//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: The First Day (Twilight; 06:00) // Story: My Little Pony: Pestilence is Magic // by SulMatul //------------------------------// “Twilight, I think there’s somepony out there,” Spike whimpered, glancing nervously out the window. “I heard them creeping around behind the library!” Twilight groaned as the first light of Celestia’s morning sun hit her eyes. She groggily got to her hooves and pulled the curtains back a little, revealing that Spike was, indeed, right; a strange-looking pegasus seemed to be lounging in the library’s backyard, alongside a strange earth pony that seemed to be drowning in a set of brown robes that were markedly too big for it. In fact, was that even a pony? It was hard to tell. “Oh gosh I hope they’re friendly… Things sounded all tense out there last night at the trainyard.” “It was probably nothing, Spike. There’s no sense in being paranoid.” She tossed her mane, her tone disinterested. “Are you going to talk to those ponies out there?” “I don’t intend to make friends with them, if that’s what you’re meaning,” Twilight said, donning her coat. It was long, and black, and dotted with snakeskin patterns; while some in Canterlot seemed convinced it made her an unfriendly goth, to her it was a necessary part of her personal pony protective equipment - her P.P.P.E. She tied her red cravat beneath her neck as she prepared her medical bag, levitating various medical items and trinkets inside it; a stethoscope; a set of needles; syringes; catgut sutures; a scalpel. She paused before putting it in her bag, instead opting to carry the blade in her pocket. In a strange town, it couldn’t hurt to have a little extra defence if she needed it. She blinked, suddenly noticing that Spike had been talking all this time. She had been too caught up in her checklists to notice. She felt a twinge of guilt in her stomach; she didn’t mean to be rude or inattentive, she just had a goal to achieve. Sometimes it was hard to focus on anything else; that goal was too important. “... and the map says that Starswirl Kain lives here, just on the side of the riverbank. Hey, Twilight, that’s not far from here! It’s just opposite the Cathedral.” “Cathedral? I didn’t know Ponyville had a Cathedral. I feel like I shouldn’t have missed that.” Twilight levitated the map towards her, glancing over its contents. Spike was correct; a cathedral was, indeed, present. Barely a five minute hooftrot away, too. Still, it seemed strange. There were no Cathedrals dedicated to the Princesses since the original banishment of Princess Luna. Ponyville was a new town - any cathedral built in it would have had to be constructed within the last decade. Who would build such a thing? And Why? Twilight put it to the back of her mind; it wasn’t important right now. What was important was finding Starswirl Kain. Spike continued talking, but Twilight barely took in any of what he was saying. “... looks like the architects were a pair of ponies, one of them from Canterlot. You ever heard of a Sunset Shimmer before? I wanna say I’ve heard the name, but…” “Spike, you know we don’t have time for that right now. Point me in the direction of Starswirl, and you stay here and keep going through the library. There has to be something here worthy of inquiry. Both our livelihoods depend on it.” Spike huffed and grumbled, but nevertheless obeyed; he was a good kid, even if he was unfocused. An inquisitive mind, but too easily distracted by frivolity. In a better era, she would have encouraged his curiosity. In their current situation, she had to keep him on-task. She stepped out into the autumnal Ponyville air. It was humid, and dense, and tasted like the faint sweet decay of old apples. She grimaced a little; was she too harsh on him? He was only a baby dragon, after all. “Ah! Miss Sparkle! A word, if you will!” Twilight jumped, her attention suddenly snapping to her surroundings. Who had spoken to her? “Over here! Come, come now! No time to delay!” A strange pony said. She seemed tall, spindly, even Alicorn-shaped in her form - yet her wings, her horn, were hardly perceptible beneath a vantablack skinsuit. She wore a mask, expressionless and empty. Beside her a second pony stood, garbed in a giant robe. She, too, was masked, though hers resembled an enormous carrion-bird. Twilight approached the strange pair - a different pair to the ones Spike had gestured towards when she had woken up. They seemed strange, like they weren’t entirely perceptible to her eyes. The little bits of motion she could see beneath the masks were off. Like they were operating in a different plane, an imperceptible dimension, and were only appearing in the briefest of moments. “Miss Sparkle! It is an honour to make your acquaintance!” “That’s Doctor Sparkle to you,” Twilight said, her voice cold. There was something deeply wrong about these ponies - she couldn’t bring herself to be friendly with them. “What is it you so deeply want to tell me?” “Ah! Well - of course! I’m only an understudy in this theatre, but one day I hope to become an actress in my own right! Maybe even the star of a show! My name is Sunny -” The spindly pony was interrupted by her bird-masked compatriot, who coughed loudly enough to destroy all sense of subtlety. Twilight regarded them both coolly. “What my friend is trying to say -” “Izzy! Stop! I wanted to tell her the rules!” “You’re fangirling! And you’re doing it all wrong!” “Shut up! Just let me tell her -” Twilight, her patience rapidly waning, turned to leave. The spindly pony trotted up, bidding her stop. “Wait wait wait - please just listen? We shan’t take up too much of your time! In fact, when you speak to us, time will stop. We just wanted to take this opportunity to tell you that the, uhm, rules of Ponyville don’t operate quite the same.” “Explain yourself quickly, or get out of my way.” “There are… walls. You know. Barriers. And here in Ponyville, they get thin. Time doesn’t operate the same. Things get hazy. The Magic of Friendship is strained here and doesn’t always work how you think it will. You’ll die. And awaken again, and live the same life, maybe ten, twenty, a hundred times over.” “What? Are you trying to tell me Ponyville is some form of hell? Honestly, I think I could tell that already from the, uh, rural surrounds -” “Stop being a fool and just listen,” the one in the bird-mask, Izzy, interrupted. There seemed to be a hint of a unicorn horn within her birdmask. “The closer you play the role, the more likely you’ll be to get out of this alive. Do you understand?” “What? What role? You’re not making any sense -” Twilight blinked. She found her mouth forming different sounds. She was already halfway through saying a totally different sentence. She didn’t remember doing so. “I always play my role admirably,” she replied, curtly. It didn’t entirely feel like herself saying the words. For a brief moment, she felt alien inside her body. Or was it that her body felt alien inside her? Everything shifted, imperceptible to most. But she could feel it. “Ah! Bravo! Then we have an understanding,” the spindly Sunny said. “Well, if you find yourself trapped or unsure what to do, we’ll be sure to show up eventually.” “It is probably best if you don’t meet us too much,” Izzy added. “It unweaves the fabric of the narrative if we appear too often.” “Very well. I shall bear your advice in mind and continue to ignore your presence from this moment on - unless you have something of desperate importance to tell me,” Twilight said. The longer she talked to these two, the more she felt unmade. Like she was breaking down to component parts. An echo haunted the back of her mind. A voice, her voice, yet somehow not her. A woman named Tara. Who was she? What in the name of Celestia was going on? Her mind hurt to think about it, something was putting pressure on her self, fracturing her soul - “Well, good day, and good luck, Doctor Sparkle,” Sunny said, exaggeratedly bowing to the ground, her snout touching the grass beneath her. “Let us hope you have no need to meet us again.” The pair vanished. Twilight stood for a moment, her hooves refusing to move. What Was Happening? This Isn’t Right? She shook her mane. She took a deep breath of that apple-scented air. She had no time for the distractions of whimsical, weird ponies - she had to focus. She trotted around the corner, to the small pond near the library. A strange pair, dishevelled and unkept, seemed to be hanging around beside a small makeshift fire. The pegasus, now she could see them more clearly, was grey-coated and blonde-maned. Her eyes seemed mismatched, her pupils pointing in opposite directions. The creature beside her stood on all fours, but now she had a closer look she could tell it was no pony. It had a snout, yes, and walked on four legs - but its form seemed misshapen and off somehow. Its teeth were longer, and its back and shoulderblades arched in ways that seemed incorrect. It seemed almost canid in nature. “You there, you two,” Twilight said, trotting up with false bravado. “What are you doing here?” “Oh uh, uhm, uh,” the pegasus stammered, looking to her misshapen friend. The dog-like thing grumbled something guttural and heavily accented that was difficult to fully make out. “We cause no trouble for you,” it said. Twilight raised an eyebrow at it as it shied away from her, seeming fearful of her horn. “We are no problem, no problem. You leave us alone.” “Who are you? This Library is official Celestial property - what are you doing here?” “Umm, uh, we don’t wanna hurt anypony,” the pegasus mumbled. “I’m Ditzy… please don’t tell anypony we were here!” “You should go back way you came,” the misshapen creature said. “You should forget you saw.” It pulled back its robes, revealing menacing claws on its paws - distinctly not hooves, and distinctly dangerous and predatory. Twilight felt her heart throb in her chest, the adrenaline start to pump. “A likely story,” Twilight began to say - But there was a flash. A moment. She blinked. She had wanted to say “but I don’t believe you” - but there was a moment. A flash of violence. After-images of screams and shouting, of the creature’s claws meeting her throat as her scalpel slashed and slashed at its face. Her hot blood spilling into the earth. An echo of the spindly, masked Sunny, a faint memory of her saying “Oh dear, not so soon, Doctor Sparkle. You really ought to be more careful. Come come now, that’s not how the script goes -” “Ah, yes,” Twilight heard herself saying agreeably. Her tone was warm, and friendly - far more friendly than she felt she ought to be. “Well, I can see you’re not harming anypony. But, still, it might be a good idea for you to be on your way. I wouldn’t want to see you in trouble.” “Y-yes of course!” Ditzy mumbled. “Just let us stay warm by the fire a little longer?” “You have anything to eat?” The larger robed creature asked. Twilight hesitated, then fished in her saddlebags for some crackers - it wasn’t much, but she wasn’t hungry anyway. “Take it,” she said, gingerly offering the canid a snack. It took it from her, wolfing down one and offering another to the pegasus. They both looked malnourished. “Th-thanks!” Ditzy said, huddling closer to the fire. “W-we’ll go soon, I promise.” “Very well,” Twilight said. “Pray tell, do you know the quickest way to Starswirl Kain?” “That way,” the creature mumbled, pointing the way down the street. Wordlessly, Twilight nodded and left the pair. She had the odd, deeply sinking feeling that some part of her had died, somehow. That she wasn’t the same as she was before. There was something deeply wrong about Ponyville.