should, uh..." He stumbled uncharacteristically over his words.
Twilight gasped silently at the owl-turned-Pegasus and put on her own wry smile. "Owl-y?" She asked playfully, jokingly. "You know what's at Rarity's house right?"
"Um..." He stammered again. "Gems, fabrics of all kinds, feathers probably from one of my family members?"
"Her cat."
He shuddered at the word. "That feline has harassed me to no end."
"And that's why you're coming with me to investigate!" She happily stated. "You're a Pegasus now, Opal can't hurt you now."
Owlowiscious could only stare at his owner. He grinned weakly. "This is for the lovebirds crack, isn't it?"
She nodded cheerfully.
He gave a defeated sigh and spread his brown wings. "You ponies, so unpredictable."
With that moment passed, Owlowiscious took off in the direction of the boutique, Twilight Sparkle quickly chasing through the streets after him.
"Opal!" Rarity whined. "You have to get off there, mommy's very busy!"
A certain annoyed unicorn named Rarity stared down at the white, plump cat that clung to her mannequin. All around them the boutique was in almost as big a mess as the storm outside; the entire room was coated in a layer of colorful fabrics, gems, and assorted tools that draped over the many mirrors and mannequins. The dark clouds outside brewed and stirred, each flash of lightning causing the cat to cling to the model harder and harder.
"Opal, please listen to mommy." Rarity spoke soothingly to the freaked out feline. "I really need to finish these dresses today for the celebration. I was behind in production before but now that the storm was pulled in by the Pegasus, I can finally finish."
The cat didn't listen to her, either that, or she refused. Opal clung even harder to the mannequin, digging her sharp claws into the delicate fabric and evoking a quiet cry from the unicorn, as if she had suffered physical pain. Rarity walked over to one of the other models, an already finished costume covered the white mannequin, and inspected its stitches. Outside, the storm, and its symphony of thunder, was getting louder and louder, but Rarity was oblivious to it.
"I must admit though." She mumbled. "This is probably going to be one of my greatest achievements, if I can get it all done in time."
She turned back to Opal, who was still digging into the fabric. "And if somepony could get off the mannequin, then I can continue!"
A flash of lightning caused Opal to hiss in fear, the crashing thunder shaking the glass windows. This drew Rarity's attention and she walked up to one of the big panes of glass and looked through it to the dark town beyond.
Rarity shook her head. She was disappointed that the show had to be put on hold but at the same time relieved. "I always thought that storms were quite beautiful." She whispered quietly to the clouds. A bolt of lightning struck right after her words, as if replying to her statement.
She magically pulled her satin drapes down over the windows, blocking the light from the storm and darkening the room. As soon as the drapes were down, candles all around the room lit up, casting a dull orange glow over the fabrics and causing the scattered gems to sparkle.
Rarity turned and walked back to the mannequins. "I do hope that Twilight is okay though. She was so looking forward to the party. I wonder how she's taking it."
She thought for a moment but shook it off. Whatever she thought of was too ridiculous.
"Oh calm down Rarity. Twilight is a sensible pony; she wouldn't do something so rash."
She looked down upon her pet cat, who was seemingly trying to cling to the mannequin with her teeth.
"Opal, I have had it up to here with your antics." She raised a hoof into the air above her head to emphasize her point. "I'm going to ask you one more time; please get off my mannequin."
Opal took one look at her and hissed defiantly, swiping at her with a paw.
"Oh that is it!" Rarity's horn glowed and a white aura formed around the cat's tail. She began to pull, trying to un-stick her cat from her work. Opal hissed in defiance and remained stuck to the dress.
An unusually loud bout of thunder shook the boutique, knocking jars and boxes of sewing equipment to the floor and causing Rarity to flinch.
"Oh, now what is it?!" She momentarily left her pet alone to go to the covered windows. She lifted one slightly out of the way and peered out.
"Strange, those clouds are moving faster than usual. Almost like their being pushed away-"
She barely had time to react before the wall of magic shot through the boutique; passing seamlessly through the windows and straight through Rarity. The wave of magic slammed into Opal; detaching her from the mannequin and sending her crashing into a mound of clothing.
Rarity clung to one of the drapes as the magic passed through, nearly blowing her back and sending the room into chaos. "Opal! My store! My hair!"
And as soon as the magic had entered it left through the back wall, leaving the room in a state of disaster even greater than before. Rarity quickly pulled herself from the curtains and ran to the mound of glowing clothing.
"Opal! Are you alright sweetie?" She called to the mound but it didn't reply. The glowing from the mound began to intensify and a figure began to rise from the pile, the bright light temporarily blinding Rarity.
"What in the..."
The light began to fade and Rarity rubbed her eyes, finally able to focus on the figure; a pure white female unicorn. Her fur and mane were impeccably groomed and styled, a gem encrusted collar curled around her neck.
"Finally, I believed that storm would never stop." The figure let out a sigh of relief, tossing her mane back and stepped out of the pile of clothes. The pony's purple eyes fell on Rarity who was silent with confusion. "Are you alright darling?" She asked with a snicker. "You're looking whiter than usual."
Rarity stepped back from the pony that was suddenly in her shop. "Who...who are you?! And where is Opal?"
The pony drew up a hoof and laughed at the unicorn.
"Ohohoho, you always did have trouble looking for things that were right in front of you."
"I'll repeat again." Rarity took a step forward threateningly, her horn now glowing in preparation. "Where. Is. Opalescense?"
The mare leaned in, the two pony's faces almost touching.
"You're looking at her." She grinned.
It was Rarity's turn to laugh at the other pony, though it was a nervous one. "Oh really?" She said dryly.
Opal nodded and pointed to the collar on her neck. "But of course. It says so on this tacky collar you made for me."
"Tacky?!" Rarity gasped, outraged. "I'll have you know I made that from the finest gemstone and....and..."
Her voice drifted away as she locked eyes on the collar around the pony's neck and the all too familiar gemstones that were attached to that. Her eyes rapidly went from the collar to the unicorn.
"...Opal...?" She said quietly almost to herself, her eyes widening with shock.
The other unicorn nodded. "Hello Rarity. You look smaller than usual."
Rarity stepped back in shock, stared wide eyed at the unicorn, and screamed louder than she thought possible. She screamed for more than a minute before dropping to the floor, passed out.
Opal looked down at her owner and sighed.
"Tsk, tsk, Rarity. Always the overdramatic one."
After a moment of procrastination, Opal finally lifted the downed unicorn on to her back and carried her to the other side of the room, plopping Rarity onto a couch. She just barely had enough time to sit down herself before the doors to the boutique flew open and a lavender unicorn ran in.
"Rarity! Are you okay-oh..." She called frantically before noticing the unicorn and her unconscious friend.
Opal huffed. "Twilight Sparkle, of course it would be you."
A moment later, a brown Pegasus barreled into the room after Twilight.
"Twilight, you can't just invade a pony's house! You could get sued or-" He jumped back when he noticed the other pony in the room. "Cat!" He screamed.
Opal waved sarcastically, enjoying the Pegasus's nervousness. "Bird."
Twilight finally realized who they were talking to. "Opal? You're a...pony now?"
"Your analyzation skills are as sharp as ever, Miss Sparkle." The cat-turned-pony dryly answered. She walked over to one of the many full-body mirrors in the boutique and examined herself, doing several poses. "And it seems that I'm not the only one enjoying their new body, isn't that right, bird?"
"Well, I wouldn't say that. I can't even turn my head a full three-sixty degrees." He attempted the act but stopped when at forty five degrees. He rubbed his sore neck. "I still wonder how you ponies live."
"We manage. Is Rarity okay?"
"She's fine, surprisingly enough the windows are okay as well."
Owlowiscious, who had placed Twilight in between him and the cat, nodded. "That's good, it means that the magic won't harm anything."
"But it's still affecting you. Who knows how many pets have been turned into ponies?!"
Opal starred at the two frantic ponies and shook her head, her long mane swishing back and forth. "Don't worry darlings, we know everypony in Ponyville, there aren't that many animal keepers."
Twilight said "Alright, that's good. Fewer animals means less transformations."
Opal said. "And less panic. Honestly, you ponies panic at the drop of a satin hat."
Twilight opened her mouth to make a rebuttal but closed it when she couldn't think of anything to say.
Owlowiscious looked to Twilight, speaking apologetically. "You really do."
"Oh shush!" Twilight shouted. She looked at Opal. "Come with us and bring Rarity, we need to get out of here before anypony notices."
"Rarity, are you okay?"
A voice called out and a small white unicorn peered into the room from the hallway. It was Sweetie belle; Rarity's sister.
"Twilight?" She stepped quietly into the room, not noticing her unconscious sister. "What's going on?" She looked over at the strange white pony. "Who are they?"
"Nothing!" Twilight jumped in front of the three other ponies, her horn glowing bright purple. "We weren't here!"
The white unicorn looked over to the Pegasus and said. "What did I tell you? Panic."
And they were gone from the boutique, gone in a flash of magic, leaving behind a very startled filly staring at the burnt spot on the floor.
***
"Applejack!! Where are you!?"
"Careful Applebloom, The storms always draw Timberwolves out of the forests."
"Ah don't care! We have to find big sis!"
Two voices; a deep, slow drawl and a high, childish shouting, reached the unconscious farmer's ears, causing her to stir. Applejack weakly opened her eyes, her entire body was sore, especially her head. It felt like she had fought with a manticore and lost. She groaned loudly, unable to do much else.
"Wait, did you hear that?"
"It sounded like it came from behind that tree."
"Ah'll take a loo-APPLEJACK!"
Applejack felt a small but heavy force slam into her body, pushing the air out of her lungs. Applejack moaned weakly and looked at the small being that hit with such force; her little sister Applebloom.
"Big sis, you're okay!"
"Really...?" She managed to wheeze out her voice. "Doesn't feel like it."
"You certainly took a hard fall by the looks of it." Her big brother, Big Macintosh, walked slowly up to her. "But that tree behind you took an even harder hit."
Applejack craned her head to look behind her and low and behold, the tree Applejack had slammed into was split in two, a long crack running up the bark. In another time, another place, Applejack would've been proud of herself but her splitting headache prevented her from cheering up.
The small filly looked over Applejack and pointed. "Hey big sis, who's this other pony?"
Applejack looked down at her side and Big Mac looked over her as well. At Applejack's side, unknowingly curled up in the farmer's arms, was another earth pony.
The pony was female, her fur was sufficed to say, scruffy, as if her fur hadn't had a proper brushing in her life. The fur itself was two different colors; dark brown and white mixing together. A simple red collar with a bright metal tag hung around her neck. Applejack's hat rested on her head.
Big Mac reached up and pulled Applebloom away. "Ah thought you were looking for Winona, not meeting up with a special friend." he said with a hint of humor.
"Ah was not!" Applejack said, coming to most of her senses quickly and managing to sit up, a blush clear on her face. "Ah was looking for mah dog and Ah found her too!"
"Well where is she then?"
"Um..." She suddenly lost the strength in her voice. "Well...Ah was looking for her, and Ah found her under a tree, and a strange wave of purple stuff slammed into us and Ah was knocked out...and here Ah am."
While she was talking, the strange pony in Applejack's arms began to wake up. She looked up quietly at the farmer pony, pushing the brim of the hat out of view.
Applejack noticed this and looked down at the pony and found two, happy, orange eyes looking up at her.
The pony barked happily, jumped up and started licking the side of Applejack's face. Applejack turned to stone, thrown for a loop by the events that led to this and what was happening right now. She looked over to her brother, who was blocking Applebloom's view and very badly hiding a smirk.
"This doesn't mean anything!"
"Of course it doesn't."
Applejack pushed the happy pony away gently and looked at the collar on her neck. It looked all to familiar.
"Hey, that's Winona's collar." She said.
The cries of animals suddenly filled their ears. Everypony's heads turned towards the farm.
"That sounds like the cows!" Applebloom estimated. "Something must be wrong!"
The earth pony barked again and raced off in the direction of the barns where the cows lived.
"Wait!" Applejack held out a hoof at the pony but she didn't listen, sprinting away from the three. Big Mac helped his sister to her hooves and took off after the pony, Applebloom following closely behind and Applejack slowly bringing up the rear.
"It can't be." She mumbled.
The three eventually reached the barns where the cows lived. An entire clan of bovine had come to the apple family decades ago asking for work and had worked closely with them ever since. The barns showed damage from the storm, holes busted in them by rocks and branches but thankfully the cows were not inside them.
They were outside the barns, herded into a pile by a pack of vicious Timberwolves that were circling them, licking their splintered lips at the quivering bovine.
And the pony was rushing in straight towards them.
Six Timberwolves circled the herd of cows, the cows in dire straits, were pushing their young behind them into the middle and away from the beasts. The wolves growled in their language to one another, each of them scanning the shaking crowd for the right meal to take on.
Right before the pack could strike though, a loud barking reached their wooden ears. Those more experienced in the pack recognized the sound; it was the small bark-less one that lived with the hooved ones. It had always tried to interfere with them but six Timberwolves were more than a match for it now. A few of the wolves turned from the cows and to the direction of the sound, barring their jagged teeth and growling ferociously.
They weren't prepared for when an unknown pony, about twice as tall as a dog and three times as strong, came charging at them, barking frantically with the same kind of ferocity in her eyes as the wolves.
The pony slammed into two of the wolves, sending the three of them tumbling along the ground in a heap. The pony quickly scrambled to her hooves and charged at them again, punching one of them square in the face and simultaneously kicking one of them behind her.
"That pony's good." Applebloom noted as the three watched.
"Either she's good," Big Mac considered, "Or she's just plain lucky."
Applejack didn't say a word, she was too busy worrying.
The pack was now extremely confused. The scent of the unknown pony was incredibly familiar but at the same time not. It baffled the pack leader, who was charging at the pony nonetheless. While Winona was distracted the pack leader ran around to the back and lunged at the pony, sinking his wooden teeth into the pony's back leg. Winona emitted a high pitched cry and dropped to the ground in pain; the Timberwolves were beginning to move from the cows and were converging on the pony.
"Oh no!" Applebloom cried. "What do we do Applejack?" She turned to her sister for answers but found nothing but air. "Applejack?"
"PAWS OFF MAH DOG!!"
Applejack, with renewed vigor from seeing her dog take a blow, charged at the wolves herself. When she reached the wolves, she stopped fast in front of them, digging her front hooves into the damp earth, spun around with legs outstretched and slammed them into the wolf that was within reach, feeling a very satisfying crunch as her hooves connected with the wolf's face.
The pack leader was the one to take the blow and he felt it. The sound of splintering wood filled the air as the wolf was knocked back by the force of Applejack's legs. The Timberwolves watched in fear as their leader landed in the mud behind them with a splash. They backed away quietly from the two.
Applejack knelt beside her pet and inspected her wound; the jagged teeth had fortunately not punctured the skin but had left behind quite a few splinters. Winona looked up at her owner with a pained expression that infuriated the farmer even more, if that was possible.
"Listen up toothpicks!" She shouted at the Timberwolves and surprisingly, they all looked at her, either comprehending her, or because she was just loud.
"Ah don't know if those walnut brains of yours can understand me, frankly Ah don't even care." She said calmly, just barely masking her anger. "So Ah'll say this only once...."
Building herself up, Applejack rose up on her hind legs and took in a deep breath. She slammed her hooves into the mud, her face glowed with hot rage.
"You beasts get away from mah farm right now or so help me Ah will take you all out and turn you into firewood!!"
Either they had actually understood her rant and sensed her rage or they had simply understood the word 'fire' but the Timberwolves had taken off back towards the forests with their twig tails between their legs. The pack leader had stopped though to look back at them and issue a growl one more time before taking off with the others. In a moment, there were no signs that the wolves were even there, only a few twigs and dead leaves.
Applejack looked on at the spot where they had last seen the Timbelwolves; she was breathing heavily and red in the face. With a few deep breaths her anger subsided and returned her gaze to Winona who had found a large puddle and was staring in wonder at her reflection, sniffing at it cautiously.
"Yeah," Applejack said, "That's a little hard to explain."
Winona looked back up at her owner and jumped at her, knocking the both of them to the ground. She began showing her owner in affection, licking her entire face. At this point the cows were calming down and moving back to the buildings. One of them looked back at the two.
"Thanks again Applejack. And I love your marefriend."
Applejack pushed Winona away. "She's not mah...oh forget it."
Applebloom and Big Mac finally ran down to Applejack and Winona, the little filly jumped up and down in excitement.
"That was awesome sis! You really beat those wolves!"
"This friend of yours wasn't bad either." The red stallion stated.
Applejack looked up at the two and nodded. "She should be, she's our dog after all."
Applebloom cocked her head in confusion at that. "What?"
"So..." Macintosh drawled, looking over the pony on the ground, Winona stretched her head and sniffed the stallion confusedly. "This was what that wave of magic did."
"You saw it too?"
"Ah watched it push away the storm clouds." He replied. "Ah didn't think it would do something like this though."
"Winona?" Applebloom looked at the pony. "Is it really you?"
Winona turned to her on the ground and smiled happily, giving the filly an affectionate lick on the cheek the way she always did, causing Applebloom to laugh.
"This is amazing!" She cheered.
"It's plain odd." Her sister added. "What should we do about it?"
"Right now?" Big Mac observed the pony's wound. "Ah think we should go back to the house and remove these splinters before they cause an infection."
They agreed and helped hoist the dog-turned-pony onto the stallion's back. The effort of the act caused Winona's hurt leg to press into Macintosh's side, causing her to flinch in pain and accidentally strike Applejack clean in the nose.
She stumbled backwards, temporarily disoriented. "Tarnation!" She cried.
Winona watched in wonder. "Tar...tarnation!" She said in the same tone.
Everypony froze in shock at the pony's sudden, and first, spoken word. Big Mac and applejack stared at the pony, mouths agape.
"Cool!" Applebloom said. "Mah dog can talk!"
***
Rarity slowly found her way back into consciousness, her senses returning one by one. She lazily felt around her and came to the realization that she was laying on one of her velvet couches.
"Oh, you're finally awake." A voice stated.
"What...Spike...is that you?" Rarity groaned. She couldn't find the energy to sit up but was able to force her heavy eyelids open.
The first thing she saw was a dark shape hovering over her and a bright light behind that. Her eyes slowly adjusted and the dark shape began to show more and more detail until Rarity was able to make out the form of a small dragon.
"Rarity?" Spike looked down at her, his face filled with concern. "Are you okay?"
"Oh, it was horrible Spike! I had the strangest dream." She said while Spike helped her up. "I dreamt I was in my boutique, working on the new clothes for the celebration and suddenly; my Opal was turned into a pony!" She scoffed at the idea. "A pony, can you believe it?"
Another voice spoke up. "Oh I don't know, I think that might be possible."
Rarity turned her head to the voice and gasped. "It can't be!"
Opal gave a smug grin as she looked down at Rarity. "And yet, it is."
Rarity backed away in fear from the pony, accidently falling off the couch onto a hard wooden floor. Looking around, Rarity very quickly discovered that she was actually in the middle of Twilight's library, the area around her couch covered in black scorch marks.
She quickly stepped back. "Back you monster!" She shouted.
"Monster." Opal repeated the word, rolling it around in her mouth. "Yeah, that's exactly what a pet wants to be called by its owner."
"Is everything alright in here?" Twilight stepped into the room, a tray with glasses of tea floated after her and Owlowiscious after that. She smiled happily when she noticed Rarity. "Rarity! You're finally awake!"
"Twilight..." Rarity spoke slowly. "What in Celestia's name is going on here?"
"Yes, well..." Twilight's horn glowed bright and a small table materialized on the floor. Twilight placed the tray atop it and sat down. "That requires some explanation."
Everypony else also took a seat around the table and the conversation was started. Twilight told the entire story to Rarity, Spike and Owlowiscious chiming in at some moments. The expression of confusion on the designer's face cleared up only to be replaced with exasperation.
"...And that's what happened. Well, up until this point."
"Twilight," Rarity took a sip from her tea and set it down. "What have we, and the princesses, told you about messing with nature?"
Twilight shifted in her seat, uncomfortable. "...Not to do it?"
"I tried to stop her." Spike stated, shaking his head.
"So did I." Owlowiscious added, sipping from his cup with a straw. "Unfortunately none of you speak owl so my cries went unheard."
Rarity pointed a hoof at the Pegasus. "So you're actually Twilight's pet owl?" She looked over to the unicorn that sat beside her. "And you're my Opal?"
"Both of those are true." He nodded.
"Yay, you win one point." Opal cheered sarcastically. "Good for you."
"You know..." Rarity said. "You really could try to be a little considerate."
"Why? I've never done anything for anypony and look at me; living the high life."
The less fortunate owl at the table mumbled quietly and angrily.
Rarity looked to Twilight. "But I still don't understand. Why is my little cat a unicorn?"
"It could be because cats are superior to other animals." Opal deduced with a smug grin. Owlowiscious glared back at her with narrowed eyes.
"I believed it has something to do with the spell. It seems to have something to do with how the owner sees their pet or feels about it or something."
"You mean she gave me this unsightly thing?" Opal pointed at her horn angrily.
"Unsightly thing?!" Rarity shot up. "I'll have you know that a unicorn's horn is a symbol of pride!"
"Is that your excuse for that huge thing?" She said.
Rarity gasped. "That's it!"
She lunged at the now rightfully terrified pony but was caught by an unseen force. Twilight Sparkle, horn glowing with power, carried Rarity to the other side of the table and plopped her down. "Stop this both of you!" She scolded them. "How do you two even get along?"
Opal thought about Twilight's words for a moment and shrugged nonchalantly.
Twilight sighed and was about to say something before Owlowiscious stopped her, pulling her into a conversation. They whispered to one another for a minute in what looked like a very rapid conversation. They finally stopped, nodded to one another and stood up from the table.
"Spike? Shouldn't you be looking after Peewee?" Twilight asked.
Spike gasped. "You're right! He's probably setting upstairs on fire right now!" He jumped up and ran up the stairs. "Does anypony smell smoke?!"
Spike left the scene and Twilight turned back to the others.
"Rarity, come with me." Twilight motioned for the unicorn to follow her.
"You too, feline." Owlowiscious said to Opal.
The two unicorns followed without a word and went with the two to the opposite sides of the room.
"I can't believe it Twilight." Rarity whispered. "I can't believe that my cat said that my horn was big and called the collar I made for her tacky!" She stopped talking and sighed. "I can't believe I just said that."
"It seems to me that you and Opal weren't the greatest of friends to begin with."
"What? That's preposterous! I gave that lump of fur the best life it could ever have!"
Twilight shook her head. "Yes but I think it has something to do with love."
"Love?" Rarity repeated quietly. She looked at Twilight with an appalled expression. "But I love my Opal very much."
"Yeah," Twilight looked over to the other side of the room where Opal and Owlowiscious seemed to be having their own discussion. "I don't think she does though."
Across the room the two pets-turned-ponies were in fact having a discussion much like the others.
"Why are you acting like that?" He asked the unicorn. She didn't even look at him, instead looking out one of the windows to the street.
"Acting like what?" She replied calmly.
"You've done nothing but be rude to the rest of us since we found you." He explained. "Especially to Rarity!"
She tilted her head at this. "So?" She asked confusedly.
"I'm just saying that you should try to be a bit... nicer." Suggested the Pegasus.
"Hmph. Where has 'nice-ness' ever gotten somepony? I've always enjoyed my life and I have never had to be nice to anypony."
Owlowiscious looked into the window with her. "But now we're ponies and we need to act as such."
Opal took her eyes off the window and what was outside for the barest of moments to risk a glance at the Pegasus; looking away the moment he might have saw her.
"How many of us do you think were affected?" She asked sullenly.
He shrugged with his wings. "Who knows, it's all too random to figure out. All we know is that the wave of magic probably affected anypony with a pet near them."
A thought shot through Opal's mind like a bolt of lightning at this. She looked over at Owlowiscious, slight nervousness in her voice.
"Do you know the pony that lives on the outskirts of town? She's a Pegasus or something."
"Fluttershy." He guessed correctly. "A very kind Pegasus, she fixed my wings one time before I met Twilight. In fact she takes care of hundreds.... of... animals..."
Both of them turned their eyes back to the window; the Everfree Forest loomed in the distance with Fluttershy's cottage not to far from that.
"Oh dear..." He murmered.
"Twilight, darling?" Opal called. "You thought you were panicking before, wait until you and Rarity hear this!"
As the sun finally blanketed the slightly damp town of Ponyville everything was just starting to wake up. Many ponies had taken hesitant steps out of their homes and into the soggy streets to investigate how exactly a storm had disappeared into thin air leaving behind even more thin air. Many ponies who stepped outside met with friends and family to try and figure out just what had happened. Those that hadn't gone outside instead looked out their windows to the groups of ponies below.
"Gang way!"
Heads turned quickly in the direction of the noise. A group of very familiar ponies and some unknown ones raced up the street in their direction, kicking up the dirt behind them. Many of the ponies smiled and waved at those they recognized but were brushed off quite literally when the group rushed past them, pushing many of them into the mud.
"Sorry!" Owlowiscious shouted to the ponies as he flew over. "We're kind of in a hurry!" He looked down to Twilight. "Do you think it was a good idea to just run out of the house and leave Spike behind?"
"He's used to it!" She shouted back. She did feel bad about leaving Spike at the library but there had been no time to do otherwise.
"Ugh!" Opal groaned overdramatically. "This is absolutely disgusting! It's going to take me forever to get this mud out of my fur!"
"Oh calm down." Rarity demanded. "We have shampoos for this kind of thing, not that you would know since you never want a bath."
"Cats hate water!" Opal yelled at her owner. "First it makes us heavy as a rock and then it turns us into fluffy basketballs!" She looked embarrassed for a moment. "It's humiliating."
Rarity felt a pang of sympathy enter her. "Well I could teach you a easy mud remover spell."
"Hah!" Opal perked up and laughed derisively. "As if I would need to learn anything from you and your abnormally large horn!"
Feeling the sympathy inch away again Rarity took a running jump into a large brown puddle, spraying the other unicorn with dirty water.
"Ah!" Opal cried out.
"Oh excuse me." Rarity wryly apologized. "How unladylike of me."
Twilight and Owlowiscious watched the two as they ran. "Can you believe them?" Twilight asked her other assistant.
He shrugged in disbelief, which was a difficult thing considering he was floating above them. "I suppose you're not the only one in town who need to learn about friendship."
"Quiet bird!" Opal snapped, mud flying from her mane. She glared at Rarity. "And honestly, why couldn't you have thought of me as a Pegasus? I would've had lovely plumage-Ah!"
To Opal's surprise and non-pleasure, a pony had jumped out onto the street and in her way causing Opal to slam into the pony with full force. The two of them rolled along the the ground into a muddy pile. The others stopped to help and Owlowiscious landed quietly.
"Okay..." Opal groaned, rising from the mud. "Now I want to take a bath."
Rarity recognized the pony Opal had run into instantly. "Oh, hello Pinkie Pie."
"Hi Rarity!" The pink mare smiled happily despite her current position on the ground. "Hi Twilight! Hi Pegasus I have never met before!" She looked at Opal who was on top of Pinkie in a very awkward position. "Hi unicorn that I've never met before!"
"Oh no..." Opal groaned. "I know you."
Twilight leaned over to Owlowiscious. "Should we tell her?" She whispered.
"We might as well," he responded. "She'll find out eventually anyways, we'd only delay it."
Twilight nodded. It was Pinkie Pie after all.
"Pinkie, we need to tell you something but you can't tell anypony else." She stated.
"Oh! You mean like a Pinkie promise?" Pinkie jumped up at alarming speed and shook her entire body, the layer of mud coating her flying off and onto an extremely surprised and disgusted Opal. "I just love Pinkie promises!"
"Yeah, sure now promise."
Pinkie did the strange ritual that goes along with the promise, ending with sticking her hoof into one of her still open eyes causing everypony to cringe.
"Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye! Okay now tell me, tell me, tell me!" She hopped around them joyfully.
"Pinkie?" Rarity asked the mare. "Do you notice anything odd about these two other ponies?"
"Hmm..." Pinkie went up to Owlowiscious and inspected the Pegasus closely, almost uncomfortably close. She turned a full one eighty degrees on her hooves and now looked at the unicorn that wasn't paying attention to any of this and instead trying to wipe off as much mud as possible. Pinkie appeared next to the unicorn and peered at her, spooking Opal and causing her to fall into the mud again.
Pinkie thought loudly for a moment, rubbing her chin with a hoof as if that would help. She nodded quickly. "Yeah, they look like Owlowiscious and Opalesence but only if they were ponies." She gasped. "You turned all the pets in Ponyville into ponies!"
"Nope, I accidently turned all of the pets in Ponyville into-wait what?" Twilight froze in surprise.
Owlowiscious politely applauded the earth pony. "An astute observation Miss Pie, I would ask how you came to that conclusion so quickly but that would probably only bring up more questions."
"Aww, thank you Owl-y!" Pinkie said.
"Um, aren't we forgetting something?" Rarity asked the group. "Like a hundred somethings?"
"Right, right. Pinkie, we're going to Fluttershy's place to help, do you want to come too?" Twilight asked.
"Sure! That would be-wait a minute..." Pinkie was about to answer but stopped and thought again, a new understanding washed over her face. "Wait, if Everypony's pets have been turned into ponies..." She gasped. "I have a pet! And he's probably a pony right now!"
Without another word Pinkie turned and sped off down the road, leaving behind four very confused ponies.
"Well, now that that's over..." Opal stood up again, happy that Pinkie was finally gone. "Can we go please?"
***
As the group got farther and farther from the town the roads became dryer. Unfortunately there were still large puddles dotting the area and every so often one of the ponies ended up walking through them.
"The condition out here is absolutely dreadful." Rarity observed.
"Well there was a storm just earlier." Opal noted. "We can all thank Twilight for turning it into a massive mud bath."
An embarrassed Twilight didn't say anything.
"I never understood that." Owlowiscious stated. "If ponies want to be clean, why do they bath in mud?"
Nopony answered him and they continued in silence. Eventually Fluttershy's cottage was in sight and everypony was relieved to see that it wasn't totally destroyed.
It was only partially destroyed.
The cottage's roof had been almost entirely blown off by the strong winds and the wave of magic, all of the birdhouses attached to the roof before were now strewn across the area in small piles of painted wood and nails. Many parts of the house had holes in them and Twilight was quick to deduce why.
Ponies, a small towns worth of them. Ponies of every type and color were basically everywhere around the cottage, in the cottage and to the group's surprise in the walls, hooves and heads sticking out of the holes in the building. Some of the ponies seemed to notice the group as they drew near but they mostly just mulled around confusedly.
"I'll be honest..." Twilight said. "I thought it would be much worse."
Opal walked over to the small stream that ran past the house and prodded one of the gasping, flopping ponies that was laying in it. "Oh I don't know, there's still time for it to get worse."
"Does anypony see Fluttershy?" Rarity asked.
Owlowiscious silently lifted himself into the air with a flap of his wings and looked over the area. "There she is!" He pointed. Everypony looked in the same direction and saw the familiar long, pink mane and yellow fur. They quickly ran over in the direction of their friend, weaving through some of the confused ponies that blocked their path.
Fluttershy was, when they reached her, on the ground on her back with her legs sticking straight into the air. Her face was frozen in an expression of fear while her eyes were wide open and unblinking. She was surrounded by a small group of Pegasus that were looking down at her sadly.
"Fluttershy!" Twilight shouted, running to her side causing the surprised Pegasus to fly away in a shower of feathers and bird calls. The others crowded around while Twilight inspected her friend.
"She's fine." Twilight concluded. "But I think she's in shock."
"Step aside." Rarity stated, kneeling down beside the Pegasus. "I know what to do."
A confused Twilight stepped back and Rarity sat down behind her friends head. She brought a hoof up to the side of Fluttershy's head, right behind her left ear, and pushed down.
Fluttershy quite literally sprung to life, pushing herself off the ground and into the air with surprising amounts speed and strength. She even did a little flip in the air and landed back on her hooves, wide awake and very confused.
"What?! Where am I?! What's going on?!" She questioned in her usual quiet tone.
"Uh..." Twilight looked at Rarity.
"Pressure point; I know a thing or two about acupuncture."
"You certainly do; I can still feel where you've prodded me." Opal complained but went unheard.
"It's okay Fluttershy." Twilight tried to calm down her friend.
"Twilight? What's going on?" She noticed the two unknown ponies and shirked back. "Who are they?"
"It's alright Fluttershy we're all friends." She glanced over at Rarity and Opal who were arguing yet again. "Well most of us are. Do you remember anything?"
"Not really I-Oh! On no! Twilight, it was horrible!" Fluttershy cried, accidently latching on to Owlowiscious sadly. "I was taking care of my animals like I always do and keeping them warm and dry from the storm when suddenly the storm began to move really fast and then a weird wave of magic went through the house and hit all of the animals! And then everything started glowing and then hooves started coming in through the walls and...and..."
"Fluttershy please calm down." Twilight pleaded.
"... Yes... calm down please." Owlowiscious said, awkwardly patting Fluttershy's back to show support. "You've been through quite a lot."
"I know...but what happened to my poor animals and-" She gasped loudly in realization and pushed Owlowiscious away, accidently sending him into one of the large puddles. She turned back to her house, desperation in her eyes.
"Angel!" She shouted. "My Angel is in there! Somepony help me find him!"
Before anypony could do anything though, the door to the house swung open, nearly snapping off its hinges in the process. Out of the door stepped a single pure white male earth pony. The pony stomped down the trail from the house towards the group, pushing away anypony in his direction.
"There you are!" He shouted angrily. "I've been looking everywhere for you!"
Fluttershy was horrible confused. "...What?"
"Uh...yeah..." Twilight muttered. "You know that wave of magic that passed through your house? Well it kind of turns a pony's pets into...ponies."
Fluttershy pointed an unbelieving hoof at the approaching pony. "y-you mean...?"
"Honestly, the house starts to break apart and everything around you is transforming and what do you do? You freak out, run screaming from the house, and end up in frozen mode!" The pony shook his head. "And to top it off you left me behind!"
Fluttershy sprang forward and embraced the pony in a bear hug. "Angel, thank goodness! I was so worried about you."
"Uh..." Angel froze up much like his owner did; a red blush growing on his white muzzle. "R-right, whatever. You're okay, I guess you could say that I'm okay if you were completely insane, we're all okay." He looked over to Twilight. "Well, if it isn't little Miss 'my magic makes everything go wrong'. You're the reason I have to walk on four legs?"
"Don't be!" He laughed. "Now I can finally have a conversation with miss dandelion over here without having to play twenty questions." When he noticed the other pets, his expression hardened once more. "Hello featherhead, puffball."
"Angel." Owlowiscious, despite being soaking wet, nodded politely.
"Vermin." Opal growled.
Twilight clapped her hooves together happily, ignoring the tension between the three pets. "Well, Now that we're all acquainted we should probably go back to the library and plan the rest of this out."
"We're not going anywhere yet!" Angel stopped her and pointed at the house. "You really messed up this time, Nightlight."
"Uh, it's 'Twilight' actually."
"Whatever. All I know is that Fluttershy's house and surrounding area has been turned into the biggest flash mob in Ponyville history and everything Flutters and myself own is turning into quaint piles of rubble!" He walked up to Twilight and roughly poked her in the chest. "You're all going to stay and help her fix this!" He demanded.
Twilight gulped at the earth pony's sudden boldness, Fluttershy ran up to Angel's side. "Oh no, Angel, it's okay, they don't need to do anything."
Angel was dumbfounded. "No, Flutters, I...ugh." He facehoofed. "You can't be serious! They destroyed our house!"
"I hate to say it but he's right." Rarity stated. "You're responsible for all of this Twilight, you should help her. We should help as well."
Opal groaned dramatically. "Do we have to?"
The glares from everypony else shut her up.
"Fine..." She eventually grumbled.
A few, nicer agreements were heard and everypony began walking towards the house and gardens to help with clean up and with the many ponies. Angel followed everypony else but was stopped by Fluttershy who timidly poked him to get his attention.
"Um, Angel?" She asked quietly.
"Speak up already." He demanded. "Seriously, I don't have those huge ears anymore."
"I just wanted to say...thank you for getting them to help me." She smiled warmly at her pet bunny. "You're as helpful as ever."
Angel blushed slightly from the kindness of his owner's words and turned away, his black eyes searching for other things to focus on. "Whatever, you need somepony to keep you from being a total doormat."
Fluttershy was happy regardless and went off to help her poor animals, Angel following close behind.
Applejack brushed the sweat from her brow and maneuvered the tweezers over the patch of splinters, which was insanely difficult considering she had hooves.
"Okay..." Applejack mumbled to herself, concentrating hard on the movement of the tweezers. She reached over and removed one of the offending irritations, earning an accidental kick to the stomach for her efforts.
"Sorry..." Winona apologized.
"It's.... it's okay... sugercube." The doubled over Applejack wheezed. Her dog certainly had a lot of kick in her. "Just try not to kick while Ahm down here like this."
After the fight in the apple fields earlier Applejack and her siblings had gone all the way back to their house with their injured dog-turned-pony on Big Macintosh's back. After a quick towel off the group was now crowded around the family couch in the living room, Winona sitting rather uncomfortably between them, not used to the attention or the fact that she had to sit up.
"So mah dog could talk all this time?" Applejack questioned. During the walk back to the house, Applebloom had been going over words and phrases with Winona and she had taken to it quite quickly, speaking in complete, fluent sentences.
"Ah've always been able tah talk." Winona answered, speaking with the same accent as her owners. "Y'all haven't been listening hard enough."
"Apparently." Big Mac deadpanned.
"This is awesome!" Applebloom jumped up and down in joy, but stopped suddenly and looked to her sister. "Do pets normally turn into ponies? Have ya'll been hiding this from me this whole time?"
"Calm down, Applebloom." Her big sister said. "And no, pets do not turn into ponies."
"Yeah!" Winona chimed in. "Ah've never seen a dog turn into a pony!" She froze and put on the same, puzzled expression Applebloom had. "At least Ah don't think."
"Okay... one final splinter..."
Winona flinched. "Ah!"
"Hurg!"
After one last, swift kick to the stomach, Applejack was face down on the ground, moaning pitifully into the carpet. Winona drew her legs away slowly from her fallen owner and up on to the couch, slightly embarrassed.
Big Macintosh whistled in an impressed tone. "Pretty strong."
Applejack wheezed as she pushed herself off the ground through nothing but pure willpower. "Has tah be, Ah trained her myself." She managed to get to her hooves and carelessly tossed her tweezers away, now that the surprisingly painful job was done.
Winona jumped off the couch and hugged Applejack. "Thank you! Thank you, thank you!"
"Yeah, yeah, just don't lick me anymore." She gently pushed Winona away. Applebloom began circling the pony, rapidly firing off questions. "How far can you smell? Can you see colors? Why do you always howl at the moon?"
"I don't know, but ponies can probably smell me from miles away." She answered each of Applebloom's questions just as quickly as they were asked. "I don't see colors, I see ponies, and the last one..." She stopped. "I have no idea."
Macintosh stepped beside his sister. "It's like another Applebloom."
"Only furrier."
"She's still our Winona though; a part of the family."
Applejack nodded silently.
"...What are we gonna do now?" He asked.
"Ah'll probably go into town and take her with me, try and figure out this mess."
A chiming filled the room and a familiar, aged voice cried out. "Lunch time! Come and get it!"
"...Right after lunch." Applejack continued. "Come on, Applebloom. Winona, Ah guess you're finally allowed to sit at the dinner table."
Their attention was suddenly drawn to Winona who was gasping loudly and pointing to the window. A small brown Squirrel sat on the windowsill, peering in at the large, strange creatures.
"Squirrel!" She shouted excitedly and charged at the window.
"Winona, wait!"
It was too late. Winona had jumped into the air and lunged at the squirrel. The rodent quickly ran away and out of sight. Unable to stop in midair, Winona slammed into the hard glass without enough momentum to break through, and slid down the side with a long *Squeak*, slumping onto the ground.
Nopony said a word.
"Uh..." Big Macintosh started.
"...And right after Winona wakes up."
***
The sun was high in the sky and shone down on the group at Fluttershy's house. Everypony at Fluttershy's house was busy tending to the injuries of the animal-ponies and trying to fix some of the gaping holes in Fluttershy's walls.
"Come on guys, let me go!"
"No way!"
"I'm sorry, but you'll just have to stay there."
"I'm tremendously sorry, really!"
"Ugh, what a dreadful thing to do. You should be ashamed."
"Ha, ha, looks like the pigeon's wings are clipped."
"Twilight come on! You know I didn't mean to do it!"
Twilight shook her head. "Sorry Owlowiscious, but I think it's for the best if you stay there."
Twilight stepped back from Owlowiscious, who was currently tied to one of the massive trees around Fluttershy's house, and went back to continue her work. The Pegasus strained uncomfortably against the ropes and looked sadly at his owner.
"Twilight please!" He pleaded. "You have to believe that I didn't mean to do it."
She nodded slowly. "That may be, but I think it would be for the best if you just stayed back for a while."
"But it was simply an accident!"
Angel glared at the Pegasus. "Yes, because trying to eat one of the mouse-ponies can be called an accident."
"It was!"
"Oh certainly." Opal sarcastically stated. "It was especially an accident when we caught you sucking on the ponies head."
"It's alright, Mr. Whiskers." Fluttershy camly comforted the trembling, very wet pony. She dried him slowly with a towel. "He can't hurt you anymore."
"I wasn't hurting him, it was a moment of weakness okay?!" Owlowiscious shouted at them. "I haven't eaten since this morning. And why are you worrying about me when you should be worrying about Opal?" He realized.
Everypony turned to her with suspecting eyes.
"Ugh!" She mock-vomited. She was lounging in the sun, watching everypony else. "Do you really think I would eat these... these filthy, disgusting vermin?!"
"Vermin...?" Fluttershy squeaked quietly.
"THAT'S IT!" Angel got up from his job of pulling the fish-ponies out of the water, accidently letting go of one and sending it into the water again with a big splash. He marched slowly towards Opal, rage in his eyes. "I'll turn you into a set of boots!"
"Angel no!" Fluttershy jumped on to the earth pony, attempting to slow, or weigh, him down, but doing little more than make him only slightly heavier, as if he had put on a coat. "I can't let you do this!"
Rarity shrugged, she was starting to become more and more exasperated by her pet's harsh words. "I'm afraid it's true, I don't think Opal has ever eaten anything that hasn't come out of a can before." She looked over to Opal. "Do you even know what a mouse looks like?"
For a moment Opal seemed to show genuine confusion but shook it off quickly and replaced it with her usual 'sarcasm-face'. "Of course I do. I see them every time you're up on the table shrieking."
"...Right..." Rarity spoke through gritted teeth. "Anyway, what are you doing exactly? You really should be helping."
"I am." She answered. "I'm providing support."
"..."
"Woo." Opal waved a hoof unenthusiastically in the air, her voice monotonous. "You're all doing great."
Rarity returned to her work, grumbling all the way about her lazy cat. Work continued silently after that and eventually everypony began to make progress. The animal-ponies listened intently to Angel and Fluttershy's every word and began to calm down, some even starting to utter a few words or attempt to help their caretaker. Owlowiscious stayed tied to the tree, occasionally asking the others if he could be released yet, only to receive a 'later' or 'not now'. And Twilight used her failsafe spell to repair any of the magical damage. Unfortunately, the failsafe spell failed to affect anything else and the others had to calm her down before she made a few holes in the walls with her head.
The group sat down under Owlowiscious's tree and admired their work.
"Can you guys let me down now?" A bored Owlowiscious pleaded again. "Please?"
"Alright fine." Twilight's horn began to glow and all of the knots on the ropes became undone. Owlowiscious sunk to the ground beside them. "Ow..."
Fluttershy finished talking to a small group of her animals and walked over to the others. "I can't thank you all enough."
"Then don't." Opal said but she was ignored.
Twilight nodded. "It's okay Fluttershy. It's what friends do."
"Then how about you help me?!" A voice shouted to them.
"...What?" Twilight stood up and looked around. "Who said that?"
"I did!" The familiar voice shouted again. I sounded like it was getting closer.
Rarity pointed. "Look!"
A strange, dark shape was visible in the distance, moving towards them at a slow pace up the dirt road. A hoof was in the air, waving energetically at them.
"Who or what is that?" Opal asked.
Fluttershy lifted herself into the air with a small flap of her yellow wings. She stared and squinted at the shape in the distance. She gasped in surprise.
"It's Rainbow Dash! And I think she's hurt!"
Twilight quickly jumped to her hooves and ran out to meet the shape with everypony else following behind. The closer Twilight got, the clearer she was able to see her friend's familiar rainbow palette as well as the fact that she wasn't alone. In fact, Rainbow Dash wasn't walking towards them at all. She was being carried by somepony else. She was draped over the back of a large Pegasus with dark green fur who stepped slowly towards everypony.
"Rainbow... Dash?" Twilight's hopeful greeting turned to confusion as she noticed the Pegasus's current state.
"Who is that?" Rarity whispered, pointing at the green Pegasus.
"Ugh, finally!" Dash groaned, throwing her arms up in exasperation. "It literally took forever to get here on hoof." She poked the side of the Pegasus. "Down, Tank."
"Tank?!" Twilight said.
Tank silently complied and slowly knelt down so Dash could maneuver herself off his back. She stumbled over to the group, specifically Twilight, obvious anger on her face.
"Um...what happened?" Twilight started.
"Everything." Dash cut her off quickly. "All of the storm clouds I carefully pushed around are now scattered around Equestria by a magical wave that hit Tank." She pointed to Tank who wasn't doing anything at the moment, only silently watching everypony else. "Not only is all of my hard work gone but I was dragged to the ground by my significantly larger tortoise, straining my wings in the process, I broke one of my legs on the landing and worst of all it took literally three hours for Tank to carry me all this way!"
Twilight wasn't sure how to react. "Rainbow, I didn't know, I'm so sorry!"
Dash growled. "You should be!"
With amazing vigor and despite a broken leg Rainbow Dash, screaming a fierce battle cry, leapt into the air and down onto the confused and startled unicorn. Everypony else arrived just in time to see the fight break out, Rainbow Dash waving her hooves frantically at her friend and Twilight trying to hold her back.
"Dash, please calm down!"
"I'll calm down when I break one of your legs!"
Fluttershy looked on, Opal joining her as the last to arrive on the scene.
"Oh my goodness!" Fluttershy gasped. She turned to Opal for help. "What should we do?"
"Right now?" Opal answered with a low laugh, holding her back with a hoof. "We can just sit back and enjoy the show."
"Alright, now hold still. This might hurt a little. Or if you want we could take you to the hospital or-"
"Just hurry up please."
It had taken a few minutes but the others were finally able to calm Dash down and pull her away from Twilight. Surprisingly enough neither of them had actually managed to injure the other. Rainbow Dash had taken a seat against a tree with Fluttershy tending to her leg, delicately wrapping it into a splint. Twilight, who had read more than her fair share of medical books, pointed her horn at the leg and it glowed softly for a moment, then stopping.
"Your leg is going to be fine." She concluded. "A few healing spells and some time off and it'll be good as new."
"Thanks Twilight." Dash thanked her friend quietly. She rubbed her cast absentmindedly for a minute and sighed. "Sorry about that Twilight. I was just really angry about my leg and work and Tank."
Twilight nodded her head appreciatively. "It's okay Dash, really."
"And besides..." Rarity added. "You're not the only pony here with something like that happening."
Dash looked to Rarity and for the first time since getting there, she noticed that there were other, unknown ponies with them. Dash's eyes widened in realization.
She lifted a hoof slowly and pointed at Owlowiscious while looking at Twilight. "So they are...?"
"Rainbow Dash..." Twilight said happily, waving a hoof to the Pegasus and Unicorn beside her. "Meet Owlowiscious and Opalesence."
Owlowiscious bowed politely. "A pleasure to meet you, miss Dash."
Opal seemed to be indifferent to the Pegasus but smiled nonetheless. "Charmed."
Despite what she had already seen, Dash couldn't believe her eyes. "Um... how's it going?" She asked awkwardly. She looked back at Twilight again. "That guy was your little puffball of feathers?"
Owlowiscious made a sound like he was choking. "Puffball?"
Opal made the same sound, only with more laughter.
"Wait, wait!" Fluttershy suddenly spoke up which surprised everypony. "Angel is a pony too!"
"Really?!" Dash couldn't believe her ears. The small, angry bunny that pushed his owner around now had the ability to talk? She didn't know whether to react calmly to it or panic. She settled for mild surprise though. "So where is he?"
"He's right..." Fluttershy stopped when she realized that Angel was no longer standing next to her. She quickly turned in a full circle, looking for her pet. "Angel? Where are you?"
"Tank!"
Rarity, Fluttershy, Twilight, and Rainbow Dash each looked in the direction of the voice and saw that Angel was standing in front of Tank. Angel had an unusually cheerful smile on his face and he was talking excitedly with Tank who was listening silently but with a smile of his own. "Aw man, it's so great to see you again!"
"You two know each other?" Twilight asked.
"Well duh," Angel said dryly. "Tank lived here before speedy over there decided she wanted to get an 'awesome' pet." He grinned again, a distant look in his eyes as he remembered. "We'd always race around the house and garden." His grin dropped. "He would always win for some reason. Isn't that right Tank?"
Tank replied with his usual silence and a small nod.
"He doesn't say much but I assume he's agreeing with me."
"So...." Dash searched for something to say. "Can somepony please explain why my turtle-"
"Tortoise."
"Right, can somepony explain why my tortoise is a Pegasus? I'm pretty sure that tortoises can't fly."
"The effects of the magic wave depend on what you want your pet to be like." Twilight explained. "I guess you really want Tank to be able to fly."
Dash considered this. "I guess, he doesn't know how though."
"Well, he is a tortoise." Rarity pointed out, matter-of-factly.
Dash looked back at Tank who was still happily listening to Angel's ramblings, not even attempting to respond or speak up.
"Right. Anyway, what happened to Fluttershy's house?" Her eyes drifted to the slightly repaired, but still damaged, building. Gaping holes still existed in the walls and numerous ponies stood around.
"The same thing that happened to Tank."
Fluttershy looked back at her home and sighed, her mood quickly switching to depressed and her eyes beginning to water. "And it's still destroyed. What am I going to do?"
"Er..." Twilight quickly racked her brain for the answer that wouldn't cause her friend to start crying. "You can stay with me!" She finally said.
""R-really?"
"Of course!"
Fluttershy mulled over the idea. "...Can Angel stay too?"
"Sure! Anything, just don't start crying." Twilight pleaded.
"Well..." Fluttershy's thought quickly went to the many animals that she cared for, now without a home. "What about my animals?"
The brief thought about her house being filled to the brim with animals crossed Twilight's mind. It made her break into a sweat. "Uh..."
"Don't worry." Rainbow Dash cut Twilight off, reassuring Fluttershy. "It's the middle of the summer and there's not a single cloud in the sky... anymore." She shot a small glare at the librarian. "It's perfect weather for sleeping outside."
"Well..." Fluttershy repeated. "Okay, I'll do it."
Just as she decided, Angel finally walked back to the group followed shortly after by Tank. "You'll do what exactly?"
"We're staying with Twilight until the house is fixed."
"No." Angel replied starkly. "No offense but I don't want to spend the day with the Queen of the nerds and her royal jester."
"Queen of the nerds?!" Twilight shouted, appalled.
"Jester...?" Owlowiscious mumbled. "I'd rather be a count..."
"Oh, come on Angel! Please?" Fluttershy insisted, giving him one of her patented adorable-looks; looking up at him with big pleading eyes.
"Wha-No!" He attempted to shield his eyes. "Stop looking at me like that!"
"Please Angel." She asked again, her eyes looking into his soul by this point.
Angel's defense faltered. "But I don't want to!"
She continued to stare at him.
".....Gah! Fine, I'll do it! Just stop giving me the look; I could have a heart attack or something." He turned and walked back to the house, grumbling about 'her stare' and how it's 'cheating'.
When he was gone, Fluttershy looked at the rest of the group, a small, pleased grin trying to hide on her face.
"Wow..." Rarity whispered in awe.
"Anyway..." Twilight spoke up again. "We should be off then."
They all went off to prepare for the walk back to Ponyville. Opal and Rarity walked side by side.
"Do you think she would teach me to bend ponies to my will?" An awed Opal questioned. "Maybe if I feign interest or something..."
***
"Ooh..."
Winona groaned in pain as her senses reactivated. The first sense to become active was her sight, her eyes slowly opened to see a large, bright light bearing down from above. She instantly reacted, covering her sore eyes and crying out in pain.
"Ah!"
"Oh good." A voice said from not too far away. "You're awake."
"Applejack...?" Winona groaned. She seemed to wake up more at the sound of Applejack's voice. "Ah think the sun wanted to come in and visit..."
She heard her owner laughed quietly. "Sorry Sugercube, but we're not in the house anymore."
"What?!" Winona almost immediently jumped to her hooves, accidently slamming her head into something wooden. In the entire time she had spent waking up, Winona failed to realize that she was actually inside a cart that had come to a halt. She rubbed her head and sat up, looking out of the cart. Applejack had already unhitched herself and was looking up at her.
Neither of them knew what to say.
"Well?" Applejack spoke up. "Are ya'll just gonna sit there? 'cause Ahm not gonna carry you anymore if you're awake."
Winona responded by jumping out of the cart and happily tackling Applejack to the ground, covering her in affectionate licks again.
"Wha-hey, hey!" Applejack cried out in surprise. The slightly amused farmer pushed Winona away once again. Winona had just started to really look around. They were on a long stretch of dirt road, nothing but trees lined the way.
"Where are we again?"
"Ah'd say we're about halfway to Ponyville." Applejack stood up and picked her Stetson off the ground, dusting it off and placing it back on her head. "You accidently knocked yourself out and Ah thought Ah would have to carry you all the way to Ponyville."
"Ponyville? We're going to Ponyville?"
"Yup, This whole mess must be Twilight's doing and Ahm gonna get to the bottom of it."
"And Ah get to come along?" Winona asked hopefully.
"You're already half of the way there." Applejack stated matter-of-factly. "Ah was bringing you along anyways."
Winona Jumped about happily. "Yeehaw! This'll be awesome!"
"Yeah, now c'mon let's get going."
"Right, let's-Oh!" Winona gasped and broke into a dash. "Squirrel!"
Applejack quickly raced after her. "Winona, wait!"
***
Ponyville was looking better by the minute. By the time Twilight and her friends had gotten back, many of the ponies had stopped being amazed by the miraculous disappearance of the storm clouds and were returning to their normal lives. Some even restarted decorating for the celebration. Although, a few still wandered about, asking others if they knew why things had suddenly gotten better. Amazingly none of the ponies really paid much attention to the group of eight that strolled down the main street.
Fluttershy took time to look over the wakening town. "Everything looks really nice, now that the clouds are gone."
In the back, hanging on to Tank for support, Rainbow Dash grumbled something unintelligible.
"Yeah, everything is a peachy." Opal said quickly, wiping a gob of mud from her shoulder. She had suffered an unfortunate fall into one of the large puddles that still dotted the land, tripping on a rock after she had a rather heated argument with Angel Bunny about Fluttershy.
At least, that's what Angel told them.
"Now can we please get inside somewhere so I can take a bath for once?" She continued.
"Of course, Opal." Twilight said. "The library will fit all of us." She paused. "I think."
"Unless Peewee had burned it to the ground." Owlowiscious added.
"I'm sorry, but I'm confused." Rarity confessed. "But who is Peewee again?"
"Spike's pet Phoenix. He's just a chick and stays in the house all the time." Twilight explained. "Did I forget to tell you about him?"
"Yes, but I guess that explains why we haven't seen him."
The nine continued to walk in silence; they eventually reached the street where Twilight's library sat.
"Finally!" Angel huffed. "Been walking for hours!"
"Wait..." Rarity stopped and pointed. "There's somepony in front of your house Twilight."
"Really?" Twilight squinted and tried to make out the pony that was in front of the library's wooden doors. "It looks kinda like... Pinkie Pie."
"Oh joy." Said the unhappy Opal. "Why couldn't we have been lucky and had the house burn down instead?"
Everypony advanced slowly on the house, somehow managing to not alert Pinkie Pie of their presence. Whatever Pinkie was doing, she was really engrossed by it.
It reached the point where everypony was standing directly behind her. To the group's surprise, streamers of varying hues hung from the many branches of the tree, blowing in the wind with the slightest breeze.
Everypony silently looked to Twilight. Begrudgingly, she stepped up and lightly tapped her friend on the shoulder. "Uh... Pinkie?"
Pinkie spun around faster than Twilight could blink, bugged eyed and mane frizzled. It was a shocking sight
"AAH!" She screamed at them.
"AAH!" Everyone else screamed back.
"Girls!" Pinkie shouted at her friends, sounding for some reason upset. "What are you doing here?!"
"Pinkie..." Twilight spoke slowly, one hoof clutching her rapidly beating chest. "I live here. What are you doing here?"
"Oh, right." Pinkie looked at Twilight's house and at Twilight, her mood quickly changing from surprised to upset. "You guys weren't supposed to get here until later. Now the surprise is ruined!"
"What surprise?" Twilight asked.
"Well..." Pinkie jumped to her hooves and began jumping around the group, speaking in her usual, quick tone. "Remember when we met earlier and I ran into Opal and I was like 'Ah!' and she was like 'Ah!' at the same time?"
"Yes..." Opal growled at the pink mare when she got close.
"Well, I went home to see if Gummy was a pony too, and guess what?!"
".....He was a-"
"He was a pony!" Pinkie interrupted happily. "And now we were setting up the 'Congratulations your pets are ponies' party and you all showed up too early!"
"So...where is Gummy anyway?" Dash asked, actually curious as to what the party animal's Gator would act like.
"Oh, he's inside, putting the finishing touches up."
Before Pinkie could even think of something else, the group had stampeded past her, through the large wooden door, and into the library. Inside the house many colorful streamers and confetti coated the walls and floor, giving the entire room a very festive look. A large table squatted in one corner, covered in tasty treats and pastries of all types.
Variations of 'wow, ooh' and 'ah' were heared amongst the group.
"But...where is Gummy?" Fluttershy asked.
"Spike? Peewee?" Twilight detatched from the group and ran off into her house, calling of her assistant and his pet without reply.
Everypony looked around the room but they could not find a single scale or hair of a pony-fied Gator. Pinkie jumped in after them, humming a nonsensical tune.
"So?" She asked. "What do you think?"
"It's... awesome, Pinkie." Dash answered slowly, choosing her words carefully. "But where's Gummy?"
Pinkie laughed. "He's up there silly!"
She pointed a hoof straight up and everypony followed it, none of them really sure about what they were going to see, or if they were going to like it.
Standing on the ceiling, upside down, was an Earth pony. He looked pretty young, older than a foal but younger than any of them. His mane was very short, arranged into a sort of bright green Mohawk that resembled reptile fins. His fur was equally as green as his mane. He didn't even seem to notice the group, or he simply ignored them, it was hard to tell.
"He's..."
"Oh that Gummy!" Pinkie laughed. "Always doing crazy stuff!"
"He's standing... on the ceiling..." Rarity replied haltingly, her left eye twitching erratically.
"That reptile." Angel shook his head, unfazed but rather creeped out. "I knew he was a weird one, but really?"
"Okay Gummy, it looks great!" Pinkie called to her pet. "You can come down now. And careful about leaving hoofprints, this is Twilight's house."
With not a single word spoken, Gummy stepped across the ceiling to the place that connected to the wall, stepping seamlessly onto it from the ceiling while turning a full ninety degrees in the process. He quickly walked down that and got to the floor without injury, finally coming to a stop beside Pinkie.
"Gummy, you remember our friends." Pinkie told him.
Gummy said nothing, instead staring blankly at the group with those large purple eyes of his. Everypony took a step back.
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Pinkie asked happily. She jumped for joy. "Let's party!"
"When's Twilight gonna get back?" Angel whispered to Owlowiscious, his usual calm replaced with nervousness.
Despite the rocky start, everypony eventually settled down and the party went pretty well. Twilight had finally returned after a while, Spike and Peewee in tow. Apparently Twilight had found Spike trapped in a mound of confetti, Peewee was being taken care of by Pinkie , happily chasing a balloon around and too busy to notice that his owner was trying to eat his way to freedom. When she had finally gotten back, the group had filled Twilight in on the party and Gummy. Twilight had initially been happy and curious about the development; but then they told her about what Gummy did.
She had laughed; calling it insane and going against all laws of physics. She had walked right up to her pink friend and the fish-eyed pony and had dared her to get Gummy to do it again.
That was twenty minutes ago.
"So, do you think she's gonna be okay?" Angel asked, looking down at the fallen unicorn. Twilight laid in a crumpled heap, her eyes wide open, staring blankly in different directions. A small puddle of drool was forming at the corner of her open mouth.
"Probably." Owlowiscious replied. He had taken a pillow and pushed it gently under the librarian's head. "This has happened before, but I must admit; this was a big one."
"There have been bigger." Spike noted glumly. Peewee was standing at his feet, looking at Twilight with a non-understanding look. "Is Twilight sleepy?" He asked, looking up at his owner.
"Poor thing." Rarity said. "Barely got a surprised noise out before she dropped on the spot."
"Yeah, I guess Gummy really is amazing isn't he?" Pinkie said as happily as ever.
"Spike, I'm curious." Owlowiscious looked to the young dragon. "How did Pinkie get in here in the first place?"
Spike shrugged. "How should I know? One moment I'm alone with Peewee again, the next moment they're here and I'm trapped in a pile of colored paper."
"Sorry about that Spike." Pinkie apologized. "But you really should have moved out of the way of the party cannon."
Opal walked back into the room, a towel wrapped around her head. While things were going down in the main room, she had disappeared to the bathroom with barely a word, just now coming back out, fresh and clean. She sighed happily.
"I suppose water isn't as bad as I thought." She walked past Twilight, poking the unconcious pony in the side without a response. "Is the egghead still cracked?"
"Oh come now, Opal." Rarity said. "Be nice, for once."
Opal ignored her owner's plea and walked over to the other pets, taking off her wet towel and lazily dumping it on Owlowiscious's head. She took her place by the food table and grabbed a cupcake, carelessly taking a bite out of it.
"So..." She swallowed. "We're all just going to wait for her to wake up?"
"Pretty much." Rainbow Dash replied. She was sitting down and leaning against Tank for support.
"And how long will that take?"
Owlowiscious shook his head. "I don't know. It could take minutes or even hours."
"Yeah, no." Opal refused. "That won't do at all. Hold on."
Opal turned around and in one swift motion, she grabbed the large punch bowl on the table and quickly turned again; the force of momentum causing the liquid to fly out and douse the vegetative Twilight. Twilight started to cough and sputter, finally waking up from her comatose state.
Opal calmly set the now empty bowl down on the table. "There."
"Opal!" Rarity shouted at her, outraged. "That was very rude!"
"It woke her up." Opal replied plainly, the hints of a smirk on her face showing through. "Problem solved."
"Ah!" Twilight's eyes flew open and she tried to get to her hooves, only to slip and fall again. "W-what's going on?! Where am I?!"
Dash wobbly approached her friend, her voice wearing a soothing tone. "Twilight, calm down, we're in your house, do you remember anything?"
"Well...no." Twilight groaned in pain. "But I did have the worst possible dream; we were all in the library and Pinkie was there with a ponyfied Gummy, and he was standing on the ceiling and... and..."
Her voice transformed into a small squeak when she noticed Pinkie waving happily to her and the pony from her dream standing next to her, his eyes slowly blinking separately. Twilight took a staggering step back, her breath coming in short gasps.
"No!" She shouted, pointing a hoof at Gummy. "You go against the laws of physics!"
"Twilight, you need to calm down!" Owlowiscious told her.
"You want me to calm down?!" She snapped at him. "I'll calm down if you give me a reasonable explanation why that pony was able to defy everything that you and I believe in!"
He thought for a moment and stated plainly. "He's Pinkie's pet."
Twilight opened her mouth to argue, but to her surprise she could not think of a rebuttal. She took a deep breath and seemed to consider Owlowiscious's words. Finally, she gave a defeated sigh. "Fine." She grumbled. "Has anypony at least filled Pinkie in about everything that's going on?"
The group shook their heads as one. They had been too busy caring for Twilight.
"Alright, gather round everypony, again."
***
Winona happily bounced into Ponyville, full of energy and all of her senses alive. She carelessly ran all over the place, inspecting the many buildings and the ponies around her. Far behind her, Applejack lumbered after her, the usually energetic farmer exhausted.
"Squirrels..." Applejack muttered under her heavy breathing. "Squirrels everywhere..."
"Applejack! Applejack!" Winona ran back to her owner. She circled Applejack while shouting her name repeatedly.
"Yes?" Applejack tried to sound cheerful but her voice came out as grumpy.
"Ponyville is so amazing now!" She stated. "Ah didn't know everything was so colorful!"
"Yeah, Ah guess." Applejack finally caught her breath and scanned the town, everypony was too busy with whatever they were doing to notice the two. She started to walk again, though she really didn't want to. "C'mon, we still need to get to Twilight's house."
"Why do we need to go there again?"
"Because either she's the reason why you're a pony, or she knows how to fix it."
"Oh!" Winona gasped for some reason. "Maybe there are other ponies like me! Do you think that's possible Applejack?"
"If Twilight's behind this, anything's possible Winona." Applejack answered. She lead the way into the town, Winona following closely, babbling happily about anything interesting she saw
***
"...And that's the reason why you shouldn't let anypony know about-Pinkie! Are you even listening?"
"Nope! What are we talking about? Is it a joke? I love jokes!"
"No, no, dear you need to pay attention."
"Oh, I'm sorry, was I not listening?"
"Fluttershy, she's talking to Pinkie."
"Oh, sorry."
Twilight, Spike, and Rarity once again found themselves at the table in the library, Pinkie, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy sat across from them, each of them either listening or at least paying attention to the two unicorns that tried to explain things to them. Twilight and Rarity glanced at each other.
"Fine." Twilight continued. "I'll go over it again..."
While Twilight and Rarity started explaining the events that had happened to them and their pets again, the pets in question had moved away from the table and now stood around the snack table, occasionally listening in on the conversations of their owners.
"Ponies are strange, aren't they?" Opal asked nopony in particular as she watched the owners argue with each other.
Angel, who hadn't eaten since yesterday, was too busy stuffing his face to offer a smarmy comment. Peewee, who had been placed on the table and away from Twilight's friends who wouldn't stop gushing about him, was currently trying to gnaw on a donut bigger than him and wasn't paying attention to anything else. Tank didn't seem like the kind of pony that would answer her even if he wanted to.
And Gummy...
Gummy poked his head out from underneath the tablecloth, reached up on to the table, snatched a plate off the table without disturbing the cupcakes it was holding, and quickly disappeared under the cloth again, the young colt's blank eyes ever present. Opal briefly wondered is she should question that,
She shook her head to eliminate the thought. Not even if I was paid in fish.
That only left, once again, Owlowiscious. Owlowiscious was sitting at the other end of the table, silently watching his owner as she tried to explain things while Pinkie talked about some joke involving a hippo and peanut butter.
"Excuse me?" Opal stepped beside the Owl, breaking his focus. "I was asking a question."
He turned to her. "Huh?"
"All of these ponies." She pointed a hoof to the group. "They are so weird. They fight monsters, they defy laws of nature, and every week or so one of them goes insane!" She briefly glanced at Pinkie Pie. "Some of them more than others."
"It's fascinating though." Owlowiscious acknowledged. "So many different ponies who do all kinds of things, and they're all friends." He looked to Opal. "And look at us; if I was still an owl, you would probably be trying to eat me right now."
"You have too many bones right now." Opal claimed. "I'd end up choking, not to mention Rarity would start yelling again."
Owlowiscious shook his head at her. "You really need to try and be nicer." In an act of extreme bravery for the bird, he put a hoof on the cat's shoulder. "We could be friends you know."
Opal pulled back like Owlowiscious was on fire. "Me? A purebred feline, friends with a nerdy owl?" She laughed but it sounded forced. "Don't make me laugh!"
"You know..." Angel stepped into the conversation, crumbs still stuck to his face which he wiped off quickly. "If you act like this then karma will be terrible to you."
"Kar-ma?" Opal tilted her head in confusion. "What is that, some kind of flutterpony tale?"
"Apparently if you do bad things then bad things will happen to you," he explained. "Fluttershy talked about it a lot before but I'm not sure why." He added a quick wink at the end.
"Ha!" Opal gave a sneer full of self-righteousness. "As if anything would happen to me."
A sudden, loud, continuous knocking drew everypony's attentions to the library doors. A voice shouted through the hard wood. "Hey! Is anypony in there?"
"Is that Applejack?" Dash asked, recognizing the voice.
"Doors open!" Twilight shouted back.
The door swung open and Applejack stepped in, mud and dead leaves were stuck to her, a twig stuck out of her hat. "Howdy ya'll."
"Hi Applejack!" Pinkie greeted her friend. "Did you see all the storm clouds move away? Twilight did that!"
She nodded. "Ah was in the middle of it." Applejack shot a glare at Twilight. "Twilight, we talked about this. We had an intervention about this."
Twilight nodded ashamedly.
"Excuse me, dear?" Rarity called. "You appear to be covered in... gunk."
Applejack examined herself and didn't look surprised that she was that messy. "That Ah am. It's a long walk here from the farm and Ah was kind of sidetracked by stuff."
"What kind of stuff?"
Applejack looked over at the pets, who were silently watching her; even Gummy was poking his head out from under the tablecloth.
"Oh, probably the same stuff that ya'll have. Winona! Come in here!"
She had shouted to the open doorway and soon Everypony could hear the pounding of running hooves and the familiar panting breath.
"Oh no..." Opal said quietly, a hint of fear in her voice.
"What?" Owlowiscious was confused. He looked to Angel. "What's going on?"
Angel grinned wickedly. "Karma."
The sound got closer and closer until an extremely scruffy pony stopped and stood in the doorway of the library. She looked even worse than Applejack but there was a kind of excitement in her eyes while Applejack just looked tired.
"Applejack! Ah saw these two squirrels and Ah tried to chase them but Ah can't become two ponies which is sad, so Ah-" She went stock still and her eyes widened when she noticed Opal, who at that point was trying to hide under the table with Gummy. When she notice Winona staring at her She froze as well. Nopony moved, their eyes trained on the two ponies.
"Um... hi?"
"CAT!" Winona reared up on her hind legs and smashed the ground in rage.
All of the other pets silently moved out of the way. When Opal noticed this it was too late. She barely had time to scream before Winona crossed the short distance of the room and tackled her.
If anypony had been standing outside the Ponyville library, or anywhere in a mile radius for that matter, they would have been temporarily deafened from the loud screaming emanating from within the wooden, usually silent walls. The scream traveled out through Ponyvile, bouncing off the many buildings. Many ponies stopped and turned their heads in the direction of the library, confused about what could possibly make that sound.
Opal screamed in surprise and fear as Winona collided with her. The two ponies rolled along the ground in a swirling mess of arms and manes, only stopping when they smashed into one of the bookcases causing a shower of books to rain down on them. Opal took the opportunity to push the slobbering, growling pony off of her and run away. Winona quickly recovered from being struck by falling literature and gave chase. The two ended up in an endless chase around the circular room.
"Winona! Heel! Stop! ...Please?" Applejack demanded, she yelled at the top of her voice for Winona to stop but the earth pony would not be acknowledged. Winona was a single minded pony at the moment and all she thought of was chasing the unfamiliar Pony with the familiar cat scent. Each time they raced around the room everypony had to jump out of the way or be run over by the panicking Opal.
Owlowiscious backed up just in time to avoid her. Peewee had been placed on his back by Spike to protect him. "Opal! Stop running, maybe we can talk this out!"
"Talk it out?!" Opal had briefly changed from running around the room to being chased around Tank, the stout Pegasus providing some cover for the unicorn. "Are you out of your feathery mind?!"
"Um, Rarity." Dash spoke. "Don't you think you should try and help Opal."
Rarity was silent for a minute as she watched the scene unfold. She didn't seem to hear Dash at first. "Hmm? Oh, why don't we give it a minute or two?" She asked. "It's sort of entertaining."
"I heard that, fat-horn!" Opal shouted.
"Winona! Stop this right now!" Applejack charged her pet, and latched onto her back. Winona thrashed around and made Applejack slip off, accidently sending her into another bookcase.
"Girls!" Twilight spoke up. "Stop destroying my library!"
"E-excuse me? Miss Winona?" Fluttershy tried to talk to Winona, despite the fact that Fluttershy was speaking very quietly and Winona was on the other side of the room by then. "M-maybe w-we could just sit down and talk this out? Please?"
"Flutters." Angel commented. "I'm standing next to you and I can barely hear you."
"Oh, sorry."
He facehoofed. "Please stop apologizing."
"Sorry."
"Can we focus please?!" Opal shouted at them. She had somehow scaled the wall and was clinging to one of the book-filled crannies. Winona was directly below her, trying and failing to nab the unicorn just out of her reach. "Somepony stop this deranged mutt already!"
Everything seemed to dissolve into a lot of yelling after that. Applejack had recovered and was arguing with Rarity about their pet's behavior, and Twilight was yelling at the others to be careful with her books, all while Opal was calling for help, slash throwing insults at Winona who probably didn't even hear her. The others watched on in bewilderment.
"Applejack!" Rarity shouted. "Control your mangy dog at once!"
"Get your frumpy cat to stop and she'll stop!"
Rainbow Dash and Tank had been watching from the relative safety of the kitchen doorway.
She sighed. "Well, I guess the fastest Pegasus in Equestria needs to step in."
The ever determined Dash started to hobble back into the room but was stopped by an outstretched arm. "What?" She followed the arm to the pony it was connected to. "Tank?"
Tank said nothing; only looking on at the others. He lowered his arm after a moment and strode out into the room himself. Rainbow Dash just stood and watched. Despite the chaos at the moment, Tank easily got to the middle of the room without suffering any harm. The large Pegasus quickly took in everything that was around him and took in a deep breath. Building himself up, Tank opened his mouth and let the breath out in one word.
"Stop."
It wasn't even shouted, but the deep-sounding word spread out across the room cutting through the other noises and reaching the ears of all around. The entire room went silent, the word echoing off the walls in the silence. Everypony stared silently at Tank; even Winona stopped what she was doing and stared, albeit, with a confused expression.
"Tank!" Angel exclaimed excitedly. Next to him, Fluttershy's mouth was agape. "You can talk!"
Tank replied with a simple nod and slowly walked back to the kitchen. His owner, Rainbow Dash, equally shocked as anypony else and mouth agape. Tank gently pushed her mouth back up and stood beside her once again.
"...Um..." Opal, who was still hanging from the book-cranny, called hesitantly. "Could somepony please get me down now?"
Twilight complied and her horn lit up, a purple aura surrounded Opalescence. She floated up into the air and across the room. She finally came to a stop and was lowered to the ground. The moment that happened, she quickly scrambled away, cowering behind her owner, Rarity. Rarity didn't pay much attention though; she seemed to be frozen in awe.
"Such a voice..." She muttered.
An unsure Applejack slowly approached her pet, who was looking around the library, confusedly. "Winona, are you okay?"
"Where are we?" She asked. "What's going on?"
"To be honest..." The Element of Honesty stated. "Ahm not too sure mahself."
Winona finally focused on Applejack, her eyes only half open. "Ahm really tired for some reason, so Ahm just gonna lie down now." She made her point by weakly flopping, face down, onto the floor. A few seconds later a light, muffled snoring could be heard, coming from the earth pony.
"So..." Applejack looked back at everypony else, her eyes wandering about while she searched for something to say and break the awkward silence. "What were ya'll talking about anyways?"
Twilight's eye began to twitch but she fought it back. "Okay, everypony better sit down right now because I'm only going to explain this one more time!"
***
It was late when Twilight finally finished filling the others in on what had happened. Luna's moon was visible through the windows, just peaking over the mountains in the distance. Each of them had sat down at the table and filled the others in on what had happened when their pets were transformed, everypony listened intently to Applejack when she mentioned the Timberwolf attack and when she and Winona fought them off.
"Oh my!" Fluttershy gasped. "Are they alright?"
Applejack nodded. "Yeah, sure we may have gotten some nasty splinters but nopony was really hurt and the cows were okay."
The timid Pegasus shook her head despairingly. "Those poor wolves!"
Applejack glared silently at Fluttershy, briefly evaluating their friendship before just waving it off. Rarity had been half listening since the talking began. Opal would not leave her side, even though Winona was basically comatose at the moment. Though, to Rarity's fortune, Opal had been mostly silent for the entirety of the conversation, only saying something sarcastic once or twice and constantly glanced nervously at the sleeping pony to see if she was still asleep.
Pinkie, who had been uncharacteristically silent since tank spoke, looked eagerly at her friends nonetheless. Gummy stood like a frozen statue, staring at the others with his usual fish eyes. A few of the ponies were nervous under his piercing stare, afraid that if they blinked he might attack.
"I so would have kicked their buts if I was there." Dash boasted. She had been previously trying to get Tank, who was still beside her, supporting her, to speak again, to no avail. "Stupid broken leg." She grumbled.
"And all of you were affected." Applejack thought aloud. "How far do you think the magic went?"
"I was thinking about that when I was tied to Fluttershy's tree." Owlowiscious said. "Considering the strength of Twilight's magic, it would probably spread out for a few kilometers, even more, and then disipate before it can reach anywhere else." He looked unsure for a second. "Probably."
"Well I guess the celebration can go on then." Rarity assumed. "Of course, we haven't done anything about it though-"
"You're right!" Pinkie gasped suddenly. "All this time we've been having so much fun with the pets that we totally forgot about the Sun Celebration!"
Angel chuckled mischievously. "Oh boy, when the Princesses finds out about this..."
"I'm sure they will understand." Fluttershy cut him off, the whole thing reminded her of the time she made a mistake. "The Princesses are really nice."
Twilight nodded. "And now that we're all here, I can finally tell you my plan." She stood up and cleared her throat, everypony watched with anticipation.
"All of our pets have been turned into ponies by a freak accident caused by me. And I'm sorry but I don't know how to fix it." Twilight explained and apologized as she looked over the group. "But if anypony knows how to fix it, Princess Celestia does. And even though the celebration isn't prepared for..." She took a moment to compose herself, as if saying this caused her discomfort. "...The Princess will still arrive here soon and we can get her to fix this mess."
Just then, Spike seized up in his chair, his face contorted in a weird shape. He opened his mouth and out came a burst of green flames in the form of a burp. The flames circled around the table and joined together, forming a long, white scroll that floated down onto the table below. Spike quickly excused himself, picked up the parchment and unfurled it.
"It's from the Princesses." He confirmed, not taking his eyes off of it as he spoke.
"The Princesses?" Opal asked, mildly curious. "What would they have to say?"
"It's probably a letter announcing their arrival." Twilight answered. She let out a sigh of relief. "Finally, read it out, Spike."
He looked at her. "Are you sure?"
She nodded cheerfully. "Go on."
He brought his eyes back to the paper and read aloud.
"My faithful student, me and my sister have been looking forward to this year's celebration and seeing you once again for a long time. Seeing you and the other ponies of Ponyville is a great pleasure of mine..."
Twilight smiled, her face beaming with happiness.
"...This is why I must regretfully inform you that we will not be able to make it today. Unexpectedly, a large mass of storm clouds suddenly showed up out of the blue and is now covering Canterlot. The weather team denies any accusations put against them and are hard at work clearing the clouds away but I don't think it will be done in time. I apologize for not being able to get there in time and will send word when the storm is gone.
Your faithful teacher, Celestia."
Nopony said a word. Each of them silently looked at the paper in Spike's hands and then to Twilight.
Twilight stared blankly into space, her smile gone from her face.
"Twilight? Say something." Dash said.
After a moment, Twilight opened her mouth and spoke.
What came out was not very friendly.
Spike quickly reached over and covered Peewee's ears.
***
Twilight eventually calmed down and everypony sat down again. With the new news fresh in their minds, everypony didn't know exactly what was going to happen.
"So...what do we do now?" Angel asked.
Owlowiscious and Twilight looked to one another.
"I... guess we... wait it out." Twilight answered. Her entire body seemed to droop with depression.
"It's the only thing we can do." Owlowiscious added.
The rest were silent, they didn't like to see one of their friends in such a mood, especially Twilight.
"Look on the bright side!" Pinkie chirped, always searching for something to cheer her friends up. "We now have time to work on the celebration!"
"The celebration...?" Twilight perked up a little at this. The others did too.
"Yeah!" Pinkie grabbed Gummy and gave him a squeeze, causing him to squeak for some reason. "And our pets could help us prepare!"
The owners looked to their pets and vice versa. That actually seemed like a good idea.
"Do you think ya'll could help?" Applejack questioned.
"Of course." Owlowiscious said. "I've always wanted to help."
"I could work with Fluttershy." Angel decided. "I guess."
Fluttershy gave Angel a warm smile which he tried to return but came out as a sneer.
"Winona and Ah have already worked together." Applejack noted. "We'll be just fine."
"Opal?" Rarity looked down at the still-cowering pony. "Would you like to help me in the shop?"
"Hah!" Opal laughed, regaining some of her usual vanity. "You think I want to work in that sweat shop, making dresses designed by you!?"
In the corner of the room Winona kicked and growled in her sleep. Opal cowered again at the sound.
"That doesn't sound so bad." She squeaked.
"Then it's settled." The farmer concluded. "We'll all go home and have a good night's sleep. Tomorrow we get to work."
They all agreed and the friends made their leave. Soon everpony was out the door and gone. The last to leave was Applejack with Winona on her back.
"Ngh... sleeps like a rock, weighs just as much, and runs like a train..." Applejack muttered as she was out the door. "She's an Apple alright."
Twilight said goodnight and magically closed the door behind her. That left only Twilight and company, as well as Fluttershy and Angel.
Spike yawned. "We're going to bed too." He cradled a drowsy Peewee in his arms, who was mumbling something about 'giant doggies' and walked off. "Night, Twi."
Twilight looked over at Fluttershy. "Sorry about having to stay here, Twilight." Fluttershy apologized.
"It's okay Fluttershy, really!" Twilight just couldn't understand her friend's need to apologize for everything. "Nopony's used the guest bed in weeks."
She nodded happily. "Thank you."
"Wait, wait, wait, wait!" Angel cut into the conversation. "Did you say...guest bed?"
"Yeah, guest bed; only one."
He looked at Fluttershy, a dawning realization on his face that Fluttershy didn't understand.
"It's okay Angel, we can share the bed."
That was all it took. Angel's face went red like a chili pepper and he bounded off into the rest of the house, screaming incoherently. Fluttershy, still not understanding, chased after him. "Angel, wait! Was it something I said?"
Twilight watched the two run off, shook her head and moved to the stairs that led up to her room. It had been a very long day and she just couldn't find the strength, or the wit, to get involved.
The bright light of a new day shone through the bedroom window of Twilight Sparkle's library, pushing out the shadows and illuminating the dark rooms. The light fell upon Twilight's bed, inching closer and closer up her bed sheets and eventually reaching her face, causing her to groan in discomfort and turn away. The light managed to wake her up a bit though and the unicorn's foggy mind started to wake up, despite her body's refusal to.
She remembered a huge storm; a clash of lightning and the pounding of rain. Her assistant, Spike and her second assistant, Owlowiscious, Spike had been yelling for some reason. There was a weird buzzing sensation that Twilight shook off quickly. And lastly, she remembered her friends; all of them with their pets, smiling at her.
All of their pets.
"Oh yeah."
The events of the previous day finally reached through the fog of Twilight's addled mind and she remembered everything; the spell, the wall of magic, Owlowiscious and the other pets, it all came back to her. Twilight sighed; it had all seemed like a distant memory just earlier. Reluctantly, the tired unicorn rose from her warm bed to start the day.
"Maybe the spell wore off." Twilight thought hopefully to herself. "Maybe I'll go out there and I'll see Owlowiscious and he'll be small again and he'll fly over to me and rest on my back, and Spike will walk out with Peewee on his shoulder. And then Rarity and the rest will show up and everything will be fine. We'll all look back on this a laugh!"
She walked from her room and into the main part of the house. Nopony was up yet. She looked around the room and found Owlowiscious, still sound asleep, resting on Rarity's velvet couch that was ignored and left in a corner. His wings were fully expanded and he was quietly making owl noises in his sleep.
Twilight sighed quietly. "Oh well, that thought was nice while it lasted."
She walked down the stair and approached the sleeping Pegasus. She prodded him in the side a few times before he began to stir.
"Ugh..." Owlowiscious groaned in discomfort and he slowly look upward, his eyelids opening only a smidge "...Twilight...? What time is it?"
"Time to get up." Twilight said plainly, her own tired expression turning to a concerned one. "How do you feel?"
"Fine, except for the fact that I'm awake." The night owl pushed himself off the couch and stood in front of Twilight. "What do you want?"
"Today, I'm supposed to oversee the preparation for the celebration and see how everypony's doing." She explained.
He tilted his head questioningly, a small grin on his exhausted face. "And you want me to help?"
She nodded quickly. "Yes please."
"Very well, where do we begin?"
"We go wake up Spike. We'll need him too."
They moved to the door that gave entrance to the dragon's room. Twilight magically opened the door slowly and both of them peered in. The room wasn't extravagantly decorated, only very moderate with the only distinguishing features being a wooden chest and a small table, piles of books and gems were scattered around the room. Spike was asleep in a bed that sat right underneath the only window in the room. There was a small pet bed near Spikes but Peewee had somehow gotten onto Spike's bed and was sleeping on the dragon's head, a trail of drool running down from Peewee on to Spike.
Twilight couldn't help but chuckle at the scene. "Isn't that just adorable?"
Owlowiscious was instead looking at the table, inspecting the large, heart-shaped ruby that sat prominently on top. He nodded without looking back. Twilight stepped carefully over the gems, over to Spike and poked the sleeping dragon gently.
"Spike, wake up."
Spike woke up almost instantly. "Twilight? Ah!" His attempt to open his eyes was met with realization, and a lot of fur. "Help! I can't see!"
"That's because Peewee's stuck to your face."
He stopped and after a moment replied with a quiet, "Oh" and started the slow process of prying the Alicorn off his face. Peewee came off of Spike with a tiny *pop* and was placed on the bed cover. He quickly started to wake up and slowly began to cry from being disturbed.
"Shh, shh..." Owlowiscious quickly stepped in and scooped the tiny pony up and rocked him in his arms. "Go back to sleep, little birdy." He cooed, soothingly. "Everything's alright."
Peewee looked up at the Pegasus with unfocused, drooping eyes; he had stopped crying and was just sniffling. He attempted to grab the Pegasus's face a few times before sleep overtook him once again. Owlowiscious carefully maneuvered his wings into a makeshift basket, placing the sleeping Alicorn within. Peewee quickly took to it and curled up in the many, soft feathers.
Owlowiscious smiled proudly at his clever idea and showed it to Twilight. "Now we don't have to leave him here."
Twilight could barely contain her gleeful smile at the scene, her mind briefly wondering where ever she left her camera. Spike leaned on the edge of his bed, absentmindedly gnawing on a sapphire. "So, what do we do now?"
"We should check on the others." She stated. "It's going to be a long day so we might as well start now."
He perked up at this. "Oh! Can we go see Rarity first?"
"May we?" Owlowiscious asked. "I would like to see how Opalescence is doing."
Twilight seemed to consider it for a moment and decided. "Sure, why not. We'll go there first."
She left the room to prepare, leaving Spike and Owlowiscious alone. Spike congratulated himself with a quiet "Yes" for getting Twilight to listen to him while Owlowiscious simply rolled his eyes. They followed after Twilight into the main room, it had been rather quickly cleaned up by Pinkie and Gummy of the various party items and nopony was in the mood to ask how. They quickly found the student conversing with a newly awakened Fluttershy.
"Are you sure nothing's wrong?" She yawned, rubbing her eyes. "I thought I heard somepony crying."
"It's all been taken care of. Sorry about waking you up though." Twilight apologized.
Fluttershy yawned but shook her head. "Don't be. I usually get up at this time to take care of the animals and Angel usually gets up with me, even if he might not want to."
As if on cue, the now-earth pony, in question walked into the room from the guest room. He looked surprisingly worse for wear than his owner, with a very ruffled mane and dark bags under his eyes. Twilight let out a quiet gasp.
"What happened to him?"
Fluttershy looked at Angel caringly. "I found the poor thing on the floor in the middle of the room with nothing but a pillow! The last time I saw him, he was on the bed with me, I just don't know what happened."
Owlowiscious shot Angel a knowing look which Angel disregarded. He craned his neck back until a cracking noise could be heard. He then massaged it with a hoof.
"Yeah." He muttered with the barest hint of sarcasm. "It's a mystery."
"I'm really sorry about not being able to watch Peewee." Fluttershy continued regardless. "But I really need to see how my animals are doing."
"It's okay; we were just going to bring him along when we go see Rarity."
"Oh, are you sure he'll be okay?"
Twilight glanced back at the sleeping Alicorn. He had sneezed in his sleep which had accidently set the tip of Owlowiscious's mane alight and now he and Spike were trying to set him out without disturbing the sleeping pony.
"To be honest, I don't think you'll have to worry about him."
***
The walk through Ponyville was rather uneventful for the four. The townsponies had just finished clearing up the last of the mud and were just starting to decorate. Twilight made a mental note to alert them of the Princess's letter. Not too many ponies noticed the four as they walked, though a few did double takes when the baby Alicorn peering out of the Pegasus's wings waved happily at them. They quickly reached Carousel Boutique and Twilight was surprised at how much of it was intact, since forty percent of its walls were made of glass and not a single one was cracked. Twilight approached the doors and was about to knock...
"Wait!" Spike shouted causing Twilight to stop.
"What? What is it?!"
Spike didn't reply, instead running over to one of the large windows, his reflection clearly visible in the glass. He inspected himself for a moment; running a claw over his spines to smooth them back, only for them to pop up a moment later. He walked back to the three and nodded.
"Okay, we can go in."
Twilight and Owlowiscious exchanged a dry look and knocked on the door. The sounds of ruffling fabric and clattering of tools was heard from the other side, as well as voices.
"...It must be them, so get the door!"
"Why do I have to get the door, why don't you get it?"
"Opal, mommy's very busy so please go get the door."
"Busy with what; all you've done is stare at that roll of fabric like a fancy dress is going to pop into existence."
The other voice let out a very exasperated groan and hoofsteps could be heard coming towards the other end of the door. A white aura surrounded it and it swung open, revealing Rarity. She had her horned glasses on and a measuring tape hung around her neck.
"Twilight, Owlowiscious, Spike!" Rarity smiled in surprise, though it seemed somewhat tight. "It's really good to see all of you. Please come in."
She stepped aside and everypony walked in. Rarity gained an actual, small, smile as she noticed Peewee looking up at her happily. The boutique's main room looked even worse than the last time Twilight as in it, if that was even possible. The piles of cloth and ornaments piled up around the corners of the room, completely covering some of the mannequins. In one corner, lounging on another couch and watching them with wary eyes, was Opalescence.
"Well, well, it's the queen of the nerds and her entourage." Opal sneered.
"And a fine hello to you too." Twilight replied with a similar sneer and a glare. Unlike Twilight, who had decided to ignore the unicorn for the most part, and Spike, who was trying his hardest to get Rarity to notice him, Owlowiscious walked right up to the lazy pony, clearly looking to start a conversation.
"Hello Opal." He gave a lopsided grin. "And how are you today?"
Opal replied with a loud, wet raspberry in the Pegasus's face. He could hear Peewee giggling on his back.
"I still don't know why I ever decided to do this." She wondered aloud. "I should have just taken my chances with the mutt."
"Actually, I'm fairly certain that Winona's a Border collie..."
"Bah!" Opal, suddenly with surprising amount of energy, got up and jumped to the top of a pile of clothing and lay down again. From her new position she looked down on the Pegasus like a ruler would look at a humble peasant, she waved a hoof at him much like she would have when she was a cat though, it wasn't at all as threatening. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't claw your eyes out, bird brain."
Owlowiscious raised an eyebrow at this. "Apart from the fact that you don't have claws anymore? Well there's the fact that I have a baby on board." He turned and showed the foal he was carrying to her. Opal's eyes widened slightly and she came down from her perch, inspecting Peewee with a curious eye.
"It's an Alicorn." She stated obviously.
"He's actually a Phoenix. He was turned, like us."
Opal raised a hoof and brought it near the foal. She spoke in a halted tone at the Alicorn, seemingly not knowing exactly what to say. Peewee managed to reach out from the folds of Owlowiscious's wings and touched her hoof, babbling happily in his baby-language.
Owlowiscious was grinning ear to ear by now. "Isn't he cute?"
"I remember seeing this thing once." She finally spoke again, her usual snarky tone returning. "I tried to eat him and he set my tail on fire." She nodded. "Cute is not the word I would describe him with."
"Regardless, he really needs to get out and play." Owlowiscious picked Peewee up and set him down on the piles of fabric. Peewee looked around curiously and toddled off in some unknown direction away from the two, extremely excited about the new place. The two watched as the Alicorn fumbled with a long piece of ribbon, accidently getting wrapped up in it and falling to the ground which only made him laugh more.
"Alright, I admit it. That is pretty cute, but you should probably be careful, he might set fire to all of Rarity's cheap material."
"I heard that!"
Across the room, Twilight, Spike and Rarity had been conversing. Rarity looked back to Twilight. "As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted..." She continued, but not before shouting the words, 'rudely interrupted'. On the other side of the room, Opal stuck her tongue out childishly at her owner. "It really is nice to see you two, I'm not sure how much more I could have taken if I was left alone."
"You and Opal really aren't working out, are you?"
Rarity shook her head. "I've been trying, really trying, to get Opal to cooperate but she is just..." She sighed. "It's just getting really difficult."
"I'm sorry to hear about that." Twilight replied apologetically. "I guess not all of our pets are as happy as we thought."
Rarity glanced over at Opal and Owlowiscious who were still talking while trying to keep track of Peewee who had just discovered that glitter made everything sparkly and was trying to magically douse Opal with a bottle of red glitter.
"But Owlowiscious sure seems to be trying his hardest to change that."
Twilight looked in the same direction, her face clearly showing her non-understanding. "What do you mean?"
"You haven't noticed? Owlowiscious has been trying so hard to be friendly to Opal. Every time I see them, they're together." She smiled a little, her first real smile since Twilight had shown up. "He's an exceedingly nice stallion-er, Owl."
Twilight nodded in agreement. "Yeah."
"I think they make an adorable couple."
Twilight almost nodded but quickly caught herself. "Yea-Wait, what?!"
"Oh never mind dear, just thinking out loud." Rarity motioned for her to follow. "Now follow me, I have some designs I want to show you."
Twilight followed the designer to the many mannequins but her thoughts were still stuck on Rarity's previous statement. Spike stayed behind and sat back in a chair to watch Peewee. He shook his head and laughed.
"Two different species together, that's just weird."
Twilight suddenly remembered to ask something. "By the way, how did Sweetie Belle take it when you came back with Opal?"
"Pretty well with all things considered, she's not here though, she's probably doing something with her friends."
***
"CUTIEMARK CRUSADERS ASSEMBLE!!"
"Ow...we're right here, Applebloom. You don't need to yell."
"Ah know, Ah know, but ya'll won't believe what happened..."
The steps of the Apple house creaked and groaned as Applejack stepped down into the living room. Her brother was sitting on the couch in the living room, adjusting his yoke and barely registered her as she sat down, in a huff, next to him.
"Winona and me went to see Twilight." She stated.
Big Macintosh nodded once, signifying that he did, in fact, acknowledge her existence. He did not say anything though.
"Ah met up with her and the others in the library. It turns out that all of their pets were affected too and she says she can't change 'em back to normal."
He nodded.
Applejack continued. "Twilight said that the only pony that can fix this is the Princess herself, which is why we're all gonna wait for her to show up for the celebration."
He nodded.
"She said that we should have our pets help us out with the preparations."
He nodded, this time more slowly.
Applejack leaned back in her seat and yawned, her head resting on the back of the couch and her eyes searching for patterns in the wooden ceiling. "Now Ahm an honest pony, if nothing else, and Ah love Winona like a sister, or a daughter." She hesitated. "But..."
"Applejack!" The distinct voice of Winona cried out from the hallway along with the clattering noises of things being knocked over, "Help! Mah doggie door shrunk since Ah last used it and now Ahm stuck!"
The farmer wearily eyed the entryway to the hall and looked back to her brother, who had stood up at that point, fully prepared for the day and not even batting an eye at the commotion. She really did admire his calmness at times, but right now it was kind of annoying.
"But Ahm not sure how effective she'll be if Ah actually give her work." She gave her brother pleading eyes. "What should Ah do?"
"Applejack? There's a big bird staring right at me out here. Please don't eat mah soul Mr. bird..."
Big Mac finally turned his eyes to Applejack, giving her a stern look. He shrugged, or the earth pony equivalent to a shrug, and actually spoke.
"You'll never know unless you try."
He was silent once again. Applejack considered his words, noting for a second that his voice sounded almost like Tank's, only deeper and, obviously, with an accent. She nodded. "Yeah, Ah guess you're right." She got up from her seat and moved in the direction of the hall. "It's time to get to work."
She looked back at her brother and pointed a hoof to the hallway, a hopeful look on her face. "Ah don't suppose you could help me with this problem?"
He slowly shook his head, the barest hints of a grin on his red muzzle. "Ah distinctly remember you saying you would take full responsibility of Winona the day we got her."
"Ah did say that, didn't Ah?" She nodded glumly but smiled nonetheless. "And you're never gonna let me forget it."
Without another word she left the room. Big Macintosh could hear her open and close the front door with a squeak and even hear their conversation through the thin walls.
"Alright Winona, now hold still. Ahm gonna pull you out of there."
"Okay!"
"..."
"..."
"...Winona?"
"Yes?"
"Are you pulling against me?"
"Yup, Ahm just trying to help."
"Just push."
A loud pop was heard, along with sounds of a crash and groaning sounds.
"That was fun! Can we do it again?"
"No. Now c'mon, it's time to get to work."
"Really? Okay fine...Oh! Can Applebloom come along? Can she? Can she?"
"Actually... Ahm not sure where Applebloom is..."
***
Somewhere on the edge of the Apple family farm, there was a single, large tree that had been built upon and made into a tree house. Inside the small building sat three, young ponies; a yellow earth pony with a mane as red as the bow she wore, a unicorn with pure white fur and a two shaded, purple and pink, mane, and lastly a Pegasus with orange fur and a deep purple mane. All of them were mares and none of them had cutie marks. The pegasus and unicorn rubbed their sore ears.
"Ow... we're already here, Applebloom. You don't need to yell." The Pegasus groaned in discomfort.
"Ah know, Ah know, but ya'll won't believe what happened!" Applebloom was practically jumping up and down with excitement. Her friend's moods reflected her's and they were soon excited as well. "Did you get your cutiemark?!"
Applebloom shook her head, momentarily depressed by the memories brought on by the guess. She quickly shook them away. "No, not yet."
"Well don't worry." The Pegasus spoke out. "I just got this new idea about getting them. We'll need three sharks-"
"Never mind that, Scootaloo." Applebloom interrupted her friend, her previous excitement returning. "Ah still have something to say!"
"Actually," The unicorn also spoke. "Something happened to me too."
"It's the coolest thing ever!" Applebloom said.
"It was the weirdest thing."
"Me and Applejack were so surprised."
"Rarity seemed a little angry."
Scootaloo the pegasus groaned in exasperation. "What in Celestia's name are you two talking about?"
"Winona was turned into a pony!"
"Opal is a pony now!"
The two looked at each other, shortly realizing that they had spoken at the exact same time. The treehouse had gone silent, not even the birds outside were singing. Scootaloo looked between the two ponies, even more confused than before. "Um... what?"
"Sweetie Bell, your pet's a pony now too?" Applebloom asked.
Sweetie Belle nodded. "Yeah, Do you remember that weird magic thing from yesterday?"
"The one that pushed the storm away?"
"Yeah! It passed through the store and when I went down to check on Rarity she had fainted, again. And Twilight was there with two other ponies and she teleported them all away. When Rarity came back, she brought a unicorn with her and said that it was Opal."
"Your cat's a unicorn?! Cool!" Applebloom said. "What was she like, did she say anything, did she do any cool magic tricks?"
"She glared at me and said that my mane was stupid and that I need to stop stepping on her tail. Rarity said that she's going to help her with the store for the celebration. I don't think she can use magic though, she spent all her time opening doors with her face and complaining about how 'degrading' it is."
Applebloom giggled at this. "Well, Winona had gone out during the storm and Applejack had chased after her. When the storm had cleared we found them curled up together under a tree! And then they fought off some timberwolves!"
"Really? Cool!"
Scootaloo was amazed, and a little disappointed. "Your pets are ponies now?! Aw man... I wish I had a pet. I totally missed out."
A thought dawned on Sweetie Belle. "Hey, do you think pets have cutie marks?"
"Ah don't think Winona does." Applebloom admitted. But she gained a thoughtful expression of her own. "But maybe they might know how to get one!"
"Asking a pet about cutiemarks..." Scootaloo considered the notion. It would normally be absurd but right now..."Sure, why not."
"Winona's probably with Applejack in the fields!" Applebloom ran to the door and was the first one out. "We can ask her first and then ask the others!"
Sweetie Belle ran through right after her. "Do you think she'll know anything?"
Applebloom's voice was already distant. "Who knows, but it wouldn't hurt to check!"
Scootaloo was the last to leave; walking slowly out the door in the wake of her speedy companions, still grumbling about not having a pet and grabbing her scooter along the way.
***
Sugercube Corner was the next stop for Twilight and Owlowiscious on their inspection. Spike had chosen to stay behind with Rarity. "Doing his part and helping the damsel." He had said, which had quickly lost its charm when Opal remarked that she would be too happy to let him do all of her work. They had also left Peewee behind after Rarity had made the good point that taking him along to see Pinkie and Gummy probably wasn't the best idea.
Twilight stood in front of the double doors that led into the shop, she found her heart to be beating faster than usual and couldn't figure out why. "Alright, I'm going to open the door." Twilight said, mostly to herself. She reached out to the doors, feeling the smoothed wood underneath her hoof. She didn't move and the hoof stayed still.
"I'm opening the door... now!"
The door remained closed.
"Twilight..." Owlowiscious said form behind her. She wasn't looking but she knew he was grinning. "There's no need to be scared."
"Scared? Who's being scared, I'm not being scared." Twilight denied frantically. "I'm just taking in the detail of this carved, solid wood door." She ran her hoof against the wood to prove her point. "Very smooth."
Owlowiscious didn't believe his owner for a second. "Twilight, It's okay. Nothing's going to happen to you."
She turned to him, her panic shining through the facade. "But what if something does?! You saw what he did before!"
"Twilight, Gummy isn't going to hurt you. He's not that kind of gator." Owlowiscious said with complete seriousness.
"But what if he does something..." She searched for the words. "..weird?"
"Pinkie Pie does weird things every day." He noted.
"Yeah, but Pinkie Pie is Pinkie Pie." She stated, as if that made sense. "Gummy just sort of... pops in. And have you seen his eyes?" She shuddered at the memory. "It's... It's just weird, okay?"
"Well, you have to go in there eventually." He stated simply.
Twilight looked back at the shop. "At least they don't know that we're here."
***
The cakes moved around their kitchen with ease, moving and preparing the various pies and cakes with amazing speed. Mrs. Cake stood in front of one of the ovens, patiently waiting for when the timer would sound and she could take out the cake inside. She glanced back at her husband, who was preparing the cupcakes.
"Is Twilight still out there?"
The yellow earth pony stopped and glanced out one of the windows. He could perfectly see Twilight Sparkle and another pony standing near the door. Twilight seemed to be in the middle of a panic, something he and his wife could relate to, and the pony was stoically waiting for her to finish before he would say something that made her calm down.
"Yes." He stated, going right back to his work.
"You know why she's here right?"
"I know why she's nervous about coming in."
The two shared a look. Mr. Cake sighed in defeat. "Fine, I'll get it."
He moved swiftly to the door and opened it. Twilight's back was to him so she didn't notice that he was there. "...And he's an Alligator, so he could bite me or something. We should really just go and come back later."
Mr. Cake cleared his throat and spoke up. "Well, Actually Twilight we were just going to invite you in."
Twilight jumped in surprise and turned around. "Mr. Cake! Um... uh... hi?"
"Me and the missus know that your here to inspect our progress." He stepped aside from the open doorway. "You can go in and look."
Twilight looked to be about to say something, stopped, and gave a quiet, defeated sigh. She slowly stepped past the baker and into the shop. Owlowiscious stepped up to the pony and nodded appreciatively. "Thank you. If you hadn't come out when you did, Twilight probably wouldn't have moved from her spot."
"You're welcome..." Mr.Cake paused and looked over the pegasus in front of him. "Um...?"
"Owlowscious, sir. I'm Twilight Sparkle's pet. The same thing that has happened to Gummy has happened to me."
Mr. Cake's expression changed after that. He gave the Pegasus a wary look. "You're not like him, are you?"
He shook his head, "I assume not. Nopony has ever told me otherwise."
"Phew..." The earth pony sighed with relief. "In that case, you can come in too."
Owlowiscious thanked him and stepped into the store. He was instantly surrounded by the sweet smells and fragrances of fresh pastries and candy. The combined smells made the Pegasus's mouth water. He quickly took his mind off the sweets and looked for twilight. She was talking with a blue earth pony who, he was fairly certain, was Mrs. Cake.
"It's so nice that those clouds cleared up. We'll finally get to sell all this food." He overheard Mrs. Cake telling Twilight. "Although there is that unfortunate side effect..."
"Gummy?" Twilight questioned.
She nodded. "At first we thought he was just a friend of Pinkie Pies, or even a family member, but when Pinkie showed up she quickly explained what was going on and we just went with it."
"You believed her?"
"Dear, we've known Pinkie longer than you have. She might be... a bit eccentric but she never lies to us. She promised that a long time ago."
Twilight was dumbfounded by her composed state towards the situation. Owlowiscious stepped in and asked her. "But isn't Gummy...a bit odd?"
Mr. Cake strolled up beside his wife and checked the stove, not even looking at the two to answer. "We've seen Pinkie do a lot. I guess you could say that we're used to it by now."
Any other words were drowned out by a resounding crash from above the four's heads. It was short but managed to shake the cutlery in the cupboard. A distant, muffled voice shouted through the ceiling. "I'm okay! Everypony's okay!"
"Pinkie and Gummy are upstairs, taking care of Pound and Pumpkin while we work." Mr. Cake explained.
Twilight was freaking out by this point. "You're letting an Alligator watch your children?!"
"And Pinkie."
"Twilight calm down." Owlowiscious demanded. "Sure, Gummy might be a bit strange, even by Pinkie's standards, but he has always been a nice guy and I think he just might be smarter than you think."
The ding of the stove beside them signalled that the cooking was done. Mrs. Cake excused herself and opened the oven door, expertly avoiding the blast of hot air that shot out. When it died down, she opened the door all the way and peered in.
And Gummy peered out at her.
Everypony jumped back, with Twilight jumping the farthest. Gummy silently pulled himself out of the oven and onto the floor, obviously not affected by the incredibly hot temperatures, and, even, seemingly oblivious to them.. After he stood up he reached behind his back and, from out of nowhere, pulled out a freshly baked cake. He held it out to the others, his eyes unfocused like usual. Mr. Cake hesitantly reached forward and took the cake.
"Um...thank you?"
Gummy said nothing, which wasn't a big surprise, and just stood there in front of them. Before somepony could speak up though, the familiar voice from before called from above. "Gummy! Get back up here!"
With unexpected rapidity, Gummy flipped around and silently dove back into the oven, the door closing behind him. Twilight was the first to react; leaping forward and pulling the door open, only to find that Gummy was gone and the oven was empty.
Everypony was silent.
"So..." Mrs.Cake said slowly. "Would either of you like to see Pinkie?"
Owlowiscious nodded. "Yes, that would be nice." He marched towards the stairs that led to above. "Come along Twilight." He called, not even looking back. Twilight, after considering the idea of staying behind with her head inside the oven, pulled herself out and begrudgingly followed after him.
It had taken a bit of coaxing but Owlowiscious finally got Twilight to go up and see Pinkie Pie.
"Twilight! Owly! It's so nice to see you!" Pinkie chirped.
Twilight groaned but held a cheerful face regardless. "Ugh...It's nice to see you too, Pinkie."
Owlowiscious didn't share his owner's irk and was legitimately happy to see one of their friends. "Yes...ugh, a great pleasure. Pinkie Pie?" He asked.
"Yes?" A big smile graced her face.
"Could you please let us down? You're crushing my wings."
Pinkie considered the request and agreed with a quick nod. She lowered her friends to the floor and released them from her deathly bear hug. Twilight staggered her first few steps and had to sit down, gasping for air after being squeezed by her, too happy, friend. Owlowiscious also staggered but managed to stay upright. Pinkie didn't seem to notice this and returned to bouncing happily around the room.
The room, her room, to be precise, was decorated with typical Pinkie Pie flair; multicolored streamers hung from the rafters and stretched down around them, balloons were tied to basically everything and were in various stages of deflation, and confetti was strewn across the ground like a layer of dust. Pinkie came to a stop and wiped her brow, looking tired for a second.
"Phew, I know it's hard to entertain normal ponies, but it's even harder to entertain kids. Luckily, Pound and Pumpkin have the greatest party pony in the universe looking after them." She was silent for a moment before pointing at herself. "Me."
Twilight's eyes scanned the room, something was missing. "Uh... where are the Cake twins?"
"They're right here silly-" Pinkie froze when she realized that the spot of floor where she was pointing was, in fact, empty. "Hold on a sec." She said quietly before she zipped off. Pinkie moved like a blur as she sped across the room, searching for the foals she was supposed to be looking after.
Owlowiscious leaned over to Twilight. "I can certainly see where Gummy gets his...skills." Twilight nodded in reply.
"Found them!" They heard Pinkie cry from the other side of the room, near a mound of confetti. She jumped into the air, somersaulted a few times, and swan dived into the pile for no reason other than she probably just wanted to. Pinkie emerged a moment later with two foals on her back; happily jumping up and down and babbling Pinkie's name.
"And you two wanted to play Hide and Seek without me." Pinkie talked to the babies. "Gummy, I thought you were going to help me look after them!" She shot a glare at one of the corners and Twilight was surprised to find that Gummy was in fact in the room, silently watching everything with his fish-eyes. She quickly averted her gaze and started to talk.
"So... you're certainly being responsible by looking after the twins." She noted.
"Yeah, I really learned my lesson there." She pointed an accusing hoof at Twilight. "And you didn't think I could do it. Gummy says he believes in me."
"Well I'm sorry, but I just wasn't sure and-" Twilight stopped when the full understanding of what Pinkie said hit her. "...Gummy... talked to you?"
"Yeah!" Pinkie nodded exuberantly. "Ever since he turned into a pony, he would not stop babbling. He's a total chatterbox!"
She turned away momentarily to talk with Gummy. Twilight took this moment to look to Owlowiscious, her silent, bewildered expression demanding an explanation.
"I don't know!" Owlowiscious whispered, his deeply confused expression mirroring her own. "I've never even heard him speak!"
"You're right Gummy." Pinkie nodded happily to her now-pony pet and turned her gaze back to her other friends. Twilight and Owlowiscious quickly returned their attention to Pinkie as she walked over to them. She looked to Owlowiscious. "Gummy told me that you've never actually seen the twins before!" She turned to her side; the two foals were now looking up at Owlowiscious in that blank way all babies did. "Owly, meet Pound, and Pumpkin Cake."
He smiled and crouched downward. He was basically eye level with them now. "Well hello there."
The twins, a pegasus and unicorn which seemed odd to him since their parents were earth ponies, were giving him somewhere between some attention and no attention at all. The pegasus, who he was fairly certain was Pumpkin, wasn't paying any attention at all, instead choosing to suck on a part of Pinkie's mane. Pound Cake though was looking right at Owlowiscious, or at least in his direction.
Twilight was looking on, a small grin on her face. "Aww... I think he likes you."
Suddenly, Owlowiscious was pushed back from the group, sliding back a few feet. He staggered for a moment and crumpled to the floor, his hooves covering his face.
"Owlowiscious!" Twilight was instantly by his side. "Are you okay?!"
Muffled groaning was her reply.
She leaned in closer. "What?"
He mumbled something once more but it sounded distressed.
"What!?" She asked again.
He pulled his forearms from his face, a large bruise hung around his left eye which he tried to cover with his arm.
"Oh my..." Twilight gasped.
"I said..." He mumbled, there wasn't any anger in his voice, only surprise. "That little pegasus punched me!"
"Aw!" Pinkie was smiling despite the revelation. She was hugging the twins, they seemed to like it more than Twilight and Owly did. "That means he likes you. I remember when he first did that to me!"
The two watched her with varying levels of understanding. Owlowiscious let out a sigh and Twilight just rolled her eyes.
"Are you ready to leave yet?" She asked with a small smirk.
"Ugh... not yet." He attempted to stand but it turned into a weak push-up. "It'll take more than that to stop me."
Just then, a blast of magical energy collided with Owlowiscious, sending him sliding along the floor and crashing into the back wall.
"Sorry!" Pinkie called apologetically. "Pumpkin still hasn't gotten control of her magic-y stuff!"
Twilight walked over to her fallen pet once more, she looked down at him with concern and didn't say a word.
"Okay..." She heard him moan in pain. "We should probably move on now."
***
Applejack and Winona stood in a grove of apple trees, the many trees towering over them like the legs of giants. Large buckets were arranged around the trunks. "Alright Winona, it's time we got to work and finished harvesting these here apples. Are you ready?"
Winona saluted. "Yes ma'am-Ah mean, Applejack!"
"Good. Now, watch this." She walked over to one of the trees, positioning herself right in front of it, she raised her hind legs while aiming carefully, and struck the tree with a powerful kick. The kick caused the tree to shake and above her, ripe apples were shaken off their branches and tumbled down into the many buckets that sat around the tree.
"Okay, now Ah want to see you do exactly what Ah did." She turned and noticed that Winona was running right at another tree, head first. "Winona, wait!"
"Raaaaaaah!" Winona shouted as she rammed herself into the tree, causing it to shake and a few apples to fall down. Winona slowly slid down the side of the tree and Applejack heard her quietly moan "Ow".
Applejack facehoofed. "You weren't even looking, were you?"
"Ah was so!" Winona jumped up, relatively unfazed by the collision, she reached down and picked up an apple, biting into it hungrily. "It just got sorta boring around the end part."
"Well you really need to listen now, we're supposed to harvest these apples for the celebration and Ah need you to help me."
"Fine." She pouted adorably for a moment. The moment passed in silence which was replaced when both of them burst into laughter, the sounds echoing through the trees.
"Alright, alright. Let's get to work before something else happens."
"Look out!"
No sooner had a voice cried out had three shapes bounded out through the trees towards Applejack and Winona. Applejack barely had time to dive out of the way before the three shapes crashed into the ground where she stood a second ago. She and Winona looked down at the pile confusedly.
Applebloom, Sweetie belle, and Scootaloo were piled one on top of the other, Scootaloo's scooter somehow perfectly balanced on top of them. Applebloom looked up at her sister and waved sheepishly. "Hi Applejack."
"Applebloom?!" A very confused Applejack sputtered.
"Hi Applebloom!" Winona excitedly waved back. "What're you doing here?"
"Um, actually, we were looking for you, Winona." Sweetie belle spoke up. She attempted to get out of the pile, which only caused all of them to fall out onto the ground.
"So this is what an animal turned into a pony looks like?" Scootaloo looked up from the ground at Winona, sizing her up. "I guess it's pretty cool. Can you smell really good?"
Winona nodded. "Yeah, but right now Ah probably need a bath."
Sweetie Belle looked up at Applejack. "What are you guys doing?"
"Winona and Ah were just gonna start harvesting these here apples, you know, for the sun celebration?" Applejack said dryly to the crusaders. "It's that thing that we've been preparing for all this time?"
Applebloom righted herself and stood up. "We know that but we wanted to ask Winona a few questions."
Applejack was more confused than angry. "Ya'll want to ask Winona something?" To which Applebloom nodded.
"You want to ask me something?!" Winona grinned happily at the news.
"Don't ask me." Scootaloo was picking her scooter back up, shaking her head. "I'm just going along with it."
"Sure!" The dog-turned-pony hopped excitedly on the spot. "You can ask me whatever you want!"
"Awesome!" Applebloom was basically mirroring Winona in her enthusiasm. "What can you tell us about cutiemarks?"
"That depends..." Winona said with the same, excited tone. She tilted her head confusedly. "What's a cutiemark?"
An air of silence crossed over the ponies, noticeable to everypony except Winona. The hopeful smiles of the crusaders disappeared.
"Um..." Applebloom stuttered. "The uh..."
"The cutiemark is a unique symbol that appears on the flank of every pony, usually around Applebloom's age, that is often related to the pony's personality, proclivity, or talent of the pony." Applejack stepped in and explained. Everypony stared at her in silent astonishment causing her to blush slightly and turn away. "At least, that's what Twilight told me."
"Do I have a cutiemark?" Winona turned around and around, trying to look at her side.
"Ah don't know, you're covered in too much fur and Ah don't think dogs get cutiemarks."
Winona became depressed. "Aw..."
The crusaders let out a collective groan. "You mean we came all this way for nothing?"
"Well, you know..." Applejack smiled lightly. "We could use some help harvesting these apples."
"Or..." Winona jumped in. "Or you could go into Ponyville and ask the other pets!"
Sweetie Belle gasped. "Yeah! We could go see Rarity and Opal!"
"Oh, oh! Can I come too?" Winona asked.
Applebloom nodded. "Sure! Let's go!"
The three took off, Winona chasing close behind. Applajack was left in the dust and could only shout at them. "Winona! You're supposed to be helping me!"
Winona stopped and looked back, her face showing guilt. "Ah will, Ah promise, but Ah wanna go see the others too!"
She ran off, leaving Applejack alone, amidst the apple trees. She looked at the filled and empty buckets and at the settling dust, brought up from the crusaders departure.
Twilight, once again, walked down the dirt path to Fluttershy's house. Owlowiscious slowly stepped beside her, occasionally tripping up with Twilight quickly reaching to help him.
She inspected her pet's injury for probably the hundredth time, all while trying to hide the irritating smirk that kept trying to sneak onto her face whenever she remembered why he was injured.
"How are you feeling?" She asked, unable to stop a small giggle from getting out. Owlowiscious shot a hard glare at her, which only caused him to wince at his eye. The mark from where he had been punched had turned a darkish color.
"I'm fine, my self-esteem's bruised but it'll heal-Ah!" His little joke caused him to wince again. "It's a pretty small bruise but that doesn't mean it doesn't hurt as much."
"You really have a way with kids." She said jokingly.
He grinned slightly despite the pain. "I suppose so. I've already been set on fire. The only other thing I needed was to be punched by a foal and zapped with magic."
"It's not so bad though. The Cakes apologized when they found out about what happened."
"And so did Pinkie. And I have to admit, her apology was incredibly sweet."
"Yeah, all of us think her 'apology cupcakes' are the best." Twilight levitated her apology up to her mouth and took a bite out of it, delighting at the sweet taste of the colored frosting and sprinkles.
"Actually, I meant that those cupcakes of hers could give you cavities." He smiled slightly at the tasty memory though, stopping for a second to brush some leftover crumbs from his muzzle. "It's still a lot tastier than the food I ate as a bird."
Twilight looked at the pegasus in shock. "What? But I went out of my way to get you the best worms and grubs!"
"Worms are still worms Twilight; especially after you've tasted Pinkie's food."
They continued in silence. Not too long after, they reached Fluttershy's house. Fluttershy's many animals meandered about as usual, none the worse for wear after sleeping outside. A group of them noticed the two ponies coming up the path and ran up to meet them. Ponies of every type surrounded the two; happily chattering in their various animal languages while being particularly interested in Owlowiscious.
"Looks like somepony has a little fan club." Twilight noted cheerfully.
"Lucky me." Owlowiscious gently pushed the animals inside his personal space bubble away. The animals insisted and even more of the joined in, pushing the two from behind so they move forward.
"What are they saying?" Twilight asked over the noise.
"Uh, something about how happy they are that we're here..." He tuned his ears to the various animal voices, trying to distinguish and translate the different languages. "...And if we have a cure yet."
Twilight looked down sadly and didn't reply. The more they were pushed towards the building the more they realized that something was indeed going on. All of the ponies seemed to be gathering in a crowd, chattering amongst themselves about something. Twilight and Owlowiscious were pushed through the crowd until they saw Fluttershy and Angel.
Twilight called out to them. "Fluttershy, there you are!"
Fluttershy turned to the sound and smiled when she saw her friends, waving to them excitedly. Angel noticed them too and went over to meet them.
"Finally." Angel said with irritation, although he was smiling regardless. "It's about time you two got here." He raised an eyebrow disapprovingly at Twilight. "And here I thought you were the punctual one."
"Angel, be nice." Fluttershy scolded him softly as she joined them. Angel rolled his eyes at the meek pegasus but became quiet. "It's nice that you're here Twilight. And you too, Owlowisc-Oh my!" She ran right up to Owlowiscious and inspected his black eye. "Are you alright? How did this happen?"
"I'd... rather not say." He told her calmly, hiding his embarrassment. "But I'm fine, really."
Twilight cut into the conversation before anything else could be asked. "How's the music coming along? Do you need our help with it?"
"Music? Nah, we had all that straightened out before that magic wall of yours destroyed our house." Angel said smugly. "We've finished training and already found all of the birds. Only now we have a pegasus choir instead of a bird symphony."
"And they're still good singers?"
Angel held his head high. "The best. Though..." His expression dropped. "I don't get it, I mean, why are they so popular? All they did was whistle nicely."
"Well then, I guess our work here is done. Let's go Twilight." Owlowiscious and Twilight were right about to leave when Twilight looked back at Fluttershy. "Do either of you know where Rainbow Dash is? We were going to check up on her."
"Right now?" Angel gave an amused grin, his eyes turned to the sky above. "Right above us."
Everypony looked up into the sky as well. Three shapes were moving through the empty sky, twisting, barreling and soaring through the air. Well, two of the shapes were doing that. The third shape seemed to be flying with some difficulty; going fairly slower than the other two and not doing nearly as many tricks.
Twilight was legitimately dumbfounded. "Is... is that Tank, flying?"
"Yup." Angel nodded, none of them looking away from the three shapes. "Dash wants him to be able to keep up with her and Tank didn't disagree. In fact I think his exacts words were: 'sure'."
"My birds have been helping her teach him to fly but there have been some problems."
"Problems?" Twilight asked.
"Tank's..." Angel thought about what to say. "Tank's a tortoise. He's just slow."
"Um, is it just me..." Owlowiscious stated, slowly understanding something. "Or are the shapes getting closer?"
Everypony focused on the shapes above them and realized that they were, in fact, getting larger and getting closer and closer to the group.
"Look out!" Twilight dove out of the way and the others did the same. It was just in time too as the shape crashed into the ground where the four were just standing. When the dust cleared the ponies were clearly recognizable. Tank the now-pegasus was now laying in a small crater he had created. Rainbow Dash fluttered down from the sky, landing with a slightly pained expression from her splinted leg. "Alright, how long was that Angel?"
Angel helped Tank to his hooves; he actually didn't seem to be hurt. "Longer than last time. He actually moved around this time."
"Awesome. Let's try again and-" She stopped when she noticed Twilight. "Twilight, hey!"
Twilight smiled kindly. "Hello Rainbow dash. You're teaching Tank how to fly?"
"Yeah, since I didn't have any work today I thought it would be good to teach Tank a few tricks." She wiped her brow of sweat. "You wouldn't believe how hard it is though."
"I can. He's a tortoise." Owlosiscious pointed out matter of factly.
Angel nodded. "Yeah, Tank wasn't the most aerodynamic creature before he became a pegasus."
"But he can do it!" Dash insisted. "And he wants to try anyways, right Tank?"
After a brief pause, and after brushing some dirt from his fur, Tank nodded slowly. It was at a that point that the third shape, a petite, green pegasus landed next to Fluttershy, weakly wobbling on its hooves before collapsing on its side. Fluttershy knelt at her side, concern painted on her face. "Oh, poor Hummingway. Are you alright?"
"She kept flapping her wings too fast. She tired herself out before we even got that far into the air!" Dash complained. "I need somepony else that can help me teach Tank." She looked at Twilight. "Can Owlowiscious help?"
"Well..." She looked to Owlowiscious for an answer.
"We still have to go see Applejack and Winona about the apple production." He reminded her.
"By the time you get there they'll probably still be working." Dash pointed out. "And besides, it's not like anything interesting will be going on."
***
"...And always make sure that the thread goes through the needle. A single, fraying strand can run the whole thing." Rarity demonstrated with her sewing needle and did a few stitches in the fabric hanging on her mannequin. "And that's how you make clothing. Any questions?"
Across the room of Rarity's boutique, Peewee had fallen asleep a long time ago, curled up in a pile of scarves on the floor. Spike was laying on the ground right next to Peewee; fast asleep like his pet with a gemstone sticking out of his mouth. The only pony awake to listen to Rarity was, unfortunately, Opal, who was currently lounging lazily on a couch.
"Amazing." Opal said in a sarcastic tone. "You can put a thread through a hole."
"Oh be quiet. You know, you really should be helping me right now."
"Why? You never asked for my help before."
"You were a cat before!" She shouted at Opal angrily. Neither Spike nor Peewee awoke from the shouting.
Opal remained indignant. "Whatever. You've had me for my entire life and you've never needed my help."
Rarity fumed quietly, steeled herself, and returned to her work, choosing to ignore her pet, rather than try to get her to work anymore. "Ugh..." She muttered to herself. "Sometimes I wonder why I..."
Opal picked up on her mumbling, though, she only heard a few words. "What was that? I couldn't hear you."
Rarity sighed and focused on her work. "It's nothing, never mind."
Opal, for once, decided not to pry and returned to doing nothing; the room was enveloped in silence once again. Rarity continued her work slower than before, addled by memories and other thoughts. She tried to push those aside and resume her stitching. The silence was thankfully broken by a loud force unceremoneously slamming into the front door; startling both unicorns and waking Spike from his sleep.
"...Ow..." They heard somepony groaning in pain on the other side.
"Somepony is at the door." Opal noted dryly. "You should probably answer it with that ridiculous sing-song way you use."
Rarity glared at her, almost like she was trying to burn a hole through Opal's skull.
"Fine." She groaned exasperatedly. "I'll get it myself; just don't say I didn't do anything for you."
Opal sluggishly got up from the couch, walked across the room, accidently stepping on an awaking Spike in the process, and went to the front doors of the store, manually opening the door slowly with a hoof. She peered out into the open.
"Yeah? What do you wan-Ah!!"
Opal shrieked in fear and backed away from the door. Right outside the doorway, rubbing her sore head, was the one thing she didn't want to see today: Winona; the disgusting farmer's pet. Opal suddenly felt it becoming hard to breathe as she stepped away from the canine.
"Howdy." Winona said in a friendly tone, not looking up from the ground while she rubbed her forehead and not noticing who exactly she was talking to yet. "Ah was just wondering if this is Carousel boutique. Ah been looking around town for a while and there's only so many times that you can crash through doors..."
"You're in luck; you are in the right place miss-?" Rarity walked up to the doorway, not noticing her cat's perpetual horrified expression. Her own expression lit up and she gasped. "Why Winona! Whatever are you doing here?"
"Hoo-wee! Finally, uh... Rarity, right? Ah actually came here because-" It was at this moment that she finally looked up and saw who she was talking too and gasped. "Cat..." She growled.
Opal replied with a scared squeak.
Winona crouched low like a predator. She eyed her terrified prey with anger that wasn't even hinted at before. Opal knew that she would have to run but found that she couldn't move. Winona reared back and was about to spring forward...
"Winona, heel!"
Against all odds, Winona froze. The furious look in her eyes disappeared in a snap and Winona dropped to all four hooves again. From behind Winona, three fillies, that Rarity knew fairly well, appeared.
"Winona..." Applebloom glared in an annoyed fashion at her dog. "What did Applejack say about coming with us to Rarity's?"
Strangely enough, Winona seemed embarrassed. "That Ah wasn't supposed to attack the cat." She repeated from memory.
"Good girl." Applebloom reached up and scratched her dog's ear. Winona panted happily and her tail wagged back and forth.
"Sweetie Belle, girls..." Rarity sighed, confused for what was probably the hundredth time in a few days. "Just what it going on?"
"We heard that everypony's pets turned into ponies." Scootaloo explained.
"And we wanted to see if the pets knew anything about cutiemarks!" Applebloom cut in.
"And we already talked to Winona." Sweetie Belle finished. "So we want to talk to Opal."
Rarity inspected the three faces; each of them looking up at her hopefully, smiling that cutesy smile that they used to will something to happen. "You're serious." She concluded. They nodded. "Fine, I suppose a few minutes wouldn't hurt anypony. You may all come in, including you Winona. But please be careful, I have a lot of work to do."
"Yay!" The crusaders and Winona cheered. They all ran in past Rarity and Opal into the boutique. Rarity quietly closed the front door and walked back in. "Close your mouth dear, you'll swallow flies." She smiled as she walked past a stunned Opal, the sound of quiet laughter not escaping Opal's ears. Opal was extremely confused by the sudden turn of events but she did know one thing.
Rarity had been standing on her tail the whole time.
"Thanks for letting us stay, Rarity." Applebloom thanked the designer as they entered the shop. Rarity nodded curtly, inspecting the stitches of a particular scarf without looking at Applebloom.
"No problem at all Applebloom, but where's Applejack? Isn't she supposed to be watching over you?"
"She'll get here eventually; we lost her after we went through the bushes. Ah think she crashed or something."
"...Right, just please be careful around the dresses, I have a lot of work to do."
"Wow..." Applebloom gazed over the many dresses and materials; all of it sparkling and shining when the light touched it. "All of these are for the celebration?"
"Indeed they are." Rarity affirmed. "And unfortunately there's still a lot more that I have to do and somepony refuses to help me."
Sweetie Belle spoke up. "Oh, can we help with the clothes? I mean, if you need some extra hooves, right girls?"
"Spend the day making frilly dresses that we're probably gonna have to wear?" Scootaloo shook her head at the idea, sighing. "Fine, but there's no way I'm going to wear a dress."
"That's very generous Sweetie Belle but..." Rarity searched for the words that wouldn't hurt her sister's feelings. "Your help won't be necessary. Right now, Opal is helping me."
"Really?" Winona smiled and patted Opal on the back happily. Well, pounded really. "Good on you, miss cat."
Opal quickly stepped away from the earth pony; she still felt her nerves jump when the canine was close. "Oh, that's quite alright." She said. "If they want to do my work for me, by all means, let them."
It was for a split second but Rarity considered letting them actually help her. It would be easier than getting this lazy cat off her bottom and actually doing something. She shook the thought away in the end though. "I'm sorry Opal, but Twilight said that you're the one who needs to help me."
"Wonderful." Opal exclaimed sarcastically.
"Wow! This place is amazing!" Winona zoomed around the store, inspecting any colorful, sparkly thing that caught her eyes like an excited foal. "Ooh, what's this?" She poked at a strange patch of purple in a pile of cloth in wonder. Surprisingly, the pile moved and Spike came out. He swatted weakly at Winona.
"Ugh..." He emitted a pained groan. "First I get stepped on and now I'm being poked by some random pony?" He looked at the startled pony and realized just who was poking him. "Oh, hey Winona." His eyes widened with full understanding entering his mind and he jumped up. "Winona?!"
"Hi Spike." Winona, unfazed by the little dragon's freak out, greeted Spike with her usual cheerfulness and a tiny wave.
"Spike?!" Applebloom excitedly ran up to the assistant but slowed somewhat when she noticed the bruises on his scales. "Are you okay?"
"Oh yeah, I only got stepped on and poked." He rubbed his scales tenderly. "No big deal."
"Spike came over earlier with Twilight while she was doing the checkup and he decided to stay behind." Rarity explained.
"I still think he should have just gone back home." They heard Opal say, to which Spike replied with an irritated glare. While this had been happening, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle had slowly joined Winona and Applebloom. Sweetie Belle was listening to the conversation with interest but Scootaloo was looking elsewhere. "What's this thing?" Her eyes were cast downward at the small ball of red and orange fluff that was curled up in the pile. Cautiously, she poked at it a few times.
"Hey!" Spike suddenly jumped to the defense of the puffball. "Don't do that to Peewee!"
"Peewee?" Scootaloo's curiosity was rising by the second now. She leaned down to get a closer look at the puffball. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle joined her, both of them now interested in what their friend was looking at. To their astonishment, the puffball, apparently named 'Peewee', stirred and a small head with big, red eyes poked out of the fur and fabric and looked up at the three. It blinked a few times before a smile spread on its tiny mouth.
"Awww!" Sweetie Belle, Applebloom and Winona cooed simultaneously. Scootaloo once again had an eyebrow raised in confusion. "Is that... a pony?"
Spike nodded. "Well, now he is." Rarity added.
"And... he's named, Peewee."
"Wasn't my idea." Opal sneered.
"He's so cute!" Sweetie Belle proclaimed and Applebloom nodded in agreement. Peewee looked up at the new ponies in wonder but began to twitch, with surprising force, Peewee sneezed suddenly and violently, a spark of deep, red magic moving up his tiny horn. A few feet away on the floor, a lone sock, one of those lacy, expensive ones, was suddenly consumed in a blaze of flame, leaving behind only a scorch mark and some burnt fibres.
Winona whined and took a step back. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle looked back and forth from the burned floor to the foal who was clapping his stubby hooves together in enjoyment, both of their mouths agape.
Scootaloo grinned. "Cool."
"That's one way of putting it." Opal looked to Rarity. "Could you please get that kid out of here before he burns the building to the ground?"
"Well..." Rarity eyed the scorch mark on the carpet. Nothing she couldn't fix but still. "Spike, Scootaloo? Could you please move Peewee away from the... flammable materials?"
They complied and Spike took Peewee over to another, more empty side of the room with Scootaloo following along excitedly with questions concering the fire-wielding baby. With the introductions over with, Rarity returned to her designing, threads and needles magically hovering around her. Applebloom and Sweetie belle moved over to Opal, practically hopping with excitement from everything that was happening.
"Hey!" Applebloom called to Opal as she got close, Opal looked down to the fillies, a very uninterested look on her face. "What is it now?"
Applebloom faltered for a moment. She didn't actually know what to ask. "Well... you were a cat, and now you're a unicorn right?"
"Yes." Opal replied slowly, glaring at Applebloom.
"That's so amazing!" She said. "Ah mean, Winona's just an earth pony but she was able to plow right through these mean Timberwolves. And you're a unicorn now, so you'll be able to do magic like Twilight and Rarity!"
"I can't do magic." If it was possible, Opal's glare increased, like she was trying to bore holes through the filly's skull. "Ever since I was turned into... this..." She motioned to her current form. "I haven't been able to generate a single spark of magic. So not only am I without claws to defend myself, this..." She tapped her white horn. "...This ugly thing is completely useless."
Applebloom stayed optimistic. "But you can probably still do a whole lot. Ahm sure you and Rarity could finish all of the work together."
"Help her?" Opal asked incredulously. She let out a little laugh. "Why would I want to do that? She doesn't need my help."
"But..." Sweetie Belle spoke up. "Don't you want to use your special talent to help Rarity? Don't you have a cutiemark?"
"Cutiemark? That's what those garish things are called, aren't they." She turned to the side, showing the two that her flank was actually blank, nothing but preened, white fur. "As you can see, I don't have one. And even more than that, I don't need one."
"But, your cutiemark is what tells you what your talent is." Sweetie Belle said.
"Then I guess you and your friends are talentless. So stop bothering me with these stupid questions and go do something useful for once."
Without another word, she walked away from the two, over to one of the couches farthest away from everypony, and plopped down onto it, turning so her back was to them. Both Applebloom and Sweetie Belle wore odd expressions of confusion, disappointment and anger on their faces and didn't pursue Opal, instead going off depressedly. Winona did go after her though; she walked straight over to the unicorn and prodded her rudely on the shoulder.
"I told you; I don't care about your cutiemark problem, so just leave me alone al...read...y..." Her voice slowly left her as she turned around, quickly realizing who exactly was staring her in the eyes. Unlike earlier, Winona didn't have her usual 'happy child' look, or even her 'blind animal rage' look. Instead, she was looking at the feline with an expression of quiet contempt that Opal hadn't seen before. "Um..." She was temporarily thrown for a loop. "Hi?"
"Why'd ya do it?" Winona asked plainly. To which, Opal replied with a simple. "What?"
"Why'd you say that to Applebloom and her friend?"
"...Were you spying on us?"
"No!" Winona said louder than she probably should have. Her ears pressed down against her head after that, a light blush reaching through her thick fur. "Ah just hear things sometimes, and Ah heard you saying that they were talentless."
"Well they are." Opal affirmed. "All they do is attempt stupid and dangerous things, desperately searching for a talent that they'll probably never find."
"And why do you suppose that they'll never get them then?" Winona asked.
"Because I've seen what they do a lot more than you have, flea-head." Opal sneered. "It's about time that they stopped this foolishness and started helping instead of damaging."
"Like how you're supposed to be helping Rarity but you're not?" Winona asked, picking up on the irony in the cat's words.
"I shouldn't have to do that." Opal replied sternly. "I'm not a pony."
Winona was beginning to see why she always chased Opal when they were pets, and was sorely tempted to do so. "That don't mean that you get off scott free. Ya need to help Rarity, ah've been helping Applejack since before Ah can remember, and she's always been grateful for it."
Opal sighed in the same way a teacher would when a student got an easy question wrong. "You still don't get it, do you? I'm a purebred, born in the exquisite city of Canterlot before Rarity found me and brought me here. I'm supposed to be in shows, winning all manner of awards and being adored just by being better than everypony else, not working."
A flash of understanding crossed Winona's face. "Oh... Ah understand now."
"Finally. I was wondering if you'd get it at all."
"You..." She poked Opal in the chest with a hoof, a proud look of realization on her face. "...are a spoiled brat."
"..." It took a moment for what Winona said to fully register in Opal's brain. When it did, anger spread over her face like a rash. She got up from her couch to stare Winona in the eyes, her voice slow and quietly angry.
"What, did, you say?"
"You're a spoiled brat..." She repeated with intelligence that Opal hadn't noticed before. "Plain and simple. All ya'll do is lounge about on your behind, insulting other ponies and just plain being disrespectful to your owner."
"How dare you, you dirt-coated hillbilly!" Opal reacted with surprise and anger. "I'm the kind of pet royalty would love to own!"
Winona tried her best to remain calm. "Lady, Ah don't care if you're Celestia's pet phoenix, you have no right to say that your better than us, so get off your high horse and try being generous for once."
Opal stared viciously at Winona, her face burning with rage, but said nothing.
"Opal?" Rarity suddenly stepped up to them. Winona turned to her but Opal stayed fixed on Winona. "Did you say something to Sweetie Belle? She and Applebloom have been really quiet lately."
"Yeah, she did." Winona nodded to Rarity and looked back at Opal. "Come on then. Tell her what you said to Applebloom and-"
Winona had predicted a lot of yelling, and even some name calling. But, she had never predicted the powerful blast of dark purple magic that sent her flying back and through one of the big windows behind her. Silence entered the boutique, only the sound of quiet gasping and breaking glass permeated the air. Rarity could only stare in horrified awe at the moment.
Opal stood there in a state of exhaustion, sweat running down her face and her horn smoked from the sudden magical discharge. She panted heavily from the exertion.
"There!" She shouted hoarsly at the broken window. "How's that for doing something?"
Her moment of bragging was cut short though, as Winona, unfazed by her sudden defenestration, dove back through the window at Opal, her teeth bared and a furious, animalistic look in her eyes.
Back at Fluttershy's cottage, Twilight had finally convinced Owlowiscious to help Angel and Rainbow Dash teach Tank about the finer points of flying. As the three pegasus soared through the air, Twilight, Fluttershy, and Angel stood amidst the crowd of animal-ponies, watching their friends with awe and concern.
"Woohoo!" Rainbow Dash cheered as she looped through the air, following it up with a dropping cartwheel and pulled up right before she nearly crashed into the ground. She flew towards a single cloud that hung low in the sky, Owlowiscious and Tank stood on it, watching the rainbow colored pegasus.
"Impressive." Owlowiscious complimented Dash when she landed on the cloud.
"Impressive?" She asked jokingly. "Is that all I am, impressive?"
"Oh pardon me." Owlowiscious joined in the joking. "You're the greatest flyer in the history of Equestria. Is that better?"
Dash chuckled. "Better. How're you doing, Tank?"
Tank shrugged, as silent as usual.
"And you're not falling through the cloud anymore, that's good."
"It was a stroke of genius to create this cloud out of those little ones." Owlowiscious said. Tank tested the cloud with a hoof; his hoof sinking into the soft layer.
"You don't know how hard it was to find this much." Dash leaned over the edge of the cloud and glared down at Twilight Sparkle below. The clueless librarian waved happily.
"But I digress." Dash turned back to them. "Now it's time for Tank's next lesson!"
Owlowiscious and Tank shared confused expressions. "What?"
"It's time I taught Tank some awesome aerial moves!"
"But I thought that you just wanted Tank to be able to fly."
"Yeah, and now I want him to learn how to pull off amazing moves and become the greatest flying tortoise ever!"
"I'm fairly certain that he's accomplished that already. There's probably not that many flying tortoises in the world." Owlowiscious pointed out.
"Aw c'mon!" She turned to her pet. "C'mon Tank, you're behind me on this, right?"
They both looked to Tank for an answer. Tank sat down on the cloud, small bits of it shooting off into the air around him. He seemed to be deep in thought from the look on his face. After a minute or two, he stood up and replied with a nod and a smile.
"Sure." He spoke.
"Yes!" Dash punched the air ecstatically and got into a flying stance. "This is gonna be awesome! Follow me."
Dash poised herself and in one smooth motion, she back flipped off the cloud and into the air, her wings unfurling just in time to keep her airborne. She zoomed off once again.
"Quite an owner you have there." Owlowiscious said to Tank when Dash was out of earshot. He leapt up and took off after Dash, leaving Tank to watch both of them go.
Tank nodded, a smile growing on his face. He spread his wings and with one mighty flap, lifted himself into the air after the other two, unintentionally destroying the cloud underneath him in the process.
***
Fluttershy cried out in alarm as she was suddenly enveloped in a large chunk of cloud, the white, fluffy mess obscuring her vision of everything around her.
"W-what's going on?!" Fluttershy gasped, accidentally breathing in some cloud which reduced her to a coughing fit. She could hear muffled shouting but couldn't see anypony. At that moment a hoof reached through the mist and grabbed onto Fluttershy, pulling her out and onto the ground. She finally managed to look around and saw a group of her animals staring down at her, each of their faces showing deep concern.
"Hey! Out of the way! Give her some room!" Angel suddenly appeared in her view, angrily shoving other animals aside to get to her. His angry face still showling some concern, like the others, when he looked down at Fluttershy. "Hey, you okay?"
She coughed weakly and got to her hooves. "Yeah, I guess."
He looked up at the sky, the three pegasi were doing various flying moves, one after the other. "Darnit Tank." Angel grumbled. "He destroyed that cloud when he took off and it started raining down on us! And of course, you get hit with the biggest chunk and I have to pull you out before you suffocate."
"Oh...." Fluttershy looked saddened but smiled at her pet nonetheless. "Thank you."
Angel sighed, his irritated expression softening. "Just... be more careful, okay?"
"Fluttershy!" Both of them saw Twilight walk up, a clump of cloud clinging to her head, giving off the appearance of a puffy, white afro. Her horn glowed through the cloud and it dispersed. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine Twilight." She responded.
"I'm fine too, thanks for asking." Angel said indignantly.
Twilight ignored him and looked back at the sky. Owlowiscious was flying off in the distance, chasing after Rainbow Dash who circled around both him and Tank, staying just one step ahead of both of them. "Well, at least they're okay." She murmured.
"Twilight!!" A voice rang out, shouting Twilight's name. Twilight looked to Fluttershy and Angel who shrugged, just as confused as she was. A ways away from the three, Twilight could see something moving rapidly through the crowd.
"...Spike?" Twilight asked quietly, recognizing the voice and just making out her assistant as he squeezed his way through the animals towards them. By the time the dragon reached Twilight he was breathing heavily and almost doubled over.
"Twi... light... I... there..."
"Spike, breathe." Twilight commanded. "You look like you ran all the way here from Ponyville."
Weakly, Spike flopped onto the ground. "That's... because... I did."
Twilight suddenly noticed that her assistant's scales were scorched, like he had taken a hit from a magical attack. "Spike, what's going on?" She asked, growing nervous. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine." Spike rubbed some of his sore scales tenderly. "She has horrible aim, so she only grazed me."
"She?"
"It's Opal!" He explained frantically. "She knows how to use magic now and she's blasting the boutique apart!"
"What?!" The others said, confused and shocked.
Twilight groaned. Why didn't she see this coming? "Oh no, she must have tapped into her magic somehow. Is Rarity okay?"
"Yeah, well, maybe. Opal's was too busy trying to blast Winona when I got out of there to try blasting anypony else."
"Winona's there too?" Twilight asked.
Spike nodded. "She and the cutiemark crusaders showed up like an hour or so ago. I think they wanted to ask Opal about something or something."
"The crusaders are there too!?" Twilight shouted.
"Well yeah, they-Ah!" Spike cried out as Twilight suddenly ran past him, knocking him to the ground. Twilight ran to the end of the road and looked back at everyone,
"I'm sorry, but I really need to go check on this!"
With that, Twilight Sparkle ran off down the dirt path. Angel waved to the rapidly leaving unicorn.
"Have fun getting hurt!" Angel deadpanned. Fluttershy watched silently as her friend ran around a bend and was gone. Fluttershy, after a long pause, spread her wings and lifted herself into the air, though only by a few feet or so, and took off down the road.
"At least we're not the ones that have to do that." Angel chuckled as Twilight Sparkle disappeared from sight. "Right, Fluttershy? ...Fluttershy? Hey!" He just discovered that his owner had taken off and chased after her, catching up with the slow pegasus rather quickly.
"You're not doing what I think you're doing are you?" He shouted at his owner.
Fluttershy nodded. "Twilight might need my help. I have to go."
"Why?! Imagine what's going on down there, you could..." He went silent, letting the implication sink in to her as well as himself. "You could get hurt."
Fluttershy paused in mid-air, momentarily stopped by Angel's words. She floated there, a few feet above the ground with Angel standing beside her, thinking out a response.
"You can just go back home." Angel said temptingly. "Who says you need to help your friend anyways?"
Fluttershy was silent, her mind thinking of what to say. She turned around and stared Angel directly in the eyes. He instinctly braced himself for his owner's piercing stare, unable to look away. But surprisingly, this stare was different, not commanding like her usual one, instead, it showed... determination? Fluttershy slowly moved up to him until their noses were almost.
"I do." She said finally. With that, she took off into the air, flying a little faster and a little higher than before, and left Angel where he stood, watching his owner as she flew away.
Anypony that knew Angel bunny, or at least were there at that moment, would have expected some kind of outburst from the rabbit. Some form of rage; probably with a lot of shouting of words that his owner would never approve of. Instead, a grin spread across his face.
"Well whaddya know."
He ran down the path, chasing after his owner.
***
Twilight had just arrived at the boutique. To her surprise, and relief, the building was still in one piece and not a smoking crater that she had envisioned on the way over. She could hear cries and shouting from the inside.
"Well..." She said quietly, hopefully to herself. "Maybe it's not as bad as Spike said."
It was at that moment that one of the windows of the boutique burst, shards of glass flying everywhere. And out of the window a pony flew out and onto the ground. A hat floated to the ground at Twilight's hooves.
"Or... maybe not." She looked at the hat, then at the groaning pony on the ground, both of which seemed familiar. Twilight stared down at the pony. "Applejack?"
"Nrngh." The farmer replied with a pained groan, looking up at Twilight's face. "Oh, howdy Twilight." She got up slowly and dusted herself off, grabbing her Stetson and placing it back on her head. Twilight noticed that parts of her fur seemed to be burned.
"Applejack!" Out of the front doors came Rarity, quickly running to Applejack. "Are you alright?" She stopped when she saw Twilight and relief spread across her face. "Twilight! Thank goodness you showed up."
"I got Spike's message." Twilight again looked over the boutique. "I never expected this to happen."
Rarity looked at the ground sadly. "I did..."
"Well anyways..." Applejack started. "It's great that you're here Twi, and Ah'd like to chat..."
The sound of more breaking glass reached their ears and out of another window tumbled two, very angry ponies. They rolled across the ground grappling at each other while one of them wildly fired off magical bolts.
"...But Ahm kinda busy right now."
Winona and Opal pushed away from each other and scrambled to their hooves. Opal staggered about, never taking her eyes off of Winona. Her mane was a complete mess, hanging around her face and she seemed to be missing some fur and Twilight saw bite marks.
"Is that all you got?!" Winona yelled at Opal mockingly. Winona's left eye was black from a well-placed punch from the cat and her fur was burnt, small trails of smoke rose from her body. "Ah've seen foals that were stronger than you!"
Opal grit her teeth and glared, her horn glowed dangerously bright as she pointed it at Winona threateningly. "Oh yeah?! Well why don't I just turn you into a toad or something? Then I would be stronger than you."
"The way you use that magic, Ah bet you'd turn yourself into a toad instead." Her snarling visage disappeared for a moment and Winona giggled softly at a thought. "It'd be a perfect match fer yer personality."
"You...! You...!" Opal was so angry at Winona that she couldn't even speak, so instead she tried to shoot her, firing off bolt after bolt at the pony. Luckily for Winona, and unluckily for Opal, Winona was able to mostly avoid the blasts because of her athleticism, as well as Opal's poor aim. A few blasts got near enough Rarity, Applejack and Twilight though, making them all flinch.
"Well this isn't good." Twilight muttered.
"Hey!" Applejack shouted at Opal, making a move towards the two. "Stop trying to hurt mah dog this instant!"
"Back off, hillbilly!" Opal shouted. She turning and opened fire on the two. Applejack had to dive out of the way before she was hit while Twilight simple put up a shield for her and Rarity. Each blast that collided with her shield managed to push her back an inch.
"It's worse than I thought." Twilight muttered under her breath to Rarity. "She somehow tapped into massive, magical power. She's having a magical surge!"
"I must concede to you Twilight." Opal shouted at Twilight, her horn smoking from the power. "Using magic is certainly very fun." She aimed at Winona and fired, a bolt hitting Winona square in the chest and sending her to the ground. "And it's certainly easy."
"Winona, get out of there right now!" Applejack pleaded.
"No can do." Winona slowly got up again, pain showing on her face. "It's one thing if she insults me, but then she went and insulted Applebloom, and her friends, and that just won't stand!"
Opal grinned and pointed her horn at Winona. "And neither will you after this."
Twilight dispersed her shield and stepped forward. "You don't need to do this, Opal."
Opal's horn was already sparking wildly again. "Oh, you bet I do." She turned her attention back to Winona and let lose another blast of magic. Winona rolled out of the way and countered with a punch but Opal was able to dodge as well. Rarity watched the two as they fought and sighed.
"How long have they been fighting?" Twilight asked her.
"Too long." The depressed Rarity sighed again. "Just look at what they did to my store."
Applejack quietly wiped away some of the glass shards still stuck in the brim of her hat. "Ah heard that Applebloom and her friends were in there when it happened. Where're they?"
"Somewhere." Rarity shrugged. "The last time I saw them, they were heading for the back exit. I think they had Peewee with them."
"Ha!" Each of them looked back at the fighting ponies. Opal stood over Winona, looking down triumphantly at the smoking earth pony. "You didn't think I'd win, did you?" She half shouted, half laughed. "But it turns out I did! So what are you gonna do about it?!"
Winona slowly looked up at her attacker, reached up, grabbed Opal's head, pulled it forward, and rammed her own head into Opal's. A sharp crack rang out and an extremely dazed Opal staggered backwards before crumpling to the ground unconscious.
"Yeah!" Winona got to her hooves, almost falling backwards in the process. She weakly pointed a hoof at the downed fighter. "Now you know not to mess with an Apple!"
Applejack finally decided that it was safe to go in and ran to Winona's side. "Winona! Are you okay?"
"Absolutely!" She replied with a wide smile, though, Applejack notice her cringe in pain slightly. "Just let me lie down for a moment and Ah'll be right as rain." At that she dropped, face down, into the dirt, also unconscious. Applejack knelt down and patted her pet on the head.
"You did good girl, now rest up."
"Twilight!" The sound of hooves against dirt and a voice calling out signified somepony that somepony else was arriving on the scene. Twilight followed the voice to behind her were Fluttershy was running up towards her flanked by Angel. "Are you alright? What happened?" She asked, concerned like always.
"We're fine Fluttershy, Winona defeated Opal and they're both unconscious."
Angel stamped a hoof. "Dang it. I wanted to give that mouse eater a piece of my mind. Well, I guess our work here is done Flutters, might as well go home."
"Angel." Fluttershy hushed him. "Is there anything we can help with?"
"Actually It's great that you're here." Twilight said, looking back at the downed ponies. "Help us get Winona and Opal into the boutique so we can heal them."
Fluttershy nodded and went off towards the two, Angel begrudgingly following along. With Winona on Applejack's back, and Opal on Angel's, all of them went into the boutique
If the inside of the Boutique was messy before, than now it was now a war zone. Clothing and fabrics have been torn to shreds and string which draped over everything in the room. Mannequins were knocked over, tables were flipped and smashed, and scorch marks from Opal covered the floor and walls. The clothing Rarity had been working hard on were now in tatters, scattered across the store.
All in all, it wasn't something that Rarity would just be able to sweep under the rug.
"Careful Angel." Fluttershy motioned the earth pony over to one of the remaining couches. Angel slowly followed her, balancing the unconscious Opalescence on his back.
"That's good." Fluttershy pointed to the couch when they were beside it. "Put her down gently."
Angel silently thought for a moment, looking from Fluttershy to the couch and back again. Slowly, and deliberately, he leaned away from the couch, unconscious Opal sliding off his back and flopping onto the floor in a mess of limbs and fur.
"There," He stated, grinning smugly.
This earned him a glare from his owner. "Angel," she said sternly.
"What? I tried to put her down gently, but she didn't want that." He looked down at the cat on the ground. "Isn't that right Opal?" He asked.
Opal, who was still unconscious, did not reply.
Angel nodded solemnly. "She agrees with me."
Fluttershy sighed, crouched downward, and started to pick Opal off the ground. "Just help me get her up, please."
"Why?" He asked, exasperatedly. "Just earlier she was trying to turn Winona into a stain in the dirt. Why should we help her?"
"Because Rarity needs it." Applejack said to Angel, joining the conversation. Beside her Winona had been placed on a pile of soft clothing, her erratically twitching leg symbolizing that she was now sleeping instead of unconscious.
"To be honest; Ah don't like helping her either," Applejack stated honestly, glumly. She reached down to pet Winona caringly. "And Ah especially don't like it that mah dog was caught in the crossfire. But Ah believe that no matter how bad Ahm feeling, Rarity's feeling twice as bad."
The three of them turned their heads as one to the front doors of the boutique where Twilight and Rarity were still standing in the doorway. Rarity was sitting on the ground, her eyes trained on the floor tiles as she talked to Twilight, who simply stood and listened quietly. None of them could hear what they were saying but knew better than to go and ask.
"Fine." Angel huffed begrudgingly and started to pick Opal back up off the floor. With Fluttershy's help, they moved her onto the couch and Fluttershy quickly got to work inspecting her wounds.
"What do you think they're talking about?" Angel asked Applejack in a brief moment of true concern.
The farmer simply shrugged. "Who knows." Both of them went silent as Twilight and Rarity walked over.
"..." Rarity looked like she wanted to say something but couldn't make herself say it. Twilight spoke up for her.
"How are they doing?" She asked.
"They're both doing well." Fluttershy responded quietly. She repeatedly shifted from Opal to Winona, checking both of them for cuts, scraps, bruises, etc. "Winona doesn't have a lot of bruises or cuts but she's been burned by Opal."
The others looked down at the dog, sleeping as if what had happened earlier had been just a dream, but the smell of burning fur and the shredded fabric she was lying on showed that it wasn't.
"Her thick fur must have protected her." Twilight noted. Applejack said nothing but sat at her pet's side, watching over her caringly. Rarity watched on quietly.
"And Opal?" She finally spoke up.
Their eyes fell of the unicorn, her fur messy with dirt and bruises clearly showed through the white hair. Winona had certainly done a number on her. Her slowly rising and falling chest brought a bit of relief to Rarity.
"I...I was astounded when it happened." Rarity said slowly, watching as Fluttershy bandaged Opal up. "Usually Opal would just growl, or swipe a bit, she'd only fight if it was for defense."
"It's different now." Angel stated simply. Everypony else nodded, the clarity of that statement sinking in for the first time. Yes, it was different now.
"Alright." Fluttershy stood back, wiping her brow with a hoof and pushing the hair out of her face. "That's all I can do. I hope it's enough."
"It's very good Fluttershy." Twilight said, regarding the expertly bandaged ponies. "Thanks a lot."
"Zzz-nrgh!" Winona suddenly jolted awake, her eyes wide open and teeth barred. "W-what's going on?! Why does mah head hurt?!"
"Winona!" Applejack held her pet down before she could cause any damage. "It's okay, you're safe now."
"Apple... jack?" Winona squinted at the farmer pony, temporarily forgetting who she was. She once again tried to get up but the sharp pain in her head forced her to lie back down. "What happened?"
"You got into a fight with Rarity's cat Opal and destroyed the shop." Applejack answered. Winona just laid back, a blank expression on her face as she looked around her at the room.
"Oh yeah." She breathed quietly. "What happened to that cat anyways?" Winona asked before noticing her unconscious adversary on the couch next to her. She glared at the unconscious unicorn, a deep growling sound emanating from her throat.
"It's okay, Winona." Applejack quickly understood her pet's intentions and moved to hold her down again. "You don't need tah fight Opal right now, you need to rest."
"But..." Winona's eyes darted back and forth, from the annoying unicorn on the couch that she had chased around multiple times in the past and had shot her out of a window earlier, to her owner's commanding but kind face. Winona sighed, defeated by a caring attitude. "Alright fine, Ah'll rest."
Applejack smiled and nodded. "Good."
Right after Applejack said that she was unexpectedly licked upside the head by Winona, her freckled cheek now covered in pony drool.
"Thanks fer helping me out." Winona smiled gratefully at her owner. Applejack blushed slightly at the sign of affection and smiled. "Sure thing."
"Twilight!" The non-destroyed door chime rung out and the sound of a voice signaled somepony new on the scene. Spike stood in the doorway. He quickly crossed the room towards the ponies, treading carefully across the splinters and glass.
Twilight stared confusedly at her assistant. "Spike, what are you doing here? I thought we left you at Fluttershy's place."
Spike smiled sheepishly at that. "Yeah...about that-"
"Twilight!" Another voice interrupted Spike, also calling Twilight's name. Owlowiscious suddenly appeared through the doors, followed shortly by Rainbow Dash and Tank.
Owlowiscious spoke "Twilight, are you okay? When we came back and couldn't find you, Spike filled us in and we raced over here as fast as we could."
Dash let out a long, low whistle as she looked over the boutique. "Wow Rarity, your cat tore the shop apart!" She said, sounding almost impressed.
"Hmnn." Tank cleared his throat loudly, lightly elbowing his owner in the side to bring her attention to Rarity's saddened expression. "Oh!" Dash waved her arms frantically, realizing what she had said. "I didn't-I...I mean-" Another elbowing from Tank stopped her stuttering. "...Sorry."
Rarity didn't respond, only looking down at a shred of the dress she had been working on before the fight broke out. Nopony could really tell what was going on in her mind at the moment.
Owlowiscious walked up to the unicorn, nearly tripping over a mannequin's head that was shot right off its shoulder by some wayward magic. "Rarity?" His eyes drifted down to the same scrap of fabric on the floor that she was looking at. Realization flashed across his eyes. "Oh, I'm so sorry."
"Heh..." A small laugh of deep cynicism escaped Rarity. "It's alright, Owlowiscious." The scrap of fabric glowed with a light blue aura and floated up to Rarity's face. It did a little, jerky dance in her magical grip. She didn't seem to be focusing on it much, or anything else for that matter. "I mean, it's only all of my dresses, that I had worked incredibly hard on for weeks for this occasion." She went silent, her body shaking slightly from too many emotions.
Nopony knew what to do. More than that, they didn't know what to say. Clearly some kind of cheering up was in order but nopony knew exactly how to do it. At that moment Spike decided that now was the time to speak up and bravely stepped up towards the designer to try and comfort her.
He stepped up beside her, opened his mouth to console her, and burped, a cloud of smoke with green flame swirling out in front of him and Rarity. It suddenly transformed into a rolled up scroll and fell to the ground at Rarity's hooves. They both stared at it for a moment before Rarity levitated up to her face and unsealed it.
"Mhmm...Twilight?" She called after a minute of scanning. "I believe it's for you."
She quietly floated the slightly burned parchment over to Twilight, who took it in her own magical grip. Her friends crowded around her as she read it aloud.
"My dearest student, Twilight Sparkle
I regret to inform you that once again, due to some complications, we will have to postpone our arrival to the celebration. Progress moves faster and faster though, the weather ponies have informed me that it will only be another day before we are able to take off without worry so we will arrive sometime during the night, just in time to raise the sun.
My sister and myself are quite looking forward to the party, and seeing all of you again.
With warm regards, Princess Celestia."
Just as she finished reading, Twilight let out a small sigh. "Well, looks like we'll have to wait another day for the princesses to get here."
"It's okay, sugarcube." Applejack reassured her. "That just means that we'll get some more time to finish our work before the princesses get here." She glanced downward at Winona who had rolled onto her back after a failed attempt to stand up. "Ah'll certainly need more time tah finish the work."
Winona chuckled embarrassedly as Applejack looked down at her with a stern expression on her face. She could tell that she was really in the dog house now.
"And it'll give me more flying time with Tank!" Dash exclaimed happily and hoofbumped Tank, who grinned in kind and nodded. "Maybe I'll even teach ya the sonic rainboom."
"Well, Angel and I will probably spend the day helping my poor other animals." Fluttershy stated, to which Angel let out a loud groan of displeasure.
"Really? You expect me to spend the whole day helping you take care of a herd of ponies?!"
Fluttershy looked up to him, the most honest, calmest look on her face. She nodded slowly and said only two word. "Yes, please."
The two stared silently at each other in a sort of staring contest/mental battle, neither of them making a sound or even blinking. Twilight had thought that they had froze up again and was about to try that 'pressure point' thing again before Angel finally relented.
"Fine! I'll do it." He grumbled irritably, breaking away from his owner's stare to rub his dry eyes. "It was so much easier to say no when I was a bunny and couldn't talk."
Rarity stayed wordless, silently listening to the others excitedly planning out their last day with their pets, her eyes moving every so often to Opal, sleeping on the couch.
"Well look at the time." Applejack looked out the window, time had passed since they got here and the sun hung low in the sky, painting the buildings outside golden. "Ah suppose it's time Winona an Ah get going."
"Someone should probably go tell Pinkie and Gummy about the letter." Dash noted.
"Ah'll tell her on our way out. C'mon Winona, easy does it."
Applejack helped Winona to her hooves and after saying a few quick goodbyes, they were out the door and off, Winona following slowly beside the farmer, occasionally leaning against her for support. Rainbow Dash and Tank were the next to leave, saying goodnight to the others and giving Rarity their condolences, even Tank said a little apology before they flew out the door. Fluttershy and Angel left shortly after, Fluttershy hopping beside Angel, talking excitedly about all the things they need to do with the other animals while Angel just remained mute, trying to ignore his owner's rambling. Twilight, Owlowiscious, Rarity and Spike were the only ones left.
"Are you sure you'll be alright?" Twilight asked.
"Oh, I'll be fine." Rarity replied calmly, even giving her a bit of a smile. "I'll just take Opal back to my parent's home. They have a few guest rooms."
"Do you want any help cleaning this up?" Spike gestured to the destroyed room. Rarity just shook her head, letting out a dark chuckle. "No, it's alright. Heh, I'll probably need to rebuild the store after that fight."
Owlowiscious watched the conversation concernedly. "Are you sure?"
Rarity nodded. "Yes, yes. Now get going, tomorrow is the big day, and you probably don't want to oversleep. Besides, don't you still need to find somepony?"
"But-" Spike was about to object before he was interrupted by a gasping Twilight. "She's right." Twilight gasped. "We'd better go and find Peewee before it gets dark." She lifted Spike onto her back and rushed out the door, shouting goodbyes as she left. Owlowiscious was left to apologize. "Sincerest apologies, Twilight can be a tad distracted at times." He turned to leave but stopped as he saw Rarity looking down sadly at Opal.
"I'm sorry for what happened." He said.
She nodded thank you. "It's alright. I'm the one who invited them in."
And Owlowiscious left, taking off in flight after his owner, leaving Rarity. Rarity watched as he left, the rapidly descending sun's rays shining through what was left of the windows, creating tiny rainbows. She might as well do some sweeping before she leaves, make sure nopony get hurt. As she goes for a broom she looks down one more time at Opal and a sigh escaped her lips.
"Sometimes..." She took in a shaky breath. "Sometimes I wonder if I should have gotten you."
And she walks off, unaware that the other unicorn has been secretly watching her.
Twilight's eyes slowly opened to the bright light of the sun pouring in through her bedroom window. Turning slowly onto her back she exhaled, her eyes tracing pictures on the wooden ceiling as she recollected what exactly had happened recently. Slowly she started to see things in the ceiling as she remembered them.
A storm that she had foolishly tried to fix, a wave of magic that had shot across town, all of their pets changing forms because of her, and her friends reactions; some of them were happy, others were confused. And then there was Rarity.
She groaned quietly at the reminder of Rarity. Memories of the destroyed boutique appeared in her mind. She closed her eyes but the images still flashed across them. Winona's and Opal's fight, the aftermath of that and what remained of the store, the fact that it was all basically her fault. Rarity's dresses...
Twilight magically lifted her pillow out from under her head and pushed her face into it, groaning loudly. Why did relationships have to be so difficult? Why couldn't they all just get along? She sighed and finally sat up on her bed. At least nothing was happening in her house. She leaned her head back to breath in the new day.
And got a nose full of smoke.
Twilight coughed and sputtered. "S-smoke...? But-" she coughed again. "-why would there be...."
And then it came to her, all in one moment like a punch to the face. Smoke equals fire, fire is bad, fire burns wood, so fire is...
"The library!" Twilight cried out, realization slapping her in the face. "The library is on fire!"
Now fully awake, Twilight flung herself out of bed and dashed for the doors, multiple spells and rules about fire safety running through her mind.
"Not the books....Not the books..." She muttered as she telekinetically opened her door and found a thin cloud of smoke outside. Twilight took in a breath and charged through it and down the stairs, nothing in the main part of the library seemed to be on fire yet but she could see that it was coming from the kitchen.
"Spike?" the concerned unicorn shouted at the kitchen, nothing visible but the smoke. "Owlowiscious? Are you in there?"
There was no reply, though she could hear them shouting from inside. Smoke was still pouring out of the door and Twilight was freaking out. She had to do something!
"Don't worry! I'm coming!" She shouted and ran into the smoke, letting lose an extinguish spell and flooding the kitchen in a torrent of materialized water. Twilight briefly felt the feeling of weightlessness as she was enveloped in the water before it emptied out through the kitchen doorway. Twilight flopped onto the floor, her fur absolutely soaked.
"Owlowiscious! Spike!" Twilight's words were quickly reduced to a coughing fit from a mouthful of water. She couldn't see anything past her wet mane but she could tell that the smoke had been washed away. "Are you okay?"
"...Twi-" a voice was heard but it was also stopped by a coughing fit. It sounded like Owlowiscious. "You're...why..."
"Are you kidding?" another voice that Twilight credited to be Spike said. "She-" more coughing, "She obviously saw the smoke."
"But you told me she was sleeping!"
"It's Twilight. Something happens in her library and she's there."
After a moment of listening Twilight finally wiped the wet hair from her face to see what exactly was going on. Her kitchen was completely drenched in water now it dripped from the ceiling, and everything else, into large puddles on the floor. Water was also streaming into the main room behind them. Spike and Owlowiscious stood in front of her, both of them soaked to the bones, Owlowiscious's wings hung down at his hooves, weighed down by the flash flood of water while Spike's spines seemed to droop to one side. Amazingly, they were still arguing.
"I can't believe you don't know how to cook! I thought Owls were supposed to be smart."
"Oh, I'm sorry. I'm still getting used to the fact that I have hooves!"
"Guys!" Twilight called for attention. Both of them looked over at her, water dripping from everything at this point.
"What's going on here?" Twilight asked.
"Birdbrain over here wanted to make breakfast for us," Spike said, pointing an accusing finger at the Pegasus. "But it turns out that he doesn't even know how to make pancakes!"
"I followed the recipe!" Owlowiscious responded quickly. "I just didn't know when to turn off the oven..."
Spike shook his head. "You should have just let me do it."
Owlowiscious raised an eyebrow at that. "And what? You end up putting gems in the batter?"
"Gems are delicious!" Spike retorted. "And I wouldn't put them in there for Twilight."
"You're right," he agreed. "They probably wouldn't even reach the bowl before going to your stomach."
"Guys!" Twilight shouted again, stomping the floor and unwittingly bringing down more water on their heads. She shook the water from her mane, spraying the other two with even more water in the process. They flinched from the spray but kept their focus on the librarian.
"Now, how about we start cleaning this up, and then we'll go out for breakfast," she pushed some hair out of her face again, "Okay?"
They silently considered their options for a moment before Spike spoke again. "Can I bring Peewee?"
She nodded. "Of course, now go find the mops please."
A quick nod and the little Dragon ran out of the room to gather things and wake up the little Alicorn, leaving the two alone for the moment. Owlowiscious, the color from his face fading under his owner's gaze, looked away and set his mind on treating his soaked wings. Twilight, on the other hoof, had other ideas.
"You were cooking?"
He didn't reply.
"You don't know how to cook?"
"I'm an Owl!" He stated in exasperation. Clearly he had explained this before. "It's not every day that I have to do things like this."
"But you've never had to do this." she noted, "So why are you doing it now?"
He shook his head in embarrassment. "Well... I'm a pony now, and I can do things that I couldn't before." He glanced back at the stove, steam still rose from the inside. "I kind of want to pull my own weight around here, which is hard when I apparently don't know how to make a simple breakfast." he sighed, "I guess I'm not as smart as I thought."
Twilight nodded slowly, magically opening a cupboard and pulling out a few towels. She tossed a few to Owlowiscious. "I wouldn't say that, like you said, you're not used to all of this. It has been only a few days."
He caught the towel and began the slow, almost painful, process of drying off one's wings. "I suppose."
"I mean it. At first I thought that something bad would happen, but it turns out that what happened turned out to be pretty fun."
"Yeah, aside from a few problems."
Twilight instantly knew what he was talking about and hung her head. "Yeah... problems..."
"It's not your fault Twilight." Owlowiscious stated, attempting to cheer her up. "Opal and Rarity's relationship is just different from the others, including ours."
"I know. I just wish..." Twilight searched for the right words, "I just wish that they'd sort out their differences. Didn't it seem like they really hated each other yesterday?"
"It's a problem that they'll have to work on themselves." the pegasus continued to dry with the towel. "I'm sure that they're talking about it right now."
"Yeah..." Twilight looked around the soaked kitchen, a new smile appearing on her face. "Good thing the only problem you seem to have is that you can't cook, or the town would be destroyed by now."
"Hey!" Owlowiscious clutched himself in mock pain. He pointed a hoof at the lavender unicorn's face. "I know for a fact that you don't know how to cook either!"
The two continued to banter back and forth aimlessly until Spike came back with the mops and buckets and they got to work.
***
It was difficult for Opal to really describe how she was feeling, even to herself. The amount of emotions she had felt after she had heard what Rarity said... it had been a storm inside her. First the anger, blinding rage at her owner for what she had said seemingly behind her back. Then the despair, a cold, dreadful feeling that clawed at Opal from this inside. And finally came the thinking time that followed all that. It had kept her up for a better part of the night; she only fell asleep long enough to not notice that she had been moved from the boutique.
Which was why Opal found herself in somepony's bed. The designs on the sheets, hoof sewn at that, told her quickly that she was in the house of Rarity's parents, or more specifically she was in the guest bedroom. She laid there under the sheets, tiredly looking down at her hooves, which were covered in small bandages. The rest of her body also had quite a few band aids on it.
"...So this is it, huh?" The words came out quietly. "This is the product of my troubles?"
Her answer didn't come. Instead the wooden door to the room creaked open and a horned head poked through, the face briefly obscured by long, purple curls. The mane was pushed away and Rarity stepped lightly into the room, a small tray of tea levitated into the room after her.
"Oh, you're awake." Rarity stated matter-of-factly as she crossed the room towards the bed. She didn't seem to have much emotion in her voice for the moment. "I thought that you'd still be sleeping."
Opal shifted uncomfortably under her owner's soft gaze. "I'm not that tired."
The tray was set down on a dresser, a cup filled and levitated up by Rarity. Held up in a magical grip it floated towards Opal, moving slowly as to not spill a drop. Opal eyes fell to the cup and she began to focus. Slowly, her horn shone the dark purple color that symbolized her magic and her magic slowly enveloped the cup, expelling Rarity's own magic. The cup shook in Opal's untrained grasp but she could keep it fairly steady.
Rarity looked on in surprise and mild shock. "Oh my, you couldn't do that before."
"I've had a lot of time to think." Pushing herself into a sitting position Opal pulled the cup over, sipping the hot tea slowly. She hadn't had anything to drink since noon yesterday. "Well, as much time as a nighttime can permit."
"You've been up all night?"
Opal shook her head, taking another sip. She could feel her owner's anxiousness, it was one of those things cats could do. "I woke up here in bed." she lied, "I'm... not really used to sleeping like this, under the covers and all that, so I spent some time focusing my magic."
"Hmm..." Rarity watched, not sure if she should be proud or angry. "How are you feeling?"
Opal glanced down at her bandaged wounds. She could still feel a spot on her face where a piece of glass had left a small scar on her left cheek and her bruises were still sore from the beating that Winona had inflicted on her. "Alright I suppose. That dog could have done worse I suppose."
"Winona came out of that scrape just as bad as you did. And on top of everything, you decimated the shop!"
Rarity's voice grew quiet and she turned away. For a second, Opal swore that she could see the mixture of bitterness and disappointment in her owner's eyes.
"I'm ashamed of you Opal." she stated, "How you've acted since this started. I thought you'd be..." She sighed and looked back at Opal. "It doesn't matter. Princess Celestia will be here tonight so everything will go back to normal, and...." She didn't continue. Things would not be normal after this.
Rarity's horn glowed again and the bed sheets came up and covered Opal again. "You are to stay in bed so you can heal. I'll be at the boutique cleaning up what I can and I'll check up on you later, okay?"
The bandaged unicorn didn't say anything. She simple nodded in reply, which seemed to be good enough for Rarity as she quickly retreated out of the room. Opal silently watched the door before her eyes drifted down at the cup floating in her grasp. It shook with each breath she took.
"Lay here all day?" she whispered to the tiny reflection in the cup, "For once, not likely."
The cup was set back down onto the tray and the sheets cast aside. Ever so slowly, Opal rose from the bed, her sore limbs screaming in protest to the endeavor. Still, she eventually got up fully and stepped across the room to one of the house's many closets. Flinging it open, she rumaged around inside, tossing aside socks and sweaters until she found what she had been looking for; a large overcoat, perfect for traveling around incognito and hiding most of your bandages. After a moment of quick learning, Opal managed to slide the overcoat on, sucking in a breath as the coat slid over some of the more tender bruises.
She couldn't just lay here in bed all day, though she might have wanted to before. There were simply too many thoughts going through her head to let her rest. Besides, cats always needed to get some air every once in a while. She stealthily moved towards the door, glancing out to see if anypony was there. When she was sure that there wasn't, Opal quietly made her escape from the house, slowly coming to realize the feeling she had felt earlier.
The worn stairs of the Apple house creaked and groaned, protesting Applejack's use of them once again. The noise was the only sound in the quiet house apart from the farmer's soft breathing. All of the other Apples had gotten up already, except for one of course, which was why Applejack was doing this in the first place.
She didn't blame the last member for sleeping in, heck, she'd probably still be in bed right now if she wasn't who she was. But she was a farmer, an Apple, and she wasn't just about to let a lot of work sit and gather dust, nor was she going to let somepony who needed to work get off easy.
Even after what had happened.
Applejack froze in mid-stride, almost at the top of the stairs. With memories of yesterday resurfacing yet again, the earth pony heaved a sigh and lean against the picture-covered wall for the moment. Trying to push it from her mind had left her with a headache and an uneasy feeling in her stomach.
Yesterday had been, for lack of a better term, a complete disaster. If she hadn't lost Winona and the Crusaders, she might have been able to prevent all of that from happening. But she was still only one part of it, which she understood as well. She hadn't been there for very long, only reaching the boutique in time to see her dog blasted through a window by a magic cat. But she could already tell that Rarity's relationship with Opal had crashed worse than a rocket powered tractor.
She sighed and moved on, coming up the stairs to the second floor and over to the guest room. Moving the thoughts away for now, Applejack knocked on the door four times.
"Winona?"
There was no reply.
"Winona?" she knocked again, this time louder. "Are you up?"
Again, there was no reply.
Slowly, Applejack pressed her ear against the door. Soft snoring could he heard from within, confirming her assumptions. Applejack pushed the door open and found herself blasted with the stale, musty air of a room barely used. Still, she went inside.
The guest room of the house wasn't anything special. Little more than an old bed took up its space. In the bed was Winona, still sound asleep despite her owner's actions. The blankets and sheets that should have been covering her were instead strewn across the floor. Bandages were littered in the bed, more than likely having fallen off in the night. One of her hind legs kicked in the air, quiet barking emanating from Winona as she slept. Applejack couldn't help but crack a smile at her pet. It seemed she dreamt the same things, even if she was a pony.
"Winona....?" The farmer called her name gently, giving the earth pony a gentle nudge. "It's time to get up now."
Winona fidgeted for a moment before she rolled onto her other side and remained asleep.
"Winona. Wake up this instant!" Growing impatient, which seemed to happen more and more nowadays, Applejack pressed further and nudged Winona harder. This time the nudge turned into more of a push, and Winona was sent off the other side of the bed for a surprise meeting with the floor. Applejack moved over to the other side and looked down at Winona.
"...Oops. Uh, Winona? Are y'all alright?"
The Canine-pony stared up at her owner in a daze. She wasn't entirely awake, even after the sudden fall, but she was awake enough to look up at Applejack. She yawned once, displaying her dull, flat pony teeth, and licked Applejack's nose.
"Howdy, Applejack."
"Howdy yourself," Applejack wiped her nose and grinned. "How ya feeling, sugercube?"
The shaggy pony slowly rose from off the floor and begun to stretch, yawning again in the meantime. "Pretty good." she grunted, her affirmation accompanied by the popping of a few joints. "All mah bumps and bruises healed up right quick!" Winona beamed and bounced excitedly. "Ah feel like Ah could take on a whole pack of Timberwolves!"
"That's good." Applejack replied with a nod. "You're gonna need your strength when we work today."
The bouncing ceased. A confused look fell over the pony as she looked at Applejack, her head tilting a little to the right. "...Work?"
"You remember all those apple trees we didn't harvest yesterday, right?" she asked.
Winona froze up, eyes widening as she remembered it. "Yeah..."
"Well, they're still not harvested." Applejack clarified, speaking matter-of-factly. "Applebloom, and Big Macintosh, are already out in the fields now. And we're all waiting on you."
"Y'all have been waiting for me?" Winona frowned, "Sorry, yesterday just made me all tired."
Applejack was silent for a moment before speaking. "... Speaking of yesterday, could ya tell me what exactly happened?"
Winona stared, more than a little confused that her owner would ask for something that was, for her, right out of the blue. Slowly, after sitting back down on the bed, she nodded and started telling the full story.
"Uh, well when we got to the Boutique - me and Applebloom, and her friends that is - Rarity welcomed us inside. While they were asking a bunch of questions, Ah was visiting with Opal. She had said something rude to Applebloom's friends, and Ah stepped in. We argued and she shot me through a window." A hoof was brought up to a bandage still attached to her head. It was placed on a spot where a large piece of glass had struck her. It still stung. "Ah... Ah don't remember much after that, except you were there, and Ah won."
Applejack shook her head. She probably would have done the same thing given the circumstances. Still...
"Right. Anyways, Ah think sometime today we should go and apologize to Rarity about the fight."
Winona froze up, her eyes widening at the statement. It actually took a moment for what Applejack said to connect with her. When she did, Winona nearly jumped out of her fur.
"W-what?!" She squeaked in alarm. "But... but why?" She immediately started up again after saying that. "Ah mean, w-why do Ah have to apologize? That cat started it when she insulted Applebloom!"
"Yeah, but you had a hoof in destroying the shop too." Applejack confessed, speaking calmly as to not sound punishing. She stepped forward and put a hoof on the younger earth pony's shoulder, who looked up at her with those large, orange eyes. "Ahm not gonna punish you Winona, Ah think that's already been done." She ran a hoof over the brown and white fur; a few bruises were starting to show. "Ahm just saying that we should go over some time and say we're sorry and it wouldn't hurt if we offered to help her rebuild."
Winona was quiet for the entire talk, but slowly, she started speaking again. "Ahm sorry about the fight."
"It's not me who ya need to be apologizing to." Applejack smiled warmly and patted her pet on the back. "But Ah suppose it's a start. Now c'mon, we got a lot of work to do, so we'd better get to it!"
Sitting there on the bed, a slow smile spread across the pony's face until it broke into a big smile. "Yeah!" Winona jumped up and dashed past Applejack, and out the door. "Race ya to the fields!"
Applejack sprinted after her. It was going to be a busy day, time to get started.
***
"-And that's what you need to do, alright Angel?"
"Uh.... yeah. Quick question, why are we doing this?
"Angel!" Fluttershy stomped the ground, barely making an imprint. "We're doing this because we need to feed the others!" She gestured to the crowd of ponies that sat around the area that was Fluttershy's house. All the animals had been delighted when Angel and Fluttershy came back, swarming the two in affection, much to Fluttershy's delight and Angel's mild annoyance. The mob, as Angel called it, had learned quite a bit since they left them here. More than a few of them knew how to talk now.
All of them had something to say, but it all mostly came down to asking for food. They hadn't eaten since yesterday, and Fluttershy was quite panicked. Angel was actually concerned as well, but had chosen to show it in his usual, snarky way. Unfortunately, with everyone as a pony now they had to fall back on a smaller, alternative food supply.
"Here, enjoy." Angel set a platter of sandwiches on the ground. A few of the ponies approached cautiously and inspected the food, not quite sure what to do. They looked to Angel.
"You eat it." Angel confirmed. The white stallion sighed, running a hoof through his mane. "Honestly, you guys, use your heads. We're not just going to feed you animal feed. You're ponies now, time to eat like them."
Slowly, one of the ponies, an earth pony stallion, stepped closer and grabbed a sandwich. The food nearly fell from his hooves, the pony unused to using them, but he kept a grip. Unfortunately, just as he was about to take a bite, a Pegasus swooped in and snatched the sandwich right from his hooves. The Pegasus laughed and flew off, the earth pony in hot pursuit.
"Hey! There's this little thing called 'sharing'. You should try it sometime!" Angel shouted at the two, even though they probably weren't listening to him. When the coast was clear the other animal-ponies started coming forward and dove into the meal. Angel just stood by.
"Dig in everypony. Try not to choke or anything, okay? Okay."
Angel left the ponies to their lunch and looked for Fluttershy. Moving though the crowds of ponies felt like trying to swim upstream to Angel. Not that he had ever tried that, it looked like too much work, and just seemed stupid to him. All around him other ponies ate and mingled, which was something Angel found really odd since there were predators and prey in the mix. He just chalked it up to everypony being ponies and kept looking. The whole thing was ridiculous really.
Fluttershy was tending to some of the other ponies, her side of the work already done. She sat with a few of them, quietly brushing a small, green Pegasus's feathers as she listened to them talk. Whatever they were talking about, Fluttershy listened with a kind intensity. Angel approached slowly, trying not to accidently surprise his owner when she noticed him, and cleared his throat loudly. This drew attention and Fluttershy turned.
"Oh, Angel!" Fluttershy nearly dropped her brush. "Just give me a moment, please." Excusing herself, Fluttershy returned to her work. After a minute or so of brushing she set the brush down. "Okay Hummingway, that should do for now."
Hummingway thanked the yellow Pegasus with a hug and fluttered off. Finished, Fluttershy quietly excused herself from the other ponies and went over to Angel.
"Did you finish feeding the other animals?" she asked.
Behind Fluttershy, Angel noticed the Pegasus and pony from earlier, the pony still in pursuit. He nodded. "Yup. Most of everypony got fed their share of daisy sandwiches," He gagged melodramatically. "The most bland, horrible thing imaginable."
"It'll have to do for now." Fluttershy answered sadly. She watched the other ponies around them. "My poor animal friends, we'll have to go out to the market later and get more food."
"Fun. Hope you have the bits for it." Angel grumbled. Anything else he would have said was interrupted by a growling noise. Both of them looked around until they discovered that it originated from Angel, specifically his stomach.
"Uh... pardon me?"
"Angel...." Fluttershy looked up at him concernedly. "You ate too, didn't you?"
"Yeah, like I'd want to eat that stuff, even if I'm starving." Angel chuckled half-heartedly for a moment before turning sheepish. "And I'm sure somepony here is probably hungrier... with lower standards, than me, of course."
"Aww," Fluttershy smiled warmly. "That was very nice of you Angel. Thanks."
"Ugh." The white stallion groaned weakly. "Why do you have to be so.... so....."
Angel could say any number of insults or smart remarks, but all that came to mind was adorable, as it was so painfully obvious that she was. Almost sickeningly so. He would never say it to her face though, he'd never hear the end of it. So looking back Angel would be thankful that he had been interrupted.
"Excuse me?" A voice spoke out, drawing both ponies' attentions. It was a unicorn, fur white as snow, and dressed in an overcoat for some reason. "I certainly hope I'm not interrupting anything."
The two ponies stared, different levels of confusion on both of their faces. Fluttershy gasped softly, leaned over to Angel and spoke. "Isn't that-?"
Angel cut her off, not taking his eyes off the unicorn. "Flutters, why don't you go check if some other animals need your help?"
"Are you sure? But Opal-"
"Fluttershy, go." Angel found her gaze for a brief moment, trying to convey an understanding to her. "Go and let me handle this."
Fluttershy stared at Angel for a moment, concern felt for both ponies present keeping her on the spot. Angel won out though and, nodding begrudgingly, the yellow Pegasus turned and fluttered away, back to the crowd of animals where she would be safe. Now alone, Angel breathed slowly and walked towards the unicorn.
"Sending your owner away?" The unicorn inquired with a smile. "Does the white knight want to protect his princess?"
"Shut up." Angel replied bluntly, not breaking his stride until he was about a few steps in front of Opal, close enough to see the little bruises and cuts that still showed from yesterday. "I just don't want her to be here if things get hairy, like they often do when you're around." He scowled. "So unless you plan on making pleasant conversation, I suggest you get your furry butt out of here before I kick it out."
"Calm down." Opalescence waved his threat off with all the grace that her owner posessed. "I'm not here to face the brunt of your anger, no matter how funny it is to see. Actually, I came here to talk with Fluttershy." She glared. "And since that apparently won't come to be, I'll have to settle for speaking with you."
A twitch grew in Angel's eye, but he was growing curious. Why would she want to talk? "Ha, ha. What's with the coat?"
"Can't a lady decide to wear something different once in a while? A pony wearing a coat also draws less attention than one with bruises and bandages all over."
He raised an eyebrow. "Rarity doesn't know you're here, does she?"
Opal looked uncertain for a moment. "She... she left me to nurse my wounds and that's what I'm doing. Don't you know exercise is good for you, silly Angel rabbit?"
"I'm a bunny," Angel growled indignantly. "That's my name. Not rabbit. There's a difference, sort of. And don't try to give facts on health, I've already heard the full book from Flutters." He looked questioningly at her. "And not that I care you know, but don't you think going out after destroying a store, and Rarity's livelihood, is, I don't know, a terrible idea? I might as well go down and tell her about this myself." He made a move to get past her but was halted by something tugging him from behind. He glanced back, finding his tail ensnared by the glow of magic.
"Wait...." Opal made to speak, but paused, politely clearing her throat. "Please. Just let me ask you one thing and I'll leave."
For a long moment, Angel stared at her, taking in her gaze which seemed to be genuinely honest. He could make it so much worse for her, but at the same time..... He let out an annoyed huff, basically throwing up his hooves. "Fine, what is it?"
For a moment Opal looked uncomfortable, though that might have been the coat pressing down on some bruises. She shifted awkwardly for a moment.
"... Tell me about your relationship with Fluttershy."
".... My what?!" Angel stuttered profusely. Crimson spread across his muzzle.
"I'm asking if you can tell me how you two met? And your current relationship? Tell me about those things." She stared at him blankly. "What. What did you believe I meant?"
".....Nothing." Angel calmed himself and regained his composure. He wasn't sure how to feel being asked stuff like this, so he just went with it. "How we met?" he let out a breath. "I was just a kit back then so I don't remember much of it. I think I was alone when she found me, hungry and left by my parents you see. Don't even remember them though so who cares. Anyways, I must've struck a chord with her because next thing I knew I was in a warm house with warm food and I've never left." He smiled fondly at the memory. "She's really the nicest pony I've ever met."
"Fascinating," Opal started half-sarcastically. "What about after that?"
"Nothing much, different animals came and went in the house but I always stayed. I guess I'm her favorite, or possibly I just never decided to leave and she didn't say anything. Flutters was shy back then, even more than now, and really that's saying something! I've tried to help her improve her self-confidence and all that, because she needs all the help she can get. I guess I'm thankful that she has friends now that drag her around to save the world, its done wonders for her."
"So you assist her... by being bossy?" Opal raised an eyebrow at that.
"I want her to stand up for herself!" he clarified. "Just because I'm a jerk doesn't mean I'm not trying to help."
Opal mused over Angel's words. She was legitimately impressed. "I must say, that's certainly quite a tale. She's probably happy to have you." Turning, she started walking away. "I must be off now."
Angel didn't try to stop her this time, though he did ask. "Where are you going?"
Not looking back once, Opal continued walking. "There are still some ponies I have to talk too."
And she was gone. A moment later Fluttershy came running up to Angel, having watched the whole thing from far away. "Angel! Are you okay? Is she okay? What happened?"
"I..." All he could do is shrug. "I'm not sure...."
For Rainbow Dash most of the morning had been spent hard at work repositioning her cloud house. She hadn't moved it back to its spot yet, and over the course of a few days it had almost drifted out of Ponyville entirely. And with all the remodeling she did, that just wouldn't do at all. So with her strength returning, Tank by her side, and a whole day to do whatever she pleased, Rainbow Dash was more than excited for the day ahead.
Dash braced herself against the soft, plushy back wall of her home. Her arms almost sunk into the cloud but, being a pegasi, she was able to keep herself from falling through. "C'mon Tank," Dash grunted as she pushed against the floating building, "Let's put the house back where it belongs!"
Tank hovered close by, quietly watching his owner. His own wings, larger in wingspan than Dash's, flapped slowly, still managing to keep the large pegasus aloft. Tank moved closer and positioned himself beside Dash against the wall. After finding the right spot he looked to her and gave an affirming nod.
The two pushed against the massive cloud structure and it began to move. To be honest, all clouds were easy to move. Though, the bigger ones did require teams of Pegasi to move them. Dash could already move her house on her own though, Tank was just there to get it done faster. After several minutes of pushing, positioning, and a few directional errors, Dash's home was finally back in its proper spot.
"Finally." Dash panted. Letting go of the cloud, she darted up and over to the other side of the house, landing on the "lawn" that jetted out from the front. She watched the sky before her. It was like a giant ocean of blue, dotted with small islands of cloud. Ponyville was within sight again, and Dash could tell that everypony had already started preparing for the big day.
Tank flew up a moment later. He circled around to where Rainbow Dash was and slowly let himself down, the Pegasus's hooves sinking into the cloud layer when he touched down. Tank slowly made his way over, stepping as cautiously as possible.
Dash watched the spectacle and snickered. "You're not going to fall through Tank, how many times do we have to go over this?"
They had gone over that a few times actually. Ever since he had become a pony, Tank had been cautious about walking on the clouds, fearing that he would still fall though. Dash had explained it, and he knew that he couldn't now that he was a pegasus, but the not-tortoise still treaded lightly.
"Well then, now that's out of the way. What can we do now...?" Dash wondered aloud and looked around. She was already bored with the situation and searching for something else they could do. "What do you think, Tank?"
Tank replied with a shrug of his wings. Frankly he didn't care what they did, only if they were doing something. His owner would probably come up with something by the time he made a suggestion anyways. His assumption was proved correct when Dash suddenly spoke, grinning at whatever she had planned.
"W-wait, wait, wait. I got it!" She kicked her hooves in excitement, knocking up small puffs of cloud in the process. Dash grabbed Tank and pointed out at the sky beyond. "It's an awesome idea. You see those small bits of cloud out there Tank?"
A slow nod answered her question. Out in the sky beyond the house, drifting aimlessly over Ponyville, were little puffs of cloud. None of them were big enough to make any rain, but if they managed to bunch together a reasonably large cloud would be created.
"Yeah, so we're gonna take out all those clouds together!" Dash stated, punching the air with her hooves. "It'll be like a race! That's cool with you, right?"
Avoiding his owner's gaze for the moment, Tank rolled his olive-colored eyes. Dash was always making things into races or competitions, especially now that he was a Pegasus. He understood why though; she was just so happy that he could fly with her. This meant that he obviously couldn't refuse; not that he would in the first place.
Tank nodded.
"Awesome!" Overjoyed, Rainbow Dash moved to the end of the cloud and began preparing herself. Tank was right behind her and a moment later they were both peering over the edge at the ground bellow and the sky before them.
Dash looked over at Tank, his expression turned to stone as he concentrated. Her grin turned smug at a new idea. "Bet you a glass of apple cider that I win."
That got his attention. Apple cider? That stuff that his owner converted so dearly, and basically hoarded each year? How could he possibly refuse an offer like that, especially now that he was a pony?
Tank grinned; his expression taking on a competitive appearance that mirrored his owner's own. "You're on." He stated in his deep tone.
At the count of three the two Pegasus launched themselves off the cloud and zoomed off into the air with Dash quickly taking the lead. Tank tried his best to keep up, going faster than he ever had in his entire life.
***
"It's so nice that you guys came to see us before the party, Twilight!" Pinkie Pie said as she bounced around Sugarcube Corner. The whole store was incredibly busy at the time Twilight and the others got there. On top of the mess already produced by the frantic preparation it seemed that Pinkie and Gummy had also attempted a little bit of decorating. Streamers and other colorful decorations were attached to various parts of the bakery, including some of the food. It would only be later that Twilight discovered it was because of an accidental fire of the party-canon while they had been prepping it.
"Well we just thought we'd get out for a while you know?" Twilight explained, magically removing a few stray pieces of confetti from her mane. "Have some fun before the celebration?"
"Really? But usually you just spend a lot of time in the library looking at your checklists before the parties start."
"Oh, we finished those already." Owlowiscious half joked, though he was mostly telling the truth. "We've just decided to have a little fun now before the party starts."
Pinkie smiled at that. It wasn't very noticeable at first, but the two slowly begun to noticed the bags under the party pony's eyes as she worked. "Goody! That means you have all day to have fun." she paused, "Or whatever you want to do I guess."
"Uh, Pinkie?" Spike, who was in fact there, spoke up for the first time since they arrived. He had been showing Peewee some of the stores treats, while keeping sure he didn't accidently toast any of the of course. "Are you okay? You seem sort of..." he searched for the right word.
"Sleepy!" Peewee chimed in, basically unaware of what was going on, but enjoying all of the colors and ponies around him.
"Oh yeah! Me and Gummy were up all night, preparing the decoration and games, and food, and decorations, and games..."
Pinkie wobbled back and forth briefly before slowly tipping back, her eyes closing shut, and a slow yawn escaping her lips. Before anyone could do anything, out of nowhere, Gummy appeared beside her. Quick as a flash, he grabbed Pinkie before she hit something and set her back on her hooves. Grabbing a random cupcake from the counter he stuffed it into her mouth mid-yawn. Pinkie's eyes flew open the moment she tasted the pastry and quickly hopped to attention, swallowing the whole thing in one gulp.
"Phew, thanks Gummy." Pinkie patted the green earth pony on the head. "Me and Gummy have been working for so long that we have to eat some of the snacks. Gummy keeps saying that I shouldn't be eating all these sweets, but I'm fine!" she cracked a smile a bit wider than usual.
"Pinkie, you really should get some rest!" Twilight warned the mare. "You don't want to fall asleep when the princesses arrive, do you?"
"It's no problemo at all, Twilight!" Stating her opinion loudly, Pinkie Pie took a ridiculous pose, grabbing Gummy with one arm and pointing off with another. "Sleep is for the weak, and we have a lot of work to do!" she slammed her hoof on the counter. "It's not just the Summer Sun Celebration; it's the anniversary of when you came to Ponyville so it has to be the best!"
"I see." Owlowiscious said. "You have certainly been working on the decorations, haven't you?"
"Oh yeah!" she grinned happily but it slowly turned sheepish. "Well, I'm actually not doing as well as usual." Pinkie pointed a hoof to on of the corners of the store. Piled up in the corner were various banners and cloth decorations, as well as some sewing materials. "I tried to make some special decorations for the party but-" her explanation was momentarily halted by a yawning fit. "I guess I'm better at parties than sewing. I was going to ask Rarity about it..." The sentence went unfinished; Pinkie's smile briefly becoming a frown before turning happy again. "No worries, I can get it done by myself."
"Right...." There wasn't really anything Twilight could say to that that she hadn't already. Glancing at the others, she stated, "Well, we just came by to say hello. We're not going to just have sweets for lunch."
"We're not?" Owlowiscious asked in mock confusion. This earned him a glare from the unicorn. Spike and Peewee looked legitimately confused; both currently munching on some recently acquired cupcakes.
"We're not." Twilight confirmed. "Sorry Pinkie, but we have to get going. We'll see you at the celebration tonight!"
"Oki doki loki!" Pinkie waved goodbye to the group as they made their way out the door, grabbing Gummy's hoof and waving it as well until the door closed. Both of them returned to their current jobs; Pinkie manning the counter, counting the sprinkles on the cupcakes, Gummy standing beside her, blinking slowly.
"You know, Gummy-" Pinkie yawned, resting her head on the counter. Gummy had placed a pillow under her head right before she made contact. That Gummy; the best buddy a pony could have. "I'm sort of worried about Opal."
Blink, blink.
"I know Gummy, but I'm still gonna worry for her. She's probably all lost inside right now." Pinkie sighed, her hair letting out a high-pitched whine as it lost a little of its puffiness. "I bet she needs somepony to talk to."
A knock came to the bakery door, drawing both of the pony's attentions, and reflating Pinkie's mane in the process. "Ooh! Customers! Get the door, Gummy."
There was a moment of stillness, then a blink from Pinkie pie, and the green earth pony was standing at the doorway. The door was all the way open, without a single sound. And standing in the doorway, coincidence of coincidences, was Opalescence the unicorn.
"Hi Opal!" Pinkie waved ecstatically at the unicorn, instantly seeing through her disguise. "How's it going?"
"Erk!" Stuttering in shock, Opal dove into the shop, the door magically slamming shut behind her. She glared at the pink mare, pulling down her sunglasses; bought from a random stand as a last minute addition to her disguise.
"Ooh! What's with the trench coat? Are you a spy going undercove-Mmph!"
"I do not try to understand you," Opal stated, now at a hoofs-length from the pony, said hoof currently stuffed inside the party mare's mouth. "Nor do I try to understand your pet. Frankly, both of you irritate me, especially now that we can hold conversations. Since our time as ponies is limited, I came here to-Puh!" Talking was cut short when a wayward pie sailed through the air and hit its mark on Opal's face. She spun around, anger on her face and horn glowing dangerously bright.
"Gummy!" Pinkie, now able to speak, called to her pet. She actually sounded a little mad. "We're supposed to be being nice to Opal!" She reached over, wiped a bit of pie from the unicorn's face and licked it. Blueberry, classic. "Besides, the pie fight comes after the party!"
Across the room, Gummy was standing motionless, usual, blank expression plastered on his face as always. A few pies had spontaneously appeared at his hooves. Opal glared at him while Pinkie found a towel to offer her, as well as an apologetic smile. "Sorry?"
Opal glowered at Pinkie. She opened her mouth to say something, once, twice... but stopped. Face showing uncertainty, and even a little shame. Only giving a curt nod, Opal telekinetically yanked the towel from the mare's hooves and started wiping the pastry away.
After a moment of cleaning, Opal spoke. "It's fine. I probably deserve it anyways." She chuckled dryly, putting on a grin that wasn't entirely real. "Getting a pie to the face. That's a new one."
"Well, okay then..." Now that things seemed to be more peaceful, or at least more awkward, Pinkie Pie could return to her current job; mostly doing nothing. "Soooooo.... whatcha doing here? Looking for Twilight? Cause she was just here, I could go get them-"
"No!" Opal said just a little too loudly. She flinched as her voice echoed around the room. "Keep quiet please; I'm not really supposed to be here. ...And the last thing I want is Twilight or Rarity to know I'm here." She gestured to her coat and glasses. "Ergo, my cunning disguise. And no, I'm not even going to question why you saw through it easily."
"Oh," Pinkie frowned slightly. "Well, what are you doing here then?"
"Despite what you may think..." Opal breathed in, concentrating on her words. "I actually came here to... to talk with you." The loud noises of a stomach growling brought attention to the unicorn. "Also you're the closest place that sells food and I'm starving." From out of her various pockets, Opal magically produced a small pile of bits, piling them upon the counter. "Quickly, give me as much as this will get!" she paused. "...Please?"
Pinkie swiped up the bits in one hoof, inspected them briefly, giving the coins a small lick, and nodded exuberantly. "Okie dokie loki! Business is business! Come on, Gummy!" She jumped up and dashed into the kitchen, Gummy followed with half as much speed.
Opal stood awkwardly in the middle of the room, suddenly alone as the party pony and her pet went to work. Ordinarily, if she had been here with Rarity, she'd probably be half asleep on her owner's back or something. Things like this weren't really things she'd ever had to pay attention to before. It made Opal sigh. Being a pony was a whole other story, wasn't it?
Habit took over and she begun scanning the room with her eyes, looking for something interesting to look at or inspect. Unfortunately, none of the various confectionaries peaked her curiosity. That is, until her eyes fell upon the decorations in the corner. Tentatively, she stepped over to them.
"Sweet Celestia..." These crafts certainly weren't up to any sort of level Rarity would ever find acceptable, or Opal herself for that matter. The whole multicolored pile looked like something out of a foals arts and crafts class. "...Someponies just aren't talented at all..." So busy being annoyed about the whole thing, she did not notice as Pinkie and Gummy returned to the room carrying a bag full of treats.
"Ooh! You found our decorations!"
Opal jumped and turned around. "Uh, yes... They're certainly... something." Resisting the urge for once to be condescending, Opal didn't say more.
"Really?" Pinkie said. "I think they're pretty good. Me and Gummy worked extra hard on them. Do you like them?"
"Like them?.... Honestly, I do not." Now Pinkie brought it on herself. Opal telekinetically yanked a banner from the pile and held it up. "What we have here is an affront to any form of style. I certainly wouldn't wear this even if I was a real pony." She held the fabric in front of the mare and pointed. "Look at this, seriously, look at it. The colors clash so much that it will probably cause headaches to everypony around. And these stitches are completely shoddy, you used two kinds of thread, neither of which match. And the fabric itself is not right for this kind of use! It's for coats and boots, not banners!" She bopped the mare on the muzzle, producing a tiny squeak. "A dog could have done better than this, and dogs are colorblind!"
With her irritation fully unloaded on the target, Opal's drive slowed to a halt. She took a nervous step back, panting from her rant. Her magic dissipated from lack of concentration, the banner floated to the floor and landing at Pinkie's hooves.
Wide-eyed, Opal quickly looked to make her exit. "I...w-what I-I mean is..."
".....Wow!" Pinkie hopped up and down with excitement, non-affected by Opal's ranting. The bag also unaffected by the mare's hopping. "You know a whole lot about sewing and stuff!"
"Well... Of course I do!" Opal said indignantly. "What, you spend your entire life with somepony that spends her days talking about sewing technics as she sews. And you think you wouldn't pick things up along the way? Honestly, she talked to herself enough that it got beat into my head even when I tried to ignore her. It was... infuriating."
"Nu uh, it's super-duper! You're like a genius, only you know all about sewing and stuff instead of magic. I'm sure you and Rarity could get so much done toge-" Pinkie stopped, frozen in mid-bounce, inexplicably suspending herself, and the baggie, in midair. Her perpetual smile broke, turning into a straight line, and then into a frown. "I mean..." her hooves finally landed and she took a few steps back, "You guys could.... I mean..."
"Just..." Opal frowned, her eyes falling to the floor, "Just don't. I know, okay?" Reaching out with magic, she snatched the bag from the mare. "I know..."
She turned to leave but was halted by Pinkie, who was standing in her way despite having been behind her a moment before. "W-wait. Doncha wanna... talk about it or something?"
"Well...." Opal sighed, looking over her shoulder at Gummy, and back to Pinkie. She could just leave... but she did come here for another reason. But she could just leave..... nah. "No, I can't, but, could you tell me about Gummy? I mean, how you two met and stuff? I'm curious."
"...Really? Okay!" Pinkie zoomed around Opal and back to Gummy, a spotlight from nowhere centering it on the green earth pony. She took a breath but paused. "If I tell you, then you have to tell us what's going on. Okay?"
Opal groaned, staring at the ceiling for a second before nodding. "Fine, sure. Now start."
"Super! So, it was a loooooong time ago. I had just gotten into Ponyville, and was learning where I should throw parties and store party stuff in case of party emergencies."
"Party emer-" Opal shook her head. "Never mind, just continue."
"Well, I had just finished going through the swamp for good spots, and I was just about to leave-"
"And you found Gummy."
"Nope! Gummy found me!" Pinkie poked Gummy's side, a nonsensical squeak produced by the action. "I had to go through this watery part of the swamp, and when I came out I had this little guy attached to my tail!"
"So... you just took him with you?"
"Nuh uh, I tried to return him but it didn't work out. He didn't have any parents, and the little guy just kept following me; wouldn't leave me alone!" Pinkie reached around Gummy with both arms and wrapped the green pony in a great big hug. "Poor little guy was so friendly, and Fluttershy said that he "printed" me or something; which is weird, because printers haven't been invented yet. Silly, Fluttershy."
"I'm not even going to ask." Opal stated. "Keep talking."
"So baby Gummy came to live with big sis Pinkie pie here! After some agreements and promises with the Cakes of course. And I taught him how to swim, and eat bugs, and blow up balloons, and everything! One day, he's going to be the best party Alligator slash pony ever!"
She squeezed the pony affectionately. Gummy lifted his arms and wrapped them around his owner in return. Opal wasn't sure, but she thought she might have seen a smile for a moment. "That's... surprisingly touching, Pinkie. Thank you for telling me."
"No prob, Bob!" Pinkie replied happily, waving a hoof up and down. She smirked at Opal. "But now, you have to tell me about what you're doi-Heeeeeey!" But it was too late, Opal was already out the door at this point, her bag in magical hand, and a cry of "keep the change!" as the only reply.
"Aw.... she left."
"..."
"I know she was going to leave Gummy. It was still sort of rude is all." Pinkie shrugged it off, a yawn popping in from nowhere. "Oh well, she'll get it eventually right? Let's get back to work; lots of partying to be planned!"
