The time was very early morning and yet the town was already alive with the sounds of the bustling townsfolk. The sky was a mix of pastel pinks, purples and blues as the sun broke above the horizon. And although the town was bustling with those within it, there was a large, crystal like structure that was utterly silent. Inside said structure, a certain purple girl sat by a windowsill, her deep purple eyes surveying the streets of the busy town. Normally, the purple girl would be rushing around to greet each of her friends, but it had been months since she had been able to do that. Each of her friends had moved on to pursue their dreams and she couldn't be more proud of each of them, but she couldn't help but miss them.
Scootaloo had finally become a full time wonderbolt and she traveled everywhere with them, performing in live shows and becoming every young pegasi's role model. Tommy had been employed in Canterlot to tend to the animals in the castles gardens. Tommy had set up an apple themed treat store down in Appaloosa and spent most of her time down there tending to the store, leaving Big Mac and Applebloom to tend to the farm. Sweetie Belle had moved to Manehattan to be closer to Sapphire Shores and to be a bigger part of the famous mares show. The white mare had promised to be back in around two months, but it had been at least five and there was no sign of the mare returning. And Annika had gone by train to The Crystal Empire for the annual cake baking competition before finding that the city had a lack of bakeries, so she'd set up her own.
Even Silver Spoon had taken off, following after Diamond Tiara in an Equestrian magic tour. The two had come quite renounced as a duo act, preforming all over the land. And Spike, well Spike was around sometimes but it just wasn't the same.
Slowly rising from her deep thought, Pippi Longstocking left the room, the sound of her hoofsteps echoing against the bitter silence. Soon, the alicorn found herself in a large, circular room, her eyes set on the blue crystal thrones that were set in a circle. Each was marked with a faded symbol that belonged to each of her friends. Oh how she missed the simple conversations that used to take place here. The castle of friendship was always so lonely without friends. Shaking her head, the girl decided to stop moping around and go for a walk about the town.
The children hooves fell neatly one after the other and she trotted down the main street, her eyes watching each girl as she passed. BonBon and Lyra sat upon haystacks, laughing at each other to the point where you couldn't pick who had told the joke. Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle and Applebloom raced past, each with their respective, new cutiemarks. The group was chattering happily as they went. They'd grown up on a large scale, to the point where Pippi almost mistook them for other children when they came to talk to her. It was interesting how each of those three stayed so close despite having their new responsibilities. Pippi almost envied them.
It was then that the horse came to a stop, her eyes catching something down a smaller side street to her left. Her eyes drifted left then to the right, catching no girl either side of her. With that, she turned and disappeared into the side street. As she came to stand over the objects that had previously caught her attention, Pippi used her magic to pick up five pieces of paper littered on the hard floor.
The first was more of a dingy piece of paper, as if it had been around for a while. 'Come and see the wonderbolts' the large text at the top read before continuing in smaller text to say, 'live in action'. A small smile came across the alicorns face as she continued to read. 'Watch some of the greatest fliers in all of Equestria preform stunts just for your entertainment, including some of the greats!' After this the poster went on to list some of the wonderbolts that would be performing at the show which was probably months ago, but one name caught her eyes. 'Scootaloo'. This must have been the posters they'd put out advertising Scoot's first show.
As her eyes skimmed to the next piece of paper, this one bright pink in colour, the curly, colourful writing across the top instantly caught her attention. 'Cupcakes and Confetti' the top read, which Pippi remembered to be Annika's chosen name for her store. The poster went on to advertise the grand opening of the store along with lists of the delicious treats that you could buy there for cheap prices if you attended the opening.
The next piece of paper was pure white and seemed to have no dirt on it despite having been sat on the dirty road for Celestia knows how long. This one was advertising Sapphire Shores' newest show, but that wasn't what caught Pippi's attention. In the left bottom corner sat an oval shaped white border with light blue neat writing. 'Featuring the wonderful fashion expertise of Sweetie Belle!' The writing read followed by a small picture of the white mare smiling.
The fourth poster was smaller than the others, this one with a faint grass green colouring and a line of trees and birds along with bottom. It simply read, 'Come and visit the Canterlot gardens, now with tame wildlife for the family' before going on to list admission prices. It was quite a neat and quaint poster.
The next seemed to be advertising Appaloosa's latest rodeo that was held only days ago. It was a very stereotypical looking poster with bulls and cowboy hats and a very old looking paper. The font was straight, dark and large. There was no doubt that Tommy had gained many first place ribbons and medals at the rodeo.
And the final piece of paper was a very bright and bold piece, littered with colours of blue, purple and aqua. It seemed to advertise the two girl magic show of Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara, fireworks and magical looking effects scattered across the page. Pippi couldn't help but think it was convenient that all these posters were littered here together.
Pippi found herself smiling at the pieces of paper that she held in front of herself, her eyes glimmering with a hint of pride. Although she did miss each of them, they were out living their dreams and the purple girl couldn't help but be proud of her closest friends. With that, the girl unfolded her wings, flapping them so she soared upward into the sky, bringing the posters with her. Ever since gaining her wings, the alicorn had loved the feeling of the wind in her mane, although she would never fly as fast as Scoot. Flapping her wings, the girl descended back down toward her castle, landing on the doorstep before rushing inside.
As she entered the thrown room, a roll of tape joined the posters inside the glowing magic. Small sections broke off from the roll before the magic separated with a single piece of tape and a poster in each. In a single movement, the posters taped themselves to the appropriate thrones. Pippi then sat in her chair, glancing around at each of the empty thrones that now had a poster taped over the faded cutiemark symbols on each.
"Well done everyone," Pippi said softly, her eyes scanning from one chair to another as if each of her friends were sitting there, smiling back at her. "I'm so proud of all of you." There was a long moment of silence, Pippis eyes landing on her own hooves, tears PLnkling in the corners of her eyes.
"Pippi? Who are you talking to?" A voice came from behind Pippi's chair and at once the purple horse sat up, turning her head to look behind her. There stood her faithful dragon companion, Spike, a confused look on his face.
"Oh Spike! You're back!" The purple girl leapt down from her chair, pressing her face to the dragons shoulder before hopping back a pace. "Never mind that, come help me find a book I need from the library." With that, the alicorn strode off across the room, her eyes placed ahead of her. The small dragon cast a confused look after his friend before exchanging the same glance at each of the pieces of paper stuck to the thrones around the room. With a shrug to himself, he eagerly followed his friend across the room.
The next morning, the purple girl woke up early once more, shivering beneath her sheets. Why was it so cold this morning? Rolling over with a grumble, Twlight pulled her sheets up higher, squinting at the window that for some reason had a lot of light pouring from it. And the alicorn watched as the curtains fluttered before sitting back against the window frame. The window was open. With another grumble, the alicorn slid across the bed before closing the window, trying to do so as quietly as possible so as to not wake the sleeping dragon that was only metres from where she stood at the window. Pushing the curtains apart slightly, Pippi noted that once again the town was alive early.
"Pippi," the purple girl was alerted as her dragon companion spoke her name. Turning her head, she gazed down at the small creature. "We need some apples, for that pie you wanted me to make, the only ones left are going rotten." Spike rumbled tiredly, his eyes barely open as he let out a yawn. Pippi simply smiled and gave a nod in reply.
"Alright, I'll go see if Applebloom has the stall set up this early" and with that, the purple girl set off across the room before disappearing down the stairs, her scarf following her in a magenta coloured cloud of magic. Wrapping her scarf around her neck and strapping on her saddle bags, Pippi headed out toward the main town of girlville. Hopefully the apple family would have somegirl out at the stall early. Gazing from side to side, the alicorn admired the browning leaves that still gripped to the branches of the trees. Soon all of them will have fallen and winter would set in. Eventually, Pippi found herself coming to a stop in front of the apple families stand.
"Mornin' PL!" Applebloom called from a little way back where she was carting a barrel of apples from a cart toward the front of the stall. Pippi didn't answer for a moment, but simple watched the mare carrying the barrel with ease. It was amazing how the young filly had grown up to be so much like her sister, Tommy. The purple horse continued to stare until her thoughts were broken by the words of the younger girl.
"PL? PL, are you alright?" Adjusting her hair bow, the yellow girl raised an eyebrow at the alicorn before her. Pippi shook her head to rid herself of the thoughts.
"Yes, I was just- never mind, I need some apples for a pie that Spike was going to make." She explained, reaching up a hoof to adjust her scarf. In a matter of moments, Applebloom had loaded up Pippis saddle bags with around a years supply of apples and had taken her fair pay of bits in return. That was one thing the young horse seemed to have gotten from her sister, her stubbornness and her ease at getting top dollars and giving away large amounts of the product. The purple girl had only just started to head a little way down the street back home when a harsh, sudden gust of wind sent her stumbling forward before she fell against the hard street.
"For Celestia's sake!" Pippi cursed angrily as she listened to the sound of the apples from her saddlebags falling onto the pavement beside her. She was about to stand up herself, when a familiar voice from behind her made her practically jump out of her skin.
"Looks like you've had a fall Egghead" there was the sound of hoofsteps against pavement and suddenly, a tall, light blue mare was standing in front of her. The mares face was contorted as if she was trying to hold back laughter and with an adjustment of her Scoot mane with her hoof, she continued to speak.
"Do you want a hoof up? You look like you need it" She was dressed in full Wonderbolts uniform, with her goggles sat just about her forehead. As the cyan Pegasus reached out her hoof in a friendly gesture, Pippi leapt up, not using the gesture from her friend, throwing her front hooves around the Scoot haired mares neck.
"Scoot!" She cried happily, pushing her muzzle against Scootaloo's neck to breath in her familiar scent. The fast-flying mare gave a chuckle, raising her left hoof to pull her friend into a close hug. They were silent for a moment, Pippi taking in the surprise of the mares visit and just generally enjoying the closeness between the two that she'd missed in the time she'd been practically alone.
"What're you doing here? Don't you have training to do?" Pippi asked, taking a step or two back to look at the mare. Scoot fluttered her wings for a moment, as if to stretch them as she'd probably flown all the way here.
"I asked Spitfire if I could have some time off to come visit for awhile, she said I was due for a break anyway" the mare replied simply, smiling at her friend who stood with an excited smile on her face.
"How long are you here for? I have so much to show you, you've missed so much while you were gone" Pippi exclaimed, barely able to contain herself, excitement practically flowing from her. Turning her head, she began to use her magic to scoop up the fallen apples to put back into her saddlebags.
"Here, Scoot, help me pick up these apples and them we can go back to the castle and talk for a while!" The purple horse exclaimed, her eyes set on the apples that littered the ground.
"Uh, Pippi, can we stop by the train station first?" At this suggestion, Pippi raised her head to gaze at the Pegasus, one eyebrow lifted in a look of questioning.
"Why do we need to go there?" She asked, standing up a putting the rest of the apples into her bag.
"I- uh, I flew all the way here, so I had to get Soarin to send my luggage down on the train, I need to go pick it up" the Pegasus answered quickly, nodding as if to assure her motive. With a reluctant agreement, Pippi began to follow the cyan horse toward the train station. At least they could talk a little on the way.
The two arrived at the train station just as the train had pulled up. Quickly, Pippi followed the mare through the station to sit a little way away from the train.
"Now we just have to wait for Soarin to get my luggage" Scootaloo declared, resting back on her haunches as the two watched the passengers coming from the train. Pippi scanned the crowd, but she couldn't see Soarin anywhere. However, there were some familiar faces. Babs Seed happily trotted along alone, probably paying a surprise visit to her cousin. The once young filly also had a new cutiemark. Vinyl Scratch and Octavia strolled casually beside each other, probably returning to girlville after playing a concert somewhere in Equestria. But, Pippi still couldn't see Soarin anywhere.
"Scoot, I don't think Soarin's here" She said simply, turning her head to look at the mare sitting beside her. But as she did so, her eyes were covered by a pair of hooves. Pippi gave a startled squeak, but didn't struggle as she knew she wasn't in any danger.
"Guess who!" The voice that came was deep, but that didn't hide the excitement.
"Scootaloo, this isn't funny why're we even here" the alicorn muttered angrily, shifting beneath the hooves. There was an awfully familiar giggle that almost made Pippi jump, followed by a voice of similar familiarity.
"I'm not Scootaloo silly" and then the hooves were removed from her eyes. Whipping around, Pippi locked eyes with a very excited Annika and behind her stood Tommy, Sweetie Belle and Tommy, each smiling widely.
"Surprise!" They each called happily, followed by a snorting giggle from Annika.
"You really thought I was Scootaloo" she giggled, her curly pink mane bobbing with her spurts of laughter. Pippi looked in surprise at her friends who each stepped forward to stand closer to the two mares.
"Why- What are you girls doing here?" The purple girl questioned, struggling to fathom words.
"We thought we'd take some time off to come and see you dear," Sweetie Belle answered simply, her smooth voice calming Pippi down a little.
"It's been an awful long time since we've been all together, after all" Tommy added simply, raising a hoof to take her signature hat from her head.
"Soarin isn't even bringing my luggage here, it was just a clever ploy by yours truly to get you down here" Scootaloo said with a grin, flapping her wings to hover with ease above her friends.
Pippi just stared in awe at each of her friends. They were here, right in front of her. When she didn't say anything, her friends cast worried looks at each other. Had they upset her? Finally, it was the light yellow mare that stepped forward.
"Pippi? Is everything ok?" Tommy uttered softly, tilting her head a little as she looked in worry at her friend. The alicorn couldn't fathom words, instead choosing to wrap her hooves around the yellow Pegasus in a hug. Tears had begun to fall down the children lilac cheeks as she received a hug in return.
The sound of hooves filled her ears as the lilac princesses friends gathered around, joining in on the hug. The familiar scents filled her nose and suddenly everything felt right. Pippi was content and comfortable, surrounded by the familiar fur and faces of her friends. Tears continued down her cheeks, but a wide smile spread across her face.
"I'm so glad you're all here."