Twilight Gets a Puppy
Season 2
By TDR
Litten Zero
[ Ponyville, two weeks after the defeat of Discord, Summer]
Twilight looked up from her book at a catastrophic sounding crash. Her gaze running over the view of Ponyville she had from her star gazing balcony at the top of Golden Oaks Library. It didn't take her long to spot some worker ponies picking up the pieces of a wall they just knocked out down the street. The whole thing needed to be removed to be replaced, the water damage to the town alone was staggering even before counting the structures that were simply swept away.
Golden Oaks had survived the rush of water rather well, only losing a few branches and having the basement flooded. Twilight had already sent all the books off to be restored and reordered some of her lab equipment that was destroyed.
Seeing there was no real issue Twilight went back to her book.
It was a clear and sunny day, the weather patrol was keeping the clouds away until the town could be dried out fully, though with so little work Rainbow Dash was taking part of her new third favorite activity, hunting.
To be honest most of those living in Ponyville were glad for those who came to town because of the Element Bearers living here.
Not entirely for the business that the markets, restaurants, and the towns only motel gained either.
There had been some issues with all the new stores and shops opening, but surprisingly Mr. Rich wasn't one of the ones that had any trouble. He had simply pointed out that all these new startups needed to get supplies from some where and had offered a new program giving a small discount for bulk purchases at Barnyard Bargains. He also offered discounted cleaning and building supplies for all the repairs going on.
That stallion knew how to bring ponies in.
No, the main reason that the town was happy with the new comers in town was that Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie's pranking sprees now had targets other than towns ponies.
The less said about the noddle incident with Jet Set when that noble came to town the better.
Rahs so far had only dealt with one paparazzi. But the stallion in question was so freaked out by the experience that he immediately left town screaming and made all the others wary of going near Golden Oaks library. Rahs claimed this was his second meeting with that particular pony and the first encounter was far less pleasant, Her brother wouldn't elaborate more than that, but Spike found it hilarious.
Rahs was currently writing a number of letters to various stage companies in Canterlot and beyond, trying to convince them to put on the 'Peanut Cracker' for the upcoming holidays.
He figured he was a shoe in to play the rat king so long as it wasn't an on ice performance.
Twilight would say he was a little early with this, but Barnyard Bargains was already getting in Hearths Warming decorations. Filthy Rich refused to back down saying that he would stop selling things like that so early if ponies stopped buying them so early. Evidently he had already sold out of half the lights.
Pinkie Pie was strangely silent about her stance on the early decorations, though Mrs Cake was complaining about the glow from her room keeping her awake.
Still the group had been questioned some. In fact the only one of them that had not even seen a reporter was Fluttershy.
Pinkie Pie later explained that Angel Bunny was using his permit to the fullest and the other animals were joining in. A roc had carried off a claw full of reporters dumping them in the middle of the Everfree. Harry the Bear was a common feature in town chasing paparazzi, and Twilight was going to have nightmares about what the squirrels did.
Angel Bunny himself didn't seem to be doing anything at first, at least until a week later when a gaggle of nobles suddenly popped into existence on a Tuesday after being missing for a week.
With all her defenders Fluttershy was left alone.
Rainbow Dash was of course hamming it up between her pranks and naps. Going on about how awesome she was.
Pinkie Pie was driving them mad. Either they couldn't catch her or she started interviewing them. Even the photos they took never showed the mare directly there was always something blocking the shot or she ducked or there was a completely different mare standing there.
One reporter had taken a photo and had then been committed to an asylum after setting all his equipment on fire and screaming 'SHE COMES!!' in between bouts of unintelligible gibberish.
Rarity wasn't much better than Dash and most of the nobles and reporters were more than willing to flock to her with how she was willing to put up with them while pretending she didn't like them. Granted she was also in a different outfit every time some one saw her, getting plenty of free advertising.
Applejack ignored them, but she was left alone while at the farm after Granny Smith showed she still knew how to fire her grand pappies' shot gun. She still couldn't hit anything, but they didn't know that.
All six of them had gotten a number of proposals and 'deals' sent to them from various nobles and other ponies. Twilight and Rarity worked to sort them at first though they were quickly swamped with all the double talk and frivolous pandering. Twilight finally gave up and asked Prince and Cadence if they could help out some how.
Prince managed a few things including getting the Everfree forest marked as a natural and historical site, thus preventing any one from cutting down any trees to build.
The Alpha Jynx had accepted the land that once held the Bone Hound warrens and had opted to leave it to grow wild. She absolutely refused to allow anyone to build there claiming it was a historical battle ground. The marker left by Princess Luna was more than enough proof for most, even if they couldn't sense the strange unease of the area like the locals could.
This left only a few places for any pony to build and with the cost of insurance most nobles skipped out on building any extra summer homes near Ponyville.
The proposals also stopped once Cadence got involved. At least they stopped to every one save Applejack, who ignored them, and Rarity, who Twilight was certain was putting them in a scrapbook.
Rahs was just annoyed that he wasn't getting any letters, something that of course he was teased about. But even Twilight found it odd that no one was trying to butter her brother up. Even Spike had received a number of letters and a few proposals. He claimed there were no pictures attached but Twilight had to wonder.
Rahs had received zero however and it made little sense to her.
[ Some where in Ponyville]
“WHAT THE BUCK IS WRONG WITH THESE PONIES!?!?! “Saturnia screamed from under the newest massive pile of mail that had been intercepted before it could get to Rahs. She ripped open one letter from some floozy named Trixie, and scanned. “ This one's writing like she's known him for years!” She read some more.”And she plans to visit!!! Seriously!?”
One of the other Changelings nearby had opened a letter and was whistling at the full page photo included of the mare who wrote it inside. “Dunno, but I've never wanted to be a dog as much as I do now....” the Changeling muttered.
[Library]
Of course with everything going so smoothly an issue had to crop up, though it sorted itself out rather quickly.
Given their relation to the Element Bearers, both real and imagined, the Cutiemark Crusaders, plus Spike, had been foal napped.
The foal napping had lasted three full hours and wouldn't have even been noticed if not for the aftermath and how quiet it had gotten.
At the end of the three hours, a pair of badly burned, bloodied, and beaten foal nappers returned the four and turned themselves in, swearing to give up crime completely if the Guards just kept those four away from them.
The Crusaders wondered what had happened to their new friends, as Harry and Marv were going to help them get cutie marks in being 'Wet Bandits' whatever that meant.
Spike was less oblivious than the girls about the situation and far more amused at how it turned out.
The exact details of what transpired were a mystery, but for a time the fillys were calling Spike 'Red Chief'.
The day after the foal napping similar strange marks appeared all over town carved over night in nearly everything.
The mark was a Triangle pointed downward with a line through the middle of it. The bottom point of the triangle then had a large circle around it that cut through the middle of the triangle.
Comet Trail had taken one look at them and burst out laughing before telling everyone to leave the marks be, once he caught his breath anyway.
All in all the last few weeks of clean up had been surprisingly peaceful and calm, if noisy with all the construction. Twilight and the girls had gotten together a few times to go out to eat or simply hang out and joke about all the unwanted attention they were getting.
It was nice, calm, and serene. This was how Ponies were supposed to live, without constant tests, the threat of things over their heads, or monsters of the week.
Just living life.
And it was driving Twilight absolutely bonkers.
At the time she had happily told Celestia to stuff it and fully quit being her student. She had then reaffirmed the ultimatum for Luna. Gotten a better way to contact Bleu that didn't involve Celestia. She then bid farewell to Cadence and stormed out.
She had maintained her composure until the group boarded the train back to Ponyville.
By the end of the train ride home she had had six break downs, three shouting matches with herself and any one else who got involved, six hypothetical fights with Celestia, and a really good cry.
Thankfully her brothers and friends had expected as such and simply let her do her thing helping when they could.
She badly wanted to write back to Princess Celestia to apologize to beg to be taken back as her student, though she had written a number of letters, she had only gone as far as to ask Spike to send one. She didn't even fight over it when he refused.
Every pony had issues with being used as a pawn in something, but it was just as bad if you were a rook or bishop, you were still getting played with.
The test,s the bickering, the madness of having royalty pop up unannounced in your home at all hours of the day. While it was nice that it stopped, the constant change and surprise kept her interested, sure she had less time to focus on her own studies, and she never did well when something she was working on was interrupted, but she never was bored. Her friends had their own things to do so she couldn't hang out with them all the time, and the same could be said for her brothers.
Without all the interruptions she had opted to focus her studies on the prophecy and what it might mean.
She had no clue about it aside from the keys she was given. She was half tempted to track down this Zebra Goddess Velkorn and teach her the fine art of percussion questioning until she got a straight answer, but she let it go.
Madness was clearly Discord. He was the start of it. The thing that began the prophecy.
Next was Envy. A painful or resentful awareness of an advantage enjoyed by another joined with a desire to possess the same advantage.
That alone could hit every noble in Canterlot, and most other gods when they looked at how well Equestria was doing.
Twilight couldn't find anything in any book she had that could link some one or something obviously to that. Be it to an invading army or some upper class noble twit. She had asked Prince to keep an eye out for any of the upper class who might complain a little too much about the Princesses or the Elements.
He in turn had asked for information on Rainbow Dash.
Twilight wasn't sure why, but she supposed it might have to do with his attempts to dissuade the constant proposals every one was getting. Though she had thought Rainbow Dash had stopped getting them already.
Lust.
Every pony always assumed that was about sex, but it wasn't, well not entirely. Lust was more an overwhelming craving or desire. One could say Dragons lusted for gold, or she had lusted for knowledge.
This line of thought could hint at a dragon or a power seeking mage, but Twilight was pretty sure it was going to be another one of Celestia's ex's just from the main definition.
Magic.
This one annoyed her. It didn't fit really. Magic was every where and unlike the other terms it didn't have any sort of negative implication. The thing that worried her was that at the moment the one that represented magic more than anyone else was herself. And maybe Rahs, but that would be more anti magic... but given the odd wording of prophesies it could still be him. Or she could be way off track.
Greed: a selfish and excessive desire for more of something (such as money) than is needed.
Again this one could mean a dragon or a noble. But greed was sort of a catch all in truth any of the others could also fall under this so it was something specific. It could mean little more than some one who wanted everything for themselves, or more, no matter how much they had already.
Pride.
While Twilight doubted this was going to be a group of lions, she wasn't about to write off the possibility. It could also be a showy or impressive group of ponies... perhaps something to do with theater. Rahs should keep an eye out for this one.
The base of it was a reasonable or justifiable feeling of self-respect, but the opposite of that could be true as a non justifiable or irrational amount of self respect. Pride in something done that most would consider wrong. The one who was prideful didn't have to be proud of something that others would be proud of. They could be proud of tricking some one, or wiping out a whole town. Most villains in literature were prideful, granted so were a lot of heroes.
The problem with this thing was that there were so many variables and variations that there was no way to nail down exactly what any of them would be. Heck her friends could cover most of this too in one way or another. Pinkie as madness, Spike or Rarity as greed, Fluttershy, Rarity or Rahs as envy, Dash , Rarity ,or Applejack as pride. All of them had magic, Rarity or Spike as lust given their devotion to their interests. And Twilight could be a lot of these too.
Really though, maybe she should keep a closer eye on Rarity. Just in case.
Any further musings were ended by a shout.
“Twi, Big Macs here...... again.......”
She blinked looking back at the open door before she closed her book and headed inside. She really wished her brothers didn't have to keep trying to play it tough to intimidate her colt friend.
Not like it was working anyway.
She headed down stairs wondering if he was here to grab a bite to eat or not.
Things could only get more exciting and chaotic from here.
She wasn't sure if she was happy about that or not.