Present day.
"NEXT STOP, PONYVILLE!!!"
The shout from the conductor woke Random Fact up from his nap as he rode in on the train into Ponyville. The clanging of the wheels against the tracks had lulled the grey unicorn off to sleep several hours ago.
Ponyville. He'd been hearing some crazy stories about this town over the last few years. According to the rumors, the town couldn't go more than a week or two without some kind of monster attack or some other wacky nonsense happening. The only thing that happened here that he really cared about was that this was where Princess Luna had both returned from the moon and been freed from the power of the nightmare.
The train shuddered as the wheels grinded to a halt. He slowly rose to his hooves, stretching his sore limbs and shaking out his green mane before retrieving his bag from the seat.
He took in the calm scenery in the afternoon sun as he stepped off the train. A lot of these thatched-roofed houses hadn't been here the last time he was home. He breathed in the country air as he took a few steps off the platform. However, as he misjudged that last step, he proceeded to trip and tumble down the rest of them before coming to a stop face down in the dirt.
"Landsakes," came a voice laden with a thick country accent from just overhead. "Ah ain't seen a pony take a spill like that since RD fell outta the tree ah caught her nappin in!" She took a minute to think over what she just said, "come to think of it, that may have been just yesterday. Here, let me help ya up partner."
Random felt a pair of strong limbs lift him off the ground as he scrambled to get his hooves back under him. He looked up to see the mare that stopped to help him, "thanks" he said as he brushed himself off. "I really should learn to watch my step."
"Don't usually see folk fall off the train like that," the country mare with an orange coat and blonde mane started circling around him. "Name's Applejack. Say...Ah ain't seen you 'round these here parts before. You one of them fancy Canterlot unicorns? Probably here to see Rarity about something." She said before narrowing her eyes at him. "At least Ah hope you ain't here to bother Twilight. Stallions can't seem to take the hint that she ain't interested."
Random wilted under the accusation, "Um...I don't think so..." He waited a moment before asking the obvious question. "Who's Twilight?"
Applejack raised an eyebrow at him, "you go and hit your head on the rock you been hidin under? How in tarnation do you not know the newly crowned Princess of Friendship?"
"Um..." he hesitated while trying to fight back a grin at the absurd title he just heard. "It was a very big rock?..."
"Heh," Applejack gave a small chuckle. "Well ya musta not hit yer head too hard if yer sense of humor still works." She said before walking over to a wagon and hitching herself up to it. "Well, ah'll be seein ya 'round if ya'll are here fer more than a day or two." She tipped her hat at him before driving her wagon full of apples down the road.
"Well that was interesting." He mused aloud as he cantered down the road.
A loud gasp drew his attention to the pony that appeared in front of him. When did that pink pony get there? "Um... Hi?" He asked tentatively, a bit cautious at her sudden appearance.
Without warning, the pink pony rocketed away at breakneck speeds, the grass lining the road almost folding completely over with the force of her passing. Several ponies watched the pink blur race on by without even jumping back or even breaking their conversation with their neighbors. Was this a normal occurrence around here?
"Ok," Random said to himself, shaking his head at the strangeness that may very well be normal around here. "I guess I should probably get home." He thought aloud before spotting the canopy of his house over the rooftops. "At least it stands out now that there's no longer a forest surrounding it." He took a moment to think about that statement. How long had he been gone?
Twilight was curled up in her study with a good book in front of her. A purple aura cast out from her horn as she floated over a mug of hot cocoa, turning over the page as she did so. She took a careful sip as she enjoyed the peace and quiet that had been denied her in recent days. She looked over her shoulder at her back, carefully flexing the new wings that rested there. She'd only had them for about a week and even after she had been crowned as Equestria's newest princess, she still hadn't gotten used to the things yet.
"Twilight!!!" The silence was broken by the panicked cries of her assistant Spike from down the stairs. "Something strange is happening!"
Twilight hung her head in irritation. Was it too much to ask to have just a single normal afternoon? Probably... This was Ponyville after all. She begrudgingly rose to her hooves and slowly made her way over to the stairs. "What is it this time, Spike?!" She shouted down. "Monster attack? Bunny stampede? Please don't tell me there's another stallion at the door looking to court royalty." Any further thoughts were cut off as she found the first floor of the library glowing with a strange green energy.
"Spike?!" She shouted, "what happened?! What did you do?!"
"What?!" Spike shouted back. "I didn't do anything! I was just reading a comic book and this started happening." He waved his claws at the brightly glowing shelves, some of which were now starting to become animated as they unwrapped themselves from the walls and began to deposit their contents on the floor.
Twilight cast her magic at the walls, hoping to at least get a feel for what was happening. Her magic barely brushed it when she felt the room around her start to shutter and vibrate with the ever growing energy. Panic started to overtake her as she jumped away from another pile of books carelessly dumped on the floor. Cracks began to form at the section of shelves that had been clearing themselves, blinding light pouring in from between them.
She ran over to Spike and was about to cast a shield over the two of them when the ground rippled beneath them, causing both of them to lose their balance and fall to the floor. The ripple turned into a wave and they were unceremoniously carried out the door and piled on top of the unfortunate stallion who had only just been reaching for the doorknob.
"Ow," came a voice from beneath the alicorn princess. "My head."
Twilight scrambled to right herself and climb off the pony that she and Spike had landed on top of. Once she was standing on her own four hooves again, she looked up at the treehouse that was slowly returning to normal, the glow around it dying down. "What do you suppose that was, Spike? Spike?" She looked down at her assistant, who was poking at the stallion facedown in the dirt. "Oh my goodness!" She said with alarm. "Sir, are you ok?"
"I'll be alright," said the stallion as he once again found himself having to climb back up off the ground. "Apparently I'm having that kind of day." He stood up and took a good look at the third mare he had an unusual meeting with today. "I take it you've..." his cut his words off as his eyes seemed to grow wide at something, something that made him slowly step forward and move in a slow circle around her.
Twilight felt herself growing nervous as he completed his circle, "is something wrong?" She asked.
"Hmmm?" The stallion seemed to come out of deep thought with her question, "oh it's nothing. But if you don't mind me asking. Are you an alicorn?"
"What rock have you been hiding under?" Said Spike with a deadpan glare before waving his claws at Twilight in a flourish and proudly announcing, "this is Twilight Sparkle! The Princess of Friendship! Who are you supposed to be?"
"Well, my very enthusiastic dragon friend," he said with quite a bit less energy than the dragon had just showed. "My name is Random Fact and I..."
*Whack* A branch of the tree lowered down of its own accord and smacked Random upside the head.
"Am apparently in big trouble," he said as he recoiled from the branch.
"Sorry," apologized Twilight as she winced from watching the smack. "I've never seen it do that before."
"It's not your fault," said Random as he dodged another branch. "I think she's just moody."
"She?" Twilight inquired.
"Well you see..." He barely got out a few words before another series of branches came down and began making a mad grab for him. "All right, all right..." He snapped at the tree. "I'm coming!"
He stumbled his way to the door with Twilight and Spike close behind him. The door itself opening of its own accord.
Twilight had been expecting a mess when she stepped back inside the library. However, apart from all the books being back on the shelfs again, there was now a large door rested in the wall. "That wasn't there before." Twilight wondered aloud as the new door swung open, revealing a large spiral staircase that worked its way down the empty space.
Random stepped up to the stairs before looking back at Twilight, "oh it's been here all along," he said before padding a hoof on the doorframe. "She just won't open up for anypony though."
"Why you though?" Asked Spike with a suspicious stare.
"Well..." Random hesitated with his answer just before a large book came flying off a distant shelf and beaming him upside the head, causing him to fall backward through the doorway and into the darkness.