//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 // Story: Not another Twilight Alicorn story. // by Squeaky Toy //------------------------------// Sweet Apple Acres, out in the west orchard: the late afternoon sun and the grass stopped switching places, to the point where Applejack could make out that the grass was a lot closer than it would normally be. After blinking a few times to clear the last lingering sparks away and then blowing her mane out of her eyes, the orange pony realised she was sprawled flat out on the ground. A few trees over, her brother Big Macintosh was in a similar position, and a few trees further again, still uncomfortably hooked to a cart, was cousin Caramel. At least all of them were groaning and moving, so it looked like nopony was badly injured. Staggering to her hooves, the farm pony tried to take stock of what had just happened. “I don’t get it,” she mumbled. “One minute we’re tending our trees just fine and then Whoosh! Tornado in a teacup!” The act of retrieving her hat from where it had fallen lightly next to her caused Applejack to pause a moment. “Only there weren’t no tornado. Everything’s right here, instead of blown all over.” Big Mac stoically heaved himself off the turf and looked around, confirming his sister’s observations. “Yeeeeup.” He grinned self-consciously at his sister’s raised eyebrow. He was famous for being a stallion of few words, but when it was just family he didn’t normally hold back. “Everything looks normal.” He stopped and shook his hooves slowly. “Only, I’m feelin’ an after drunk buzz coming on, and neither of us have been anywhere near the cider all day.” Applejack let that thought muster about in her head a bit, and then nodded in agreement. “Whatever just hit us was a doozy! And no Pinkie Pie warning it was coming, either.” Big Mac snorted good naturedly. “Reckon you’ll be off to Miss Twilight’s, then. We’ll go check on Granny and Apple Bloom.” With that, he lumbered over to help Caramel and his cart back upright. “You know me too well! Thanks big brother!” Applejack smiled and set off through the orchard towards town. Back in Canterlot castle, in one of the highest towers, a tall midnight blue pony with wings and horn and floating star-lit mane took some deep breaths and steadied herself after the magical onslaught. Gingerly Princess Luna tested her own magic by reaching out and retrieving the paintbrush she’d dropped to the floor, and then worked her way up to setting her easel back in its upright position. The landscape she’d been delicately touching up was now marred with a massive brush stroke straight down the middle, ruining her recreation of the sculpture garden below her balcony. ‘Discord never looked better’ she thought ruefully to herself. Carefully she retrieved her paints and brushes and moved everything to a corner as she prepared for her sister’s undoubted arrival "in three… two… one…" CRASH! The study doors flew open as the day princess zoomed into the room. However, instead of the elegant stop she would normally make, Celestia’s eyes widened as she felt the floor carpets lift and ripple under her hooves and she surfed wildly out of control across the room towards Luna and her easel. Backpedalling and beating her wings madly wasn’t going to stop her in time; it took Luna’s strategic telekinetic placement of several large seat cushions as an emergency mid-air safety barrier to bring Celestia to a safe halt. Luna couldn’t help herself, she started giggling as she lost her sister in a cloud of white cushion feathers. Celestia breathed a sigh of relief and removed the cushion impaled on her horn before all sense of urgency and her cloud cover failed her. “Luuuuuuuna! Did you feel that?” The night princess composed herself as best she could on short notice. “Yes! What could have caused such an arcane disturbance? “ “I’m not sure! It felt so familiar, but at the same time it was so overpowering, I couldn’t determine what it was.” Luna absentmindedly walked the circuit of the room and the new feather carpeting as she marshalled her own thoughts. “There was certainly something auspicious about it… as if it meant us no harm, beyond being unsettled by its dramatic appearance.” Celestia nodded. “I did not detect any maliciousness either. But where have we felt that before?” A small nervous cough from the door interrupted the princesses. A green earth pony with some scrolls hooked in her tail stood at the door, warily eying Luna’s guards staggering out in the hallway after being accidently knocked aside like tenpins in Celestia’s mad dash to the study. “A-are we starting the prank wars again?” Celestia had the good grace to blush, trying to blow an incriminating feather out of her ethereal mane, causing Luna to raise a smirking eyebrow. “No miss Sugar Heart, the truce still holds, I was in rather a rush to visit my sister.” she replied apologetically as the guards resumed their station. Luna moved over to her assistant and levitated the scrolls from her care. “What wouldst these be?” “They’ve just started appearing, right after that... whatever it was that just happened!” Luna inspected one of the scrolls, noting the hastily scrawled address to the royal court, and the haphazardly applied seal of the Mayor of Manehattan. “It appears the effects of the disturbance are being felt further afield than Canterlot, sister.” Celestia looked up as a purple wisp of smoke blew in the window and magically reverted into a scroll that she instantly recognised as coming from her protege, Twilight Sparkle. She was momentarily taken aback as she opened it and found Twilight’s latest friendship report inside, but then found the second slip of paper stashed inside in Spike’s script. Frowning, she read: Help! Something big happened! Twilight blew up! Remembering Spike’s penchant for melodramatic messages, and the effects of the passing magical wave on the unicorns in her own castle reception hall, Celestia could guess what had happened. “We should consult with the mage council, and I’ll need to check on my student.” “Agreed”. Luna motioned to Sugar Heart, and went to her desk to retrieve quills, ink and paper. “We shall draft a declaration, to reassure the populace that all remains well.” The cheeky green pony grinned. “How about a big red flashing sign, saying DON’T PANIC ?” Celestia smiled. “That sounds just about perfect.” When Applejack arrived at the Ponyville library tree entrance, she discovered her good friends Fluttershy and Rarity already inside. The shy yellow-and-pink Pegasus and the normally-fashionable white-and-purple unicorn were almost indistinguishable with their matching bathrobes, manes still wrapped in matching towels, and traces of mudpacks inexpertly removed in a rush. “Oh, it was DREADFUL! Fluttershy and I were at our weekly spa session when we were ASSAULTED by that unbearable blast of energy! Poor Fluttershy was left bouncing around the ceiling, and I may have inadvertently caused darling Aloe and Vera to swap colors! And such a terrible faux pas I must have made too, in my confused state I couldn’t tell the difference! Oh the horror! What if they never allow us to go back? What will I dooooo?” the unicorn fashionista wailed as she collapsed on her conjured fainting couch. “I don’t even know a spell to swap two ponies’ coloring!” Fluttershy meekly tapped her sobbing friend’s shoulder comfortingly. “There there. Um, it was very frightening. But it’s over now, and I’m sure no damage was done.” “So everything returned to normal afterwards?” Twilight asked as she entered from a back room, a bunch of books floating behind her in the glowing grip of her magic. “Oh! Hi Applejack!” Before Applejack could return the greeting, they were interrupted by a high-pitched noise which quickly evolved into a garbled warning “LOOK OUT BELOW!” as a rainbow streak spun into the library via the second story balcony, slalomed off a wall and a support beam, and crashed into the fantasy section on the ground floor, depositing all the books in a large pile at the foot of the bookshelves. “Rainbow Dash, you crazy filly! Are you alright?” Applejack started digging through the pile, casting books aside several at a time until a purple glow abruptly surrounded them all and lifted the entire mess off the ground at once. At the bottom of it all was a bedraggled blue Pegasus with a wild multi-colored mane. Rainbow took a few moments to shake off the impact, then smiled sheepishly up at her friends. “uhh, sorry ‘bout that!" Twilight grimaced, but held her tongue as she carefully stacked the books in a corner. “If that’s the worst thing that’s happened today, then we’ve done alright.” “Yeah, Twi already smashed a chair upstairs!” Spike added cheerfully as he came out of the kitchen with a quick dragon-fire-boiled tea kettle and cups for all the girls. “Spike!” the lavender librarian admonished. “They didn’t need to know that!” “So, you all felt that too?” Applejack asked carefully. “A great big blast of tingly energy that knocked you all around and left you feeling tipsy afterwards?” “Did I EVER!” Dash carefully got to her hooves and stretched her wings. “I was napping on my favourite cloud when WHAM! Something smashed into me and sent me clear into the cumulonimbus!” At the farmer’s confused look, Rainbow sighed. “The big fluffy clouds way up higher than all the others? Never mind! I thought I’d never get back down here, and my wings are still buzzing!” “Really? I’m feeling a bit drained now that I’m back on my hooves, but that’s about it.” Twilight mused. “Spike! Take a letter! We need to ask the Princesses if they know what’s going on!” Spike thrust his chest out proudly. “Already taken care of, Twilight! That was the first thing I did after we got you back down off the balcony.” The purple unicorn desperately tried to ignore a vague feeling of impending doom from that statement. “Spiiiiiike? What did you say to the princess?” “Oh, nothing really! Just that you blew up and… urrrp!” Spike grasped at his stomach as he received a dragon-smoke delivered message and belched it up, before hesitatingly handing it over to Twilight. For her part, Twilight clamped an eye shut as she opened the scroll with her own magic and peered at it out of the other eye apprehensively. Then curiosity got the better of her and she reread it properly. To my faithful student Twilight Sparkle, I hope you are not feeling any lasting ill-effects from the mystical event that washed over Equestria a short time ago. While we do not believe it to have been dangerous, we do not yet know the cause or its point of origin, and have made its discovery our highest priority. To this end we may call upon you and your friends soon to aid in the investigation--- “Us? Aid the princess? All right! Let me at it!” Rainbow interrupted. “But how? When we don’t even know what we’re looking for or where to look for it?” Applejack countered. The voice of their sixth friend joined them from the doorway. “You know what this calls for girls? ROAD TRIP!” Rarity turned to welcome her in. “Pinkie Pie, so glad you could join us darling, but I hardly think this is the tii-yi-yi-yi-yi!” Fluttershy’s look of shock was mirrored by the others. “Oh my.” Eventually, Twilight picked her jaw up off the floor, and turned to her dragon assistant. “Time for that letter, Spike.” Dear Princess Celestia, Found the problem. Pinkie Pie is an alicorn. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle. *Huuuuuuuuge shout-out to Shotoman’s story “A Friend of the Night” (http://www.fimfiction.net/story/22193/A-Friend-of-the-Night) and his brilliant work with Sugar Heart and Luna’s relationship. This pony is now Canon in my head-fiction.