Wonders

I woke up the next day with a bunny on my face. It was an angry bunny, I had been introduced to it yesterday, I could not remember its name but I remembered that it was an extreme misnomer.

The bunny tapped its foot on by forehead.

I got up, throwing the bunny to the floor in the process. It made angry yapping noises, then went downstairs.

I followed from a safe distance, and found the shy pony waiting for me near the door. She looked nervous.

“My friends want us to meet them at sweet apple acres” she said quickly “Granny Smith has invited the whole town to help with the harvest, there will be free cider for all who participate, it will be a wonderful display of harmony in Ponyville.”

She sounded like she was reading a script. But it didn’t really matter. Rehearsed or not, this would gather all of the ponies in one place, and I wouldn’t need to hear or see them act disharmoniously, I could sense their emotions.

The foolish pony was right; this would be a wonderful opportunity.

A few minutes later we were walking down the road towards the apple farm, there were lots of ponies from the town on their way there as well, and they smiled and said hello as we walked.

When we neared the farm I could see scores of ponies working, some knocked the apples of the tree, others carted the apples off to the cider makers or storage, and still others made the cider. I followed the shy pony as she walked up to the rude orange pony and her green grandmother.

“Howdy y’all!” said the old one “I hope yer ready for a good ol fashioned applebuck!”

I wasn’t about to let them stick to the script.

“Do you do this every year?” I asked quickly

“Nope!” said the green pony “Twilight’s magical showdown with Tirek had some weird side effects! All the apples just keep regrow’in on the trees as soon as we pick em!”

I could see that she was right, the apples just kept growing. I wondered if the old pony or her loud grandkid understood the supply and demand issues that this might cause them.

The loud pony in question was trying to get back to the script.

“Gee granny, look at how well everypony is work’in together!” she said, somewhat haltingly “everypony’s hav’in a good time!”

Scripted or not she appeared to be right, all of the ponies seemed happy, and I couldn’t sense any disharmony at all. Even when one of the storage barrels accidently fell on a red Pegasus mare, she was not angry, and the storage ponies were very apologetic.

“Yep, said the orange pony, looks like everyth’ins go’in fine!”

It was the way she said it that tipped me off, she practically shouted the sentence, and she was looking at the trees on the west end of the farm expectantly.

And there, as if on cue (which they probably were), was a pack of Timberwolves.

They ran out of the western trees, howling. The ponies on the farm immediately began running about and screaming, but I could sense no fear from them, it was all an act.

The white unicorn from the day before pretended to trip, and then began to wail as the fake Timberwolves neared her.

Predictably, the orange pony beside me sprang to her rescue, and other ponies across the farm followed suit, soon the Timberwolves were routed, and the ponies were cheering.

“Wow, did you see that? Said the shy pony beside me, we hadn’t moved at all. “Applejack and the others were so brave and selfless.”

She sounded uncertain, and I remembered Celestia telling me that that orange pony represented the spirit of honesty, ironic, under the circumstances.

And for some strange reason, I found that really funny. I began to laugh aloud, immediately I was the center of attention, every pony on the farm looked at me uncomfortably. I decided to call them on their trickery.

“Oh well done!” I laughed “such realistic looking Timberwolves! Were those the princess’ doing? I see she is missing.” I became suddenly serious “do you really think that I am a fool princess? Come out and answer me!”

As expected, the princess walked out of the trees to the west, followed by the pink one and a Zebra, all of them looked sheepish.

“You waste my time princess.” I said coldly “and you waste the time of all of these ponies, crying wolf.”

The princess stopped looking at me, and instead began looking over my shoulder; I noticed that many of the ponies were doing the same. I turned, and saw a cloud of drakes flying towards us.

That was just insulting.

“Really princess? Your first plan failed just a few minutes ago and already you are trying again?”

But the princess was not listening to me, she was shouting at everypony to stay calm, it was almost convincing. The drakes arrived, miniature dragons the size of ponies, they began setting fire to the trees.

They were really running with this one.

I noticed that the ponies around me were radiating legitimate fear, perhaps they had not been informed of the trick? To make it more authentic? The drakes began attacking the ponies, and once again there were fake acts of heroism. I saw ponies in the north; they would never put others before themselves. This was just another trick, a backup plan, in case the Timberwolves failed, which they did.

Some of the ponies were injured; red liquid flowed from some of them. Surely the princess would not go this far?

I saw the princess fall down with a drake clawing her wings, and then I felt pain in my leg, I looked down, and saw a drake frozen by my silver blood. I decided that trickery or not, it had gotten out of control.

I froze the drakes, and found that the ponies around me were radiating enough disharmony for me to keep them frozen as order returned to the farm.

I waited at the farm until a group of royal guards came to transport the drakes to a holding cell on the west coast. Then I went back to the cottage with the shy pony and fell asleep, the energy expenditure had exhausted me. I was woken in the middle of the night by the sound of hooves thumping up the stairs, I sat up and watched the purple princess and her affiliates file into the room.

“We came to apologise, and ask that you spare the rest of the townsponies, they were only following us, it was our fault.”

I was tired and annoyed “apology accepted, goodnight.”

The princess looked up as I settled down and closed my eyes.

“Aren’t you going to freeze us?”

“No, I'm going to sleep.”

“But we caused a disaster!”

“The effects of the attack have been taken into consideration for the inspection, and I would hardly say it was your fault.”

“Some ponies said they had thought the dragons were just another fake attack.”

“Well then it is partly your fault” I said, tiredly “what would you like me to do about it?”

A new pony spoke up, the white unicorn “we deceived you, is that not disharmonic”

I snorted “your act fooled no one, all of the harmony and disharmony that came to light today shall be taken into consideration, I may be back to freeze you later, but not now.”

The ponies spoke quietly to each other, then left. The shy pony was the last to leave, as she stepped out the door she whispered “thank you”

Thank you for what? Thank you for freezing the drakes? For not freezing the ponies?

I hope the town to the south is more disharmonic, I am losing much more power than I had expected.