Long Distance Friendship

by Drag Orion

First published 27th of November, 2017

The Map calls Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack to solve a friendship problem in different locations.

The map sends Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack on a friendship mission to help a group of friends who have all gone their separate ways. While trying to help them, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie confront the reality that they might leave home too and Twilight worries about her friends one day choosing to move away.

Chapter 1

Dear Princess Celestia,

Though I’m no longer your student, I am still your faithful friend, Twilight Sparkle. I know I am no longer required to write to you about the friendship lessons that I learn, but I feel this is one that I know you can relate to very well and hope hope you can send me your thoughts on the matter after you have finished reading what I have to say.
It all started the other day, when a few of my friends and I embarked on a friendship mission not together, but I think that it helped make us realize how much we appreciate the bonds of friendship we share.

“Is everyone okay?” asked a worried Rainbow Dash as she flew down to the cloudy fields of the Wonderbolt’s training grounds where three pony-shaped holes were made in them. Upon landing, she used a wing to remove her goggles and let them hang from her neck as she peeked into one of the holes to see her Captain, Spitfire in it. “Nothing’s broken, right?”

“I’m fine,” answered Spitfire climbing out. “It takes more than a few spills to take down a Wonderbolt.”

“Just a little sore,” admitted Soarin. “Well, maybe just my pride… oh, and my flank.” Fleetfoot poked her head out of the hole she was in and and gave Soarin a look as did Rainbow and Spitfire. “What? These are some pretty dense clouds.”

“Jokes aside,” interrupted Fleetfoot as she looked around the base and saw several more holes in the clouds along with damage to the real grounds around the runway and some of the trees and flagpoles. “I’m not sure how much more destruction this place can take.”

“But we’re so close,” cried Rainbow Dash with pleading eyes. “Sure you guys lost control thirty seven times already, but I have a gut feeling that number thirty eight will be our lucky try.”

“What’s the call, Spitfire?” asked Soarin.

“We just about had it that last time,” she answered. “We wouldn’t try this if we didn’t think we could do it and we’re not going to settle with ‘almost got it.’ Now let’s give it another try-” Behind her, one of the trees they had crashed into on a previous attempt came down with a mighty thud and interrupted the morale-boosting moment Spitfire had been attempting to create. “Uh, preferably before the groundskeeper sees the mess we made.”

All four took off into the sky once more and flapped their wings to maintain their altitude way above the training grounds. Save for Rainbow, the other three Wonderbolts looked worn from their previous attempts, their manes messy and wind blown, their outfits dirty and wet from crashing into the ground and clouds respectively. But in spite of all that they were all looking eager to try again.

“We all know our positions?” asked Spitfire as she instructed the others. “Crash leads and the three of us follow behind single file. We remain close to take advantage of the slipstream. When she reaches Sonic Rainboom speeds we have to be able to maintain our positions in the slipstream till the final moment. At the precise moment Crash reaches her max velocity we have to be ready to make our move. That’s the difficult part we’ve been failing at since there is no room for error, but we’ve almost figured it out. Just feel for the moment and act. We don’t have room to hesitate, do I make myself clear?”

“Sir, yes, sir!” Rainbow Dash and the others answered and saluted.

“Very good!” she smiled. “Now let’s finally see if this new trick you wanted to try is actually worthy to be added to our shows, Crash. You remember the wager, right?”

“Cleaning the barracks for a month,” she replied. “But you know I wouldn’t take such a gamble if this wasn’t going to be the most awesomest thing ever.”

“That’s yet to be seen,” stated Spitfire. “But we’re all just as eager to make it work as you are. Everyone get in position.”

Quickly, the three moved themselves around Spitfire without any words between them. Rainbow Dash took the front ahead of Spitfire. Behind the two of them was Soarin and Fleetfoot was at the tail end. “Ready!” they all announced.

“Then let’s get started,” ordered Spitfire. “Crash get going!”

“Yes mam,” she grinned eagerly as he positioned her goggles on her face once more before diving almost straight down as quick as she could. Spitfire quickly followed her and then Soarin and Fleetfoot. Faster and faster they went as Rainbow Dash built up speed to break the color barrier. Her mane danced against the wind and her cheeks were getting pressed against her muzzle as the air pushed back against her. On her tail, Spitfire was following close behind, careful to maintain her speed while in such close proximity to her teammates on either side of her and the others did the same. They were all feeling the same g-forces on their body as they reached dizzying speeds.

“We’re almost there,” alerted Rainbow Dash. “Everypony get ready!”

“Feel it out everyone!” reminded Spitfire. “No hesitation! We’re getting it this time!”

“This is going to be soooooo AWESOME!” shouted Rainbow Dash as she finally broke through the color barrier. She shot forward with a tremendous burst of speed, a rainbow of color trailing behind her. At her sides, the other members of the Wonderbolts were also there moving with the rainbow of colors following them as well. Nearby, many of the Pegasi in the Wonderbolts training academy stared up at the sky in awe as the four streams of rainbows descending from the sky above.

“Oh yeah! We did it!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash. “I knew it’d be awesome!”

“Focus, Crash,” Spitfire called over to her. “We’re not done yet and in case you haven’t forgotten we’re almost at the ground. Time for the rest of the routine.”

“Gladly,” she smiled eagerly as they kept going towards the ground and then made a sharp turn mere inches above it to shoot back up into the sky insync with the others. The four Wonderbolts then broke away from one another as they followed their roles in the routine as planned with the rainbow still trailing behind all of them. All over the area, not just the recruits in the academy, but also many of the residents in Cloudsdale caught sight of the streams of rainbows decorating the sky like nothing any of them could have imagined. Drawn to the sight, they all flew towards it for a closer look and before long, they had a full audience to their practice session.

“Alright, if we stick the landing then this is officially a successful attempt,” Spitfire informed them as they returned to group formation side by side. They carefully descended towards the landing strip making sure to reduce their speed bit by bit as they did, the rainbow trailing behind them fading along with their speed till it was gone completely. As they reached one end of the landing strip, they all made contact with it and went from flying to running as they used their wings as windbreaks to continue to decelerate. Halfway down it, they all came to a complete stop, panting hard and shaking, but still on their feet. Their manes looked even more a mess than before. All the Pegasi around them were loud with cheers and applause.

“Not that I’m complaining, but when did we get an audience?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“Guess they must have seen us practicing and came to watch us finally complete our new routine.”

“Good thing we finally got it right,” added Fleetfoot. “It’d be embarrassing to have half of Cloudsdale see us wipe out again.”

“Wait, we actually did it this time,” gasped Rainbow Dash when the realization finally hit her.

“Hey, yeah! We did do it!” agreed Soarin as the excitement for their success finally erupted forth.

“Oh, yes! We did it! Finally we did it!” they cheered save for Spitfire.

“Yes, we did… once,” she reminded them having to keep her rank in mind and remain levelheaded. “That routine isn’t mastered after just one try. It’ll still require a lot more attempts before we can actually use it in our shows. That being said, that was indeed the most awesome things we’ve ever done!”

“I still can’t believe we all just did a Sonic Rainboom,” panted Soarin. “I mean we had to ride in your slipstream to be able to do it, but that was still unbelievable. My heart was in my throat the whole time and I think it’s still there.”

“Well, now might be a good time to take a nap,” suggested Fleetfoot. “If we’re going to have to practice it some more I’m gonna need to rest my wings and the rest of me.”

“Resting sounds good, but I’m gonna hit up the cafeteria first. I’m starved.”

“Hey, Crash,” Spitfire said with a casual tone instead of her authoritative one. “Mind coming with me to my office?”

“In a moment,” replied Rainbow Dash answering that way only because she knew she wasn’t being ordered to. She looked out at the audience still excited and cheering even after two of the four Wonderbolts had already left to rest and recover after practice. “I just want to bask in glory for a few moments more.”

A short while later, after Rainbow Dash got her fill of adoration from her fans, she entered into Spitfire’s office where she sat looking quite pleased herself. “I gotta hand it to you, Crash,” she praised her. “You’ve come quite a way since the Young Flier’s Competition. You’ve impressed many with not only your skills, but your passion, dedication, and enthusiasm that is not only inspiring, but contagious as well.”

“Thank you, sir,” she saluted. “Uh, all that’s good… right?”

“It’s much better than that,” she explained. “I told you before that you are a leader and I still believe that is true. Keep this up and you will make the rank of Captain even faster than me.”

“Me, a Captain?” gasped Rainbow Dash, her mouth dropping down in awe, before coming back up as she smiled with a twinkle of excitement in her eyes. “Wow, Captain Dash. Uh, what does that mean exactly?”

“Well on one hand, you have to do a lot of paperwork and handle a lot more responsibilities,” she told her. “But you also get to lead your own team. That means deciding the routines and getting to make all those kinds of decisions like the one I made to give your Rainboom routine a try.”

“I get to do all that?!?” panted Rainbow running short of breath from how excited all this was making her. “When do I start?”

“You aren’t a Captain yet,” Spitfire told her. “And just because I think you’d do a great job, the higher ups are the ones who decide all that. I can put a good word in for you to be recommended for the promotion, but then the rest is on you to show them your best. The only other thing I can offer you is one bit of advice.”

“What is it?” she asked.

“Move back to Cloudsdale,” Spitfire answered.

“Uh, how would that help me?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“You won’t get noticed as much if you spend most of your time in Ponyville and only come around during Wonderbolt Training,” she explained. “The rest of the team and I know how dedicated and hardworking you are, but those at the top would only know what you do while you’re here in Cloudsdale.”

“That makes sense, but I’ve still got responsibilities back home,” Rainbow Dash pointed out. “I’m in charge of the weather and clearing away the clouds after all.”

“But that’s just been your part time job till you could become a Wonderbolt, right? There are plenty of other Pegasi that live in Ponyville that could handle the job for you, right?”

“They could,” agreed Rainbow Dash hesitantly as she kept thinking. “But I could also get called for some kind of emergency like a friendship problem.”

“Does it happen that often?” questioned Spitfire. “Cause I only recall it happening once for a problem here.”

“Well, it doesn’t happen too often,” she conceded.

“Are there any other responsibilities you have to consider?” Spitfire wondered.

“Well, I have my pet, Tank,” Rainbow Dash pointed out. “He’s a tortoise, but he’s actually been getting the hang of flying pretty well so bringing him along shouldn’t be a problem. So, I guess that’s about all the responsibilities I can think of.”

“Then if you have nothing holding you back. You are free to decide,” Spitfire told her. “Stay in Ponyville or move back to Cloudsdale.”

“It sounds like a great idea, but I don’t know,” Rainbow Dash admitted hesitantly. “I need some time to think.”

“That fine,” nodded Spitfire with a friendly smile. “It’s a big decision to make, but as your friend I’m just trying to think about what’s best for you and your future as a Wonderbolt.”

“I know and I appreciate it greatly,” answered Rainbow Dash. “I’m going to go home and think it over. I’m sure I’ll have it figured out by our next Wonderbolt practice session.”

“I look forward to hearing what you decide,” she told her. There was a moment of silence between them. “Uh, is there anything else you need, Rainbow Dash?”

“You didn’t dismiss me yet,” Rainbow Dash told her.

“I invited you in here as your friend, not as your commander,” she reminded her. “You can leave at your own discretion.”

“Oh, right,” Rainbow gave a nervous chuckle and left. “You are my friend, but I have friends back in Ponyville too…”

Chapter 2

“So have you been enjoying yourself, Braeburn?” asked Applejack as she bucked against one of the apple trees on Sweet Apple Acres. The force was enough to shake free a number of apples and make them fall mostly in the baskets she had set up around it.

“My vacation’s been fun getting a break from chores in Appleloosa,” he told her before bucking one of the apple trees himself. “But why am I doing it over here instead?”

“Even on vacation, every Apple knows the value of a hard day’s work,” she reminded him. “And you wouldn’t want to get rusty now, would you?”

“Guess I can’t argue with you there,” he conceded with a chuckle as he bucked at his tree again only to have a single apple drop and miss all the buckets he had around it. “And a bit of practice might be a good idea too.”

The two continued to collect apples for a while till they were hauling a half dozen bushels back to the barn in a wagon. “So, you’ve visited Aunt and Uncle Orange in Manehatten, then went sightseeing in Canterlot and the Crystal Empire before coming here? You’ve sure been globetrotting these last couple of weeks. Are you going home after your visit here?”

“A day in Dodge Junction to do a small errand. It’s on the way so I’ll be heading home right after. I admit it has been quite a lot to do but it still hardly compares to some of your exploits,” he reminded her. “And you might be the first Apple ever to venture beyond Equestria’s borders too.”

“You got me there, though none of those were because I was on vacation,” she said while opening the door to the barn to push the wagon inside. She then got to work inspecting the apples in the first basket, making sure each one was free of bruises, rot, and bugs.

“Still the sights you must’ve seen,” he replied trying to imagine them for himself. “What were the apple trees like outside of Equestria? I’m sure that’s something you’d notice in a heartbeat no matter the reason for your travels.”

“I actually didn’t see any apple trees,” she admitted.

“Not a one?” asked Braeburn again in disbelief.

“Well, Klugetown was located in the middle of a desert and doesn’t seem like the sort of place anyone would willingly want to settle down in. There was also Hippogriffia where the hippogriffs live. It got pretty run down after they fled underwater to escape the Storm King, but since that whole fiasco they’ve started to rebuild it. Anywho, why are you so interested in all that?”

“I was just wondering if you ever put any thought into leaving Sweet Apple Acres to start a farm of your own.”

“Sweet Apple Acres is my home,” argued Applejack. “This place wouldn’t be able to take care of itself without me around. Why the hay would I ever want to leave it In the first place?”

“Well, I don’t mean leave right now, but someday,” Braeburn specified. “Take me for example, I left home to head out to Appleloosa to help with the apple farming there. It wasn’t something I had to do, but I needed to do for myself because, well, remember when my big brother got married and had a few colts of his own?”

“Yeah and you were more excited than a bucking bronco to be an uncle,” recalled Applejack remaining focused on inspecting the apples in the containers through all their conversing. “But I don’t understand what that has to do with you going to Appleloosa.”

“After a few years, when they were old enough to buck apples for themselves they worked on the farm too and while more hooves made the workload lighter all around I was starting to feel a bit out of sorts. I mean, he was still my brother, but now he was raising a family of his own and I sort of felt like that extra apple pie in a baker’s dozen. For a time, I began to ponder just what I should do and then I heard about the big expansion out west and the need for hard working types like myself. It was at that moment I knew that I had to go there and right away I found renewed purpose in my life. True, I missed the farm like crazy when I left, but my brother and everypony else on the farm gave me their blessing and threw me one wild sendoff party.”

“I never knew that was part of the reason you made tracks down there,” said Applejack before pausing for a moment to think. “Now hold your horses. You wouldn’t be bringing all this up now on account of Big Mac’s got himself a girlfriend now, are you?”

“Well, he went off to visit her just this morning with bells on his hooves and I heard from Applebloom that he’s even planning on inviting her over for Hearth’s Warming. Reminds me of when my brother was courting and not long after that they got hitched.”

“I doubt either Big Mac or Sugar Belle are interested in getting married anytime soon,” countered Applejack showing a bit of agitation in her voice that was steadily rising. “And even if they were to someday get married and have younguns of their own that doesn’t mean I’ll end up feeling like the odd pony out and leave for greener pastures. My home is here and so are all my friends. I could never leave them. I just couldn’t.”

“Sorry, cuz,” Braeburn apologized looking at the stern glare Applejack was giving him. “I didn’t mean to get you upset. I wasn’t trying to tell you that you had to leave Sweet Apple Acres, but just because you don’t think you’ll ever want to leave it today doesn’t mean you’ll feel the same way in the future. Things can change.”

“Has anyone seen my reading glasses!” Granny Smith called from outside the barn. “Hello? Anypony here?”

“Oh, boy, this could take a while,” sighed Applejack. “Granny forgot where she put her glasses again.”

“I can give her a hoof so you don’t have to interrupt your work,” offered Braeburn. “Where does she usually keep them?”

“If you really want to, alright. Well, half the time they are on her head,” instructed Applejack. “But don’t tell her they are. Nothing gets her more ornery than feeling she’s gone senile. Just find some way to sneak them off her head and pretend you found them someplace else.”

“What if she doesn’t have them on her head?” asked Braeburn.

“Then they could be anywhere from Sweet Apple Acres to Town Hall,” she continued. “In which case, good luck.”

“Well, keeping my hooves crossed,” breathed Braeburn as he went to take a peek outside and saw Granny Smith’s reading glasses were on her head. “Oh, good, they are there. So, just how do I get them off her head without her noticing?”

“With a lot of patience, some creative thinking, and even more luck,” Applejack explained with bit of a smart alec grin on her face. “Did you think this would be easier? The other one’s like finding a needle in a haystack. This is more like retrieving a needle from a rattler pit.”

“Whoa nelly,” panted Braeburn perspiring and shaking a bit.

“Where in tarnation is everyone,” hollered Granny Smith losing her patience.

“Guess I better get going,” he told Applejack. “I’m sure I’ll be able to handle it just fine, right?” He slipped out of the barn and approached Granny Smith, his voice cracking as he greeted her. “H-hey Granny Smith. You need help with something?”

“Heheh,” snickered Applejack. “I’m almost tempted to sneak out and see how well he does.” She could overhear them talking for a bit longer, but then they moved further away and everything went quiet leaving Applejack alone in silence. “Things could change, huh,” pondered Applejack looking a bright, red apple she held in her hoof. It seemed perfectly fine, but as she turned to see it’s other side she there was a bruise on it. She froze for a moment considering everything that Braeburn had told her.

Chapter 3

Inside Sugarcube Corner there was tons of hustle and bustle as Mr. Cake worked to fill a large muffin order while Mrs. Cake was upstairs, attempting to put the twins down for a nap. “Pound, Pumpkin, time for beddy bye,” she said trying to remain calm-voiced as she attempted to hold down the crib with one hoof as Pumpkin Cake was using her magic to levitate it while her other hoof was holding onto Pound Cake as he was airborne and attempted to fly downstairs to the kitchen. “Time to go to sleep. That order is for a customer.”

“Is everything okay up there, honey?” called Mr. Cake from the stairs.

“The twins are just being fussy,” she told him barely able to hold onto Pound and was now off the ground along with the crib. “They get like this every time we get this order.”

“Hard to blame them,” admitted Mr. Cake holding up a muffin bigger than his head. “If I was a colt I’d want to get my hooves on a muffin this huge myself.”

“It’s done?” asked Mrs. Cake as she, the twins and the crib neared the stairs. “Shouldn’t she be here to pick it up by now?”

There was a knock at the door. “That must be her now,” cried Mr. Cake. “Come on in.” The door opened and Derpy Hooves entered into the bakery. “Oh, great you’re here,” he greeted her excitedly and quickly gave her the muffin. “Here you go. Thanks for choosing Sugarcube Corner for your baking needs.”

“Dear!” warned Mrs. Cake. “I can’t hold them back any longer!” As she said that Pound finally slipped free causing her to slip into the crib and allowing Pumpkin to float it freely and both made their way straight for the oversized muffin.

“If you value your muffin you’ll take it and run for your life!” warned Mr. Cake to a freaked out Derpy. Clutching her precious muffin tightly, she ran for the door and fled. Mr. Cake acted quick and closed the door before his children could reach it. With their goal out of reach, Pound and Pumpkin returned to the ground along with the crib and a slightly airsick Mrs. Cake. The two then pouted, upset that the giant muffin got away.

“Baking and putting the twins down for a nap is always such a stressful combination,” panted Mr. Cake.

“Least the baking is over and we can put Pound and Pumpkin down for their nap together,” said Mrs. Cake as she climbed out of the crib.

“Un uh,” the twins grumbled definitely, not wanting to nap.

“You two know very well that it is time for your nap,” lectured Mrs. Cake. “And you both know that muffin was not yours. Now, it is nap time, not time to eat treats.”

At that moment, Pinkie Pie burst through the door with her usual overabundance of energy. In her hooves, he was dragging in a huge sack that was almost too wide to fit through the door. “Who wants leftover party treats?” she asked opening up the bag and showing it brimming with dozens of cupcakes, muffins, cookies, brownies and even a few pies. The twin’s eyes lit up excited for Pinkie’s offer.

“There was that much leftover after the party?” wondered Mr. Cake looking at it all.

“Turns out the party was for thirteen instead of thirty,” she answered. “But now we can have our own leftovers party!”

Well, no way we’re going to be able to convince them to sleep now,” admitted Mr. Cake with a little smile and Mrs. Cake smiled back.

One miniature party later, Pinkie relaxed with her second serving of confections looking quite content. Mr. Cake carried the crib back up the steps while Mrs. Cake held Pound and Pumpkin who had finally fallen asleep after tiring out from the party. Once the twins were finally put to bed in their room, their parents returned to join Pinkie at the table.

“You still got a lot of extra treats leftover even after a second party,” noted Mr. Cake seeing the bag looked a bit smaller, but was still far from being empty.

“Guess they are leftover leftover snacks now,” chuckled Pinkie Pie. “Should we have another party?”

“I couldn’t think about eating another bite,” answered Mrs. Cake, her stomach groaning at the thought. “Why not share some of the extras with your friends?”

“That’s a great idea,” she agreed. “I just hope they don’t mind leftover leftovers.”

“Frankly, I’m amazed that you were able to put all this together so quickly,” commented Mr. Cake. “You’re a real whiz in the kitchen.”

“Well, I do know my way about a spatula,” she bragged happily.

“Hey, dear, remember when we were talking about trying to expand our little ma and pa business?” asked Mr. Cake.

“Yeah, but that was ages ago,” she replied. “And we still can’t do it now.”

“Why can’t you do what?” wondered Pinkie curiously.

“A little while back, the Mrs. and I had planned to open a second Sugarcube Corner in Canterlot,” he reminisced. “We were so excited to find a location, hire some bakers and start making a name for ourselves beyond Ponyville, but then we found out Mrs. Cake was expecting and we had new priorities to focus on. I remember we even tried renting out a room upstairs to earn a little extra money.”

“Oh, yeah, and that’s when I moved in,” giggled Pinkie. “Oh, good times.”

“So, why are you bringing this up?” asked Mrs. Cake. “We’ve still got too much to do around here to focus on that.”

“I know WE are, but Pinkie has been helping us out for a while now and knows Sugarcube Corner almost as well as we do. She’s proven herself responsible and very capable.”

“What do you think, Pinkie? asked Mrs. Cake. “Do you think you’d be able to help us open another bakery in Canterlot?”

“Oh, definitely!” she gasped with excitement. “My friend Rarity opened a couple other boutiques so I’m sure she could even help me with that.”

“That’s right,” said Mrs. Cake. “This could work. Pinkie, are absolutely sure? Cause it’ll take more than just finding a building. You’d also have to take the time to hire some bakers teach them our recipes. You’d also be in charge of decorating the bakery. It’d take a lot of hard work and you would probably have to stay there for a while to make sure everything's running smoothly. “You could be away for quite a while. Are you okay with that?”

“Of course!” answered Pinkie still bursting with excitement and enthusiasm. “I’ll get a second Sugarcube Corner open in Canterlot and it’ll be so successful we’ll open a third one somewhere else and that’ll be successful too and we’ll keep opening more and more till there is a Sugarcube Corner on every corner of Equestria!”

“How about we focus on just trying to get a second one open?” suggested Mr. Cake trying to calm her down.

“Right. First bakery,” nodded Pinkie with a determined look on her face. “I’m going to start brainstorming how I want it to look. To the Secret Party Planning Cave!” Pulling a secret lever, she activated a trap door in the floor with a slide. Hurrying down it, Pinkie entered her hidden den filled with her party supplies and filing cabinets bursting with all her files on every pony in Ponyville and many more, detailing all their party preferences. “Let’s see. I’ll want it to look very festive. So I’ll want it very colorful and let it have lots of balloons and streamers everywhere.” Mr. and Mrs. cake listened to Pinkie from the trap door. Then they heard a loud squeak and confetti flew out from the trap door. “Oh, and party cannons! Lots and lots of hidden party cannons to give our customers a fun surprise. Hmm… and maybe I should have the building decorated like a big cake covered in real frosting. But what flavor should it be? Maybe chocolate or is that too overdone? Vanilla? Is that too plain? Tutti fruity could be fun, but what if we’re not zoned for it? I know! I should ask Twilight. I bet she has a book on buildings covered in frosting.”

Mr. and Mrs. Cake watched as Pinkie slid back up the slide and grabbed her leftover leftover baked goods. She then hurried out the door and over to Twilight’s place. “I’ve been meaning to ask you, dear,” Mr. Cake told his wife. “When did you agree to let Pinkie build that secret party planning cave of hers?”

“I thought you were the one who let her build it,” Mrs. Cake replied.

Chapter 4

Rainbow Dash flew through Ponyville in a hurry, he multicolored mane fluttering in the wind. She was still dressed in her Wonderbolt uniform, though the usual excitement she had while wearing it didn’t seem to be with her. Instead, she had a very anxious look as she hurried to descend to the ground. As she came in for a landing she just narrowly avoiding colliding with Derpy Hooves who was enjoying a king-sized muffin. “Sorry about that,” she apologized, but didn’t stop running as she hurried over to Twilight’s Castle. Derpy hugged her muffin tightly after that little scare and only went back to eating it when she felt it was safe again.

As she approached the towering crystal castle, Rainbow saw a couple of other ponies arriving there as well. One was Applejack who approached at a sluggish pace while muttering something to herself. Pinkie, on the other hoof was merrily bounding her way over as bubbly as ever. She was carrying the big sack of treats behind her as she approached.

“Hey, AJ, is everything okay?” asked Rainbow Dash. She didn’t answered, lost in thought. “Equestria to Applejack, do you read me?”

“Huh?” mumbled Applejack snapping out of her daze. “Oh, hey Rainbow. Mighty neighborly of you to stop by for a visit.”

“Uh, yeah, but you do realize we’re at Twilight’s place, right?”

“Oh, uh, right,” she answered a bit embarrassed. “I guess I ended up trotting over here without even realizing it.”

“What were you thinking about?” asked Rainbow.

“Well, I was in the barn sorting through some baskets of apples and well, did you ever stare at an apple for an hour and start to ask yourself the really big questions?”

“Uh, no,” replied Rainbow Dash a bit weirded out. “I don’t think I’ve ever looked at an apple for more than five minutes and that was just to decide if I wanted to eat it.”

“Hey guys!” Pinkie stated happily. “Anyone interested in some leftover leftover party treats?”

“Uh, leftover leftovers?” asked Applejack confused.

“Uh huh,” she nodded. “I used them for two parties and there’s still some leftover so I figured I’d bring them when I went to ask Twilight something. Did you both come to see Twilight too?”

“I guess I might as well since I’m here,” replied Applejack.

“I was just passing by, but I guess I’ll come along too especially if snacks are involved. I haven’t had anything to eat yet after Wonderbolt training,” answered Rainbow Dash feeling hungry. “And speaking of practice, have I got something to tell you. We worked on a new routine that I thought up and it was totally awesome.”

“Well, I can’t wait to hear about it and I’m sure Twilight would love to as well,” commented Applejack. “So let’s go see her.”

Opening the front doors of the castle, they proceeded down the long hall of the Castle of Friendship like they had many times before. It didn’t take them long before they heard the familiar voices of Twilight Sparkle and Spike the Dragon coming from the Map Room and headed right over. Opening the door, they saw Twilight helping Spike pack his blue backpack while Spike with quill and parchment in claw was checking things off.

“One fresh toothbrush,” said Twilight as she packed it in his backpack.

“Check,” replied Spike as he marked it off with simple swish and flick.

“One blanket in case you get chilly,” added Twilight.

“Check… mom,” Spike answered a bit teasingly and Twilight responded by rubbing back the spikes on his head.

“I wouldn’t want my widdle Spikey Wikey to catch a cold now, would I?” she responded in a silly, motherly tone.

“Heheh, looks like we came in on an interesting family moment,” laughed Rainbow Dash to Spike and Twilight’s embarrassment.

“Sorry, y’all,” apologized Applejack. “We didn’t mean to pop in on you unexpectedly like this.”

“It’s fine,” answered Twilight not the least bit upset. “We were just doing a triple check to make sure Spike has everything he’ll need while he’s away.”

“And to think we’ve only been working on packing since Celestia raised the sun this morning,” Spike commented. “Are we almost done, Twilight? Ember should be coming to pick me up soon.”

“There’s just one more thing,” replied Twilight lifting up Spike’s Rarity doll with magic. “One, uh, heh, Rarity.”

“Heheh, check,” blushed Spike.

“Ember?” asked Applejack. “Where are the three of you going?”

“To the Dragonlands for the annual Festival of Flames,” Spike explained eagerly. “And it’s not the three of us, it’s just Ember and myself.”

“Like the name suggests it involves a lot of fire,” explained Twilight. “And while I would have loved to go too, I’m not very fireproof. Also, it doesn’t look like dragons are quite ready to have ponies join in on their festivities, but that’s why Spike is going. He is the official Friendship Ambassador to the Dragons after all.”

“And what better way to learn more about dragon culture than to be a part of one of their biggest festivals,” added Spike eagerly. “It’ll be the first dragon festival I’ve ever been a part of too and from what Ember’s told me about it, I can’t wait to go.”

“And you’re okay with letting Spike go all the way to the Dragonlands without you, Twilight?” questioned Rainbow Dash. “Sure, Spike is a dragon, but he hardly reaches up to some of their kneecaps. Uh, no offense.”

“Why would you think I’d be offended?” Spike answered sarcastically.

“Rainbow’s just worried and so am I,” said Applejack. “I’m just surprised that Twilight is letting you go on your own.”

“Well, I’m eager to see all the notes he’ll take on the festival,” admitted Twilight looking quite eager as she mentioned that. “But Spike has grown up quite a lot and I know he’s mature and capable of taking care of himself. And Ember will be there to help him too so I know he’ll be just fine without me.” She looked at Spike and couldn’t resist rubbing his head teasingly again. “And I can’t expect my little man to stay here forever, but he better remember to write to me.”

“It’s only for a few days,” chuckled Spike. “I’ll be home before you even start to miss me.”

“Well, I think you’re all set,” stated Twilight. “Unless you think we should do one more check.”

“I am pretty sure we don’t need to,” sighed Spike. “I got all the things I need plus a dozen quills and a scroll long enough to stretch between here and the Dragonlands. Hmm, but maybe I should have brought something the share with the dragons like some cupcakes or something.”

“Here you can take these leftover leftovers,” offered Pinkie hanging the huge sack over to Spike,the weight of the confections pinning him underneath them. Rainbow didn’t look very happy to see her snack come and go without getting anything from it, but Pinkie gave her some cookies she took out beforehand.

“Leftover leftovers?” asked Spike a bit confused as he got himself out from underneath. Taking a look at all the treats inside he didn’t pursue the question. “Oh, thanks. These should work.”

“So, now that we’re done here, is there something you girls need?” asked Twilight.
“Well, I could use a book on houses covered in frosting,” Pinkie PIe answered.

“Houses covered in frosting?” replied Twilight a bit confused, but approached her bookshelf and scanned the spines of the books. “Uh, well, maybe this is what you’re looking for.” Pulling the book out with magic, she floated it over to Pinkie Pie who saw a picture of a house made out of all kinds of candy and sweets. “It’s a book of all kinds of gingerbread house designs. Does that help?”

“Oh, let me see!” exclaimed Pinkie as she took the book and flipped through the pages and drooled a little as she gazed upon the decadent houses. “Wow, so many tasty designs. This will definitely be a big help and Canterlot will have the tastiest bakery in all of Equestria.”

“Pardon me,” interrupted Applejack with as much a dumbfounded look on her face as everypony else. “But I think the rest of us are a bit out of the loop. Just what are you planning to do, Pinkie?”

“Oh, it’s not me,” she explained, putting down the book. “It’s the Cakes that are planning and they’re planning to open another bakery in Canterlot and they’re trusting me to do it for them.”

“That clears things up,” said Rainbow Dash. “And a bakery like a gingerbread house does sound awesome.”

“And delicious,” added Pinkie Pie looking tempted to see if the book tasted as good as it looked.

“It is great and all, but you know it’ll be a lot of hard work,” commented Twilight. “It took a lot of time before Rarity was able to open up a second boutique after all.”

“I know it might be hard, but I’m ready to give it my all,” she replied. “And it’ll be such a huge success that Mr. and Mrs. Cake will want me to go around and open up bakeries all over Equestria. Isn’t it exciting? I’m so excited!”

“Uh, how about you focus on the the first bakery, for now,” suggested Twilight. “Now, did you two need anything?”

“Me?” asked Applejack. “Naw, I was just doing some thinking and happened to pass by, but Rainbow Dash looked in a hurry to come over.”

“Huh? I, uh, was just going for a run,” she lied. “I didn’t have anything to discuss.”

“Didn’t you want to tell us about your day at Wonderbolt training?” she countered.

“Oh, it wasn’t that great today,” she continued to fib. “But I do think Twilight would be far more interested in hearing about how you stared at an apple for an hour. Clearly you must have something on your mind.”

“Not as much as you probably have,” argued Applejack as the two of them glared at one another.

“Girls!” cried Twilight. “What is wrong?”

Before either of them could answer, they both suddenly noticed that their flanks had begun to glow where their Cutie Marks were and they lifted up into the air to float over to the magical map of Equestria on the large table in the center of the room. “Uh, looks like there’s a problem with someone’s friendship,” answered Rainbow Dash looking relieved for the change in subject along with Applejack.

“Let’s see, one... two...” counted Twilight before her own Cutie Mark glowed. “Three…”

“Four!” cheered Pinkie excitedly as hers was also added.

“Please not now! Please not now!” begged Spike as he looked up at the spikes on his head nervously. When they didn’t start glowing he sighed with relief and wiped the sweat off his forehead. “That’s a relief.” The others stared at him over his freakout. “What? I didn’t want to miss my first dragon festival and I don’t think Ember has been getting better at expressing her emotions, mostly anger at disappointment.”

“I wonder where we’re being sent this time,” said Twilight as they gathered around the map and watched their Cutie Marks descend to the place they were needed. “Looks like we’re being sent to-”

“Canterlot!” Pinkie answered excitedly.

“Los Pegasus,” stated Rainbow Dash right after.

“Uh, Dodge Junction?” questioned Applejack confused as much as the others were.

“Ponyville?” groaned Twilight feeling a bit cheated.

“You all were called by the map at the same time, but all to different places?” asked Spike climbing up on the table to get a better look. “That’s a first. You think the map is on the fritz again?”

“It should be perfectly fine after Starlight and I fixed it,” explained Twilight. “And nobody else messed with it in any way.”

“Well,” Spike spoke a bit nervous, but coughed to cover it up and then spoke normally. “I guess that means that it is working just fine.”

“Now the only question left to ask is, are these all individual friendship problems or are they all somehow related,” pondered Twilight.

“How could they be related?” asked Rainbow Dash. “How could anypony have a problem with friendship so far apart like this? It has to be a bunch of different friendship problems happening all at the same time.”

“This is just perfect,” cheered Pinkie Pie bounding about. “I get to solve a friendship problem and look around Canterlot for where to put up the new bakery!”

“Sorry, you got stuck staying in Ponyville,” Applejack told Twilight.

“Oh, it’s fine,” replied Twilight before suddenly smiling big. “This means I get to try out my new friendship problem map!”

“Your friendship problem map?” asked Applejack looking at the map on the table. “You mean besides this one?”

“It’s only a map of Ponyville,” she explained as she hurried and retrieved a square piece of folded up paper. When she unfolded it, revealing it was quite a huge map of Ponyville with lots of arrows and notes all over it along with tons of writing on it on both sides. “But I designed it to plot out the most efficient route to search for any potential friendship problems based on where everypony is likely to be at any given time. I think it’s one of my greatest achievements of all time!”

“Besides, you know, becoming the Princess of Friendship,” commented Spike snarkily.

“So, any friendship problems, Spike?” Twilight asked.

“I know you have the starting point here, but do you really need to ask me when you’ve been with me all day?” replied Spike.

“I have to be thorough,” nodded Twilight.

“No, I’m good,” answered Spike just before they heard a loud “THUMP!” outside that shook the ground. “And it looks like Ember is here so now I’m great! Time to go. Later, everypony.” Putting on his backpack and grabbing the sack of leftover leftovers, Spike waddled his way to the front of the castle.

“Spike is good,” mumbled Twilight writing that down. “Ok, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie Pie?”

“I’m fine,” answered Rainbow Dash eating her cookies.

“Me too,” added Applejack.

“I’m excited,” grinned Pinkie already running out the door.

“Well, I’m already making great progress,” stated Twilight. “I’ll solve my friendship problem in no time.”

“Guess we better be off too,” stated Applejack. “See y’all when I get back.”

“Yeah, see ya later,” said Rainbow Dash.

They all left the Castle of Friendship and each went their separate ways.

Chapter 5

On her way to the train station, Applejack caught up with Pinkie Pie who was waiting for the train to Canterlot. Applejack checked the train schedule seeing the train to Dodge Junction was set to come in ten minutes and then checked out the time for the one to Canterlot. “Uh, you know that the train to Canterlot won’t be here for another hour?” she pointed out. “You can come back closer to it’s arrival time.”

“I know, but I’m so excited that I can’t even think of doing anything else,” she replied. “So I’ll just wait right here.” Despite saying this, Pinkie Pie, never one for sitting still, couldn’t keep from fidgeting.

“Uh, if you say so,” replied Applejack silently watching Pinkie for a while, waiting for her own train to arrive. After a few minutes, she managed to muster up enough courage to say something more. “Say, Pinkie, about this whole setting up a new bakery, I know it sounds great and all, but are you really okay with it? I mean you’ll be away from Ponyville for a while getting everything done. You’d be away from Sugar Cube Corner, the Cakes, your friends, your family.”

“But my family doesn’t live in Ponyville,” Pinkie reminded Applejack. “Well, Maud does now.”

“Oh, uh, yeah,” replied Applejack. “Forget I said anything.”

“Now you’re the one who looks all fidgety,” commented Pinkie. “And you’ve been acting funny since we were at Twilight’s. If there’s something wrong you can tell me. I’m your friend.”

“That’s just it,” she explained. “Nothing is wrong, right now. But it could change. I could change.”

“Usually I’m the one who says things that make no sense,” commented Pinkie Pie. “What are you talking about?”

“It’s just something I have to figure out,” admitted Applejack. The train to Dodge Junction soon arrived arrived at the station, right on time, and came to a screeching halt. “I’m sure I’ll have it sorted out by the time I’m back in Ponyville, if not sooner.” Not giving Pinkie a chance to reply, Applejack hurried into the train car as the passengers were getting out. “I’ll see you when we’re both back in Ponyville.”

“B-but Applejack,” Pinkie called out, but lost sight of her.

“Sorry, Pinkie, but I promise I’ll figure it out soon,” mumbled Applejack to herself. “At least I hope I will.”

As Applejack sat in the train car, other ponies soon joined her, after waiting for those disembarking to get off first. “What are you doing here, cuz?” asked Braeburn as he sat down next to her. “Why are you on the train?”

“Remember that magical map in Twilight’s castle I told you about?” she asked. “Well, it just told me I gotta fix a problem over at Dodge Junction.”

“A bit of a lucky coincidence then. Now I’ll be able to keep you company while you’re there,” he commented.

“Oh, yeah, you were heading to Dodge Junction next,” Applejack replied. “But I didn’t think you’d be leaving for it quite this soon.” Applejack thought for a moment then found her smile as she looked at him. “Helping Granny Smith find her glasses didn’t go so well, huh?”

“I stuck my hoof in the rattler nest and they bit me,” he said thinking back to it and his expression showed it wasn’t a good experience. “Oh, boy, did they bite me.”

“Sorry, bout that, but you’re safe now,” she told him.

“Yeah, I’ll spend a bit of time there, pick up some cherries and then I’ll be on my way back to Appleloosa,” he answered perking up.

“Picking up cherries?” asked Applejack. “Is that the errand you told me you had to do there?”

“Yeah,” he admitted. “The buffalos were curious about how other pies taste. I told them that apple pies are the best, but they thought I was being biased. So, to prove them wrong we’ve been letting them taste for themselves. Since Dodge Junction has some of the best cherries around I figured I’d bring some back for the cherry pies so they can see that apple pie is still better.”

“Well there ain’t no way that cherry pie could ever beat apple,” stated Applejack. “And that’s a Celestia-given fact.”

“I certainly aim to prove it,” declared Braeburn. “Uh, so about earlier. I don’t suppose you gave what I told you some thought?”

“Some thought?” replied Applejack. “It’s been all I could think about since then.”

“I’m sorry if it’s upsetting you,” he apologized again.

“It’s not your fault,” she admitted. “I think I might actually be okay with the idea and when I saw Twilight seeing Spike off for his own little excursion I know that everypony would support me too if I decided to try to make it on my own.”

“And that’s a bad thing?” wondered Braeburn scratching his head.

“No, it’s great, but it might be too great of a thing,” she admitted. “I mean I think I’d rather have them begging me not to or have some excuse to stay in spite of it. I’m just conflicted. It makes saving Equestria from total annihilation feel like a cakewalk in comparison.”

“You can’t think like that,” Braeburn replied. “Your family and friends care for you and would never want to hold you back and you should not feel the need to hold yourself back either. It’s just a simple decision with no wrong answer, to stay or to go.”

“Sounds simple, but I’m still a might anxious about it,” she admitted. “I hope dealing with this friendship problem will help me keep my mind off of it.”

Chapter 6

“And now class,” announced Cherilee as she handed out books to the students in her classroom. “We are going to split into groups to do reports on the historical ponies in these books.”

“Uh, are you feeling okay, Ms. Cherilee?” asked Silver Spoon looking at the title of the book. “This book is called, ‘Fantastic Fiction.’ All it has are folk tales about made up ponies like Rockhoof and Flash Magnus in it. There’s nothing historical about any of them.”

“Didn’t you hear?” replied Applebloom. “My big sis and her friends proved Rockhoof and a whole bunch of these legends were real. In fact, they’re back in Equestria now, so I guess they aren’t technically legends anymore.”

“That’s right,” confirmed Cherilee. “As remarkable as it sounds, it is true and it gives us a whole new appreciation for these heroic figures and what they’ve done for us. So now, I want you all to break into groups and-”

“Hello?” called Twilight as she knocked on the door before coming inside. “Can I have a moment of your time?”

“Twilight, is something the matter?” asked Cherilee.

“That’s what I’m here to find out,” she told her. “There’s a friendship problem somewhere in town for me to solve so I’m searching around for the pony or ponies in need of my help. So, is anyone here having any sort of friendship trouble right now? Anyone at all?”

The students were quiet for a moment as they stared at Twilight and the huge map of Ponyville she had that almost reached to the ceiling. Finally, it was Applebloom and the rest of the Cutie Mark Crusaders who responded to Twilight first to break the awkwardness.

“I’m fine,” answered Applebloom.

“No problems with me either,” stated Scootaloo.

“A but hungry for lunch, but I don’t think that’s why you’re here,” commented Sweetie Bell. “So I’m fine too.”

“No,” answered another student shortly after Sweetie Bell.

“Not me.”

“Me neither.”

The students continued to answer and talked among themselves about it too, but from what Twilight could hear and see nothing appeared to be wrong with anypony.

“Sorry, Twilight,” apologized Applebloom. “It doesn’t look like any of us have any problems for you to solve.”

“No worries,” she smiled. “I’m glad all of you are fine. Sorry for interrupting class, especially as a lover of learning myself.”

“That’s quite alright,” Cherilee assured her. “Thanks for stopping by. Now class, picking up where we left off-”

Twilight took her leave of the classroom as she crossed it off her list. “Ok, let’s see. It wasn’t a problem with Spike, Applejack, Pinkie, or Rainbow Dash. I checked on Rarity and she ‘fabulous’ as she put it and preparing for a trip to Canterlot tomorrow. Big Mac left for the day so it can’t be him. Granny Smith… uh, well, she was definitely out of sorts for some reason, but it didn’t look like it was friendship-related. All the kids are getting along and Cherilee was right as rain too. So next is Fluttershy. At this rate I’ll figure out who has the friendship problem in no time.” Galloping off, Twilight headed straight for Fluttershy’s cottage.

“Mmm, Fluttershy, I must say, these are the best cucumber sandwiches you’ve ever made,” praised Discord as he grabbed another one.

“Heheh, that’s what you always say whenever we have our tea time,” smiled Fluttershy happy for the compliment nonetheless.

“That’s because it’s always true,” he added. “Say, how about another impression? I think you’ll get a real kick out of this one.” As he said that, one hoofed foot came detached and kicked him right in his keister getting a giggle from his pony friend. “I really got to watch what I say,” he joked. “Alrighty, impression time. Tell me if you know this bundle of fun.” Holding his lion’s paw and eagle claws arms over his face, he moved them down and magically changed his head so that it looked more like Twilight with purple hair and horn as well as her long, dark purple mane with the pink streak in it. “Friendship is not always easy, but it’s the one thing that’s worth fighting for… other than books, organizing, organizing books, and making comically long and unnecessary lists.”

“Heheh, that’s Twilight,” laughed Fluttershy lightly.

Creating a quill and scroll out of thin air, Discord began to write on it while reading what he was writing. “Dear Celestia, this is your friend Twilight Sparkle. I’m writing to tell you about what I’ve learned about friendship today and all the friendship problems my friends and I solve because of our strong bonds of friendship. Cause when friendship is on your side nothing is impossible for you and your friendly friends and you’ll even be able to forge new friendships with new friends too.” As he continued to write, the scroll became longer and quickly started to fill up the cottage till Fluttershy was neck deep in the parchment paper while Discord was up to his waist. Looking on the scroll to see what he had written, all it has was the word “Friendship” written on it over and over again. “Friendship is so great. Nothing should be more important to a pony than friendship. And blah, blah, blah, friendship. Blah, blah, blah, friends, friendship, blah blah blah.”

“Oh, Discord,” laughed Fluttershy as hard as she could which was not much more than her normal gentle chuckle.

“I do not say the word ‘friendship’ that much,” complained Twilight overhearing this from outside the cottage and poking her head on through the window.

“Oh, uh, hi Twilight,” replied Fluttershy her cheeks a faint pink from blushing.

“Well this is awkward,” commented Discord looking at Twilight with the same expression she was making. “Looks like one of us better change.” Twilight glared at him harder. “Oh, fine,” conceded Discord changing his head back to normal with the snap of his avian hand. “But it was obvious that I pulled off that look a lot better than you. And as for your use of the word ‘friendship’ can you honestly tell me that you haven’t gone a day where you’ve said it at least less than ten times.”

“W-well the word does come up a lot in conversations when dealing with friendship problems,” countered Twilight.

“Might I offer you a thesaurus,” suggested Discord taking on the prehistoric form of a tyrannosaurus rex while he opened up an the actual book of synonyms. “Ahem… acquaintanceship, affinity, coalition, fondness, amore. We could also go with other languages too. Amigo, compadre, nakama-”

“Ok, I say friendship a lot,” admitted Twilight getting a bit steamed, but keeping her cool. “I just came to see if there were any frien- any relationship issues here.”

“Oh, there’s nothing wrong here,” Discord assured her. “We’ve just been having a wonderful time together.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” she told them. “It just means I have to look elsewhere for it.”

“For what?” asked Discord covering his impish grin.

“My friendship problem,” answered Twilight realizing too late that she walked right into that one. Gritting her teeth she took her leave before she really did lose her temper.

“Good luck with your relationship issue,” Discord waved bye.

“That wasn’t very nice,” Fluttershy told him, though she couldn’t help laugh a little.

“I know, but what are friends for if you can’t poke a few good-natured barbs at them once in awhile?” he asked her.

“Let’s see… where to next,” Twilight pondered to herself as she consulted her map once she calmed down. “Looks like I’ll be making my way through the marketplace next followed by town hall, Barnyard Bargains, the post office, and the bowling alley. Gonna keep my hooves crossed that my friendship problem is in one of those places.”

Chapter 7

“This place is awesome!” declared Rainbow Dash as she flew overtop of Los Pegasus to get a bird’s eye view of the different hotels and all the many huge attractions that were lined up on either side of the main road. Rainbow Dash’s mouth was agape with awe at it all, from the extravagant themes the hotels took to stand out against their competition to the number of ponies that were either sightseeing tourists on vacation, employees working to draw in more tourists and bits to their place of employment, those performing in the street, hoping to be noticed and get some bits thrown their way. There were so many ponies crowding the streets that it looked more like a multicolored river from Rainbow Dash’s vantage point.

“So much action and energy everywhere you look. All the thrills and the excitement. Now this is my kind of town! Too bad I’m here to solve a friendship problem.” She gazed down at the countless ponies going about their day and scratched her head. “How in the world am I supposed to find a friendship problem in this mess?” Scratching her head, she tried to think. When Fluttershy and Applejack were here they went into a resort and ran into… Flim and Flam. At least it’s a place to start. Just gotta figure out which resort they are running.” About ready to zip around and search for them, she suddenly heard some carnival-like tunes and memories of the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6,000 came to mind. Turning towards the source of the sound, Rainbow Dash flew towards it to get a better look. Despite the neon sign being harder to see during the day, she was able to tell that it was of an apple with a piece cut out that was right beside it. It was a perfect likeness of their Cutie Marks. The name of the resort was even called, “The Split Apple.” “Definitely Flim and Flamy,” concluded Rainbow Dash as she flew to the ground and headed inside.

Just like on the outside, this place was overflowing with ponies. Rainbow Dash couldn’t even get enough room to open up her wings. “Feels like all of Equestria is squeezed in here. What do they have going on in here that’s drawing in such a huge crowd?”

“The wait is nearly over,” announced Flim over the loudspeaker.

“It certainly is, o’ brother of mine,” replied Flam.

“In less than one half hour the next performance of the death defying Gale will begin!”

“She’s performed countless aerial feats in Manehatten to earn her the title of “The Greatest Wingless Flier” and now she’s here to show you all why.”

“If you haven’t gotten your tickets yet for this mind-blowing show then you’d better hurry on over and grab one right away!”

“That was expositional,” commented Rainbow Dash. “And now I know for certain they’re here.” Struggling to work her way through the crowd, Rainbow Dash attempted to try and make her way to their office, but any attempts she made to shove her way through the crowd of ponies only had them shoving her right back.

“Hey, no shoving,” complained a stallion with orange hair and a red mane. He had on an “I Love Los Pegasus” cap and an “I lost all my bits at the Split Apple Resort” t-shirt. “Rainbow Dash, is that you?”

“Uh, yeah it’s me,” she acknowledged looking him over, but couldn’t find a name to go with his face. “Uh, but have we met before?”

“Oh!” He look up at his had and then down at his shirt before looking back at Rainbow Dash. “Guess you wouldn’t think I was me wearing this stuff instead of my armor. Also, thanks again for finding my shield.”

“Armor? Finding your shield?” repeated Rainbow Dash before it finally hit her. “Flash Magnus?!? What in Equestria are you doing here… dressed in… that?”

“I’ve just been traveling across Equestria and seeing how much it’s changed,” he explained. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m here to solve a friendship problem,” she explained. “And since I have no idea where it is, I’ve decided to start my search here.”

“Well, isn’t it a small world that we’d run into each like this,” he chuckled.

“Too small if we’re packed in like sardines like this,” commented Rainbow Dash.

“So, personal space aside,” Flash said changing the subject. “What’s the friendship problem?”

“I’m not sure yet,” she answered before looking up at the loudspeakers. “But those two who made that announcement have cause trouble for Applejack a few times in the past so there’s a good chance that they might be involved. Which is why I want to go up to them right this minute and confront them about it, but I can’t even budge an inch in this crowd.”

“A lot of things have changed from the era I lived,” commented Flash Magnus. “But it seems like ponies still flock to big events like this. You’re better off waiting till the show is over and the crowd disperses.”

“Doesn’t look like I have much of a choice,” admitted Rainbow Dash almost certain it was getting even more cramped with every minute that passed.

“You want to see the show with me?” he asked. “I’m interested to see how a pony can fly without wings.”

“I hate to admit it, but they got me pretty interested in it too,” agreed Rainbow Dash. “Let’s get some tickets and see the show.”
The crowd progressed at a snail’s pace, but Rainbow Dash and Flash Magnus managed to inch their way over to the ticket booth to purchase their tickets for the show just in time. Then the charismatic brothers came back on the speakers once more.

“Thank you all for your patience,” Flim spoke. “The show will begin shortly.”

“Hurry, this is your last chance to buy tickets if you haven’t already,” reminded Flam.

“The doors to the theatre are about to open so go and grab your seat, but you’ll only need the edge for this performance of a lifetime.”

“And thanks again for choosing to spend your bits here at the Split Apple.”

Rainbow Dash, Flash Magnus, and all the other ponies began to flood into the theatre, handing their ticket stubs over before passing through the doors. Within minutes, every seat was filled. Rainbow and Flash were lucky enough to nab some seats that were a decent distance from the stage. The audience of ponies sounded even louder in the theatre as they chatted amongst one another, eager for the show to begin, but when the lights faded they quieted down one after another till it became completely silent.

A spotlight appeared on either side of the stage as some wacky music began to play and a pair of clowns on unicycles began riding around to the center of the stage while they juggled half a dozen pies each. One had on a huge rainbow afro that looked twice as large as his head while the other had on a colorful, floppy hat that covered the top half of his head. They both had on baggy clothes that was easily several sizes too big for them, yet in spite of all that they managed to unicycle with ease, riding in small circles, move forwards or backwards and even hop in place. The audience chuckled as they watched the amusing opening act.

The two clowns continued riding about on their unicycles till they came inches from colliding with one another only to stop short. They then started to pantomime an argument, words replaced by angry sounding squeaks that only increased the hysterics of the audience. The two clowns attempted to back up and go around one another, but they both continually ended up heading straight into one another again only adding to their frustration and the amusement of the crowd as the squeaks got louder and they bounced up and down on their unicycles in comical fury.

“These guys are hilarious!” cackled Rainbow Dash almost in tears.

“This is quite an opening act,” laughed Flash. “It’s been literally over a thousand years since the last time I was able to enjoy a show, though back then, the opening act usually consisted of warriors locked in fierce combat with one another or against some fierce beast like a manticore or a hydra.”

“That sounds awesome,” Rainbow Dash told him. “But isn’t that kind of dangerous?”

“It was, but it was also very exciting,” he admitted. “But that was how I trained to become the legendary warrior I am.”

“You used to go into battles on a stage like this?” asked Rainbow Dash in amazement.

“Well, it was more like an arena than a stage, but yeah,” he explained. “The Royal Legion did shows like that all the time when we didn’t have any other work to do. Looks like entertainment today has changed quite a lot.” The two clowns on stage had finally reached the boiling point and had began pelting the pies they were juggling at one another, getting themselves and the stage covered in huge globs of whipped cream. “Heheh, but acts like these have their own charm too.”

“That kind of reminds me of the shows that I do with the Wonderbolts,” commented Rainbow Dash. “What you were talking about, I mean. Not whatever those clowns are doing.”

“The Wonderbolts?” he asked.

“It’s kind of like what the Royal Legion is today,” she explained. “Though I’d say we do more shows than actually go into battle.”

“Things seem much more at peace than in my age,” he told her. “It’s a relief to know things went well in my absence.”

“How have things been with you since your return from Limbo?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“It’s been fun seeing how different everything has changed, but it also reminds me that the life and friends I had back then is gone. I do miss my friends and the Royal Legion, but, hey, maybe I could see about joining the Wonderbolts after I finish traveling around.”

“That would be awesome!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash before they got shushed. “Uh, let’s talk later, after the show is over.”

“Good idea,” agreed Flash as they watched the clowns now wearing oversized boxing gloves go at one another while still riding their unicycles. Each time they got close, they walloped each other at the same time, sending them both cycling backwards a few yards before hurrying forward to do it all over again. Finally, after several bouts they both managed to land a finishing blow on each other and they both fell off their unicycles and onto their flanks that gave off a loud whoopie cushion fart. The audience burst into laughter before a pair of shepherd crooks extended from offstage and dragged them both off the stage. The curtain went down on the stage as some ponies began to clean up the mess the clowns left behind.

“We hope you enjoyed the opening act,” informed Flim.

“After a quick cleanup the show will go on as the wonderful and spectacular Gale will take the stage and astound you with her stupefying stunts,” continued Flam. “Thank you for being patient with us.”

A few minutes passes, as the crowd grew ever more eager and a little restless waiting for things to resume, but finally the curtain rose up once more. Now on stage stood walls reaching up to the ceiling along with several tall poles. There were also rings and a trapeze suspended in midair. Everyone looked on with great anticipation as they saw somepony begin to proceed onto the stage. She was dressed in a body length black coat with sleeves that even covered over her hooves. There was also hood that covered over her head, making it impossible to see her face. The hood laces were long as well and almost touch the floor. As she moved, it would have been impossible to see her in the dark if not for the spotlight that stayed on her.

“You forgot to take off your coat,” somepony whispered from offstage.

“Oh,” she replied nervously and took it off, carefully folding it, before handing it to the offstage pony. “Sorry, a little nervous.”

As she proceed to the center of the stage, where a bigger spotlight awaited her, the audience was able to get a better look at her. Everypony expected Gale to be a pony but to their astonishment, when they saw her white coat with black stripes, it became apparent that she was a zebra. She looked on at the crowd in awe with the most deep blue eyes and took several deep breaths attempting to calm herself down. “I can do this,” she panted to herself when it wasn’t working. “I can do this.” Faintly some music started to play. Little by little the volume increased allowing everyone to be able to clearly hear it. “I can do it,” she smiled feeling more relaxed as she focused on the sounds.

Turning to the wall, she ran straight at it with no hesitation and scaled up it a few feet before flipping off of it into a somersault and landing on the ground. Immediately, she rushed at it again to climb it like before, but managed to make it even higher before leaping off again, this time managing two backflips before touching the ground again. The audience gave her a light applause once more as she zoomed at the wall even faster attempting it a third time, but on attempt she didn’t stop till she reached the very top, several meters off the ground. She leapt off and backflipped onto the trapeze, grabbing ahold of it with her hind legs and swung forward.

The music began to speed up as she swung faster on the trapeze. As she built up enough momentum, she let go and flew forward through a ring and onto another trapeze. The cheering of the audience grew louder growing more impressed with her by the minute. A couple more rings were moved and added to the one Gale had soared through as she Gale built up her momentum once more. As she leapt through the air once more, she cleared all three with the same fluid motions and the crowd cheered amazing at athleticism.

“Wow, she is pretty good,” commented Rainbow Dash cheering as well.

As the stage was set up for her next trick, more rings were added, this time at a greater height than the previous ones. A wall was also added at the the other side of the rings between the lower level and the higher one. Everyone leaned forward on their seats, watching completely absorbed in the act now. When she felt ready, Gale leapt through the lower level of rings once more. As she came in contact with the wall, she used it to rebound off it and gain even greater height to pass through the rings higher up. After clearing them, everyone gasped in shock as the trapeze had not yet returned for her to grab it and she began to fall. However, without the slightest sign of hesitation, she managed to grab ahold of one of the poles and started to swing on it, building her speed up once more. Flinging herself off from it, she grabbed onto another. From that she built up even more speed and flung herself from pole to pole almost like she really could fly through the air.

“I take it back,” cheered Rainbow Dash. “She’s amazing! Totally awesome!”

I can see why she’s considered the greatest flyer without wings,” commented Flash Magnus with just as much enthusiasm as he watched her launch off from one of the poles and began bounding between two walls to reach back up to the trapeze once more. “The flow of her motions, it’s almost like she can fly.”

Gale continued to perform her gravity defying stunts one after another, leaping and flipping through the air without pause. Each new trick she attempted was even more perilous than the last and it kept everyone gasping and cheering wildly. Finally, with her last trick performed she slid down a pole and her hooves once more came in contact with the ground. She took a few steps towards the audience and then bowed her head to them. At once, the entire crowd got up and clapped their hooves together and chanted her name. “Gale! Gale! Gale!” Even after the curtain closed they continued on a while longer till the doors to the theatre opened once more and everyone began to make their way out.

“That was such an awesome show,” cried Rainbow Dash full of delight. “I can’t wait to tell everyone back home about it.”

“I’m sure they’ll want to come see the show too,” stated Flash. “But you might want to figure out your friendship problem first.”

“My what?” asked Rainbow Dash as her reason for being in Los Pegasus had slipped her mind. “Oh! Right, my friendship mission. Yeah, I better solve that first.”

“Everypony have a good time?” asked Flim as he greeted the audience as they took their leave.

“Make sure to come again and bring your friends along too,” added Flam.

“Aren’t they the two you wanted to see?” asked Flash.

“Yeah that’s them,” nodded Rainbow Dash as they made their way over.

“Did you two like the show?” asked Gale as she approached them wearing her black coat again with the hood down.

“Like it?” asked Flim. “We loved it! It was a real masterful performance with daring, edge of your seat action. It was more than a mere act, it was a beautiful work of art, a real masterpiece.”

“And selling out every last seat is quite a beautiful sight to behold as well,” stated Flam. “So we’ll keep providing our typical brand of advertising and you keep defying gravity.”

“You got it,” she smiled.

“Alright,” Rainbow Dash called out. “I don’t know exactly what no good scam you guys are up to, but I’m onto you!”

“What seems to be the trouble?” asked Flim. “Was there something wrong with the show?”

“No. The show was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen!” she replied, but continued to glare fiercely at them.

“Good, then there isn’t any problem,” smile Flam. “No problems and no refunds.”

“The show was fine, but that doesn’t mean that you aren’t up to one of your old tricks,” argued Rainbow Dash. “You’ve caused enough problems for my friend, Applejack. I won’t let you pull a scam on anypony else.”

“Applejack?” they both said in unision as they looked at one another.

“Say, she’s one of Applejack’s friends, Flam,” commented Flim.

“Well, isn’t this just a golden opportunity, Flim,” added Flam.

“Then would you be so kind as tell Applejack how grateful we are to her?” asked Flim.

“And that we’re sorry for all the trouble we’ve caused her and her family,” continued Flam.

“You guys are… apologizing?” asked Rainbow Dash confused. “But I didn’t even figure out what underhanded thing you’ve done yet.”

“The apology is for what we’ve done in the past,” explained Flim.

“And since we’ve taken over this resort we’ve cleaned up our act,” Flam continued Flim’s explanation.

“We’ve been on our best behavior and done all we can without the need for any cons or tricks,” stated Flim like that was something to brag about. “Just our crowd pleasing showmanship, a bunch of fresh, new talents, like our little star, Gale, and lots and lots of hard work.”

“Seriously?” she questioned them then turned to Gale. “They didn’t do anything sneaky? Cause you to have a fight with your friends, or get you to believe in some kind or miracle tonic that couldn’t really do anything, or try to run you and your family out of town with some crazy cider-making contraption?”

“Uh, what? No, they didn’t do anything like that,” Gale replied earnestly. “I actually came to them looking for a job and when they heard about all the shows I put on in Manehatten they signed me up right away and even agreed to pay me double what I was asking for?”

“So then you two really aren’t causing any sorts of problem?” Rainbow Dash replied in disbelief.

“No legal mumbo jumbo in the contract, not even in the fine print,” confirmed Flim.

“Not even any fine print at all,” added Flam.

“We’re truly reformed,” promised Flim. “Never shall we do another dirty dealing.”

“At least nothing big enough to fall under Applejack’s radar,” mumbled Flam quickly to go unnoticed by Rainbow Dash.

“Well, sorry to suspect you,” Rainbow told them. She gritted her teeth as she apologized, feeling like they somehow got the better of her.

“Perish the thought and I hope to see you again and make sure to bring your friends,” said Flim.

“To show them how much you’ve both changed?” she asked.

“No, to spend some bits at the resort,” corrected Flam.

“Guess you haven’t changed that much,” sighed Rainbow Dash as she took her leave and Flash Magnus followed her.

“Well, it’s not like it was a waste of time,” Flash commented. “We got to see a great show and at least you know the problem isn’t here.”

“Yeah, but now I don’t have a clue where the friendship problem is and this city is huge!” she complained.

“Guess we’ll just have to keep looking around till we find it then,” offered Flash and the two left the Split Apple.

“The next show will be in a couple of hours,” Flim told Gale. “So make sure to get some rest till then.”

“I’ll do my best for that show too,” she promised. “And thank you both for giving me this opportunity.”

“It’s the least we can do for our wingless star,” they told her.

Chapter 8

“Back in good ole Canterlot once again,” cheered Pinkie as she got off the train. “Now to solve that friendship problem and work on putting up that new bakery for the Cakes.”

“Well, well, well, it’s been a long time, Pinkie,” a serious voice spoke to Pinkie.

“Huh? Who’s there?” wondered Pinkie turning around and seeing a pony dressed in a poncho and a western hat with a drawstring on it. The two glared at one another fiercely and then proceeded to approach one another one step at a time. Finally, they were face-to-face and their glares turn to big smiles as they got up and hugged one another.

“Pinkie!” the stranger said in a far more friendly tone.

“Cheese Sandwich!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie just as happily. “What are you doing here?”

“Same thing as always,” he answered removing his outfit to be in his casual collared yellow shirt. “Following my cheesy sense and it brought me right over here to you. How about yourself?”

“Well, first I’m here on an important friendship mission,” she told him. “But I’m also here to see about helping my friends, the Cakes, to open up a second bakery and thought I could look around for a place to set up.”

“Expanding a business to another store is a lot of work and requires a lot of time and money,” he told her. “Are you sure you can handle that?”

“Absoposolutely,” she answered. “But how do you know so much about this sort of thing?”

“I might not look it now, but I hail from a family of accountants,” he told her in a proud tone.

“My family are rock farmers,” replied Pinkie. “Except my sister, Maud, who studies rocks.”

“Well, my cheesy sense brought me to you so is there anything I can help you with?” he asked.

“I do have to find this friendship problem first so you can help me look,” she explained. “It could be anywhere in the whole city of Canterlot.”

“That narrows it down,” he replied. “Uh, anything else?”

“Usually while we look for the friendship problem, it usually finds us,” she admitted.

“If that’s how it’s done, then let’s start looking around,” suggested Cheese Sandwich. “Maybe you can find a location for the bakery in the meantime and eat two cupcakes with one bite.”

“Sounds good to me,” she agreed and the two made their way into the streets of Canterlot. It didn’t take them very long to find a building for rent and quickly proceeded over to it. They saw a clipboard on the door that Cheese Sandwich picked up to look at.

“Let’s see,” he said as he skimmed through the papers. “It says this place is two stories and already furnished with a couple ovens and a rather large kitchen. Sounds like this place might’ve been used as a bakery or something like that by the pony who owned it previously.”

“Then this is the perfect place for the new Sugarcube Corner!” declared Pinkie Pie. “Oh, this was even easier than I thought it’d be.”

“Uh, did the Cakes happen to tell you how much they were planning to spend?” he asked her.

“Well, they only just started talking about it earlier today,” she answered. “Why?”

“I probably shouldn’t show you the asking price then,” he replied trying to return the clipboard back onto the door.

“How bad could it be?” scoffed Pinkie as she grabbed the clipboard to take a look herself and her eyes almost popped out of her eyes and her jaw dropped. “That’s how much it cost to buy this place?!?”

“No, that’s only the asking price,” Cheese Sandwich corrected and hesitantly flipped to the next page. “Here is what ponies have offered to pay to buy this place.”

“WHAT!?!?” screamed Pinkie, her jaw dropping to the ground.

“Is something the matter?” asked Flash Magnus as he and Rainbow Dash looked around an amusement park resort in Los Pegasus.

“Strange, I thought I just heard Pinkie Pie screaming,” she replied looking around.

“Well, there are a lot of ponies screaming,” he commented as a bunch of roller coaster passengers zoomed by screaming at the top of their lungs.

“That was probably it,” she agreed.

“I have to say,” admitted Flash Magnus. “We’ve never had rides like this a thousand years ago. I know you’re still looking for your friendship problem, but do you think we could ride a few?”

“Well… maybe just one,” she said trying not to sound eager to ride some herself before she was dragging Flash Magnus towards one she had been eyeing since they arrived. “Come on, this one looks the fastest!”

“How could anypony afford to pay that many bits?” panted Pinkie Pie looking sweaty from how many zeroes were attached to that price. “How did Rarity afford to get not just one, but two more shops? I guess she does have some big clients and using gemstones probably makes her clothes even more pricey, but we can’t do that. The only one in Ponyville who even eats gemstones is Spike! What are we gonna do?!?”

“Take a deep breath, Pinkie,” Cheese Sandwich said trying to calm her. “Typically, when buying a house it is too much for anypony to afford. What they usually have to do is get a loan from the bank.”

“So the bank will loan somepony all these bits just like that?” she asked in shock.

“Well, it’s a bit more complicated than just that,” he told her trying to make this as simple as possible. “You just need to convince the bank that your business is worth investing money in. And after you get the loan you have to work hard to pay off the loan.”

“That certainly sounds stressful,” admitted Pinkie Pie. “And to get enough money to be able to outbid all the other ponies on here, I don’t know…”

“It isn’t like you were even planning on doing this today,” he reminded her. “We were just looking around while you were on your friendship mission, right?”

“Yeah,” she nodded feeling a bit dispirited.

“Maybe we should break for lunch,” he suggested. “Uh, I don’t suppose you know any good places to eat around here?”

“Oh, I know just the place,” Pinkie answered quickly bouncing back to her perky, positive self. “It’s called the ‘Tasty Treat.’ Rarity and I went there once before for a friendship mission, a very tasty one at that.”

“That’s good enough for me. Let’s get going!” encouraged Cheese Sandwich and Pinkie led them both into the food district of Canterlot. They passed several other restaurants along the way, the mix of delicious smells in the air only aggravating their hunger. “I must say, this certainly is a mouthwatering street.”

“Yeah, but when I first got here with Rarity it was anything but that,” Pinkie explained. “All the restaurants were identical down to the little crumbs of food that were considered a meal and they didn’t even have any flavor on top of that. But thanks to us, everyone is making the food they want now and it’s all deliciously flavorful.”

“That’s great,” smiled Cheese Sandwich. “I should really throw a banquet party here some day. With all these restaurants everyone in Canterlot will come. So, where’s the Tasty Treat?”

“Right over here,” Pinkie answered as she led him down an alleyway to what seemed like a hole in the wall at first glance, but upon opening the door they were able to see a quaint Indian Restaurant that was already busy with the lunch hour rush.

“Oh, this place is very interesting,” commented Cheese Sandwich breathing in the air. “And the food smells like it has an interesting kick to it.”

“If you think the smell is good, just wait till you taste it,” smiled Pinkie.

“Pinkie Pie? Is that you?” asked a pony with an Indian accent and clothes that matched the restaurant decor. “It is! Oh, it’s so good to see you.”

“It’s great to see you too,” smiled Pinkie. “Cheese Sandwich, this is the talented chef of the Tasty Treat, Saffron Masala. Saffron, this is my friend, Cheese Sandwich.”

“Any friend of Pinkie’s is one of mine,” she stated and led them over to an empty table. “I’ll be right with you to take your order. I just need to finish up with a couple more orders for customers first.”

“I guess you are very busy now,” commented Pinkie. “This place is packed. Are you and your dad able to handle doing this by yourselves?”

“It was getting to be a bit too much of a success,” she admitted very proudly of that fact. “And my father actually went on a trip back home for a bit so I’ve had to manage the place on my own. I’ve tried to hire some help, but finding somepony who could help out with not only working in the front of the restaurant, but in the kitchen as well hasn’t been an easy task. I tried to bring on another chef, but either they were too experienced and I could not afford to pay them what they wanted for a salary or they were too inexperienced and were only capable of busing tables. However, I did finally manage to find somepony I believe to be just the pony I was looking for.”

“Oh, who?” asked Pinkie.

“Uh, well, him, over there,” she answered, pointing at the Earth pony listlessly wiping a table clean with a towel. He had a brown coat with a messy mane of a darker brown and blue eyes. He had a slightly buff build making him a bit taller than the average stallion. His Cutie Mark was of a blue popsicle. Saffron smiled a bit embarrassed and approached him. “Uh, you’ve been wiping that table down for the last twenty minutes now. I think it’s clean.”

“Whatever,” he sighed not sounding at all interested. “I’m gonna go on my break now.” Without even getting an answer, he grabbed a long, black coat, walked out the door and shut it behind him.

“He, uh, seemed, not that good,” admitted Cheese Sandwich trying to be be tactful.

“Not that good?!?” cried Pinkie. “How can you have someone who acts like that working for you?”

“Technically, he doesn’t work for me officially,” she explained. “He needed a place to stay and at the time I offered him to simply help take orders and clean tables. Everything was fine at first and he was actually a lot friendlier than he was right now. Then I saw him making these popsicles and he offered me one to try. It had a salty taste at first, but then they tasted sweet. It was an unusual mix, but in a good way and I could tell he had talent to get the different tastes just right. So I gave him a chance to try cooking some of the food here and his cooking tasted just as great as mine. I was so happy to have another cook, but after that he lost all the motivation he had. He wouldn’t even step hoof into the kitchen and he won’t even tell me why. Papa will be coming home in a few days and if he seems him acting like this he’ll tell me to just kick him out, but I know there has to be a reason he changed.”

“You think this could be the friendship problem you’re here to fix?” asked Cheese Sandwich.

“This must be it,” agreed Pinkie. “We just got to figure out why he isn’t motivated and help him out. Easy as pie.”

“If you can do that then this’ll be the second time you’ve helped me,” Saffron told Pinkie. “But are you sure you can get through to him? He would barely tell me anything at all even before he got like this. All I know is that his name is Rocky Rhodes and he moved here recently from Manehatten.”

“Don’t worry,” grinned Pinkie. “If anyone can get him to talk, it’s me.” Her stomach gave a loud rumble reminding her why they were here in the first place. “Uh, but first, can we order our lunch?”

“Of course,” nodded Saffron.

Chapter 9

“Dodge Junction,” Applejack said eagerly as she got off the train and admired the open spaces. Everypony walked about at a leisurely place and nothing around was taller than a barn. “Last couple of times the map called on me for a friendship problem,” she explained to Braeburn. “It sent me to Manehatten and Los Pegasus. They were nice and all, but all this is much more my element.”

“It’ll probably be easier to find your friendship problem too,” he added. “Me finding the best cherries will probably take longer than that.”

“You don’t have to fret about that,” Applejack assured him. “I know just the place, at Cherry Jubilee’s farm. She’s actually a friend of mine I met a little while back.”

“Did you help her with a friendship problem too?” asked Braeburn as he followed his cousin.

“Actually, it was one of my own problems that my friends had to help me with,” she explained recalling it. “I promised to win some prize money at a rodeo to help repair town hall, but in the end I didn't earn one measly bit. I didn’t want to return without what I promised so I ran off to here and took up a job to earn the money instead.”

“At Cherry Jubilee’s farm?” he concluded.

“It wasn’t my proudest moment,” she sighed. “I can guarantee you that. I made a rather big fool of myself in front of my friends. Then there was the chase and outrunning a train.”

“You outran a train?” asked Braeburn shocked upon hearing that.

“I said I was more than a might foolish at the time,” she reminded him. “And if nothing else can prove that I should stay at Sweet Apple Acres it’s that. Granny Smith, Big Mac, and Applebloom were heartbroken when I wasn’t there and my friends went through a lot of trouble to find me. I reckon they’d have hogtied me if need be to get me back to Ponyville with them. So you don’t have to bring up me leaving the farm anymore.”

“Ok, but I didn’t bring it up,” he reminded her. “You did. I already dropped it.”

“Well, uh, that’s in case you do again,” she stated defensively.

It wasn’t a very far walk before they came upon the barn surrounded by countless cherry trees. Walking down the road they were able to see ripe, plump, red and yellow cherries just waiting to be plucked from the trees and a handful of workers doing just that.

“Hey, y’all,” Applejack called to them. “Have any of you see Cherry Jubilee around?”

“She’s in the barn helping sort the cherries,” one of them answered.

“Ok, thanks,” she smiled. “It was nice seeing y’all again.”

“Nice seeing you too,” the workers told her. “You should come around more often.”

“I’ll make sure to do that,” she told them before hurrying over to the barn.

“Looks like they’ve taken a fancy to you when you were here,” noticed Braeburn as they reached the barn.

“Everypony does love a hard worker, after all,” she pointed out.

Inside the barn, there were several ponies standing at a conveyor belt as cherries made their way down it several dozen at a time. As the cherries came by them, they gently tossed the cherries into their respective baskets. Over on the side, Applejack saw Cherry Jubilee talking to the pony on the wheel that was powering the conveyor belt. He had yellow hair that darkened to orange around his hooves. On his flank his Cutie Mark was an eight written as “VIII.” His eyes were a bright emerald green, but the most distinct thing about him was his mane that was like a big, red, spiky inferno. Applejack chuckled recalling the little incident that happened when her friends had come to bring her home and ended with her getting covered head to hoof in cherries. “I really was acting silly back then,” she thought to herself. “But at least now when I think back to it, I can laugh about it.”

“Alright, you can take a break,” Cherry Jubilee told the running pony. “You’ve been running on that wheel for a while now and I’m sure your hooves are barking.”

“I can run a little longer,” he assured her between panting and sweating. “Just a little longer.”

“Five more minutes, but after that you take a rest,” she instructed him. “And make sure it’s a full lunch break too.”

“Will do,” he agreed and continued to run.

“Hey, Cherry Jubilee,” greeted Applejack as she brought her cousin over to greet her. “It’s been aspell hasn’t it.”

“Why Applejack,” she replied surprised to see her out of the blue. “It certainly has. What brings you around to these parts?”

“Well, first off, my cousin, Braeburn, has come to get some of the best cherries in all of Equestria,” she explained.

“If it’s the best he wants, he has no further to look than right here,” she answered confidently. “You can take all you want. It’s the least I could do after all the hard work you put in here.”

“Oh, it weren’t nothing,” blushed Applejack at the praise.

“No, I really mean it,” she went on. “You were only around for a few days, but it was more like taking on four ponies rather than one. The only one I can even think to come close to that is my new hire over there on the treadmill.”

“He works as hard as me?” she asked sounding impressed.

“He just showed up one day insisting he had to work here and that I wouldn’t be sorry to take him on,” she explained. “I agreed and he sure wasn’t fooling. Every day he’s been up even before me doing one chore or another and he’s always the last one to stop working at night too. He makes a lot of the other workers tired just watching him work.”

“Certainly sounds impressive,” agreed Braeburn as they watched him continue to run on the treadmill. “Did he tell you what farm he worked at before coming here?”

“That’s the most surprising thing about him,” she added. “He’s actually a cityboy, if you can believe it. He came all the way from Manehatten to work here. I’ve seen a lot of unusual things in my day, but I never thought a city slicker would prefer to be living in a place like this.”

“I’d say I’m proof of that,” nodded Applejack. “I tried to live with my Aunt and Uncle Orange in the big city when I was a youngun, but before long I got so homesick I hurried right on back home. But he’s no colt so I guess it isn’t quite the same.”

“I don’t know his reasons for coming here, but he’s welcome to stay as long as he wants,” she said before turning back to him. “Alright, that’s enough. Take your break now.”

“Sure thing,” he nodded and slowed his running to a trot to get off the treadmill. “I’ll be back as soon as my lunch break is over.” As he headed out of the barn, he grabbed a black coat that was on a hook by the door and left with it.

“Just take your time,” she added. “The work won’t be going anywhere.” Jubilee then returned her focus to Applejack and Braeburn. “Now then, let’s go get you those cherries.”

Chapter 10

“Next up is the post office,” Twilight spoke to herself as she looked over her map. “I’m sure I am bound to find the frien- uh, the reason the map summoned me. “I wonder how the others are doing. I’m sure Pinkie Pie and Applejack got there by now and knowing Rainbow Dash she flew to Los Pegasus in record time. I’d love to know how they’re doing. Heheh, too bad I cannot get a music box to them. I could also just teleport over, but I should really trust that they can handle it themselves. I still need to focus on my own problem, whatever it is. I’ll just have to wait till they get back home to talk about it. I’m sure we’ll have it all figured out soon and they’ll be home by tomorrow.”

Entering into the post office, the first thing that Twilight noticed was the line she bumped into right upon entering.

“Hey! Watched it!” snapped the pony in the back. He looked very irritable along with all the others.

“Sorry, is there something wrong?” asked Twilight.

“Yeah, we’ve been waiting for over an hour, but the receptionist hasn’t returned from her lunch break yet,” he answered.

“Well, I’m sure she’ll be back soon,” Twilight said hoping it would ease him and the others in line. It didn’t, but what did seem to was seeing Derpy walk back in and take her place behind the counter. She ate the last piece of her giant muffin and then turned the “Out to Lunch” sign around so it now read “Opened.” She opened her mouth to welcome the next customer up, but before she could utter anything, the entire line rushed forward demanding service.

Quickly responding to the distress, Twilight teleported behind the counter to aid an overwhelmed Derpy. “If everypony would just take a deep breath,” she ordered attempted to bring a return to harmony. “We can get everypony taken care of as soon as possible. Did I make myself clear?”

“Y-yes, princess,” one of the ponies answered for the group. The rest were now completely silent.

“Very good,” she said happily. “Now thank you all for being patient. Would the next pony please come forward?”

“Uh, I’d love to,” she said. “But, uh, could you let us down first?”

Looking up, Twilight hadn’t realized in her attempt to calm the crowd down, she had lifted them up into the air with magic. With an embarrassed smile and laugh, she carefully lowered them back down and cautiously, the first pony stepped towards Twilight. “Sorry,” she answered meekly. “How can I help you today?”

The line was taken care of quickly, especially when Derpy recovered and gave Twilight a hand. “Thank you and have a nice day,” Twilight told the last pony she was taking care of and took a deep breath at the relief that it was over. “That is one problem solved, but judging from my Cutie Mark that wasn’t what the map called me for.”

“Uh, excuse me?” asked a pony from the other side of the counter. “Can you help me?”

“Oh, ok,” replied Twilight standing back up at the counter to see her latest customer. She had a light blue coat and a cobalt mane that hung down smoothly and evenly around her head except where her unicorn horn parted it. Her Cutie Mark wasn’t visible though as she had on a long, black coat. “Do you have any mail you need delivered?”

“Oh, uh, I do,” she answered reaching into a pocket of her coat and gave them to Twilight.

“These will be ready to be sent out uh, later today, I think,” Twilight told her sounding unsure and looked to Derpy who smiled and nodded. “Thanks for stopping by.”

“Well, the thing is,” she spoke shyly. “I didn’t come to Ponyville to deliver those letters. I could have done that back in Manehatten. I actually came here to see you, Twilight.”

“See me?” she asked surprised. “Why is that? And how do you know who I am?”

“Because you’re the Princess of Friendship,” she answered. “And because you’re the Princess of Friendship, it would probably be stranger if I didn’t know who you were.”

“Oh, right,” agreed Twilight with a small chuckle. “Well, tell me who you are and why did you come to see me?”

“Ok, here I go,” she replied taking a few deep breaths to calm herself and then looked at Twilight with her clear, blue eyes. “My name is April Showers and I need to know, am I… am I a bad friend?”

“A bad friend?” asked Twilight confused.

“I mean I really did wish them well when they all decided to leave and we had a sendoff party and everything, but deep down I really wanted us to all stay together like we always have,” she tried to explain as her voice increased with tension. “I mean, I gave them my support to leave, but maybe they wanted me to be against it so they could change their mind or maybe they are happy that I gave them my support and it’s selfish of me to want them to come back for my sake. I just don’t know and all I can think is that I’m just a bad friend who can’t do anything for them at all. Nothing, except, send them a few lousy letters.” By the time she finished speaking she was in tears and sobbing on the floor.

“April,” called Twilight rushing to the other side of the counter to comfort her. “Do you mind if I call you April?”

“That’s fine,” she sniffled. “It’s what my friends called me. Most everyone else would just call me Showers cause I’d just start crying over every little thing. They were my best friends in the world, but now we’re separated all over Equestria.”

“All over Equestria?” wondered Twilight looking over the three letters April brought to mail out and read the destination of each. “Dodge Junction… Canterlot… and Los Pegasus! Then this is it. This is the friendship problem! April, this is your lucky day cause my friends and I are going to find a way to fix everything.”

“You’re going to help us?” she asked sniffling as her eyes stopped leaking.

“We probably already are,” she answered with a warm smile. “Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash are in all these places looking for a friendship problem and they’ll find your friends. Then it’ll just be a matter of finding a solution.”

“Will it be that easy?” asked April. “Can they all come up with a solution that works even while they’re so far apart?”

“I’m positive,” nodded Twilight. “I bet by tomorrow they’ll have things finished up on their ends. For now, why don’t we head back to my place so we can talk some more. And when my friends do return they’ll be able to tell you that everything has been taken care of with your friends as well.”

“Just hearing that makes me feel a lot bet,” April commented and managed to smile.

“By the way, how did you know I was in the post office?” asked Twilight.

“Well, I started out at your castle,” she explained as they made their way back to the Castle of Friendship. “But nobody was home so I went into town and ran into this other pony named Rarity who really liked my coat and was even more impressed when I told her I made it myself. Anyway she told me that…”

Chapter 11

“This sure has been a lot of fun,” admitted Rainbow Dash as she walked through the streets of Los Pegasus with oversized sunglasses on her head and a giant turtle plushie on her back. “But everywhere we’ve looked I haven’t seen a friendship problem anywhere.”

“We’ve been to half a dozen resorts already,” Flash Magnus reminded her. “And there’s still a lot more to go. At the rate we’re going it could take days.”

“I know, but I felt so certain I found it right back when I was confronting Flim and Flam. I could feel it in my gut, but then I found out that they weren’t doing anything wrong for a change.”

“Maybe you were right,” pondered Flash. “Maybe the problem was back at the Split Apple.”

“You think they might actually be up to something?” she asked.

“Maybe not them, but the problem still might be there,” he told her. “You said you could feel it in your gut and I don’t know how things are done with the Wonderbolts, but when I was with the Royal Legion when I was faced with a tough decision to make my gut instinct never let me down.”

“I guess some things never change,” smiled Rainbow Dash as the two of them rushed back to the Split Apple as fast as they could struggle their way through the crowd of ponies.

By the time they made it back to the Split Apple, the crowd was dispersing from the theatre once more. “Another great performance,” Flim praised to Gale along with his brother.

“There’s just one more show tonight so you can take it easy till then,” added Flam.

“You have it scheduled for after sundown, right?” she asked.

“Set for half an hour after sunset,” Flim assured her.

“Then I’ll see you then,” she smiled and started to walk away to take a break. She put on her long, black coat and worked her way through the number of ponies to reach the lounge.

“We’re here again,” said Flash. “So, what does your gut say you should do now?”

“Follow her,” she answered and weaved through the crowd in pursuit of Gale. Her black coat made her stick out very easily compared to all the pastel-colored ponies surrounding her. She made her way to the lounge area and ordered a hay burger and some horseshoe fries along with a cup of fresh squeezed apple cider. When the order arrived, she carried it over to an empty table, taking up one of the four seats there and started eating.

“So, that was some awesome performance,” admitted Rainbow Dash casually sipping from a cup of apple cider she got.

“Oh, thanks,” Gale replied happily. “I’m glad you enjoyed it. I’ve always loved performing, to be the center of attention. I know that might sound a bit self-centered.”

“I’m guilty of plenty of that myself,” admitted Rainbow Dash. “Mind if I take a seat.”

“Sure, go right ahead,” she smiled. “It’s been a bit lonely since I came here and I haven’t had much time to make any friends.”

“Being the new pony, uh, zebra in town can be pretty rough, I’m sure,” she agreed. “Unless you got the Pinkie Pie Welcome Wagon to greet you.”

“The what?” she wondered.

‘Uh, nevermind,” replied Rainbow Dash. “But there’s something I’ve been wondering about. There’s a zebra who lives near Ponyville and she always talks in rhymes, but you don’t. I never knew any other zebras besides Zecora so I didn’t know if all zebras did that or if that was just her thing.”

“Heheh,” she giggled softly before speaking again. “Zebras always love to speak in rhyme, but for me it’s been quite a time.”

“That answers that question,” said Rainbow Dash. “But if zebras like to rhyme why don’t you?”

“Growing up in Manehatten wasn’t a very fun experience,” she admitted. “Other than my parents, I think I was the only zebra there. From all our unusual customs like our rhyming to just how we looked most ponies avoided me like I was some kind of evil enchantress or something. They didn’t even know anything about me yet they judged me so harshly.”

“Guess Ponyville was guilty of pretty much the same thing for a while too,” admitted Rainbow Dash.

“I tried to be and act like the other ponies to fit in,” she continued. “But none of that seemed to work. I was lucky, however, that I did eventually find three ponies that did finally accept me, but I didn’t want to go through my whole life with everypony else hiding from me. Then, one day, there was a little accident. One of my friends slipped from atop the clocktower. None of us had wings, but even so, I just jumped after her. I managed to catch her and safely get us to the ground. A crowd of ponies saw this and were suddenly cheering for me. I don’t know if they realized it wasn’t a show, but the next thing I knew my friends and I were suddenly putting on shows. Well, save for actually having me rescue somepony from falling. For a change, all eyes were on me and I realized how much I loved to perform. And now I’ve made my way to Los Pegasus.”

“What about your friends back in Manehatten?” asked Rainbow Dash. “What happened to them?”

“After I told them that I planned to go to Los Pegasus a couple of the others were saying how they wanted to go out into the world too. They threw me a party and shortly after that we went our separate ways. I miss them a lot, but I know they are rooting for me to do my best.”

“Did you have to go, to Los Pegasus, I mean?” asked Rainbow Dash. “I mean, nobody was forcing you or anything so it wasn’t like you had to leave your friends.”

“It was just something I wanted to do,” she admitted. “And I wanted to see if I really could make it on a stage like this. I would have loved it if my friends could have come, but it wouldn’t have been right to expect them to give up their own dreams just to be with me and they wouldn’t have wanted to hold me back either.”

“You’ll still make sure to meet up with them again, right?” questioned Rainbow Dash. “I mean, you want to, right?”

“Of course I do,” she sighed. “But it might not be for some time. I’m the headliner here so I do a lot of shows every day. I doubt I’d be able to get much time off for a while and I can’t just leave Flim and Flam without an act after they’ve given me this chance.”

“You make a lot of good points,” Rainbow Dash admitted, though she sounded like she didn’t want her to. “Thanks for taking the time to talk with me.” Without another word, Rainbow Dash walked away.

“So, how did it go?” asked Flash who had been waiting for Rainbow Dash while she was talking.

“It went very, very well,” she admitted with her head down. “I was given quite a bit to think about.”

“Uh, you were given a lot to think about?” he asked confused. “Weren’t you the one who was supposed to be giving her something to think about?”

“I came here to find a friendship problem,” she sighed. “But the only one I can find is my own.”

Chapter 12

“Pinkie wasn’t kidding,” commented Cheese Sandwich as he finished his bowl of soup. “The food here is fantastic. That spiciness really does have a nice kick to it too.”

“I’m really glad you enjoyed it,” Saffron Masala replied as she gathered up his empty plate and bowl. “And if it wasn’t for Pinkie Pie and her friend, Rarity, we probably would have had to close down a long time ago. I just hope that she can help Rocky too. Something’s been troubling him since before he started working here, but he wouldn’t open up to me about it at all.”

“He definitely looked down about something,” agreed Cheese. “But if anyone can cheer him up it’s a super duper party pony like her.”

“I really hope she can,” admitted Saffron. “I don’t think I’ve seen him more than crack a smile since I offered him the position.”

“By the time Pinkie’s through with him he’ll be laughing so much he’ll be in stitches,” assured Cheese.

“WHY WON’T YOU SMILE!!!” shouted Pinkie as she unicycled while juggling pies.

“Because it’s not funny,” Rocky answered, though he was the minority, as a crowd had already gathered and were laughing and cheering at Pinkie’s antics. “Well, I don’t find it funny.”

“I’m going through all my best material from A to Z,” replied Pinkie. “There’s no way you can’t find any of it funny.”

“Because I’m not in the mood to laugh,” he told her. “And I’m not in the mood to be a chef for Saffron either. You should just tell her this so she’ll fire me already. She doesn’t need a nopony like me anyway.” Tugging at the laces to his hood to hide his head, he started to trot away.

“Oh, no you don’t!” barked Pinkie Pie heading him off with her unicycle. “Time for the big finale!” Tossing the pies up high, Pinkie caught them in her hooves and pied herself with one after another after another till she was half covered in whipped cream. “Tah dah!”

All the ponies watching were in hysterics seeing Pinkie, everypony that is, except for Rocky who remained as solemn as ever. “So, that’s it?” he asked. “Well, you tried.”

“I guess there really isn’t anything that can make you laugh,” admitted Pinkie as she hopped off her unicycle.

“Doesn’t look like it,” he agreed. “So, you might as well do yourself a favor and give up on me.”

“Ok,” sighed Pinkie as she sat down with a defeated look on her face.

BBBRRRRRRRRRRRRTTT!!!

“Aheh,” a snicker slipped from his lips. “Ahehahahahah!!!”

“Gotcha!” smiled Pinkie revealing a whoopie cushion beneath her as she watched him and everypony fill the street with laughter. “Nopony ever expects the fakeout whoopie cushion!”

“Y-you got me laughing,” he continued to chuckle and tear up a little. “S-So what?”

“So, you look so much better with a smile on your face,” she told him as she approached him, the whipped cream on her face starting to drip down onto the ground. “I don’t see why you’d want to be depressed all the time.”

“It- it’s none of your business,” he replied defensively as he backed away. “Now stay away, you’re dripping whipped cream.”

“But if you have a problem then you could at least allow me the chance to help,” she replied following him step for step. The whipped cream kept dropping in globs and a big clump fell off and landed on Rocky’s black coat and ran down it all the way to the end of one of the sleeves. “Oh, sorry.”

“I- I- I-” he stuttered and trembled before looking at Pinkie quite angrily. “I told you to stay away and now look what you did! You don’t have any idea how much this coat means to me!”

“See, isn’t it much better to show your emotions,” she replied nervously. “Now try happy.”

“Are you still on that?” he snapped. “Why can’t you understand that I don’t want any help. Why can’t everypony just leave me alone? Now go!”

His outburst quickly scared everypony who had been watching away with fright. The only one who remained, albeit shaking a bit fearful herself was Pinkie. Rocky breathed heavily as he continued to glare at her.

“You are hurting a lot aren’t you?” she asked sadly. “But you shouldn’t keep all this bottled up.”

“W-why do you care?” he asked her, his voice cracking as tears ran down his cheeks. “You don’t even know me so why do you have to meddle in my business?”

“Because, right now, you need a friend,” she told him. “So, will you let me be your friend and talk to me?”

“...Can we go somewhere private to talk?” he asked her giving her back her cheery-eyed excitement.

“I wonder how long it’ll take,” wondered Saffron as she sat with Cheese Sandwich now that the lunch rush had passed. “Pinkie’s been out there with him for a while and I think I heard some yelling. I’m getting worried.”

“I’m sure Pinkie has it under control,” Cheese assured her. “My cheesy sense is telling me that everything is going just fine.”

“I don’t know what that is,” she told him. “But maybe we should go see how things are going.” About to get up, Pinkie Pie suddenly rushed through the door and hurried through the restaurant pulling Rocky behind her almost too fast for him to keep up and knocked over a few chairs in the process. Pinkie still had a fair amount of whipped cream on her face. “Pinkie? What’s going on?”

“No time to talk,” se replied as they made their way to the second floor. “In the middle of a breakthrough. Tell you about it later.”

“Heh, never doubt the cheesy sense,” chuckled Cheese Sandwich cooly.

“It doesn’t look like it’ll stain,” Pinkie Pie told Rocky as she helped him remove the whipped cream. “My friend Rarity taught me all the dos and don’ts of what foods to avoid when dressed up for a party. Pretty much eat before going and avoid the buffet table like it was pony pox, heheh.”

“S-sorry about snapping at you,” he apologized to her. “I know you were just trying to help.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it,” she said happily. “You had to let your emotions out.”

“Yeah, but I never like to get angry or upset,” he admitted. “Cause when I get mad I just start to lose myself in it. Just over a little whipped cream I got that angry. You saw all those ponies run away. That was always my problem. I was big and strong and had a short fuse. Nopony wanted to be around me, to get to know that I was more than that. Well, till I met a few others who were a lot like me.”

“Like you?” asked Pinkie.

“A bunch of noponies,” he explained. “Ponies that didn’t fit in with anypony else. It was when I was with them that I felt accepted and happy. When I was with them even things that would have gotten me angry didn’t even make me bat an eye.”

“What happened to all that?” asked Pinkie. “Why aren’t you with them.”

“We just… went our separate ways,” he sighed. “First Gale decided to go to Los Pegasus to follow her dream and then I decided to come here. I’m not sure where the other two ended up going though.”

“What did you want to do in Canterlot?” she asked him.

“I guess Saffron Masala already told you everything she knew about me,” he replied reaching into a cooler and took out a blue popsicle. “I like making food. Particularly things with interesting flavors. This here is one of my own creations. It tastes salty, but-”

“But also sweet,” she replied taking the popsicle to taste it herself. She gave it a few licks and made a few intrigued faces before turning back to him happily. “Wow! This is great! I’d have never tried to make something like this and I can see why Saffron asked you to work as a chef here.”

“Yeah,” he nodded. “The food they have here is a lot different than what you’d probably find in most places in Equestria. I think that’s what drew me here in the first place.”

“And Saffron gave you a chance to be a chef here,” continued Pinkie. “But that’s where things get strange. This is what you wanted to do and yet you started to act so indifferent about it. You even wanted to get fired. Why? This was your dream wasn’t it?”

“Fear, I guess,” he admitted with a deep sigh.

“What were you so afraid of?” she asked focusing on him as she continued to lick the popsicle.

“Of being alone,” he admitted. “I went so long with just those three as my friends and now I was worried that coming here I’d be all alone. Sure, I could have quit myself or left, but then I thought to myself what if I went back and nopony was there. Or what if they were and they were disappointed that I came running back with my tail between my legs. In the end, I guess I tried to go numb to everything. Just go back to being a nopony all over again.”

“You are not a nopony,” Pinkie told him holding his head still while she looked into his eyes. “You never were. You have talent and a dream and you can’t allow fear to make you quit. You might not have your friends from Manehatten here with you, but I’m here and I’m your friend. You also have Saffron here too. She wants to be your friend too. That’s why she wouldn’t fire you. She believed in you so why can’t you believe in yourself. You at least have to give it your best shot. What do you say?”

“I guess I can at least try,” he answer sounding a bit hesitant, but still willing.

“That’s the spirit… almost,” she smiled. “Now go to that kitchen and get cooking!”

“Alright,” he answered, but wasn’t budging. “Uh, can you let go of my face?”

“Oh, sorry,” she apologized and let him go.

Rubbing his cheeks, he made his way down to the kitchen.

“Hmm, a little more of this,” mumbled Rocky as he worked diligently in front of the stove. “A dash more of this…” Grabbing a wooden spoon he stirred the pot and then lifted out a spoonful to taste it. “A pinch more of this and some more heat.”

“I’ve never seen him so focused like this,” whispered Saffron poking her head in from the entrance to the kitchen along with Pinkie and Cheese Sandwich.

“He’s been working on that for half an hour,” said Cheese. “How do you think he’s doing?”

“It sure smells good,” commented Pinkie. “So I bet it tastes good too.”

“It can smell good, but if the ingredients aren’t added too much or too little it can throw off the entire balance of flavor. Even with a recipe it can take a several attempts to get even something remotely good.”

“Ok, that should about do it,” Rocky panted and wiped his forehead. As he was about to turn his head to call in Pinkie and the others they quickly got out of sight. “I’m all done. Ready for tasting.”

“My it certainly smells good in here,” commented Saffron like she hadn’t been watching him the whole time. “You must’ve done a real good job.”

“Only one way to find out,” stated Pinkie as the three of them approached Rocky. “Time to taste it.”

“J-just be honest with me,” he pleaded nervously. “If it’s no good then just tell me.”

“Hello?” called a mare from the front of the restaurant. “Are you open?”

“Oh, we got a customer,” said Saffron. “I’ll be right back to give it a taste.”

“Wait,” replied Pinkie filling a bowl and carrying it out of the kitchen. “I have a better idea.”

“She’s not planning on doing what I think she is,” worried Rocky.

“You wanted an honest opinion,” commented Cheese. “So, we won’t have a better chance than this.”

“Hello there,” greeted PInkie helping the mare to a table. “How may I help you today?”

“I heard this place has some rather exotic food,” she explained. “I was hoping to give some a try. Can I see a menu?”

“Actually, I was wondering if you’d be interested in the house special spicy soup,” suggested Pinkie. “No charge. Just tell us what you think of it.”

“Oh, well, ok,” she replied as she had the bowl put down in front of her and she was given a spoon.”

“What are you doing?” worried Rocky as he saw the mare blow on her soup to cool it a bit before trying some. “You didn’t even taste it to see if it was any good.”

“Because you worked so hard on it that I trust that it’ll be good,” replied Pinkie.

“Oh, my this sure is quite different than what I’m used to,” the customer admitted looking a bit sweaty from the spiciness after just the first taste. “Definitely got a strong kick and some tastes I’m not used to.” She then dipped her spoon in again and took another taste and looked quite pleased after swallowing this one. “It’s exactly what I was hoping for. Such a wonderful thing, this spicy soup.”

“Thank you for the kind words,” smiled Saffron. “And all the praise should go to my new cook, Rocky Rhodes, who prepared it for you.”

“Go on,” Pinkie encouraged pushing him forward. “She loves it. No reason to be nervous.”

“Uh, h-hi,” smiled Rocky as he was pushed right in front of the customer’s table. “I’m the one who made the soup.”

“Well then, my compliments to you,” she smiled. “It truly is fantastic.”

“Thank you,” he managed to reply more clearly just as more customers arrived.

“Smells like something really good is cooking in here.”

“Yeah, I’m gonna want to try some of that.”

“Looks like we’ve got a whole bunch more customers coming in,” stated Saffron. “We might not have enough spicy soup for all of them.”

“I could make some more,” volunteered Rocky. “I’m sure I could make it even quicker this time.”

“Think you can help me with anything else they might order too?” she continued.

“Of course,” he smiled.

“Then you two get to cooking and we’ll handle the front,” offered Pinkie.

“But try and save us a bit of the spicy soup,” Cheese Sandwich added. “I’m still want to try it.”

It took a while before Cheese Sandwich and the others were finally able to sit down to have some of Rocky’s spicy soup themselves as the rush of customers went straight into dinnertime. Even with all four of them working at once, they were barely able to keep up with the surprising influx of hungry customers that filled the room with the joyful sounds of eating, chatter, and some laughter as Cheese and Pinkie took the time to entertain when they weren’t seating ponies or taking their orders.

The kitchen was also alive with the mix of aromas from several dishes being prepared at once. Saffron and Rocky hastily worked to get all their dishes out as quickly as possible, though Saffron did pause from time to time to smile and just watch her new chef act so focused that she could barely recognize him from his previous apathetic behavior.

When they were finally able to get the last customer out, they had to turn the open sign to close. Looking around, the tables and floor had gotten messy from from spilled food that may or may not have been inadvertently caused by Pinkie and Cheese making the customers bust a gut laughing. There was also a lot of whipped cream and pie tins all over the place, definitely a result from their hilarity.

Inside the kitchen, it was just as bad from the number of pots, pans, and dishes overflowing in the sink, splatters of food and even a broken dish or two that happened in their haste. Seeing such a mess and having to clean it was the last thing the four exhausted ponies wanted to deal with after having worked nonstop for the last few hours, but they were all in good spirits, even moreso now that they could finally sit down and have a chance to try some of Rocky’s spicy soup themselves.

“Where do they get all these whipped cream pies?” wondered Rocky as he saw the number of pie tins all over and couldn’t recall seeing them anywhere prior, but didn’t get the chance to ask before the conversation was steered towards him.

“So, how does it feel to have so many ponies enjoy your cooking?” asked Pinkie.

“It is nice, though a little exhausting,” he laughed. “Maybe I should go back to being an unfeeling nopony again. It’s a lot less work.”

“Oh, Rocky,” replied Saffron chuckling a little knowing he was just joking.

“I never actually thought I would ever feel comfortable anywhere without my friends,” Rocky admitted. “I mean I still miss them not being here, but now I know I’ll be okay. I don’t feel alone.”

“Cause you have friends here too,” smiled Saffron. “You don’t ever have to feel alone ever again.”

“Heheh, thanks,” he smiled cheerfully.

“And friendship mission complete!” cheered Pinkie leaping up excitedly. However, her three balloons Cutie Mark didn’t glow to signify this was so and for several seconds she was just hovering in midair waiting. She looked at her flank for a few seconds, wondering when her Cutie Mark would start to glow. “Uh, is this thing on? Maybe bad reception?”

“Uh, something wrong, Pinkie?” asked Cheese Sandwich helping her back to the ground.

“It’s weird,” she explained. “When I complete a friendship mission I get from the map, my Cutie Mark should glow when to signal I’m done. I mean, we found the problem, did some stuff, had a heart-to-heart moment and we were just wrapping the moral up with a lovely bow. This should all be done in the span of a good episode’s worth of twenty-two minutes… unless… you don’t think this is a two-parter?”

“Uh, what are you talking about?” asked Rocky.

“Just breaking the fourth wall,” she giggled. “Kind of my thing, but now is not the time for jokes. I have to figure out why this didn’t work.”

“Maybe this wasn’t the problem you were meant to fix?” suggested Cheese.

“It has to be,” argued Pinkie. “I mean it couldn’t be more obvious if he was holding a sign that said ‘friendship problem’ on it. Are you sure everything's okay now?”

“I think so?” Rocky replied. “I’m sure I’ll be happy working here, even if it means not going back to see my friends.”

“Not going back to see your friends,” repeated Pinkie in her mind and she suddenly seemed lost in thought.

“Uh, Pinkie?” called Cheese Sandwich attempting to get her attention. “Pinkie!”

“Huh? Who to the what now?” she cried flustered.

“You started spacing out,” he told her. “You feeling ok?”

“Uh, just been trying to think,” she replied. “Well, if the friendship problem isn’t here then we’ll just have to look elsewhere.”

“Even if this wasn’t why you had to come here,” Saffron told Pinkie. “I’m really glad that you did. You helped us out big time.”

“Yeah,” agreed Rocky. “Thanks. I don’t think I could have been able to go forward without you.”

“N-no problem,” giggled Pinkie laughing only on the outside while feeling worry on the inside and thinking, “Would I have go forward too… without my friends?”

Chapter 13

“How’s this for a heap of cherries?” asked Cherry Jubilee as she offered Braeburn a basket full of some big, red ones.

“These will make some fine cherry pies,” he replied taking one out to taste it. “Nice and fresh too. The buffalos will be happy when they see these.”

“So, when do you plan on heading back to Appleloosa?” asked Applejack.

“I wasn’t planning on come here till tomorrow,” answered Braeburn giving it a bit of thought. “So, since I’m a day ahead I guess I could spend the night and leave on the first train tomorrow.”

“Then I’ll get a room prepared for you to spend the night,” offered Jubilee.

“That’d be mighty kind if you would,” accepted Braeburn.

“And how about you, Applejack?” she asked. “Will you need a room as well?”

“It’s doubtful,” she answered. “I just need to find and fix a friendship problem then I’ll be off back to Ponyville. “I doubt it’d take me too long to find it.”

“I’ll get one ready just in case,” Jubilee told her and then started her way back to her home. “Oh, and if you happen to see that new hire of mine could you please tell him he doesn’t have to worry about coming back to work today. Tell him I’ve given him the rest of the day off to rest and relax. He’s more than earned it.”

“I’ll be sure to tell him,” Applejack nodded and made her way into town.

“Bout time I finally got focused on this friendship problem,” she said to herself. “Been too distracted for too long. Cherry Jubilee’s place seemed fine. Maybe I can ask around in the tavern and see if somepony can help me out there.”

Making her way into the tavern, it had that rustic western charm about it. Ponies had on ten gallon cowboy hats and were downing fresh apple cider like Rainbow Dash during cider season. There was a pony hoofwrestling at one of the tables with a sac of bits on the table that only got filled further with every victory he earned. With a Cutie Mark of hoof wrestling on his flank it looked likely his streak wasn’t going to be broken any time soon. There were some bulls at the counter enjoying a saltlick while the bartender on the other side was keeping to himself and wiping glasses clean with a rag.

Applejack took a seat at the bar and made eye contact with the bartender. “Howdy partner,” she told him.

“What be your preference, little lady?” he asked.

“Glass of cider if you would,” she replied.

“Been awhile since I recall seeing you in these parts,” he commented. “What brings you back?”

“A friendship problem,” she answered before taking a sip of her cider finding it to her liking. “Know anything about one?”

“None I can recall,” he answered. “Folks been quite neighborly as of late. Haven’t seen so much as a crooked game of cards. A bit of a shame. Doesn’t give me a whole lot to gossip about, but it’s better than having to fix the place up after a riot.”

“Well, if anything catches your attention, you let me know,” Applejack told him after downingthe rest of her cider. “I’ll be back.”

Getting up to leave, Applejack suddenly stopped when a musical tune caught her attention as well as that of everyone else in the tavern from sounding so out of place. It was very smooth and light like that of a gentle breeze. It seemed to relax everypony there, just leaving them silent as they listened. Even the stallion hoofwrestling paused to enjoy it. His opponent noticed this and attempted to beat him while he was distracted, but couldn’t even get him to budge even a little.

“Well, that certainly does,” the bartender told her. “Never heard a sound quite like that before. Seems to be coming from above.”

“I’ll go take a look,” offered Applejack already hurrying up the stairs to investigate. The music did indeed get louder, but as she checked the hall and all the rooms she still couldn’t find the source. “It’s definitely louder up here, but where is it?” She moved to the room the sound was the loudest in and kept following it best she could, but searching in furniture, the closet, and even under the rug there was nothing. “I don’t get it. By now I should see what’s making that sound. I’m pretty much on top of it now.” She listened to it even more intently and her head turned to the ceiling. “Or maybe I’m right under it.”

Peeking her head out the window, she could hear it even clearer, directly above, on the roof. “There you are,” she smiled and hurried back down the stairs to the main floor of the tavern.

“Did you find out what’s making that noise?” asked the bartender.

“I’m about to,” she answered hurrying outside.

“When you do could you tell me?” he requested. “I need a something interesting to gossip about.”

Outside there were other ponies who were just as curious about the music that was playing and had gathered around the building. Circling around to the back of the tavern, Applejack found a ladder leading to the roof and started to climb it. At the top she finally got to lay eyes upon what was causing it and to her surprise, it was the fiery-headed pony that Cherry Jubilee had hired. In his hooves he had a flute that he was playing while he stared up at the sky. As Applejack came into view his playing suddenly went off key before the music came to a complete stop.

“Uh… hi,” he replied a bit nervously. “You were at the farm with Ms. Jubilee, right?”

“Yeah,” nodded Applejack. “Oh, that reminds me. Ms. Jubilee wanted me to tell you not to worry about hurrying back to the farm.”

“She said what?” he asked sitting up looking paler yellow.

“That you can take the whole day off,” she confirmed. “So you can just keep doing what you were and might I add that was some of the nicest flute playing that I ever did hear.”

“This is terrible,” he cried getting up and making his way down the later. “I need to hurry back to the farm right away.”

“But I just told you that you didn’t have to go back right now,” Applejack reminded him. “You were given the day off.”

“But she wouldn’t just tell me to take a lunch break and then just decide to give me the rest of the day off for no reason. She’s not satisfied with my work. She wants somepony better. She probably has found somepony better. They’re probably doing my work while I’ve just been lazing about.”

“What are you going on about?” cried Applejack hurrying down the ladder after him. “You aren’t making a lick of sense.”

“I have to get back to the farm and work twice as hard,” he answered back dashing off. “No! At least three times as hard! Oh, I can’t lose this job.”

“You aren’t losing anything,” argued Applejack grabbing a lasso and roping him to keep him in place. Reeling him in, Applejack managed to finally get close enough to him to talk. “Nopony is coming in to replace you. Ms. Jubilee just wanted you to take the day off on account of how hard you’ve been working. Now I understand the value of hard work as well as anypony could, but I’ve never seen anypony become as panicked about it as you seem to be. How about you settle down a bit and tell me what’s gotten into you? Uh, but before that how about telling me your name since we haven’t been properly introduced yet. I’m Applejack.”

“Fire Wheel,” he answered. “Um, that’s my name. I’m from Manehatten and I guess that’s about it.”

“That’s something else I’ve been wondering about,” added Applejack. “Why would a city pony come all the way down here to work on a cherry farm? Not that there’s anything wrong with it, but what made you want to and apparently very badly?”

“Cause I’m a hard worker and I just love cherries,” he answered. “Cherries are the best. What could be a better job for me, right?”

“So you’re telling me that cherries are better than apples?” she questioned him with a stern look in her eyes. You wanna say that again?”

“Um, well, I guess cherries are kinda like apples but tinier,” he answered meekly and gave a timid laugh. “Uh, maybe cherries aren’t so great.”

“Hearing this I can assume either one of two things,” she concluded. “Either you’re a yellow belly…” Applejack paused noting the yellow hue to his coat. “Uh, in the figurative sense I mean for backing down so easily. The other option is that you aren’t interested in cherry farming at all. Between the two, I’d say you’re probably the later. Now, how about fessing up and no more lies cause honesty is kinda my thing.”

“Well, you see, the thing about that, is, uh, well,” Fire Wheel stuttered trying to think of something, anything to tell her, but the glare Applejack had as she waited for him to say something coherent was so focused it was like she was looking right through him. With a sigh, he finally admitted the truth. “No. I was never interested in cherry farming or any type of farming at all. I just came out here because I didn’t want my friends to worry.”

“Why would they worry?” she asked.

“Cause I’m a yellow belly figuratively as well as literally,” he confessed. “I can’t stand up for myself. That’s how I’ve been all my life. I’d go along with what anypony would say just to avoid a confrontation and work twice as hard as anypony else too. That was how it always was for me, till I met my friends and they gave me some confidence just by being there for me. But when Gale said she wanted to go to Los Pegasus and Rocky decided to head to Canterlot that just left me and April. We had a big party to wish them both luck, but I could tell that they were all worried that I’d lose all my confidence again if they all left. I didn’t want them leaving thinking that and I didn’t want April to feel like I was holding her back so I made my own announcement that I was going to pursue my own dream as well with my music.”

“Like what you were playing up on the roof,” recalled Applejack. “That did sound very nice.”

“Thanks,” he blushed. “I am actually really good at playing a number of instruments and record each part separate to combine them together. Some of my music is actually really good. During the party, I even gave a copy of one of the best pieces I recorded to my friends as my memento to them. I even was so bold to proclaim that my music will be so big that they’ll play it on the streets of every big city for all to enjoy. It wasn’t long after that that I ended up in Dodge Junction.”

“But from what I’ve heard you’ve been working almost nonstop at the cherry farm since you got here,” Applejack stated.

“It might take some time before my music can make it big,” he replied. “And I’ll need some bits to live on, after all.”

“But have you actually been trying at all or have you just been spending all your time working so you could avoid it?” Applejack pointed out. “You said before that you were good and I just heard you myself, so I know that’s true.”

“Like I said before,” he sighed. “I’m too afraid to play in front of anypony without my friends with me, but I don’t want them to worry believing that they have to always be there to give me confidence. So long as they think I’m doing well and I am not a burden to them then that’s all that matters to me.”

“Do you think your friends would be happy to see you like this?” Applejack argued. “You may have said all that because you didn’t want them to worry, but I’d bet every last apple on Sweet Apple Acres that they truly believe what you told them. They know you have talent with music. How would they feel knowing that you said all that stuff and didn’t even try to make good on it. If anything, I’d say that was the worst lie I’ve ever heard. You aren’t just lying to them. You’re lying to yourself as well.”

“What do you expect me to do then?” Fire Wheel asked her. “Why do you even care?”

“Cause it is my mission to do so and I think that’s the reason that I’m here,” Applejack explained. “But I can only do that if you’re willing to let me help. So, tell me, what do we have to do?”

“Well, first we have to go back to the cherry farm,” he told her getting a stern look from Applejack. “I’m serious. Everything I need is in my room over there.”

“Then lead the way,” Applejack smiled glad to finally be on the track of her friendship mission.

“You weren’t kidding about playing a lot of instruments,” commented Applejack looking at what he had. “You got your flute, a harp, heh even a triangle.”

“Eight in total,” he commented with a little laugh. “I’d record the different parts of the instruments separately and then I’d put them together so they all play together. I bet you’ve never seen one pony play eight instruments at once.”

“Uh, not eight,” admitted Applejack immediately thinking of Pinkie Pie. “But how were you expecting to have ponies listen to your music if you can’t play the music yourself?”

“Like I said, I have it all recorded,” he explained showing her a music cd. “I got the different musics I’ve made on these. I just put them in this boombox over here and it’ll play them.”

“So they’re even making records fancier nowadays,” said Applejack looking at the cd’s shiny side and seeing her reflection in it. “How about playing it so I can hear it?”

“Okay, if you insist,” he stuttered a little, but followed through in popping the cd into the boombox and was about to hit the ‘Play’ button, but stopped and quickly moved to the door and to see if anypony else was close enough to hear it. Once he was satisfied, he then closed the door and sat down to start the music.

Right away, the music started with the tune of the flute similar to what Fire Wheel had been playing earlier. The harp was soon added in along with some piano soon after. One by one, the instruments were added until all eight were playing together and added more energy to all the music as a whole.

“Wow, this really is incredible,” praised Applejack. “I can’t imagine anypony not enjoying listening to it.”

“You really think so?” he asked. “You aren’t just saying that to be nice?”

“I wouldn’t say anything if it wasn’t the honest to god truth,” she told him. “And if that still isn’t good enough then we’ll simply have to let as many ponies hear it till you finally do believe. And we can start right here with the cherry farm, tonight.”

“You want everypony here to listen?” Fire Wheel asked. “But I don’t even have anything set up. Just this one boombox. There’s no way I could get something big ready by tonight.”

“I don’t think that’ll be a problem,” Applejack assured him. “I think we can make due with what you have right here.”

Chapter 14

“Your home is amazing, Twilight,” said April in awe as she followed Twilight down the long corridor of the Castle of Friendship. “So you live in here with all your friends?”

“No, I just live here with my apprentice, Starlight and my assistant, Spike,” she answered.

“Spike, he’s your dragon friend, isn’t he?” asked April. “Is he here right now?”

“He’s out of town right now,” Twilight explained. “He left this morning and he won’t be back for a few days.”

“Oh, that’s too bad,” she sighed. “My friends and I always wanted to meet a dragon, but they’re much too scary to meet.”

“Well, I’m sure the next time you’re in town you’ll be able to meet Spike,” Twilight assured her. “Actually, Spike is over with the dragons right now on official friendship ambassador business. We’re hoping one day ponies and dragons will be able to be friends.”

“Wow you and your friends sound amazing,” stated April. “I can only imagine all the things you must have done together.”

“Well, I can’t say that all of it was as glamorous as it might sound,” admitted Twilight. “But it always made us closer than ever before and I know I’d never trade my friends for anything in the world. In fact, I wouldn’t be the pony I am today if it weren’t for them. They’re a part of me, just like your friends are a part of you too.”

“I just wish those parts weren’t scattered all over Equestria right now,” sobbed April. “No! I am happy they are all out there doing what they want to do. I am a supportive and good friend to them.”

“It is okay to miss them,” Twilight said comforting her. “Here, let me show you something.” Twilight led April into her throne room and showed her the table with the map of Equestria on it, her and her friends’ Cutie Marks still hovering over their respective destinations. “Equestria might be a vast land, but there’s no need for you to worry. No amount of time or distance can keep you from your friends for long. I’m sure you’ll all be reunited soon. Actually, before I came to Ponyville and learned about friendship, I was kinda a ‘bad friend’ myself. I rushed over here without even realizing I had left the friends I had behind. Most of them were okay with it knowing that was just the type of pony I was, but one of my friends, Moondancer had been really hurt that I just left when she had planned to throw a party. It wasn’t until much later that I realized my mistake and tried to make amends, but it was starting to look like my mistake was one that I couldn’t fix. I didn’t realize how close I was to closing Moondancer off from ever making friends with anypony else ever again due to my actions. That was probably one of the worst moments of my life seeing the pain I had caused her, but I didn’t give up and in the end we managed to become friends again. Now I make sure to stop by and visit whenever I’m in Canterlot.”

“That was a really sweet story!” sobbed April blubbering all over the map. “So sad, but such a happy ending! Do you have anymore stories you can tell me?”

“Um, maybe some other time,” replied Twilight seeing half of Equestria was already covered in tears. “Uh, how about you tell me a bit about your friends.”

“O-okay,” she sniffled managing to stop the waterworks. “Well, I do have a few good stories I can tell. Like how we first met and became friends. I mean, I think we knew about one another before, but we didn’t actually become friends till quite some time later when we all did something incredibly stupid and childish.”

“What did you all do?” asked Twilight.

“We all ran away,” she admitted. “Before we became friends we all had our troubles to deal on our own. I guess it finally reached a point we thought it was better just to run away from it all so we just hopped on the first train we could get on and rode it as far away as we could. At the time, we didn’t even realize we all had the same thing in mind even when we all got off at Appleloosa. From there we continued further sound till we reached the Macintosh Hills and ended up running into one another. You can imagine the surprise on all our faces when after coming so far to get away from Manehatten we all ended up in the same place. And then…”

“And then what happened?” asked Twilight curiously.

“Actually, I can’t tell you exactly what happened,” admitted April. “We all agreed to keep that a secret between ourselves. But what I can say is that after the sun went down we were all friends and all agreed to go back home to Manehatten together. When we had each other things were much better. We even worked together to put on a show. Gale was the performer with her amazing acrobatics, Rocky sold snacks, Fire Wheel provided music, and I worked on costumes. It was something we could have never done individually and that we could do it together made it all the more special for us. I thought days like that would have never ended, but I suppose nothing good lasts forever.”

“The show might be over, but it doesn’t mean your friendship is,” promised Twilight. “You’ll see. It’ll all work out in the end. Now how about we go into the kitchen and get something ready for dinner.”

Chapter 15

“You’ve had that gloomy look on your face for a while now,” Flash Magnus said to Rainbow Dash as she found a secluded place away from the crowds of Los Pegasus. “What happened back there?”

“Remember how I wanted to ask you something before?” Rainbow Dash told him. “About being in the Royal Legion. I think now would be as good a time as any to ask. Have you ever had to make a difficult decision because you were a part of it?”

“Pretty much every time I’d go out on a mission,” he admitted. “Like the time a couple of dragons had captures some of my fellow legionnaires and I had to decide to abandon them or risk my own life to save them.”

“Yeah, every pegasus in Cloudsdale knows that story, but that’s not what I mean,” she explained. “I mean a decision where you’d have to decide between following your dream or staying close to your friends.”

“Oh, a decision like that,” Flash replied. “Yeah, to be a part of the Royal Legion, I had to make choices like that all the time. I wanted to be recognized for my hard work so I poured as much of my time and energy into it as I could. My superiors took notice and it helped me rise in the ranks.”

“And in the end, that was the right thing to do?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“I don’t know,” he admitted with a sad sigh. “I achieved a lot in the Royal Legion, but at the same time I missed out on tons of things my friends had been doing. I missed out on birthdays and parties quite a lot, but despite that they always supported me and came out to watch me fly off every time I had to go out on a mission. Because of that I truly believed I had made the correct decision. However…”

“However?” repeated Rainbow Dash seeing a bit of gloom in Flash Magnus’s eyes now.

“Now that I’m a thousand years in the future I can’t help but think about why I didn’t spend more time with my friends when I had the chance. I won’t regret the decisions I made because I followed my gut. Deep down I knew that this was the path that I had to follow. It is something I had to do and I’m guessing the same is true now for you as well.”

“Spitfire is telling me I should move back to Cloudsdale,” explained Rainbow Dash. “She believes that it’ll help me improve my standings there if I am around to expose myself more to the top brass. She thinks I could even become a captain like her. It all sounds really great, but not if it means leaving Ponyville and my friends there. I just don’t know what to do, but maybe I should just leave to go back to Cloudsdale. It seems to have worked just fine for you and Gale.”

“Maybe, but ultimately it up to you and what you want to do that matters,” he stated. “After that, you’ll have to deal with the consequences of your choice.”

“Knowing that doesn’t make it any easier,” she sighed.

“Then perhaps we should change the subject for now,” he suggested. “Have you thought about what we’re gonna do for a place to spend the night?”

“A place to stay?” she asked looking up at him a bit less depressed.

“You still haven’t found your friendship problem and it is getting late. Have you thought what you were going to do for a place to sleep?”

“Oh, crud is it that late already?” she groaned. “I had hoped I’d be home by now. I didn’t exactly bring a ton of bits with me.”

“Maybe those two guys could help us out,” he told her. “What were their names again? Flim and Flam?”

“No way,” Rainbow Dash countered. “Not even if they are going legit. The last thing I want is to end up indebted to them. What about you? You’ve been going around Equestria for a while now haven’t you? What have you been doing?”

“I’ve just been finding a quiet place and sleeping under the stars,” he admitted. “Unfortunately, this place doesn’t look like it’ll be possible to do that. It’s too noisy to find any place that’s quiet and it’s much too bright to see any stars. There’s hardly any space to lay down without getting stepped on by somepony.”

“This place is pretty much always awake from what I’ve heard,” stated Rainbow Dash. “There has to be something we can do.”

“Come one! Come all!” announced a voice not too far away that caught Rainbow Dash’s attention. Quickly she followed the voice to the source with Flash Magnus hurrying behind her. “Step right up to see the most amazing feats of mesmerizing magic that ever! Witness wonders beyond compare that can only be brought to you by a magician of unparalleled might and showmanship. The show of a lifetime is about to begin so hurry up to come see me-”

“What’s going on?” he asked. “Somepony you know?”

“There’s only one pony I know who can be so boastful like that and not be me,” answered Rainbow Dash as they approached a wagon with a built-in stage. On it stood a blue unicorn dressed in a purple cape and wizard’s hard.

“The Great and Powerful Trixie!” she announced with miniature fireworks going off on the stage to add to her announcement. However, the only ponies that had actually gathered around to see her were Rainbow Dash and Flash Magnus.

“Trixie, I was right, you are here,” Rainbow Dash called out.

“Oh, hello, Rainbow Dash,” she replied. “Come to see the show with all my other adoring fans?”

“Uh, there isn’t anypony else here, you know,” she pointed out.

“Don’t remind me,” she scoffed. “Seems a great and powerful stage magician like myself is hardly able to compete with the acts they have around here.”

“Not arguing with you there,” replied Rainbow Dash. “But do you think that you could let us spend the night with you?”

“I take it that means you’re desperate,” she assumed with a bit of delight in her voice. “I suppose I could offer you a simple exchange of services. After all, if I help you then you should have no trouble giving me a helping hoof with my show, both of you.”

“What would you have us do?” asked Flash Magnus.

“Well, having a great and powerful assistant on stage would be a big help and having a willing volunteer to perform a few tricks on would be a big help as well. So, do you two think you could do that for me?”

“So you want me to give you a hoof with your show while you, what, saw Flash over here in half or something like that?”

“Uh, you will be able to put me back together afterwards, right?” asked a worried Flash.

“Something like that,” she grinned.

Chapter 16

“Friendship problem!” announced Pinkie Pie as she scoured every inch of Canterlot for exactly who she was supposed to help. Cheese Sandwich followed her every step of the way, worried as she only grew more frazzled as she looked. “Anyone have a friendship problem?” A random pony crossed their path minding his own business when Pinkie Pie just ran up to him and asked him outright, “Hey! Do you have a friendship problem.”

“Uwah!” he jumped back in fright and ran off.

“Uh, Pinkie,” he tried to say in a calm voice. “Perhaps it’s about time we took a break and got some rest.”

“We can’t rest yet,” she told him as one of her eyes twitched a little. “We must be getting close. We’ve already asked Fancy Pants, Celestia, Prince Blueblood, Donut Joe, Luna, Moon Dancer, Minuette, every palace guard, and twenty seven random ponies we passed by and none of them had any friendship problems. That only leaves-”

“The rest of Canterlot,” he pointed out. “And it feels like we’re further from whatever friendship problem you were supposed to solve than when we began. Maybe it’d be best to just call it a night and get some sleep.”

“I guess you’re right,” she yawned a little, weariness overcoming craziness. “It has been a busy day and I’m feeling as party pooped as I’ve ever felt.”

“Then just give me a second to set us up,” he told her taking out a little box. “Hmm, I think we should have enough room to set up over here.”

“Set up?” she asked as she watched him hit a button on the box and tossed it. As he did, the box opened up and the contents inside started to inflate at a rapid rate. In little over a minute, it had reached its full size and a two story building was now in front of them.”

“Is that a bounce house?” asked Pinkie Pie poking it with a hoof and saw that it was indeed one big balloon.

“It certainly is,” he answered opening the door and going inside. “Come on in and I’ll show you around.” Stepping inside, Pinkie was immediately in awe as she saw that it was decorated just like a real home with tables, chairs, and furniture of all kinds. It even had stairs to go up to the second floor. “It’s a two bedroom, one bath and perfect for the super duper party pony on the go. “So, what do you think?”

“Best house ever!” cheered Pinkie bouncing for joy.

“Maybe this is the answer to your bakery problem,” joked Cheese. “Instead of buying one that’s already there you could just make a bounce house bakery. Of course, it might be difficult to bake while bouncing.”

“Yeah, it probably would,” replied Pinkie not sounding very enthusiastic.

“Uh, it was a joking,” he told her expecting her to laugh. “Are you feeling alright, Pinkie? You were so excited about helping to open a bakery, but now you don’t seem very enthusiastic at all. Is it because of how expensive it was going to be? I know it seems like a lot, but I’m sure you’ll be able to handle it.”

“It’s not that,” sighed Pinkie. “It was what Rocky said about being able to move on and work as a chef even if his friends aren’t with him. It just got me thinking.”

“About your friends?” Cheese Sandwich assumed.

“I was so excited about being able to open a bakery I was even thinking about opening tons all over Equestria,” she explained. “But it didn’t occur to me till now that I’d be away from Ponyville for Celestia knows how long if I did. And it wouldn’t just be Twilight, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Fluttershy I’d not see, but everyone else in Ponyville too. I’ve made so many parties there and have so many more parties planned I’d end up missing so much if I was away. Now I’m starting to think that I don’t want to do that at all. You think the Cakes will be upset with me if I told them I changed my mind?”

“Being that I don’t know them and you do,” he reminded her. “I’m sure you already know the answer to that.”

“They wouldn’t be upset,” replied Pinkie with a slight smile now on her face. “They are practically like my family. Oh, and remembering that makes me want to help them open up another bakery. Now I’m back where I started again! There’s no way out!”

“You’re putting too much pressure on yourself,” Cheese calmed her. “If you aren’t ready for it now, then you should just put it out of your mind and get some rest. Don’t forget the main reason you came to Canterlot in the first place.”

“To find… a friendship problem,” she answered managing to calm down enough and realize how tired she was feeling after a long and busy day. She let out a big yawn and rubbed her eyes.

“Then tomorrow, just focus on that,” he instructed. “You may not have figured it out today, but I’m sure you’ll have it figured out by then.” Pinkie didn’t answer. Fatigue had finally caught up with her and she ended falling asleep atop the bouncy table. Cheese Sandwich carefully picked Pinkie up and carried her up to one of the bedrooms and put her down on the bed. He then retreated to the other bedroom to get some rest himself.

Chapter 17

“Are you really sure we need to do this?” Fire Wheel questioned Applejack as he carried his boombox down into the dining hall. “I mean it wouldn’t be right to just play some of my music for everypony while they’re eating. I wouldn’t want to disturb them.”

“It won’t bother them none,” assured Applejack. “Rarity always says how good music can help make any meal even better. Now I don’t often agree with a lot of the froufrou things she goes on about, but I don’t think I’ve tasted a more delicious apple fritter that wasn’t accompanied by a nice tune and maybe some catchy lyrics too.”

“Still, maybe we should ask Ms. Jubilee if it’d be alright first,” he pointed out.

“I intend to right now,” Applejack retorted. “Now enough with the excuses. Sometimes you just gotta take the bull by the horns and just hope for the best. Plus, I wouldn’t even think to do this if it this wasn’t a good idea and that’s the honest truth.”

“Isn’t that more of an opinion rather than the truth till we actually go through with it?” he told her only to get another look. “Right… no more excuses.”

“Ms. Jubilee,” Applejack called as she entered the kitchen that was filled with the aroma of cherries being baked into pies among many other tasty treats for the fast approaching meal. “You got a minute?”

“Why hello, Applejack. I just need to put these cherry pies in the oven,” she replied holding them by the pie tins and carefully slipping them in the hot stove. “Now you’ve got my ear. Anything I can do for you?”

“Not for me, but there’s something you can do for Fire Wheel over here,” she answered.

“Good to see you too, Fire Wheel,” she greeted. “I hope you were able to relax on your day off.”

“Sure,” he told her trembling a bit nervously. “I feel totally relaxed now.”

“Well, you seem a might anxious,” Jubilee pointed out. “Is something the matter?”

“N-no,” he started to say, but quickly amended himself before Applejack could give him the evil eye again. “Actually, I wanted to request something of you. When we’re all having dinner I wanted to try and play some of the music I recorded. I was hoping to see if you’d all tell me what you thought of it, if you’d be willing to listen.”

“Is that so,” smiled Jubilee. “I’ve been wondering when I’d get to hear some music from you. I saw you bring all those instruments up to your room when you first came in and I haven’t heard you play any of them once yet.”

“I’m sure he wanted to prove to you what a hard worker he was before asking so you’d understand how hard he must have worked on his music too,” suggested Applejack.

“I guess that’s one way you can look at it,” he nodded attempting to manage a smile despite the butterflies in his stomach.

“Well, I’d love a preview of it, but I’m sure you want me to wait till dinner like everyone else,” she assumed. “How about setting the table up in the dining hall for me while you get the music ready too? Then when everyone comes in we can all hear it together.”

“Sounds like a fine idea to me,” agreed Applejack heading for the dining hall with Fire Wheel following right behind her. “Now that wasn’t nearly the nightmare you probably were thinking it’d be.”

“Equestria didn’t explode from asking her so at the very least my worse case scenario didn’t happen,” he admitted with a light chuckle.

“That’s because you proved to her what a hard worker you are,” Applejack stated. “And more than that, she’s your friend. If you need her support she’ll gladly offer it to you just like I’m doing now.”

“I actually do feel a little more confident doing this now,” he breathed much more calmly. “I think I can actually go through with this after all.”

“That’s the spirit,” smiled Applejack.

“But I can’t help worry that something bad might come of this,” he shuddered.

“I promise you,” guaranteed Applejack. “Nothing but good will come of this.”

A couple hours later, the long table in the dining hall was neatly set with plates, cups, napkins, forks, and spoons on over a dozen seats, Applejack and Braeburn included. Applejack and Fire Wheel were already at their seats waiting and soon they heard the ringing of the dinner belly calling for all the workers to gather over there to eat.

“Oh,” whimpered Fire Wheel nervously fiddling with his boombox, opening and closing the lid on top and turning the volume up and down on it.

“It’ll be alright,” Applejack told him confidently. “All you have to do is press one little button and your music will do the rest.”

“I know,” he replied with a nervous chuckle as he eyed the “Play” button. “And if I get cold hooves I have you here to help me out.”

“Sorry, but I’ve done all I can for you,” she informed him. “I can give you all the encouragement I can to go forward, but the only one who can take that step is you. But like I’ve said before, you’ve got nothing to worry about.”

“Hey, cuz,” greeted Braeburn as he took a seat beside Applejack. “I wasn’t sure if you’d still be here. Any luck finding your friendship problem?”

“I think I’m just on the verge of solving it,” she replied as all the cherry farmers entered into the dining hall. Some came in through the kitchen helping Cherry Jubilee bring in the meal. Before long, the entire table was completely covered and the air was fill the scent of cherries.

“Are you all set?” Jubilee asked Fire Wheel as everypony started to help themselves to some of the food and then pass it around to the pony next to them.

“A-Almost,” he nodded double checking the cd was still inside the boombox and then adjusting the volume from the lowest setting. “Just need another moment or two.”

Before long, everypony had their plates filled and were eating. The only exception was Fire Wheel who was still hesitating. “Is something wrong?” asked Jubilee seeing the music still wasn’t playing and he hadn’t even touched his meal yet.

“E-Everything is f-fine,” he answered. “Just about ready.” He looked towards Applejack, hoping for once she’d give him another look, but she was instead conversing with Braeburn and not even looking his way.

“Mmm, you know, these must be the best cherries I’ve ever had,” admitted Braeburn. “Might actually give our apple pie a run for its money.”

“Now I hope you aren’t thinking about jumping ship on us, Braeburn,” Applejack replied. “Cause there ain’t no way cherries could beat apples in any kind of baking contest.”

“You’ve got something against cherries?” one of the workers asked overhearing their conversation.

“I don’t,” Applejack admitted. “They just aren’t as good as apples and that’s my honest truth.”

“Just because you honestly believe apples are better than cherries doesn’t make it a true fact,” he pointed out.

“If you’d pardon the pun,” joked Braeburn. “Applejack is an apple down to her core. You could argue with her from sunup to sundown and I doubt you’d get her to budge an inch when it comes to how she feels about apples.”

“Now I’m not that stubborn,” she protested. “And I’m not saying that the cherry pie isn’t good. In fact, I’d say I like it just as much as the next pony.”

“Then how do you feel about strawberries?” asked Braeburn.

“Now you’re sticking your hoof in the rattler nest again,” she warned Braeburn.

“Don’t remind me of that,” he shuddered before they all started laughing.

“Guess she really isn’t going to help me anymore,” realized Fire Wheel. He placed a hoof on the button and slowly pressed down on it, starting the cd inside and the music began to play. “Here goes nothing. Gale, Rocky, April… wish me luck.”

Nopony seemed to notice the music at first, but as the music continued to play the conversations around the dinner table quieted one by one till the only noise that could be heard came from the boombox. Fire Wheel looked around the table nervously attempting to gauge everypony’s reactions. Applejack smiled and took another piece of cherry pie. “Mmm, music certainly does make a meal taste better,” she commented.

“Better than apple?” questioned Braeburn.

“Hush up you,” she countered.

“That sounds mighty nice,” one of the workers across the table commented after listening for a minute.

“It certainly is,” agreed Jubilee. “And you really made it all by yourself, Fire Wheel?”

“Uh, y-yeah, I did,” he answered. “I’ve always like making music like this.”

“It’s really nice,” she told him. “And it really was worth the wait to hear.”

“Thanks,” he blushed his face turning red as his hair.

Everyone continued to listen to the music and eat for a few minutes till the music finally came to an end and the room became silent again. “Play it again!” another of the workers insisted.

“Yeah, that was great,” another agreed.

“How about another one?” suggested Applejack. “I saw you had a whole bunch more of those cd things up in your room.”

“Well, I suppose, I could, if you all want to hear more,” he offered.

“Yeah!” they agreed raising their cups excitedly.

Quickly hurrying up to his room, Fire Wheel returned to the dining hall carrying a dozen more cds in his arms. The look on his face was quite different now. Rather than sweating nervously at the thought of letting them hear his music it was now one of eagerness to do just that. “I think you’ll all like this one a lot,” he suggested holding on of the cds up. “And this one, oh, and maybe this one too.”

“Stop showing us and just start playing them already,” one of the cherry farmers told him getting a hearty laugh from the others. “If they are half as good as the other one then I’m sure we’ll enjoy them all.”

“R-right,” he answered switching out the cd in the boombox with a new one. It took no effort for him to hit the play button this time and when music began to play it started right off with quite loud with some cymbals crashing together making everyone jump up a little in fright. After that the music continued, this one having a much quicker, more energetic beat compared to the previous one. It even had everypony there eating along in rhythm with it even if they didn’t realize it themselves. When this song came to an end, Fire Wheel was already set with the next one not even needing any further encouragement now.

“Just needed a small push and now he’s just as excited to play his music as everyone is to listen to it,” noted Applejack feeling proud to have helped him out.

“You should feel proud of yourself,” Jubilee congratulated Fire Wheel. “I can only imagine how much effort it took you to make all this music.”

“I can’t even begin to imagine it myself,” he admitted. “Just working on how each instrument should be played is tricky enough, but to have to record them all one at a time and put them together can take days if not weeks. I might have at least two years of my life contained in these shiny, little discs.”

“That certainly is a lot of time and effort,” she agreed. “And if there is one thing I enjoy doing is rewarding a hard worker. And I think I know just the thing for you.”

“What is it?” he wondered sounding like a colt eyeing his wrapped presents on the night before Hearth’s Warming.

“Not here,” she told him. “But if you’ll stick around till I take care of the dishes then I’ll be able to tell you.”

“That’s fine,” he nodded even more intrigued now. “I can wait.”

When the dinner finally came to an end and most of the workers retreated to their rooms to rest up till tomorrow, Applejack assisted Jubilee with the dishes, as did Fire Wheel who was trembling with excitement for whatever she wanted to give him.

“Oh, I just can’t wait any longer,” he told her. “Can you give it to me now?”

“I think we’re just about done,” she replied as she handed Applejack the final pie tin to dry and put away in the cupboard. “There. Now I can give it to you, but please try to understand, this gift is probably not what you are expecting.”

“Uh, ok,” he replied scratching his head. “What is it?”

“I’m letting you go,” she answered very simply.

“Letting me go?” he asked. “What does that mean?”

“I am firing you,” she stated more bluntly. “As of right now you no longer work on this cherry farm.”

“Wh-what?” he asked still not believing it. “But why? For what reason?”

“You do not belong on a cherry farm,” she told him. “Or any farm at all. You have a musical talent and that’s what you should be focusing on. I don’t want to see you spinning your wheels here when your time could be better spent on what you are truly passionate on.”

“S-so then I’m just losing everyone all over again,” he sniffled. “I really did like everyone here and now you’re just telling me to leave.”

“That is not what she is saying at all,” argued Applejack. “She’s only doing this for your own good.”

“Just like you were doing,” he snapped at Applejack as tears ran down his eyes. “None of this would have happened if you hadn’t gotten involved.”

“But we both did this for you,” Applejack reminded him. “You will be much better off this way.”

“I- I know that,” he sniffled. “And I’m really glad for it that you both care enough to do this for me even if we’ve only just met.”

“You are?” asked Applejack feeling confused. “Then why are you blubbering and yelling at us like that?”

“Cause it’s all so bittersweet,” he answered. “Happy to follow your dream, but to leave your friends behind at the same time. This is already the second time I have to do this, but I think that this time I’m really ready for it.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” smiled Jubilee. “And as long as you are gonna be at Dodge Junction, I insist you stay here till you’re ready to take your music elsewhere.”

“Thank you,” he smiled looking ready to cry for joy this time. “Thank you both for everything you’ve done for me.” Grabbing his boombox and all his music cds, he took his leave of Applejack and Jubilee.

“You’ve really outdone yourself,” complemented Jubilee. “You really helped Fire Wheel out.”

“It was nothing really,” Applejack admitted. “That was the whole reason I was sent here in the first place. But now it should be over… though my Cutie Mark hasn’t started flashing. That’s what happens once the mission is complete, but it didn’t happen this time.”

“Are you sure Fire Wheel was who you were supposed to help?” she asked.

“No, I ended up here to help him,” Applejack replied confidently. “That much I’m certain, but I wasn’t the only one who was sent on a friendship mission. A few of my other friends are out there dealing with friendship problems too so maybe mine won’t be done till they finish theirs as well. In which case, I should stick around here, at least, a little longer.”

“Then it’s a good thing that I already have a room ready for you,” Jubilee reminded her.

“Thanks for that,” Applejack told her. “Hopefully by tomorrow this friendship mission will be fully complete.”

Chapter 18

“Something sure smells good in here,” commented Starlight Glimmer as she entered into the kitchen. Looking around, she saw it was quite a mess with flour, milk, and batter all over the island table and the floor around it. Twilight had on an apron, but while it did help keep most of the mess off of her, the apron itself ended up getting covered with spilt batter. April also had an apron on and removed her coat to prevent it getting messy too. It also revealed the Cutie Mark on her flank, three stars, colored green, blue, and orange.

“Oh, hey, Starlight,” greeted Twilight pulling out a tray of muffins from the oven with magic and removing the muffins to place them on a cooling rack with the other batches she had already made. “You’re just in time. I’ve made some sweet potato muffins.”

“And they’re really good,” commented April before taking a bite into one.

“Oh, you have a dinner guest,” assumed Starlight. “Hello there, I’m Starlight Glimmer.”

“Pleased to meet you. I’m April Showers,” she replied. “But you can just call me April and, actually, I came here cause I needed some friendship advice.”

“Well, if anyone can help you, it’s Twilight,” Starlight assured her. “So, what’s the problem?”

“My friends in Manehatten moved away,” she explained. “They went to follow their dreams and while I do wish them the best, I can’t help but feel…”

“Hurt? Betrayed? Lonely?” Starlight finished her sentence with multiple options.

“Mostly lonely,” she agreed. “Also a bit sad too, mostly because I have no idea what I should do.”

“Did she happen to mention that I went through something like this with my friend, Sunburst, when we were just kids?” questioned Starlight.

“Actually, I never even brought it up,” Twilight told her.

“Oh,” responded Starlight looking a bit embarrassed.

“Well, what did you do after your friend left?” asked April curiously.

“I’d rather not go over the details,” Starlight explained. “But let me just say that I made some choices that I’m not proud of and wouldn’t recommend you doing either. But, thanks to Twilight, I was able to make amends with him and have been much happier because of it.”

“I’m glad things were able to work out for you and your friend,” April told her. “I just want my friends to be able to remain close even if we’re so far apart. Twilight, have you had any friends that left you behind too?”

“I don’t really think ‘left behind’ is really the best way to phrase it,” commented Twilight. “But remember that I told you about what happened with my friend, Moon Dancer?”

“But when that happened you were the one who left,” pointed out April. “What about a time when somepony left you?”

“Uh, let me think…” pondered Twilight. “Somepony leaving me… well, when Starlight graduated I decided to let her choose what she wanted to do and where she wanted to go.”

“And I chose not to leave yet,” she reminded Twilight.

“Then I suppose I haven’t had that happen to me,” admitted Twilight.

“Yet, anyway,” added Starlight. “Everypony at some point in their life has to deal with that feeling of loss. It could be that some day I finally decide to go somewhere else or maybe one of your other friends. Maybe even Spike might make that decision too.”

“I am well aware that might happen someday,” replied Twilight trying to keep her composure. “I know it won’t be easy, but just because they might not be here in Ponyville does not mean they’re gone forever.”

“They might not be gone forever, but it is not as easy to accept as you might think,” explained Starlight. “Do you think I took up a vendetta against Cutie Marks and created a village with the philosophy of removing them if Sunburst leaving me was not the most soul-shattering, heart-crushing moment in my life that was even enough to make me wipe out all life in Equestria as we know it?!?”

“Um…” interrupted April looking quite worried about everything she just heard.

“Heheh,” Starlight gave a nervous laugh. “That was… more poor choices on my part and the whole wiping out all life was an unintended consequence. But I think I made my point.” There was a long, awkward silence. “Um, do you think we could please change the subject now?”

Coming to her aid, Twilight spoke up. “Well, the sweet potato muffins should be about ready. So, how about we go sit down and eat.”

“Great idea,” agreed Starlight using magic to lift the muffins and some plates over to the map room. “And I’ll just whip us up some tea to go with them.” Filling the teapot with some water from the sink, she then put some tea leaves into a strainer and placed it in the pot as well. Next she put it on the stove to heat up. “Alright, now we just need some teacups.” Opening the cabinets, she went in search of some. “Teacups… teacups… where are all the teacups?”

“They’re in the teacup closet,” reminded Twilight.

“Oh, right,” replied Starlight rolling her eyes as she walked over to a closet and opened it to reveal it was overflowing with teacups. “I don’t regret teaching Trixie that spell, but I wish she’d refrain from doing it every time she performs or at least try something other than teacups.”

Gathering three from the closet, Starlight waited for the tea to whistle and then carried the pot over to pour some tea for herself, Twilight, and April. The three then sat down and enjoyed their meal together.

“Mmm, I still can’t believe how good these are,” commented April already on her fifth one.

“Thanks,” smiled Twilight beaming with pride. “I’d say they are my specialty. I may not be able to hold a candle to baking compared to Pinkie Pie or Applejack, but I still do alright.”

“Speaking of those two and Rainbow Dash,” commented Starlight. “I see they are all on friendship missions right now and you are too.”

“Yeah, April is who I’m helping here and I’m positive that the others are well on their way to helping her friends too.”

“So you’re all doing one friendship mission spread across Equestria?” she asked. “How are you all managing to keep in touch?” Starlight thought for a moment then added, “Please don’t tell me you did that thing with a music box ballerina again.”

“No, none of us have been in contact since they left,” answered Twilight. “I haven’t even tried to teleport over to them either.”

“But then how will you all be able to solve the problem if you aren’t all working together?” questioned Starlight. “Do they even know that you are all working on the same friendship mission?”

“I’m confident that they’re all doing fine,” stated Twilight. “And by tomorrow we’ll all be back in Ponyville.”

“You wanna make a bet about that?” suggested Starlight.

“A bet on what?” asked Twilight.

“That you’ll all have this friendship problem finished by the end of tomorrow,” she explained. “If you win I’ll help you re-reorganize the downstairs library.”

“Oh, you must be confident that we can’t do it,” smirked Twilight. “Very well and I’ll even go so far as to say that we’ll have it solved by sundown.”

“Sundown?” repeated April looking around for a window.

“Then we have a deal,” grinned Starlight. “And if I win then you can be Trixie’s ‘volunteer’ and help her perform all her shows in Ponyville for the next month.”

“It’s a deal,” agreed Twilight and they hoofshook on it.

“Uh, speaking of sundown,” April said nervously. “It wouldn’t happen to be sundown now, would it?”

“The sun was starting to set when I first arrived here,” commented Starlight. “I’d say that Celestia should almost be finished lowering it.”

“Oh, I gotta hurry then,” she cried. “I need to get as high up as possible, right away!”

“You do?” asked Twilight. “Why?”

“There’s no time to explain,” she begged. “Please, I can’t miss it!”

“I just need a second to teleport us,” Starlight told her and in a flash of light they were gone from the map room and found themselves atop Twilight’s castle.

Looking around, April was relieved to it was still light out. Gazing out towards the sun, she saw that it was only just starting to sink beyond the horizon and paint the sky with a golden orange. “Made it just in time,” she breathed with a relieved look on her face.

“You needed to see the sunset?” asked Starlight confused.

“It was what she and her friends saw together when they first became friends,” Twilight explained.

“Yeah, and since then we’d always climb up as high as we could to watch it together,” she added. “Even when we’re not together I try my best to make sure I don’t miss it and I hope they are doing the same.”

“If you mean as much to them as they mean to you then I’m sure they do as well,” smiled Twilight as she and Starlight sat beside her and continued to watch the setting sun as it slowly sank lower. They were all quiet and only the soft sound of the wind was heard. Reaching into her pockets, April pulled out some objects and looked down at them tearing up a bit. When the sun finally vanished from sight, the sky changed to a pitch black save for the shining moon and the stars dotting the sky.

“That was very nice,” commented Starlight breaking the silence.

“Yes it was,” sniffled April. “It brings back a lot of memories.”

“What’s that you got there?” asked Starlight noticing the stuff she had in her hooves. There was a popsicle stick, a cd, and a round, blue gemstone.

“Just some keepsakes,” she answered quietly. “We gave each other something to remind us of one another. This cd has some of the music that Fire Wheel used to play for us. Rocky gave us each a popsicle stick, and Gale gave us these gemstones she used to always wear on her necklace.”

“What did you give them?” asked Starlight.

“This coat I’m wearing,” she explained. “I made one for each of us after we became friends. I know this must sound dorky, but I always felt that it made us kind of like a secret organization. It makes me sad always having these with me to remind me that my friends are no longer with me, but at the same time they also make me happy and give me some comfort.”

“It just goes to show you just how wonderful the magic of friendship truly is,” stated Twilight.

“A bit cheesy, but I agree,” smiled Starlight. “I’m sure you’ll always be friends no matter where they go or wherever you go.”

“I go?” wondered April. “I never really gave much thought to what I wanted to do. But maybe now that I don’t feel as worried I’ll spend some time thinking about it.”

“That sounds like a great idea,” agreed Twilight. “Now I hate to bring this touching moment to an end, but we did end up leaving the kitchen in a bit of a mess and we should clean it up. Spike, would you mind lending me a hoof?”

“But Spike isn’t here,” Starlight reminded her. “He left earlier in the day, right?”

“Oh, right,” recalled Twilight facehoofing at her slip up. “Force of habit. Uh, Starlight, would you care to help then?”

“Sure thing,” she nodded and walked towards the stairs. “Uh, April, are you coming too?”

“I’ll be down in a little bit,” she replied gazing up at the stars. Starlight and Twilight smiled and then began to head down the stairs.

“I really should get back home and make sure I’ve got everything packed away,” Gale told April as she was pushing her up the stairs of the old clock tower in Manehatten. “I’m leaving for Los Pegasus tomorrow morning, after all.”

“All the more reason to come up here,” April insisted as they reached the top floor. “This might be your last chance in who knows how long till you’ll be able to sit with the rest of us and watch the sunset. You have to at least do it once more for us.”

“Gale looked at April’s pleading face that looked on the verge of tears. “You know I can’t say ‘no’ when you look at me with those sad eyes,” she admitted. “Ok. I’ll stay just to watch the sunset, but afterwards I really need to get back home and finish packing.”

Opening the door, Gale was caught off guard as she saw the dusty, old top floor of the clocktower had been swept clean and was now decorated with balloons and streamers. There was a table with a big cake on it, a cooler beside it filled with ice pops, and a bowl of punch on another table. Gale also saw a banner hung in perfect view of the door so she was able to clearly read, “Gale the Great Wingless Flyer” along with a crudely drawn picture she assumed was supposed to be of her flying. They even added in a rainbow trail behind her.

“Surprise!” announced Rocky and Fire Wheel as the two of them jumped out with party hats on and quickly started blowing into noise makers.

“Oh, you guys,” smiled Gale looking a bit embarrassed. “I thought I said that I didn’t want you all making a big fuss about it.”

“We didn’t,” answered Fire Wheel. “This is a small fuss. You never said anything about that.”

“And what kind of friends would we be if we didn’t give you a proper send off party?” added Rocky.

“We just wanted to wish you good luck,” sobbed April and she hugged Gale tight.

“I guess there’s no way that I can refuse now,” she admitted. “So let’s celebrate.”

“First up,” informed Rocky. “We’ll have some of my sea salt popsicles on the roof while we watch the sunset.”

“While listening to some of my music,” added Fire Wheel.

Making their way overtop the face of the clock, the three ponies and their zebra friend looked onward at the sunset. There was a calm look on each of their faces as they viewed the setting sun as Fire Wheel’s music helped set the mood. But rather than the calm smiles they used to wear while gazing at it, there was a noticeable amount of sadness in their eyes now too as much as they tried to mask it.

By the time the sunset was over, the music came to an end and the popsicles they had been licking was reduced to nothing by the sticks. “As much as I see the sunset I never get tired of it,” commented Fire Wheel.

“Yeah, I know what you mean,” agreed Rocky. “Gives me a warm fuzzy feeling inside… did I really just say that?”

“Relax,” chuckled Gale. “I think we all feel like that. It’s just so nostalgic, just like when we first met on Macintosh Hills. How we became friends and what we saw.”

“Then running all the way back home,” laughed Fire Wheel. “Oh, things sure are a lot funnier in hindsight aren’t they?”

“Well, we technically took the train back from Appleloosa,” corrected Rocky. “But we might have actually run it if we had to. How long has it been since then? Four years ago? Five?”

“Gonna be five before long,” commented April tears running down her cheeks. “Now it won’t be the same if Gale won’t be coming.”

“Actually,” interrupted Rocky. “After Gale told us that she wanted to try performing on stage in Los Pegasus… I was thinking of…”

“You too Rocky?” gasped April.

“Well, we don’t have much of a show if Gale isn’t here to perform,” he admitted. “So, I was thinking that maybe I could try my hand at being a chef. That’s why… I’m thinking of going off the Canterlot. So, sorry Gale if I’m stealing a bit of your farewell party.”

“Take all you want,” Gale told him. “You know how I hate it when you all make a big fuss over me. Heheh, even if it’s a small one.”

“Well, that’s really great you two,” Fire Wheel told them. “In fact, maybe this is a sign that I should make a change too.”

“You?” they all asked sounding quite shocked.

“You want to leave too?” questioned April.

“What?” he asked back. “I think I’ve grown a lot over the years. I’m not the same timid pony I was before. So you don’t have to worry cause the next time you hear me it’ll probably be some of my music cause it’s gonna be so popular they’ll be playing in the streets of every big city in Equestria for all to enjoy.”

“Sounds like you have gained quite a lot of bravado to make a statement like that,” admitted Rocky.

“And what about you, April?” wondered Gale. “Have you been thinking about what you want to do?”

“Me?” she responded tears flowing down her face. “Actually, I haven’t. When we planned this party I had no idea that all three of you would suddenly be going away.” She wiped her face dry and then smiled big. “But I’m so happy for all of you. So go out there and do your best. I won’t be far behind. I’ll figure out what I want to do.”

“You should go into making clothes or costumes or something like that,” suggested Rocky. “You made us those nice coats we wear when we go down to Macintosh Hills not to mention all of Gale’s outfits when she’d perform.”

“Maybe,” she answered continuing to give a big smile. “And I don’t think this needs to be said, but I want you all to keep the coats I made for you. You know, as a reminder of me.”

“That’s a good idea,” agreed Fire Wheel. “And since you like my music, I’ll give you all a copy of some of my best songs. Then you can have proof that you knew me before I became a big star.”

“Well, what am I gonna give you guys?” asked Rocky. “All I make is food and you can’t just hold onto that forever.”

“But you already gave us something,” Gale told Rocky as she held up a popsicle stick and then the others did the same.

“Seriously?” he asked. “You are giving away a coat and music, but expect me to give you all a little stick to remember me?” He smirked and started to laugh. “Wow, you really must be my friends if that’s enough of a gift to make you all happy.”

“And now for mine,” Gale stated as she held out four round gemstones. “One for each of you.”

“But these were a part of your favorite necklace,” remarked April.

“It’s something very precious to me,” she admitted. “But the same is true about all of you so I have no problems about you each having part of it. Blue for April, orange for Rocky, red for Fire Wheel, and green will stay with me.”

“Now I feel even cheaper for just having a popsicle stick to give you all,” joked Rocky getting the others laughing too. “Well, it’s getting a bit dark and we still have cake and punch to eat.”

“And then I really gotta get home and finish packing,” stated Gale.

“Hey, Gale,” Fire Wheel told her as they trailed behind the other two going inside. “I noticed that you weren’t wearing your necklace when you first arrived. Did you already know about our little party and have them ready to give to us?”

“Did you think I wouldn’t know my own friends this well after all these years?” she answered him.

“Dishes done and time for bed,” yawned Twilight as she entered into her room. She was about to head straight into bed, but stopped at her friendship mirror and took a look at all the pictures she had of her friends on it. She then stopped and looked at the picture of Spike posing valiantly with the Dragon Lord’s bloodstone scepter. “I wonder how Spike is doing. He’s usually fast asleep by now especially after a busy day.”

Walking over to bed, she tucked herself in and gave another big yawn. “He’s really come a long way since I first started to take care of him. He’s been my number one assistant for practically his whole life. He’s been more than just my friend, he’s a part of my family. He’s taken care of me just as much as I’ve taken care of him and he’s even helped to save Equestria. He’s a hero in the Crystal Empire and even the official friendship ambassador to the dragons. He’s done so many great things and really come into his own. He’s no baby dragon anymore. He’s more than capable of taking care of himself now.”

“You’ve never known what it feels like to have someone precious leave you,” Starlight’s words echoed in Twilight’s head.

She groaned feeling an ache in her hearts and tears well in her eyes. Twilight sat up in bed suddenly finding herself wide awake. Using her magic, she pulled a book from a nearby bookshelf. It had the title “Family Photos” written on it. Opening it up, she looked at the numerous pictures that were in it. The first few pictures in it showed of just her parents when they were younger and started dating. Twilight gave a little giggle as she saw a picture of her parents after bungee jumping. Twilight Velvet, her mother, looked eager to go again while her father looked ready to collapse. Twilight couldn’t help giggle at the look on his face.

Flipping further ahead, she saw the pictures of their wedding and further when her brother, Shining Armor was just a colt. There was a picture of him going out on Nightmare Night with his friends dressed as their Ogres and Oubliettes’ characters and then another of when he took Cadence to the school dance.

On another page there were pictures of Twilight, though in many of them she wasn’t looking at the camera and had a face in a book. Seeing these, Twilight couldn’t help turn a little red from blushing. “Am I really that much of a bookworm?” she asked herself.

Continuing on, she saw the picture of the day she first got her Cutie Mark and also the day she first met Spike. There were a few more pictures showing of when she first took care of him and the forced grins she made while the pictures were taken. “You were quite the handful back then,” Twilight admitted. “But looking back if I had just focused solely on my studies then I probably would have not be where I am now. I could have ended up becoming a different pony entirely if it wasn’t for you.”

With each page she flipped she could see how she and Spike grew up together in Canterlot till finally they reached the point that they first arrived in Ponyville. Twilight teared up seeing the photo they had taken of them standing in front of the Golden Oak Library. She saw some photos of their first Nightmare Night in Ponyville too and so many more memories came flooding back to her with every page she went through. Then finally she reached a page just past the middle of the book where the photos came to an end and every page after was completely blank.

“We’ve made so many memories together, but for how long?” she wondered. “I’ve never even considered what life would be without you.” The pain in her chest ached even more and she couldn’t stop the tears from running down her face. Twilight buried her head beneath her pillow to muffle her sobbing and continued to cry and soak her bed sheets. “Oh, Spike…” Her sobbing continued till she cried herself to sleep.

Chapter 19

“Never again!” snapped Rainbow Dash as she made her way into Trixie’s wagon. “I am never being a part of your magic act again, Trixie.”

“Don’t say that,” Trixie replied. “Did you see the size of the crowd we brought in.”

“It was all thanks to Rainbow Dash’s excellent acting,” commented Flash Magnus. “The way she was screaming for her life really got everypony’s attention.”

“That wasn’t acting,” she replied. “It looked like I was really going to get cut in half.”

“It’s one of the oldest tricks in the book,” Trixie told her. “Every pony already knows how the trick is done. I only pretend to cut you in half, but in reality your body is scrunched up in half the box. And the saw I use to saw through you isn’t even sharp. While the audience is distracted my handsome assistant swaps out the real saw for the rubber one.”

“Wait, I make the switch?” asked Flash.

“You did make the switch, didn’t you?” replied Trixie looking a bit nervous.

“I didn’t know I was,” he admitted. “To be honest, this is the first time I’ve ever seen this trick. I don’t think it existed a thousand years ago.”

“So then I was almost cut in half for real?!?” freaked Rainbow Dash.

“That is only an added safety precaution,” reminded Trixie. “The trick still worked perfectly.”

“Well, what about when you tried to turn me into a teacup?” she added. “And why a teacup?”

“Cause I decided that turning things into teacups was my signature trick,” Trixie told her. “And after the show I was going to turn you back. It usually only takes me as little as a few minutes and as much as an hour.”

“I’m just relieved that you missed me and even more relieved that it’s over,” Rainbow stated. “I really pity the poor sap that ends up being your next volunteer.”

“The important thing is that we’ve found a place to spend the night,” reminded Flash. “Now we can get some rest till tomorrow.”

“After that, I don’t know if I’ll even be able to sleep,” Rainbow Dash admitted and then headed for the door. “But maybe a little walk will help calm me down.”

“Well, when you return, if I’m asleep, try not to wake me,” Trixie instructed. “I need my eight hours of rest to be my great and powerful self.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” replied Rainbow Dash taking her leave.

It wasn’t easy for Rainbow to cool down or move in the over congested streets. But fortunate enough, she managed to find enough space to open up her wings and take to the sky and find a cloud to escape off to. Laying down on it, she attempted to chillax.

“What a crazy place,” Rainbow Dash thought to herself. “This place has been nonstop even before I got here. Don’t they even believe in sleep?” Taking some cloud around her, Rainbow Dash attempted block out the sound, but that had no effect. Sitting up, she watched as the bottom of the sun touch the horizon. “Ugh, guess not. It’ll be night soon, but it looks like this place is just a party that never ends. I doubt even Pinkie Pie could handle this much fun. I just wish I had somewhere quieter to go to.”

Then as if her prayers had been answered, a much more soothing tone than the blended chatter of the ponies down below caught her attention. She quickly recognized it as music like what she heard during Gale’s performance and it was coming from atop the Split Apple that the cloud had slowly been drifting towards. Flying from the cloud and onto the roof of the building, Rainbow Dash searched around for where the music was coming from. “Hello? Uh, is anypony here?”

“I’m over here,” answered Gale as she walked out from the shadows almost impossible to see while she had her coat on. She pulled back her hood to uncover her head.

Rainbow Dash jumped in fright. “Whoa! Don’t sneak up on a pony like that!”

“Sorry,” she apologized but she couldn’t help chuckle at the frightened look on her face. “I was just trying to enjoy the sunset and didn’t think anypony else was going to show up.”

“Well, I’m sorry if I disturbed you,” Rainbow Dash told her. “I’ll get out of your mane if you want to be alone.”

“I’d enjoy the company,” she replied. “It’s been a little while since I’ve been able to sit down and enjoy the sunset with my friends.”

“Uh, ok,” agreed Rainbow Dash as she took a seat beside Gale and the two watched the sun slowly sink out of sight. As they watched, the sun vanish and night come, the music continued to play from the cd player that Gale had at her side.

“Is that your own music?” asked Rainbow Dash as she listened to it. “It’s very nice.”

“It was one of the parting gifts from my friends,” she explained. “When I hear it, it reminds me of the comfort and support I got from all my friends in Manehatten. When I’m on stage it gives me the courage to perform. If not for them I would not be where I am today.”

“Then why did you have to leave?” wondered Rainbow Dash. “Would it have been such a bad thing to stay together?”

“Honestly, I wouldn’t have minded if we could just stay together forever just as we were,” she admitted. “To be the first one to break up our group, well, it was a selfish thing to do. But I feel that wanting us all to just stay as we were would have even more selfish.”

“I don’t really understand that,” admitted Rainbow Dash.

“Neither do I,” she said laughing a little. “But even if we’re not together… even if we never see one another again, my only wish is for them to continue to be happy.”

“How could they be happy if you might never see one another again?” argued Rainbow Dash. “How can you be happy?”

“Just look at me,” she replied smiling and laughing heartily. Does this look like the face of somepony who isn’t happy?”

“Then why are you crying?” asked Rainbow Dash seeing the tears run down her face.

“T-Tears of j-joy,” she stuttered trying to keep up her happy appearance.

“It’s ok to miss them. It’s okay to cry,” she told Gale pulling her hood back over her head. “It’s dark out now. Nopony will see you.”

Chapter 20

“Isn’t it about time for your break?” asked Saffron Masala as she and Rocky were busy finishing up the food for the last few customers of the day.

“I’m fine,” he told her. “I’m not going to act all aloof on you anymore.

“But it’s sundown,” she reminded him. “Don’t you always go to watch the setting sun?”

“Well… yeah,” Rocky admitted. “But I don’t want to leave you here by yourself to finish the work.”

“I insist,” she smiled and pushed him to the door. “If it’s important to you then I want you to go.”

“Thanks,” he smiled back. “I didn’t think I’d ever make friends like the ones I had in Manehatten so I didn’t even bother to try. Thanks for not giving up on me.”

“That may be true, but it was Pinkie Pie who finally got through to you,” she reminded him. “She’s the one you should thank.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” he agreed. “I hope I can see her again soon.”

Leaving the restaurant, he ran as fast as his legs could carry him to the furthest edge of Canterlot. In the distance, he could see the sun sinking down as Celestia lowered it to begin the night.

“I wonder how you all are doing,” Rocky said to nopony. “I’m… I’m actually doing just fine now. I don’t know when we’ll see one another again, but I promise I’ll learn to make tons of tasty new foods. But I’ll make sure to make more of those popsicles you all like so much too. I know how much you like them. Oh, and I’ve managed to make a few more friends while I was here. I think you’d all like them too.”

Chapter 21

“The sun’s going down and now so am I,” yawned Applejack as she plopped herself into bed. “I hope everyone at Sweet Apple Acres is doing alright without me. Didn’t think I’d be away the whole day.” As she started to close her eyes, she could hear the familiar sound of Fire Wheel’s music and, like before, she could hear it coming from the roof of the house. As she closed her eyes, she listened to it. Taking another big yawn she began to doze off and dream.

“Applejack’s Apple Paradise,” Applejack beamed with pride as she looked at the acres upon acres of apple trees that seemed to stretch on and on forever. “There’s never been an apple farm as grand as the one I’ve built with my own blood, sweat and tears. Well, time to do some bucking.”

Heading on over to the nearest trees, she got into position and hit the trunk of the tree with her hind legs causing the apples in it to fall down, each being as big as Applejack herself. “Heh, I remember back when I first started up this farm and I thought these were big apples.”

Applejack laughed happily as she continued going from tree to tree bucking the apples out of it. The deeper she went into her orchard the larger the trees became and the bigger the apples that fell from them were. The bigger they got the more overjoyed Applejack became and continued even deeper still.

“This really was the right decision to go out on my own,” she told herself. “I get to make all my own decisions and run the farm the way I want to.” She came to another apple tree that was so large that compared to it she was no bigger than an ant. She bucked at it and despite her puny size an apple still fell down from it, it’s force upon landing shaking the ground. In size, the apple looked to be even bigger than the barn back at Sweet Apple Acres. “I can’t wait to let Big Mac get a gander at one of these. It’ll certainly leave him at a loss for words.”

Amused at the thought, Applejack failed to notice as the massive apple suddenly started to tumble towards her. By the time she realized this she only had the time to gasp before it came down on top of her.

“Ungh! Ugh!” she grunted trying to get out from under it. “Big Mac! Help! I’m stuck!” He didn’t come. “Granny Smith! Applebloom! I need you!” They didn’t come. “Twilight! Rainbow Dash! Anypony! Please! I need help!” Nopony came no matter how much Applejack pleaded and cried. “Why did I have to leave, Sweet Apple Acres? I left behind everypony I cared about. And for what? To grow the biggest and best apples in the history of Equestria? Well, it was kinda nice till just now. Now it’s more like a…”

“A nightmare,” finished an elegant and regal voice that Applejack quickly recognized.

“Princess Luna?” Applejack gasped looking around as best as she could manage from where she was stuck. “Is it really you?”

“Of course, it is,” she answered as she appeared before Applejack. “I am always here to aid anypony trapped within a nightmare.”

“Then I really am just dreaming all this?” replied Applejack actually sounding disappointed by that fact. “Uh, nevermind. Can you help me out of here?”

“That shouldn’t be too much of a problem,” Luna assured her and used her magic to conjure up a giant vampire fruit back that promptly sunk its fangs into the massive apple and sucked it dry before spitting out the seeds and flew off. With the apple shriveled up, Applejack was able to escape from underneath it quite easily.

“Thanks for that,” she told Luna. “Though now I’ll probably be having nightmares about giant vampire fruit bats after this. But that’ll still be better than having nightmares about… this.”

“This place frightens you?” asked Luna. “I can sense some dread, but also plenty of passion. Is it not your ambition to be the best apple farmer and grow the biggest and best apples in Equestria?”

“I was being crushed by my ambition a moment ago,” Applejack reminded her. “But other than that, yeah, this is the kind of apple farm I’ve always dreamed of having. Well… it is still a dream. But the thing is…”

“It’s not Sweet Apple Acres,” Luna said. “This is the apple farm that you’d want to start yourself.”

“Yeah,” she admitted. “Even before Braeburn suggested I go out and start a farm of my own the thought had crossed my mind more than a few times. It’s something I’ve never told anypony before. And as much as I want it to be true, I also don’t want to just up and leave on my family like that no matter the reason and the same for my friends too.”

“Personal desire vs the bonds one shares with others,” spoke Luna. “I too have had this very same struggle long ago.”

“You mean when you became Nightmare Moon?” asked Applejack.

“Yes and though I allowed darkness to corrupt and change me it was due to my own initial desire that it all came to be in the first place and because of it for a thousand years we were apart, my sister and I.”

“I doubt something like that would happen to me,” stated Applejack. “But I certainly don’t want to turn my back on my family. So no matter how much I might dream of this place or want to make it a reality I won’t let it happen.”

“That is a second route to choose,” agreed Luna. “But you could end up wondering about the road not traveled and come to regret your decision to stay.”

“Then what am I supposed to do?” questioned Applejack. “The way you make it sound no matter which choice I make it will be wrong.”

“It is something that ultimately you will have to decide,” Luna told her. “But, remember, it is not a choice that will affect only you.”

“Not only me,” repeated Applejack thinking about it. “I think I understand now.” Smiling, Applejack hugged Luna happily.

Luna chuckled gently and hugged Applejack back. “I am glad I was able to help.”

“Now if you aren’t too busy helping other ponies in their dreams,” offered Applejack. “How’s about we head into the kitchen and I bake us up some of the best apple pie I’ve ever dreamt of.”

“Sounds delightful,” chuckled Luna as she followed Applejack back to her dream house.

Chapter 22

When Twilight opened her eyes the next day the first thing she saw was her pillow. Lifting her head up, she could feel the dried tears on her face from her crying last night. Getting out of bed, she silently made her way to the bathroom to wash up before tiptoeing her way over to Spike’s room. Taking a peek inside, she saw that it looked empty. His bed was missing the blanket and pillows that he had taken with him. There were a few gaps on the bookshelf in his room where he kept his collection of comics. Twilight noticed the issue numbers were out of order and couldn’t resist swapping them around till she fixed it.

Continuing to look around, Twilight couldn’t help spot all the things that were no longer in his room, the most important one of all, Spike sound asleep in his bed and ready to sleep half the day away if she let him.

“Oh, Spike,” she said sadly and then retreated to the map room. Taking a seat on her throne, she looked upon the map and saw nothing had changed from the day before. “I guess this means none of them have finished either.”

“Oh, hey, Twilight,” greeted Starlight as she saw Twilight looking at the map. “Getting a little nervous about losing our bet?”

“Huh, sure,” she replied half listening to her.

“Is something wrong?” asked Starlight. “You look depressed. Did you sleep well?”

“It was a bit of a rough night,” admitted Twilight. “Mostly because I was just thinking about Spike. How much he’s grown up. All the things he’s accomplished and even how he’s helped save Equestria. He’s so grown up now, he doesn’t even need me mothering over him anymore.”

“Is this about what I said yesterday?” asked Starlight. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”

“No, I’m actually glad you did,” Twilight told her. “I never really considered not having Spike or any of my friends in my life like I do now. I remember when I was worried about having to send you away. I thought you might get lynched due to the deceptions of a rogue changeling or fall into a pit of lava or even take your studies in magic too far and end all life in Equestria as we know it.”

“...Seriously?” asked Starlight raising an eyebrow. “I almost destroy Equestria one time and-”

“That was just me being paranoid,” she explained. “I know that you are more than capable of taking care of yourself no matter what you do or where you go and I have the same confidence for all my friends. But it’s that same confidence that makes me a bit sad too. Just thinking about it feels like there’s a big gaping hole in my chest. Is that how it felt when Sunburst left?”

“Pretty much,” she answered thinking back. “And just recalling it, I can still feel it sting a little, but thanks to you and everypony else I’ve been able to move past that and even reunite with him. And though we might still not see one another all the time I’m just glad we’re friends again.”

“I hope it’ll be that simple for me,” spoke Twilight.

“But none of your friends are leaving you,” Starlight reminded her.

“I know, but a day might come when that does happen and I don’t know what I might do when that happens,” admitted Twilight. “Now I don’t even know why the map decided to call on me to fix this friendship problem. You would have made more sense. I didn’t even know how it feels to have a friend leave me.”

“I think you’ve helped me out quite a bit already,” April spoke entering the room. “Just by being my friend you’ve help me out. If your friends can help my friends just like you’ve done for me then I know that we’ll be okay. That even if we aren’t together we can still be friends and that there are other ponies out there who would want to be our friends. This isn’t the end for us. It’s just the start of new chapter that I think I’m finally ready to begin.”

“That’s really great to hear,” replied Twilight with a little smile as she began to feel better herself. “Then I guess that means this friendship mission is over… but…”

“Your Cutie Mark isn’t shining,” observed Starlight. “Do you think the others are having trouble?”

“No, I don’t,” replied Twilight. “I’m certain they should also be finished by now or at least close, but perhaps there’s still something we’re missing, something we still have to do.”

“It feels like you’ve done all you could already,” Starlight told her. “Maybe just give it a bit more time.”

“I guess I’ve got no other choice,” agreed Twilight. “Anyone have any ideas what to do to pass the time?” Twilight’s stomach growled to answer her question.

“How about breakfast for starters,” suggested Starlight.

“And maybe I could go over to see that pony I met the other day,” asked April. “I think her name was Rarity.”

“Why do you want to see her?” asked Twilight.

“She told me she ran a boutique in town and I was hoping that she could teach me a few things,” she explained. “I am good at sewing and making clothes so I was thinking that maybe that’s what I should do. I was just thinking that she could give me a few pointers.”

“That is a great idea,” agreed Twilight. “But I think Rarity was going to Canterlot today to check in on the boutique she has over there. She probably left on the first train this morning too.”

“Oh, well, I could always wait till she gets back,” April figured.

“It might be a good idea to make something new to show her too when she gets back,” suggested Twilight. “So, why don’t we go into town and-” Twilight was interrupted by another grumble in her gut. “Uh, why don’t we fix breakfast before we get involved in all that.” The three of them laughed and then made their way into the kitchen to fix breakfast.

Chapter 23

Rainbow Dash yawned and stretched as she awoke to a brand new day. “I didn’t think I’d manage to get a good night’s rest with how loud and bright this city is,” she told herself as she rubbed her eyes. “But I’m really glad I… did…” Her words trailed off as she got a look at her surroundings and saw that he had been sleeping on a plush couch in the middle of the room. Against the wall was a makeup table with a vanity mirror that looked nearly as well stocked with beauty products, perfume, and makeup as Rarity had in her room. There was also a mobile clothes rack in the in the middle of the floor with costumes on it from one end to the other.

“Either Trixie is a better magician than I thought or this isn’t the inside of her wagon,” she concluded.

“Morning,” Gale greeted Rainbow Dash as she walked in from another room. She let out a big yawn herself before taking a seat beside Rainbow Dash on the couch. “Did you sleep well?”

“I did,” she answered. “But where are we exactly?”

“This is my room in the Split Apple,” she explained. “You kinda fell asleep while you were trying to comfort me so I carried you back here to spend the night. Hope you don’t mind.”

“Probably the best sleep I would have gotten,” Rainbow Dash admitted. “But now I feel bad that I fell asleep while I was giving you a shoulder to cry on.”

“It’s fine,” Gale assured her. “I was just happy to have a friend beside me. After last night I’m feeling a lot better and for that you have my gratitude.”

“Gale, I hope you’re up and ready,” announced Flim as he knocked on the door.

“Another great day at the Split Apple is underway and fans of yours are already lined up ready for your next big performance,” added Flam.

“It’ll begin in only one short hour so make sure you are all up and ready to perform that grand, super stupendous, performance of yours,” finished Flim.

“Do they always have to talk like that?” asked Rainbow Dash rolling her eyes.

“Looks like I’ll have to get myself ready,” Gale told Rainbow Dash.

“That’s fine,” Rainbow Dash replied. “I’m sure Flash and Trixie are probably worried about me for taking off on them. I better go let them know I’m alright, but I’ll come back to see you later.”

“I’ll see you later, then,” Gale replied and approached the vanity mirror to get herself ready and Rainbow Dash took her leave back towards Trixie’s wagon. The crowd of ponies in the street as cluttered as ever forcing Rainbow once more to struggle and squirm her way through. Upon reaching it, Rainbow Dash banged on the door and Trixie opened it.

“There you are,” Trixie said quite surprised. “Where did you go last night? I got a spot all set up in the corner for you and everything.”

“Sorry to make you go through all that trouble,” lied Rainbow Dash not sounding the least bit sorry at all. “It was hard to find you last night in the dark so I had ended up finding somewhere else to stay. Now, can I come in? I wanna talk to Flash.”

“Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but you weren’t the only one who took off,” Trixie explained. “He left some time in the middle of the night, but he did leave this letter behind for you.”

“Well, can I see it?” she asked.

“I have it right here,” answered Trixie handing it over. “So, what’s this big decision you have to make?”

“You read it?” cried Rainbow Dash as she took a look herself.

“I promised Starlight I’d come back with some good stories to tell her from Los Pegasus,” she explained. “And for being such a lively city, I haven’t gotten much else to talk about yet.” Rolling her eyes, Rainbow Dash ready the latter.

Dear Rainbow Dash,

I’m guessing you probably won’t be back till some time tomorrow and I’m planning on heading out early to travel through more of Equestria. Hopefully to some place a bit less lively. Anyway, I hope that you are able to make up your mind on what you want to do. I wish there was more advice I could give you, but I’ve already said all that I could. The rest is up to you.
FM

“So, is he like your boyfriend of something?” wondered Trixie peeking at the letter over Rainbow Dash’s shoulder.

“What? No, he’s not!” snapped Rainbow Dash a bit flustered. “He’s a Legendary Pony from a thousand years ago and kind of like my predecessor in protecting Equestria. I have no romantic interest in him whatsoever.”

“Relax, I was just kidding,” admitted Trixie. “Although, I do think the pegasus doth protest too much.”

“If I tell you my problem will you drop this?” offered Rainbow Dash.

“And bargaining too,” smirked Trixie. “But I accept. Come on in and tell me what’s up.”

The two of them entered into Trixie’s wagon and took a seat. “It’s like this,” explained Rainbow Dash. “I am doing well with the Wonderbolts. Actually, I’m doing awesomely amazing. They loved the new routine I came up with and Spitfire even thinks I could be captain material and lead my own team. That would seriously be the most awesomest of awesome things that could ever happen to me.”

“Then go for it,” Trixie answered. “Now, was that so hard?”

“There’s more to it than that,” continued Rainbow Dash. “She isn’t the one who can decide. It’s the top brass, I’m guessing the eggheads in charge of the Wonderbolts, who will make the decision. Spitfire thinks that I should move back to Cloudsdale so I can get noticed by them a lot more. She says that’ll help me out a lot.”

“And it will,” agreed Trixie. “If you want to get ahead skill, talent, even tons of bits can only get you so far. The real key to success is who you know and if you know the right ponies then they can open doors for you. That’s why tons of ponies come here attempting to entertain on the streets. They’re hoping to be noticed and taken into one of the resorts here to improve their career. You’ll never get anywhere if you stay in the middle of Nowhere, Equestria.”

“But my home and friends are in Nowhere- uh, Ponyville,” argued Rainbow Dash. “My whole life is there. My Element is Loyalty for crying out loud. I can’t just abandon them.”

“Then you choose to abandon all those who didn’t make the cut when you did,” countered Trixie.

“I’m abandoning who now?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“You might have become a Wonderbolt, but what about the dozens of others who didn’t. Some might still get their chance later on, but, for many, they just won’t make the cut. They will have to give up their dream, the very same dream that you are now living. Is it then not a betrayal of them if you turn down an opportunity like the one that is practically being offered to you on a silver platter? If I was given an offer to perform on one of the stages here do you think I would pass up such an amazing offer?”

“And stay here and be far, far away from Starlight,” pointed out Rainbow Dash.

“She would understand,” snapped Trixie. “She would be happy that I managed to get this opportunity and she’d support me like a true friend would. And I know that your friends would do the same. Do you think they would be happy to see you blow such a big opportunity?”

“Just because I don’t move back to Cloudsdale doesn’t mean it won’t happen,” Rainbow Dash pointed out. “If I can’t impress those brass guys with quantity than I’ll show them quality. I’ll work twice as hard. No! A hundred times as hard if I have to and show them flying that they couldn’t even dream of.”

“Is that your final decision?” asked Trixie seriously.

“Yes!” nodded Rainbow Dash loudly. There was silence after that as she took a few deep breaths and calmed down. “Yes it is.”

“Then you have your answer,” smiled Trixie. “Simple wasn’t it? Glad I could help.”

“Wait? You were trying to help me?” asked Rainbow Dash confused.

“Yeah, though I was almost certain that you’d have chosen to move back to Cloudsdale,” she admitted. “But I guess we’re both just made that way. We like to earn things through hard work and gumption. We don’t take the easy way or use shortcuts to reach our goals.”

“Uh, but what about that one time you used the Alicorn Amulet to become stronger than Twilight to beat her in a magic duel,” Rainbow Dash reminded her. “Isn’t that taking a shortcut?”

“I prefer to consider that gumption, but that’s beside the point,” she explained. “I aim to be the greatest magician in Equestria and I will do so even if I have to do all my performances on the street… though a bigger stage is nice from time to time.”

“Wow, I actually do feel better now,” admitted Rainbow Dash. “This might actually be your greatest trick ever.”

“Would you expect anything less from the Great and Powerful Trixie?” she asked.

“Uh, well,” Rainbow mumbled for a bit but decided not to answer. “Well, anyway, thanks again. I owe ya.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” smiled Trixie. “Cause I am going to need another volunteer to help me out and you were quite the crowd pleaser last time.”

“I guess one more performance wouldn’t kill me… hopefully,” agreed Rainbow Dash quite nervously.

“Only one?” scoffed Trixie. “I’d say you owe me at least ten after helping you out.”

“It only took five minutes to help me figure it out,” argued Rainbow Dash.

“A problem that a ‘Legendary Pony from a thousand years ago and kind of like your predecessor in protecting Equestria’ wasn’t able to help you solve,” quoted Trixie. “So, I’d say you owe me ten performances.”

“One!”

“Ten!”

“Three!”

“Seven!”

“Five!” conceded Rainbow Dash.

“Deal,” agreed Trixie shaking hooves with Rainbow Dash. “Now let’s go get ready. And I promise it won’t take very long to turn you back from being a teacup.”

“Suddenly I feel even worse than before,” groaned Rainbow Dash.

“Another stellar performance,” praised Flim as he and his brother met up with Gale after the show.

“We’re already sold out on shows for the foreseeable future,” added Flam. “So we don’t need a fortune teller to tell us that you’ve got an incredibly bright future ahead of you.”

“I didn’t think things would work out this well for me,” she panted still a bit winded from just finishing her last performance.

“It’s a simple matter when you have the two of us advertising you,” boasted Flim.

“There isn’t another pair of ponies around that can get a crowd hanging on our every last word like we can,” bragged Flam.

“So, go take a breather and get yourself ready for your next show,” instructed Flim.

“Oh, and the mail arrived too,” added Flam. “Probably a lot more fan mail.”

“More fan mail,” Gale replied excitedly going into her room to see the sizeable pile on her table. “I think that’s the most I’ve even gotten.”

“Pretty soon we’ll need to carry it in with a wheelbarrow,” joked Flam.

“That’s a good one, o’ brother of mine,” laughed Flim. “Well, enjoy yourself our little star. We’ll call for you when the next show is about to start so make sure to get ready before then.”

“I will,” she promised and headed straight for the mail on the table while the Flim Flam Brothers took their leave.

Right away, Gale began to open the fan mail she received one after another happily enjoying the words of praise from her devoted fans. When she finished reading each letter she’d carefully place it on top of the other ones she already read and move onto the next. On the occasion the letter she received wasn’t a fan letter, but junk mail, she merely tossed it aside. This continued until she reached a letter that caught her attention. Looking at the return address, she instantly recognized it. “April?” she pondered and opened the letter up quickly and began to read what was written on it. After she finished, she remained silent for a while as she thought and then she bolted out of the room quickly catching up to Flim and Flam before they got too far.

“Whoa! Where’s the fire?” asked Flim.

“Gale? Is something the matter?” questioned Flam.

“This letter,” she panted. “I need the night off.”

“The night off?” they said together.

“It simply cannot be done,” Flim told her. “We have shows set up for you. There is no way you can just take off like this out of the blue.”

“I wasn’t even considering it for a while,” she admitted. “But this letter and Rainbow Dash… I just really need to do this.”

“There is nothing we can do,” Flim stated matter-of-factly. “You signed the contract and we made it more than fair for you.”

“‘Failure to produce a performance when assigned to a showtime can and will result in the termination of the contract,’” Flam recited from memory. “We hate to strongarm you this way, but this was part of the terms for our agreement.”

“We’re afraid that you’ll have to miss it,” Flim told her. “We’re really sorry, but all you can do is learn from this and make sure to give us advanced notice in the future. Do you understand?”

“I do,” she sighed and walked back to her room disappointed.

Chapter 24

“Such a lovely day,” Rarity declared as she walked through Canterlot, the day still young. “And with the sun positioned as it is, the lighting should be just right for passersby to marvel at my new line of early morning gowns that Sassy Saddles should have all set up by now.” As her boutique came into sight and she approached it, a huge dark shadow suddenly appeared and cast her whole boutique into darkness.

“What in Equestria is going on?” snapped Rarity flabbergasted by this. Looking up, she quickly discovered the cause. High above, tied to one of the towers of Canterlot Castle was one of the Storm King’s zeppelins floating around at the mercy of the breeze and the last breeze had cause it to block out the sun right where Rarity’s boutique was. “Oh, no! This will not do at all!” Rushing to the door of the boutique, she pounded on it and called inside. “Sassie! Come out here this instant!”

“Oh, Rarity, darling, what’s the matter?” she asked hurrying to open the door and saw the dark shadow over the boutique. “Oh, the wind blew that hideous thing in our light again.”

“And has anything been done to take care of it?” asked Rarity.

“I went straight to the castle to complain about it,” Sassie explained. “And I wasn’t the only one. Every business around has had that darn shadow over their store and we’ve all gone to protest.”

“But I take it that it hasn’t gone well considering it’s still there,” she concluded.

“Apparently, all space in the airship docks has been filled up by our own airships and more of the Storm King’s. Till they can find somewhere else to put it, we have no choice but to wait. I am really sorry, but this came from Princess Celestia, herself.”

“Then we’ll just have to wait, I suppose,” sighed Rarity. “Maybe the lighting will be fine enough if we put evening wear in the windows, though that’d be a bit of a pain to keep switching it back and forth constantly depending on if the shadow is over us or not. Perhaps if we bring in some lighting that’d be a simpler solution.”

“Then consider it done,” smiled Sassy. “I’ll get us some fabulous lighting and your dresses will shine even brighter than ever.”

“Well, I’m glad that’s one problem down,” said Rarity with a bit of relief. Then she turned towards the two story bounce house a few meters from the boutique. “Now what about that?”

“I don’t actually know,” she admitted. “That was here before I closed up shop last night. I didn’t get a chance to see who set it up, but I think there are ponies inside right now.”

“And the reason you didn’t go in there and tell them to leave and take their bounce house with them?” she questioned.

“The door was locked,” she answered baffling Rarity.

“Locked?” she repeated. “But it’s a bounce house. How can the door be locked?”

“Go see for yourself,” she insisted and Rarity did. She approached the front door of the bounce house and tried to open it, but just as Sassie Saddles explained to her it was locked tight as if it were a real door. “Very peculiar,” she admitted. “I’d normally expect this sort of tomfoolery from Pinkie Pie, but she isn’t-”

The door opened and Pinkie Pie was on the other side. “Rarity?” asked Pinkie.

“Oh, Pinkie,” gasped Rarity. “So you are behind the tomfoolery?”

“What? No,” giggled Pinkie. “I’m not behind Tom Foolery. I’m in front of Cheese Sandwich.”

“Don’t tell me,” Cheese Sandwich told her. “I never forget a party… uh… we met at Rainbow Dash’s birthaversary, right?”

“Yes we did,” nodded Rarity. “But would you two mind telling me why you two are squatting in a bounce house in front of my boutique?”

“Well, I didn’t have any place to spend the night and Cheese Sandwich offered to let me stay with him.”

“That was very chivalrous of you, Mr. Sandwich,” Rarity told him.

“Not a problem at all,” he replied as he reached for a plug connected to the bounce house and opened it. The air began to hiss out and it slowly began to deflate. “Uh, this might take a while,” he told them. “Why don’t you two go on ahead without me.”

“Oh, no, that would be terribly impolite,” Rarity replied.

“I don’t mind and it’d be rude to make you wait for me,” he admitted with a smile as it didn’t looked like the bounce house had deflated very much, if at all. “I’m probably gonna be heading out after this. Never know when my Cheesy Sense will tell me there’s another town that is in need of a party.”

“Well, if you insist,” conceded Rarity as she made her way back into her boutique. “Come on Pinkie, you have to see some my latest designs. I just know they’ll be a huge hit. I might just be able to open a fourth store at this rate.”

“You want to open another store?” asked Pinkie sounding surprised. “But you already have three. Do you really need more?”

“But of course,” she answered. “It is in the nature of a business to grow in order to thrive. Why, I have more than tripled my business thanks to my stores here in Canterlot and Manehatten. Why if I keep going the name ‘Rarity’ will be synonymous with cutting edge fashion and fabulousness itself.”

“That does sound… fabulous,” agreed Pinkie Pie. “But doesn’t it also keep you away from Ponyville and all your friends and family?”

“It does, but only for a little while,” answered Rarity. “I mostly just go to ensure things are running smoothly and adhering to my standards and quality.” She stopped and gazed up at the giant eyesore floating in the sky. “Case and point, that hideous thing. I don’t know how yet, but I’ll figure out some way to get rid of that lighting obstructor.”

“I’m just saying that if you open another store that will be more time you are away from home and then another will make it even longer. Pretty soon you’ll have so many stores that it’ll be like you’re never home and then when you finally do come home nobody will remember you and to make matters worse you won’t remember us either and then we’ll have to get to know each other all over again till you leave to check up on all your stores and we forget each other all over again!”

“Pinkie! Please calm yourself,” cried Rarity shocked at her outburst. “Where is all this coming from? Why the sudden concern if I should start to open up more boutiques?”

“It’s just that Mr. and Mrs. Cake were thinking about opening another bakery in Canterlot and having me take care of it.”

“They are and right now?” questioned Rarity. “No offense, but do they have any idea what they are doing just sending you out here to handle that on your own?”

“Actually, they were only considering it right now,” Pinkie explained. “I’m actually here on a friendship mission and thought to take a look around while I was here. At first I was really excited for it, but when I realized that I’d be away from Ponyville for a long time I started having second thoughts. Not being able to see my friends or celebrate the five hundred and eighty-seven holidays, birthdays, events, and festivals we have.”

“That’s way more than one celebration per day,” commented Rarity. “And way more than we even have.”

“I tend to make plenty up on the fly,” admitted Pinkie Pie. “And this is why it’s so hard. I don’t want to miss out and it’s not like I can be in two places at once.”

“Yeah,” agreed Rarity. “That little endeavor didn’t work out. You’ll just have to schedule out your parties around it as best as you can and accept that sometimes you might have to make tough choices in what is more important. That is, if you still want to.”

“I do, but I’m just not sure if I am the pony for the job anymore,” she admitted. “Like you said I don’t even know the first thing about any of this.”

“You might not,” agreed Rarity. “But the Cakes didn’t choose you simply because you knew how, did they?”

“No, they said I was like family and saw how responsible I had become since they first met me,” she replied. “How I helped them run Sugarcube Corner and how I’ve helped them take care of Pound and Pumpkin. It was like I was a part of the family like a wacky aunt or something.”

“So, all that was fun to you,” figured Rarity.

“More than fun,” smiled Pinkie. “It was like one big partypalooza. So many delicious treats made and eaten. So many fun and silly moments. All those parties that were thrown there like birthdays and Cutecineras. Or the day I finished secret constructing my secret party cave. I can’t imagine Sugarcube Corner without thinking back to all those wonderful memories.”

“Then maybe that is the answer you are looking for,” stated Rarity. “Perhaps you don’t know about opening another bakery, but you do know how to make it a special experience for the ponies that come in there just like how I put all that quality and care into my boutiques and ensembles.”

“You’re right!” exclaimed Pinkie getting excited. “That’s what I can do to help the Cakes and I’ve got lots of ideas. Rarity, I’m gonna need a full box of crayons, some glitter glue, pipe cleaners, some googly eyes, and paper. Lots and lots of paper.”

“Well, I do have paper in the boutique and some rulers and pencils,” she replied. “Would that suffice?” Pinkie looked at her like what she said was crazier than anything she had said earlier. “Right… Well, how about you gather up everything you need and meet me back here. I’ve still got to take care of my business in the boutique, but I shouldn’t be long.”

“Great plan,” agreed Pinkie Pie running off.

“How are things going?” Cheese Sandwich asked as Pinkie ran by him. The bounce house had only shrank down about an inch lower than it had earlier.

“Doing much better,” she answered. “Existential crisis taken care of.”

“Great,” he replied and continued to wait and watched the bounce house.

“Thank you,” said Saffron Masala to the mail pony as received a small stack of letters from him. After he took his leave, Saffron began looking through them and stopped at one. Turning to Rocky as he was getting some orders ready for some early morning customers, she called him over. “Looks like you’ve got a letter.”

“A letter? Well, the only one I told where I am is April,” Rocky commented pausing from cooking to take a look at it. “Yup, it’s from her.”

“What’s it say?” asked Saffron curiously as Rocky opened it up to read it.

“Uh huh… mmhmm,” he mumbled while reading it. “Just her saying hello. Nothing much else. Let’s get back to cooking. We’ve got customers to take care of.”

“Can I take a look?” she asked and with a bit of hesitation he handed it over for her to read. After taking a moment to read it over, she looked back at him. “This doesn’t look like nothing. If you need the day off to go then I want you to.”

“I don’t need the to take off,” he replied. “I don’t need to go. It didn’t even mention going anywhere in the letter. And it’s not like I want to.”

“Don’t you?” she asked.

“I’ve finally started to actually like it here,” he sighed. “And now I just want to keep looking forward, alright? This is my home now.”

“But Rocky,” she began to say as the pot of soup started bubbling over.

“We’ll have to talk later,” Rocky replied actually sounding grateful for the interruption. He quickly reduced the heat and stirred the pot some more before taking a taste. “Yes, this is where I belong.”

Chapter 25

The sun hurt Applejack’s eyes as she finally awoke. “Ugh, what the hay?” she groaned and quickly shut her eyes. Turning away from the window she spotted the clock on her nightstand and had to rub her eyes to make sure she wasn’t seeing things. “9 o’clock! I overslept?!? I haven’t overslept since… well, ever.” Hurrying out of her room, she almost bumped into Jubilee.

“Whoa! Sorry about that,” apologized Applejack. “I didn’t mean to oversleep.”

“Perish the thought,” she replied. “And you are a guest here so there’s no need for you to be up at the crack of dawn anyway.”

“Oh, right,” she blushed a bit embarrassed and saw a bunch of letters littering the floor around them. “Guess I’m just not used to getting up this late. Looks like I made you drop your mail.”

“I was actually in the middle of picking it up when you came out,” she explained. “I came up to give Fire Wheel a letter addressed to him and then all of a sudden he bolted right past me.”

“Why’d he do that?” asked Applejack. “What was written in the letter?”

“I didn’t get a chance to see,” she replied. “He ran off with it, but he just started to panic a little and kept saying, ‘I gotta leave right away.’”

“He left?” cried Applejack making her way down the stairs. “Just what in the hay is he thinking?”

“Where are you going Applejack?” Jubilee called to her.

“If he’s going to keep on running,” she hollered. “Then I’m going to be there to keep bringing him back!”

Running down the path of the cherry farm, Applejack ran into Dodge Junction and all the way to the train station. As she predicted, she spotted Fire Wheel and his flaming, red hair there with a frantic look on his face. A couple trains then pulled into the station, the one on his side heading south and other one on the opposite side heading north. When they both came to a stop, passengers disembarked before the ponies waiting at the station proceeded onto it, Fire Wheel included.

“There you are!” shouted Applejack as she leapt up and blocked Fire Wheel’s way onto the train.

“A-A-Applejack!” he freaked out and jumped back. “W-What are you doing here?”

“Just what I wanted to ask you,” she replied not looking happy at all. “You are running away again, aren’t you?”

“No,” he replied. “That’s not what this is. Now please, I need to get on the train.”

“And that’s not running away?” she retorted.

“It’s not like that at all,” he tried to explain. “I need to get on this train because-”

“No excuses,” she interrupted him. “You are coming back with me this instant.”

“Ugh,” he stressed as the train whistled alerting that it was going to depart soon. “I’m running out of time. I have to get on!”

Desperately, Fire Wheel attempted to run around Applejack, but she was quick to block him. He tried running back the other way around her, but he couldn’t outmaneuver her. Crying out, Fire Wheel ran away from Applejack and she chased after him.

“Now, enough is enough,” she snapped chasing him all over the station and around the two trains that whistled again alerting their departure was drawing ever closer. “You are behaving worse than a youngun. Don’t you have any pride?”

“Will you listen to what I have to say?” he panted quickly getting winded.

“I told you I’m not listening to any excuses,” she repeated and kept on his tail drawing ever closer to him.

“Then I can’t stop,” he shouted. “I have to go there. I have to see my friends!”

“Wait, what now?” Applejack asked as she was caught off guard and stumbled forward into Fire Wheel. The two then tumbled right into the train car shortly before the door closed.

“Did I make it?” he asked looking around and saw he was indeed inside the train and it was starting to move. “I did! I made it!”

“You sure did, but what did you mean you had to go see your friends?” asked Applejack.

“Well, if you’re willing to listen now, I had to get on this train and make my way down to Appleloosa,” he explained handing Applejack the letter to read. “I’d have to hoof it from there, but I need to get to that place by sundown. I know they’ll all be there and I have to get there too.”

“Guess I jumped the gun this time,” admitted Applejack. “Sorry about that.” Applejack’s eyes widened and her jaw got a bit slack. Seeing this started to make Fire Wheel worry again. “And now I think I’m about to be really sorry.”

“W-Why?” asked Fire Wheel looking to where Applejack was looking and saw through the window of the train car into the window of the car of the other train. He could see among the ponies that had boarded it, Braeburn was among them. “Hey, he was over at the cherry farm with you, wasn’t he?”

“Yeah,” answered Applejack now the one who looked nervous. “That’s Braeburn, my cousin who lives in Appleloosa.”

“Oh, well I don’t see why that-” he began saying before he realized what Applejack was getting at. “APPLELOOSA!?! But that’s where we’re supposed to be going!”

“Guess we got a bit turned around while I was chasing you,” she figured.

“This is terrible,” he cried. “We have to get off while we can!” Grabbing the door, he tried to open it, but couldn’t get it to budge.

“That’s no good,” Applejack told him. “It’s locked for the safety of the passengers. We can’t get off till it stops again.”

“How am I going to make it there now?” he asked. “We’re going in the complete opposite direction!”

“I’m sure it won’t be that bad,” hoped Applejack. “We just need to get off this train at the next stop and take another down to Appleloosa. It shouldn’t put you behind my more than maybe an hour or two. I think I see one of the attendants coming. We can ask him.” Walking over, Applejack tried her best to explain their situation. “Uh, hey, funny story. See, my friend here got on the wrong train and, uh, I ended up on board too.”

“Then I take it you don’t have tickets,” he answered not looking happy about that.

“Oh, right,” Applejack replied quickly paying the fare. “Now, could you tell me where this train’s first stop is and if possible when a train will go from there to Appleloosa?”

“The train is headed for Ponyville,” he answered. “And I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there won’t be another train headed to Appleloosa from there till this evening.”

“That’d be too late,” stated Fire Wheel. “It’d be dark by the time we’d arrive and I’d miss it.”

“Isn’t there anything we can do?” begged Applejack. “Can’t we at least get off before Ponyville?”

“It’s against regulations to let passengers off till the train comes to a stop and the doors are locked till it does,” he answered, but paused seeing the pleading look in their eyes. “Well, there might be something we can do. From time to time we do make temporary stops when we feel the tracks need to be inspected at certain areas. We’ll be coming up to Ghastly Gorge in a bit and I can try and stop us there. When we do you can get off, but that’s all I can offer you. After that you’ll be on your own.”

“That’d be just fine,” replied Applejack as she took a seat. “We’re mighty obliged to you.”

“Just please be quick about it,” he told them in a hushed voice. “I could get in real trouble for this.”

“We’ll be gone in a flash,” promised Applejack as Fire Wheel took a seat beside her.

“Are you sure about this?” questioned Fire Wheel. “Even if we do get dropped off at Ghastly Gorge we will still be quite a ways off from Appleloosa and no means to get there other than on hoof. I can’t say much for you, but for me I’ll never be able to make it there. I was getting out of breath just from you chasing after me earlier.”

“Don’t sell yourself short,” retorted Applejack. “I saw you a bit yesterday while you were working and even heard a bit from Jubilee as well. You can be quite capable when you want to be.”

“Back then I was just thinking, ‘I can’t lose my job no matter what,‘“ he admitted.

“And this time all you have to think is,‘I have to reunite with my friends no matter what,’” she instructed him. “Got it memorized?”

“‘I have to reunite with my friends no matter what,’” he repeated. “Yeah, I do.”

“Then for us, it is Macintosh Hills or bust,” stated Applejack.

Chapter 26

“That dress is coming along nicely,” complimented Twilight as she continued to watch April work with as much care as she had seen Rarity use while sewing. In the time since she began, she managed to create a rather nice-looking deep blue dress with a white trim and aqua blue accents.

“You really think so?” she asked sounding doubtful. “I mean I was just working on something I just scribbled together. Usually I’d spend almost a week designing and redesigning an outfit to get it right before I even put thread into needle.”

“Even so,” replied Twilight. “This is quite nice what you did and I’m sure you’ll impress Rarity at what you can manage in the spur of the moment. She’ll definitely want to take you under her wing after she sees this.”

“I think I’d just be happy if she just likes it,” she admitted turning to Twilight as she spoke while still pushing the needle through the fabric.

“Yeow!” cried Starlight getting jabbed by the needle in her shoulder. “Careful. This ‘mannequin’ of yours can feel pain.”

“Oh, sorry,” apologized April. “I’m grateful you volunteered to help me out when I couldn’t get a real one. I’ll try to be more careful.”

“I’ll just be glad when I can move freely again,” commented Starlight. “I’ve been standing still for over an hour now. Can’t I take a break?”

“The basic design of the dress looks securely stitched,” she answered as she carefully inspected every bit of the fabric from one sleeve to the other. “It should be fine to take it off, but I’ll need you to put it on again later to do some finishing touches.”

“Fine, so long as I can move around some,” sighed Starlight with relief. April helped her out of the dress and then she happily stretched as she walked around the room to loosen up. “Oh, much better.”

“I should probably see how well it fits me,” commented April as she took off her coat and tossed it onto the map table.

“That’s a good idea,” agreed Twilight as April put her hooves through the sleeves.

“If I’m going to model it for Rarity,” she contemplated. “Then I’m going to need to make certain it can fit me just perfectly.

“I don’t think I’m far off from your size,” observed Starlight. “I can’t imagine it needing to be adjusted all that much.”

“Yeah, it looks to be about right,” she agreed taking it off to resume working on it. “Now I can work to make it really look dazzling.”

As April took up needle and thread once more, Twilight sat and watched. Then she turned to the map and saw the four Cutie Marks were still there. “It’s getting late again and still nothing. I can’t stand all this waiting around?”

“Getting nervous?” asked Starlight looking over at Twilight. “About our bet, I mean.”

“I’m was more concerned about how long this friendship mission is going to take, but I guess I’m getting a little worried about that too,” she answered. “It feels like we should be doing something other than waiting around.”

“But what else can we do?” wondered Starlight.

“I don’t know,” sighed Twilight as she lowered her head a bit and saw April’s black coat on the map table. Then in the pocket she noticed a piece of paper sticking out and curiously took it out. “What’s this?” she asked as she began to read what was written and then turned to April. “Is this a copy of what you wrote in all those letters you sent?”

“Yeah, that’s the original copy I made,” she explained. “Why?”

“I wish I knew about this sooner,” she cried. “We have to get going!”

“Going?” asked Starlight. “Where to?”

“To Macintosh Hills,” she replied. “That’s where everypony is going to be.”

“What makes you think that?” asked April. “I never said anything about going there.”

”Just look at this letter,” Twilight countered. Walking over, Starlight read over the letter herself.

“Hi, it’s me, April. I’m sending this letter to all my friends hoping you’re all doing well. There is so much I want to tell you all. I just hope I have enough space to write it on.

Gale, I don’t think I’ve ever really been able to decide if you were white with black stripes or if it was the other way around. That was probably the only thing I ever wondered about you till we first met, but I’m glad that I was able to learn a million other more important things about you in the time that we did spend together. I’m so thrilled that you are following your dream. I’m sure you’re on your way to becoming a big star, but you were always one to us. We’ll have to definitely come see your show sometime. I hear Los Pegasus is pretty crowded, so I hope you can find some space to fit us in.

Rocky, I think out of all of us, you were the one who desired friends the most. I remember how you used to get so angry over every little thing. You were more than a bit scary, but also a bit sad. I’m glad to have gotten the chance to know you and see you were quite the sweetie underneath too, kind of like those wonderful popsicles you would always make. Hopefully the next time we meet I’ll be able to try some again and maybe some other tasty treats (that is where you wrote you were working at). Just remember to give it your all and that we’re always here to support you.

And Fire Wheel, make sure that every step forward you take is one filled with confidence. I remember the way you’d always tremble and sweat when you got nervous. You actually looked pretty adorable, but I think you look even better when you don’t look frightened at all. We were always there to give you confidence, but I think that you might have helped us out with that even more. Just hearing your music, I feel so happy and relaxed. It’s like there is nothing I can’t accomplish. You said you wanted to fill Equestria with your music. I think if you can accomplish that then there won’t be anything for anypony to fear ever again. But take your time. No pressure after all.

In closing, I know this might sound a bit selfish of me, but I wish that we could go to our special place again this year, but if we haven’t been prepared to go by now I doubt there is any way we could, considering we will all be too far away by the time this gets into our hooves. But I guess there’s always next year.
Hope to hear from you all soon,

April”

“This is a really nice letter,” commented Starlight upon reading it. “But April is right, she only says she wishes they could go somewhere.”

“She might say that, but is that really how you feel?” asked Twilight to April. “Do you?”

“No,” she admitted. “I don’t think I’d want anything more than to do what we’ve done every year since we became friends. I want that even if they would have to drop everything they are doing just to get over there. That must sound very selfish of me. I truly am a bad friend.”

“You aren’t a bad friend,” smiled Twilight putting a hoof on her shoulder. You only want that because they are so precious to you. I feel the same way when I really want to do things with my friends. When they read this, I bet they’ll want to go just as badly as you do.”

“But even so, it’s too late, now,” April sobbed. “It’s tonight and it is impossible for us to all get there before sunset.”

“That is going to be a problem,” admitted Starlight as she looked at the map. “Your friend in Los Pegasus is the furthest away. Even if they left right after getting their letter I doubt they could make it there in time. I could try to teleport over there with magic, but that’s a pretty big place to cover and not much time to do it in.”

“Don’t worry,” stated Twilight confidently. “Rainbow Dash is over there too and if the map sent her over there I’m sure it’s because she can handle that.”

“Then all we have to do is teleport ourselves over there and wait,” figured Starlight. “It shouldn’t take us more than a moment.”

“Yeah, but I was also thinking of bringing Fluttershy and Rarity along too,” Twilight added. “If the others are going to be there I kinda want them with us too. Fluttershy is probably at her home right now and I’m guessing that Rarity is at her boutique in Canterlot. If I go get Fluttershy with April, can you go to Canterlot to pick her up and take her over?”

“I’m already gone,” answered Starlight as her horn glowed and she vanished in a flash.

“Let’s go, April,” Twilight told her offering her hoof. “Together.”

April looked over at Twilight for a moment then grabbed her black to and put it on. “Together,” she smiled and took Twilight’s hoof and the two of them vanished in a flash.

“Here you go Angel,” Fluttershy spoke as she placed down a bowl of carrots that he happily started to munch on. Looking around, she gazed contently as all her animal friends were now fed and happily chowing down. Then in a flash of light, Twilight and April appeared in the middle of the room and made Fluttershy jump in fright. “Eep!”

“Oh, sorry about that,” blushed Twilight.

“Twilight, um, sorry about what happened yesterday with Discord,” she apologized.

“Water under the bridge,” she assured her. “NoW, I know this is sudden, but you aren’t doing anything right now, are you?”

“I just finished feeding all my friends,” she answered. “So, I don’t have anything else going on at the moment.”

“Great, then I need you to come with us to the Macintosh Hills,” Twilight told her taking Fluttershy’s hoof.

“Uh, ok, but why?” she asked.

“I’ll explain when we get there,” Twilight answered and the three of them vanished in another flash of light.

Chapter 27

“Oh, my,” spoke Rarity as she took a look over what Pinkie Pie had scribbled. “So, this is your bakery? It is quite… um, you. I doubt there is a place in Canterlot or anywhere else, for that matter, quite like this.”

“I know,” smiled Pinkie happily. “It’ll be a one-of-a-kind place and be fun for everypony that goes there. Think of all the great and happy memories they’ll be able to make. That’s what you told me I should do.”

“Indeed I did,” agreed Rarity. “And I’m sure the cakes will love your ideas too when you show it to them. You might only have a drawing to show, but it is definitely a fine place to start.” Rarity turned to look at the clock. “Oh, my. Time sure does fly when one is creating fabulousness. I don’t know about you, but I could use something to eat after all our hard work.”

“Oh, then let’s go over to the Tasty Treat,” suggested Pinkie Pie. “I know that Saffron will be happy to see you too plus she’s got a new friend working there.”

“That sounds like a great idea,” agreed Rarity. “Let’s go, posthaste.”

The two quickly left the boutique and seconds later, in a flash of light, Starlight appeared. “Rarity?” she called as she looked around. “Rarity!?!” She kept on calling her and hastily searched every room of the boutique. “She’s not here. Where could she have gone off to?”

Outside, Pinkie and Rarity ran over to Cheese Sandwich who was still waiting by the two story bounce house. After all the time that had passed, the second story was looking quite deflated, but the same wasn’t true for the first story. “Would you care to join us for some dinner?” asked Rarity.

“I’m good,” he replied. “This shouldn’t take too much longer.”

“I would hope not,” commented Rarity seeing just how much more was still to go after several hours had gone by. Not pursuing the matter any further, Pinkie and Rarity made their way over to the Tasty Treat.

“Might be a good idea to turn in early so I can get an early start tomorrow,” decided Cheese Sandwich as he made his way into the half inflated bounce house and closed the door behind him.

“Hey, Saffron,” greeted Pinkie as she and Rarity arrived in the midst of the dinner rush. “I’m back and look who I brought with me this time.”

“Oh, Rarity!” Saffron said delighted. “I’m so glad to see you.”

“So am I,” Rarity answered. “And I must say you look like you are quite doing well now.”

“There’s not a day now that we aren’t busy,” she admitted.

“And how is Rocky doing?” wondered Pinkie Pie.

“He’s doing fine,” Saffron replied. “He’s hard at work in the kitchen right now, thanks to you. It’s just that…”

“Is there something else wrong?” she asked seeing the sad look on her face.

“There is,” she nodded. “Come into the kitchen and I’ll explain.”

The three made their way in and saw Rocky working more diligently than ever to get all the orders prepared. “Saffron, the next order is ready to be taken out,” he informed her. When he saw Pinkie and Rarity beside her, he greeted them as well. “Hi, Pinkie. And who’s your friend?”

“Rarity,” she introduced herself blushing a little seeing his well-built body and liking what she saw. “Charmed to meet you.”

“I’m happy to meet you,” he told her. “I’m sorry I don’t have time to talk, but we’re pretty busy out there. If you came for something to eat I promise you the food will be more than worth a little bit of waiting.”

“Rocky,” Saffron told him. “Please, stop.”

“Stop?” he questioned her. “We don’t have any time the waste. We got a lot of hungry customers waiting.”

“No,” she told him. “You’re the one who’s wasting time.”

“Are you going on about that again?” he asked. “I told you and you even read the letter yourself. None of my friends are going to be there so there is no sense in me running down there for no reason at all.”

“I know what you said and what was in the letter, but I know you don’t believe that,” she argued. “Why do you have to be like this? I thought you were finally warming up to me.”

“I did,” he answered with some agitation in his voice as he showed a strained smile on his face.

“Then why do I feel like you are forcing yourself to be happy with not going?” she questioned him.

“I am happy!” he shouted angrily knocking over the pot of spicy soup he had been working on. The customers in the front jumped, shocked as they heard the metal pot clang on the ground followed by the splashing of bubbling hot soup flood onto the floor. “I like you. I really do. I never thought I’d find another pony to be my friend besides those three from Manehatten, but I have. I’ve found new friends who accept me just like they did so I don’t have to feel alone. I feel like I can finally move on with my life.”

“Moving on is fine, but it doesn’t mean you have to forget about them to do that,” Pinkie told him. “I wouldn’t be the pony I am today if not for everypony who I met along the way. All those happy memories we share are one of my most precious treasures. Even something as simple as doing something silly like sitting on a whoopee cushion to make you laugh is a priceless experience to me. I can only imagine how important this thing you want to do with your friends is to you.”

“This would be our fifth year doing it,” he admitted.

“And it’s an anniversary too,” gasped Pinkie Pie even more alarmed.

“But there’s no point in worrying about it now,” he added. “It’s all the way out on Macintosh Hills. That’s impossible to reach from Canterlot in the time we have left. Even if I wanted to go-”

“You do,” interrupted Pinkie Pie.

“There is no way I’ll make it in time,” he finished.

“Hmm,” pondered Rarity, a smirk spreading across her muzzle. “I think I might know a way, but we’ll still have to be quick.”

“Rarity with the save,” cheered Pinkie.

“I still didn’t agree to this,” Rocky tried to say.

“You are going and this time I am putting my hoof down,” snapped Saffron with a stern look on her face. “And I don’t want to hear another word about it. Do I make myself clear?”

“Y-Y-Yes,” he answered meekly. “Just let me grab some stuff real quick.” He hurried upstairs almost haphazardly slipping along the way up, the bark gone from his voice completely.

“That stallion is really starting to get on my last nerve,” fumed Saffron. “He’s so hardheaded and stubborn. I’m starting to wonder why I have been going so far for him. Now I have to clean up this mess he made and then take care of the customers in the front. I can only imagine what they think has been going on back here.”

“Sounds to me like somepony has a crush,” giggled Rarity making Saffron’s face turn bright red.

“Is it that obvious?” she cried nervously.

“I might not have a Pinkie Sense,” Rarity admitted. “But I can see the writing all over your face.”

“Ok,” panted Rocky as he hurried back down with his black coat on and a cooler on his back. “I’m all set now.”

“Then let’s get going!” called Pinkie as she and Rocky headed out the door despite not knowing what Rarity had planned.

“Just keep doing what you’re doing,” Rarity advised her. “If what I just saw was any indication I think he might have a thing for you too, if he’s been behaving like this, but hasn’t left on his own accord.”

“You think so?” Saffron asked still blushing.

“I’ve ready plenty of romance novels,” smiled Rarity. “Now, if you’ll excuse me. I better catch up to those two cause I think they’re headed the wrong way.” Rarity hurried off.

Chapter 28

“NEVER AGAIN!!!” shouted Rainbow Dash in the form of a rainbow-colored teacup.

“Would you quit saying that?” groaned Trixie. “I need to concentrate to be able to turn you back to normal.”

“You’ve been trying to for the last EIGHT HOURS!!!” argued Rainbow Dash.

“It’s only been five,” countered Trixie as she stared down at the teacup and her horn glowed. Then in a “POOF!” Rainbow Dash was back to normal. “There! Good as new.”

“Oh, thank Celestia,” Rainbow Dash breathed with great relief. “I’m back to normal.”

“And now we can go onto show number four,” Trixie told her. “After all, you still owe me two more.”

“You think I’m going to agree to do this again?” snapped Rainbow Dash. “It took you an hour to turn me back the first time and two hours the second time. I didn’t want to perform with you a third time, but you begged me and I caved, but never again. I’m getting out of here before I’m stuck as a teacup forever.”

“But you still owe me,” protested Trixie as Rainbow Dash opened the door to her wagon.

“I’ll find some other way to make it up to you,” answered Rainbow Dash before flying off. Looking towards the sun, Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes in annoyance to see how late it was already. “I wasted my whole day because of that. Maybe I should just head home. I’m not even sure why I’m even here anymore.” About ready to take off for Ponyville, Rainbow Dash caught sight of the Split Apple and sighed. “One quick stop to say ‘bye’ to Gale and then I’m off,” she decided and turned to fly towards the resort and to her room. She knocked on the door and heard someone walk over to answer it.

“I’m almost ready,” Gale sighed as she opened the door. “I just really wish you’d reconsider- Oh! Rainbow Dash, it’s you.”

“I was just stopping over to say, ‘bye,’ but is there something wrong?” she asked.

“I got this letter,” she answered showing it to Rainbow Dash. “It completely slipped my mind that the little excursion my friends and I always did was coming up. I didn’t even consider going or I didn’t think I wanted to till this arrived, but now it’s too late and there’s nopony I can blame but myself.”

“If you wanna go so bad then just go,” Rainbow Dash told her. “What’s stopping you?”

“Well, time for starters,” she answered. “It’s too late for me to go even if started hoofing it right now.”

“Where do you have to go?” she asked.

“The Macintosh Hills,” she answered expecting a look of disbelief from Rainbow Dash, but instead got a confident grin.

“No problemo,” she stated. “I’ll fly you there with time to spare. You might be the ‘greatest flier without wings,’ but I’m the best with them.”

“If you could actually get me there,” Gale began to say with some excitement in her voice, but it faded as quickly as it came. “That only solves that problem. The other one I have is more complicated.”

“It’s showtime, Gale,” Flim announced as he knocked on her door. “Your fans are waiting.”

“Time for another of your world-class performances of a lifetime,” added Flam.

“Your performance?” assumed Rainbow Dash.

“I have to go on,” she nodded. “I don’t have the time to leave and if I do I could lose everything I’ve worked for here. If I hadn’t let this come up at the last minute I could have done something about it, but now it’s too late.”

“It’s only too late if you give up now,” argued Rainbow Dash. “There has to be something you can do.”

“Is something keeping you?” asked Flim as he peeked into the room with his brother.

“Oh, you have a guest,” stated Flam. “We weren’t aware the two of you were acquainted.”

“We’ve been since yesterday,” Rainbow Dash explained. “Now, how can you tell Gale she can’t go to something that’s so important to her?”

“If it was as simple as that we would,” replied Flim. “But we’ve got a sold out show waiting for her, several in fact. She has the responsibility to perform or her contract with us will unfortunately be terminated.”

“So, I can either perform and keep my job or go to see my friends just to tell them what I gave up,” she sighed. “No matter what I choose there is going to be a cost.”

“A cost?” groaned Rainbow Dash annoyed. “Why’s there always gotta be some price to pay? There must be some way to work this out.”

“If there is we haven’t found it,” Flam replied. “The contract is more than fair for all parties involved, but in this case there’s nothing we can do to get around it.”

“Then let me see that contract,” ordered Rainbow Dash and Flam pulled it out of his coat pocket. “You keep that on you?”

“I told you we were looking for a way around it,” he reminded her. “Right down to the last minute, but there isn’t much of a point now when there isn’t enough time left.”

“I’ll be the judge of that,” retorted Rainbow Dash as she took the contract as read over it.

“Do you really think you can find something?” asked Gale.

“This would be more up my friend, Twilight’s, alley,” admitted Rainbow Dash finding it hard to understand half of what she was reading and Pinkie Pie popped into her head every time the word “party” came up. Several pages in, Rainbow Dash still had nothing. “If Spitfire can handle paperwork and thinks I can be a captain like her then surely I can do this. I just need to find something… anything! Ahah!”

“What did you find?” asked Flim.

“Right here,” Rainbow Dash pointed with her hoof.

“That just talks about Gale performing at her scheduled times,” Flam read over the section and summarized.

“No, it says she has to ‘produce a performance when assigned to a showtime,’” read Rainbow Dash. “It doesn’t say anything about her actually performing herself.”

“It does, but she doesn’t have acts to provide,” Flim pointed out. “She is the act.”

“But if she can get another act to go on then she can go and not be fired?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“Yes, but where is this act even going to come from?” questioned Flam.

“Give me one second,” Rainbow replied heading for the door to leave and then saw the countless ponies in her way. “Actually, it might take me a bit longer than that.”

“Why don’t you take the backstage way out?” suggested Gale pointing to another door.

“There was a backway in here?” she groaned, but hurried out anyway with time running out.

“And now, the Great and Powerful Trixie will perform her next great feat of astonishing astonishment!” Trixie declared to a small audience that didn’t seem too thrilled. Some were even yawning and considering walking away. They could see the smoke bomb she had in her hoof and were sorely unimpressed. “Before your very eyes, the Great and Powerful Trixie will dis-” In the blink of an eye, Trixie was gone, her wagon too, like she was never there at all. The ponies that had been watching were in awe now, chattering with one another about what they did and didn’t see before applauding Trixie, wherever she was.

“-appear!” finished Trixie suddenly in Gale’s room and she tossed down the smoke bomb filling the area around her with a dark blue smoke before she quickly hid, though she was still very visible. A couple seconds later she realized that she wasn’t on her stage anymore and saw Rainbow Dash, Gale, Flim, and Flam staring at her.

“Wow, I’m a better magician than I thought,” she admitted. “I teleported without even attempting to.”

“Uh, no you didn’t,” explained Rainbow Dash. “I brought you here. Your wagon is out back.”

“Rainbow Dash!” snapped Trixie. “What is the meaning of ponynapping the Great and Powerful Trixie mid performance?”

“Cause I got you an even better stage to perform on,” she explained. “Right here at the Split Apple.”

“The Split Apple,” she gasped with excitement, stars in her eyes. “That’s the great and most popular resort on the whole Los Pegasus strip. To perform here is the dream of every great and powerful performer.”

“I still owed you a couple of performances and figured that maybe a couple of shows here would make us even,” Rainbow Dash continued. “And as a ‘great and powerful’ pony once told me, she would never turn down something given to her on a silver platter.”

“Normally, I’d hate somepony using my own words against me,” she admitted. “However, I’ll make an exception in this case. I accept.”

“Then we have an act,” celebrated Rainbow Dash.

“And I can go?” asked Gale feeling a glimmer of hope.

“She is an act,” agreed Flim talking discreetly so Trixie couldn’t hear as she was already fantasizing her performance.

“But we can’t just accept some random pony you picked up from the street,” Flam continued. “We don’t even know if she’s any good and from what we saw a minute ago it doesn’t fill us with much confidence in her ability.”

“But Trixie is more than some random pony,” countered Rainbow Dash flying by the edge of her seat as she tried to sell them on Trixie. “She’s great! And… uh, powerful! Plus she’s a real crowd pleaser when she has a volunteer to help her. I think it’d add a cup or two of fun if you two were on stage to help her out with her tricks.”

“We really do want to help Gale out,” conversed Flim to Flam.

“I agree, but if we promise them Gale and give them… this, the audience would likely call ‘bait and switch on us.’” Flam pointed out. “They might even demand a refund.”

“I’m sorry,” Flim apologized, both brothers’ minds made up after Flam uttered the dreaded, “R,” word. “But I don’t think this new act would be enough. We promised Gale and if they can’t see her then I doubt this act would be enough.”

“Not enough?!?” cried Rainbow Dash. “What more can I give you? I can’t think of anything else to offer you and time is running out. At this point I’m going to have to do a Sonic Rainboom all the way there just to make it in time.”

Flim and Flam turned to one another and then back at Rainbow Dash. “Sonic Rainboom you say?” asked Flim with a sudden intrigued smile on his face that was also on Flam’s as well.

“This really ticks me off,” grumbled Rainbow Dash as Gale helped her into her black coat and cut holes in the back for her wings to fit through.

“But they agreed to let me go,” smiled Gale sounding incredibly delighted. She had a harness on that connected to another one on Rainbow Dash. Discreetly placed on the sides of her forelegs were plastic wings. “And that look in your eyes at the idea, you certainly seemed excited by it too.”

“I know,” admitted Rainbow Dash. “This is gonna be so awesome! It just bugs me that now they got me performing for them.”

“Everything should be all ready,” Trixie told them as she handed them some of her smoke bombs. “Rainbow Dash’s speed should make it hard for anyone to see her as she flies by and that dark coat and these smoke bombs should help conceal her more. I have my wagon set up at the end of the strip with a ramp so as soon as you take off that should set off the fireworks. This is sure to be the greatest show anypony has ever seen in Los Pegasus… at least till I take my turn on stage.”

“Uh, Trixie,” Rainbow Dash said to her a bit awkwardly. “For helping us out… thanks. You are really helping us out of this jam.”

“Think nothing of it,” Trixie answered in her grandstanding manner. “The helpful and caring Trixie is always there to give aid to the downtrodden and the hopeless.”

“Uh… right… Now all that’s left is for Flim and Flam to handle their part and we can get going,” said Rainbow Dash before they heard the announcement they were waiting for.

“Ladies and gentleponies,” announced Flim on the speakers not just in the Split Apple, but all over the Los Pegasus strip as well. “Our spectacular, wingless, flier, Gale, has to fly off for a bit. So she won’t be able to be the main act tonight.”

“However,” added Flam before anypony could get upset. “She’ll be performing a spectacle beyond comprehension as she takes off down the Los Pegasus Strip in a Sonic Rainboom before your very eyes. So we would like to ask everypony to clear space on the strip and watch something that you must truly see to believe.”

“I feel a bit guilty,” admitted Gale. “It’ll be you doing the Sonic Rainboom, not me.”

“You’ll be doing it too,” assured Rainbow Dash. “Cause you’ll be moving just as fast as me by the time I break the color barrier. Now this will require split second precision and perfect control. If we hesitate or make one mistake… it won’t end well.”

“Have you ever tried this before?” asked Gale growing nervous now.

“Plenty of times yesterday,” she answered. “Of course, we only got it right on our last attempt, but it should be a lot easier with just the two of us.”

“Now I’m starting to think this might not be such a good idea,” she said as she started to hyperventilate.

“Don’t get nervous now,” cried Rainbow Dash. “We have to start going, now!”

“But I’m too nervous,” she trembled. “I don’t think I can do this.” Gale looked ready to bail on the plan, but then something else started to come over the loudspeakers. It was music, the same music that played when Gale performed. As she closed her eyes and let the sound fill her ears, her breathing calmed and a serene look came over her face. In her mind’s eye she could see them, her friends waiting for her.

“This is still a performance,” Rainbow Dash reminded her. “It wouldn’t be right if we did this without music and it’ll be playing down the whole Los Pegasus Strip. Isn’t that awesome?”

“Very awesome,” she smiled brightly. “I hope you don’t mind, Fire Wheel. I took care of Los Pegasus for you.”

“Well, if you are ready, then it’s time we get going,” declared Rainbow Dash.

“I am,” nodded Gale and the two of them left the room and quickly bolted down the hall. Looking ahead of them, a path forward was completely open up before them surrounded on either side with countless ponies anxious to see what was about to happen.

Rainbow Dash then started to flap her wings and pick up speed, becoming a blur as she zoomed by the first ponies in the crowd. Gale continued after her, running faster than she ever imagined she could, feeling like she was soaring already. Upon getting outside the Split Apple they were going even faster, the wind pressing against them hard, but they endured. They set off the smoke bombs as they went by adding more flash and dazzle and exciting the crowd even more. The screams and cheers of the crowd was a garbled mess to their ears, but the music on the loudspeakers came out crystal clear to them.

“Get ready!” warned Rainbow Dash. “Here comes the Sonic Rainboom! This is going to be intense!”

“I’m ready!” answered Gale as Rainbow Dash broke through and she did as well. Their speed increased even more as a rainbow trailed after them and had the ponies watching in an uproar at the spectacle. They zoomed all the way down the strip to where Trixie had the ramp set up and ran up it, taking off straight up into the sky and making a u-turn back towards the Split Apple. To everypony that was watching they were flabbergasted that Gale, without wings, was truly flying.

“Gale! Gale! Gale!” they chanted loud enough for her and Rainbow Dash to hear from way up in sky.

“So this is what it feels like to really fly?” panted Gale in wonderment. “It’s incredible!”

“You’ll have a little bit of time to enjoy it,” commented Rainbow Dash. “Cause it’s Macintosh hills or bust for us!”

The two of them continued to soar across the sky and cast an enormous rainbow across the darkening sky of Equestria.

Chapter 29

Twilight, Fluttershy, and April stood alone on Macintosh Hills. The sky was getting darker by the second as the sun got lower in the sky. “We’re almost out of time,” worried Twilight. “I thought at least Starlight would be back with Rarity by now.”

“Maybe they didn’t get a chance to read the letters yet,” considered April. “Or maybe they just decided they weren’t coming or they just couldn’t make it.”

“If what Twilight told me how special this place is to you and your friends then they’ll definitely be coming,” Fluttershy said to comfort her. “Let’s just give them a few more minutes.”

“And when they do, we’ll all be able to enjoy the sunset together,” Twilight added walking over to April and hearing the ground beneath her hooves crunch with each step she took. Looking down, she saw that all the grass around them was dried out and black. “Was the grass always like this over here?” asked Twilight.

“Well, since you’re here to see it too,” April told her with a little smile. “I guess it’d be alright to tell you our little secret. The truth is-”

“We’re here!” hollered Applejack as she trudged along. Her legs wobbled like jelly, barely managing to keep her standing. Fire Wheel looked even worse, dragging his body a few meters behind Applejack, but still coming nonetheless.

“D-Did we make it?” wheezed Fire Wheel trying to lift himself up, but couldn’t find the strength.

“Are you two okay?” cried Twilight as she and the others hurried over. “What happened?”

“Got on the wrong train,” answered Applejack sitting down as they approached her. “Had to run all the way here. Then we had to jog, followed by walking, trudging, and finally stammering, but we made it… we did make it, right?”

“You did, and I’m glad you made it,” smiled Twilight. “Now, hopefully the others will make it here in time.”

“Look out below!” warned Rainbow Dash as she and Gale came down to the ground very quickly, the rainbow still trailing behind them, albeit faded. They were running in midair as quickly as they could as they prepared to land. When their hooves connected to the ground they worked to slow down, running in circles around Twilight and the others to keep from getting too far away. Little by little they slowed till they finally came to a complete stop and the rainbow vanished entirely. After taking some time to catch their breath, Gale retrieved her coat from Rainbow Dash and then headed over to April and Rocky.

“Rainbow Dash, you made it,” Twilight said excitedly as she and Fluttershy helped Applejack over to greet her.

“You look pretty tuckered out,” panted Applejack to Rainbow Dash.

“You kidding,” she wheezed, too tired to even lift her wings and barely had the strength to even stand. “I could’ve flown around the world if I wanted to. It just happened that I only had to fly this far. You look a lot worse than me.”

“A brisk jog over here was hardly any trouble for me,” argued Applejack.

“I hope the others get here soon,” commented Fluttershy as she looked at how close to sun was to touching the horizon. “There’s barely any sunlight left.”

“Oh, come on!” complained Applejack and Rainbow Dash collapsing to the ground.

“I had to run faster than a speeding locomotive to get here in time,” complained Applejack.

“And I had to fly so fast I think I’m actually younger than when I started,” groaned Rainbow Dash. “Please don’t tell me all this was for nothing.”

“It doesn’t look like it was nothing to me,” commented Twilight as she looked over to Gale and the others.

“It’s great to see you, Gale,” smiled April tearing up a little.

“Nice to see you too,” replied Gale looking winded from her flight over, though not quite as much as Rainbow Dash was. They then looked down at Fire Wheel. “You too.”

“I’d get up to say hello,” he groaned. “But I think my legs are on strike now. Is Rocky here yet?”

“Not yet,” April answered looking around.

“Everypony else better hurry,” worried Twilight as the sun was already dipping over the horizon. “The sun! It’s already setting!”

“No! Bad sun!” scolded Rainbow Dash like it was a disobedient pet. “Stop setting!”

“I think that if Celestia owes you a favor, Twi, now would be a good time to use it,” suggested Applejack.

“It won’t work like that,” Twilight replied as a dark shadow was suddenly cast overtop of them. “If we miss this then we miss it. We can’t just get a do over.”

“Uh, everypony,” Fluttershy said noticing the shadow first and looked up. “Isn’t that one of the Storm King’s airships?”

“Fluttershy, why would one of the-” Twilight began to say before looking up and saw that was exactly what it was. “Why is one of the Storm King’s airships here?!?”

“Oh, great!” groaned Rainbow Dash. “What now?”

The anchors of the ship dropped down to the ground and dug deep into the earth, shaking the ground as they chained the airship in place. Then Starlight appeared in a flash of light. “Twilight, I looked for as long as I could, but I wasn’t able to find Rarity anywhere in Canterlot and the sun’s already setting so I-” she tried explaining, but none of them were paying attention as they all stared up at the airship looming above. A rope was then tossed over the side and they could see three figures slide down it and come into view.

“Is that Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and… some other pony I don’t know” asked Rainbow Dash.

“Looks like it,” answered Applejack as they made it to the ground.

“Don’t forget where we parked,” giggled Pinkie happily.

“Seems we’re fashionably late to the party,” commented Rarity as she made it down next followed by Rocky who was carrying the cooler down with him. When he spotted his friends he hurried right on over to them.

“You stole one of the Storm King’s airships to get here?” cried Twilight looking back and forth between Pinkie and the airship. “What were you thinking?!?”

“It wasn’t my idea, even though it was a fun one,” replied Pinkie Pie. “Rarity was the one who suggested it, but now I’m thinking of painting it pink and stealing it too.”

“The ghastly thing was casting a terrible shadow over my boutique in Canterlot,” Rarity told everypony like that justified grand theft airship. “And if correcting a crime against fabulousness is wrong then I don’t want to be right.”

“Let’s just let it go,” suggested Starlight. “We can worry about it later. At least it looks like we’re all here… at least almost all of us.”

“Oh, yes,” realized Rarity. “Where’s my Spikey Wikey?”

“He’s already out doing something with Ember,” Twilight reminded them. “I don’t even know what he’s up to now or where to look for him.”

“Are you okay with that?” asked Starlight.

“As much as I would have loved everypony to be here,” she sighed. “I guess-” Twilight then noticed the last bits of daylight were leaving and turned toward the sun as it vanished. “Oh no! No! No! No! We missed it?!?”

“But we were all here!” complained Rainbow Dash. “We made it in time!”

“Did we do something wrong?” wondered Applejack. “We made it in time and brought the four of them back together again.”

“Where are they anyway?” asked Starlight looking around then saw them a bit away, at the top of the hill next to each other. They had their coats on and were licking some of Rocky’s popsicles that he had in the cooler.

“Now I’m really confused,” stated Applejack. “We got them here to see the sunset, but they didn’t even look at it. They aren’t even facing to where the sunset should be.”

“Well, let’s go ask them then,” suggested Twilight.

“Almost didn’t make it,” Fire Wheel told Rocky.

“Took us a while to figure out how to fly an airship,” he replied. “We were lucky we made it here at all.”

“Uh, huh,” smirked Fire Wheel. “What’s her name?”

“Who’s name?” Rocky asked.

“The name of the pony you got a crush on?” he specified. “Is it the pink one or the white one?”

“W-What are you talking about?” he blushed. “It isn’t either of them!”

“So you admit you do have a crush,” he chuckled. “It just isn’t one of them.”

“Shut up,” Rocky told him bopping Fire Wheel on his spike mane and bending some of them.

“Feels like we were never apart,” commented Gale happily.

“I know, right!” cried April as the tears flowed. “Isn’t it wonderful!”

“Don’t start the waterworks now,” warned Gale. “Or you’ll miss it.”

“Uh, what are we going to do about all of them?” questioned Fire Wheel. “It doesn’t look like any of them know what’s about to happen.”

“Guess we’ll have to run for our lives when all this is over again,” Rocky answered.

“Ugh! More running?” Fire Wheel ached not liking the sound of that.

“Can any of you tell us what the hay is going on?” Applejack questioned them.

“You said you all became friends at sundown,” Twilight told April. “But it doesn’t look like any of you were even interested in seeing it.”

“That’s because it was after sunset that we became friends,” April explained. “We just look at the sunset because it reminds us of the second sun.”

“The second sun?” the Mane Six asked.

“It only appears here on this day,” Gale continued. “Nopony else knows about it except us and this is the best spot to watch it at.”

“There’s a second sun?” asked Twilight very curiously. “So you all discovered it when you ran down here? And that was your big secret? Why wouldn’t you want to tell anypony about it?”

“Because if they knew the whole truth,” April told them. “Nopony would allow us to come back. They’d say it was too dangerous.”

“‘Dangerous?’” repeated Starlight growing worried. “Why is it…” Her words trailed off for a moment as they could all see something faintly in the dark sky coming closer, a lot of something. As they got close, they landed with quite a lot of force, shaking the ground and scaring the ponies to huddle closer together fearfully. “....dangerous?”

Lights suddenly started to started to appear all around the hill they were on. This allowed Twilight and everypony else to see just what was approaching them.

“Well, well, well, look what we have here,” said a familiar voice that didn’t look very happy to see them. “A bunch of puny ponies. I don’t remember inviting them here. Do any of you?”

“No.”

“Nope.”

“Not at all.”

“That voice,” realized Twilight turning to Rarity. “Isn’t that Garble?”

“So, the ponies know my name,” the red, teenage dragon said as he got close enough for them to see him. A couple of his dragon companions were using their fire breath to provide some illumination. “Seems we get to have a little fun before the show starts.”

Chapter 30

“It might have been a good idea if you mentioned there was going to be dragons,” Rainbow Dash whispered.

“Slipped my mind,” admitted Gale. “I just wanted to get here so badly I couldn’t think of anything else.”

“You’ve known about the dragons and you’ve come back here several times before?” asked Starlight.

“It’s why I made these coats?” April explained. “We blended in with the dark and so long as we were quiet and well hidden they never noticed us.”

“Fashionable and functional,” praised Rarity. “Very nice. I approve.”

“It might be better to talk about this after we’re out of danger,” suggested Applejack.

“But we aren’t in danger,” Twilight replied taking a few steps towards Garble. “Dragon Lord Ember ordered dragons to be nice to ponies and we’ve done nothing to provoke you. So, you have no reason to lay a claw on us.”

“That would be a problem,” cackled Garble approaching her with a villainous grin on his face. “But I won’t tell if you won’t.”

“I don’t think anypony will have to tell her. After all, she’s right here.”

“That voice,” gasped Twilight pushing aside Garble to see behind him. “Spike?”

“Hey, Twilight,” Spike waved as he and Ember came into the light. “I didn’t expect you all to be here.”

“Oh, it’s so good to see you!” cried Twilight pulling Spike over to her with magic and hugging him tight. “I missed you so much!”

“T-Twilight,” he flailed about getting squeezed more than hugged. “You missed me? It hasn’t even been two days yet.”

“It felt like a lot longer than that,” she smiled and loosened her grasp on him to give him a gentler hug.

“Uh, about all those scrolls and quills you gave me,” Spike mentioned while Twilight was in such a good mood. “They all got burnt into ashes. Sorry about that.”

“That’s not important,” admitted Twilight, shocking Spike. “I’m just glad to have you here with me.”

“Uh, while they are doing… that,” Ember said to Garble. “I guess I should handle your punishment for attempting to disobey the Dragon Lord’s orders.”

“But you are supposed to be a part of the show,” he argued. “Why are you over here?”

“Spike wanted to see the show with me and as Dragon Lord I make the rules,” she answered. “Now, for your punishment. Give every dragon here a hug… also, every pony a hug too.”

“Ugh, why is it always hugs?!?” he complained and started to carry out his punishment, hugging the dragons nearest him first.

“Cause you actually feel like you’re being punished,” she remarked and watched him hug a few more dragons before reaching the ponies.

“Ugh… gotta hug ponies now too,” he grumbled and hugged Pinkie first.
“Yay! Hug!” she cheered and hugged Garble back with a vice-like grip.

“So, this is a part of the Festival of Flames?” concluded Starlight from what she overheard.

“Yup,” nodded Spike once Twilight finally let him go. “Ember says that on the second day the adult dragons do something called the ‘Second Sun.’ It’s supposed to be really neat and this is the best spot to watch it from.”

“I guess that explains why the ground is burnt all over here,” commented Starlight.

“I’m really surprised that all of you are here,” Spike told her. “This place is really out of the way and I didn’t think any ponies knew anything about it in the first place.”

“Looks like a few did,” Starlight replied as April and the rest of their new friends gathered around Twilight excitedly.

“Wow, so you know the dragons here?” April asked Twilight excitedly.

“Maybe a couple,” Twilight answered. “We managed to make friends with Dragon Lord Ember so the dragons are starting to become a little more friendly with ponies.”

“Hmm, I’m not usually too good with placing pony faces,” admitted Ember as she approached them. “But those coats look familiar. Aren’t you the group of ponies that have been hiding out here for a few years now?”

“Wait, you knew we were here?” asked Rocky.

“Well, I definitely did, but not sure if any of the other dragons noticed,” she answered.

“But then why didn’t you do anything?” wondered Gale.

“Guess I was just impressed that you had the guts to come back after we chased you off the first time,” she admitted.

“This is so awesome!” sobbed April happily as she hugged Ember. “We finally are getting to talk to a dragon! I am so happy!”

“Uh, is this one okay?” questioned Ember. “She says she’s happy, but she’s crying too.”

“That’s just April,” commented Fire Wheel.

“Wow, sounds like quite the friendship mission,” Spike said after Twilight and the others filled him in on what had happened.

“I never thought about what life would be like if you or any of my friends were to ever leave me,” she admitted. “I now know how important it is to treasure every moment we have while we can.”

“That’s great, but don’t worry about me,” Spike assured her. “I’m your number one assistant and I plan on being it for a very, very long time.”

“And you’ll always be a friend and a member of my family too,” added Twilight.

“Twilight, if you have a moment,” Applejack interrupted. “I have something I have to confess. The truth is, that for a while now I’ve been thinking of starting my own apple orchard somewhere.”

“And Spitfire suggested I move back to Cloudsdale to help with my career as a Wonderbolt,” added Rainbow Dash.

“And the Cakes want me to open them a second bakery in Canterlot,” added Pinkie.

“You already told us that before Pinkie,” commented Rainbow Dash.

“I know, but that was before it became a dilemma,” she pointed out.

“So, you were all planning on leaving?” asked Twilight.

“I wasn’t planning to,” admitted Applejack. “Or at least I was afraid to leave, but if I do end up leaving I think it’ll be okay. We’ll all be okay.”

“And I’m not planning on going anywhere,” declared Rainbow Dash. “It might make it easier to become a Wonderbolt Captain if I move back to Cloudsdale, but I’m happy living in Ponyville. Besides, when they hear my cross Equestria Rainboom there’s no way they’ll not promote me now.”

“And I’m going to help the Cakes make the biggest and best bakeries all over Equestria,” announced Pinkie.

“Is that any different than how you were before?” asked Twilight.

“Except now I know exactly how I want to do it,” smiled Pinkie.

“Well, I’m happy we were able to go through all this,” stated Twilight looking at Spike and all the rest of her friends. “I guess I always assumed that nothing could keep us from each other, but even if it is because one of us decides to leave for one reason or another, we will still be friends. Nothing can ever change that, not even time or distance.”

“Is it time for the group hug?” asked Pinkie Pie.

“Yes, Pinkie,” chuckled Twilight. “Yes, it is.” The Mane Six, Starlight, and Spike all came close together and hugged. As they did, Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie’s Cutie Marks all started to glow.

“Wait, now our Cutie Marks decide to signal the friendship mission is over?” questioned Rainbow Dash. “I don’t get it.”

“Maybe the problem we had to fix wasn’t just the one those four had, but the one we were having as well,” suggested Applejack.

“If it was,” commented Rainbow Dash not looking too thrilled. “I think that map is a little too all knowing for its own good.” They all coudn’t help laughing at Rainbow’s statement.

“Everypony, look!” called Spike pointing into the distance as huge flames began to appear in the sky in many different bright hues. “It’s time! It’s the Second Sun!”

“It’s incredible!” gasped Twilight as they all stared in awe of it with all the dragons and their new friends. It was truly a sight as the multitude of flames lit up the sky in the distance and painted it like a massive canvas. As some flames began to die down and die out, new flames took their pace and create a new swirl of flames for them all to admire.

“Anypony want some popsicles,” offered Rocky retrieving some of the popsicles in his cooler. “I made plenty.”

Happily taking him up on his offer, they all enjoyed the salty yet sweet taste of the treat as they continued to marvel at the sight on the edge of the horizon.

Epilogue

“A few days have gone by after my friends and I completed our friendship mission,” wrote Twilight in her letter to Celestia. “Our new friends have once more gone back to different corners of Equestria. Gale returned to Los Pegasus where Flam was happy to greet her. Flim was there too, but he was still waiting for Trixie to turn him back to normal. This worries me quite a bit because I technically lost the bet I made with Starlight. While I am still not completely okay with the idea of my friends one day going their separate ways from me and not being able to see them for a long time, I’ll be fine if Trixie takes her time returning to Ponyville.

Fire Wheel returned to Dodge Junction for a while as he played his music for everypony willing to listen. I hear that he might consider coming over to Ponyville next. He’s even is working on some new music he wants to share with us.

Rocky Rhodes is back in Canterlot with Saffron Masala. From what I heard from Rarity those two seem to be getting very close, though I also heard her father is back now and making sure they don’t get too close.

April Showers decided to move to Ponyville and even asked Rarity to mentor her. She definitely seems a lot more confident about not being around her Manehatten friends as often but she is planning on keeping in touch so they can plan get togethers as often as they can. I think they all plan to do that same and that gives me some comfort as well that I’ll be able remain close to my friends no matter what.

Rainbow Dash made her decision to stay in Ponyville, while still being a Wonderbolt. I hear she’s quitting her job as a weather pony here to be able to focus more time to practicing and a lot more time chillaxing with all of us. She also asked me if I can tell her what kind of party they are talking about in contracts. I agreed to teach her the ins and outs of paperwork soon.

Applejack told Granny Smith and the others about wanting to start a farm of her own one day. They were a bit surprised and a little sad to hear her say such a thing, but they also assured her they would give her their support should that day ever come. Granny Smith even said ‘a rolling apple gathers no moss, but then again who would want to eat an apple covered in moss?’ I think that was just her way of encouraging Applejack to go for it.

Pinkie Pie, has been spending a lot of time trying to help the cakes come up with a design for a new bakery in Canterlot. Her first idea was to make one out of sweets like a gingerbread house. It does sound like a fun sweet idea, but I’m not so sure if Canterlot is zoned for confections that big. I hear she also wants to create a another Secret Party Cave with a tunnel system connected to the one at Sugarcube Corner. I’m not even sure how she would be able to pull that off, but that’s Pinkie Pie for you. Her second idea is to turn that airship into a mobile bakery instead and that actually does sound like a good idea, if it wasn’t stolen. I promise I’ll get her to return it to you, as soon as she finishes painting it pink.

As for me, I’m still eagerly awaiting Spike’s return…”

“Twilight!” called Spike as he entered into the Castle of Friendship. “I’m home!”

“Spike!” Twilight called back excitedly. “I’m in the map room.”

“Be right there,” he told her as he waddled in. When she saw him, his scales were shining quite brightly.

“Spike? What happened to you?” she asked a bit surprised at his appearance.

“Ember took me to a dragon spa to unwind on the last day of the Festival of Flames,” he explained. “You bath in lava and it really gives your scales a nice shine. I’m sure Rarity would have loved to try it… if it wasn’t for the fact that ponies can’t go in lava.”

“Well, I’m glad you enjoyed yourself,” Twilight smiled as she hugged him. “And I’m even happier that you’re back.”

“And ready to return to being your number one assistant,” he added. “So, what would you like to do first?”

“Actually, how about we take the rest of the day to just hang out?” she asked. “It looks like too nice a day to be cooped up inside anyway.”

“Oh, that would great,” agreed Spike.

“Why don’t you bring your things back to your room and I’ll finish up here,” she suggested and he eagerly hurried to his room.

“Scratch that,” Twilight amended in her letter. “Spike is back and I’m so glad he is. It is hard for me to imagine life without him or without any of my friends. I know that I can’t expect that to last forever so I am determined to make sure I spend as much time as I can with them while I’m able to. And no matter where they end up going in life, our friendship might be deterred, but it will never end.”

“I’m ready!” Spiked called to Twilight.

“That was pretty fast,” she chuckled. “You didn’t just toss your things in your room and come running back, did you?”

“M-maybe,” he answered hesitantly. “Yes.”

“We can put it away later,” she told him seeing how eager he was to hang out with her.

“Then let’s get going!” he cheered excitedly.

“I just need one more second,” she called back.

“Also, I was hoping that if you could spare some time coming up, I would love to spend some time with you as well.

Your friend,
Twilight Sparkle”

Author's Notes:

And with this all the parts to my November National Writing Month entry have been submitted. I hope you all enjoy it and look forward to any other pony stories I add in the future.