The chronicles of Almanac

by Darkskarr X

One Good turn

The Google docs. version is here

One good turn...

Almanac lay awake in bed. It was early morning, and all the other ponies in the ward hadn’t
woken up yet. Almanac was gazing longingly out the window. She was thinking of the two
ponies that had saved her, Twilight Sparkle and Applejack. Sure, Doctor Helpinghoof was the
one that had kept her alive the past few weeks, but those two mares had offered to help
a pony they didn’t even know in a time of crisis. To Almanac, that took some guts, maybe
more guts than trying to attempt...

Almanac cast the thoughts of her past behind her and focused on the now. If their first
meeting had been of any indication, then the letter she had sent Twilight Sparkle would
surely mean that she and her friend would be coming to visit soon. She had heard rumours
of Twilight Sparkle of course; that she had her five friends had vanquished not only
Nightmare Moon from Equestria, but also the evil creature known as Discord as well. But
Almanac was smart enough to know not to use rumour and scuttlebutt as a reliable source
of information. Heck, with a book for a cutie mark, she was smart enough to know that the
real truth would have to be from the horse’s mouth herself, metaphorically speaking. And
with that thought, she turned to the face of the ever-cheerful Dr Helpinghoof, who was
coming in to check on the patients.

“Good morning, Miss Almanac,” Helpinghoof said quietly as she approached the dark blue
unicorn “How are you feeling today? Any better than yesterday?”

Almanac glanced down at her bandaged hooves, which had almost recovered due to the aid
of Helpinghoof and the nurses. “Lots,” She replied whisper-quietly “I think I’m ready to try
walking on my own four hooves again doctor.”

“Well, I’ll be the judge of that,” He said in disbelief, standing next to Almanac in her bed
“Let’s take a look, shall we?” He rhetorically asked as he started to unwind the bandages
around Almanac’s front hooves. As he was doing so, he continued talking “The healing
process will be slower, due to your permanently damaged horn, so I doubt you’ll be walking
about any time soo...”

“Wait a minute doctor!” Almanac protested as Helpinghoof stopped midway unravelling the
bandages on her hooves “What do you mean my horn is ‘Permanently damaged’?”

“Oh, dear,” Helpinghoof replied ashamedly, realising his mistake, he gave a hefty sigh and
continued to unwind the bandages, continuing “You lost a lot of magical energy during the
process of your horn repair. We’ve managed to replace what you’ve lost, but...”

“But what?” Almanac asked with a rather worried look on her face, to which Doctor
Helpinghoof replied “We weren’t able to repair the surface crack on your horn, meaning
that it will be there the rest of your life. I’m sorry Miss Almanac, we did our best.”

“What about my magic? Can I still use it?” Almanac said, tears welling up in her glistening
silver eyes. Dr Helpinghoof replied rather worriedly “There’s good news and bad news,” He
paused for a moment to start taking the bandage off her other hoof “The good news is that
you will be able to use your magic again,” Almanac gave a sigh of relief. After all, what was
the point in being a unicorn if you couldn’t use magic? The Doctor interrupted Almanac’s
thoughts abruptly “The bad news is that we don’t know how the crack in your horn is going
to affect your magical abilities. From what we can tell, it appears that trauma caused by
said crack has made your magic...” he searched for the right word “Unstable. More so when
you’re in REM sleep, or if your emotions are running high.”

“WHAT?!” Almanac yelled quietly, disturbing the sleep of some of the other ponies in the
ward “Now, Miss Almanac, please calm down,” The doctor replied rather nervously “No
need to get so highly strung about this, it’s just a minor side effect of the procedure.”

Almanac took a deep breath and calmed down, lying back down on the hospital bed “Ok,
I’m sorry for yelling like that. You were saying? I can’t use my magic until it calms down?”

“That’s just it,” Helpinghoof replied “We’re not sure it will ‘calm down’ as you put it. I guess
you’ll just have to learn to control it I suppose.” Almanac groaned and slumped into her
pillow, knowing how hard it was to control her emotions. “Anyway,” Doctor Helpinghoof
continued “It looks like you were right about your hooves Miss Almanac. I’m impressed with
your healing capabilities.” He concluded, taking the bandage off her last hoof, revealing the
new, perfect hooves beneath. “Now, what do you say about putting some pressure on them
eh?”

Later that day, Twilight, Fluttershy, Applejack and Rarity were trotting down the halls of the
hospital. Fluttershy was holding the basket of muffins from Pinkie Pie in her mouth; Rarity
was carrying a bouquet of flowers for Almanac using levitation, while Applejack and Twilight
were discussing what the condition of Almanac might be.

“Ah’ really hope she’s ok Twilight,” Applejack remarked “I couldn’t live it down if she
wasn’t.” Twilight nudged her friend and replied “I’m sure she’s just fine Applejack, she said
so in her letter.” Applejack simply acknowledged her friend with a smile and a nod of her
and that both walked on down the hall to catch up with Rarity and Fluttershy, who were
talking with doctor Helpinghoof, who spotted Twilight and Applejack walking down the hall,
and waved them over.

“Hey there Dr. Helpinghoof,” Twilight said as they approached “How’s Almanac today?”

“She’s near enough fully recovered, Miss Sparkle.” Doctor Helpinghoof replied “I’m just
keeping her here until the end of the week to make sure, and then she’s free to go. In fact, I
was just telling your friends here,” he glanced over to Rarity and Fluttershy then continued
“That Almanac has decided to stay in Ponyville for a while.”

“Really?” Twilight asked rather confused “Did she say why?”

“You’ll have to ask her yourself, I’m afraid.” The doctor replied “She won’t tell me anymore.
Says it’s for you and your friend’s ears only.” And let Twilight and her friends pass into the
patient recovery room that Almanac was staying in.

As the four friends entered the white room, they caught the dark blue unicorn staring
longingly out of the window. She looked a lot different than when they had first
encountered her. Her hooves were no longer cracked and flayed, though the scars on her
right foreleg still remained. She looked a lot healthier, seeming to emanate a radiant glow
(Although that was probably the sunlight from outside.). Her unique silver eyes were clearly
visible this time, the long deep sea blue and cyan fringe of her mane held back with a silver
headband. Her horn still sported the crack, but was no longer leaking ‘liquid magic’. She
turned her head to greet the stunned group of friends.

“Oh, Hello,” Almanac ushered her guests into the room “Please, come in.” She requested
as she sat down on her bed. The four friends looked at each other quizzically, and then
shrugged as they trotted over to Almanac’s bedside, all but Fluttershy, who trotted over to
the chair in the corner. Almanac instantly recognised the purple unicorn coming toward her
right and remarked shyly “Twilight Sparkle and I presume.”

“Yes,” Twilight replied “That’s right. You must be Almanac.” The dark blue unicorn nodded
back at Twilight, blushing slightly. Almanac then turned to the orange pony in the cowboy
hat and asked “That must mean that your name is Applejack, correct?”

“It sure is!” Applejack replied with a smile “Nice to meet you while you’re conscious
Almanac.” To which Almanac proceeded to giggle a little. Rarity and Fluttershy Glanced
onwards at the happy unicorn that was sitting before them, before Rarity eventually spoke.

“My name is Rarity dear; it’s so nice to meet you.” She said, holding out a hoof, which
Almanac proceeded to shake and comment “A pleasure to meet you Rarity. I must say,
that’s a rather impressive mane you’re sporting there.” Rarity giggled slightly before
replying “Why thank you Almanac. That’s very nice of you to say.” The pair both laughed
before Almanac turned her attention to the faded yellow Pegasus lurking in the corner with
a basket in her mouth, her face covered with her flowing pink hair. She asked “Who’s that
bashful Pegasus in the corner?” Fluttershy let out a small squeak and looked up to face
Almanac though her one uncovered eye.

“That’s Fluttershy,” Twilight said looking over to her shy friend “She gets nervous around
new ponies.” Almanac got off of the bed and walked over to Fluttershy, who had her face
buried in her fore hooves. Almanac brushed the shy Pegasus pink hair over to the side of
her face, realising she was welling up with tears and said to her in a reassuring voice. “You
poor dear,” Putting a hoof on Fluttershy’s shoulder “Whatever is the matter?” Fluttershy
suddenly and unexpectedly threw her front hooves around Almanac’s neck, embracing her

in a tight hug. Almanac hugged the now whimpering Pegasus back, patting her on the back.
Over her shoulder, Almanac heard Rarity say softly over Fluttershy’s teary sobs, “Fluttershy
was the most worried about you over this whole ordeal. The poor dear could hardly sleep,
after seeing you in such a state as she did.” Almanac recalled the day she limped into
Ponyville, and remembered seeing the same Pegasus who was now sobbing next to her in
the crowd shortly before she passed out.

Almanac shed a tear before pulling away from the soft-hearted Pegasus’ embrace, before
wiping the tears off of her face and saying “You have such a kind heart Fluttershy, but I’m
fine now,” Fluttershy opened her eyes to look at the caring, silver eyed unicorn that stood
before her who then continued “So there’s no need for you to be getting in a state, alright?
Now pull yourself together and why don’t you tell me what you’ve got in that basket for
me.” Fluttershy wiped away the tears from her face and nodded, picking up the hand woven
basket which was filled with muffins and a pink card that said ‘Get well soon!’ on it. “These
muffins are from one of our other friends.” Fluttershy remarked in her usual, soft voice,
passing the basket over to Almanac. “You said that you would like some muffins in your
letter, and Pinkie Pie is one of the best bakers in town, so...” The basket of muffins crashed
to the floor, and Fluttershy let out a surprised yelp to see that Almanacs face that was deep
blue a few minutes ago, had suddenly turned bright red, her horn glowing a dark violet
colour. Twilight, Rarity and Applejack rushed over to their new friend, Applejack asking
quizzically “You okay hun? What’s wrong?”

Almanac’s memories came flooding back to her in a surge of electricity. A silo on a farm
scatted with rocks, floating balloons and party hats, and a poufy pink mane of hair rubbing
against her neck... Surely it wasn’t that Pinkie Pie that she knew all those years ago. She
lifted the card from the pile of muffins that had spilled onto the floor and opened it. Her
eyes turned into pinpoints, looking at the inside of the card. Surely enough, there was a
picture of a smiling pink pony inside the card with the same head of poufy pink hair of the
good friend she had known all those years ago. The pony in the picture definitely looked like
her, but here was only one way to be certain...

Doctor Helpinghoof came rushing into the room “Is everything okay in there?” He asked
rather flustered “I thought I heard a crashing sound coming from in here,” The five mares in
the room turned to look at Helpinghoof, and Almanac asked rather nicely “Is there any way I
can check out today, like, right now?!”

“I-I suppose I can organise something,” Helpinghoof replied, surprised by the blue unicorns
urgency. “But why the rush to leave Miss Almanac, if you don’t mind me asking?”

Almanac sighed heavily and replied the doctor quietly “There’s someone I need to see...”
Doctor Helpinghoof nodded to the blushing unicorn and ushered everyone to the reception
area. ‘Whatever Almanac had seen in the picture of Pinkie Pie,’ Twilight thought to herself as
she followed her friends out of the room, ‘I think we’re going to find out soon enough.’