Stranded on a Desert
by Twippledash
“What do you think Rarity? Chimicherry, or cherrychanga? Chimicherry? Cherrychanga? Chimicherry? Cherrychanga? Chimicherry? Cherrychanga? Chimicherry? Cherrychanga—”
“When I get back, you're gonna get it Rainbow Dash!” Rarity huffed angrily. She didn't address the statement to anypony in particular, since the only other pony within miles was Pinkie Pie, who in turn was too preoccupied with her debate about what she should name her new cherry-chimichanga hybrid. “Some element of loyalty, leaving us like that...” she added, silently enough so that only she herself could hear.
“—Chimicherry, or cherrychanga? Chimicherry? Cherrychanga—” the pink pony continued her endless blabbering, not caring about anything else in the whole Equestria at the moment.
The two were in the middle of nowhere on an old, lone railroad track, operating a simple hoofcar together. The track stretched into the horizon on both directions, and everywhere around was just barren desert for as far as their eyes could see, with only rocky formations and a few cacti here and there.
“—Chimicherry? Cherrychanga? Chimicherry—”
“Pinkie, please,” Rarity interrupted her friend, the ceaseless, monotonous blabbering already getting on her nerves. “Would you be a dear and be quiet?!”
“But you haven't given me your opinion yet,” Pinkie Pie said. “Which one do you prefer: chimicherry, or cherrychanga? Or maybe chimicherrychanga?”
Rarity sighed and relented. “Okay, if it makes you stop,” she said. “Chimicherrychanga is the most descriptive, I think, but sounds quite clumsy. So I would pick... hmm...” She paused for a moment, still pushing the handle of their hoofcar in a steady pace. “I don’t really know which one of those two I would prefer.”
“Come on, Rarity,” Pinkie said, “you must have some preference! You can’t be totally indifferent about it! Use you businessmare senses; think about which one would sell better if I decided to make them regular wares in Sugarcube Corner!”
Rarity couldn’t care less about naming some obscure delicacy, having more pressing issues to think about the moment being—for example the fact that they were somewhere in the deserts, without any supplies or any kind of civilization within miles. She didn’t really have other choice than to play along though, or to listen Pinkie going on and on about the subject. “Well, I think chimicherry sounds a bit too much like chimichurri, which is a totally different thing, so I would go for cherrychanga.”
“You think? But are you absolutely, totally sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure.” Rarity nodded, rolling her eyes. “Now, could we drop the subject, and think about our current predicament?”
“What predicament?” Pinkie asked, tilting her head.
Rarity huffed. “Oh, you know, the fact that we’re in the middle of nowhere, because somepony left us alone and left to Ponyville without us. And we didn’t have any bits for train tickets between the two of us, and the best way we could get back was to take a ride with this rusty, old hoofcar.”
“So, what’s the problem?” Pinkie asked, smiling widely as she pushed her end of the handle rhythmically. “This is fun! I’ve always wanted to ride one of these things!”
The unicorn sighed, knowing well that any argument with Pinkie wouldn’t end well. “Fun. Right...” she muttered to herself. “Sure, being out here in the desert, with ruffled and dirty manes and coats, having searing sun burn on us, and operating this hoofcar all sweaty. That sure is fun...”
“Yup!” Pinkie exclaimed, her smile not faltering for even a moment. “Like I said, I’ve always wanted to do this!”
“You don’t understand sarcasm, do you?”
“Nope!” Pinkie Pie answered. “That’s what my other friends always say, too.”
“And we wouldn’t even be here, had anything gone slightly different...” Rarity muttered, recalling the day’s events in her head, continuing the monotonous motion of pushing the handle down again and again.
“Rarity, catch me!” Pinkie shouted, jumping off from Applejack’s wagon, and falling towards the cart pulled by Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy.
“What?! Pinkie!” Rarity exclaimed, then screamed as the earth pony fell towards her. A second later they collided, Pinkie’s momentum throwing both of them off the cart they were riding. They both rolled on the ground for a few feet.
“Rainbow, go back!” Rarity could hear Twilight shouting right after they fell. She thanked the unicorn mentally for being considerate enough to stop chasing Applejack to pick her and Pinkie Pie back up.
That was until she noticed a second later that the cart wasn’t slowing down or turning around at all, and she could distantly hear Rainbow’s answer, “No time! They knew what they were getting into!”
Rarity stood up and couldn’t believe her ears; they couldn’t just leave her, and Pinkie, here on the desert, could they? Evidently they could—the cart was quickly retracting into the horizon in front of them. Her eye twitched. She felt something had got stuck in her throat when they fell, and coughed it out, then gave an angry look to the pink earth pony. Pinkie was just grinning back at her. Both of them had sand all over their bodies, as well as a few bruises here and there. And a few small cactus burrs in their manes to boot.
“Was it really necessary to do that, Pinkie?” Rarity asked with a stern voice. “Couldn’t you have just stayed on Applejack’s wagon, since you jumped on it in the first place?”
“Sure I could have done that,” Pinkie answered, “but I didn’t have anything more to say to Applejack, now that I got a kind of an apology from her for using a loophole to get past keeping her Pinkie promise.”
“Okay, fair enough,” Rarity answered, dusting the most of the dirt off of her coat and mane; she would need some proper grooming and a bath once they get back. She looked at the direction where the others had headed, but could only see a small cloud of dust left on their wake. Looking at any other direction, she couldn’t see anything but desert for as far as her eyes could see. She shook her head, and said, “I guess we should just go after them—I’m sure they’ll come back this same way to pick us up before leaving.”
“Okie dokie!” Pinkie said, bouncing towards the direction the others had disappeared into. Rarity trotted after her, silently lamenting her absolutely hideous dirty coat and ruffled mane, in addition to a slightly chipped hoof.
After several minutes of trotting and bouncing at a leisure pace, they crossed a railroad. There were busted barriers on either side of the track, and wooden red-and-white splinters scattered all around. Rarity could easily tell that the damage was recent; even the smallest barrier pieces were clearly visible and not covered with sand, like them would be if the barriers had been broken for any longer than several hours.
She and Pinkie ignored that for now, having some friends to catch up with, and continued forwards on the road with slightly faster pace than before. Almost half and hour and over two miles later, Rarity finally stopped and turned at Pinkie. “I don’t think they would have come this far, really. Where could have they gone?”
“I have no idea,” Pinkie answered, “Maybe they forgot us and took a shortcut back?” She gasped loudly. “Oh no! They’ve forgotten us!” she wailed. “Maybe they don’t remember us, and have headed home and we’ll be forgotten forever!”
“Don’t worry, Pinkie,” Rarity said, “I’m sure they’ll remember us when we meet them the next time. But they may quite well have forgotten to pick us up on their way back, yes, if getting Applejack back had got them emotional enough.” She took a deep breath, and added coldly, “Though I dearly hope for Rainbow Dash’s sake that they didn’t just leave us here and go back to Ponyville. I swear I’ll have my revenge on her if that’s the case.” She shook that notion away for now, and looked along the road towards the horizon. “Where does this road even lead? There aren’t many pony settlements around this part of Equestria—as far as I know, the nearest one is nearly a hundred miles from here, aside from the Dodge Junction of course.”
She sighed, turned around, and said to Pinkie, “Whatever at the other end of this road is, we’re not getting anywhere anytime soon by just following it. And my hooves are getting quite tired of all this walking on the hot sand already, so I guess we should just get back to the Dodge Junction, and hopefully meet our friends there.”
“I’m not getting tired,” Pinkie said, skipping happily around Rarity. “But okay, let’s get back to the Dodge!” she exclaimed, and started bouncing back the road towards the direction they had just arrived from. Rarity followed her with a tired, yet still brisk gait.
Another half an hour later, they arrived at the busted railroad barriers once again. This time Rarity noticed something she had missed, or at least didn’t pay attention to the first time they had passed this place; there were some fresh skid marks on the road, and another ones a few feet on the side of the road. She stopped and looked around the area a bit more.
“Whatcha looking at, Rarity?” Pinkie asked. “Did you find a clue or something? I can be your assistant in your detective work!” She pulled a detective hat out of nowhere and put it on her head. She had also conjured up a bubble pipe from somewhere, and now blew a few bubbles out of it.
Rarity groaned. “No, Pinkie. This is not really detective work, as there’s not really any kind of crime to solve,” she said. “I just noticed a few marks on the road, and now that I look a little more closely, I can see two fresh tracks heading to separate directions from here. One is likely the wagon Applejack was riding—with or without Applejack—and the other is the one we were riding before Rainbow Dash ditched us.” Her voice grew cold at the last notion.
“How do we know which one is which?” Pinkie asked, seeing the tracks herself now that Rarity had pointed them out. She had put away her detective equipment, realizing that she wouldn’t be able to do any investigation around there.
“These tracks are clearly from a four wheeled vehicle,” Rarity said, pointing at one of the tracks. She turned at the other track, and added, “While these are from two wheeled cart or wagon. Which means we have to follow these tracks to get to our friends.”
“Ooh, you’re smart!” Pinkie said, with exaggerated amazement. “And observant; I wouldn’t have noticed these tracks at all, had you not pointed these for me!”
Rarity smirked proudly. “I guess it’s just that I pay a lot more attention to detail than most other ponies. One needs to have an eye for details when designing dresses for Canterlot elite.”
“They seem to have followed this railroad track,” Pinkie said, looking along said track. “But how did they know it would take them to the Dodge Junction? It doesn’t even go to the same direction as the road we used to come here!”
“Two of them can fly, remember?” Rarity answered. “Rainbow Dash or Fluttershy probably saw the Dodge Junction from the air, so they could take a beeline towards it. And the road was somewhat winding, so following the railroad was probably the shortest route.”
“Oh yeah,” Pinkie said. “So what are we waiting for? Let’s go meet our friends!” She started boucing alongside the railroad, following the tracks their friends’ cart had left.
Rarity and Pinkie Pie had arrived to the Dodge Junction half an hour ago, and have been looking around for their friends ever since. They had asked Cherry Jubilee whether they had returned to her cherry orchards; the only information they got, was that their friends had indeed returned to say goodbye, but they had also left immediately afterward. But where to, they didn’t know. The town wasn’t too big, and finding their friends shouldn’t have been too hard—if they were still in there, that was.
During a break after their fruitless search, Pinkie asked, “Maybe we should ask from the ticket booth at the station whether they’d seen them?”
“Yeah,” Rarity said, with a mixture of worry and anger in her voice, “I just don’t like to think that they’ve left without us, and I’m afraid to go ask and find out if that’s the truth.”
“What’s the problem Rarity?” Pinkie asked happily. “We could always take another train and go after them!”
“Except we don’t have any bits with us for the tickets,” Rarity said sullenly, “and I doubt they would sell tickets on credit for strangers.”
“How about Cherry?” Pinkie asked. “I’m sure she would help!”
“She’s helped us enough as it is already, and we are still practically strangers to her, too,” Rarity answered. “I would feel quite uncomfortable asking her for even more favors.” She sighed, and continued, “But I guess before we start thinking about what we should do, we should go ask the ticket vendor like you suggested.”
A short walk to the train station later, they were in front of the ticket booth. The station was empty, save for a single pony having siesta at the shadow of the station building, themselves, and a bored looking stallion in charge of selling tickets in his booth. He perked up immediately at the sight of potential customers.
“How may I help you, ladies?” he asked with a peppy voice. “Need a ticket to Canterlot, Ponyville, or Appleloosa, perhaps?”
“If you don’t mind, we would like to ask a simple question first,” Rarity asked politely, smiling.
“Go ahead.”
“Have our friends been here lately, buying tickets to Ponyville?” Rarity asked. “A group of four mares: a lavender unicorn, an orange earth pony, a yellow pegasus, and a rainbow-maned pegasus.”
“Oh, yes,” the clerk answered. “Quite a colorful group, I must say. Yes, they bought tickets to Ponyville about...” He looked at the clock on the wall of his office. “...Fifty-five minutes ago. I saw them boarding the train leaving forty minutes ago. Those were your friends, huh? Would you like to buy tickets to Ponyville, too? Next train is leaving after two hours and twenty minutes. Three hour interval between trains, you see—the Dodge isn’t that much of a tourist attraction, and thus not too many trains come here either.”
Rarity still had a smile, albeit a forced one, on her face, and said, “We would like to have tickets to Ponyville, but—”
“Okay, that will be thirty bits for each, making it a total of sixty bits,” the ticket vendor interrupted, fishing a pair of tickets from a drawer.
“That’s just the problem,” Rarity said with a sigh, her smile faltering. “We don’t have any bits with us.”
“None at all?” the stallion asked. “I could have been willing to give a five-bit discount per ticket, maybe even ten, since you are heck of a lot nicer than my average customer. But I’m sorry, I can’t really give you these for free; it would all be off of my own pockets, and I have a family to keep. And before you ask, I can’t give these on credit either, unless you have something of value to pledge.”
“We don’t have anything,” Rarity said, her mood lowering significantly. “I guess we have to look for a job around here somewhere to raise that money. I just wish we would have been able to get back today.”
“Me too,” Pinkie said, also with a saddened tone. “What if our friends forget us during our day or two of work here?”
“Don’t be silly, Pinkie,” Rarity said with a slight chuckle, but still being downcast. “I said already that they won’t forget us that quickly.”
“You want to get back today, hm?” the clerk asked from within the booth. “I’m afraid there won’t be that many—if any at all—vacant jobs around here at such a short notice. Maybe Cherry Jubilee, the owner of those cherry orchards here—”
“Yes, we have acquainted with her,” Rarity interrupted.
“You have? All the better then! Like I was saying, she may need a little help at picking cherries, if you’re up to that kind of work.”
Rarity scrunched her face. “Ugh... I’m not really into manual labor, thank you. You wouldn’t know any jobs which would need precision and fidelity; those are more of my style.”
“Or baking! I love baking!” Pinkie said enthusiastically.
“Sorry, no, none I know of at least.” The clerk shook her head. “Like I said, not too many vacant jobs around here.”
Rarity frowned, and asked, “Would there be any other choice than to go cherry picking to gain the bits for the tickets? Anything?”
“Well, there is one option I could think about, but you won’t probably like that either...” the clerk said. “You see, there’s that old, unused hoofcar at the end of this short sidetrack,” he said, pointing at a small, lightweight hoofcar, which was big enough for just two ponies to stand on. “I don’t actually even know why we still have that old thing here, as we use the steam powered ones nowadays for track maintenance. It is a worthless piece of crap for us anyway, and was supposed to be thrown away ages ago, so feel free to take it away and ride it to the Ponyville. Once you don’t need it anymore, just leave it somewhere out of the way. I got to warn you that it would still be almost as much work to get to Ponyville with that, than it would be to earn your money by cherry picking, so you should consider your options.”
“Woohoo!” Pinkie bounced eagerly. “Come on Rarity, let’s go!”
Rarity wasn’t as enthusiastic to go on a ride with the hoofcar. “Wait a minute, Pinkie, I got to think for a moment,” she said, pondering their options. There were really only three options for them: earn money for the train tickets by helping Cherry Jubilee with cherry picking, go on a ride with the hoofcar, or to go by hoof. None of those options sounded appealing to her. The “walk by hoof” option was out of question, since taking the hoofcar would definitely be a better and faster option than that one. Then it was a choice between work on cherry farm, or a hoofcar ride. Both were hard work, but taking the hoofcar would take them to the Ponyville still today, while they would have to wait for tomorrow to get the salary for working at the farm—not to mention that she found the manual labor at the farm quite repulsive.
“Okay,” Rarity finally said to the clerk, after half a minute of silence, “I’ve decided to take on your offer to give us the hoofcar to use. Thank you for giving us even that much; it definitely beats the third option to go by our own hooves.”
“Don’t thank me, it’s the least I could do, good lady,” he said. “I should probably thank you for taking that pile of scrap from our station.”
“Well, yes,” Rarity said, glancing at the mentioned ‘pile of scrap’. “It really isn’t a pretty sight to look at. But, like I said, it’s better than nothing. Thank you.” She started walking towards Pinkie, who was already standing on the hoofcar, ready to go.
“See you later! If you happen to get into this part of Equestria again some day, that is,” the clerk said after her. “Just go forwards on this track, and you’ll eventually get to Ponyville. There is one junction on the way, but even then just go straight; the other track from than junction leads to Appleloosa. Just remember to get out of the way of any incoming trains—you should be able to see and hear them well in advance, and the hoofcar is built light enough to be lifted on and off the track by a simple levitation from a single unicorn.”
“Thank you once again,” Rarity called back. “You’ve been quite helpful, darling. Goodbye.” With that she climbed on one side of the hoofcar, Pinkie already standing on the other. Rarity checked the lever at the side of the hoofcar, so that they would take off onto right direction, and pushed down the handle on her side. They moved a little bit, and as Pinkie pushed the handle down on her side, they accelerated a bit more. Repeating the handle pushing alternately, they gained more speed and departed the railway station, accompanied by the rhythmical squeaking of their hoofcar.
“So you prefer cherrychanga, huh?”
“Yes, Pinkie. I’ve said that six times already,” Rarity said, tired of listening to her friend’s blabbering, and tired of pumping the handles of the hoofcar they were riding. They had been out on the rails for a few hours already, and everything they still saw was just endless desert on every direction. “I know I have asked this as many times too, and I don't like to sound rude, but could you please just stop talking about food already? I don’t know about you, but all that talking makes me hungry, and we don’t have anything to eat. And with the pace we are moving, it will be dark until we’ll see any signs of civilization, aside from the occasional train passing.”
“Okie dokie,” Pinkie said. She stayed silent for some time, only sounds around being the squeaking of their vehicle, and grinding of the wheels against the rails. A few moments later she asked, “What are you going to do once we get back?”
Rarity sighed, but answered anyway; at least the subject wasn’t about cherrychangas again. “Well, first I think I’ll take a bath, and then go straight to sleep. I’m quite exhausted already, and we still have quite a long way to go. How about you?”
“Ooh, first I’m gonna try out the new cherrychanga recipes! And then I’ll—” Pinkie started her endless ranting. Rarity groaned, already regretting asking her the question. She didn’t object though, trying her best to just tolerate her friend, and to just keep up a steady pace pushing the hoofcar’s handle.
After another few hours, the desert had slowly given way for more greener areas, and now they were passing vast grassy fields, with a few trees here and there. The sun was already setting, and the sky above them was mostly covered in clouds. While it wasn’t dark yet, it would be in an hour as the sun would retract behind the horizon. The evening was quite warm, and so would be the night, due to the thick cloud layer keeping most of the day’s heat below.
Suddenly, without any warning, the two travelers heard a loud snap from below them. Immediately afterward their hoofcar tilted forwards and started screeching loudly, quickly slowing down to halt. Both of the mares on it were thrown forwards due to the quick loss of momentum of their vehicle; Pinkie, who was on the back, collided with the handle support, while Rarity was unceremoniously tossed on the tracks back first.
“Waahahaa—augh!” the unicorn screamed as she flew a few feet, and a second later collided with the wooden railroad ties. She laid on the track for a moment, and then carefully stood back up. “Oww...” she groaned, and rubbed her head and back. Her back ached badly due to the landing, but she was glad to find out that she wasn’t severely hurt, and that she hadn’t broken any bones.
“You okay, Rarity?” Pinkie called, having jumped off of the hoofcar, too. She herself was mostly unharmed, with just a slight bruise from the collision with the handle. “That looked like it hurt!”
“Yes, I’m okay. Or will be at least,” Rarity said, groaning a bit. “My back hurts, but nothing seems to be broken, and I’m sure I’ll get better in no time.” She stepped next to their vehicle, and inspected the damage; the front axle had snapped into halves. “I wish I could say same about our hoofcar, though,” she said, frustrated. She was already on the verge to make an angry outburst.
“Hey now, it’s not that bad!” Pinkie said happily.
Rarity snorted and kicked the ground in frustration, finally venting all the pent up anger from inside of her. “Not that bad? First our friends leave us stranded on a desert without any supplies or bits! Then they leave to Ponyville without us! Then we find out our only means of getting home is riding this—this tacky contraption! And now even that contraption is broken! Of all the worst things that could happen, this is the—”
“Worst possible thing, I know,” Pinkie interrupted. “You always say that when something bad happens!” she said, still somehow as joyously as ever, even though their only means of transportation was now broken beyond repair, and they were somewhere in the wilderness, still miles from Ponyville. “Calm down Rarity, it could be worse!”
“Calm down? Calm down?!” Rarity replied, totally losing all of her self control. “You know I haven’t actually forgotten that you were the one who threw me off that cart in the first place! And pray tell, how in Equestria could this be any worse?!”
“Well, it could be raining, for example,” Pinkie said. “Or—” She was interrupted by a few drops of water falling on her snout. The water drops were soon followed by several more, and before they knew, the whole area was shrouded in a constant rainfall. “Oh, shoot! I should have known it was a bad idea to tempt fate! Too bad neither of us is a pegasus so we can’t even clean those clouds away!” She looked at the white unicorn next to her. “Uh, Rarity? Are you all right?”
Rarity grinded her teeth, her whole body twitching as she was quickly getting soaked with cold water. She started to fume in anger, and she could feel the safety valve regulating the fume pressure in her head going overdrive. Finally she completely lost herself, took a deep breath, rose to her hindlegs, and hollered out a long burst of furious screams and some of the most unladylike swears. Several seconds later she dropped back on all fours, and heaved heavily, having let out every last bit of frustration from her body.
“Woah, Rarity,” Pinkie said in amazement, “I wouldn’t have believed you just shouted what you did, had I not heard it myself! And even then it’s hard to believe!” She tilted her head, and asked, “You feel better now?”
Rarity inhaled deeply a few times, trying to catch up with her breath. “Yes, Pinkie. I feel much better now,” she finally said. Then she gave a glare at the pink pony, adding, “Let us never speak of this again. Nopony, or any other creature for that matter, shall never hear about this outburst of mine. Okay?”
“What outburst?” Pinkie said, smiling.
“Just promise not to tell anyone.”
“Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye,” Pinkie recited her own Pinkie promise, doing the pertinent gestures alongside.
“Good,” Rarity said. “Now we should just go on, after I get this wreck off the tracks.” She levitated what was left of their hoofcar to the side of the railroad track. “I think it shouldn’t be but three or four hours of walk to Ponyville from here.”
An hour of walk—or bouncing in Pinkie’s case—later, they were both soaking and the rain didn’t seem to weaken in the slightest. Pinkie was bouncing on the railroad track, still somehow keeping her cheery demeanor, while Rarity had been on a sullen mood ever since they had to continue their travel on hoof.
“My hooves are killing me,” Rarity lamented, taking heavy steps forward. Her back had quickly healed to just a dull ache, but now her legs were protesting heavily due to the prolonged walking.
“Killing you? I hope not!” Pinkie answered. “I wouldn’t like to tell the others if they killed you! Not to mention I wouldn’t like it myself either!”
“Not literally, Pinkie,” Rarity said, not amused in the slightest. “I just meant that I’m getting tired of all this walking. I’ve been thinking that maybe it would have been a better idea to help Cherry Jubilee with cherry picking for a day or two, after all.”
“Yup, especially with your magic to help us!”
“My magic—” Rarity started, then promptly facehoofed. “Urgh! I could have used my magic to pick those cherries and would have earned those bits in no time! Why didn’t you mention that when we were still at the Dodge Junction? Why didn’t I think about it myself?!”
“I have no idea about that last one,” Pinkie answered. “And I was just too excited to get on a ride with a hoofcar that I forgot to mention that about your magic, and I thought you would remember it yourself anyway!”
“You—what,” Rarity said flatly. “So you could have mentioned it before we even started this journey, but didn’t because you wanted to have a hoofcar ride?”
“Yup!”
Rarity felt steam building inside her once again, but took a deep breath and kept her calm. “Okay, let’s just pretend you didn’t think about me using my magic back then, either. We’re just about two hours from Ponyville now, I think, so let’s try not to get on each others throats and just move on. I couldn’t really care less about anything right now, except getting that warm bath, and then a nice, long beauty sleep. And to give my revenge to Rainbow Dash for leaving us in the first place, of course.”
Another two hours later the rain had finally subsided, but they were still soaking wet, as there was no sun to dry them up during night. They had been walking alongside the western edge of the Everfree forest on their right for a while already, which meant that Ponyville wasn’t far away either. Rarity was practically slouching by that point, too tired to even pay any attention to what Pinkie was saying. She glanced forwards and at the pink pony now and then, but mostly kept her eyes on the ground in front of her, having gradually lost the sense of time during the last few miles.
“Rarity!” Pinkie shouted, now bouncing in front of the unicorn.
“Huh, what?” Rarity answered groggily, shaking off of her stupor. “Are we there yet?”
“Finally some reaction,” Pinkie said, grinning. “I was trying to get your attention for the last two minutes!”
“Oh, sorry, Pinkie,” Rarity said. “It’s just that I’ve been quite inattentive for... I don’t even know for how long, actually. What is it?”
Pinkie rolled her eyes. “Yes, I noticed you haven’t been paying much attention,” she said. “But I thought you’d like to know that I can see Ponyville when I’m bouncing here!”
“Oh, finally! How delightful!” Rarity immediately perked up, getting some bounce back on her steps. “So let’s go!”
“That’s what I was trying to say to you!” Pinkie said, bouncing ahead already.
Soon enough they had arrived at the edge of Ponyville, the familiar sights being a great relief to the exhausted unicorn. They both walked through the silent streets, not seeing a single pony around, since it was past midnight already. Most of the lights in the houses were out, but they could see some flickering candle lights from the upstairs of Twilight’s library. This didn’t surprise Rarity in the slightest, knowing Twilight’s habits to study long into the night.
A few blocks later they were at the Sugarcube Corner, and it would still be a short distance to the Carousel Boutique. Rarity turned at Pinkie Pie, who was now bouncing towards the bakery.
“Thank you, Pinkie,” Rarity said. “I’m not sure whether I would have made it through this without you, even if you were testing my nerves now and then.”
“Thank you, Rarity!” Pinkie replied. “Without you, that way back would have be sooo booooring,” she said, stretching the last words. “It’s not fun to talk to just myself, you know?”
“Yes, well, I’m quite tired now,” Rarity said, emphasizing her words with a huge yawn. “So, goodnight, Pinkie. See you tomorrow.”
“Night, Rarity!” Pinkie answered, skipping happily towards the front door of the Sugarcube Corner. Right before entering the bakery, she turned back at the unicorn and asked, “I’m gonna make some cherrychangas now! Are you sure you don’t want some?”
“No thanks. What I need now, is just a warm bath and a good night’s sleep. But maybe tomorrow,” Rarity said, tiredly trotting towards the Carousel Boutique, leaving Pinkie at the bakery. She couldn’t help but to wonder how Pinkie was still so full of energy, even after their full day and evening of traveling.
She got into her boutique, and without second thoughts trotted upstairs and straight into her bathroom. She filled the bathtub with warm water and took a quick bath, relaxing, and almost falling asleep in the tub. She would get proper treatment for her hooves, back, mane, tail—to her whole body in fact, at the spa tomorrow. She drained the water out of the tub, dried herself, and walked through the short hallway, and into her bedroom.
She closed the door behind her, and looked out of her bedroom window. She saw the large cloud mansion—Rainbow Dash’s home—in the distance, with the glimmering rainbow waterfalls glowing in the darkness.
“Hmm...” she thought aloud, before sitting on her bed. “I’m not much of a prankster, but maybe I could ask Pinkie tomorrow to help with pulling some subtle, yet cruel pranks on Rainbow Dash... I’m sure Pinkie wouldn’t object getting some revenge on her either...” Without another thought, she laid on her bed, yawning loudly, and fell asleep almost immediately after placing her head on the pillows.
