Thursday, June 23, 2016

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Today's Horoscope (Virgo): If you wanna ride, don't ride the white horse.

Early Morning

Shortly after we wake up, Rarity takes Applejack aside and talks to her for a minute. After that, Applejack announces the morning's chores. She pairs Rarity up with Sweetie Belle. Sweetie Belle seems confused, but Rarity's eagerness to spend time with her and work together placates her, and they walk off together.

Today, I draw stable duty with Fluttershy. Once we arrive at the stable, I start filling the feed bags while Fluttershy gives the horses a once-over. As we're strapping on the bags, she gives me an aside glance. "Well," she says, "here we are again." She strokes one horse's head, looks around, and sighs. "Remember the last time we were both out here?"

The last time...

It was that day. The day I exposed Fluttershy's secret. "Yeah." I sigh. "I...guess I could've handled that a whole lot better, huh?"

Fluttershy snorts. "I could've done without being burned to death, yeah." She sighs. "So much has changed in such a short time..." She looks back up at me, absently scratching the horse's ears. "But you know...I am glad to have friends. Friends I can trust." She lets her hand fall to her side. "I spent so long feeling like I couldn't trust anybody, and now..."

She falls silent, picking up a brush and working on the horse's mane.

I decide to get on with my chores, grabbing a bucket to start mucking out the stalls. After a few minutes, Fluttershy suddenly speaks up.

"Hey. After breakfast, why don't we go riding for a bit? These pretty horses need exercise, I'm sure we can convince Applejack to let us spend the morning riding."

I look up at her. Seeing her beatific smile, I nod. "Yeah. Let's do that."

After breakfast, Fluttershy and I go riding. After a little while, Sunset Shimmer joins us. Fluttershy isn't too happy about that, but she doesn't protest; Sunset seems to be completely at ease on a horse, and the horses actually seem to like her. Besides, there are several horses, and we can't waste the whole day, err, horsing around.

It's almost lunchtime when we return to the house. The others are jealous of us for getting a morning off, but Applejack promises everybody will get some time to goof off while we're here. "There's plenty fun t' be found on a farm," she promises.

Daytime

Another long, hot summer day of farm chores passes without incident. Rarity and Sweetie Belle spend the entire day together working in the Apples' vegetable garden. I spend most of the day making minor repairs to the house, barn, and other structures.

Evening

As we're turning in for the night, Twilight says, "Rarity seemed pretty shaken up by what happened last night."

"Yeah," Pinkie agrees. "She really stuck to Sweetie Belle today."

"Can you blame her?"

Pinkie shifts in her sleeping bag. "I can't even begin to imagine what it'd be like to face Maud like that..." She turns to face me. "We...we won't have to fight Maud, will we?"

I shake my head. "No. No, we won't."

"Who's next?" Twilight asks. "I sort of forgot the order."

"You, forget something?"

"It was a lot to take in all at once!" Twilight complains. "Besides, you only went over the list with me once."

"Wait, you told Twi-Twi something you didn't tell me?" Pinkie asks in a hurt tone.

"You weren't around, and this was back when this all started," I say. "We weren't sure yet. We didn't know for sure until after we fought your Shadow."

"Oh." Pinkie sighs. "Still, I don't like when you keep secrets from me."

"Sorry, Pinkie," Twilight says. "We didn't mean to keep it secret. It's just..." She takes a deep breath. "This whole thing is kind of...weird, you know? Fighting Shadows based on people we know...our friends..."

"Yeah," Pinkie says. "I don't know if that Zecora lady is trying to help us or trying to torture us."

I cough. "In any case...Sonata's next."

"YIKES," Pinkie says, shuddering. "That's...not gonna be fun."

"I don't imagine it will," Twilight agrees. She yawns. "Well, I'm tired. Goodnight..."

We all settle in. It might be my imagination, but I think I hear movement outside the tent just as I start to doze off...