Chapter 1: What's New With Two?
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"Aaaaaaaaaaand...done!” Dusk Shine smiled proudly to himself as the last book in his magical grasp slotted neatly onto the end of the shelf. He’d spent the last two hours reshelving the chaos that had resulted from an intense late night study session the day previous, and he couldn’t help the fluffy, energetic feeling that sprung up inside of him as he looked over his work. Nothing in the world was better than a well shelved library!
Spike hadn’t helped at all. In fact, he’d just gotten back from the market to buy a present for Moon, uh, Sparkler? Moon Prancer? Moon Walker? Well, for somepony.
A crash from the other side of the room drew his attention, “Spike! Spi-ike! Spike?” And that was the voice of Twilight Sparkle, his sister, and twin. From her tone of voice, excited screaming, he imagined she must have something exciting to share, and trotted over to the entrance where he could just make out her conversation with Spike.
“Dusk! Have you seen Predictions and Prophecies?” Twilight asked as she ran past her brother, Spike trailing behind her staring forlornly at his broken present.
Dusk had to restrain a sigh as Twilight started pulling every book off the shelf to inspect the title before dumping them haphazardly on the floor with a series of, “No, no, no, no, no.”
“I think it’s over-” He started to say before he was interrupted.
“Found it!” Spike proclaimed from atop a ladder. Twilight’s magic immediately latched onto the book in the young dragon’s claws and brought him down along with it where he audibly impacted the floor.
“Ah! Elements, Elements, E, E, E... Aha! Elements of Harmony, see: Mare in the Moon?” Twilight looked up and tilted her head in thought.
“Mare in the Moon? But that's just an old ponies' tale.” Spike said as he started reshelving the books Twilight had thrown on the floor. Dusk Shine wondered briefly on the stereotype that males are slobs and females tidy as he trotted to his sister’s side.
“Mare...Mare...Aha! The Mare in the Moon, myth from olden pony times. A powerful pony who wanted to rule Equestria, defeated by the Elements of Harmony and imprisoned in the moon. Legend has it that on the longest day of the thousandth year, the stars will aid in her escape, and she will bring about nighttime eternal!” Twilight finished with a startled gasp. “Do you know what this means?” She asked out loud as she turned away from the book and trotted over to Spike.
“That you’ve gone crazy again and are projecting fairy tales into reality?” Dusk responded, half joking and half worried for her sanity.
“No, you don’t get it!” She said as she grabbed Spike in her magic and brought him down to rest on her back, the books he was holding fell from his grasp and impacted the floor around them, “The Mare in the Moon and The Regal Sisters! They’re the same story and that story is real! And the thousandth summer solstice since Nightmare Moon’s banishment is in two days! Spike take a letter, to the Princess.”
Twilight began dictating her letter, strutting around dramatically and working around Spike’s limited vocabulary as Dusk Shine ran dates and authors through his mind. By the time Spike used his dragon magic to send the scroll off to Princess Celestia, Dusk Shine had come to an Equestria shattering conclusion, Twilight was right! “It lines up, it all lines up, Twilight you’re a genius!” He grabbed his sister, who was lightly blushing at the praise, and shook her by the shoulders excitedly until her eyeballs were rolling around in her head. He let go of her and looked to Spike, eagerly anticipating the Princess’ response.
Twilight stumbled around dizzily and tripped over a book she’d pulled out earlier. If Dusk Shine had been paying attention he would’ve been pleased at the karma.
Spike rolled his eyes at the twins’ antics, “I don’t know why you two are getting so worked up over this. Princess Celestia is really busy preparing for the Summer Sun Celebration, I wouldn’t hold my breath for a reply.”
“I’m not worried Spike, the Princess trusts me completely, in all the years she’s been my mentor she’s never once doubted me.” Twilight stated proudly, after she picked herself up off the floor. If he weren’t so excited by his sister’s revelation Dusk Shine would have pointed out the myriad times that their mutual mentor, had, in fact, doubted her.
Spike belched the Princess’ reply and Twilight walked smugly over to one of the large windows, “I knew the Princess would want to take immediate action!”
The dragon ignored her and began reading from the scroll, “My faithful student Twili-hey, woah!” Spike shouted as the scroll was torn from his hands by Dusk Shine’s magic, the sudden force carrying him face first into the ground. Spike silently thanked Celestia that he was covered in dragon scales, because if he wasn’t he was fairly sure the twins would have accidentally killed him no longer than a week after his hatching.
“My most faithful blah, blah, blah, hmm. You know that I value your diligence and trust you completely,” Dusk Shine read, rolling his eyes at the ego stroking.
“Mmm-hmm.” Twilight hummed happily, feeling vindicated.
“But you simply must stop reading those dusty old books?” Dusk Shine’s voice faltered with confusion so that the end of the sentence sounded like a question.
“What!?” Twilight shouted suddenly and galloped over to him. She bodily knocked him aside and grabbed the scroll in her own magic, eyes centimeters from the writing, studying it intently.
Dusk Shine was sent stumbling sideways and tripped over Spike, who was just picking himself back up. The two hapless males fell over one another and hit the base of a large bookcase with enough force to send a bookalanche cascading down onto them.
Twilight ignored what she was certain was a dramatic overreaction to a light tap and continued reading, “My dear Twilight, there is more to a young pony's life than studying, so I'm sending you and Dusk Shine to supervise the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration in this year's location: Ponyville. And, I have an even more essential task for both of you to complete: make some friends! Safe travel and have fun, Princess Celestia.” Twilight groaned and threw the scroll at the pile of books Spike and Dusk were now extricating themselves from.
The scroll hit Dusk in the eye and he cried out, “Ow!” and fell back into the painful, jagged hardcovers of the book sea.
Twilight was already packing, grumbling all the while.
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Twilight and Dusk were not happy. They were so unhappy that they were both leaning over opposite sides of the sky chariot and giving the passing countryside withering, though ineffective, scowls. “Aw, come on you two, the Princess arranged for us to stay in the town’s library, doesn’t that make you happy?” Spike tried to cheer them up, it did, but not in the way he intended.
Twilight lit up first and grinned mischievously, “Yes it does, Spike, because after we check on the festival preparations today…”
“.. we can find proof of Nightmare Moon’s return at the library!” Dusk had now joined his sister with a mischievous smirk of his own, the two delighted with the plan they’d made.
Spike resisted the urge to groan into his claw, “Will you two at least try to make some friends, like the Princess said?”
“The Princess told us to check on the festival preparations.” Dusk replied, smirk remaining.
“And as her students we will do our royal duty.” Twilight continued.
Then the two chorused together, “But the fate of Equestria does not rest on us making friends!”
Spike did groan into his claw this time, he really hoped they would quit completing each other’s thoughts like while they were in public.
The chariot touched down and the three jumped out. Twilight thanked the royal guards who had flown them while Dusk Shine fetched the checklist from his saddle bags. Twilight had her own copy as well, of course, they both had two copies, in fact, just in case.
Spike noticed a pink mare walking down the street towards them, “Maybe the ponies in Ponyville have interesting things to talk about. Just try.”
Twilight put on a polite smile and walked forward to greet the mare while Dusk kept his head in the scroll, mentally plotting the most efficient routes to their destinations from the map of Ponyville he had memorized on the flight. He looked up when a blur of pink sped past him, the wind following in its wake nearly ripping the scroll from his telekinesis, “What was that?”
Twilight frowned, “A waste of time. Let’s hurry up and get this checklist taken care of so we can get to something that actually matters.”
“Alright, I think it would be most efficient if you and Spike check in on the banquet preparations at Sweet Apple Acres and then stop by the Town Hall to check on the decorations while I look into the music and weather. We can meet at the Golden Oak Library afterwards and have plenty of time to find proof of Nightmare Moon’s return and convince the Princess when she arrives.” Dusk stated confidently, already mentally sorting through the tomes most likely to contain the information they wanted.
Twilight nodded as she put Spike on her back, “Sounds good. Hopefully not every pony in this town is nuts.” And she cantered off, heading for Sweet Apple Acres.
Dusk idly wondered what that pink mare had said to irritate his sister as he trotted towards the park. A park is a strange place to rehearse, he thought, maybe it’s an earth pony thing?
A few minutes later he had entered the park. A few ponies were out and about, some making last minute polishing touches to prepare for the festival and some simply enjoying the fine, though somewhat cloudy, day. Seems the weather team isn’t why Ponyville was chosen to host the festival.
Then a chorus of birdsong caught his ear and he headed towards the melodious sound. Emerging from some shrubbery he found a buttercream pegasus mare directing a choir of songbirds. Wow! A pegasus animal caretaker with a bird choir, that’s amazing! She must be great with animals. He’d studied animal cutie marks and magic in the past and to orchestrate this many skittish birds so well was an incredible feat.
The song stopped and the mare flew up to one of the birds, critiquing his performance it appeared. Dusk took the break in rehearsal to step out into the open and greet the mare, “Hello! I-” And the birds all scattered while the mare gasped. “Oh, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to scare your birds.” He apologized, sheepishly.
The mare floated softly to the ground and pawed at it, looking away and avoiding eye contact.
Dusk coughed awkwardly and stuck out a hoof, “I’m Dusk Shine.” Several more seconds of awkward silence, “I’m, uh, here to check up on the festival preparations.” About twenty seconds of silence passed as the mare slowly sunk into herself, the birds had returned to their perches in the tree and were glaring at him. “Do, um, do you, have a name?” ‘Do you have a name?’ What kind of question is that? Celestia, I haven’t gotten any better at talking to mares since I was fourteen.
“...hy” The mare squeaked something that may have been an introduction, if it was twenty decibels louder.
“I’m sorry, what was that?” He asked again, blushing and feeling guilty about this flaming failure of a conversation.
The mare just squeaked like a dog toy.
“Well...I guess everything is in order here. Yup. You get Princess Celestia’s stamp of approval, hehe,” Harmony, what am I saying? “Well, I mean, not literally, the Princess doesn’t really have a stamp like that, I don’t think. I mean, she might, but if she did I think I would have seen it, or Twilight, my sister, would have,” Stop. Talking. Idiot. “Or, I guess Spike, my dragon friend, would have, well, baby dragon, he’s actually an interesting genetic specimen of…” Dusk suddenly slapped himself across the muzzle with his own hoof, the mare cowering at his hoo-
No, wait, scratch that, she was in the air and half an inch from his face, “Did you say a baby dragon!?” She screamed, well, really asked with passion at a conversational volume, but it seemed like a scream compared to the rest of what he’d seen from her.
Dusk was trying to reboot his mind from the incredible speed the shy mare had completely changed her behavior, and that she was now basically muzzle-to-muzzle with him, “Uhhhh…” He closed his gaping mouth and shook his head, “I mean, yes?”
The mare, apparently noticing their proximity and her behavior blushed heavily and fell back down to the ground. Her wings just snapped to her sides and she fell the few feet right onto her flank. The mare winced lightly at the impact and hid her face under her mane, but just when Dusk was sure she was completely comatose she spoke, “I’m...Fluttershy...could I, uhm, meet your dragon, if you don’t mind…”
Dusk actually managed to understand the pegasus, Fluttershy apparently. His cynicism surrounding the supposed urgency of making friends in Ponyville completely destroyed by his confusion regarding Fluttershy. That, and the guilt he couldn’t help but feel seeing the mare quaking in her horseshoes, destroyed his defenses, “Sure, I mean, he’s not really my dragon, he’s his own person. He tends to stick with Twilight most of the time anyway.”
Fluttershy, confidence seemingly buoyed at the prospect of meeting a dragon, nodded her head in acceptance of this information, though she apparently hadn’t garnered quite enough courage to speak again.
Dusk spoke up quickly, eager to keep the awkward silence away and to get back on schedule, “Twilight is my sister, she’s the one who hatched Spike back when we were taking our entrance exams for, uh, nevermind. How about you just drop by the,” he paused, trying to remember the name of his residence for the night, “Golden Oak Library at dusk, and I’ll introduce you to him. Does that sound alright to you, Fluttershy?”
“Oh, that sounds lovely,” Fluttershy peeked out from her mane, still blushing, and giggled, “I’ll see you at dusk, Dusk.” Fluttershy’s eyes widened as she realized how outspoken she had been to a stallion she’d just met and promptly eeped her way back behind her mane.
Dusk, blushing somewhat himself at the seeming flirt from the shy, cute mare, responded without thinking, “It’s a date!”
Fluttershy squeaked, fell completely onto her stomach, and covered her face with her hooves.
Dusk winced at his choice of words even as his own blush deepened. He started backing up with some speed and shouted, “I mean not a date, not a date, just a, a rendezvous! Er, a, uh, bye!” And he turned around and galloped away from the pegasus, What the buck is wrong with me!? I nearly gave the poor mare a heart attack! I’ll have to do something to make it up to her, flowers? NO! Absolutely not, what am I thinking? I need to forget this, focus on Nightmare Moon. That’s all that matters.
As his galloping faded into the distance, Fluttershy slowly picked herself up, gazing towards where the stallion had ran off to. Still blushing she sighed and hoofed despondently at the ground and berated herself, “Oh, Fluttershy, you floosie, you mess everything up.” One of the birds, the blue jay that had been off rhythm, landed on her back and rubbed against her neck affectionately, “Thank you, Jay-Jay, let’s get back to rehearsal.”
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Several minutes later Dusk was trotting around Ponyville, craning his neck all around and up and down to try and spot the town’s Chief Weathermare, Rainbow Dash. Also, the only permanent weatherpony employed by the town. Considering the state of the sky at the moment, Dusk began to wonder if this Rainbow Dash character had some kind of blackmail material on the mayor.
That’s when a train hit his flank and he went rolling over himself until he hit a wall. He came to rest upside down with his back against the wall and his horn digging into the dirt, thankfully his tail fell between his legs and covered what most separated him from his sister, and his face. His body ached and he let out a very masculine whine.
“Oh, don’t be such a sissy, I barely even tapped you.” Came a scratchy mare’s voice, apparently the one who had thrown him like he was Smarty Pants, “Here, let me help you up,” then laughed mischievously.
Before Dusk could respond she bit down on his tail and with quite a bit of force pulled his hind legs out of the air and to the ground, she kept pulling and dragged him a few feet by his tail. His horn dug a furrow in the dirt as he was dragged along before he managed to get his forelegs under him and stand up. The mare let go of his tail and he slapped her across the face with it, she was lucky he didn’t buck her! “What in Celestia’s name is wrong with you!?”
He turned to face the mare, a cerulean pegasus with a prismatic mane, the incompetent weatherpony more than likely. Dusk revised his opinion of her to add “assault and battery,” alongside, “probable blackmailer,” and, “incompetent.” She was rubbing at the fresh welt his tail had given her across the cheek, “What’s wrong with me? What’s wrong with you!? You whipped me with your tail!” She accused.
“After you rammed into me, bit my tail, and dragged me across the dirt!” Dusk fumed. Was this mare really trying to say he was somehow at fault here?
“I barely tapped you! It’s not my fault you fall over like a leaf!”
His pride assaulted, years of playground insults leaping out of memory to help, he shot back, “What if I had been a foal? You could have seriously hurt a child!”
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and her cheek smarted at the action, “I would have flown straight over a foal, I was high enough.”
“That’s not the point! You were being reckless. Not to mention you’re completely neglecting your duty.” Dusk Shine tried to keep a lid on his anger, but this mare had riled him up like he thought only unsolvable theorems could.
Rainbow stomped her hoof at the accusation and glared at him, “I am not neglecting my duty! I could clear this sky in a jiffy, I was just taking some time to practice, so stuff a hoof in it...uh,” Her other cheek flushed to match the welt on its counterpart, “What’s your name, again?”
Dusk snorted, “Dusk Shine, personal student of Princess Celestia and representing her here to check the festival preparations. You’re Rainbow Dash, correct? And what were you practicing? Whatever it was, it certainly wasn’t related to your job.”
Rainbow bit back a growl as she had a breakdown on the inside, Oh horsefeathers, you’ve done it now, Dash, this guy’s important, he could probably get the Princess to put me in prison or something. Or worse, keep me out of the Wonderbolts! But despite her fear, her pride wouldn’t let her apologize to a pony she’d just met, one that had insulted her and tail whipped her! Even if she had, kind of, maybe, possibly, deserved it. So she fell back on her tried and true technique to get out of trouble, showing off her awesomeness, “I could clear this sky in ten seconds flat, bub. In fact, why don’t you take a seat so you won’t fall flat on your flanks after seeing the Rainbow Dash in action.”
Dusk Shine scoffed, “You couldn’t clear this sky in...ten...years…” he trailed off as the last bits of white fluff dissipated into the air. The mare had massacred the clouds so fast that if he had blinked he’d have missed half the action, and, if anything, it had taken her less than ten seconds. Judging by the pure smug radiating off the pegasus hovering before him, she knew that too.
“Hehehe, don’t be embarrassed, that’s the reaction most ponies have when they get their first taste of the Rainbow.” I need to stop referring to myself in the third person, Dash thought to herself. The stallion sat on his rump before her, having fallen on his flanks as she predicted, picked the bottom half of his muzzle off the ground and tried desperately to find some kind of come back, “As much as I’d love to sit around here and bask in your amazement, I got places to be and naps to take. I’ll catch you around Dusk Shine, you got spunk, for a unicorn stallion.” She gave him a shameless simper and flew on, confident she’d blown his mind. Hopefully enough to keep me on this side of a dungeon.
Dusk simply stared off into space, not even watching the pegasus as she flew off. His mind was fully occupied trying to comprehend what he had just witnessed, and the only conclusion he could come to was that that mare was the best flyer and cloudkicker he’d ever seen. So she’s not incompetent, and probably not blackmailing the mayor, but she’s still a bitch. He thought as he got back onto his hooves and hobbled toward the town library, his hindquarters crying out in pain and demanding revenge against the mare.
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On the way to his temporary abode Dusk Shine spotted Twilight and Spike making their own way through the streets of Ponyville. As he approached them he couldn’t help but notice that they both looked gorged, Twilight looked like she had just gotten back from the spa, and Spike was gazing dreamily off into the sky. Figures.
“Hey! Twilight!” He called as he trotted over.
Twilight looked towards him, her face stopping halfway to a smile before reversing and settling on a frown of worry and disgust, “Dusk, what happened to you?” She asked, the dirt in his mane and throughout his coat and the limp in his hindlegs quite noticeable.
“Oh, who? Me? Nothing much happened to me, just doing my royal duty is all. Why don’t you tell me about your day? It looks like it was very relaxing.” He asked with sarcasm and a tinge of hysteria.
Twilight was about to press him for details, but Spike interrupted her before she could, his lovestruck state keeping him from picking up on social cues, “It was pretty great, we did some taste testing at Sweet Apple Acres, and we must have tried at least one of every kind of apple based food there is, it was delicious. And then we went to the town hall and met the most beautiful mare in Equestria…” he trailed off, obviously lost in his memories.
“Is that right? And what did this mare do? Full spa treatment? You’re positively glowing Twilight.” Dusk said, with far too much enthusiasm, Twilight thought.
“Well, uh, Rarity is in charge of decorations and once we met her at the town hall we started talking and once she found out I was from Canterlot she insisted on giving me a, um, a makeover, and well, she gave me a dress too, as a gift, I tried to refuse bu-” Twilight was cut off from her sheepish admissions.
“Well isn’t that lovely? I nearly gave a pegasus mare a heart attack, thoroughly embarrassed myself, was bodily assaulted by another pegasus mare, dragged through the dirt, insulted, humiliated again, and I didn’t get a buffet or a dress!” Dusk fumed, mentally slapping himself for the dress remark.
Spike snickered at the hapless stallion while Twilight put a hoof under his muzzle and forced his gaze up from the ground to look at her, “Hey, why don’t we go get you a bath and some lunch? I’m sure Spike wouldn’t mind making it,” She said pointedly to the dragon on her back, who was looking appropriately remorseful from the little scolding, “and then we can finish our research into Nightmare Moon, convince the Princess, and get back home. Okay?” Twilight smiled hopefully at him.
Dusk nodded and fell in beside his twin as she resumed walking, “Sorry for blowing up at you, it’s been a rough day, and I just can’t believe the Princess is acting so flippant about everything! We should be in Canterlot putting together counterspells for Nightmare Moon’s magic and getting Shining to organize the guard! Not playing bureaucrat errand colt and running around this backwater earth pony village.” Dusk Shine stomped his hooves for emphasis as he walked, venting his frustrations not very discreetly judging by the stares the trio got from the few ponies around.
Twilight frowned slightly at her brother’s outburst, sharing his frustration, but also a bit upset at the bit of tribalism he let slip at the end. I know he doesn’t really mean it, but, ah nevermind, I don’t have time to worry about this right now. She banished the thought, and all the attached memories she’d rather not dwell on, from her mind and focused on the only important thing, Nightmare Moon, well, that and getting Dusk a bath. She thought, nosing wrinkling as the stench of sweat hit her.
A few minutes passed in silence, Spike daydreaming, Dusk groaning in pain, and Twilight feeling too awkward to say anything, before they reached the Golden Oak Library. Twilight thought it looked pretty nice, if a bit modest compared to their tower in Canterlot.
“I hope the collection is more impressive than the building.” Dusk Shine was less impressed, but Twilight thought that was probably just the frustration talking.
“Well let’s get inside then,” Twilight took the initiative and walked up to the door, she levitated the key they’d been given from her saddlebags, but quickly found the door was already unlocked, “That’s kind of strang-”
Whatever else she might have said was lost in a scream of, “Surprise!” and a pelting of confetti as the pink mare from earlier pulled the door open as soon as Twilight pushed it forward.
Twilight, Spike, and Dusk were all taken by surprise. Twilight instinctually reared up on her hind legs which caused Spike to tumble off of her back. The dragon desperately flailed his arms to find some purchase for the purpose of rescheduling his date with the ground and managed to get a claw around Dusk Shine’s horn. Dusk Shine, who had jumped back at the party ambush, yelped as Spike’s sharp claws scraped against his horn. This caused him to rear back on his hindlegs himself, which put too much strain on his injured hindquarters, a fact his hindquarters were all too happy to inform him off. So as his hindlegs gave out beneath him he crumpled forward and planted his face firmly into the unyielding bark of the Golden Oak Library. Spike, swinging around Dusk’s horn with one claw, found himself on a trajectory that lead to a similar fate, but his hard dragon scales saved him from the bleeding muzzle Dusk Shine now sported.
The pink mare had enough decency to look guilty, “Eh, hehe, I guess maybe too surprised.”