Dusty is just a simple bandit from Dodge Junction. Next thing she knows she is being whisked away to Canterlot by royal guards. Turns out Princess Twilight wants her to test out her new criminal reformation program. Dusty is far from interested.
Dusty Clouds is a simple pegasus. She wakes up, she eats, she robs a bank with her posse, and then she sleeps.
One day, after what seemed to be a normal heist, Dusty finds a member of her crew has been captured by the sheriff. Upon going back to retrieve her, Dusty is apprehended by royal guards. She finds herself whisked away to Canterlot, where she meets Princess Twilight. Twilight tells her she has been chosen to act as a guinea pig for the new Criminal Reformation and Acclimation Program. She is far from interested, but she finds she has little choice in the matter. To make matters worse, she is stripped of her magic and partnered with the most annoyingly peppy pink unicorn. They have to learn to work together in order to get back what they lost and regain their freedom, and perhaps find something else along the way.
"Eat dust, pigs!" she yelled behind her as she whipped across the arid soil. Behind her, three large earth pony stallions galloped fiercely, trying in vain to keep up. The foremost stallion shouted something, but the space between them was growing rapidly, and she could not hear what he said, nor did she particularly care. Once she was satisfied with the distance between her and her pursuers, she opened her dark gray wings and began beating them vigorously. She burst forward, and a huge cloud of dust kicked up behind her as she accelerated drastically.
She skimmed above the desert like a dragonfly, her hooves only touching the ground on occasion to give her an extra boost. She reveled in the feeling of the wind on her wings, and her mane and tail whipped behind her like gray flags.
Soon, the sheriff and his lackeys were just little specks on the horizon. She chuckled to herself and changed direction once they were finally out of sight. While the sheriff continued on toward the west, she would be well on her way to the buttes in the south - toward the hideout. The dust she kicked up would settle by then and cover up any tracks she left behind. A simple, but effective diversion, given her speed.
She slowed down a bit once she got close to the hideout. The entrance was hidden in a small crevice that carved itself into the side of the butte. It was wide enough for four ponies to enter abreast, and about six ponies tall at the peak of the crevice. Once inside, she followed a dark tunnel that eventually widened out into a spacious cavern. The cavern was covered wall to wall in various things, all stolen, of course. Bags and crates of bits sat in piles against the walls, and various other trinkets littered the room, such as jewelry and saddlebags taken from tourists.
She took her own saddlebag and tossed it to the ground, the bits inside overflowed onto the ground with a tinkle. She flopped down onto an old, moth-eaten sofa with a huff and closed her eyes. After a moment she sat up straighter and stretched her wings out, winding them in a circular motion with a groan. She fell back into the cushions of the couch with a contented sigh.
"I wonder what's takin’ the others so long," she wondered to herself. As if in answer, she heard hoofsteps at the entrance. She tensed her wings, just in case she'd have to make a run for it, but relaxed when she saw the familiar bright yellow mane of Thistle Whistle. She was pulling a small wagon behind her. As soon as she was inside she unhitched the wagon and shook the dust from her mane and her creamy tan fur.
"That was a disaster," Thistle groaned, "Dusty, you shoulda seen it. Unbelievable." She walked toward the couch and kicked a few loose bits on the ground out of her way. She seemed huffier than usual.
"Whatcha mean? Looks like you guys pulled through just fine and dandy," Dusty gestured to the cart from her place on the couch.
"Oh sure, but we lost-" She was cut off by a stallion loudly bursting into the entrance.
"Dusty! It's a disaster! It's horrible!" he shouted, his long, red mane was frazzled and windblown, and his brown chest puffed in and out comically. He was breathing so heavily Dusty thought the pony was going to keel over.
"Chokecherry, calm down, what's goin’ on?" Dusty said, getting up from the couch to stand by the stallion and pat him gently on the back. He whinnied pathetically as he tried to catch his breath, he was never able to keep up as well with the others.
Thistle chimed in before he could recover. "We lost Briar Rose."
Dusty blanched, "you what?"
Chokecherry finally caught his breath. "Th-there were royal guards in town! When the sheriff and the others left to chase you, the guards were still in town and thwarted us as we were leavin' the bank. We were just barely able to escape with the loot, but Briar done went and got caught," he said shakily.
Dusty stared at the brown stallion for a second before turning to Thistle, who nodded in verification. Dusty turned away from them and began to pace. This was bad, really bad. If they questioned Briar Rose, she could accidentally give away the position of their hideout. They couldn't risk losing everything they've worked for for years over some fluke and a newbie who wasn't hardened enough to handle herself in front of the cops.
"Well, we'll have to go get her," Dusty said, "we need a plan."
"What are royal guards even doing in Dodge Junction?" Chokecherry asked.
"Don't matter," Dusty said, "a pig's a pig, and that means they're no allies to us. Especially after capturin’ one of our own."
"They'll just catch us, too. We were lucky to escape the first time," Thistle grumbled, she had plopped herself onto the couch angrily.
"That's ‘cause they caught y'all by surprise, once we're on the offensive, we'll have the advantage," said Dusty.
"I dunno," Chokecherry said sheepishly, "the sheriff and his ponies are one thing, but royal guards are something else. You didn't see 'em, Dust. They were huge and fast. I mean, they were able to catch Briar, and she's the fastest of all of us besides you."
"That's because Briar is inexperienced," Dusty said, shrugging his comments off, "which is exactly why we need to get her back. What if they interrogate her and she spills our location?"
"I mean, I guess that makes sense," Thistle said flatly, she still looked a little apprehensive.
"Look, if you guys don't wanna come, then I'll just go get her myself. I'm more than capable. The last thing I need is you little foals hesitatin’ on me cause you're scared," Dusty said with finality. Thistle wrinkled her nose at the last remark. With that said, Dusty left the cavern, making her way to the entrance. She peered out over the vast desert. It would be dark soon, and that would give her an advantage. Her dark coat blended in well with moonlit desert soil, unlike in the daytime where she stood out like a sore hoof against the bright red dirt. She stood there for a while, thinking of a plan.
"Dusty?" A voice came from behind her. She turned to see Chokecherry approaching her slowly.
"What is it, decided to buck up and join me?"
"Yeah, actually. Those royal guards are scary, but Briar Rose is still our friend. We can't leave her behind."
Dusty laughed, "Chokecherry, you've always been way too sentimental. Whatever, though, as long as it gets your hooves movin'. You're probably the sneakiest out of all of us, so you'll be the one to sneak into Prickle Pants' office and get his keys." Chokecherry gaped at that but didn't protest. "We're gonna sneak into town when it gets dark and break her out of the jail, that's probably where they're keepin' her."
"Are you sure we can do this, Dust?"
"Don't be ridiculous, ‘course we can. Just listen to me and everything will work out like it always has." Chokecherry didn't seem satisfied by this answer, but it shut him up. Dusty turned to face him. "We leave as soon as the sun is down, got it? Go back in and tell little miss Prissy Thissy that if she wants to come help she better be out here by then."
"Alrighty," Chokecherry said and shuffled back into the cave.
Dusty sat on a rock and watched the sky turn dark as Celestia pulled the sun down into the cool embrace of the horizon. She thought of Briar Rose, locked up in a cell. Serves her right for getting caught, Dusty thought. Dusty always thought Briar wasn't cut out for this kind of work. She was too naive and had a tendency to panic in stressful situations, and in all honesty, Dusty had been thinking letting her join their little posse had been a mistake, but Thistle vouched for her. They were cousins and had grown up together. Thistle had always been a coward, though, so Dusty wouldn’t be surprised if she didn’t show up tonight, even for her favorite cousin.
In any case, there was nothing she could do about it now. She certainly couldn't kick Briar out, she would probably go barking their secrets up every cherry tree in town, and while she was somewhat cold to her posse, she certainly didn't have the heart to "get rid" of her, so she just dealt with her incompetence and hoped it would improve. That was obviously the wrong choice, considering the situation they were in now.
Finally, the sun's last rays disappeared behind the distant mountains and darkness settled upon the desert. It was time to leave.
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Dusty and Chokecherry made their way into the outskirts of Dodge Junction. Thistle had decided not to come, saying it was a "lost cause." By this time it was well into the night, and almost everypony in Dodge Junction was asleep. If not for the urgency of their mission, Dusty would have found it peaceful. The moonlight gave the red earth of the ground a silvery tinge, and the skeletons of cherry trees bristled in the slight breeze, dusted with green leaf buds.
Dusty signaled Chokecherry with her wing, and they split up. Chokecherry headed toward the sheriff's office, while Dusty headed toward the jailhouse. When she arrived she noticed two ponies outside the door and quickly hid before they saw her. She peered from her hiding place between two storefronts at the ponies guarding the jailhouse. They were massive pegasus stallions, easily as big as the strongest earth ponies that worked on the nearby ranches and farms. Dusty had never seen a pegasus that looked like this before. She had only ever seen herself and some of the dweeby tourists that occasionally visited town. She would be lying if she said she wasn't a little intimidated.
Ducking behind the buildings she came around the back of the jailhouse, which was unguarded. She tiptoed up to one of the windows and peered in. It was dark, but she could make out the green coat and pink mane of a pony in one of the cells. She looked for a way to get in, but all of the windows were locked shut. She made her way to the back, where there was a second entrance. She gently turned the handle, but it wouldn't budge. She sighed in exasperation.
A jingling noise behind her nearly made her jump out of her skin. She turned to see Chokecherry behind her, holding a key ring in his mouth.
"I wasn't sure which one went to the cells, so I grabbed 'em all," he whispered around the keys. Dusty smiled and snatched the keys from him. As quietly as possible she tried each one, slowly placing them into the keyhole and turning softly. She was beginning to lose patience, but as she placed the final key in the lock it turned and clicked.
"Finally!" she whispered. She stuck her snout under her wing and found her oil gland and carefully rubbed as much as she could on the hinges of the door. It opened silently. She peered in, Chokecherry sticking his head in underneath her. No one appeared to be in the main area, just the pony in the cell. She stepped the rest of the way in, signaling Chokecherry to stay outside and keep watch. Even standing in front of it, it was hard to see into the cell. The shadows of the tree branches outside danced in the cast moonlight, giving the impression of movement within.
"Psst, Briar," Dusty whispered softly, "Hey, Briar, you awake in there?" She was answered by silence. Dusty pulled out the keyring and began testing the keys in the cell lock. About halfway through the ring, she found it, unlocking the cell door with a satisfying click. Unfortunately, the cell didn't have a handle, so when it was unlocked, it swung open with a loud creak, not allowing Dusty the opportunity to oil the hinges. Dusty panicked as she heard movement beyond the front door and rushed into the cell, grabbing the sleeping pony inside.
She stopped when she noticed how light Briar Rose seemed to be. Looking down she saw she was holding a green bed sheet with a pink scarf lying on top. Her jaw nearly dropped to the floor in shock, she had been duped! At that moment the front door to the jailhouse burst open and one of the pegasus guards rushed in. Dusty wasted no time ditching the laundry on the floor of the cell and rushing to the back door. Her heart dropped when she saw the second guard holding down Chokecherry, placing cuffs on his hooves. Dusty prepared to bolt around the second guard while he was busy with Chokecherry, but just as she was about to get through the door, she found herself suspended midair, unable to move forward. She turned to see a third guard standing at the front door, a faint blue glow around his long, sharp horn. He seemingly had come out of nowhere.
"Alert the sheriff," the unicorn guard said to the pegasus beside him. The pegasus guard nodded curtly and galloped off. Dusty struggled and thrashed, but no matter how hard she tried to gallop or how fast she beat her wings, her physical efforts had no effect on the burly unicorn's telekinetic spell. After several minutes she heard hoofsteps approaching, and the pegasus guard returned, towing the sheriff behind him. By now the other pegasus guard was done with Chokecherry and had led him inside, hooves chained together so he couldn't run off.
The sheriff smiled when he saw Dusty suspended in the air. "Well, well, well, if it isn't the infamous Dusty Clouds, apprehended at last," he said with a chuckle, his usual cocky grin turned up to eleven.
Dusty snorted at him, "Well, well, well, if it isn’t the the famous Sheriff Prickle Pants, arriving at the scene of the crime last, like always. The only reason you caught me is because you got some extra goons to do your job for you."
"It's Sheriff Prickly Pear! Prickly Pear! How many times do I have to tell you," the sheriff fumed, pointing an accusatory hoof at her.
"Whatever," Dusty rolled her eyes, "let's get the chit-chat over with and get to the part where you throw me in jail. The faster we're done here the faster I can escape."
"Ah, ah, not so fast," the sheriff said with a click of his tongue, "unfortunately for you, you will not be going to jail today."
"Oh? You're letting me go?"
"Not exactly," the sheriff gestured to the three royal guards, "see these gentlecolts here? There's a reason they've decided to grace our little town with their presence. Once we get all the paperwork sorted out, you will be in their custody."
"Wait, what?" Dusty shouted. She looked down to Chokecherry, who looked just as confused as her. She looked to the guards, who stared back at her evenly. Finally, she looked back to Sheriff Prickly Pear. "What do royal guards want with me?"
It wasn't the sheriff who responded, but rather one of the pegasus guards. "Princess Twilight Sparkle has specifically requested your apprehension and detainment. You will be brought to Canterlot at dawn."
"The princess? Canterlot?" Dusty reeled, "What does the princess want me in Canterlot for?"
"I cannot say," said the guard, "we are simply following our orders. We are not privy to the details and reasons for your relocation."
"We're going to Canterlot?" Chokecherry chimed in from the corner.
"Nope, just Dusty Clouds," the sheriff said, "you and Briar Rose will be staying right here. And once we find your yellow friend, Thistle Whistle, she'll join you."
Dusty was still processing what she was just told as she was floated out of the jailhouse. She caught one last glance of Chokecherry's fearful expression before the door was slammed closed. The guards led her down the quiet streets. They passed one of the sheriff's assistants leading Briar Rose toward the way they had come, likely heading to lock her in the jailhouse. When she caught sight of Dusty she gasped. She looked like she wanted to say something, but as she passed she just looked away shamefully. Dusty said nothing as well.
Eventually, the guards brought her to a carriage. It was fancy and intricately adorned, Dusty almost wouldn't have realized it was a paddywagon if not for the bars on the windows. The six-starred royal symbol was emblazoned in sparkling paint on the side. One of the pegasus guards placed shackles on her legs and a thick leather strap over her middle, holding her wings down. With that the unicorn guard, still holding her up, placed her gently inside the carriage, snapping the door shut behind her quickly.
Dusty looked around at her new prison, if it could be called that. The inside was awfully cushy. Soft purple benches lined opposite sides of the carriage, and the walls were painted a calming lilac. Dusty tapped her hoof against one of the walls, testing it. The short clang that resulted told her she was in a box of thick, solid metal. She desperately looked for any way out. The doors wouldn't budge, no matter how hard she pushed or bucked them, and the bars on the windows held fast much the same. Eventually, she gave up, curling up onto one of the cushy benches and falling asleep.
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The cart is moving.
That was the first thought that entered Dusty's mind as she blearily opened her eyes. The faint light trickling in through the barred windows of the carriage told her that it was now the next morning, but how early, she couldn't tell. She got up from her slightly uncomfortable napping spot and peered out of the windows. She reeled back and slammed her head against the opposite door when she realized she was in the air.
"Ow, ow, ow," she groaned, rubbing the back of her head with a hoof. She shakily got to her feet and looked back out the window, hoping she had been hallucinating. Nope, she thought, I'm definitely flying. She felt nauseous as she looked down at the quickly passing treetops. She stepped back from the window and crouched down onto the floor, trying to calm herself down. A slat in the wall at the front of the carriage slid open, revealing a pair of blue eyes.
"You doing alright in there?" said the pony on the other side. Dusty recognized him as the unicorn guard from last night.
"Just dandy," Dusty replied in the most sarcastic tone she could muster.
"Well, try not to bang around too much back there, we don't need you throwing the pegasi off course and making us crash." With that, the guard closed the slat and Dusty felt an entirely new wave of nausea overcome her at the thought of the carriage crashing.
She remained curled up on the floor for a long time. She tried not to think about the fact that she was in a death box traveling hundreds of feet above the ground. The carriage ride seemed to last forever. Finally, after what felt like hours, Dusty sensed an increase in air pressure. Her instincts told her they were starting to descend. Despite her curiosity, she decided against looking out the window again. Instead, she waited until she felt the feet of the carriage finally touch ground. She sighed in relief and sat up. Her legs were still a little shaky, but she tried to regain at least some semblance of dignity.
After a few minutes, she heard hoofsteps just outside the carriage door, as well as voices. The door opened, and before she could do anything she was enveloped in warm, blue magic again and lifted out of the carriage. She leveled a glare at the unicorn guard as he came into view.
"Would you stop doing that," she grumbled at him.
He shrugged, "Sorry, ma'am, it's protocol."
She huffed and crossed her hooves as the unicorn guard began to lead her away, flanked by the two pegasus guards. Her indignance didn't last long as she looked up to see the towering castle around her. She gasped as she took in the sight. She heard one of the guards nicker in amusement, but she ignored it. She had never seen a building so large in her entire life, and she had to crane her neck to see the top of the high towers. They were walking through the courtyard toward a set of great doors. A group of gardeners gawked at her as they passed, and she stuck her tongue out at them.
The unicorn guards standing on either side of the doors nodded to them as they approached. Each took up a handle in their magic and swung open the grand doors. The inside of the castle was nearly as magnificent as the outside. The tall ceilings were intricately carved, the moldings alone probably cost more than everything in the entirety of Dodge Junction. They passed dozens of grand stained glass windows as the guards floated her through the hallway, each one depicting ponies she didn't recognize and creatures she had never heard of.
Their hoofsteps echoed coldly on the walls. Everything else was silent. Dusty has always assumed the castle would be bustling with staff and nobles, but the eerie quiet put that theory to rest quite soundly.
Finally, they reached another set of grand doors. They looked similar to the front doors of the castle, except the designs carved into the solid wood were different. They probably had some significance, but Dusty couldn't tell what. This time, the pegasus guards were the ones to swing the doors open. They remained stationed at each side of the entrance as the unicorn guard led Dusty inside. The opulence of the throne room on the other side was unmatched, and Dusty truly felt out of her element. She looked up at the princess seated before her. Her long, striped, navy blue mane waved in a nonexistent breeze. She seemed to shimmer as she shifted on her throne, her gaze piercing intensely into Dusty's own.
When they were finally at the foot of the stairs leading to the throne, the unicorn guard set Dusty down. He bowed to the princess and turned to leave. Dusty looked back at his retreating form confusedly, then back at the princess. She was smiling at her.
"Greetings, Dusty Clouds. Thank you for joining me today," Twilight Sparkle said serenely.
Dusty avoided her gaze. "Well, I didn't have much of a choice," she said before she could think. She clamped her mouth shut loudly and her eyes bored holes into the ground. Great, she just sassed the princess. Good going. She heard laughter above her and looked up to see the princess throwing her head back in mirth.
"I suppose not," Twilight said with a grin, winking at Dusty goofily. "In any case," she said, "I'm sure you're very confused as to why I've called you here. The truth is, I need your help."
"My help?" Dusty said, even more confused than when she'd arrived.
"Yes, your help. You see, the population of Equestria has been doing quite well lately. Now that we have allies and friends on every border, we have no need to worry about war or hardship. Our technological advances over the last few decades alone have been wondrous."
"Those all sound like good things to me," Dusty said apprehensively. She wondered where the princess was getting with this.
"Yes, they are great things," Twilight continued, "but with new times come new problems." She stood up from her throne and descended the stairs. She walked past Dusty and toward one of the side entrances to the throne room and turned to smile at her, nodding her head toward the door. "Follow me," she said, "let's walk and talk."
Dusty got up and shuffled over to the door, following behind the princess. The shackles on her legs limited her movement quite a bit and were quite noisy. Twilight noticed this, and with a swift dip of her long horn and a burst of magenta sparkles she unlocked the shackles and they clanked to the floor. Dusty also felt the leather strap slip from her back, freeing her wings. She looked at the princess in confusion, but she was already walking away. Dusty trotted to keep up with Twilight's long strides.
"As you may be able to guess," the princess began as they made their way down a hall, "more ponies means more crime."
"Makes sense," Dusty said.
"Indeed. Before my rule, crime was never the forefront issue for Celestia and Luna. There was always some bigger issue. But now, we find ourselves in a period of relative peace and prosperity, and as such, the crime rate in Equestria has become more and more troublesome." Twilight stopped at one of the stained glass windows lining the hall. It was tall and depicted six ponies standing in a circle. Dusty recognized them as Twilight herself and her five best friends, the Elements of Harmony.
Twilight smiled at the window and looked down at Dusty. She squirmed uncomfortably under the princess's gaze. "As you know, my specialty is friendship," Twilight continued, "it pains me to see all these ponies being locked up. Not only that, but we are running out of infrastructure to hold them, and the last thing I want to spend resources on is bigger prisons." She sighed, moving on to another window. This one depicted two unicorns, one purple and one blue, the blue one was wearing a giant hat. The next window showed a long, slender creature with mismatched parts. After that, it was an image of a red unicorn with a broken horn. They passed several more, and each pony or creature was shown committing some good deed. Twilight smiled at each one.
"I know that there is hope for these ponies," Twilight said wistfully, "I've seen it before." She turned back to Dusty, "so I've come up with a solution. This is where you come in."
"A solution?" Dusty said. Her voice shook a little.
"A rehabilitation program," Twilight said with a wide grin. She saw Dusty's conflicted reaction and chuckled.
"Wait, so you brought me here to rehabilitate me?"
"Sort of," Twilight said, then grinned wolfishly, "more like I brought you here to act as a guinea pig." Dusty gaped at the princess, her behavior seemed very different now than it had a few minutes ago.
"Guinea pig?! What do you mean by guinea pig?" Dusty's voice pitched upward shrilly and the princess looked away sheepishly.
"My apologies, perhaps that wasn't the best way to put it. I tend to get a little carried away when it comes to research," said Twilight, "what I meant was I brought you here to test the new rehabilitation program I designed. It's quite fascinating, actually. Instead of us rehabilitating you, you rehabilitate yourself."
Dusty raised an eyebrow at Twilight, "Rehabilitate myself? Sure, and earth ponies fly."
Twilight chuckled, "I'm serious. Just from talking with you now, I can tell you are not a bad pony, Dusty."
"With all due respect, princess, you don't know anything about me. I have no interest in being rehabilitated or whatever,” Dusty said, though the bite in her tone was softened from fear of making the princess angry.
Twilight frowned, "Listen, you are-"
Dusty cut her off before she could continue, "Why even choose me anyway? You've probably got dozens of Canterlotian pickpockets to choose from. Why not just send me back to Dodge Junction and choose one of them?"
Twilight sighed, "Why I chose you specifically is irrelevant. The fact of the matter is that I did choose you and that you hardly have a choice." Dusty mumbled something incoherent under her breath and kicked at the tiles under her hooves. Twilight smiled and shook her head. "I'll set you up with a room in the castle for the rest of the day today," said Twilight, "don't even think about trying to escape. You will be heavily guarded. In the morning, you will meet your partner for the program."
From seemingly out of nowhere two guards appeared and ushered Dusty away. Princess Twilight nodded a silent farewell. The guards led her down the hall, stopping at a set of normal-sized double doors guarded by two more ponies. The guards led her inside, then left, shutting and locking the door behind them. Inside was a regally decorated bedroom. A huge bed with a luxurious purple drapery that hung over the posts was the centerpiece. It was bigger than any bed she'd ever seen. She plopped down onto the cushy surface, almost immediately sinking into the fluffy mattress. The bedclothes smelled faintly of lavender and herbs, and they felt warm as if they had been freshly laundered. She tried hopping off again, but the blankets caught on her hooves and she face-planted onto the polished marble floor.
"Owwww," she groaned, picking herself up again. She was glad nopony was around to see. She noticed a tray near the bed, a steaming bowl of soup and a glass of some fancy-looking juice sitting atop it. She hadn't realized until now how hungry she had been. She inhaled the food in record time, nearly burning her tongue on the hot soup. When she was done, she realized she didn't know what to do with herself. She looked at the clock sitting on the nightstand. It was still early in the afternoon.
Dusty looked around the room. Normally, she would try to escape this cushy prison, but she knew better than to try to escape the royal guards. They were ruthless, and there were hundreds of them. She crawled laboriously back onto the foofy bed and sprawled out on her back, staring at the drapery above. She thought back to everything the princess had said.
"Reform myself? Ridiculous," Dusty scoffed out loud, "and what did she mean by partner? She's dragging some other poor soul into this fruitless charade, too?" Dusty spent most of the afternoon idly, fiddling with the various decorative trinkets she found in the room and thinking about the situation in which she now found herself. Eventually, long after Luna had brought down the sun, she fell into a restless sleep atop the too-cushy bed.
Dusty awoke to the sound of knocking on her door. Blinking groggily, she tried to get her bearings. The cushy bed beneath her and the opulent decor of the room were foreign to her. This was definitely not the hideout cave. She scooted off of the bed, but her hoof caught on one of the blankets and she face-planted to the floor. Suddenly the memories of yesterday came flooding back to her.
"Oh stars, ow. . ." she groaned, getting up and rubbing her sore snout. At the rate she was hitting her head on things, she wouldn't be surprised if she ended up getting brain damage. The knocking on the door continued, this time accompanied by a voice.
"Wake up! Be ready to appear before the princess in ten minutes." It must have been a guard, or maybe some kind of castle attendant. She shook out her whole body like a dog. Her muscles ached from sleeping in an unfamiliar position and she assumed her mane and tail were probably a mess. She ran a hoof through them, not bothering to glance in the mirror on the wall. She was never one to care much for appearances. She waited impatiently until there was another knock at the door, but this time the pony on the other side simply opened it instead of calling to her. The maid that entered gave her a too-big smile.
"How did you sleep, dear? I trust the accommodations were adequate?" the sweet, pink mare asked.
"Uhh, yeah. Adequate is one way to put it," Dusty said, remembering the way the bed had tried to absorb her like an amoeba.
"Excelle-" the mare paused, scrutinizing her as if she had finally seen Dusty for the first time, "wait, you don't plan on seeing the princess like this do you?"
"Like what?" Dusty looked down at herself. She thought she looked fine.
"Oh, honey," the mare swooped into the room and grabbed a brush, "give me a moment." Without asking she began to brush through Dusty’s mane and coat. Her protests fell on deaf ears, and she was still too tired to fight off the deranged maid, so she submitted herself to the cosmetic torture. After about five minutes the mare stepped back, admiring her hoofwork.
"Well, it's a rush job, but at least you look presentable, though you'll need at least three baths to get all of that dust out of your coat," she nodded to herself proudly and smiled, this time a more genuine smile, "now, let's get you to the throne room. We can't keep the princess waiting any longer." She ushered Dusty out into the hallway. Two earth pony guards fell into step beside them as the maid led her down the hall and toward the throne room. When they arrived, Dusty recognized the princess right away, but there were two other individuals she didn't recognize.
The first was a tall purple dragon that stood next to Twilight's throne. He was casually leaning against it with one arm and animatedly chatting with the princess. She laughed heartily at something he said.
The second was a pink unicorn with curly blue and yellow hair sitting in front of the throne. She was fiddling nervously with her tail. Glancing around the room, she caught sight of Dusty and the others entering. She sprung up from her place sitting on the floor and looked like she was going to prance over to them, but the princess motioned for her to stay where she was. The maid and the guards led Dusty halfway before breaking off and going back the way they had come. Dusty made her way over to the unicorn, who was practically vibrating with what she assumed was excitement, and sat before the princess and the dragon.
Twilight smiled at the two of them. "Welcome, friends," she said, "I am excited to brief the both of you on your upcoming mission."
'Mission' is an interesting way to spell 'cruel and unusual punishment,' Dusty thought.
"Dusty, I'd like you to meet Sunsweet. Sunsweet, this is Dusty. As you may have guessed, you two will be partners, you will help each other learn and grow as the program goes on," Twilight continued. Dusty and the unicorn turned to look at each other.
Sunsweet reached out a zealous hoof for Dusty to shake. Dusty ignored it.
"It's great to meet you, Dusty!" she said. Her voice was sweet and mellifluous.
"I'm sure it is," Dusty said. She cleared her throat and turned back to Twilight. The dragon beside her looked somewhat nervous.
"Now, let's begin by explaining to you how this program works," Twilight said, pulling two small, circular bands from behind her back. She motioned for the two of them to lift their hooves up, and as they did she slipped the bands onto them. The bands constricted, fitting perfectly against their fetlocks. Dusty poked at it experimentally and realized it was stuck tight, with no sign of a clasp to remove it.
"What are these?" Sunsweet asked.
"These are magic suppression bands," Twilight said, "as long as they are activated, the wearer will be unable to use their magic."
"WHAT?" she shouted, and her face contorted in horrified bewilderment.
"Calm down, Sunsweet. It is part of the program. Consider it a precaution, as well as an incentive. If you look at the bands closely you will notice a number engraved on the front." Dusty looked down, and indeed, there was a small number five engraved into her band. "Once the number reaches zero, the bands will release and you will be able to use your magic again."
"How does it count down? Is it like a timed thing?" Dusty asked.
"No, the band will only count down once you perform certain tasks. In this case, when you perform true good deeds."
Dusty raised an eyebrow. "True good deeds?" she said skeptically.
"That's right, deeds performed out of the goodness of your heart, embodying the Elements of Harmony." Dusty snorted a laugh, however, the princess didn’t seem to be phased by it.
"Look, I'm giving the both of you a second chance. If you succeed at this, you will get to be free again,” she looked at Dusty, “and your past mistakes will be forgiven," she turned to Sunsweet. Sunsweet stared at the princess with wide eyes, then she got a pensive look on her face. Suddenly she perked back up and smiled widely at Twilight.
"Okay! I'll try my best, princess!" she chirped with a crisp salute. Dusty was shocked at the 180-degree shift in the unicorn's mood. One second she was reeling at the loss of her magic, and the next she was just as peppy as she started.
Twilight smiled at the unicorn’s cheerfulness, “I’m glad to hear it. If all goes well, you may be able to take your place in the school back.” The school? So this mare was some kind of student? Dusty thought.
Sunsweet beamed at this news, Dusty wouldn’t be surprised if she felt the air start to vibrate around her.
“And what about you?” Twilight was looking at her now. Dusty shifted uncomfortably again. Something about being started down by the extremely tall and all-powerful ruler of their country made her uneasy.
“I doubt you’ll like my answer, princess,” she said, trying and failing to answer without snark. Twilight just chuckled in that weird way of hers.
“I expected as much, but you’ll learn in time how special the opportunity I’m affording you is.” Twilight stood up from her throne and descended the stairs. The purple dragon stayed behind, shifting to stand in front of the two ponies. “Spike here will complete your briefing and tell you where you have been assigned for your first mission, welcome to the Criminal Reformation and Acclimation Program,” said the princess as she stepped out of the huge doors. Dusty and Sunsweet turned to look at the dragon. Dusty had never seen a dragon before. He was pretty big, but not nearly as big as the stories she heard from the ponies back home. He smiled nervously at them, his razor-sharp teeth glinting at them. Dusty shifted her hooves nervously, but did her best not to let her apprehension show. She glanced over at Sunsweet, who didn’t seem phased in the slightest by the large reptile in front of her.
“Well, uh, to be honest guys, I don’t really agree with this whole plan. The princess seems to think you guys would do best unsupervised,” Spike scratched the back of his head, “Buuuut I can’t argue with Twilight, she’s the boss and all.” He pulled out a parchment from somewhere behind his back. “It seems here that your first assignment is Ponyville. Well, that should be real easy. Says here all you have to do is perform one true good deed. When your bands count down, you’ll know you’ve succeeded, and I’ll give you guys your next assignment.”
“Ooh, we get to go to Ponyville! That’s the town where Princess Twilight learned all about the magic of friendship!” Sunsweet bounced in place excitedly.
“You know, you remind me of someone,” Spike said pensively, “but I can’t seem to put my claw on who.”
After Spike was done briefing them, four guards arrived and ushered them out. They led them through the castle until they came to a wide, circular courtyard. It was very similar to the courtyard that Dusty had arrived in the horrible flying box. Speaking of horrible flying boxes, there was one waiting for them at the center of the courtyard. Two pegasi guards were already strapped to the front.
“Um, maybe we could take the train instead,” Dusty offered to the nearest guard, “you know what they say, the journey is just as important as the destination, why not enjoy the scenery a little?” The guard simply ignored her and shoved the two ponies into the carriage, slamming the door shut behind him. At least it this one had an enclosed cabin like the last one, maybe she could pretend it was a normal ground carriage if she closed her eyes. She felt a tapping on her shoulder.
“You alright, Dusty?” she opened her eyes to see Sunsweet sitting beside her on the carriage bench. She looked concerned. Dusty realized she must have been making a fool of herself. What kind of pegasus worth their salt got nervous on a flying carriage?
“Oh, yeah, of course. I just had some, uh, bad haycakes this morning and I was worried my stomach might start acting up once we’re in the sky.” Nice, perfect save.
“Aw, you got haycakes this morning? Lucky, the attendants just rushed me out the door to go see the princess.”
“Ah, well, we’ll be in Ponyville soon. I’m sure they have haycakes there. You got cash?”
“No,” said Sunsweet, looking a bit sheepish, “my parents always payed for stuff like that.”
Dusty deadpanned, “Well, isn’t that nice. So the princess sets us up to go to this strange new town and she doesn’t even give us some pocket change for food.”
“I’m sure we’ll figure something out!”
“You bet your hitches we will,” Dusty said with a sly smile, pulling out a fancy golden candlestick from under her wing. Sunsweet gasped in horror.
“What did you do? Did you steal that from the castle?”
“Sure did,” Dusty said proudly, “wait till those fillies back home hear about this. Not only am I an infamous bandit, but I stole from the princess of Equestria herself. I’ll be a legend.”
“You’ll be legendarily dead! Are you serious? The princess is giving us a second chance, don’t you even care?”
“Uhh, no, not really,” Dusty said with a shrug, “Besides, the princess has like, a million of these, I’m sure she won’t notice one missing. You said yourself that you were hungry, with this one candlestick we could buy like a hundred haycakes.”
“That’s not the point,” Sunsweet said with a huff, “the princess has been nothing but kind to us. Why would you betray her trust like that?”
“Pshh, that’s on her for trusting me in the first place. I made no effort to make myself seem like I wanted to go along with this whole charade. I have half a mind to make my way back to Dodge Junction as soon as we touch ground in Ponyville.”
“You can’t!” Sunsweet practically shouted, she looked panicked. Dusty was taken aback by the outburst from the sweet unicorn. “You can’t leave! I need this chance, I need this to work!”
“Sorry sister, but I have zero interest in this silly little program. All I want is to go back home to my old life.”
“You can’t, you can’t,” tears began to streak down the unicorn’s pink cheeks. She began to sob pitifully. Dusty didn’t know what to do, she wasn’t used to ponies crying around her. She debated on whether or not to pat her back, and decided instead to simply concede, for now.
“Okay, okay, I won’t leave,” Dusty said awkwardly. Sunsweet looked up at her, her eyes puffy and her face wet.
“Really, you won’t?”
“‘Course not, I can’t stand to see a filly cry.”
“I’m not a filly…” Susweet said, wiping her nose with a hoof.
“I know, I know, its just an expression,” Dusty said.
“Oh, ok.” There was a silence after that. A long silence. An awkward silence. Dusty hated it, she didn’t do awkward. But, before she could say anything, Sunsweet broke the silence for her.
“Are you gonna keep the candlestick then?”
“Yep,” Dusty said.
“And I can’t change your mind?”
“Not unless you want me to run off back home,” Dusty said firmly.
Sunsweet gulped, “A- alright. I won’t say anything. But, I don’t wanna eat with stolen money.”
“Fine, fair ‘nuff,” Dusty said with a defeated sigh, “we’ll find another way to get ‘hold of some bits.”
Sunsweet smiled happily at that. “Thank you so much, Dusty!” She reached over to give Dusty a hug, but Dusty scooted far away, pushing her back with a hoof.
“Yeah, yeah, but no huggin’.”
Suddenly the whole carriage shifted under their hooves. Dusty felt her stomach lurch, they must have started flying. She was surprised, though, when the door to the carriage opened, and a guard was standing outside.
“We’ve arrived in Ponyville, ma’ams.”
Dusty blanched. When did they take off? They were flying that whole time? She hadn’t even noticed! The guard led the dumbfounded Dusty and an excited Sunsweet out of the carriage and into a bustling town. Nopony seemed to notice or care about the royal carriage that had just arrived, going about their days like normal. It was very different from Dodge Junction. While they could both be considered small towns, Ponyville was much bigger. It was also much greener. Grass lined the streets and lawns everywhere she looked. The trees seemed to be farther along in their budding here, too; the leaf buds seemed ready to burst at any moment. The guards led them over to a small fountain surrounded by flowers and shrubbery. It was beautiful. Nopony in Dodge Junction could ever dream of growing something like this.
The guards saluted to the two ponies. “Well, this is where we take our leave. Good luck, ma’ams,” said one. They all turned and trotted away in unison.
“Wait, they’re just leaving us here? For real?” Dusty said.
“Well, yeah. Advisor Spike did say ‘unsupervised,’” Sunsweet replied.
“That he did,” Dusty said with a grin. The princess must be a fool to leave here out here unsupervised and think things would not get stolen.
“Where do we go from here?” Sunsweet said, looking around, “our mission was pretty vague. We don’t even have anywhere to stay, let alone the bits to afford one.”
“Well, since someone doesn’t want to utilize my hard earned candlestick, I guess our first order of business is findin’ a quick job.”
“But where are we going to find somepony willing to hire us at such short notice?” Sunsweet asked, “surely we will need to build up some kind of resume first.”
“No need, that’s the beauty of small town living,” Dusty said with pride, “there’s always somethin’ to be done and someone willin’ to do it. As long as we’re willin’ to do anything, we’re as good as gold.” Dusty took a look at the ponies around them. The first thing she noticed was how different they all were. There were unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies in nearly equal proportions. She even spotted several nonponies walking and flying around, though she couldn’t recognize what all of them were.
“Well, I’ll let you lead the way,” Sunsweet said behind her, “I’ve never been to a small town before, and I’ve certainly never had a job.”
“Well, aren’t you just the luckiest little thing,” Dusty said, her voice tinged with a hint of poison, “the first thing we need to do is scout out someone who looks like they might need help. Shopkeepers, farmers, bakers, and other ponies who do lots of work with their hooves are almost always needing an extra pair of hooves or two.” And, while they had their backs turned, Dusty could sneak a few valuables under her wings, and little miss buzzkill would be none the wiser. It was pathetic, compared to her usual grandiose style of thievery, but it would have to suffice until she could get back home to her hideout and her posse, if they were even still around. She’d probably have to break out Briar Rose and Chokecherry, those two were pretty useless on their own and without orders. Thistle Whistle was probably still free and laying low, she was always the more capable one of the bunch, but also the most cowardly. Dusty wouldn’t be surprised if Thistle already had everything moved out of the hideout and into a new location by now, deciding to cut her losses once dusty and Chokecherry didn’t come back the next day.
Dusty began to walk around town, looking for potential work. Sunsweet followed close behind.
“What about that shop?” Sunsweet said, pointing to a little carrot stand. The mare behind the stand had a fiery orange mane.
“Nah, she doesn’t look busy enough.”
“What about that one?” this time she pointed to a very busy flower stand. The pony behind the counter looked a little tired.
“Now that does look promising,” Dusty said, but right as she was about to walk over, two more ponies popped up behind the counter, passing bouquets over to the customers in line. “Ah, nevermind, they already have plenty of help.”
They kept walking for several minutes. Eventually the shopping district was gone, and they were surrounded by residential houses.
“Shouldn’t we go back? It doesn’t seem like anyone is needs workers here.” Sunsweet said. The sun was high in the sky at this point, and she looked a little winded.
“Tired already?” Dusty said with a smirk, “we haven’t even started workin’ yet.”
“No! Not at all!” Sunsweet perked up and a slight bounce entered her gait, “bright and perky as ever.”
“Well good,” Dusty chuckled, “because it looks like our only option is gonna be farm work. It’s springtime, so the farm ponies will be plowing fields and doing lots of maintenance from winter damage. They’ll need all the help they can get.” Sunsweet deflated a little.
“I’ve never even been to a farm…” she whispered.
“Well, you’ll love it. Nonstop, backbreaking labor in the hot, hot sun for a handful of bits at the end of the day, and if you’re lucky, a good, homecooked meal.” Dusty grinned at Sunsweet, who seemed to be getting paler at the thought of the labor ahead. “Don’t worry, miss fancy pants, I’ll do most of the work.”
They kept on until the houses got farther and farther apart. Eventually, they found themselves at the front gates of what appeared to be a massive apple orchard.
“‘Sweet Apple Acres’ huh? Cute,” Dusty said, “this is perfect. I’m used to working with orchards. Lots of cherry trees where I’m from, I imagine the work is much the same.” She looked over to Sunsweet, who was unusually quiet.
“Dusty! Do you know where we are?” she squeaked.
“Uhhh, Sweet Apple Acres? I just said that.”
“Yes! Sweet Apple Acres! That’s where Applejack lives, the former Element of Honesty! One of Princess Twilight Sparkle’s closest friends!”
“Oh, really? She’s the orange one, right? I remember some folk back home talking about her, apparently she worked in town for a mite back during Celestia’s rule.”
“That’s right,” Sunsweet said, she was doing the vibrating thing again, “and I bet if we work with her we’ll complete our first good deed in record time!”
“Any time is record time when you’re the first one to do it,” Dusty said flatly, “But I see what you mean. Having an Element of Harmony close at hoof is definitely advantageous.”
“Yeah! I bet if we do what she does, we’ll be one step closer to finishing in no time!”
“I do like finishin’ things quickly, alright lets go meet this honest element and see if she’ll give us a job.”
They made their way into the farm. It was lovely, really. Nothing like anything they had back at home. The trees were tall and healthy, with nary a scuff on their sturdy bark. The grass was lush and soft, swaying gently in the slight breeze. Nothing here looked thirsty, dry, or covered in red dust. They came upon a small field, it looked freshly tilled and nothing had been planted on it yet. Past that were some pens that held a few livestock and a huge red barn. They walked past all of this, and right up to the door of a large red farmhouse. Dusty knocked, and they heard crashing from within. The door flung open to reveal a young yellow earth pony mare with a pink mane, about the same age as them.
“Howdy, can I help y’all?”
“Howdy to you too, miss, I’m Dusty Clouds, and this here is Sunsweet. We’re fresh in town, and are lookin’ for work. We were wondering if you had anything we could do here on your farm in exchange for a few bits.”
The yellow mare looked back and forth at them for a few moments, “You know, I think there is one thing. Gimme a sec,” she closed the door in their faces. Dusty and Sunsweet exchanged a glance. They waited for about a minute before the door opened again. This time it was an orange mare with a yellow mane. She seemed to be a bit older than them, maybe her late thirties.
“Why hello there, folks, I hear from my little sis that y’all are lookin’ for work?”
“Sure are, we’d be mighty grateful if we could help out. We just arrived in town today and are a bit short on bits. We don’t even have enough to afford a room and a meal for the night.”
The orange mare looked surprised when Dusty spoke. “Say, you’re from Dodge Junction, right? Can tell by the accent. Didn’t know there was pegasi livin’ down there, though,” she said with a big smile, “its always nice to meet fellow hard-workin’ country folk.” She reached out a hoof. Dusty accepted it, nearly toppling over when the earth pony started vigorously shaking it. “I’m Applejack, it’s a pleasure to meet y’all.”
“I’m Dusty Clouds,” said Dusty after recovering from the vicious assault on her hoof.
“I’m Sunsweet, its great to meet you Applejack!”
“Now y’all come on in and I’ll get us some cider, then we can discuss this whole business of workin’ here on the farm.” Applejack ushered them inside and onto a large red sofa. They waited while she retrieved cider from the kitchen. The living room was really nice. It reminded her a lot of the houses back home. Of course, she never lived in them, but she robbed a few a lot like this. Sunsweet seemed to be going into shock.
“You doin’ okay there?” Dusty nudged Sunsweet in the side sharply.
“I don’t know,” she said without looking at Dusty. Her eyes were all over the room, taking in every little detail. “I’m in Applejacks house!” she squeaked.
Applejack returned with three glasses of fresh apple cider. It looked delicious.
Dusty took a sip.
It was delicious.
“Thank you, this is the best cider I’ve ever had,” Dusty said, mmm’ing gratefully.
“I’m glad you like it, it’s our specialty here at Sweet Apple Acres,” Applejack said, puffing out her chest proudly from her place on the armchair, “Now, I’m curious, what are an odd couple like you doin’ out here in Ponyville with no money? It’s not a situation most ponies find themselves in these days.”
“We are not a couple!” Sunsweet practically shouted. Dusty and Applejack looked at her in surprise. “Sorry,” she said, “I didn’t mean to yell.”
“I wasn’t tryin’ to insinuate nothin’, sugarcube. It’s just a turn of phrase. I’m just curious about y’all’s story. I’d like to know who I’m dealin’ with before I let y’all work on my farm.”
“That seems fair,” said Dusty, “Sunsweet and I are old friends. We decided to go on a roadtrip together around Equestria, but our wagon fell in the river several miles east of Ponyville and we lost everything. Thats how we ended up here.” Dusty considered herself a good liar—you have to be to survive in her line of work—so it always came to her rather naturally. She didn’t even have to think about it. Sunsweet gave Dusty a horrified look.
“At a party in Canterlot several years ago,” Dusty said without missing a beat. Applejack seemed to ponder that for a second.
She looked up at Dusty, a disappointed look on her face. “You know, you’re a decent liar. I can tell you’ve been doin’ this a long time.”
Dusty stiffened, “W- what do you mean?”
“Listen, I know y’all know I’m friends with Twilight. Stars alive, I’m in her gosh darn friendship council. You really think she wouldn’t have shown us those fancy little bracelets y’all got on?”
Dusty and Sunsweet looked down at their bands in unison, then back up at Applejack.
“I know exactly who y’all are. Twilight’s had y’all picked out for her little program for months now.” Applejack sighed and put a hoof up to her forehead, “why wouldn’t you just tell me the truth? What did you have to lose from just bein’ honest?”
Dusty stared at the cup of cider in her hooves, all her confidence and bravado gone.
“I thought you wouldn’t trust us if you knew we were criminals,” Dusty said quietly.
“Well, now I don’t trust you because you’re a liar,” Applejack said, her voice firm. There was a moment of silence.
“Applejack, I’m really sorry about Dusty’s behavior. Can you please give us another chance?” It was Sunsweet that spoke up. Dusty didn’t look at her. Her face burned, she wasn’t sure if it was from embarrassment or anger. Probably both.
Applejack sighed heavily, “Look, I want to help y’all, I really do, but by my principles I can’t help you with this. Y’all aren’t ready to learn anything I have to teach you.” After a moment of silence she spoke again, “I suggest you go an’ talk to Pinkie Pie. I think she would appreciate the help in the shop now that she’s got a lil’un runnin’ around. Long as you don’t go lyin’ to her, too.” Applejack shot Dusty a look, but she didn’t see it.
“Thank you, Applejack, for your time,” said Sunsweet, her voice wavering. They left shortly after that. Dusty didn’t look at Applejack the whole time. It wasn’t often that she got caught in a lie, but it definitely never felt like this before; she felt like she was going to be sick. They left the farm with their heads hung low.
“I can’t believe you did that,” Sunsweet said as they stepped out of the gate to Sweet Apple Acres. “That was our best chance at getting this first mission over with.” Sunsweet’s voice had lost all of its usual honey. Dusty didn’t respond to her.
“Look, I know you don’t care about this whole reformation thing, but can you at least pretend to try?” she said, she sounded close to tears. “Don’t you want to be free? Don’t you want your magic back? Don’t you want your record wiped clean?” Dusty still didn’t respond.
“Say something! I can’t believe I got stuck with the world’s most selfish pony. It’s like the princess wants me to fail.” She started sobbing, “maybe she does.”
Dusty looked at the crying unicorn beside her.
“Why are you even here?” Dusty said.
“What?”
“Why are you here? With me? Why did the princess choose you? I mean, we both know why I’m here, but you don’t seem like the criminal type at all. In fact, it sounds like you used to be a student at Twilight’s school.”
Sunsweet looked at the ground, she was silent for a long time. For a second, Dusty thought she wasn’t going to answer.
“Twilight didn’t tell you?” she said finally.
“No, she didn’t tell me anything about you.”
There was another beat of tense silence. “A few years ago, I made a mistake,” Sunsweet said, shaking her head, “and a lot of ponies got hurt.”
Chapter 3: Super Special Double Pinkie Party Surprise
Dusty followed Sunsweet silently through the streets of Ponyville. Any tense amicability there had been between them before, however fake it had been, was now gone. She wasn’t sure where this Pinkie Pie pony lived, but Sunsweet seemed to know, so she followed. As she walked, she thought back to the conversation they had had outside of Sweet Apple Acres.
“Got hurt?” Dusty said, incredulously.
Sunsweet’s voice sounded hollow, “I don’t really want to talk about it. It was an accident, it happened, there’s nothing I can do about it now.” She began to walk ahead of Dusty, obviously attempting to end the conversation, but Dusty was still confused.
“Wait, but, if it was an accident, that doesn’t make you a criminal. Why would you need to be reformed over something that wasn’t intentional?”
Sunsweet kept walking, she didn’t look back at Dusty when she spoke. “Because other ponies didn’t see it as an accident.” She stopped. “Regardless, it was still my fault. If I had been more… nevermind. Its hardly your business, and frankly, I doubt you care.”
Dusty looked at the pony ahead of her. She would have never guessed her crime would be the violent kind. In fact, besides outright ponycide, it was the very last thing she would have ever assumed. Sure, she seemed to be slightly emotionally unstable, but she certainly didn’t seem like the violent type at all. Just what kind of accident could have happened? Dusty’s train of thought stopped when they arrived at the entrance to a large bakery.
“This is Sugarcube Corner, in Twilight’s book this is where Pinkie Pie lived and worked.” Sunsweet said. The pep was back in her voice now, but she still seemed a little strained. Dusty decided that the best course of action for now would be to just pretend the conversation hadn’t happened.
“Wasn’t that book written like… more than a decade ago?” Dusty said.
“Yes, but since we failed to ask Applejack where Pinkie Pie lived, this is our best lead.”
“There’s no need for that, this is a small town, I’m sure any of these ponies walking around know where to find her,” Dusty said, gesturing to the ponies milling about in the street. It was a bit busier now in the early afternoon.
“You guys are looking for Pinkie Pie?” Almost as if to hammer in her point, a nearby pony chimed in, trotting up to the pair. “Sorry, but I overheard you guys were looking for Pinkie Pie, am I right?”
“That’s right,” Sunsweet said.
“Oh, well you won’t find her at Sugarcube Corner today, she only helps out there on weekends. Right now she’s at the community center, setting up for a big party. Everypony in Ponyville was invited this morning!”
“Thank you so much,” Sunsweet said. After asking for some quick directions, the two headed off to the community center. It looked busy. Ponies were pouring in and out carrying all sorts of decorations. A gray pegasus with a yellow mane tripped while caring a box full of streamers, sending colorful paper strips flying everywhere. Several ponies rushed to her side, helping her up and picking up the streamers.
“Wow, everypony here is so… helpful.” Dusty remarked. The two entered the community center. It was even more busy on the inside. Ponies brushed past them on every side. Sunsweet strained her neck, peering over everypony and trying to get a good look around.
“I can’t seem to see her anywhere, there’s too many ponies in here.” She turned to Dusty dejectedly.
“Looking for somepony?” said a voice behind them. They jumped around to see a bright pink mare; she had a huge smile plastered on her face, her hair was curly and pink, and confetti could be seen sticking out of her huge hair bun.
“You must be Pinkie Pie,” Dusty said.
“The one and only!” Pinkie said with a big grin. Then, she suddenly turned serious, “unless somepony has been impersonating me. Identity theft is serious business.”
“It’s great to meet you, Pinkie Pie! I’m Sunsweet, and this is Dusty Clouds. Applejack told us you might be able to help us.” Sunsweet stuck out a hoof for her to shake. Pinkie took it, but instead of Sunsweet getting shook vigorously, Pinkie Pie shook herself.
“I’ve heard of you two! You’re Twilight’s guinea pigs.”
“We are not guinea pigs, thank you very much,” Dusty huffed. Sunsweet elbowed her sharply.
“Hmm, I suppose you aren’t. You are a bit too pony-shaped to be a guinea pig,” Pinkie tapped her chin thoughtfully, “maybe a better term would be test dummies!”
“We are definitely not test dummies. We’re, we’re… beta testers!” Dusty said confidently.
“Oooh, I like it. Sounds sophisticated. Well, what can I help you two beta testers out with?”
“We were wondering if you could give us a job,” Sunsweet said, “Princess Twilight kind of left us here without any money or accommodations.”
Pinkie gasped, “Oh, silly Twily. Well, you came to the right pony, I always need another pair of helping hooves. We’re preparing a super special double surprise party today, and there’s a lot of work to be done. It needs to be double the special and double the surprise!”
“Well, we’d love to help out! Who’s the party for?” Sunsweet asked excitedly.
“I can’t tell you that, silly filly, its supposed to be a surprise!” Pinkie giggled.
“I don’t think that’s how surprise parties usually work,” Dusty said skeptically.
“There’s nothing usual about a Pinkie party,” Pinkie said, winking. She gestured for the two ponies to follow her. “Come now, there’s a still a lot to do, and the party is in two hours!” They followed Pinkie through a set of doors and into a large kitchen.
“Do either of you know how to bake?” she asked. Dusty shook her head, but Sunsweet nodded. “Well, as long as one of you knows, you can teach the other. I have a recipe for my special surprise-filled cupcakes.” She leaned over to whisper to them, “the surprise is bavarian cream.” She resumed in her normal volume, “I still need two dozen more for the party. If you two could make them I would be the most grateful pony in the whole world.”
“Of course!” Sunsweet said with another one of her salutes.
“I like the can-do attitude!” Pinkie said happily, “just follow the recipe to a T and nothing should go wrong, buuuut if something does go wrong, don’t forget to have fun with it! There’s nothing more fun than the unexpected. Unless the unexpected is a giant cupcake monster that was accidentally brought to life by lightning striking the oven and that eats every pony it sees as revenge for its other cupcake brethren,” She giggled and handed Sunsweet a slip of paper. “The ingredients should all be in the cupboards here, there’s also plenty of extra party snacks lying around if you get hungry. I have to go back in there now, but dont hesitate to holler if you need anything. Ok bye!” And with that she left in a gust of pink hair and loose confetti. Dusty and Sunsweet looked at each other, then down at the recipe.
“Looks easy enough,” Sunsweet said, “as long as we do exactly what the recipe says then this should be easy peasy.”
“I dunno, I have zero experience with baking. Closest I’ve gotten was making haycakes over a campfire,” Dusty shuddered remembering her attempt at haycakes. Chokecherry always made them better. “And that didn’t go well.”
“It’s fine, I can show you what to do. Why dont you start on the batter, and I’ll start working on the cream filling, that’s the hardest part.”
“Yes chef,” said Dusty. Sunsweet giggled.
They got to work, Dusty found that following a recipe was way easier than ‘winging it’ like she had with the haycakes. The batter she made actually looked and smelled appetizing. She was a little proud. Sunsweet came over every few minutes to check on her, but she didn’t really have to do a lot of correcting. In fact, Sunsweet seemed to be having the most trouble out of the two of them. She obviously wasn’t used to doing complex tasks with her hooves, and she fumbled with the wooden spoon quite a bit. After a while, though, she seemed to mostly get the hang of it. In no time at all they had the first batch of cupcakes in the oven.
“Well, that’s the first dozen done,” Sunsweet said, “we should start on the second batch while those are cooking. I’ll also start on the frosting.”
Dusty turned back to her workstation, “Uhh, one thing, I’m out of flour.”
“I’ll go get it,” Sunsweet said, trotting over to the supply room. She came back lugging a huge sack on her back.
“Is that the only size she had? That looks heavy.”
“It. Is.” Sunsweet grunted through gritted teeth.
“Do you need-” Dusty stopped mid-sentence, she could see Sunsweets legs about to buckle. With a quick flap of her wings she was over there in a second, lifting the bag of flour off of her back. It plopped to the ground heavily, little puffs of flour coming out of the top.
“Th- thanks,” she said, staggering.
“Don’t mention it, we can’t have you getting squished on the floor. There’s no way I’d finish this on my own.” Dusty got the flour bin and scooped some in from the bag on the floor. She then dragged the bag back into the storage closet.
“You’re really quick on your hooves,” Sunsweet commented, returning to her side of the counter. She began scooping powdered sugar into a bowl.
“Yeah, well you got to be to be a bandit, ‘else the cops would have your tail.”
“I suppose those skills still come in handy, even when you’re not being a bandit.”
“'Spose so,” Dusty said, she kept her eyes on her work. After a short while, the cupcakes in the oven were done. She placed the next pan inside, then set the freshly baked pan in the refrigerator.
“Those will be done cooling in about an hour, then we can fill and frost them,” Sunsweet said. She had finished with the frosting a while ago.
“What do we do until then?” Dusty said.
“We wait.”
“Well, no duh,” Dusty rolled her eyes, “I mean what do we do while we wait.”
“Hmm,” Sunsweet thought out loud, “Pinkie Pie did say something about party snacks somewhere around here. And I still haven’t eaten today.”
“Ooh, good idea, me neither,” Dusty said, she began to search the cupboards.
Sunsweet raised an eyebrow at her, “I thought you had haycakes this morning?”
“Uh, oh yeah, besides those, right.”
They searched the whole kitchen, coming up with some chips, dip, and a big bag of pretzels. It wasn’t much, but to a pair of hungry ponies it was a gourmet buffet. Once they had their fill, the last batch of cupcakes was done. They pulled them out and slid them into the fridge alongside the others. They waited a little longer, chatting idly. The tense aura between them had dissipated quite a bit by now. Dusty was glad, she wasn’t good at dealing with emotional stuff. She always tried to stay far away from it. Besides, soon she was going to be back home in Dodge Junction, and she would never have to see this pony again.
Finally, the time came to fill and frost the cupcakes. Dusty attempted to help, but after her first disastrous attempt, Sunsweet decided to do them all herself. Once they were finished they stepped back and admired their work.
“I’m kinda proud,” Dusty said wistfully, “even if we just followed a recipe, we made those.”
Sunsweet rolled her eyes and smiled, “Well, I just hope they taste good. I forgot to taste your batter to see if you did it right.”
“Oh, don’t worry. I already handled that,” Dusty licked her lips, “I definitely did it right.”
“That’s good to hear! Because I need those cupcakes now.” They nearly left their tails behind when they jumped, snapping around to see Pinkie Pie behind them.
“Wh- how did you do that?” Dusty yelled.
“Do what, silly?” Pinkie giggled, “are you finished with the cupcakes? The party starts in fifteen minutes, and I need to set out the rest of the food.”
“Y- yeah, we just finished them a few minutes ago,” Sunsweet stammered.
“Perfect! Come with me.” Pinkie grabbed the cupcakes and rushed out the door. Dusty and Sunsweet followed close behind. As they stepped out of the kitchen, they saw that Pinkie had disappeared. The entire room was pitch black.
“What the-” Dusty said, “why are the lights out? Where is everypony?”
“Pinkie?” Sunsweet called, “where’d you go?”
Dusty felt along the wall for a lightswitch. She finally found it and flipped it on. Immediately, all of her senses were assaulted at once.
“SURPRISE!”
They were surrounded by what must have been nearly a hundred ponies. They were all wearing pointy party hats, and a few of them were holding party poppers that they had fired as the lights came on. Confetti slowly fell through the air as Dusty and Sunsweet stared at the crowd in astonished silence.
“Woohoo! Look at your guys’ faces!” Pinkie Pie popped into sight. She was holding two party hats, which she snapped onto their heads. “You were totally surprised, weren’t you? Hehehe, I can tell. What do you think, do you love it?” She bounced up and down in front of them. Sunsweet was frozen in shock, so it was Dusty who spoke first.
“I thought you said the party didn’t start for another fifteen minutes?”
Pinkie Pie broke out into hearty laughter, falling backwards onto the floor and rolling around.
“Silly, of course I told you that! If I told you the actual time the party started, then the surprise wouldn’t be as surprisey! It is a double surprise party, if I’m to surprise two ponies at once it has to be extra surprisey.”
“Wait, the surprise party was for us?” Sunsweet finally spoke.
“Well, yeah!” Pinkie Pie said, as if it was obvious, “you two are new in town, everypony new in Ponyville gets a surprise party!”
“But.. we aren’t going to be here for that long…” Sunsweet said, trailing off quietly. Pinkie Pie slung her foreleg over her shoulders.
“That’s not what is important. Sure, not every tourist gets a party, but you guys are more than that. You’re on a journey of self discovery, which means Ponyville is important to you, even if you don’t realize it yet. And, if Ponyville is important to you, then you are important to Ponyville. We want to make you feel welcome here,” Pinkie said. She moved in front of Sunsweet, grabbing her face and squishing her cheeks together. She touched their foreheads together, staring with wide, haunted eyes into Sunsweet’s own. “Do you feel welcome?”
Sunsweet looked a little scared, but she nodded.
“Awesome!” Pinkie Pie said, hopping away from her. The ponies in the room cheered. “I hope you like the party, almost everypony and creature in Ponyville is here!” With that, everypony began to move and mingle. Some ponies made a beeline for the snack bar, and others began to mingle. A band started up somewhere on the other side of the room. Dusty and Sunsweet were at a loss for words. They looked around the room at the huge party, then at each other.
“Well, I suppose we should enjoy this. Everypony worked so hard on it,” she didn’t move.
“Don’t you dare try to pretend this is normal,” Dusty said.
“Oh, thank the stars, I’m totally freaked out right now,” Sunsweet sighed shakily.
“That makes two of us.”
“Like, it is extremely nice of all these ponies, but… I wasn’t expecting this at all. I’m not good with parties,” Sunsweet looked around nervously, “too many ponies.”
“I’ve never been to a party before, let alone one thrown for me,” Dusty said. She couldn’t figure out how she felt about all of this.
“Really?” Sunsweet asked, surprised, “not one?”
“Nope, not a one.”
“Surely your parents threw you birthday parties as a foal.”
“Don’t got parents, so no.”
“Oh,” Sunsweet got quiet, “I’m sorry, I didn’t know.”
Dusty snorted, “How could you? I didn’t tell you.” She started walking away, hoping to distance herself from the sudden awkwardness. “I’m gonna go have some cupcakes. Might as well take advantage of the free food while we got it.” She left Sunsweet and made her way over to the sweets table. There were still lots of cupcakes left. She was about to take a huge bite of one when she was approached by a purple unicorn.
“Hello there, you must be Dusty Clouds,” she said. She poured herself a glass of punch with her magic.
“That’s me,” Dusty said, “you another one of Twilight’s friends?”
“Yes! But, I’m not on the friendship council. I’m the headmare at the School of Friendship, the name is Starlight Glimmer.”
“There’s a school for friendship?” Dusty raised an eyebrow.
Starlight threw her head back and laughed. “Why, of course there is. I’m surprised you’ve never heard of it. Ponies and other creatures come from all over to attend.”
“I don’t get out much,” Dusty said, deadpanning, “in fact, this is the farthest from home I’ve ever been. No, scratch that, Canterlot is the farthest, I ‘spose Ponyville is slightly closer.”
“You’re from Dodge Junction, right?”
“Yep, lived there my whole life.”
“It must have been hard,” Starlight said, shaking her head.
“Pardon?”
“I mean, growing up there as a pegasus, it must have been hard, right? Dodge Junction is primarily an earth pony town. Unless I remembered wrong,” Starlight blushed, “sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything.”
“No… you’re right. I was the only pegasus there growing up. I don’t mind sayin’ it, I mean, its just a fact.”
“Right…” Starlight said, and Dusty could feel the awkwardness creeping up again. Why did it keep following her around? And why did these ponies keep trying to talk about her past?
“Is there a reason you wanted to talk to me?” Dusty asked.
Starlight laughed nervously, “You waste no time.”
“Its a habit.”
“There is one thing I wanted to say,” Starlight began, “It’s just that, I can relate to you. Several years ago, I was in a very similar position as you.”
“Pinkie Pie threw you a huge surprise party, too?”
“No. Well, yes, she did, but that’s not what I mean. I mean, I used to be a criminal, too.”
“Oh, yeah? What’d ya do?” Dusty was suddenly very interested. A personal friend of the Princess of Friendship is an ex-criminal? Now that was interesting.
Starlight laughed, “I brainwashed an entire village of ponies and stole their cutie marks, and when Twilight thwarted me I went back in time and tried to prevent her from ever meeting her friends, inadvertently creating several alternate timelines in which Equestria is at war or is destroyed.”
Dusty gaped at her, “That’s a… you what?”
“I know, its a lot. Pretty bad, huh.”
“Uh, yeah? I thought robbing banks and pickpocketing tourists was bad, but that’s a whole ‘nother level. I don’t know whether to be scared or impressed.”
“Well, neither I hope,” Starlight said, “I’ve changed for the better since then. ‘Seen the light’ if you will, and I hope the same will go for you, soon.”
Dusty rolled her eyes, “Not this again.”
“I know its hard to accept when you’ve felt abandoned for so long, but you are worthy of friendship.”
Dusty stiffened, “How- you don’t know me. You don’t know how I feel.”
“I don’t,” she said, “but I know how I felt when I was younger. You remind me a lot of how I was back then. I felt like nopony would care about me ever again. I closed myself off from the world, to the point where I didn’t even realize that there already were ponies who cared.” She looked over to Sunsweet, who was chatting happily with a blue pony with a big purple hat. “You should give it a chance, the whole friendship thing. I think that pink one, Sunsweet, over there wants to try, but she’s afraid. She has something weighing on her and holding her back. Maybe you can help each other.”
Dusty scoffed, “It’s been one day, we barely know each other. Besides, she made it perfectly clear what she thinks of me earlier.”
Starlight turned back to her and smiled warmly, “You’d be surprised. Friendship works in mysterious ways. Sometimes it sneaks up on you when you least expect it.”
“Well, in that case, I’ll always be ready for it, so I can strike it down before it even starts.”
Dusty was splayed out on the loveseat, staring at the dark ceiling above her. After the party, which had gone late into the night, Pinkie suggested they crash in her living room for the remainder of their stay in Ponyville. She even gave them a hoof-full of bits each for their help, despite the fact that the cupcakes they made were for their own party. She looked over at Sunsweet, who was sleeping soundly on the couch. It had been a long night, but Dusty still couldn’t sleep. She kept thinking about what Starlight had told her.
Stupid hornheads, always butting in, Dusty thought sourly. Why did everypony insist they knew what she was feeling? What she wanted? They didn’t know jack. Dusty hadn’t needed friends for a long time, and she sure as sugar wasn’t going to start needing them now. Especially not happy-go-lucky Canterlotian unicorn friends who have never known hardship once in their privileged lives.
Dusty tossed and turned, trying to find a comfortable position on the narrow loveseat. Eventually, she gave up, and resigned to the fact that she was going to have to have a sore neck tomorrow. She huffed and started fiddling with the band on her foreleg. She hadn’t had much time to really inspect it before. It looked like it was made of gold, but it was probably a bit more than that. Magic gold? Dusty didn’t really know a lot about magic stuff. The band was pretty light, and it had small, winding designs etched ever so slightly into the surface of the metal. At the front the designs came together, swirling like a vortex around the small number four in the center.
Wait.
Four?
Dusty sat up sharply, squinting at the piece of metal on her leg in the dim light. Surely she had been mistaken, right?
Nope. Right there on the front of the band the number four was emblazoned rather vividly. Dusty was shocked, when had this happened? She reached over and shook Sunsweet awake.
“H- wha?” Sunsweet slurred, she rubbed a hoof over her eye. “Is is morning already? Five more minutes, m’kay?”
“Sunsweet, wake up. The number on my band went down,” Dusty whispered.
Sunsweet took a moment to process that, then she shot straight up. “WHAT?” she whisper-yelled.
“Look,” Dusty stuck out her hoof. Sunsweet grabbed it and inspected the band closely.
“When did this happen?”
“I don’t know, I just noticed it now,” Dusty said. Sunsweet dropped Dusty’s hoof and looked at her own band.
“Mine still says five.”
“Really? I wonder why mine counted down and yours didn’t.”
“I guess that means we have to do our deeds separately,” Sunsweet said, it was hard to make out her expression, but Dusty could guess it was dejected.
“But, I don’t even remember doing any deeds,” Dusty said. It was true, she couldn’t recall anything deed-worthy she had done.
Sunsweet thought for a moment, then perked up, “the flour!”
“The flour?”
“Yeah, when you helped me with that sack of flour. I was about to topple over, and you rushed over and took it off my back.”
“Oh, yeah…” Dusty said thoughtfully, “wait, that was considered a good deed? I barely did anything.”
“I guess the bands thought it was good enough,” Sunsweet said, “so, now that just leaves me. I guess tomorrow we’ll have to find a good deed for me to do, then we can move on to the next assignment.”
Dusty laid back down on the loveseat. “Yeah, that shouldn’t be too hard. I mean if the bands accept stuff as easy as helpin’ you with some heavy flour, then it should be easy to find something else to do.”
“We should ask Pinkie if she needs anymore help tomorrow,” Sunsweet said, settling back down on the couch, “she seems like a pretty busy pony.”
Dusty hummed in agreement, and they fell into silence. Soft snoring could be heard from Sunsweet’s direction not long later, and Dusty soon followed her, drifting off into a restless sleep; full of dreams of cupcakes, candlesticks, and flying carriages.
☁☀☁☀☁☀☁☀☁☀☁
“Nope! Got nothing today!” Pinkie said with enthusiasm that didn’t seem to fit the situation. They were sitting in her kitchen as she mixed haycake batter. Dusty noticed the batter was suspiciously pink.
“Nothing at all we can help you with?” Sunsweet asked imploringly.
“Hmm,” Pinkie seemed to seriously consider that for a moment, “nope!”
Dusty groaned internally. Neither of them had been expecting Pinkie to not need any help today. They had both kind of been banking on completing Sunsweet’s first deed with some task set forth by the former Element of Laughter.
“Well, ponyfeathers, now what do we do?” Sunsweet turned back to Dusty, who shrugged.
“I suppose we could just go around town looking for somepony who needs help,” she offered.
“We tried that already,” Sunsweet sighed, “or did you forget how poorly that experience went.”
“I’ll have you know my mind is a steel trap, I forget nothin’,” Dusty grinned, tapping a hoof to her temple, “which is why I know that today will be different. Ya see, lookin’ for a job is one thing. Offering free, volunteer labor is something else entirely different.” Realization seemed to dawn on Sunsweet at that.
“If you two are looking for a pony that needs lots of help, you should go see Applejack! She’s always got lots to do on the farm,” Pinkie Pie piped in from her spot in the kitchen. She had started cooking the haycakes, the faint smell of strawberries wafting over to them. Sunsweet snorted, and Dusty felt her face get hot.
“Unfortunately, we already burned that bridge. Somepony, not naming any names here, decided it would be a great idea to lie to her. And now she doesn’t trust us.” Sunsweet gave Dusty a meaningful look.
Pinkie Pie hissed in sympathy, giving them a quick grimace before returning to the haycakes. “Yeah, that’ll do it. AJ is a big stickler for honesty. But, she is also very forgiving. I’m sure that if you go and apologize she’d be more open to you again.” She started humming after that, flipping the pink haycake she was cooking high into the air.
“Yeah, that is not happening,” Dusty grumbled, glowering at the cup of orange juice in her hooves. Sunsweet rolled her eyes.
Any further conversation was halted by the sound of thundering hooves coming down the stairs. A bright yellow colt came bounding down, making a beeline for the kitchen. He jumped onto Pinkie’s back, causing her to abandon her haycakes in favor of swinging the little colt around.
“Morning, mama!” the colt giggled as Pinkie finally set him down.
“Good morning, my Lil Cheese!” she beamed, nuzzling the colt. “Where’s papa?”
Lil Cheese giggled, pointing a hoof to the stairs. There, halfway down the stairs, stood an orange earth pony stallion with curly brown hair, fast asleep. He looked like he had been attempting to descend the stairs when he succumbed to an impromptu siesta. His face was smushed against the railing in what looked to be a very uncomfortable position.
Pinkie rolled her eyes at the stallion, trotting over and nudging him awake with a smile. He awoke with a start, jumping up and giving a small shout.
“You gotta stop staying up so late, hun.” Pinkie said tenderly, guiding the still half asleep stallion down the stairs and to the table, where he took a seat next to Sunsweet. He seemingly hadn’t noticed the presence of the two strange mares in the room. Lil Cheese, on the other hand, had.
“Hi! I’m Lil Cheese! You’re pink like my mama, that’s my favorite color!” the foal had bounced over to Sunsweet, reaching out a hoof for her to shake. She took it earnestly and smiled.
“Hi there, I’m Sunsweet, pink is my favorite color, too!” she said. Lil Cheese gasped at this, turning his shocked gaze to his mother, who smiled at him, and then back to Sunsweet.
“We are friends now,” he said, suddenly serious. Sunsweet looked shocked for a moment, before bursting into laughter. Lil Cheese giggled along with her. Once the laughter died down, Lil Cheese introduced himself to Dusty as well, albeit not as enthusiastically as he had greeted Sunsweet. Pinkie eventually came in and served the strawberry haycakes. This seemed to wake the stallion at the table all the way up, and he finally noticed the guests at the table. He introduced himself enthusiastically as Cheese Sandwich. The ponies enjoyed a pleasant breakfast, Pinkie, Cheese, Sunsweet, and Lil Cheese chatting amiably. Dusty occasionally contributed, but she was a little put off by the zealous nature of the four bright, curly-haired ponies.
Eventually, the two decided to take their leave. Lil Cheese had to get ready for school, and they needed to get a head start on their day of deed-searching. After saying their goodbyes, and Sunsweet giving thanks for their hospitality, the two ponies set off once again into the streets of Ponyville.
☁☀☁☀☁☀☁☀☁☀☁
“It’s no use,” Sunsweet wailed, dramatically throwing herself to the ground, “nopony in this whole town needs any help.” The two had been walking around town for about an hour, and still had no luck. Most ponies were busy making their way to work, and had no time to talk with them. The market was also fairly bare, as the shopkeeping ponies hadn’t set up yet for the day.
“Its still early in the morning,” Dusty said, rolling her eyes at the unicorn’s antics, “we have all day, I’m sure we’ll find somepony.”
“But what are we supposed to do in the meantime?”
“I s’pose we can just stroll around town and look for loose deeds to do.”
“Loose deeds?” Sunsweet raised a skeptical eyebrow at Dusty and scrunched her nose.
“Ugh, I don’t know how to phrase it. You know what I mean.” Dusty began to stalk off without her, Sunsweet scrambling with her hooves to follow. They found themselves in what looked to be the city park. The grass here was particularly lush, likely due to the meticulous care of the landscaping ponies who milled around trimming bushes and watering flower beds. Paths wove through the green here and there, wrapping around the occasional tree. At the center of it all was a rather large fountain, surrounded by benches and shrubs. A tall statue of Princess Twilight Sparkle standing proudly at the center, surrounded by the shorter figures of her six closest friends. Dusty inspected the statue as they approached. She recognized most of the ponies, but she wasn’t sure about some. She looked over to Sunsweet, who seemed to deflate at the sight of the princess.
“So, you go to Twilight’s school, right?” Dusty asked, breaking the silence that had fallen between them. The question seemed to take Sunsweet a little off guard.
“Oh, uh, yeah. I did,” she replied somberly. She averted her eyes from the statue, staring instead at the pool of water at the base. Water trickled between the hooves of the stone ponies and the stone dragon, creating a pleasant ambience.
“So you know the princess fairly well, huh?”
“I guess,” Sunsweet said, sounding unsure, “as well as any student would know one of their teachers.”
“Still, that’s pretty cool. Not just anypony can say they personally know the princess.”
Sunsweet gave her a incredulous look. “‘Personally’ is stretching it a bit,” she said, “the School for Gifted Unicorns has a considerable amount of students, and the princess only comes to teach, like, twice a week.” She paused, looking into the water again. “Although, I did get to talk to her personally a few times. I was in the top ten students, you know.” She gave the water a small, wistful smile.
“Really?” Dusty was surprised, “so you’re like… really good at magic then?”
Sunsweet chuckled, seeming to cheer up at the praise. “You could say something like that. What about you? Are you a really good flier?”
Dusty laughed, “You could say something like that.”
Sunsweet smiled warmly at her, then she seemed to think of something, and her smile fell. She didn’t say anything, though, so Dusty didn’t ask. After a moment more of gazing at the fountain, the two ponies moved on without a word.
☁☀☁☀☁☀☁☀☁☀☁
Ponyville was peaceful. Too peaceful.
"Ugh, I'm at a loss here. It's been hours, and nopony needs help with anything. No lost puppies, no falling pianos, no kites in trees, nothing." Dusty lightly hit her forehead against a huge oak tree. They were toward the outskirts of town again, having gone over what felt like every nook and cranny of Ponyville looking for anything that even smelled like it could turn into a good deed.
"Don't lose hope yet, Dusty. What about the School of Friendship? We haven't checked there yet."
"I'm sure they have enough ponies on hoof to handle things."
"Hey! You never know until you try!"
Dusty groaned again. What did she do to deserve this? Besides robbing banks and pickpocketing ponies, that is.
The two ponies slowly made their way toward the school. It was hard to miss, the castle beside it towering above every other building in Ponyville.
Out of nowhere, there was a shout further up the street from where they stood. An orange-maned mare was galloping after a cart, which was overloaded with carrots and barreling down the hill. Carrots were flying out everywhere onto the street. Dusty shook Sunsweet hastily.
"This is perfect! Catching that cart would be the perfect good deed. Go, go, hurry before someone else gets it," she said, shoving Sunsweet forward.
"Wait, but, wouldn't it be better if you got it? You're much faster than me."
"I'm not the one who needs to do a deed, so go!"
Sunsweet started off for the cart apprehensively. She looked like she was galloping as fast as she could go, but Dusty could tell she wasn’t making much headway. Suddenly, from above, a rainbow streak shot over her, nearly scraping her horn. She lost her footing on the uneven road and tripped, tumbling face first into the dirt. The rainbow streak continued past her, cutting off the cart right as it was about to crash into another pony. As it stopped, it became all too clear who it was; none other than the Element of Loyalty herself, Rainbow Dash.
The cart crashed harmlessly into her side, a few more carrots falling off from the inertia. She didn’t seem fazed by the impact at all. Dusty trotted up to Sunsweet, who stood up shakily.
“You okay?” Dusty asked.
“Yeah, just a bit of a tumble,” she shook her entire body like a dog, a cloud of dust and dirt flying off of her fur, “but did you see that?”
“I’d have to be blind not to, that was crazy. I’ve never seen someone go that fast.”
“Oh good, you got it, Dash,” said a soft voice behind them. They turned to see a sweet-looking yellow pegasus fly from the same direction Rainbow Dash had come from. She landed near where the cart had started rolling and began to pick up the carrots. The orange-maned mare to whom the cart presumably belonged to rushed up to Rainbow Dash and thanked her profusely.
“Its alright, Goldie. Don’t mention it. You really gotta fix the parking brake on this thing, though. That’s like the third time this month!” Rainbow laughed and nudged the mare teasingly. The mare rubbed the back of her head with a nervous grin.
The yellow pegasus, who Dusty presumed to be the Element of Kindness, Fluttershy, brought the fallen carrots to the stand and placed them back in their baskets. The two echanged their goodbyes with the merchant mare, and then immediately started heading for Dusty and Sunsweet.
“Oh stars, they’re coming over here. Oh no, what do we do?” Sunsweet said, panicking.
“Relax, we’ve already met two elements—or three if you count the princess.”
“Yeah, and look how well those interactions turned out.” Sunsweet’s voice dropped to a dangerous whisper as the two pegasi approached, she then turned and gave them both her winning smile.
“Why hello there!” Sunsweet beamed.
“Hey,” Rainbow said, “I saw you trying to catch that cart. That was pretty cool of you.” She stuck out her hoof and Sunsweet shook it.
“Yeah, that was really brave,” Fluttershy spoke up quietly from beside her. They were a lot different from what Dusty had expected. She had heard a lot about the two legendary pegasi who helped defeat so many villains and vanquish so many evils, but these ponies just looked like any other pegasi. Rainbow Dash wasn’t particularly big, as one would expect from one of the fastest fliers in Equestria. While she definitely had more muscle definition than Fluttershy, their wings seemed to be roughly the same size. Fluttershy was actually a bit taller than Rainbow, but stood with her head slightly bowed, making her look smaller. They really didn’t look much different from Dusty herself.
“It’s really great to meet you two, I’m a big fan,” Sunsweet said, and Rainbow and Fluttershy share a knowing look.
“I see our reputation precedes us, Flutters,” Rainbow said with a grin.
“Indeed,” Fluttershy giggled.
“I actually saw you two at the party last night, but I didn’t get an opportunity to introduce myself. I was… otherwise occupied,” Rainbow laughed nervously, “but its great we get to talk now! I have so many questions I’ve been dying to ask.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t introduce myself earlier either,” Fluttershy said, “I had to leave early to help Rarity with an emergency.”
“Oh no, is she alright?” Sunsweet asked.
“Oh yes, she’s fine. Some mice had gotten into her attic and had started nesting in her old dresses, so I had to relocate them to a safer place.”
“Oh, well it’s good everything worked out,” said Sunsweet with a sigh.
“Pshh, yeah, its Rarity we’re talking about. If anypony can save a few shredded dresses, she can,” Rainbow said, waving her hoof almost as if to usher the conversation away, “why don’t you two come to the track with us and we can chat some more. Fluttershy and I were about to get some laps in.”
“Sounds good! We were just kind of wandering around anyways. It’ll be nice to actually have something to do.”
“Great! By the way, I don’t think I caught your names. Twilight didn’t mention them,” Rainbow said as the four ponies began to make their way to the sports track.
“My name is Sunsweet, and this is Dusty.”
“It’s lovely to meet you both,” Fluttershy said.
“Not much of a talker?” Rainbow said, turning to Dusty, who had slunk to the back of the group.
“Uhh,” Dusty mumbled. She didn’t know why it was so difficult for her to find her words. Usually, she had no trouble spouting off about Celestia knows what. Sunsweet looked back at her questioningly.
“You okay, Dusty?”
“Um, yeah, I’m fine,” she said distantly. She didn’t elaborate beyond that. Sunsweet smiled nervously at Rainbow Dash.
“She’s probably just tired from last night’s party. She was much more lively yesterday.”
“Oh yeah, I get that. Pinkie’s parties can get pretty crazy. Even I get tired sometimes after a particularly long one.”
Dusty glared at the ground as they continued. The three ponies ahread laughed and chatted the whole way. What was wrong with her? She had been fine just a few minutes ago. Why did the thought of saying anything around these two particular elements feel so terrifying?
After just a few more minutes of walking (or flying on Rainbow’s part) the four ponies arrived at the track.
“Alright!” Rainbow cheered, pumping her fist.
“Why do you guys need a running track, anyways? Can’t you fly?” Sunsweet asked.
“Well, yes, but we aren’t here to train our wings. A good athlete doesn’t just focus on training one part of their body. It’s good practice to be well-rounded in your abilities. No, we’re here to run!”
Dusty perked up at that.
“Rainbow really wants to beat Applejack in the Running of the Leaves this year. She lost last time,” said Fluttershy.
“Hey! Our tally is 8-7. Once I win this year, we’ll be back to even! Plus, I won’t have to do chores for a month.” Rainbow landed and began to stretch her legs.
“Can we join you?” Dusty spoke up.
“Well, of course! The more the merrier,” Rainbow hopped up with a grin. Dusty took her place beside Rainbow and quickly shook out her legs. Sunsweet trotted up beside her.
“I gotta warn you guys, I’m not a very good runner,” Sunsweet said.
“Oh, that’s okay. I’m not very good either, but its still fun,” Fluttershy said, taking her place beside Sunsweet.
“Everyone ready?” Rainbow said, holding up a wing. The other three mares nodded. “Alright! We’ll start with three laps. On your mark, get set, go!” And with that she brought her wing down and they were all off. Rainbow and Dusty immediately left the other two in the dust.
“Whoa, kid,” Rainbow mused, “you’re fast!”
“Thanks.”
“Buuuut, not fast enough,” and with a mischievous grin, Rainbow suddenly picked up in speed by nearly tenfold. She shot ahead of Dusty, her mane and tail just short of creating her iconic rainbow streak. Dusty snorted, she wouldn’t be shown up like this. She cranked up her speed, easily catching up to Rainbow Dash. Rainbow had to give her a double take.
“Huh, ok, so you’re really fast. I guess I’ll have to go all out.” She began to run even faster, pulling ahead of Dusty once again, but her acceleration was slower this time. They had already gone around the track two times, and were nearing the end of their third lap. She could easily catch back up to Rainbow Dash, but not before they ran out of track. No, she needed something much faster if she was going to win this. Dusty smiled and lifted her wings, then she flapped them hard, boosting her forward in a huge cloud of dust. She shot right past Rainbow Dash and over the line, skidding to an easy stop on the familiar dirt terrain. She turned to see Rainbow Dash, who had stopped right before crossing the finish line. Her eyes were wide.
“I… no… h-what?” Rainbow mumbled. She shook her head violently. “You… BEAT ME?”
“Um, I guess so, yeah,” Dusty said, cocking her head in confusion.
“Nopony has EVER beat me in a footrace except Applejack, holy horseapples kid, you’re insane!”
“Oh, uh, thanks,” Dusty didn’t know what to say to that. Hadn’t she technically cheated? She didn’t really mean to, she had just been so focused on winning. Rainbow Dash didn’t seem to care, though. She trotted up to her and slung a foreleg around her shoulders.
“Where’d you learn to do that boost thing with your wings? That was so awesome! I’ve never seen anypony use their wings like that before.
“I learned it running from the cops,” Dusty said with a shrug. Rainbow’s jaw snapped shut with a click. Something about the exhilaration of the run made her feel more at ease around the blue pegasus. Maybe it was just the adrenaline.
“Oh yeah,” she said, dropping her foreleg off of Dusty and rubbing the back of her head sheepishly, “I sorta forgot you’re an ex-criminal.” She laughed nervously.
Ex-criminal, huh? Dusty thought.
“It’s no big deal, really,” Dusty said, “besides, that trick is how I got my name.”
From behind them, there was a thump and a gasp. They turned quickly to see Sunsweet standing beside a fallen Fluttershy.
“Oh no, Fluttershy!” Rainbow yelled, rushing over to her friend’s side. Dusty followed close behind. Fluttershy was sprawled out on the ground, breathing heavily. Her eyes were half-lidded and her gaze was distant.
“Looks like heatstroke,” Dusty said, “we need to get her somewhere cool.”
“She’s right,” Rainbow said, suddenly very serious, “Dusty, you look the strongest, you drag her over to that tree. Sunsweet you go get some water. I’ll go get somepony who can help.” Without wasting any time, Rainbow was off in a flash. Dusty immediately threw Fluttershy over her back, and began to carry her over the the large oak tree Rainbow had gestured to. It was fat, and provided lots of shade. She set Fluttershy down gently under the tree and checked to make sure she was still stable. She was still breathing fast, but her eyes had closed.
“Sunsweet, we’re gonna need that water,” she called behind her. She turned to see Sunsweet exactly where she had left her. Puzzled, she trotted up to the pink mare. “Sunsweet, did you hear me?”
She was still staring where Fluttershy had been lying, just as wide-eyed as when they had found them. She was trembling slightly.
“Sunsweet, are you okay?” Dusty reached over a hoof and touched Sunsweet’s shoulder. Sunsweet jerked, as if she had been hit.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t do anything to her I swear! She just fell out of nowhere!” Sunsweet screamed, cowering away from Dusty.
“Whoa, whoa, Sunsweet, its okay. No one thought you did anything to her, calm down,” Dusty said, confused. Sunsweet didnt respond. Dusty stood there for a moment, waiting for her to do something, but she just stood there, staring at her with terrified eyes. She was torn on what to do. Obviously, Sunsweet needed help with… whatever this was, but at the same time, Fluttershy needed their help right now.
“Hold on, stay here, don’t move,” Dusty said. She ran to the nearest house, banging violently on the door. A confused pony opened it.
“Can I help you?”
“Sorry to interrupt, but a pony has collapsed. Could you spare some water?” Dusty said urgently.
The pony nodded and rushed inside, returning quickly with a large jug of water. Dusty nodded in appreciation, and ran back as fast as she could without spilling the water. Sunsweet was right where she had left her, but she had sat down. Her head was bowed, so Dusty couldn’t make out her expression.
She brought the pitcher over to where Fluttershy was laying. Her breathing had slowed a bit, and as Dusty approached her eyes flickered.
“Can you hear me?” she asked, gently nudging Fluttershy with her hoof. Fluttershy’s eyes blinked open slowly, and her head tilted slightly in what appeared to be a nod. “Great,” Dusty said, “ I have some water for you. I’m going to put it up to your mouth. I want you to take small sips.”
She brought the pitcher to Fluttershy’s mouth, and she took small sips, just as Dusty asked. She remembered Chokecherry doing the same for her when she had fallen that day in the desert. It had been way too hot for any of them to be out, but they were just foals then. They didn't know any better, and they certainly didn’t have anyone around to tell them otherwise. He had saved her life that day, and she never forgot it. She wondered what he was doing now. Probably sitting in a prison cell, or doing community service. Whatever he was doing, it was probably lightyears better than whatever the hell Dusty had gotten herself into.
She was broken out of her reverie by the sound of approaching hoofsteps. She turned to see a frantic-looking white mare with a pink mane galloping toward them at full speed, led by Rainbow Dash. Fluttershy was already looking much better, but the nurse still gave her a look-over. With both the nurse and Rainbow Dash fussing over Fluttershy, Dusty decided that she wasn’t needed anymore. She trotted up to Sunsweet, who was still sitting there in the same position as before.
“Sunsweet,” she said, hoping to get the mare’s attention and snap her out of whatever this was. Sunsweet didn’t respond. “Sunsweet, what’s wrong.”
Dusty leaned over to try and get a look at Sunsweet’s face, but she just turned her head so that Dusty couldn’t see.
“Sunsweet, what is this? Why won’t you look at me? What happened?” Dusty reached over hesitantly, but before she could even touch her, Sunsweet jerked away.
“DON’T TOUCH ME!” she snarled, and Dusty finally got a look at her face. Her cheeks were wet, and huge tears still trickled down them. She couldn’t tell if she was angry or scared.
“Sunsweet,” Dusty started, but she was cut off.
“Just leave me alone!” Sunsweet choked, and with that, she got up and galloped away.
