//------------------------------// // Chapter Three- The Stranger // Story: Gems I: The Sun Princess // by Pen Dragon //------------------------------// Chapter Three- The Stranger Two days have passed and Watcher still couldn’t put his hoof as to why he lied about some mare he had barely known. But that didn’t stop him from grinning at the site of her. His heart skipped a beat when images of her flashed through his mind as he organized the used library books. ‘Why can’t I stop thinking about her? I’ve only seen her once and I barely know her?’ He was still confused, but pushed those thoughts aside as he continued to organize the books by category from Comedy to Romance to… Clop. He truly hated his new job, especially when it came to organizing the Adult Section of the library. “I’ll never understand why mares like these crappy, romance, clop stories? There a huge waste of time and it’s disgusting how these ponies make these scenes so… Explicit!” Watcher gagged to himself as he shoved the book in it’s proper shelf before finishing one stack of his books. Before he could return to his desk he felt a slight tap on his shoulder, causing the stallion to jump in surprise, letting out a yelp before facing Stardust who had sheepish grin. “Uh… Sorry Watcher, didn’t mean to startle you. I just came here to see how you were doing is all?” “It’s fine… I’m doing alright. Although I’d rather be out there trying to help the be in here, stacking books and organizing them by categories and letter. It’s stupid if you ask me.” He explained, earning a giggle from the mare the two trotted towards the main desk of the library. “So… do you want to go out and eat with me and Midnight?” She asked, hearing only a sigh from the stallion before he turned to face her. “No thank you, but maybe next time… If you want you and Midnight could stay here with me?” Watcher said coyly while Stardust rolled her eyes. “I don’t think me wearing glasses and carrying dusty old books is really my style Watch.” She replied. “And I seriously doubt Midnight would want to be a librarian either.” “It was worth a shot.” He chuckled. “Watcher, are you okay with this? I mean you deserve to be a guardian just as much as Midnight and me.” She asked, as the charcoal unicorn turned to face her with a sigh before smiling at the mare. “It’s not exactly what I wanted, but at the very least I get to stay here with you guys, instead of being locked up in a prison cell like Blackstar. But you do make a point… I save someone’s life and I’m repaid by becoming a librarian. Pfft… there’s a joke in there somewhere you know.” Watcher said with a light chuckle before sighing again. Watcher simply sat down by his desk before slamming his head on top of it, letting out a loud groan as he mumbled ‘Why can’t things ever go my way?’ even though it was hard for the mare to understand him. “Well anyways Watcher, just let me know if you ever want to just spend sometime together. Just the two of us?” She asked, hiding her blush as she exited the library before he could even respond to her question. Watcher simply sat in his chair a small grin slowly crept up across his face. “Yes!” He cheered before covering his mouth to make sure nopony had heard until he realized that he was the only one in the room. “Oh, right… Nopony comes in here at night. I better close up and head to bed.” Watcher began to turn off the lights within the library and head upstairs to his bed, but what he was unaware that on this very night everything would change for him. Outside of the Academy “Hey, you little troublemaker, get back here!” demanded the security officer as he chased after the young mare with the pink mane and purple eyes that seemed to glow back at him. His quarry rounded a corner up ahead and vanished into the darkness, making the enforcer stop and blow on the whistle tied around his neck to summon backup. His lieutenants were soon on the scene, and he pointed down the dark alley. “She’s trapped in this back alley, gents,” said the captain, a smirk on his face, “I need your help subduing that mare without attracting too much attention.” “We’re with you sir,” answered one of his cronies before the three walked down the alley. “Come on out sweetheart,” teased the captain haughtily, “promise the guys and I aren’t going to hurt you if you come quietly.” The three officers reached the end of the darkened alleyway, to find nothing but a brick wall and no trace of their guest. Looking up, they spotted the mare had somehow managed to get herself on the roof of the building. “What the hay?” cursed the captain, “How’d she get up there? Quick, around the building, we need to keep her from escaping!” The unicorn left her pursuers and slid down a fire ladder on the opposite side, landing on the pavement and taking off again at a full gallop. She was beginning to plan a way to more permanently lose the pursuit of the aggressive cops, but she needed a place to hide until she could think of something. Up ahead of her were the gates to The Order’s academy. A place of high education was unlikely to treat her much better, but being detained by concerned mages was a better fate than being thrown in a cold prison for the night… or longer. ‘It may not be the best place to lay low, but I don’t see any other options. When did my little ponies lose their way? Before they would have welcomed me warmly, but now…’ Before she could finish her thoughts she soon took notice of an old library within the academy not too far from the campus and began to make her why there, taking notice of the sky above as clouds darkened and drops of rain began to pour down on the white mare. “Shoot, I need to get out of this rain.” Without a second to lose, she hurried over the library building, and found a window that had been closed, but carelessly left unlatched for the evening. The unicorn managed to get herself up to the windowsill, and pushed it open with a hoof before dropping herself inside the library. She began to take notice that most of the lights were off, making it slightly difficult to see. Her horn glowed brightly, illuminating the area a bit before she noticed a flight of stairs leading up to an upper level. “It may not look much but it’s a safe place for me to lay low until I figure out what has happened to my little ponies.” She whispered to herself, taking in her surroundings as she trotted quietly up the flight of stairs, leading to doorway which she twisted the knob with her magic and entered quietly. Taking notice that nopony was in the room and noticed a small bed with a mug of hot chocolate on a nightstand beside the bed. ‘Somepony must live here if it’s still hot… I’m sure whoever lives here won’t mind me taking a sip or two. Without a second thought, she casually grabbed it with her hooves and took a sip from the mug, before setting it back down on the table. She realized that she drank more than she should have and sighed before hearing her stomach growl. Blushing intensely she couldn’t help but drink the entire mug of hot chocolate. She set the mug back down before sighing in relief, but even after finishing all of the hot chocolate it could only satisfy her thirst, but not her hunger. Ever since she returned to Equestria she had no luck finding food and had resorted to taking food from stands. She had lost everything since her return. She was once a princess but now she was labelled as a common criminal. As she was about to head out, she soon noticed the door knob began to slowly turn. Panicking she quickly dived to the other side of the bed, taking cover as she peered over slightly. Watcher had returned, seemingly from a midnight snack run, as in his possession hovering in front of him on a plate was the most delicious slice of dark chocolate fudge cake she had ever seen, perhaps in her entire existence. She watched as he set down gently on the nightstand, before picking up his mug with his magic to take a sip only to realize that it was empty. “I could have sworn I filled this up a minute ago...” he said scratching his head as he was about to grab his cake off the stand only to feel the surface of the plate and a few crumbs left over. “What the-” He took a peek under the bed to find that nothing was there. Watcher began to search the room for clues for some kind of rodent or vermin that may have taken his cake. “What’s going on here?” Watcher soon did a magic scan of the room and noticed an entity hiding on the left side of the bed and a sly grin appeared across his face. He quickly jumped on top of the bed, and looked over to the left side, only to discover that nothing was there. “Wait, what?” he gasped, “There was something here a second ago.” The unicorn had scurried under the bed, and now popped up behind Watcher, perched at the edge of the bed. With a shove using her magic, she pushed the hapless stallion off of the bed, where he fell to the floor below shouting in surprise. “Ow! What the heck!” Before he could finish the mare soon held a fork with her magic he held it against the stallion’s neck. “Okay take it easy lady!” “If you even try to harm me in anyway I’ll… shove this fork down your throat.” She said as her face scrunched up, but Watcher soon realized that she was bluffing. “Okay listen if you're going to threaten somepony then you better mean it!” He shouted as he grabbed the fork with his hoof and held it up instead before he mentally face hoofed himself. ‘Great now I’m threatening a pony with a fork… wait a minute… that pink mane and those purple eyes? SHE’S that mare from the other night!’ His eyes widen after finally realizing who she was and he soon placed the fork on the night stand before clearing his throat. “Your that thief from the other night aren’t you?!” “I am no thief you! And I take it you're the stallion I bumped into the other night?!” She shouted back as the two growled at one another, both horns glowing brightly as the two were only a few words from fighting, but being a mature adult, Watcher sighed before the glow from his horn dissipated. “Alright… let’s just calm down for a moment… I’ve already got in trouble last time I got in a magic fight and I’d rather not repeat the same thing again.” He said, trying to reason with the mare who only raised a brow as she kept her guard up. “How do I know you're not going to attack me if I let my guard down?!” She asked with a snarl. “Well one I don’t want to loose my home and job here and secondly I’d rather not destroy a library with priceless spell books that are either a one of a kind or priceless. Also I really don’t want to spend billions of bits that I don’t have.” He stated and even though the magic from her horn dissipated as well, the mare still glared at him as he picked up his plate and mug. “You know you say your not a thief and yet my mug is empty as well as my dark chocolate fudge cake.” She couldn’t help but blush in embarrassment as he waited for her response. “Well you see I was… I don’t know? I’m not usually like this… Everything is different from how I remember it and it had been so long since I’ve actually eaten cake that I couldn’t help myself.” With a sigh he rubbed the back of his neck. “Are you hungry? That was the fastest I’ve ever seen somepony eat a slice of cake.” “Y-yes please… I would like something to eat.” She replied nonchalantly. In a flash of light he vanished from the room, and returned with a nice pile of peanut butter sandwiches and some more mugs of steaming cocoa for them to enjoy. They sat on top of the bed, eating their meal silently, Watcher still curious as to what the intentions of his guest were. She seemed to just be some kind of beggar or runaway, given her hunt for food and shelter. It was raining furiously outside anyways and as much as he would like to send her on her way. He couldn’t do that to her with the weather outside so bad. “So do you mind telling me who you are and why you’re in my library?” He asked before taking a bite from his sandwich. “You wouldn’t believe who I was if I told you and as to why I’m here it’s because I needed a place to stay for a while, seeing that no pony really visits the library as much since everypony mostly uses technology from what I’ve seen and I figured it would be a good place to lay low until those guards forget about me.” She explained as the charcoal unicorn sighed in response. “Well you’re sorta right… true we use tech mostly to study our magic, but some of us still use books because they actually contain the full instructions of spells. That and ponies can’t find those classic novels that they search for because it was probably never cataloged or something.” He said, as he looked back towards his guest who looked at him with curiosity. “So I take it your hobby involves literature and magic?” She asked as the stallion chuckled a bit before replying back to her. “I do enjoy a good book once in awhile, but I’d prefer to go in blind and learn from experience how to use magic instead of reading it through a book.” He replied before remembering his previous question. “Anyways, who are you really?” “I’ll tell you if you tell me yours first.” She replied, only for the charcoal unicorn to roll his eyes in response. “The name’s Watcher, former student of Baltimare's Magic academy.” He replied, awaiting for the stranger's response. After hearing his name she had remained silent for a moment before hoping off the bed and stood up straight, facing the stallion with confidence. “I believe you’ve earned that much for helping me out.” “Okay…” But what she said next was not what he was expecting. “I am Princess Celestia, it’s a pleasure to meet you Watcher.”