Chapter 3 - Gathering the Elements

The next day Twilight woke Spike and brought him to the center of her library. She had set up a command room overnight, and had finally come up with a strategy for dealing with Wal-Mart.

A projector had been positioned at the rear of the room, facing a whiteboard covered in writing.

“Spike, Wal-Mart’s only been here for a few days, I know, but I’m done with them! They’ve corrupted our town!”

Spike yawned.

“How have they corrupted Ponyville, exactly?”

“Here is a list,” Twilight said pointing at the whiteboard, “of all the ponies currently working at Wal-Mart.”

Spike scanned the list, and noticed that more than a few ponies he knew were working there.

“So? They’ve got jobs at Wal-Mart, what’s the big deal?”

Twilight breathed deeply to control her rising anger.

“The big deal, Spikey-wikey,” she said sarcastically, “is that we’re losing our community to this store! Shops have been closed down, and the unemployed ponies are now working at Wal-Mart!”

“I still don’t get it....”

“They almost have a full monopoly on all business in Ponyville, Spike!”

Spike shrugged.

“I say again, so? It’s not like each pony didn’t already have a monopoly of their own before Wal-Mart came. Rarity was the only one you could buy your clothes from, Mr. and Mrs. Cake were the only bakers, Vinyl Scratch was the only seller of new CDs, and I could go on, but I think you get the point.”

“This is different, Spike! Instead of one business have a monopoly on one product, Wal-Mart is one business that’s going to have a monopoly on ALL the products!”

“I’ll say it one last time; so? Shopping will just be more convenient when you can buy everything in one place, plus it’ll save on receipt paper and plastic for the bags. Honestly, this is only a good thing, Twilight.”

Twilight was about to speak, but Spike held up his hand.

“Whatever it is, I don’t want to hear it; I’m going back to bed. If you want someone to agree with you, why not just talk to Fluttershy? You know how she is....”

Spike trudged back upstairs, and Twilight fumed. She gathered some things she thought she might need for her trip to Fluttershy’s cottage, then set out.

‘Who does he think he is?” she thought, “I thought he was my loyal assistant who would help me in a pinch, no matter what! Well, I don’t need him! I can solve this problem with Fluttershy and the others.’

Feeling more confident, Twilight’s stride increased, and she made it to Fluttershy’s in only a few hours.

Twilight walked up the cobble path to the front door and knocked rapidly.

“Fluttershy? Are you in there?”

After a couple minutes the door opened, and Fluttershy stood in the doorway, wearing a Wal-Mart vest!

Twilight’s mouth dropped open.

“How....?”

Fluttershy looked at the floor, and grew red in the face.

“Well, I....”

“THEY DON’T EVEN SELL PETS!!!!”

Fluttershy cringed, then nodded.

“I know, but the pet business is slowing down. There’s only so many ponies that want pets, and the rest I have to export to Canterlot, and I don’t like doing that to the poor babies, so I stopped breeding new pets.”

“But....but....”

Fluttershy put a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder.

“Don’t worry, it’ll be alright. I still have the chickens, the ferrets....”

“Fluttershy....why? Do you really need the money that badly?”

“Unfortunately, yes. I would have gladly worked for Rarity, but she can’t afford it, right now. In fact, I’m not sure how much longer she can keep her business at all....”

Twilight burst into tears on the spot.

“Fluttershy....you can’t....I need you guys right now....”

“Don’t worry, Twilight. It’ll be alright.”

Twilight rubbed the tears away.

“What about the others? Is anyone else working for Wal-Mart?”

“Pinkie Pie is working in the Bakery Department, I know. Applejack applied, but I don’t know if she got accepted or not. Rainbow Dash is still up in Cloudsdale, so probably not her. Rarity will be working there pretty soon, I’m sure. The Boutique won’t last much longer with how Wal-Mart’s prices are.”

Twilight nodded.

“Alright, I’m going to see Rainbow Dash.”

She turned to go, but stopped. She took a deep breath before she spoke.

“Good luck, Fluttershy. I suppose we won’t be spending too much time together for awhile....”

Fluttershy’s eyes got big, and she started to cry, but Twilight didn’t hear or see anything of the sort; she was already long gone.

Twilight raced home to brew another Cloud-Walking Potion for her trip to Cloudsdale. As a non-Pegasus, she was unable to walk on clouds like Rainbow Dash or Fluttershy could.

She poured the ingredients into the alembic*, and watched them swirl together until a sea-foam green concoction was formed.

She drained the alembic into her retort*, and let it sit for a few minutes before draining the mixture into a glass bottle. She corked it, then gathered her pack, and went back out the door.

She trotted across town into the outlying fields of Ponyville, then looked up. Above her head was the floating Pegasus City - Cloudsdale.

She had Spike bring her hot air balloon to the field, so she jumped into the basket, and turned on the mechanism to start filling the balloon.

When the balloon was ready, it took off, and Twilight guided it towards Cloudsdale. Despite how close the city looked from the ground, it was actually a half-hour trip before her basket touched the first artificial cloud that made up the Air Docks of Cloudsdale.

She opened the potion, downed the whole thing, then stepped out onto the cloud. Not surprisingly, the potion worked, and Twilight made her way to Rainbow Dash’s house on the far side of town.

She waved at the passing Pegasi, who were surprised to see a Unicorn walking among them. Many just shook their heads in disbelief, and continued with their daily business.

When Twilight made it to Rainbow’s house, she walked right in. Rainbow’s house didn’t have a door. At one point it did, until she destroyed it in a fit of rage after failing to claim first place in the Annual Cloudsdale Races.

“Rainbow Dash? Are you here?”

Twilight heard a ‘thump’ upstairs, then shortly afterwards, a groggy Rainbow Dash came down the stairs.

“Twilight? What are you doing here?”

“Rainbow, there’s trouble! A new store has opened up that’s destroying all the stores in Ponyville!”

Rainbow beckoned Twilight to follow her into the kitchen, where she started to brew some coffee.

“You talking about that new Wal-Mart down there?”

“Yeah, how did you know?”

“Who doesn’t know? It’s been on the news 3 days straight now. Nobody can stop talking about it!”

“Well, I hope you’re not planning on working there, are you?”

Rainbow shook her head.

“No, I have a job I barely go to now, and it’s close to home. If I had to work in Ponyville, I’d probably only show up once or twice a week. Why are you asking?”

Twilight smiled.

“Because I need your help to take down that Wal-Mart!”

Author's Note

An alembic and retort are devices used in alchemy - the art of creating potions from ingredients harvested in nature, or ingredients created artificially by combining various elements together.