Up in Flames 3: Beyond the Borders
Golden Flames POV
10 years have passed since Starcover basically killed Discord. A few skirmishes have happened between Equestria and the Changelings but they get cleared up pretty quickly. My own little filly, Vanilla Sky, has gotten her cutie mark, which is in the shape of a purple question mark. Her cutie mark means that she is extremely good at solving puzzles. She’s a Unicorn and her coat is a creamy-white, her tail and mane is a shiny red. My mane is a bit longer, as well as my tail and the same has happened to Jamie.
“Vanilla, you ready to go out love?” Jamie asked Vanilla.
“Yes dad.” Jamie walked out with Vanilla to who knows where, and I decided to visit Lonely Shadow. I walked up to her cottage and I knocked on the door. Sun Splash answered the door.
“Hey Golden. Where’s Vanilla?” She asked as she looked around for Vanilla.
“Jamie took her out for a bit. I have no idea where they went. May I come in?”
“Oh. Where are my manners? Of course you can come in.” I walked in and I saw that the place was as messy as usual.
“I don’t mean to sound rude but what are you doing here?” I asked Sun Splash.
“Oh, I’m here to teach Lonely Shadow how to swim.” I shook my head in amazement. Sun Splash never ceases to amaze.
“Where is she anyway?”
“Lonely’s out back. She recently got a pool and asked me to teach her how to swim.” During the past 10 years, a swimming school has popped up, with Sun Splash as the principal and head teacher of the school. She has a lot of extremely talented swimmers to help her out with the teaching. We walked out back and there was a pool, just as Sun Splash said. A black streak swum by.
“She’s fast.” I commented.
“That’s nothing compared to me.” Sun Splash boasted. She actually wasn’t that far off. A few years earlier, she was swimming and something pulled her under. We still don’t know what it is. I decided to ask her about it.
“Hey Sun Splash, remember when you got pulled under and had to go to Canterlot Medical?” She nodded.
“Do you know what did it?” She shook her head. Even she doesn’t know what pulled her under.
“Hey Lonely! You have a visitor!” Lonely stopped swimming and looked up. She smiled when she saw me and got out of the water. She shook herself to get rid of the water and trotted up to me.
“Hey Goldie!” She sounds happy.
“Have you been hanging around Pinkie Pie? You seem happy.”
“No. I haven’t been hanging around Pinkie but I am happier than I’ve been in years.”
“Why is that?”
“I have no idea.”
“I’ve got to borrow a book from Twilight’s library, I’ll see you later.” I backed out of the house and headed to the library. When I knocked on the front door, a teenage green and purple dragon opened the door. Spike had grown in the past ten years. His spikes had gotten longer and he had grown taller. He had grown so much that he had begun to walk on all fours whenever he was inside.
“Hello Spike, is Twilight here?” the dragon opened his mouth, when a resounding “who?” sounded throughout the library.
“Is that Owlowiscious?”
“Yeah but I wouldn’t bother asking anything. He always says who and it gets me every single time!”
“Okay, no need to shout. Besides you still haven’t answered my question. Is Twilight here or not?”
“No she’s not. She’s still in the Crystal Empire doing something for Princess Cadance.”
“Okay, just wanted to see if she was back yet.” With that I turned from the door and I could swear that I could hear Spike muttering something about it being ten years. I agreed with him and so did all my other friends. It’s been far too long since Twlight, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, the Doctor and Pinkie Pie have set foot in Ponyville. What kind of madmare sends a group of ponies onto an assignment that’s lasted for ten years!?
Occupied with my thoughts, I didn’t realise I was in front of SugarCube Corner until I glanced up. I remembered that I had placed an order with them a few weeks ago. A Unicorn mare stood behind the counter, along with her brother. The Cake twins have grown up and started to be apprentices under their parent’s watchful eye. Pound Cake has a much longer brown mane and tail than what he had from ten years ago. Pumpkin Cake’s mane has become such a bright orange that it hurts the eye briefly until ponies get used to it. I trotted up to them and said a friendly hello.
“Hello Golden! What can I do ya for?” Pound asked me.
“I’m here to receive the order that I placed a few weeks ago.”
“Righto. Here it is.” He gestured for Pumpkin to grab the order from the storage room. She handed me a plain blue box all done up in a pretty pink bow.
“Thank you.” I smiled sweetly, paid and headed out.
Home. After a harrowing day of shopping I had finally made it home. I collapsed onto the floor while Jamie just laughed at me.
“If you keep this up, you’ll run yourself into the ground love.” He said in that Australian accent I’ve come to love.
“Haha.” I reply drily from m position on the floor.
“Mum! Look at what I did!” She proudly holds up a completed puzzle. It looked pretty complex to me.
“You’ve solved another puzzle. What kind of puzzle was it?” I asked her.
“A jigsaw puzzle!”
“Really? A jigsaw puzzle? Is this what you and dad have been doing all day?”
“No need to be all snippy. She did that in less than ten minutes and may I remind you that it’s a one thousand piece jigsaw puzzle?” Jamie pointed out. No way. How can a filly her age solve a jigsaw puzzle in less than ten minutes? I shook my head to clear it.
“Okay then, so. What did you do all day?”
“We hung out in the park.” I just groaned and closed my eyes.
“What did you do at the park?”
“Well…” Vanilla took a deep breath and began to tell the story.