Where were you when you caught the fever?
Applejack watched, frazzled almost to a nervous breakdown, as Pinkie and the Earth Pony from Fillydelphia stood in the center ring. The Fillydelphia Arrows player, Pile Driver, faced inward, and had his left rear leg cocked like Applejack did, waiting for the toss-up.
Pile Driver had three options from this set. One; a straight wheel turn and kick. Two, watch the ball descend, then use a foreleg tap to float the ball into the basket, usually when the Pegasus Defensivepony was out of position, because they were avoiding option three; a vicious half-spin where he used his body's torque and his buck to put enough velocity on the ball to turn it into a high-powered cannon shot, and hope his Catcher could pull enough back off of it to get it into and then have it stay in the basket. Or it smacked into the opposition Defensivepony hard enough that even their progeny felt it two generations into the future.
Pinkie was following her usual strategy.
In other words…‘What strategy?’
She quickly laid down on her side, blinking bedroom eyes with her head propped up on her right hoof. “How’s it hanging, Big Boy?” she wheedled wantonly.
Just as the ball went airborne on the toss from the referee; the blow of the whistle putting it into play. The guy, blushing mightily, missed his buck by sixteen inches at least. Pinkie, still laying down, barely had to tap it to put it in the goal.
Pinkie’s giggling laugh followed in the wake of the now fuming Fillydelphia player as he went to talk to his teammates; the volume of the discussion increased markedly when he joined their huddle.
Applejack rushed out onto the field with water on the time out by Fillydelphia. Ponyville was ahead 2 to 0 in this game, best three out of five sets, and they were dominating. The Arrows wanted time to recover.
“Pinkie, that weren’t ‘zactly fair…” she started to say.
“Huh? He’s been trying to get me or Fluttershy upset since the first game set!” Pinkie said, an aggrieved expression on her face.
“It’s true; the scoundrel,” Fluttershy said disdainfully. “He said some…” she began, and then clapped one of her forehooves over her mouth.
“Well…they weren’t…ummm…polite things to say…I think…in front of lady ponies. Like that one; ‘something’ dumpster…” she continued, embarrassed.
Applejack’s eyes went wide, then narrowed. “I oughta buck that rig right inna teeth myself…” she rumbled dangerously.
“Nah, don’t do that, Applejack. I got this! Every time I flirt with him, he misses the ball by a mile!” Pinkie said gleefully, the high-wattage smile now back.
Applejack turned to Fluttershy. “Flutts, you want me to say sumthin' about it?” she asked.
“No,” she said quietly. “I’ll take care of it.”
They watched her start toward her position, and then hesitate for a moment to talk with the Fillydelphia Earth pony as their huddle broke.
“How ‘bout you, Snails?” Applejack asked.
Snails replied phlegmatically with his usual answer. “Naw, I’m good.”
He went back to his place, the bushel basket goal floating alongside him. Applejack marveled at how the young colt never got flustered on the field. Maybe hanging out with The Great and Powerful Trixie had its benefits. AJ pulled the water bucket off the field as she strode back to the sideline.
“Take ‘em, Ponyville!” she yelled, just before the whistle blew for the end of the timeout.
Pinkie settled in her spot in the jump ball circle, facing out for this toss, her right leg raised and moving back and forth as she considered her buck on the ball…and then she flipped into a headstand. She was about to say something to make the Arrows Bucker hopeless again; and then, she started to giggle.
The Fillydelphia Earther somehow had lightened three shades, and was a pallid ghost of his former self, trembling bad enough to start a small localized earth quake. Pinkie easily won the buck-off, put the ball in the goal before Fillydelphia’s defender could even flap a wing. That one was rapidly followed by three more, as Fillydelphia’s offense crumbled completely in this game. That was followed by two more winning games.
Final score: Ponyville wins against the Arrows, three sets to none. Shutout.
Applejack met them mid-field, hugging them in joy. They were soon joined by a fifth, as Rainbow Dash, still in her Wonderbolt flightsuit from the halftime show, joined her friends.
“That. Was. AMAZING!!” Rainbow Dash yelled at the top of her lungs. “It was like Fillydelphia’s team didn’t even show up for the final set!”
“Yeah! I was all like,” Pinkie said, all bared teeth and cute growl, “…and he was like ‘Wooo’,” she continued hastily, squirming like one of those inflatable attention-getters. Pinkie’s face looked like a very young filly at her first meeting with Luna doing her Nightmare Moon impression on Nightmare Night.
Scared to death.
“Waitaminute…what did you tell him, Fluttershy?” Pinkie asked mysteriously, suddenly remembering the brief conversation Fluttershy had with the Earth Pony at the start of the third set.
“Oh, that…” Fluttershy said softly. “I sort of told him I was going to ask my friend Discord what ‘___ dumpster’ meant, and that I hoped it wasn’t anything bad. Seeing as how he doesn’t like anypony picking on me, you know…” she finished, nose up, as she gently flew off in the direction of the locker room.
Four ponies stared after her in total shock.
“Blessed Celestia,” Applejack said contritely.
“You said it,” added Snails, considering that Discord definitely knew of a lot of things worse than an Ursa Minor.
“Ooooh…that’s gonna hurt…” Rainbow Dash said, cringing.
“Umm…I better save that Earth pony’s life, and break it to her gently instead,” Pinkie said, wheeling to gallop off after Fluttershy.
They watched silently as Ponk took off at a dead run. She caught up with Flutts at the halfway point.
“Ten to one Discord still kills him,” offered Rainbow Dash. Part of her was still internally wincing at the possible retributions Discord could rain down. Another part wondered about tickets.
“I’m not touchin' any of that,” replied Applejack, eyes wide…as she watched Fluttershy fly off, an animated pink floof talking a mile a minute alongside her.
“Do you have the newspaper?” asked a half-asleep Princess Celestia, staggering into the apartment's kitchen in her faded yellow housecoat and her favorite pink, outrageously fuzzy slippers. Her coffeepot floated alongside her, sloshing dangerously near the rim, as her aura tugged a large white coffee cup from the cabinet. Bleary-eyed, she poured herself a cup in midair. Celestia didn’t even bother to conceal the side of it as the words, “Let Twilight Handle It” started to appear on the outside. She then floated the pot and cup onto the table; the cup to the sugar and cream, the pot to its waiting trivet. The serving spoon for the sugar rapidly set to work digging itself through the center of the planet to Maretania as one snowy white spoonful after another disappeared into the brown liquid, then spun around in the cup as the cream cascaded into it next under an onslaught of sun yellow aura.
Luna and Celestia had just exchanged the Sun and Moon; Celestia not even bothering to get dressed for the event today. There were more important matters to attend to.
Luna was looking at something new in the frumpy, bland, staid, and slowly ossifiying CanterlotTimes…
A ‘Sports’ column.
“Yes, it’s right here,” she said to her barely awake elder Sister.
Celestia took a big pull on the mug of steaming hot caffeine augmented with enough sucrose to give Pinkie Pie hoofsprings. Flinching, she forced it down.
“Okay…give it to me straight…” she said with a wince.
“The Canterlot Nobles lost to Appleoosa, six to three. We’re in third place.”
Luna managed to snatch away the mug as Celestia, with a howl of anger, exploded into bright, actinic light. The kitchen curtains, however, were not so fortunate. The Canterlot Fire Department did manage to save the kitchen though, and prevented the fire from spreading.
“Yeee-HAWW!!” Sherriff Silver Star hollered. “Second Place!!”
Chief Thunderhooves positively beamed. “Is this true?”
“Shore ‘nuff! Looky here!” Silver Star said, showing the huge buffalo the sports page of the AppleoosaTumbleweed.
Chief Thunderhooves grinned wider. “Then today, you and all Appleoosa may stampede with us! It is a great day for us all!”
“Do not be sad, My Sister. We are in the playoffs at least,” Luna consoled, a foreleg around Celestia’s shoulders as The Bright Morning snuffled, near tears. Behind them, fireponies rolled hoses and cleaned up.
Celestia sighed despondently, her face fallen. “You watch, Luna…we’ll draw Ponyville in the first match, their home field, and we’ll get our horns handed to us…”
The Princess of Glorious Days sighed again. “Tartarus, I need a drink. Take me to that tavern you keep bragging about…” she said, dragging herself to her feet. She began peeling the remnants of the bedclothes free of her body as she worked her hoof and aura beneath the damaged remains.
“They are not open this early, My Sister…” Luna said, aghast.
“Well, bring two robust Guard ponies, a bag of bits, and a locksmith pony to open the door, then.” She floated off the tattered housecoat and her singed slippers, and exchanged them for a hairbrush, her usual shoes and peytral, and her crown. She idly spun her peytral around a foreleg as she brushed herself out, getting most of the singe and soot out, all except a patch on one haunch where the housecoat stuck for a moment too long. She’d have to finish burning that off later, a little more privately and safely, she decided.
What a start to a Sunday, she thought unenthusiastically…
“We’re out,” Shining Armor said quietly, keeping his face neutral. A copy of TheCrystalRegister lay on the floor near his chair.
“Finally,” Princess Cadance said testily. “About time the bleeding stopped.” She wasn’t neutral at all. Upset, distressed…fed up, definitely. But wayyy past neutral.
Shining resumed talking, his voice taking on a pleading edge. “Honey, look…it’s good exposure for the Empire, we can get some word of mouth going, use that huge stadium from the Equestria games…”
“Not with the Crystals in last place, it isn’t. Nopony is going to come up here for a losing team. Face it; you’re a great Captain of the Guard, a marvelous husband, a wonderful father…but you stink as a coach; even with all those military classes about professional development and physical training. Granted, every other city and town has ten to a hundred times the ponypower pool to draw from, sooo…” she retorted.
“What?” he asked, grumbling inwardly. She always busted his rump about the Guard. It may be on the paperwork somewhere that the Crystal Empire was hers, but for her to keep it was his bailiwick; his and the Guard, and she should remember that.
“Get a hold of your sister, get in to see some Ponyville practices, and figure out what they’re doing. See if the other team’s benches want to come north and get a shot, especially anypony wanting to get away from Appleoosa summers. Stick a hoof-pick in your wallet and compensate someponies wanting to move up here to play. We’ve got the gems for it.” Mi Amore Credenza, Princess Cadance, continued.
Cadance wasn’t unkind; far from it. The Princess of Love was, well, loving. But she had learned firsthoof what leadership meant for Alicorns from The Day Diarch Herself. Get all the information you could, and then, make the decision. Don’t wander about over it. Ruling meant ruling.
Besides, giving Shining a mild bruising to his ego would help him step it up in the long run. He was always better if you sunk a little spur with him, she thought lecherously with a secret smile…
“Read all about it! Manehattan in the playoffs! Ponyville Friends all alone in first!” the newspony called out at the newsstand on the corner in Manehattan near the train station.
Rarity bought the paper for something to read on the way back to Ponyville. She tugged it open to the sports section after seeing that her advertisement for her boutique, “Rarity For You”, was properly in place.
She was already smiling from ear to ear. The boutique was now solidly in the black, earning bits like mad, even with the high overhead of three sales associates, Coco Pommel managing while running her own productions, the rent and utilities, and three raccoons that suddenly had an aversion to trash for dinner. She did win over making Plaid Stripes’ ‘position’ an unpaid internship, and locking her rent in place for several years.
It was the greatest luck that Vinyl was overjoyed to run the ambient four out of seven days a week for free just for the exposure, or possibly in gratitude. Vinyl, AKA DJ PON3 now lived just fine on the tips. Rarity still lost her to the club upstairs starting on Fridays when Vinyl’s usual fans broke for her club and a little relaxation. It was okay on Sundays like today; the boutique was only open for limited times on private shows and personal fittings, and didn’t do the full presentation. Everypony was usually out the door by five PM or earlier. Even Vinyl was done by midnight at her place, unusual for Manehattan. It was Saddle Row, after all, not the club district, where the crawlers could keep a venue open all night.
Rarity had been upstairs to sign off on the agreement after her friends put it together with the DJ. She saw the sagging couch Vinyl was crashing on while she was away from the home she shared with Tavi; how all the bits were being spent on the club itself, as she scrimped on sleeping arrangements, personal furnishings, even resorting to eating ramen, and on occasion, unless she wanted ketchup soup, nothing at all.
Rarity had been furious. Without a word, she went back downstairs, made a few calls, and appointed herself Keeper of the Gate as her old fainting couch, (she had already taken delivery on a new one), a small but efficient combination griddle, toaster oven, and coffeemaker appliance, a trim but powerful microwave, and dorm-sized refrigerator marched themselves upstairs under guidance by a couple of burly moving Unicorns. Rarity had already placed her lovely office rug on the bare boards of the floor as the new furnishings arranged themselves in useful order.
Apparently Vinyl had told Tavi she was doing quite well, and didn’t require anything from home. Rarity conceded the point readily, but that she was not about to allow a fellow artiste to grub away like a college freshman. There were standards to be exceeded, and if Vinyl didn’t care for it one bit; she was more than welcome to return to Ponyville and spin records at Pinkie Pie’s parties.
The bluster worked, as it frequently did. Vinyl had been arguing with a particularly threadbare couch spring for the last week while trying to sleep, and caved immediately. Rarity left, smiling, with her signed paperwork, as a cute snore emanated from the very comfortably cushioned lounge…
And today, that smile deepened into a huge grin as she read the box scores. “Ooooh…playyyofffs!” she said in a singsong voice, as she folded the paper back up.
“Time for new uniforms!” she giggled.
“We need a team,” Spitfire said angrily with a mighty scowl, throwing her flight goggles inside, then slamming the door of her locker hard enough to be heard in Mareami.
The team had been running demonstration practice there at the Wonderbolt Academy…right up until the newspaper from Cloudsdale was delivered.
“Good luck in finding a Unicorn or Earth pony up here,” Soarin shrugged amiably, as he sat on one of the benches in the locker room with a towel draped around his neck. Cloudsdale was a solid source of Pegasi for defensive positions, but unlike the other towns, very few Earths or Unicorns even visited the cloud city. Something about falling through the wispy water condensate to the ground. Rainbow Dash’s friends were the only ponies that even showed up on anything like a regular basis…and most of them were all playing for Ponyville. Those that weren’t wouldn’t be caught in anything but Ponyville Purple.
She stared at him intensely as she took charge. “Clipper, go down to Rainbow Falls and our usual printshop and get a flyer mocked up for tryouts; see if there’s any interest for a Cloudsdale team. Get me a full report. Then, go see Rainbow Dash, and observe their team. Talk Crash up; she loves to chitchat. Diagram up some of the practice run-throughs they’re doing. I want their training methodologies and any diet and supplements they’re incorporating. I want to set-up our tryouts at the Falls within two months. Get the team and those Reserve nuggets together, consult our calendar and set a tryout date; then have that added to the flyers before printing. Get them out. And come up with a deep enough bench that we can put together a scrimmage team as well.”
“Sure, Skipper…but why the sudden interest in a buckball team?”
“Cloudsdale honor, you featherhead! Get on it!” she shouted.
“Okay, Big Mac…listen. I want to trade my Canterlot Bucker for your cousin Braeburn from Appleoosa, PLUS, give you a first-round draft pick for next year. Straight up off the top. Whadaya think?” Spike asked hopefully as he sat at the table in Sweet Apple Acres kitchen. It wasn’t that the Canterlot Bucker wasn’t good…far from it. But if he could manage to get the second place Appleoosa bomber for his fantasy team…
Big Mac looked at him disdainfully.
“Ee-nope.”
“AW, COME ON!” the little dragon groused. “It’s not like I’m asking for Pinkie Pie here!”
A hint of a smile crept across Big Mac’s face. He looked at Spike thoughtfully as he considered it.
Just as he slammed the door. Again.
“Ee-nope. He’s family.”
Spike’s face got red.
“HELP A FELLA OUT HERE! FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC!!” he roared.
“Ee-nope.”
“Fine! See if you can take that hilltop fortress without a wizard tonight…Sir McBiggun pain in the rump,” Spike growled treacherously.
Big Mac looked down at the floor sadly…
“What do you think?” Starlight Glimmer asked tiredly, half buried under a huge pile of scribbled on parchment as she sat on a cushion on the floor in Twilight’s Castle.
“Ummm…three to two, I think. Any margins?” Princess Twilight Sparkle replied, as she flitted about, consulting several chalk and whiteboards flung haphazardly around the large room there in Twilight’s Castle.
“Give me a minute. My brain hurts,” Starlight Glimmer said, flopping backward into the small hill. Idly, she started making a parchment angel. “Not to switch trails too much, but; do you really think Fluttershy is that vulnerable?” she asked, as she pushed a particularly stubborn scroll aside under her left rear leg with her aura.
“The first playoff game with the Ponyville Friends will be here, since we are just about to finish in first place. We have an open playfield here, and the Pink Cloud butterflies should be migrating about then. You know that Flutts will drop everything to escort them off the field…or any other critter…for safety’s sake,” Twilight sighed. “At least Celestia banned the Wonderbolts from playing; everypony on a club would be falling over each other recruiting them as defensive players.”
“Okay, fine. Now, how about the Canterlot Defensivepony?” Starlight asked.
Twilight consulted one of the whiteboards. “Fire Streak is as good as they come physically. He’s a former Wonderbolt; retired to be a teacher at the Young Fliers flight school in Cloudsdale rather than continue to wait around for Spitfire to give up the leader position. He’s still healthy. Plays straight forward, no wasted motion. No, the one I’m worried about Ponyville drawing in the playoffs is on the Manehattan Cosmopolitans. Lightning Dust. She’s a wild one, unpredictable, and almost as good as Flutts.”
“One team at a time, Twilight. You don’t have to be a bookie for the whole playoffs…”
“But it’s so much FUN!!” she said grandly as she smiled.
Starlight groaned inwardly, started pushing more parchment aside with her aura to put a halo on her Angel…
“Celestia…is this REALLY a good idea?” Princess Luna asked uneasily.
“What could possibly go wrong?” the Day Princess replied cheerfully. Maybe a bit TOO cheerfully.
“Our Subjects…” Luna pressed.
“Will just LOVE to see the Princesses out having a try at it. Charity benefit, you know,” Celestia continued, undeterred. She was wearing a singlet vest similar to what the actual players had, but in Canterlot Nobles very dark blue home colors, with her name on the back, and “#1 Fan” under it.
Luna was in the ‘away’ colors for the Nobles; white as opposed to the blue ‘home’ color, and just her name, in script lettering rather than the regulation block Celestia had. The trim stripes were gold on both vests.
They walked up to the playfield that had been set up on the inner courtyard of Canterlot Castle, where Cadance waited with a pair of regulation catch baskets in her aura. She was wearing the Crystal’s light turquoise ‘away’ colors, unadorned except the regulation team patch on her left chest.
“Did you decide on your charity, Cadance?” Luna asked conversationally.
“We still have some ponies having difficulty adjusting to freedom after Sombra. A donation of 10,000 bits will go to their therapy, win or lose. And you?"
“I haven’t decided yet. Celestia’s is going to the Senior Pony’s Home here in Canterlot, same wager.”
“I just want the bragging rights, anyway. Do we have any vic…ahem. Do we have competitors yet?” Celestia interjected breathlessly, excited.
“We can always order some of the Royal Guard to do it." Cadance said with a shrug.
“I do not like ordering ponies to do things outside of their sworn duties, Cadance. Free will is…” Luna said, frowning.
"Luna, if you want to ease their pain, you could donate to the Royal Guard Benevolence Association,” Cadance said, shifting the lollipop she had in her mouth into a cheek.
Celestia interrupted. “Oooh, let’s swap, then! You take the Senior’s Home, I’ll donate to the Benevolence Association. I always know what buttons to push on Trebuchet to get him to go along…”
“Sister…this isn’t ‘Kick Me’ signs or water pails propped on ajar doors. These ponies…” Luna pressed.
“Fine…I’ll sweeten the pot. Seventy-two hour liberty.” Celestia proffered.
“One hundred forty four…and train tickets for those that require them.” Luna countered.
“DONE!” Celestia cried, as the Diarchy tapped forehooves.
“I’m Bucker!” Celestia continued, trotting to the center circle.
“My Sister… you haven’t thrown a kick at ANYTHING for what, ten centuries…or was it eleven? The hastiludes of the Faire of Unity, during the joust tourney, I believe…”
“I’m Bucker!” Celestia said dangerously, eyes narrowed, staring at the other two Alicorns.
“Fine! Cadance, since Celestia’s manners have apparently slipped, what is your pleasure?” Luna asked gracefully.
“Catcher is fine. I really don’t want to be running everywhere or doing any aggressively fast flying, anyway. A kid takes a lot out of you. Are you okay with Defensepony? Or can we switch off?”
Suddenly, the three Alicorns looked at each other in confusion.
“Does anypony know the rules for this game?” they said to each other in unison…
“So…whadya think?” Applejack asked the flame-haired girl.
It was Saturday, and they were hanging out in the garage on Sweet Apple Acres. The Rainbooms instruments waited patiently for the rest of them to arrive for practice. Which meant AJ talking about one of her favorite things.
Sports.
The only one more of a fanatic about sports was Rainbow Dash. Since she wasn’t there yet, Applejack had to find someone else to talk about the subject with. Sunset wasn’t the face-painting type, but she did have a casual interest in the area under discussion, and would make an acceptable substitute until RD got there.
“I don’t know, Applejack,” Sunset Shimmer said, frowning. “We’d have to coordinate the visit with Princess Twilight, you know. She’s pretty busy…”
“Sunset…it’s the playoffs!”
“I know! Look, AJ…you wouldn’t have even cared about buckball in the first place if I hadn’t kept on talking about those messages from Princess Twilight. I know you’re competitive, but somebody, er, somepony may think Starlight Glimmer was fooling around with that similo duplexis accelero spell thingy again if they saw a whole set of duplicates of the six of them sitting in the stands. Especially if they saw Fluttershy and Pinkie watching themselves playing from said stands, and you observing yourself coaching them!”
“What coaching?” Twilight Sparkle said, walking in just then. “I thought we were singing today?” Spike looked up at Twilight from the basket he was resting in, then rolled over and went back to sleep.
“Twi…how would you like to go watch a professional sports game?” AJ said quickly.
“Hmmm. At this time of year, baseball is closing in on the pennant race championships. Now, football is barely getting started, and hockey is too early, as is basketball. Of the two, our city only has a farm club baseball team which just finished up hopelessly mired way out of the playoffs. And to see any of the other teams’ games, we’ll have to have someone drive us, or take a bus. Plus, it’s expensive. Do you already have tickets?”
“Better’n that! We know the players on the team!”
Sunset rolled her eyes.
“That’s ridiculous. We don’t know any professional athletes,” Twilight said, confused.
“Shoot, Twi. We know every one of ‘em. Could say, we know ‘em as well as we know ourselves.” Applejack said slyly, grinning from ear to ear. The ones on the sides of her head, not the pony ones that appeared on occasion.
Twilight looked at Sunset weakly. “Is she thinking what I think she’s thinking?”
“Oh, yeah,” Sunset said, nodding.
Twilight threw her hands helplessly up into the air, exasperated.
“Are you crazy? I’m no good as a pony! I can barely fly, I trip over my own four feet, and I pulled three doors off their hinges with my Magic the last time there! Why on earth would we want to go back so soon?”
“Go back where?” Rarity asked, as she led Pinkie, Dash, Flutts, and the Dazzlings into AJ’s garage. The girls were festooned with several bags of fabric, sewing supplies, trim, odds and ends, various bric-a-brac, and heaven knows what else.
“Ah thought you said you were jest stopping at one place,” Applejack said grumpily. Counting instruments, people, gear, the usual denizens of the garage, and all the shopping bags, if anybody wanted to change their mind, they would have to go outside for the room.
Adagio held up one tiny pink bag from ‘Intimate’s Secret’. “I did.”
AJ scoffed, exasperated. “ONE tiny bag? Of UNDERWEAR?”
“Not just any underwear, Applejack.” Adagio pulled it out, a tiny, gauzy thing in a violent purple. The receipt fell onto the floor.
Applejack picked it up, read it, and blanched. “ARE YOU KIDDIN’ ME? YOU PAID THIS MUCH,” she hollered, holding the receipt high in the air, “…FOR THAT!??”
“Uh-huh,” Adagio said silkily.
“Are you out of yer ever lovin’ mind, Adagio? Why??”
“Because I look really good in it,” the Dazzling said, all heavy-lidded eyes and secret smile. “You wanna see, AJ?” she breathed huskily. And for good measure, she snaked a tongue around her lips.
Applejack blanched.
Sunset knew Adagio was straight, since Dagi lived with her, but shortly after the Dazzling was ‘reformed’, along with her friends, Adagio had been developing as a person. And one of the things Sunset discovered about her was that she had a very, very wicked, iniquitous sense of humor. Humor that found a perfect foil in the conservative, straight-laced Applejack.
She exercised it almost every chance she got.
AJ rapidly and somewhat forcefully changed the subject. “Then where’d all this come from?”
Adagio shrugged, put the thing back in the bag, and flirtily picked up the receipt from Applejack, who was still visibly frowning and quite upset. And blushing slightly.
Aria, in a flat, almost disdainfully bored voice, jerked a thumb over her shoulder at the fashionista. “It’s her fault.” She stretched out her cramped arm muscles.
“Rarity…what did you do?” Sunset asked
Rarity made her own scoffing sound, carefully pronouncing each letter of the sound as she was wont to do. “There was a sale, darling. One simply does not ignore sales.” She started digging around in a bag.
Rainbow Dash divested herself of her burdens with a grateful groan. “Did I hear you right? Go back?”
“Ah was jest makin’ that point, Rainbow Dash,” Applejack pointed out.
“We should TOTALLY go back! It’s the playoffs!” she grinned.
“Not you, too!” Twilight said apprehensively.
“They need us, Twilight! We gotta go support them!!” she said excitedly.
“Um…isn’t anyone else going to bring up the clothes thing?” Fluttershy said quietly.
Adagio saw her opening.
“Did you want to borrow my underwear, Fluttershy? You might have to wrestle Applejack for them, though,” she said with an exceptionally naughty grin.
“How’s my hat?” Derpy asked.
Her hubby pulled his nose out of the center console door of the TARDIS to look. “Not quite as adorable as the Who that’s wearing it, my dear. But it is quite lovely. I always thought stovepipes were stylish. And the color bands do something,” he said.
He really didn’t understand all the excitement about sports, but if it made her happy…
“Great!” Derpy said chirpily. She set a large bag on the floor of the upper platform; started hoofing out the contents item by item, as Sparkler checked them off of a paper pinned under a clipboard’s bright and shiny metal clip. Dinky then loaded them into Mom’s beat up favorite pair of saddlebags.
“Let’s see now…big giant foam #1 ‘hand’ thingies, (she still didn’t get how Lyra knew about hands, but Lyra and Bon-Bon were doing land office business selling them), one each, plus the spare.”
“Check, Mother.”
“Two tubes facepaint each, Ponyville colors, purple, light blue, and white.”
“Check, Mother.”
“Four Ponyville Friends neck scarves.”
“Correct.”
“Here now! None for me! I already have a scarf,” ‘John Smith’ pointed out.
“It’s not the right colors, Dearest,” Derpy said. “It’s every other color under Celestia’s Sun, but somehow no Ponyville team colors made it in.”
“I shan’t leave my old friend behind, especially since we are making a holiday of it. Tisn’t right, you know,” he said obstinately, glaring at them.
“Oh, fine, then,” she said in a huff. “Three Ponyville Friends neck scares,” she said, then added impishly with a smile, “…plus one spare.”
“I am constantly astounded and flabbergasted as to how you always know the right thing to say, Luv,” he grinned with that toothy grin of his.
Sparkler chuckled. “Three plus a spare.”
“Now…uniform vests.” Derpy dug around in the bag, pulled out one…
“This is for you,” she said, as she held it out to him.
He took it. It wasn’t TARDIS blue, but…
It was an exact regulation uniform, all the way to the material and the tags, in Ponyville Purple. On the back…the player name space said ‘Doc’; and on the back…was an infinity symbol.
“I hope that works,” she said lovingly. “It only took a little convincing to get Rarity to make it like that.”
He stared at it, then her, then the kids, then the singlet, then her again, and continued to vacillate between all of them.
“Children…I am glad you were all here to witness this singular moment in all of Time and Space…when your Dad had absolutely nothing to say,” she said proudly, eyes swimming.
“I hereby call this meeting to order,” Mayor Mare said, banging the gavel once against the sound block. She was all no nonsense. “Okay. Let’s have it.”
Starlight Glimmer cleared her throat. “Mayor…the estimated crowd is going to be huge. Buckball fever has taken all of Equestria. The Buckball Federation estimates they can sell thirty thousand tickets for the playoff here in Ponyville.”
“Thirty thousand!??”
“Easily thirty thousand. Possibly more, if we could accommodate it,” Starlight reiterated.
Mayor Mare sat down heavily in stupefied shock.
“I have a town of four hundred ponies. Four hundred. Not even four thousand. I don’t have infrastructure for this! Where do I put all of them? Where could they even stable up overnight? Not enough restaurants, not enough bathrooms; even if everpony opened their doors for a stranger to use their home! Not even enough water if everypony drank out of the river! Celestia Knows, the economic activity would be amazing for our little corner of Equestria, but thirty thousand…!”
Starlight Glimmer smiled. “Fortunately, I think I came across a solution for you…” she said, as her aura opened the door.
And in walked four Alicorns, Princess Celestia in the lead.
The relief on Mayor Mare’s face was tangible as she bowed. “Majesties…I am so glad you took time from your busy schedules…”
Princess Celestia waved a hoof dismissively. “Think nothing of it, my little pony. We had considered that you may need help with this. May We?” Celestia asked cheerfully.
“Certainly, Princess,” Mayor Mare said gratefully. “Please, continue...”
“We Thank You. Canterlot will make available to Ponyville Our Raising Ceremonies support committee and teams. We have portable bleacher seating and temporary infrastructure; bathrooms, water, and such, adequate enough to accommodate twenty thousand. I’m sorry, Mayor, that’s our largest venue support. Unfortunately, it will impact ticket prices accordingly. In addition, Royalty Land will be made available to place it, if they don’t mind some minimal scarring left over from Princess Twilight’s little tiff with Tirek. And one last helping of sugar…Our Disaster Relief kitchens, sheltering, and field sanitation will help with meals, stabling, and cleaning up afterwards. They need the practice. I’m sure the Cakes and the Twists can run those kitchens along with Canterlot restaurateurs adequately for a day. Besides, most ponies will be providing their own day feed; Starlight Glimmer has learned of a game tradition, something called ‘tailgating’?”
“Yes, Princess. In fact, it’s quite a social scene. Grilled vegetables, cider, coffee, tea, soft drinks…”
“See? There you are. And We do hereby state for the Record, should Ponyville need such support, Canterlot will always heed Her call. Yes?”
“Thank you, Majesty! On behalf of Ponyville…”
“Hold on there, Mayor,” Princess Twilight Sparkle said, eyeing the Benevolent Light. “May We speak with you a moment, Princess Celestia?”
“Of course,” Celestia answered breezily. “Be right back, Mayor.”
Once out of earshot, the three other Princesses turned and looked at Celestia, who was a good deal less breezy at the moment.
“You’re being pretty fast and loose with the taxpayer’s bits, Celestia. What will all this cost?” Twilight asked, staring hard at Celestia.
“Hardly a pittance, Princesses! We simply plan to use it as a disaster relief training drill. Discord would be happy to move the bleachers there and back for Fluttershy. Maybe even set them up and tear them down. The same goes with the other equipment. The supplemental Guard unit for security does tentage all the time, and they know field sanitation like the curve of their hooves. Supply trains for the kitchens and such, ditto. It’s a full on training moment!”
Celestia smiled grandly at each of them in turn; perhaps just a touch too expectantly.
“Luna…” Twilight started to say.
Luna peered at Celestia. “She’s up to something, Twilight. What exactly, I do not know. But she has that ‘guilty’ look all over her face…”
“No I don’t!” Celestia said, alarmed. “Cadance, help me out here…”
”Don’t look at me, Aunt Cely. Neutral territory here. I’m not sticking my muzzle into this. I’m in it for a day’s vacation. Crystal Empire’s Official Position is that we will help wherever needed and asked to be, such as the little game with the Guard at halftime. Otherwise, the Prince and Princess are taking the day off to take their baby on a little adventure to see family and Auntie Pinkie Pie. ¿Entiendes?”
“You know I hate it when you switch languages, Cadance. Luckily, I know what that means,” Celestia groused. She went on. “Look…I had the numbers run. This is absolutely revenue positive, given most of the expensive stuff is under the Defense Preparedness training budget, and that is a required expense. We even show a modest positive on the revenue sharing from ticket sales. Ponyville will have a bigger number than either Canterlot or the Buckball Federation as host, guaranteed, and this does not count tax receipts from food and memorabilia sales. Canterlot gets their vendor tax revenue, Ponyville theirs, even those ponies from other places pay theirs to the respective governments. Nice and equitable, okay? Sooo…I was going to ask the Mayor for a little help…with Applejack.”
The guilty smile was back.
“ALL of it, Celestia,” Luna pressed, scowling.
“Umm…maybe get Applejack to…part with her first draft pick. And maybe give it to Canterlot?” she said, wincing slightly, one eye half closed against the coming lectures…
She was right. They came…
Loudly...
“Ladyfillies and Gentlecolts, please rise for the Equestrian Anthem, followed by the Ponyville town song!!” Spikes voice sang out over the speakers.
“It's nice that I didn’t get pushed into this,” said another baby dragon elsewhere.
Everypony stood up as Coloratura began to play...
As the first notes of the introduction played, Applejack tugged her Studson off, as others pulled their team hats off as well. Everypony’s voice joined Rara in the music, including hers.
As the last notes died, a roaring cheer filled the stadium. On the field sideline, Applejack stared at the crowds, smiling.
“Cain you believe this, Big Mac? Honestly, I was just thinkin’ ‘bout a little intramural rivalry. Ah never thought…” she said as her voice tapered out…
“Ee-yup!” Big Mac said, hugging her. Twilight smiled.
“Well…that’s my cue! Introductions, itinerary, and the commemorative bit coin toss! Be right back…” she said as she went to the center circle where the microphone waited with Spike.
“And now, Ponyville is proud to introduce to you; our very own…Prrrincess Twiiilight Sparkle!!” Spike cried with a flourish, his claw extended in her direction. The roar got louder.
Spike put the mike on its stand as Twilight walked up. Twilight adjusted it quickly to her height with her aura, then stood at the stand. Spike stood next to her.
“Ladies and Gentlecolts…Ponyville would like to welcome all of you to the FIRST annual Buckball Playoffs!”
The roar grew again. Twilight waved a hoof after a few moments, and the crowd quieted somewhat.
“As you all know, Ponyville drew Canterlot for our first game in the playoffs. I would like to welcome the Canterlot Nobles to our home field!” she said as the roar seemingly split into two factions, each trying to outdo the other.
Up in the Royal Box, Celestia scowled, looking like she wanted to say something rude. For some reason, the Box was surrounded by a legion of Ponyville’s loudest and most ardent supporters.
“Cely…don’t,” warned Luna.
Celestia was completely into her “fan” mode. She was now wearing the white ‘away’ singlet short sleeve shirt with her usual name in block, and “#1 Fan” in the dark blue contrast. Luna was in her white vest as well, her name still in script.
That was where the similarity ended. Somehow, Celestia managed to have almost every officially licensed item the Nobles had approved festooned upon her. The funny hat, in her case a newsboy cap with gold piping and alternating team colors in the panels which also included some sort of wacky device attached to the hat. It held two bottles of carbonated soda pop, and an intricate set of hoses leading to a mouthpiece. She eschewed the usual ‘#1 foam hand’; instead, she went with a pair of cheerleader pom-poms, the extra large ones from some forty years ago, according to Luna’s research. The scarf, the socks, the face paint, sweatbands for fetlocks and brow, a fetlockwatch, worn over the sweatband, which was worn over the sock of one forehoof; sporting its own Canterlot Nobles colored bands.
Luna couldn’t decide if it was for team support, or for a halftime clown party. Starlight Glimmer had at least let Luna off the hook earlier in private, though Starlight unseemingly chuckled a bit too much over it. Having a gate tied to her tail like she thought she needed would have been uncomfortable. And embarrassing.
“Twilight planned this. I know she planned this, the little manticore. Not a fellow Canterloter within a quarter-league of us,” Celestia growled. “We could use the Royal Canterlot Voice at full volume, and nopony would hear a peep. I ought to have her arrested, spray-painted in Canterlot colors, and have her fly around me on the end of a string and stick.”
“Sister. Allow Twilight her small victory. Mayhap the Nobles will rout these knaves and liberate us upon their win. In the meantime…you’re not actually planning to play in all of those trappings, are you?” Luna asked with some trepidation.
“Nah, I’ll take it off before halftime. Gotta get the old legs loose…”
“Aw, man, this is boring,” the Spike in the bleachers said, sighing loudly, as he thumbed through a program absent-mindedly. Sports just weren’t his thing. Standing up, he stretched, looking around for a squirrel or two to chase.
Twilight stared at him until he sat back down.
The…‘visitors’…in this case, the originally ‘human’ ones, the figuratively human ‘appearing’ ones, and one former dog, were in a set of Ponyville Friends skirts, duplicates of those worn by Cherilee and her cheer team; purple ones pony Rarity gave them once they came across the threshold of the Mirror. They were adequate for the modesty issue, especially with the tight, attractive shorts that came with them. Not that anybody was looking. The more obvious Equestria equine anatomy of legs, tails, ears, muzzles, and a small smattering of wings and horns was disconcerting enough. Nobody among them was about to start peeking underneath tails; theirs, or anyone, er, anypony elses. Even Pinkie Pie, whose normal naiveté and insatiable curiosity would usually drive her across that particular line without trouble. The skirts also came with singlet vests, just like the players themselves wore.
AJ (human) had told Applejack (pony) way back when how jerseys like the ones the players wore were very popular on her world, and a very popular fan item. So Applejack put her head together with Rarity to come up with a system that everypony, the teams, and the Buckball Federation could agree on several weeks ago at the beginning.
Two team colors, home, and away. That was easy enough. A regulation ‘Buckball Federation’ patch on the left chest. Adding names on the jerseys…a little harder, but justifiable, as not everypony watching a game might know the players by sight. Also done.
Then came the little war about numbers…
Twilight and her faction wanted the organizational structure of numbering the players. Applejack and hers leaned against it; because of the cost, inventory, and general nuisance of it. There were only three players to a team on the field anyway. Three different tribes. Anypony could keep track of that.
Luna, with Celestia’s blessing, finally broke the logjam. Larger player names, easily read. And no numbers. After all, there were only three ponies on the field as a team. And they were not only three entirely different tribes, but usually three entirely different colors as well.
Rarity had adapted the team leader vests from Winter Wrap-Up, coming up with a neat, clean short sleeve singlet that didn’t interfere with physical movement, yet boldly (and BOLDLY was what Rarity was all about, anyway) stated who the team was, declared which team was playing as the home or away team, and who the player was. And the decision left all that space on the back of the jersey for a little “poetic license” by the owning fan.
Celestia and Derpy went all in. Celestia imperiously declared herself the #1 fan of the Nobles, and of course Derpy; on the uniform she gave ‘John’.
The players, of course, didn’t embellish theirs because of the regulations. But the ‘visitors’…
“Everyone is staring at us,” Fluttershy said softly, eyes nervously darting about. Her back had her name…and “yay…”
“Like, Duh! We’re famous!” Rainbow Dash yelled, smiling. Hers said "R. Dash", and “Awesome!” She waved at a few ponies, who returned it with some confusion and more than a few bewildered frowns and mouths open in surprise.
“You mean they’re famous, darling. We just happen to look like them,” Rarity added. “Fabulous!” was on hers. She was feeling the eyes, too.
AJ watched the uneasy ponies around her whispering at each other behind their hooves as they stared. “Sugarcube” was written on her back.
“Sunset…” she started to say anxiously…
“Uhmm…” was all Sunset Shimmer managed to get out, before she too was stunned into silence. On hers…
“None Taken”. She actually appreciated the inside joke.
The light heliotrope pony with the group smiled. “I got this,” Starlight Glimmer said, grinning. Starlight didn’t have anything on hers, on her insistence. “Our Town” required some discussion with the others back home before she put that on it.
“Hey everypony? We’re sorry. I had a little accident with a spell this morning, and duplicated the girls. I hope you don’t mind; they wanted to see the game, too.”
The faces staring at the unusual group rapidly changed from uncomfortable to sympathetic. “Oh, that explains why there’s two Princess Sparkles! I was wondering…” said a dazzling translucent white Crystal Pony nearby. He was actually relieved that for once, everypony wasn’t staring at him.
In the middle of this novel oddity, three Sirens sat in almost perfect anonymity, tails coiled neatly underneath them for comfort. They also had singlets, fitted for their anatomy. In their cases, they just stuck with their names.
“Can you believe this?’ Adagio Dazzle said, incredulous.
“Not really,” Aria Blaze said apathetically. Adagio stared at her in amazement.
“It’s like, I’m transparent!” Sonata Dusk said cheerily.
“No. He’s transparent,” Aria pointed out disdainfully. Sonata followed the pointing hoof.
“Oh, shut up,” Sonata said to the other Dazzling, after seeing the Crystal pony. “You’re the worst,” she added snarkily.
Adagio clapped a front hoof to her face. “No matter what world we’re in, you two just have to act like idiots,” she said, irritated.
“I didn’t want to go, remember?” Aria said matter-of-factly, pouting, forehooves crossed in front. Sonata looked at her, and then Adagio, as she shrugged.
“Just watch the game,” Adagio rumbled under her breath, a pained look on her face.
Rainbow Dash was oblivious to all the anxiety. “C’mon, Ponyville!!” she shouted.
“Yeah! Ponyville! Woo-hoo!” Pinkie Pie cried enthusiastically, “Whaaat?” was written under her name.
Sunset Shimmer smiled.
“You know…this is just about the most amazing thing I’ve ever been involved in,” she said to her Twilight Sparkle.
Science Twilight was unusually quiet, still trying to get caught up to all the things that happened to her, and her back didn’t have her catchphrase yet, either. But they were all trying to think one up to be put on afterward. Something simple.
Starlight Glimmer overheard the statement. “Why is that?” she asked.
“Here I am. In Ponyville. With six friends that look like ponies, three Sirens, and now you. Just a short time ago, I was turning into a raving she-demon…”
“You? I had entrapped an entire village, ripped away everypony’s Cutie Marks, and was making plans to do the same thing to all of Equestria…” Starlight Glimmer interjected.
“Gee…that kinda makes me the odd girl out. I was just tearing down inter-dimensional barriers and getting ready to fuse two worlds into one…” Sci-Twilight Sparkle said offhandedly, as she finished cleaning her glasses.
“At least all we were doing was singing to make everyone do what we wanted. We didn’t get pulled into this ultra-domination thing until that one,” Adagio said, pointing with a forehoof at the field where another purple Alicorn was speaking, “…showed up and started dumping Equestrian Magic everywhere…”
The four of them suddenly looked at each other, and started laughing…
“We should get together after this, and compare notes,” Starlight Glimmer said, wiping tears out of her eyes.
“Won’t that make everypony’s day?” Sunset Shimmer said, chuckling. “I wonder if Equestria has a “Do Not Fly” list of its own somewhere.”
“Wouldn’t help,” Adagio Dazzling said, spreading out her wings.
“Me, neither,” Human/Pony Sci-Twi Sparkle smiled, raising hers up. “Even as clumsy as I am. I guess you two would just have to walk.”
A light turquoise aura surrounded Starlight Glimmer as she lifted up slightly. “Not me. That means somepony has to carry Sunset.”
“Hey, Starlight…can you teach me how to do that?” Sunset Shimmer asked wonderingly.
“Sure! It’s actually really easy, too. Everypony already knows leviosa practically from birth. Throw in a little accelero, and ‘Bam!’; away you go!”
A loud, pointed “Ahem!” sounded behind them.
They turned to see their friends staring at them.
“What? What's wrong?” Starlight Glimmer asked, concerned.
“The game, darlings? It is the reason we are here, after all,” Rarity said, glaring at them. She was hoofing her necklace. The new one, that had the purple jewel with white background on it.
“Oh, come on, Rarity! We’re just having a little fun here,” Sunset said calmly.
AJ was staring at them hard, too. “Y’all cain have yer fun after Ponyville wins.” She put a front hoof out, and gently grounded Starlight Glimmer in her seat on the bleacher. “In the meantime sugarcube, please, down in front.”
“It’s just a game, AJ,” Sci-Twi said helpfully, as she put on and then adjusted her glasses.
“Just a game? JUST A GAME??” AJ said in shock. She sat down, appalled.
“Heathens. They’re…they’re heathens. Cain’t take ‘em anywhere.” she said, fuming.
“You said it,” RD added, as they hoof-bumped.
Pinkie wasn’t saying much of anything. But her smartphone's camera was really busy…
“Well, that was embar-as-sing,” Princess Celestia said, upset, as she smashed the door of the locker closed. The fan gear she had stowed inside before halftime was now strewn about on the bench alongside her.
Luna was leaning against a wall, stretching out a stitch in her side underneath her left wing. “I swear I just flew five continents. Not dreamed I flew them. Actually flew over all five of them, without rest or succor.”
“Well, what did you two think would happen? The Royal Guard isn’t just going to lie down and take it. They’re in marvelous shape, and they’re fighters. We train them that way, after all…” Cadance said, slamming the goal basket onto a nearby towel counter. She sprawled out on her back on another nearby bench.
“It certainly did not help you drew three penalties in a row, Cely. Buckers buck, not fly,” Luna grumbled.
“Look, I said I was sorry, okay? I’ve been using my wings to help with my balance for several centuries now. You just don’t change that in a short span of days.”
“Balancing all that mass wouldn’t be so hard now, if you didn’t ingest so much cake…would it?” Luna pointed out, staring at Celestia’s behind.
“Luna, I’m warning you…stop making comments about my butt,” the Brilliance of the Day said heatedly.
“Keep eating like that, and it shall make the comments for me,” Luna retorted, her eyes narrowed.
“Will you two SHUT UP! We’ve got bigger problems!” Cadance bellowed.
The Diarchy turned to look at her in total shock.
Cadance sat up. “First, we’ve got to get ahead of this. Get some press out that we fully expected the Guard to win to justify the liberty passes and the charity money. That we had a hard time training with all our duties, and we want a re-match for next year,” she said earnestly.
“Second, we train. Hard and quickly. Get ourselves in shape for something like this. Practice. Lots of practice. Go after this thing seriously.”
“And third. Beg off next year. Let everypony know we’re sorry, but our lives just place too much demand on us to continue this trend. And then never bring it up again.”
“But why the ruse? We could just…” Luna started to say.
“Get our wings and horns handed to us again? Get all the antagonistic forces out there beyond our walls wondering if they could really take the Princesses on? Get them in that ‘What would it be like if…’ mode? Like Pinkie Pie says; ‘That’s oatmeal!’…”
“But…” Celestia started to say.
“You’ve been sitting down on that throne too long, Aunt Cely. You too, Luna. Come up to the Empire, and read some of that stuff Sombra left behind.” Cadance got up, sighed loudly. “There are too many things out there lying in wait for us. We have to be strong. Even more, we have to appear strong. Unbeatable. So unbeatable, no one wants to even try.”
“I know what you and Luna can do, Celestia. You’re incredible weapons. But with what you could do, the damage that your full power can inflict…it might hurt our ponies and lands too much. We have to be unyielding granite, strong for the ages, and keep that threat veiled, yet foremost in creatures’ minds.”
She picked up her towel off the bench. “In the meantime; I’m going to see if I can run the hot water out. Toodles,” she said, as she headed to the showers.
“What was all that about, Celestia?” Luna asked, perplexed, as the pink Alicorn left.
“Post-partum paranoia. Kids make you that way; one of the reasons I never bothered. I can Invoke that column of solar matter and corona exactly one inch wide for as many miles as the curvature of the world makes it practical. Even farther if it’s a space-borne threat. What does she think, that I really did sit on my rump after Tirek’s little escapade?” she mused, snorting haughtily. “And I know you’ve been playing around with that Shadow Magic of yours too, Luna. Don’t deny it; I’ve been monitoring the Special Invocation Isolation Room.”
“I have no desire to bring forth such Incantations, Celestia. I would never get past Nightmare Moon if ponies knew that the shadows could reach out and make them disappear forever,” she said, horrified.
“Doubtlessly true, Sister. However, I did have some miscreants put the right words in the wrong ponies’ ears. Tirek was trouble enough.” She floated up the “Officially Licensed” ‘Canterlot Nobles’ extra-large bath/beach towel, held it steady as she inspected it. “There is also value in being relaxed enough to have a bit of fun at times. Serious has its place, but so does levity.”
She sighed. “Young ponies. Why do they always think their elders have no idea what’s going on, or what to do about it?” Celestia complained aloud as she floated the towel open. Putting it onto her back as well, she also walked to the shower.
“AND THAT’S IT, Ladyfillies and Gentlecolts! Ponyville WINS, seven sets to five!” Spike’s voice rang out from the speakers, as the stadium roared its approval.
Spike leapt from the press box where he had called the game, made a beeline toward the winning team.
The friend’s seating area had expanded during the contest. A second Rarity had joined the group, and Starlight Glimmer, along with Sunset Shimmer, found themselves bookended by a pair of Twilight Sparkles now. The Human/Pony Rainbow Dash was griping quietly to herself; she had been talked out of hanging with her counterpart and the Wonderbolt Flight Team, and was now really beginning to regret the decision.
“Do you think we should meet them in the locker room?” Sci-Twi asked.
“Of course! They’re going to have a little press interview for a bit, then clean up for a nice celebration party at My Castle. Pinkie…” Twilight began.
“What party?” interrupted the pink pony seated nearby. “NOBODY told me there was going to be a party! I’m supposed to be briefed in when somebody needs a party! How can I…” she hollered.
The Twilight without glasses was grinning from ear to ear. “Nopony. You’re supposed to be OUR guests today, Pinkie. So be our guests. Let’s Go!”
“Wow.” Starlight said later that evening, awed by an amazing sight.
Starlight and Sunset watched the giant group in Twilight’s Castle mingling, talking, and laughing. Five Alicorns wended their way around and through the crowd, which had more than its fair share of twins, including two prepubescent dragons.
“I didn’t get to see them all together the last time. Trixie wanted my help with an illusion on her tour, so I wasn’t here when they came here before,” Starlight pointed out. “Sorry. When you came before. You all came before, I mean.”
“I can’t keep up on all the pronouns myself, Starry,” Sunset said, smiling.
Starlight Glimmer smiled back. “Being Twilight’s friendship student is hard, Sunny. You think you get a handle on understanding how Twilight and her Friends are, and then she brings in another set. And then tops it off with three Sirens.”
“They’re not quite the same, Starry,” Sunset Shimmer pointed out. “Look at how confused Shining is, seeing two slightly different versions of his sister. Everyone is a little nervous from my side, even though the Six know one another. And then the Sirens. Adagio is playing it cool, but I just know how nervous she really is right now. Thank whatever deities exist in the ‘verse that Cadance brought the baby. Foals always seem to drag everypony’s defenses down.”
A voice came clearly from across the room, brought by some trick of the acoustics.
“I sucked my thumb for a few years,” the Twilight wearing glasses said casually.
“Really? My sister was a hoof-sucker for a really long time. Worried Mom and Dad terribly. I didn’t get it, myself; she was barely older than a foal, after all…” Shining Armor said, surprised. Flurry Heart cooed in her carrier, removing her hoof from her mouth to do it.
Their ears swiveled to follow that intriguing piece of conversation, but the parties involved had moved slightly, and their voices faded out. Just as a new pair faded in.
“So. In your world…I administrate a high school?” Princess Celestia, The Bringer of Warm Days, said to the alternate Rarity, not quite believing what she had heard.
“Well…it has become quite the education forte recently, Majesty,” Rarity replied, a glass of celebratory champagne delicately balanced in her aura. She had taken to Magic like aquatic waterfowl did to open water sources. “Your…pardon; I meant that her tenure had been marred by certain…irregularities, shall we say. But she has surmounted them pluckily, and brought in new learning standards that simply should be the gold standard in quality education principles…”
Starlight turned and looked at Sunset. “That doesn’t sound much like nervousness to me.”
Sunset contemplated going to get a glass for herself. Apparently, the prohibition of serving alcohol to underage patrons didn’t count on this side of the Mirror. “That’s Rarity’s method of dealing with anxiety. Latch onto the social bright light in the room, and talk a mile a minute,” she added.
“Oh.”
Again the conversation faded. To be replaced by…
"The food is real good here, Snips," said a lanky colt.
"Yeah! And The Great and Powerful Trixie isn't here to boss us around either, Snails!"
"Well, she likes to crash parties, Snips. You wanna eat up, in case she gets here and starts on you about your weight."
Again the voices faded. To be replaced with…
“Goddess of the Moon??” the purple Alicorn in glasses asked, now visiting with another group.
“Very close, but not exactly. I guide and administrate My Moon. Plus, I have a unique skill in Dream Magic, which means a lot of exertion in abating nightmares, plus some problem solving and therapy work. I have been informed you have a great deal of talent in scientific work and science in general,” said the dark blue one.
“Some. I’m still learning some things. But I did make this nifty little device for sensing, isolating, and capturing specific EM spectrum energy…” said the purple Alicorn with the nickname Sci-Twi.
“Now, see, I want to discuss that specifically. Is there a way to design such a device to dampen EM spectrum energy? We’ve had some problems with certain…individuals…where such a device would be quite useful…” the colorful toothpaste ribbon-maned pink Alicorn added.
Again the voices faded. As two soft ones replaced them. Sunset and Starlight strained to hear the Pegasuses...
“He’s kinda scary.”
“Well, yes. He’s big, and strong, and his Magic is really overwhelming. But he can be kind, too…in his own way.”
“Like what?”
“There was this pony that said something really mean about me during a game. And Pinkie, too; but mostly me. And I told him about it.”
“Goodness! What happened?”
“I really don’t know…he won’t tell me.”
The two Unicorns looked at each other…
“I have going-away presents for all of you,” the pony Rarity said, floating some thin dress boxes to the Human/Pony individuals. Human/Pony Rarity carefully checked the tags on each box before giving them to the other Rarity.
“What presents?” Human/Pony Sci-Twi asked.
“Hadn’t all of you wondered where we got off to? I had the most marvelous time at her boutique! Such beautiful things…and all for ponies,” Human/Pony Rarity said, awed.
“And your ideas, darling! Why, I hadn’t thought of half of them!” the pony Rarity added.
“And Yours!! I shan’t even be able to begin to tell you what they will mean in the future…”
“Heh. Pony mutual admiration society,” the pony Rainbow Dash said, amused.
“You said it,” said Human/Pony RD, as they hoofbumped.
“What are these?” Human/Pony Applejack asked.
“Wow…” said Sunset Shimmer, looking at the gift from inside the box.
A mighty pair of scowls issued from the pair of white Unicorns. “SUNSET!” they yelled in unison.
“I’m sorry,” the flame-tinted Human/Pony Unicorn apologized, blushing. “But I was curious…”
She held hers up to the others. A white short-sleeved jersey, with purple lettering and blue trim. Hers said “S. Shimmer” on the back. And underneath…
“Magic Within”
And the shirts were cut for human proportions.
“That other phrase...it wasn't bad, per se, but...knowing you as I know you, we decided to change it. With the two of us, it took absolutely no time at all...” Human/Pony Rarity said with a smile.
“Something to remember us by,” the pony Rarity said quietly.
“How could we ever forget all of you?” Sunset Shimmer said thickly, hugging the white Unicorn.
The Dazzlings looked in their boxes.
“Tacos,” said Sonata, chuckling.
“Meh,” noted Aria. “Well, that works.” A bare hint of a smile peeked out.
“♥ You.” Adagio said, puzzled. Then the light broke. “You mean…”
“Exactly what it says, Darling,” Human/Pony Rarity said. “You’ve made tremendous strides so quickly. Why be associated anymore with a past of having people continuing to think how you made them love you? So, something closer to the truth now. How you love others. That’s the right of it.”
Adagio stared at the jersey, as her eyes swam.
A short distance away, Human/Pony Sci-Twi Twilight looked at hers quietly.
“Everfree”
She smiled, closed the box back up. “It’s perfect. Don’t change a thing.”
Rarity collected the robes and clothes left behind as the girls slipped, one by one, through the Mirror.
“Darn! I MISS THEM ALREADY!” Pinkie Pie wailed.
“Pinkie…relax. If everything works out…” Rainbow Dash said smugly.
“Yeah?”
“They’ll be back, soon enough…for the championship game…” Dashie grinned.
Pinkie made a protracted gasp.
“I gotta get started on the PARTY! Where am I gonna get the time to practice and ramrod a party?”
Pinkie sat in her sanctum sanctorum lair underneath Sugarcube Corner. Finally sure that she wasn’t going to be observed, she drew out a small flat object. It had a glossy black flat surface, and a surrounding and back in a fuchsia tinted pink…
She tapped the face, held it up to one ear…
“Pinkie? Yah, it’s me, Ponk…listen; I think they’re on to the championship game party. No, no changes for me yet. I’ll handle the baked goods. You bring those neat party cannons of yours. Text me your list, and I’ll send you mine. Put your changes and any add-ons in another file to send me, and I’ll do the same.”
“Well, I don’t want you to get in any trouble. Just tell your Twilight Magically-Augmented cellphones are oatmeal. Yah, just like that. Oatmeal. Yah, really. I dunno, it reeeeally stops the conversation around here for some reason.”
“I dunno. I have to throw the bits through the Mirror when nopony is looking. You may have to carry my half of the bill on occasion. Zat okay? Great!”
There was a few moments as a chirruply hyper voice found its way around her ear and into the air…
“Should I bring the Principal and Vice Principal?” came out tinnily from the tiny speaker.
“Hey, it’s a party! Sure! They should come!” the pink pony went on…
“What’s the worst that could happen…??”
