"Applejack are you in there?" a lavender unicorn called as she trotted up to a large red barn. She was followed closely by a small purple and green dragon. "Appleja-" she was cut off by the door to the barn being thrown open, and a small yellow filly bouncing out.
"TWILIGHT!" the little filly cried as she launched herself at the unicorn. The little dragon chuckled quietly when an over excited filly, and astonished unicorn mare fell backwards right in front of him.
"Now Apple Bloom I told you that I have enough of that from Wynonna, I don't need you jumpin' all over my marefriend too." an orange earth pony mare stated as she walked out of the barn, a hat pulled low over her blond mane. "Now come on, get off of 'er." the little filly groaned as she got up off the ground.
"Hey Applejack." the little dragon stated as he helped Twilight to her feet. "Do you mind if Apple Bloom and I go and play with the other crusaders?" the orange mare nodded.
"Sure thing Spike," she winked at Twilight, "Maybe with her gone Twilight and I can have some alone time." the lavender unicorn blushed a bright scarlet.
"But AJ-" Apple Bloom tried to whine only to get cut off by her sister's glare. "Yes ma'am." and with that they were off.
"So what brings y'all by?" the orange earth pony asked as she leaned in a sly grin on her face.
"O-oh, n-nothing major." Twilight stammered, a light pink dusting across her cheeks, "Just thought we could stop by and say hello." Applejack smiled and walked over to nuzzle Twilight's cheek.
"Well I'm mighty glad that you did." she said as she nuzzled the other mare yet again, "You know I bet-" she was cut off by a loud crash and a cry of pain from behind the barn. "Dang flab it!" Apple Jack growled, "What in tarnation did those fillies do this time?!"
"I don't know, but it sounds like they've gotten themselves hurt." Twilight stated in a worried tone, "We should check on them." Applejack sighed but nodded.
"Yep I reckon we better, no tellin' what those fillies talked Spike into this time." she shivered as she recalled the last dragon induced stunt. "We're still tryin' to fix that hole in the barn." Twilight blushed as she was reminded of that exact insadent. "Well come on." at that moment Spike came barreling towards them.
"Twi, AJ we need a little help back here!" he'd stopped at the corner to call out to the two mares before a blue hoof had pulled him back. Now the sounds of some sort of fight could be heard. Twilight and Applejack shared a look then took off at a trot. As the two mares rounded the corner, they were greeted by the sight of three fillies and a baby dragon pinned against the back of the barn by five young colts who were twice their size. The crusaders were covered in bruises, and Spike had several bare spots covering his back about the size of the colt's hooves.
"Your sister's nothing but a fillyfooler!" one of the colts, a light redish tint to his white coat from a bleeding cut along his back that still had a purple scale stuck in it, aimed at Apple Bloom, only to be rewarded with her rear hooves knocking into his face, leaving two black wrings around his eyes for everyone to see.
"You take that back about my sis!" the young earth pony filly screamed as she launched herself at the much larger colt, for a second time. It took the two full grown mares three minutes to pull them apart.
"Now what in tarnation are y'all doin' back here? Y'all just better get before I let her loose again." the little colt only sneered at AJ.
"My mommy says I don't have to listen to a fillyfooler like you." Twilight's eyes went wide, and she quickly had to put herself between the Cutie Mark Crusaders and the, she did a double take on the colt before she groaned, unicorn colt.
"Why is it that most unicorns stick to the oldest traditions as if they'll die otherwise?" she mumbled under her breath. Then she froze as if that thought had just been some big and mean creature. "Applejack," she said louder so that everyone could hear, "Why don't we take Spike and the girls inside?" Applejack looked the other mare over as she'd noticed her stiffen.
"Sure Twi, come on y'all. Let's get inside." she then turned to the young colts, "As for y'all, just get on home." the colts all smirked and shook their heads.
"No way." cried the blue colt who'd been aiming a glare at Sweetie Belle as if she was some sort of traitor.
"She said get." growled Twilight, who recognized the purple and green scales scattered around the colt's hooves, they all looked up at the grown mare before they took off running.
The remaining six all walked inside before Applejack turned and looked Twilight dead in the eye. "Now what's up Twi? I noticed you kinda freeze up out there. What's wrong? Not to mintchen you scared more than just the foals." that last part had been mumbled under her breath. Spike looked up at his adopted sister/mother figure for a full five seconds before his eyes went wide.
"Oh Twi, I didn't even think about that." he slapped his claw to his face, "Gees what kind of number one assistant am I?"
Applejack looked between the two. "Wait a cotton pickin' minute," she stomped her hoof. "What in the hay is goin' on here?" Now it was Spike who looked between the two mares. Then he sighed.
"Twilight hasn't told her parents about the two of you yet and she's worried about how they'll react." the baby dragon stated. Apple Bloom looked between the dragon, and the two full grown mares.
"Well wont they be happy for her?" she asked while the other two crusaders just nodded in agreement.
'Oh to be that innocent again.' Twilight thought. She then looked at Applejack and nodded towards Apple Bloom in a 'this is your job' sort of gesture. Apple Jack sighed before she motioned for Apple Bloom to come closer.
"Well you see Bloom, there are some ponies that think that a couple should just be a mare and a stallion, and that way of thinkin' is really popular among a good portion of the nobles, and unicorns." AJ looked over at Twilight, "Am I sayin' this right?" Twilight nodded as she walked over to sit beside her marefriend.
"You're doing fine." she murmured as she nuzzled the other mare's cheek, making the Cutie Mark Crusaders and Spike gag. Applejack sighed then continued.
"Well Twi doesn't know if her folks are the type of unicorn who thinks that way or not. An' I reckon that would make you kinda nerves about tellin' 'um especially after seein' those unicorn colts behave in such a fashion." she fixed a stern look on the lavender mare, "But I also agree with Bloom in the fact that they are your parents and I think they'll support you no matter what."
"I hope you're right Applejack, because I need to tell them, and soon." AJ nuzzled Twilight's cheek.
"I'm sure it'll be fine. Now why don't you an' Spike head on home, you can think of a way to tell your folks about us." Twilight nodded, then scooping Spike up on her back she trotted out the door.
Twilight was sitting at home with a lamp burning at her desk while she paced back and forth trying to think of a new way to tell her parents that she was dating another mare, the last one hundred ways crumpled up in paper wads over flowing from the waste basket crunching under her hooves.
"Oh Spike what am I going to do?" she asked her number one assistant, who with broom in hand was trying to clean up the rejected notes and still avoid his mother/sister/boss as she mopped back and forth. The little drake looked up at the lavender mare and sighed.
"Twi if I knew the answer to that one you'd be the first to know." he stated as he gave her a sympathetic pat on the leg. "It'll be okay, I'm sure of it." now it was Twilight who sighed as she gave a nerves glance at the blank sheet of parchment, nothing on it except the splatter marks from Twilight's shaking quill. "Do you want me to write it?" she shook her head.
"No," she sighed again, "They're my parents, I should be the one to tell them." Spike nodded before he continued to try and clear away the overflowing waste. Twilight looked outside at the moon high in the sky. "Well I wont think of anything with out sleep. Let's go to bed Spike." the lavender unicorn floated the broom over to one of the library's corners. "I don't even feel like studying tonight." Spike stopped dead at the foot of the stairs and looked back at Twilight.
Just then a pink blur bounced into the library and landed right on top of Twilight. "Hiya!" Pinkie stated happily as she bounced off of the stunned unicorn.
"Ugh Pinkie, what the heck are you doing here at," Twilight peered over at the clock, "Midnight?" Pinkie just laughed.
"Well Applejack said earlier that you were unhappy, so I came buy to cheer you up!" the pink mare kept bouncing around.
"Pinkie would you please sit still for two seconds!" Twilight screeched as she tried to stop her head from spinning. Pinkie surprisingly stopped bouncing around.
"Okie dokie lokie." Twilight raised a suspicious eyebrow.
"What are you up to Pinkie?" the lavender mare asked as she took two steps towards the stairs. "Because if you don't mind it's late and I'd really like to go to bed." again another two steps towards the stairs. "So if you could just wait until tomorrow I'd-" Twilight was cut off by the always exuberant Pinkie sense.
"Twitchy tail!" the pink mare cried as she grabbed Twilight and dove under the nearby desk. Sure enough three seconds later a pillow, blanket, and one tired baby dragon fell to the floor, thankfully the pillow cushioned his fall.
"Well that was strange," Twilight muttered but she backed away from Pinkie a smile on her face, "See Pinkie, Spike and I are very tired."
Pinkie nodded, "Okay I'll come back to cheer you up tomorrow." then just as quickly as she'd come Pinkie Pie was just suddenly gone. Leaving Twilight to take Spike back up to bed, as well as try and get some sleep herself.
The next morning Twilight was awakened by the loud sound of somepony pounding on the library door. "I'm coming!" she called out as she got out of bed and proceeded to trip down the stairs. "Ow," she muttered as she got up rubbing her bruised snout, "Well that could have gone better."
There was another pounding knock at the door, "Twilight are you in there?!" Pinkie Pie called from the other side, Twilight's only response was a groan.
"Yes Pinkie, I'm here." walking over to the door it was surrounded by a light lilac colored aura and swung open. Standing on the other side was the pink party pony, as well as a white unicorn. "Oh hello Rarity, I wasn't expecting to see you here today."
The fashionista smiled at her fellow unicorn and friend. "I'm sorry to just drop in like this darling, but Applejack and Pinkie Pie told me that you were in a bit of a fix. Is everything all right?" Twilight sighed and would have told her that it was nothing just a small problem that she herself could deal with. But to even her surprise tears began to fall to the wooden floor of the library.
"Twilight what's wrong?" Pinkie asked as she walked over to her lavender friend, wrapping her hooves around her neck in a comforting hug.
"I'm trying to tell my parents that Applejack and I are a couple, but I don't know how, and I don't know how they'll react." Rarity gave a soft gasp.
"Oh darling, no wonder you're so upset!" with that she too joined the hug.
"I don't get it," Pinkie stated as she flopped onto the floor, "Why should telling her parents she's in love with another mare upset Twilight?"
"Well you see darling there's an old tradition in the unicorn tribe that says to pass on a families noble title the eldest foal had to marry. And for the longest time a relationship between two mares was considered illegal, blasfimas and just plain wrong. Unfortunately so many of the unicorn dominant families still feel that way, and the tradition of marriage to pass on a noble title is still, well, tradition." Rarity giggled at her own wording.
"That's not really the problem for me because I have an older brother, but most families who follow that rule still look down on relationships between two mares or two stallions," Twilight stated as she sniffled.
"Twilight's just worried that her parents won't like that she's with another mare," Spike stated as he walked down the stares. The small drake shrugged. "I still think that she's worried about nothing."
Twilight rolled her eyes, "I know how you feel Spike, but I'm just so nerves."
