It was yet another day in Ponyville, a mare with a golden coat woke up early as always, ready to go to work and set up her wares. She made herself a quick breakfast that consisted of coffee and some crepes that she had saved up from the previous day, and after quickly loading everything into her cart, she made her way to the front door where she noticed the mailbags of her roommate still on the coat hanger.

“I thought she was supposed to work today…” she said and proceeded to head upstairs to look for her housing partner . “Ditzy!” she called out to her friend as she made her way to the end of the hallway, and as she was about to knock on the door of her room when a faint sound could be heard.

*thud*

“What is that noise?”

*thud* she heard the peculiar sound again, and she put her ear to the door, listening intently for further signs of the noise.

*THUD* she jumped back surprised at the latest noise, she then put her hoof on the handle and found the door open.

“What’s going on here?” she reluctantly pushed it open, illuminating the otherwise dark room. She looked around and found a grey shape in a corner that she instantly recognized.

“Ditzy?” the pony acted as if she hadn’t heard her, or was probably too invested in her own thoughts as she hit her head against the wall, causing a rather familiar noise to fill the silence.

*thud*

“Ditzy! Stop that!” the pony jumped in, stopping the mare from further damaging herself.

“Why Carrot…?” Derpy asked the orange mare while still staring into the distance.

“Because you are hitting yourself?” she explained in disbelief. Ditzy only shook her head. “What do you mean no?” Carrot asked not knowing what she meant.

“Why does everything I do always come back to bite me in the flank…?” she turned her face towards Carrot, who after giving her a good look, nearly recoiled at the sight right in front of her.

Ditzy was covered in dry tears, her mane smelled like dirt, amplified by her not having showered, the side of her head held a very noticeable bump, obviously coming from the self-inflicted punishment she was giving herself.

“What happened?” Carrot asked, obviously concerned for her friend.

“I-I nearly killed Twilight’s dragon!” Carrot raised a brow at this and furrowed her brow deep in thought, her face beamed as she realized what Ditzy meant, and giggled. “W-what’s so funny!?” Ditzy raised her voice annoyed.

“You are talking about the librarian, right?” Ditzy simple nodded vigorously in response. “Do you remember that one incident a few months back that you told me about?” Ditzy tilted her head to the side in obvious confusion. “When you dropped the piano? And those other things?” Ditzy scrunched her face in thought, and a few sweat beads began forming on her forehead as she recalled what Carrot meant.

“Er… No…?” she twiddled her front hooves together, focusing on the clip clop sound that they made, as she thought of a way out of the conversation..

“And she was fine, was she not? I think her dragon would have survived whatever you did to him.” Carrot continued, ignoring Ditzy’s obvious discomfort.

“I crashed into him… Hard.”

“… Oh… Is he…” Carrot asked reluctantly.

“Y-yes, he is, but I nearly killed him…”

“Did you?”

“Not really, but…”

“But NOTHING, you DIDN’T, okay?” she reassured her.

“B-but I feel so bad, and Twilight was furious with me, a-and…” she took a deep breath and softly released herself of Carrot’s grip.

~Why does everything I do always turn… Sour?~
~Why does everything I do seem like… A mess?~
~Is it too much to ask… To be loved and tole- OUCH!

She turned around to see Carrot giving her a disapproving stare and slowly lowering her hoof.

“W-what was that for?” Ditzy asked with tears of pain on her face.

“Oh, I think you know what this was ‘for‘,” she replied sounding slightly disappointed.

“B-but…”

“No. I told you not to sing that song again. It’s the third time this month! Now…” she trotted off leaving the room, she turned around again after leaving the area. “Go take a shower and then eat something, I left breakfast downstairs so you can have some food on your stomach. And don‘t forget to go to work,” she turned around and made her way downstairs, leaving Ditzy massaging the pain in her head away. “And Ditzy?” Carrot yelled from downstairs.

“Y-yes?” she called back.

“I told you to stop calling me Carrot, my name is GOLDEN HARVEST, got it memorized, ‘DERPY‘?”

“G-got it ma’am!” she replied cringing at the infamous nickname she was mostly known for, it was a name the town had given her after a certain incident, and she was notoriously known as such very soon, the whole town now knew her by that name alone, aside a few ponies who she shared her actual name with.

She waited as the front door opened and closed, signaling Harvest’s leaving.

“… Thank you, Harvest.” she said to the now gone mare while smiling a bit. Harvest was the only pony who unlike others in town, treated her as she would treat any other. It was something she was thankful for… even if she had a rather unorthodox way of doing it.

“I don’t smell THAT bad though, do I…?” she raised her limbs and smelled her pits, gagging slightly more as the combined stench filled her nostrils.

“Oh Celestia… Right… Shower it is!” as she headed to the bath, a knock to the door was heard, she quickly washed her face and headed downstairs, but as she opened the door, she found nopony there, she looked by her hooves, and found a single card.

“What is this?” it was a pink colored card, adorned with balloons on the side with some text on the back, she tried to focus on the letters as best as she could, but her eyes kept wondering, making her unable to keep up her reading much, bringing the dull pain of the bump back to the forefront of her mind, thanks to the stench she was releasing.

“I can’t read with a dirty head!” she exclaimed irritated, she threw the card on the couch and headed upstairs, giggling at her accidental wordplay as she went.

“I see.”

“It‘s strange really,” John had finished telling his dream to Twilight who listened intently, the conversation had turned slightly one-sided once John had mentioned he called out Luna‘s name as he woke, neither had managed to figure out the reason, or were trying too much as they ate breakfast.

“I’ll look into dreams later, I have a book about that somewhere,” she finished her hay pancakes and took her plate to the sink while John still dug into his own.

“Twi, these are delicious, how do you do this!?” John exclaimed excitedly as he poured more syrup into his breakfast.

“Heh, you may not believe this, but Spike made them,” John looked up from his plate giving Twilight an incredulous stare, however, she only smiled as John realized she wasn’t lying.

“… Don’t tell him I said that….”

“Wouldn’t count on it, he gets a rather big head when somepony praises him, still don’t know why you wouldn’t want to give him a praise though,” she said as she washed her plate.

“It’s a guy thing, you wouldn’t understand,” John said boldly while Twilight rolled her eyes.

“I’m not even gonna touch that one,” she dried the dish, and put it up on the shelf before turning to John. “By the way, I need you to go take a shower before we go anywhere.”

“But I don’t want to shower…”

“Excuse me?” Twilight gave John a rather harsh glare while he ate his pancakes.

“I mean… It’s a pain in the ass to shower with a cast on, you know?” he poked his pancakes with his fork grabbing the biggest piece he could find, he rather enjoyed the pancakes, and the rather minor argument would not prevent him from enjoying them.

“Curse you Spike, why are your pancakes so delicious?” he thought as he chewed the rather soft food.

“That may be, but frankly, you stink.” John frowned at this particular part. “And if you are gonna live here, I need you to go by some simple ground rules and perhaps something more.” “Oh oh…” he put his fork down and focused intently on Twilight. She took this as a sign and began.

“First: NO grabbing books with dirty hands, it can be rather difficult to get a stain out of the books, you will bathe every day as well.”

“Fair enough,” John agreed, returning to his pancakes and putting a few pieces into his mouth.

“Second,” she stopped for a hesitating second, but quickly continued. “You will help Spike with his chores, that is of course when you aren‘t out looking for a job,” John gave her a rather surprised stare as he analyzed her words.

“Anything else…?” he questioned suspiciously allowing Twilight to continue.

“Yes. You will try to go out and make friends whenever you are not occupied,” he put down the fork once again and held his hands together, putting his chin over them while eyeing Twilight suspiciously.

“Where is it?” he asked.

“Where is what?” she replied with a question of her own.

“The message.”

“I-I didn‘t get a letter,” she stuttered, causing John to get a wide grin plastered from side to side.

“I didn’t say anything about a letter,” John said triumphantly, and Twilight groaned loudly, magicking a parchment into existence.

“Okay, fine! You got me, the Princess send me a letter asking me to tell you to get a job. If it was for me, I would only let you only take care of the library, but the Princess said you needed to socialize to ‘get out of your former life shell‘,” she quoted with her hooves, which looked almost 'finger-like', all while John perused the contents of the letter, unfortunately, the contents were in a different language and he was not able to read it.

“Darn, she probably knew I’d try, I need to ask Twilight to teach me this stuff.”

“I guess you are right,” he said out loud, Twilight smiled, obviously glad he had agreed, but he wasn’t going to yield quite yet.

“First we go see Ditzy though,” her smile was quickly replaced by a grimace which she quickly hid behind her mane as she took John’s dish along with the still numerous stack of pancakes.

“Hey! I’m not done yet!”

“You are on a diet now,” she responded not turning to face the human.

“We are going right now then, you hear?”

She groaned as she put the dishes on the sink and silently washed them. John felt a bit of empty pride as Twilight no longer had a retort to make, the hollow victory didn’t bring him much happiness of course.

“The sooner we do this, the better you’ll be,” he thought while getting on his feet, he put some slight weight on his cast covered leg, feeling no pain, just like Twilight had said, his foot was healing surprisingly quickly, if there was a single drawback, it was perhaps the medicine. “Not even God would give this punishment to us mortals… but perhaps Celestia would…”

“John! Don’t do that!” too busy in his thoughts, it was too late, as John put his foot down, carrying his body’s full weight on his limb.

…

“Huh…”

“A-are you okay, John?”

“It didn’t hurt… at all…” he managed to say from his astonished state.

“Wait, what?” Twilight trotted towards John, and before he could even protest, John was lifted into the air by her purple aura, where soon, Twilight removed the cast by teleporting it off of his foot. John only sighed, allowing her to do her thing.

“I-it’s healed…!” Twilight looked over his foot intently, checking every nook and cranny so to speak.

“Really!?”

“This is amazing!”

“Yeah, I’ll say!”

“I-it must be your bones, they are probably a tad less dense than pony bones, so it healed much faster!”

“Uh huh… Hey Twi-”

“I must send the Princess a letter about this! This is just…”

“Um... Twilight…?” John heard a snicker, he turned towards the sound of the voice just to see Spike barely holding his laughter in.

“Spike! Help me!”

“Sorry buddy, you are on your own here, once she gets like that, nothing can stop her until she is done… Good luck!” and just like that, he went off to continue his chores.

“S-Spike…?” he called out softly in despair, but he received no answer.

“…hen we could help all of pony kind!” Twilight finished some speech she had been reciting while John tried to stop what was sure to come.

“Heeeeeeeelp!” he called out as he was dragged into Twilight’s basement, something that out of context, would have certainly be taken badly.

“… Super-duper-rific party EVER!”

Pinkie Pie finished by jumping in the air, balloons seemingly out of nowhere popping up behind her, this didn’t affect Mrs. Cake of course, living with the hyperactive pony for so long helped her and her husband get accustomed to such moments. She groaned as she tried to get back to her job but Pinkie would not allow her to return, frustrating the baker even further thanks to the previous day’s incidents.

Needless to say, Mrs. Cake was not having a good week.

“Er… Yes Pinkie, but like I said before, we rented the place for a birthday party. And as much as I would like to help you here, I can’t. So, if I ca-”

“But Mrs Caaaaaaaake!” she whined, giving her trademarked pouting.

“Do you want me to cut your pay?” she threatened jokingly.

“Oooooh, I would earn as much as the previous pony!” Pinkie replied, Mrs. Cake looked over Pinkie’s head, imagining the sarcasm flying over Pinkie’s fluffy mane and getting stuck in its mess.

“Dear Celestia…” she laughed, while Pinkie only stood there with a goofy grin,

“I know what you mean Mrs. Cake, Princess Celestia sure is a dear!” Mrs. Cake nearly face hoofed at her employee’s seeming lack of tact. Still, she had to admit, Pinkie was being rather pushy, even more so than normal, and she did not want to snap, she was like family after all.

“Listen Pinkie… I know this is important for you, but we have a business to run, and I’m sorry to say th-”

“Okey Dokey Lokie!” Pinkie said cheerfully, and skipped outside the bakery, leaving Mrs. Cake stumped at her sudden change of mood.

“… I will never understand that pony,” she shook her head in defeat and headed inside, ready to make the orders she needed for the party.

“Huh… Where could I have that party…?” Pinkie Pie thought as she skipped merrily on the street, she waved hi to any passerby pony, referring to each by name. Something that she was good at, was remembering things, and names was certainly one of the things she enjoyed remembering the most, followed by remembering birthdays, subsequently followed by remembering baking recipes.

What sort of a baker could she be without that knowledge?

“Oh! I know!” she took out a note and quickly wrote something down, she put the note back into her mane and skipped excitedly in place.

“They will be SO surprised! This is going to be AWESOME!” and just like that, the party pony sped off, leaving a cloud of smoke in her shape where she once stood.

“I- I said I was sorry!”

Twilight and John walked the streets of Ponyville, heading towards the house of a certain gray Pegasus, they hadn’t had much luck, seeing as neither of them had any idea of where it could be, it wasn’t easy focusing either with Twilight apologizing every minute behind John, he scoffed as he kept walking, trying to ignore the pony’s apologies.

“J-John?” Twilight staggered closely towards him, affectionately nuzzling his leg, that was all he could take before he turned his attention towards her.

“Look Twi, I already said I forgave you, but I guess you want something else, so here it is,” she grinned slightly and John finally took notice of her shriveled mane, ignoring this, he continued. “We will not speak of what happened down there. At all. Ever,” it was both a request and an order, that coupled with John’s serious tone, gave it more of an impact.

“O-okay,” with that out of the way, they continued to walk along, soon reaching the market John had passed through just the day before, they gazed over the apple stand and found Applejack setting it up.

“Good morning, Applejack!” Twilight called out.

“What’s so good ‘bout it?” she responded rather harshly.

“Geez… What got up your ass?” Twilight hit John with a hoof, keeping a worried stare at Applejack. “OUCH!” John complained and then hissed in pain, but was easily ignored by his pony sibling.

“What’s the matter, Applejack? You can tell me,” she asked worriedly.

“It’s really nothing, or maybe it is… ah’ guess y’all could say it’s related to Apple Bloom, but honestly, ah’ don’t want to talk about it,” she finished giving the pair a look of remorse at her request.

“It’s okay Applejack, we won‘t pry, I hope you can resolve it, and if you need my help, I‘m here.”

“Thanks Twi, don’t you worry, ah’ll be fine soon enough,” she said giving vague hints of a smile.

“Sorry about my comment…” John apologized.

“Don’t you worry big guy, ah’ was being a jerk mahself, so let’s call it even and move on, shall we?”

“Got it. See ya later, Applejack, he waved the farmer goodbye while Twilight did the same.

“Later Twi, later John. Stay outta trouble, yah hear?” she chuckled weakly at her comment and returned to her stand.

“I hope she feels better soon,” Twilight said worriedly once they were out of earshot.

“She probably got in a fight with Apple Bloom,” John said instantly getting a confused stare from Twilight.

“And how would YOU know that?” she questioned him.

“Had them all the time with Frankie, call it a hunch,” Twilight’s look of curiosity became one of distraught as John mentioned the name, he quickly intervened before she became too worried. “Are you gonna have that reaction every time I mention her?“ he asked her slightly more irritated than he should have been, taking Twilight by surprise.

“Well, it’s just that she was your sister, and the most important person in your life, and you usually got all sad whe—“ John quieted her down by placing a finger on her snout.

“Right now, you are the most important person/pony in my life, and I want said pony to apologize to another pony, so don’t you worry about that. Okay?“ she smiled understandingly and nodded in response, John proceeded to ruffle her mane, getting an annoyed gruff from the mare, and the pair continued their search checking the stands, and after asking a few sales ponies, they came up with no answers.

“We are never gonna find her John, can’t we just call it a day?” Twilight asked groaning in annoyance.

“Not until you apologize to Ditzy.”

“Did you say Ditzy?” the pair turned their heads towards a stand where a curly maned mare had a great array of vegetables set up for business.

“Yes, we did; do you know her Miss?” Twilight asked approaching the stand.

“Of course I do! We live together.”

“Oh well good for Ditzy! Having a partner,” the mare raised a brow confused.

“Partner? You mean roommate, right Mr. John?” she asked eyeing him suspiciously.

“Er… Yes, I did! Ahaha…” the conversation was taking a sudden awkward turn, something that he quickly remedied. “Wait… How did you know my name?” John asked the grinning mare.

“News travel fast on a small community such as this, but where are my manners! My name is—”

“Carrot something I bet!” John guessed, having met quite a few ponies by now had him guessing that the name they had shared their talent, or rather visibly, their cutie mark, of course, the orange mare didn’t see to agree as her hoof shook violently in what seemed to be anger, she seemed to try her best to calm herself down, but the stand itself shaking didn’t give the pair much confidence of that happening.

“Perhaps we should come back another ti—” Twilight began, but was stopped by the mare who jumped out of the stand, and somehow, grabbed John by the collar of his shirt.

“You think you are so funny, huh? Well you are not, and I want you to remember something right now.
My name is GOLDEN HARVEST! G-O-L-D-E-N-SPACE-H-A-R-V-E-S-T! GOT. IT. ME-MO-RIZED!?” she was lifted off John by an angered Twilight who simply held her in place.

“Listen, Ms. Harvest was it? I don’t know what your problem is, but John didn’t know that, and I do not appreciate the way you are treating my friend for a simple mistake, even if it was quite pertinent of him,” she gave him a quick look and then turned back to Harvest. “Now if you don’t mind, we‘ll look somewhere else.” she then proceeded to put her into the ground, causing Harvest to stagger as she landed thanks to the force with which she was put down.

Harvest seemed horrified as she regained her balance, ponies were whispering around as they watched the rather short-lived struggle that had just taken place, she turned towards the already moving pair and called out.

“Wait!” they stopped in their tracks and whispered something towards each other, they then turned around and walked back towards her.

“Yes...?” John asked a bit forcibly, Harvest ignored the tone and proceeded.

“I’m so sorry, I just happen to have something against… that name.” she finished whispering before resuming. “But I know where Ditzy is, here,” she hoofed John a small note with an address that Twilight quickly read, she nodded to John, and then turned to Harvest.

“You are lucky John already forgave you, and you are lucky I’m not the violent type, or I would have slammed you into the ground,” Harvest gulped at the consequences of angering the strongest Unicorn in all of Equestria, and shook her head, taking out the grim possibilities from her mind.

“Y-yes, I understand! Can we start again? Please?” she extended her hoof in an act of peace, and John hesitantly reached out to it and shook it, the other passerby ponies noticed this and continued on their business, quickly forgetting the scuffle.

“Ms. Sparkle?”

“What is it?” she replied coldly.

“I-is there a way we can forget this happened? I feel bad enough as it is,” she pleaded to the purple mare.

“I’m not sure about forgetting, but if John forgave you, then you are okay in my book.”

“Thank you Ms. Sparkle, t-thank you, John,” she thanked the human who did not reply back. “Hello? W-why is he not replying?”

“To be honest… He is terrified of you right now… It took all of his willpower to come back here,” she turned to John and poked him slightly, shaking him out of his stupor. “That Ditzy better be home,” she re-read the note again and turned to Harvest. “Anyway, if you will excuse us; we have a pony to meet.” and with that final note, the pair walked away from Harvest, eager to get the meeting over with.

“That shower hit the spot!” Ditzy headed out of the bathroom with a towel over her mane and another one over her midsection, it was an unnecessary extra, but one that she did out of habit. Her mom had been very strict on her teachings.

“A lady must always leave the bath covering their dignity,” Ditzy mimicked for no reason as she trotted into her bedroom, she grunted as she entered the place, a rather unpleasant smell filling the place.

“I really need to clean this up…” suddenly, her stomach growled. “…But first some food!” she said ignoring the mess in the room, and soon after, completely forgetting it as she took off the towels and tossed them in her bed before heading downstairs.

“I wonder what Harvest left me to ea—” she stopped as she eyed the table, she noticed a plate and headed towards it, only finding a half-eaten crepe and a note from Harvest.

“Sorry, I was a bit more hungry than I thought. Have a great day, Ditzy! "

Ditzy groaned slightly annoyed, but let it slide for the time being—she had a pastry to eat.

“Okay then, down the hatch you go.” she put the rest of the treat into her mouth and savored it, grinning at the deliciousness, she looked back at the plate and her ears flattened in sadness after finding nothing else there.

“Maybe I’ll buy something else later, and Harvest gets nothing! That would show her,” she left the kitchen with a grin in her face, and caught sight of the front door, where she saw her mailbags and quickly remembered.

“Oh no… I forgot to go to work!” she checked the clock and noticed the time, her shift had ended minutes ago, she groaned and quickly headed to the door, she stopped when she noticed the card she had received earlier that day and picked it up, once again taking notice of the balloon pattern engraved.

“You are cordially invited to the party of John the hue-man, anything is welcome, and maybe a few presents are okay, invite as many ponies as you’d like, everypony is welcome!

Oh! And we will have snacks and games for everypony!

This will be the greatest party EVER!

Please be there!

It’ll be fun!”

-Pinkie Pie

Ditzy read the invite with a grin, she had been invited to Pinkie’s parties before, but she had never attended one herself. Meeting ponies who usually disliked her held her back. She turned the card around to check the location and her eyes widened as she read the note.

“…This is dumb, but it might work…” she stuffed the card on her mailbags and headed out. “But first, I need to talk to Darling and may—” her reciting was cut short by something hitting her in the face with force, and she fell back confused, surprised, and most importantly, hurt.

“Ditzy!? Oh geez, I’m sorry! Are you okay?” she heard the voice that sounded rather familiar to her, she struggled slightly, but she managed to open her eyes to notice who was talking to her.

The previous day’s memories came flooding back as for both her fortune and misfortune, standing in front of her were John, and Twilight Sparkle.

Things in Canterlot Castle were going rather calmly, and as such, Celestia had decided to cancel any sort of meetings she might have had at the time, it was something she hadn’t done in a century, but it had to be done, after all, she had made a recent discovery and it was something she had to share with her sister in private. She had been patiently waiting in her room, as Luna was asleep at this time, she disliked bothering her, but it simply could not wait.

After a few minutes, Luna appeared inside the room enveloped in a flash of light, she trotted towards Celestia, and quickly moved to the point.

“Very well, sister. What is it you want to tell me.”

Celestia was deeply in thought as she heard the question, she put her thoughts coherently together, choosing how to properly answer her, after a few minutes, she finally spoke.

“The book has been found,” she said with a hint of worry.

“You are not going to say that you found the book that used to belong to that old spoony bard?” Celestia smiled at her sister’s remark, it was a nickname she had not heard in ages, specially when referring to a pony such as him in that manner.

After all, basically all of Equestria respected the now gone Unicorn.

“Indeed I do, Lulu,” Luna seemed taken aback by her sister’s statement, obviously not expecting that to be the answer.

“But I thought that book had been destroyed along with him? How can this be?” she stared at Celestia incredulously, unable to believe what she heard.

“Alas, not even I know the answer to that, but I have found the book, and I plan to retrieve it,” she informed Luna.

“That would be best. But tell me sister, where does this book reside at this time?” she looked at Celestia with curiosity, awaiting her response.

“Where else, Luna? The place where every single major event seems to occur nowadays, one you are rather familiar with,” she tilted her head sideways, waiting for Luna’s response.

“You honestly cannot mean it.”

“Oh, but I do. The book is in Ponyville of all places.”

“Coincidence seems to have a thing for that small town,” Luna observed.

“Coincidence? I think fate would be a more appropriate word. Now, I must prepare to visit the pony currently possessing it,” Luna was once again taken aback by her sister’s response, a rarity by any means.

“A pony actually found the book? Who?” Celestia stared at her sister for a bit longer before revealing the name.

“A lyre player with a human obsession.”

Author's Notes:

Aaaaand another chapter out.

I honestly thought I would have quit a while back, but I digress.
I hope you enjoyed this one.

And about the last part... Well, I got Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon early, and long story short, I've been playing it non-stop.
Procrastination for the win...! Yeaaaaah...

As always, leave your positive or negative feedback below, a thought on the story, or something along those lines, I would certainly appreciate it.

Notes 10 4/7/2018

I'll be perfectly frank here and admit it that I was setting up a story FAR bigger that I had any ability to manage. It's not quite obvious here, but I can safely say that it isn't happening, though ideas will actually be implemented in a story that will come out at some point. Let's just say 'convoluted' wouldn't even start covering what I had in mind.

As for this chapter? There are still aspects I hate regarding my older writing style, but I can see my improvement already. It really helps to have some perspective, huh?

PS: I lost my copy of Luigi's Mansion press F for me