Rainbow Dash darted through the sky. Days off were the best of days. Granted, most days she might as well consider every day an off day. Convincing her bosses to pay her on commission instead of hourly when they hired her was the best idea she’d ever had, since she could do the work of the majority of her department in an amazingly short time.
She felt today was going to be even better than normal, she was going to attempt to make an impossibility even more impossible. Operation: Double Sonic Rainboom would certainly impress the judge’s at the next Young Flier’s Competition. Maybe it would finally impress her idols enough to let her join the Wonderbolts! She laughed excitedly at the thought as she weaved around the clouds. She eyed a large raincloud ahead of her. She didn’t remember there being any rain scheduled for the area today, which was why she chose this spot to practice. After thinking for a moment, she decided that slicing her way through it could only help her fire off the first part of her plan, to fire one off, and finish her rainbow arc by hitting the second.
As she raced towards the cloud, something was starting to feel more and more off about this. Was the cloud really growing bigger? Nah, it had to just be her imagination. There weren’t any weather ponies besides her in the area to fill it, so it couldn’t be growing. She would probably clear it after she was done, give her co-workers a little break.
She felt the air start to spread around her, rather than trying to halt her motion. She knew she was about to hit the speed, and just in time to run through her quickly approaching target. She put her hoof forward as she breached the raincloud, firing off the first of her sonic rainbooms. As she ascended towards her arc point, her momentum started to slow, and she felt herself being pulled backwards.
As she tumbled back into the raincloud, she sighed heavily. “Note to self: Clouds don’t like being sonic rainboomed.” She started to fly upwards again, but found herself stuck to the cloud. “What the hoof?”
“Did you know that cotton candy can be made in a variety of colors? It’s naturally white, but you can make it pink, blue, green, plaid, rainbow…But how could I convince you to trap yourself in it if I didn’t make it raincloud colored?” A disembodied voice filled Rainbow Dash’s head.
“No, you can’t be here! We sealed you away! Celestia said that you shouldn’t ever get free again!”
“I’m surprised at you! I am the embodiment of chaos, after all…”
Rainbow Dash fought as the cloud started to pull her inside. As her face became covered, her vision turned to blackness…”
Applejack was working late into the evening. She had such a huge order to fill, she was hoping she’d make the deadline. It was an order for Princess Luna, after all. It would all be worth it though, she just knew that this one sale would get Granny Smith that hip replacement, and Big Macintosh that new plow, and a new barn! She wasn’t quite sure what to get her little sister though, Apple Bloom never asked for much. She snickered to herself, thinking that maybe she should get the filly a tattoo on her flank, since all she seemed to ever want was her cutie mark.
The farmmare placed some empty bushels under a tree. Glancing up at it, she could see it was looking a bit sickly. She didn’t recall there being a tree in such bad shape on her last harvest, and this one seemed pretty far gone. Yet the apples still looked quite healthy. It would probably be the last picking for this one. She took her hat off and held it to her chest, as was her ritual for any tree in the orchard. “Ah’m sorry Ah didn’t see you this sick the last time, fella. Don’t you worry now, one last harvest, and Ah’ll give you a proper sendoff.”
As she turned around and leaned down, she wondered how much damage she might cause tp the ailing plant. She knew that even if it couldn’t talk back to her, every tree she tended was as much a part of her family as any of her blood relatives. Applejack shed a tear as she prepared to deliver a gentle kick, barely hard enough to knock the fruit off. She fell backwards as she missed her mark. She must’ve been getting tired, she didn’t remember missing a tree since that time she insisted on harvesting the fields while Big Mac was injured.
She tried to put her hoof on the sick tree, but ended up falling over again. The tree seemed to have vanished. Did it get up and run away? No, that was just silly. But as she looked, there was nothing. Maybe she was tired, and this was just the world’s way to say “Go to sleep, Applejack.” Doing some quick math in her head, she figured at least a couple hours should still allow her to make the sale in full. She’d worry about the runaway tree later.
As she started to walk away, she fell forward when something grabbed her back leg. She tried to lift her leg up so that she could get over, but found that her leg was now covered in darkness. “What the hay?”
“Oh little Applejack, did you honestly think that such a big order in such a short amount of time was a proper request of a princess?” A female’s voice taunted her.
“Ah’d never question a request of Princess Luna’s! Wait…your voice…”
“Oh yes, the true mistress of the night has returned!” Applejack struggled in vain as the shadow started to pull her into it…
Pinkie Pie skipped the line outside of the Carousel Boutique. “Hey Rarity! I know you’re busy and all, but I figured you might want a little snack!” She set down a piece of cake next to the seamstress.
“I don’t even have time to think about eating right now! I try to keep abreast of all the events happening in all of Equestria, but I’ve never even heard of this one! And yet, all of those ponies outside want me to design all their outfits! It’s an honor really, and I must finish all of them in time!”
“Okie-dokie-loki! Just remember to eat something, you don’t want to faint from starvation! I mean, you already fainted after you saw how many ponies were out there and they had already started to question if you were the right pony for the job but I was all like ‘Rarity is the best seamstress in all of Equestria! Princess Celestia even asked her to design the dresses for the royal wedding a couple years back!’ and that made them all stay! I’ll let you get back to your work then!” As she walked towards the door, Pinkie found herself crashing into a wall of ponies.
“I’m very sorry to keep all you dear customers outside, but my building’s fire code only allows for a maximum of 20. If I could ask you all to please wait patiently, I’ll have you taken care of as soon as possible!” Rarity smiled sweetly, even though she was irritated that she had to tell them multiple times to go back outside. She had to keep up a proper businessmare attitude if she wanted to keep all of these clients. Yet, the line of ponies kept filing into the store.
“Oh, I bet I know what I can do to help out! Come on, everypony, party at Sugarcube Corner!” The party pony stood up as the crowd surrounded her.
“Pinkie, I do love your ideas sometimes. I wish I would’ve thought to ask your help earlier!”
“Okay, I just need you all to give me a little path and I can lead you all there!” She made an attempt to walk through the crowd, but she couldn’t move. Normally at this point she’d walk over them, but there were pegasi blocking her path upwards.
“Dearies, please, I need to ask you all to follow Pinkie. She’ll keep you entertained better than just standing in a boring old line. When I need you, I’ll send for you! Hey Pinkie, can you ask Spike if he has some time to help me with this when you pass the library?”
“I’m already here, Rarity.” Rarity spun around, finding it odd that she heard the voice sounding in stereo. At her hooves, she saw six Spikes surrounding her.”
“Ooo, this is just like the royal wedding! Remember all of those changelings and how they turned into us and that big bad changling Queen Chrysalis wanted to take over Equestria to eat everyone’s love! I wonder what love tastes like! I always say I put a little love into anything I bake, maybe I should’ve told them to try some of that!”
“Pardon me, but I’d prefer to not have to remember that part of the wedding.” Several copies of Rarity’s voice commented. Rarity looked over the room, now seeing it filled with duplicates of all her friends. A buzzing noise came from overhead. Addressing the source of the sound, Rarity’s voice slipped into stammers, before she managed to speak normally again. “What are YOU doing here? Princess Celestia said nopony should ever have to worry about you again!”
“That silly princess could never hold me back from exacting my revenge!”
“We’re in trouble now, aren’t we Rarity?”
“Yes, yes we are.” She opted to use this moment to faint as she and Pinkie were swarmed upon.
Twilight Sparkle waved to her friends as they parted ways. Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo had already been good friends with her, but they had just asked her if she wanted to join their group, the Cutie Mark Crusaders. She was a blank flank, and the three friends asked her to join after being taunted by Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. Unfortunately, they had a ton of homework to do tonight, so they wouldn’t be able to try anything knew. They made plans to meet up over the weekend though.
Twilight didn’t mind having homework so much. She occasionally made jokes about how her cutie mark would probably be a page of homework, or maybe an A+, since that was usually her grade on assignments. As she walked up the pathway to Fluttershy’s cottage, she noticed that the door was cracked open a bit. This was a bit odd, since it was the time of day that her mother would be tending to some of the animals in the woods. Maybe her stepmother Violyre had come over? She had still been packing up since the wedding, and was set to move in completely soon. She tended to be a bit haphazard if she was panicked, still being a little bit scared of being outside for too long by herself, but she was improving. If she was over, Twilight knew she’d have to help comfort her if Fluttershy wasn’t home.
As she pushed open the door, she heard Fluttershy’s screams. “Twilight, run! Get the others!”
“Mama? What’s wrong?” The filly peeked her head around the corner, seeing her mother being dragged into what could only be described as a pink goo puddle.
“TWILIGHT! GET OUT NOW!” As the purple ooze started to turn towards her daughter, Fluttershy’s parental instincts kicked into overdrive, her struggles against the monster forcing it to turn attention back to her. As she watched the child gallop out the door, she started to relax, and as she was pulled down, she wondered if her daughter would truly be safe now.
