Chapters (Cliche Chapter Title Here)
Changing Love
How should one start a story without spouting a cliché? It seems that every possible opening one could think of has already been used to death. Ah well, I suppose there’s no way around it…
It was a warm summer evening in the bustling town of Ponyville. All of the ponies were out and about enjoying the warm weather and sunshine. One purple, (freshly coronated), alicorn princess was at the local market in town talking to a particular prismatic pegasus.
“So Rainbow, in your opinion, what would be the most tedious part or biggest pain of owning wings?” queried Twilight.
“It would definitely have to be the broken feathers you get, it can be a real pain in the flank to pull them out,” replied Rainbow Dash.
Twilight was deep in thought about all that happened recently when she was interrupted by the sound of loud wheezing. Right on cue, Spike arrived panting and wheezing between the two ponies.
“Twilight! A letter arrived for you!” gasped Spike.
“A letter?” inquired Twilight, “I didn’t expect any letters from Princess Celestia today.”
“Well, go on, then, open it,” said Rainbow Dash.
Twilight quickly opened the royal seal and scanned the letter, only to have a puzzled look crawl across her face.
“Who’s it from?” asked Spike.
“It’s from my brother and Cadence,” said Twilight, “Rainbow, can you grab Applejack and Fluttershy? I’ll grab Rarity and Pinkie Pie and meet you back at the library.”
“On it,” said Rainbow, and she sped off towards Sweet Apple Acres.
Back at the library, Princess Twilight looked over all of her friends with a warm smile, her face then turned serious as she opened her mouth to speak.
“Girls, I have received a letter from Princess Cadance and my brother. It seems that there has been a development in the Crystal Empire and they requested that we travel there. It didn’t seem to be an emergency, therefore I brought you all here to ask if you wanted to go. After all, we were just their not too long ago, not to mention we’re all still recovering from the coronation. So what do you say? Are you all up for another trip to the Crystal Empire?”
“Ah’m in.”
“Me too.”
“I’ll go as well.”
“Aww yeah!”
“YAY! THE CRYSTAL EMPIRE AGAIN!”
“How about you Spike?” asked Twilight.
“I think I’m going to sit this one out. I had plenty of excitement the last time I went there and I have some…reading to catch up on.”
“Well if you’re sure you don’t want to go, you don’t have to. Its settled girls, pack your bags, we leave for the Crystal Empire first thing in the morning,” declared Twilight.
The next morning the ponies finished up their last-minute packing, said their goodbyes to their respective friends and family, and met up at the train station. Once gathered, they hopped on the first train to the Crystal Empire. Once they boarded, they settled in and Twilight, as usual, let her mind wander.
“I wonder what this development that Shining Armor and Cadence are talking about is?” wondered Twilight.
“Ah’m sure whatever it is, it’s mighty important since they called us all the way out there,” replied Applejack.
“Perhaps they found a way to make that glorious crystal coat permanent outside of the empire!” squealed Rarity, prompting an eye roll from all of the other ponies.
When the girl’s hooves touched the solid ground of the Crystal Empire train station, they were once again taken aback by the beauty of the Empire. Once the initial shock was over, the six ponies started their trek to the palace, where Shining and Cadence eagerly awaited them.
When they arrived, they were immediately whisked away to the throne room where they were greeted by a smiling Shining Armor and a beaming Cadence.
“Twily!” exclaimed Shining, “It’s good to see you again!”
“You too Shining, it’s always good to see my BBBFF,” said Twilight as they exchanged a hug.
Cadence then took the opportunity to enclose ALL of them into a giant hug. After they were thoroughly crushed, pleasantries were exchanged, and the two princesses did their notorious dance, Rainbow spoke up.
“So princess, why did you call us all the way out here, the letter said you and Shining were excited about something?”
“Oh yes Rainbow, Shining and I have been working on a project for quite a while now and we’re happy to say that it has worked!”
“A project?” asked Twilight, “You guys were working on a big project and you didn’t let any of us in on it?”
“Well, it was a very delicate project and it dealt with some…..controversial subjects,” said Shining Armor, while sharing a look with Cadence.
“Controversial? What do you mean controversial?” quipped Twilight.
“You will all see for yourselves. If you all will just follow me, I will explain along the way,” said Cadence.
They all turned to leave out of the door, but were surprised to see a staircase appear below them in the floor of the throne room.
“This way please,” said Cadence.
So, as a group with Cadence in front and Shining in rear, they traveled down the twisting staircase.
After the first fifty steps or so, Cadence took a deep breath and began to speak.
“As you all know, I am the Princess of Love. For ages I have lived with the purpose of spreading love between others. Over those ages I have become more and more troubled by the thought that some ponies would spend a large part of their lives without finding that one special somepony that they love. This lead me to feel that I had been partially failing at my duty and I promised myself I would find some way to remedy that problem. Since then, I have experimented with my magic and have been developing ways to make love more apparent to ponies who are too shy, or too naïve to see it. However, all of these methods have only slightly improved the awareness of ponies when it comes to love. I had been unable to find the one, definitive method that would show ponies who their true love was. When I met Shining, it was a hollow victory. It was wonderful that I had found the love of my life, but I felt that I had cheated when so many other ponies were still looking for their soul mates. All of that changed though when I was trapped by Chrysalis. During my incarceration, a thought occurred to me. The thought was so wonderful, yet so simple that I literally kicked myself multiple times. I immediately concocted a plan. After the wedding, I told Shining about my plan and immediately put it into action. Now, after so long, I finally have the solution I have been searching for.”
At that moment they reached the base of the stairs and were facing a door that was quite familiar to Twilight. However, when Cadence opened the door, there was no nightmare, nor was there more stairs. Beyond the door, there was an empty chamber with nothing but what seemed to be a large curtain draped over some kind of cube.
Cadence paused for a moment, and took a deep breath.
“My friends,” she said as she pulled the curtain down, “this is my solution.”
Twilight, Pinkie, and Applejack gasped, Rainbow Dash growled, Fluttershy let out a quiet squeak, and Rarity fainted.
Before them, in a large, glass cube was…….a changeling?
After Rarity was resuscitated and the others had gained their composure, Twilight turned her attention to Cadence.
“Princess, I don’t mean to sound harsh, but are you CRAZY ?” exclaimed the purple alicorn.
“I know what it looks like Twilight, but the changeling in that glass box is completely harmless,” began Cadence “I learned in my incarceration that changelings are given their commands from their queen primarily through telepathy. The queen will send out a signal that carries instructions using her magic. The changelings then receive the signal and they are forced to obey that command.”
“I don’t quite understand how that plays into anything we have discussed,” said Twilight.
“After the wedding, I went to the outer reaches of Equestria and found one of the changelings that we had blasted. I brought him here and trapped him in that very box. Since then, I have been trying to use my magic to transmit commands like Chrysalis did. Finally, after quite a while, I was able to successfully open the telepathic link between me and the changeling.”
“That’s fascinating princess, but how is this changeling supposed to help ponies find true love?” queried Twilight.
“Don’t you see Twilight? Since I am the princess of love, I am quite skilled at finding traces of love between two ponies that they themselves would never see. I can command the changeling to transform into the special somepony of whoever enters the glass box with it, giving the pony in the box a close-up look at their potential love.”
Twilight took quite a while to absorb and process everything she had just heard. On one hand, she had learned just what changelings were capable of and the deception they could create during the wedding. On the other hand, Twilight had known Cadence for almost her entire life and she trusted her sister-in-law very much.
Twilight broke out of her trance, took a deep breath, and spoke “Cadence, I would like to be the first to go in.”
“Are you sure Twilight? I would hate to make you do something that you are so uncomfortable with,” said Cadence as a concerned look crawled across her face.
Twilight looked her former foal-sitter straight in the eye and said “I’m ready.”
Twilight slowly approached the intimidating glass box. The closer she got to it, the larger it seemed. Finally, she stood at the door to the box. She composed herself, pulled the door open, stepped inside and closed the door behind her.
Once she was completely closed inside the cube, Cadence reached for a nearby rope that was tied to a peg on the wall.
“I feel that we should allow her some privacy with such as serious matter,” said Cadence as released the rope, causing a large curtain to fall upon the box.
Inside, Twilight felt her heart skip when she saw the shadow of the curtain fall upon the box, leaving no light source save for a single light hanging from the roof of the box. However, her eyes were focused directly in front of her. Standing only a few paces away, directly in front of her, was Cadence’s changeling. Merely looking at it brought back a slew of bad memories from the events preceding the wedding. Slowly, she began to move to the side, trying to distance herself from the creature. As she moved, the changeling’s eyes followed her, but it did not move. It seemed that Cadence was right about having the Changeling under her control.
Suddenly, an odd scent assaulted the purple princess’ nose, causing her vision to become blurred and her legs to become weak. Through her blurred vision she could see that the changeling had started to transform, then her knees gave way and she collapsed.
When she next opened her eyes, she could feel herself being picked up. Someone had helped her back on to her hooves. At first, she didn’t see anyone, but as she turned around she saw a face she had seen several times before. The familiar face greeted her with a warm smile. Twilight’s eyes shifted from the maroon coat, to the smiling flowers adorning her flank, to the kind face of Cheerilee.
“Cheer- Cheerilee?” gasped Twilight.
In that instant, something clicked inside Twilight’s mind. How could she have not seen it before? Cheerilee had been extremely kind to her ever since she had moved to Ponyville. She reached out to Twilight immediately and proved to be quite the friend. Twilight especially loved it when Cheerilee would stop by the library, alone or with her class, to browse the collection of books and chat with Twilight. In these conversations they had found that they had a lot of things in common. Now, here she was, or at least the image of her, staring her in the face. Twilight mind was split into three fragments at this point: the first part was mentally kicking itself for not thinking of Cheerilee sooner, the second part was jumping at the prospect of being Cheerilee’s special somepony, and the third, smallest part was amazed at how well Cadence’s new method of love-spreading worked, it was almost too perfect.
Twilight tore her eyes away from the beautiful mug of Cheerilee and made her way to the door of the box. As she turned she saw the changeling transform back and stand stock-still out of the corner of her eye. The image bothered her slightly, but she was far too focused on the experience that she had just had and what she was going to do next. She swung the door open and stepped out of the box and out from under the curtain with new vision and new determination.
When Twilight reappeared from under the curtain, she heard a collective sigh of relief. She looked up to see all of her friends and her brother with relieved smiles on their faces and Cadence with a strange smug smile. Twilight didn’t have the chance to look around too much before she was barraged with questions and comments.
“Are ya all right, sugarcube?”
“I’m sooo glad you came out, Twilight, I was super-duper worried about you!”
“Did you fight the changeling? How tough was it? I bet I could finish it off.”
“I’m glad you didn’t get hurt by the creature.”
“Did you see your love, Twilight? Who was it darling?”
“Girls! Let me breathe a little,” exclaimed Twilight “No, Rainbow, I did not fight the changeling and I wouldn’t recommend doing so, I did find my love and I’ll get to that in a second. As to whether I’m alright or not, I’m fine now girls. Earlier though I smelled something really odd and my vision became blurry and my legs became weak.”
Cadence snapped her head forward and stared at Twilight intensely, concern etching her face.
“You smelled something?” queried the princess of love.
“Yeah, it was really odd, it happened as the changeling was changing,” replied Twilight before Cadence could say anything more “at any rate it was probably nothing, so who wants to go next?”
“OOO ME, ME!” squealed the pink party pony.
Pinkie made her way towards the curtain before turning around.
“Hey Twilight, you never told us who your love was,” said Pinkie, a small pout forming on her face.
“Man Pinkie, you are pretty sharp at times,” said the lavender alicorn, “I bet there are some times where you could even match wits with me or my love Cheerilee.”
All of the ponies collectively gasped.
Rarity was the first to speak up, “Cheerilee, darling? That’s wonderful!”
“It's super-duper amazing is what it is!” chimed in Pinkie. “This calls for a PARTY!”
“Uh, Pinkie? You do know we were doing something, right?” asked Rainbow.
Pinkie’s hair deflated slightly and her face fell into a slight pout. Suddenly, she perked back up and jumped into the air faster than was physically possible.
“That’s ok, I’ll just throw a really big party after we’re done here!” squealed Pinkie, prompting an eye roll from everyone else.
“Ahem, I think we’re getting off track here. Pinkie, seeing as you volunteered to be next, would you please enter the box?” asked Cadence, rather sternly.
“Okie dokie lokie!”said the pink party pony, and she leapt across the room, under the curtain, and into the box with the door shutting behind her before anypony else could move.
Once on the inside, Pinkie, as usual, could barely contain her excitement. “I wonder who my special somepony is? I hope they are someone as fun-loving as me. What if they don’t like cupcakes? That’s silly, everypony loves cupcakes! I sure hope that my special somepony likes parties! Ohmygosh, I’m so excited!”
Pinkie was so lost in her internal reverie that she didn’t register the changeling moving slowly towards her, nor the sickly sweet scent that entered her nose, causing her hair to fall limp and her mind to become cloudy.
Outside of the box, all of the attention turned to the purple Alicorn in the room.
“So Twilight darling, if you feel like sharing, would you please tell us all about your experience in the box?” asked Rarity.
Twilight was quiet for a moment as she tried to remember all of the details. Finally, after she had composed her thoughts, she began to tell of her experience.
“When I was standing at the entrance to the box, I was extremely nervous. I had a sense of foreboding that I couldn’t quite explain, but I pushed it aside and went in. When I got inside, I immediately noticed the changeling. He didn’t move an inch, but his eyes followed me, it was really creepy. At that point, the curtain dropped over the box and it was just him and I.”
All of the other ponies were staring at her with rapt attention, all except Cadence, who seemed to be deep in thought.
“I began to walk around the box to avoid the changeling’s gaze when I smelled something really odd, yet familiar. Now that I think about it, it smelled like a new book!” exclaimed Twilight as the realization hit her.
“New book smell, whatever do you mean by that?” asked the fashionista.
“It’s an awesome smell that comes from the fresh made paper and glue and other stuff in a book,” said Rainbow Dash. All of the present elements, save for one, stared directly at Rainbow, causing her to blush.
“What, all of my Daring Do books were new when I bought them,” said an embarrassed Rainbow.
However, Fluttershy’s attention was drawn to the Princess of Love. Cadence looked quite irritated about something. She had a frown on her face and was clearly deep in thought.
“That doesn’t seem right,” mused the shy yellow pegasus, “why would she be upset that Twilight found her true love, proving her experiment was a success?”
Fluttershy was about to bring this fact up to Twilight when the purple alicorn cleared her throat to continue her story, leading Fluttershy to remain quiet.
“Anyway, the new book scent caused me to black out and collapse,” continued Twilight, drawing a couple of looks of concern from her friends, “when I woke up, I felt hooves grabbing me and helping me up, I looked around, and the only pony standing there was Cheerilee. In that moment, I thought of all the times Cheerilee had been so kind to me and everything kind of clicked.”
“Why that’s wonderful sugarcube, I’m sure she’ll be real pleased to learn that you’ve taken a fancy to her,” said Applejack.
“Me too, believe me. I’m so nervous about it, but at the same time I’m relieved to know. I have to say Cadence, your experiment worked great!”
“Huh? What?” asked the pink alicorn as she was drug out of her deep concentration. Suddenly, she replaced her frown with a modest smile, “I’m so glad it worked for you Twilight, I really hoped it would.”
There was a quiet, happy moment that was soon broke by the bolder of the two pegasi present.
“Geez Pinkie’s taking a long time, I hope she’s alright,” said Rainbow.
Inside the box, Pinkie was in a state of euphoria. She was back in the Sugar Cube Corner kitchen baking dozens on tooth-rotting sweets. The scent of the sweets lingered heavy in the air. Baking was her second favorite activity to do, other than party of course. She never wanted to leave.
Suddenly, she had lifting feeling, she felt like she was flying! She closed her eyes and hoped the feeling would last. Alas, it did not, as she suddenly felt a falling sensation. Her eyes snapped open as reality came rushing back to her. She was lying flat on the floor of the box. However, she could not see the ceiling, as it was obscured by a very familiar set of deep blue eyes.
“Rarity, why did you come into the box? I thought only one of us was supposed to go in at one time,” queried Pinkie.
Rarity didn’t say anything, or even react for that matter; she just stood there with a small smile on her face.
Pinkie was about to ask Rarity again when it hit her: this wasn’t the real Rarity. Pinkie slowly felt a smile grow across her face as she kept staring into those eyes, those beautiful eyes. When Pinkie’s smile reached an impossible width, she jumped up and thought of and looked at the beauty of her new-found true love.
One glance back at the changeling-Rarity was all it took to have Pinkie bound out of the box and back to the room were her friends, and true love, awaited her.
When Pinkie literally threw herself out of the box, all of the ponies present jumped back a few paces.
“Pinkie!” exclaimed Twilight “what took you so long? We were so worried about you!”
Pinkie didn’t reply to Twilight. Honestly, she didn’t seem capable of replying to anyone as she looked to be moments away from a launch not unlike the one she performed after securing Cranky’s friendship. Rarity was the next pony to speak up.
“Darling, are you alright? Did you find out who your true love is?”
At the term “true love” Pinkie launched herself towards Rarity and gave her a bone-crushing hug.
“Well, Ah guess we know who Pinkie’s true love is,” said Applejack with a chuckle.
“Huh?” Rarity looked dazed, partially due to the confusion of the moment, partially due to the fact that her oxygen supply was completely cut off by the hug.
Twilight looked at them and smiled, and then she turned her attention to the other elements.
“Ok girls, who’s next? How about you Fluttershy?”
“That’s ok I’m fine.”
“Aww, come on Flutters, the changeling won’t hurt you, Twilight and Pinkie already proved that,” griped Rainbow Dash.
“It’s not that, it’s just that…” Whispered Fluttershy.
“It’s just what?” pressed Rainbow.
“It’s just that…I’ve already found my true love.”
..........
……..
……..
“What!?”
Twilight awoke to somepony lightly tapping on her shoulder. Simultaneously rolling over and clearing her mental fog, she looked up to see the conductor for the train.
“Excuse me, princess, but we will be arriving in Ponyville in fifteen minutes.”
“Mmm thank you, we will all be up by the time we arrive.”
With that, the conductor left Twilight and the others, leaving Twilight the arduous task of waking her friends. She went over to Rarity to find her sound asleep, neatly tucked into her compartment bed with her sleep mask on. She tapped the alabaster unicorn until she uttered semi-coherent sentences about “beauty sleep.” She then went over to Pinkie Pie, and tapped her. Pinkie leapt into the air like a coiled spring and somehow landed perfectly on all four hooves, fully awake and as energetic as ever. Fluttershy was surprisingly already awake, sipping tea and enjoying the company of some birds that had flown in through the train window. This left Rainbow and Applejack. With a sigh, Twilight approached the door to their separate compartment and flung it open. On the bed, Applejack had fallen asleep flat on her back with her limbs splayed out in odd angles. Rainbow had crawled beside AJ and nestled under one of her arms. Twilight walked up to the side of the bed and tapped Applejack. Being a farm pony, AJ was quite used to getting up early. She was alert almost instantly. Rainbow Dash, on the other hand, was a completely different story. Her sleeping skills were legendary around Ponyville. Twilight tried prodding her on the shoulder for at least five minutes to no avail. Eventually, Applejack gave Rainbow’s tail a good tug, waking her instantly and causing her to let out a loud yelp.
After everypony was awake, whether they wanted to be or not, they began to gather their belongings as the train began to slow down. When the train stopped, the six of them hopped onto the familiar Ponyville train platform. They were finally home.
The six of them said their goodbyes and headed their separate ways. Twilight returned to the library in hopes of finding a book of tips on asking someone out. Fluttershy had a date planned with Big Macintosh at Sugarcube Corner later that afternoon, so she hurried home to prepare. Pinkie bounced her way back to Sugarcube Corner after giving Rarity a quick hug and peck on the cheek, eliciting a deep blush from the alabaster mare. Rarity, in turn, made her way back to the Carousel Boutique to complete one of the constant orders keeping her occupied. Applejack and Rainbow practically raced towards the Apple family’s barn, only to trip and fall in a heap, eliciting groans from the pair and chuckles from everypony nearby.
Cadence spent half of the night and all of the following morning pacing across the gleaming marble floors of the Crystal Palace's throne room, a nervous habit that she had picked up from a certain lavender alicorn. Her mane was frizzy and her right eye had a slight twitch. Shining Armor had never seen his wife so bothered by something before. After a quick deliberation, he decided to approach her and ask what could possibly be bugging her so much.
"What's wrong, Hun? I've never seen you so worked up over something."
"It's nothing, Shining, I just need to think some things through, it's nothing you need to be worried about," replied Cadence with a strained smile as she tried to reassure her beloved husband.
"But you seems so stressed and-"
"I said it's nothing you need to be worried about,” snapped Cadence, dropping her happy facade.
Shining took a few steps back, surprised at Cadence. Since they had known each other, Shining had never seen Cadence snap at anyone, especially not himself. Something was very wrong. Shining decided to retreat and leave Cadence to her thoughts for the time being. As he walked out, he began formulating a plan in his mind. He was going to get to the bottom of this, one way or another.
Cadence immediately regretted snapping at her love, and she watched sadly as he left the throne room. Tonight, she would apologize and make it up to him in earnest. For now though, there was work to be done. Cadence continued her pacing, deep in thought.
Fluttershy glanced into her mirror at her tiny cottage home. She was wearing one of her favorite floral dresses and was currently having her hair brushed by some of her animal friends. She closed her eyes and let relaxation flow over her. Being groomed was perhaps the only guilty pleasure that Fluttershy had. It was one of the reasons that she cherished her trips to the spa with Rarity so much. She wasn’t quite sure why she liked it so much, perhaps because it was a time where she could clear her mind and reflect. Fluttershy looked back on the all of the crazy events that occurred yesterday. She was extremely happy that her friends had found their true loves and got to experience the affection and kindness that she did. It was amazing that Cadence had been capable of such a thing. Thinking of Cadence brought memories of her odd behavior yesterday rushing to the forefront of the yellow pegasus’ mind, causing her to become concerned again. Perhaps she should write a quick letter to Cadence and see if she was alright. She was suddenly drawn out of her inward reflection by a gentle tug on her tail. Looking down, she saw Angel pointing to a nearby clock.
“Oh goodness! I’m nearly late,” exclaimed Fluttershy as she looked at the clock. Saying a hasty goodbye to all of her animal friends, she rushed out the door and hurried to Sugarcube Corner for her date.
Big Macintosh had spent the bulk of the morning plowing the southern field, as it was getting close to planting season. However, his mind was hardly on the work. His thoughts wandered to a certain yellow pegasus. To say that he was excited for his date that afternoon would be the understatement of the year. Time couldn’t move fast enough for Big Mac. When he was finally finished with his work for the day, he made his way to the barn to put away his plow. As he approached the familiar structure, he heard an odd noise. Somepony was....moaning? As he got closer, he could hear panting between the moans that were only getting louder. Suddenly, he began to wonder if he should go inside the barn.
He stood in front of the barn door for what seemed like ages weighing his options. Finally, he took a breath to compose himself and opened the barn door to see Rainbow Dash and Applejack furiously making out on a bale of hay. After standing in the doorway of the barn with his trademark blank expression, Big Mac took a step inside, gently set his plow down and backed out of the barn as fast as possible. He then rushed to the house to shower and perhaps, if Celestia was merciful, drown the image that was now branded into his mind.
“No, no, no, nope, not that one, nope,” Twilight muttered as she inspected a steady stream of books floating in a purple aura before her. She knew that she had seen a book on asking somepony out at some point in her tenure at the library. She thought she might have found a related book entitled the Pony Sutra, but after a quick inspection she slammed the book shut and threw it away. After she had gone through what must have been a hundred and fifty books, she began to grow irritated.
“Ugh!” the frustrated purple alicorn exclaimed, “I can’t find the right book anywhere!”
Suddenly, a particular draconian assistant shuffled down the stairs hugging a book. Upon it, the words “Pickup Lines and First Dates for Dummies” were printed in a large, bold font.
“Uh, Spike?” began Twilight slowly, “I don’t mean to pry, but why do you have a dating advice book?”
“No reason,” replied Spike a bit too quickly, “ I was just, uh, just reading out of boredom!”
“That was pathetic Spike,” said Twilight with a stern glare on her face, “now tell me Romeo, who do you have your eye on, you know that Rarity’s taken now.”
Spike most certainly did not know that Rarity was taken. Twilight, in her frenzy to find the book that was now resting in Spike’s claws, had neglected to tell Spike any of the details of her trip. In fact, she’d barely stepped through the door and said hello before beginning her search. As shocking as the news was, Spike did not seem crushed by it, a fact that Twilight immediately picked up on.
“Well you see, when you left yesterday, the Cutie Mark Crusaders came by and asked if I wanted to join them for the day. I had finished my chores, so I took off with them. We had a great time, and at the end of the day they all split up to head for home. It was getting dark and Applebloom had the farthest distance to travel. So I offered to walk her home. During that walk, we talked, laughed, and just had a good time. As I walked home from Sweet Apple Acres, I thought about her more; her cute bow, her beautiful smile, her lovely accent...” the dragon’s words trailed off as he began to think about Applebloom again.
Twilight was certainly shocked. She would never have thought that Spike would go for a filly like Applebloom. However, the more she thought about it, the more she liked the idea. At least he would be going for someone in his age group this time.
“That’s great Spike! I’m very happy for you,” said the purple mare with a genuine smile. She then remembered what had brought about this confession in the first place.
“Say Spike, could I perhaps borrow that book from you?” asked Twilight.
“Why would you want to read this book?” asked Spike, immediately becoming suspicious.
It was now Twilight’s turn to become uncomfortable. “Well, you see...”
Rarity stopped her tedious work and went to prepare herself a cup of tea. As she set her kettle upon the stove, she pondered the events of the last day. The entire occurrence was nothing short of unbelievable. How could one simply fall in love, just like that? Was it really as the Princess had said? Was the reason that they hadn’t seen it before merely because of naivete or shyness? Before she could muse any further, she was interrupted by the shrill whistle of her tea kettle. She poured a cup of the steaming water, placed a teabag in it, and dropped in a couple of sugar cubes. She grabbed her teacup and saucer and sat down at her tiny breakfast table. As she took small sips of the scalding tea, her mind wandered back to yesterday’s events, particularly when Pinkie rugby tackled her into a hug. At first she was furious about it, as it wasn’t the first time that this had happened. However, once Applejack stated that she had been Pinkie’s true love, the hug didn’t bother her as much. Her mind drifted away from the events of yesterday to the aforementioned pink pony. She thought of the softness of the pink party pony’s fur, the pleasant smell of pastries that constantly wafts from her unruly mane. Her mind then drifted to her curves. Pinkie was by no means a fat pony, but she wasn’t super model skinny either. Rarity mentally traced a line along Pinkie’s curves and to her nice, plump rump. A small string of drool formed in the corner of the alabaster unicorn’s mouth.
“Mmm, Pinkie,” mumbled Rarity as she took another sip of her tea.
“Mmm, Pinkie what?” asked Pinkie, materializing out of nowhere.
Rarity spat out her tea at high velocity and fell backwards in her chair. After scrambling to get up, she stared at Pinkie, a furious blush on her face as she struggled for words.
“Why I was just, I was, I, hello Pinkie,” she finally spat out with a sigh.
“Hiya Rarity! I was just checking to see how you were doing!” said Pinkie, bouncing around the room.
“Well that’s very kind of you dear, I assure you I’m fine, would you like to stay for a cup of tea?”
“No thanks I’ve got to get back to Sugarcube Corner; I have to serve Fluttershy and Big Mac on their date!”
“Really? Have fun with that Pinkie.”
“Oh I will!” said Pinkie, popping up next to Rarity and planting an exaggerated kiss on her cheek. She then walked to the door and left as suddenly as she had arrived.
Rarity rubbed her eyes and blushed deeply. There was no way Pinkie could have known what she had been thinking, right? Then again she swore, right before Pinkie closed the door, she swayed her hips a little more than normal.
Pinkie giggle-snorted to herself as she made her way back to Sugarcube Corner. Rarity was so easy to read. She thought about the look that Rarity had on her face before she had revealed herself. The normally posh and composed unicorn looked liked somepony had beaten her over the head with a board. Pinkie didn’t miss that bit of drool that formed either. She realized that she enjoyed teasing Rarity. Interesting. However, she would address that later. For the time being, she had to get pastries and entrees prepared for Fluttershy and Big Macintosh’s date.
Big Macintosh did not dress up often. He was a simple pony and didn’t really like the idea of being in fancy clothes. However, this was a special occasion. He was going on a date with the pony he loved. After his shower and brain bleach application, he pulled on white shirt, a black tie, and a black blazer with gold buttons. Each of his cufflinks was a miniature version of his cutie mark. He had received the ensemble as a gift from Granny Smith for his birthday. He appreciated her buying it for him because Celestia knows that he never would’ve bought it himself. He glanced at himself in the mirror; he supposed he looked rather handsome, but he still prefered nudity. At least he didn’t have to wear pants. He shuddered at the mere thought of the clothing article. He brushed his hair, brushed his teeth, and rushed out of Sweet Apple Acres as quick as he could; simultaneously hoping to be on time to his date, and to distance himself as quickly as possible from the barn.
“Did you hear something AJ?” panted Rainbow Dash after abruptly pulling away from her latest game of tongue wrestling with her lover.
“Nope, I didn’t hear anything, now get back here,” said a very impassioned Applejack.
Rainbow was all too eager to oblige, she pressed her mouth firmly against the cowpony’s and was immediately assaulted by her broad flat tongue. Applejack’s forehoof gently stroked Rainbow’s prismatic mane. Rainbow’s forehoof followed AJ’s body until it landed on her cutie mark. Rainbow brought her other forehoof down to the orange mare’s other flank and began a gentle massaging motion, eliciting a loud moan from her.
“Hey sis, are ya in here, I gotta ask ya a question,” called a high-pitched voice.
The two mares froze as they saw the Cutie Mark Crusaders enter the barn.
“I told you they wouldn’t be in here Sweetie Be-wa ah AH!”
Scootaloo stopped in her tracks and gawked at her hero, covered in sweat and on top of Applebloom’s sister. Applebloom’s left eye twitched and her mouth hung wide open. Sweetie Bell looked as if she would faint in a manner not unlike her sister. The two groups just stared at each other for a long moment.
…
…
…
“Aw ponyfeathers.”
Shining Armor awoke to feel the first rays of Celestia’s sun on his face and the soft sheets of his and Cadence’s bed. He kept his eyes closed to enjoy the sensations for just a moment longer. His mind drifted to the previous night. Cadence had walked into their bedchambers with a bottle of wine in her mouth, and a very familiar glint in her eyes. Shining was still upset about their fight earlier and had spent the rest of the day planning what he would say to Cadence. Once Cadence entered, Shining jumped up and went over to confront his wife. However, Shining was, first and foremost, a stallion, and as soon as he saw the look in his lover’s eyes, anything he had to say immediately disappeared. It was a very good night. Stretching his limbs, he noticed that something felt...off. After running through a quick mental check list, he determined that the familiar warmth near his left side that he was so used to wasn’t there. With a groan, he opened his eyes. As he suspected, the beautiful pink mare that was his wife was not in their bed.
Shining Armor’s first thought was that he had slept in and was late. He jumped out of bed and dove for the alarm clock. The familiar green numbers flashed “7:00”. This left Shining confused. He wasn’t late, on the contrary, he was a half-hour early, but his wife wasn’t in bed and it seemed that she hadn’t been in a while. With a final stretch, he decided to look for his missing spouse. He opened the thick wooden door separating their bedchambers from the hallway outside.
He figured he would start searching for her in the kitchen. If she was in there, maybe they could sit for a nice breakfast. If she wasn’t, he could at least grab a quick bowl of cereal before he continued his search. He walked down the hall and descended the spiral staircase. At the bottom, he opened the familiar swinging doors that led to the kitchen. Once inside, a quick scan of the area proved that his beloved was not in their.
“Damn,” he muttered. A loud clank made him jump and turn to see the Palace’s chef, Poppy Seed. She was a sweet old mare with a charcoal grey coat. Shining always had a certain fondness for her, as well as her cooking.
“Good morning Poppy!” said Shining warmly, causing Poppy Seed to look up from the pot she was tending to.
“Good morning Shining Armor!” said Poppy with a smile, “what would you like for breakfast? Will Cadence be eating with you?”
“Only cereal this morning Poppy. I was actually hoping that you had seen Cadence. I haven’t seen her since last night.”
“Sorry Shining, I haven’t seen her this morning. However, I can help you with the cereal.” Poppy proceeded into the kitchen’s enormous pantry and returned with a box of “Celesti-O’s,” his favorite, poured some in a bowl, and added some fresh milk.
Shining took the bowl, thanked Poppy, and made his way to the throne room. He could tell immediately upon entering it that the throne room was abandoned. He turned around and opened the door to leave. Suddenly, his ear perked up as he heard a faint noise. Listening closer, he heard the noise again. Where was it coming from? Shining looked all around the room until his eyes rested on the staircase leading to the basement. He walked over and put his ear downward. Sure enough, the sound was louder. Shining decided to descend the stairs to figure out what the hay was making that noise in the basement. Finding his wife would have to wait.
Cheerilee sat with a small grin on her face. She loved teaching the fillies and colts of Ponyville. She could never imagine doing anything else. Her students, however, were not so happy. They had just been told that there would be a quiz tomorrow on tonight’s homework assignment.
However, one particular, pink-bowed, filly looked as if she was daydreaming. In reality, she had spent all day trying to purge the horrors of the previous afternoon. She shuddered every time she remembered her sister’s moans, and practically convulsed every time the visual replayed in her head. The other two fillies weren’t much better off. Sweetie Bell’s mane was in tangles and Scootaloo looked as if she hadn’t slept the previous night. All they had wanted was to get dating advice from Applejack for Applebloom. Applebloom had developed a crush on Spike and they wanted AJ’s advice on the matter. Unfortunately for them, they got much more than they bargained for, namely irreversible mental scarring.
Cheerilee was oblivious to the three fillies’ suffering, though, and dismissed her students with a kind farewell. All of the students bolted for the exit, causing Cheerilee to chuckle. Some things never changed. As the children left, she began shuffling through the papers that she had collected earlier.
“Applebloom, B. Scootaloo, D. Diamond Tiara, F. Silver Spoon and Sweetie Bell, A. Nothing really out of the ordinary there,” muttered the teacher to herself.
Suddenly, a familiar purple dragon burst through the schoolroom door, causing the papers on Cheerilee’s desk to fly onto the floor.
“Cheeri, Cheer, Ch,” gasped Spike, trying desperately to gather oxygen into his body.
Cheerilee just sat there with a mildly annoyed look on her face.
“Take your time, Spike, breathe a little.”
After a few moments, Cheerilee had gathered up all of the fallen papers and Spike’s breathing had resumed to its normal rate.
“Is Applebloom still here?” asked Spike finally.
“Sorry Spike, she’s not,” said Cheerilee, secretly wondering why Spike would want to catch Applebloom so badly that he would run all the way over here.
“Aw, shoot,” muttered Spike.
Suddenly, Spike remembered the second reason he had traveled all the way the the schoolhouse.
“I almost forgot! Twilight wanted me to deliver this message to you Cheerilee.”
Spike handed the message to Cheerilee, waved her a hasty goodbye, and ran out the door in hopes of catching up to Applebloom.
Cheerilee quickly opened the message and read:
Cheerilee,
I would love it if you and your class were to come by the library tomorrow around noon. It’s been a while since you have brought your students by and I would love to catch up with you!
Hope to see you then!
Sincerely,
Twilight Sparkle
Cheerily reread the message thoughtfully. She was going to give that quiz tomorrow, but she supposed her students deserved a day off. Besides, Twilight was right. It had been far too long since the class had visited the library and she was dying to catch up with her good friend.
Little did she know, a certain purple alicorn across town was nervously pacing and planning.
None of the Cutie Mark Crusaders talked as they walked to their clubhouse from their school. None of them felt like crusading. The current plan was for all three of them to place pillows on the clubhouse floor and crawl into fetal positions until the sun went down and it was time for them to return to their homes. This would be particularly difficult for Applebloom, who would have to go home and possibly face the source of her current trauma. Forcing that unpleasant possibility out of her mind, she started moving faster towards their destination.
About halfway there, they stopped due to a faint voice calling out Applebloom’s name. Turning around, they saw a familiar purple dragon quickly approaching.
“Oh, hey Spike,” said Applebloom once Spike was in earshot.
“Hey Applebloom! I just wanted to see if I could join you guys in your crusading today!”
“Sorry Spike, we don’t much feel like crusadin today.”
“Uh, ok,” said a very confused Spike, “I’ll come back some other time then. Oh! Before I go, I wanted to give you something Applebloom.”
Spike pulled out a folded piece of paper, gave it to Applebloom, waved goodbye to the two other fillies, and made his way back to the library.
Applebloom examined the top of the paper. On it, her name was scrawled in Spike’s messy claw-writing. She decided she would wait until they got to the clubhouse to read it.
“What are we gonna do Rainbow? How am Ah gonna face Applebloom after that?” said the orange cowpony for the upteenth time. Nearly 24 hours after the, ahem “unfortunate” encounter, Applejack was still in the full-scale panic that she had been in since the CMC ran out of the barn. She was wearing an impressive groove into the floor of her room while Rainbow Dash was sitting on her bed and casually munching on one of the farm’s apples. While she didn’t look nearly as bothered, Dashie was secretly concerned about what Scootaloo thought of the whole ordeal.
“I really don’t know AJ,” said the prismatic weather mare, “I’m not too worried about it though, I’m not even sure they knew what they saw.”
“Ah know Applebloom did, Ah already gave her “the talk.”
“Yeesh! How young do you teach ‘em here?”
“This is serious Rainbow! I can’t think of any way to talk to Applebloom that will make this okay!”
“Well, my sexy friend,” began the cyan mare, putting on her best bedroom eyes, “ it seems the you are s-c-r-e-w-e-d screwed. That reminds me, do you wanna...”
“No!”
Fluttershy woke up from a deep sleep. She slowly sat up, let out a large yawn, and took in the sounds of her home. All of her animal friends must’ve already been awake, as there was quite a bit of noise coming from the other side of her door. She didn’t mind though. She always thought the chorus of noises was soothing. She wondered how long she had been out. Looking at the clock, she saw it was just about time to prepare breakfast for the many creatures that took residence in her cottage. She started to stretch when she realized that she couldn’t move her left foreleg. Confused, she slowly turned her head to the left. She jumped in shock, disturbing the giant mass of red fur and muscle next to her.
“Eep!”
I'mRunningOutOfChapterNames
Fluttershy shrank away from her friends in fright as she felt the unyielding gaze of seven other ponies. Each of the others wore a mask of shock on their faces. How could Fluttershy, the pony that barely talks to her closest friends, work up the nerve to even talk to her true love, let alone have any kind of relationship with him or her?
Twilight, sensing Fluttershy’s fright, decided to break the tense silence.
“That’s wonderful Fluttershy! Who is your true love?”
Fluttershy contemplated making a run for the exit to escape her friends piercing stares, but she knew she would never make it. She took a deep breath and spoke as quiet as is possible for a pony.
“My true love is Big Macintosh.”
“I’m sorry Fluttershy, I couldn’t hear you,” said Twilight.
“My true love is Big Macintosh.”
“One more time please.”
“My true love….is Big Macintosh,” said Fluttershy, using all of the remaining courage she could muster.
All of the other ponies showed a mixture of joy and surprise, except for one, Stetson-wearing cowpony. Applejack’s body became rigid and her right eye twitched at the mention of her brother.
“That’s wonderful Fluttershy!” exclaimed Twilight, “how did it happen, how did you two.......are you ok Applejack?”
Applejack looked far from ok. In fact, she looked like she could charge forward and buck Fluttershy straight in the chest at any moment. Sensing something bad was about to happen, Rainbow Dash flew towards Applejack and began pushing her towards the box.
“Alright cowgirl, Fluttershy is your friend,” stated Rainbow cautiously, “let’s have you take your turn in the box to take your mind off of things.”
Applejack merely grunted, but she slowly made her way towards the covered box, a well-defined frown never leaving her face. When they reached the entrance to the box, Rainbow didn’t waste any time. She shoved Applejack into the box and slammed the door behind her. Rainbow returned to her friends and glared at Fluttershy.
“Alright Fluttershy, tell us everything,” began Rainbow Dash, “How did you meet? How long have you been together? Most importantly, why didn’t you tell me?”
Fluttershy composed herself. There was no way she was going to withhold her relationship from her friends any longer. It was time. She looked at her friends and spoke.
Applejack was taken by surprise as Rainbow Dash shoved her in to the box and slammed the door shut behind her. She stumbled and struggled to regain her balance. When she was stable again, she began to vent to herself. How could Fluttershy, one of her best friends, be datin’ her brother? How long had they been datin’? Why hadn’t Fluttershy at least told her that she had been seein’ her brother? All of these questions weighed heavily on Applejack’s mind as she took a few steps forward. Suddenly, her thoughts were interrupted by a scent that Applejack knew all too well. It smelled like….apples?
“What the?” exclaimed Applejack as she wondered why the smell of apples would be in this box in the basement of the crystal palace. After a moment or two, Applejack began to calm down and relax as the familiar scent washed over her. She closed her eyes and imagined herself back at Sweet Apple Acres, enjoying the literal fruits of her labor under the shade of one of the many trees. She was abruptly pulled out of her reverie by a light tap on the shoulder. Her eyes flew open and she spun around.
“Not too long after the last winter wrap-up, I was in my cottage tending to animals that had gotten sick in the cold weather,” began Fluttershy, “after a while, one of the local bears came by and said that one of his friends was really ill. When I went to check on the ill bear, I saw that he had collapsed and was unable to travel to my cottage. I did what I could where we were, but I knew it wouldn’t be enough and his condition would worsen. I needed the help of somepony that was strong enough to help me move the bear. That’s where Big Macintosh comes in.”
Fluttershy paused for a moment and took notice of the other ponies’ reactions. Every pony was staring at Fluttershy with rapt attention, all of them except for Cadence. Cadence seemed to be deeply bothered by something. Fluttershy considered asking Cadence if she was alright, but she remembered the other five pairs of eyes looking at her and waiting for her to continue her story. So, she decided that she would ask later if Cadence still looked bothered. Fluttershy opened her mouth once again to continue.
“I made my way to Sweet Apple Acres to see if Big Macintosh could help. When I arrived, he was pulling a cart of apples into the barn. I rushed up to him, explained my situation, and asked if he could help. He nodded and told me to take him to the bear. With his help, I managed to help the bear into my cottage. Afterward, I invited him to stay and visit. After getting the chance to talk for a while, we found that we had a lot in common. We met every night for the following couple of weeks and we decided to start dating. We’ve been going steady ever since.”
“Wow Fluttershy, that’s great!” exclaimed Twilight, “still, why didn’t you tell us?”
“Well, I was afraid of what you girls would think,” replied the yellow pegasus, a slight blush forming on her face.”
“Darling, we couldn’t be happier for you!” said Rarity, still a tad light-headed from Pinkie’s hug earlier.
“That’s awesome, ‘Shy, I’m happy for you,” said Rainbow, “I’m just anxious to see how Applejack handles this.”
“Oh my, I wonder how Applejack is doing in the box,” said Fluttershy.
Applejack’s head whipped around to see a wide pair of magenta eyes, eyes she had seen tons of times before, directly in front of her. Instantly, memories of the Iron Pony competition, the running of the leaves, and various smaller memories forced their way to the forefront of her mind. Who would’ve thought a pony she had spent so much time around would be her true love. Applejack felt as though a veil had been lifted from over her eyes. That sexy, sporty, cyan pegasus was hers! She wasn’t going to wait any longer. She raised her head up high and kicked the door to the box open, not even registering the changeling transforming back behind her.
“Applejack!” exclaimed Pinkie, drawing the attention of everypony else.
Twilight was the first one to walk up to the orange farm pony. “What was it like AJ? Who was your true love?”
“’Scuse me Twilight,” said Applejack as she pushed her way past Twilight, walked straight up to Rainbow, and planted a huge kiss on her lips. Rainbow jolted for only a moment before she melted into the kiss, a deep blush forming on her face. The kiss lasted for several minutes, prompting everypony else to clear their throats to no avail. Eventually, Cadence decided to address everypony.
“Seeing as everypony in this room has found their true love, shall we return to the throne room and give these two mares some privacy?” Everypony could not agree fast enough.
A half-hour later, Applejack and Rainbow Dash joined everypony in the throne room. Both of them looked like they had a hundred laps at the Cloudsdale Wonderbolt track. As soon as everypony was settled, Cadence spoke.
“Thank you again everypony for coming, I’m thrilled that my experiment was a huge success, I’ve arranged for a train to carry you back to Ponyville shortly.”
“Thank you Princess, it was good to see you again,” said Twilight.
Everypony said their goodbyes to Cadence and Shining Armor and made their way to the train. Once on the train, everyone started to settle in for the overnight trip home.
“Ugh!” exclaimed Rarity, “can we please get a separate train car from Applejack and Rainbow for the night?”
Rainbow Dash blew a raspberry and Applejack shot her a glare, but they made their way to their own train car.
“Goodnight, everypony,” said Twilight as she blew out the last candle and settled down to rest during the long ride home.
