The Mane 6 had been trapped in a nefarious game that question their resolves and their views on life.
What if your hopefull and positive outlook of life were more fragile than you think?
There is a place in Equestria call Happy Town. This is town that veneer the concept of joy and everypony do their best to achieve it. All, except for one. That lone pony disagree with the philosophy of its home, seeing as a hypocrisy. And so, he plan to show all Equestria the cracks of that way of living. In an extreme and cruel way.
One day, the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony, Twilight and her friends, have been sent on a mission to go to Happy Town. An ancient ruin of a time long forgotten had been found nearby and the Mane 6 have for task to investigate it. Using that opportunity, that pony kidnap them all and use the strange machinery of those ruins to organize a game. A game where each of the Bearers will be put to a trial that have for goal to shatter their optimist.
This might be the bigger test they will have to face. Will the power of their friendship will prevail?
*[The editing has been made by The Fan Without a Face. The cover image has been made by Pridark. Please, support them.]
It was a silent night, save for the soft sound of hoofs walking on the white floor. But then, this mysterious pony, hidden by the shadow, arrived at his destination, a massive room with an open roof as big as an amphitheater, with only the shining stars as spectators.
Despite its massive size, the room was filled with strange machinery, with the largest being a small tower structure right at the center.
The pony at the balcony overlooking it all raised a hoof, a small translucent and numerical display appeared before it. And then… this hoof simply presses it.
The entire room was soon filled with noise as all the machines were coming back to life, almost like yawning from several millennia of sleep.
A vivid white light was emanating from the tower, becoming brighter and brighter. And when the light attained its paroxysm, the tower expelled it in a giant beam, piercing the sky like a spear, with the clouds running away from it like in fear. And from the beam, a massive shockwave of pure energy dispersed itself across all Equestria.
His deed accomplished, the mysterious pony simply went away at the same rhythm as he had entered. The shadow was covering his face, and the only thing shining was his eyes—ironically showing that his iris lacked any sign of a spark.
‘’It’s done. Now it is only a question of time before it happens. And when it will, all of Equestria will see that its way of life is… nothing more than foolish, childish make-believe. They will see. Soon. Very soon.’’
Chapter 1: Sweet beginning
One month later
Canterlot castle: the throne room
Sweet light was shining through the stained glass, illuminating the room’s blue walls along with the princess’s translucent and chromatic mane. More precisely, Celestia looked to her left, to a little wooden stool with a small, cloth covered object on it. The princess had a smile of excitement that she could barely contain.
‘’I just can't wait to show this discovery to Twilight. Knowing her, I am sure she will barely stay on her hooves over this wonder. The face she will make. Oooh, it will be such a delight to see.’’
Celestia clapped her hooves like an excited little filly while Luna rolled her eyes for this lack of decorum. The way the Princess of the Sun was acting in private was a sharp contrast from her public persona. It was such that Luna often had to be reminded of how... lax her sister had become since her banishment.
That isn’t to say her sister hadn’t been playful or free spirited prior to her banishment, but it seemed now she was more willing to let her professional mask slip. It was quite jarring
Yet, in spite of this, Luna wasn’t so set in her ways she wouldn’t admit that this carefree attitude was starting to rub off on her. Whether it was a bad influence or not, she was still questioning that. But she found that her big sister was especially enthusiastic today and...knowing the reason, she could hardly blame her.
‘’Do not exaggerate, sister. She is impressed by everything you do and say.’’
‘’Oh, I’m fully aware of that, but this time, it will be different. When I will reveal all I have in store for her, she will be beyond captivated.’’
‘’Well, knowing her, that's actually what worries me. Though on that note, sister, isn’t it about time to start?’’
‘’Hum. Guard, could you please tell us the time?’’
She spoke to the lone, white, earth pony guard with golden armor stationed at the front of the door. At this demand, he grabbed a pocket watch from somewhere in his armor and opened it.
‘’It is exactly 2:03, your majesty.’’
‘’Wait, Twilight is three minutes late! Usually, she is always so obsessed with punctuality… oh! Oh dear...this could be bad. Guard, you really should stay away from the door.’’
The odd statement left the guard perplexed.
‘’Huh! Why is that?’’
‘’Because I hope—"
She could not finish because the double door burst itself open with great force, slamming against the wall and smashing the unfortunate guard with the right one. All he could do was scream a simple *gyah*. And the culprit was, of course, Twilight, jumping through the opening, sliding on the floor and braking with style despite a hint of belabored breathing.
The light from the stained glass was bathing the Princess of Friendship, giving a bright gleam to her beautiful purple coat. As she was flapping wide open her wings and letting her mane fly, it was like all the spectrums of light were dancing around her. And as she opened her eyes filled with a sense of commitment, she announced:
‘’Your faithful student Twilight Sparkle ready for duty.’’
Annnd ruined everything the next second by letting her panic go free and going into a nervous rant.
‘’Sorry, sorry, Princess Celestia for being tardy. I was on my way here when I saw some decorations that were not perfectly symmetrical, so I made some adjustments, but then some of your staff complained that I was ruining running their 'supposed' hard work, so I had to made a lecture about the fool-proof method established by Harmonious Assemblage and the benefits that symmetry has on the psyche which in-turn had lead to a raging debate *inhaleeeeeee* and I was so caught up that I did not see the time passing, but you know how it is. Actually, no, you probably don't. Please forgive me, forgive me.’’
‘’… … hoped that this tragedy didn’t happen.’’
‘’Ghaaaaaaaah!!!’’
The eyes of Twilight became the most apologetic in the world, and her jaw nearly dropped to the floor for how ashamed she was.
‘’Huh! Oh no, no no no, I am not talking about you, Twilight, but about this, ummm…’’
Rather than speak further, Celestia simply pointed her hoof behind Twilight. The young alicorn turned around and saw the right door moving slowly by itself, revealing the poor guard flattened against the visibly cracked wall. Said pony looked both dazed and irritated, not helped by his dented and dirtied armor. Realizing immediately what she had done, the pony princess all but teleported to the guard’s side, practically pleading for forgiveness.
‘’GYAAAAA! I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I didn’t know you were there, believe me, it's not in my habit to slam doors on a pony.’’
The guard didn’t look especially convinced.
‘’Oh. Well, I am delighted that your first time was so successful.’’
She was trying to take him off the wall with her magic. But since he didn’t move, she then tried to give more oomph to her spell. Sadly she greatly underestimated her strength, practically ripping him off the stone wall, resulting in him immediately falling flat on his face.
‘’Ow,!” The guard managed to mutter with his snout still planted on the tiled floor.
“*sigh* Take a job as a royal guard, my wife said. Equestria is so peaceful, there’s no job easier than that, she said.’’
Celestia was quick to help the guard to his feet with her magic, conjuring a brush and duster to help clean him up somewhat, before lightly bowing her head.
“I do apologize again for my student. Despite her experience and age, she still has some difficulty controlling her excitement and enthusiasm for knowledge and duty.”
The guard made no comment, seemingly accepting the apology with a slight nod, yet kept an intense gaze on the purple princess, who shrunk under his gaze.
Twilight, still visibly embarrassed by her misstep, tried to shake off the matter and turned her attention back to her mentor.
‘’Greeting Princess Celestia, Princess Luna. It's good to see you.’’
‘’The same is true for us. It's always a pleasure to see my most prized student and dear friend.’’ Luna offered a simple smile and nod along with her sister, conveying a similar sentiment.
‘’So Princess Celestia, why’d you call me? When Spike gave me your letter asking me to come, I immediately thought it was another of your assignments. So what is it this time? An internal political problem? A diplomatic mission to another country? Or maybe another friendship lesson?’’
‘’I do have an assignment for you,” Celestia said somewhat firmly. “However, this time it has nothing to do with friendship.’’
That caused Twilight’s eyes to widen considerably. “It’s not a friendship problem!’’
‘No Twilight, in truth I did not summon you here as a Princess of Friendship. Rather I called you here with regards to a magical matter and your expertise on that subject.”
‘’Wait, what! Princess, you need help with magic!’’
“Of course,” Celestia said, showing no embarrassment over such a proclamation. “I’ll admit I have a fair amount of confidence in my knowledge on magic, but even I’m willing to admit when somepony surprasses me. Admittedly, I could’ve conveyed the details more clearly in my letter but I wanted to make it a surprise. But first, I need to explain to you all the situation. Are you ready, Luna?’’
‘’Ready when you are.’’
The two princesses charged their horns with magic and combined their might into one big spell. The entire room went dark, then an blue and translucent light formed on the roof, like a beautiful aurora. The brilliant light shifted into a dive to the floor, creating a single image… a map of all Equestria.
The sight of said beautiful magical projection left Twilight positively floored.
‘’Amazing. Simply amazing. A magical virtual projection. And of all Equestria. It’s even more detailed then the Cutie Map.’’
‘’This will help us to better explain the… strange phenomenon that had happened recently.’’ Celestia spoke, far more serious than at the start, pointing her horn towards the map.
From the projection appears a pillar of light, flying straight to the sky for then changing itself in a shockwave which went flying above all the map.
‘’It was exactly one month ago that a mysterious pillar made of pure magical energy suddenly appeared. We at this moment don’t know it’s purpose, however it has begun releasing magical shockwaves that’ve been felt throughout Equestria.’’
Twilight had a sudden look of realization. ‘’Now that you mention it, I remember hearing some talk about these pillars recently. Plenty of ponies have formed their own theories about what exactly they are. And unfortunately not all of them are exactly sensible. The media dub this phenomenon 'the extraordinary, bright, and mysterious light,.’ and talked about it being some kind of alien attack."
At the mention of the title, Luna looked less than impressed. “‘’Se... seriously! What newspapers would print such a mouthful of title?’’
‘’Hmmm, the Foal Free Press.’’
Twilight’s answer only left the Princess of the Night stumped. “Isn’t that the ponyville school paper? Wait, you are reading a school paper!” Twilight’s fur turned a nice shade of pink at the response.
“I mean, yes, but they actually do produce some quality stories. All of Ponyville reads the FFP.’’
Again Princess Luna didn’t know what exactly to make of such a thing, only for Celestia to get everypony back on track with a light cough.
‘’Ponyville’s choice in publishing aside, the shockwave seems to produce an effect similar to Rainbow Dash’s Sonic Rainboom. The difference is that its reach was far greater, but paradoxically, the magical energy was too dispersed to have any noticeable effects on the landscape. Only highly attuned magical beings such as we alicorns could have felt it, and again, it was only for barely one moment. Even then, I was only able to detect it since I’m awake during the night. Naturally we spent the next day checking to see if there were any negative effects across Equestria, but outside of some mild panic at what many now see as a simple light show, nothing seem to come of it.’’
Taking a moment to let all that was said sink in, Celestia noted how Twilight’s eyes still focused on the map, though this time it wasn’t out of surprise for its contents.
‘’Twilight, did you happen to see this pillar of light, or perhaps sense anything unusual about it?’’
‘’Huuummm…
FLASHBACK: a month ago; Twilight bedroom
Twilight was sound asleep, lightly snoring and in her bed, making light snoring and smiling, enjoying a particularly pleasant dream. Sadly a rather bright light brought the dream to an abrupt end, practically filling the entire room with it’s glow. This awoke Twilight… who immediately threw a cushion at the closed window.
‘’Ugh, is Pinkie throwing another all night party?” Twilight’s head barely came up enough to glance at the window, before using her magic to shut the blinds as tightly as possible.
Her room sufficiently darkened again, Twilight’s head immediately returned to her pillow, smile returning. “Too tired. I yell at Pinkie in the morning.”
And in a matter of seconds, her snoring resumed while the light only peered ever so slightly at the very bottom of the curtains.
‘’Aaah, so that what it was.’’
‘’You'd say some something?’’
‘’Huh! Oh no no no, nothing.’’
And she punctuated that statement with a big embarrassed smile, sweat dripping all across her face. The sight was suspect to the two Princesses, but neither decided to broach the subject further.
‘’Let us come back at the subject at hoof, my dear student.’’
With a flick of her horn, Celestia rewound the scene of the pillar to when it emerged before pausing the scene. In mere moments, the image quickly zoomed in on what appeared to be a large mountain.
“While we couldn’t identify the source of the Pillar, we were at least able to easily pinpoint its location. Mount Heaven. Ages prior it was an active volcano that thankfully has since gone silent from even before our birth”
The image on the map shifted its focus to the base of the mountain, revealing a small settlement near the rock.
“Currently, there is a small town on the outskirts of this mountain called Happy Town. It’s a rather small, rustic village not so different from Ponyville.”
Luna, having been silent for much of the start, opted to chim in. “Once we learned the location we dispatched a team to investigate the area. They discovered a series of old tunnels within the mountain and upon further inspection they discovered something... unbelievable”.
“What did you find?” Twilight asked, looking both curious and a bit scared at the possible answer.
‘’Ruins, Twilight. Ruins of an ancient civilization far older than all we could imagine.’’
‘’... ... What… WHAAAAAAT!’’
‘’Yes. The team found structures made of material as white as ivory formed in an architecture style unlike anything seen before. When the squad reported this to me, I knew that it could be a major discovery in history and that I must send specialists. So, I asked for the service of a team of archeologists, and I gave them the best of the best leader I could find, Daring Do.’’
At the mention of the famed adventurer Twilight was again struck with surprise. “Wait, Princess, you know Daring Do? You know she’s real?”
Celestia actually beamed somewhat with pride at the question. “I will concede I was made privy to that information and Miss Yearling has provided some invaluable services to Equestria in the past. It’s unfortunate, but our country has a history of leaving rather dangerous artifacts out for anypony or creature to steal. Thus I provide her with the necessary funding and directions, she recovers the relics and ensures they stay out of the wrong hoofs. Though.”
A floating copy of one of the Daring Do adventures came into view next to Celestia. “Ever since she started publishing her adventures, she hasn’t needed nearly as much royal funding as before.”
‘’Wait, sister, she writes novels!?” Luna inquired as she eyed the book with a look of familiarity. “Odd, I presumed she was merely writing a series of autobiographies.’’
“I suppose in a sense she technically is, but we should try to keep such matters private,” Celestia said as she placed the book on a nearby shelf. “She already takes more than enough steps to keep her editors in the dark and I’d rather not make her work more complicated. Now as to the matter at hoof, as expected Ms. Yearling was all too eager to accept the task and began her expedition some time ago.”
FLASHBACK: a month ago; the inside of Mount Heaven
Clad in her classic green cargo vest and pith helmet, A.K. Yearling, aka Daring Do, traveled carefully within the vast caverns of the mountain, a trio of additional explorer ponies behind her. Already the team was thoroughly engrossed in the mission having made a crucial discovery.
Originally they had presumed the cavern they’d entered as simply that, a natural cave that resulted from rock formation and erosion. However, as they went further in they discovered to their surprise the walls appeared to be pony made, being too well polished, with several old tools found on the floor. Needless to say the prospect of a potential new discovery had left the group all too eager to continue, though Daring Do remained cautious, a benefit of years of experience in such places.
This experience in turn proved valuable as she came to a halt, her team stopping as well, finding themselves faced with an all too familiar scenario. Namely a large, seemingly bottomless chasm, with a single, rather flimsy bridge as the only means of crossing. The sight left the veteran explorer sighing and blowing strands of her mane out of her eyes.
“A rickety bridge over a pit? Even for my books this would be cliche. I mean at least fill it with some giant snakes, or fire, or something.”
Turning to her crew who eyed the bridge with more than a bit of paranoia, left Daring only to sigh harder. “Really wishing it was just me or even Rainbow on this. Least then we could just fly over this.”
Putting her thoughts aside and adjusting her helmet, Daring advanced to the bridge. “I’ll go first and make sure it’s safe. Until I’m sure it’s clear, stay here okay.”
Her companions all nodded eagerly, looks of relief evident. True they were archeologists like her and lived for this sort of thing, they lacked her more hoofs on approach to the art.
So, her path ready, Daring stepped onto the bridge on high alert for the slightest noise or loss of footing. Of course, while she remained cautious she stayed relatively relaxed, knowing if she needed to she could simply use her wings to avoid a gruesome demise.
Thankfully for all those involved nothing serious occured, as despite a few creaks here and there, the bridge held fine. In mere seconds she was on the other edge, no worse for wear. Yet, in spite of the ease, she couldn’t help but eye the bridge suspiciously, feeling a slight moment of dread.
Concerned, she tapped her hoof against the nearest plank several times, receiving no reaction despite increasing the force with each tap. Still not satisfied, she again stepped on the bridge and opted to actually jump up and down several times, shaking the bridge somewhat yet it still remained held strong.
‘’HuUm… hum, miss Daring Do,” One of the assistants muttered, getting the writer ponies’s attention. “I... I’m pretty sure that this bridge is safe and solid.’’
Turning slightly red with embarrassment, Daring quietly returned to the end of the bridge, eyes refusing to look in her comrades direction. “Eh, yes, it would seem it’s quite sturdy. Just kind of surprising is all. I mean a bridge that doesn’t collapse! That's the very first time that’s ever happened. Lucky us huh?”
With any danger firmly dispelled, the others quickly crossed the bridge and the team pushed forward towards the next tunnel.
At the end of the tunnel, they had found a substantial white double door as big as a house on the wall. Interestingly, it did not seem to be carved out of the rock itself but instead buried in it.
Eyeing the door wearily, the adventurous pegasus put her two hooves on the stone door and rather easily pushed it open. However, she refused to take another step forward beyond the threshold.
‘’This is the entrance they had mentioned. Meaning there’s probably a ton of traps inside.” Picking up a nearby rock and putting on her usual confident smirk, Daring readied herself.
“Time to go to work.”
With a decent toss, she sent the rock into the room, her eyes immediately preparing for what came next, while the rest of the group immediately ran to the wall beyond the doorway to avoid anything that possibly came out.
As the rock hit the floor, everypony’s sense of dread/excitement was on full alert as they prepared for what was to come.
… … But the only thing that came was silence, just silence. All the archeologists were looking at each other with dumbstruck looks. And the look of Daring Do was that of confusion and outright annoyance.
‘’Nothing! I don’t understand! Usually, the ruins I explore were built with so much security you could call them paranoid to the point of insanity.’’ Peering into the room just to make sure nothing was coming, her disappointment only grew. “Geez, at this rate I’m gonna have to do some heavy embellishing if I want to make a book out of this adventure.”
With the path now safe, the group entered the corridor, finding every inch of the room covered with vertical and horizontal lines, as if the entire room were made of blocks.
Immediately, Daring Do stuck herself against the wall and carefully advanced with her back firmly pressed against the white structure.
‘’Alright, everypony, follow my lead and do the same thing as me. It’s important to avoid potential pitfalls and—HEYYYY!!!’’
But she saw everypony was walking past her, trotting casually along the floor, without a single problem or deathtrap falling on them. Like before Daring Do was left stunned, her back still on the wall, and the only thing she could do was blinking her eyes at how dumbfounded she was.
‘’You know…I think I’ve forgotten my life as an archeologist isn’t the norm.’’
After Daring removed herself from the wall, the group had arrived in a vast room, all made of white. The room itself was in a less than ideal shape, with several broken columns and furniture, while at the end of the room was a strange window of glass that was completely opaque.
Ever the treasure seeker, Daring could not resist and flew into the room, spinning herself with her hooves extended over this magnificence.
‘’Amazing. Even after all the artifacts I’ve seen in my life, this one truly is a sight to behold.”
‘’Miss Do, could you please come here? I want to show you something.’’
Tearing her eyes away from the strange window, Daring flew to the archeologist who showed her that the wall was covered in strange symbols unlike anything she’d seen before.
‘’It… it’s a language I don’t recognize! I’ve studied many dead pony languages over the years, but they all share some common roots. Yet, here that isn’t the case and it also doesn’t look at all like dragon, yak, or other creatures' language, past or present. ’’
Utterly lost, Daring continued to scan the room. Ever since she’d entered something had bothered her in the back of her head. She scrubbed her hoof on the wall, and her suspicion was confirmed.
‘’No dust! Everything here is in pristine condition! How could everything have been conserved to such a perfect state? Unless this building is recent.’’
She saw white debris, grabbed it, took a magnifying glass from her bag, and used it to observe the erosion of the white material to determine its age.
‘’…Looks like I was actually, whatever this is, it’s old, possibly older than anything in recorded history. Just what is this place?’’
***
Twilight looked awed at the tale. “That’s amazing? Admittedly, I think you could’ve left some of the more embarrassing stuff out but artifacts possibly older than Equestria itself? Were they able to confirm anything ’’
‘’They were able to send us several artifacts, and our scientists were quick to begin studying them. Regrettably, they were incapable of conclusively determining the object's age. At moments, they theorize they at least exceed twenty millennia.’’
At this declaration, Twilight felt something in her brain snap, followed by the muscle control for her jaw.
‘’Twen, twen, twen, ttttt twenty. Pr… princess, this could be one of the greatest historical discoveries of the century. What I am saying, simply ‘the’ greatest.’’
Celestia’s face broke into a further grin. “Oh, but I’m not quite done my dear student. Even though this ancient civilization precedes us, all evidence shows that they had long surpassed us in terms of both science as well as magic.”
Thankfully, this time around Twilight’s jaw regained some function more quickly this time. “More ancient yet this advanced? How is that possible?”
“I feel it’d be easier to show you rather than try to explain it further.”
The wooden stool with the cloth covered object on it was levitated towards Twilight in Celestia’s yellow aura. With her teeth, Princess Celestia took the cloth revealing a glass bell. And within it… was a white cube, floating.
‘’A… white block? I don’t understand… wait… I don’t see any magical aura. So how is it floating?’’
Taking a seat by her student Celestia zeroed in on the object. “As far as we can determine, it’s able to do so on it’s own.”
‘’Is it then an object infused with magic? Like staff and amulets.’’
‘’You are half right, half wrong. The truth is that this is a machine. Working with magic.’’
“Princess, I’m not one to doubt you but… I find it difficult to believe. Sure there are machines that exist that require magic for activation but to use magic as fuel! I’ve only seen that in science-fiction novels.’’
‘’Well, it seems that science-fiction has come to our doors.” Celestia muttered somewhat ominously. “Come closer, I will explain to you.’’
Celestia traced a circle with her horn, forming a yellow magical circle, acting like a magnifying glass, showing the structure of the white block with more details.
‘’First, our scientist tried to find out what material those blocks were made of. But the only thing they discovered was that it was not natural but ponymade. We’re still scratching our heads on that, but for now look closer.’’
She makes several zooms of her magnifying spell, nearly going to microscopic levels and the circle shown on the ivory surfaces several revealed lines going in all directions, all circulating with light of rainbow color.
‘’Princess, what it is?’’
‘’Magic, Twilight. Circuits through which magic flows.’’
‘’Circuits! You mean… like electrical circuits?’’
‘’Exactly. Electrical circuits are a recent invention in Equestria, and we think that the machines of the ancient civilization work on a similar concept. But instead of electricity it is magic that circulates. And what’s more, they manage to build those circuits to a size so small they cannot be seen with the naked eye. But what’s more baffling is that it never seems to exhaust its reserves of energy, as if this cube could produce infinite magical energy.”
Celestia pulled away from the device, letting her spell dissipate, a grave look on her face. “I have spent centuries perfecting my knowledge of magic and even studied under Starswirl himself. Yet this machine goes against every law of magic I’ve ever known. To put simply, it is beyond even my knowledge.”
As one could expect, this revelation left Twilight floored, her eyes shining with a mixture of shock and awe, darting every so often to the cube with that same look of hunger for knowledge Celestia had come to know.
For a moment the two princesses worried Twilight might take the object and immediately teleport away to study it in her own lab. Let it be known when it came to learning about magic, Twilight was borderline addicted to the subject.
While certainly admirable, it did have a tendency to cause her to lose sight of reason in her pursuit.
Thankfully Twilight rained in her crazy for the moment, turning her full attention to the cube. “This truly is the discovery of the century. Magic and technology merged perfectly together to form… magitechnology for a lack of better word! It’s mind blowing. The possibilities of such a thing could be endless.”
Taking a few steps toward the cube, both princesses could see a slightly dangerous glint in the purple pony’s eye.
“I should try the machine out myself, perfect way to get a feel for how it works.”
Luna’s clearing throat was what finally broke Twilight from her stupor, enough to give the Princess of the Night her full attention.
‘’Apologies Twilight, but I feel my sister left out some details regarding this. Prior to your arrival we tested the device itself. We’ve learned that regardless of whether it be. Pegasus, earth ponies, unicorns or the like, any creature in this world with even a hint of magic could use this device.”
Again Twilight was shocked, but thankfully kept her composure this time. “I mean, that’s good isn’t it. That should make learning more about it easier?”
Twilight’s question only brought a look of surrender from the royal duo. Clearly it seemed a demonstration was needed to get the point across.
“Twilight,” Luna paused as she thought of what to say, hoping to keep things simple. “Touch the cube with your hoof and then think of a direction you wish it to fly in.”
Somewhat perplexed by the odd request, Twilight obliged. In less than a moment of touching the object and projecting her desire…the item immediately flew about at an almost blinding speed, zipping across the room like a rage filled hornet.
‘’EVERYPONY, GET BEHIND COVER!’’
Unfortunately, there was so little cover in the throne room that several ponies could only drop to the floor or hide behind the throne for some protection. Sadly one guard wasn’t quick enough as the projectile rocketed towards him.
‘’Oh no.’’
And the cube hit him right on the face, sending him flat on his back with a noticeable bruise forming. Thankfully for everyone else, this act of unintentional self sacrifice seemed to stop the cube, which bounced off the ground like a dice before coming to a complete stop.
The poor guard was now immobile except for one of his legs that were twitching and a groan that echoed through the otherwise silent throne room. .
‘’… … Sister. I do believe this think you really should give this poor guard just earned a considerable bonus on his next salary.’’
‘’Agreed.’’
Once the injured guard was brought to the infirmary and the cube placed in a bubble to avoid future contact, the three princesses could resume their conversation. Or rather, Celestia and Luna tried, while Twilight desperately wanted to disappear from the room out of embarrassment.
‘’Don’t blame yourself, Twilight, you had no idea. and this is precisely why we brought you here. As it stands we know virtually nothing about this magic based technology.”
That seemed to at least shake Twilight from her funk enough to look her mentor in the face. “You really think I can help with this?”
“Absolutely,” Celestia offered with a friendly smile. “Though we feel it best to start at the ruins to learn as much as possible. My sister and I sadly still have royal duties we must attend to and I feel confident in your own abilities. We are after all dealing with a technology using magic in a way we can’t properly comprehend. If somepony could solve that mystery, it’s you. Can I count on you?”
‘’You want me to study the history of a civilization recently discovered that we know nothing about, see inventions only found in imagination, and learn about magic in ways that change everything I know?” Despite her prior slip up, it was clear Twilight had not lost her prior investment. “Of course, you can count on me Princess Celestia. I gladly accept this assignment.”
‘’As I knew you would. I already contacted the mayor of Happy Town. Now I can confirm to him that you will come, and he will gladly shelter you for a few days. Also, hum… I suggest that you bring your friends with you.’’
At these words, the wings of Twilight flipped open, and a spark was shining in her eyes.
‘’Really? I can? Even on this important mission?’’
“Of course, they’ve proven time and again to be a reliable group of companions to have. And I must say, you do tend to work best when you have them by your side. And beside…’’
‘’What is it, princess? Is there something you’re not telling me?’’
She was
‘’Oh it's alright. You will know soon enough. Then I suppose that the only thing left to say is to wish you a good trip to you and your friends.’’
‘’Thank you so much, Princess Celestia. And also to you, Princess Luna. I will not lose time and go to prepare immediately. Goodbye and I will inform you of my findings as soon as possible.’’
Eager as she could be, Twilight let her wings out and flew out a nearby window towards Ponyville, ready to prepare herself and her friends for their new adventure.
Silence and darkness.
In a dark corner of a restricted room, a pony was seated before a working desk. The only source of light was the flame of a dim candle that only served to accentuate the encroaching blackness of the room.
After staying immobile for a bit, the pony decided to open a drawer and, from it, took out a photo. The picture was a smiling purple alicorn on the day of her coronation—The Princess of Friendship, Twilight Sparkle.
The pony then grabbed a pencil from a nearby holder. He pointed the tip toward the image of the mare, and... he scribbled wildly all across the image. Yet despite the seemingly frantic movement, it was at a relaxing pace.
Once he was done, he looked at his work. The image of Twilight was now covered entirely under a chaotic arrangement of pencils lines denying her. Yet, no feelings, not even a ripple, were forming on the heart of the pony responsible for that vandalism.
‘’... Somehow... I can tell. The day to come... would not be an ordinary one.’’
It was simply a perfect day in Ponyville. The weather was clear thanks to the pegasus, and the streets were buzzing with activities. All the ponies were going about their daily lives, shopping at the stands, and saying hello to each passerby. And this idyllic view was seen by Twilight, flying right above them, musing how great and peaceful this town can be. And yet ironically enough, it was never boring.
In the time she lived there, something interesting always happened. It is no wonder that Celestia chose this place to send Twilight to learn about friendship. It was already something special before she came to live there.
From where she was flying, she could see some foals playing together, but one of them got clumsy and tripped on a stepladder, dropping the bucket of water at the top, on his head, spilling all its watery content on him. But instead of feeling sorry for himself, he simply laughed to his heart's content, and all his friends followed soon.
The next thing she saw was a mother giving a toy to her child, which he answered with a hug. It sure gave a wave of warmth to the alicorn.
Then, Twilight saw Lyra Heartstring from the living room window, sitting on a couch, playing her lyre. At first, she stirred the lyre strings at a calm pace, but out of nowhere, she decided to become more daring and shredded wildly at her string instrument, changing the melodious song into a rock show that was making the wall shake. After a few wild choreographies, she made a big finish by sliding on the carpet and did a final and bombastic strike on her lyre as if it was a guitar.
‘’Yeaaaah. Now that's what I call an awesome solo. Hmmm. You know... maybe I should change my style. For some reason, I can see myself as a rocker. Hey Bon-Bon, what do you whoaaah!!!’’
She barely avoided a thrown potted plant that was aiming at her, a potted plant thrown by her exasperated roommate Bon-Bon.
‘’Lyra, will you stop that fuss! Neighbors will complain. Again.’’
‘’Sorry, sorry. I just thought to heat up things a little. Don't you want to have a day full of strong sensations sometime?’’
‘’Hell no. I left that all behind. I’d rather that this day be the quietest possible. Unless you want an 'awesome solo' time on the couch tonight.’’
‘’No, no, no, I will calm down.’’
At that scene, typical of those two, Twilight could not suppress a giggle.
‘’Yes, the citizens of Ponyville are true champions for enjoying life and seeing its brighter side. I constantly learn from them to do the same. Speaking of it, I can't wait to tell my friends that a fun adventure is waiting for us. Then let's not waste time. Full speed to the town hall.’’
Flying high in the lobby of the town hall, Ponyville’s resident fastest flyer, Rainbow Dash, was in the midst of hanging a rather festive looking banner. Pity that her attitude didn’t match her altitude.
‘’Pinkie, can you tell me how the hay we are stuck preparing a play for the whole town? Bad enough it comes right out of the blue, but now we’ve gotta handle the set up too. Seriously! How come we always get stuck doing this sort of stuff, don’t towns usually have reps for this sort of thing?”
‘’Super duper sorry about that, Dashie. The Mayor really wanted to throw together a fun little event for the town and thought a play would be extra fun for everypony. And she asked us to help after I mentioned the amazing Hearth’s Warming show we pulled off in Canterlot a few years ago.”
“Oh yeah, we were pretty awesome back then.” Dash’s moment of nostalgia clouded her prior frustration.
“I don’t see why you're even complaining about Rainbow Dash.” A familiar mane of purple and white emerged from the curtain. “As I recall, despite a few hiccups here and there, it was a positively marvelous experience and I relish the chance to perform again. Plus it’ll be a perfect showcase for my latest costume designs.”
The marble white fashionista seemed to practically swoon at the idea of being on stage, before pulling the curtain back to reveal some half completely outfits.
Her enthusiasm only served to bring Dash back down from her pride high. “Yeah it was fun, but did she really have to spring it on us at the last minute? And you don’t find it weird that ‘we’ always get to be at the center of all major events for some reason? And now that I think about it, are we even getting paid to do this?”
‘’Hummm, no, sorry Dashie, no money for this one,” Pinkie’s energy seemed to shrink as she stared at the ground. “I am kinda sure that it was a clause mentioned in the contract I signed without reading.’’
Dash’s wings practically locked up as she let out a loud groan before planting her face on the floor. Her annoyance was only met with chuckles courtesy of Applejack, currently painting a nearby stage wall.
‘’Aww, stop your whining sugarcube. Sure it’s a little last minute, but a little hard work never hurt nopony and we do this kind of thing all the time. And we usually have fun doing it anyway.’’
‘’I agree. Helping out the community is always fun and doing it with you girls just makes it even better.’’ Had said Fluttershy, flying next to Applejack, a paintbrush in her mouth and covering the wooden wall with pink paint.
‘’Well said sugarcube. By the way, ah was wondering, why ya were painting with this color? Ah thought we were using red?’’
‘’Oh! Well, I wasn't even sure what kind of play we were doing so I thought I’d go with some really soothing colors. There is no more relaxing color than pink, don’t you agree. Or not, if it is not all right with you, I... I can take another one, if you prefer.’’
Amidst Fluttershy’s backtracking, Spike appeared nearby, carrying a tea chariot to Rarity, who was drawing with a floating pen.
“Anyone else a little worried nopony seems to have a plan for what this play is even about?” When he was met with no response, he merely huffed in mild annoyance. “I know the world’s not at stake or anything, but everypony’s being way too relaxed about this.”
Letting his annoyance go for the moment, the drake selected a steamy cup of tea and quickly brought it over to his favorite pony of all time.
‘’There Rarity, my special tea made with nine different blends, heated to the perfection with my dragon breathe.’’
The posh pony looked up from her current project and seemed to glow at the offered cup. ‘’Oh, thank you Spike, you're such a darling.’’
The white unicorn took the cup delicately and, with the elegance of a lady, took a small sip without making any noise.
‘’Aahh, I was dreadfully in need of this. It is simply perfect. I can see why you’re Twilight’s You really are a number one assistant, my Spikey-Wikey.’’
The young drake’s cheeks flushed red at the praise. ‘’Oh Rarity, it's always a pleasure to help you. Plus, you’re way easier to work for then Twilight….please don’t tell her I said that.’’
‘’My lips are sealed,.’’ Rarity said with a smirk and a wink as she raised her cup for another sip of the still hot tea.
Sadly for the fashionable pony, As for Pinkie Pie, she’d somehow acquired a large was now taking out of nowhere a helium tank, which she used to inflate several balloons, simply because she was thinking that balloons go with everything. But then, it was at this moment that Twilight decided to burst through the town hall door then pointed her hoof dramatically to the group.
‘’STOP THE PRESS EVERYPONY.’’
The sudden shock had the expected result, most notable the sound of a splash, followed by an extremely loud scream, both courtesy of Rarity whose once pink lips were now a violent shade of red.
The others weren’t much better. Rainbow Dash acted like lightning had struck her then went flying in all the directions in panic, Pinkie Pie had lost grip of the tank of helium she was using, resulting in the nozzle getting into her mouth and quickly inflating her like a party balloon. Applejack lost her balance and fell on the paint buckets in a big colorful splash with Fluttershy looking at her, her hoofs on her mouth.
As for Spike, the shock put him into full-panic mode.
“Huh, the what? What the hay, what have we done wrong, what press, I thought we were putting on a play. Are we making journals now, how can we stop what we never did, I mean WHAT GOING ON HERE!!! ... Oh! False alarm, it's just Twilight.’’
At the sight of thet his pandemonium she’d unintentionally wrought, Twilight could only just blankly, her hoof still risen stupidly.
‘’… … Heheh. S… sorry everypony, it’s… it was just something I had always dreamed of saying. Oops.’’
While Twilight was living the embarrassment of her life, for the second time in the day, Pinkie finally unlatched her mouth from the tank, letting loose a stream of air from her mouth that sent her flying around like an angry hornet for a good few seconds. Her deflated body finally fell back down to the ground, with her almost immediately reinflating without issue.
Finally able to stand, Pinkie opted to start speaking, and the results were…unexpected to say the least.
‘’Woooo way to make an entry Twilight. Wait, that's my voice! That’s really my voice? Hahaha, that’s so funny. It sounds like a robot.’’
She burst out laughing in that weird voice, which made her laugh even more. Everypony else merely rolled their eyes at her antics. Of those present Fluttershy opted to be the one to ask the obvious question.
“Is everything okay Twilight? You usually don’t burst into a room screaming unless something awful is happening.”
Shaking off her embarrassment, Twilight nodded. “You’re right there is something I need to tell all of you, though thankfully it’s not something world ending for a change. Quite the opposite, I think you’re all going to like this.”
Everypony quickly gathered around the Princess of Friendship to hear all about her day and the trip that she and her friends will eventually do. All except Pinkie Pie, who went bouncing around the hall, saying things like, ‘’Bip-bop, bip-bop, I’m a robot, bib-bop, I will steal all your jobs.’’
‘’And that’s pretty much all Celestia told me. And although it is serious research, I don't see why it couldn't also be a nice vacation for all of you. So what do you think, would you all like to go on this trip to Happy Town?’’
Rainbow Dash didn't lose time and pumped her hoof high in the air.
‘’Oh yeah, a trip for all the gang. Count me in. Any excuse to get out of this mess is okay in my book.’’
Applejack looked at the cocky pegasus with a smirk. “Funny, that doesn't sound much like the loyal thing to do Dash.”
Said Element of Loyalty immediately realized the irony of her antics, but had her own counter. “Okay AJ, be honest, do you really see this little project working out?”
The farm pony could only lower her hat in embarrassment at being outplayed.
‘’I mean, if you want mahn honest opinion…this was going nowhere anyway. Best we hand this off to sompony a little more qualified.’’
Dash only smiled in victory while
Pinkie started hopping around eagerly.
‘’Woohoo, that sounds like *cough**cough* I mean, that sounds like a lot of fun. Hey, don’t look at me like that; I did listen. Count me two.’’
Fluttershy raised her hoof.
‘’Then count me three. But what are we going to do about the play? We can just not abandon it.’’
“Obviously we’ll need to hand it over to somepony qualified enough to ensure its success,” Rarity said, taking over the conversation. “Though obviously I intend to come on this excursion as well. However, I’m fairly confident I know just the one to do this play justice.”
Without a word of warning, Rarity using herusedSay Rarity, using her magic to levitate Spike before all mares. Saidy Dragon was left pointing his finger at himself in incredulity.
‘’What! Me!’’
Spike was so surprised that his wing opened wide. Rarity grabbed him by the shoulder and dragged him closer.
“Come now Spike, you’re perfect for the role. Ever since we started you’ve been positively brimming with excellent ideas for the play. Beyond that we know your skill with organizing, scheduling and multitasking is second to none.”
The onslaught of praise was looking to be too much for the drake, whose previously purple scales had turned practical scarlet.
‘’Rarity!’’
‘’Oh, silly you. Did you really think nopony was listening to you.’’
And the white unicorn gave a subtle little wink in the eye to Spike.
Twilight silently nodded her head in approval, knowing well her first assistant was a reliable dragon. She felt a little disappointed Spike could not come but understood it could not be helped.
‘’I see that all is settled. Then it's official girls, tomorrow we are all going to Happy Town. Better head home and get ready, the only train is at 8:00 am tomorrow morning.”
All ponies were so enthusiastic at the prospect of a fun trip they could hardly stay on their hooves. They even gathered around in a circle, and each one put their hoof atop each other in a pact of camaraderie.
The light of the day was coursing through a window, shining its benign rays on the circle of friendship like a makeshift projector. Particles of dust were sparkling around our six mares.
‘’Alright everypony, then to a trip that will bring us many good memories–
But a dark cloud came and snuffed out the light. However, it did nothing to darken their mood.
‘’That I am sure we will never forget.’’
And all hoofs went jumping in the air in a unanimous ‘’YAY’’. Then without losing time, they went running to the exit to quickly prepare for tomorrow. Spike was the only one left. And when he was sure that no one was around, he too went flying in the sky in a burst of joy.
‘’ALRIGHT, RESPONSIBILITY. How long did I wait for something like that? No time to lose; I have so many ideas to try. First, I need to find a black jacket and a pompadour to wear.’’
As he has said, Spike was now in the costume he wanted, standing on a chariot, surrounded by ponies dressed in platinum mechanic suits.
‘’Everypony is ready? Alright, don’t forget, as we sing, we also raise our hands, hum, hooves for you, in front of us, and then we move it from right to left and after, left to right. Okay, now bring the music.’’
Go, Varnished lightning, you burning up the carter mile
Varnished lightning, go, Varnished Lightning
Go, Varnished Lightning, you coasting through the heat lap trial
Varnished lightning, go, Varnished Lightning
The next day came and it was a lovely morning at the train station. The chimney smoke was dancing along the blue sky, showing that the engine was full of life and ready to go. What was also full of life was the passenger deck, with our heroines and their baggage.
Nearly everypony was at the station. There were just three missing. Twilight, Pinkie, and Rainbow Dash.
Speaking of the aforementioned flyer, she came flying from above and went to do a supersonic dive to meet them. She had slid with panache on the wooden floor to stop right before her friends. Then the air left behind came to catch on her and made her feathers and hair fluttered with style. She was making such a cocky smile. Applejack, however, was rolling her eyes.
‘’Show off.’’
‘’What can I say? I live to impress. By the way, where’s Pinkie Pie? Twilight, I can understand what with her over preparing for everything but Pinkie usually wants to be the first to be in the festivities.’’
As if some mystic force were listening in, Pinkie could be seen entering from the distance. However, she was without her usual bouncing. She was followed by two other ponies, a unicorn mare and a pegasus stallion. And they were both having clipboards on them that Pinkie was signing with a pencil on her mouth.
These two were Sugar Lefty, the sugar supplier, and Righto Dough, the flour supplier. Although Ponnyville had a bakery shop known for its top quality, these two suppliers could rival the sheer quantity they were producing themselves. Needless to say, Sugarcube Corner was their biggest customer. Another thing... those two were also known as bitter enemies, always trying to surpass the other and to sell more, and thus always went to Pinkie to get the better deal.
The irony of course that both of their products were equally as important in baking never seemed to cross their minds, but most of Ponyville was content to leave them be.
Plus they always provided Pinkie with top quality ingredients, thus indulging in their little contest was something she was happy to do. Hence why she was happily signing both contracts.
‘’There, all signed. As I had said earlier, I’m gonna be gone for an undetermined period of time. So just to make sure, I pay the two next week in advance.’’
Contract in hand and smile on face, Righto Dough pushed away Sugar Lefty.
‘’No problem Miss Pie, there is no way we will disappoint our main purveyor. In a way, we could say that our lives are in your hooves.’’
And Lefty was sure irritated that her rival was trying to steal the spotlight. Again.
‘’Oh, you and your noisy dramatic speech. Why don't you lick her hooves while you do? It will be the same?’’
‘’No one had asked you, witch. By the way, I was thinking of offering you a friend discount. What do you think if I give you these two weeks for only fifty percent.’’
‘’What! You fiend. Don't listen to him! I have a better offer. I give you those two weeks for the price of one. If you accept my and only my offer.’’
‘’Wait, it's the same thing as mine! Do your calculation right, you she-devil.
‘’No one asks you, you con artist.’’
‘’Tooth decayer.’’
‘’Clogger of arteries.’’
After several seconds of back and forth juvenile insults, Pinkie Pie felt uncomfortable and discreetly left the two growling at each other like wolves. She went to rejoin her friend with embarrassed looks.
‘’Sorry, you had to see that, girls. This trip was a little sudden, so I had to deal with the flour and sugar shipment. Usually, I handle them one at a time to avoid all that. They are good ponies, but when they're together, wooooooh, they are such party poppers. Trust me; I tried to make a lot of parties to make the dark cloud over their heads go away. A lot. But let us forget about that because it is time for FUN TRIP.’’
She threw a rain of confetti from her hooves. A lot of them went into the hairs of passersby, who rubbed them with a grudge. But Pinkie didn't notice anything of that, too focused on the sight of Twilight galloping towards the group looking a fair bit out of breath.
‘’Sorry, sorry to be so late. *inhale**exhale**inhale**exhale* I... I just wanted to make sure to be well prepared, and I may have gone a little overboard. Alright, now that we’re all here, let’s make sure we’re ready. You have everything you want? Good. Once we arrive in town, Mayor Paternal, the mayor of Happy Town, promised us he’d provide us with vacant chambers and a lot of space for all seven of us. We will have no problem in comfort.’’
‘’Oh my, that’s so generous to offer,’’ Fluttershy said. ‘’Now I feel a little shy before so much kindness. … … Hum, Twilight… did you say, seven?’’
Realizing her blunder, Twilight looked ever so slightly embarrassed. ‘’Oh right, I forget to mention, I allow myself to bring another friend.’’
It was then that an irritated remark came from an unknown source.
‘’Precisely, speaking of this other friend, could you *huff* give her a little help? As always, you bring way too much reference material.’’
They all saw a mountain of books, shining with a cyan aura, going forward to them. Though it looked more like a bulldozer since all passerby ponies were getting out of its way in fright as the books were saying sorry each time. The pony transporting them made a false step, and they had nearly tumbled on her if Twilight had not grabbed them with her magic.
‘’My babies!’’
‘’Oh sure, your babies are more important, don't worry about me.’’
‘’Don't be like that! We are going to research like nopony has done before. What's wrong with taking only the strict minimum? Hehe.’’
Twilight did an embarrassed laugh. But the one in that pile only answered her with silence, a silence that meant a thousand words, forcing the pony princess to admit defeat.
‘’Alright, alright, I get it, it's overkill, geez.’’
The alicorn teleported the majority of the books back to the library. Revealing that the one behind them, at the surprise of all, was a unicorn with a pale hue of magenta. Starlight Glimmer herself.
‘’Hello. Surprised to see me everypony? Twilight already filled me in on everything and insisted that I come with you sooo here I am. But Twilight, are you sure this is a good idea? Pretty sure the mayor only prepared for six not seven.’’
Twilight merely brushed those concerns aside, wrapping a hoof around Starlight’s shoulder. ‘’Of course you should come. Starlight, we are talking about ancient technology that uses magic in a way that goes above everything we know so far. There is no way I can find answers alone; I need my best student. Two heads are always better than one. l am sure the mayor can accommodate one extra pony. Besides… even if there were none of these reasons, I will still insist that you come. You are one of us, so there is no way we can exclude you.’’
‘’I… gee thank Twilight. That… means a lot for me.’’
Starlight almost stumbled over her words as her face was left a glow.
“You know, if it wasn't for the whole play thing, I’d swear you guys wanted to get away from me.” All eyes turned to find Spike standing with his arms crossed. ‘’Well, what does that say about me?’’
“Oh, Spike. Of course we want you to go, but right now we need you to handle the play for us and you’ve always said you wanted more responsibility.”
Standing before her small assistant Twilight gave him a reassuring pat on the head. “I’m more than confident you can handle this.”
She then comes closer to Spike to whisper in his ear.
‘’But just in case, I have prepared several lists of tips that I have put on your desk if you need some help. You know, just in case.’’
‘’Humm, thanks alot, Twilight. I suppose.’’
He was acting like it was slightly bothersome, but deep down, he was very touched that she was taking the time to give him support when she already had her own job to do. These two then went to hug each other, showing all their familial love. Once this was over, Spike went saying his goodbye to everypony.
‘’See ya later everypony, and don’t forget to have a good time.’’
Rarity came trotting toward him.
‘’And you, my dear Spikey-Wikey, you better impress the gallery. Thou I have no doubts your songs will ‘’couper le souffle’’ of everyone.’’
‘’You can bet on it... HEH wait! How do you know that my play will be a musical?’’
Like always Rarity simply offered her normal knowing smile. ‘’Oh, let's just say I may have taken an innocent little peek at your notes. It wasn’t a lie when I said that you have good ideas. And I never would have guessed you could write such good lyrics. ''You're the one I want, you’re the one I want''. Why I think I may already have become a fan.’’
From this declaration, it was like the eyes of Spike were shining with the purest of light.
‘’Rarity. You can’t know how much it means. For me, your praises are the most important in the world.’’
That declaration was met with a friendly roll of the eyes from those present, save for Rarity who merely offered a chuckle. ‘’Oh Spike, You have no idea how well I know.’’
‘’… What... do you mean?’’
Realizing too late what she had said, the two were plunged into an embarrassing silence. In fact, it seems that not a single sound was coming from nowhere which didn’t help the situation. Until…
‘’Be careful, clear the passage everypony!’’
Something went flying between Spike and Rarity and went tumbling on the deck. They all looked to see the mysterious object and saw a grey pegasus with golden hair and cross-eyes, dressed in a postman uniform. Rainbow just greeted her as if that occurrence was commonplace. Which it was.
‘’Sup Derpy.’’
The pegasus named Derpy uprighted herself and rubbed the dust on her with a big smile as if nothing had happened.
‘’Well, hello, everypony. Sorry to bother you, I’m just here because this train has an important delivery that we must take to Ponyville. A huge one, I heard.’’
A cough was heard in the distance. This was followed by a voice saying:
‘’Well? Introduce us.’’
‘’Oh right, right. I meant me and... pause for dramatic effect... the Mail Squad.’’
Three shadows slipped on the floor, and one by one, three pegasus went to land in front of the group. One was a pegasus with an orange mane, red fur, and a sun as a cutie mark. The second had a blue mane with a cyan coat and a rain-drop cloud cutie mark. And the last one, purple with white hair and a white flower. The pegasi then did some acrobatics on the ground, and the four reunited themselves to do a bombastic pose.
The whole group that saw that was speechless. Not in the good sense of the term. Everything was plunged into an embarrassing silence. Well, except for the cry of crickets. No, there literally were crickets crying. Rainbow, who could no longer bear the awkwardness, finally decided to break the ice.
‘’Sooo, you'd practiced doing... whatever this is?’’
Derpy looked positively proud at the display. ‘’Oh yes, yes, the mail office is trying to create a new image. You know, to attract the younger generation. What do you think? Pretty amazing?’’
Rainbow looked positively awkward trying to think of a response.‘’Oh, um, um, yeah, yeah, it's...um, it's sure...’’
It was then that the train’s whistle made its noise, signaling that the train was ready to go. Twilight quickly grabbed her books.
‘’Ahhh, we have no time to lose. We must quickly board the train. It was good to see you, but we must go. Goodbye Spike, I know you will do an excellent job. See you soon.’’
‘’See you soon, Twilight.’’
Our heroines went inside the train with all their baggage while the Mail Squad quickly took from the cargo car a huge crate. Then, the wheel started to go slowly for them to go faster, and the train finally exited the station. Our heroines open the window to wave goodbye to Spike one last time, who also did the same. And the train bringing them to adventure continues its travel until it disappears at the horizon. This... was the start of a moment in their life that none of them
WILL EVER FORGET.
The four mailmares were flying in the sky, each grabbing a rope attached to other ones who were warping all around the humongous crate so that the pegasi could fly with it.
‘’So Derpy, to whom are we supposed to deliver this huge thing to.’’
‘’Let me see. Notes, notes, ah, there they are. … … Oh! No one. We’re just supposed to bring it right at the center of the park.’’
Goal in hoof, the quartet moved on to the Grassy Pentagon, the local park of Ponyville, which was the number one relaxing destination for many ponies.
When they had arrived at the right location, they deposited the crate, opened it, and took off what was inside. Once their job finished, the pegasi took the empty container and flew once again in the sky.
‘’That was a very unusual delivery. I've never seen anything like that. Who sent it in the first place.’’
‘’I will look at my notes. It comes from a certain pony named, A, no, ny, mous. Whoops! Sorry, I mean this is a sender who wants to stay anonymous. Bah, it's probably somepony who wants to make a generous donation to Ponyville. But what a strange sculpture it is. Oh well, I never understood anything about art.’’
Once they were out of sight, the park was deserted. Except for the white block they left.
The object in question bore a striking resemblance to the one Princess Celestia had shown Twilight, though one was far bigger, nearly as big as a carriage.
As the wind was quietly blowing on the grass, the object remained silent in a way that was serene and ominous. But all that disappeared when a mechanical noise was made from the cube, and from four of its faces appeared an opaque glass window showing nothing. Until they turned on and white and gray statics appeared on them with a buzzing noise. The ponies would certainly not understand what these things were, but we would have no problem recognizing them… as television screens. They seem to show nothing more than the statics… but for a split-second… a little split-second… the static and the buzz disappear and show an image for then disappear again onto static. It was too short to know what it was, but it reappears again and again at short intervals, which means that you will have no problem understanding what the image is in the long run. It was white letters in a black font. And these letters were saying…
By a stroke of luck, the girls had gotten a train car all for themselves. They were all having a good time, relaxing with the comforting shaking of the train while keeping themselves distracted with their own activities.
Twilight was reading a book, Fluttershy was seemingly having a pleasant discussion with Starlight and Rarity, Rainbow Dash was napping, and Applejack and Pinkie Pie were playing cards.
‘’Haaa! Ah have what ya may call a winning hand. So ya better hold yer hand because, hummm, ya have absolutely confident in mine and stuff.’’
‘’Well played, Applejack. But you can hide nothing from me, Miss honesty. Ha, check this out. One pair and three of a kind. Impressive is it not? Sorry, but when games are involved, I am here to win and eliminate the competition. Without mercy.’’
‘’Wooooo, not so fast partner, hold your horses.’’
The nervous face of Applejack immediately disappeared and was replaced by a cocky smile. She then held her cards on her hoof and spreads them like a fan.
“Sorry Pinkie. Now behold. FLASH ROYAL, no less. Now who says that Miss honesty can’t bluff, hahahaha.’’
Pinkie Pie’s jaw dropped to the floor, literally in her case, hitting the floor with a metallic thud that led to Rainbow awakening in surprise.
‘’Hey, keep down a level; I nearly missed this vacation, so I want to profit it to the max.’’
This got the attention of Twilight.
‘’Eh Rainbow, what are you talking about? I don’t remember you mentioning any issues coming along.”
Dash, seeing little point in going back to sleep, sat up and leaned against a nearby wall for comfort. ‘’Truth is, I was supposed to have Wonderbolt training today. The only reason I’m here is cause an accident had trashed the training halls, they are in need of serious renovations. The academy is nearly impracticable to use so training was canceled.’’
‘’An accident! What accident?’’
‘’Oh, that is a very funny story. You see, Spitfire was training new young cadets on how to properly transport mini thunder clouds safely.” Rainbow seemed to shiver at the mention of the act. “Trust me, it’s a lot harder than it sounds.” Anyway, the objective was to take those clouds to a goal right above the academy, and when they did it, Spitfire ordered them to wrap-up and to make the salute. Turns out, theeey really should have done the wrap-up first and then, the salute. The cadets kicked the clouds they were holding, which resulted in about a hundred lightning bolts hitting the academy.”
Every pony nearby winced at the frankly insane slip up, each getting a clear picture in their head of the damage.
“Well, atleast nopony was hurt thankfully,” Rarity said, hoping to bring a bit of levity to the situation. Rainbow’s sheepish look however shot down that idea.
“Yeah about that. You know how Spitfire has all those medals of honor on her uniform. And did you know that gold ‘does’ attract electricity? I wonder why no pegasi had ever guessed it could happen until now.’’
Though she tried to bring the matter up with some humor, Fluttershy was left horrified at the implication.
‘’Oh my gosh Dash, that’s terrible!’’
‘’Oh no no. Relax Fluttershy, Spitfire’s totally fine…minus the minor burns here and there along with some scorched feathers. Anyway, she’s made of way tougher stuff and she will be on her hooves in a week.”
Fluttershy seemed to relax with this revelation along with some others in the cart, happy things hadn’t been more serious.
“Anyway, the damage was pretty serious. We actually had to hire workers outside of Cloudsdale just to get repairs done. But it means I can go on this trip so no biggie.’’
Lying back down, Dash seemed interested in getting back to sleep for the remainder of the trip, though some of her cabainmates didn’t share such a sentiment. Most notably Rarity.
“Well, perhaps we could discuss something slightly less morbid perhaps. Perhaps our destination by chance.”
Applejack nodded equally. “Yeah, truth be told this is the very first time that I heard of this Happy Town. It sure doesn’t ring any bells I’m aware of.’’
“Maybe it’s just a really obscure village not a lot of ponies go to,” Fluttershy chimed in, joining the group in the center.
Sadly this explanation didn’t do much to curb the group’s curiosity, thus they turned their collective gaze to Twilight, who’d been waiting for such a question.
‘’Sorry everypony, I know about as much as you do. Though I did do a little research before boarding the train. Allow me to tell you what I had found.’’
Of course a little research for Twilight equated to several pages worth of notes that could fill a small book. The sight of said stacks of information earned a loud groan from the group’s resident speedster.
‘’Great. Another Twilight history lecture full of fun trivia and cultural facts,” Dash moan while covering her face with her wing. “I was being sarcastic by the way if you had not guessed.’’
“I did actually,” said Twilight, looking rather proud, having learned Rainbow’s habits over the past two years. “Besides, it's always important to read up on your destination when traveling. Do you want to look like a tourist? So embarrassing.’’
‘’But... but we are tourists!’’
“Yes, but there is tourist and tourist,” Twilight stated matter of factly as though she were giving a lecture. “Anyway, from what I read on it, Happy Town was founded ten years before Ponnyville. Apparently, the settlers were ambitious ponies and wanted to create a place that would be a true paradise on Equestria.’’
Starlight was a little taken aback by the rather unexpected claim.
‘’Paradise? What did they mean by that?’’
‘’That’s the problem, it’s pretty ambiguous, I’m actually quoting them directly. Beyond that, among the first buildings constructed was a clock tower that they use as a symbol for the town. Size wise it’s proportional to Ponyville, though remains fairly isolated with it’s citizens almost never leaving its borders.’’
Fluttershy, who was prone to an anxious imagination, answered:
‘’Oh my! Does... does that mean that... that they don’t like strangers?’’
Rainbow met her oldest friend with a look that screamed are you kidding me. “Pretty sure with a name like Happy Town they don’t have an issue with strangers.”
‘’You’re right, Rainbow. Happy Town’s citizens are known for being quite welcoming. In fact, the reason for the towns’ name is that it apparently, venerates the concept of happiness in some sort. All the tourists that come to visit always have nothing but positive things to say about it and there’s always something new to try.’’
‘’Oh, sounds like my kind of place,” Pinkie said, suddenly appearing out of frame below everypony. “This place sounds like it’ll be super-duper fun.’’
Hearing that, Starlight smiled.
‘’That’s good to hear. You know, you were right. It does sound a lot like Ponyville.’’
Twilight nodded, taking another glance at her notes. “Princess Celestia actually said the same thing and while my research isn’t 100% conclusive, nothing suggests Happy Town is anything but pleasant.”
Feeling any prior concerns put at ease, the last bit of tension in Starlight seemed to melt away. ‘’Perfect, it’ll be nice to have a relaxing vacation for a change.” Deciding to do a little reading, Starlight levitated over one of Twilight’s books. During the reading, she took a glance out a nearby window, and something caught her eye.
“Say Twilight, that mountain out there, is it Mount Heaven ?”
Everypony went to look through the window Starlight was pointing and saw at the horizon, coming ever closer, the huge rock spire that was Mount Heaven.
According to prior history, the mountain was a long dormant volcano that was quite the sight to behold under the vivid blue sky. Its height was rather modest and only with a quick look you could see that it was easy to climb, but still, it was like this gray formation was giving a kind of majestic air. That was at least what was the thinking of the ponies staring at it in awe from their cabin.
‘’There is no doubt. So, that Mount Heaven. And in its deep are hiding the remains of the ancient civilization. Ooooh I can barely contain myself, my hooves are shaking, look, look how much they are shaking.” Twilight was saying while practically vibrating with excitement, while her friends were feeling slightly awkward.
“Alright girls, we are nearly at our destination. The station is a bit of a distance from the town so we will have to walk for a little while, though no longer than a half hour.’’
At the mention of more walking, Starlight immediately groaned as her eyes drifted to the mini library in the car.
‘’Great, so I take back my job as a heavy lifter of books. Geez that was not really what I had in mind when I took the post of your personal student. Sometimes I think I am just a Spike number two….Oh, please don’t tell him I said that.’’
The other ponies paid her little mind and simply continued to stare at the destination with anticipation.
After another fifteen minutes on the train the group finally disembarked at the station, only to find there was nothing, save for the mountain, than a vast expanse of green at perpetuity and the wind softly blowing on the grass.
Seeing there was no pony else around to talk to, the group immediately went walking on the gravel road that will bring them to civilization.
Sadly, while the scenery was beautiful that was about all it offered to the group.
A few minutes were spent in relative silence, and still the only thing they could see was grass and a few trees and hills. But it was mostly because they were trotting at a relaxing pace to enjoy the peace and the perfect weather. And then, a butterfly went flying before the eyes of Fluttershy. Its wings seem to shine and its color to change between blue and pink. The pegasus positively gushed at that little creature.
‘’A rosea hyacinthum kaleido! Here! But this is far from the region where they live!’’
Fluttershy was known for being a known diehard enthusiast of butterflies and her knowledge on them was nearly encyclopedic.
Thus it came as no surprise that And naturally, seeing this rare sight was tickling her interest, leading her to quietly chase after the beautiful insect so as not to spook it. and forgetting about her friends, she went to follow it, flying softly and slowly to make sure to not scare the beautiful insect.
“Ugh, again with the butterflies?” Rainbow groaned, fighting off the urge to pull out her mane as she recalled the last time Fluttershy got involved with butterflies.
Her friends, although annoyed a little, couldn’t help but to find that endearing and stop waiting for her. The yellow pegasus went so far as to go flying up a hill, looking to head towards the rather high summit.
However, to the surprise of all those present, she stopped right on her tracks and let herself land delicately on the ground. She then stood there to just look at the horizon, making back to her friends. Slightly worried, they went running to see her.
‘’Fluttershy? Fluttershy, is it something wrong? Did you see something?’’
‘’Yes. A piece of heaven.’’
Not understanding what she meant, Twilight went to see what Fluttershy was looking at and once she did, she was aghast and could not say a word. The others followed suit.
At the foot of the hill was one of the most beautiful ponds they had seen. Its size was quite impressive. The sun was at its zenith and so it gave its light directly from above, the reflection in turn was making several shimmering many shining spots on the spring, as if pure light was floating on the calm but still moving water. Like if the water was a diamond. It was a beautiful sight straight from a fairy tale. Water Lilies were floating and on some of them were growing flowers shining with a fluorescent magenta color. Twilight recognized them immediately.
‘’These are Midnight Lotus! They are rare flowers that are said to shine beautifully under the night sky.’’
The display of natural beauty didn’t stop with the flowers. Butterflies of all colors were flying in all directions and birds were nesting on a nearby tree, chirping harmoniously as if on command. However, what truly brought the entire scene together in breathtaking harmony was a voice.
In this case, it was a singing voice that seemed to come right from an angel.
Intrigued, the ponies looked around for it’s source. And they found it. Something was resting on the trunk of a twisted tree overlooking the water. It was a young mare. She was looking intensely at the spring and reciting a simple melody.
The smiles into your heart
seem now so far apart
The colors that used to stay
change into a sad gray
But true beauty is never took
if you know how to look
Your treasure
you never should misspend
Always there
with you as a friend
The ponies, who had walked to the bottom of the hill, felt the notes going directly at their hearts, almost overwhelming them with a sense of serenity filling them with peace. The sensation was so strong Rarity and Fluttershy even shed a few tears.
Once the young mare had stopped her singing, the ponies couldn’t resist and clapped their hooves to congratulate her.
‘’Who's there!?’’
Surprised that she was not alone, the young mare had lost her footing and nearly fell on the water but at the last second, Twilight grabbed her with her magic and levitated her to the ground.
‘’Oh I am so sorry, we didn’t mean to eavesdrop,” Twilight almost belted out a rapid fire apology. t want to scare you nor eavesdropped. “We were just so impressed by your beautiful voice we couldn’t just help it.’’
Despite the initial shock and almost fall, the unknown mare seemed to take the apology in stride.
‘’Oh no, it’s alright, it's quite alright. I am the one that shouldn’t have reacted like... that… ...!!!” The mare’s eyes suddenly grew wide. “Is that you!’’
‘’What?’’
Twilight, along with the others, were left more or less confused. Unsure of what she meant, Twilight gave her a closer look.
The mare was younger than everypony else, though seemed to be a bit older than the CMC. Her fur had the color of wheat and her mane, which was as red as a sunset, was arranged in a braid hanging to the right of her face. The cutie mark on her flank was of a sunflower and the color of her eyes was of a vivid green emerald, which were currently staring at the purple princes with clear admiration.
‘’It’s you it’s you it’s you it’s you, it is really you!’’
‘’Um yes, yes it’s me… … who I am supposed to be?’’
‘’You are Twilight Sparkle, the one and only. I can believe that you are here right in front of me. It is like a dream come true.’’
Twilight’s sense of dread grew slightly more as her mind again flashbacked to her experiences with past admirers. “Yup that’s me, funny even after all this time I still forget about the whole Princess of Friendship thing.”
‘’No no, you don’t understand,” the strange filly said in a trance-like daze. But it vanished and she comically slapped her check to straighten her thoughts. “Oh! Sorry, I was really out of there. I hope I did not freak you out.”
‘No, that’s… alright. I know meeting somepony you admire can make that effet. Believe me. I know from… personal experience.”
‘Thanks. But what I meant back then is I was a fan of you way back before you became a princess and…” Her voice seemed to dry up as she finally noticed the rest of the group. “And how could I miss all of your friends? Applejack. Pinkie Pie. Rarity. Fluttershy. Rainbow Dash. And even Starlight! You're all here! All of you.’’
Our heroines were perplexed and were throwing looks at each other in confusion. Even Pinkie seemed to be left stunned.
‘’Is anypony else lost right about now,” Pinkie pondered, “Cause I don’t remember throwing any pony a Congrats We’re Famous party recently. Do ponies talk about us?”
“Of course they should talk about us.’’ Rainbow seemed to puff up a bit at the mention of fame. “We saved Equestria countless times, duhh. Yet, I find it weird that nopony seems to know who we are. Well of course, I am already famous for being the best flier but still.’’
‘’Well, there is that but the true reason I see you as inspiration is…” the little mare, seeing she was once again drifting in the conversation. She coughed a little and took a deep inspiration. “I really need to stay more focused. Sorry about that, just a little overwhelmed here. I mean I knew you guys were coming but running into you out of the blue like this without some prep, well it’s, just, I mean….and I’m rambling again. Let’s start at the beginning. First allow me to introduce myself. My name is Floral. But everypony calls me Flo. I am a pony living in Happy Town and my job is… a little special. It is nice to meet you.’’
Twilight now clued in on the situation, found her attention focused on a particular thing Flo had mentioned.
‘’Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you Flo, though you said you knew we were coming?”
‘’Oh yeah, the entire town knows you’re coming. They can’t wait to all see you. I just didn’t expect to meet you personally on your way.’’
Fluttershy immediately looked ready to swallow her own tongue. “Did you say…the entire town?!” Her voice seemed to shrink gradually with each letter, though Floral didn’t seem to notice.
‘’More or less. I could explain it more to you but I think it’d be easier just to show you. You don’t mind having me as a guide do you?’’
The group shared a glance, with Twilight taking the lead and receiving a few nods from the others. “Sure, we’d love that. Alright Flo, we’re in your care.”
Floral smiled and was practically beaming like a spotlight. ‘’Thanks. Then follow my lead. … … But before, I… I must warn you. The ponies of Happy Town are very friendly, but they have a tendency to be a little…too welcoming.’’
Rarity tilted her head in incomprehension. “Too welcoming? Dear, forgive me for saying, but I don’t see how that would be perceived as a bad thing.”
“Let’s just say you’ll see for yourselves and I figured a warning…(for how little good it will do), was needed.”
That last portion muttered under Floral’s breath as she led the group towards the town.
It did not take a long time for them to reach Happy Town. They were now walking on one of its busy streets and like she had said, Flo was in front, guiding them.
‘’Since this is your first time, l will bring you up to speed on my little town.”
On cue Twilight immediately pulled out a notepad and pen, earning chuckles and groans from the others. They were walking
“First, the layout is built as a circle that continues to grow year after year. It has seven main streets that go from the border to meet at the center of the city called Plaza Central. What is particular is that it is at the sides of the main roads that you can find the majority of shops, service establishments and attractions. The rest of the angles between those rows are generally houses and habitations. Plaza Central conversely is where all the administrative buildings like the town hall, the courthouse, the bank and so forth are located, being the original builders our founders put up. Guess in a way you could call our city an ever expanding star at seven branches. At least, that how I like imagine it.’’
As expected Twilight had not only jotted down everything Floral had said, but even managed to make a few diagrams of the city based on Floral’s input.
‘’I see. But I find that it is a rather unusual way for a town to grow. I mean yes it gives the advantages that all the shops and commerce are in easy access roads for receiving delivery and being in plain sight, it makes them difficult to be ignored. But... I don't know, it's like your shops and service your first objective and your housing the secondary one. Usually, it’s the reverse.’’
‘’You have to understand that entertainment and distraction is the heart of this town. The plaza was always intended to house the essential locations, so once that was settled After they immediately started building the shops and the roads with the houses following suit. It was a little inconvenient at that time, but they established plenty of temporary houses prior to house construction to make up for it.”
Applejack, having taken a look at the Twilight’s diagram, couldn’t help but chuckle at the rather odd arrangement.
‘’Really! And I thought that mah family was dedicated but that is a whole new level. Focusing on your vision of yer town before being comfortable! Ah agree, it’s quite unusual. ’’
“‘Yeah, ’I understand that we are kind of unique compared to the rest of Equestria,” Floral seemed to struggle a little to get the words out, almost too embarrassed to speak. “But I personally do think it is our charm. Ah, and now it's time that I show you the very symbol of Happy Town. The clock tower.”
Pointing her hoof out straight ahead, all ponies present looked in it’s direction. “As you can see it’s quite a sight to behold.”
Our heroines were, at present, in the place called Plaza Central and before them was the famous clock tower. And if nothing else it was certainly eye catching, though not for all the right reasons.
The walls were old and have seen better days and the red roof was missing a few tiles. In truth, about the only thing that seemed to be pristine was the clock face itself, looking as polished as the day it was made.
All in all it was frankly more impressive the tower was still standing than anything else. A sentiment Rainbow certainly seemed to share.
‘’No offense, but I’ve seen better, heck the one we have in Ponyville is way taller.”
And Flo made a cocky smile at the pegasus.
‘’But wait, you haven't yet seen what makes it the pride of our town. It won’t be long.’’
All eyes turned back to the clock, which was only a few seconds before the big and the small hand reunited themselves to announce noon. And when the twelfth hour came, bells were ringing from inside the tower. And it was in that moment those present finally understood.
If there was a single word to describe the sound produced by the bells it was….pure.
The sound they made was plain and simple perfection. Neither so loud as to be irritating, yet not so quiet as to be unheard. Instead the sensation it sent through the ears was soft, like a gentle breeze gracefully flowing through a field of grass. And the sound itself was beyond description, a sweet, harmonious melody. It was as if a choir was singing.
Amongst the group Rarity found her eyes glistening with tears, yet made no attempt to wipe them away, too distracted by the sound.
‘’Beautiful! It’s… like the notes go directly into me, wrapping my heart in a warm embrace I’d never wish to leave.’’
Fluttershy conversely, was less dramatic, closing her eyes to listen calmly to the music while her pink mane floated on the wind.
‘’I feel so serene just by listening to it. You were right, it is really a wonder.’’
Floral, just smiling, nodded along not nearly as mesmerized as the rest. ‘’I know. This town was built on the concept of happiness. The settlers had hired the best mechanics of their time to build what would be the very symbol of our philosophy that would last for generation and generation. They wanted something that will remind us to always find joy in the simplest things in life.”
Floral’s eyes drifted up to the clock, clear fondness and admiration evident in her eyes, though something seemed to catch the corner of her eye and pull her gaze away. “Oh look at that, I see Mayor Paternal. I know he’ll be overjoyed to see you’ve arrived.’’
The clock tower happened to also be Town Hall. That two floored house was fixed to the right of the tower, making them one single building.
From a window, they could see a grown stallion drinking coffee at his table with a relaxed air. His fur was brown and he had a short red beard who was beginning to have gray hair. Despite the distance, they could see that his cutie mark appeared to be an open book with writing quill on it. Even though he was a fairly elderly stallion, one look and you could immediately see that he still had the spring of youth in him.
Dropping any kind of pretense, Flo leaned on the open window to make her voice easier to hear.
‘’Hello Mayor Paternal, it's good to see you.’’
At that voice, he turned his attention to Floral, and gave her such a warm smile.
‘’Ah, is not our little angel. It is always a pleasure to see you Floral. Did you have a pleasant trip to the spring?’’
‘’Yes, but there is something more important than my usual trip. I am here because I brought some visitors that–
‘’Visitors! Could it be they have arrived?’’
‘’Yes, yes they have more than arrived, they are right here behind me. Look.’’
‘’Greeting mayor and thank you for your hospitality. I am Twilight Sparkle, the–
She never finished her sentence as the sound of the coffee cup falling on the floor with half of its contents interrupted her.
The mayor was currently staring wide eyed, open mouthed at the princess in front of him. He stayed there still for a few seconds but then, went running with energy through the hall. The noise of galloping was soon followed by those of broken ceramic and falling furniture.
Twilight was hit out of nowhere by a dreadful feeling.
‘’I don't know why but I feel something bad will happen.’’
As if to counter this, Flo responded to the noise with mild annoyance. A subtle hint that this was a common occurrence.
‘’Forgive him, he tends to let his enthusiasm override his reason, but he isreally nice guy, I assure you. Though, probably should’ve warned you in advance…also he might not be the only–”
Flo’s words were cut off when Mayor Paternal opened the door in a state of near hysteria, nearly tripping on the stairs as he exited.
‘’It’s you, it’s you, it’s really you, all of you. YOU HAVE FINALLY ARRIVED!’’
While the Mane 6 plus Starlight, all took a tentative step back from the sudden and loud greeting, everypony that was going to their occupations, stopped dead in their tracks by hearing this. And suddenly Twilight felt her prior unease return, with Pinkie also going into a full body twitch.
“Uh guys, don’t want to freak you out but….”
And as if to answer amidst the rows of houses, doors and window shutters were simultaneously opened by curious residents. Upon spotting our heroines, it was like a switch had flipped in them and they all came rushing to the plaza. So many ponies were coming that the ground was shaking.
‘’Whoa whoa, what in tarnation is happening, an earthquake?’’ AJ shouted as she tried her best to steady herself while many of the others started to panic somewhat.
‘’Suddenly I don’t like where this is going.” Twilight was now practically vibrating like Pinkie and desperately looking for a solution. “Flo, can you explain what HEY WHERE ARE YOU GOING!!?’’
The group’s self-titled tour guide was no longer among them. She was currently running miles away, discreetly on her tip-hooves, only slowing to turn her head. And from the distance, she apologetic whispered to them:
‘’Sorry to abandon you guys, but I don’t want to be crushed by them. Catch you guys later.’’
‘’YOU SAY SOMETHING?! HOW CAN I HEAR YOU FROM SO FAR?’’
But she ignored her and went on galloping in a back-alley, leaving them all alone in the middle of a plaza. In mere moments they were encircled by an incalculable number of ponies.
As expected, Rarity was overcome with panic AND she started to hyperventilate.
‘’Oooh oooh. I do love a little attention but this is making me feel claustrophobic.’’
All the ponies were now coming closer to our mares, slowly, so slowly, fixating on them with strange looks, all without even blinking. Fluttershy was utterly terrified and went to hide behind Applejack and Rainbow Dash who were looking ready to fight if needed. Rarity and Pinkie Pie were holding each other in fear, while Starlight Glimmer used the mountain of books as a makeshift barricade. As for Twilight, well she did what she always did when under extreme stress… she exploded.
‘’ENOUGH! Now, can somepony please explain to me what is going on here? Because I’m starting to be scared to death.’’
Despite the rather bombastic call, the silence it brought was only temporary as the crowds started to become active again.
‘’… It’s them… it is really them… OURS IDOLS ARE HERE IN OUR TOWN!’’
And all the plaza was filled with cries of joy and they all rushed to grab them. Except Starlight who was well protected in her barricade. Luckily she was ignored while the others were hoisted and thrown high into the air as the crowd shouted, ‘’Hip Hip Hooray.’’ Leaving the now dazed brain mares to simply fly up and down until the Mayor finally saw fit to step in.
‘’My citizens! My citizens, please. I understand your joy but those poor girls must be confused. Please, give me at least the time to explain to them.’’
Thankfully for the group, the Happy Townians listened to their mayor and dropped them on the ground. Okay, it was more like letting them fall flat on the concrete. Which did not please Rainbow.
‘’Ouuuch! Right on my muzzle. All right, so what the heck was up with all the mobbing and cheering now? What is that circus!’’
‘’Yes yes, of course,” The mayor said, looking much calmer than previously.. “First as mayor, let me formally apologize for the actions of our citizens. We were just so excited, myself included, to see in person the six mares that we admire so much.’’
‘’Again with that.” While Twilight could somewhat understand the admiration, she’d experienced it quite a few times, this seemed beyond excessive. She was starting to be really, really puzzled.
‘’Admire? I don’t understand?’’
‘’It’s quite simple. As the name of our home suggests, we citizens of Happy Town have venerated the concept of happiness in all its forms for generations. We are always on the lookout for new ways to bring joys and beauty to our lives. But then long ago, we learned about six special ponies representing friendship. And they quickly became such an inspiration for us.”
The Mayor seemed to speak those words as if reciting a gospel of sorts, something cemented by the other citizens listening with rapt attention.
“Naturally, I’m speaking abouts you. Applejack, the Element of Honesty. Pinkie Pie, the Element of Laughter. Rarity, the Element of Generosity. Fluttershy, the Element of Kindness. Rainbow Dash,the Element of Loyalty. And Twilight Sparkle, the Element of Magic who then became Princess of Friendship. By simply being you, you constantly give valuable lessons about forming valuable bonds and well nurturing it. How can we not admire you? In fact, you have enriched our lives so much that you have become the biggest celebrities of all the entire town.’’
‘’Whaaaaaaaaat!’’ Was all the group could get out, seemingly left stunned by such an idea. True they’d had their fans over the years thanks to their exploits, but an entire town treating them as if they were royalty….outside of Twilight. It was simply difficult to process and it didn’t seem like the mayor was giving them much time.
‘’Come on everypony, they need to have a proper greeting. Let us all give our best salutations to these wonderful mares…”
Two pegasus went flying above them, each carrying the end of a large rolled banner, then went and stuck it to the wall of the clock tower to unroll it, revealing the image of our six mares.
“and our greatest idols, THE MANE 6.’’
And every single ponies stumps their hooves on the ground again and again as cheer clapping, filling the entirety of Happy Town with this sound of adulation for our dumbfound Mane 6.
In the quiet of his house, one pony was walking-up the stairs at a relaxed pace. Each time his hooves were hitting the wooden steps, they were making creaking noises. Once at the submit, he went to the door of his bedchamber and turned the knob.
From the inside of his chamber, that one pony could clearly hear the clapping and cheering that was only slightly muffled by the wood walls. He slowly came closer to the window covered by a white curtain. With his gray hoof, he softly pushes away the ivory silk to see outside and look at the plaza with our heroines at the center encircled by admirers. A soft and enigmatic smile formed on his lips
‘’They’re here. At last… they’re here.’’
Amidst the many cheers, claps and general noise Applejack suddenly got the strange impression they were being observed. She turned her head to look at a building with blue walls and saw at the window of the second floor, a pair of eyes fixate on her. It was too dark to see to whom they belong and anyways, he promptly covers the window with the curtain.
‘’What was that?’’
As Applejack was left to ponder, Twilight, still confused, wanted answers..
‘’Wo wo wo, please stop. Just... stop.” Her voice thankfully was much quieter this time. ‘’Right now, I have so many questions. Mister Mayor, what is this story of admiration or whatever you call it? How did it even start?’’
“Sorry, you're right. I should have explained first. It all begins during the summer sun celebration when Nightmare Moon was freed from her thousand years of imprisonment. One of our citizens was visiting Ponyville at the time and when he came back, he told us an amazing story. About six amazing mares who went on a heroic adventure and managed to free princess Luna from the darkness with a mystic and divine power called the Elements of Harmony, reuniting two long-lost sisters. Naturally, we were all intrigued by this. You may have guessed it but we all are admirers of stories with happy endings, especially if it is about real events. But then, it is about you that we became intrigued. Who were those six ponies who became heroes and why do they represent friendship? We were just overwhelmed with an urge to know more about you. So we would regularly send some scouts to observe you discretely.’’
That little revelation earned looks of shock from some, a soft gasp from Fluttershy and a rather loud response from Rarity.
‘’You… YOU WERE STALKING US FOR ALL THESE YEARS!!!’’
The mayor immediately waved his hoof at the accusation. ‘’Oh no no, I assure you that anything we did was perfectly legal. They were always at a safe distance and respected your privacy. We would never dare to do that to our idols. And thankfully we were never disappointed. Honestly, you girls have a penchant for rather unusual adventures and somehow always manage to end it with a valuable moral lesson But we were not disappointed. Hell, ever since the incident with the tickets for the Gala, we quickly wanted more and more. And more, you're always provided for. Then, even before we became aware of it, it was like you became a part of our town and of our lives. We all became diehard fan of the legendary Mane 6.’’
‘’The… Mane 6! … That's a little… I mean… is it really what everypony calls us?’’
Twilight was looking at her friends for possible answers, yet each one of them had different reactions.
‘’Don’t look at me like that Twilight, that’s the first time ah hear that,’’ Applejack stated.
‘’Eh, can’t say I like the nickname.’’ Say Rainbow Dash. ‘’It’s a little cheesy. Sounds like a superhero team.’’
‘’Personally, I kinda like that name. Go go go Mane 6!’’ Pinkie cheered, suddenly in a pink spandex outfit and helmet.
As for Fluttershy, she was more conflicted by something else.
‘’Wait, sorry but I find hard to believe that you could learn so much about us just by observing us from afar?’’
‘’Oh, you’re absolutely right,” the mayor once again spoke about the matter so casually. “We actually had to interview quite a few witnesses, do few background checks and even read all the friendship reports Twilight send to the princess.’’
‘’What! ... ...WHAT!” Twilight again shouted, now looking more than a little offended at the idea. “My reports! How did you get them? Every single one of them should be in Canterlot with Princess Celestia.’’
‘’Oh I reassure you we didn't steal them. The ones we have are only copies of the originals. We simply paid somepony to make copies of the one in Celestia office.’’
Twilight could just not believe what she had heard. They will really go as far as to ransack the belongings of their ruler! It was so unthinkable that she had difficulty at forming coherent sentences.
‘’Her off... off, off, office... Cecececelestia quarter... you you... the princess... ... ... well... come to think of it, I suuuupose these reports are not really secrets of state.’’
Rarity was of a similar mindset, though she could at least form actual sentences.
‘’I find more and more that it really looks like stalking.’’ Her words were so quiet it was a miracle any pony heard then, and as before the Mayor again tried to play damage control.
“Of course we can’t forget the journal that you had given to the public. It was a true gold mine and nearly every citizen has one. Like this one I have in my hoof.’’
Mayor Paternal took out from his jacket a purple cover book with a horseshoe and the Elements of Friendship on it. The sight of said book managed to snap Twilight back to coherency, only to shift her back into panic mode, the only time any book could ever do so.
‘’No no no no, not this again. Now I see where this is going. I thought we’d resolved that whole mistake ages ago.’’
“Nice one Twilight,” Rainbow practically sneered at the cover of the book that had brought her and her friends so much misery.
‘’Oh I can assure you that we are not at all like those…‘superficial fans’. We admire you because of what you represent and how you enrich our lives. All my citizens will agree. Is it not?’’
As if to answer, two ponies from the crowd then came forward.
‘’Yeah, thanks to you, my friendship has become stronger and intense than ever.’’
‘’You give us hope that everyone have the potential to get along with everyone.’’
Other members of the crowd seemed to follow suit, making mention of how the lessons taught by the girls had enriched their lives. Honestly, it was the first time the girls felt genuinely flattered as opposed to terrified since they entered the town.
‘’You see. When Princess Celestia said that she would send you to investigate those ruins in Mount Heaven, you cannot imagine how overjoyed we were. Also, I am sorry to say but I couldn’t have resisted and asked her that Twilight would bring all her friends so that all the Mane 6 could be here. Please understand, it was the chance of a lifetime.‘’
It was then that something clicked in Twilight head.
‘’Oooh so that's why she made that suggestion! But wait! At that time...’’
She remembered her exact words.
[Oh it's alright. You will know soon enough.]
‘’So she knew it would happen! And she didn’t tell me because…!!! Oh Princess, you may be the mentor that I admire and respect above all but sometimes, I hate your damn humor. Well, in her defense, I doubt even she could have guessed that they beso… fanatical. Look Mister Mayor, I don’t mind indulging your… you know. But I am here for an important job to do. Will you still help me explore those ruins? You do know it’s the main reason I’m here?’’
‘’Of course. We have already prepared a housing house for all your friends and luggage. You'll have the whole building to yourselves.’’
‘’Great, but Twilight may have forgotten to say that another was added on the list of guests.’’
Starlight finally decided to come out of the barricade of books when she heard that although strange, these ponies were harmless. But as soon as she opened her mouth, every single face turned their sight to her, giving her a massive dose of anxiety.
‘’Hum did, did I… say some, something wrong?’’
‘’IT’S STA STA STA STA STA STARLIGHT GLIMMER! THE SEVENTH MEMBERS OF THE MANE 6!’’
A bunch of ponies went running to her to the pink unicorn who was now like a statue and showered with praises and compliments.
‘’I can’t believe that you came too. It is like a dream come true.’’
‘’When you rejoin the group, you immediately became my favorite.’’
‘’You are a true symbol of hope, showing that no matter how far we fall, we can always redeem ourselves and find happiness. Can I have your autograph?’’
That was so confusing for her and she was not sure how… well, how to think.
‘’… … Hum, sure.’’
She grabs the pen and paper with her magic and signs her name on it, not knowing if she should feel warmth for being accepted or feel uncomfortable. Though that thought was immediately forgotten when she realized something else.
‘’Wait! I am the seventh member and we’re still call the MANE 6?’’
‘’What's wrong with that? Evereypony know that there are four musketeers in the Three Musketeers.’’
‘’There are so many things wrong with that!’’
As for the mayor, he seemed to be even more overjoyed than usual.
‘’You have brought Starlight Glimmer too! We felt that it was already a huge favor to ask for all six of you that we did not dare ask for more. This is really the happiest day in our lives. Miss Sparkle, tell me you didn’t also bring Spike?’’
Many ponies immediately looked at Twilight with baited anticipation, though by now Twilight was somewhat used to the sight.
‘’No. He had no choice but to stay behind.’’
A collective groan of disappointment could be heard throughout the town, with more than a few ponies looking quite a bit downtrodden.
‘’What a shame. Many fans of this little dragon will be upset.’’
‘’First the Crystal Empire, now this town. How does he get so popular?’’
If there was any positive to that reveal was that it finally seemed to calm the crowd down. Which in turn made it possible for a familiar young voice to be heard amongst the others.
‘’*Sigh* I knew this would have happened. You really need to know how to control your enthusiasm everypony.’’
Floral forced her way between passersby with everypony happily letting her through. Though her presence was exactly as welcomed as before, if the visible steam coming from Twilight’s ears was any indication.
“Oh, there you are Flo. Thanks for abandoned us like that.’’
Flo at least had the decency to look embarrassed. ‘’Sorry, very sorry about that. But I know them. I had to go hide to safety. Still, I admit it was a little lame of me. Please forgive me.”
Her apology was met with either half hearted looks, a smile and wave from Pinkie, and in the case of Twilight exhausted indifference. “It’s fine, just….warn us in the future of something like that.”
“It’s a deal. Now then.”
Flo then turned toward the Happy Townians and looked at them with severity.’’
‘’As for all of you, you shall be ashamed of yourselves. You think they will want to stay if you scare them like that? I mean I understand your feelings, I am myself the number one fan of the Mane 6. But this is exactly why we should treat them with restraint. Don’t you think that as fans, you should make sure to deserve their thankfulness?’’
For all her speech, she did not raise a single time her voice and she kept a kind but firm look. Everyponies smiled and nodded affirmatively at each other. Twilight was finding it strange that such a young filly could have so much authority. Flo faced her again, clearly stroked by an idea.
‘’I know! Since our tour was cut a little short and since the Princess didn't give you a time limit to do your job, why don’t you take advantage of it and wander into our town at your own leisure. Believe me, having fun is kinda the specialty of Happy Town. And it will give us the chance to show you that we can be a proper host. ” Flo then looked at the mayor. ‘’What do you think mayor Paternal?’’
‘’That sounds like a wonderful idea. Please, we will make sure your luggage is brought to your lodgings while you explore our home. I am sure you will love it. And nothing will please more my citizens than giving them the chance to bring you joy.’’
All assembled ponies nodded their heads eagerly, faces practically begging for a yes.
Twilight found herself hovering in place, mind somewhat racking to figure out a solution. It was then that Pinkie Pie came closer and put her hoof on the shoulder of Twilight in a reassuring manner.
‘’Come on Twilight, we did came here to have fun. I admit they can be a little weird but, just take a look at them. They are nothing more than a bunch of nice and innocent ponies. Nothing to be scared off.’’
‘’... Maybe she’s right. And come to think of it, this is a lot like my first time in Ponnyvile. At that time too I was finding the ponies there overwhelming. But I should have given them a chance. I won’t make the same mistake again.’’ The purple alicorn decided that it was time to relax and to accept their offer. “Oh what the hay. Why be so reserved? So girls, what do you say that all of the Mane 6, *pfftt*, go see if the hospitality of Happy Town is really top notch.’’
‘’Woohoo, now you’re talking,”.Pinkie cheered, confetti flying randomly from her mane.
Even Fluttershy and Starlight became more relaxed, though Rainbow and AJ still seemed a bit on edge. .
‘’I’m game. They surprised me a little but now I am sure that they all very nice,’’ Said Fluttershy.
‘’That sounds nice,” Starlight muttered out.” “Though maybe we should avoid being seen all together. The whole group might be too much for those ponies.’’
‘’Are you saying we shall all go our separate ways!”
‘’Well, this place is huge. If we want to make sure to see the most of it, then maybe it would be best that we all go on our own and then after, share what we experienced. That way, we will be better informed for another day.”
‘’Hum. You might be right. What do you say, girls? Are you alright with that?”
All Twilight friends were agreeing with this idea. Seeing that all were in accord, Flo and the mayor could not be happier.
‘’I see that it is decided then. I guarantee that you will not be disappointed princess.’’
‘’I’m sure we won’t, mayor,” Twilight said with a genuine smile before looking at the clock tower. “So, let’s all meet back here in about two hours. But for the moment, let’s all have a fun day.”
The girls were now feeling enthusiastic. Save for Pinkie who was more than enthusiastic but all too eager to get started. “Come on everypony, let’s cheer up and have a fun, happy adventure. We’re in the perfect place after all.”
That Central Plaza had re-became busy. The ponies returned to their daily activity, filling the air with the sound of life. In its heart, the Princess was watching her friends going away. They had already decided that each would explore one the main roads of Happy Town and each of her friends were already far into the distance on their respective roads. Leaving the alicorn alone.
But then, Twilight realized she was not quite alone. Starlight was still there by her side.
‘’Starlight! You’re still here!”
‘’Yeah… say Twi. Do you mind if I tag along with you?”
‘’Ohh. Even if it’s you who propose we separate.”
‘’Yes, I know I’d say that but I would prefer being in your company than by my lonesome.”
‘’That’s fine with me. I’m always glad to have you with me. Now, what should we do first? Oh! Look. There’s a map of the town. I’m going to look at it and planify the best itinerary.”
‘’Sounds like a plan.”
Twilight went toward the billboard with the map but Starlight… stayed where she was. She had not told Twilight but the true reason she had proposed to the others to separate was because she wanted to be alone with her mentor. As for the reason why… that was the problem. She had no idea why she was feeling that insecurity.
She turned her head toward the Happy Townians. They were all smiling and they were all nice to each other. She could tell, nothing was fake about it. Starlight genuinely thought that it was an idyllic sight. And yet…
Rarity was walking on the street, her eyes drifting from one shop to another, trying her best to ignore the gaze of the many fans.
‘’Well I never thought I would say this, but being the center of attention can be a little overwhelming. Oh woe is me, popularity can be such a burden to bear. But I will not let it ruin my day. I just need to find…WAIT!”
Rarity’s train of thought came to a screeching halt, followed almost immediately by her hooves. “What is that?’’
She was looking at a boutique where the showcase was displaying an assortment of jewels, all shining with an array of bright colors. Looking up at the sign, she couldn’t help but read it aloud.
‘’Starry Sky. Come and wear the stars upon yourself. Ooooh that looks like the place just for me.’’
The prim and proper pony quickly entered through the door, being met by the familiar and relaxing sound of a bell. And she apparently wasn’t the only one as she could hear another pony approaching.
‘’Alright, alright, I coming.’’
The one who said that was coming from the back door and from a glance she could see he was a bit taller than her. Said individual was currently entering backwards, holding a crate with his hands. Though now that she had a better look at him she was surprised to find he was actually not a pony.
‘’So, how can I help you today?’’
He turned around, revealing his gray fur, his yellow eyes and his canine face. He was a diamond dog. At his sight, flashes and images came by force into Rarity’s mind, remembering her the time when she was kidnaped by them and were forcing her to find gems. Instinctively, she grabbed a chair with her hooves and handed it as a weapon.
‘’Stay back ruffian!’’
The dog just stayed there with an exasperated face.
‘’Oh wonderful, one of those ponies.’’
As expected, the sudden commotion seemed to alert others, specifically in the back of the store.
‘’Hey, what’s happening back there?’’
From the back store came two other people. The first one, the one who had talked, was a female pegasus with cyan fur, a brown mane and wearing a shop clerk vest. The second was another diamond dog who was twice the height of the first one. The fur on the side of his face made him look like he had sideburns and Rarity could not resist to note that his eyes were exactly the same as the little one. Speaking of him, he nonchalantly pointed his index to Rarity, saying:
‘’Nothing serious Miss. Just a little lady with a little too much prejudice.”
The shop owner, the pegasus, took a single look at Rarity she immediately recognized her.
‘’Oh my, but… but it’s Miss Rarity! Here, in my shop! Oh my, what a pleasure to have you here. Please don’t be concerned about them. These two are just my regular delivery boys. I know they may look scary but there is no reason to be afraid. I had work with them for long so I can assure you, they are very good dogs.’’
The small diamond dog slapped his pawn on his face. “Oh Miss, could you not have used a better expression? That’s also offensive you know.’’
Being now aware of what she had just done, she immediately felt an immense amount of guilt for showing such prejudice just because of his appearance. The very thing that she loathes the most. She quickly dropped the chair and bowed her head as an apology.
‘’I am so dreadfully sorry for my behavior. What I did was so rude of me and I will understand if you could not forgive me.’’
‘’… … Tch. Bah, let’s just forget that.’’
Though his tone seemed to suggest that he was only half-sincere, he was trying his best to appear as cordial as possible.
‘’Well, after that little display, I suppose I should at least give a proper introduction. Here’s my card.’’
Reaching out with one of his rather large paws he handed her a simple white card where she read:
''The brother Dirt and Dust, extraordinary jack-of-all trades.''
‘’That’s right Miss,” The dog said, his prior reserved persona gone. “I am Dirt and the big one is my little brother Dust. We do nearly all kinds of jobs. Delivery, construction, movers, bouncers and so forth. If you ever need a capable set of paws, you know who to call.’’
‘’Hummm thank you, I will think about that,’’ Rarity said somewhat stunned, taking the card, surprised he was willing to drop the issue so quickly.
Dirt went to drop the crate on a corner and turned to talk to the clerk.
‘’All right, that should be the last of it. Sorry to go early but we still have to make a delivery to Mel and you know we can’t make wait our best client.’’
‘’There’s no problem, all the rest will be easy for me alone. You did a good job. And you to Dust. Have a good day.’’
Dirt exited through the door with his brother in tow, but not before slightly waving his flat cap as a salutation gesture. The clerk then came back to talk to Rarity.
‘’They can look rough, but they are no harder workers than them. They arrived here about a year ago I think, and have pretty much been receiving job requests all over town. But oh my gosh, I can’t believe that the great Rarity herself have come in my boutique.’’
The clerk’s sudden shift from professional to fangirl was a little jarring, but now that the initial awkwardness was past Rarity could help but puff somewhat at the praise.
‘’Hohoho, great is a tad of an exaggeration. I’m just a humble fashionista.’’
‘’Oh no no no no, you are simply amazing. You managed to build a small fashion empire by yourself. It beyond inspiring.’’
‘’I don’t think that three shops can really count as an empire.’’
‘’I am almost ashamed to have only modest articles to offer you,’’ The clerk sounded beyond disappointed in herself, looking upon her own wears as though they were mere bobbles.
‘’Nonsense. Everything has beauty. The trick is to simply know how to see it and understand there is always a way to accentuate it. Oh! Oooh! If I may say, your collection is quite sublime. Were these jewels made here?’’ Rarity’s eyes drifted amongst the many jewels displayed along the shelves.
‘’No, the majority were brought outside of town. Actually, we generally import most items into town. In Happy Town, we have eyes for what is great and fun. We tend to stay all our lives in this city, and typically have little desire to leave. Still, we’re always on the lookout for what good things the outside can offer to us. Honestly it’s like having the best of both worlds. Stay in your comfy house and bring the best parts of the outside world to you.’’
‘’I see, I see,” Rarity said while lightly nodding her head in forced agreement.. “I’m not one to judge another’s livestyle but this seems a little… no, no, that would be impolite to say my opinion. So can I try some before buying them?’’
‘’Of course, you can try as much as you like.’’
A huge grin was slowly forming on her lips and Rarity was looking frantically in all directions. There were so many options she paused to massage the temples of her head.
‘’Yes, yes, I can feel the surges of creativity positively pulsing through my head. So many choices, so many possibilities.” Her eyes rapidly darted from jewel to jewel, almost looking like a pinball trapped in a jar before finally coming to a stop. “Ha! Something came to me, something big! I think I will try that and this and then this, oh this will be perfect to accentuate it, of and of course this and this and this.’’
She was taking jewel after jewel in gestures that made it look like she was dancing. When her hooves were full, she levitated her precious bounty and took it with her to the fitting room. After only a minute of rapid quick changing, she opened the curtain to reveal to the clerk herself wearing so many jewels that she had managed to assemble them in a way they accentuated each other that it was practically blinding. No, like literally blinding. The eyes of the clerk went red from the burn with mascara leaking rapidly.
‘’AAAAAAH MY EYES MY EYES, I’M BLIND, I’M BLIND!!!’’
In her panic, she went running out of the store to the street, still shouting her ocular woe. But Rarity understood this the wrong way.
‘’Oh my! She was so impressed by my dazzling beauty that she has lost her sight. Quickly, I need to find a mirror so I can see my result. Ah there it is AAAAAAAAH!!! MY EYES MY EYES, I DID IT AGAIN, I WENT OVERBOARD AGAIN!’’
‘’Wooo, I’m now blind. Neato.’’
The reason Pinkie Pie had said that was a rather long story.
After separating from the others she was left bouncing on the road with her usual squeaky sounds, wondering where she should start when appearing out of nowhere, a pony with a camera appeared and rapidly assaulted her vision with a barrage of flashes. The result was her now rapidly dilating pupils being reduced to nearly the size of the tip of a pencil.
Okay, in the end it was a very short story.
‘’Annnd yay, I can see again. Fiouf. I was worried my eyes wouldn’t work and I’d have to spend years training for blind ponies to bake cupcakes and do party decorations. Oh by the way, who are you?’’
The pony in front of her was a pale yellow with what appeared to be a lab coat that had seen better days and he was wearing a pair of glasses so opaque his eyes were invisible. Yet even with no eyes she could see the pure jubilation on his face.
‘’Me! Oh I am not important but what is important is that you are Pinkie Pie, the scientific wonder that has broken nearly every law of modern science. Since I heard about you, I have always been fascinated by this pink pony who can do so many exploits and biologically defying things that others can’t do. And you are her in front of me. Oh I must study you to finally understand the mysteries hiding in you. You have to come at my lab.’’
‘’Well, that came out of nowhere but sure. I am always eager to help another. And it was asked so nicely. Kinda, at least.’’
‘’Splendid, then let’s go right now, every second counts.’’
The stranger immediately grabbed her by the front hoof and dragged her with him, leaving a deep trail on the dirt. Pinkie didn’t resist and just kept smiling.
‘’Alright mister scientist, I am just behind you. Seriously, with how strong your grip is, I can’t be anywhere else.’’
*Later at the laboratory*
‘’Backer, we’re here. Look who I managed to bring.’’
The pair entered a room full of machinery, gadgetry and chemicals, not. Though Pinkie noted that the way they were displayed was a little sloppy. The scientist was talking to a female earth pony wearing chemist glasses, a brown mane arranged in a ponytail and a lab coat with burn marks. And said pony was currently staring at Pinkie with the same awe as her companion.
‘’I must be hallucinating! Pinkie Pie! The scientific wonder!’’
‘’Uh, you know, I’m not sure what the deal is with the strange nickname but I’m not that special. I’m just a simple party planner. Just a normal pony.’’
Pinkie then felt that her tail was twitching and that can only mean one thing. She quickly took a step backward before a piece of metal piping fell right where she was a second earlier.
‘’Fiouf, this could have given me a big bump on the head.’’
The two ponies that had seen this were aghast with wonder and were running all around her to observe her in every angle.
‘’See, this is exactly what we were talking about. Your innate ability to semi-accurately predict to a degree the future. Your Pinkie Senses.’’
‘’That! It’s just something that I always had.’’
Neither science pony looked convinced. ‘’But not a single pony can boast to have such a unique talent, even the most gifted magic users. What could it be, a gift of super deduction on subconscious level, humm?’’
“Not to mention your ability to manipulate your mane and tail as though they were additional limbs.” The other lab pony with the burned lab coat mentioned, a magnifying glass scanning over Pinkie’s candy colored locks.
‘’Oh, you mean like this.’’
Her hairs immediately sprung to life, wrapping themselves around the piping piece and lifting it up like another arm.
As expected the two other ponies were left floored again. grabbed it like a tentacle.
‘’It’s fascinatingUtterly fascinating, and you have no idea why you can do this?”
‘’I don’t know, I could always do that since as long I can remember.’’
‘’The answer must be in how your body works,” The unnamed pony who’d originally brought her here stated. “We’ll need to conduct a few experiments to determine how it works.”
“Umm, I got a feeling of déja vue. Twilight has already tried to do that without success.’’
But the pair of ponies ignored her and were already turning on machines and pulling out equipment. “For us it will be different. We thought for years on how to understand you. Becker, prepare the mixture while I prep Ms. Pie and install her into the machine”
The still unnamed scientist led Pinkie to a metallic chair and tied her up with a belt. By now the party pony was having second thoughts and then she remarked that the assistant Backer was mixing a bunch of chemicals with her bare hooves.
“Wait! Shouldn’t she be wearing gloves? You don’t use any protection equipment?’’
‘’Ah to hell safety. We are here to find great discoveries that will advance science and above all else to improve the daily lives of society. The joy we feel in pursuing this noble quest is such that we simply don’t care what may happen to us. No time to lose when you create wonders. Here, the mixture is ready.’’
Beaker had brought Pinkie a beaker full of green liquid. Despite her prior concerns Without fear, Pinkie had it and drank all the mixture in one gulp.
‘’Humm, fruity. So mister scientist, what exactly I should do now?’’
‘’Just keep sitting there. This machine will send you an electrical discharge. The mixture will make it easier for us to read the electrical pulse circulating in your brain and nervous system by a process of [a lot more of scientific terms ridiculously complicated that seem to look like what he says is clever but in reality make no sense] and that is how it works. Oh and rest assured yourself, the electrical discharge of this machine is absolutely no lethal.’’
That last statement did little to calm Pinkie’s nerves. ‘’Oh great, hehehe, abs… absolutely no nerve wracking, not at all, haha, should be fun. Wait, did you at least test this machine before?’’
‘’What do you think we’re doing it right now.’’
“WHAT!!!’’
And without another word, the ‘scientist’ he pulled the activation lever.
From outside the house, you could see light flickering on and off through the window, matched with the sound of electrical equipment. The overload of energy ended up growing to such an extent that in a single moment every light within several blocks went dark, though thankfully for everyone involved, that blackout only lasted a few seconds. When the light went back in the lab, Pinkie, who had just received a massive shock, seemed to be perfectly fine.
‘’Ho! That's all! Wow, I thought it would be way worse but it was not that terrible in the end.’’
She turned her head and saw her reflection on a silvery machine. And the thing that jumped through her eyes was her hair. The electricity had made them stand up into long pink spikes, making her as if she was dressing like a punk.
“‘Ohhh, pointy.” Taking another look at herself in the reflection, she pondered deeply. “Interesting. Maybe I should keep that look.’’
‘’Well, ah know ah said that ah was gonna go have fun but Celestia help me if ah figure out what exactly to do here. There are just so many things, it so hard to choose.’’
Applejack was having a conundrum on where to begin. The main streets of Happy Town were indeed, where all the action was taking place. Shops and recreational places of all kinds were the only things to see and it was starting to make AJ head spin a little.
It was only after a moment of mental debate that a male unicorn with a red beret burst from a door and immediately got her attention.
‘’Miss Applejack, pardon me. I couldn’t help but overhear your concerns. My name is Craft Maker by the way. You’re looking for some amusement? Then should I propose that you try my atelier.’’
“Now that is something coming out of nowhere. Uh, howdy there, guess I’m gonna need to get used to you all just popping out like that,“ Applejack muttered again, still getting used to the boundless excitement of the town. “Atelier! What kind of atelier?’’
‘’The one where we build all kinds of monuments that will endure for generations. Where we show all our skills in crafting. Where we assemble part to create ultimate beauty.’’ The strange pony spoke with such conviction and passion it was almost infectious.
‘’Wait. Monuments? Assemble? … Ah! They're craftsponies. Ah see, this must be a sort of club for ponies who like building stuff and are not afraid of a good hard-work. Like masonry and wood crafting. And there’s no better than mah in this domain. Ooooh ya got mahn attention. Ah see we both ponies of the same wood. Ah’m in.’’
‘Oh,’I knew you would agree.” The pony took a few steps back, and pointed his hoof to the building he just exited. “Please follow me, it’s right through this door.”
‘’Ah show them all that Applejack can do wonders with a wood knife and… wait, what in tarnation!!!’’
Taking a few tentative steps forwards, AJ was half expecting to perhaps see a bunch of sculptures or perhaps carpenters, ponies who build all kinds of things with their hooves. So imagine her surprise when she instead saw ponies punting paint on canvas. That was said nicely because in reality, they were throwing paint furiously without even using brushes and instead then using their hooves with a near-maniac glint in their eyes. To AJ eyes, it looked more like a colorful loony house.
“O…kay, that kind of crafting,” She struggled to find the words to continue at the Ood display before her. “ Hum listen, ah’m not sure this is a place for meh.’’
Sadly the pony who led her seemed undaunted by the request. ‘’Not to worry. Everypony can do painting. You don’t even have to be good. All you need is to let flow your creativity like a wild beast devouring flesh and tearing everything on his way.’’
‘’Hum, ah’m sure you could have found a better metaphor but seriously, ah’m more a practical pony than an artistic one. It's just not my style. So ah afraid WAHHH INCOMING!!!’’
With high reflex she grabbed a canvas for protection against a bullet of black paint, making a big splash all across the white surface. And that proved to be the proverbial last straw for her.
‘’By Celestia, this is no atelier, this is a warzone! Okay that’s it, ah’m getting out of BLUUURG!’’
She had received another bullet, this time of white paint, right in the face. It turned out to be the ideal color since it concealed that her orange face was changing to red.
‘’Oh, you want war? Ah’ll give you war! Give me that pot.’’
Her guide immediately complied, leaving her holding this metallic recipient of ivory high for throwing it at the group, but she got distracted. Outside a pony was running frantically on the street and she was shouting things like: ‘’I’M BLIND, I’M BLIND.’’.
‘’… … … Ah don’t know why but something tells me that ah don’t want to know what this was about. BLUUURG *kouf*kouf* Oh not again.’’
In her distraction, she had accidentally dropped the bucket, resulting in all the white paint falling on her, leaving the farmgirl as a unicolor pony. And if it was not enough, she then had received many black splashes all across her body.
It was at this moment that a fragile rope snapped in her head, making her only think about hitting back.
*LATER AFTER CALMING DOWN FROM HER BATTLEFIELD RAGE*
‘’I am sorry everypony for the way ah… turned lunatic. At mah defense, ah was just trying to go at your level. The good news is that by some miracle, ah think ah made a masterpiece purely by accident. Maybe it is a revelation. So tell me, what do you think?’’
Taking a step back she showed to everypony the canvas that held the results of her freak out. And once everypony had taken a glimpse at it, their faces… stiffened. Actually it was more they were scared than anything else.
After a moment of silence, one brave pony currently covered in green paint decided to speak. ‘’Hum… hum… Miss Apple. How can I say this politely? I, hum, I’m afraid to say that picture is a little… disturbing.’’
‘’Heh really! … Hum. Yeah, after taking a look, ah can see what it’s a tad nightmarish.” Applejack looked down at her work of art and scratched her head but in the end, she decided she liked it. “Still, ah don’t think that it means it’s bad? Disturbing and scary could be good art ya know.’’
‘’Oh! Hummm… Look, I feel really bad to say that but… we’re in Happy Town and this kind of art is… oh gosh,’’ the art critic couldn’t help but continue to stumble over his words, trying to be as delicate as possible.
The pony with red beret was visibly embarrassed and was softly scratching the wooden floor with his hoof in a nervous tic.
‘’Don’t feel bad, please, but your accidental panting, well, there’s a risk it might disturb somepony. Or bum them out. And that is the last thing that a citizen of Happy Town would want. I’m sorry to say… but it would be best to not show it in public. Y… you understand?’’
Applejack was silent and then made an awkward smile.
‘’Oh ah understand. Ah understand it is impossible to escape critique that is. No, it’s quite alright, ah mean, ah made purely by accident. Why should ah be upset? Even if ah am. ye know what, ah think this is really not my place and that it will be better if ah go elsewhere, bye,’’
Not wanting to stick around further, AJ headed towards the door, despite the protest of those inside. Once outside, she threw away the canvas into a nearby garbage can. However, despite her claim she was alright, a fuming mood was starting to rise in her.
‘’Those ponies. They want me to share their passion and when ah start to have an interest, they reject it. They say to be casual yet but ah find they were pretty serious at being judgmental. What’s their problem?’’
The anger and bit of sadness bubbling inside her was enough so that a fair amount of ponies were sensing the negativity on her. Many ponies were running away at the sight of that angry earth pony. But it quickly evaporated when she realized how dump she was to be affected by something so dump.
‘’Come on Applejack, let it go, it’s not ye. Why did ah take that so seriously anyway? Still for supposedly jovials ponies, ah didn't expect to be… nah, it’s not good to judge. It’s not because ye find someponies strange that all the rest is.’’
As she continued to muse over her…episode, in her distracted state, she didn't notice the stallion before her, resulting in an immediate collision with him.
‘’Ouch! Oh! Pardon me sir.’’
‘’That's quite alright heeeh! Oh, you must be Miss Bovine! You came earlier than expected! How nice of you.’’
‘’Heh what!?’’
The grown and muscular stallion had a gentle smile and was shaking AJ hoof vigorously.
‘’Glad to meet you for the first time. Me and the boys had heard so much about your singing talents. I must say, for a cow, you are quite small. Oh no no, I’m sorry, I don’t want to imply anything.’’
‘’What, what!?’’
‘’Anyway, me and the boys are so grateful for you to offer your services as a lead cow chorister. With your voice combined all of us, this would be the best anniversary of The Brotherhood of the Barrel Builders will ever have.’’
‘’Okay, now, ah have ‘so’ many questions that ah don’t know where to begin. Ah think ya are confused. Do ah really look like a cow choristerrrrrrr… … oho!’’
In this pandemonium, Applejack completely forgot that she was covered in white paint with black stains on her. In other words, save for her smaller build, she was the spitting image of a cow.
‘’No no no no this is all a big misunderstanding. Ah am not what ah seem! There is an explanation for that.’’
‘’Oh it's alright, you don’t have to come with a poor excuse just because it’s your debut. We’re not a hard audience to please. We will love your performance, we can promise you. Boys, let’s show her that we will give her a warm welcome. I know! Let us bring her to the workshop ourselves.’’
‘’Do you hear the words coming from mah mouth?’’ Applejack practically screamed, yet it seemed every word spoken went in one ear and out the other.
Other muscular stallions came from the sides and they all grabbed Applejack and brought her with them. She was moving her arms frantically and legs, trying to claim again and again without success that they got the wrong person.
‘’No, please listen to me. Anypony could see ah am anatomically all wrong. Ah am really not a cow. A cowgirl at the most…wait, no I mean, dangit listen to me.’’
Sadly her words continued to fall on deaf ears as she was led away, arguing the whole way in.
‘’Oooooh, but what is that? This looks awesome.’’
That’s what Rainbow Dash had proclaimed in front of a big building with flashlights of all colors and a billboard made of neon saying: Dance Club.
‘’Now, that looks like a place made just for me. Flashy, colorful, loud and full of action. Just like yours truly. Alright, time to skyrocket this party to the stratosphere.’’
Always eager to make an entrance with style, she had burst open the door with her front hooves and had shouted:
‘’Guess who’s in the houseOH BOY!!!’’
She did not expect the music would be so loud. It snuffed out any sound that was coming from her mouth and the sound wave was so powerful that it knocked her on her back and shook her mane up something fierce. The music then came to an abrupt stop and all dancers turned their heads to the new visitor. And like with every other pony, the reactions were about what was expected.
‘’I am dreaming! Look, it’s her! It’s Rainbow Dash! The coolest, awesome pony in the world and she’s right here!’’
While normally Rainbow would probably ask a little in the praise she sadly couldn’t as her ears were still ringing from the audio assault she just experienced.
Once she got back her senses, she made her second attempt at entering. The club was rather spacious, with lamps of all the colors of the spectrum, a massive and unavoidable disco ball on the ceiling and a stage with disco dance floor covered in colored panels. Honestly the amount of color was such it put her mane to shame.
‘’Whoa, that’s sick! You guys really go all-out on this.’’
‘’I am glad you like it. I am Funky Step. My pals and I love disco above all else and we formed this little club so us and others could fully express this dancing art.’’
‘’Yeah, I can see that. Say, any chance I can join in?’’ Dash kept eyeing the dance floor, looking a little cocky at the idea of showing off her moves.
‘’Really! Of course, Miss Dash, of course. We must confess that we have always admired your colorfulness and ‘radicality’ as you put it. Nothing will make us happier than to have you share a few steps with us. But tell me, do you know how to dance?’’
At that point, Dash felt her excitement and ego shoot up. “Do I know how to dance?‘’ Heheheh. BWAHAHAHAHAHA. I guess it is time to unleash my secret power. You see, I might be known as the fastest pegasus of all Equestria, but I am also in the shadow an extraordinary dancer.’’
‘’What, it’s true?!!’’ Several ponies stopped dancing and looked at the Rainbow pony in awe.
‘’Oh yeah. Even my friends don’t know that, but I like to practice at home, mostly to come up with new aerial tricks…and show off, but yeah I can bust a move if I have to.”
Again the crowd was in awe, the leader pony looking positively ecstatic at the revelation. ‘’No! Nooo! You’ve. Got. To be. Kidding us. Then please you have to show us, you could not do to us a greater honor.’’
‘’That’s all I wanted to hear.’’
With the green light given, Dash went flying to the stage and when the music went to a start, Rainbow was rising high her right hoof to the sky, proclaiming:
‘’ARE YOU READY FOR A SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER?’’
And with a barrage of cheers mixed with the music, she went moving to the rhythm of the energetic tunes. But let me tell you something about her dancing style.
Although it was showing that she knew some rudimentaries, her coordination and rhythm was far from being… top-notch. She was principally relying on big and flashy move sets that, though amazing, was also helping in hiding her less than stellar performance. Having wings also helps in doing elaborate stunts, especially if you know how to use them. But for these hopeless worshippers, her dancing was like coming from the goddesses of disco herself.
‘’Come on everyponies, check all my sick moves.’’
She then did even more amazing stunts like spinning on her head like a spinning top or doing the reverse moonwalk. Naturally the audience ate up every second of it.
‘’And now the big finish.’’
Rainbow went running and then slid on her knees on all the stage when suddenly, all lights went flickering and then shut down completely, leaving everything in a complete blackness and it seems that some ponies heard the noises of a commotion.
By the way, I think we all know what the cause of this blackout was. It didn't last for long and the light and music quickly turned on again. But the dancers saw to their surprise that Rainbow Dash had mysteriously disappeared.
‘’But! ...But where is she!’’
‘’I got it! She must have used the blackout to make a last second exit. Because she must have understood that a mysterious disappearance would have made the greatest finale. Oh such a genius, such a showmare.’’
Behind the stallion who was singing the praise of Dashie, another stallion was transporting a metal cart full of towels. Nopony took notice but something seemed to be moving inside the pile of towels. And from them came out a blue hoof waving frantically and asking for somepony to free her.
But unfortunately for her, not a pony had taken notice of her cries for help.
‘’To have been blessed by her presence of…awesomeness and coolness. Even for such a short time. to her. But we have to take an example of her amazing ability and at least come to the closer that we can be of her magnificence. I know! The best way to celebrate a dance is with another dance. So are you ready? LET’S GET DANCING.’’
Rainbow Dash, frustrated at being ignored though she was right under their muzzle, did her waving and muffling with all the energy she could give. A hopeless endeavor against these airhead ponies. The unicorn pushing the cart, used his horn to levitate another huge pile of towels that he had put on the top of the one in the cart, burying for good her hoof, voice, and all chances to escape.
This left Rainbow Dash full of angry thoughts. “Great I come to have fun and get buried under somepony’s dirty laundry. Last time I went dancing in public. Here’s hoping everypony else has it better than me.
‘’It is really nice of you to accompany me. I was feeling so anxious to be on my own in this town that I know nothing about. I wanted to try to be brave but I guess I should have gone with somepony. I hope I haven't indisposed you.’’
‘’Ah of course not Miss Fluttershy, it's instead a great honor to accompany my favorite of the Mane 6. Besides, I have a lot of time in the end since my job was canceled. I think it is at least. I was supposed to be a chorister for The Brotherhood of the Barrel Builders but they never came to the rendezvous point. A little rude if I may say. But this gives the opportunity to meet you so I say I am a winner in the end.’’
The person Fluttershy was talking to was none other than the cow Miss Bovine. A rather amiable person who seems to be the perfect fit with the shy and polite pegasus.
‘’I must say, I haven’t had the occasion to talk with cows which I find to be a shame. Even though my friend Applejack has a lot on her farm. … Strange when you think about it. So you are a moorister? Oh my! Did I really make that bad pun?!’’
‘’It’s alright, I hear it so many times. Yes, I just debuted in the profession and it was supposed to be my first day. What a shame that it was canceled. Especially because of this new job, I had no choice but to give up my position as judge WAIT! ... Wait. I just got a genius idea.’’
Miss Bovine grabbed Fluttershy by the shoulder and brought her closer to her. Fluttershy was beginning to feel nervous. It was too close for comfort.
‘’You see, there’s today a special contest going on today that happens every year. A humorist contest. I have always been a big fan and this year was my chance to be a judge until my first day job came the same day. But now I can still take my position and here is the best part. You should come and be a judge too.’’
‘’Me! But I know absolutely nothing about humor. It’s more the domain of my friend Pinkie.’’
“Oh don’t worry, the trick is to simply not take it seriously. This show is so dumb that it’s funny. There is no greater feeling than to take your brain on holiday and relax. I always laugh so hard that my throat becomes sore. You will love it and everyone will love you too.’’
While Fluttershy had regained some composure, she still looked less than thrilled at the idea. ‘’Hum, I am flattered but it really doesn’t look like my cup of tea. I am afraid I can’t accept.’’
‘’But we're already here.’’
‘’What!’’
She was right. Without noticing it, Fluttershy was brought up during the conversation inside a room with a full cheering crowd.
‘’But... ... but I was sure we were outside just a few seconds ago!’’
‘We were, but you were a little too distracted by me dear. Andway, it’s too late now, so might as well roll with it.” Miss Bovine quickly led Fluttershy over to the judges table near the front of the stage. “Hey everypony, look who I have brought to become judge for the best show ever.’’
Miss Bovine calmly pushed Fluttershy in front of the eyes of all the crowd whose cheer intensified at the sight of this yellow pegasus. Said Pegasus who looked both confused and a bit shocked.
‘’Wait what! I’m suppose to be what?’’
White projector lights went on and went moving in all directions, illuminated a stage. And then, loud speakers took life to broadcast the voice of the announcer.
‘’Are you all ready? Today it is the tenth annual day of our contest: Are you Retarded or What! The show where you go beyond the limit of stupidity, making us die of laughter as we become as dump as them. Let's celebrate our loss of IQ. But first, let me show you our judges for the contest.’’
The projectors turned their lights to show a table where three individuals were sitting. They were wearing jester hats on their heads and on their neck they were wearing baby pacifiers.
‘’At the left, we have the ancient contestant who became the favorite for years and is here now to show his expertise: HILARIOUUUUS TROWUP. At the middle, the biggest fan of the contest who by miracle could have come: MISSSSS BOVINE. And to the right, the one that needs no introduction and who had kindly accepted to judge us! It is really a great honor. Give your applause to FLUUUUUTTERSHY.’’
Fluttershy was frantically looking everywhere, confused, and had no idea how she got her or of what she was hearing.
‘’Hummmm... I humm... I am... I am where exactly?’’
‘’And now, let us bring our first contestant.’’
‘’Look I… I really think I have no place here OH MY GOSH YOU NEED TO HAVE NO SELF-RESPECT TO DO THAT!!!’’
*LATER AFTER... ... THINGS BEYOND COMPREHENSION HAPPEN*
Fluttershy exited the building through the back door, throwing on the way the jester hat and pacifier to the garbage. Her eyes were in a daze and she seemed to have no destination in mind.
‘’… … … I think I just lost many brain cells.’’
Since I don’t want your brains to go to rot, I won’t describe you on just how stupid this show was. Trust me.
Twilight’s escapade compared to the other was rather uneventful. If anything, she actually seemed to be having a good time. She was returning to the Plaza Central with Starlight and was happily licking a caramel ice cream cone floating with her magic.
‘’I tell you Starlight, this town is amazing. The ponies are so nice, there is always a thing to do and the food is delicious. No wonder it’s such a popular tourist spot. I might actually consider coming back at some point.’’
‘Starlight matched Twilight’s smile while taking a lick of her own triple scoop cone. “I gotta agree with you Twilight. Yeah the introduction was a little strong, but otherwise this place is really nice. Everypony accepts me and even admires me, though that part is a little baffling. And everyone has a genuine smile on their face… al… though’’
“Yeah, it’s amazing.” Twilight paused, taking a large bite from her ice. “Now, the only thing missing is getting to check out the town’s library and then my day will truly be perfect. But for whatever reason we haven’t seen one anywhere.”
‘’They must simply have none on the road we were on. If we do a little more searching I’m pretty sure we’ll find it.’’
Though Starlight’s words did offer Twilight some hope, there was something…off about her trusted pupil.
Twilight stopped in her tracks and quickly swallowed her entire cone in a few bites. Once she finished, she turned to look at Starlight with a smiling but emphatic look.
‘’Starlight, is there something wrong? I notice that you were not all there.’’
‘’Oh! … Oh you saw it. I was trying to hide it. It’s really not a big deal, it’s just I kinda feel… nervous,”.Starlight quickly tried to distract herself by swallowing the top two scoops from her ice cream.
‘’Why is that?’’
It took a moment for Starlight’s ice cream and possible brain freeze to settle before she could speak. ‘’I don’t know. It’s… it’s this town. As I said, it is a great place and the ponies are so nice, I really think that. … But… I don’t know. Something in this town makes me feel uncomfortable.’’
That just made Twilight more confused. “I don’t understand, if you think this place is great, why are you uncomfortable?”
‘’That's just it, I don’t understand it myself. But I cannot shake the feeling that… that… urghh I don’t know. I have really no idea if it's serious, if I am just upset over a small detail or if it's just my imagination. That's why I wanted to say nothing. I didn't want to throw a dark cloud on your good day when I have difficulty to take what I feel seriously.’’
‘’Oh Starlight, we're friends and you shouldn't feel obliged to hide your worries for my sake no matter how small you think they are. After all, friends share everything. The good, and the bad.’’
She put her hoof gently on the cheek of Starlight and at this warm contact, Starlight felt all her worries dissipate.
‘’Thank you Twilight. I already feel way better thanks to you.’’
‘’Glad to help. I know! Why don’t you decide where we should go next?’’
Having deviated from the darker subject matter, Starlight pondered on a possible destination. ‘’Well, now that you mention, why don’t we go into this chapel-like building. I’d actually enjoy taking a break and relaxing for a bit.’’
She pointed to the direction of an old but still well preserved building that seemed to give all the indications of a chapel. Its look was simplistic yet beautiful, like it was showing its pride in its humbleness. The bricks were of a perfect white and it’s doors were made of brass, reflecting the light in a welcoming way.
‘’Then to the chapel it is.’’
The duo quickly opened the doors to enter and once inside… they become breathless because for a moment… they thought they went to heaven.
The eight windows were letting the light flow inside in a way that they did not look like rays of light, but like curtains of white silk. But the most striking was the melodious voice singing with great acoustics. It was so beautiful that they did not immediately recognize the owner of this voice.
Much to their surprise as they got closer they found out it was Flo, standing on a podium and singing eyes closed for an audience of ponies sitting on benches. They were in awe before her. But a serene awe. Starlight was pointing an unoccupied bench to Twilight.
‘’Let’s us sit here and let not disturb anypony.’’
And so they did and quietly sat to listen to this wordless intonation. The first time they had heard her singing was nothing compared to this. It was like the angels of heaven had come to take them in their warm embrace, filling them with love and peace. When Flo ended her song, our duo could not stop crying. A testament of how it touched them.
‘’Ah yes. It always has this effect the first time you hear her.’’
Surprised, they turn their heads and see that without knowing, Mayor Paternal had sat with them.
‘’Mister Mayor! We didn’t see you.’’
‘’So, how did you find her? Though I think I don’t need to ask this question.’’
‘’It was… it was… I simply find no word. It is the most beautiful thing I have ever heard. So that’s what Flo does? She is amazing! She has said that her job was special and I can see why.’’
‘’Wellll I don’t think that is what she meant. Her position in our community is… rather unique. You remember when I had said that you were the biggest idols of Happy Town? Well, the truth may be that our true greatest idol might be… our dear Floral.’’
After taking a few breaths, Flo went on singing another wordless song, filling the chapel with her crystalline sounds.
‘’Allow me to tell you two, her story. Only a few days after she was born, her parents sadly died in a landslide.
Both Starlight and Twilight struggled to keep down a gasp as the Mayor looked solemnly upon the still singing Flo.
“They were… *sigh* the kindest and most compassionate ponies our town could have and their loss affected us all. though perhaps the greatest tragedy was they were gone before Flo got the chance to know them.”
The Mayor paused to wipe a tear from his eye, not helped by the continued song of Flo. “Naturally, we did our best to make sure she could have a happy life, but even at a young age we could all see she was special. When she was a filly, she was always smiling, and was kind beyond her years. She had an air of maturity that you do often see in adults and she already had the voice of an angel. And she was always eager to help just like her parents, if not more. When someone feels sad, she always finds the right words to bring them a smile. When we proposed that it should be her profession, she was overjoyed, saying how she could not have understood something so obvious. But you would never guess what? It was then that her cutie mark appeared.”
All eyes drifted to Flo’s flank and spotted the mark, with Twilight and Starlight getting a clear view of it for the first time.
“A sunflower. The flower that always grows upward to the sun. There could not be a more fitting mark for one whose very presence shines like the sun. And that was when she officially became the angel of Happy Town, doing her best to bring smile and happiness.’’
Both Starlight and Twilight were again moved by the tale, Starlight herself looking more amazed.‘’What a beautiful story. That she can do all that at such a young age!’’
‘’Even now, she still amazes us. Often, she goes to sing in this chapel to fill our hearts with peace. But she will soon be finished. Would you like to accompany me? There is something I would like to show you.’’
After the recital, they went to the cemetery at the back of the chapel. Mayor Paternal silently told our two mares to discreetly stay at the entryway and to watch Flo. She was walking in the direction of another young mare who appeared to be the same age as her.
This other mare had fur and a mane with the color of mocha with a twig as a Cutie Mark. She was sitting before a tombstone with a smile that was a mixture of sadness and happiness. Flo went to sit beside her and put her hoof on her shoulder.
‘’Hello Twig Green. Still thinking about your father?’’
‘’Yeah. Most days I feel alright, go about my daily routine and have a good time with my friends. But… sometimes without knowing why… the days feel just empty without him. And then my hooves just seem to guide me here. It just… feels a little better to be here. Afterwards, I can have normal days. Is that weird?’’
‘’No. No, not at all,.” Flo spoke with a smile and a pat on the shoulder. “As long as it doesn't stop you from smiling, I think it is all right to say hello from time to time. What’s important is to remember that you always have the strength to go forward and see all the good things life can offer you. I know you do have this strength.’’
The young mare looked up from the grave and met Flo with conflicted eyes. ‘’You really think so?’’
Flo returned it with a smile that was positively beaming. ‘’I do not think so. I am sure of it. Besides, I am sure that what your father wants the most, is that you can be happy.’’
The unnamed mare looked about ready to cry, but fought back the urge and offered Flo a smile. ‘’Thank you Flo. You always find the right words to make my depression go away.’’
‘’That’s what a friend does.’’
Flo grabbed her with more strength to do a hug and they both burst in laughing. Twilight was rubbing a little tear from her eye with her wing and Starlight was speechless.
‘’You were right. She is unique.’’
The Mayor only nodded, looking upon the scene like a proud parent.‘’Yes. She’s always happy and ready to give advice to those in need. Especially to her friend, Twig Green. She knew she was here and she told me she would go to see her after her recital. You see now why she is so special to us. We all try to find happiness but nopony does that better than Flo. Just looking at her is an inspiration to go further and further.’’
‘’That's enough mister mayor. Why do you always have to sing exaggerate praise about me?’’
Much to the group’s surprise, while they were distracted, Flo had joined them. Being caught eavesdropping left them all looking a bit embarrassed and ashamed, but Flo seemed more amused than bemused.
‘’Oh Flo! Well, hum, I just… I just wanted to show them, hummm…’’
Flo simply rolled her eyes at the mayor’s sad attempt to lie. ‘’And you decided to bring them to spy on me. Why I am not surprised. Please don’t listen to a word he said. I am not the great mare that everypony said, I am just a normal girl.’’
Despite the words from her, Twilight didn’t seem to agree completely. ‘’I have no doubt. But you also seem to be particularly wise for your age. I think I may have to learn a thing or two from you.’’
‘’Please Miss Twilight, not you too. Let’s just change the subject. How have you found our town until now?
Twilight decided to chime in. ‘’I simply love it. This place is so peaceful, I feel more relaxed than I have in years. Now if I can just find a little literature it will be perfect.’’
‘’Humm. I don’t know much about that sort of thing, since I’m not one for books.”
Twilight’s eye immediately began twitching at such a claim.
“But, if you’reI don’t know much about the places concerning that domain but if you are searching for literature, then maybe you should try the blue house. It’s a little boutique in Central Plaza not far from here and I think you will love it.’’
At this mention, for a strange reason, the mayor got a little worried.
‘’Wait Flo! I know why you’re thinking of that place hy you propose it but maybe–
‘’Do not dare finish that sentence.’’
Flo immediately interrupted the mayor and changed her face to one of cold irritation. The mayor was aghast and then felt remorseful, leaving our two heroines to see that there was some history between these two.
‘’I am sorry Flo. You know that wasn’t is was not what I mean.’’
Flo's expression didn’t change, still looking rather cold compared to before. ‘’I wonder.” And then almost immediately her attitude did a complete 180 and she was back to her usual smiling self. “Anyway, back to the topic, you should certainly go, Miss Twilight. But I should probably warn you about the shop clerk.”
‘’What do you mean?”
‘’Nothing serious, it's just there’s a risk you might find him off-putting. He can be a little…eccentric.”
Twilight and Starlight merely brushed off the warning. ‘’Don’t not worry, dealing with eccentric ponies is kinda what we do, especially recently. Though let’s save that for later today, might as well keep the best for last.’’
‘’Glad to hear. I’m sure he would be happy to meet you two.’’
‘’For the damn last time, will ya all put me down!’’
‘’Of course, we have arrived.’’
The ponies transporting Applejack finally let the farm pony down after carrying her for several blocks.
Happy to at last feel the dirt on her hooves, she saw before her was a rather large wooden building that appeared to be some kind of workshop. And to the right of it, were barrels stacked one on top of the other, forming a rather impressive mountain.
‘’I see where ah am. Now listen up brotherhood of airheads. Ah said it once, ah said it twice, ah said it practically every minute ya’ll hauled me over here, but ah’ll say it one more time. Ah am not yer chorister, hay ah not even a cow.”
Sadly like with her prior complaints it once again fell on deaf ears, leaving the applebucking mare stumped. “Consarnit, what in the hay do I have to do to get through to these fools?”
As if to answer her conundrum, her eyes drifted to one of the barrels, more specifically the water seemingly leaking out of a small crack within it.
“Ah am OH! A barrel of water! Just what ah need. Just a sec ya guys.”
Not missing a beat, she immediately ran to the barrel, and took it with both her front hooves.
“Hum, you have to pay for the water. Two bits.”
“Later.”
Lifting it high, she sent its contents splashing all over her.
Though a little on the messy side, it proved to do the trick as the layer of black and white melted away to reveal her beautiful orange colored fur.
“There, ya see?” Applejack paused to shake some of the water off her and her hat. “I told yah, I, am, a, pony. And also not the one you seek. You get it now?”
The aforementioned brotherhood looked to have a wide variety of thoughts on this revelation. Some looked shocked, some embarrassed. But Applejack wouldn’t wait for them to get her point across.
“Now, are we all clear on everything? No more misunderstandings?”
The group all nodded in the affirmative that seemed to finally put AJ’s worries at ease. Oh if only it were that easy.
‘’Wait, I recognize her. It’s Applejack! This is even better. We can have Applejack at our founding anniversary!’’
That comment got the expected response from the intended guest of honor.
‘’What! Geez, ya really no good at listening to others. Bad enough ya’ll basically kidnapped me, why should I stick around? And what’s this story of song and anniversary?”
The stallion, who seemed to be the leader, went to take a dignified pose.
‘’We are… the Brotherhood of the Barrel Builder.’’
All the stallions went shouting ‘’The Brotherhood’’.
It was at this moment, Applejack understood. She was with weirdos.
‘’A brother… hood! Ah don’t want to judge but it isn't a bit… too much?’’
‘’Oh, well we chose that name mainly because with it, we have three ‘B’s. But the importance is that we are very proud of our job and the barrels we make are one of the most important exports of the town. To make our work even greater, we sing as we build those cylindrical marvels. We are famous for that. And today is the anniversary of the foundation of the brotherhood.’’
All the stallions again went shouting ‘’The Brotherhood.’’.
‘’Not now guys!” The leader said at the still boisterous crowd. “Anyway, we wanted to celebrate by bringing a chorister that would make our work song even greater. But now that you're here, this could become the best anniversary that we ever had.”
The head of the group at least had the decency to look apologetic when he said that last part, even bowing his head as a follow up. “Please Miss Applejack, it would be the greatest honor for our group if you’d take part.”
Without any coaxing, all the stallions bowed their heads to her in a respectful and pleading manner, their muzzles nearly touching the ground.
‘’Please Miss Applejack, we would like you to join us in our work. Of all the Mane 6 you have always been a source of inspiration for us. Your dedication and unbreakable work ethic is something we all aspire to achieve. Plus your woodworking skills are nothing to sneeze at either. With you at our side, it will be a day that we will never forget.’’
But in-front of all this devotion, Applejack was giving to them a fixed stern look, staying like this for a few seconds and then, raising her right eyebrow.
‘’Now, let me get this straight. Ya want me to work and sing with ya, in a job that has absolutely nothing to do with mea, even though ya just dragged me across a bunch of city blocks against ma will without listening to me, which means that technically ya’r should be the ones that owns me one? … … For real, do ya really think ah am that nice and that ah will say yes?’’
*LATER*
‘’Eeyup. Ah am that stupidly nice. Why it is so hard for me to say no?’’
In the end, refusing their request had been too much for her. Oh she gave them a massive earful for the kidnapping, and they swore up and down they would pay her back. Yet in spite of everything, she caved to their request.
Applejack was often buying barrels for her apples and ciders. And it was now dawning on her that the very barrels she was using for years were being made here. Honestly the BBB engraved in each barrel should’ve been the first clue, but she never really questioned it. Heck that only increased her desire to lend a hoof. As a hard-working producer of good herself, her sense of community was too compelling.
Also, their pleading eyes, a dirty trick AJ thought, was the final nail to the coffin.
Obviously, she was doing it with a bit of reluctance at first, at least they didn’t force her to dance. At worst it was just a rowdy party with a group of ponies she didn’t know. Awkward but not exactly unpleasant, and after a couple cups of cider, she started to have fun.
Forced inclusion aside, she respected the brotherhood’s work ethic. They were doing their tasks in perfect harmony in a way that was even more synchronized than an assembly line. Cutting the staves, putting them into metal hoops, make a fire inside so that the heat can bend the wood, making the heads and polishing them.
And their tune was so catchy that it was hard for AJ not to move her hooves to the rhythm. And so she did and was quickly infected by their enthusiasm. It was so fun that she was even doing some backflip with them, some polka dance and drinking cider, all that in singing. Though, you had to wonder what all that could have anything to do with barrel crafting.
Then again, she knew plenty of ponies who did all kinds of things counterintuitive to their job. Even she was guilty of that as Rarity has so helpfully pointed out that one time.
Regardless, everything was fine and dandy, that is until one of the builders, in the midst of enjoying their jaunty tune, accidently swung a piece of wood that smacked her stenson off and into an open barrel.
In good humor, AJ simply went to recover it and reached down into the barrel. But another builder, equally as jubilant, ended up bumping into AJ’s flank, sending her head first into the barrel.
‘’Ouch! *sigh* Now that smarts.” AJ groaned, rubbing her still sore nose while trying to navigate how to move her body in this small and awkward space. “And here I was finally starting to enjoy myself, humm… wait! Where did the light go?!’’
In spite of the attention she’d initially drawn, it turns out the Brotherhood partied just as hard as Pinkie, meaning their awareness of anything else was just as bad. Thus it shouldn’t have been surprising the singing builders had put the barrel head on where Applejack was and sealed it.
As one can expect, seeing the light being snuffed out, ontop of being in a less than comfortable position was doing little to improve AJ’s mood.
"Concernant. Don’t those yahoos hear me?” She practically shouted that part but received no response. “Dangit, I’d buck my way out of her, but it’s so dang tight I can’t wind my legs back.”
As the trapped farm pony mused over escape possibilities, the partying ponies They even went to transport her to the pile, still ignorant as to what had happened and because of the music, nopony was hearing her shouting.
And so she was put at the bottom with the other barrels. Oh, and her head was upside-down.
So yeah, not exactly having a good day.
‘’Oooh the hay. There is always something like this going on. Like if some prankster wants to turn ma life into a cheap comedy. The only thing missing is *huff**huff* that in my struggle for going out ah fell *hompf* yeah just like that, and then that led to me by rolling down the hill until ah could not stoooowowowowowo AAAAAH COME ON!!!’’
Applejack could barrel scream as she felt her world go sideways before immediately picking up speed in one direction. And yet, even in spite of that, the partying ponies that got her into this mess remained as ignorant as ever.
‘’I tell you, there’s no greater feeling than flying on a paraglider. For too long, only pegasis could enjoy flying among the clouds. Even with all the flying contraptions ponykind has made, we still haven’t managed to crack that one frontier and feel the rush of adrenaline to make one with the wind. But we, the 'Lover of Thrills' have found a way to be like them and use the sport of paragliding to fly like birds. We will gladly let you try for free.’’
The aforementioned Lover of Thrills spoke with so much conviction it was honestly inspiring…even if part of it did sound like a sales pitch. Though that didn’t bother his current customer, a familiar pink pony, one single bit.
‘’Oh that looks like super-duper fun! I’m actually used to flying, mostly with balloons, flying them and tying myself to them, though I guess it is technically more floating. Oh oh oh, there was one time when I was freefalling from a pirate airship, gosh that was a fun ride. Ah, how could I forget, I had also built a flying bicycle thingamajig with things I'd found there and there but it crashed on my first try because of a grumpy griffon. And before I had the chance to patent it, can you believe it.’’
Oddly enough, in spite of the chaotic and somewhat absurd list of things Pinkie had just said, the hang glider pony seemed to be hanging off her every word.
‘’Waaaa, I'd always known your life was so rad! You’re truly an inspiration for aeronautics.’’
‘Awww, that’s so sweet of you to say.” Pinkie responded with her usual smile. “’But I’ve never flown on a paraglider before. This should be great. I’m sold. Even if you had brought me here without my consent or opinion but, oh well, I’m used to it anyway.’’
That last part seemed to get a reaction from her abductors, three young earth ponies who were all wearing colorful punk hairs.
Once Pinkie had broken off from the others, she was almost immediately roped into the antics of this trio, who practically dragged her to this cliff, currently being used by several paragliders with a few already flying in the sky with ropes connecting them to the ground.
The one who initially gave her their little sales pitch, the Lover of Thrills, was wearing his red mane in a mohawk style and was clapping his hooves like a happy foal.
‘’Oh yeah, I knew it, I knew you would be stoked for this.’’
‘’Ah thank you but... what makes you so sure?’’
‘’Don’t you wear the emblematic hairstyle that all thrill seekers of Happy Town wear? I assumed that you wanted to dress like us as a sign of enthusiasm.’’
Pinkie’s eyes immediately shifted into question marks at the odd word choice. ‘’Emblematic what?!’’
Pinkie’s hair was certainly a little on the distinct type, but compared to the spike covered and jagged edged hair styles of the group in front of her, it was like apples and oranges. So why the confusion.
One of Pinkie’s eyes immediately stretched out like taffy and went at least two feet up before getting a clear look at her hair. Surprise suprise, her normally puffy hair currently ressemble the back of a hedgehog thanks in part to the prior electrocution.
‘’Oh right, I can’t believe I forgot about that. Silly Billy."
Returning her eye to its original spot, she put her hoof on her mouth, took a big expiry and her hair inflated then deflated like a balloon, returning to its more fluffy cotton candy style.
The stunt actually earned a few applause from some of the ponies watching.
‘’There, much better. Sorry guys, the hair thing was just a misunderstanding, I’d never actually heard of you. But still, this does look really fun, so would you let me try? Please, it’s like my dream. My dream from twenty seconds at least. Still count right?’’
Surprisingly, the three thrill seekers seemed unfazed by the revelation. Still nodding and smiling with the same level of excitement as before.
‘’Heck, that’s good enough for us. So now, prepare to have the experience of your life. Go take a seat Pinkie Pie.’’
They nicely went about installing her on the seat and put on her head a helmet, which proved a little more challenging thanks to the spring from her hair.
Afterwards, a pegasus used her wings to create a wind below the paraglider. That wind propelled in the air and Pinkie Pie with it. Then, the ponies on the ground pulled a crank, giving more rope and giving Pinkie more height.
At first, she was a little afraid and was gripping the ropes like she was gripping for her life. But then, the fear quickly left her out and something else took place. A feeling of rush and adrenaline surged in her and gave her a burst of giggling.
‘’Oh! Wow! WOOOOOOOHOO! They were right. Hehehe… HAHAHAHAHA. The thrill, the thrilllll. This is nothing like riding a hot air balloon or my flying thingamajig. I feel like I am a bird flying proudly in the blue expanse. Hey, you below. Higher. I want to go higher.’’
The trio’s similes quickly matched hers with excitement.
‘’Higher she said! She speaks our language. Alright then, let’s go all the way.’’
They turned the crank like crazy, bringing the pink pony up to greater heights.
‘’Let's bring her all the way to the top. By the way, just to make sure dude, you did make sure the noose you made was solid?’’
‘’Made? I thought that was you who had that job.’’
That actually caused the group’s smiles to drop, as a sense of concern wormed its way in.
“Wait, then what is the rope tied to... Oh crap!’’
Not losing a second, he stopped the turning crank but it was too late. The rope circling the cylinder had already finished unwinding. It untied and gently flew away.
Pinkie was not aware of her predicament and continued to monolog with her hooves reaching out to the heavens in a poetic way.
‘’Higher. I want to fully bask in the divine glory of the sun. I want to see all the beauty of Equestria from above. I want to become a sister with the white citizens from above. Higher I say. Higher to the heaven.’’
And it was when she received no response from the normally energetic crowd she finally looked down. Her eyes immediately darted the rope dangling pitifully, cutting her link with terra firma.
And given this is Pinkie Pie, you can already figure out what happened next.
‘’Wha!? … … Less higher less higher less higher LESS HIGHERWHAAAAAAAAAAAA!!! SOMEPONY GET ME DOWN!!!’’
Poor Pinkie went flying powerlessly to the distance until, to the ponies on the ground, she was nothing more than a silhouette on the sun.
Unfortunately for Pinkie, their priorities on the situation were currently elsewhere.
‘’Dude, she’s so lucky. It reminds me of my first time.’’
Mayor Paternal was calmly walking about the street, still beaming about the day's events.
“To think we finally get to host our heroes in our little town. Truly a dream come true I only hope they are all having a wonderful time here.”
That thought only made him smile brighter as he started to whistle a jaunty tune, only to halt when he spotted a familiar yellow pegasus looking utterly lost. More like in a daze.
‘’Ah Fluttershy! Good to see you. How are you?’’
‘’Well, I just came from, hum, actually I don’t really know what I had seen and I think I’d prefer to forget it.” She seemed to shiver uncomfortably at the memory and quickly shook it off. “I was hoping to find something to take my mind off it’ am actually searching for something to make me think at something else but hum… do you know something that would be perfect for a quiet introvert animal lover.’’
“As a matter of fact, I have just the thing. Why not see the kelpies.’’
Like flipping a switch, Fluttershy’s reserved demeanor immediately shifted to boundless excitement at the mention of critters.
‘’The kelpies! Ohh, I’ve never heard of them.’’
‘’Well, they’re primarily aquatic creatures that live in a a little lake at the outskirts of our town and they’re actually exclusive to said lake. This is the only place where they live.”
The mayor quickly pulled a brochure seemingly out of thin air and opened it up to reveal a map, which included pictures of said lake and even some depictions of the creatures.
“Kelpies are very gentle marine creatures, a little shy, but if you know how to gain their trust, they become very affectionate friends. Once each week, the rental boat shop opens a kelpie tour to see these creatures, with respect for their privacy of course. And it happens that today is the day of the tour. It sounds like something perfect for you. It is just in this direction and if you go now HEIN!!! ... Miss Fluttershy?’’
He had just looked elsewhere for a moment but Fluttershy had disappeared. He turned to see behind him and saw a trail of dust clouds going to the direction he had pointed.
“Huh…glad I could be of service.”
At the lake in question, on the small dock, was a small house that was used as the ticket booth. The clerk was about to change the sign from open to close but before he could do it, a yellow hoof was put on the sign, two bits were placed on the counter, and Fluttershy gave a sweet and apologetic smile that no one could resist.
‘’Is it too late for a ticket?’’
After having a few minutes to catch her breath, and fill out the necessary paperwork, Fluttershy was seated in a boat with three other ponies with an orange life preserver and a fisher hat.
As the group rowed across the lake, Fluttershy couldn’t help but giggle with excitement as she gazed upon the water.
As a lover of all animals, the opportunity to see a new species was an exciting moment for her. The only thing that would’ve made the moment better is if she had a camera with her.
Eventually, the boat was now far past the center of the lake and had arrived at the border, where high grass was coming from the water and was filled with the lullaby song of toads and crickets. And in mere moments, they all saw a large shadow swimming in the deep.
‘’I see it, I see it! Is it one of them?’’
‘’Yes, there is no doubt, it is a kelpie,” The tour guide stated matter of factly. “That was quick. But there is a chance that it will not surface. They are very shy creatures.’’
At the mention of shyness, our resident animal lover immediately jumped at the chance to lend a hoof.
‘’Wait. Let me try something.’’
Fluttershy went flying just a little above the water and started to sing a sweet melody. At first, nothing seems to happen. However, soon the shadow started rising again and started to emerge in a huge trail of water, revealing its brown fur. And, once it was fully exposed, Fluttershy had her eyes shining before this massive animal. It looked a lot like a seal but with long and elongate horse arms with fins on them.
‘’Oh my! You are so beautiful. Come here little one for that I can give you a good scrubby scrubby.’’
The kelpie instantly came closer to make himself accessible to be scratched on the neck by the flying pegasus. In mere seconds, he was making all manner of pleased sounds, much to Fluttershy’s increasing delight.
‘’Oh yes, you are a good kelpie, yes you are.’’
He quickly took a liking to Fluttershy and gave her a lick to the cheek which she responded to with a happy giggle while the other tour guests simply watched the scene in complete awe…save for the guide who looked more concerned for some reason.
Mayor Paternal was in the midst of returning to his home when he suddenly stopped in his tracks because as a realization suddenly hit him.
‘’Oh dear! I completely forgot to tell Miss Fluttershy that once a kelpie befriends you, he has a very… unique way to show his affection. I hope she will not find it too off-putting.’’
‘’*mumble**mumble**mumble**mumble**mumble*’’
Let me tell you something. The method the kelpies use for showing their love to non-kelpies consists of... putting said individuals inside their mouths. As strange as it sounds. But despite how it might look to some, the action was perfectly harmless.
Sadly, the pony on the receiving end of this, wasn’t exactly seeing it as such. .
Fluttershy’s upper-body was presently in the mouth of the kelpie while her legs were spastically kicking about in panic. You could see in the eyes of the kelpie that he was only playing and was very happy. Fluttershy….not so much.
Of course the rest of the group didn’t see it that way.
‘’Damn, she is so lucky. Only those the kelpie trust the most are given their ultimate proof of affection. And she did that on her first meeting. She really is a pro.’’
Unfortunately for Fluttershy, things weren’t over as the kelpie shifted directions and went to the horizon with still the yellow pegasus in her mouth, whose panic only intensified. And again her fellow watchers could only look on in awe.
‘’And now he is taking her to his home! How I wish to be in her place.’’
‘’You deserve it, Rarity, you fool. Oh, after all the mistakes you’ve made over my own hubris you’d think the lesson would stick but no Rarity, you did it again. And now, thanks to your ego, you’ve managed to hurt poor innocent ponies. Me include.’’
After the incident Rarity was left wandering the town, mascara dripping from her eyes, not helping her already blurry vision, not that she cared much at this point.
Her vision was at least enough to avoid bumping into bystanders, but she was well and truly lost. If there was any kind of advantage to this situation, it was that her current state of myopia kept her from being able to see the dumbfounded expressions of other ponies as she continued to monolog to herself.
‘’Why do I have such difficulty tempering myself? It is true that creativity is what I live for, but that is no reason to let my demons command me or other cliché rationales of artists.”
She let out another rather loud moan as tears leaked again from her eyes, forcing her to rub them clean.
“Ugh, as if I couldn’t feel any worse, I think the mascara is starting to burn my eyes.” Slowly opening her slightly burning eyes and blinking a few times, to her relief the haze in her vision finally cleared.
“Ahhhh! Finally, my vision is clear again. Now then….where pray tell did I wander off to during my little episode?”’
‘’That was exactly what we were asking ourselves. Mind explaining why you’re in our house?’’
Rarity had nearly jumped of fright from these three strangers sitting at a table. And she was even more surprised to see that she was no longer outside, but that she had barged without noticing it inside the house of someone else.
‘’Oh my! Malaise.’’
Immediately bowing her head in embarrassment and apology, Rarity was quick to offer some explanation.
‘’I beg your pardon for the unwanted intrusion. Please accept my apologies, I was distracted by something of a personal matter, but that is no excuse for such uncouth behavior. I’ll simply get out of your hair.” Rarity again bowed her head as respectively as she could as she stepped back towards the door. “Please, have a good day.”
Sadly for Rarity, it seemed like the residents had other ideas.
‘’Now just wait a moment! You know, now that I think about it, don’t you find that she looks a lot like Rarity?’’
“Why yes, you’re right, it is her! The famous Rarity is here in our club! Please, nevermind the unexpected intrusion, we are honored to have you here and at our table if you would be so kind.”
The three ponies whom she’d intruded upon appeared to belong to some form of high society. Each had prominent and thick mustaches, monocles on their eyes and elegant top hats.
Rarity was somewhat hesitant to accept the offer. Her experiences in Canterlot had made her painfully aware of how shallow, abrasive and arrogant high class ponies could be. It was certainly not the kind of pony she aspired to be. However, she’d also seen through ponies like Fancy Pants that plenty of the upper class were just as compassionate as her friends could be. Besides, they offered after all.
‘’Weeell, I suppose it couldn’t hurt. Though again I do apologize for intruding on all of you.”
“Oh, please. Think nothing of it. It was an honest mistake,” One of the ponies, with a dark gray coat, light gray mane and train shaped cutie mark said with a smile. “Gus, go grab the plate and bring it here.”
The aforementioned pony, a server by his attire, immediately left the room through some double doors while Rarity herself took a seat at the table.
“I must say Miss Rarity, it is a true pleasure to have you in our club. We here like to see ourselves as those of a more refined taste, something I believe you can appreciate. I’m sure you will love it”
His word choice set off some warning signs for Rarity, having heard Upper Crust and Jet Set say something similar. “Well sir, I can say my palate is certainly more polished than others.”
Another of the ponies, this one with a wine red coat, amber mane and a wheel for a cutie mark, seemed to agree with her self assessment. “Surely with your eye for details you are one who recognizes true quality.”
“Oh you flatter me good sir.” Rarity offered a reply with a smile and light blush. “But when one works in the world of fashion, a keen eye for details is essential.”
The last of the three ponies, this one with a beige coat, white mane and newspaper for a cutie mark, concurred with her. ‘’Indeed, and such a keen eye is exactly what we’re looking for in our group of exclusive cheese lovers.’’
‘’Yes…” Rarity immediately started blinking rapidly as her mind caught up to what was said. “I’m sorry, what was the last part?”
A plate of cheese was deposited before her, hum, more like a mountain of cheese of all kinds appeared before her.
‘’You… are cheese lovers!?’’
The gray pony immediately nodded. ‘’That’s right. Our love for the delights of lactose is such that we've formed an esteemed group where we may gather and explore all the possible flavors that the cheese can give us. Each reunion is a pure delight for us.’’
‘’Ummn, perfect texture, scented but nor overabundant, and a small taste of onion,’’ The red noblepony spoke next, sampling one of many blocks of cheese from the plate.
‘’Creamy to the point it spill naturally in my throat, a mixing of so many savers and the taste kick right in the brain,’’ The beige pony almost seemed to moan in delight as he indulged as well in the creamy delights.
As the trio continued to both talk about and consume what looked to be various types of expensive cheese, Rarity found her brain had gone dark for a moment as she tried to process everything.
“Suddenly I’m wondering if these three are actually as wealthy as they act or if that’s all it is, an act.”
Her musing was brief as she found the plate pushed in front of her, with the three club members all looking at her with expectant and eager eyes.
While a part of her was tempted to politely refuse and simply leave, given the showing she’d already made it would’ve been rude to simply walk out without at least indulging them.
Thus she hesitantly levitated a random piece of cheese and took a bite of it.
The flavor itself was certainly much richer than some of what she was used to and it didn’t taste especially bad or anything. However, despite how sophisticated and upper class she acted, indulging in expensive cheese was never something she had an interest in. Thus her refined input proved to be rather concise.
“Hmm, it’s certainly an interesting taste. I can say the flavor and texture are more exceptional compared to what I’m used to.” Rarity made it a point to speak with the same level of conviction she did with her clothes, even if she was essentially bullshiting her way out of the situation.
Luckily for her the three colts seemed to take what she said well, all smiling with apparent euphoria.
“Splendid, what input.”
“Indeed my good sir, truly inspired.”
“Oh, how fortunate we are to have her with us.”
Rarity actually felt herself sweating nervously at the exaggerated praise she was receiving and was tempted to now take her leave. Unfortunately, the three didn’t seem quite satisfied, eyeing the still considerably stacked cheese plate.
And in that moment, Rarity felt her stomach ache with phantom pains, dreading what was to come.
*LATER*
The white unicorn went rushing to the street, though now looking more green than white. She had eaten too many cheeses and was feeling sick. But she was still trying to do her best to say her thanks to the three ponies, her hoof over her mouth.
‘’Thank you, guuh, thank you so much for the invitation. It was really delicious che, blurg... no I can’t say the word. It was a fuurh, heum fun moment so see you... see you... see you soon and… oh damn!’’
She did not have the strength to finish and go running faster than she had ever run, leaving the three cheese ponies to watch her gradually disappear.
‘’Hum, maybe we should have been a little more moderate with her. This hobby can be overwhelming for newcomers.’’
‘’But we have so much of the joy for life it’s hard to imagine anypony not sharing our sentiments.’’
‘’So true. … So, what do you say we go grab more cheese?’’
‘’Oh excellent idea.’’
Rarity was desperately searching for somewhere to puke, frantically looking in all directions while running like crazy, which was not doing her poor stomach any favors. But then she found an empty trash can and put her head inside to do what she no longer had the strength to stop.
‘’Blablebluuurrrrrrrgh… bleblarrrgh… … oh, that was brutal.” Rarity groaned in agony, not even bothered by the foul smell of the contents of her stomach, slowly pulling her head out the can.
Her body slowly slid down, not having the strength to support herself. “Ugh, I desperately need a shower and some mouthwash. This has truly been a dreadful experience, and the only solace I can take from it is at least no pony has to see me in such an undignified state.”
‘’RARITYYYYYYY.’’
‘’Pinkie!!!’’
What surprised her was not to have heard her friend but that her voice was coming from above. She looked up and her eyes immediately dilated because she simply couldn't understand what she was seeing.
Having known the party planner for years, Rarity had long accepted a little customary insanity from her friend. Still, seeing said pony seemingly flying in a paraglider with what appears to be the leftover of a rope following her like a tail was a new one. Said friend screaming her head off and desperately signaling for help conversely….
‘’Rarity, help me! I don’t know how to stop this crazy thing. I don’t want to crash.’’
By sheer luck the glider flew mere inches past the dumbfounded Rarity and continued forward, maintaining a decent distance from the ground despite its speed.
Rarity’s upset stomach suddenly became a none issue as she immediately took chase. “Hang on Pinkie, I’m here to rescue you.”
Seeing the dangling rope, Rarity focused her magic on the rope and moved it forward, allowing her to grab it with both her front hooves. Sadly this moment of victory was immediately undercut by a rather obvious fact of reality. Namely Rarity, was neither Applejack or Rainbow Dash. So instead of dragging Pinkie down, it was Rarity that was being dragged up as the unicorn felt her feet leaving the ground.
“Wait! WHAT WAS I THINKING!” Rarity mentally howled as she was dragged along the street, clinging to the rope like a lifeline.
As if some higher power was taking some delight in this misery, a large gust of wind came blowing and took the paraglider even higher, high-above the roofs of the entire town. The sudden height increase prompted Rarity to wrap all four limbs tightly around the rope and finally scream with mass hysteria.
‘’HAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! I had always dreamed about soaring to the top, but this is far too literal for me.”
In another feat of her own bizarre form of crazy, Pinkie managed to stretch her head and neck down to her imperiled friend, with an apologetic look on her face.
‘’I am so sorry Rarity, I did not want to literally drag you into my problem. But hey, at least we have company.’’
Rarity looked angrily unamused. ‘’Pinkie, darling, How on earth did you manage to get in this situation?’’
‘’Heheh, it is a long story but the truth is even I’m not sure how. With perspective, it was a reaaally weird adventure.’’
Rarity could only sigh at the lack of an answer, far too drained to freak out any more.‘’Please tell me at least that you have an idea on how to go back to terra firma? Preferably in the form of a safe landing.”
‘’Huuuuum, nope. Sorry, I’ve got nothing. Best we can do is just float on the breeze and wait for a miracle.’’
‘’Great. Now it can’t really be worse. Hoo... heeeeek! Pinkie can’t you say something, anything, to distract myself from this scary height?’’
‘’Weeeell... OH! I think I finally found an answer to why I can move my hair. Apparently I possess a unique ability to instinctively control something a scientist calls biofeedback. It is also why my hair goes down when I get depressed. Though I didn’t quite understand all the mumbo-jumbo jargon he used. Does it interest you?’’
‘’At this point Pinkie, anything could become the most fascinating conversation I ever heard.’’
On a green field near the town, several ponies were doing some warming-up. Another was pushing a metal cart full of clean towels.
‘’You know it is really nice of that dancing club to let us borrow some of their towels. Especially since we waste the majority of our budgets on our activities. But it is not because what we do is bloody extreme that it’s a reason to neglect our hygiene.”
Coming to a stop in front of the group, the green pegasus with the cart, and a strange accent, called out to the other ponies. “Hey mates, clean towels for everypony.’’
They all went to take each one to sweep their sweaty skins. And that was what it was needed for Rainbow Dash to break free of her prison and emerge like a volcano.
‘’GAOOOOOOO. Ah, freedom at last. Geez, I thought I’d never get out of there, I got so bored I ended up falling asleep.” Shaking out some stiffness in her legs and wings, she immediately began looking to get her bearings. “Now, where the heck am I?”
‘’Blimey, I must be dreaming! It's Rainbow Dash! The most–
‘’Yeah yeah, the Most Awesome Pony in all Equestria and yadda yadda, I already know the song,” Rainbow practically groaned out the intro, already tired of her own hype at this point. “Alright. First, Mister humm…”
“Nutter. Brave Nutter”
“Right. So, Mister Nutter. Mind telling me who you are?”
‘’Who we are! Well, we are simply humble fans of danger and thrills of all kinds.’’
Dash looked around her and saw many ponies wearing smiles that she recognized too well. Daring smiles.
‘’Oh oh oh, that sounds like ponies who speak my language. So you are sportponies?’’
‘’In a sense, yeah that’s one way to put it.” Brave Nutter nodded, eagerly. “Though, we don’t restrict ourselves to one kind of format, we are willing to do any kind of feat in the most extreme way possible.”
“How extreme are we talking here?” Rainbow asked curious, wondering just how far these guys were willing to go.‘’
‘’Like, extreme extreme.’’
The wings of Rainbow Dash went straight up, and she was starting to giggle under her throat. And despite their namesake, Nutter was observant enough to see an opportunity to gain a new follower.The other pony saw an opportunity to gain another follower.
‘’So, what’d you say Dash, wanna ride on the wild side with us?” Brave Nutter again eyed Dash eagerly. “After all, I’m sure that the legendary daredevil who nailed the Sonic Rainboom shall love our extreme way of life.’’
Dash’s face shifted to her usual confident grin, already accepting the challenge.
‘’Oh yeah, there is no greater thing than sports that force you to exceed your limits yourself. I am in.’’
*LATER*
‘’Why did I accept? I’m not in, I’m not in at all!’’
And the reason she was saying that was because she was walking with her lower legs on a tightrope several meters off the ground, her wings bound by a rope and she had a balancing pole on her upper hooves. In other words, she was doing funambulism. And she was not happy at all. No, she was so terrified that she could not move and so, she took all her frustration on the light green pegasus, Brave Nutter currently flying right next to her. the flying pegasus beside her.
‘’Are you out of your mind? What if I fall?’’
‘’Ah don’t worry, you can’t die from this height.” He said with a bit of a drone to his voice. “Many have confirmed it. Though you may lose a few teeth.” He opened his mouth to reveal a few of his front teeth were indeed missing, which only added to Rainbow’s anxiety.’’
‘’You could at least put a safety net.’’
‘’And where would be the fun in funambulism if there's no ambulance?’’
‘’First, I am pretty sure that is not how it got its name. And second, I thought you were a sports club?’’
‘’Yeah we are. The Dangerous Sports Club. The addicted ponies to life-treating moments. That what we meant earlier.’’
‘’Of course... there is always a catch....’’
Again, Nutter looked unfazed or even concerned. ‘’Oh, we do ridiculously dangerous feats where we have more chances to get hurt than to succeed. We pride ourselves in the number of times we had to go to the hospital. Life’s no fun without a little pain involved?’’
‘’That’s sick.’’
‘’I know that’s so siiiiiiick.” Nutter said happily, completely missing the obviously horrified way Rainbow spoke. “Heck, this isn’t even the craziest thing we’ve done. Check it out.”
The absent minded pegasus quickly pulled out a roll of pictures and showed them to Dash. “This one with the smiling face and several teeth missing is Geronimo after a bad landing from his cannonstalion trick. That lassie with an alligator biting her butt is Adrenaline Rush after an intense wrestling session with this reptile. Even today she still proudly shows us her scars. That one on the chair and the full-body cast is Risky Trick after one of the fastest-go-kart races there ever was. You cannot tell but under all this plaster, he had such a beaming smile. Because he had won.’’
Each picture only served to cause Rainbow’s heart to pick up speed, as sweat was now starting to pool around her hooves.
‘’Okay, I am in a madhouse because everypony in this town is CRAZY. I need to get away from these psychos before I get killed.”
Looking down Rainbow mentally debated if it was at all possible to escape, but with her wings bound that wasn’t possible.
It was then that a strange and faint noise suddenly entered her ears, that came from far. and seem to be coming closer.
Peering out into the distance, it was looking like something was rolling down a hill and after further inspection, Dashie was surprised to see that it was a barrel. Even more surprising, it sounded like somepony inside was calling for help.
“Woooooo woowowowoww. Dannnnnngitttt. Somepony stopppppp this thinnnnng. Hey you know, it’s begging to be fun.’’
‘’AJ!!!’’
No doubt it was Applejack. Sadly the sudden shock had caused Rainbow to lose her balance and start to fall off the tightrope.
Fortunately thanks to her finely honed reflexes, and a lot of luck, she managed to slam the tip of the pole on the ground first. It bent like a jumping pole propelled her in the sky. Of course, she couldn’t fly at the moment and instead landed her back legs lower feet right on the rolling barrel, forcing her to run on it with just two hooves, much to her grief.
‘’Wowowo oh come on come on come onnnn! Why do those things always happen to me? It’s a curse. I must be cursed.’’
‘’Wait, is that ya Dashie?’’ Applejack’s voice managed to ring out, actually banging on the barrel to get her friend’s attention.
‘’Yes it’s me. How have you manage to get into… whatever you are now?’’
‘’You know what, ah was asking myself the same thing. It’s like some malicious god was having fun making our life a comedic segment. At least we are now both in this together.’’
‘’Yeah, biiiig consolation. Oh well, let’s just roll with it..’’
‘’That… was not funny.’’
‘’I know.’’
Sadly the two poor ponies currently had no choice but to continue to roll and roll towards the horizon. All the while, the pegasus with the weird accent and his friends were left thoroughly damn impressed by the performance of Rainbow.
‘’Oi oiii... this is just too insane! We must definitely add this activity to our list.’’
At the heart of Happy Town, the place called Plaza Central, stood a certain blue house. And in that very house, a certain pony opened the door of a bedroom and entered it. Now the first thing that was striking about this bedroom was that it was… barren. Empty, some would even say. Just a simple bed on a corner and a desk close to the window. The only thing that could be considered special was a piano resting beside the wall. As well, a peculiar object resting on the desk.
That object was contrasting with the barren bedroom. It was a jewel of a vivace blue, attached to a white fabric. A pretty accessory. The pony eyes gazed at it intently.
Thoses eyes were even more empty than the room.
They drifted from that jewel to take a view at the outside across the open window. There, it was brief, but a faint sparkle shone in the pony iris as it saw something catching its interest. In the distance, two mares were walking the street, seemingly having a good time. A lavender alicorn along with a lilac unicorn. They were coming closer and closer toward the house, making clear it was their destination.
That pony reached out and grabbed the accessory.
That gray pony then went toward the piano, sat on the bench and he put his hooves on the keyboards. But he didn’t play them. It was not yet the time.
Turning back to Twilight and Starlight, their walk into town had managed to stay relatively peaceful. It was actually so quiet, that had they known, the rest of the group likely would’ve been extremely jealous and more than a bit angry.
Like they had promised, they had decided to finish their exploration with the blue house in Central Plaza that was serving as a boutique of some sort. Of what, they didn't know, but that was part of the reason people went on vacation.
‘’There it is. We had promised Flo that we would take a look. I can’t wait to get my hooves on some books.’’ Twilight practically bounced with excitement, not unlikely Pinkie Pie with Starlight had to reign her in somewhat.
‘’Relax Twilight. I know you’re excited but you’re starting to make a scene.”
As the duo drew closer, Starlight’s eyes drifted from the building to those surrounding it with a curious glance.
“Hey Twilight, did you notice this building is, well, way different from the others?”
Breaking out of her excited prance, Twilight found Starlight words were a little justified.
The boutique in question appeared to resemble a two-story house with blue walls. Though looking closer one could see the paint peeling in several spots. The wood also had many fissures and although its appearance did not give the impression the building was neglected, yet it seemed the building was quite aged and in serious need of repair. And that age seemed to be what Starlight was referring to given how prestine and the other buildings were.
However, Twilight seemed undeterred.
‘’Oh Starlight, you should never judge a book by its cover. We should at least go inside and see what it has to offer.”
They went climbing the wooden stoop to the door. It had a little window so opaque that it was impossible to see inside.
Unbothered, Twilight went to knock on the door but no answer. She went to knock a second time, still nothing. Refusing to give up, she opted to try the nob and found it opened with her magic, being greeted by a welcoming bell as they entered.
The instant the door shut, all the sounds from the outside were muted. It was complete silence. Like if the world of Happy Town never existed. But it was not the only thing that was slightly off-putting for them. The inside was full of various things that were giving some sort of… vibe, that neither pony could properly place.
It was subtle and hard to describe but it was like this place had a different air about it from the rest of the town. It was as if they had entered a completely separate world. And then they understood why they were feeling strange. For one moment, they thought they had gone to an all different world.
‘’Hello. Anypony here?’’ Twilight, still brave as ever, decided to break the ice and hoped for a response.
But instead of a greeting, what welcomed them was a sweet melody. The music of a piano was playing and it seemed to come from upstairs. It was a simple and sweet song that gave a gentle feeling. The pony who was playing it was pushing the keyboard at a leisurely speed, apparently not having noticed the two mares.
‘’Should we go upstairs to tell the clerk that we are here?’’ Starlight pondered, still feeling more than a little uneasy about the store.
“I mean, whoever they are, they are occupied and the door was unlocked. And… it’s such a beautiful melody. I will feel ashamed to interrupt it. Let’s just browse for now, I’m sure they'll come down eventually.”
To their right was the counter, empty of course, with a little bell for customers to signal the clerk. To their left was simply a mess of books, left haphazardly in piles. Which for the studious and organized Twilight, made her grind her teeth in irritation.
Past this, it was a jumble of various things but mostly of musical instruments. On the wall were hooked two violins, and on the corner there was a mini organ. There was also a big harp which Twilight could not resist waving her hoof at the cords and making a sweet sound that brought a smile to her face.
At the north wall, which was facing the main door, there was an entryway to the u-shaped stairs to the floor. Beside it, the wall was covered in shelves who although not full, were still well garnished with books. Properly stored this time
‘’Ah, now we are talking.’’
Twilight went to them while maneuvering between the stacks of things. She lit her horn to take several and went to take a quick look at their pages.
“Interesting, they seem to be all novels written by somepony named Melancholia. Huh, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of that author before.”
As Twilight continued to dig into the novels, Starlight was more interested in the west wall where there was an entryway with no door but a white curtain separating.
Feeling curious, she entered, finding the inside was actually a small corridor. To the side were metal shelves with various canvases. And at the end was an easel with a half finished canvas, seemingly unused for some time.
Starlight went to see what the others looked like, and it was easy to say they got a reaction from her. One was an abstract image of strokes and spirals composed only with taints of black and red that gave a creepy feeling. Another one was a portrait of a pony with a face in the deepest despair, even though the pony was drawn on a sunny and vivid landscape.
Just seeing the first two left Starlight with not enough courage to examine the others as thoroughly. She did give each a quick glance and saw that they had all something in common. They were all… powerful Starlight would say. Powerful in the sense they radiated strong emotions. They were so palpable she could actually feel them in her very guts.
‘’Heeesh. Okay, this place is starting to give me the heebie-jeebies. I propose that we tell the pony upstairs that we are here and hopefully leave really soon.’’
Twilight didn’t respond immediately, too engrossed in her book, prompting Starlight to drop another book, jolting her back to reality, before gesturing upwards.
“Right, we should probably let the clerk know we’re here. We are kind of taking advantage. I wonder how he didn’t notice us.”
Opting for the stairs they headed up, again noticing the music which hadn’t stopped playing since they arrived.
However, right before they even touched the first step, the player upstair interrupted his music by crudely stomping his hoof on the keyboard, sending the now scared mares nearly tumbling all over.
‘’Ah, visitors. It has been a long time since I had one. I don’t know who you are but please, welcome to my humble shop.’’
Was what the pony musician was saying from where he was as he waved its hoof on all the keys of his piano in one swift gesture.
Our duo could hear the pony descend downstairs, taking each step slowly. Once he reached the floor and was under proper lighting, they could fully see his appearance.
Unlike the aged building, the pony was a young stallion close to their age, if not, a little more. His fur was of a gray color with an almost white cyan mane, arranged so a bag covered his right eye. Speaking of his eyes, they were also of a dull gray. On his neck, there was a white necktie scarf with at its heart a hexagonal blue jewel that was used as a brooch, an accessory Rarity would’ve likely fawned over, was thinking Twilight.
The pony went to them and made a reverence to the two mares.
‘’Greetings, I am the clerk of this shop. My name is Melancholia. But everypony calls me simply… Mel.’’
At first, our two mares were at a loss on how to react. That sudden meeting caught them off guard and the greeting of that pony was sure, peculiar. If not odd. Yet, they couldn’t deny that, ironically, his greeting was almost normal compared to the rest of the town. As for the pony in question, he raised his head and once he properly looked at the pair, an interest seemed to awaken in him.
‘’Oh… my! Oh my oh my. I recognize you. You are Twilight Sparkle and you are Starlight Glimmer. The Princess of Friendship and her apprentice, in my shop! How wonderful. I must presume that you are here to investigate on the mysterious happenings on Mount Heaven, I am right?’’
‘’Oh, hum, well, no need for introduction I suppose, hehe.” Starlight’s words tumbled clumlily at the introduction. “This is awkward” was what she’s thinking. That Mel was speaking with enthusiasm but one that was… subdue. Right from the start, she could tell that compared to the other Happy Townians they met, there was something different about him.
Upon seeing their silence and discomfort, he seemed to pull back his excitement somewhat. “Oh, I’m terribly sorry, I’m just not used to speaking to celebrities. Please, what brings you to my humble little shop?”
Twilight, also was having difficulty feeling comfortable with him. His voice was soft and polite, but she detected a small hint of emotional detachment in his tone.
“Oh, well, a little filly called Flo recommended we come here, after we asked if there were any book stores in town.”‘
‘’Did she? I’m not surprised she would do that. At the state I’m in, she may as well be my only supporter. But I digress. It’s such an honor to have you here. And if you find anything that picks your fancy, tell me. I could even give you a generous price.’’
Again despite the friendly display and tone, Twilight still couldn’t shake the strange feeling she had about him. There was something in his eyes. It was like they were seeing what was in front of him but instead… gazing at the images inside of his head for lack of a better word. That was the impression this Mel was giving to her.
Noticing the disorganized pile Mel moved to organize them allowing Twilight to see his cutie mark. It was an intricate design of blue lines forming a raindrop. At least… she thought it was a raindrop. Wanting to shake off the malaise, she decided to change the subject.
‘’Soooo, Mel, you have quite a variety of interesting articles but I’m afraid I’m lost on what kind of shop is this.’’
‘’Ah, I can blame you for being confused. The truth is managing this shop is just a secondary job for me. My true profession is to be an artist.’’
‘’Really, you are an artist! In what domain?’’
‘’Well, in all kinds actually. I paint on canvas, I play music, I write, oh especially writing. This is where I take the majority of my time. And then I sell what I create.’’
Hearing that, all the worries of Twilight melted in an instant. In her dictionary, anypony who was writing could not be bad. Starlight, who was feeling a little left out, decided to burst into the conversation.
‘’So, did you really write all those books! That's impressive! What are they about?’’
‘’Tragedy. That is mostly what I write.’’ The mirth in his voice seemed to dim slightly at the mention of his books.
‘’Oooh! I… I am surprised, I… didn’t think to find that here.’’
‘’Hahaha. Already familiar with the locals I see. Easy now to understand that I'm considered like the black sheep of Happy Town.’’
Recalling the borderline cult-like obsession with joy, it was easy to believe such a thing. “And you still manage to sell things to those…happiness fanatics?”
‘’What do you think? Of course not!.” Mel had said with casual jest. “Those ponies have an allergy to anything that isn’t dripping with sugar, and pleasantness. All that is depressing and disturbing, they avoid it as if it was disease. They wouldn’t read my stories even if they were free. Even after I wrote so many and converted them in book format myself, I have never sold a single copy one.’’
Twilight was left positively aghast at such a thing. Even though tragedies was not a genre that she often went to, she, who has great love for literature, could not help but find it so unfair that all those efforts were not rewarded.
‘’Mister Mel, I… I just don't know what to say. It is just so sad.’’
‘’Gotta love the irony there,” Mel chuckled. “It’s the same for my paintings. They find them too creepy so they just accumulate dust. As for the music I wrote, apparently it bummed them out too much so nopony wants to listen to them. In the end, I had given up and decided to sell my instruments but as you can see… guess they don’t even want to come close to me.’’
Twilight didn’t look convinced. Was he really talking about the same welcoming Happy Townians? ‘’Come on… you cannot be serious.’’
‘’It’s sad but it’s the truth. I am afraid that they tolerate me just because Flo is my little sister.’’
‘’What… … WHAAAAT!!! FLO IS YOUR LITTLE SISTER!’’
‘’Oh, she did not tell you? This place is our house. We both are living here.’’
‘’But… but… you…’’
‘’Look nothing alike. Sometimes I wonder to myself why our destiny was to take two paths so opposite of each other. By the way, I presume that you know about our parents. Oh mayor Paternal must have at least told you about them. He loves to speak about them. They were pretty well lived so when they died, they had left us in inheritance a good fortune. Not enough to live in luxury but well enough to live decently without troubles. Even though my shop is a disaster.’’
Still this just left both mares with more questions. “Wait, I can understand why it is not working in Happy Town, but why not try outside? I am sure that many publishing houses would love–
Mel placidly raised his hoof to cut her off. “You honestly think I didn’t try that. Every publisher I tried told me no. They said, humm how was it? That my stories were too intense for everypony. You know, the problem ”
Twilight and Starlight remained silent as it looked like Mel, under his quiet attitude, was letting out more than a few bottled upped emotions. “You know, this problem isn’t just limited to Happy Town. Oh sure, this place takes the cake, but Equestria itself has a tendency to treat the sad aspects of life as things that must disappear for that only beauty can be. But I do think that pain and ugly feelings are important. That we must not forget them and that we can learn so much from them. That’s why I cannot work on any other subject, even though I know it’s basically a lost cause.’’
Our two mares were at loss for words. What he was saying was in a word, world shattering. Yet, neither pony could exactly argue at the idea. True enough Equestria was a land of peace, harmony and goodwill, they’d never considered it a place where negativity as a whole is outlawed. On paper the idea sounded outlandish.
And yet, even so…
‘’Hooo, there I go again, breaking the mood. A bad habit of mine. Please, ignore what I said and let’s get back to the subject at hoof. If my adorable Flo had proposed this place, then best I show you the whole package. Come, follow me.’’
They didn't notice it but on the north wall in the right corner, there was a door. Once inside Mel pushed the switch that lit two simple light bumbles hanging from the roof. The first thing they saw was a writing desk with all the essential tools.
‘’My workshop. When you write, it is always better to do it in a corner. It help to focus.’’
‘’I see you taking your passion very seriously.” Starlight muttered looking over what seemed like pages from different story drafts. ‘’Shame all this hard work goes unrecognized…wait what’s that?”
At their right there was a small corridor that held a small stove that Twilight imagined Mel used during the cold days of winter. The hatch of its belly was open and Twilight saw there were ashes inside that looked recent. She also noticed a piece of burned-out paper. The corner that was not blackened had a white border, suggesting that this piece was the left out of a photo rather than a discarded book page. But of what? No way to know.
However, even beyond that, what was really catching the attention of the alicorn was the shelf at the end. It was full of bundles of paper, parchment and other objects. Most eye-catching was an arch odeon, a carved wooden box, a weird clock and others bric-à-brac.
‘’What are those?’’
‘’That? Just some old stuff. The papers are mostly my drafts that were bad ideas and the rest… well, they are from my grandad. I never knew him personally but my dad told me that apparently, he loved to tinker and make inventions. Most of them don’t work by the way. Guess we know where my artistic side came from. Wait! This make me think.’’
Mel abruptly left to go to the lobby. Perplexed, Twilight and Starlight followed him. He was at his library, pulling out a book.
‘’Miss Twilight, would you be interested in some of my books? If there are some that took your fancy, you could take them. Gifts from me. Nothing would make me happier.’’
‘’Oh, well…sure, I’d be delighted.’’ Twilight only spoke half heartedly, while she was genuinely intrigued, the entire encounter so far had left her a little unbalanced.
‘’Splendid. I must go back upstairs. There is some work I must do. In the meantime, enjoy yourselves with anything you like. Celestia knows no one else will.’’
‘’Hum… al… right.’’
He went back up the stairs, leaving the two mares alone.
‘’Well, Twilight. I must say, he is quite the fellow.’’
Eyeing the books on the shelves, Twilight nodded. ‘’He sure is. You know, for a moment, it sounded like he was trying to change the subject. Like there was something he didn’t want to talk about.”
Starlight seemed to shrug somewhat. “I mean, it’s pretty obvious the guy isn’t crazy about discussing his personal life. Still…” She levitated a book to Twilight’s face. “Since he gave us permission, might as well check a few out and see what all the fuss is about.”
Nodding again, Twilight opened-up the book, speed reading through the pages at a frightening pace. In mere moments she put it down and immediately began devouring another, then another and so on. It was a sight that, even after her time as Twilight’s student, still amazed her on how fast her teacher could read.
Opting to try her own luck, Starlight quickly opened up a book herself, though opted for quick checking and skipping, lacking her mentor’s superhuman love of literature.
Twilight then slammed shut the book .
‘’Ouff. He certainly wasn't exaggerating. What he is writing is quite heavy. Shocking even. And I thought I was the queen of dark thoughts. Still, I can see he's not just being tragic for the sake of it, there’s something he wants to say. I can tell.”
Putting her book down, Twilight picked up another and tried her luck. “And if nothing else he’s certainly talented. The way he describes places and ponies, makes you think you're there. And he has a gift for telling how his characters think and feel in a poignant way. That's just a quick review mind you. I’m sure I could appreciate them more if I properly read them. But I am not sure if I would be able to since they… no, maybe it’s me who is unfair. You know Starlight, this makes me think. Maybe Equestria literature is lacking in some more thought-provoking content.’’
Her thoughts were interrupted when they heard the bell of the boutique chiming. Curious, they looked at the front door to see who had entered. It was two diamond dogs transporting a crate. Mel had also gone down the stairs to meet the two who immediately greeted him.
‘’Hello Mel. The delivery you wanted so much is here.’’
‘’Wonderful. Take it upstairs.’’
He turned his attention back to the mares, both with books still floating in front of them.
‘’Oh sorry. These two are the brothers Dirt and Dust, my favorite delivery boys. So did you enjoy your time?’’
Still shook up seeing Diamond Dogs above ground and acting friendly, the two simply nodded.
‘’That was, hummm, a unique experience. But I see it is getting late and we promised to meet all at the plaza.’’
Mel offered the pair his usual plastered smile. ‘’Then I wish you all a happy day. It is our specialty after all.’’
They had said their thanks and were preparing to go away, but Twilight stopped in her tracks before turning around and propeling herself in front of Mel.
‘’Mister Mel, when my job is done I will come back to purchase several of your novels. Then I will make sure to talk about them with everypony of my literature circle.’’
For the time, Mel frozen expression got a genuine reaction as his eyes widened. ‘’That’s very nice of you but I think it’s too much honor.’’
‘’No, I insist. It is just unfair that you have no recognition simply because the personal preferences of others don’t match with what you choose to write. Even with just a glimpse I can already tell that you have a lot of talent and it should not go to waste. Believe me, I am kind of an expert on this. And when art and literature are looked down upon, then it becomes personal for me. So please, let me do that for you. At least between two lovers of literary works.’’
She was not sure but it seems to her that the permanent smile of Mel just got slightly bigger.
‘’It is… very nice of you. I appreciate. … Sorry, I can’t quite seem to offer a proper thank you. I just… I guess I always resigned myself to the idea that I will be the only appreciator of my craft.’’
Twilight merely took his hoof on her own and looked at him with honest eyes. ‘’Well the very least I can promise is that you you will have another appreciator.’’
‘’Even though my style might be too gut-stabbing painful for you?’’
That got Twilight to chuckle. ”Heh, you will be surprised but I’m actually more attuned to pain than you think. Besides, it might be true that I may need more, humm, gut-stabbing as you call it. Hahaha.’’
‘’Glad to hear it. Very glad.” Mel had said with a peculiar tone. “I think you’ll be in for quite an experience. You may even learn new things.’’
After all was said and done, our two mares opened the door, making a soft chime, and exited with their hooves waving a goodbye to Mel who responded in kind.
Even after they were gone, Mel continued to wave at no one, until he stopped and mechanically let down his hoof.
‘’Learn new things… … or maybe start to finally learn something.’’
He then slowly walked to the window and looked at Twilight and Starlight happily talking to each other with smiles on their faces. At this sight, Mel tilted his head to the side with his usual vacant stare devoid of any kind of spark.
‘’You know… I was sincere when I wished you a good day. These are important to make your life more beautiful… But you know… good days can be a reminder that things have changed for good and that they are never coming back. A reminder… of what was forever lost. See you soon… Twilight Sparkle.’’
‘’Ah Miss Sparkle, Miss Glimmer.’’
‘’Mayor Paternal!’’
The mayor happily waved down the two approaching mares.‘’It’s good that you are here. I just had a great idea. We should take a photo of you so that we could keep a keepsake of your stay in our town. We could put it in our town hall so that everypony could see it for generations and generations.’’
Both mares, more Twilight, had to force up smiles at again being reminded of the town's rather unhealthy obsession with them.
‘’(Oh boy, here we go again. Seriously, these ponies are even more over-welcoming than… well, than my first time in Ponyville. Which is saying a lot…still don’t wanna seem impolite.”)
Still smiling Twilight bowed her head, lightly elbowing Starlight to follow suit. “Oh we would be happy to do that, as a sign of thanks and of friendship to the town.’’
‘’Splendid! There is already a camera and a photographer posted in front of the clock tower.’’
“Already, seriously?” Starlight again looked aghast at how prepared the town seemed to be.‘’You… sure seriously don’t lose time.’’
“Of course, why not take advantage when the situation demands it? Let not waste a second and let go there.’’
Even though it was just a few walking steps away, the mayor was so ecstatic that he was pushing our two mares behind.
‘’Wo wo, calm down, slow down!’’
‘’We can walk by ourselves you know!’’
But it seems he was too overjoyed to hear them. He brought them before a unicorn with brown fur who had already made the adjustments to his tripod camera. Twilight and Starlight then went into position and gave their biggest smiles, a little too big to be naturel. Then they even went to speak under their teeth to each other.
‘’You know Twi, I know they are nice ponies and that it is not their intention but this is beginning to look like coercion.’’
‘’Just smile. It will be over soon.’’
Starlight was trying what she was asked but a shadow was cast on her face. A literal one. She lifted her eyes and saw a huge kelpie. Her eyes were wide as saucers.
Part of this form of face freeze was due to something yellow with a pink tail and a butterfly cutie mark currently in the creature’s mouth. Even more odd, was that it seemed to talk inside the creature.
‘’Humm…have we arrived? Did we make to the plaza?’’
The kelpie answered with an affirmative nod.
‘’Thank you very much for having brought me here, it was very nice of you Mr. Kelpie. Oh hum… now… could you please… you know… release me?’’
The kelpie had gently obeyed and opened his mouth, freeing Fluttershy, who descended slowly to the ground. Starlight side-step in-extremis before being touched by the covered in saliva pegasus. The kelpie waved his arm in a goodbye salute and went back in the direction it seemingly came from.
Fluttershy, possibly in reflex, waved at the creature, looking more than a little lost as a result of her experience.
‘’Thanks again. See you later… … Wo. That, hum, that was intimacy.’’
‘’Fluttershy, what has happened to you!’’ Twilight asked, somehow again not breaking her smile.
‘’I… am not even sure myself.’’Fluttershy merely responded with a somewhat vacant stare, still mentally processing the last few hours.
‘’PLEASE, ANYPONIE COME RESCUE ME WHAAAHAAAHAAA!’’
‘’That voice! Rarity!! And... Pinkie!!’’
At the horizon they saw that flying in the sky, going right to crash into them, was Pinkie Pie sitting in a paraglider and Rarity hanging for her life on a rope.
‘’Ooooh, hello friends. Don’t mind us, we just… hanging in there.’’
‘’PINKIE THIS IS HARDLY THE TIME FOR JOKES. FIND A SOLUTION AND QUICK… oh no… NOT THE CHIMNEY, NOT THE CHIMNEY!’’
There was a chimney ejecting a thick cloud of smoke right in their path. Rarity was shaking her legs like crazy to stay away but it was simply hopeless, she flew right in the cloud and the white unicorn had become a black unicorn.
Seeing herself covered in soot, she let out a massive scream of horror. This made her let go of the rope she was holding and she felt. And screamed even more But Starlight was fast. She grabbed her with her magic and put her gently on the ground beside her.
But, even though she was now safe, the soot-covered unicorn Rarity had been emotionally shaken by the ordeal. First her lips were shaking and then, overwhelmed by her emotion, she let them explode and she bawled like a baby, crying torrents of tears.
As for Pinkie Pie, a sudden gust of wind changed her trajectory and was sending her flying right at the clocktower. Say tower still had that giant banner of the Mane 6 attached to it. Having an idea, Pinkie detached her harness.
‘’I hope it works. Here go nothing.’’
She jumped from the paraglider and grabbed the giant poster of the Mane 6. As the paraglider went flying away, Pinkie could finally breathe a sigh of relief to be at last safe. Relatively speaking. Twilight exasperated, flipped her wings to go up and lighted her horn.
‘’Pinkie, how the hay did you and Rarity manage to… to lead to this?’’
‘’Well Twi, it’s a long story but to make short, a series of improbable happenstances were thrown at us both and it built up and led to this comedic punchline moment.’’
‘’On second thought, maybe I’d better not know. Alright Pinkie I am going to take you safely down and HEY!!! … What’s that at the distance? It’s that… Rainbow… on a rolling barrel!?‘’
‘’EVERYPONY, GET OUT OF OUR WAYS, NOW!.’’
Indeed the other mares saw it was Rainbow fast running on the rolling barrel with bound wings. And she looked utterly exhausted, with all the ponies on the street doing what they could to avoid her running them over.
‘’You know AJ, once this is over, remind me to work on my legs…assuming I can still feel them after this. I clearly neglect those muscles.’’
‘’Ya not the only one in pain. Ah’m starting to have a serious need to puke. Can’t you find something soft for us to crash into? Something that can stop our track?’’
“Oh, I just saw a standpipe. Does that count?’’ Rainbow said between breaths.
‘’What! No no no no, ah say something soft, something soft. How it can be counted as soft.’’
‘’Ah listen, right now I am so tired that I even wish sweet death would come to release me. Besides, I see nothing else on this road. We will just have to take a small trip at the hospital, seem a small price to pay to pay.’’
Using her legs to change course, Applejack could feel exactly what Dash was planning to do, and responded accordingly.
‘’RAINBOW DASHHHHH!’’
The barrel had hit the standpipe and exploded in a burst of splinters, ejecting Rainbow and Applejack in the air.
Applejack immediately crashes face first into the dirt, sliding along the ground until she joins the group in front of the camera. Her head was supporting all her body and her legs were facing forward, ironically making her look somewhat like a tree. Ponies can be very flexible creatures, was what AJ was thinking in a fit of irony.
As for Rainbow Dash, who still had her wings tied up, was going to land on Starlight who quickly ducked to the ground, making Fluttershy the next target of the blue missile.
The still dazed and cover of saliva pegasus had managed to wake up and, in an impressive show of reflexes and strength, caught, in extremis, Rainbow… putting them in a strange dance position.
Twilight looked down at this pandemonium, sighing as she glanced at Starlight with a knowing look. “Guess we aren’t the only ones who had a crazy day huh?’’ But then, she heard a not so reassuring noise. Effectively, the giant poster that Pinkie was grabbing, was starting to ripe itself more and more at the chagrin of poor Pinkie.
‘’Oho! Oho! OHO!’’ The fabric tore up and she felt. ‘’AAAHHHHH BOMB AWAY!’’
She did not fall for long as Twilight quickly levitated her. But this distracted Twilight from the Mane 6 poster failing on her. And when she looked up, it was too late.
‘’Oh no, crush by the weight of my own success!’’
Twilight was completely covered by the image of… Twilight, and fell. She could have landed on Starlight, but she teleported one second before she could have been used as a landing cushion. Since the princess wasn’t that high, she did not hurt herself. But when her levitation spell broke Pinkie fell right on her head... that was another story. As for Pinkie, she was just fine.
‘’Ohhhh! I’m not hurt? Seem not! Thank a lot Twilight.’’
‘’Happy to help. Happy to… *sigh*… help.’’
Starlight reappeared and looked at the mess that was her friends. Pinkie was sitting on a Twilight trapped in a poster. Applejack was in a weird and embarrassing position. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were covered in drool and looked like they were dancing the tango. And Rarity, still half covered in soot and locking like a whining black cat of misfortune.
‘’Yeah, that will make a nice photo. *sigh* Seriously, why do you girls always manage to get into those embarrassing situations? At least I always make sure to not never lose face ATCHUM!!!’’
*SNAP*
That was the moment the camerapony chose to take his shot. And so that was how the most embarrassing photo of the Mane 6 was born. Including Starlight, immortalized with her sneezing face, the mouth wide open and coughing so much dribble.
Of course Mayor Paternal didn’t seem to mind, holding out the photo with shaking hooves as if it was made of pure gold.
‘’Oh my Celestia! You just have given us the most unique photo ever possible. This could very well become the greatest treasure of Happy Town. Oh I must quickly install it in the town hall.’’
Offering the girls a bow, Mayor Paternal went running at top speed to the clock tower, leaving behind the Mane 6, stunned and embarrassed that they will be remembered that way.
It was at this moment that Flo decided to walk into frame. Like any sane individual she was surprised at the scene before her, but being a resident of the town, immediately understood what happened.
‘’Huh. I see. Hi-jinks?''
Twilight came out from under the poster with annoyed eyes.
‘’Yeah. So many hi-jinks.''
‘’You really seem to have the gift for attracting them.’’
‘’Well to tell you the truth, we never had them like today. It really takes the cake. …Pffft. Heheh. Bwahahahahahaha.’’
Twilight just exploded in laughter. So much that she pressed her arms against her stomach and tears were dropping from her closed eyes.
Her laugh proved contagious as soon, all of her friends followed suit and burst into uncontrollable laughter. Flo conversely was left looking at them let they had just gone crazy.
‘’Why do you find that funny? By the look of things you all had a pretty horrible first day?’’
Despite how accurate that statement was, they all found that it was precisely why they should laugh. Twilight, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow, Pinkie, Rarity. Each one had their own reason and each one gave them to Flo.
‘’Yes hahaha, it was horrible for us all, I can tell.” Rarity laughed, despite coughing a bit due to the loose soot. “It was easily one of the worst experiences I’ve had in a while. But it’s strange, likes it has not importance.’’
‘’Yeah, ah never had so much bad luck in my life.” Applejack chuckled hard as bits of gravel and dirt fell from her mane. “But when you look back on them, the worst experiences tend to be the funniest.”
“Heck yeah,” Rainbow seemed to speak with a bit more pump than the others. “I have experienced so many things today that I would rather forget. But I have the strange impression that it is already done.’’
‘’Everypony was looking like a true loonie. Hum I mean relatively, relatively.” Pinkie’s own explanation was as hyperactive as expected. “But after everything else, I just don’t mind any more.’’
‘’There were moments where I was very scared, yet I got to experience something new and exciting. I think it was worth it.” Fluttershy chimed in, squeezing saliva from her mane.
But this was making Flo even more perplexed.
‘’... How do you do it?’’
Starlight decided to answer that particular question.
‘’It took me time to understand the same thing. But the answer is simple. Friendship.’’
Flo practically rolled her eyes at that. ‘’Of course, the classical answer.’’
‘’And for a good reason. By sharing our bad moments with our friends, it’s like the weight becomes lighter. And when they share theirs with us, we feel less lonely even at our lowest. Also it might be a little cliché to say that but the love and warmth between friends can help us overcome our darkest emotions. We aren’t pretending they don’t exist, rather turning a negative into something else. Like into something funny.’’
Flo momentarily mused over this and seemed to agree with the sentiment. ‘’I guess there is a reason why you’re our role model. Not that we did not know it already.’’
Amongst the group, Twilight was finally able to get out of her fit of laughter and was wiping the tears with the tips of her wings.
‘’Yeah about that. We may have been chosen by the forces of harmony but, I don’t think we are that special.’’
Flo however disagreed. ‘’I am not so sure of that. I only meet you for a moment and already you've confirmed that you have something that inspires other.’’
‘’If you say so. On another subject, I think, or more we all think that we had enough excitement for the day, and it’s getting late. We need rest if we want to explore those ruins. We must not forget that the reason we here.’’
“Guess I’ll need to warn the mayor. The housing lodge you’re staying in is just to the west, behind those buildings at the outskirts of the town.” Flo quickly pointed in the distance at the buildings in question. “It was used as a temporary settlement for workers during the founding. It is rather old but it is still very comfy, I can assure you. And all your things should’ve been moved-in.’’
The group immediately seemed to all collapse somewhat, exhaustion of the day's events finally setting in.
“Ugh finally, I don’t think I’m gonna be able to move for the rest of the night.” Rainbow moaned, unable to even move her back legs now, several others sharing her grief.
‘’Don’t worry. After all that, I am sure that tomorrow will be a day far less strenuous.
“So long as it’s less crazy than today I think we can handle it.” Twilight muttered out as she and the others started walking.
And it is with these words that they headed to their lodging for a rest well deserved. The rays of the sun were warm and soft and a refreshing breeze was blowing on their manes. And they all were feeling confident that tomorrow would be a beautiful day.
… … If only, they knew. But… nothing could have prepared them for what to come. No. It is more like all Equestria could not prepare.
Prepare for the worst show ever.
Ponyville: the Grassy Pentagon
The park was now filled with so many ponies. And they were all gathered around the strange cube with… strange windows. An object so curious that appears suddenly in such a public place is bound to be noticed. And once a few passersby saw it, it went to hear and it quickly spread like wildfire.
Very soon, all the town was aware of the existence of this strange device and the weird things it does. Ponies of all kinds and ages were surrounding the cube out of pure curiosity. And of course, everypony were talking about the even stranger message that this thing was giving.
At first they were afraid of the statistics and each time the split-second image appeared, they were startled. But after seeing it several times, they recognized the letters and could read the message concerning a game. They were still afraid but now, even more intrigued. This intrigue only grew because the message seemed to change every hour. Indeed, the number of hours before the game was supposed to begin went down as time passed on. The ponies quickly realized that it was a sort of countdown. Countdown to what? That was the true mystery.
Even Lyra and Bon-Bon could not have resisted the urge to see this strange cube. Bon-Bon was looking at it with suspicion but for Lyra it was the excitement to see something new.
‘’Whoa, that's cool. This… this thing. I don’t know what it is but I already like this thingamajig. I wonder if it does something else. Pssst, Bon-Bon. As a secret agent, do you have any idea of what it is?’’
The candy mare glared at her best friend/girlfriend, but still eyed the strange cube cautiously. ‘’I have never seen anything like this in my life. I have no idea how it works or how it shows those images, whatever they are. Why show them that way? So creepy. And what about this message? ‘’The game will begin in four hours.’’ What does it even mean?’’
‘’Huuuumm… it looks like… something important… will happen… in four hours. Some kind of game. … What game? A sports game? A gameshow? Is this a game where we can participate?’’
‘’I really don’t know. But I don’t like this.’’ Bon Bon mentally debated whether to report this to Celestia and call in backup.
‘’Don’t be paranoid. What can this thing do to us?”
‘’I don’t know but it gives me goosebumps.”
”So, when the four hours have passed, will you come?”
”Well, I have the feeling that nearly all Ponyville will come to watch it. Better keep an eye on it.’’
Indeed. Though you can hardly blame the other residents. What you would do if you were at their position. Would curiosity not be a temptation too strong to resist? But there is something that these ponies ignore. Something important. You see… Ponyville was not the only place where these giant ivory cubes were. They were dispersed in nearly every corner of Equestria. Attracting all manner of curious bystanders.
In Appleloosa, the recently formed town of western ponies, one of these cubes was right in the middle of the only alley. So of course, no ponies could take their eyes away from this anomaly that was so blatantly contrasting with everything. The citizens just didn’t know what to do with that.
‘’What is that thing? How did it get here?’’
‘’It came by delivery. But it was just saying to bring it here. Not what it was.’’
‘’Delivery! Who ask for this?’’
‘’I don’t know. But the important thing is what we are doing with this? And what will happen in four hours?’’
‘’I don’t know. I guess… there’s just one way to find out. Wait until the timer reach zero.’’
It was also the same for Manehattan, the great metropolis. A cube was placed at a busy crossing where it was impossible to miss it. Many could not look away because they thought it was an elaborate publicity stunt.
‘’What will they invent next? Though I must say, it is very creative. Even though I don’t know what it is about.’’
‘’That’s why it is so fascinating. Such a mystery!’’
‘’But why give this… countdown this way? Each time it appears for a split-second it jump scares me.’’
‘’Yes, I know. That's why this countdown did not leave my head for all day. I could not think of anything else even if I wanted to. That brilliant.’’
Even Cloudsdale, the floating city of pegasus, was not spared. Right in the middle of a marketplace, another cube was placed. And once again, so many pegasus were captivated by this thing and its message. With both wonder and worry. And they could not explain why this cube was giving birth to those two feelings. Not completely.
‘’Have you seen that sister? What do you think will happen in four hours?’’
‘’I don’t know. But I find it so creepy. The way this message is displayed is… unsettling. It makes me a little sick.’’
‘’That much! So guess you would not be there when the four hours will be spent.’’
‘’Oh no, I definitely be there.’’
‘’Why? You say it was creepy.’’
‘’Morbid curiosity I suppose. Because I dread to see what will happen I can’t stop staying here so that I can see what I dread so much.’’
‘’Yeah, I kinda understand your feeling.”
But these were far from the only places. The truth is in nearly every major’s city of Equestria there was a giant white cube showing static and then occasionally for a split-second the letters. And each was successfully doing their job to attract the masses. And each one was showing to them the same and ominous message:
The room where all the beds were was known for one thing: its simplicity. Not a single decoration, no tapestry. Just a simple wooden floor with plain white walls and beds with simple white covers. But the beds were really comfy and after the day they’d just had, that was all they needed.
Yes, even Rarity, who would normally have made a dramatic rant about this affront to interior decorating, was simply too tired to notice it and jumped on the mattress, bereft of her usual ladylike grace. After only three seconds, you could already hear her snoring.
Conversely, Pinkie Pie had regained enough of her usual pep to start a bouncing session on her bed like a little filly. But she missed a jump and landed straight on her neighbor, Rainbow Dash. The sudden crushing weight flattened the pegasus, even causing her tongue to shoot out before she angrily began trying to shake her friend off her back.
Amidst this among other forms of collective chaos in the room, Twilight was looking frantically at her pile of books to see if they were alright.
‘’Fiouf. Thank goodness, I was worried they’d try to make off with one of my books or at least some of the pages. But everything’s here, even my lists of theories on this new magitechnology. And my charslists of unexpected problematic scenarios that may come and how to deal with them. And my lists of things to do in our free time. And–
And everypony in the room moaned loudly ‘’Oh come on.”.
“Seriously Twilight, do you have to chart and file every single thing,” Rainbow Dash groaned, having finally freed herself from Pinkie’s bouncing body.
‘’Hey don’t complain girls, this is an important job for the Princess and it pays to be prepared. Even though I admit it might be a little excessive,” Twilight had the decency to look slightly embarrassed at the various stacks of reports near her. “And even though I admit it is principally to reassure myself because I love a little order.’’
“You have a problem is what you have,” Rainbow again groaned as she face planted into her pillow, wanting to fade out of consciousness.
It was then that they all heard a voice coming from downstairs.
‘’Hello girls. I am just here to see if you are well settled.’’
‘’It’s Mayor Paternal!’’
All those still awake immediately groaned at the overzealous mayor’s presence. It honestly felt like the guy had no sense of boundaries or privacy.
‘’I know he only wants us to have a good day but I find him a little insistent,” Fluttershy mumbled, softly rubbing her leg on her bed.
As an answer, Twilight gave her a slightly annoyed face.
‘’That’s an understatement. I’m fine with other ponies being excited to meet us, but the mayor is doing it to an almost unhealthy degree.”
“Like you and your charts?” Rainbow mumbled again.
“THAT’S COMPLETELY DIFFERENT!”
Even with her face in a pillow Twilight could feel Rainbow’s smirk and opted not to give her any more satisfaction. “Anyway, I’ll have a talk with the mayor and hopefully we can finally put this issue to bed…no pun intended.”
Whilst the rest of the group settled in, Twilight climbed down the stairs to meet the mayor. As expected he was literally standing there at the foot of the steps, just to make things more awkward.
As before, he had a warm and welcoming smile that certainly made it more difficult to be especially angry at him. And it was also frustrating for Twilight because she wanted to be angry at him. Even if only a little.
‘’Ah Miss Twilight. I trust the room is to your taste?’’
‘“Yes, it’s quite nice,” remembering he was just trying to be nice, Twilight kept her frustration down for the moment and stayed civil. “I must say, your hospitality is simply top notch. In all the places I have been I had never seen ponies so kind and welcoming.”
“Too much maybe but there is no way I could ever say that to his face.”
‘’YOU, YOU, *inhale**exhale*, HAVE SO MUCH GRATITUDE FROM*inhale*exhale**inhale**exhale*’’
The mayor was so overjoyed to hear that it looked like he was suffering from oxygen deprivation. Actually, that might well be what was happening to him given how red his face was looking.
“WO WO WO WO! Slow down, take a deep breath!” Twilight practically bellowed out, panicking at the sight of the mayor. “I don’t think your citizens would be very happy if died from asphyxiation!’’
‘’Right. Right. I am very sorry for this outburst.” The mayor took several deep breaths, thankfully returning his face back to normal. “Forgive me again. It’s just… … *sigh* when you think about it, you must surely see us all as strange weirdos.’’
Twilight practically had to bite her tongue to keep from shouting out in the affirmative. “I mean…I wouldn’t use the word weirdos.”
“No need to lie to me Princess. I may be overeager but I’m not blind.” The mayor’s prior exuberance was practically gone, now acting in a manner that would almost be seen as normal. “I do genuinely apologize for how I’ve been acting, myself and the citizens. We simply love joy and happiness so much we tend to leap head first at any symbol we can find.”
“You mean like us and your little angel, Flo?”
“Yes. To simply know that you exist, that there are ponies so willing to help others in need and spread messages of acceptance, fellowship and understanding, it gives us the inspiration to move forward. What’s so wrong with celebrating that?’’
‘’I... guess not much. We are genuinely flattered by all the attention, but it’s kinda overwhelming at times. Hehehehe.” Twilight's awkward chuckle only served to help lighten the moment, though the moment of brevity was only that, as Twilight recalled something else that was on her mind.
“Pardon me Mayor, but while I have you, there’s something I was hoping to ask you about.”
‘’Oh? Well whatever it is I’m more than happy to help you to the absolute best of my abilities.”
“While I was exploring the town I met a pony named Melacholia. He said he was a novelist whose work has been widely denounced. In fact, from the way he describes it, it might seem as if everypony is purposely ostracizing him. But I find it hard to believe that it’s possible in this town full of so nice ponies.’’
Right at the mention of the name, the warm smile of the mayor changed to one of embarrassment with a hint of regret.
‘’Oooooh. I see. So you did meet Mel. I suppose it was inevitable after his own sister proposed it. Even though I was hoping you had avoided that… weird one. Tell me, what did he say exactly? I hope he wasn’t impolite. Did he have scared you?’’
‘“Not really,” Twilight said hesitantly, unsure how to properly describe the encounter with the somewhat morbid pony. “He talked about some unsettling things, but otherwise Mel seemed like a pretty okay guy.”
Her answer seemed to satisfy the mayor who pulled back into his seat, leaning back further into a more relaxed posture and letting off a tired breath. “Yeah, I suppose that’s as apt a description as ever. Truth be told, Mel’s always acted quite outstandingly, never stirred up trouble or anything. He’s just been…a very strange boy compared to most ponies. Even when his parents were still around. In a way, you could say he is the black sheep of Happy Town.”
The very word “black sheep” seemed almost heavy for him to say, as though forcing the word out required more effort than needed. It left Twilight even more curious.
“He did mention that. But isn’t that a little of an exaggeration?’’
‘’I imagine you got to look at the inspirations for his craft. Writing tragedies. Painting terrifying works of arts. Constructing and performing sad music. You can see how such things would clash with the very nature of our town. We’ve tried to convince him to stop, but the boy is stubborn. Since as far we can remember, Mel was ever only capable of seeing the ugly side of life. Even at a tender age, each time somepony found something beautiful or joyous, he had the uncanny gift to always find a way to twist it into something ugly. It’s sad isn’t.’’
‘’I kinda see what you mean.” Much as she hated to admit it, some of what Mel had said was still rattling around in Twilight’s head and left her feeling more than a little uncomfortable. “But… but is it really a reason to isolate him?’’
‘’Oh Miss Sparkle, it’s not like we haven’t made attempts to help him. We’ve tried so many times to get him to see the brighter side of life. That it’s always possible to find happiness if you search for it. But… he is so stubborn and has always stuck to his way of life. In the end, it came that nearly everypony avoids him since like you say, he can be so unsettling. Not that he was the social kind in the first place. The only friend he ever had… is Flo.’’
Once again the Mayor seemed to enter an almost dreamlike state describing Flo. His vacant expression, half opened mouth coupled with the reverence he spoke of her with, if Twilight didn’t know any better she’d swear he was part of some kind of cult.
‘’Aaah Flo. She really is special. Even if they are so opposite, she still loves his brother very, very much. How can we be mad at him when he has such a great sister?’’
‘’Oh really? Interesting.’’ Had said a third pony, entering the conversation without them noticing.
The door behind the mayor opened itself at a slow pace revealing Flo of all ponies, leaving Twilight grateful and the Mayor too embarrassed to look her in the eye.
Even after hearing the conversation, Flo seems as if she was not bothered. Unfortunately for the mayor while her mouth was smiling, her eyes certainly weren’t smiling at all. Mayor Paternal, realizing what he had just said, was now feeling embarrassed and had difficulty looking at her straight.
‘’You know... it almost sounds like the only reason you tolerate my big brother is because I, your dear angel, always says that she loves him. Is that what you’re saying, Mr. Mayor.’’
The Mayor looked as though he’d just swallowed lemon, sweating visibly with a whimpering smile struggling to stay on his face.
‘’No, Flo please, don’t twist my words, you know that was not what I mean.’’
‘’Hum. I wonder.’’
Between the two, Twilight watched the scene grow progressively more tense with each word and facial expression. “This is getting a little too personal for me. How I wish to not be here.”
‘’Believe me, we do consider Mel one of us. But even you must admit Flo that is a little funny in the head.’’
That actually broke Flo’s fake smile. She tilted her head in a weird way. ‘’So what? Just because he is weird does that mean he is a bad pony?’’
‘’We never said he was a bad pony. It’s simply that he refuses to change and be more accepting of our way of life.”
‘’Or maybe you had never gave him a chance,.’’ Flo looked down feeling defeated.
Mayor Paternal came closer to Flo and put his hoof gently on her shoulder in show of almost parental-like affection.
‘’You truly are a good sister. But sometimes, I feel you tend to look at your brother through rose tinted glasses. As it stands, your brother has many things to work out.”
His answer did little to lift Flo’s spirits and the Mayor opted for a compromise. “Tell you what, tomorrow we’re holding a celebration for the Bearers' arrival. And if your brother comes and at least makes some attempt to be a bit more open minded, we will all welcome him with open hooves.”
His proposal seemed to work as Flo’s lips curved up into a smile again. “That sounds… nice. Thank you Mayor.”
“I’m all too happy to help. Well, until then, goodnight Flo. And goodnight to you Miss Sparkle.’’
‘’Goodnight Mayor.’’ Flo said with a bow and a wave, while Twilight was caught on the spot having nearly reached the stairs. She quickly spun to face them, hoof waving wildly trying and failing to be as inconspicuous as possible.
‘’Goodnight, thanks for dropping by Mayor.’’
Having said his goodbyes, the mayor finally exited the room, allowingThe mayor went to the door and closed it behind him. Once he was gone, Twilight breathed a sigh of relief.
‘’Fiouf, that was awkward.’’ Any sense of humor immediately dried up when Twilight remembered Flo was still in the room with her, to which she immediately offered an apologetic bow. “Oh, uh sorry if I heard something I wasn’t supposed to Flo. From the sound of things it seemed like a pretty sensitive topic.”
Flo immediately waved her hoof at the apology, a simple smile offered to put the princess at ease. “It’s fine, really I’m just sorry you had to see all that. But when it comes to how my brother is treated, it often strikes a nerve. Why… why can't they see him like how I see him?” Her smile morphed into a frown as her teeth started to clench hard, matched with equally narrowed eyes. She spoke with a tone filled with coldness. “Tell me, what are your thoughts? Do you think like them? That there’s no point in helping him and that it’s best to forget him?”
Once again on the spot and more than exhausted by now, Twilight contemplated her response. Thankfully she’d built up quite a resume of helping ponies who’d had difficulty fitting in. The most obvious example would have to be her friend Starlight who felt abandoned and went to a self-destructive path when she was left on her own. And then there was… herself. The one for whom the concept of friendship was for a time a difficult concept to grasp.
If Celestia didn’t have given her a chance to properly learn it, how differently would either her or Stairlight’s paths have gone had they not been given a proper chance/encouragement by another?
“Knowing my luck, probably spending the rest of my life alone in a library.”
That brief mental image was certainly unsettling to picture, but thankfully that was all it was, an image. Thanks in part to Celestia she avoided that fate and was able to pass on that same life lesson to Starlight as well as many others.
Thus, the answer to what seemed like a difficult question was a simple one.
‘’The answer’s simple. There’s nopony that We should always be willing to lend a helping hoof to somepony, no matter who they are. I mean I’m living proof of it.”
Closing the distance Twilight placed her wing on Flo’s shoulder, much like how Celestia did for her many times before. “I know personally how… having a head that thinks differently compared to the majority can be... a burden. You can end up isolating yourself from everyone else and even tell yourself it doesn’t bother you. In the end, the reason I struggled with making friends was because friendship itself was a concept hard for me to understand. Family, that I could understand but not friendship. And I’d have likely never learned the truth if I hadn’t been given a little helpful push.”
Twilight’s face morphed into a joking smile in an attempt to lighten the mood somewhat. “Must sound funny, the Princess of Friendship was originally a recluse who didn’t even understand what friendship was.”
Flo had been utterly entranced by Twilight’s words, hanging off every detail, only offering a reply once Twilight stopped talking. “No, not at all. If anything it makes a lot of sense.”
“So understand that I will never look bad on ponies like your brother. He is different, yes, but there’s nothing wrong with that. Especially not when I find that we might be similar to a degree.’’
That seemed to bright Flo up. “Glad you see things my way. But…I know the rest of the town will never truly understand him, alas. I’ve always hoped things would change. Sure he acts like he’s alright being by himself but there are times whenI feel like… that he has only me in the world. That I am his only ally.’’
Her smile dropped as she moved Twilight’s wing and walked to the open window, looking up to see the slowly setting sun, bathing the sky in the twilight of dusk. Her face turned to Twilight, the golden light from the sun practically setting her hair ablaze, matched by her fiery, determined gaze.
‘’Still, I will not give up hope. Hope that one day, Mel will surprise them all.’’
The sun had long been gone, now replaced by Luna tapestry. From his house, Mel was also gazing upon the night sky from his window, being bathed by the gentle blue light of the moon. His eyes were fixated on the shining stars, as if searching for something amongst the celestial lights.
He persisted for a few moments before closing the curtains, submerging the room in darkness as he walked back to his desk. Reaching out, he grabbed a nearby pencil pot and spilled all its content on the wooden surface. Among them, there was a simple skeleton key. Taking the key in his mouth, he unlocked the desk draw, pulling out a white, rectangular object. It was made of a familiar material.
Once he tossed out all the pencils and placed the object right in the center of the desk, he pressed the big button in the center of the box. Circuitry of blue light appeared on the ivory surface while the button itself lit up, projecting a massive holographic map of Equestria.
This hologram was bathing the room with its cyan light, though the contrast left more than a few parts of the room even darker than before. And also… it oddly gave the small, soft smile on Mel’s face a sinister touch.
The map revealed several blinking dots, seemingly spread all over the country.
‘’Good. Until now, everything went according to plan. Soon. Very soon all Equestria will receive his wake up call. Now then. Dirt. Dust. Have followed my instructions?’’
From the shadow step out the two diamond dogs brothers. Dirt tried to look professional but Dust was visibly uneasy, his eyes were cast down as he nervously rubbed his hands together.
‘’Yes boss, we did exactly as you have told us.” Dirt muttered, having taken the lead given his unresponsive brother. “We had sent out all those giant white cubes, to all the towns on your list.”
Dirt’s reaction to that actually caused his muzzle to widen in a mocking smile as he bit back a laugh. “I couldn’t believe how easy it was, those ponies didn’t even question what was in those crates. Just shipped them out with a smile on their faces.”
That last line caused him to actually laugh, though there was a hint it was faking it. “Anyway, we also made sure to have them sent at the exact times you asked. Going by distance, they all should have already arrived at their destinations.’’
‘’Yes. I already know that. This map shows me that, indeed, all the monitors are safe and they all should work just fine. Good job. And what about our little… devices.’’
Dirt again smirked while his brother continued to fidget. ‘’All have been installed personally by our paws.’’
‘’Discretely?’’
‘’Don’t worry. We were very careful. No one has even the slightest idea that they are there.’’
‘’We will see that.’’
Mel waved his hoof in front of the holographic map and the dots were replaced with different ones. Curiously these new ones were at different locations compared to their precedents, but the majority were concentrated at one specific place. It was a sight that Mel nodded, satisfied.
“Wonderful. They are all there and ready to be activated whenever I wish. I’m impressed. Well done, both of you.”
Dirt seemed to preen under the praise while Dust continued to fidget, still looking as out of sorts as before.
“But now we have arrived at the trickiest part. The one that could easily ruin everything. We will have to be careful and prepare.’’
‘’Ooh don’t worry about that, to be prepared, we are. Hey Dust, bring the crate of goodies we have stolen.’’
‘’… Yes big brother.’’
Dust disappeared through the door and quickly came back, pushing a large crate inside on the floor. The very same they had brought early in the afternoon. Dirt then took a crowbar and forced it open. Revealing... many things.
‘’When the Wonderbolt Academy was struck down by lightning, they were in need of such a large number of extra workers. We took this chance and it worked. It was such a mess they didn’t even notice some of their equipment was missing. This added arsenal should make our job a cinch.’’
Dirt looked even more pleased with himself, knowing that even with his back turned, Mel was very satisfied with their work. Dust only sat and watched on, showing none of the enjoyment his cohorts were.
‘’You have surpassed all my expectations. I have chosen the perfect partners for this. Ponies didn’t treat your talents at their just value.”
Dirt looked ready to jump for joy at the praise as Mel finally met their eyes, looking surprisingly serene despite his frightening desires.
“But you must, but must not, underestimate The Mane 6. They are a surprisingly resourceful group of ponies. This part will be the biggest gamble in my plan. You made sure to study carefully the reports I proved you with?’’
‘’Yes. Each of them. What they can do, their personalities. We know with what we will soon deal.’’
‘’Then I guess we can only hope that everything will work out. Excellent work Dirt. Now, as for you Dust.’’
Dust had not spoken and had stayed by himself for all the duration of the conversation. Mel did not need to look at him to see that he was not feeling well. Closing the distance, Mel looked at Dust with a soft and empty smile that set the diamond dog into shivers.
‘’What is wrong, Dust? You've been awfully quiet all this time. Is there something on your mind? It’s alright, don’t be shy. Speak freely.’’
‘’It’s just… … boss are we really going to do this?’’
‘’Is it not what you and your brother have prepared for?’’ Mel asked, his tone again seemingly empty yet it sent further chills down the Diamond Dog’s spine.
‘’I know but… … we have done everything you ask us without question. We sent those monitor thingies, we planted those… gadgets, even though we have no idea what they were. But this… boss, this is kidnapping! What we’re about to do is simply criminal.’’
‘’Yes. It is a crime.” Mel had said in such a casual manner that it was discorcerning. “So?’’
‘’BOSS! Please, do we really have to do this? Isn’t this going too far?”’’
Having heard more than enough Dirt stepped in. Despite being smaller than Dust, he angrily grabbed his little brother by the collar and yanked him down right into his brother’s face.
‘’Dust, you stupid brother of mine! Are you getting cold feet now? We are so close to finally getting the tranquil life we always wanted. I won’t let you ruin it.’’
Mel went closer and put his hoof on the shoulder of Dirt to calm him down.
‘’It’s alright, let me do the talking please.” Dirt immediately released his now terrified brother, while Mel again tried the more gentle and comforting approach. “Dust. Do you remember the reason you are doing all this?’’
‘’Yes but–
‘’As long as you perform the tasks I request of you, I will fulfill my promise. Tonight is the very last job I will ask you to do. And in exchange, I will give you all my fortune. I have already prepared several documents to transfer the money from my account to your. You did open your own bank account like I had suggested, didn’t you?’’
‘’… yes.’’ Dust found any kind of confidence he had withering with every word, not helped by his brother, worryingly staring him down just feet away.
‘’Then all you need is just one signature. Signature that you can only get from me, willingly. It is a generous sum. With that you will be set on for many years to come. Years that you could use to leisurely find a way to get steady income for the rest of your life. Is it not your ultimate goal? Unless you prefer to return to your harsh life?’’
‘’No, I don’t want that!’’ Dust’s voice finally found some volume, the memories of past trauma flooding back.
‘’You two brothers have been banished by your pack. And despite how friendly ponies claim to be, they aren’t especially welcoming to other species, are they?”
Dust’s frown grew as he merely nodded while Dirty reflexively clenched his claws and teeth, recalling how quick so many ponies were to turn them away.
“You had a hard time finding jobs and you are barely meeting even your basic needs and that is why I offered to help you. Just remember, this is bigger than you alone. You two are in this together. You are holding each other and brothers always support brothers.’’
At these words, the brothers looked at each other's faces. And Mel still continued to speak with his detached tone.
‘’So… are you in... or out?’’
Dust, still hesitant, looked at Dirt for support. With just a simple eye contact, all the memories of the past came flooding back. A past where they were alone against the world, and they only had each other. Dirt had sacrificed so much for him. Should he not do the same for him, Dust was thinking.
“‘’…*sigh* For my big brother. I’m in.’’
‘’I never had any doubt.” Mel’s smile slightly raised. “Then let's not lose time. After all, my game will begin in only three hours. Oh, and let's not forget those… precious tools given as a present from the ancient civilization.’’
Mel went back to the drawer where the device once was. Opening it up, he reached in and tossed two white sticks to the brothers. Upon closer inspection, the two found the sticks were actually made of stone, with handles for them to hold properly. The brothers pressed on a specific part of the handle and electrical arcs were projected noisily on the surface.
‘’Only one hit with these sticks and anypony would be instantly knocked out. With that along with everything else in your arsenal you will be more than ready.’’
Dirt eyed the object carefully, making sure to keep his distance after a random spark almost zapped his snout. ‘’And like you promised, we won’t have to deal with the princess or her student.’’
‘’Don’t worry about those two powerhouses. I will be the one to deal personally with Twilight and Starlight. That will only leave the five others. But like I say, do not underestimate them.’’
The two brothers looked somewhat relieved at not having to contend with two of Equestria’s greatest sorcerers, yet Dirt still looked unsure. “Okay, but what are you gonna do to stop them?”
‘’It’s simple. I will tell them–
‘’You want to guide us personally to the ruins tonight! Isn’t this a little… out of the blue.’’
Twilight struggled to keep her voice low while standing in the hallway of the second floor of the boarding house. Mel had strangely come to her as she was preparing to turn in with a proposition she didn’t expect.
‘’Yes, I am sorry to have come here unexpectedly. But you see, I already had the intention to go there. But as I went to prepare, I told myself that I shall take the opportunity to bring you here. I am familiar with the layout. So I’d make the perfect guide.’’
‘’Humm, well…’’
‘’Also… it’s embarrassing to say you have been so nice to me. More in a short moment than others did in a lifetime. I feel I shall pay you back.’’
‘’I don’t know what to say. How do you know so much about the ruins in the first place?’’
Mel looked ready to answer when a voice, along with several pairs of eyes cut him off.
‘’Hey, Twilight. Who’s the is this stranger?’’
From the doorway appear one after the other and one on top of the other, the heads of each of her friends, each eyeing Mel with varying looks of curiosity.
Seeing them, the gray pony waved his hoof at them.
‘’Greetings everypony, I am Melancholia, Floral’s older brother, but please call me Mel. So you are the legendary Mane 6 venerated by the entire town. I must say you do look like normal ponies.’’
As expected, Rainbow was the first to respond.
‘’Oh thank Celestia. Finally somepony who sees us for the simple mares we are. I tell you I was so tired of being elevated to godhood level and having everypony kissing my hooves. ... Was I really the one who had said that!’’
*Gassssssp*
Rather than answer the lingering question, Pinkie was running like a racing car, moving in all the directions around Mel at a supersonic speed, though it didn’t seem to phase him much.
‘’Oh my gosh, it’s you, the writer of those incredibly sad stories that Twilight was telling us about, you know you really remind me of my sister Maud, when it’s your birthday, is it true that you have no friends in town because that just too sad, then here’s something to show you that someone appreciates you.’’
Pulling a party popper out of nowhere, she pulled, causing it to explode in confetti all around the room. Surprisingly, Mel calmly took a step behind, avoiding the explosion of colorful paper, not getting a single piece even in his mane.
‘’My my, thanks a lot Miss Pinkamina. But I must say I did not expect to receive your support given how, in a way, we might literal opposite.’’
‘’Oh silly you. It is not because I’ve dedicated my whole life to giving smiles to everypony that I consider sorrow and pain my enemy.’’
‘’That’s… unexpected,” Mel almost mumbled, utterly baffled by such an idea. “A pity more ponies aren’t as open minded as you. If only they were more like you… no, let’s not think about that. It is pointless.’’
Twilight, seeing that the conversation was derailing, got it back on track and hopefully would avoid Mel getting overwhelmed by the avalanche of personality that was her friends.
‘’Let's not get distracted from the subject at hoof. I repeat my question, how do you know so much about the ruins?’’
‘’Because I often go there on expeditions. I find the location to be a great source of inspiration.’’
‘’You often go in there alone?!’’
‘’That’s right. And that’s also why I can confirm that despite its appearance the ruins are actually quite safe.’’
‘’But… but why nopony had told me about that?’’
‘’Simply because they don’t know. First, happytownians have nearly no interest in these ruins. Secondly, to whom I could talk about my excursions? And third, they barely make attention to what I do.’’
‘’Oh! … ooooh.’’ And just like that, things got awkward again.
‘’I am rather happy to finally share this with somepony. I’m sure you can imagine it’s hard to have a hobby that practically no one practices.’’
“Oh great, he’s playing the guilt and reciprocity card. As if I didn’t already feel bad. Look Mel, the offer is very tempting but it’s been a looong day, and right now I just want to get some sleep.”
‘’Oh, come now Twilight. Even if I’m not a die hard fan like the townsfolk I’m more than familiar with your rather passionate hunger for knowledge. Frankly, I wouldn’t be surprised if you got no sleep tonight due to your excitement at exploring the ruins.”
‘’Heh that’s not… okay, touché.”
Yup, it was hard for Twilight to argue on that. She had spent years of all night study sessions for class and many a long night spent simply reading for the heck of it. But her night owlish tendencies were a flaw she was trying to get rid of. Thanks with the help of an actual owl. Still, she could not help but find Mel's idea tantalizing. That pony had a way to infuse charisma in his words.
“Hmmm, well I can certainly understand your point. Exhaustion can certainly put a damper on research.” Mel’s demeanor stayed upbeat as he tapped his chin thinking of a possible solution. “How about this, what if I just take you to get a quick glance at the ruins. Not for research purposes but for your own excitement. A trip purely to satisfy your personal desire.”
‘’Welll, say it like that.’’ Twilight, finding his proposition even more tempting, turned her gaze to her side in slight embarrassment. “And it’s true that since I heard about those ruins, I had been so impatient to see them.”
‘’Right, right. Oh I’m sure that for you it would just like the first time I was there. It was so mind blowing I tell you. I felt as if all I was everything I thought I knew had been turn upside down.’’
The alicorn wings raised siglithy at that. ‘’All you knew… turned upside down!’’
Mel even went to turn his back at the princess to increase the dramatic effect of his speech. ‘’I still remember what a jolt it’d been. It was as if a storm was in my neurons.’’
Twilight wings went straight up and she was even starting to drool. ‘’A storm in my neurons!’’
‘’Yes and… oh you know what. I realize now that idea was a mistake. You do need to rest and it’s not as if the greatest discovery ever would be enough to erase that. Sorry, it was selfish of me. Better to forget what I’d say.’’ So confident he was that he got her that he whispered under his breath: ‘’Three. Two. One.’’
‘’WAIT.’’ Twilight shouted, her hoof held forward begging him to stop. ‘’You know, when it is said with such good arguments. STARLIGHT, CHANGE OF PLAN. COME HERE, WE ARE GOING IN THE RUINS RIGHT NOW. WHO NEEDS SLEEP ANYWAY?’’
‘’Oh way ahead of you Twi.’’
Starlight appeared from the doorway with bags on her back.
‘’Wait, you have already prepared.’’
‘’Come one Twilight, this you we’re talking about. Since the second Mel had proposed that trip I knew right away that you couldn't resist going to that technological marvels wonderland, yours words not mine, like a little filly throwing herself to her Heart Warming Eve gifts. By the way, I’m impressed, Mel. You got her you right to a T.’’
All Twilight friends could not help but to laugh at say alicorn who couldn’t help but to feel grumpy. ‘’Well, sorry for being so predictable.’’
‘’Come on Twi. Don’t take it hard.’’ Had said Starlight. ‘’We all love how nerdy you are.’’
A matching saddlebag was levitated over to Twilight, who begrudgingly took it. Still that did little to quell the excitement that was forming within her. The intellectual hunger had come, it won't settle until she saw those ruins right now.
As the two brilliant mares started to theorize what they might find, just looked at them with his permanent amiable face. That perpetual mask that was giving not a hint of what kind of thoughts he was having.
Twilight and Starlight were outside under the night sky that now was mostly covered, giving little moonlight. The air at this hour was rather fresh and Starlight was feeling a chill. The same couldn’t be said for Twilight, who was able to placate the cold with her raw excitement, practically bouncing on her hooves the entire way. Her excitability almost made her look like a young filly.
“Hurry up, hurry up, hurry up, I think can’t wait a second more.’’
Starlight followed her, roiling her eyes but deep down, she was as excited as her. Mel was the last one to exit. ‘’I will deal with the door.’’.
As he had said, he closed the door before locking it with a key.
Or rather simulated to lock it.
He turned the key in the wrong direction, leaving the closed door still unlocked even if the keyhole made a sound. Because the two mares were too far, they never noticed.
‘’There, we’re all ready. Follow me now. The ruins are waiting for us. You will love them, I’m sure of it.’’
Led by Mel, our three ponies went on a trail leading them to the mountain. Sadly both mares were blissfully unaware that two pairs of yellow eyes, hiding in the bush, were spying on them.
Mel took a mere second to look behind himself, passing it off as a glance at his two companions, while subtly signaling his conspirators to act. And once the ponies were out of their sight, the two diamond dogs came out of their hiding place with silence and turned their heads to the window on the second floor. Though things had been relatively quiet they could still make out the sounds of the occupants, still awake despite the day events.
‘’Good, they are all here in one place. And the two mages are gone. This is perfect. Mel should have left the door unlocked so we could enter the boarding house unnoticed. We will attack them using the element of surprise. They will not see it coming. But prepare yourself brother if something goes astray. We can’t afford to fail. Are you ready Dust? … … Dust! Your paws are shaking!’’
That was true. The massive, ape-like paws of Dust were trembling at an alarming rate and his fingers refused to remain stationary. And his eyes were at the verge of hysteria.
It really was jarring to see a creature his size look so vulnerable, though for Dirt it was a source of allarmess.
“Dirt, tell me what’s wrong please.”
‘’Yes brother, I am afraid.” Dust managed to say despite his trembling lips and teeth. “I, I, I really don’t want to do this. These ponies did nothing wrong. We don’t even know them. I am not sure I will be able to forgive myself.’’
Surprisingly given his prior interactions and demeanor, Dirt gently grabbed the hands of Dust and it stopped the shaking instantly, as he offered his still shaken brother a calming look..
‘’I understand little bro. It is the same for me. I know that what we’re doing is bad but we have no other choice if we want to survive. So please, I really need you to be there because I won’t be able to do it on my own. Dust… we need that money.’’
Dust nodded, having heard this before and while he disagreed with it, the diamond dog knew it to be true. His brother had been the only one he could ever rely on and he needed him now. Did he not made a sermon to himself that he will do anything for his brother.That thought hardened his resolve and set his face and mind into that of a hunter.
‘’All right big bro. There won’t be any hesitation anymore. Let’s go.’’
‘’Thank you little bro. Yes, let’s go.’’
The two dogs placed themselves discretely towards the front door. They gave each other a silent nod and checked it. Indeed, it was not locked. They covered their faces with what was resting on their heads. Gas masks. And it’s with deep breathing noise that they slowly put their paws on the doorbell.
‘’The sky is covering. Sinister.’’
Was what Rarity had said, looking through the window to see her two friends disappear in the distance with the rather odd pony they’d just met.
‘’And there they go. It seems we will have the night to ourselves alone. I must say, it makes a girl feel somewhat unwanted. True it was by choice, but I can’t help but feel left out.”
Ever the compassionate friend Applejack was right by Rarity’s side to give her a shoulder to lean on and an ear to listen to.
‘’Haaah don’t make that face. Do ya think we will have been in the mood for that tonight? Besides, it is not like it'll be the last day we take here. We’ll have plenty of occasions to help Twilight with her research. At least ah think we could offer help of some sort. Which makes me think. Pinkie, why’d ya wanna give a welcoming parade to this Melancholia guy so badly? Ah know that it is yer thing and all but that's usually for the new ones in Ponyville. Not when we’re going outside town. Heck if you did, you’d need to throw a party for dang near everypony in this crazy town…not that they’d mind I reckon.’’
‘’Oh that. Hummm how should I say this?” Pinkie seriously pondered her words, a sight not often see. “I guess I just felt like I should.’’
‘’What do ya mean?’’
‘’Remember when I said that he was like my sister Maud? Well, there’s a biggy difference between him and her.” Pinkie’s eyes shifted to the window, looking in the direction Mel had gone along with Twilight and Starlight. ‘’Even though Maud’s expressionless most of the time, okay all the time, well, you could still see like a subtle spark shining in her eyes each time she felt something. Without bragging, I consider myself kind of an expert at spotting it. And I didn’t see that spark with Mel. Not once.” The mention of this caused Pinkie’s mane to deflate ever so slightly. “That made me feel sad and I thought that he must be because he feels so lonely. So I tried to cheer him up but it seems to not even have made a dent. A shame.’’
‘’He does seem to be a particular fellow.” Rarity opted to share her own thoughts as she took her spot on a nearby couch. “But at least he has a sense of style. And good taste in accessories.’’
Her attempts to liven up the atmosphere were proving ineffective as most in the room felt Pinkie’s assessment of Mel hanging over them.
Well…save one as a loud yawn drew all eyes to her, currently laying flat on her bed, tired and bored of the conversation.
‘’Okay, enough about Mr. Prince of Darkness and let’s focus on what we’re gonna do tomorrow. I would love to avoid having a day as exhausting as this one.’’
A sudden pressure on the bed made the polychromatic pony lift her head up to see Fluttershy seated near the edge.
‘’Don’t worry Rainbow, tomorrow will be different. Our mistake was that we were separate. I’m sure if we just stay together it’ll be a lot more fun and easy. No matter what will fall on us, we will know how to overcome them.’’
Despite saying it had at least 50% less volume than the average pony it was still quite a bit more confident then normal. It actually got Rainbow to smirk as she lifted herself up completely.
“Well, well. Never thought I’d hear you be so gungho for this sort of thing Fluttershy.”
‘’What can I say, with you around I learned more and more to be courageous. Well, at least a little bit.’’
‘’Hoowee, now that’s the kind of thing I like to hear. After all the nonsense we’ve been through, a few crazy days here will be nothing.’’
‘’Personally, I’m not against some loony days.’’
All shouted, ‘’Yeah Pinkie, we know.’’ Which resulted in the group breaking out into laughter at the tension finally being broken. And Rarity found herself suddenly struck with inspiration.
‘’You know, all this talk about our friendship is pretty inspirational. Like, humm… like: we serve as the strength of each other and together we are as indestructible as a shining diamond. Ooooh, this actually gives me an idea for a new dress.’’
‘’Geez. So dramatic.’’ Rainbow replied. ‘’But now I am pumped up and I got my energy back. Alright, let them give us everything they got. With friendship power and our awesomeness, we will all knock them down.’’
Applejack seemed to agree, though was less blunt about it given the fact she at least was still chuckling.
‘’Geez, how did it lead up to us spurting out such cheesy speeches? Heheh.’’
As if to answer said question, Pinkie immediately slid to the center of the room, a spotlight suddenly appearing on her.
‘’Ah who cares, we should never miss an occasion to remember the most precious thing we have. And I think the last thing to do is crown this moment. WITH A RAIN OF CONFETTI.’’
She took her famous party cannon from who knows where (where was the point to question it) and aimed it high at the ceiling with a huge grin.
“Uh Pinkie, are you sure you’re not just looking for an excuse to celebrate something?” Fluttershy muttered matter of factly, though it did little to sway the party pony.
‘’So what. Details. Besides, it is a special blend of confetti that I was saving for an occasion like that. Now everypony, TO OUR INVINCIBLE FRIENDSHIP.’’
And all of them shouted at the unison ‘’To our invincible friendship’’.
With the go ahead given, Pinkie yanked on the string, making the cannon burst a cloud of confetti, but like she had said, they were very special. They were not made of paper but of a kind of aluminum reflecting beautifully the light of the room. They were made of seven colors, each representing the members of the Mane 6. And once they no longer had momentum, the cloud of sparkling scraps of paper stopped his ascension and fell at a slow pace. And the ponies could see that each color was arranged and positioned in a way that accentuated each other making it a true work of art.
They immediately understood that it must have taken Pinkie a lot of effort and meticulously to create it. It was no wonder Pinkie wanted so much to display to her friends. They could not help but admire, with bright eyes, this living symbol of the bond that united them.
And it was at this moment... that their happiness was shattered.
A kind of object, resembling a metal cane, came flying through the confetti cloud, bursting it and ruining the beautiful display. And with perfect timing, or maybe bad timing, the light of the room went flickering in tandem each time the cane bounced on the floor with a metallic thud. Once it finally settled down, each pony, even Pinkie, looked at it incredulously.
‘’… … Hum, that was not supposed to happen.’’
No pony had a chance to speak further as white smoke erupted from the cane that was starting to spread all over the room.
Many of the mares in the room didn’t react, stunned because they were not sure to understand what their eyes were showing them.
All, except for Rainbow Dash.
She too at first was too surprised to comprehend what was happening. But she was a Wonderbolt and she was finding that this thing was awfully familiar. The Wonderbolts had a recent addition to their arsenals. Since the Storm King invasion, scientists developed cans of gas that would be able to peacefully deal with large unruly crowds. The Wonderbots would dispatch them from the sky to safely deal with them.
As for today, they still never used them in any real-life situations but they had trained with them, Dash included. She had seen what those cans were capable of. So she knew they were effective. Looking at that hissing can, Dash pondered ‘’Could it be?’’.
Every muscle and neuron of Rainbow Dash tensed up to the max.
‘’SLEEPING GAS! BREATH IT AND YOU WILL BE KNOCKED OUT!’’
Rainbow, acting on instinct, flew through the window, shattering it with her own body and sending her outside.
Ignoring the glass in her mane, along with some possible minor cuts, she immediately flew around the window in circles, faster and faster, until she became a blue twister, creating a vacuum sucking the gas before it could reach her friends and expelling it to the air outside.
With the gas now far enough away, Applejack opted to join the fray. Eyeing the can that was still releasing the sleeping agent, she took a deep breath before charging headfirst into the smoke. With one powerful kick, sheshe Applejack was the second to become aware that they were in danger. She took the advantage of this opening and ran to the metal cane still streaming the gaseous sleeping agent. Then she gave it a powerful kick that propelled it to the doorway and then to the hall. Very quickly, the white gas invaded the corridor and the doorway was covered in an opaque fog.
‘’EVERYPONY GET BEHIND ME.’’ She shouted.
This order immediately drew the rest of the group behind Applejack, ready to defend the group from whatever threat came their way. Rainbow, who had just finished clearing the rest of the gas, flew to AJ and took point next to her, equally on the defensive.
With the gas now gone for the moment and now given a moment to breathe, both metaphorically and literally, the depth of the situation immediately hit them hard. Rarity proved the quickest to recover and immediately vocalized their thoughts.
“Pardon my language but, what the hay is going on!?’’
‘’Isn’t obvious Rarity. Somepony is attacking us.’’ Rainbow responded with not a hint of snark, whilst her eyes stayed trained on the nearby windows as they made their way into the hall with Applejack staying vigilante. ‘’Who is it, ah don’t know but we will not go down without a fight. Wait, Rainbow! Ya hurt!’’
Hearing that, Rarity also looked at Dash and she was so shocked she had to cover her mouth to avoid screaming. ‘’Oh my Celestia, she’s right! You’re bleeding.’’
With it brought to her attention, Dash could feel a slightly wet sensation near her forehead. A thin stream of blood started to slide down her face and over her left eye, an unfortunate cost of her charging clean through a window. Without averting her gaze, Rainbow nonchalantly wiped it with the tip of her right wing.
‘’It’s gonna take a lot more than a scratch to slow me down, we’ve got other things to worry about, speaking of which.” She faced the doorway covered in gaz and screamed at the top of her lungs. “HEY YOU KNUCKLEHEADS. I DON’T KNOW WHAT EXACTLY YOU WANT BUT QUIT HIDING LIKE COWARDS AND SHOW YOURSELVES.’’
Only silence answered her back and nothing was coming from the cloud covering the doorway. However, two pairs of yellow lights appeared in the nebulous fog and step by step, they were coming closer, the floor creaking under their heavy footsteps.
In mere seconds, two figures appeared from out of the gas. Bathed by the light of the room, the appearance of the assailants was fully shown.
Much to the group’s surprise, they were by no way ponies. They were bipedal and their hands were showing gray fur, while their faces were protected from the gas courtesy of a pair of masks, though they did little to hide the yellow slits of their eyes.
For the innocent ponies in the room, it certainly made them look like something out of a nightmare, and the hard breathing noise didn’t help things. Also, these two were wearing heavy jackets with pockets full of tools not made for peaceful acts. In short, they were showing that they were here for business.
However, despite the gas, concealing attire, Rarity couldn’t help but feel a sense of familiarity looking at them.
‘’Wait is that…’’
‘’Who the hay are ya and what in tarnation do ya want with us? We did nothing wrong.’’ Rarity’s moment of realization was brought to a screeching halt by Applejack immediately taking command and confronting the masked pair, unfazed by their appearance.
The little one, Dirt, smirking beneath his mask, answered, with his voice heavily distorted by the mask.
‘’Sorry. Nothing personal. But I’m afraid you all need to come with us now.’’
With synchronicity the two brothers pulled the lightning rods from their pockets and with a swing, turned them on and made them buzz with electrical arcs.
The ponies did not know what those things were but there was one thing they could guess easily, those rods must not hit them.Thus Rainbow quickly made herself airborne while Applejack took another step forward, firmly setting herself up as a wall between her friends and their assailants.
Unconcerned by the potential for retaliation, Dirt went sprinting to them, his weapon ready to strike.
Surprisingly, it was Rarity who stepped up, using her horn to levitate one of the beds.
Every unicorn can use levitation, even at a young age. It's one of the most basic spells. But that doesn’t mean they can lift anything. For most unicorns, the levitation spell is only proportional to their natural strength. They levitated only what they’re able to lift with their hooves in the first place. That is why they often use it on light objects. For particularly heavy stuff, you will need to add a lot of magic power to bypass this weakness.
But in that moment of danger, Rarity could feel adrenaline rushing through her body. It gave her a momentary boost in power, allowing her to lift the whole furniture.
“I hope you don’t take this offensively *huff* but I can’t stand ruffians who want to hurt my friends, thank you.”
She threw it with ferocious strength at her assailant. The bed looked about ready to crash into Dirt, yet the dog didn’t flinch. Instead, he effortlessly caught the bed with a single of his hands.
“Hum, so light.”
His paw gripped tightly on the bed frame, cracking it and shattering it into splitters with casual ease just to emphasize his strength. Diamond Dogs have very strong arms. That is why they’re such good diggers. Emboldened somewhat by his brother, Dust quickly closed the distance as Dirt advanced further.
Their initial attack unsuccessful, Dash opted for a more direct approach. With her signature speed, in the blink of an eye she’d gotten right into Dirt’s visibly stunned face. With a hard hoof punch to the arm, the baton was dropped and it rolled on the floor. That punch was followed by a second to the stomach, causing him to curl over in pain.
Now disabled, Dash launched into a literal tornado of blows, flying at the speed of lightning around the dog while unleashing punch after punch at every spot she could find.
“Take that. And that and that and that, ouch, and that and that and even more. No one hurt my friends.’’
Dirt didn't answer and instead seemed to fall forward, causing her to halt her attack and fly back to her friends. However, the dog didn’t continue forward, instead falling to his knees.
‘’Hah, did you see that? I am too fast for you,” Dash boasted with her usual pride, smirking at the downed dog. “Now I’ll give you one chance to stop and to leave us alone and maybe that’ll be all the pain you’ll be feeling today.’’
“Hey Dash, maybe also try asking why exactly this varmint decided to attack us before you try knocking him unconscious.”
Applejack chimed in next to her friend, pointing out the obvious issue she’d forgotten about.elted angrily, taking point next to Dash.
‘’Oh right, right. Tell us what’s the big idea and then, you could go away. And you better do it now without any nasty trick or I swear I will get very angry and WOAH!!!’’
Rainbow Dash suddenly fell on the floor with a painful thud. Once she got up on her hooves, she tried to open her wings, only to find her right one was now completely limp and useless.
‘’Hey what gives!’’
All the ponies look stunned at the sudden moment of weakness, none more so than Fluttershy who’d never seen her oldest friend having issues flying that weren’t the result of a prior crash or accident. Fluttershy, seeing her childhood friend that she was considering the strongest pony in the world, being hurt and vulnerable, was making her so but sooo worried.
‘’Rainbow, what wrong!’’
‘’It’s... it’s my wing. I can’t get it to move like I want. It’s like it just went numb all of a sudden.”
Dash’s normally boundless confidence started to rapidly drain as she tried desperately to get her wing to respond, but to little success. She didn’t understand what was happening to her and a feeling of panic was starting to submerge her.
It was at this moment that Dirt formed a malicious smile, even though it was hiding under the mask, and he began to chuckle. Everypony turned their heads to him, and noticed him lifting his paw, revealing a mini syringe with a needle hidden in his jacket sleeve under his wrist.
‘’This syringe contains a powerful muscle relaxant. We knew that you, Rainbow Dash, will be the biggest threat. And because of how fast you flap your wings, the blood, with the product in it, had quickly circulated in them. Now you are nothing more than another vulnerable pony. And what are you doing brother just standing there? After them!’’
Given the direct order, Dust went like a rampaging rhino, ready to crash into them with his boulder sized shoulders. Unable to fly, Rainbow was left wondering what course of action to take. Thankfully, for them she wasn’t the only combatant in their group.
An orange blur collided with the larger dog’s stomach, as a pair of strong hooves planted themselves into the ground like roots. The sudden halt forced Dust to look down only to find a brown hat blocking his view.
‘’Time for a change of strategy partners.’’
Applejack’s muscles strained as she held her position while Dust’s own legs tried to continue advancing. Strong as Applejack was, he still had a considerable size and weight advantage, and both he and his brother knew that.
Dust was more annoyed than afraid. “You should give up. You will never overpower me.”
“Who ever says that ah need to overpower ya? RARITY, NOW!”
Dust, to his surprise, saw that before him, a lot of bed sheets, shimmering with blue aura, were behind hurled at him. Afraid, he tried to run away but it was too late.
Those ghosts, filled with the vengeance of a posh pony, submerged him and ensnared him whole. Rarity, using her magic on fabric, both figuratively and literally, did a few maneuvers here and a few knots there and in a heartbeat, that giant masked dog was a prisoner in a cocoon of sheets.
The poor Dust, blinded and restrained, could only jump on his feet, the only part still free, until he fell flat on his muzzle. It’s a good thing he instinctively shut-down his electrical rob before being ensnared because if not, his fate would have been very dire.
Dirt, who just retrieved his own rod, saw with horror what they did to Dust. ‘’Brother! Oh no, it can’t be!’’ In a swift swing of his paw, the rod he held was re-activated, electrical arcs buzzing angrily on its tip. ‘’No one hurt my brother. You will pay.’’
Throwing caution to the wind, he quickly picked up his baton and charged forward, roaring as he prepared to hit the closest pony with it. AJ was ready to riposte when a pink blur came before her eyes and before she realized, Pinkie was already at the front, jumping happily.
“Oh oh, I want to play too.”
Using her tail like a pogo-stick, she bounced on it and jumped high just at the moment she was about to get hit by a swing of the electro-stick. It had been so close that the pink earth pony could feel the sparkes brushing her coat as she went up.
Yet, she was not afraid in the slightest. She landed on the mattress of one the many beds and using like a trampolines, she bounces back to land on another bed and then on another one and on and on while Dirt was unsuccessfully trying to run after her and swing at her only to miss again and again, that bouncing pink ball always escaping his grasp at the last second. Dirt was looking quite silly and exhausted while Pinkie was having the time of her life.
‘’Weeeeeeeeh.’’
‘’Would you-
‘’Miss me.’’
‘’Stay-
‘’Miss me again.’’
‘’*huff* put *huff**huff* so-
‘’Now I’m here.’’
‘’So that I *wheeze* zap you at lasssst.’’
‘’Who would want to be zapped? You’re so silly.’’
The anitic of Pinkie were too much for Dirt nerves. He snapped and blindly swung his rod everywhere, reducing his chance of hitting Pinkie to zero. And the giggling of say pink pony was not helping. ‘’He he he. You know, I think you don’t know how to play that game’’
‘’OH FOR THE LOVE OF ROCK, JUST STAY STILL FOR A MOMENT.’’
‘’Okay sure.’’
Instead of a bed, Pinkie landed hooves first on Dirt, knocking him on the floor while Pinkie stood high on his back, her upper hooves spreaded wide as if she was a gymnast. ‘’Now I’m sure that must be worth ten points.’’ She even said.
Her friends applauded her and the pink pony bowed to it. Dirt offered no retort other than a slow, raspy moan that almost sounded like a tire deflating.
But then, an alarming sound came and all pony heads snapped toward its direction. Dust, still trapped in his prison of cloth, had decided to use the fangs of his claw to tear apart the fabric. One of his paws was already out and it was easy for all to guess that it wouldn’t take much time before the big dog got himself free.
‘’Hum, okie dokie. I think it’s our cue to get out of here.’’
Agreeing with Pinkie, all ponies followed her toward the exit. Despite how well they had defended themselves, they still had no idea why it was happening. They all thought that the best strategy would be to run and ask for help. But once at the doorway, they saw they couldn’t get through. The cane was still expelling that white gaz.
Poor Fluttershy was panicking. ‘’W-what can we do? We can’t go there.’’ But Pinkie Pie gently pushed her away to go in front of everypony. Her look was one of confidence. ‘’Never fear. I’ll also handle this. Time to see if that scientist was right about that biofeedythingy.’’
She turned around, her back facing the gas. Like a boat engine, her tail started to rotate in a circle, quickly picking up speed, easily dispelling the remaining smoke from the hall. ‘’Take that icky gas. My mastery over every fibers of my body is unmatch.’’ In a matter of seconds the entire building was all but completely clear of smoke.
“And that’s that.” Pinkie dusted her hooves off for a job well done, pulling her mane to turn her tail off. The rest of the group seemed to relax finally. Though it was not for long as Dust had managed to free himself and was about to get up on his feet.
‘’Okay gals, ah think it’s our cue to get the hell out here.’’ Had said Applejack.
Across his mask, Dust saw with horror the ponies he was supposed to capture, the so important job he had to do, getting away from his grasp. And all he could do was reach out his paw in despair.
The stress he felt was so intense that for him, it was as if time had stopped. His mind went blank and instead, memories of the past came filling his head. A past he didn’t want to remember.
[We will always stay together, there is nothing that can separate us. I will not abandon you and you will never be alone Dust. I won't break my promise to mom.]
It was then… something in Dust snapped.
‘’Dirt. I can’t be a burden to him. Not again no no nonononoNOOOOO.’’
Dust let out a massive roar and he went after the ponies. But he was not running on two but instead on four legs like a wild beast. And strangely he was not aiming at the doorway but the adjacent wall. Every bed on his way was thrown away as his body slammed on them.
The ponies, who had just got up from the room, were galloping toward the stair when Pinkie felt a weird tingling. She cried ‘’Wait!’’, stopped their run by blocking her friends with her hooves and forced them to step back.
At the same moment, instead of stooping, Dust lunged blindly at the wooden wall.
And smashed it.
In front of the ponies, an explosion of splinter came quickly followed by a thick cloud of sawdust. If Pinkie had not stopped them, they would have been smashed too.
As the fog was starting to clear up, a shadowy figure appeared in it. The ponies, despite their previous bravery, could not help but take a step back before that massive shade whose pants were made more eerier because of the mask. As he took a set out the smoke, they say his eyes shone with ferocity and he let out a cry full of rage, resolve… and also strangely… regret.
