*Mykan’s POV*

It was an ordinary mid-afternoon in New Canterlot, and all the ponies and other creatures were going about their day.

I had just flown in after teaching my class in New Ponyville that day. I stretched out and a sniffed the sweet afternoon air, and sighed “Ahh… nothing like a sunny afternoon after work.”

Suddenly the warning alarm sounded; there was immediate danger heading for the area. Many of the ponies immediately began to run for homes and buildings before the barriers activated.

I helped some of the citizens into shelters, including one pony who was hauling a big wagon with a huge barrel marked “SUPER INDUSTRIAL GLUE” in giant letters on it. He had to leave the wagon where it was and get to safety.

I stayed outside to survey the area and make sure no one was stuck outside; the streets were clean of all the citizens, and suddenly a big fly-like monster came rushing into the village. He was a rather burly looking insect creature with greenish skin and big red eyes just like that of a fly, and over his shoulder he held a large sack of stolen goods.

He was being chased by Lightning, Krysta, Starla, Applejack, Rarity and Spike; all transformed and wearing their super suits.

“Get him!” shouted Lightning!

“Remind me who we’re chasing again?” asked Krysta, and Starla replied “He calls himself “The Bugalar”, and just as his name is played on, he’s a dreaded burglar. Three-hundred years ago, he robbed seven first national banks on many planets. He looted valuables from museums and even stole from people in the streets before he was captured.”

Rarity felt disgusted, “All those robberies?! Why that’s positively wretched!”

“To think of all those jewels…” said Spike and his mouth began to water, “…All those tasty jewels!”

Applejack rolled her eyes, “Let’s rope him first. Then we can eat.” with that, she readied her rope and lassoed the sack of stolen goods away from Bugalar. “YE-HAW! That’s the catch.”

Bugalar skidded to a dead halt in midair, and he glared furiously at the team, “You dare steal from me?! No one steals from The Bugalar!”

He flexed his four arms and charged forth, when suddenly he got zapped from behind. The ponies turned and saw me standing there with my shield and sword. “I always did love bug hunting when I was in the scouts.” I said smugly.

The others thought that was witty, but Bugalar was not amused, “You think I can’t take you all on…?!”

The fight was on, and even though he was outnumbered, Buglar, with his four arms, managed to punch each of us fighters away each time we got near him, but we still fought back, and Starla and Lightning punched him hard, together, sending him hurdling through the air and crashing down hard.

“Oh yeah!” shouted Bugalar, “Now try this; PARISITE WHEEZE!” and from his huge mouth he wheezed a large swarm of miniature insects that flew all around us fighters, getting in our way and diving straight at us from all ends like real pests.

Everyone waved about trying to shoo the bugs off, but Rarity could only scream in terror as she hated bugs, especially the way they zoomed all around her. “Get them off me!” she cried!”

“Oh, sure, you can annoy them to death!” I snarled at her as I continued to bat off the bugs.

Bugalar found it hilarious the way we were all behaving and decided to make his getaway while he could.

“Hey, he’s getting away!” cried Starla.

“That does it!” Spike growled, and he drew in a huge breath, “DRAGON BREATH!” and he breathed a huge wave of fire, killing most of the tiny insects.

“Good shot, Spike!” said Lightning.

The rest of us were relieved to be rid of the bugs. “Hey, there he goes!” snapped Applejack, and she chased after Bugalar. “Hey, wait up!” I called as I chased after her.

I caught up with her, and then held out my sword, blasting Bugalar so he fell to the ground again. “Now, I’m really steamed!” he thundered and he began to fight us both.

The other’s caught up to where we were, and noticed the glue wagon in the area. “Hey, guys, Look out!” Lightning called.

Bugalar then punched Applejack hard, and sent her slamming into the wagon, breaking the huge barrel wide open and spilling glue everywhere.

“Oh, my goodness! Applejack!” cried Rarity and she dashed over, but was careful not to step on any of the gooey puddles on the way.

“Ha!” laughed Bugalar “That’s one down. Who’s next?”

“You are!” Sapphire snarled. Her horn glowed in a bright golden light. “UNFORCE!” the blast hit Bugalar hard. He fell over, exploded and was imprisoned in a sphere.

Lightning, in his free time had taught Sapphire, how to use her Uniforce. Over the few times she’s use it, she would be a little tired. But with more practice, using the Uniforce wouldn’t leave her tired anymore.

The team cheered, but then I saw poor Applejack near the remains of the barrel. Her suit had powered down, and strangely she didn’t seem to be covered in glue. I came along to help her up, extending my left hand to her right hand, while Rarity grabbed Applejack’s left hand with her right. “Are you alright?” Rarity asked.

“Just a little bruised, I’ve had worse. Thanks for helpin’ me up you two.”

Suddenly, we found we couldn’t let go of her hands. “Applejack…” I said “Let go of us.”

“What?” snapped Applejack, and she then found herself being pulled hard by me and Rarity as we tried to let go of her.

“Please! I’m glad we could help, but release me!” said Rarity.

“Stop it, both of you, you’re stretching me!” cried Applejack. That’s when we all realized there was glue on Applejack’s hands, and worse… right down where we were standing was a small label from the barrel which read: “Guaranteed never to come unstuck, not even with magic.”

…and the three of us gazed down at our stuck hands with extremely shocked expressions! The others didn’t like this much either.

---

With the emergency over, Lightning gave Krysta the sphere containing Bugalar, charging her to take it to the palace to see that it got sent to Conva and Bugalar locked up again in prison.

As for the glue that was lying all around, it couldn’t come unstuck, even with magic as the label had warned. So, before she left, Krysta instructed her nearby fairies to teleport all the glued and gooey objects--all the patches of grass, and the trees and lampposts-- just pull them all out of the ground and teleport them to the waste dump. Replacing the now vacant patches of grass and trees and other things would be easy.

Then, Lightning compensated the pony hauler with a cheque for a large sum of money for spilling the glue and wrecking his wagon. “Well, thanks a bundle, but I still wish you hadn’t broke my wagon and spilt my glue.” he said.

“I know…” Lightning said “Again, we’re very sorry.”

The pony took it well.

“Um, excuse me…” I complained “But aren’t you forgetting about us?”

Starla tried with all the magic she could to melt the glue, Rarity helped, but in the end it was no use. The glue was magic-resistant, just like the label warned. “It’s no good, it won’t work.” Starla said.

“Gee, you guys really are stuck.” said Spike. The girls and I were not amused.

The pony observed our stuck hands and could see the bits of glue holding us together. “Well, the glue may be magic resistant, but my company does make a special potion that can get you unstuck. The problem is, it’ll take three whole days to make.”

“THREE DAYS?!” the three of us shouted!

“Well, yeah…” replied the pony “The ingredients have to be mixed and set and simmered just right. It’s a hard process.”

“And you don’t keep an emergency quantity of this in reserve?” Starla asked. “Well… to be honest, this is the first time this has ever happened. Why do you think we warn people about our glue?” He pointed at several other warning labels from the shattered barrel.

“Oh, great…!” grumbled Applejack “We’re gonna be stuck like this for the next three sunrises!”

“Of all the worst things that could happen, this is THE… WORST… POSSIBLE THING!!” cried Rarity.

“Ugh!” I grumbled “I’m going to have to spend the next three days listening to her whine!”

Rarity then gawked at me angrily “Ah! I take extreme offense to that, sir.”

“Whatever!” I sneered.

“Ugh! Will you two knock it off!” snapped Applejack “I don’t like this anymore than you two, but it ain’t gonna change nothin’. We’re stuck like this and we’re gonna have to make the best of things.”

Rarity and I knew she was right, but even Lightning and the others all felt the same way, “I don’t think this will be easy.” Spike said.

“Don’t worry, I’ll help. I love helping my friends.” Sapphire chirped and she tackled the three of us to the ground, happily. At least this wouldn’t be so bad.

---

At around dinner time, the three of us were forced to eat out at the same restaurant. Luckily we chose one that had something for everyone.

All of us ordered sandwiches and fries, feeling they would be easier to eat. I was able to eat with just my one free hand, and Rarity used her free hand as well as her telekinetic magic to eat as well, but poor, Applejack; she was able to drink her milkshake through a straw, but she had to eat her food just by biting at it directly, the way ponies used to eat before they became human-shaped.

“Really, Applejack…!” Rarity snorted “If we’re going to be stuck together you could at least show better table manners.”

“Well excuse me for havin’ both my hands stuck down. So unless you want to feed me yourself, you got no choice.”

I felt my patience already dwindling. “Here, I’ll help you, Applejack.” I said as I helped feed her fries and bits of her sandwich.

“Thanks a bundle, Mykan.” she said to me “At least someone understands.”

“What about me?” Sapphire asked, feeling a little hurt.

“Oh! Uh, I know you care to Sapphire. Hehe.” Applejack added quickly. SApphire grinned again.

“Well it’s better than listening to you two quibble!” I said, but I said it to myself not wanting to make things worse.

---

After dinner we all needed to use the restroom, except I needed to use the men’s room, I couldn’t go into the ladies’ room with the girls, nor could they come with me into the men’s room, and we couldn’t all fit into one cubicle anyway.

“Come with me, I’ve got an idea.” I said, and with that, I pulled the girls along… outside the village into a clearing where no one could see us. “Mykan, whatever are you doing?” Rarity asked.

“I think I get it; Good thinkin’ boy …” said Applejack, and with that, we both took turns evacuating behind a large bush-- looking away from one another to respect privacy-- much to Rarity utmost disgust. She couldn’t even find any words to say and nearly puked. “Not only is that horribly repulsive, but you don’t actually expect me to do THAT?”

Applejack poked her up and sneered “Well you ain’t got much of another choice. You can’t hold it in all night. So just do it and get it over with!”

Rarity knew she was right and she really did have to go, but she felt very nervous and skeptical about it “I can’t… I just can’t do it! What will others say of me if they find out? My reputation! My business! I’ll be ruined!”

“I’ll ruin you if you don’t stop that whining!” I threatened her.

“Ah!” Rarity sneered and she looked away, sulking, not that it mattered. Applejack and I were done as we stood up, and we both nodded at one another and yanked Rarity behind the bush. “Well, I never!” growled Rarity. “Look, just do it already!” Applejack sneered “We won’t even look at you.”

Licked, Rarity began to undo her pants, “Well!” she sneered at me and Applejack, telling us to look away “You had better not be peeking…”

“We’re not!” I snarled.

Feeling satisfied, Rarity let loose, and made huge flatulence sounds which freaked me and Applejack out, and Rarity of course, not wanting us to see what she had done, used her magic to vaporize the mess away, but the smell was still there. “Who-wee!” cried Applejack “What in tarnation did you eat?”

Rarity felt ashamed already, “If either of you utter a single sound about this…”

“Oh, go hork up a haystack!” I snapped at her. Rarity felt like exploding in a fit of rage at such an insult and she grumbled “If it weren’t for the present circumstances, perhaps I would rather than put up with this!”

Applejack could only sigh, “It’s gonna be a long night.”

---

We all agreed to stay at Carousel Boutique; it was the only place with room to spare for the three of us, and we all slept downstairs in sleeping bags on the floor by the fireplace. At least it was warm.

Rarity was snoring, not very loud, but it still annoyed me and Applejack more since she was closer than I was to Rarity, but the both of us were far too tired to try and argue. Luckily, Sapphire placed an soundproof shield around Rarity, without her noticing.

Sure enough, that helped a lot. “Thank you.” I whispered to her.

---

Spike came into the kitchen the next morning, and stretched out, “Good morning everyone.” he said, but all three of us gawked at him with sneering glares.

“Whoa, I am outta here…” here said, and he quickly dashed out the door.

*POV Ends*

---

Sapphire, meanwhile wasn’t liking how the three of us were treating each other. Ever since the glue incident, they’ve been at each other's throats, complaining about the simplest flaw about them. Sapphire knew that wasn’t how your suppose to treat a friends’ flaws. Friends were suppose to respect each others flaws, even if they are annoying. However, they were doing the complete opposite. She knows they can get along, but she didn’t tell them, cause she feared it would make things worse.

“Maybe they’ll realize on their own.” she hoped.

Sadly, that was about to be proven wrong. Very wrong.

---

*Mykan’s POV*

We all sat down to breakfast, and again, I had to help feed Applejack since Rarity was being so uncooperative.

Suddenly, I dropped my spoon, and when I bent down to pick it up, I tugged on Applejack causing her to tug on Rarity making her spill orange juice down her clothes. “Ah! Look what you made me do!” she thundered. “Hey, it wasn’t my fault!” snapped Applejack. “I was just getting my spoon, sorry.” I said.

The girls glared at me angrily. Applejack understood a little more, but Rarity’s eyes were blazing like volcanos “Just two more days, just two more days.” she said softly.

“Um, technically yesterday wasn’t a full day,” I pointed out “So we’re still looking at like a full three days.”

Applejack sulked and let her head rest on the table, “Oh, joy!”

Rarity had to breathe into a paper-bag to keep herself from losing it, but all our troubles were only beginning.

Applejack and I were both unable to go about our own businesses-- Applejack couldn’t do farm work without the use of her hands, and there was no way I could bring the girls to school with me like this-- which meant the only feasible thing we could all do was help Rarity with her work.

“Well, at least it’ll kill time.” Applejack said to me, but we soon both found ourselves not enjoying it at all.

With her left hand free and with her magic, Rarity was still able to do her own work without much difficulty-- using the sewing machine, folding fabrics, tying ribbons and other things she was good at. “Well, at least this much hasn’t changed.” she said to herself.

Unfortunately, Applejack still couldn’t do much but just sit in the middle and was almost bored to sleep, as for me; Rarity was making me try to cut up all the fabrics along the lines she had drawn so she could sew them.

Of all the courses I had taken in my prodigy years on Earth, and all the fields I was good in… Fashion was definitely not among them, but at least Applejack was able to help me keep it still so I could cut it, by both of us laying our glued hands on the fabric.

“Be careful!” Rarity said practically scorning me, “That fabric is a very expensive original; it came all the way from New Manehattan!”

“I’m doing my best!” I grouched at her.

Applejack didn’t know how much more of this she could take. Rarity and I were arguing and grouching at one another more than she and Rarity ever did! She also had a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach that she only got when something really bad was bound to happen!

As if it were bad enough working on the clothes, when the store opened up, Applejack and I had to manage things with Rarity.

Though many ponies gawked at us three and the way we were holding hands.

“We’re stuck together.” Applejack kept telling them, but that only made the ponies laugh at us more, so much they lost their spark to shop and left.

“Will you kindly stop chasing off my customers?!” Rarity sneered.

“I wasn’t tryin’ to chase ‘em off!” Applejack protested.

Some ponies did shop, and they lined up by the checkout, and they were starting to grow impatient from lack of service and were ringing the desk bell demanding for help. SApphire came up to the desk. “I can help.” Thankfully, Rarity had shown her how to work the register.

Unfortunately, the three bickering friends didn’t seem to notice her helping the customer.

Rarity was really starting to lose her cool, “Come on!” she snapped, pulling on me and Applejack, dragging us along, unfortunately, on the way to the checkout, Rarity walked one way around a display, and I walked round the other way, which made Applejack crash right into the display, knocking mannequins and piles of clothes all over the place.

“My display!” cried Rarity, “Applejack, look what you’ve done!”

“It ain’t my fault, you two pulled me this way!”

“Well, why didn’t you say something?” I asked, rather sharply.

“I would if you’d given me a chance!”

Rarity felt more concerned about her ruined display, “Look at this mess!” she cried “It will take me ages to reset all this!”

Sapphire just stared at us with a straight facial expression while she helped the remaining customers

Our bickering got more and more heated up that the last of the customers abandoned their shopping and dashed out the door, leaving the store all but deserted, and more clothes had been thrown about when the customers left.

Rarity’s face turned beet-red, and steam shot through her ears like a burning kettle, but as she opened her mouth to say anything, I quickly jumped in, “Don’t you go blaming this on us!”

“And just whom should I blame? You both have been rather uncouth and annoying, not to mention horribly demanding.”

“Pah!” I scoffed “We’ve been annoying and demanding? Look who’s talking? Do you have any idea how vain and shallow you are?”

Rarity double gasped!

“You called me… shallow?!” she practically screamed.

“…Shallow as a puddle!” I replied.

Rarity never felt so hurt in her life! Tears began to build in her eyes, but they immediately went away as she lashed, “How dare you say that to me you… you… BULL!!”

I gasped equally as hurt and outraged, “You… I…. BULL?!! Why you little…!”

“Why you big…!!”

Suddenly…

“ENOUGH!”

Sapphire literally burst into tears and had an extremely upset expression on her face. “Why can't you three just get along for five minutes, without complaining about your flaws. That’s not what friends do. I respect your differences and tried to help you through this but all you’ve done if continue to be a each others throats.” she cried as the tears started pouring down her cheeks. “If you three can't be friends then, I don’t want to here."

She turned away and rushed out the door, crying. “Sapphire, wait! Rarity cried. But it was too late. She was already gone.

A moment of silence passed as we realized what happened.

---

When Lightning and the others heard Sapphire yelling and seeing her running out of the boutique crying. They came to us asking what happened. When we told them they weren’t surprised.

“Great, not only did you three chase away our friend, but you also made her cry!” Rainbow said.

“Yeah, yeah. We know already.” Applejack said.

“It’s not my fault I can’t stand these two.” Rarity said.

“Oh look whose talking.” Mykan replied. The two of them growled at each other. “Enough!” Lightning yelled, stopping the two of us.

“This is exactly why Sapphire ran away crying. You three have been so busy arguing that you didn’t realize how it was affecting her.” he continued. “Did you even notice how stressed she looked when she ran passed us?”

We all thought about it for a moment. “... No.” we all replied.

“But she didn’t say anything.” Applejack added.

“If i know Sapphire, and I do, I know she thought we three would work it out. Sadly, she was wrong. You three should be ashamed.” Starla replied. “Now you three have to go and find her and apologize.”

“Why us?” Rarity asked.

“You three chased her away,” Dyno started.

“And now you three have to get her back.” Myte finished.

“Now get!” Lightning ordered.

The three of us walked off into the direction Sapphire went in. Outside the boundaries of New Ponyville.

*POV Ends*

---

Meanwhile, Sapphire was laying on the ground, crying her eyes out. She really didn't like her friends fighting and it broke her heart to see them so upset with one another. "Why can't they just get along?" she whimpered.

Her crying unknowingly alerted Applejack, Rarity and Mykan to her presence. They were watching her from afar. The three of them felt ashamed of themselves. They made Sapphire cry due to their continuous bickering. "Poor darling, she's devastated." Rarity cooed.

"And it's all our fault." Applejack added. Mykan didn't say anything feeling just as guilty. "Let's go girls." The trio walked over to the distraught girl. "Sapphire." Rarity called. Sapphire sniffled and looked at her friends. "We're sorry we made you cry. We shouldn't have done that." Applejack spoke then "You were only trying to help us with our situation, instead we let our anger towards each other release on you."

"We're very sorry. Can you forgive us?" Mykan asked. Sapphire sniffled and wiped her eyes. "Yes, I forgive you."

The three friends smiled and they all hugged their friend. The others watched from afar. They were happy for the four of them.

---

*Mykan's POV*

After Sapphire forgave us fro making her cry. We promised to not let our anger make her cry again. From that moment on, we began to listen to each other better, and talked things over before acting.

When I dropped my fork or spoon, I warned the girls I was going to bend over.

When Rarity wanted to walk one way, she made sure we could all go the same direction without colliding into anything.

The only chores we did were easier ones that wouldn’t result in messing anything up or making horrible mistakes.

Even at bedtime we tried to be more considerate. Though Rarity continued to snore and she denied this, Sapphire still put the soundproof spell over her.

Then, the morning after the next, the glue pony came to the shop with the special potion his company made. One little spray on each of our hands, the glue dissolved, and… we were all free.

“Ahh…!” Applejack sighed as she wiggled her fingers “I never felt so good.”

“Amen to that.” I said as I cracked the knuckles on my left hand “I’ll never think the same about glue again!”

Rarity was relieved to be free as well, but then she gazed at me and Applejack, and all three of us felt the same. “I guess we better get goin’. I got work to do on the farm.” said Applejack. “Yeah…” I agreed “I missed a lot of school.”

“Well… um…” Rarity said as she searched for her words “I suppose we learned a little from this incident. Um, I mean if this should ever happen again.”

“Well, we are different beings.” I said “We just have to learn to tolerate each other better.”

“Eeyup.” was Applejack could say. Sapphire squealed and hugged her three friends. They giggled at her happiness. After breaking the hug, Applejack headed out the door and flew back towards the farmlands, and I used my teleporter and me and Sapphire headed home to New Canterlot for me to catch up on my work.

*POV Ends*

Rarity stood where she was, silent and still. Spike came over to his wife and placed his hand on her shoulder, and she placed her free right hand over his, and smiled softly, remembering all she had learned and experienced the past few days.

Even after going their separate ways, Mykan and Applejack gazed at their hands, and both felt the same.

Next Chapter: Episode 19: Sapphire and the Haters Estimated time remaining: 58 Minutes