My Only Friend

by ConnVolpe

Chapters

• 1. Discovery
• 2. Secrets
• 3. Worries
• 4. Paranoia
• 5. Motivation
• 6. Escape
• 7. Mare-nap
• 8. Tomorrow
• 9. Migration
• 10. Reunited

1. Discovery

‘Shoot, we still didn’t get our cutie marks. Ah really thought we would this time…’

‘What would a cutie mark in ventriloquism even look like?’

‘I don’t know. I hope it wouldn’t be a hoof up the puppet’s-‘

‘Scootaloo, stop. I don’t want that image in my head.’

The Cutie Mark Crusaders had just finished the week’s classes. They’d performed a ventriloquist act for their project on ‘Unusual Talents’.  The puppet was meant to be Rainbow Dash, or who it was based on. Scootaloo, Applebloom and Sweetie Belle had all worked on the body and it was perfect. Unfortunately they only had 3 colours of yarn and a  small pile of orange hairs, which Scootaloo insisted were not from her coat, for the mane.

But after all their effort, Diamond Tiara had messed the whole performance up my drawing the class’ attention to the purple tail protruding from the wings and a microphone cable running across the stage and pointing out Sweetie Belle, who conversed with the puppet, wasn’t doing the fairly accurate voice. It had been a long week with no cutie mark rewards for their efforts. They decided to continue their crusade tomorrow.

‘So we’ll meet up at HQ tomorrow for break dancing.’ Sweetie Belle stated to make sure the 3 fillies were all in agreement. Applebloom looked nervous. She was the worst at dancing, even if was only by a small margin.

‘This is gonna be awesome. I can’t wait. I’ll see you gals tomorrow, I’ve got to go.’ Scootaloo cheered. She was already flapping her wings to try and build up speed on her scooter. She barely heard the goodbyes of her friends. She was gone within an instant.

‘Why does she always run off?’ Applebloom sighed.

Entering at the tree house, Scootaloo looked around for her homework. She’d left it here yesterday on the table in the middle of the room. It had gone since, but she had an idea where it was. She’d hidden many things in her hiding place and stored some of her most valuable memories there too. Oddly enough, she’d found everything she’d stored in the corner of the room with a note in very familiar writing. Rainbow Dash’s writing. It was labelled ‘Scoots, I’ve hidden something I’ll need in a while under the tree. Here’s the stuff I found. Thanks.’

It was odd that RD didn’t have enough room in her house. She’d had a whole room empty and an empty guest room where she had stayed one night. But Scootaloo never questioned Rainbow Dash and did everything she’d asked. She’d even changed her philosophy for a while to ‘What Would Rainbow Dash Do’. But it wasn’t until her homework had disappeared that she’d thought to look at what Dash had stored.

She crept out of the tree house and behind the tree. The same orange fur they’d found for the mane was caught on the tree. She was wary. Had there been an animal in there? What if they’d damaged Rainbow’s stuff? Scootaloo instantly stuck her hoof into the gap in the bottom of the tree, to protect whatever Rainbow Dash had stored. And in the hole was…

A half-eaten bag of potato chips and a pillow.

Scootaloo, disappointed with the results of her betrayal of Rainbow’s trust, sighed.

‘I guess she can’t be awesome all the time.’ She went back up into the tree house and looked once again for the homework. After half an hour of looking and a five minute break, she thought to look elsewhere. It apparently was in the tree house and it was getting late. She ought to be home by now. She’d probably left it at home, right? But she was sure it was here. Yet no evidence of it ever being here was around.

She’d have to redo it, I suppose? Having to re-read the whole book ‘How to care for pets’ would be the easy part. She also needed to re-write her whole essay on common pet habits, re-interview a known pet carer (or in other words, Rainbow Dash) and fill out a day diary for what a pet does. That wouldn’t be easy. She’d have to fudge some of the details and hope for the best.

‘Oh well. I better get started ASAP.’ She turned, at stared at Celestia’s sun. The sunset was awesome. She admired Celestia’s magic, to be able to lift something about a zillion times bigger than she was, is nothing but awesome. Although, she’d never admit it to any pony. The only thing ruining the scene was an orange figure running after some very large paper that was flying toward her. Although she couldn’t fly, she could reach the floating paper. So she did. She looked at it and saw a title. ‘Rainbow Dash’s Pet’.

‘Hey! This is my homework.’ she shouted, suddenly becoming cross at the ever close figure. It certainly wasn’t a pony. It was a small dog-like animal.

‘Winona?’ Scootaloo called, the orange animal stopped. It looked straight at her. She could have sworn she heard it exclaim something rude. She had to find out. No animal could talk. Not even her foal-hood chicken friend. She approached it with the ever most caution not to startle it. She didn’t want to run the risk of it running, especially if it had her homework.

As she got 5 steps closer, it took 1 step back. It wasn’t until she was within a foot from it that it calmed down and tilted its head out of confusion. Scootaloo returned the look. How could it be so worried and then just stop? It certainly was a confusing animal. She’d even missed its transformation from confused to happy. It appeared to be almost as happy as Pinkie Pie, although nothing could beat Pinkie, even on one of her bad days. They both wanted to break the most awkward of silence that was emanating between them. It wasn’t until the corners of the mammal’s mouth turned up that Scootaloo knew she wouldn’t be interrupted if she broke it.

‘H-Hello’ she stuttered. She didn’t know what else to say, even though she’d had a lot to say before she’d broken the silence. It was instantly turning into the most awkward meeting in the history of Equestria. Or at least the most awkward that had happened today.

‘Hi, Scootaloo.’ the canine asked, grinning when it said her name. She looked on. It talked! And it knows my name! She was screaming in delight until she realised. How does it know my name? She raised a hoof to indicate she wanted to talk but the animal interrupted her.

‘Don’t ask. I’ll explain inside.’ It chuckled, gesturing towards the tree house, ‘I’m Lunar by the way.’ It brushed up beside her and led her back to the tree house. She couldn’t help but feel that there was more to this animal than met the eye.

2. Secrets

‘That’s about it…’ Lunar finished his story. It had taken almost twenty minutes to tell Scootaloo about what had happened.

But throughout the story, he had been secretive. He didn’t tell her about the mistakes and enemies he’d made. He didn’t tell her of the problems either. Or even, how he was living here, in the tree house. But she was oblivious to the omissions and had listened to every last detail that he would give up.

‘That’s quite a story…’ Scootaloo was in disbelief. Never had she heard something so similar to her story. She could actually relate. And she felt relieved. Finally someone had come along who had felt what she had felt. Someone who was missing what she was missing. Someone who-

‘Was that sarcasm or disbelief?’ Lunar asked. Scootaloo’s eyes had widened and the corner of her mouth turned up in a smirk at the same time. Her expression and body language both displayed her feelings. Feelings that both Lunar and herself couldn’t comprehend.

‘A bit of both, actually.’ Scootaloo chuckled. Lunar joined in. Of all the ponies Lunar had met in the previous week, Scootaloo was obviously the most similar to himself. She was relaxed, had few friends and most of all, she seemed to have nowhere to go. They were really getting on. But Lunar had forgotten the sentence that he’d written in secret to one mare.

I reckon opposites could attract.

He’d written that sentence with the same smirk that had appeared on the filly’s face. In only a few words, he could explain to Scootaloo everything he’d done to the 6 mares (and the dragon) that he’d met on his travels, but he couldn’t. He had been told not to mention anything or any pony that he met after he ran away. The problem though is that if any of the 5 mares he had seen since found him, he’d probably have a very tough time explaining how he was surviving without making a problem for at least one of them. The one mare he had met up with since had told him not to mention it to any pony, and try to stay clear of the fillies that hang around the tree house. He was breaking every rule except the most important just by talking to Scootaloo. He didn’t want to lose the mare’s trust as it would be the quickest way to lose her. But if he could convince Scootaloo not to tell anyone about him…

‘Lunar? Why are you staring at me?’ Scootaloo questioned. Lunar, much like Scootaloo almost faded away from the world if they had something else on their mind. They wouldn’t daydream. It was more like deep thought. They could get through an entire monologue in their heads before anyone noticed they’d faded. It was another thing they had in common.

‘I honestly don’t know…’ he lied. It wasn’t that he was in thought; it was that he didn’t know what to do. Could he trust Scootaloo?

He didn’t have to make the decision, at least for today.

‘I’ve got to go. I’ll see you tomorrow.’ She said, jumping up and shoving her homework into her backpack.

‘Wait. Scootaloo,’ he couldn’t let one of the first real friends he’d made leave without telling her, ‘I’m meeting someone tonight. Could you come back at sunset tomorrow? I’d like to have you helping out. I’m sure you’d like her. She’s a Pegasus too. ’ Scootaloo could only feel curious about the offer. Who else could know about him living here? Why did they know about him? Who could it possibly be?

‘Sure.’

She’d smiled and climbed out of the tree house. She’d left Lunar wondering why she’d said it like she had. She had been smiling; her voice was light and had a slight tone of relief. Why was she relived? He didn’t worry for long. He had other things on his mind. Would the mare be mad that he’d invited Scootaloo? He’d have to wait and see. He had too much to do before they both arrived. He’d have to find a way to explain how Scootaloo found out, without making himself seem careless. He set to work finding a suitable excuse, whilst he tidied up the tree house. He couldn’t have Scootaloo and the mare turn up to the mess he and Scootaloo had made. It was calm and he had time to think until an orange mare looked through the door.

‘Hello? Any pony? I know y’all in here. I ain’t here to hurt y’all. This is the last time I’m letting you get out on your own four hooves.’

This had happened only twice before during the week he’d spent here. And twice she had said it’s the last time. She may have seemed quite stern during her warnings but her mumblings afterwards always seemed to be about problems she had with her friends. They were usually about one of her friends in particular. Rainbow Dash. And how she ‘wasn’t around much no more…’

...   ...   ...   ...   ...

‘Well, that was awkward’ Scootaloo laughed as she scooted her way home. It had been awkward. He didn’t appear to know what he was doing. Was he asking her out? Probably not, he’s an animal and she’s a pony. It wouldn’t be right and she was pretty sure he knew that. Plus the fact that he’d said some pony else was going to be there.

Who could it be? Applebloom? Sweetie Belle? They could have found him earlier. Could it have been Applejack? She could have caught him trying to steal apples. Probably not. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle didn’t stay at the tree house long enough for him to catch him trying to come out and as for Applejack; she never spent much time near the tree house. Only ever to find Applebloom during the evening when the three fillies would be crusading. And none of them were pegasi.

Scootaloo knew only a few pegasi who even went near the Apple family’s orchard, and fewer than that knew about the tree house. After a short journey home, she’d concluded that the most likely mare would be Fluttershy. She’s a Pegasus, she knows nearly every animal around Ponyville and she took care of animals. With all this evidence, it just had to be her, right?

Who else could it be?

3. Worries

She stood open-mouthed. It was her. How could it have been her? She never came anywhere near the tree house unless she had something to ask of the three fillies that usually spent their time crusading for cutie marks. It must have been a mistake, but here she was.

It had been a lengthy explanation, with much moaning and many uses of the word ‘but’. But after half an hour, the mare sighed and in the most reluctant tone moaned,

‘Scootaloo…’

‘Fine. But don’t come crying to me when the ‘Cutie Mark Crusaders’ involve you in their silly activities. There’s nothing that filly ever keeps from them. They’re all practically sisters.’ The mare sucked up her pride and took a deep breath. She turned and gestured for Scootaloo to come over. She gave a quick glare at the fox that was comforting her to discourage any ‘helpful’ suggestions. She left him with only a smug look on his face. But she looked slightly worried if nothing else.

‘Scootaloo…’

‘Look, Scootaloo. I know you mean well, but I just can’t have something like this going around. Please, for Lunar’s sake, don’t tell any pony else. It’s risky enough as it is to keep Lunar in Ponyville without some pony else trying to help.’

‘About that…’

‘Scootaloo!’

‘What? What was the question, Miss?’ Scootaloo sat upright instantly, aroused from her sleep, and blurted out her go-to response.

‘Actually, Scootaloo, I said you can go home now.’ Miss Cheerilee explained. Scootaloo, as usual, had fallen asleep on a Wednesday afternoon during History. It was a pointless subject to Scootaloo but other colts and fillies believed it to be really useful. She didn’t know why, and she didn’t care. She packed up her things and walked outside to find Applebloom waiting with Sweetie Belle and Rarity.

‘Now, Sweetie Belle, I want you to be home by evening. I have a lot to do before the Canterlot Garden Party. Fancy Pants asked me to design a dress for Fleur so I can’t be worrying about you. Bye.’ Sweetie Belle blushed as the sisters exchanged a hug.

As the fashionista left, both Applebloom and Scootaloo giggled like the school fillies they were. Sweetie Belle shot them a stern look whilst they gradually calmed down.

‘Anyway, so what are we gonna do today, guys?’ Scootaloo saw Sweetie’s embarrassment so changed the subject to avoid any further prosecution of the exchange.

‘Break Dancing. I hope I’m better than I was last time.’ Applebloom moaned.

‘Wait… We’ve done it before?’ Scootaloo seemed surprised. When did they do break dancing? It never appeared on any list they’d drawn up in the past.

‘Yeah, remember last month, at Twist’s party.’ Sweetie Belle piped up. They had tried it at Twist’s birthday party at Sugar Cube Corner and after the reactions they’d received for Ponyville’s party thrower extraordinaire, Pinkie Pie, they’d all agreed to forget about it and never speak of it again. It had gone silent now each filly was remembering their individual experiences. Some memories were worse than others.

‘So now what? What haven’t we done?’ Scootaloo broke the silence. She didn’t want to remember her experience even if she was possibly the best of the three.

‘We could just go and do something at the tree house-’ Sweetie Belle relayed a plan only to be interrupted by a suddenly worried Scootaloo.

‘No,’ she screamed, the two other fillies jumping at the abruptness of the shout, ‘I mean no, we can’t because…err…’ she’d suddenly run out of ideas. Her head emptying just before she finished her sentence.

‘Why not?’ Applebloom said whilst Scootaloo’s eyes darted around, ‘Scootaloo, are you okay?’

‘Yes, just dandy. I gotta go.’ Scootaloo crept toward her scooter trying to escape her friends and keep Lunar’s secret.

‘Dandy?’ Sweetie Belle repeated, ‘Are you sure you’re okay? You’re sounding like…like Applebloom.’

‘Hey, I don’t say dandy, not even Applejack says dandy.’ Applebloom groaned, to the humour of Sweetie Belle.

‘No…’ Scootaloo knew she couldn’t keep a secret from these two. They’d found out secrets about every pony in the ‘Gabby Gums’ days. It would be easy for them to find out what she was hiding from them.

‘Can you girls keep a secret?’ Scootaloo squeaked. The fillies nodded their heads furiously.

‘Alright, there something living at the tree house. I only found out yesterday but it’s hiding from every pony. He’s not a common animal; he’s a fork or something. But he seems friendly and just wants to be left alone. He’s also meeting someone tonight but I’m not sure who…’

'Wow’ the light-yellow and white fillies muttered together.

‘Please don’t bother him. I actually like him and I’m not sure how he’d react if I brought any pony with me to see him.’ Scootaloo pleaded, ‘I really have to go now. I’ll see you guys tomorrow, okay?’ Scootaloo climbed on her scooter and strapped on her helmet. She was still worried but now she both fillies knew why. And that made her content enough to be able to not have to panic all the way to tree house. She left the two remaining fillies in her tracks as she sped off. She wondered only of what her dream in class had meant. She had been told by a mare that she couldn’t tell any pony about Lunar.

‘Oh, pony feathers…’

‘Why does she always run off?’ Applebloom muttered with empathy in her voice.

‘I don’t know but whatever she’s up to, we need to calm her down.’ Sweetie Belle answered.

‘Should we get involved?’

‘Is it our business?’

‘She is our friend-‘

‘-And she’d help us in this situation-’

‘-even if she’s too stubborn to admit it.’

The two-way conversation between the worried friends went on for minutes. Was it there place to get involved? What had happened for Scootaloo to be worried? They knew very little about the problem and only through inferring that there actually was a problem had they become almost as worried about Scootaloo as she seemed to be about this fork. Nothing could distract the friends from their worries except the setting sun. It took all their conviction to convince themselves to ask for help with a situation that they’d never seen before and never wanted to have again. Hopefully Applejack and Rarity could shed some light on this situation.

4. Paranoia

‘I’m sure they knew it was a secret, especially since I was so worried about it. They’re my friends, they’ll understand.’

A still paranoid Scootaloo was talking to herself. She’d just rushed away from her friends because she was running late for a secret meeting with a secret mare and secret animal in a secret place. She kept repeating the word secret in her head she had also just told her friends of this secret meeting in the secret place. And it was supposed to be a secret.

She’d been worrying all day about it and was finally approaching Sweet Apple Acres. She was almost paranoid with caution. She thought of nothing else but this meeting and about who this mare that had been helping Lunar over the week was? She’d never seen any mare but Applejack near the tree house. And there were few ponies that she thought Lunar could ever trust.

‘He only trusted me because we’ve got so much in common, right?’

She stopped on her travels and stared at the afternoon sky while waiting for an answer. To her surprise, she heard what seemed to be her conscience reply.

‘Nnnope.’

‘Should I trust him?’

‘Eeyup’

‘But what if he realises I’ve told Applebloom and Sweetie Belle? Would he hate me for it?’

‘Nnnope.’

‘Thanks Conscience. You’re the best.’

‘Eeyup.’

‘I going mad, aren’t I?’

‘Eeyup.’

Scootaloo giggled at her conscious’ comedic answer, oblivious that she was drowning out the sound of a sigh, coming from a large red stallion bucking apple trees in front of the setting sun. Scootaloo took a breath and continued on her way.

It seemed like forever until she was at the door to the tree house, in a state of hysterics and paranoia. She had to wait outside so she could try and calm down. No pony would be able to look trust worthy if they’re breathing heavily and sweating like a pig. As soon as she could think straight, she pushed open the door. The first thing she saw Lunar reading a book.

‘Wow. You’re as much of a bookworm as Twilight.’ She joked, hoping to break the tension before it built.

‘Funny. You should be a comedian.’ Lunar sneered, not even looking up from his book. He was in a bad mood for no apparent reason.

‘Whoa,’ Scootaloo appeared shocked, ‘what’s wrong with you?’

‘Nothing,’ Lunar sighed, ‘just the book I’m reading. It’s confusing and I don’t see why the writer has chosen such an awful plot.’ Scootaloo sniggered at the mention of the word ‘plot’ for she knew it was a double entendre, although she didn’t know what a double entendre was. According to a few adult ponies she’d overheard, it was apparently something like a ménage a trois, but that was made redundant by the fact she didn’t know what that was either.

‘Don’t mind me though. You should be planning on what to say to my friend. I have a few tips though. Don’t be too formal, just agree with her if she’s being stubborn and just be cool. She’s been on my case about those things all week’ Lunar sighed. He seemed disappointed at more than just his book, but Scootaloo was sure it would clear up by the time this mysterious mare turned up.

She was still uncertain of who it possibly could be. Fluttershy was the most obvious answer but as the time went on Scootaloo got more and more uncertain of her assumption. Although Fluttershy was possibly the most caring mare you could wish for, could the timid yellow Pegasus really hide a secret like this and not be found out by her 4, who Scootaloo thought to be, nosey but concerned friends and Rainbow Dash. It seemed unlikely.

They waited for what seemed to be forever for this mare to turn up. It wasn’t until Lunar and Scootaloo became restless that any indication of her arrival came.

‘Well, the sun is gone. Looks like she’s not coming. It’s a real shame.’ Lunar moaned. His mood hadn’t lightened one bit, it had probably got worse from waiting.

‘So who is this mare anyway? You never told me about her. Only that I’d like her and that she’s a bit arrogant.’ Scootaloo asked, the tension rising even after the silence had been broken. Neither the pony nor the fox had wanted to break it before the sun set in case the mare suddenly arrived. But now, Luna’s moon and stars were the only light source available apart from the two lanterns illuminating the inside of the tree house.

‘Well, let’s see. She’s arrogant, brash, slightly irritating and stubborn,’ Lunar continued to moan, his mood getting the best of him until he let out a sigh, ‘but her heart is in the right place and she wouldn’t do anything to disappoint a friend.’ he seemed relieved.

A small breeze made its way through the tree house. Scootaloo shivered, but Lunar smirked.

‘Sorry. Did I forget to say something?’ Lunar shouted at the nothingness behind the window. That was until in that nothingness appeared a silhouette of a Pegasus.

‘Yep. You forgot to say I’m awesome!’ she stepped into the light. She was covered in a light blue coat and possessed a tomboyish mane cut containing six different colours. Scootaloo instantly recognised her and her eyes suddenly widened whilst her jaw hit the ground.

‘So who’d you want me to meet?’ Rainbow Dash looked around the room, ‘Oh, hi Scootaloo. What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be at home?’ Realisation overcame Rainbow the moment she finished, suddenly becoming tense and panicking.

It wasn’t until Lunar spoke that Dash relaxed and put down the saddle bags she was carrying.

‘So you know each other?’ he asked, with a quizzical look. He looked for Scootaloo to answer but she was just staring at Rainbow Dash. She stood open-mouthed. It was her. How could it have been her? She never came anywhere near the tree house unless she had something to ask of the three fillies that usually spent their time crusading for cutie marks. It must have been a mistake, but here she was. And she was motionless.

‘Yeah. Kind of,’ Rainbow Dash replied, with a hint of annoyance in her voice, ‘I’m her idol. I don’t blame her. I mean, how can’t you idolize some pony so awesome?! But still, she’s a bit over obsessed, almost to the point of being a stalker.’  She stared over at the orange Pegasus filly whose jaw was almost on the floor and whose eyes were two full moons.

‘But other than that. She’s actually a nice gal. Just a little crazy’ Dash sighed. Scootaloo’s face was frozen throughout the whole conversation and Dash was questioning if she could even hear them.

‘I noticed. Well, at least I know you agree with me about her being like you. But on to business, did you bring me anything?’ Lunar looked hopeful and, almost on cue, his stomach growled.  As Rainbow turned to retrieve a small jar sitting in the saddle bag, Scootaloo finally breathed, making Lunar jump out of surprise. She then went back to staring at the space Rainbow was occupying.

‘It’s slightly creepy, isn’t it?’ Lunar uttered, barely heard by the Pegasus who was having trouble opening the jar. Lunar turned to hear her reply but it came out as odd noises. Lunar decided to help the struggling mare who was determined to open it. Lunar coughed to announce his presence and help out a paw to accept it. Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and muttered some barely audible words while handing the jar over reluctantly.

Lunar put the jar on the floor and stepped on the short fat neck of the jar. Air started to be sucked into the jar and the lid became loose but it still didn’t come off. Lunar sat on his rear and scratched his head. After a few different techniques and an attempt to smash it on the floor, the lid had become contorted and bent. The lid itself was trying to escape but the jar neck was too wide. Both the mare and the fox sighed.

The lid finally popped off when it was placed once again on the floor. The fox started to growl at the jar while the mare began to laugh, eyes closed. Not liking the sentiment behind the laughing, he turned his attention to Rainbow and got almost eye to eye with the mare before she leant forward to suck in some air, almost suffocating herself with laughter. Their noses touched and wrinkled. It was then Rainbow stopped and opened her eyes to see Lunar stare deeply into them. It was neither romantic, nor menacing. His pupils were fully dilated and left only a fraction of the white remaining. It was the kind of stare that only a few ponies could ever pull off. Rainbow only knew of one.

‘Okay. I’ll stop,’ Rainbow surrendered, with her nose still being squished in between the two faces, ‘You waiting for a kiss or something?’ Lunar’s pupils shrank and became softer. He pulled away as an almost instantaneous reaction and shrank into his own body. He seemed to be going a delightful shade of red.

‘Sorry. I got a bit carried away.’ He chuckled, hoping Rainbow would join in. She did and he relaxed. He rose up and

peeked inside the jar to find several wrapped chocolate-covered caramels awaiting his approval.

‘Thanks Rainbow,’ He said, his voice becoming freer with each word that he spoke, ‘But back to Scootaloo, I know she has a couple of friends she hangs with. If things got out of hand, they could help her.’

‘Yes, but that would mean disclosing your secret to more ponies. And the more that know, the more likely some pony, or 5 ponies in particular, will be told of your presence.’

‘I know. I guess that would be bad, but I’d rather them find out than have to burden you with all my problems. She knows anyway, so why not use that to our advantage?’ Lunar questioned, knowing full well that Rainbow wouldn’t agree out of stubbornness.

‘Because I don’t want those 5 ponies knowing. As you said yourself on Monday, you caused them nothing but trouble. But if you want to have that trouble again, be my guest.’ Dash was trying to use an old trick she’d been taught by Twilight. Reverse Psychology, she called it.

‘Okay by me.’ It apparently only worked on ponies because Lunar saw right through her trick. Rainbow Dash looked taken back by the response. She then snarled and gave in.

‘Fine. But don’t come crying to me when the ‘Cutie Mark Crusaders’ involve you in their silly activities. There’s nothing that filly ever keeps from them. They’re all practically sisters.’ The mare sucked up her pride and took a deep breath. She turned and gestured for Scootaloo to come over. She gave a quick glare at the fox that was comforting her to discourage any ‘helpful’ suggestions. She left him with only a smug look on his face. But she looked slightly worried if nothing else.

Scootaloo instantly snapped out of her day dream and actually moved. She had finally taken in the fact that it was Rainbow Dash. She knew she’d witnessed a lengthy explanation, with much moaning and many uses of the word ‘but’. But after half an hour of blankly staring and daydreaming, the filly walked over to the larger cyan mare who sighed and in the most reluctant tone moaned,

‘Look, Scootaloo. I know you mean well, but I just can’t have something like this going around. Please, for Lunar’s sake, don’t tell any pony else. It’s risky enough as it is to keep Lunar in Ponyville without some pony else trying to help.’

Scootaloo’s face broke into a smile even Pinkie could be jealous of as she hugged her friend and mentor. Lunar was now smiling and Rainbow smiled too. Everything was good. Everything was right. Nothing could mess this up… because she already had.

Scootaloo’s face dropped into a bad poker face. She retreated from the hug and stared into the eyes of Lunar and then Rainbow Dash. The moment they looked at her face, they knew something was wrong.

‘About that…’

5. Motivation

Almost simultaneously after Scootaloo revealed the truth, both mare and fox sighed. It wasn’t any pony’s fault. It was the result of Scootaloo’s youth which, for many colts and fillies, meant an incapability to keep her worries from surfacing.

‘Look, I’m really sorry. It’s just I was worrying a lot all day today,’ Scootaloo, who was tearing up, began to sniffle, ‘and my friends were worrying about me. I didn’t want them to worry so I told them about it and said not to worry about it and-‘

‘Scootaloo, I know you well enough to know your intentions were good,’ Lunar interrupted, ‘so don’t punish yourself. All you need to do it ask your friends to keep it a secret. I’m sure they’d understand.’ Scootaloo looked up from her hiding spot underneath her hooves into the compassionate eyes and infectious smile of Lunar. She found herself sigh out of relief and stand up. She gravitated towards Lunar and gave him a hug. Once again, Lunar went a deep shade of red but now he wasn’t embarrassed about it. He hugged her back and heard a single whisper in his ear.

‘Thanks.’ Scootaloo release her grip and took a step back. She smiled and sighed once again. She paused a moment to take a deep breath and dry her eyes. She looked up at Rainbow Dash. She was offered a smile. It was not one of motivation but one of disbelief. She hid a laugh from her mentor and her odd facial expression, turned and galloped out of the tree house to find her friends before midnight. She knew exactly what she had to do.

Lunar and Rainbow followed her out onto the balcony, overlooking the clearing of apple trees and watching Scootaloo disappear behind the darkening horizon. Lunar smiled while Rainbow Dash continued to look on into the distance. Lunar turned to speak.

‘How’d you like my pep talk?’ he was almost as smug as Rainbow. She turned to look at him, exaggerating her non-amusement at the comment. Lunar, like Scootaloo, hid his laugh at the Pegasus’s facial expression. Lunar and Rainbow turned back to look at the clearing. All of a sudden, Dash’s face grew to a look of smugness too.

‘I told you she couldn’t keep it from them. Now, what was the bet?’

...   ...   ...   ...   ...

‘Where is it?’ the white pony asked. She had been waiting for an hour for ‘it’ to arrive. Half of that time she spent pacing, the other half was spent sitting and staring at the door, afraid to move in case it came while she was away. If wasn’t for her young sister and her friend running around, pouring glasses of water and attempting to make sandwiches, the mare would be hungry, thirsty and perhaps a little less stressed about the package that was soon to arrive. Currently, she was lying on a conveniently-placed couch, stirring her hoof on the floor out of boredom.

Suddenly, after another 5 minutes, a rapping at the door to the Carousel Boutique came. The mare’s face burst instantaneously into a smile. She jumped up and trotted over the door to greet the visitor. She took a deep breath and opened the door.

‘It’s about-‘

‘Howdy, Rurrity. Ah came to see if Applebloom was here.’ It was neither the mail mare nor a delivery pony, the cheery orange earth pony had appeared, and behind her a package. Rarity noticed this package and immediately blocked out all unnecessary noise, like she used to do through Applejack’s life stories. She always felt bad about it and it kept her from being bored, but she knew that somehow anything that mattered made it through the blocking.

‘What’s that?’ Rarity asked, unresponsive to Applejack’s question. She stared at the unusually-shaped package. Applejack saw where her eyes had wandered and decided to answer the question.

‘Ditz…Der… the mail mare with ta bubbles cutie mark crashed into our cart and dropped some mail. This just happened to be for y’all, so I came over here ta deliver it and ta have a look for Applebloom. I see she’s here with Sweetie Belle.’ Applejack replied, waving to her sister and thinking she could kill two birds with one stone, ’Ah also wanted ta have a word with y’all in private.’

‘Sure. Make yourself at home. Just wipe your hooves.’ Rarity took the parcel with her magic and unwrapped it, gesturing to the newly made doormat that read ‘Welcome’ in a fairly fancy font. Applejack groaned and rolled her eyes as she usually did at her friend’s attempts to keep herself away from any dirty work. She brushed her hooves and saw that she had left a fair bit of mud on the mat. She trotted in and stopped beside Rarity, who was staring intensely at the new fabric and its pattern of several of Fleur de Lis’s cutie mark.

‘Now that’s mighty fancy. The dress you’re making’s for a friend of your in Canterlot Ah reckon. You don’t usually get cutie marks like that around these parts.’ Applejack spoke but also seemed to be entranced by the shininess; it appeared to have the complexion of a polished apple. She shook herself out of the trance and looked up to see Sweetie Belle and Applebloom scavenging for a substitute to both peanut butter and jelly, as ‘the stains are awful. They never come out and leave the most horrid of colour in their wake,’ as Rarity always put it. So far, they had cheese, pickles and lettuce. All solid, unstaining foods.

‘It’s good, but not what I thought it was,’ Rarity sighed, ‘it’ll have to do. Her dress is due the day after tomorrow and I still need to design her hat.’ Once again, with magic, she picked up a ruler and some scissors and started cutting at the fabric. She was cutting out a section to fit around the left half of the delicate Fleur’s upper body.

‘Rurrity. Ah wanna talk to ya ‘bout Rainbow. She ain’t been around much of late. Ah think she’s avoidin’ us and ah want some pony to help me follow her.’ Applejack seemed really serious about it. Rarity had even stopped what see was doing to listen at the mention of Rainbow Dash’s name.

‘Applejack, darling. I’ve noticed Dashie absence too but do you really think I could stalk Rainbow Dash like that? You know I have a problem with doing dirty work. Get that little filly that idolizes her. You know, Skaterloo.’ Rarity put down everything and turned to Applejack to look directly into her eyes. It was only a nanosecond or two until two other higher-pitched voices from across the room screamed something.

‘It’s Scootaloo. She’s at our tree house, meeting with some pony,’ shrieked the voices of Sweetie Belle and Applebloom, but Applebloom continued, with the same country accent as her sister, to break the awkward silence the room had entered into, ‘Luna, Ah believe. Ah don’t think it’s the princess though.’

The two larger mares stared at each other and nodded. They casually walked towards the door of the Boutique only to hear heavy rain. The orange mare walked straight out the door but the white pony picked up an umbrella and walked out slowly and cautiously until she was yanked out of the door and joined her friend in galloping toward the tree house. The two fillies sat watching this whole experience in disbelief.

‘Did they just leave?’ Sweetie Belle asked anonymously.

‘Eeyup.’ Applebloom replied in a voice only higher in pitch than her brother’s. They looked towards each other. Neither blinked and neither broke the silence that was creeping in. It was only the sudden opening of the door that distracted them and made a noise. The entrance of a drenched orange and purple filly was one that would tickle the taste buds of any theatrical critic.

‘H-h-hi, G-girls.’ Scootaloo chattered cold and shivering. She laughed and flopped out on the doormat, which became bloated with rain water almost at once.

It took a while for her to warm up, even if she was still chattering. It took hot soup, several blankets and, unfortunately, the nearest sheet of fabric. Scootaloo was still sniffling and taking deep breaths. Finally, the two dry fillies asked her the question.

‘What are you doing here?’ asked Sweetie Belle, both concerned for her friend’s well-being and wondering how silly she was to be out in such weather.

‘F-finding you two. I-I wanted to ask y-you to keep it a secret.’ Scootaloo chattered through her teeth.

‘What do ya want us to keep a secret?’ Applebloom piped in. She too was wondering how bad she looked after the rainfall and how silly she was to be in it.

‘L-lunar. The meeting. You D-didn’t tell anyone about it, especially n-not about it being in the tree house, d-did you?’ She was still chattering but still looked confident and trusting as she looked up, hopeful, at her friends. They looked at each other and muttered the one word Scootaloo didn’t want to hear come from their mouths.

‘Oops…’

6. Escape

'Please can we go back inside? We can find Scootaloo tomorrow, for now, let’s get out of this horrendous storm.’

‘Come on, Rurrity. It’ll only take a 2 minute gallop ta get ta the tree house. We’ll be there in no time.’

Applejack had to keep slowing down for Rarity to catch up. The two mares had been galloping in the rain, trying to reach the tree house before the storm became worse. As the late Jammy Sod’s laws of universal explanations indicated, it got worse the moment they started to worry about it. It had taken only seconds for the white face of the unicorn to become covered in brown splodges and blue and black smudges. Her makeup had run and she wanted nothing more than to reapply it before any pony saw her.

‘AJ, darling, please? We’re going to catch a cold…’ Rarity pleaded. Almost on cue, Applejack sneezed and went head first into a muddy puddle. Rarity couldn’t help but chuckle as she stopped next to her fallen comrade, until she had to sneeze too and involuntarily shoved her head into the same puddle. She pulled up as tears swelled up in her eyes.

‘I’m hideous…’ she whispered to herself, almost crying at the thought. Applejack, soaking and muddy trotted past her and opened the door to the nearby barn. She gestured for Rarity to head inside, which brought a smile to her face.

‘Tha-Achoo…’ Rarity sneezed once again, turning to face her ‘saviour’ from the storm. She sniffled and sat on a nearby hay pile. She adjusted her hindquarters to make herself comfortable. Once she looked up, she saw AJ lighting a lantern. She turned and blew out the match. The illuminated space was smaller than it should have been, mostly because several dark brown barrels of apple juice, labelled ‘Property of Sweet Apple Acres’, took up the same space as all the guests at one of Pinkie’s parties. A large order had come in recently from Manhattan, from Applejack’s Aunt and Uncle Orange. They had recently interested a local shop to start selling it.

‘Do y’all know what we ought ta be doing now?’ Applejack, as determined as she was, did look the slightest bit annoyed at the worsening of the storm. A storm that they should have been told about by the repeatedly absent Rainbow Dash, who usually had an inside look at the weather schedules up to two weeks in advance. It was how Applejack avoided being caught by a storm when out bucking her family’s apple trees.

‘We could tell stories. Or we could-’ Rarity stopped and suddenly turned to the source of a sudden noise that had come from behind her. She tuned back, one eyebrow raised and opened her mouth looking for something to say. She didn’t need to because Applejack was up and standing tall.

‘Come out now, and y’all won’t get hurt!’ Applejack projected her voice and it echoed of the back of the barn, yet nothing stirred except for a high-pitched ‘eep’.

‘Ah said, get out now and y’all won’t be a hurtin’ when ah come over there!’ She seemed really determined and fairly angry. Whether it was the storm or something else, Rarity had noticed Applejack become more and more short-tempered without Dash around to kid with. However, the back door opened with a creek and shut again slowly, with only a flash of blue in between. It seemed to Rarity that the wind was playing with them, taunting them. Applejack though was convinced that it had been some pony that had entered and exited. She leaped over the barrels, leaving Rarity alone in the small illuminated part of the barn, while she chased after the apparition. Rarity sighed; at least she wasn't stuck with Pinkie Pie like last time.

‘Hey, come back here!’ She saw only dust being thrown in the air as her target escaped over the horizon. Even if they were a Pegasus, they could have flown due the torrent of rain hammering into the body of the element of harmony, who was concentrating on catching up. As she ran, the dust became higher and she caught the occasional glimpse of a hoof. The escaping pony was being blinded by the rain; she was swerving around the dirt track, leading back to Ponyville. Luckily, the trusty Stetson that sat atop her head was preventing this from happening to AJ. As soon as they passed the entrance gate to Sweet Apple Acres, they swerved to the side and ran straight for the cottage that sat upon the hill, still throwing up dust behind them. She was definitely fast and agile, and Applejack knew of only one pony that could make that turn as sharp as they did.

After another 200 meters or so, AJ crossed the bridge to Fluttershy’s cottage. Just over the top of the hill, the cloud of dust set at the foot of the door to the cottage and revealed nothing to be there. Fluttershy don’t let just any pony through her door AJ thought. It almost confirmed her suspicions on who it was. As soon as she reached the front door, she knocked gently, hopeful the yellow and pink Pegasus would be home. And as luck would have it she was.

‘H-hi A-applejack.’ Fluttershy peeked out from behind the door. Her mane was soaking and she looked cold. She smiled and tried to put on a brave face but AJ saw through her disguise.

‘May ah come in?’ AJ smiled back and, knowing her friend would protect the culprit at any cost, played along with her game, ‘It’s raining.’

‘Ummm…’ Fluttershy stammered before a faint whisper came from behind her and told her to say, ‘N-no, I’m doing my…ummmm…laundry.’ A sigh originated from the same place as the whisper.

‘Sugah cube. I know when you’re lying. Please, may ah come in?’ Applejack knew her friend would usually give in to any pressure, but she wasn’t and she wanted to know why, ‘You seem a bit lonely.’

‘I’m sorry, Applejack b-but….’the Pegasus was panicking; something Applejack didn’t want her to do.

‘Fluttershy, don’t worry. I’m just here for you know who…’ Applejack hinted, winking at her friend.

'She’s not here. Rainbow Dash left a second or two ago.’ Fluttershy blurted out and instantly covered her mouth to stop any other problems arising, ‘Sorry Dashie!’ she screamed, after seeing the Rainbow-maned Pegasus galloping away into the distance. Applejack turned to look but it was too late. She was gone. She turned back and sighed. She looked at the Yellow Pegasus, who slowly retreated into her house, with a reluctant frown on her face.

‘Sorry…’

7. Mare-nap

Rainbow Dash,

I apologise for not telling you about this in person, but I am too busy to help you today. If you have any questions that I could answer or need to request any books to help you on your endeavour, I will be in my library. Sorry I cannot make it to our meet up at Fluttershy’s cottage. I have asked her to meet you at the library as well.

Sincerely, your friend,

Twilight Sparkle.

It wasn’t in Twilight’s usual style, but its message was clear enough. Twilight couldn’t come to the meet up between her and Fluttershy for some reason she was neglecting to mention. It was hardly surprising that she was caught up in her work. She’d been organising search parties of her friends and asking around if anyone had seen ‘an orange canine, about yay high’ she indicated with a hoof about the height of Spike. She looked tired and worn down. She had been searching for Lunar all night.

‘Twilight, ah y’all alright?’ Applejack asked, ‘Ah’m part of y’all search party and you’ve asked me ‘bout five times…’ All of her fellow elements of harmony except loyalty were with her and concerned about her welfare. She kept telling them she wouldn’t rest until he was found. The closest they came to him was asking Granny Smith. If only she had told them that she’d found him in the hay cart, muttering something about leave friends behind. But in Granny Smith fashion, she fell asleep before getting to that part.

‘Y’know Twilight. He’s a strong young animal. I’m sure he’d be more than capable of looking after himself and his luxurious coat. If not, he can find his way back. He can’t have gone very far.’ Rarity reassured her, putting her hoof on Twilight’s back. Twilight looked up into her friend’s eyes and stifled her tears. She smiled and stood up straight, like she usually did.

‘Thanks every pony…’

Rainbow Dash arrived at the door to Twilight’s library. She was, as usual, late. She knew she didn’t have to worry, every pony knew that if any pony was going to be late, it was her. But when Rainbow pushed open the door, every pony else seemed to be late. She was alone, in the dark, usually cheery, environment of the library.  She walked further into the centre of the room and looked around…

‘Hello? Twilight? Spike? Any pony in here?’ Rainbow shouted, her voice echoing around the room, ‘Where are you guys. I know you’re in here!’ She was getting slightly scared, not that she’d admit it.

The door slammed and locked. The large clunk of the locks usually was drowned out by the laughter and chatting of friends, but now, it echoed with the same effect as Dash’s voice, only the noise was strengthened and sounded louder than she thought possible. It made her jump out of shock and surprise.

‘V-very funny, Pinkie. You can stop your p-prank now. I-it’s not funny, y’know.’ Dash stuttered, almost wanting to take up a foetal position and suck on her hoof like a foal. She was getting scared and her body language showed it, but in true Rainbow Dash fashion, she growled and put on a brave face.

‘I dare you. Just try and touch me! Come, let’s go!’ She screamed at the top of her lungs, doing her usual intimidation routine as a defence mechanism for being scared. She almost blew a lung yelping as something flew over her head and body and tied her legs together in an almost hogtied state.

‘Let me go! Fight me like a stallion!’ She bellowed. Nothing was going to get her to surrender, not even if it had tied her up, almost made her act like a foal and scared the living daylights out of her. Some pony laughed. Another joined in. They were amused by Rainbow Dash’s antics, they knew she would give up and they wanted her to struggle.

‘Why were you at Sweet Apple Acres?’ one exclaimed in the best fake voice they could do; it was hard to tell whom it was.

‘What? How did you know?’

‘What did y’all want from Twilight Sparkle?’

‘Nothing special. I came for a book. It is a library, smart-ass.’

‘That’s a lie. Now answer the question!’

‘Okay. Princess Celestia asked me to ask Twilight to move back to Canterlot, to be an Advisor to Princess Luna.’

‘…That’s a lie too! Again, why did you come here?!’

The voice began to become angry, until a mild whisper became audible.

‘Don’t be too harsh on Dashie. She’s only protecting her friend…’

‘Wait…Dashie? Rarity, come out of there. I know you’re up there with AJ.’ Rainbow had realised who was tormenting her but she almost bucked in the face of AJ, who had approached from behind, instead of in front, like Dash was expecting.

‘Easy there, Darling. I know you’d like to know why we brought you here-‘Rarity explained in a calming voice until she was interrupted.

‘How’d ya know it was me? Even Rarity didn’t know it was me when ah was practicing…’

‘AJ, you kinda said ‘y’all?’ Not many other ponies say that and one of them doesn’t even speak that much anyway. Plus, you’re the only one who knows when I’m lying.’ Rainbow moaned, rolling her eyes at the seemingly obviously answered question. She rolled onto her back and shoved her hooves into the air, suggesting that she be untied before anything else happened. Both the unbound mares shot each other looks of humour and started laughing. Applejack even fell over with laughter.

‘Y’all are a hoot, Dashie. Ah’ve never known a mare think that we’d be that gullible.’ Applejack chuckled, not able to look at Rainbow Dash except when taking in air for a seemingly over-exaggerated laugh. Once again, Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and sighed.

‘Fine… I was looking out for a friend, who I found at the tree house.’ She didn’t lie; she just omitted pretty much every detail and most of the events too. She had found Lunar at the tree house today, and had brought him some food. She didn’t tell them about Scootaloo or the tree house. Yet they seemed to know about it.

‘Let me guess. Scootaloo?’ Rarity laughed, seemingly knowing more than Rainbow Dash had wanted her too, ‘Applebloom and Sweetie Belle told me about the princess. Why in Equestria were you meeting with Princess Luna? I’d have thought she’d at least tell us what was going on.’

Rainbow Dash’s face grew into a look of confusion as she pondered how the princess of the night had become involved in Rarity’s odd summary. It was a second or two until Dash realised the similarity of the names. Probably a coincidence. But the facial expression she had made when she realised this gave away that it wasn’t Luna she had met…

‘No. You haven’t have you?!’ Rarity snapped on instantly, ‘Where is he? What have you done with him, you ruffian?’

‘Ruffian? Him? Rurrity, what’s wrong? Ah don’t get it.’ Applejack, as slow as she was, probably should have caught on. She began to have the same look on her face as Dashie, while Rarity started at Rainbow until she would give up the truth.

‘Rurrity, please? What’s going on?’ Applejack pleaded. She had no clue of why Rarity had gotten worked up of ‘him’. Who was ‘him’, anyway? A cold breeze came through the window from Twilight’s room and so did a loud snore, with the muttering of names. Rainbow wanted this to be a dream to, but the shocks she’d experience would have woken her up by now. She struggled to break free of her rope bonds and noticed the looseness of the knot. Pretty shabby by Applejack’s standards. She pushed her legs outwards, the rope loosening as it took extra length to reach around the widening legs in encompassed. She freed one foreleg after the rope slipped down on one side. She used it to push herself upright and move towards the scissors Twilight kept in her kitchen.

It was a while until the explanation finished, but it was fairly quick once Applejack realised who she was talking about. Rarity sighed with relief and turned to her captive.

‘Rainbow-’ her blue eyes darted back and forth as she examined the room for the now missing Rainbow Dash, ‘Rainbow Dash, where are you?’ Rarity walked into the middle of the room, only to notice a trail of string that had snagged onto a large splintering piece of the old wooden floor of Ponyville’s Library. She followed it to the kitchen where she heard the sawing of knife and rope. She knew what was happening.

‘Rainbow Dash, darling. Stop trying to escape and come over to answer our questions. We’ll even untie your bonds.’ Rarity calmly stated. She was sincere and honest in her convictions but she knew that it would take a lot more to convince Rainbow Dash to sit still for even a fraction of a second. She was worse than Pinkie in that way. She peered over the table to see Rainbow gnawing at her bonds, with a knife beside her. She giggled, alerting Dash to her presence. Rarity gently strolled around the table to help Rainbow Dash. She grabbed the end of the rope and pulled ever so slightly. The bonds instantly became loose enough to fall of the now confused mare, bemused at her captor’s help.

Rainbow Dash looked around for something to help her escape. She though that Rarity would trust her to stay. She thought wrong. She scrambled for the window, almost certain she would escape. If only the white unicorn wasn’t standing on her tail.

‘Oh, dear. You can be so predictable sometimes.’ Rarity sighed and shook her head in disappointment. She used magic to take the rope and bond the struggling Rainbow Dash’s midsection to the nearest available object that Rainbow Dash couldn’t escape whilst still attached. Herself. On both, she used the same shabby knot that she had used for AJ’s lasso. She dragged a resistant Pegasus to the main room, where Applejack was situated, waiting for their return.

‘Ah really don’t appreciate the escape attempt.’ Applejack moaned, one eyebrow raised, wondering how Rarity had actually caught Rainbow Dash. She walked over to the cyan mare to question her further.

‘Now Rainbow. Where exactly is Lunar? Since y’all have been keepin’ it a secret,’ Applejack asked, highly doubting the element of loyalty would betray a friend, so she used the fact that she’d let down five friends as a ploy, ‘You know we’ve been for searching for him for days. Lookin’ round every corner and asking every pony if they’d seen him. It’s caused all of us a lot of stress. And ah ain’t saying it ya our fault. It just we all care for him. New in town, don’t know what he’s gonna do next. It was only coincidence he must us, six of the best mares this place has got ta offer. Please Rainbow Dash. Just tell me where ma friend is.’ She did her best to guilt trip Rainbow and almost fake cried to do it. Although, she hardly believed it was needed since she kind of drove her point home.

Rainbow Dash’s attitude changed through the speech. She went from stubborn and determined to confused and concerned. Was she really harming her friends by keeping him away? Was it really worth the effort to keep him away from them, five of the friendliest, kindest and best of friends, just so she could actually meet up with him?

‘Applejack, I’m sorry. I really am sorry.’ Rainbow Dash sighed, AJ smiled, finally about to get her answer, ‘but I just can’t tell you that.’ Applejack went from happy to confounded. She sat almost instantly, unable to stand from shock. Rarity watched as her partner stared at blank space, and then turned to her.

‘Rurrity. Let her go.’ Applejack said, still with a vacant look. She didn’t appear to know what she was saying but the smirk that had formed on her face in the last five seconds proved otherwise.

Rarity was shocked. Never had she seen Applejack give up like this; beaten without reason. She had heard only what Applejack said to Rainbow. What could Dash have said that made Applejack, of all ponies, give up and let her go? As she pondered the question, she turned and untied the knot rather easily. The rope fell off her body, limp and lifeless, and gave Applejack free rein to untie the thankful Pegasus. She did, showing little reluctance, just a blank expression.

Rainbow stood up, trotted over to the door and opened it. She turned to her former captors and looked at them. She smiled, and chuckled.

‘Thanks for understanding, AJ.’ She stared directly into Applejack’s vacant expression and brought her out in a smile. She tipped her hat and nodded. Rainbow took it as indication she could leave. She turned and walked out the door; it locked itself behind her.

‘What was that about?’ Rarity asked, still confused about what had just transpired. Applejack just looked at her, still smiling. In a way, it calmed the white unicorn down, but in many other ways; it allowed her to come to a realisation.

‘We’re going after her, aren’t we?’

8. Tomorrow

‘Jeez, I didn’t think that would work.’

Rainbow Dash, recently ‘escaping’ from Applejack and Rarity, was confused at how she’d convinced Applejack, of all ponies, to let her go. And better, she’d said loyal to Lunar. I guess she was the element of loyalty for a reason. A thin smile expanded into a smug look of self-satisfaction as her ego inflated.

‘Perhaps I should be the element of persuasion too.’ She chuckled to herself. As arrogant as she was she knew that it was long shot. She went on her way to find what she needed most. She turned the corner into the always busy Ponyville market, although it was especially busy today, for tomorrow would be Hearts and Hooves day. Some ponies though about it more than others. Rainbow however just thought it was another attempt by the world to slow her down.

She always went out with friends on Hearts and Hooves day, to place away from the lovey-dovey sentiments that would be shared between special some ponies. It was also five years from the day that she had met one of her friends in particular.

Fluttershy. The yellow pegasus was always caught up in her home, knowing that lovers would be crowding out the markets and restaurants. And as always, she did her best to stay away, much like Rainbow herself. That’s why they always spent it together. It was why today Rainbow kept rethinking what she would have to do with Lunar tonight so she could leave him alone tomorrow. It was why Rainbow, however smug she was from her previous victory, looked so concerned.

She walked through the door to sugar cube corner and saw a familiar pink mare manning the counter, smiling at her and pushing a few cupcakes forward.

‘Hiya, Pinkie.’ Rainbow smiled; Pinkie wasn’t usually the cashier for the business, but with all the cakes and sweets that would probably be asked for tomorrow, she could understand why, ‘Can I get some cupcakes? ’ She looked at the Pinkie mare who was gesturing to the cupcake that had sat next to her. Two of them were among Dash’s favourite cupcakes; the Rainbow Spectrum, invented by Pinkie for Dash’s birthday, and the Rareté, made by Pinkie when Rarity herself came around to help bake with her. She wondered how in Equestria Pinkie could have known that she’d be here…

‘Here you go, Rainbow. Enjoy it.’ Pinkie winked, leaving a stunned and confused expression on the face of Rainbow. She wanted to ask how the hay she knew she was coming over, but like Twilight, she had realised not to question her actions and let Pinkie Pie be Pinkie Pie. She nodded her head in thanks, hooved over her seven bits for payment and left. What she didn’t realise was that Applejack and Rarity were sitting at a nearby table, nonchalant and waiting to follow her.

‘Come on AJ. She’s on the move.’ Rarity whispered, nudging her friend who was making a face of disgust, and finishing her Rareté cupcake.

‘Ugh, Pinkie sure knows how to make ‘em sweet.’ Applejack looked up from her own Rareté cupcake. It was very sweet and fairly expensive at five bits. Although Rarity and Applejack got super-duper-best-friend-forever discounts of 50% or more, something Pinkie thought should be 100%. Applejack pushed her cupcake away and stood up. She headed for the door with Rarity close behind her.

.....     .....     .....     .....     .....

‘Hey, Rainbow Dash.’ Twilight shouted from across the street. Rainbow looked over to see her friend and smiled. It wasn’t until she was halfway across that she realised why she sounded confused.

‘Where were you this morning? Fluttershy and I were waiting at her cottage like we agreed but you didn’t turn up…’ Twilight asked, concerned that her friend wasn’t paying attention, ‘Are you listening to me?’

‘Yeah, yeah, Twilight. I got tied up with something,’ Tied up. Heh. Good pun. I’ll have to use it if I see AJ or Rarity again. ‘I wanted to ask if you’ve got any books that might help with a problem I’ve got. It’s kind of personal.’

‘Oh… Oh! Ummm… I guess I have books on that. Didn’t you learn about it at School or something?’ Twilight slurred, making the wrong conclusion at Rainbow Dash immediately realised.

‘No! No! Not that type of problem. Pinkie just wanted to know what type of foods Canines can eat, so she can make a something for Winona’s birthday.’ Rainbow lied, avoiding an awkward conversation. Really, she wanted to know what Lunar could eat whilst she was with Fluttershy tomorrow. She was still concerned whether or not to tell Fluttershy about her ‘problem’. She’d have to remember to ask Lunar about it.

‘Oh. Don’t worry. They can eat nearly anything except cocoa and dairy.’ Twilight blushed. I really must stop jumping to the wrong conclusions. It’s starting to make some ponies uncomfortable. ‘Tell Pinkie that and she’ll be fine. Okay?’

‘Thanks Twilight.’ Rainbow Dash smiled. She’d escaped too much conversation and had a reasonable excuse for asking her. She walked off, leaving Twilight behind her so they could continue on their ways. That was until Rarity appeared to talk to Twilight, with Applejack just behind.

‘Hello, Darling. Have you seen either Scootaloo or Rainbow Dash?' Rarity asked, calmly and with a soft friendly smile. She knew Twilight couldn't resist answering a question, even if it was about something she couldn't study. She even got annoyed when she couldn’t answer it. It was typical Twilight.

‘Yeah, you just missed Rainbow. She went off towards Sweet Apple Acres. Strange, she was asking about food for Winona’s party, but didn’t Pinkie throw him a party a month or two ago?’ Twilight questioned, looking at Applejack for reassurance.

‘Yep, so ah don’t think that foods gonna be for Winona. But it could be for another dog…’ Applejack chuckled, but received no reply from either Twilight or Rarity. Rarity just sighed and Twilight tilted her head in confusion. She looked specifically at Rarity for a reply.

‘He’s a canine. But I know what you mean.’ She sighed, wanting to correct her friend’s mistake. Twilight just looked at them and backed off a step or two. Her jaw moved up and down but no sound came out for a while. She took a breath and collected her thoughts.

'What the hay is going on here?' Twilight screamed, feeling as though she had been left out of some big group discussion, 'What other dogs in Ponyville are there? I don't even think Fluttershy has a canine pet at the moment...so again, who the hay are we talking about?!'

Both Rarity and Applejack took quick look at the frantic lavender unicorn and looked at each other. The white unicorn sighed. She looked to her lavender friend, a smile upon her face.

'It's Lunar. Rainbow Dash found him.’

.....     .....     .....     .....     .....

'Have you seen Scootaloo, girls?'

'Ah think she went that way-'

'-she said she was looking for a friend.'

Rainbow Dash sighed. Of course, where else would she be? She turned around, leaving the two school fillies in her dust at the entrance to Sweet Apple Acres. They were honestly wondering if it was just them that didn't run off after a conversation.

She dashed off through the gate and past the barn. It was almost a blue blur that was flashing past when an apple hit her square in the head, knocking her into the ground after losing control of her flight. She was dazed, confused and had a slight cut below her eye, from where she had face planted into the muddy floor. She turned to look back at what had hit her and standing there was only a large red stallion, left almost speechless by the spectacular crash that he had just seen.

'Umm. Hi Big Mac' she groaned, holding her head, 'Applejack's not her is she?'

'Nnnope.'

'Have you seen Rarity at all?'

'Nnnope.'

'Okay then. Bye.'

She dashed off once again, leaving another pony confused in her wake. She hadn't wanted this to be so difficult and for so many ponies to have seen her. No pony should have known where she was going. All she had to do was find Scootaloo and Lunar and then she could plan what would happen next, but after all her effort, she had succeeded in finding either the orange filly or orange fox. This really was not shaping up to be a very good day.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Originally going to be longer. Will make sure this isn't the case with the next few.

9. Migration

‘Lunar, have you seen my homework? I can’t find it.’ Scootaloo asked, realising it wasn’t where it though it was.

‘Yeah, it’s on the table. I read it with breakfast,’ the fox chuckled and grinned at the now maddening filly, ‘I must say. It’s really good. How did you know that Rainbow Dash kept a tortoise as a pet after he saved her? She didn’t tell me that side of the story. She just said how awesome he was during the trials she’d set up.’ He had changed the subject to a more delicate one: how did Scootaloo know so much about Rainbow Dash and her personal life? A subject he knew from a previous conversation with Dash would put her in an awkward situation.

‘Well… I hang around with her a lot and-‘

‘You’re lying to me,’ the fox interrupted, ‘you spend most of your time either Crusading for your cutie mark with Apple Belle and Sweetie Bloom, or at school. You told me that yourself. So what exactly do you do when you’re not doing anything, eh?’ Lunar smiled as, for once, he wasn’t the one being questioned. He was even about to get a truthful answer after a long sigh from the orange pegasus, but that was before another pegasus, this time blue and frantic, burst in shouting.’

‘Get your stuff now. We’re leaving this place tonight. They know.’ Rainbow Dash shouted, panicking and needing to be calmed down by some pony. It just happened that there was one other in the tree house.

‘Rainbow, please. Calm down. Why and where are we going?’ the school filly asked, waving her hooves in the fashion that was commonly the symbol for ‘calm down, take a deep breath.’ The cyan mare looked at her in confusion and then realisation. She closed her eyes and took a very deep, very calming breath. Her heart rate was almost instantly declining. The second she opened her eyes, she felt calm, relax and couldn’t remember why she had been panicking in the first place.

‘So…Where are we going?’ Lunar asked with a polite smile of patience stretched across his face. Then Rainbow remembered why.

‘Ummm… I don’t know.’ Her face showed her sudden realisation that she hadn’t planned ahead. It was only now that she thought about where she would take him. She couldn’t take him to her house as he fall through the floor. She couldn’t ask Scootaloo to take him because, well, she’s Scootaloo. She couldn’t ask her friends as they were the ones she was hiding him from. There was almost nowhere to go. Unless…

Rainbow Dash sighed. She knew she’d have to ask Lunar at some point, but it was too soon. If he said yes, Rainbow Dash, as a completely non-romantic present for Hearts and Hooves day, would tell Fluttershy of Lunar’s hiding place. She knew that Lunar himself would be more than happy to have Fluttershy of the 5 other ponies to help. No one knew more about animals that Fluttershy herself. But she still had to ask.

‘Lunar. We’re going to Fluttershy’s, but only if you want to, if you wouldn’t mind.’ Rainbow was starting to sound like her yellow Pegasus friend. It actually quite frightening not knowing how someone would react to such a delicate question. But the response came to be something she hadn’t expected. If names had anything to do with powers, the princess of the night probably would have something to say about the two wide glistening orbs in front of Rainbow right now.

‘Brilliant!’ he exclaimed with such eagerness that even Scootaloo, who was tidying up her homework papers, threw them in the air, ‘I can’t believe I didn’t think of her sooner. I just hope that she’s forgiven me for the mess I made of our first, second, third… all of our meetings.’ He smiled and looked away. Scootaloo sighed as she cleaned up her papers and wanted to join the conversation.

‘Yeah. I’m sure she’s forgiven you. She’s not the kind of pony to hold a grudge.’ Rainbow chuckled, finding Lunar’s lack of knowledge about Fluttershy amusing. Rainbow’s eyes met the still widened eyes of the fox. His face showed he was being sarcastic, but his eyes showed that he knew he’d hurt Fluttershy when he’d run away. He’d passed her cottage the night after escaping and heard her whimpering about him.

Lunar walked up to the window sill and peered over to see two mares, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. He knew that Rainbow wouldn’t be the best of ponies to comfort Fluttershy when she felt down, but he also knew that they were friends. What other kind of relationship let one pony almost bathe another in tears?

‘Don’t worry, ‘Shy. He’ll be around. I’ll make sure of it,’ the cyan mare sighed, ‘I have a hunch that he’s closer than you think.’ Fluttershy looked up from the soaked patch on Rainbow’s coat, and stared into comforting eyes. They both smiled and Fluttershy sat up, not breaking eye contact. Rainbow blinked and opened her eyes to see Fluttershy coming closer, almost going red. They drew nearer and…

CRACK! The pile of timber Lunar had stood on gave way and made him barrel roll down the hill. He was dazed as both mares came into sight looking, heads out through the window.

‘You heard something as well, right?’ Rainbow Dash asked, looking around, missing my gaze by millimetres. I wanted to shout out, to call for them. I would have if I could. But I broke Fluttershy’s heart; I had abandoned her and her friends for my own cryptic reasons. I’d be torn to shreds if I tried to go back. That’s why I had to meet with one of them. I had to meet with the one that had spent the least time with me. Rainbow Dash.

I sat there, staring at the window where the mares were retracting their heads. I missed the opportunity to shout out, if I had wanted too. I turned around to walk away, to meet Dash that very evening. I sighed and muttered some obscure and impractical plan to myself to actually drag myself back and reveal myself to them.

‘What was that? You better not make a move on my Mare, capishe?’ The small white rabbit grimaced, showing me his war face. I had needed something to get my anger out at today. A chuckled and walked past him, dragging my tail across his face so it would turn him around and hopefully lead him to attacking me. It worked and he pounced, unsheathing what miniscule claws he had. I anticipated his leap, and only side stepped from his flight path to send him flying into the fence post. He almost peeled off of it, and stumbled about, fists raised to try and fight. I laughed again and picked him up with my mouth by the ears. He almost swung as I walked him up to the window and threw him in. I ducked behind a nearby bush, whilst some chaos ensued.

‘Ohmygoodnessohmygoodnessohmygoodness… Angel, are you okay?’ Fluttershy squeaked. I heard a groan and another mare trying not to laugh. It stopped after a second or two and murmured something about killjoys. I calmly strolled out of the area, with a skip in my step. I wasn’t angry anymore. And I’d got to teach that rude little bunny a lesson in intimidation as a bonus.

‘Heh, so that was you…’ Rainbow laughed, ‘I’m glad you did get him. He’s so annoying; he’ll almost always attack anyone who gets near her if he can.’ She smiled as we strolled through Ponyville. To avoid drawing the attention of other ponies, Lunar was hidden in a red wagon that Scootaloo was pulling. She wondered why she had to pull it, but, as always, she said yes to Rainbow Dash before she heard the question. Luckily, Lunar wasn’t very heavy and the wagon coped with his weight better than they’d thought. Scootaloo was having relative ease pulling it. The few ponies that did glace to see the group saw a mare and filly walking through the streets pulling a red wagon. The disguise was inconspicuous enough. That was until they had to go past Carousel Boutique, where Rarity was supposedly meant to be. That was if she wasn’t following them already…

‘Rurrity, where do ya think they’re going?’ Applejack asked, peering around a house, alongside her white comrade. They had caught them coming out of Sweet Apple Acres after sending Twilight to tell the rest of their friends. They had stalked them from there and had successfully found out that Lunar had beaten up Angel, but they knew nothing else. So in their minds, Lunar was now a bully.

Rarity stood silent, almost questioning herself as to why they were going to Fluttershy’s. She’d worked it out as soon as she heard Lunar’s story. The orange mare looked at her, in case she hadn’t heard her. She repeated the question to no avail. Applejack groaned. It was frustrating being left out of some pony’s thoughts when they involve you. But she followed rarity still as they exited the corner and carried on tracking them.

It was another 5 or so minutes before they arrived at the foot of Fluttershy’s cottage. Rainbow Dash had taken them the long route and had gone in a couple of circles to lose any followers. It didn’t help that while Rarity and Applejack got lost on the 3rd circle, they had seen her going up to the cottage that sat atop the hill on the 5th circle. Rainbow Dash knocked at the wooden door and it opened with a creak as it usually did.

‘Oh, hello Rainbow Dash. I didn’t know you were coming around. Is it Hearts and Hooves day already? I didn’t expect you to be this early…’ Fluttershy smiled at her friend and then to the orange filly that was pulling the wagon while the content remained unseen.

‘Hello, Scootaloo. What are you doing up this late?’ Fluttershy tried to engage the filly in conversation only to receive a sigh of annoyance. She was always being told that she was up too late. She never had gone to sleep before 10 and never even went to bed before 9 either. But Fluttershy was the one mare that she didn’t mind being asked by. She’d always been there to give her a helping hand. Although she still held a slight grudge about telling her that she couldn’t be Dash’s pet. It had been a fool-proof plan apart from that.

The orange, yellow and cyan ponies all went to the main room and sat on some nearby cushions, whilst the white and orange mares that had almost reached the door were locked out and forced to find a window to climb through. Rainbow, doing her best acting, put a smile on, to tell Fluttershy the news.

‘Let’s cut to the chase. Y’know that fox that every pony’s been going on about?’ she asked, non-chalant and hopeful that she’d get the right response. Fluttershy nodded.

‘We found him. Scootaloo, bring him over.’ She gestured to the red wagon. Fluttershy’s eyes widened with anticipation as Scootaloo dragged the red wagon into the middle of the room and look inside. Her fake smile instantly vanished.

‘He’s…gone.’ Scootaloo stammered, her eyes growing to be almost as wide as the cyan and yellow mare’s eyes had grown at the statement. She scurried to the entrance and looked out the front to see where he was. He wasn’t out there and she closed the door almost a fraction of a second before Applejack could stick a hoof in the door to get in. He’d vanished, without a trace.

‘You’re kidding me! Lunar, where are you?!’ Rainbow shouted, amazing and angry at her friend’s sudden disappearance. She almost shouted again until he came down the stairs, rabbit dangling from his mouth.

‘What? I wanted to make sure this little guy didn’t attack me like he did last time!’ Lunar grinned, knowing he’d pretty much made the cyan mare look pretty silly. His grin vanished as he saw the yellow pegasus locking eyes with him. Not communication was needed between the two as he walked down the stairs and approached her without as much as a glance to another pony.

‘Hi. I’m sure we’ve met somewhere before.’ He joked, spitting the rabbit out at her hooves. It lay, sprawling on the floor, groaning. He smiled as he looked back up only to see that her face hadn’t changed. He waved a paw in front of her face but her eyes no longer moved; she was almost paused except for a blink or two. Her mouth was agape and her breathing quiet. The fox turned to his friends and looked them in the eyes with some concern.

‘I think I may have broken her…’

10. Reunited

‘No, I-I’m fine. Just give me a second.’ Fluttershy sat on the spot, still staring at the place where Lunar’s eyes had been. Her eyes narrowed as she tried to work out which question of the many she had to ask. She debated with herself even while she asked.

‘Where have- Where did- What did- Why did you go?’ She asked, moving her head to look at the fox. It was certainly him! She almost couldn’t believe it. He’d only been gone a week but every pony had missed him. Twilight probably the most of all. She’d seemed so fascinated by his apparent situation, especially how she’d made him talk through an accident. He’d made such an impact being such a foreign element in an almost consistent world.

‘Because I felt like I was putting pressure on every pony. I didn’t want that on my conscience.’ Lunar sighed. He looked upset, as the memories of him ruining every chance he got with these ponies came flooding back. Surely he’d made some sort of good impact on some pony. He just didn’t know who or how.

‘It’s okay. No pony would have minded. You’re such fun company and every pony’s friend.’ Fluttershy smiled, hoping to uplift the rapidly declining mood of Lunar, which actually turned to anger.

‘Lies. You met me for minutes. I hardly ever spoke to you one-on-one and we never became ‘friends’. I fail to see how you could like some pony that ran from your help, hid from your kindness and wasted at least one day of your life. So how can you call me a friend?!’ Lunar shouted. His anger was overpowering him; he couldn’t take it. He’d burst his top and left the room as silent as a gagged mouse.

‘Well, duh. You’re new and we all make mistakes. Every pony I know has wasted my time at some point. I guess you look past it and look at the pony for who they are. In your case, a funny, misunderstanding canine with a slight anger problem. But that’s what we love you for. Being yourself. And we can’t change that.’ Scootaloo lectured, almost sounding like one of Twilight’s friendship reports. Lunar sat, staring at her, speechless. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash sat silent too. Scootaloo sat down after realising this and almost blushed. After a second or two, a clatter and murmurs arose from the kitchen shocking every pony and fox sitting in silence, reflecting on Scootaloo’s speech.

‘What was that?’ Rainbow Dash asked, ears pricking up at the sound. She got up and crept towards Fluttershy’s kitchen. She put an ear to the door to listen to what was happening. That’s when she got a fairly nasty headache, where the door slammed into the side off her face and knocked her half-unconscious.

‘Where is he, Rainbow?!’ the white unicorn screamed, looking for the cyan mare that was concussed in the corner. She found no blue pegasus, but did find an orange fox peering out from behind the yellow mare that sat almost blushing as he was pressed up against her back, tail tickling her flank as it moved from side to side.

‘Over here. Hey, gals. How are you?’ Lunar crept over at a snail’s pace. He expected something to be said as he got a muzzle’s length away from Rarity. He smiled, looking up into the white mare’s face and immediately got a hoof across the face. He was knocked halfway across the room and groaned while she stood over him, glaring. He looked up into her gaze after recovering some of his pride and felt like he’d be dead right now if stares could kill.

‘Where have you been?!’

He was shocked at the power of her voice. It could have pushed him the rest of the way across the room but because he was on the floor, he just recoiled into his neck. Still looking into the eyes of Rarity, he saw anger but also happiness. A void filled. He’d have to play on that. He took a breath and though of the most empathetic answer he could.

‘Away. Didn’t manage to get what I wanted so I came back yesterday morning. Rainbow Dash put me up for the night and we came to Fluttershy’s to meet up with here. We were going to see you tonight at the library. You and your friends were gathering there tonight, am I correct?’

Rarity was left speechless and she backed off, frightened by the almost truthful lie. But she still saw it for what it was. A lie. She raised an eyebrow to signal her suspicion. It was safe to say she’d caught on. She was about to poke holes in his airtight lie, that was until a shout came from the kitchen.

‘Err...Rurrity. We could use ya help here,’ a southern accent called, combined with Rarity sighing as she realised what was wrong; ‘Ah can’t get any higher than ah am at the moment. Hang on, let me just-‘

She was cut off as a clatter of body against wood was heard. She grunted and sighed. She mumbled something inaudible to the ponies in the main room, but it was quite clear to Lunar’s heightened sense of hearing that it was something that she shouldn’t repeat. She stumbled into the room, her trusty Stetson at an unmeant jaunty angle.  She adjusted it to its normal position and sighed.

‘Ah thought you’d been here, Lunar. Couldn’t stay away ah reckon?’ Applejack joked until another clutter from the kitchen became audible. Unexpected by all but Applejack and Rarity, a unicorn stumbled through the door and collapsed on the floor.

‘Thanks for the help up, guys…’ Twilight groaned, not looking at any pony else but her two intruding friends. She groaned once again and looked around the room, right to left. Scootaloo, Fluttershy, Lunar, Rarity, Applejack …

‘Lunar! It’s you,’ Twilight screamed, shocking every pony, ‘We- I mean, Rainbow Dash found you. We’ve been searching all week.’ The unicorn almost threw herself at the fox, overcome with joy at his presence. Even Celestia’s Annual Visit didn’t fill her with this much joy. When he had left, she felt as though she’d lost a major project or a historical book. She’d lost something that had intrigued her and something she felt worth investigating.

‘Twilight, darling, you already went through all this when we told you. Please, calm down.’ Rarity giggled, remembering how Twilight had literally jumped onto Applejack and herself. Twilight, in all honesty, knew she shouldn’t be this energetic. But in the same way, she couldn’t see why she shouldn’t be. But bowing to the awkward concept and social convention of peer pressure, she took a breath and gave some pony else the chance to speak. This gave Dash the chance to stand and shuffle over to the group once more.

‘So, should I leave?’ squeaked Scootaloo, left alone for the most part of this conversation between friends, feeling out of place. All the mares had forgotten that she was there and none of them replied for a second. No pony wanted to break the silence. Luckily, there were more than just ponies in that room.

‘Please don’t, Scootaloo. I probably couldn’t do this without you.’ Lunar almost blurted, breaking the silence almost involuntarily. It was a shock to every pony; it was surprising no pony had fainted from the amount of gasping that had been going on, especially Rarity, whose gasps were fairly overdramatic.It was obvious from his involuntary blurting that Lunar was friends with Scootaloo. She was one of the few ponies he seemed to trust. Scootaloo realised this and blushed. She had been told of Lunar’s hardship since arriving in Equestria, by Lunar himself. She enjoyed his company and vice versa. Except for School and Sleep, Scootaloo spent most of her time with her friends ‘crusading’ for their cutie marks. But since Lunar, she had found less and less time for them and more for him. But before any pony could realise this, Twilight decided to speak.

‘Y’know. Pinkie’s the only one who doesn’t know at the moment.’ It was true. Of the 6 mares that he had found, Pinkie’s presence was lacking. Something they should fix.

‘How about the meet up tonight? I’m sure Pinkie would be happy to find out,’ Rainbow interjected, knowing that every pony was thinking of telling her, ’Besides, Pinkie knows every pony and could probably tell that we’re hiding it from her.’ Rainbow’s mind drifted off to the day where she was almost replaced by a bucket of turnips. Only Pinkie and Dash knew of this as they hadn’t told the other mares. Crazy Pinkie, or Pinkamena as Dashie referred to her as, was something any pony and every pony would be frightened of.

‘A vote perhaps?’ Rarity piped, always one for an excuse to avoid uncouth chaos, ‘All in favour of telling Pinkie, say I.’

‘I.’

‘Ah.’

‘I.’

‘umm…I.’

‘I.’

‘I’m not old enough to vote but what the hay. I.’

.....     .....     .....     .....     .....

Pinkie stood waiting for every pony at the library. The meet up was meant to be planning for an upcoming event. But, as usual, she’d tossed convention to the wind and set up streamers and a bowl of punch. It was something Berry Punch had told her about herself. She was the Ponyville AA. Whatever that means. All she knew was that it was a super-secret society that Berry didn’t want anyone know about. So Pinkie as usual Pinkie Promised and hadn’t told a soul since.

‘Pinkie, where is every pony?’ Spike called, the purple dragon residing in his bed, getting a rare chance to lie in bed for an extra hour or two. He was happy to lie in bed for another hour but he knew that he’d have to get up by the time Twilight returned. He still had chores to do.

It was a few minutes until any pony arrived. Rainbow, in style, burst through the door first, doing a loop-de-loop to slow herself down and impress her friends. Twilight strolled in behind her, with a smile adorning her face. All four other ponies walked in, huddled together.

‘Oh, are you playing a game? Can I play? I’m gonna call that game, ’Twenty-hoof-tie-up’ ‘cause it looks like you have twenty tied up hooves between the four of you.’ Pinkie squealed, hyperactive and with happiness beyond belief. Pinkie hadn’t noticed yet, but had.

‘Pinkie, do you realise what you just said?’ Spike had caught on to the four huddled ponies that were smiling at the two of them.

‘What? Is it not a game? Aww, I really wanted to play.’

‘No. About how many legs there were…’

’Twenty hooves? Well, duh, there are four ponies…’

‘Pinkie. Ponies have four legs and there are four ponies… whose hooves are the remaining four?’

‘Oh, silly me. ’Sixteen-hoof-and-four-paw-tie-up.’’ Pinkie was yet to realise ponies don’t have paws but in true Pinkie fashion, she burst with excitement at an unexpected time.

‘Lunar!’

The pink mare almost flattened the fox when the orange, white and yellow mares broke apart, hoping he would do the same. He didn’t but, to the surprise to every pony and dragon, he stayed standing with the party mare draped over his back.

‘What the hay?!’ was the cry that came from all the mares, except Pinkie Pie, who sprawled out on Lunar’s back, waving her hooves, whooping.

‘How is that physically possible?’ Twilight exclaimed, jaw hitting the floor at laws of physics being broken in front of her. She looked directly into the eyes of Lunar who was currently wore a mischievous grin. He couldn’t believe his strength and as he looked around the room, he saw that no pony else did either.

Twilight and Rainbow Dash were mouthing words of amazement. Rarity and Applejack were still standing to the side and were speechless. Fluttershy was actually smiling and leaning towards him, opposed to her habit of receding into her neck, to avoid conversation. Leaving Scootaloo hidden slightly by Twilight, smiling at her friend’s strength.

‘Wow. I’ve never seen any pony manage to stay standing after that.’ Scootaloo giggled, knowing in her childish mind, she had practically called Pinkie fat but the joke was missed by all others in the room.

‘Ah don’t even think Big Mac stayed up after Pinkie jumping on him like that.’ Applejack muttered in disbelief. Pinkie had jumped on several ponies before and they’d all collapsed to the floor, including herself and her brother. But for this fox, only half the size of herself, to manage it and still have the pink mare lying on him even now was beyond her comprehension.

Pinkie, still giggling, put her hooves on the four and walked off Lunar’s back. She walked around to stand with her friends, who were all looking at her.

‘Why so serious?’ Pinkie looked into the eyes of each of her friends, all with straight faces, ‘You’ve all seen me do things that defied your understanding. Why is he so special?’ Pinkie started to pout. It was true. Every pony in the room had seen Pinkie Pie do something that defies the laws of physics, the whole town probably had, but for some pony else, an animal no less, to do something like that was special. It made little sense, but Pinkie and her actions rarely ever did at first. She usually explained it afterwards. But in this situation, no pony could explain it.

Luckily, there weren’t just ponies in the room…