Pine Applesby Starkeeper_PonyficChaptersThe RiftSolar ReformationInterlude: Time Loops, Served Hot and Fresh at Chaos Inc.Family FoundThe RiftDipper realized how his words had sounded and he winced. “Mabel, wait! I didn’t mean it... like... that...” He trailed off, voice filled with regret. He sighed and grabbed the backpack sitting by the door, intending to take the rift down to Ford, but then noticed a scrap of construction paper. “...What?” He quickly opened the pack and realized that Mabel had taken his on accident. He grimaced and darted after. “Mabel, hold on!” he called out as he barreled down the path through the forest. If the rift cracked in her backpack, or she didn’t realize what it was and dropped it, or if Bill managed to trick Mabel into letting him get it... Dipper shuddered at imagining the kind of nightmares Weirdmageddon could unleash, only fueling his adrenaline as he pushed his legs to their absolute limit trying to get to Mabel in time. Mabel hugged her knees to her chest and sighed, wiping the tears out of her eyes. “Ugh, only party chocolate can cheer me up now,” she lamented, blowing her nose into her sweater before opening her pack to look for it. “...wait, nerd books? Chewed up pens?” She groaned as she realized what happened. “I must’ve grabbed Dipper’s pack.” A moment passed as she watched the sunset fall. She quietly murmured, “I just wish summer could last forever...” “I-I could help with that!” a familiar voice piped up. Mabel shoved part of her sweater over her head. “No thanks. Sweatertown isn’t accepting any incoming calls.” “M-M-M-Mabel, it’s me!” the voice continued. Mabel sighed and tried to place the voice. “The... time travel guy?” Blendin’s camouflage disappeared as he fiddled with his watch. “Y-Yep! You don’t want summer to end, d-did I hear that r-right?” he asked. “...Yeah, why are you asking?” Mabel wondered. “Mabel!” Dipper’s voice suddenly called. “There you are!” “Dipper?” Mabel moaned. “Why are you here?” Dipper walked into the clearing, Mabel’s pack in hand, and explained, “Realized you got my bag by accident. There’s something in mine that we really wouldn’t want to crack- wait, Blendin? What are you doing here?” Blendin froze. “I-I-I was just gonna help M-Mabel have summer f-forever if she w-wanted!” he hastily explained, but... something about his voice struck the Pines twins as odd. Dipper swapped packs with Mabel and clutched his pack protectively. “...That feels... out of character for you.” “H-Hey, you could d-do the s-same! I just n-need a little g-gizmo from you uncle a-a-and then I’ll be able to make a t-time bubble around Gravity F-F-Falls!” Blendin stammered, his voice growing further away from Blendin’s normal voice. Dipper’s eyes narrowed. “Blendin, take off your goggles.” “Dipper?” Mabel murmured. Blendin cackled. “Oh, we’ve got a real smart guy here!” he replied viciously, his voice fully transitioning to a horribly familiar one. “Bill!” the twins cried in unison. “Give me the little rift, Pine Tree!” Blendin-Bill demanded. “O-Or what!?” Dipper retorted. “Dipper, there you are! I was wondering what was taking so long!” Ford suddenly called, rushing to join them. “Great-Uncle Ford, be careful!” Dipper warned, barely dodging Blendin-Bill’s leap. “Bill’s possessing him!” The next few seconds were blurry and fragmented. Simultaneously, Mabel leapt beside Dipper to keep Blendin-Bill away, Blendin-Bill leapt forward to snatch at Dipper’s bag, and Ford fired a shot at Bill-Blendin to knock him away from the kids. Ford’s expression shifted from determination to terror as interdimensional energy spilled from Dipper’s pack and encased Bill-Blendin, Dipper, and Mabel. “Kids!” he cried, voice filled with terror. And then, in a blaze, they were gone. Blendin’s unconscious body remained, but Dipper and Mabel were just gone. Ford dropped to his knees. “Not like this,” he whispered. “This wasn’t how stopping Weirdmageddon was supposed to happen... Kids, please... be safe...” The wind breathed around Stanford Pines as his tears fell. Bright Macintosh was perhaps not a simple pony, but he had a very straightforward view of life and the world around him. As such, when the apple trees started screaming around him he was startled, to say the least. Then a ripple of starry darkness split the air in front of him and two creatures were launched out. Bright Mac examined their unconscious bodies. They weren’t ponies, certainly, and didn’t match any creature he’d ever heard of. As far as he could tell, they were infants, potentially twins, but any chance to examine them further was denied when a voice Bright Mac could only describe as demonic cackled. “Oh, man, that was clever, you two!” the voice admitted. Within the ripple, a triangular shadow began to grow. Bright Mac stood his ground, pulling the creatures behind him protectively. “Seriously, Pine Tree, absorbing the rift’s interdimensional energy onto yourself? That’s a hilariously insane move, props! Good thing Shooting Star was there to take some of the energy load, or you probably wouldn’t have survived! Even if you did, you'd have been stripped of your little fleshbag of a physical body.” Chills ran down Bright Mac’s back as he braced himself. He swore to himself- no matter who or what this thing was, he would not allow it to harm the two behind him. “Oh, man, isn’t this my old buddy’s world? Hahaha, I can’t wait to see the look on his face when I turn it into my playground! This’ll be great!” the voice finished as the triangle stopped growing larger. “Ah-Ah don’t think so,” Bright Mac growled. The voice snickered and a glowing white eye opened. “Aw, look at the little Applebutt, trying to act all big and strong!”the voice mocked. “Give me those kids and I’ll spare your li-” Before the voice could finish its threat, six beams of light colored in silver, pale lavender, light pink, burnt orange, light cyan, and turquoise, blasted the dark ripple and the voice shrieked in pain. “GAHHH!” the voice complained. “WHY, YOU-” The lights returned again and Bright Mac risked a glance backward to check where they were coming from, and saw them emerging from somewhere deep within the Everfree Forest by his estimate. With one last burst, the ripple was burned away and the voice screamed in agony before fading altogether. Bright Mac took several deep breaths to calm himself before lifting the creatures onto his back and carefully making his way home. He was terrifyingly unsure how Buttercup or Granny Smith were going to take the situation. Author's Note I'm not perfectly happy with this chapter, if only because Bill Cipher's entrance and (I promise temporary) defeat feels a little awkward, but I said I'd publish this today and don't feel like reworking it. In other news, I put together a group for this series now! So far it's got one forum post where you can submit ideas for more pairings and that's about it. Solar ReformationPrincess Celestia looked out from Canterlot at the location that Harmony’s light had found itself shining at sunset and sighed. Her students needed her... but she couldn’t afford to ignore Harmony itself taking action of its own accord. She made up her mind and sent for the captain of the guard, a valiant pegasus mare by the name of Storm Shield, and explained, “There was an unexpected burst of Harmony magic at sunset near Ponyville. I can’t simply ignore it, so I’ll have to leave my students until I can ascertain the source.” “Of course, Princess, I’ll try to answer any questions they may have and note down the ones I can’t answer for you,” Storm Shield promised. “I’ll do the same for any nobles that come to complain.” “Thank you,” Celestia replied gratefully before she activated a teleport, golden light streaming from her previous location. The world around her blurred back into shape as she arrived in Sweet Apple Acres. A quick magical scan of the surrounding area revealed far more than she ever would have guessed. Within the apple trees lay a highly concentrated source of interdimensional energy, lingering concentrations of Harmony magic, and enough chaos energy to make Celestia feel sick. She shuddered at the possibilities of what the chaos energy could have brought before focusing the spell further to make absolutely sure that the source of the chaos energy wasn’t loose in Equestria. Her spell didn’t find any chaos energy close enough to exist within her field other than Discord’s statue, but it did find traces of the interdimensional energy leading toward the house. She sighed and made her way to the house, knocking on the door. A red Earth Pony colt with an orange mane came up to the door and opened it. A startled look crossed his face. “Uh... Ma? Princess Celestia’s here...” he called. An orange earth pony mare hurried to meet Celestia. “Um, howdy, Your Highness!” she quickly said. “Please, come in if you need to.” Celestia nodded. “Yes, I’m just here about something that happened near here around sunset.” The mare and the colt shared a look of understanding. “Ah, I see,” the mare sighed. “My husband was just telling us about what happened, and... yes, I understand. We’re all in the living room.” The mare led Celestia through the simply decorated hallways into a cozy living room where two fillies, an elderly mare, and a stallion sat, all of them earth ponies. Curled up together on the couch laid two figures that took Celestia a moment to identify. Humans. Infants, and twins by the look of them. Celestia made eye contact with the stallion when he finished bowing and said as calmly as she could manage, “Your wife said you were explaining what happened.” “Yes, Your Highness,” the stallion confirmed. “I’ll... try to explain it as best I can but I’m not entirely sure what happened.” “Would ye like a cup o’ cider, Yer Highness?” the elderly mare asked. Now that she was looking more closely she realized she’d met this mare, Granny Smith, before, though it had been a fair amount of time ago. “Alicorns and alcohol mix very poorly,” Celestia explained teasingly. “We got some nonalcoholic,” Granny Smith rejoined. “Uh, somewhere.” “Perhaps another time,” Celestia apologized. “Yes, the story,” the stallion nodded. “Alright, so... at sunset, I was just checkin’ up on the fields for the night when... I don’t rightly know how to explain it other than that... the trees just started screamin’ in some horrible mixture of terror ‘n’ pain.” “That’s... fairly common around malevolent sources of chaos energy or chaos magic,” Celestia murmured. “Flora reacting, I mean.” The stallion shrugged. “Couldn’t say either way. Eventually the air in front o’ me sorta rippled and turned like a night sky before those two-” the stallion pointed at the sleeping humans “- came flyin’ out of the ripple.” “Then what happened?” Celestia murmured, gazing at the humans worriedly. The stallion shuddered. “What happened next... this triangle appeared in the rift and a horrible voice- at this point I feel like I can assume it was the triangle speakin’- said... something about ‘Pine Tree’ absorbing the... inter... interdimensional energy from a rift thing, and that this Pine Tree fella shoulda been glad ‘Shooting Star’ was there to ‘take some of the energy load,’ if I’m rememberin’ its words right.” Celestia shuddered. “I dunno what those two are, but... they look young, prob’ly Apple Bloom’s age. I couldn’t let em get hurt so... I moved to protect em, and then the triangle got zapped with six colors of light comin’ from the Everfree Forest before the ripple vanished. And then I brought those two here.” Celestia sighed as she took in all this information. “Alright, I have a general idea of what happened. Those lights were Harmony magic, and the fact that this... triangle creature was specifically targeted by it without an obvious wielder... it’s concerning.” “How much so?” the orange mare murmured. “It means that this creature is more powerful- or at least more dangerous- than even Discord,” Celestia stated flatly. Even the older of the two fillies looked terrified at the assertion. “And it was targeting these two younguns,” the stallion whispered. Celestia began to speak again, but hesitated. “...Everything in me is saying I should take them to Canterlot to be secured, but... I just can’t bring myself to do it...” “We’ll take care of ‘em, Your Highness,” the orange mare whispered. “I-If that’s alright with you and Bright Mac,” she added, glancing at her husband. Bright Mac nodded. “I promised myself I’d protect these two from that creature. I can allow myself to revise the meaning to extend for as long as I’m able to.” Celestia paused. “Are you certain?” “I wouldn’t feel right about doin’ otherwise,” Bright Mac insisted. Celestia turned to the humans. “I can at least do something for them,” she whispered, and her horn lit up in a work of magic. The humans were encased in magic and light before collapsing back to their previous position, but in their place were two unicorn foals. One was a navy blue colt with a short brown mane and tail and the other was a light magenta with a longer brown mane and tail. Bright Mac’s eyes widened. Celestia chuckled. “If you’re going to be taking care of them I imagine this will ward off some of the awkward questions from other ponies,” she explained. “Plus it’ll give them a chance to live at least somewhat normal lives... but, if you need anything, my court will always be open,” she promised. Bright Mac took off his hat and lowered his head in respect. “Thank you very kindly, Your Highness.” “Be careful,” Celestia warned. “Again, let me know as soon as you can if something happens.” She teleported back to Canterlot with a lot to think about. Bright Mac sighed deeply. “Well, this evening’s been eventful,” he finally joked. Granny Smith giggled and Buttercup just rolled her eyes. “So... guess the three o’ you’ve got two new siblings,” Buttercup said to Applejack, Big Mac, and the sleeping Apple Bloom. Big Mac smiled slightly and Applejack grinned. Apple Bloom made various baby noises in her sleep. “What, uh, what do we call ‘em?” Granny Smith asked. Bright Mac frowned. “Well... Those names the triangle thing said... Pine Tree an’ Shootin’ Star, they ain’t terribly strange for pony names. Even if...” Buttercup nodded. “Unless we can think of some better names, I like those.” “So, the colt’s Pine Tree and the filly’s Shootin’ Star?” Applejack asked. Bright Mac nodded and the Apples gathered around the foals. “Welcome to the family,” Big Mac whispered. Interlude: Time Loops, Served Hot and Fresh at Chaos Inc.Bill drifted through Equestria’s etheric fields grumpily. “Stupid horse magic, destroying my only good chance at a physical form,” he grumbled. “At least Pine Tree’s little stunt landed him and Shooting Star in this dimension so I’ll at least have some company that I like.” A very familiar voice called out to Bill. “Why, is that who I think it is?” it guffawed. If Bill had a mouth, he would’ve been grinning. “Discord, old buddy, old pal! It’s been WAY too long!” A translucent visage of Equestria’s Lord of Chaos appeared in front of Bill. “Good evening, old chum! What brings you to Equestria?” Bill groaned. “So, I was THIS CLOSE to finally getting my hands on the rift old Sixer made when his... grandson? Hold on a sec!” Bill’s body flashed with various images as he checked for the correct information. Discord chuckled. “Sorry, his great-nephew, not his grandson. Anyway, the kid figured out what I was doing and managed to keep it away long enough to shatter the thing onto himself and got himself and his sister sent over here. I was planning on getting my physical form in this dimension and then just heading back over to Earth to finish my plans for them, but...” Discord chuckled. “Harmony magic is statistically very annoying for chaos spirits like you and I, eh?” “Oh, is that why I haven’t heard from you much in the last millenium?” Bill guessed. Discord nodded. “Their ‘Elements of Harmony’ encased me in stone, although they think I was fully turned to stone,” Discord explained. “It’s kind of painful, honestly. No chance to stretch and even this doesn’t really help,” he complained. “Heroes, huh?” Bill lamented. “Worse!” Discord replied. “Magical Pony Princesses.” “Geez, you got a bad deal,” Bill chuckled. “And I should know!” He and Discord shared a hearty laugh. “So, did you need something from me?” Discord asked. “Heh, yeah, actually. I was wondering if you had enough power to get Earth into a time loop set to the beginning of the summer when those kids get back? That way I’ll be able to get summoned and get my plans started earlier.” Discord considered Bill’s request and replied, “I may have enough, but... well, what’s in it for me?” “Oh, I’d already decided that before considering making the offer!” Bill replied cheerfully. “If you aren’t already out by the time I get Weirdmageddon started, I’ll swing by once I get out of Gravity Falls and let you out so you can join the party. If you do manage to get out before then, I can’t think of anybody I’d want by my side when I conquer other than my oldest bud!” Discord chuckled. “Oh, that sounds wonderfully chaotic. I’m in!” “Great! See ya later, I gotta go figure out how to get back to Earth’s mindscape!” “Toodles!” Discord replied cheerfully. “Remember, reality is an illusion, the universe is a hologram, buy gold BYEEE!” Once Bill was gone, Discord sighed. “Glad he’s gone,” he muttered before turning to the timeline. “Yes, I’ll put Earth in a time loop... not that you’ll remember,” Discord chuckled slightly, before frowning. “Cipher... If you truly believe that I’ve forgiven you for what you did... you are more insane than even my immortal mind can comprehend... you and Dimentio both.” With that thought, Discord extended his presence to one entity whose help he needed in the form of a phone call. “Yes, hello, Time Baby. This is Discord speaking. I’m calling to ask for help navigating the legal loopholes to set up a small time loop for Earth...” Author's Note So, this chapter is interesting. Originially, it was just going to be a cut-and-dry justification for the twins re-experiencing the summer when they got back to Gravity Falls. And then when I got to Discord, a thought struck me. Has Discord ever deliberately harmed someone? The more I thought about it, the less certain I was that the answer was yes. Eventually I decided that for the purposes of this story Discord, even unreformed, has a deep aversion to direct physical and mental harm (though mental scarring from seeing what he does is a separate matter he doesn't concern himself with) and thus, considering Bill's track record of destroying his dimension and killing everyone inside it, his multiple counts of causing body horror, and his tendency for possession and dream-haunting, he's pretty staunchly in opposition to Discord's morals and that opened up an interesting rabbit hole that culminated in this timeline's backstory for Discord. (You don't have to read the text below because it just provides some context for his character and it's probably going to be explained once we get to season 2) Discord is a primordial spirit of chaos, with no clear origin. At some point long before his arrival in Equestria, he met another chaos spirit by the name of Bill Cipher within the second dimension. The two bonded fairly quickly, but Discord found himself increasingly unnerved by Bill's psychotic tendencies. He moved away from Bill to meet various other chaotic entities, including Jevil and Dimentio, but met back up with Bill just in time for Bill to destroy his own dimension. Discord proceeded to distance himself as much as possible but then Jevil was trapped in his "freedom" and the events of Super Paper Mario happened with Dimentio so Discord didn't have much company until he found Equestria, at which point the massive Harmony energies overloaded his mind and made him go insane enough to attempt to conquer it. Bill in his hubris never figured out that Discord hates his (probably) metaphorical guts and at this point Discord doesn't know how to correct him. Family FoundThe next morning dawned over Ponyville and Buttercup sighed gently as she rose from her bed. Bright Mac was- as usual- missing from the bed, with a note on the nightstand. “Good morning, Buttercup! Ma and I are out working, but we made breakfast for you and the foals!” the note said. Buttercup chuckled indulgently and carefully walked through the house so she didn’t wake Big Mac or Apple Bloom, but she noticed the door to Applejack’s room was open and the filly was missing. Buttercup moved a bit more quickly down the stairs and into the living room, where she found Applejack staring at the foals sleeping on the couch. “Applejack,” Buttercup admonished, “please don’t tell me you were up all night watching them.” Applejack turned around and sighed. “Naw, Pa just woke me up on accident when he ‘n’ Granny were gettin’ ready to head out.” Buttercup nodded and smiled. “Have you had breakfast yet?” she asked. Applejack shook her head. “Ah... Ah was just... Ma, I dunno what ta think ‘bout these two.” Buttercup clutched her daughter in a hug. “If I’m bein’ honest, neither do I. But they’re family now, and family protects each other, right?” Applejack nodded before sighing. “...And what if they turn out ta be evil?” Buttercup giggled. “Then we show ‘em how to be good. Show ‘em what it means to be an Apple.” Applejack smiled. “...Yeah, Ah can do that. Ah’ll be the best Apple they’ll ever see!” Buttercup rubbed Applejack’s back. “That’s my girl. Now, since you’re up let’s get some breakfast. Your pa and granny made some before they left, and it just might be apple fritter flapjacks if that smell’s anything to go by!” Applejack beamed and hurried to the kitchen before gasping. “Something wrong?” Buttercup worried. “N-No, Ma, just...” Applejack stumbled back out. “A-Ah got my cutie mark!” On Applejack’s flank were five crimson apples arranged in a star formation. “Ma, what... what does it mean?” Applejack wondered. Buttercup shook herself out of her stupor, thought for a moment, and grinned. “I think it means that you’re meant to be the absolute best sister you can be.” “Really?” Applejack murmured. “How can ya tell?” Buttercup explained, “There are five apples there, and you got it just after resolving to be the best example for Shooting Star and Pine Tree that you can be.” She proceeded to point at each apple as she continued, “So there’s one for you, one for Big Mac, one for Apple Bloom, one for Shooting Star, and one for Pine Tree.” Applejack’s look of shock morphed into exhilaration. “That’s amazing!” “Let’s wait for Big Mac to wake up on his own and then we’ll go show your pa and Granny.” Applejack nodded excitedly before grabbing breakfast for herself and Buttercup. As Buttercup had suspected, it was apple fritter flapjacks, to their shared delight. Big Mac woke up within an hour and celebrated Applejack’s cutie mark with her. Once he was finished with breakfast, the three of them teamed up to get the youngest foals some food. Buttercup threw together some oatmeal and warm milk for them, electing not to test allergies for Pine Tree or Shooting Star until they were old enough to properly communicate pain or discomfort. Shooting Star was the easiest to feed... or would have been if Pine Tree had allowed Buttercup or Big Mac to get the food near her. Buttercup noticed that Pine Tree seemed terrified of letting any of them near Shooting Star and sighed. She diverted her attention to the colt and hummed gently and looked him directly in the eyes as she got a spoonful of oatmeal in his mouth. Pine Tree’s trust successfully gained, the foals were fed in short order and the spills were cleaned up even more quickly. As the smallest filly, Apple Bloom was curled up on Applejack’s back, and Pine Tree and Shooting Star were set on Buttercup and Big Mac’s backs respectively. After ensuring the foals were secure, the three went off to share the morning’s news with Bright Mac and Granny Smith. Granny Smith was ecstatic about Applejack’s new cutie mark, particularly once Buttercup explained her idea about its meaning. Bright Mac was just happy to see that Shooting Star and Pine Tree were becoming a real part of the family so quickly. “C’mon!” Applejack insisted. “If Ah’m gonna be the best Apple Ah can for ‘em, I wanna show ‘em applebuckin’!” Granny and Buttercup shared a giggle, while Bright Mac sighed knowingly. He took Apple Bloom off Applejack’s back and Applejack rushed up to the nearest tree. “Alright, this is how you get the apples off a tree!” Applejack explained. “First ya plant your front hooves into the ground... then ya brace yerself, and then... KICK!” The tree behind her shuddered and its apples fell to the ground. Shooting Star clapped giddily, while Pine Tree cocked his head curiously. “Good form, Applejack!” Granny Smith praised. “Yer gettin’ good at this!” Applejack blushed at the praise and picked up the apples to put them in a nearby basket. “And that’s how we do it!” Applejack announced with a beaming smile. Shooting Star clapped again and Pine Tree giggled at his sister’s enthusiasm. The rest of the day was spent showing the youngest foals around Sweet Apple Acres as Applejack and Granny Smith animatedly described life on the farm to them. The next day, Buttercup decided that the two stallions should get some bonding time with their new family and playfully shoved them out of the house by declaring a housework day. They chuckled in response to Buttercup’s shenanigans before taking the foals with them. Pine Tree laid splayed out on Bright Mac’s back, and Shooting Star perched herself precariously on Big Mac’s head. The morning passed with them exploring the areas of Sweet Apple Acres time or relevancy had kept them from seeing in the previous day’s tour. At lunch, they returned to the house. The three infants received applesauce and mashed carrots and everyone else had peanut butter sandwiches. After lunch, Granny Smith told the story of Ponyville’s founding to lull them to sleep for a nap. Applejack quietly suggested reading a story together, which the rest of the family agreed to. Pear Butter selected a short novel from the bookshelf, and they all took turns reading to each other until Pine Tree and Shooting Star woke up. A quick diaper change later, they finished the story before turning to playtime of the toys, balls, and peekaboo variety, while Bright Mac slipped away to run an errand. Bright Mac returned two hours before dinner with a pair of high chairs for Pine Tree and Shooting Star. “Bright Mac, you made these?” Pear Butter murmured, admiring the craftsmanship. Bright Mac chuckled. “Burnt Oak helped me make ‘em, but Ah figured we could paint ‘em together.” A bit of foal wrangling to ensure they wouldn’t get too close to the chairs ensued while Applejack and Big Mac eagerly pulled a variety of paint buckets from the barn. The next hour was spent in joy, until the paint was finished. Shooting Star’s chair was painted in rainbow with red stars and a pink stripe down the front, and Pine Tree’s chair was painted azure with white trees and a navy stripe down the front. As the Apples stood admiring their work, Pine Tree and Shooting Star shared a frown. Something wasn’t quite right about the chairs. A few of the paint buckets were close, so Pine Tree and Shooting Star reached for the navy and pink respectively. A tingling sensation rippled through their horns, and a bit of paint lifted from each bucket. The navy paint was lifted in a salmon aura, and the pink paint was lifted in a light gold aura. Shooting Star gasped happily and turned her head to the right, the pink paint following. Pine Tree imitated her actions and grinned. Their faces took on looks of great concentration as they moved the paint forward. Applejack turned to look at the unicorns and yelped at seeing the paint floating. The loud noise startled the foals and the paint flashed in sparkles before reappearing and splatting on the chairs. The navy paint ended up on the stripe in Shooting Star’s chair, and the pink paint landed on the stripe of Pine Tree’s chair. By some quirk of physics, each splatter ended up as half a heart contained by the stripe. After the momentary shock, Pear Butter giggled. “I suppose it gives them a bit more personality, at least.” Her comment sent Bright Mac and Granny Smith into cheerful laughter. The rest joined in shortly as the laughter spread. Author's Note Sorry this took so long to get out! I was really busy with some IRL stuff in July and then when things finally started slowing down I came down with an awful head cold that sapped any motivation to write (it wasn’t COVID but it was still pretty bad). Hopefully I’ll be able to get back into the swing of things now!
The RiftDipper realized how his words had sounded and he winced. “Mabel, wait! I didn’t mean it... like... that...” He trailed off, voice filled with regret. He sighed and grabbed the backpack sitting by the door, intending to take the rift down to Ford, but then noticed a scrap of construction paper. “...What?” He quickly opened the pack and realized that Mabel had taken his on accident. He grimaced and darted after. “Mabel, hold on!” he called out as he barreled down the path through the forest. If the rift cracked in her backpack, or she didn’t realize what it was and dropped it, or if Bill managed to trick Mabel into letting him get it... Dipper shuddered at imagining the kind of nightmares Weirdmageddon could unleash, only fueling his adrenaline as he pushed his legs to their absolute limit trying to get to Mabel in time. Mabel hugged her knees to her chest and sighed, wiping the tears out of her eyes. “Ugh, only party chocolate can cheer me up now,” she lamented, blowing her nose into her sweater before opening her pack to look for it. “...wait, nerd books? Chewed up pens?” She groaned as she realized what happened. “I must’ve grabbed Dipper’s pack.” A moment passed as she watched the sunset fall. She quietly murmured, “I just wish summer could last forever...” “I-I could help with that!” a familiar voice piped up. Mabel shoved part of her sweater over her head. “No thanks. Sweatertown isn’t accepting any incoming calls.” “M-M-M-Mabel, it’s me!” the voice continued. Mabel sighed and tried to place the voice. “The... time travel guy?” Blendin’s camouflage disappeared as he fiddled with his watch. “Y-Yep! You don’t want summer to end, d-did I hear that r-right?” he asked. “...Yeah, why are you asking?” Mabel wondered. “Mabel!” Dipper’s voice suddenly called. “There you are!” “Dipper?” Mabel moaned. “Why are you here?” Dipper walked into the clearing, Mabel’s pack in hand, and explained, “Realized you got my bag by accident. There’s something in mine that we really wouldn’t want to crack- wait, Blendin? What are you doing here?” Blendin froze. “I-I-I was just gonna help M-Mabel have summer f-forever if she w-wanted!” he hastily explained, but... something about his voice struck the Pines twins as odd. Dipper swapped packs with Mabel and clutched his pack protectively. “...That feels... out of character for you.” “H-Hey, you could d-do the s-same! I just n-need a little g-gizmo from you uncle a-a-and then I’ll be able to make a t-time bubble around Gravity F-F-Falls!” Blendin stammered, his voice growing further away from Blendin’s normal voice. Dipper’s eyes narrowed. “Blendin, take off your goggles.” “Dipper?” Mabel murmured. Blendin cackled. “Oh, we’ve got a real smart guy here!” he replied viciously, his voice fully transitioning to a horribly familiar one. “Bill!” the twins cried in unison. “Give me the little rift, Pine Tree!” Blendin-Bill demanded. “O-Or what!?” Dipper retorted. “Dipper, there you are! I was wondering what was taking so long!” Ford suddenly called, rushing to join them. “Great-Uncle Ford, be careful!” Dipper warned, barely dodging Blendin-Bill’s leap. “Bill’s possessing him!” The next few seconds were blurry and fragmented. Simultaneously, Mabel leapt beside Dipper to keep Blendin-Bill away, Blendin-Bill leapt forward to snatch at Dipper’s bag, and Ford fired a shot at Bill-Blendin to knock him away from the kids. Ford’s expression shifted from determination to terror as interdimensional energy spilled from Dipper’s pack and encased Bill-Blendin, Dipper, and Mabel. “Kids!” he cried, voice filled with terror. And then, in a blaze, they were gone. Blendin’s unconscious body remained, but Dipper and Mabel were just gone. Ford dropped to his knees. “Not like this,” he whispered. “This wasn’t how stopping Weirdmageddon was supposed to happen... Kids, please... be safe...” The wind breathed around Stanford Pines as his tears fell. Bright Macintosh was perhaps not a simple pony, but he had a very straightforward view of life and the world around him. As such, when the apple trees started screaming around him he was startled, to say the least. Then a ripple of starry darkness split the air in front of him and two creatures were launched out. Bright Mac examined their unconscious bodies. They weren’t ponies, certainly, and didn’t match any creature he’d ever heard of. As far as he could tell, they were infants, potentially twins, but any chance to examine them further was denied when a voice Bright Mac could only describe as demonic cackled. “Oh, man, that was clever, you two!” the voice admitted. Within the ripple, a triangular shadow began to grow. Bright Mac stood his ground, pulling the creatures behind him protectively. “Seriously, Pine Tree, absorbing the rift’s interdimensional energy onto yourself? That’s a hilariously insane move, props! Good thing Shooting Star was there to take some of the energy load, or you probably wouldn’t have survived! Even if you did, you'd have been stripped of your little fleshbag of a physical body.” Chills ran down Bright Mac’s back as he braced himself. He swore to himself- no matter who or what this thing was, he would not allow it to harm the two behind him. “Oh, man, isn’t this my old buddy’s world? Hahaha, I can’t wait to see the look on his face when I turn it into my playground! This’ll be great!” the voice finished as the triangle stopped growing larger. “Ah-Ah don’t think so,” Bright Mac growled. The voice snickered and a glowing white eye opened. “Aw, look at the little Applebutt, trying to act all big and strong!”the voice mocked. “Give me those kids and I’ll spare your li-” Before the voice could finish its threat, six beams of light colored in silver, pale lavender, light pink, burnt orange, light cyan, and turquoise, blasted the dark ripple and the voice shrieked in pain. “GAHHH!” the voice complained. “WHY, YOU-” The lights returned again and Bright Mac risked a glance backward to check where they were coming from, and saw them emerging from somewhere deep within the Everfree Forest by his estimate. With one last burst, the ripple was burned away and the voice screamed in agony before fading altogether. Bright Mac took several deep breaths to calm himself before lifting the creatures onto his back and carefully making his way home. He was terrifyingly unsure how Buttercup or Granny Smith were going to take the situation. Author's Note I'm not perfectly happy with this chapter, if only because Bill Cipher's entrance and (I promise temporary) defeat feels a little awkward, but I said I'd publish this today and don't feel like reworking it. In other news, I put together a group for this series now! So far it's got one forum post where you can submit ideas for more pairings and that's about it.
Solar ReformationPrincess Celestia looked out from Canterlot at the location that Harmony’s light had found itself shining at sunset and sighed. Her students needed her... but she couldn’t afford to ignore Harmony itself taking action of its own accord. She made up her mind and sent for the captain of the guard, a valiant pegasus mare by the name of Storm Shield, and explained, “There was an unexpected burst of Harmony magic at sunset near Ponyville. I can’t simply ignore it, so I’ll have to leave my students until I can ascertain the source.” “Of course, Princess, I’ll try to answer any questions they may have and note down the ones I can’t answer for you,” Storm Shield promised. “I’ll do the same for any nobles that come to complain.” “Thank you,” Celestia replied gratefully before she activated a teleport, golden light streaming from her previous location. The world around her blurred back into shape as she arrived in Sweet Apple Acres. A quick magical scan of the surrounding area revealed far more than she ever would have guessed. Within the apple trees lay a highly concentrated source of interdimensional energy, lingering concentrations of Harmony magic, and enough chaos energy to make Celestia feel sick. She shuddered at the possibilities of what the chaos energy could have brought before focusing the spell further to make absolutely sure that the source of the chaos energy wasn’t loose in Equestria. Her spell didn’t find any chaos energy close enough to exist within her field other than Discord’s statue, but it did find traces of the interdimensional energy leading toward the house. She sighed and made her way to the house, knocking on the door. A red Earth Pony colt with an orange mane came up to the door and opened it. A startled look crossed his face. “Uh... Ma? Princess Celestia’s here...” he called. An orange earth pony mare hurried to meet Celestia. “Um, howdy, Your Highness!” she quickly said. “Please, come in if you need to.” Celestia nodded. “Yes, I’m just here about something that happened near here around sunset.” The mare and the colt shared a look of understanding. “Ah, I see,” the mare sighed. “My husband was just telling us about what happened, and... yes, I understand. We’re all in the living room.” The mare led Celestia through the simply decorated hallways into a cozy living room where two fillies, an elderly mare, and a stallion sat, all of them earth ponies. Curled up together on the couch laid two figures that took Celestia a moment to identify. Humans. Infants, and twins by the look of them. Celestia made eye contact with the stallion when he finished bowing and said as calmly as she could manage, “Your wife said you were explaining what happened.” “Yes, Your Highness,” the stallion confirmed. “I’ll... try to explain it as best I can but I’m not entirely sure what happened.” “Would ye like a cup o’ cider, Yer Highness?” the elderly mare asked. Now that she was looking more closely she realized she’d met this mare, Granny Smith, before, though it had been a fair amount of time ago. “Alicorns and alcohol mix very poorly,” Celestia explained teasingly. “We got some nonalcoholic,” Granny Smith rejoined. “Uh, somewhere.” “Perhaps another time,” Celestia apologized. “Yes, the story,” the stallion nodded. “Alright, so... at sunset, I was just checkin’ up on the fields for the night when... I don’t rightly know how to explain it other than that... the trees just started screamin’ in some horrible mixture of terror ‘n’ pain.” “That’s... fairly common around malevolent sources of chaos energy or chaos magic,” Celestia murmured. “Flora reacting, I mean.” The stallion shrugged. “Couldn’t say either way. Eventually the air in front o’ me sorta rippled and turned like a night sky before those two-” the stallion pointed at the sleeping humans “- came flyin’ out of the ripple.” “Then what happened?” Celestia murmured, gazing at the humans worriedly. The stallion shuddered. “What happened next... this triangle appeared in the rift and a horrible voice- at this point I feel like I can assume it was the triangle speakin’- said... something about ‘Pine Tree’ absorbing the... inter... interdimensional energy from a rift thing, and that this Pine Tree fella shoulda been glad ‘Shooting Star’ was there to ‘take some of the energy load,’ if I’m rememberin’ its words right.” Celestia shuddered. “I dunno what those two are, but... they look young, prob’ly Apple Bloom’s age. I couldn’t let em get hurt so... I moved to protect em, and then the triangle got zapped with six colors of light comin’ from the Everfree Forest before the ripple vanished. And then I brought those two here.” Celestia sighed as she took in all this information. “Alright, I have a general idea of what happened. Those lights were Harmony magic, and the fact that this... triangle creature was specifically targeted by it without an obvious wielder... it’s concerning.” “How much so?” the orange mare murmured. “It means that this creature is more powerful- or at least more dangerous- than even Discord,” Celestia stated flatly. Even the older of the two fillies looked terrified at the assertion. “And it was targeting these two younguns,” the stallion whispered. Celestia began to speak again, but hesitated. “...Everything in me is saying I should take them to Canterlot to be secured, but... I just can’t bring myself to do it...” “We’ll take care of ‘em, Your Highness,” the orange mare whispered. “I-If that’s alright with you and Bright Mac,” she added, glancing at her husband. Bright Mac nodded. “I promised myself I’d protect these two from that creature. I can allow myself to revise the meaning to extend for as long as I’m able to.” Celestia paused. “Are you certain?” “I wouldn’t feel right about doin’ otherwise,” Bright Mac insisted. Celestia turned to the humans. “I can at least do something for them,” she whispered, and her horn lit up in a work of magic. The humans were encased in magic and light before collapsing back to their previous position, but in their place were two unicorn foals. One was a navy blue colt with a short brown mane and tail and the other was a light magenta with a longer brown mane and tail. Bright Mac’s eyes widened. Celestia chuckled. “If you’re going to be taking care of them I imagine this will ward off some of the awkward questions from other ponies,” she explained. “Plus it’ll give them a chance to live at least somewhat normal lives... but, if you need anything, my court will always be open,” she promised. Bright Mac took off his hat and lowered his head in respect. “Thank you very kindly, Your Highness.” “Be careful,” Celestia warned. “Again, let me know as soon as you can if something happens.” She teleported back to Canterlot with a lot to think about. Bright Mac sighed deeply. “Well, this evening’s been eventful,” he finally joked. Granny Smith giggled and Buttercup just rolled her eyes. “So... guess the three o’ you’ve got two new siblings,” Buttercup said to Applejack, Big Mac, and the sleeping Apple Bloom. Big Mac smiled slightly and Applejack grinned. Apple Bloom made various baby noises in her sleep. “What, uh, what do we call ‘em?” Granny Smith asked. Bright Mac frowned. “Well... Those names the triangle thing said... Pine Tree an’ Shootin’ Star, they ain’t terribly strange for pony names. Even if...” Buttercup nodded. “Unless we can think of some better names, I like those.” “So, the colt’s Pine Tree and the filly’s Shootin’ Star?” Applejack asked. Bright Mac nodded and the Apples gathered around the foals. “Welcome to the family,” Big Mac whispered.
Interlude: Time Loops, Served Hot and Fresh at Chaos Inc.Bill drifted through Equestria’s etheric fields grumpily. “Stupid horse magic, destroying my only good chance at a physical form,” he grumbled. “At least Pine Tree’s little stunt landed him and Shooting Star in this dimension so I’ll at least have some company that I like.” A very familiar voice called out to Bill. “Why, is that who I think it is?” it guffawed. If Bill had a mouth, he would’ve been grinning. “Discord, old buddy, old pal! It’s been WAY too long!” A translucent visage of Equestria’s Lord of Chaos appeared in front of Bill. “Good evening, old chum! What brings you to Equestria?” Bill groaned. “So, I was THIS CLOSE to finally getting my hands on the rift old Sixer made when his... grandson? Hold on a sec!” Bill’s body flashed with various images as he checked for the correct information. Discord chuckled. “Sorry, his great-nephew, not his grandson. Anyway, the kid figured out what I was doing and managed to keep it away long enough to shatter the thing onto himself and got himself and his sister sent over here. I was planning on getting my physical form in this dimension and then just heading back over to Earth to finish my plans for them, but...” Discord chuckled. “Harmony magic is statistically very annoying for chaos spirits like you and I, eh?” “Oh, is that why I haven’t heard from you much in the last millenium?” Bill guessed. Discord nodded. “Their ‘Elements of Harmony’ encased me in stone, although they think I was fully turned to stone,” Discord explained. “It’s kind of painful, honestly. No chance to stretch and even this doesn’t really help,” he complained. “Heroes, huh?” Bill lamented. “Worse!” Discord replied. “Magical Pony Princesses.” “Geez, you got a bad deal,” Bill chuckled. “And I should know!” He and Discord shared a hearty laugh. “So, did you need something from me?” Discord asked. “Heh, yeah, actually. I was wondering if you had enough power to get Earth into a time loop set to the beginning of the summer when those kids get back? That way I’ll be able to get summoned and get my plans started earlier.” Discord considered Bill’s request and replied, “I may have enough, but... well, what’s in it for me?” “Oh, I’d already decided that before considering making the offer!” Bill replied cheerfully. “If you aren’t already out by the time I get Weirdmageddon started, I’ll swing by once I get out of Gravity Falls and let you out so you can join the party. If you do manage to get out before then, I can’t think of anybody I’d want by my side when I conquer other than my oldest bud!” Discord chuckled. “Oh, that sounds wonderfully chaotic. I’m in!” “Great! See ya later, I gotta go figure out how to get back to Earth’s mindscape!” “Toodles!” Discord replied cheerfully. “Remember, reality is an illusion, the universe is a hologram, buy gold BYEEE!” Once Bill was gone, Discord sighed. “Glad he’s gone,” he muttered before turning to the timeline. “Yes, I’ll put Earth in a time loop... not that you’ll remember,” Discord chuckled slightly, before frowning. “Cipher... If you truly believe that I’ve forgiven you for what you did... you are more insane than even my immortal mind can comprehend... you and Dimentio both.” With that thought, Discord extended his presence to one entity whose help he needed in the form of a phone call. “Yes, hello, Time Baby. This is Discord speaking. I’m calling to ask for help navigating the legal loopholes to set up a small time loop for Earth...” Author's Note So, this chapter is interesting. Originially, it was just going to be a cut-and-dry justification for the twins re-experiencing the summer when they got back to Gravity Falls. And then when I got to Discord, a thought struck me. Has Discord ever deliberately harmed someone? The more I thought about it, the less certain I was that the answer was yes. Eventually I decided that for the purposes of this story Discord, even unreformed, has a deep aversion to direct physical and mental harm (though mental scarring from seeing what he does is a separate matter he doesn't concern himself with) and thus, considering Bill's track record of destroying his dimension and killing everyone inside it, his multiple counts of causing body horror, and his tendency for possession and dream-haunting, he's pretty staunchly in opposition to Discord's morals and that opened up an interesting rabbit hole that culminated in this timeline's backstory for Discord. (You don't have to read the text below because it just provides some context for his character and it's probably going to be explained once we get to season 2) Discord is a primordial spirit of chaos, with no clear origin. At some point long before his arrival in Equestria, he met another chaos spirit by the name of Bill Cipher within the second dimension. The two bonded fairly quickly, but Discord found himself increasingly unnerved by Bill's psychotic tendencies. He moved away from Bill to meet various other chaotic entities, including Jevil and Dimentio, but met back up with Bill just in time for Bill to destroy his own dimension. Discord proceeded to distance himself as much as possible but then Jevil was trapped in his "freedom" and the events of Super Paper Mario happened with Dimentio so Discord didn't have much company until he found Equestria, at which point the massive Harmony energies overloaded his mind and made him go insane enough to attempt to conquer it. Bill in his hubris never figured out that Discord hates his (probably) metaphorical guts and at this point Discord doesn't know how to correct him.
Family FoundThe next morning dawned over Ponyville and Buttercup sighed gently as she rose from her bed. Bright Mac was- as usual- missing from the bed, with a note on the nightstand. “Good morning, Buttercup! Ma and I are out working, but we made breakfast for you and the foals!” the note said. Buttercup chuckled indulgently and carefully walked through the house so she didn’t wake Big Mac or Apple Bloom, but she noticed the door to Applejack’s room was open and the filly was missing. Buttercup moved a bit more quickly down the stairs and into the living room, where she found Applejack staring at the foals sleeping on the couch. “Applejack,” Buttercup admonished, “please don’t tell me you were up all night watching them.” Applejack turned around and sighed. “Naw, Pa just woke me up on accident when he ‘n’ Granny were gettin’ ready to head out.” Buttercup nodded and smiled. “Have you had breakfast yet?” she asked. Applejack shook her head. “Ah... Ah was just... Ma, I dunno what ta think ‘bout these two.” Buttercup clutched her daughter in a hug. “If I’m bein’ honest, neither do I. But they’re family now, and family protects each other, right?” Applejack nodded before sighing. “...And what if they turn out ta be evil?” Buttercup giggled. “Then we show ‘em how to be good. Show ‘em what it means to be an Apple.” Applejack smiled. “...Yeah, Ah can do that. Ah’ll be the best Apple they’ll ever see!” Buttercup rubbed Applejack’s back. “That’s my girl. Now, since you’re up let’s get some breakfast. Your pa and granny made some before they left, and it just might be apple fritter flapjacks if that smell’s anything to go by!” Applejack beamed and hurried to the kitchen before gasping. “Something wrong?” Buttercup worried. “N-No, Ma, just...” Applejack stumbled back out. “A-Ah got my cutie mark!” On Applejack’s flank were five crimson apples arranged in a star formation. “Ma, what... what does it mean?” Applejack wondered. Buttercup shook herself out of her stupor, thought for a moment, and grinned. “I think it means that you’re meant to be the absolute best sister you can be.” “Really?” Applejack murmured. “How can ya tell?” Buttercup explained, “There are five apples there, and you got it just after resolving to be the best example for Shooting Star and Pine Tree that you can be.” She proceeded to point at each apple as she continued, “So there’s one for you, one for Big Mac, one for Apple Bloom, one for Shooting Star, and one for Pine Tree.” Applejack’s look of shock morphed into exhilaration. “That’s amazing!” “Let’s wait for Big Mac to wake up on his own and then we’ll go show your pa and Granny.” Applejack nodded excitedly before grabbing breakfast for herself and Buttercup. As Buttercup had suspected, it was apple fritter flapjacks, to their shared delight. Big Mac woke up within an hour and celebrated Applejack’s cutie mark with her. Once he was finished with breakfast, the three of them teamed up to get the youngest foals some food. Buttercup threw together some oatmeal and warm milk for them, electing not to test allergies for Pine Tree or Shooting Star until they were old enough to properly communicate pain or discomfort. Shooting Star was the easiest to feed... or would have been if Pine Tree had allowed Buttercup or Big Mac to get the food near her. Buttercup noticed that Pine Tree seemed terrified of letting any of them near Shooting Star and sighed. She diverted her attention to the colt and hummed gently and looked him directly in the eyes as she got a spoonful of oatmeal in his mouth. Pine Tree’s trust successfully gained, the foals were fed in short order and the spills were cleaned up even more quickly. As the smallest filly, Apple Bloom was curled up on Applejack’s back, and Pine Tree and Shooting Star were set on Buttercup and Big Mac’s backs respectively. After ensuring the foals were secure, the three went off to share the morning’s news with Bright Mac and Granny Smith. Granny Smith was ecstatic about Applejack’s new cutie mark, particularly once Buttercup explained her idea about its meaning. Bright Mac was just happy to see that Shooting Star and Pine Tree were becoming a real part of the family so quickly. “C’mon!” Applejack insisted. “If Ah’m gonna be the best Apple Ah can for ‘em, I wanna show ‘em applebuckin’!” Granny and Buttercup shared a giggle, while Bright Mac sighed knowingly. He took Apple Bloom off Applejack’s back and Applejack rushed up to the nearest tree. “Alright, this is how you get the apples off a tree!” Applejack explained. “First ya plant your front hooves into the ground... then ya brace yerself, and then... KICK!” The tree behind her shuddered and its apples fell to the ground. Shooting Star clapped giddily, while Pine Tree cocked his head curiously. “Good form, Applejack!” Granny Smith praised. “Yer gettin’ good at this!” Applejack blushed at the praise and picked up the apples to put them in a nearby basket. “And that’s how we do it!” Applejack announced with a beaming smile. Shooting Star clapped again and Pine Tree giggled at his sister’s enthusiasm. The rest of the day was spent showing the youngest foals around Sweet Apple Acres as Applejack and Granny Smith animatedly described life on the farm to them. The next day, Buttercup decided that the two stallions should get some bonding time with their new family and playfully shoved them out of the house by declaring a housework day. They chuckled in response to Buttercup’s shenanigans before taking the foals with them. Pine Tree laid splayed out on Bright Mac’s back, and Shooting Star perched herself precariously on Big Mac’s head. The morning passed with them exploring the areas of Sweet Apple Acres time or relevancy had kept them from seeing in the previous day’s tour. At lunch, they returned to the house. The three infants received applesauce and mashed carrots and everyone else had peanut butter sandwiches. After lunch, Granny Smith told the story of Ponyville’s founding to lull them to sleep for a nap. Applejack quietly suggested reading a story together, which the rest of the family agreed to. Pear Butter selected a short novel from the bookshelf, and they all took turns reading to each other until Pine Tree and Shooting Star woke up. A quick diaper change later, they finished the story before turning to playtime of the toys, balls, and peekaboo variety, while Bright Mac slipped away to run an errand. Bright Mac returned two hours before dinner with a pair of high chairs for Pine Tree and Shooting Star. “Bright Mac, you made these?” Pear Butter murmured, admiring the craftsmanship. Bright Mac chuckled. “Burnt Oak helped me make ‘em, but Ah figured we could paint ‘em together.” A bit of foal wrangling to ensure they wouldn’t get too close to the chairs ensued while Applejack and Big Mac eagerly pulled a variety of paint buckets from the barn. The next hour was spent in joy, until the paint was finished. Shooting Star’s chair was painted in rainbow with red stars and a pink stripe down the front, and Pine Tree’s chair was painted azure with white trees and a navy stripe down the front. As the Apples stood admiring their work, Pine Tree and Shooting Star shared a frown. Something wasn’t quite right about the chairs. A few of the paint buckets were close, so Pine Tree and Shooting Star reached for the navy and pink respectively. A tingling sensation rippled through their horns, and a bit of paint lifted from each bucket. The navy paint was lifted in a salmon aura, and the pink paint was lifted in a light gold aura. Shooting Star gasped happily and turned her head to the right, the pink paint following. Pine Tree imitated her actions and grinned. Their faces took on looks of great concentration as they moved the paint forward. Applejack turned to look at the unicorns and yelped at seeing the paint floating. The loud noise startled the foals and the paint flashed in sparkles before reappearing and splatting on the chairs. The navy paint ended up on the stripe in Shooting Star’s chair, and the pink paint landed on the stripe of Pine Tree’s chair. By some quirk of physics, each splatter ended up as half a heart contained by the stripe. After the momentary shock, Pear Butter giggled. “I suppose it gives them a bit more personality, at least.” Her comment sent Bright Mac and Granny Smith into cheerful laughter. The rest joined in shortly as the laughter spread. Author's Note Sorry this took so long to get out! I was really busy with some IRL stuff in July and then when things finally started slowing down I came down with an awful head cold that sapped any motivation to write (it wasn’t COVID but it was still pretty bad). Hopefully I’ll be able to get back into the swing of things now!
