Looking Glass Ponies 6

"Looking-Glass Ponies"
Chapter 6

A Pony POV Series-inspired tale
Written by OracleMask


Of course, it wasn't as simple as singing a song to get things done.  First, everypony needed a good night's sleep.  The next day, there were four important things that the ponies in Ponyville had to accomplish.  The first was to find the piece of the Rainbow of Light hidden in Celebration Castle: even though he spent almost all his time there, Spike had no idea where in the castle it was.

The second and third things the ponies had to do were very similar to the first: they had do decide who was going to visit Unicornia and who was going to visit Butterfly Island in search of the Rainbow pieces.  Poor Rainbow Dash was left pacing in front of her dress shop, struggling to decide on whether she wanted to help look for the no-doubt dashing Rainbow piece in here at home in Ponyville, to search with the rainbow-making unicorns of Unicornia for their piece, or to travel through the darling rainbow waterfall to check Butterfly Island with the pegasi.

“All three places will end up with rainbows,” Rainbow Dash lamented when Tome Heart and Puzzlemint came to check on her, “And darlings, you know that if it's about rainbows then it has to be about Rainbow Dash...”

Puzzlemint only had to think for a few moments before she tapped her hoof on the ground and smiled.

“I've got a jolly idea, Rainbow Dash!  Why not go with the ponies to Unicornia?  You've been there loads of times, so you'd have a jolly easier time looking around for that Rainbow piece.”

Rainbow Dash considered this.

“But darlings, what if you need my help on Butterfly Island?  Or if they need me here back in Ponyville?  I'll be so far away by balloon!”

“Elementary, my dear Rainbow.  The unicorns have that jolly quick Crystal Carriage of theirs,” Puzzlemint replied, “Why not ask Cheerilee if you can borrow it again?”

Rainbow Dash's smile was dazzling.

“Oh, what a dashing idea!  And I can bring Cheerilee presents from Ponyville while I visit!  Oh oh, and I can work on those unicorn hat designs while I'm there!  This visit is going to be darling, darlings!”

Giggling with delight, Rainbow Dash turned and dashed into her shop to begin packing.

Kimono, meanwhile, had decided to stay and search Celebration Castle with Spike and Wysteria.  Nopony doubted that between Spike's smarts, Kimono's wisdom, and Wysteria's common sense, that that Rainbow piece was as good as found.

It was Fiesta Spice who brought up the fourth thing that needed to be accomplished, possibly the most important thing of them all.

“I'm going to stay here and work hard to make sure we have the best celebration ever,” the orange colt told Tome Heart and Puzzlemint when they visited him at the stage.

Behind him, ponies were moving around props and working on brand new sets.  Toola-Roola was looking over her paints and smiling, her nightmare all but forgotten in the anticipation of making beautiful new artwork for everypony to see and enjoy.

Fiesta Spice grinned, a little sheepishly.

“We're going to cast a Wishing Spell for the whole wide world, right?  That's going to be something to celebrate!  I wish we could have everypony out there come help us with it...that would make it double-extra-special...”

“We'll tell everypony in Unicornia and Butterfly Island about it,” Tome Heart promised.

As Fiesta Spice and Toola-Roola waved them off and they began walking down the street to where the waiting hot air balloons were tethered, Tome Heart noticed that Puzzlemint was looking oddly conflicted.  It wasn't very often that Puzzlemint looked like she couldn't decide about something: normally she figured out the best decision and went with it straight away.

“Puzzle, are you okay?” Tome Heart asked.

“I'm a bit stuck,” Puzzlemint admitted, surprising Tome Heart even more, “One of us needs to go to Unicornia, and the other to Butterfly Island, but I can't decide which of us would be best to go where.”

“What?  Why can't we go together?” Tome Heart asked, stopping in his tracks in surprise.

“Simple,” Puzzlemint explained, “Somepony needs to be with each group who knows exactly what will happen if we don't do something.  If the weird things Kimono saw in Ponyville aren't happening to the unicorns and the pegasus ponies, they might think we're being very strange and we wouldn't get any help looking for those Rainbow pieces.  That would be jolly bad.”

Tome Heart's ears drooped.  That made sense.  Of course, a smart pony like Puzzlemint would know exactly what to do, but...Tome Heart was really happy with staying in Ponyville.  And if he had to go somewhere new, being with one of his best friends in the wide world would be just the thing to make it easier.

“Cheer up, Tome,” Puzzlemint added, nuzzling Tome Heart and smiling fondly at him, “Just imagine all the books that those ponies have in their libraries!”

...That did make Tome Heart feel a little better, but still.  He looked upwards, idly wondering if the pegasus ponies had more books than the unicorns did or if it was the other way around, and saw something approaching them rapidly from up in the sky...something that wasn't a hot air balloon.

Tome Heart managed a surprised squeal as Scootaloo came flying in unexpectedly at him once again.  For the second time in two days, he was stuck at the bottom of a two-pony pileup.  Puzzlemint, seeing all the clues in Tome Heart's upward gaze and widening eyes, had gotten out of the way in the nick of time.  This left her free to chuckle at seeing this happen to Tome Heart again. his widening eyes, had ducked just in time.  Scootaloo's newest attempt for a flying scooter had landed in a little bush not far away, and Puzzlemint trotted over to pull it out.  For some reason, there were a few green balloons tied to it.

“Sorry again about landing on you...again,” Scootaloo said, blushing brightly and helping Tome Heart get back to his hooves, “Pinky and Minty were helping me work on the scooter, but it was really hard to see through all the green balloons they gave me to use.  So I tried untying them from the scooter...but then I fell right out of the sky!”

“It's okay,” Tome Heart said, rubbing the sore spot now on his head, “Although I don't remember reading about party balloons in any of those books on flying machines...”

Tome Heart suddenly remembered his last conversation with Scootaloo, and his face fell.

“Oh no!  I forgot to get those books ready for you!  And now I think I'm supposed to go to Unicornia today!  …Unless it was Butterfly Island...?”

“Did you say Unicornia?”

Scootaloo grabbed Tome Heart by the shoulders and leaned in close to look him right in the eyes.  She was shockingly intent in hearing his answer!

“Uh...yes?” Tome Heart replied.

“That's great!  I'm coming with you!”

“Huh?”

Tome Heart didn't get any further than that before Scootaloo turned him around and started pushing him towards the waiting hot air balloons.

“We're going on ahead!  See you later Puzzlemint!” Scootaloo called back over her shoulder as she and Tome Heart receded into the distance in that silly fashion.

Puzzlemint, who had just set Scootaloo's scooter on its wheels again, waved goodbye as they left with a very amused expression on her face.

It wasn't too much longer before two hot air balloons soared into the air over Ponyville.  In one, Rainbow Dash fretted over whether she'd brought enough luggage, while Tome Heart sat between her and Scootaloo and wondered when, exactly, he'd agreed to go to Unicornia.  The one steering the balloon to Unicornia, Heart Bright, waved a jaunty goodbye to her twin sister Star Flight who was steering the balloon going to Butterfly Island.  The two sisters were the best at flying balloons in all of Ponyville and had volunteered to fly all the ponies to wherever any of the Rainbow pieces might be hiding.

“I bet we'll fly to places nopony has ever been!  Wouldn't that be the best?” Star Bright exclaimed as her sister's balloon and Ponyville both began to disappear in the distance.

Behind her, Puzzlemint sat between the two ponies who had volunteered to go to Butterfly Island with her.  Sunny Daze had been talked down into taking only two surfboards with her: it would have been awfully crowded in the balloon otherwise.  Puzzlemint was still puzzling over the other member of their little crew.

Very surprisingly, Sweet Apple had asked to come along as well.  Star Spin had immediately volunteered to come too, but Sweet Apple had convinced him to stay in Ponyville.  The dance troupe needed him, and there was only so much room in Star Flight's hot air balloon.  Not coming up with any particular reasons for why Sweet Apple wanted to come along on her own, Puzzlemint decided asking directly was the way to go.

“I say, what made you want to come along with us Sweet Apple?  You aren't one to leave the apple orchard very often, and certainly never Ponyville before.”

The yellow mare with two heart-shaped apples for a cutie mark blushed.

“Well, I know Applejack and everypony else can take care of the orchard without me for a little while, but...I'm very much hoping to see somepony I haven't seen a long time, and I think she'll be on Butterfly Island.”

That didn't explain things completely, but Puzzlemint still nodded.  It wouldn't be too surprising for Sweet Apple to make friends with one of the pegasus ponies, especially with how kind and good-natured Sweet Apple was.  Puzzlemint decided she'd wait and see.

Not long at all later, Star Flight's balloon passed through the magical rainbow waterfall that connected Butterfly Island to the woods outside of Ponyville, and the tropical sun shone down on them brightly as they soared into the air over the island of the pegasus ponies.  Star Flight landed her balloon easily on the beach as the pegasi came fluttering over to see who was visiting.

Leading the way was a mare very familiar to all of Ponyville: the beautiful but sometimes a bit mysterious Star Catcher.

“Welcome to Butterfly Island, my friends,” Star Catcher said as Puzzlemint and Sweet Apple came up to say hello.

Sunny Daze waved, then went back to showing the curious crowd of pegasi who were helping her get her surfboards out of the balloon how they were supposed to be used.  It was very clear that this was Sunny Daze's reason for coming along: she wanted to introduce the pegasi to her favorite sport!

“Jolly good to see you again, Star Catcher,” Puzzlemint said, “Lucky for us too, you're just the mare we wanted to see.”

“I am?” Star Catcher replied, looking a little confused.

“We're looking for a special thing called the Rainbow of Light,” Sweet Apple said, then shook her head, “I mean, a piece of the Rainbow.  We think there's one here on Butterfly Island.”

“Oh,” Star Catcher said, her confusion turning to sadness, “I'm sorry, but I've never heard of something like that.”

“Are you sure?” Puzzlemint pressed, “We don't want to be a bother, but it's jolly important that we find all the pieces.  Otherwise...something absolutely positively terrible is going to happen!”

Star Catcher looked from one earnest face to the other.

“...I'm not sure if this is much help, but I do know somepony who might know what you're looking for,” Star Catcher finally replied, “She knows almost everything about everything, so if this Rainbow you're looking for is here, she'll know about it for certain.”

“Everything about everything?  That's a little too much to know, even for me,” said a new voice from behind Star Catcher.

Star Catcher startled, turned, and stepped to the side, letting Puzzlemint and Sweet Apple get a good look at the pony who had somehow sneaked up on them.  It was hard to see how the mare had managed it, because she was bigger than any other pegasus around, including Star Catcher.  She looked very similar to Star Catcher, with the same pretty white coat and the same pretty white mane mixed with pink and blue.  The biggest difference right now was that Star Catcher was blushing brightly, while this other mare was looking over the other pegasus pony with a warm and gentle smile.

“Hello, everypony.  It's very nice to meet you,” the mare said, turning her smile toward Puzzlemint and Sweet Apple, “My name is Star Maker.”