//------------------------------//
// Act One Chapter One 
// Story: Burnt Offerings 
// by Spike the Scribe 
//------------------------------//


Burnt Offerings by Spike the Dragon

Act One: A Night of Many Changes




Ponyville, 23 of September, 1000 Solar Reckoning (SR), Morning


The last day of summer started fairly normally. The nights were still pretty warm, probably courtesy of Princess Luna trying her best to win over her subjects after the thousand years of imprisonment on the moon, and the days were still as beautiful as ever. I awoke to the sound of my caretaker and friend moving about groggily, and as were my duties as her number one assistant, the task of preparing breakfast fell onto me. Without as much as a single complain I rushed to the kitchen and began preparing the morning meal.

Oh, but where are my manners. I should have introduced myself a long time ago. My name is Spike. I know, I know, “What kind of pony name is ‘Spike’?” Well, to tell the truth, it isn’t. For you see, I am a dragon. No, not the average gigantic, fire-breathing, treasure-hoarding monster that is used to scare little foals into submission by their parents, although I can breathe fire if I need to. I’m a ‘baby’ dragon. Not to get confused –a dragon may be the age of a fully matured pony yet still be considered a ‘baby’ by purely physical standards. I’m more mature than most my age (which incidentally is fourteen, at least from the day I hatched). Either way, just so you guys get the idea of how I look: I’m about tree-and-a-half hoof tall, have purple scales, green spines going from the top of my head to the end of my tail, bleached-green scales on my underbelly and a pair of green (some say emerald) eyes with slits for pupils. I know, all in all I’m not that impressive looking. Especially without wings. But I digress.

Breakfast was a quiet affair, like most times. Twilight, my caretaker slash best friend tends to be a bit… groggy… in the morning, usually from pulling all-nighters. I’m quite used to that actually. Living with her for basically all my life I learned that there was no force in Equestria save for Princess Celestia herself who could make her stop reading books. Then again, she is the Princess’ personal student, so she takes her research and studies extremely serious. Really, I mean she would probably flip if she discovered she was late with a report or something. Hm… Now that I think about it, I should probably describe Twilight as well.

Twilight Sparkle, a young unicorn mare, age… well, I probably shouldn’t state a ladies age. Suffice to say she’s considered an adult. Either way –she has a lavender coat with a blue mane and tail, one purple and one rose-colored streak going through both of them. She has lavender eyes and her cutie mark is a six-pointed pink star surrounded by five smaller white ones. Also she’s Princess Celestia’s personal student, as I already noted, and recently she acquired the position of a librarian in the quiet town of Ponyville. Exceptionally gifted in the field of magic. And not a morning pony.

Prepared for her usual morning state I served her, along with her scrambled eggs and toast, a cup of green tea. Most ponies reacted better to coffee in situations like this, but Twilight not only was for the most part caffeine-proof, she actually hated the stuff, and personally, I don’t blame her. I don’t have the slightest idea why would anypony drink that stuff. What matters is that the tea I served her managed to wake her up enough for her to start functioning normally. After a few minutes our plates were empty and Twi was ready for the day.

On today’s agenda Twilight had some magical exercises. As the highly magical unicorn as she is, Twi had a surprising knack for learning new spells, which reflected on today’s training regime. She prepared a list of twenty-five spells, ranging from simple variants of the standard unicorn levitation charms to complex conjurations. My personal favorite was the growing spell, which enabled Twi to conjure up a stylish mustache on my upper lip. I mean what’s cooler than a instant mustache? Sadly, she didn’t let me keep it.

Twilight’s exercises lasted for a few hours, even though I suspect she could easily manage the same in a single one. I mean come on, did she really need to go through the information about every single spell three times? A bit of a waste of time in my opinion. Still, she was adamant on keeping everything proper and by the book, and despite my best efforts I couldn’t get her to loosen up. At least the spells were worth it.

Once Twilight finished with her daily workout (if you could call what she did a typical unicorn workout that is) we both decided, that a small walk outside the stifling library would do us good. The day was nice, no rains or other unpleasant atmospheric events scheduled for the next few days, and just a few clouds were visible in the air, carefully maneuvered by the pegasi weather teams. All in all, it was a most pleasant day for a stroll.

I engaged Twilight in some small talk, trying to get her to finally see, that her special talent really was magic. She of course brushed the prospect off, claiming that she wasn’t anything special, and that she suspected there were tons of unicorns more magical then her. A load of horseapples in my opinion. One doesn’t become the Princess’ personal protégé if there isn’t something special with ones magic. Still, she refused the notion, clinging to her version.

I was about to renew my efforts when suddenly I was cut off by the appearance of two charging unicorn colts. And by cut off I mean practically run over by those two, galloping in blind abandon, not in the slightest concerned that a dragon was being injured. Those two were obviously Snips and Snails, the two infamous young unicorns, known in Ponyville thanks to their rather… unique behavior. They were for the last few months in a serious need of a new ‘hero’ to worship; the last one didn’t last that long, skipping town as soon as he could, just so  he could free himself from his two adoring fans. Then again, he did unintentionally lead them to get their own cutie marks, so it was obvious that they would see him that way. Either way, I was being dragged by those two, galloping trough town like if there was an emergency.

“Snips?!” I shouted, trying to get them to stop. “Snails?! What’s going on?!” Soon enough I found out that my request had one serious flaw. I should have foreseen that once those two stopped, I would be flung into the air like a bullet shot from a slingshot. And that’s exactly what happened.

“Haven’t you heard? There’s a new unicorn in town!” Proclaimed Snails, the taller of the two in his rather… slow… way of speech.

“They say that she’s got more magical powers than any other unicorn ever!” Added Snips, the more round one, his voice cracking, though if from excitement or puberty I can’t be quite sure. Either way by now I managed to pull myself out of the heap I landed in and I walked to the two, a seriously not amused expression on my face.

“Really?” Asked Twilight before I was able to say anything. She followed us all the way from where Snips and Snails run into me (a good eighty hoofs or so) and looked… well, distressed, like if something was troubling her. In hindsight I believe she was half expecting to see somepony acting like a braggart version of herself, though back then I couldn’t be so sure. Still, I decided that enough was enough, and that I didn’t want to see Twi acting like that.

“No way, that honor goes to Twilight here!” I countered Snips’ declaration, pointing a claw in the mare’s direction. I admit, she did look somewhat embarrassed by that little praise I gave her, especially considering it was in public. I even think I saw her blush for a moment, though her coat’s color is such a shade of light purple that it’s sometimes hard to say. After just a few seconds however she regained her composure and asked a question that troubled the both of us:

“Where is this unicorn?”

“Oh, she’s in the town square!” Answered Snails, and without any warning he jumped over my head and ran in that direction. Seriously, doesn’t he know things like that are dangerous? “Come on!”

“Yeah! Come on!” Added Snails’ inseparable companion, charging right behind his friend, again not looking who was in front of him. Luckily I managed to dodge that one.

I shared a look with Twilight and shrugged slightly. Either those two were delusional (which, as unfriendly as it might sound, I actually suspected), or there indeed was a new unicorn in town. Whichever was true, there was no harm checking it out, right? That is besides the possibility of getting overrun by those two again. Not wasting much time the two of us followed the dynamic duo deeper into Ponyville.

Finding the place wasn’t that hard, even if one was completely obvious to the layout of Ponyville, which we weren’t. Right in the middle of town square stood a massive crowd of ponies, most of them (excluding the flying pegasi) straining their necks, trying to take a better look at the small caravan that stood parked in front of town hall. It didn’t look that impressive at first glance, just a simple traveling cart, complete with a little purple sign displaying a wand tipped with a five-pointed star and a ‘wisp of magical sparkle dust’ surrounded by a plethora of smaller white stars. Even so before the two of us were able to make our way through the crowd of ponies and into the front lines a seriously upbeat, already greatly annoying voice began proclaiming in showpony style:

“Come one! Come all! Come and witness the amazing magic of the Great and Powerful Trixie!”

During this little intro the cart unfolded, forming a small stage with a dark purple curtain, above it a larger version of the banner I described earlier and a series of strange contraptions with fireworks attached to them. Although you wouldn’t see me say that out loud, I did find it partially impressive; the mechanics used to make this little caravan be able to transform like that must have been complex and at the same time compact. It was all destroyed by the voice of the mare announcing her arrival.

There was a small explosion of purple smoke, accompanied by a flash of what I came to associate living with Twilight as a magical sparks and fanfares produced by yet another contraption hidden inside the cart. Once the clouds of smoke cleared, a cyan mare with a silvery mane and tail stood there, draped in a purple cloak and a pointy hat, both of them covered in a multitude of silver and gold stars, posing in a overly confident fashion. I almost instantly felt a dislike towards her. Something in the way she looked at all of us, as if she wanted us to challenge her was definitely off, and it made my spines stand on end. I was more or less convinced then and there that this unicorn was nothing but bad news. I didn’t however had that much time to ponder that, because this Trixie character decided to continue her little show:

“Watch in awe as the Great and Powerful Trixie performs the most spectacular feats of magic ever witnessed by pony eyes!” Something told me there and then that she was a wandering magician, a show-mare performing magical tricks for some bits. I actually don’t know what gave me that idea. Was it the exaggerated way she acted? Or maybe it was the fact that once she finished her speech and stood on her hind legs the contraptions mounted on the top of her cart began to go off, showering the scene in a multitude of colorful sparks? I don’t know really.

“My, my, my… What boasting!”

“Come on! Nopony is as magical as Twi…” I began, only to realize two things. One: Twilight was giving me a meaningful look, definitely not wanting me to finish what I was going to say. Two: the one that acknowledged the boasting of this whole Trixie for what it really was, was none other than Rarity, a white unicorn mare that I… well… I had a crush on! There, I said (wrote) it. Nonetheless, Rarity, who must have heard what I was going to say looked at me, her elegant, blue eyes gleaming with her unasked question. I instantaneously lost my nerve. “Um… he-hey Rarity, I em… mustache!” Aaand just like that I fled. If I was going to impress her, I definitely needed my manly mustache. Eh… Why did Twilight have to remove it?

Yes, well, I kinda lost the conversation that went on between Twi and some of our friends –mainly Rarity, Applejack (orange earth pony, blond mane, one of the best farm ponies around) and Rainbow Dash (cyan pegasus, rainbow-colored mane, great flier, probably as boastful as the unicorn on stage, though less annoying). What can I say, I panicked there for a sec. What I did manage to discern however was that most of them were pointing out the boastfulness of the newcomer, and if I’m not mistaken, I think I heard Rarity pointing out that one’s magical talent didn’t mean that somepony automatically was better than any other. While I agreed with her wholeheartedly, I did notice that it made Twi look a bit… downtrodden? I was beginning to guess that she was getting self-conscious about her own talent, and that could lead to some nasty things in the future.

“Well, well, well… It seems that we have some neighsayers in the audience.” My musings were interrupted by this whole Trixie, tough it seemed that she was almost waiting for something like that to happen. “Who is so ignorant as to challenge the magical abilities of the Great and Powerful Trixie!? Do they not now that there in the presence of the most magical unicorn in all of Equestria?!” Yep, she definitely had all this planned. Her speech was so practiced that it seemed that she was saying all this in an almost bored fashion. Suffice to say, I was not impressed, and nether were the others.

“Pff… Just who do she thinks she is?” Commented Rarity, and I was soon to follow.

“Yeah! Especially since we all know that Twilight here is…” Yet I wasn’t allowed to finish my thought. Twi got sure about that.

Before I knew what was happening, Twilight pushed me out of the crowd and out of earshot of our friends. This was beginning to get annoying, especially that I knew for a fact that this whole Trixie wasn’t half as good at magic as Twi. I was expecting my friend to try and coax me out of saying anything else, and exactly that’s what happened.

“Did you see how they reacted to Trixie?” She answered my question about what was going on, though I already knew what was the matter. “I don’t want anyone thinking that I’m a showoff.” Once again, I knew this was stupid, and I wanted to protest, saying that showing up that mare wouldn’t be showing off, but I was interrupted by the sound of fanfares and fireworks going off, as well as the flashes coming from the stage. Definitely flashy, that’s for sure.

Twilight trotted back in front of the crowd, trying either to defuse the situation or not to look like if she was backing out, I couldn’t tell. I for one hoped that she wanted to take my advice and show Trixie who’s boss. Then again, I knew Twilight good enough to know that she wouldn’t actually do that. I was just going to follow her back to the front rows when something caught my eye.

I froze mid-step, turning my head to the left. For a moment I thought that I’ve seen something strange down the road. I’m not exactly sure what it was, I only caught a glimpse of it. Whatever it was, it definitely had white, feathery wings and for one reason or another it seemed, that it was… glowing? I’m not entirely sure what I saw or how to describe it, all I know is that it radiated some kind of light; a light that I felt I saw somewhere before.

“…vanquish the dreaded Ursa Major!” I was brought back to reality by the voice of the showpony, exclaiming something quite ridiculous. I may not pay attention to Twilight all the time, but I do remember hearing about constellations and their physical manifestations in Equestria, and I seriously doubted that somepony as loud and obnoxious like Trixie even seen one before. Most of the local ponies however seemed to buy her story, especially thanks to the ‘special effects’ she provided with her fireworks and parlor tricks. I was about to make my way through the crowd and say what I thought about her lies when that strange something once again peeked out from its hiding place, making me again stop in my tracks.

What was that thing? What did it want? Why was it hiding? Those and similar questions ran through my head a mile a minute, and for the love of Celestia, I couldn’t find the answer to any of them. What if this thing was spying on us? What if it had some sort of sinister agenda? What if it was some sort of Trixie’s associate and he/she and the unicorn mare were in fact burglars, using the mare’s show as a diversion? I couldn’t just let something like that happen now could I? I mean I’m not exactly the pinnacle of bravery, quite the contrary, I tend to over-dramatize a lot and sometimes I’m as fearful as a certain yellow-coated pink-maned pegasus mare, but I couldn’t just let somepony steal in the light of day.

I briefly thought about asking somepony for help, like Rainbow Dash or Applejack. Both of them could handle this case better than I could, that’s for sure. Unfortunately, both of them were busy at the moment with Trixie, and if my theory about her working with this burglar-pony was true, she would easily figure out that I figured her scheme out. So, with a heavy heart, I decided to go in alone, hoping for the best.

The ponies of Ponyville were too focused on Trixie and her apparent challenge (I heard something along the lines of ‘anything you can do, I can do better’ or something) to notice one small, purple reptile, and to be honest, I preferred it that way. I crept as stealthily as I could towards the alley I saw the weird thing in, keeping to the walls to avoid being spotted by it. I easily noticed, that there was a lot of light coming from that place, like if somepony cast a light spell of some sort and didn’t concern him/herself with being found out. Audacious, that’s what this guy was.

I crept slowly towards the corner of the house, mindful of the shimmer coming from the alley. I studied it carefully, trying to discern if the would-be culprit had noticed me or not by its movement. Right now it seemed that I was still undetected. Once I reached the corner of the building I noticed that the light source moved slightly, as if readjusting, not concerned about my presence. Those were great news, I would be able to make a jump on the burglar, maybe even scare him enough to give up without a fight. If bad came to worse I would most probably use my dragon fire to keep him at a distance and then call for help, dropping the stealth act and flushing the thief out.

I took a deep breath. “This is it Spike” I told myself. “Just keep it together buddy. If all goes well, you’ll probably become the hero of Ponyville. Hay, maybe even Rarity will take notice of your bravery!” After that little pep-talk I gave myself I jumped the corner and with an outstretched claw I pointed at the supposed culprit triumphantly.

“Aha!!!” I exclaimed loudly. Unfortunately, my moment of glory didn’t last long. Before I was even able to take a better look at the thief I was blinded by an extremely bright flash of light. It was so bright that I had to shield my eyes with my own claws. It was painful too, I felt like if somepony decided to trow sand straight into my eyes. What was weird(er) however was the fact that once I closed my eyes, my ears (yes, I know, reptiles doesn’t have ears; well we do, they’re just internal) were filled with the weirdest of sounds. It was something akin to some kind of music, like if an orchestra was playing somewhere in front of me, and playing a extremely beautiful song at that. I also heard some kind of bells toll, though they were distant and almost completely unrecognizable. What was the weirdest thing about the sound however was that I also heard something like a voice. I’m not entirely sure what it was, I know for sure only that it belonged to a stallion, that it was really comforting and peaceful and that it spoke in a language I have never before heard in my life.

I’m not sure how long all that lasted. For me, it felt like an hour has passed since I was blinded, but at the same time it felt like I only just came out of my hiding place around the corner. The bright light began to gradually lessen after a few moments, as well as the sounds filling my ears. After a moment or two more I was able to pry my eyes open and take a look around in hopes of locating this whole somepony who decided it was a good idea to try and brake into somepony’s house.

For a few seconds me eyesight was blurry, everything looking like amorphous blobs of color. I blinked a few times. It helped. Now I was able to see exactly who was standing in front of me.

I wasn’t prepared for what I saw.

There, in the place where there should be the would-be burglar sat none other than Pinkie Pie, a pink (go figure) earth pony with a darker pink, curly mane, blinking her own big blue eyes in obvious confusion, a blue balloon hanging from her mouth, just like if she was about to inflate it. That definitely took me of guard. Why was she here? Come to think of it, what could possibly confuse Pinkie to such an extent? She normally acted like if the laws of physics didn’t concern her at all (I personally believe she just rejected reality and substituted her own), and things that nopony else could explain were nothing new to her. Now however she looked as clueless as I was, even more so.

After a few moments of staring wide-eyed at each other the pink mare took a look around, and then looked back at me.

“Did‘ya do that Spike? ‘Cause if so, than that was one hay of a trippy teleportation spell.” She finally said, and although she tried to sound her useful cheerful self, I was able to pick up on the fact that she was still a tad bit confused by the situation. Nonetheless, I answered her.

“I have no idea what just happened. And no, I didn’t teleport you here… I’m a dragon, remember? Not a unicorn. No magic.”

“Oh, silly Spike, of course you can teleport without being a unicorn.” She answered, this time actually forgetting about the fact that she was confused and being her usual, random self. “You just have to go through this really big ring with a vertical, glowing pond in it. Oh, no, wait. That transport’s between planets. Maybe you have to touch this weird thing on your chest and tell somepony named ‘Scotty’ to ‘beam you up’. Yeah, that sounds more like it…”

“…” I really was at a loss of words by this point. Pinkie Pie was sometimes (well, most of the time) so random that nopony was able to pinpoint what exactly she was talking about. Figuring I wouldn’t get any useful answers from the pink mare I began looking around the alley in hopes of finding any sort of clue as to the whereabouts of the would-be housebreaker. To my misfortune, Pinkie noticed what I was doing.

“What are ya looking for Spike? Can I help?” Well, technically I didn’t want to look for this burglar alone, so why not.

“I’m looking for somepony.”

“Oh, oh, you’re playing hide and seek? Can I play too?” I already regretted my decision. “Who are we looking for? Is it Twilight? Or maybe Rainbow Dash? Fluttershy?”

“Listen Pinkie, I’m not quite sure who I’m looking for myself.” I tried to explain. Unfortunately, Pinkie wasn’t going to let me finish.

“Well that’s a weird way to play hide and seek. I mean how are you going to look for somepony if you don’t know how that somepony looks like? Duh! How did you even get somepony to play hide and seek with you if you don’t know how he looks like? Don’t say that you met a stranger trough a chat box and invited him here. Don’t you know how many absolutely cuckoo ponies do that and then ponynap foals?  Seriously, you shouldn’t…” I had just about enough of her rambling at this point, so I did the only sensible thing I could –I shut her mouth with my claw. She still went on and on even though her mouth was blocked.

“Listen, Pinkie, I’m not playing hide and seek with anypony, alright? I’m looking for somepony who was trying to break in to this house, a burglar, you get it?” I tried to get her to finally stop, and surprisingly, it worked… for all of five seconds, during which she took a step back, gasped loudly and dramatically, and prepared to launch another volley of words:

“Then why didn’t you say so in the first place?!” I resisted the urge to facehoof (faceclaw?) at this. “Really Spike, this is important business you’re talking about, and you just fool around and keep talking about hide and seek. The mean burglar meany pants could be anywhere by now, and you just stand around and chat like nothing’s happened.”

“I was trying to…”

“Don’t you worry your little purple head now, your good old auntie Pinkie Pie is on the case!” She exclaimed, patting me on the head with her hoof, and then produced out of nowhere a Sherlock Hooves kind of cap and a pipe, which she promptly began to puff, producing bubbles. I only looked at her wide eyed, and began thinking that this was probably even worse than letting Trixie know that I figured out her lame plan by asking the others for help.

“Em… Pinkie? Don’t you have something to…”

“Aha!” She exclaimed once more, pointing an accusatory hoof at a spot on the ground. I wisely shut up and looked at it too. There was nothing there.

“What are you pointing at?”

“A clue.” She replied cheerfully. I looked at the spot again. There was nothing there.

“What exactly is the clue?” I asked carefully. Maybe she noticed something that I overlooked.

“Well the ground, duh! It’s a clue! It says that whoever this burglar was, he must have touched the ground. It’s not like he flew all his life.”

“You know that everypony touches the ground at some point in their life, right?”

“Aha.” She nodded.

“And that everypony in Ponyville, a mostly earth pony town touches the ground, right?”

“Yeperoonie!”

“And that by your logic it could be anypony from Ponyville, as well as anypony and non-pony in all of Equestria.”

“Precisely Dr. Spike. Anypony could be the culprit. Anypony!”

“…Maybe I should lead the investigation and you be my assistant?” I suggested as nicely as I could. Not to be rude, but with Pinkie leading the case, we would wind up charging a two-headed wendigo-minotaur with trafficking illegal chocolate-flavored harmonicas or something. I was actually surprised when I found myself with the pipe in my mouth and the cap on my head and a giddy-looking Pinkie Pie staring at me with a wide smile.

“Okie dokie lokie! Now I get to be Dr. Pinkie Pie. Sweet! I always wanted to have a medical degree, just so I could place the ‘Dr.’ title before my name. Wouldn’t it sound great?! I would be all like: Guten Tag, my name ist Dr. Pinkie Pie und ish bin your Arzt.”

By that point I had no doubt that she would lose her medical degree sooner than I could send a letter to Princess Celestia. If she wouldn’t creep her patients out to death, than she would definitely have too much fun with them, and I mean that in the most non-pleasant way imaginable.

“So who are we looking for again?” I was brought back from my thoughts by Pinkie, staring me in the eyes without even blinking, so close that it was obvious that she didn’t have the slightest idea about the concept of personal space. Taking a step back and clearing my throat I answered:

“As I said, I don’t know exactly.” At this I raised my claw, indicating that I wasn’t finished. To my great surprise, Pinkie didn’t try to interrupt me, so I continued. “All I do know is that whoever it is, he or she has white feathers and can produce lots of light. He or she was here, in this alley, but before I was able to apprehend the culprit, he/she blinded me with this bright light, than deafened me with some kind of strange music-like thing and then teleported you here.” At the mention of her being teleported, Pinkie looked a bit confused again, but quickly shook it off and on her face was plastered a thoughtful expression. I didn’t know if I should run for my life or not at seeing this. Finally, after a moment of silence Pinkie decided to say something.

“There’s no white pegasus pony living in Ponyville right now, besides maybe Snowflake, but he's in Cloudsdale visiting his family. I mean I know everypony in town, so that leaves only somepony from out of town.” That… was actually useful information. Pinkie really did know everypony in Ponyville, she greeted each and every single one personally. That only proved that my theory about this being some sort of Trixie’s partner was more likely. The question who it was remained however.

“Do you know any white pegasus from out of Ponyville?” I asked Pinkie. She nodded almost instantaneously.

“Do I ever! Let’s see now: there’s Fleethoof and Starwing, both royal guards from Canterlot…” I actually think I know those two as well. “…Cloudbringer, a Manehattan businesspony the Cakes had dealings with, something about imported flour from Eagleland…” That’s a dead end; why would a businesspony stoop down to petty thievery? ”…Windchaser, she’s from Cloudsdale, Dashie’s direct superior in the weather teams…” Another  dead lead. ”…and Seemore, also from Cloudsdale, tough I don’t exactly know what he’s doing around there. Oh, and there’s also Surprise, tough she rarely drops by. You know, with all her responsibilities she doesn’t have the time to visit that much.”

“Em… Surprise?”

“Yep!”

“As in ‘She, Who Parties’ Surprise?”

“Aha.”

“‘The Grinning Goddess’, ‘Guardian of the Dead’ Surprise?”

“The same.”

“…Isn’t she depicted as a skeletal pony?” In reality I wanted to ask something completely different, but I decided, that I was not going to question Pinkie. I liked my sanity intact thank you very much.

“Oh, that!? Well, she only looks like that when she’s at work, you know: claiming souls of the dead, giving them a fair trial before she sends them to their respective heavens, that sort of boring stuff. If she’s not working like that she looks sort of like a white pegasus version of myself, even her mane is the same, tough it’s almost golden in color. Well, technically that too is her working form, she is after all also the patron of all parties and party-goers, me included. But she wouldn’t go around steeling stuff from ponies, so I think that that wasn’t her that you saw.”

“I sure hope not. I wouldn’t want to be sent to Tartarus just because I thought I’ve seen a goddess stooping down to braking into somepony’s house.” I actually didn’t believe a word I was saying, not buying Pinkies explanation. I mean what were the odds of some sort of divine creature, be it a goddess like Princess Celestia or some sort of smaller deity prancing around Ponyville in broad daylight, without announcing her presence? Close to none, that’s what they were.

Pinkie's rambling wasn’t actually that useless in the end. She did point out a serious flaw in my thinking, something I overlooked earlier. She listed a few pegasi names, that much was obvious, and I did catch a glimpse of the thing, and it definitely had feathery wings. Problem is, if that was just a pegasus, then how was this mysterious culprit able to cast a teleportation spell? Was it an allicorn? I kind of doubted that, there were only two, three known ponies in Equestria that had both wings and a horn, and all three of them lived in the palace back in Canterlot. And again, I couldn’t exactly picture say Princess Celestia going around town all stealthy-like like this.

I absentmindedly puffed on the pipe Pinkie has given me, producing a number of bubbles. One of them almost flown right into my eye, and I was forced to look away. In the end, I think I should be thankful for that, because if not for that bubble I would have missed a really important clue.

“Hey, what’s this?” I asked out loud, looking at the ground. My voice brought Pinkie’s attention back to me, and she followed my eyes, looking at the same thing that I was looking at.

It was a hoofprint. Well, it would be one if it actually looked anything like a print left by a pony. It was large, not extremely so, but larger than the average size of a pony’s hoof. In fact, I think it was around two times larger than any sort of tracks any equine I ever saw could leave, the Princess included. It had an elongated shape, slightly narrowed on one side and wider on the other, and if my eyes weren’t fooling me, the wider side was ended with some sort of claw, a singular one at that if the spiked point was anything to go by. All in all, it was the strangest hoofprint I have ever saw in my life. The thing that left it must have been equally bizarre looking…

“Pinkie.” I said, sudden realization downing on me. The pink mare looked at me, a rare serious expression on her face. “I think that our culprit might not be a pony at all.”

“Agreed.” She nodded enthusiastically, even if her face was still serious-looking. “I never saw tracks like these before.” And she was right again. I almost overlooked it at start, but a little ways away from the first ‘hoofprint’ was a second one, almost identical, only mirrored in respect to the first one. “Hm… I wonder…”

“Yes, what is it Pinkie?”

“Do you think that this thing likes chocolate cakes, or should I prepare a different flavor?”

“Wha…?” I stared. Did she just ask me what I though she asked me?

“Well, if I’m going to prepare a Welcome to Ponyville Party for this somepony that is not a pony at all, than I would at least like to know if it has some sort of preferences. I mean can you imagine if I served chocolate cake with vanilla frosting and this newcomer likes strawberry flavored icing on a nut-flavored cake? That could lead to a serious party disaster!”

“…You want to trow this ‘thing’ a welcome party although it wanted to break in somepony’s house?” I asked carefully. I definitely didn’t know what was going on anymore. Still, Pinkie seemed to be in the best of moods and didn’t seemed bothered by what I just pointed out, even if just moments ago she was volunteering to help me catch this guy.

“Of course I do. I mean I’m already halfway through the preparations for one Welcome to Ponyville Party, so why not make it a Double Welcome to Ponyville Party? It would double the fun! Ooh… I almost forgot, I need to prepare Sugarcube Corner for the party! Can’t chat right now Spike, see ya later!” And with that she disappeared in a pink blur, leaving a trail of confetti in her wake. I just stood there, dumbfounded, unable to comprehend what just happened.

“Pinkie Pie, you are so random.” I muttered to myself and puffed on the pipe again. She must have forgotten all about it and the cap in her hurry. No matter, I’ll just give it back to her on the next occasion. Right now I had bigger problems at hoof (really, I think Equestrian vocabulary should have equivalents for words for non-pony speakers; it gets annoying after some time).

I looked again at the double set of ‘hoofprints’, trying to figure out what they could belong to. There were only two I noticed after a quick inspection, so that must've meant that whatever it was, it walked on two legs, or only possessed two legs in general. Not many creatures that prefer that sort of locomotion in Equestria. I walked like that, but only because I was still small enough to pull that off, in time I would revert to a quadruped gait. There were also minotaurs, they walked on two hooves, but then again, those were not regular hoofprints. I also vaguely remembered Twilight talking about some sort of weird dog-like creatures that could walk both on two and four legs, but I wasn’t quite sure if they would leave tracks like the ones I found.

This was beginning to look more mysterious be the minute. Was Trixie having some sort of deal with a strange, unknown creature? Or was it actually a work of chance, and this thing appeared here just incidentally at the same time as the mare? And what even was this thing? Was it dangerous? Could it use magic? Was Ponyville in serious danger from it? I couldn’t find the answers to any of those questions, but fortunately, I may know somepony who could shed some light on this mystery.

Fluttershy, a pegasus pony I already mentioned some time ago was a one of a kind deal in Ponyville, if not Equestria in general. She was extremely shy, easy to startle and generally avoided large crowds, but she had a talent unmatched by any other pony. She knew almost everything about almost any type of animal to have ever walked the earth, flown in the skies or swam in the seas and rivers. The best animal caretaker in probably the whole known world, she must have had some sort of idea of what could leave those strange tracks. I needed to talk to her, stat.

First things first, I needed to determine where Fluttershy actually was. I remembered seeing her in the crowd of ponies standing in front of Trixie’s cart, not too far from Twilight and the others. Then again, Pinkie was there too for a few moments, and considering what she told me not too long ago, she must've at some point skipped the crowd and went home. And considering that I was going to look for a mare that usually avoided large gatherings, not to mention anything even remotely resembling a public performance it was safe to assume, that she went home by the time Trixie announced her challenge. So, with a destination set in my mind, I began the trek towards the shy mare's cottage.