The Scarlet Ribbon

by Mercury Zero

Rating: mature
Tags: Main 6, Romance, Trixie, Sex, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark
Length: 5132

Life in Ponyville becomes dangerous when a mysterious red ribbon forces residents to become unwilling victims of a magical truth or dare game.

Life in Ponyville becomes dangerous when a mysterious red ribbon forces residents to become unwilling victims of a magical truth or dare game.

[Featured 2014-10-24. Oh... my...] [img]http://i62.tinypic.com/2ytpjky.png[/img]

Published 2013-09-08 00:30:03 UTC
Last updated 2014-10-24 10:14:00 UTC

The New Ribbon

His words were soft, confident, and dangerous. She could tell he was smiling by the sound of his voice. His lips were so close to her violently trembling cheek that she could feel his warm breath. She could practically smell the salty tears that streaked his muzzle, even as they began to dry. "Perhaps I should start with a few questions? Hmm? Would you like some questions?"

Her response came, first, in the form of a choking sob, followed by panicked pleas. "No! Please! I'm sorry! I don't know what I was thinking! I'll do anything you want to make it better. I'll do anything!" She didn't look up off the floor. She was hunched inward, and her chest was heaving. She wanted to crawl backwards inside of the wall that her croup was pressed against.

He patiently listened to her as she begged, relishing every syllable. Something about the last plea tickled him. He breathed deeply, and his voice still trembled from the crying he was doing just moments earlier. "Oh you'll do anything will you?" He choked out a raspy and satisfied laugh.

She screamed out a yelp of shock as he suddenly bucked a nearby table with a shattering crash, sending it flying across the floor and into a nearby wall. She jumped, and sobbed as tears streaked down her muzzle. She swallowed down her remaining screams, and continued to stare at the floor. "Yes! Anything!"

With a scrape of chains, he brought his hooves close to her. His shackles still hadn't been removed. It all happened so fast. He grabbed her by her muzzle, and forcefully lifted her gaze to face him. Tears rolled down onto his hooves. "Let's start with a request then."

"Cryin'?" Applejack asked with an incredulous look.

Twilight Sparkle reiterated herself. "Yes! Just walking through the rain, crying her eyes out. And now I don't know what to do, and it won't come off, and it has the same markings as that horse collar Big Mac got from Zecora. Those markings are bad, Applejack! Bad! And I couldn't find any more books on it and I was scared that Spike would touch me and--"

"Shug'!" Applejack called out to halt Twilight's nervous tirade. She held the flat of her hoof and took a deep breath.

It wasn't the first time Twilight ran screaming across Sweet Apple Acres seeking Applejack's council on how to deal with some new disaster, like the time she whipped herself into a fit of worry that she might hear a spoiler when somepony leaked the final Harry Trotter novel. Applejack had come to be known as one of the most dependable of ponies. It was a heavy burden to carry, at moments like these.

Holding the flat of her hoof out to Twilight, Applejack spoke slowly. "Maybe we should stay at the beginin'?"

Twilight nodded. "Yes! Exactly! There was a crying mare. A crazy, kooky, super-nutso mare who ran up to me and just started saying a bunch of stuff like she was panicking and she was talking too fast and I couldn't keep up and it was super rude!"

Applejack grit her teeth, squinting. "Go on."

"She just went on and on saying some... uh... things, about ... personal ... things."

Applejack blinked. This is taking a turn for the bizarre. "She dun come up to you and start rantin' an ravin' all about sex?"

Now that Applejack had said it, there was no sense holding back. She cried out, "Yes! All about how she's a slut and she wishes she could cum on me and she wanted to masturbate in the street, and I told her not to, but she wasn't listening, and she was reaching down real slowly, and she started describing various sizes of--"

Applejack cried out an almost shrieking halt to the description, "Land sakes! Stop with the nasty details!"

Twilight loosed an annoyed moan and dropped her chin to the ground, leaving her hindquarters in the air. She wrapped her head in her fore hooves in distress and worry, frizzing up her mane. "And then she kissed me." Her face lit up with a blush.

Applejack blinked. "Well that is a doozy ifn' I ever heard. Didja like it?"

Twilight cried out shrilly with disbelief that Applejack would ask such a thing, turning her hooves toward the heavens with her muzzle still touching the ground, "No I didn't like it! Who would ever want to kiss some crazy lunatic like that?"

Applejack took stock of Twilight's lack of self-awareness, but all in all, she couldn't disagree with that. "Right. And... she was cryin'? While kissing you?"

Twilight's forelegs came back down to earth limply with a flump. "She was, and I think she wanted to do more things to me, but there was a red flash, and she stopped, and that's when I got this." She pointed up to the adorable red bow wrapped up around the pink streak that ran down her mane. "First it was on her tail, and then it was in my mane."

Applejack leaned in to examine the bow. It was a vibrant scarlet no bigger than her hoof. The ribbon was almost completely matte, except for thin, shiny red lines, which drew sharp angular runic patterns into the fabric.

Applejack used all of her magical knowledge to ponder the problem at hoof.

"Ah'll get the scissors," she said, and started off toward the farm house.

Twilight chased after her friend, and released another aggravated moan. "Applejack! I tried that already! I tried using magic, I tried cutting it, I tried cutting my mane so it would fall off, I even tried setting it on fire. Nothing worked!"

Applejack had been wondering about the singed fur. She stopped and turned to Twilight. "Well then ah guess it all comes down tah all yer fancy book learnin' dunnit?"

Twilight whimpered. "You're right! This does call for science." She bopped one hoof into the other.

Applejack asked, "So less go talk to this mare then?"

Twilight hung her head with resignation. "She's gone. Soon as the red light flashed, she ran off. It was scary, Applejack. She was really really relieved. I think the ribbon was doing something to her and it terrified her. She kept telling me she was sorry and just made a break for it."

Applejack frowned. That did make things complicated. "What did she look like?"

Twilight thought about it for a moment. "Um. Short?"

Applejack facehoofed. She couldn't believe it. "Twilight, ain't y'all supposed tah be the rememberinist rememberer that ever done remember things?"

Twilight said, "It was dark, Applejack!"

Applejack nodded resolutely at Twilight. "Whelp. What's dun is dun then."

"It's not what's done that worries me! It's what's going to happen to me! Do you think the ribbon is going to turn me into a raving lunatic?" Twilight shot up to her friend's face. Her jaw was clenched and the mandible was slightly offset. One eye twitched slightly.

Applejack sighed, and started walking back toward her apple cart to resume her bucking. "What could be worse?"

Twilight cried out with frustration at Applejack's question. "That time I got caught masturbating by Spike!"

Applejack stopped dead in her tracks. Her eyes were wide and still staring at the blue yonder in front of her. She didn't turn around. There was a deathly silence now, interrupted only by gentle gusts of wind and the the soft chirping of a jay bird. The stunned silence stretched on until Applejack, still wide eyed, slowly turned around.

Twilight was covering her face and blushing heavily, with her chin pressed on the grass.

Applejack finally broke the silence. "Ah guess the ribbon's startin' its business already, sugarcube." As much as Applejack valued honesty, she saw fit to give Twilight a chance to back out of this and save face. "Y'all just dun been possessed by that there ribbon, and ah know y'aint been caught doin' nothing untoward where Spike could find ya. Right?"

Twilight tried to press the words down, but she coughed, and blurted them out rapidly. "Nope! I was going to town in the kitchen thinking about Flut--"

Applejack waved her forelegs, "Stop!"

Twilight whimpered, and lifted her hooves from her eyes to give Applejack a mortified expression.

Applejack took a deep breath, and looked around the orchard. "Right. Ah'll just... chalk that one up to the ribbon too." She awkwardly turned around with a forced smile and kept walking.

Twilight called out, from some ways behind. "Applejack! I'm stuck!"

Applejack turned around, to see Twilight exactly where she was, still lying in the grass. She was starting to worry now. Turns out this wasn't just some insignificant crisis. Whatever this ribbon was doing, it's not good. She made her way back to her friend. "What's wrong?"

Twilight whimpered, tugging on her legs, but she could only get them to jerk slightly. "I can't walk."

Applejack ran back and circled her with distress. "What do I do?"

Twilight was just as distressed when she replied, "You're an apple farmer!" Twilight's brow curled into a perturbed expression.

"Well slap me sideways, Twilight, that ain't what I--"

Twilight reared back and crashed her forehoof across Applejack's muzzle.

Applejack's head had been twisted to the side, and she stared at the grass for a moment. She slid her jaw with a tiny crack of cartilage and released a gentle chuckle. "Hunh." She very slowly turned her head to face Twilight.

"Applejack! I swear! They did that on their own! I swear I was paralyzed."

Applejack plunked down on her haunches, and lifted up her fore hooves, gently cracking her ankles. She stretched her neck and back with a few gentle pops in casual preparation for what promised to be a spectacular ass-whoopin'.

Twilight seemed to be able to move well enough now, she backed away from applejack and leaned forward. Her horn lit with a violet glow, and she swallowed Applejack up in a wave of magic. Applejack twisted and squirmed, flailing with all four legs furiously. "What y'all doin' naw?!"

Twilight nervously replied, "I'm just going to hold on to you until you calm down."

Applejack wrenched in all directions, flailing her limbs independently. "It's fer yer own good! Naw let me down an get ready for a four-hoofed flank stompin' ye varmint!"

Applejack crashed to the earth. With a groan and a shake of her head, she steadied herself back up on four legs, and blinked at a most surprising sight. Twilight was presenting her hindquarters to Applejack, waving her rump back and forth slowly, and blushing brightly. Applejack growled. "Yer tryin' mah patience!"

"Applejack. It has to be the ribbon! You know I wouldn't do things like this!"

Applejack's baleful glare softened. "Ah know sugarcube, but yer startin' tah frustrate me, and mah jaw hurts."

Twilight lowered her ears self-consciously. She pouted. "I know. I'm really really sorry it's just I don't know what to do and every time we try to talk about it something interrupts... us... Applejack? Start talking?"

Applejack looked away with thought for a moment, and reluctantly complied. "Uhh. Ah.. um.. yankee doodle had a farm, an.. uh.. on that farm there was lotsa ponies?"

Twilight walked up to Applejack and stared at her with the kind of happy grin that can only come from an unadulterated dose of science. She waited patiently for the next disaster while Applejack continued to try to come up with things to say. "Do you have any scrolls, we should be writing down everything you say," Twilight asked.

Applejack winced. "Twilight, ah don't know if ah'm causin' this."

Twilight sighed. For once, she was disappointed that the ribbon wasn't causing a catastrophe. "If only we could retrace our steps." Twilight leaned forward, and Applejack felt the familiar weightless sensation of being levitated. She struggled immediately. "Naw Twilight, ah ain't foolin! Put me down!"

Twilight's magical field disappeared instantly, sending Applejack to the dirt with a thump. Twilight gasped gleefully!

Applejack was not nearly as amused. She groaned and looked up, only to be scooped up again.

Applejack snarled. "Naw Twilight, I've given you a lot of patience, but this is goin' too far. Stop this right now, ye hear?"

Once again, Applejack fell, and she groaned out a bitter chuckle at the aching of her sore bones. In a flash, Twilight was over top of her, beaming. Applejack didn't want to share in her jubilation. "No more, Twilight. Please."

"Don't you see?! I'm doing everything you tell me! You told me to stop, and I stopped. You told me to prepare for a .. uh.. 'four-hoofed flank stomping', and I did that! You told me to slap you sideways and I did!"

Applejack's assumed a look of astonishment. She squirmed to her feet. "An I asked ya to tell me somethin' worse than bein' a ravin' lunatic."

Twilight bounded around with glee. "This magic is incredible! I've never known anything that can do this! I have to study it." She zipped in face to face with Applejack with a cloud of dust in her wake, coming to a stop inches away beaming delightedly. "Okay, tell me to do something!"

Applejack grinned a slow, sinister grin.

A flock of birds erupted from a nearby tree at the sound of the slap.

The Moonlight

The sheets were half way down Twilight Sparkle's body. As she began to move more, and care less, they gradually slid off her curvaceous adolescent form. Cold Canterlot castle air slipped into the gap as the sheet fell away to expose more and more of her body, progressively chilling her sweaty fur.

She was too close to orgasm to care. Even as the cold started to make her body quiver she nibbled her lower lip and loosed a nasal hum, punctuated by the sharpest, quickest of whimpering gasps when her body rewarded her with another tingle of pleasure.

Twilight's curled muzzle broke into an unsteady smile of anticipation as she realized how close she was getting to her goal. "Hnh. Hnnh yes," she moaned with triumphant satisfaction at the feelings of the steadily rising tide, and the near certainty that her goal was almost upon her hooves.

She wanted to scream, but she knew she couldn't be too loud. Getting caught pleasuring herself would have been bad enough if she was still living at home with her parents and brother, but she had moved into the castle for the summer to study directly under Princess Celestia's tutelage. Fearful of being caught by her mentor, she swallowed hard to keep her pleasure soaked screams from slipping free.

She couldn't steady her foreleg now. It twitched against her slit roughly, twisting and grinding down on her button. Despite the inevitability of what she sought, she didn't want to delay its arrival for a second.

She opened her eyes, and turned to look at her beloved doll, Smarty Pants, as she pleased herself.

In her mind, Smarty Pants was a mighty stallion. He was brave and strong, and most of all, handsome. He could have been one of Celestia's royal guards with his sheer physical prowess and flawless muscular body, but he had no interest in that sort of thing. No, he was a poet and a scholar, and his mind was the sharpest and most famed in all the kingdom. Best of all, he loved her. He loved her more than anything, and, at least for the next few minutes, she loved him too.

Twilight's mind raced with thoughts of all the torrid things her fantasy stallion was doing to her. He held her closely, and tightly. She felt so small in his forelegs. His body cradled hers with pure passion and loving contentment as he drove himself deeply into her. She pressed her hoof firmly on her opening at the moment her fantasy stallion slid his impressive endowment to its hilt. She imagined his length filling her, and his seed pumping into the depths her young body as he climaxed in her embrace.

She rewound her thoughts so she could imagine his climax again and again. She made him feel that pleasure. She had so much power over him, to control the sensations of his body like that. Her very touch drove him mad with lust. The very sight of her robbed him of all reason. She controlled him so completely that even his own thoughts were corrupted with need for her. His mind and body belonged to her, to use for her own ends. Everything he was, belonged to Twilight Sparkle.

With the gentle twinkling of magic, Smarty Pants floated into the air above the bed. Twilight glared at it with a lusty grimace and swallowed hard. She was exhausted, and her foreleg was starting to ache, but she needed more. She needed that last little bit.

Twilight's magic shot Smarty Pants into the headboard of her bed, and pressed him so tightly his fabric groaned and stretched. In her mind, Smarty Pants screamed in panic, crying out. "What are you doing?!"

Twilight gasped out her answer with an airy, pleasure drenched whisper. "Y-you don't get to ask me questions! I can do whatever I want with you! B-beg me! Beg me to stop or I'll kill you."

Smarty Pants' imagined face was filled with fear and betrayal. "No! Please" he begged. "I love you! Why are you doing this?!"

Twilight drew right to the precipice, her hind legs shot out achingly stiff, twitching and thrashing, sending shocks of curling, twitching muscles climbing down her legs and back. "Unh yes!" she moaned. "No. No, you shut up. You're nothing. You're nothing to me." Her whispers were hoarse, as though she would be screaming them with all the force of her lungs, were it not for the fact that others in the castle would surely hear her.

Twilight imagined the heartbreak in Smarty Pants's button eyes; the helplessness; the terror.

The fantasy Smarty Pants wailed with anguish, thrashing in pain and trying to desperately push against the magic field that was holding him in place. Twilight's magic started to tug forcefully on the doll's right eye, and massaged it's crotch, intent on making her fantasy stallion orgasm once more even as he was tortured.

The sound of popping threads was all it took. Twilight's back arched, thrusting her belly upwards, with her foreleg atop it, still madly stroking herself. Her hind hooves and the back of her head pressed hard into the sheets as she bridged her body upward.

The bedsheet that covered her fell away completely now, leaving her heaving body bare to the cold air, and glistening in the beaming moonlight.

She choked softly as she tried to contain the wailing moan of her orgasm as shocks of pleasure blasted through her body. She mostly failed. Her cry of orgasm escaped her, and there was a soft echo coming from the drafty stone corridors outside her room.

Twilight exhaled a satisfied huff and settled her back down onto the bed weakly. She stared at the ceiling, and let her sore forelegs slump limply onto the bed next to her. She breathed slowly, and murmured soft, squeaky sounds at the heady wave of afterglow hit her body.

It wasn't long before a shot of anxiety followed, weighing on her breast. Her lips curled with pain as she turned to look at what she did to her beloved doll. She lifted her slick, glistening forehooves up to her forehead and furrowed her brow. Tears started to well up inside her.

"I'm sorry Smarty Pants," she whimpered as she turned to scoop up her cherished doll and hold him tight to her breast. "I'm sorry. I'm evil. I don't know why I feel these things." She choked up softly. "I don't know why I feel these things, Smarty Pants."

In Twilight's mind, everything she did to her stallion lover was undone. But Smarty Pants itself would still bear the scars of what she had done. Its button eye now hung by a thread.

It hit her now just how cold she was. The air seemed to bite her fur, but her sheets were so soaked that she didn't want to crawl under them. She clung to Smarty Pants tightly. "I don't know what's wrong with me."

"There's nothing wrong with you," Celestia said from the doorway. She spoke very softly and bore a slow, serene expression of sympathy for her dear student's troubles. She almost whispered it.

Twilight's eyes whipped to her door. She couldn't see Celestia's face, but she could see wisps of gently flowing mane curling around the edge of her bedchamber door. Twilight curled up, and tried to hide the messy patch on her crotch. She hastily wiped her hooves on her sheets, and yelped softly. "Celestia! Oh no.. no, no, no, no, no, no."

Celestia hung her head at the threshold to Twilight's bedchamber, but she didn't look inside. "Please. Don't be distressed. I'm not here to judge you, my little pony." Celestia's voice sounded like a sweet lullaby. A sad, but hopeful lullaby. "I think it's time we had a talk. May I come in?"

Twilight gasped until her lungs were full. "A talk? No. You're kicking me out now? You're kicking me out because of what," her voice dropped to a whisper, "... I did."

Celestia managed to smile peacefully despite her student's distress. "My dearest pupil, sometimes a talk is just a talk. May I come in?"

Twilight swallowed hard and nodded fitfully, reaching up to wipe the tears that were welling under her eyes. "Okay." She sniffed.

Celestia quietly stepped into Twilight's bedchamber, and gently closed the door behind her.

Celestia was a creature of grace and beauty. She always had a warm and caring expression, filled with genuine concern and appreciation for whomever she was talking to. Twilight dreaded the day that Celestia's eternal visage of the purest love might one day turn to revulsion, or fury. She feared it more than anything.

Celestia walked to Twilight's bedside, and looked her pupil in her eyes. Twilight looked back with tear streaked anxiety.

Celestia's words came gently, and calmly. "Have you been told about sex?"

Twilight had difficulty getting her words out. By now, sobs were threatening to rise up out of her. They knocked on her voice like hiccups. "I read-- I read-- It was..." She sniffed.

Celestia's hoof reached out. It came to rest gently on the bed next to Twilight's hoof, with the flat upward, as if she was holding it out to receive something. "And did your book tell you that your feelings are not 'wrong'? They're a part of you, my dear student, a beautiful and important part of you, and they are not to be hated or feared."

Twilight reached out and locked ankles with Celestia, holding hooves tightly. She wiped her cheeks with her other foreleg. "I'm-- I'm afraid I might make a mistake, and do something I'm not supposed to."

Celestia held her student's hoof tightly in return. "And how would that be different from anything else? Every feeling can bring us virtue, and every feeling can bring us ruin; every one. These new feelings you're experiencing are no different. Twilight Sparkle, your desires don't control you."

One of Twilight's sobs escaped. "Then I don't want them, Celestia. I don't want them."

Celestia smiled at that, but spoke softly. "I know that, right now, these new sensations feel so intense, it is as though they would consume you, but it will pass, in time. You will become accustom to them."

Twilight was calming down now, and she nodded softly, averting her gaze from her mentor's eyes.

Celestia continued, "You must be careful, however. Do not experiment lightly with matters of sex. You have the capacity to hurt yourself dearly, and to hurt others even more."

Twilight made a promise that day. She made a promise that she would one day break.

"I won't."

Author's Note

I was asked a question by an anonymous reader that I feel is important. He asks if The Horse Collar (The story this is a sequel to) involves rape, and if it does, he's not interested.

Here's my response:

The Horse Collar is not a story that tries to portray rape in a glorified or titillating light. It's a serious tale about the consequences of forbidden pleasure.

There are two scenes in The Horse Collar with unwelcome sexual touching, but no outright rape, no.

The Scarlet Ribbon will probably be similar. I don't intend to have violent terrible rape scenes to please people with rape fetishes, but the story will center upon the theme of how people treat the weak and vulnerable, and it might get a little uncomfortable.

The Test

Twilight unfurled her enormous scroll. "Test one. Ambiguity!"

Applejack craned her neck. "Ambihoozawhat?"

Twilight repeated herself. "Ambiguity! You know, when you say something that could mean more than one thing. Give me an order that could be interpreted in multiple ways, and see what happens."

Applejack pondered her task. "Ah can't think of anything."

Twilight moaned with exasperation. "Just tell me to 'Buck the tree'"

Applejack looked around. "Which tree?"

"Don't tell me a specific tree, Applejack! That's the point."

"Well alright then. Go on an buck the tree."

Twilight lurched from her position, carrying her scroll in tow with her field of magic. She trotted up to the nearest tree, and gave it a mighty buck. She hummed with interest, and scratched all the details into her scroll with her trusty quill.

Applejack snickered softly.

Twilight peeked up over the top of her scroll at the sound of laughter. "What?"

Applejack tried to suppress her giggles while she talked, with some success. "Y'all dun bucked as hard as you could an didn't get one single apple."

Twilight groaned. "Can we stay focused? The apples weren't the point. Okay. Now I want you to tell me to 'buck the tree' again, but I want you to think about a random tree when you do it. I don't want you to tell me which tree."

Applejack shut her eyes tightly, and focused on a tree. Twilight huffed softly at Applejack's assumption that ESP theatrics would be a requirement of this test.

"Buck that there tree!" said Applejack, without pointing.

Twilight took swift kick at another nearby tree, slamming it with all her might. A single apple fell from the tree, and landed directly on her head. She grumbled and looked up at the tree scornfully for humiliating her once more.

Applejack tried her darndest not to laugh. "That wun't the tree."

Twilight sparkle chirped with satisfaction. "Excellent!" She scribbled down the notes. "Okay, so far we know that if an order is ambiguous, I end up doing it anyway, and it doesn't actually matter what you meant, only what you said. Also, I picked this tree. So it seems that if, at the time of the order, I decide to obey, I'm allowed to choose how to interpret the order.

"Okay, test two! Impossibility."

Applejack hummed. "That doesn't sound easy, sugercube."

"Exactly!" Twilight sang with confidence. "Tell me to do something I couldn't possibly do."

"Stop worryin' so much." Applejack said with a smirk.

"Applejack! Don't tell me to change my emotions, that's test four! Argh! Now I'm going to have to skip to four to add this note! Maybe you should let me come up with the orders, we don't know if something you say might cause some serious problem that might disrupt or change the testing results!"

"Guessin' we have our answer for number four then." Applejack huffed with exasperation. She was really hoping that one would work.

Twilight scribbled some notes on her scroll, then rolled it up just enough to get back to test number two. "Okay. First, we're going to ask me to do something I can't do. Then, we're going to ask me to do something nopony can do. Okay? Ask me to buck every apple from the tree in one go."

Applejack nodded, "Alright. Mosey on up to that there tree, and buck out all them apples at once."

Twilight trotted up toward the nearby tree, and bucked it with all her might. She managed to collect an impressive haul of leaves and twigs, but no apples.

Applejack snorted down more laughter.

Twilight was far too happy to let the laughter get to her anymore. She beamed with excitement. "Did you see that? I tried, but I couldn't do it!"

Applejack frowned, "Ahm sorry sweet pea. Ya tried yer best."

"No, Applejack. That's good. If it was something I was able to do then it would have invalidated the test. So it's good. Don't worry. Okay, now try to get me to do something completely impossible, like ask me to draw a three sided circle in the dirt or something."

"Alright. Do that thing what you just said."

Twilight blinked, looking down at the ground, then her hooves, then the ground. Nothing. "Well! That went as expected! Okay, Test three! Memories! Ask me to forget what Pinkie Pie's cutie mark looks like."

Applejack gave Twilight a disbelieving glare, "Naw why would ya want tah forget somethin' like that?"

Twilight grumbled. "Applejack, I don't want to forget it. But I believe it'd be the easiest thing to relearn if this works. So go for it, and be really careful! Don't make me forget anything important."

"Twilight, how many of these tests are there?"

Despite wanting to keep Applejack focused, Twilight's found herself compelled to unroll her entire scroll. The thing was enormous, rolling over a rock, through a trench, and slightly up the bottom of an apple tree. Twilight leaned in and scrutinized the very end of her list. "One-hundred forty-three."

There was a pregnant pause while Twilight evaluated her friend's incredulous expression. "What?" she asked. "This is for science! I need to learn these things if I'm going to be stuck with this." She waved her beribboned lock of purple hair toward Applejack. "I don't even know if an event like this has ever happened in all of Equestria. We could be dealing with a never-before-seen magical artifact." She gave Applejack a deadly serious stare. "This is very important!"

Applejack sighed. "You know I'd do anything to help you, but one-hundred fourty-four--" "Three," said Twilght. Applejack continued with narrowing eyes. "One-hundred fourty-three;" she verbally italicized the last digit. "That's too many for one day. How about you test it yourself? Tell yourself to do all this here stuff in a mirror. See if that works."

"Applejack!" With a wooshy bouncy pop, Twilight was gone, along with the scroll.

"Oops," said Applejack.