//------------------------------// // chapter 2 // Story: Reflections of a Dark Past // by shadowmane1 //------------------------------// “Oh this is bad, this is very, very bad!” exclaimed a young unicorn with a purple and pink mane, pacing very quickly around the Golden Oaks Library. “Relax Twilight, it’s just a quill. You can get a new one from town anytime.” the small dragon in the corner interrupted. “It’s not like it was a gift from Princess Celestia or anything!” “Oh, Spike! That’s exactly what it was! It was a quill made from one of her own feathers, if she were to discover that I lost it, she’d never forgive me!” The now very annoyed as well as nervous Twilight Sparkle scolded her young assistant. “ Umm, Twilight?” Spike responded, trying very hard to stifle a laugh at his discovery. His attempts were not going well. “Have you perhaps combed your mane out this morning?” “No, I woke up and picked up my checklist, like I do everyday Spike, you know that. I don’t have time to worry about my mane right now, I need to find that quill!” Twilight was very annoyed at Spike now. “I mean, you should really go brush out your mane. There’s a bunch of stuff caught up in it. You look like a crazy pony, and I don’t mean Pinkie Pie crazy.” now Spike was starting to give way to his laughter. “Stuff caught in my mane?” she stopped pacing and caught her reflection in the windowpane. There, stuck right in the top of her mane, perfectly parallel to her horn, was the quill she had quite nearly turned the entire library upside down searching for. “ SPIKE!! Why didn’t you just tell me the quill was on top of my head!” Even though she was very angry at Spike for not telling her, she couldn’t help but chuckle at how silly she looked. Taking the larger objects caught in her mane out with her magic, she then took the hairbrush from her bedroom and combed the smaller items out. Satisfied that her mane was free of debris, she set to the task of styling it. Twilight Sparkle had been Princess Celestia’s personal pupil ever since the day of her entrance exam for Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. She still became giddy when she thought about the Princess telling her she would learn about magic from the Princess herself. That had also been the day she received her cutie mark. “Spike, I’m still angry that you didn’t tell me about the quill, but that will have to wait, I’m late for tea with Rarity and Fluttershy. Could you clean up this mess while I’m gone” “Sure thing Twi. Don’t worry. Hey, if I do a really good job, maybe you could give me that awesome mustache back?” “No mustache Spike, I’ll get you a few gems from Rarity.” Like all dragons, Spike had what seemed to be an insatiable appetite for gemstones. Twilight left the library, and the now very hungry Spike, and made her way to Sugarcube Corner, where she had agreed to meet Rarity to pick up some cookies before heading to Fluttershy’s cottage. She reminded herself to ask Pinkie Pie if her Pinkie Sense had been acting up recently. Though she couldn’t understand why Pinkie Pie had this strange ability , she had learned better than to ignore it, the bump on her head from a falling flowerpot two days ago throbbing slightly at the thought. “Howdy Twilight! Where y’all headed in such a hurry?” Twilight snapped out of her thoughts, startled by Applejack’s sudden appearance. “Oh, hey Applejack! I’m just on my way to Sugarcube Corner to meet Rarity, we’re having tea with Fluttershy this morning. Want to join us?” Applebuck Season didn’t start for a few weeks yet, Twilight remembered, maybe AJ would have some free time. “No can do Sugarcube. Big McIntosh pulled a muscle in his back, and Granny Smith run out of ingredients for her secret family remedy. She sent me to Zecora to see if she had any clove, lucky she did or I might have had to go to Canterlot to get some, all the shops ‘round here are fresh out.” Remarking at the number of things around Ponyville that she didn’t understand, Twilight bid AJ farewell and moved on. Although Granny Smith’s remedies were rather unsophisticated, they were uncanny in their effectiveness. She had once gone to her with a sore shoulder, and Granny Smith had slapped a poultice made with Taro root and wild mint. Although the smell made her nose itch, her shoulder ache went away within minutes. As she walked past Ponyville town hall, she spotted her energetic pink friend near the clock tower, and Pinkie was wearing an umbrella hat. “Uh-oh, Pinkie’s tail must be twitching, something’s going to fall.” When Pinkie’s tail twitched, everypony in Ponyville knew to duck for cover, Twilight made the mistake of forgetting that fact two days ago, resulting in the flowerpot incident. As Twilight rushed for the cover of a nearby fruit stand, she glanced up at the clock tower. Just in time to see a brown colt fall off of the ledge and plummet towards the earth. Reacting quickly, she reached out with her magic to catch the falling pony. “Huh, what!” the colt exclaimed, when he realized he had stopped falling and was floating, 2 feet above the earth. “Humph!” His breath was knocked out of him as he hit the earth, Twilight’s magic released him before he could orient himself to land on his hooves. “Are you ok?” Twilight asked the winded colt, then she realized she didn’t even know who he was, she thought she knew everypony in town, having met a fair few of them on her very first day in Ponyville. “It’s very dangerous for an Earth Pony to be up on a ledge like that. Why were you up there?” “Oh, thank you for catching me Miss Sparkle. You ask why I was up there in the first place, well, you see, it’s my job to repair and clean this clock. My name is Time Turner, I realize that we have never been formally introduced I have heard of your proficiency with magic, but I had now idea that you were so quick on the draw, as it were.” the brown colt was very friendly, and very happy that she had caught him. “Don’t mention it, I couldn’t have just let you fall!” Twilight chirped, blushing at the obvious flattery in Time Turner’s words. “ Why were you on that ledge, isn’t there a scaffold you could use? Seems a lot safer.” “Well, I had a scaffold for this job, but Ditzy Doo, my assistant, sort of crashed into it last week, poor dear, she almost broke her wing! A scaffold I can replace, but Ditzy and her filly Dinky, have grown on me, even though she is a little clumsy. She is possibly the best assistant I’ve ever had.” “Well, it has been nice meeting you Mr. Turner. But I really must get going now.” Twilight had seen Pinkie Pie take off her umbrella hat and needed to catch her before she bounced off. “Please, call me Time Turner.” the brown colt then left to retrieve his ladder to return to work. Twilight finally managed to catch up to Pinkie Pie just outside Carousel Boutique, Rarity’s dress shop. Although not very many Ponyville ponies wanted fancy outfits, unless it was a special occasion, like a wedding or the Summer Sun Celebration. “Pinkie! Wait up!” although Pinkie Pie wasn’t moving very fast, Twilight knew better than to just talk to her to get her to stop. “I need to talk to you!” “Oh, hey Twilight, why didn’t you just say so back at the clock tower silly!” Pinkie’s usual hyper tone was present as ever, it seemed nothing could tire that little pink pony. Twilight suspected the abundance of sampling Pinkie did at Sugarcube Corner. “I needed to ask if you’ve noticed anything odd, you know, with your Pinkie Sense?” Twilight was nervous now, after saving Time Turner from an almost certain hospital visit, she needed to know if anything else was going on. “You do know that you saved somepony’s life a few minutes ago, right?” “Twilight, you know I can’t tell what’s going to fall when my tail twitches. Lucky you always look up, or he would have hit the ground, it wasn’t me that saved him, it was you silly. Oh my gosh! We should throw a party to celebrate you saving that colt! We’ll need a lot of party favors, good thing I have everything I need at home, I have some with me already of course but nowhere near enough!” “Pinkie! I need to know if you’ve felt anything new with your Pinkie Sense! Can you stop being you for 5 seconds and tell me!” Twilight didn’t want to yell at Pinkie, but she was late enough as it was, and needed to know quickly. “ Ok, Ms. Grouchypants, I haven’t noticed anything new lately. Oh wait, for some odd reason, I don’t know why, but my mane was tingling last night around midnight. It may have been nothing, but I didn’t like the feeling it gave me, almost like something really, really, really bad was gonna happen!” “Something bad! Oh-no! I have to warn the Princess even she trusts your Pinkie Sense.” with that Twilight trotted off towards Sugarcube Corner, where a very impatient white unicorn with an uncanny fashion sense was waiting. “Oh my dear Twilight! Where in Equestria have you been? Fluttershy has been worried sick about you, she went to go find Rainbow Dash to look for you!” Rarity’s high society accent made her sound much more worried than she really was, Twilight was known to be late for occasions with friends. Her having her nose always firmly embedded in those dusty old books. “ She left Angel here to keep an eye out for you. Angel,” she called to small white bunny with a wicked temper looking in the windows of the Cake’s shop, he was eyeing a large carrot cake in the display case. “ I’ve found her! You can go get Fluttershy now.” Angel, grumpy at being interrupted in his daydreaming, hopped off towards Golden Oaks Library, Fluttershy would have turned that place upside down to find Twilight. “Poor Fluttershy, she worries far too much. Come along now, let’s get those cookies and get to Fluttershy’s cottage before she has a panic attack” With that, Rarity and Twilight set off to their timid friend’s home.