Twilight set aside eighteen minutes for today’s dawn trot from her castle to Carrot Top’s farm on the outskirts of Ponyville. On weekdays, she set aside an extra four minutes to greet other ponies on the way. But on a Saturday like today, most ponies slept in and there weren’t as many on the roads. Hence she could set aside fewer minutes for the trip.
Proper scheduling was important. Twilight hated to be tardy.
As Twilight crested a low rise, Carrot Top’s small farm stretched out before her. The orange earth pony farmer worked among the proud greens that stood in rows in her field. A dirt path paralleled the long side of the field and lead from the road to a small farmhouse and an even smaller shed.
Dinky, a small lavender unicorn with sun yellow mane and tail played with a ball where the dirt path met the road. She spotted Twilight and came galloping up. The filly’s golden eyes sparkled in the morning sun.
“Twilight, Twilight,” the breathless filly said. “Today’s the day! Mommy is going to get the keys to our new cottage in town. I’m going to have my own room with my own bed! I’ll have a real desk to study on and be able to have my friends come inside to play. It’ll be great!
“That sounds wonderful, Dinky,” Twilight replied. “I know Derpy and Carrot Top have been working very hard to make this move happen.”
“I know you’re super busy as a princess too, that’s why you have to come to the farm so early,” Dinky said. “How are your carrots doing? Are you an earth pony yet?”
Twilight smiled and fluffed her wings. “Being an alicorn means I’m already part earth pony.” She shook her head and sighed. “I’m just not very good at using earth pony magic yet.”
“That’s why you’re learning from Auntie Carrot Top,” Dinky replied. “She’s the best carrot farmer in all Ponyville.”
“She sure is, it’s her special talent,” Twilight replied. “I was going to try and learn how to grow apple trees from Applejack, but they take years to mature. It only takes weeks to grow carrots.”
Twilight looked over the healthy greens rising from Carrot Top’s well-ordered rows. The orange mare was pulling a weed from the plot with a trowel in her teeth. Behind her were the limp greens sprouting from Twilight’s own row on the far side of the plot. “And there’s still a lot I need to learn.”
“Your first harvest was all gnarled up,” Dinky giggled. “I didn’t know carrots could have so many points and roots.”
“They did look like some kind of tree from the Everfree forest, didn’t they?” Twilight grinned. “At least Spike made good use of them in his carrot soup with caramelized onions.” She licked her lips at the thought of Spike’s cooking.
Twilight looked back at her scraggly row. “I hadn’t tilled the soil deep enough. There were too many stones in it.” Her brow furrowed like the fields before her. “Carrot Top is a lot like Princess Celestia as a teacher. She doesn’t tell me what to do. She waits for me to ask questions then gives only enough information so I can find the answer on my own.”
“I never heard Auntie Carrot Top compared to Princess Celestia!” Dinky said, awestruck.
“Now you have. And by a mare who’s been taught by them both,” Twilight said. “Good morning,” she called to Carrot Top. The farmer nodded, but had a trowel in her mouth and didn’t reply. Twilight picked up a trowel in her mouth and headed to her row. Doing things the earth pony way helped her get in touch with the land. And weeds waited for nopony.
The front door of the farmhouse opened and Derpy emerged. Twilight waved. Dinky galloped up to the grey pegasus and glomped onto her leg. Derpy wrapped one wing around Dinky and waved back to Twilight.
Carrot Top put down her trowel. “Do you have the bag?”
Derpy nodded and opened her saddlebag, exposing a bag heavy with bits.
“Good luck mom,” Dinky said.
“I’ll be back soon with the keys,“ Derpy said. Dinky let go and Derpy launched herself toward Ponyville. Dinky watched her disappear over the treetops.
“Go finish your homework, so you can have the rest of the weekend free for the move,” Carrot Top called to Dinky.
“OK!’’ Dinky ducked into the house and closed the door.
The two mares were alone in the field. Quiet settled over the farm.
Twilight looked at Carrot Top. “I know you and Derpy worked hard for this.”
“I appreciate that you offered to help raise bits before,” Carrot Top replied, “but…”
“But you two wanted to do this on your own,” Twilight said. “I get that.”
“Thank you.” Carrot Top turned back to her row but didn’t pick up her trowel. “Dinky deserves her own room. She deserves more than she can get in this little old farmhouse.”
"And what about you?" Twilight asked gently. "What do you think about the prospect of living here all alone?"
“I’ve been alone before,” Carrot Top replied. “After I lost Pallet.” She picked up the trowel with her mouth and turned back to her row, shoulders slumped.
“She looks so sad,” Twilight thought. She’d seen Pallet Blue’s paintings in a gallery in Canterlot. They were hauntingly beautiful.
Twilight dipped her head to pick up her own trowel, then stopped. Her wings felt… itchy. Twilight ruffled her wings and sniffed the air. Ozone. “Something’s up,” she said.
Carrot Top scanned around with her great green eyes. She pointed to a roiling bank of grey clouds tinged with crimson over the Everfree forest. “There.”
“A chaos storm!” Twilight said. “They’re almost feral. The storms adapt and you can’t stop them the same way twice. By now, they resist most pegasi magic. The Weather Team has to get very creative when a chaos storm threatens Ponyville.”
Carrot Top looked away from the cloud and shivered. “Haven’t those things taken enough from us?”
“You’ve mentioned what happened to the Cloud Angel before,” Twilight whispered.
“My husband, Pallet Blue, was on that airship. It was lost in an arcane storm. They never found him or the ship.” Carrot Top closed her eyes and looked away. “All I have left are some paintings I keep locked away.”
Twilight stepped over and put a hoof on her withers. “I’m sorry for your loss.” She remembered Dinky calling Carrot Top ‘auntie’. “The paintings aren’t all you have. You have this farm and some amazing friends that live here and think the world of you.”
“Not for much longer,” Carrot Top muttered.
Twilight’s horn tingled and the itching in her wings intensified. She shaded her eyes from the sun with a hoof and peered over the Everfree forest. The storm clouds had changed direction and accelerated. They were roiling fast in this direction. Jagged crimson lightning bolts arced from cloud to cloud. A twisting funnel began to emerge from the base of the storm and snake towards the ground. The whirlwind sucked leaves and branches into the sky.
Carrot Top’s eyes went wide at the sight of the coming storm. “Dinky, get out here!” she called. Carrot Top and Twilight galloped toward the house.
Dinky galloped out of the front door, then halted, frozen at the sight of the angry funnel clouds.
“Get her to safety,” Twilight commanded. She lit her horn and cast a giant magenta shield over the entire house, with her, Carrot Top, and Dinky inside.
The front of the storm reached the farm. Crimson chaos lightning hammered the shield. Carrot Top hustled Dinky towards the doors to the cellar.
“Dinky!” came a cry from above and behind Twilight. She stole a glance. Derpy was winging her way back toward the house. It was even money which would get to the house first, Derpy or the storm.
“She’s in here!” Twilight called. She opened a hole in the shield to let Derpy inside.
Derpy put on a burst of speed, dove through the hole, and tackle grabbed Dinky on the fly. She wrapped her body around Dinky. The pair of them crashed through the cellar doors and tumbled into the safe space beneath the house.
Before Twilight could snap the hole closed, the storm spat a bolt of lightning. It arced toward the point of greatest magical potential in the area: Twilight’s horn. The bolt hit with a crimson flash. Twilight screamed and her body spasmed. Stunned, she dropped the shield.
The funnel cloud struck down towards Twilight, drawn by the same magical potential as the lightning. The swirling winds sucked up more leaves, branches, tools, and debris.
Carrot Top scrambled against the wind toward Twilight. She wrapped two legs around Twilight’s barrel and the other two around a sturdy fence post. The funnel cloud dipped down, pulling at both mares with howling winds. Carrot Top held on for dear life; or truthfully, for two dear lives.
The storm battered the farmhouse as well as the ponies. The force of the wind shattered windows. Furniture inside tumbled about. Shutters and siding were ripped off the front of the house and into the sky.
Twilight pried one eye open. She groaned and winced.
“Can you put the shield back up?” Carrot Top called out over the howl of the storm.
Twilight lit her horn and erected her magenta bubble again. An arc of crimson lightning popped it in an instant.
“It’s no good,” Twilight called back. “The storm has adapted. It can counter my unicorn or pegasus magic.”
“You’re more than just a unicorn or a pegasus,” Carrot Top replied.
Twilight looked over at the plants in the field she’d been tending these long months. “They’re not perfect,” she thought, “But they live, and I grew them. Earth pony magic comes from life.”
She rolled to her hooves and planted all four deep into the earth. Carrot Top kept a hold of her barrel and steadied her. Twilight gritted her teeth and extended her magical senses into the ground. She could feel the living magic of the field, and all of the plants she and Carrot Top had nurtured there.
And there was more. She could feel Carrot Top’s magic in the field and in the limbs that wrapped around her. And beneath the soil, she could feel the strata of the earth running deep. The stone wasn’t dead. It just lived and moved on an infinitely longer cycle. The magic of the stones felt bottomless, broad, and powerful.
Swirling magenta magic flowed out of the ground and gathered around Twilight’s hooves. In a rush, she focused it through her body and out her horn. A thick beam of magic punched up through the snaking funnel cloud and the roiling storm above it.
A massive “boom” echoed across the land. Shockwaves from the beam shattered the storm. When the shockwaves died out, there was nothing left of the storm but swirling wisps of grey.
Twilight’s eyes rolled up into her head. She went limp from exertion. Carrot Top held Twilight up to keep her from falling.
The howl of the storm died away. No longer supported by the wind, debris clattered to the ground.
Then there was silence.
“Is it OK to come out?” Derpy called from the cellar.
“All clear,” Carrot Top called back.
The world came slowly back into focus for Twilight. She took a deep breath and blinked to clear her sight. With a clatter, she shakily got to her hooves. “Thank you,” Twilight said to Carrot Top.
“Thank you,” Carrot Top replied. Derpy and Dinky emerged safely from the cellar and she smiled in relief.
Then Carrot Top looked at the damage to her house, and her face fell. The windows were shattered. The front door and window shutters were gone. There were holes where siding had been ripped away.
“Oh wow,” Dinky said, reviewing the damage. She galloped up to the open front doorway then came up short when she peered inside. “What a mess.”
Twilight lit her horn and the house glowed for a moment. “I don’t detect any cracks in the foundation or the main beams. It should be safe inside if we’re careful.”
All four ponies entered the house slowly and looked around. Most of the furniture inside the house was thrown about and dented. But little seemed to have been badly damaged.
Carrot Top and Twilight entered Carrot Top’s bedroom. Her bed was overturned and the covers scattered about the room. A paint stained three and one half legged stool lay upended on the floor. Several of Pallet Blue’s paintings were visible; the top one a striking sunrise dawning over Ponyville. Twilight was taken by its ethereal quality. The Princess of the Sun was her mentor and Twilight still wasn’t sure she’d ever seen the solar orb portrayed so vividly.
Carrot Top stopped her clean up as if to ask what Twilight she was doing. Then she spied the paintings and said nothing.
“They’re extraordinary,” Twilight said. “It’s a shame that more ponies can’t enjoy them.”
“They’re all I have left of him,” Carrot Top whispered.
Twilight nodded and didn’t press the issue. They headed back into the main room.
Derpy kneeled to peer out through a hole where a piece of siding had been ripped away. She shook her head, opened her saddlebags, and pulled out the bag of bits. “It’s a good thing I didn’t get a chance to put this down on the cottage,” she said. “We’re gonna need it all for lumber and carpenters to put the house back together.”
Carrot Top put her bedding down. “No, you two should go live in the cottage downtown. The walls of the bedroom are fine. I’ll be safe sleeping in there.” She looked away from Derpy and straightened up a chair from the floor. “I’ve got a few boards in the shed. I can use them to patch up the siding and cover the windows. It will take a little while, but I can earn enough to fix the rest of the damage.”
“But you shouldn’t have to live in a house with holes in the walls," Dinky said. "You should live with us in the cottage!”
“No Dinky, the farm is my home. My life is here.” Carrot Top looked at Dinky. “You deserve a room of your own, where you can sleep and study and have other fillies over. This house is just too small for two families.”
“Well, I don’t wanna move if you’re not coming with us,” Dinky pouted. “I don’t want my own room if we can’t be together.”
Twilight looked back and forth among the ponies. “I have a suggestion,” she offered.
Carrot Top looked at her suspiciously.
“I’ll bet those bits would buy enough lumber to fix the damage and add another room to this place,” Twilight said. “Then it would be big enough for one big extended family.”
Carrot Top looked at the bag then shook her head. “It's not enough to buy supplies and pay carpenters to fix everything and add a room. I’m not looking for any charity bits.”
“I’m not offering them,” Twilight replied. “But how many barn raisings have you helped with at other farms? More than a few by my recollection.” She smiled. “This is Ponyville. I’ll bet in exchange for a big pot of carrot stew and a few pans of carrot muffins, you could get a whole crew of volunteers to help with the repairs and the expansion. I’d be happy to organize that.”
Dinky looked up at Derpy. “Could we stay mom?” she pleaded.
“It’s not my choice,” Derpy replied. “It’s your home, Carrot Top. We appreciate everything you’ve done for us. But if you want the place to yourself again…”
Carrot Top swallowed hard. She looked over at the room that had been Pallet Blue’s studio. But it hadn’t been his studio for a long while now. It was Derpy and Dinky’s room. “I think this place would be pretty empty if I was living here all alone.” She looked at Twilight. “I’d appreciate your help in organizing a volunteer crew.”
“Yea!” Dinky cheered. She hugged Derpy’s leg and rushed over to hug Carrot Top. She galloped off toward the back of the house. Derpy followed her. “We should build my room here, with a bed on the north wall and a desk across from it.” Dinky disappeared down the hall, chattering all the way.
Carrot Top and Twilight trailed behind. They came to the door to Carrot Top’s bedroom. The bed was still overturned and Pallet Blue’s paintings were still scattered around the floor.
“I think I'll put one of Pallet’s paintings up in the main room once the holes are fixed,” Carrot Top said to Twilight, “But we don’t get many visitors. You said that it was a shame that more ponies couldn't enjoy them. Where do you think would be a good place to display Sunrise over Ponyville?”
Twilight smiled. “How about in a public part of the Castle of Friendship? It could have a plaque identifying Pallet. It could talk about his work, and say the painting is on loan from his loving wife.”
Carrot Top nodded. “I think he’d like that.” She took in a deep breath and let it all the way out. “I think I’d like that too.”
