//------------------------------// // Chapter Two: Hello Ponyville! // Story: Tight Grip's Situation // by David Goliath //------------------------------// Chapter Two: Hello, Ponyville! ~POV: 3rd Person~         Twilight Sparkle was ticked, to say the least.  She had woken up in the middle of the night to find someone stealing a book from her library.  A book!  From her library!  She paused on her way over to Sugarcube Corner and stomped the ground, unnoticingly leaving a few cracks in the ground before continuing on.  Then, to make matters worse, said thief had led them on a chase through the everfree, which had culminated in having Steven Magnet dropped on them along with a boatload of weaponized Poison Joke.           She sighed.  The thief had escaped, the book was gone, and they’d had to wake up Zecora and ask her to mix up some Poison Joke cure in the middle of the night.  Together, she and her friends had faced some of the most powerful villains in Equestrian history, and yet they couldn’t catch a single thief!?  It was embarrassing, to say the least.  She sighed again.  She needed to stop thinking like that.  After  all; she was going to Sugarcube Corner to meet her friends!  Granted it was more a “What do we do next?” meeting than a “Let’s all have breakfast together!” meeting, but that wasn’t going to get her down.         From her back, Spike noticed the positive change in Twilight’s attitude.  “Feeling better, Twi?” he asked.  Twilight blinked and said “You know what, Spike?  I am feeling better!”  Spike beamed “And why not?  After all; we’re spending the day with our friends!  Especially” he sighed and said “Rarity~.” in a dreamy voice.  Twilight rolled her eyes, but even Spike’s obvious crush couldn’t put a damper on her good mood today!  “You’re right Spike!  I’m going to enjoy this day with my friends and nothing is going to ruin my day!”  Twilight started humming before bursting into song.         Twilight was still smiling as she approached Sugarcube Corner.  She could even hear her friends laughing.  Rainbow Dash was saying “A-And then what!?” while guffawing.         “Well, then I told Lemon to hold still so I could cast a slipperiness spell on the beaker, right?  But~ she couldn’t stop squirming, so when I cast it, while the beaker did come off, Lemon went shooting across the room!”         It was the voice that stopped Twilight cold.  She knew that voice…  Kicking in the door was purely reactionary.  So was the way she whipped her head toward the source of that voice and demanded “What in the name of Celestia are YOU doing here!?!” --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- POV Shift: Tight Grip, 1st Person ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------         “Did ya miss me, Sparky?” I said as I grinned.  “This may be a little late, but congrats on the promotion!”  At this, I raised my milkshake in salute and took a swig.  “As for why I’m here?  Well, I work for the magazine ‘Living Stones Monthly’ these days.  I write articles for it.  And this month I’m doing an article on ‘The Castle of the Two Sisters’.” I frowned a bit and muttered “Though, personally, I don’t think that’s a good name for it. Maybe ‘The Everfree Castle’?  I don’t know, I’ll have to run it by Tight Lip first.  Hmm.”  I shook my head.  “But, yeah.  I’m gonna be in town for a month while I write the article.”  I took another sip and let it sink in.  I was genuinely here to write an article for a well known and respected Anthropological magazine.  “So, I’ll have to get a look at the local inn or whatnot, and then I can keep reminiscing about old times.  That sound good, Sparky?”         I grinned as Sparky’s eye twitched.  Rarity, as she had introduced herself, was obviously confused as she looked between us.  “Darling, what’s wrong?” she asked.  I decided to skip the angry sputtering Sparky was no doubt going to go through by answering the question myself.  “Well, you see,” I began.  “While we were at CSGU, she suffered from a rash of pranks.  And for some reason, she believes it was me.”   The nonchalant manner in which I answered had her grinding her teeth.  “Not that anyone could prove anything, mind you.  Heck,” I laughed “I even got called in to Celestia’s office.”  I paused to drink more of my milkshake before I continued.  “Even when she cleared me of all charges, Sparky here,” I gestured to her with the glass “refused to believe otherwise.”         I looked at her and frowned.  “You know, you should see dentist if you’re gonna keep doing that.”  I finished off my shake and took the appropriate amount of bits out of my saddlebag before laying them on the counter.  “Let’s see now; that’s five bits for the shake, and three for the excellent service from the pretty pink mare at the counter.”  I grinned and waggled my eyes at Pinkie, causing her to giggle.  “Welp, I should get going if I wanna get settled in.” I shifted off the stool and onto the floor “We should meet up sometime, Sparky.  We’ll catch up and talk about old times.  See ya!”         Then I walked out the door.  As I walked down the road, I paused when I heard a loud “AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGH!!!!”.  I chuckled and shook my head as I continued towards the Inn.