Chapters When everything fails: use magic
“Alright.” Pinkie Pie told the three fillies. “I need to go grab something. While I’m gone, you decide what cutie mark you want.”
“For real?” the fillies asked back.
“Sure for real.” Pinkie replied with a huge smile. “All you’ve got to do is choose the cutie mark you want to have, and paint it on your flank. I’ll take care of the rest.”
“It doesn’t make any sense…” noticed Sweetie Belle. “You can’t make a cutie mark appear just by painting it.”
“Oh but I can!” assured her Pinkie Pie. “You’ll see. I’ve got the powder that solves everything!”
And having said those words, she disappeared through the chimney, fell off the tree and escaped hopping away in a joyous fashion to hide how worried she was feeling about her decision.
All alone, the cutie mark crusaders looked at each other.
“What do you think?” asked Scootaloo. “She has finally become completely insane or what?”
Applebloom didn’t respond but went to a corner of the clubhouse where they would stock their paint and brushes. Sweetie Belle quickly followed her.
Scootaloo sighed, looked at her hooves and realized she shouldn’t worry if Pinkie Pie was crazy or not. There was a chance that everything would be fine in the end and it was worth risking it. All she had to do was to think of the coolest cutie mark ever.
The most awesome, coolest, extraordinary cutie mark Equestria would ever know…
When Pinkie Pie had come back, she saw that Applebloom had painted an apple on her flank. Sweetie Belle had carefully painted three diamonds on hers, three blue diamond shaped, well... diamonds. As for Scootaloo, she had, of course, painted a tyrannosaurus in front of an erupting volcano all surrounded by a huge explosion. And each of the fillies was smiling.
The sighed pleased Pinkie so much that she didn’t resist hugging them.
“So, who do we sell our souls to?” asked Scootaloo, who had come to that conclusion after having remembered some of the ghost stories Rainbow Dash had told her.
“No need for that yet.” Pinkie replied. “All you need is this!”
And she showed them a bag full that she opened and which content she immediately poured onto them, surrounding them of a million sparkles as the magical dust was affecting them. Soon though, every particle of the dust had disappeared, leaving the three fillies in the same state as before, with their badly drawn and ridiculous fake cutie mark on their flanks.
Watching the result, they all sighed and, deep down, almost felt sort of betrayed.
But Pinkie Pie seemed highly satisfied with the outcome and assured the fillies they should go out and show their new cutie marks to everypony.
“But we don’t have any cutie marks.” tried to reason Applebloom.
“Sure you have them now.” Pinkie replied.
“No we don’t.” carefully but directly explained Sweetie Belle, in her own child way.
Understanding the fillies were still reluctant to believe her, Pinkie Pie grabbed them and, before they could say “what is happening?”, had dragged them to the center of Ponyville, in front of the town hall, in the middle of all the ponies, foals and fillies that could now see them and their fake drawing.
Instinctively, the fillies tried to hide their faces, but to their surprise, they heard:
“Scootaloo? Applebloom? Sweetie Belle? You’ve gotten your cutie marks?”
They looked and saw Twist, looking at them with wonder. Near her was Pipsqueak, who also gasped in excitement:
“Wow girls! How did you do that? Everypony said it was impossible.”
As more fillies and foals were coming as the word was spreading that the cutie mark crusaders had, against all odds, gotten their cutie marks, the three fillies began to accept that whatever Pinkie Pie had done had worked.
The best part was when Diamond Tiara, incapable of believing it, came to see with her own.
“I’m sure they cheated once again!” the little bully said. “It’s probably fake. It must be fake.”
She went close, looked at the bad drawing on the fillies’ flanks and backed away a bit, as she was realizing those were true cutie marks.
“So, what do you say? Have we cheated once again?” Applebloom asked with half a grin, and half a very genuine look and tone, as she was considering Diamond Tiara as the final possible test.
But Diamond never replied. She ran away in tears, as what she had said was impossible had actually happened and as, deep down, she was feeling, against her own will and every single principle she had, that those cutie marks were not only genuine, but way cooler that her own.
As for Rarity, Applejack and Rainbow Dash, they immediately decided to throw a huge party, probably the best cutie mark celebration ever to have been ever, which was exactly Pinkie Pie’s wish anyway.
The only one who stayed skeptical was Twilight, who still had to admit she had been wrong, even if all she had said was that she couldn’t find any proof that dismissed the book’s theory, at least up to those three fillies’ sudden cutie mark apparition. Nonetheless, she decided, would it only be to gather more data for future research, to ask the three fillies how the cutie marks had appeared.
It took some time and a lot of convincing, but they finally told the alicorn that it was all thanks to Pinkie Pie. So Twilight went to Pinkie, who was discussing with her four other friends.
“The girls say you are the reason they suddenly got their cutie marks.” Twilight explained. “Could you please tell me how it happened so that I might document it?”
“Of course!” Pinkie replied with her usual smile. “I just used my grand aunt magical dust from the solve-it-all machine.”
“The what from what now?” asked Rainbow Dash, who was already lost, as were, to her defense, all of the others.
“The solve-it-all machine.” Pinkie Pie explained once again as if the name was enough of an explanation. “That’s the thing that produces the magical dust that magically solves problems, don’t you know?” she added, almost frustrated by her friends’ ignorance.
Of course, the concept of a machine producing a magical problem solving dust was completely new to everypony except Pinkie Pie. But the others’ curiosity had been awoken and they now all wanted to know more about that machine and dust and whatever that was all about that was able to make cutie marks appear so easily.
“Very cool cutie marks!” corrected Pinkie Pie. “No problemo.” she added. “I can show you the machine. I can show you all my grand aunt’s machines! It’s going to be fun.”
They agreed to all come and meet the next day in front of Sugarcubecorner from where Pinkie would guide them to the place where they could unveil the mystery of the mighty solve-it-all machine.
And also trigger a catastrophic but all too natural chain of event.
A shiver went through Pinkie Pie’s spine, as her Pinkie sense was trying to warn her. But having never experienced that one before, she just didn’t acknowledged it.
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For nothing is impossible to those whom the earth belong to
“So..:” said Applejack to the others as they were waiting for Pinkie Pie to arrive.
“So..:” replied Rainbow Dash by mimesis.
They were trying to cope with the frustration of having to wait, the fact they weren’t sure why they wanted to be there in the first place and the idea that the expectations they were having about the whole thing would turn out to be way too high when confronted to the reality.
But mostly, they just hated to wait in silence.
“I didn’t know Pinkie Pie had a grand aunt.” Fluttershy said, immediately regretting her remark, as she felt the stares of all her friends plunging onto her.
Nopony really replied to that. There wasn’t much to say anyway. After the Canterlot wedding of Shining Armor and Cadence, they had spent a whole day speaking about each other family, without being able to remember much from it as it turned out each one of them had plenty of relatives once you searched the whole family tree.
“I can’t take it anymore!” exploded Rainbow Dash. “Where is Pinkie Pie?” she asked.
“I’m right here silly!” replied the pink pony, appearing from behind her shadow. “And look who I brought with me.” she added while showing a seemingly lazy grey cat.
“Oh she is so cute!” stated Fluttershy, who immediately began to pet the animal. “What is her name?”
“Single Rock.” replied Pinkie Pie happy to see the cat was receiving a good reception.
“Hello Single Rock. I’m Fluttershy. I’m sure we are going to be great friends.”
But to the pegasus’s surprise, the cat meowed but didn’t respond in any way she could understand.
“That’s strange.” Fluttershy noticed. “I’m usually able to communicate with cats very easily.”
“That’s because it’s not a cat.” Pinkie Pie explained. “Single Rock is a pony: she is my grand aunt.”
And suddenly, the lazy grey cat got five new very confused look onto her, which brought her to lick one of her paws.
Rarity was about to explain to Pinkie Pie why it wasn’t making any sense for a cat to be related to her, but the pink pony had already decided it was time to move on and go see the machines.
“Come on, I’ve prepared everything. You’ll see, it’s going to be a lot of fun.”
The others looked at each other and accepted that the best thing to do was to follow their excited friend. To their surprise, they went into Sugarcubecorner and soon discovered that the basement was way bigger than they thought, as Pinkie Pie showed them another stair leading even further below to a huge room full of a lot of junk.
“Here we are!” Pinkie told them. “These are all my grand aunt’s machines.”
And before any of the others could say any words, she had gone to grab some sort of a helmet and had put it on her head.
“Look at that one.” Pinkie said.
“Is this a mane dryer?” Rarity asked, trying to link what she was seeing with any knowledge she already possessed.
But to be honest, the helmet was very far away from a mane dryer. It was looking more like an amalgam of pipes and tubes with electric cables everywhere and a plethora of mini antennas.
“I call it the make-things-hover-helmet.” Pinkie explained.
She focused a bit and the helmet responded with shrieking noises and a lot of lights flashing all around. And suddenly, to the others’ surprise, a piece of junk began to float in front of them, supported by absolutely nothing, just like by magic.
“Is it…?” began Rarity who never finished that sentence.
“It looks like a levitation spell, but that’s impossible.” stated Twilight, who couldn’t believe her eyes.
Pinkie stopped to focus and the piece of junk fell back on the ground, as the pink pony was already grabbing another machine that made her disappear for a few seconds under the incredulous looks of the ponies, as the grey cat had begun to take a good nap, used to see such craziness occur.
Pinkie kept on demonstrating different machines that were able to produce different spells to the amazement of the different ponies at the exception of Twilight whose mind was already seeing past the first impression and through to the real potential of such discoveries. Searching around, she found a picture of the Pie family with a few members she didn’t know.
“That’s Auntie Rock right there.” said Pinkie Pie, pointing to a very old pony on the picture.
“You said your grand aunt was that cat there.” Twilight replied while pointing to the cat with her hoof.
“Of course she is. She just always wanted to become a cat, so she made a machine that would turn her into a cat.”
Something was telling Twilight it all was way more amazing than she was already realizing. Something very obvious. And then she saw it.
“Pinkie… the pony on the picture is an earth pony.” she noticed.
“What about it?” Pinkie asked.
“Earth ponies cannot do any magic.” Twilight affirmed.
“My grand aunt can.”
It hit Twilight so hard she almost fainted. In an instant, everything Twilight thought she knew about magic crumbled, making the walls of her ancient world disappear, revealing a whole new field of until know completely ignored possibilities.
The grey cat woke up from her nap, looked around, yawned and went back to sleep.
“Pinkie Pie…” began Twilight, whose excitement was making it very difficult to stay in control. “Do you even realize how revolutionary those machines are?”
“Hum… no?” Pinkie responded, as she couldn’t see what was so special about those machines, having been accustomed to their existence in all those years.
“I need to study them!” shouted Twilight, unable to restrain herself anymore. “I must understand how they work, what they can do! This is pure genius. I can’t believe somepony achieved something that incredible!”
She suddenly stopped. Her eyes had noticed a silhouette in the back of the room. A very big and kind of frightening silhouette. But her fear was nothing compared to the amazement she was feeling at that moment. Even from where she was standing, Twilight could feel the overwhelming power running through the metal of that machine, waiting to be activated and released upon the world. It was electrifying to say the least.
And Twilight was certain of it: it had to be the famous solve-it-all machine.
Her heart sank and she knew that the other machines were nothing compared to that masterpiece.
“How does it work?” Twilight asked.
“Oh, it’s easy.” Pinkie Pie replied. “You just have to have a problem to solve, then you go there, pull that lever and the machine produces some dust that you can then throw on your problem to make it disappear.”
It actually seemed very easy, which was weird given who had been explaining it. Rainbow Dash, who had heard the whole thing came and asked:
“So if I had a problem, say, very hypothetically, a dispute with my chief on the work schedule, all I have to do is to pull that lever, take the dust and it will solve my problem?”
“Exactly!” Pinkie Pie replied. “But I’m sure you wouldn’t need to use some magical dust to solve your problem.”
As was to be expected, Rainbow Dash had already pulled the lever and Twilight felt the machine gathering a huge amount of energy all around from every magical stream available. The machine seemed to purr, but soon the sound got louder and it became like nothing the ponies had ever heard before. Suddenly, the sound stopped and the machine filled a small bag with a little amount of dust.
The ponies waited to see what else was going to happen, but nothing ever came. The huge solve-it-all machine had gone back to her waiting sleep, having already fulfilled her duty and seemingly very satisfied with it.
“So… what do I do with that dust?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Oh, you would just have to pour it onto the problem. But as my grand aunt used to say…” Pinkie Pie tried to explain.
It was way too late. Rainbow Dash decided to test it right away and left Sugarcubecorner immediately to go see her boss. As an awkward silence ensued, the ponies tried to fill the void by searching through the different machines and pieces of junk lying everywhere. Soon, Twilight found a book that she had hoped would exist. It was the solve-it-all machine manual, containing most of the details explaining how it had been conceived and built, as well as how it should be operated.
It would have been absolutely perfect if it had been written in a way that was supposed to be readable by other ponies. The notes were very cryptic and structured in the most illogical way ever.
“I can’t believe it!” Rainbow Dash suddenly shouted, bursting through the stairs as she was coming back from her boss’s office. “He didn’t even discuss. As soon as the dust had touched him, he just agreed with everything I asked for.”
“Great!” Rarity rejoiced herself. “So you will be able to spend more time with Scootaloo now.”
“Oh yeah. That. Sure.” Rainbow Dash realized, as she had mostly done it to keep on napping like she used to. But spending more time with Scootaloo was also a very good idea.
Nonetheless, the machine was clearly working. The six ponies, even Pinkie Pie, looked at it with amazement and respect.
A machine that could solve all their problems.
“Nopony uses the machine anymore!” decreed Twilight, understanding what was going through her friends’ minds. “I’ll first make sure it is safe to use, and only then we will see what shall be done with it.”
She received a few complaints here and there, but they all agreed it was the wisest thing to do.
Only Fluttershy, who had felt very frightened by the imposing machine, thought of asking the most obvious question any other should have asked already:
“Excuse me, but… if the lever makes the dust appear… could somepony tell me what the big red button does?”
The big yellow ball in the sky was turning red during its slow descent behind the horizon. And a yellow pegasus was finally coming back home. Fluttershy was glad to be back. It had been interesting to see all the weird machines and she had been impressed by Rainbow Dash’s demonstration. Nonetheless, it was just way too complicated in comparison of her good home and all of her little critters friends.
“Miss Fluttershy!” said a voice coming from a pony who himself was coming to her. “I’m so glad you’re finally back… What are you doing?”
Fluttershy came from behind the rock where she had jumped, apologized and asked what the pony wanted.
“I’m delivering the chimp from Huffington’s zoo.” replied the pony. “And I must say I’m quite glad not to be responsible of that creature anymore!”
Fluttershy’s face lit up. She had been expecting to see that creature all week. Not only that, but after all the machines and all the magic, she was finally back into her element.
“Where is he?” she asked with high expectations.
“In his cage.” the delivering pony replied. “Just wait until I’m gone to open it, please. I think he doesn’t like me.”
“Of course. Thank you so much.” Fluttershy responded with joy.
“Oh no. Thank you. And good luck.”
The pony quickly ran away and Fluttershy went to the cage the pony had brought. She took the drape away and saw one of the cutest most adorable enraged drooling bity chimp she had ever seen.
“Hello. My name is Fluttershy. Don’t be afraid: I want to become your friend.”
But she had to retract her hoof very quickly to avoid an attack from the chimp who was obviously not in the mood for any friendly talk. Fluttershy deduced that he was grumpy because of all the time he had passed inside the cage and decided to free him.
Instantly, the chimp ran out of her view. She went after him but he entered the house by an open window, forcing her to go around by the door. Before she could even begin to move though, she heard the sound of objects breaking inside, and all the complaining and frustrated screams and cries of the other animals who didn’t like the chimp’s behavior one bit.
Taking action, Fluttershy entered and saw that all her little friends were hiding on top of Harry the bear’s shoulders, facing the chimp who was threatening them with a broom and a drinking bowl.
“Hum… excuse me.” the shy pegasus tried without much success.
The chimp jumped forward with a loud shriek, startling the bear who fell back, making all the other animals fall in a horrible mess of dust and screams.
“You really shouldn’t do things like that.” Fluttershy tried again.
But the chimp ignored her. Satisfied to have gotten rid of all the pesky critters, he began to run around and basically just rip off the wallpaper as he went.
“Please…” Fluttershy tried one last time.
She could have tried to convince the “Negative Refusal Association” to say yes to something and obtained the exact same absence of result. It was just useless. Understanding she had no other choice, she resorted to a new approach.
“Stop that immediately!” she ordered.
The chimp suddenly stopped, afraid of that change. He looked at Fluttershy to assess the situation, but the yellow pony exploited the opportunity.
“Your behavior is beyond tolerable. You should be ashamed of yourself!” she said. “I expect you to apologize right now and adopt a more civilized attitude. Understood?”
The chimp shrieked a bit to explain he didn’t do anything and that it wasn’t his fault and some other lies, but Fluttershy stood inflexible, so, eventually, to the other animals’ relief, the chimp agreed to stay quiet and not create any more disturbance.
“Good. I’m proud of you. You’ll see, you’ll find it very pleasant after a while and you’ll make a lot of friends here.” Fluttershy told him with a smile.
She reassured some critters who were still shocked by what had happened, and told them all to wait until she would come back as she wanted to make some formal presentation to welcome the chimp in. She just had to go seek some specific food that she had seen with the cage as she was certain the chimp was very hungry after his trip.
She didn’t even have to come back to understand things weren’t going to be as easy as she thought they would. Mostly because of the many animals running out of the house, the racket coming from inside the cottage and the bear coming through one of the wall who growled in anger and went back inside to settle his counts with a certain chimp.
Three times fluttershy used all the means to her disposal to calm the chimp and make him behave in a better way, but three times the chimp began spreading chaos and destruction again, even after having been exposed to the stare. In the end, Fluttershy had to resolve to put the chimp back into his cage as a temporary solution.
Still, that was no real solution at all and Fluttershy needed one, even if she had no idea how she was going to find it.
Fluttershy had a problem she needed to solve.
Prosperity might be worth it
The sun was slowly being lowered under the horizon by Celestia as Rarity passed the door of her boutique.
It had been quite a day, a bit weird, but a very interesting one nonetheless. A pony like Rarity could already see some use for the solve-it-all machine. No more bad mane day. No more fear of the wrinkles. And no more loss of inspiration for her work. Not that she had ever run out of idea, but sometimes, or to be honest, most the time, her ideas were too confused or absurd to really put into a practical use.
Like the time she had tried to create a “shred” style, where the dresses would look like they had been torn apart.
The memory was coming back to her because she could see something that was looking like the prototype dress she had made back then just in front of her.
“I think it’s missing something, but I’m about to find what.” Sweetie Belle voice told her.
Rarity looked around and decided she was asleep, in the middle of her bed, because there was no way at all she would ever accept to acknowledge what she was seeing as being the reality.
“I’ve decided to help you make dresses now that I’ve got my cutie mark!” joyfully explained Sweetie Belle, who had wanted to make it a surprise to her big sister.
It was kind of hard to cope with the situation. On one hoof, Rarity could just ignore what was going on, close the door behind her and become a nun or something of the sort. On the other hoof, she could simply accept the idea that all of the dresses in her boutique had been “upgraded” by Sweetie Belle.
“This is going to be so great!” said the little filly. “Now that both our special talents are making dresses, we can work together forever and ever and ever!”
Those last words were more frightening than anything Rarity could remember having heard. They were echoing in her mind promising the worst fears would soon become reality.
“Are you okay? You look whiter than usual.” Sweetie Belle suddenly noticed, worried about her sister’s strange reaction.
Rarity was about to faint, but simply couldn’t. She had to take control and quickly. The first priority was to ensure the order for the next day had, by some miracle, escaped the destruction and could be delivered in time. That thought allowed her to regain some composure and her vision bettered itself. She saw the details of the dress in front of her and recognized one of the pieces for the order she had to deliver the next day.
Maybe fainting wasn’t such a bad idea after all…
“Rarity.” Applejack’s voice called her from outside the boutique. “I need to talk with you for a moment.”
That was the escape Rarity wanted. She didn’t even look back and rushed outside of the building under the very surprised look of her little sister.
“Do you feel okay?” Applejack asked, suddenly very worried. “You really don’t look good.”
Rarity didn’t. She was in the middle of looking like a ghost or some zombie pony.
“Of course I feel okay. Everything is great!” Rarity replied with a very hectic voice. “Why wouldn’t I feel great?”
She was breathing heavily and would have fallen on the ground if Applejack hadn’t been there to hold her up. But slowly, being outside, away from her the situation she had wanted to escape from, Rarity found the strength to forget about it and focus on her friend.
“So… what is it you wanted to talk about?” she asked Applejack.
“Are you sure you don’t want to go to the hospital?” her friend replied, still worried.
“No. I’m fine. Just please tell me what you want. Tell me anything. Just anything.”
Applejack thought about how she should react, but as Rarity clearly didn’t want to talk about what had happened to her and was regaining composure, she decided to go to the point that had brought her here.
“I wanted to talk about the machine.” she began to explain.
“What machine?” asked Rarity, who had forgotten about it at that point.
“The one that produces that weird dust that solves everything.” Applejack carefully replied, not sure how to interpret that sudden memory loss. “I was thinking about what we could do with it.”
“Oh that!” Rarity realized, feeling a sudden huge feeling of relief as it was allowing her to think of something that she was actually happy to think about. “I’ve been thinking about it too. Can you imagine it? I could never make any mistake anymore in my makeup. You have no idea how many times I had to start it all over!”
It was actually true. Rarity had always lost a lot of time with her makeup, as she would never tolerate anything but true perfection on that matter. Sometimes, a simple shiver while putting the mascara would trigger a complete redo until it would look nothing but gorgeous.
“It’s not exactly what I had in mind.” Applejack said, relieved to see that Rarity was reacting in a way that was more like her. “I meant what we could do with it for our businesses.”
“I don’t follow.” Rarity replied.
But then it hit her. She hadn’t even considered it, but now she could picture all the difficult clients she had met, all those who would criticize her artistic choices, those who wouldn’t pay the full price, those who were demanding the impossible or those who were asking for something without explaining what exactly.
And also, in a more short term view, she recognized she had quite a problem to face into her boutique right at the moment.
Applejack was even more pragmatic. She revealed to Rarity that things weren’t going very smoothly at the farm. Nothing that couldn’t be managed, but difficulties that were making the life way harder that it had any reason to be.
She mentioned one event that, more than any other, was worrying her.
It was a month ago. Applejack was waiting in the farm with Granny Smith and Big Mac for Filthy Rich to come and discuss the next big delivery of apples. None of them were feeling very worried about as it had always been more of an occasion to share a pie together as a real negotiation. Filthy Rich had always been satisfied with the Apple family and the Apple family had never found any reason to complain about Filthy Rich.
“Hello there partner!” greeted Applejack as a pony opened the door of the farm.
But to the three ponies’ surprise, it wasn’t Filthy Rich who entered but a pony none of them had ever met.
“Good morning.” the pony said. “My name is Buyer Bye I’ve come to discuss the price and quantity of the apples you’ll provide us.”
The three Apples looked at each other, sharing the same surprise, but Granny Smith was the one who asked:
“Where is Filthy Rich? He is the one we usually talk with.”
“He didn’t tell you?” Buyer Bye asked, feigning to be surprised too. “He sold the retail company that you do business with. So now, you are doing business with us.”
Once again, the three Apples looked at each other, but silently agreed that it wasn’t of any concern of them who exactly was buying the apples. Filthy Rich was free to do whatever he wanted, so they had no complaints on that front.
“Now that this misunderstanding is settled, let’s get right to the point.” mister Bye said. “Here is our offer.” he said, holding a piece of paper out to them.
Granny Smith took it and began to read it, as did Applejack and Big Mac. Then the hammer fell down.
“Wait. This can’t be right.” Applejack said. “You made a mistake with the price. It’s almost two third of what we agreed on with Filthy Rich.”
Buyer Bye assured them there was no mistake.
“We have studied our relations with you and have noticed your apples are the most expensive we acquire from all the producers. This is merely a correction to ensure an equality of treatment.”
Applejack never said what happened after that point, but Rarity, knowing Granny Smith’s character could imagine the flow of complaints and the bitter turn the conversation with that mister Bye must have taken.
“We haven’t signed that contract yet.” Applejack explained. “But I was thinking that… maybe… you know.”
“You think that the dust could solve that problem for you.” Rarity replied.
“Not exactly.” defended herself Applejack. “I just think it might be a good plan B, just in case.”
“And why is it you came to me about it?” Rarity asked. “Twilight has decided none of us would use the machine anyway, so it’s not like it’s an option.”
Of course using the machine wasn’t an option. Not only was twilight their friend, but she was a princess of Equestria, and her decree was therefore a royal one. It was something that had a lot of weight for ponies.
Rarity thought of the inside of her boutique, shivered with anxiety and suddenly said:
“Or were you thinking of stealing the dust?”
Applejack didn’t respond, but it was clear she had thought of it.
“It’s forbidden!” Rarity almost shouted, before realizing she didn’t want to attract any attention. “I mean we could get caught.”
“We?” Applejack asked.
She had only come because she had thought Rarity would convince her to abandon that project. She would have promised her to wait until Twilight would have reached a decision and called it a day. But things were going in a way she hadn’t imagined.
“You’ve got a problem you need to solve, right?” Rarity asked her directly. “Well: so do I.”
And Rarity took Applejack inside the boutique, where Sweetie Belle greeted them and asked what they had been talking about that was so important.
But Applejack simply replied:
“I’m no expert on dresses, but I do agree: you have a problem alright!”
Other's happiness might be worth it
“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…
Too big of a problem for the little ones
“Hey!” joyfully shouted Pinkie Pie, appearing in the middle of the cutie mark crusaders clubhouse. “How are you doing?”
The three fillies raised their head to look at her, but stood silent for a long few seconds.
“We are okay… I guess.” replied Scootaloo, as the two others lowered their head back down.
Seeing that the girls weren’t in a good mood, Pinkie decided to immediately correct the situation, searched behind her whatever she could use to bring a smile back on the three faces and turned back with a giant cake.
“Look what I’ve brought you!” she victoriously stated, certain it was going to work.
It didn’t. They looked at the cake, but couldn’t find any interest to it at all. They weren’t feeling hungry. Quite on the contrary, their stomachs were hurting a bit.
“Okay, no cake…” recognized Pinkie Pie, throwing the cake away. “But what about a song?” she asked with enthusiasm.
And she started dancing, while singing “When you feel a little gloomy, you shouldn’t forget life is a party....” trying to bring the fillies to sing with her to forget their worries.
The song fell flat. The girls weren’t feeling like singing. Or dancing. Or moving at all.
“Maybe you want to play a game?” asked Pinkie Pie, who wasn’t ready to give up any time soon.
She drew several board games out of nowhere that she put in front of the fillies, as well as a volley ball, a basketball ball, a football ball, a soccer ball, a ping pong ball, a tennis ball, a baseball ball, a trapezoidal ball from a game from a parallel dimension as well as a few console systems from another parallel dimension.
As it still wasn’t getting the awaited reaction, Pinkie Pie tried to trigger a water balloon fight, giving them plenty of ammunition and poured a whole bucket of water on Applebloom’s head.
But even the cold water didn’t make her react. She just looked at her wet fur, sighed and went back to mourning.
“Okay. This is going to be a tough one.” whispered Pinkie Pie whose determination hadn’t diminished any bit. “Come on now.” She said out loud, embracing the three fillies and bringing them all together. “Tell aunt Pinkie what is bugging you so much.”
They didn’t respond, but Pinkie Pie looked into the fillies’ eyes and saw the roots of the problem. She could literally read what had happened in their desperate looks.
It had happened during the last few days. The cutie mark crusaders were at the new library to do some research for homework and quite enjoying themselves when Diamond Tiara had come to them with a smirk on her face.
“Here you are.” she told them with a tone of reproach.
“What do you want?” asked Sweetie Belle with a pinch of agressivity, as she knew Diamond’s presence was usually not a sign of good time.
“I just thought I would help you.” the little bully replied, seemingly taking offense for being greeted in such a way. “I thought you would want to know about those cutie marks of yours.”
She had already won with those simple words. Even if Scootaloo protested that there was no way she, of all pony, would try to help them getting their marks, it was clear the three fillies were ready to listen to what she had to say.
“You can stop doing that “crusading” thing of yours. You will be blank flank forever now.” Diamond explained.
“You lie!” replied Applebloom, furious.
“I do not!” told her back Diamond Tiara. “It’s all here in that book!”
And saying that, she threw a big book in front of the fillies.
“You don’t have to believe me, but you better believe what the book says.”
And knowing she had already done enough damages that she could enjoy later, Diamond Tiara saluted and went away, resisting the urge to burst out laughing.
The cutie mark crusaders read the books where it was explicitly explained that, by experience, in all of Equestria and in all of known pony history, it had been noticed that no pony that had grown after a certain age without a cutie mark would ever get one in their life. As the phenomenon was extremely rare, it was usually ignored by most ponies, even the teachers, but even if unexplained, had been accepted as a fact by the scientists studying the matter.
Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle and Applebloom turned pale. They had looked at the age written on those pages, the fateful moment where all hope was to be lost. Diamond Tiara was right: they could stop crusading. It was of no use anymore.
“This can’t be right!” Applebloom had immediately reacted. “They must be wrong.”
“Of course it’s wrong!” confirmed Scootaloo more to try and fight her own growing fears than anything else.
“I know who will be able to show how wrong it is.” said Sweetie Belle with hope. “The most intelligent and wise pony there is in all of Equestria.”
They all knew who that pony was and shouted:
“Applejack!”
“Rarity!”
“Rainbow Dash!”
They looked at each other. Applebloom’s look was making it clear that she wasn’t trusting Rarity’s or Rainbow Dash’s judgment on the matter. Scootaloo wasn’t trusting Applejack and Rarity. As for Sweetie Belle, she simply didn’t trust the wisdom of Rainbow Dash. Not that she was trusting Applejack wisdom that much more, but she was mostly doubtful about Rainbow Dash.
“Let’s just go see Twilight.” sighed Scootaloo, who was regretting the lost occasion to spend some time with her unofficial big sister.
But when Twilight had finished reading the book the three fillies had brought her, she didn’t give the comforting words they were expecting. In fact, she didn’t say anything at all at first.
“What?” asked Applebloom. “Is something wrong?”
“It’s just…” began Twilight, not sure how to put it. “I recognize the authors and the methodology of that book. It is genuine. I can’t believe I never read about this until now: I never knew.”
“But it’s all lies, right?” asked Sweetie Belle, focused on the only important thing and far away from any consideration about how much trust one could put in a book.
“I…” Twilight said, trying to find the good words.
“Yes?” asked the three fillies, their faces lightened with hope and the corollary high expectations.
“I need to do some more research.” the alicorn finally explained.
“About what?” asked Scootaloo. “Is what is written true or not?”
“It’s not that simple…” tried Twilight to elude the question.
“How can it not be simple?” Applebloom asked, pressing the new princess. “Just tell us if it’s true or not.”
Twilight looked around her to find an escape to the situation, didn’t find any and so sighed and said:
“I don’t know. I really don’t know. You will have to wait until I can confirm or infirm what is written in there.”
She dismissed the three fillies who directly went back to their families to tell the whole story, complain and basically express all their fears in every way they could feel appropriate.
Three days later, Twilight brought the response they had been anxiously waiting for, to the relief of Rarity, Applejack and Rainbow Dash who had had to manage the fillies during that time as well as their own anxiety about the matter.
And the news came as a hammer: the book was right.
“I directed a search on what has happened to all the blank flanks after the given age.” Twilight explained. “In the last hundred years, I couldn’t find any exception in all of our records. None of them ever got a cutie mark.”
There wasn’t much more to say. Or to do. Nopony knew how to react.
Neither did Pinkie Pie in the cutie mark crusaders’ club house. The pink pony was feeling like a soldier who, while she was advancing forward, suddenly realizes she is in the middle of a huge minefield where every movement can trigger the last firework of her life.
So she did the only thing she knew couldn’t be wrong: she smiled.
“Come on now. You shouldn’t let that get you down. The sun is still high in the sky, you’ve still got so much to accomplish in your life!”
She looked in their eyes again, and saw the effects of the problem. She could see what had happened the next day, when they came back to school, after the news had spread and every filly and foal knew they would stay blank flanks forever. Pinkie saw the shame, smelled the mockeries, felt the insults and heard the scent of total defeat.
“Okay, this is actually very bad…” she acknowledged in her awkward way.
Her mind went racing as she still wasn’t even considering giving up on bringing a smile back to the three fillies. It might be so that her brain was mostly filled with cotton candy, but there were still some hidden stuff that could usually come in handy in such a situation.
She found one and turned pale so fast a violently that the cutie mark crusaders noticed it and backed away from her a little, suddenly worried for her well-being.
She had to decide. She could either solve the fillies’ problem and see them smile again, or she could follow her deep feeling and just let things as they were. She looked at the three sad faces and already knew what choice she would make.
“I’ve got a solution.” Pinkie told them with an unsaddling confidence, creating a new hope in the fillies’ heart.
And the impossible words came from her mouth:
“I’m going to give you each a cutie mark!”
