//------------------------------// // Chapter 9: Tuesday the 20th // Story: In Equestria // by ARandomLonelyDude //------------------------------// A ray of light left the sun at light speed, it's destination unknown. It travelled very fast through the cold void, away from its source. It traveled until it entered the atmosphere of a planet that looked like a pretty blue marble. It continued traveling, its destination still unknown. It moved over great forests and mountains, cities and villages, and in the end, it found itself landing in a little town. There, it went through the window of a little house a bit far from the others and finally landed on the my closed eyes like the absolute dipshit it was. Tuesday morning was not particularly bad but not great either. I turned in my bed to get my face out of the light and continue my sleep. The pillow that I had curled up around came with me and I pulled the blanket over myself, all to make myself more comfortable and I succeeded at that. I wouldn't be going back to sleep though, not if my alarm clock had something to say about that. The alarm blared and kept me from falling asleep. I stayed in bed instead of just turning it off, thinking if I should get up now or be late to whatever the thing Mayor Mare had called me for. I remembered that it was something about somebody from Canterlot coming to check our preparations for the festival and I figured that it was unfortunately more important than my sleep. Plus, she had been nice and given me Monday off to recover from my injuries, and now that my right eye was decently healed, I decied that I was fine enough. I got out of bed, turned off the alarm, and took my glasses which I carefully balanced on my back since I didn't have any pockets to put them in until I had washed my face. I went through my morning routine but today, I took a good look at myself in the bathroom mirror. I looked fine save for the scar on my face and the bandages on my forelegs. There was no way I could cover those up though, not unless I wanted to wear my jacket in hot weather. I left the bathroom and headed over to the kitchen to eat my breakfast of cereal and milk. The cereal was one of those healthy ones and not the sugary ones since it seemed like all Equestrian food had a lot more sugar than normal added to it. I wasn't really complaining but it kinda sucked eating more than three sugary things a day. By the time I was done, it was seven and if I guessed correctly, there would be a lot of activity in town due to the influx of people coming to celebrate the sun. The actual festival would start tomorrow before sunup and since Mayor Mare gave me the important job of helping out the Canterlot official, I'd probably have a busy day and night. Without wasting any more time, I took the library keys and left my house and headed for the library. On the way, I saw a lot more ponies than what I had expected to see at seven in the morning even with the celebration. I guessed that Equestria was home to quite a large population of morning people, especially with the princess being a living sun goddess. I reached the library without much problem and unlocked the doors. Everything was as I had left it on Saturday, except for a bit of dust here and there. There was a broom in the basement which I used to sweep it all away. As I finished, the doors to the library opened as Mayor Mare came in. "Ah, Anya, it's good to see you here! I'll be quick since I have other duties," she said as she looked behind her. Another pony entered the library. She was a dark blue with purple hair and bat wings at her sides. She wore purple coloured armour and carried a sword at her side. "Anya, this is Lunar guard Night Bloom. She's been sent here to ensure the safety of the princess's protege, Twilight Sparkle, who'll be checking on our preparations. Just show Twilight Sparkle to her room upstairs, and give her this paper. It has everything that she'll need to check but you just stay with her to help her out. Again, sorry for asking you to do this on such a short notice but I know you'll manage. Also, try not to talk about the incident," She said, whispering the last part as she handed me a scroll. The incident was me getting attacked, of course. "I'll be leaving you to it now, Twilight should be here by in fifteen minutes. Have a good day!" And with the, the mayor left, leaving me and the bay pony in the library. A few moments of awkward silence followed until Bloom spoke up. "Permission to ask a question," She said, addressing me like a superior. "In not your boss, you don't have to ask for permission." Bloom visibly relaxed and then asked in a much more casual tone, "What's the incident that the mayor was taking about? Something crawled out of the Everfree and killed a child?" She said the last part as a very unfunny joke, evident from her tone. "Oh yeah, a monster came out of the forest and killed like, a billion orphans for fun," I replied sarcastically, not finding the joke to be funny. Bloom was quiet for a second, probably processing my unfunny response, allowing me to continue making it worse. "It's not like they can go cry about it to their parents," I added, knowing damn well that the joke was low quality and overused, not that those reasons ever stopped me from being unfunny. Bloom, however, guffawed as she found the joke to be funny. "I gotta write that one down," she said catching her breath. "So, anyway, it's nice to meet you, Aanya. Not many ponies with thick skins our there." "Nice to meet you as well, Bloom." "We should probably get going if we want to recieve Miss Twilight, and maybe you could tell me about 'the incident' on the way." "Sure, let's go." We left the the library, which I locked on the way out, and were on our way to the place where Bloom said Twilight would be dropped off. I made a note to myself to find a more convenient way to carry stuff other than carrying it in my magic. "So, if I were to guess, I'd say you were involved in the incident. Am I right?" Bloom said as we walked through the crowds of ponies who seemed to part like the sea did for that one guy. "Yeah, I got attacked by something from the forest and it gave me these scars," I answered, pointing at my face and forelegs. "Magical burns, huh, well, at least it blends in with your colour scheme, unlike that one guy I know, he looked like hell but he had a hell of a story to tell, so, that went well I guess." "Yeah." "What did the monster look like? Was it big? Was it shadowy? Did it look like a totally cool thing to kill?" She asked with a sort of creepy excitement. "It looked like a really large moose or something except that it's head was just a mouth and it's horns looked like all sorts of legs and it had eyes on its chest. Unfortunately, you can't hook up with it since it killed itself by dropping a huge ball of magic on itself. Only a foreleg left of it," I answered, adding in the last part due to how excited she seemed about the thing even though it tried killing me, or doing something worse. Bloom sputtered and blushed in embarrassment, probably realising that her excitement was weird. "I won't judge though, not my business." I added, getting a laugh this time. "Heh, you got a side job as a comedian or something?" "No, not really. Anyway, you ever meet Miss Twilight?" "Yeah, served as her guard plenty of times. She might seem rude and uncaring but it's not because she's got the Canterlot attitude. It's 'cuz she's too busy with her books to care. She also has very high standards, so, don't be surprised if she gets upset over something small." "Sounds fun." "Here we are, and look, they're coming as well. Just in time." We were at a small clearing just outside the town square and I looked at the direction she was looking at and saw a golden chariot pulled by two golden armoured pegasuses(pegasi?) coming in for a landing. Bloom put on a serious expression and stance as the chariot landed and stopped in front of us. On the chariot was a purple unicorn with dark blue hair that had a pink stripe going through it. I imagined her to be somewhat old, like somewhere in her 30's but no, she looked like she hadn't even hit her 20's, or even got out of high school. At first, it was a bit hard for 24 year old me to accept that I'd be the assistant of someone that young. Then I remembered that she's probably an actual genius since she's the princess' protege and that I was too much of a retard to have a right to say anything. She got off the chariot along with a... a wingless dragon? I knew there was a word for those guys but didn't remeber it. He was small and purple and had green spikes. The interesting part about him was that he held a clipboard and pen. He thanked the pegasus guard as they took off and went in the direction of Canterlot. "Hello, Night Bloom." Twilight said, trying to hide that she was frustrated about something. She then turned to me and said, "And you are?" "Hello, I'm Anya," I said. I didn't really know why but the way I said it felt embarrassing. Twilight was quiet for a few seconds. "So, where is Mayor Mare?" she asked. "Something urgent came up and she asked me to fill in for her," I answered. I remembered that I had a scroll in my magic, I levitated it to my hoof and offered it her as I said, "This paper has a list of all the stuff you need to check out. I'm here to show you your accomodations and also if you need help or anything." "I think I'll get the work done first," she replied as she took the paper and handed it to the dragon who put it on the clipboard. "So, what's the first thing, Spike?" "Banquet preparations," he answered, his excitement a stark contrast to Twilight, "Let's go!" He started to waddle away but stopped and turned to me. "So, uhh, where is Sweet Apple Acres?" he asked sheepishly. All eyes turned to me since I was the only town resident among us. I... did not actually know. I would have said so but that'd be embarrassing, meaning that I had to improvise. "Yeah, just follow me," I said, lying to the little guy while also hoping that street signs would save my dumbass. I lead the way to the town square, where I stopped for a second to see the signs. Thankfully, there was one that showed the path to Sweet Apple Acres. I led the group down that path, the scenery transforming from town to tree farm quickly. There were apple trees on either side of the road, all in somewhat straight lines, and I could see a barn coming up ahead of us. "... at least she doesn't make small talk," I heard Twilight whisper. "I think she heard you," Spike said at a normal-ish volume. I remembered that I had ears that swivel and move around now and that they are also important and easy giveaways for body language and to see what you're listening to. I had to make conscious effort to move my ears back to their normal position and it was pretty annoying but from what I knew, I was part of a tiny portion of the pony population who could move their ears consciously and I liked that since I could control my body language better. We reached the barn and it seemed pretty busy. There were quite a lot of ponies milling about even though I was pretty sure that no part of the celebration was here. Twilight went ahead and asked one of the ponies about Applejack, the pony incharge of the banquet. Said pony disappeared into the crows and reemerged with Applejack. "Howdy there, Anya, nice ta see ya!" she greeted me. I was going to reply but Twilight beat me to it. "Hi, I'm Twilight Sparkle and I'm here to check on the preparations for food." "Oh, we're ready alright, wanta sample some?" Spike seemed really excited at that prospect. "Ah no, thanks for the offer but we hav-" A bell started ringing and all the ponies who were milling around suddenly dropped what they were doing and ran to a bunch of tables. "Oh! Look at that, soup's on. Why dontcha join me an' mah family fer brunch, all four of y'all!" Our reactions differed at the offer. Twilight looked annoyed and nervous, Spike was excited and practically drooling, Bloom seemed surprised at first but looked interested, and I was fine with it since I didn't really have a filling breakfast. "As I was saying, thanks for the offer but we have important work to do," Twilight restated, ruining the moods of basically everyone. It was so bad that some of the ponies, Applejack's family members, stopped what they were doing to stare in disbelief at Twilight. A little filly came forward and spoke. "Can you stay? For ten minutes?" she asked very sadly while making that one face, the one where the eyes go all big and sparkly. I didn't even know that ponies could do that. Twilight looked conflicted. On one hand, she had to finish her job. On the other was this little girl begging for us to stay for ten minutes. I, however, knew that the ten minutes would, in fact, be an hour, if I went by past experiences. "We'll be back in some time, then we won't have to stay for just ten minutes," I said before Twilight could make the decision. "Promise?" asked the little girl. I looked back at my group who all nodded, accepting the compromise. "Yeah, promise." "Okay..." the filly said as she went back, not completely satisfied, but so was life. " 'Kay then, Applejack, we'll be back soon," I said to Applejack, indicating that we were going. She nodded and waved us goodbye. We left the farm and were back on our path to Ponyville. As we walked back, Twilight struck up a conversation. "How you handled that was admirable, I was about to say yes to staying," she complimented, "What could I say, I'm a master at negotiations," I replied jokingly. "It was just a filly..." Twilight muttered as the joke went high over her head and landed on the moon. "Twilight, it was a joke," said Spike. Twilight's expression changed from the mildly annoyed one she had since I met her to one that looked slightly embarrassed. "So, what is next?" she said, quickly changing the topic. "Well, we have weather, decorations, and music left." "We should probably get the decorations part done. Anya, lead the way." I did as I was told and we made out way to the Town Hall where the main part of the celebration was going to take place. The streets leading up to it had looked pretty good and I knew it'd be the same story in the hall after what I and Rarity had done for it. We entered the hall, and it looked great. There was a slight issue, however. Rarity had took down all the decorations we had done together and put up new ones. I was annoyed to put it simply, but now was not the time to throw tantrums. Rarity was perched up on a ladder, putting up what I hoped to be finishing touches. "We have to find a Miss Rarity," said Spike as he looked at the clipboard. He looked up from it and saw Rarity and I swear I'm not trying to be weird, but Spike seemed to actually fall in love on first sight. Like bro, what the hell, you're a kid, Spike, what are you trying to cook in that head of yours??? "There's Rarity," I said pointing to her. "Hello, Mis-" "Wait just a second, dear," she said as she finished what she was doing and got off the ladder. "How can I help you?" "Hi, I'm Twilight and I'm here to check on the decorations." "Ah, dear, as you can see, it is almost finished. Just one more ribbon to go." She then noticed me standing there menacingly and looking at her blankly. Sweat formed on her brow and she became visibly nervous. "Oh, h-hello, Anya. Sorry that I redid the decorations without informing you." I stayed quiet for a few moments that would be very uncomfortable for her if I went by her expression. "Can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs, can we? At least the decorations look better," I said, not particularly angry, as I turned around, "Let's go get the weather sorted out." Rarity didn't get a chance to respond since I left the hall. The three others followed as well. "So, where can we find Rainbow Dash?" asked Spike. He turned to look at the sky and continued, "She seems to be slacking." I looked at the sky as well and found it to be mostly clear and what could be described as pleasant. Just a few random clouds floating here and there. I focused on those and saw that they were a lot closer to the ground than they should be. "Looks fine by me but you're the expert. Let's go find Dash," I said as I took a step forward. Fortunately, I did not need to go far since Rainbow came to me. Unfortunately, she was riding a storm cloud and she came right at me with it. The cloud impacted me, or rather, the ground I was standing on and it immediately exploded into a lot of water. I found myself underwater for a second before the water all fell to the ground, making a small puddle around me. "Woah, Anya, are you fine?" I heard Rainbow ask with alarm. I couldn't really see her since my wet hair, which I remembered to be in a braid, now covered my face. "What the heck, Rainbow?" I said, clearly unamused at the sudden bath. "Sorry, Anya, I was just dealing with some rogue clouds blowing in from the Everfree and this one just went crazy! At least you're fine." A cool breeze blew over us and for all the fur I had, I shivered a bit. "Whatever, just talk to Twilight here. I'll go get myself dried," I said as I moved my hair out of my face. Through my water covered glasses, I could see the apologetic face of Rainbow, the unamused expression of Twilight, Spike trying not to laugh, and a smile on Bloom's face. "Hey, I can help you with that, just stand still!" I didn't really get to say anything as Rainbow started flying in circles around me real fast. Fast enough to make a mini tornado that acted like a blow dryer. Very ingenious. However, when she stopped, my hair had a mane style that looked horrendous. Spike started laughing while the rest were trying real hard to not laugh. At least I was dry. "Ahem, so, anyway, Miss Rainbow, I'll need you to clear the sky over Ponyville entirely," Twilight said. Rainbow saluted and flew up with a very high speed. I started fixing my mane the best I could with just my magic and hooves. In the ten seconds it took to do that, Rainbow was down on the ground, standing with her chest puffed up and a proud smile on her face. "See, I did that in ten seconds flat!" "Yeah, thanks, Rainbow. Anyway, what's next, Spike?" I said. "We have music which is being handled by a Fluttershy. You know where she is?" Spike answered. I didn't know who that was or where she was and that kinda sucked. "Oh, I know where she is! She's at that one clearing near her house, practising with her birds. I'd take you there but I think it's best for us to not interrupt her," said Rainbow, "So, what are you guys doing?" "Ooh, we were invited to brunch at the Sweet Apple Acres! We're going there now!" answered Spike excitedly. "Why don't I join you guys, it'll be great, I tell you." All the while, none of them noticed Twilight's expression become a really annoyed one. The sun was setting as I walked back to the library along with the three new guys. Bloom had dropped her serious attitude somewhat and was chatting with Spike while Twilight seemed to seething and malding quietly at the back of the group. I doubt she'd say what was bothering her, though, but I respected that. We reached the library's gates and I unlocked the doors letting us in. "Ready to hit the hay, Twi?" said Spike as he yawned. "You can go sleep, I have work to do," replied Twilight. She then turned to Bloom and nodded, conveying some secret message. Bloom understood and left the library. "Where'd she go?" I asked. "She'll be standing guard. Could you give the keys to the rooms upstairs to Spike?" I complied and gave those keys to him, leaving me with only the keys for all the downstairs areas. He went up the stairs, probably to the bedroom to sleep. "One more thing, Anya," said Twilight. I was ready to go home but I listened. Twilight hesitated a bit before continuing, "I will need help on something with you. Do you know about the story of Nightmare Moon?" "No, I don't." "You don't? Well, that doesn't matter. What matters is that I need books that have anything about the 'two sisters', ot 'Nightmare Moon'. Can you help with that?" It was going to be a long night.