//------------------------------// // Normalcy // Story: Hope, Imagination, Magic, and Love // by MuffinPonyPoser //------------------------------// As far as I was concerned, I had a normal week. Sure, my home was destroyed and a castle had appeared near Ponyville, but this was normal. My home being destroyed was disheartening, but I fell in love with my castle upon further inspection. The redeeming quality was the amount of bookshelves. The amount of bookshelves sent a blizzard down my back and wings, and my smile rivaled the Ghastly Gorge in length. There was a three story library, patiently awaiting the hoard of knowledge that would soon come. As I walked back to my eyesore of a castle to put some donated books away, I saw Spike awaiting my return. Of course he had a fold up chair and a comic book, but that just told me he was enjoying himself. He needs more of that, I thought to myself. As I came up to the front 'door', Spike saw me and hurried over . "Whatcha got there Twi?" He asked in his childlike voice. He knew as much as I did, being my study buddy for years. He was still technically just a baby dragon, though. It made me wonder if his hoard would be one of knowledge. "Oh, just some old law books from Mayor mare. I'm planning on shelving them, then going to the post office." I responded, books in a safe stack, firm in my telekinetic grip. "So, what can I do for you? " he asked eagerly. I barely hold back a flinch. He doesn't know, but I heard he and Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie the other day. They were trying to come with ways to deal with what they thought was a hellhound in the room, my house's destruction. It wasn't necessary, but I had to admit that I had shut myself into my castle in the week that I had it. I was just taking note of all the rooms to map them. Not my fault this castle was larger than Celestia's! "If you want, you can keep mapping. I have most of the first floor done in this book," I floated the fold up book in question over to him, "and the second floor is about halfway done. Remember that-" "Each box is a meter in length. I can do that!" He interrupted. He took the book and ran, starting work as fast as he could. I walked towards the middle of the castle to my library. I need to remember to go by Rarity's for gems, cook something for him tonight. I thought to myself. Might as well grab some curry and vegetables, make his favorite dish. I made a shopping list as I unloaded the books onto quadrant 11, section H, Isle 3 down. "I hereby proclaim this the historical texts of law territory." I muttered as I scanned texts to decide the order of the new books. "Huh. Must be a typo." I said as I skimmed 'Law of the Everfree' by Firma. I continued skimming, taking no notice of it or the others. A couple minutes later the books were neatly shelved, and I was skipping out of the room. I headed towards town at a brisk pace, enjoying the sky and clouds. The rainbow streak across the sky missed the clouds, so I assumed that Rainbow was stunt flying. She slowed as she came into town, busting a few clouds before flying off again. I knew I could fly at those speeds too, but I was mostly just happy to be able to fly at all. The flying lessons helped for sure. When I got closer to town, Rainbow's streak skidded and dropped to my side. After several years of this mare crashing next to me or in my library, I couldn't act phased if I wanted to. Immediately I noticed the yellow band across her left hoof. It was either a joy buzzer or an insignia. My answer was leaning towards the former as the weather mare/stunt flyer started speaking. "Hey Twi. How are you? " she asked upside-down on a cloud. "Just fine. And yourself?" I asked suspiciously.  "We'll, no broken bones yet, so pretty dang good." There was a pause while we walked towards the border of multicolored two-story homes. "You think you could help me with something, Twilight?" She finally asked. "Such as?" I shot back. "We'll, Pinkie's being extra… Pinkie right now. I would try to approach her, but she's twitching worse than that bog a year or two back." She seemed to have thought of a mistake, as she quickly blurted "not her Pinkie sense, but like… sugar-rush-oh-my-Celestia-we're-all-gonna-die twitching." She finished with a gasp of air. After a second of pretending to think about it, I responded with "And I would be able to help, why?" Rainbow was silent at this. "Well, you know as much about that mare as I do, and she's being weirder than normal. I'm scared of her touching buildings right now, as she'd likely cause one to collapse or something." "I'll check up on her." I told Rainbow. Rainbow flew off while I walked through town, taking many left turns. "Hey Twilight!" Lyra said as she came up to me. She had a broken string on her harp. "Do you think you could do me a favor? One of my strings broke, and there weren't any at the music store that I could buy. I don't want to have to replace all of the strings, and was hoping you'd know a spell to fix it?" She asked me hopefully. I lit up my horn and the ends of the string came together and stayed. "I'd recommend you leave your harp alone for about five minutes so the magic can do its work. Other than that, anything I can do?" I asked, Lyra following me to Sugarcube Corner. Lyra shook her head and started taking out a bit pouch. "Wait! Payment isn't necessary!" I voiced before she got the wrong idea. "Well, I was going to get a treat for the both of us, maybe even a bit of… oh I don't know… cake?" She said as I rolled my eyes. "We can still have cake though, right?" Lyra smirked and we went into the Cake's shop. Inside, Pinkie was nowhere to be seen. Mrs. Cake was at the counter, thinking. There weren't many costumers, as the lunch rush was still an hour away. Inside Sugarcube Corner, there was Rarity having a scone, the Cutie Mark Crusaders taste testing some new creation, and Bon Bon at the window seat. She seemed to be staring into space, and I didn't want to disturb anypony. I walked up to Mrs. Cake. "Hi. Is Pinkie on break?" I asked, concerned. "We thought it be best she have the day off. She ran off to the edge of the Whitetail Woods, fidgeting all the way." Mrs. Cake told me. "My castle's near there. Do you want me to check up on her when I head back?" "I wouldn't recommend it Twilight. She needs… things. It's not a good idea right now" Mrs Cake warned. "Pinkie being her brand of weird is nothing, but this sounds like Pinkie being a normal weird…" I trailed off. I got some bits for 6 of their fresh cupcakes, and left with a slice of strawberry-chocolate cake. It was sweet and had the perfect strawberry-to-chocolate ratio. It was gooey and had chunks of strawberry that made me yearn for another bite. The slice was gone the moment I stepped out the door. I went to the market for ingredients and then the road to the Whitetail Woods.