1. The More Things Change...
“Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria--”
“Why do we call it that?”
“Excuse me?” Cheerilee asked, blinking.
“Why not just say Equestria, Miss Cheerilee? We already know we’ve got magic here, isn’t that a bit like saying ‘the land with air’?”
Pip Squeak did seem to be genuinely confused, as opposed to just being difficult. A few of the other foals in class seemed to be giving thought to this as well. While a study of idioms like this would be an excellent lesson, this was history, and also really close to the end of the day. Most of the students would be mad if they had to stay a little longer because they couldn’t get through the lecture in time, so it would have to wait for another day.
“That . . . is a good point, Pip Squeak. I actually adapted this presentation from a book, and I rather liked the imagery, I guess. Now please remember to raise your hoof next time.” With that comment, and a rustling of paper from her flipboard, an image of a pair of tall, winged, horned equines appeared. On the left was a white one, the sun rising behind her in a cascade of oranges, purples, and gold. On the right, a second equine stood with a beautiful starscape behind her and a full moon poking over the horizon.
“There were two regal sisters who ruled together and created harmony for all the land. To do this, the eldest used her powers to raise the sun at dawn and wielded the Elements of Kindness, Generosity, and Magic, while the younger brought out the moon to begin the night and wielded the Elements of Honesty, Laughter, and Loyalty. Thus, the two sisters maintained balance for their kingdom and their subjects, all the different types of ponies. Yes, Truffle?”
“How come you left out the monster fighting? Isn’t that what the Element Bearers do?”
“Yes, although they actually did that even before they got the Elements. Also, Equestria wouldn’t be very balanced if there were too many monsters running around, would it?”
“I guess so.”
With another rustle of paper, the image changed, this time to a pair of green, slitted eyes surrounded by darkness.
“But as time went on, the prosperity of the ponies created jealousy and greed among forces that would do them harm. One fateful day, a wicked spirit of darkness, Nightmare Moon, snuck into the home of the sisters and kidnapped the younger alicorn, refusing to let her lower the moon, hoping to shroud the land in eternal night and spread fear throughout Equestria for her to rule.”
“Wait, you mean the Nightmare Moon? B-but I ate all my candy last Nightmare Night!”
“It’th okay Rumble, thith ith the thory of how the wath beaten, right Mith Cheerilee?”
“That is correct, Twist. You don’t have to worry Rumble, you see . . .” Cheerilee continued as the image changed again, this time to the white pony shooting a rainbow beam out of her horn. A black silhouette of another pony like her was caught in the blast, and the beam ended at the moon, which now had the pattern of a unicorn head on it. “ . . . the elder sister reluctantly took upon herself all six of the Elements of Harmony, and used them to defeat the Nightmare, and banish her permanently in the moon. However, in a last moment of defiance, Nightmare Moon took hold of the younger sister, dragging her into imprisonment with her.”
Another rustle, this time revealing the white pony surrounded by six piles of stone shards. “The Elements were not meant to be used upon their Bearers by one another, and the strain turned them into stone. The remaining sister, saddened and angered over her loss, broke the stones apart before she could realize what she was doing. Upon realizing the danger she had put Equestria in by this act, especially without her sister to aid her--”
“Wait, back up, why would that put Equestria in danger?”
“Duh, they’d, like, never been broken before, so she thought they’d been destroyed.”
“That . . . is correct Silver Spoon. This was a long time ago after all.
“Anyway, she gathered the fragments and flew to a nearby kingdom that was home to many unicorn wizards whom she hoped could help her repair the Elements. However, upon reaching the base of the mountain upon which the kingdom sat, the shards of the Elements leapt from her grasp and flew to six friends whom had descended in hopes of learning what had happened to the moon earlier.”
The image changed one more time to a picture of six unicorns in a variety of colors, five with gems shaped like the symbols on their flanks, and the sixth with a crown holding a star shaped gem. “The Elements had selected new Bearers to wield them. The elder sister, seeing how these ponies together possessed the Harmony that she and her sister had possessed, declared that they would be the first of The Order of the Bearers of Harmony and they have defended Equestria ever since,” Cheerilee finished, flipping the flipboard back onto the first page, which showed six colored gems as they had appeared in their original form. She turned to look back at her class, who politely stamped their hooves on their desks in applause. Twist was being especially enthusiastic, clearly having enjoyed the lecture and still rather excited. Cheerilee decided to let her have an outlet.
“Now, let’s see how much you already know. Can anypony tell me something interesting about the Bearers of Harmony?” she asked. Several foals raised their hooves, but none so quickly as the red-maned earth pony. “Yes, Twist?”
“Printheth Cadanth bearth the Elementh of Kindneth and Magic,” she said proudly, not noticing a couple ponies behind her snickering at her lisp.
“That is right, Cadance does bear Kindness and Magic. Can anypony else tell me who bears Loyalty and Honesty?”
“I know, I know”, said, surprisingly, a pink earth pony who rarely spoke up to answer questions. However, Cheerilee supposed it made sense in this case since the answer was --
“Prince Shining Armor,” Diamond Tiara said with a sigh, echoed by several other fillies in the class.
Cheerilee resisted the urge to roll her eyes. “That is correct, Diamond Tiara. Now, who can tell me the bearer of --”
“Daring Do!” an orange pegasus interrupted. “She bears Laughter and Generosity and is totally awesome at it!”
(1) Although she was still surprised that there weren’t laws against shooting arrows through one window of the school house and out the other. They were all very fortunate that archery turned out to be Archer’s talent.
“Correct, Scootaloo. She’s also the eldest of the bearers. Can anypony tell me who --” Cheerilee didn’t get to finish because the school bell chose that moment to ring. No matter how interested the students had appeared on the subject, the laws of nature required school children to leave the class as soon as possible, and nopony would ever accuse these colts and fillies of being unlawful1. By the time she finished explaining that they didn’t have any homework due tomorrow, they had all left.
Apple Bloom hummed to herself as she trotted along the path back home. Twist had invited her over to dinner later, and while she knew she would have to finish her chores first, there wasn’t that much to do this time of year, so there was absolutely no reason why she wouldn’t get to go. Unless the pegasi had to reschedule the rain again. A quick glance at the sky told her that it was still only partly cloudy, so that wouldn’t be a problem. When she looked back down however, she saw somepony up ahead. He was wearing a rather nice green and white suit and levitating a map in front of him in a confused manner.
“Really, why was I chosen for this, they could have sent Snobbish Taste or --”
“Y’all alright, mister?” Apple Bloom asked, causing him to start and almost drop his map as he whirled around to face her.
“Of course I am, why wouldn’t I be?”
“Ya kinda look like you’re lost.”
He snapped the map closed, a frown on his face. “Of course not, I’ve just realized this map must be inaccurate. I should have reached Sweet Apple Acres by now.”
Apple Bloom gave a grin. “Oh, that’s actually just past this last turn. Are you comin’ to visit? We sure like making new frie--”
“Heavens, no,” the unicorn interrupted, looking repulsed by the very notion. “I simply need to deliver a message to the proprietress as quickly as possible so I can leave this backwater hamlet --”
“Hey!”
“-- and go back home to civilization as quickly as possible.”
“Well if you’re in such a hurry, maybe Ah should just take the message for you.” Apple Bloom furrowed her brow. “Though, Ah don’t know of any Pro Priestesses around here. Ah’m not even sure we have any regular priestesses.”
“Ugh, the proprietress, the owner of the farm, somepony named Applejack I believe.”
“Oh, that’s my sister. Yeah, I could take it to her.”
“Please,” he said with a roll of his eyes as he started down the path again, “even if I could trust you not to simply run off with it, I need to deliver this personally, much as it pains me.”
(2) Granted, Muffins had been known to lose or damage items before, but she was the exception. Probably. And yes, it’s called the Pony Express.
Apple Bloom huffed as she followed him. “Seriously? If ya didn’t trust the mail, ya could’ve just used the Pony Express.”2
“Unfortunately for all of us, it turns out your family owes the ERS . . .
“6,000 bits!?” cried Applejack, staring in disbelief at the number in the letter.
“And 36 cents,” the grey unicorn commented. “That’s the full amount, including interest and fines.”
Applejack slammed the offensive piece of paper down onto the table, directing her glare across it at the tax pony who had brought it. “What in tarnation are ya trying to pull here Mr. Set? Ah filled those blasted forms myself, and Ah even overestimated the value of our crops just in case!”
Jet Set rolled his eyes. “While I’m certain you did your best with what little education you’ve had --”
Applejack would have likely launched herself across the table at him if she hadn’t been blocked by the outstretched hoof of her elder brother, Big Macintosh, who was sitting next to her.
“-- you filed well over a dozen apple trees shipped to Appleoosa as ‘donations’.”
“Now that’s just hogwash. I even checked at the mayor’s office; providing materials to help settlers on a Royal Land Grant counts as charity!”
(3) He might have been clued in by her wide eyed stare and ~~hyperventilating~~ heavy breathing, she did not hyperventilate, dagnabbit.
“Unless the recipient is a related party. I do believe the head farmer there is your cousin?” He must have picked up on her hesitation3, because he continued with an ever so aggravating smug grin on his face. “Technically, it would count as a gift, and in such a large amount would be given its own tax.”
“B-b-but, how are we --”
“It doesn’t matter to me how you get the bits,” Jet Set said as he got out of the chair and made a show of dusting his tail off as he headed for the door, “you just need to bring them to the Canterlot office in a week’s time. And for Celestia’s sake, please make sure to bathe first. The crowds will be musty enough that day without farm filth getting everywhere.”
With that, he closed the door behind him moments before he could be introduced to Bucky McGillycuddy and Kicks McGee, otherwise known as Applejack’s hind hooves.
“Try saying that again you no good, stuck up --”
“Ahem.” The angry mare looked over to where Big Mac was subtly gesturing in time to see a red tail disappear into the kitchen. Her angry frown quickly got replaced with a shamed one.
“Aw pony feathers. She heard the whole thing didn’t she?”
“Eeyup.”
“Dagnabbit, why couldn’t she just sweep up without eavesdropping?”
“Pro’lly because ya’ll were yelling loud enough fer the Mare in the Moon to hear ya,” said an elderly green pony as she hobbled out of the living room. “Heh, it was even loud enough to wake me up from my nap.”
Applejack flinched slightly. “Mighty sorry Granny, I just . . . is it really that bad Mac?”
The large red stallion pulled the letter closer and examined it. After a minute he looked back up. “Eeyup.”
Applejack sat down on the ground and buried her face in her hooves. “Ah’ve really cracked the corn this time, haven’t I?”
“Now don’t you give me any of that self-pity nonsense,” said Granny Smith as she gave a light rap to the back of her granddaughter’s head, nearly knocking her hat off. “None of us planned on Big Mac gettin’ sick, ya filled in fer him as best ya could.”
“B-but the farm . . .”
“Pff, so we lose a few bits, if we can make it through a vampire fruit bat infestation, we can make it through this.”
“Vampire fruit bats?” Apple Bloom poked her head back into the room. “Are those different from regular fruit bats?”
“Did I never tell you that story? Well, back when I was a filly . . .” While Granny Smith adjusted the yellow filly’s bow and told her the story, Applejack started working out in her head anything they might have to sell or customers they could ask advances from. Consequently, she never heard the mail pony, who really needed to do a better job of coming on time, drop their copy of the Manehattan Times on the porch. When Big Mac picked up their subscription later and showed it to her, the headline made her realize what Jet Set had meant by “the crowds that day”.
Entire Order of the Bearers Retiring
Unprecedented Choosing Ceremony Next Week
“Are you excited, because I’m excited, I’ve never been so excited, well, except for that time -- aw who am I kidding, I really haven’t been this excited before!”
Cup Cake rolled her eyes, but she was also smiling, so Pinkie Pie counted that as a win.
“Just think,” she continued as she whisked a bowl of eggs, the whisk caught up in her mane, “three whole new Bearers!”
“Actually, deary, there may be more if the elements choose more ponies,” Cup Cake commented as she peeked into the oven to check on the buns inside.
Pinkie gave a loud gasp, which had the added benefit of inhaling a cookie from a nearby plate into her mouth. “Oh, yer righ! Mrow math eirly thimed.”
“What was that?”
Pinkie swallowed her cookie. “I said, ‘Mrow, math eirly thimed.’ I mean, that would be a lot less weirdly timed if they held the ceremony on the Summer Sun Celebration, then we’d get one extra humongously spectacular party for both the thousand year anniversary of their founding and a choosing ceremony for all the elements!”
“Wouldn’t two parties be better, dear?”
“Yeah, if I could go to both of them.”
Mrs. Cake seemed to be taking an extra long time pulling the buns out, which Pinkie figured meant the bun in her oven was slowing down her actual bun making. “Pinkie, would you mind taking over for Carrot at the counter for a few minutes? I need to speak with him.”
“Sure, you can counter on me.” Giggling, she hopped through the kitchen door into the front room of Sugarcube Corner, the best place to eat in Ponyville, even if the Fare Cafe, Hay Burger, and . . . huh, come to think of it, every place to eat in Ponyville said they were the best, although clearly Sugarcube Corner actually deserved that title. Seeing the tall yellow stallion behind the cash register, she remembered her task and zipped up next to him.
“Hey, Mr. Cake, Mrs. Cake wants to see you.”
“Really? Well I better go see what she needs,” he said as he walked back to the kitchen. “Give a hollar if you need anything.” He opened the door and passed through but turned back just before closing it. “Without a megaphone this time.”
(4) She was thinking of starting one for that Evil Enchantress who lived nearby.
Pinkie shrugged and nudged her emergency megaphone back under the loose floorboard and turned to look out on the open area of the bakery. Normally, while waiting for customers to show up, she would do things like sing songs silently in her skull4, designing delectable desserts, or planning peppy parties, but right now she was thinking about a party she wouldn’t get to attend. It had been hard enough when the Cakes had said they were unlikely to win the catering contract for the Summer Sun Celebration since most of the Apple Family was coming to town for the event, and they would be better suited to handle the volume needed. Now an even bigger party was going on and not only would she not get to help, she wouldn’t even get to see it? The thought of taking a sick day popped into her head, but then it popped out again when she realized that the Cakes probably wouldn’t like that. They probably wouldn’t fire her over the matter, but she wouldn’t be getting any raises for it either.
Before she could continue her mild money musing, a brown earth pony stallion with a black mane, white collar, and red tie walked through the front door.
“Hiya Filthy!” she called out.
“It’s ‘Mr. Rich’ Miss Pie,” he sighed as he stepped up to the counter. “Are you busy at the moment?”
“Nope, just a bit fuzzy. Why, you need something?”
“As a matter of fact, yes. I was hoping to employ your services planning a cute-cenera for my daughter, Diamond Tiara.”
“Oh my goodness, congratulations! What’s it look like?”
“Actually, she hasn’t gotten her cutie mark yet. However, I would like to arrange it so that she can have a top quality celebration a week after she receives it.”
“Wow, it’s been awhile since I’ve done one of those.”
Mr. Rich raised an eyebrow, which was actually a pretty cool look when she thought about --
“So can you do it?”
Pinkie blinked a couple times to bring her focus back before giving a giant grin. “Can an alligator give existential monologues in its head?”
“Er, I can’t say that I know.”
“Huh, neither can I, but I can definitely throw that party.” She flicked her tail to dislodge a scroll from its curly hair, bounced it off her nose, and let it plop onto the counter. “Just fill this Fun for Fillies Form so I know what sort of things she’ll want when destiny dazzles her derriere.”
“Thank you. Do you mind if I borrow a quill and some ink?”
“Sure.” She reached for the vial and quill next to the register, then paused for a moment. “Whoops, forgot that this one’s empty. Here,” she said as she tossed her mane back, launching a small bottle from her curls and catching it before handing it and the quill over, “take this one.”
“Thank you, Miss Pie,” he said as he accepted them and trotted over to one of the booths to begin working on the form. Pinkie turned her head to give a girly giggle. This was gonna be great! She couldn’t pay too much attention, or she’d risk arousing suspicion too early, but so long as she kept him in the corner of her eye, she’d be able to see his reaction as -- yes! She held back another giggle as he paused to scan the parts he’d already written with a frown. Would he realize it now or -- nope! He just dipped his quill again and started writing from the top again. She silently shook at the silliness. He paused again and narrowed his eyes at the paper. He picked up the ink bottle, taking a closer look at the label. After a moment’s scrutiny, he turned to face Pinkie.
“Miss Pie, is there a reason this says ‘disappearing ink’?”
“Pfff! Probably because it is!” With that, she let loose her laughter and collapsed behind the counter. Oh, that was a classic! After a while, she finally climbed back to her hooves and shoved the still half full vial towards him. “Here you go,” she said, still giggling.
“On second thought, perhaps I should just take this home with me so that I can ask Diamond about what she wants. I’ll have my butler bring the form back tomorrow.”
“That’s a good idea! If I’m not here, just tell Rudolph to let the Cakes have it.”
Mr. Rich gave a grunt as he got up, tucked the form into his collar, and walked out the door. Strange, he didn’t seem to be smiling. Maybe he didn’t like the prank?
“Pinkie, could we talk to you for a moment?”
She promptly forgot what she was thinking about as she turned to see Mr. Cake return, followed by Mrs. Cake. “Sure. What’s up?”
“Well dearie,” began Mrs. Cake, “we’ve decided that we’re ready to enter this year’s National Dessert Competition.”
“Oooh, what are you gonna make? A cornucopia of carrot cookies? Delightful dog-shaped danishes? Mascarpone Meringue Milkshakes?”
“A cake of course,” Mr. Cake interjected. “We still need to do a lot of planning, but that’s not the important thing right now.”
“You see,” said Mrs. Cake, “we figured we’d send you over to turn in the application rather than mail it in.”
“Okee Dokee Lokee. Where do I bring it?”
“Canterlot, dear, but you don’t need to go today. You could do it, say, next week?” That would be during . . . wait a minute, were they saying that . . . ?
Mr. Cake gave a smile to match the one on Mrs. Cake. “And once you do that, we agreed it would be fine for you to take the rest of the day off, so you should have time to --”
“YEEEEEEEESSSSS! Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you . . .”
(5) “Why, that’s to make sure a pegasus who wears it looks good while flying in it of course.”
If a pegasus were to stick their head in the upstairs window of the Carousel Boutique, they would have seen a mess. Fabrics lay scattered all over the room, pictures of three different ponies were pinned haphazardly along the walls, and several dresses seemed to be hanging from the ceiling.5 Of course, this hypothetical pegasus wouldn’t get very much time to make sense of things before another picture would slap them in the face. They would then turn to watch as it flew towards a gap between a picture of Shining Armor and Cadance at their wedding and a picture of Daring Do at a soup kitchen in Manehatten. At this point, the white unicorn moving the picture telekinetically would apologize, right before kicking the intruding pegasus out, saying that she’s ‘in the zone, and unless you are having a fashion emergency you can wait in the lobby downstairs like the rest of my customers’. However, nopony was making such an intrusion, so Rarity simply spoke aloud as she continued her work.
“Yes, the central work should emphasize the colors of the Elements, no question about that, but should the rest of the line use streaks of color in the fabric or gems? What do you think, Opal?”
Her cat simply meowed and turned on one of her desks to face the wall before lying down again.
“Oh, come now Opalescence; this is important. Every fashion designer in Equestria will be at the ceremony looking for inspiration. If I want to get ahead of them I need to get the ground work done now so I can just make adjustments based on what the new Bearers look like.”
Opal’s tail swished.
“Oh fine, I suppose I can decide that later. I’ll just sketch both possibilities. Now, let’s see,” she said as she looked around at the pictures. She had plenty of Shining Armor and Cadance both with and without formal attire, and plenty of Daring Do, however . . .
(6) At least from reputable sources that could be trusted to not magically alter them. The Canterlot Sun had recently displayed a photo of her in socks kissing the outlaw Dr. Caballeron, but that was as unbelievable as their next article about alien bug ponies.
“Oh dear, not a single one of Miss Do in a dress.” This wasn’t particularly surprising, the elder Bearer wasn’t known for attending fancy occasions, and typically could only be found in her olive jacket and pith helmet, and pictures of her otherwise were very hard to come by.6 Thankfully, Rarity happened to remember purchasing a magazine that covered the wedding of the other two Bearers that included a picture of her in a nice maroon gown and elegant hat, she just had to find it again to finish her designs. However, the mess (or as she put it, organized chaos) made finding the magazine take a few minutes longer than she would have liked, but her skill with telekinesis made things easier by allowing her to shift things around quickly until she found it under her roll of green silk.
“Ah ha! Now let’s see . . . w-w-what!” She stared in horror at the pages inside, or rather, at the numerous cuts, tears, and rips on every page. Every picture was either missing entirely, or had large parts torn out, such as when a page-sized close up of Shining Armor’s face was sliced in half, or when a lopsided circle had been cut out of the train of Cadance’s wedding dress. Even Celestia had her sun cutie mark almost ripped out, only connected to the rest of the page and to her by a thin piece of her flank. Worst of all, when she turned to where she was sure the Daring Do picture had been, the entire thing was gone.
“Opal! Did you do this?” she asked as she shook the open page at the white cat, who rolled her eyes and hissed. Rarity took another look at the damaged pages. She may have been a bit too quick to judge, none of the tears looked like claw marks. Indeed, some of them appeared to have been the result of poorly handled scissors. “But if it wasn’t you, then who --”
She started as she heard the front door downstairs slam open and a voice she recognized.
“Hey, Rarity! Are you here?” Rarity gave a frown. Yes, she knew exactly who could have done this.
“Sweetie Belle.”
Rarity floated her sister’s latest victim beside her as she prepared what she was going to say to her.
‘Sweetie Belle, is this your doing? How many times have I told you to stay out of my things? Not only have you taken these pictures without my permission, you left this magazine looking like it has been mauled by a Timber Wolf. I can’t salvage any of this, and I know that one of the pictures you took and undoubtedly destroyed was absolutely needed to prepare my most important line EVER. Now my work will be both substandard and slowed, which means everypony will view it as derivative, which will absolutely ruin my reputation and my business, and it will be All. Your. Fault.’
Satisfied with her complaint, she reached the bottom of the stairs and immediately focused on the white filly standing by the kitchen table. She was giving a wide smile, and she’d even managed to keep her pink and purple mane clean and neat, which would ordinarily have pleased Rarity. However, she knew this was just an attempt to make herself look innocent, but that trick wouldn’t work. The young mare took a breath so she could state her grievance at the proper volume.
“Hey ya, Rarity. Whatcha got there?”
That hadn’t been Sweetie. She whirled to face the voice.
“Mother! Father! W-what are you doing here?”
Hondo “Magnum” Flanks pulled his wife, Cookie Crumbles, into a side hug. “We had a bit of an announcement that we wanted to let both you and Sweetie know at once, and we figured since you’re usually so busy it would be easier for us to come here.”
“Speaking of which,” added Cookie, “isn’t that the magazine Sweetie borrowed from you?”
“You know about that?” Rarity asked. Perhaps they had already scolded her sister for the violent theft and had instructed her to apologize, in which case she would of course graciously accept.
“Sure thing, that was awfully sweet of you to let her borrow that old thing for her collage project in class.”
“Collage project?”
“Yeah,” Sweetie Belle said, “the one I told you about yesterday.”
Rarity watched closely as she stitched together the intricate pattern for her latest skirt as her sister prattled on behind her.
“Hey, this magazine would work great for my homework. Mind if I borrow it for a bit?”
“Hmm? Oh, sure.”
“Great! Now I just need to find some scissors. . .”
Rarity’s eye twitched. She really needed to keep a closer eye on what Sweetie was doing, even if she couldn’t work as hard in the short run. Frankly, she should have expected this. “Yes, well, I don’t suppose you brought that collage with you?”
“Really! You want to see it?” Rarity flinched. Now she would have to critique her sister’s work if she wanted to see that picture again. That could only end well. Fortunately, she was saved from answering for the moment by her father.
“Maybe you should save it for our vacation to Canterlot next week.” Wait, her parents were going on another vacation, on the day of the Choosing Ceremony? Did she say fortunately, this was most certainly unfortunate.
“Oh, father, I couldn’t possibly watch Sweetie Belle then, I’m going to --”
“You’re coming with us.”
“-- Canterlot myself for the Ceremony, and . . . pardon?”
“We decided that it’s been far too long since we’ve all gone on a trip together,” said Cookie, “so we figured we could make a family trip together to see the Choosing.”
“Really?” Rarity and Sweetie asked together. Rarity was pretty sure the last time all four of them had gone on a trip together was shortly before Sweetie had started school. This could actually be quite pleasant. As Sweetie started squealing in joy, Rarity embarked on a little fantasy trip. She imagined herself, creating quite a stir in her unique and gorgeous gown, Sweetie Belle in a cute little dress that even the most cold hearted of ponies couldn’t help but melt for, and her parents . . .
“Erm, that does sound lovely. Might I ask what you were planning on wearing?”
“I hadn’t really thought of it,” her mother answered. “Probably our usual vacation wear.”
. . . and her father in an incredibly tacky Haywaian shirt and straw hat while her mother wore a shirt and pants that were decades out of style. Nopony would take her seriously as a designer if her parents accompanied her dressed like tourists! What if she was seen by a big name like Hoity Toity, or Fancy Pants, or worse, Prince Blueblood himself!
“I won’t allow it!” she said as she stepped behind her parents and started shoving them towards the main room of her shop. It wasn’t easy, her father especially had the density of a hoofball player, but a little sweat would be worth avoiding social suicide. “I insist on creating new outfits for the both of you.”
“Alright hun, but if you’re too busy we can always wear those fancy outfits you gave us for our birthdays last year.”
“Those would be better, but like you said, they’re a year old. No, I can manage this along with my other work.”
“I’ll help!” piped Sweetie Belle. Rarity held back a groan. She’d been counting on it taking her about four hours to create outfits for all four of them, especially if she used them as prototypes for her ideas for her Elemental Elegance line. With Sweetie helping, however . . . it would probably take twelve.
“. . . thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you . . .”
“Er, you’re welcome Dearie. Again.”
“. . . thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you . . .”
“. . . Would you like to go help Mr. Cake organize the displays?”
“ . . . thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you . . .”
“Sorry, Carrot, but you do owe me for last week.”
It was dark under the couch, but at least it was safe. All she had to do was wait for whoever it was to go away and --
Another set of knocks came from her front door.
“Eep!” Maybe not.
“Uh, Fluttershy?” she heard. “It’s the mail.”
Oh, just the mail? It’d probably be safe then. She started to crawl out, but then stopped. Why wasn’t he just leaving it in her mailbox, like normal? That was definitely Mr. Zippy’s voice, so it couldn’t be an imposter, but maybe she was in trouble? Perhaps he was still mad about when she snapped at him four months ago? Maybe she’d mislabeled one of her mail orders and she had to pay a fine? What if, Celestia forbid, he wanted to talk with her? She should stay here, but it’d be rude to leave him knocking on the door. She felt a light tug on her mane and looked down to see her pet bunny, Angel, tapping his foot and pointing toward the door with an impatient expression on his face.
“Um, if it’s alright with you, maybe you could go see what he wants? I’ll,” she gulped, “come if it’s something you can’t handle.” The rabbit rolled his eyes, but he hopped over to the door and opened it anyway. Peeking out to keep an eye on things, she saw the grey earth pony squinting through his glasses, looking around until Angel’s thumping drew his attention to his hooves.
“Oh, hello there. Is Fluttershy here? I think this letter is for her, but I don’t remember her ever getting a letter this fancy before, so I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t misreading the label again.” Fluttershy flinched. She knew she should have found a more tactful way of suggesting he needed glasses. Wait, a fancy letter?
“I’d ask you to read it,” Mr. Zippy continued, “but, you know, you’re a rabbit and all and can’t read.”
“He can, actually.” Mr. Zippy turned to look at the couch. Fluttershy’s eyes widened. Had she said that out loud?
“Really?” Oh no, she did. She quickly squeezed further back, removing herself from view.
“Yes, I taught him, so he can check the letter since I’m not Fluttershy,” she said. Before Mr. Zippy could say anything Angel hopped up and snapped the letter out of his raised hoof. He quickly scanned it and then slammed the door on the mail pony.
“Well,” came his voice, “I guess that’s a yes then. Good bye Not-Fluttershy, make sure she gets that letter.”
The yellow pegasus slowly crawled out and met Angel half way. With a small smile she accepted the envelope. At a glance, she could see why Mr. Zippy was confused. The whole thing was covered in gold hearts, spirals, and music notes, and was closed by a wax seal with a strange mark she didn’t recognize. Obviously whoever had sent this was really important, but it wasn’t from the Equestrian Society for the Preservation of Rare Creatures or any of the other groups she had to join for her job. Still, her name and address were shown on the back, in gold calligraphy, no less, so after asking one of the eagles staying with her to lend a talon, she opened the letter and began to read.
To Fluttershy, Critter Ambassador of the Ponyville Region,
We at the Canterlot Royal Symphony have been authorized by Celestia herself to assemble a bird choir for the upcoming Choosing Ceremony, and it has come to our attention that you are currently hosting an arctic tern in your district. Please bring it to Canterlot at the earliest time possible so that we may assess its singing voice for ourselves and see if they live up to their reputation, and if so, he will participate in this historic event.
Sincerely,
Lyrica Lilac, President of the CRS
There was going to be a choosing ceremony? She wondered for a moment who was retiring, but decided it was more important to let her patient know about the honor. After trotting to the kitchen she opened up the refrigerator.
“Frosty! I have some good news!” A sudden blast of cold air forced her to turn her head away. “Oh, I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to wake you.” She turned back to look at the ice elemental.
(7) It was actually just a phoenix, but he didn’t want anyone to know that. A bird had to have his pride, even if he was two feet tall and living in another mare’s refrigerator off of her charity.
While most of his form was covered in feathers of snow, his beak and talons revealed his icy form, including several cracks a few layers deep that had yet to reform. His right ice talon had almost completely healed from his encounter with a dragon,7 but he still took a moment to stand up. Regardless, his tweets still sounded as nice as ever, thanks both to the slight twinkling sound that accompanied them and his polite, even formal, tone.
“Why did I wake you? I just got a letter. You’ve been invited to demonstrate your singing to the Canterlot Royal Symphony and sing at a very important event.” Frosty gave a few more chirps. “Oh, we can leave tomorrow, and then I guess we’ll stay there until after the ceremony.” This answer was met with a couple of rather indignant squawks and another blast of cold air. “Oh, right, I forgot you were late for your migration north, but surely this won’t take too long?” This led to the loudest cry yet as Fluttershy found herself being forced to call upon her pegasus magic to protect herself from the chill.
He seemed to feel rather strongly on the subject. What would she do? She couldn’t just say no to ponies who were working for Celestia! What if the music turned out to be terrible and they told her it was all her fault? What if they told the press and everyone in town shunned her because of it? Oh, why couldn’t Lyrica Lilac have done a little research to find out about the migration? No no, that wasn’t fair to her, she was obviously a music expert rather than a critter expert. Still, Frosty’s needs were important too. After all, the sooner he got to the frozen north, the sooner he could find a good nest to impress . . .
“You know, if you do a really good job of singing, I bet they’ll want to get other arctic terns to join them in the performance. Maybe even, say, a pretty hen?” The air got much warmer, and the bird tilted its head in thought. “And even in the tiny, tiny chance of them not doing so, I’m sure any bird who performs there will be much, much more appealing as a mate.” This was a bit of a risky move on her part. Frosty wasn’t quite as intelligent as many of her guests who lived close by, this sort of non-instinctual thinking was a good deal tougher for him, and she knew it. So she was quite pleased with herself when he gave an affirmative chirp and flew over to the door.
“We don’t have to go quite yet, lover bird. Even if we leave now we won’t reach Canterlot by sunset. We’ll leave tomorrow morning. In the meantime, I need to get somepony to keep an eye on my house while I’m gone, and I know just who to ask . . .”
“. . . thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you . . .”
“How long has she been doing that?” asked Caramel.
“. . . thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you . . .”
“Oh, about an hour I think,” Carrot Cake answered as he passed his customer the fritters he’d ordered.
“. . . thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you . . .”
“Ooookay then,” Caramel answered as he slowly edged away, then darted for the door, nearly knocking over an aqua pegasus mare on his way out. The mare stumbled inside, confused until she saw Pinkie.
“. . . thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you . . .”
The mare promptly turned around and flew back out. Carrot sighed. “Pinkie, could you go . . . check on the inventory?”
“ . . . thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you . . .”
Rainbow Dash twisted her wings in order to dodge Soarin’s tackle, placing her in a perfect position to intercept the hoofball. After letting it bounce off her head, she folded her wings and dove after it. With a feral grin she landed on the back of an earth pony, flattening him before he could recover the ball. She hopped off, reached down . . .
. . . and picked up her next horseshoe in her mouth. Not the least bothered by the sudden change in sports, she stuck her tongue out as she eyed the stake barely visible on the other side of the stadium. Smirking, she turned around and tossed the horseshoe over her withers. She turned back around just in time to watch it land perfectly on target. The crowd roared, which was almost loud enough to drown out her own cheers as she took to the air and did a victory dance. A fellow pegasus, she couldn’t seem to remember who, came up to congratulate her. Hey, who was she to reject praise? She reached out with her foreleg . . .
. . . and snagged the horseshoe from her teammate and blasted towards the cloud track. He’d done his part, now it was her turn to finish it! Dodging through a series of cloud rings, she saw Spitfire still had a pretty big lead. Not on her watch! She put more power into her flight, feeling the familiar strain on her wings as the air pushed back against her. Forget that, she had to go faster! Gritting her teeth, she used her pegasus magic to streamline the air in front of her, forming a cone of air in front of her. They’d both finally made it out of the sky slalom and were in the final stretch. She’d managed to gain some ground on the Cloudsdale Thunder Head, but if she didn’t pick up the pace she’d be stuck with second place! Stretching out her hooves as far as the could go, she increased the flow of magic both through her wings and in front of her, willing herself to go faster than she’d gone this entire race, until with an almighty BOOM the barrier in front of her shattered, forcing the excess magic out as a rainbow colored shockwave and launching her forward at incredible speeds. Zooming straight past the silver-clad pegasus, Rainbow blasted through the finish ring with such force that the whole thing was dispersed into a fine mist.
“She has done it!” came the voice of the announcer. “Rainbow Dash and the Wonderbolts have made a clean sweep of all the gold medals in the Equestria Games!” Dozens of ponies in blue and gold jumpsuits crowded around her and carried her aloft amid the cheers of thousands of fans. She laughed as she saw that all her competitors had stopped mid-air, jaws dropped and in some cases trying to rub their eyes, still recovering from her awesomeness. Facing the crowd, she could make out her father, Bow Hothoof, her idol, Daring Do, and even her old friend Fluttershy. She grinned as she heard their cheers rise above the rest of the crowd.
“Rainbow Dash! Rainbow Dash! Rainbow Dash!”
“Rainbow Dash? Rainbow? Um, Rainbow? Could I ask you something, if it’s not too much trouble?”
Rainbow Dash snorted and slowly opened her eyes. She sat up on the cloud she had been napping on and turned to see Fluttershy hovering a few feet away.
“Oh, hey Flutters. What’s up?”
“Well, you see, one of my friends was invited to an audition in Canterlot, and I don’t know how long we’ll be gone. If you’re not too busy, would you mind house sitting for me?”
“Sure, I can do that,” Rainbow said as she sat up. “I just spend the night there and fly by a couple times a day to make sure nopony steals anything, right?”
(8)Fattening them up for the otters.
“Um, well, you’d also have to make sure the animals get fed. Not all of them!” she quickly added as she landed on the cloud next to her. “Most of them are Critter guests, I’ll let them know lodging is closed for a while. That leaves just the chickens, some of the song birds, maybe the fish in the pond if I’m gone long enough.8 Oh, and Angel Bunny.”
“Eh, how hard can it be? I’ll just swing by there after any weather duty and before . . .” Rainbow began before suddenly shooting into the air. “Horseapples! I’m late for practice!” With that, she shot into the distance, leaving a rainbow contrail behind her. She’d drop by Fluttershy’s cottage later, right now, she was needed elsewhere. After all, the Ponyville Wonderbolts couldn’t become the best sports team in Equestria without her, could it?
“Hnnn! C’mun, thet el ye g’t?” Rainbow would have ordinarily made sure to speak more clearly while taunting her opponent, but that would involve letting go of the rope in her mouth, which would have meant losing. She never lost.
Still, Bulk Biceps was putting up a pretty good fight. While he may have been a pegasus like herself, he did so much weight lifting and other strength exercises that he had more strength than most earth ponies she knew, and he looked it. The only reason he hadn’t already won this game of tug-o-war was because she was using her wings as well as her legs, the resulting wind actually creating little waves in the muddy water between them. He was using them too, however, his foal sized wings were the one part of him that he couldn’t build up any strength in. It was frankly amazing he could ever get off the ground.
“Din’t tell me th’t yur new jov is meking ye go seft!” she grunted out. It seemed to work a little too well as a motivator, as she found herself being forced to take a step forward, and then another one. She started to panic and pulled harder, but it wasn’t doing her enough good, Bulk was just too strong. Rainbow was about to abandon the ground altogether to make sure she wouldn’t step in the mud and technically wouldn’t lose, when her opponent gave a surprisingly high pitched shriek of horror, releasing the rope in the process. After leaping up into the air from the sudden sprawl that resulted, Rainbow whipped her head around to see what had frightened him into hiding behind a nearby tree. All she saw was the trail the rest of the team was using for jogging practice, some flowers waving in a light breeze, and a few bugs flying among them. Wait a minute, one of the bugs on his side of the pit looked like . . .
(9) Seriously, she couldn’t even begin to imagine the marital troubles a breezie and dragon would have.
“For the last time, Bulk!” she said, rolling her eyes as she flapped over the puddle and shooed the offender away. “The fire-breathing dragonfly is a myth, the kind who live around here are harmless!”9
Unfortunately, Bulk’s courage wasn’t much bigger than his wings, and shouting didn’t seem to be working this time at getting him to continue. Fortunately, she saw a yellow unicorn passing by along the trail, so she flew over to check on him.
“Hey, Comet Tail! This is your third lap, right?”
“Yes, I mean no,” he answered, neither slowing down his gallop or even sounding winded. “Just my second.”
“You sure?” Rainbow narrowed her eyes. “Because I kinda remember you passing by twice already.”
“N-now that’s just silly. If I had done that, I’d be really tired and would be ready to stop. Which I’m not! Stopping, I mean.”
“You cast your spell again, didn’t you?”
“Umm, nooooo?”
“Then as your captain I’m ordering you to take a rest.”
“. . . fine, I did,” he said, withering under her glare.
“Seriously, Comet, are you trying to make me kick you off my team too?”
“I’m sorry, there was a strong back breeze as I was going over that third hill, and I thought --”
“Our deal was you could use the Turbo Legs Spell for your job and in your free time, but you had to work extra hard with just your legs to make up for the muscle damage.”
“I’m sorry, cap, please, give me another chance!”
“Relax,” she said, moving in front of him and flying backwards to keep ahead. “I get it, you weren’t trying to cheat, you just had a need for speed. I trust you not to pull anything like that during an actual competition.”
“Oh, thank you --”
“However,” she said, assuming a vertical posture and crossing her forelegs, “you’re not getting off scot free either. You’re gonna keep along this path until that spell wears off, which I guess will be about a mile. You’ll have to make it back on your own, no matter how tired your legs will feel. I’m not dragging your rump out of the forest again. We clear?”
Comet Tail seemed to shudder slightly, but nodded anyway. Rainbow landed and watched as he continued on into the woods. She wouldn’t help him out, but she’d be sure to send Gallop-a-Gus out to help him back, after he had time to squirm a little.
“There you are!” she heard from above. She looked up to see a grayish blue pegasus come out of the forest canopy.
“Hey, Flitter, you here to take me up on my offer?”
Flitter rolled her eyes. “I’m not that into sports, I get enough flying in my job. Speaking of which . . .” she said, pulling a letter out of her saddlebag, “This came in from the Central Weather Office, it looks like we’ll be needed to --”
“Yeah, yeah,” Rainbow interrupted. She could see Gus coming down the trail, she needed to let him know about Comet. “Just put it in my mailbox, I’ll get it later.”
(10) Could he be blamed? What with the birds singing in the trees, fragrant flowers on the breeze, the sun setting behind Rainbow as she wiped some sweat out of her gorgeous mane that seemed to . . . er, I mean, it was a nice day out.
“Sure, boss, just like you said you’d get the clouds on the north side clear ‘later’,” she mumbled as she flew off. If she hadn’t been preoccupied with making sure Gus didn’t faze out while getting his orders,10 she likely would have argued with her over the backtalk. After all, it wasn’t her fault that the others had gotten impatient and had cleared the leftover clouds out before she had finished her morning nap. She was Ponyville’s weather manager, and if she said she could wait a while to read a message, she could wait to read a message. In fact, she could even wait a couple days if she wanted to . . .
“. . . thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you . . .”
Mr. and Mrs. Cake hoped this would work. Their shop had closed for the day, and had been fairly successful, even with Pinkie driving off a few customers.
“. . . thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you . . .”
Ordinarily, they’d be reaching their breaking point about now, but it was dinner time, and she’d have to stop for that.
“. . . thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you . . .”
(11) Pinkie later insisted that the whole point was to say “thank you”, so she wasn’t being irreverent.
So, after setting out the cinnamon bread and jam, they said grace11 and began their meal. Or at least they tried, but before they had lowered their heads halfway to their food, Pinkie had already scooped up the entire contents of her plate mid-word.
“. . . thmank yu, thmank yu, thmank yu, thmank yu, thmank yu, thmank yu, thmank yu . . .”
“Pinkie,” Carrot scolded, “it’s gonna go down the wrong way if you--”
“. . . thmank yu, thmank yu, thmank yu, thman--” she mumbled before suddenly descending into a coughing fit. Cup Cake reacted immediately and hurried next to her pink employee, striking her hard on the back with her hoof, trying to push a little magic into her for good measure. Thankfully, it seemed to work, for after a moment she stopped.
After taking a few quick breaths she smiled up at the older mare. “Thanks a lot.”
“Oh, it was nothing, dearie.”
“No, really, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you . . .”
The Cakes turned to each other in horror, before simultaneously face-hooving themselves.
(12) Actually she couldn’t. That was scheduled for tomorrow.
There were many things Twilight Sparkle would have rather been doing than marching through the halls of the palace seeking her target. She could have been continuing her studies on tartaric ore. She could have been watching the sunset and using the opportunity to test some of Flank O’Mare-a’s theories about beauty. She could have even been putting together a schedule for when to to assemble her schedules for the next month,12 but nooo, she needed to find that thrice proven jerk and give him a piece of her mind instead. Fortunately, she was fast approaching the room that, thanks to the guards posted in front of it, she was 97.8436% sure he was holed up in.
“Halt. The Bearers have asked that none except the princess disturb them.”
Of course, those guards would also make it difficult to get to him.
“Well, I have an important message for my brother, and unlike him, I don’t intend on waiting to give it,” she said, standing as tall as she could and giving a chilly glare.
“I’m sorry miss,” the guard answered as he and his partner crossed their spears in front of the door, “but our orders are clear.”
(13) Other rooms in the palace that were similarly protected included the vaults, Celestia’s bedroom, and the cake pantry.
Twilight snorted. She probably could tie them up or something, but that would likely get her in trouble with Princess Celestia. She also couldn’t use her magic to teleport through the walls. She’d just read earlier that day about how the walls of the palace’s meeting rooms were laced with both special gems and trace amounts of tartaric ore in order to prevent such infiltrations.13
The guard shifted slightly, accidentally reflecting a bit of the setting sun off of his golden armor and into her eyes. She flinched, but then she looked out the window. She realized that there was another way she could do this, one that maximized her chance of success and minimized her chance of being arrested for assaulting an officer. Or at least these officers.
“Okay, but if they leave in the next 30 seconds have somepony come let me know where they went.” With that, she turned and marched towards another doorway, this one leading to a nearby balcony. After stepping out, she gave a slight telekinetic adjustment to her saddlebags, spread her wings, and took off.
As she made her way to the windows of the meeting room, she took a moment to look down on the city. She had to admit, for a city that was home to the princess that raised the sun and moon, Canterlot actually looked a good deal better at sunset than sunrise. Probably because she traditionally raised it from the east, casting them in the shadow of the mountain’s peak. In the evening, though, it really brought out a glow from the gleaming white stones and gold-tipped towers. That wasn’t even mentioning the view. If you looked straight down the side of the mountain, you could see the hills that eventually rose up to become the Unicorn Range off to the west, each casting a shadow over it’s nearer neighbor. A glance to the north would reveal the various lakes and rivers of the Cirrus Plains, the light sparkling off of them in an incredible dazzle. Even to the south, which was mostly forests and farms, you could see the Rapid Canter River carve its way over the horizon, on its way to the sea by Los Pegasus. How could the ancient unicorns have seen a view like this and not understood why the pegasi so seldom came to the ground?
Twilight sighed. Speculation regarding pre-Equestrian thought as related to geographical positioning would have to wait. She couldn’t see in the meeting room’s window thanks to the light reflecting off the glass, but even if they hadn’t the curtains would have been closed if there were a serious meeting going on that they didn’t want a passing pegasus to spot. They also were probably locked, again to prevent pegasi and other flying races from making unauthorized entry.
However, they didn’t have one thing that the walls had: protection against teleportation.
After a few seconds of concentration, Twilight vanished in a flash of light, only to appear a moment later flying inside the meeting room.
“SHINING ARMOR!”
“Twilight?” Upon hearing her brother she whirled around. Shining, Cadance, and Daring were all sitting around a table, surprise on their faces, and a deck of cards set between them. “W-what’s wrong?” asked the white unicorn stallion.
“Don’t play innocent with me! I can’t believe you did this to me again!”
“Twilight,” said the pink alicorn sitting next to her husband, “if you wanted to play Go Graze with us, you could’ve just asked.”
“What? No, I’m not talking about a card game!” she yelled, sending a pulse of magic their way and blowing all the cards out of their hooves and off the table. Her brother and sister in-law immediately shot to their feet, while the dark yellow pegasus merely looked at the fallen cards and smiled.
“Saved by the little alicorn,” she said quietly.
Twilight ignored her. “First you don’t tell me you’re getting married until mere days before the wedding . . .”
“Sombra was due to come back in a month, we were all in a rush,” Shining explained.
“. . . then you tell Minute --”
“Minuette.”
“-- whatever, about your foal before me . . .”
“We needed her help setting up the scavenger hunt with the clues for you. I thought you liked that.”
“. . . and now,” she said, pulling a newspaper out of her saddlebag and throwing it on the table, “I have to find out about you three leaving the Order from the Times?”
All three of the Bearers looked at the paper and then back at Twilight, with looks ranging from confusion to concern.
“Twily,” Shining started.
“You keep telling me that I’m still important to you, that you didn’t mean to upset me,” Twilight continued, tears starting to form in her eyes, “and I keep trying to believe you, but every time something important happens in your life I’m always the last to know.”
Her rage spent, she collapsed to her knees, trying to hide her sniffling and failing miserably. She refused to look her brother in the eye as he approached and knelt in front of her.
“I’m sorry, Twilight. I’d really thought you’d gotten the letter.”
That got her attention. “What letter?”
Before any response could be given, shouts and neighs came from the door, followed by a small cloud of smoke leaking underneath it. The cloud quickly approached the siblings, before stopping between them. After swirling around for a moment, it condensed into a single point and with a small pop suddenly became a scroll. Twilight grabbed it with her telekinesis just as the guards burst into the room.
“We’re sorry,” one of them said, “we’ll remove whatever that was at . . . how’d she get in here?” Twilight gave a nervous chuckle as they glared at her.
“At ease,” said Daring Do, “you couldn’t have stopped that smoke cloud without creating an airtight force field. As for her, well, I sometimes practice breaking into these rooms myself, and if an old pegasus like me can do it, I don’t blame you for letting an alicorn through.”
The guards relaxed, just in time to get bowled over by something small, purple, and scaly rushing through the door.
“Twilight! Oh no, I’m too late!”
“Spike?” asked Twilight, staring down at her young dragon assistant. Hoping to get an answer from the letter he just sent, she quickly unrolled it.
Don’t talk to him!
It’s my fault!
I’m sorry!
Spike
Well, that didn’t seem to answer anything. Wait a minute . . .
“Too late for what, Spike?”
“Well, um . . . a couple nights ago . . .”
Spike slowly opened one eye. With the moon high in the sky, he could see the sleeping form of Twilight up on her bed. Moving slowly to make sure she stayed that way, he climbed out of his basket and tiptoed over to his personal bookshelf, consisting of nine birthday presents, nine Hearth’s Warming Eve presents, and twelve books Twilight thought he would need just because. However, none of these were his target. Reaching a claw behind the shelf, he pulled out Shining Armor’s gift to him: an old Smash Fortune comic. Hey, he didn’t want it to get squished by the other books. Grinning, he turned back towards his basket. The moon was so bright tonight, he wouldn’t even need to turn on a lamp, which was good, because he didn’t want Twilight to scold him about getting some sleep again. He plopped down and opened it up.
However, before he could begin, he felt a churning in his stomach. Realizing what was coming, he set the comic down and let out a fiery belch. The green flames swirled around in front of him for a second before condensing into a small scroll. He whipped his head to check on Twilight. Thankfully, while she did turn a little and mumble something about quesadillas, she quickly settled down again. With a sigh, he picked up the scroll and checked the seal. It showed a blue heart-shaped gem, which meant it had come from Princess Cadance. He looked back at his comic book. Twilight wouldn’t like being woken up at this hour, so he had a perfectly good reason to wait till tomorrow to bring this up which had nothing to do with wanting to keep his late night reading a secret. Satisfied, he set the scroll aside and opened his comic back up.
He woke up to the sound of a scribbling quill. Yawning, the young drake sat up and looked over at his boss. She had several books open on her desk and was taking notes so fast he was worried it would catch fire again.
“Morning, Twi.”
Twilight glanced over her shoulder. “Morning, Spike. There are some opals downstairs for your breakfast, but please be back as soon as possible, I need you to send a letter to Celestia.”
The mention of a letter reminded him of last night’s note, but when he reached over the edge of his basket to where he was sure he had left it, his claws only grabbed air. He looked down, and the letter wasn’t there.
“Um, Twilight, Princess Cadance --”
“I know, I can’t wait for them to come either!”
“Wait, so you know about--”
“Of course I do.”
Spike sighed in relief. Obviously she’d found the scroll while he was still asleep. With that out of the way, he hurried down for his delicious gemstones.
(14) The end result was “Inorganic Ores and their Applications in Artificial Spell Design by Twilight Sparkle”, a hundred page essay that inspired at least one pony to pursue a Rocktorate, and many more to take a nap.
The next few days were rather busy, not with preparing for a visit, but with Twilight’s current research project. Apparently she’d gotten it into her head that Celestia had wanted her to hurry up with finding what all the books said about magic stones or something.14 He was so busy assisting her that it wasn’t until she stormed off to find her brother after reading the newspaper that he was able to get his comic out from under the pillow so he could put it back behind the shelf. However, that wasn’t the only thing he found under there.
“Huh?” he said as he lifted the scroll off his comic. He must have accidentally put it there the other night. Twilight couldn’t have found out about their visit from this, she would have found the comic and lectured him about nighttime reading. So what was the letter for? Now curious, he unrolled it and began to read it. After a minute he dropped it in fear. “Oh no.”
Daring Do turned from the dragon to his friend as he finished his story. Twilight held a neutral expression as Spike apologized again, although she kept glancing in her brother’s direction. After a while she gave a strained smile.
“It’s not your fault, Spike. I just . . . need to update my checklist, yes. ‘Ensure message Spike is giving me matches previously obtained news’. I’ll go fix that now.” Before anyone could stop her, she teleported out the still open door and started galloping down the hall. Spike glanced around at the rest of them, shuffling his feet nervously.
“Um . . . do you think she’s mad at me?”
Daring shrugged. “No more than she’s mad at herself. Oh, and at Shining.”
“But he didn’t do anything wrong!”
“Not this time,” said Shining, his eyes downcast, “but I think she’s just found out that she hasn’t forgiven me for those other things as much as she thought she had. I’d better go talk with her.” He lifted Spike with his magic and placed him on his back. “Think you can help me find some daisies to bring her?”
Spike grinned as they left the room. “Yeah, a snack would do her some good. And, uh, maybe we could pick something up for me as well?”
Shining’s answer was muffled as the door closed behind them, leaving Daring and Cadance behind.
“You’d think that having two Bearers in the family would mean she’d have a better way to cope than checklists,” Daring commented.
“She likes logic, and hasn’t really realized that emotions don’t work that way, and they don’t have to,” her friend answered.
Daring rolled her eyes. “She also needs to learn to lighten up when she makes mistakes.” Cadance snorted, causing the pegasus to grimace. “Okay, yeah, kinda funny for that to come from me, but I got better.”
“You had us and Pinotto to help. She doesn’t spend enough time around her friends for her to even remember their names half the time.”
Daring smiled. “Well, I don’t know about you, but I intend to spend a bit more time with her after we retire.” She’d probably have to entice her by asking for help “researching the standards” for writing memoirs, but she’d always enjoyed researching with the filly anyway.
“Assuming she won’t be busy herself afterwards as a Bearer.”
It was Daring’s turn to snort. “Yeah, and I’m a yearling.”
“She could be chosen. I mean, her magical strength is off the charts --”
“Stop,” said Daring. She needed to nip this at the bud right now. “I thought you were over Shimmer’s nonsense. You earned that star through your character, not through growing a horn.”
“I know, thank you. But she could be a good Bearer.”
“Miss ‘book fort’? How?”
“Because if she were chosen she’d have to learn how to get along with the others,” Cadance said with a smile, “and she is very good at learning.”
“. . . thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you . . .”
They’d tried ignoring her. They’d tried passing her off to someone else.
“. . . thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you . . .”
They’d tried making her work out of earshot. They’d tried feeding her.
“. . . thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you . . .”
But nothing had worked. It was now bedtime, and she was still going.
“. . . thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you . . .”
Finally, their patience ran out. “Pinkie Pie!” the Cakes yelled together. “Please stop already!”
“Okay,” Pinkie said, giggling as she turned and hopped to the stairs to the room she rented from them. “All you had to do was ask.”
The bakers spent a minute staring up the empty staircase.
“Sugarplum,” said Carrot, “can we petition Celestia to speed up the sun so next week comes faster? I need a break from her.”
“Me too, dear. Me too.”
Author's Note
Check out the author's notes here.
