The lights of Ponyville twinkled in the distance as Twist and Truffle watched the stars. Twist smiled as she rested her head on her portly coltfriend’s belly.

“Truffle? Do you even wish for stuff on the stars?”

The introspective teen sat up, adjusting his fez. “I foresee no situation I could ask for better than the present.”

Twist giggled as a shooting star past through her view. Impulsively, she sat up as well.

“Truffle. I’ve been saving something for you.”

The young stallion raised his eyebrows. “Indeed?”

“Oh yeah.” Twist smiled. “You’re going to be the first one to share it with me.”

Truffle nervously adjusted his glasses.

Twist turned around, smilingly demurely as she leaned on her coltfriend’s leg. “It’s got peppermint and sprinkles, and it’s in the wagon.”

Truffle’s eyes lit up. “My dear, you spoil me so.” He pulled himself to his hooves. “Allow me to grab our treat.”

As he trotted across the grassy hill Twist reclined onto the ground. He’s so perfect. Her wistful daydreams were interrupted by the sound of hooves on grass. “Truffle? Is that… ”

She had no response to the sight of Diamond Tiara feeding her coltfriend an ice cream sundae.

“Truffle? What’s going on?”

While he messily gulped down an obscene amount of ice cream, Diamond responded with a smile.

“He’s my boyfriend now, Twist.” She raised a skeptical brow. “Did you really think he liked you for you? Now that my confections are better than yours, his heart is mine.”

Twist slammed a hoof onto the ground. “That’s ridiculoush… ridiculoush… “ The horrified teen raised a hoof to her mouth. A touch confirmed that the long hated braces of her childhood had returned, replacing years of speech therapy.

“An’ then he’ll be my boyfriend!”

Still reeling from the unreality, she whirled on Apple Bloom. Somehow her friend had crept up on her while holding a over-sized silver platter. “I gots more apple fritters than you got personality!”

“That’sh… that’sh cruel. How can you even calculate that convershi… ”

Truffle obediently trotted over to Apple Bloom and opened his mouth.

Twist fell to her knees and began to cry as Sweetie Belle jumped out of a bush.

“I’ll have him next! I got a whole cake!” She nimbly balanced it on one hoof.

Truffle nodded with approval.

“Go away.” Twist shut her eyes and screamed. “Go away!”

“You’ll never guess what I brought,” she heard Scootaloo say.

Curious in spite of her herself, she opened her eyes to see an empty-hoofed pegasus.

“What ish it?”

Scootaloo smiled cruelly. “You.”

Twist tried to stand but her body rebelled. Looking down she was horrified to find her glazed legs coated with red stripes.

Truffle’s eyes went wide. “I do love candy canes.” He sprung into a gallop, licking his lips.

Twist shook her head in fear. “No.” When Truffle pulled out an over-sized hammer she started to cry.

“Please no!”

As Truffle wound up his swing, Twist thought she saw a multi-colored structure rise from the ground behind him.

Several minutes later, Truffle galloped across the empty hillside. He put down the baking tin in confusion as he scanned the hill.


“Twist? Twist, what tomfoolery is this?” He slowly turned at the sound of carnival music as a giant building pushed out of the grass like a brightly-colored tombstone.

If an 80’s nostalgia exhibit exploded next to a stationary shop, it would resemble Cheerilee’s apartment. Nestled in the middle of an ancient Old Canterlot housing complex, it had enough music memorabilia and teaching aids for the entire town. Unfortunately, most of it was on the floor. The panicked schoolmare gingerly stepped between scattered records and heard a pencil crack. She sighed heavily. “Red, you better be getting your luggage ready!”

She slowly made her way through the chaotic living room, walking amongst the clutter as if surrounded by precious landmines. “Red Glare, I will ride the ten o’clock express to Ponyville without you if… “

Cheerilee produced an arguably adorable squeal of surprise as sharp pain lanced through her hoof. Looking down revealed a small, brightly colored pyramid covered in numbers. She sighed and used her teeth to place it on a shelf as she walked into her bedroom.

Moving to the second part of her clutter disaster exhibit, Cheerilee saw a bright scarlet flank bobbing out of her closet. Behind it on the bed lay an opened suitcase from which protruded an uneven stack of jackets, a triple beam balance, and some piece of clothing that still had the hanger attached.

She breathed out slowly as a smile rose to her face. “Red, you pack your luggage like you stock your science cabinets.”

Seconds later, a stallion’s head stuck out of the door and raised an amused yellow eyebrow. “Is it full of wonders to discover?”

She giggled as she leaned over the bed and began to straighten his effects. “No my dear, I mean it’s a dangerous jumble of unlabeled reactants.”

Red snorted in admonition. “I have to store oddly-shaped materials. Do you know how much more taxing that is than literature books, ‘Lee?”

She turned and touched her nose to his. “I bet you one day of substituting that there’s still a can of pears in your engineering cabinet.”

After a second of her confident stare Red Glare turned away, scratching his mane in embarrassment. “Um… Cheerilee, the love of my life… “

She cocked her head in anticipation.

“Could you pack my stuff?”

Her shoulder slumped with exaggeration as she nodded. Turning back to her work her eyes widened in remembrance. “By the way, I stepped on another one of those dice.”

“So?” Red responded as he kept examining the dark, untouched recesses of the closet.

“It was one of the pointy ones! Screwball needs to make sure that she and her friends clean up after their games.”

Cheerilee yelped at the playful bite that tugged her tail. “You’re sore about the last time you played,” she heard from behind her.

She snorted. “That’s ridiculous. It’s just an overly complicated board game.”

She felt Red’s breath on her ear. “Yeah. And your seapony got eaten by a barbarian horseshoe crab.”

Cheerilee made an effort to shrug noncommittally. “It’ll do Screwy some good to get away from a table and run around. Summer in Ponyville will work wonders. I have family and friends there, it’s beautiful, the festivals have so much… ”

“No horseshoe crab barbarian hordes lying in wait.”

Cheerilee gave Red a wrathful look before losing her composure in a giggling fit. “Mister Glare, you are treading a fine line. Be rude and I may refuse to pack your luggage. After all, I already packed my own teacher’s editions, notebooks… ”

“Love, it’s summer! We’re on vacation! You brought your things on last year’s summer cruise.” Red puffed his cheeks out. “I was promised a ‘no-paperwork summer’ at last.”

She turned with anxious eyes. “We have new textbooks next year! I have to read them, make new lesson plans, and design assignments.”

Red leaned out of the closet and ran a hoof slowly down Cheerilee’s chin. “You are going to relax this summer even if I have to leave that suitcase at home.”

Cheerilee spent a warm moment inspecting Red’s eyes. “Mister Glare, I also happened to pack my new pairs of socks in that case.”

He froze. “You bought socks?”

She nodded.

He blinked repeatedly. “Did… did Screwy see you buy them?”

She leaned close and whispered in his ear. “No, and they have a trim.” As he shivered she continued. “If you get me your lab coat I’ll wear them for you while we’re alone.”

Red Glare saluted and dashed away, leave his spouse in laughter. She worked in silence for a while as she straightened Red’s suitcase. “Red, is that lab coat ready?” No response was returned. “Glare, are you going to help me pack or not?”

He stepped out and dramatically produced a red-checkered flannel jacket on a hanger. He dangled it off of his hoof as Cheerilee’s eyes rolled in her skull. “Cheerilee, where’d this come from?”

She lunged for the jacket, nearly running into a dresser as Red whipped it around like a matador. “Give me that. It’s one of my old college scene clothes.”

The jacket was now on the bed, Red examined it careful. “Wait one rock-farming minute. The peppy filly from Ponyville went through a grunge phase?”

She groaned, sitting back on her haunches and covering her eyes. “I went through a period of serious soul searching, okay? I had a lot of issues to work out.”

“There are crayons in the pockets.”

“I was in a teacher training program and I still had issues, okay?”

Red’s smile lessened as he saw his mare stare off into space. She thought he was patiently waiting for her, so she started talking. In reality, the socially awkward science teacher had no idea what to say.

“Red, I made some good friends in college and I lost some. I had a bunch of choices in front of me, and…”

“Apparently, you were immortalized in crayon.” He was flattening out a sheet of paper pulled from the front pocket.

Cheerilee sat up with a smile. “Is there a drawing still in there?” She waited for Red to crack about the drawing style but he stood silently. She walked around the bed to face him and saw a shocked look on his spellbound face.

“Cheerilee, what is this supposed to be?”

“Oh that,” she demurred. “That’s just a drawing one of my first students gave me. I think it was supposed to be me and the pony I was supposed to marry.” She chuckled. “I hid it so I wouldn’t have to explain about me marrying a red pony in a white dress.”

The seconds stretched on. “You got this in college?”

“First year,” she asserted. “Only semester I got to stay at Canterlot University.”

Red rotated the drawing to face Cheerilee. As she looked at the ancient drawing she felt as if someone had sucked the breath from her lungs as months of denial fell away.

“’Lee, that’s not a mare in a dress. That’s a stallion in a white lab coat. What was the name of the student that drew this?”

“Surprise!”

The older mare’s voice echoed through the small Ponyville cottage as she carefully followed the sound of whispering teens.

“Surprise! Where are you, honey?”

Inside a darkened bedroom, a young pegasus clutched herself tightly with two white wings as she spoke into her bedroom mirror. Her breath caught as the door to her bedroom slowly opened.

“Surprise?” Her mother looked in confusion at her frightened daughter curled up on the bed. During her early years, the young filly had sent babysitters screaming into the night. In all their years together, Coin Counter would have never imagined her energetic daughter sitting still in a darkened room. Coin walked slowly towards Surprise.

“Honey, are you alright? I thought I heard you talking to someone. Is Twist over?”

Surprise rolled toward her mother. She had managed to dredge up a smile while wiping away the tears. “Nope. I’m okay, Mom. Just have some things on my mind.”

She mother slowly nodded. “Should we go to Doctor Muffinhead tomorrow?”

Surprise shook her head as she rolled off the bed and onto her hooves. “That won’t be necessary. It won’t be a problem by then. Besides, the kitchen roof is going to spring a leak. You’ll have to deal with that.”

“I… ” Coin smiled slowly, failing after all these years to look casual around her daughter’s amazing intuition. “I could look for the leak now.”

Surprise flew into the hallway. “It’s not there yet!”

Coin nodded philosophically and followed her daughter. “Slow down, Little Cloud!”

Surprise trembled at the nickname. Under her breath she mimicked her mother as they both said, “I don’t have wings, remember?”

Coin found Surprise standing in front of the opened front door. The teen stared outward into the noisy Ponyville streets, quivering and yet refusing to step outside.

“Surprise, I worry about you. You haven’t brought any of your pals home lately.”

Surprise turned to the confused mare. “I’m heading now to meet them at Sugarcube Corner. It’ll all work out in the end, Mother.”

Coin snorted. “I miss the bundle of pluck I remember. What ever happened to you, Little Cloud? You should try to find some nice young stallion to spend time with, like Apple Bloom. I want you to be happy. Don’t you ever worry about your future, Surprise?” Surprise bit her lip as Coin continued. “It wouldn’t kill you to make some new friends.”

Sniffling, Surprise threw her forelegs around her mother’s neck. She smiled sadly. “I don’t know about that, Mom.”

It was difficult to get lost in Old Canterlot. The mining town that had quarried the stone for Canterlot Castle was laid out in eminently logical grids. A pony that found themselves out of place would be easily able to cut across the parallel streets to view most of the village in quick succession.

None of this explained why Quest Talltale found the time disappearing too quickly as he walked his girlfriend Screwball back to her adoptive parent’s house.

“S-so,” he stuttered, “Is Cheerilee going to mind that the game ran an hour late?”

The pastel purple mare beside him had been quiet and was staring straight ahead, or at least a reasonable facsimile. Her dark violet eyes spiraled in opposite directions. Quest thought of those eyes like guards that kept her mind away from the world she found so confusing.

“Yes!” Screwball smiled as she started trotting merrily. “Me think she hate you for it! She hate both of us forever!” Suddenly she breathed in as they turned a corner, having spotted her home. “We’re not close to me home at all.”

Quest nodded, having grown used to Screwy’s unique dialect. “Well, time with you seems to disappear.” As they walked together he stepped closer to her, laying his head on her shoulder. Her little spinning beanie nearly fell off. How does it do that without the wind? Quest shrugged. The young earth pony had long since given up on physics playing nice around his mare.

The two stood on Cheerilee’s doorstep for several minutes in silence. Quest raised an eyebrow. “Screwy? Are you okay?

She took off her hat and began half-heartedly playing with the propeller. “Me having good dreams lately. Me head nice and settled.”

Quest nodded, stepping onto the stair to kiss her on the nose. “Don’t worry. You’ll have a fun summer and be back soon. The gang will be gaming at your table soon enough.”

He managed to draw a smile out of her. “Me certain about that. That horseshoe barbarian made nice with Mom. She’s never mentioned it.”

Quest coughed. “I’ll see you, Screwy. Before you know it.”

He turned to walk away.

“Wait.”

Quest looked back at Screwball to see her mildly trembling. Her hoof was raised to block a trail of blood pouring from her nostril. Screwy slightly trembled as she addressed him in an unsure voice.

“I’ll miss you. I love you, you know.”

Her coltfriend rushed to her side and drew a well-worn hoofkerchief kept for such events. He offered it to Screwball as he placed a hoof on her shoulder. “Hey, none of that now. I speak ‘Screwball’ perfectly. No need to strain yourself to speak…”

What do I tell her? ‘Normally?’ ‘Right?’ ‘Correctly?’

“… like not my girlfriend.”

Quest hoped he showed more confidence than he felt. Screwball pulled him into a firm hug, one hoof on her nose.
“Quest, don’t you ever get tired of your girlfriend saying she ‘hates you’?”

He shook his head as the embrace relented. “I know what I like. I can’t mind Discord so much if he made you. Have a great summer, Screwy.”

They stared into each other’s eyes for seconds on end. Emotion hung in the air until a voice from behind the front window whispered, “This is the part where they kiss.”

The two teens turned to the window, causing a flurry of retreating galloping noises. Shaking her head, Screwball gave a peck to Quest’s cheek as she walked into the disaster area of the living room. Her eyes spun faster as she took in the record piles, tottering towers of textbooks, and scattered trip preparations.

A whispered reproachful rant concluded in Cheerilee’s bedroom. Her voiced called out, “Screwy? Could you try to tidy things up?” It was tinged with a smidgen of self-conscious embarrassment. “Red and I have been very busy away from the front window, and we need you to… ” Cheerilee stuck her head out of her bedroom and dropped her jaw.

The living room was immaculate.

Stacks of records stood side by side on the table, organized by year of release. They lay near an arrangement of travel papers. The indoor plants had been straightened, their soil overflow swept away in a matter of seconds. The education bookshelves were snugly ordered by edition, on top of which an arrangement of many-sided dice had been used to construct a model of a geodesic dome. In the center of it all stood Screwball, smiling as her propeller gradually came to a stop.

“Wow.” Cheerilee’s eyes nearly leapt out of her skull at the sudden imposition of order. She stepped out into the living room. “I can’t believe you accomplished eep!”

Cheerilee lifted her hoof and pulled a small, colorful triangle out of it.

Screwball’s grin went from celebratory to bashful. “Um… Me am perfect in everyway.”

Cheerilee threw the dice behind the couch and nuzzled her adopted daughter’s neck. “Enough for me, dear. Oh, I cannot wait to introduce you to the kids I used to teach in Ponyville.”

Red trotted into the room with a sardonic smile. “You mean the ones that got you ‘banished’ here for releasing Discord?”

She sighed. “I can only hope the years have given them maturity.”

The wind noisily ruffled the leaves near the Apple family house. The trees were constantly being put into motion at the moment they finally appeared settled. Applejack thought she knew how they felt.

With Big Mac looming silently behind her, Applejack summoned up the sternest gaze possible to level on her little sister.
“Now, y’all two are only headin’ out to your friends, right?”

Apple Bloom nodded, her bandana holding back her long hair. “I promise we’ll be at Sugarcube Corner’s cafe tables all night! Ain’t no funny business gonna happen on my watch.” She raised a solemn hoof. “Apple’s honor!”

With gritted teeth Applejack turned to her baby sibling’s coltfriend. “I expect you to be a proper gentlestallion the entire night, do I make myself clear?”

Snails stared back at her with the blank look she once mistook for stupidity. She gave his mental gears a second to turn before he smiled. “Um, if we stay out ‘till morning can I act differently?”

As Apple Bloom tittered Applejack raised herself on her front hooves and stared into Snail’s eyes. “Come mornin’ your supposed to help us with the back field, ‘member?”

After a pause he nodded. “Yup. I got’s an idea ‘bought the irrigation. Gonna need an umbrella.” He stopped and scratched his chin. “I think I need a hose and two wheels, too. Also, thirty-three and a quarter feet of pipe and some holdberry tree seeds.”

As her little sister stared in admiration at the lanky stallion, Applejack snorted in irritation. “Get off with the both of y’all! Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

The two young ponies trotted off for a space of seconds before Snails turned back and waved. “We won’t run off to Dodge Junction neither!”

“Why, that little polecat… ” Big Mac’s steady hoof kept Applejack on the porch as she tried to run after the laughing couple. “I’m gonna geld that… ”

“Nope,” Big Mac interrupted.

She turned to her brother. “Could you believe that he’d make a crack about that?”

Big Mac patiently scratched his ear before replying. “Eeyup.”

Applejack seethed as she turned to watch her feisty little sister walk off with Snails. He paused to stare thoughtfully at a patch of flowers. Apple Bloom patiently waited with a smile for several seconds of silence. The lanky gardener turned and whispered something into Apple Bloom's ear and both young ponies exploded into laughter as they skipped down the road.

Shaking her head again, Applejack turned to Big Mac. “Brother of mine, I never could have guessed that our bouncing bundle o’ baby sister would fall for the tall, silent type. Did you ever reckon as such?”

Big Mac chewed his piece of corn husk contemplatively. “Eeyup.”

“What?” Applejack turned. “How in tarnation could you have… ”Suddenly staring at the smiling Big Mac, Applejack found herself speechless as the revelation hit her. Her eyes spun for a second in denial.

“Buck you, Mac. I need a hit of cider.”

As his sister left the porch, Big Mac could only giggle.

This day is going to be perfect, even if I have to stick a muzzle on Red.

Cheerilee’s contemplative gaze lightly passed over all of her wedding guests. Between the Ponyville visitors and the townsfolk, the Old Canterlot Town Hall was nearly full. If the animated conversation she saw between Twilight Sparkle and Golden Ratio about math proofs was any indication, they all seemed to be hitting it off fine. Still, looking over her guests brought up one or two concerns. She had no idea why a half-dozen wildebeests in zoot suits were at the snack bar in any case.

Warmth flooded over her back as a neck was tenderly draped over her mane. “Your dress looks lovely, Mrs. Glare.”

A satisfied breath slid out of her. “I can’t believe everything is going so wonderfully today. It’s what I always dreamed of.”
She could feel Red’s neck movement as he nodded. “Don’t look now. Parents at three o’clock.”

“Oh! Yours or… “

Cheerilee stopped at the odd pair that came into view. Her mother’s porcelain joints made clicking noises as she walked forward. A perpetual smile was permanently painted on her smooth face. Next to her hovered a gigantic rolling storm cloud, churning with lightning. It occasionally convulsed, letting out a peal of thunder.

Is something wrong with Mom & Dad? They look… off today.

Cheerilee quickly pulled Red to the side. “Okay, Glare. Let me do all the talking.”

He swallowed. “I don’t think your Dad likes me.”

“Don’t worry about him. He’s just another pony… ” She stopped, disturbed about something she couldn’t quite place.

As the giant doll and the incarnate weather paused in front of them, Cheerilee embraced her mother’s cold and fragile flesh. “Mom! Dad! I’m so glad to catch you after the ceremony. How can I… “

As she pulled away her mouth stopped moving, though not for lack of trying. She would shiver if she could have. Cheerilee suddenly found herself frozen solid within a block of ice. The numbing cold and the inability to shiver were nothing compared to the coldness that spread in her stomach as Red addressed the cloud.

“Um. Hi. Dad.”

The cloud quaked at the familiar form of address. A bolt of lightning leapt from the cloud, igniting the nearby guest table. Thunder roared from its churning mass.

“Plans? Um. Not much. We’re pretty good as it is. At least your daughter is.”

The storm-thing swirled, expanding to twice its own height. The rest of the room was silent, staring at the embarrassing spectacle. Lightning flashed out, hitting one of the flower-filles and igniting her dress and mane. No one ran. They were held spellbound at the social debacle that played out in front of them.

Cheerilee’s mouth strained to open, but the frozen coating kept her immobilized. Attempting to move was like trying to raise and lower the sun. Impossibly, she could hear with perfect clarity while entombed inside the ice block. She strained her impotent and numb muscles to respond as she watched her mother-doll silently begin nodding to her father’s roar, clicking and clacking as it bobbed.

“Grand-kids? Well, we have Screwball. I mean, she’s the best grandkid you could hope for, right? Why would you want more?”

The cloud turned black, letting loose a peal of discontent that shattered every glass in the wedding party. Red tried backing slowly away from the looming mass of incarnate anger. Suddenly a lightning bolt stuck him as Cheerilee’s vision went white. She forced her eyes to move, bloodying them as they scraped against the uneven surface of her solid prison. Muted screams vibrated out of the block as she saw the blacked skeleton lying next to her inside a tuxedo.

The fury-filled cloud sounded again, and Cheerilee impossibly knew the statement was somehow directed at her. She also had the impression of someone new entering the conversation. Through the haze of frost she made out a long, mismatched form with yellow eyes.

“Well,” it said in a smooth voice that dripped with malice. “Aren’t you going to answer your father?”

Cheerilee screamed as she bolted up in her train seat. Falling to the floor she flailed her hooves wildly, shrieking in fear. As Red jumped off of his bunk and steadied her with his hooves she finally started making identifiable words.

“No, Daddy! I’m sorry! Please bring him back!”

She opened her eyes as Red shook her violently.

“Wake up!”

Her eyes snapped open. She heaved as she took in Red’s concerned face. Pulling herself to her hooves, she saw through a bleary screen of tears the concerned face of Red. Screwball lay flat on her bunk, shaking in fear.
Cheerilee steadied herself. She nuzzled Red for a second before walking over the Screwball.

“I’m fine, Screwy. I was just having a bad dream.” She tousled her daughter’s chaotic purple and white mane. “Everyone gets them.”

Screwball nodded. “Me hasn’t had any lately.”

The three ponies jerked forward momentarily as the train whistle blew. Through the window Cheerilee saw the afternoon sun caressing the brown roofs of Ponyville. She turned back to Screwball with a little more color in her face. “We’re here, honey. Let’s get our things ready. Your grandparents should be waiting.” She shivered unconsciously.

As the family checked the train car for their belongings, Red looked at his wife with worried eyes. “Love, what did you dream about? You were saying some disturbing stuff. It didn’t sound like the usually ‘go to class unprepared’ dream.”

Cheerilee rolled the dream around in her head as she stocked her cart with luggage. Her mouth finally free, she sighed as she ran out of excuses to speak.

“Nothing. Just some nervousness about meeting my folks, I suppose. You know how sometimes parents just don’t understand.” Her eyes glazed over for a second. “Screwball?”

Screwy turned back as she strapped on her mother’s cart. “No?”

Cheerilee walked to her daughter’s side, staring at some of the lines under the teen’s eyes. “Have you been sleeping well? You said you were having nightmares. What have you been dreaming about?”

She couldn’t bring herself to ask the question that hung in the air. Not about… him?

Screwball sighed as she pulled out of the room. “Normal things. Organized things.” She gaze her parents a faraway glance as she moved into the hallway. “Most nights, me isn’t seeing a white pegasus filly.”

Screwball walked away, leaving a disturbed Cheerilee and Red exchanging nervous looks. She pulled her burden toward the exit ramp, passing a lanky conductor standing in a shadowed corner of the hall. She didn’t make eye contact as he addressed her.

“This stop is Ponyville, little lady! Next four stops are Kalamakazoo, Tambelon, Tanelorn, and Tartaurus. You getting off here?”

She nodded weakly, eyes kept straight ahead.

“Wonderful little town, this is. I’m sure you’ll get in touch with your roots. Hope you’ll stay a long time. Enjoy the ride!”

He snapped a claw like a griffon’s, which drew Screwball’s head to the darkened corner. The strange conductor was already gone.