Tales of Ponyvilleby RainbowDoubleDashChapters3. Teaching Laughter4. A Musical Bond5. Lots to Share6. With Love and CareEpilogue1. Stormy Weather2. Makes it all Complete3. Teaching LaughterSometimes I wonder if it’s all downhill from here. If I’ve plateaued already, that the best days of my life have passed me by. Of course, then I remember that I’m the Element of Laughter. I think ‘destined to do great things’ kind of comes with the job description there. At the very least, I know that I’ll always have an impact on the lives of ponies around me. So maybe not my ‘best days’ have passed, then then. But I do think that I’ve maybe left the most exciting time of my life behind me. But really, that’s for the best. I was a foal and a young mare, and I did foal and young-mare type things. I lived, I laughed, I fell in love and had my heart broken (plus a rib here or there) and then fixed it back up again (ditto the ribs). I lived on top of the world, at the bottom of a bottle, and everywhere in between. I travelled to Las Pegasus and Manehattan, to Colton and Bridleton, and there’s photographic evidence that I’ve been to Neigh Orleans, though I don’t remember anything of it (or the day before, or for about two days afterwards). I gave my parents and even my older sister Berry Punch more than a few euphemistic heart attacks, especially that time I brought home a minotaur. Even in Equestria, a pony dating a minotaur raises a few eyebrows. I think the reason why it took me so long to find my cutie mark is because I wasn’t trying to find out who I was or what I wanted, the way everypony else was. I didn’t much care who I was. I just wanted to have fun, whatever that meant at the time. No, I wasn’t finding true happiness, but I was definitely finding some decent facsimiles. But, then I started getting older, and that meant that I had to start taking care of myself, thinking about my future and abandon my live-in-the-moment attitude, bit by bit setting aside my childish things and moving into the ‘real world.’ Also my parents finally put their hoof down and wouldn’t let me wander off during the summers or weekends, or even much during the weekdays except to go to school. Probably a good decision on their part, though at the time I thought that they were standing in for the sun, as the saying goes. Of course, then I earned my cutie mark – the last pony I knew to do so, I was nearly grown up by the time it finally occurred – and I found out how much it made me happy to see smiling foals and to basically help to raise the next generation of ponies, and I ended up going in the opposite direction. Suddenly I became the responsible one, the steady one, the one with the goal in life. I hit the books so hard it left a mark. I had to, of course – they don’t let just anypony be a teacher, after all, and with the grade-point average I had, it seemed almost like a hopeless cause. But I did it. I even managed to do it without hurting my social life too badly. I mean, yes, it’s been years since I’ve seen most of the old gang, but they’ve all moved on too. At least I hope they have. Doing the kinds of things we used to do – a not insignificant portion of which ranged from ‘barely legal’ to ‘very illegal’ – is a young pony’s game, and I think it’d be almost sad to see Rainbowshine is still dancing on tables in Las Pegasus (she isn’t, last I heard she’s on the weather patrol in Bridleton). But back then our lives were just sticking it to the authority for the sake of making a scene. Anarchy and hedonism is all well and good for a kid, but it doesn’t really get anything done. A wasted youth isn’t nearly as good as a wise and productive old age. Nope. I am a teacher. I elucidate and illuminate and educate everypony around me, I ensure that the ponies I know – but especially my students, the foals in my class – are more informed, more knowledgeable, and therefore, better ponies all around. It’s not exciting, it’s not glamorous, but it’s my special talent, it’s what makes me happy. And as much fun as the old days were, I wouldn’t trade the life I have now for anything. The foals filed into the classroom from recess and found their desks quickly enough, but continued to talk for several minutes, keeping conversations and discussions that they had been having outside going. Most of the conversations centered on the storm over the Everfree Forest, it’s sheer size, and the fact that the weather patrol didn’t seem to have any intention of getting rid of it. Despite being an earth pony, Cheerilee was familiar enough with the weather of the Everfree Forest to know that the storm, though large in size, wasn’t going to be particularly dangerous. It was still unscheduled, however – Cheerilee had triple-checked her newspaper to verify this – and more to the point, she couldn’t see any sign of Ponyville’s weather patrol getting ready to combat the rain. She wondered if they had decided to change the date of the storm that had been scheduled for next week. Eventually, Cheerilee had to bring the classroom to a semblance of order, especially given the importance of today’s subject. “Let’s quiet down, please! We have a very important lesson to get to.” Cheerilee asked as she stood up and walked from her desk, over to a presentation she had prepared. The classroom of foals quieted down quickly enough. “Thank-you. Today, we are going to be talking about cutie marks.” About half the class looked especially attentive at that, while at least a few – all of whom had earned their cutie marks by now – lost a little interest. Cheerilee had been expecting as much, though, hence her visual presentation. First, however, she made sure that her own cutie mark was in clear view to the classroom. “You can all see my cutie mark, can’t you?” At a few nods, she turned to her presentation that lay upon a picture stand; with one hoof she moved aside the paper covering it and revealed several blown-up pictures of herself when she was younger, starting with her as a foal around the same age as everypony else in the classroom besides her. “Just like everypony, I wasn’t born with a cutie mark.” Cheerilee resisted the urge to add the line that she had heard as a foal – her “flank was blank.” The pejorative blank-flank was common enough already; no need to add fuel to the fire simply for the sake of a rhyme. She heard a slight squeal from one of the foals in the front of the class – Twist, a foal who wore thick glasses and had a slight speech impediment, though Cheerilee was confident she’d outgrow it eventually – at the sight of Cheerilee as a filly. “Aw…” Twist said, “thee’s tho prethious!” Cheerilee smiled warmly, ignoring a few rolled eyes from other foals. “Then one day,” she said, continuing her story, “I woke up to find that a cutie mark had appeared!” She moved aside the picture of her as a foal, and instead showing a much later one. “Look at her hair!” Silver Spoon exclaimed, before she could stop herself. A wave of laughter passed through the classroom. Cheerilee herself joined in as she glanced at the photograph, showing her with a wavy, tossed mane and tail that looked like it had lost a fight with a waffle-maker, not to mentioned a checkered scarf, a single legwarmer on her left hind leg, and braces. At least nopony had commented on those. “Yes, I know,” she said, “but honestly, that’s how everypony was wearing their mane back then!” Cheerilee didn’t feel the need to explain that by everypony, she actually meant a specific youth subculture that she had been a part of, nor that what she had been wearing had been considered quite risqué by adults at the time, and most especially that this was probably the tamest picture that existed of her at that point in time. This was not, after all, a history lesson, and her goal had been to keep the subject of cutie marks light, anyway. “I had decided to become a teacher,” Cheerilee continued, “and the flowers symbolized my hope that I could help my future students bloom if I nurtured them with knowledge. The smiles on the flowers represented the cheer I hoped to bring to my little ponies while they were learning.” Cheerilee also decided to leave out that, at a glance, her cutie mark almost resembled three smiling suns rather than smiling flowers, and the slight ostracizing she had experienced as a result. Having a sun-themed cutie mark was considered incredibly bad luck. But, Granny Smith, the resident wise old-timer of Ponyville (even back then), had herself stated that they were flowers, not suns, and everypony had listened to Granny Smith on that point, thankfully. “Now,” Cheerilee said, pausing in her presentation, “can anypony tell me when a pony gets his or her cutie mark?” “Oh! Oh! Oh!” Twist exclaimed, unsurprisingly – she was always Cheerilee’s most eager student. “When thee dithcoverth that thertain thomthing that maketh her thpethial!” Cheerilee nodded, heading back over to her desk and looking out over the class. “That’s right, Twist. A cutie mark appears on a pony’s flank when he or she finds that certain something that makes them different from any other pony. Even two cutie marks that look identical can mean very different things. But most important of all, a cutie mark represents the thing that makes you happy. "But, finding out what makes you, well, you, isn’t something that happens overnight. It’s a journey of self-discovery, and no amount of hoping, wishing, or begging will make a cutie mark appear before its time – ” Cheerilee cut herself off when she spotted something in the back. “Applebloom! Are you passing a note?” she demanded, when she noticed the earth pony filly leaning across the aisle that separated her desk from Diamond Tiara’s. She had put Applebloom’s desk between Diamond Tiara’s and Silver Spoon’s when the two wouldn’t stop talking to each other during class, but it was looking like that wouldn’t be enough. Applebloom had dropped the note, and was stuttering as Cheerilee left her desk and trotted up to the fallen piece of paper. “What could be so important that it couldn’t wait until after class?” she asked, turning the paper over with one hoof and revealing… “It’s blank?” she asked, glancing to Applebloom, who was shrugging helplessly. Cheerilee sighed, shaking her head as she picked up the crumpled paper and tossed it into the waste basket – two points – before turning back around, heading back for her desk. She was about to ask Applebloom not to pass notes (and that no, it didn’t matter that she hadn’t been the one to write it, nor that it was blank) in class when she heard muffled laughter – no, not laughter. Sniggering. “Remind you of anypony?” Diamond Tiara asked, her voice obviously supposed to be heard by her classmates, especially Silver Spoon, who also tittered. She probably hadn’t thought that Cheerilee would overhear. She had been mistaken. “As a matter of fact, it does, Diamond Tiara,” Cheerilee said, turning around. She noted Applebloom’s dejected look – she was one of the ponies in class who had yet to earn her cutie mark – and shot the red-maned filly a conciliatory smile. “How many of you remember our geography lesson from a few weeks ago? Does anypony remember who Mi Amore Cadenza is?” All hooves in the class remained on the floor, the lesson being only dimly remembered, except by one. Alula, who was a yellow-coated, purple-maned pegasus filly who possessed both pegasus wings and a unicorn horn, raised one hoof. “Um…the Princess of Cavallia?” she asked timidly, aware that a lot of pony’s eyes were now on her. Alula was embarrassed about having both wings and a horn, as she wasn’t really extraordinary, not beyond the normal limits of a unicorn or a pegasus, in any event: she was no alicorn like Luna or Cadenza. A lot of ponies expected amazing things from her – a lot of the other foals thought that she was an alicorn in disguise, in fact – but Cheerilee knew her to be just like any other filly her age. Cheerilee nodded. “That’s right!” she said. “She’s the immortal alicorn princess of Cavallia and has been alive for a thousand years. And she did not earn her cutie mark until she was nearly thirty years old! Yet despite that, she was crowned princess of Cavallia before earning it, and is among the closest friends and confidants of Princess Luna herself! “Or,” Cheerilee continued, turning back to her presentation, “if you’d like a more recent example, there’s me! I was older any anypony here before I earned my cutie mark. In fact, I was the last pony I knew to earn one. But I never let that get me down. “You see, class,” Cheerilee continued, not specifically addressing Diamond Tiara, but the earth pony filly certainly knew that she was the target of Cheerilee’s lecture, “as important as cutie marks are to ponies, just as important is the journey of self-discovery involved in finding your special talent. Before earning his or her cutie mark, nopony knows his or her special talent – which is just another way of saying that his or her special talent could be anything, and the pony still gets to experience the joy of finding out what it’s going to be!” “So it’s better to be a blank-flank!” Dinky Doo exclaimed from her desk. Cheerilee reacted before the foals in the class with cutie marks could feel insulted. “Not exactly,” she explained. “Remember that a pony without a cutie mark hasn’t yet realized what makes him or her truly happy, after all. I’d say that, at the end of the day, it’s simply most important to be yourself. Everypony earns their cutie marks eventually, when their time is right. It might take some ponies longer than others, but it always happens, and until then, you should just enjoy yourselves and be happy!” Applebloom and the other pre-cutie mark ponies in the classroom looked suitably assuaged, while Diamond Tiara and the other ones who had already earned their cutie marks also looked satisfied with Cheerilee’s explanation. The teacher didn’t delude herself into thinking that she had fully stopped the eternal conflict between cutie-marked and blank-flank foals, but she had, at least, forestalled this particular battle, and maybe imparted a little wisdom along the way. “Alright then, class,” Cheerilee said, as she returned to her presentation. As she did, she caught a glance out the window, and saw that the rain had started falling – harder than she had expected, too. “Now, who here can tell me what is believed to create cutie marks…?” By the time the school day ended, a steady downpour had begun in earnest, turning the dirt roads that comprised most of Ponyville into inch-deep muck punctuated by wide puddles and flowing rivulets. Most of the foals’ parents had seen the rain coming and had come to pick up their foals, bringing their waterproofed rain cloaks from home while usually pausing to complain to Cheerilee or each other about the unscheduled weather change. Unfortunately, not all the foals’ family could make it, due to their being too busy at their places of work. Ponyville was a safe enough town that foals could normally walk home from school by themselves, but today, with this unexpected storm, Cheerilee didn’t feel confident allowing them to do such. Thus it was that Cheerilee found herself walking Dinky Doo, Silver Spoon, and Applebloom home through the rain, wearing the spare rain-cloaks that the school had stored away (and which looked – and smelled – like they hadn’t been used for a very long time, if ever). Silver Spoon had complained quite a bit about the cloaks, the rain, the mud, the company, the fact that she still had to do her homework even though it was raining and she had to walk home through it (nopony else entirely understanding how one was connected to the other), and just about everything else she could think of despite Cheerilee’s frequent admonishments. Fortunately, hers was the first home that the four of them reached, and almost in spite of herself she did thank Cheerilee for the escort. Despite Silver Spoon’s house being their first stop, however, Cheerilee found herself thoroughly soaked by the rain, the cloak she was wearing not as waterproofed as the other three that she had managed to scrounge up for the foals. She tried not to let it get to her. Dinky Doo’s home was next, and it was also thankfully only a few streets away from Silver Spoon’s. Unlike Silver Spoon, Dinky had largely behaved herself and actually determinedly avoided mud puddles or splashing around in the rain. Not that she minded it, but as she informed Cheerilee, her mother was covering a shift at the post office today, which meant that she was going to come home tired, and the last thing she’d need to do is clean up any mess that Dinky tracked all over the apartment. Despite the short distance between Silver Spoon’s rather opulent home and Dinky’s loft apartment above the post office, Cheerilee found herself having passed soaked and ventured into nearly waterlogged territory due to the trip. And the longest leg was still left: Sweet Apple Acres, clear outside of town with the usually well-behaved, but certainly easy-to-excite, Applebloom. Applebloom, unlike Silver Spoon or Dinky, was thoroughly enjoying splashing around in the rain and muck. “Ah’m gonna need a bath anyway,” she informed Cheerilee matter-of-factly after jumping and nearly belly-flopping in a particularly large puddle. “Might as well make it worth tha effort, right?” “Yes, but what about your school books?” Cheerilee asked the filly. She’d, so far, managed to avoid being splashed by Applebloom, and by this point Applebloom’s house was in sight. “Mah school bag is waterproofed!” Applebloom proclaimed happily. “Mah big sis made sure t’ get me an all-weather school bag just in case Ah ever got caught outside in the rain. You can practically go swimmin’ with it!” She paused, then smiled brightly when she spotted the deep pond that was on Apple family land. “Watch!” “Whoa, nelly!” A voice with a matching country drawl to Applebloom’s own called as the filly tried to dash off, just as Cheerilee was about to stop her. Coming out from one of the fields, onto the muddy road, was an orange-coated mare with a blond mane and tail, wearing only a sturdy Stetson and seeming to be unconcerned about the rain. Applejack was pulling a small cart of apples behind her. “Now Ah know ya weren’t just about to go for a swim in this weather, Applebloom.” “Aw…” Applebloom moaned at her sister’s admonishment. “But Ah’m wet anyway…” “Ain’t about gettin’ wet, sugarcube. Y’know that the stream swells when it rains an’ floods the pond. Water ends up flowin’ fast enough ta sweep ya away.” “But Ah’m a good swimmer!” “Not good enough ta’ put mah mind at ease. You can go for a swim when the pond’s level drops, but not before, y’hear?” Applebloom didn’t seem too happy with that, but didn’t charge the pond, at least, instead letting out a sigh, thanking Cheerilee for seeing her home as good manners demanded, and trudging towards the house. Cheerilee and Applejack both laughed slightly at the sight of the disappointed filly once she was out of earshot. “Ah remember when Ah didn’t think anythin’ could hurt me neither,” the farmer remarked. “’Course, even Ah wasn’t dumb enough ta’ jump into a floodin’ pond!” Cheerilee paused at that, tapping one waterlogged hoof to her mouth. Had this been half an hour ago, she might not have wanted to sit out in the rain talking, but as it stood she was wet enough anyway to not feel a need to pay it mind. “I seem to recall something about a treehouse, and a tornado from the Everfree, and wanting to make sure it was alright…” Applejack looked embarrassed for a moment, before laughing. “Shucks,” she admitted. “Guess that was pretty dumb. Thank-you, by the way, for bringin’ Applebloom home. Ah ain’t worried none about a little rain, but Ah can certainly appreciate the concern.” “Speaking of,” Cheerilee noted, looking at Applejack’s modest cart of fruit, “is this really apple-bucking weather?” The farmer shook her head. “It ain’t. But the water n’ wind makes a few apples drop a bit early, and Ah ain’t in the business a’ lettin’ them go to waste. They make good cider. Not our cider-season quality cider, mind, but still good cider.” “I’ll keep an eye open for it in the market,” Cheerilee promised. “Anyway, I better get going. See you later, Applejack.” “’Later, Cheerilee,” Applejack returned. Cheerilee did not for a moment regret seeing Silver Spoon, Dinky Doo, or Applebloom home, especially the last if she honestly felt that going for a swim in this weather was a good idea (though without Cheerilee around to show off her school bag to, she probably wouldn’t have even considered it). She did, however, regret how soaked-through she now was. She more closely resembled a magenta sponge than a pony at this point. The rain cloak had completely failed her by the time she was back in town from Sweet Apple Acres, and she now wore it more out of a lack of anywhere to throw it out than due to any remaining need for its protection. Her mane, only recently recovered from a somewhat eventful day last month, was hanging around her like a waterlogged mop. In sum, she was wet. Cheerilee sighed as she trudged through town. Earth ponies were naturally resilient and hardy, but she knew that even considering that, there was a fairly good chance she was going to end up with a cold as a result of this little adventure. Still, the trade-off was peace of mind, which made the ordeal worthwhile – Cheerilee heard the shimmering sound of unicorn telekinesis over her head, and looked up just in time to see a bucket full of water wrapped in a golden aura overturn directly onto her face. She let out a gasp at the sudden volume of water, sputtering. Over the rain and in spite of her water-filled ears, she heard laughter. Glancing to her left, she saw Bon Bon’s Confectionarium, and standing just inside the door a pair of grinning ponies, one a cream-colored earth pony, one a seafoam-green unicorn, and both appearing to have something of a death wish and utter confidence that it was about to be granted. “Hi, Cheerilee!” Lyra called over to her second-oldest friend. Cheerilee had known Lyra since the two were in diapers, and Bon Bon for just as long. “It was Bon Bon’s idea!” Cheerilee closed her eyes, counting to ten. When she opened them, she was looking at Bon Bon, and smiling wildly. “It just gave me a fantastic idea of my own,” she said. Bon Bon stared uncomprehendingly for a moment, then let out a slight shriek as Cheerilee charged forward. She tried to turn and dash further into her store, but was too slow as Cheerilee leapt and landed on her, soaking the earth pony instantly as Lyra laughed while cantering backwards and well clear of the magenta sponge and her victim. “Ack!” Bon Bon cried, struggling as Cheerilee stood and shook herself off, with Bon Bon right beneath her, soaking her even more. She wasn’t worried about the candy in the store, which she knew to all be safe in their containers. “Help!” Lyra tapped a hoof to her mouth, considering. “Nope,” she said. “Way I see it, this is fair for dumping water on poor Cheerilee.” “You dumped the water!” Bon Bon and Cheerilee both exclaimed. “I was really more just a tool being used,” Lyra pointed out. “An accomplice that was coerced with threats of pain and you not making brownies tonight – wait, Cheerilee, what are you – ” Cheerilee had trotted away from Bon Bon and back outside, retrieving the bucket. She then trotted back in and calmly proceeded to the sink that was behind the Confectionarium’s counter and began filling the bucket to the brim. “Oh no,” Lyra objected, horn glowing defensively as Cheerilee finished filling the bucket. “No, no, I was unwilling! Dragged! Coerced!” She started galloping away, towards the door that would take her up and to Bon Bon’s apartment, but found it blocked off by a cream earth pony who was grinning as manically as Cheerilee. “Treason!” Lyra exclaimed, just as Cheerilee came up behind her and overturned the bucket on the unicorn’s head, then threw her sopping wet rain cloak over her, and lastly pounced on her for good measure. Bon Bon joined in, and within moments all three were equally soaked – although this resulted in a net positive for Cheerilee, since she mostly just ended up transferring water from her own coat to the other two. After several long minutes of flailing limbs and cries of battle, the three mares managed to disentangle themselves, panting but laughing despite themselves. “This’ll be fun to clean up,” Cheerilee remarked, looking around the store. “Maybe we went a little overboard…” “Nah, gives me something to do,” Bon Bon said with a sigh. “Nopony is going to head out in the rain for candy. Plus, me and Lyra had a picnic planned, but that’s not happening, either…” “Yeah, not sure what the weather patrol is thinking…” Lyra said, as she telekinetically grabbed a pair of mops, one for her and one for Bon Bon. At a motion from Cheerilee, she passed a squeegee on to the magenta pony. “I mean, I always knew that Rainbow Dash was lazy, but we used to be able to at least count on everypony else…” “There’s probably a good reason for it…” Cheerilee said. Lyra and Bon Bon were mopping, while she followed with the squeegee, pushing the water from the wooden floor and outside. “Didn’t Carrot Top say something about organizing a storm for the Farmer’s Union?” “I thought that was next week,” Bon Bon ventured. Working together, the three of them had quickly turned their impromptu water fight into sparkling floors, and were now all standing by the door. Cheerilee had taken the opportunity to throw out the useless rain cloak in the bin near the door. Cheerilee shrugged. “I thought so too. Maybe they saw that storm over the Everfree and decided to just go with the – ” There was a splash outside, like something pony-shaped hitting the ground. The three looked, and saw that Raindrops had landed in a large puddle in the middle of the road. “ – rain helps me to untangle all the things that – ” she sang as she splashed around, oblivious to the rest of the world, before taking off again into the sky and passing beyond the trio's range of hearing, then landing once more, then took off, then landed… “…hey, she can sing,” Lyra noted. “Pretty good, too.” “What has her in a good mood…?” Cheerilee wondered aloud. “Well, let’s think,” Bon Bon said. “Her name is Raindrops, her cutie mark is rain, and it’s raining. So clearly it’s because Trixie finally learned about the birds and the bees.” “Bon Bon,” Lyra warned softly. Bon Bon put a hoof to her mouth in embarrassment. Cheerilee had been about to respond to Bon Bon’s snark with a bit of snark of her own – the three had known each other for far too long for innocuous sarcasm to set them off – but stopped at the look on Lyra and Bon Bon’s face. She’d thought that it was just a random comment from Bon Bon, but the two mares’ expressions told otherwise. “Huh?” she asked. Bon Bon opened her mouth, but Lyra shut it with her hooves. “Nothing,” she said. “It’s coming up to that time of the year for Bon Bon so she just has…stuff…on her mind. You know how it is.” “Mmph!” Bon Bon objected, taking Lyra’s hooves from her mouth. “Yes, please go and advertise that fact around town, Lyra…” “Okay…” Cheerilee intoned. “But why’d you bring up Trixie?” Bon Bon sighed. “Well…okay, short, explicit version is that since my heat is coming up, I’ve been getting ideas, and I was thinking back to that little adventure that me and Lyra and Trixie had a few months back, you remember how we told you, and how it might be interesting if Lyra had fingers again, but for that we’d need Trixie’s help and since she’s not exactly experienced and tends to get all panicked whenever the subject comes up I’m not sure how to approach her.” “Also I object to the transforming me again part,” Lyra provided. “It was just an idea,” Bon Bon said with a sigh. Cheerilee’s mind whirled. She could almost feel the gears shifting in her head, putting together what Bon Bon was saying. “Oh,” she said, her snout scrunching a little in thought. “Oh…oh my, that’s a good point. She is uncomfortable with sexual subjects. Like she doesn’t know what’s going on and resents it.” “Yeah,” Lyra said, shifting in place. “Yeah, me and Bon Bon figured out her problem. But it’s her thing to deal with, right?” Cheerilee looked at Lyra like she was insane, but then instantly knew what the unicorn meant. If Lyra thought that not informing Trixie about the facts of life was something that would help protect her fellow unicorn, then she simply wouldn’t. She’d keep Trixie’s little secret so that Trixie wouldn’t have to be embarrassed by it in front of others. But Cheerilee – Cheerilee was a teacher. And she was a friend. She couldn’t let something like this simply slide. But if she told Lyra about her intentions to elucidate and educate, then she’d almost certainly try and stop her. “Okay,” Cheerilee said. “Well…I better get going. I don’t think this rain’s going to stop, and I’ve got to get home.” “Sure,” Lyra said, oblivious to her intention. “Sorry about the whole bucket-of-water thing.” “Yeah, sorry,” Bon Bon sighed. “I was just bored…” “It’s alright, I got my revenge,” Cheerilee said with a smile. “See you later!” Cheerilee took off, heedless of the rain now that she had a mission. Checking over her shoulder to make sure that neither Lyra nor Bon Bon noticed that she was heading the wrong way to get to her house, she set off at a gallop for the Residency of the Representative of the Night Court of Luna. Trixie can’t go through life not knowing about sex, she thought to herself. It’s her choice what to do with the knowledge, but she needs it! Somepony might take advantage of her! Cheerilee reached the Residency in just a few minutes. The two-story house was surrounded by a short iron fence and faced the town hall, which dominated the center of Ponyville and was surrounded by a broad cobblestone plaza. Steeling herself against the task that she now had to undertake – she passed through the gate of the Residency, walked up to the front door, and opened it. “That’s because you interrupted it before we could reach the good part!” Cheerilee heard. Trixie’s office was located to the left of her front door, and glancing in, Cheerilee saw a rain-and-mud soaked Raindrops and a panicked-looking Trixie, each looking at a book. There was probably writing on the book’s pages, but that was not what Cheerilee noted. What Cheerilee noted was the two-page spread picture of two unicorns making out. “What are you doing?” Raindrops leapt in fright, trying to take flight as per her pegasus instincts. Trixie took up a defensive stance with her horn glowing, standing stock still, as per her unicorn instincts. The result was Raindrops colliding with Trixie and both tumbling to the floor in a tangle of legs and wings. The two looked like a pair of fillies caught with their hooves in the cookie jar, or else – – or else – “R-Raindrops,” Trixie, for some reason wearing a pure, virgin white cape, asked of Raindrops, who wore a pleather jacket and sunglasses. “I w-was at the general store and l-l-looking at magazines…and I found this…why are these ponies fighting?” “They’re not fighting,” Raindrops said with a raised eyebrow. “You don’t know what’s happening?” “It makes me feel funny…” “Well, I’ll help you with that…” Cheerilee was grateful for her magenta coat, it meant that her blushes were usually well-hidden. Neither Trixie nor Raindrops had such protection, each having turned an impressive shade of pink. “Alright,” Cheerilee said, pointing at Raindrops. “I want you to go upstairs and get yourself cleaned off!” Raindrops made a face. “Wait, what – ” “Go on! I’ll talk with you later, but I need to speak to Trixie first!” Raindrops blinked a few times, before apparently deciding that Cheerilee was not one to be argued with right now. “O…kay…” she said, standing up and trotting up Trixie’s stares, to her shower. Cheerilee turned to Trixie. “Now, Trixie,” she said. “I can only guess that you found this,” she pointed at the picture, “and other pictures like it, and it made you confused.” Trixie blinked a few times as she stood. “Why are you here?” she asked. “To elucidate and educate!” Cheerilee proclaimed happily. “Now, Trixie, I want to make something clear. I don’t know how you managed to make it to adulthood without learning the basic facts of life – I would have thought that the Princess, at least, would have ensured that you were filled in – but I don’t think any less of you for it.” Trixie had passed pink and now had a coat with a color that roughly matched Cheerilee’s own. “What?” “Now, sit down,” Cheerilee said, placing her hooves on Trixie’s withers and pushing her to the floor. “Because there’s a lot to go over.” “Cheerilee, I – ” “And while Bon Bon shouldn’t of just let something like this slip the way she did – ” “ – wait, she did – ” “Trixie,” Cheerilee said sternly enough for the unicorn to quiet down, “this is going to take even longer if you keep interrupting, and while I’m certain that Raindrops wasn’t trying to take advantage of you, you should at least know about sex before going in!” The red drained from Trixie’s features, taking her normal blue with it, leaving her a stark white as she stared at Cheerilee in shock. Cheerilee nodded. “You’re going to have to get used to that word first of all,” Cheerilee said with a sigh. “Sex, that is.” Trixie stared. Cheerilee sighed again, sitting down in front of Trixie. “Now,” she said. “We’ll start with the basics. I’m sure you’ve noticed that a stallion has a different set of organs between his hind legs than a mare. That’s his…” “…this goes on for a few minutes…well, if you’ve got a good stallion working you, it could actually go on for much longer, but on the other hoof some stallions can’t even really get started, but that’s okay, there are other techniques…” “…now, of course, that really only covers stallions. Mares can have sex, too. Usually this will basically just involve the two masturbating each other – oh, wait, I think I forgot to go over what that is. Alright, sorry. Masturbation is…” “…horns aren’t extra-sensitive in that way, despite the common myth. It’s mostly just solid bone covered by a thin lair of skin with no nerve endings, and fuzz. Any excitement that unicorns feel is almost entirely psychological. However, there is a mass of extremely sensitive nerves right at the base of the horn, sort of similar to the nerve clusters in the alulae of pegasi…” “…from personal experience I can tell you that getting a threesome right can be difficult, since there has to be a degree of trust between all ponies involved, but if two of the ponies are in a committed relationship already you need to make sure not to elicit jealousy. Of course, when Bon Bon, Lyra, and I tried it, mostly it was just awkward since I’d known them so long, it was more like they were my sisters than anything…we’ve agreed to keep me out ever since, and as you know we’re still good friends…” “…and things get really weird when minotaurs are involved, but that fun kind of weird that I mentioned…” "... and I never did figure out where he got that royal guard uniform from, but he said I'd been a baaaad Blackcherry and he'd haul me off to Canterlot if I didn't do everything he said. That was a fun night, all right!" “…and…well, that wraps just about everything up!” Cheerilee said happily, smiling at Trixie, who still had not had the color return to her face. Letting out a slight sigh, she put a hoof on Trixie’s withers. “I know it’s a lot to take in,” she said. “Um…no pun intended. But you couldn’t go through life not knowing about sex, Trixie, you just couldn’t – ” “Whoa, wait, what?” Raindrops interrupted. Cheerilee looked behind her, and saw Raindrops, now cleaned and mostly dry, staring at Cheerilee and Trixie with wide eyes. “What did I miss?” “Raindrops,” Cheerilee said, standing. “I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt. I’m certain that you didn’t mean to take advantage of Trixie.” “She kissed me!” Raindrops exclaimed, throwing her front hooves in the air. “It was a memory spell!” Cheerilee blinked. “A what now?” “A memory spell,” Trixie said absentmindedly from the floor. She was shaking back and forth a little. “Takes my…transfers it to…conduit through the mouth…” Cheerilee stared at Trixie with one eyebrow raised. She noticed the book with the picture of two ponies making out in it still lying on the floor where it had been left, and closed it over – finding that the title was Dweomer Heart’s Diatribe on Divinations. A spellbook. Not…some other kind of book. Cheerilee looked at Trixie. “You…you knew about sex?” “Of course I did!” Trixie suddenly exploded, standing with her horn glowing bright blue. “I grew up in Neigh Orleans! I have seven cousins! My house was smaller than this one! I can’t recall a time when I didn’t know about sex! My aunt and uncle always answered any questions I had and even when they didn’t I had my older cousin and then there were my friends and the red light district is right next to the market district, not to mention the kind of stuff that goes on during the Summer Sun Celebration, I mean yeah I was too young to do anything when I lived there but all you have to do is look out a window around noon during the Celebration and you’ll pick stuff up! And it’s gross!” Cheerilee’s eyebrow arched further. “Gross?” she asked. “Yes! Gross! The way a stallion’s…or being expected to…tongue in the same place that…gah!” Trixie shivered, glaring at Cheerilee. “I don’t want to think about it! Ever! What did Bon Bon say that made you think that I didn’t know?” Cheerilee opened her mouth to explain, before thinking over – very carefully – exactly what Bon Bon had said when she had explained her snarky comment. “Um…” she said. “I…I might have…misinterpreted what she – ” The door to the Residency opened, and Lyra, wearing a rain cloak of considerably better quality than the one that Cheerilee had been wearing, wandered in. She glanced at Cheerilee, Trixie, and Raindrops, blinking a few times as she saw the expressions on the three mares, a look of sheepishness on her face. Slung across her back, under her rain cloak, were saddlebags that looked like they were laden with candy. “So…I’m guessing I’m too late to stop Cheerilee, then,” she ventured. …well. I think I maybe should have thought things through a little more before heading out to elucidate and educate. This is still only the second-most embarrassed I’ve ever been, though. So there’s that. 4. A Musical BondA love song for Bon Bon: “You’ll remember me when the west wind moves “Upon the fields of barley “You'll forget the sun in her jealous sky “As we walk in fields of gold “So I took my love for to gaze awhile “Upon the fields of barley “In her hooves I fell as her hair came down “Among the fields of gold “Will you stay with me, will you be my love “Among the fields of barley? “We'll forget the sun in her jealous sky “As we lie in fields of gold “See the west wind move like a lover so “Upon the fields of barley “Feel my body rise when you kiss my mouth “Among the fields of gold “I never made promises lightly “And there have been some that I’ve broken “But I swear in the days still left “We’ll walk in fields of gold “We’ll walk in fields of gold…” It’s a work in progress. I need a final verse, I think…and using ‘gold’ probably isn’t the best choice. It feels natural, and until just recently I probably could have gotten away with it…but now that Corona’s back, probably not… I can’t remember when I first met Bon Bon. She’s just always there, a constant in my life. I can’t even really remember our first kiss – well, our technical first kiss. I remember our first kiss as a couple, of course, but I know there were dozens more before that, the quick kind between close friends or sisters, the kind I think that we always knew heralded something deeper and more meaningful but which we didn’t know how to act on yet. But then our first real kiss…it was our first date. I remember thinking that our date didn’t seem like anything really all that special, it was just more of what we always did anyway, almost disappointing, really, just to go out to dinner in the park. But, then we were under this willow tree, watching a sunset over the lake that borders Whitetail Wood…Bon Bon snuggled close to me…I nuzzled her, at first because that was what I was supposed to do, but then I looked into her eyes, and…we kissed. There is a world of differences between a kiss and a kiss, and this was definitely the latter. Our lips touched and we instantly stopped being just friends, and that hasn’t changed since. I think for a little while we were worried that it might do something to the friendship we’d had since forever – a little scared to change what we had going already. Love is invigorating, love is the greatest feeling in the world, but love can be terrifying, too. What if we weren’t really in love? What if it didn’t work out between us? Then not only would we no longer have each other’s love – we’d also lose each other’s friendship, as neither of us could have gone back to being ‘just friends,’ not after having loved each other the way we did. Yes, I’ve dated other ponies besides Bon Bon. I can’t count the number of ponies who are genuinely surprised at that. One or two of them were even ponies that I dated, though apparently they only ever thought that we were just ‘hanging out that one time.’ Probably says something about the effort I was trying to put into it. That period, when we weren’t sure about each other, only lasted a few short months. It wasn’t long before we were in each other’s hooves again, when Bon Bon and me finally decided to hang up this ‘friends’ deal and become so much more – become what we’d always known we were on some level. And then I moved away for three years. And I wasn’t always the best at showing it, but those three years were just…agony. Waking up knowing that I could only see Bon Bon every now and then, that the majority of my days would go by without being able to hear her voice…this one day where I realized that I had somehow gone from dawn ‘til dusk without thinking about her, wondering if that meant that I was falling out of love and how that scared me until Octavia sat me down and told me how ridiculous I was being. When I came back, though, I didn’t immediately go to her. Because I was scared. Because I hadn’t seen her in months, hadn’t written her in weeks, the end-of-year at the Academy having consumed all my time. What if she had fallen out of love with me? What if she had found somepony else? What if she couldn’t forgive me for not writing her for so long? For not seeing her for so long? In hindsight…I was being ridiculous again. And Bon Bon, she had missed me with every fiber of her being, as much as I missed her. It’s been months since I’ve come back, of course. We’ve had good times and bad times. We’ve had arguments, and we’ve had to make up afterwards. We’ve laughed, and we’ve cried. We’ve had each other, and we always will. And I don’t think we’ll ever doubt that again. For a decent change, consciousness came slowly, rather than a result of Lyra falling from where she lay and onto the floor. She didn’t open her eyes, instead simply feeling her way around the bed. She was lying on her right side, her right foreleg tucked tight against her body, while her left leg was draped over the withers and shoulder of somepony else – Bon Bon, of course, who was lying with her back to Lyra, still asleep. This made for another change, as Lyra rarely managed to beat Bon Bon to waking up. Lyra smiled, leaning forward and burying her muzzle in Bon Bon’s thick mane, breathing deeply. The scent that came back was of hair and skin and sweat and the same things she could smell in the mane of anypony, of course, but overlaying them was something else – the smell of sugar, not the kind found in a sugar bowl, but rather the fine powder that could gather atop gummi bears or sucking sweets. Laced with the scent of sugar were a dozen other scents – cherry, watermelon, dandelion, apple, rye, even rose – but pure sugar was the most prominent, and triggered within Lyra a million happy memories, all of them dominated by the face of a single mare. To Lyra, it was the sweetest scent in the world. Bon Bon shifted, rolling over. The movement made Lyra open her eyes, and she found herself looking into the teal eyes of her best friend, her marefriend, the pony who meant more to her than just about anything in the whole world. Bon Bon was awake, it seemed, but didn’t say anything as she leaned in and nuzzled Lyra, an action that the unicorn returned for several moments, before the two stopped, embracing each other tightly, both closing their eyes once more and simply listening to the sound of each other’s breathing. No words were needed, as both had reached the same conclusion: today was a day for sleeping in. It couldn’t last, of course. The store beneath their hooves, Bon Bon’s Confectionarium, wouldn’t open itself up, nor mind itself even if it did find some way to do so. The next time Lyra woke (much to her annoyance – her special talent may have been music, but Lyra enjoyed sleeping nearly as much), it was to an otherwise empty bed. Even without her marefriend occupying it, Lyra didn’t get up and pointedly ignored the fact that the clock in the room read 2 o’clock – not quite a new personal record, but close. It was mid-Spring, still just cool enough outside to warrant a comforter over the bed to keep warm at night, making the bed a powerful bastion of heat against the horror that was room temperature. She couldn’t think of anything in particular that she needed to do with her afternoon, so there was no reason to… Bon Bon stuck her head in to the bedroom, and saw Lyra lying on her back, staring at the ceiling and contemplating the deep mysteries of the universe. “Oh, good, you’re awake,” she said. “We need groceries if we’re going to go on that picnic later today.” Oh, right, Lyra thought. The picnic. That thing with the blanket and the eating of food and the complaining about ants. Bon Bon’s heat was coming up, which meant that Lyra’s marefriend was increasingly in the mood for romantic excursions. Lyra herself would probably be the same way in about a month. She nevertheless found herself sighing a little in annoyance. “Let’s just bring candy,” she insisted, rolling over and covering her head with the bedsheet, completely encasing herself under the comforter and closing her eyes again even as she congratulated herself on a brilliant idea. The store downstairs was full of candy, meaning that if she could convince Bon Bon of this idea, she wouldn’t have to get out of bed. “Candy’s good.” Bon Bon frowned. Lyra couldn’t see Bon Bon, of course, but she knew Bon Bon, and she knew Bon Bon would be frowning. “You can’t have just candy at a picnic.” “Maybe you can’t…wagh!” The last exclamation came when Bon Bon grabbed the sheets with her teeth and yanked it from the bed. The drop in temperature from blissful warmth to dreadful room temperature was immediate. Lyra glared at Bon Bon, but the earth pony mare was already trotting from the room and back downstairs to her shop, chuckling to herself. Lyra watched her retreat with a deep scowl. “You’re lucky I love you!” she called after her. “Love you too, honey!” Bon Bon called back nonchalantly. Lyra stared at her intended purchase, considering the money left in her bags and what she had already, and the cost of the current item on her shopping list. They were five and a half bits a piece, rather expensive, but then, they were large. Still, she hadn’t exactly come down here intending to spend a fortune, and she wasn’t sure how much she still had at home…she needed to be careful with how much she spent. One never knew when a given show or concert might go poorly, or be cancelled due to circumstances beyond her control. As much as she hated to admit it, Trixie had a point, after all – the income of a freelance musician was not precisely reliable, tending to come in large blocks punctuated by periods of making almost no money at all… …wait, am I seriously about to take Trixie’s advice? “I’ll take five! I’m not a starving artist!” Lyra exclaimed. The watermelon salespony brightened immensely, apparently focusing far more Lyra’s first proclamation than her second. “Five it is!” she said happily. “That’ll be twenty-seven bits and five jangles! How’re ya gonna carry them?” Lyra blinked a few times, looking to her shopping saddlebags, slung over her back, and then back to the watermelons, which were of impressive girth. She grimaced as she levitated out her bits and jangles – she wasn’t about to go back on what she said – and telekinetically grasped the five watermelons. “I’ll just lug them,” she said with a sigh, letting the fifteen pounds worth of fruit hover just over her back as she turned and trudged off. She wasn’t really feeling the weight yet, but telekinesis was in many ways just like a muscle – one that was, in her case, more used to fine manipulation than heavy lifting. She resolved to make the rest of her trip as fast as possible as she checked her shopping list. 1. Alfalfa 2. Milk (whole) 3. Eggs (brown) (why brown?) (I prefer brown eggs) (they’re literally exactly the same thing except for shell color) (just get me brown eggs, Lyra! They’re for brownies so I’m using brown eggs!) (Brown it is) 4. Peanut butter 5. Tomatoes 6. Cheese 7. Sugar (white or brown?) (both – I make brownies with brown sugar, but white sugar is for tea and coffee) (can I get white eggs too?) (no) (but they’re the same thing!) (if you want white eggs, fine, but you’ll have to cook them) (I’ll just stick with brown eggs, then) 8. Oats 9. Carrots (got some when I saw Carrot Top earlier in the week, check behind the celery) (…why are they behind the celery? That’s not where they go) (sorry, you weren’t home and I didn’t want to just leave them out) (fair enough) 9. Daisies 10. Dandelions 11. Roses 12. Bread (white or brown?) (I swear to the stars, Lyra…) ( :) I love you!) 13. Laudanum for the headache I’m getting from dealing with your antics (white or brown?) (I don’t really want laudanum, Lyra) (but if you did…?) (white) 13. Watermelon (white or brown?) (Stop wasting ink!) 14. Chocolate (white?) (Lyra. I will make you pay) (No, I actually mean it. This is for the brownies, right? It might be neat if we used white chocolate) (Oh. Sure, white chocolate, let’s give it a try) Lyra chuckled to herself as she continued through the farmer’s market. By solemn agreement between the two of them, what Bon Bon and Lyra wrote on the grocery list was not to be brought up verbally, lest the two of them end up in completely nonsensical arguments. That had happened once, a convoluted debate that had ended up with the two of them, in the middle of Ponyville, each accosting other nearby ponies and insisting that they decide what the color green tasted like, and they had only stopped when Pinkie Pie, of all ponies, had told them that they were acting weird. (Lyra was certain that green tasted like cheese no matter what Bon Bon and, as it turned out, most of Ponyville, thought about green and mint, however). The farmer’s market was an open-air plaza in Ponyville’s east. Like the town center, there was cobbled stone beneath Lyra’s hooves rather than dirt, but where the town center was dominated by the circular town hall and surrounded by sedentary shops, such as Bon Bon’s own store, the farmer’s market had no permanent buildings in it. Instead, it was a collection of stalls and kiosks of varying sizes, set up once a week with ponies offering up their products for sale. It wasn’t just farmers, either; in fact, some of the regular businesses of Ponyville would occasionally set up stalls to sell wares or services at discounted prices, the former because they weren’t selling normally, such as excess clothing that was going out of fashion, and the latter as a sort of ‘small sample,’ such as hoof-shines. As Lyra trotted through the farmer’s market, she paid little mind to the gathering storm clouds that she could see floating over the Everfree Forest. They were large, yes, but it was hardly the largest storm she had ever seen over the Everfree, and she was confident that the weather patrol could handle it. Instead, she focused on her shopping list. Milk, cheese, alfalfa and oats, and the flowers passed by without incident. The eggs…well… “Are these the only eggs you have?” Lyra asked Feather Comb, the white-coated, red-maned stallion who ran the stall. Despite the sound of his name, Feather Comb was an earth pony, albeit one who seemed awfully lanky for one. He was new in Ponyville, having only moved just a few weeks ago from Bridleton, bringing with him a flock of chickens – apparently his family in Bridleton had accidentally bred too many, and all the eggs the extra chickens were producing had to go somewhere. This was good for Ponyville, as prior to this the only real source of eggs they had was from Fluttershy, who’s eggs were nearly entirely consumed every week by Sugarcube Corner bakery. Feather Comb fixed Lyra with a bright smile as the unicorn switched from levitating her watermelons outright to just balancing them on her back, and using telekinesis to hold them in place. “Yes’m!” he answered. “Finest hens east of the Sea of Tranquility! How many can Ah do ya for?” Lyra grimaced. “They’re all white.” Feather Comb nodded. “Leghorn’s the breed of choice for the Feather clan. They lay white eggs.” Lyra looked to her shopping list and the short argument contained therein. “I’m looking for brown eggs, though…” Feather Comb’s bright grin fell. “They’re the same thing.” “I know that,” Lyra said, holding forward her shopping list. “But my marefriend Bon Bon insists on brown. Because she’s making brownies, you see.” Feather Comb didn’t seem to understand the logic (but then, neither did Lyra). He waved a hoof over his eggs. “Well, ma’am, white eggs are all Ah’ve got.” Lyra sighed, looked to her list again, and weighed her options. On the one hoof, Bon Bon could be awfully picky about what went into the things she baked. On the other hoof, the creation of sweet things – especially candy, yes, but she was no slouch at baking, either – was Bon Bon’s special talent. She probably knew what she was doing. Still, white eggs were better than no eggs, right? Lyra looked to Feather Comb. “I’ll take a dozen,” she said, using her telekinesis to levitate out ten bits, the price for the eggs. She also, however, passed Feather Comb her shopping list, turned over to its back side. “Do you think I could have your written statement, as a professional hen breeder, that white eggs and brown eggs are the same? It’ll make my night easier. Maybe.” Feather Comb looked at her like she was insane, but got a pencil out from his stall and did so. Once done, he loaded Lyra’s eggs into a box lined with straw to keep their contents safe. “Y’all come back now, y’hear?” he insisted as Lyra left. She waved in acknowledgement, before crossing off ‘eggs’ from her shopping list and heading off into the market. Tomatoes, check. Sugar, both brown and white, check. Lyra also stopped off at a spices stall to buy some cinnamon; she may not have been much of a cook, but she did know what flavors she liked, and her friend Trixie’s tastes had begun to rub off on her slightly – not that she was quite ready to try the egg-and-apple monstrosity that her fellow unicorn had once described to her, but ever since trying cinnamon in her coffee, she’d come to like the taste. She was also been talked into buying saffron by the stand’s owner, though she wasn’t sure if she liked saffron in anything, but by the stars she was not poor! Bread, peanut butter, and chocolate rounded out her shopping trip, which took about an hour in total, though with her mounting headache from lugging around the watermelons it felt like much longer. Still, at least in just a few hours she and Bon Bon would be under the same willow tree in the park that they always picnicked at, watching the sun slip behind the horizon and the safe return of the moon to the skies, snuggled up together beneath a blanket… …and then a raindrop fell on Lyra’s muzzle. She stopped her trot, blinking a few times as she looked down the length of her snout at the drop of water, then turned her gaze upwards to the sky. The weather schedule, posted in Ponyville’s newspaper, had called for only a few clouds in the sky today…instead, as Lyra watched – more than a few other ponies who had also been subject to unexpected wetness doing likewise – dark gray, low-flying clouds, flowing from the Everfree, were making their way across the skies. They were filled to their brims with water, so much so that they couldn’t fully contain what they carried, and so like a waterlogged sponge would just occasionally dribble out spurts of water. But this was only the very edge of what looked like a large, thick storm coming from the Everfree. Lyra whickered in surprise as she set off at a gallop towards Bon Bon’s Confectionarium, ignoring the pain in her head from not just levitating the watermelons, but running while doing so. She made it back to Bon Bon’s store in record time, and a glance over her shoulder as she entered allowed her to see ponies quickening their canters as they moved through Ponyville, wrapping up whatever they had planned to do and quickly heading home as small drops of rain continued to fall – the storm hadn’t reached them yet, but it was obviously on its way. “Lyra?” Bon Bon asked from behind the unicorn. She had been standing behind her store’s counter, but quickly trotted up to her marefriend and joined her in looking at the oncoming rainstorm. “What’s this all about?” she asked. Lyra shrugged, setting down her watermelons on the store’s countertop and looking for the newspaper, turning it quickly to the weather section once she found it. “Yeah, it was supposed to be basically clear skies today!” she exclaimed as she pointed to the day’s weather schedule. “We weren’t supposed to get cloudy weather until the weekend when the weather patrol was gonna get a storm cloud shipment from Cloudsdale! And no rain ‘til next week!” Bon Bon sighed. “How does Rainbow Dash keep her job?” she asked, trotting over to Lyra and reading the weather schedule for herself. “It looks like this storm is coming from the Everfree…” Lyra said, glancing back to the window, then back down to the newspaper. “I mean…okay, I’m not a pegasus, but I don’t think this is a major storm. I don’t hear any thunder or lightning and the winds don’t seem that bad…this is more like the entire weather patrol decided to take a day off!” “Maybe something came up…” Bon Bon theorized, looking back out the window herself. She sighed. “Can’t have a picnic now…there goes my business for today, too. Nopony’s going to go out into the rain for candy.” Lyra grimaced. “Is that bad?” she asked. Bon Bon didn’t actually own the Confectionarium yet; she was still making payments on the loan she’d taken out from the National Bank of Equestria, and would be for at least another year with her current payment plan. Bon Bon shook her head, prompting a sigh of relief from Lyra. “Weekdays are always slow, most of my sales are on the weekends. And I’ve got some savings I can dip into if I absolutely need to.” There was a few moments of silence as the two mares again looked to the oncoming storm outside, sighing almost as one. “Guess the picnic is off for today, then,” Bon Bon noted. “Tomorrow?” “Can’t, I’m hanging out with my dads all day,” Lyra said. “And I have a show the day after in Bridleton. If they don’t run me out of town for this, anyway,” Lyra finished with a gesture to the storm. Bridleton was the next town over from Ponyville. If the Everfree storm didn’t expend itself over Ponyville, then it would likely end up being the Bridleton weather patrol’s problem, which probably wouldn’t make Ponyvillians very popular there. Bon Bon chewed her lip in thought. “Then the weekend, but I’ll be too busy here…ooh, I’m going to give the weather patrol a piece of my mind at the next town meeting.” Lyra nodded, looking back out the window one more time. “Well,” she said, “I got groceries, anyway. We can just have the picnic next week. Unless it snows or something…” Bon Bon chuckled a little, nuzzling Lyra, who returned it. After a moment, however, Bon Bon stopped, eyeing Lyra’s saddlebags. One of them was partially open, Lyra saw when she glanced at them, and its contents – specifically, a box full of white eggs – could be seen. She looked to Lyra, eyebrow raising. “Feather Comb only had white eggs,” Lyra said, telekinetically fishing out the sworn affidavit from the hen breeder. “But he promises that they’re exactly the same thing.” Bon Bon sighed. “But I’m making brownies…” she moaned, then noticed the watermelons – the five watermelons – for the first time. “And why do you have so many of these? We’ll never go through all of them!” “Because I’m not a starving artist!” Lyra exclaimed, louder than she had intended. She put a hoof to her mouth as Bon Bon stared at her curiously. “…but I am a little bit of an idiot,” she added, chuckling as her horn glowed and she picked up the watermelons. “Can I get some help finding a place for all of these?” Lyra sat at the Confectionarium’s window, staring out at the rain that had begun to fall in earnest about half an hour ago. While Bon Bon had been correct about not getting any business as long as it was raining, she had received a few last-minute customers before the rain began. Those were gone now, however, meaning that at the moment Bon Bon had little to do other than quadruple-check her inventory and make small talk with Lyra. Normally she would have spent down time like now making more candy, but with business unlikely to pick up for as long as the rain lasted, she didn’t see the point. The topic of conversation had been Bon Bon describing, in exacting detail, why brown eggs were necessary for brownies, when Lyra spotted a certain magenta pony out the window. “Hey, is that Cheerilee?” she asked, leaning forward to look out. Bon Bon trotted over to the window herself, glancing out. “Yeah, it is,” she noted. “What’s she doing out in rain like this?” The rain wasn’t precisely a torrential downpour, but there was certainly a lot of it. Cheerilee, who the two had known for nearly as long as they had known each other, was trudging along wearing a rain cloak that appeared to have failed utterly at its intended duty. The schoolteacher looked like she had given up on any attempt to try and stay dry anyway, and instead was simply trotting towards her home. Bon Bon tapped a hoof against her mouth as she considered Cheerilee, then smiled wickedly, dashing away and to the sink behind the counter, filling up a bucket full of water and trotting back to Lyra. “Dump this on her,” she commanded. “Why?” Lyra asked. “Because it’ll be funny,” Bon Bon said, nodding sagely. “Besides, she’s soaked anyway.” Lyra stared at the full bucket, then glanced back out at Cheerilee. She opened her mouth to begin to raise a further objection. “I won’t make brownies,” Bon Bon cut in before Lyra could speak. “Objection withdrawn,” Lyra decided, grasping the bucket telekinetically as she trotted over to the door of the Confectionarium, Bon Bon following her. Lyra guided the bucket out slowly, without Cheerilee noticing, to hover just over Cheerilee’s head. At the last possible moment, Cheerilee glanced up, and saw the bucket wrapped in Lyra’s golden effervescence just as Lyra tipped it over. She let out a yelp of surprise as the water poured over her face, sputtering at the sheer volume, if not shock – after all, Bon Bon was correct, she was already thoroughly soaked. After several moments of shaking her head to clear her waterlogged eyes and ears, she glanced over to Lyra and Bon Bon. “Hi, Cheerilee!” Lyra called over. “It was Bon Bon’s idea!” Cheerilee closed her eyes, counting to ten. When she opened them, she was looking at Bon Bon, and smiling wildly. “It just gave me a fantastic idea of my own,” she said. Bon Bon stared uncomprehendingly for a moment, then let out a slight shriek as Cheerilee charged forward. She tried to turn and dash further into her store, but was too slow as Cheerilee leapt and landed on her, soaking the earth pony instantly as Lyra laughed while cantering backwards and well clear of the magenta sponge and her victim. To Lyra’s way of thinking, Bon Bon probably deserved this for making Lyra get Cheerilee even more soaked than she already was. “Ack!” Bon Bon cried, struggling as Cheerilee stood and shook herself off, with Bon Bon right beneath her, soaking her even more. She looked to her marefriend, reaching out her hooves. “Help!” Lyra tapped a hoof to her mouth, considering. “Nope,” she said. “Way I see it, this is fair for dumping water on poor Cheerilee.” “You dumped the water!” Bon Bon and Cheerilee both exclaimed. “I was really more just a tool being used,” Lyra pointed out, seeing no true flaw in her logic. “An accomplice that was coerced with threats of pain and you not making brownies tonight – wait, Cheerilee, what are you – ” Cheerilee had trotted away from Bon Bon and back outside, retrieving the bucket. She then trotted back in and calmly proceeded to the sink that was behind the Confectionarium’s counter and began filling the bucket to the brim. Lyra saw exactly where this was going to end up. “Oh no,” she objected, horn glowing defensively as Cheerilee finished filling the bucket. “No, no, I was unwilling! Dragged! Coerced!” She left out the fact that she didn’t exactly try very hard to resist Bon Bon’s orders as she started galloping away, towards the door that would take her up and to Bon Bon’s apartment – surely Cheerilee wouldn’t dare dump water on their couch, or bed – a but found it blocked off by a cream earth pony who was grinning as manically as Cheerilee. “Treason!” Lyra exclaimed of her marefriend, just as Cheerilee came up behind her and overturned the bucket on the unicorn’s head, then threw her sopping wet rain cloak over her, and lastly pounced on her for good measure. Bon Bon joined in, and within moments all three were equally soaked. After several long minutes of flailing limbs and cries of battle, the three mares managed to disentangle themselves, panting but laughing despite themselves. “This’ll be fun to clean up…” Cheerilee remarked, looking around the store. “Maybe we went a little overboard…” “Nah, gives me something to do,” Bon Bon said with a sigh. “Nopony is going to head out in the rain for candy…plus me and Lyra had a picnic planned, but that’s not happening, either…” “Yeah, not sure what the weather patrol is thinking…” Lyra said, as she telekinetically grabbed a pair of mops, one for her and one for Bon Bon. At a motion from Cheerilee, she passed a squeegee on to the magenta pony. “I mean, I always knew that Rainbow Dash was lazy, but we used to be able to at least count on everypony else…” “There’s probably a good reason for it…” Cheerilee said. Lyra and Bon Bon were mopping, while she followed with the squeegee, pushing the water from the wooden floor and outside. “Didn’t Carrot Top say something about organizing a storm for the Farmer’s Union?” “I thought that was next week,” Bon Bon ventured. Working together, the three of them had quickly turned their impromptu water fight into sparkling floors, and were now all standing by the door. Cheerilee had taken the opportunity to throw out the useless rain cloak in the bin near the door. Cheerilee shrugged. “I thought so too. Maybe they saw that storm over the Everfree and decided to just go with the – ” There was a splash outside, like something pony-shaped hitting the ground. The three looked, and saw that Raindrops had landed in a large puddle in the middle of the road. “ – rain helps me to untangle all the things that – ” she sang as she splashed around, oblivious to the rest of the world, before taking off again into the sky, then landing once more, then took off, then landed… “…hey, she can sing,” Lyra noted, tapping a hoof to her mouth as she did. This came as an immense surprise, even more so when she considered that Raindrops was hitting a few notes that Lyra wouldn’t have guessed her normally low-pitched voice would have been able to. “Pretty good, too.” “What has her in a good mood…?” Cheerilee wondered aloud. “Well, let’s think,” Bon Bon said. “Her name is Raindrops, her cutie mark is rain, and it’s raining. So clearly it’s because Trixie finally learned about the birds and the bees.” Lyra blinked rapidly a few times at that, turning to her marefriend in shock. “Bon Bon,” she warned softly. Bon Bon put her hooves to her mouth in embarrassment, mouthing sorry as she did. Inwardly, Lyra sighed a little. If Bon Bon had any flaw, it was that she tended to not fully think through everything she said or did, which had lead her into several faux pas in the past. “Huh?” Cheerilee asked after a moment, looking between Lyra and Bon Bon curiously. Bon Bon opened her mouth, but Lyra shut it with her hooves lest she dig a deeper hole for herself. “Nothing,” she answered. “It’s coming up to that time of the year for Bon Bon so she just has…stuff…on her mind. You know how it is.” “Mmph!” Bon Bon objected, taking Lyra’s hooves from her mouth. “Yes, please go and advertise that fact around town, Lyra…” Lyra shrugged. It wasn’t like heat was something to be embarrassed by, nor something that could exactly be hidden, least of all from a friend like Cheerilee. Frankly she was surprised that her own, Bon Bon’s, and Cheerilee’s heats hadn’t synced up, as tended to happen amongst mares who spent a lot of time around each other. “Okay…” Cheerilee intoned. “But why’d you bring up Trixie?” Bon Bon sighed, glancing at Lyra. The unicorn knew that this was something Cheerilee was unlikely to drop, and so nodded, figuring that the damage was done at this point. “Well…okay, short, explicit version is that since my heat is coming up, I’ve been getting ideas, and I was thinking back to that little adventure that me and Lyra and Trixie had a few months back, you remember how we told you, and how it might be interesting if Lyra had fingers again, but for that we’d need Trixie’s help and since she’s not exactly experienced and tends to get all panicked whenever the subject comes up I’m not sure how to approach her.” “Also I object to the transforming me again part,” Lyra provided, raising an eyebrow. This was the first she’d heard of Bon Bon’s ‘idea,’ and she didn’t need long to decide that she was wholeheartedly against it. “It was just an idea,” Bon Bon said with a sigh. “Oh,” Cheerilee said, her snout scrunching a little in thought. “Oh…oh my, that’s a good point. She is uncomfortable with sexual subjects. Like she doesn’t know what’s going on and resents it.” “Yeah,” Lyra said, shifting in place. She didn’t like talking about Trixie while she wasn’t here to defend herself. “Yeah, me and Bon Bon figured out her problem. But it’s her thing to deal with, right?” Cheerilee gave Lyra a look, and for a moment Lyra was concerned that Cheerilee might raise a counterpoint. She was a teacher, after all, which made her implicitly empathic towards the problems of others, and made her want to help ponies with them, even if this was outside her normal area of expertise. Truth be told, though, Lyra didn’t actually think that Trixie’s ‘problem’ was one that she actually needed help with. Trixie was a virgin, and there was absolutely nothing wrong with that. After a moment, Cheerilee nodded a little – much to Lyra’s surprise, she had expected to have to argue over this. “Okay,” Cheerilee she said, and again Lyra breathed out a sigh of relief that Cheerilee seemed like she’d dropped the subject. “Well…I better get going. I don’t think this rain’s going to stop, and I’ve got to get home.” “Sure,” Lyra said. “Sorry about the whole bucket-of-water thing.” “Yeah, sorry,” Bon Bon sighed. “I was just bored…” “It’s alright, I got my revenge,” Cheerilee said with a smile. “See you later!” With that, she trotted out the door, back into the rain and heedless of the fact that she was now lacking a rain cloak. She actually seemed a little too cheerful while doing so, almost suspiciously so… “Well, that was a diversion,” Bon Bon noted once Cheerilee had left, nuzzling Lyra. “But I think I’m going to close up shop now.” “Makes sense,” Lyra said, still frowning. She was still bothered by Cheerilee’s departure, though she didn’t know why. Something just seemed…not too cheerful, that was wrong, as she was generally a pretty optimistic pony; more like a wrong kind of cheerful, like she was putting it on rather than genuinely feeling it, although why, Lyra couldn't guess. She tried to forget it as she joined Bon Bon at the counter. “Why’d you even bring that up?” “I don’t know, it just popped into my head…” Bon Bon said with a sigh. “I thought Cheerilee knew, though.” “I didn’t tell her, and it’s not like Trixie goes around telling everypony she’s a virgin,” Lyra noted. “I think we managed to convince Cheerilee not to ‘help’ Trixie, though. She tries to help ponies, it’s just who she is, but I don’t think Trixie would appreciate that kind of help.” Bon Bon nodded, as she went over her sales for the day and tallied up what she’d earned verses what she’d expected to make, working in silence for several minutes. She was under her estimate thanks to the rain, though fortunately she had been expecting a slow day anyway. As she wrote down her numbers for the day, she chuckled. “For a second there she looked like she’d taken what I said about the birds and bees literally.” Lyra laughed a little as well at first, remembering the look on Cheerilee’s face herself…then giving it some deeper thought…and then recoiling as though struck squarely in the face with a sledgehammer. “Oh, stars!” she exclaimed, putting her hooves to her mouth and looking at Bon Bon, feeling her face heat up in embarrassment. “I…I think she did take it literally!” Bon Bon stared at Lyra. “Wha – oh. Oh!” Enlightenment struck Bon Bon, and her own eyes grew to the size of dinner plates even as her own face flushed red. “Oh…oh no, no, no, it was a joke, there’s no way she thinks that Trixie somehow managed to make it to adulthood without knowing about sex!” “I think she does.” “No! That’s…that’s stupid!” Lyra and Bon Bon stared at each other. “What if she does?” Lyra asked. “She’s…oh Luna the Residency is only a minute down the road, she’s probably with Trixie right now and just sat her down for the talk…” Bon Bon’s eyes fluttered as she considered that, and she swayed back and forth a moment, before bursting into action, dashing out from behind the counter and running upstairs. Lyra followed, and found that Bon Bon had grabbed Lyra’s saddlebags and rain cloak from her apartment, and was already dashing back downstairs to her store. She began opening up several candy containers and scooping candy in. Gumdrops, gummi worms, jawbreakers, peppermint sticks…she piled them in with wild abandon, like a foal with a million bits to spend had been set loose in her store. “What are – ” Lyra began. “Apology candy!” Bon Bon interrupted. “You – you have to go – bring this…” she hefted the bags and slung them over Lyra’s back before the unicorn could raise any objects. “You have to go and bring these to Trixie! For me!” “Candy?” “I’m a candymare! Candy’s all I know!” “That’s not true – ” Bon Bon grasped the sides of Lyra’s head. “I – I can’t just go over there after…Trixie’ll hate me! After all the pain I put her through a few months ago…she won’t want to see me, she’ll be mad at first, so you’ll go with apology candy and tell her that I’m sorry and then I’ll buy her dinner sometime or something, I’ll make it up…oh, and Cheerilee…” she turned around and loaded up the saddlebags with more candy. “Cheerilee…she’ll be so embarrassed…I mean, not as embarrassed as when us and her parents caught her with Iron Will and that – ” Lyra placed a hoof over Bon Bon’s mouth, stopping her tirade. “Bon Bon?” she said. “Calm down. Trixie won’t hate you for this…I don’t think she will, anyway.” Bon Bon fixed Lyra with her most desperate stare, one that it was impossible for her devoted marefriend to turn down. “Please just go and tell Trixie and Cheerilee that I’m sorry?” she asked. “I’m…I don’t think I could look them in the eye right now…so embarrassed…” “Not as embarrassed as Cheerilee’ll be,” Lyra noted. Bon Bon whimpered at the thought, the sound of which was enough to make Lyra lean forward and nuzzle Bon Bon, planting a kiss on her forehead. “Okay, I’ll go and pass the message,” she said. “Try not to freak out though, okay?” Bon Bon nodded a little, leaning close to Lyra for strength. The unicorn held her close for several long moments, before telekinetically grabbing her rain cloak and wrapping it around her. “Wish me luck,” she said, heading out into the rain. A minute later, Lyra found herself in Trixie’s office and staring at Cheerilee, who was probably blushing furiously beneath her magenta coat; Trixie, who was definitely blushing and was standing with her horn glowing vibrant blue, looking like she was ready to kill somepony; and, for whatever reason, Raindrops, who looked like she had just gotten out of the shower, rather than having just spent her afternoon singing and leaping through mud puddles, like Cheerilee, Lyra, and Bon Bon had seen her do earlier, and who was probably blushing the most furiously of them all. “So…I’m guessing I’m too late to stop Cheerilee, then,” Lyra ventured. She had known that this would probably be the case, but she had held out hope… Trixie was shaking slightly, though whether from anger or disgust, Lyra didn’t know. “A bit,” she said slowly and in a low voice, doing a surprisingly good, if unintentional, impersonation of Raindrops. The pegasus, herself, was glancing between Trixie, Cheerilee, and Lyra. “Okay, what did I miss?” she demanded, scuffing a hoof on the floor and whickering in annoyance. “I go upstairs to clean myself off because you,” she pointed a hoof at Cheerilee, “told me to, and now all of a sudden I’m taking advantage of Trixie?” “I thought…” Cheerilee said softly, looking between Trixie and Raindrops “thought that…Bon Bon made it sound like…and then I came in and you two were Prenching – ” Lyra’s eyes widened at the implication. So that was why Raindrops had been so happy… “No we weren’t!” Trixie exclaimed loudly at Lyra’s reaction, stomping her hooves as her horn glowed and she all but hurled a book on the floor at Lyra telekinetically. Lyra flipped through the book until she found the spell Trixie was referring to, glancing it over – and grimacing slightly at the picture, of two unicorn wizards, for all intents and purposes, making out. “It’s a spell! A memory spell! Conduit is through the mouth! You just trotted in at a bad time! And Bon Bon – what is Bon Bon doing talking about me behind my back?” Lyra blinked, looking up from the spellbook at Trixie. “It was an accident,” she insisted, horn glowing as she levitated her saddlebags off of her back and set them down in front of Trixie. “We weren’t talking about you behind your back, or we didn’t mean to, and Bon Bon is sorry, Trixie, so she sent you this apology candy. Same to you, Cheerilee,” Lyra said, looking to her second-oldest friend. “She didn’t mean to make you embarrass yourself, and she’s sorry, and she’ll make it up to you two. Okay?” There was a prolonged silence, as Trixie shuffled from hoof to hoof, Cheerilee stared at the floor in shock, and Lyra looked on hopefully. Eventually, Raindrops coughed slightly, ruffling her wings and reminding the other three that she was there. “Can I have some?” She asked. “I…kind of missed dinner.” The other three ponies stared at her, before Trixie began to giggle slightly. She was joined, after a moment, by Cheerilee, then Lyra and Raindrops both. Their giggles gradually evolved into guffaws, then just full-on laughter, enough to send the four mares tumbling to the floor of Trixie’s office in stiches. This lasted for a good few minutes as they each just considered what had brought them here, Lyra in particular trying to figure out what Cheerilee had said to Trixie to put her into a state of near-equicidal fury. Each possibility seemed – when viewed from the outside, at least – more hilarious than the last. At length, their laughter died down, and Trixie nodded, waving a hoof at Raindrops. “Apparently we’re marefriends now,” she said, chuckling as she levitated out several jawbreakers. “So I guess I have to share with you. Help yourself. And…and I’m sorry about calling you an imposter earlier. Really, I am.” “S’ okay,” Raindrops said, as she began looking through the bag of candy, singling out gummi bears, joined after a moment by Cheerilee, who was looking for peppermint sticks. “I’m sorry for thinking you hated me.” “And I’m sorry about jumping to conclusions about you, Trixie,” Cheerilee added, though she glanced at Lyra. “Though I had some help there…” “Bon Bon’s sorry. And I’m sorry too,” Lyra said. She waved a hoof to indicate everypony in the room even as her horn glowed and she reached into the bag herself, grasping a few gummi worms. “We’re all sorry. Let’s just assume that and proceed from there – ” There was, once again, the sound of the Residency’s door opening. The four mares in Trixie’s office turned to look, and saw Carrot Top and Ditzy Doo, the former looking like she’d just come from a trip to the spa and the latter dressed in her mailmare uniform, both wearing rain cloaks, enter the Residency. “…shy is happy,” Carrot Top finished saying to Ditzy, before looking into Trixie’s office. “Oh…is everypony really here?” “Saves me a few trips,” Ditzy said happily, as she and Carrot Top both took in the small herd of mares, the fact that all four of them still had traces of embarrassment on their features, and the pile of candy between them all. “Huh…what did we miss?” Love is a complicated thing. At a glance, Bon Bon and I don’t have a whole lot in common, but we’d each do anything for each other. I’d even venture into hostile territory with a peace offering for her. Two ponies don’t have to be the same to be in love. It’s a greater force than that. And friendship is the same way. Me and my friends are a dysfunctional mess some of the time – a lot of the time, actually, come to think of it. But they’re my friends. I’m their friend. No matter what we go through – or put each other through – in the end, everything will work out just fine. 5. Lots to Share“Mind the jangles, Carrot Top,” my grandmother used to say to me, “mind the jangles, and the bits will take care of themselves.” She was probably right. I don’t know: I’ve never been very good at minding the jangles no matter how much I try. On paper, I make plenty of money. Plenty comes in, more than enough to live off of. But then, when one takes into account all the work that has to be done around here – repairing the fence, buying a new plough, a new rake, buying fertilizer, paying for help during plowing or harvest, getting a new cart after my old one got trampled by an Ursa Minor…somepony in town once said that he couldn’t understand how small farms could ever turn a profit. I can understand where he’s coming from – it’s very close each year, ever since I took over the farm rather than letting it be sold off after Grandma died. I hope some day I’ll learn how Grandma and Grandpa managed it. Ooh, and the worst part is that I’m located right next to Sweet Apple Acres. Applejack’s life isn’t without problems, I know that very well these days, but still. Sweet Apple Acres isn’t a small farm at all, doesn’t have near the same kind of close margin of profit that Golden Harvest does. It supplies apples to most of the surrounding provinces! And not just apples – they’ve branched out, they grow a half-dozen other crops, too. And the Apple Clan is so large and my own farm is so tiny, and most days I can deal with that, but sometimes I just look over my fence and glare at an apple tree and wish it’d just burst into flames! Just the one! That never happens, of course. Probably for the best. It probably doesn’t help that my life seems to have become a good deal more complicated over the past few months. First there was the business with Corona, then the Ursa Minor, a thieving rabbit (though that one was resolved pretty fast, at least), that whole mess that I got into with Applejack, where I nearly lost the farm…and several times I’ve had to leave the farm for one thing or another, most recently when we all went to Canterlot to meet Princess Mi Amore Cadenza. Not that I didn’t enjoy that! Taking time off from working is just as important as working hard, but the fact of the matter is that I have to count every hour I spend somewhere other than my farm and make up for it later. Oh, listen to me complain. I’m making my life sound so horrible, but it isn’t. It’s not like I’m on the verge of poverty, though admittedly I did have a close call at the start of the year. I have a few luxuries, like my monthly spa trip with Trixie, or making sure that my mane and tail stay shining and healthy – I think I can definitely say that I have the best mane out of any farmer in Ponyville! I have friends I can count on – Trixie, Berry Punch, Thunderlane, Cheerilee, Ditzy, and so many others – and I even have time for new friends, like Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. And with the Farmer’s Union, which I helped to make, up-and-coming, I’m even starting to get known, at least in Ponyville and the rest of the North Everfree province. My life can be hard, but it could be so much worse, and I’m grateful for what I have. Still…it’d be nice to have a little more sometimes… Carrot Top breathed out a heavy sigh of relief as she stopped pulling the plough and looked behind her. Golden Harvests wasn’t the largest farm in Ponyville by any means, even if one discounted the province-unto-itself that was Sweet Apple Acres (this may have been a slight exaggeration on Carrot Top’s part), but it was still a lot of land for a single pony to plough, and all she had been doing was the northwestern quarter, which thus far into the year she had been allowing to lie fallow to let the soil there to gather up nutrients and minerals from decaying weeds she’d pulled, then left to rot so that the earth could absorb them. However, with the middle of Spring having come and gone and summer looming, it was time for this field to once again get to work and pay its rent, as it were. Carrot Top had been up since just before dawn working on the field, stopping only for the traditional noontime break hiding from the Tyrant Sun (and grabbing lunch), and she had spent only half an hour on lunch for that, rather than the fully traditional hour (but then, most farmers she knew also tended to break for only half an hour – the Sun in its hubris would wait for no pony in its arc across the sky). Now that the field was done, Carrot Top thought happily to herself as she dragged the plough back to her shed, the most important part could begin: planting. For most of her fields and her harvests, Carrot Top would usually hire an able-bodied worker or two to plough and she’d follow behind their work with planting, but the northeastern field was her field this year, the one she’d tend all by herself, and it would produce her finest crops as a result. Earth pony magic was slow, and it was subtle, but Princess Luna herself had been known to say on many occasions that it could very well be greater than any pegasus squall or unicorn spell. Dragging the plow across the field hadn’t simply moved and tilled and readied the earth she’d walked upon, it had also served to move and till and ready herself. Some part of Carrot Top was now invested in that plot of land, a bond created by her moving back and forth across the earth, her hooves digging into the soil as she pulled the plough, a bond that would only be strengthened as she dug up the dirt and pressed seeds into it. It was hard work, though not quite as hard as pulling the plough all by herself, and it went considerably faster due to her having spent all morning loosening the soil. By the time she had finished, she had worked up a considerable sweat and the sky was getting notably darker, and not just because the sun was making steady progress towards the horizon, she saw when she finally decided to look up rather than down at her planting. Her farm was a fair distance from the Everfree Forest, but she could see dark clouds, thousands of feet tall, stretching up over it and heading towards Ponyville, the air pressure from the storm pushing numerous smaller clouds in front of it. She was in the middle of wondering if this was going to have an effect on her plans for later in the day with two certain pegasi, when a polychromatic streak arched from the storm, did a loop directly over Carrot Top’s head, and then shot straight down before landing with a solid thud directly in front of Carrot Top. A small dust cloud was kicked up, but when it cleared, the streak revealed itself to by a cyan pegasus with a multicolored mane and tail – Rainbow Dash. “Aw yeah,” Rainbow Dash said with a smirk as she brushed off her forelegs, even as Carrot Top coughed a little, waving a hoof in front of her face to clear the dust cloud. “And my dad used to complain that I never think ahead. Well take a look at that!” She beat her wings a few times in order to set herself down right next to Carrot Top – Rainbow Dash never trotted when she could fly – and put one leg around Carrot Top’s withers, the other pointing at the Everfree storm. “That’s planning ahead, am I right?” Carrot Top stared at the storm, then back to Rainbow Dash. Ever since she had helped Fluttershy out with a problem a few months ago, she and Rainbow Dash had struck up bizarre friendship. “You made that?” she asked. Rainbow Dash laughed. “Jeeze, what do I look like? The Princess?” she asked. “I’m awesome but I’m not that awesome, nopony can create weather in the Everfree. But – check this – we’re not going to do anything about it.” She laughed again. Carrot Top blinked a few times, looking to Rainbow Dash in confusion as she considered that. “Um…isn’t this a bit early for the storm we asked for?” she asked, referring to the rain she had requisitioned on behalf of the Farmer’s Union to make up for what had been a surprisingly dry Spring. It had, in point of fact, been the first time that the Farmer’s Union had ever made an official request of the Ponyville municipal government – and it had been granted without any fuss at all! Carrot Top couldn’t help but feel a measure of pride in the organization that she had helped to create. It was still small, but it was growing notably. Still, this rain was coming early – not too early, Carrot Top didn’t think, not for her crop, anyway, but somepony else might have needed the extra few days to prepare… Rainbow Dash waved a hoof dismissively as she took to the air, though only so that she could hover just off of the ground rather than stand in place. “Yeah,” she said, “but this storm isn’t too big. No thunder, no lightning, just rain. Basically I figure that we’ll have this storm this week and a smaller one next week and then your Farmer’s Union will have plenty of water, and we won’t have to work so hard.” “And you won’t get in trouble for that?” The pegasus smirked. “With who?” she asked. “I’m weather captain.” She flipped around, still hovering in place but now reclining on the air as though she were in a beach chair, forelegs behind her head. “And if the higher-ups in Cloudsdale even notice, I’ll just say that it was Everfree weather and that they know how unpredictable it can be!” “What about your weather team?” Rainbow Dash grinned brightly. “Nopony wants to waste a day bucking away a storm like this. It’s boring. Pegasi have got to move! So I put it to a vote to all the on-duty pegasi but I knew I’d win! Raindrops even cast the deciding vote! Not that that’s surprising, it’d rain every day if she was in charge. Which would probably be a good thing for her, she’s way more mellow when it’s raining. Ever notice that?” Carrot Top had, and wasn’t very surprised to learn that Raindrops had voted for rain. She did, however, notice a slight flaw in Rainbow Dash’s plan. “The deciding vote?” she echoed. Rainbow Dash nodded. “Yeah, it was me, Raindrops, Airheart, and Cloud Kicker against Sunlight, Blue Skies, and Thunderlane. Mares verses stallions! Mares won, of course.” “But that means it was close…what if somepony complains to the weather network in Cloudsdale?” Rainbow Dash let herself fall to the ground, flipping around and landing easily on her hooves as she did, and considering for a few moments before shrugging. “Eh, I’ll worry about that if it happens,” she said. “I’d just be chewed out. I’ve been chewed out before. And besides, you’re not seeing how awesome this is! It’s not just the Farmer’s Union. Think about Fluttershy!” Carrot Top slung her shovel over her back and closed the saddlebags full of carrot seeds that she had been carrying, then began trotting back towards her house, Rainbow Dash following in the air as the earth pony considered. “Alright, I give up,” she said after a few moments. “How does rain help Fluttershy?” Rainbow Dash grinned brightly, clearly enjoying that she knew something that Carrot Top didn’t, though she didn’t hold it over from her as she began explaining. “An unscheduled rain storm,” she said, rubbing her hooves together. “Nopony wants to be outside in the rain if they can help it! It’s just a little water but everypony always treats it like it’s acid or fire or something! So they’ll all stay at home unless they have to go on errands. No foals playing in the streets, nopony trying to talk to Fluttershy ‘cause they think she’s new in town or ‘cause they want to talk to ‘the mysterious mare that lives in that old cottage,’ nothing! Just smooth sailing all the way from her house to the spa! No offence, C, but if this was just for the Union then I probably wouldn’t have let this happen. But for Fluttershy? Heck yeah!” Carrot Top blinked a few times as she thought about that. “Wow,” she said. “I know!” “All those ponies that might have wanted to do something else with their day, and you focused solely on what might help us get Fluttershy to the spa.” “I’m such an awesome friend, I know,” Rainbow Dash said, beaming, what Carrot Top was actually saying clearly sailing right over her head. Carrot Top resisted the urge to sigh. Rainbow Dash was quite possibly the most inconsiderate pony that Carrot Top had ever met, but there was no denying that she would do anything for Fluttershy. Even let a storm run wild and ruin an unknown number of pony’s days. Well, she was right about one thing, at least. This would help get Fluttershy from her front door to the spa. Provided, of course, that the two of them could coax Fluttershy to even go out her front door to begin with. By the time Carrot Top had put away her farming equipment, thrown on a rain cloak, and hurried over to Fluttershy’s cottage – Rainbow Dash following, or rather zipping ahead or back and just generally flying around, not saying but obviously implying that Carrot Top was far too slow for her tastes – the rain had begun, starting with slow pitter-patters but quickly building up into a full-on rainstorm, though Rainbow Dash had, at least, been right about the lack of thunder or lightning, or even heavy wind. The pegasus didn’t seem bothered by the wetness at all, while Carrot Top’s rain cloak had been bought in Fillydelphia, which had notoriously hard rain, and was more than up to the task of keeping her as dry. Rainbow Dash only settled down as Carrot Top arrived at Fluttershy’s front door. A notable change overcame the cyan pegasus’ features, Carrot Top noted. Normally, Rainbow Dash was in constant motion, eyes darting around and focusing on the slightest interesting thing, muscles always twitching and ready to go, tail swishing, wings beating, just constant motion. She wasn’t unfocused, per se, as she was typically still more than capable of holding a conversation, but she was simply incapable of standing or sitting still. She had to do something. Except around Fluttershy. When Rainbow Dash was with her oldest friend, she calmed notably, reigning in her hyperactivity, standing up a little straighter, and clearly taking her every movement slowly and carefully. Take, for example, an action as simple as knocking on the door. Anypony else’s door, and she’d probably use both her front hooves and tap out a complicated rhythm, hard. Here, she simply made three quick, soft knocks. It wasn’t a complete change, and her regular self often showed through, but it was clear she was making an effort to be calmer and more collected. The pony who answered the door was the precise opposite of Rainbow Dash, except insofar as both were mares and pegasi. Yellow-coated and pink-maned, Fluttershy opened her door only a crack at first, before her large eyes saw that it was only Rainbow Dash and Carrot Top, and she opened it fully. The sight that greeted Carrot Top was not – fully – what she expected. Fluttershy was wearing a thick coat, made from wool and with fake fur around the neck and sleeves. She was covered in bright red, perfectly circular spots. “Oh,” she said softly, “Hello – cough, cough – hello Rainbow Dash, hello – ah choo – Carrot Top. Cough.” Carrot Top and Rainbow Dash stared at Fluttershy, then to each other, then back at Fluttershy. “Is…something wrong?” Carrot Top asked. She was fairly certain that nopony actually said ‘cough’ when they coughed. “Oh,” Fluttershy said, looking to one hoof, which had a red circle on it as well. “I – cough – I seem to have come down with, um, the pony pox. So I – ah choo, ah choo – I can’t go to the spa like we said. Cough, ah choo. I’m sorry, I guess we’ll have to reschedule. Ah choo.” A pause, as Fluttershy wilted to the floor of her cottage. “Cough.” Rainbow Dash opened her mouth, then closed it, then looked to Carrot Top, jerking her head somewhat. She turned around, as did Carrot Top, as Fluttershy continued to say cough and ah choo every now and then. “I’m not buyin’ this, are you?” Rainbow Dash asked. “Not at all,” Carrot Top answered, then looked back to Fluttershy. “Um…Fluttershy, dear…I’m pretty sure you can’t get the pony pox on your hoof.” She waved her own hoof for emphasis. Fluttershy looked to the hoof that the ‘pox’ was located on. “Oh, um…” she said softly. “Well…um…th-that’s actually a common misconception, you see…” Carrot Top grimaced. “Well,” she said softly, “do you know what the cure to the pony pox is?” Fluttershy nodded, smiling brightly with her eyes closed. “Plenty of bed rest, lots of fluids – eek!” Fluttershy’s exclamation came as Carrot Top took her ‘poxed’ leg in her own hoof, and used her other to rub the ‘pox’ with her rain cloak. Unsurprisingly, the combination of wetness and friction caused the spot to disappear without much effort. “A good hoof-shine!” Carrot Top said happily. Fluttershy blinked a few times, then wilted, seeming to shrink within her coat and hide behind her large mane. “O-oh,” she said softly. “Um…r-right…w-well, Angel B-Bunny is a-also, um…f-f-feeling sick…” Rainbow Dash and Carrot Top both looked past Fluttershy and into her cottage. Neither were particularly surprised to see a small white rabbit reclining on Fluttershy’s sofa, an oversized book held in his hands and wearing a positively adorable fez tucked between his long ears. At Fluttershy’s words, the rabbit glanced up at the two visitors, rolled his eyes, and then returned to the book. “He seems fine to me,” Rainbow Dash noted. Fluttershy shrank more. “W…w-well…um…” Carrot Top let out a slight sigh. She’d met Fluttershy for the first time two months ago, when Angel Bunny had been stealing her carrots – in order to get Carrot Top’s attention, it turned out, as the rabbit had somehow known that Carrot Top could help Fluttershy with a bad case of poison joke that she had caught. Ever since then, Carrot Top had become one of only a very small number of ponies who ever interacted with Fluttershy, alongside Rainbow Dash, whom Carrot Top knew had known Fluttershy since their foalhoods; and Ditzy and Dinky Doo, the former delivering mail to Fluttershy and the latter helping Fluttershy around her cottage every weekend. If Fluttershy had only had Carrot Top and the other three as friends, that would have been one thing. But Fluttershy’s timidity went significantly beyond that: those four ponies were the only ponies who ever interacted with Fluttershy, apart letters she sent to and recieved from her family back in Cloudsdale. Other than those, Fluttershy spent the vast majority of her time alone, without any other form of contact with other ponies, or even leaving the same few acres of land. Carrot Top respected that Fluttershy wanted live a quiet life, but this was simply a step too far. She was hardly a psychologist, but she knew such isolation wasn’t healthy, let alone such a sedentary lifestyle for a pegasus. As a result, she’d floated the idea of having Fluttershy accompany her to the spa some time, and Rainbow Dash had been surprisingly supportive. Carrot Top tried to go at least once a month to just relax, which she knew she’d never do if she tried it on the farm: there was just too much to do and if she was nearby, she’d try and do it. But at the spa, she could simply unwind, something that she sorely suspected Fluttershy was in need of. Carrot Top gathered her resolve as she stretched out a hoof and gently laid it upon Fluttershy’s withers. Fluttershy twitched a little at the touch, but didn’t flee, which was a good sign. “Fluttershy,” she said softly, “if you don’t want to go to the spa, you don’t have to. But Rainbow Dash actually kicked up this rain for you.” Fluttershy glanced to her fellow pegasus from behind her mane. “Y-you did…?” she asked. Rainbow Dash scuffed a hoof on the ground. “Well, I let some rain from the Everfree through, anyway,” she said. “This way, there’s nopony who’ll bother us on the way to the spa!” “And Aloe and Lotus, the ponies who run the spa, are the best,” Carrot Top said firmly. “You won’t even know they’re there if you don’t want to. It’s just a chance to get out a little. You have to get a little stir-crazy from just seeing the same four walls all the time, don’t you?” Fluttershy was staring at the ground, lost in thought, at least until a small, white, fez-topped bunny appeared beside her. Angel Bunny had set down his book and hopped up behind Fluttershy, thumping one of her hips with his hind leg, then pointing firmly out the door. “O…okay,” Fluttershy said softly, eyes closed. “I’ll…I’ll do it.” “Alright!” Rainbow Dash cheered, pumping a hoof in the air. Fluttershy jumped slightly at her fellow pegasus’ action, though she calmed quickly. “Okay, Fluttershy, I’ll get your rain cloak, you just wash that paint or whatever it is off of you, and then we’re off!” Rainbow Dash’s storm had done its job. She, Carrot Top, and Fluttershy encountered nopony as they walked from Fluttershy’s cottage to the rain-covered streets of Ponyville, Carrot Top and Fluttershy protected by rain cloaks but Rainbow Dash simply flying alongside, not letting the rain bother her in the slightest. Fluttershy had been basically at-ease as the three walked from her cottage to Ponyville. Though she didn’t make the trip often – actually, ever, as far as Carrot Top was aware – they had only been walking by the vast farmland that surrounded Ponyville, with them unlikely to see anypony else even if it had been a cloudless day. When the thatched-roof buildings of Ponyville had come into view, however, Fluttershy had hesitated in her trot, staring at them like they were a horde of dragons waiting to pounce and eat her. It had taken several moments, but eventually Carrot Top and Rainbow Dash had convinced her to soldier on. Unsurprisingly, the streets of Ponyville were, in fact, empty of other ponies, which was probably for the best. Fluttershy kept her head bowed as the three trotted through Ponyville, leaning close to Rainbow Dash or Carrot Top. While the trot in had been full of light conversation, Fluttershy hadn’t said so much as a word since they’d entered the town proper. Carrot Top couldn’t help but shake her head at the sight. The poor dear was terrified over absolutely nothing. It was with a tremendous amount of relief when they finally reached large building that was the Aloe-Lotus Day Spa, wiped mud off of their hooves, and entered. The inside of the spa stood as a marked contrast to the gray, wet, and muddy outside world. Inside the spa, the walls were white or a soft sky-blue and covered with decorative floral paintings, and the lobby was dominated by a duo of wide, soft-looking couches with a table set in front of each. The air was thick with the smell of lilac, rose, and dozens of other flowery scents that wafted and floated through the air from deeper within the spa, out of sight. The only other pony immediately in sight was an earth pony with a light blue coat and pale rose mane – Lotus, one of the ponies that ran the spa. She smiled when she saw the three ponies. “Ah!” Lotus said brightly, as Carrot Top trotted up to the counter after having taken off her rain cloak and left it hanging on a nearby rack. “Miss Carrot Top! Miss Rainbow Dash! Velcome! Ve’ve had so many missed appointments today, I am glad to be seeing you here!” Carrot Top offered a smile of her own, as much at the soft, accented voice of Lotus as in friendly greeting – she didn’t think that anypony could be frightened of such a welcoming tone, which was good for Fluttershy. “No, we made it,” Carrot Top said happily, as she looked behind her. Rainbow Dash had a wing over Fluttershy’s withers. Fluttershy still hadn’t taken off her rain cloak, and was keeping her head bowed low, focusing intently on a hoof she kept scuffing on the floor. “Um…this is that special case I talked to you about last week…” “Ah yes, of course,” Lotus said with a smile, coming out from behind the counter, slowly approaching the two pegasi. “Flüttershy, is it?” Fluttershy didn’t answer, though she did stop scuffing the floor and there might have been a slight bobbing to her head that suggested she’d nodded in confirmation. “Vell, Flüttershy, my name is Lotus Blossom. I and my sister, Aloe, are completely dedicated to ensuring you have a pleasant experience here at our day spa. If there is anything you vant, just let us know, and ve vill accommodate it. Ve’ll do anything for a friend of our second-best customer, after all!” Carrot Top blinked a little at that. “I didn’t think that I came here often enough to be that…” she said softly, feeling a slight swelling of pride at being so valuable an asset to somepony. Lotus laughed lightly. “Not you!” She said, though without maliciousness in her voice. “Not that ve don’t value your business, Miss Carrot Top, but I vas actually referring to Miss Rainbow Dash.” The feeling of pride disappeared, but its loss was hardly noticed as insatiable curiosity rushed to fill the void, and Carrot Top looked to the weather captain. Even Fluttershy glanced up at that, affording Lotus her first look at her face. Rainbow Dash blinked a few times, then chuckled, rubbing a hoof behind her head as her coat started losing its blue coloration, replacing it with a bright, rosy pink. “H…ha! Yeah, Lotus, you’re such a kidder, I don’t come here that often – ” “Such modesty,” Lotus said with a bright smile, even as the door to the spa proper opened and her sister Aloe – identical in every way, except that her mane and coat colors were the reverse of Lotus’ – entered, offering a bright smile. “But you are definitely one of our very best! Right, Aloe?” “Oh, yes!” Aloe said. Her voice was even identical to her sister’s. “Vonce a veek, every veek since ve opened! I believe you said it vas part of your exercise regimen?” Rainbow Dash stared like she was bound and gagged on a railway and Carrot Top was an oncoming train that would blare humiliation throughout town, with Lotus and Aloe, the earth pony suspected, having grown a thin moustaches, black capes, and tall black hats in Rainbow Dash’s mind, each cackling gleefully. She didn’t know what role Fluttershy played in the fantasy. Rainbow Dash turned her gaze downwards after several moments, doing a surprisingly good Fluttershy impersonation. “Working out is important, but so is relaxing the muscles…” she said through gritted teeth. “Otherwise they might be strained…heard that the Wonderbolts do it…and for your information my wing power has gone up by, like, four since I started coming here!” Carrot Top stifled a giggle at that, and even Fluttershy had a thin, but honest, smile on her face. After a few moments, Carrot Top held up one hoof solemnly. “I promise, Rainbow Dash, your secret’s safe with me,” she said. “And vit us as well,” Lotus promised on behalf of herself and her sister, as well as the other ponies who worked at the spa. “I’m sorry, I vould have thought that Carrot Top and Flüttershy knew.” The spa pony looked once more to Fluttershy. “Now then, Miss Flüttershy. You are here for our full treatment, yes?” The ice having been broken, at least a little, Fluttershy nodded, taking off her rain cloak, though she still didn’t make eye contact. “Vell,” Aloe continued for her sister, “That begins vith a visit to our sauna. Then, a full facial, feather preening for you and Miss Rainbow Dash, and massage.” “Following,” Lotus picked back up, “is a luxurious seaweed and mud bath, then after you have been vashed off, a hooficure unbeaten anyvhere in all of Equestria.” “And a pleasant experience for you is our highest priority, Miss Flüttershy,” Aloe finished. “If there is anything you vant us to do, or don’t vant us to do, anything that is making you uncomfortable, tell us.” Fluttershy nodded again, and surprised Carrot Top by even gently saying “okay,” though in a voice so quiet that it could barely be heard over the pitter-patter of rain outside. Rainbow Dash and Carrot Top both smiled, as Fluttershy made her way forward, following Aloe and Lotus, timidly, but willingly. There we go! Carrot Top thought with a smile as she followed as well. This is good for Fluttershy, she’ll get to relax, and she seems to be comfortable around Aloe and Lotus, just like I knew she would! This is going great – The door opened, loudly. There was neither thunder nor lightning, but Carrot Top got the distinct sense that there should have been as Aloe, Lotus, Carrot Top, and rainbow Dash all turned to see who had entered, while Fluttershy, with surprising speed, had dived behind all of them in shock, wings spread wide and hiding behind both her mane and tail as she cowered on the floor. “I’m here…!” sang a high, confident voice. “Ah!” Aloe and Lotus exclaimed at the same time, both brightening as they trotted forward to take the white-coated, purpled-maned unicorns’ rain cloak, hat, and a saddle-mounted, ornate umbrella from her, setting them aside and out of the way as the newcomer shook her mane free with a bright dazzle. “Miss Rarity! So glad that our star customer could make it!” Carrot Top dashed over to Fluttershy’s side even as she wondered how she could have possibly scheduled Fluttershy’s day spa appointment on the same day that one of the most extroverted, invasive ponies in town had her own visit scheduled. There should have been warning signs up or something…she reached Fluttershy and put a re-assuring hoof on her withers even as Rainbow Dash leapt protectively to Fluttershy’s side, shooting a glare Rarity’s way while her oldest friend cowered. “What?” she demanded incredulously at the unicorn’s appearance. “But…the rain…why are you here?” The unicorn named Rarity – beautician, clothier, and fashionista extraordinaire – looked to Rainbow Dash in surprise. “Why, Miss Dash!” Rarity said, putting a hoof to her chest. “Neither rain, nor sleet, nor dark of night, nor glare of day could keep me from my bi-weekly spa appointment! Although I must say I’m rather surprised to be seeing you here. Aren’t you the weather captain? Shouldn’t you be doing something about…” Rarity trailed off on that as she looked to Carrot Top. “Ah! Miss Carrot Top, so good to see you again!” Carrot Top hid a grimace as Rarity took off her rain cloak, hat, and umbrella, passing them off to Aloe and Lotus. Rarity was, in a way, responsible for her friendship with Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy both, having helped instill in her the confidence to deal with the former in order to get to the latter during the poison joke ordeal a few months back. Of course, Rarity’s help, it turned out, had not been free, though the price was a minor one all things considered: Carrot Top had needed to model for the clothier, as apparently she had a ‘rustic, down-to-earth’ sense about her. It hadn’t worked out, and Carrot Top hadn’t seen much of Rarity since, though the two had remained friendly. Carrot Top, therefore, gave Rarity polite nod. “Hello,” she said. “Um…if you don’t mind, Miss Rarity, could you keep things down? Fluttershy, here, is a bit uncomfortable around new ponies…” Rarity opened her mouth – to say what, Carrot Top didn’t know, however, as she looked at Fluttershy for the first time, just as the pegasus pony glanced out from behind her mane. Rarity let out a drawn-out gasp. “Oh my!” she exclaimed, trotting forward. “You’re Fluttershy? The Fluttershy? The pony who lives all by herself on the edge of that dreadful forest?” Fluttershy’s response was barely loud enough to be called a squeak. Rainbow Dash and Carrot Top both tried to interpose themselves between Rarity and Fluttershy, but the unicorn was quicker than either of them, indeed didn’t even notice them as she leaned in close, as Fluttershy retreated back under her mane and whimpered. “B-but…you’re exquisite! Your mane, your tail, your coat, your proportions! How could a pony as beautiful as you hide herself away in that dreary little cottage surrounded by beasts?” Rainbow Dash took wing and hovered in front of Rarity and protectively over Fluttershy. “Hey!” She demanded “Back off! Can’t you see that Fluttershy needs her sp – hey!” “In a minute, dear,” Rarity said off-hoofedly, blue telekinesis dancing along her horn, grabbing Rainbow Dash, then pushing her off to one side, the unicorn having only barely glanced at Rainbow Dash. Her attention was almost instantly back on Fluttershy. “Darling, you simply must tell me what you do! I had imagined a pony covered in mud and sticks and with leaves in her hair and fire in her eyes, but you! You’re – you’re so timid! Demure! Bashful! Shy – ” “Miss Rarity!” Carrot Top interrupted. Rarity looked to Carrot Top, a polite smile on her face. “Yes, miss Carrot Top?” she asked. “If you don’t mind, I’m a bit busy with Fluttershy here.” “That’s just it,” Carrot Top said, holding up a hoof. “Please, Fluttershy is…delicate.” Rarity blinked a few times, then brightened once more. “Delicate!” she exclaimed. “Yes – delicate! That’s the perfect word to describe her! Why didn’t I think of tha…” she trailed off for a few moments, eyes darting back and forth as though reading. “Oh – oh! Yes! Idea…!” Quicker than Carrot Top could follow, Rarity turned around and dashed out of the spa. She almost immediately dashed back in with a shriek at the rain, apparently having forgotten about it in her rush. She retrieved her cloak, hat, and umbrella from Aloe and Lotus, who had just finished carefully and expertly folding the cloak with the same kind of reverence one normally reserved for the Equestrian flag. Throwing them on, she ran off. “…what was that about?” Carrot Top asked. Rainbow Dash, having been freed from Rarity’s telekinesis, had galloped over to Fluttershy, quickly laying a wing over her and talking to her softly. Aloe and Lotus seemed almost as confused. “I…I’m afraid I don’t know,” Aloe said, glancing out the door. “Miss Rarity has never missed an appointment…” “She seemed very excited, though,” Lotus added. “Yeah, and where were you during all that?” Rainbow Dash demanded, pointing a hoof accusingly at the sisters. “That mare practically assaulted poor Fluttershy and you two just stood there!” The two sisters looked between each other nervously. “Please, ve apologize,” Lotus said. “Miss Rarity is our very best customer. She has two scheduled appointments each veek, and often comes in completely unscheduled besides!” “But ve have never seen her so excited…” Aloe continued. “Not even vit Photo Finish in town. And ve did not realize just how delicate Miss Flüttershy was.” “Please, ve vill give you half off your visit today,” Lotus said, pressing her front hooves together. “And our VIP treatment besides. Vill this make up for things?” Carrot Top and Rainbow Dash both looked to Fluttershy, who, with Rarity now gone, was once again looking out from beneath her mane, at the other four ponies who were all looking at her expectantly. “U-um…” Fluttershy said. “I…I suppose, if it’s not too much trouble…” Aloe and Lotus both brightened, while Carrot Top let out a sigh of relief, gently patting Fluttershy on the back. The two spa ponies trotted forward to Fluttershy. “Alright, Miss Flüttershy,” Aloe said. “Right this vay…” The sauna had been a calming experience for all the ponies inside, most of all for poor Fluttershy. The facial had been slightly more of a trial, as it required Lotus to actually touch Fluttershy, something the pegasus was uncomfortable with, but it had been solved easily enough when Carrot Top had volunteered to apply the moisturizer herself. Fluttershy had also turned down the cucumbers over her eyes, but then again so did Carrot Top – she’d discovered that all having those over her eyes tended to do was make her hungry. The feather preening was something that Carrot Top simply couldn’t intervene in, however. Rainbow Dash had saved the day here, allowing Aloe and Lotus to tend to her own wings first and letting Fluttershy see everything they intended to do. Eventually, Fluttershy had acquiesced, and after only a few moments of tension had settled down rather comfortably on her table as the two spa pony sisters cleaned and trimmed her feathers, applying cleansing lotions and oils. During this, Fluttershy had opened up more fully to the two ponies when they asked her questions about her life, what she did, how she had met Rainbow Dash and Carrot Top. Fluttershy hadn’t answered every question, but neither Aloe nor Lotus had pushed for answers, either. By the time the three of them reached the massage – which called for a third set of hooves with one of the sisters’ assistants taking care of Rainbow Dash – Fluttershy didn’t even require any coaxing to let Aloe her hooves across her legs, neck, withers, and back, while Lotus saw to Carrot Top. “This is delightful,” Fluttershy said as she lay on the massage table, her voice as loud as Carrot Top had ever heard it – which still put it at a decibel or two below a ‘normal’ speaking voice, but for Fluttershy it was practically shouting in excitement. Aloe was massaging the base of her wings at the moment. “Ooh…I should come here more often! Um…if that’s okay, I mean…” Rainbow Dash’s and Carrot Top’s tables were next to each other; they shared a quick hoof-bump at Fluttershy’s words, though Carrot Top tempered her surprise quickly. “Fluttershy,” she said softly, “it won’t always be raining, you know…you’ll probably have to come here on a clear day if you want to do that.” Fluttershy was silent, and there was a palpable tension in the room as, though she didn’t know it, all eyes in the room were focused on her. Fluttershy, herself, had her eyes closed, as she carefully weighed her options. “I…I think I could manage…” she said, glancing sideways towards the other two ponies she’d come with. “If I could come in with one of you two? Once a month?” Carrot Top and Rainbow Dash shared another hoof-bump at that. Even if Fluttershy did nothing but go from her home straight to the spa, even if she flew the whole way to cut down on how many ponies she’d have to interact with, that still was a vast improvement over her current lifestyle, and still added Aloe, Lotus, and the rest of the spa staff to the small pool of ponies that Fluttershy interacted with. “No problem, Fluttershy!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed. “I’m here every week! Normally Sundays, today was special, but you could come with me!” “And I can see if I can change my monthly appointment to Sundays,” Carrot Top said, even as she made sure to avoid the T-word around Fluttershy. For whatever reason, Fluttershy was convinced Trixie was out to get her, even though, to Carrot Top’s knowledge, Trixie was barely aware of Fluttershy’s existence. Normally Carrot Top went to the spa with Trixie every month, and she did enjoy the time they spent together – maybe she could have Fluttershy and Trixie meet ‘on neutral ground,’ as the spa essentially was, and help Fluttershy put her fear behind her. The massages ended, and the three moved on to the seaweed-wrap and mud bath. Fluttershy had taken to this easily enough without raising any objections – Carrot Top supposed that, working with animals as she did, she was in no way afraid of a little mud. Fluttershy, by now, had calmed down completely from her ordeal with Rarity. Thus it was that Rarity arrived. “Ah ha!” The unicorn exclaimed as the door to the mud bath room flew open. Carrot Top and Fluttershy both eeped in surprise, while Rainbow Dash tried to take flight, apparently forgetting about both the seaweed wrapped around her body and the mud that she was almost completely surrounded by. She succeeded only in rising a few inches out of the mud before falling face-first into it and sinking, prompting Carrot Top to wade over to her and pull her back out, sputtering and gasping. Rarity noticed none of it as she trotted up to the lip of the mud bath. She had an easel with her loaded with drawings of a certain butterscotch pegasus, each time dressed in different clothing. “Miss Fluttershy, may I present to you – you!” She flourished the first of the drawings. “Aloe!” Carrot Top shouted as she struggled out of the mud bath. “Lotus!” “Oh, I put a sound-dampening spell over the door, darling,” Rarity said. “Very simple cantrip, learned it after my sister was born, I love her but by the stars can she be loud when she sings. No, peace and quiet while we work, that’s what’s needed. Now, Flutter – where did she go?” Carrot Top and Rainbow Dash both looked to the mud bath, eyes wide, just as something pony-shaped beneath a thick layer of mud rose from it, gasped for breath, and then tried to hide back underneath her cover. Rainbow Dash stopped her, however, even as she glared out at Rarity. “Go away!” “Can’t you see how much you’re scaring her?” Carrot Top added. “She’s supposed to be relaxing!” Rarity blinked a few times at that, then looked to Fluttershy – actually looked at her, for the first time, finally noticing that Fluttershy was all but hyperventilating as she quivered in Rainbow Dash’s hooves, staring at Rarity less like one pony looking at another and more like a mouse staring at a particularly hungry cat. “Oh…oh dear,” she noted. “I am so sor – ” “'Oh dear?'” Rainbow Dash demanded. “That’s all you can say? You assaulted her in the lobby and you’re – ” Rarity’s nose wrinkled slightly. “I don’t have to take that tone of voice from you, Rainbow Dash! You’re the one lazing about in here while a storm rages outside – ” “I’m not lazing – and that word has to be made up – but I’m not doing it, I’m helping my friend while you just keep showing up and – ” “Well please forgive me if I see such an exquisite example of beauty as Fluttershy and my muse begins howling at me, it’s not something I expect you’ll ever understand – ” “Your muse?” Rainbow Dash demanded, climbing from the mud bath and stomping towards Rairty. “So you’ve got a little voice inside your head that makes you ruin ponies days? I guess that makes it okay, then – ” “Why you rude – ” “Stuck up – ” “Lazy – ” “Crazy – ” Carrot Top glanced between the two mares shouting at each other, then glanced behind Rainbow Dash, at Fluttershy. The pegasus had her hooves to her ears and her eyes closed tightly as she trembled in the mud bath. At the sight, Carrot Top steeled herself, then stepped between the two quarreling mares, holding her hooves up. “Alright,” she said, then louder, “alright! Both of you! Quiet!” Rarity and Rainbow Dash both blinked at Carrot Top, stopping their mud-slinging – nearly literal mud-slinging from the looks of Rainbow Dash’s raised front hoof – and looking to the earth pony. Carrot Top looked between the two of them, settling on Rainbow Dash first. “Shouting at Rarity isn’t helping Fluttershy,” she said, pointing a hoof at the trembling pegasus. She turned around before Rainbow Dash could respond, looking to Rarity. “Fluttershy needs space and needs time to get used to new ponies. You haven’t given her either of those.” Rarity blinked a few times, glancing between Rainbow Dash and Carrot Top a few times before turning to look at Fluttershy, scuffing a hoof on the floor in embarrassment. “I’m sorry, Miss Fluttershy,” she said. “I’m afraid I may have gotten caught up in how beautiful you are. You would make the perfect model for this new clothes line I wanted to try my hoof at bringing to Cloudsdale…but I shall leave you in peace. Good day.” Rarity grasped her easel telekinetically, looking it over for a few moments before turning and heading towards the spa door, when something completely unexpected happened. “Wait!” Fluttershy exclaimed. It was more of a normal talking voice, but for her, she may as well have screamed at the top of her lungs. Carrot Top and Rainbow Dash both blinked in shock as they looked to Fluttershy, while Rarity, not as familiar with how quiet Fluttershy could normally be, simply turned around. Fluttershy, herself, glanced away from Rarity’s scrutiny almost immediately, though after a moment she slowly looked back, though she used her mane as a shield like she normally did. “Um…” she said, churning the mud with one hoof delicately. “Did…did you say…that…that you makes clothes…?” Rarity looked surprised and almost insulted for a moment, before the look passed and she smiled surprisingly gently. “Oh, yes. You wouldn’t know, I suppose, living out in that cottage…I am the proprietor of Carousel Boutique. Where everything is chic, unique, and magnifique!” There was several long moments of silence, as Fluttershy seemed to be considering saying something, almost did, then decided against it, only to open her mouth again a moment later. “Could…” she said at great length, “could I see…?” “What?” Rainbow Dash demanded, as Rarity trotted over to Fluttershy. “But…but Fluttershy, she – ” The pegasus stopped when Carrot Top raised a hoof, placing it on Rainbow Dash’s withers as she leaned in close. “Fluttershy just reached out to somepony,” she reminded Rainbow Dash softly. “Of her own free will. No goading, no us trying to put her around friendly ponies, nothing.” Rainbow Dash blinked at that. “Yeah, but did she have to reach out to this stuck-up, frou-frou, crazy – ” “Oh, that?” Rarity said to a question of Fluttershy’s about one of her sketches. “Well, about a three months ago the Wonderbolts decided they wanted to update their dress uniforms, and so there’s an open contest for clothiers right now. This is going to be my submission.” Rainbow Dash was back in the mud bath and next to Fluttershy in the time it took for Carrot Top to blink, looking at the sketch with wide eyes. Carrot Top suppressed the urge to chuckle as she returned to the mud herself. “So…what did you think of your first spa trip?” Carrot Top asked Fluttershy as the two and Rainbow Dash left the building, having finished their mud bath, been cleaned, and then proceeded to the hooficure. Aloe and Lotus had been surprised to find Rarity with them, even more so when they realized that Fluttershy had been actually talking with Rarity – not merely listening or making a comment every now and then, as she had with the spa ponies, but actually holding a conversation, about, of all things, fashion, a conversation that had continued through the hooficure and the end of their trip and the three of them leaving, while Rarity stayed behind due to now being in desperate need of a spa trip after the excitement of the past hour or two. Fluttershy had displayed a frankly freaky knowledge of sewing techniques throughout. Rainbow Dash hadn’t had much to say to Rarity after they’d moved on from the Wonderbolts uniform idea, other than suggesting that as good as it was, its ‘coolness’ had to be increased by at least a fifth. Whatever that meant. Fluttershy considered Carrot Top’s question. “It was…” she said, “…good. And Rarity seemed nice once she calmed down…I guess she just got excited. Rainbow Dash gets excited like that sometimes, too.” “What?” Rainbow Dash demanded, taking to the sky in surprise. She still didn’t have a rain-cloak, but didn’t seem to mind how much it was undoing her spa trip at all, while Fluttershy and Carrot Top were both being careful to avoid the worst of the mud puddles and keep their manes and tails covered by their cloaks. “I’m nothing like her!” she paused, thinking. “Am I?” Fluttershy and Carrot Top looked to each other, smiling and not saying anything. “Well,” Carrot Top said, stopping. “I’m going to go see another friend…she’s the one I go to the spa with every month, I’ll see if she’s okay with going on Sundays instead of our normal days.” Once again, Carrot Top carefully avoided mentioning that the friend was Trixie. “This was a great day for you, Fluttershy.” Fluttershy smiled brightly at that. “Thank-you, Carrot Top. I’ll see you soon.” “See you,” Carrot Top said, waving goodbye to Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. The latter still seemed concerned with trying to figure out how she was similar to Rarity. It probably wouldn’t occur to her for some time, if ever, that letting a rainstorm loose on Ponyville was at least as selfishly careless as Rarity’s actions towards Fluttershy, but Carrot Top had learned some time ago that she should focus on helping one pony at a time, lest she end up nearly losing her farm. Again. Her trot to Trixie’s home was largely uneventful, at least until she reached the front door and found herself face-to-face with a gray-coated, yellow-maned pegasus pony, bedecked in the official uniform and rain cloak of a postmare of Equestria. “Ditzy!” Carrot Top said happily. “How are you?” Ditzy Doo, Element of Kindness, offered a smile as she opened the front gate to the Residency of the Representative of the Night Court of Luna (attempts getting ponies to abbreviate it to ‘the RRNCL’ had yet to work), Trixie’s home, being said Representative. “Oh, you know,” the wall-eyed pegasus said. “I’ve been spreading good news and good advice all around Ponyville today. You?” “Spa trip with Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy,” Carrot Top said. “It turned out pretty well, actually…Fluttershy is going to try and make it a monthly thing, in fact!” Ditzy beamed. “Great!” she exclaimed, as the two reached the door and opened it. “I’ve been trying for years to help that mare…so she’s happy?” “Fluttershy is happy,” Carrot Top confirmed as the two entered the Residency, drying their hooves on the mat before glancing into Trixie’s office, where there was a fifty-fifty chance of finding the blue unicorn. Instead, what the two found was not just Trixie, but Raindrops, Cheerilee, and Lyra as well, all of them surrounding a pile of candy and looking like they’d just diffused an incredibly awkward situation. “Oh…is everypony really here?” “Saves me a few trips,” Ditzy said happily. “Huh…what’d we miss?” Let me make something clear, though, now that I think about it. Yes, I’d like to make more money. Yes, I’d like to have a bigger house, or better equipment for my farm. I want more material things. Who doesn’t? Even the Princess probably wishes she could have more of something sometimes. But what I want more than anything else is something that I have plenty of already: friends. I don’t need more than what I have in that regard. Also, at the moment, I wouldn’t mind some of that candy… 6. With Love and CareIf somepony had told me when I was a foal that I was going to grow up to be a mail mare, I wouldn’t have believed them. I knew exactly what I was going to be: A Wonderbolt. Yes, I had strabismus, but I was going to be such a great flier in spite of it that the Wonderbolts were going to let me in anyway. Not that I was in any way, shape, or form training to be a Wonderbolt, of course. Foals have dreams like that: we’re going to get everything we ever wanted without ever putting any actual effort into it. Wonderbolt, adventurer, princess, it all boils down to fantastic dreams, totally unrealistic desires. That’s what makes them so fun, though, isn’t it? Just daring to imagine, daring to dream. Believing beyond reason. Ignoring the obstacles in our way and aligning the stars with our bare hooves. There’s no one point when we realize the folly of our dreams. We just gradually begin to understand that the world doesn’t bend over backwards to accommodate us. That we have to work for what we want, have to set realistic limitations on our goals, be careful with our bits, be mindful of our faults and our vulnerabilities. We gradually wake up and take stock of where we are and work with what we have. The dreams are still there, but they’re tempered by doses of reality. We settle on things like becoming a weather captain, or teacher, or general manager of some chain of stores. Sure, they’re not as amazingly fantastic, but they’re what we can achieve. A lot of ponies, on realizing it, think that’s kind of sad, and I guess to an extent it is. But what if everypony actually did achieve their foalhood dreams? What if everypony became a Wonderbolt or an archaeologist or a princess? Then who’d be left to take care of the weather, or the teach the next generation of adventurers, or run all the stores of Equestria? Besides, when we grow up, we discover a much better dream than any we ever had as a foal: Parenthood. Not that everypony is necessarily cut out to be a parent, or that everypony should try to become one even if they don’t want to, of course! But for ponies who do have foals of their own…we find a new dream. And unlike all our foalhood dreams of soaring at supersonic speeds, or uncovering lost cities, or ruling the kingdom, these dreams are real. They’re dreams that we can reach out and touch, and hold, and watch as they grow up. They require work, but they’re dreams that we’re actually willing to work on, unlike our foalhood dreams. No, we don’t all lead glamorous lives. We don’t have to. Just living, all by itself, is enough. At least it is for me. I’ll never fly at supersonic speeds, I’ll never find a lost city, I’ll never rule a kingdom. But I will do everything I can to make tomorrow a better place for everypony – because if I do that, then tomorrow will be a better place for my daughter. And that would be a dream come true. There was something to be said for how much the right uniform could make a pony feel like they were a part of something bigger than themselves. First came the pants, deep blue, buckled around her loin and festooned with pockets, into which Ditzy Doo slipped several tightly-sealed ink wells, pens, and forms. Following that was the jacket, with holes along its back to allow for her to spread her wings. She turned up the collar on the jacket as she finished sliding it on. Next came the saddlebags, well-worn but sturdy, currently empty but soon to be brimming full of letters and parcels to be delivered to the mares and stallions of Ponyville, and expertly designed to not interfere with her wings if she chose to fly while delivering the mail. Nearly suited up for the day, Ditzy Doo preened her feathers, ran a brush through her mane and tied it back so it would be out of her way, and last but not least reached for her – Ditzy Doo frowned when her hoof reached out for her hat, but came up empty. Glancing at the spot where she’d set it down in confusion, she turned around and found the hat easily enough, as it was sitting on her daughter’s head. Dinky Doo was smiling at her mother, and gave a quick salute after a moment, though the action nearly made the hat fall from her head. It didn’t matter how often Ditzy saw the sight of her daughter wearing her mail mare’s hat: it was adorable every time, and always would be. She hid a chuckle behind one hoof as Dinky’s horn glowed, tongue clenched between her teeth as the young unicorn focused on her telekinesis, moving the hat from her head to her mother’s. It still took visible effort, but she wasn’t straining the way she had been at the start of the year – her telekinesis had improved by leaps and bounds, though she still occasionally grabbed things harder than she intended. Ditzy smiled as she trotted up to her daughter, drawing her into a tight hug and nuzzling her. Dinky returned it eagerly. “Is your lunch packed up?” Ditzy asked. Dinky nodded, pointing to the counter, where a brown paper bag sat at the ready. “Yup!” “Homework packed?” Dinky trotted over to her school pack and opened it up, double-checking. “Uh-huh!” she confirmed as she slid her bag over her back. “Teeth brushed?” Dinky gave a pearly white grin in response, one that Ditzy returned. “Okay,” she said, as her daughter grabbed her lunch from the counter and the two ponies left the apartment, Ditzy’s destination simply downstairs, while Dinky would be trotting to the school across town, along with dozens of other foals. “What are you learning about today?” Dinky scrunched her nose a little as she remembered the lesson plan. “Well, in math, Miss Cheerilee is teaching us about multiplying and dividing fractions. And in history we’ve been learning about the creation of the Hippogriff State…ooh! And in social studies today we’re supposed to be learning about cutie marks.” Dinky’s nose scrunched a little more at that. “I don’t know why, I already know all about cutie marks…” “Oh?” Ditzy asked. “Well, what makes them?” Dinky smiled. “When a pony discovers his or her special talent!” “Yes, but I mean, what actually makes them? How come all animals don’t get them? Or other races, like griffins, or buffalo?” The filly unicorn considered that for several long moments. “I don’t know,” she admitted after a moment, looking up to her mother. “But I’ll find out today!” “Yes you will,” Ditzy responded, mussing her daughter’s mane a little. Dinky waved her off with a giggle as the two reached the bottom, and mother and daughter shared a nuzzle and a quick peck on each other’s cheek. “See you later, Dinky!” Ditzy said. “’Later, Momma!” Dinky returned as she galloped off, already spotting a small gaggle of foals on the way to school themselves, joining them easily. Ditzy smiled a little at the sight. Her daughter made friends easily, certainly much easier than Ditzy herself had at the same age. Her gaze lingered for a few more moments on her daughter, before she turned, straightened her collar and the hat on her head, and strode boldly into the nerve center of Ponyville, the most important building in town, for it was the building through which the ponies of Ponyville were able to remain in contact with the rest of Equestria: The Post Office. “Ditzy!” Silver Script, the post master of Ponyville, and therefore Ditzy’s boss, called as Ditzy finished punching in. “What are you doing here? Isn’t this supposed to be your day off?” Ditzy offered a slight smile, shaking her head. “Starburst’s cousin in Las Pegasus is getting married, remember? I’m covering him for today.” Silver Script frowned at that. “I didn’t know he’d gotten you to cover him,” he said, concern in his voice. Silver Script’s coat was white, and his mane and tail were silverish. His uniform was basically identical to Ditzy’s, though he wasn’t wearing mail bags, and his hat featured a star that denoted his managerial position. “Why?” Ditzy asked, head tilting to one side, eyes sliding almost, though not quite, into focus. “You’re not sick of me, are you?” Silver Script shook his head at that. “It’s just, I think that every time we’ve needed a shift covered, ever since you moved to Ponyville, you’ve been the one to do it. I’m not paying you that badly, am I?” Ditzy blanched, holding up her hooves. “N-no!” she exclaimed. “No, boss – I mean, technically besides, you’re not paying me, the Postmaster-General in Canterlot is…but the pay’s just fine!” Silver Script’s concern didn’t fade as he ruffled his wings. “I’m just worried that some of the other mailponies are coming to you whenever they need time off, since they know you won’t say ‘no.’” “I’ve said no,” Ditzy objected, as she trotted past Silver Script, towards the mail room. “I said ‘no’ to Leeroy Wingkins last year! He had tickets to a Wonderbolts derby, I think, but I said no, because it was Dinky’s birthday, and I’d requested the day off already and Dinky was ‘out sick’ from school,” she made quote-motions with her hooves as she said that. Education was important, but birthdays only came once a year, and they shouldn’t be wasted in a classroom. “Well, okay, but that’s a special occasion,” Silver Script pointed out, as Ditzy and he entered the mail room. All the various letters and parcels had been sorted the previous day – Ditzy had done a significant amount of that, in fact, though she wouldn’t be doing that today, instead simply focusing on making the deliveries. She began to load up her mail bags. “When was the last time you tried to take a day off? Apart from that thing with the Princess a few weeks ago, that is, that doesn’t count.” Ditzy Doo paused at that, frowning a little as she took in a breath, then let it out slowly. Talking about money and paychecks was always uncomfortable with one’s boss. “At my pay grade,” she admitted, “how much I’m making an hour isn’t as important as how many hours I’m working each week.” Silver Script frowned. “You get the same hours as everypony else…” “Most everypony else have roommates, or live with their parents, or otherwise don’t really pay rent,” Ditzy pointed out. She glanced up, where, on the second floor of the post office, her apartment was. “Don’t get me wrong, I can afford it, I do get paid enough each month, I just…like to have a buffer, you know? In case of a bad week, or needing to take sick time off, or Moon forbid something happening to me or Dinky…” Silver Script’s face shifted to look far more sympathetic. “Oh,” he said. “Well…that’s sensible, I guess. Still, don’t overwork yourself, okay?” He smiled. “You only get the one life, and you’re still pretty young. You don’t want all your memories later on to be of this place.” He waved a hoof at the four walls of the post office. Ditzy nodded, then grinned. “Slack off more. Got it.” Silver Script chuckled. “Oh, we all know this place would fall apart without you, you don’t need to rub it in,” he said, turning around and heading towards his office. Ditzy’s thoughts, meanwhile, turned elsewhere as she came across a quartet of deep blue envelopes with familiar addresses on them – her own, Trixie’s, Raindrops’, and Bon Bon’s – though for the last, the letter was made out to Lyra. Of more interest to Ditzy, however, was the return address: Her Majesty the Princess Canterlot Castle Canterlot, CN, 10100 Ditzy blinked a few times at the sight. After a moment, she left her stack of letters for a moment, wandering over to another route’s and rifling through them until she found a fifth deep-blue envelope addressed to Cheerilee, and a sixth for Carrot Top in another pile. “Hmm,” she said, returning to her original pile and taking out her own letter, opening it after a few moments and pulling out something that felt like parchment but looked like paper-thin silver, which further began to glow like moonlight when it was removed from the envelope. The text on the parchment was thin and elegantly curved, in dark silver ink rather than black. Dear Ditzy Doo, In recognition of your heroic bravery and the services performed to protect the safety of the Kingdom of Equestria and all of its citizens, I, Luna, wish to personally extend to you an invitation to attend this summer’s Grand Galloping Gala, to be held at Canterlot Castle on Saturday, July 10th, beginning at 8:00 P.M. This letter shall serve as a ticket of entry for yourself and up to one guest. Please do not hesitate to contact me through Trixie if any special considerations are necessary for you or your guest of choice. R.S.V.P. Signed, Luna Equestris, Princess of Equestria Ditzy stared at the letter in her hooves, blinking a few times. “Boss?” she asked. “Hmm?” Silver Script asked from his office, looking up from some paperwork that he had just begun. “I think that I’m going to be requesting some time off.” Despite the fuss that Silver Script had made concerning Ditzy taking Starburst’s shift, it was actually going to be a fairly short one, from the looks of things, though Ditzy Doo did get Silver Script’s permission to take Carrot Top’s and Cheerilee’s letters so that she could deliver them personally once her shift ended – they’d make an excellent capstone to a day that had so far gotten off to an amazingly good start. After finishing double-checking her loads and packing up, Ditzy sallied forth, head held high and scarcely aware of the weight on her back as she set out for the start of her route. It was a circuitous one, starting at the north of town and winding counter-clockwise through Ponyville’s streets and buildings until coming to a stop at the Residency of the Representative of the Night Court of Luna – Trixie’s house. Because it moved through such a densely populated area – as compared to, for example, delivering mail to the farms – the route also wound its way back to the post office a few times. Strictly speaking, it would have made more sense to divine the route up further between several ponies, but the post office just didn’t have the pony-power, and it was hardly more than one pony could handle. Like all the routes in Ponyville, it was relatively new, having been instilled only a few months back after Silver Script had finally convinced the Postmaster-General to approve his updates to routes through the whole town. Despite this, Ditzy already knew the route, and everypony on it, like the back of her hoof. Her first stop was Pokey Pierce’s house. She hadn’t talked to Pokey as much as she might have liked, but she knew that he was Trixie’s personal assistant at the Residency, and also quite likely the reason why any work ever got done there, Trixie herself by nature being, to put it bluntly, lazy, or at least easily distracted from doing actual work in favor of whatever she felt like doing in the moment. Pokey Pierce lived in a two-story townhouse, one of several dozen that had been built over the past twenty years or so to accommodate Ponyville’s growing population. Unlike the center of town, where the first floors of homes tended to do double duty as a shop with the resident of the building living on the second floor, these townhouses were actual houses through and through. Ditzy opened her mail bags, pulling out Pokey’s mail after a few moments of searching. She found a letters, and once parcel, labeled Hoofington Horn Care as its return address. The parcel was too big to fit through Pokey’s mail slot, meaning that she had to knock a few times on Pokey’s door, then begin fishing out a clipboard for him to sign and a pen and inkwell with which to perform the deed. After a few moments of waiting, the door opened, revealing a blue unicorn stallion with a wavy silver-and-blue mane and tail, and a cutie mark of an open safety pin. Pokey’s most defining feature, however, was his horn – it was easily a third again as long as was average for a unicorn stallion of his height, and was sharpened to a perfect point. She’d heard it described as “magnificent” in the past, and it definitely seemed like an apt description. “Hello!” Ditzy said brightly. “Package for you.” “Oh?” Pokey asked, taking the package in his telekinesis and looking it over. His face fell a little when he saw the label and return address. “Oh. Well…that’s good.” Ditzy blinked a little as Pokey used his telekinesis to further grasp Ditzy’s clipboard and provided pen and inkwell, dipping the pen’s point and then signing. “Problem?” Ditzy asked. Pokey grimaced, casting a glance upwards, at his horn. “Nothing,” he said after a moment. Well, this was odd. Ditzy might not have known Pokey very well, but she did know that he was normally much more talkative and sociable, even at this time of day. “Are you…” Ditzy asked, considering how to phrase things delicately. “Having…horn problems?” Pokey’s eyes widened at that. “Wh-what?” he demanded. Ditzy held up her hooves. “Well, there’s obviously something wrong and you looked at your horn, so…” Pokey considered Ditzy, who put her best ‘talk to me’ face. Half of being a mailmare in a small town like Ponyville, she had discovered, was in being able to listen to ponies’ problems. Not necessarily to solve them, or even to give any real advice, but sometimes ponies needed somepony to talk to, somepony they saw every day and whom they trusted, but whom they didn’t actually know all that well. Of course, this wasn’t Ditzy’s normal route, but the uniform all by itself went a long way, as did the fact that she was somewhat familiar with Pokey already. At length, Pokey relented. “Okay,” he said, rubbing a hoof on his forehead. “Trixie and I…had a little…fight. Sort of.” Ditzy blinked. Trixie was one of her best friends, but she was also incredibly abrasive at times and difficult to put up with. “About your horn?” “Sort of,” Pokey repeated, sitting down on his haunches. “She’s been messing around with zebra magic again – ” “Uh-oh…” “Yeah, but this time she apparently got it right. Cooked up something called Truth is a Scourge, some kind of truth potion. Only it’s more like a truth poison. According to her it forces a pony to tell the truth, and say exactly what they’re thinking, as soon as they think it.” Ditzy blinked a few times. “And?” she asked. Pokey looked up at his horn again. “She tested it on herself,” he said. “And, let me tell you, it works. She just started blabbing about everything she saw, couldn’t stop…of course then she looked at me and apparently that made her start saying…let me see if I can remember…” he thought a few moments, before doing a surprisingly good imitation of Trixie’s Canterlot lilt “Oh Pokey I don’t think you should be here right now because I think I’m going to start telling you just how weird your whole horn obsession really is.” Ditzy blinked. “That’s not really that bad – ” “ – I mean seriously pierce the heavens with your horn you don’t have wings and what does that even mean anyway just because you have a long horn doesn’t mean anything and by the way how does a safety pin cutie mark in any way relate to ‘perseverance’ you just have an abnormally sharp horn because you spend all your free time polishing and sharpening it and frankly I think you’re thinking about something else when you polish it…” Ditzy stared. Pokey stared back. “She went on for some time,” he added. “But it became mixed with her trying to remember how to dispel the potion’s effects. Then she gave me a few days off.” He looked to his parcel, and sighed a little. “I always thought my cutie mark was perseverance…I mean, I got it after I managed to split a board in half with just my horn. I’d been trying for weeks, building up a tolerance…unicorn horns aren’t really meant for stabbing, see…and when I pulled it off I was so happy and I got my cutie mark. But now I’m wondering if Trixie’s right, if maybe it’s not perseverance…that my special talent is just having a sharp horn…” Ditzy grimaced. The entire point of a cutie mark was that it manifested when you realized what made you truly happy – meaning that it took a lot to make a pony doubt their mark, but if it happened, it meant that the pony was fundamentally doubting who they were: never a healthy prospect. She carefully weighed her next words. “Why not both?” she asked. Pokey looked to Ditzy, frowning. “A pony can’t have two special talents,” he objected. Ditzy shrugged. “But their special talent might encompass a bunch of things,” she pointed out. “A pony with a special talent for carrot farming, for example, has to be good at watering and plowing her fields, planting and tending her crop, knowing when and how to harvest…and besides,” Ditzy said, straightening up a little. “My special talent is feeling air currents and breezes. But I think I make a pretty good mail mare. My special talent isn’t my only talent.” Pokey seemed to be a little assuaged at that. Ditzy pressed on. “The way I see it,” she said, “either your special talent is perseverance, and all the work and time and effort you’ve put into your horn is indicative of that – or else your special talent is how sharp your horn is, and you’re talented at perseverance, at seeing anything through to the end – reaching any goal – climbing any mountain – ” “Stabbing right to the heart of any problem…” Pokey intoned, then louder, cheering up noticeably, “slicing through any kind of obstacles put in my way…boring through to the other side!” “Exactly!” Ditzy exclaimed, wings flapping a few times in happiness at her success. She decided to let the hurricane of puns slide; clearly he was feeling better and so had earned them. Pokey Pierce stood, one hoof raised to the sky. “You’re right! It doesn’t matter what the dumb picture on my flank means! Because no matter what, my horn is the horn that will one day pierce the Heavens!” Ditzy nodded. “And as for Trixie,” she said, “you said yourself that she was under the effects of a truth poison.” She paused, thinking as she tapped a hoof to her mouth. “Let me put it like this…see my eyes?” Ditzy raised her two front hooves, pointing at her eyes and how they wandered of their own accord. Currently her left eye was mostly pointed at Pokey, while her right one was looking down the street. “What do you think of them?” Pokey blinked a few times at that. “Um…” he said. “They’re…yellow?” Ditzy frowned. “And?” “…wandering,” he said cautiously. Ditzy nodded. “And what do you think about that?” Pokey looked like he was sensing a trap ahead but had no idea how to avoid it. “I…don’t, really. They’re just fine.” Ditzy’s smile returned. “Liar,” she said. “They’re weird. You know their weird, you just don’t want to hurt my feelings. And you feel bad for thinking that they’re weird, but it is what you think, right?” Pokey continued to look uncomfortable at that, not looking Ditzy in the eye – in fact, he was making a point of avoiding her eyes. Ditzy reached out a hoof, gently putting it on his shoulder. “It’s okay, they’re weird,” she said. “So is how much effort you put into your horn. But let’s face it,” she leaned in, and in a conspiratorially low whisper added, “if we started listing out Trixie’s problems, we’d be here all day.” She leaned back. “I think that we all have things we think about other ponies that we keep hidden. That truth poison just forced Trixie to reveal it, but she always thought it, just like you’ve always thought my eyes were weird but never said anything. But I think we can still be friends, right? So you can still be friends with Trixie too. Right?” Pokey weighed what Ditzy was saying carefully. “You’re right,” he said, with a slight sigh. “I can’t believe how much I was letting that get to me…” “Don’t worry about it,” Ditzy said, as she turned around, trotting from Pokey’s home and back onto the street. “Now, if you’ll excuse me – I have mail to deliver and more spirits to lift today!” Ditzy finished her winding route through the homes of north Ponyville in record time, making up for the prolonged stop at Pokey’s through the fortune of not having to deliver any more parcels, simply drop mail in through slots in doors or into mailboxes. The residential north of Ponyville taken care of, she now entered the west, which consisted of businesses. This meant that most of her stops were quick, as the proprietors of the businesses usually didn’t have much time to stop and chat – her stops consisted of walking in, dropping off the mail on the front counter, and walking out, pausing only if she needed a signature for a parcel. The spring to her step faltered a little, however, when she found herself standing outside of her next stop: Amethyst Star’s Fine Jewelers. The gray pegasus blinked a few times as she stared at the door, which was wood but with a frosted glass window on its front that had the store’s name on it. When she had been a younger mare growing up in Fillydelphia, Ditzy had a made a mistake of nearly catastrophic proportions: she’s conducted an affair with a unicorn named Castor Cut, a unicorn who was already married (though his marriage had been failing) and who had a daughter who was nearly as old as Ditzy Doo herself. Ditzy had known this – and hadn’t cared, too caught up in the affair, the passion, the thrill, not caring about the potential consequences – at least not until she’d become pregnant. Castor Cut had broken off the affair at that, and Ditzy, despite herself, had let him, even hoped that he’d patch things together with his wife. And if things had ended there… …but they hadn’t. Ditzy’s parents had found out – of course they’d found out – and they had dragged her to Castor Cut’s doorstep. They’d demanded, in front of his wife and his filly, that he take responsibility for Ditzy Doo an her unborn foal. And the short version of what had happened next was Ditzy had taken her savings and moved to Ponyville, looking to escape everything that had happened. Her daughter was the result of that affair, and though Ditzy would never in a million years regret having or raising Dinky, she did wish that the circumstances had been better. Still, things had been improving – until Amethyst Star had moved to town. Castor Cut’s daughter. Her parents divorced, the only-slightly-younger unicorn had moved to Ponyville for much the same reason that Ditzy had, not knowing that Ditzy was already living there. It had nearly ended disastrously for all ponies involved, but Dinky, bless her heart, had been able to start a sort of reconciliation between her mother and her half-sister. But Amethyst Star – or Sparkler, as she preferred amongst her friends – hadn’t quite yet forgiven Ditzy for the role she’d played in her parents’ break-up, and Ditzy, herself, wasn’t certain she was ready to be forgiven to playing such a large role in destroying somepony’s life. But her trepidation wasn’t going to get the mail delivered. There were four envelopes burning a hole in Ditzy’s mail bag, and the oath she swore on joining the Equestrian Postal Service meant that she had to deliver this mail, no matter what. Steeling herself, she opened the door and let herself in. “Good morning!” a voice called as soon as she entered. “Welcome to…oh. Um…hi.” Sparkler, a pony who’s mane, eyes, and coat were all varying shades of purple, was standing behind her jewelry counter, a ledger in front of her. The store was set up with display cases on three sides, forming an angular U-shape. Apart from Sparkler, there was nopony else in the store, though then again it hadn’t even hit noontime yet, so this made sense. Sparkler had been wearing a smile as Ditzy entered, though it faltered when she saw Ditzy. Ditzy, herself, put on the best one she could muster at the moment. “Hi,” she said. With Dinky around, the two could be quite cordial, as the little filly provided a common link between them - but otherwise, when the two were on their own, things tended to get tense. “Um…mail call!” she trotted up to Sparkler’s counter and pulled out the envelopes from her bag. Sparkler took them with her magic, eagerly grasping the opportunity to look at addresses and paper rather than Ditzy. “Where’s Starburst?” she asked. “His sister’s getting married in Las Pegasus,” Ditzy responded. “I’m covering his route today.” “Oh,” Sparkler said, as she looked at her envelopes. “Well, good seeing…you…” her voice trailed off as she stared at one of her letters, in a plain white, official-looking envelope. The return address on it had it coming from Fillydelphia. “Problem?” Ditzy asked. She readied herself for anything at the question. She wasn’t certain she was entirely welcome helping Sparkler with anything that might be wrong, but she’d still make the offer, and if Sparkler turned her down, she’d bow out and just wish the best for her. Sparkler’s lips were pressed together in a thin line. “This is from my father,” she said quietly. Right. That made Ditzy officially unwelcome, in all likelihood. She turned to leave – at least until she saw Sparkler tear the envelope and the letter inside in half with her telekinesis, and tossed it into a nearby waste-paper basket before looking very pointedly at the next envelope. Ditzy stared at Sparkler for a few moments in silence, scuffing one hoof on the floor and shuffling her wings. “Um…” she ventured cautiously. “You’re…not even going to read it?” Sparkler was standing very still. “I haven’t spoken to him for a very long time,” she said softly. “That’s not going to change. You know why.” Ditzy weighed her options here, and came to the conclusion that some battles just couldn’t be won. She turned around to leave, when Sparkler spoke up again. “Why should I?” she asked. “He doesn’t deserve to be a father. Not after what he did. With you.” The question was asked just loudly enough that Ditzy’s instincts strongly suspected that the unicorn was hoping for an answer. What kind of answer, though, Ditzy didn’t know – for all she knew, it wouldn’t matter, all Sparkler wanted was for Ditzy to rise to her bait so that she had an excuse to start shouting – turning Ditzy into little more than a winged bucking bag. Ditzy could be a winged bucking bag for Sparkler if she had to be. She owed the young mare at least that much. “Sparkler,” she said softly, trotting forward again, getting as close as she dared. “Your father…made a mistake. But he never meant to hurt you. He just didn’t think things through.” Sparkler remained quiet. Ditzy considered. “I didn’t really get along with my own parents either,” she continued. “I mean, not after I became pregnant. I spent a few months trying to hide it…and when my dad found out…” she breathed out a long sigh. “Well. You were there.” “Yes. I was,” Sparkler hissed. Ditzy flinched. “I didn’t want to do that,” she said. “I…I’d accepted that your dad chose your mom and you over me. I figured that that’s what he was supposed to do. But my dad and mom, they got so angry, they weren’t thinking straight, so they decided to drag me to his door…tried to basically shame him into choosing me. Showed me off like I was a…some kind of…” Ditzy’s front hooves were raised, held out before her like she was trying to crush an apple between them. Words failed her, however, and after a moment she sighed. “Well. I moved out to Ponyville after that and didn’t see or write to my parents for a year, though I did have a few friends I kept in contact with, so my parents knew where I was. But I just threw out their letters, too.” Sparkler stared intently at her own front hooves. “My dad is a construction worker,” Ditzy said. “In Fillydelphia. And one day, just a few months after Dinky was born, my mom showed up on my front door and told me that he’d been in an accident.” Sparkler’s eyes shot up at that, looking to Ditzy, the implications cutting through her own personal feelings. “Was he…?” “He was…okay, and he's fine now,” Ditzy said. She felt a little guilty for the set-up like that, but she needed to make sure that Sparkler understood the gravity of what she was doing. “A girder had fallen and he’d nearly been caught under it pushing another pony out of the way, but it still ended up clipping him, broke his pelvis.” Ditzy looked down herself. “Could have been worse. A few more inches, and it might have been his spine…a few feet, his head.” Ditzy looked back to Sparkler. “And then that would have been it. I’d have never seen him again.” Ditzy looked to the waste paper basket. “I’m not telling you to just make things up with your father. I don’t have the right. But you shouldn’t just…ignore him. Because you only have the one dad.” Sparkler stared at Ditzy for a long while, weighing what she said. At length, her horn glowed, and she pulled the pieces envelope from the trash bin, removing the letter from it. After a moment, she unfolded the two halves and looked it over, holding her breath all the while. Ditzy, herself, was waiting. Sparkler finished reading, and set the letter down in front of her, letting out a long sigh. “He’s…he moving,” she said. “Leaving the old house, getting a smaller place since it’s just him now. He was just sending his new address.” Ditzy nodded. She knew that there had to be more, Castor Cut probably asking, or even begging, for his daughter to write him every once in a while. Ditzy didn’t need to hear about that, though. Instead, she just nodded, turning and leaving. “Ditzy?” Sparkler asked as the pegasus reached the door. Ditzy paused, looking behind her. “Thanks,” the unicorn said after a moment. “I…I might stop by the post office later. I’ll have a letter to send.” Ditzy offered a smile at that, nodding. “Don’t know if I’ll be there,” she said, unconsciously tipping her mail mare’s hat, “but we’ll make sure it gets to the right place.” Ditzy wandered through Ponyville, the spring to her step gradually returning. She’d made her first return trip to the post office to retrieve more mail, and on the way out she’d noticed a gradually approaching storm cloud from the Everfree Forest – and a distinct lack of any weather patrol pony cloud platforms in front of it, where the weather patrol should have been preparing to tackle the Everfree storm. She sighed at the sight, considering for a few moments before heading back into the post office. Her mail bags were waterproofed, but the same could not be said for the pegasus pony who carried them. She didn’t doubt that the weather patrol was just taking longer than it should have to get organized, and that the storm cloud proper would be dealt with soon enough, but there was always a chance of a few stray clouds wandering over Ponyville and soaking it. Be prepared! Technically the Colt Scout motto, but Ditzy found it to just be useful life advice no matter the circumstance, and as a result Ditzy emerged from the post office a second time carrying, though not yet wearing just in case it turned out to be unnecessary, an official Equestrian Postal service rain cloak as she resumed her rounds. Ditzy’s deliveries and little chats as she made them weren’t all about drama, of course. She chatted with the Flower Trio about the contents of their parcels, apparently rare flower seeds imported from Tapira (they sounded delicious), asked after Baritone’s husband, who had been sick last time Ditzy had chatted with him (he’d made a full recovery), was given a few pieces of ‘sound business advice’ from Filthy Rich (who never seemed to be shy about hoofing out such advice, even to those who did not run a business), and in general got paid to walk around and socialize and, as a favor to the Equestrian government, pass out mail. Or at least that’s how Ditzy chose to approach her mail routes, anyway. As she walked, the jealous sun continued to rise in the sky, quickly approaching its zenith. Gradually the ponies out and about on the streets began to thin, each finding some good reason to be indoors and remain so for at least a half an hour – and traditionally a full hour – as noon arrived. There had been a time only a few months ago where some ponies would choose to skirt or even outright ignore the tradition, but then Corona had returned from her imprisonment, and made good her escape to parts unknown, if not her plan to take over Equestria. Suddenly, not lingering beneath the burning orb she claimed dominion over had once again seemed like a sound policy, and it was no different with Ditzy Doo herself, who had at once the distinct pleasure of driving Corona off coupled with the distinct displeasure of having met her personally in the first place. Ditzy did not dwell on any of this, however. Instead, she found herself comfortably inside Sugarcube Corner, Ponyville’s premier bakery, several minutes before the bell at the town hall struck noon. Immediately on entering, the scent of frosting and batter and good baking assaulted Ditzy’s nostrils, along with the sight of a vibrantly pink pony standing behind the counter: Pinkie Pie, the apprentice baker that the Cakes had taken on a few years back. She was moving like a blur through the visible kitchen, from countertop to oven so fast that Ditzy almost thought she saw multiple Pinkie Pies. “…served upon a silver spoon…toss a fig and save the date and…oh! Ditzy Doo! Hi!” Pinkie exclaimed. She had been singing to herself, but stopped when she saw the mail pony, looking up from her work and waving one hoof, though it was swiftly joined by a second. “Hi, Pinkie,” Ditzy said, trotting up to the counter lest she have to deal with Pinkie actually leaping over it to fully greet her – it had happened before. Pinkie was excitable, to say the least. Sometimes Ditzy suspected that her having such an easy access to sugar was not entirely the best of ideas. Pinkie didn’t make use of her surprising acrobatic skill this time, though she did bounce over to the counter with a beaming smile on her face. “Mail? For the Cakes? Or is there any for me? Huh?” Ditzy fetched out the letters and one magazine for Sugarcube Corner, checking them. “No letters, but there is your monthly Pony Party Planner Periodical.” “Oooh yes!” Pinkie exclaimed exuberantly as she took it from Ditzy’s hooves, immediately flipping it open and paging through it. “This is my favorite magazine! Advice on how to make parties, plan parties, prepare for parties, a monthly list of the top ten bestest upcoming parties in Equestria, what to wear, what to do, who to see…” She went on for a little while, even as she signed for the magazine delivery, never stopping despite having a mouthful of pen at one point. Ditzy just smiled. Constant exposure to Pinkie Pie could begin to grate on anypony’s nerves, but in small doses it was difficult not to catch her perpetually positive fever. “I’m actually going to a party in Canterlot soon, myself,” she said, smiling widely. “Tenth of July, the – ” “Grand Galloping Gala!” Pinkie exclaimed, leaping backwards and throwing her front hooves high into the air, eyes widening. She lost her balance after a moment, falling backwards, but easily rolled with it and came up on all four hooves and shooting forward again. “You have a ticket to the Grand Galloping Gala? How’d you get it – oh, wait, nevermind, Element of Kindness, saved Equestria, duh. I wish I was an Element! I bet I’d get an invitation!” Ditzy had heard about what the Gala was typically like, for the non-politicals anyway, from Trixie. She had a feeling that Pinkie and the Gala would mix like oil and water. She settled on simply nodding. “Do you mind if I wait out the sun in here?” Ditzy asked after she tucked away her clipboard. Pinkie shook her head. “Of course you can! I’d never turn a pony out and just let them get sunstroke!” she paused, putting a hoof to her mouth. “Feel like I’m forgetting something – oh! Cupcakes!” she turned around quickly, dashing back towards the oven and reaching it just as an egg timer set nearby went off. Within moments, the pink pony was removing several trays of baked goods from the ovens, setting them aside to cool off. It was likely the last batch she’d be cooking for a while, given the sheer unlikelihood of her getting customers for the next hour. Well, apart from Ditzy herself. As long as she was here for the next hour, she supposed she might as well take her lunch break. “Ooh, the Gala, you’re so lucky!” Pinkie exclaimed as she came galloping back over after finishing with the oven. “It’s the most amazing incredible tremendous super-fun wonderful terrifically humongous party in all of Equestria! I’ve always always always wanted to go!” Ditzy Doo sensed a song and dance coming on. Indeed, Pinkie began spinning and shaking and generally dancing around behind the counter, to a tune only she could hear. “Oh the Grand Galloping Gala is the best place for me! “Oh the Grand Galloping Gala is the best place for me! “Hip hip – hooray! “It's the best place for me! “For Pinkie...!” Pinkie turned to look at Ditzy, eyes wide and starry. “With decorations like streamers and fairy-lights and pinwheels and piñatas and pin-cushions! With goodies like sugar cubes and sugar canes and sundaes and sun-beams and sarsaparilla! And I get to play my favorite-est of favorite fantabulous games like Pin the Tail on the Pony!” “Oh the Grand Galloping Gala is the best place for me “Oh the Grand Galloping Gala is the best place for me “'Cause it's the most galarrific superly-terrific gala ever “In the whole galaxy – Wheee!” Ditzy blinked a few times, her eyes rolling of their own accord as they had tried to keep up with Pinkie’s movements. She knocked the side of her head a few times to remind them that it was alright if they wandered, but not so fast and not at the same time. “I don’t think it’s a party like that,” she said. “Actually from what Trixie’s told me it’s more just bumping shoulders with a lot of high-society ponies. Talking and drinking a little. Hors d’oeuvres. That kind of stuff.” Pinkie stared at Ditzy for a few moments as she considered that. “Yikes,” she said. “I always thought that the Pony Party Planner Periodical put that in there ‘cause the Gala was too amazingly superrific and if they revealed just how amazingly superrific it was than everypony would go and there’d be lines outside of the gates of Canterlot and ponies trying to get in and they’d run out of bread so Luna would have to let them eat cake but that would just get everypony mad ‘cause there’s never enough cake unless I’m baking and then everypony would rise up and overthrow the government!” Ditzy stared at Pinkie. Pinkie stared back. “Or something like that,” she appended, and let out a long, drawn-out sigh. “I wish I could go. Get me there and I guarantee I could turn that bore-fest into the ultra-awesome paaaar-tay that it’s supposed to be in five minutes!” Some part of Ditzy’s mind reminded her that she was allowed one guest. The remaining parts of Ditzy’s mind fell upon that part and trampled it underhoof until it apologized for raising the subject. Not for the sake of those in attendance as much as for Pinkie Pie herself, and to stave off what would happen if she did end up there. If Pinkie Pie really could turn it into one of her own parties in five minutes, then Ditzy strongly suspected that in ten, she’d be thrown into a dungeon. In her mind’s eye, Ditzy specifically saw Luna doing the throwing, wearing, in addition to her crown, an overturned cake. She stifled a laugh at that, looking to Pinkie. “Maybe you can throw a party here in Ponyville instead,” she said. “Make it as ultra-awesome as you want without worrying about rubbing any of the stuffy Canterlot nobles the wrong way.” Pinkie was silent a moment as she processed that. Ditzy strongly suspected that Pinkie Pie was much more intelligent than she seemed at first glance, and was even now probably crunching numbers and doing figures in her head – number of ponies in Ponyville, cost of party supplies, amount of eggs needed for batter to make the cakes, how many sheets of paper needed to make the confetti and streamers, and then all of these numbers multiplied several times over in order to make it a worthwhile Ponyville parallel to the Gala. Apparently the numbers turned out well as Pinkie let out a huge gasp. “I should!” she exclaimed, prancing around at the thought. “That’s the best idea ever, Ditzy! Oh, and I’m gonna need your help to pass out all the invitations! I should get to work on those! Ooh! You can help me with the design!” Pinkie glanced left and right conspiratorially, before leaning in. “I’ll give you a free muffin if you do. In fact a free tray of muffins! Your choice of ingredients! I’ll bake it right up just for you!” Ditzy’s wings flared a little at those magical, hypnotic words: fresh custom muffin tray free of charge. She was not normally one to give into such an under-the-table request, but where muffins were concerned, she’d make an exception, provided she covered her bases first. “What about Mister and Missus Cake?” she asked, looking around. “Where are they, anyway?” “At the hospital,” Pinkie said, though the smile didn’t leave her face, so Ditzy assumed that there was no problem worth worrying about. She was vindicated in this believe as Pinkie pressed on, “I think Missus Cake is making a special bun in her personal oven, if you know what I mean!” Ditzy smiled brightly at that. It was about time, the Cakes had only been married for ten years. “You’re sure?” “Pretty sure! But I don’t know, I’m not a doctor. That’s what the hospital is for! Now stay right there!” She dashed off, out of sight and up some stairs, to the flat she rented above the bakery. After just a few moments she had arrived back downstairs with pads of paper and pencils. “Now let’s get crackin’! What should a Pinkie Pie’s Ponyville Gala invitation look like?” Ditzy considered, before reaching into one of her pockets and producing her own invitation. “Well,” she said, “we could use this as a base.” Pinkie’s grin tripled in size as she regarded the shining invitation. “Alright!” she exclaimed. The two ponies worked in silence for several seconds. Pinkie broke it first as she finished reading it. “Hey,” she noted. “it says here…that you can take a guest!” “Uh,” Ditzy responded. Ditzy left Sugarcube Corner an hour later having learned two things: one, that a whole tray of free muffins with her choice of ingredients in them was delicious; and two, that Ditzy’s guest to the Gala was going to be Sparkler. This was a detail she could work out with Sparkler at a later date, of course. Once again, Ditzy felt that denying the Gala to Pinkie was probably for the perpetual party pony’s own good. After Sugarcube Corner, she had only a few stops before her mail bag was once again empty, prompting another trip back to the post office. Once more, she noted the building storm over the Everfree, and still a notable lack of cloud platforms from the weather patrol. They weren’t seriously going to just let it go over town, were they? Several hours later – Ditzy returning to the post office two more times – Ditzy had her answer as the first of the raindrops began to fall. By now, she had completed her circuit through Ponyville’s west and south, and was steadily making her way north again, or beginning to, anyway. She stopped trotting when she felt the first drop of rain, taking off her mail bags and counting herself as showing a surprising amount of foresight for both already having the rain cloak on her, and having dropped her muffins off at the post office, where they would remain safe and dry. The storm, at least, seemed to be all bark but little bite. The rain began falling in earnest just as Ditzy began travelling more north than east. There was a lot of rain, but not much wind, and no thunder or lightning. The rain cloak she wore was sturdy and large, doing a good job of protecting her from the rain even as she continued doing a good job delivering mail (if she did say so herself, which she did). The conversations of the ponies she spoke to were now inevitably about the rain – complaining about it being out of nowhere, decrying the weather team as being lazy, one particular pegasus pony named Airheart cursing the fact that she’d forgotten that rain tended to have a negative effect on date plans, at least if makeup was involved. Eventually, Ditzy found herself coming to her last stop, at least before she began making personal stops to each of her friends in order to deliver their Gala invitations: the Ponyville town hall. The circular building was located in the center of town, open at all hours and ready to accept anypony who entered. Ditzy’s mail for the town hall included several parcels and letters for the various town councilors, but more importantly a duo of letters addressed directly to the Office of the Mayor. As per Equestrian Postal Service rules, that meant that Ditzy had to deliver the mail directly to the mayor herself, and not simply the secretary at the town hall’s front desk, and yes, she understood that mayor Ivory Scroll was busy at the moment, but she could wait, and no, scowling at her was not going to make her change her mind or abandon her dedication to her oath of service. Thus it was that Ditzy waited half an hour outside of the mayor’s office for Ivory Scroll to be free. Part of Ditzy suspected that the wait was as long as it was because the mayor, or else her secretary, was in a bad mood and wanted to make somepony suffer. It did afford Ditzy an opportunity to look around aimlessly a lot. The sole interesting feature of the hall outside of Ivory Scroll’s office was the name printed on her office door; Ivory Scroll, Lady Mayor of Ponyville, and that only because it reminded Ditzy that whomsoever held the office of mayor in Ponyville was a Lord or Lady, as appropriate, in the Night Court of Luna, though that particular title was attached to the office rather than the pony who held it. It was significant only in that it was a minor fact likely to one day win Ditzy a game of Trivial Pursuit. At length, the mayor was finally free, and Ditzy trotted into her office. Ivory Scroll decorated in reds and greens, giving her office a surprisingly festive appearance, though the pony sitting behind her desk seemed to be anything but as she alternated between writing something on a ledger and glancing out the window at the rain that was pouring outside. Ditzy offered a sympathetic smile as she approached the desk, getting out her mail. “Long day?” she asked. Ivory Scroll let out a long sigh at that. “More like the day before a long day,” she said. At her desk was a steaming cup of coffee, which she took a long swig from – with such relish that Ditzy suspected that something a mite stronger than milk or sugar was flavoring it, though Ivory Scroll didn’t yet appear to be drunk, or even buzzed. “This…rainstorm. From the Everfree! Out of nowhere! It’s criminally negligent!” Ditzy blinked. “Really?” she asked, as she set Ivory Scroll’s letters on her desk. “It should be,” the mayor responded, glancing over the letters but opening neither, instead putting them in a pile on the right side of her desk. She ran her hooves over her face. “This is an election year, and Rainbow Dash lets a rain storm just run roughshod over us for no reason. Why now? We had a schedule – she submitted the schedule herself – why didn’t she stick to her own schedule?” “I’m sure there was a reason,” Ditzy said conciliatorily. She fluttered her wings a little. “There can be a lot of difference between the weather on the ground and the weather a few thousand feet up. Maybe the winds up there are too strong and Miss Dash didn’t feel like risking her patrol on the storm.” Ivory Scroll glanced at Ditzy, considering. “Do you think Hoofington will buy that?” she asked hopefully. “Huh?” Ditzy asked. “Hoofington,” Ivory Scroll hissed, like it was a foul curse. Hoofington was one of the next towns over from Ponyville, along with Bridleton. “Every time we’ve had even so much as a stray cirrus float over Ponyville and into Hoofington, Mayor Quill Graze has sent me a very angrily-worded letter accusing me of not having any kind of control over my weather team. And then he keeps threatening to send over his weather patrol captain to ‘teach Rainbow Dash how it’s done,’ though the way I hear things she starts things and then takes forever to finish them! Rainbow Dash could take Stormy Squ-” “So,” Ditzy said, stopping the mayor from going on a rant, “I…take it that a whole storm system reaching Hoofington will be even worse?” Ivory Scroll stared at Ditzy for a few moments, and responded by taking another long draw of her coffee. “Quill Graze…thinks he’s so great…he doesn’t live on the edge of the Everfree! The weather patrol eats up half of the town budget…not my fault that his weather team is actually going to have to work for a change…” Ivory Scroll continued under her breath for several seconds, the only intelligible words being the occasional drawn-out, sibilant hiss of “Hoofington,” often accompanied by a slight hoof-shake. Ditzy Doo rubbed a hoof behind her head. “This…isn’t really Quill Graze’s fault, though,” she pointed out. Ivory Scroll grimaced. “No. It’s Rainbow Dash’s. I just know that she let the storm through. Probably didn’t feel like waking up. It’s easy for her, she can just move that fancy cloud-mansion of hers higher. Some of us have to walk home…” another round of mumblings. “Oooh, I’m going to pay for this come election time…” “Don’t you usually run unopposed?” “Doesn’t mean I don’t want the show of support!” the mayor objected. Ditzy had to concede that point. “Well…just get Rainbow Dash up here and chew her out, then,” she said. “In fact, the whole weather patrol team, or at least the ponies who were on-duty today,” Ditzy winced at that, wondering if Raindrops had been scheduled for today. She didn’t want her friend to be chewed out if she didn’t have to be – but then again, if she had a job and she didn’t do it, then that would have to happen. Ivory Scroll sighed. “No point. I’m not their boss. Weather patrol is run out of Cloudsdale, I’m basically just a glorified observer. And complaining to Cloudsdale doesn’t help because Rainbow Dash has more pull there than me, somehow.” Ditzy considered. Political maneuvers were well outside her normal area of expertise, even small-town politics like this. She could offer a shoulder to cry on, give advice for planning parties, patch up spats between friends, but tell somepony how to navigate the quagmire that was modern governance? She was completely out of her league. Sometimes, one had to just accept that. She offered a helpless shrug to the mayor. “Well…” she said, “Good luck, I guess.” The mayor grunted a little, though she did wave goodbye as Ditzy trotted out of her office and towards the town hall’s exit. Well, she had tried, at least. Her official rounds for the day completed, Ditzy checked her mail bags and saw that the five remaining blue envelopes, along with her own already opened one, were still tucked safely inside the waterproofed container. Her first stop on this particular route was easy: The Residency of the Representative of the Night Court of Luna, located directly across from the town hall. As she trotted over there, she noticed another pony approaching it as well, wearing a rain cloak as sturdy as Ditzy’s own and with familiar orange tresses poking out from beneath her drawn hood. The other pony noticed her approach quickly enough, and smiled brightly as the two of them reached the front gate of the Residency together. “Ditzy!” Carrot Top, farmer and Element of Generosity, said brightly. “How are you?” Ditzy Doo offered a smile as she opened the front gate to the Residency. “Oh, you know,” the mail mare said. “I’ve been spreading good news and good advice all around Ponyville today. You?” “Spa trip with Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy,” Carrot Top said. “It turned out pretty well, actually…Fluttershy is going to try and make it a monthly thing, in fact!” Ditzy beamed at that. “Great!” she exclaimed, as the two reached the door and opened it. “I’ve been trying for years to help that mare…so she’s happy?” “Fluttershy is happy,” Carrot Top confirmed as they entered the Residency, drying their hooves on the mat before glancing into Trixie’s office, where there was a fifty-fifty chance of finding the blue unicorn. Instead, what the two found was not just Trixie, but Raindrops, Cheerilee, and Lyra as well, all of them surrounding a pile of candy and looking like they’d just diffused an incredibly awkward situation. “Oh…is everypony really here?” “Saves me a few trips,” Ditzy said happily. “Huh…what’d we miss?” The other four mares waved them inside the office once they’d taken off their rain cloaks. “A lot,” Trixie said. “It’s been…an eventful two minutes.” “An eventful day,” Carrot Top corrected. “Why don’t you start from the top?” I’m going to admit to not being very good at math. Somepony else can tell you what, on paper, the chances are of us six all ending up here, together, on a rainy day, out of all the ponies in Ponyville. It doesn’t really matter, though. What matters is that we are all here, now, right when we need to be. Not to fight monsters, not to make plans, not to do anything in particular but to simply be here, around each other. We’re all here for each other. And we’re here for everypony else that needs us, too. We can’t always fix every problem, but we can try. And that’s all that can be asked of us. Epilogue“So my afternoon consisted of convincing this one that I don’t hate her,” Trixie said, jabbing a hoof at Raindrops. The six mares were arranged in a rough circle around the bag of Bon Bon’s candy as they talked, though they had moved from Trixie’s office into her living room, where she’d started up a fire. “I had to spend it convincing you the same thing,” Raindrops pointed out with a little indignation in her voice. “And you’re the one who actually keeps score of her friends.” “Speaking of,” Ditzy said, “I ran into Pokey on my route today.” Trixie winced at that, as though she’d just burned herself. “Um. Is he…still mad…?” Ditzy shook her head. “He knows you didn’t mean to say what you did. And I pointed out to him that you’ve got plenty of quirks of you own that he can call you out on if he has to.” The six mares laughed, though Trixie stopped after a moment as she considered that. “Wait, what quirks?” she asked. That prompted another round of laughter. Trixie herself joined in after a moment, deciding that, whatever her quirks were, they didn’t matter right now. “Speaking of you,” Lyra said, looking to Raindrops, “I didn’t know you could sing.” Raindrops’ face reddened notably at that. Lyra and Cheerilee, on the other hoof, both kept grinning at her. “We didn’t catch it all, though,” Cheerilee said. “Just something about rain helping you to untangle…?” “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Raindrops said quickly. “No, I definitely heard it,” Lyra said, then sang what she’d heard. “Rain helps me to untangle all the things that…?” Raindrops stared at Lyra. Lyra stared back. At length, the pegasus sighed, looking down in embarrassment. “Though I’ve bungled all my bangles, left my life twisted and mangled, the rain helps me to untangle all the things that trouble me…” she sang softly. She jumped slightly when she earned some light hoof-stomps from the other five mares. “I like the happier version better,” Lyra noted. Raindrops’ blush deepened, though she was also smiling a little at the praise. “Me and Cheerilee heard it at Bon Bon’s, when you splashed down.” “Hmm,” Ditzy observed. “Which reminds me, I have to ask – why is it raining?” Carrot Top cleared her throat. “Rainbow Dash’s fault,” she said. “She put getting rid of the storm to a vote ‘cause she knew she’d win it. She did it for Fluttershy. She figured the easiest way to get her to the spa was if there was nopony outside. Fluttershy can take rain. What she can’t take is ponies.” “That’s…actually kind of clever of Rainbow Dash,” Trixie noted. “She is a weather manager,” Raindrops said. “She’s a lot smarter than she looks. Or acts.” “So how’d you end up at Trixie’s, then?” Cheerilee asked. “I mean…if you don’t mind me asking…” “Puddle,” Raindrops answered simply, cocking her head towards Trixie’s backyard, then nodding towards Trixie “She caught me in it.” “Must’ve been a little embarrassing,” Lyra observed. “Not as embarrassing as…” Cheerilee began, then put a hoof to her mouth for a moment, before continuing with “…a thing that was embarrassing.” Carrot Top and Ditzy Doo stared expectantly at her. Cheerilee shook her head, however. “No. I’m not telling. It’s embarrassing – ” “Oh, come on, four of us already know, it’s not fair to these two,” Trixie said, eliciting a look of surprise from Lyra and Cheerilee. “Cheerilee came in and caught me and Raindrops in the middle of a memory-transfer spell. The spell required us to be kissing. With, um…tongue. But it was just a spell.” “Just,” Raindrops confirmed, nodding. “Cheerilee thought I didn’t know anything about sex for some reason,” Trixie continued, “and then thought that Raindrops was trying to take advantage of me. So Cheerilee gave me ‘the talk’.” Trixie shuddered a little. “A…very detailed…possibly illegal…talk.” Cheerilee stared at Trixie. “I meant embarrassing for me, Trixie,” she said. “Embarrassing for all of us,” Lyra said with a sigh. “Just…one big mess.” “It’s done,” Trixie said. “It’s in the past. Bygones and all that.” The four mares nodded, and there was a moment of silence as they simply ate candy. It was broken, however, when Ditzy perked up. “Oh, I almost forgot!” she exclaimed, looking to her mail bags and opening them, pulling out the five midnight blue envelopes, along with her own already-opened letter. “These are for each of us.” She passed them around. The room was soon filled with the sound of tearing paper, followed swiftly by the soft silver glow of the enchanted tickets. “Yes, I’ve been waiting for this,” Trixie said, smiling. “Gala number six, here I come!” “The Gala!” Lyra exclaimed at nearly the same time, reading her letter/ticket a second time, then a third. “This is…it’s the biggest event in Equestria! And I get to bring a guest!” She put her hooves to her mouth. “Oh…Bon Bon’s gonna need a dress…I could surprise her with a dress!” “How do you surprise somepony with a dress?” Cheerilee asked. “Doesn’t she need to be measured for it?” Lyra rolled her eyes. “I know her dimensions,” she drawled. “Isn’t the Gala supposed to be boring?” Raindrops asked. Trixie smiled. “It’s only boring if you’re not there with anypony,” she said. “Trust me, I know all about that. But us six, together? Should be a blast.” Ditzy smiled at that, as she stood and stretched. “Well,” she said, “I’m sort of still on the clock back at work. I better go and punch out, then get home to Dinky.” “Mmn, I have to go too,” Lyra said. “Calm Bon Bon down.” One by one, the six mares stood, though Trixie would, of course, be remaining behind – she would still see them to the door, though. “This was fun,” Cheerilee said. “Well…eventually it was fun, anyway. After the horrible, horrible embarrassment. We should try and get together more often.” “Yeah,” Raindrops agreed. “There shouldn’t have to be a crisis.” “How about…same time, next week?” Carrot Top asked, looking to Trixie. “Here? If that’s okay? You have the largest house.” Trixie smiled. It wasn’t her normal wide-put on smile, but a much more simple, yet honest, grin. “Of course,” she said. “Maybe turn it into…I dunno, some kind of game night. I’ve got cards.” “I’ve got board games,” Cheerilee ventured, as everypony else stepped out into the rain. She followed suit a moment later. “It’s a deal, then,” Lyra said. “See you later!” “Later!” Trixie returned, closing her door. She found herself still smiling, and didn’t try to stop herself as she returned to her living room. A glance outside confirmed that it was still raining, and a glance inside confirmed that her fireplace was still lit. All that was missing was a book, and a unicorn in a couch to read it. Trixie rectified the situation immediately, settling down into her couch and telekinetically grabbing her well-worn copy of Don Rocinante from her bookshelf. “Today…was a good day,” she decided. 1. Stormy WeatherI hurt somepony once. Bad. It was the worst day of my life. The funny thing is – ha, ‘funny,’ it isn’t really funny, it’s horrifying – is that I don’t even remember what made me do it all that well. I’d always been so good at just keeping everything inside, and this didn’t really seem all that different. It was summer flight camp, I was just a filly and he was just a colt, and I flubbed a turn or a aileron roll or something and got the lowest score in the camp, or near the lowest. And the colt – his name was Hoops – said something about my name, ‘Raindrops,’ being good ‘cause dropping like rain was all I was good at. Ha. Ha ha. It was nothing I hadn’t heard before. Nothing I hadn’t dealt with and kept all bottled up inside before. But the next thing I was aware of, I was seeing red, and there was screaming, his and mine – him in pain, me in rage that had finally just boiled over and to the surface. And it was taking two coaches to pull me off of him and stop me from just continuing to pound into him. Then there were sirens, and police… …long story short, I was still just a filly, and the judge decided that it was a ‘heat of the moment’ thing, that Hoops was at least partially to blame for goading me and harassing me. There were some court-ordered therapy sessions for me and community service and I had to switch schools. But Hoops… Hoops’ right hind leg was broken in three places. His shank was essentially dust. They had to bring special unicorn doctors and surgeons up to Cloudsdale to fix him, and to this day he still walks with a limp. Still has a restraining order on me, too. I could have broken his wings the same way I broke his leg – nothing would be worse for a pegasus than wings that didn’t work right. I could have really crippled him, for life. I could have killed him. A part of me knows that no matter how bad what I did was, it could have been worse. I tell that part of me to shut up. I know what I did wasn’t as bad as it could have been. It was still horrible. Still the worst thing I have ever done to anypony – worse than anything that anypony else I know has done to anypony else. But even worse than that happy fact? Worse than anything? I know I could do it again. Easily. I don’t know why I’m angry, but I am, all the time. It’s always there, just beneath the surface. Everything makes me angry. The way my father takes forever to say or do anything. The way my mother is so hyperactive. My little brother’s bug collection. My boss. My co-workers. My friends. Everything. Me. I’m angry at myself, all the time. I’m angry at what I did. I’m angry that I could do it again. Sometimes I get so angry that I fly into Whitetail Wood and find this clearing and just fill it full of rocks and then spend hours, hours, just breaking the stones apart with my bare hooves, imagining that it helps, imagining that physical destruction somehow helps me and my anger issues. But it doesn’t. There’s only one thing I know that calms me down. One thing that’s somehow able to wash away everything I feel just beneath the surface, douse out the fire and cool the embers and just expose what I think, what I hope, deep down inside, is the real me… The virga – precipitation that would never actually reach the ground as it would evaporate too fast – was thick as Raindrops flew through the clouds that had gathered over the Everfree, three thousand feet in the air, wings spread wide and hooves spread out as she focused on the feelings in the sky around her: the pressure, the moisture, the wind speeds. Tingling sensations ran all along her feathers and to special sensory organs contained in the alulae of her wings and the near the frogs in her hooves, sensory organs that all pegasi possessed. She liked what she was feeling through them as the virga ran across her coat, through her main, and soaked her feathers. Here, in the skies over the Everfree Forest, weather was allowed to run wild and free. Well, not so much allowed, as it insisted: the weather-magic of pegasus ponies was almost entirely negated by the strange, ancient magic that permeated the boughs of the forest and stretched high into its skies, higher than any pegasus pony could fly. However, the Everfree didn’t rob pegasi of their ability to sense weather and the atmosphere around them. At length – after feeling her way through the storm and letting the virga render her completely soaked – Raindrops supposed that it was time to head back, and so started heading east, back to the edge of the Everfree Forest where Ponyville’s on-duty weather patrol had set up a cloud platform to keep an eye on the burgeoning Everfree storm. After several long minutes she dipped low, under the cumulus congesti that floated over the Everfree, and spotted the cloud platform where several pegasi were already waiting for her: Sunlight, Airheart, and Thunderlane, who had been part of this forecast patrol into the Everfree and had arrived back before her; Blue Skies, who had simply been on-duty and had organized the forecast team’s routes; Cloud Kicker, the second-in-command of Ponyville’s weather patrol and who was actually managing to look calm and collected for once. This was probably because of the last pegasus on the cloud platform: Rainbow Dash, manager of the Ponyville weather patrol and the self-proclaimed (but, Raindrops had to admit, probably correct) fastest flier in Equestria. The cyan-blue pegasus with a polychromatic mane and tail kept pacing around on the cloud, or taking to the air and flying a few loops and circles around it, or landing on it with a poomf and just lying in place, staring into the Everfree. Raindrops, for her part, did her best to ignore her boss’ antics as she alighed on the cloud platform and shook herself dry (or at least moderately less wet), pleased that at least she was here – it was far too common an occurrence for the weather manager to flake out or put off jobs like this. A part of Raindrops wondered exactly what had dragged the Rainbow Dash from her cloud-home this morning, as it certainly wasn’t the storm building over the Everfree Forest. However, Raindrops decided that whatever it was, she liked it, as it had meant that her boss couldn’t think up an excuse to fly off when Raindrops and Blue Skies had glided on up to her, resting in the branches of an apple tree, and explained the situation with the Everfree storm. Hence, the forecast ponies that Rainbow Dash had sent in – brave pegasi who would travel into the air over the Everfree and attempt to ascertain the nature of gathering storms, the threat they posed to Ponyville’s weather, and, in sum, how much work everypony was about to have for the next several hours. “Finally,” Rainbow Dash said as Raindrops finished shaking herself off. “We’ve only been waiting here forever, Dropsy.” Any other day, Raindrops would have, at the very least, shot a lethal death-glare Dash’s direction for calling her ‘Dropsy’ – a nickname she made no secret about hating. Currently, however, the jasmine-coated pegasus was soaked to the bone with rainwater, which for Raindrops translated into being basically in a good mood, good enough that all she did was flutter her wings a few times, sending some water droplets Rainbow Dash’s way. The weather manager of Ponyville didn’t seem to notice, or care. “So?” Rainbow Dash asked, scuffing a hoof on the cloud. “Was it worth waking me up for this? I was having a great nap, you know.” The four forecast ponies looked between each other, before Sunlight, a white stallion with a blond mane, slowly shook his head. “Well, that depends. The storm is large. Near as I can tell it stretches from one end of the Everfree to the other. And the virga is thick.” “…but…?” Rainbow Dash asked, leaning in. “Well, it’s not really all that much of a storm,” Airheart said, looking back at it. “I mean, it’s huge, but only in the area it’s covering. Otherwise there isn’t really thunder or lightning or even much strong winds. Just incoming praecipitatio, and not even hard.” Praecipitatio was the technical term for any kind of precipitation that actually reached the ground, as opposed to virga; in this case, it was referring to what unicorns and earth ponies would simply call ‘rain.’ “Barely worth calling cumulus congesti,” Thunderlane added, referring to the most basic kind of raincloud: tall, dark, bursting with water, but easy to make and direct and rarely having any kind of nasty surprises in the form of lightning or ice. “If we were making those for praecipitatio, you’d probably chew us out and bust us down to patrolling the Whitetail Wood.” Rainbow Dash leaned back, sitting on her haunches with one hoof to her mouth as she considered, taking a map and planner from Cloud Kicker as she did and looking over the weather schedule for the next month. Inwardly, Raindrops sighed as she settled down onto her stomach and turned her attention to her two front hooves. From the sound of things, she was about to have a long, boring day on the job playing what amounted to sky-janitor. The Everfree ‘storm’ would try to roll over Ponyville in the next few hours, and she, along with the rest of the on-duty weather patrol, would be stationed at the edges of the Everfree and basically spend their time bucking clouds away once they crossed out of the forest’s airspace. Wait, buck, wait, buck, wait, buck…it would be monotonous, boring, soul-draining, and that was saying something since Raindrops loved the rain, as exemplified by her cutie mark of three falling water droplets. Still, she supposed not every storm could be laden with cumulonimbi. “Okay,” Rainbow Dash said after a moment. “Show of hooves: who wants to just let this storm do its thing?” Raindrops looked up at that, blinking several times and ears perked up. Everypony else seemed surprised as well. “Huh?” Blue Skies asked. “Well, look,” Rainbow Dash said, turning the weather schedule for the next month around. “We were planning on doing a big storm next week, right? Why don’t we just let this storm do its thing and then have next week’s storm be smaller? I don’t think it’s worth the effort of breaking this one up.” “I dunno, boss,” Sunlight said, fidgeting. “A lot of ponies might have had plans today.” “Yeah, and some of those ponies were named Rainbow Dash,” the weather patrol leader countered. “I dunno about you guys, but I don’t want to spend the next five or six hours hovering and bucking clouds that aren’t going to do anything but get a few ponies a little wet.” “Plus it’ll make things easier down the line,” Cloud Kicker observed. “And the entire reason we have the storm scheduled next week is because the Farmer’s Union asked for more rain since the last few weeks have been too hot. Next Tuesday was the only day we could get the pony power to build up a storm that was big enough, but if we just let this thing roll over…” “This isn’t just so that you can sleep the day away, is it?” Thunderlane asked Rainbow Dash. She shook her head. “I’d never leave Ponyville hangin’!” she declared, though Raindrops knew from experience that this was not entirely true. “Look, like I said, show of hooves. It’s a vote, okay? Who wants to spend their day bucking away at some clouds just ‘cause a little praecipitatio that we need anyway is showing up early?” Sunlight, Thunderlane, and Blue Skies all raised their hooves. “Okay,” Rainbow Dash added, “and the ponies who actually want to do something with their day?” She, Cloud Kicker, and Airheart raised their own hooves. Sunlight looked to Airheart like she was some kind of traitor, though the pink mare’s only response was a bright grin. “Hey, I have a date tonight,” she said. “Three against three?” Blue Skies asked, then looked to Raindrops. “Hey, you didn’t vote.” “Yeah, no abstaining,” Rainbow Dash added. “’Specially not since we’ve got a tie otherwise.” Raindrops considered for a few moments, before standing on the cloud and grinning brightly, something which startled everypony else – Raindrops was not the most emotive of ponies normally, or at least didn’t show positive emotion much. “A little rain never hurt anypony,” she observed. Thunderlane rolled his eyes. “Yeah, big surprise; it’d rain every day if you were in charge.” Raindrops opened her mouth to object, then thought a moment before closing it and nodding fervently. The three water droplets on her flank weren’t for nothing, after all. A cutie mark wasn’t simply what you were good at, it was what made a pony happy. And Raindrops loved the rain. The smell of it, the feel of it running through her coat and along her primaries, the weight of it in her mane, the sound it made – oh the sounds it made as is struck wood or glass or stone or leaves. Running up in puddles, turning boring dirt into wet muck… And this. This was a special treat – an uncontrolled storm. A rain shower that nopony was going to try and direct or contain or shape. It was simply going to run its course, go where it willed, wet what it wanted…maybe one rain shower in a decade was allowed such freedom. And Raindrops intended to enjoy every moment of it. My little pony, My little pony Ahh ahh ahh ahhh... My little pony Friendship never meant that much to me My little pony But you're all here and now I can see Stormy weather; Lots to share A musical bond; With love and care Teaching laughter; It's an easy feat, And magic makes it all complete! You have my little ponies How'd I ever make so many true friends? As Raindrops flew home a few hours later, after having finished up the rest of her normal patrol shift, she kept glancing behind her, looking at the Everfree storm to make sure that it was still there, still coming. And it was, drifting east from the Everfree Forest and towards Ponyville in a slow, inexorable way. It wouldn’t be long now – fifteen minutes at most, and then the first drops of rain would begin to fall. Already, she could feel the air around her wings and hooves moistening, clamming up as if in anticipation as the storm pushed the air ahead of it forward, heralding its arrival. She was – she was giddy with anticipation. There was absolutely nothing that could ruin her good mood right now, not with a wild, free rainstorm on its way. Some things could come close, though. Like, for example, the sight of her little brother, Snails, sitting on the roof of her home. Raindrops blinked a few times as she landed on thatched roof herself, as quietly as possible behind him – Snails seemed to be focusing intensely on something. Leaning to the side slightly to get a better look, she saw that he was looking into an glass jar, the cover of which he had poked holes into. Inside the jar was a large insect, though one Raindrops recognized quickly as a harmless cicada. Snails’ special talent, which he had earned last year, seemed to relate to what Raindrops could only term as ‘creepy crawlies’ – he was certainly always interested in them, digging up larvae and examining them, spending hours staring at spiders spinning webs, drawing comparative pictures of the different patterns on the shells of snails, and so on. Of course, if he wanted to study a captured cicada, there were better places to do it than the roof, especially seeing as he didn’t have wings the way Raindrops or their parents did. There was a guard rail surrounding the roof, but that didn’t change that it was dangerous. “Hi, sis,” Snails said after a few seconds. Raindrops wasn’t surprised that her had heard her – he was fairly perceptive, and Raindrops was, to put it mildly, heavy-hooved. He looked back at her, a smile on his face. “Look at what I found!” Raindrops trotted along the roof to join her brother, looking in at the cicada. The insect inside was crawling around, looking for a way out, but its legs couldn’t find any purchase on the smooth glass interior of the jar. Snails had a small bug collection in his room of the house – a bug collection that was, fortunately or unfortunately, subsidized by their mother, Shutterbug, a photographer by profession but also an amateur entomologist who had always encouraged Snails’ love of all things creepy and crawly. The bugs were all kept alive and well-fed, and Snails had a tendency to release them after about a week or two, anyway, in order to make room for new bugs. “You gonna keep it?” she asked. Snails considered his sister’s question for a long while, before shaking his head. Even as he did, he took the jar in his mouth and opened it, turning it over and pouring out the cicada. It landed on its back, but quickly righted itself, turned over, and flew off, its gossamer wings buzzing rapidly as it did so. Raindrops and Snails watched it go, before she turned back to her little brother. “Okay, what’s wrong?” she asked. Snails sat up, not immediately answering as he scuffed a hoof on the thatch roof beneath him. “Today in school Silver Spoon called me dumb,” he said at length. Raindrops scowled. Her good mood wasn’t gone, now, but it was put on hold at that. “What did you do?” “I called her dumb too.” Raindrops suppressed the urge to compliment her brother on that. “You…should have gone to get your teacher, if she was bothering you,” she said. She felt like she was almost betraying her own foalhood when she said that – but then again, the fact that she had not been one to do that had caused her no end of grief back in Cloudsdale. Snails looked dejected. “Silver Spoon said that she wasn’t dumb because she didn’t have a sister who hit her in the head and made her dumb – ” “What?” Raindrops demanded, wings flaring. Good mood – gone now. Snails looked up at Raindrops’ exclamation. The pegasus retained enough presence of mind to not be focusing her glare on her little brother – instead, she was looking around Ponyville, trying to remember if she knew where Silver Spoon lived. “I can’t believe that she’d…that…she’s a…I’ve never hit you!” Raindrops had anger problems. She knew she had anger problems. She was also unusually strong for a pegasus – indeed, she was unusually strong by earth pony standards as well. These two in combination had not always ended well in the past. More than one random stone, or innocent tree, or other harmless, inanimate object, had broken under one of her hooves as she tried to physically work out her anger on something. And she hadn’t always been the best at keeping it in private, in the gym or Whitetail Wood, where nopony would see her rage. But she had only once struck a pony in anger, and that was years ago, back in Cloudsdale, when the pony in question had decided to spend a day tormenting her about her unusually slow, clumsy flying abilities – and to this day walked with a limp in his right hind leg. Raindrops hated herself for that. She always would. In an instant she had gone from being a clumsy flier in school with a few acquaintances – not even real friends – to being pegasus non grata, to be avoided at all costs lest she flip out again and cripple somepony again. Even switching schools hadn’t helped at all; her reputation had followed her. Only after Snails had been born – a unicorn, not a pegasus, and so incapable of living in Cloudsdale – and her family had moved to Ponyville, had she at last finally escaped what she had done. Snails was watching Raindrops closely. “I told Silver Spoon that,” he said, “but she just said that you hit me in the head so hard that I don’t remember, then I said that all you’ve ever given me was noogies, and she said that that was how I got brain-damaged.” Raindrops’ right eye twitched, and she had to struggle to remind herself that Silver Spoon was a little, spoiled rotten filly who, while probably deserving of her anger, did not deserve to have Raindrops burst in on her home and shout at her. “You are not brain damaged,” she insisted. “I am dumb, though…” “You’re…you take a little longer to figure things out,” Raindrops said. “That doesn’t make you dumb. A dumb pony wouldn’t know about thoraxes and…um, elly-tones…” “Elytron,” Snails said. “Um…elytra for more than one…” He smiled a little as he said that, though it dropped quickly. “But that doesn’t mean I’m not dumb…nopony cares about bugs other than mom and Snips, and mom just likes to take pictures of them, and Snips just likes to look at them…” Raindrops stared at her little brother. “You’re not dumb,” she insisted. “I promise you, Snails. You’re not. Silver Spoon is just trying to make you feel bad.” “Why?” “Because she’s a b…not a very nice pony,” Raindrops responded, catching herself before she could say a bad word around her foal-aged brother. “You see things a little differently, take a little longer, but that does not make you dumb. Okay?” Snails considered Raindrops’ encouragement for several moments before nodding slowly. Even as he did, Raindrops’ ears twitched, as she heard the first drops of praecipitatio – rain, in this case – begin to fall. On particular drop, a fairly large one, landed right on her snout, splashing her eyes a little. She smiled widely, looking to Snails. “It’s gonna rain,” she told him. “You better get back inside.” Snails nodded, not asking if Raindrops would be coming in as well – she never came in during the rain. Before heading downstairs through the trap door built into their home’s roof, though, he took a few steps forward and nuzzled Raindrops. “Thanks, sis,” he said. Raindrops couldn’t help but smile, as she used a hoof to squeeze him close. “No problem,” she assured him. Raindrops had been hoping to grab a quick bite to eat before the rain began, but her talk with Snails had taken up too much time. Not that she regretted it in the slightest, and besides, that would just make dinner, when she finally got around to it, all the more satisfying. She flew from her house, and from the center of Ponyville, for that matter, towards the fields that surrounded the (admittedly large) farming community. At a guess, when she at last settled down, on a rock in the middle of a wheat field, she was probably on the property of Sweet Apple Acres. The Apples made their fortune with their namesake product, of course, but they were wealthy enough, and savvy enough, to know better than to rely on a single crop. Then again, they were also wealthy enough to afford to move any rocks, no matter how big, that sat in the middle of their fields, so she supposed that the rock she had alighted upon was probably proof that this wasn’t an Apple family field. It didn’t much matter to Raindrops, though. It was quiet, it was out of the way, and there was nopony around to watch as she spread her wings wide, staring up at the sky as the thick, gray cumulus congesti began to float overhead in earnest, and burst open. One drop, then two. Three. Four. For a moment, Raindrops deluded herself into thinking that she could count all the drops that would fall on her – but then five and six and seven all touched down at nearly the same time, and eight, or maybe nine, splashed right into her eye, distracting her for a moment, and she lost count as the cumulus congesti simply burst open. Raindrops allowed herself a full, bright smile as the rain came falling down onto her, cupping her wings so that rain would soak her thoroughly. Even as most of the drops of water became lost in the general storm, she could feel a few trickling down her primaries, down the length of her wings, getting under her feathers. Her wings were angled in such a way that soon streams of water were flowing along them, getting under all her feathers before finally leaving her wings, flowing down her barrel and her flanks before joining in a sluice that was running down the rock. The rain flowed across her face, too, down along her snout and under her eyes, across her scalp and through her mane, or down under her jaw and along her throat and chest as she continued to stare up and just watch the water fall all around her. Her ears were perked, as she listened to the white noise all around her, the rain catching on sheaves of wheat, or hitting the dirt below, or the rock underneath her, or just her. She stood slowly, beating her wings a few times, sending the water off of them and in every direction, only to cup her wings and get them as soaked as possible, just to repeat the process again, and then a third time. On the fourth try, she instead angled her wings over her so that the rain would flow from her extended primaries down to her alulae, and then off of them and, in small but constant streams, into her open, waiting mouth. It probably looked utterly ridiculous, if anypony had seen her, and she was grateful that nopony could – she felt no need to have to explain anything she chose to do right now to somepony. The rain flowing across her feathers and her coat, soaking her skin concealed beneath both, felt like it was stripping away everything – her exasperation at her boss, her desire to find Silver Spoon and teach her a lesson in manners. Her concern for her brother was washed away, too, along with everything else. The rain didn’t distinguish between her loves and hates, her good side and bad sides. The runoff that flowed from her and onto the rock, gathering in puddles and soaking into the earth underneath Raindrops, was made from equal parts water, hopes, and fears. At length, it even took away the heat in her chest, at the back of her throat and the base of her skull, the tension in her muscles, always pulled taut, always ready to snap and spring and shout and shove and hurt… …the rain washed over her, and soon all that was left was just her. Just Raindrops, a young pegasus mare staring at the sky in wonder. Water could fall, would fall, inevitably found its way to the ground and the muck and the oceans…but it could rise, too. It could soar through the sky… She laughed. The laugh came from nowhere and returned just as quickly, but the smile that it brought with it remained. She shook her mane, sending water droplets flying everywhere, and looked to the rock beneath her. It’s top had a kind of bowl in it, a hollow where rain water was gathering. Raindrops put her hoof in it, swirled the water around, withdrew, then stomped, sending the water flying. She laughed again. She pranced in place, hooves landing on rock with no intention of breaking it, instead simply to hear the sound of her wet hooves striking wet stone, simply to see the water flow and splash as she did so. At length, she beat her wings, this time taking to the air. The rain water that was soaking her through didn’t seem to weigh her down at all as she flew. If anything, she felt lighter when soaked. Everything that had been weighing her down had flowed off of her and run into the earth. Sure, the water should have made her heavier, but compared to the burdens she normally carried… [“All my life had lacked elation “Nothing but exacerbation “Of my temper and frustration “‘Til I could just buck ‘em all,” “And I tried to be resilient, “Buckle down, stand up, and bear it, “But it tore apart my spirit, “Left me trapped within a squall.”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FH6o26Ldu0) The song came from the same place as her laugh, but it stuck around longer. Music was something that came naturally to many ponies at many points in their lives, but it had rarely visited Raindrops. Still, she was a pony, at the end of the day – and if now was the right time for music, she was going to indulge it. “And I tried to keep it all in “Never show the blazing rage I was in “If I hurt somepony when I didn’t mean to, “I didn’t know what I was gonna do,” “Then the rain would come pouring down “And wash away any lingering frown “Douse the fire in my heart that was tearing me apart “And it gave me the words to this song:” Raindrops soared through the sky, twisting, turning, sending rain in every direction as she flew. She laughed between verses as she flew upside down beneath the cumulus congesti, tapping her hooves against it. This would send water flowing out in great streams that soaked her thoroughly, which was exactly what she was hoping for. She didn’t just fly, though. As she soared, she spotted puddles, and would let herself fall from the sky and into them, sending water everywhere. Completely unaware of the world around her, Raindrops would roll over in the puddles, wings and legs flailing as she soaked herself completely. She would be covered in mud within moments, of course, but then she would take to the sky again, crash through some clouds and soak herself, getting the mud off of her and sending it back to the earth. It was glorious. “Though I’ve bungled all my bangles, “Left my life twisted and mangled, “The rain helps me to untangle “All the things that trouble me!” “Sure my temper’s always rising, “Sure they find me terrifying, “But the rain’s reenergizing “Lifts me up and sets me free!” “Hahahahaha!” Raindrops cried out in sheer jubilation as the song finished, performing an aileron roll as she soared through the praecipitatio-laden sky. She didn’t care that she was a slow flier; at the moment, it felt like she was going a million miles an hour. Up, down, left, right, forward and backwards, stomping in mud puddles, cleaning herself in clouds, just to fall back down and repeat the process over and over again. What the hay, she thought. Encore. “Though I’ve bungled all my bangles, “Left my life twisted and mangled, “The rain helps me to untangle “All the things that trouble me!” “Sure my temper’s always rising, “Sure they find me terrifying, “But the rain’s reenergizing “Lifts me up and…” Her song drifted off when she saw it: the puddle, the puddle to end all puddles. The ultimate puddle, which even from her height of five hundred feet, she could tell was perfect, the perfect blend of mud and water, the perfect depth, a nice grassy bottom…it looked like it was in somepony’s backyard, but Raindrops was sure that they wouldn’t mind if she went crashing down for a quick soak. She tucked her wings against her barrel and let herself fall to the ground. Four hundred feet…three hundred feet…the puddle was so enticing…two hundred feet…it was six inches deep…one hundred feet, fifty… Splash. Raindrops landed perfectly, on all four hooves, sending rain flying up in all directions, but she didn’t remain that way for long as she let herself fall onto her side, wings flapping as she splashed around in this puddle, mud soaking her, covering her in grit, or trying to, but water in the puddle would soak her through just was quickly. She covered herself in it, dunked her head in the puddle and swished her mane about, did the same with her tail, stood, and simply began prancing in place. I love rain, she thought. I love rain, I love rain, I love rain! "I love rain!" “What are you doing?” Raindrops froze at the voice. Glancing, she suddenly realized that she recognized this back yard – this house – and the blue-coated, silver-maned unicorn pony, levitating a cup of coffee in front her mouth, that the garden belonged to. Raindrops stared at Trixie Lulamoon. Trixie stared back, one eyebrow raised. ...you know what? I don't even care. It's raining. I'm soaked to the bone. I'm covered in mud. And I couldn't be happier right now. So I don't even care that Trixie just caught me splashing around like a little filly. I've seen her drunk. So that probably makes us even. And besides which - I really do think that, when I'm like this, when the rain has soaked through my coat and my feathers and down into my skin, and my bones, and my heart, that it leaves behind nothing but the real me. And how could I not want my friends to see that? 2. Makes it all CompleteHere’s a bit of free advice: never look back at your life and try to write down the names of all the friends you’ve had over the years. You’ll just depress yourself as you realize how many friends you once had, but no longer do, due to moving away from them, or them moving away from you, or just drifting apart…or getting into fights with them, the kinds of fights that end friendships. Why am I giving that advice? Because I did that recently – started just an hour ago, actually, since I couldn’t really bring myself to work seeing as Pokey is…well, I gave him a few days off, and hopefully he’ll calm down. Anyway, in my life I’ve had more than seventy ponies I’d call ‘friends.’ Seventy! I currently have five. I had six, but I don’t think Pokey’s really in that category anymore. Seven even, if you want to count Dinky, but she’s just a school foal, while I’m an adult, so I don’t think I can really count her without eyebrows raising. So…five. Out of seventy. But wait, it gets worse, because you can’t just write down the names on a piece of paper, you have to remember why you’re not friends with them anymore, or at least that’s what you’ll end up remembering. And yeah, I remember that Spring Heart just moved from Neigh Orleans to Trottingham, and Crater Twist and me just kind of stopped hanging out, and then there’s a whole slew of ponies I used to know in Neigh Orleans that I just lost touch with when I moved to Canterlot… …but then I remember ponies like Chocolate Tail, who got sick of hearing me go on about being Luna’s apprentice, and Ink Blot, who…got sick of hearing me go on about being Luna’s apprentice, and Cloud Dasher – who got sick of hearing me go on about being Luna’s apprentice, and Butter Truffle, who…hey, it’s not because I kept harping on about being Luna’s apprentice! No, I called her fat. I regretted it instantly – well, not instantly, but… …look, I regret it now, okay? I wish I hadn’t done it, but I did, and now she hates me. Rain Dancer? Drove her away. Brawny Heart? Drove him away. Daisy Meadow? Drove her away. Dream Treasure? Drove her away. Toodle Roo? Drove him away, though to be fair to me he was really annoying. Then there’s a whole load of ponies all at once in the end there: Amethyst Star, Bright Prism, Winter Wind, Dapple Flicker, Honey Sprinkles, Roller Crackle…I had a whole ton, but then I brought an ice palace down on top of all our heads. Melted it. Still not entirely clear on what happened, don’t think I ever will be, but it was the after-graduation party for Luna’s magic academy, and I don’t even know why I attended. And to be perfectly honest, none of them were really friends, though I think I was making headway… …well. There’s more, but it was really just a depressing list – a whole lot of failure. Except for the first five names I wrote down. Still, it doesn’t take a genius to notice a pattern with all the friends I’ve had. Yeah, some I just lost contact with, some moved away, and to be fair to me sometimes I was the one who cut things off. Once or twice. But overwhelmingly? The most common reason why I don’t know all these ponies anymore? Because I screwed up. Because I said something I shouldn’t have or did something I shouldn’t have done, sometimes one big thing, sometimes too many little things over the course of our friendships…and they all ended, and it was my fault. And the same thing will happen this time, too. It’s not something I want – Luna knows I don’t want it – but, I mean, looking at cold, hard numbers, looking at the list of seventy ponies I’ve known, I know it’s coming one of these days. Stupid pattern recognition. Trixie stared at the cup full of green liquid that sat on her kitchen counter as the rain continued to pour outside. In her mind’s eye, it stared back at her malevolently. Drink me, it seemed to say. Drink me instead of that swill. The truth will set you free. “You’re not the truth,” Trixie informed the cup, even as she took a sip from another cup, this one floating in her telekinetic grasp and containing nothing more offensive that coffee with lemon and a pinch of cinnamon. “Truth is a Scourge. The zebras knew what they were doing when they named you. You’re evil.” I’m not evil. I’m just honest. I just make you say what’s on your mind…whether you want to or not. It’s not my fault that what’s on your mind isn’t the kind of thing that ponies want to hear. Trixie grimaced. “Evil,” she insisted. It’s not my fault you think the way you do about Pokey Pierce. I just helped you get your true feeling out into the open. “Those are not my true feelings. That was stuff I said in panic when I realized just how out-of-control the effect was getting. Then Pokey came in and you made me start blabbering about what I thought about his horn obsession.” Truth is a Scourge was a potion that Trixie had pulled from a zebra spellbook some months back. She’d held off on brewing up a batch to practice on, though, having had her fill of the bizarre, ritual-based magic of the zebras on her first day of seriously practicing their magic, a long, bizarre day full of a considerable amount of difficulty and exhaustion. She had been meaning to try it sooner, but then a unicorn named Twilight Sparkle had come to Ponyville and…well, that was an eventful, surprisingly bear-filled night, once that Trixie was none too proud of due to how things had ended between her and Twilight, who had only been looking to further her understanding of magic. Instead, she was now a wanted criminal, and while most of the blame for that lay on Twilight’s shoulders, a not insignificant amount was on Trixie’s own. The only upside to it all had been that Twilight had left behind her wagon full of magical books and tomes, which Trixie had appropriated in order to expand her magical knowledge (as a large part of what had happened with Twilight could have been avoided had Trixie been a better sorceress). Trying to learn those spells had consumed most of the intervening time – when it hadn’t been consumed by her job as Representative of the Night Court to Ponyville, the machinations of her increasing number of Night Court rivals, marauding parasprites, the agents of the Tyrant Sun, the secrets of Andalantis, and, Trixie had to admit, her own desire to generally do as little work as possible. But, a few days ago, Trixie had found the directions and ingredients for Truth is a Scourge while cleaning out the desk in her office, and decided to at last give it a try. And technically, it was a resounding success. Pokey Pierce had not been amused, however, by the diarrhea of the mouth that Trixie had acquired while under the potion’s effects. Should he really be working for you if you’re going to think so little of him? “I don’t think little of him! And I hate you. Evil.” Trixie paused as she considered the cup. “And…and an inanimate object. You’re going down the sink now.” Trixie’s horn glowed brightly as she dumped the contents of the cup into the kitchen sink. No….! “Oh yes,” Trixie said, smiling brightly as she listened to the splatter of the truth is a scourge potion pouring down the drain, slowly, without any ability to save its evil self. After several moments, however, Trixie realized that the sound of the splashing sounds reaching her ears were far louder than they were supposed to be. She rolled her eyes as she looked up, pausing in pouring out Truth is a Scourge, expecting to see the rain having picked up – why there was rain today, she didn’t know, the weather schedule had called for a storm next week, and it was something she’d have to bring up next time she attended a town meeting – but, outside, the rain seemed to be coming down with no more intensity than it had been able to work up for the past hour. Nevertheless, she heard splashing, and – hoof-stomps? – outside, in her back yard. Curiosity getting the better of her, Trixie set down the evil potion – its cup still a little more than half-empty – and wandered over to her back door, opening it up telekinetically and bringing her coffee with her, about to take a sip when she was given something new for her mental list of ‘strangest things she had ever seen:’ Raindrops, Element of Honesty, weather pony with a severe anger problem who was more than a little intimidating to Trixie, stomping around in a six-inch deep puddle of water that had managed to form in Trixie’s backyard. The jasmine pegasus’ eyes were closed as she let herself fall over and wallowed in the water muck and grass, wings flapping and tossing water into the air, head shaking so that her mane would be totally soaked. Then just as suddenly, Raindrops was on her hooves again, bucking like a bronco a few times before simply prancing in place. “I love rain!” Raindrops called out at length. “What are you doing?” Trixie asked at nearly the same time, before she could stop herself. Raindrops froze at the sound of Trixie’s voice, eyes opening as she slowly turned, as though taking her surroundings in for the first time. Trixie stood stock still even as she did, wondering what kind of terror she may have just unleashed as Raindrops, soaking wet, covered in mud and loose grass, locked eyes with Trixie, her own eyes wide and a look of barely-contained anger on her… …no, wait, that wasn’t barely-contained anger at all. That was slight surprise that eroded into a kind of embarrassed, but happy, chuckle, as Raindrops rubbed a hoof behind her head. “Eh heh heh…” she laughed. “Hi, Trixie.” Trixie stared. “I’m, uh…sorry, didn’t know this was your backyard,” Raindrops continued, fluttering her wings slightly. “Um…well, I didn’t notice it was your backyard, is what I meant.” Trixie stared. “Um…Trixie?” Trixie’s eyes narrowed. Images of Raindrops flashed through her mind, the Raindrops she knew, the Raindrops who was her friend, the Raindrops she was terrified of inciting to anger. That Raindrops may have liked the rain, but there was a considerable difference between liking the rain, and splashing like a pig in mud while it was raining. Plus, she was a weather pony, and she hated unexpected changes to the weather routine – Trixie had vivid memories of the Longest Night and her bumbling attempts to either fix or exacerbate the potential weather problems on that night, not caring which she achieved. Raindrops had nearly murdered her. The real Raindrops wouldn’t be acting like this during an unscheduled storm. No, Trixie was certain that instead, she’d be up in the skies fighting it, or else chewing out or wailing on her boss, Rainbow Dash, in either case her anger elicited at this violation of schedule. Which meant only one thing. “Imposter!” “Wait, what?” The pegasus imposter asked, a look of fairly convincing confusion overcoming her face as Trixie’s coffee mug slipped from her grasp and hit the floor of Trixie’s kitchen, its contents flying everywhere, though thankfully the mug itself didn’t break. Trixie didn’t let the imposter’s convincing act dissuade her as she wove magic, determined to take out this imposter – Night Court spy? Zizanie or Twilight Sparkle, back for revenge? She wasn’t sure yet – as quickly as possible. First, she wove a glamor over her own eyes that would prevent all light from reaching them – rendering her blind, yes, but also rendering her immune to the spell she cast simultaneously, a painfully bright flash from her horn. She heard the imposter Raindrops cry out in pain as light as bright as a magnesium flare went off only a few feet from her face. Trixie dropped the glamor over her eyes, and saw the imposter stumbling. Her quarry distracted, she reached out telekinetically, wrapping her aura around the pegasus – if she really was a pegasus – and pulling her inside, keeping her suspended in the air over her kitchen. The imposter was rubbing her eyes with her coronets as she did. “Argh! Trixie! Put me down!” “No!” Trixie exclaimed, as her horn glowed. She turned herself invisible, and at the same time created an illusory double a few feet away. As an extra precaution, she herself also moved from her original spot, more magic around her hooves to hide the sound of her hoof-steps. “I don’t know who you are,” she said, a fourth spell taking her words and projecting them from the illusory double she had created, “and you’ve admittedly managed a very good disguise – actual shape-shift, I’m guessing? – but you’ve got Raindrops’ personality completely wrong!” “Trixie – ” “Amateurish mistake, really,” Trixie pressed on. By now, the imposter’s eyes were open, and she was glaring at the illusion of Trixie, or trying to, though she was still recovering from the flash of light that Trixie had produced. “So! Are you Zizanie?” one of Trixie’s hooves involuntarily went to her horn at that, as she vividly recalled that the spymaster and infiltrator had somehow been able to make Trixie’s horn disappear for several long, agonizing seconds, utterly robbing Trixie of her magic. “Trixie!” “Your little horn-disappearing trick won’t work this time, Zizanie!” Trixie continued, as she made her illusion jab a hoof at Raindrops. “You’re not just being held up by telekinesis. You’re in a bubble of anti-magic!” “I’m not Zizanie!” “Ha!” Trixie laughed. “A likely story. What have you done with the real Raindrops?” “I am Raindrops!” “No, you’re not!” Trixie exclaimed. “The real Raindrops wouldn’t be wallowing in mud during an unscheduled rainstorm! She’d be beating up Rainbow Dash or else flying around and breaking apart the clouds to vent some frustration! She’s a giant ball of anger and hate!” The imposter paused at that, staring at the illusion of Trixie, unmoving and mouth hanging open for several moments, before a gradual shift overcame her features – nothing changed, per se, but her muscles tensed a little, her neck drooped slightly, her look of worry and concern fell into a more neutral position, albeit one that was obviously held at a neutral position, at great personal effort. Trixie blinked at the change. “Um, wow,” she said. “Uh…yeah, like I said, good disguise. Body language, counts for a lot. That’s how Raindrops is.” The imposter closed her eyes. “I am Raindrops,” she said again. Her voice had dropped a few octaves as well, and her words came out somewhat more haltingly, like she was biting back every syllable – once more, just like the real Raindrops, most of the time, when she wasn’t breaking apart cobblestone streets with her bare, unshod hooves. Apparently this imposter was quite good once she got ‘in the zone,’ as it were. “What’s it going to take to prove it?” Trixie tapped a hoof to her mouth for a moment, then smiled when she spotted the still-half-empty cup of Truth is a Scourge. Slowly, she set the imposter Raindrops on the floor, and had her illusion point at the cup even as she released Raindrops from her grip. “That is a truth potion!” she said. “Once you drink it, all your secrets will – hey, wait!” The imposter had, without hesitating after hearing the words "truth potion," gone over to the cup and drank the entire concoction in a single swig. She afterwards looked to Trixie. “How long ‘til it kicks in?” she asked. Trixie blinked. “Um…n-not until I activate it, I modified the spell so that I can ‘switch it on,’” she said, a sinking feeling in her stomach. Was this, after all, the real Raindrops? No! Impossible! It was far more likely that this imposter had taken some kind of precaution against truth potions. Or so she thought. Given how very rare zebra magic was in Equestria, she doubted if a single pony other than Princess Luna had a way to counter Truth is a Scourge. “So?” The imposter demanded. “Activate it.” Trixie blinked a few times, then sent a burst of magic – just a tiny flick, really – towards Raindrops. “I am Raindrops – ” Trixie flinched. “ – and it’s raining outside that’s why I was in such a good mood – ” Trixie supposed that made a degree of sense. “ – I’m always in a good mood when it rains oh except for when somepony I thought was my friend accuses me of being an imposter and decides to blind me and make me drink this stupid truth potion why can’t I stop talking – ” “That’s how the potion works,” Trixie said. Raindrops continued without slowing down, glaring at the illusion of Trixie. Trixie grimaced, dispelling the illusion and making herself visible again. Raindrops seemed hardly surprised as she turned to look at the real Trixie, still speaking. “ – I don’t need this right now Trixie my brother was tormented by Silver Spoon who is a little brat and is so lucky she’s just a filly or else I would tear out her throat with my teeth and – ” Raindrops’ eyes widened at that, and her hooves shot up to her mouth, which kept working in spite of the action. “ – I didn't want to say that I'd never do it even though that's how I feel Trixie if I’m stuck like this the way Lyra was stuck as a bear I swear to Luna I will – ” “No!” Trixie exclaimed, even as she sent a magical flick towards Raindrops again. At once, the pegasus’ words stopped pouring from her mouth. Trixie stared a few moments at Raindrops, eyes wide, as Raindrops glared at Trixie. The silence between the two stretched…and stretched…and stretched… Raindrops opened her mouth. “I’m sorry!” Trixie exclaimed, trying at once to canter backwards and raise her forelegs to ward off the blow she knew was coming, even as she tried to shrink back into herself. The result sent her tumbling head over hooves, and when she righted herself she continued to stumble backwards, and found herself against a wall. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I didn’t – I thought – I’m sorry!” The expected blows didn’t start falling. Slowly, Trixie opened one eye, and saw Raindrops still staring at her, though her expression had changed, becoming a mixture of sadness and resignation, an almost familiar expression, in fact – one Trixie had, herself, worn on far too many occasions in the past. She did have one raised foreleg, but it was hanging almost limp in the air – a pony reaching out to another, not trying to hit one. And – and were those – were those tears? No. Impossible. Raindrops didn’t cry. It was just rain water in the pegasus’ eyes. “Are…” Raindrops said with surprising softness, lowering her hoof slowly. “Are you afraid of me?” “N-no!” Trixie answered quickly. Just as quickly, she continued. “Just…just, you’re a little, um, touchy, and – ” “And a giant ball of anger and hate,” Raindrops interrupted. She stepped backwards in what could only be described as horror. “You’re terrified of me!” “No! You’re a great friend! R-remember how we dealt with that griffin? Hilda or whatever her name was? Or that ursa minor that Twilight Sparkle brought into town! Ha! That was fun, well not the almost dying part, but we didn’t die so in hindsight it was fun and we had fun together as friends…” “That’s not exactly friend activity, Trixie,” Raindrops countered, brow furrowing. “That’s…that’s just stuff you get the village strong pony for.” She looked away from Trixie, wings somehow managing to sag lower. “You’re afraid of me. You hate me.” Trixie had a problem of shifting her weight from one hoof to the next a lot when caught in the act of something; a moment previously she had been doing it so much that she could have served as a decent drink mixer if somepony had balanced a glass on her back. However, at Raindrops’ conclusion of the unicorn’s feelings towards her, however, she froze. “I…I don’t hate you!” she exclaimed. Raindrops didn’t seem to believe her. “It’s alright, Trixie,” she said, letting out a dull, emotionless laugh. “I’m used to it. Everypony’s afraid of me. Everypony walks on eggshells around me. I know it.” She sighed, hanging her head as she turned around. “I’ll go – ” “Wait – no – ” Trixie said, wondering how Raindrops had somehow managed to turn into a mirror image of her own insecurities – yes, she had them, she knew she had them. Gathering her courage, her horn glowed, and she telekinetically grabbed a hold of Raindrops’ tail, preventing the pegasus from leaving. She turned around at that, looking to Trixie. Trixie paused, not sure exactly how to proceed from here. “I do not hate you,” she stated. “I mean…okay. Yes. You’re terrifying when you get mad, and…and I’d just called you an imposter and so I thought that you were about to hit me a whole lot! And you know what? I deserve it! I made a mistake and screwed up and so I want you to hit me ‘cause I deserve it!” She galloped over to Raindrops, flinching a little when she got close, but then holding her ground. “Come on. I deserve it for what I did! Just like during the Eventime!” Raindrops stared. “Friends don’t hit each other,” she said. “Sure they do!” “Not like this, Trixie.” Raindrops sat back on her haunches, staring at the unicorn. “Friends aren’t afraid of each other.” She looked down, and Trixie somehow knew what she was thinking: she was remembering back during the Longest Night, when Trixie had (theoretically) tried to help a bad situation with the weather patrol, and Raindrops had all but threatened to kill her. She was remembering how, when Raindrops had gone to Trixie over what Rainbow Dash and the griffin Gildra (or whatever), Trixie’s first assumption had been that Raindrops was there to hurt her for something. She was remembering how, when Trixie had insulted and goaded Twilight Sparkle into making a fool of herself in front of all of Ponyville for no real reason, Raindrops had socked her in the jaw, hard. “N-no!” Trixie exclaimed, interrupting Raindrops’ train of thought. “Those were – I deserved the Longest Night and the Eventime, I really did, and let’s face it, I’ve never been a very good friend so I deserved it when you came to my office after what Gilta had done and I thought – ” Raindrops frowned. “I’d forgotten about that…” she intoned. Trixie’s eyes widened. “No! I can’t go down to just four!” she exclaimed. Raindrops looked up at that, puzzled. “What?” Trixie didn’t see it. She’d rushed past Raindrops, towards her office, where she kept all the magical books she’d taken from Twilight’s abandoned wagons and began scanning the titles, looking for the one with the proper spell. She found it in a few moments, and tore it from the shelf telekinetically, opening the pages and beginning to pour through it, looking for the spell she’d seen, the one she needed to fix everything. Something about memory, and…she was awful at learning spells from books, was far better at watching spells being cast and then duplicating them, but this was an emergency. She wasn’t going to screw up another friendship. Not again. Raindrops, probably out of morbid curiosity more than anything, had followed Trixie to her office, watching as Trixie refreshed the spell in her mind, how to cast it, what it entailed, the motions, the movements of magic. In her current state, Trixie was taking in all the directions without fully stopping to realize exactly what the spell entailed. “Trixie?” Raindrops asked. “What are you doing? What do you mean, go down to four?” Trixie snapped the book shut, staring at Raindrops with wide eyes, horn glowing brightly. “I’ll show you!” she exclaimed, dashing forwards. The jasmine-coated pegasus’ wings flared in surprise, and she began to canter backwards, but by then Trixie had reached her, grabbed her head with her front hooves, leaned in, and – – and Trixie and Raindrops were in the ruined Palace of the Royal Pony Sisters. It was months ago, when Corona had returned, when she had tried to kill them, when one by one Cheerilee, and Lyra, and Carrot Top and Ditzy Doo and, yes, Raindrops, had claimed their respective Elements of Harmony. Corona was lashing out at them with fire and magic, but it was no use, the Elements protected them. Only Trixie hadn’t claimed hers yet, but she was about to, she was surrounded on all sides by her friends, waiting for her to make the connections, to realize that the sixth, forgotten Element of Magic was powered by the bonds of friendship that they had forged. Raindrops looked to Trixie. “And…well, your heart was in the right place with the weather-for-hire team,” Raindrops admitted. “So…yeah. Friends?” “Friends,” the other four ponies agreed. Trixie’s eyes were wide. “Fr – ” Raindrops pushed Trixie away from her, eyes wide and sputtering as she ran one hoof across her mouth. “You kissed me!” she exclaimed. Trixie had stumbled slightly from Raindrops’ push, but she kept her balance easily enough as she stared at the pegasus. “That’s how the spell works!” she exclaimed. “It’s…well, the book kind of goes on a bit about magical connections and forming a conduit and other stuff I don’t really get, but that’s how the spell works!” She paused. “And you interrupted it before the good part!” Exactly what Trixie had said hit Raindrops first, and Trixie a moment later. Both ponies felt their faces beginning to redden, and looked away from each other awkwardly. “Um,” Trixie said. “That…that came out wrong.” “Yes,” Raindrops agreed wholeheartedly. Trixie shifted around a little. “It’s a memory-transfer spell,” Trixie said softly. “It sort of copies the memories in my mind and gives them to you. You still know they aren’t yours, but it lets you see things from my perspective.” She looked to Raindrops. “That was my memory of us against Corona. When I earned the Element of Magic. When we beat an alicorn, because we were friends.” Raindrops stared at Trixie. “That…that was then,” Raindrops said. “But you’re terrified of me now – ” “I’m afraid of angry you!” Trixie interrupted. “Who in their right mind wouldn’t be? But I’m the mare who assumed that’s all there was, I’m the mare who saw you happy and assumed that you must have been an imposter. I’m the bad pony here! I’m the horrible friend!” Raindrops blinked. “You’re not a horrible friend.” “Yes I am!” Trixie exclaimed, stamping her fore hooves a few times. “If I was a good friend then I wouldn’t have only five!” “How many do you need?” “I don’t know! I’ve had seventy – ” “You kept score?” “No! …sort of!” Trixie continued to shift and move in place, looking at the ground. “I…I went back and counted recently, all the friends I’ve ever had, and there’s been seventy. Some of them, we just drifted apart, some of them were friends back in Neigh Orleans but then I moved away and we stopped talking…but most of them, most of them I drove away. Because I’m a horrible friend. I’m a horrible pony.” Raindrops and Trixie looked to each other, and silence stretched between the two again. At length, Raindrops broke it. “That memory spell,” Raindrops said. “Does it go both ways? Could you use it to see things from my perspective?” Trixie blinked a few times as she thought. “Um…yes?” she said. “You’d just have to focus on the memories you’d want me to see…” At that, Raindrops closed the distance between the two of them. “Okay,” she said, leaning forward, closing her eyes. “Do that.” Trixie blinked. “Just…kiss you?” she asked, leaning away a little. Raindrops opened one eye. “You were fine with it before.” Trixie supposed she had a point. It wasn’t much different than actors on a stage, really. Sighing slightly, horn glowing, she leaned in – The ruined palace in the Everfree again, Corona railing and lashing out again, but this time Trixie was looking at herself, seeing things through the eyes of a pegasus who had shards of glowing orange rocks – the former vessel for the Element of Honesty – orbiting her neck. More than just looking – she was feeling everything that Raindrops felt. Raindrops was afraid, of course. Corona was the Tyrant Sun, and surely even the Elements of Harmony would eventually give way to her raw power, her destructive rage. Raindrops was angry, too, angry at the situation, angry at Zecora the zebra for betraying them to Corona. And she was determined – despite her fear, despite her anger, she was going to stand up for Equestria, stand up to the Tyrant Sun, and send the mad alicorn back into the heart of the sun, where she belonged. But those emotions gave way when Raindrops realized that Trixie hadn’t claimed her Element yet. Raindrops, herself, had chosen Honesty – been chosen by Honesty – both, neither, at the same time. She was Honesty, in some metaphysical sense that she couldn’t explain. But Trixie was having trouble, not claiming her Element, but in even believing that she should have one in the first place. Didn’t the filly have basic pattern recognition? Going beyond everything the six of them had fought and suffered through on the way to the Elements – the sirens, the poison joke, the dragon attack – what made her think that she didn’t deserve to stand beside them, that she wasn’t supposed to be there? “You’re not my friends,” she pointed out to them. “You all hate me.” Cheerilee laughed. “Trixie, we don’t hate you. So you can be a jerk. So what? So can everypony. But we wouldn’t even be here without you.” “You made my muffin smile,” Dinky Doo pointed out. “That makes you a friend in my book.” “You also walked through poison joke for me,” Lyra pointed out. “You helped my farm,” Carrot Top added. “And…well, your heart was in the right place with the weather-for-hire team,” Raindrops admitted. She had been hard on Trixie, she knew, harder than she should have been. Angry over what really amounted to nothing. And if there was any time to extend an olive branch, it was now. “So…yeah. Friends?” “Friends,” the other four ponies agreed. Trixie’s eyes were wide. “Friends,” she echoed softly. Raindrops pulled away from Trixie again, shoving her away once more when she felt something in her mouth that was emphatically not supposed to be there. “Tongue?” She demanded. “Tongue? Why was there tongue?” “That’s what the spell says,” Trixie objected. “That’s a lie! There wasn’t tongue the first time!” “That’s because you interrupted it before we could reach the good part!” Trixie’s horn glowed as she levitated the spellbook over to Raindrops, holding it up. Raindrops blushed. This particular page outlined – in the most scientific, arcane way possible – not only the way the kiss that began the spell was supposed to be performed, but even exactly when during the spell’s course to turn the kiss into a Prench one, and exactly how much tongue was required. It also came with a helpful illustration. “What are you doing?” Raindrops and Trixie both jumped at the voice, from behind Raindrops, who instinctively dove forward, wings spreading in panic, even as Trixie’s own unicorn instincts took over and she instead planted herself firmly on the ground, horn glowing. The result was Raindrops crashing into Trixie, and the two ponies landed on the ground in a pile of legs and wings. The two began untangling themselves from each other, but froze – in a somewhat compromising position – when they saw the source of the voice. Cheerilee stared at Trixie and Raindrops. Raindrops and Trixie stared at Cheerilee. All three sets of eyes turned to the fallen book, on the floor of Trixie’s office, which had helpfully elected to remain open to the intricately detailed picture of two ponies in the middle of a complex act of arcane power that just happened to involve a kiss. With tongue. “Um,” Trixie said. Okay. The good news? Raindrops, I’m pretty sure, doesn’t hate me. And, I’ve learned that she’s not all anger. In hindsight, I should have known that, and it was wrong of me to think of her as just some one-note pony. I still have all five of my friends. I’m not going to lose them, like I’ve lost all the others. Screw the pattern. Forget the cold, hard facts. I’m not losing any of them. The bad news? I’m going to have an interesting time explaining to Cheerilee what she just walked in on. Hopefully she’s reasonable.
3. Teaching LaughterSometimes I wonder if it’s all downhill from here. If I’ve plateaued already, that the best days of my life have passed me by. Of course, then I remember that I’m the Element of Laughter. I think ‘destined to do great things’ kind of comes with the job description there. At the very least, I know that I’ll always have an impact on the lives of ponies around me. So maybe not my ‘best days’ have passed, then then. But I do think that I’ve maybe left the most exciting time of my life behind me. But really, that’s for the best. I was a foal and a young mare, and I did foal and young-mare type things. I lived, I laughed, I fell in love and had my heart broken (plus a rib here or there) and then fixed it back up again (ditto the ribs). I lived on top of the world, at the bottom of a bottle, and everywhere in between. I travelled to Las Pegasus and Manehattan, to Colton and Bridleton, and there’s photographic evidence that I’ve been to Neigh Orleans, though I don’t remember anything of it (or the day before, or for about two days afterwards). I gave my parents and even my older sister Berry Punch more than a few euphemistic heart attacks, especially that time I brought home a minotaur. Even in Equestria, a pony dating a minotaur raises a few eyebrows. I think the reason why it took me so long to find my cutie mark is because I wasn’t trying to find out who I was or what I wanted, the way everypony else was. I didn’t much care who I was. I just wanted to have fun, whatever that meant at the time. No, I wasn’t finding true happiness, but I was definitely finding some decent facsimiles. But, then I started getting older, and that meant that I had to start taking care of myself, thinking about my future and abandon my live-in-the-moment attitude, bit by bit setting aside my childish things and moving into the ‘real world.’ Also my parents finally put their hoof down and wouldn’t let me wander off during the summers or weekends, or even much during the weekdays except to go to school. Probably a good decision on their part, though at the time I thought that they were standing in for the sun, as the saying goes. Of course, then I earned my cutie mark – the last pony I knew to do so, I was nearly grown up by the time it finally occurred – and I found out how much it made me happy to see smiling foals and to basically help to raise the next generation of ponies, and I ended up going in the opposite direction. Suddenly I became the responsible one, the steady one, the one with the goal in life. I hit the books so hard it left a mark. I had to, of course – they don’t let just anypony be a teacher, after all, and with the grade-point average I had, it seemed almost like a hopeless cause. But I did it. I even managed to do it without hurting my social life too badly. I mean, yes, it’s been years since I’ve seen most of the old gang, but they’ve all moved on too. At least I hope they have. Doing the kinds of things we used to do – a not insignificant portion of which ranged from ‘barely legal’ to ‘very illegal’ – is a young pony’s game, and I think it’d be almost sad to see Rainbowshine is still dancing on tables in Las Pegasus (she isn’t, last I heard she’s on the weather patrol in Bridleton). But back then our lives were just sticking it to the authority for the sake of making a scene. Anarchy and hedonism is all well and good for a kid, but it doesn’t really get anything done. A wasted youth isn’t nearly as good as a wise and productive old age. Nope. I am a teacher. I elucidate and illuminate and educate everypony around me, I ensure that the ponies I know – but especially my students, the foals in my class – are more informed, more knowledgeable, and therefore, better ponies all around. It’s not exciting, it’s not glamorous, but it’s my special talent, it’s what makes me happy. And as much fun as the old days were, I wouldn’t trade the life I have now for anything. The foals filed into the classroom from recess and found their desks quickly enough, but continued to talk for several minutes, keeping conversations and discussions that they had been having outside going. Most of the conversations centered on the storm over the Everfree Forest, it’s sheer size, and the fact that the weather patrol didn’t seem to have any intention of getting rid of it. Despite being an earth pony, Cheerilee was familiar enough with the weather of the Everfree Forest to know that the storm, though large in size, wasn’t going to be particularly dangerous. It was still unscheduled, however – Cheerilee had triple-checked her newspaper to verify this – and more to the point, she couldn’t see any sign of Ponyville’s weather patrol getting ready to combat the rain. She wondered if they had decided to change the date of the storm that had been scheduled for next week. Eventually, Cheerilee had to bring the classroom to a semblance of order, especially given the importance of today’s subject. “Let’s quiet down, please! We have a very important lesson to get to.” Cheerilee asked as she stood up and walked from her desk, over to a presentation she had prepared. The classroom of foals quieted down quickly enough. “Thank-you. Today, we are going to be talking about cutie marks.” About half the class looked especially attentive at that, while at least a few – all of whom had earned their cutie marks by now – lost a little interest. Cheerilee had been expecting as much, though, hence her visual presentation. First, however, she made sure that her own cutie mark was in clear view to the classroom. “You can all see my cutie mark, can’t you?” At a few nods, she turned to her presentation that lay upon a picture stand; with one hoof she moved aside the paper covering it and revealed several blown-up pictures of herself when she was younger, starting with her as a foal around the same age as everypony else in the classroom besides her. “Just like everypony, I wasn’t born with a cutie mark.” Cheerilee resisted the urge to add the line that she had heard as a foal – her “flank was blank.” The pejorative blank-flank was common enough already; no need to add fuel to the fire simply for the sake of a rhyme. She heard a slight squeal from one of the foals in the front of the class – Twist, a foal who wore thick glasses and had a slight speech impediment, though Cheerilee was confident she’d outgrow it eventually – at the sight of Cheerilee as a filly. “Aw…” Twist said, “thee’s tho prethious!” Cheerilee smiled warmly, ignoring a few rolled eyes from other foals. “Then one day,” she said, continuing her story, “I woke up to find that a cutie mark had appeared!” She moved aside the picture of her as a foal, and instead showing a much later one. “Look at her hair!” Silver Spoon exclaimed, before she could stop herself. A wave of laughter passed through the classroom. Cheerilee herself joined in as she glanced at the photograph, showing her with a wavy, tossed mane and tail that looked like it had lost a fight with a waffle-maker, not to mentioned a checkered scarf, a single legwarmer on her left hind leg, and braces. At least nopony had commented on those. “Yes, I know,” she said, “but honestly, that’s how everypony was wearing their mane back then!” Cheerilee didn’t feel the need to explain that by everypony, she actually meant a specific youth subculture that she had been a part of, nor that what she had been wearing had been considered quite risqué by adults at the time, and most especially that this was probably the tamest picture that existed of her at that point in time. This was not, after all, a history lesson, and her goal had been to keep the subject of cutie marks light, anyway. “I had decided to become a teacher,” Cheerilee continued, “and the flowers symbolized my hope that I could help my future students bloom if I nurtured them with knowledge. The smiles on the flowers represented the cheer I hoped to bring to my little ponies while they were learning.” Cheerilee also decided to leave out that, at a glance, her cutie mark almost resembled three smiling suns rather than smiling flowers, and the slight ostracizing she had experienced as a result. Having a sun-themed cutie mark was considered incredibly bad luck. But, Granny Smith, the resident wise old-timer of Ponyville (even back then), had herself stated that they were flowers, not suns, and everypony had listened to Granny Smith on that point, thankfully. “Now,” Cheerilee said, pausing in her presentation, “can anypony tell me when a pony gets his or her cutie mark?” “Oh! Oh! Oh!” Twist exclaimed, unsurprisingly – she was always Cheerilee’s most eager student. “When thee dithcoverth that thertain thomthing that maketh her thpethial!” Cheerilee nodded, heading back over to her desk and looking out over the class. “That’s right, Twist. A cutie mark appears on a pony’s flank when he or she finds that certain something that makes them different from any other pony. Even two cutie marks that look identical can mean very different things. But most important of all, a cutie mark represents the thing that makes you happy. "But, finding out what makes you, well, you, isn’t something that happens overnight. It’s a journey of self-discovery, and no amount of hoping, wishing, or begging will make a cutie mark appear before its time – ” Cheerilee cut herself off when she spotted something in the back. “Applebloom! Are you passing a note?” she demanded, when she noticed the earth pony filly leaning across the aisle that separated her desk from Diamond Tiara’s. She had put Applebloom’s desk between Diamond Tiara’s and Silver Spoon’s when the two wouldn’t stop talking to each other during class, but it was looking like that wouldn’t be enough. Applebloom had dropped the note, and was stuttering as Cheerilee left her desk and trotted up to the fallen piece of paper. “What could be so important that it couldn’t wait until after class?” she asked, turning the paper over with one hoof and revealing… “It’s blank?” she asked, glancing to Applebloom, who was shrugging helplessly. Cheerilee sighed, shaking her head as she picked up the crumpled paper and tossed it into the waste basket – two points – before turning back around, heading back for her desk. She was about to ask Applebloom not to pass notes (and that no, it didn’t matter that she hadn’t been the one to write it, nor that it was blank) in class when she heard muffled laughter – no, not laughter. Sniggering. “Remind you of anypony?” Diamond Tiara asked, her voice obviously supposed to be heard by her classmates, especially Silver Spoon, who also tittered. She probably hadn’t thought that Cheerilee would overhear. She had been mistaken. “As a matter of fact, it does, Diamond Tiara,” Cheerilee said, turning around. She noted Applebloom’s dejected look – she was one of the ponies in class who had yet to earn her cutie mark – and shot the red-maned filly a conciliatory smile. “How many of you remember our geography lesson from a few weeks ago? Does anypony remember who Mi Amore Cadenza is?” All hooves in the class remained on the floor, the lesson being only dimly remembered, except by one. Alula, who was a yellow-coated, purple-maned pegasus filly who possessed both pegasus wings and a unicorn horn, raised one hoof. “Um…the Princess of Cavallia?” she asked timidly, aware that a lot of pony’s eyes were now on her. Alula was embarrassed about having both wings and a horn, as she wasn’t really extraordinary, not beyond the normal limits of a unicorn or a pegasus, in any event: she was no alicorn like Luna or Cadenza. A lot of ponies expected amazing things from her – a lot of the other foals thought that she was an alicorn in disguise, in fact – but Cheerilee knew her to be just like any other filly her age. Cheerilee nodded. “That’s right!” she said. “She’s the immortal alicorn princess of Cavallia and has been alive for a thousand years. And she did not earn her cutie mark until she was nearly thirty years old! Yet despite that, she was crowned princess of Cavallia before earning it, and is among the closest friends and confidants of Princess Luna herself! “Or,” Cheerilee continued, turning back to her presentation, “if you’d like a more recent example, there’s me! I was older any anypony here before I earned my cutie mark. In fact, I was the last pony I knew to earn one. But I never let that get me down. “You see, class,” Cheerilee continued, not specifically addressing Diamond Tiara, but the earth pony filly certainly knew that she was the target of Cheerilee’s lecture, “as important as cutie marks are to ponies, just as important is the journey of self-discovery involved in finding your special talent. Before earning his or her cutie mark, nopony knows his or her special talent – which is just another way of saying that his or her special talent could be anything, and the pony still gets to experience the joy of finding out what it’s going to be!” “So it’s better to be a blank-flank!” Dinky Doo exclaimed from her desk. Cheerilee reacted before the foals in the class with cutie marks could feel insulted. “Not exactly,” she explained. “Remember that a pony without a cutie mark hasn’t yet realized what makes him or her truly happy, after all. I’d say that, at the end of the day, it’s simply most important to be yourself. Everypony earns their cutie marks eventually, when their time is right. It might take some ponies longer than others, but it always happens, and until then, you should just enjoy yourselves and be happy!” Applebloom and the other pre-cutie mark ponies in the classroom looked suitably assuaged, while Diamond Tiara and the other ones who had already earned their cutie marks also looked satisfied with Cheerilee’s explanation. The teacher didn’t delude herself into thinking that she had fully stopped the eternal conflict between cutie-marked and blank-flank foals, but she had, at least, forestalled this particular battle, and maybe imparted a little wisdom along the way. “Alright then, class,” Cheerilee said, as she returned to her presentation. As she did, she caught a glance out the window, and saw that the rain had started falling – harder than she had expected, too. “Now, who here can tell me what is believed to create cutie marks…?” By the time the school day ended, a steady downpour had begun in earnest, turning the dirt roads that comprised most of Ponyville into inch-deep muck punctuated by wide puddles and flowing rivulets. Most of the foals’ parents had seen the rain coming and had come to pick up their foals, bringing their waterproofed rain cloaks from home while usually pausing to complain to Cheerilee or each other about the unscheduled weather change. Unfortunately, not all the foals’ family could make it, due to their being too busy at their places of work. Ponyville was a safe enough town that foals could normally walk home from school by themselves, but today, with this unexpected storm, Cheerilee didn’t feel confident allowing them to do such. Thus it was that Cheerilee found herself walking Dinky Doo, Silver Spoon, and Applebloom home through the rain, wearing the spare rain-cloaks that the school had stored away (and which looked – and smelled – like they hadn’t been used for a very long time, if ever). Silver Spoon had complained quite a bit about the cloaks, the rain, the mud, the company, the fact that she still had to do her homework even though it was raining and she had to walk home through it (nopony else entirely understanding how one was connected to the other), and just about everything else she could think of despite Cheerilee’s frequent admonishments. Fortunately, hers was the first home that the four of them reached, and almost in spite of herself she did thank Cheerilee for the escort. Despite Silver Spoon’s house being their first stop, however, Cheerilee found herself thoroughly soaked by the rain, the cloak she was wearing not as waterproofed as the other three that she had managed to scrounge up for the foals. She tried not to let it get to her. Dinky Doo’s home was next, and it was also thankfully only a few streets away from Silver Spoon’s. Unlike Silver Spoon, Dinky had largely behaved herself and actually determinedly avoided mud puddles or splashing around in the rain. Not that she minded it, but as she informed Cheerilee, her mother was covering a shift at the post office today, which meant that she was going to come home tired, and the last thing she’d need to do is clean up any mess that Dinky tracked all over the apartment. Despite the short distance between Silver Spoon’s rather opulent home and Dinky’s loft apartment above the post office, Cheerilee found herself having passed soaked and ventured into nearly waterlogged territory due to the trip. And the longest leg was still left: Sweet Apple Acres, clear outside of town with the usually well-behaved, but certainly easy-to-excite, Applebloom. Applebloom, unlike Silver Spoon or Dinky, was thoroughly enjoying splashing around in the rain and muck. “Ah’m gonna need a bath anyway,” she informed Cheerilee matter-of-factly after jumping and nearly belly-flopping in a particularly large puddle. “Might as well make it worth tha effort, right?” “Yes, but what about your school books?” Cheerilee asked the filly. She’d, so far, managed to avoid being splashed by Applebloom, and by this point Applebloom’s house was in sight. “Mah school bag is waterproofed!” Applebloom proclaimed happily. “Mah big sis made sure t’ get me an all-weather school bag just in case Ah ever got caught outside in the rain. You can practically go swimmin’ with it!” She paused, then smiled brightly when she spotted the deep pond that was on Apple family land. “Watch!” “Whoa, nelly!” A voice with a matching country drawl to Applebloom’s own called as the filly tried to dash off, just as Cheerilee was about to stop her. Coming out from one of the fields, onto the muddy road, was an orange-coated mare with a blond mane and tail, wearing only a sturdy Stetson and seeming to be unconcerned about the rain. Applejack was pulling a small cart of apples behind her. “Now Ah know ya weren’t just about to go for a swim in this weather, Applebloom.” “Aw…” Applebloom moaned at her sister’s admonishment. “But Ah’m wet anyway…” “Ain’t about gettin’ wet, sugarcube. Y’know that the stream swells when it rains an’ floods the pond. Water ends up flowin’ fast enough ta sweep ya away.” “But Ah’m a good swimmer!” “Not good enough ta’ put mah mind at ease. You can go for a swim when the pond’s level drops, but not before, y’hear?” Applebloom didn’t seem too happy with that, but didn’t charge the pond, at least, instead letting out a sigh, thanking Cheerilee for seeing her home as good manners demanded, and trudging towards the house. Cheerilee and Applejack both laughed slightly at the sight of the disappointed filly once she was out of earshot. “Ah remember when Ah didn’t think anythin’ could hurt me neither,” the farmer remarked. “’Course, even Ah wasn’t dumb enough ta’ jump into a floodin’ pond!” Cheerilee paused at that, tapping one waterlogged hoof to her mouth. Had this been half an hour ago, she might not have wanted to sit out in the rain talking, but as it stood she was wet enough anyway to not feel a need to pay it mind. “I seem to recall something about a treehouse, and a tornado from the Everfree, and wanting to make sure it was alright…” Applejack looked embarrassed for a moment, before laughing. “Shucks,” she admitted. “Guess that was pretty dumb. Thank-you, by the way, for bringin’ Applebloom home. Ah ain’t worried none about a little rain, but Ah can certainly appreciate the concern.” “Speaking of,” Cheerilee noted, looking at Applejack’s modest cart of fruit, “is this really apple-bucking weather?” The farmer shook her head. “It ain’t. But the water n’ wind makes a few apples drop a bit early, and Ah ain’t in the business a’ lettin’ them go to waste. They make good cider. Not our cider-season quality cider, mind, but still good cider.” “I’ll keep an eye open for it in the market,” Cheerilee promised. “Anyway, I better get going. See you later, Applejack.” “’Later, Cheerilee,” Applejack returned. Cheerilee did not for a moment regret seeing Silver Spoon, Dinky Doo, or Applebloom home, especially the last if she honestly felt that going for a swim in this weather was a good idea (though without Cheerilee around to show off her school bag to, she probably wouldn’t have even considered it). She did, however, regret how soaked-through she now was. She more closely resembled a magenta sponge than a pony at this point. The rain cloak had completely failed her by the time she was back in town from Sweet Apple Acres, and she now wore it more out of a lack of anywhere to throw it out than due to any remaining need for its protection. Her mane, only recently recovered from a somewhat eventful day last month, was hanging around her like a waterlogged mop. In sum, she was wet. Cheerilee sighed as she trudged through town. Earth ponies were naturally resilient and hardy, but she knew that even considering that, there was a fairly good chance she was going to end up with a cold as a result of this little adventure. Still, the trade-off was peace of mind, which made the ordeal worthwhile – Cheerilee heard the shimmering sound of unicorn telekinesis over her head, and looked up just in time to see a bucket full of water wrapped in a golden aura overturn directly onto her face. She let out a gasp at the sudden volume of water, sputtering. Over the rain and in spite of her water-filled ears, she heard laughter. Glancing to her left, she saw Bon Bon’s Confectionarium, and standing just inside the door a pair of grinning ponies, one a cream-colored earth pony, one a seafoam-green unicorn, and both appearing to have something of a death wish and utter confidence that it was about to be granted. “Hi, Cheerilee!” Lyra called over to her second-oldest friend. Cheerilee had known Lyra since the two were in diapers, and Bon Bon for just as long. “It was Bon Bon’s idea!” Cheerilee closed her eyes, counting to ten. When she opened them, she was looking at Bon Bon, and smiling wildly. “It just gave me a fantastic idea of my own,” she said. Bon Bon stared uncomprehendingly for a moment, then let out a slight shriek as Cheerilee charged forward. She tried to turn and dash further into her store, but was too slow as Cheerilee leapt and landed on her, soaking the earth pony instantly as Lyra laughed while cantering backwards and well clear of the magenta sponge and her victim. “Ack!” Bon Bon cried, struggling as Cheerilee stood and shook herself off, with Bon Bon right beneath her, soaking her even more. She wasn’t worried about the candy in the store, which she knew to all be safe in their containers. “Help!” Lyra tapped a hoof to her mouth, considering. “Nope,” she said. “Way I see it, this is fair for dumping water on poor Cheerilee.” “You dumped the water!” Bon Bon and Cheerilee both exclaimed. “I was really more just a tool being used,” Lyra pointed out. “An accomplice that was coerced with threats of pain and you not making brownies tonight – wait, Cheerilee, what are you – ” Cheerilee had trotted away from Bon Bon and back outside, retrieving the bucket. She then trotted back in and calmly proceeded to the sink that was behind the Confectionarium’s counter and began filling the bucket to the brim. “Oh no,” Lyra objected, horn glowing defensively as Cheerilee finished filling the bucket. “No, no, I was unwilling! Dragged! Coerced!” She started galloping away, towards the door that would take her up and to Bon Bon’s apartment, but found it blocked off by a cream earth pony who was grinning as manically as Cheerilee. “Treason!” Lyra exclaimed, just as Cheerilee came up behind her and overturned the bucket on the unicorn’s head, then threw her sopping wet rain cloak over her, and lastly pounced on her for good measure. Bon Bon joined in, and within moments all three were equally soaked – although this resulted in a net positive for Cheerilee, since she mostly just ended up transferring water from her own coat to the other two. After several long minutes of flailing limbs and cries of battle, the three mares managed to disentangle themselves, panting but laughing despite themselves. “This’ll be fun to clean up,” Cheerilee remarked, looking around the store. “Maybe we went a little overboard…” “Nah, gives me something to do,” Bon Bon said with a sigh. “Nopony is going to head out in the rain for candy. Plus, me and Lyra had a picnic planned, but that’s not happening, either…” “Yeah, not sure what the weather patrol is thinking…” Lyra said, as she telekinetically grabbed a pair of mops, one for her and one for Bon Bon. At a motion from Cheerilee, she passed a squeegee on to the magenta pony. “I mean, I always knew that Rainbow Dash was lazy, but we used to be able to at least count on everypony else…” “There’s probably a good reason for it…” Cheerilee said. Lyra and Bon Bon were mopping, while she followed with the squeegee, pushing the water from the wooden floor and outside. “Didn’t Carrot Top say something about organizing a storm for the Farmer’s Union?” “I thought that was next week,” Bon Bon ventured. Working together, the three of them had quickly turned their impromptu water fight into sparkling floors, and were now all standing by the door. Cheerilee had taken the opportunity to throw out the useless rain cloak in the bin near the door. Cheerilee shrugged. “I thought so too. Maybe they saw that storm over the Everfree and decided to just go with the – ” There was a splash outside, like something pony-shaped hitting the ground. The three looked, and saw that Raindrops had landed in a large puddle in the middle of the road. “ – rain helps me to untangle all the things that – ” she sang as she splashed around, oblivious to the rest of the world, before taking off again into the sky and passing beyond the trio's range of hearing, then landing once more, then took off, then landed… “…hey, she can sing,” Lyra noted. “Pretty good, too.” “What has her in a good mood…?” Cheerilee wondered aloud. “Well, let’s think,” Bon Bon said. “Her name is Raindrops, her cutie mark is rain, and it’s raining. So clearly it’s because Trixie finally learned about the birds and the bees.” “Bon Bon,” Lyra warned softly. Bon Bon put a hoof to her mouth in embarrassment. Cheerilee had been about to respond to Bon Bon’s snark with a bit of snark of her own – the three had known each other for far too long for innocuous sarcasm to set them off – but stopped at the look on Lyra and Bon Bon’s face. She’d thought that it was just a random comment from Bon Bon, but the two mares’ expressions told otherwise. “Huh?” she asked. Bon Bon opened her mouth, but Lyra shut it with her hooves. “Nothing,” she said. “It’s coming up to that time of the year for Bon Bon so she just has…stuff…on her mind. You know how it is.” “Mmph!” Bon Bon objected, taking Lyra’s hooves from her mouth. “Yes, please go and advertise that fact around town, Lyra…” “Okay…” Cheerilee intoned. “But why’d you bring up Trixie?” Bon Bon sighed. “Well…okay, short, explicit version is that since my heat is coming up, I’ve been getting ideas, and I was thinking back to that little adventure that me and Lyra and Trixie had a few months back, you remember how we told you, and how it might be interesting if Lyra had fingers again, but for that we’d need Trixie’s help and since she’s not exactly experienced and tends to get all panicked whenever the subject comes up I’m not sure how to approach her.” “Also I object to the transforming me again part,” Lyra provided. “It was just an idea,” Bon Bon said with a sigh. Cheerilee’s mind whirled. She could almost feel the gears shifting in her head, putting together what Bon Bon was saying. “Oh,” she said, her snout scrunching a little in thought. “Oh…oh my, that’s a good point. She is uncomfortable with sexual subjects. Like she doesn’t know what’s going on and resents it.” “Yeah,” Lyra said, shifting in place. “Yeah, me and Bon Bon figured out her problem. But it’s her thing to deal with, right?” Cheerilee looked at Lyra like she was insane, but then instantly knew what the unicorn meant. If Lyra thought that not informing Trixie about the facts of life was something that would help protect her fellow unicorn, then she simply wouldn’t. She’d keep Trixie’s little secret so that Trixie wouldn’t have to be embarrassed by it in front of others. But Cheerilee – Cheerilee was a teacher. And she was a friend. She couldn’t let something like this simply slide. But if she told Lyra about her intentions to elucidate and educate, then she’d almost certainly try and stop her. “Okay,” Cheerilee said. “Well…I better get going. I don’t think this rain’s going to stop, and I’ve got to get home.” “Sure,” Lyra said, oblivious to her intention. “Sorry about the whole bucket-of-water thing.” “Yeah, sorry,” Bon Bon sighed. “I was just bored…” “It’s alright, I got my revenge,” Cheerilee said with a smile. “See you later!” Cheerilee took off, heedless of the rain now that she had a mission. Checking over her shoulder to make sure that neither Lyra nor Bon Bon noticed that she was heading the wrong way to get to her house, she set off at a gallop for the Residency of the Representative of the Night Court of Luna. Trixie can’t go through life not knowing about sex, she thought to herself. It’s her choice what to do with the knowledge, but she needs it! Somepony might take advantage of her! Cheerilee reached the Residency in just a few minutes. The two-story house was surrounded by a short iron fence and faced the town hall, which dominated the center of Ponyville and was surrounded by a broad cobblestone plaza. Steeling herself against the task that she now had to undertake – she passed through the gate of the Residency, walked up to the front door, and opened it. “That’s because you interrupted it before we could reach the good part!” Cheerilee heard. Trixie’s office was located to the left of her front door, and glancing in, Cheerilee saw a rain-and-mud soaked Raindrops and a panicked-looking Trixie, each looking at a book. There was probably writing on the book’s pages, but that was not what Cheerilee noted. What Cheerilee noted was the two-page spread picture of two unicorns making out. “What are you doing?” Raindrops leapt in fright, trying to take flight as per her pegasus instincts. Trixie took up a defensive stance with her horn glowing, standing stock still, as per her unicorn instincts. The result was Raindrops colliding with Trixie and both tumbling to the floor in a tangle of legs and wings. The two looked like a pair of fillies caught with their hooves in the cookie jar, or else – – or else – “R-Raindrops,” Trixie, for some reason wearing a pure, virgin white cape, asked of Raindrops, who wore a pleather jacket and sunglasses. “I w-was at the general store and l-l-looking at magazines…and I found this…why are these ponies fighting?” “They’re not fighting,” Raindrops said with a raised eyebrow. “You don’t know what’s happening?” “It makes me feel funny…” “Well, I’ll help you with that…” Cheerilee was grateful for her magenta coat, it meant that her blushes were usually well-hidden. Neither Trixie nor Raindrops had such protection, each having turned an impressive shade of pink. “Alright,” Cheerilee said, pointing at Raindrops. “I want you to go upstairs and get yourself cleaned off!” Raindrops made a face. “Wait, what – ” “Go on! I’ll talk with you later, but I need to speak to Trixie first!” Raindrops blinked a few times, before apparently deciding that Cheerilee was not one to be argued with right now. “O…kay…” she said, standing up and trotting up Trixie’s stares, to her shower. Cheerilee turned to Trixie. “Now, Trixie,” she said. “I can only guess that you found this,” she pointed at the picture, “and other pictures like it, and it made you confused.” Trixie blinked a few times as she stood. “Why are you here?” she asked. “To elucidate and educate!” Cheerilee proclaimed happily. “Now, Trixie, I want to make something clear. I don’t know how you managed to make it to adulthood without learning the basic facts of life – I would have thought that the Princess, at least, would have ensured that you were filled in – but I don’t think any less of you for it.” Trixie had passed pink and now had a coat with a color that roughly matched Cheerilee’s own. “What?” “Now, sit down,” Cheerilee said, placing her hooves on Trixie’s withers and pushing her to the floor. “Because there’s a lot to go over.” “Cheerilee, I – ” “And while Bon Bon shouldn’t of just let something like this slip the way she did – ” “ – wait, she did – ” “Trixie,” Cheerilee said sternly enough for the unicorn to quiet down, “this is going to take even longer if you keep interrupting, and while I’m certain that Raindrops wasn’t trying to take advantage of you, you should at least know about sex before going in!” The red drained from Trixie’s features, taking her normal blue with it, leaving her a stark white as she stared at Cheerilee in shock. Cheerilee nodded. “You’re going to have to get used to that word first of all,” Cheerilee said with a sigh. “Sex, that is.” Trixie stared. Cheerilee sighed again, sitting down in front of Trixie. “Now,” she said. “We’ll start with the basics. I’m sure you’ve noticed that a stallion has a different set of organs between his hind legs than a mare. That’s his…” “…this goes on for a few minutes…well, if you’ve got a good stallion working you, it could actually go on for much longer, but on the other hoof some stallions can’t even really get started, but that’s okay, there are other techniques…” “…now, of course, that really only covers stallions. Mares can have sex, too. Usually this will basically just involve the two masturbating each other – oh, wait, I think I forgot to go over what that is. Alright, sorry. Masturbation is…” “…horns aren’t extra-sensitive in that way, despite the common myth. It’s mostly just solid bone covered by a thin lair of skin with no nerve endings, and fuzz. Any excitement that unicorns feel is almost entirely psychological. However, there is a mass of extremely sensitive nerves right at the base of the horn, sort of similar to the nerve clusters in the alulae of pegasi…” “…from personal experience I can tell you that getting a threesome right can be difficult, since there has to be a degree of trust between all ponies involved, but if two of the ponies are in a committed relationship already you need to make sure not to elicit jealousy. Of course, when Bon Bon, Lyra, and I tried it, mostly it was just awkward since I’d known them so long, it was more like they were my sisters than anything…we’ve agreed to keep me out ever since, and as you know we’re still good friends…” “…and things get really weird when minotaurs are involved, but that fun kind of weird that I mentioned…” "... and I never did figure out where he got that royal guard uniform from, but he said I'd been a baaaad Blackcherry and he'd haul me off to Canterlot if I didn't do everything he said. That was a fun night, all right!" “…and…well, that wraps just about everything up!” Cheerilee said happily, smiling at Trixie, who still had not had the color return to her face. Letting out a slight sigh, she put a hoof on Trixie’s withers. “I know it’s a lot to take in,” she said. “Um…no pun intended. But you couldn’t go through life not knowing about sex, Trixie, you just couldn’t – ” “Whoa, wait, what?” Raindrops interrupted. Cheerilee looked behind her, and saw Raindrops, now cleaned and mostly dry, staring at Cheerilee and Trixie with wide eyes. “What did I miss?” “Raindrops,” Cheerilee said, standing. “I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt. I’m certain that you didn’t mean to take advantage of Trixie.” “She kissed me!” Raindrops exclaimed, throwing her front hooves in the air. “It was a memory spell!” Cheerilee blinked. “A what now?” “A memory spell,” Trixie said absentmindedly from the floor. She was shaking back and forth a little. “Takes my…transfers it to…conduit through the mouth…” Cheerilee stared at Trixie with one eyebrow raised. She noticed the book with the picture of two ponies making out in it still lying on the floor where it had been left, and closed it over – finding that the title was Dweomer Heart’s Diatribe on Divinations. A spellbook. Not…some other kind of book. Cheerilee looked at Trixie. “You…you knew about sex?” “Of course I did!” Trixie suddenly exploded, standing with her horn glowing bright blue. “I grew up in Neigh Orleans! I have seven cousins! My house was smaller than this one! I can’t recall a time when I didn’t know about sex! My aunt and uncle always answered any questions I had and even when they didn’t I had my older cousin and then there were my friends and the red light district is right next to the market district, not to mention the kind of stuff that goes on during the Summer Sun Celebration, I mean yeah I was too young to do anything when I lived there but all you have to do is look out a window around noon during the Celebration and you’ll pick stuff up! And it’s gross!” Cheerilee’s eyebrow arched further. “Gross?” she asked. “Yes! Gross! The way a stallion’s…or being expected to…tongue in the same place that…gah!” Trixie shivered, glaring at Cheerilee. “I don’t want to think about it! Ever! What did Bon Bon say that made you think that I didn’t know?” Cheerilee opened her mouth to explain, before thinking over – very carefully – exactly what Bon Bon had said when she had explained her snarky comment. “Um…” she said. “I…I might have…misinterpreted what she – ” The door to the Residency opened, and Lyra, wearing a rain cloak of considerably better quality than the one that Cheerilee had been wearing, wandered in. She glanced at Cheerilee, Trixie, and Raindrops, blinking a few times as she saw the expressions on the three mares, a look of sheepishness on her face. Slung across her back, under her rain cloak, were saddlebags that looked like they were laden with candy. “So…I’m guessing I’m too late to stop Cheerilee, then,” she ventured. …well. I think I maybe should have thought things through a little more before heading out to elucidate and educate. This is still only the second-most embarrassed I’ve ever been, though. So there’s that.
4. A Musical BondA love song for Bon Bon: “You’ll remember me when the west wind moves “Upon the fields of barley “You'll forget the sun in her jealous sky “As we walk in fields of gold “So I took my love for to gaze awhile “Upon the fields of barley “In her hooves I fell as her hair came down “Among the fields of gold “Will you stay with me, will you be my love “Among the fields of barley? “We'll forget the sun in her jealous sky “As we lie in fields of gold “See the west wind move like a lover so “Upon the fields of barley “Feel my body rise when you kiss my mouth “Among the fields of gold “I never made promises lightly “And there have been some that I’ve broken “But I swear in the days still left “We’ll walk in fields of gold “We’ll walk in fields of gold…” It’s a work in progress. I need a final verse, I think…and using ‘gold’ probably isn’t the best choice. It feels natural, and until just recently I probably could have gotten away with it…but now that Corona’s back, probably not… I can’t remember when I first met Bon Bon. She’s just always there, a constant in my life. I can’t even really remember our first kiss – well, our technical first kiss. I remember our first kiss as a couple, of course, but I know there were dozens more before that, the quick kind between close friends or sisters, the kind I think that we always knew heralded something deeper and more meaningful but which we didn’t know how to act on yet. But then our first real kiss…it was our first date. I remember thinking that our date didn’t seem like anything really all that special, it was just more of what we always did anyway, almost disappointing, really, just to go out to dinner in the park. But, then we were under this willow tree, watching a sunset over the lake that borders Whitetail Wood…Bon Bon snuggled close to me…I nuzzled her, at first because that was what I was supposed to do, but then I looked into her eyes, and…we kissed. There is a world of differences between a kiss and a kiss, and this was definitely the latter. Our lips touched and we instantly stopped being just friends, and that hasn’t changed since. I think for a little while we were worried that it might do something to the friendship we’d had since forever – a little scared to change what we had going already. Love is invigorating, love is the greatest feeling in the world, but love can be terrifying, too. What if we weren’t really in love? What if it didn’t work out between us? Then not only would we no longer have each other’s love – we’d also lose each other’s friendship, as neither of us could have gone back to being ‘just friends,’ not after having loved each other the way we did. Yes, I’ve dated other ponies besides Bon Bon. I can’t count the number of ponies who are genuinely surprised at that. One or two of them were even ponies that I dated, though apparently they only ever thought that we were just ‘hanging out that one time.’ Probably says something about the effort I was trying to put into it. That period, when we weren’t sure about each other, only lasted a few short months. It wasn’t long before we were in each other’s hooves again, when Bon Bon and me finally decided to hang up this ‘friends’ deal and become so much more – become what we’d always known we were on some level. And then I moved away for three years. And I wasn’t always the best at showing it, but those three years were just…agony. Waking up knowing that I could only see Bon Bon every now and then, that the majority of my days would go by without being able to hear her voice…this one day where I realized that I had somehow gone from dawn ‘til dusk without thinking about her, wondering if that meant that I was falling out of love and how that scared me until Octavia sat me down and told me how ridiculous I was being. When I came back, though, I didn’t immediately go to her. Because I was scared. Because I hadn’t seen her in months, hadn’t written her in weeks, the end-of-year at the Academy having consumed all my time. What if she had fallen out of love with me? What if she had found somepony else? What if she couldn’t forgive me for not writing her for so long? For not seeing her for so long? In hindsight…I was being ridiculous again. And Bon Bon, she had missed me with every fiber of her being, as much as I missed her. It’s been months since I’ve come back, of course. We’ve had good times and bad times. We’ve had arguments, and we’ve had to make up afterwards. We’ve laughed, and we’ve cried. We’ve had each other, and we always will. And I don’t think we’ll ever doubt that again. For a decent change, consciousness came slowly, rather than a result of Lyra falling from where she lay and onto the floor. She didn’t open her eyes, instead simply feeling her way around the bed. She was lying on her right side, her right foreleg tucked tight against her body, while her left leg was draped over the withers and shoulder of somepony else – Bon Bon, of course, who was lying with her back to Lyra, still asleep. This made for another change, as Lyra rarely managed to beat Bon Bon to waking up. Lyra smiled, leaning forward and burying her muzzle in Bon Bon’s thick mane, breathing deeply. The scent that came back was of hair and skin and sweat and the same things she could smell in the mane of anypony, of course, but overlaying them was something else – the smell of sugar, not the kind found in a sugar bowl, but rather the fine powder that could gather atop gummi bears or sucking sweets. Laced with the scent of sugar were a dozen other scents – cherry, watermelon, dandelion, apple, rye, even rose – but pure sugar was the most prominent, and triggered within Lyra a million happy memories, all of them dominated by the face of a single mare. To Lyra, it was the sweetest scent in the world. Bon Bon shifted, rolling over. The movement made Lyra open her eyes, and she found herself looking into the teal eyes of her best friend, her marefriend, the pony who meant more to her than just about anything in the whole world. Bon Bon was awake, it seemed, but didn’t say anything as she leaned in and nuzzled Lyra, an action that the unicorn returned for several moments, before the two stopped, embracing each other tightly, both closing their eyes once more and simply listening to the sound of each other’s breathing. No words were needed, as both had reached the same conclusion: today was a day for sleeping in. It couldn’t last, of course. The store beneath their hooves, Bon Bon’s Confectionarium, wouldn’t open itself up, nor mind itself even if it did find some way to do so. The next time Lyra woke (much to her annoyance – her special talent may have been music, but Lyra enjoyed sleeping nearly as much), it was to an otherwise empty bed. Even without her marefriend occupying it, Lyra didn’t get up and pointedly ignored the fact that the clock in the room read 2 o’clock – not quite a new personal record, but close. It was mid-Spring, still just cool enough outside to warrant a comforter over the bed to keep warm at night, making the bed a powerful bastion of heat against the horror that was room temperature. She couldn’t think of anything in particular that she needed to do with her afternoon, so there was no reason to… Bon Bon stuck her head in to the bedroom, and saw Lyra lying on her back, staring at the ceiling and contemplating the deep mysteries of the universe. “Oh, good, you’re awake,” she said. “We need groceries if we’re going to go on that picnic later today.” Oh, right, Lyra thought. The picnic. That thing with the blanket and the eating of food and the complaining about ants. Bon Bon’s heat was coming up, which meant that Lyra’s marefriend was increasingly in the mood for romantic excursions. Lyra herself would probably be the same way in about a month. She nevertheless found herself sighing a little in annoyance. “Let’s just bring candy,” she insisted, rolling over and covering her head with the bedsheet, completely encasing herself under the comforter and closing her eyes again even as she congratulated herself on a brilliant idea. The store downstairs was full of candy, meaning that if she could convince Bon Bon of this idea, she wouldn’t have to get out of bed. “Candy’s good.” Bon Bon frowned. Lyra couldn’t see Bon Bon, of course, but she knew Bon Bon, and she knew Bon Bon would be frowning. “You can’t have just candy at a picnic.” “Maybe you can’t…wagh!” The last exclamation came when Bon Bon grabbed the sheets with her teeth and yanked it from the bed. The drop in temperature from blissful warmth to dreadful room temperature was immediate. Lyra glared at Bon Bon, but the earth pony mare was already trotting from the room and back downstairs to her shop, chuckling to herself. Lyra watched her retreat with a deep scowl. “You’re lucky I love you!” she called after her. “Love you too, honey!” Bon Bon called back nonchalantly. Lyra stared at her intended purchase, considering the money left in her bags and what she had already, and the cost of the current item on her shopping list. They were five and a half bits a piece, rather expensive, but then, they were large. Still, she hadn’t exactly come down here intending to spend a fortune, and she wasn’t sure how much she still had at home…she needed to be careful with how much she spent. One never knew when a given show or concert might go poorly, or be cancelled due to circumstances beyond her control. As much as she hated to admit it, Trixie had a point, after all – the income of a freelance musician was not precisely reliable, tending to come in large blocks punctuated by periods of making almost no money at all… …wait, am I seriously about to take Trixie’s advice? “I’ll take five! I’m not a starving artist!” Lyra exclaimed. The watermelon salespony brightened immensely, apparently focusing far more Lyra’s first proclamation than her second. “Five it is!” she said happily. “That’ll be twenty-seven bits and five jangles! How’re ya gonna carry them?” Lyra blinked a few times, looking to her shopping saddlebags, slung over her back, and then back to the watermelons, which were of impressive girth. She grimaced as she levitated out her bits and jangles – she wasn’t about to go back on what she said – and telekinetically grasped the five watermelons. “I’ll just lug them,” she said with a sigh, letting the fifteen pounds worth of fruit hover just over her back as she turned and trudged off. She wasn’t really feeling the weight yet, but telekinesis was in many ways just like a muscle – one that was, in her case, more used to fine manipulation than heavy lifting. She resolved to make the rest of her trip as fast as possible as she checked her shopping list. 1. Alfalfa 2. Milk (whole) 3. Eggs (brown) (why brown?) (I prefer brown eggs) (they’re literally exactly the same thing except for shell color) (just get me brown eggs, Lyra! They’re for brownies so I’m using brown eggs!) (Brown it is) 4. Peanut butter 5. Tomatoes 6. Cheese 7. Sugar (white or brown?) (both – I make brownies with brown sugar, but white sugar is for tea and coffee) (can I get white eggs too?) (no) (but they’re the same thing!) (if you want white eggs, fine, but you’ll have to cook them) (I’ll just stick with brown eggs, then) 8. Oats 9. Carrots (got some when I saw Carrot Top earlier in the week, check behind the celery) (…why are they behind the celery? That’s not where they go) (sorry, you weren’t home and I didn’t want to just leave them out) (fair enough) 9. Daisies 10. Dandelions 11. Roses 12. Bread (white or brown?) (I swear to the stars, Lyra…) ( :) I love you!) 13. Laudanum for the headache I’m getting from dealing with your antics (white or brown?) (I don’t really want laudanum, Lyra) (but if you did…?) (white) 13. Watermelon (white or brown?) (Stop wasting ink!) 14. Chocolate (white?) (Lyra. I will make you pay) (No, I actually mean it. This is for the brownies, right? It might be neat if we used white chocolate) (Oh. Sure, white chocolate, let’s give it a try) Lyra chuckled to herself as she continued through the farmer’s market. By solemn agreement between the two of them, what Bon Bon and Lyra wrote on the grocery list was not to be brought up verbally, lest the two of them end up in completely nonsensical arguments. That had happened once, a convoluted debate that had ended up with the two of them, in the middle of Ponyville, each accosting other nearby ponies and insisting that they decide what the color green tasted like, and they had only stopped when Pinkie Pie, of all ponies, had told them that they were acting weird. (Lyra was certain that green tasted like cheese no matter what Bon Bon and, as it turned out, most of Ponyville, thought about green and mint, however). The farmer’s market was an open-air plaza in Ponyville’s east. Like the town center, there was cobbled stone beneath Lyra’s hooves rather than dirt, but where the town center was dominated by the circular town hall and surrounded by sedentary shops, such as Bon Bon’s own store, the farmer’s market had no permanent buildings in it. Instead, it was a collection of stalls and kiosks of varying sizes, set up once a week with ponies offering up their products for sale. It wasn’t just farmers, either; in fact, some of the regular businesses of Ponyville would occasionally set up stalls to sell wares or services at discounted prices, the former because they weren’t selling normally, such as excess clothing that was going out of fashion, and the latter as a sort of ‘small sample,’ such as hoof-shines. As Lyra trotted through the farmer’s market, she paid little mind to the gathering storm clouds that she could see floating over the Everfree Forest. They were large, yes, but it was hardly the largest storm she had ever seen over the Everfree, and she was confident that the weather patrol could handle it. Instead, she focused on her shopping list. Milk, cheese, alfalfa and oats, and the flowers passed by without incident. The eggs…well… “Are these the only eggs you have?” Lyra asked Feather Comb, the white-coated, red-maned stallion who ran the stall. Despite the sound of his name, Feather Comb was an earth pony, albeit one who seemed awfully lanky for one. He was new in Ponyville, having only moved just a few weeks ago from Bridleton, bringing with him a flock of chickens – apparently his family in Bridleton had accidentally bred too many, and all the eggs the extra chickens were producing had to go somewhere. This was good for Ponyville, as prior to this the only real source of eggs they had was from Fluttershy, who’s eggs were nearly entirely consumed every week by Sugarcube Corner bakery. Feather Comb fixed Lyra with a bright smile as the unicorn switched from levitating her watermelons outright to just balancing them on her back, and using telekinesis to hold them in place. “Yes’m!” he answered. “Finest hens east of the Sea of Tranquility! How many can Ah do ya for?” Lyra grimaced. “They’re all white.” Feather Comb nodded. “Leghorn’s the breed of choice for the Feather clan. They lay white eggs.” Lyra looked to her shopping list and the short argument contained therein. “I’m looking for brown eggs, though…” Feather Comb’s bright grin fell. “They’re the same thing.” “I know that,” Lyra said, holding forward her shopping list. “But my marefriend Bon Bon insists on brown. Because she’s making brownies, you see.” Feather Comb didn’t seem to understand the logic (but then, neither did Lyra). He waved a hoof over his eggs. “Well, ma’am, white eggs are all Ah’ve got.” Lyra sighed, looked to her list again, and weighed her options. On the one hoof, Bon Bon could be awfully picky about what went into the things she baked. On the other hoof, the creation of sweet things – especially candy, yes, but she was no slouch at baking, either – was Bon Bon’s special talent. She probably knew what she was doing. Still, white eggs were better than no eggs, right? Lyra looked to Feather Comb. “I’ll take a dozen,” she said, using her telekinesis to levitate out ten bits, the price for the eggs. She also, however, passed Feather Comb her shopping list, turned over to its back side. “Do you think I could have your written statement, as a professional hen breeder, that white eggs and brown eggs are the same? It’ll make my night easier. Maybe.” Feather Comb looked at her like she was insane, but got a pencil out from his stall and did so. Once done, he loaded Lyra’s eggs into a box lined with straw to keep their contents safe. “Y’all come back now, y’hear?” he insisted as Lyra left. She waved in acknowledgement, before crossing off ‘eggs’ from her shopping list and heading off into the market. Tomatoes, check. Sugar, both brown and white, check. Lyra also stopped off at a spices stall to buy some cinnamon; she may not have been much of a cook, but she did know what flavors she liked, and her friend Trixie’s tastes had begun to rub off on her slightly – not that she was quite ready to try the egg-and-apple monstrosity that her fellow unicorn had once described to her, but ever since trying cinnamon in her coffee, she’d come to like the taste. She was also been talked into buying saffron by the stand’s owner, though she wasn’t sure if she liked saffron in anything, but by the stars she was not poor! Bread, peanut butter, and chocolate rounded out her shopping trip, which took about an hour in total, though with her mounting headache from lugging around the watermelons it felt like much longer. Still, at least in just a few hours she and Bon Bon would be under the same willow tree in the park that they always picnicked at, watching the sun slip behind the horizon and the safe return of the moon to the skies, snuggled up together beneath a blanket… …and then a raindrop fell on Lyra’s muzzle. She stopped her trot, blinking a few times as she looked down the length of her snout at the drop of water, then turned her gaze upwards to the sky. The weather schedule, posted in Ponyville’s newspaper, had called for only a few clouds in the sky today…instead, as Lyra watched – more than a few other ponies who had also been subject to unexpected wetness doing likewise – dark gray, low-flying clouds, flowing from the Everfree, were making their way across the skies. They were filled to their brims with water, so much so that they couldn’t fully contain what they carried, and so like a waterlogged sponge would just occasionally dribble out spurts of water. But this was only the very edge of what looked like a large, thick storm coming from the Everfree. Lyra whickered in surprise as she set off at a gallop towards Bon Bon’s Confectionarium, ignoring the pain in her head from not just levitating the watermelons, but running while doing so. She made it back to Bon Bon’s store in record time, and a glance over her shoulder as she entered allowed her to see ponies quickening their canters as they moved through Ponyville, wrapping up whatever they had planned to do and quickly heading home as small drops of rain continued to fall – the storm hadn’t reached them yet, but it was obviously on its way. “Lyra?” Bon Bon asked from behind the unicorn. She had been standing behind her store’s counter, but quickly trotted up to her marefriend and joined her in looking at the oncoming rainstorm. “What’s this all about?” she asked. Lyra shrugged, setting down her watermelons on the store’s countertop and looking for the newspaper, turning it quickly to the weather section once she found it. “Yeah, it was supposed to be basically clear skies today!” she exclaimed as she pointed to the day’s weather schedule. “We weren’t supposed to get cloudy weather until the weekend when the weather patrol was gonna get a storm cloud shipment from Cloudsdale! And no rain ‘til next week!” Bon Bon sighed. “How does Rainbow Dash keep her job?” she asked, trotting over to Lyra and reading the weather schedule for herself. “It looks like this storm is coming from the Everfree…” Lyra said, glancing back to the window, then back down to the newspaper. “I mean…okay, I’m not a pegasus, but I don’t think this is a major storm. I don’t hear any thunder or lightning and the winds don’t seem that bad…this is more like the entire weather patrol decided to take a day off!” “Maybe something came up…” Bon Bon theorized, looking back out the window herself. She sighed. “Can’t have a picnic now…there goes my business for today, too. Nopony’s going to go out into the rain for candy.” Lyra grimaced. “Is that bad?” she asked. Bon Bon didn’t actually own the Confectionarium yet; she was still making payments on the loan she’d taken out from the National Bank of Equestria, and would be for at least another year with her current payment plan. Bon Bon shook her head, prompting a sigh of relief from Lyra. “Weekdays are always slow, most of my sales are on the weekends. And I’ve got some savings I can dip into if I absolutely need to.” There was a few moments of silence as the two mares again looked to the oncoming storm outside, sighing almost as one. “Guess the picnic is off for today, then,” Bon Bon noted. “Tomorrow?” “Can’t, I’m hanging out with my dads all day,” Lyra said. “And I have a show the day after in Bridleton. If they don’t run me out of town for this, anyway,” Lyra finished with a gesture to the storm. Bridleton was the next town over from Ponyville. If the Everfree storm didn’t expend itself over Ponyville, then it would likely end up being the Bridleton weather patrol’s problem, which probably wouldn’t make Ponyvillians very popular there. Bon Bon chewed her lip in thought. “Then the weekend, but I’ll be too busy here…ooh, I’m going to give the weather patrol a piece of my mind at the next town meeting.” Lyra nodded, looking back out the window one more time. “Well,” she said, “I got groceries, anyway. We can just have the picnic next week. Unless it snows or something…” Bon Bon chuckled a little, nuzzling Lyra, who returned it. After a moment, however, Bon Bon stopped, eyeing Lyra’s saddlebags. One of them was partially open, Lyra saw when she glanced at them, and its contents – specifically, a box full of white eggs – could be seen. She looked to Lyra, eyebrow raising. “Feather Comb only had white eggs,” Lyra said, telekinetically fishing out the sworn affidavit from the hen breeder. “But he promises that they’re exactly the same thing.” Bon Bon sighed. “But I’m making brownies…” she moaned, then noticed the watermelons – the five watermelons – for the first time. “And why do you have so many of these? We’ll never go through all of them!” “Because I’m not a starving artist!” Lyra exclaimed, louder than she had intended. She put a hoof to her mouth as Bon Bon stared at her curiously. “…but I am a little bit of an idiot,” she added, chuckling as her horn glowed and she picked up the watermelons. “Can I get some help finding a place for all of these?” Lyra sat at the Confectionarium’s window, staring out at the rain that had begun to fall in earnest about half an hour ago. While Bon Bon had been correct about not getting any business as long as it was raining, she had received a few last-minute customers before the rain began. Those were gone now, however, meaning that at the moment Bon Bon had little to do other than quadruple-check her inventory and make small talk with Lyra. Normally she would have spent down time like now making more candy, but with business unlikely to pick up for as long as the rain lasted, she didn’t see the point. The topic of conversation had been Bon Bon describing, in exacting detail, why brown eggs were necessary for brownies, when Lyra spotted a certain magenta pony out the window. “Hey, is that Cheerilee?” she asked, leaning forward to look out. Bon Bon trotted over to the window herself, glancing out. “Yeah, it is,” she noted. “What’s she doing out in rain like this?” The rain wasn’t precisely a torrential downpour, but there was certainly a lot of it. Cheerilee, who the two had known for nearly as long as they had known each other, was trudging along wearing a rain cloak that appeared to have failed utterly at its intended duty. The schoolteacher looked like she had given up on any attempt to try and stay dry anyway, and instead was simply trotting towards her home. Bon Bon tapped a hoof against her mouth as she considered Cheerilee, then smiled wickedly, dashing away and to the sink behind the counter, filling up a bucket full of water and trotting back to Lyra. “Dump this on her,” she commanded. “Why?” Lyra asked. “Because it’ll be funny,” Bon Bon said, nodding sagely. “Besides, she’s soaked anyway.” Lyra stared at the full bucket, then glanced back out at Cheerilee. She opened her mouth to begin to raise a further objection. “I won’t make brownies,” Bon Bon cut in before Lyra could speak. “Objection withdrawn,” Lyra decided, grasping the bucket telekinetically as she trotted over to the door of the Confectionarium, Bon Bon following her. Lyra guided the bucket out slowly, without Cheerilee noticing, to hover just over Cheerilee’s head. At the last possible moment, Cheerilee glanced up, and saw the bucket wrapped in Lyra’s golden effervescence just as Lyra tipped it over. She let out a yelp of surprise as the water poured over her face, sputtering at the sheer volume, if not shock – after all, Bon Bon was correct, she was already thoroughly soaked. After several moments of shaking her head to clear her waterlogged eyes and ears, she glanced over to Lyra and Bon Bon. “Hi, Cheerilee!” Lyra called over. “It was Bon Bon’s idea!” Cheerilee closed her eyes, counting to ten. When she opened them, she was looking at Bon Bon, and smiling wildly. “It just gave me a fantastic idea of my own,” she said. Bon Bon stared uncomprehendingly for a moment, then let out a slight shriek as Cheerilee charged forward. She tried to turn and dash further into her store, but was too slow as Cheerilee leapt and landed on her, soaking the earth pony instantly as Lyra laughed while cantering backwards and well clear of the magenta sponge and her victim. To Lyra’s way of thinking, Bon Bon probably deserved this for making Lyra get Cheerilee even more soaked than she already was. “Ack!” Bon Bon cried, struggling as Cheerilee stood and shook herself off, with Bon Bon right beneath her, soaking her even more. She looked to her marefriend, reaching out her hooves. “Help!” Lyra tapped a hoof to her mouth, considering. “Nope,” she said. “Way I see it, this is fair for dumping water on poor Cheerilee.” “You dumped the water!” Bon Bon and Cheerilee both exclaimed. “I was really more just a tool being used,” Lyra pointed out, seeing no true flaw in her logic. “An accomplice that was coerced with threats of pain and you not making brownies tonight – wait, Cheerilee, what are you – ” Cheerilee had trotted away from Bon Bon and back outside, retrieving the bucket. She then trotted back in and calmly proceeded to the sink that was behind the Confectionarium’s counter and began filling the bucket to the brim. Lyra saw exactly where this was going to end up. “Oh no,” she objected, horn glowing defensively as Cheerilee finished filling the bucket. “No, no, I was unwilling! Dragged! Coerced!” She left out the fact that she didn’t exactly try very hard to resist Bon Bon’s orders as she started galloping away, towards the door that would take her up and to Bon Bon’s apartment – surely Cheerilee wouldn’t dare dump water on their couch, or bed – a but found it blocked off by a cream earth pony who was grinning as manically as Cheerilee. “Treason!” Lyra exclaimed of her marefriend, just as Cheerilee came up behind her and overturned the bucket on the unicorn’s head, then threw her sopping wet rain cloak over her, and lastly pounced on her for good measure. Bon Bon joined in, and within moments all three were equally soaked. After several long minutes of flailing limbs and cries of battle, the three mares managed to disentangle themselves, panting but laughing despite themselves. “This’ll be fun to clean up…” Cheerilee remarked, looking around the store. “Maybe we went a little overboard…” “Nah, gives me something to do,” Bon Bon said with a sigh. “Nopony is going to head out in the rain for candy…plus me and Lyra had a picnic planned, but that’s not happening, either…” “Yeah, not sure what the weather patrol is thinking…” Lyra said, as she telekinetically grabbed a pair of mops, one for her and one for Bon Bon. At a motion from Cheerilee, she passed a squeegee on to the magenta pony. “I mean, I always knew that Rainbow Dash was lazy, but we used to be able to at least count on everypony else…” “There’s probably a good reason for it…” Cheerilee said. Lyra and Bon Bon were mopping, while she followed with the squeegee, pushing the water from the wooden floor and outside. “Didn’t Carrot Top say something about organizing a storm for the Farmer’s Union?” “I thought that was next week,” Bon Bon ventured. Working together, the three of them had quickly turned their impromptu water fight into sparkling floors, and were now all standing by the door. Cheerilee had taken the opportunity to throw out the useless rain cloak in the bin near the door. Cheerilee shrugged. “I thought so too. Maybe they saw that storm over the Everfree and decided to just go with the – ” There was a splash outside, like something pony-shaped hitting the ground. The three looked, and saw that Raindrops had landed in a large puddle in the middle of the road. “ – rain helps me to untangle all the things that – ” she sang as she splashed around, oblivious to the rest of the world, before taking off again into the sky, then landing once more, then took off, then landed… “…hey, she can sing,” Lyra noted, tapping a hoof to her mouth as she did. This came as an immense surprise, even more so when she considered that Raindrops was hitting a few notes that Lyra wouldn’t have guessed her normally low-pitched voice would have been able to. “Pretty good, too.” “What has her in a good mood…?” Cheerilee wondered aloud. “Well, let’s think,” Bon Bon said. “Her name is Raindrops, her cutie mark is rain, and it’s raining. So clearly it’s because Trixie finally learned about the birds and the bees.” Lyra blinked rapidly a few times at that, turning to her marefriend in shock. “Bon Bon,” she warned softly. Bon Bon put her hooves to her mouth in embarrassment, mouthing sorry as she did. Inwardly, Lyra sighed a little. If Bon Bon had any flaw, it was that she tended to not fully think through everything she said or did, which had lead her into several faux pas in the past. “Huh?” Cheerilee asked after a moment, looking between Lyra and Bon Bon curiously. Bon Bon opened her mouth, but Lyra shut it with her hooves lest she dig a deeper hole for herself. “Nothing,” she answered. “It’s coming up to that time of the year for Bon Bon so she just has…stuff…on her mind. You know how it is.” “Mmph!” Bon Bon objected, taking Lyra’s hooves from her mouth. “Yes, please go and advertise that fact around town, Lyra…” Lyra shrugged. It wasn’t like heat was something to be embarrassed by, nor something that could exactly be hidden, least of all from a friend like Cheerilee. Frankly she was surprised that her own, Bon Bon’s, and Cheerilee’s heats hadn’t synced up, as tended to happen amongst mares who spent a lot of time around each other. “Okay…” Cheerilee intoned. “But why’d you bring up Trixie?” Bon Bon sighed, glancing at Lyra. The unicorn knew that this was something Cheerilee was unlikely to drop, and so nodded, figuring that the damage was done at this point. “Well…okay, short, explicit version is that since my heat is coming up, I’ve been getting ideas, and I was thinking back to that little adventure that me and Lyra and Trixie had a few months back, you remember how we told you, and how it might be interesting if Lyra had fingers again, but for that we’d need Trixie’s help and since she’s not exactly experienced and tends to get all panicked whenever the subject comes up I’m not sure how to approach her.” “Also I object to the transforming me again part,” Lyra provided, raising an eyebrow. This was the first she’d heard of Bon Bon’s ‘idea,’ and she didn’t need long to decide that she was wholeheartedly against it. “It was just an idea,” Bon Bon said with a sigh. “Oh,” Cheerilee said, her snout scrunching a little in thought. “Oh…oh my, that’s a good point. She is uncomfortable with sexual subjects. Like she doesn’t know what’s going on and resents it.” “Yeah,” Lyra said, shifting in place. She didn’t like talking about Trixie while she wasn’t here to defend herself. “Yeah, me and Bon Bon figured out her problem. But it’s her thing to deal with, right?” Cheerilee gave Lyra a look, and for a moment Lyra was concerned that Cheerilee might raise a counterpoint. She was a teacher, after all, which made her implicitly empathic towards the problems of others, and made her want to help ponies with them, even if this was outside her normal area of expertise. Truth be told, though, Lyra didn’t actually think that Trixie’s ‘problem’ was one that she actually needed help with. Trixie was a virgin, and there was absolutely nothing wrong with that. After a moment, Cheerilee nodded a little – much to Lyra’s surprise, she had expected to have to argue over this. “Okay,” Cheerilee she said, and again Lyra breathed out a sigh of relief that Cheerilee seemed like she’d dropped the subject. “Well…I better get going. I don’t think this rain’s going to stop, and I’ve got to get home.” “Sure,” Lyra said. “Sorry about the whole bucket-of-water thing.” “Yeah, sorry,” Bon Bon sighed. “I was just bored…” “It’s alright, I got my revenge,” Cheerilee said with a smile. “See you later!” With that, she trotted out the door, back into the rain and heedless of the fact that she was now lacking a rain cloak. She actually seemed a little too cheerful while doing so, almost suspiciously so… “Well, that was a diversion,” Bon Bon noted once Cheerilee had left, nuzzling Lyra. “But I think I’m going to close up shop now.” “Makes sense,” Lyra said, still frowning. She was still bothered by Cheerilee’s departure, though she didn’t know why. Something just seemed…not too cheerful, that was wrong, as she was generally a pretty optimistic pony; more like a wrong kind of cheerful, like she was putting it on rather than genuinely feeling it, although why, Lyra couldn't guess. She tried to forget it as she joined Bon Bon at the counter. “Why’d you even bring that up?” “I don’t know, it just popped into my head…” Bon Bon said with a sigh. “I thought Cheerilee knew, though.” “I didn’t tell her, and it’s not like Trixie goes around telling everypony she’s a virgin,” Lyra noted. “I think we managed to convince Cheerilee not to ‘help’ Trixie, though. She tries to help ponies, it’s just who she is, but I don’t think Trixie would appreciate that kind of help.” Bon Bon nodded, as she went over her sales for the day and tallied up what she’d earned verses what she’d expected to make, working in silence for several minutes. She was under her estimate thanks to the rain, though fortunately she had been expecting a slow day anyway. As she wrote down her numbers for the day, she chuckled. “For a second there she looked like she’d taken what I said about the birds and bees literally.” Lyra laughed a little as well at first, remembering the look on Cheerilee’s face herself…then giving it some deeper thought…and then recoiling as though struck squarely in the face with a sledgehammer. “Oh, stars!” she exclaimed, putting her hooves to her mouth and looking at Bon Bon, feeling her face heat up in embarrassment. “I…I think she did take it literally!” Bon Bon stared at Lyra. “Wha – oh. Oh!” Enlightenment struck Bon Bon, and her own eyes grew to the size of dinner plates even as her own face flushed red. “Oh…oh no, no, no, it was a joke, there’s no way she thinks that Trixie somehow managed to make it to adulthood without knowing about sex!” “I think she does.” “No! That’s…that’s stupid!” Lyra and Bon Bon stared at each other. “What if she does?” Lyra asked. “She’s…oh Luna the Residency is only a minute down the road, she’s probably with Trixie right now and just sat her down for the talk…” Bon Bon’s eyes fluttered as she considered that, and she swayed back and forth a moment, before bursting into action, dashing out from behind the counter and running upstairs. Lyra followed, and found that Bon Bon had grabbed Lyra’s saddlebags and rain cloak from her apartment, and was already dashing back downstairs to her store. She began opening up several candy containers and scooping candy in. Gumdrops, gummi worms, jawbreakers, peppermint sticks…she piled them in with wild abandon, like a foal with a million bits to spend had been set loose in her store. “What are – ” Lyra began. “Apology candy!” Bon Bon interrupted. “You – you have to go – bring this…” she hefted the bags and slung them over Lyra’s back before the unicorn could raise any objects. “You have to go and bring these to Trixie! For me!” “Candy?” “I’m a candymare! Candy’s all I know!” “That’s not true – ” Bon Bon grasped the sides of Lyra’s head. “I – I can’t just go over there after…Trixie’ll hate me! After all the pain I put her through a few months ago…she won’t want to see me, she’ll be mad at first, so you’ll go with apology candy and tell her that I’m sorry and then I’ll buy her dinner sometime or something, I’ll make it up…oh, and Cheerilee…” she turned around and loaded up the saddlebags with more candy. “Cheerilee…she’ll be so embarrassed…I mean, not as embarrassed as when us and her parents caught her with Iron Will and that – ” Lyra placed a hoof over Bon Bon’s mouth, stopping her tirade. “Bon Bon?” she said. “Calm down. Trixie won’t hate you for this…I don’t think she will, anyway.” Bon Bon fixed Lyra with her most desperate stare, one that it was impossible for her devoted marefriend to turn down. “Please just go and tell Trixie and Cheerilee that I’m sorry?” she asked. “I’m…I don’t think I could look them in the eye right now…so embarrassed…” “Not as embarrassed as Cheerilee’ll be,” Lyra noted. Bon Bon whimpered at the thought, the sound of which was enough to make Lyra lean forward and nuzzle Bon Bon, planting a kiss on her forehead. “Okay, I’ll go and pass the message,” she said. “Try not to freak out though, okay?” Bon Bon nodded a little, leaning close to Lyra for strength. The unicorn held her close for several long moments, before telekinetically grabbing her rain cloak and wrapping it around her. “Wish me luck,” she said, heading out into the rain. A minute later, Lyra found herself in Trixie’s office and staring at Cheerilee, who was probably blushing furiously beneath her magenta coat; Trixie, who was definitely blushing and was standing with her horn glowing vibrant blue, looking like she was ready to kill somepony; and, for whatever reason, Raindrops, who looked like she had just gotten out of the shower, rather than having just spent her afternoon singing and leaping through mud puddles, like Cheerilee, Lyra, and Bon Bon had seen her do earlier, and who was probably blushing the most furiously of them all. “So…I’m guessing I’m too late to stop Cheerilee, then,” Lyra ventured. She had known that this would probably be the case, but she had held out hope… Trixie was shaking slightly, though whether from anger or disgust, Lyra didn’t know. “A bit,” she said slowly and in a low voice, doing a surprisingly good, if unintentional, impersonation of Raindrops. The pegasus, herself, was glancing between Trixie, Cheerilee, and Lyra. “Okay, what did I miss?” she demanded, scuffing a hoof on the floor and whickering in annoyance. “I go upstairs to clean myself off because you,” she pointed a hoof at Cheerilee, “told me to, and now all of a sudden I’m taking advantage of Trixie?” “I thought…” Cheerilee said softly, looking between Trixie and Raindrops “thought that…Bon Bon made it sound like…and then I came in and you two were Prenching – ” Lyra’s eyes widened at the implication. So that was why Raindrops had been so happy… “No we weren’t!” Trixie exclaimed loudly at Lyra’s reaction, stomping her hooves as her horn glowed and she all but hurled a book on the floor at Lyra telekinetically. Lyra flipped through the book until she found the spell Trixie was referring to, glancing it over – and grimacing slightly at the picture, of two unicorn wizards, for all intents and purposes, making out. “It’s a spell! A memory spell! Conduit is through the mouth! You just trotted in at a bad time! And Bon Bon – what is Bon Bon doing talking about me behind my back?” Lyra blinked, looking up from the spellbook at Trixie. “It was an accident,” she insisted, horn glowing as she levitated her saddlebags off of her back and set them down in front of Trixie. “We weren’t talking about you behind your back, or we didn’t mean to, and Bon Bon is sorry, Trixie, so she sent you this apology candy. Same to you, Cheerilee,” Lyra said, looking to her second-oldest friend. “She didn’t mean to make you embarrass yourself, and she’s sorry, and she’ll make it up to you two. Okay?” There was a prolonged silence, as Trixie shuffled from hoof to hoof, Cheerilee stared at the floor in shock, and Lyra looked on hopefully. Eventually, Raindrops coughed slightly, ruffling her wings and reminding the other three that she was there. “Can I have some?” She asked. “I…kind of missed dinner.” The other three ponies stared at her, before Trixie began to giggle slightly. She was joined, after a moment, by Cheerilee, then Lyra and Raindrops both. Their giggles gradually evolved into guffaws, then just full-on laughter, enough to send the four mares tumbling to the floor of Trixie’s office in stiches. This lasted for a good few minutes as they each just considered what had brought them here, Lyra in particular trying to figure out what Cheerilee had said to Trixie to put her into a state of near-equicidal fury. Each possibility seemed – when viewed from the outside, at least – more hilarious than the last. At length, their laughter died down, and Trixie nodded, waving a hoof at Raindrops. “Apparently we’re marefriends now,” she said, chuckling as she levitated out several jawbreakers. “So I guess I have to share with you. Help yourself. And…and I’m sorry about calling you an imposter earlier. Really, I am.” “S’ okay,” Raindrops said, as she began looking through the bag of candy, singling out gummi bears, joined after a moment by Cheerilee, who was looking for peppermint sticks. “I’m sorry for thinking you hated me.” “And I’m sorry about jumping to conclusions about you, Trixie,” Cheerilee added, though she glanced at Lyra. “Though I had some help there…” “Bon Bon’s sorry. And I’m sorry too,” Lyra said. She waved a hoof to indicate everypony in the room even as her horn glowed and she reached into the bag herself, grasping a few gummi worms. “We’re all sorry. Let’s just assume that and proceed from there – ” There was, once again, the sound of the Residency’s door opening. The four mares in Trixie’s office turned to look, and saw Carrot Top and Ditzy Doo, the former looking like she’d just come from a trip to the spa and the latter dressed in her mailmare uniform, both wearing rain cloaks, enter the Residency. “…shy is happy,” Carrot Top finished saying to Ditzy, before looking into Trixie’s office. “Oh…is everypony really here?” “Saves me a few trips,” Ditzy said happily, as she and Carrot Top both took in the small herd of mares, the fact that all four of them still had traces of embarrassment on their features, and the pile of candy between them all. “Huh…what did we miss?” Love is a complicated thing. At a glance, Bon Bon and I don’t have a whole lot in common, but we’d each do anything for each other. I’d even venture into hostile territory with a peace offering for her. Two ponies don’t have to be the same to be in love. It’s a greater force than that. And friendship is the same way. Me and my friends are a dysfunctional mess some of the time – a lot of the time, actually, come to think of it. But they’re my friends. I’m their friend. No matter what we go through – or put each other through – in the end, everything will work out just fine.
5. Lots to Share“Mind the jangles, Carrot Top,” my grandmother used to say to me, “mind the jangles, and the bits will take care of themselves.” She was probably right. I don’t know: I’ve never been very good at minding the jangles no matter how much I try. On paper, I make plenty of money. Plenty comes in, more than enough to live off of. But then, when one takes into account all the work that has to be done around here – repairing the fence, buying a new plough, a new rake, buying fertilizer, paying for help during plowing or harvest, getting a new cart after my old one got trampled by an Ursa Minor…somepony in town once said that he couldn’t understand how small farms could ever turn a profit. I can understand where he’s coming from – it’s very close each year, ever since I took over the farm rather than letting it be sold off after Grandma died. I hope some day I’ll learn how Grandma and Grandpa managed it. Ooh, and the worst part is that I’m located right next to Sweet Apple Acres. Applejack’s life isn’t without problems, I know that very well these days, but still. Sweet Apple Acres isn’t a small farm at all, doesn’t have near the same kind of close margin of profit that Golden Harvest does. It supplies apples to most of the surrounding provinces! And not just apples – they’ve branched out, they grow a half-dozen other crops, too. And the Apple Clan is so large and my own farm is so tiny, and most days I can deal with that, but sometimes I just look over my fence and glare at an apple tree and wish it’d just burst into flames! Just the one! That never happens, of course. Probably for the best. It probably doesn’t help that my life seems to have become a good deal more complicated over the past few months. First there was the business with Corona, then the Ursa Minor, a thieving rabbit (though that one was resolved pretty fast, at least), that whole mess that I got into with Applejack, where I nearly lost the farm…and several times I’ve had to leave the farm for one thing or another, most recently when we all went to Canterlot to meet Princess Mi Amore Cadenza. Not that I didn’t enjoy that! Taking time off from working is just as important as working hard, but the fact of the matter is that I have to count every hour I spend somewhere other than my farm and make up for it later. Oh, listen to me complain. I’m making my life sound so horrible, but it isn’t. It’s not like I’m on the verge of poverty, though admittedly I did have a close call at the start of the year. I have a few luxuries, like my monthly spa trip with Trixie, or making sure that my mane and tail stay shining and healthy – I think I can definitely say that I have the best mane out of any farmer in Ponyville! I have friends I can count on – Trixie, Berry Punch, Thunderlane, Cheerilee, Ditzy, and so many others – and I even have time for new friends, like Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. And with the Farmer’s Union, which I helped to make, up-and-coming, I’m even starting to get known, at least in Ponyville and the rest of the North Everfree province. My life can be hard, but it could be so much worse, and I’m grateful for what I have. Still…it’d be nice to have a little more sometimes… Carrot Top breathed out a heavy sigh of relief as she stopped pulling the plough and looked behind her. Golden Harvests wasn’t the largest farm in Ponyville by any means, even if one discounted the province-unto-itself that was Sweet Apple Acres (this may have been a slight exaggeration on Carrot Top’s part), but it was still a lot of land for a single pony to plough, and all she had been doing was the northwestern quarter, which thus far into the year she had been allowing to lie fallow to let the soil there to gather up nutrients and minerals from decaying weeds she’d pulled, then left to rot so that the earth could absorb them. However, with the middle of Spring having come and gone and summer looming, it was time for this field to once again get to work and pay its rent, as it were. Carrot Top had been up since just before dawn working on the field, stopping only for the traditional noontime break hiding from the Tyrant Sun (and grabbing lunch), and she had spent only half an hour on lunch for that, rather than the fully traditional hour (but then, most farmers she knew also tended to break for only half an hour – the Sun in its hubris would wait for no pony in its arc across the sky). Now that the field was done, Carrot Top thought happily to herself as she dragged the plough back to her shed, the most important part could begin: planting. For most of her fields and her harvests, Carrot Top would usually hire an able-bodied worker or two to plough and she’d follow behind their work with planting, but the northeastern field was her field this year, the one she’d tend all by herself, and it would produce her finest crops as a result. Earth pony magic was slow, and it was subtle, but Princess Luna herself had been known to say on many occasions that it could very well be greater than any pegasus squall or unicorn spell. Dragging the plow across the field hadn’t simply moved and tilled and readied the earth she’d walked upon, it had also served to move and till and ready herself. Some part of Carrot Top was now invested in that plot of land, a bond created by her moving back and forth across the earth, her hooves digging into the soil as she pulled the plough, a bond that would only be strengthened as she dug up the dirt and pressed seeds into it. It was hard work, though not quite as hard as pulling the plough all by herself, and it went considerably faster due to her having spent all morning loosening the soil. By the time she had finished, she had worked up a considerable sweat and the sky was getting notably darker, and not just because the sun was making steady progress towards the horizon, she saw when she finally decided to look up rather than down at her planting. Her farm was a fair distance from the Everfree Forest, but she could see dark clouds, thousands of feet tall, stretching up over it and heading towards Ponyville, the air pressure from the storm pushing numerous smaller clouds in front of it. She was in the middle of wondering if this was going to have an effect on her plans for later in the day with two certain pegasi, when a polychromatic streak arched from the storm, did a loop directly over Carrot Top’s head, and then shot straight down before landing with a solid thud directly in front of Carrot Top. A small dust cloud was kicked up, but when it cleared, the streak revealed itself to by a cyan pegasus with a multicolored mane and tail – Rainbow Dash. “Aw yeah,” Rainbow Dash said with a smirk as she brushed off her forelegs, even as Carrot Top coughed a little, waving a hoof in front of her face to clear the dust cloud. “And my dad used to complain that I never think ahead. Well take a look at that!” She beat her wings a few times in order to set herself down right next to Carrot Top – Rainbow Dash never trotted when she could fly – and put one leg around Carrot Top’s withers, the other pointing at the Everfree storm. “That’s planning ahead, am I right?” Carrot Top stared at the storm, then back to Rainbow Dash. Ever since she had helped Fluttershy out with a problem a few months ago, she and Rainbow Dash had struck up bizarre friendship. “You made that?” she asked. Rainbow Dash laughed. “Jeeze, what do I look like? The Princess?” she asked. “I’m awesome but I’m not that awesome, nopony can create weather in the Everfree. But – check this – we’re not going to do anything about it.” She laughed again. Carrot Top blinked a few times, looking to Rainbow Dash in confusion as she considered that. “Um…isn’t this a bit early for the storm we asked for?” she asked, referring to the rain she had requisitioned on behalf of the Farmer’s Union to make up for what had been a surprisingly dry Spring. It had, in point of fact, been the first time that the Farmer’s Union had ever made an official request of the Ponyville municipal government – and it had been granted without any fuss at all! Carrot Top couldn’t help but feel a measure of pride in the organization that she had helped to create. It was still small, but it was growing notably. Still, this rain was coming early – not too early, Carrot Top didn’t think, not for her crop, anyway, but somepony else might have needed the extra few days to prepare… Rainbow Dash waved a hoof dismissively as she took to the air, though only so that she could hover just off of the ground rather than stand in place. “Yeah,” she said, “but this storm isn’t too big. No thunder, no lightning, just rain. Basically I figure that we’ll have this storm this week and a smaller one next week and then your Farmer’s Union will have plenty of water, and we won’t have to work so hard.” “And you won’t get in trouble for that?” The pegasus smirked. “With who?” she asked. “I’m weather captain.” She flipped around, still hovering in place but now reclining on the air as though she were in a beach chair, forelegs behind her head. “And if the higher-ups in Cloudsdale even notice, I’ll just say that it was Everfree weather and that they know how unpredictable it can be!” “What about your weather team?” Rainbow Dash grinned brightly. “Nopony wants to waste a day bucking away a storm like this. It’s boring. Pegasi have got to move! So I put it to a vote to all the on-duty pegasi but I knew I’d win! Raindrops even cast the deciding vote! Not that that’s surprising, it’d rain every day if she was in charge. Which would probably be a good thing for her, she’s way more mellow when it’s raining. Ever notice that?” Carrot Top had, and wasn’t very surprised to learn that Raindrops had voted for rain. She did, however, notice a slight flaw in Rainbow Dash’s plan. “The deciding vote?” she echoed. Rainbow Dash nodded. “Yeah, it was me, Raindrops, Airheart, and Cloud Kicker against Sunlight, Blue Skies, and Thunderlane. Mares verses stallions! Mares won, of course.” “But that means it was close…what if somepony complains to the weather network in Cloudsdale?” Rainbow Dash let herself fall to the ground, flipping around and landing easily on her hooves as she did, and considering for a few moments before shrugging. “Eh, I’ll worry about that if it happens,” she said. “I’d just be chewed out. I’ve been chewed out before. And besides, you’re not seeing how awesome this is! It’s not just the Farmer’s Union. Think about Fluttershy!” Carrot Top slung her shovel over her back and closed the saddlebags full of carrot seeds that she had been carrying, then began trotting back towards her house, Rainbow Dash following in the air as the earth pony considered. “Alright, I give up,” she said after a few moments. “How does rain help Fluttershy?” Rainbow Dash grinned brightly, clearly enjoying that she knew something that Carrot Top didn’t, though she didn’t hold it over from her as she began explaining. “An unscheduled rain storm,” she said, rubbing her hooves together. “Nopony wants to be outside in the rain if they can help it! It’s just a little water but everypony always treats it like it’s acid or fire or something! So they’ll all stay at home unless they have to go on errands. No foals playing in the streets, nopony trying to talk to Fluttershy ‘cause they think she’s new in town or ‘cause they want to talk to ‘the mysterious mare that lives in that old cottage,’ nothing! Just smooth sailing all the way from her house to the spa! No offence, C, but if this was just for the Union then I probably wouldn’t have let this happen. But for Fluttershy? Heck yeah!” Carrot Top blinked a few times as she thought about that. “Wow,” she said. “I know!” “All those ponies that might have wanted to do something else with their day, and you focused solely on what might help us get Fluttershy to the spa.” “I’m such an awesome friend, I know,” Rainbow Dash said, beaming, what Carrot Top was actually saying clearly sailing right over her head. Carrot Top resisted the urge to sigh. Rainbow Dash was quite possibly the most inconsiderate pony that Carrot Top had ever met, but there was no denying that she would do anything for Fluttershy. Even let a storm run wild and ruin an unknown number of pony’s days. Well, she was right about one thing, at least. This would help get Fluttershy from her front door to the spa. Provided, of course, that the two of them could coax Fluttershy to even go out her front door to begin with. By the time Carrot Top had put away her farming equipment, thrown on a rain cloak, and hurried over to Fluttershy’s cottage – Rainbow Dash following, or rather zipping ahead or back and just generally flying around, not saying but obviously implying that Carrot Top was far too slow for her tastes – the rain had begun, starting with slow pitter-patters but quickly building up into a full-on rainstorm, though Rainbow Dash had, at least, been right about the lack of thunder or lightning, or even heavy wind. The pegasus didn’t seem bothered by the wetness at all, while Carrot Top’s rain cloak had been bought in Fillydelphia, which had notoriously hard rain, and was more than up to the task of keeping her as dry. Rainbow Dash only settled down as Carrot Top arrived at Fluttershy’s front door. A notable change overcame the cyan pegasus’ features, Carrot Top noted. Normally, Rainbow Dash was in constant motion, eyes darting around and focusing on the slightest interesting thing, muscles always twitching and ready to go, tail swishing, wings beating, just constant motion. She wasn’t unfocused, per se, as she was typically still more than capable of holding a conversation, but she was simply incapable of standing or sitting still. She had to do something. Except around Fluttershy. When Rainbow Dash was with her oldest friend, she calmed notably, reigning in her hyperactivity, standing up a little straighter, and clearly taking her every movement slowly and carefully. Take, for example, an action as simple as knocking on the door. Anypony else’s door, and she’d probably use both her front hooves and tap out a complicated rhythm, hard. Here, she simply made three quick, soft knocks. It wasn’t a complete change, and her regular self often showed through, but it was clear she was making an effort to be calmer and more collected. The pony who answered the door was the precise opposite of Rainbow Dash, except insofar as both were mares and pegasi. Yellow-coated and pink-maned, Fluttershy opened her door only a crack at first, before her large eyes saw that it was only Rainbow Dash and Carrot Top, and she opened it fully. The sight that greeted Carrot Top was not – fully – what she expected. Fluttershy was wearing a thick coat, made from wool and with fake fur around the neck and sleeves. She was covered in bright red, perfectly circular spots. “Oh,” she said softly, “Hello – cough, cough – hello Rainbow Dash, hello – ah choo – Carrot Top. Cough.” Carrot Top and Rainbow Dash stared at Fluttershy, then to each other, then back at Fluttershy. “Is…something wrong?” Carrot Top asked. She was fairly certain that nopony actually said ‘cough’ when they coughed. “Oh,” Fluttershy said, looking to one hoof, which had a red circle on it as well. “I – cough – I seem to have come down with, um, the pony pox. So I – ah choo, ah choo – I can’t go to the spa like we said. Cough, ah choo. I’m sorry, I guess we’ll have to reschedule. Ah choo.” A pause, as Fluttershy wilted to the floor of her cottage. “Cough.” Rainbow Dash opened her mouth, then closed it, then looked to Carrot Top, jerking her head somewhat. She turned around, as did Carrot Top, as Fluttershy continued to say cough and ah choo every now and then. “I’m not buyin’ this, are you?” Rainbow Dash asked. “Not at all,” Carrot Top answered, then looked back to Fluttershy. “Um…Fluttershy, dear…I’m pretty sure you can’t get the pony pox on your hoof.” She waved her own hoof for emphasis. Fluttershy looked to the hoof that the ‘pox’ was located on. “Oh, um…” she said softly. “Well…um…th-that’s actually a common misconception, you see…” Carrot Top grimaced. “Well,” she said softly, “do you know what the cure to the pony pox is?” Fluttershy nodded, smiling brightly with her eyes closed. “Plenty of bed rest, lots of fluids – eek!” Fluttershy’s exclamation came as Carrot Top took her ‘poxed’ leg in her own hoof, and used her other to rub the ‘pox’ with her rain cloak. Unsurprisingly, the combination of wetness and friction caused the spot to disappear without much effort. “A good hoof-shine!” Carrot Top said happily. Fluttershy blinked a few times, then wilted, seeming to shrink within her coat and hide behind her large mane. “O-oh,” she said softly. “Um…r-right…w-well, Angel B-Bunny is a-also, um…f-f-feeling sick…” Rainbow Dash and Carrot Top both looked past Fluttershy and into her cottage. Neither were particularly surprised to see a small white rabbit reclining on Fluttershy’s sofa, an oversized book held in his hands and wearing a positively adorable fez tucked between his long ears. At Fluttershy’s words, the rabbit glanced up at the two visitors, rolled his eyes, and then returned to the book. “He seems fine to me,” Rainbow Dash noted. Fluttershy shrank more. “W…w-well…um…” Carrot Top let out a slight sigh. She’d met Fluttershy for the first time two months ago, when Angel Bunny had been stealing her carrots – in order to get Carrot Top’s attention, it turned out, as the rabbit had somehow known that Carrot Top could help Fluttershy with a bad case of poison joke that she had caught. Ever since then, Carrot Top had become one of only a very small number of ponies who ever interacted with Fluttershy, alongside Rainbow Dash, whom Carrot Top knew had known Fluttershy since their foalhoods; and Ditzy and Dinky Doo, the former delivering mail to Fluttershy and the latter helping Fluttershy around her cottage every weekend. If Fluttershy had only had Carrot Top and the other three as friends, that would have been one thing. But Fluttershy’s timidity went significantly beyond that: those four ponies were the only ponies who ever interacted with Fluttershy, apart letters she sent to and recieved from her family back in Cloudsdale. Other than those, Fluttershy spent the vast majority of her time alone, without any other form of contact with other ponies, or even leaving the same few acres of land. Carrot Top respected that Fluttershy wanted live a quiet life, but this was simply a step too far. She was hardly a psychologist, but she knew such isolation wasn’t healthy, let alone such a sedentary lifestyle for a pegasus. As a result, she’d floated the idea of having Fluttershy accompany her to the spa some time, and Rainbow Dash had been surprisingly supportive. Carrot Top tried to go at least once a month to just relax, which she knew she’d never do if she tried it on the farm: there was just too much to do and if she was nearby, she’d try and do it. But at the spa, she could simply unwind, something that she sorely suspected Fluttershy was in need of. Carrot Top gathered her resolve as she stretched out a hoof and gently laid it upon Fluttershy’s withers. Fluttershy twitched a little at the touch, but didn’t flee, which was a good sign. “Fluttershy,” she said softly, “if you don’t want to go to the spa, you don’t have to. But Rainbow Dash actually kicked up this rain for you.” Fluttershy glanced to her fellow pegasus from behind her mane. “Y-you did…?” she asked. Rainbow Dash scuffed a hoof on the ground. “Well, I let some rain from the Everfree through, anyway,” she said. “This way, there’s nopony who’ll bother us on the way to the spa!” “And Aloe and Lotus, the ponies who run the spa, are the best,” Carrot Top said firmly. “You won’t even know they’re there if you don’t want to. It’s just a chance to get out a little. You have to get a little stir-crazy from just seeing the same four walls all the time, don’t you?” Fluttershy was staring at the ground, lost in thought, at least until a small, white, fez-topped bunny appeared beside her. Angel Bunny had set down his book and hopped up behind Fluttershy, thumping one of her hips with his hind leg, then pointing firmly out the door. “O…okay,” Fluttershy said softly, eyes closed. “I’ll…I’ll do it.” “Alright!” Rainbow Dash cheered, pumping a hoof in the air. Fluttershy jumped slightly at her fellow pegasus’ action, though she calmed quickly. “Okay, Fluttershy, I’ll get your rain cloak, you just wash that paint or whatever it is off of you, and then we’re off!” Rainbow Dash’s storm had done its job. She, Carrot Top, and Fluttershy encountered nopony as they walked from Fluttershy’s cottage to the rain-covered streets of Ponyville, Carrot Top and Fluttershy protected by rain cloaks but Rainbow Dash simply flying alongside, not letting the rain bother her in the slightest. Fluttershy had been basically at-ease as the three walked from her cottage to Ponyville. Though she didn’t make the trip often – actually, ever, as far as Carrot Top was aware – they had only been walking by the vast farmland that surrounded Ponyville, with them unlikely to see anypony else even if it had been a cloudless day. When the thatched-roof buildings of Ponyville had come into view, however, Fluttershy had hesitated in her trot, staring at them like they were a horde of dragons waiting to pounce and eat her. It had taken several moments, but eventually Carrot Top and Rainbow Dash had convinced her to soldier on. Unsurprisingly, the streets of Ponyville were, in fact, empty of other ponies, which was probably for the best. Fluttershy kept her head bowed as the three trotted through Ponyville, leaning close to Rainbow Dash or Carrot Top. While the trot in had been full of light conversation, Fluttershy hadn’t said so much as a word since they’d entered the town proper. Carrot Top couldn’t help but shake her head at the sight. The poor dear was terrified over absolutely nothing. It was with a tremendous amount of relief when they finally reached large building that was the Aloe-Lotus Day Spa, wiped mud off of their hooves, and entered. The inside of the spa stood as a marked contrast to the gray, wet, and muddy outside world. Inside the spa, the walls were white or a soft sky-blue and covered with decorative floral paintings, and the lobby was dominated by a duo of wide, soft-looking couches with a table set in front of each. The air was thick with the smell of lilac, rose, and dozens of other flowery scents that wafted and floated through the air from deeper within the spa, out of sight. The only other pony immediately in sight was an earth pony with a light blue coat and pale rose mane – Lotus, one of the ponies that ran the spa. She smiled when she saw the three ponies. “Ah!” Lotus said brightly, as Carrot Top trotted up to the counter after having taken off her rain cloak and left it hanging on a nearby rack. “Miss Carrot Top! Miss Rainbow Dash! Velcome! Ve’ve had so many missed appointments today, I am glad to be seeing you here!” Carrot Top offered a smile of her own, as much at the soft, accented voice of Lotus as in friendly greeting – she didn’t think that anypony could be frightened of such a welcoming tone, which was good for Fluttershy. “No, we made it,” Carrot Top said happily, as she looked behind her. Rainbow Dash had a wing over Fluttershy’s withers. Fluttershy still hadn’t taken off her rain cloak, and was keeping her head bowed low, focusing intently on a hoof she kept scuffing on the floor. “Um…this is that special case I talked to you about last week…” “Ah yes, of course,” Lotus said with a smile, coming out from behind the counter, slowly approaching the two pegasi. “Flüttershy, is it?” Fluttershy didn’t answer, though she did stop scuffing the floor and there might have been a slight bobbing to her head that suggested she’d nodded in confirmation. “Vell, Flüttershy, my name is Lotus Blossom. I and my sister, Aloe, are completely dedicated to ensuring you have a pleasant experience here at our day spa. If there is anything you vant, just let us know, and ve vill accommodate it. Ve’ll do anything for a friend of our second-best customer, after all!” Carrot Top blinked a little at that. “I didn’t think that I came here often enough to be that…” she said softly, feeling a slight swelling of pride at being so valuable an asset to somepony. Lotus laughed lightly. “Not you!” She said, though without maliciousness in her voice. “Not that ve don’t value your business, Miss Carrot Top, but I vas actually referring to Miss Rainbow Dash.” The feeling of pride disappeared, but its loss was hardly noticed as insatiable curiosity rushed to fill the void, and Carrot Top looked to the weather captain. Even Fluttershy glanced up at that, affording Lotus her first look at her face. Rainbow Dash blinked a few times, then chuckled, rubbing a hoof behind her head as her coat started losing its blue coloration, replacing it with a bright, rosy pink. “H…ha! Yeah, Lotus, you’re such a kidder, I don’t come here that often – ” “Such modesty,” Lotus said with a bright smile, even as the door to the spa proper opened and her sister Aloe – identical in every way, except that her mane and coat colors were the reverse of Lotus’ – entered, offering a bright smile. “But you are definitely one of our very best! Right, Aloe?” “Oh, yes!” Aloe said. Her voice was even identical to her sister’s. “Vonce a veek, every veek since ve opened! I believe you said it vas part of your exercise regimen?” Rainbow Dash stared like she was bound and gagged on a railway and Carrot Top was an oncoming train that would blare humiliation throughout town, with Lotus and Aloe, the earth pony suspected, having grown a thin moustaches, black capes, and tall black hats in Rainbow Dash’s mind, each cackling gleefully. She didn’t know what role Fluttershy played in the fantasy. Rainbow Dash turned her gaze downwards after several moments, doing a surprisingly good Fluttershy impersonation. “Working out is important, but so is relaxing the muscles…” she said through gritted teeth. “Otherwise they might be strained…heard that the Wonderbolts do it…and for your information my wing power has gone up by, like, four since I started coming here!” Carrot Top stifled a giggle at that, and even Fluttershy had a thin, but honest, smile on her face. After a few moments, Carrot Top held up one hoof solemnly. “I promise, Rainbow Dash, your secret’s safe with me,” she said. “And vit us as well,” Lotus promised on behalf of herself and her sister, as well as the other ponies who worked at the spa. “I’m sorry, I vould have thought that Carrot Top and Flüttershy knew.” The spa pony looked once more to Fluttershy. “Now then, Miss Flüttershy. You are here for our full treatment, yes?” The ice having been broken, at least a little, Fluttershy nodded, taking off her rain cloak, though she still didn’t make eye contact. “Vell,” Aloe continued for her sister, “That begins vith a visit to our sauna. Then, a full facial, feather preening for you and Miss Rainbow Dash, and massage.” “Following,” Lotus picked back up, “is a luxurious seaweed and mud bath, then after you have been vashed off, a hooficure unbeaten anyvhere in all of Equestria.” “And a pleasant experience for you is our highest priority, Miss Flüttershy,” Aloe finished. “If there is anything you vant us to do, or don’t vant us to do, anything that is making you uncomfortable, tell us.” Fluttershy nodded again, and surprised Carrot Top by even gently saying “okay,” though in a voice so quiet that it could barely be heard over the pitter-patter of rain outside. Rainbow Dash and Carrot Top both smiled, as Fluttershy made her way forward, following Aloe and Lotus, timidly, but willingly. There we go! Carrot Top thought with a smile as she followed as well. This is good for Fluttershy, she’ll get to relax, and she seems to be comfortable around Aloe and Lotus, just like I knew she would! This is going great – The door opened, loudly. There was neither thunder nor lightning, but Carrot Top got the distinct sense that there should have been as Aloe, Lotus, Carrot Top, and rainbow Dash all turned to see who had entered, while Fluttershy, with surprising speed, had dived behind all of them in shock, wings spread wide and hiding behind both her mane and tail as she cowered on the floor. “I’m here…!” sang a high, confident voice. “Ah!” Aloe and Lotus exclaimed at the same time, both brightening as they trotted forward to take the white-coated, purpled-maned unicorns’ rain cloak, hat, and a saddle-mounted, ornate umbrella from her, setting them aside and out of the way as the newcomer shook her mane free with a bright dazzle. “Miss Rarity! So glad that our star customer could make it!” Carrot Top dashed over to Fluttershy’s side even as she wondered how she could have possibly scheduled Fluttershy’s day spa appointment on the same day that one of the most extroverted, invasive ponies in town had her own visit scheduled. There should have been warning signs up or something…she reached Fluttershy and put a re-assuring hoof on her withers even as Rainbow Dash leapt protectively to Fluttershy’s side, shooting a glare Rarity’s way while her oldest friend cowered. “What?” she demanded incredulously at the unicorn’s appearance. “But…the rain…why are you here?” The unicorn named Rarity – beautician, clothier, and fashionista extraordinaire – looked to Rainbow Dash in surprise. “Why, Miss Dash!” Rarity said, putting a hoof to her chest. “Neither rain, nor sleet, nor dark of night, nor glare of day could keep me from my bi-weekly spa appointment! Although I must say I’m rather surprised to be seeing you here. Aren’t you the weather captain? Shouldn’t you be doing something about…” Rarity trailed off on that as she looked to Carrot Top. “Ah! Miss Carrot Top, so good to see you again!” Carrot Top hid a grimace as Rarity took off her rain cloak, hat, and umbrella, passing them off to Aloe and Lotus. Rarity was, in a way, responsible for her friendship with Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy both, having helped instill in her the confidence to deal with the former in order to get to the latter during the poison joke ordeal a few months back. Of course, Rarity’s help, it turned out, had not been free, though the price was a minor one all things considered: Carrot Top had needed to model for the clothier, as apparently she had a ‘rustic, down-to-earth’ sense about her. It hadn’t worked out, and Carrot Top hadn’t seen much of Rarity since, though the two had remained friendly. Carrot Top, therefore, gave Rarity polite nod. “Hello,” she said. “Um…if you don’t mind, Miss Rarity, could you keep things down? Fluttershy, here, is a bit uncomfortable around new ponies…” Rarity opened her mouth – to say what, Carrot Top didn’t know, however, as she looked at Fluttershy for the first time, just as the pegasus pony glanced out from behind her mane. Rarity let out a drawn-out gasp. “Oh my!” she exclaimed, trotting forward. “You’re Fluttershy? The Fluttershy? The pony who lives all by herself on the edge of that dreadful forest?” Fluttershy’s response was barely loud enough to be called a squeak. Rainbow Dash and Carrot Top both tried to interpose themselves between Rarity and Fluttershy, but the unicorn was quicker than either of them, indeed didn’t even notice them as she leaned in close, as Fluttershy retreated back under her mane and whimpered. “B-but…you’re exquisite! Your mane, your tail, your coat, your proportions! How could a pony as beautiful as you hide herself away in that dreary little cottage surrounded by beasts?” Rainbow Dash took wing and hovered in front of Rarity and protectively over Fluttershy. “Hey!” She demanded “Back off! Can’t you see that Fluttershy needs her sp – hey!” “In a minute, dear,” Rarity said off-hoofedly, blue telekinesis dancing along her horn, grabbing Rainbow Dash, then pushing her off to one side, the unicorn having only barely glanced at Rainbow Dash. Her attention was almost instantly back on Fluttershy. “Darling, you simply must tell me what you do! I had imagined a pony covered in mud and sticks and with leaves in her hair and fire in her eyes, but you! You’re – you’re so timid! Demure! Bashful! Shy – ” “Miss Rarity!” Carrot Top interrupted. Rarity looked to Carrot Top, a polite smile on her face. “Yes, miss Carrot Top?” she asked. “If you don’t mind, I’m a bit busy with Fluttershy here.” “That’s just it,” Carrot Top said, holding up a hoof. “Please, Fluttershy is…delicate.” Rarity blinked a few times, then brightened once more. “Delicate!” she exclaimed. “Yes – delicate! That’s the perfect word to describe her! Why didn’t I think of tha…” she trailed off for a few moments, eyes darting back and forth as though reading. “Oh – oh! Yes! Idea…!” Quicker than Carrot Top could follow, Rarity turned around and dashed out of the spa. She almost immediately dashed back in with a shriek at the rain, apparently having forgotten about it in her rush. She retrieved her cloak, hat, and umbrella from Aloe and Lotus, who had just finished carefully and expertly folding the cloak with the same kind of reverence one normally reserved for the Equestrian flag. Throwing them on, she ran off. “…what was that about?” Carrot Top asked. Rainbow Dash, having been freed from Rarity’s telekinesis, had galloped over to Fluttershy, quickly laying a wing over her and talking to her softly. Aloe and Lotus seemed almost as confused. “I…I’m afraid I don’t know,” Aloe said, glancing out the door. “Miss Rarity has never missed an appointment…” “She seemed very excited, though,” Lotus added. “Yeah, and where were you during all that?” Rainbow Dash demanded, pointing a hoof accusingly at the sisters. “That mare practically assaulted poor Fluttershy and you two just stood there!” The two sisters looked between each other nervously. “Please, ve apologize,” Lotus said. “Miss Rarity is our very best customer. She has two scheduled appointments each veek, and often comes in completely unscheduled besides!” “But ve have never seen her so excited…” Aloe continued. “Not even vit Photo Finish in town. And ve did not realize just how delicate Miss Flüttershy was.” “Please, ve vill give you half off your visit today,” Lotus said, pressing her front hooves together. “And our VIP treatment besides. Vill this make up for things?” Carrot Top and Rainbow Dash both looked to Fluttershy, who, with Rarity now gone, was once again looking out from beneath her mane, at the other four ponies who were all looking at her expectantly. “U-um…” Fluttershy said. “I…I suppose, if it’s not too much trouble…” Aloe and Lotus both brightened, while Carrot Top let out a sigh of relief, gently patting Fluttershy on the back. The two spa ponies trotted forward to Fluttershy. “Alright, Miss Flüttershy,” Aloe said. “Right this vay…” The sauna had been a calming experience for all the ponies inside, most of all for poor Fluttershy. The facial had been slightly more of a trial, as it required Lotus to actually touch Fluttershy, something the pegasus was uncomfortable with, but it had been solved easily enough when Carrot Top had volunteered to apply the moisturizer herself. Fluttershy had also turned down the cucumbers over her eyes, but then again so did Carrot Top – she’d discovered that all having those over her eyes tended to do was make her hungry. The feather preening was something that Carrot Top simply couldn’t intervene in, however. Rainbow Dash had saved the day here, allowing Aloe and Lotus to tend to her own wings first and letting Fluttershy see everything they intended to do. Eventually, Fluttershy had acquiesced, and after only a few moments of tension had settled down rather comfortably on her table as the two spa pony sisters cleaned and trimmed her feathers, applying cleansing lotions and oils. During this, Fluttershy had opened up more fully to the two ponies when they asked her questions about her life, what she did, how she had met Rainbow Dash and Carrot Top. Fluttershy hadn’t answered every question, but neither Aloe nor Lotus had pushed for answers, either. By the time the three of them reached the massage – which called for a third set of hooves with one of the sisters’ assistants taking care of Rainbow Dash – Fluttershy didn’t even require any coaxing to let Aloe her hooves across her legs, neck, withers, and back, while Lotus saw to Carrot Top. “This is delightful,” Fluttershy said as she lay on the massage table, her voice as loud as Carrot Top had ever heard it – which still put it at a decibel or two below a ‘normal’ speaking voice, but for Fluttershy it was practically shouting in excitement. Aloe was massaging the base of her wings at the moment. “Ooh…I should come here more often! Um…if that’s okay, I mean…” Rainbow Dash’s and Carrot Top’s tables were next to each other; they shared a quick hoof-bump at Fluttershy’s words, though Carrot Top tempered her surprise quickly. “Fluttershy,” she said softly, “it won’t always be raining, you know…you’ll probably have to come here on a clear day if you want to do that.” Fluttershy was silent, and there was a palpable tension in the room as, though she didn’t know it, all eyes in the room were focused on her. Fluttershy, herself, had her eyes closed, as she carefully weighed her options. “I…I think I could manage…” she said, glancing sideways towards the other two ponies she’d come with. “If I could come in with one of you two? Once a month?” Carrot Top and Rainbow Dash shared another hoof-bump at that. Even if Fluttershy did nothing but go from her home straight to the spa, even if she flew the whole way to cut down on how many ponies she’d have to interact with, that still was a vast improvement over her current lifestyle, and still added Aloe, Lotus, and the rest of the spa staff to the small pool of ponies that Fluttershy interacted with. “No problem, Fluttershy!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed. “I’m here every week! Normally Sundays, today was special, but you could come with me!” “And I can see if I can change my monthly appointment to Sundays,” Carrot Top said, even as she made sure to avoid the T-word around Fluttershy. For whatever reason, Fluttershy was convinced Trixie was out to get her, even though, to Carrot Top’s knowledge, Trixie was barely aware of Fluttershy’s existence. Normally Carrot Top went to the spa with Trixie every month, and she did enjoy the time they spent together – maybe she could have Fluttershy and Trixie meet ‘on neutral ground,’ as the spa essentially was, and help Fluttershy put her fear behind her. The massages ended, and the three moved on to the seaweed-wrap and mud bath. Fluttershy had taken to this easily enough without raising any objections – Carrot Top supposed that, working with animals as she did, she was in no way afraid of a little mud. Fluttershy, by now, had calmed down completely from her ordeal with Rarity. Thus it was that Rarity arrived. “Ah ha!” The unicorn exclaimed as the door to the mud bath room flew open. Carrot Top and Fluttershy both eeped in surprise, while Rainbow Dash tried to take flight, apparently forgetting about both the seaweed wrapped around her body and the mud that she was almost completely surrounded by. She succeeded only in rising a few inches out of the mud before falling face-first into it and sinking, prompting Carrot Top to wade over to her and pull her back out, sputtering and gasping. Rarity noticed none of it as she trotted up to the lip of the mud bath. She had an easel with her loaded with drawings of a certain butterscotch pegasus, each time dressed in different clothing. “Miss Fluttershy, may I present to you – you!” She flourished the first of the drawings. “Aloe!” Carrot Top shouted as she struggled out of the mud bath. “Lotus!” “Oh, I put a sound-dampening spell over the door, darling,” Rarity said. “Very simple cantrip, learned it after my sister was born, I love her but by the stars can she be loud when she sings. No, peace and quiet while we work, that’s what’s needed. Now, Flutter – where did she go?” Carrot Top and Rainbow Dash both looked to the mud bath, eyes wide, just as something pony-shaped beneath a thick layer of mud rose from it, gasped for breath, and then tried to hide back underneath her cover. Rainbow Dash stopped her, however, even as she glared out at Rarity. “Go away!” “Can’t you see how much you’re scaring her?” Carrot Top added. “She’s supposed to be relaxing!” Rarity blinked a few times at that, then looked to Fluttershy – actually looked at her, for the first time, finally noticing that Fluttershy was all but hyperventilating as she quivered in Rainbow Dash’s hooves, staring at Rarity less like one pony looking at another and more like a mouse staring at a particularly hungry cat. “Oh…oh dear,” she noted. “I am so sor – ” “'Oh dear?'” Rainbow Dash demanded. “That’s all you can say? You assaulted her in the lobby and you’re – ” Rarity’s nose wrinkled slightly. “I don’t have to take that tone of voice from you, Rainbow Dash! You’re the one lazing about in here while a storm rages outside – ” “I’m not lazing – and that word has to be made up – but I’m not doing it, I’m helping my friend while you just keep showing up and – ” “Well please forgive me if I see such an exquisite example of beauty as Fluttershy and my muse begins howling at me, it’s not something I expect you’ll ever understand – ” “Your muse?” Rainbow Dash demanded, climbing from the mud bath and stomping towards Rairty. “So you’ve got a little voice inside your head that makes you ruin ponies days? I guess that makes it okay, then – ” “Why you rude – ” “Stuck up – ” “Lazy – ” “Crazy – ” Carrot Top glanced between the two mares shouting at each other, then glanced behind Rainbow Dash, at Fluttershy. The pegasus had her hooves to her ears and her eyes closed tightly as she trembled in the mud bath. At the sight, Carrot Top steeled herself, then stepped between the two quarreling mares, holding her hooves up. “Alright,” she said, then louder, “alright! Both of you! Quiet!” Rarity and Rainbow Dash both blinked at Carrot Top, stopping their mud-slinging – nearly literal mud-slinging from the looks of Rainbow Dash’s raised front hoof – and looking to the earth pony. Carrot Top looked between the two of them, settling on Rainbow Dash first. “Shouting at Rarity isn’t helping Fluttershy,” she said, pointing a hoof at the trembling pegasus. She turned around before Rainbow Dash could respond, looking to Rarity. “Fluttershy needs space and needs time to get used to new ponies. You haven’t given her either of those.” Rarity blinked a few times, glancing between Rainbow Dash and Carrot Top a few times before turning to look at Fluttershy, scuffing a hoof on the floor in embarrassment. “I’m sorry, Miss Fluttershy,” she said. “I’m afraid I may have gotten caught up in how beautiful you are. You would make the perfect model for this new clothes line I wanted to try my hoof at bringing to Cloudsdale…but I shall leave you in peace. Good day.” Rarity grasped her easel telekinetically, looking it over for a few moments before turning and heading towards the spa door, when something completely unexpected happened. “Wait!” Fluttershy exclaimed. It was more of a normal talking voice, but for her, she may as well have screamed at the top of her lungs. Carrot Top and Rainbow Dash both blinked in shock as they looked to Fluttershy, while Rarity, not as familiar with how quiet Fluttershy could normally be, simply turned around. Fluttershy, herself, glanced away from Rarity’s scrutiny almost immediately, though after a moment she slowly looked back, though she used her mane as a shield like she normally did. “Um…” she said, churning the mud with one hoof delicately. “Did…did you say…that…that you makes clothes…?” Rarity looked surprised and almost insulted for a moment, before the look passed and she smiled surprisingly gently. “Oh, yes. You wouldn’t know, I suppose, living out in that cottage…I am the proprietor of Carousel Boutique. Where everything is chic, unique, and magnifique!” There was several long moments of silence, as Fluttershy seemed to be considering saying something, almost did, then decided against it, only to open her mouth again a moment later. “Could…” she said at great length, “could I see…?” “What?” Rainbow Dash demanded, as Rarity trotted over to Fluttershy. “But…but Fluttershy, she – ” The pegasus stopped when Carrot Top raised a hoof, placing it on Rainbow Dash’s withers as she leaned in close. “Fluttershy just reached out to somepony,” she reminded Rainbow Dash softly. “Of her own free will. No goading, no us trying to put her around friendly ponies, nothing.” Rainbow Dash blinked at that. “Yeah, but did she have to reach out to this stuck-up, frou-frou, crazy – ” “Oh, that?” Rarity said to a question of Fluttershy’s about one of her sketches. “Well, about a three months ago the Wonderbolts decided they wanted to update their dress uniforms, and so there’s an open contest for clothiers right now. This is going to be my submission.” Rainbow Dash was back in the mud bath and next to Fluttershy in the time it took for Carrot Top to blink, looking at the sketch with wide eyes. Carrot Top suppressed the urge to chuckle as she returned to the mud herself. “So…what did you think of your first spa trip?” Carrot Top asked Fluttershy as the two and Rainbow Dash left the building, having finished their mud bath, been cleaned, and then proceeded to the hooficure. Aloe and Lotus had been surprised to find Rarity with them, even more so when they realized that Fluttershy had been actually talking with Rarity – not merely listening or making a comment every now and then, as she had with the spa ponies, but actually holding a conversation, about, of all things, fashion, a conversation that had continued through the hooficure and the end of their trip and the three of them leaving, while Rarity stayed behind due to now being in desperate need of a spa trip after the excitement of the past hour or two. Fluttershy had displayed a frankly freaky knowledge of sewing techniques throughout. Rainbow Dash hadn’t had much to say to Rarity after they’d moved on from the Wonderbolts uniform idea, other than suggesting that as good as it was, its ‘coolness’ had to be increased by at least a fifth. Whatever that meant. Fluttershy considered Carrot Top’s question. “It was…” she said, “…good. And Rarity seemed nice once she calmed down…I guess she just got excited. Rainbow Dash gets excited like that sometimes, too.” “What?” Rainbow Dash demanded, taking to the sky in surprise. She still didn’t have a rain-cloak, but didn’t seem to mind how much it was undoing her spa trip at all, while Fluttershy and Carrot Top were both being careful to avoid the worst of the mud puddles and keep their manes and tails covered by their cloaks. “I’m nothing like her!” she paused, thinking. “Am I?” Fluttershy and Carrot Top looked to each other, smiling and not saying anything. “Well,” Carrot Top said, stopping. “I’m going to go see another friend…she’s the one I go to the spa with every month, I’ll see if she’s okay with going on Sundays instead of our normal days.” Once again, Carrot Top carefully avoided mentioning that the friend was Trixie. “This was a great day for you, Fluttershy.” Fluttershy smiled brightly at that. “Thank-you, Carrot Top. I’ll see you soon.” “See you,” Carrot Top said, waving goodbye to Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. The latter still seemed concerned with trying to figure out how she was similar to Rarity. It probably wouldn’t occur to her for some time, if ever, that letting a rainstorm loose on Ponyville was at least as selfishly careless as Rarity’s actions towards Fluttershy, but Carrot Top had learned some time ago that she should focus on helping one pony at a time, lest she end up nearly losing her farm. Again. Her trot to Trixie’s home was largely uneventful, at least until she reached the front door and found herself face-to-face with a gray-coated, yellow-maned pegasus pony, bedecked in the official uniform and rain cloak of a postmare of Equestria. “Ditzy!” Carrot Top said happily. “How are you?” Ditzy Doo, Element of Kindness, offered a smile as she opened the front gate to the Residency of the Representative of the Night Court of Luna (attempts getting ponies to abbreviate it to ‘the RRNCL’ had yet to work), Trixie’s home, being said Representative. “Oh, you know,” the wall-eyed pegasus said. “I’ve been spreading good news and good advice all around Ponyville today. You?” “Spa trip with Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy,” Carrot Top said. “It turned out pretty well, actually…Fluttershy is going to try and make it a monthly thing, in fact!” Ditzy beamed. “Great!” she exclaimed, as the two reached the door and opened it. “I’ve been trying for years to help that mare…so she’s happy?” “Fluttershy is happy,” Carrot Top confirmed as the two entered the Residency, drying their hooves on the mat before glancing into Trixie’s office, where there was a fifty-fifty chance of finding the blue unicorn. Instead, what the two found was not just Trixie, but Raindrops, Cheerilee, and Lyra as well, all of them surrounding a pile of candy and looking like they’d just diffused an incredibly awkward situation. “Oh…is everypony really here?” “Saves me a few trips,” Ditzy said happily. “Huh…what’d we miss?” Let me make something clear, though, now that I think about it. Yes, I’d like to make more money. Yes, I’d like to have a bigger house, or better equipment for my farm. I want more material things. Who doesn’t? Even the Princess probably wishes she could have more of something sometimes. But what I want more than anything else is something that I have plenty of already: friends. I don’t need more than what I have in that regard. Also, at the moment, I wouldn’t mind some of that candy…
6. With Love and CareIf somepony had told me when I was a foal that I was going to grow up to be a mail mare, I wouldn’t have believed them. I knew exactly what I was going to be: A Wonderbolt. Yes, I had strabismus, but I was going to be such a great flier in spite of it that the Wonderbolts were going to let me in anyway. Not that I was in any way, shape, or form training to be a Wonderbolt, of course. Foals have dreams like that: we’re going to get everything we ever wanted without ever putting any actual effort into it. Wonderbolt, adventurer, princess, it all boils down to fantastic dreams, totally unrealistic desires. That’s what makes them so fun, though, isn’t it? Just daring to imagine, daring to dream. Believing beyond reason. Ignoring the obstacles in our way and aligning the stars with our bare hooves. There’s no one point when we realize the folly of our dreams. We just gradually begin to understand that the world doesn’t bend over backwards to accommodate us. That we have to work for what we want, have to set realistic limitations on our goals, be careful with our bits, be mindful of our faults and our vulnerabilities. We gradually wake up and take stock of where we are and work with what we have. The dreams are still there, but they’re tempered by doses of reality. We settle on things like becoming a weather captain, or teacher, or general manager of some chain of stores. Sure, they’re not as amazingly fantastic, but they’re what we can achieve. A lot of ponies, on realizing it, think that’s kind of sad, and I guess to an extent it is. But what if everypony actually did achieve their foalhood dreams? What if everypony became a Wonderbolt or an archaeologist or a princess? Then who’d be left to take care of the weather, or the teach the next generation of adventurers, or run all the stores of Equestria? Besides, when we grow up, we discover a much better dream than any we ever had as a foal: Parenthood. Not that everypony is necessarily cut out to be a parent, or that everypony should try to become one even if they don’t want to, of course! But for ponies who do have foals of their own…we find a new dream. And unlike all our foalhood dreams of soaring at supersonic speeds, or uncovering lost cities, or ruling the kingdom, these dreams are real. They’re dreams that we can reach out and touch, and hold, and watch as they grow up. They require work, but they’re dreams that we’re actually willing to work on, unlike our foalhood dreams. No, we don’t all lead glamorous lives. We don’t have to. Just living, all by itself, is enough. At least it is for me. I’ll never fly at supersonic speeds, I’ll never find a lost city, I’ll never rule a kingdom. But I will do everything I can to make tomorrow a better place for everypony – because if I do that, then tomorrow will be a better place for my daughter. And that would be a dream come true. There was something to be said for how much the right uniform could make a pony feel like they were a part of something bigger than themselves. First came the pants, deep blue, buckled around her loin and festooned with pockets, into which Ditzy Doo slipped several tightly-sealed ink wells, pens, and forms. Following that was the jacket, with holes along its back to allow for her to spread her wings. She turned up the collar on the jacket as she finished sliding it on. Next came the saddlebags, well-worn but sturdy, currently empty but soon to be brimming full of letters and parcels to be delivered to the mares and stallions of Ponyville, and expertly designed to not interfere with her wings if she chose to fly while delivering the mail. Nearly suited up for the day, Ditzy Doo preened her feathers, ran a brush through her mane and tied it back so it would be out of her way, and last but not least reached for her – Ditzy Doo frowned when her hoof reached out for her hat, but came up empty. Glancing at the spot where she’d set it down in confusion, she turned around and found the hat easily enough, as it was sitting on her daughter’s head. Dinky Doo was smiling at her mother, and gave a quick salute after a moment, though the action nearly made the hat fall from her head. It didn’t matter how often Ditzy saw the sight of her daughter wearing her mail mare’s hat: it was adorable every time, and always would be. She hid a chuckle behind one hoof as Dinky’s horn glowed, tongue clenched between her teeth as the young unicorn focused on her telekinesis, moving the hat from her head to her mother’s. It still took visible effort, but she wasn’t straining the way she had been at the start of the year – her telekinesis had improved by leaps and bounds, though she still occasionally grabbed things harder than she intended. Ditzy smiled as she trotted up to her daughter, drawing her into a tight hug and nuzzling her. Dinky returned it eagerly. “Is your lunch packed up?” Ditzy asked. Dinky nodded, pointing to the counter, where a brown paper bag sat at the ready. “Yup!” “Homework packed?” Dinky trotted over to her school pack and opened it up, double-checking. “Uh-huh!” she confirmed as she slid her bag over her back. “Teeth brushed?” Dinky gave a pearly white grin in response, one that Ditzy returned. “Okay,” she said, as her daughter grabbed her lunch from the counter and the two ponies left the apartment, Ditzy’s destination simply downstairs, while Dinky would be trotting to the school across town, along with dozens of other foals. “What are you learning about today?” Dinky scrunched her nose a little as she remembered the lesson plan. “Well, in math, Miss Cheerilee is teaching us about multiplying and dividing fractions. And in history we’ve been learning about the creation of the Hippogriff State…ooh! And in social studies today we’re supposed to be learning about cutie marks.” Dinky’s nose scrunched a little more at that. “I don’t know why, I already know all about cutie marks…” “Oh?” Ditzy asked. “Well, what makes them?” Dinky smiled. “When a pony discovers his or her special talent!” “Yes, but I mean, what actually makes them? How come all animals don’t get them? Or other races, like griffins, or buffalo?” The filly unicorn considered that for several long moments. “I don’t know,” she admitted after a moment, looking up to her mother. “But I’ll find out today!” “Yes you will,” Ditzy responded, mussing her daughter’s mane a little. Dinky waved her off with a giggle as the two reached the bottom, and mother and daughter shared a nuzzle and a quick peck on each other’s cheek. “See you later, Dinky!” Ditzy said. “’Later, Momma!” Dinky returned as she galloped off, already spotting a small gaggle of foals on the way to school themselves, joining them easily. Ditzy smiled a little at the sight. Her daughter made friends easily, certainly much easier than Ditzy herself had at the same age. Her gaze lingered for a few more moments on her daughter, before she turned, straightened her collar and the hat on her head, and strode boldly into the nerve center of Ponyville, the most important building in town, for it was the building through which the ponies of Ponyville were able to remain in contact with the rest of Equestria: The Post Office. “Ditzy!” Silver Script, the post master of Ponyville, and therefore Ditzy’s boss, called as Ditzy finished punching in. “What are you doing here? Isn’t this supposed to be your day off?” Ditzy offered a slight smile, shaking her head. “Starburst’s cousin in Las Pegasus is getting married, remember? I’m covering him for today.” Silver Script frowned at that. “I didn’t know he’d gotten you to cover him,” he said, concern in his voice. Silver Script’s coat was white, and his mane and tail were silverish. His uniform was basically identical to Ditzy’s, though he wasn’t wearing mail bags, and his hat featured a star that denoted his managerial position. “Why?” Ditzy asked, head tilting to one side, eyes sliding almost, though not quite, into focus. “You’re not sick of me, are you?” Silver Script shook his head at that. “It’s just, I think that every time we’ve needed a shift covered, ever since you moved to Ponyville, you’ve been the one to do it. I’m not paying you that badly, am I?” Ditzy blanched, holding up her hooves. “N-no!” she exclaimed. “No, boss – I mean, technically besides, you’re not paying me, the Postmaster-General in Canterlot is…but the pay’s just fine!” Silver Script’s concern didn’t fade as he ruffled his wings. “I’m just worried that some of the other mailponies are coming to you whenever they need time off, since they know you won’t say ‘no.’” “I’ve said no,” Ditzy objected, as she trotted past Silver Script, towards the mail room. “I said ‘no’ to Leeroy Wingkins last year! He had tickets to a Wonderbolts derby, I think, but I said no, because it was Dinky’s birthday, and I’d requested the day off already and Dinky was ‘out sick’ from school,” she made quote-motions with her hooves as she said that. Education was important, but birthdays only came once a year, and they shouldn’t be wasted in a classroom. “Well, okay, but that’s a special occasion,” Silver Script pointed out, as Ditzy and he entered the mail room. All the various letters and parcels had been sorted the previous day – Ditzy had done a significant amount of that, in fact, though she wouldn’t be doing that today, instead simply focusing on making the deliveries. She began to load up her mail bags. “When was the last time you tried to take a day off? Apart from that thing with the Princess a few weeks ago, that is, that doesn’t count.” Ditzy Doo paused at that, frowning a little as she took in a breath, then let it out slowly. Talking about money and paychecks was always uncomfortable with one’s boss. “At my pay grade,” she admitted, “how much I’m making an hour isn’t as important as how many hours I’m working each week.” Silver Script frowned. “You get the same hours as everypony else…” “Most everypony else have roommates, or live with their parents, or otherwise don’t really pay rent,” Ditzy pointed out. She glanced up, where, on the second floor of the post office, her apartment was. “Don’t get me wrong, I can afford it, I do get paid enough each month, I just…like to have a buffer, you know? In case of a bad week, or needing to take sick time off, or Moon forbid something happening to me or Dinky…” Silver Script’s face shifted to look far more sympathetic. “Oh,” he said. “Well…that’s sensible, I guess. Still, don’t overwork yourself, okay?” He smiled. “You only get the one life, and you’re still pretty young. You don’t want all your memories later on to be of this place.” He waved a hoof at the four walls of the post office. Ditzy nodded, then grinned. “Slack off more. Got it.” Silver Script chuckled. “Oh, we all know this place would fall apart without you, you don’t need to rub it in,” he said, turning around and heading towards his office. Ditzy’s thoughts, meanwhile, turned elsewhere as she came across a quartet of deep blue envelopes with familiar addresses on them – her own, Trixie’s, Raindrops’, and Bon Bon’s – though for the last, the letter was made out to Lyra. Of more interest to Ditzy, however, was the return address: Her Majesty the Princess Canterlot Castle Canterlot, CN, 10100 Ditzy blinked a few times at the sight. After a moment, she left her stack of letters for a moment, wandering over to another route’s and rifling through them until she found a fifth deep-blue envelope addressed to Cheerilee, and a sixth for Carrot Top in another pile. “Hmm,” she said, returning to her original pile and taking out her own letter, opening it after a few moments and pulling out something that felt like parchment but looked like paper-thin silver, which further began to glow like moonlight when it was removed from the envelope. The text on the parchment was thin and elegantly curved, in dark silver ink rather than black. Dear Ditzy Doo, In recognition of your heroic bravery and the services performed to protect the safety of the Kingdom of Equestria and all of its citizens, I, Luna, wish to personally extend to you an invitation to attend this summer’s Grand Galloping Gala, to be held at Canterlot Castle on Saturday, July 10th, beginning at 8:00 P.M. This letter shall serve as a ticket of entry for yourself and up to one guest. Please do not hesitate to contact me through Trixie if any special considerations are necessary for you or your guest of choice. R.S.V.P. Signed, Luna Equestris, Princess of Equestria Ditzy stared at the letter in her hooves, blinking a few times. “Boss?” she asked. “Hmm?” Silver Script asked from his office, looking up from some paperwork that he had just begun. “I think that I’m going to be requesting some time off.” Despite the fuss that Silver Script had made concerning Ditzy taking Starburst’s shift, it was actually going to be a fairly short one, from the looks of things, though Ditzy Doo did get Silver Script’s permission to take Carrot Top’s and Cheerilee’s letters so that she could deliver them personally once her shift ended – they’d make an excellent capstone to a day that had so far gotten off to an amazingly good start. After finishing double-checking her loads and packing up, Ditzy sallied forth, head held high and scarcely aware of the weight on her back as she set out for the start of her route. It was a circuitous one, starting at the north of town and winding counter-clockwise through Ponyville’s streets and buildings until coming to a stop at the Residency of the Representative of the Night Court of Luna – Trixie’s house. Because it moved through such a densely populated area – as compared to, for example, delivering mail to the farms – the route also wound its way back to the post office a few times. Strictly speaking, it would have made more sense to divine the route up further between several ponies, but the post office just didn’t have the pony-power, and it was hardly more than one pony could handle. Like all the routes in Ponyville, it was relatively new, having been instilled only a few months back after Silver Script had finally convinced the Postmaster-General to approve his updates to routes through the whole town. Despite this, Ditzy already knew the route, and everypony on it, like the back of her hoof. Her first stop was Pokey Pierce’s house. She hadn’t talked to Pokey as much as she might have liked, but she knew that he was Trixie’s personal assistant at the Residency, and also quite likely the reason why any work ever got done there, Trixie herself by nature being, to put it bluntly, lazy, or at least easily distracted from doing actual work in favor of whatever she felt like doing in the moment. Pokey Pierce lived in a two-story townhouse, one of several dozen that had been built over the past twenty years or so to accommodate Ponyville’s growing population. Unlike the center of town, where the first floors of homes tended to do double duty as a shop with the resident of the building living on the second floor, these townhouses were actual houses through and through. Ditzy opened her mail bags, pulling out Pokey’s mail after a few moments of searching. She found a letters, and once parcel, labeled Hoofington Horn Care as its return address. The parcel was too big to fit through Pokey’s mail slot, meaning that she had to knock a few times on Pokey’s door, then begin fishing out a clipboard for him to sign and a pen and inkwell with which to perform the deed. After a few moments of waiting, the door opened, revealing a blue unicorn stallion with a wavy silver-and-blue mane and tail, and a cutie mark of an open safety pin. Pokey’s most defining feature, however, was his horn – it was easily a third again as long as was average for a unicorn stallion of his height, and was sharpened to a perfect point. She’d heard it described as “magnificent” in the past, and it definitely seemed like an apt description. “Hello!” Ditzy said brightly. “Package for you.” “Oh?” Pokey asked, taking the package in his telekinesis and looking it over. His face fell a little when he saw the label and return address. “Oh. Well…that’s good.” Ditzy blinked a little as Pokey used his telekinesis to further grasp Ditzy’s clipboard and provided pen and inkwell, dipping the pen’s point and then signing. “Problem?” Ditzy asked. Pokey grimaced, casting a glance upwards, at his horn. “Nothing,” he said after a moment. Well, this was odd. Ditzy might not have known Pokey very well, but she did know that he was normally much more talkative and sociable, even at this time of day. “Are you…” Ditzy asked, considering how to phrase things delicately. “Having…horn problems?” Pokey’s eyes widened at that. “Wh-what?” he demanded. Ditzy held up her hooves. “Well, there’s obviously something wrong and you looked at your horn, so…” Pokey considered Ditzy, who put her best ‘talk to me’ face. Half of being a mailmare in a small town like Ponyville, she had discovered, was in being able to listen to ponies’ problems. Not necessarily to solve them, or even to give any real advice, but sometimes ponies needed somepony to talk to, somepony they saw every day and whom they trusted, but whom they didn’t actually know all that well. Of course, this wasn’t Ditzy’s normal route, but the uniform all by itself went a long way, as did the fact that she was somewhat familiar with Pokey already. At length, Pokey relented. “Okay,” he said, rubbing a hoof on his forehead. “Trixie and I…had a little…fight. Sort of.” Ditzy blinked. Trixie was one of her best friends, but she was also incredibly abrasive at times and difficult to put up with. “About your horn?” “Sort of,” Pokey repeated, sitting down on his haunches. “She’s been messing around with zebra magic again – ” “Uh-oh…” “Yeah, but this time she apparently got it right. Cooked up something called Truth is a Scourge, some kind of truth potion. Only it’s more like a truth poison. According to her it forces a pony to tell the truth, and say exactly what they’re thinking, as soon as they think it.” Ditzy blinked a few times. “And?” she asked. Pokey looked up at his horn again. “She tested it on herself,” he said. “And, let me tell you, it works. She just started blabbing about everything she saw, couldn’t stop…of course then she looked at me and apparently that made her start saying…let me see if I can remember…” he thought a few moments, before doing a surprisingly good imitation of Trixie’s Canterlot lilt “Oh Pokey I don’t think you should be here right now because I think I’m going to start telling you just how weird your whole horn obsession really is.” Ditzy blinked. “That’s not really that bad – ” “ – I mean seriously pierce the heavens with your horn you don’t have wings and what does that even mean anyway just because you have a long horn doesn’t mean anything and by the way how does a safety pin cutie mark in any way relate to ‘perseverance’ you just have an abnormally sharp horn because you spend all your free time polishing and sharpening it and frankly I think you’re thinking about something else when you polish it…” Ditzy stared. Pokey stared back. “She went on for some time,” he added. “But it became mixed with her trying to remember how to dispel the potion’s effects. Then she gave me a few days off.” He looked to his parcel, and sighed a little. “I always thought my cutie mark was perseverance…I mean, I got it after I managed to split a board in half with just my horn. I’d been trying for weeks, building up a tolerance…unicorn horns aren’t really meant for stabbing, see…and when I pulled it off I was so happy and I got my cutie mark. But now I’m wondering if Trixie’s right, if maybe it’s not perseverance…that my special talent is just having a sharp horn…” Ditzy grimaced. The entire point of a cutie mark was that it manifested when you realized what made you truly happy – meaning that it took a lot to make a pony doubt their mark, but if it happened, it meant that the pony was fundamentally doubting who they were: never a healthy prospect. She carefully weighed her next words. “Why not both?” she asked. Pokey looked to Ditzy, frowning. “A pony can’t have two special talents,” he objected. Ditzy shrugged. “But their special talent might encompass a bunch of things,” she pointed out. “A pony with a special talent for carrot farming, for example, has to be good at watering and plowing her fields, planting and tending her crop, knowing when and how to harvest…and besides,” Ditzy said, straightening up a little. “My special talent is feeling air currents and breezes. But I think I make a pretty good mail mare. My special talent isn’t my only talent.” Pokey seemed to be a little assuaged at that. Ditzy pressed on. “The way I see it,” she said, “either your special talent is perseverance, and all the work and time and effort you’ve put into your horn is indicative of that – or else your special talent is how sharp your horn is, and you’re talented at perseverance, at seeing anything through to the end – reaching any goal – climbing any mountain – ” “Stabbing right to the heart of any problem…” Pokey intoned, then louder, cheering up noticeably, “slicing through any kind of obstacles put in my way…boring through to the other side!” “Exactly!” Ditzy exclaimed, wings flapping a few times in happiness at her success. She decided to let the hurricane of puns slide; clearly he was feeling better and so had earned them. Pokey Pierce stood, one hoof raised to the sky. “You’re right! It doesn’t matter what the dumb picture on my flank means! Because no matter what, my horn is the horn that will one day pierce the Heavens!” Ditzy nodded. “And as for Trixie,” she said, “you said yourself that she was under the effects of a truth poison.” She paused, thinking as she tapped a hoof to her mouth. “Let me put it like this…see my eyes?” Ditzy raised her two front hooves, pointing at her eyes and how they wandered of their own accord. Currently her left eye was mostly pointed at Pokey, while her right one was looking down the street. “What do you think of them?” Pokey blinked a few times at that. “Um…” he said. “They’re…yellow?” Ditzy frowned. “And?” “…wandering,” he said cautiously. Ditzy nodded. “And what do you think about that?” Pokey looked like he was sensing a trap ahead but had no idea how to avoid it. “I…don’t, really. They’re just fine.” Ditzy’s smile returned. “Liar,” she said. “They’re weird. You know their weird, you just don’t want to hurt my feelings. And you feel bad for thinking that they’re weird, but it is what you think, right?” Pokey continued to look uncomfortable at that, not looking Ditzy in the eye – in fact, he was making a point of avoiding her eyes. Ditzy reached out a hoof, gently putting it on his shoulder. “It’s okay, they’re weird,” she said. “So is how much effort you put into your horn. But let’s face it,” she leaned in, and in a conspiratorially low whisper added, “if we started listing out Trixie’s problems, we’d be here all day.” She leaned back. “I think that we all have things we think about other ponies that we keep hidden. That truth poison just forced Trixie to reveal it, but she always thought it, just like you’ve always thought my eyes were weird but never said anything. But I think we can still be friends, right? So you can still be friends with Trixie too. Right?” Pokey weighed what Ditzy was saying carefully. “You’re right,” he said, with a slight sigh. “I can’t believe how much I was letting that get to me…” “Don’t worry about it,” Ditzy said, as she turned around, trotting from Pokey’s home and back onto the street. “Now, if you’ll excuse me – I have mail to deliver and more spirits to lift today!” Ditzy finished her winding route through the homes of north Ponyville in record time, making up for the prolonged stop at Pokey’s through the fortune of not having to deliver any more parcels, simply drop mail in through slots in doors or into mailboxes. The residential north of Ponyville taken care of, she now entered the west, which consisted of businesses. This meant that most of her stops were quick, as the proprietors of the businesses usually didn’t have much time to stop and chat – her stops consisted of walking in, dropping off the mail on the front counter, and walking out, pausing only if she needed a signature for a parcel. The spring to her step faltered a little, however, when she found herself standing outside of her next stop: Amethyst Star’s Fine Jewelers. The gray pegasus blinked a few times as she stared at the door, which was wood but with a frosted glass window on its front that had the store’s name on it. When she had been a younger mare growing up in Fillydelphia, Ditzy had a made a mistake of nearly catastrophic proportions: she’s conducted an affair with a unicorn named Castor Cut, a unicorn who was already married (though his marriage had been failing) and who had a daughter who was nearly as old as Ditzy Doo herself. Ditzy had known this – and hadn’t cared, too caught up in the affair, the passion, the thrill, not caring about the potential consequences – at least not until she’d become pregnant. Castor Cut had broken off the affair at that, and Ditzy, despite herself, had let him, even hoped that he’d patch things together with his wife. And if things had ended there… …but they hadn’t. Ditzy’s parents had found out – of course they’d found out – and they had dragged her to Castor Cut’s doorstep. They’d demanded, in front of his wife and his filly, that he take responsibility for Ditzy Doo an her unborn foal. And the short version of what had happened next was Ditzy had taken her savings and moved to Ponyville, looking to escape everything that had happened. Her daughter was the result of that affair, and though Ditzy would never in a million years regret having or raising Dinky, she did wish that the circumstances had been better. Still, things had been improving – until Amethyst Star had moved to town. Castor Cut’s daughter. Her parents divorced, the only-slightly-younger unicorn had moved to Ponyville for much the same reason that Ditzy had, not knowing that Ditzy was already living there. It had nearly ended disastrously for all ponies involved, but Dinky, bless her heart, had been able to start a sort of reconciliation between her mother and her half-sister. But Amethyst Star – or Sparkler, as she preferred amongst her friends – hadn’t quite yet forgiven Ditzy for the role she’d played in her parents’ break-up, and Ditzy, herself, wasn’t certain she was ready to be forgiven to playing such a large role in destroying somepony’s life. But her trepidation wasn’t going to get the mail delivered. There were four envelopes burning a hole in Ditzy’s mail bag, and the oath she swore on joining the Equestrian Postal Service meant that she had to deliver this mail, no matter what. Steeling herself, she opened the door and let herself in. “Good morning!” a voice called as soon as she entered. “Welcome to…oh. Um…hi.” Sparkler, a pony who’s mane, eyes, and coat were all varying shades of purple, was standing behind her jewelry counter, a ledger in front of her. The store was set up with display cases on three sides, forming an angular U-shape. Apart from Sparkler, there was nopony else in the store, though then again it hadn’t even hit noontime yet, so this made sense. Sparkler had been wearing a smile as Ditzy entered, though it faltered when she saw Ditzy. Ditzy, herself, put on the best one she could muster at the moment. “Hi,” she said. With Dinky around, the two could be quite cordial, as the little filly provided a common link between them - but otherwise, when the two were on their own, things tended to get tense. “Um…mail call!” she trotted up to Sparkler’s counter and pulled out the envelopes from her bag. Sparkler took them with her magic, eagerly grasping the opportunity to look at addresses and paper rather than Ditzy. “Where’s Starburst?” she asked. “His sister’s getting married in Las Pegasus,” Ditzy responded. “I’m covering his route today.” “Oh,” Sparkler said, as she looked at her envelopes. “Well, good seeing…you…” her voice trailed off as she stared at one of her letters, in a plain white, official-looking envelope. The return address on it had it coming from Fillydelphia. “Problem?” Ditzy asked. She readied herself for anything at the question. She wasn’t certain she was entirely welcome helping Sparkler with anything that might be wrong, but she’d still make the offer, and if Sparkler turned her down, she’d bow out and just wish the best for her. Sparkler’s lips were pressed together in a thin line. “This is from my father,” she said quietly. Right. That made Ditzy officially unwelcome, in all likelihood. She turned to leave – at least until she saw Sparkler tear the envelope and the letter inside in half with her telekinesis, and tossed it into a nearby waste-paper basket before looking very pointedly at the next envelope. Ditzy stared at Sparkler for a few moments in silence, scuffing one hoof on the floor and shuffling her wings. “Um…” she ventured cautiously. “You’re…not even going to read it?” Sparkler was standing very still. “I haven’t spoken to him for a very long time,” she said softly. “That’s not going to change. You know why.” Ditzy weighed her options here, and came to the conclusion that some battles just couldn’t be won. She turned around to leave, when Sparkler spoke up again. “Why should I?” she asked. “He doesn’t deserve to be a father. Not after what he did. With you.” The question was asked just loudly enough that Ditzy’s instincts strongly suspected that the unicorn was hoping for an answer. What kind of answer, though, Ditzy didn’t know – for all she knew, it wouldn’t matter, all Sparkler wanted was for Ditzy to rise to her bait so that she had an excuse to start shouting – turning Ditzy into little more than a winged bucking bag. Ditzy could be a winged bucking bag for Sparkler if she had to be. She owed the young mare at least that much. “Sparkler,” she said softly, trotting forward again, getting as close as she dared. “Your father…made a mistake. But he never meant to hurt you. He just didn’t think things through.” Sparkler remained quiet. Ditzy considered. “I didn’t really get along with my own parents either,” she continued. “I mean, not after I became pregnant. I spent a few months trying to hide it…and when my dad found out…” she breathed out a long sigh. “Well. You were there.” “Yes. I was,” Sparkler hissed. Ditzy flinched. “I didn’t want to do that,” she said. “I…I’d accepted that your dad chose your mom and you over me. I figured that that’s what he was supposed to do. But my dad and mom, they got so angry, they weren’t thinking straight, so they decided to drag me to his door…tried to basically shame him into choosing me. Showed me off like I was a…some kind of…” Ditzy’s front hooves were raised, held out before her like she was trying to crush an apple between them. Words failed her, however, and after a moment she sighed. “Well. I moved out to Ponyville after that and didn’t see or write to my parents for a year, though I did have a few friends I kept in contact with, so my parents knew where I was. But I just threw out their letters, too.” Sparkler stared intently at her own front hooves. “My dad is a construction worker,” Ditzy said. “In Fillydelphia. And one day, just a few months after Dinky was born, my mom showed up on my front door and told me that he’d been in an accident.” Sparkler’s eyes shot up at that, looking to Ditzy, the implications cutting through her own personal feelings. “Was he…?” “He was…okay, and he's fine now,” Ditzy said. She felt a little guilty for the set-up like that, but she needed to make sure that Sparkler understood the gravity of what she was doing. “A girder had fallen and he’d nearly been caught under it pushing another pony out of the way, but it still ended up clipping him, broke his pelvis.” Ditzy looked down herself. “Could have been worse. A few more inches, and it might have been his spine…a few feet, his head.” Ditzy looked back to Sparkler. “And then that would have been it. I’d have never seen him again.” Ditzy looked to the waste paper basket. “I’m not telling you to just make things up with your father. I don’t have the right. But you shouldn’t just…ignore him. Because you only have the one dad.” Sparkler stared at Ditzy for a long while, weighing what she said. At length, her horn glowed, and she pulled the pieces envelope from the trash bin, removing the letter from it. After a moment, she unfolded the two halves and looked it over, holding her breath all the while. Ditzy, herself, was waiting. Sparkler finished reading, and set the letter down in front of her, letting out a long sigh. “He’s…he moving,” she said. “Leaving the old house, getting a smaller place since it’s just him now. He was just sending his new address.” Ditzy nodded. She knew that there had to be more, Castor Cut probably asking, or even begging, for his daughter to write him every once in a while. Ditzy didn’t need to hear about that, though. Instead, she just nodded, turning and leaving. “Ditzy?” Sparkler asked as the pegasus reached the door. Ditzy paused, looking behind her. “Thanks,” the unicorn said after a moment. “I…I might stop by the post office later. I’ll have a letter to send.” Ditzy offered a smile at that, nodding. “Don’t know if I’ll be there,” she said, unconsciously tipping her mail mare’s hat, “but we’ll make sure it gets to the right place.” Ditzy wandered through Ponyville, the spring to her step gradually returning. She’d made her first return trip to the post office to retrieve more mail, and on the way out she’d noticed a gradually approaching storm cloud from the Everfree Forest – and a distinct lack of any weather patrol pony cloud platforms in front of it, where the weather patrol should have been preparing to tackle the Everfree storm. She sighed at the sight, considering for a few moments before heading back into the post office. Her mail bags were waterproofed, but the same could not be said for the pegasus pony who carried them. She didn’t doubt that the weather patrol was just taking longer than it should have to get organized, and that the storm cloud proper would be dealt with soon enough, but there was always a chance of a few stray clouds wandering over Ponyville and soaking it. Be prepared! Technically the Colt Scout motto, but Ditzy found it to just be useful life advice no matter the circumstance, and as a result Ditzy emerged from the post office a second time carrying, though not yet wearing just in case it turned out to be unnecessary, an official Equestrian Postal service rain cloak as she resumed her rounds. Ditzy’s deliveries and little chats as she made them weren’t all about drama, of course. She chatted with the Flower Trio about the contents of their parcels, apparently rare flower seeds imported from Tapira (they sounded delicious), asked after Baritone’s husband, who had been sick last time Ditzy had chatted with him (he’d made a full recovery), was given a few pieces of ‘sound business advice’ from Filthy Rich (who never seemed to be shy about hoofing out such advice, even to those who did not run a business), and in general got paid to walk around and socialize and, as a favor to the Equestrian government, pass out mail. Or at least that’s how Ditzy chose to approach her mail routes, anyway. As she walked, the jealous sun continued to rise in the sky, quickly approaching its zenith. Gradually the ponies out and about on the streets began to thin, each finding some good reason to be indoors and remain so for at least a half an hour – and traditionally a full hour – as noon arrived. There had been a time only a few months ago where some ponies would choose to skirt or even outright ignore the tradition, but then Corona had returned from her imprisonment, and made good her escape to parts unknown, if not her plan to take over Equestria. Suddenly, not lingering beneath the burning orb she claimed dominion over had once again seemed like a sound policy, and it was no different with Ditzy Doo herself, who had at once the distinct pleasure of driving Corona off coupled with the distinct displeasure of having met her personally in the first place. Ditzy did not dwell on any of this, however. Instead, she found herself comfortably inside Sugarcube Corner, Ponyville’s premier bakery, several minutes before the bell at the town hall struck noon. Immediately on entering, the scent of frosting and batter and good baking assaulted Ditzy’s nostrils, along with the sight of a vibrantly pink pony standing behind the counter: Pinkie Pie, the apprentice baker that the Cakes had taken on a few years back. She was moving like a blur through the visible kitchen, from countertop to oven so fast that Ditzy almost thought she saw multiple Pinkie Pies. “…served upon a silver spoon…toss a fig and save the date and…oh! Ditzy Doo! Hi!” Pinkie exclaimed. She had been singing to herself, but stopped when she saw the mail pony, looking up from her work and waving one hoof, though it was swiftly joined by a second. “Hi, Pinkie,” Ditzy said, trotting up to the counter lest she have to deal with Pinkie actually leaping over it to fully greet her – it had happened before. Pinkie was excitable, to say the least. Sometimes Ditzy suspected that her having such an easy access to sugar was not entirely the best of ideas. Pinkie didn’t make use of her surprising acrobatic skill this time, though she did bounce over to the counter with a beaming smile on her face. “Mail? For the Cakes? Or is there any for me? Huh?” Ditzy fetched out the letters and one magazine for Sugarcube Corner, checking them. “No letters, but there is your monthly Pony Party Planner Periodical.” “Oooh yes!” Pinkie exclaimed exuberantly as she took it from Ditzy’s hooves, immediately flipping it open and paging through it. “This is my favorite magazine! Advice on how to make parties, plan parties, prepare for parties, a monthly list of the top ten bestest upcoming parties in Equestria, what to wear, what to do, who to see…” She went on for a little while, even as she signed for the magazine delivery, never stopping despite having a mouthful of pen at one point. Ditzy just smiled. Constant exposure to Pinkie Pie could begin to grate on anypony’s nerves, but in small doses it was difficult not to catch her perpetually positive fever. “I’m actually going to a party in Canterlot soon, myself,” she said, smiling widely. “Tenth of July, the – ” “Grand Galloping Gala!” Pinkie exclaimed, leaping backwards and throwing her front hooves high into the air, eyes widening. She lost her balance after a moment, falling backwards, but easily rolled with it and came up on all four hooves and shooting forward again. “You have a ticket to the Grand Galloping Gala? How’d you get it – oh, wait, nevermind, Element of Kindness, saved Equestria, duh. I wish I was an Element! I bet I’d get an invitation!” Ditzy had heard about what the Gala was typically like, for the non-politicals anyway, from Trixie. She had a feeling that Pinkie and the Gala would mix like oil and water. She settled on simply nodding. “Do you mind if I wait out the sun in here?” Ditzy asked after she tucked away her clipboard. Pinkie shook her head. “Of course you can! I’d never turn a pony out and just let them get sunstroke!” she paused, putting a hoof to her mouth. “Feel like I’m forgetting something – oh! Cupcakes!” she turned around quickly, dashing back towards the oven and reaching it just as an egg timer set nearby went off. Within moments, the pink pony was removing several trays of baked goods from the ovens, setting them aside to cool off. It was likely the last batch she’d be cooking for a while, given the sheer unlikelihood of her getting customers for the next hour. Well, apart from Ditzy herself. As long as she was here for the next hour, she supposed she might as well take her lunch break. “Ooh, the Gala, you’re so lucky!” Pinkie exclaimed as she came galloping back over after finishing with the oven. “It’s the most amazing incredible tremendous super-fun wonderful terrifically humongous party in all of Equestria! I’ve always always always wanted to go!” Ditzy Doo sensed a song and dance coming on. Indeed, Pinkie began spinning and shaking and generally dancing around behind the counter, to a tune only she could hear. “Oh the Grand Galloping Gala is the best place for me! “Oh the Grand Galloping Gala is the best place for me! “Hip hip – hooray! “It's the best place for me! “For Pinkie...!” Pinkie turned to look at Ditzy, eyes wide and starry. “With decorations like streamers and fairy-lights and pinwheels and piñatas and pin-cushions! With goodies like sugar cubes and sugar canes and sundaes and sun-beams and sarsaparilla! And I get to play my favorite-est of favorite fantabulous games like Pin the Tail on the Pony!” “Oh the Grand Galloping Gala is the best place for me “Oh the Grand Galloping Gala is the best place for me “'Cause it's the most galarrific superly-terrific gala ever “In the whole galaxy – Wheee!” Ditzy blinked a few times, her eyes rolling of their own accord as they had tried to keep up with Pinkie’s movements. She knocked the side of her head a few times to remind them that it was alright if they wandered, but not so fast and not at the same time. “I don’t think it’s a party like that,” she said. “Actually from what Trixie’s told me it’s more just bumping shoulders with a lot of high-society ponies. Talking and drinking a little. Hors d’oeuvres. That kind of stuff.” Pinkie stared at Ditzy for a few moments as she considered that. “Yikes,” she said. “I always thought that the Pony Party Planner Periodical put that in there ‘cause the Gala was too amazingly superrific and if they revealed just how amazingly superrific it was than everypony would go and there’d be lines outside of the gates of Canterlot and ponies trying to get in and they’d run out of bread so Luna would have to let them eat cake but that would just get everypony mad ‘cause there’s never enough cake unless I’m baking and then everypony would rise up and overthrow the government!” Ditzy stared at Pinkie. Pinkie stared back. “Or something like that,” she appended, and let out a long, drawn-out sigh. “I wish I could go. Get me there and I guarantee I could turn that bore-fest into the ultra-awesome paaaar-tay that it’s supposed to be in five minutes!” Some part of Ditzy’s mind reminded her that she was allowed one guest. The remaining parts of Ditzy’s mind fell upon that part and trampled it underhoof until it apologized for raising the subject. Not for the sake of those in attendance as much as for Pinkie Pie herself, and to stave off what would happen if she did end up there. If Pinkie Pie really could turn it into one of her own parties in five minutes, then Ditzy strongly suspected that in ten, she’d be thrown into a dungeon. In her mind’s eye, Ditzy specifically saw Luna doing the throwing, wearing, in addition to her crown, an overturned cake. She stifled a laugh at that, looking to Pinkie. “Maybe you can throw a party here in Ponyville instead,” she said. “Make it as ultra-awesome as you want without worrying about rubbing any of the stuffy Canterlot nobles the wrong way.” Pinkie was silent a moment as she processed that. Ditzy strongly suspected that Pinkie Pie was much more intelligent than she seemed at first glance, and was even now probably crunching numbers and doing figures in her head – number of ponies in Ponyville, cost of party supplies, amount of eggs needed for batter to make the cakes, how many sheets of paper needed to make the confetti and streamers, and then all of these numbers multiplied several times over in order to make it a worthwhile Ponyville parallel to the Gala. Apparently the numbers turned out well as Pinkie let out a huge gasp. “I should!” she exclaimed, prancing around at the thought. “That’s the best idea ever, Ditzy! Oh, and I’m gonna need your help to pass out all the invitations! I should get to work on those! Ooh! You can help me with the design!” Pinkie glanced left and right conspiratorially, before leaning in. “I’ll give you a free muffin if you do. In fact a free tray of muffins! Your choice of ingredients! I’ll bake it right up just for you!” Ditzy’s wings flared a little at those magical, hypnotic words: fresh custom muffin tray free of charge. She was not normally one to give into such an under-the-table request, but where muffins were concerned, she’d make an exception, provided she covered her bases first. “What about Mister and Missus Cake?” she asked, looking around. “Where are they, anyway?” “At the hospital,” Pinkie said, though the smile didn’t leave her face, so Ditzy assumed that there was no problem worth worrying about. She was vindicated in this believe as Pinkie pressed on, “I think Missus Cake is making a special bun in her personal oven, if you know what I mean!” Ditzy smiled brightly at that. It was about time, the Cakes had only been married for ten years. “You’re sure?” “Pretty sure! But I don’t know, I’m not a doctor. That’s what the hospital is for! Now stay right there!” She dashed off, out of sight and up some stairs, to the flat she rented above the bakery. After just a few moments she had arrived back downstairs with pads of paper and pencils. “Now let’s get crackin’! What should a Pinkie Pie’s Ponyville Gala invitation look like?” Ditzy considered, before reaching into one of her pockets and producing her own invitation. “Well,” she said, “we could use this as a base.” Pinkie’s grin tripled in size as she regarded the shining invitation. “Alright!” she exclaimed. The two ponies worked in silence for several seconds. Pinkie broke it first as she finished reading it. “Hey,” she noted. “it says here…that you can take a guest!” “Uh,” Ditzy responded. Ditzy left Sugarcube Corner an hour later having learned two things: one, that a whole tray of free muffins with her choice of ingredients in them was delicious; and two, that Ditzy’s guest to the Gala was going to be Sparkler. This was a detail she could work out with Sparkler at a later date, of course. Once again, Ditzy felt that denying the Gala to Pinkie was probably for the perpetual party pony’s own good. After Sugarcube Corner, she had only a few stops before her mail bag was once again empty, prompting another trip back to the post office. Once more, she noted the building storm over the Everfree, and still a notable lack of cloud platforms from the weather patrol. They weren’t seriously going to just let it go over town, were they? Several hours later – Ditzy returning to the post office two more times – Ditzy had her answer as the first of the raindrops began to fall. By now, she had completed her circuit through Ponyville’s west and south, and was steadily making her way north again, or beginning to, anyway. She stopped trotting when she felt the first drop of rain, taking off her mail bags and counting herself as showing a surprising amount of foresight for both already having the rain cloak on her, and having dropped her muffins off at the post office, where they would remain safe and dry. The storm, at least, seemed to be all bark but little bite. The rain began falling in earnest just as Ditzy began travelling more north than east. There was a lot of rain, but not much wind, and no thunder or lightning. The rain cloak she wore was sturdy and large, doing a good job of protecting her from the rain even as she continued doing a good job delivering mail (if she did say so herself, which she did). The conversations of the ponies she spoke to were now inevitably about the rain – complaining about it being out of nowhere, decrying the weather team as being lazy, one particular pegasus pony named Airheart cursing the fact that she’d forgotten that rain tended to have a negative effect on date plans, at least if makeup was involved. Eventually, Ditzy found herself coming to her last stop, at least before she began making personal stops to each of her friends in order to deliver their Gala invitations: the Ponyville town hall. The circular building was located in the center of town, open at all hours and ready to accept anypony who entered. Ditzy’s mail for the town hall included several parcels and letters for the various town councilors, but more importantly a duo of letters addressed directly to the Office of the Mayor. As per Equestrian Postal Service rules, that meant that Ditzy had to deliver the mail directly to the mayor herself, and not simply the secretary at the town hall’s front desk, and yes, she understood that mayor Ivory Scroll was busy at the moment, but she could wait, and no, scowling at her was not going to make her change her mind or abandon her dedication to her oath of service. Thus it was that Ditzy waited half an hour outside of the mayor’s office for Ivory Scroll to be free. Part of Ditzy suspected that the wait was as long as it was because the mayor, or else her secretary, was in a bad mood and wanted to make somepony suffer. It did afford Ditzy an opportunity to look around aimlessly a lot. The sole interesting feature of the hall outside of Ivory Scroll’s office was the name printed on her office door; Ivory Scroll, Lady Mayor of Ponyville, and that only because it reminded Ditzy that whomsoever held the office of mayor in Ponyville was a Lord or Lady, as appropriate, in the Night Court of Luna, though that particular title was attached to the office rather than the pony who held it. It was significant only in that it was a minor fact likely to one day win Ditzy a game of Trivial Pursuit. At length, the mayor was finally free, and Ditzy trotted into her office. Ivory Scroll decorated in reds and greens, giving her office a surprisingly festive appearance, though the pony sitting behind her desk seemed to be anything but as she alternated between writing something on a ledger and glancing out the window at the rain that was pouring outside. Ditzy offered a sympathetic smile as she approached the desk, getting out her mail. “Long day?” she asked. Ivory Scroll let out a long sigh at that. “More like the day before a long day,” she said. At her desk was a steaming cup of coffee, which she took a long swig from – with such relish that Ditzy suspected that something a mite stronger than milk or sugar was flavoring it, though Ivory Scroll didn’t yet appear to be drunk, or even buzzed. “This…rainstorm. From the Everfree! Out of nowhere! It’s criminally negligent!” Ditzy blinked. “Really?” she asked, as she set Ivory Scroll’s letters on her desk. “It should be,” the mayor responded, glancing over the letters but opening neither, instead putting them in a pile on the right side of her desk. She ran her hooves over her face. “This is an election year, and Rainbow Dash lets a rain storm just run roughshod over us for no reason. Why now? We had a schedule – she submitted the schedule herself – why didn’t she stick to her own schedule?” “I’m sure there was a reason,” Ditzy said conciliatorily. She fluttered her wings a little. “There can be a lot of difference between the weather on the ground and the weather a few thousand feet up. Maybe the winds up there are too strong and Miss Dash didn’t feel like risking her patrol on the storm.” Ivory Scroll glanced at Ditzy, considering. “Do you think Hoofington will buy that?” she asked hopefully. “Huh?” Ditzy asked. “Hoofington,” Ivory Scroll hissed, like it was a foul curse. Hoofington was one of the next towns over from Ponyville, along with Bridleton. “Every time we’ve had even so much as a stray cirrus float over Ponyville and into Hoofington, Mayor Quill Graze has sent me a very angrily-worded letter accusing me of not having any kind of control over my weather team. And then he keeps threatening to send over his weather patrol captain to ‘teach Rainbow Dash how it’s done,’ though the way I hear things she starts things and then takes forever to finish them! Rainbow Dash could take Stormy Squ-” “So,” Ditzy said, stopping the mayor from going on a rant, “I…take it that a whole storm system reaching Hoofington will be even worse?” Ivory Scroll stared at Ditzy for a few moments, and responded by taking another long draw of her coffee. “Quill Graze…thinks he’s so great…he doesn’t live on the edge of the Everfree! The weather patrol eats up half of the town budget…not my fault that his weather team is actually going to have to work for a change…” Ivory Scroll continued under her breath for several seconds, the only intelligible words being the occasional drawn-out, sibilant hiss of “Hoofington,” often accompanied by a slight hoof-shake. Ditzy Doo rubbed a hoof behind her head. “This…isn’t really Quill Graze’s fault, though,” she pointed out. Ivory Scroll grimaced. “No. It’s Rainbow Dash’s. I just know that she let the storm through. Probably didn’t feel like waking up. It’s easy for her, she can just move that fancy cloud-mansion of hers higher. Some of us have to walk home…” another round of mumblings. “Oooh, I’m going to pay for this come election time…” “Don’t you usually run unopposed?” “Doesn’t mean I don’t want the show of support!” the mayor objected. Ditzy had to concede that point. “Well…just get Rainbow Dash up here and chew her out, then,” she said. “In fact, the whole weather patrol team, or at least the ponies who were on-duty today,” Ditzy winced at that, wondering if Raindrops had been scheduled for today. She didn’t want her friend to be chewed out if she didn’t have to be – but then again, if she had a job and she didn’t do it, then that would have to happen. Ivory Scroll sighed. “No point. I’m not their boss. Weather patrol is run out of Cloudsdale, I’m basically just a glorified observer. And complaining to Cloudsdale doesn’t help because Rainbow Dash has more pull there than me, somehow.” Ditzy considered. Political maneuvers were well outside her normal area of expertise, even small-town politics like this. She could offer a shoulder to cry on, give advice for planning parties, patch up spats between friends, but tell somepony how to navigate the quagmire that was modern governance? She was completely out of her league. Sometimes, one had to just accept that. She offered a helpless shrug to the mayor. “Well…” she said, “Good luck, I guess.” The mayor grunted a little, though she did wave goodbye as Ditzy trotted out of her office and towards the town hall’s exit. Well, she had tried, at least. Her official rounds for the day completed, Ditzy checked her mail bags and saw that the five remaining blue envelopes, along with her own already opened one, were still tucked safely inside the waterproofed container. Her first stop on this particular route was easy: The Residency of the Representative of the Night Court of Luna, located directly across from the town hall. As she trotted over there, she noticed another pony approaching it as well, wearing a rain cloak as sturdy as Ditzy’s own and with familiar orange tresses poking out from beneath her drawn hood. The other pony noticed her approach quickly enough, and smiled brightly as the two of them reached the front gate of the Residency together. “Ditzy!” Carrot Top, farmer and Element of Generosity, said brightly. “How are you?” Ditzy Doo offered a smile as she opened the front gate to the Residency. “Oh, you know,” the mail mare said. “I’ve been spreading good news and good advice all around Ponyville today. You?” “Spa trip with Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy,” Carrot Top said. “It turned out pretty well, actually…Fluttershy is going to try and make it a monthly thing, in fact!” Ditzy beamed at that. “Great!” she exclaimed, as the two reached the door and opened it. “I’ve been trying for years to help that mare…so she’s happy?” “Fluttershy is happy,” Carrot Top confirmed as they entered the Residency, drying their hooves on the mat before glancing into Trixie’s office, where there was a fifty-fifty chance of finding the blue unicorn. Instead, what the two found was not just Trixie, but Raindrops, Cheerilee, and Lyra as well, all of them surrounding a pile of candy and looking like they’d just diffused an incredibly awkward situation. “Oh…is everypony really here?” “Saves me a few trips,” Ditzy said happily. “Huh…what’d we miss?” The other four mares waved them inside the office once they’d taken off their rain cloaks. “A lot,” Trixie said. “It’s been…an eventful two minutes.” “An eventful day,” Carrot Top corrected. “Why don’t you start from the top?” I’m going to admit to not being very good at math. Somepony else can tell you what, on paper, the chances are of us six all ending up here, together, on a rainy day, out of all the ponies in Ponyville. It doesn’t really matter, though. What matters is that we are all here, now, right when we need to be. Not to fight monsters, not to make plans, not to do anything in particular but to simply be here, around each other. We’re all here for each other. And we’re here for everypony else that needs us, too. We can’t always fix every problem, but we can try. And that’s all that can be asked of us.
Epilogue“So my afternoon consisted of convincing this one that I don’t hate her,” Trixie said, jabbing a hoof at Raindrops. The six mares were arranged in a rough circle around the bag of Bon Bon’s candy as they talked, though they had moved from Trixie’s office into her living room, where she’d started up a fire. “I had to spend it convincing you the same thing,” Raindrops pointed out with a little indignation in her voice. “And you’re the one who actually keeps score of her friends.” “Speaking of,” Ditzy said, “I ran into Pokey on my route today.” Trixie winced at that, as though she’d just burned herself. “Um. Is he…still mad…?” Ditzy shook her head. “He knows you didn’t mean to say what you did. And I pointed out to him that you’ve got plenty of quirks of you own that he can call you out on if he has to.” The six mares laughed, though Trixie stopped after a moment as she considered that. “Wait, what quirks?” she asked. That prompted another round of laughter. Trixie herself joined in after a moment, deciding that, whatever her quirks were, they didn’t matter right now. “Speaking of you,” Lyra said, looking to Raindrops, “I didn’t know you could sing.” Raindrops’ face reddened notably at that. Lyra and Cheerilee, on the other hoof, both kept grinning at her. “We didn’t catch it all, though,” Cheerilee said. “Just something about rain helping you to untangle…?” “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Raindrops said quickly. “No, I definitely heard it,” Lyra said, then sang what she’d heard. “Rain helps me to untangle all the things that…?” Raindrops stared at Lyra. Lyra stared back. At length, the pegasus sighed, looking down in embarrassment. “Though I’ve bungled all my bangles, left my life twisted and mangled, the rain helps me to untangle all the things that trouble me…” she sang softly. She jumped slightly when she earned some light hoof-stomps from the other five mares. “I like the happier version better,” Lyra noted. Raindrops’ blush deepened, though she was also smiling a little at the praise. “Me and Cheerilee heard it at Bon Bon’s, when you splashed down.” “Hmm,” Ditzy observed. “Which reminds me, I have to ask – why is it raining?” Carrot Top cleared her throat. “Rainbow Dash’s fault,” she said. “She put getting rid of the storm to a vote ‘cause she knew she’d win it. She did it for Fluttershy. She figured the easiest way to get her to the spa was if there was nopony outside. Fluttershy can take rain. What she can’t take is ponies.” “That’s…actually kind of clever of Rainbow Dash,” Trixie noted. “She is a weather manager,” Raindrops said. “She’s a lot smarter than she looks. Or acts.” “So how’d you end up at Trixie’s, then?” Cheerilee asked. “I mean…if you don’t mind me asking…” “Puddle,” Raindrops answered simply, cocking her head towards Trixie’s backyard, then nodding towards Trixie “She caught me in it.” “Must’ve been a little embarrassing,” Lyra observed. “Not as embarrassing as…” Cheerilee began, then put a hoof to her mouth for a moment, before continuing with “…a thing that was embarrassing.” Carrot Top and Ditzy Doo stared expectantly at her. Cheerilee shook her head, however. “No. I’m not telling. It’s embarrassing – ” “Oh, come on, four of us already know, it’s not fair to these two,” Trixie said, eliciting a look of surprise from Lyra and Cheerilee. “Cheerilee came in and caught me and Raindrops in the middle of a memory-transfer spell. The spell required us to be kissing. With, um…tongue. But it was just a spell.” “Just,” Raindrops confirmed, nodding. “Cheerilee thought I didn’t know anything about sex for some reason,” Trixie continued, “and then thought that Raindrops was trying to take advantage of me. So Cheerilee gave me ‘the talk’.” Trixie shuddered a little. “A…very detailed…possibly illegal…talk.” Cheerilee stared at Trixie. “I meant embarrassing for me, Trixie,” she said. “Embarrassing for all of us,” Lyra said with a sigh. “Just…one big mess.” “It’s done,” Trixie said. “It’s in the past. Bygones and all that.” The four mares nodded, and there was a moment of silence as they simply ate candy. It was broken, however, when Ditzy perked up. “Oh, I almost forgot!” she exclaimed, looking to her mail bags and opening them, pulling out the five midnight blue envelopes, along with her own already-opened letter. “These are for each of us.” She passed them around. The room was soon filled with the sound of tearing paper, followed swiftly by the soft silver glow of the enchanted tickets. “Yes, I’ve been waiting for this,” Trixie said, smiling. “Gala number six, here I come!” “The Gala!” Lyra exclaimed at nearly the same time, reading her letter/ticket a second time, then a third. “This is…it’s the biggest event in Equestria! And I get to bring a guest!” She put her hooves to her mouth. “Oh…Bon Bon’s gonna need a dress…I could surprise her with a dress!” “How do you surprise somepony with a dress?” Cheerilee asked. “Doesn’t she need to be measured for it?” Lyra rolled her eyes. “I know her dimensions,” she drawled. “Isn’t the Gala supposed to be boring?” Raindrops asked. Trixie smiled. “It’s only boring if you’re not there with anypony,” she said. “Trust me, I know all about that. But us six, together? Should be a blast.” Ditzy smiled at that, as she stood and stretched. “Well,” she said, “I’m sort of still on the clock back at work. I better go and punch out, then get home to Dinky.” “Mmn, I have to go too,” Lyra said. “Calm Bon Bon down.” One by one, the six mares stood, though Trixie would, of course, be remaining behind – she would still see them to the door, though. “This was fun,” Cheerilee said. “Well…eventually it was fun, anyway. After the horrible, horrible embarrassment. We should try and get together more often.” “Yeah,” Raindrops agreed. “There shouldn’t have to be a crisis.” “How about…same time, next week?” Carrot Top asked, looking to Trixie. “Here? If that’s okay? You have the largest house.” Trixie smiled. It wasn’t her normal wide-put on smile, but a much more simple, yet honest, grin. “Of course,” she said. “Maybe turn it into…I dunno, some kind of game night. I’ve got cards.” “I’ve got board games,” Cheerilee ventured, as everypony else stepped out into the rain. She followed suit a moment later. “It’s a deal, then,” Lyra said. “See you later!” “Later!” Trixie returned, closing her door. She found herself still smiling, and didn’t try to stop herself as she returned to her living room. A glance outside confirmed that it was still raining, and a glance inside confirmed that her fireplace was still lit. All that was missing was a book, and a unicorn in a couch to read it. Trixie rectified the situation immediately, settling down into her couch and telekinetically grabbing her well-worn copy of Don Rocinante from her bookshelf. “Today…was a good day,” she decided.
1. Stormy WeatherI hurt somepony once. Bad. It was the worst day of my life. The funny thing is – ha, ‘funny,’ it isn’t really funny, it’s horrifying – is that I don’t even remember what made me do it all that well. I’d always been so good at just keeping everything inside, and this didn’t really seem all that different. It was summer flight camp, I was just a filly and he was just a colt, and I flubbed a turn or a aileron roll or something and got the lowest score in the camp, or near the lowest. And the colt – his name was Hoops – said something about my name, ‘Raindrops,’ being good ‘cause dropping like rain was all I was good at. Ha. Ha ha. It was nothing I hadn’t heard before. Nothing I hadn’t dealt with and kept all bottled up inside before. But the next thing I was aware of, I was seeing red, and there was screaming, his and mine – him in pain, me in rage that had finally just boiled over and to the surface. And it was taking two coaches to pull me off of him and stop me from just continuing to pound into him. Then there were sirens, and police… …long story short, I was still just a filly, and the judge decided that it was a ‘heat of the moment’ thing, that Hoops was at least partially to blame for goading me and harassing me. There were some court-ordered therapy sessions for me and community service and I had to switch schools. But Hoops… Hoops’ right hind leg was broken in three places. His shank was essentially dust. They had to bring special unicorn doctors and surgeons up to Cloudsdale to fix him, and to this day he still walks with a limp. Still has a restraining order on me, too. I could have broken his wings the same way I broke his leg – nothing would be worse for a pegasus than wings that didn’t work right. I could have really crippled him, for life. I could have killed him. A part of me knows that no matter how bad what I did was, it could have been worse. I tell that part of me to shut up. I know what I did wasn’t as bad as it could have been. It was still horrible. Still the worst thing I have ever done to anypony – worse than anything that anypony else I know has done to anypony else. But even worse than that happy fact? Worse than anything? I know I could do it again. Easily. I don’t know why I’m angry, but I am, all the time. It’s always there, just beneath the surface. Everything makes me angry. The way my father takes forever to say or do anything. The way my mother is so hyperactive. My little brother’s bug collection. My boss. My co-workers. My friends. Everything. Me. I’m angry at myself, all the time. I’m angry at what I did. I’m angry that I could do it again. Sometimes I get so angry that I fly into Whitetail Wood and find this clearing and just fill it full of rocks and then spend hours, hours, just breaking the stones apart with my bare hooves, imagining that it helps, imagining that physical destruction somehow helps me and my anger issues. But it doesn’t. There’s only one thing I know that calms me down. One thing that’s somehow able to wash away everything I feel just beneath the surface, douse out the fire and cool the embers and just expose what I think, what I hope, deep down inside, is the real me… The virga – precipitation that would never actually reach the ground as it would evaporate too fast – was thick as Raindrops flew through the clouds that had gathered over the Everfree, three thousand feet in the air, wings spread wide and hooves spread out as she focused on the feelings in the sky around her: the pressure, the moisture, the wind speeds. Tingling sensations ran all along her feathers and to special sensory organs contained in the alulae of her wings and the near the frogs in her hooves, sensory organs that all pegasi possessed. She liked what she was feeling through them as the virga ran across her coat, through her main, and soaked her feathers. Here, in the skies over the Everfree Forest, weather was allowed to run wild and free. Well, not so much allowed, as it insisted: the weather-magic of pegasus ponies was almost entirely negated by the strange, ancient magic that permeated the boughs of the forest and stretched high into its skies, higher than any pegasus pony could fly. However, the Everfree didn’t rob pegasi of their ability to sense weather and the atmosphere around them. At length – after feeling her way through the storm and letting the virga render her completely soaked – Raindrops supposed that it was time to head back, and so started heading east, back to the edge of the Everfree Forest where Ponyville’s on-duty weather patrol had set up a cloud platform to keep an eye on the burgeoning Everfree storm. After several long minutes she dipped low, under the cumulus congesti that floated over the Everfree, and spotted the cloud platform where several pegasi were already waiting for her: Sunlight, Airheart, and Thunderlane, who had been part of this forecast patrol into the Everfree and had arrived back before her; Blue Skies, who had simply been on-duty and had organized the forecast team’s routes; Cloud Kicker, the second-in-command of Ponyville’s weather patrol and who was actually managing to look calm and collected for once. This was probably because of the last pegasus on the cloud platform: Rainbow Dash, manager of the Ponyville weather patrol and the self-proclaimed (but, Raindrops had to admit, probably correct) fastest flier in Equestria. The cyan-blue pegasus with a polychromatic mane and tail kept pacing around on the cloud, or taking to the air and flying a few loops and circles around it, or landing on it with a poomf and just lying in place, staring into the Everfree. Raindrops, for her part, did her best to ignore her boss’ antics as she alighed on the cloud platform and shook herself dry (or at least moderately less wet), pleased that at least she was here – it was far too common an occurrence for the weather manager to flake out or put off jobs like this. A part of Raindrops wondered exactly what had dragged the Rainbow Dash from her cloud-home this morning, as it certainly wasn’t the storm building over the Everfree Forest. However, Raindrops decided that whatever it was, she liked it, as it had meant that her boss couldn’t think up an excuse to fly off when Raindrops and Blue Skies had glided on up to her, resting in the branches of an apple tree, and explained the situation with the Everfree storm. Hence, the forecast ponies that Rainbow Dash had sent in – brave pegasi who would travel into the air over the Everfree and attempt to ascertain the nature of gathering storms, the threat they posed to Ponyville’s weather, and, in sum, how much work everypony was about to have for the next several hours. “Finally,” Rainbow Dash said as Raindrops finished shaking herself off. “We’ve only been waiting here forever, Dropsy.” Any other day, Raindrops would have, at the very least, shot a lethal death-glare Dash’s direction for calling her ‘Dropsy’ – a nickname she made no secret about hating. Currently, however, the jasmine-coated pegasus was soaked to the bone with rainwater, which for Raindrops translated into being basically in a good mood, good enough that all she did was flutter her wings a few times, sending some water droplets Rainbow Dash’s way. The weather manager of Ponyville didn’t seem to notice, or care. “So?” Rainbow Dash asked, scuffing a hoof on the cloud. “Was it worth waking me up for this? I was having a great nap, you know.” The four forecast ponies looked between each other, before Sunlight, a white stallion with a blond mane, slowly shook his head. “Well, that depends. The storm is large. Near as I can tell it stretches from one end of the Everfree to the other. And the virga is thick.” “…but…?” Rainbow Dash asked, leaning in. “Well, it’s not really all that much of a storm,” Airheart said, looking back at it. “I mean, it’s huge, but only in the area it’s covering. Otherwise there isn’t really thunder or lightning or even much strong winds. Just incoming praecipitatio, and not even hard.” Praecipitatio was the technical term for any kind of precipitation that actually reached the ground, as opposed to virga; in this case, it was referring to what unicorns and earth ponies would simply call ‘rain.’ “Barely worth calling cumulus congesti,” Thunderlane added, referring to the most basic kind of raincloud: tall, dark, bursting with water, but easy to make and direct and rarely having any kind of nasty surprises in the form of lightning or ice. “If we were making those for praecipitatio, you’d probably chew us out and bust us down to patrolling the Whitetail Wood.” Rainbow Dash leaned back, sitting on her haunches with one hoof to her mouth as she considered, taking a map and planner from Cloud Kicker as she did and looking over the weather schedule for the next month. Inwardly, Raindrops sighed as she settled down onto her stomach and turned her attention to her two front hooves. From the sound of things, she was about to have a long, boring day on the job playing what amounted to sky-janitor. The Everfree ‘storm’ would try to roll over Ponyville in the next few hours, and she, along with the rest of the on-duty weather patrol, would be stationed at the edges of the Everfree and basically spend their time bucking clouds away once they crossed out of the forest’s airspace. Wait, buck, wait, buck, wait, buck…it would be monotonous, boring, soul-draining, and that was saying something since Raindrops loved the rain, as exemplified by her cutie mark of three falling water droplets. Still, she supposed not every storm could be laden with cumulonimbi. “Okay,” Rainbow Dash said after a moment. “Show of hooves: who wants to just let this storm do its thing?” Raindrops looked up at that, blinking several times and ears perked up. Everypony else seemed surprised as well. “Huh?” Blue Skies asked. “Well, look,” Rainbow Dash said, turning the weather schedule for the next month around. “We were planning on doing a big storm next week, right? Why don’t we just let this storm do its thing and then have next week’s storm be smaller? I don’t think it’s worth the effort of breaking this one up.” “I dunno, boss,” Sunlight said, fidgeting. “A lot of ponies might have had plans today.” “Yeah, and some of those ponies were named Rainbow Dash,” the weather patrol leader countered. “I dunno about you guys, but I don’t want to spend the next five or six hours hovering and bucking clouds that aren’t going to do anything but get a few ponies a little wet.” “Plus it’ll make things easier down the line,” Cloud Kicker observed. “And the entire reason we have the storm scheduled next week is because the Farmer’s Union asked for more rain since the last few weeks have been too hot. Next Tuesday was the only day we could get the pony power to build up a storm that was big enough, but if we just let this thing roll over…” “This isn’t just so that you can sleep the day away, is it?” Thunderlane asked Rainbow Dash. She shook her head. “I’d never leave Ponyville hangin’!” she declared, though Raindrops knew from experience that this was not entirely true. “Look, like I said, show of hooves. It’s a vote, okay? Who wants to spend their day bucking away at some clouds just ‘cause a little praecipitatio that we need anyway is showing up early?” Sunlight, Thunderlane, and Blue Skies all raised their hooves. “Okay,” Rainbow Dash added, “and the ponies who actually want to do something with their day?” She, Cloud Kicker, and Airheart raised their own hooves. Sunlight looked to Airheart like she was some kind of traitor, though the pink mare’s only response was a bright grin. “Hey, I have a date tonight,” she said. “Three against three?” Blue Skies asked, then looked to Raindrops. “Hey, you didn’t vote.” “Yeah, no abstaining,” Rainbow Dash added. “’Specially not since we’ve got a tie otherwise.” Raindrops considered for a few moments, before standing on the cloud and grinning brightly, something which startled everypony else – Raindrops was not the most emotive of ponies normally, or at least didn’t show positive emotion much. “A little rain never hurt anypony,” she observed. Thunderlane rolled his eyes. “Yeah, big surprise; it’d rain every day if you were in charge.” Raindrops opened her mouth to object, then thought a moment before closing it and nodding fervently. The three water droplets on her flank weren’t for nothing, after all. A cutie mark wasn’t simply what you were good at, it was what made a pony happy. And Raindrops loved the rain. The smell of it, the feel of it running through her coat and along her primaries, the weight of it in her mane, the sound it made – oh the sounds it made as is struck wood or glass or stone or leaves. Running up in puddles, turning boring dirt into wet muck… And this. This was a special treat – an uncontrolled storm. A rain shower that nopony was going to try and direct or contain or shape. It was simply going to run its course, go where it willed, wet what it wanted…maybe one rain shower in a decade was allowed such freedom. And Raindrops intended to enjoy every moment of it. My little pony, My little pony Ahh ahh ahh ahhh... My little pony Friendship never meant that much to me My little pony But you're all here and now I can see Stormy weather; Lots to share A musical bond; With love and care Teaching laughter; It's an easy feat, And magic makes it all complete! You have my little ponies How'd I ever make so many true friends? As Raindrops flew home a few hours later, after having finished up the rest of her normal patrol shift, she kept glancing behind her, looking at the Everfree storm to make sure that it was still there, still coming. And it was, drifting east from the Everfree Forest and towards Ponyville in a slow, inexorable way. It wouldn’t be long now – fifteen minutes at most, and then the first drops of rain would begin to fall. Already, she could feel the air around her wings and hooves moistening, clamming up as if in anticipation as the storm pushed the air ahead of it forward, heralding its arrival. She was – she was giddy with anticipation. There was absolutely nothing that could ruin her good mood right now, not with a wild, free rainstorm on its way. Some things could come close, though. Like, for example, the sight of her little brother, Snails, sitting on the roof of her home. Raindrops blinked a few times as she landed on thatched roof herself, as quietly as possible behind him – Snails seemed to be focusing intensely on something. Leaning to the side slightly to get a better look, she saw that he was looking into an glass jar, the cover of which he had poked holes into. Inside the jar was a large insect, though one Raindrops recognized quickly as a harmless cicada. Snails’ special talent, which he had earned last year, seemed to relate to what Raindrops could only term as ‘creepy crawlies’ – he was certainly always interested in them, digging up larvae and examining them, spending hours staring at spiders spinning webs, drawing comparative pictures of the different patterns on the shells of snails, and so on. Of course, if he wanted to study a captured cicada, there were better places to do it than the roof, especially seeing as he didn’t have wings the way Raindrops or their parents did. There was a guard rail surrounding the roof, but that didn’t change that it was dangerous. “Hi, sis,” Snails said after a few seconds. Raindrops wasn’t surprised that her had heard her – he was fairly perceptive, and Raindrops was, to put it mildly, heavy-hooved. He looked back at her, a smile on his face. “Look at what I found!” Raindrops trotted along the roof to join her brother, looking in at the cicada. The insect inside was crawling around, looking for a way out, but its legs couldn’t find any purchase on the smooth glass interior of the jar. Snails had a small bug collection in his room of the house – a bug collection that was, fortunately or unfortunately, subsidized by their mother, Shutterbug, a photographer by profession but also an amateur entomologist who had always encouraged Snails’ love of all things creepy and crawly. The bugs were all kept alive and well-fed, and Snails had a tendency to release them after about a week or two, anyway, in order to make room for new bugs. “You gonna keep it?” she asked. Snails considered his sister’s question for a long while, before shaking his head. Even as he did, he took the jar in his mouth and opened it, turning it over and pouring out the cicada. It landed on its back, but quickly righted itself, turned over, and flew off, its gossamer wings buzzing rapidly as it did so. Raindrops and Snails watched it go, before she turned back to her little brother. “Okay, what’s wrong?” she asked. Snails sat up, not immediately answering as he scuffed a hoof on the thatch roof beneath him. “Today in school Silver Spoon called me dumb,” he said at length. Raindrops scowled. Her good mood wasn’t gone, now, but it was put on hold at that. “What did you do?” “I called her dumb too.” Raindrops suppressed the urge to compliment her brother on that. “You…should have gone to get your teacher, if she was bothering you,” she said. She felt like she was almost betraying her own foalhood when she said that – but then again, the fact that she had not been one to do that had caused her no end of grief back in Cloudsdale. Snails looked dejected. “Silver Spoon said that she wasn’t dumb because she didn’t have a sister who hit her in the head and made her dumb – ” “What?” Raindrops demanded, wings flaring. Good mood – gone now. Snails looked up at Raindrops’ exclamation. The pegasus retained enough presence of mind to not be focusing her glare on her little brother – instead, she was looking around Ponyville, trying to remember if she knew where Silver Spoon lived. “I can’t believe that she’d…that…she’s a…I’ve never hit you!” Raindrops had anger problems. She knew she had anger problems. She was also unusually strong for a pegasus – indeed, she was unusually strong by earth pony standards as well. These two in combination had not always ended well in the past. More than one random stone, or innocent tree, or other harmless, inanimate object, had broken under one of her hooves as she tried to physically work out her anger on something. And she hadn’t always been the best at keeping it in private, in the gym or Whitetail Wood, where nopony would see her rage. But she had only once struck a pony in anger, and that was years ago, back in Cloudsdale, when the pony in question had decided to spend a day tormenting her about her unusually slow, clumsy flying abilities – and to this day walked with a limp in his right hind leg. Raindrops hated herself for that. She always would. In an instant she had gone from being a clumsy flier in school with a few acquaintances – not even real friends – to being pegasus non grata, to be avoided at all costs lest she flip out again and cripple somepony again. Even switching schools hadn’t helped at all; her reputation had followed her. Only after Snails had been born – a unicorn, not a pegasus, and so incapable of living in Cloudsdale – and her family had moved to Ponyville, had she at last finally escaped what she had done. Snails was watching Raindrops closely. “I told Silver Spoon that,” he said, “but she just said that you hit me in the head so hard that I don’t remember, then I said that all you’ve ever given me was noogies, and she said that that was how I got brain-damaged.” Raindrops’ right eye twitched, and she had to struggle to remind herself that Silver Spoon was a little, spoiled rotten filly who, while probably deserving of her anger, did not deserve to have Raindrops burst in on her home and shout at her. “You are not brain damaged,” she insisted. “I am dumb, though…” “You’re…you take a little longer to figure things out,” Raindrops said. “That doesn’t make you dumb. A dumb pony wouldn’t know about thoraxes and…um, elly-tones…” “Elytron,” Snails said. “Um…elytra for more than one…” He smiled a little as he said that, though it dropped quickly. “But that doesn’t mean I’m not dumb…nopony cares about bugs other than mom and Snips, and mom just likes to take pictures of them, and Snips just likes to look at them…” Raindrops stared at her little brother. “You’re not dumb,” she insisted. “I promise you, Snails. You’re not. Silver Spoon is just trying to make you feel bad.” “Why?” “Because she’s a b…not a very nice pony,” Raindrops responded, catching herself before she could say a bad word around her foal-aged brother. “You see things a little differently, take a little longer, but that does not make you dumb. Okay?” Snails considered Raindrops’ encouragement for several moments before nodding slowly. Even as he did, Raindrops’ ears twitched, as she heard the first drops of praecipitatio – rain, in this case – begin to fall. On particular drop, a fairly large one, landed right on her snout, splashing her eyes a little. She smiled widely, looking to Snails. “It’s gonna rain,” she told him. “You better get back inside.” Snails nodded, not asking if Raindrops would be coming in as well – she never came in during the rain. Before heading downstairs through the trap door built into their home’s roof, though, he took a few steps forward and nuzzled Raindrops. “Thanks, sis,” he said. Raindrops couldn’t help but smile, as she used a hoof to squeeze him close. “No problem,” she assured him. Raindrops had been hoping to grab a quick bite to eat before the rain began, but her talk with Snails had taken up too much time. Not that she regretted it in the slightest, and besides, that would just make dinner, when she finally got around to it, all the more satisfying. She flew from her house, and from the center of Ponyville, for that matter, towards the fields that surrounded the (admittedly large) farming community. At a guess, when she at last settled down, on a rock in the middle of a wheat field, she was probably on the property of Sweet Apple Acres. The Apples made their fortune with their namesake product, of course, but they were wealthy enough, and savvy enough, to know better than to rely on a single crop. Then again, they were also wealthy enough to afford to move any rocks, no matter how big, that sat in the middle of their fields, so she supposed that the rock she had alighted upon was probably proof that this wasn’t an Apple family field. It didn’t much matter to Raindrops, though. It was quiet, it was out of the way, and there was nopony around to watch as she spread her wings wide, staring up at the sky as the thick, gray cumulus congesti began to float overhead in earnest, and burst open. One drop, then two. Three. Four. For a moment, Raindrops deluded herself into thinking that she could count all the drops that would fall on her – but then five and six and seven all touched down at nearly the same time, and eight, or maybe nine, splashed right into her eye, distracting her for a moment, and she lost count as the cumulus congesti simply burst open. Raindrops allowed herself a full, bright smile as the rain came falling down onto her, cupping her wings so that rain would soak her thoroughly. Even as most of the drops of water became lost in the general storm, she could feel a few trickling down her primaries, down the length of her wings, getting under her feathers. Her wings were angled in such a way that soon streams of water were flowing along them, getting under all her feathers before finally leaving her wings, flowing down her barrel and her flanks before joining in a sluice that was running down the rock. The rain flowed across her face, too, down along her snout and under her eyes, across her scalp and through her mane, or down under her jaw and along her throat and chest as she continued to stare up and just watch the water fall all around her. Her ears were perked, as she listened to the white noise all around her, the rain catching on sheaves of wheat, or hitting the dirt below, or the rock underneath her, or just her. She stood slowly, beating her wings a few times, sending the water off of them and in every direction, only to cup her wings and get them as soaked as possible, just to repeat the process again, and then a third time. On the fourth try, she instead angled her wings over her so that the rain would flow from her extended primaries down to her alulae, and then off of them and, in small but constant streams, into her open, waiting mouth. It probably looked utterly ridiculous, if anypony had seen her, and she was grateful that nopony could – she felt no need to have to explain anything she chose to do right now to somepony. The rain flowing across her feathers and her coat, soaking her skin concealed beneath both, felt like it was stripping away everything – her exasperation at her boss, her desire to find Silver Spoon and teach her a lesson in manners. Her concern for her brother was washed away, too, along with everything else. The rain didn’t distinguish between her loves and hates, her good side and bad sides. The runoff that flowed from her and onto the rock, gathering in puddles and soaking into the earth underneath Raindrops, was made from equal parts water, hopes, and fears. At length, it even took away the heat in her chest, at the back of her throat and the base of her skull, the tension in her muscles, always pulled taut, always ready to snap and spring and shout and shove and hurt… …the rain washed over her, and soon all that was left was just her. Just Raindrops, a young pegasus mare staring at the sky in wonder. Water could fall, would fall, inevitably found its way to the ground and the muck and the oceans…but it could rise, too. It could soar through the sky… She laughed. The laugh came from nowhere and returned just as quickly, but the smile that it brought with it remained. She shook her mane, sending water droplets flying everywhere, and looked to the rock beneath her. It’s top had a kind of bowl in it, a hollow where rain water was gathering. Raindrops put her hoof in it, swirled the water around, withdrew, then stomped, sending the water flying. She laughed again. She pranced in place, hooves landing on rock with no intention of breaking it, instead simply to hear the sound of her wet hooves striking wet stone, simply to see the water flow and splash as she did so. At length, she beat her wings, this time taking to the air. The rain water that was soaking her through didn’t seem to weigh her down at all as she flew. If anything, she felt lighter when soaked. Everything that had been weighing her down had flowed off of her and run into the earth. Sure, the water should have made her heavier, but compared to the burdens she normally carried… [“All my life had lacked elation “Nothing but exacerbation “Of my temper and frustration “‘Til I could just buck ‘em all,” “And I tried to be resilient, “Buckle down, stand up, and bear it, “But it tore apart my spirit, “Left me trapped within a squall.”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FH6o26Ldu0) The song came from the same place as her laugh, but it stuck around longer. Music was something that came naturally to many ponies at many points in their lives, but it had rarely visited Raindrops. Still, she was a pony, at the end of the day – and if now was the right time for music, she was going to indulge it. “And I tried to keep it all in “Never show the blazing rage I was in “If I hurt somepony when I didn’t mean to, “I didn’t know what I was gonna do,” “Then the rain would come pouring down “And wash away any lingering frown “Douse the fire in my heart that was tearing me apart “And it gave me the words to this song:” Raindrops soared through the sky, twisting, turning, sending rain in every direction as she flew. She laughed between verses as she flew upside down beneath the cumulus congesti, tapping her hooves against it. This would send water flowing out in great streams that soaked her thoroughly, which was exactly what she was hoping for. She didn’t just fly, though. As she soared, she spotted puddles, and would let herself fall from the sky and into them, sending water everywhere. Completely unaware of the world around her, Raindrops would roll over in the puddles, wings and legs flailing as she soaked herself completely. She would be covered in mud within moments, of course, but then she would take to the sky again, crash through some clouds and soak herself, getting the mud off of her and sending it back to the earth. It was glorious. “Though I’ve bungled all my bangles, “Left my life twisted and mangled, “The rain helps me to untangle “All the things that trouble me!” “Sure my temper’s always rising, “Sure they find me terrifying, “But the rain’s reenergizing “Lifts me up and sets me free!” “Hahahahaha!” Raindrops cried out in sheer jubilation as the song finished, performing an aileron roll as she soared through the praecipitatio-laden sky. She didn’t care that she was a slow flier; at the moment, it felt like she was going a million miles an hour. Up, down, left, right, forward and backwards, stomping in mud puddles, cleaning herself in clouds, just to fall back down and repeat the process over and over again. What the hay, she thought. Encore. “Though I’ve bungled all my bangles, “Left my life twisted and mangled, “The rain helps me to untangle “All the things that trouble me!” “Sure my temper’s always rising, “Sure they find me terrifying, “But the rain’s reenergizing “Lifts me up and…” Her song drifted off when she saw it: the puddle, the puddle to end all puddles. The ultimate puddle, which even from her height of five hundred feet, she could tell was perfect, the perfect blend of mud and water, the perfect depth, a nice grassy bottom…it looked like it was in somepony’s backyard, but Raindrops was sure that they wouldn’t mind if she went crashing down for a quick soak. She tucked her wings against her barrel and let herself fall to the ground. Four hundred feet…three hundred feet…the puddle was so enticing…two hundred feet…it was six inches deep…one hundred feet, fifty… Splash. Raindrops landed perfectly, on all four hooves, sending rain flying up in all directions, but she didn’t remain that way for long as she let herself fall onto her side, wings flapping as she splashed around in this puddle, mud soaking her, covering her in grit, or trying to, but water in the puddle would soak her through just was quickly. She covered herself in it, dunked her head in the puddle and swished her mane about, did the same with her tail, stood, and simply began prancing in place. I love rain, she thought. I love rain, I love rain, I love rain! "I love rain!" “What are you doing?” Raindrops froze at the voice. Glancing, she suddenly realized that she recognized this back yard – this house – and the blue-coated, silver-maned unicorn pony, levitating a cup of coffee in front her mouth, that the garden belonged to. Raindrops stared at Trixie Lulamoon. Trixie stared back, one eyebrow raised. ...you know what? I don't even care. It's raining. I'm soaked to the bone. I'm covered in mud. And I couldn't be happier right now. So I don't even care that Trixie just caught me splashing around like a little filly. I've seen her drunk. So that probably makes us even. And besides which - I really do think that, when I'm like this, when the rain has soaked through my coat and my feathers and down into my skin, and my bones, and my heart, that it leaves behind nothing but the real me. And how could I not want my friends to see that?
2. Makes it all CompleteHere’s a bit of free advice: never look back at your life and try to write down the names of all the friends you’ve had over the years. You’ll just depress yourself as you realize how many friends you once had, but no longer do, due to moving away from them, or them moving away from you, or just drifting apart…or getting into fights with them, the kinds of fights that end friendships. Why am I giving that advice? Because I did that recently – started just an hour ago, actually, since I couldn’t really bring myself to work seeing as Pokey is…well, I gave him a few days off, and hopefully he’ll calm down. Anyway, in my life I’ve had more than seventy ponies I’d call ‘friends.’ Seventy! I currently have five. I had six, but I don’t think Pokey’s really in that category anymore. Seven even, if you want to count Dinky, but she’s just a school foal, while I’m an adult, so I don’t think I can really count her without eyebrows raising. So…five. Out of seventy. But wait, it gets worse, because you can’t just write down the names on a piece of paper, you have to remember why you’re not friends with them anymore, or at least that’s what you’ll end up remembering. And yeah, I remember that Spring Heart just moved from Neigh Orleans to Trottingham, and Crater Twist and me just kind of stopped hanging out, and then there’s a whole slew of ponies I used to know in Neigh Orleans that I just lost touch with when I moved to Canterlot… …but then I remember ponies like Chocolate Tail, who got sick of hearing me go on about being Luna’s apprentice, and Ink Blot, who…got sick of hearing me go on about being Luna’s apprentice, and Cloud Dasher – who got sick of hearing me go on about being Luna’s apprentice, and Butter Truffle, who…hey, it’s not because I kept harping on about being Luna’s apprentice! No, I called her fat. I regretted it instantly – well, not instantly, but… …look, I regret it now, okay? I wish I hadn’t done it, but I did, and now she hates me. Rain Dancer? Drove her away. Brawny Heart? Drove him away. Daisy Meadow? Drove her away. Dream Treasure? Drove her away. Toodle Roo? Drove him away, though to be fair to me he was really annoying. Then there’s a whole load of ponies all at once in the end there: Amethyst Star, Bright Prism, Winter Wind, Dapple Flicker, Honey Sprinkles, Roller Crackle…I had a whole ton, but then I brought an ice palace down on top of all our heads. Melted it. Still not entirely clear on what happened, don’t think I ever will be, but it was the after-graduation party for Luna’s magic academy, and I don’t even know why I attended. And to be perfectly honest, none of them were really friends, though I think I was making headway… …well. There’s more, but it was really just a depressing list – a whole lot of failure. Except for the first five names I wrote down. Still, it doesn’t take a genius to notice a pattern with all the friends I’ve had. Yeah, some I just lost contact with, some moved away, and to be fair to me sometimes I was the one who cut things off. Once or twice. But overwhelmingly? The most common reason why I don’t know all these ponies anymore? Because I screwed up. Because I said something I shouldn’t have or did something I shouldn’t have done, sometimes one big thing, sometimes too many little things over the course of our friendships…and they all ended, and it was my fault. And the same thing will happen this time, too. It’s not something I want – Luna knows I don’t want it – but, I mean, looking at cold, hard numbers, looking at the list of seventy ponies I’ve known, I know it’s coming one of these days. Stupid pattern recognition. Trixie stared at the cup full of green liquid that sat on her kitchen counter as the rain continued to pour outside. In her mind’s eye, it stared back at her malevolently. Drink me, it seemed to say. Drink me instead of that swill. The truth will set you free. “You’re not the truth,” Trixie informed the cup, even as she took a sip from another cup, this one floating in her telekinetic grasp and containing nothing more offensive that coffee with lemon and a pinch of cinnamon. “Truth is a Scourge. The zebras knew what they were doing when they named you. You’re evil.” I’m not evil. I’m just honest. I just make you say what’s on your mind…whether you want to or not. It’s not my fault that what’s on your mind isn’t the kind of thing that ponies want to hear. Trixie grimaced. “Evil,” she insisted. It’s not my fault you think the way you do about Pokey Pierce. I just helped you get your true feeling out into the open. “Those are not my true feelings. That was stuff I said in panic when I realized just how out-of-control the effect was getting. Then Pokey came in and you made me start blabbering about what I thought about his horn obsession.” Truth is a Scourge was a potion that Trixie had pulled from a zebra spellbook some months back. She’d held off on brewing up a batch to practice on, though, having had her fill of the bizarre, ritual-based magic of the zebras on her first day of seriously practicing their magic, a long, bizarre day full of a considerable amount of difficulty and exhaustion. She had been meaning to try it sooner, but then a unicorn named Twilight Sparkle had come to Ponyville and…well, that was an eventful, surprisingly bear-filled night, once that Trixie was none too proud of due to how things had ended between her and Twilight, who had only been looking to further her understanding of magic. Instead, she was now a wanted criminal, and while most of the blame for that lay on Twilight’s shoulders, a not insignificant amount was on Trixie’s own. The only upside to it all had been that Twilight had left behind her wagon full of magical books and tomes, which Trixie had appropriated in order to expand her magical knowledge (as a large part of what had happened with Twilight could have been avoided had Trixie been a better sorceress). Trying to learn those spells had consumed most of the intervening time – when it hadn’t been consumed by her job as Representative of the Night Court to Ponyville, the machinations of her increasing number of Night Court rivals, marauding parasprites, the agents of the Tyrant Sun, the secrets of Andalantis, and, Trixie had to admit, her own desire to generally do as little work as possible. But, a few days ago, Trixie had found the directions and ingredients for Truth is a Scourge while cleaning out the desk in her office, and decided to at last give it a try. And technically, it was a resounding success. Pokey Pierce had not been amused, however, by the diarrhea of the mouth that Trixie had acquired while under the potion’s effects. Should he really be working for you if you’re going to think so little of him? “I don’t think little of him! And I hate you. Evil.” Trixie paused as she considered the cup. “And…and an inanimate object. You’re going down the sink now.” Trixie’s horn glowed brightly as she dumped the contents of the cup into the kitchen sink. No….! “Oh yes,” Trixie said, smiling brightly as she listened to the splatter of the truth is a scourge potion pouring down the drain, slowly, without any ability to save its evil self. After several moments, however, Trixie realized that the sound of the splashing sounds reaching her ears were far louder than they were supposed to be. She rolled her eyes as she looked up, pausing in pouring out Truth is a Scourge, expecting to see the rain having picked up – why there was rain today, she didn’t know, the weather schedule had called for a storm next week, and it was something she’d have to bring up next time she attended a town meeting – but, outside, the rain seemed to be coming down with no more intensity than it had been able to work up for the past hour. Nevertheless, she heard splashing, and – hoof-stomps? – outside, in her back yard. Curiosity getting the better of her, Trixie set down the evil potion – its cup still a little more than half-empty – and wandered over to her back door, opening it up telekinetically and bringing her coffee with her, about to take a sip when she was given something new for her mental list of ‘strangest things she had ever seen:’ Raindrops, Element of Honesty, weather pony with a severe anger problem who was more than a little intimidating to Trixie, stomping around in a six-inch deep puddle of water that had managed to form in Trixie’s backyard. The jasmine pegasus’ eyes were closed as she let herself fall over and wallowed in the water muck and grass, wings flapping and tossing water into the air, head shaking so that her mane would be totally soaked. Then just as suddenly, Raindrops was on her hooves again, bucking like a bronco a few times before simply prancing in place. “I love rain!” Raindrops called out at length. “What are you doing?” Trixie asked at nearly the same time, before she could stop herself. Raindrops froze at the sound of Trixie’s voice, eyes opening as she slowly turned, as though taking her surroundings in for the first time. Trixie stood stock still even as she did, wondering what kind of terror she may have just unleashed as Raindrops, soaking wet, covered in mud and loose grass, locked eyes with Trixie, her own eyes wide and a look of barely-contained anger on her… …no, wait, that wasn’t barely-contained anger at all. That was slight surprise that eroded into a kind of embarrassed, but happy, chuckle, as Raindrops rubbed a hoof behind her head. “Eh heh heh…” she laughed. “Hi, Trixie.” Trixie stared. “I’m, uh…sorry, didn’t know this was your backyard,” Raindrops continued, fluttering her wings slightly. “Um…well, I didn’t notice it was your backyard, is what I meant.” Trixie stared. “Um…Trixie?” Trixie’s eyes narrowed. Images of Raindrops flashed through her mind, the Raindrops she knew, the Raindrops who was her friend, the Raindrops she was terrified of inciting to anger. That Raindrops may have liked the rain, but there was a considerable difference between liking the rain, and splashing like a pig in mud while it was raining. Plus, she was a weather pony, and she hated unexpected changes to the weather routine – Trixie had vivid memories of the Longest Night and her bumbling attempts to either fix or exacerbate the potential weather problems on that night, not caring which she achieved. Raindrops had nearly murdered her. The real Raindrops wouldn’t be acting like this during an unscheduled storm. No, Trixie was certain that instead, she’d be up in the skies fighting it, or else chewing out or wailing on her boss, Rainbow Dash, in either case her anger elicited at this violation of schedule. Which meant only one thing. “Imposter!” “Wait, what?” The pegasus imposter asked, a look of fairly convincing confusion overcoming her face as Trixie’s coffee mug slipped from her grasp and hit the floor of Trixie’s kitchen, its contents flying everywhere, though thankfully the mug itself didn’t break. Trixie didn’t let the imposter’s convincing act dissuade her as she wove magic, determined to take out this imposter – Night Court spy? Zizanie or Twilight Sparkle, back for revenge? She wasn’t sure yet – as quickly as possible. First, she wove a glamor over her own eyes that would prevent all light from reaching them – rendering her blind, yes, but also rendering her immune to the spell she cast simultaneously, a painfully bright flash from her horn. She heard the imposter Raindrops cry out in pain as light as bright as a magnesium flare went off only a few feet from her face. Trixie dropped the glamor over her eyes, and saw the imposter stumbling. Her quarry distracted, she reached out telekinetically, wrapping her aura around the pegasus – if she really was a pegasus – and pulling her inside, keeping her suspended in the air over her kitchen. The imposter was rubbing her eyes with her coronets as she did. “Argh! Trixie! Put me down!” “No!” Trixie exclaimed, as her horn glowed. She turned herself invisible, and at the same time created an illusory double a few feet away. As an extra precaution, she herself also moved from her original spot, more magic around her hooves to hide the sound of her hoof-steps. “I don’t know who you are,” she said, a fourth spell taking her words and projecting them from the illusory double she had created, “and you’ve admittedly managed a very good disguise – actual shape-shift, I’m guessing? – but you’ve got Raindrops’ personality completely wrong!” “Trixie – ” “Amateurish mistake, really,” Trixie pressed on. By now, the imposter’s eyes were open, and she was glaring at the illusion of Trixie, or trying to, though she was still recovering from the flash of light that Trixie had produced. “So! Are you Zizanie?” one of Trixie’s hooves involuntarily went to her horn at that, as she vividly recalled that the spymaster and infiltrator had somehow been able to make Trixie’s horn disappear for several long, agonizing seconds, utterly robbing Trixie of her magic. “Trixie!” “Your little horn-disappearing trick won’t work this time, Zizanie!” Trixie continued, as she made her illusion jab a hoof at Raindrops. “You’re not just being held up by telekinesis. You’re in a bubble of anti-magic!” “I’m not Zizanie!” “Ha!” Trixie laughed. “A likely story. What have you done with the real Raindrops?” “I am Raindrops!” “No, you’re not!” Trixie exclaimed. “The real Raindrops wouldn’t be wallowing in mud during an unscheduled rainstorm! She’d be beating up Rainbow Dash or else flying around and breaking apart the clouds to vent some frustration! She’s a giant ball of anger and hate!” The imposter paused at that, staring at the illusion of Trixie, unmoving and mouth hanging open for several moments, before a gradual shift overcame her features – nothing changed, per se, but her muscles tensed a little, her neck drooped slightly, her look of worry and concern fell into a more neutral position, albeit one that was obviously held at a neutral position, at great personal effort. Trixie blinked at the change. “Um, wow,” she said. “Uh…yeah, like I said, good disguise. Body language, counts for a lot. That’s how Raindrops is.” The imposter closed her eyes. “I am Raindrops,” she said again. Her voice had dropped a few octaves as well, and her words came out somewhat more haltingly, like she was biting back every syllable – once more, just like the real Raindrops, most of the time, when she wasn’t breaking apart cobblestone streets with her bare, unshod hooves. Apparently this imposter was quite good once she got ‘in the zone,’ as it were. “What’s it going to take to prove it?” Trixie tapped a hoof to her mouth for a moment, then smiled when she spotted the still-half-empty cup of Truth is a Scourge. Slowly, she set the imposter Raindrops on the floor, and had her illusion point at the cup even as she released Raindrops from her grip. “That is a truth potion!” she said. “Once you drink it, all your secrets will – hey, wait!” The imposter had, without hesitating after hearing the words "truth potion," gone over to the cup and drank the entire concoction in a single swig. She afterwards looked to Trixie. “How long ‘til it kicks in?” she asked. Trixie blinked. “Um…n-not until I activate it, I modified the spell so that I can ‘switch it on,’” she said, a sinking feeling in her stomach. Was this, after all, the real Raindrops? No! Impossible! It was far more likely that this imposter had taken some kind of precaution against truth potions. Or so she thought. Given how very rare zebra magic was in Equestria, she doubted if a single pony other than Princess Luna had a way to counter Truth is a Scourge. “So?” The imposter demanded. “Activate it.” Trixie blinked a few times, then sent a burst of magic – just a tiny flick, really – towards Raindrops. “I am Raindrops – ” Trixie flinched. “ – and it’s raining outside that’s why I was in such a good mood – ” Trixie supposed that made a degree of sense. “ – I’m always in a good mood when it rains oh except for when somepony I thought was my friend accuses me of being an imposter and decides to blind me and make me drink this stupid truth potion why can’t I stop talking – ” “That’s how the potion works,” Trixie said. Raindrops continued without slowing down, glaring at the illusion of Trixie. Trixie grimaced, dispelling the illusion and making herself visible again. Raindrops seemed hardly surprised as she turned to look at the real Trixie, still speaking. “ – I don’t need this right now Trixie my brother was tormented by Silver Spoon who is a little brat and is so lucky she’s just a filly or else I would tear out her throat with my teeth and – ” Raindrops’ eyes widened at that, and her hooves shot up to her mouth, which kept working in spite of the action. “ – I didn't want to say that I'd never do it even though that's how I feel Trixie if I’m stuck like this the way Lyra was stuck as a bear I swear to Luna I will – ” “No!” Trixie exclaimed, even as she sent a magical flick towards Raindrops again. At once, the pegasus’ words stopped pouring from her mouth. Trixie stared a few moments at Raindrops, eyes wide, as Raindrops glared at Trixie. The silence between the two stretched…and stretched…and stretched… Raindrops opened her mouth. “I’m sorry!” Trixie exclaimed, trying at once to canter backwards and raise her forelegs to ward off the blow she knew was coming, even as she tried to shrink back into herself. The result sent her tumbling head over hooves, and when she righted herself she continued to stumble backwards, and found herself against a wall. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I didn’t – I thought – I’m sorry!” The expected blows didn’t start falling. Slowly, Trixie opened one eye, and saw Raindrops still staring at her, though her expression had changed, becoming a mixture of sadness and resignation, an almost familiar expression, in fact – one Trixie had, herself, worn on far too many occasions in the past. She did have one raised foreleg, but it was hanging almost limp in the air – a pony reaching out to another, not trying to hit one. And – and were those – were those tears? No. Impossible. Raindrops didn’t cry. It was just rain water in the pegasus’ eyes. “Are…” Raindrops said with surprising softness, lowering her hoof slowly. “Are you afraid of me?” “N-no!” Trixie answered quickly. Just as quickly, she continued. “Just…just, you’re a little, um, touchy, and – ” “And a giant ball of anger and hate,” Raindrops interrupted. She stepped backwards in what could only be described as horror. “You’re terrified of me!” “No! You’re a great friend! R-remember how we dealt with that griffin? Hilda or whatever her name was? Or that ursa minor that Twilight Sparkle brought into town! Ha! That was fun, well not the almost dying part, but we didn’t die so in hindsight it was fun and we had fun together as friends…” “That’s not exactly friend activity, Trixie,” Raindrops countered, brow furrowing. “That’s…that’s just stuff you get the village strong pony for.” She looked away from Trixie, wings somehow managing to sag lower. “You’re afraid of me. You hate me.” Trixie had a problem of shifting her weight from one hoof to the next a lot when caught in the act of something; a moment previously she had been doing it so much that she could have served as a decent drink mixer if somepony had balanced a glass on her back. However, at Raindrops’ conclusion of the unicorn’s feelings towards her, however, she froze. “I…I don’t hate you!” she exclaimed. Raindrops didn’t seem to believe her. “It’s alright, Trixie,” she said, letting out a dull, emotionless laugh. “I’m used to it. Everypony’s afraid of me. Everypony walks on eggshells around me. I know it.” She sighed, hanging her head as she turned around. “I’ll go – ” “Wait – no – ” Trixie said, wondering how Raindrops had somehow managed to turn into a mirror image of her own insecurities – yes, she had them, she knew she had them. Gathering her courage, her horn glowed, and she telekinetically grabbed a hold of Raindrops’ tail, preventing the pegasus from leaving. She turned around at that, looking to Trixie. Trixie paused, not sure exactly how to proceed from here. “I do not hate you,” she stated. “I mean…okay. Yes. You’re terrifying when you get mad, and…and I’d just called you an imposter and so I thought that you were about to hit me a whole lot! And you know what? I deserve it! I made a mistake and screwed up and so I want you to hit me ‘cause I deserve it!” She galloped over to Raindrops, flinching a little when she got close, but then holding her ground. “Come on. I deserve it for what I did! Just like during the Eventime!” Raindrops stared. “Friends don’t hit each other,” she said. “Sure they do!” “Not like this, Trixie.” Raindrops sat back on her haunches, staring at the unicorn. “Friends aren’t afraid of each other.” She looked down, and Trixie somehow knew what she was thinking: she was remembering back during the Longest Night, when Trixie had (theoretically) tried to help a bad situation with the weather patrol, and Raindrops had all but threatened to kill her. She was remembering how, when Raindrops had gone to Trixie over what Rainbow Dash and the griffin Gildra (or whatever), Trixie’s first assumption had been that Raindrops was there to hurt her for something. She was remembering how, when Trixie had insulted and goaded Twilight Sparkle into making a fool of herself in front of all of Ponyville for no real reason, Raindrops had socked her in the jaw, hard. “N-no!” Trixie exclaimed, interrupting Raindrops’ train of thought. “Those were – I deserved the Longest Night and the Eventime, I really did, and let’s face it, I’ve never been a very good friend so I deserved it when you came to my office after what Gilta had done and I thought – ” Raindrops frowned. “I’d forgotten about that…” she intoned. Trixie’s eyes widened. “No! I can’t go down to just four!” she exclaimed. Raindrops looked up at that, puzzled. “What?” Trixie didn’t see it. She’d rushed past Raindrops, towards her office, where she kept all the magical books she’d taken from Twilight’s abandoned wagons and began scanning the titles, looking for the one with the proper spell. She found it in a few moments, and tore it from the shelf telekinetically, opening the pages and beginning to pour through it, looking for the spell she’d seen, the one she needed to fix everything. Something about memory, and…she was awful at learning spells from books, was far better at watching spells being cast and then duplicating them, but this was an emergency. She wasn’t going to screw up another friendship. Not again. Raindrops, probably out of morbid curiosity more than anything, had followed Trixie to her office, watching as Trixie refreshed the spell in her mind, how to cast it, what it entailed, the motions, the movements of magic. In her current state, Trixie was taking in all the directions without fully stopping to realize exactly what the spell entailed. “Trixie?” Raindrops asked. “What are you doing? What do you mean, go down to four?” Trixie snapped the book shut, staring at Raindrops with wide eyes, horn glowing brightly. “I’ll show you!” she exclaimed, dashing forwards. The jasmine-coated pegasus’ wings flared in surprise, and she began to canter backwards, but by then Trixie had reached her, grabbed her head with her front hooves, leaned in, and – – and Trixie and Raindrops were in the ruined Palace of the Royal Pony Sisters. It was months ago, when Corona had returned, when she had tried to kill them, when one by one Cheerilee, and Lyra, and Carrot Top and Ditzy Doo and, yes, Raindrops, had claimed their respective Elements of Harmony. Corona was lashing out at them with fire and magic, but it was no use, the Elements protected them. Only Trixie hadn’t claimed hers yet, but she was about to, she was surrounded on all sides by her friends, waiting for her to make the connections, to realize that the sixth, forgotten Element of Magic was powered by the bonds of friendship that they had forged. Raindrops looked to Trixie. “And…well, your heart was in the right place with the weather-for-hire team,” Raindrops admitted. “So…yeah. Friends?” “Friends,” the other four ponies agreed. Trixie’s eyes were wide. “Fr – ” Raindrops pushed Trixie away from her, eyes wide and sputtering as she ran one hoof across her mouth. “You kissed me!” she exclaimed. Trixie had stumbled slightly from Raindrops’ push, but she kept her balance easily enough as she stared at the pegasus. “That’s how the spell works!” she exclaimed. “It’s…well, the book kind of goes on a bit about magical connections and forming a conduit and other stuff I don’t really get, but that’s how the spell works!” She paused. “And you interrupted it before the good part!” Exactly what Trixie had said hit Raindrops first, and Trixie a moment later. Both ponies felt their faces beginning to redden, and looked away from each other awkwardly. “Um,” Trixie said. “That…that came out wrong.” “Yes,” Raindrops agreed wholeheartedly. Trixie shifted around a little. “It’s a memory-transfer spell,” Trixie said softly. “It sort of copies the memories in my mind and gives them to you. You still know they aren’t yours, but it lets you see things from my perspective.” She looked to Raindrops. “That was my memory of us against Corona. When I earned the Element of Magic. When we beat an alicorn, because we were friends.” Raindrops stared at Trixie. “That…that was then,” Raindrops said. “But you’re terrified of me now – ” “I’m afraid of angry you!” Trixie interrupted. “Who in their right mind wouldn’t be? But I’m the mare who assumed that’s all there was, I’m the mare who saw you happy and assumed that you must have been an imposter. I’m the bad pony here! I’m the horrible friend!” Raindrops blinked. “You’re not a horrible friend.” “Yes I am!” Trixie exclaimed, stamping her fore hooves a few times. “If I was a good friend then I wouldn’t have only five!” “How many do you need?” “I don’t know! I’ve had seventy – ” “You kept score?” “No! …sort of!” Trixie continued to shift and move in place, looking at the ground. “I…I went back and counted recently, all the friends I’ve ever had, and there’s been seventy. Some of them, we just drifted apart, some of them were friends back in Neigh Orleans but then I moved away and we stopped talking…but most of them, most of them I drove away. Because I’m a horrible friend. I’m a horrible pony.” Raindrops and Trixie looked to each other, and silence stretched between the two again. At length, Raindrops broke it. “That memory spell,” Raindrops said. “Does it go both ways? Could you use it to see things from my perspective?” Trixie blinked a few times as she thought. “Um…yes?” she said. “You’d just have to focus on the memories you’d want me to see…” At that, Raindrops closed the distance between the two of them. “Okay,” she said, leaning forward, closing her eyes. “Do that.” Trixie blinked. “Just…kiss you?” she asked, leaning away a little. Raindrops opened one eye. “You were fine with it before.” Trixie supposed she had a point. It wasn’t much different than actors on a stage, really. Sighing slightly, horn glowing, she leaned in – The ruined palace in the Everfree again, Corona railing and lashing out again, but this time Trixie was looking at herself, seeing things through the eyes of a pegasus who had shards of glowing orange rocks – the former vessel for the Element of Honesty – orbiting her neck. More than just looking – she was feeling everything that Raindrops felt. Raindrops was afraid, of course. Corona was the Tyrant Sun, and surely even the Elements of Harmony would eventually give way to her raw power, her destructive rage. Raindrops was angry, too, angry at the situation, angry at Zecora the zebra for betraying them to Corona. And she was determined – despite her fear, despite her anger, she was going to stand up for Equestria, stand up to the Tyrant Sun, and send the mad alicorn back into the heart of the sun, where she belonged. But those emotions gave way when Raindrops realized that Trixie hadn’t claimed her Element yet. Raindrops, herself, had chosen Honesty – been chosen by Honesty – both, neither, at the same time. She was Honesty, in some metaphysical sense that she couldn’t explain. But Trixie was having trouble, not claiming her Element, but in even believing that she should have one in the first place. Didn’t the filly have basic pattern recognition? Going beyond everything the six of them had fought and suffered through on the way to the Elements – the sirens, the poison joke, the dragon attack – what made her think that she didn’t deserve to stand beside them, that she wasn’t supposed to be there? “You’re not my friends,” she pointed out to them. “You all hate me.” Cheerilee laughed. “Trixie, we don’t hate you. So you can be a jerk. So what? So can everypony. But we wouldn’t even be here without you.” “You made my muffin smile,” Dinky Doo pointed out. “That makes you a friend in my book.” “You also walked through poison joke for me,” Lyra pointed out. “You helped my farm,” Carrot Top added. “And…well, your heart was in the right place with the weather-for-hire team,” Raindrops admitted. She had been hard on Trixie, she knew, harder than she should have been. Angry over what really amounted to nothing. And if there was any time to extend an olive branch, it was now. “So…yeah. Friends?” “Friends,” the other four ponies agreed. Trixie’s eyes were wide. “Friends,” she echoed softly. Raindrops pulled away from Trixie again, shoving her away once more when she felt something in her mouth that was emphatically not supposed to be there. “Tongue?” She demanded. “Tongue? Why was there tongue?” “That’s what the spell says,” Trixie objected. “That’s a lie! There wasn’t tongue the first time!” “That’s because you interrupted it before we could reach the good part!” Trixie’s horn glowed as she levitated the spellbook over to Raindrops, holding it up. Raindrops blushed. This particular page outlined – in the most scientific, arcane way possible – not only the way the kiss that began the spell was supposed to be performed, but even exactly when during the spell’s course to turn the kiss into a Prench one, and exactly how much tongue was required. It also came with a helpful illustration. “What are you doing?” Raindrops and Trixie both jumped at the voice, from behind Raindrops, who instinctively dove forward, wings spreading in panic, even as Trixie’s own unicorn instincts took over and she instead planted herself firmly on the ground, horn glowing. The result was Raindrops crashing into Trixie, and the two ponies landed on the ground in a pile of legs and wings. The two began untangling themselves from each other, but froze – in a somewhat compromising position – when they saw the source of the voice. Cheerilee stared at Trixie and Raindrops. Raindrops and Trixie stared at Cheerilee. All three sets of eyes turned to the fallen book, on the floor of Trixie’s office, which had helpfully elected to remain open to the intricately detailed picture of two ponies in the middle of a complex act of arcane power that just happened to involve a kiss. With tongue. “Um,” Trixie said. Okay. The good news? Raindrops, I’m pretty sure, doesn’t hate me. And, I’ve learned that she’s not all anger. In hindsight, I should have known that, and it was wrong of me to think of her as just some one-note pony. I still have all five of my friends. I’m not going to lose them, like I’ve lost all the others. Screw the pattern. Forget the cold, hard facts. I’m not losing any of them. The bad news? I’m going to have an interesting time explaining to Cheerilee what she just walked in on. Hopefully she’s reasonable.
