Different Events

Chapters

Ch. 2 - Starting From Scratch
Ch. 3 - An Apple Far From the Tree
Ch. 4 - Talents & Treasure
Ch. 5 - Party Pony Plight
Ch. 6 - Success is a Rarity
Ch. 7 - Fluttering Hearts
Ch. 8 - Plans Unraveled
Ch. 1 - Torn Apart
Ch. 9 - Royal Confrontation

Ch. 2 - Starting From Scratch

"Hi!" Twilight greeted, jumping right in front of a stallion. “You wouldn't happened to have seen a pink unicorn flying around, would you?"

"Uhhh..." The stallion tilted his head in utter confusion.

"Purple mane, aqua streak running through it? She’s using magic to levitate herself.”

“N-no, I-I don't think I've seen her; s-sorry miss,” he replied, before frantically flying off.

Twilight had spent the past 45 minutes interrogating nearly every pony in southern Cloudsdale, trying to get a lead on where Starlight may have went, but she'd ultimately gotten nowhere.

“Twilight, I don’t think we’re gonna find her at this point,” Spike stated, still seated atop Twilight’s rump.

The alicorn landed on the street, sighing. “You’re right, Spike. Starlight's probably figured out some brilliant hiding spot for now. If we're gonna find her we'll need a different approach.”

Spike glanced at the pavement. “Maybe we ought'a think at home before I almost fall to my death again,” Spike suggested.

Twilight froze as her eyes widened. “Spike, there's just one problem with that... Our home doesn’t exist yet.”

The full depth of their situation was finally registering. She and Spike were stranded 11 years in the past, with no money, and no place to stay.

“Heyuh, yhou dhropped vhis!”

Snapping back to reality, Twilight turned around and saw a gray filly with a yellow-blonde mane, and more importantly, Spike’s blue backpack that Starlight had teleported to herself to get at the time-scroll. Twilight levitated the backpack over to Spike, who promptly put it back on.

“I saw it fall through the clouds, and I’ve been trying to find you ever since so I could give it back!” the filly beamed.

“Aw, that's so sweet of you!” Twilight replied, smiling.

“You’re welcome! I'm Derpy Hooves!” she announced, holding out her hoof.

Twilight froze up. She realized this was the filly who would grow up to be her regular mail-mare. It was a little unnerving to know that everypony she and Spike had talked to so far would be considerably older if this was the present.

“N-nice to meet you, Derpy, I-I’m...Twilight Spar–" She paused, hesitating. "T-Twilight Star,” she corrected, shaking the hoof uneasily.

“Anyways, I gotta get back to flight camp. See ya!” the filly said, before flying off.

Twilight gave a small, awkward wave, before turning to look at Spike. “Well, we got the backpack,” she stated dryly.

“Like that solves anything,” Spike replied, sarcastically. "We've still got nowhere to go."

She sighed. “And even if Starlight hasn't spoken to Celestia, just us talking to her could damage the timeline."

"Know any places that let ponies stay for free?"

Twilight furrowed her eyebrows, tapping a hoof to her chin. "Actually..."

It was early afternoon by the time Twilight and Spike reached Ponyville. Heading into town, Twilight noticed that it felt somewhat sleepier than she was used to, not to mention smaller, with many houses and shops missing.

Even more different were the ponies. Any that the two recognized were noticeably younger, some even foals. There were even some elderly ponies who clearly weren't around in the future. Overall, the town felt surreal, especially since many ponies stopped and stared at the sight of an alicorn and dragon walking around.

Eventually, two arrived at white archway, with a sign proudly displaying the carved words of “Sweet Apple Acres” upon it. Not surprisingly, the farm looked almost no different than it did on the other side of the 11-year gap.

Twilight walked up to the main entrance door to the farmhouse. The top was open, letting in the warm summer breeze.

“Hello? Is anypony home?” she asked, staring into the seemingly empty living-room.

“I hear ya, just hold yer reins fer a minute there!” came the unmistakable voice of Granny Smith.

A few seconds after, the elderly mare walked into the living-room from the kitchen. She looked fair bit younger than Twilight had always known. “What can I do fer ya?” she asked, stopping before the door. Looking at Twilight square in the face, she squinted and rubbed a hoof on her chin. “Now wait jus’ a darn minute; I don't recall seein' ya'll before. Yous must be new ‘round these parts!”

“Oh!” Twilight froze as she was momentarily taken by surprise. Taking brief moment to collect her thoughts, she responded, “Um, my name’s Twilight ...Star, and this-” Twilight wrapped a foreleg around Spike’s neck and squeezed him against her “-is my little brother Spike.”

He waved.

“Well, you sure ain't the usual kinda family we see 'round here! I’m Maria Smith, but y'all can call me Granny; practically raised this whole town with mah own two hooves! Now what brings ya'll here?”

Twilight thought for a moment, trying to formulate a story that could at least be half-true. “W-Well, Spike and I used to share an apartment in Canterlot, but this past week, we...kind of ended up homeless. One of my friends is an Apple though, and she said you're always open to friends of the family.”

"Darn tootin'!" Granny winked. "Come right on in!” she announced, opening the bottom of the door. “Though I ain't sure I know of any Apples livin' in Canterlot,” Granny mused.

Twilight blinked. “Oh Uhh... We called her Apple ...Jam.”

Granny paused. "So that's where that off-key gal thinks she's gonna make it big next..."

Twilight and Spike sat down on the couch while Granny walked back to the kitchen. A couple of minutes later, she returned and sat next to Twilight.

“Wish I coulda made another apple pie fer y’all. Normally like ta have one ready fer house guests.”

“Don’t worry about it; you seem like you’ve had your hooves rather full,” Twilight replied.

“Oh that don’t make up fer anythin’ though!” Granny maintained.

The front door swung open and Little Mac walked into the room, looking quite exhausted.

“I – got the – garden watered, an' the – animals fed, but if I keep goin', ...my legs are gonna fall off faster than the leaves on a zap apple tree!” he panted, walking over to one of the chairs and dropping into it. His voice, while still deep enough to be instantly recognizable, was a few octaves higher than in the future. The same couldn't be said for how he looked, though. His frame was far smaller and lankier, and the poor colt looked as though he was gonna pass out from only half a day's work.

“Woah, he sure changed!” Spike whispered to Twilight. She nodded slightly in response.

“Little Mac,” Granny said, getting the colt’s attention. “This here is Miss Twilight an’ –” she looked down at Spike, “– eh, what’d ya say yer name was again?”

“Spike,” he replied.

“– and Spike.” She continued, “They’re gonna be stayin’ with us fer a little while ‘till they get back on their hooves.”

Little Mac groaned slightly as he rolled his eyes.

“Miss Apple,” Twilight began, turning to Granny, “if it isn’t too much of a problem, me and Spike could help out around the house while we stay here. I imagine Bi– err –your grandson would appreciate it.”

Mac's eyes lit up slightly.

“Thanks for asking me if I–” Spike got cut off by a sharp jab in the side from Twilight.

“Oh I wouldn’t wanna inconvenience ya any,” she replied, waving a hoof. “Little Mac an’ I have got it taken care of, right Mac?”

The colt's mood fell back down like a rock. He reluctantly nodded, before hopping off the couch to head upstairs.

“You sure? Because if you need help with anything at all, I’m here,” Twilight insisted.

“I appreciate yer offer, but I’m assurin’ ya, we got it all corralled. An’ Mac’s jus’ upset that his parents an’ sisters ain’t around anymore.”

“Her name’s Applejack, right?”

Granny nodded. “Yep. She’s in Manehattan right now – been a little off-kilter since the funeral. An’ the youngest is Apple Bloom: she's bein’ babysat by one 'o her cousins.”

"Right..." Twilight replied, uncertainly.

Bored with the conversation, Spike hopped off the couch and followed Mac upstairs. Peering into his bedroom's doorway, he spotted Little Mac lying on the bed. Spike stepped in further and Mac sat up.

“Need somethin’?” the colt asked.

Spike shrugged. “Not really. Just wondering what you do for fun.”

Mac relaxed a little bit. “Oh, well, me an’ my sister do all sorts of stuff t’gether! We race each other, hoof wrestle, toss horse-shoes, go swimmin’, square dance, an'..." He paused. "...Well, we did do all that. She’s in Manehattan now,” he snorted, crossing his forelegs. “So, what’s a dragon an’ alicorn doin’ in Ponyville anyway?” he asked.

“Oh me and Twi used to share an apartment in Canterlot.”

“Canterlot? So ya friends with the Princess or somethin’?”

“Well I have used her as my personal transportation before!” Spike declared, proudly putting his fists on his hips and puffing out his chest.

“Ya what?”

“Well, it was only for a minute, and she was the one who set me on her back...” His proud demeanor deflated.

“Huh. So Twilight yer mother or somethin’?” Mac asked, cocking his head.

Spike scratched the back of his head. “Eh...Sorta. She was the one who hatched and kinda raised me, but I always call her mom ‘Mom’, so Twilight’s more like my big sister...it’s weird.”

“Family’s family. That’s all that matters.”

“So...wanna do anything?”

Mac raised an eyebrow. “Huh? Ya mean, just do somethin’? Fer fun?”

“Sure! I mean, you and– err, uhh... –I mean, I had a friend like you back home I did stuff with all the time!”

A small but happy grin was starting to creep across Mac’s face. “So what do ya wanna do?”

“Well, I happen to know of a little game full of vast, unconquered lands, vicious beats, and hoards of treasures, all ready for two mighty explorers to conquer!” Spike stated, clenching his fist and pulling it downwards, while he took a grand step forward.

Mac’s eyes were wide with amazement. “That sounds amazin’! How do we play?”

Spike sat down on the bed next to Mac, and put his arm around Mac’s neck. “Come young apprentice, as I introduce you to the fantastical world of Ogres & Oubliettes!”

“Diinneer!” Granny shouted.

The colt and dragon walked into the kitchen laughing about their fictional adventure.

“You two seem like you became friends pretty quick!” Twilight noted.

Spike was about to reply, but was interrupted by Little Mac.

“No kiddin’! Spike’s the best friend I’ve ever had! Well, ‘cept fer winnin’ four hoof-wrestlin’ rounds in a row!” Mac gave a small glare at Spike.

Spike just smiled smugly at Mac in return. "Hey, you were the one who wanted to challenge the tavern owner on those prices!"

“Well I’m glad you two hit it off so well!” Twilight said.

“And thank you fer offerin’ a helpin’ hoof...and I guess a horn an’ a wing too with makin’ dinner!” Granny chuckled to Twilight.

The four sat down at the table. Granny and Twilight's meal consisted of a green-bean casserole, a side of fresh salad, baked potatoes, and buttered biscuits.

Little Mac gulped down his soda and belched loudly, then turned to Spike with a smug smirk and one eyebrow raised. Spike responded by gulping down his own glass of soda, which he followed with a large burp of his own. It sent a plume of fire across the table however, engulfing a stray butterfly that had flown inside. All that was left after the fire dissipated, was a tiny stream of ash floating down.

“Oops.”

Granny looked up and noticed the ashes. “Well that’s one way ta get rid of those darn moths.”

Mac wrapped a foreleg around Spike. “Guess I know who ta call if I ever need ta light a fire! You jus’ keep gettin’ better an’ better!”

“Just don’t let him hold something you aren’t prepared to lose,” Twilight snarked.

Spike chuckled nervously as Mac looked over at him with a sly grin.

Twilight proceeded to take her first bite, her eyes lighting up as soon as the food reached her mouth. “This casserole is great!” she exclaimed.

“I know!” Mac excitedly replied, losing some of it through his words. “It’s– ...one of Applejack’s favorite dishes.” The colt's spirits fell.

“Mac,” Granny began, “ya know Applejack left 'cause she felt she needed ta find her own path. That was her decision ta make.”

“But how can she jus’ leave like that?!” he yelled, slamming his hoof on the table. “She always liked helpin’ out ‘round the farm, then she jus’ wants ta leave right after Mom an’ Dad get killed!?”

Twilight coughed on her food slightly as she looked up at the two. “Killed?”

Mac looked over at her. “Timberwolves. Granny kept sayin’ they’d be around fer the zap apple harvest anytime, but Mom an’ Dad jus’ went on that walk anyway!”

Twilight paused. Applejack hadn’t spoken much of her parents, and even more so the circumstances of their death. “O-oh. I’m so sorry; Apple Jam told me it was sudden, but...I didn’t think it was that sudden.”

Mac sighed. “Granny said we’d get through it t’gether, an’ then Applejack ju’s goes an’ leaves, sayin’ she’ll be better off in some big fancy city? It makes less sense than an' apple on an' orange tree! I know Applejack, this just ain't like her!”

“Now, Mac...” Granny began.

“Actually,” Twilight interrupted, “I think it does make sense.”

Everyone looked at her.

“Mac, you said Applejack liked helping out around the farm, right?”

“Yeah. She an’ I would always be out helpin’ Mom an’ Dad any way we could.”

“That might just be it.”

“Huh? Whadd’ya mean?” Mac asked.

“You two always did farm work with your parents, but now that they’re gone, it’s probably hard for her to do that without constantly being reminded of them. It’s just a natural part of grief for some ponies; feeling like everything’s reminding you they’re gone.”

“I guess yer right, it’s been hard fer me too. But I never felt like leavin’ though.”

“Everypony takes it differently. Besides, it’s pretty normal for a pony to make rather bold decisions when they’re going through pain.”

“I wish ya could’ve said all that ta Applejack before she left,” Mac sighed, slumping in his chair.

A lightbulb went off in Twilight’s head.

“Actually,” she began, “what if I did say that to Applejack?”

Mac curiously looked up at Twilight. “Huh?”

“What I mean is, what if I had a talk with Applejack about all of this?”

“An’ how are ya plannin’ on doin’ that?” Granny asked. “I don’t think she’s just gonna listen ta some random stranger. 'Specially one all the way here in Ponyville.”

Twilight paused. Sure it would be hard for Applejack to listen to a stranger, but she also knew Applejack well; putting her at ease wouldn't too difficult. If this worked, she could potentially give Applejack the push she'd need to come home and earn her cutie-mark - putting a part of history back on track.

“I think I should still try,” Twilight said. “If I go to Manehattan and sit down with her, face-to-face, she'd at least be focused enough to hear me out. The worst that could happen is she’ll stay there, which will probably happen if we don’t say anything.”

“Really? You’ll go all the way ta Manehattan ta talk ta her?” Mac asked, becoming excited.

“If it means making everypony happier, then yes.”

Mac beamed with joy at the thought of his sister returning.

“So, when are we gonna do this?” Spike asked.

“We’ll leave tomorrow,” Twilight replied.

“Thank ya, Miss Twilight,” Mac said.

Twilight smiled. “It’s the least I can do.”

“Well here's the guest,” Granny said, opening the door to a rather bare bedroom. "It probably ain't much compared to them fancy bedrooms in Canterlot, but it's a lot better than shiverin' out under the stars."

Twilight looked around. The only things she could see were a bed, a dresser, a nightstand, a small desk, a mirror, a window with curtains, and a rug. On the nightstand sat a lamp, a flashlight, and an old wind-up alarm clock.

“This is plenty,” Twilight said, walking in with Spike. "Thank you so much for letting us stay here."

“Oh it ain’t a problem,” Granny said.

“Have a good night!”

“And yerself.”

“Hey Spike!” Mac called into the room.

“Yeah?” Spike replied, turning around.

“If ya wanna do somethin’ before we go ta sleep, I’ll be up.”

“Sure; I’ll be over in a few! We can continue that Ogres & Oubliettes game if you want.”

“Sounds Great!”

Mac ran off and Granny pulled the door shut, leaving Twilight and Spike by themselves.

Spike tossed his backpack onto the desk, and Twilight, hearing the noise, turned around.

“Hey Spike, what did we put in that backpack anyways?” Twilight asked. “After this whole time-travel mess I've kind of forgotten.”

Spike unzipped the backpack and opened it somewhat wide. “Oh! It’s the slides from your presentation!” He pulled out the storage case, opened it, removed one slide, and held it up in the direction of the lit lamp. “This one looks like...I can’t tell,” he said.

Twilight took the slide in her aura and began examining it, squinting to try and make out the small, dark image. “It looks like...me and my mom? Spike, hand me that flashlight over there.”

He grabbed the flashlight and brought it over. Twilight turned it on and shined it through the slide, giving a slight projection onto the wall.

The resulting image was of a young Twilight, sitting next to her mother on the living-room couch. The Twilight in the photo looked to be in tears, trying to smile for the picture in spite of it.

Twilight’s face immediately grew concerned. “Spike, I don’t remember having this slide at all.”

“Neither do I.”

She narrowed her eyes. “It’s like Dad or Shining took the picture, trying to help me feel better or something." Her face twisted in even more confusion. "But how in Equestria did this get mixed in with my presentation slides without us ever noticing?”

“It...didn't,” Spike said, hesitantly. “I used every slide for the presentation – even that one of me on the beach.”

Twilight whipped her head around. “There was a slide of you on the beach?”

“Y– Yeah...I-I put it in by mistake.” He began rummaging through the backpack to find it.

Twilight groaned. "Well, I did say I wanted to leave an impression on those students..."

“Hey Twi? What’s the date on that slide?” Spike asked, pausing.

"Uh." She held the slide closer and squinted, only for her eyes to snap wide open again. “...Today,” she uttered, uneasily.

“I think that used to be the slide of your acceptance letter to Celestia’s school.”

Twilight nodded slowly. “There was no rainboom to help me pass the exam today," she stated, a thousand yard stare in her eyes. "Which means I never got that acceptance letter..."

"And this photo was probably taken instead," Spike remarked, pointing to it.

She shifted her gaze to her little brother. "Spike, if those slides are changing, we’re in big trouble.”

“We are?” he asked, slinking down slightly.

Twilight stepped over to him, and grasped his body between her forehooves. “What I mean is, without being in Celestia’s school, I won’t become a princess, which is what ended up driving Starlight to take revenge on us!" She hopped into a hover. "Without Starlight trying to take revenge on us, we won’t end up traveling back in time, and if we don’t travel back in time, we’ll stop existing!” She wasn’t even looking at Spike anymore.

“Stop existing?!”

She pressed her nose against his. “Spike, we need to figure out how much time we have left!” She pulled her head away. “Get me the slide with the most recent date on it. Oh, and the two most recent dates after today’s.”

Spike saluted as Twilight let him go, only for him to scream as he fell like a rock to the floor – now several feet below them.

Twilight blinked and looked down. “Oops.”

“Next time, check if you’re doing your anxiety hovering before letting me go,” he muttered.

“Sorry!”

Spike got up and began shuffling through the slides. Once he had found each requested slide, he passed them to Twilight.

She first shined the flashlight through the most recent slide, revealing one of the graphics from her presentation. The next one was a picture of Rainbow Dash’s cutie mark, taken around eight years ago. The third depicted a young and cutie-markless Twilight riding on her mother’s back while water-skiing.

“Well, at least two of them are fine,” Spike commented.

“But that also means the future is still changing, just slowly," Twilight reminded, "and we still might not be safe from its effects. We’ve only been here a few hours, and this water-skiing photo – which must’ve originally been the one of my cute-ceañera – already changed.”

“So how long do we have until everything catches up?”

Twilight tapped her hoof to her chin. “...I’m not sure yet. I’ll have to keep an eye on the slides to see when the next one changes.” Taking a deep breath and sighing, Twilight looked down, the fate of Equestria’s literal future resting on Spike and herself.

“So...so we just try and fix the future, right?” Spike asked, nervously.

“There’s no guarantee it’ll work, but yes, we have to at least try to fix things,”

“Like getting Applejack to come home?”

“Exactly. If we do things like that, we can hopefully correct the course of history enough for me and my friends to meet again." She yawned. "But right now, we should probably get some sleep; we’ve had a long day.”

Twilight pulled Spike into a hug and gave him a kiss on the cheek. Upon release, Spike started to head towards the door.

“I’m gonna go play some more O&O with Mac.”

“Don’t stay awake too late,” Twilight called out.

“And waste my last few nights of existence?”

Twilight’s eyebrows furrowed. “Spike, I said we’d only stop existing if we don’t-”

“C’mon Twi, relax; it’s just a joke.”

Twilight blinked. “Right… Well, goodnight Spike.”

“Night!”

Spike ran out of the room and shut the door. Twilight playfully shook her head and got ready for bed.

Ch. 3 - An Apple Far From the Tree

Come on, you’ve got this, Twilight thought to herself, straining to use every ounce of magic she had.

She looked intensely at the purple egg before her; it was so peaceful, yet so intimidating.

She took a deep breath, focused as hard as she could, and BAM! A small blast sent her tumbling backwards across the room. The filly looked up excitedly, only to find the egg still sitting idly on the cart.

“Miss eh, Twilight," a voice spoke from the group of judges, "I think you have shown us quite enough at this point. Might I remind you that this is a school for the most gifted and magically talented of unicorns? If hatching a simple dragon egg is too much of a challenge for you, how do you think you would perform in this school?”

“...I-...” Twilight stood frozen, running the mare’s words through her mind.

“While you consider that, perhaps you should leave the floor space open for more capable unicorns to take the exam; NEXT!”

Twilight simply nodded as sullenly walked out of the room, her eyes filling with tears. She walked over to her mother who was sitting on a nearby couch, identical to the one from their living room, and began bawling.

Her mother pulled her into a hug and began stroking her mane.

“Aw, sweetie, don’t be upset.” Twilight realized something was off about her mother’s voice. “It’s only your cutie mark and your friends you’re losing out on.”

Twilight looked up, and was horrified to see Starlight Glimmer, who was still gently stroking her mane. Starlight simply stared down at Twilight, giving an insincere motherly smile.

Twilight peeled Starlight’s hooves off of herself and backed off, feeling very uneasy.

“Don’t worry sweetie; in sameness there is peace!”

Twilight felt sick.

She ran down the corridor. It was long, but she eventually reached the stairs down to the first floor. As she walked towards the front desk, she froze upon seeing Nightmare Moon standing and talking with the receptionist.

“-and now Celestia and I are equals, like we should have been all along.”

Nightmare Moon had an equal sign in place of her cutie mark.

Twilight jolted awake, her heart pounding. She remained completely still as she tried to process her dream. A minute later, the alarm clock began ringing.

Getting up, the mare took a deep breath and looked around the room. She was still in the guest bedroom at Sweet Apple Acres, eleven years in the past.

Checking the three slides from last night, Twilight found that, as expected, the two that had already changed remained so. Meanwhile, to her relief, the two slides of Rainbow Dash and Pinkie’s cutie marks still hadn’t changed.

Putting the flashlight and slides away, she checked to make sure her mane was somewhat straight, and then walked across the hall to Little Mac’s room. Opening the door, she found Spike and the colt quietly sleeping on the bed, with Spike laying sideways to use Mac’s body as a pillow. Twilight walked over to them and gently tapped Spike.

“...Huh? *yawn* Morning…” Spike said groggily, sitting up and rubbing his eyes.

Twilight opened the drapes with her magic, letting in what little bit of sunlight had started to creep over the horizon.

“Did you boys have a good night?”

“Yup…” Spike replied.

“Most fun I’ve had in awhile,” Mac mumbled.

Twilight smiled and turned to leave.

“Hey Mac, last one to breakfast has to help clean up?” Spike challenged.

"You're on!" Mac responded, jumping out of the bed and running through the doorway, almost knocking Twilight clean off her hooves.

"Woah! Careful th– AH!" Spike blew past her, nearly tripping her again. "Spike!" she called out.

“C'mon Mac, we didn't even say go!” Spike whined, not even hearing her.

Twilight playfully rolled her eyes as she exited the room to complete her morning checklist.

Arriving downstairs a few minutes later, she was greeted by Granny Smith finishing up breakfast preparations, with Spike and Mac talking away. While seating herself, Spike spoke up.

“Well, well, well, looks like I’m not the last one to breakfast…” he stated, a sly smirk on his face.

Twilight raised an eyebrow.

“The rules were that the last one ta breakfast has ta help clean up. Looks like you’re it, Miss Twilight,” Mac said smugly.

Twilight smirked. “But it’s not like I agreed to it or anything.”

“Technically I didn’t either,” Mac retorted.

“Shoulda spent less time worrying about your mental checklist,” Spike snarked.

Twilight rolled her eyes once again.

Granny set four plates at the table, each with a stack of four pancakes, and two fried eggs in front of them.

Twilight’s face lit up. “My favorite!” She dove her head in and took a huge bite out of the stack of four. “Thif iv dehlicious!” she exclaimed through a mouthful.

Granny sat down. “Well I gotta make sure y’all are fueled up fer the trip ta Manehattan!” she declared, before taking her first bite. “It’s about a fourteen hour train ride; an’ I don’t trust that confounded slop they call train food!”

“Oh Twi will get fueled up on pancakes alright,” Spike said.

“So about the trip,” Granny spoke. “I got ya two a one-way ticket ta Manehattan, and I’m sendin’ ya with 100 bits fer a return trip.”

“I’ll only use what I need,” Twilight promised.

The four finished breakfast, and after cleaning the table, Twilight and Spike got ready to leave for the train station.

As they were ready to head out the door, Twilight turned to Granny Smith and Little Mac.

“Thank you again for letting us stay here,” Twilight stated.

“Oh it was nothin’,” Granny replied. “An’ we can’t wait ta have ya back!” she said, swinging her right forehoof in a hook.

“Don’t be gone for too long,” Mac said to Spike, “Remember, we still have an’ Ogres & Oubliettes game to continue!” He poked the tip of his hoof into Spike’s chest.

“Don’t worry, we’ll be back before Rainbow Dash could pull off a rainboom!” Spike replied.

Mac raised an eyebrow. “Who an’ what now?”

Spike’s face went momentarily blank. “Uh, nevermind.” His face lit up again a moment later. “Oh hey, what about that guy’s night dance I showed you?”

“Oh yeah!”

The two proceeded to bump rumps, hop around in a circle, bump rumps again, walk in place, and finally chest-bump, each chuckling as they completed it.

“Alright, Spike, I think we need to get going now,” Twilight insisted, smiling.

With that, the two set off for the train station, waving to the Apples one final time as they reached the front archway.

Once on the train, Twilight pulled out a notebook and pencil and nudged Spike.

Spiked looked up at Twilight. “Huh?”

“Before I went to bed last night, I started to formulate a rough plan of attack for setting things right again.”

“What is it?”

Twilight opened up the notebook. “Well, we’re already on our way to bring Applejack home, so that leaves Rarity, Pinkie, Rainbow, and Fluttershy. I’m thinking we should start most locally with the others and work our way out.”

Spike’s eyes lit up. “So that means we get to help Rarity next!?”

Twilight let out a half-playful, half-frustrated sigh. “Yes, that means Rarity will be next.” She turned to look Spike straight in the eyes. “But no going overboard on the 'helping' part, understood? We’ve still got a timeline to maintain.”

Spike groaned. “Fine.”

“After her, Fluttershy will probably be our next best bet, followed by probably Rainbow and then Pinkie.”

“Uh, Twi?”

“Yes?”

Spike pointed to his back. “No wings, and I almost fell to my death twice, remember?”

Twilight paused momentarily. “Right. Well…” She scribbled a bit in the notebook. “I guess you could take care of Pinkie while I’m in Cloudsdale.”

“And what about...well, you?” Spike asked.

Twilight tensed a little and exhaled. “I still haven’t figured that part out yet. We’ll just take things one step at a time for now, okay?”

“Sounds good to me.”

“Alright. I’m going to work on the finer details for now then.”

“And I guess I’ll read this 12 times over for the rest of the day,” Spike grumbled as he began reading a single comic book he had picked up at the train station.

Twilight wrote a bit more in her notebook, Spike eventually going off to get some snacks. As he came back with a large basket of hay fries, Twilight spoke up. "So for Rarity, it looks like we'll just need to get her to find some gems using her magic."

“Uh, Twi, Rarity didn’t get her mark just because she found the gems, she only got it after seeing ponies’ reactions to her improved costumes for her school play.”

Twilight blinked. “Huh. I guess I forgot that part.”

“Well, you haven't listened to her cutie mark story 17 times!” Spike replied, smugly.

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Oh brother...”

“’The costumes just weren't right, and the play opened that night!’,” Spike said in his best Rarity impression.

Twilight’s went wide and she whipped her head around to Spike.

“Wait, ‘that night’?” She picked him up and pulled him nose-to-nose “As in the night of the Rainboom!?”

“Yeah, she always mentions how she barely managed to get the costumes to the play on time after spending all afternoon adding the gems to them- And I think I see the problem now...”

Twilight let go of Spike as she pulled down on the sides of her face with her hooves. “Rarity completely missed her chance to shine! Even if we knew the play was that night, we probably wouldn’t have had enough time to help her!” She pressed her head flat against the glass of the train window, seeing Ponyville become further and further away. "And now we're going to be gone for at least two days!"

Spike put his claw on Twilight. "Twi, it's just two days. I don't think much is going to happen while we're gone."

Twilight sighed as she continued to stare out the window.

It was a little after dark by the time the train pulled into Maneway Station, and after getting through the sea of ponies flooding the station, Twilight and Spike found their way out into the chaos of the Manehattan streets. Twilight pulled out the directions that Granny Smith had given them, and directed Spike and herself across the city towards the richer area.

Aware of ponies noticing her alicornhood, Twilight spotted an apparel thrift shop along the way to the apartment, and picked up a sweater to cover her wings. It bore diamond shapes covering the entire surface, colored with an assortment of golden yellow, burnt orange, and chocolate brown.

The two eventually found themselves in a clean, white, well-trimmed skyscraper. Arriving on the tenth floor, they soon spotted a door with a decorative carving of oranges hanging on it, engraved with the right unit number.

Twilight knocked and waited. After a moment, a sound came from the doorknob, and slowly the door opened to reveal a yellowish-cream mare with a straight-banged amber mane standing behind it.

“May I help you?” she asked.

“Um, hi,” Twilight said, feeling a little awkward. “I think Granny called ahead; we were wondering if we could talk to Applejack?”

“Ah, Miss Twilight, Mom did say you were coming. Please, come in then.”

The two walked in and Mrs. Orange gently closed the door behind them.

Looking over to the living-room area of the apartment, Twilight saw Mr. Orange and Applejack sitting on the sofa, with another stallion sitting on an opposing sofa. The two stallions were speaking with each other, while Applejack, who had her mane done up in a rather high-class style, silently stared at the floor with a disconnected look on her face.

“You’ll have to excuse me and my husband, we’ve currently got company, but Applejack is still certainly free,” Mrs. Orange apologized.

Twilight nodded in response. Mrs. Orange then brought Applejack over to them.

“Applejack, this is Miss Twilight and her brother Spike,” she stated.

“Hello,” the filly quietly uttered.

“They’re here to talk to you about a few things. Is that alright?”

Applejack nodded. “We can use my room,” she said to Twilight and Spike, leading them into a hallway. The two followed, and entered a guest bedroom clearly in use, with a window on the far side, and a bed situated between them, its headboard against the right wall.

Applejack stood in front of the bed and looked at Twilight, her entire demeanor being one of tiredness and depression.

The sight of Applejack in this state was hard for Twilight to process. She could still tell it was still her, but due to the age and high-class mane style, it simultaneously felt like she was looking at a different pony.

“So you’re from Ponyville. Did Granny send ya?” she asked.

Twilight nodded. “We wanted to come by and talk with you for a bit; in case there’s anything you need to get off your chest.”

Applejack sighed and walked over to the window. She stared out of it as she spoke up again. “I told ‘em I was fine without counselin’, but I guess Granny thinks I need it anyways.”

“Maybe I could just be a friend instead?” Twilight asked.

Applejack turned around. “Wha'd'ya mean?”

Twilight walked up to the filly. “I mean, what if I just listened like a good friend?”

Applejack blinked as her eyes widened slightly.

“I won’t say anything unless you want me to.”

Applejack looked down for a moment. “I guess a friend couldn’t hurt…” She stepped over to the window and stared through it silently. After a moment, she sighed and finally spoke up. “Ever since Mom an’ Dad died, everypony’s been tellin’ me that ‘it’s okay’; ‘everythin’ will be fine’...but I just...can’t. Everythin' I do – chores, dinner, even spendin' time with Granny & Mac – it all just keeps remindin' me they're gone!” She stomped her hoof on the floor.

“Is that why you left the farm?” Twilight asked.

Applejack slowly nodded. “’Least here I can forget about it fer awhile.”

"By making yourself even more miserable?" Spike asked, raising an eyebrow.

Applejack's eyebrows dipped. "What makes ya think I'm miserable here?" she questioned defensively, walking up and staring him down.

"Do you really want a fancy manestyle like this?" he asked, flicking her bangs with his claw.

Her demeanor relaxed. "...N-no," she muttered, looking away.

“Where do you really want to be right now?” Twilight asked.

“Home...with Mom an’ Dad…”

“Applejack,” Twilight sighed. “You know that’s not possible anymore.”

“Well what am I supposed ta do!?” she snapped. “Home’ll just make me think about them bein’ gone!”

Twilight knelt down to her friend’s level, looking her directly in the eyes. “You can try remembering the good times whenever you’re reminded of your parents.”

The filly’s face twisted in skepticism. “But what if that don’t work? What if everythin’ still makes me feel awful all the time?”

“Then you've got Little Mac, Granny, and even Apple Bloom all ready to help cheer you up when you're feeling down.”

Spike nodded in agreement. “Especially since they feel like they just lost you, too.”

Applejack’s eyes watered as she averted them from Spike. Stepping back over to the window, she stared out of it for what felt like a long minute. Finally, she took a deep sigh. “I dunno; I just feel like nothin’ I do is gonna make me happy again...”

Twilight stood up and stepped over to her. “Just think about for a bit, okay?” She said, stroking the back of AJ's mane with her hoof.

“Okay,” the filly uttered, giving a glance back to her.

As the Orange’s guest was preparing to leave, the three finally emerged from the bedroom. They waited at the start of the bedroom hallway while he was seen out.

Mrs. Orange then trotted over to the three.

“Are you doing better now, Applejack?” she asked, looking down at her.

The filly just shrugged. "I dunno..."

Honey looked back up. “Miss Twilight, I apologize for not being able to properly introduce myself and my husband. My name is Honey Belle, and this is Mosley.”

“Pleased to meet your acquaintance,” Mosley stated, shaking hooves with Twilight.

Spike’s stomach growled, and he lightly grabbed it.

“Gettin’ hungry already?” Applejack asked.

“I got sick of the same food on the train.”

Mosley tapped his chin, pondering something momentarily. “Well, perhaps it's time we headed out for dinner," Mosley suggested. "Honey and I picked out a wonderful restaurant to treat you to after your long train ride from Ponyville.”

“Oh! W-well if you insist,” Twilight replied, giving a sheepish smile.

Applejack simply sighed.

The five then cleaned up and took a stroll several blocks down from the apartment building, arriving at a highly decorated and classy restaurant space.

Once they were seated, and their appetizers served, Twilight and Spike stared in shock over how small their food portion was relative to the already small plate. In two bites, Applejack had already finished hers.

When it came time to order the main course however, Applejack cleared her throat and spoke up to the waiter in an unusually soft voice that was devoid of her normal accent. “Excuse me sir, but may I please have a larger portion? I’m used to large meals where I grew up.”

Twilight and Spike gawked slack-jawed at Applejack, until Spike snapped out of it and added onto Applejack’s request. “Us too please!” He wrapped an arm around Twilight and pulled her against him as she sheepishly smiled.

Honey buried her face in her hooves.

The waiter raised an eyebrow, made an additional mark on his notepad, and walked off to the kitchen.

Applejack glanced over to her aunt. "...Sorry Aunt Honey," she said, defeatedly. "I didn't mean ta make ya embarrassed again."

"No, no, Applejack" she sighed, lifting her head back up. “I'm sorry. I've practically starved you the past few weeks with these tiny portions. I'd just assumed you'd adapt as quickly as I did...” She took a deep breath. "Perhaps your Uncle Mosley and I could make it up to you somehow?"

Applejack tapped her hoof to her chin. "Well...there’s a pizza place a few blocks down I’ve been wantin’ ta try fer the past couple weeks.”

"We can go there tonight if you're still hungry after this." Her eyes snapped to Twilight. "I-if that's alright with you and Spike, Miss Twilight."

Twilight blinked. “Uh. W-well if it's what Applejack wants..."

“Sounds good to me!” Spike exclaimed.

“Well then, I think it is decided,” Mosley declared.

"And Applejack," Honey began, locking eyes with her niece once again. “One more thing: don't be so critical about your accent; I think I gave the wrong impression at that dinner party last week. After all...Ah used ta talk the same way when I was yer age,” she said, smiling.

Applejack giggled. “Thank Celestia! I thinkin' twice before I speak was harder than plantin' trees in the dead'a winter!”

The five continued their first dinner, after which they paid and left. Applejack directed them from there to the pizzeria she had mentioned. Once inside, two extra large cheese pizzas were ordered, and were ready mere minutes later.

The huge discs were set onto the table, each cut into sixteen long slices. The Oranges each took a slice and observed it momentarily before biting into it. Honey swallowed her first bite and looked back down at the pizza slice.

“This is... quite greasy,” she commented.

“No kidding,” Spike said, taking a bite of his own slice.

Applejack, who had let her mane and tail go back to looking more country-style, glanced over at Spike, who was hungrily chomping away at his pizza slice. “Hey Spike, ya wanna take a challenge?” she asked.

Spike stopped himself before taking another bite. “Uh, sure?” he skeptically replied.

“Alright, so fer every slice of pizza we eat, we have ta lick the grease off first.”

Spike briefly looked over at the Oranges scraping grease off their pizza slices, then looked back up at Applejack with his eyes narrowed a bit and a smug smirk on his face. “So, what happens if somepony wins or loses?”

“Hmm, how ‘bout the loser has ta take the stairs back up ta the tenth floor?”

“Deal.”

Spike shook Applejack’s hoof, and the two began, each licking every last drop off the top of their slices before biting into them. By the third slice, Applejack was beginning to grimace a bit as she licked the grease

Spike took notice and felt it an ideal opportunity to get Applejack to surrender early. “Y’know, dragons are known for having iron stomachs.”

“Oh really?” Applejack coolly replied.

“Uh-huh. In fact, I’d say this challenge might be too easy for me.”

“Well ya ain’t gettin’ me ta surrender that easily!” Applejack declared. “How about this: fer each slice, we also have ta eat the grease that Aunt Honey an’ Uncle Mosely scrape off theirs?

Spike furrowed his eyebrows in mild concern over the filly's extreme determination to win. “Are you sure you can handle that?”

Applejack nodded. “I’m sure. Like I said, I ain’t surrenderin’ that easily!”

“Alright, you’re on then!”

Applejack quickly took the straw out of her drink and started sucking up grease from the pool of it on Honey’s plate. She clearly wasn’t enjoying it, evidenced by the sickened look on her face, but she powered through it regardless. By the end of the fifth slice however, Applejack clearly wasn’t looking very happy. As she attempted to lick the grease off her sixth slice, she pulled the slice away and gagged. “You win...I can’t take this much grease after all…” she muttered.

“YES!” Spike shouted, nearly jumping out of his seat.

Applejack took a drink from her water cup, and then spoke up. “But I’m gonna win the next time we do a challenge, ya hear?” she said, poking her hoof into Spike’s chest.

“Sure, sure…” he gloated.

Applejack took another gulp of water and leaned back in her chair. “Y’know Spike, you’re a pretty fun dragon! Heck, I bet you an’ Mac are prob’ly best friends!”

“Heh, yeah, I guess we are,” he replied.

“I bet ya’d prob’ly fit right in with us Apples.”

“Well, uh, thanks?” Spike responded, a little unsure what he was supposed to respond with.

“Jus’ happy ta have a new friend, that’s all,” Applejack stated, with a smile that didn’t quite match the more intense eagerness in her eyes.

Once everypony entered the apartment building again, Honey pushed the call button for the elevator. While waiting for it to arrive, Applejack’s smile quickly shifted to a frown.

“Aw shoot. I still gotta take the stairs,” she remembered.

“Yep,” Spike said, smugly.

“Why do you have to take the stairs?” Twilight asked.

“I lost a challenge to Spike,” Applejack groaned.

“I don’t suppose that would be whatever you two were doing with all that grease?”

Spike replied with an “Uh-huh.”

Twilight rolled her eyes in a “go figure” way.

Applejack shamefully sulked towards the door to the stairwell, and stopped before the door, grabbing her stomach. “Uughhh...I think all that pizza’s stampedin’ towards my backside...”

Spike’s smug smile shifted to a face of concern.

Twilight leaned down to him. “Spike, she’s clearly not feeling well – probably from all that grease you let her eat – I think she needs somedragon to make sure she’s okay.”

Spike sighed, “Alright.” He ran over to the stairwell door, catching it just after Applejack had gone through.

The elevator arrived and the three remaining ponies stepped into it. Once at the apartment door, Twilight waited outside for Spike and Applejack to arrive. They finally popped out of the stairwell, but Applejack looked worse for wear, clutching her stomach as she walked down the hallway while being braced by Spike. They then entered the apartment, and Applejack bolted for the bathroom, starting to release gas as Spike darted after her.

“Now you two get along in there,” Twilight called out, as she shook her head with a slight smile.

After about an hour, Applejack and Spike finally emerged from the bathroom.

“‘Least I know what ta eat now if I ever need ta clear my system,” Applejack commented.

“We can make it a challenge again if you need someone to push you,” Spike snarked, nudging her.

“Oh I’m sure the grease champion would love ta win again wouldn’t he?”

“So, Applejack,” Twilight interrupted, “Have you given any thought to our talk earlier?”

Applejack paused. “Oh uh... Well, I have felt like a pig outta mud the past few weeks, an’ hangin’ out with Spike tonight reminded me how much I miss jus’ bein’ me. So...” she looked up at Honey and Mosley, “I think I wanna go home.”

Twilight’s face lit up. Honey smiled gently and nodded.

“So, are we heading back tomorrow?” Spike asked.

AJ wrapped a foreleg around Spike. “Sounds as fine as fresh apple pie! ...Which I’ve also been missin’ a lot lately...”

“Sounds like a plan to me!” Twilight exclaimed.

The five continued to talk for a while, and eventually Applejack got tired and went off to get ready for bed.

The Oranges proceeded to show Twilight a second guest bedroom, which was opposite the bedroom Applejack was occupying. Spike immediately took a pillow off the bed, placed it on the floor, and laid down on it.

Applejack glanced in on the way back to her own room and furrowed her eyebrows. “Aren’t ya gonna sleep on the bed, Spike?”

He turned his head towards the filly’s voice “Huh? Oh. Twilight deserves the bed to herself,” he said.

“Aw, now come on, ya ain’t gonna sleep on the floor like a wet dog on my watch!” she grabbed his arm and began to pull him towards the doorway. “I’ll let ya sleep in my bed.”

Spike laughed nervously. “I don’t think you need to do–”

She paused and turned back to face him. “Plus, it’d be nice ta have somedragon ta watch over me tonight just in case I feel sick again…”

“Well, I guess it might be a good idea to keep an eye on you.”

“GREAT!” Applejack exclaimed, grabbing Spike’s arm again and dragging him the rest of the way across the hallway to her bedroom.

“Uh, Goodnight Twilight!” Spike called out, just before Applejack slammed the door shut.

“Night Spike,” Twilight called back. Foals, she thought.

Twilight finished getting ready for bed, and closed the bedroom door. While climbing into bed, she paused, glancing over at the bag containing the slides. Her eyebrows briefly dipped in concern as she sighed and slid under the sheets.

Ch. 4 - Talents & Treasure

Twilight slowly opened her eyes to the sound of an alarm clock chiming in a pitch-black, windowless room. After turning on a bedside lamp, she shut the alarm off and found the time to be 6 AM. She then proceeded to quickly brush her mane before exiting the Orange’s guest bedroom.

On her way to the living room, she spotted that Applejack’s door was still shut. Quietly, Twilight peeked inside, spying an oblivious Spike being hugged closely by young Applejack, both still sound asleep. Twilight smiled and shut the door.

Rounding a corner out of the hallway, she turned to see Honey and Mosley preparing breakfast in the kitchen. From the looks of it, omelets and waffles were on the menu today.

Honey stopped for a moment, then turned to face Twilight. “Good morning Miss Twilight! Breakfast will be ready soon; feel free to have a seat at the table.”

Twilight sat down, only for Honey to walk out of the kitchen a few moments later.

“Here’s a glass of orange juice for you,” she said, placing a cup on the table.

Twilight turned around and picked it up in her aura.

“Oh, thank you,” she replied, taking a sip afterwards.

“Morning everypony,” Spike mumbled as he walked out from the hallway with his eyes still half shut, Applejack trailing behind with much the same appearance.

“Looks like they don’t want to wake up,” Honey remarked to Twilight, before returning to the kitchen.

Spike hopped into a chair at the table, followed by Applejack climbing into the one next to him.

“Sleep well?” Twilight asked.

“Good I guess ‘er whatever...” Spike mumbled in reply.

“I- *yawn* -slept well,” Applejack stated, groggily.

“Any dreams?” Twilight inquired.

Spike thought for a moment, his face grimacing a little. “Eh, all I can remember is you were super happy and kept smooching me a lot.” He stuck his tongue out.

Twilight giggled a little. “Well, I guess you must’ve been doing an extra good job on everything then!” She turned to Applejack, who was staring down at the table with a slightly red face. “Any good dreams, Applejack?”

“Oh, I jus’ had a dream that I was dancin’ at our post-harvest hoedown with...uh...Braaeburrnn... Yeah.” The red in her face had increased.

Spike turned his head toward Applejack slightly and raised an eyebrow.

“Alright, there we go,” Honey said, placing five plates of omelets and waffles, along with additional glasses of orange juice on the table.

“Thank you,” Twilight responded.

Applejack watched as Honey momentarily stepped back into the kitchen. After her aunt had passed though the doorway, Applejack quickly gulped down her glass of orange juice and burped loudly in Spike’s direction. “Think ya can top that?” she asked, raising one eyebrow and smirking.

“Oh you bet I can!” Spike replied as he grabbed his glass, only to see it get teleported right out of his hand by Twilight. Spike looked over, seeing her head shaking back and forth with eyes wide in concern. Spike groaned and rolled his eyes. “On second thought, maybe we should try again when everything’s less flammable.”

Applejack’s face lit up in surprise. “So you’re sayin’ ya burp fire?!”

Spike nodded pridefully. “Yep! It’s a signature dragon feature!”

“Woo-wee! Ya just keep gettin’ better an’ better!” she exclaimed, giving him a teasing push on the side with her hoof.

Spike shook his head slightly. “Whoa, déjà vu.”

Twilight playfully rolled her eyes and shook her head as she gave Spike his drink back.

Honey and Mosley finally exited the kitchen and sat down at the table.

Honey leaned over to Twilight and spoke softly. “Thank you dear, for putting a stop to that burping contest.”

“Oh, it was nothing,” Twilight responded, waving her hoof down slightly.

After everyone had eaten and was finished, Applejack went to pack up a few things.

Twilight and Spike headed back to the guest bedroom to grab the saddlebag worth of stuff they had brought. Before leaving the room however, Spike spoke up.

“We are helping Rarity next, right?”

Twilight playfully rolled her eyes. “Yes, we are helping Rarity next.”

Spike clenched his claw into a fist and pulled downwards mouthing “YES” silently.

The two walked back out to the living-room where Applejack was waiting with a pair of brand-new green saddlebags.

“Are you ready to go?” Twilight asked.

Applejack nodded.

Twilight stood up and began walking to the door, followed by the others.

“Thank you for letting me and Spike stay the night,” Twilight said to the Oranges.

“The pleasure was ours. Plus we’re just happy that Applejack seems to be feeling better,” Mosley stated.

Applejack gave Honey and Mosley each a hug, after which Twilight, Spike, and Applejack all headed for the train station.

Once there, with tickets now acquired, Twilight and Applejack sat down to wait for the train.

Applejack looked around, concerned. “Hey, where’s Spike?” she asked.

“I think he said he was going to grab a few more comic books for the train ride,” Twilight answered. She looked up. “Oh, speaking of!”

Spike was walking towards the bench the two were on, carrying a large grilled carrot. He sat down between them, eagerly eyeing it.

“Got hungry?” Twilight asked.

“Just a little,” Spike replied, picking up the carrot and taking a bite off the tip. He then immediately opened one of the comic books to start reading. After a short minute, he found his right arm getting squashed by Applejack, who was leaning against him quite a lot, trying to read the comic book.

Twilight smiled. “Aw, you two remind me of when Shining and I used to read comic books together!”

Spike rolled his eyes. Applejack smirked and blushed slightly.

The sun was almost gone from the sky as the train pulled into the station at Ponyville. Twilight turned to a napping Spike beside her, who Applejack was using as a pillow for her own nap, and nudged the two to wake up.

“Huh?” Spike said, yawning. “What time is it?”

“Almost nine o’ clock,” Twilight replied.

Spike sat up, causing Applejack to slump off of him and begin waking up.

“Ngh...” Applejack muttered.

Twilight stood up and levitated Applejack into a standing position next to her, bracing the drowsy filly with her foreleg.

The walking helped wake Applejack up, and by the time the three were walking through the entrance archway of Sweet Apple Acres, she was as bright and chipper as usual.

Before reaching the kitchen door, Twilight nudged Applejack to go ahead of them into the house. She took the hint, and raced up to the door, throwing it wide open.

“Granny! Mac! I’m home!” she exclaimed.

Twilight came up far enough to peer in the doorway to see Granny Smith turning from the stove with a big smile on her face. Applejack ran up to her and gave her a hug, after which Little Mac dashed in from the living room.

“APPLEJACK!”

“MAC!”

The two ran up and hoof-bumped each-other.

“I missed ya so much!” Applejack declared as the two grabbed each-other in a squeezing hug.

“Not as much as I missed you!” Mac stated, rubbing the top of her head in a noogie.

The two let go, and Mac spotted Spike and Twilight standing in the doorway. “Spike!” he exclaimed, running up to him, with the two then doing their guy’s night dance.

“Looks like y’all came back in time fer dinner,” Granny stated. “Have a seat an everythin’ ‘ll be ready in a few.”

On the way over to the table, Mac tapped Twilight to get her attention.

“Thank you; havin’ Applejack around again means a lot,” he said.

“You’re welcome,” Twilight replied, winking.

All four sat down at the table, the three young ones clumped together.

“So, ain’t Spike a hoot?” Applejack asked Little Mac eagerly.

“Eeyup, he sure is!”

Spike spoke up. “Well, it’s not everyday you get a friend who’s a dragon!”

“You can say that again!” Mac declared. “Hey, we should continue that Ogres & Oubliettes game tonight!”

“Yeah! We barely even got stared last time!” Spike replied.

“Ogres & Oubliettes?” Applejack asked.

Both boys looked over at Applejack. “Have we got a game for you,” they said in unison.

As promised, dinner was served a few minutes later. After everyone was finished, Applejack spoke up during a pause between conversations.

“I was a little nervous comin’ home, but y’know, now that I’m here, I’m glad I’m back.”

Twilight looked over at Applejack. “I knew you’d start feeling better.”

Mac turned to Applejack. “Jus’ promise ya won’t leave like that again, alright?”

“Aw, don’t worry Mac,” Applejack said, “I jus’ felt kinda lost after Mom an’ Dad died, but now I know that Sweet Apple Acres is where I belong.”

Immediately after finishing her sentence, a light began to emit around Applejack below the table. Everyone noticed, and Applejack jumped out of her seat to find that the glow was coming from the side of each hip. The area then flashed, and the glow faded to leave behind an image of three apples.

Applejack’s eyes slowly went as wide as the empty plates on the table, and a huge smile crept across her face.

“Applejack...” Mac began.

“I GOT MY CUTIE MARK!” she exclaimed, jumping up for joy repeatedly, after which she grabbed Mac and Spike and pulled them into a tight hug.

Twilight felt like a portion of a huge weight was lifted from her, and felt herself smiling ear-to-ear along with everyone else.

“Well I’ll be,” Granny began “Looks like that trip ta Manehattan helped ya find yerself after all!”

“Yep!” Applejack replied, her eyes watery with tears of joy. “But I wouldn’t be back here right now if it weren’t fer you, Twilight!” she said, looking at her.

“Don’t sell yourself short, Applejack. You had it in you all along, I just gave you a little push, that’s all.”

“I guess...” Applejack started to look down.

“Applejack?”

She looked back up.

“Congratulations.”

Applejack smiled. “Thanks Twilight.” She paused and then looked at Granny. “Hey, we’re gonna need ta invite the family ta my cute-ceañera! Or heck, we could even make it part of the reunion this year! Or maybe-”

“Applejack,” Granny interrupted. “Why don’t ya settle down fer now an’ we’ll figure it all out soon.”

“Alright.” Applejack turned to Mac an’ Spike. “So, ya wanna celebrate with anythin’? Maybe that game y’all were talkin’ about?”

“Sure!” The two agreed, and all three ran upstairs to Mac’s room.

A little while later, Twilight decided it was time to finally take off her sweater and reveal her alicornhood to Applejack. Following some very awkward attempts at quickly answering the filly's questions with disguised truths, Twilight enjoyed a relaxing bath, before finally retiring for the evening. After breakfast the next morning, she re-donned her “disguise” sweater, and headed off with Spike to help the next pony on their list.

Arriving at Rarity’s parents’ house, Twilight rang the doorbell as Spike dismounted from her back. A slightly heavy, pink mare with a light purple mane done up in a beehive style answered the door a few moments later.

“Oh hello there! How can I help ya?” the mare asked.

“Hi, my name’s Twilight,” she began, before moving her head to the side of the mare and intentionally speaking a bit louder to be heard from inside the house. “I saw that play put on by the school, and I was just wondering if I could congratulate that talented young lady who designed those spectacular costumes.”

No response.

Twilight looked back at the mare with a nervous grin.

“Oh Rarity’s just probably still all upset that the costumes weren’t ‘spectacular’; I’ll go up and get her for ya. My name's Cookie Crumbles by the way; and feel free ta step inside and make yourself at home!”

Twilight and Spike stepped into the living room as Cookie headed up the stairs. A few moments later, they tensed up as they heard a voice of pure shame and despair shouting from upstairs.

“No she doesn’t! They’re all just horrible, ugly rags! Tell her Equestria’s next fashionista is somewhere else!”

Twilight bit her lip.

“That sounds like Rarity all right...when she’s really upset,” Spike stated.

Cookie came down the stairs and shook her head with a fearful look on her face.

“Maybe I should try?” Twilight asked hesitantly.

“You’re more than welcome; I just wouldn’t be surprised if ya get a spoon or a tub thrown at you,” Cookie warned. “Her room’s around the corner and down the hall.” Cookie picked up an infant Sweetie Belle out of a crib and walked into the kitchen.

“Tub?” Twilight questioned.

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Spike muttered.

Twilight nervously ascended the stairs and walked down the hall to Rarity’s bedroom door. She slowly began to creak the door open, the hallway light and a small amount of sunlight leaking through the closed drapes being being the only sources to illuminate the room.

The first things Twilight was able to see were stacks. Stacks upon stacks. All of one thing: empty ice cream tubs.

As she opened the door further, Twilight was able to see a bed, followed by a rectangular table and a chair next to the window, with sewing supplies and a sewing machine sitting on top of the table. After her eyes adjusted to the darker room, Twilight saw that the bed had a couple fresh ice cream tubs atop it. Lying on the bed, was a pouting filly, with a white coat, sapphire eyes, a disheveled, rich blue mane, and a body that was so bloated and pudgy that she could pass as a stuffed animal.

“Woah,” Spike blurted out.

Instantly, the filly’s eyes shrunk, snapped over to the dragon, locked onto him with a death-glare, and used her magic to chuck her half-eaten container of ice-cream at him.

Spike suffered a direct hit, and toppled over as a result. Twilight quickly dragged Spike out of the room and shut the door. Spike sat up and rubbed his nose.

“That’s Rarity all right,” he remarked.

Rarity cried out from inside her room. “Oh who am I kidding; I look terrible! I’m not just a mediocre seamstress! I’m a big, fat mediocre seamstress! Everything I do just makes everything worse! My life is ruined!” She began to bawl loudly.

Twilight and Spike looked at each-other in concern.

Spike gestured for Twilight to wait, and slowly opened the door, noticing that the lights were now on. He paused and looked over at the teary, sniffling Rarity on the bed.

Rarity noticed him, and immediately yanked the blanket & sheets over top of herself, making the fresh tubs of ice cream, as well as some previously unnoticeable romance novels, fall off the bed. “Don’t look at me!” She wrapped herself in the sheets and turned away.

Spike sat down on the bed. “Aw, c’mon Rarity, you don’t look that bad! You’re still beautiful overall, and you’re not even that fat!” Spike appealed.

“No! I look like an *sniff* over-puffed marshmallow, and I can’t even make an outfit to hide it!”

“C’mon, who cares about a few extra pounds; you’re just more soft and huggable now!. Besides, there’s nopony I’d rather be with right now more than you.”

Rarity giggled slightly and rolled over to face Spike. “Are you being serious?” she asked with a half-smirk.

“Uh-huh!”

Rarity smiled, sniffling a little again as she wiped her tears away and sat up, unwrapping the blanket from her head in the process. “Well, I suppose I am overreacting a little bit.” She looked up at Spike. “I guess you already know my name’s Rarity?”

He nodded. “And I’m Spike!” He held out his claw for Rarity to shake, to which she obliged.

“So who was your friend?”

Twilight stepped into the room. “My name’s Twilight Star.”

“Nice to meet you-uuAUGH!” Rarity exclaimed, backpedaling on her bed. “Sweet Celestia, you look horrendous!”

Twilight’s eyebrows furrowed in surprised concern. “I do?”

“Yes! That sweater; it looks awful!”

Twilight looked down, pulling on the diamond-patterned, gold, orange, and brown sweater a little with her magic. “Oh this old thing? I just picked up at a thrift store for five bits to...stay warm.”

“Thank Celestia you didn’t pay full price! We’ll have to get you a proper coat as soon as we can!”

Twilight giggled. “You know, Rarity, I think you’re being a bit hard on yourself. You do have a knack for fashion.”

Rarity sighed. “I suppose, but all I’ve been able to do is just know everything. I can’t seem to be truly creative; I can’t find a way to make my designs stand out and be spectacular...”

Twilight was reminded of when she first became an alicorn, and felt like she had nothing unique to offer as the fourth princess of Equestria. “But you know what? Sometimes it just takes a little time to figure out what you’re good at. You’ll find your way of being unique before you know it.”

Rarity sighed. “I just wish I could’ve figured it out before I had to turn those costumes in for the play.” Suddenly, her horn began to light up and spark a bit. “Hey!” she yelled, grabbing it with both hooves to fizzle out the magic. “Dumb horn!” She looked back to the others. “It’s been acting like that all week!”

“Maybe we should see why it’s doing that,” Twilight suggested.

“I already tried, and all it lead me to was some dumb rock.”

“Did you figure out why it took you to a rock?”

Rarity started to inhale sharply, but paused and released her breath. “...No,” she mumbled.

“It wouldn’t hurt to try again. Besides, I don’t think you’ve got much else to do.”

Rarity looked around at all the empty tubs of ice-cream, then down at her now-chunky physique. “...Fine.”

“That’s the spirit!” Spike cheered.

With that, Rarity got up from her bed, and the three headed downstairs to inform her mom of their plans.

“Right here. This is where the rock was.” Rarity was standing near the edge of a small cliff, in the rocky hills located about a couple miles outside Ponyville.

Twilight, with Spike on her back, walked up to the edge and looked over the cliff, seeing the rock a little ways down at the bottom of the cliff, surrounded by piles of boulders and jagged spires.

“Nopony’s going to be able to get to it now, that’s for sure,” Spike remarked.

“Well Rarity,” Twilight began, turning around to face her, “it looks like your horn is going to have to find a new rock for us to investigate.”

Rarity rolled her eyes. “Figures. We wouldn’t have to if I didn’t shove it off the edge. I just keep making everything worse.”

“Look on the bright side, at least we’re surrounded by rocks!” Spike commented.

Rarity looked around. “Just boring, dumb rocks.”

All three waited in silence as Rarity continued to stare at the landscape.

“We’re ready whenever you are!” Twilight called out.

Rarity walked up to a boulder and knocked a few smaller rocks off it, then looked back to the landscape again.

“Is her horn going to light up?” Twilight questioned, low enough for only Spike to hear.

“I don’t think she can control it.”

Twilight sighed. “Of course...”

“What am I even looking for?” Rarity asked, slightly irritated.

“Anything really. Whatever will make your horn activate on it’s own like it's been doing.”

“But this could take hours!” Rarity whined.

“Well how often does your horn light up?”

“I don’t know! The day after the play it was happening at least a couple times an hour, but the past couple days it’s been more sparse!”

Twilight took a deep breath. “Oh boy,” she muttered quietly. She spoke up to Rarity again, “I guess we’ll just have to walk around and figure out what will make it light up.”

“Of all the worst possible things, this is the second worst possible thing,” Rarity moped, walking off among the rocks.

Twilight leaned back to Spike. “Go find some gemstones and hide them around here; that might make her horn light up!” she quietly instructed.

Spike saluted and hopped off Twilight to go find gemstones. Twilight caught up to Rarity and began helping her explore the area.

Rarity began to climb on top of a rock, struggling quite a bit on her way up.

“Need any help?” Twilight asked.

Rarity grunted. “No, I’m fine.” She strained to try and pull herself up to the top of the rock. “It’s just that – *pant* – this would be a lot easier if – *ngh* – I didn’t weigh so much now!” Rarity stopped and caught her breath.

Twilight picked Rarity up in her magic and set her down on the top of the rock.

Rarity looked down at Twilight, angrily. Twilight gave a soft smile. Rarity’s face simply went red with a mix of frustration and embarrassment.

As she continued to explore, she only began to complain about more things. “Ehck, my mouth’s all dry! … Oh for Celestia’s sake; my hooves are filthy now! … This has got to be one of the most boring things I’ve ever done; why won’t my horn just light up already!? … It’s so hot! Eugh, look at me, I’m soaking with sweat!”

Eventually, Spike came back, looking a bit miserable.

“Did you find any to hide nearby?” Twilight asked.

“Yeah, but not a lot. It’s way easier with Rarity’s spell.”

“Well, at least it’s better than none.”

“I’m also getting kinda hungry.”

Twilight looked him straight in the eyes. “You didn’t eat any of the gems did you?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Nope, I had perfect self control!”

Twilight continued to stare.

“Okay maybe I ate a couple…but I really am hungry!”

Rarity came back up to Twilight, walking a bit stiltedly.

“Excuse me, Twilight, but I think I’m going to need to find a restroom – EEP! – and quickly!”

Twilight thought for a moment. “Maybe now would be a good time to go back to Ponyville for a lunch break.”

“Sounds good to me!” Spike responded.

“Please!” Rarity replied.

With that, Twilight teleported the three to the Clover Cafe back in town.

As the three trekked back up Rambling Rock Hills, Spike moseyed over towards a lightly skipping Rarity.

"Feeling better?" he asked with a smirk.

The filly glanced up at him. "Oh! Y-yes! Much better! It's also nice to be at least a few pounds lighter again..."

"Well that double-decker sandwich definitely added a couple pounds on me!" Spike chuckled, clutching his mildly distended stomach. He then rubbed his claw against the back of his head. “So uh, hey...ever considered designing an outfit for a dragon?”

Rarity looked up in surprise and confusion. “U-um...No? I hadn't even met a dragon until today, let alone one as nice as you’ve been.”

“It wouldn’t hurt to try; maybe that could even be how you’ll stand out!”

Rarity furrowed her eyebrows. “I’m not sure designing outfits for dragons would be a...popular...market. Besides, I want to find a way to stand out overall, not just because I’m designing for a particular species...”

Rarity’s horn sparked. “ACK!” She reached up, ready to snuff it out, but stopped herself. “Hey! M-My horn’s doing something!”

Twilight turned her attention to Rarity as the filly began to get tugged on by the magic force.

“Woah!” Rarity stumbled forward a few steps, and began to walk in the direction her horn was pulling her. “Ow! Stop tugging so hard!”

Spike and Twilight followed her. Her horn led her the rest of the way back up to the hills, over a few high rocks, across a wide clearing, and up to a small boulder.

“Another rock...Of course,” Rarity griped.

“Well maybe there’s something special about it,” Twilight hinted.

“What could possibly be special about a rock?”

Twilight picked the boulder up in her aura, turning it over to reveal an underside speckled with a bright purple coloration.

Rarity’s eyes went wide in amazement. “Wow...”

Spike walked up to the boulder and licked the purple with his tongue. “Those are gemstones all right!”

Rarity looked over at him. “You can tell that by licking?”

“Dragons have a natural taste for gems,” he replied proudly.

Twilight set the boulder down for Rarity to take a closer look.

“So...my horn led me to gemstones?”

“Uh-huh!” Twilight responded.

Rarity tilted her head at them. “I didn’t know unicorns could do that.” She picked at the gems a little. “Although I don’t know what I could possibly do with this.”

“Well, you could always become a gem miner!” Spike confidently suggested.

Rarity turned to him. “And get sweaty and filthy every day?! No thank you!”

“Or, you could add them to your dress designs,” Twilight recommended.

Rarity’s face twisted in disgust. “Are you serious? These would look completely tacky on a dress! They’re all cloudy and unpolished!”

“Well maybe you could search for some better ones!”

Rarity looked back at the gems, visibly contemplating. “I suppose...” She turned back towards the clearing. “Alright horn, lead the- WAY!” she yelped as it immediately lit up and began to pull her in a new direction.

Her horn soon led them to more gems, but just like the last ones, these also looked quite rough. As the hours passed, the pattern kept repeating, and Rarity began to whine about her previous complaints again.

Eventually, she sat down on a boulder to rest, visibly frustrated over the events of the day. The sun had begun it’s descent towards the horizon.

“It’s just not fair! It bothers me all week, randomly lighting up and tugging my head this-way and that, and now that I finally find out what it wants, it just turns out to be some stupid spell for finding sub-par gemstones!” Rarity groaned loudly.

“I don’t know what to say,” Twilight remarked, sitting down beside her. “I thought for sure we would’ve found some better gems by now.”

“All I have to show for this awful day are some dirty hooves, a wet mop of a mane, and a few cuts and scrapes!”

“At least you burned some of those ice cream calories!” Spike noted, poking her stomach.

Rarity glanced at herself and rolled her eyes. “And yet I still look almost as fat as before...”

Twilight pondered for a minute. “We need to find a way to refine the spell and make it more focused on high-clarity gemstones.” Twilight perked up. “I could try supplementing your spell with some of my own magic; that could make it easier for you to-”

“ENOUGH ABOUT MY STUPID MAGIC!” Rarity shouted. “I’ve had it! I’m tired, I’m dirty, and I’ve wasted this whole day out in these stupid hills trying to find some kind of ‘perfect gem’, WHEN I NEVER! WILL!” Her eyes began to tear up. “I just wanna go home...”

“But Rarity, we have to keep trying! If this spell is your special talent then–”

“Twilight!” Spike interrupted. “She doesn’t have to do anything! She’s just a filly!”

“But–”

“A filly with her own thoughts and feelings, Twi. We can’t change that.”

Twilight stared into Spike’s eyes, her eyebrows tilted with concern. After several moments, Spike turned away to comfort Rarity, Twilight continuing to stare at the two. Rarity simply sat there, lightly crying, an emotional wreck.

This was Rarity. An adolescent filly feeling adrift in the world.

Twilight finally spoke. “I...I’m sorry, Rarity. We can go home if you want.”

Rarity continued to stare at the ground. Spike remained focused on comforting her.

“...Rarity?”

Spike looked up. “I think she just wants to be left alone for now.”

“But you’re-”

“Left alone from you, Twilight.”

Twilight stared. “O...oh…” After a minute of silence, she spoke up again. “I…I’ll be back at Sweet Apple Acres.”

Twilight turned and walked away.

Ch. 5 - Party Pony Plight

Twilight stared at the projection of Rainbow’s cutie mark on the wall in front of her. Still no change. She shined the flashlight back towards the alarm clock; around 5:45 AM. What in Equestria am I doing? Twilight asked herself. I can’t help Rarity, it’s been four days and only Applejack has her cutie mark, and now I’m going to lose another day if I don’t get any sleep!

Twilight huffed. She needed to do something. Pulling out her saddlebags, she filled them with essentials, money, and the slide she had just inspected. She then proceeded to write out a sealed letter to Spike informing him of her plans, with a separate sticky-note for the Apples of where to bring it the next day. After she ran through a quick mental checklist to make sure she was ready, she headed downstairs, left the note on the table, and departed for the train station.

As she walked through the moonlit town, she thought about how she could help Pinkie. How in Equestria am I gonna cheer her up? The only pony I know who’d be best at doing that would be Pinkie herself! She tapped the tip of her right wing against her chin. Unless...

The ground was dry and rocky, covered in layers of mineral dust, and the area was surrounded with sparsely vegetated mountains. In a large flat area enclosed by a ring of trees, sat a fenced-in section containing a two-story cottage, with a silo and windpump on either side of it. Twilight zipped between the trees along the perimeter, using the trunks as “cover” while she spied on the area. A small spot of dull pink was moving on the far side of the space. Getting a bit closer, Twilight pulled out a pair of binoculars and peeked out from behind her tree.

The pony was a pink filly, with a semi-long, straight mane and tail, and no cutie mark. She was currently taking rocks from a clearing and rolling them over to a pile of other rocks with her muzzle.

Twilight waited for her to walk a good distance away from the pile, after which she zoomed out from her spot behind the tree. A minute later, the filly returned with another rock, and was about to put it on the pile before being cut short.

“SURPRISE!” Twilight exclaimed, jumped out from behind the pile of rocks.

Pinkie yelped and stumbled backward off her hooves.

Twilight, who was wearing a party hat, blew a noise-maker, and tossed some confetti into the air. “Congratulations! You just won the title of ‘Pony of the Day’!" she exclaimed, sticking a party hat on the filly.

“Huh? Who are you?!” Pinkie questioned.

“I’m your cheer-er-upper!” Twilight beamed.

“My what?”

“Your cheer-er-upper! Studies show that the more positive and lighthearted the work environment, the more productive ponies are! So, because of that…” Twilight jumped up on the pile of rocks and took a deep a breath. “My name is Twi-i-light,” Twilight pointed to herself in a grandiose fashion, “I am here to say: I’m gonna make you smile,” Twilight grinned wide, then stood on her hind legs, raising her forehooves into a Y shape, “and I will brighten up your daAAYYYY-!” Twilight suddenly felt the rock pile collapsing beneath her. She flailed her forelegs as she lost her balance and fell over onto the ground face-first. She propped herself up and spit out a rock that her mouth had landed on. She looked over to Pinkie with a sheepish smile. “...You get the idea.”

Pinkie cringed slightly.

Twilight stood back up and held out her hoof. “My name’s Twilight Star!”

“I’m Pinkamena Pi-IIIEEEEEEE!” the filly shrieked, getting shocked by a joy buzzer at the end of Twilight’s hoof.

She pulled her hoof back as Pinkie momentarily stood dazed.

“Whu-?”

“Joy buzzer! Makes any hoofshake just a little more ‘shocking’!” Twilight cheerfully declared, holding up her hoof again for Pinkie to see.

Pinkie simply shook off the lingering sensation. “A-anyways, like I said: My name is Pinkamena Pie; though my sisters just call me ‘Pinkie’ because it’s quicker.”

Twilight slipped off the joy buzzer and held out her hoof again, Pinkie successfully shaking it this time.

“What brings you here?” the filly asked.

“Well,” Twilight began, “I’m from the Healthy and Productive Workplaces Committee; here to help establish a happy and fun work environment so that everypony is at peak productivity!” Twilight picked up some rocks in her magic and arranged them into a mid-air smiley face.

“Happy and...fun?” Pinkie questioned.

“Yeah, you know; a few silly games, some super-special exciting food, wild decorations...”

Pinkie raised one eyebrow and cocked her head in confusion.

“Why don’t I just show you?” she said.

“Show -ME?” Pinkie responded, startled as she was suddenly slung onto Twilight’s back.

Twilight bolted towards the farm’s silo. On reaching the door, she kicked it open with her foreleg. “Ta-daaa!”

Pinkie's eyes went wide as she looked around. All around the interior were balloons & streamers of varying colors, random assortments of snack foods, and a small selection of games. “What happened in here?” she asked, climbing off the mare’s back.

“Just a little redecorating!” Twilight stated proudly.

“But...it’s so...crazy!”

“But Pinkie, that’s the point! Fun is all about being crazy!”

“It is?”

Twilight nodded. Scanning the room, her eyes fell upon a poster displaying a cartoon Princess Celestia. “Aha!” She exclaimed, bouncing over to it. “Pinkie, do you think you can pin Celestia’s tail in the right spot?” she asked, removing the appendage from the poster.

“Yeah…?” Pinkie uneasily replied, walking over. She took the tail and pinned it on.

“Now try it–“ Twilight tied a cloth band around Pinkie’s eyes, “–blindfolded!” She stuck the safe end of the pin back in Pinkie’s mouth.

“Buh, how c’n I see where I need teh puh IH!” she yelped as Twilight began spinning her around.

“That’s the fun part; you don’t!”

Twilight let the filly go, and Pinkie began stumbling as she tried to walk forward in a daze. “I geff I’ll – Woah! – tryh,” she said, after which she quickly reached her head forward to stick the pin into the poster.

“OW!”

Pinkie immediately pulled the blindfold off to see the pin stuck right in the middle of Twilight’s cutie mark, and the mare cringing a little. “Oh no, Miss Twilight! I’m so sorry-”

Twilight started giggling. “Oh Pinkie; it’s just a little pin!” She inhaled as she plucked it out with her magic. “It’s mostly muscle tissue below our cutie marks; no harm done. Why don’t you try it again?”

Pinkie silently accepted as she slipped the blindfold back on – after which Twilight silently whined in pain as she rubbed the pricked spot on her flank.

This time, after being spun around and regaining her supposed bearings, Pinkie ended up facing away from Twilight and the poster. Letting her dizziness dissipate for a moment, she confidently reached her head forwards once again.

*POW* The pin made a balloon explode right in front of her face.

"AAAAHHH!" Pinkie yelped, dashing across the silo. She crashed into a lavenderish-gray filly with a gray mane, who was walking in the door.

“GUH!" she grunted, being knocked backwards off her hooves. "Rrgh...Pinkie, what in Equestria are you doing!? You’re supposed to be out gathering rocks!” she yelled.

Pinkie pulled the blindfold off. “S-sorry Limestone. This mare was just trying to help me gather the rocks more efficiently.”

“...What?” Limestone questioned in a deadpan tone. Sat up and looked into the silo; her eyebrows dipped further. “Oh. Well who in Tartarus are you?” she groaned, standing up and trotting over.

“I’m Twilight Star!” the mare replied. “I’m here on behalf of the Healthy and Productive Workplaces Committee to help establish a more positive and lighthearted work environment!”

Limestone stared and then blinked. “...What? Now look Miss Twerplight – or whatever your name is – we’re on a schedule here," she snapped, poking her hoof into Twilight for emphasis; "a schedule we can make without the help of your 'Happy Hopeless Horseplay Committee'! So why don’t you do us all a favor and just beat it?”.

“C’mon, Limestone, she just wants to help,” Pinkie pleaded. “Besides, if it works, wouldn’t we not have to worry about the schedule so much?”

Limestone stared daggers into Pinkie for several seconds. “If you’re wrong about this then you’re doing my chores tonight,” she snarled.

“Great!” Twilight exclaimed. She looked around the room, then bounced over to a table with various foods on it. “Who wants snacks?”

The other two walked over, and Twilight hovered a bowl before them in her aura.

“What are these?” Pinkie asked, taking a bite of one.

“Tortilla chips! Southern Equestrian specialty!”

Limestone took her own bite. “What the hay is the point of these? They’re blander than the bread Mom makes!”

“That’s because you’re supposed to dip them in salsa, silly!” She levitated a bowl of the aforementioned accompaniment.

Limestone dunked the chip in the stuff and took a new bite. Immediately her face went red as she opened her mouth. “AhhhHHHHHH! BURNING!”

Unsure of what to do, Pinkie grabbed a bottle of soda and held it out for her.

Limestone snatched the bottle from her sister and chugged a bunch into her mouth, before spraying it out in reflex all over Pinkie. “What the hay did you give me!? It’s all tingly! Where’s the regular water!?” She looked around the room and spotted a bucket of idle water with a rag over the side. “Good enough!” she said, dashing over to it and plunging her head into it.

Twilight grinned at Pinkie sheepishly as she held out a salsa-covered chip. “Want one?“

Pinkie turned her head away slightly. “Maybe not...”

Limestone pulled her head out of the water. “Pinkie...”

The aforementioned filly’s ears fell flat against her head.

“We are going back to work. NOW!”

Pinkie cringed. Her head sunk as she began to slowly follow Limestone towards the silo door. Before exiting, she paused, taking one last look back at Twilight.

The mare was standing with her back to a hay-bale, next to the table of sweets. She scanned her eyes over all the decorations with a saddened look on her face. A balloon fell from the wall behind her and onto the hay-bale. Twilight sighed and began to sit down.

“Twilight wait! You’re about to sit on a–“ Pinkie yelled out, but was too late.

Her rump plopped right down on the poor balloon, immediately popping it.

Twilight screamed in surprise, and jumped straight up. She tried to fly, but due to the coverage provided by her sweater, her wings were unable to open, and she crashed right down on the dessert table, breaking the legs on one side. A small cake that was on the table slid from the center directly onto Twilight’s face, blinding her eyes with frosting. “Ack!” Twilight yelped, now stumbling around the silo.

Pinkie simply watched, eyes wide and slack-jawed.

Twilight rammed her chest into the snack table, sending her head face-down into the bowl of salsa. Immediately, she jerked her head back out. “Hot!” she yelped. The mare bolted straight towards the drinks table, but stepped one hoof into the bucket of water and tripped, slamming right into the Celestia poster on the wall. It fell down on impact, covering her.

Wiping the frosting and salsa from her eyes, Twilight fumbled to try and get the poster off, but only stuck her horn through it instead. Lifting it away from her face, she spotted Pinkie across the room, still staring in shock. She glanced up to the poster and realized her horn had skewered right through the tail, pinning it to Celestia's rump. “Hey Pinkie, look at that; I won!”

Pinkie snickered, the corners of her mouth beginning to twitch.

"Although Princess Celestia might need a bit of reconstructive rump surgery after this!"

Pinkie's mouth stretched into a grin as giggles bubbled up from inside her. She burst out laughing, falling backward as she completely failed to contain herself.

Twilight’s face lit up as she crept toward the filly. “Oh no! Super spicy salsa and freakishly flavorful frosting have turned Twilight Star into a munching mutant monster, and now she's come to steal all your cheerful chips and cake!” She stood up on her hind legs, looming over Pinkie with her forehooves raised.

Pinkie laughed even harder, with strands of her hair beginning to spring up and curl on their own.

Twilight started laughing as well.

Some of the salsa-frosting mix dripped off of Twilight’s mane and straight into Pinkie’s mouth.

“Pleh!” Pinkie started to spit out the frosting, but ultimately decided to slurp it up and eat it instead. Immediately, she stopped laughing and sat up straight, gasping.

Twilight took a step back. “Oh no, I’m sorry! If you need some water I'll–!” Immediately, Pinkie was in front of her face, licking off all the salsa-frosting with a slobbery tongue, making her wince.

“That’s actually really good!” Pinkie exclaimed. Zipping over to the snack table, she grabbed the salsa, then zipped to the broken dessert table, and poured a bit of the salsa onto some cupcakes that survived. She took a bite. “Beft food ever!” she exclaimed, her mouth full of the stuff.

“PINKIE!” Limestone yelled from the doorway. “I thought we were going back to work!”

“But Limey, you gotta try this!” Pinkie exclaimed, running over to her sister and shoving a salsa-covered cupcake in her mouth. “It’s amazing!”

“Pnhkie...” Limestone started through a full mouth, but paused as her eyes went wide. “What ihn tardarus am I eahding?” she questioned.

Pinkie furrowed her eyebrows. “Something wrong?”

Limestone chewed then swallowed. “It's...weird,” she remarked, grimacing slightly. She took another bite. "Weird but not...bad."

Pinkie’s face lit back up. “See! I knew you’d like it!”

"HEY!" She shoved the tip of her hoof right up to her sister's snout. "I never said that!"

"Well maybe you'll like..." Pinkie zipped over to Twilight, pulled the poster off her, and held it up for Limestone to see. "PIN THE TAIL ON CELESTIA!"

The older filly raised an eyebrow. "So what, I get to stick a pin in the Princess's rump to hold her tail in place?" A devious smirk crept across her face.

"Uh-huh!" Pinkie replied, nodding rapidly, before dashing back over and wrapping a cloth around Limestone's eyes. "But you gotta do it...bliiindfoldeeed!" she announced in a sing-song tone. She then smacked Limestone's rump with her hoof, sending her sister spinning around like a top.

"Pink– ugh..." Limestone groaned, stopping herself as she held a hoof to her mouth momentarily.

"Here's your pin!" Pinkie announced, passing her the tail assembly.

Twilight held up the poster in her magic.

"Okay...steady..." Limestone told herself, taking a wide stance. Suddenly, her whole body sprung into motion as she charged forward. "THIS IS FOR HAVING TO WRITE UP ALL THOSE STUPID ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY REPORTS YOU FAT FLANK!" she screamed.

"YIPE!" Twilight shrieked.

"Did I win!?" Limestone asked, throwing the blindfold off, only to find that she had plowed right *through* the poster, and jammed the pin into Twilight's cutie mark. She snickered a bit at the sight. "Y'know, maybe this whole 'fun and games thing' isn't the biggest waste of time..."

"Glad to hear," Twilight squeaked, pulling the second pin out of her hip today, while a tear escaped her eye. “And you know, there’s still four other ponies on the farm who haven’t had the chance to try this all out...”

Pinkie gasped, and her hair began to raise, creating an effect as though it was inflating with air like a balloon. She grabbed Limestone and began shaking her. “THAT’S IT!” she shrieked in excitement, her mane finally popping into a full curly frizz. She let go, a huge grin on her face.

Limestone shook her head as her jaw dropped. She rubbed her eyes. “U-uhh, Pinkie?” she asked, stuttering. "Did...Did your mane just–"

“Shh, not now!" Pinkie replied, waving her hoof. "I gotta think.” Her eyes carefully scanned the silo.

Twilight put a hoof to Limestone's shoulder. “I wouldn’t stress yourself out trying to understand it.”

Suddenly, Pinkie gained a comically serious expression. “I know just what to do, but this room’s gonna need some cleanup, redecorating, and more of everything if it’s gonna really wow everypony else. It needs to be big; it needs to be crazy; it needs to be..." A smile crept across Pinkie's face. "A party!”

“HEY GIRLS!” Pinkie yelled, jumping out from behind a large rock to face two other young ponies. Both were gray, one with a slightly lavender tint to her coat and a purple mane, and the other having a mane of dark cyanish-gray with lighter streaks.

Marble gasped and jumped behind Maud in panic; the latter’s eyes widened by a couple of millimeters.

“Hey Pinkie. You seem to be in a different state of emotion,” Maud remarked.

“Sorry! I’m just super excited!” Pinkie replied.

Marble peaked out from behind Maud with curious eyes.

“Ooooh– I can tell you two really wanna know, but I can’t tell you! You’ll just have to meet me in the silo in five minutes and find ooouuut!” Pinkie stated, ending in a sing-song manner before bouncing away.

As the two watched her leave, Limestone walked up. “It’s completely idiotic, but just trust her,” she assured.

Overlooking them from the top of the quarry, Twilight smiled.

As promised, five minutes later Pinkie and Twilight were waiting inside the silo, watching the entrance from behind a couple of tables. The door creaked open, and all three sisters, along with a brown stallion and gray mare that Twilight recognized as Pinkie’s parents, stepped inside.

“SURPRISE!” Pinkie shouted, jumping out from behind her table, with Twilight blowing a noise-maker as she jumped from behind hers.

The Pie family froze in shock (which for Maud meant her eyes widened slightly).

“You like it? It’s called a ‘party’!”

They continued to stare, looking around the room at all the decorations.

After a few moments though, Pinkie began to look down as her smile faded. “You don’t like it, do you?”

“I...love it!” Marble spoke, softly, with a small but wonder-filled smile across her face.

Pinkie looked back up. The other four looked down at Marble in surprise.

Limestone glanced back at the room. “Pinkie...this looks so...stupid!” she chuckled, trying and failing to hide a big grin across her face.

“I get a sense of lightheartedness from your use of lightweight decorations,” Maud stated, after which she smiled gently.

Igneous and Cloudy smiled as well.

“YOU ALL LOVE IT!” Pinkie exclaimed in delight, running over and hugging each of them. “Oh! But if you love this, you know what you’ll really love!?” Pinkie asked, letting go and dashing over to the snack table. She returned with a tray full of cupcakes. “Fralsta! Equestria’s newest and bestest food, topped on cupcakes!”

Each family member took one and bit into it. Immediately, the eyes of everypony sans Maud went wide in surprise.

Having decided to take the rest of the evening off, the Pie family continued to enjoy all the food and games Pinkie had prepared – especially the fralsta-topped cupcakes.

Cloudy walked up to Pinkie. “This is certainly something, Pinkamena. Perhaps you could do it...more often?”

“You bet!” she winked.

“Y’know Pinkie?” Limestone began, approaching her sister. “I’ve seen some of the foals having parties after school, and it all looked pretty stupid to me. But, there’s something special about this one. It’s like you’ve got a talent for it or something.”

“Thanks Limestone,” Pinkie replied, her eyes watering slightly in joy.

Then, there was a light. All three sisters looked at Pinkie in surprise. Even Igneous, Cloudy, and Twilight turned to face her. Pinkie looked back to realize her flank was glowing. With a flash, the image of three balloons, two blue with a yellow one flying higher in the middle, appeared on her flank.

Pinkie was speechless.

“You got your cutie mark,” Maud stated, still with her usual monotone. “Congratulations.”

Everyone shifted their gaze to Maud.

“I might be one to talk here,” Limestone began, “but don’t you think that came off a little–“

“Aww, thanks Maud!” Pinkie exclaimed, bouncing over to her sister and squeezing her in a hug.

“Pinkie?” Twilight asked.

Pinkie let go and turned around. “Yeah?”

“Have you ever heard of a cute-ceañera?”

“No. Why?”

Twilight smirked. “Well first off, I think this party’s only just getting started!”

Ch. 6 - Success is a Rarity

Spike’s eyelids opened slightly, then fell back shut to avoid the strain of daylight shining in directly through open curtains. After a minute of repeatedly opening his eyes to adjust, he sat up and looked around the room for Rarity.

He spotted her in front of a wall-mounted, full-body mirror, gently stroking through her mane with a brush.

“Morning Rarity,” he said, rubbing his still tired eyes. "Feeling any better?"

She paused mid-brush and turned her head to face him. “Good morning Spike,” she replied. "I am feeling a lot better now – on both fronts. You being there to comfort me, and making that nice tea to help my stomach...any filly would dream of having a friend like you around." She smiled.

Spike blushed. "W-well hey, t-that’s what I’m here for!” he stuttered, pridefully puffing up his chest.

Heading downstairs to the breakfast nook, they found Cookie messily prepping food on the stove, and Sweetie asleep in a high-chair.

Turning around to grab an ingredient, Cookie spotted the two. “Well now, look who’s finally up!” she cheerfully welcomed. “I was about ta go upstairs to tell you two that dinner’s ready.”

Rarity rolled her eyes, “Ha-ha… And good morning to you too, Mom.”

While pulling a chair out for Rarity, Spike glanced at a cat clock on the wall. “Wow, nine thirty already? Twilight would freak if she knew I slept in that long...”

Rarity giggled as she sat down. "Oh Spike, even a handsome dragon needs his beauty rest!"

He quickly licked his claw and made sure his spines were in place. As he took his own seat, Cookie levitated over two omelettes for each of them.

Rarity began cutting off a couple of pieces.

Spike meanwhile, picked up his fork, jammed it into the omelet, stuck the whole thing in in his mouth, chewed, and then swallowed. “Oh yeah, that tastes gr-*BURP*-eat.” A small flame escaped his mouth. He tensed and looked over at Rarity.

She simply stared back in mild disgust.

“Heh, sorry...” he awkwardly chuckled. A few seconds of uncomfortable silence passed. “...So, any plans for today?” he finally asked.

Rarity paused mid-chew. She put a hoof to her chin, then finished and swallowed. “Well, constantly seeing that awful sweater on Twilight yesterday, I couldn't help but think of designs that would be far better at complimenting her.”

Spike lit up. "Well hey, what are we waiting for then?" He hopped out of his chair and pointed towards the living room. “Let's get sewing!” He marched forward.

“Um, Spike?”

He peeked back into the kitchen.

“I’d like to finish my omelet first,” Rarity said, still seated in the breakfast nook, fork in her aura.

“Oh, right,” he chuckled.

Spike huffed as he pumped the pedals on the sewing machine, Rarity diligently monitoring her work, making even the tiniest of adjustments to the fabric’s position to ensure the perfect stitch.

Suddenly, he felt the pedal be halted by Rarity's magic – just as she'd done several times before. He looked up to see her wipe away a single droplet of sweat that was running down her face.

“Spike...I think we’re done,” she said, snipping the thread and levitating the sweater into the air, continuing to inspect it.

The sweater was midnight blue, a little more vibrant than Twilight’s mane. Around the edges were sequences of white diamond shapes, and tying it all together was a recreation of Twilight’s cutie mark on the front of the chest.

“It looks great Rarity; Twi’s gonna love it!”

Rarity’s eyes narrowed and her mouth twisted. “I suppose...” she sighed.

“What’s wrong?”

“There’s just something...missing. Something to make it truly fabulous.”

As soon as Rarity had finished her sentence, blue light began emanating and sparking from her horn, causing the sweater to drop straight to the floor as she winced slightly. “Oh not this again!” she whined.

Seeing her ready to snuff it out, Spike quickly grabbed her hoof and held it back. “Wait! Maybe we should follow it; one more time? Some gems could really give Twilight’s sweater that extra bit of fabulosity you’re looking for!”

She stared him straight in the eyes. “Spike, while gems would be amazing for this sweater, we tried finding some yesterday, and my horn only led us these dingy, unpolished ones!" She poked a ruby-embedded rock sitting on the desk, which Spike had brought back with them to snack on at some point. "Besides, I just had a relaxing bath last night; I'm not about to get covered in dirt and sweat all over again!”

"C'mon Rarity," Spike pleaded. "I know there's some good ones up there! I go digging for them all the time!"

She stared him in the eyes before finally groaning. "Fine. ...but we'll go home after one hour, got it?"

"Deal."

She then grabbed her homemade knap-pouch, strung it around her neck, and stuffed the sweater inside. The two then headed downstairs – Rarity walking a little wobbly due to her horn pulling at her. Informing Cookie of where they were headed, they ran to the front door. Bowing, Spike grasped the handle and opened it for Rarity.

“Thank you, Sir Spike!” she giggled, before dashing forward at the tug of her horn and– *KLUNCK* –headbutting another filly on the front porch. “ACK! OW!” she yelped, staggering backwards slightly as her horn fizzled out.

Spike jumped slightly, taken off guard. “Rarity are you okay!?” he asked, running around the door to her as she rubbed her muzzle and forehead.

“Sweet Celestia, ya think the whole world’s just gonna walk outta your way, don’t ya?” another voice groaned.

Both looked up.

“Oh, hey Applejack!” Spike greeted, waving his claw.

Rarity's eyebrows fell even further on spotting her. “Oh, you,” she said flatly.

“Everything okay?” Cookie asked, peeking out from the kitchen.

Everyone looked back. “If you call headbutting the thickest skull in town ‘okay’,” Rarity groaned, rolling her eyes.

“Alrighty; let me know if any of ya need some ice!”

Spike found himself turned back around by Applejack. “Where’ve ya been, Spike?” she asked, looking directly into his eyes. “You were gone all night! Ya missed dinner and breakfast, and we haven’t played any of that O&O game since two nights ago!”

“Oh, sorry Applejack, but I’ve been helping Rarity! She’s making a new sweater for Twilight, and now we're going to look for some gems to put on it! Except...well...

Applejack’s eyebrows dipped in disappointment.

“–Except I nearly got my skull split in two,” Rarity muttered.

Applejack’s eyebrows furrowed as she peeked around Spike’s head. “Now hold on a minute ya crybaby! That wasn’t–“

“Hey, hey, calm down girls!” Spike interrupted. “It was just an accident.” He looked at Applejack specifically. “What brought you over, by the way?”

Applejack broke eye contact. “Well, uh, Twi wanted me ta give ya this letter,” she said, pulling an envelope out of a leather knap-pouch of her own.

“Oh. Thanks,” Spike said, taking the letter. He stepped into the secondary living-room and opened it.

Dear Spike,

I’m heading to Rockville to go help Pinkie. Stay with Rarity; I know you’ll do a better job helping her than I could. I’ll try to be back as soon as I can, but if I’m not back in two days, make a plan of how to help Fluttershy, Rainbow, Pinkie, and the other one on your own.

-Twilight

He folded up the letter and returned it to its envelope to hide or dispose of later.

“Can we please get going now, Spike?” Rarity asked as Spike turned around. The longer I’m standing next to her the more I feel like something’s going to break around me,” she jeered, pointing an accusatory hoof at Applejack.

Spike snapped his claws. “Hey! That just gave me an idea! Wait right here!” he exclaimed, running back upstairs.

A few moments later, he raced back down to them, holding the rock with rubies in his claw. “You want the best looking gems for Twi’s sweater? You’ve got it!” He popped the rock in his mouth, then bit down, cracking it into much smaller pieces. Spitting the debris back into his claw, he sorted the gems from the stone, after which he took the gems one-by-one and ran each side against the edge of his teeth, scraping away the cloudy outer layer. Once he was finished, he presented Rarity with a clawful of crystal-clear rubies.

Rarity’s eyes went wide with amazement, and she immediately grabbed them up in her magic. “Spike! These look magnificent! Although..." She pulled the sweater out of her bag looked it over. "I'm not quite sure those would work with this design."

"Ya can bite rocks!?" Applejack inquired, mouth agape.

Spike nodded. "Uh-huh! We eat gemstones all the time!"

"Hmm...perhaps sapphires or amethysts would work better," Rarity remarked. Immediately, her horn lit up again. "Oh, Spike! I think it's trying to find some! Come on!" she grabbed his claw and charged out the door with him in tow.

Applejack blinked, before quickly shaking her head and running after them. “Hey wait!” Catching pace, she looked over at Spike “What about me? I got all my chores done early so we could do stuff together!”

Spike looked over at her. “Hey, don’t worry Applejack, I’ll be back by dinner! Then you, Mac, and me can all play some more O&O afterward!”

Applejack stared for a moment before muttering, “Fine.” She looked down as her pace slowed.

“See ya later!” Spike called back.

“...See ya later,” Applejack sighed, before turning and walking the opposite way.

After an hour of digging and “polishing” in Rambling Rock Hills, the two dumped their spoils into Rarity’s knap-bag and headed back. Once home, with the gems sorted, she got right to work picking and pre-placing them on the sweater at key points in the design pattern: amethysts at the points where each diamond shape met, and sapphires in the centers of them. All the while, Spike desperately resisted the urge to snag a gem to snack on. Eventually, once Rarity had made up her mind on how everything would go together, she began the process of fastening them to the sweater.

When all was said and done, she held up her work and inspected it.

Spike watched her heavily scrutinize the sweater for nearly a minute. “Something wrong, Rarity?”

She continued to stare at the sweater. “...Honestly, no. I can’t seem to really find much wrong with this. There’s minor things here or there, but as a whole...I’ve never felt like a piece I’ve worked on has been this complete before. It just feels...”

“Fabulous?”

She looked at him with a confident smirk. “Yes. Fabulous,” she repeated.

Immediately, a bright light began emanating from the sides of her hips.

“Rarity, look!” Spike exclaimed, pointing at her rear.

She cranked her head around to look, and her eyes and mouth opened wide in awe.

The light flashed, and left behind three blue diamonds as it faded away.

Rarity simply stared for several seconds in shock. “I GOT MY CUTIE MARK!” she finally squealed, jumping up and down in glee. She grabbed Spike and stared directly into his eyes, snout-to-snout. “I GOT MY CUTIE MARK, SPIKE!” Tossing the sweater aside on the bed, she dashed out of the room, squeal-giggling in delight.

Spike quickly bolted after her.

Racing down the stairs, Rarity spotted her dad, Hondo, walking in the door. “Dad! Dad!” she exclaimed, running up to him. “I G–*MFF*!” She was cut off by a hoof shoved to her lips.

“Just a moment, Rarity; you’re about to see the best ball I’ve ever ordered for our equipment store!” He pulled a bowling ball out of a saddlebag and loosely tossed it into the air. “Try and catch this!”

Rarity yelped and cowered away.

“I’LL SAVE YOU, RARITY!!!” Spike yelled, jumping up and diving into the ball.

Rarity watched in shock as Spike's entire body soared with the ball right into Hondo’s meaty flanks. Both ball and dragon bounced right off of them and hit the floor, sending Spike rolling backwards like the bowling ball he clutched. Colliding with the stairs, he splayed out all over, releasing the ball.

“Spike, are you okay?!” Rarity asked, cringing.

“Only if you are!” he uttered, dizzily raising his thumb.

Hondo levitated the bowling ball back over. “Scare ya?” he asked, throwing it against the floor, where it bounced like a dodgeball. “Prank bowling ball! Ponies won’t know what hit ‘em – literally!”

Rarity scrunched her face slightly in confusion.

“So what did ya wanna tell me, Rarity?” he asked.

A smile started to creep back on her face. “I got my cutie mark,” she said as plainly as she could, turning to the side for her dad to see.

“Jumpin’ tunafish! Why didn’t ya say something!?” he exclaimed as his face lit up. Almost immediately though, his eyes narrowed as he smirked. “Your mom know about this?” he asked.

Rarity shook her head.

“C’mon,” he said, lifting her onto his back. “We’ll act like it didn’t happen and see if she notices.”

Rarity giggled.

“Sound good, Spike?”

“Uh-huh!” he replied, wearily, as he attempted to use the banister to pull himself back up.

When the three entered the kitchen, Cookie turned around from the stove. “Now what are you three all excited about?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Nothing,” Rarity replied, doing a poor job at holding back a grin.

“Well I know I heard you happy about something upstairs, and your dad was certainly excited about something...”

“Aw, she was just tellin’ me how much she likes this bowling ball I left upstairs for her!” Hondo replied, picking it up once again. “Catch!” he yelled, tossing it towards his wife.

"AAH!" Cookie shrieked, ducking. While it didn't hit her, it did land in an open pan of tomato sauce, splashing it all over the kitchen and them.

Licking some of the sauce off from around her lips while slowly standing back up, Cookie gave Hondo a cold stare.

“...Whoops,” he chuckled nervously, beginning to step towards a closet door.

“Ugh, come on Dad! I just took a bath last night!” Rarity whined, looking over her red-splattered coat.

“I can get it!” Spike volunteered, stepping over to Rarity and beginning to lick the sauce off her cheek with a slobbery tongue.

“*Eugh*! Spike, please!” She stuck her tongue out as she shoved him away and recoiled in disgust.

“I’ve got it,” Cookie said, wetting a dish rag and beginning to wipe the sauce spatters off Rarity’s face. As soon as she turned Rarity to the side though, her face turned to shock as her aura sputtered out and dropped the dish rag. “Rarity! Y-you...”

Rarity grinned from ear-to-ear as she looked at her mom. “I got my cutie mark! –WOAH!” She was taken off-guard by a sudden hug from her mother.

“Oooh! I knew you’d find your talent one of these days! How’d it happen?” Cookie asked, letting go of Rarity and holding her in front, face-to-face.

“Yeah, ya never said,” Hondo noted, walking back into the center of the kitchen with a mop.

“Well, you know how my horn’s been acting up? It turns out I can locate gemstones!”

Cookie’s jaw dropped. “You’re kidding!”

“Nope!" Rarity replied, shaking her head. "Spike and I even brought some back to prove it!”

“So ya gonna become a gem miner?” Hondo asked.

Rarity’s eyebrows lowered. “Very funny, Dad. But my talent isn’t just finding gems...” She dashed upstairs and came back down with the sweater. “Ta-da!”

Both Hondo and Cookie paused their cleanup and stared at it in awe.

“Rarity, it’s beautiful!” Cookie complimented.

“You could sell that for a couple hundred bits!” Hondo stated.

“Actually,” Rarity began, “I made it as a gift for Twilight.”

Cookie smiled. “Why that’s awfully sweet of ya, Rarity. I’m sure she'll love it.”

“O-of course, I couldn’t have made this fabulous sweater all on my own...” she said, looking to her side. “Spike proved a wonderful assistant...and he was the one who really pushed me to give the whole gem-finding thing a try.” She walked up to him. “Honestly Spike, I don’t think I would’ve gotten my cutie mark without your help.”

“Ah, don’t mention it,” Spike replied, waving his claw at her as he blushed slightly. "I'm kinda a natural at it."

“Um, if it’s alright...I-I’d like to do something special to thank you.”

Spike’s mind instantly shut down all other operations and went full-focus on Rarity. “Huh?”

“I said I want to do something special to thank you, Spike. I'm open to any suggestion.”

His heart was now pounding in his chest. Rarity. She wanted. To do something special. For him. “U-uh...I...uh...” he stumbled for words. “How’sADinnerDateSound?” he blurted out.

Rarity blinked as she raised an eyebrow. “C..come again?”

Spike took a breath and swallowed a lump in his throat before repeating. “H-How about a dinner...out...j-just the two of us?”

Rarity pondered for a moment. “I don’t see why not; it sounds rather pleasant.”

“Great!” Spike replied, his nerves starting to calm slightly. “Vine Garden Grill tomorrow night?”

“It’s a date,” Rarity agreed.

“Alright!” Hondo called out as he set the mop aside. “Who wants spaghetti and dodgeball?”

Both Spike and Rarity looked at each-other and giggled slightly.

“So,” Spike began, seated on top of Mac’s bed at the hoofboard. “Thankfully for me, the ursa minor lets Garbuncle go as it runs off with the entire barrel of honey.”

“An’ you two thought I was crazy fer buyin’ it!” Applejack gloated, smirking smugly as she crossed her hooves. She sat next to Little Mac up near the pillows, across the homemade O&O set from Spike.

"ESCAPE ROLL!" Mac gleefully shouted as he picked up and rolled set of dice. The result was effectively a 2. "Aw, come on!"

Spike giggled. "Sorry Mac, but it looks like Little Sneakyhooves is gonna be stuck in that honey for awhile!"

Applejack gave Mac a sly smirk. "Let's just hope that Ursa Minor doesn't have a Little Snackintosh before we figure out what happened!"

Mac rolled his eyes and snorted.

Spike then cleared his throat and looked to Applejack. “Why thank you, strange mare. What be thy na–“

“Hey, if you two are gonna be busy doin' sappy introductions, then I'm gonna get more snacks before my second round against the ursa,” Mac interrupted, hopping off the bed and heading for the door.

“Bring back some apple pie!” Spike called out.

“Me too!” Applejack added.

The other two turned back to the board.

“So, Spike,” Applejack spoke, avoiding eye contact, “what were ya spendin’ all that time at Rarity’s for?”

Spike looked up. “Huh? Oh, we were making that sweater for Twilight, remember?”

“Right...” Her eyes darted back and forth as she thought. They stopped and looked up at him. “But what were y’all doin’ yesterday?” she questioned, narrowing her eyes slightly.

“Well we started looking for gemstones yesterday – turns out Rarity can find them with her magic – but all we kept getting was really rough and unpolished ones, so by the end of the day Rarity was feeling kinda bummed about the whole thing. Twilight left after that, but I stayed; all she wanted to do was cry for a while with me there to comfort her – kinda like you that first night we showed up!”

Applejack’s jaw tensed slightly as she glared down at the bed. Her eyes alone shifted to Spike once again. “Oh really?” she grumbled.

“Yep; I even went back to her house to spend the night with her! We had dinner, played some board games, stayed up late talking – especially after all that ice cream finally got through her...” Spike chuckled. “Man, it really was like that night with you!”

Applejack began taking deeper breaths, and pressed her forehooves into the mattress.

“And even though we found even more mediocre gemstones today, I realized I could just scrape the bad parts off with my teeth! So we spent some time collecting a whole bunch – with a few extra she let me snack on – and then we went back to her house and added them to the sweater, and that’s when she got her cutie mark! All thanks to yours truly!” He pointed his thumb at himself proudly.

“Great, great...” Applejack gritted, making zero eye contact.

“Oh! And that’s not even the best part!”

Applejack’s eyes stared daggers into the bedsheets. “It’s not?” she questioned.

“Nope! The best part is that Rarity and I are having dinner together at the Vine Garden Grill tomorrow!”

Applejack’s entire body tensed up, save her left eye, which twitched slightly. A false grin of gritted teeth was forced upon her face. “That’s...great, Spike...” she seethed, her hooves pressing hard into the mattress.

“Apple pie with ice-cream!” Mac declared, bringing in two plates of the aforementioned item, along with a bag of potato chips.

“Hey, thanks Mac, I’ve been dying for another slice of it!” he picked the whole thing up and took a large bite, leaving a ring of apple and vanilla ice cream on his face.

Applejack just took a bite out of the vanilla scoop.

Spike swallowed. “Now, where were we? Oh yeah! ‘My sincerest gratitude for saving me, lone traveler. Now I must ask, what is your name?”

Mac rolled his eyes. “Really!? Y’all got nowhere with this while I was gone?”

Applejack swallowed her bite and took a deep breath. She looked back to Spike as the pressure on the mattress decreased slightly. “I’m Golden Sentinel,” she spoke, gesturing a hoof towards herself. “Daughter of the legendary Earthen warrior, Bright Sentinel, who defended against the timberwolf invasion to his death! And you?”

Spike gave a half-bow from his seated position. “I am Garbuncle, the great wizard who has traveled far and wide throughout Spiketopia! But in spite of my prestige, there must be something I can to do repay you for saving me.”

“Well, I don’t really need much, but I suppose there is a little gesture of gratitude I wouldn’t mind getting from a good-lookin’ wizard like you,” Applejack stated as she closed her eyes and leaned forward over the board, pursing her lips slightly.

“If you so wish,” Spike replied, giving a single nod.

Applejack felt one of Spike’s arms go around her neck and pull her towards him. However, her eyes snapped back open upon feeling scaly knuckles rubbing against the top of her scalp.

"I hereby dub thee, 'Golden Sentinel the Brave'!" He let go. “We are also in need of a third traveler, if thou is interested.”

Applejack just stared for a moment. “Thanks," she groaned. "I've been gettin' pretty lonely out here...” She snorted as she leaned back against a pillow.

The next morning, a few hundred miles away, a small train continued its journey northeast.

“Clicka-clacka! Clicka-clacka! Clicka-clacka!” Pinkie chanted, staring out the window. She turned to Maud, who was seated to the left of her. “Soooo, what do you think the rocks are gonna be like when we get there?”

“Mostly igneous, especially of volcanic varieties; the Canterlot Mountains were all formed from volcanic activity due to a hot-spot under the North Equestrian plate,” she replied. “It’ll be an interesting area to study for sure.”

Across the isle, Twilight was scribbling away in a notebook. Yesterday evening she had re-checked the seven year old photo of Rainbow’s cutie mark. Much to her concern, instead of the usual rainbow lightning bolt, it was now a trio of red, yellow, and blue clouds.

“Let’s see...” Twilight quietly thought aloud, tapping her pencil against her chin. “The slide of my acceptance letter and the slide of my cute-ceañera were both changed by the end of the first day. That means that a few hours equals a few weeks at least. But, Rainbow’s photo changed yesterday, and that’s from four years ahead of where we are now. So, if we’ve been here five days, and something from four years ahead changed yesterday...then every day that passes means another year of changes.” Twilight looked up, staring out the window at the passing scenery. She sighed. “And unless Spike managed to help Rarity earn her mark...we’ll only have five and a half days to help her, Fluttershy, Rainbow, and myself...”

She sighed. “How am I gonna pull this off?”

“Pull what off?” Pinkie asked, suddenly next to Twilight. “That sweater? Did some evil seamstress force it upon you and now you’re cursed to wear it for the rest of your life?!”

Twilight looked right in surprise and raised an eyebrow.

“Ooh! Or are you trying to throw another party for somepony!? Because I can help with that!” She gave a wide grin.

Twilight smiled. “Oh Pinkie!” She ruffled the filly’s perpetually ruffled mane. “There’s just something important I have to get done in a week, and I’m just not sure if I can do it.”

Pinkie raised an eyebrow and tilted her head sideways. “Soo...that’s a maybe on the party?”

“A maybe.”

Finally stepping off the train, Twilight could hear the bells of the Ponyville clocktower chiming that it was 1:45 in the afternoon.

“Twilight!”

She glanced to see Spike and a saddlebag-wearing Rarity running up to her.

“Spike!” she exclaimed as the two hugged, with her adding a kiss to the forehead.

“So, how’d it go?” he asked.

“Pretty well, only some minor hiccups,” Twilight replied, playfully rolling her eyes.

“WHOA IS THAT YOUR DRAGON FRIEND!?” Pinkie dashed straight up to Spike and began zipping all around him, inspecting every inch. She lifted and felt his arms, legs, and tail; she even pulled one of his spines to the side and watched it spring back into place like a doorstop. “Cool! My name’s Pinkie Pie; you must be Spike!” she grabbed his claw and began vigorously shaking it. “Twilight told me allllllllll about you! Say, since you were hatched, do still call it a ‘birthday’, or do you call it a ‘hatch-day’?”

Spike blinked. “Uh...”

Pinkie looked back over to the train, and ran up to Maud as she was walking off. “Ooh! And this my older sister Maud! Say ‘hi’ to Spike, Maud!” She picked up one of Maud’s hooves and manually waved it.

“Hey,” Maud greeted, staring at him. “...I’ve never met a dragon before.”

“And now you have!” Pinkie stated. “How cool is that?!”

“Pinkie?” Twilight asked, approaching the sisters.

Pinkie looked up. “Yeah?”

“I hate to interrupt, but I’d like to catch up with Spike right now. Why don’t you and Maud go check into Soft Sheets’s inn?"

Pinkie saluted. “Oh, I get it; you need to get ready for that party! Okie-dokie-loki then! C’mon Maud!” She wrapped a foreleg around her sister’s neck and headed off.

“Uh Twi, why are they in Ponyville?” Spike asked, walking up to Twilight.

She looked down at him. “Oh, well, Pinkie pleaded to go with me so she could see Ponyville, but her parents were a little hesitant to let her leave so suddenly. So Maud decided to put some usefulness in the trip by going with her and doing some rock research for the farm.”

“Huh. Anyways, Rarity and I have something to show you!” he said, gesturing towards the filly. “Take it away!”

Rarity cleared her throat. “Twilight, after I saw your overpriced five-bit sweater, I knew I had to do something to set things right,” she opened one of the saddlebags and pulled out the new sweater, “so I made you this.”

Twilight’s eyes went wide in awe. “Rarity!” she gasped. “It’s beautiful!” She took it in her own aura to get a better look. “And I see you found some nice gems after all!”

“All thanks to Spike and his incredible teeth,” she replied, giving a smile and a wink towards him.

“You two wait there, I’ll be right back!” Twilight exclaimed, teleporting away, only to return a few seconds later now wearing the sweater Rarity had made. “How do I look?” she asked, turning sideways for Rarity to see.

“Fabulous, darling!” Rarity declared, giggling slightly as she trotted in place.

“And that’s not the only thing!” Spike reminded.

“Oh!” Rarity turned sideways.

Twilight dropped the old sweater right out of her aura and gasped. “You got your cutie mark!”

“Uh-uh!”

She put a hoof around the filly. “I knew you had it in you!”

“All it took was a little encouragement from Spike!”

Twilight looked up at the station clock. “Oh it’s almost two! I need to get going!” She paused and looked down at Rarity. “Say, you wouldn’t happen to have a hat that covers a pony’s horn easily, would you?”

“No, but I could find you one. Why?”

“Oh, uh, no reason worth mentioning...”

“Well then; let’s go shopping!” Rarity declared, starting to walk off, Spike following close behind.

Twilight paused as she picked the old sweater up off the platform.

“Oh don’t bother yourself with this!” Rarity said, taking it in her own aura and stuffing it into her saddlebag. “I’ll burn it later.”

Ch. 7 - Fluttering Hearts

*Knock*, *knock*, *knock*.

Twilight shuffled a little as she stood on the front stoop of Fluttershy’s house – or at least the house that Fluttershy lived in according to the flight school. Waiting for a response, she held a hoof over her head to keep a large, pale-yellow sunhat with an attached sunflower in place as the windy Cloudsdale air blew past it. Her new sweater was tucked away in her saddlebags for the time being, letting her wings be free.

The knob clinked as it turned. The door then opened, revealing...nopony.

“Hello?” Twilight asked into the empty living room. Glancing down, she noticed the eyes of a young cyan colt with a blonde mane peek out from from around the door.

“Hey mom, there’s somepony at the door!” he called out. He sounded around 10.

Through the back living room window, Twilight saw a mare with a pale orangeish-yellow coat and a light burgundy mane peak her head up from below the window sill, then duck back down. A few moments later she walked into the living room. “Sorry about that, I was busy with some gardening,” she apologized, “I'm Posey Shy," she stated, gentling smiling. "How may I help you?”

“Hi," Twilight replied, giving an awkward smile in return. "I'm Twilight Star from the...Junior Cloudsdale Animal Society. I was wondering if I could talk with your daughter, Fluttershy?”

“Why certainly; she’s out back, reading.” Posey gestured for Twilight to follow, walking further into the house.

So far, so good, Twilight thought. She knew things wouldn’t be smooth all the way through though. She’d learned from Rarity and Pinkie that there were bound to be hiccups in her plan, and nopony would make that more evident than Fluttershy, who Twilight knew would be hesitant to get on board with her activity suggestions.

“My name’s Zephyr Breeze,” the colt spoke, pulling Twilight out of her thoughts. “Anythin’ about style; I’m your guy!” he pointed a proud hoof at himself.

“Nice to meet you,” Twilight replied.

He squinted at her. “Is that hat a fashion statement, or a personal statement that you’re too ashamed of your boring manecut?” he asked.

Twilight blinked. “Uh...”

The mare sighed and looked back up to Twilight. “You’ll have to excuse Zephyr Breeze; he can be a little...blunt...at times.”

“Uh-huh...” Twilight responded, giving a forced grin as she nervously chuckled. “Well, it’s just a question, no harm done.”

Entering the back yard, the three approached a small cloud floating low over the yard. “Flutter,” Posey called out. “There’s somepony here to see you.”

A small “*eep*!” came from the cloud as it stirred slightly.

Twilight took a step closer. “It’s okay, I just want to show you something. Something I know you’ll love.”

“Nopony’s home!” the ‘cloud’ uttered.

“Aw, c’mon sis! Stop bein’ such a scaredy-cat!” Zephyr scoffed, using wing-propelled jumps to get on top of the door, then onto an upstairs window-sill, then onto the roof, and finally, from the roof into a glide which drove straight through the cloud Fluttershy was reclining on, busting it into nothing.

Suddenly without support, the she yelped as began to flail as she tumbled through the air, before cratering belly-first into the 'ground' clouds. A teenage filly-shaped depression, with all limbs splayed out, now sat in the yard. A small bit of pink mane and tail stuck out of it.

“Are you okay dear?” Posey asked, trotting up with wide eyes.

Fluttershy poked her head out of the her cloud-crater. “*Phu*!” She spat a chunk of cloud out of her mouth.

“I’ll go get the first aid kit,” Posey stated, walking back into the house.

Shaking her head, Fluttershy looked forward, locked eyes onto Twilight, and then immediately dipped back down into her filly-shaped hole.

Twilight smiled. “It’s okay.” She put a hoof to her chest. “My name’s Twilight Star.”

Fluttershy whimpered and sunk back down further.

This was okay, Twilight had planned for this; she just needed a way to get Fluttershy to speak. She stepped a little closer, the filly shuffling back in response. She picked Fluttershy's fallen book and looked at the cover. “Hey! Wandering in a Golden Meadow; I remember reading this book when I was a filly!”

Fluttershy raised her head back up, cocking it slightly while her eyebrows furrowed.

Twilight looked back to her. “...Is something wrong?”

“...Um, that book...only came out two years ago...” she whispered.

Twilight darted her eyes to the cover, then back to Fluttershy. “Oh! Right! I must’ve gotten it mixed up with another book I read...Heh heh...” She smiled sheepishly as she handed the book back to the filly, who tucked it under a wing. “Anyways, I'm from the Junior Cloudsdale Animal Society; I think I might’ve seen you down on the ground the other day.”

Fluttershy’s eyes suddenly widened as she locked her eyes onto Twilight.

“You seemed like you were having a lot of fun with the animals.”

She began to sink back towards the ground once more.

“In fact, if I heard right, you even had some beautiful singing down there!”

Her face lit up with red as submerged herself back into the cloud-lawn, folding her lanky forelegs over her head.

“Um...”

“Don’t worry about her,” Zephyr spoke, “she just doesn’t know how to handle ponies telling her that she’s the greatest, like I have!” He pulled her head out of the cloud, smooshing her cheek against his as he wrapped a foreleg around her neck. “Isn’t that right, Flutterbutter?”

Fluttershy squeaked.

Twilight cleared her throat. “So, um, I was wondering if you might want somepony to take you back down there; maybe even show you around a little?"

“Um-” she nudged Zephyr off of her. “...I, um...I don’t know. I mean, everything was pretty, and all the creatures seamed nice, but, um...I just don’t think I belong down there...I felt like...an outsider...”

Twilight reached out to put a hoof around the filly. “Fluttershy, you’re not an outsider. You’re part of that world just as much as the animals are!”

She raised an eyebrow.

“Let me show you!” Twilight immediately scooped up Fluttershy onto her back – a little more difficult than Pinkie or Spike due to Fluttershy being a year or two older than them. “We’ll be right back,” she informed Zephyr, before plunging through the clouds of the yard as Fluttershy yelped.

The colt simply stared at the cloud-ground.

“Flutter, dear, I got the first aid kit for you! Are you feeling any better now?” Posey asked, walking back out into the yard. She paused, scanning the area. “...Flutter?”

Meanwhile, Twilight was in a nosedive towards the true ground, with Fluttershy on her back.

The filly's eyes were squeezed shut, and she held an iron grip around Twilight’s upper chest.

Once Twilight landed, she gave Fluttershy’s foreleg a few taps.

As soon as she realized she wasn't in 'danger' anymore, Fluttershy dismounted, and began slowly looking about the area. There were many trees and bushes around, but no animals seemed to be immediately visible.

Time for the hard part, Twilight thought. She knew that it would take a minute for Fluttershy to find an animal, and even when she did, it probably wouldn’t go well on the first try, and she’d have to keep encouraging Fluttershy – which she’d need to be careful with in order to not push her too hard – and who knows how many times that would need to be repe–

“Why hello there little one!” Fluttershy cooed.

Twilight looked up.

The filly’s chin was almost on the ground, her face practically nose-to-nose with a tan rabbit.

The rabbit squeaked.

“That’s right; I am your new friend,” Fluttershy giggled, rubbing her nose against its, before freezing with widened eyes. She shot up completely straight, then looked back down at the rabbit. “Did...did I just interpret your squeak?”

With that, a small light flashed on her flanks and three pink butterflies were left in its place.

Fluttershy cranked her head around and gasped. “My cutie mark!”

Twilight’s mouth dropped open slightly as her eyes narrowed in confusion. “That’s it? That’s all it took!?” she exclaimed.

Fluttershy darted her eyes up to Twilight. “...That’s all what took?” she asked, hesitantly.

“Uh, uh...um, nothing! Just that...that’s all it took to help you see how great nature is!” Twilight replied, nervously grinning.

Fluttershy stared for a moment with a raised eyebrow. “Okay...” She slowly turned back to the rabbit.

Twilight sighed, relaxing a little. Four down, two to go, she thought.

“And that’s when we reached the stream,” Fluttershy narrated, recounting the events of her day to her family, who were seated at the dinner table along with her and Twilight. “There were all sorts of neat creatures living there! Ducks, frogs, fish...it isn’t like anything up here!”

“Sounds like quite an adventure you had there,” Fluttershy's father – an aqua stallion with a magentaish-white mane – stated.

“Mm-hmm!” Fluttershy replied, nodding.

“I’m still amazed you can communicate with animals so well!” Posey added.

Fluttershy looked at her mother. “I am too! And I wouldn’t have ever figured it out if it weren’t for Miss Twilight offering to show me the forest today,” she smiled, glancing over at the aforementioned mare.

Twilight smiled in return.

Zephyr looked up at Twilight, who was sitting next to him. “So, when are you gonna help me get my cutie mark?” he asked, brushing his side against her and raising his eyebrows several times.

Twilight chuckled. “Oh, Zephyr! You’re still a little young to figure out what you’re good at in life.”

“But I already do know!” he exclaimed. “I’m gonna be the greatest painter Equestria’s ever seen!” He got off his chair and dashed into the other room, hauling out a canvas with a sheet over it. “Dear ponies, I present to you, a portrait of Equestria’s greatest sister!” he yanked the sheet off, revealing the canvas.

Fluttershy shrieked like a bat and shot up out of her chair to the insulating clouds on the ceiling.

The painting depicted a ghastly rendition of Fluttershy, with a melted looking face, limbs better fit for a spider, and eyes that appeared more dead than alive.

“Can’t handle the sheer beauty of yourself, eh sis?” Zephyr asked to the small, shuddering bit of pink tail that was still visible.

Posey and Gentle simply stared at it, their faces twisted in nervous worry.

“I can see you went for a very...abstract approach!” Twilight ‘complimented’.

Zephyr chuckled. “This isn’t abstract,” he explained. “This is the art style of the Bucktrain Era! But I guess not all of us are as knowledgeable on the arts as I am.”

Twilight’s eyebrows dropped as she snorted.

“Now, even though I know you all want to keep admiring my work, I must put it back under cover before it succumbs to ruin by mac ‘n cheese,” he declared, picking up the sheet and beginning to put it back over the canvas.

Twilight shook her head as a half-smile crossed her face. “Okay mister ‘greatest artist’, I don’t think you’ll need my help earning your cutie mark...” She turned back to the table. “...But I think there might be a pony who could use my help. Fluttershy?”

She poked her head out of the clouds, and finally lowered herself back down into her chair.

“Do you happen to know where your friend Rainbow Dash lives? I was hoping I could talk to her tomorrow after flight school.”

Fluttershy’s eyes went wide. “R-Rainbow Dash?” She shuffled in her seat, lowering her head slightly.

Twilight nodded. “Yes; do you know where she lives? It’s fine if you don’t, I can always just try and catch her on her way out of school instead.”

She whimpered. “Well, um...about that...”

Zephyr groaned, walking back into the kitchen. “Just spit it out already, ‘sis! You afraid she’ll think you made it happen or something?”

Twilight furrowed her eyebrows, “Did what? Did something happen to Rainbow Dash?”

Fluttershy chewed her lip for a moment, before taking a deep breath and speaking. “Well, we ran into this gray filly on during lunch on Monday...”

Spike pulled a black bow-tie taught as he inspected himself in the mirror. “Oh yeah, lookin’ slick!” he said, pointing at himself with finger-guns while giving a ‘cool-guy’ grin. He turned to Little Mac next to him. “Thanks again for letting me borrow this.”

“Ah don’t mention it,” Mac replied. “I bet Rarity’s gonna love it.” He patted his friend on the back.

Applejack strolled into the room, carrying a couple bags of chips and a bowl of cut vegetables on her back. “Alright! Got my chores done; who’s ready fer some more O&O?!” She announced, unloaded her cargo onto the bed.

Mac and Spike turned around and just stared, eyebrows furrowed.

Applejack glanced over at them. “...What?”

“*ahem*” Spike cleared, pointing at his bow-tie.

Applejack’s eyebrows sunk as she clenched her bottom jaw in an unamused frown. “Oh...right...yer date with Rarity,” she grumbled, beginning to trudge back towards the door.

“Hey wait a minute!” Spike called out, causing Applejack to pause. “You don’t have to get all bent out of shape; Twi won’t need me tomorrow. I can help you and Mac with chores, and then we can spend the entire rest of the day playing our O&O game!” he beamed.

The filly glanced over. “Fine...I’m just gonna go get that new axe we’ve been needin’,” she sulked, exiting the room.

Mac looked back to Spike. “So, ya all set?” he asked.

Spike nodded. “Uh-huh! Wish me luck!” He gave Mac a hoof-bump before sprinting out the door.

“...and once I saw everypony’s reaction to it, I knew that fashion design was what I wanted to do with my life,” Rarity stated, telling Spike about the very first piece of clothing she ever made. “It’s also what prompted me to start volunteering to do the costumes for the school play each year.”

“Wow…” he responded, gazing at her with dreamy eyes as he rested his head upon his palms.

“Of course, I couldn’t have done it without – *OOF*!” Rarity nearly got knocked out of her chair by one of the restaurant staff.

“I’m terribly sorry,” the stallion apologized, pushing her chair back in. “I took my turn too sharply.”

Rarity huffed and rolled her eyes.

“Your waiter will be right with you,” he said to the table next to them.

Rarity took a short look at the aforementioned table and furrowed her eyebrows. Only a single orange pony sat there, and they had their menu completely vertical, obstructing any view of their face or mane.

She turned back to Spike. “You know, I wonder what makes certain ponies come to a restaurant like this.”

Spike raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean, Rarity?”

“Well, take the pony next to us for instance. They clearly don’t have a date, and they also don’t appear to be the type to frequent a place like this. You can tell because their hooves are fairly roughed up, rather than being well-kept like the hooves of most clientele here.”

Spike glanced over at their hooves and stared. Blinking, he turned back to Rarity. “You can tell a pony’s personality just by looking at their hooves?”

“Oh why certainly!” she exclaimed. “When you want to get into an industry like fashion, you have to learn what each little detail about yourself conveys. If you want to project yourself as having class, then you have to make sure everything from your mane, to your eyes, to your hooves have class. It’s why I keep my mane well-brushed and my hooves polished!”

Spike’s eyes widened. “Woah…Twilight’s never talked about this kind of stuff. Do I have class?!” he asked, eagerly.

Rarity cringed a little and leaned back in her seat. “Eh, no offense Spike, but your claws are a bit roughed up...likely from helping on that farm...and your table manners leave a bit to be desired. You’re certainly much closer than, say, Applejack, though.” She shuddered slightly.

“Oh...”

A somewhat gruff cough came from the table next to them, making them momentarily glance at the orange pony. Shrugging it off, they looked back to each-other.

“Anyways, where was I?” Rarity spoke. “Oh, right; discovering my talent for fashion!” She cleared her throat. “I certainly couldn’t have figured my special way of truly standing out without your help, Spike,” she smiled.

“Aw, don’t mention it Rarity; it was my pleasure!”

She giggled. After that, the two remained silent for a minute, with Rarity avoiding eye contact as she looked around the room. Slowly, concern started to come over her face.

Spike tilted his head. “Something wrong, Rarity?”

She looked back up. “Well...It’s just that I wanted to do this to thank you for helping me get my cutie mark, but, um, it feels more like you’re thanking me,” she replied, giving a slight nervous chuckle.

“Well, if it’d make you feel better, I’ll call everything repaid for a kiss,” he stated, giving a goofy ‘cool-guy’ grin.

“Oh, well I suppose,” she replied, leaning forward a little. “Do you want one on the cheek or-*MMFF!*” The filly was pulled forward even further and pressed up against Spike's lips, her face going bright red in the process.

A loud *thwap* occurred off to the side.

After a few seconds, Spike let go and pulled back, letting a shrunken-eyed Rarity fall back into her seat as she stared for a thousand yards.

“Uh, Rarity...you okay?”

She finally broke free of her daze, shaking her head slightly and blinking. “Huh? I-...Um… I-I’m fine, Spike...” she replied, avoiding eye contact as her face stayed beet red. “I-I just thought... I-I guess I was expecting something less, um...” She shifted her gaze up to the side of Spike. “I didn't quite envision my first kiss to be so...suddenly passionate...”

Spike winced a little. “Oh...”

Rarity suddenly glanced left and did a double take. “...Applejack?”

Spike looked to his right and blinked in surprise.

The menu that was previously obstructing the orange pony was now laying flat on the table, leaving Applejack in plain view of the two. She stared in horrified shock.

“What are you doing here?” Spike asked, scratching his head.

Her ears and left eye twitched and anger washed over her face. “You heartbreakin’ varmint! How could you!?” she shouted, pointing an accusatory hoof at him as she leaned over the table.

Spike shifted back as his face contorted in confusion. “Applejack what are you talking about?”

She ran up to Spike. “I’m talkin’ about you an’ me!” Her forehooves grabbed his shoulders. “I thought we were closer than moss on a tree!” She let go and turned to Rarity. “I mean, what in the hay does she have that I don’t!?”

Rarity scrunched her face in frustration. “Well certainly better manners, for one! And not to mention better grooming skills!”

Applejack snorted as Spike put his claw on her back. “Hey, now wait a minute Applejack, we’re still friends! Just because I’ve been hanging out with Rarity doesn’t mean I don’t wanna hang out with you and Mac anymore.”

Applejack whipped around to face him again. “But I thought we were more than friends!”

Spike leaned back in surprise. “Wait...what?”

“Ooooh dear...” Rarity nervously muttered.

“I like you, Spike!” Applejack exclaimed, practically knocking him over as she braced her forehooves against his chest. “And I mean in the special somepony way!”

“U-uh...I...um,” Spike stuttered, completely thrown off by this sudden revelation.

Suddenly, all three squinted as a bright rose flash appeared. Applejack was levitated over next to Rarity, and Spike was dragged over against Twilight in her aura. “Excuse us for a minute!” Twilight politely but nervously told the other two, before teleporting away with Spike. The two fillies simply looked at each other with a blank stare of confusion.

Outside behind the restaurant, Twilight set Spike down in front of her.

“Tw-Twilight? What the hay is going on?!” he asked.

She grabbed him with her forehooves. “Spike, we have a MAJOR problem!” she exclaimed, pure panic in her voice.

Spike stared to breath faster and more heavily. ”Oh boy…uhh...Okay, Twilight, calm down! It can’t be that bad...Can it?”

She pressed her muzzle up against his. “SPIKE, RAINBOW DASH WENT TO CANTERLOT TO LOOK FOR ME!” she shouted, completely hysterical.

Spike stared with eyes wide as a plate. “Ahh-hah-hah…” he sputtered, stepping away dizzily as he breathed even faster. “Oh boy...oh boy...this night’s a disaster! We’re doomed! Equestria’s ruined!”

“...Spike?”

“First I take things too far with Rarity, then Applejack says she’s into me, now Rainbow Dash is missing!”

“APPLEJACK SAID SHE’S INTO YOU!?” Twilight’s eyes shot even wider in horror.

Spike was hyperventilating at this point. “Feeling...dizzy...” he moaned, stumbling for a crate.

Twilight used her magic to set him on one, before briefly teleporting away and returning with a take-out bag. “Spike, breathe into this,” she instructed, handing it to him.

He did so, starting to calm down a little in the process.

Twilight shook her head repeatedly as she started to pace. “Spike, do you have any idea how bad Applejack liking you is!?”

He momentarily pulled the bag away. “Um...no?”

She grabbed him with her forehooves, squeezing tight as she stared her crazed eyes directly into his. “She could turn out completely different when she’s older! She might even have an entirely different outlook on life because of you!”

His eyes shrunk. “...Oh.”

Twilight let go of him, beginning to pace again. “She could end up depressed, or worse, hate us before we’ve even met her!” She took a deep breath in and let out a long groan. “We were supposed to fix things, Spike, not make them even worse!”

Spike took another breath into the paper bag. “So what are we gonna do?”

Twilight paused. “Well, we can’t really do much about Applejack liking you; she’s her own pony after all. We just need to focus on Rainbow Dash for right now.” She turned to him as she unfurled her wings. “How ready are you to fly?”

Spike’s eyes went wide as he waved his claws back-and-forth. “Now wait a minute Twilight! I can’t help it that AJ likes me, but if I just leave her after kissing Rarity, she really is gonna hate me forever!”

Twilight froze. “YOU KISSED RARITY!?”

“Her first kiss, actually...” he replied.

Twilight just stared, with only her left eye twitching slightly. After several long seconds of silence, she finally just shook her head, and took a long, deep breath. “Spike, I’m going to go to Canterlot now. You are going to stay behind and fix your mess.” She spread her wings once again, ready to take off, only for Spike to jump onto her tail and pin it against the ground.

“WAIT!” he yelled.

“What?” she snapped, whipping her head around.

“Don’t you think it’s a little late to go searching tonight? I mean, it’s already after dark!”

Twilight looked up at the dull sky.

“Plus, I know you’re going to get careless if you go in all hysterical like that.”

Twilight chewed on her lip. “Well...”

“And I can handle Applejack and Rarity first, which means we can look for Rainbow Dash together tomorrow.”

Twilight took a deep breath in, holding it for several moments, before letting it out again in a sigh. “...You’re right, Spike. I’m getting ahead of myself.” She dipped her head. “I’m just so scared that things won’t work out before it’s too late.”

He walked around to the front of her and gave a hug, which she silently reciprocated. “Hey, don’t worry Twi, I’m still here to help you!”

A tear rolled down her face. “Thanks, Spike.”

After several moments, they let go.

Twilight wiped her eyes. “Okay...” She placed a hoof on his shoulder. “How about you go take care of Applejack and Rarity, I'll get us tickets for the 6 AM Canterlot train, and then we'll meet back at Sweet Apple Acres. Sound like a plan?”

Spike nodded. “Sounds like a Twilight plan.”

She smiled and gave him another, short hug, before taking off towards the train station.

Meanwhile, Spike headed back inside the Vine Garden Grill, only to find Applejack and Rarity stop mid-conversation to face him.

“Hey,” Spike began, “Sorry about–“

“Spike,” Rarity interrupted, holding up a hoof, “don’t feel sorry.”

“Yeah,” Applejack added, “if anythin’ I’m the one who should be sorry; I got jealous, started spyin’ on ya through the window, and then ruined y’all’s date,” she muttered, looking down.

“Hey, don’t be like that!” Spike encouraged, putting a claw on her back. “You could’ve just told me how you felt initially – would’ve saved us this whole mess.”

Applejack blushed red as she slunk down slightly.

“I’m also sorry, Spike,” Rarity stated.

Spike looked over and raised an eyebrow. “You are? But I thought I was the one who–“

“Yes, but it was my fault for not being more clear about things from the start. I like your company, Spike, I really do, and I think you’re wonderful, but...I just don’t know if I’m ready for a...special somepony, yet.”

Spike’s claw slid off of Applejack’s back as he lowered his gaze. “Oh...”

She took a step forward. “Spike, I know you like me, it’s just...I don’t know if you’re what I really want yet. Plus, everything came so fast – e-especially that kiss. It all kinda frightened me.”

Spike gritted his teeth as he shuffled uncomfortably. “Boy I really messed up...” he muttered.

Rarity took a deep breath. “...Yeah.”

“I guess you’re going to hate me forever now, huh?” he asked, cringing.

Rarity blinked. “What? No!" She lifted his chin with her hoof, letting their eyes meet. "Spike, you’re an absolutely wonderful friend! I wouldn’t want to lose you in a million years!” She sighed. “But...let's just keep things to friends for now, okay?”

Spike averted his gaze. “...I understand...”

"Spike," she spoke.

He looked back up.

“Whoever you do end up with; she’ll be the luckiest filly in Equestria.” She smiled.

He smiled weakly in response. “Thanks Rarity.”

She glanced at Applejack, then back to Spike “...I think I should go now. Plus, I’m pretty sure you two still have some things to work out.”

Spike sighed as he nodded.

Rarity pulled him into a hug. “Still friends?” she asked.

“Still friends,” he replied.

She let go and headed for the exit. “Have a good night you two.”

They waved as she exited.

Now, alone next to the table, Spike and Applejack stood in silence.

“Ya really liked Rarity, didn’t ya?” Applejack finally asked.

“Yeah, but it’s fine,” Spike replied through a sigh. “I should’ve expected something like that sooner or later...it just came a little sooner than I hoped...in more ways than one.”

Applejack glanced down for several moments before looking back up at him. “Well, y’know, I’m still here...if you’re wantin’ somepony ta finish yer evenin’ out with,” she offered, scooching up next to him as she wrapped a foreleg around his neck. “Uh...as a friend or a special somepony...i-if you’re interested, of course.”

Spike stroked a claw against his chin. “A friend sounds pretty good to me. I mean, I still haven’t ordered dessert, and I’m going to have to head to Canterlot tomorrow for who knows how long...”

“And we could turn it inta a contest ta see who can finish a slice of chocolate cake faster...” Applejack added.

Spike turned his head with a raised eyebrow and a smirk. “Are you challenging me?”

Applejack gave a smug grin in reply. “Oh ya bet I am,” she said, poking his chest with her other hoof. “Last one ta finish dessert has ta fix apple pie for everyone durin’ O&O later?”

“You’re on!” he replied, poking her back.

Smiling, and with their eyes narrowed in a competitive glare, the two hopped into the chairs and flagged down the waiter.

Ch. 8 - Plans Unraveled

“I dunno Twi,” Spike remarked, examining a notepad as he walked. “The post office said they didn’t see her, we checked every park in Canterlot, and we’ve been checking the shopping areas...all we’ve got left is the library, Mom & Dad’s house, and around Canterlot Castle.”

“Knowing Rainbow, she probably wouldn’t even think to look in those first two places,” Twilight remarked, walking just ahead of him while wearing her new sweater once again.

“So that just leaves the area near the castle.” Spike scratched his head and looked behind himself. “And that’s back in the other direction…” His groaned slightly, making him glance at it. “Hey Twi, you think we could grab something to eat f-UMPH!” He looked up at the last moment before slamming face-first into Twilight’s rear. Stepping back, he shook his head. “Besides your rump…” he groaned.

Looking up at his sister, he simply saw her staring forward, blankly.

“Uh, Twi?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

Her pupils slowly began to shrink as her jaw loosened.

“You okay?”

“I...feel like I’m a filly again…”

Spike glanced where she was staring, only to blink and take a step back. “Whoa…”

Before them sat the very street of shops Twilight had frequented in her youth. While some stores still existed in the future, many had changed, and others simply vanished over the years.

“It’s like I stepped back in time…” Twilight remarked, before shaking her head slightly and blinking. “What am I saying? I did step back in time – I am back in time!” She stroked her hoof back through her mane, her right eye twitching slightly as her gaze darted from sight to sight.

“Okay Twilight, I know this is a bit weird, but just calm down…”

She pointed towards the grocer’s shop. “There’s Mr. Supply! He looks so much younger!” She glanced around more. “That pony at the cafe is Mrs. Chalks from across the street – her mane isn’t gray! R. Draft Printing is still here!” Twilight gasped, grabbing Spike and pointing at an elderly mare walking along the street. “Oh Celestia, that’s Ms. Lilly Lucks from next door! She’s...alive!” Twilight let go and dropped onto her haunches, mouth agape in disbelief.

Spike put his claw on her back. “Take it easy there, Twi...”

“I just never realized how much changed…” she said softly, eyes watering as she gently shook her head.

Spike’s stomach then groaned again, prompting both to look down at it.

“Now that’s something that hasn’t changed!” he stated, proudly.

Twilight giggled. “Alright mister grumbly guts, maybe we should stop and take a lunch break.” Suddenly, Twilight’s face lit up as she gasped. “Spike! I just realized!”

“What?”

She squished his cheeks with her hooves and pulled him nose-to-nose. “If we’re 11 years in the past, that means Mr. Quartzfrost’s ice cream shop is still here!” She jumped up and started prancing around Spike in glee. “Rocky Road, Triple Chocolate Fudge, Strawberry Banana Swirl, Royal Cherry...ooh there’s so many flavors he used to make better than anypony else!” She scooped Spike up with her magic and dropped him on her back. “C’mon!” she squealed in delight as she trotted on.

The ding-a-ling of a bell rang as Twilight swung open the glass door. She paused momentarily while Spike dismounted, taking in the sight of the store.

As she trotted up to the counter, an aging chocolate colored stallion with a mint green mane stepped out from the back.

“Well hello there! You two seem new here, what can I get for you today?” he asked with a gentle smile, grabbing a scooper.

Spike inhaled, only to be cut off by Twilight.

“A scoop of Rocky Road, a scoop of Triple Chocolate Fudge, and uhhh…” she quickly scanned the available flavors. “And a scoop of Royal Cherry, please!” She looked back up at the stallion with a grin as wide as her cheeks allowed.

The stallion blinked and did a slight double take as he smirked and began scooping.

“I-is something wrong?” Twilight asked.

He looked up, still smiling. “Oh no, it’s just that I’d be the princess’s uncle if you didn’t look like the spitting image of a young filly who comes in here about two or three times a week.”

“O-oh, i-imagine that, heh-heh!” Twilight laughed, nervously.

“Yep. You even got the same favorite flavors as her,” he chuckled. “Her name’s Twilight. I’d say you ought to meet her, but she hasn't been by at all this week.”

“Uh-huh...” Twilight’s eyebrows furrowed.

Mr. Quartzfrost then took Spike’s order and gave them both their cones.

Twilight took a lick of her ice cream as they stepped over to a table. “Mmmh! Oh I missed these so much; they used to be my favorite study-snack!”

Spike took a bite out of his. “Yeah, and I hear Mom had to cut you off for a month when you were 14...”

Twilight’s face went red as she sat down. “Hey! I was under a lot of stress from school, okay? Besides…” She slunk down in her seat a little. “...It was only 18 pounds…”

“Still enough to qualify for the ‘world’s softest sister’ according to Shining!”

Twilight snorted, as she continued to blush.

Spike suddenly tensed as he started to sit down. “Whoa, I gotta run to the bathroom…” He set his ice cream on the table and took off.

“Don’t take too long, or I might just eat yours too!” she said with a sly grin.

“Like you’d put up with listening to ‘Mr. Grumbly Guts’ all day!” he called out, stepping through the door.

She then took another happy lick of her own ice cream. If only Mr. Quartzfrost stayed here instead of moving to Manetona, she thought.

She gazed out the front windows of the shop and sighed. If only Rainbow Dash had stayed home…

Then, as if on cue, what seemed to be a quick, light blue & rainbow streak zoomed past the shop. Twilight’s eyes went wide. Quickly casting a refrigeration spell on their ice creams, she took out a pen and wrote a note on some paper from the notepad:

Spike,

Saw Rainbow; will follow. If not back in 15 minutes, find Little T without me. She’ll likely be at the library.

-Big T.

With that, the mare ducked out into the street. She glanced around the sky, looking for the out-of-place pegasus. No luck. She scanned the ponies on the street. No sign of her friend there either.

“Excuse me! Miss?”

Twilight whipped her head around.

“Miss!” A lone stallion dressed in royal guard attire was running up the road, looking directly at her. “Sorry to bother you, but I was wondering where you got that amazing sweater from! I’ve been looking for one for my wife.”

Twilight’s eyes widened in surprise. “Oh, well...it’s um, actually custom made, and–”

“–Oh darn.” the guard interrupted. “Well, not the end of the world. Thank you though. Twilight Sparkle, right?”

“Ye–” She started to nod, but suddenly blinked. “Wait how did you know my–”

Immediately, the guard blew a signaling whistle, making Twilight press her ears against her head in pain. In that moment, she felt something get slipped on her horn. Opening her eyes, she witnessed a whole platoon of guards quickly approaching. Dread washed over her.

“We got her, guys!” the one next to her called out, seizing her by the foreleg. He then looked back with a stern glare and stood up straight. “Twilight Aurora Sparkle, by direct order of Princess Celestia herself, you are hereby under arrest for malicious manipulation of fate, grand conspiracy, and conspiracy to commit treason!”

“W-wha!?” she gasped.

Two guards in the arriving platoon pulled off her sweater and began to cuff her hooves and wings. Sandwiching her between themselves, they smacked both their forelegs against her muzzle while high-hoofing each-other. They then grabbed her right foreleg and neck with iron grips, nearly choking her in the process.

Feeling like she had already been convicted, a million thoughts raced through Twilight’s mind. She tried to think of a way to get out of the present situation, but no solution arose – at least, not without making things far worse than herself.

“Now, how about we have a little one-way chat while we walk, hm?” The first guard rhetorically asked. The two guards beside her began forcibly marching her forward, while the first read out her rights.

Her mind going numb, Twilight simply stared directly ahead at the looming castle in the distance. Whatever fate awaited her, she desperately hoped it wouldn’t be one that doomed Equestria – now or in the future.

One mostly uneaten ice cream cone in hand, Spike glanced up, watching the Canterlot Public Library’s grand entrance grow ever closer as he approached it. All he had to do now was find Twilight’s younger self.

“Psst!”

He slowed his pace slightly, glancing around. He shrugged it off and continued.

“PSST!”

Now he outright stopped. Looking around, he didn’t see anypony that seemed to be too focused on him.

“Over here!” a high but raspy voice called out.

Spike turned almost all the way around, spotting a blue filly with a rainbow mane waving him over from a bush next to the entryway staircase.

His eyes went wide. Rainbow Dash!

Immediately, he bolted over to the bush as the filly hopped out, hovering slightly off the ground.

“Rainbow Dash!?”

“Yep, that’s me, the one and only!” she replied. “You were with Twilight Sparkle in Cloudsdale, right?”

Spike nodded. “Uh-huh.”

“Right. W– Hey is that for me!?" she exclaimed, jumping straight towards the ice cream.

"No!" Spike yelped, quickly twisting to the side. "I-I'm holding onto it for a friend."

Rainbow's eyebrows fell. “Aw... Well anyway, after flight school on Monday I came here looking for 'Twilight Star' so I could find out why she saved me specifically – y’know, if I’m really just that awesome and stuff – but instead of her being at Canterlot Castle, apparently Twilight Sparkle lives at some random house in one of the neighborhoods!” Rainbow threw her hooves out to her sides. “And she looks the same age as me! What gives?!”

Spike’s own eyebrows furrowed. “Wait, you found her house? The post office said they didn’t see you!”

Rainbow blinked. “Post office? Why would I look for a princess at a stuffy place like that? I just followed her home! Stopped for ice cream and saw her walking by on the street. I woulda said ‘hi’ but the whole age thing freaked me out.” Suddenly, she gasped, grabbing Spike’s cheeks with her forehooves. “WAIT! She’s not some kind of superhero who turns into a fully-grown alicorn when she says a special word, is she!?”

“Nhu,” he replied through his forced fish-lips.

She let go as her enthusiasm evaporated. “Aww…”

Spike tapped his claw to his chin. “...You said you followed a filly Twilight home, right?”

Rainbow nodded and then raised an eyebrow. “Uh-huh. A few days ago. Been following her around ever since. It’s really fun trying to stay out of sight! The nervous look on her face when she thinks she’s being followed, it’s priceless!” She laughed.

Spike took a glance back towards the retail areas. “The Twi I know left me a note saying she’d seen you and was gonna follow. That was over an hour ago...”

“Well...I did get a sandwich from some cafe earlier,” Rainbow stated, holding up the empty paper bag. “But I never saw your Twi that saved me. Young one’s in the library though.”

He rubbed his claw on his chin. “I guess she must’ve seen you coming here and didn’t want to get close in case it would disrupt the timeline.”

“The timeline?” Rainbow questioned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Spike turned back around. “O-oh, you know, like the timeline of events – the, the schedule we’re going on!”

“Oh! So she like, saves specific ponies at specific times? *gasp* Does that mean she time travels to–” Rainbow’s eyes went wide with realization. “Oh my Celestia...you two are from the future! You went back in time to save me!” She gasped. “THAT MUST MEAN I BECOME THE MOST AWESOME WONDERBOLT THAT EVER LIVED!” The pegasus squealed in delight as she did a loop-de-loop in the air. Landing, she grabbed Spike’s cheeks once more and pressed her nose to his. “How many fans do I have?! Thousands?! Millions?! Billions!? You and Twilight must be two of my biggest ones, right!?”

“Uhh…kinda?”

All of a sudden, the rush got to her, and her eyes started to roll backward.

“OKAY, easy there…” Spike assured, quickly catching her and sitting her down safely. He nervously smiled at a bunch of gawking ponies nearby.

“Woooowww,” Rainbow softly admired, dreamily gazing into the sky.

“Why don’t you, uh, rest here for a bit,” Spike suggested. “I’m gonna go talk to that young Twilight in the library.”

“Uh-huh, sure thing…” Rainbow replied, still completely dazed.

Heading in, Spike spent a few solid minutes trying to find where Twilight’s younger self could be. He scanned row, after row, after row, but kept seeing nothing. But then, as he reached one of the reading lounge clearings, he froze almost as solid as the ice cream in his claw.

There, at a table across the reading lounge, seated next to a stack of books, was Twilight. His big sister, pseudo-mother, teacher, and best friend – yet she was practically the same age as him.

He remained completely still, locked in an unwavering stare. Slowly, he stepped forward, but didn’t look away for a second.

When he reached the table, he just stood there, heart racing.

“Tw-...Twi?” he finally asked, his voice barely able to kick in.

She looked up from her book. “He-...-llo?” she asked, her eyes starting to tense, but instead relaxed as her jaw hung open slightly.

“I...is it alright i-if I sit here?” he asked, nervously.

The young Twilight shut her jaw and nodded.

Spike sat down and set the ice cream on the table.

Catching sight of it, Twily narrowed her eyes. “Hey wait a minute, you’re not allowed to have food in here!” she hissed.

Spike looked at the ice cream. “O-oh right, I kinda forgot I had it. You can have it if you want.”

“But it might get all over the boo–“ She paused, staring at the three scoops. “...Is that Rocky Road and Royal Cherry?”

“With a scoop of Triple Chocolate Fudge!” he boasted.

Twily’s face turned slightly redder as she quickly checked the surroundings. “On second thought...maybe one cone won’t hurt…” She gave a sheepish smile as she levitated the cone over and took a big lick.

Her eyes widened again. “Hey, wow! This isn’t even melted yet!” She glanced back at Spike. “How’d you do that?”

“Oh uh, a friend of mine put a refrigeration spell on it…”

Twily looked at the ice cream with raised eyebrows. “A refrigeration spell...neat!” She then took a small bite out of the dessert. “By the way, how’d you know my name?”

His mind blanked. He and his Twilight had yet to come up with a cover story for interacting with her younger self. It was a little late to have that conversation now though; he was just going to have to wing it. “I uh...met your brother at the academy. Dragon defense training and everything.” He gave a nervous grin. “I’m Spike by the way.”

“Spike,” Twily confirmed to herself, nodding. “You know, I’ve never gotten the chance to talk to a dragon before; and I really didn’t expect to meet one my size.”

“Oh! That’s ‘cuz I’m a baby dragon. N-not that I’m actually a baby, I-I’m just younger and smaller compared to some dragons…”

“Whoa. So when were you born – err, hatched – or… Wait, do you dragons go by hatched days or layed days?”

“Oh, uh, I go by when I was hatched; I don’t really know when my egg was layed. My …adopted sister hatched me on June twelfth, n–“ he immediately bit his tongue as he felt a nervous chill rush over him. “...I- I’m eleven.” he corrected.

“So you’re a year younger than me!” she beamed. “And your adopted sister hatched you! Interesting!” Twily immediately pulled out a notepad and pencil. “I need to write this all down!” She took another bite out of the ice cream.

“So uh, I hear you had some trouble getting into Princess Celestia’s school…”

Twily paused and looked up. “Oh...Shining told you about that too…” Her face turned glum as all her energy seemed to drain right out of her.

“W-well I was thinking maybe I could help you with your magic studies!” he offered.

She blinked. “You? But you’re a dragon!”

“Well, I did grow up under the care of somepony who studied magic her whole life.”

Twily’s eyes narrowed slightly as she smirked. “Okay Mr. Magic Dragon, but really I’ve already got help.”

Spike blinked. “You do?”

She nodded. “Uh-huh. Weekday tutoring!” Suddenly, Twily gasped and glanced at a clock on the wall. “Oh shoot, that’s in 30 minutes!” Quickly, she began packing her books.

“Need any help?” Spike asked.

Twily shook her head. “Nope! But…” She readied the notepad once more. “You can tell me more about being a dragon on the way home!”

Spike sighed. Time to play 50 million questions.

“Miss Twilight?” a guard asked sternly, stepping out from the doors of the Canterlot Castle throne room.

The alicorn looked up, standing as still as she possibly could between the two guards that brought her there.

“The princess will be seeing you now.”

Twilight took a deep breath as she was marched into the throne room.

At the far end, seated upon the grand throne, was Princess Celestia herself. As Twilight approached, she watched as her mentor’s face slowly became more cold and calculated, eyes watching her like a hawk, mouth scowling in disapproval.

Twilight was rarely forced to experience this side of Celestia’s personality herself, but on the unfortunate occasion that she did – such as her present situation – it sent a terrified chill down her spine.

The guards brought Twilight to a stop a short ways from the throne.

Celestia silently eyed Twilight for several seconds, before lifting a teacup from beside her and taking a long sip. “Leave her with me,” she stated once she had finished.

All of the guards turned and looked at her, confused. “Um, are you sure that’s a safe idea, your highness?” the one to Twilight’s left asked.

She took another casual sip. “I don’t think she poses much of a threat, and if she attempts anything foolish while she’s restrained with a horn ring on her…” Celestia directly eyed Twilight. “Then I think a statue of a young alicorn would make a lovely addition to the Canterlot Gardens, don’t you?” She smiled gently, taking another sip of her tea.

“Hah-hah!” Twilight laughed in pure terror, starting to shake.

“There will be nothing to worry about if your intentions are honest,” she added. Celestia then looked to the guards once more. “As for you all, I plan to discuss information too sensitive for even you two to hear,” she stated, turning to her two personal guards.

“As you wish,” they acknowledged. All of them then headed for the exit.

Once they had departed, Celestia focused her attention to the only remaining pony in the room. She stared calmly, taking a sip of her tea.

Twilight tried desperately to force a grin on her face, all while her entire body trembled.

“So,” Celestia began, “you’re Twilight Sparkle…”

The little alicorn trembled and slunk down, nodding.

“Well then. I am quite curious to hear what you have to say for yourself,” she said, leaning back in her royal seat.

Twilight gulped, hesitating as her mouth opened slightly, with only a few squeaks coming out of her throat at first. “Ah…I…”

“I’m listening,” Celestia harshly reminded.

“I-I...I am fr-from the f-future…” she admitted, stuttering.

Celestia slowly nodded.

“A-and I came back by accident, after a-act-activating a m-odified version of St-Star Swirl’s spell.”

“By accident?” she asked, raising an eyebrow as she sipped more of her tea. “I’m not quite sure I’ve ever heard of a pony accidentally casting a spell…”

Twilight took a deep breath in and swallowed it. “W-well, I......it...Starlight...she rigged...” She looked up at Celestia, who still had her eyebrow raised and teacup levitating inches from her mouth. Twilight’s eyes snapped shut as she fell back on her haunches and started crying. ”Oh why am I even trying to explain this?! Even I wouldn’t trust me!”

The next thing she knew, her chin was lifted up by a hoof. She opened her eyes to see her mentor standing above her.

“Twilight,” Celestia spoke in a blunt yet calm tone. “You’re not off the hook, but I'm not ready to lock you in Tartarus just yet either. The truth, no matter how strange, is simply what I want to hear right now.”

Twilight took a deep breath. “Really?”

Celestia nodded. “Really. You may continue now.”

Twilight slowly exhaled. “Okay. E-everything started several months ago – well, several months ago for me – but it started when me and my friends visited an experimental ‘no cutie mark’ town. It was led by a mare named Starlight Glimmer, and she sought to eliminate cutie marks in the hopes that it would make everypony happier. Unfortunately, all it did was make ponies more miserable, and worst of all, we found that she still had her cutie mark all along. After exposing her lie, the townsponies chased her away, and me and my friends thought that was the end of things. But now it turns out she wants revenge, and after learning how me and my friends all got our cutie marks from the same event, she traveled back in time to change that. However, she set a trap for me by leaving the scroll lying on the floor and having it trigger if anypony touched it.”

“I see,” Celestia responded, nodding gently. “And did she succeed in changing this event?”

Twilight nodded. “Yes; we struggled back and forth, trying to undo and redo the change, but she ultimately won after destroying the time spell’s scroll. Ever since then, I’ve been going around Equestria trying to help each of my friends earn their cutie marks.”

Celestia turned and stepped over to one of the stained glass windows, gazing through it. “This does sound like a serious matter,” she stated. “But I would be lying if I didn’t admit how flawed I find this story.”

Twilight’s heart sank like a rock. “W-what?” she gasped, eyes watering.

The princess turned with an unamused stare. “If you really are the pony I should trust in this matter, perhaps you could explain where you obtained your alicornhood from?”

Twilight gulped. “Alright, but this is going to sound a bit crazy.”

“I’ve canceled the rest of my meetings for the day; I have plenty of time for ‘crazy’,” Celestia responded, taking another sip of her tea. “...And to thoroughly analyze your claims.”

Taking another deep breath, Twilight whimpered as she looked up into Celestia’s eyes. “Exactly one week ago, a twelve-year old version of myself applied for your magic school here in Canterlot…”

“...and that’s how you maintain proper scale care,” Spike concluded, answering Twily’s latest question about scale health.

“Whoa,” she fawned, practically drooling from amazement over all she was learning.

Spike squinted. “Oh hey, you missed a bit of ice cream on your face!” Quickly, he licked it off with his tongue.

Twily’s eyes went wide. “Ooh, do all dragons lick food off each-other’s faces like dogs?” she asked.

“Well–“

All of a sudden, the front door creaked as it opened. A single “ahem” came from the mare responsible.

Looking up, Spike immediately froze, every part of his body tensing in fear.

“Aren’t you running a little late for your magic lessons?” Starlight Glimmer asked Twily, giving a soft smile and a raised eyebrow.

Twily gave an embarrassed smile in return. “Sorry Ms. Glimmer, I just got to meet a dragon for the first time, and I had a lot of questions I wanted to ask him.”

The sly grin on Starlight's face widened as she turned her attention to Spike. “Oh, I see…” She picked him up with her magic and brought him close. “He certainly is an adorable little guy, isn’t he?” she cooed, lifting his chin with her hoof, before stroking the top of his head.

Every inch of Spike’s skin crawled as he squirmed a little.

Starlight set him back down on the porch as her smile started to fade. “Well,” she began, looking back to Twily. “Your curiosity is certainly something special, but just remember that it’s still too risky to talk with other ponies right now. Any one of them could be tied to your future self, trying to lead you down that dark, evil path she followed.” Starlight turned her eyes to Spike and stared straight into his soul. “And we wouldn’t want that, now would we?”

As if to save his life, he nervously shook his head no ever so slightly, eyes still wide in terror.

Starlight’s smile started to creep back onto her face. “Good.” She turned back to Twily. “Now, how about we go in and get started on those magic lessons?”

Twily’s face lit up. “Okay!” she replied, hopping in the door. “Bye Spike,” she called out, looking back.

Before he could even think of responding, the door was gently shut, followed by the sound of a lock flipping.

Now, he simply stood there, the entire situation playing on panicked repeat in his mind. Starlight Glimmer, the mare who was actively seeking revenge against them, had become the personal tutor of Twilight Sparkle.

A soft, terrified little “Aah...” was all that squeaked out of his mouth, before the world went black, and he collapsed.

Ch. 1 - Torn Apart

"No."

Starlight looked up at Twilight through her tears. She began to pull her hoof back as her face tensed in anger once again. "I did try to save our friendship!” she yelled, “I tried to stay in touch with Sunburst, but he shut me out! He agreed with his mom when she insisted that his CUTIE MARK meant he was destined to be some kind of 'great wizard', and all I'd be is a 'pretty little distraction'!" Her telekinetic aura began to crumple the ends of the time-scroll as she gripped them tighter. "Our entire FRIENDSHIP was thrown away for a CUTIE MARK! There was NOTHING I could've done to save it!"

Twilight took a startled step backward, making Spike wobble and clutch her mane harder. She leaned her head forward, eyes pleading. "But this won't save it either, Starlight. Taking your anger out on me and my friends won't fix anything that's happened to you; you're just pushing away the chance to make your future better."

Starlight gritted her teeth as her hooves dug into the cloud. "You don't get it, do you!? I wanted friendship more than anything else in the world, and I tried everything to keep the one I had, but I just wasn't important enough for my friend to stick by me like your friends have stuck by you! Not everyone's ending is a happy ending, Twilight! But you wouldn't know that, would you? Your life is perfect! You're an Alicorn Princess, you're surrounded by friends, and you've never had your greatest source of happiness RIPPED away from you!" Her eyes bore daggers into Twilight's. "For just once in your life, maybe you ought to know what it feels like to lose everything you cherish!"

"Starlight I–" Twilight gasped, her heart nearly stopping.

Glaring at the time-scroll through her tears, Starlight yanked the two ends apart, destroying the spell.

Mouth agape, Twilight stared in catatonic horror as Starlight released the halves into the windy Cloudsdale air. Spike leaned over Twilight's side as far as he could, trying to grab one of the halves as it blew past, but his reach still proved too short.

"And that’s what it feels like to lose your friends!” Starlight snarled.

Twilight continued to stare as a tear ran down her face.

Meanwhile, Starlight levitated herself up, turned, and fired a turquoise beam toward a speeding Rainbow Dash.

The beam hit the filly, entrapping her in a bulky crystal structure, and stopping all her momentum. Immediately, she began plummeting towards the ground below.

Panicking, and seeing Twilight still in catatonic shock, Spike yanked down on her mane and rapidly poked her in the side of her ribs.

"TWI!" he shouted. "TWI QUICK!"

“AH! W-WHA?!” she yelped, blinking as she began looking around in confusion.

"R-Rainbow Dash! Down there!" he exclaimed frantically, pointing to the large crystal boulder falling beneath the clouds.

Twilight gasped, swooping down towards the entrapped filly as fast as she possibly could.

Upon getting close, Twilight powered up her horn and fired ultrasonic vibration spell. A continuous stream of sound-waves, vibrating at the resonant frequency of the crystal structure, hit the young Rainbow Dash’s prison, and in a few seconds, caused the crystal to burst into thousands of small shards.

Twilight dove under Rainbow, catching her in her forelegs, and immediately began flying back up towards Cloudsdale.

Once she had landed, the filly was gently set upon the clouds.

The young Rainbow Dash turned her wide-eyed gaze up towards her rescuer.

“Y-You saved me! Oh my gosh, I-I thought I was just gonna be Rainbow Jam, but you just swooped right in and-” Rainbow gasped. “–Wait, you’re an alicorn!? My life just got saved by an alicorn!?” she shouted, loud enough to echo in spite of all the clouds.

Every foal in the vicinity whipped their heads around. Immediately, they began flooding over to Twilight, asking her who she was, where she came from, and what she was doing at a Cloudsdale summer flight camp.

Unable to see past the sea of young ponies climbing over each-other to see her, Twilight teleported herself and Spike above them, and shot off into the sky.

As she zipped away though, Rainbow's voice shouted from the crowd: "Hey wait! I never got your name, or why you saved me!"

Spike turned around and cupped his claws around his mouth. "Mauve Matter-Horn and Hum-Dr–MM!" A magic aura clamped his mouth shut, jerking him forward. He dug his claws into Twilight's hips to try and stay balanced.

"OW! Careful Spike! And keep the fake names less unique! We don't wanna cause Hum-Drum to be introduced early!"

"S-sorry!" He cupped his hands to his mouth again. "RAINBOW DASH! NEVERM–MM!"

"SPIKE! Just...focus on finding Starlight, please!"

Looking around the general area, Twilight's eyebrows sunk in worry as she failed to catch any glimpse of the delinquent unicorn.

Taking off into the main city, she began to ask nearly everypony on the street if they had seen a light pink self-levitating unicorn, with a purple, aquamarine-streaked mane.

“Nope, sorry.”

“Can’t say that I have.”

“Only seen a unicorn do that at a circus when I was young!”

Flying up higher to take another look around, Twilight let out a stressed sigh. “Where is she!?” she whined, nervously darting her eyes all over.

“Maybe she went to start her village early!” Spike exclaimed, gripping her mane. "O-or maybe she's trying to teach spells to her past self, or take her past self to see Sunburst in Canterlot, or–" he gasped. "What if she's trying to steal Celestia's cutie mark and overthrow the country!"

“Spike, stay calm! She's not going to overthrow the country; she wants revenge on us specifically, remember?”

“Well what if she makes Celestia think we're scheming traitors who need to be caged up in Tartarus forever! I can't be neighbors with a starving chimera, Twi!”

“Spike!“ Twilight snapped, glancing back at him. “That's ridiculous!" She paused. "...Although not entirely out of the question,” she sighed. “If we don't find Starlight and stop her – quietly – then all these changes could create an Equestria far worse than what we've already seen!”

Ch. 9 - Royal Confrontation

“Hey! Hey, wake up! Are you even listening!?”

Spike, lying on his back, was roughly shaken awake by two hooves. Slowly creaking his eyes open, he was greeted with Rainbow Dash towering directly over him.

“You okay?” she inquired, cocking her head. “You kinda just collapsed after the door shut.”

Sitting up, Spike reoriented himself with the porch and glanced to the door.

“Guess Twilight’s sister is a little protective, huh?” Dash asked, making Spike snap his head back to her.

“Wha– Sister!?” He grabbed her shoulders and pulled her snout-to-snout. “That’s not her sister, Rainbow; that’s the mare who tried to kill you!”

The filly’s eyes sprung wide open as her whole body sunk. “W-wait, y-you mean she’s the one who trapped me in that crystal in Cloudsdale!?”

Spike nodded rapidly. “Uh-huh! And now she’s somehow Twilight’s tutor!”

“WHAT!? You’re not gonna get away with this, evil mare! You hear!?” Rainbow yelled, buzzing her wings as she jumped into the air, pulling back and bolting for the door.

Spike quickly grabbed hold of her tail and yanked it.

“*YIPE!* WHOA!” the filly shrieked as she sprung back, butt-slamming Spike in the face and sending both tumbling off the porch and into a bush.

Dash sat up and shook her head, blinking.

“Rhbh, cn yh gih–”

“EEP!” she squeaked, tensing up as she shot into the air. “Ha– woo!” she nervously giggled, seeing Spike spit both a strand of red and green hair out of his mouth. “G-Gee whiz, buddy, I k-know I’m the future greatest Wonderbolt and all, b-but you don’t need to go brown-nosing me!” she said defensively, shuddering a bit.

“Hey, for your information, I was too busy being forced to taste the rainbow in your tail!” Spike groaned, getting back up.

Dash smirked. “Bet it tastes like raw awesomeness!” she boasted, crossing her forelegs.

“Rainbow, we need to focus here! We’re dealing with the most powerful unicorn alive! We can’t just run in and fight her; she could pop our heads like balloons in two seconds flat! We’d be nothing but pony and dragon confetti!”

Dash gulped and slunk down a little. “R-right… You better call the shots then. I-I’d rather not be some filly’s party decorations...”

“We need to find out where my Twilight is and tell her what happened. You can fly; scan over the streets and look for her. I’ll check around near the ice cream shop. We’ll meet back there at three o’ clock if we don’t find her.”

Dash nodded. “Sounds like a plan.” She puffed out her chest “You can count on me– ...Uh, what’s your name, by the way?”

“Spike.”

“You can count on me, Spike!” she exclaimed while saluting, before dashing off into the skies.

Gulping and taking a deep breath, Spike ran forth.

The clacking of gold shoes on marble echoed loudly through the entire throne room. In the center, a small percussion of soft thumps joined them, as Twilight nervously tapped her hoof against the carpet.

The young alicorn watched as Celestia paced back and forth, examining a stack of notes, all of which detailed key moments in Twilight’s life story – especially those along her friendship journey.

Finally stopping and taking a sip of her tea, Celestia turned to face Twilight.

“I will admit, these are quite fantastical tales,” she spoke, in a highly neutral tone.

Twilight's ears flopped against her head. "You don't believe me, do you?" She looked down, sighing. "Am I allowed to pick where I’ll be put in the gardens?"

“Twilight, please, I only find your story unusual,” Celestia sternly clarified, taking another sip of tea. “And I’m quite interested in hearing more.”

Twilight tilted her head up and raised an eyebrow. “More? W-what do you even want me to tell you about?”

“Tell me a bit more about my sister,” she said, sitting down on the floor in front of Twilight. “What has she been like as a friend?”

“Well…” Twilight began, avoiding eye contact. “When I first met her, it was right after she had changed back from Nightmare Moon, and she was pretty quiet during the celebration. I didn’t really get to know her until she attended our Nightmare Night party in Ponyville a few months later. When she first showed up, things...didn’t quite go so well. She kept terrifying everypony with the Royal Canterlot Voice, all the foals thought she would eat them alive – even while she saved one colt from drowning, and she tried to entertain us by turning a bowl of plush spiders into an army of real ones…”

Twilight weakly smiled. “But eventually she figured out how to play along with all the scary festivities – even the colt who thought she was gonna gobble up his backside couldn’t wait to see her again next year! Besides that, she actually went out of her way to approach three of my friends’ little sisters in their dreams, helping them overcome some of their deepest fears! She even needed our help – plus a shared dream with the whole town – to forgive herself and overcome the guilt she felt from being Nightmare Moon.

Taking a pause in her speech, Twilight finally looked backto Celestia’s face.

The mare bore a soft smile, all while tears filled her eyes, ready to trickle down her cheeks.

“A– Are you alright?” Twilight asked, her eyebrows dipping.

Celestia nodded and took a deep breath. “I am, Twilight, I am…” She levitated a handkerchief out of a pocket in the back of her breastplate, and began dabbing away the tears. “It’s just that...you don’t know how long it’s been since I've heard somepony talk about the Princess Luna I knew…”

The little alicorn raised an eyebrow. “Really? Because if I’m right, based on when she came back, it’s been about nine hundred eighty nine years, eleven months, twelve–”

“Twilight,” Celestia interrupted. “I know how long the spell lasts.”

“Oh, right,” she replied with a nervous chuckle, averting her gaze.

Celestia stood up and took a step forward, resting her hoof on Twilight’s shoulders. “You gave me something that my heart has been waiting an eternity for: hope that Luna will be alright. I may still have ten years until I can see her face again, but I know now that her rescue is in good hooves with you, Twilight.”

The younger alicorn's eyes widened. “D– does this mean–”

“Yes, Twilight. If Luna trusts you, I trust you.”

“Thank you Princess!” Twilight cried out, wrapping a tear-filled hug around one of Celestia’s forelegs. The elder mare embraced Twilight with her other leg, smiling gently.

Once she let go, Twilight took a step back and recomposed herself. “So, erm, about this horn ring and my cuffs…”

“I will have the guards unlock them on the way to your house,” she stated, stepping towards the door of the throne room.

“My house?” Twilight questioned, trotting after her. “I-if you mean my parent’s house...don’t you think that’s a little risky for the timeline to speak with my younger self directly? A-at least, not until she’s done some crazy magical feat?”

“That damage has already been done, Twilight. What I fear is the ongoing damage I have caused by making Starlight Glimmer your tutor.”

Twilight’s hooves clacked to a halt.

Celestia paused and turned around, furrowing her eyebrows. “Twilight? Are you alright?”

The young mare’s left eye simply twitched. “YOU DID WHAT!?”

“Twilight!” a half-squeaky, half-scratchy voice called out.

Twilight– who was quickly marching alongside Celestia and a couple platoons of guards – glanced up and witnessed a blue and rainbow ball barreling straight towards her. Ducking, the airborn intrusion sailed right over her head, knocking over three guards like bowling pins.

A dazed Rainbow Dash popped her head out of the pony-pile and looked around.

“YEAH! STRIKE!” she boasted, swinging her forehoof in a hook.

Suddenly, a ring of spear tips were at her neck. “FREEZE, FILLY!” a guard shouted.

Rainbow immediately did, nervously glancing around as she gulped. “W-whoops…” she squeaked while leaning back, only to give a small “Yipe!” as the back of her neck pricked one of the spear tips.

“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight gasped, running over to the filly. The guards stood down, and the young alicorn wrapped her future friend in a tight hug.

“I’m so glad you’re okay!” she cried, still holding tight.

“Uh, thanks?” Rainbow said in confusion. “You don’t have to get all sappy about it though.”

Twilight quickly pulled out of the hug. “S-sorry.”

“Don’t sweat it; I was actually looking for–” Rainbow glanced past Twilight. “Princess Celestia?”

She gave a nod, smiling.

Rainbow shook her head and pressed her hooves to Twilight’s chest. “A-Anyway, me and Spike have been looking all over for you!”

“I know, Fluttershy told– Wait, what do you mean you and Spike!?”

“We found out that the mare who tried to kill me is hanging out with your younger self right now!” she exclaimed.

Twilight winced. “Don’t remind me...”

Celesita sighed, holding a hoof to her head. “We need to keep moving. The sooner I can fix this mistake, the better…”

“I’ll catch up in a moment,” Twilight replied, letting the others go forth. She turned her attention back to Rainbow “Now where did you last see Spike?”

The filly averted her gaze. “Uh...well, when I left your house to go find you, I searched from the air, and he took the ground near the ice-cream shop...he’s probably only covered a few streets since the last time I spotted him.”

“Good. Now listen, Rainbow,” Twilight began, staring her directly in the eyes. “What I need you to do is to go find Spike. Then, both of you need to go to Ponyville for the time being. It’s safer there.”

The filly pushed back against Twilight with both hooves. “What!? No way! We’re gonna come right back and help you!”

“Rainbow, no. You and Spike both need to be safe,” Twilight insisted.

“How do you know? Seems like Spike thinks none of this originally happened!”

Twilight groaned. “Rainbow, please at least find Spike, okay? I don’t want him wandering alone right now.”

“Alright, alright.” The filly scoffed, hopping into the air. “But as soon as I find him we’re coming right back!” she declared, speeding away across the sky.

“Rainb–...” Sighing, Twilight ran after the guards. Within a few minutes of catching up, they all approached her parents’ house.

“I want every guard to remain out here,” Celestia ordered, coming to a stop “–and stay hidden. I wish to speak with Starlight alone.”

The captain nodded and began ordering his troops to various locations invisible to the front door.

Meanwhile, Twilight trotted after her mentor.

Glancing down, Celestia held out a hoof in front of her. “I’m afraid that means you too, Twilight.”

“But Princess!” the little alicorn argued, “Starlight’s probably the most powerful unicorn I’ve ever met! If I let you go in there alone–”

“I am more than capable of handling things myself, Twilight,” Celestia insisted. “Besides, I only intend to talk with Starlight; violence should not be necessary.”

Twilight silently glanced towards the house, pausing for a few seconds. “If you say so…” she sighed.

Ducking behind a bush, Twilight watched as Celestia approached the front door and gave a soft knock. A few seconds later, it opened.

“Good afternoon, Starlight,” Celestia greeted.

“Princess!” Starlight exclaimed. “This sure is a surprise!”

She smiled. “I wanted to stop by and chat about a particular matter...and see how you and Twilight are doing.”

“Oh we’re doing fine!” Starlight laughed, waving a hoof. “Just in the middle of magic practice, that’s all.”

The conversation was interrupted with the sound of a glass shattering on the floor.

Starlight whipped her head around towards the dining room, and Celestia glanced past her.

Unable to see inside, Twilight teleported to the side of the house and peered in through a dining room window. Her brain almost short-circuited from seeing her 12-year-old self in front of her.

Her younger self, meanwhile, simply stared at Celestia, frozen in shock.

“Hello, Twilight; it’s good to see you,” the princess said to her, smiling.

The filly immediately scrambled to bow down.

“I’m just visiting as a friend,” she spoke in her motherly tone, stepping inside. “You don’t have to be formal.”

Twily looked up, blinking. “R-right. I-I’m sorry, Princess!” she stuttered, briefly bowing her head a second time before correcting herself and standing back up. She glanced to the mess of glass and water on the floor. “I-I can clean that up…”

“Practicing your levitation stability?” Celestia asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Y-Yeah, h-how did you know?”

“I’m the Princess; I know everything,” she winked.

Twily’s jaw dropped. Starlight’s eyes shrunk ever so slightly.

“The foals at my school try balancing water too,” she clarified, chuckling.

“Oh, r-right! O-of course!” Twily laughed, nervously.

“Although, we do use paper cups instead.”

Twily blinked. “Oooooohhhhh…”

“Why don’t you go get another glass ready while I speak with Starlight,” she suggested.

“Y-yes Princess!” Twily replied, stepping back into the kitchen.

Celestia then stepped into the living room, Starlight following.

The older Twilight teleported to a window on the other side of the house.

“So, um, what’s the problem?” Starlight asked. “Did Twilight’s older self show up?”

“Actually,” Celestia replied, “I was hoping we could talk about your younger self.”

“O-oh, r-really?” Starlight smiled awkwardly, taking a shaky step back.

Celestia nodded. “Yes. I hear you were the leader of a town against cutie marks?”

Starlight laughed. “Oh that! Ha-ha, yeah; calling it a town’s a bit of an over-exaggeration – it was just this school club I led as a teenager. You know, painting over our cutie marks with an equal sign as a political statement; it was pretty dumb in hindsight.”

“Actually, I think it’s a rather interesting concept.”

She blinked. “You do?”

“Mm-hmm. In fact, I am quite curious about what you wrote in your reflection thesis for that event.”

“R– Reflection thesis?” Starlight’s face twisted as she took another half-step back.

Celestia looked her directly in the eyes. “Yes; with a topic like that, I’m quite certain I would have requested one from you, my faithful student.”

Starlight took another step back, shaking slightly as her posture slunk down. “W-well, y’know, that was kinda a while ago now, a-and I don’t quite remember…”

The Princess stepped forward, closing the gap between them. “Really? Because as I understand it, this was something very personal to you.”

“Well...” Starlight’s gaze drifted away to one of the side windows.

It was then that she locked eyes with Twilight.

The two only stared for a second, but it was long enough to shake both. Twilight dropped below the window in a panic, and Starlight snapped her eyes back to Celestia, losing her nervous smile in favor of a terrified stare.

“I’m listening,” Celestia sternly reminded.

Starlight’s expression became much more serious as her eyebrows lowered. “If only you had…” In a quick flash of her horn, she sent out a shockwave, shoving the alicorn all the way back across the room.

“AAUH!” Celestia yelped, crashing into the front wall, which smashed the plaster and demolished a lamp in the process. “*Nngh*,” she groaned, collapsing over the end-table.

Hearing the noise, Twilight peaked back over the window sill and gasped.

“Starlight what happened!?” Twily exclaimed in horror as she ran back into the room.

“We’re not safe here, Twilight,” Starlight stated, stepping around Celestia for the filly to run up to her.

“HALT!” Celestia shouted in the Royal Canterlot Voice, propping herself up as she charged her horn and fired.

Immediately, Starlight formed a magical dish shield, reflecting the spell back ather.

Hit with her own spell, Celestia was now locked in place.

While the alicorn attempted to unfreeze herself, Starlight took the opportunity to fire a heat beam.

“*GUH*!” A nasty scorch mark was singed across her shoulder. The mare tumbled off the end-table, landing on the floor.

“CELESTIA!” Twilight screamed.

Starlight and Twily glanced at the window, and the former fired a bolt.

Twilight quickly teleported to the front yard as one of the panes was blown out.

“S-Starlight?” Twily asked, shaking. “W-was that…me?”

Starlight narrowed her eyes. “Yes, and despite everything I’ve done, it looks like the Princess decided to listen to her instead!” she growled, glancing back at Celestia.

The alicorn powered her horn once more, only to get blasted in the side of the jaw with another heat beam, slamming her head against the floor. She groaned as her eyes squeezed shut in pain, only to relax as her body slipped into unconsciousness.

“If only you had just listened to me…”

Suddenly, the front door was bucked in, flying off the hinges.

Catching it, Starlight immediately rotated it and hurled it back at two mares ready to run in. Both were pummeled like dominoes, getting launched straight off the porch.

Putting up a force-field across the now-open doorway, Starlight grabbed Celestia in her aura and ran for the back door.

However, she was cut off by Twilight teleporting in front of her, wings flared and teeth barred. “It’s over, Starlight!” she hissed, charging her horn.

Starlight smirked as she raised an eyebrow. “Really Twilight? I’m inches away from your mentor and younger self. Do you really wanna risk missing a shot and hitting them instead of me?”

Twilight looked at the unconscious Celestia, and then to her younger self.

Twily was simply frozen, staring back with tear-filled eyes as she clung to Starlight.

The older Twilight gulped, depowering her horn.

Starlight smiled coldly. “That’s better. Now, I’m going to go deposit your younger self and the princess at a safe location of my choosing. Once I do, you’ll have about three hours to decide whether you want to stand aside and let me fix Equestria, or whether you want to be on the run for the rest of your life, after I give Celestia a little ‘talking-to’. You’ll give your answer at Rambling Rock Hills near Ponyville. Understood?”

Twilight nodded, nervously.

“Good.” She then powered her horn and looked back to Twily. “Ready Twilight?” she asked.

The filly nodded, eyes still locked on her older self.

Starlight looked back to the older Twilight. “Oh and by the way; if I see any guards there, then you’ll have made your decision clear.”

With that, Starlight, Twily, and the unconscious Celestia disappeared in a flash.

Twilight remained still for a few moments, before dropping back onto her haunches.

Several guards then rushed in, rapidly looking around.

“Miss Twilight, are you alright!?” one – a dark gray stallion – asked, rushing up to her. “Are you okay ?” he reiterated, watching the side of her face as she remained stuck in her thousand yard stare.

“They’re...gone,” Twilight uttered, her breathing starting to pick up pace as her eyes watered ever so slightly.

“Gone?” the stallion asked.

“Princess Celestia...Starlight...gone!”

The guardstallion looked around. “Alright everypony, listen up, we’ve got a Code Gray right now; the candle is missing. Repeat: we’ve got a Code Gray, the candle is missing!”

“Understood, Captain,” a mare replied. The others still in the room nodded, and immediately began making their way out.

Shortly after, Twilight exited, being helped down the steps by the captain as she hyperventilated.

“Okay, easy there,” he calmed, getting her to sit down on the curb. “Somepony get her a bag,” he instructed.

“Twilight!” Spike’s voice cried out from a distance, finally getting the catatonic mare to look up.

As he and Rainbow Dash rushed up to her, she simply closed her eyes and pulled him into a hug, while tears streamed down her cheeks.

“Twi? W-what happened?” he asked, reluctantly hugging her back.

She took a struggled breath, letting it back out with an equally stressed whine. “We failed, Spike,” she choked. “We failed everypony…”

A guard handed Spike a bag, which he passed to Twilight. “Okay, calm down; deep breaths. Just take it easy and tell me what happened.”

Twilight breathed in and out of the bag a moment, then stared him straight in the eyes. “Spike, Starlight took Celestia!”

“Oh,” he squeaked, snatching the bag for himself.

“That…sounds bad,” Rainbow gulped, sinking slightly.

“She was right in front of me, too! ...But all I could do was watch…” Twilight lowered her head.

“Miss Twilight?” the guard captain asked, approaching her.

“Y-yes Captain Ironshield?” she replied.

“Seeing as Princess Celestia is unable to perform her duties at this time, her last - and quite recent - standing order of succession, Royal Decree #108-26, now takes effect. Please raise your right hoof.”

Twilight’s jaw dropped, and shaking, she slowly raised her hoof in compliance. Spike and Dash blinked in surprise.

Captain Ironshield cleared his throat. “Princess Twilight Aurora Sparkle, do you swear to serve and protect the country and citizens of Equestria to the highest order, on your life?”

Twilight’s eyes sunk in their sockets. “W-wait a minute, I-I’m not sure this is the best idea right now…”

“Please answer the question, Princess Sparkle,” he urgently insisted. If you’re unable to take the throne, I must remind you that it could take hours to find the next two ponies in succession - and both of them are teenagers.”

She gulped. “I-I do...”

“Then by the power of Princess Celestia in the action of Equestrian law, you are hereby declared Acting Sovern for all intents and purposes, and shall remain as such until either you or the Mayoral Assembly deems Princess Celestia to be of able state to resume her duties.” He then proceeded to salute. “Captain Ironshield at your service, Princess Sparkle.”

Twilight shut her eyes to take a deep breath. “Just a minute, please,” she responded, still holding in her breath, and then immediately grabbed the paper bag back from Spike to hyperventilate.

The dragon looked up to his sister. “Twi, calm down! It’s not like you’re new to ruling Equestria! Sure you haven’t done it while trapped in the past, without any of your friends around to help you, while Celestia’s in the hooves of a mare who brainwashed a whole town, which means Starlight could brainwash her into making Starlight a princess, and then they’ll both claim that you’re committing treason, and all of Equestria will hate you, and you’ll get put into the royal garden for a thousand years…”

“Geeze,” Rainbow interrupted, “We already lost one princess, you don’t need to make another have a heart attack!”

Spike glanced over to see Twilight hyperventilating even harder. “...Right, sorry.” He nervously chuckled, starting to rub her back. “Maybe just focus on the part where you’ve done this ‘princess’ thing before.”

Twilight pulled the bag away from her mouth and took a deep, slow breath in. “You’re right, Spike. This isn’t my first crisis, and I’ve dealt with Celestia being gone before…” She took another, more stressed breath. “But I sure wish I had the girls here to help me…”

“TWILIGHT AURORA SPARKLE!” the booming voice of a mare echoed down the street.

Twilight’s head whipped around, barely fast enough to stop a gray and purple blur in her aura.

Twilight Velvet glared her in the eyes.

“M-MOM!?” Twilight blinked, eyes wide as dinner plates. “Wow, you look so young!”

The mare bopped her daughter on the head with a zucchini. “HOW DARE YOU TRY AND MAKE EVERYPONY IN EQUESTRIA INTO YOUR PERSONAL LAB RATS!” she exclaimed. “I RAISED YOU BETTER THAN THAT!”

Immediately, Captain Ironshield came running up, panting, completely disheveled, and missing his badge. “I’m so sorry, Princess Sparkle! She put four of us to the ground with her sheer will and a bag of groceries! There was nothing we could do!”

“Mom, listen to me,” Twilight Sparkle insisted, staring the mare dead in the eyes. “Anything Starlight told you was a lie. Her whole goal was to get control over the younger me, got it?”

Velvet narrowed her eyes.

Rainbow groaned, dragging her hooves down her own face. “UGH! Just tell her Starlight whooped the Princess’s rump and took her as a hostage already!”

Velvet gasped as her eyes widened. “Starlight kidnapped the Princess!? My apologies for doubting your loyalties, Captain!” she exclaimed, returning the badge to his chestplate.

Princess Twilight gave a groaning sigh as she set her mother down.

Velvet stood up to attention, saluting. “Twilight Velvet Sparkle, Canterlot Natural History Museum Assistant Chief of Security, at your service to help find the Princess, SIR!”

Spike and Dash snickered like crazy.

“At ease ma’am…” he wearily instructed.

The mare relaxed.

“Perhaps you should go have Lieutenant McBuck explain the whole situation to you, mother to mother…”

“Yes sir!” Velvet exclaimed, before turning and trotting off toward a guardsmare covered in raw egg.

Captain Ironshield shuddered.

“Now,” Twilight Sparkle began, clearing her throat. “Split the guards into two groups; one will conduct standard search procedure, and the other will search in Canterlot’s least-known places! Report back every half hour. Understood?”

“Yes ma’am!” he replied with a firm salute, before running to the other officers.

Spike mosied over next to Twilight. “You know, you may not have your friends around to help you, but you’ve still got a fire-breathing dragon here!” hereminded, puffing out his chest with a cocky grin.

“Not to mention the world’s future greatest Wonderbolt!” Rainbow declared, zipping down beside him.

Twilight smiled. “I appreciate the offer, you two, really, but you both need to go to Ponyville where it’s safe.”

Spike’s eyebrows dipped in concern, while Rainbow’s fell flat in annoyance.

“Twi, you know you can’t fight Starlight on your own!” Spike exclaimed. “I’m staying right here!” He announced, crossing his arms.

“Spike,” Twilight lifted her brother’s chin with her hoof. “If something happens to me, you’re all Equestria has left. I need you to be out of Starlight’s way for the time being.”

Spike sighed. “Fine…”

“I love you, Spike,” Twilight said, pulling him into a hug and kissing his forehead.

Captain Ironshield trotted back up. “Orders are being distributed and every squad leader has moved out, Princess,” he stated.

“Good,” Twilight replied. “Now, escort these two to Ponyville immediately, and keep quiet on what’s going on… Any details are on a need-to-know basis, especially anything about me being in charge. After that, meet me back at the castle to review our search procedures, and…bring the best calming tea you’ve got, please.”

“Yes ma’am,” he replied. “Come along you two,” he said to Spike and Dash, ushering them forward.

Dash groaned. Meanwhile, Spike looked back, sharing one last solemn glance with his sister.

The two gently waved, and Twilight finally looked away, taking a deep, stressed sigh. A tear rolled down her cheek as she took to the sky. “I’m sorry for failing you and Equestria, Celestia… I should’ve listened. Maybe I wasn’t cut out to be your student after all…”