What Happened To Yesterday

“Wow Sweetie Belle, you actually got your cutie mark? About time one of you blank flanks stepped up.” The nasally voice of Diamond Tiara echoed off of the walls of the small schoolhouse, drawing the attention of every foal in the room.

“Leave them alone Diamond Tiara! They’re going to get their cutie marks and they’ll be a million times better than yours!” Sweetie Belle stood on her chair, a sneer across her face. Today was her special day and she wouldn’t let Diamond Tiara ruin it! “I mean look at me? I’m a singer? What’s your special talent? Being a spoiled brat?” At that the pink filly looked offended, she was about to say something, but apparently decided against it. For the first time in a long time, the Cutie Mark Crusaders had gotten Diamond Tiara to shut up.

“Wow, good job Sweetie.” Scootaloo patted her friend on the back. While she had been the last pony to wake up and see Sweetie’s cutie mark, she had been the most energetic about it. She had been the one to tell her that she was still an illustrious member of the Cutie Mark Crusader, heck she was the first alum.

Whenever Applebloom arrived at school to meet her two friends that had walked their together, Scootaloo had been the one to convince the obviously jealous farm filly that Sweetie Belle could still help them get their cutie marks. After all, who better to get help from than somepony who already had theirs?

“Yeah. We won’t be hearin’ her annoyin’ voice for a long time.” Applebloom agreed with a smile. Scootaloo was happy that her friends were all happy about this, it would be really easy for something like this to tear them apart.

“Good morning my little ponies!” The overly-awake schoolteacher came in and took her spot in front of the class. “I hope you all did your homework.” A collective groan echoed across the small room.

--

Twilight sat at the table in the main room of the library. The bust that usually occupied the space was on the floor, haphazardly discarded. The once pristine table top was now having a knife dug into it, ancient runes an lines being carved into it.

Twilight knew how this worked, she had studied up on it in ‘Banned Spells and Forbidden Magics’ It was foal’s play. She simply had to carve the leylines from the center of the table where the spell would be cast to the place where her friends hooves would be placed. This was the easy part, the hard part was perfecting the spell.

The spell in the book would work of course, but it would need to be tweaked. In the book the punishments were random magical enchantments. She needed to make it so the punishments were predetermined. She already had the punishments in mind…most of them fair…others not so much.

“I believe I have an idea for Berry’s.” Twiliacorn pulled a book in front of her bigger self. Twilight glanced over the page, her eyes widening.

“I can’t do that. Im not powerful enough! Only the highest level of unicorn could cast that spell.” Twilight knew she was strong, heck stronger than any unicorn she knew, but she wasn’t the top tier yet.

“That’s just what they want you to think. Imagine it, the power. How could the farmer not be attracted to something like that. He admires power, just look at him.” Once again, she found Twilacorn to be right. Then again, how could she not? The little thing was her after all.

“Well alright, I’ll try. But I’ll have a backup just in case it fails.” She created one last set of circles in the table, the intricate design now done. It was time for her to try to write this spell out…magical formulae were her specialty, so this shouldn’t be too hard.

“Someone’s coming.” Twilacorn disappeared in a poof of magic as she usually did when somepony came near. Twilight found that odd, after all only she could see the little delusion….right?

“Hey Twilight. I got those invitations all written out.” Whew, it was only Spike. The baby dragon had been doing errands for Twilight all over the town over the past few days. It wasn’t that she didn’t have the time to do them herself, it was just that Spike was faster at doing them and he was more personable than her.

“Thank you Spike. Mind having Owlyicious take them to everypony?” She already had a notepad and quill before her, the formula already coming to her. She heard the little reptile behind her sigh, but she knew he would do it. “Thank you.” The unicorn idly said, not even remotely phased by her assistant’s bad mood.

--

Berry, like everyday in the kitchen, had the radio blaring. Everything seemed to go by faster when there was music present, even if it wasn’t his own. Right now one of Mareoon 5’s newest songs was playing. While he loved their music, the lead singer was the reason he listened. Who could resist Atom Leavin? Not Berry, he was a sucker for stallions with tattoos.

“How could you do it?” He sang along, his rump swinging back and forth to the beat. “Oh, you better watch yourself. I think that mare’s insane.” Luckily, both Berry and Atom had exceptionally high voices for males, so the song was no problem to keep on key with.

As the chorus approached, Berry spun and slid the muffin tray into the open oven. He started to hum the chorus as he picked up the icing tool with his mouth. Of course the greatest thing about music was that it could take the mind off of anything at all. That’s exactly what it was doing for Berry, taking his mind off a certain farmer and letting it wander in the fantasies of a tattooed stallion.

He began icing cupcakes only the way he could, in colorful rainbow patterns. It was his calling card, though for some reason Dashie didn’t like them. When she came near them it was like she was riding some sort of…rocket to insanity or something. Just another thing about mares that confused him.

Just as he finished icing this batch of sweets, his song ended. He was sad to hear that angelic voice go, but he was happy to hear another song come on. Like himself, his favorite station was a bit eclectic. The pop of Mareoon 5 turned into the classic rock of Queen.

Oh Berry loved Queen. When he left the radio-less pit of the Quarry, it was one of first bands he had heard. When he had learned about the lead singer, Freezing Mercury, was a gay stallion…well, Berry found that he liked the band even more. When he heard about how he died…well that was another story.

“Empty spaces. What are we living for?” This was from their last recorded album, Innuendo. It was a great album, Berry had a physical copy of it even. “Abandoned places, I guess we know this door~” Ah, The Show Must Go On. Such a lovely message, and such a touching back story behind it.

“Berry, three cinnamon rolls!” The call came in from Mr. Cake, who leaned in the door to shout orders when needed. Berry put the cupcake tray on the shelf labeled ‘ready’ and danced his way over to the dough.

Through the window flew in a very familiar looking owl. In his beak he held an envelope. Berry grabbed one of the oversized taffy twisters on his way over to use as a makeshift microphone for his singing. When he was close enough, he snatched the letter from the bird’s beak and opened it.

“Oooh. Twilight’s having a party? I am so there~!” With a dab of icing he took from the counter, he checked the yes box that was next to his name and put it back in the envelope. Before he could think about giving it back, the owl snatched it from him and flew away.

--

Rarity hummed her favorite Canterlonian instrumental as it played from the speaker in her workspace. Her ruby red glasses pushed up close to her eyes as she tried to focus on the task at hoof. This was intricate work, stitching her own cutie mark into the inside of the dress as her trademark.

It was a thing of beauty to see her mark on a dress that was going to be worn by THE Fleur De Lis in a few scant weeks. After this debuted, the orders would pour in, she could just feel it this time.

“Oh how I wish all of my orders could be this important…” She murmured to the dress. She did love all of her creations equally, after all they were all Rarity originals. How could somepony not love them?

As she finished the outline of the three diamonds on the inside of the dress, she decided that a break was in order. This dress was done, it was going to do it’s work later. For now, a little rest.

She turned off her personal record player, hit the lights, and made her way to her bedroom. It was the ultimate place of personal zen in her home, it held all of the memories of yesteryear that always made her calm down.

Once she entered her boudoir, she took a seat on her personal sofa and picked up a familiar picture with her magic. It was taken about five or six years ago…gosh they were all so young back then.

Berry was hugging Rainbow Dash with all of his might, a smile on both of their faces, Fluttershy was hiding behind her then absurdly long mane, and Rarity, well she was sitting there holding up a dress she had made that had won the local dress design contest. The picture always seemed to make her smile. Especially the way they looked.

Berry with his mess of a mane and bright blue braces, Rainbow Dash with her ponytail and aviators, Fluttershy’s mane that hung down to the ground, and herself with the awful design of the dress.  What? You expected her to insult her own appearance? She just looked younger, if not prettier than she did now if that was possible.

Where was Applejack you may ask? Well that was around the time his parents perished in that tragic accident. The farmer was at home taking care of his family as he would for the coming lifetime. He had no time to celebrate a milestone in her career, and nopony could blame him.

But Rarity always noted one important thing. No Twilight. It was before she came to town and turned them all into stressed out elements of harmony. Now Rarity loved the fame that came with the title, what she did not love was the stress lines and sleepless nights that came with it.

“If only we could live in the past forever.” Rarity commented as she put the picture down. “If only if only’s came true.” She leaned against the back of the couch and closed her eyes, remembering the years past.

“Who?” Rarity jumped and looked around, noting the owl sitting at the other end of her sofa.

“Owlyicious? What in Equestria are you doing here?” As if to answer her, the owl held out his talon which had an envelope in it. Curiously, she took the package from the bird and withdrew the paper within. She read it only once. “Twilight is holding a soirée? Why of course I will be there. Something interesting always happens at her little parties.” Noticing Berry’s frosting mark by his name, Rarity grabbed the quill from the inkwell on her desk and checked the box next to her own name with a flourish.

--

Applejack and Big Macintosh were working the orchard together again. Their plan was to have three fourths of all of the trees done by the end of the day. With them working as a team, they figured that would be a breeze.

The sun was a little unforgiving though, even in the shade of the trees. Both stallions were sweating in the heat, it was hard to do good work when the heat was bearing down on you. Unexpectedly, Applejack’s brother started to beat his hooves in a familiar beat. Then, he started to sing in his familiar bass.

“Buckin’ these trees in the hot sun.” His hooves hit the tree with a tremendous force, the apples even fell down with the even beat he was stomping out with his hooves. “I fought the law and the law won.” Applejack knew this song well, so he joined in.

“I fought the law and the law won.” They moved quickly, their hooves still keeping the beat while expertly sorting the apples into the cart they were towing around.

“I wanted money and I had none.” Applejack belted out, taking over the song from his brother, who he knew was content with the chorus.

“I fought the law and the law won.” Both brothers sang together. “I fought the law and the law won!”

Onto the next tree they went, hooves still keeping the simple beat that went along with the song. Big Mac hit the tree while Applejack kept going.

“I left my baby and I feel so bad!” Applejack was going to continue, but an owl landed in front of him with an envelope in its beak. The song ended with that, Applejack snatched the envelope away from the pesky bird, whose name escaped him.

It was an invitation to a get together Twilight was throwing. He saw Berry and Rarity’s names were checked. Then two things hit him at once…the last few lyrics he sang of that song and Berry. Talk about a freight train of emotion with cars full of irony.

He felt so bad about leaving Berry…this stupid thing just had to bring it all back didn’t it? The stallion fought to keep control of his emotions, of course he won out in the end…but he knew he couldn’t suppress them forever.

Reluctantly, Applejack retrieved the red crayon that he knew Applebloom stashed in the wagon and marked next to his name in the affirmative. He wouldn’t miss making up with Twilight just because Berry was going to be there.

--

Above the hustle and bustle of Ponyville, a watchful guardian sat on a cloud. She wasn’t just looking over the city, but over a certain pink friend of hers as well. While sleeping on a wandering cloud early this morning, she had heard the sad ramblings of said friend. He was lamenting the fact that, once again, he and Applejack were through.

Now don’t get the wrong idea. Rainbow Dash loves all of her friends and wants to make sure they’re all happy, but she was tired and it was early. The decision to not confront him right then and there was a matter of being too tired to move.

However, now she was just making sure the baker didn’t do something rash or regrettable. She had almost been found out when Owlyicious had flown by earlier with a letter and been hooting like there was no tomorrow. She had to check her little name and send the bird on his way.

Just thinking about him made her smile. They had been best friends for years, and more happy memories than she could even count flowed from the sheer thought of him. Some very funny ones as well.

Like the time they went to one of Rarity’s parties when they were sixteen and played spin the bottle. Oh man, kissing Berry had been an experience. Just seeing him trying to wipe the ‘girl germs’ off of his tongue was so worth it in RD’s eyes.

Then there was the time she had caught him yanking it in the backroom of Sugarcube Corner. Now that was quite the moment. Granted, it was the first time she had ever seen a male in…that situation. But they both had to laugh it off or risk it becoming too awkward to hang out with each other.

Then there was the best day she could ever think of. The day Berry said he wanted to fly like her. At first, the idea was completely laughable. An earth pony flying? Who could ever make such a thing happen?

Berry could.

It was the conception of his ‘Bike-O-Copter’ that Gilda had broken about two years back. At first, Dash didn’t think it could fly…it looked way too convoluted to achieve lift-off. But sure enough, it did.

The greatest flying experience she ever had was that day. Greater than a sonic rainboom, greater than auditioning for the Wonderbolts or flying at a royal wedding. She got to spend the whole day doing the thing she loved with her best friend in the world. The memory still lifted her spirits.

Now if someone ever threatened to take that stallion away from her, or hurt him in any way that he changed? They were going to pay. Big time.