The solve-it-all machine

“Sweetie Belle! Sweetie Belle!”

Scootaloo’s shouting startled both Rarity and Applejack as the little orange filly passed between them both.

“Hey Scoot!” replied Sweetie Belle, happy to see one of her friends who she would be able to show her “creations” to. “Look what I’ve made…”

“No time!” Scootaloo interrupted her. “You’ve got to come with me. Applebloom just made a lot of money and she promised she would offer us all the candies we wanted if we join her right now at sugarcube corner.”

Those words made their way to Applejack’s ears who added two plus two as her face passed from her normal orange to a white rivaling Rarity’s.

“Wait… what?” she asked, grabbing Scootaloo in panic. “Where did she find the money? Who did she sell?”

Scootaloo had no idea where the money had appeared from, of course, so Applejack rushed outside to Sugarcube corner to evaluate the damages, hoping she would be able to save something.

Given what she had seen in Rarity’s boutique, her hopes weren’t very high…

“Hey, hello big sis’ !” happily greeted her Applebloom, her mouth full of candies and pastries.

Less than a second later, the little filly was caught in the panicked hooves of Applejack who, with a very concerned face, asked her:

“Tell me what happened! What did you do? How much is left? Why didn’t Granny Smith and Big Mac stop you?”

“That’s because we like candy too.” replied Granny Smith from her table, biting at a piece of nougat. “You should take example on your elders and try one of those. It’s delicious.”

Surprised, lost even, Applejack looked at Granny Smith, whose attention was back on her piece of nougat, then at Applebloom whose look was clearly asking if she had done something wrong and how sorry she was if it was the case.

Finally, Applejack looked at Big Mac, who had just finished a candy cane in one lick. Maybe her big brother would be able to help her understand if she had gone crazy, or if everything was really alright for some reason… She really hoped everything was alright after all. She wanted him to tell her just that.

“Yup.” Big Mac reassured her.

“I don’t understand.” Applejack said, having some real difficulties to find out how her little sister could have made a lot of money without selling something ridiculous.

“You should also take example on Applebloom there.” Granny Smith said. “She is a little genius you know.”

Applejack turned back to the latter for an explanation.

“It’s completely stupid actually.” Applebloom began. “I wanted to sell apples and I had bumped into mister Rich and I asked him if he wanted some apples and he told me one of his friends maybe would, so I contacted that friend and he wanted apples but I realized I had none to sell so I decided I would take the money now and sell the apples later but he didn’t want to do it that way but really wanted the apples so I sold him the promise I would come back with apples to sell at the price he wanted…”

“What?” asked Applejack.

It was a bit complicated, and have it explained by a little filly didn’t make it any easier. But she slowly figured out from all that mess and a few more questions that Applebloom had promised to sell more apples than the whole orchard was able to produce at a lower price than usual.

“Oh no!” panicked Applejack. “It’s worse than I thought.”

Granny Smith put a muffin in the mare’s mouth to let Applebloom continue the rest of her story without interruption.

“I asked Granny Smith how many apples we had to sell and because we didn’t have enough, I thought of asking cousin Apple Top. I telegraphed her and they had a lot of apples to sell for the price that mister Rich’s friend wanted and they were really eager to make sure they would have the deal so they offered me money to buy the right to sell those apples.”

“Wait.” said Applejack. “So mister Rich’s friend is going to buy apples from cousin Apple Top, you won’t sell anything to anypony but you earned money anyway?”

“I told you it’s completely stupid!” Applebloom defended herself.

Applejack had no opinion on the matter. Or more precisely, she didn’t care as much about it than about the fact everything had turned alright in the end against all odd. Also, all that stuff was way too complicated and silly for her.

For once, she was feeling more like Rainbow Dash, wanting things to be easy to do and simple to understand.

“Hey Applebloom. Hello Applejack.” said the blue pegasus as she entered the candy shop. “Say… did you see Scootaloo by any chance?”

“Yes.” replied both sisters. “She should be on her way here with Sweetie Belle.”

“Oh. Okay. Right. Well… hum… tell her I said hello, okay?”

And having said those words, Rainbow Dash escaped the shop. Intrigued, Applejack followed her and quickly caught up with the pegasus.

“Hey, wait just a second.” she told her. “What is going on? Won’t you stay to wait for Scootaloo to arrive?”

“No. It’s okay…” lied Rainbow Dash. “I just wanted to… ask. You know, just to keep in touch, not get out of the loop, always be informed, on top of the game, stuff like that…”

She was trying to look convincing but was failing so greatly that Applejack understood her friend didn’t want to discuss the matter right now. She just replied:

“Of course. By the way, you know I would be there if you needed to discuss about, well,  information and Scootaloo and stuff like that, alright?”

Rainbow Dash smiled. She knew she could depend on Applejack. Still, for the moment, she just wanted to be alone for a bit, so she nodded in agreement and then went away.

The truth was that the usually brash pegasus was feeling sort of shaken by what had happened in the basement after her little experiment. The fact she had to deal with was that she had used the magical dust to benefit herself and had really completely forgotten about Scootaloo. The question was: did she really care about Scootaloo then?

Of course she did care about the little filly! But she still had decided to put herself before her. And now she was feeling guilty.

Also, even if Twilight had forbidden using the machine anymore, she still had a bit of the magical dust left from the experiment. She had thought of giving it to Scootaloo to make everything okay, but she was feeling like it would have been wrong too. Without being conscious of the fact, she was realizing subconsciously that the problem wasn’t how wrong she might have been toward the little filly, but how selfish her behavior had been.

She spent a lot of time aimlessly wandering around until she heard a stallion's voice shout in the distance:

“I’m telling you I don’t want to Manehattan! I hate big cities.”

“But it’s my dream to go there. Why can’t you understand I have certain needs?” replied another angry voice, one that Rainbow Dash actually knew.

It was one of her colleagues from the weather team. Rainbow Dash came closer and saw the couple angrily arguing with each on the outside of a restaurant.

“Well, maybe you should go alone then! After all, you don’t need me, right?” was saying the stallion.

“I knew it! You never loved me! You only went out with me to come closer to my sister. Admit it!” was replying the mare.

It was pretty clear for Rainbow Dash that those two were about to break up, which was surprising given how many times that particular mare had been speaking about the stallion of her life and how happy they were together.

“You’re being ridiculous!” said the stallion. “I don’t want to talk about such nonsense anymore. I’m going to the bathroom.”

And he left.

Unsure, but following her instinct, Rainbow Dash approached the mare and asked if everything was okay.

“I wish it were.” the mare replied. “But he is about to leave me. I don’t know what to do anymore. I guess I’m just not beautiful enough for him...”

She began crying after those last words, which made a little voice inside of Rainbow Dash’s mind shout: “You’ve got to do something. Do something. Now!”.

Rainbow Dash felt the little bag with the magical dust that was left, but first thought she should keep it in case somepony else would need it. But the little voice shouted a bit louder and she understood she had to stop being selfish and just help.

“Here.” she told the mare. “Use this. It will solve your problem.”

“What is it?” asked the mare.

“Some magical dust from a machine that Twilight is studying. I’m not really sure. Just use it, it is supposed to be able to solve all the problems.”

The mare accepted, took the dust and went in the direction of the bathroom.

Some time passed and Rainbow Dash thought of just going away, but she of course stayed, as she wanted to know if the dust was going to work once more.

And then she saw the couple come back and knew by the smile on the mare’s face that the dust had made its magic work.

“It’s unbelievable!” the mare said. “It’s a miracle.”

Rainbow Dash looked at the stallion who seemed to have simmered down all of a sudden. Still, the change wasn’t that big.

The mare saw the doubt in Rainbow Dash’s eyes and decided to show her.

“Tell me dear…” she asked the stallion. “What do you think about going to Manehattan this weekend?”

“I would love to go there. The city is so huge and full of interesting people.” the stallion replied with a big smile and a strange accent of joy in his voice.

“I’m so happy you agree with my nonsense.” continued the mare.

“What nonsense?” replied the stallion. “You know that you’re always right. In fact, I don’t know what I would do without you to correct me. I’m so lucky to be with you. I love you.”

The kissed and Rainbow Dash, happy to see such a brilliant success, discretely flew away.

It was incredible! The pegasus was feeling so light all of a sudden, so full of life, so full of hope and so proud of herself. She looked around and saw all those houses with ponies inside.

Ponies with problems.

Ponies with problems that she, Rainbow Dash, could help to solve.

Knowing what she had to do now, the pegasus turned and headed to Twilight’s castle, not knowing she the others were already there…