The bell on the front door of the bookstore jingled. The young mare at the counter looked up from her cheap paperback, her eyes half-lidded with disinterest, fully expecting another idle browser. Her eyes flew wide when she saw who it was. She spit out her chewing gum and hastily dropped into an awkward bow as Princess Twilight Sparkle, Bearer of the Element of Magic, strode majestically through the front door.

The counter clerk was forced to correct herself; the princess wasn't exactly striding. She seemed more to be... hopping. Skipping with glee, actually, with a big grin on her face as she looked all around the store. She looked for all the world like a filly on her first unsupervised trip to the candy store. Her two stern-looking royal guards, wearing her cutie mark as their heraldry (on the breastplate of their oddly spray-painted looking armor)  took positions just inside the doorway as she skipped merrily up to the counter. "Oh, um--- you may rise," she said.

The counter filly got to her feet. "May I help you... your Highness?" she said nervously.

"Oh, yes!" Princess Sparkle leaned over the counter, resting her chin on her hooves. "You know, I used to shop at this very bookstore all the time when I was a student," she said conversationally. "I just had to stop by here. You see I'm going on an extended trip soon and I would like to stock up on some reading material."

"Can I... fetch you something?" the counter mare said.

"Yes," Twilight Sparkle said. She suddenly started hopping in place. "Ooo I've always wanted to do this... I'll have one copy of each."

"Uh, one of each of what?"

Princess Sparkle looked out the door to the carriage still standing in the street. Her horn lit and a brass-trimmed chest floated in the door and settled on the counter. It popped open; it was filled to overflowing with bits.

"Everything! Eeeee!!" Princess Twilight Sparkle, Bearer of the Element of Magic, co-ruler of Equestria and member of the newly minted Octarchy, started doing a gleeful hoofy-dance.

"Now, to begin at the beginning, we must needs explain the actual nature of thy powers." Luna said in a serious voice.

"Uh Huh," Pinkie said obediently.

The two alicorns were on board their airship, awaiting delivery and loading of supplies they had both ordered. Luna had noted that her new pupil Pinkie was abnormally calm and quiet, and had decided that this would be a good opportunity to give her an impromptu first lesson. To that end they had retreated to the cabin for a bit of quiet. Pinkie had plopped her rump on the floor, and Luna had begun lecturing on the nature of Pinkie's powers.

"To wit, the roots of thy unique powers lie in a very simple premise: thou hast the ability to see-- and move-- in more dimensions than others. There are three concepts, intertwined:  Time, Space, and Probability," Luna said, pacing back and forth. "Thou knowest, I assume, that simple space is made up of three dimensions, height, width and depth--" here a glowing graph appeared in midair, illustrating. "-- and the fourth, Time.  In essence, time and space are the same sort of thing... dimension. We can all see and move in those dimensions, within limits. There are higher dimensions as well..."

Pinkie Pie raised her hoof like a schoolfilly. "Oh, like directions-- up, down, left, right, before, after, maybe, maybe not, purple, orange--" At Luna's bewildered expression she shrugged. "Well, that's what I call 'em."

"Ahhh... quite," the lunar princess said. She shook her head and continued. "The point is: all those things are directions, along which you can see.. or move, given the right power and the right circumstances. Even what might be, and what might not be, are essentially directions one takes along a higher plane.

"In brief, thy gift is the ability to see, and to some extent move, in more directions than those few to which ponies are limited."

"Consider this." A hollow, translucent tube appeared in the air. "Imagine that this tube is Time. In one direction is the past, in the other is the future." A miniature pony appeared inside the tube and began walking along it. "As time passes, you move along it, from yesterday into tomorrow. Most ponies can only see the past, and the present, but not the future." The tube ahead of the pony suddenly fell dark, lighting up only as the miniature pony traveled along with it. "But your special gift allows you to see ahead of yourself--" the pony turned pink, with a frizzy mane... and the tube ahead of it lit up.

Pinkie waved a hoof again. "But my Pinkie Sense only works for little things a little ways ahead," she said. "Or really big big things-- but only a little further ahead. Why can't I see all the way to Next Tuesday, or Hearthwarming Day, or further?"

"An astute question. The answer lies in probability." The tube suddenly branched ahead of the pony, who stopped. "Now suppose you were to make a decision by flipping a coin. On one path, the coin turned up heads. On another path, the coin turned up tails. Now suppose you flipped the coin again... and again..." each branch forked, then forked again. "Each branch is a different path, a different choice. And the further you go, the more possible choices there are." The tube turned so that Pinkie could look down it. "As you can see, this makes the tube all... bendy and turny. so you can only see to the nearest fork, at most."

Pinkie "Ohhhh"ed. The tube turned sideways between them again. "Unless the tube is really really big, right? Which means its the one Little Pinkie is most likely to go down. Or there's something really really big and bright and shiny down one tube that shines bright enough to see, even around corners."

"A... fair description," Luna nodded. "The more likely a path of choices is, the more clearly you can 'see' it, unconsciously, and select it.

"For those with the Luckmaking gift, this 'sight' takes a lot of different forms. Some hear sounds or voices. Others see ghostly images, or have strange hallucinations. You, in particular, feel little twitches and itches and spasms when a notable event... it is your unconscious mind alerting you to something your conscious mind does not quite see.

"The more interesting aspect of your gift is that you are able to change which branch is most likely to happen." One path through the branching tubes widened. "Again, not by much, and not very far ahead... but enough to make a tangible difference. Like making it more likely that a load of furniture will fall on someone spying on you. Or that a pony playing tic-tac-toe with you will make a move that will let you win." The mini-Pinkie trotted down the widened path. "Thus far you have done it entirely unconsciously, entirely by instinct. But with time and training you will be able to do so at will."

"Can you and Princess Celestia do all that?"

Luna shook her head. "Twas not part of our natural gifts," she said. "What we know of it, was gained through centuries of study and practice, and e'en then I am incapable of doing nearly as much nor as easily as thee. And dear sister--" Luna shrugged. "She can do little more than change a single coin-flip or a roll of the dice. Though she has managed to get herself in and out of unimaginable trouble countless times, it has been due to ruthlessly thorough planning, not the twisting of odds. Besides, she doth not like using it much."

"Why not?"

Luna paused. "We get the impression that she thinks it's cheating...

"Moving on. As thou art able to navigate, within limits, through the bends and curves of time, thou art also able to move and see through the bends and curves of space." The tube turned into a thin, flat plane. The little pony reappeared and began walking across it. "Space, like time, has bends in it-- ripples and curves and waves." the thin sheet warped and bent, developing folds and wrinkles. "Again, most ponies are unaware of these wrinkles, because they travel along the surface..." the mini pony continued to walk along the undulating surface of the sheet. "But because thou art able to see in the extra directions we spoke of, thou art able to see the wrinkles and bends, and take shortcuts across them." The mini-Pinkie appeared and, confronted by a huge looping roll in the sheet, instead hopped across a narrow space where it crimped together. "Thou doest this instinctively." Luna smiled. "Which is rather confusing to the other ponies thou knowest."

"Ohhhh." Pinkie poked at the illusion with a hoof, comprehension dawning. "You mean nopony else can see this stuff?" she said. "So that's why my friends act all funny when I take my special shortcuts, or I get stuff out of my special hiding places! That's so weird!"

Luna smiled to herself. It was all a matter of perspective. While Pinkie's antics may have been baffling to her friends, their inability to understand was just as bewildering to her. It would be like living with ponies who couldn't use windows or doors. "Of course, I am sure you have noticed, or you shall, as your awareness grows, that there are limits to your gifts. The universe is... resilient. It swiftly mends itself, and is resistant to change from the norm beyond certain small amounts. The greater the change, the greater the resistance and the impulse to snap back to the norm. There are gaps too wide for one to cross, and things one can no more readily change--- such as the past--- than one can push a mountain out of place. You will be able to do far more now that thou art an alicorn, and more importantly art aware of what thou art doing. But thy abilities are a gift and an advantage... not an absolute power."

Pinkie nodded, surprisingly sober. "So, what do I have to learn first?"

"Thou canst do much already with thy gift. But again, it is all instinctive. The many paths and possibilities are too numerous for the waking mind to sort through... so the unconscious, the sleeping mind, sifts through them for you, dropping faint hints to your conscious mind. Thy first goal, therefore, is to learn to consciously select the paths and directions thou desirest; to alter chance at will, to foresee with clarity, to move along those 'extra" spatial directions without using the mental sleight-of-hoof tricks thou currently useth to fool thyself-- ducking out of sight to appear elsewhere, or reaching for things with thy hoof with thy eyes averted."

"Oh, you mean like this?" Pinkie stuck her hoof in her mane. when she pulled it out, she was wielding a small alligator.

Luna lurched back, eyes wide. "Ack! Um, yes, like that... " The alligator blinked and made a burping noise at her. Luna peered at it warily, head cocked sideways. "What in the cosmos..."

"Oh this is Gummy, my pet alligator." Pinky beamed.

Well that explains the aquarium the longeshoreponies loaded earlier, Luna thought. "Where didst thou get him from?" Luna asked.

"The swamp."

Luna's eyebrows tabled. "I meant where didst thou fetch him from, just now?" she clarified patiently.

"The swamp, like I said," Pinkie said. She held Gummi up in her hooves. "See? His feet are still wet."

Luna made the mistake of leaning in too close. Without warning the diminutive swamp predator lunged forward and snapped its jaws shut on the end of her muzzle. Her shriek of dismay nearly blew out the cabin windows.

"Oooh, he likes you!" Pinkie cheered.

Luna shook her head frantically, finally dislodging the beast and sending it flying. It tumbled through the air and landed on Pinkie Pie's head, where it simply sat and blinked unemotionally at everything. Luna felt her muzzle carefully, checking for toothmarks and finding none. A second glance at the lizard confirmed it; the creature had no teeth. "Why in the Maker's name do you have a toothless alligator as a pet?" Luna asked as calmly as she could manage.

"Cause the ostrich egg wouldn't fit in the aquarium, duh," Pinkie said, rolling her eyes.

"Wait. What?"

"Delivery for Princess Pie," somepony said. Luna looked up. A burly workpony was standing at the door, holding a clipboard. Eager to distract herself from the fact that she had just been bested by a toothless reptile, Luna strode up to the bowing stallion and took the clipboard from him. Her eyebrows rose as she read the manifest.

"One hundred bowling balls... three hundred and sixty five 'happy pine tree' carriage air fresheners... twenty four ACME brand cannons....a blender...  six hundred boxes of instant cake mix.... one ton of confetti.... one hundred forty four pink flamingos... a bag of marbles... five bags of fortune cookies... a lug wrench... a box of elephant prophylactics... Five cans of purple paint... five cans of yellow paint... five cans of PINK paint... one jelly-bean pooping plastic moose... five spare tires... a rubber life raft... eight thousand Kewpie pony dolls(1)... a giant flyswatter...a toaster.... one pair of each kind of 'Groucho Marks'(2) glasses.... one live parrot... one dead parrot, stuffed..."

Luna's eye twitched. Should I be concerned that I can imagine what she intends to use at least half of these things for...? she wondered.

"Oh goodie!" Pinkie said, hopping (literally) to her hooves. "Scuse me, Lulu, but I gotta go put this stuff away."

"We knowest our sister did give thee and thy fellow Bearers access to the royal coffers," Princess Luna said in growing bafflement, "But whence didst thou purchase this disparate assembly of goods..?"

"Mail order," Pinkie said blithely, hopping off after the longshorepony. She tugged a book as thick as her leg from under the gator sitting on her mane and hoofed it to Luna on her way out the door. Luna read the title:

"WHOLE EARTH CATALOG."

Thus ended Luna's first lesson: no matter how much one explained her abilities, her history or her nature, Pinkie Pie was still Pinkie Pie.

"... and I know you all want to come along, but there's really not enough room, and besides some of you get such tummyaches when you travel," Fluttershy said. "Don't worry. Mr. Hayseed promises that he'll take good care of you all while I'm gone."

The Alicorn of Kindness was standing in the royal gardens. All her animal friends were standing in a semicircle in front of her, snuffling and whimpering and looking woeful. It was like being assaulted with a dozen Sad Puppy posters simultaneously. "Oh, please don't cry," Fluttershy pleaded. "Angel Bunny and I will write you all every day, I promise--"

Overwhelmed, the grizzly bear grabbed her and mashed her to his chest in a crushing hug. The pastel pony's eyes bugged. "Ack-- too tight, Mister Bear," she managed to squeak out. The bear let her go with an apologetic whuffle. "That's all right," Fluttershy panted, smoothing her rumpled mane out. "You meant well."

"Are you ready to go, Big Sister?" someone called faintly. Breezy Shy came striding into the garden. He smiled and bobbed his head meekly at the animals gathered around Fluttershy. They cheeped, chittered, or rumbled a greeting, as was their nature.

"Oh, certainly, Bishi," Fluttershy said, smiling. "We do have a lot of things to prepare before we start our journey. Excuse me, little friends--" the bear whuffed "--and big friends, but we have to be going. Buhbye..." With a final wave she left the garden, following her little brother.

Soon they were in the thick of the city. Two royal guard ponies fell in beside them. They went surprisingly unnoticed as they trotted down the avenue. Of course the sunhat Fluttershy was wearing over her horn might have had something to do with it, she realized. She was rather thankful that she hadn't gotten as tall as Celestia or Luna.

Fluttershy used her magic to pull a list from her saddlebag. "I'm so glad Twilight made up this pre-flight checklist for us," she said. " I know I would forget half these things before we left..." She looked over and noticed that Breezy Shy was looking rather anxious, looking about for something. "Is something wrong, Bishi?"

"Oh, um, no, not really," Breezy said, ducking his head. "I was just hoping to see my sensei before we set sail."

"Oh, he's here in Canterlot?"

Bishi nodded. "He's opening a new dojo today," he said.

"Well, I'm sure we can take the time," Fluttershy said. "Where is this new dojo?"

"It should be on this street," Breezy answered, looking around. His face brightened suddenly and he pointed. "There it is!" He started galloping across the street to a rather Neighponese looking building with an enormous Kanji sign over the doorway.

"Bishi--!" Fluttershy exclaimed, galloping after him, their two guards clattering behind. When she got across the crowded street her little brother was already bowing to a figure standing in the front door. When she saw who it was, her jaw nearly scraped the sidewalk. It was an enormous, powerfully muscled minotaur in a red karate gi, returning her little brother's bow.

"Iron Will?"

The minotaur heard his name and turned to her. "Ah, Princess Fluttershy," he said. His voice was unnaturally calm. No, Fluttershy corrected herself. Serene. He pressed his palms together and gave her a ceremonial bow. "So you are the elder sister of one of my best pupils? I recognized the name but I did not make the connection."

"You know each other?" Breezy said in surprise, looking from one to the other.

"You, um, might say that," the princess said, looking aside awkwardly.

"Indeed we do," Iron Will said, in that startlingly tranquil voice. "You remember the story I told you, of my greatest and most important failure?"

This really surprised the colt. "Really? That was her?" He said, unbelieving. Fluttershy winced. His greatest failure?

Iron Will seemed to notice her wince. He chuckled. "Allow me to clarify. I tell all my students this story, because of its importance. How I was once a motivational speaker, trying to teach ponies assertiveness and self esteem. Till one day I took on a client-- a timid pegasus-- who took to my training seminars like a duckling to water." He smiled ruefully. "And it nearly ruined her life. She became everything she was not: aggressive, pushy, angry, even unfeeling and hurtful."

Fluttershy had blushed redder and shrunk down further with every word; at this point she was just shy of disappearing behind her own mane. "You, um, heard about that, did you?" she mumbled.

"I saw the property damage."

Fluttershy meeped.

"Finally, she refused to pay, invoking my satisfaction guarantee. I left empty handed-- and humbled." His smile broadened. "Which is why I call it my greatest--" he held up a finger-- " and most important failure." Fluttershy looked up in surprise.

"It was only when she refused to pay because she was so unhappy with the results that I realized my assertiveness training, for all it's effectiveness, was-- incomplete. It lacked balance. It was assertiveness without empathy, aggression without compassion, confidence without kindness. It was nothing but being brash and proud without anything to justify it, and much to belittle it.

"Confused, I closed down my seminars and began searching for the missing component. I found it in a distant land--"

"In Neighpon?" Fluttershy ventured.

"In Fresno. There was a dojo there with a pony who taught me the way of Karate-- the empty hand. Er, Hoof." He scratched the back of his head.  "I learned there to have strength with focus, and that meekness is not weakness, it is strength under control."

"That you don't have to step on others to stand up for yourself," Bishi chipped in.

Iron Will nodded to the colt. "My dojo's motto," he said to Fluttershy, cocking an eyebrow.

Fluttershy surprised herself by giggling. "Well, it's not as snappy as 'If they block, show them you rock," she said. "But it's catchy enough."

"So what brings the Princess of Kindness to my humble dojo today?" Iron Will asked.

"My little brother," Fluttershy said simply. "He wanted to say goodbye."

At Iron Will's questioning look, Breezy Shy filled him in. "We're going on a long trip," he said, shuffling one hoof. "We're looking for--" he paused. "Um, important stuff. I don't know when I'll be back to the dojo again, and I just wanted to say goodbye, and I'll miss you." He looked up a little sadly.

"Well then, thank you for giving me this opportunity, Breezy," Iron Will said. "I shall miss you, as well. And do not say goodbye. Say 'Till we meet again.' I have learned much from you." He looked at Fluttershy. "From both of you. Thank you both." He bowed deeply to them both.

Fluttershy dimpled. "And... I suppose we both have learned much from you, too," she said. "Thank you, Iron Will." She and breezy both returned the bow, their wings flaring gracefully.

"...And this is the, um..." Applejack waved a hoof absently at the opulent room she, Applebloom and Babs found themselves in.

"The royal cabin, your highness," one of the guards standing next to her muttered in her ear.

"--The royal cabin, where we'll be hangin' our hats," Applejack finished. "Thank ya, Zeke," she muttered. "stick close and keep feedin' me cues, fellas, I'm lost as a chicken in a cornfield."

Unlike the rest of the Bearers, Applejack quite frankly had no clue whatsoever as to how to outfit her ship. She wasn't high society, she didn't have a clue what she'd need for a long quest like this, and she was stumped for any ideas on how to outfit a royal airship, of all things, for the comfort of an earth pony like herself. She did know how to delegate, though. Once Twilight had written out that checklist, Applejack had promptly turned to a couple of the servants Celestia had given her, handed the list to them, said "Gussy it up, but keep it in budget" and left them to it. It was with some dry amusement that Applejack noted that her own zeppelin was fully furnished and kitted out before any of the others.

To pass the time before the big launching, she and the girls were taking a tour of their new home-away-from-home. From what she could see the fancy looking ponies she'd picked(3) had done a bang up job. The ship had all the comforts of home and then some. Nothing was excessively frilly or fru fru, but everything was top quality and sturdy built, and even a bit plush, here and there. The kitchen was top notch, the larders were stocked full of good hearty food, the bathrooms had a nice big shower and tub, a fancy sit-down hair dryer and all the primping tools a princess could ever need, even a magically heated seat on the... well, you know.... the furniture was comfortable and the beds were as plush and soft as a featherdown dream. It might not be as fancy paints as Rarity's airship was bound to be, but it was as luxurious as anything the Apples had ever had.

The cabin in particular was well fitted out. It had a large writing desk to one side, a table in the center for dining and for meetings, a couple of bookshelves, a beverage cabinet full of cut glass decanters, and a four poster bed large enough for a whole pony family.

Applebloom and Babs took one look at the enormous four poster bed in the cabin and ran straight for it with the full and obvious intention of bouncing on it like a trampoline. "Wheee!" they both shouted. They leaped up onto the bed-- and disappeared with a flumph.

Both the guards broke up laughing. Applejack wasn't doing too good at keeping a straight face herself. After a moment Applebloom's ribboned head poked back up out of the mounds of pillows and pegasus-down comforters. "Hokey Smokes, Applejack," she said. "Yer gonna need a snorkle to sleep in this thing!"

Two orange hooves poked up out of the bed and waved in the air. "What'd dey make dis thing outta, marshmallow fluff?" Babs demanded, her voice muffled.

Shaking with laughter, Applejack used her still-shaky levitation to help the two climb back out of the pitfall of a bed. "Well we know the beds are nice an' soft," she chuckled as they tumbled to the floor. "So whaddya think of our little home away from home, eh?

"I think it's the bee's knees," Applebloom said enthusiastically. "I'm up for the trip!"

Applejack grinned. "What about you, Babs? At the very least you'll get away from your problems back in Manehattan for awhile." At this, Babs' face fell. "Hold on, what wrong, sugarcube?"

"Oh, nuthin' really, Cousin Applejack," Babs said. "I.. I'm just kinda worryin' about my friends at school. The other Manehattan Cutie Mark Crusaders, you know? I feel kinda bad. I mean, I'm getting away, but they're gonna be stuck back there with Pennyworth and his jerk friends."

Applejack let out a snort of amusement. "Oh, I don't think you have to worry about that none..."

The pegasus carriage landed at the front gate of Sweet Apple Acres. Six very unhappy looking colts and fillies piled out. Their baggage hit the dust behind them, and without a second glance back the carriage rattled off, going airborne a ways down the road and leaving them behind. Pennyworth, Ivy, Marzipan, Ruby Drop, Bullhorn and Air Drop found themselves facing a withered old nag of a mare with an apple pie cutie mark and an absolute hulking monster of a stallion who wore a heavy wooden yoke around his neck like it weighed no more than a bow tie.

The red stallion eyed them all up and down with half lidded eyes, chewing on a stalk of grass, but said nothing. The old mare wasn't so quiet. "Yer late," she said.

"Hey, that ain't our fault," Pennyworth said, trying to put on an air of indifference. "We didn't fly the carriage ourselves."

"Ah didn't say it was yer fault, I just said yer late," the mare said. "Not that I care either way.

"As I understand it, you six whippersnappers got yerself in a peck o' trouble," she went on. "Pickin' on foals, startin' fights in the royal palace. And If I don't miss my guess," she said, giving Pennyworth's still-bruised face the gimlet eye, "You found out the hard way you dun picked on the wrong pony. But that don't surprise me; it takes a special kind o' fool to pick on the kinfolk of the Princesses." The bullies scowled or flinched, but said nothing.

"Anyhow, we got word from Princess Celestia that you little hooligans got the deal of the century. Instead a' sendin' you to JUVIE HALL for assaultin' royalty--" here the six of them did flinch ---" Th' Princesses are lettin' you work off your debt to society here on the farm." The old mare seemed to catch Marzipan's grimace and decided to ladle it on. "That means pullin' weeds, haulin' wood, mendin' fences, plowin' and hoein' fields, sloppin' the hogs--"

"Slopping hogs??" Marzipan shrieked. "I can't be around filthy, smelly pigs!!"

"Never stopped ya before," the old mare said sarcastically.

"Heyyy---" Air Drop complained. She just ignored him.

Pennyworth snorted disdainfully. "You can't make us do anything..."

The nag cocked an eyebrow at him. "And you can't make us feed ya," she said. "Maybe you ain't figgered it out yet, boy. Celestia done told your parents to cut you off." The six miscreants gaped. "That's right. You ain't gonna buy your way out with Daddy's money here in Ponyville. And out here yer fancy name don't mean tiddly boo. You got no money, and you ain't got noooo credit. You dun been blackballed, boy."

She got right up in Pennyworth's face, squinting at him with one eye. Her breath smelled of stale apples. "You'll do what we say, when we say it. You'll get up with the rooster and go to bed with the hens, and you'll do all the work we give you in between and like it. And if'n ye don't-- ye don't eat till ya do." She backed off, turned around and headed up the trail to the farmhouse. "Git yer things," she said. "Big MacIntosh here will show y'all where you'll be sleepin'. Him an' the other workers the Princesses sent will git ya started."

She looked over her shoulder. "By the way: from time to time you'll be goin' into Ponyville. If'n I git word you've been bullyin' any of the colts or fillies there like you did my granddaughters, I'll light you up like a Hearthwarming tree."

"And then when I'm done I'll hand over what's left of ya to Big MacIntosh." That said, she walked off.

The six froze in the act of picking up their luggage. "Her... granddaughters?" Ruby Drop squeaked.

"Wait," Pennyworth said unhappily.  "Sweet Apple Acres. As in the Apple family? You mean they're related to..."

A shadow fell over him. He looked up to find Big MacIntosh looming over him like a mountain of doom. The enormous stallion picked up their luggage and piled it on his back, carrying all of it as effortlessly as if it was filled with feathers. He put his blunt, shaggy maned head down till he was eye to eye with Pennyworth.

"Eeeyup," he said.

He strode off for the farmhouse.

As soon as he was out of earshot, Bullhorn spoke for all of them.

"Oh, horseapples," he whimpered.

1)-- pink with pink hair, white with purple hair, purple with purple hair, orange with yellow hair, yellow with pink hair, blue with rainbow hair, white with rainbow hair, and dark blue with dark blue hair.

2)Yes, there's a pony named Groucho Marks. He's world famous for his comedy props, most particularly his wide selection of goofy glasses-- x-ray specs, spiraly eyes, slinky eyes, coke bottle nerd, and of course the ones that got him his cutie mark as a colt, the classic goofy-nose-with-mustache.

3)A rather confused footman and chambermaid. Next Chapter: Chapter 12 Estimated time remaining: 6 Hours, 12 Minutes