To The Heart Through the Stomach

Two weeks had passed since Ponyville, Canterlot and The Crystal Empire experienced seriously disgusting scenes. A great number of ponies fell into bouts of puking and diarrhea due to rancid quiche squares. It was estimated that about fifty ponies were diagnosed with food poisoning, among them all the royals of Equestria. Because of Nightlight’s blunder, he ruined his chances of ever making it into The Royal School for Gifted Unicorns. Not even Princess Twilight’s title as Princess of Friendship could undo what her son had done to the school’s representative. Equestria Entertainment Weekly had a scathing and unflattering article printed about Sweetie Belle and her family’s sit down with First Insight. Worse of all, Princess Celestia was never able to live down the sight of everyone witnessing her feces disaster at the Canterlot Castle. Applebloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo caught wind of the lucrative business being run by their daughters and the lack of responsibility that caused Ponyville’s to vomit five hundred bits worth of quiche squares. As a result, Sweet Apple Acres were forced to give full refunds and make a public apology for being somewhat responsible for causing food poisoning to befall half of Equestria. Also Api, Pixel Bit and Echo were grounded for the rest of the summer. For the daughters of the Cutiemark Crusaders, being stripped of the right to enjoy the summer and cutiemark crusading was a punishment worse than death! They were not even allowed to see each other for the next two months.

That however, didn’t stop Echo from deciding to visit Sweet Apple Acres to see how Api was holding up. On her way to Sweet Apple Acres her head was buried in the latest edition of Photo Finish’s fashion magazine. Echo heard that Anthea was being featured for the magazine’s summer theme and just had to see it for herself. Anthea truly looked stunning in her pictures and her clouded eyes were simply mesmerizing. Echo found herself being slightly jealous but above all proud of Fluttershy’s daughter. Echo raised her head out of the magazine discovering Sweet Apple Acres being a few feet away. She fluttered softly on the ground and tucked away her magazine in her saddlebags. She looked around cautiously for any sign of the elder residents of the apple farm. When she saw nopony she scampered over to the large feeding tray. She peered from behind the feeding tray and found Api pushing a block of straw across the farm. On Api’s face was a mixture of exhaustion and anger. “Psst!” Echo said. She then waved over to Api and catching the brown spotted earth filly’s attention. Api’s eyes widened in shock and she looked to her left then to her right. She scampered over to Echo’s position and grabbed her by the hoof. Both fillies scampered over to a wagon and crouched to the ground. “What are you doing here?” said Api in a hushed tone. “We’re both grounded and we can’t see each other!”

“I just wanted to see how you’ve been doing since last week,” responded Echo innocently.

“How you think I’m doing?” growled Api as she began to trot away. “I have to work extra on the farm. But that’s nothing compared to being run out of business because somepony didn’t plug in the refrigerator. You had one job, Echo! Because of you everypony puked like there’s no tomorrow! Not just in Ponyville but also in Canterlot and the Crystal Empire!”

Echo slapped her hoof to her face. “I thought I forgot something,” she said. “And I know that me saying “sorry” isn’t gonna change what happened.” Echo fluttered her wings which carried her over to Api who stood on a ladder as she filled the feed tray for the pigs. “If it’s any consolation,” said Echo as she landed next to the earth filly. “my date with Quickstep didn’t go over so well.”

Api froze dead on the ladder. She then jumped off the ladder and grabbed Echo by both shoulders and stared straight at her with wide eyes. “You two broke up?” Api said.

“Well, he didn’t really said it was over,” said Echo sheepishly. “But I threw up all over him and his parents said that I’m not allowed to see him again.”

Api let go of Echo and groaned. “Well that’s just great,” Api said in frustration. “I’m out of the quiche square business and my second attempt at matchmaking went totally bust!”

“Second attempt?” said Echo cocking her head in confusion.

“Prism came to me yesterday and started screaming at me telling me that Whirlwind punched him in the face telling him “That’s for giving me a rancid quiche square!”’

Echo sunk into the ground and hung her head in sadness. She certainly didn’t mean for her cousin to be affected in anyway by her blunder. Plus, any chance she had with Quickstep was vanquished. To think that she basically caused a good chunk of Equestria to virtually suffer the plague all because she was going gaga over some colt. She began to wonder if she should give up on colts all together. As Echo was thinking this, she glanced over to her left and her eyes widened when she saw none other than Princess Nidra coming in their direction. She was in her Jet Stream form pulling a wagon filled with apples. Her face was soaked with sweat and wore a long scowl. Echo looked at the princess in both shock and confusion. “Api, what’s Nidra doing here?” asked Echo.

“If you must know,” Nidra began angrily. “my mother is punishing me by making me work on this cursed farm for the entire summer!”

“Why?”

“Aren’t you aware that as Princess of the Night she could enter dreams? While I was in the hospital Mother entered my dream and found out that I caused Anthea to initially mess up her chance of being in Photo Finish’s magazine by oiling down the runway at The Carousel Boutique. Speaking of which!” Nidra unlatched herself from the carriage and marched right up to Api and Echo and stared them down with a look of absolute rage. “Because of you two I contracted food poisoning hence the reason why Photo Finish chose that blind commoner over me!” screamed Nidra. “You two and that video game addicted unicorn filly also caused me to ruin my chance with Turquoise! When I get off this farm I’ll give you all so many nightmares YOU WON’T SLEEP UNTIL YOU REACH PUBERTY!!!!” Nidra’s Royal Canterlot Voice echoed throughout the farm causing a flock of birds to fly out of a nearby tree and into the skies. Nidra then walked back to her apple laden carriage and continued towards the barn. Api and Echo looked on in dead silence with terror on their faces. “Come on, Api,” said Echo shakily. “I’m sure everypony will forget about all of this soon.”

“How soon?” said a terrified Api turning to the Pegasus filly. The two fillies then glanced over to the farm’s fence and saw Rarity, Spike, Claire and Turquoise walking towards Ponyville. They all had weak, nauseous looks on their faces. “Of all the worse that could’ve happened. That was. The. Worst. Possible. Thing,” said Rarity weakly. “Two weeks in intensive care. Our home in shambles due to vomit. Our reputations taking a hit. We are never to speak of this again.” Api and Echo watched as the Dragon family walked away. A strong reminder of their business blunder. “Five months, tops,” said Echo.