Sorry for not posting yesterday, I had an awful day and forgot, have a double day's worth of text today...
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“Nice to meet you too.” Twilight tried, “I see you’re really busy and I don’t want to impose so I’ll…”
“It’s no problem a’ all.” Applejack chuckled, “You want t’ sample some of the stuff for tomorrow?”
“Uhh sure? I mean I just ate but…” Twilight did not get to finish her sentence as Applejack rang a triangle and suddenly they were swarmed by the entire herd of earth ponies who had been helping get the food ready. After an introduction to everyone there, all of whose names were related to apples in some way, shape or form, which Twilight supposed was a good way of showing your family ties, the purple unicorn, her dragonic friend and their slightly crazy bright pink guide found themselves sat at a table stacked high with a sample of every type of apple related produce she had smelled on her way up to the farm.
“I don’t know if I can eat all of this…” Twilight eyed the pile nervously, kind of hoping that she was not expected to.
“I can.” Spike looked upon it, just as eager as Twilight was apprehensive and no pony could tell what Pinkie was thinking and she had already started eating. Twilight tried things here and there, but let her companions do most of the eating. Even with doing it that way, she ended up eating far more than she had intended to and felt rather like an overfull barrel which was going to burst as she confirmed that everything was, indeed, in order and headed back to the main body of Ponyville.
Pinkie, she was almost gratified to see, looked as weighed down as Twilight felt, and while the earth filly was too full to bounce along the road as she had been earlier, that did not stop her from chattering away with Spike about how good it had all been. Twilight’s attention was not really on the conversation. Instead she was trying to remember the name of the pegasus pony in charge of maintaining the weather for the duration of the ceremony because they were doing a lousy job of keeping the clouds at bay.
When she asked Pinkie, however, the earth filly’s answer was “Oh that’s easy, her name is…never mind, there she is.”
It was only through sheer dumb luck that Twilight narrowly managed to avoid the rainbow coloured blur that nearly collided with her when she looked in the direction that Pinkie was pointing. As it was she felt the breeze as a cold burst of air and watched with wide eyes as the rainbow blur crashed into a mud puddle, giggling like mad as they sat upright and looked around with pinkish purple eyes.
“That’s Rainbow Dash.” Pinkie Pie informed Twilight as the mud covered pegasus shook herself off, revealing a filly with a pale, almost sky blue coat. The rainbow colours in the blur were quite clearly from the pony’s rather windswept mane and tail. Her style kind of reminded Twilight of the orange pegasus filly she had seen duelling earlier in the day.
“You called?” Dash asked, trotting over.
“Are you the pony in charge of keeping the sky clear for tomorrow?” Twilight frowned at her, disapproving of anyone shirking their duties. “Because there’s still plenty of clouds and…”
“Yeah, yeah.” Rainbow Dash, somehow, swam backwards in the skies with her fore hooves tucked behind her head, confusing Twilight no end as she had never worked out how the pegasi race as a whole could do that. “I’ll have the sky clear but I’ve been busy practising.”
“Practising?” Twilight asked, still looking unamused but forgiving her slightly if she had been busy working on something else rather than just loafing off, “For what?”
“The Wonderbolts.” Dash’s reply made it sound as if that should have been obvious, “I’m going to show them my moves when they come to Ponyville tomorrow.”
“You won’t be able to show them anything if the sky isn’t clear.” Twilight pointed out, coming up with an idea and trying not to smirk, “And they’re the best flyers in Equestria, I bet a pegasus that couldn’t keep the sky clear for an entire day wouldn’t even get a second look.”
“I could clear the skies in ten. seconds. flat.” Dash snorted, ill amused by the threat to her dream.
‘Hook, line and sinker.’ Twilight thought with a smug grin, “Prove it.”
She did. Twilight was left rather in awe as the pale blue filly cleared the skies of Ponyville of every cloud in them in about nine seconds in some incredible feats of acrobatics and fancy flying. Suddenly Dash’s dream of flying with the Wonderbolts did not seem as farfetched as Twilight had thought it had.
“You should see the look on your face!” Dash crowed, giggling just as hard as Pinkie Pie who was used to people under estimating Rainbow like Twilight had, “I hope you stick around Twilight Sparkle, you’re a laugh.” With that Dash shot off to keep practising.
“She’s amazing.” Spike sounded in awe as he watched her go.
Twilight could not bring herself to disagree. Rainbow Dash’s speed could have been explained away as her ‘special talent’ as her rainbow coloured lightning bolt cutie mark showed, but the agility and skill spoke of a pony who had worked themselves every day for a long time to get as good as she had. It was something that Twilight could understand.
“Rainbow Dash was practising before she moved to Ponyville and that was ages ago.” Pinkie shared with them in an oddly conspiratorially whisper. Twilight blinked at her, trying to work out the reason for the tone and beginning to wonder if the earth pony was a little out there. Twilight’s confused silence encouraged Pinkie to keep talking, giving the unicorn an insight into Rainbow’s prankster but loyal nature and the fact her deck was, apparently, full of griffins.
Not that Twilight wanted to admit to herself that she wanted to know about the strengths and weaknesses of the Duellists in the area. She was still trying to kid herself that she was not interested in playing against anyone and that she did not want to take a break to see how good some of the locals were.
Helpfully for her resolve, the DuelRune grids were still busy when they passed again on their way to the town hall where Princess Celestia was going to address the masses just before dawn and there was a queue building up.
“Aren’t there any more girds in town?” Spike asked as he watched a few plain card battles go on, on the nearby tables.
“Only a couple.” Pinkie did not seem bothered by the queues, suggesting that it was a regular occurrence, “We don’t get many merchants through here with DuelTech, so the town tends to band together and get a lot of stuff at once from the nearest city. We could really use a store around here for it but…” She shrugged. “Guess the right pony hasn’t moved into town yet.”
And probably would not for a while, Twilight frowned thoughtfully. It was a shame, with no competitors in the town, whichever pony came out here would make a killing. She supposed that the fees for getting the goods would be quite high though, which was probably what stopped any pony in town that was interested from setting up shop.
There was not much Twilight could do about it. She was not interested in running a store. Not only that but as Celestia’s personal student she had her duties to her studies and that was what she had to focus on. Still that was not to mean that she did not feel sorry for the citizens of Ponyville. It was a lot easier to get things in Canterlot after all, where there were shops for everything.
As they stepped into the town hall, it was clear someone had been busy. It was festooned with colourful banners and streamers with flowers in most corners. Twilight expected to have to prevent Spike from eying up the gemstones that were being used as accents in all the right places so that they caught the light. Twilight was willing to bet they would send cascades of light across the room at the right time of day.
The pony responsible for the gorgeous decorations was a white unicorn with a well groomed, curly purple mane and tail and three diamonds as her cutie mark. She was the centre of Spike’s focus instead of the gemstones in the decorations.
“She’s gorgeous.” Spike breathed dreamily, causing Twilight to roll her eyes at the young dragon and Pinkie to giggle.
“The decorations are pretty incredible.” Twilight told the dragonet, trying to get his mind back on track before they stepped forward, “Excuse me, are you ‘Rarity’?” Twilight asked, double checking the name on her list.
“Why yes I am darling, who...” The white unicorn spoke as she turned to look at them and let out a shocked gasp, “Pinkie Pie, you’re tracking mud right across the floor!”
It was a bit of an odd response but it made Twilight pause and look at herself, only to wince when she realised that Rainbow Dash had shaken off most of the mud onto her and Pinkie Pie.
“Sorry Rarity.” Pinkie looked properly contrite for a few moments before grinning, “I brought a new friend to see you though.”
“I can see.” Rarity looked Twilight up and down curiously, “Though she’s just as muddy as you are, what have you two been doing?”
“We had a bit of a collision with Rainbow Dash.” Twilight sighed, wishing she had thought to check her flank after Dash’s mud bath, “I’m Twilight Sparkle, it’s nice to meet you.”
“You poor dear. Rainbow Dash is good at her job but when it comes to grooming she’s a nightmare.” Rarity sighed, “Come on, you can get cleaned up at my place.”
“I don’t want to be a bother...” Twilight tried, not wanting to disturb her when she was working.
“It’s no bother at all dear.” Rarity shook her head and herded the trio back out of the door, “I simply can’t leave you like that, the mud will dry and then you’ll be stuck and that’s simply not good enough.”
“I suppose...” Now she was aware that she was dirty, Twilight really wanted to wash, “Do you mind if I ask you about how the preparations are going at the same time? You see I’ve been sent from Canterlot to...”
“Canterlot?” Rarity practically squealed, “I’ve always wanted to live in Canterlot. The glitz, the glamour, the sophistication...you simply have to tell me all about it! Oooh, I have an idea.” Twilight did not get the chance to object before the excited unicorn changed course and herded them to the spa instead.
“I don’t really have time...” Twilight tried before they stepped in the door.
“Nonsense darling, you don’t have to have the full treatment, but I’m sure you’re used to a little pampering now and then and we can spend time getting to know each other.” Rarity giggled back at her.
“Supposed to be making friends.” Spike whispered in her ear, “Remember?”
“You just want to date her.” Twilight grumbled back at him at just as low a tone but did not fight when Rarity dragged her through the door and introduced her to Colgate and Berry, the two spa ponies.
She had to admit that she felt a lot more relaxed after their spa session. Having spent most of it trading information with the unicorn, who had been happy to tell her exactly what she had done and what was left to do in exchange for information about the capital city, she was pretty sure that she had a much better grip on the plans than she had when she had heard them from the slightly crazy Pinkie Pie. It helped that the massage had worked the knots out of some of her stress tightened muscles and her coat had not shimmered like it did now since she had been a foal and gotten herself coated in glitter.
“That was fun!” Pinkie grinned at her as she bounced along to where it had been suggested that they would find the last pony she needed to talk to, a pegasus pony who Pinkie had told her was called Fluttershy.
“Yeah, it was.” Twilight admitted. If she was honest with herself, because she had been trying to get on with the ponies she was surrounded by rather than trying to ignore them like she normally would have done, she had had a lot of fun, more so than she had had in a while. She hated to admit it, but she was beginning to understand why the Princess had given her this test.
She loved her books and that was never going to change, but the truth was that she had been getting stale, doing the same thing day in, day out. Life had not been a interesting as it could be for a while and she was pretty sure that it was the change of circumstance and location that had caused it.
In Canterlot she was known as ‘Princess Celestia’s Personal Student.’ Ponies were always a little wary around her if they did not know her and those who did were either her classmates who tended to ignore her when they were not making rude comments or her family, who she loved dearly but were always busy. Then there was Spike, who had to deal with her on a twenty-four hour basis and would never have thought that a spa trip was a good way to gather information, and the Princess who possibly would have done but could never have taken the time out of her busy schedule to take a spa day with her even if she had ever worked up the courage to ask.
Getting out and meeting new people had made her broaden her horizons and that was great and she was actually dreading returning to the humdrum of Canterlot where the only thing she had to look forward to were her studies and any time she managed to steal with her brother or the Princess.
That did not mean, however, she was not looking forward to going back the Golden Oaks Library at the end of the day and curling up with a good book, probably one about the Elements of Harmony in preparation for tomorrow. Just in case, of course. She did not think she had done as much walking as she had today for quite a while and between that and the fact it had been very late when she had gotten into Ponyville she was actually thinking about taking a nap between now and the start of the celebrations tomorrow morning.
First of all though, she had a pegasus pony to meet. She was not very hard to find. They heard Fluttershy’s birds practising before they saw them and they just followed the sound until they came to a meadow where a pale yellow pegasus filly whose mane and tail were both straight and pale pink, was hovering in the air before a tree laden with birds and conducting the harmony.
Twilight hesitated to interrupt her practising. The birds were in fine voice and there was only one bird who was consistently out of tune, a woodpecker who seemed determined to throw off the rhythm, though the purple unicorn filly could not tell if it was deliberate or not, having never dealt with birds before.
She went to step into the meadow, only for Pinkie to get in her way. “Wait!”
“What?” Twilight was confused.
“You have to approach Fluttershy slowly. She spooks.” Pinkie informed her slowly but patiently, partly amusing Twilight since this was the first time all day the pink earth pony had done anything slowly and partly giving Twilight of some idea of why it annoyed her brother when she did the same thing.
“Fluttershy...got it.” Twilight realised, stepping out quietly and introducing herself in a pause in the music by coughing politely rather than going up to the pegasus and saying ‘hi’ as she had been planning to do.
The filly still jumped, but she landed gracefully at least which in Twilight’s mind was a bonus. She turned around to look at Twilight with huge, wide eyes and a nervous shuffle of her hooves, half hiding behind her mane.
“Hello, I’m Twilight Sparkle.” Celestia’s student introduced herself, “I’m overseeing the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration. Pinkie,” She gestured behind her to the normally bouncy earth pony who was approaching with care, not wanting to spook the yellow filly anymore than she already was, “Told me that you’re Fluttershy and you’re in charge of the music?”
Fluttershy glanced at Pinkie, a slight look of relief on her features when she realised she would not have to introduce herself to the stranger in their midst, then nodded shyly.
“Well they sound fantastic.” Twilight informed her with a bright smile, “And I can’t wait for tomorrow. I won’t take up any more of your time, but I’ll tick you off of my list as ready, is that okay?” When Fluttershy nodded, Spike put a big tick next to her name.
Then Fluttershy actually spotted Spike and all the nervousness vanished as she squealed, “A baby dragon!” and shot forward, swooping over Twilight and landing, in a somersault that Rainbow Dash would have been proud of, next to Spike. “Aren’t you adorable!?”
“Why thank you.” Spike preened, making his friend groan as Fluttershy’s they trudged back to the town, Fluttershy in tow. Not that she thought it was a bad thing that the pale yellow pegasus was interested in the purple dragon riding her back, but Spike gradually got more animated the longer he and the filly, whose cutie mark was three pink butterflies, talked, making for an uncomfortable and vaguely painful load.
It was a relief when they got back to the tree that the library rested within and she could apologise to Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie, reassuring the latter that she had had a good day and she just needed a brief rest to write up her report and send it before the celebration.
“But Twilight...” She could see Spike was not happy with her as they stepped into the library and shut the door behind them, leaving them in pitch darkness. However Twilight had just about had enough of other ponies and really did need time with her books, away from the crowds before she faced them again.
“I’ve been making friends all day Spike.” Twilight was firm, “I really just want to read the letter the Princess gave me and settle down to look into the Elements of Harmony for a couple of hours. I’m not a party pony and that’s what will be going on all...” She flicked the light switch, waking up the glowworms in the light in the ceiling.
“Surprise!” Twilight jumped out of her skin at the cacophony that greeted her the moment she could see and she turned to look at the crowd with dread. Every pony was there and it really was, practically every pony. Some of whom she had met during the day, including all five of the organisers, suggesting that they had finished their work at least, most of whom she had not.
“Bet you’re surprised huh?” Pinkie asked, bounding over, “Are you surprised?”
“I’m surprised alright,” Twilight admitted a little unhappily, not used to her private space being invaded like this, “When did you have time to organise this?”
“That’s a secret.” Pinkie giggled at her, pleased that Twilight had not guessed over the course of the day. Pinkie had been throwing the party together with help from various citizens of Ponyville ever since she had seen the unicorn arrive in town and was actually glad that Twilight had not noticed that she had slipped away from the spa to put the finishing touches on it. “But you have to have a housewarming party, so here it is.”
Twilight did not have the heart to remind her that she was not staying in Ponyville after the Summer Sun Celebration. Instead she wandered over to the drinks table which was laden with apple juice from Sweet Apple Acres, along with several other beverages and cupcakes. Using her magic she poured herself a drink from the nearest available bottle and downed it in one swift movement only to feel her mouth start painfully burning up and tears start pouring down her cheeks, making a fool of herself as she whinnied and backed up from the table with her tongue hanging out, not thinking for a moment to drink something else.
Finally it occurred to her and she guzzled down a bottle of apple juice, cooling her mouth down enough for her to think clearly. She was just starting a second drink when she saw it, the bottle she had drunk from was for hot sauce, not a beverage. Some pony had left the bottle on the table and watching Pinkie Pie smiling and the other ponies smirking or laughing at her, she was pretty sure she knew who it was who had set her up. Pinkie Pie, who had been so nice to her today, who had helped her out and even, though she had not wanted it, gone out of her way to put together a party, had set her up to look like a fool in front of all the ponies in Ponyville.
Twilight could not deal with it. She fled to her bedroom and slammed the door shut behind her, only not barricading it behind her so Spike could get in.
After everything she had done to try and fit in, to try and make friends with the local ponies, the one she had dared let in the most had been the one to prank her and make her look like an idiot and it hurt.
Worse, if she had not made friends, if she had been used all day to set up some elaborate prank, then she had failed the Princess’s test and she had no idea what would happen in the morning. Dismissal from Celestia’s service was the most terrifying thing Twilight could think of and if she failed a test, any test, it was a possibility. Now, thanks to Pinkie, it could happen. The Princess could consider her unworthy of training and dismiss her, she could even send her back to Magic Kindergarten if she considered the failure bad enough…
The purple unicorn stumbled over to her bag, not really thinking clearly and used her magic to try and yank a book out of it, sending the contents tumbling everywhere including a certain golden box. It skidded across the ground, its lid going one way while the nearly finished artefact within went the other, shedding pieces as it went and the letter she had been storing with it slid in yet another.
“No, no, no!” Twilight moaned collecting up the scattered pieces, the rest of the artefact and the letter and went and slumped on her bed, laying everything out carefully.
It did not look too bad. The pieces were not damaged and they slipped back into place with a little careful work and a lot of luck considering how badly her control on her magic was faltering after the nasty surprise just as badly as her emotional control.
When it was done she relaxed a little and stared at the letter from Celestia. She was not sure she wanted to read it. Not when it was clear that even if she understood the meaning of this test, which she thought she did, she was still going to fail it. Still it was from the Princess and she could not bring herself to ignore her instructions. The alicorn Princess of the Sun had told her to read the letter this evening, not doing so could only make the situation worse.
“Guess I don’t have a choice.” Twilight sighed as she cut the seal and let the scroll unfurl. She was shocked to see the missing piece of the puzzle fall out of the roll and barely managed to prevent it from bouncing off of the bed in time. She stared at it for a while, holding the piece in front of her to examine properly. It was the same shape as the biggest of the stars on her cutie mark, while the wadjet eye was prominent on it as a raised shape. It was a surprisingly detailed piece and she was glad to have it back again. However she did not understand why it had been wrapped in the Princess’s letter.
She put it down gently and picked up the letter, hoping that Celestia would explain within it what had happened that meant she had had it to give to Twilight now.
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