Chapter 5

Years Later

“The elder sister took on responsibility for both sun and moon, and harmony has been maintained in Equestria for generations since” A young mare with a light mulberry coat read aloud from the book she was reading from while lying under the refreshing shade that the moderate tree offered on a hot sunny day like this. The shade darkened her moderate purple mane with a bright raspberry streak that normally stood out in beautiful bright colors. She brought her front left hoof to her muzzle in thought before musing aloud. “Hmm...Elements of Harmony. I know I’ve heard of those before…but where?”

“Maybe in an old mare’s tail that you heard as a foal and also just read about now?” A feminine angelic voice of her friend for some years spoke up. Twilight turned her head to look in the direction of the sound. Leaning against one of her favorite tree next to a modest calming brook that reflected the same blue as the sky was Samantha reading her book. Her milky white skin stood out even more again the shade of the tree. She liked to joke that she could pretty much glow in the dark. Her ink colored mane seems to only help with that joke as the two contrasted greatly. Her bright frosty cerulean eye looked back into Twilight’s own violet eyes. On the ground next to her was a small amber box with a cherry color ribbon wrapped around each side of the box meeting to form a bow on top of the box.

“Maybe, I need to do some research.” The young mulberry mare said she stood up while packing her saddlebags with her books. Samantha sighed as she looked up into the tree. Its lush jade leaves could be seen much better now that it was summer. Only a few straggling fuchsia flowers still bloomed, but it wasn’t as prevalent as they were a couple of months ago. Closing her book Samantha stood up while placing the book in a specially made canvas saddle bag, that she was sitting on to protect her beryl summer dress, putting the strap on her shoulder, making sure it was resting on the fabric strap of her sleeveless dress. She then proceeds to adjust the full knee-length skirt to make herself look more presentable, once she was happy with the way her clothes looked she bent back down to grab the present from its spot. Twilight and Samantha began to make their way down one of the many worn beige pathways around the castle that led into the city of Canterlot.

“There you are Twilight and Raven,” A voice spoke up as a trio of unicorn mares came into view in front of them. Raven smiled as she saw her friends. Minuette on Raven’s right, the easiest pony to find in a crowd as most ponies had a contrast between their manes and coats, while Minuette was pretty much every shade of blue under the sun. A light cornflower blue coat, moderate blue mane with a few streaks of light blue-grey, and light blue with the same color scheme on her tail and her sapphire eyes. The only thing that really stood on her was her cutie mark with was a golden hourglass filled top to bottom with sand. On the far side of the trio stood Lemon Hearts with her brilliant yellow coat that seems to help her raspberry colored eye stand out even with her cerulean mane and tail. In the middle of the trio was Twinkleshine. Her pearly coat made her pale verse mane and tail pop and stood out along with her icy blue eyes. Each of the mares had different colored boxes tied with ribbons on their backs.“Moon Dancer is having a little get-together in the west castle courtyard. You wanna come?”

“Oh, Sorry girls…I’ve got a lot of studying to catch up on,” Twilight said as she gestured to the book of old mare tails she had been reading not a few minutes ago. She flashes a nervous smile at her other three friends. Raven shook her head.

“I was on my way to the courtyard now,” Raven said as she pushed some on her hair behind her right ear as she held up the gift she had been carrying around for a while. When she turned to look at Twilight, she was gone. She looked over her friends to see the purple mare galloping back to her home most likely to do some research. Twinkleshine sighed as they all turned to watch Twilight run at high speed.

“Does that pony do anything other than study?” She asked no one in particular.

“She does other things, but once she is onto something, there is no stopping her till she finds what she needs to find. Its just the kind of pony she is.” Raven started as she looked at the other ponies. The other mares nodded and turned to continue their way to Moon Dancers party.

Shortly after the party, Raven made it home. As she came in through the front door, she was meet by her mother.

“So butterfly how was Moon Dancer’s party?” Princess Celestia asked as she gracefully walked over to her daughter and nuzzled her cheek with her alabaster muzzle.

“It was fine. Moon Dancer seemed a little down that Twilight didn’t come. I think she was counting on it.” Samantha replied as she pulled away. Her fair skin was slightly darker from being out in the sun for most of the day, but she knew it would be back to normal in just a couple of days.

“Yes, I remember she always stuck close to Twilight while in school. I'm so happy she made friends, but I wish she were a little more out there with the other ponies. Also from the look of your dress, I can tell you had a good time I just wanted to ask anyway,” She stated as she looks at her daughter’s dress and seeing a few small stains. Samantha blushed a light red which leads her mother to let out a modest chuckle.

“I'm sorry I didn’t notice,” Samantha said meekly looking down at her dress as if she should have known better.

“I don’t mind. As I told you a thousand times, nothing is meant to be clean and tidy for long for sometimes that means you aren’t having fun. What's life without fun…cake.” Celestia said as her multi-pastel colored mane flowed lazily behind her as she smiled which was infectious for Samantha broke out in a slight grin as her mother’s love for cake.

“I know, but ponies except me to be at my best and I don’t want to disappoint them,” Samantha stated as she looked back at the alicorn who had been her mother for the last 17 years. She never seemed to age, but Samantha guesses it was part of being an alicorn.

“You could no more disappoint them as you could me my dear butterfly Always remember that. Now I have Twilight a few tasks to do in Ponyville for the Summer Sun Celebration, and I would like you to go along and give her a hoof.” She gave a sad smile that was gone in an instant and replaced by her normal one. Samantha dismissed it as a tick of the light in the entrance way.

“You mean to keep her from freaking out over every little thing like she normally does. Ok, I can do that.” She affirmed know how Twilight got when Celestia asked her to do something. She went off the deep end of crazy.

“Yes, please, I feel it would be best. I have arranged a place for you two to stay overnight so why don’t you go up to your room and change and meet Twilight out front for the carriage to take both of you to Ponyville. I wish you luck.” She once again gave a mournful smile, and it was gone as soon as it appeared. Samantha nodded and began making her way to the central staircase heading to her room.

After a shower, a new dress, and a change of night and day clothes popped into an overnight bag Samantha set off to the front of the castle. Once Samantha joined Twilight and Spike on the golden carriage the two white Pegasi guard pony spread their wings, and they took flight. As they flew Spike reread the letter Celestia has sent Twilight in repose to her previous message on Nightmare Moon. Told her to relax, have fun, and make some friends. Twilight pouted before showing us a plan that has popped into her head. This wasn’t what her mother wanted, but Samantha thought it best to leave Twilight be until it started to get out of hand. All too soon they landed on the roadway in the middle of Ponyville. We all disembarked off the carriage and thanked the guards for their services and them where off back to Canterlot. Taking a moment to look around while Spike and Twilight were talking Samantha could see an all pink pony trotting toward them. Her coat was a light pink while her mane and tail were every curly and a lovely shade of hot pink. Once she was close enough, and Spike told Twilight to try and make a new friend. She looked very unsure and a little scared. So Twilight just smiled and said hello. The pink pony jumped into the air with a gasp and shot off in the direction she was already heading while leaving the rest in confusion.

“Well, that was interesting all right,” Twilight said as she turned back to face everypony while making a face. Spike let out a sigh as we began walking trying to start on the checklist.

“Summer Sun Celebration official overseer’s checklist. Number one, banquet preparations Sweet Apple Acres.” Spike read aloud from the checklist as Sweet Apple Acres came into view. Samantha had to admit that it was very picturesque. The lush green hills and land were covered int different kind of apple trees. The sky was very blue even more blue than it seemed in Canterlot, but that might have been because Canterlot was a big city and this was a small town, or maybe it was because Canterlot was on a mountainside while this was in a valley. For whatever reason it was it didn’t matter. The dirt path looked very warn, but that just added even more charm to the land. Samantha looked down at her soft blue off the shoulder summer dress. It’s full skirt swaying gently as she walked. She was happy she had chosen one of her shorter dress for this trip and kept her longer one to wear for the Celebration as it seemed a bit more elegant this plain one. Her matching flats would end up being dirty, but it was worth it to enjoy the fresh, crisp air that profoundly held the delicious scent of juicy apple that was on either side of the pathway. She glanced over at Twilight and seen she had a look of indifference then at Spike, who was in between them, with a pencil in one claw and the other the parchment holding every detail of the events they would have to check on. It's too bad it was in his face so he couldn’t see the beautiful view before him. As they got closer to the Farm House and Barn Samantha could see much of the land around it has been cleared to make room for other crops. What they were she couldn’t tell, but she guests that it might be different varieties of vegetables. Next to the house was where the livestock was kept.

“Yeehaw!” The cry was called out as a brilliant gamboge colored blur ran passed up. Only to stop, turn, and use its hind legs to slam into one of the apple trees with buckets underneath it to catch all the falling apples. Samantha could see that it was more than a blur that ran passed it was a mare with a pastel grayish olive mane and tail. To top it all off, she was wearing a tan Stetson hat which went perfectly with the backdrop of the farm. Twilight lowered her head and sighed loudly as she began walking to the mare that made a grand entrance as Spike and Samantha followed.

“Let's get this over with…Good afternoon. My name is Twilight Sparkle-” Twilight was cut off as the mare took Twilight’s hoof into both of hers shaking her hooves so fast as she spoke.

“Well, howdy-doo, Miss Twilight, a pleasure makin’ your acquaintance. I’m Applejack. We here at Sweet Apple Acres sure do like making new friends! So, what can I do you for?” She asked as she finally let go of Twilight’s hoof and Twilight regained composer.

Author's Note

This was a really long chapter so I broke it up into two parts so I'm off to finish up part 2 while rewatching the episode to make sure its right.