Equestrian Dreams

by Zaehlas

Conspiracy

Twilight glanced at the stack of books that surrounded her as her heart rate approached normal. She noticed the glaring hole in the air that used to contain the note to her. Magic to cause a note to disintegrate after it was read wasn't particularly difficult, but wasn't known by many unicorns either. The second things she noticed was the discarded envelope had disappeared as well. She clambered out of her stacks of books, knocking over several stacks in the process to join Spike on the other side of the library.

“Spike!” she called out, as she skidded to the shelf he was cleaning. Of course he was on a ladder cleaning the top of the shelf, so he had to grab the shelf in a hurry before he fell down, dropping the dust cloth while he recovered from being startled. “What is it Twilight?” he asked, looking down at her, frustrated.

“Who was the pony that dropped off that letter for me? Do you know her? Have you seen her around before?” the questions came pouring out of her while Spike shook his head. He climbed down from the ladder while answering.

“I've seen her around town before, but this is the first time I remember seeing her in the library. A lot of ponies come through here, so I could be wrong. She's a uuuuh light blue? Um, light green? Argh, light colored something unicorn, and, um...” Spike wrinkled his forehead and closed his eyes while thinking. After a moment he pumped a fist into the air, “that's right! Her Cutie Mark is a musical instrument.”

Twilight nodded and her eyes went distant as she was thinking. “I've seen her before, as well,” she shook her head then smiled down at Spike. “Thanks so much. I think it's getting late, so we can worry about anything else tomorrow.”

Spike nodded at her before yawning and heading to the kitchen. Twilight locked the door with her magic. They both settled with a quickly made dinner before heading to their respective beds. She tossed and turned in frustration before drifting off to an uneasy sleep. She couldn't get the letter out of her head.

~~~~~-----~~~~~

The next day was relatively normal for the both of them. Almost no visitors to the library which let both of them get some cleaning and organization done. The pantry was still well stocked, and although Twilight glanced at the organized remains of what was her recent research, she couldn't quite bring herself to jump back into reading through the books. There weren't any plans for her to visit her friends at the moment, and they were all busy enough with their lives that they had no need to drop by the library that day.

Evening was quickly approaching, and Twilight was getting more and more nervous about how she was going to get to this meeting. She wasn't sure yet if she trusted this unknown pony, but it was the first indication that someone might understand her feelings and even more importantly, she was promised answers! As she busied herself idea after idea ran through her thoughts and were quickly discarded. Her eyes then roamed across one of her portable telescopes. Perfect!

“Spike? Do you think it's time for dinner?” she asked loudly across the library. She received an affirmative grunt, and knowing the little dragon assumed he would be busy in the kitchen for a bit. She headed to the Astronomy section of the library, pulling down a few random books to make her excuse rock solid. After spending some time making sure she had the right books that wouldn't make the little guy suspicious, she joined him in the kitchen.

Spike was already setting out a large salad for her and a plate full of gemstones for himself when she sat down, levitating the books onto the table with one of them open in front of her. They both quietly attended their separate meals. It was a little awkward for both of them. Spike knew that Twilight was hiding something from him, but she was his big sister, maybe even almost his mother. He didn't want to be devastated if he questioned her and was wrong. Twilight hated lying to Spike, even if she hadn't overtly said anything yet. It was wrong. But at this point she didn't know what else to do.

She calmly finished her meal and put a smile on her face, hoping that the duplicity that she felt wasn't showing through. “Spike, I'm going to go out for a little Astronomy research tonight. You look tired and can go to bed. I'll be fine.”

Spike sighed and nodded. He tried to suppress the yawn he felt shuddering through his little body, but it was a losing battle. “OK, Twilight. Try not to stay up too late, K?”

She gathered her things with magic, trotting out of the front door with her telescope and books following her. After she shut the door, Spike sighed again, busying himself with cleaning up the kitchen before heading to sleep. The scrunched up look on his face betrayed that he really wasn't fine, but there was little he could do. He simply planned on not sleeping, unless he heard her come back in, for what good it would do him.

~~~~~-----~~~~~

Twilight could feel her heart hammering in her chest as she trotted towards the park in the center of town. She stopped near one of the benches, pulling the telescope over and setting it up. The dumped the books unceremoniously on the park bench and busied herself with adjusting the telescope for a few moments before growling to herself. “What am I doing,” she mumbled to herself. “I'm not going to use it anyway.”

She sighed and took in a deep breath, trying to calm herself. She stopped fiddling with the telescope and closed her eyes, feeling the cool night air wash through her mane. “Get a grip, girl.” Twilight stood back up, reoriented herself and started trotting straight towards the candy shop. She knew that when the letter had mentioned “confectionery” that it wasn't Sugarcube Corner that was being talked about. The little shop was on the other side of town, in an area she had rarely frequented. It wasn't far though, and before she knew it, she was walking up to the small building. The door and windows were shut, but she could see a little light peeking around the edges. Someone was there, at least.

As she slowed down and was within a few paces of the door, she saw it open partially, and the head of a pony stick out. She was sure she recognized this pony as the one who ran the candy shop. A white or nearly white earth pony with a dark blue and pink mane. Although given the light out here it was more difficult to recognize her. The earth pony swung her head around, eyes darting and scanning the entire area behind Twilight before locking her gaze on the unicorn. “Get in,” the candy shop owner said abruptly, her eyes resuming scanning behind Twilight. The unicorn's horn glowed briefly as she opened the door fully, hesitatingly taking steps through the doorway as the earth pony backed up, never facing away from the door. “Hurry.”

Twilight let the door shut behind her, even more nervous than she was before. The earth pony stared at her, her eyes seeming to bore into her. Twilight only just noticed that the owner of the shop had raised her right foreleg, pointing it straight at her from the moment the door had closed. “Did anypony follow you?” the owner asked, almost no emotion in her voice. Her right leg and hoof appeared unadorned which confused Twilight even more.

“Um, no. I'm pretty sure nopony knows I'm here,” Twilight stammered out.

“Stop scaring her, Bon-Bon,” came another mare's voice from Twilight's left. She barely kept a gasp from escaping her throat as her head whipped towards the voice. A mint colored unicorn with a similar mane and strikingly golden eyes stood calmly to the side. She slowly started to walk towards us, the quiet clopping of her hooves almost deafening in the silent shop. Twilight glanced back and forth between the two ponies. Her legs felt frozen and her mind was racing in circles.

“I am Lyra Heartstrings. I am assuming you got my note?” she asked, walking between Twilight and Bon-Bon, continuing to the other side of the room.

Twilight was barely able to squeak out a “Yes.” She took in a bit more of her surroundings during the lack of conversation after the one question. Bon-Bon had backed up against a counter that stretched most of the length of the room, with enough of an opening on the far right end for somepony to walk back to the “employee area”. The counter was shoulder height, made of glass, and filled with an impressive array of different candies. The front area all three ponies were standing in was decorated sparsely, with no furniture. Lyra was facing away at the moment, while Bon-Bon kept constantly glancing at the door and visible windows, rarely actually meeting Twilight's eyes.

Lyra never stopped her slow walk, turning around at the far right side to continue pacing back between the two ponies.

“I know that you are probably confused and aren't even sure why you are here. I know you are probably expecting answers, ones that I can't give you right now,” she finished this statement glancing at Twilight and holding her gaze before continuing her back and forth pacing. “We needed to be sure about you, and I am. I need you to understand that you are now in more danger than you have ever been in your life. I... we believe you and know what you are going through,” Lyra stopped her pacing to stand off to the side of Twilight, facing her directly.

“I will arrange a meeting for the one you are looking for,” she broke off when she saw Twilight's eyes go even wider. In a softer voice she continued, “he's been looking for you too, and he's not as evil as the books paint him to be. But he's the only one that can give you the answers you seek.”

Lyra lowered her head for a moment, then raised a hoof and put it on Twilight's shoulder. “I need you to understand. Our safety depends on you. Tell nopony. Not even your friends. You might be gone for a bit, so you'll also need to make up an excuse as to why, and it might be short notice. Please trust me on this.”

Twilight nodded, still trembling. Both Lyra and Bon-Bon then tilted their heads to the side for a moment, as though listening for something. The fact they did it at exactly the same time caused the mane on the back of her neck to prickle and shivers to run up her spine.

“You have to go, now.” Lyra said abruptly. “I will be in touch. Remember, keep all of this a secret. Your life depends on it.”

Before Twilight could even react she was being pushed back out the door into the night air. She never even looked back as she slowly walked then trotted back to the park. She gathered up the things she had left, still undisturbed and headed back to her library, mind swimming. She dumped all of the stuff she had been carrying with her magic on the floor as soon as she entered, walking up the stairs to her room without even looking at it. It wasn't until after crawling in her bed that she realized her heart was still pounding and she was shaking uncontrollably. Sleep did not come easy for her either.

Comments

[Tachyon Xenophile]

Love it, good non-romance tag. Keep up the good work.
1: Crossover. Interesting.
2: Changelings. Excellent.
3: DOCTOR WHOOVES tag!

YES! 3rd beat of Regidar!

[Zaehlas]

1745219 Thanks! Got plans for this story that are probably going to take it places I've never read before. That's the main reason I haven’t written that much. So much out there that has already been done. But finally thought of something I think is worth it.