Wingless ~ Part One

Today's the day! Today's the day! Today's the day Princess Cadence comes to visit for the first time, and boy was the castle alive! Princess Twilight and Applejack were washing the floors and crystal walls, Pinkie Pie was in the kitchen preparing the meals, Fluttershy and her animals were gardening around the castle, Rainbow Dash was off to check on the weather report for the day, and Rarity was at the train station waiting for the train to Manehattan. During all this commotion, Spike checked off all the things on the "To-Do" list Twilight wrote for him as he watched the princess wash and dry the castle walls with her magic.

Twilight noticed Spike standing there, and cleared her throat, "So, is there anything else on the list we need to do?"

"Huh?" The purple dragon shook his head and looked at Twilight, "Oh yeah," He glanced at the list, tapping the end of the quill he held to his chin, "Uh, the time Princess Cadence is arriving still needs to be checked off."

The alicorn nodded and turned back to her work, "Rarity said she'd try that spell I taught her and will be sending a note shortly, saying when the train will be arriving."

"Okay," Spike scribbled some words next to check box and read aloud, "The flight path you and Princess Cadence are taking later this afternoon-"

"We're going straight from the castle, around the outskirts of Ponyville, over the Everfree Forest, and then back," Twilight interrupted with a tilt of her head, "Anything else?"

Spike frowned a bit and checked off a box. He looked at the list once more, "The last thing on here is the apple cider, it says here 'Don't let Pinkie make the cider alone, she doesn't seem to have learned how to put the Apple Family touch to the drink'."

Twilight Sparkle stopped what she was doing and cast Spike a confused look, "What? I didn't write that on the list..."

"That's 'cause I wrote it, sorry Twi, I forgot to tell y'all." Applejack apologized, wiping a strand of sweat off her forehead.

"Oh, it's okay Applejack," Twilight assured, "But, why did you write this?"

"Well, I was gonna let Pinkie Pie make the cider for this occasion, but the last time I had some of her apple cider, it wasn't quite... right. She hasn't learned the special technique as to how add the 'Apple Family' mark to the drink, so I thought I should help her out for this one. Is that alright with y'all?" Applejack asked.

Twilight thought for a moment, she examined the floors that still needed to be cleaned before Princess Cadence arrived, then tapped her chin with her hoof for a moment, "Hm... Yeah, it's alright! How about you get started on that before Pinkie does."

"You sure? What about the floors?"

"I can finish that for you once I'm done with this wall, it's the last one I need to clean."

Applejack hesitated for a moment, then dipped her head. "Okay then, I'll get right to it!" The earth pony placed the mop she was using to clean the floors on the floor and trotted down the hallway in the direction to the kitchen.

"Alright, Spike," Twilight used her magic to rinse the wall, "Could you get started on the floors while I rinse this wall? I'll help you as soon as I dry it okay?"

The purple dragon sighed and picked up the mop, "Okay."