This fanfiction is intended to be a proof-of-concept for ideas that could be used for in the future for Hasbro's My Little Pony franchise; therefore, the author of this work hereby grants Hasbro Inc. and its affiliates and licensees, including but not limited to DHX Media, express, written permission to use, create derivative works of, sell, claim as their own intellectual property, and in general take any action they see fit with all and any content of this fanfiction, including, but not limited, to narration, dialog, story elements, story events, names of characters, names of fictional locations, names of fictional objects, fictional properties assigned to objects that exist in real life, character traits and backstories, worldbuilding elements, lyrics, and fictional magic spells. The author of this work relinquishes all and any intellectual property rights for all and any content of this fanfiction work to Hasbro Inc. and its affiliates and licensees, including but not limited to DHX Media.
Shining Armor was awakened by the feel of hooves drumming on the bed around him. He knew immediately that it could only be his overeager sister, before he even heard her begin to sing at the top of her lungs:
Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! It's a bad new day!
I have an awesome feeling, things will go our way!
So why just stay here; there's a world to explore,
There's stuff to learn, treasures to find, and so much more!
...She was just too darn cute for him to be mad at her, and he HAD planned to go exploring Rainbow Mountain with her, starting early in the morning, so he just sat up and sang right back at her:
Exploring with you is the highlight of being me,
But shouldn't we get packed before we head out of our tree?
Twilight threw an already-packed set of saddlebags at her brother-he'd packed it himself the previous evening with all the supplies and gear he'd need for the trip, and completely forgotten that he had. Not missing a beat in their song, Twilight continued,
We're packed and ready, why wait? Let's get out right way!
Still not missing a beat, Shining Armor asked her:
Can't we have some breakfast first?
And she answered, blushing a little:
We'll just graze-we're out of hay!
Shining Armor smiled and kept singing:
Oh, I'll stop making excuses, I know I'll love each minute!
Twilight reared with glee and answered:
And I just KNOW today we'll find a cave with treasure in it!
They continued in perfect harmony:
And then we'll pay the mortgage off, we'll FINALLY be free,
An even brighter future then, for our parents, you and me!
The two of them sprinted out of their parents' bookbinding workshop and home, which was indeed a hollowed-out tree, waving goodbye to their parents and racing for all they were worth up the path up Rainbow Mountain. They continued their song in a happy chorus:
Let's explore, the world's brand-new!
Let's get out there, me and you!
New discoveries await,
I just KNOW it will be great,
And greatness is a thing to share,
So come on, let's get out there!
This isn't the first time they'd sung as they explored; often when they sang like this, they jumped into and out of their song as the hours of exploration rolled by. This time was no different, and after an hour or so, Twilight pulled her journal out of her saddlebag and opened it to a page with a heavily annotated map on it, and began to sing:
We know there's diamonds in this mountain, we found a few before
But years of research proves there's caves with many many more!
I've mapped the mountain front to back, except for one last place,
Shining Armor smiled, looking over her shoulder at the spot circled on her map in red pencil, and sang back to her:
That narrows down the search, and now we know what path we'll trace!
After Twilight packed her journal away again, they began galloping on their newly-chosen route and resumed their harmony:
All of these years exploring, and it comes down to today,
All this hard work and persistence finally will pay!
We can't stop now, no, not when we've already come this far,
And it's so good, exploring like the family we are!
After perhaps half an hour, they found themselves pushing their way through a dense thicket, and just as they were exiting it, Twilight again began to sing:
I'm glad we explore together, it's safer when there's two,
At that exact moment, Shining Armor looked at the sky-a prudent thing to do often on that mountain. He immediately noticed an approaching storm, and tapped Twilight on the shoulder to draw her attention to it as he sang,
An extra pair of eyes to help us see our journeys through!
These storms came with so little warning-Twilight immediately set her saddlebags on the ground, opened them, and yanked her rain poncho out of her bag so quickly that she didn't notice that it can been caught on her pick, and that the act of yanking it out tore the whole poncho in two! Twilight gasped, turned her back to the storm, got down on the ground, and covered her head with her hooves-there was no shelter anywhere, and this was the most she'd be able to do to try to retain what little body-heat she could in the rapidly-approaching downpour!
While she was doing all these things-realizing her poncho was torn and turning her back to the storm-she sang on:
When one of us makes some mistake, when storms start to attack
Shining Armor saw what had happened to his sister, and wasn't about to let her catch pneumonia. His own poncho was fine, and his muscular frame was big enough that he could comfortably stand over his sister while she was huddled on the ground like this. He did stand over her, and wrapped his poncho around her like a blanket or a tent, protecting her on all sides. She looked up at him as he did this, and her look of shock and horror faded to a huge smile as he sang back to her:
The other can be counted on to always have their back!
She rubbed her mane against Shining Armor's chin in gratitude as the downpour swept over them, and he nuzzled her right back, closing the front of his poncho around her.
For maybe twenty minutes, they stayed that way: Twilight lying on the ground, her brother standing over her with his long poncho forming walls on all four sides of her to keep the rain out and their body heat in. It was downright cozy, and made them wonder why they hadn't sheltered from the rain that way more often. Before long, though, the sun's rays shone through, a rainbow appeared above them, and the slick rocks began to dry out. Just as this was getting to the point where it was safe for them to start moving again, Shining Armor resumed their song:
The storms don't last forever, the sun will dry the ground
Twilight bolted out from under Shining Armor, eager to continue exploring, and sang back:
And that's when we'll explore again, and find what can be found!
Shining Armor smiled and began to run after her, joining her in the chorus again:
Let's explore, the world's brand-new!
Let's get out there, me and you!
New discoveries await,
I just KNOW it will be great,
And greatness is a thing to share,
So come on, let's get out there!
Before they even had occasion to begin singing again, Twilight stopped and stared at the side of the mountain with a lantern in her hoof. Shining Armor, just having finished putting his now-dry poncho away in his saddlebags, came up behind her to see what she was staring at...and saw the light of her lantern glittering back at them in a dazzling array of colors from all over the inside of a cave. They both knew this could only mean one thing, but they had to look more closely...
They stepped up to the cave mouth, looked inside, and then looked at each other with smiles bigger than they'd ever seen before, then back into the cave.
They broke the delighted silence as they jumped into the cave, singing to each other and every third line in harmony:
So many diamonds, floor to ceiling!
I cannot describe this feeling!
Freedom shines and glitters in this cave!
So much more than we can carry!
Worth so much, it's kinda scary!
But I know that we can both be brave!
I'll get us the mineral rights!
If only we could share this sight!
Mom and Dad'll flip when we return!
Twilight gasped,
I've GOT write in my journal now!
Shining Armor carefully drew his pick out of his saddlebag and sang back:
I'll dig up some gems somehow,
Write away-we've got some time to burn!
Twilight gratefully pulled her shiny journal out of her bag, slipped out a bracelet that allowed her to attach a pen to her hoof, and wrote:
Dear diary-
The most AMAZING thing happened today! I mean-I was expecting it, I KNEW it'd be today because it was the last part of the mountain that we hadn't explored, but...we finally found it! The mother lode of Rainbow Diamonds!
YEARS of scientific study, exploring and mapping...and now I'm writing this in a cave COVERED with diamonds! Soon, they'll be ALL OURS!
An hour later, they'd filled all the spare space in their saddlebags with as many rainbow diamonds as they could, and raced back home, happier than they'd ever felt in their lives. They sang in their delight:
Let's go home, we've got our prize!
Mom and Dad won't believe their eyes!
A better life awaits,
I just KNOW it will be great,
And greatness is a thing to share,
So come on, let's get back there!
The trip back to Ponyville from the cave was uneventful; the trip back always feels faster than the trip there-and even though their saddlebags were nearly bursting with heavy diamond stones, it felt like their hooves hardly touched the ground! Thank goodness it didn't rain on their way back; the mountain almost always had a few rainstorms pouring down onto it-the very magic that formed the diamond crystals they were carrying also encouraged rain clouds to form, and gave the mountain its name: Rainbow Mountain. But luck had doubly favored them that day.
The next few hours felt like a blur: Twilight and Shining Armor rushed to the courthouse and greased the frog of just the right judge with a diamond, and within minutes, they had a roll of parchment giving the two siblings exclusive mineral rights for the whole cave system! After that, they went to their usual gem dealer, Amethyst Star, and walked away with a hefty check. Then off to the bank they went.
As they stepped out of the bank, Twilight held the receipts for the mortgage payment and the deposit in her hoof with a sense of overwhelming pride. "Look at this!" she said to Shining Armor.
"I'm looking, I'm looking!" he answered, barely able to contain his excitement. "TEN YEARS! Ten whole years paid ahead on the mortgage!"
Twilight laughed. "And I was worried that we'd get in trouble for the last payment being an hour late-TEN YEARS AHEAD! There's NO way we'll be in trouble NOW!"
"I can't wait to see the looks on Mom and Dad's faces when they see THIS!"
"I can't wait to spend these coins on some SHOPPING! I've never had my hooves on even ONE gold coin, let alone EIGHT! I'm not sure how a pony can even spend this much money, but I'm dying to find out!"
"Okay, we need to decide...which do we do first, show this to Mom and Dad, or shop? I wouldn't want to miss either one...!"
Holding a gold coin in her hoof, Twilight smirked. "Flip ya for it!"
Shining Armor smirked back. "You're on, sis!"
The coin went sailing into the air, glittering yellow against the blue sky. "Tails!" Shining Armor called out as it fell. It struck the ground with a sound only gold can make, and showed the face of their princess quite clearly. "D'aww, dragged along shopping by my sister; every brother's worst nightmare!" he pretended to groan-but his smile gave away that he wasn't feeling bad about it at all!
"Come on-I need a new poncho after tearing that last one!"
"I guess it's a good idea to upgrade our gear a bit, now that we have the money for it...!" Shining Armor mused.
Off to the outfitters they went. He didn't take any time at all in picking out a set of larger saddle bags, a better pick and shovel, a new rainsuit, a new bedroll, a towel, and a pair of binoculars, but Twilight insisted on trying on saddlebag after saddlebag, then dress after dress, then poncho after poncho. She tried so many colors: deep blue, a lavender color that nearly matched her fur, bright lemon yellow, deep forest green. After over an hour, she finally settled on a thick, bright tomato-red rain cape that went down to her hooves and had a huge drawstring hood, and baby-blue saddlebags with her cutie mark embroidered onto them. Shining Armor had lost track of the dresses she'd bought.
Shining Armor had his items bundled inside his new saddlebags, but Twilight insisted on stepping out of the outfitter's shop dressed in her bright red cloak with her saddlebags draped overtop of it. "You do know you're going to sweat like a stuck pig under that cloak, don't you?" he asked.
"I don't think I will. Besides, I just HAVE to show it off!" Twilight beamed. "It took MONTHS of working at Dad's bookbinding shop to save up for my first poncho; I want to juice all the worth I can out of this one!"
"...You're going to juice YOURSELF of every drop of sweat you've got!"
"If I do, then I'll ask for my money back! The tag said this cape was magic, that it regulates your body temperature. Keeps you warm and cozy through the Vanhoover freezing rain, keeps you cool and dry in a sweltering Viet Cob jungle monsoon," Twilight recited.
She changed the subject. "I can't believe we've gotten everything we could want from the outfitters, but we've only spent one of those gold coins! I guess figuring out what to do with all that money is going to be harder than I thought!"
"We'll buy something tasty for dinner tonight," Shining Armor thought aloud, and his eyes wandered to the farmer's market. He spotted the apple stand where his best friend usually worked, but he wasn't there: his sister Applejack was, instead. His smile faded, and he looked uncertainly at Twilight. A sly, almost cruel grin was spreading across her face. "Twilight...what does that look mean?"
"I just thought of something I can do with our money!"
"Uh-oh... What're you planning to do to Applejack?"
"Oh, I think I'll...share the wealth a little," she said innocently.
"You know...her brother and I are good friends, but you and her just HATE each other. I've never understood that."
"Oh, there's a perfectly logical explanation for it." After a brief pause, Twilight turned to her brother and finished the thought: "She's a total jerkface!"
"She's always been nice to me!"
"Trust me. She's a jerkface."
Shining Armor shook his head. "Whatever you do to her, please, don't make me ashamed of it when Big Mackintosh confronts me about it."
"Oh, don't worry," Twilight smiled back. "Just let me have two of those gold coins. I'll buy groceries for dinner and meet you back home in an hour."
Shining Armor shrugged and shook two of the coins into Twilight's pouch. He stepped up to Applejack a little awkwardly, knowing that his sister was about to do something to make AJ miserable. He didn't know what, but part of him didn't want to steal his sister's thunder about their miraculous discovery, so he just asked, "Excuse me, Applejack, but...where's your brother?"
Applejack looked him over and sadly answered, "He's in bed...he broke his leg, we think; the silo fell on him this morning."
Shining Armor's ears went back and he stiffened. "Is he going to be alright?"
Applejack frowned and stared at the dirt under her stand. "I sure hope so," she mumbled.
Without another word, Shining Armor bolted to the Sweet Apple Acres orchard, leaving Twilight behind. She'd not heard the conversation. Part of her wanted to ask "What was that all about?" but she knew she had more important things to think about, like taking her archnemesis down a peg.
She strutted up to the apple booth with a big grin on her face. Applejack didn't seem to notice her at first, she was looking down the whole time and seemingly lost in thought. So I can make this a surprise attack, Twilight thought to herself, Without even really trying! Oh, THIS will be good!
She kept walking until she was just a few inches from the counter. Still no reaction from Applejack. If she was pretending to ignore her, THAT certainly wasn't going to make Twilight walk away-not after everything that had happened that day!
Twilight decided to get her attention; she audibly took a deep breath and said, "Well, I've certainly worked up an appetite from all that mountain-climbing! I think a nice tasty APPLE would hit the spot!"
Applejack looked up at Twilight with a scowl. "You know, I don't think you even KNOW what the word 'work' means. If you did, you'd be helping your dad bind books right now. And I don't think you have any business being here or talking about apples; maybe the outfitters are letting you pay with credit today, but we're not. Cash up front, or get outta here!"
A loud shout interrupted her: "Here we have Scootaloo!"
Twilight gasped-for a moment, she forgot all about taking Applejack down a peg. "Not Scootaloo on the auction block!"
"I can't believe a pony we went to school with would end up there!" Applejack gulped.
"For the crime of bankruptcy while being indebted for an amount of 114 gold pieces, she is to be indentured for a period not to surpass ten years!"
"Ten years!" Twilight hissed. "Her boss goes out of business, no fault of hers, she loses her job, and look what happens to her-just because she had a mortgage to pay!"
For her part, Scootaloo was a sobbing, trembling wreck. Her shivering made the chains binding her legs together jingle, a constant reminder that she was no longer free. She glanced out at the crowd as the bidding started, hoping against hope that she'd find a kind master.
Twilight began to wish that she'd kept a larger chunk of the money she'd made from the sale of the diamonds instead of putting almost everything towards paying the mortgage ahead-maybe she could've bid and save her old schoolmate! But it was too late, and there was nothing she could do to save her now.
"Well, now, maybe it wasn't her fault," Applejack admitted. "But then again, you don't work, you don't get money. You don't get money, you end up on that auction block don't you?"
Twilight smirked at her. "I prefer to work smarter, not harder."
"Sounds like an excuse to be lazy to me!" Applejack growled.
"And THAT sounds like the kind of thing that'd come out of the oversized mouth of a pony who CAN'T work smarter-because she's just that DUMB!"
Applejack spat on the ground. "You want dumb? Try going deeper into debt to chase after diamonds that probably aren't even there on a dangerous mountain! Your family is going to end up on that auction block next, and when you get there, I will laugh!"
The cruelty of Applejack's comment left Twilight speechless for a moment: when a family was placed on the auction block, the family was almost always split up. Marriages meant nothing when you became indentured, and children were taken away from their parents and siblings, no matter how close they are or how young they are. And besides that, everything the family owned-clothing, heirlooms, furniture, prized possessions ranging from parents' favorite books or tools to childrens' favorite toys-all of it was taken away from them and sold off. And Applejack had just wished that on Twilight, on her hard-working parents, and on her beloved older brother, who was almost like her other half. Heck, his best friend was her brother-how can she be so cruel as to wish that on him?! Because she's a jerkface! Twilight answered herself.
After a long pause where Twilight pondered the horror of this, Applejack broke the silence: "Are you going to buy anything-WITH CASH, let us not forget-or are you going to get out of here?!"
Twilight grinned, reminding herself why she was there and that she'd make Applejack pay for her cruelty. She prepared for her master stroke. "One gala apple, please."
Applejack slid an apple with her hoof, but didn't put it in Twilight's reach just yet. "Let's see the cash."
Twilight's grin widened. "I was hoping you'd say that!" She brought one of the gold coins out of her pouch with her teeth, bit it a little to show that it wasn't fool's gold, and spat it in front of Applejack, staring at her with a huge, cruel grin on her face.
Applejack stared in disbelief at the gold coin. It was probably a higher denomination of money than she'd ever seen before in her life. After a few moments, she looked up at Twilight accusingly.
Twilight had been waiting for her to look up, and as soon as their eyes met, she raised her eyebrows and slyly asked, "See the money?"
Applejack defensively asked, "What're you trying to get me involved in, here?! What scam are you running?!"
Twilight chuckled and pulled a scroll out of her saddlebag. "You are most decidedly NOT involved in anything but selling me an apple. But let me let you in on the secret of what my brother and I are involved in." Dramatically she unfurled the scroll. "Read it and weep, sister! Exclusive mineral rights to the cave system with entrance at latitude thirty-six degrees, six minutes and forty-four seconds north and longitude ninety-eight degrees, thirty-seven minutes and nineteen seconds west! A cave system discovered by myself and my brother, absolutely GLITTERING with rainbow diamonds, and they...are...all...ours!"
Applejack stood in utter disbelief of what she'd heard. Twilight struck while the iron was hot. "See the official seal of the Ponyville Courthouse on this document?"
Applejack had a look on her face that went beyond misery, beyond hate-it was a look of a mare who'd been betrayed. "This...this can't be right!" Applejack sputtered. "That's no way to make money! You make money by sticking close to your family, working hard, and...and making as much value as you can for them!"
"Well, I can see why you thought something like THAT," Twilight smoothly admitted, slowly pushing one of her hooves closer and closer toward Applejack's face-so slowly, Applejack didn't notice it. "I mean, ever since our school days, I'd be scraping together money for science books, exploration gear, that kind of thing...you'd be spending the allowance you got from working on your apple farm, buying ice cream and treats and grinning at me like this," Twilight pointed to her own face, "because you always had more money than I did.
"But tell me: even if you'd saved up every cent you ever made instead of spending it, would it be equal to...THIS?" Twilight snapped her hoof up from where it had been sneaking along on the counter and showed Applejack the mortgage payment receipt hidden beneath it, in the coup de grace of Twilight's well-planned surprise attack.
Applejack's expression took on even more disbelief, as difficult to imagine as it was. Twilight gave her a few moments to absorb what was happening. Applejack's expression shifted from disbelief back to betrayal as she looked up at Twilight. She began making noises of objection, none of which sounded like any words Twilight knew.
Twilight's smile grew and grew as Applejack tried and failed to give voice to the mixture of emotions that Twilight had successfully seeded her with. After the fifth or sixth attempt, Twilight interrupted, "Do you, by any chance, have change for that gold coin?"
Applejack's mix of emotions gave way to pure anger. She stamped her hoof and bellowed, "You know as well as I do that's ten weeks of a pony's wages, and there isn't a food stand in the whole farmer's market that'd have anything CLOSE to change for that!"
Twilight's smile narrowed, and she reached up with her hoof, patted Applejack on the cheek, and crooned, "Then keep the change, my little pony. Buy yourself something nice!" She slid the apple back to herself, and still staring at Applejack, bit into it slowly so that the juice dribbled off her chin and onto her raincoat. Ha. I didn't even think to wear this cape to keep apple juice off my fur, but it works! Twilight thought to herself as she chewed with her mouth slightly open, still staring at Applejack with her cruel grin.
Applejack burst into tears and sprinted away from the stand at a full gallop. Twilight's eyes followed her as she raced toward Sweet Apple Acres. "THAT was for all those years of flaunting ice cream and candy in my face while I was trying to scrape together money to buy BOOKS-and then wishing my whole family was on that auction block!" she snarled under her breath.
Her display had garnered her quite an audience; practically the whole farmer's market had stopped whatever they were doing and were staring at Twilight's display of conspicuous consumption. Almost everyone at the market was staring with horror, except for one gray mare who was smirking a little at the display, and the ponies who were occupied by the indenture auction: the bidding had finally finished, and a very gruff-looking stallion was now yanking Scootaloo by her chains off the block. Scootaloo yelped, shaking Twilight out of her schadenfreude and making her look in Scootaloo's direction for the first time since the auction began. Scootaloo's eyes met hers, and Scootaloo moaned, "Goodbye, Twilight!" as Twilight was the closest thing to a friend she had in sight.
For a brief instant, Twilight felt guilty and ashamed of herself-nearly the whole town was gripped by crippling debt, and here she was spending ten weeks' worth of a working-mare's wages, just to make her archnemesis miserable...AND she'd done this in front of EVERYPONY. There might well have been ponies on the cusp of foreclosure or bankruptcy who'd just watched her use an amount of money that could save their homes-and use it to be cruel! She'd been trying to think of ways to spend her money, this is what she'd thought of, but probably every other pony around was thinking "There was a better way to use that coin! Why couldn't that have been used to pay down my family's debt instead of just being used to be cruel?"
Twilight stopped herself-what she had done wasn't that bad! It only differed by degree from all those moments where Applejack had made Twilight miserable by flaunting her money. ...It was a pretty BIG degree, granted, but that only made Twilight more proud of herself: the fact is, she DID earn the money she'd made fair and square. It was her own forbearance, saving money so she could do scientific research and buy picks and saddlebags and raingear, so she could find those diamonds in the first place. That was the result of YEARS of blood, sweat, and tears! So was extracting a few tears from Applejack really that big a sin?
Even if it was, Applejack WAS now ten weeks' wages richer due to what Twilight did, and if she couldn't appreciate or accept that, well, that's HER problem!
Twilight finished her apple and walked away from the stand with an improved opinion of herself, went back to the bank to trade down the gold coin for more practical silver coins, and got busy picking out vegetables and sweetbreads for her and her brother's celebratory dinner that evening.
The gray mare who'd been watching this with a smirk instead of horror cantered deliberately but not with much obvious haste to the tallest office in town, only pausing to whisper some instructions to one other pony. She went right inside past the security guards, right up the stairs, and entered the largest office without stopping or being stopped. The stallion sitting at the giant desk in that office looked up at her expectantly and with just the smallest edge of surprise on his face.
The gray mare smiled. "Mr. Rich, the find of the century could be yours for the taking."
"You've got my attention," he answered neutrally.
She smiled. "A young mare named Twilight Sparkle and her brother-the ones who are regularly going out to explore Rainbow Mountain-have located a cave that they say is absolutely glittering with Rainbow Diamonds, and she showed off an official court document giving her exclusive mineral rights for that cave." At that moment, the same pony she'd whispered to knocked on the door. "You have the information I asked for?" she asked, and a few pieces of parchment were put into her hoof. She looked down on them and smiled. "Judging from the fact that their parents' mortgage just got paid ahead by ten years this afternoon, I'd say they're telling the truth," she added, showing Filthy Rich the papers.
He examined them and smiled. "That late payment for this past month is all we need. But..." He frowned. "Will they have enough time?"
Silver Spoon sneered. "Leave that to me."
He smirked. "Even if I only have a chance at getting the mineral rights, it's a chance I intend to take. Taking chances is the way you win at business, after all." His tone indicated that that was all he'd wanted to say, so the gray mare turned to leave. But Filthy Rich suddenly thought of something else: "Oh-and Silver Spoon?"
She turned around.
"Did she bribe a judge to give her these mineral rights so quickly?"
"I'll have somepony investigate."
"Do that, and get him put on the auction block for graft charges if it's true."
"Yes, sir... That's not a rule that we enforce very often," she observed.
He smirked. "Only when they accept a bribe from somepony who isn't me."