Zap Apple has a conundrum; she loves her own dog, Winona IV, and really likes to set up and run agility courses with her. It helps release some of Winona’s boundelss energy, it reinforces and helps Zap train her to follow directions, and it’s just a fun bonding activity. She’d love to be able to enter in some smaller agility competitions, to meet other dog owners and discuss methods of training and such. The only problem is that she’s a terrible phobia of any dog which isn’t Winona or one of her family’s other dogs.

Luckily, an opportunity has come up that might work; an extended family member (she thinks he’s her fourth cousin twice removed?) is holding an agility competition. So she talked with him, and he agreed to let her come. The idea is that he’ll introduce her to some people he knows there, who he trusts to keep their dog in check and on a leash if asked. Zap’ll see how it goes, and can just leave if it gets to be too much -only joining the actual competition if she’s up to it. She figures it’ll be good pracise to get over her fear, while still in a place she can exit if it doesn’t work.

But now that she’s there, she feels a bit uncertain of it was a good idea. Sure, cousin Cortland is really exicted and kind, and the other people he’s introducing her to are also very nice, but it feels very… stilted and nerve-wracking. Like being set up on a blind date, while also surrounded by something you’re deathly afraid of.

She’d excused herself from Cortland when it was becoming clear that this wasn’t working, and was just moping at the outer edge of the event considering going home, when she suddenly sees a glimpse of someone she thinks she recognises. She steels herself and goes a bit further into the crowd, trying to see if she can find them again.

A grin breaks across her muzzzle when she finally spots them. Sure enough! There they are, surrounded by a hoard of ponies trying to get their attention: the one and only Princet Felicity of the Crystal Empire. Zap doesn’t know them very well, but she has met them several times before when they were visiting Moonstone. She didn’t know they had a dog, much less that they were interested in agility, but she’s really glad they apparently are. While they may be only passing acquaintances, it’s still much better than the sea of strangers around her. If she’s lucky, they’ll like to talk for a bit, maybe even share ideas about agility and dog training. If nothing else, she can at least say hi.

Feeling much better, she trots towards them.

“Hey there, your highlyness!” she yells and waves to get their attention, grinning as she sees the recognizion in their eyes upon spotting her. She’s still probably gonna leave after this, but maybe this day wasn’t as much of a disaster as she initially thought!

….

Ok, so she’ll admit that she’s not entirely sure how she went from that, to standing muzzle to muzzle and literally snarling at the princet and calling their dog a rat.

It had started to well too; they were both perfectly content to chat for a while about Moonstone and the weather and how precious their respective pooches are, while jokingly bragging a bit about them. She’d mentioned not joining, and Felicity joked back that it was ok, since they and Peri were gonna win anyway. She’d snarked back that she and Winona could kick their tail any day. And that’s when the downward spiral began:

“Hey, Peri, you hear that? It sounds like a challenge to me!” Felicity laughed while looking at their dog.

Peri heard his name and took this as his invitation to greet the other pony his owner was babbling to. Happily wagging his tail, he rushed forward and rose on his hind paws a bit to better lick the pony in the face.

This was… bad. Zap was taken completely by suprise, and reared up with a shout. She didn’t really remember exactly what happened after that, but the next thing she knew, she was standing several pony-lengths futher back, a bit onto the agility course, with Winona growling in front of her. She saw Peri cowering beside Felicity who was staring worriedly at her, just a few hooves in front of Winona.

They opened their mouth to say something, but Zap shook away the roaring sound in her ears and snapped before they had the chance:

“Keep control of your bucking dog, will ya?!”

Felicity’s mouth shut with a click, and their eyes hardened.

“Me keep control of my dog? Your mutt almost attacked my dog!” They took a step forward as they spoke.

“No, she didn’t!” Zap took a step forward to match, her fear giving away to anger.

“It bowled him over to get to you! And then started growling when we tried to approach you!”

“That’s what she’s trained to do, she supposed to get in between me and other dogs to keep them away!”

“Why the hay would you train her to do that?”

“Because other dogs getting too close kinda freaks me out!”

“Then maybe you shouldn’t be at an event for dogs?!”

“I’m trying to get better! Besides, I’m fine as long as their owners keep them from bucking jumping at me!”

“He wasn’t ‘bucking jumping at you’, he was rearing up to greet you! You know, like dogs do?!”

“Not if you have the ****ing decency to train them they don’t! At least my dog knows better than to get in strange ponies’ faces, unlike your rat-mutt of a dog!”

“The **** did you call my dog?!”

“A bucking untrained giant rat!”

“How dare-”

“ALRIGHT! THAT’S ENOUGH!” a third voice broke through their bubble, and Zap finally looked up to realize their argument had backed them up into the middle of the agility course, with everyone at the event just staring at them with wide eyes and murmuring to each other.

Turning around further she saw a very pissed of Cortland glaring at them both. Ah, right. Probably not very happy she’s screaming at royalty in the middle of his event.

She was still breathing heavily from the adrenaline shock and argument, but managed her best apologetic look.

“I’m really sorry, cuz-” she started, but stopped in suprise when he trotted past her and fixed Felicity with a glare.

“Now I know ya think yer all royal and important and such ..” he started at the princet, who looked shocked and opened their mouth to argue. “…BUT! I will not have ya or yer dog terrorising my cousin at my event! Get out, and don’t show yer sorry face here again!”

Both Zap and Felicity blinked in suprise, before Felicity just snorted, twirled around and started trotting away, their tail swishing in agitation. Zap stared for a few seconds more at her cousin in disbelief, before groaning and face-hoofing. Unconditional Apple-family loyalty: lovely and reassuring in some circumstances, aboslutely moronic in others.

Cortland was turning to her with a concerned look on his face, but paused when he saw her expression.

“Ok, so I was upset, but now that I’ve taken a a few seconds to calm down… you do realize I’m probably just as much at fault for this debacle as they were, right?” she asked, while giving him a very unimressed look.

“Oh, well…” Cortland trailed off, looking lost and a bit hurt. Zap winced and walked closer to lean against him in a half-hug.

“Sorry. I mean, I really am sorry for this whole thing and it was really kind of you to defend me!” she smiled at him a bit, before leaning closer and murmuring in his ear “… but I don’t think the rest of your competetors are very happy with how you seemingly give family preferrential treatment.”

And indeed, the hushed mumbling from the crowd around them had taken on a very upset tone.

“Ah” he whispered back. “…should I re-invite them?”

“I doubt they’ll want to after this, and they did cause half of the scene. So I think it’s best if you just kick me out too. It’s alright, I was gonna leave soon anyway.

He nodded slightly, and cleared his throat while stepping away from her.

“Right! Well, ya may be my cousin, and I’m glad yer alright, but I can’t have ye yelling at my guests either! So… yer banned too! Get out!”

Zap sighed and looked oh-so-sad as she and Winona walked away, heads hanging low in terrible shame.

When she reached the outskirts of the event, she looked around hoping to see Felicity somewhere. As mad as she was then, she’s feels much calmer now and figures she might just owe them an apology.

She finally saw them sitting on a parkbench a bit closer to the town than the field the competition was being held on. They were cradling Peri in their lap and… rubbing their eyes with the back of their hooves. Zap winced and started trudging towards them; yeah, she really owes them an apology.