What Comes After

by dracone

Rating: everyone
Tags: Sad, Main 6, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Other, Random, Slice of Life, Alternate Universe
Length: 6385

Lovestruck moves back to Ponyville with her foal hoping to give her child something she thinks she lost

Lovestruck and her daughter move to Ponyville, partly at the insistence of Princess Cadance. It's been years since Lovestruck was last in Ponville, and for her five year old daughter this is a whole new experience. After a certain incident, which will not be named in order to keep some parties happy, Lovestruck moved to the Crystal Empire to assist Princess Cadance at the insistence of Princess Luna, now after Lovestruck has known the rewards of having had her own bundle of joy for a few years Princess Cadance has suggested that Lovestruck and her daughter return to Ponyville so that the filly can understand why the town is so important to her mother, and maybe make some good friends in the process.

This story takes place in the Kilalaverse, so please let me know if I'm futzing up some of her characters when they are in the story.

Published 2015-02-16 16:20:02 UTC
Last updated 2015-03-31 12:45:12 UTC

Sweetheart and the Apples

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Prologue

Author's Note

Well, with Valentine's Day over, I started writing this story on Valentine's Day, it's time to step things up again. Another story that takes place in the Kilalaverse, this one focusing on my own newly created OC and the lesser known Pony Lovestruck. Lovestruck hasn't appeared in the series proper yet, and to my knoweledge was never a background pony in the comics, the only MLP source you actually see her is the App game. Since she only really appears in the App game, and her character data from the game says she is love themed (much like a certain pink Alicorn) I decided that to take some liberties with her personality traits and t a minor extent her appearance. In the game Lovestruck looks like she could be white with a dark pink mane and tail, but I decided to make her a shade of pink so light she could mistaken for white, and have a reference to this as well. Since Lovestruck doesn't have her own tag, I don't blame the admins for that, I had to use the Other tab. Also since I have yet to hear about interpretations of her, I haven't yet encountered any fan fiction or fan art depicting her, for Lovestruck I'm taking a few personal liberties. I'm honestly sorry if I futz up any characters, it's all unintentional. Remember these my own character interpretations. Also the very young ages here in the prologue and the coming early chapters of the story are intentional, we get a lot of people showing works about Kilala's characters when they're stated to be around the age the Mane 6 are believed to currently be in the series proper. So most of Kilala's "older" OCs are intentially being made to be around six and seven years old while their younger siblings are around a few months old. The more "matured" OCs, charcters stated to be in their Twenties, have been aged down to their teen years. Also I have a short statement about Valiant Heart being the foalsitter of Lovestruck's foal, I mainly played this to show he's trying to realistically try his hoof at responsibilities, with a comedic result in the example given here.
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Edit: I checked the ages for the ponies in Kilala's archive and found that the age groupings I was using didn't quite match up, so until the appropriate time comes in the story the youngest pony will be Night Light.
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Also for those of you you might down vote the story please leave the reason why, I am tired of getting no feedback on why there are people who dislike the story.

Prologue

Lovestruck stood before the throne of Princess Cadance, why the alicorn ruler of the Crystal Empire wanted to see her was a mystery to the light pink mare. Lovestruck was a unicorn mare with a very light pink coat that could confused for white, in fact the father of her foal had made that very mistake when he told her how he would describe her, her dark pink mane and tail could easily be mistaken for that of another pink mare in Ponyville, and her cutie mark showed just how dedicated to romance she was. Her cutie mark was a dark pink bow with an arrow that had a heart shaped head notched in it with three smaller hearts near the the bow (one near the grip and two by the drawstring).

Lovestruck was nervous, she had left her daughter with Valiant Heart in the royal nursery and was worried why the Princess had insisted she be alone for this meeting with her. She didn't mind Valiant Heart, on numerous occasions he had taken the time to foalsit for Lovestruck while she attended to urgent matters at the Princess's behest. Before she had lived in the Cyrstal Empire Lovestruck had lived in Ponville and made it her mission to use her magic to make sure couples had a truly authentic loving Hearts and Hooves day every year, but in the Crystal Empire she had the prestigious duty of being the Hoof of the Princess and the Princess's proxy in times of urgency, on some occasions she had even been asked to act as a stand-in for the royal couple while they attended to other other matters. Love didn't hate her job, she actually found it enjoyable at times, but she also missed her activities of going around Ponyville or one of the major cities of Equestria to help make sure the love stayed alive.

Those activities became something of a series of fond memories when she met her special stallion and had a foal with him, to her knowledge only one other pony was only half crystal pony and she had only heard about the crystal mare that had the filly. Her husband had been a crystal pegasus in Princess Cadance's royal guard, but as comes with all guard ponies he fell victim to an accident. When he had awoken he couldn't remember everything for as far back a whole year before he met Lovestruck properly, and by that time she had been carrying their foal for a good seven months. No matter what the healers in and outside the Crystal Empire did they couldn't restore his memory, and every attempt to do so when it came to Lovestruck caused his memory to reset to how it was after the accident. They had asked Princess Twilight to look into situation, she did remarkably well considering the tendencies she had during her own pregnancy at the time. What she had discovered related to several other crystal ponies as well, King Sombra had cursed the lines of thirteen crystal pony families to always forget everything involving the ponies they had the greatest love for if they ever suffered an immensely powerful traumatic event, which unfortunately for Lovestruck the love of her life did hence why his memory kept resetting back to how it was before the two had gotten to know each other properly.

She was sure this meeting had something to do with her should-have-been husband, but was entirely sure. "Ah, you're early," said Cadance as she trotted in behind Lovestruck and trotted with the regalness that Love had come to know about the Princess of Love. "You are no doubt wondering why you are here," Lovestruck gave an affirming nod, "well since every attempt to bring the father of your daugher back to you has proved to be... ineffective, and everytime your daughter told her father she was we had to start all over again," Lovestruck started crying silently, Cadance knew this would be painful and had resolved to do all this without sneaking things around Lovestruck, the two had become fast friends due to the similarities in their magics and natures, "I have decided your time as the 'Hoof of the Princess' shall end as of this coming sundown as you and your filly will be returning to Ponyville. I am sorry, but all the pain you have had to endure is just too much for everypony that knows you, and your husband is one of our best when we aren't expending our resources to bring him back up to speed on current events. As we agreed with you the knowledge of who your daughter's father is kept from him on grounds that the knowledge could to dangerous for him."

"We know all this already Cadance," said Lovestruck with sorrow seeping through her loving toned voice, "you could move us anywhere, so, why Ponyville?"

"A number of reasons," said Cadance, "the two biggest being that my sister-in-law resides in Ponyville with her family and I want you to try becoming good friends with her, the second reason is I think that Ponyville is just the kind of setting you need to finally calm your aching heart. I do not wish to forget your love, I just want you to find a way to come to terms with this tragedy in your life and I believe Ponyville is one of the best places for you to do that. I have always a believed that a love that is true and begets something as wonderful as the gifts we have will always find a way to overcome hardships, and have yet to encounter anything to contradict that. So I urge you to not lose faith in the love you shared with everypony in your life."

"I understand your majesty," said Lovestruck with a hopeful voice, "my greatest wishes right now are for Sky Emerald to no longer be afflicted by his curse and for my daughter to know her father."

"Both are good wishes," said Cadance with a smile, "and I hope that one day they can be answered in the way you hope.

“It's been so long since I was in Ponyville,” said Lovestruck with a bit of nostalgia, “I think Sweetheart Tale will do well there,” she gave a soft smile and said, “will your colt come to visit us?”

“Of course,” said Cadance, “he has somepony that he says might be very special to him in Ponyville,” she gave a smile that said she knew that it could be more than that.

“Mom,” came the worried voice Valiant Heart, “Story's disappeared again, I can't find her anywhe... there you are, what do think were... where did you get those?” What sounded like a Valiant Heart hitting the ground hard followed shortly after that.

The two mare rushed out of the Crystal Throne Room to where the colt and young filly were. When they found the two on the walkway that lead to the royal gardens it was hard not to laugh, they couldn't hold it in for more than five seconds before bursting into laughter at the sight. Valiant Heart was on walkway like he had just been hit with a paralysis spell while a bright green unicorn filly with a dark pink mane and tail was holding a collection of steamy romance novels in her pinkish violet magic and jumping about trying to get them out of the air. After watching the scene for about a minute Cadance undid the paralysis spell on Valiant while Lovestruck took the books from her daughter, Lovestruck's dark pink aura caused her daughter to giggle.

“Alright Lance,” said Cadance, “tell us what happened just before we got here,” she was lightly giggling between words.

“Vlance fall down,” said Story with a giggle.

The two mares giggled at the nickname Story used for Valiant.

“Well,” said Lance, “I was looking for Story after she managed disappear when I told her we wouldn't be playing hide and seek today, and then she shows up with those adult romance books in her saddle bags, I made a move to gently remove the books from her possession when she had a surge that full incapacitates me and some how made it so the books are floating just out of her reach. It was like that for a few seconds before you both made a go at showing up, sorry I did a bad job auntie Love.”

“You did just fine, Lance,” said Lovestruck, “I just thought she was out of the magical surge stage since the last surge was over five months ago.”

“So,” said Cadance with a smirk, “she's hopeless romantic like her mother?”

“No, she just likes reading different kinds of character interactions,” said Lovestruck, “Sweetheart, you aren't ready for those kinds of books.”

“She's not ready for books at all,” said Lance as he rubbed his legs, “she can barely read anything more than three sentences long.”

“She's five years old, Lance,” said Cadance, “you could barely read that much at her age, although you had stopped having surges at around where she is now. However, your aunt Twilight was so dedicated to learning magic at that age that she became capable of reading some of the more complex tomes after a few months of dedicated study.”

“I doubt Story will be up to Twilight's level of educational advancement, but I suppose she could help with her magic lessons.”

“Why is that?” Inquired Lance, seeing as he hadn't been present when Cadance had made her announcement to Lovestruck.

“Sweetheart and I will be moving to Ponyville tomorrow,” said Lovestruck, “your mother insisted on it.”

“Oh,” said Lance before he ruffled the filly's mane a bit, “I guess I won't be watching this little tyke then, I'll see about visiting you both when I'm in Ponyville.”

“I know, I just hope Sweetheart does well at making friends. I remember when she just met you both, the poor dear was so scared of you she tried to always keep me between the two of you.”

“One she was two years old,” said Valiant Heart, “and two she warmed up to us after a few weeks.”

“Yes well,” said Lovestruck, “I'm worried how she'll take meeting Twilight's family after all this time, the last time I saw Twilight was before Story was even born.”

Sweetheart Tale looked at her mother curiously, but didn't say anything. As much as she would like for her daughter to talk, Lovestruck had only heard her daughter twelve words over the filly's whole life. Those four words being mommy, daddy (which caused her husband to return to his affliction), auntie and Vlance being the most common, basic words like up, fall, down and in were among the words she attached to words associated ponies.

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It hadn't been hard to pack up their belongings that night, the two had very little in the way of personal possessions. Lovestruck looked out the window as she saw the landscape speeding by. After observing the scenery change she turned her attention back to her daughter, Sweetheart was still curled up next to her mother, the filly would tap her mother and point in the general direction of either the dining car or restroom when she wanted to leave their seat, and only if her mother did so with her. Wherever Lovestruck went her daughter followed, other passengers made comments about how cute the filly was, but she always shied away when those ponies drew closer.

The train ride took several hours, it was almost noon when they arrived in Ponyville and the two had caught the first train at just after sunrise. Twilight and her family were there to meet the two, and offered to help move their things into the house Cadance had prepared for them. Sweetheart was doing her best to hide behind her mother during the whole ordeal.

Starburst, the orange coated pegasus filly of Twilight Sparkle and Flash Sentry, had her large wings tied to her sides with a pink ribbon in addition her mane and tale which were almost identical to her mother's. In a foal carrier on Twilight's chest was the infant foal of the couple, Night Light, the little purple unicorn colt was giggling at the sight of Lovestruck and her daughter.

“Good to see you again Twilight,” said Lovestruck as she gave the purple alicorn a friendly nuzzle, “I would like you to meet my daughter, Sweetheart Tale, she's a little shy,” she gestured to the filly trying to hid behind her, “I know who these ponies are, you sent Cadance pictures with them all accompanying letters, some of which she shared with me.”

“You two have abilities that complement each other, it's no surprise that you would be among her counsel,” said Twilight.

“I was also he proxy, and stand-in when needed,” said Lovestruck in her usual gentle voice.

Night Light waved at the two and Starburst gave the two new ponies a curious look. “So,” said Flash, turning their attention to him, “ready for the start of your new Ponyville life? I know a few things have changed since you were last here.”

“Cadance let me know about all the big changes,” said Lovestruck, “I just want to settle down and see my little filly grow into a good pony.”

“That's all any parent really wants,” said Twilight with a smile, “come on we got everything ready for you, we made sure to do some little touch ups before your arrival.”

“Will Pinkie be throwing one of her infamous surprise parties?”

“Maybe, she's been a little busy with her daughter she was born.”

“How old is she?” Inquired Lovestruck.

“Eight,” said Flash as they gathered up all her luggage and began their trot through Ponyville, and towards her new home, Sweetheart keeping as close to her mother as possible, “Cotton Candy she was born around two years before Star here,” he gestured to the orange filly keeping pace with them, “She's a bundle of energy and her personal tastes are a bit more organized than most foals her age.”

“How old is Sweetheart Tale?” inquired Twilight, “Star's just barely six years now.”

“Sweetheart's five years old, she'll turning six around this time next month.”

“I see,” said Twilight, “well then, let's get you to your new home.”

Preparations and a New Acquaintance

It had been about five months since their moving to Ponyville and Lovestruck was happy to see Sweetheart had warmed up to other ponies quickly. The filly's first friend in town had turned out to be Del, not surprising as it had been the Apples that had first started to make the filly feel comfortable, her second had been Anthea, the two had actually started playing pranks on other ponies because of how similar their colors had turned out to be, and it had been during one of these excursions that Sweetheart had managed to bond with Cotton Candy, it wasn't soon after that she had warmed up to Starburst as well, and then all their other friends.

It had been while Sweetheart was helping out at Sugarcube Corner that the filly had found herself with a cutie mark, she had been transcribing a mess of recipes that Pinkie never really had taken the time to write down. When asked what the heart shaped book an cupcake shaped quill on her flank meant Sweetheart just said something about baking and stories in a manner that only Pinkie and Candy seemed to understand. Turned out that while Del was her first friend, Candy and Annie had quickly become her best friends, for entirely different reasons.

Over the months all of their friends had gotten their cutie marks, except for Candy. This was made more evident with the fact that her carnival plans kept getting delayed because something she ordered was lost or sent to the wrong town, and the ponies that had received her orders while surprised by the thing they hadn't ordered didn't want to give it up. Candy would fume about how much she had paid in advance and how she would never find a talent in entertainment if all her plans kept getting derailed by somepony consistently doing clerical errors. At first she thought had been the company she ordered from or the delivery companies she used, so after each third botch from them she would switch only to have a similar result with the new combination. Candy came over to the home of Sweetheart and Lovestruck to fume, mostly because she didn't want her other friends to see what an annoyed pony she was at this last botch, especially since she had heard from some highly reputable sources that both companies she had used were excellent at keeping to their agreements.

The scent of caramel and apples hit Candy's nose and she gave a little smile, Sweetheart was probably making a whole mess of caramel apples to take down to Sugarcube Corner, the bakery only had so much space it could dedicate to certain things and the cakes were more of the bake it type than a cheap treat en mass ponies. What surprised the bluish gray filly was the fact that Sweetheart had actually come out of the kitchen with a cake that had been fully decorated with members of the Apple clan and a number of large decorative apple trees.

“Um, what's with the cake that smells like caramel apples?” Said Candy as Sweetheart lowered the cake in her magic onto a stand that had a sign that said that if anypony touched what was on the stand they would be sorry.

After the cake was set down Sweetheart turned to her friend and said, “You sound like you're in a bad mood, and to answer your question it's for Mrs Applejack and Mr Caramel's wedding anniversary tomorrow. Del wanted to do something special for them, but he was worried they would spot his work, and we both know how much of bad liar he is,” Candy nodded, “so instead he passed me the recipe and told me to keep it for him until tomorrow morning. Also he wants this to be a surprise for them.”

“Oh,” said Candy, “it's that time of year again. Ah, pony feathers, mom and dad have their anniversary in three months!”

“Not to mention Mrs Twilight and Mr Flash have there's the month after that,” said Sweetheart with a shake of her head, “Mrs Rarity and Mr Spike have their anniversary the month before your parents too.”

“Why is it all their anniversaries are so clopping close together?” Cried Candy.

“Please watch your language,” said Sweetheart, “mom doesn't like it when you use harsh words, and I really don't want your negative outbursts ruining the freshly baked cake that Del labored Celestia knows how long over when it came to the recipe. A lot of ponies don't realize that the recipe can be harder than the dish itself.”

“I guess, but I just wasted another mass of bits, mom doesn't mind, but I'm going to owe her half our home when this is over. And you've seen the Party Palace.”

Sweetheart chuckled a bit before saying, “How long did it take you to get here?”

Candy gave a despondent sigh and said, “Half the day, I just found out last night the materials I ordered for the food stands got sent to Baltimare instead. I swear somepony really doesn't want me to get these deliveries.”

“Could I make some suggestions?” Inquired Sweetheart as she plopped herself down next to Candy.

“Sure,” said Candy, “what else do I have to lose?”

“Instead of paying them all of it in advance try half for the commission and half on delivery, that way even if the delivery is a flop you aren't out as much as you would be, and two why not have somepony you trust go and get what you've ordered instead of trusting a bunch of strangers to get what you need to you.”

“Heh,” said Candy, “look at you, a few months ago you were cringing at the the thought of interacting with new ponies and now you're giving advice on how do better business.”

“Too be fair it wasn't new ponies that scared me,” said Sweetheart, “it was my belief that everypony I met had some overarching expectations that I'd never be able to follow through on, I associated new ponies with unknown expectations, and it scared me. Yes, those mean stallions in the Crystal Empire were the catalyst for my fears, but it was my fears of what I thought they had wanted from me that galloped all over the place and settled in my fear center. You all helped with my fear over expectations, now the only expectations I care about are the kind that help motivate me to do better. I have you in part to thank for that, too me you are my best friend.”

“Thanks,” said Candy, “I was starting to think that everything I did up 'til now was pointless, you're right on both accounts, why should I pay them all my bits if it's not guarantee anything I asked for gets to Ponyville,” She got up and did dramatic pose as she said, “I am Cotton Candy, and nopony will get my way of making somepony smile! Besides, I still have give you your promised 'I'm sorry I scared you' carnival.”

“Mom just suggested a fair,” said Sweetheart as she rolled her eyes, “you're the one who jumped straight into a carnival for what to do. Now shoo, Annie's coming over later to help with a personal project of mine, and I really want the final to be a surprise for everypony.”

“Why Annie? Surely any of us could help,” said Candy.

“Yes, well Star's in Canterlot for the week, when Prism's actually being useful he tends to be a bit of blabber mouth, Del's got his chores, you've just told me what's occupying your mind and you really do need to head out to make it happen, Claire is pretty busy, T is helpful when he's not being a klutz, Whirlwind is busy today, and I really don't want any of our moms getting in on this yet.”

“Right, and Nighty's still too young to do anything beyond look cute.”

“To be fair I did ask missus Twilight if she and Nighty could occupy the the area in front of the house in about an hour, we need something to distract other ponies from what we're doing in here, and Nighty really does need to get more fresh air.”

Candy nodded and headed for the door. Just before opening the door she said, “This surprise better be super-rific, or I'm going to have to tell mom about it all, and you know how she gets when you don't do a surprise right!”

Candy opened the door to see Annie and T at the door, “So, is she she in?” Inquire Annie.

“Yuppers,” said Candy, “hey T, Sweetheart says this is project for just her and Annie right now, how about you escort me home, you know how I am with directions sometimes.”

This caused Annie to Snicker and roll her eyes as she trotted into the house and closed the door behind her, the first thing the supposedly blind unicorn 'saw' was the outline of a four tiered cake in the shape of an apple and done in colors that were found in a frighteningly accurate set of proper proportions of the colors found on Sweet Apple Acres, with the added bonus of little blurs the colors of Applejack, Caramel and Del near the top and blurs of the rest of the Ponyville Apples on the layer below. “Wow,” said the blind unicorn as she breathed in the apple and caramel scent of the cake, “this was Del's recipe?”

“Well,” the initial cake under the frosting and decorations,” said Sweetheart, “he said what he wanted in terms of decorations, I just put it all together the best I could, Del and June will be over tomorrow before their morning chores to pick it up.”

“What about missus Cheerilee and mister Big Mac?”

“They'll be running interference for the two, Del also insists that all of their friends not have any knowledge of this before it's picked up tomorrow, that's why I told mom she should spend some time bonding with missus Twilight. They trust all missus Applejack's friends, they honestly do, they just don't want to let anything slip and ruin the surprise.

“You're not worried Candy will blab about it?”

“I told her Del wanted it to be a surprise, and you know how missus Pinkie and Candy get with surprises.” Annie gave a nod.

“So, how have you been adjusting to school here in Ponville, you always seem to get pulled away by somepony and never come to be with us during free time or after the final bell.”

“You would not believe how many ponies think mom has the same ability as Princess Cadance, and how many think I have the same power,” she huffed, “fact is, every day during and after school somepony wants me to do love magic for them. I'm a baker and an author, not a love machine! No mater how many times I tell ponies this they keep asking for the same thing. Of the sixty plus odd ponies in our class forty-six have asked for me to use love magic, among those I've had thirty-nine repeaters. Of the entire class roughly seventy percent have asked me for love advice, I can only compare it to romance in novels and make a decision from there, of the fifty-two fillies in our class thirty-seven of them have asked me for relationship advice, I've yet to have a coltfriend. But enough of my ranting, we have a project due this coming Thursday, and weekends are usually the best time to get them done.”

“I'm surprised you can keep everything in order.”

“Part of my talent involves keeping things organized, that said my filing system is a total mess! I organize things based my general feelings more than some empirical system, missus Twilight would be horrified and really want me to learn a proper filing system, I just know it.”

Annie giggle a bit before saying, “if we manage to finish this project early is there anything in particular you want to do?”

“Well, I heard about what you and the princess did last week, thank the princesses mom dragged me out to Manehattan for that week, I would have probably been in the middle of making something when it hit me,” a light bulb went off in her head, “do you know any spells for changing the color of something?”

“What are you getting at?” Said Annie, “how does it relate to me?”

“Well, you know how our colors are basically the reverse of each other?”

“Um, yes,” said Annie, not entirely sure where this was going.

“What if you used a spell to have our coats and manes literally match each other, Candy and Prism wouldn't be able to us apart. And if we have you follow my basic routine, which I will provide you, and I follow yours they might think I'm you and you're me. We could fake them out, and maybe I could actually get a non-joke week for once in my life around here. While I appreciate those acts, they actually make me feel accepted around here, I would like just one day that doesn't involve an incident that almost causes me to lose my hoofing. However, project first, mind games second.”

“So, this where you were friend Anthea,” came a commanding female voice to their right.

Sweetheart looked over to the side and saw an alicorn with bat wings, “um, hello,” said Sweetheart, “I don't think we've been formally introduced.”

The alicorn smiled and said, “an illusion of a pony that is your colors reversed, how amusing.”

“Um, no she's real,” said Annie, “Nidra, this is Sweetheart, Sweetheart this Princess Nidra.”

“What are you two up to?”

“School science project,” said Sweetheart, “our assignment is to graph and name all the kinds of bugs around Ponville that aren't in the Everfree Forest. We've mad some pretty good progress.”

“Just five or six more and we're done,” said Annie, “Story and I work well together.”

Nidra cocked her head and looked at Sweetheart, “I thought you were her special somepony, she did call you Sweetheart.”

“Everypony makes that mistake a few times a month with me,” said Sweetheart, “my name is Sweetheart Tale, but Vlance called me Story when I was little, the nickname stuck.”

“Who's Vlance?” said both mares in unison, “Prince Valiant Heart,” said Sweetheart, “he was my foalsitter before we moved to Ponyille, “I called him Vlance when I was little.”

Nidra gave an amused smile before saying, “I think I just found a fun way to mess with him for a few days. So, you were planning on messing with your friends, I want in!”

“Schoolwork before play,” said Sweetheart, “the sooner its out of the way the sooner we can spend as much time as we want doing what we want, with the added bonus of having what everpony wanted us to do out of the way.”

“How do you find your little bugs anyway?” Inquired the bat winged mare.

“I read a book on entomology and as soon as I find a bug that lives in a habitat that's similar to that around Ponville I describe the bug in detail to Annie while drawing it in our field journal. The whole thing is due near the end of next week, but we know everypony else will usually waits until the last few days before their projects are due and make a bunch of stupid mistakes, we're making sure we do this right.”

“You're no fun,” said Nidra sticking out her tongue.

“Actually we should check our log before continuing,” said Annie, “How many did the teacher say we needed for this assignment?”

“Twenty or so,” said Sweetheart as she flipped through the journal, “and we have,” she slammed the book shut, “forty-seven, we're home free to do whatever we want all weekend and all of next week.”

“Good,” said Nidra with excitement, “now tell me about this little prank you two were cooking up, also explain why I should avoid that delicious smelling cake in the other room.”

“The cake is for Applejack and Caramel's wedding anniversary party, you can have a slice at the party tomorrow, until then DO NOT TOUCH and TELL NOPONY about any of what you have experienced and witnessed here,” said Sweetheart.

“Well, Story,” said Nidra, “I'll see what I can do, but no guarantees. Now, tell me about this prank of yours.”

“Since I really want to get pranked by Candy and Prism, and she wants a break from their foalishness, Story suggested we switch our colors and go about each others routines for a whole week.”

“Ooh, when?” Said an excited Nidra.

“After this coming week,” said Story, it'll take time to teach each other the nuances of what it means to be each other.”

“And you're going to need a few more ponies to help sell the act,” said Nidra, “T and Annie are almost always together,” she gave a dejected look that Story caught, but Annie was still unable to see, “so he'd know almost instantly if you weren't Annie.”

“And since I've only been seen with T a total six times since my coming to Ponville everypony seeing T suddenly spending an extortionate amount of time with 'me' might prove problematic,” said Story.

“Quick question,” said Nidra, “why are you acting like it's no big deal that I'm here? Usually ponies that learn who I am do the whole bowing to appease the princess thing, which I enjoy a great deal.”

“Three reasons,” said Story, “one, this is the place I call home, which you entered without the expressed permission of me or my mother. Two, I had Prince Valiant Heart for a foalsitter, he talked a bit about you as a way of keeping me entertained,” Nidra smiled at this, “and three, just because you're royalty doesn't mean you're entitled to everything you want. If we had met a few months ago I'd have been trying to hide from you in some corner or cubbyhole the moment I was aware of you.”

“What changed that?” Inquired Nidra.

“My friends and I, mostly Candy and me though,” said Annie, “we found just the right thing to do in order to make her feel comfortable, and she turned into a total social butterfly.”

“I guess,” said Story, “now we need to prepare for the game the week after next, since Princess Nidra clearly wants to get in on this, and I sincerely doubt we could keep her out of this I suggest she help with the preparations, and she might as well get whomever she thinks should also be in on this, just remember to keep this little circle very small. Since we're ultimately trying to prank Candy and Prism it should be a rule they can't be in on this prank, but maybe we can torture them with hinting that it's something that will involve them.”

“So, you want to play a long running prank on them,” said Nidra, “not just for the original planned time, I know just who get in on this, it's gonna be one of the best plays ever.”

“When this is over Prim and Candy will have probably pranked Annie, which is the whole point of the prank, that is to say we want to trick them into pranking Annie.”

“You are a special kind of genius,” said Nidra with a mischievous grin.

“Well, thank you, I think,” said Story, “I'll be writing the whole story down and having it transcribed for everypony to read, I am an author after all, I'm still trying to find the right kind of story to fit for me in terms of writing.”

“And why would you write about it all and make a go at publishing it?” Inquired Annie.

“Because,” said Story with a smile and pausing for dramatic emphasis, “it'll be funny to see how far we can embarrass them.”

“Oh,” said Nidra, “I really like her!” With that she was gone in a flash.

“Well, looks like Nidra has taken a liking to you,” said Annie.

“Is that good or bad?” Inquired Story.

“Both,” said Annie, “will this really get Prism and Annie to try pranking me?”

“That's the plan,” said Story, “Now let's guard the cake to make sure nopony tries to sample it before the appropriate time.

Author's Note

Since Candy's bio didn't really explain the conditions of her getting her cutie mark in relation carnivals I thought setting up for how could of happened would be nice. Also in terms the timeline of events some things might be a little flipped around, if so it was not fully my intention. I figured that while Candy did get her cutie mark last among her circle of friends the reason could be something as mundane as her plans for setting up for an event continually getting derailed for some reason. A whole lot of talking in this chapter, I just wanted to establish some character interactions that would be interesting, also I apologize if any of the characters were Out OF Character.