My Little Pony: A Stitch in Time

Chapter 1

Twilight woke up with a groan. As she opened her eyes, she once again had to take a minute to realize this was her old tree home but rather her new castle. Everything here was much larger, including her bed. Then again, this was what it was like to be a princess, or so they say.

The one thing she had loved about her old home was that everything was easily accessible. Here, not so much. It took her ten minutes to find the kitchen the first time. The other thing was that because the castle was so large it was so… quiet. She had felt the same way about the Castle of the Two Sisters but… here it was also empty.

Twilight yawned slightly as she went into the throne room and sat down in her chair. It was too bad the others weren’t here; it would be at least nice to talk to them. Soon her thoughts turned to the dream she had.

It was the third night in the row that this dream occurred and still she had no idea what it was about. Was it a premonition of something to come? Maybe because she had recently dealt with Tirek that she was feeling paranoid about something.

Unfortunately, the thought of it brought her to something else. It had been about two weeks since defeating Tirek and the memories of then still went through her mind. She didn’t think about it much the first couple days but soon it came to her: What had happened to her that day?

Was it the fact that her home had just been destroyed, one that she had had for over three years? All she could remember she was pretty enraged and not so willing then to hold back the power she possessed. That was the other thing: with all that power she could practically have done anything. If Tirek hadn’t matched her in power, who knows what could have happened to him?

“There’s no point worrying about it… you’ve already worried about it for the past week,” she thought as she turned the wrong corner and ended up in the ballroom. “Ugh, why can’t I figure this place out yet!?” she snapped at nopony in particular. She then sighed and retraced her steps and went the other direction.

It only took another two minutes before she found the throne room. It was there she found Spike eating a bowl of cereal at his seat. Now there was a sight to see. “Good morning Twilight,” Spike said cheerfully with a spoonful in his mouth. He swallowed. “I thought you were never going to get up so I almost brought you breakfast in bed.”

Twilight smiled slightly. No matter what, Spike always found a way to cheer her up and was lucky to have him as a friend. “That’s sweet of you, Spike. Sorry, had a little trouble getting to sleep last night.”

Spike’s smile turned to a frown. “You know that’s the third night in a row…”

“I know,” Twilight said as she flew over to her throne. “I’m still adjusting that’s all…”

“It’s the castle isn’t it?”

“Mm… I guess so. It’s just so… different than what I thought it would be. It’s also kind of quiet as well. I can’t even tell where Owlowicious half the time.”

“Well you know, we can always hire some maids and servants,” Spike said hopefully.

“Spike, we are not hiring maids and servants,” Twilight said sternly. “If Princess Celestia can find staff for the castle that’s fine but I’m not going to bug her about it.”

“Fine, fine,” Spike said, rolling his eyes. “So what’s on the agenda today?”

“Uh…” Rarely has Twilight found herself at a loss. In her old home, there was always plenty to do and Spike had his own list of things, including dusting the bookshelves or cleaning the windows. But the library she had now was mostly empty since most of her books were destroyed. And considering how large the castle was, she was more lenient on giving Spike more time to clean everything. “How about the bookshelves?”

“Not even a speck.”

“Windows?”

“So clean you can see Rainbow Dash’s house from here.”

“Kitchen?”

“Spotless.”

“Hmm…” Twilight thought for a moment. “Well, considering how busy we’ve been, I suppose we could try to do something fun. We can go see what the other girls are up to.”

“Sure, and you can make your weekly round of the town,” Spike said proudly. “After all, you have to keep up appearances.”

Twilight giggled and finally her dark thoughts were put behind her. “Yes, you’re right about that. Let’s just hope we can leave the grounds in one piece.”

She had been partially joking about her castle being surrounded. For almost a week entirely, everypony in town wanted to see the new castle. Twilight would always miss her old home but at least the castle resembled it slightly. “I guess we’re in the clear for now,” Twilight said as the doors opened. That would probably change when the Royal Guard started to guard the castle. Twilight certainly wasn’t in any hurry to obtain staff, because she knew once they did come, the castle would become much livelier.

And then her princess duties would truly begin. Princess of Magic and Friendship she may be, she would still have to fill out documents and attend meetings with other Equestrian leaders. And the parties… well, at least now she and the others could attend the Royal Gala freely. Then again, the last time they were there things didn’t end too well.

They finally reached Rarity’s boutique and went inside as the bell jingled on the door. “Hello Rarity,” she said. She saw the purple-maned mare in front of her but she appeared to not have heard her. “Uh… Rarity?”

“Shh,” Spike said. “She’s in her thinking mode.” Twilight rolled her eyes. Of course he would know that.

But indeed Rarity did seem distracted by the dress she currently had displayed. “Hmm… no that can’t be right, I know I did the measurements right but something’s missing…” she said quietly. “A little extra color…? No. The material seems okay but why can’t…. UGH!” She groaned. “Curse my lack of inspiration today!” She then turned around. “Oh! Twilight darling, so terribly sorry, I didn’t hear you come in.”

“You didn’t hear me open the door?” Twilight asked.

Rarity sighed. “Sorry again; I was hoping to come up with something spectacular for the upcoming fall season but sadly I have nothing. It had been a lackluster couple of weeks.”

“I know what you mean,” Twilight said. “Well, I thought maybe if you weren’t too busy we and the other girls could go do something?”

“Hmm, like a picnic?” Rarity asked. “Yes, that does sound splendid and believe me, I’ll do anything to get out of here for a few hours at least.”

“Okay then,” Twilight replied. “You can go get Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie and we’ll go get Rainbow Dash and Applejack.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Rarity said as she got a piece of parchment and quill. “I do need to do some shopping on the way too…”

As it turned out, it didn’t take too long to find Rainbow Dash. As Twilight and Spike were making their way through town they could’ve sworn they heard a loud groan up above. They looked up and there was a cyan-colored mare with her head in a cloud, quite literally.

“Uh… Rainbow Dash?” Twilight asked.

“Yeah…?” Her reply was muffled in the cloud. She didn’t even look up.

“You uh… okay up there?”

“No…”

“Er… want to talk about it?”

That got a reaction out of her. She pulled her head up and almost got in Twilight’s face. “So here I am, getting notified about possibly getting an assignment, as a Wonderbolt mind you, and what happens instead!? Freaking Thunderlane gets the assignment! Thunderlane!”

“O…kay?” Twilight said.

“It most certainly isn’t! I had my hopes set on this, to prove myself to Spitfire and the others!”

“What was the assignment exactly?”

“No idea, but that’s not important.” Dash then sighed. “Oh well, maybe it wasn’t anything important, how should I know?”

“Uh, what exactly is her issue with Thunderlane again?” Spike whispered.

“Well, since you’re not busy, maybe you wanted to go on a picnic with me and the other girls?” Twilight asked.

Rainbow Dash seemed to have calmed down and returned to her cloud, sitting in it lazily. “Not sure, I’ll have to look at my schedule… but I may be interested.” Yep, she was back to her old Dash self.

“I’ll take that as a yes then,” Twilight replied. “Well, I’m heading off to Applejack’s so-”

“Wait!” Dash said, zooming next to her. “I’ll come with ya, I have to go over there anyway.”

As they approached Sweet Apple Acres, they could two mares yelling in the distance, which sounded like regular conversation up close. “Sis, yer bein’ ridiculous! I thought we agreed I can handle myself on my own!”

“I’m not saying ya can’t but fixing up the treehouse by yerself is a big task, especially by yerself!”

“Yer just sayin’ that cause you don’t trust me with the staple gun!”

“Yer darn right I don’t trust ya with that staple gun!” As they guessed, they saw that the two arguing were Applejack and her sister Apple Bloom.

“Well fine, yer so good at it, you fix the treehouse!” Apple Bloom then stormed off back towards the house.

Applejack sighed and then she noticed the trio behind her. “Oh uh… ya saw all that didn’t ya?”

“Part of it,” Dash said. “Makes me glad I don’t have any younger siblings.”

“What about Scootaloo?” Applejack countered.

“What about her? We’re always cool,” Dash said with a smile.

“Is this a bad time?” Twilight asked.

“Nah, nah, already got my morning chores done. I just happened to see Apple Bloom dragging out this big box of tools and of course that always spells trouble,” Applejack said. “Anyway, what can I do for you?”

“Got any free time?” Twilight said.

“Hmm… I reckon I do,” Applejack replied. “Just give me a few minutes and I’ll be ready to do whatever.”

“Actually…” Dash said. “Before you go, did you get it ready?”

“I did,” Applejack said. “You got my payment?”

“Right here,” Dash said as she tossed Applejack a small bag of bits.

“Nice doing business with ya,” Applejack said cheerfully.

“Okay, what’s going on?” Twilight asked suspiciously.

Applejack chuckled. “Zap Apple season just started and Rainbow Dash here wanted to make sure she got first dibs on some jam.”

“Why Princess, that’s not illegal is it?” Dash grinned.

Twilight just rolled her eyes. They never were going to let it go, were they?

“Ah, what a lovely day to spend a picnic by the lake,” Rarity said as she was tanning herself on a beach chair.

“CANNONBALL!” Pinkie Pie decided now was the time to take a dip into the lake and this ended up with a drenched-looking Rarity.

“Well, at least it was…” she muttered.

“I think it’s nice we finally have some time to spend together,” Fluttershy said as she was eating a cucumber sandwich. “It’s been really hectic at the cottage, not to mention I’ve been spending a lot of time with Discord.”

“What fer exactly?” Applejack asked.

“Oh, he’s been feeling really bad about what happened before, even though I assured him that I forgave him already,” Fluttershy replied.

“Serves him right,” Dash said. “He can’t be forgiven that easily for what he did.”

“Come on Rainbow Dash, we’re all friends now,” Twilight said. “Besides, if I can forgive him, I’m certain you can.”

“Speaking of which,” Rarity said as she dried herself off. “Have you heard anything from Princess Celestia recently?”

Twilight shook her head. “It feels like it’s gone back to what it was before Tirek showed up. It’s been pretty quiet at home too.” She then looked at everypony and said, “But don’t get me wrong, none of you should feel inclined to move in or anything.”

“Not at all,” Applejack said. “In fact, I think it’s more convenient that we stay where we are. I mean, I still gotta help tend the farm, Rarity’s got to do her dresses, Fluttershy’s gotta keep an eye out for her critters-”

“And I have to keep up with overwhelming demands for pastries at Sugarcube Corner!” Pinkie Pie said as she bounced out of the lake. “By the way Twilight, did you get our delivery?”

“Pinkie Pie, when you said twenty boxes of assortments, I thought you were exaggerating,” Twilight said.

Pinkie gasped. “Twilight, there’s many things I do but I never exaggerate.”

“Gee willickers…” Applejack muttered.

“I didn’t mind them at all,” Spike said. “I already took care of five of them for you Twilight.”

“You what!?” Twilight snapped.

The other girls started laughing. It was times like this that they savored the most, even when they knew it wouldn’t last long.

All of a sudden, Spike’s demeanor changed. “Ugh, I don’t think that’s indigestion I feel…” He then burped out green flames and in those flames appeared a letter.

“A letter from the Princess?” Rarity asked.

“Go ahead and read it Twilight,” Applejack said. And read it she did.

Dear Twilight,

I apologize if my absence has left you unsure of what to do but the matter I’ve been dealing with can no longer be held secret and I need your help. If you can, please come to Canterlot as quickly as you can.

Sincerely,

Princess Celestia

P.S. I think it may also be beneficial if your friends come along as well.

“It sounds really important,” Fluttershy said.

“Yes,” Twilight said, sighing. “Sorry girls, sounds like duty calls again.”

“Are you kidding?” Dash said. “It’s always fun when danger’s involved!”