"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Rainbow Dash hovered a couple inches
off the sawdust covering the floor of Applejack's barn and made
a 'time-out' sign with her front hoofs. "The princess is gonna
do what??"
Twilight sighed. "We have two princesses now, you know."
"Indeed we do!" Rarity gave a brisk nod. "And I for one
think it's a marvelous gesture on Princess Celestia's part!"
She fluttered her eyelashes. "Allowing her poor, repentant
sister to take the throne of both day and night for the next
week! Sheer poetry!"
"Huh?" Pinkie Pie cocked her head. "I didn't hear
anything rhyme."
"But Twilight!" Fluttershy's breathy voice seemed even
more hesitant than usual. "Princess Luna was..." She glanced
around the otherwise empty barn and whispered, "She was
Nightmare Moon! She wanted to take over the world and make it
dark all the time! What if she...if she...?" Her eyes got
wider as her voice squeaked away to nothing.
"Yes." Twilight licked her lips. "That's the second
part." After the princess had left the library at four o'clock
this morning, Twilight had banished the idea of sleep and had
started making a list of things she needed to get organized over
the next two days for the trip to Canterlot. And the first
thing on that list was this meeting to tell her friends about
Princess Luna's request.
It took less time than she'd thought it would, and she
wrapped the explanation up by nodding to Spike, the little
dragon setting his quill pen to a piece of parchment. "Now, I'm
voting 'yes.' But we'll need to be unanimous in deciding to do
this, so if anypony has any objections--"
"Yer darn tootin' I do!" Applejack leapt to her hoofs. "A
week?? Away from the farm?? Ain't no way, no how!"
But Twilight had spent the early morning hours making lists
of counter-arguments, too. "It's practically winter, Applejack.
The first snow'll be falling any day now, right, Dash?"
Rainbow Dash shrugged. "I'd hafta check the schedule, but
yeah, next week or the week after." She grinned. "'Cept I'm
gonna be outta town in the capitol, aren't I? Can't wait to
tell the crew that!"
Spike made a check mark on his paper. "I'd call that our
second 'yes' vote."
"Snow don't matter!" Applejack set her jaw. "Winter's
just as busy 'round here as any other time'a the year, y'know!
I cain't go gallivantin' off to--"
"Canterlot!" Rarity's face absolutely glowed: Twilight had
suspected she wouldn't have any trouble convincing her. "And
being on Princess Luna's staff means a week at the top of the
social ladder! Oh, the gowns we shall need!"
"And the parties!" Pinkie's eyes spun like pinwheels. "I
mean, I'm sure they're all, like, powdered wigs and minuets up
there now, but once Pinkie Pie comes through, they'll know how a
party's done!"
Twilight heard Spike's quill scratch two more check marks.
"Four 'yes' votes, then."
But she was keeping her attention on Applejack. "I know
it's a lot to ask, AJ, but Princess Luna needs us! She told me--"
Twilight had to swallow, remembering the princess's voice
quivering slightly in the quiet of the library earlier not that
many hours ago. "She told me we're the only ponies she knows in
the whole world now other than her sister. We...we're the
closest thing to friends she has."
"Friends??" Applejack waved her front hoofs. "She tried
her dangedest to kill us! 'Member that avalanche?? An' the
manticore?? An' the--??"
Dash snorted. "We all do, AJ. But that's why it hasta be
us! We're the ones kicked her tail, and she knows we can do it
again!"
"Dag nab it!" Applejack's frown softened. "But I reckon
yer right. I can always leave a list here fer Mac and the
girls, but the Elements of Harmony, well, ain't no one else can
do that." Her frown hardened again. "But one week, an' I'm
outta there, y'all hear me?"
Twilight sighed in relief, Spike making a fifth check mark
on his paper. "Thanks, Applejack." She turned then to the spot
where Fluttershy had been sitting and had to blink when she saw
nothing there but an empty stretch of floor, the yellow pegasus
nowhere in sight. "Fluttershy?"
Dash sprang into the air. "Oh, great! C'mon! She
can't've gotten too far!" And she sped out the barn door, the
others jumping up to follow on hoof.
"The poor dear," Rarity said, tossing her mane beside
Twilight, the two unicorns galloping out into the sheer blue of
the frosty morning. "Not exactly the 'bright lights, big city'
sort, is she?"
A pop behind them, and Twilight looked back to see Pinkie
Pie trotting out, her jaw working a huge mass of bubble gum.
"She's just mixed-up. I mean, whoever heard of playing hide-n-
seek where the pony who's 'it' hides and the rest of us hafta go
seeking?" She blew another bubble and popped it. "I really
need to run through the rules with her again."
Applejack pushed past the pink earth pony, her gaze aimed
upward. "Anythin', Dash?" she called.
"Nope!" Rainbow Dash swooped down. "I'm gonna head over
to her place and see if she's hiding under the bed."
"Right." Applejack looked at the other ground-bound
ponies. "Twilight, how 'bout you, me an' Spike stay looking
'round the hills here? Rarity, you an' Pinkie can try callin'
for her down the road to town. OK?"
Twilight nodded, perfectly happy to let AJ organize this.
Rarity and Pinkie turned for Sweet Apple Acres' front gate, and
Twilight heard Pinkie saying, "Maybe if we both dressed up like
bunnies..." before they went around the corner of the barn and
passed from earshot.
The sudden weight on her back told her Spike had climbed
aboard. "You think she's all right?" he asked.
A sigh from Applejack. "Girl's always been flighty as a
new-born filly, but I know summa her hidey holes." She gestured
to the south. "How 'bout you two head on down the orchard?
This time'a year, if she's up a tree, she oughtta be perty easy
to spot."
Twilight looked at Spike, and his shrug earned another of
Applejack's sighs. "'Cause we's already run the leaves off 'em,
'member?" Shaking her head, she turned for the hills north of
the farm. "City folk..."
Starting down the slope toward the autumn-bare trees,
Twilight blushed a little that she'd forgotten that, but then it
hadn't been nearly as exciting this year as last: without
Applejack and Rainbow Dash distracting each other and the other
runners, she'd only managed to come in 17th...
Spike gave a little snort. "Like we don't have enough to
do already! I mean, two days to get ready for a week in
Canterlot? Where are we even gonna stay? Our old place at the
university? Or in the Night Palace? 'Cause if you're really on
Princess Luna's staff, I should be setting things up with
Stargazer and the rest of the Night Ministers, not wandering
around an apple orchard looking for--"
"You're right." Twilight was painfully aware of all the
things she had on her own list, too. "You head back to the
library, Spike, and I'll keep nosing around here for a while."
"What?" His tone made her swivel her head around, his face
shocked. "You want me to walk all the way to Ponyville? On my
own??"
Twilight started to sigh, but a thought made her smile.
"If you hurry, you can probably catch up with Rarity. I'm sure
she'd be happy to give you a ride into town."
Spike's eyes widened; he hopped off her back and took off
for the farm's front gate faster than Twilight had ever seen him
move. "See you around, Twilight!"
She watched him for a moment, chuckled, turned with a shake
of her head--and found herself staring directly into
Fluttershy's emerald eyes, the yellow pegasus hovering right in
front of her. "I'm sorry, Twilight," she said, her words rushed
and slurred, "but I can't go to Canterlot! Can't! There's all
the winter blankets for my little woodland friends! I've barely
even started getting them out of storage let alone started
giving them out!"
"Fluttershy,--"
"And who'll turn the heater on and off in the henhouse?
I've tried and tried to explain to the roosters and hens how the
controls work, but they never seem to get it!"
"Fluttershy,--"
"And snow doesn't bank itself, you know! If I'm not there,
it's likely to cover over my little friends' burrows! And then
where'll they be?? Buried in the snow! Buried!"
"I'll help you, Fluttershy!" With an sigh, Twilight
mentally threw her list into the wind. "We've got today and
tomorrow, and we can certainly get a good start on those
blankets in that time. We can ask Apple Bloom and the Cutie
Mark Crusaders to look in on your chickens if it gets cold, and
the snow, well, Dash said that might not start till the week
after." She caught Fluttershy's hoofs between her own, held
them, looked into the pegasus's wide eyes. "But we need you,
Fluttershy. Equestria needs you. Without Kindness, the
Elements of Harmony can't hold together, and without the
Elements of Harmony, Princess Luna won't trust herself to do her
duty."
"But..." Fluttershy swallowed so hard, Twilight could
follow it down her neck. "Canterlot! And...and everything!"
"We'll all be there together, Fluttershy." Twilight kept
hold of her friend's hoofs. "Please?"
For a long moment, Twilight could feel the pegasus
trembling. Then in a tiny voice, Fluttershy asked, "You'll
really help me? Get the blankets done before...before we
leave?"
"Of course!" And that made it unanimous. Twilight smiled.
"Rainbow Dash is at your place right now, so we can get her to
help, too!"From here, then, you can move on to Chapter 3 as the adventure continues.
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