The Tangerine Twin's Tickets
One cold Spring morning in Ponyville, the wind blew the remaining Autumn leaves away from the blossoming trees, which slowly let off a very pleasant scent to the park in which they stood. Being rather early in the morning, there were not many ponies around; spare the one or two who had to go to work at such an hour. One of those ponies included a grey pegasus, who hurriedly galloped across the park, her blonde hair waving above her orange eyes, which curiously looked towards different directions. She wore a brown mailbag around her torso, which bumped into the pegasus' side repeatedly, missing her bubble cutie mark, as she rushed to the other end of the park. Out the gates she went and continued in a straight line towards a house which was built from a large, wide tree.
Now, the pegasus was not paying attention to how close she was to this house, seeing as her depth perception was at a disadvantage due to her wall-eyes. She loudly bumped into the door and collapsed, hearing voices from inside as she got herself up.
"Twilight, mails here!" a fairly deep voice called.
There seemed to be no response, but the door opened and the pegasus saw before one of her eyes a short, purple and green dragon. He was young, yet mature and wore a pink apron sporting three small hearts. He smiled at the pegasus.
"Morning, Derpy!" he cheerfully said to greet the pegasus.
Derpy opened the bag on her torso using her wing and poked her head into it, searching for the mail that was to be delivered to this address. She found it, proved by a muffled "yay" from the bag. The dragon giggled as the blonde pony brought out two letters and a piece of paper and lowered it to be grabbed by him. He took them carefully with his claws and quickly looked through them.
"The letters are both for Twilight. What's this flyer?" he asked.
"Not too sure! It seems everypony in town's got one," Derpy recalled, "well, see you later, Spike!"
Spike said his goodbye too as the klutzy pegasus trotted quickly to the next house. Behind him, a lavender unicorn slowly climbed down the wooden staircase. Her purple and pink mane had been messed by her frantic night movement during sleep and she didn't want to fix it before she ate. Underneath her purple eyes were faded shades of black and small lines of bag, she had not slept well the previous night and it was visible in her appearance. She yawned loudly and smiled at Spike, wishing him a good morning. The dragon hesitantly returned the greeting, slightly shocked by her facial get-up.
"Did Derpy come with the mail?" she asked.
Spike nodded and handed her the letters, but waited for her to read them before he showed her the flyer. Whilst reading the first letter, she tutted loudly.
"Mayor Mare is threatening to shut down the library! Why would she do that?" she whined.
"You rarely get any customers, Twilight," Spike explained, "you're not exactly good at giving away books."
Twilight narrowed her eyes and glared at Spike, "what's that supposed to mean?"
The dragon sighed and looked towards the bookcase behind them, then told Twilight how every time a pony tries to take out a book, she tells them the entire plot or contents, making it so they don't actually need to read the book anymore. He also said sometimes she gets very protective over books and refuses to let ponies leave the library with them. Twilight sighed and accepted his reasoning. She sat at a table, bringing the letters with her with magic and set the one she read aside. She then noticed Spike clutching the flyer tightly.
"Spike, what's that you're holding?" she asked.
He replied, "it's a flyer. Derpy said everypony in town got one, but we don't usually get junk mail. I thought I'd throw it out."
"No, no. Let me see it, must be important if everypony got it," Twilight said, somewhat sarcastically.
Spike cautiously handed the flyer over to her and she studied it carefully, it didn't seem important, but she sounded enthusiastic about its content.
"Looks like there's a sampling of a new drink today. 'Tim and Tom's Tongue Tantalizing Tangerine Tonic', it says," she read.
She then looked up to her hair and blushed, then trotted back upstairs to sort herself out, forgetting about breakfast completely. Spike once again looked at the flier. It depicted two pale olive, tall, lanky unicorn stallions with matching, short orange mane and tails. Their cutie marks were different, yet similar; one showed a tangerine with a slice missing, the other had that missing slice. Their green eyes also stood out on the yellow paper. Spike set down the flier and turn to the kitchen to prepare breakfast.
***
A few hours later, Twilight and Spike made their way to the town square, where Tim and Tom planned to sample their tonic. To the unicorn and dragon's surprise, hundreds of ponies were eager to attend this event and the reason was all mutual between each and every one of them. Fliers were nailed to trees and in big, yellow letters were the words:
'WIN A TRIP TO LAS PEGASUS AND 2000 BITS - FIND ONE OF FIVE GOLDEN TICKETS IN YOUR FREE CUP OF TIM AND TOM'S TONGUE TANTALIZING TANGERINE TONIC!'
Twilight scanned the area, but the titular Tim and Tom were nowhere to be seen. Through the crowds of ponies, however, she saw three of her best friends and happily trotted over to them. The pink earth pony bounced happily, staring at the empty wooden stage, whilst the orange earth pony looked around frantically and the blue pegasus yawned out of boredom. As Twilight approached, the three perked up and happily greeted her and Spike.
"So, yer here to try these shady ponies' drink, too?" the orange pony asked with an obvious tone of annoyance in her voice.
"Oh, Applejack, don't be so jealous!" the pink bouncing pony beamed.
Applejack turned to her immediately, "I ain't jealous, Pinkie!"
The rainbow-haired pegasus giggled, "well at least I don't have to be bored anymore."
Ponies who were swarming with chatter suddenly quietened down as a soft purring could be heard from not too far off. Smoke slowly rose towards the sky as a large hunk of metal with wheels pulled in behind the wooden stage. It had several windows and was driven by a unicorn pony like one in the image on the poster. Attached to the vehicle was a contraption which looked very confusing and made strange noises. Sat beside this machine was the other pony from the poster, who had a very proud look on his face.
"This all looks mighty familiar..." Applejack commented.
"Yeah, well Rainbow Dash is thirsty," the pegasus responded, referring to herself.
The vehicle stopped and the purring sound faded away. Ponies remained silent until a door on the side of the vehicle opened up and they cheered as the olive pony stepped out with a large smile on his face. He waved towards his brother with the slice cutie mark, who trotted over to him as they both stepped onto the stage within the ponies' cheers.
"Pleasant party, Ponyville!" the one with the slice cutie mark said.
The ponies cheered, "Tim!" he finished.
"Tom, too!" the pony with the more full tangerine cutie mark introduced.
The ponies grew silent again as they awaited Tim and Tom to start their campaign.
"Did ya hear, Tim? Glorious golden ticket one is gone!" Tom said.
Tim jokingly slapped his left cheek the with his left hoof, "Glorious golden ticket one? Gobsmacked!"
"Looks like we wield four more for Ponyville!" Tom announced.
The ponies cheered again as Tom trotted over the the machine behind the vehicle and flipped a switch.
"Please, ponies. Frollick and form a neat single file line to the stage! You'll get your scrumptious sample in time!" Tim said.
Ponies chattered quietly and formed a line one by one, spreading into the entrance of Ponyville Park. Twilight, Applejack, Pinkie and Rainbow Dash were about halfway into the line, with various ponies in front of them. Applejack noticed that her older brother, Big Macintosh, was further ahead in the line, quite close to the front. Ponies started to move slowly forwards as they each received a small cup of tangerine tonic, as they took sips, their lips tightened as the sour mixture rested on their taste buds. It was a great feeling for them, exhilarating for their mouths. Ponies even began to go to the back of the long queue for more!
Eventually, Big Mac reached the front of the line and received his mug of tonic. He trotted to the side and downed it in one, not affected by how sour it was at all. He then looked inside the mug and gasped loudly. The chattering ponies all looked at him.
"I found a golden ticket!" he cheered.
Ponies cheered loudly for the red stallion as Tom took him to the stage with a microphone and the ponies hushed as Tom began to speak, "congratulations, fella! What's your name?"
"Big Macintosh," the pony replied.
"And any clue with what you'll do with the two-thousand bits?"
"Eenope," he replied, ponies that knew him well giggled quietly.
"Well, congratulations again! We'll give your two-thousand bits once we're nearly in LAS PEGASUS!" at the mere mention of the city, ponies whooped and hollered, stomping their hooves loudly on the ground.
Tom directed Big Mac to the vehicle, which he revealed to be a bus taking the lucky winners to Los Pegasus. It was another hour before another pony got the third golden ticket and it was a frisky purple earth pony with a syrupy mane.
"And what's your name, miss?" Tom asked.
"Berry Punch!" she quickly replied.
"And what'll you do with the mind-blowing money?"
"Hmm...maybe spend it on more of this AMAZING TONIC!" she shouted, holding her mug high in the air as ponies cheered and Tim and Tom laughed.
She was directed to the bus and now Twilight would finally receive her tonic. She levitated the mug with her magic and thanked Tim, then stepped aside to observe it. She looked in the see-through orange liquid and immediately saw something at the bottom.
"A golden ticket," she gasped.
"Looks like we've got our fourth winner already!" Tom announced.
Twilight wasn't even asked what she would do with the money she won, she didn't even get a chance to drink the tonic. She was hurriedly rushed to the bus. She sat in the row between Big Mac and Berry Punch and observed the event through the window. Applejack got her mug of tonic and took a small sip, then spat it out and poured it on the ground. Twilight stopped looking to laugh, but the next she knew it, Pinkie Pie was sat right next to her.
"Waah! Pinkie, what're you doing here?" Twilight asked in shock.
Pinkie explained how she was the finder of the final golden ticket and she quickly bounced onboard as soon as she got the ticket. Outside, Tim and Tom quickly wrapped up the festival, serving tonic at a break-neck pace and satisfying the last fifty or so ponies. The twins then climbed to the front of the bus.
"Well, lucky ticket winners, look at you all! Raring and ready to go to Las Pegasus already! In this sack is smaller sacks containing all the bits you've won. We just need to take quick stop to Fillydelphia to pick up the first ticket winner and we'll be on our way to the legendary city!" Tim explained.
Tom sat in the driver's seat and started up the bus. Twilight quickly opened the window and yelled to Applejack to take care of Spike when she was gone. Pinkie did the same to Rainbow Dash for Gummy. They then hastily made their way to Fillydelphia.
***
After an hour or so of driving in the cramped yet cozy bus, the gang arrived in Fillydelphia and the bus door opened. Onboard stepped a blue unicorn with wonderful silver and white hair and a wand and hat as her cutie mark. Everypony gasped and glared at her, she returned a similar glare. They all knew each other and they did not like it. The unicorn took a seat on the same row as Twilight and Pinkie, ignoring the greeting and introduction Tom gave her. She sneered at Twilight and spat in her direction.
"And what are you doing here?" she asked spitefully.
"I could ask the same to you, Trixie," Twilight replied ungracefully, "but that would be a dumb question."
The two glared at each other and then looked away childishly. The unicorns shunned one another for the rest of the trip, all seven hours of it.
***
At night, the occasional orange highway street lamp was suddenly replaced by bright neon and flashing light bulbs. Pinkie Pie was asleep, but Twilight woke her up so they could marvel at the bright sight before them. Outside were lights and signs of all colours, shapes and sizes. The simple town ponies were in amazement at the overwhelming richness of the city they had entered. A large, rhombus shaped sign read, 'Welcome to the marvelous LAS PEGASUS!'
The ponies excitedly admired everything they saw and were quickly handed their bit sacks by Tom. They all checked for authenticity and there was no sham, they had real money on their hooves!
"Welcome, fillies and gentlecolt, to Las Pegasus!" Tim and Tom both announced.
Everypony was in too much awe to see the brothers look to each other and grin menacingly as something on their flanks peeled off. Their cutie marks. Instead of their tangerines were apples.
