> The Party Girl
>  by Godslittleprincess
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 1:  What Do You Do with a Shipwrecked Sailor?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thunder, lightning, rain, fire, shouting, that was all Flash Sentry could remember from the night before.  He didn’t remember getting tossed from the ship’s burning remains into the icy waves below.  He didn’t remember coming up and gasping for air before shouting for his younger brother First Base.  He didn’t remember finding First Base, hauling the two of them up a broken piece of wood that was miraculously big enough to hold them both, or huddling together with him for warmth while they both held on for dear life.  He definitely didn’t remember passing out at some point during the night.



Shining Armor was a young man who lived in the town of Griepsburg and worked as the town’s fisherman.  Fishing wasn’t his first choice for a trade, but he had a family to provide for, especially if they wanted to save up enough money to leave that cold, miserable place.  That morning, he did what he had done every day for the last five years and took himself, his nets, and his boat out to sea.  He had just cut off the engine and was about to cast his nets when he saw something floating in the water a short distance away from his boat.

At first, he thought it was just a chunk of driftwood, but upon closer inspection, he was able to see something on it, actually two somethings, no, someones.  Lying on the driftwood, seemingly dead, were two boys, one in his late teens and the other in his early teens, both with similarly colored yellow-orange skin and blue hair.  Working fast, Shining Armor snagged the piece of wood with his grappling hook and pulled it closer to his boat.  Then, with great difficulty, he hauled the impromptu raft’s passengers onboard.  A cursory examination told him that boys were alive but just barely.

Shining Armor knew that he needed to get the boys to civilization as quickly as possibly if they are to survive. However, the closest town to his location, unfortunately, was Griepsburg, where the only people who could be bothered to give these kids even the most basic of care were going to be him and his family.  Good gosh, what to do, what to do?  As much as he hated the idea of taking two half-dead strangers home with him, Shining hated the idea of leaving two kids who were either his sister’s age or younger to a slow, frozen death even more.

Shining turned the engine back on and sped as quickly as he could back to the Griepsburg harbor.  The only boat there was the seldom-used ferry to the mainland where the ferryman Cranky Doodle sat with his feet up as he napped.

As soon as Shining Armor anchored his boat, he called out to the ferryman, “Hey, Cranky, get up!  I need your help with something!”

Cranky snorted, waking up with a start at Shining’s call.

“Finally caught something that will help get you and yours out of here, eh?” the salty, old man dryly retorted.

“Well, not exactly,” Shining Armor replied, hoisting the older boy onto his back.

“Good gracious, just what did you catch?!” Cranky exclaimed, finally taking note of the two unconscious boys on Shining’s boat.

“Just pick up the other kid and help me get them home!”



Warmth, that was the first sensation Flash became aware of as he slowly regained consciousness.  The next was the feeling of something soft yet scratchy under him and the feeling of something soft and thick over him from his neck down.  He stirred and slowly creaked his eyes open only to shut them again when the light suddenly hurt his eyes.  Then, his eyes snapped open, and he bolted upright throwing off what turned out to be a quilt as memories from last night returned to him.

“Base!” he called, searching his surroundings frantically for his brother.  Much to his relief, Flash quickly found First Base lying next to him seemingly sleeping soundly.  After confirming that his brother was, in fact, still alive, Flash calmed down enough to study his surroundings.

The two of them were on top of a bed that was just big enough to fit them both in a small, sparsely furnished room.  Light was coming in through a single, small grease paper window opposite from the room’s only door.  The door began to open, causing Flash to flinch.  He positioned himself between First Base and the door, not knowing what to expect but fearing that danger was entering the room.

Unless danger looked like a bespectacled girl with lavender skin and indigo hair about Flash’s age, Flash’s expectations could not have been more wrong.  The girl ended up making eye contact with Flash, and Flash, in his surprise, ended up staring into her lovely, purple eyes.  The girl seemed equally surprised to see him and seemed to stare back at him for a second or two before turning away from him to call to someone behind her.

“Shining Armor,” she called, “one of the boys is awake!”

The girl stepped further inside the room, and five other people walked in, three men and two women.  One man was younger, taller, and more muscular than the other two; he had white skin, royal blue hair, and bright blue eyes and wore a gray mariner’s cap.  One of the older men had skin and hair in two different shades of blue and bright, yellow-amber eyes while the other had tan skin and wore a floppy, dark brown hat that would have covered his hair if he had any.  Regarding the two women, the younger one had kind, violet eyes, pink skin, and long, tricolored hair that curled at the ends, and the older one had straight, lavender-and-white-striped hair and light gray skin.

“Uh, hello,” Flash managed to say.

“How are you feeling, kid?” the younger man asked him.

“Fine, I guess,” Flash replied.  “Who are you, and what are my brother and I doing here?”

“My name is Shining Armor,” said the man before introducing everyone else in the room, “and this is my father Night Light, my mother Twilight Velvet, my wife Cadance, my sister Twilight Sparkle, and the local ferryman Mr. Cranky Doodle.”

Mr. Cranky Doodle supplemented his introduction with an ill-tempered grunt as if he was showing off how well his name fit his personality.

“I’m Flash Sentry,” Flash introduced, “and this is my brother First Base.”

As if on cue, First Base groaned in his sleep, stirring as his consciousness returned.  He fluttered his eyes open and dizzily sat up, pressing his hand to his forehead to try to alleviate the throbbing headache he felt.

“Ugh, my head!” the younger boy cried.  He suddenly lifted his head up and turned when he felt someone touch his shoulder.  “Flash!”  In a mixture of joy and relief, First Base threw his arms around his older brother before taking notice of the other people in the room and pulling away.  “Who are they?”

“Hey, it’s okay,” Flash replied reassuringly. “They seem friendly.”

“Where even are we, and how did we get here?”

“To answer your first question,” the girl named Twilight answered bitterly, “you’re in Griepsburg.”

“Wait, Griepsburg?” Base repeated, sharing a worried look with his older brother before continuing, “You mean, ‘avoid docking here at all costs’ Griepsburg?  That Griepsburg?”

“Oh, gee.  I see you’ve heard of it.”

“As for how you got here,” Cadance interrupted in a much gentler and kinder tone, “my husband found the two of you passed out on a piece of driftwood.  Maybe the two of you can tell us how you got there.”

The brothers looked at each other, their faces becoming downcast as they remembered what had happened the night before.

Finally, Flash turned to the rest of the people in the room and explained, “The two of us worked on merchant ship.  There was a storm last night, and the ship got struck by lightning.  The ship started going down, and, well, that’s all I can remember.  Everything that happened after that was a blur.”

“I reckon you boys are going to want to go back to the mainland and find out what happened to your shipmates, eh?” Cranky asked. The suggestion caused the boys to brighten a bit.

“That would be great.  Thank you.”

“That’ll be five silver pieces each.”

The brothers shared another look with each other, this time, an utterly shocked and bewildered one.

“We just survived a shipwreck,” First Base pointed out.  “What makes you think we have money on us?”

“No money, no passage,” Cranky retorted coldly.

“Wait.  So, you’re just essentially stranding the two of them here in this cold, awful, backwater piece of Tartarus with us?” Twilight exclaimed.  The expressions on her and her family’s faces showed that they were just as incredulous as the boys.

“Listen, missy, I run a ferry to a town that no one wants to go to and that hardly anyone ever leaves,” Cranky huffed.  “I need to make a living somehow.”

“Is there a way for us to earn the money for the ferry and maybe a little extra just in case?” Flash asked.

“Say, maybe there is,” Cranky replied in a darkly mischievous tone.  “Why don’t I take you boys into town, and you can look for one?”

Shining Armor and his family rolled their eyes, sharing knowing looks with each other.

“Twily, dear, maybe you should go with them,” Night Light said to his daughter.

“Me?!  Why me?!” Twilight protested.

“Well, someone has to make sure these two don’t fall for Cranky’s tricks, and you’re the only one who doesn’t really have anything to do, sweetheart,” Velvet replied.

“They can’t go out dressed like that and with no shoes though,” Cadance noted, calling attention to the boys’ tattered state. “I’ll go see if we have any old clothes that will fit.”

Cadance left the room, and Velvet followed her, leaving only the men and Twilight with their guests.

“Uh, so,” Flash began, addressing the deeply scowling Twilight, “Base and I haven’t really heard much about Griepsburg other than that it’s a horrible place to be.  What exactly makes it so horrible?”

“Oh, we could tell you,” Cranky interrupted before chuckling ominously under his breath, “but why ruin the surprise?’
> Chapter 2: Welcome to Griepsburg
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Flash and Base stepped out of a small wooden cottage that sat a short walk away from the harbor, wearing baggy, dark brown overcoats, gray knit hats, and sturdy boots.  Cranky Doodle was out on the porch waiting for them, and Twilight followed them from behind.

“Step lively now, boys.  We’re going to be in for a good time,” Cranky said cheerfully as he led the group up a poorly maintained cobblestone road towards the town. Despite—or perhaps, because of—Cranky's good spirits, the brothers were reluctant to follow him, but their curiosity got the better of them, so they followed.

The four of them passed in front of two buildings just on the outskirts of the town.  Both buildings were made of wood and, unlike the family’s cottage, had glass windows.  The glass from the windows were cracked and dirty, and a few windows seemed broken. The buildings had also been painted at some point, but whenever that might have been was long past as indicated by the way the paint peeled and cracked.  What ended up catching the boys’ eyes, however, were the signs prominently displayed on the roofs and the objects strewn around the buildings.

The smaller building had a sign that read “POST OFFICE” in faded gold letters and had crates upon crates of firewood stacked around the porch and woodchips and sawdust strewn about.  The larger one’s sign read “SCHOOL,” and empty crates filled with fish bones and fishing equipment littered the building’s surroundings. Most notably, both buildings seemed completely devoid of people.

“Whoa, what happened here?” Flash asked, looking over the buildings.

“Oh, it’s just early that’s all.  Postman Night Light and Ms. Cadance will open them up soon enough,” Cranky replied.

“Postman Night Light?” Flash turned to Twilight in confusion.  “Your father’s the postman?”

“Supposed to be,” she replied with a growl.  “A lot like how Cadance is supposed to be the teacher.”

“Supposed to be?”

“My father took a postman job in a place where people don’t write letters, and Cadance took a teaching job where parents don’t send their children to school.  No letters and no children means no job, and no job means no income, meaning we had to find other jobs to support ourselves with.  Are you starting to connect the dots?”

Completely taken aback by Twilight’s sudden rant, the brothers shared a disturbed look before First Base squeaked out, “Gee, someone seems a little bitter about their current living situation.”

“And why wouldn’t I be?!” Twilight snapped at him. “Wouldn’t you be too if THIS,” she gestured dramatically around her, “was your life?”

First Base frowned and thought about Twilight’s question.  He looked at his brother, who shook his head frantically in warning.  Flash’s warning went unheeded, and Base opened his mouth anyway.

“Gee, I don’t know.  Flash and I have been in some pretty bad spots before, and we never got bitter.  Discouraged, disappointed, and left wanting?  Yes.  But bitter? Not really,” Base replied.

“Well, try living here for a few months or a few years, and you won’t be much different from me by then,” Twilight muttered before marching away with a huff.  Cranky and the boys took this as a sign for the tour to continue, and the group entered the town proper.

Flash and First Base’s mouths fell open as they gaped at the state of the town.  All the houses they could see were in various stages of disrepair, from slightly run down to “Oh my gosh!  How is this even still standing?!”  The houses on one side of the road where all made of stone while all the ones on the other side were all made of wood.

“So, do kids here not go to school because everyone here is so poor that everyone needs to work for a living?” Base asked Twilight, still staring at the dilapidated buildings.

“Oh, if only,” Twilight retorted.

Just then, a loud, thundering explosion was heard a short distance away followed by a much wetter-sounding one.  Flash and Base turned towards the sound and saw smoke coming out of one of the stone buildings.  A girl with wavy, red and yellow hair and a short, stocky boy with greyish green skin and orange, spiky hair burst out of the building coughing and followed by a plume of smoke.  The girl wore a turquoise dress, and both she and the boy were dressed in dark green jackets.  Across the street stood a wooden building from which a girl with white and light blue hair stormed out with an angry scowl on her face while a tall, lanky boy with orange skin and green hair peeked from the doorway.

“Sunset Shimmer!” the angry girl screamed.  She seemed to be wearing vermilion dress and a red jacket.  The boy at the doorway also seemed to be wearing a red jacket, but the slime green paint covering them made distinguishing their clothing color difficult.

The redheaded girl stopped coughing and looked up, scowling as she locked eyes with paint-covered girl.

“Trixie, you blowhard!” Sunset Shimmer screamed back, pointing towards the inside of the stone building.  “As if the smoke wasn’t bad enough, your smoke bombs got ash and soot all over Mr. Rich’s merchandise.  Are you trying to get me fired?”

“Me?!” Trixie yelled back.  “If anyone’s trying to get anyone fired, it’s YOU trying to get ME fired!  Your paint bombs covered paint all of Mr. Davenport’s furniture!”

“Oh, please!  If you do get fired, it’s because you deserve it!”

Trixie scowled deeply at that assertion, her face turning redder than her dress.  Instead of yelling more as Flash and Base expected, Trixie pulled out a string of firecrackers from her coat pocket, lit it, and wordlessly tossed it into the stone building.

“Snips!” Sunset yelled at the stocky boy, pulling him back into the building with her.  “Help me put these out!  They’re going to set the merch on fire!”

Several loud pops were heard combining with the sound of stomping boots and frantic yelling, and bright flashes could be seen from the windows.  Trixie walked away with a satisfied smirk and went back inside the building she had walked out of.  Seconds later, Snips was shoved out of the stone building with a bucket of paint in his arms.

“Just dump that all over Quills and Sofas while I deal with this,” Sunset ordered from inside, “and make sure you get some on the windows.”

Snips simply shrugged before walking across the street.  Then, he carelessly sloshed slime green paint all over the wooden building, getting just a smattering of paint on a single window.  Not even half a second later, Trixie’s enraged screams could be heard coming from inside the building.

All the while, the two brothers watched the whole exchange with a mixture of shock, disgust, and morbid fascination.  Their guides simply stood next to them, blinking indifferently.

“Uh, is that a regular thing here?” First Base managed to ask.

“Oh, sonny, you haven’t seen the worst of it,” Cranky replied, chuckling that same ominous laughter from earlier that Flash and Base were honestly starting to hate.  “We better keep going, or you’re going to miss out on the real fun.”

“If what just went down is his idea of fun, I’d hate to see what his idea of a bad time is,” Flash thought to himself dismally as he and his brother followed Cranky and Twilight further into the town.

It was the same story everywhere Flash and First Base looked, broken wooden buildings on one side of the road and broken stone buildings on the other side.  Aside from the stray animals roaming the streets and a few individuals either vandalizing property, yelling at each other, or both, the town seemed deader than a cemetery.

“I’m starting to think we might have been better off dying at sea,” Base remarked dryly as he and Flash observed their surroundings.  Flash would have never said so out loud, but he was strongly inclined to agree with his brother.

Eventually, the group reached the center of town where a lone bell hung from a wooden post.

“You see that bell over there?” Cranky said to the boys.  “Why don’t you go over there and give it a ring or two?”

The two brothers eyed Cranky suspiciously before turning to Twilight who simply and sternly shook her head no.

“Come on.  You know you want to,” Cranky persuaded.  “Would I ever let you kids do anything that would hurt ya?”

The brothers shared a look with each other.

“Yes, yes, he would,” their eyes seemed to say before turning back towards the bell and staring at it.  Even though the boys knew better than to walk up to the bell and ring it, their curiosities had been piqued, and against their better judgment, they were sorely tempted to do just that.

Flash looked down at the broken cobblestone and searched the ground for a loose rock.  When he found one, he picked it up and held it out to First Base.

“Think you can hit it from here?” the older teen asked his brother.

“Ha!  You know it!” Base affirmed confidently, taking the rock and pitching at the bell with astounding accuracy.

The rock struck the bell with a clang and sent the bell swinging.  The clapper inside the bell swung wildly, striking the sides and sending more clangs echoing through the town.  Not even a tenth of a second later, a thunderous roar was heard rising through the town as if in response to the bell’s rings.

Before the boys even had time to wonder where that sound was coming from, hordes upon hordes of people rushed out from the buildings, let loose a war cry, and poured into the square.  The pounding of their running feet combined with their cries, creating the roar Flash and First Base were hearing.  The people coming out of the wooden buildings were all dressed in reds while those from the stone buildings were dressed in greens, and each side was attacking the other with whatever they could get their hands on, including but not limited to sticks, stones, frying pans, rolling pins, and their own bare fists.

Flash grabbed First Base’s arm with one hand and Twilight’s with the other and pulled them away from the path of the people running into the square from behind them.  In the process of pulling his brother and his acquaintance away from the savage townspeople, he ended up pulling the two of them closer to himself. Shortly after, all the townspeople had reached the square and were going at one another like a pack of starving wolves fighting over a bone.  While the brothers continued to gawk at the hulking mass of violence in the square, Twilight noticed how Flash had taken her arm and pulled her close to him.

“Do you mind giving me my space?” she snapped, yanking her arm out of Flash’s hand.

“Oh, sorry, miss.  I didn’t mean to get fresh,” Flash apologized, just barely realizing what he had done.

“Ringing the bell makes the townspeople fight each other?!” Base exclaimed disbelievingly.

“No, it makes them come out for tea and cakes,” Twilight replied sarcastically.  “What do you think?!”

“Well, how do we turn it off?” Flash cried.

“Oh, you could try ringing the bell again, but I doubt you’d be able to make a shot like that again with all those people in the way,” Cranky insinuated.  “Better walk through and ring it by hand.”

“Are you trying to get us killed?!” Base screamed.

“Base, try making that shot again,” Flash said, picking up another rock and handing it to his brother.  “Just try.”

“With all those people in the way, I could end up hitting someone if I miss.”

“Really?” Twilight scoffed.  “These people are whaling at each other with everything short of weapons, and you’re worried that a measly, little rock is going to hurt them?”

Grudgingly, First Base took the rock from his brother and took a deep breath.  Taking careful aim, Base pulled his hand back and sent the rock flying.  The rock whizzed past someone’s ear, ricocheted off someone else’s pitchfork, and struck the bell with a clang.  Immediately after the bell rang, all the fighting stopped. In fact, everyone seemed to stop moving as if time had frozen.

“Well, I see someone is quitting early today,” a tall, broad-shouldered, muscular man with reddish skin and a thick, gray beard came forward from the side with the wooden buildings.  Unlike everyone else from that side of town, his clothing color of choice seemed to be almost exclusively black and maybe a very dark gray. “Looks like you Stones just can’t put up a fight as much as you used to, can you?  Huh, Lady Chrysalis?”

“Us?!” shouted a woman with dark gray skin and long, stringy green hair from the side with the stone buildings.  Like her opponent, she also seemed quite fond of the color black.  “Don’t be ridiculous, Lord Tirek.  You Woods were the ones who rang the bell!”

“We did no such thing.  You did!  You’re just saying we did to spare yourselves the embarrassment!”

“As if we would ever do that!”

“It was us!” Flash interrupted stepping forward, causing everyone to turn their attention towards him.  “My brother and I rang that bell, and we’re so sorry.  We never meant to cause any trouble.”

“And just who do you think you are, boy?” Lord Tirek demanded.

“Oh, great, another outsider,” Lady Chrysalis groaned.

“Well, my brother and I used to work for a merchant ship, but we were shipwrecked and brought here,” Flash explained.  “We need to head back to the mainland and see if any of our shipmates survived, and we were wondering if maybe...”

As Flash talked, Lady Chrysalis rolled her eyes while Lord Tirek just stared at the teenager with a thoroughly bored expression.  Then, to show how little she cared about Flash’s tale, Lady Chrysalis grabbed the bell’s rope in her hand and pulled it, ringing the bell.  Just like that, everyone began fighting all over again, not even letting Flash finish his request.  After maybe a whole second of dumbfounded staring, Flash returned to the group.

“Would this,” Flash asked Twilight, gesturing towards the battle raging behind him, “have anything to do with why no one here writes letters or sends their children to school?”

“Catch on fast, don’t you?” Twilight quipped bitingly.

“But how did all that start in the first place?” First Base asked.

“Heh, no one knows,” Cranky replied nonchalantly. “That’s just the way things are around here.”

“And everyone is okay with that?” Base asked disbelievingly before sharing a skeptical look with his brother.

Twilight let out a long sigh and interrupted, “Maybe you’d get a better perspective of what life here is like straight out of a local.”

“I guess we would, but is anyone here even going talk to us?” Flash asked her, tilting his head towards the fighting townspeople.

“I think I can take things from here, Cranky,” Twilight said to the ferryman.  “You can head back to the docks.”

“Heh, suit yourself,” the salty boatman replied as he left the group.
> Chapter 3: Meet Timber Spruce
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The brothers followed Twilight as she walked around town square to the other side of the town.  After a few minutes of walking, they came along a shoddy wooden fence, and a boy about Flash and Twilight’s age.  He had brown skin and wavy green hair and wore a red jacket, indicating that he was a member of the Wood clan.  He had his back turned to them and was busily hammering a wooden board onto the fence.

“Timber Spruce!” Twilight called to him, getting his attention.

“Hey, Twilight,” Timber greeted back with a small smile.  The smile quickly vanished when he saw Twilight’s company.  “Who are they?”

“Just some boys that my brother fished out of the sea,” she replied dismissively.

“Hey!” First Base cried in offense.

“Really?” Timber remarked, taking an interest. “Well, that might have been a mistake. Have they seen the town yet?”

“Yup,” Twilight affirmed dispassionately.

“Did Cranky trick them into ringing the Battle Bell?” Timber asked with a cheerless laugh.

“They were smart enough to do so from a distance, but yes.”

“Which is more than what we can say for your brother when you and your family first came here,” Timber added with another laugh causing Twilight to seethe slightly.

“Anyway,” Twilight continued, “I thought you could give them some insight on what this place is like from a local’s perspective.”

“In a word, horrible,” Timber retorted before pointing to his jacket.  “You see this jacket?  It means I’m part of the Wood clan.  Everyone wearing green is part of the Stone clan, and everyone here has only one purpose, to make life for everyone in the other clan as much of a living Tartarus as possible.”

“Yeah, we figured out that much just from walking through town,” First Base replied.  “What can you tell us about the bell and the man and the lady in black?”

“The Battle Bell?  What’s there to tell?  You ring it, and everyone in town is required to go out to the square and beat the living daylights out of each other.”

“So, how come you’re here instead of out there?” Flash asked the obvious question.

“Because I think this whole feud is stupid and that everyone dumb enough to take part in it can go fall in a ditch!”

“Timber!” a voice called.  Everyone turned to see a young woman with raspberry-colored hair and pinkish skin approach them.  Her hair was a mess and her red clothes were in tatters, indicating that she had just returned from the town square.  Timber groaned and rolled his eyes as soon as he saw her.  “What do you think you’re doing?!”

“I’m fixing the fence just like you asked me to,” Timber replied with a scowl.

“Well, you must not be doing it very well if you’re stopping to talk to outsiders.  We had an agreement.  You get to skip out on the Battle Bell—”

“As long as I keep an eye on the nursery.  I know.  You only tell me a million times every day,” Timber snapped.  “Now, are you going to keep yelling at me, or are you going to do whatever it is you came back here to do?”

The woman shook her head in disapproval before opening the gate to the fence, walking through, and entering the house on the other side.  Timber angrily picked up another board and began to nail it furiously and carelessly to the fence.

“So, uh, is she, um, your family?” Flash asked Timber, still uncomfortable from witnessing the whole exchange.

“My older sister Gloriosa,” Timber answered, still pounding away at the fence.  “She keeps trying to get me to take part in the feud.  Says that our ancestors demand it.  Why should I care about our ancestors?  They’re dead and have been for a long time.”

“So, how did this whole feud start in the first place?” Base asked.

“That’s dumbest part about this whole thing!” Timber cried.  “The whole thing happened so long ago that NOBODY EVEN KNOWS ANYMORE!  The only reason why anyone keeps it going is because Lord Tirek and Lady Chrysalis tells us to.  Something about how ending the feud will dishonor our ancestors and thousands of years of tradition or something.”

“Lord Tirek and Lady Chrysalis?”

“The people in black,” Timber explained. “They’re the clan heads.  Lord Tirek heads our clan, and Lady Chrysalis heads the Stones.  Their only job is to keep the feud going.”

Timber picked up particularly unwieldy piece of wood from the stack of boards and struggled to put it up on the fence. Flash stepped up and took the other end, surprising Timber.

“Uh, what are you doing?” Timber asked him in bewilderment.

“I’m helping you fix your fence,” Flash replied.

Timber eyed him suspiciously and questioned, “Okay, what’s in it for you?”

“Well, nothing, but if you’re offering, my brother and I do need money for—”

“I’m not offering, and you can forget it!” Timber yelled, cutting Flash off and yanking the board out of his hands. “I’ll fix the stupid fence myself.”

“Gee, no wonder you and this guy are friends,” First Base muttered to Twilight.  “He’s about as mean as you are.”

“You try living here for a while and see if you don’t get a little mean yourself,” Timber retorted, having heard Base’s remark. He continued to struggle with the long board for a little bit before Flash stepped forward and helped him with it again.  “I thought I told you—”

“Yes, I know you either can’t or don’t want to give me any money,” Flash interrupted, “but you clearly need help, and I want to give it to you, so I’m giving it to you.”

Timber glared at him warily and asked, “Why?”

Flash paused, looked at him calmly in the eye, and said with a sigh, “Because that’s how I’d want to be treated.”

Before Timber could say anymore, Flash held the board up against the fence and gestured for Timber to start nailing it on. Timber just stood there, staring and sputtering in shock.  Meanwhile, First Base looked around the stack of wooden boards, searching for an extra hammer.  When he found one and an extra box of nails, he triumphantly went up to where Flash was holding the board and began hammering the nails into the board.

“Okay, now the mouthy kid is helping me?” Timber exclaimed, finally finding his voice.

“The ‘mouthy kid’ has a name,” First Base spat, “and it’s First Base.  And yes, I’m helping you too.  Now, hurry up and help before your sister comes out and yells at you again.”

Timber hesitantly nodded his head and took another board from the wood pile.  He was struggling a little to hold it in place when Twilight walked up and held it for him.

“Uh, thank you,” he managed to say.  Twilight didn’t answer but nodded curtly.
> Chapter 4: Words and Actions
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Three days later, First Base sat with Cadance and Twilight at their dining table with a slate, a slate pencil, and a reader while Flash went out to look for a job.  Base had wanted to go find work with his older brother, but Flash had insisted that the younger boy improve his education.  Cadance, seeing an opportunity to do her actual job, was more than happy to oblige.  Cadance had just finished giving Base a writing lesson and was about to start his arithmetic lesson when Flash walked into the room with an utterly defeated look on his face.

“You and Timber were right,” Flash said to Twilight. “I wasn’t going to be able to find a job without getting mixed up in the feud.”

“Didn’t you say last night that the Apple family was going to hire you to guard their apples?” First Base asked.

“They fired me for trying to reason with the kids stealing their apples instead of spraying them with pepper spray like how Applejack told me to,” Flash explained.  First Base grimaced, imagining the pained screams of the children unfortunate enough to have such a fate befall them.

“But if you can’t make any money, we won’t be able to get off the island.  How are we going to find out what happened to everyone else on the ship if we can’t leave the island?”

“That’s what worries you the most about being stuck here?” Twilight sneered.  “Really?”

“Why wouldn’t it be?” Flash answered back. “The men on that ship were the closest thing we had to family.”

Flash’s remark made Twilight shrink back a little. She shared a concerned look with Cadance before they both turned to the boys.

“If you don’t mind us asking,” Cadance began, “what happened to your actual family?”

The brothers shared a sad look with each other before Flash replied, “Our father left us flat a long time ago, and we lost our mother and grandparents to an illness.  We were supposed to go live with our maiden aunt who was in the navy, but then, we got word that her ship had been attacked by pirates with no survivors.”

“And now, the only family you two have left is either at the bottom of the ocean or scattered by the waves,” Twilight concluded.

“Maybe there’s a way for us to find out what happened to them without leaving the island,” Base suggested hopefully. “Isn’t Mr. Night Light a postman? We could try sending a letter.”

“How?” Flash remarked, “The two of us can barely read and write our own names, let alone a whole letter asking for word about our shipmates.”

“We can help you write it,” Cadance offered.

“Really?” First Base cried excitedly.  Flash couldn’t help but brighten as well.

“Of course.  We’ll just need the address to the merchant company you used to work for.”

“Uh, address?” Flash repeated, his face dropping.

“You know, how postmen figure out where the mail they deliver is supposed to go?” Twilight clarified.

Flash groaned and slammed his face on the table.

“You don’t know the company’s address, don’t you?” Twilight deadpanned.

“No,” Flash confirmed.  “All I know about where to find it is that it’s somewhere in Paardenstad.”

“Oh my, that’s a problem,” Velvet exclaimed as she walked in from the kitchen, having heard the whole conversation. “I’m afraid you really can’t send a letter without an address.”

“So, we’re basically cut off from anyone who isn’t on this island with us?” Base asked with just a hint of panic in his voice.

“It sure looks that way,” Twilight retorted.

First Base pushed the slate away and slammed his face on the table next to his brother, letting loose a muffled growl of frustration.  Cadance and Velvet looked at the boys in pity before locking eyes with each other and sharing a nod.

“You know, boys, Night and Shining could use some help their work,” Cadance suggested.  “We won’t be able to pay you much, but we could hire Flash to help out.”

“What?!” Twilight cried in protest.

“Or if you want to go and find your friends as soon as possible, we could always—,” Velvet began before being interrupted by her daughter.

“Uh, Mother, Cadance, may I please speak with you in my bedroom, please?”  Twilight practically dragged her mother and sister-in-law into one of the bedrooms before slamming the door behind her and yelling, “Have the two of you gone crazy?!”

“What’s wrong, dear?” Velvet asked her daughter.

“We can’t give Flash a job because then we’d have to pay him,” Twilight explained, “which means less money will go towards our savings.”  She glared at her mother and emphasized, “And we definitely can’t give him and his brother money out of our savings.”

“Twily,” Velvet protested.

“It took us a year and a half to save up enough for one of us to leave this miserable place and start over somewhere else, and there’s five of us,” Twilight argued.  “As things are, we’ll need to save up for another two and a half years before we can get out of here.  If we use our money to help those boys, we’ll have to stay here longer, and do you want that?  I don’t think so.”

“Twilight,” Cadance pointed out, “all they want is to find their friends, and if we don’t help them do that, nobody in this town will.”

“How are they even so sure anybody else survived?” Twilight snapped.  “If you ask me, they’re just setting themselves up for disappointment. They’re better off thinking that everyone they cared about is dead.”

Cadance and her mother-in-law shared a knowing yet tired look with each other.  They have both known Twilight long enough to know that she hadn’t always been this cynical and uncaring, but they have also seen so little of the girl Twilight used to be in the past five years that they were starting to lose hope that they’ll ever see her again.  A part of them had hoped that being around other outsiders would remind her that human decency still existed in the world, but boys’ presence seemed to only make her want to turn them as bitter and spiteful as herself.

“Fine then,” Velvet conceded, “we won’t give those boys money out of our savings, but we are still giving Flash a job, and you are not getting another word in otherwise.”

Twilight looked as if she wanted to further protest but the intense glare her mother shot her way made her think better of it. She simply humphed and nodded before storming back out into the dining room.  Flash and First Base were still sitting at the table, their faces as blank as the slate Base was fidgeting with.  Velvet and Cadance followed Twilight, forcing themselves to smile as pleasantly as possible.

“After talking it over a bit,” Cadance began, returning to her seat at the dining table, “we have decided that the best course of action would be to give Flash a job.  Doesn’t that sound nice?”

“You don’t have to do that,” Flash uttered hesitantly.

“Oh, we know,” Velvet replied, “but we can’t just leave you boys to fend for yourselves, now, can we?”

“Uh, thank you, ma’am.”  Oddly formal and reserved way Flash was speaking with them caused Twilight and her family to suspect that he and First Base had overheard them talking in the other room.  What First Base said next confirmed those suspicions.

“What are we supposed to do if no one else survived?” the younger boy said, his voice shaking.

“We mourn and then we move on, just like we always have,” Flash replied.  “Not that it gets any easier the more we go through it,” he thought to himself, pressing his lips together into a hard line.

Flash’s face must have betrayed his thoughts because First Base reached out and put his hand over his older brother’s shaking fist, giving it a comforting squeeze.  Flash hadn’t even realized he’d been making a fist.  Flash turned and looked into his brother’s eyes which were glistening with the tears the younger boy was fighting.  Flash’s face softened, and his hand relaxed.  He gave his little brother a sad smile and returned Base’s squeeze.  At that moment, watching the brothers’ wordless conversation, Twilight Sparkle quickly learned the meaning of regret.

“Uh, well,” Cadance uttered, trying to chase away the awkward melancholy that had fallen over the room, “we still have to talk to Night and Shining about what you could do for your job, and they won’t be back for a while.  Since you have nothing to do right now, maybe you’d like to sit in with us for a few lessons, Flash.  Twilight, could you go look for another slate and another reader?  I’m sure I have extras lying around somewhere.”

Wanting to think about something other than how horrible of a person she had been, Twilight hurriedly got up to comply with her sister-in-law's request.

“Thank you, Ms. Cadance.  You’re too kind,” Flash replied.

Twilight returned with the slate and reader and handed them to Flash.  For a split second, their hands touched, but they quickly pulled away from each other, Flash because he was still angry and disgusted with Twilight for worrying his brother and Twilight because she was still ashamed of the careless words she had said about Flash and Base’s missing friends.  As a result, they dropped the slate and the reader to the floor.

As they both bent down to pick up the fallen articles, Flash noticed a drop of water had fallen on the slate, leaving barely noticeable splotch.  Flash looked up and saw Twilight rubbing her eyes.  Flash felt his face change into an expression of concern as he reached out and touched Twilight’s arm.

Twilight looked up at him with a start, and their eyes met.  Flash gasped inaudibly when he saw Twilight’s eyes.  They were wet and shining.  Whether the shine came from empathy or shame, Flash did not know.  Maybe it came from both.

Flash gave her what he hoped was an understanding and forgiving smile, but Twilight only bit her lip and turned away, the guilt inside of her intensifying.  She shoved the slate and the reader towards Flash before scrambling to her feet and running into her bedroom, slamming the door behind her.

“Gee, what’s she upset about?” First Base remarked. Flash picked up the slate and the reader and slowly got up, staring at Twilight’s door.  He turned away, sat down, and joined Base for Cadance’s lesson, but in the back of his mind, he couldn’t stop staring at Twilight’s teary, shame-filled eyes.
> Chapter 5: Meet Limestone Pie
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Another three days passed, and Flash and First Base had settled into a routine while staying with Shining Armor’s family. Flash would get up early and set off with Shining to fish while Base would have his lessons with Cadance and Twilight.  Then, just before lunch, Flash and Shining would return with their meager catch while Night Light would return from the woods with his daily haul of firewood. After a quick lunch, everyone would take the fish and the wood to the post office and the schoolhouse to be sold.

Even though the post office and schoolhouse were serviceable as storefronts, not many people from the town would venture out to buy the family’s wares.  In a strange way, that was a good thing.  In their years living among the Woods and the Stones, Night Light and his family quickly learned that if someone from one clan had the misfortune of meeting someone from the other clan inside either building, the customers would start shouting at each other which would quickly escalate into an all-out brawl resulting in damaged walls, shattered windows, and ruined goods.

No, Night Light and his family learned that the best way to eke out a profit in a place like Griepsburg was to pack up the fish and firewood into crates and to go out into town selling them door-to-door. Granted, this method proved to be only marginally better than waiting around the store for customers.  This method also carried the risk of getting caught in the crossfire of whatever pointless quarrel happened to be going on in town, which was especially elevated whenever someone, either out of boredom or spite, would ring the Battle Bell.  During these occasions, the townspeople often just stole the goods to use as weapons.  Flash had the privilege of witnessing such an occasion on the first day he helped Night Light and Shining Armor go door-to-door.

When Flash told his brother about it after he came home, the younger boy suggested sneaking into town that night to muffle the bell.  Twilight had overheard them and shot the suggestion down, saying that her mother and brother had already tried that about a year into her family’s tenure. Apparently, the folks at Griepsburg were so in tune to the sound of the bell that they could hear and respond to it even when muffled.  When Base suggested simply stealing it and hiding it in the woods, Twilight and Flash both gave him stern looks, telling him exactly what they thought about the idea.

By the third day, Flash was desperate to find another job.  He wasn’t ungrateful to the family for all they were doing for him and his brother, and he didn’t find the work unbearably difficult or tedious.  However, he and Base were only earning about two copper pieces a day, meaning they will have to work for over a year before they made enough money for the ferry alone.  More importantly, even though their hosts were too gracious to say so, having two extra mouths to feed at home was negatively affecting how much Night Light and his family were able to put towards their savings, and the brothers wanted to stop burdening them as soon as possible.

That day started out just like any other. Flash and Shining went fishing in the morning and came back just before noon.  After lunch, the two of them and Night Light would pack some of their wares into crates, load them into two small wagons, and pull the wagons into town to sell.  However, unlike all the previous days, the three of them ended up meeting someone on the way, someone Flash had never met before.

“Hello, Limestone,” Night Light greeted the stone-faced, grey girl who had pulled up behind them.  She was driving a small sledge loaded with metal ore, gemstones, and coal that was pulled by a six reindeer.  “Where’s that father of yours?”

“Pa threw out his hip, so I’m going into town by myself this week,” she replied gruffly.  Taking notice of Flash, she continued, “Who’s that guy?”

“Uh, hi,” Flash greeted, unsure what to make of the girl.  She was dressed in some sort of animal skin like some kind of a mountain man, err, woman, which made the ferocious look on her face seem even more intimidating. “My name is Flash, Flash Sentry.”

“You’re not from here, are ya?” Limestone responded curtly.  Flash shook his head in reply.  “Word of advice for ya, kid.  The less you’re in town, the better.”

Flash paused, waiting for her to say more. When she didn’t, he simply nodded.

“So, who is she?” he whispered to Shining Armor.

“Limestone Pie,” Shining answered.  “She and her family are miners.  They live out in the mountains and pretty much keep to themselves. Only Limestone and her father ever go into the town, and they only go once a week to buy and sell things.”

Flash looked back at Limestone and stared for a bit.

Without even turning to him, Limestone snapped, “Didn’t anybody tell you it’s not polite to stare?”

“Oh, sorry, miss,” Flash apologized.  “Uh, I was just wondering why you and your father are the only people in your family to go to town.”

“Ha!  Have you seen what town is like?” Limestone grumbled.  “My sisters wouldn’t last ten seconds around those yahoos, especially the younger two.  If you wanna get those crazies to buy anything, ya gotta show ‘em who’s boss.”

“We try to stay close to the Pies whenever they come into town,” Shining Armor whispered to Flash in explanation. “We’re able to sell more that way.”

“You’d be able to sell more if ya and yer folks weren’t a bunch of soft city pansies,” Limestone retorted, having heard Shining despite his whispering.  Shining Armor could only sheepishly chuckle and grin awkwardly in reply.



As Shining Armor had noted, being around Limestone seemed to help them sell more.  Everyone seemed to stop fighting the moment Limestone drove into town.  If this had been any other day, Flash would have been celebrating, but he knew that the relative peace he and his hosts were experiencing was temporary and fake.

Flash could see everyone shaking in fear as they regarded the mountain woman, and whenever Limestone or his hosts made a sale, the customers wouldn’t even make eye contact.  They would just take what they wanted, drop their money, and go. Furthermore, the people watching them from inside their houses were looking at Limestone the same way mice inside of a mousehole would look at a cat.

Shining Armor and Night Light smiled and greeted the customers as warmly as they could, but it was obvious by the way their smiles dropped every so often that they could feel the tension also.  The only one who didn’t seem to notice anything amiss was Limestone, and if she did notice, she didn’t seem to care.

“Is this normal?” Flash whispered to Shining Armor.

“What?  Limestone being terrifying?” Shining asked.  “Oh, yeah.”

“Why is everyone afraid of her?  I mean, sure, she dresses like a wild woman and never seems to smile, but there’s more to it than that isn’t there?”

“HEY!” Limestone shouted at some passers-by. “Are you gonna buy something or am I going to have to break something of yours first?!”  The passers-by stopped passing by and hurriedly purchased a sack of coal and three mackerel, dropping their payment as they did so.

“Oh, yeah.  There’s more to it than that,” Shining Armor bluntly replied.  “I know this arrangement isn’t ideal, but Father and I need to make a living for our family somehow.”

“Even more so now with Base and me staying with you,” Flash thought to himself with a slight frown.  As the sale day continued, Flash continued to silently observe Limestone as an idea formed in his mind, trying his best to make sure she didn’t notice him watching her.  When their stock dwindled to half a crate of firewood, one trout, and a sack of amethysts, Flash approached the surly woman with a request.

“So, Miss Limestone,” he began, “you said earlier that your father threw out his hip, right?”

“Yeah, what of it?” Limestone snapped.

“Uh, well, I was wondering if you need help with anything while he’s recovering, maybe I could help you and your family.”

Shining Armor and Night Light heard Flash’s request, and their mouths dropped open.

“Flash, the Pies live deep in the mountains,” Night Light protested.  “It will take you at least two hours to get to where they live.”

“I’ll wake up earlier.  Don’t worry about it,” Flash assured.

“They’re miners.  You might not be able to handle the kind of work they normally do,” Shining added.

“I used to work on a ship.  I’m used to working pretty hard.”

“What’s in it for you?” Limestone asked, crossing her arms.

With a long sigh, Flash answered, “As much as I want to say that I just want to help you and your family, I actually need money for me and my brother to go back to Paardenstad, and I want to be able to earn it without burdening these two fine gentlemen.”

“You have been doing nothing of the sort,” Night retorted.

“Actually, they have,” Shining reluctantly agreed. “We just didn’t have the heart to force them to fend for themselves.”

Limestone nodded, her expression unchanging.  She looked Flash over before glaring at him menacingly right in the eyes.  Flash bit his lip, trying not to look uncomfortable.  For a while, the two of them just stood there with their eyes locked.

Then, Limestone turned away breaking eye contact and stated, “You start tomorrow morning.  If you’re late, I’ll maim you.”

Flash was so overjoyed that he instinctively hugged Limestone thanking her profusely.  Limestone shoved him off roughly.

“I don’t like being touched,” she growled.



Later that night, Flash and the two men returned to the family’s cottage and told everyone the news.

“Are you crazy?!” Twilight screamed.  “It’s a—”

“Two-hour journey from here to the mountains.  I know,” Flash interrupted.  “Your father told me.”

“Oh, really?  Did Father also tell you that—”

“The Pies are miners and that they’ll probably work me pretty hard?  No, but Shining Armor did.  Is that why none of you told me about the Pies earlier?  Because you didn’t think I could handle the work?”

“It’s not just that,” Cadance began.  “It’s just that the Pies are rather standoffish.”

“Standoffish?”

“It means they like to be left alone,” Twilight explained, “so we do.  I honestly can’t believe Limestone agreed to hire you.”

“Well, she also threatened to maim him if he arrived late,” Shining added.

“Now, that I can believe.”

“Look, I know the job isn’t ideal, but Base and I need to get back to the mainland and find our friends somehow, and we need to do it without cutting into your family’s money,” Flash said to his hosts, particularly to Twilight.

Twilight turned to Flash, her face changing into an expression of genuine concern.  “Just be careful up there okay.  You’re not going to be able to find your friends if you end up getting worked to death.”

Flash and First Base shared a confused look with one another.  After how dismissive and cold Twilight had been towards the brothers when they first arrived, having Twilight show them some semblance of care was unexpected for them to say the least.  However, a kindness is a kindness, no matter how small, so Flash, rather hesitantly, thanked Twilight for hers.

“Well, I better get some sleep,” Flash noted. “I’m going to have to get up pretty early.”

“Flash, wait,” First Base called, stopping his brother from going up to the attic where they had been staying.  “Look, about this job and any others you might take afterwards, I need you to promise me something.”

“What’s that?”

“Promise me that you won’t work yourself to death. Okay?”  The look on First Base’s face as he demanded that promise made Flash a bit uneasy, but mostly, it just made him deeply sad.  Even though Base tried to hide it, Flash could see the fear shining in his eyes.  Flash felt that same fear many times since the two of them had lost their family.

“I, uh, guess that I am not going to be able to take care of you if I’m dead, huh?” Flash replied with a sigh.  Base said nothing but frowned even more deeply. “Okay, okay.  I promise you that I won’t work myself to death.  I’ll work as hard as I need to but not that hard, okay?”

First Base’s expression softened, and he slowly nodded.  Flash nodded back and made his way to the attic to go to sleep.  After Flash left the room, First Base just sat there, staring glumly ahead of him.  Twilight reached her hand out to comfort him but then pulled back.  She bit her lip as she searched her mind for the right words to say to the boy, but everything she could think to say felt hollow and pointless. What are you even supposed to say to someone who has lost everything and is now afraid of losing even more?

In the end, Twilight got up from the table, announced that she was going to bed early, and left the room.  She went into her bedroom, got dressed in her nightgown, and tucked herself into her bed.  However, instead of going to sleep like how she wanted, she found herself lying awake in the dark staring at the ceiling.
> Chapter 6: Meet Pinkie Pie
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next morning, Flash got up and left the house before anybody else was awake.  The sun had not yet risen, and it wouldn’t rise for quite some time.  As Limestone had instructed him the day before, he followed the trail that led into the mountains until he reached a stone cabin at the foot of the mountains.  By the time he arrived, the sun’s first rays were just barely peeking above the horizon.

Flash went up to the cabin’s door and raised his hand to knock.  However, before he could, it suddenly swung open and slammed into him.

“Hi!” screamed the pink girl who had swung open the door.  Like Limestone, she was dressed in animal skin.  Unlike Limestone, she had thick, curly hair and a wide, exuberant smile on her face.

“Ow!” Flash cried out before he began to rub his throbbing shoulder.

“Ha!  I knew it! I knew it!  Someone was about to knock on the door.  My Pinkie sense is never wrong,” the girl prattled before calling inside, “Ma!  Pa! Limestone!  Maud!  Marble! There’s someone at the door!”

As Flash continued to nurse his shoulder, five people joined the pink girl at the door.  Of course, Flash recognized Limestone immediately.  She was joined by an older man dark tan skin and the thickest, grayest sideburns Flash had ever seen on a human being.  The man was hunched over and leaning on a pair of crutches. Flash assumed that this man was Limestone’s father, which meant that the three gray ladies and the pink girl were her mother and sisters.

“Well, look at that,” Limestone sarcastically noted. “The city pansy showed up after all and on time too.”

The pink girl let out a long, dramatic gasp before chattering, “Oh my gosh!  No way! This is the guy you hired to help out until Pa’s hip gets better.  That’s great!”

She zipped up to Flash, yanked his hand, and began shaking it profusely.

“Hi, I’m Pinkie Pie,” she jabbered.  “I’m SOOOO happy to meet you.  We don’t get a lot of visitors up here.  In fact, we don’t get any visitors at all, so it can get really boring up here, but now, you’re here, and you’re visiting us, which makes you our first visitor in, well, practically forever.”  She gasped again before continuing, “You know what this calls for?  A party! I’ll got get my balloons and streamers right now.”

Before anyone else present could get a word in otherwise, Pinkie had already rushed off somewhere.  She came back in a whirlwind, somehow decorating everything in balloons and streamers.  She was also somehow playing several musical instruments all at once.

“Welcome welcome welcome,” Pinkie sang cheerily as she played, “A fine welcome to you/Welcome welcome welcome/I say how do you do?/Welcome welcome welcome/I say hip hip hurray/Welcome welcome welcome/To our humble home today”

As soon as Pinkie Pie had finished singing, she shoved a cake into Flash’s hands and put her instruments away, er, somewhere. For a while, all Flash could do was stare dumbfoundedly at the joyful girl and the cake she had put in his hands.

“Uh, hi, I’m Flash,” Flash said when he finally found his voice.

“Well, hi, Flash,” Pinkie Pie greeted back before introducing the family.  “It’s so nice to meet you.  I’m Pinkie, but you already knew that because I told you ten seconds ago, and you already met Limestone yesterday because she hired you and everything.  This is Pa.  He threw out his hip the other day, which is why you’re here.  This is Ma.  She keeps everyone here fed and dressed.  This is Maud.  She likes writing about rocks, and her life’s dream is to write about rocks for one of those universities in the city.  And last but not least, this is my baby sister Marble.  She’s only five minutes younger than me, but she’ll always be a baby to me.  Right, sis?”

The gray girl with long hair that was covering part of her face nodded and said, “Mmmm-hmmmm.”

“Oooh, I hope you like Neapolitan flavor,” Pinkie continued, making a fork appear from who-knows-where and holding it out to Flash. “That’s a fancy way of saying chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla put together.  I even mixed sprinkles into the strawberry and vanilla layer for some extra fun.  Go on. Try it.”

“Ugh!  Pinkie!” Limestone scolded.  “I hired this guy to work.  Not to eat cake, and you’ve already made us burn enough daylight as it is.”

“Aww,” Pinkie whined, “but this is the first time anyone’s come up here to see us in forever.  If you work him too hard, he won’t want to be friends with us.”

“I’m not paying him to be our friend,” Limestone retorted.  Pinkie deflated a bit upon hearing that.  Her hair especially seemed to lose quite a bit of volume.

The sight made Flash pity the girl, so he said to her, “It’s okay.  I can always try it whenever we stop for lunch, or I can take it home with me to share with my brother and our hosts.”

“You have a brother?” Pinkie gasped, her hair seeming to get bigger along with her smile.  “You should bring him up here with you some time.  I’d LOVE to meet him.  Maybe you can even invite the postman and his family up here too.  I keep begging Limestone and Pa to bring them over one of these days, but they always tell me that no one is going to want to hike two hours into the mountains just to socialize.”

“There’s no point making friends with them anyway,” Limestone retorted.  “They’re shipping out of here as soon as they can afford to.  Then, the only people left for you to try to make friends with are the yahoos in town, and you know how Pa, Ma, and I feel about that.”

“Well, maybe I can make everyone stop fighting and be friends if you just let me go down there and throw them a party or two,” Pinkie argued.  “I mean, maybe they’d make great friends if someone gives them a reason to be.”

Flash couldn’t help but pity the cheerful girl’s naivete.  Thanks to the trying circumstances that he and his brother have had to live through, Flash has seen the worst of humanity often enough to know that some people are just that horrible.  At the same time, those trying circumstances were what taught him to look for and appreciate kindness and love.  True, they didn’t make his problems go away, but they definitely made dealing with them easier.

“You know, Miss Pinkie, I could tell the postman and his family about you and see how they feel about meeting you,” Flash offered.  “I can’t promise you anything though.”

“Really?  You’d do that for me?” Pinkie shrieked excitedly.

“Of course,” Flash replied.  “You seem nice, and if you’d like, maybe you and I can be friends.”

“You want to be my friend?!”  Pinkie was close to exploding with joy right about now.

“Uh, yes, yes I do.”  The looks Limestone and her father were giving him as he said this filled Flash with dread.  However, Pinkie remained blissfully oblivious to this.

“EEEEEEEEEEEE!” she squealed, bouncing all over the place in ways that shouldn’t be humanly possible.  “I have a friend!  I have a friend!”  She suddenly stopped mid-bounce and gasped.  “I have to make another cake right now!”  Then, she zoomed into the cabin, slamming the door behind her.  Not even half a second later, she zoomed back out and took Flash’s cake from him.  “I’ll hold on to this for you until you're ready for it.”  Then, she zoomed back into the cabin and slammed the door behind her again.

Flash looked from the cabin door to Limestone and Mr. Pie.

“Uh, so,” he began, slowly getting over his surprised confusion, “where do I start?”

“You can start by not getting my sister’s hopes up,” Limestone snapped.  “What were you thinking agreeing to be friends with her when you and your brother are planning on leaving?”

“Uh, forgive me for being ignorant, but what does my planning to leave have to do with why I can’t be friends with your sister?”

“Are you planning on ever coming back after you leave?”

Flash paused, unsure how to answer the question. He never thought about whether or not he would return to the island because up until now, he didn’t think he had any reasons to return.

“Well, I didn’t have any plans to return, no,” Flash hesitantly replied, “but I don’t see why I can’t.”

“You mean, besides the town full of crazy people that your hosts live near,” Limestone retorted before motioning for Flash to follow her.

“Well, okay, they scare me a bit,” Flash admitted as he followed, “but not enough to make me be a terrible friend.”  He paused to think before continuing, “Besides, maybe the two of us can exchange letters or something, you know, once I learn how to read and write better.  Uh, you and your folks do know how to read and write, right?”

“What?  Think we’re illiterate just because we’re mountain people?” Limestone huffed.  The two of them had stopped at seemed to be a shed of sorts.  Limestone opened the door and rummaged around for a pickaxe.  When she found the pickaxes, she handed one to Flash and took one for herself before continuing, “Speaking of which, how come a city pansy like you can’t read or write?  Didn’t you go to school or something?”

“I can read and write,” Flash cried in offense, “just not very well.  Also, I’m not exactly from the city.  My brother and I grew up in a small country town just outside of it.  We went to school for a while but had to stop because we needed to work for a living.  What do you have against city people anyway?”

“Have you seen how the postman and his son sell firewood?  Trying to be ‘patient’ and ‘polite’ and ‘civil’?” Limestone said with a dismissive laugh as she lit an oil lantern.  She started walking again, and Flash followed her.  “I’m surprised they lasted as long as they did.  You gotta be as hard and rugged as the mountain to survive in a place like this, kid, and if other city folks are anything like the postman and his kin, they just don’t got what it takes.”

“With enough time and persistence, wind and water can wear down even the hardest rock,” said a monotone, feminine voice from behind Flash.  Flash started and turned around.  Standing directly behind him was one of the Pie sisters.  He believed her name was Maud.  Like two of her sisters, her skin and hair were variations of the color gray.  Her straight hair reached her shoulders, and her face was flat and expressionless.

“Don’t contradict me with your fancy book-learning, Maud,” Limestone admonished her.

The three of them continued the rest of the trek in silence before stopping at the mouth of a large cavern.

“We’re here,” Limestone announced, holding up the lantern as she led the group into the cave.  “Stay close to me because if you get lost, I’m not looking for you.” Flash did not have to be told twice.

Limestone appeared to lead them down an elaborate system of tunnels that were carved into the mountain.  Even though Flash could see other tunnels branching from the one Limestone was leading him down, he dared not so much as give them a second look lest his curiosity end up killing him.  Eventually Limestone stopped and hung the lantern against the wall of the tunnel.  By the lantern’s light, Flash could see that the group had stopped at a dead end.  He could also see that the walls were laced with veins of something grey and shiny.

“We’re mining metal ore today,” Limestone explained. “Marble and Pinkie will come by a little later with a cart.  Just swing the pointy end into the wall and pick up what chips off.  Got it?”

“Got it,” Flash affirmed.  He swung the pickaxe into the wall just as he had been told, and immediately, his arms started shaking.  The shaking spread from his arms to the rest of his body to his teeth. Once his teeth stopped chattering, he turned and saw Limestone grinning at him sadistically.  He nervously smiled back at her before gritting his teeth and swinging the pickaxe again.



When Flash returned to Night Light’s cottage, his whole body was screaming.  He could barely hold himself upright as Ms. Velvet served everyone their supper.

“Are you alright?” Twilight asked him in concern.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Flash replied, trying not to sound exhausted.  “I mean, I’m still alive, so that’s something,” he added with a weak chuckle.

“Wow,” First Base noted, “I didn’t think anything could be harder than working on the ship.”

“It’s not that the work was harder,” Flash explained. “It just took a while to get used to. I think the hardest part was working with Limestone.”

“Oh, really?” Night Light replied.  “What was she like?”

“Oh, she was grouchy and demanding and seemed to enjoy watching me struggle,” Flash answered.  “By the way, you and Shining Armor have only met her and her father, right?”

“That’s correct.”

“Well, have any of you had a chance to meet the rest of her family?”

Night Light and Shining Armor shared a questioning look with each other.

Then, Shining Armor turned back to Flash and said, “I can’t say that we have.  In all the time that Father and I have known Limestone and Mr. Pie, they didn’t seem interested in making friends or meeting each other’s families, so the whole acquaintanceship has been quite professional.  Why do you ask?’

“It’s just that one of Limestone’s sisters seems quite, er, different from the rest of the family,” Flash explained.

“Different how?” Cadance asked.

“Well, she’s cheerful, bubbly, sociable, and in her own odd way, lonely,” Flash replied.  “She seemed to really want to make friends, but it doesn’t seem like Limestone or their father will let her.”

“I can’t blame them,” Twilight scoffed. “You’d have to be a pretty terrible parent to let your child become friends with the kind of people who live in Griepsburg.”

“I can understand that much, but they don’t seem to want Pinkie to be friends with anyone, not you, your family, or even me,” Flash noted.  “I mean, Limestone and Mr. Pie seem to have this weird prejudice against city people, but I don’t see why that would make them want to just shut other people out.”

“Well, they’ve lived on the island longer than we have,” Twilight replied.  “Maybe years of seeing the worst in humanity made them decide they were better off alone.

“Well, that’s no way to live,” Base pointed out. “By the way, Flash, what’s in those boxes that you brought home with you?

“Oh, I almost forgot,” Flash exclaimed. “Pinkie Pie sent me home with some cake. I told her I’d share them with you.”

“Uh, are you sure that’s safe?” Twilight asked nervously, eyeing the two boxes Flash had set on the kitchen table as if they contained dynamite.

“Now, Twily, I know the Pies seem savage and reclusive, but I highly doubt that they mean anyone harm,” Night Light scolded. “Besides, this might be the nicest thing anyone’s done for us since we moved here.”

“Granted, the bar is set pretty low,” Twilight muttered.

As soon as the family and their guests finished their supper, Ms. Velvet took the cakes out of the box and served everyone a slice from each cake.

“Oh, wow!” First Base exclaimed, happily taking another bite.  “This is the best thing I’ve ever eaten.  I mean, I know the bar is set pretty low, but this is just unbelievable.”

“That new friend of yours sure can bake, Flash,” Shining Armor agreed.  Twilight would have never said so out loud, but she was strongly inclined to agree with her brother.
> Chapter 7:  The Party Cave
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Flash worked for the Pies for a whole week, and for the next six nights Flash would return from the mountains exhausted but alive. Fortunately, he seemed to be getting used to the work which meant he was able to get more done with each day, and by the end of the week, he had earned the equivalent of one silver piece and then some.  Furthermore, the Pies were gracious enough to give him one day off, and that day was the one day when Limestone would go to town to sell.

Flash spent his day off by joining his brother for Cadance’s lessons in the morning, and in the afternoon, he helped Shining Armor and Night Light bring their wares into town to sell.  Like the week before, the three of them stayed close to Limestone, reluctantly profiting from her domineering presence.  Flash couldn’t help but frown as he looked around the dreary town and its wary townspeople.  He wished that he had a way to change everything for the better, but what?

As if in response to his gloomy thoughts, Flash felt something hit him on the back of his head.  He reached up and grabbed it, feeling that it was a piece of paper. Flash brought the paper in front of his face and took a good look at it.  On the paper was a crayon drawing of a small, cozy house with two faces, clearly that of children, drawn at the windows.  Flash couldn’t remember the last time he had seen, let alone made, a crayon drawing, but even he knew that those kinds of pictures were supposed to be bright, colorful, and happy.  The picture that he held in his hands was the exact opposite of that.

The house was drawn in enough detail for Flash to see that it was falling apart, and everything except the children’s faces was colored in various shades of gray.  The most disturbing details of the drawing were the bars drawn on the windows and the giant frowns drawn on the children’s faces.  Upon closer inspection, Flash realized that he had passed by that house earlier.  He also could have sworn that he saw two boys living in that house who looked like less crudely drawn versions of the children in the drawing.

“Excuse me,” a voice snapped Flash out of his thoughts and back to reality.  He hurriedly stuffed the drawing into his coat pocket and looked up.  Sunset Shimmer was standing in front of him with a strangely sweet smile on her face and a brown paper package in her hands. “I need a package delivered, and I was wondering if you could give it to the postman for me.”

“Um, he’s right over there,” Flash noted gesturing towards Night Light, who was waving goodbye to a customer, not that said customer seemed to notice or care.

“Oh, I know, but he just seems so busy, and I didn’t want to bother him.”

“Hey!  Whaddya want, ya vicious tart?!” Limestone interrupted, taking notice of the two of them. She looked down and saw the package in Sunset’s hands.  “You know the postman doesn’t take packages from you and your ilk.  Now, you either buy something or git!”

Sunset scowled furiously and shoved the package into Limestone’s hands before running off.  Limestone scowled back before unceremoniously tossing the package a good distance away behind her.  Weird. Where did that ticking sound suddenly come from?

Before Flash even had a chance to ask Limestone about the exchange, the package exploded in a cross between a boom and a splat, spraying paint everywhere like globs of congealed, green blood.  Flash grimaced at the sight and turned away. That explosion explained a whole lot more than he wanted it to.



The next morning, Flash woke up too early. He tried to go back to sleep, but every time he shut his eyes, an image of the sad, gray crayon drawing that was still in his pocket would drift to the front of his mind.  Meanwhile, in the back of his mind, Sunset Shimmer’s paint bomb kept splattering its carnage before rewinding back into a seemingly harmless brown-paper package only to explode again.

After a good five to ten minutes of not sleeping, Flash got up, put on his coat, and decided to start his trek into the mountains early.  A nice 2-hour walk into the brisk mountain air ought to clear his head.  If it doesn’t, maybe an hour pacing aimlessly in front of the Pies’ cabin might.

When Flash reached the Pies’ cabin, however, he spotted Pinkie Pie stealthily climbing out the second-story window with a dim lantern in her hand.  She didn’t seem to see him as she silently scaled down her house, so Flash ducked behind a tree near the side of the trail and continued to watch her secretly.

Pinkie lightly jumped off the cabin’s outer wall, landing on her feet.  The two inches of fresh snow muffled the sound of her boots hitting the ground. Then, she tiptoed away from the cabin further into the mountains.  Flash’s curiosity peaked; he quickly yet quietly followed her.

Pinkie Pie crept past the cave entrance to the Pie family’s mine and stopped in front of a barely noticeable fissure in the uncut stone wall.  Then, as lithe as a rabbit, she crouched down and slipped right into the fissure.  Flash ran up to where Pinkie had been standing, bent down, and took a closer look at the fissure.  Even though it seemed no wider than a hair from afar, Flash saw that the fissure was, in actuality, just barely wide enough for a person to crawl through with a bit of finagling.

Flash thought about following Pinkie inside, but every bit of common sense that he had was telling him not to.  He didn’t know where that fissure led, and if he got lost, he might never come out.  At the same time, Flash couldn’t help but wonder what kind of a secret someone like Pinkie Pie could have that she needed to hide it behind a barely noticeable crack in the wall.  Besides, he still had an hour to kill before he had to show up for work, and discovering Pinkie’s secret seemed far more interesting and more distracting than aimlessly pacing in front of the Pies’ cabin.

Flash took a deep breath, said a quick prayer, and wormed his way into the fissure.  The other side of the fissure didn’t seem to have any standing room, so he had to continue to crawl for the next eighteen inches or so.  That’s when Flash’s hand slipped down a slick, sloped surface and pulled the rest of him down with it.

Flash cried out in surprise as he slid down the cold stone.  The literal rockslide went on for what felt like miles, twisting and turning as it continued.  Eventually, the slide deposited him on the floor of a massive yet brightly lit cave.

“Ow!” Flash cried as he belly-flopped onto the ground.

“Flash?” he heard Pinkie say to him.  Flash looked up and saw Pinkie Pie staring at him, her face uncomfortably close to his.

“Oh, hi, Pinkie,” he stuttered awkwardly. “Look, it’s not that I’m not glad to see you, but do you mind stepping back just a bit?”

“Oh.  Okay.” She complied, giving Flash room to pick himself up and look around the cave.  He could see tables piled with noisemakers, balloons, and streamers. Crates upon crates were stuffed with party hats, confetti, paints, and brushes.  Cupboards were carved into the walls of the cave and filled with well-crafted, colorful toys.

“Whoa, is all this real, or did I hit my head pretty hard?” Flash asked.

“Oh, this?” Pinkie replied.  “This is just my party cave.  It’s where I keep all the stuff that I’ll need to throw a party. That is,” her shoulders slumped forward with an unusually sad sigh, “if Limestone and my parents ever let me throw one.”

“Why won’t they let you throw a party?”

“It’s kind of a long story.”

“I’m here too early anyways, so I’ve got time to kill.”

“Time to kill what?” said Pinkie, looking thoroughly confused.

“It’s just an expression.  It means I have enough time to do something, in this case, listen to your story,” Flash explained.

“Oh, okay, well, it’s like this,” Pinkie began. “My family and I aren’t from here. We actually used to live near a different mountain that was near a city, and that’s where my Granny Pie used to live.”

“Wait,” Flash interrupted, frowning as he thought back to Limestone and Mr. Pie’s prejudiced behavior towards him and Night Light’s family, “your grandmother was a city person?”

“No, silly.  She wasn’t a city person.  She just lived there.  She was more of a ‘travel all over the place spreading smiles wherever she went’ person, and I wanted to be just like her when I got older,” Pinkie recounted with a wistful yet bright smile.  “Oh, Granny used to throw all the best parties, bake the best cakes, and make the most amazing gifts.”

“What happened to her?” Flash asked.

“The same thing that ends up happening to most people,” Pinkie continued, her smile dropping into a glum frown.  “She got old and died, and after that, well, everyone in our family just missed her so much that we wanted to just get away and forget, so we did, and we ended up coming here.  The problem is we’ve been forgetting for so long that I think we’ve forgotten too much of her.  This cave and all these party supplies are all that’s left of her and what her life meant to everyone.”

Flash glanced around the cave one more time, his face matching Pinkie’s.

“I think I understand how you and your family feel,” Flash replied, looking back at Pinkie.  “My brother and I lost our whole family, and now, we only have each other.”

“Aww,” Pinkie whined sympathetically.  “Well, for what it’s worth, you’ve got me.  We are friends after all.  I mean, I know I haven’t met your brother yet, so right now, I’m friends with just you, but I can be his friend too if he’d like.”

Flash couldn’t help but chuckle a little despite the feeling of sadness and loss he and Pinkie were sharing.

“Yeah,” Pinkie prattled on.  “And you’re friends with the postman and his family too, right? You’ve got them.”

“I don’t know about that, Pinkie,” Flash gently disagreed.  “I mean, Mr. Light and most of his family have been more than kind enough, but I don’t think his daughter likes me very much.”

“Oh, I’m sure she’ll come around eventually. It’s not like she’s totally heartless or something, right?”

“I mean, I know she has a heart,” Flash agreed, “but it’s pretty deep.”  He and Pinkie shared another laugh before a comfortable silence fell.

Flash took another look around the cave, letting the cheerful, festive atmosphere brighten his spirits.  He stuck his hands into his pockets and to his surprise, felt paper inside one of them.  Then, he remembered what he had put in there, carefully brought it out, and uncrumpled it. The happy colorfulness of Pinkie’s party cave made the sad greyness of the crayon drawing even more pronounced. However, the gears inside Flash’s head began to turn as he looked from the drawing to the toys in the stone cupboards.

“Hey, Pinkie,” Flash said to his pink companion with a magnificent smirk, “how would you like to help me make a few people smile?”

“Oh, I would love to,” Pinkie chattered obliviously, “but how am I supposed to throw a party without Limestone and my parents finding out and getting mad?”

“Actually, a party wasn’t what I quite had in mind.”
> Chapter 8: The First Present
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

As soon as Flash finished working that day, he didn’t walk home; he ran.

“Mr. Light!  Mr. Light!” he called as he skidded to a halt right in front of the cottage door.  “Mr. Light!” He bent over with his hands on his knees panting like a winded dog.  Maybe running wasn’t such a good idea.

Twilight opened the door, saw Flash panting, and exclaimed, “Flash?  What are you—Did you run all the way here from the mountains just to get here sooner?”

“Maybe,” he replied with a weak chuckle.  “Where’s your father?  I need to talk to him.”

“I just got here,” a voice said behind Flash. Flash turned around and saw Night Light and Shining Armor standing behind him with their wagons.  “What do you need to see me for?’

Flash stood up, took a breath, and presented a package that he had been carrying under his arm.

“Pinkie Pie needs this package delivered into town,” Flash replied.  Night Light and his two children stared back at Flash as if he had asked them to poke a sleeping bear.  Twilight was the first to find her voice.

“Flash, Father doesn’t accept packages,” she said.

“Actually, according to Limestone, he doesn’t accept packages from Sunset Shimmer and her ilk,” Flash corrected.  “I’m assuming she means people who are involved in the feud. Pinkie isn’t involved in the feud. In fact, she and her family aren’t even from Griepsburg, so I don’t see why Mr. Light can’t deliver this for her.”

Twilight bit her lip as she shared a worried look with her father and brother.  She would rather have had her tongue cut than admit it, but Flash was right.  Night’s facial expression, however, changed from worry to curiosity.

Night Light held his hands out to take the package from Flash and asked, “Does it have an address?”

“It does,” Flash answered before pulling out a wrinkled crayon drawing from his pocket, “but I’m not sure it’s the right one. She needs it sent to this house, but neither of us knew the address, so she just wrote down her best guess.”

“Hold on, why would some strange girl from the mountains want to send a package to that house specifically?” Twilight interrupted, eyeing Flash suspiciously as her father inspected the house in the drawing and compared it to the mental image that he had of the building located at the address written on the package.

“She saw the drawing and wanted to cheer up the kids in it.”

“So, she just happened to see a picture of some sad kids and just happened to want to help?  Completely unprompted?”

“Of course.”  That was only partially true.  Pinkie only saw the drawing because Flash showed it to her, and mailing the package to them was his idea.  However, Pinkie had been more than happy to go along with it when he had told her, and she did assemble the package all on her own.

“This address is correct,” Night said to Flash. “I don’t know how your friend could have guessed it so accurately, but she did.  Did she give you the money for postage?”

Flash pulled out a small, pink coin sack and gave it to the postman.

“It’s three coppers a pound for packages, right?” Flash asked for clarification.  Night Light took the coin sack and nodded.

“I’m going to have to take this to the post office to be weighed, but assuming that your friend paid the right amount, I think I’ll have time to deliver this before dinner tonight,” Night Light replied.



To Night Light’s surprise, the little pink sack contained EXACTLY the right amount of money to pay for the package’s postage, and true to his word, he returned to town with the package.  He found the house in the crayon drawing, approached the front door, and rang the bell.  The door opened with an ominous creek, and Night Light found himself staring down the barrel of a rifle.

“Leave before I start counting,” the gun’s owner threatened.

“Ma’am, it’s Mr. Light the postman,” Night Light tried to explain, trying not to panic.  “This is going to sound crazy, but someone from out of town sent you a package.

“A package?  From out of town?”  The rifle’s owner lowered the gun and stepped forward revealing herself to be a middle-aged woman with pale gray skin and turquoise hair that was hidden under a red bonnet.  Her coat and dress were also in different shades of red.  “My boys and I don’t know anyone from out of town.”

Before either Night Light or the woman could say another word, a five-year-old boy excitedly burst through the door and took the package from Night Light.  Like his mother, his red clothes indicated that he was a member of the Wood clan.  His skin was the color of the sky on a sunny day, and his hair was black tipped with electric blue.

“Oh boy!” he cheered.  “We got a package?  What’s in it?  What’s in it?”

“Cerulean Brush, put that down!  You don’t know what’s in it!” his mother scolded, but her words went unheeded.

“Sid!” the boy called inside the house, as he started to tear off the brown-paper wrapping.  “We got a package!”

An older boy with blue-gray skin and jet-black hair came out of the house just as Cerulean Brush finished ripping the wrapping off.  Cerulean lifted up the lid of the box, and a blast of air blew out of it with a squeaky honk sending colorful pieces of paper flying in all directions.

The mother and her two sons jumped back and screamed, covering their faces with their arms.  They were clearly expecting something worse to follow, but nothing happened.  The woman lowered her arms with a relieved sigh before berating her younger son.

“This is why we don’t open packages!” she screamed. “You’re lucky this turned out to be a dud, or—!”

“Mama, wait,” her older son interrupted, “I don’t think that was meant to hurt us.”  He stepped closer to the package and looked inside it.  He gasped and reached his hand in as a smile grew on his face.  “Lean! Mama!  Take a look at this!”

From out of the box, Sid brought out a little wooden boy with strings attached to two wooden bars.  The wooden boy was wearing bright blue overalls, a red cap with a little blue feather, and a small, red bowtie.  Most endearingly, it had the sweetest blue eyes and a friendly smile painted on its face.

“It’s a little person,” Sid cheered.  He started fiddling with the bars and the strings, making the marionette move.  “Cool!”  After some more experimentation, he quickly mastered maneuvering the marionette and made it do a little dance.

His little brother laughed at the silly dancing boy before looking inside the box himself.  He squealed with delight when discovered that the package contained one more gift inside.  Lean pulled out a shiny wooden box painted in red and white.  On the side of a box was a little crank.

Night Light could see Sid and Lean’s mother reaching for her rifle to aim at the box but stepped forward and stopped her.

“It’s alright,” the postman assured.  “I know what it is.  It’s not dangerous.”

The mother looked as if she was about to question him, but before she could, her youngest son began to turn the crank.  To both his surprise and delight, music began to play, so he kept turning it.  The music continued to play with each turn until suddenly...

“Ah!” Lean screamed as smiling pink clown on a spring popped out of the box.  Lean waited with bated breath for something else to happen, but the toy clown just continued to bounce and smile.  Unsure what to do next, Lean turned to the postman and asked, “Now what?”

“You push the doll back inside, close it, and turn the crank again,” Night Light explained.

Lean did as Night Light had instructed, and once again, the clown sprang out of the box.  This time, Lean shrieked with laughter before pushing the clown back into the box and repeating the cycle.

The two brothers each played with their new toys for a while laughing as they did so.  Then, the two of them switched toys and continued to play some more.  Night Light couldn’t help but smile himself, seeing their happy faces.  He tipped his hat to Sid and Lean’s mother saying his goodbyes and went on his way. Meanwhile, the boys’ mother kept looking from her now smiling children to their new toys to the now empty box, wondering why a stranger would go through all the trouble just to make her boys happy.
> Chapter 9: Making a List
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“You’re joking,” Flash said to Pinkie Pie the next morning.  Upon Pinkie’s request, Flash had gone up to the Pies’ cabin early again and met with Pinkie in her party cave.

“Hey, I know the poofy hair and the high, squeaky voice can make it hard to tell sometimes, but I’m being totally serious right now,” Pinkie replied.

“But how are we going to send a toy to every kid in town?” Flash asked.  “First of all, I don’t even know how many kids are in town.  Second of all, I don’t know where they all live.”

“Why don’t we just start with the ones you do know and work from there?” Pinkie suggested.

“Well, I did run into and meet a few kids while I was out looking for a job during my first three days here,” Flash admitted, “but I don’t know where they live.  I mean, I know how to find where they live.  I just don’t know how to write it down in such a way that Mr. Light will be able to.”

“So, you don’t know how to use an address?” Pinkie asked for clarification.

“Well, Ms. Cadance and Twilight taught me what an address is and how to write one, but no, I’ve never actually had to use one before.”

“Well, do you know how to find someone’s address?”

“It’s the number on someone’s mailbox or door and the name of the street the front of the house is facing, right?’

“Right.  So, all you have to do is go to each of those places where you know a kid lives, find the address, write it down, and bring it back here, easy.”

Flash wanted to point out to her that he could barely read and write, but he stopped himself.  Every bit of sense he had in him told him that Pinkie Pie’s idea was crazy. More importantly, it also sounded like a huge undertaking and a long commitment, and taking part in either of those things would be incredibly foolish of him, especially since he needed to focus on getting himself and his brother off the island so they can find their crewmates.

However, Flash couldn’t help but want to be part of Pinkie’s crazy quest to bring joy to Griepsburg.  Mr. Light seemed so happy when he came home yesterday; it was the happiest that Flash had ever seen him, or anyone for that matter, since he and Base have been on the island.  Judging by Mr. Light’s account of the delivery, those boys who received those gifts were pretty happy too.  God knows how badly that dreary, little town needed some joy and color, and Pinkie clearly needed help to make her idea happen.

“I, I’ll see what I can do,” Flash agreed reluctantly.  Pinkie Pie cheered before hugging him gratefully.



That night, Flash waited for everyone in the house to fall asleep before creeping down the attic.  Oh boy, was he going to be exhausted after work today!  However, Flash chose not to think too much about that and focused on finding a piece of paper and a pencil.  Logically, they would be where Cadance kept what few school supplies she had, but Flash didn’t know where that is or would be.

So, Flash resorted to searching every nook and cranny, starting at the living room.  He was in the middle of searching the dining room when...

“What are you doing here?” a feminine voice said to him accusingly.  Flash flinched in surprise before slowly turning around.  Twilight was standing right behind him wearing a furious scowl and holding a rather thick book in her hands as if she was about to hit someone with it.  “What are you doing here?” she repeated.

“I’m, uh, looking for paper and a pencil,” Flash answered.

“Ha!  A likely story,” Twilight retorted.  “You’re trying to rob us blind while we’re asleep, aren’t you?  Besides, what would you need paper and a pencil for?  You can barely write.”

Flash blinked at her dumbfoundedly before retorting in offense, “First of all, if I wanted to steal from you and your family, why would I wait this long to do it?  Second of all, if I was stealing from you and your family, why would I leave my brother asleep in the attic instead of having him with me?”

“I can think of a few reasons.”

“Good gosh!  What kind of a horrible person do you think I am?” Flash cried before he realized how loud he was being and put his hands over his mouth.  His eyes darted from the door of one bedroom to the next, but thankfully, he didn’t seem to have woken anyone.  “Look, can you just tell me where you and your family keep your paper and pencils, please?”

“Only if you tell me what you’re using them for,” Twilight demanded, still brandishing her book.

“Okay, if you have to know, Pinkie needed me to make a list for her.”

“A list of what?”

“A list of none of your business, okay.”

Twilight bit her lip pensively as her mind raced to find a possible answer to Flash’s strange behavior.

“That stunt you pulled with my father and that package,” Twilight realized, facepalming herself in annoyance.  “You talked Pinkie into doing it again, didn’t you?”

“I didn’t talk Pinkie into doing anything,” Flash refuted.  “Okay, I’ll admit that first package was my idea, but Pinkie wanted to cheer up more kids, and I just couldn’t refuse her.”

“And why not?”

“Twilight, you saw how happy delivering those gifts made your father.  You also heard about how happy those kids were to receive them.  On top of all that, when I told Pinkie about it yesterday, knowing that she made people smile made her really, really happy,” Flash argued. “I know I can barely read and write, but Pinkie needs this list, and for her sake and everyone else’s, I have to try. Now, are you going to tell me where that paper and pencil are, or do I have to keep looking for it myself?”

Twilight just stared at Flash disbelievingly.  She looked right into his eyes, searching for any hint of duplicity or ill-will.  Finding none, she sighed exasperatedly before taking a piece of paper and a pencil out of a cabinet that Flash hadn’t searched through yet.

“I’m guessing you’re going to be trying to make a list of names and addresses, correct?” Twilight deduced.

“Y-yes,” Flash replied.  “Uh, how did you figure everything out?  Was I that obvious?”

“To your credit, no, you weren’t, but I am smarter than most people,” Twilight deadpanned as she sat down at the dining room table. “I think I can save you some trouble by writing this list down for you, and I can also save you a trip into town because I actually know the addresses of quite a few places here.”

“Wait.  Are you helping me?  Really?”

“Yes!” Twilight snapped.  “Now, start telling me whose addresses you need, so I can write them down, get some sleep, and never have to think about this again.”

“Okay, there’s Apple Bloom who lives at the apple farm, and there’s Filthy Rich’s daughter Diamond Tiara,” Flash began before listing off a few more names.  Within an hour, Twilight had finished the list and given it to Flash before turning in for the night.

Despite her earlier remark about wanting to forget the night’s events, Twilight found that she couldn’t think of anything else as she once again lay awake staring at the ceiling.
> Chapter 10: Secrets and Memories
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Flash gave the list of names and addresses to Pinkie Pie feeling much better rested than he was expecting to be.  To Flash’s complete utter shock, by the time he had finished working, Pinkie Pie had selected and packaged a gift for every child on the list.  She had wanted to send the toys out all at once, but Flash talked her down to sending them two at a time, reasoning that he wouldn’t be able to carry all the packages down to the post office.

Of course, Flash had other reasons for not wanting to send out so many packages at once.  The primary one was that he did not want to suddenly overwhelm Night Light with a drastically increased workload.  Additionally, according to Night Light, that first delivery had put him in front of the business end of a shotgun.  Flash figured that sending the presents out gradually would minimize the risk of Night Light getting killed by a sour, paranoid townsperson.

Although confused by the strange packages Flash was bringing for him to deliver, Night Light didn’t question Flash’s purpose or intentions behind them.  In fact, after just two days of deliveries, he was starting to look forward to them. True, he ended up being threatened by suspicious parents the first few times, but as word got out about the mysterious toy deliveries, the threats gradually decreased.

It was the same story with every delivery. Night Light would knock on the door, and a distrustful, cantankerous parent would answer the door only to be pushed aside by one or multiple curious kids.  Night would give the children the package, the children would open the package and be greeted by a burst of cake-scented confetti.  During the first few deliveries, the confetti spray would scare the children, but everyone quickly realized that the confetti was harmless.  Now, it just made the kids laugh.  Finally, the kids would take the toys out of the box and play with them with wide smiles on their faces, and Night Light would smile back at their straight-faced parents and tip his hat goodbye.

However, Flash realized that he and Pinkie overlooked one small detail in their quest to bring joy the town of Griepsburg.

“How are we going to get packages down for Mr. Light to deliver tomorrow?” Flash asked his cheerful, pink friend.  It was the day before Flash’s day off, and they had once again met up in the early, sunless hours of the morning before the workday would start.

“Yeah, you’re right.  You’re not going to be here tomorrow,” Pinkie agreed.  “Ooh, you could come up here early, get the packages, and run back.”

Flash winced.  Tomorrow was his one day to get some extra sleep, and he was reluctant to give that up.

“Or we could tell your family what we’re doing and have Limestone help by bringing them down with all the stuff she’s going to sell,” Flash suggested.

“Ugh,” Pinkie groaned sprawling over the table exasperatedly.  Flash didn’t think making Pinkie annoyed was possible, but there she was, face-down on the table, annoyed.  “I wish we could, but there’s no way Pa and Limestone will get onboard.  If it was just Ma, Maud, and Marble, we might have a chance, but Pa and Limestone are just as stubborn as the rocks on this mountain.”

Flash frowned as he began to realize the full implications of what Pinkie Pie just said.  “So, you’re just going to keep all this and everything we’ve been doing a secret from them forever?”

Pinkie groaned again before whining, “I really, really, REALLY don’t want to, but, oooh!  I don’t know.  Ugh, if Granny were still here, she’d totally be onboard with this, and she’d be able to get Pa and Limestone onboard too.”

“So, why don’t you just tell them this is what your granny would have wanted?”

“Because I already tried that argument when I tried to convince her and Pa to let me throw a party.  Limestone got really mad at me and yelled at me about how Granny’s gone forever and how not even all the parties in the world can bring her back.”

“They can’t,” Flash noted with a sad sigh, “but that doesn’t mean what she lived for had to die with her.”

“Oh my gosh!  Yes!” Pinkie cheered in agreement.  “That’s exactly what I think too, but Limestone and Pa don’t seem to see it that way.  Sometimes, I feel like I’m the only one left in my family who still wants to remember Granny.”

Flash bit his lip as he contemplated his and Pinkie’s options.  Maybe it was the uncharacteristically sad tone in her voice or the miserable expression on her face as she sprawled across the table or the way her hair seemed to deflate as they talked, but he just couldn’t bring himself to further argue against her.  He gritted his teeth and sighed.  Boy, was he going to miss those extra few hours of sleep!

“Fine, I’ll come early to take the gifts we want Mr. Light to deliver tomorrow,” Flash conceded, “and you can tell your family about this when you’re ready to.”

“Really?  Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!” Pinkie cheered, her hair seeming to reinflate itself as she pulled Flash into a crushing hug.

“Just so we’re clear,” Flash began, pulling away from her, “you are going to tell your family about this, right?  I know you’re having trouble seeing eye to eye with them right now, but keeping this all a secret from them just doesn’t sit well with me.”

“Ugh!  I know, and you know what else I know?  I also know that Granny Pie wouldn’t want me to be hiding this from them.  That only secrets that woman kept were her surprise parties, which were legendary by the way, and those secrets didn’t stay secret for very long.”



Later that night, Flash, Base, and their hosts were once again having supper together.  Ever since Flash and Pinkie began sending toys to the children of Griepsburg, Night Light would return home and tell the family all about what had happened during the day’s deliveries.  He could hardly contain his joy as he recounted what had happened to the rest of his family, and soon, everyone began to look forward to the postman’s nightly tales.   Even Twilight had difficulty hiding her interest.

“You know, I can’t remember the last time I’ve loved my job this much,” Night Light remarked.  “I mean, I’ve always loved being a postman, but there’s just something special about seeing your job give someone else the same joy it gives you.”

“And who do have to thank for that?” Shining Armor ribbed, bumping Flash with his elbow.

“Who?” Flash asked, feigning ignorance.

“Oh, come now.  Don’t be so modest,” said Ms. Velvet.  “Having Miss Pinkie mail those toys to those kids was your idea, wasn’t it?”

“Well, Pinkie was the one who made and wrapped the toys.  I had nothing to do with that part.”

“Speaking of that friend of yours, when are we going to get a chance to meet her?” First Base asked.  “She sounds fun.”

“When we find time in the day to take a two-hour hike just to hang out with her,” Flash replied, frowning slightly.  “I’d bring her down here to meet everyone, but I get the feeling that her parents and her sister aren’t too keen about letting her leave their property.”

“You know, during my deliveries, I’ve heard most of the kids, and even some of their parents telling me to thank whoever sent the toys,” Night Light continued.  “It’s too bad no one in this town writes letters.  If they did, they’d be able to thank Miss Pinkie themselves, and I’d have an excuse to go up there and meet her.”

As soon as those words reached Flash’s ears, a deeply pensive look crossed his face.  Flash wasn’t aware he was making that face, and no one else seemed aware of it either. Twilight, however, noticed that look and shuddered in fear of what she thought Flash was thinking of.



That night, Flash waited until he was sure everyone else was asleep before slipping out of bed and sneaking down from the attic. He was going to be up earlier than normal anyway.  What’s another couple of hours short of sleep?  Besides, he needed to talk to Twilight privately, and he might not get another chance to do it.  He was planning on going outside Twilight’s room and knocking on her door, but to his surprise, she was already waiting for him at the dining table.

“Good evening,” she greeted.  The stern glare on her face remained unchanging.

“Oh, Twilight,” Flash replied.  “I was just coming down to try to talk to you.”

“I figured you might.”  Twilight continued to glare at him, saying, “I don’t know what crazy idea you came up with over dinner tonight, but you best leave me and my family out of it.”

“But,” Flash protested, “can’t you just hear me out first before you shut me down like that?”

“Your idea involves having Cadance teach the children in town how to write letters and having my father take them up the mountain to your little friend, doesn’t it?”

Flash stared back at her dumbfoundedly and uttered, “Okay, umm, was I that obvious?”

“To your credit, no, no, you weren’t.  I’m just the smartest person in this house,” Twilight scoffed.

Flash grimaced, feeling thoroughly off-put by Twilight’s condescending attitude, not only towards him but to the rest of her family as well.  However, he elected to ignore how offended he felt in favor of asking Twilight what he actually wanted to ask her.

“Okay, you don’t seem to like the idea,” Flash began, “but I need your help with it.”

“Well, forget it.  Good gosh, do you just enjoy being a burden to other people?”

“Excuse me!”

“First, you and your brother move into our attic and eat off our table.  Then, you get my father involved delivering packages to the town on top of all the work he’s already doing.  Now, you want to give Cadance more work by having her teach illiterate children how to read and write and send my father up and down the mountains on a regular basis on top of everything he already has to do?”

Flash took a deep breath and slowly released it. He was so angry at Twilight that he was about to start yelling at her, but he had to be considerate of his hosts and his brother who were all probably still asleep.  He slowly inhaled and exhaled another breath just for good measure.

“Firstly,” Flash began, “my brother and I have nowhere else to go unless you’d rather have us sleep in the streets and pick through the garbage.  Secondly, Mr. Light is only making two deliveries a day, and if I hadn’t talked Pinkie out of it, he’d be doing a lot more.  Besides, he seems to enjoy making the deliveries a lot more than what he’s doing to put food on the table for you all.  Finally, I KNOW my idea is extremely inconvenient.  Why do you think I went to you first instead of just trying to make it happen on my own?  I figured that if anyone was smart enough to work out all the snags in my idea, it was you. I also figured that if I could get you onboard, I’d have an easier time convincing the rest of your family.”

“Why are you trying to get Cadance to teach and my father to deliver letters in the first place?” Twilight asked.  “How does giving Father and Cadance the opportunity to do the jobs they came to do but couldn’t benefit you or your brother in any way?”  Twilight paused before continuing, “For that matter, how does having my father deliver toys to children benefit you or your mountain girl friend?”

“Why do we need to get something out of it for us to want to do it?” Flash pointed out.

“Why would you be doing it if you didn’t get anything out of it?” Twilight retorted.  “I know you and Pinkie Pie have some reason for doing everything you’re doing, and I demand to know what it is.”

Flash sighed and stared at her.  Twilight could tell from the way he was looking at her that he was getting irritated by her, but she didn’t care.  In fact, she regarded Flash’s annoyance of her as payback for all the times she found him annoying and was quite glad.

Meanwhile, Flash frowned as he carefully thought about how to answer Twilight’s demands most truthfully.  He wanted to tell her that he and Pinkie were delivering the toys purely to be kind and unselfish, but he had a feeling Twilight wouldn’t believe him if he did.  Besides, the more he thought about it, the more he realized that maybe he and Pinkie’s motives weren’t as purely altruistic as he initially believed.

“Okay, okay, I’ll admit it,” Flash confessed. “Pinkie and I are getting ONE thing out of delivering the toys.”

Twilight smirked, prepared to start feeling incredibly smug.  All that smugness deflated when she heard Flash’s answer.

“Pinkie had a grandmother who used to love making other people smile,” Flash explained, “and Pinkie wanted to be just like her when she got older, but her family has been shutting out everything that reminds them of her grandmother, so the only way Pinkie can make other people smile now is by mailing out those toys.”

“And you?” Twilight asked, tilting her head in confusion.

“Me?  Well, let’s just say Pinkie’s not the only one trying to keep someone else’s memory alive, in my case, more than one someone.”  Flash opened his mouth to say more, but nothing came out.  He tried again, but the words kept getting caught somewhere between his heart and his mouth.

Twilight looking into Flash’s eyes.  Even in the dim light, she could see Flash’s heartache inside of them.  She could see something else underneath that, but she couldn’t quite name what she was seeing.  She tried to remain disinterested in Flash’s tale, but her curiosity prodded at her mind while what’s left of her compassion tugged at her heart.

“Tell me about them,” Twilight prompted gently.

Flash couldn’t help but give a small smile at Twilight’s sudden interest in his story.  Maybe she was finally warming up to him like how Pinkie predicted.  He chuckled mirthlessly and sat at the table beside her before continuing his tale.

“My mother and my grandparents lived by three principles,” Flash began.  The unidentifiable spark of emotion Twilight saw in his eyes earlier seemed to shine brighter as he spoke.  “One, work hard.  Two, take care of the people you love.  Three, treat other people how you would like to be treated.  Our family didn’t have much, but whatever we had we were willing to share, even if it was something as small as a smile or a kind word or a helping hand.  It didn’t make us a copper richer, but our hearts were always full.  Ever since First Base and I got here and saw how miserable life was for the townspeople, I have been wanting to do something that could make their lives better by just a little bit because I know that’s what Mother, Grandmother, and Grandfather would have tried to do.”

“You and Pinkie do know that—” Twilight began.

“That nothing we do will ever bring our family members back?  Yes, we know that,” Flash interrupted, “but if we let the good they left behind die with them, they would have lived for nothing.”

“That explains the toy deliveries, but what does all that have to do with getting Cadance to teach and getting my father to deliver letters?”

“Well, try to put yourself in your father and Ms. Cadance’s place,” Flash explained.  “They both have jobs that they love doing, and they can’t do them anymore because the people around them won’t let them.  What would you want someone to do for you if you were in their place?”

Twilight didn’t have to think hard to find the answer to that question.  “Find a way to let me do that job.”

Hearing Flash explain himself made Twilight feel more inclined to help him with his crazy scheme, but years of disappointment and resentment held her back.  Besides, if that crazy idea of his actually succeeded, then her family might decide to stay in Griepsburg, and for reasons she cannot disclose, Twilight cannot let that happen.

“I’m going back to bed, and when I get up in the morning, you better have forgotten about your crazy idea because I absolutely refuse to help you in any way,” Twilight spoke plainly to Flash, getting up from the table and going inside her bedroom.  Despite her warning to Flash, Twilight found herself lying awake in bed as everything they had discussed that night kept running themselves over and over again in her head.
> Chapter 11:  Of Reindeers and Younger Brothers
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“What do you mean today’s my last day working for you?” Flash cried.  His next workday started calmly enough.  He got up early to meet with Pinkie Pie and give her a new list of names and addresses that he had, with great effort and difficulty, put together the day before. After talking with her and helping her choose gifts, the two of them emerged from the Party Cave and joined the rest of the Pies for the day’s work.  However, he and Pinkie had barely met up with her sisters when Limestone made her announcement.

“You said you wanted to help until Pa’s hip got better,” Limestone explained.  “All he needs is another day, and he’ll be up and going again.”

“Wait, does that mean you won’t be coming up to see me anymore?” Pinkie whimpered, her hair deflating a bit.

Flash opened his mouth to reply but couldn’t answer her.  He had never felt so torn in his life.  On one hand, Flash had always considered himself a dependable person who would never abandon his friends, and Pinkie Pie is his friend.  However, he had other friends who he needed to look for, and he’s been leaving them waiting for about three weeks already.  A less loyal or more practical person would have considered them as good as dead and given up already.  Additionally, while Flash had other friends to think about, he was Pinkie Pie’s ONLY friend.  If he stopped coming up to visit her, she’d go back to that lonely, desperate girl he had met on his first day of work.

After much deliberation, Flash explained to her, “Pinkie, I would love to keep coming up here to visit you, but...”

“Oh no!” Pinkie cried.  “You said ‘but’!  That means you’re about to tell me something I’m not going to like!”

“I really need to earn the money to get me and my brother back to the city,” Flash continued.  “My brother and I used to work on a ship, and well, it sank.  Now, we need to go into the city to find out if any of our friends made it out alive, but we can’t do that unless I earn the money that we need for the travel expenses.”

“Oooooh,” Pinkie interjected in understanding. “How much do you and your brother need just for the ferry?”

“Ten silvers.”

“TEN SILVERS!” Pinkie cried.  “Is the ferryman crazy?!”

“Nope, just cranky,” Flash replied with cheerless laugh, “and greedy.”

Pinkie pursed her lips and scrunched her eyebrows as if she was deep in thought.

“Ugh, if I could just give you the money you need out of my savings I would, but I don’t have anywhere near that much,” Pinkie emphasized.  “Besides, I still need my savings for,” she clamped her hands over her mouth, realizing that her oldest sister was in her present company, “well, you know.”

“No, I don’t know.  What do you need your savings for, Pinkie?” Limestone replied, eyeing her younger sister suspiciously.

“I’ll tell you later,” Pinkie snapped, trying to dodge Limestone’s suspicion.  Then, she gasped, her eyes lighting up as she did so.  “IDEEEEEEEEA!”

Before anyone could say another word to her, Pinkie dashed off as quick as a flash and returned just as quickly with a rather strange-looking reindeer.  It looked exactly like any other reindeer except its coat was a pinkish gold color and its nose was sparkly red.

“Flash, this is my reindeer Groat, and Groatie, meet my friend Flash,” Pinkie said, introducing Flash and the reindeer to each other.

“Uh, Groat?” Flash asked, thoroughly confused.

“It’s an acronym.  It stands for Greatest Reindeer Of All Time!” Pinkie cheered, throwing her arms around the reindeer and nuzzling her face into its neck. “And because we’re friends, I’m going to give him to you.”

“Wait.  What?”

“You see, I didn’t just give Groat his name because he’s my reindeer and I love him,” Pinkie explained.  “I mean, I totally love him, like a lot, but that’s not why I gave him his name.  Groat is actually a really, really amazing reindeer.  Like, you know how it takes you hours to get up here?  Well, if you ride on Groat, you can shave your travel time down to just maybe five or ten minutes.  Now, you can job hunt and work AND still have time to hang out with me. Also, if you take him with you to the mainland, you won’t have to worry about spending money on a horse or a carriage.”

“Oh, Pinkie,” Flash exclaimed, extremely touched by the gesture, “that’s so sweet of you, but I can’t accept this.”

“Oh, sure, you can,” Pinkie insisted.  “Think of him as a little parting gift.  In fact,” Pinkie pulled a bright yellow ribbon from thin air and tied it into a big, beautiful bow around Groat’s neck, “there. Now, Groat is officially your goodbye present.”



“So, let me get this straight,” Twilight deadpanned to Flash as her family and their guests once again broke bread together that night, “Limestone Pie fired you, and her sister gave you that strange reindeer as a parting gift.”

“Pretty much,” Flash replied.  “Pinkie wasn’t kidding about that reindeer being able to cut my travel time down.  He was moving so fast that it was almost like we were flying, but we never once left the ground.”

“So, if you’re not going to be able to see Miss Pinkie as often, does that mean that the two of you aren’t going to be able to, you know, keep sending children gifts?” Night Light asked, trying and failing to hide the disappointment in his voice.  Everyone else at the table didn’t seem too happy about that idea either.

“With Groat’s help, I think we can work something out,” Flash replied.  “I think those toy deliveries might be one of the reasons why Pinkie gave me her reindeer.”

“By the way,” Shining Armor brought up, “First Base went into town with Father and I today.”

“Oh.  How was he? Was he a big help?”

“He,” Shining Armor paused and bit his lip, “was helpful enough.  He kept stopping to talk to and play with the kids in town, but Father and I let him. We figured that you guys haven’t had a chance to be just kids in a while.”

Flash looked at his brother with a mixture of sternness and bewilderment.  Base knew better than to play when he should be helping, but Shining Armor was right about the two of them.

“You’re right; we haven’t,” Flash replied to Shining Armor, his face softening.  “He knows better than to slack off, but as long as he was of some help, I don’t mind letting him stop to play.”

“Goodness,” Twilight thought to herself, “sometimes it’s like he’s First Base’s father instead of his older brother.”

“So, how are you going to find another job?” Twilight asked Flash.  “Are you going to be working with Father and Shining Armor again?”

Flash frowned at Twilight’s question.  The whole point of him getting a job with the Pies was so that he could earn the money he and his brother needed without further burdening Night Light and his family.  He had never considered what he would need to do if his employment was ever cut short.  Flash hated the idea of employing himself to his hosts again, but he didn’t have too many options.

“I, I don’t know,” Flash answered nervously before forcing a hopeful smile.  “I’m going to check out the town first to see if anything’s changed.  Maybe I’ll be able to find a decent job this time around.”

Twilight frowned, knowing full well that Flash was giving himself false hope.  She thought about shattering that hope with a biting and sarcastic remark, but she held back. What was happening to her?  Why did the very idea of saddening those two brothers pain her so much when three weeks ago, she honestly wouldn’t have cared either way?



The next morning started quietly enough. After waking up and getting dressed, everyone gathered for a quick breakfast before they were all to go their separate ways.  The only difference was that Flash was there to join them that morning.  Twilight and her family have been having that same quiet, unassuming breakfast together for the last five years with Flash and Base being the only change to that routine in all that time.  They had no idea just how much their routine was going to change that morning, and it all began with a knock on the door.

“Now, who could that be?” Velvet remarked, as she got up to open the front door.  When she opened it, two girls were standing behind it.  They both seemed to be about First Base’s age, give or take a year. One girl was wearing a red jacket while the other wore a green one, and the two of them seemed to be trying to keep their distance from each other.  The girl in red had pale yellow skin with long, red hair.  The girl in green had pink skin and wavy, lavender hair striped with a single band of white.

“Hello, ma’am,” greeted the girl in red.  “My name is Apple Bloom.”

“And I’m Diamond Tiara,” the girl in green interrupted to her accompaniment’s annoyance.

“We’re here to see the schoolteacher,” Apple Bloom continued.

“Yes?” Cadance replied, getting up from the table and making her way to the door.

“Hello, miss.  We’re here because yesterday a boy told us that he knew who’s been sending us toys and offered to write us letters to say thank you for three coppers a letter,” Apple Bloom explained.

“He also told us that if we came and had you teach us how to write our names, he’d take one copper off his fee, so a whole bunch of us are waiting for you at the schoolhouse,” Diamond Tiara cut in.

“So, can you please teach us?” the two of them said simultaneously before glaring at each other.

Meanwhile inside the cottage, everyone slowly turned to First Base and stared while he nonchalantly stuffed a buttered biscuit into his mouth.  His older brother in particular looked at him with a thoroughly incredulous expression.

“Could you excuse us, please?” Flash asked his hosts, forcing a sheepish grin on his face.  He grabbed his brother by the arm, dragged him into Shining Armor and Cadance’s room, which was the room they had been resting in when the two of them were first rescued, and shut the door behind them.

“What did you do?!” he exclaimed to Base.

Base giggled nervously and replied, “Uh, exactly what those girls said I did.”

Flash groaned exasperatedly and slapped his hand over his face.

He slid his hand off his face to look at his brother again and sputtered, “But why?”

“Because I overheard you talking to Twilight,” First Base replied, emphatically, “and you’re right.  Finding a way to make those people’s lives just a bit better is exactly what our family would have done if they were still here.  Twilight wasn’t going to help you, so I thought I’d try to do something.”

“And you’re charging kids money for your services because?”

“Hey, it’s only a few coppers, and one of them is going towards postage.  Besides, you said our family believed in taking care of the people we love, but ever since they died, you’ve been doing all the work taking care of me.  When’s it going to be my turn to take care of you?”

Flash opened his mouth to continue scolding First Base, but his words evaporated along with his indignation.  Flash could feel his expression softening under the pure, innocent brotherly love radiating from his younger brother’s eyes.  He sighed and knelt so that the two of them were eye level with each other.

“Base, I know you meant well, and I can’t fault you for that,” Flash began gently, “but you do realize that you disrupted Ms. Cadance’s plans for the day, right?  And possibly everyone else’s, too?”

“I know,” Base reluctantly conceded.  “I know I should have asked first, but I was worried that you or someone else would say no.”

“When we leave this room, I want you to apologize to Ms. Cadance and everyone else and do whatever they need you to do to fix this.  Understand?”

First Base bit his lip and nodded.  Satisfied, Flash stood up and opened the door.  The two of them returned to the dining table where their hosts were looking at them expectantly.  Cadance and Ms. Velvet had sent the two girls back to the schoolhouse to wait with the other children and returned to the table.

“Everyone,” Flash began, “my brother has something to say to all of you.”

First Base stepped forward and opened his mouth to talk when Twilight interrupted him, saying, “Save it.  We heard everything the two of you said to each other through the door.”

Surprised by Twilight’s interruption, Base looked to Flash, unsure how to continue.

Flash came forward and addressed everyone, “Even so, I think apologies are in order.  We’re very sorry for any trouble we have caused you.”

“Sorry?  Sorry?” Shining Armor shouted, the stern expression on his face terrifying the two brothers somewhat.  Then, his expression softened, and he smiled, saying, “This is the nicest thing anyone has done for us ever since we moved here.”

“What?!” Twilight, Flash, and First Base exclaimed.

“I know the bar is set pretty low in that regard, but Cadance and Father have been waiting for a chance like this for so long, and we were losing hope that it was ever going to come, but you boys made it happen,” Shining Armor continued.  “Thank you so much.”

“Wait, what do you mean you were losing hope?” Twilight cried out, staring at her older brother disbelievingly.  “You mean you still believed that Cadance and Father could actually do the jobs that they signed up for here in this God-forsaken piece of Tartarus?”

“Twilight, we know it’s foolish, but as terrible as this place and the people who live in it are, we just weren’t ready to call it quits,” Cadance explained.  “The only reason we were getting ready to leave was because growing up here was starting to affect you badly.”

“Wait,” Flash cut in, “so you’re not mad that we totally messed up your plans for the day and inconvenienced you?”

“Oh, don’t get us wrong; you two are still going to have to make up for that,” Shining replied with a smirk.

“And you can start by helping us clean up the schoolhouse,” Cadance added.  “It’s not in any condition for me to be teaching in at the moment.”

“When you boys are done with that, you can help me clean up the post office,” Night Light cut in.  “I’m going to need it in better shape if I’m going to process their letters to Miss Pinkie.”

“You’re actually going to be taking four hours out of your day just to deliver mail between the children and that girl?!” Twilight exclaimed, even more incredulous than she was earlier.  “How are you going to find time to cut and sell firewood?”

“He could borrow my reindeer,” Flash offered before addressing Mr. Light, “I know Pinkie gave him to me as a parting gift, but I don’t think she’d mind if I let you use him, especially once you let her know why I lent him to you.”

“I suppose I could,” Night Light accepted hesitantly, “but there’s still the matter of who is going to take over cutting and selling the firewood.”

“Flash could do it,” First Base volunteered. “He needs a new job anyways. Maybe that could be it.”

“That’s a splendid idea,” Ms. Velvet agreed. “With all the help you boys have been, it’s only right that we give you a job.”

“Is she serious right now?!” Twilight thought to herself, resisting the urge to slam her face on the table.

“I, I,” Flash stuttered, “I suppose I could take the job if you’re offering and if it’s not too much trouble.”

“Oh, it’s no trouble at all, really,” Ms. Velvet insisted.

Flash smiled and nodded at Ms. Velvet before turning to his brother with smirk.

“I’ll take the job on one condition,” Flash replied. “This kid has to go to school with the other children.’

“Yeah, I had a feeling you’d say that,” Base uttered with a roll of his eyes, “and I will, really.”
> Chapter 12: What Families Are For
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

After the brothers helped Ms. Cadance and Mr. Light clean up the schoolhouse and the post office, First Base spent the whole day at school with the town’s children, writing their thank you letters for them during the morning recess and lunch break.  True to his word, half of his fee went towards postage.

To Cadance’s delight, the children were all eager to learn.  Even after learning how to write their names, they clamored for Cadance to teach them more skills, such as reading and writing other words and counting past ten. Granted, the process did hit a few bumps.  Particularly, the children refused to mingle with those outside of their clan, which made teaching just a bit awkward for Cadance.

That afternoon, Night Light mounted Groat with a bag full of letters while Flash let them towards the mountain path.

“So, now what?” Night Light asked.

“Now, I think we just tell Groat where to take you,” Flash replied.

“And he’s able to understand what you’re saying?”

“He understood me fine when I told him to take me home yesterday,” Flash said with a shrug.  He turned towards the reindeer and said, “Okay, Groat, take Mr. Light to Pinkie.”

As soon as those words left Flash’s mouth, the reindeer took off up the mountain path with the postman clinging to him for dear life.  Night Light screamed as Groat practically flew up the mountain path leaping over loose stones and plowing past stray branches.  After the longest five minutes of Night Light’s life, the reindeer skidded to a halt in front of the Pies’ cabin.

Night Light shakily dismounted Groat and began to walk towards the cabin’s front door.  He had barely taken two steps towards the cabin when a pink blur burst out of a nearby snowman, surprising him.

“Hiya!” Pinkie Pie greeted the postman exuberantly.

“Ahhh!” Night Light screamed, jumping back a little.

“Yes!  Ooooh! I told Limestone we were getting a new visitor today, and I was right,” Pinkie chattered excitedly.  “By the way, my name’s Pinkie Pie.  What’s yours?”

“Uh, Night Light,” he replied once he got over the shock and found his voice.

Pinkie gasped taking note of Night Light’s uniform, “Ooooh!  You’re the postman, aren’t you?  Oh my gosh! I can’t believe you finally came up here to visit.  Wait right here.  I’m going to get the rest of my family.”  She took off, screaming, “PA!  MA! LIMESTONE!  MAUD!  MARBLE! THE POSTMAN’S HERE!”

Pinkie Pie returned as quickly as she left somehow bringing the rest of her family with her.  She was also inexplicably wearing several musical instruments on her person.  Before Night Light could ask what the instruments were for, Pinkie Pie began to play them and sing the welcome song she had sung to Flash when he had first arrived ending the number with a blast of confetti.

“What are you doing up here, postman?” Limestone demanded in a particularly irritated tone.

“I’m actually here to deliver some mail,” Night Light replied cordially.

“We don’t know anyone who would send us mail.”

“Well, the children Miss Pinkie has been sending toys to wanted to say thank you and wrote her some letters.”

“What children?!” Limestone cried, her eyes bulging out of her head in a panicked expression that Night Light never thought he would ever see on her.  Her father was much quieter, but his face was just as panicked as hers.

“Really?” Pinkie exclaimed excitedly before her sister could recover.  “Let me see!”

As Night Light rummaged through his mailbag to pull out the letters, Limestone strode over to him and placed herself between him and Pinkie.

“Hold it right there, postman!” Limestone shouted. “You are not giving my sister anything until you tell me what’s going on!”

“Oh, I’ve just been mailing toys out from behind yours and Ma and Pa’s backs to the kids in town to try to make them smile because you wouldn’t let me go into town to throw a party,” Pinkie answered with a surprising amount of nonchalance.  “No big deal.”

“And the children really loved those toys too,” Night Light replied, handing the letters to Pinkie Pie and trying not to laugh at the furiously stunned expression Limestone was making.

“Oooh, I can’t want to read these,” Pinkie cheered, hugging the letters to her chest.  “Wait, right there.  I have stuff I need to send out.”  Pinkie once again rushed away before returning as quickly as she had left with four packages and a rather thick bundle of envelopes.  “Okay, I’ve got the toy deliveries for today, and I had all these letters ready just in case the kids ever wrote to me.”

“Wait, you knew those kids would write to you?” Mr. Light asked in confusion before taking the packages and envelopes from her and putting them in his mailbag.  “Also, don’t you usually send out only two?  How did you know that I’d have time to deliver more packages today?”

“Well, it wasn’t so much that I knew,” Pinkie explained, giving the postman a pink coin purse that held the payment for postage. “It was more like I had a feeling it would happen, and my feeling was right.”

“HOLD IT!” Limestone shrieked after she finally stopped sputtering.  She shoved her sister behind her and put her face uncomfortably close to the postman’s, glaring at him darkly.  “Listen here, postman.  You want to keep bringing Pinkie or any of my other sisters mail, it’s got to go through me first.”

Night Light wavered a bit under Limestone’s obvious fury, but he composed himself and calmly replied, “I wish it was that simple, Miss Limestone, but I’m not allowed to give the mail to anyone other than it’s intended recipient.”

“Ha!” Pinkie gloated before blowing a raspberry at her older sister.  “You know, this has been a riveting discussion, but I’ve got letters to read, so gotta bounce.”  With that, she curled herself up into a ball and bounced away, uh, somehow.



“You know what I hate the most about all this?” Twilight ranted to Timber as he watered the saplings at his family’s nursery. “I hate the fact that those two strangers have treated my family better in the last three weeks than I have treated them in the last five years!  It’s infuriating!”

When Twilight finished her rant, Timber blinked at her as he tried to process everything that she had just unloaded on him.

“So, let me get this straight,” Timber began. “Flash and First Base found a way for your father and sister-in-law to do their jobs, and because of that, you’re worried that your family might not want to leave anymore.  If they don’t want to leave, you can’t convince them to take me with you guys, and we’re both going to be stuck here for the rest of our lives.”

Twilight blinked back.  She had ranted about so much more than what Timber summarized, but admittedly, not even she understood what she had been so upset about.  She and Timber had been hoping to leave Griepsburg behind together, and she was upset about how that plan may no longer be able to come into fruition, but Twilight knew there was more to her anger and resentment than that.  She just couldn’t quite explain it.

“Yes,” Twilight agreed hesitantly, “that’s pretty much what happened.”

“Well, that sucks.”

“Tell me about it,” Twilight cried.  “I mean, what are we supposed to do now?  Stay here and be content living in this town full of crazy people?”

“Yeah, sure, let’s just do that,” Timber replied sarcastically before continuing in a serious tone, “or we do have one other option.”

“And what’s that?”

“We run away.”

“Okay, did you recently hit yourself in the head?” Twilight retorted.  “I mean, I guess we could do that, but how are we supposed to survive out there without any money.”

“Weren’t you and your family saving up to move away for the last five years?”

Twilight caught on to Timber’s suggestion, and her face went completely pale as she stared at Timber in shock.

“What?  No!  I can’t do that,” Twilight exclaimed. “That wouldn’t be right.”

“So, what if it isn’t?  They wronged you first by dragging you here to this piece of Tartarus. I’d say taking their money should even out the score.”

“So, you just want me to steal from my family and abandon them under the cover of darkness while you abandon yours?”

“Yes, I do, and they’d deserve it.  Ha!  Family, why do people even have them?  All they’re good for is giving you obligations you don’t even want and keeping you from doing what you do want,” Timber scoffed bitterly as he dumped out the last of the water in the watering can on the last sapling.

Twilight knew deep in her heart that everything Timber just said was wrong, but she can’t help but want him to be right.  If Timber was right, she can go wherever she wanted to go and stay wherever she wanted to stay without ever having to answer to anyone.  An image of her family’s heartbroken, disappointed faces flashed before her eyes, but she pushed it to the back of her mind.

“When do you want to leave?” she asked Timber.

“Ha!  I’ve been sleeping with a backpack full of clothes under my bed since I was twelve,” Timber replied with a dark laugh.  “I’m ready to go whenever you are.  We can even go tonight if you want to.”



That night before dinner, Flash set a sack of coins on the dinner table and pushed it towards Night Light.

“What’s this?” Mr. Light asked.

“It’s the money I made selling the firewood,” Flash replied.

“We made a lot more than we normally did,” Shining Armor noted, setting his own sack of coins on the table before his father, “which is saying something considering that the Battle Bell rang today. Do you think it might be because the children were at school instead of in town with their parents?”

“I was wondering why the kids kept looking out the window,” Cadance noted.  “They must have heard the bell but decided to stay and listen to me teach instead.”

“Why not?” First Base praised.  “You’re the best teacher ever, and that’s saying something coming from me because I don’t even like school very much.”

Everyone but Twilight and Flash laughed at Base’s proclamation.  Instead, Flash affectionately rolled his eyes.  Twilight just watched everything happening in front of her, wrestling with her resentment and anger against everyone in the room and her guilt over what she was planning on doing.

Night Light pushed Flash’s money sack back to the teenager before dumping out Shining’s sack and counting the money. Flash looked from the sack to the postman in confusion.

“Uh, sir, aren’t you going to count what I just earned you?” Flash asked hesitantly.

“However much you made, it’s yours to keep,” Night Light replied, still counting his son’s earnings.

“All of it?!” Flash exclaimed in shock.

Night Light merely smiled and replied, “The worker deserves his wages.”

“Whoa!  How much do we have now, Flash?” First Base asked, eagerly.

Flash dumped out the coins in his sack and counted.

“Okay, this along with what we’ve already saved, makes, uh,” Flash muttered as he struggled to add the numbers together, pushing his rudimentary arithmetic skills to their limit.

“Four silvers and forty-five coppers,” Base finished for his brother.  “That means we almost have enough to cover the ferry for one of us.”

“That’s correct,” Cadance cheered.  “Very good, Base.”

“He had a good teacher,” Flash replied, ruffling his brother’s hair with pride.  Base laughed as he good-naturedly pushed Flash’s hand off his head.

Flash put the coins back in the sack and put the sack in his jacket pocket as Ms. Velvet and Ms. Cadance began to put the food on the table.  After the rest of the family sat down and everyone said grace, the two ladies of the house began to serve everyone the food.

“Hey, Flash?” First Base asked after accepting his plate from Ms. Velvet and thanking her for it.  “I’ve been thinking.”

“About what?” his older brother replied before taking a bite of potato.

“We’re pretty close to getting enough money for one of us to go to the city, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, maybe instead of working until we get enough money for both of us to go, one of us can go to the city and get word about our friends, and the other can stay here,” Base suggested.

Flash stopped chewing and turned to stare at his brother incredulously.  Everyone else also suddenly became quiet, noticing the stunned expression on Flash’s face.

Flash swallowed and opened his mouth to speak. At first, he couldn’t say anything, but eventually, he found his voice.

“Are you saying that the two of us should split up?” Flash asked with just a hint of worry creeping into his voice.

“I don’t like the idea of it either,” Base admitted, “but it’ll probably take us a few more months before we earn enough money for both of us to go to Paardenstad, and by then, everyone will think we died in the wreck, and anyone else who did survive could have found other work and gone who knows where, and we wouldn’t be able to find them.”

“But we’ve never been apart since, well, you know,” Flash countered, “and if we split up, we won’t know how long it’ll take for us to get back together.  Furthermore, you’re too young to be traveling on your own, so I’m going to have to go. Who is going to take care of you while I’m gone?”

“We can,” Velvet cut in.

“You?”

“Of course.  It’s not like you two have anywhere else you could go.”

“Oh, we couldn’t possibly trouble you—”

“It’s no trouble at all,” Night Light cut in. “Besides, I know you’ve only been here for a few weeks, but we’re starting to think of you boys as family.”

“But I don’t know how long I’ll need to be away or when I’ll be coming back.”

“Oh, you take however long you need.  Just make sure you write often so that we don’t worry, alright?” Velvet added.

Flash didn’t know what to say.  Any kindness he had experienced in the past had usually been small and fleeting.  Except for maybe Pinkie Pie, no one had ever been this kind and generous towards him and his brother before.  In the end, Flash simply nodded and thanked the postman and his wife.



Later that night, once Twilight was sure everyone was asleep, she opened the door of her bedroom and crept towards the attic. Unlike Flash, Twilight knew exactly where her family hid their money; she just needed to get the shovel out of the attic without waking up the two brothers first.

She felt the guilt eating away at her as she replayed her conversation with Timber and the scene from dinner in her mind, but she buried it under all the resentment she had built up against her family over the years along with the resentment she felt towards the boys for ruining their plans.  However, was getting in the way of her family’s original plans really what she found most upsetting about Flash and First Base?  Of course, it was.  What else could she possibly be upset about?

Twilight climbed up to the attic as quietly as possible. She could feel her nerves rattle at the sound of even the slightest creak, fearing that she would be discovered. She carefully opened the attic door and slipped inside.  She glanced over to where Flash and First Base were sleeping and seeing no movement from either of them, began to silently search for the shovel.

Unbeknownst to her, the sound of her footsteps climbing up the ladder had actually woken First Base up.  Base had woken up Flash and told him that someone was trying to get into the attic, so Flash had told him to pretend to be asleep.  As the two of them not slept, they carefully watched the intruder move about the attic.  He or she seemed to be looking for something.  Worried that a thief had broken into his host family’s home, Flash quickly yet stealthily lit a lantern, suddenly throwing the whole room in light.

“Twilight?” Flash gasped, seeing who the intruder was. “What are you doing up here?”

“Uh,” Twilight sputtered, internally cursing her fate, “I was just looking for a shovel.”

“What would you need a shovel for at this hour of the night?” Base asked, just as surprised at the discovery as his brother was.

“For digging, of course,” Twilight retorted, hoping that the brothers actually were as dumb as she often thought they were. Yeah, they weren’t.

“Wait.  You wouldn’t happen to need that shovel because you’re going to use it to steal something valuable from your family and run away, would you?” Flash inferred.

Twilight groaned angrily, “How did you even figure that out?”

“I know I’m not as smart as you are and that I can barely read and write, but I’m not an idiot, you know,” Flash retorted in offense.

“Yeah,” Base agreed.  “Now that I think about it, you’re the only one out of your whole family who seems upset by what we did.  Why?”

“Why?” Twilight snapped.  “Because you just gave my family reasons to put down roots in this horrible place.  Why wouldn’t I be upset?”

“So, you’re just going to steal from the people who loved and raised you your whole life and leave them without even so much as a goodbye?” Flash noted.

“You think this is how I wanted things to turn out?” Twilight fumed.  “I, ugh! I just want our lives to go back the way they were before we came here!”

For a while no one said anything, Flash and Base just sat there letting everything Twilight had said sink in while she just continued to seethe.

“What was your life like before you and your family came here?” Flash finally asked.  “And why did your family even come here in the first place?”

“We actually lived in Paardenstad, and life couldn’t have been better,” Twilight replied nostalgically.  “We had everything we could have ever wanted, a comfortable home, access to bookstores and libraries, a school that never once had to be used as a fish market.  Then, Father and Cadance decided to take a chance and drag us out here simply because this God-forsaken town needed a postman and a schoolteacher, and they were optimistic and naïve enough to volunteer.  I was completely against the idea, but Father promised that life out here can be just as good as the one we left behind.  It wasn’t.”

“And you’ve resented your family for bringing you here ever since then,” Flash finished for her.

“Well, at least, you still have a comfortable home,” Base noted.

Twilight turned to the younger boy and gave him the driest, most deadpan stare humanly possible.

“I mean, I know it’s not much compared to what you probably had back in the city, but it’s got a fireplace, furniture, and your own bedroom with your own bed.  I’d say that’s pretty comfortable, especially compared to what the two of us have had to make do with.”

“It’s not even the scarcity of amenities that makes living here unbearable,” Twilight admitted.  “It’s the town full of crazy people fighting over nothing.  I just don’t want anything to do with them.”

Flash frowned slightly, thinking deeply about what Twilight had just told him.  His brother looked at him, noting what seemed to be pity in his eyes.  First Base couldn’t help but dread the expression on his older brother’s face; he wasn’t sure what that expression meant, but he had a feeling that he wasn’t going to like it.  The sorrowful, apologetic look Flash gave him shortly after only added to his apprehension.

“Listen, after hearing what you just said,” Flash said to Twilight, “I’m willing to make a deal with you.”

“What kind of deal?” Twilight replied skeptically.

“One that will let you go to Paardenstad,” Flash answered.  “How about I give you everything I’ve earned so far and everything that I will earn until you have enough to go to the city?”

“What?!” Base cried in objection.

Twilight, however, thought the offer sounded too good to be true.  “What’s the catch?”

“Three conditions,” Flash continued.

“Of course, there’s conditions,” Twilight thought to herself cynically.

“Condition one, you don’t steal from your family ever again,” Flash listed.  “Condition two, when you get to Paardenstad, you find out what happened to our friends and crewmates and write back to us.  Condition three, you tell your family everything that happened tonight and that you want to go back to the city on your own.”

“Are you crazy?” Twilight cried.  “I have no problem complying with the first two conditions, but there’s no way I’m telling my family all that.  They’d never let me go.”

“You won’t know if you don’t tell them, would you? Besides, what were you planning on doing if I hadn’t given you that third one?  Were you just going to take my money and leave without telling your family?”

“That’s exactly what I would have done. Gosh!  What is it with you and families anyway?  All they’re good for is giving you obligations you don’t want and keeping you from doing what you do want.”

At first, Flash just stared back at her in stunned silence.  Then, his expression changed into a stern glare as his anger simmered under his calm exterior.

“I don’t know who put that idea into your head,” Flash replied, keeping his tone steady, “but he or she is wrong.”

“Oh, is he though?” Twilight retorted.  “My family is the only reason why I’m even here. Pinkie Pie’s family is the only reason why she can’t throw parties to her heart’s content, and you,” she laughed cheerlessly and continued, “you’re stuck taking care of a needy kid who jumps into things without thinking them through.  If you didn’t have him, you could just take off for Paardenstad and never even have to think about coming back.”

Flash’s glare intensified at Twilight’s last sentence. He sucked in a breath through his clenched teeth to keep his anger from reaching a boiling point.  He slowly breathed out and took a few more deep breaths.

Once he felt calm enough to talk, he said to her, “You’re right.  I am stuck taking care of a kid who jumps into things without thinking them through, and you know what?  I wouldn’t trade him away for anything, not even if someone offered me the world.”

Twilight stared at him as if she had been struck dumb by his words.  The tone in his voice and the fire in his eyes sent shivers down her spine. Twilight could feel her guilt bubbling up inside her again under his gaze, and she tried to bury it under her discontent and resentment like she did before, but the emotions Flash was stirring up weren’t allowing her to.

“But,” Twilight asked, forcing herself to speak, “why?”

“Because he’s my brother, my family, and I love him,” Flash replied emphatically.  “When you love someone, really, truly love someone, you learn to be okay with not always having things your way especially if it means that the other person gets what he or she needs.  I know you’re having a hard time believing this, but your family loves you the way I love my brother, and I can’t just sit by and watch you hurt them as if they don’t matter to you at all.”

Twilight could only continue to stare as Flash’s words pierced through the cold iron wall that she had built around her heart. The weight of what she had been about to do began to set in, pushing her guilt ever closer to the surface.

“Why would you think that your family didn’t love you?” First Base asked, frowning in confusion.  “Didn’t Ms. Cadance say that the only reason why they gave up trying to stay here is because they were worried that being here was turning you into a bad person?”

Twilight looked away and bit her lip as her guilt began to boil over.

“Look, it’s late, so I’m going to turn off the light, and Base and I are going to go to sleep,” Flash declared as he tried to suppress a yawn.  “Hopefully, we’ll see you in the morning.”

Twilight nodded and began climbing down the ladder as Flash snuffed out the light.  After Twilight returned to her bedroom and lay down on her bed, the full weight of what she almost done came crashing down on her, and she cried herself to sleep.
> Chapter 13: A Letter and an Impasse
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next day, to Flash’s surprise, Postman Night Light delivered Flash a letter from Pinkie Pie.  Despite how difficult it was for him, Flash managed to read most of the letter by himself though he did have First Base and Ms. Cadance help him with the harder words.



Dear Flash,

Hiya.  It’s me Pinkie, but you probably already know that because my name is on the envelope. Anyway, my family found out about us sending toys to Griepsburg when Postman Light came over yesterday with the letters from the kids, which I read and enjoyed, by the way, and boy, was Limestone mad!  Pa was mad too, but he wasn’t nearly as yell-y about it.

Limestone and I got into a huge fight over the whole thing.  I told her that Granny Pie wouldn’t have wanted all the fun and the smiles she shared with the world to die with her and that she was being a big, selfish meanie for wanting to keep Granny all to herself.  Maybe that was a mistake because she got so mad that if Ma hadn’t stopped her, she would have hit me.

Pa didn’t say anything the whole time.  He was just looking at me with his “Pinkamena, I’m verry disappointed in you” face the whole time.  I hate it when he looks at me like that.  Anyway, after Ma broke up my fight with Limestone, my sisters and I were just waiting for Pa to get upset and start lecturing or scolding me or something, and he looked like he was about to, but all of a sudden, he didn’t.

His face changed from his “disappointed Pa” face to the face people make when they’re thinking about something really, really hard.  Then, he told me to bring my letters over.  At first, I didn’t want to because I was worried that he was going to do something terrible with them, but after a few minutes of trying not to cry, I did because when Pa tells you to do something, you better not argue back. Yeesh!

So, I brought the letters over to him, and he started reading them to himself.  Then, his mouth started twitching all weird.  At first, I thought he was getting even more mad, but then, he did something that I thought he had forgotten how to do.  He smiled!  Pa smiled! Can you believe it?!  Oh, my gosh!  Seeing Pa smile just made me SO HAPPY!  Then, he gave the letters back to me and said I could keep sending toys to the kids. He even offered to help me make the toys.  I was so happy that I gave him a big hug right there.

By the way, did I ever thank you for coming up with that idea?  If I didn’t, well, I’m thanking you now.  If it wasn’t for your idea, none of this would have happened.  Also, thanks for being a great friend.

Your friend,

Pinkie




That night during dinner Cadance and Night Light were regaling the family with their account of how their second day teaching and processing mail went.  The family was the happiest it had ever been, save for Twilight.  The guilt from what she had almost done last night and her conversation with Flash and First Base were still lingering inside of her.

“I’m so glad that I’m teaching again,” Cadance exclaimed.  “I can’t believe those same kids used to help their parents steal our merchandise and vandalize our property.  I’ve never seen such eager learners before.”

“Well, you did pretty much open them up to a whole world that exists beyond this island, so I can’t blame them for being a little excited,” her husband noted with pride.

“It’s too bad that they still won’t try to work with other kids outside their clans,” First Base added.

Cadance sighed dejectedly at Base’s statement, saying, “Maybe it’s for the best that they stay that way.  If they get too friendly with each other and their parents found out, well, we’ll end up right back where we started.  Oh, by the way, there’s something important that I’ll need to discuss with the family.”

Everyone immediately went silent and stopped eating.

“Uh, just the immediate family or...?” Shining Armor asked, gesturing towards Flash and Base.

“We can finish eating outside if you need the privacy,” Flash offered.

“Oh, no, it’s too cold out,” Cadance objected. “Besides, it’s not that private.” She turned to everyone else in the room and continued, “We don’t have enough school supplies for all the kids, so we’re going to have to buy more.  The chalkboard and some of the desks are also falling apart, so we’re going to have to buy parts to fix them.”

“Honey, aren’t we going to have to order those special and pay Cranky to bring them in?” Shining Armor asked.

“Yup.”

“But that means we’ll have to dip into our savings,” Night Light noted.

“I know.”

“And not just a little bit either.  We’ll be dipping into a huge chunk of our savings,” Twilight Velvet added.

“I know.”

All eyes turned to Twilight.

“What?” Twilight asked, trying not to sound too defensive.

“Twily, are you alright with us spending our savings to fix up the schoolhouse?” Night Light asked.

“Of course.”

Everyone at the table looked up and stared at Twilight, stunned speechless.

“Really?” Cadance asked skeptically.

“Yes, really.  It’s fine,” Twilight insisted.  “I mean, I’m not pleased, but if you really need to, I don’t mind you using our savings to fix the schoolhouse.”

“But,” Cadance sputtered, “you’ve been wanting to leave since we got here.  What changed your mind?”

“Oh, don’t get me wrong,” Twilight countered. “I still want to leave.  I’ve just decided not to let staying here affect me anymore.  Besides, I have something I have to do before I’m ready to leave.”

“And what would that be?”

“Teach Flash how to read and write better.”

“What?” Flash cried, caught off-guard by Twilight’s answer.

“You’re going to need to get your literacy up to speed if you’re going to be traveling to Paardenstad,” Twilight explained. “You’ll have an easier time finding out what happened to your friends and writing back to your brother.  By the way, are you going to be taking the reindeer with you?”

“Um, Pinkie Pie wanted me to, but I think your father is going to need him more if he’s going to be delivering mail between Griepsburg and the Pies,” Flash replied hesitantly.

“So, you’re going to need to buy a horse to take you the rest of the way to Paardenstad, so you’re also going to need to learn how to figure, aren’t you?”

Flash didn’t reply.  He just kept staring at Twilight quizzically.  She seemed different from how she had been last night, and he wasn’t sure what to make of the change in her demeanor.

Once Flash got over his confusion, he said to Twilight, “Uh, Twilight, may I talk to you, outside, alone, in private?”

Twilight turned to her family with a small smile and said, “Excuse us, please.”

The two of them got up, walked out the front door, and shut it behind them, ignoring the chill and the light snowfall all around them.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Flash demanded.

“Remember that deal you made me last night?” Twilight replied, her face and voice inscrutable.  “Well, I’m altering it.  I’ll fulfill your third condition, but I have a few conditions of my own.”

“And what are they?”

“The first condition is that you give your money to Timber Spruce instead of me.”

“Timber Spruce?” Flash repeated, his eyebrows furrowing as he remembered the bitter, surly boy from when he first came into town and thought about why Twilight would want to give that boy money.  “He wants to leave Griepsburg too, and you were going to run away with him last night, weren’t you?”

“Gee, he’s a lot smarter than I give him credit for,” Twilight thought to herself as she glared at Flash.

“So, am I working to cover both you and Timber or just Timber?”

“Just Timber,” Twilight replied, “which brings me to my second condition.  I will fulfill your third condition when you are literate to my satisfaction, and when I do, I’m going to tell my family that I want to travel with Timber.  I want you to vouch for him.”

“Why would you need me to vouch for him?” Flash asked suspiciously.

“Because,” Twilight reluctantly admitted, “my family doesn’t exactly like him.  They think he’s a bad influence.”

“Gee, I wonder why,” Flash thought to himself sarcastically.

“Hold on,” Flash realized, “Does Timber’s sister know that he wants to leave Griepsburg?”

“No,” Twilight answered sharply, “and she can never find out.”

“So, you’re basically asking me to help Timber do to his sister what you were about to do to your family last night,” Flash summarized, blankly staring at Twilight in disapproval.

“Hey, it’s different with Timber,” Twilight cried, defensively.  “You’ve seen what Gloriosa is like.  She cares about the stupid feud more than her own family, just like every other nutjob in this town.”

“That doesn’t make helping Timber run away right,” Flash argued, turning away from her in disgust.  He frowned as a thought occurred to him.  “What would you do if I didn’t agree to your deal?”

“Excuse me.”

“If I didn’t agree to your deal, would you really steal money from your family and take off?  Do you really have it in you to hurt the people who love you the most like that?”  Flash turned and looked Twilight right in the eyes as he awaited her answer.

Twilight didn’t respond.  She looked away from him, feeling her guilt intensify under his gaze.  She turned back to him and looked into his eyes which burned with resolve.  Hers shook with uncertainty.  She groaned and put a hand to her face, turning away and reaching for the doorknob.

“Our first lesson will be before breakfast.  I expect you to be there,” she declared firmly before she opened the door and stormed inside the cottage, slamming the door behind her as she did so.
> Chapter 14: Twilight’s New Friend
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

A week passed, and everybody settled into a new normal.  Cadance would teach First Base and the children of Griepsburg while Night Light exchanged letters and packages between them and Pinkie Pie.  First Base would earn a few coppers writing letters for his classmates, but after a few days, their literacy improved to the point where they no longer required his services.  He was disheartened at first, but his brother assured him that his contribution to their savings was more than enough.

Meanwhile, Twilight and Flash would meet every morning before breakfast and every evening after dinner so that Twilight could help him improve his reading, writing, and figuring.  The two of them had yet to come to an agreement in their negotiations mostly because the two of them had been refusing to talk about them.  In fact, outside of their lessons together, the two of them hadn’t been talking to each other about anything.  Then, one morning, Flash finally got tired of the mutual silent treatment and spoke to her.

“Why are you doing this, Twilight?” Flash asked her.

“I’m sorry.  What?” Twilight replied.

“Why are you trying to help me read and write better?” he clarified.  “You have nothing to gain from this, so why make it part of the deal?”

Twilight bit her lip and looked away from him. She felt the guilt rising inside of her again, but some other emotion was rising with it.  What was that feeling?

“Because,” she answered with a slight stammer, “because I know how much you hate being barely literate.  I know you’ve never said so, but you do.  I can see it all over your face whenever you struggle to read or write something.  And I, well, I feel terrible for how horribly I’ve treated you and your brother, especially when you’ve been nothing but kind to me and my family, and I wanted to make it up to you.”

Flash had not been expecting that answer. Nevertheless, he accepted it and moved on to his next question.

“Okay, so, why were you trying to use my wanting to read and write better to bribe me into helping you and Timber run away?” he asked.

“Because for the last five years, Timber has been my only friend,” Twilight replied.  “We have a lot in common.  We both hate Griepsburg.  We both want to move to the city, and we both have problems with our families.  Back when my family was saving to go back to Paardenstad, I was going to beg them to take Timber with us.  I mean, I wouldn’t be a very good friend if I got to live the life we both wanted and left him behind in the place we both hated, would I?”

“I, I can understand that,” Flash conceded before continuing, “but at the same time, I don’t think helping him run away from his sister is the answer to the problem.  I know neither of you think highly of the people involved in the feud, but I don’t think they’re all bad.  The problem is that they care about the feud more than what really matters, their kids, their families, their neighbors.  If we really want to make things better for Timber and everyone else, we need to find a way to make the townspeople care.”

“And how do you supposed we try and do that?”

Before Flash could answer, a knock was heard at the door.  Well, it was less like a knock and more like a series of rapid-fire pounds.

“Helloooooo!” A familiar, chipper female voice called from the other side of the door.  “Anybody home?”

Flash quickly answered it and saw exactly who he expected to see.  “Pinkie?”

“Oh, hiya, Flash.  Oooooooh, you’re not going to believe this, but I asked the kids when their birthdays were, and it turns out that Diamond Tiara’s birthday is today, so I asked Pa if I could go into town and throw a party for her, and he actually said yes!  Oooooooooh! I’m so happy!” Pinkie cheered.

“Wait.  Hold on. What?” Flash cried, still trying to process what Pinkie had said.

“I’m throwing Diamond Tiara a birthday party,” Pinkie clarified.

“But it’s a school day,” Twilight cut in.

“Yeah, and?”

“Diamond Tiara is going to be at school for most of the day.”

“And?”

“Where and how are you going to be throwing this party?” Twilight cried, getting thoroughly annoyed with the pink intruder.

“Oh, whoops.  I guess that completely slipped my mind.  I guess I’ll just throw the party at the school then.”

“Pinkie, wait,” Flash exclaimed.  “You can’t do that.”

“Why not?”

“Because it’s school.  Ms. Cadance has a responsibility to teach the children, and the children have a responsibility to learn from her.  You throwing a party there might get in the way of that.”

“Awww, but it’s Diamond Tiara’s birthday, and it’s the first time Pa’s let me throw a party for anyone since Granny died,” Pinkie pouted, making her eyes as wide and shiny as possible.

“Oh, good grief!” Flash thought to himself as he attempted to resist the power of Pinkie’s puppy-like pouting.  After maybe a minute, he succumbed with a groan, saying, “Oh, alright!  I’ll get Ms. Cadance, and see if the two of you can work something out, okay?”

“Yay!” Pinkie cheered, throwing her arms around Flash. Twilight didn’t know why, but the pink girl’s sudden action shocked her, and she found herself feeling oddly threatened by Pinkie, but why?  Pinkie and Flash are friends, so that hug probably didn’t mean anything.  Besides, why would it matter to her if it did?

“By the way,” Pinkie added, releasing Flash, “Pa says that either you, the postman, or one of his family have to be there while I set up the party, or else, there won’t be a next time.  He said something about wanting to make sure I stay out of trouble.  Don’t know what that’s all about.”

“Oh, Pinkie, I’d love to help, but Postman Light, Shining Armor, and I have jobs to do,” Flash apologized.  “Ms. Cadance will be there, but she’s going to be busy teaching.”

“Are you going to be doing anything today?” Pinkie asked Twilight.

“Me?” Twilight replied.

“Yes, you.”

“Well, no, not really,” Twilight managed to say before Pinkie interrupted her.

“Great!  You can help me set up the party.  We’re just going to have so much fun working together, and then, you and I will be the best of friends!”

“Uh, right,” Twilight parroted uncertainly, “the best of friends.”

“Wait a minute,” Pinkie suddenly realized before turning to Flash and asking, “I know you, the postman, and his son are too busy to help me set up, but can the three of you and the postman’s wife make time to just show up for the party, please?”  Pinkie was pleading and pouting again, which was starting to give Flash a tension headache.

“I’ll talk to them, and see what we can do, but no promises,” Flash replied, sternly.



When the three of them told Cadance about Pinkie’s desire to throw Diamond Tiara a birthday party during school, Cadance was quite understanding and cooperative.  To allow Pinkie to throw the party, she decided to omit the day’s morning recess and give the children a longer lunch period instead, which allowed for a two-hour celebration.  Pinkie had hoped for more party time, but she could work with two hours.

While everyone else set out for the schoolhouse, Flash relayed Pinkie’s invitation to Mr. Light, Ms. Velvet, and Shining Armor and asked them for permission to go to the party.  The three of them agreed that they all could spare two hours out of the day to celebrate a child’s birthday and not only allowed Flash to attend the party but agreed to come as well.

While the children were inside the schoolhouse receiving the day’s lesson from Cadance, Twilight and Pinkie worked to get the schoolyard ready for the party.  Twilight was amazed by how quickly and quietly Pinkie was able to work. By the time Twilight finished blowing and tying off balloons, Pinkie had already finished decorating.

“Okay,” Twilight uttered in confusion, “so, what are we going to do for the next, uh, two hours until the party?”

“Oooooh, that’s just enough time for us to talk and get to know each other and become best friends,” Pinkie chattered excitedly. “I’ll go first.  What’s your favorite dessert?  Mine is cake, but I honestly love all of them.”

“Uh, I’m not really much of a dessert person, but I do enjoy cookies,” Twilight replied hesitantly.

“Oooh, do you have a favorite kind?  I can make some for you and bring them over next time I come down to visit.”

“I’m not sure if I have a favorite because I’ve never really thought about it, but if I had to choose, I’d probably pick oatmeal. Or almond.”

“Oatmeal?  Are you crazy?” Pinkie exclaimed with a giggle while playfully elbowing Twilight.

“I don’t like the kind with the raisins though,” Twilight admitted.

“Eh, neither do I.”

The two girls ended up sharing a laugh at that.

“So, do you have anything you want to ask me?” Pinkie asked.

“Uh, yeah, Pinkie, what do you think about, uh, Flash?”  Oh, good gosh, of all the things Twilight could have asked, why did she pick that?!

“Okay,” Pinkie replied, thoroughly oblivious to Twilight’s inner turmoil, “he’s a really nice guy, and he’s the first friend I ever made here, well, the first human one anyway, and he’s been a great friend too.  He got your dad to come up and see me and those kids to write letters to me, and now, they’re all my friends.  Maybe after this conversation is over, you will end up being my friend too.  I’d really like that.”

“Is that all you think of him?  As just a friend?”

“Uh, yeah.  How else would I think of him?”

“Uh, never mind,” Twilight replied far too quickly as she blushed.  She turned away trying to hide her reddening face from Pinkie, but she was too late. Pinkie had already seen it, and unlike Twilight, she knew exactly what it meant, and she couldn’t be happier about it.
> Chapter 15: The Birthday Party that Changed Everything
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Okay, everyone,” Ms. Cadance announced to everyone in the classroom, “there’s a special surprise waiting for you all during lunch today, especially for one of you.  It’s so special that I had to cancel morning recess and make lunch longer.”

Cadance stopped talking when she saw a boy in a green jacket with orange skin and purple hair raise his hand.

“Yes, Tender Taps,” Cadance called the boy, permitting him to speak.

“So, we’re not having recess today?” Tender asked, tentatively.

“I’m afraid not, but the surprise you’re going to get during lunch is going to be worth giving up recess for,” Cadance assured before formally beginning the day’s lesson.

By the time lunch rolled around, the children were becoming quite antsy due to skipping their recess, but their patience was eventually rewarded.  When they rushed out into the schoolyard, everyone stopped and stared.  The schoolyard was bursting with color from the streamers and balloons.  Pinkie had set up all kinds of games all over the yard, and in the middle of it all was a huge table with the biggest cake the children had ever seen decorated with pink frosting and purple and white sprinkles.  Pinkie bounced in with a sack full of colorful packages and greeted everyone while Flash, Twilight, and the rest of the postman’s family followed her.

“Awesome!  What’s all this?” said a girl in a red jacket who was colored similarly as Tender Taps but her hair was darker and her skin was a bit lighter.

“Well, uh,” Pinkie began before she made an important realization, “what’s your name?”

“Scootaloo.”

“Right, you’re the girl I sent the scooter too,” Pinkie recalled before continuing, “Well, Scootaloo, this is a party.  It’s when a whole lot of people get together to play games and eat yummy food to celebrate something special.  At some parties, people get to give each other gifts, and this is one of those kinds of parties.”

“Wow!” cheered white-skinned, green-eyed girl with lavender and pink hair.  Her name was Sweetie Belle, and she wore a green jacket indicating that she belonged to the Stones.  “What are we celebrating?”

“We’re celebrating someone very special.  It’s Diamond Tiara’s birthday!” Pinkie cheered.

Diamond Tiara gasped as her eyes lit up like her namesake.  Half of her classmates clapped for her while the other half crossed their arms and scowled.

“That’s it?!” Scootaloo cried incredulously. “You did all this just because Diamond Tiara was born today?”

Before Diamond had time to be offended, Pinkie replied with a giggle, “Oh, birthday parties aren’t just about celebrating someone being born, silly.  They’re about celebrating someone’s life and all the things they did after they were born.”

“Like what?” Apple Bloom added with a scoff. “All Diamond and her friends have ever done with their lives is steal my family’s apples.”

The smile on Diamond’s face faded, and the light in her eyes dimmed.  With the way she was biting her lip, Flash and Twilight couldn’t tell if the girl was about to scream or cry, maybe both.

“You’re one to talk,” a girl in a green jacket with gray skin and silver braids retorted as she put an arm around Diamond Tiara. “You Woods haven’t done anything worth throwing a party for with your lives either besides make us and our families miserable.”

“That’s right,” Sweetie Belle agreed.  “My sister Rarity and I have to waste half the day doing the washing because you guys keep dirtying our laundry while it’s out on the line.”

“Oh, yeah, well, unlike for Diamond Tiara, it’s not like Ms. Pinkie is going through the trouble to treat us like we’re special and throw parties for us just for being born,” Scootaloo snapped back.

Everyone who was uninvolved in the Griepsburg feud, except for Pinkie, looked at each other fearfully worried that a fight was about to break out.  Cadance stepped forward to try to calm the children, but before she could, Pinkie spoke.

“Of course, I am,” she replied.  The sunny, chipper tone in her voice made everyone wonder if she somehow missed the signs that the kids were about to throw down.

“Y-you are?” Apple Bloom exclaimed, the confusion on her face matching that of her classmates.

“Uh, yeah,” Pinkie continued.  “I’m going to throw birthday parties for every single one of you.  I wouldn’t be a very good friend if I was nicer to one friend than I was to all my other friends, would I?”

Pinkie’s declaration had an unexpected effect on the children.  At first, their eyes shined with excitement at the prospect of a whole day of being celebrated, but just as quickly, the excitement faded, and one by one, the children began to hang their heads in shame.

“What’s wrong, everyone?” Cadance asked.

“Well, Ms. Cadance,” replied Silver Spoon, “Miss Pinkie has been so nice by giving us the toys and throwing birthday parties for us, but, well, you see, it’s just, it’s just...”

“We haven’t done a thing with our lives worth celebrating besides being born!” a girl with short-red hair wearing a red jacket yelled.  She was Apple Bloom’s cousin Babs Seed.  “All we’ve done is help our parents fight each other and keep this lousy feud going, and it sucks lemons!  Everyone’s all mean and grumpy, and people are always breaking things or getting hurt or worse.  What kind of a mook would throw a party for something like that?”

“Aww, that’s alright,” Pinkie comforted.

“It is?!” Flash, First Base, and the postman’s family all exclaimed in shocked horror.

“Well, no, I don’t mean that it’s alright that you’ve been making other people miserable because that is totally not alright,” Pinkie clarified, causing the children’s heads to droop lower, “but it’s okay if you haven’t done anything worth throwing a party for with your life yet because the great thing about birthdays is that they’re kinda an annual thing.  That means you have a whole year to do something worth celebrating.  In fact, you can even do a whole lot of somethings because a year is 365 days or 525,600 minutes which is a whole lot of time, but it’s also not a whole lot of time because time has a way of running out really, really fast.  I think it’s because people are always spending it, but then again, people can’t help always spending time because it’s the only thing you can do with it because you can’t save it away or make more of it like you do with money.  But if you know how to use it, you can actually do a whole lot with whatever time you have.  You know what I mean?”

Twilight could tell from the blank stares the children were giving Pinkie that they didn’t understand a word she had just said. Twilight couldn’t blame them. Pinkie said a whole lot in a short amount of time, and that would be enough to make anybody’s head spin. However, Twilight had somehow been able to understand the gist of Pinkie’s ramble.

“What Miss Pinkie means is,” Twilight cut in, “that it’s not too late for you or anyone to do something with your life that you can be proud off even if it’s something small, but you shouldn’t wait around forever to do it because you’re not always going to have that kind of time.”

To Twilight’s relief and satisfaction, many of the children nodded showing that they understood what she had said.

“So, now what do we do?” asked Silver Spoon.

“Now, we enjoy the party, duh,” Pinkie answered. “Come on.  What are you all waiting for?  We only have less than two hours.”

Between the multiple mini existential crises Pinkie had inadvertently caused and the fact that none of them knew how to play party games, the children were hesitant to partake.  However, they quickly got over their reluctance with some gentle coaxing from Ms. Cadance and Ms. Velvet and a few quick demonstrations from Pinkie Pie and the rest of Postman Night Light’s family.  Soon, everyone was laughing, playing, and eating all kinds of party treats.

At first, Flash just stood off to the side, watching the children, especially his brother, take part in the festivities with a smile.  Twilight notice this and approached him, holding two cupcakes.

“Hi,” she greeted him, offering him one of the cupcakes.

“Hi,” Flash greeted back, accepting the cupcake.

“So, what are you doing over here when the party’s over there?” Twilight asked.

“Oh, I’ve never really been to one before, so I’m just standing here, taking it all in.  It’s pretty amazing.  I’m smiling so much that my cheeks are starting to hurt.”

Twilight giggled in response to Flash’s statement as a light blush appeared on her face.

“You’d be smiling even more after we play a few rounds of games,” Twilight asserted as she took him by the hand and started pulling him towards where a group of children were playing Pin the Tail on the Donkey.  “Come on. We have less than two hours.”

Twilight didn’t seem to notice that she had taken Flash by the hand, but Flash definitely did, and his face turned a shader redder with the realization.



When the party first started, the children preferred to play with only those who belonged in their clan.  However, as the party went on, the red jackets and the green jackets slowly began to mix.  Then, during the party’s last thirty minutes, a miracle happened.

“Hey, everybody, gather around,” Pinkie called. “It’s time to give the birthday girl her birthday presents!”

“So, we’re all just going to sit here and watch you give Diamond Tiara a whole lot of gifts?” Babs asked skeptically after everyone had gathered.

“Of course not, silly,” Pinkie giggled. “Diamond Tiara is going to get a gift from each one of you.”

“But none of us brought any gifts,” pointed out Tender Taps.

“I know.  That’s why I brought all these gifts.  One at the time, each of you are going to come up here and pick out a gift that you’d like to give Diamond Tiara,” Pinkie explained, gesturing to her sack of gifts.

“But we don’t know what’s inside them,” Scootaloo noted.

“Oh, it doesn’t matter what the gift is,” said Pinkie cheerfully.  “All that matters is what the gift means.  Sometimes, a cupcake means ‘I love you’ or a toy means ‘How are you doing?’ or a sweater means ‘I really want to hug you today.’  Just think about wishing Diamond Tiara a really happy birthday and use that feeling to pick out your gift.”

“But what if we pick out a gift that doesn’t mean what we wanted it to mean?” asked Snips.

Pinkie opened her mouth to answer but no answer came out because she didn’t have one.  She shut her mouth and thought really hard about Snips’s question.

“I have no idea,” she admitted.  “I’ve never had that problem before.”

The children looked nervously from Pinkie to Diamond Tiara to the sack of gifts before whispering to each other.  They had never given anyone anything before in their lives, let alone a gift, and everyone was curious as to what it was like, but the fear of giving Diamond Tiara a bad gift and ruining the party held them back.  Diamond Tiara nibbled on her lip nervously as she shifted from foot to foot, worrying that no one, not even her closest friends, cared for her enough to even try to choose a gift for her.

“Uh, kids,” Twilight stepped up to try to diffuse the situation, “why don’t you just do what Miss Pinkie told you to for now? It’s okay if the gift you pick out doesn’t perfectly say what you want it to say.  I’m sure Diamond Tiara would be happy that you cared enough to try.”

“But what if we have to do this again the next time Miss Pinkie throws a party for one of us?” Silver Spoon asked.

Twilight’s forehead wrinkled as she tried to think of a solution for the problem Silver Spoon brought up.  She only needed a fraction of a second to formulate an idea.

“How about we do it this way for the next party instead?” she replied.  “You can make an ordered list of everyone’s birthdays and hang it somewhere in the classroom, so you’ll know when Miss Pinkie is going to come throw a party and who she’s throwing it for.  Then in the days leading up to the next party, you can write to her about what you’d like to give whoever you’re celebrating on that day.”

“That’s a great idea, Twilight!” Pinkie Pie cheered, pulling Twilight into a tight hug.  “I would have never thought of that.  I’m so glad that we’re friends!”

Twilight couldn’t help but laugh in response despite how difficult it was to breathe.  Twilight didn’t want to admit it, but having a friendship that wasn’t based on shared hatred felt wonderful.  Heck, she didn’t even want to admit that she was thinking of Pinkie as a friend.

Despite Twilight’s earlier reassurance, the children were still quite reluctant to risk the birthday girl’s wrath and their own embarrassment.  However, someone finally got tired of waiting around and volunteered.

“Oh, for land sakes, y’all are wasting our time,” Apple Bloom cried as she marched right up to the sack of gifts.  She looked inside the sack and thought crossly to herself, “It would serve that girl right if I gave her a lousy gift with her and her friends stealing my family’s apples all the time,” but then she realized, “but I’m going to be a birthday girl one of these days myself. If today was my birthday and Diamond Tiara was up here picking out a gift for me, would I want her to pick out a bad gift for me on purpose?”

Then, Apple Bloom smiled to herself and carefully chose a box with a big, beautiful red bow on top.  She had a particularly good feeling about it.

She held the box out to Diamond Tiara and said sincerely, “Happy birthday, Diamond.”

Diamond Tiara was hesitant to accept a gift from her family’s sworn enemy, but Apple Bloom didn’t seem to have any ill intent behind the gift.  Besides, Miss Pinkie was the one who wrapped the gifts, and she wouldn’t be so mean as to enable the other children to give her a mean gift on her birthday, would she? She tentatively took the gift from Apple Bloom, said thank you, and began to unwrap the box.

“Oh!” she exclaimed, revealing to everyone present that she had gotten a box of hair ribbons that came with a comb, a hairbrush, and a hand mirror.  The ribbons were in different shades of red, and a few of them were inlaid with various colored rhinestones.

“Wow!” Apple Bloom cheered.  “You’re so lucky.  I hope Miss Pinkie has another box of those for my birthday because they look so pretty.”

Diamond looked from the hair ribbons to Apple Bloom and back, pressing her lips together as if she was thinking really hard.

Then, she smiled and said to Apple Bloom, “I think you should have them.”

“But why?” Apple Bloom cried, slightly offended. “Don’t you like them?”

“Oh, I do, and they’re very pretty, but you seem to like them a lot too, and I think they’d look better on you,” Diamond explained. “You know what?  Go ahead and try one on.  If it looks good on you, I’ll let you have the whole box.”

“But it’s not my birthday.  It’s yours.”

“Oh, just try it on,” Diamond insisted, turning Apple Bloom around so that AB’s back was facing her.  Before Apple Bloom could get a word in otherwise, Diamond Tiara had already began brushing and tying up AB’s hair.  “And done.”

Diamond gave Apple Bloom the hand mirror and stepped back so the other children could admire her handiwork.

“Whoa, cuz, that bow really makes your whole look!” Babs exclaimed.  All the other children eagerly voiced their agreement.  As Apple Bloom studied herself in the mirror, she couldn’t help but smile and admire what she saw.

She turned to face Diamond Tiara and said, “Thank you so much, Diamond.  It really does look good on me, but if I take your gift, then you won’t have a gift from me.”

“It’s okay, really,” Diamond assured, practically shoving the box of hair ribbons into Apple Bloom’s hands.  “It means a lot that you would even try to give me a gift for my birthday, especially after how everyone in my clan has treated everyone in yours.”

A wide grin spread across Apple Bloom’s face as she hugged the box of ribbons.

Then, she turned to Pinkie Pie and asked, “Miss Pinkie, can I please pick another gift for Diamond Tiara, please?”

“But of course.  I brought more gifts than there are people in this party,” Pinkie replied, her smile mirroring Apple Bloom’s.

Apple Bloom cheered as she dashed back to the sack of gifts ready to make her selection, but then, her smile slowly morphed into an expression of horror as she realized that she had no idea how to determine which gift would be most fitting for Diamond Tiara.  Going with her gut didn’t help her the last time, so what could she do differently this time to improve her chances of choosing a good gift?

“Miss Pinkie,” AB called, “which gift would you pick if you were me?”

“Oh, that’s easy.  I’d pick this one,” Pinkie replied, lifting out a rather small box.

“That one?” Apple Bloom eyed the box skeptically. How could a box that size possibly have anything that would make a good gift?

“Yup.”

Although still doubtful, Apple Bloom decided to trust Miss Pinkie’s choice and took the small box from her.  She presented it to Diamond Tiara with a warm smile.

“Oh, you really didn’t have to choose another gift for me,” Diamond protested.

“Well, I wanted to, so go on.  Take it,” AB insisted, putting the box right into Diamond’s hand.

Diamond reluctantly accepted the package and slowly began to unwrap it.  Once she removed the wrapping paper, she opened the box, looked inside, and gasped. She endearingly lifted from the box a small silver tiara set with rhinestones and placed it on her head.

She turned to Apple Bloom and gasped, “It’s perfect.  Thank you.”
> Chapter 16:  Letters from the Children
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------



Dear Miss Pinkie,

Thank you so much for the party.  We really loved it.  Diamond Tiara, Silver Spoon, and I thought about what you and Miss Twilight said about doing something in our lives worth celebrating, and we wanted to get started right away.  So, we met up at Sweet Apple Acres like we usually did, but instead of stealing Granny Smith’s apples, we picked them for her instead.  We even separated the good apples from the bad apples.

She never said so, but I think she really appreciated it because the next day, she brought a crate of jam to Mr. Rich’s store. Then, when she threw her hip out trying to go back home, Mr. Rich pulled up a chair for her and let her rest inside the store.  He even found a stick for her to use to help her walk.

Her hip still hasn’t gotten better yet, so Diamond, Silver, and I have been going over to Sweet Apple Acres to help out every day.  Apple Bloom’s big brother and big sister didn’t seem to like having us over at first, but after a while, we kinda grew on them.  Now, Miss Applejack sends us home with apple treats whenever we finish helping her and Mr. Big Mac.

I was wondering if maybe you can come into town and throw a party for the Apples on their birthdays.  I don’t know when they are, so you’re probably going to have to ask Apple Bloom or Babs.  Please say yes.  I just know they’d love how much fun your parties are.

Sincerely,

Sweetie Belle





Dear Miss Pinkie,

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Diamond Tiara’s party was a lot of fun.  I really liked choosing out a gift for her, and seeing how good my gift made her feel, it made me feel really good inside too.

Anyway, remember how Sweetie Belle mentioned how Scootaloo, Cousin Babs, and I keep messing up her sister’s clean laundry? Well, those days are over!  As soon as school was done for the day, the three of us rushed over to Miss Rarity’s as quick as lightning.  Then, we took the clothes of her clothesline and folded them for her as straight and neat as the stitches on our family quilt.

Miss Rarity must have seen us doing her laundry for her because later that night, she came over to our house and gave my brother Big Mac a new scarf and my sister Applejack a new hat.  Then, the next day, AJ went over and gave her a pie, and on the day after, she let me, Babs, and Scootaloo in her shop to get fitted for new dresses.

I had never been inside of Miss Rarity’s dress shop before then, so I had no idea that Miss Rarity made such mighty fine dresses. When I told Miss Rarity that I thought her dresses looked pretty, she showed me a book full of pictures of dresses that she wanted to make, and they were even finer than the ones she sells. It turns out that she never made them because she was worried that with all the fighting and feuding going on, they’d end up ruined.  She seemed really sad about not being able to make the dresses she wanted to make, so I asked her if she’d teach me to sew just to cheer her up.  Let me tell you, her face lit up brighter than the stars in the night sky, and it felt real good.

Say, what if everyone in town had something to dress up real nice for, like one of your parties?  Then, Miss Rarity will be able to make and sell nicer dresses, and she’d be even happier.  My granny’s birthday is coming up.  Maybe you could throw a party for her, and I could invite Miss Rarity.  I could also invite Mr. Rich and Diamond Tiara and her friends.  My family is starting to become friends with them, and I’m sure they won’t mind if I asked them to dress up for the occasion.  Let me know what you think.

Signed,

Apple Bloom





Dear Miss Pinkie,

My sort-of-but-not-really older sister Trixie yelled at me for not going to work with her again today.  She’s usually too busy making Sunset Shimmer mad to care what I do, but she was extra mad that time because Sunset Shimmer had just made a mess of the Mr. Davenport’s store again.  She made me go clean it up while she supervised.

I started cleaning paint off the storefront, and the boy who worked across the street came over and started helping me. His name is Snips, and it turns out Sunset Shimmer is his sort-of-but-not-really older sister.  We started talking while we cleaned, and it turns out we have a lot in common.  We both have sort-of-but-not-really older sisters who don’t like each other. We both like going to school to get away from them, and we both like gum.  I even shared some of my gum with him.  I told him to be careful because I got it stuck all over me once.  It turns out that he got gum stuck all over himself once too.  I think the two of us are going to be best friends.

After we finished cleaning the paint, he told me where Sunset Shimmer had told him to hide the paint bomb, and we got rid of it. I tried to tell him where I hid Trixie’s smoke bomb, but I completely forgot where I hid it, so I spent the rest of the day helping him look for it.  Good thing we found it and got it out of the store because it exploded right after we threw it away.  Our sisters seemed confused by why we were getting rid of their bombs, but they’ll probably thank us later once they notice that we don’t have to clean as much.

Anyway, Snips and I didn’t have anything else to do afterwards, so I asked him if he wanted to build a snowman.  We ended up making a whole lot of snowmen, and we must have been having a lot of fun because our sisters came out and joined us. After we got bored of making snowmen, we started throwing snowballs at each other, and it was really fun. Trixie and Sunset didn’t even try to hide rocks in theirs like they normally do.

Maybe if we find more fun things to do together, Sunset and Trixie might end up being friends like me and Snips.  Those games from the party were really fun.  Maybe you should come over and teach Trixie and Sunset how to play too, so all of us can have fun and be friends together.  Can five people be a party?  It’s fine if five people aren’t a party.  We can just hang out and play games together and not have a party.

From,

Snails





Dear Miss Pinkie,

My brother Cerulean Brush had this crazy idea to go around town repainting all the signs and mailboxes in town, but a lot of them were falling apart, so I dragged our friend Carpenter Pencil along with us to help us fix them.  Actually, Carpenter and I did most of the fixing.  Lean tried to help as much as he could, but he was mostly waiting for us to finish so he could paint.

Some kids from the Stone clan, two boys and a girl, saw what we were doing and decided to help us out.  We were able to get the work done so much faster that way. The younger boy Denim Jacket saw Lean painting pictures on the mailboxes and told him that his pictures were cool, and now, the two of them are best friends.

Anyway, the six of us had gone over to Mr. Rich’s general store to fix the sign.  By the time we got there, our paint was running pretty low, but Lean was doing the best he could.  Suddenly, the redhaired girl who works for Mr. Rich storms out of the store, and she looked really mad.  I thought she was about to start yelling at us or something, but then, she just stops and looks at the sign.  I don’t know how long she was just standing there and staring for, but after a while, she smiles and walks back inside the store.  She comes back out a little while later with buckets of paint and tells to go ahead and use them.  It turns out that she like the way Lean painted the sign and wanted to help out anyway that she could.

By the way, Lean and I were thinking of getting a whole bunch of kids and maybe a few of the grownups to help fix everything else in town that’s falling apart.  I think maybe we can start with the Apple family’s barn.  They have been planning on tearing it down and building a new one for a while now.  Say, what if you come over, and we turn the whole thing into a barn-fixing party? That way we can help the Apples and have fun with all our friends all at the same time.  What would you call something like that?

Your friend,

Obsidian Chisel


> Chapter 17: Meanwhile
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Roughly a week after Diamond Tiara’s birthday, Timber Spruce joined his sister at their table for breakfast.  Gloriosa set a plate with two thin rashers, a fried egg, and a mound of hot fried potatoes in front of her brother as he sat down.  The two of them consumed their hot meal in a silence as cold as the Griepsburg climate, not even making eye contact with each other.

“Don’t forget that you have to fix the fence again today,” Gloriosa noted as she finished the last bite of her food and got up from the table.

“I won’t,” Timber grumbled as he did the same.

He crossly tossed his plate and utensils into the sink before storming out the front door.  He stopped in his tracks as he slowly looked up, suddenly becoming aware of what was happening right in front of him.

“Gloriosa!” Timber called, running back inside the house. “You’re not going to believe what I just saw!”

Timber pulled Gloriosa away from the breakfast dishes and towards the closest window that was facing their front yard. Although annoyed, Gloriosa decided to see what her little brother was making such a big fuss about if only to humor him. Nothing in the world could have prepared her for what she saw.

The town’s children and many of its adolescents/young adults were not only patching up Timber and Gloriosa’s fence but rebuilding it sturdier than ever.  A small group led by Sunset Shimmer and Cerulean Brush was even painting flowers and leaves on the finished parts of the fence.  Additionally, Gloriosa could see several people watering and fertilizing the saplings with an unexpected amount of tenderness and care, the kind of care she often wished her own brother would show them but never did. However, her heart nearly jumped out of her chest when she saw Diamond Tiara hauling a heavily full watering can towards a huge, weathered-looking spruce tree.

“Oh, no!  She better not!” she exclaimed as she raced to the front door with Timber following after her.

She opened the door just in time to see Apple Bloom say to Diamond, “Whoa, better leave that one alone, DT.  That tree’s real special to Miss Gloriosa, and she’d probably get real mad if she knew someone from your clan so much as touched it.”

“What’s so special about that tree?” Diamond asked, setting the watering can down.

“That’s Gaea Evergreen,” AB explained.  “Miss Gloriosa and Mr. Timber’s great-grandparents started this whole nursery from just her, and you see all these letters in hearts carved into her trunk?”  She pulled Diamond closer to the tree to give her a better look but kept herself between her friend and Gloriosa’s tree.  “Those belonged to her parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents, and when Miss Gloriosa falls in love and gets married, she’s going to put her and her husband’s letters on Gaea, too.  This tree and Mr. Timber are all Miss Gloriosa has left of her family, and I reckon that her family is the one thing Miss Gloriosa cares about more than the feud.”

“How do you know all that?”

“Miss Gloriosa and Mr. Timber’s grandparents were friends with Granny Smith.  My family knows a lot of things about their family.”

Diamond Tiara looked from the tree to the watering can still in her hands to Apple Bloom.

She handed the watering can over to the young Apple and said, “Well, if this tree means that much to her, then maybe you should water it.  Upsetting her would totally ruin the whole point of having all these people come over to help her and Mr. Timber, wouldn’t it?”

“It sure would,” AB agreed, taking the watering can and proceeding to water the tree with it.

Gloriosa and Timber watched the whole exchange with their eyes wide and mouths gaping.

“What in the world is going on?” Gloriosa gasped.

“I have absolutely no idea,” Timber replied.



Roughly a month after Diamond Tiara’s birthday, Lady Chrysalis and Lord Tirek met each other by the Battle Bell backed by a handful of their most loyal clan members.  A young man with dark green skin, violet eyes, and a bright red buzz cut stood particularly close to Lady Chrysalis.

“I hope you have a good reason for calling us here, Lady Chrysalis,” Lord Tirek said gruffly as he stared down his fellow clan leader.

“I most certainly do,” Lady Chrysalis replied before gesturing to their present company.  “Haven’t you noticed the utterly dismal lack of attendance from the rest of our clans?  I’m not talking about just today.  Oh, no! I’m talking about every single time the Bell’s been rung for THE PAST MONTH!  And do you know where they have been?”

“Let’s see,” Lord Tirek began in a rather bored tone. “The children have been at the schoolhouse, and everyone else has been having afternoon teas, barn raisings, quilting bees, etc.  By the way, didn’t your youngest son start a crafting club a few weeks ago?”

“Don’t you dare mention that, that disappointment in my presence?!” Chrysalis shrieked before continuing, “Anyway, yes, it would seem as if our clansmen have been distracted as of late, and I know exactly who to blame for this turn of events.  Do you?”

The blank stare Lord Tirek was giving her made Lady Chrysalis groan as she put her hand over her face.

“It’s that mountain girl and that boy living with the postman’s family, you idiot!” Chrysalis cried.  “If we want things to go back to the way they were, we need to find a way to get rid of them.”

“And how are we supposed to do that?” Tirek retorted.

“I am willing to offer a truce,” Chrysalis replied, “a temporary truce.”

Everyone present gasp, none louder than Lord Tirek.

“Are you mad, woman?” Tirek exclaimed.  “Just what would our ancestors think?”

“Do you want our clansmen to keep occupying themselves with teas and barn-raisings and quilting bees or do you want us to go back to destroying each other the way we always have?” Chrysalis countered. “We need that girl and that boy gone, and the best chance we have of eliminating them is by working together. As soon as all this is over, we will never have to work together again.”

Lady Chrysalis extended her hand towards Lord Tirek. Lord Tirek eyed her hand suspiciously and glanced around taking note of how few were still participating in the feud. He frowned deeply as he thought about the lady’s proposal and the town’s current state of affairs.  Upon further review, he grudgingly extended his hand towards Chrysalis’s and shook hands with her.



Meanwhile in Paardenstad...

“Please, please, please,” a cocoa-skinned, ginger-haired boy close to First Base’s age pleaded with a middle-aged man.  The man had white skin and wavy cornflower blue hair and wore a fancy suit and a monocle.  The man was seated behind a large, polished, elaborately engraved wooden desk, trying to suppress his growing annoyance with the boy.

“Mr. Button Mash, for the umpteenth time, absolutely not,” the man retorted, his highfaluting British accent underlining the irritation in his voice.  “I know it’s hard for a boy your age to accept, but your father and everyone else on that ship are likely gone.  We’ve searched everywhere they could have ended up, according to Mr. Chips’s estimations, and we have not found a single survivor.”

“With all due respect, Sir Fancy Pants, there’s still one place we haven’t looked,” a boy about Flash’s age with light purple skin and dark blue-gray hair wearing thickly rimmed glasses interrupted.

“Mr. Micro Chips, you know as well as I that anyone who might have drifted in that direction is as good as dead, and I am not wasting even one ship to search there,” Fancy Pants scoffed.

“But someone could have ended up there and survived,” the younger boy, whose name was Button Mash, insisted.  “I know our chances of actually finding anyone are unbelievably slim, but we have to try.”

“If you want to go to Griepsburg so bad, cover your own expenses.  I will not be aiding you.”

Both Micro Chips and Button Mash sighed as they exited Fancy Pants’s office.  Outside, two boys their age were waiting for them.  The older one was named Sandalwood and had light orange-tan skin and a head full of green dreadlocks.  The younger one was named Pipsqueak and had brown hair and a brown birthmark over his left eye.

“Well, what did Mr. Fancy Pants say?” Pip asked.

“He said absolutely not and that if anyone actually did end up drifting towards Griepsburg, they’re as good as dead,” Micro Chips deadpanned.

“Okay, that was harsh,” noted Sandal.

“So, what now?  We’re just giving up on our friends, many of whom think of us as family, their only family?” Pip retorted disbelievingly.

“He did say if we wanted to check out Griepsburg so bad, we’d have to pay for the trip ourselves,” Button added glumly.

“Well, can we?”

“Theoretically, we can,” Micro Chips answered.  “We might have to ask Ms. Love Tap and the rest of our parents for money, but we should be able to scrape together enough to take a carriage and a ferry there.”

“We’d get there faster if Mr. Fancy Pants just let us use one of his ships,” Button grumbled.

“Well, Sir Fancy Pants isn’t letting us use his ships, so we’ve got to work with what we’ve got, alright?” Micro Chips snapped.

“Hey, hey, calm down,” Sandalwood butt in. “Let’s just focus on getting to Griepsburg and checking the place out.  Who knows?  We might actually find someone this time.”
> Chapter 18: Surprises
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

One week later...

“Yes!” Flash cheered as he returned the last coin into the money sack as he counted his days wages.  “We finally have enough!”

“That’s great!” his younger brother cheered along with him before his face dropped.  The change in First Base’s expression and demeanor did not go unnoticed by those present.

“Hey, kid, don’t worry,” Shining Armor assured him. “Your brother will come right back as soon as he finds out what happened to your friends, and while he’s away, he’ll write to us as often as he can.  My family and I will take good care of you while he’s gone.”

“Oh, it’s not that, Shining Armor.  It’s just,” Base trailed off before turning towards his brother and then to Twilight and back again.  “Doesn’t Twilight have something to say?”

Everyone turned towards Twilight, and Twilight one by one looked everyone in the eyes although her gaze lingered a bit when she met Flash’s.

“I think what Base means is,” Flash interrupted, “uh, how’s my reading, writing, and figuring coming along, Twilight?”

“Oh, uh,” Twilight replied, stuttering nervously, “they’ve been coming along quite well.”

“Are you satisfied with my, uh, what was that word you used again, uh, lit-lit-literacy?  Yeah, that’s it.  Are you satisfied with my literacy?”

“Oh, yes, yes.  I’m quite satisfied.”

“So, with that out of the way, isn’t there something you want to tell everyone?” Flash eyed her knowingly.  Twilight chewed on her bottom lip as she looked away from him.

“There is,” she admitted before resolutely facing everyone.  “This isn’t easy for me to say, but I think it’s time I said it.  So, as you all know, I have not hidden my absolute disdain for this place and have been wanting to leave it for a while now.”

“If by ‘a while’ you mean ‘ever since we got here’, then, yes, yes, we know,” Shining Armor ribbed.

“Shiny, let your sister finish,” Cadance lovingly scolded.

“Well, after thinking about it, I realized that,” Twilight paused before blurting out, “I’m not ready to leave yet.”

“What?!” Flash and Base cried in surprise.

“I, I just can’t explain it,” Twilight continued, her voice hitching a bit.  “It’s like, it’s like I’ve finally seen this town for what it is and what it could be, and, and I understand why you wanted to come here in the first place, and for the first time ever, I want to be a part of it.  That’s why I can’t leave yet.”

“Twily, the fact that you’ve added the word yet to that sentence implies that you’re thinking about leaving someday,” her mother pointed out knowingly.

“Well, someday, I’ll be old enough to enroll into the Teacher’s Academy in Paardenstad, and I can’t go there and stay here at the same time, can’t I?” Twilight replied with a cheeky smile.

“The Teacher’s Academy?  My dear, are you thinking about being a teacher?” Postman Night Light exclaimed with a proud twinkle in his eye.

“But of course, and maybe someday, I can make half as big a difference as all of you and Flash and Pinkie Pie made here.”

“Wait.  Does you-know-who know about all this?” Flash interrupted.

“I told him this morning.”

“And what did he say?”



Earlier that morning...

“Have you completely lost your mind?!” Timber screamed at her.

“Come on, Timber,” Twilight pleaded.  “You live right in the middle of the town.  Can’t you see how it’s changed?”

“And because of that you want to stay here and be content living in this town full of crazy people?!”

“Timber,” Twilight continued, silently begging for him to understand her, “what if we were wrong about the people here?  I mean, I know they were awful before, but what if all everyone here needed was someone to bring out the good in them? And that’s exactly what Flash and Pinkie did, and I can’t help but want to help them keep doing just that.”

“Well, the three of you are wasting your time,” Timber snapped.  “Whatever is going on with the townspeople, I can guarantee you that it’s not going to last. Someone, namely Lord Tirek and Lady Chrysalis, will find a way to keep the feud going and bury whatever it is those idiots brought out.  Mark my words.”

“So, you’re just going to stand back and let that happen instead of at least TRYING to do something to stop it?”

“Why not?” Timber scoffed.  “What happens here has nothing to do with me, and last I checked, it has nothing to do with you either.  Why do you care all of a sudden?”

That question struck Twilight like a slap to the face.  Why did she start caring about the town anyway, and when did it happen?  Twilight searched inside herself for the answers but found that she could not answer the question, not with words anyway.  No, her answers came in the form of memories and feelings, the smiles on her family’s faces that slowly replaced their hopelessness and resignation as they gathered around the dinner table, Pinkie Pie’s infectious joy shining through her eyes and her smile making every day feel like a holiday, the children’s laughter as they played with each other regardless of what clan they came from.  At the forefront of all those memories and feelings was Flash, a boy who literally drifted into this cold, dreary place with next to nothing yet shared whatever he had with an open heart and an open hand.  The more time Twilight spent with him, the more she found her own heart opening towards him and towards everyone else she had previously shut out, not that she’d ever say so out loud.

“I don’t know,” Twilight answered.  Timber’s eyes widened as he stared at her in horror.

“Wha-what did you say?” he gasped.

“I don’t know why I started caring,” Twilight repeated.  “Shocking, I know, but all I know is that I don’t ever want to go back to not caring, and that's why I can't leave yet.”

“Yet?”

“I’m thinking about going to the Teacher's Academy when I'm older,” Twilight explained.  “I might even come back if this place still needs teachers.”

“So, you’re leaving Griepsburg but not any time soon and not permanently?  Gosh, and I thought you were supposed to be smart.”  With that, Timber turned away from her and stormed off, leaving Twilight staring at his back dumbfoundedly.



“I think I’m starting to see why my family thought he’d be a bad influence on me,” Twilight said before looking towards the floor sadly.  “I just don’t understand.  When I first met him, I thought the two of us were so similar.  How could we have ended up so different?”

“Oh, Twilight,” Cadance replied, putting an arm around her sister-in-law in an attempt to comfort her. “Maybe, maybe it’s not about how much you and Timber Spruce are alike.  Maybe your similarities just didn’t come together in a way that made everything else work.”

“Maybe,” Twilight wistfully agreed before realizing, “Wait.  How did you know Flash and I were talking about Timber?”

“Who else could you have been talking about?” Shining pointed out.  “He was the only person you bothered actually talking to for the last five years, and the only one who would care about you changing your mind about staying here.”

Twilight bit her lip guiltily before hesitantly saying, “Yeah, about that, I’m so sorry that I haven’t been a very good daughter or sister these last five years, especially since you all worked so hard just to try to give me what I thought I wanted.”

“Oh, we’re just glad that you’re not shutting us out anymore, dear,” said Velvet, pulling her daughter into a hug.

“Wait, but if Twilight doesn’t want to leave anymore, then that means,” First Base started before trailing off.

“That means our deal is off, and you and Flash don’t have to pay for anyone to go to Paardenstad other than yourselves,” Twilight finished for him.

“Hold on a minute,” Shining Armor demanded. “What deal?”

Before either Flash or Twilight could answer him, Pinkie Pie’s now recognizable pounding was heard on the door.

“What could she be doing here this late at night?” Twilight wondered as she got up to open the door.  Twilight opened the door, and before she could even greet her friend, Pinkie burst in and tackled her to the ground.

“Twilight!” Pinkie screamed, bringing her face uncomfortably close to Twilight’s.  “We need to get ready!”

“Uh, for what?” Twilight asked.  “And if you don’t mind, a little personal space please.”

“Oh, sorry,” Pinkie apologized as she got up and helped her friend to her feet.  “You’re about to get a surprise visitor!”

“I’m sorry what?”

“I always get the back shivers whenever a surprise visitor is about to arrive, and this time, my back shivers are extra shiver-y. That means this surprise visitor is going to be extra, super-duper surprise-y,” Pinkie explained rapidly.

Noticing the look of growing confusion on Twilight’s face, Flash stepped in and explained, “I don’t know how, but she’s somehow able to predict vague and random stuff happening, and as far as I know, she’s never been wrong.  It’s probably best not to question it.  I don’t think the answer is going to be worth losing your mind over.”

Twilight looked from Pinkie to Flash and back again, trying to process everything they had just told her.  Judging by her lopsided frown and wrinkled forehead, Flash’s explanation had done little to alleviate her confusion.  It did, however, encourage her to put her confusion in the back of her mind in favor of actually listening to Pinkie.

“So, we’re getting surprise visitors?” Twilight asked her excitable pink friend.

“Yeah,” Pinkie affirmed, “but I don’t know when they’re going to be coming.  They can be here anywhere between the next hour to tomorrow morning.”

“That is a frighteningly wide range of time,” Night Light noted.  “So, is that all you came to tell us?”

“Is that all I came to tell you?” Pinkie repeated incredulously.  “Of course not!  I also came because I’m going to need your help again.  We need to get the town decorated.  We can’t welcome surprise visitors without at least putting up some decorations.”

Twilight can’t help but wonder who these surprise visitors could be, assuming that they were actually real and not just a creation of Pinkie Pie’s scattered and overexcited mind.  Additionally, even if she was right about the visitors, Twilight felt as if she was making a fuss over nothing.  Then again, despite what her wild and perky personality would suggest, Pinkie did take numerous things seriously often more so than the next person, and two of them were hospitality and celebrations.

“What do you need us to do?” Twilight answered.



Lady Chrysalis and Lord Tirek watched from Lord Tirek’s window as Pinkie, Flash, Twilight, and their families put up signs and decorations all through the town.  Many of the townspeople from both clans had come out of their homes to help them.

“Ugh, now, our clans are even welcoming outsiders,” Tirek grumbled.  “Once upon a time, we used to chase them away.”

“All the more reason why we need a solution to the problem,” Chrysalis replied.

“Well, how are we supposed to get rid of that pink girl and the boy who started this mess in the first place?” Tirek retorted. “Of course, there’s nothing stopping us from just shooting them, but if we did that, the people could riot.”

Lady Chrysalis frowned as she continued to watch everyone put up decorations.  After thinking deeply about the town’s current situation, she suddenly smirked deviously.

“Our problem is about to become our solution,” she said ominously.



By the time everyone finished decorating, it became clear to everyone that Pinkie’s surprise visitors weren’t going to be arriving until the morning.  However, when everyone went to bed that night, Pinkie insisted on camping out by the docks so that she could be the first person to welcome the visitors to town. Her parents and Limestone refused to let her stay out by herself, so Twilight ended up volunteering to spend the night with her.  Limestone still wasn’t satisfied by Twilight’s offer and ended up staying out with them because of it.

“Why did I agree to this?” Limestone grumbled as she, Pinkie, and Twilight huddled around a campfire.

“Because you didn’t trust me enough to let Pinkie stay out here with just me,” Twilight replied bluntly.

“Heck, yeah, I don’t trust you.  Look at those twigs you have for arms.  If someone tried to attack you two, you wouldn’t be able to protect yourself, let alone my sister.”

“Aww, you worry too much, Limestone,” Pinkie scoffed. “No one is going to attack us in the middle of the night.”

“Actually, Pinkie, I have to agree with Limestone that what we’re doing right now is utter foolishness,” Twilight countered.  “If my family wasn’t close by, I would have never offered to do this.”

“Pinkie, you can’t—” Limestone began before Pinkie interrupted her.

“Fix everything wrong in the world by throwing parties and making people smile,” Pinkie finished in an exasperated tone. “There are actual bad people out there who know they’re doing bad things and don’t care, and blah blah blah.  I know that, Limestone.  You only tell me that a million times.  Before you start again, I know that you’re not just making that up to scare me and keep me at home.  I know that you’re right.  I also know that you’re not totally right.”

“What do you mean?” Twilight asked.

“I know spreading joy and laughter can’t fix everything, but it can fix a lot.  I know that bad people are out there, but that doesn’t mean every person I meet is going to be one of them.”

Pinkie Pie’s logic was sound.  Twilight will admit that much.  Furthermore, her argument showed that she wasn’t AS childishly naïve as Twilight first thought she was.  However, the issue had one small but glaring detail that Pinkie seemed to overlook almost willfully.

“So, what are you going to do when you run into a problem that parties and friendship can’t fix or run into a genuinely horrible person?” asked Twilight.

“She doesn’t know because she just leaves it for someone else, namely me, to worry about,” Limestone interrupted with an angry growl, “and I really wish she’d stop doing that because I’m not always going to be around to worry about that for her.”

“Well, then stop worrying about it and go to sleep already!” Pinkie snapped, proving to Twilight that it was, in fact, possible to make Pinkie Pie angry.

Limestone huffed before getting up and angrily stuffing herself inside her bedroll.  As soon as she left the campfire, Pinkie sighed and looked to the floor sadly.

“Twilight, am I wrong?” Pinkie asked the bespectacled girl sitting next to her.

“Wrong?  About what?” Twilight replied.

“Am I wrong for wanting to just focus on the bright side of everything and avoiding thinking about the dark stuff as much as possible?”

“I, I don’t think that you’re wrong for being an optimist,” Twilight stammered as she carefully weighed her words, “but...”

“Oh, come on!  Why is there always a ‘but’?!”

“But Limestone is right about how she and your family can’t keep protecting you from all the brokenness of the world.  That being said, I think she was wrong for wanting to squash your idealism and positivity.”

Pinkie stared at Twilight, confused.  “I don’t think I’m following.”

“Limestone is right that the world can be a pretty dark and broken place, and not even all the parties in the world can change that, but I think, I think because it’s so dark and broken that it needs people like you. Without people like you, it’d be even more dark and broken.  I see that now,” Twilight explained.

“Aww, that’s probably the sweetest, deeply philosophical thing anyone has ever said to me,” Pinkie exclaimed.  “Come on.  Give me a hug.  Bring it in, bring it in.”

Twilight smiled as she and Pinkie shared their hug. She didn’t think two people as different as her and Pinkie could ever be friends, yet here they were, exposed to the elements with a campfire and their friendship as their only source of warmth. Oddly enough, Twilight was okay with that.



Pinkie Pie was the first one up the next morning, and she woke up just in time to see Cranky’s ferry pulling into the docks. She gasped in excitement when she saw four passengers on board the ferry.

“Twilight!” she cheered excitedly as she shook her friend awake.  “They’re here!  They’re here!”

Twilight rubbed the last of the sleep from her eyes and got out from her bedroll.  She turned to the direction Pinkie was pointing and saw four boys, two about her age and two about Flash’s brother’s age, disembarking from Cranky’s ferry. Wow!  Pinkie Pie was right about the surprise visitors.  Speaking of Flash, why did she feel as if she needed to run and get him all of a sudden?

Before Twilight had time to answer herself, Pinkie had already run towards the docks with all her musical instruments on her person. Where had she even been keeping all that?

“Hello!” Pinkie greeted the visitors.  “I’m Pinkie Pie.  Welcome to Griepsburg.”  She broke into her welcome song oblivious to the growing confusion on their faces.

When she finished her song, the young, ginger-haired boy turned to the older one wearing glasses and asked, “Are we at the right Griepsburg?”

The noise from Pinkie’s instruments woke Limestone, and she angrily stormed up to her sister.  “Pinkie, why didn’t you wake me up?!”

“Oh, good morning, Limestone.  The visitors are here,” Pinkie replied cheerfully.

“Hi,” Limestone said to the visitors curtly. “What do you want?”

The boy in the glasses stepped forward and answered, “Ma’am, my name is Micro Chips.  My friends and I used to work on a ship owned by Jet and Fancy Trading, and we were wondering if any sailors washed up here in the last two or three months.”

“Sailors?  Last two to three months?” Twilight muttered to herself before her eyes widened in realization.  “Oh my gosh! Wait right here.  I have to get someone.”



While Twilight and the two Pie sisters were greeting the surprise visitors, the postman’s family along with Flash and First Base were gathering around the table for breakfast.  Ms. Velvet had packed a basket of food to bring to the girls, and Flash had volunteered to bring it to them.

Flash had just stepped out the front door with the basket in hand when he saw Twilight running up towards the cottage. Seeing that Twilight was looking rather winded from her sprint, he ran forward to meet her.

“Twilight, what is it?” Flash asked her.  He waited for her to catch her breath and answer him.

“Get your brother and get to the docks now,” Twilight managed to say between breaths.

Although confused by Twilight’s instructions, Flash handed the basket off to her and did as she told him.  He got Base from the cottage and went down to the docks with him. When the two of them reached the docks, they stopped in their tracks at the sight of four familiar faces.

“Oh my gosh!” Flash gasped, his joy threatening to spill out from his eyes.  The four visitors seemed just as stunned yet overjoyed at the sight of him and First Base.

“Base!” Button Mash cried as he darted forward followed by Pipsqueak.  The three younger boys pulled each other into a hug, and the older boys quickly followed suit.

“It’s so great to see you all,” Flash cheered as he, Micro Chips, and Sandalwood broke their hug.

“Same,” Sandalwood agreed before asking, “is there anyone else from the ship here?”

“No.  Base and I were the only ones who drifted here.  What about you?  Were you able to find any other survivors?”

“We’ve looked everywhere else they could have possibly ended up,” Micro Chips replied, “but it looks like it’s just us.”

Flash’s face fell when Micro uttered that sentence, a realization dawning on him.

He turned to Button Mash and Pipsqueak and said, “That means that the captain and the shantyman...”

“Didn’t make it,” Micro finished.

“Oh, Button, Pip, I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Button reassured him. “Our dads knew the dangers that came with a life at sea.  We all did.”

“At least we still have our mums to go home to,” Pip added.  “Speaking of our mums, when we told them that some of the lads on the ship don’t have families to go back to, they offered to take in and help as many of you lot as they can.”

“In other words, you’ll have somewhere to go when you go back to Paardenstad with us,” Micro explained.

Flash and First Base shared a look with each other. Finding and seeing their friends again was everything they had hoped and worked for the whole time they were stuck in Griepsburg, so why did the idea of leaving Griepsburg with them hurt so much? Flash looked back at Micro Chips unsure what to say.  Thankfully, Pinkie obliviously interrupted them before Flash could formulate a response.

“Wait.  You’re leaving already, and you’re taking Flash and First Base with you?” she cried, her eyes beginning to glisten pleadingly.  “Bu-bu-but you didn’t even get to see the welcome party the town helped me put up for you, and I haven’t had time to plan Flash and Base’s good-bye party yet.”

“Wait.  How did she know we were coming?” Sandal noted.

“Pinkie sense.”

Everyone turned and gave Flash questioning looks, but Flash could only reply with, “It’s Pinkie Pie.  Don’t question it.”

“And the party?” asked Button Mash, still confused.

“Let’s just say this place has really changed in the last few months, and I can’t wait to show you what it’s like now.”
> Chapter 19: Gloriosa and Granny Smith
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

While Flash, Pinkie, and Twilight were taking their visitors to the welcome party, Gloriosa and Timber were at home, refusing to participate in the festivities.  Timber was inside their house, still sulking over his conversation with Twilight while Gloriosa had sat herself down under Gaea Evergreen, the tree’s thick branches and bitingly fresh sent forming a soothing cocoon around her. Gloriosa thought back to that morning she saw the town fixing her fence and caring for her saplings, Woods and Stones alike.  Filthy Rich’s daughter was even kind enough to respect her boundaries when Apple Bloom made them known.

Gloriosa didn’t want to admit it, but everything that happened that morning made her feel so good inside.  Seeing her neighbors’ kindness had made her heart swell with warmth and happiness, but one thing prevented her from totally enjoying it. That one thing was her family’s generations-long participation in the feud.  Gloriosa refused to admit even to herself that she actually hated keeping the feud going.  Such an admission felt like an utter betrayal of her family, and aside from Timber, Gaea, and the nursery, the feud was all she had left of them.  All that being said, something about keeping the feud going under the current circumstances didn’t sit right with her conscience.  If her parents and grandparents were still around, what would they do?

“Well, well, I thought I’d find you here, sugarcube,” an elderly female voice jolted Gloriosa out of her thoughts.  Gloriosa looked up to see the matriarch of the Apple family smiling down at her.  “Now, what are you doing over here while there’s a party going on over there?”

“Oh, nothing,” Gloriosa answered forcing a smile before turning her gaze back towards the ground.  “I just had something on my mind that’s all.”

“It wouldn’t have anything to do with how the whole town’s changing now, wouldn’t it?”

Gloriosa sighed, “It has everything to do with how the whole town is changing.”

“So, what’d ya think of it?”

“I, I don’t know.  It’s different I guess, and I want to like it, but maybe I shouldn’t.”

“Why ever not?  It’s the best thing to happen to this town in all my years of living here, and I’ve been here a good long time,” Granny replied with a hearty laugh.

“Really?” Gloriosa asked, disbelievingly.  “You mean, you actually prefer the way things are now to the feud.”

“I sure do,” Granny said with another laugh. “I mean, this has been the most I’ve laughed my whole life, and my grandkids, well, whooo-wheee!  My grandkids are happier than they’ve ever been, and being able to see them out and about and not having to worry about some Stone hurting them, well, that there has a way of making a granny feel 10 years younger again.”

“But if my grandparents were here, would they feel the same way?”

Granny Smith’s eyes widened at the question before her face softened in understanding.

“Listen, sugarcube, I’m going to tell you a bit of a secret,” Granny began.  “Your grandparents loved a whole lot of things in life, the nursery, the tree you’re sitting under, but most of all, you and your brother.  The feud was not one of those things.  In fact, they absolutely hated it.”

“Really?” Gloriosa replied in shock.  “But if you and my grandparents hated the feud so much, why did you keep it going?”

“A lot of reasons, all of them stupid looking back on the whole thing,” Granny recounted.  “We didn’t know any other way.  This was the way things have always been done.  We didn’t see any reason to change things.  Most importantly, we had a duty to keep the feud going, or at least, that’s what every clan head has told us since the dawn of time.”

“So, I won’t be turning my back on my family by not keeping the feud going for them for another generation?”

“Heck, if your parents and grandparents saw the way things are now and how much better the nursery is doing because of it, they’d be relieved.”

For the first time in her young life, Gloriosa smiled, a genuine, non-malicious, happy, relieved smile.  However, it left almost as quickly as it came as a terrible realization dawned on her.

“Oh my,” Gloriosa gasped.  “Timber.  I, I’ve been making him utterly miserable by trying to force him to help me keep the feud going.  I thought I was protecting my family, but really, I was driving the only family I had away.”

“Well, y’all are still young,” Granny encouraged. “It’s not too late to try to make things right with him.”

Gloriosa pondered Granny’s words, and her smile slowly returned.

“I’m going to go in and see if Timber wants to join the party in town,” declared Gloriosa.  “Even if he doesn’t want to, I think I’ll check it out just to see what it’s like.”

“Atta girl!” Granny whooped.

However, the two of them had barely gotten up from the ground when they heard shouting coming from the middle of town, and they were not shouts of celebration.  No, they were panicked, fearful shouts that seemed to be getting fainter as if whoever was shouting was moving farther away.  Farther away where the outskirts of town would be, they saw two plumes of thick, black smoke rising to the sky.

“Oh my!” Gloriosa cried as she and Granny ran out the front gate to see what the commotion was about.

From inside, Timber saw the smoke and ran out to investigate also.
> Chapter 20: Stirring Up Trouble
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Despite the townspeople’s best efforts to put out the fires, all that remained of the schoolhouse and the post office were two piles of smoldering ruins.

“Oh, no,” the children all cried.

“Who could have done this?” Pinkie exclaimed as her hair deflated a little.  “Who would do something like this?  In the middle of a party too?”

“I have an idea,” Twilight muttered. “Unfortunately, we have no way of proving it.”

“Oh my, what in the world is this?” Lady Chrysalis exclaimed with artificial concern as she stepped forward with her small entourage.  “How could something like this have possibly happened?  Nothing like this ever happened while we were all feuding.”

“Darn right, it didn’t!” Lord Tirek agreed, also followed by his own entourage.  “And if we were still feuding nothing like this would have happened either!  Who could have been stupid enough to try to end the feud?”

All eyes turned to Flash and Pinkie Pie.

“Wait, you’re pinning the blame on us?” Flash cried.

“But, but, but we didn’t do this!  Someone else did,” Pinkie exclaimed, near tears.

“Did anything like this every happen while the feud was going on?” Chrysalis shouted accusingly.

“Well, no, not that I know of anyway.”

“And this happened just as everyone else stopped keeping the feud going,” Tirek added.  “I think it’s clear what we need to do.”

“WAIT!” Shining Armor interrupted, stepping forward.

“Who here actually thinks that ending the feud caused this?” he demanded, addressing the crowd.  No one but the clan heads and their entourages raised their hands.  “And who here actually thinks that life was better back when the feud was going on?”  Again, only the clan heads and their entourages kept their hands raised. “Whoever did this obviously took advantage of the festivities to try to stir up trouble.  Thankfully, I’ve been working on a solution to prevent this sort of thing from happening again, but for now, let’s all just focus on working together to fix the damages.  Who is with me?”

To everyone’s surprise, Gloriosa stepped forward, declaring, “I am.”

“Here, here!” Granny Smith agreed.

“Well, if Granny is in, then I am too,” said Applejack.  The rest of the Apples and several other Wood clan members soon followed.

“If the Apples are in, then so are we,” declared Filthy Rich.  Other members of the Stone clan voiced their agreements.

Lady Chrysalis and Lord Tirek scowled, seeing that their attempts to turn their clans against the outsiders have failed.

“Alright, fine,” Chrysalis huffed.  “Keep working together and having your parties.  Mark my words.  You’re going to wish things were back the way they were before!”

As she angrily stomped away with her entourage, Lord Tirek stood giving everyone an angry glare and a massive scowl before leaving with his entourage as well.

After they were a distance away from the crowd, Tirek grumbled to Chrysalis, “Well, that plan backfired spectacularly.”

“I thought for sure a little trouble would have turned everyone against each other and those outsiders just like that,” Chrysalis hissed back.  “We’ll have to take more drastic measures.”

“At least without the school, that schoolteacher won’t be able to brainwash our youth,” Tirek noted, “and having the post office gone means the children won’t be able to get gifts and letters from the pink mountain girl.”

Lady Chrysalis scowled as she shook her head. “All we’ve caused are a few minor inconveniences.  We need to cut those outsiders off from the rest of the town for good, starting with that boy and his pink friend.”

“And how are we supposed to do that?”

Then, Chrysalis smirked, her green eyes gleaming wickedly.  “I have always believed that people will always put themselves and their own before anyone else whenever they’ve been made truly desperate.”



As the clan heads plotted and schemed, the townspeople along with the Pies, the postman’s family, Flash, First Base, and their friends were hard at work rebuilding the post office and the schoolhouse, starting with the schoolhouse.

“So,” Flash said to Twilight, “Shining Armor said that he’s been working on a solution to prevent all this from happening again.  Would you by any chance know what it is?”

“He’s been working on it ever since our family moved here, but he hasn’t been able to get it off the ground in all that time,” Twilight explained.  “He’s been writing to the queen and to parliament about setting up a Royal Police Department here, but so far, he keeps getting rejected.  They all keep saying that Griepsburg is a lost cause when it comes to establishing some form of law and order.”

“I’m guessing that he’s hoping that with the townspeople actually getting along now, he’ll have a better chance of getting the queen and parliament’s approval.”

Twilight nodded before turning towards Pinkie’s direction.  The normally exuberant girl had sat down on the snow, hugging her knees to her chest. Her bouncy, curly hair had deflated into a mess of limp strings, and she had a look of profound sadness on her face.

“Pinkie, what’s wrong?” Twilight asked as she and Flash approached her.

“Limestone told me actual bad people existed in the world,” Pinkie replied despondently.  “I knew she was right, but I didn’t think any of them actually lived here.”

“You can find bad people anywhere, Pinkie,” Flash pointed out, “but that doesn’t mean you should stop trying to be good or that you should give up inspiring people to be good.  I mean, those clan heads were pretty close to getting the townspeople to lynch us, but they chose to listen to Shining Armor instead.”

“But what if they keep trying to make things go back the way they used to be?” Pinkie whined.

“Then, we’ll keep trying to stop them.  Besides, don’t forget that Shining Armor is working on a solution to that, and I personally think that it’s got a good chance of working.”

“You mean, assuming that he can actually implement it,” Twilight noted, earning her a stern glare from Flash.  “I’m just saying.”  She turned to Pinkie and continued, “Anyway, Flash is right.  If we stop trying to do good just because we get pushed back from bad people, then the bad people win.”

Pinkie sat up and looked at Twilight quizzically. Her hair began to curl slightly as Twilight’s words provided fresh sparks to the dying embers of her determination.

“What would your granny do if she was still here?”

Pinkie’s hair sprang to its full springy, cottony glory as she leapt to her feet with a smile on her face and a fire in her eyes.

“You’re right!” Pinkie exclaimed with renewed excitement.  “Granny Pie would never give up spreading smiles, especially to people who really need it, and it would have taken a lot more than some seriously bad people to stop her, and it’ll take a lot more than that to stop me.”

“That’s the spirit!” Flash cheered.

“Come on.  Let’s get to work,” Twilight agreed.
> Chapter 21: Up and Away
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The sun had passed its highest point in the sky. Everyone had stopped for a quick lunch before resuming their work rebuilding the post office and the schoolhouse. Not long after, Flash noticed that someone was missing.

“Hey, guys,” Flash asked his friends, “have you seen my brother?”

“He, Button, and Pip went into the forest to get more wood about an hour ago,” Sandal replied.  “It’s weird that they’re not back yet.”

“We better go try and find them.”

With that, Flash, Micro Chips, and Sandalwood set off for the forest.  They hadn’t gone far when they found three hatchets lying in the snow.

“Okay, those three were definitely here,” Micro noted, “but where could they have gone now, and why did they leave their hatchets behind?  I mean, I know they have a habit of goofing off when they should be working, but something about all this feels extremely suspicious.”

Flash and Sandal were deeply inclined to agree with him, especially after seeing an arrow carved into one of the trees.  They turned to where it was pointing and found several more arrows carved into the trees.

“Something about all this feels,” Micro began.

“Trap-ish,” Sandal finished.

“Not a word but yes.”

“We don’t have a choice but to fall for that trap,” Flash declared.  “The boys’ lives could be in danger.”

Sandal and Micro both nodded, and the three of them began following the arrows.  They trudged through the snow, growing more worried as they continued to find and follow more arrows.  Eventually, the three of them reached a clearing where Lord Tirek, Lady Chrysalis, and their lackeys were waiting for them with First Base, Button Mash, and Pipsqueak bound with ropes.

“Flash!” First Base cried as he struggled against his bonds.

Flash stared at the scene before him in a mixture of disgust and horror.  Then, his face morphed into an angry glare as he turned towards Chrysalis and Tirek.

“I knew the two of you were horrible people, but I didn’t think even you would sink this low,” he growled.

“Why not?” Lady Chrysalis replied with a wicked smirk.  “It’s not like either of us is threatening one of our own people.  These three, on the other hand, are outsiders.  Why should we or anyone else in Griepsburg care what happens to them?”

“Uh, because it’s basic humanity?” Sandal butted in rather unhelpfully.

“What are you planning on doing with them?” Flash demanded as his fist clenched involuntarily.

“For now, nothing,” Chrysalis continued with a sneer, “but if you want to see them alive again.  Then, the three of you should come to the docks after dark alone, without telling anyone what you just witnessed and what we just demanded of you. Oh, and don’t forget to bring your possessions with you.  You’ll need them.”

With that, the clan heads and their followers began to walk away, dragging First Base, Button Mash, and Pipsqueak with them.

“Flash!  Flash!” Base cried out as he tried to escape his captors.

“Oh, do shut them up!” Lady Chrysalis complained.



Later that night, after everyone else had gone to sleep, Flash and his friends quietly crept out of Night Light and his family’s cabin carrying their meager belongings with them.  By now, the three of them had figured out what Chrysalis and Tirek wanted them to do and why.

“Are you sure you really want go through with this?” Micro asked Flash.  “Imagine how everyone is going to feel when they wake up and find you had just up and left without even telling them goodbye.”

“Of course, I don’t want to go through with this,” Flash retorted.  “Not only is it going to hurt people I care about, but I just know Chrysalis and Tirek are going to spin it in such a way that makes it look like outsiders are untrustworthy, which will hurt everyone twice over.”

“What I don’t understand is what was so great about the way things were before that they’d go through all this just to bring it all back,” Sandal wondered out loud.

Having seen firsthand what life at Griepsburg was like before, Flash couldn’t help but wonder that himself, but he was too worried about the fate of his brother and their two friends to say so out loud.  When the three of them reached the docks, Lady Chrysalis, Lord Tirek, and about six other people were waiting for them with the three boys.

“You weren’t followed, were you?” Chrysalis interrogated Flash and his friends.

“No, ma’am,” Flash replied bluntly.  “Now, let my brother and our friends go.”

“My, kids today, so impatient,” the lady grumbled dramatically.  “Don’t worry, young man.  You’ll have your brother and your friends back, AFTER we get what we want and no sooner.”

“You haven’t even told us what you want,” Micro Chips retorted with an almost uncharacteristic annoyance.

“Oh, it’s quite simple,” Lord Tirek added. “You all just need to get on the ferry back to the mainland, leave, never come back, and never contact anyone on this island again for the rest of your pathetic existence.  Refuse, and we slit these boys’ throats and dump their bodies in a ditch in the middle of the woods.”

First Base and his friends’ eyes all widened in fear at the sound of Tirek’s threat on their lives.  Unnoticed by everyone else, the young man with the dark green skin and red buzz cut, who was holding Base and Button by their bonds, frowned in a mixture of regret and uncertainty.  Meanwhile, Flash grit his teeth and growled; his suspicions about that the clan leaders wanted from him were confirmed.

“It’s not going to work, you know?” Flash replied. “Getting us to leave forever won’t be enough to make the people here want things to go back the way they were before.”

“We didn’t ask for your opinion, boy,” Chrysalis sneered, taking First Base from the man who was holding him and pointing a knife to his throat.  “Now, make a decision or else.”

Flash sighed and reluctantly agreed, “Okay, we’ll leave.”

“Good.”  Chrysalis threw Base towards his brother and turned to the young man in her entourage. “Pharynx, the payment please.”

The young man reached into his jacket pocket, pulled out a sack of coins, and handed it to Lady Chrysalis who tossed it to Flash.

“That should be enough to get all of you to Paardenstad,” she said to them.  “Now, go.”

Flash cut his brother’s bonds loose, and the two of them began walking towards the ferry.  The clan leaders then released Button and Pip, and they along with Micro Chips and Sandalwood followed their friends onboard.  Once the six of them were onboard, they found Cranky Doodle asleep in the cabin.

Flash grudgingly woke the ferryman, “Hey, Cranky, wake up!”

Cranky started, awaking with a snort.

Seeing the six boys on his boat, he said to them, “Leaving so soon?”

“Unfortunately.  Don’t ask why though.  Knowing the reason might get you in trouble,” Flash answered, taking some coins from the sack Chrysalis gave him and paying the old man.

As the ferry pulled away from the docks and chugged towards the mainland, Lord Tirek turned to Lady Chrysalis and asked, “You think this will be enough to take care of the boy?”

“If it isn’t, don’t forget that we still have that little contingency plan in place,” she replied.
> Chapter 22: The Contingency Plan
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

After Chrysalis, Tirek, and their entourages left the woods, the two clan leaders left Base and his friends under Pharynx’s watch and went straight to Gloriosa and Timber’s house.  Inside, Timber sat alone at the kitchen table with a cup of birch tea. Gloriosa was still out with the rest of the town helping the postman and his family rebuild, which was completely unlike her, at least, in Timber’s mind.

When did his sister start caring about outsiders or even their own neighbors for that matter?  In fact, when did she start caring about something other than the feud or the nursery?  Timber was pondering these questions when he heard a knock from the front door.  Timber got up and answered it, finding Lord Tirek and Lady Chrysalis standing on his porch.

“May I help you?” Timber asked.

“Actually,” Lord Tirek replied, smirking wickedly, “Lady Chrysalis and I were under the impression that we could help you, but let’s not discuss it out here in public, shall we?”

Taking the hint, Timber let the two clan leaders into his house and led them towards the dining table, setting two mugs of tea before them.

“So, now that we’re alone,” Timber continued, “what brings the two of you over?  If you’re looking for my sister, I’m afraid she’s out.”

“Helping the rest of the town help the postman I bet,” Lady Chrysalis scoffed.  “Goodness! Has everyone in this town gone mad?”

That’s what Timber had asked himself after Twilight decided not to run away from home with him.  His sister’s sudden change of heart further intensified that question. Sure, everyone is happy and getting along now, but what’s going to happen when the peace ends and everyone just devolves back into feuding again?

“We’re not here for your sister,” Tirek replied. “We’re actually here for you.”

Lord Tirek reached into his coat, pulled out a large sack of coins, and set it on the table in front of Timber.

“I believe this would be more than sufficient for you to start a whole new life far, far away from here, would it?” Tirek insinuated.

“What’s the catch?” Timber questioned, narrowing his eyes.

“My, aren’t you clever?” Lady Chrysalis praised disingenuously.  “You must be so smart to know not to expect any kindness for free, and yes, I’m afraid ours does come with a price.”

“But compared to what we’re giving you, it’s nothing, just a paltry little sum,” Tirek added.

“In fact,” Chrysalis continued, “what we’re asking of you could end up benefiting you as well.”

“I’m listening,” Timber replied, taking a seat across from the leaders.

Lady Chrysalis smirked and said, “I’m sure you’re already familiar with those two boys staying with the postman’s family. Well, are you?”

Timber sighed and rolled his eyes affirmatively.

“Of course, you are,” Lord Tirek declared. “If it weren’t for the older one, that pink mountain girl wouldn’t have come here and spread her madness all over the town.  Furthermore, I heard that he has gotten quite close to the postman’s daughter, but no one cares about that.  It’s not as if you were hoping to catch her eye as well.”

The scowl that slowly formed on Timber’s face told the old lord and lady otherwise.

“Oh my!” Lady Chrysalis intoned in mock surprise. “You had your eye on her?  And he had the audacity to steal her right from under you?  After all, you saw her first.”

“So, we’re in agreement then?” Tirek continued. “All of us want that boy, his brother, and anyone who has anything to do with him gone, correct?”

“I would assume so.”  Chrysalis smirked at Timber in a hinting manner.  Timber frowned slightly but ultimately nodded in agreement.

“Good,” Tirek declared taking a pistol out of his coat pocket and setting it in front of Timber.  “I hope you know what to do with that, son.”

Timber’s eyes widened as he looked from the clan leaders to the pistol and back again.

“Wait,” he cried.  “You want me to,” he ran his index finger across his neck in a slicing motion, “Flash in exchange for—?,” and then, he gestured at the sack of coins. “I mean, I know we all want him out of the picture, but is this really necessary?  And why do I have to be the one to do it?”

“Because if you don’t,” Chrysalis insinuated, “we have a counteroffer.”

“My, I wonder just how flammable your family’s nursery and that old, beat-up spruce in your yard are,” Tirek added.  “It would be incredibly unfortunate if they both met the same fate as the schoolhouse and the post office, now, wouldn’t it?”

Timber’s eyes widened in shock as Tirek’s threat unveiled itself.

“That’s your deal?” Timber exclaimed.  “Either I kill someone, or you destroy the one thing left in this world that my sister loves?”

“And you’ll be stuck in this backwater town surrounded by idiots and crazy people with no chance of ever leaving,” Chrysalis continued, slowly sliding the coin sack away from Timber.  “Don’t forget about that part of the deal.  That’s important.  So, what’s it going to be?”



Timber regretted ever agreeing to that offer as he sat inside the barrel that the clan leaders had discreetly placed on board Cranky Doodle’s ferry.  His legs were killing him from being bent and pressed against his body for so long. Unfortunately, he couldn’t come out yet, not until he was sure he had the opportunity to get the drop on everyone onboard.

“Okay, Timber,” he thought to himself, reaching for the pistol in his coat pocket, “no pressure.  You just have to come out at the exact right time and kill everyone on board.  I mean, sure, it’s wrong, but if you don’t do it, the sister who has never once cared about your happiness loses everything she loves, and we can’t have that, can we?”

Meanwhile, elsewhere on Cranky’s ferry, Flash was leaning against the side of the boat with a dejected frown on his face as he looked back towards Griepsburg, which, by now, was nothing but a smudge on the horizon.  His brother stood next to him, also frowning dejectedly, while he looked towards the floor. Their friends stood nearby just watching them in varying degrees of empathy and confusion.

“So,” Micro spoke finally breaking the silence, “I’m guessing this wasn’t how you two wanted to leave Griepsburg.”

Flash’s only reply was to silently shake his head no.

“You didn’t want to leave at all, didn’t you?” Sandal added, knowingly.

“I, we,” Flash struggled, unsure how to explain to his friends his and Base’s plans.  “All we wanted to do was find out what happened to you guys and the others on the ship.  Beyond that, we had no idea what we wanted to do.  Maybe we were planning on leaving once upon a time, but then, you guys showed up, and the place and the people who lived there ended up growing on us, and no, I guess not.”

“I wonder how Postman Night Light and his family are going to feel when they wake up and find us gone,” Base stated sadly.

Flash didn’t answer but cast his eyes downward towards his distorted reflection in the water.  The two brothers sighed simultaneously in their shared heartache for the family they had come to think of as their own.  Meanwhile, Pip and Button looked at each other, frowning as they tried to think up a way to cheer up their friends.  Being the son of a shantyman, Pip did the only thing he could think to do at a time like this.

“We’ll man the good capstan, and run her around,” Pip began to sing.  “Away, Rio!”

“We'll haul up the anchor from out of the sound,” Button began to sing along with him.

“For we're bound for the Rio Grande,” everyone else soon joined in.  Even Flash and Base couldn’t help but sing along.  “And it’s away, Rio! Away, Rio!”

“So fare-ye-well, my pretty young girl,” Pip sang by himself.

“And we're bound for the Rio Grande!” everyone else responded.

At the mention of the “pretty young girl,” Flash’s face suddenly dropped as the bespectacled face of a certain girl came to the forefront of his mind.  Poor Twilight!  She was just starting to let other people get close to her, and he just had to take off like this.  Flash could only hope that—.

“AAAH!” Flash cried out as a bullet embedded itself into his shoulder blade, interrupting his thoughts and his companions’ singing.

“Flash!” Base shouted, seeing his brother injured. Everyone turned towards the direction the shot had come from.  About 5 yards away from them stood Timber Spruce with his head turned the other way pointing a pistol at them.

“Timber?” Flash exclaimed incredulously.  Timber turned his head towards Flash’s voice and locked eyes with him.  Timber’s eyes widened, and his jaw dropped when he realized just what he had done and what had happened.

“Shoot!” Timber cursed, dropping the pistol and running to the other side of the boat.

Flash and the boys ran after him, yelling for him to stop.  As soon as Timber reached the other side of the boat, he realized that he had no place to go but one.  In an act of frantic desperation, Timber climbed over the side of the boat and jumped into the ocean.  However, as soon as he splashed into the icy water, Timber made yet another important realization.

“Help!” Timber cried as he struggled to keep his head above the water.  “I can’t swim!”

Flash stared at where Timber fell in shock while Base covered his face with his right hand in utter embarrassment.  Then, without a moment’s hesitation, Flash took off his coat and jumped into the water.  Within five minutes, he had pulled himself and Timber back onto the boat.
> Chapter 23: The Right Thing to Do
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Let me get this straight,” Flash began as he and Timber huddled close to the ferry’s engine for warmth while wrapped in some old towels that Cranky happened to have lying around.  “Lord Tirek and Lady Chrysalis both paid and threatened you into killing us to make sure there was no chance of us ever going back to Griepsburg?”

“Yes!” Timber cried.  “I didn’t want to agree to it, but it was either you or the nursery and that stupid tree that my sister loves.”

“You were going to kill us for a tree?” Base questioned incredulously.

“A tree that my sister cares about more than anything,” Timber retorted defensively.  “I mean, I don’t care about that tree, but she does.”

Flash tilted his head and stared at Timber pensively before saying, “It’s not about the tree, isn’t it?  It’s about your sister.”

“But I thought you and your sister hated each other?” Base asked.  “At least, that was the impression you guys always gave me.”

“My sister is a huge pain in the butt who only cares about preserving our family’s past, so much so that anything and everything else doesn’t even amount to a hill of beans to her, but she’s still my sister,” Timber snapped before softening a bit.  “I mean, I know I act like I don’t care about anyone or anything, but I do care about her.”  Then, he hardened his glare again continuing, “I don’t know why since she obviously doesn’t feel the same way about me.”

Flash and Base shared a look with each other before turning back to Timber.

“If she was that way before, I think that’s starting to change,” Flash noted, remembering how Gloriosa was the first to answer the call to rebuild the schoolhouse and the post office, “and I’m willing to bet that if you and Gloriosa just took the time to talk things out and really listen to each other, you’d realize that you’re important to her too.”

“That’s a sucker bet,” Timber scoffed.

“Hold on,” Micro Chips interrupted.  “The agreement was that you kill everyone on this boat, or else, Lord Tirek and Lady Chrysalis break your sister’s heart, correct?”

“Yes!  Weren’t you paying attention?” Timber snapped.

“Aren’t they going to know you failed when Cranky pulls the ferry into the docks tomorrow?”

Timber’s eyes widened as the realization came crashing down on him.

“No! No! No!” he screamed, covering his face with both his hands.

“Timber, listen,” Flash replied, “you’re going to have to go back to Griepsburg and tell everyone everything that just happened.”

“How is that supposed to stop the clan heads from destroying my family’s nursery?” Timber exclaimed.

“Honestly, it might not, but if you don’t let the town know just how far those two are willing to go to make everything go back to the way it was, no one is going to stand up to them and stop them from doing something worse.”

“Are you crazy?!” Timber yelled.  “If I do that, everyone is going to know that I agreed to kill you guys, and they’ll hate me for it, especially Twilight and my sister.”

“Just tell them what you told us,” Flash assured. “They’ll understand that you were being forced into it.”

“No, no, I can’t go back,” Timber refused. “My only choice is to run and never go back.”

“How is that supposed to stop Chrysalis and Tirek from destroying your family’s nursery and special tree?” Base chimed in.

“It won’t, but at least, I won’t be around to witness it and my sister’s disappointment.”

“So, that’s it then?” Button Mash added. “You’re just going to run from your problems like a coward?”

“Hey, my sister is going to end up heartbroken and disappointed in me no matter what I do.  What am I supposed to gain from not running from my problems?” Timber scoffed.

“The satisfaction of standing up to two horrible people and encouraging your friends and neighbors to do the same,” Sandalwood pointed out.

Timber just rolled his eyes and turned away from everyone.  “You’re all idiots.  Why do I even bother talking to you?”



It was almost sunset by the time the ferry reached the mainland, far too late in the day to do any traveling.

“We’re going to need a place to stay the night,” Flash noted before wincing a little as he clutched his injured shoulder.

“We’re also going to need that treated as soon as possible,” Micro Chips added.

“There’s an inn you can stay at not too far from here,” Cranky recommended.  “The dame who owns the place, as sure as the sunrise, will treat you mighty swell.”

“I wouldn’t trust recommendations from him, but we don’t know anywhere else to go, do we?” Base noted.

The group of six plus Timber made their way to the inn in question, and upon entering, were greeted by a warm, matronly woman with brown hair and blue eyes.

“Welcome, travelers,” she greeted.  “My name’s Matilda.  How can I help you?”

“Hello, ma’am,” Micro Chips returned the greeting. “We just arrived from Griepsburg, and we’ll need a place to stay the night before we continue our journey.  Do you have maybe two or three rooms available?”

“I’m afraid I only have one room available right now.  Are you gentlemen comfortable with sharing?”

“We can make do with one room,” Flash affirmed.

“We can?” Timber exclaimed in shock.

“We used to live on a ship,” Button pointed out. “We’re used to sleeping in close quarters.”

“Can we also get some bandages, a bottle of rum, and something long, thin, and metal?” Micro requested.



Ms. Matilda led the boys to their room before leaving to fetch the items Micro had requested.  To Timber’s utter consternation, the room only had one bed.

“We all agree that Flash and Base are getting the bed while the rest of us take the floor, right?” Sandal wondered aloud. Pip, Button, and Micro chimed their agreement.

“Hey, how come they get the bed?” Timber protested.

“Well, Flash is injured, and Base is his brother, so in a way, you only have yourself to blame for our current sleeping arrangement,” Micro pointed out.

Matilda arrived with the requested supplies, and Micro Chips began to treat Flash’s shoulder wound.  He doused a long, thin knife in rum before using it to extract the bullet from Flash’s wound.

“Just bear with me, this might sting a little,” he said to Flash.  Actually, between extracting the bullet and disinfecting the wound, the whole process stung A LOT, but Flash kept his complaints to himself save for a few pained grimaces.



Later that night, while everyone was asleep, First Base suddenly awoke.  Something was not right; the bed was shaking, not by much but more than it should be.  He turned where his brother was lying and could just barely see Flash tossing and turning restlessly.

“Flash?” Base muttered tiredly as he touched his brother on the shoulder.  He quickly pulled away, eyes wide, when he felt his hand burn. “Oh my gosh!”

“Lads!  Get up!” Base screamed as he jumped out of the bed to quickly light a lamp, waking everyone in the room.

“What the heck!” Timber exclaimed as he and the others got up from the floor.

“What’s wrong?” Sandal questioned, getting to eye level with First Base.

“It’s Flash.  He has a fever,” Base replied with panic in his voice.

“What?” Micro cried as made his way towards the bed.  He put his hand on Flash’s forehead, and sure enough, Flash had a fever. “Pip, Button, wake Ms. Matilda and ask her where you can find a doctor, now!”

“Aye aye!” the two boys confirmed before leaving the room.

Micro Chips turned Flash to his side and exposed his wounded shoulder before frantically removing the bandages.  As Micro had feared, red, hot, angry lines were running away from Flash’s bullet wound.

“Oh, no!” Micro uttered.

“What?!” Base shouted, his panic increasing by the second.

“We weren’t able to treat Flash’s wound in time before infection set in, and now, it’s spread. He needs to see a doctor and get some medicine fast,” Micro explained.

Timber listened to the whole exchange, his eyes widening as the sinking feeling in his stomach sunk lower and lower.  He looked from First Base on the verge to tears to Flash lying in agony and back again, realizing that all of it was happening because of his choice.  While everyone else was occupied, Timber stealthily crept out of the room and closed the door behind him.  As soon as he was out of the room, he ran.  He ran out of the inn, into the streets, and into the night, not knowing where he was truly going.  He didn’t know how long he had been running for when Button Mash’s earlier accusation started to ring clear in his head.

“You’re just going to run from your problems like a coward?”  That statement stopped Timber in his tracks as realization slammed into him like a runaway horse and buggy.  He might be able to run from the consequences of his actions, but the guilt will follow him wherever he goes.  If he wanted the guilt to stop, he was going to have to face it head on, and he knew just how to do it.
> Chapter 24: Wake Up at Twilight
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Earlier that day, Twilight and her family woke up to find their visitors completely gone without a trace, well, almost without a trace.  Twilight had found a note from Flash on the floor of her bedroom.  Flash seemed to have slid it under her door.

“Dear Twilight,” it had read.  “I am sorry that you had to find out this way but Base and I have to leev.  Crysalis and Tirec forced us to by thretening Base and his friends’s lives.  I would have told you erlyer but they forced us not to tell anyone.  Luckily, they did not say anything about leeving notes. Plees, do not let them turn things back the way they were.  Yours, Flash”

Sure enough, as soon as word about Flash, Base, and their friends’ sudden departure got out, Lady Chrysalis and Lord Tirek began to accuse them of being untrustworthy outsiders who didn’t care about the town or its people.  Most of the townspeople didn’t seem to believe them, but Twilight publicly confronted the clan heads with the truth anyway just in case.  Of course, Chrysalis and Tirek countered with the fact Twilight had no proof of their wrongdoing.  Twilight thought about bringing up Flash's note as proof but chose to keep that information to herself, worried that further arguing with them will only do more harm than good.  Thankfully, the townspeople’s trust in Flash and Twilight was not so easily eroded, though it did seem to fade just a bit.



Late into the night, Twilight and her family were awoken by a series of loud, rapid knocks and Pinkie Pie screaming, “TWILIGHT!  Wake up! Emergency!  Open the door!”

“Pinkie?” Twilight asked rather groggily after her father had opened the front door.  Pinkie Pie was standing on the other side, vibrating.

“You’ve got to come with me to the docks right now!” Pinkie screamed, still vibrating.

“Hold on.  What even is going on?”

“You see all this?” Pinkie asked frantically, gesturing to her still vibrating self.  “My Pinkie sense has never given me this twitch before. Whatever it is, it’s a real doozy, and my hunch is telling me that the doozy is going to be over by the docks.”

Twilight blinked the sleep out of her eyes as her mind attempted to process everything Pinkie just told her.

“I, what?  Docks, doozy?  Ugh!” Twilight cried as she struggled to comprehend what her exuberant friend was trying to convey.  “Pinkie, can’t this wait until morning?”

“I don’t think it can,” Pinkie exclaimed, suddenly vibrating even more vigorously than before.

Twilight groaned as she put her hand to her face.  She really was not in the mood to be humoring Pinkie’s nonsense, but Pinkie did somehow predict the arrival of Flash’s friends among other impossible feats. Besides, if she didn’t humor Pinkie, Pinkie was just going to keep begging her until she relented, and she was in even less of a mood to be dealing with that.

“Okay, I’ll go with you,” Twilight reluctantly agreed, “but let me get dressed first.  I’m still in my nightdress.”



After Twilight got dressed, she followed Pinkie out to the docks.

“So, what are we looking for out here exactly?” Twilight asked Pinkie, who somehow managed to walk from her cottage to the docks while still vibrating uncontrollably.

“Not sure.  Just look out for anything doozy-ish,” Pinkie suggested vaguely as she looked out towards the sea.

Twilight rolled her eyes but did as Pinkie suggested anyway.  After about an hour of watching, Twilight’s patience was thinning, and Pinkie was still vibrating.

“Pinkie, I know your Pinkie sense has never been wrong before, but I don’t think your doozy exists,” Twilight stated plainly.

“Just give it some more time, it’ll happen any minute now,” Pinkie insisted.

“We’ve been out here for an hour!” Twilight exclaimed.

“So?  The last time we waited for whatever was triggering my Pinkie sense, we waited all night,” Pinkie pointed out.  That was true.

No sooner had Pinkie uttered those words did Twilight see something speeding towards them from the water.

“What’s that?’ Twilight asked.

Pinkie turned to where Twilight was looking at, pulled out a pair of binoculars from her hair, and looked through them.

“Hmmm,” Pinkie uttered. “It looks like the Cranky Doodle’s ferry.  Does it normally move that fast?”

Even though Twilight couldn’t see the ferry as clearly, she could tell that it was moving quite fast, faster than she had ever seen it move.

“Why is it going so fast?” asked Twilight.

As if in response to her question, the ferry pulled into the dock, and Timber Spruce jumped off, landing just in front of Twilight and Pinkie.

Timber ran up to Twilight, grabbed her by the hand, and exclaimed, “Twilight, I don’t have time to explain, but you have to come with me now!”

“Timber, what’s going on?” Twilight replied, trying to pull away from Timber.

“There’s no time. If you don’t come with me now, you might never see Flash again.”

“WHAT?!”

As soon as those words left Timber’s mouth, Pinkie stopped vibrating.

“Huh, I guess that was the doozy,” Pinkie remarked.

“Come on,” Timber commanded, pulling Twilight onto the ferry.

“Cranky,” he said to the ferryman.  “Take us back at the same speed.  Hurry!”

“Boy, you’re lucky my wife convinced me to do this for you, or else, you’d be out of luck,” Cranky complained.  “Sheesh, making me strain the engine for no payment at all.”

“WAIT!” Pinkie called before letting out a shrill whistle.  Seconds later, Groat came bounding from the cottage towards the docks before stopping in front of Pinkie.  Pinkie mounted him and rode him onto the ferry.  “We’re going with you.”

“Why?” Timber questioned her.

“Oh, just a hunch that we might be needed,” Pinkie answered.

Timber turned to Twilight with a thoroughly confused expression on his face.

Twilight groaned and shouted, “It’s Pinkie Pie.  Don’t question it.  Now, are we going or not?!”



The sun had already risen over the horizon by the time Timber, Twilight, and Pinkie reached the mainland.  Meanwhile back at Ms. Matilda’s inn, the doctor had just finished examining Flash and was about to deliver some grave news.

“I will need to treat him as soon as possible if he is to survive,” the doctor informed Flash’s friends and Ms. Matilda, “but I’m afraid I won’t be able to treat him.”

“What?!  Why?!” Base cried, his face stained with dried tear tracks and his eye twitching with fresh tears.

Before the doctor could reply, Twilight and Pinkie burst into the room.

“How is he?” Twilight demanded.

“Twilight!” Base greeted, rushing to hug her.  To both Twilight and Base’s surprise and comfort, Twilight returned the hug, clutching the younger boy close to her protectively.

“It’s bad, Twilight,” Micro Chips answered her.  “The doctor basically just told us that Flash might not make it.”

“What?  Why?” Twilight exclaimed, her eyes widening.

“In order to increase his chance of survival, I will need to treat him with penicillin,” the doctor explained, “which I don’t have right now, and I won’t get my next delivery of it until next week, and Mr. Sentry might be dead by then.”

“But there has to be something we can do,” Twilight pleaded, almost desperately.

“The next town over might have some to spare, but just getting there will take a day’s journey.”

“I’ll get Flash that medicine,” Pinkie volunteered, “and I’ll get it back here by tonight.”

“Impossible,” the doctor exclaimed.  “Even if you rode the fastest horse alive, you shouldn’t be able to get here until tomorrow evening at the earliest.”

“I won’t be riding the fastest horse alive.  I’ll be riding the greatest reindeer of all time!”  With that declaration, Pinkie stormed out of the room, only to poke her head back inside.  “Oooh, by the way, which direction is the next town?”

The doctor and Ms. Matilda pointed east in reply.

“Gotcha.  Anyway, I’ll see you all tonight.  Toodles.”  Pinkie gave everyone in a room a small wave before leaving the inn, mounting Groat, and riding off in the direction the doctor and Ms. Matilda had pointed.

“What about the rest of us?” asked Pip.

“Just try to keep him comfortable and try to keep his fever down,” the doctor instructed.  “Also, make sure to change the dressing on his shoulder wound often.  Keep an eye on him, and if there’s any change, well, two of you and Ms. Matilda know where to find me.”

The doctor exited the room, leaving Ms. Matilda with the roomful of teenagers.

“I’ll be back with some wet rags,” Ms. Matilda notified.  “You can use them to help keep your friend’s fever down.”

After Ms. Matilda left the room, Twilight made her way towards where Flash was lying.  His face was twisted in agony, and his hair was soaked through with his own sweat.  Twilight bit her lip, holding back the sob that was growing in her throat, and slowly reached out and touched his forehead.  Her hand started burning as soon as she touched him, and she quickly pulled away.

“Goodness,” she muttered under her breath, “haven’t you suffered enough?”
> Chapter 25: The Secret’s Out
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

While Twilight and Pinkie were at the inn, Timber had slinked off to the local tavern.  He had ended up telling the two girls everything on the way back to the mainland.  Between that and bringing Twilight to see Flash, his guilt had diminished, but quite a bit of it was still left, so he made the admittedly questionable decision to, uh, self-medicate.

Timber went up to the counter and said to the barkeep, “I’ll take anything you’ve got.  Just make sure it’s strong.”

The barkeep looked Timber over suspiciously and replied, “I’ve never seen you around here before, boy. You ever drank before?”

“That’s none of your business,” Timber snapped.  “Just give me one of the strongest drink you’ve got.”

The barkeep just shrugged and began looking through his wares.  Timber’s exchange with him caught the attention of a mustached man dressed in a light blue uniform with a gold, sun-shaped badge.

The uniformed man approached Timber and said to him, “A little young to be getting into the habit of drinking your problems away, aren’t you?”

“Problems?  Who said anything about problems?” Timber retorted dismissively before noticing the man’s uniform.  “Oh, shoot, you’re a police officer.”

“That’s right,” the officer confirmed.  “You mind telling me what happened that was so terrible that you’re being driven to drink. Even if it isn’t anything I can help with, maybe getting it off your chest might help you feel better.”

Timber pursed his lips in thought as he looked the officer, or more specifically, his uniform, over.

“I’d like to think you’d be able to help me,” Timber answered, “but, unless you’re on your way to put down roots in Griepsburg, my problem might be a little out of your jurisdiction.”

The officer frowned thoughtfully, looked Timber in the eye, and said, “Try me.”



Twilight spent the rest of the morning and the whole afternoon by Flash’s side, tending to him vigilantly.  So far, Flash’s condition had not changed.  Twilight couldn’t tell if she should be glad that he wasn’t getting worse or worried that he wasn’t getting better, and Flash’s brother and friends felt the exact same way.

“Twilight, maybe you should rest and let one of us look after, Flash,” Micro Chips suggested.  “You haven’t left his side since you got here.”

“And I’m not leaving until Pinkie gets here with the medicine,” Twilight adamantly refused.

“At least get yourself something to eat,” Sandalwood added.  “You starving isn’t going to help him get better or make Pinkie get here faster.”

“Well, if you’re so worried, then have Ms. Matilda send something up here for me to eat.”

Realizing that none of their entreaties were going to move Twilight, Micro and Sandal began to lead the younger boys away to the dining room.  All but one followed them.

“Base, aren’t you coming?” Button Mash asked.

“I’m not very hungry,” First Base replied, sitting in the only other chair in the room.  “Just bring something up for me later.”

His friends simply shrugged and continued to leave for the dining room.  For a while, Twilight and First Base just sat there in silence watching Flash groan as he endured the most miserable sleep of his life.  Then, Twilight reached out and took Flash’s hand in hers.

She leaned forward and said to him softly, “Flash, Flash, can you hear me?  It’s me, Twilight.  Listen.  You must try to stay alive, okay?  Don’t, don’t leave me without saying goodbye, not again, please.”  She paused, contemplating her next words.

Twilight clutched Flash’s hand tighter and continued, “Flash, I have a secret that I need you to hear.”  She leaned even closer and whispered, “I love you.  I don’t know how it happened or why, but I love you.”

As soon as Twilight confessed those words, tears began to run down her face, many of them landing on Flash’s face.

Flash stirred and his hand tightened around Twilight’s as he moaned, “T-Twilight.”

“Shhhh,” Twilight replied, caressing Flash’s burning cheek with her free hand.  This time, she did not pull away.  “Don’t try to talk.  Whatever you need to say to me you can say by getting better.”

“What if he doesn’t get better?” First Base interrupted, getting up from his chair and making his way towards them.  “How are you going to know what he wanted to say to you?”

Twilight turned away from the younger boy, tears still streaming down her face, and answered glumly, “Well, then, I guess I’ll never know.”

Base stared at her intently and asked, “When you first met us, you didn’t want to have anything to do with us.  How and when did you start caring about us, especially him?”

Twilight gave Base a sad smile and replied, “I don’t know when or how.  Maybe it happened too gradually for me to notice.  All I know is that having you and your brother around made me realize that I hated the person I was becoming and that I wanted to be better than that.”

“And that’s why you fell in love with him?”

“How did—?” Twilight began, turning to Base with a look of confusion.

“I’ve seen the way you’ve been looking at my brother lately,” Base answered with a small smile. “My grandfather used to look at my grandmother the same way.  I’ve also seen that look on your parents and your brother and Ms. Cadance.”

“Was I that obvious?”

Base shrugged and continued, “Not really.  I probably would have missed it if I hadn’t been paying attention.”

“Listen, Base,” Twilight continued, clutching Flash’s hand in both of hers, “I owe you and Flash an apology for all the horrible things I said to you and about you.  You are so much more than a needy kid, and Flash, well, he may be an idealist and an optimist, but he’s not a fool or an idiot.”

“You know, after what you had said about us never being able to find our friends again, I didn’t think you’d be anything more than a horrible beast of a woman,” Base admitted with a cheeky smile, “but you’ve definitely changed since when we first met you and for the better too.  Now, I’m glad to say that I’m starting to think of you as a friend.”

Twilight smiled back as she put an arm around the younger boy’s shoulders.

“Twilight!  First Base!” Button Mash cried as he burst into the room.

“Button, what is it?” Base replied, pulling away from Twilight and moving towards his friend.

“Pinkie Pie’s returned with the medicine.  Pip’s run off to fetch the doctor.  They’ll be here in a few minutes.”
> Chapter 26: Returning Home
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Roughly one day later, Flash began to stir from his extended fever dream.  The first sensation he was aware of was the feeling of someone else’s hand in his.  He slowly opened his eyes and sat up with a groan.  He turned to his left and saw Twilight asleep, leaning against his bed. Her hand was holding his, and his brother was asleep leaning against her.  Flash couldn’t help but smile at the sight of the two people closest to his heart not only showing their concern for him but also showing their care for each other.

He gently tightened his grip around Twilight’s hand and began to rub circles into her dorsum with his thumb, causing Twilight to stir.  She lifted her head and blinked the sleep from her eyes.  Her first sight upon waking was Flash’s brightly smiling face.

“Good morning,” Flash greeted tenderly.

“Flash!” Twilight cried, bolting upright and throwing her arms around Flash.  She buried her face into the crook of his neck and held him so tightly that she couldn’t tell his racing heartbeat apart from hers. Although surprised at first, Flash quickly returned the embrace, drawing comfort from her closeness.

When they eventually parted, Twilight shook Base by the shoulder, telling him to wake up.  Base did so with a grimace and a groan.

“Ugh!  Okay, I’m up.  I’m up,” he protested, pushing himself to his feet and rubbing his eyes. When Base opened his eyes and saw his older brother awake and smiling, his whole face lit up, and he cheered. “You’re okay!  Oh, thank God!  You’re okay!”

Base tackled Flash into a hug as happy tears began to stream down his face.

Flash returned the hug and replied, “Yeah, I’m okay.”



Flash was up and walking almost as soon as he was awake despite Twilight and Ms. Matilda’s protests. However, he had to wait another three days before he was strong enough to leave the room.  On his first morning outside the room, Flash was having breakfast with his friends, First Base, and Twilight in the inn’s dining room.  Pinkie Pie had returned to Griepsburg after Flash got better, and no one had seen hide nor hair of Timber Spruce since he had brought the girls and Groat to the mainland.

While everyone waited for their breakfast, Cranky Doodle sauntered in and sat himself at their table.

“Well, nice to see you back in the land of the living, boy,” the salty, old ferryman said to Flash.

“Good to be back,” Flash simply replied.

“So, it’s been, what, five days, six days since you’ve left Griepsburg?  Is that right?”

“That sounds about right,” Base affirmed.

“Well, that pink friend of yours wanted me to tell you that you’re going to want to go back there as soon as you’re better.”

“But we gave the clan leaders our word that we’d never return or write there in exchange for Base, Button, and Pip’s lives,” Flash countered.

“Oh, you mean, none of you know yet?” Cranky recounted in mock ignorance.  He leaned forward and stage whispered, “Lord Tirek and Lady Chrysalis are criminals now.  They’ve been arrested and imprisoned and everything.”

“Wait.  What?” Twilight uttered, confusion crossing her face. “But in order for that to happen, then—,” she trailed off as realization slowly sank in.  “Oh my, it actually happened.”

“What?” Flash questioned.

“Pack your things, boys. We’re going back to Griepsburg,” Twilight excitedly replied.



After breakfast, the boys packed their few belongings and followed a surprisingly ecstatic Twilight to Cranky’s ferry.  Despite their confusion, Flash, Base, and their friends boarded the ferry and rode it back to Griepsburg.  Unlike the harried trips from Timber’s endeavor to reunite Flash and Twilight, Cranky drove the ferry at a calmer, more leisurely pace.  In fact, the trip was so calm and leisurely, Pipsqueak started a round of sea shanties just to fill the silence.

“Soon may the Wellerman come,” all the boys sang.  “To bring us sugar and tea and rum/One day, when the tonguing is done/We'll take our leave and go”

Twilight didn’t know the words, so she just smiled as she listened.  Flash stopped singing and turned to her while his brother and his friends sang the chorus again.  Flash gestured for Twilight to follow him, and the two of them crept to the other side of the boat unnoticed.

“What is it?” Twilight asked him when the two of them were alone.

“Something happened while I was sick that I wanted to talk to you about,” Flash began.  “I don’t know if it was real or just a fever dream, but I, I thought, I thought,” Flash took a deep breath and finished, “I thought I heard you say that you loved me.”

Twilight could only stare back as a blush appeared on her cheeks.

“Well, did it really happen, or did I dream the whole thing?”

“Uh, y-yes, yes, I really did say that to you,” Twilight affirmed.

“Wow, you aren’t even trying to deny it,” Flash noted.

“Well, what was I supposed to do?  Wait until you nearly die again before I tell you?” Twilight retorted.  “I’m guilty of a lot of foolishness in my life, but that would have surpassed them all if I had done it.”

Flash smiled at her and took her by the hand.  He opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out.  He shut his mouth and opened it again trying to speak a second time, but still the words refused to come out.  Finally, Flash just pulled Twilight closer to him and wrapped his arms around her. For a while, the two of them just stood there, listening to the lapping of waves and the singing of sea shanties. Eventually, Flash managed to tell Twilight what was in his heart.

“I love you too,” he whispered.  He leaned forward intending to kiss her cheek, but Twilight turned her head and pressed her lips onto his.  The kiss lasted for maybe a tenth of a second, but that tenth of a second lasted a lifetime.



Upon arriving at Griepsburg, Pinkie Pie unsurprisingly greeted everyone with fanfare and rejoicing. She also somehow managed to scoop Twilight, Flash, and Base all into a tight, exuberant hug.  Twilight’s family was also there to greet them, and they had a wonderful surprise in store for the arrivals.

“Shining Armor?” Flash exclaimed, taking note of the uniform Shining Armor was wearing.  It was light blue with a silver, sun-shaped badge pinned onto it.  Etched on the badge was the word “deputy” in capital letters.

“Notice anything different about me,” Shining joked.  Twilight ran up to hug him, beaming proudly.  Shining caught her and hugged back.

“Wait.  So, you were able to convince the queen to set up a police department here?” Base noted in awe.

“Yup, and the chief appointed me as the new deputy.  Pretty amazing, huh?” Shining Armor replied.

“So, you were able to get the clan leaders arrested?  How?” Flash asked.

“Furthermore, where are they being kept?” Twilight added.

“Ooooooh! Oooooooh!” Pinkie squealed.  “I can answer all those questions.  Follow me!”

Flash, Twilight, and Base shared looks with each other as Pinkie skipped away towards the mountains. The three of them shrugged and elected to follow her.

“Come on, come on, come on.  Hurry up,” Pinkie called cheerfully, pausing from her skipping to goad her friends on.

“How is she able to skip so quickly through rocks and forests?” First Base exclaimed as he, Flash, and Twilight trudged up the mountain path after Pinkie.

Flash, Twilight, and Base followed Pinkie up the path to her family’s cabin and then passed the cabin towards the mine.  To everyone but Pinkie’s surprise, two people dressed in orange and black striped uniforms emerged from the mine entrance pushing a cart of metal ore.

“Timber?” Twilight exclaimed in shock.

“Hey, I know you,” Base added, recognizing Pharynx.  “You’re Lady Chrysalis’s son.”

“My name’s Pharynx,” the scowling young man retorted.

“What happened to you guys?” Flash asked.

“It’s simple,” Limestone butted in, emerging from the mine behind Timber and Pharynx.  Flash, Twilight, and First Base noted that she had a silver, sun-shaped badged that read “WARDEN” pinned to her chest over her normal clothing.  “These two testified against Tirek and Chrysalis in exchange for a lighter punishment for their role in the whole thing.  They have 27 days of penal labor and house arrest left in their sentence.”

“At least we get to go home at the end of the day,” Pharynx pointed out, bitterly.

“Quit your yapping,” Limestone ordered gruffly.  “Your debt to society isn’t going to pay itself.”

Pharynx rolled his eyes as he and Timber unloaded the metal ore and returned to the mine.

“Speaking of Tirek and Chrysalis,” Flash noted, “where are they?  What happened to them?”

“There’s a section of abandoned tunnels in the mine,” Limestone explained, smirking sadistically. “All we had to do was put in some metal bars, and instant jail.”

“Speaking of which, it’s time for their regularly scheduled cake and entertainment,” Pinkie Pie exclaimed.  Before anyone could blink, she rushed into the mine, carrying roughly ten musical instruments and an unfrosted cake.

“She’s been giving them cake and playing music for them on a regular basis?” Twilight asked Limestone incredulously.

“It’s not as fun as she thinks it is or makes it sound,” Limestone replied.



Meanwhile, in the jail…

“Make her stop! Make her stop!” Chrysalis cried out as Pinkie Pie danced and played her instruments.

“Sweet mercy!  I thought cruel and unusual punishments were illegal,” Tirek added, with his hands over his ears.



Of course, Pinkie had a welcome party ready for Flash, Twilight, First Base, and their friends, and it was as warm, welcoming, and full of love and laughter as all her other parties. The best part was that nobody set anything on fire this time.  However, in the middle of the festivities, Flash noticed Pinkie Pie going up the mountain with a plateful of cake in each hand and decided to follow her.

“Hey, Pinkie,” Flash called, “where are you going?”

“Oh, I’m just heading up to the mine to bring Timber and Pharynx some cake,” Pinkie explained. “Apparently, owing a debt to society means no parties, but I didn’t want them to feel left out, so I’m bringing them cake.  By the time I get there, Limestone will be letting them have their legally mandated break.”

“Is Limestone okay with you doing that?” Flash asked her.  “Bringing them cake I mean.”

“No, she’s not, but she’s allowing it.”

“I thought so,” Flash remarked with a laugh.  “Hey, is it okay if I take them up for you?”

“Oh, don’t worry about me.  After what you just went through, you should stay in town and enjoy the party,” Pinkie refused.

“Pinkie, I appreciate the sentiment, but I didn’t ask because I wanted to take work off your hands,” Flash admitted.  “I actually wanted to talk to Timber Spruce about something.”

“Oh?” stated Pinkie as she blinked twice.

“Yeah, and delivering those cakes for you gives me the perfect excuse to miss the rest of the party.”

Pinkie frowned slightly but nevertheless, gave Flash the cakes.  Flash thanked her as he accepted them and continued his way up the mountain towards the mine.  He arrived at the mine just as Timber, Pharynx, and Limestone were exiting it.

“Alright, pansies, stop working,” Limestone ordered.  “It’s time for your legally mandated break.  Use it wisely.”

“Hi,” Flash greeted making his presence known.

Timber rolled his eyes and groaned, “What are you doing here?”

“Pinkie was coming up here to bring you two some cake, and I offered to do it for her,” Flash explained.  “Besides, I have something that I want to say to you.”

Timber raised an eyebrow as he and Pharynx accepted their plates from Flash.  Pharynx looked from Timber to Flash and back again before taking a nonchalant bite out of his cake.

“Not bad,” he said expressionlessly before leaving Flash and Timber to themselves and taking another bite out of the cake.

Timber looked at Flash before turning away from him with a scowl and spitting, “Go ahead.  Say it.”

“Thank you,” Flash replied sincerely.

“What?” Timber uttered, turning to Flash in total confusion.  Timber had expected Flash to either gloat or yell at him, but he hadn’t been expecting a thank you.  He wasn’t used to being shown gratitude, especially from someone who, as far as Timber was concerned, had every right to be angry with him.

“You were the one who brought Twilight and Pinkie to the mainland while I was sick, right?” Flash continued.  “And you testified against Tirek and Chrysalis.  If you hadn’t done any of those things, I probably would have died, and Tirek and Chrysalis would still be trying to make everyone else’s lives miserable again.  For that, thank you.”

“You wouldn’t have been dying if I hadn’t shot you in the first place,” Timber retorted bitterly before taking a bite of his cake.  His eyes involuntarily brightened, and he remarked, “Wow!  This cake is amazing!”

“Yeah, Pinkie Pie sure can bake,” Flash replied with a laugh.  “You know, after what you had said to us on the ferry, I had expected you to just run away and never look back.”

“I WAS going to run away and never look back,” Timber retorted, “but what you and your friends said to me on the ferry got to me.  Also, I found out pretty quickly that running was pointless because the guilt kept following me wherever I ran, and it’s still following me.  The only thing that’s keeping it from completely eating me alive is knowing that I’m doing what I can to make things right.”

“Well, for what it’s worth,” Flash added, “I forgive you, and I hope maybe one day, you’ll be able to forgive yourself.”

Timber sighed and nodded before turning to Flash.  “Thanks. Now, beat it.  My legally mandated break’s almost over, and I’ve got to get back to work soon.”



The party ended at sundown, and everybody went home.  However, as their family and friends returned to Night Light’s cottage, Twilight and Flash hung back to talk to each other.

“Everyone seemed really glad to have you back,” Twilight said to Flash.

“I was glad to be back,” Flash replied with a smile.

“You know, now that you and Base know that your friends are alive, you don’t really have a reason to go to Paardenstad anymore, do you?”

“No, I don’t,” he replied as he took Twilight by the hand and pulled her closer to him.

“So, what are you going to do now?”

Flash bit his lip as he carefully thought about his answer.  He turned his eyes towards the ground and answered, “I don’t know.”

He looked up into Twilight’s eyes and continued, “For the longest time, my most precious dream was to find a home for me and my brother, and well, I think we’ve found it here in Griepsburg.  The only problem is now, I have no idea what I’m supposed to do next.”

“I wish I knew what to tell you,” Twilight admitted, “but if I were you, I’d probably worry about it more than I should and be no closer to finding an answer.”  She pursed her lips in thought before continuing, ”My father, on the other hand, well, he’d probably tell you to just take your time and enjoy having a place to call home and that you’d find a new dream to chase eventually.”

“But what if my new dream ends up taking me away from home?” Flash asked apprehensively.

“Then, you’ll always have a place to return to no matter how far you go,” Twilight assured him before kissing his cheek.
> Epilogue
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Two years later, Flash Sentry was walking out of the Royal Police Academy’s dormitories with a knapsack slung over his shoulder.  Snow was falling, and the skies were gray, but nevertheless, he had the warmest, brightest smile on his face.

“Enjoy the holiday,” he heard one of his fellow trainees call from behind him.

“Thank you.  I will,” Flash called back.  Then, he made his way to the stables where a certain rose gold reindeer with a glittering, red nose was waiting for him.

“Hello, Groat,” Flash greeted the reindeer.  “You ready to go home for the holiday season?”  Groat snorted in reply, which Flash interpreted as a yes.

“Okay, okay,” Flash continued with a laugh.  “We just need to pick up Twilight from the Teacher’s Academy.  Then, we can go.”

Flash opened the gate to Groat’s stall and mounted him.  As soon as he did, Groat reared up on his hind legs and bolted forward as Flash hung on to him.  In what felt like enough time to blink twice, the two of them were at the front steps of the Teacher’s Academy where Twilight stood waiting for them carrying a small bag of her belongings.

“I hope I didn’t keep you waiting,” Flash said to her as he helped her onto Groat’s back.

“Not at all,” Twilight replied, smiling back at him.  “Let’s just head home.”



When the two of them reached the ferry station to Griepsburg, they were greeted by a young woman their age with rainbow-colored hair wearing a sailor’s hat.

“Ahoy, the name’s Rainbow Dash,” she introduced herself to them.  “I’m the new ferrywoman.  I take it you two need a ride to Griepsburg.”

“That we do,” Flash affirmed.  “I take it that Cranky decided to retire.”

“And his wife couldn’t be happier about it,” Rainbow replied with a laugh.  “By the way, the ride over is going to cost you and the lady two silver pieces each.”

Flash paid the fee as he, Twilight, and Groat boarded the ferry. Flash noted that Rainbow Dash drove the ferry a bit faster than Cranky did.

“Sorry that we’re going so slow,” Rainbow Dash apologized.  “This engine is kinda ancient, and the old ferryman told me not to stress it out too much.  I’ll probably replace it with a newer model once I save up enough.”

“Don’t worry about it.  You’re doing great,” Twilight assured her while sharing a knowing smirk with Flash. She was honestly glad that the ferry wasn’t going as fast as Rainbow Dash would have liked.  The relatively slow pace gave her and Flash a chance to just talk with each other before arriving home.

“So, how does it feel, coming home after being away for a while?” Twilight asked him.

“When I first decided I wanted to go to the Police Academy, I was worried that leaving home would make me forget what it was like to have one since I had to do without one for so long,” Flash admitted, “but I haven’t forgotten at all, and I can’t wait to see everyone.”

“Just think, another three and a half years of training, and we’ll be able to come home for good.”

“Yeah, for good,” Flash repeated as he nervously reached into his pocket. Inside was a small box.  He looked from Twilight to the smudge on the horizon and back again as he fidgeted with the box.  Then, suddenly, he furrowed his brow and pressed his lips into a resolute line. To Twilight’s complete utter shock, he knelt before her, pulled out the box, and opened it to reveal a ring.

“I know this is all really sudden,” Flash explained, “but I’ve been thinking a lot about our future and our dreams, and I’ve realized that I want to be part of yours and that I want you to be part of mine.  I wanted to wait until we reached home to ask, but I just had to know if you wanted that, too.”

“I, I,” Twilight stuttered as she began to hyperventilate.  She forced herself to hold her breath and then slowly let it out.  Once she was calm enough, she continued, “Flash, I, I don’t know what to say, but I have been thinking about our futures too, and you know what?  I do want to be in your future, and I want you in mine, so I believe my answer is yes.”

“Wait.  What?” Flash uttered, his jaw dropping.

“Yes, I’ll marry you!”  Twilight threw her arms around Flash’s neck and kissed him on the lips.  Despite the pleasant yet numbing shock Flash felt, he had enough presence of mind to deepen the kiss and hold it for a few seconds before pulling away from her.

“Boy, are our families going to be surprised when we get there,” Flash pointed out with a laugh as he slipped the ring onto Twilight’s finger.

“I think you and your brother have been part of my family since the two of you chose to stay at Griepsburg, maybe even earlier than that,” Twilight refuted.  “This is just our way of making it official.”