> Another Day in Ponyville
>  by AnOrdinaryWriter
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Story 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Not too much was happening on the streets of Ponyville. It was moody, which was unusual, yet calming for those who were outside. White covered a large part of the town. It was mid-December, and Cloudsdale had come by to deliver fresh snow from its factory. The gentle, cool winter air made the current snowfall waver on its quest to join the white piles of fluff on the ground, which was almost blinding as a result of the afternoon sun that shone brightly on Ponyville’s landscape. The windows and doors on all the houses were sealed and smoke emerged from their chimneys, ascending into the beyond and adding to the beautiful scenery of the season. The snow wasn’t too high yet, and ponies didn’t have a hard time making their way to their destinations.

“I’m so excited to show you what I’ve created, I believe you’re going to love it,” Rarity said to her yellow Pegasus friend Fluttershy, by her side. Rarity wore a grey scarf bundled up against her coat, made with a comfy yarn and a touch of gems at the hands of her own crochet skills. Meanwhile, Fluttershy simply wore a hat with colors of nature and small designs of different animals. The two were walking by a row of shops to the train station headed for one of Rarity’s boutiques.

“I’ve chosen a nature theme specifically, so I’m looking forward to your opinion on the new dresses I came up with.”

“I’m sure they’re gorgeous, Rarity. Everything you make is absolutely beautiful,” Fluttershy replied in her passionate, soft voice.

Rarity chuckled. “Thank you, Fluttershy. You always have nice things to say.” The Pegasus smiled at her response and looked back towards the road to make sure they wouldn’t be hitting anypony.

“And while we’re there, we can look at the dress I prepared you for the New Year ceremony.”

Fluttershy looked back at Rarity enthusiastically. “Really? What does it look like?”

“It’s a bit like the one I made you for the gala,” she explained. “It has a lot of green and fits in with the whole nature theme. I even sewed in a few designs you might like. I also made one for Twilight and Pinkie Pie, but I haven’t quite gotten started on Rainbow Dash or Applejack’s.”

“Oh my, all this work you’re putting yourself through…” Fluttershy said, sounding almost worried. Rarity was indeed one of the best dress designers in Equestria, but she didn’t want Rarity to go through too much trouble.

“Fluttershy dear, has there ever been a time I haven’t been able to handle a situation that had to do with dress making?”

“Well—I mean… kind of,” Fluttershy stammered.

“Okay, I’ll admit I’ve had my little episodes before but don’t you fret, it’s all my pleasure. After all, I have a whole two weeks to work on your outfits, so I’ll be fine.”

The yellow pony’s smile returned. “In that case, thank you Rarity, I couldn’t ask for a better friend.”

The two friends happily trotted down the lane. The snowfall had died down, and only a few falling flakes showed themselves here and there, and Celestia’s sun cast a faint warmness on them, which fought off a bit of the cold temperature. The duo spotted young foals playing in the front yards of houses having snowball fights and building igloos or snowmares, much to their enjoyment. The train station was in the distance, coming closer slowly as they went.

“I’m so excited for the ceremony,” Fluttershy said. “I’m going to take part in the music, did you know? Miss Feathers is going to have a solo at the middle of the piece.”

Rarity looked at her quizzically. “Who’s Miss Feathers?”

“She’s the newest addition to my animal collection. She’s very sweet, but can be a bit aggressive once in a while.”

“So, Angel Bunny version two?”

The yellow mare giggled. “Well, yeah you could say that.”

“I’m very happy for you, Fluttershy. I’m super excited myself. I made the dresses for the ceremony. I actually created them a couple months ago on my spare time, so they have to be washed before they can be worn.”

“That’s great Rarity!” Fluttershy said joyfully. “And I believe the rest of our friends also have a part in the ceremony—huh?”

Fluttershy noticed a tickling sensation on her shoulder. She took a quick peek ahead to make sure she wouldn’t accidently run into anyone, and then looked down. A long hair was stuck in her fur, writhing against her coat from the breeze.

“What’s wrong, dear?” Rarity asked.

“Oh, it’s nothing, just a hair,” Fluttershy replied, and swept the purple hair off her shoulder, continuing to pace forward alongside the white unicorn.

“You were saying?” Rarity said.

“Huh?” The Pegasus asked before remembering where she’d left off. “Oh right. I believe Twilight is giving some sort of speech, Applejack is giving out apple pastries… I’m not exactly sure what Pinkie Pie is doing, but I know for sure Rainbow Dash is going to be participating in the Wonderbolts air show!”

Rarity gasped in excitement at the Rainbow Dash part. “Really?! How did I not know of this sooner?”

“I think she wanted to make it a surprise, but from what I know, she’s going to be performing a Sonic Rainboom after the first half of the show!”

Rarity couldn’t contain her excitement. “This is just marvelous! This is going to be the best New Year ceremony in Ponyville history!” She was practically screaming at this point. “I can’t imagine how Rainbow Dash feels! Her in the Wonderbolts show, I can’t wait to see—”

“Um, Rarity?”

The unicorn’s voice halted at Fluttershy’s words, and she looked at her friend. It was then that she finally noticed they had reached the train station, only everyone there had been staring at her, wondering what all the screaming was about. Rarity blushed in embarrassment and let out a quiet chuckle.

“We’re here.”

“Right, right,” Rarity said.

The two heard a low rumbling noise which grew louder and louder until suddenly a large, colourful train came into view, screeching as it slowed to a stop beside everypony at the station. The doors slid open and ponies began stepping inside.

“There we are!” Rarity said. She looked around quickly to her left and to her right. Almost everyone had looked away, but few still had their eyes on her. “Now let’s get on the train before I die of embarrassment.”

The two passed through the entrance and took a seat. Once everypony had gotten on, the doors closed, and the train accelerated down the railroad and into the distance.
> Story 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Spike made his way through the snow, leaving a trail of footprints in his wake. In the distance, he saw carousel boutique, standing tall over the many other buildings in Ponyville. Spike picked up the pace, racing towards the building until he finally arrived at the front door out of breath. He panted, releasing a bit of fire breath each time he exhaled. The green sparks from the fire were whipped away by the wind and taken up towards the blue, clear sky. He raised one of his hands towards the door and gave it three rapid knocks, waiting patiently in the cold, posed for when Rarity opened the door.

He saw the door handle rotate and the door nudged forward to reveal a white mare with a blue aura surrounding her horn.

“Hello and welcome to Carousel Boutique! How may I be of—oh, Spike, it’s you,” she said.

“Hi Rarity. Just came by to see what’s up,” Spike said, a wide smile painted on his face.

“Of course,” Rarity said, opening the door wider and revealing more of the interior. “Come in.”

Spike entered, and Rarity closed the door behind him. The dragon looked around the boutique, and noticed five mannequins to the right. He took note of the purple one with stars and white trails at the end, and the cyan one with a lightning bolt and a cotton outline. Rarity proceeded towards a table with a pair of scissors and cut fabric levitating above it, both which were surrounded by a faint blue aura.

“Whatcha makin’ there, Rarity?” Spike asked.

“It’s a dress for Applejack, for the New Year ceremony,” she replied, reanimating the scissors which began cutting a path through the fabric under control of her magic.

“Cool.” Spike then noticed a bare mannequin next to the table, next to which was a pile of different shaped pieces of fabric, all in different colors, mostly red and green.

“Applejack’s gown is especially difficult. The precision for this one is crucial.” Rarity informed, quiet as a result of her concentration. The levitating scissors rotated and began cutting into the fabric in a different direction. Doing so, Rarity muttered the words, okay, and, perfect, and, alright, one after another as she made progress. Finally the scissors came to a turn and Rarity gently made the blades close ever so slowly, cutting a perfectly straight line through the fabric as carefully as Rarity could until the scissors had completely closed.

“Perfect!” Rarity said euphorically and made the scissors descend onto the table while levitating the fabric shape towards the pile next to the mannequin.

Rarity let out a sigh of relief. “There we go. Now all I have to do is sew them them together and, voila! Applejack’s gown will be completed.”

Rarity began marching across the room towards the five dressed mannequins. “Isn’t this exciting? The ceremony is in only a week! I can just imagine, a whole room of ponies dressed in some of my best work, I can’t wait! Did you know Rainbow Dash is actually playing a lead role in the Wonderbolts air show?”

“Yeah, Twilight told me a couple days ago. Isn’t that awesome?”

“It’s not just awesome,” Rarity began, looking from mannequin to mannequin admiring her work of art. “It’s incredible! After the Wonderbolts swoop down towards the middle, up comes Rainbow Dash before sending out a glamorous ring of sparkling colors in every direction and then joining in beside the rest of the flyers!” Rarity squealed in excitement. “I can’t wait!”

Spike was confounded by how Rarity was acting over this. “Wow Rarity, it’s like you’ve never seen Rainbow Dash do a sonic rainboom before. Sure it’s cool and all, but don’t you get over it when you’ve seen her do it so many times?”

The unicorn turned her head to Spike. “Am I not allowed to be a little excited for my friend?”

A little, Spike thought to himself.

“And it’s not just the sonic rainboom I’m looking forward to; she’s flying with the Wonderbolts! That doesn’t get you jumpy in the slightest?”

“Well… no, not really, but that’s not to say I’m not happy for her, I think it’s great that she gets to participate in the air show with the Wonderbolts.”

“Eh, fair enough,” Rarity mumbled, and looked towards Spike. “While you’re here, do you want something to drink? Hot cocoa maybe?”

Spike thought for a bit. “Sure, that’d be nice. Thanks.”

“Perfect, I’ll be right back.” Rarity left the room, and came back soon with a cup, steam rising from the top. It floated towards Spike’s hands and he slipped his claws through the handle before the aura around it disappeared. Spike thanked her and took a sip. Creamy and rich. Spike smiled in approval, and took another sip, catching a marshmallow in his mouth. Being a fire breathing dragon, the temperature didn’t affect him much.

“So,” Rarity said. “How’s life at home?”

“It’s been okay. Twilight is making me reorganize a lot more now and she’s been asking me look through books on psychology and the pony psyche. Her behavior’s been a little off recently, but it’s no big surprise.” Spike brought the mug up and downed it halfway, ending up with a mouth full of melted marshmallow.

“Pony psyche? As much as I’ve known her, that topic has never really been her thing. Strange if you ask me.”

“Yeah, true, but if its literature, the topic doesn’t really matter to her.” He held the cup over his mouth, letting the rest of the liquid and marshmallows stream into her mouth. He swallowed and sighed in satisfaction.

“Thanks, Rarity. I should probably get going now; you never know when Twilight may need my assistance.”

Rarity used her magic and levitated the mug from Spike’s hands. “Alright then, have a safe trip back.”

“Bye Rarity!” Spike concluded before opening the front door and closing it behind him. The white winter scenery filled his vision as he stepped into the cool air. Feeling refreshed, Spike began his journey back to the castle, but before getting far, he saw Twilight walking by town square. Almost immediately after Spike spotted the magenta unicorn, she turned her head and saw where her assistant had gone off to, starting in his direction.

“Hey, Spike!” she called from afar as she approached Spike. “You went to Rarity’s again?”

“Well the New Year ceremony is coming up soon, I just wanted to see how she was doing, that’s all.”

“This is the fourth time you’ve been here this week; I think she knows you care about her. Come on, Spike, I’m going to need your help with running some errands.”

“At your service, any day, any time,” Spike said whilst bowing. Twilight laughed, levitating Spike onto her back and trotting back towards town square.

Wait, how did she know—, Spike thought. Ah, whatever, she has her ways.
> Story 3
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“And then they fly downwards, forming a ring around the center as I wait underneath the stadium. Then I open my wings wide, and push off the ground, flying into the air at an impossibly high speed and BOOM!” Rainbow screamed, fidgeting in her bed as she replayed her imagining of the show in her mind over and over again. “Sonic rainboom blasts off above, shining colors down on all the spectators. My ears are filled with the ongoing cheers of, ‘Rainbow Dash, you’re the best!’ ‘You’re the best flyer in all of Equestria Rainbow Dash’” Rainbow let out a loud cheer, but was interrupted when she heard a faint noise which sounded somewhat like a spark outside her door, followed by five quick knocks.

“Whoops,” Rainbow Dash said to herself. “Was I that loud?”

Sliding off the bed and onto her hooves, Rainbow headed over to the door and opened it. The sunlight from outdoors instantly flooded the inside of the cloud house, partially shaded by the purple unicorn standing on the front porch.

“Oh, hey Twilight,” Rainbow said, and was suddenly caught by surprise to see the unicorn standing at her door. “Twilight?!”

“Um… yeah?” Twilight responded, confused.

“How are you up here right now?” she spoke loudly, bewildered at the sight of Twilight in front of her, who gave Rainbow a deadpan look before raising her magenta wings high.

“Oh, that’s right,” Rainbow said, chuckling in embarrassment. She lifted a hoof and scratched the back of her neck. “Sorry, I haven’t quite adjusted to you being an alicorn yet.”

Twilight’s look was replaced with one of sympathy. “It doesn’t matter, I sometimes forget I’m an alicorn too, and I end up startling myself when I look in the mirror.”

“Yeah, I mean it’s not really that surprising, it hasn’t even been a year since you’ve had those things, but you’ve become one heck of a flyer in that short amount of time, I’ll tell you that,” Rainbow proudly announced, and opened the door all the way. “Come on in.”

“Thanks,” Twilight said, and entered the house. Rainbow closed the door and turned to Twilight.

“So, what’s up?” she asked.

“Nothing much, just wanted to see how you’re doing. The New Year ceremony is in a couple days.” As Twilight replied, her eyes darted around the room, examining the photos of past adventures of theirs on the cloud walls, and the shelves stacked with trophies and different awards from Rainbow Dash’s youth. She spotted the Best Young Flyer award on the top row of one of the shelves and was reminded of the day she performed that sonic rainboom at cloudsdale. She remembered that day like it was yesterday, and grew a sad feeling when looking at it for some reason.

“I know. It’s so exciting!” Rainbow said ebulliently, pulling Twilight out of her train of thought. She tried to recall where the conversation had left off. “By the way, I have a surprise. I’m going to be performing alongside the Wonderbolts during the air show!” Her eyes lit up and a wide smile was pasted on her face.

“I heard about that, congratulations Rainbow!”

Rainbow’s expression turned from blissful to disappoint. “You knew already? I wanted to surprise you, who told you?”

“Fluttershy actually spread the news to all of us.”

“Fluttershy? How’d she know?” Rainbow asked, almost shocked.

“No clue,” Twilight responded, now sending Rainbow towards the depths of confusion. “You are a Wonderbolt yourself though, so I kind of assumed you would be performing in the show anyways.” Twilight noticed Rainbow’s disappointed face and added. “According to Fluttershy, Rarity did freak out when she heard about the news.”

Rainbow giggled slightly. “Really? That must have been one heck of a show.”

“Considering everypony at the train station was staring at her, yeah, I’d say so.”

The two ponies laughed, enjoying their time together, even if it meant making fun of their friend to appease them. Rarity’s freak outs were nothing short of hilarious, whether she was angry, excited, or acting downright crazy, and all of her friends could admit that.

“Speaking of you in the air show, I heard you’re going to be performing a sonic rainboom.”

“That’s right! I’m going to be underneath the stadium until the Wonderbolts fly down towards the center of the stadium and form a ring. Then, I’m going to fly up through the circle formation and set off the rainboom just above the stadium.” She pictured what she was saying in her mind, increasing her hype for the occasion. “Isn’t that sick? This couldn’t be any cooler!”

“That sounds great, Rainbow.” Twilight’s voice lacked the enthusiasm Rainbow expected, and her face had the same disappointed expression Rainbow had before.

“What’s wrong?” Rainbow quizzically asked.

“Nothing. I just kind of wish I had a more exciting role during the ceremony. Applejack is providing apple pastries, Rarity is providing the dresses, Fluttershy is partaking in the music, Pinkie Pie… well to be honest I have no idea what she’s doing, and you’re flying with the Wonderbolts during the show. I’m just giving a speech that barely lasts a minute. I guess I wish there was more I could do.”

Rainbow looked towards the ground, thinking of ways to reply. “Giving a speech is exciting… kind of—I mean you’re giving a speech to everyone in Ponyville, and you’re a princess now which means everypony looks up to you. You should consider that an honor.”

“Yeah, I guess…” a smile appeared on the unicorn’s face. “Actually when you put it that way, I feel kind of better.”

“There you go, see? When you’re not happy about something, just look at the positives, you’ll feel a lot better about it.”

Rainbow was a very high spirited pony. That’s what Twilight liked about her. As pesky as she was on the outside, on the inside she truly was a smart pony. In some ways, Rainbow may have been smarter than Twilight.

“Thanks Rainbow.”

“No problem, what are friends for? Oh, by the way, I’m heading off to Cloudsdale to meet up with Spitfire in a bit for a practise, and you’re free to spectate so, wanna?”

“Thanks for the offer, but I have to go back home and practise my speech for the ceremony.”

“You mean your less-than-one-minute speech? I don’t think that’s gonna take much practise.”

“If I don’t have as big of a part in the ceremony, then I want to make the most of it and make sure my speech is perfect.” Twilight had taken note of what Rainbow said about finding the positives in something she wasn’t happy with. If she didn’t have as big of a part as the rest of her friends, she wanted to make that part as best as she possibly could.

“Alright then, suit yourself. I’m gonna go ahead and get my gear packed,” Rainbow said. “Next time I see you will most likely be at the ceremony, so prepare to be overwhelmed by my awesomeness!”

Twilight reached for the door handle, turning it and letting the sunshine brighten the room. “I’ll be sure to do that. Good luck.”

“See ya,” Rainbow concluded before Twilight shut the door, followed by the same teleportation spark she heard before. It sounded different than what it usually sounded like, but Rainbow ignored that detail and put on her safety goggles. She tucked her Rainbow Crash Wonderbolt suit under her foreleg and opened the front door. Stepping outside, she spread out her wings and pushed downwards, becoming airborne, and began making her way to the Wonderbolts headquarters.

A flash of light suddenly appeared beside Rainbow, who looked over startled. It was Twilight.

“On second thought, I think I have time to spare,” the lavender alicorn said. Rainbow shot her a grin, and they both flew towards the floating cloud city.
> Story 4
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Finishing the piece, the collage of birds waited patiently for the yellow Pegasus to give her comments on their performance.

Fluttershy smiled, satisfied by the progress they were making. Her animals had sung the piece much better this time; however she’d noticed a few flaws along the way.

“Very good, I’m noticing a lot of improvement,” she addressed. “There are just a few little things I want to point out. Around the middle of the piece, you three come in a little late—” she pointed towards the right of the bird stand, “—you come in right after Miss Feathers finishes her solo, so the moment she finishes her part, you begin.” She turned to her newest pet. “Your solo is much better, but try to relax when you’re singing your part, or else there’s going to be a lot of stuttering, and that takes away from the feel.”

Fluttershy wasn’t a harsh music teacher. No matter how many mistakes there were, she always pointed them out calmly and never put any pressure on her animals. She learned overtime that when she put stress on them—unintentionally, of course—they didn’t sing as well. After pointing out a few more minor errors, she was confident that they were ready to sing the piece again

“We’re going to start again from the top, and after this I’m going to ask each of you separately to play a section of the piece. You’re all doing fantastically! Ready?”

A synchronized nod from all the singers signaled Fluttershy to raise the baton in her hoof and wave it gently. Each bird took a breath and produced a whistle, the combination of all the notes creating a beautiful harmony, much to Fluttershy’s delight. Near the middle of the song, she directed the end of the baton towards Miss Feathers, who began singing on cue. She could tell her voice was much clearer, which Fluttershy was happy with. The expression was there, the feel was there, and overall, her performance was a gigantic step up from what it was before.

Before the solo was over, she saw Pinkie Pie crossing the bridge over to Fluttershy’s cottage. The Pegasus gestured for her animals to stop singing and take a break before descending to the ground to speak with the pink party pony.

“Hi Fluttershy!” Pinkie called out as her usual hyper self. Fluttershy was happy to see her, yet a little confused as to why she’d come.

“Hi Pinkie Pie, it’s nice to see you today,” Fluttershy said. “Is there something I can help you with?”

“Sort of,” Pinkie replied. “I had a question for you about the New Year ceremony. I won’t take up too much of your time!”

“Oh, that’s not a problem at all. What did you want to ask me?”

“You know how each of us has a part to play in the ceremony?” Fluttershy nodded to confirm she was following. “Well I don’t actually have a part in it right now and I’ve been stumped on how I can participate.”

Fluttershy thought for a few seconds before coming up with a solution. “You could bake some cakes to bring, that would be a good contribution.”

“Yeah, I was thinking that too, and I asked if I could, but it turns out Applejack is already bringing apple pies and what not. Apparently one pony bringing desserts is enough, and afterwards I wasn’t really sure how I could participate.”

“Oh, that’s unfortunate,” Fluttershy said.

“But this morning I came up with this super amazing idea on how I could help out!”

Fluttershy was curious now, since she herself couldn’t actually think of any other way that Pinkie Pie could participate. “Really? Um, well then… how?”

“Since you’re doing the music, I was thinking: maybe I could do it with you!”

Fluttershy’s eyes widened. “Wait, what?”

“Think about it, while your animals play their music, I’ll follow along with my multi-instrument thingy!” While Pinkie Pie was confident about this idea, Fluttershy thought otherwise.

“Actually, um… you see, I don’t know if that’s a very good idea,” she said. “The ceremony is tomorrow, and even I am not completely prepared. I don’t think it would be smart to make last minute changes like that.”

“Please, Fluttershy, it’ll be fun! So we mess up a bit, big deal!”

Fluttershy was unsure whether to let Pinkie Pie collaborate with her. Pinkie didn’t even know what songs she had composed yet, and she had less than a day to practice them, except Fluttershy didn’t want to upset one of her friends. She thought for a bit while Pinkie Pie waited eagerly in front of her. Pinkie Pie wasn’t a bad music player, as a matter of fact, she could play a wide variety of instruments very well. Maybe she could learn her songs before tomorrow. Fluttershy had doubt in her mind, but she pushed that aside and made her decision.

“Alright Pinkie, you can do the music with me.” She wasn’t happy with her decision, but if it made her friend happy, then it counted.

“Thank you, Fluttershy!” the party pony lunged forward and wrapped her arms around the Pegasus, which frightened her, having not expected that to happen. Pinkie’s warm grip lifted Fluttershy’s hooves off the ground for a few seconds before she let go of the Pegasus.

“Your… your welcome,” Fluttershy said—still flustered by Pinkie’s surprise seize on her—and brushed a hoof through her mane to fix it after Pinkie’s hug attack made it frizzy. Pinkie however wasn’t looking at her, but past her towards the few trees by the bridge.

“Hey, who are you?” Pinkie shouted over with a little excitement of meeting somepony new. Fluttershy turned to see who it was, but didn’t see anyone there. Puzzled, she looked back at Pinkie Pie.

“Who were you talking to?” she asked.

“I don’t know, I saw somepony by the trees,” Pinkie frowned in confusion. “Or at least I thought I did.”

Fluttershy looked back to do another scan towards the bundle of trees and with no pony in sight, she faced Pinkie Pie once more. “I think it’s just your imagination, Pinkie.”

“I don’t know, I could have sworn I saw somepony… Eh, you’re probably right!” Pinkie’s joyful mood returned and a wide grin was painted on her face. “So since we’re doing the music together now, what are the songs that we’re gonna be playing?”

“Oh right,” Fluttershy recalled. “I have the music sheets in my cottage. My animals and I are practicing by memory right now, so you can have a look at them.”

The pink party pony set off towards the cottage and disappeared behind its front door, and Fluttershy waited outside patiently for her to come back out with the sheets of music she composed. Pinkie came out with two pieces of paper in her mouth just as Fluttershy was starting to question what was taking her so long.

Pinkie’s eyes darted from left to right as she hummed the notes she saw on the paper. Fluttershy was a bit worried by the fact that she didn’t recognize what Pinkie was humming from any part of her song.

“Looks simple enough. I’m gonna go back home and get my instrument thingy. Be back in a jiffy!” and with that, Pinkie darted off over the bridge and beyond, vanishing from Fluttershy’s eyesight. She sighed and brought herself into the air, flying towards her animal singers to continue with the practice. Looking on the bright side of partnering up with Pinkie Pie, she grew confident that things would go well. Pinkie Pie was good with instruments and was most likely good at reading music. She probably just got the notes wrong because it was her first look at the piece.

Fluttershy raised the baton once again and directed her singers from where they left off, but not long after she saw Pinkie wasn’t lying when she said she would be back in a jiffy. It had barely been a minute since she left and she was coming back, now with a huge instrument combo on her back—a number of brass instruments attached together with an accordion behind her shoulder. Fluttershy couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen that thing.

“How did you get there and back so fast,” Fluttershy asked.

“I ran,” Pinkie replied as if it were obvious. “What are we waiting for, let’s get to practicing!”

Fluttershy sighed again and directed her attention to her singers. “Alright everypony, from the top.”
> Story 5
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fluttershy’s face was buried in her forelegs. She’d never felt this embarrassed in her entire life.

The yellow Pegasus sat at a table in the town hall’s main room which was filled almost to the brim with ponies from all across Ponyville. The majority of the ponies were talking to each other about the occasion or other random stuff. Some sat at tables to try out Applejack’s warm apple desserts, which they found to be rather delectable. The only reason Fluttershy was sitting at a table was because of the disaster that went down only minutes ago.

When it was time for Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy to play the music, they had gotten off to a good start, but around a minute into the song, Pinkie began playing incorrectly, which resulted in a downward spiral. Her animals were distracted and sang out of tune and at points came in too late or too early. After a while, one by one they stopped singing until Pinkie Pie was the only one left making noise. It had taken her a few moments to realize this, and saw that everypony in the room was staring at them awkwardly. Being one of Fluttershy’s worst fears, she quickly draped her mane in front of her face and sunk to the floor.

It hadn’t gone how she planned at all. She wasn’t that surprised that Pinkie Pie didn’t have a problem with their terrible performance. It was expected from someone like her with her type of personality. As for someone timid like Fluttershy, it was the complete opposite.

She sat at the table almost unmoving, covering every part of her face except her eyes which stared blankly at the rest of the ponies in the room. All of them were dressed in clothing from Rarity’s handiwork, and the numerous gems Rarity added made them sparkle in the light. Her attention was soon caught by Twilight Sparkle who was approaching the table Fluttershy was sitting at.

“Hey Fluttershy. How come you’re just sitting here? Come hang out with us,” Twilight said, curious as to why her friend was here and not with her and everyone else.

Fluttershy sighed and looked up at the alicorn. “Didn’t you see what happened? It was a disaster! And the way everypony was staring at me…” Her face fell back into her forelegs.

“So you messed up a little, it’s not the end of the world. Come on and join us, we were about to try out Applejack’s desserts.”

Twilight waited for a reply, but Fluttershy didn’t say anything. “Or we could come over here,” Twilight recommended. “Whichever you want.”

“No, it’s fine,” Fluttershy said. “I’m coming.” She got up from the table, her frown now upside down—as Pinkie Pie would say—and spotted the rest of her friends, excluding Rainbow Dash who was preparing for the Wonderbolt air show. They stood in a group at the center of the room amidst the rest of the ponies.

Twilight and Fluttershy went together to join the group as its members noticed the two winged ponies coming to meet up with them.

“Fluttershy, what ever took you so long to join us?” Rarity asked.

“It was nothing, sorry,” Fluttershy responded.

“Well what are we waiting for?” Rarity said. “Let’s see what Applejack has to offer.”

The group headed over to the dessert table where Applejack stood. The table wasn’t as crowded with pies and muffins as it was when the party started, which gave the impression that they must have tasted really good. Staring at the treats, Twilight felt her mouth water. Pinkie wanted a bite of Applejack’s desserts as soon as possible, as did Rarity and Fluttershy.

“Hey, y’all,” Applejack said. “Take whatever ya like. There’s apple crumble, croissant, and a whole load more tasty desserts. Had a little nibble at ‘em earlier. Pretty delicious if ah say so myself.”

Each pony thanked her before grabbing a plate one by one—Twilight and Rarity using their magic—and put whatever their stomachs desired onto it. Unsurprisingly, the top of Pinkie’s plate was barely visible as one of each dessert was piled onto it. They alone had half the table’s desserts gone, and they found a table to seat the four of them when they’d finished selecting what they wanted out of all the tasty looking desserts. Each pony grabbed the forks that were already placed on the table and dug in. Immediately after entering the food into their mouths, their taste buds were overwhelmed with the scrumptious taste of apple and cinnamon along with the cakey goodness.

“My my, this is one of the most delicious things I’ve ever tasted!” Rarity said with a mouth full of pie. “I’d pay ten times more for this than anything at Sugarcube Corner! No offense, Pinkie.”

Pinkie didn’t seem to care about Rarity’s remark. “None taken, this is delicious!” Rarity was a bit unnerved by the fact that Pinkie’s mouth was filled with chewed up food, bits flying out when she spoke.

“Wow, you’re right, this is amazing!” Twilight said, swallowing what was in her mouth and shoveling more in. Spike needs to try this! she thought, and looked around the room for her dragon assistant, and saw him at a table along with Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, and with a plate with leftover crumbs in front of him. Fluttershy was the only one with proper table manners, but also had to agree that the food was delectable.

As Rarity got up for seconds, she heard the words of the mayor. “Attention everypony!”

Each pony in the room looked towards Mayor Mare, who was holding a microphone with a wire running from from the bottom of it into the wall behind her.

“The Wonderbolts air show will begin shortly, so I’d ask that everypony follow me to the stadium.”

***

The stadium was one of Ponyville’s newest builds. Its production had begun several months earlier and was completed surprisingly quickly due to the large production team on the job. It wasn’t far away from the town hall, and it didn’t take long for the immigration from town square to the stadium. Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie all found a spot on the bleachers where they could sit together and view the show perfectly. Slowly, the seats were adorned with the different colors of ponies from across town as more and more found their spots in the spectator area.

“Fillies and gentlecolts!” was heard by everyone in the stadium, and all eyes panned towards the mayor who was standing at the center of the stadium on a circular metal looking slab with a microphone in hoof. “I would first like to thank everypony who attended Ponyville’s very first New Years air show. This has been an absolutely amazing year filled with much excitement, which by the way was made all the better by Twilight Sparkle’s arrival in Ponyville.” A round of applause rang across the stadium, and Twilight, wide eyed upon hearing her name gave a slightly embarrassed smile and waved her hoof in the air. “And I’m confident that 2015 will be a huge leap from last year. And now, without further ado, please welcome: the Wonderbolts!”

The mayor darted off the scene, and everyone looked around for the group of Pegasi once the mayor mentioned them, but they weren’t anywhere to be seen. A few ponies looked at each other questioningly, when they suddenly came into view from the other side of the stadium. Everyone’s eyes followed where the Wonderbolts flew, and in a synchronized motion they steered towards the left and changed their direction, headed towards the ground. They closed their wings all at once and it seemed like they would crash head first into the grass but they caught themselves before that happened and rocketed back up towards the sky. Applause sounded in the audience as everyone stared in awe at the talented Pegasi who flew in a row, passing the spectators.

“This has gotten off to an amazing start!” said Rarity through the volume of the rest of the audience.

“Yeah, but just wait until Rainbow Dash makes her entrance!” Pinkie responded and squealed, exhilarated by the show in front of her, as were the rest of her friends.

“Girls, look!” Twilight said and pointed to the current act the Wonderbolts were performing. The row of suited flyers divided in half, both halves parting ways, and they slowly started making a gradual turn before both halves were now headed towards each other. The divided groups passed each other, giving the illusion that they’d flown right through each other like ghosts, and this act was repeated until the divided groups combined again. The suited flyers next flew in a spiral formation upwards, causing a rush of wind that blew back the manes of all the spectators. After reaching a little over the height of the stadium, Pegasus after Pegasus launched themselves from the top of the spiral like they’d been thrown from the top of a whirlwind, and flew around the circumference of the stadium until the spiral was gone. Slowly, the Wonderbolts formed a hoop that got smaller as they moved in closer. They now descended towards the metal slab the mayor had stood on before until they were only meters from the ground. While everypony wondered in suspense what was about to happen, Twilight and her friends were hyped, actually knowing what was coming next. After a few more seconds, the slab seemed to open up into a passage that went somewhere underground, and as soon as it had opened completely, a blur of cyan and rainbow colors escaped from the tube and flew up through the hoop formation at an unbelievable speed.

And in that moment, a huge ring of shining colors exploded in Rainbow Dash’s wake and expanded, waving over the entire stadium. Rays of gold, orange and cyan showered down on every single spectator and they all found themselves involuntarily smiling at the beautiful array of rainbow colors above. An eruption of ear piercingly loud cheers threatened to destroy the entire complex as Rainbow Dash flew up alongside the rest of the Wonderbolts.

And in that moment, a huge ring of shining colors exploded in Rainbow Dash’s wake and expanded, waving over the entire stadium. Rays of orange, red and green showered down on every single spectator and they all found themselves involuntarily smiling at the beautiful array of rainbow colors above. An eruption of ear piercingly loud cheers threatened to destroy the entire complex as Rainbow Dash flew up alongside the rest of the Wonderbolts.

And in that moment, a huge ring of shining colors exploded in Rainbow Dash’s wake and expanded, waving over the entire stadium. Rays of grey, yellow and cyan showered down on every single spectator and they all found themselves involuntarily smiling at the beautiful array of rainbow colors above. An eruption of ear piercingly loud cheers threatened to destroy the entire complex as Rainbow Dash flew up alongside the rest of the Wonderbolts.

Rarity was bouncing from her seat, clapping her hooves at an impossible rate and adding to the already existing cheering. Fluttershy was up on her hind legs and her screams of content were surprisingly audible through everypony else. Pinkie threw her hooves into the air and stomped her hindlegs while Applejack merely clapped, and Twilight seemed to breathe a sigh of relief and mimicked Applejack.

The audience’s screams died down, but still continued as the Wonderbolts flew upwards, now with a new addition to the flock. Before they reached the height of the clouds, the Pegasi made a 180 degree loop and sped towards the ground leaving trails behind them. Finally, each flyer opened their wings to slow their movement and their hooves hit the ground. The cheering powered up once again, even fiercer than before as a series of fireworks shot up from the ground and all at once, they exploded sending out multicolored sparks that glistened in the sky.

Rainbow Dash looked around at all the ponies applauding in the audience and felt like she was about to cry. She couldn’t even describe the overwhelming happiness she was feeling if she tried. This was her dream, to fly with the Wonderbolts and have everypony cheering her on, and now her dream had become a reality!

“Best. Day. EVER!”
> Story 6
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight Sparkle made her way along the dirt road, trotting merrily whilst taking in the beautiful spring atmosphere. Celestia’s sun shone down on the land, providing a relaxing temperature, topped off with the light warm breeze that comforted her as she walked. The unicorn inhaled deeply through her nose, and in entered the strong, rich smell of earth and greenery. Today was a beautiful day for being outside, and Twilight hadn’t felt this refreshed in a while. Apple tree after apple tree fell behind her as she advanced towards Sweet Apple Acers to enjoy some time with her dear friend, Applejack.

She reached the top of the hill and was met with the familiar sight of the red family barn, the Apple’s home. Twilight looked around the apple orchard for the orange earth pony, scanning the vast landscape of apple trees. She found her mouth watering at the sight of all the red juicy apples, and jotted down in her head to remember to ask her for a couple of apples on her way back to the castle.

As her eyes locked on from tree to tree, she noticed Applejack in the distance, apple bucking as she did day in and day out. She was part surprised to see not another Apple, but Rainbow Dash helping her out. Both mares had been hammering away at the apple trees together, forcing the stems of the apples off their branches and allowing them to fall into the buckets below them. Twilight didn’t know that Rainbow was almost as good as Applejack at apple bucking, and Twilight assumed that Applejack may have given her lessons sometime recently. On occasion, she saw Rainbow slam her hind legs into a tree and they wouldn’t all come out with one hit, which was expected since apple bucking wasn’t something she did her whole life as opposed to Applejack.

Twilight summoned magic towards her horn, engulfing it in a white glow, and then set off the spell, submerging her in a blinding white light for only a moment before she landed  by Applejack.

Upon hearing the sudden noise beside her, Applejack yelped, and was thrown off balance after she had her hind legs up and aimed to buck another tree, causing her to completely miss her target.

“Gee Manetti, it’s just you Twilight. You gave me a fright!” Applejack said, catching a breath.

“Oh, sorry, didn’t mean to scare you,” Twilight apologized.

“Nah nah, it’s fine.”

“Oh, hey Twilight,” Rainbow Dash said, getting down on all four hooves after preparing to buck another apple tree. Twilight returned the greeting.

“What’s up?” Rainbow asked.

“Just dropped by to see Applejack, but I see the both of you are here together, so how are you guys doing?”

“Just dandy,” Applejack replied. “Rainbow here’s helping me with today’s chores. Said she didn’t have anything better ta do.”

“Well why didn’t you just ask me to help,” she replied, and then once again summoned magic at her horn, this time a levitation spell, and all the apples in that section of the orchard were encased in a purple aura before they all snapped right off of their branches. Twilight hasn’t expected the displeased looks that were pasted onto Applejack and Rainbow Dash’s faces.

“Twilight, no!” Rainbow said.

“What? Why?” Twilight asked, not understanding why Rainbow and Applejack reacted the way they did, considering she thought she was helping out. She kept the apples suspended below the branches they originated from.

“If we wanted ya to use magic, we woulda asked ya, but we wanted to get some exercise,” Applejack responded.

“Oh, sorry,” Twilight said, and with a different spell, she reattached all the apples to their trees. Applejack and Rainbow put on satisfied smiles and both resumed where they had left off. If Applejack knew Twilight could reattach all the apples, she wouldn’t have been as angry.

Taking notice of the few seconds of silence that followed, Applejack spoke up. “So, Twilight, how have things been for ya?”

“Not bad,” Twilight replied. “Things have been a little quiet at the castle though. Starlight’s been in her world of books recently, I’ve been lost in pages as well and there hasn’t been much overall conversation.”

Applejack drove her powerful hind legs into the bark of another tree and apples rained into the buckets below. “It definitely has been mighty quiet in Ponyville recently come to mention it, but remember that if you’re feeling lonely, your friends exist, and we’ll keep ya company whenever ya need.”

Twilight grinned at Applejack’s remark. Making others feel better for Applejack was like asking her to find hay in a haystack. Sometimes Twilight thought that should have been her cutie mark.

“Thanks Applejack,” Twilight said, although she felt like she had something else she needed to get off her chest.

“I know this is a weird question, but have any of you noticed anything weird lately?” she asked.

Rainbow Dash exhaled and wiped sweat from her brow. “What do you mean weird?”

“I mean like…” How would she explain this? “Have you felt strange or seen anything odd?”

“No,” Rainbow responded, confused by the question.

“Actually, kinda,” Applejack said, proceeding in front of another tree and bucking it, causing another storm of apples. “Was ah the only one that felt like… really dizzy when Rainbow performed that rainboom during the wonderbolts show?”

Applejack heard Rainbow chuckle to her right. “It’s obvious. Your brain couldn’t handle my awesomeness.” Applejack frowned, exhaling loudly through her nose while Rainbow stared with a silly smirk on her face. Twilight couldn’t help but let her lips curve into a smile.

Rainbow Dash’s eyes widened as she seemed to realize something. “You know what; come to think of it I did feel dizzy-ish during that rainboom also. I’m not really sure why. That shouldn’t happen for a Pegasus unless they’re spinning.”

“Huh…” Twilight mumbled under her breath. “Uh—I don’t really have much to do right now, do you think I can help out?”

Applejack grinned towards Twilight. “That’d be great! Do ya know how to buck apple trees without injuring yourself?”

“I can use magic for my own trees, can’t I?”

“That’s true. Great then, thanks a bunch for the offer!”

“Of course, what are friends for?”

Applejack watched as Twilight walked over to an apple tree, igniting her horn for a split second—she assumed was to warm up her horn, although she didn’t know why that would be necessary—and used her magic to strip it of its apples and let them fall into the buckets set up around the bottom of the tree. Applejack was glad to have such amazing friends who would take time out of their day to help her with her chores. She stood on her forelegs and slammed her hind legs into the tree behind her.

“Applejack, you already got that tree,” Rainbow Dash said.

Applejack looked up and it was as she said. All that was on the tree were leaves; its apples were already in the baskets below.

Odd, she thought. She didn’t remember bucking that tree at all…
> Story 7
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Everything was a blurry mess of light blue and gray. Rainbow Dash could barely see what was in front of her due to the high velocity at which she was flying. Tears were forced from her eyes as she zoomed across the sky at an impossible speed, waves of strong cool air ripping at her and forcing its way into her lungs. Clouds blew apart as she shot right through them, sending pieces of cloud blasting off in different directions. It felt amazing. Rainbow Dash loved to fly. Flying made her feel happy. It made her feel alive.

An idea popped in her head. It was time to go extreme.

Rainbow Dash angled her direction upwards and flew straight up towards the sun, flapping fiercely and throwing back huge chunks of wind with each flap. Her vision registered bright yellow sparkles through the layer of tears on her eyes as the sun stared down into them. She couldn’t see where she was flying at all, but the increasing coldness in the atmosphere let her know she was very high up at this point. When she was a good distance from the ground, she kept the momentum she currently had and looped around, now bolting towards the surface. She was suddenly surprised, until now she had no idea how high she really was. Ponyville was now a little speck surrounded by a large amount of greenery, but from this height she couldn’t tell the grass from the trees. She wasn’t focused on that though; she had a different goal in mind.

Tears were now leaking out of her eyes and being snatched away by the wind. She flapped furiously, and increased her speed more and more. A wall of air was forming around Rainbow and stretched as her body neared the ground. Ponyville was growing larger and larger as Rainbow went faster and faster. The wall of air was beginning to stretch and she would soon break through.

Rainbow Dash…

She ignored the strange voice and continued towards the ground. She would break through the sound barrier any minute now…

Rainbow Dash! 

Rainbow’s eyes shot open. Her vision was blinding for a bit but as her eyes adjusted to the light she realized she was in fact resting on a cloud and not plummeting towards Ponyville about to create a sonic rainboom. Rainbow groaned in frustration. She was having the best dream, and it was all ruined by…

The Pegasus looked down towards earth and saw that it was Applejack who had been calling her. She sighed.

“What is it, Applejack? I was in the middle of napping.”

Applejack rolled her eyes, mumbling to herself. “Thought so, why else would you be screaming to yourself on a cloud?” She spoke up with her next words. “Anyways, ah was wondering if you could spare some time tomorrow and call a rainstorm over at the farm. The water’s not working for some reason and our crops are starting to dry up.”

“Yeah, sure. I’ll be there in the morning with a raincloud.” The truth was Rainbow Dash just wanted Applejack to go away so she could continue napping.

“Thanks Rainbow. Ah’ll be gone then, see you tomorrow.” Rainbow replied with a simple u-huh, and Applejack turned and walked back down the path she came. Peace and quiet had returned, and now Rainbow could enjoy whatever was waiting for her in dream land.

After about ten minutes, the dream world replaced the real world once again. This time she dreamt that she was flying alongside the wonderbolts during a show at cloudsdale. She’d pretty much figured out it was a dream once the wonderbolts started performing rainbooms, but it was a cool dream nonetheless so she kept it going. Everypony in the audience cheered them on as they performed what they’d rehearsed during practices. At one point she noticed one pony’s voice in the audience stood out. It sounded familiar.

Rainbow Dash!

Rainbow’s eyes fluttered open a second time that day. Rainbow sighed in anger and looked over towards the ground, seeing that Applejack had returned yet again. Why did that pony keep interrupting her nap time?

“Applejack, I’m trying to nap!” Rainbow Dash complained. “You saw before I was napping up here, why couldn’t you wait until I’m done before talking to me?”

Applejack looked up at her confused. “Before? This is the first time I’m talking to you today.”

Rainbow groaned angrily, but didn’t bother to argue. She was too tired and not in any sort of mood to fight with her. She would just answer whatever questions Applejack had for her and then go back to sleep.

“What do you want, Applejack?”

“Do you think you could spare some time tomorrow and call a rainstorm over at the farm. The water’s not working for some reason and our crops are starting to dry up.”

Rainbow was really annoyed now. “You asked me that question before, and I said yes! I’ll come by tomorrow morning with a raincloud!”

“Oh, uh, alright then. Thanks.” Applejack walked away, puzzled by Rainbow Dash’s attitude and why she claimed she’d come by before. In the meantime, Rainbow attempted to return to dream world, but it wouldn’t take her. She waited over ten minutes, staring at complete darkness and waiting for dreams of her flying and having fun to return, but she remained on the cloud, impatiently waiting for sleep to come. Eventually she gave up with a sigh and rolled onto her back, staring into the beyond.

Rainbow’s ears perked up when she eventually heard hoofsteps approaching her location.

“Hey, Rainbow Dash.” It was Applejack’s voice again. Rainbow was a bit pissed at Applejack for preventing her to be able to resume napping, but didn’t complain.

“Yeah?” she responded simply.

“Ah was wondering if you could spare some time tomorrow and call a rainstorm over at the farm. The water’s not working for some reason an—”

“Is this some sort of prank or something?” Rainbow Dash said, cutting Applejack off.

“Huh?” Applejack responded, confused.

Rainbow stood up on her cloud and looked down towards the earth pony. “You came to me earlier in the day asking if I could make it rain at Sweet Apple Acres, and I said yes. Then you came to me again a half an hour later asking me the same question, and I said yes. And now you’re coming to me for the third time asking the same question. I don’t know if you’re doing this on purpose but it’s really annoying!”

Applejack retorted, saying that this was the first time she’d come and ask her for the favor, but Rainbow Dash’s attention was drawn by the sudden appearance of a shadow behind one of the trees by the path. Right before it disappeared, Applejack stopped talking for a moment.

“Ah’m sorry, ah don’t know what’s gotten into me today,” she said.  “Thanks for the favor, ah’ll be on my way now.” She turned and started back in the direction of Sweet Apple Acres. Rainbow lay on her cloud, confounded. She had no idea what was up with that pony today.

The sky’s hue transformed from light blue to yellow, revealing that Luna would soon bring night upon Equestria. Rainbow opened her wings and started into the sky after Rainbow decided that now would be a good time to head home and crash. Being a fast flyer, her cloud house became visible in the distance in only a matter of seconds. She landed on the front porch and entered her house, knocking the front door closed with a hind leg. She used her wings to carry herself to her bed, snuggling under the covers and finding a comfortable spot on the mattress before closing her eyes and waiting for sleep to take her in its embrace.

She thought she heard something move, and then suddenly she felt her whole body rise in temperature, and the feeling of the mattress pressing against her back disappeared. Before she could question it, she had immediately fallen into a deep slumber.

***

The brightness of the morning leaked through Rainbow’s closed eyelids, and they fluttered open. Her eyes felt rough, and she brought her hooves up to her eyes to rub sleep out of them. She wanted to go back to bed but she remembered she had to get a raincloud from the weather factory for Applejack’s crops.

She groggily threw the covers off her body and got out of her bed and onto her hooves. She felt momentarily dizzy but was soon stable on her hooves. After performing some morning stretches, she made her way to the bathroom and looked in the mirror. Her rainbow mane was a complete mess, so she opened the cabinet above the sink, pulled out a hair brush, and fixed up her hair until it looked the way it usually did. Satisfied, she was ready to take on the day.

She let out a long yawn to let out any remnants of sleep left, and then started towards the front door, opening it, stepping outside her cloud house and closing it behind her. It was a bit cool this morning, being that it was early in the day. She took in the beautiful smell of nature and humidity, and then took off towards the cloudsdale weather factory.
> Story 8
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Apple Bloom rested her head on her forelegs, her eyes half closed. She was barely listening to Cheerilee’s lesson; she desperately wanted the school day to end so she could hang out with her fellow crusaders. Cheerilee was giving her class some math lesson about graphs and variables. Apple Bloom caught a few words out of her lesson, and almost half of the class had also tuned Cheerilee out, twirling their pencils on their desks or just idly staring at their desks waiting for the school bell to indicate the end of class. Only a few of the students in the classroom paid attention and wrote down some notes on the subject, but even they didn’t keep that up for long before they dropped their pencils and Cheerilee’s words were in one ear and out the other.

The school teacher levitated a stick of chalk with her magic and brought it against the green board to demonstrate a math equation. Scootaloo in the meantime leaned towards Apple Bloom’s desk.

“Do you actually know what any of this means?” she whispered, and Apple Bloom looked over at her.

“Not really, sorry. Ah haven’t been listenin’.” 

Scootaloo quickly scooched back to her spot when she heard the scraping of chalk on the board halt. Cheerilee turned back towards the class and revealed the mathematical formula she put down on the board. She wasn’t surprised when almost everypony in the class looked at the formula with a puzzled frown, and she didn’t bother asking any of her students what they thought it was.

“This is an example of an algebraic formula. This is what’s called a linear function, but don’t worry, you’re not learning about linear functions for another few years,” Cheerilee explained. A few fillies at the back of the room picked up their pencils again and wrote this down, but she noticed a lot of the class wasn’t listening to a word she was saying.

“I hope most of you are paying attention because you’re all going to have a test on this in the upcoming week.” Everypony who hadn’t been listening to Cheerilee before immediately looked up and then dug into their school supplies for a pencil and their scrapbooks. The teacher smiled and resumed her lesson.

Apple Bloom looked up at the clock above the green board, and was thankful to see that there were only five minutes left until the end of class. She looked back at Cheerilee, who was further explaining the equation she wrote on the board, and Apple Bloom noted in her book what her teacher was saying and copied down what she wrote on the board.

When she looked back up however, her eyes were defocused from her teacher, and drawn towards the window by the entrance of the school. Standing outside was the purple alicorn, Twilight Sparkle, who looked into the room through the glass with a smile on her face. When Cheerilee had turned her back on the class once again to write something else on the board, Apple Bloom raised her hoof and waved towards the window. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo noticed this and looked in the direction Apple Bloom was facing, and they too waved at the alicorn. Twilight noticed the three fillies and waved back with a look of glee on her face. A couple of other students saw Twilight through the window and started whispering to each other, until Cheerilee turned to face her students again. Everypony stopped whispering to each other and looked back towards their teacher. Cheerilee noticed that a couple of her students were looking towards the window, and as she turned to look in that direction, Apple Bloom saw Twilight’s horn glow and she teleported away instantly.

“What I want you all to do tonight,” Cheerilee began, “is just review over everything we talked about today so that you have a better understanding of the lesson.”

The school bell rang, and everypony in the room began closing their notebooks and putting their supplies into their saddlebags.

“We’ll continue this lesson tomorrow! Have a nice day, everypony!” Cheerilee shouted over the ruckus of chairs dragging across the floor and fillies rushing to the door, free from another boring school day. Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo grouped up after packing their saddlebags and left the school house after the rest of their classmates.

As the three of them walked home, they talked to each other about random stuff, like how nice it was that they weren’t being picked on by Diamond Tiara or Silver Spoon anymore. They mostly discussed their cutie marks and who else they would need to help discover their special talent. The topic of Twilight arriving at the school came up but didn’t stick around for long before they switched the topic to something else.

The three friends arrived at Carousel Boutique first, subtracting one member from the group of friends, and afterwards, the two of them reached Scootaloo’s house, leaving Apple Bloom on her own. She walked by herself, taking left and right turns on Ponyville’s roads, waving at a few ponies as she passed and getting a smile in exchange. She was eventually greeted with the sight of the apple orchard and the dirt path that lead towards the family barn. Starting down the path, she began her daily ritual of admiring all of the Apple family’s work and taking in the beautiful smell of fertile earth.

She reached the end of the path and found herself in front of the Apple family barn, and was glad that she would now be able to relax in the comfort of her home. Approaching the front door, she entered the barn, and was greeted with the sweet smell of apple cider.

“Applejack, Granny, Big Mac! Ah’m home!” she announced, and put her saddlebag on the floor, leaning it against the wall.

“Welcome home, little sis’” Apple Bloom heard her big sister Applejack say, and saw her in the kitchen by the stove with a pot of bubbling liquid on one of the burners. “How was school today?”

“Really boring,” Apple Bloom replied. “Miss Cheerilee taught us about mathematical equations, and ah didn’t even understand half the stuff she was sayin’.”

Applejack smiled, reminiscing. “Ah used to have the best grades in math when ah was a filly. Maybe afterwards we can sit down and ah’ll tutor ya a little bit.”

Apple Bloom was about to say no, but she thought about it for a bit, and it actually didn’t sound like a bad idea at all. It meant spending with her favourite sibling, and she would never turn down an opportunity to do that.

“Okay, sure,” Apple Bloom said.

“Perfect,” Applejack said, and picked up a wooden spoon, stirring around the contents inside the bubbling pot. 

“Oh yeah, Twilight came by the school today,” Apple Bloom said, just now remembering.

“She did?” Applejack responded. “What’d she talk ta y’all about?”

“She didn’t come in to talk to us; she just stood outside by the window looking into the classroom.”

Applejack frowned. “She just stood outside lookin’ in through the window? Why would she be doin’ that?” she asked rhetorically. “She knows she can’t be peepin’ into the school like that. Did Cheerilee notice?”

“No, she teleported away before Cheerilee saw her.”

Applejack started talking to herself for a little bit before she looked back towards Apple Bloom. “There’s apple cider on the stove here, want me ta pour you a mug?”

“That’d be great, thanks!” Apple Bloom happily responded, and Applejack grabbed a wooden mug out of one of the cabinets and spooned steaming hot cider into it. She extended the hoof holding the mug of cider towards Apple Bloom and she took it from her.

“Take your cup of cider up to your room and get done whatever school work you have, and later we’ll sit in the living room and ah’ll help you out with math.”

“Great!” Apple Bloom chirped and carried her saddlebag and her mug of cider up the stairs and to her room. Applejack soon heard the door upstairs open and then shut. She headed back to the stove and lowered the heat to a simmer before placing the lid on the pot of cider. She started to think about what her little sister had said about Twilight peering into the classroom through the window.

“Ah wonder what’s up with that pony,” she said to herself.
> S̨t̕o̢ry̵ 9͘
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lyra sat, slouched on a bench in the park by town square, gazing ahead at nothing. The light coolness that hung in the air made her occasionally shiver, and the distant houses and structures were drowned in mist, evaporating into a light-gray void. Bon Bon didn’t do much differently herself, extracting whatever entertainment she could out of examining her hooves. Neither of the two friends were saying a word to each other, and they hadn’t talked that day besides exchanging the word word, hi. That was several hours ago. What neither of them knew is that they were both waiting for the other to say something, but no words came out of their mouths.

It was not like them to be quiet like this. Usually they sat and began talking hours on end about silly stories or personal secrets of theirs, but today, they greeted each other, sat down, and it seemed as though their lips were suddenly stitched shut. Even passersby wondered why them two conversing for hours couldn’t be heard in the background, considering ponies had become so accustomed to it.

Lyra finally decided to start some sort of conversation so that they wouldn’t be just sitting there all day and saying nothing.

“So,” she said, startling Bon Bon who hadn’t expected Lyra’s sudden voice after hours of silence. “How have things been for you recently?”

“Okay,” Bon Bon replied.

And just like that, silence reigned yet again. Lyra exhaled softly, bugged by the lack of talking. By now, her throat should have been desert dry from hours of conversation. She shivered again from the cold, and attempted once again to engage a conversation.

“Kinda cold today, huh?”

“Yeah, a bit,” Bon Bon replied.

The silence that pursued made Lyra begin to question why they weren’t talking to each other. She did partially know the reason, and it was the reason she hadn’t been talking herself.

She felt like something was wrong. There was something off about the atmosphere of her surroundings; it didn’t feel right for some reason. She thought of it like a puzzle piece in the wrong spot. Something was supposed to be one way, but it was another way. She wondered if Bon Bon felt the same way.

“Hey, Bon Bon,” Lyra said.

“Yeah?”

“Does anything feel… strange—to you?”

Bon Bon took her eyes off her hooves and looked over at Lyra. “Strange, how exactly?”

Lyra thought about how she would respond. “I mean, just everything around us. The air, the park we’re in… does any of it feel weird to you?” She didn’t know if she was explaining it right. It was difficult to find the right words for what she was trying to imply.

Bon Bon looked down at the ground, seeming to think about what Lyra had said. Had she actually felt the same thing her friend was feeling? Lyra pondered this as she waited for Bon Bon to reply, and it seemed like almost a minute before she finally spoke.

“I’m glad I’m not the only one.”

Lyra’s eyes widened once Bon Bon spoke those words. She thought she was just crazy and that her mind was playing tricks on her. But to know that her friend had the exact same feeling as her, it was chilling.

“You feel it too?” Lyra said, almost shocked at her friend’s remark.

“It’s weird,” Bon Bon said, looking back at Lyra. “Even though we’ve come here so many times, it doesn’t feel like the same place.”

Lyra scanned the rest of the foggy park, thinking about what Bon Bon had said. The air felt thicker, the cold was unnatural. It was like someone had flipped a switch and they were in a completely different version of the park. She couldn’t understand it, but after a few moments of thinking, she drew up a conclusion.

“I think we should probably go somewhere else, what do you think?”

She expected a yes to come right after that statement, but instead, silence took its place.

“Bon Bon?” she asked, and looked beside her, puzzled as to why her friend wasn’t responding.

Bon Bon wasn’t there anymore.

She turned and put a hoof on the backrest so she could look around and see where Bon Bon had gone. She was nowhere to be seen on the roads, town square, or anywhere else. Turning back to the rest of the park, she saw Bon Bon wasn’t there either. She was just gone…

“Bon Bon?!” she called out.

“Why are you shouting, I’m right next to you.”

Lyra gasped and twisted her head at lightning speed. Bon Bon was back, sitting next to her as if nothing happened.

“What in the hay just happened to—t—t—o—o—I—o—I—I really think we should get out of here…”

Bon Bon was about to ask what just happened, but before she could, her body was engulfed in a sudden rise of heat, like she’d been set on fire. Once the strange warmness was gone, she couldn’t remember what she was going to say.

“Sorry, what?” Bon Bon said, suddenly feeling a slight grogginess.

“I said we should go somewhere else. There’s that burger restaurant down the street, how about we head there and get something to eat.”

Bon Bon put a hoof to her brow. “Um—sure, why not.” She quickly shook her head to knock her senses back in order, and they both got up and started towards the restaurant.

Navigating their way to their destination proved difficult because of the heavy mist swarming through Ponyville. It helped that the two of them knew their way around the town like the back of their hooves, but that didn’t stop it from taking over ten minutes to reach the restaurant.

The restaurant was a rather large, but generic wooden structure. Two doors stood side-by-side at the front of the restaurant with several windows on either side. Straw roofed the restaurant, and a billboard that displayed a hayburger and deep-fried horseshoes hung off the thatching above the double doors. Both mares pushed the doors open and walked inside.

Rows and rows of round tables lay on the wooden floor in front of them, almost every single one of them occupied with three to four ponies per table. The room’s light was supplied through the windows, and since it wasn’t that sunny of a day, the interior was a bit dark. Thankfully it wasn’t too dark that Lyra and Bon Bon couldn’t see each other, or where they were going. The two mares were surprised that there seemed to be more ponies in this restaurant than they could count outside.

They both walked among the numerous amount of tables and munching ponies, looking to find a table with empty seats. After a while of searching, they found one by a window, and chose to sit there.

Bon Bon put her forelegs on the wooden surface of the table and lay her head on them. Lyra meanwhile stared out the window at a foggy Ponyville. She saw a few ponies passing by the restaurant, minding their business and carrying saddlebags on their backs. Other than that the roads were unusually empty.

She noticed that the feeling from earlier at the park was still there. She didn’t understand why though. She tried to forget about it, but it was nagging at her, and the knowledge that it was there wouldn’t let her put it aside. She knew something was wrong.

“Excuse me?”

Lyra jumped in her seat as the sudden voice freed her from her thoughts. She turned her gaze off the window to face the pony who had spoken, seeing that a waitress had come over to the table for their order. The waitress was a unicorn, and she wore the typical white vest.

“I’ll—uh… take a hayburger with small deep-fried horseshoes and a grape soda, please,” Lyra said, mostly referencing the billboard. The waitress wrote this down and turned her head towards Bon Bon.

“Um—same thing as her,” she said, motioning towards Lyra. Writing this down, the waitress left the two and proceeded through a door into a backroom.

Lyra hoped that munching on some food would help clear her mind. It had been a weird day so far, and in the past, food had always helped after stressful or tiring days. She smiled, looking forward to the meal awaiting her, and looked back towards the window.

“What the—?” Lyra said suddenly, catching Bon Bon’s attention as she looked up from the table.

“What? What is it?”

“I just saw somepony outside the window,” Lyra explained.

“So what?” Bon Bon asked.

“She had a look on her face; it was like she was terrified of something...”

Bon Bon turned towards the window, looking for the pony in question, but couldn’t find whoever Lyra was talking about.

“Where was she?” Bon Bon asked. “Should we like… help her or something?”

“I don’t know,” Lyra replied, looking out the window for whoever she saw. “Strange… it kinda looked like

/watch?v=RM9UdaIeSiU
> S͢t̞o̸r̯̘y ̡̰̝̜1̱͝0̛̙̞
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

the baby dragon sighed, folding the pillow over his ear, but the sounds of trotting and objects moving weRe still audible. he pushed the pillow harder against his ear to block off the sound, but knew he wouldn’t get any sleep that way. he let out a frustrated groan, opening his eyes and rolling onto his back.

this was the third time this wEek that twilight had kept spike up in the middle of the night because of her research. he didn’t even know why twilight had to do her research during the night. irritated, he puzzled over why she couldn't just wait until the morning and do it then. she had all morning and all afternoon to do whatever work she needed to do, but she decided to stay up at night and bother spike.

he angrily kicked the blanket off him, and jumped out of his crib. rubbing his eyes groggily, he made his way to the bedroom’s door, opening it and stepping out into the long, confusing corridor. the door across from him was wide open, the room it led to brighTly lit. he walked weakly towards the room, squinting because of the immediate increase in brightness. once his eyes had fully adjusted, he stepped into the room and looked around.

a large number of books were strewn about on the ground, several open with folded pages and others piled on to each other in an unorganized mess. the bookshelves were filled with gaps of different sizes, almost completely devoid of any actual books. over to the right of the room, a table carried tall stacks of different sized books. the stacks looked to be almost a few feet long each. and then there was twilight sparkle, with a book in front of her and drowned in literature. her mane was disheveled, strings of blue and pink untidily sticking out. spike thought about how rarity would react if she saw twilight right now, depleting a bit of his irritation.

every few seconds, a page would be encased in an aura and flipped over to reveal more words. every so often, she sighed, most likely because she was finding useless information. eventually, twilight shut the book she was reading and tossed it over her head. the book hit the floor with a thud, pages dancing as it bounced once and landed, open and with bent pages. spike learned that muSt have been how most of the other books ended up in the condition they were in. twilight fired up her horn again and levitated a book off one of the piles, opening it to the first page and lowering it onto the table.

spike Approached the book twilight telekinetically threw, and examined the page it landed on. at the center of the left page was a pony’s brain. the cortices and lobes were separated with different colors, and on the top and bottom of the page were brief paragraphs describing the tissues in the diagram. on the right page was the same thing, except the header read, ‘the griffon brain.’

checking out the rest of the books on the floor, he found books that dealt with psychology and studies of the mind, which struck him as odd. he’d never seen her so interested in these topics before.

something suddenly landed right next to spike, causing him to yelp and jump back in surprise. upon hearing this, twilight turned her head, seeing her assistant by the door to the room.

“spike?” twilight said. “what are you doing in here? you should be in bed.”

spike looked up at twilight, who had bags under her eyes and had pieces of hair hanging over her eyes. he was surprised by his mentor’s appearance, and could tell she definitely needed sleep.

“i can’t sleep,” spike answered, furrowing his brow. “all the noise you’re making is keeping me awake.” he approached twilight, looking around at the mess of books practically making the floor invisible. “why do you have to do research now?”

“i’m sorry for waking you, spike; i probably should have cloSed the door.” twilight said, but spike’s gaze was still focused on her like he was expecting more from her.

“you didn’t really answer my question yet. why are you reading and tossing books around now when you could be doing that in the morning? you should be getting sleep right now.”

“i’m sorry,” twilight apologized again. “just know that what i’m doing is very important.”

spike glanced once again at the mess of books throughout the room. ”what are you even reading psychology books and doing all this research for anyways?”

“it’s for, um—listen, you don’t have to worry about me, alrIght? you should go back to the bedroom and get some sleep. i’ll close the door so that i don’t bother you. you’re a baby dragon after all, you need rest.”

“and you don’t?” spike retorted. “i mean, have you looked at yourself? you’re a mess, and you look exhausted. and let’s not forget that you’re a princess. princesses need lots of rest just like baby dragons need a lot of rest.”

twilight couldn’t help but appreciate how much spike cared about her wellbeing, whether in dangerous situations or just getting some sleep. his spirit reminded her of the rest of her friends. she let loose a smile, looking back at the stacks of books on the table, and once again at spike.

“alright, you win. i’m coming with you.”

“good,” spike said, his frown disappearing and a smile adorning his face.

twilight lit her horn, and spike saw a purple aura surround all the books on the floor and on the table. she gave her head a quick nod towards the right, and all the floating books returned to their respectable places on the shelves. any evidence that there had been chaos in this room before was now gone. with a yawn, twilight followed spike as he walked out of the room. twilight lit her horn for a second time, and the light in the room turned off, followed by the room’s door shutting.

the two walked through the opposite doorway in the hall. spike made his way to the crib while twilight’s horn glowed for a third time, causing the bedroom door to shut. she headed over to the bed, climbing in and draping the covers over her, up to her flanks.

“goodnight, spike,” twilight said, in a whisper.

“night, twilight,” spike costume said back, and twilight slid her way deeper under the covers. the overwhelming comfort of the mattress pressing against her back, combineD with the warmth of the sheets immediately dropped her into a deep slumber.
> Story 11
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The day was perfect. It was warm, the air was fresh and cool, and not a trace of cloud could be seen in the sky. The streets were filled with ponies of all ages, and fillies occupied all the swings and jungle gyms in the parks. Everyone in Ponyville had taken the opportunity to leave their houses and enjoy this fine, sunny day.

Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and Rarity sat together at an outdoor table beside a café, enjoying the clean air and warm summer sun as much as everyone else. The three friends chatted about different stuff, Rainbow Dash rambling on about hanging out with the wonderbolts, Fluttershy, about her life with animals, and Rarity bragging about her incomes from her boutique in Manehattan. It wasn’t all that interesting, since each mare only enjoyed their own talk.

They wondered however why Twilight wasn’t there to join them. She was supposed to meet up with them at the café almost a half an hour ago, but she still wasn’t here. Rainbow was the first to bring it up.

“Does anyone know why Twilight isn’t here yet?” Rainbow impatiently asked, to which the response was a simple shrug from Rarity and Fluttershy.

“Maybe she has some friendship studies to catch up on?” Fluttershy suggested in her usual soft voice.

“I don’t believe that’s the case,” Rarity said. “Her knowledge on friendship is quite immense as it is. However, she could be giving Starlight Glimmer some friendship lessons, and it’s taken a little longer than expected.”

“I wish she could deal with those things and get here already; we haven’t seen each other in weeks,” Rainbow Dash said.

Rarity’s attention was caught by a distant spark. Looking in its direction, her lips curved into a smile.

“Speak of the devil, she’s here!”

The other two looked in Twilight’s direction, pleased that she was finally here. As Twilight approached them however, their smiles faded slightly once the different details of her appearance were more distinct.

Her brow was drenched in sweat. Hairs from her mane stuck out, strung all over the place untidily—much to Rarity’s discontent—and she looked like she hadn’t slept in weeks… or even months.

Twilight stopped by the table, panting for breath, like she’d just run a marathon.

“Hi, Twilight,” Rainbow awkwardly spoke.

“Hi!” Twilight responded in a way that made Rainbow lean back slightly in her seat. “Sorry I’m late… great day today, right?”

Twilight’s right eye twitched, making the three mares at the table nervous. They exchanged glances before looking back at Twilight.

“What ever is the matter, darling?” Rarity asked, slightly freaked out by Twilight’s attitude. “You look awfully stressed, and your mane is a disaster! Are you feeling alright?”

A drop of sweat fell from Twilight’s chin. “Why wouldn’t I be? It’s a great day, everypony’s happy. Of course I’m fine.”

Rainbow wasn’t buying it. “Twilight, you look like you’ve been to tartarus. Is there something bothering you? ‘Cause if there is, you can ask us for help.” As she spoke, she remembered the last time Twilight acted like this, and that almost ended horribly.

Twilight’s eye twitched a second time, and she quickly lifted a hoof to rub her eyes. “Things have just been stressful lately, but it’s no big deal. I’m fine, really.” Her pace of breathing didn’t change. As a matter of fact, it seemed to get faster. Another drop of sweat fell to the ground, and she brushed a foreleg across her brow, collecting a river of sweat in her fur.

“Why don’t you sit with us? It’d be nice to catch up since we haven’t seen each other in a while,” Fluttershy said in a serene voice.

Twilight shook her head, sending droplets of sweat from her mane in different directions. “Uh—um… That would be nice, but I actually have to go now, there’s work and stuff back at the castle to do.”

“Leave? You just got here!” Rainbow complained, but before she finished her sentence, Twilight fired up her horn, engulfing herself in a glow, and teleported away. Rainbow only stared in confusion at where Twilight once stood.

The other two mares didn’t know how to respond to what just happened. As uneasy as they felt by the way Twilight acted, they puzzled over what could have been wrong with Twilight. Questions upon questions coursed through the three mares’ heads. Why did Twilight seem so stressed? Did something bad happen to Twilight during the long while they hadn’t seen each other? Whatever the problem was, it was clear Twilight didn’t want her friends to know. She would have otherwise opened up about it.

“Is it just me, or…” Rainbow said, still looking in the direction where Twilight was before.

“Yeah, you’re right, Rainbow Dash,” Rarity said, not needing Rainbow to finish her sentence to know what she would have said. “What’s up with that pony, today?” she asked rhetorically.

“I’m kind of worried about her,” Fluttershy said. “I think somepony should check up on her.”

“I agree. I’ll go and see what’s the matter,” Rarity volunteered, getting up from her seat and walking away.

“When you’re done, we’ll still be here. Come back and tell us how it went!” Rainbow called out to a now distant Rarity, who turned her head towards her friend and gave her a nod.

She made her way down the street, unsure of what to expect from her confrontation with Twilight. Seeing the castle in the distance, she imagined ways that their conversation would go. Taking a turn at an intersection, the main entrance of her destination came into view.

Seeing the castle like this was always a reminder of the adventures her and her friends had been on, and the accomplishments they’d achieved. Not only was this structure simply divine, but also a highlight of what amazing friends she had, and it would always have a special place in her heart. She remembered the time she first laid eyes on the castle, staring in awe at the beauty in front of her. Those were memories she would cherish for as long as she lived.

Lost in thought, she didn’t realize she’d bumped her horn on the castle’s front doors. Her forehead throbbed, and she lifted a hoof to rub the base of her horn. She now had a slight headache, which disappointed her, but that was the least of her worries. She encased the large crystal doors with her magic and pushed it open. Light leaked through the growing gap between the two doors, revealing the crystal interior of the castle. She hadn’t been here in quite some time, and she smiled, glad to see it again in all its glory.

“Twilight, dear? It’s me, Rarity!” Rarity called out through the long, empty hallway. The walls copied her, playing back her words like a tape player, however she got no response in return. She assumed that Twilight was in the library, since that’s where she almost always spent her time. Rarity took the nearest right, went up a flight of stairs and started down the corridor to her left. She had memorized the entire layout of the castle, so she had no problem finding her way around. A week after Twilight had earned her castle, she sketched out a map of it, showing the locations of all the different rooms. She gave a copy of it to all of her friends, and after a couple weeks, Rarity didn’t seem to need the map anymore.

Eventually she reached the library door. The door was wide open, and Rarity saw a few books lying by the doorway. The sound of hooves from inside the room made it clear somepony was here. Approaching the room, she peeked inside, inspecting the library. She was glad to see that Twilight was there, although she still had the same messed up and sweat drenched mane as before. She was pacing back in forth with a look of stress on her face, picking up some books from the floor with her magic.

“Twilight?” Rarity said, causing Twilight to yelp and release the book from her magical grip. Twilight and Rarity’s eyes met.

“Oh, I’m sorry for scaring you,” Rarity apologized.

“Its fine,” Twilight said, levitating a couple books off the ground and placing them in the shelves’ gaps. “What are you doing here?”

“I was worried about you, so I came in to see how you’re holding up.”

“Rarity, I told you, I’m fine,” Twilight said with a hint of coldness in her voice, hinting at Rarity that she should leave her be for now.

“Alright,” Rarity said simply, turning around and stepping back into the hallway.

Rarity noticed the door in front of her was open. She captured a quick glance in there before beginning to make her way towards the throne room.

She suddenly stopped in her tracks. Something in that room had caught her attention.

Rarity turned, and walked towards the room in question. In it was a large bed against the back wall and a tiny crib by the door. It was evidently a bedroom, however what had caught her attention was right next to the bed against the wall. A large, wooden chest sat on the floor, pushed open slightly because of whatever contents filled it. The chest was covered in cobwebs and it looked rotten, bits peeling off and hanging. Its details disgusted Rarity, but she approached it nonetheless. Placing a hoof on the lid, she pushed it upwards, revealing its contents.

Newspapers filled the chest over the brim. Rarity stared, unable to imagine why Twilight had so many newspapers stashed in her bedroom. She lifted a few of the newspapers on the top, noticing that they all contained the same articles. This made Rarity very confused, and she lifted a newspaper up close to her eyes since she typically needed reading glasses to see the words. She quietly read to herself aloud, skipping parts here and there.

“Twenty-fourteen… meteor on collision course with planet… due to collide in 12 days—”

A purple hoof suddenly filled her vision, hitting the newspaper out of her grasp and back into the chest. Yelping, Rarity took a quick step back as Twilight slammed the chest closed with much force, and then turned, eying Rarity sternly.

“What do you think you’re doing?!” Twilight yelled furiously, shocking Rarity who took another step back. She hadn’t even noticed Twilight entering the room.

“Twilight? I-I’m sorry—”

“Don’t you know you’re not supposed to look through other people’s stuff?!”

Rarity couldn’t get any words to come out of her mouth. The rage in her friend’s voice chilled Rarity to the bone. She tried to think of something to say, but managed only to get out, “I—.”

“I think you need to go!”

Twilight’s words caught her off guard. “What ever do you mean, dear?”

“I don’t want you here if you’re going to look through my stuff like that!”

“You’re going to kick me out of our castle?” Rarity said in disbelief.

“Actually, Princess Celestia said this is my castle, and I want you out of my castle!”

Rarity suddenly felt like daggers had pierced her heart. She couldn’t believe the words she was hearing. How could Twilight say such vile things to her? How could Twilight be so rude to her friend? Rarity’s mouth was left agape in shock as Twilight stared at her with anger in her eyes. Hurt by her friend’s remark, she slowly turned around and made her way through and out of the castle, Twilight following her the whole way.

Upon exiting the castle, Rarity heard the door slam behind her.

Rarity wasn’t sure what to think. Although Twilight’s words were, without a doubt, impudent, she couldn’t help but wonder whether there was a bigger picture behind why Twilight acted the way she did. What were all those newspapers about?

Why did Twilight get so angry when she found them?

As these questions raced through her head, Rarity made her way back to the café in silence.
> Story 12
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The room was filled with the sounds of discussion and laughter. Groovy music blared through the phonograph in the corner of the room, eliciting dance moves from the numerous party guests. At one side of the room sat a basket carrying water which filled it to the brim, and apples which rested submerged at the bottom. Ponies surrounded the basket, dipping their muzzles into the water to capture the apples and popping their heads out again with wet manes and an apple in their mouths. Some ponies ended up with strange objects in their mouths and one of them freaked out once a tiny alligator had appeared on their muzzle. A desert table was set up by the staircase in the room, that’s treats were disappearing by the second. The success of the party filled Pinkie Pie with joy, delighted that everypony was having a wonderful time.

Pinkie wanted Twilight’s party to be something special, as today was exactly one year since the day she had become an alicorn. That day was one of the most important landmarks in their friendship, and undoubtedly, the most important day of Twilight’s life. That was the day her life had completely changed. The day where Twilight had embraced a new role, and thereafter earned the title, the princess of friendship.

Pinkie Pie doubled the amount of decorations she would normally put up for this particular party. She had sent invitations to almost the entire population of Ponyville, and was overjoyed that over three quarters of the ponies she had invited attended the party. This party would highlight just how important that day was, not just for Twilight, but the rest of her friends as well.

While her party guests were having fun, occupied with the fun activities she prepared, Pinkie Pie kept watch at the window by the front door. She stared, waiting for Twilight to arrive so they could surprise her. It was taking longer than Pinkie had expected for Twilight to arrive, but it didn’t matter. A few minutes were nothing, and she didn’t worry. After all, why would Twilight miss her own surprise party?

As time passed, Pinkie excused herself from her station to try out one of the desserts she had made. She grabbed a cupcake and dropped it into her mouth, moaning in the deliciousness of her handiwork. Satisfied, she returned to the window, pulling the blinds back and peeking outside. She almost yelped when she saw that Twilight had almost reached the front door. Instead, she let out a loud gasp, and turned back to all of her party guests.

“EVERYPONY!! TWILIGHT’S HERE, HIDE!!”

Her shout was audible over the conversation and laughter, and everyone in the room immediately retreated behind a couch or table. Pinkie rushed over by the staircase where the room’s light switch was and flipped it downwards. The lights in the room died, although that didn’t make much of a difference. It didn’t matter though, it would still add to the surprise. She jumped behind the railing of the staircase excitedly as everyone else waited in anticipation for the door to open.

The sound of the knob turning was followed by the ringing of a bell, and in came the guest of honor with her assistant on her back. Twilight looked around confused for a moment before Pinkie reached towards the light switch and flipped it upwards. Once the lights in the room turned on, the rest of the party guests jumped out of cover.

“SURPRISE!!” everyone shouted in unison, smiles adorning each and every one of their faces. Twilight was startled for a moment, as was Spike, before a grin appeared on her face. Pinkie rushed over towards Twilight.

“Welcome to your alicorn anniversary party, Twilight!” Pinkie happily announced to her friend.

Twilight looked around at all the party decorations and games in the room. “Wow, thanks Pinkie. And thanks for the surprise everypony.” The rest of the party guests began resuming where they’d left off.

“Wow, this looks so cool!” Spike said, jumping down from Twilight’s back and admiring all of Pinkie’s work.

“You put so much work into decorating and getting everypony here… you didn’t have to do all this,” Twilight said, grateful for the extents that Pinkie went to for her.

“Why wouldn’t I?” Pinkie Pie remarked. “I know that day was very special to you, so I wanted to make a party that was just as special to celebrate you becoming a princess!”

“Thanks Pinkie.”

“Enough thanking. Have some fun!”

***

Twilight was having some of the most fun she had ever had. She helped herself to some of the desserts on the table and thought they tasted delicious, reminding herself how good of a baker Pinkie was. Eventually, she couldn’t help but dance with Pinkie once the music started getting good. Pinkie started going crazy to the music, kicking ponies around her and taking Twilight's hoof, spinning her at miles an hour.

Hours had passed, and as Pinkie was dancing, she noticed Twilight wasn’t by her anymore. She slowly stopped moving and got down on all four legs, looking around. She finally saw Twilight who had been sitting on a couch, staring at everyone else looking depressed. Wondering what the matter was, she approached the couch, moving past the dancing ponies and giving them quick smiles as she passed by. She stopped in front of Twilight, and the alicorn looked up at her.

“Hey,” Pinkie began. “What’s wrong, Twilight?”

“Hi Pinkie,” Twilight said calmly. “I’m just… not feeling well…”

“Twilight, is there something bothering you?” Pinkie said, concerned, taking a seat next to Twilight.

“Yeah,” Twilight admitted. “Something just doesn’t feel right. I don’t know why, but I’ve been feeling this way for weeks. I don’t know how to explain it—it’s like I’m used to things being one way, but it feels like something’s changed, and now everything seems wrong. It’s like I’ve turned into a completely different pony. I don’t understand it.”

Pinkie laid a comforting hoof on her friend’s shoulder. “It’s okay, Twilight. I understand, and don’t worry. I know since you turned into an alicorn things have felt weird, but you’ll get used to it before you know it. It’s just gonna take some time. Think about Princess Celestia and Luna and how super weird it must have been for them once they became princesses, and look at them now.”

Twilight smiled. Everyone saw Pinkie Pie as a strange, but funny pony that would act goofy and say strange things that made no sense, but they were only seeing her outside self. On the inside, she was a caring and smart pony. Even though she acted weird, she kept in mind the appropriate times for that act, and the times where she should put that act aside. Even though the fact that she was an alicorn wasn’t the reason why she was feeling down, she felt better anyways. Because she knew she had a friend who cared about her and her wellbeing.

“Thank you for making me feel better, Pinkie Pie.”

“And thank you for your smile, Twilight!”

Pinkie Pie got up from her seat, as did Twilight. Neither of them noticed that the music had stopped, and Pinkie Pie quickly rushed over to the phonograph, inserting a new disc.

Twilight was about to continue dancing, but noticed Rarity at the center of the room, dressed pointlessly fancy. She immediately felt bad upon being reminded of how she had treated Rarity the week before. How she had treated her rudely and kicked her out of the castle. She began to approach Rarity with the intention of apologizing.

“Hey, Rarity,” Twilight said.

Rarity turned to Twilight, and looked unexpectedly glad to see her. “Twilight, hi!”

Twilight decided to get it over with. “Listen, I’m really sorry for how I treated you last week. I was really stressed and I shouldn’t have taken it out on you. It was wrong of me to scream at you and I hope you can forgive me.”

“Of course I forgive you, Twilight,” Rarity said, much to Twilight’s relief. “It’s not like one little outburst means we’re not friends anymore. Being a princess must be very stressful, and I completely understand that. I suppose I’m also sorry for peaking through your stuff.”

“It’s fine, I don’t know why I got so angry over that…”

“Say, you look a lot better today,” Rarity said, noticing her mane was looking much better than the ruffled mess that it was the last time she saw her.

Twilight looked down at her straight and much cleaner mane. “Yeah, I’ve been doing a lot better recently.”

The two heard a new disc being inserted into the phonograph, playing their favorite song, and together, they began dancing to their hearts’ content.

It was a good day.

Unfortunately, it would be the last…
> Story 13
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was the three rapid knocks on Fluttershy’s door that initiated the slow downfall towards imminent disaster.

The Pegasus had a small bag in her hooves which contained her animals’ breakfast meal. She was about to pour a pile on the ground for everyone to munch on when she heard the rhythm of knocking on her front door. The loudness and suddenness of the knocking slightly startled Fluttershy. It seemed like somepony was in a rush to see her, though she couldn’t know for sure unless she checked, of course.

She deposited the bag onto the floor and made her way to the front door, unaware that a parade of her animals had rushed over to the bag and began munching away at the delectables inside.

She twisted the knob and opened it slowly, revealing the pony on the other side. She was quite shocked at the sight of the mare who now stood before her.

Twilight stood in front of her, although she was barely recognizable. Her mane was disheveled, and looked even worse than the day she met up with her and her friends at the outdoor table. Her body shook, hairs on her mane swinging in different directions, and causing sweat to drop in large quantities. She looked like she hadn’t bathed in weeks, even though at Pinkie’s party only the day before, she looked perfectly fine. What made Fluttershy nervous, besides her physical appearance, was the wide, forced smile on Twilight’s face. 

Fluttershy was surprised to see Twilight in this state, and as the two mares stared at each other, she couldn’t think of what to say. She was concerned, and actually a little afraid.

“Twilight! Are you—?”

“Hi, Fluttershy!”

Twilight’s tone made the Pegasus back up a few steps. She didn’t know what was wrong with her friend or why she looked the way she did. It seemed like something was terrifying her. Having backed away from the door, Twilight took this opportunity to enter her home. She began frantically shifting her gaze to different corners of her house. Fluttershy, as well as her animals, didn’t know what to make of this. They only watched in bewilderment as Twilight seemed to examine her house as if looking for something important.

“Twilight, are you okay?” Fluttershy said with unease.

“Of course, I’m gre—EAAAHHH—great!”

Fluttershy’s unease morphed into fear. She didn’t know what was happening, and she wished she could help her, but Twilight just wouldn’t tell her what the issue was. She glanced towards her animals, who were still surrounding the pouch of food. They all shared the same look of confusion.

She suddenly felt something crawl up her leg and onto her back. She turned to see the cause, and found that her pet Angel had climbed up onto her shoulder. The bunny pointed a thumb, gesturing towards the kitchen where the lavender alicorn had wandered, wearing a puzzled look.

“I have no idea what’s wrong with her…” Fluttershy responded, when Twilight began making her way out of the kitchen and back towards the living room.

“Twilight, what’s the matter?” Fluttershy asked more sternly, but this time, Twilight didn’t respond. Instead, she walked towards the staircase, and began looking through the upper floor. Fluttershy noticed she had left a trail of sweat in her wake.

Growing angry, the Pegasus was ready to follow Twilight upstairs and force her to admit what was troubling her, when she heard a voice echo outside.

“Fluttershy!”

She recognized that voice, and upon hearing it, she looked outside. Spike was on the bridge by her flowers, racing towards Fluttershy’s house. He looked like he’d been running for hours. She stepped outside, using her wings to carry herself over to the dragon. Spike also had sweat soaking his body, but he didn’t look nearly as bad as Twilight did.

“Fluttershy, did Twilight come here?” Spike asked, sounding panicked, which made Fluttershy nervous.

“Yes, almost a minute ago,” Fluttershy responded.

Spike sighed. “What’s she doing now?”

“She’s… looking through my house, but I don’t know why…”

Spike used hand gestures as he spoke. “She’s been like this all day, and she won’t tell me what’s going on. I found her pacing in one of the hallways of the castle this morning, and when I asked her what was wrong, she lied, saying she was fine. Then she suddenly galloped to Rarity’s, randomly searching through her house, and then ran all the way here.”

There was a silence, and Fluttershy took the time to think about what Spike had said. Why did Twilight just wander into Carousel Boutique and start randomly searching her house? Why was she going through her house? What was going on with that pony today? Questions filled her head, each question making her more and more perplexed. One of the biggest questions she had was why she wouldn’t tell anyone what the matter was.

Fluttershy heard hoofteps behind her. Looking back, she saw Twilight coming down the path towards her and Spike.

“Twilight,” Fluttershy began. “Tell me what’s bothering you.”

“There’s nothing bothering me Fluttershy.” Twilight suddenly gasped, and shut her eyes hard, acting as if she were holding something extremely heavy. She started whispering to herself. Something about Lyra and Bon Bon…?

“Twilight, please tell me what’s wrong, I want to help you!”

Twilight’s horn lit up, and a second later, where Twilight once was was replaced by the scenic view of Fluttershy’s cottage in front of the tall Everfree trees. She glanced back upon hearing a spark behind her, and saw that she had reappeared in the distance, further down the path near Ponyville. She was barely visible through the fog that had accumulated in the air; she was just a blob of darker gray in the wall of mist.

Fluttershy sighed angrily. Twilight was hiding something.

“She’s starting to scare me,” Spike admitted. Fluttershy couldn’t blame him. Neither of them had seen Twilight this way before. By now, the alicorn had disappeared in the gray fog, leaving the Pegasus and the dragon alone at the bridge. She knew that Spike cared deeply about his mentor’s wellbeing. To see him worried about her current state wasn’t a surprise at all.

Fluttershy scrounged through her thoughts, trying to find ways to help Twilight. After almost a minute, she beamed once she came up with an idea. She knew how much Twilight loved food, and a hayburger restaurant had been built at the corner of Ponyville in the last few months. She could invite Twilight and a couple of her friends, have a nice time, and then talk about what was bothering Twilight. She wasn’t sure if that would work, but the only way to find out was to try.

“Spike?” Fluttershy said, getting the dragon’s attention.

“Yeah?”

“Does Twilight know the hayburger restaurant by the corner of Ponyville?”

Spike smiled. “Yeah. Since it was built, Twilight and I used to go there all the time.” His smile faltered. “We then stopped going for some reason.”

That was perfect. If Twilight used to go there all the time, that probably meant she enjoyed the food there. Fluttershy found the last part of what Spike had said odd, but she didn’t focus on that right now. 

“Can you tell Twilight to meet me and a few of our friends there at noon?”

“Yeah, sure.” Spike started towards Ponyville, his silhouette soon fading into the fog. Fluttershy was hopeful that whatever was wrong with Twilight, she would know in a couple hours, and she would finally be able to help her.

On that note, Fluttershy began following the same path as Spike, until she realized that Angel had still been on her back. His expression told her even he was worried about Twilight.

The Pegasus used her wings to carry her back to the cottage, removed the bunny from her shoulder and placed him on the ground with care.

“I might be gone for a while. Do you think you would be able to take care of things while I’m gone?”

The bunny wildly nodded his head.

“Perfect!” Fluttershy had learned overtime that Angel was trustworthy of taking care of the house while she was away. Nowadays, she had no problem with leaving him home with the rest of the animals.

Fluttershy shot her bunny a quick smile, getting a wave in return, and she closed the door, starting down the path towards the town.

She would be gone for a long time.
> Story 14
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight…”

Bon Bon glanced at Lyra, and then back out the window again. “You saw Twilight, and she looked terrified?”

“I think so—”

“Here you are,” a voice suddenly spoke. Turning in surprise, Lyra saw that the waitress had returned, now with two levitating trays in front of her containing their orders. She gently placed one of them down in front of Lyra, and the other, in front of Bon Bon.

“Enjoy,” the woman in the vest said, and left the table, making her way through the pony filled diner and into the backroom once more.

The door to the restaurant then opened. Lyra, still staring in the direction the waitress had gone, noticed three mares entering the diner. She recognized them all. Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity…

Lyra’s eyes went wide once she saw Twilight Sparkle along with the three other mares. The first thing she noticed was her mane. It was a catastrophe, a disaster occurring right on the top of her head. It was like she hadn’t tended to it for weeks. The next was her nervous face. Brow beaded with sweat, like she was running from something following her that nopony else knew about. Third was the way her body shuttered, almost as if she had developed a Twily Sense. She mentally compared her to who she had seen zip past the window.

She got a match.

With this discovery, she grew curious as to what was wrong with Twilight. She was a spectator to the four friends walking towards the middle of the room and filling up the empty seats around a table. Their mouths began moving, but she couldn’t hear what they were saying through the racket of other conversation in the room.

She looked back to her friend, who had begun eating, taking small bites of her hayburger at a time. Lyra reached for the carton of deep-fried horseshoes and popped a few of them into her mouth. She liked it, and filled her mouth with more, emptying a quarter of the carton. The food didn’t make her feel any better however. As much as she enjoyed it, it wasn’t doing the trick.

In the background, certain voices seemed to stand out over the collective chattering in the diner. It sounded a bit like arguing, but she tried to keep her focus off of it to enjoy herself as much as she possibly could. Eventually, curiosity won her over and she turned her head. The arguing was coming from the table where Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity and Twilight sat. The Pegasus, the earth pony and the unicorn looked concerned while Twilight looked scared.

She turned to Bon Bon, who was now holding half a burger.

“Something weird’s going on at that table over there…” she said, pointing to the four mares.

Suddenly, the whole room dimmed, and the walls reflected a dark orange colour. Everypony in the room became quiet, looking around the room, wondering what just happened.  Lyra and Bon Bon exchanged looks of confusion.

“What just happened?” asked Bon Bon, and the room suddenly returned to the same color and brightness as before.

“I don’t know…” Lyra responded, as clueless as her friend and everyone else in the room. Starting with the four ponies at the table, conversation slowly rebooted, growing in volume before it seemed like nothing had just happened.

It started as a feeling, but now she was certain something wasn’t right. Things weren’t the way they were supposed to be, and she couldn’t deny that.

Something was very wrong.

She sighed nervously and fidgeted in her chair. The knowledge that something was wrong made her feel like she was a prisoner in a small, confined area. She wasn’t sure why. She was actively scared, and Bon Bon saw this before setting the half-gone burger down onto the tray.

“Something wrong?” she asked.

“Yes, there is,” Lyra replied, straight up.

The room dimmed, changing color once again before reverting to its original brightness. This time, Lyra had noticed something happen outside. The entire sky had flickered from light gray to an orange color. Several ponies in the room let out a gasp while other ponies began getting worried. 

“There’s something wrong. Very wrong. We need to get out of here.”

“Why, what’s going on?” Bon Bon asked, her voice containing a mix of confusion and fear.

Before Lyra could reply, she heard smashing coming from her right. She saw Bon Bon look in the direction of the noise.

Then she screamed.

Lyra turned, alarmed, and saw a huge, purple ball of energy rocketing towards the table. She jumped backwards, screaming just as Bon Bon did. The ball of energy hit the table, causing the table to split. The blast from the impact sent the two mares flying away from the table as pieces of wood shot everywhere. They lay on the ground, unconscious.
> Story 15
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The heavy fog building over Ponyville obscured her location, made it hard to guide herself towards her destination. Fluttershy knew the restaurant was at the corner of Ponyville, but she didn’t know where, exactly. Behind her, Rarity and Applejack followed. The two didn’t know where they were going. They were only informed that they were meeting Twilight at some sort of restaurant in Ponyville, and to follow her lead. Even so, they trusted Fluttershy with where she was taking them.

The heavy fog and roads, devoid of any ponies, made the group of friends nervous. It was unnatural, and they couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. In all the time that they had lived in Ponyville, they had never encountered a fog this heavy before. It was like someone had thrown a gray blanket over the globe.

Fluttershy scanned the buildings around her, and soon recognized where they were. She took the nearest right, and through the wall of mist, she saw the wooden structure.

“I hope this works,” Rarity said. “She didn’t look well at all this morning. It would be a great help to know what’s wrong with her, I mean, did you see her mane?!”

“Ah agree. Somethin’s been off with that pony lately,” Applejack said, remembering when Apple Bloom had told her about Twilight peeping into the classroom through the window.

“As much as I’m worried about Twilight, look how empty the town is…” Fluttershy said, looking around at the desolate, mist consumed town. Usually the town’s roads were packed, bustling with ponies during this time of day, but instead, everything was so quiet. It wasn’t the way any of them remembered Ponyville.

“Yeah, and the fog,” Rarity began. “You’d think that the weather ponies would have done something by now to fix this dreadful weather.” After some thought, it occurred to her suddenly: Discord was capable of doing this with his magic. Maybe he was behind this horrid scenery. Whatever the case, she didn’t like it, and neither did her friends.

The restaurant crawled ever closer, the whole structure visible through the relentless mist. A blob of purple began to emerge from the murk, growing clearer as the three friends approached the wooden structure. Applejack, recognizing who it was, called out her name.

Twilight let out a loud gasp, and rushed away from the window she had looked through, to greet her friends. She still had the same disaster of a mane and messy features, but she seemed to make an effort to calm herself, even though she was still visibly shaking.

“Hi girls. I’ve been waiting here for you a while,” she said.

“Sorry, Twilight,” Fluttershy apologized. “It was hard to see, the fog is really heavy today.”

“It’s fine, what are a couple minutes if you’re here now? Let’s get something to eat, I’m starving!”

Fluttershy smiled. She was glad that her plan had started on the right hoof, and hoped that it would stay that way. She was only worried that, with how Twilight had acted in the past month, things could turn ugly. She was looking forward to her meal though, which started things off well. That gave Fluttershy some relief.

Twilight trotted over to the front doors and pushed them open, light lapping across the floor inside. The diner was filled with ponies. The ratio of ponies in the restaurant to outdoors surprised them. None of the dining ponies took notice of the four friends entering the establishment, and continued chatting with their friends. Twilight examined the room for an unoccupied table, but as she did so, she noticed somepony over at the far left side of the diner—a mare—eyes glued on her. She didn’t recognize the mare right away, and knew who it was once she spotted her lyre cutie mark.

Among all the filled tables was one at the center of the room, chairs unoccupied, and enough to seat all of the friends at the same table. Happy with her find, Twilight led her friends towards the table. Through the corner of her eye, she noticed Lyra’s gaze following her intently. She pondered why Lyra kept staring at them. Something occurred to Twilight, and her breath stuttered. Lyra knew something…

She pulled a chair outwards, the chair audibly scraping across the floor, and slowly, she sat down. The rest of her friends began to do the same, sitting down one by one. As her friends began to chat, Twilight glanced towards Lyra once again through the corner of her eye. Lyra was no longer focused on her, and instead stared at the mare across from her. Bon Bon. That was her name. Twilight sighed silently in relief, and picked up on the conversation her friends had started.

“—the first free day we’ve had on the farm since ah can remember. Granny Smith said it ain’t a good idea to buck apples in a fog this heavy.”

Twilight assumed what was said before that. So, how have you girls been? Good. Just dandy! Applejack, you seem rather excited today. Yeah, today is actually the first free day we’ve had on the farm…

“It must be nice to finally get a day off after years of work on the farm. You definitely deserve one,” Twilight said.

“Thanks, and it really is. Workin’ on the farm is fun and all, but it does get tirin’ once in a while, with all the chores and constant apple buckin’.”

Alright, this is going well so far, Fluttershy thought. Twilight was calm, and enjoying herself. With luck, things would stay that way. She then noticed a loop of Applejack’s eyes darting towards her and back down to the table. She assumed Applejack was trying to say something to her, but she didn’t understand what, though. She tried to think. She was obviously communicating something about Twilight, but she couldn’t tell what exactly Applejack was trying to convey. Was she wondering whether to talk to Twilight about what was bothering her? In that case, her answer was no, so Fluttershy nodded her head, unnoticeable to Twilight—hopefully, at least.

A silence reigned at the table. Any sound they made was drowned by the loud, collective chatter in the room. Each pony waited for the others to say something, until Applejack spoke up.

“Listen, Twilight. We’ve noticed that recently, you’ve been all stressed over somethin’. What exactly has been botherin’ you? We’re your friends, you can tell us.”

If Fluttershy could produce the screams she made inside of her head, the windows of the building would shatter instantly. Applejack, no! You’re supposed to ask her about that after the meal! Fluttershy nodded her head gently, but Applejack didn’t take notice.

Twilight furrowed her brow. “I don’t know why you girls keep asking me if there’s something wrong with me. I’m fine.” Those last two words came out cold, which startled Fluttershy, Applejack and Rarity.

At this point, Fluttershy forgot about the plan. “Twilight, look at yourself. You’re a mess. For the past two weeks, you’ve been under so much pressure, and if you don’t tell us why, we can’t help you!”

“Fluttershy’s right,” Rarity agreed. “I know you say you’re fine, but you’re clearly not. Please tell us what’s wrong; we don’t like seeing you this way.”

“I—” Twilight paused, and gulped. “I can’t say.”

“Why not?” Fluttershy said, glad that Twilight finally admitted that something was wrong.

“I—” Twilight repeated. “I wonder what’s on the menu today, I’m starving—”

Fluttershy suddenly did something none of the other friends expected. Fluttershy angrily slammed one of her hooves on the table, an act that made everyone else at the table jump. The impact made a loud bang that caught the attention of some of their neighbors. “Twilight, don’t change the subject. Why won’t you tell us what’s wrong? You’ve been worrying us with how you’ve been acting, and you’re scaring me.” The fierceness in her voice shocked everyone at the table, and seemed to have a greater effect on Twilight.

Twilight opened her mouth to say something, but was interrupted by a small spark at the end of her horn. Twilight gasped and suddenly closed her eyes, like she was pushing something that weighed a ton.

In that moment, the whole restaurant went dark. The walls, ceiling, and floor were shaded in dark-orange, and in unison, everyone in the restaurant went quiet. There was a sudden rise of nervous mumbling in the room before the diner returned to its original shade of color.

Fluttershy and Rarity exchanged puzzled looks, unsure of what had just happened. Applejack, however, was looking down at the table, in thought. She was piecing stuff together in her mind. As soon as Twilight’s horn sparked, the whole room changed color... Did Twilight cause that? She wondered, and proceeded to draw a connection with Twilight and the strange occurrences in Ponyville. It was highly possible that Twilight was doing something, and hiding it from her friends. Whether it was good or bad, she didn’t know. If that was, however, the truth, and Twilight really was up to something, she was losing her sanity and strength because of it. That was what worried Applejack the most.

“Twilight, listen. Whatever you’re doin’, you don’t have to hide it from us. We can help you. You’re not the Twilight we remember and love right now. You’ve been keepin’ us outta the light, and there ain’t any need for that. Just tell us what’s goin’ on!”

“Please, stop! I can’t tell you.” Her expression made it seem like she was fighting herself not to do something.

“Twilight, please,” Applejack reached a hoof out, but flinched once Twilight’s horn sparked again. The whole room dimmed into a dark orange a second time. Twilight shut her eyes again—tighter this time, and sweat streaming from her forehead—and the room returned back to its original state. This time, Applejack was sure Twilight caused that.

Twilight looked scared. The edges of her eyes were brimming with tears as she looked at each of her friends. She closed her eyes and sighed, a tear traveling down her cheek.

In that moment, Twilight’s horn lit up, and she faced Fluttershy. A beam of energy shot from the white glow of her horn and hit the Pegasus. She screamed, before her head fell forward and hit the table. Rarity jumped back and gasped in reaction to what Twilight had done to her friend, but before she could do anything else, she felt something powerful hit her chest. Twilight had shot another beam at Rarity, her head hitting the table before falling to the ground. Twilight faced Applejack and readied her horn, but as she fired another beam from her horn, Applejack slid off her chair and ducked beneath the table, out of the way. The beam flew right over her head, and traveled towards the other side of the room, targeting a table where two mares sat. The magical blast connected with the table, and it exploded in a shower of sparks and pieces of wood, sending the two mares out of their chairs and onto the floor.

A collective gasp echoed throughout the room as a group of concerned ponies gathered around Lyra and Bon Bon, who were both lying on the floor, having lost consciousness. One by one, each pony looked towards the table where Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack and Twilight were. All eyes were on something specific. Or rather, somepony.

Everyone was staring at Twilight.

The alicorn felt the weight of all eyes bearing down on her. Her breathing quickened, heart hammering at her ribcage. Applejack cautiously peeked her head from underneath the table, and rose from the floor. Rarity and Fluttershy weakly opened their eyes, and put their hooves to their head.

“Twilight! What the hay have you done?” Applejack furiously shouted.

“What… happened…?” Fluttershy muttered, trying to support herself on her hooves.

Applejack spun to see that her friends were okay, and let out a sigh of relief. “Are ya two alright?” she asked.

“I don’t know… we were just sitting down and now…” Fluttershy examined her surroundings, gasping once she saw a destroyed table and the two unconscious mares at the far corner of the room. Rarity groaned as she got herself back onto her hooves.

Twilight’s horn glowed, and the white ball of energy at the tip expanded, until it engulfed her entire horn and even hid part of her forehead. Everypony in the room, including the walls, ceiling and floor, were suddenly encased in a purple aura. Several ponies began freaking out, not knowing what Twilight was doing, or what she was about to do. Applejack took notice of the fact that her own body was also covered in a purple aura, as well as her friends.

Once the purple aura around everypony began to glow white—indicating the ignition of the spell—Applejack leapt over the table, and she collided with Twilight. The glow of her horn disappeared, and at the same time, so did the purple aura around the restaurant. The two mares fell to the ground, and Twilight hit the floor, landing on her back, before Applejack landed on top of her. She let out a grunt of pain, having been winded by Applejack’s weight on her stomach.

For a third time, the diner was shaded in a dark-orange color before returning to how it originally was. This time however, Applejack saw, through the windows by the front doors, that the sky had changed from gray to the dark orange color that was shaded on the walls of the restaurant, like slides being changed on a projector. She knew for sure this was Twilight’s doing.

She looked down at Twilight, who was recovering from the pain. “Twilight, what are you doin’ ta Ponyville?”

Twilight lit her horn again, and Applejack was suddenly impacted by the floor. Looking up, she saw that Twilight had teleported over towards the front doors, slowly backing up and out of the restaurant. Ponies had begun to pursue the alicorn, and Twilight broke into a gallop away from the diner as a mob had followed in pursuit. Applejack thought about running after Twilight as well, but remembered what she had done to Fluttershy and Rarity. Applejack came to her friends’ aid, helping Fluttershy and Rarity onto their hooves.

“What’s happening? What happened to Twilight?” Fluttershy said.

“Twilight is doin’ somethin’ ta Ponyville. Ah don’t know what yet, but all ah do know is that goin’ as far as ta hurt her friends is somethin’ that can’t stand. Come on, we need ta catch up with Twilight.”

The other two didn’t respond, clearly worried at the situation, but didn’t protest. Fluttershy and Rarity had regained strength in their legs, and were able to follow Applejack out of the diner.

Upon stepping outside, she was immediately confronted by the thick fog that wafted idly above the ground. Although she couldn’t see where everypony had gone, she could faintly hear a distant commotion to her left. She followed the road, which led into a gray oblivion. The distant sound getting louder told her she was on the right track. She glanced back. Her friends were keeping up. Looking forward, she noticed distinct colors through the built up wall of mist, and once she got closer, she saw Twilight, backing away from the horde of ponies after her.

Twilight’s eyes darted from one pony to the next. Each pony’s brow was furrowed, all eyes glaring daggers at the alicorn. She heard different voices. How could you do that to Lyra and Bon Bon?! You hurt your friends! You should be ashamed of yourself! She was terrified, but as the crowd continued to approach her, she seemed to have a momentary look of relief. As the mob of ponies neared however, it disappeared.

“W-What? How is this possible?” Twilight stammered in disbelief as she continued to back away from her pursuers.

Applejack, Rarity and Fluttershy attempted to scream over the combined angry shouts from the rest of the ponies. “Everypony!” Applejack called as loud as she could. “Calm down! Hello?! Please, calm yourselves!”

Fluttershy wasn’t much help, due to her naturally quiet voice. Rarity wasn’t nearly loud enough, and unfortunately she didn’t know how to cast a voice amplifier spell.

"Hey! What in the hay is going on here?!" The three friends heard from behind them. They turned around and spotted Rainbow Dash hovering above them, confusion etched onto her face. Followed by her appearance, Pinkie Pie emerged from the dense fog, galloping toward the friends before screeching to a halt.

"Rainbow and Pinkie," Applejack said, acknowledging the two newcomers. "Glad you're here."

Rainbow glanced at the scene in front of them. "Well then, what parade did no one bother to tell us about?"

"Now ain't a time for jokes, this is serious," Applejack affirmed sternly. "Long story short, there was an incident involving Twilight and now practically everypony in town is on her tail. We're trying to calm them down but for some reason we can't seem ta grab their attention!"

Pinkie's eyes scanned the angry mob of ponies in disbelief. "What in the world did she do to rile everypony up like this?!"

"I'll explain later, but for now, I need y'all's help. Rainbow, ah need you to fly over this crowd and try to get their attention. Pinkie, you're loud, so you can help us try to knock some sense into everypony."

The two nodded and were about to proceed with the tasks Applejack had given him, but in that moment, the sky appeared to briefly flash the same deep orange color as earlier. The five friends' eyes suddenly turned blank and lifeless, and they remained frozen in place with a dazed expression for a short period of time.

Then they turned around and began to mimic the mob of ponies after the lavender alicorn.

Twilight... she needed to pay!

Twilight continued to back away, and turned back, breaking into a gallop. Everypony else mimicked her, sprinting after the alicorn, a few of the Pegasi taking flight. Eventually, Twilight reached town hall, and slowed to a trot. She was blocked by the front steps, and turned towards the left to run around the structure, but gasped when she saw that a line of ponies had blocked off that path. She turned behind her to run in the opposite direction, but ponies had blocked that way off as well. She was pushed towards the front steps. Everyone had formed a circle around her, pinning her in the spot she was in. She breathed heavily, sinking slowly to the floor, like that would hide her from the angry citizens.

In that moment, she could have teleported away. Far away, maybe somewhere in the Everfree forest. She could have even taken off. Used her wings to escape town and go somewhere where nopony could find her. She had opportunities to get away from these enraged ponies. But she didn’t. She sat there, as the angry shouts filled her ears.

“I—” Twilight choked out, her throat burning up as a revelation hit her. Hard, like a sack of bricks. “I can’t do this anymore…”

As her ears filled with the hate filled statements from the pony folk, it eventually became too much. She lifted herself from the ground and let out a scream as her horn burst into purple flames, sparks falling from the rapidly growing glow.

A white orb began to form around Twilight, expanding around her. Everypony began to back up, but too late, as they too were also caught in the glowing white sphere. It swelled further, catching houses and other buildings in the area.

An ear-splitting crack echoed through the air, and all of Ponyville was invaded by a blinding white light. A moment later, the world became visible again.

Twilight was curled up in a ball, sobbing on the ground by the broken steps of an obliterated Town Hall.

What was once a foggy town became a completely desolate version of Ponyville. All the houses were destroyed, walls blown apart and roofs caved inwards. Trees were ripped off their roots and lying on the ground, dead leaves sprawled about on the ground. The grass was dead, as well as the flowers, and the crops of gardens. Gusts of dirt-filled air whirled about. The sky was no longer the light-gray it was before, but now a dark-orange color, with tiny, faint clouds in the sky.

Ponyville was completely destroyed.

Twilight slowly lifted her head, looking in despair at the ruins that were the town.

“I can’t do it anymore… it’s just not the same. I want my real friends back…”

She slowly got to her hooves. She wanted more than anything to be with her friends again, and she knew exactly how she would do that.
> Story 16
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

She remembered that day so clearly. It was indented in her mind, and she was forced to live with that memory every day since. Why did that have to happen? She had asked herself that question every single day since the disaster. It bit at her all the time, demanding an answer. But Twilight couldn’t answer it. That question had often driven her insane for that exact reason. It kept her up at night. When she did get to sleep, it entered her dreams, transforming them into nightmares. She wanted to go back more than anything. Back to when everything was fine and she wasn’t under so much stress trying to keep up some stupid illusion. She was a moron for thinking that she could recreate what the meteor destroyed. In only one day, everything had gone wrong, and now, she found herself on a stool, a rope pressing against her neck. Had she asked her past self if this day would ever come, she would have said no.

She was the last pony on the planet. She had tried to hide that truth away for the past year. Run away from it. But no matter how hard she tried, it would always catch up to her. She was alone. Her family was gone. Her friends were gone. Even Equestria’s rulers were killed. She was lucky, but she was unlucky. Both, for the same reason: being the only survivor of that disaster.

Right now, she just wanted to be with her friends and family, and if it meant joining them in death, she would do it. She had been standing on the stool with her head in the noose for three hours, contemplating suicide, and now, she was sure she wanted to do it. She took a deep breath, and closed her eyes, ready to kick the stool away.

“Twilight.”

She stopped, and opened her eyes. Standing in front of her was Rainbow Dash. No, it wasn’t Rainbow Dash. The real Rainbow Dash was dead. She still remembered when she found her corpse, lying lifelessly beside Applejack in her cellar. Twilight didn’t respond to Rainbow Dash, so the Pegasus spoke again.

“You don’t have to do this, you know.”

“Why shouldn’t I?” Twilight retorted, her voice cracking, and tears pooling at the edges of her eyes. “This place is nothing but a jail cell! I want to leave! I don’t want to be on this stupid planet anymore!”

“You have us, don’t you?”

“You? You’re just a spell I found in the royal archives.” Twilight sighed. “Or, what was left of it.”

Tears released from Twilight’s eyes as she remembered the day of the disaster.

Twilight raced throughout all of Ponyville, making sure that everypony was safe inside their homes, and that no one was still outside. She was breathing heavily from all the running and stress. Spike sat on Twilight’s back, anxiously, watching as the the huge rock in the sky made its way towards the surface. By now, it was a large ball of fire, closing in on the horizon. It would impact any moment now.

A week earlier, news of the meteor’s discovery had spread throughout the entire town like a sickness, expanding towards the outskirts of Equestria and further. Worry and tension followed, spreading at the same speed as the news. As it turned out, the detected meteor was large and powerful enough to cause worldwide destruction and extinction. Nopony slept, because they were too panicked to sleep. Nopony went to work, because they were too overwrought to focus. Nopony knew what the outcome of the collision would be. That’s what terrified them to the core. The princesses had attempted to prevent the disaster, trying to use their magic to send the meteor away from the planet. Unfortunately, Celestia and Luna’s magic weren’t strong enough to do so. Their magic could only raise the sun and moon specifically, so their magic combined couldn’t bounce the meteor back. Everypony had unloaded questions onto Equestria’s rulers, but in vain. On the predicted day of collision, Twilight had been ordered to get everypony to a safe place underground while she and Luna try to protect the citizens of Canterlot, and that’s what she did.

The huge fireball was alarmingly close to the ground.

“I think we’re good,” Twilight said, sure that everypony was in a safe location.

“We don’t have much time!” Twilight’s worried assistant warned. Twilight glanced over and saw how close the meteor really was, her heart jumping to her throat. It would impact any second now.

Her mind raced. She hadn’t actually thought of a place to wait out the collision. She thought about the castle, but she didn’t recall there being a basement anywhere…

In only moments, her mind clicked, a light bulb flashing above her head. The library! It may have been destroyed, but the basement she built should have still been there! Twilight began her mad dash towards the library. The teleportation spell only worked a certain distance away from the library, so she needed to get close enough for it to work. She panted, but she didn’t stop running. She felt Spike’s claws tapping rapidly on her back.

Illuminating her horn, she initiated the teleportation spell, picturing the library’s basement in her mind. She summoned more magic, a glowing white ball forming at the tip of her horn. She needed to make sure the spell was powerful enough to teleport Spike as well. The glowing rock in the sky lit the earth like a beacon, casting an orange red shade on the ground. Spike watched as the meteor sailed across the sky, about to connect with the ground. It looked the size of an entire planet, and the fact that it was engulfed in fire only made it more threatening.

“Please go faster!” Spike said, impatiently.

Her horn, completely powered up, Twilight ignited the spell. Her horn only flashed, sparks raining from the white sphere. She was still too far away from the library. She would have used her wings to go faster, but even after a few months, she still wasn’t accustomed to them, so they would have only slowed her down. Her legs worked at the ground, carrying her with great momentum. Along the way, she ignited her horn a few more times, resulting in only sparks. Soon, however, she was sure that she was within close range of the library. For the last time, she ignited the spell that was prepared at her horn. Before she had disappeared however, her front right hoof impacted something in the road, causing her to stumble, and lose her balance. The mass on her back had disappeared as she had reappeared in a different location.

Her vision was going all over the place, and she impacted a hard wood floor, rolling on the ground before hitting a wall. She heard a clatter of metal objects hitting the ground. Opening her eyes quickly, she was greeted with the sight of the lab she had built underneath her library. They had made it!

Twilight’s excitement faltered once she realized what was missing from the picture.

“Spike!”

She powered her horn and teleported herself back outside, her vision darting aimlessly in search for the purple dragon. He was nowhere in sight, and her heart was attacked by panic.

Her eyes then fell on her assistant, who was a long distance away from her, on the other end of the road. She galloped towards her assistant, seeing that the meteor was only seconds away from impacting the ground. Her legs pushed, and pushed, propelling her at high speeds. Her assistant grew as the two got closer, both running towards each other. She lit her horn, prepared to teleport her and Spike back to the lab the moment the two made contact.

A huge explosion screamed out into the sky, piercing Twilight’s ears. The noise was followed by the ground rumbling and buildings shaking. From the distance, a gust of wind and piled up rock was making its way towards them at the speed of light. Twilight leaped outwards, reaching her hoof for Spike, as her assistant did the same.

She released the spell.

Her whole world seemed to go in slow motion. Spike’s body glided through the air slowly as certain death made its way towards them. The space between Spike’s hand and Twilight’s hoof got ever smaller, as Twilight’s body slowly disappeared into a white capsule.

The space got smaller.

And smaller.

Hand and hoof were about to collide.

Twilight was then completely enclosed in the white capsule of the spell.

Her world of white was replaced by the wooden walls, floor, and ceiling of the underground lab.

She hit the ground, winded by the impact of her chest on the hardwood floor. She didn’t care about that though. She needed to know if Spike was okay.

She jumped to her hooves and looked back.

The purple dragon was nowhere to be seen.

Before the alicorn could wail in misery, the door to the lab burst inwards, and a cloud of smoke and rock lurched towards Twilight. She immediately ignited her horn, teleporting herself to a lower layer of the lab. This room was much bigger and taller, a set of stairs lined up against the wall towards a door, hidden at the top above the stairs.

Twilight heard the sound of wood crunching, and at the top of the stairs was a projection of black debris. The area at the top of the room was quickly filled with dust and debris, and an avalanche of rubble made its way down the stairs.

She dashed towards a corner of the room, and stood against the wall. She stimulated her horn once more, and a transparent, purple sphere appeared around her. Any debris that fell onto the sphere bounced right off and onto the ground.

Twilight took deep breaths, heart racing as the black filth filled the room. She still heard the ear-splitting roar of the collision ringing outside. Even from deep inside the basement, it was extremely loud, and she had to cover her ears with her hooves. Even doing so didn’t help much.

Rubble and smoke continued to push its way into the lab, a pile of rubble building up at the center of the room. Debris bounced off of Twilight’s protection orb like rain drops on an umbrella. The exhaustion of magic use began to weigh on her, and holding up the protection spell became increasingly difficult. The adrenaline in her veins had hid the strain on her horn earlier, but now she was starting to feel it.

Pieces of concrete were now cascading off the top of the stairs, and landing hard on the ball of energy, which flickered for a moment, but didn’t disappear. This put more strain on Twilight’s horn, and she became increasingly worried as the lab’s ceiling began to crack and swell, threatening to collapse. Twilight may not have been strong enough to block it, especially with the exhaust she was enduring. Each impact of destroyed wall against the sphere made a loud, bang, before cracking in half and spraying dust in different directions. Twilight couldn’t help but flinch after each strike of concrete.

That moment seemed endless. She prayed mentally that this would soon be over, but the debris just kept falling. The explosion kept up its relentless cry. Her horn was now in pain, and the pain got worse as concrete blocks attacked the force field.

After what seemed like years, it stopped.

Yes, the disaster ended. But the suffering continued.

She remembered teleporting herself out of the lab, and feeling the violent heat and raging winds. She remembered the despair she felt upon seeing Ponyville, having transformed from a gorgeous town to a wasteland of destruction lying about. When she found out what had happened to everypony else… she didn’t want to think about that, though no matter how hard she tried, the cries of pain and misery still echoed in her mind. Seeing her friends, assistant, family, everypony she knew and loved, gone. Even the rulers of Equestria. She remembered finding their bodies beneath the collapsed walls and rubble that was once Canterlot, and now a heaping pile of stone bricks on the ground at the bottom of the mountain where it once sat. Their horns were charred. Presumably, they tried using their magic to protect the ponies in Canterlot, but without success.

Ponyville was destroyed, Canterlot was destroyed, and Cloudsdale didn’t even exist anymore. Miraculously however, many of the spells and books from the Ponyville archives had survived, and after rummaging through the torn pages and surprisingly intact books, she found an illusion spell. A spell that would allow her to change the landscape, and was even capable of creating pony duplicates. Doing so would require a memento that represented the pony one wished to duplicate, however the pony illusion would have the same mind and personality as the real pony. It could talk, think, walk, and even dream. According to the spell’s description, Twilight would have to move the memento, as the pony duplicate could only walk a quarter of a mile away from it. She remembered how happy she was to have come across this spell, crying tears of joy. Now, she knew how stupid of an idea it was to cast that spell.

The alicorn stood at the center of Ponyville, a ripped piece of parchment floating in front of her surrounded by an aura of purple. Twilight read over the spell multiple times, and made sure everything was ready before preparing the spell. She toured Ponyville, searching for any newspapers that had survived the collision, and stuffed them into an old chest she found in the library’s basement. Next, she had scrounged together as many items as she could for the spell. She found an intact mannequin from Rarity’s boutique—or what was left of it—and was fortunate to find a wonderbolt costume she was working on for Rainbow Dash. She managed to find Spike’s nightmare night costume of himself in the remnants of the castle, pieces of a lyre, and three torn and charred red capes. She set the items up around different areas of the town after rummaging what she could.

She released the parchment from her magic and took a deep breath. Booting up her horn, it burst into purple flames. White sparks flared from the tip of her horn, and a white ball began to grow around the purple fire. She fused more magic with the white ball of energy, and it grew, bigger and bigger. Her body rose from the ground as the magic became more intense. White began to flood Ponyville, and everything grew brighter and brighter.

Suddenly, everything flashed white, and a resounding explosion cut through the air.

Twilight gently opened her eyes, and gasped, stunned at the sight before her.

Ponyville was no longer the ruins it was before. It looked exactly as it had before the collision. Smooth roads, intact buildings, bright sky, and filled with ponies. It worked. It actually worked.

It may have worked at the time, but she never considered how difficult it would become. As the months went by, it had taken more of her strength to keep the illusion up. She knew she couldn’t let anyone know the truth. She had to keep everything natural. A few rainy days here, and a few nice days there. The truth was, however, that she had been spending more time trying to manage the illusion that she had practically shielded herself from her friends.

Then, everything had gone completely wrong. She shouldn’t have taken that risk, but when Applejack had started realizing what was happening, she had attempted to cast a memory loss spell on her friends. But that ended in disaster.

A question she had that stuck with her was how those ponies were able to follow her to the town hall. They had gone over the limited distance they could travel away from their mementoes. The spell’s description may have been wrong, but if not, the only way they could have gone the distance they had is if—

“Why don’t you just cast the spell again and tell everypony the truth?” Rainbow Dash said, startling Twilight and shutting down her thought process. She then sighed.

“What’s the point?” she replied softly, neck sore. “At the end of the day, I’m just talking to objects. Everypony I know and love is dead. How am I supposed to live with that? How am I supposed to live with that truth, haunting me every single day?” 

Rainbow remained silent.

“I can’t live with that. Up there is a better place and my friends are there right now.”

The Pegasus didn’t move or speak.

“I’m sorry, but I’ve made my decision.”

In one swift motion, she kicked the stool out from beneath her, and a searing pain erupted at her neck. She heard the sound of the rope being strained as it pulled at her neck, cutting off her wind pipe. She couldn’t help but struggle, gurgling escaping her throat. If she still had her wings, she would have used them to escape her fate on impulse, but luckily she had sawed them off beforehand.

She kicked and flailed, and eventually, her body lost its strength, her eyes rolling to the back of her head. The alicorn had reached her end.

As Twilight’s corpse swung lazily, the stuffed wonderbolt costume gently nudged off balance before toppling to the side.