The 9 a.m. train from Fillydelphia to Ponyville was steaming down the tracks. The ponies sitting inside the various compartments watched the outside world fly by as they waited eagerly for the train's arrival.
One filly in particular was extra impatient to finally reach Ponyville. She was sitting together with her parents inside one of the wealthier compartments. She was a unicorn with a beige coat and orange hair. The space on her flank where her cutie mark would be was still blank.
After looking out the window for some more moments she turned towards her mother sitting opposite of her.
"Mom? Are we there yet?"
This question, asked by little foals since the creation of time itself or maybe even before then, was met by the mare with an uninterested glance up from the book she held in her hooves.
"Almost, sweetie," she said. After that she looked back down to the pages of the crime novel she was reading.
"But you said that last time I asked, and that was like, an eternity ago!" insisted the filly.
Her mother sighed audibly. "I'm sorry, dear, but I don't know how long it is exactly until we arrive."
"But I'm so bored," was the answer. "And I can't wait to finally be there!"
"Well," her mother said, "if you're so excited about it, why don't you try to pass the time imagining how great today is going to be?"
After that the filly was silent and looked back out the window. Pleased, the mare went back to her story.
The silence lasted for about 30 seconds.
"Mom?"
"What?!" This time the mare's answer had been a little more forceful than she intended it to be.
"It's not working."
Groaning in slight desperation her mother buried her face in the book on her lap.
The filly crossed her hooves and pouted. As if it was her fault the stupid train was taking so long to arrive! She wished she was old enough to do magic. Then she would have been able to just disappear and reappear somewhere else completely. That would be so cool. And then she would not have to rely on this stupid, slow train to take her where she wanted to go.
Thinking about her destination, she tried once more to do what her mother had said and imagined how much fun the day was going to be.
Ever since she had seen a photo of the new castle in Ponyville in a newspaper about two months ago she had wanted to visit it. She wanted to see the throne room with the six big thrones (and a small one). She wanted to see where Princess Twilight and her dragon assistent usually ate and slept. She even wanted to see the library with all the old books and everything, even though reading wasn't really something she enjoyed doing.
So when about a week ago her father had told her that there was going to be an open-house day at the castle with tours and a demonstration of the magic of friendship, she had bugged her parents so long about it until they finally agreed to take her there.
And now, here they were. On the way towards Ponyville in a train that was 'almost' there. The filly let out a small sigh. She decided that she didn't like the word 'almost'. And at least until 'almost' amounted to 'two minutes or less' she would continue not to like it.
As she considered asking her mother if they were there yet again, just to test if she got another 'almost' as an answer, the train decelerated slowly. Excited, she jumped up from her seat.
"We're here! We're here! We are here, right?" She looked over to her mother with an expectant expression.
Her father, who had been mostly silent during the trip, chuckled now. "Yes, seems like we're here."
The next few minutes consisted of excited chattering and some chaos as mother and father tried to gather the things they'd need for their visit in Ponyville. The little unicorn jumped anxiously up and down in front of the compartment door.
As soon as her father had opened it, she dashed out only to get stuck in a crowd of ponies waiting in the middle aisle for the train to stop. She felt her father's hoof firmly on her shoulder as the train finally came to a stop and the crowd started pushing outside.
The sun stood high in the sky when the family stepped down onto the platform in Ponyville. There was a lot of commotion around the little train station. In the crowd there were earth ponies with garments similar to those worn in Appleloosa, unicorns with noses so high up in the air they could only stem from Canterlot and pegasi with Cloudsdale's insignia on their backpacks. In short, it seemed like almost all of Equestria came to see the newest princess's new castle.
From one end of the platform an orange earth pony was trying to shout over the crowd.
"Welcome to Ponyville, everypony! I hope y'all had a great trip. Ponies lookin' for the castle should be headin' this way. If someone's lookin' to get into the town proper, that's this way. Be sure to ask your way around if you get lost. Have a great day!"
When the little unicorn filly turned her head to find out who had spoken, her eyes widened. "Applejack!!" she shouted and with surprising speed dashed out from under her father's hoof and raced towards the farm pony.
When her father and mother finally managed to catch up with their daughter they found a slightly amused Applejack, who had lifted her foreleg - and the filly attached to it - while she tried to make sense of the fast stream of words coming out of the little unicorn's mouth.
"Oh, we are so sorry, ma'am," the mother addressed Applejack, "she escaped my husband's attention for a moment and was off. She can be a little too excited for her own good sometimes."
Recognizing her mother's voice the filly looked over her shoulder at her parents for a second. "Mom, Dad!" she said. "It's Applejack, it's really her!"
"Yes, sweetie, we realize it is her. But it is still very rude to jump at someone like that. Now be a good filly and let go of Miss Applejack's hoof."
While the filly slowly climbed down from her perch, Applejack chuckled.
"Oh, shucks. I don't mind this little youngin' here being a little excited. Today's a big day after all!" She leaned down towards the unicorn. "I reckon you're here to see the castle, little one?"
The filly vigorously nodded and Applejack smiled.
"Well, you got a big day ahead of yourself, that's for sure." She looked back up to the adults. "Well, like I said before, the castle's this way here. It's not opening for another half an hour, though, so y'all might wanna grab some lunch in town before heading there. There's also some vendors who sell..." She couldn't finish her sentence since a high-pitched cry from somewhere on the platform interrupted her.
"Applejack! There you are!" A pink blur dashed through the bulk towards them. "I've been searching all over for you. You know that we stopped playing hide and seek two days ago, right? That means you don't have to hide yourself anymore!"
Applejack chuckled. "I know that, Pinkie. I'm not trying to hide or anything."
At the mention of the name, the eyes of the little unicorn filly standing beside her widened again.
Pinkie Pie, though, was blissfully unaware of the storm in form of a little filly that was about to be unleashed on her. "Oh, that's okay then, I guess. Just try to not-hide a littler harder next time, okay?"
"I'll do that, sugarcube," said Applejack with a smile.
"Oh! I was supposed to tell you something. Twilight remembered in the castle that you should tell me at 2 o'clock to get everything ready and meet."
She grinned for a while, then frowned. "No wait. That wasn't it." She tapped her pink hoof against her chin in thought.
"Oh, now I know! Twilight said that you should remember we're meeting at 2 o'clock in the castle to get everything ready! Sorry, kinda mixed that up a little bit. It was hard to pay attention while Twilight was talking to me, since I was trying to explain the concept of dental floss to Gummy at the same time. It's kinda hard to teach a toothless alligator about these things!"
Before Applejack could make any sense of Pinkie's babbling, not to mention formulating a response, the unicorn filly standing next to her started with a tirade of her own.
"Oh my god, you're Pinkie Pie! You're so awesome, do you know that? I know how you love cupcakes and cakes in general and everything that is sweet and how you work at a restaurant in town and everything!"
Pinkie gasped as she looked at the small pony. "You know me? That's so cool. You're right, I love cupcakes! And I also love things like sarsaparilla, hot sauce and ..." Suddenly, Pinkie stopped talking. "Hold on a second," she said then. "I feel something coming."
Applejack frowned while the two other grown-up ponies just looked confused.
"What is coming?" the little unicorn's father asked. He flinched back as Pinkie's legs suddenly started to shake and fly around in every direction, making it look like she was putting on some strange, ridiculously fast-paced tap-dance.
"Uhm," the mother asked in Applejack's direction, "is she okay?"
"Huh? Oh, yes. She's as fine as she could ever be. That's just Pinkie being Pinkie here. A little neighbourly advise; don't pay too much attention to it, that usually works for me."
While still eying Pinkie carefully, as if worried she might spontaneously combust into a cloud of smoke, the mother of the little filly turned around to regard her husband and daughter.
"What do you say?" she asked, "lunch sounds lovely, doesn't it?"
The father nodded and used his magic to pick up his daughter and put her on his back.
"Bye Applejack, Pinkie Pie!" the little foal cried from her spot on her father's spine, while she waved one hoof through the air.
"Bye, little one!" Applejack answered.
Just as her father turned around the station's corner, the little filly caught one last glimpse of Applejack as she pulled out a lasso and began approaching Pinkie Pie, whose legs were still shaking.
One hour and one lunch at Sugarcube Corner later, the family arrived at the castle. The little filly's eyes were wide as saucers. Everywhere was something to look at. Vendor stalls lined the street right and left with ponies selling various trinkets and goodies. Most of the wares had some connection to either the Elements of Harmony, the ponies wielding them, friendship in general or the castle. There was also some merchandise for other landmarks in Ponyville, like small models of town hall or the clock tower. In the background of it all stood the castle in its crystally magnificence. As the little unicorn looked towards it, she noticed a small glow emanating from its walls. The big jagged star at the top glowed even more in the light of the sun shining down on it from above.
"How about we see what kind of trinkets the vendors have?" the voice of her father reached her ears. She looked down and saw that he had turned around his head to look back at her. "What do you think?" he said.
Torn between wanting to get into the castle as soon as possible and looking over all the amazing stuff in the stalls, she hesitated. Finally, the prospect of getting some kind of momento to remember this day by won over and she agreed with a silent nod.
They approached a stall that seemed to sell little plushies of the bearers of the Elements of Harmony next to an assortment of various sized models of the castle, the Tree of Harmony and others. The mare standing behind the counter smiled as they came near.
"Looking for something for the little one, are you?" she said and then looked towards her. "Well, what do you want, young filly? A plushie? A rebuild of the throne room inside the castle?" The vendor used her magic to pull out various things as she listed them off. "I also have some key chains and badges," she continued with a look towards the two older ponies.
Jumping down from her father's back, the unicorn filly put her front hooves against the counter to look closer at some of the exhibits. She saw the already mentioned mini version of the throne room, which she noticed even had some appropriately sized figures of the bearers in it. Her eyes moved over the collection of stickers and the models of the castle towards the plushies.
"I want a plushie of Princess Twilight!" she said, turning her head towards her mother, while still supporting herself against the counter with her front hooves.
Chuckling, the vendor enclosed a purple colored plushie in her magic and pulled it down towards them. "Very good choice, little one." Turning towards the adults, she said, "that'll be 20 bits."
While she waited for her father to get out his wallet, she noticed the model of an unfamiliar tree standing among the replicas of the castle. Frowning, she asked the vendor about it.
Barely glancing over the mare behind the stall said, "What? Oh, that's a model of the old Golden Oak library."
The filly eyed the small tree sceptically. "But why do you sell it?"
Suddenly, another voice spoke from behind her. "Why, because Twilight used to live in it, of course!"
Looking over her shoulder to see who had spoken, the filly saw a white unicorn with a triple diamond cutie mark wearing a blue dress. An unusually large hat completed her outfit. As the filly realized who was standing before her, her mouth opened slightly.
"It's simply awful how quickly ponies seem to have forgotten about it," Rarity said. "Three months and all everyone is talking about is the castle." She smiled down towards the filly. "Don't get me wrong, darling, I love the new castle, but the library just had this... ah, I don't know, welcoming and home-y feeling about it. Have you ever tried to have a cup of tea with a friend in a room as large as a whole house?"
"Uhm..." the filly said. "No?"
"Well, I do hope you never have to. It's simply dreadful."
The filly's father who had just handed over the money joined the conversation. "Well, why don't you just continue to have tea in the old library, then?"
The white unicorn sighed. "Sadly, the tree is no longer standing. I wish I could bring back that ruffian Tirek from Tartarus just to haul him back there myself again." She cleared her throat. "I am sorry. But yes, unfortunately, all that's left from the library nowadays is the basement and a lot of ash and loose branches."
"Oh..." the small filly said and looked back to the small version of the no longer standing tree. "Dad? Can I have that one, too?"
Her father looked over the merchant. Quickly understanding his questioning glance she said, "It's 30 bits."
He frowned. "Isn't that a little much for such a small item?"
The mare smiled apologetically. "The manufacturer, Steady Hooves, doesn't produce them any more and it's one the last few I have."
"Do not fret!" Rarity said as she smoothly pulled out a stylized purse. "I have it covered."
"Oh, please don't!" the filly's mothers quickly said. "We couldn't accept that." She turned towards her husband. "Honey, just pay the 30 bits. It's not that much."
"I'm afraid I must insist," said Rarity. "Your little filly is just so cute, I'd love to get her a little gift."
"But, we're..." tried the mother once again.
"Ah, ah, ah!" Rarity admonished her and levitated three golden bits over towards the vendor. "No buts."
"In that case," the father said, "thank you very much."
"It was my pleasure," Rarity smiled as she floated the small tree towards the little filly, who took it with one hoof eagerly. "I'm afraid, I must be leaving now. I promised Twilight to help with the tours. I hope to see you later at the presentation. Have a nice afternoon!" With that she was gone.
While mother and father watched her leave, the little filly tried to jump up towards where the plushie of Twilight Sparkle floated in her father's magic. "Daaad, give it to me!" she said.
Grinning, her father lowered the plushie towards the waiting open arms. As she took it into her hooves, the small model of the tree slipped from her grasp. Before it hit the ground, her mother caught it in a glow of yellow magic. "I think I will take this, then. It would be a shame if such a generous gift broke." She put the tree into her saddle bags.
The little filly shortly cuddled with her new princess plushie before saying "Ok, I wanna go into the castle now. Come on!"
The family joined the line of ponies on the right of the entrance waiting for a guided tour through the castle. On the left side, ponies who preferred to explore the castle on their own headed past them. While they waited the little filly passed the time by playing with her new plushie. After she and Twilight had successfully defeated the evil Lord Tirek (who was being played by the end of her father's tail, much to his chagrin), she looked up and noticed two pegasus ponies standing next to the entrance of the castle, who had not been there before. Recognizing the color palette of the two ponies, the filly gasped.
Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy landed next to the entrance of the castle. They had been sent by Twilight to check whether everything was going smoothly with the tours. That's typical for her, Rainbow thought as she talked with one of the guides who confirmed that, yes, everything was indeed exactly as it should be. Controlling every little detail of... well, everything. She looked around at all the ponies who came to visit the castle. Then again, it was not like she was doing a bad job. Everything ran indeed smoothly.
"You know, Fluttershy. It's kinda awesome how many ponies came here to see the castle, don't cha think?" she said and looked over to her childhood friend.
"Yes," she replied. "But all this attention is making me a little nervous."
Rainbow rolled her eyes and started sweeping her gaze over the crowd again.
"I wonder how many of them came because of me," she said with a grin on her muzzle.
"Uhm... I don't know?" her friend offered weakly. Then she let out a small moan.
Without turning around, Rainbow Dash continued. "Just imagine a small little pegasus filly who has heard of the amazing, great, wonderful, awesome, soon-to-be Wonderbolt-extraordinaire Rainbow Dash! He or she came all this way to Ponyville just to see their hero!" She put up her hooves to her cheeks in a gesture of giddiness. "Oh, it's gonna be so cool meeting all these little young fans. Don't ya think?"
Finally Rainbow turned around and looked at her friend. "Uhm... Fluttershy?"
"What? Oh yes... I do think so." She smiled.
Rainbow shook her head. "No, I meant... err, you have something - or rather someone - in there." She pointed towards her mane and the filly stuck in it.
Fluttershy looked down at her neck and the filly who still tried to hug it, as if surprised to see her. "Oh. Well, yes. She just jumped at me some seconds ago. I mean, I would've tried to get her down, but she just looks so cute, so I couldn't bring myself to do it."
Rainbow groaned and rolled her eyes again. "Really, Fluttershy? Someone jumps at you and all you do is..."
"We're so sorry!" a voice said from somewhere behind Rainbow. "We lost her again." Two unicorns, one male, the other female had appeared next to them. The female, who had spoken, approached Fluttershy and tried to carefully extract the little filly from her mane.
"Honey, we should really start thinking about this idea with the leash again," the stallion added. The smirk on his mouth showed that he was merely joking.
"Oh, it's quite alright," Fluttershy said, as she straightened her mane.
The filly, who had finally given up on trying to hug her, looked up and smiled. "You're hair is really fluffy!" she said.
Fluttershy giggled. "Thank you very much, dear. I bet yours is just as fluffy."
The attention of the filly switched from her to Rainbow Dash. She gasped. "Is it true that you can make the sky explode? Are you really as fast as they say? I really love the colors of your mane, too. Can I touch it?"
Rainbow laughed. "Make the sky explode? You mean a Sonic rainboom? Yes, I can do one of those." She flapped her wings and was airborne immediately. "Do you wanna see it?"
The filly nodded vigorously. With another quick push of her wings, Rainbow Dash was gone, only leaving behind a streak of rainbow colors.
"Wait!" the mother of the filly cried. "You don't have to do that for us, it's not necessary!"
Unfortunately, Rainbow Dash was already too far away to hear her.
"Don't worry," Fluttershy said. "It's a planned part of the festivities anyway. The only problem is probably that Twilight will get a little grumpy because she did it 10 minutes early." She laughed softly.
The little unicorn filly watched as Rainbow Dash flew up into the sky, away from the castle. Then, when she was only a tiny speck in the air that was hard to make out, she turned around and started coming back as fast as she could. And as far as the filly could see, that was very fast. Soon, a translucent cone started to appear before Rainbow, causing her form behind it to distort slightly in the air. The cone got tighter and tighter, so much that the filly almost started to fear it would crush the flying pony in between.
Then, for a few moments, everything was silent, as if the entire world held its collective breath.
With a loud crack Rainbow broke through the barrier around her and a colorful rainbow ring started to drift outwards from where she was. A similarly colored trail followed her as she flew two or three times around the castle.
Cries of wonder and amazement erupted from the crowd below as everyone turned their head to see a spectacle not many ponies became to see often. The filly's father discreetly leaned down towards his daughter to close her open mouth.
The concentric rings of color slowly faded as Rainbow Dash returned to where they were standing. "Hehe, all in a good day's work."
"Oh my god!" the filly exclaimed. "That was so super amazing!"
Before Rainbow could answer, the voice of a guide sounded through the air. "Alright. Next tour, starting now. Please follow me!"
"Come on, sweetie," the mother of the filly said.
Hesitantly, the filly followed her parents into the castle, waving goodbye to Rainbow and Fluttershy.
Fluttershy waved after her. "Isn't she a real cutie?" she said. Rainbow just rolled her eyes and grinned.
Twilight Sparkle's face was alighted by the sunlight streaming in through the castle's window she was standing before. Behind her, the large throne room with its six thrones (and a small one) was partly shaded. Far down below, in the streets, was a crowd of hundreds of ponies. And they were all here because of her. She shuddered slightly.
Well, technically it was not only because of her. Her friends also deserved some... no... a lot of the attention and Twilight was more than happy to share it. Without them she would've never been able to become who she was now. Also, Rainbow Dash and Rarity rather enjoyed being somepony important, and she wouldn't want to take that away from them. Applejack and Fluttershy were a little more humble in that regard and Pinkie, well... she lived in an entirely different world where things like what someone else thought about you were of secondary importance.
Still, the mass of ponies was frightening. Two years ago, she would've never imagined standing here looking down upon them - literally and figuratively. Her wings, her crown, her castle, everything was so unbelievable.
She didn't even know what she was doing herself most of the time - and yet those ponies down there wanted her to speak for them, to give them advice, to lead them. She wasn't sure whether she was the right one for all that. It was funny, in a way, that not some weeks ago she was disappointed that her role as a princess didn't really amount to all that much and now that it did, she was suddenly afraid.
She needed to get herself together. She had faced much scarier things than the responsibilities she had now. It should've been obvious that risking your life against evil creatures such as Tirek or Sombra was harder than to rule some ponies who most of the time lived their own life anyway... but it wasn't. At the moment Twilight would've gladly fought some scary monster that suddenly attacked the crowd below her. She almost hoped one would conveniently show up.
So lost was she in her thoughts, that Twilight didn't realize someone had approached her from behind until that certain someone, annoyed that she still hadn't responded after calling out her name multiple times, poked her in the side with a sharp claw.
She let out a yelp resulting of equal parts pain and surprise. Spike, even though he had anticipated her reaction, still wasn't fast enough to avoid the flaring wing that slapped him in the face.
Groaning, he rubbed his nose and said, "Twilight, you know we talked about the daydreaming. This is getting kinda annoying."
Twilight, after calming down a moment, folded her wings back and giggled self-consciously. "Sorry about that Spike. I know that I can always count on you to snap me out of it, though. And sorry for hitting you."
"'s okay. I've been through worse." He rubbed his nose one more time. "Anyway, I wanted to ask if you've seen Rarity. She's supposed to be in the library by now, but I can't find her."
Frowning, Twilight levitated the sheets containing the schedule for today over. "She's not? She said she would go there immediately after she left here." Leafing through the documents, she exclaimed, "she should've been there over 10 minutes ago! What held her? She knows how I hate it when we're behind schedule like this."
Before Twilight could say more, Spike interrupted her. "It's not that bad, I've quickly enlisted Cheerilee's help. She's been to the library a few times before and knows the basics of its layout."
Twilight paused at that. "Ah Spike, what would I do without you? But could you still try to find Rarity? I'd like to know where..."
The rest of her sentence was interrupted by a loud bang and an explosion of color in the window behind her. Spinning around, Twilight's eyes widened. "Rainbow Dash?" Quickly scrolling through the sheets, she said, "but the Rainboom isn't due for another 20 minutes! Gah! Why can't ponies just follow a simple 50-page schedule for a single measly day?!" She stomped on the floor hard with one of her front hooves.
Sensing one of her typical outbursts drawing nearer, Spike quickly said, "come on, Twi, it isn't that bad. Who cares she did it too early? No one even knew when it was supposed to happen."
When instead of calming down, Twilight glared daggers at him, Spike realized that this might've been the wrong thing to say. "I mean, hehe..." he said weakly, "I think... ahem... I should go find Rarity now. See you later." And he dashed away.
Before Spike reached the huge double doors of the throne room, they opened up on their own. A blond tail became visible before the rest of Applejack appeared, dragging something through the doorway by a rope. That something turned out to be Pinkie Pie performing some kind of super-quick tap dance. The rope was tied around her midsection. She was grinning broadly. "Hi Twilight and Spike!" she said.
Raising one of her hooves to her head in order ward off a commencing headache, Twilight asked, "what's the trouble now?"
Spitting out the rope from her mouth Applejack said, "Pinkie's Pinkie sense is acting up a mighty bit. She says it's a doozy to rival the one you gave her back that one day at Froggy Bottom Bog."
"Yepperoni!" Pinkie confirmed. "If I'm right - and I'm usually right about these things, it is called Pinkie sense for a reason - then it's gonna happen very soon, and you're gonna be involved in it, Twilight! Again! Isn't that amazing?" She continued grinning, while her body continued spasming around randomly.
The alicorn groaned. "Amazing, yes. I can hardly wait for another disaster happening today." Turning around and frowning at Spike who was still watching Pinkie's strange version of a tap dance, she said, "Spike, I thought you were going to search for Rarity!"
Doing a small jump, Spike quickly saluted and ran out of the room.
"And about you Pinkie," Twilight continued, "is there any possible way to tone down your Pinkie sense until... tomorrow maybe? Or maybe at least until after the ceremony?"
The ceremony she was talking about was scheduled to take place later in the afternoon today. She and her friends had found out that when they held their hooves together near the center of the throne room, a rainbow would shoot out of the castle's peak, spreading friendship and joy all over Equestria. Well... technically she had no idea if it actually did that or was just a fancy light spectacle. But she knew that at least Cadence's tower in the Crystal empire did have some real effect, so it wasn't too far-fetched. In any case, the ceremony would consist of some greetings, festive speeches and finally this ritual, to round it up.
Pinkie gasped. "Twilight! Of course I can't do that!" She started waving her hooves around theatrically. "Why would you even suggest such a thing? I must honor the Pinkie sense lest it... consumes me!"
"Consumes you?" Twilight asked with a deadpan. "What does that even mean?"
Pinkie shrugged. "I don't know, I just said it because I couldn't think of anything else..."
Applejack glanced over at Twilight with worry, seeing as the pony's right eyelid had started twitching slightly. "You know," she said, "why don't we all go grab something to eat? I haven't eaten anything since morning! I could eat a whole cart full of apples right about now."
"Sorry Applejack, but we don't have time for that!" Twilight said, shaking her head. "We need to find Rarity, then we have to find a way to keep Pinkie from... being Pinkie and finally we need to finish up the throne room for the ceremony." She took a glance at the clock on one of the walls near her. "Which is in under two hours, by the way! Alright, I'm gonna go help Spike look for Rarity and you try to keep Pinkie under control for the moment." With that Twilight galloped out the door and slammed it shut.
"Wait, what-" began Applejack, but her friend was already gone. Frowning, she turned back to look at Pinkie, who had started doing somersaults in the air - without touching the ground. "How am I supposed to do that?"
About one and a half hour later, the throne room slowly began to fill. When the little filly arrived with her family, about two thirds of it was already bustling with ponies of all kinds. Only the space between the thrones itself was carefully closed off with ropes. There was also a walkway coming from the door that was obviously meant for ponies to reach the thrones without having to waltz through half the crowd first.
"Dad, can't we get a little closer to the middle?" asked the little filly. Her father looked at the ponies tightly surrounding them, then tried the difficult act of balancing on his rear hooves to look over the crowd.
"I'm sorry, but it seems like there's no space, sweetheart."
"But I can't see anything from here!" complained the filly.
Hesitating for a short moment, her father then grinned and proceeded to scoop her up in his hooves to place her on his back. "Better?" he asked.
"Way better!" From her vantage point the filly could now see almost the entire room except for some parts that were blocked by the huge thrones. The first thing that she became aware of was the huge chandelier hanging from the ceiling. Strands of lights hung down from it in various colors. The chandelier itself was made of brown wood interspersed with beautiful carvings. Below it in the space right between the seven thrones should have been a large map of Equestria, as the small filly knew, but for some reason it was absent. Instead one could see a round flat disk set into the floor bearing a big 8-pointed star.
"The ceremony should start very shortly," said her mother from her right side. Excited, the filly kept her attention trained on the thrones. When nothing happened after a minute or two, she became bored. Taking out her Twilight plushie, she again began to reenact the battle of her hero against the evil lord Tirek, this time professionally portrayed by the back of her father's head.
Shortly before coming to the part where Twilight defeated her adversary, something strange happened with the doll. At first she thought she had just imagined it, but after looking closer, she realized that it was no hallucination: the color of the plushie's eyes had changed. While before they were a simple featureless black, now the eyes were a dark yellow with powerful red pupils. Curious she tapped one of them with her hooves.
It blinked.
Shocked, she almost dropped the plushie. Suddenly its mouth began to move.
"That hurt, you know! Typical for little fillies, always poking around where they shouldn't." The voice emanating from it was deep and male, but also rough and somewhat snarky. "You look surprised, my dear. Never seen a plushie of Twilight talk? Let me tell you, the real version does a lot of talking as well, and most of it isn't even half as entertaining as what I'll be telling you." The plushie rolled its eyes. "It really wouldn't hurt her to lighten up a bit from time to time."
Her entire attention now directed at the plushie, the filly carefully positioned it directly in front of her. "Who are you?" she asked.
"Me? Oh, I am not important. No, it's you that is the interesting one here." It seemed like the strange eyes of the plushie had started to pry into her own, seeking hidden mysteries.
"Me, what's interesting about me?"
"Great question, little pony, great question indeed. I don't know, and that irks me to no end. But there is something special about you, and it also involves our favorite little purple alicorn."
"Do you mean Twilight?" the filly asked. "Do you know her?"
The plushie blinked once. "Know her? You see me insulted! I am counting her as one of my best friends!"
"Really? Twilight has a plushie as one of her best friends?"
The plushie started to grin. "Well, technically it's a doll. Her name is Smarty Pants."
"What?"
"Never mind." The strange yellow and red eyes started to glow. "Oh, there she comes now, punctual as usual. That's my cue to leave, little pony. One can't really see all that well with these beady eyes, and I don't want to miss the show. But I'm pretty sure we'll see each other again." Then, as quickly as they had changed the first time, the eyes reverted back to their original color, only to change again shortly thereafter. "Oh, I almost forgot," the plushie added, "Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!"
Before the filly could make any sense of the entire scene, she heard a commotion from the entrance to the room.
"Everypony! Please, can I have your attention!" said a voice. The filly looked towards the entrance and gasped. Standing in the door to the great throne room was Twilight Sparkle, newest member of the Equestrian royalty and - as far as the little filly was concerned - best princess in the world.
The princess waited for the crowd to fall silent, then she continued to speak, "Thank you. I'm sure you're all waiting impatiently for the Rainbow Power demonstration. Unfortunately, my friend Rarity, the element on generosity, is running a bit late, so we have to wait for a few more minutes. I hope you all understand..." She hesitated. "Uhm, please resume your previous activities," she then added, sheepishly rubbing one front leg on the other.
Immediately, the room was full of chatter again. A small shrug of relief washed over the princess's shoulders and she began to make her way over to the thrones. Behind her suddenly appeared more ponies. The filly recognized the other element bearers Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Applejack. The orange earth pony also dragged a bouncing and spasming Pinkie Pie after herself, using a short rope. While Applejack seemed rather irritated by this situation, Pinkie Pie seemed to enjoy it, as was apparent by the large smile spread over her face.
As the five ponies walked towards the middle of the room, the filly noticed that the smile on the princess's face was strained and her eyes darted nervously around the room, as if searching for something.
She could feel her father humming in his throat under her. "Princess Twilight seems a bit riled up. Wonder why that is? Must be because her friend is running late," he said.
The filly furrowed her brow. The princess was unhappy? That wasn't okay at all! Princesses were supposed to be happy at all times!
Before she could think on how to possibly remedy this unacceptable scenario, another figure appeared in the doorway and rushed towards the thrones. It was a small purple dragon and the filly gasped again as she recognized him. He quickly ran over to the princess on his small legs. He then said something to her, which seemingly irritated her even more. She started doing a strange motion with her right foreleg, which she put on her chest and then slowly exhaled, moving the leg away from her.
The filly frowned even more. It was obvious the princess was not happy at all and this simply wouldn't do. She thought for a moment and then made up her mind. She would go to the princess and tell her what a nice day it was and that she shouldn't be angry. Yes, that was a great plan.
Mind made up, she set about to put her plan into motion. Looking to the side, the filly judged the distance from her father's back to the floor. Deciding it was just low enough to jump, she quickly found a hole in the sea of ponies around her and hopped down. As she made her way through the thicket of legs, she heard her father exclaim her name behind her, asking her to come back. She didn't listen, though. She had a mission and she was gonna see it through!
Emerging into the free space that was the aisle that led to the door, the filly looked towards the thrones. Her target was standing near one of them, discussing something with another pony the filly didn't recognize. When she made her way over, the princess's wings flared out suddenly. The filly could tell that she was agitated. It was definitely necessary to quickly change that, she thought and nodded to herself. She was gonna tell her how great she was and how great her friends were and the castle and everything! Then she would immediately stop being angry.
Happily walking over to her idol, the filly didn't waste any time and simply poked her three times directly on her cutie mark, just reaching high enough. A tremor went through the princess's body. Suddenly, before the filly could even process it, she turned around and let loose a loud scream of frustration.
"WHAT IS IT NOW?"
Twilight's shout reverberated through the room as everypony fell silent at once. Still sneering, Twilight suddenly realized who was standing in front of her. A little filly, small enough to not even have her cutie mark yet, trembling just inches from her face. There were tears in the corner of her eyes and her ears were pinned all the way back to her skull, almost disappearing behind the short blue mane.
Ice-cold shock washed away the anger Twilight felt until just a moment ago. She opened her mouth and her eyes went wide. Stumbling, she slumped back onto her haunches.
Her mind was racing. Now she'd done it. She had ruined everything. Probably scarred the poor filly for life. She was probably just an excitable little one coming to see her heroes. She would run away any second, back to her mother or father, never wanting to have anything to do again with the scary princess. And she was probably right. What were all the other ponies in the room thinking? Twilight could already hear the angry shouts that were only a moment away. How could she have ever thought she would be good enough to be their princess?
The seconds ticked away, while the entire room including Twilight was still frozen. Suddenly the filly in front of her struggled to say something. "I... I..." was all that came out before she closed her mouth again. Then, slowly her features relaxed. Determination replaced fear and without any more hesitation, the filly leapt forward and hugged Twilight fiercely.
The princess herself was still dumbstruck. Slowly her mind came around the fact that not only had the little filly not run away screaming, but was actually hugging her. The heartwarming gesture was enough to make her overcome her shock and in the next moment she felt the entire day's pressure bursting out all at once. She softly put her front legs around the small form.
"I'm so sorry, little one!" Twilight exclaimed and sniffed silently. "I... I... kinda had a really hard day and my friends are pushing my patience today and a lot of things have gone wrong and... and... that's still no excuse in any way to scream at you. Can you forgive me?" She was not only talking to the filly, but also all the other ponies standing around them. She held the embrace for a while longer and then pulled back. There was a big grin on the small face in front of her.
"No problem, princess," the filly said, still grinning. "I also sometimes get really angry at my friends back home and scream at them. We usually make up really quickly afterwards."
Twilight smiled and let out a small hiccup. "You must be really good friends, then, hu? Definitely good enough to give the princess of friendship a run for her money."
The filly frowned. "Huh? But I don't want your money. And why would...?"
Before she could finish her sentence however, her father suddenly ran up to them from between the crowd, calling her name. She turned and smiled at him. "Look, daddy! It's the princess! I made her stop worrying!"
Twilight chuckled softly. "That you did." She turned towards the elder stallion, who had paused in bewilderment at the words of his daughter. A mare appeared next to him. "I'm terribly sorry about my outburst, Sir, Ma'am. Please let me make it up to all three of you by inviting you to a cup of tea after the ceremony in my private quarters."
Before any of the two parents could answer, a white unicorn burst in through the door in a quick gallop. She came to a halt just shortly in front of the four ponies. Her breathing was quick and her mane was hanging just slightly out of place over one of her eyes. Quickly correcting it with a hoof, Rarity took another deep breath before saying, "Oh heavens Twilight, I'm so, so sorry. I talked up this wonderful stallion just outside the library and then lost track of time and..." She noticed the poor state her friend was in and broke off. "Whatever is the matter, Twilight? You look awful."
Twilight smiled and looked back to the filly. "Don't worry, Rarity. I've just been reminded that even as princess, there is always more to learn about the magic of friendship. And it might just come from the most unexpected of places."
After explaining the situation to a relieved Rarity and making sure the filly's parents agreed to her offer for tea, Twilight finally gathered her friends in the middle of the thrones. The small family was given a special spot next to Fluttershy's throne on one side.
Standing amidst her best friends and smiling broadly, Twilight addressed the crowd in front of her. She had prepared this speech days in advance, of course, and went through it with no major hiccups. When she reached the end, though, she hesitated. Making up her mind, she said, "friendship isn't always easy. I will be the first to admit that. Harmony is not to agree on every little thing. Rather, friends will sometimes clash. Because of different opinions, approaches or mindsets. But this is not a bad thing at all, as long as we let our friends - old and new - remind us why we still love them despite this. Today, I needed to be reminded of this lesson. Fortunately one special little filly was here to do that for me."
Twilight smiled in the direction of where the family stood. "I am not ashamed to say that she realized what for a moment I lost sight of. That it is a wondrous thing that six ponies like me and my friends, ponies from walks of life that probably couldn't be any more different, ponies from three different species, can still form a bond powerful enough to overcome any problems that they encounter." Gaining the attention of her friends, Twilight motioned quietly towards the middle of the star on the floor. "And when six ponies such as these work together and embrace their friendship, they can achieve truly wondrous things."
The six of them each raised a forehoof up, which Pinkie - still flopping and jumping around - had some difficulties with, and then touched them together. In that moment a brilliant rainbow shot forth between them, rising quickly and steadily up towards the roof. Shortly afterwards, colorful stripes of light hanging in the sky outside could be seen trough the windows. The crowd ohh'd and ahh'd and then started stomping their hooves on the floor in a thunder of sound.
All eyes except Twilight's were directed towards the spectacle of light above their heads. She, instead, was still watching the filly, who was looking up mesmerized by the light show. Hence it was only her who noticed the flashes of light appearing on the filly's flanks right in the moment the rainbow started to rise over Ponyville.
And then finally, Pinkie's legs stopped twitching.
Author's Note
Because friendship (and love) are truly the best things we do.
