//------------------------------// // Don't Be Such a Square // Story: Shadow of Twilight // by GreenS21 //------------------------------// The red unicorn known as Dante walked into the Canterlot square, his eyes scanning every pony he could see. Eventually, he saw who he was looking for: the lavender unicorn known as Twilight Sparkle and her group. They were near the far corner of the square, past the tree in the center, talking to a white unicorn stallion with a turquoise mane and a unicorn mare with a white coat and pink mane who was perching herself upon the former. Even a pony like Dante knew that the unicorn stallion’s name was Fancypants. Despite not wanting to butt in on a conversation involving a pony of Fancypants’ standing, he had an errand to complete and somewhere else to go, so he resolved to spend as little time as necessary completing it. He trotted in the direction of the group, calling, “Excuse me!” Twilight’s parents were the first ones to turn and look, followed by their daughter and her friends. Even Fancypants and Fleur de Lis looked over as the red unicorn came closer. “Excuse me for interrupting. I just need a minute of your time,” he explained. Twilight’s father looked at the red unicorn for a moment before he remembered him and asked, “You’re that waiter, Dante, right? What’s the matter? Didn’t I leave enough bits for the breakfast earlier?” Dante shook his head, “Oh no, you definitely left enough, sir. No problems there.” He turned his head to look at the left pocket of his black vest, his horn glowing yellow as he pulled something out of it. It was a small red stone that seemed to glow under Celestia’s sun, the kind of stone Rarity would use to help fill in the gaps on her more fancy ensembles. “Here, one of you forgot this. It belongs to one of you, right?” At the sight of the stone, Spike licked his lips and Rarity cooed, “Ooh, what a gorgeous gemstone!” Dante said, “You think so? Well, I suppose it does look kind of like a jewel… It gives me a funny feeling to look at it, though.” Twilight’s father spoke, “Well, uh, it’s not mine.” He looked over at his wife and asked, “Is it yours, honey?” She shook her head, “No, I’ve never seen it before.” She looked at Twilight and asked, “How about you, dear?” Twilight replied, “Uh, no.” Without being asked, Applejack said, “Nope!” Rainbow Dash added, “Don’t look at me.” Pinkie Pie chimed, “Nuh-uh!” Fluttershy squeaked, “Oh, um, no.” Rarity sighed, “Such exquisite beauty…” She snapped back to reality when she realized everypony was looking at her, waiting for her answer. “Oh! I’m sorry, but as beautiful as it is, it doesn’t belong to me either.” Dante looked confused, saying, “That’s odd. I already checked with all the other customers that came in today… Hm… Whose is it then?” Spike spoke, “Ooh, I know! It’s such a delicious-looking gem, so you can just-” He was unable to finish his sentence due to Twilight using her magic to make a zipper appear on his mouth and zipping it up, the unicorn knowing what the baby dragon was going to say. Spike mumbled in annoyance before unzipping his mouth and crossing his arms, his chances of getting a free gem squashed. Twilight’s mother asked, “Anyway, you came looking for us just to return that?” Dante replied, “Yes, ma’am. My shift’s over anyway and I have a little free time. I thought maybe I’d look around, see if I could give it back.” Fancypants commented, “I say, you really are a hard worker, old boy. Coming all this way to return a missing object, even if the pony you’re looking for isn’t the proper owner… quite commendable!” Dante replied, “Uh, thank you, Fancypants, sir. That’s very kind of you.” As he returned the stone to his pocket, he muttered, “At least somepony notices that I’m working hard.” After returning the stone to his pocket, he felt something else in there and said, “Oh right, I almost forgot. What about this?” He levitated an old lighter out of his pocket, asking, “Did I strike out on this one too?” Twilight’s father smiled, “No, that lighter’s mine. It’s an old memento from my colt days. Thank you.” Dante sighed in relief and levitated the lighter over to Twilight’s father, who took it with his own magic. He then said, “You’re welcome, sir. I’m sorry for interrupting.” Fancypants replied, “Oh, it’s no trouble at all, dear boy. In fact, it’s refreshing to see somepony like yourself work hard. Tell me where you work; I’ll be sure to let your employer know that Dante is a very dedicated pony.” Dante stuttered, “Oh, t-that’s very kind of you, Fancypants, sir, but that’s not necessary.” He looked down as he said, “I don’t mind you praising me for working hard, but it’s not going to change anything.” Before Fancypants could protest, Dante turned and started walking away, his steps more subdued now. Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, “Geez, he could’ve at least said goodbye.” Applejack cast a concerned eye on the red unicorn, “Ah wonder what’s eatin’ him?” Twilight nodded, “Yeah…” After a moment’s hesitation, she started after the red unicorn, calling, “Dante, wait!” Fluttershy asked, “Should we go with her?” Fancypants said, “I don’t think that will be necessary, my dear. If Ms. Sparkle feels she can talk to him, we should let her. Perhaps she can help him, and maybe they’ll discover something together.” Pinkie Pie piped up, “Ooh! …Discover what?” Rainbow Dash caught on and nudged Applejack, laughing, “An egghead like Twilight and him? Somehow I doubt that.” Applejack didn’t laugh, but she did smile at what Rainbow Dash was saying. Fancypants said, “Er, yes. Now, where were we?” Rarity immediately turned back to him and said, “Oh yes! I was just saying…” On the other side of the tree in the center of the square, out of the view of her friends, Twilight caught up to Dante, saying, “Dante, wait a minute!” The red unicorn came to a stop and looked back at her, asking, “What? What is it?” Twilight asked, “Is something wrong? Are you upset because you couldn’t return that stone? If you’d like, I can take it and ask around for you.” Dante closed his eyes and sighed, then open them and looked at Twilight, saying, “It’s not that. It’s just… I always get stuck running these kinds of errands. I don’t mind the work, but there’s always so much of it, and not just at the café either.” Twilight asked, “What do you mean?” Dante explained, “I only work part-time at that café; all the full-time positions have been filled up for months. And I have to pay for my house and all the essentials in it and all the groceries and stuff… So to compensate for not having a full-time job, I have other part-time jobs at some other places around Canterlot. In fact, I have another job in an hour that I have to go home and get changed for. And all those jobs pile a lot of work on me too, and nopony ever notices what I do. It’s not easy… But it at least gets me three squares a day and a roof over my head.” Twilight looked at him, surprised. “You have to do all that work just to take care of your… necessities?” she asked. At Dante’s nod, she said, “That sounds really tough. Have you ever considered moving to a place like Ponyville?” Dante sighed, “I have. More than once. But then I’d have to move out of my house and find a place to live wherever I went. And what if I couldn’t find any work?” He looked back at his flank as he said, “I’ve been a blank flank all my life. I have no idea what my special talent is. I assume it has something to do with working hard, but that doesn’t help much!” Twilight said, “You know, I used to live here in Canterlot until Princess Celestia sent me to Ponyville and I decided to stay there.” Dante looked back at her, surprised, and asked, “You know Princess Celestia?” Twilight smiled sheepishly, “Well, I don’t like to brag, but I am her personal student. Oh, I never told you my name, did I?” When Dante shook his head, she said, “I’m Twilight Sparkle. Anyway, she made arrangements so I could stay in the Ponyville Library. And I do have a guest bed that’s only been used once or twice. If you did decide to move to Ponyville, I could let you stay there until you got settled in. I-if you wanted to, that is.” Dante smiled, “That’s very kind of you, Twilight. You know, I was just thinking… That red stone I showed you? I think it would look good if it were made into a necklace. How about it? Would you want a necklace that displayed a red stone like that?” Twilight stuttered, “W-well, I suppose. Why?” Dante explained, “Well, I may not look it, but I’m pretty good with my hooves. I could make you a necklace no problem.” Twilight asked, “Really?” Dante answered, “Sure. How does tomorrow sound? I can make it for you tomorrow.” Twilight replied, “Uh, I guess so. Yeah, that would be great! Should I meet you at the café?” Dante nodded, “Yeah. I’m going to have a longer shift there tomorrow, but that’s okay.” Twilight said, “Okay. Then I’ll make sure to stop by tomorrow.” The two unicorns continued talking, both of them unaware that Twilight’s killer had decided to take advantage of this opportunity. Up in the branches of the tree in the center of the square, a pony wearing a black cloak spied on them, his focus on Twilight. While remaining perfectly still, the pony levitated a small blowpipe up to his mouth, a small dart sliding inside the tube. After confirming that Twilight wasn’t going to make a move, he put his lips around the pipe and blew into it. Fancypants, Fleur de Lis, and Twilight’s friends and family all reared back in shock when they heard a sudden shout from the other side of the tree. Fluttershy was the first to react, turning and flying around to the other side of the tree while the other ponies were still processing what just happened. She raised her front hooves to her mouth at what she saw: Twilight was falling forward onto the ground, a dart noticeably buried in the back of her head. Dante, who had shouted, rushed to grab her and caught her in his forelegs, using his magic to pull the dart out of her head as he turned her over and lowered her to the ground. Twilight gave a few twitches, but then her body went still. “Oh my goodness… TWILIGHT!” Fluttershy screamed in a way that anypony who knew her would say was uncharacteristic of her. She flew towards the two unicorns as everypony else came running over, all of them shocked and worried upon hearing the yellow pegasus’ scream. ________________________________________ Twilight awoke to the feeling of wooden floorboards under her back. Opening her eyes, she found herself back in the strange location. She jerked her head back and then forward, pushing herself up into a sitting position. As she rubbed the back of her head, she heard the voice say, “It looks like there’s somepony hiding in that tree… And that pony is out to get you. Now, how do you suppose you can prevent that?” Twilight realized she was going to have to think about that. Short of causing a spectacle in the square, how could she deal with a pony that was attacking her from a distance? ________________________________________ Twilight turned her gaze back to the road, following Applejack along the road back to the Canterlot square. It wasn’t long before they reached the square, where they saw everypony else waiting for them. They also saw Twilight’s father examining the ground carefully while Spike and the other mares watched him. Twilight and Applejack exchanged a look before trotting over to see what was up. They walked up to Twilight’s mother and Twilight asked, “Mom, what’s going on? What’s dad doing?” Her mother looked back at her and said, “Oh, it’s really nothing to worry about, Twilight. It seems your father lost his old lighter earlier today. He thought maybe he dropped it here in the square.” Applejack asked, “A lighter? Ya mean like a lighter fer them smokin’ sticks?” Twilight’s mother nodded. Twilight said, “I didn’t know dad smoked.” Her mother replied, “He doesn’t. As far as I know, he never was a smoker. I think it was something he either bought or was given when he was younger. I think he likes to carry it around as a reminder of those days.” Twilight hummed, thinking. Twilight’s father soon stood up tall and turned to look at everypony, saying, “It’s not here. I don’t know where I dropped it. Maybe at the café, maybe on the streets… Well, it’s not such a big deal anyway. I hardly ever used it anyway; I’m sure I can get by without it.” Twilight’s mother spoke, “Well, in that case, unless anypony else has anything they need to take care of…” Suddenly, Rarity noticed a familiar unicorn stallion on the other side of the square with an equally familiar unicorn mare clinging to him. “Ooh!” she exclaimed, trotting in their direction. As she got closer, she called, “Fancypants!” The sophisticated unicorn turned at the sound of his name and smiled upon seeing the pony who had called him. “Ah, Rarity! Jolly good to see you again!” he said. He then noticed the other ponies coming over and added, “And I see your friends from Ponyville have come as well.” As the pony gang talked with Fancypants, they were eventually approached by Dante, the red unicorn running an errand. Twilight didn’t say anything, but what followed happened just as she remembered it. Dante asked about the stone and the lighter, her father took the lighter back, and she shared a nice, close conversation with the stallion. The one thing that was different was, before they could get wrapped up in their conversation, she noticed a glow coming from her saddlebag and immediately recognized it as the Z-pad responding to some relevant phenomena. Twilight looked around with her eyes without turning her head. It seemed that there were relatively few ponies in the square at the moment and her friends currently couldn’t see her. The only one that would notice her sudden disappearance, aside from the killer, would be Dante. Speaking of the red unicorn, he noticed the way her eyes were moving and asked, “What’s the matter? Are you going somewhere?” Twilight looked back at him, realizing that he’d been watching her, and said, “Uh, not exactly.” She then chanced a look back at the tree behind her and thought, “Is there really somepony after me? Hiding in that tree?” Deciding she didn’t want to risk provoking an attack out of the killer, her horn lit up, trying to tell the Z-pad to take her to whatever time period it was responding to. It responded and she briefly saw the date flash through her head. “What connection is there to me in that time…?” she thought to herself as she was lifted off the ground. When she looked over at Dante, she realized with horror that he was being lifted up too! But there was nothing she could do; the white light enveloped them both, both of them vanishing without a trace. ________________________________________ “Well, you have a nerve, my boy,” said a unicorn mare who looked like the exact twin of the unicorn that told Twilight she didn’t have anything to do. She was directing her words at a young unicorn stallion who looked to be four years younger than Twilight. He had light red eyes, a light brown coat, a dark brown mane and tail, both of which were short and well-groomed, no cutie mark, and he wore a fancy-looking blue vest. They were standing in the Canterlot square under the cover of night, the moon having been raised into the sky not too long ago. “Really! What with that mare being punished yesterday too. What is it that you foals don’t understand? What’s so difficult about being more quiet-like?” asked a mare that looked like the mother Twilight had talked to in the past. She even had a daughter that looked like the daughter in Twilight’s time. The burgundy unicorn gestured to a cage behind her and said, “Dressing above one’s station is an offense, you know. Do you want to be punished like that mare?” The unicorn stallion asked, “What’s the problem with wearing what one likes? And this vest is one of my nicer, quieter ones. Really, good ladies, you’d like it if your stallions wore something this nice, wouldn’t you?” He then turned slightly profile, showing off his vest with a small smile. The burgundy unicorn had taken a step back at the stallion’s words, but then regained her composure and said, “Well, I never! A little neighborly advice and he sasses me! All right, we’ll have the law down here!” The dark green unicorn’s daughter said, “That’s right, you tell him!” The unicorn stallion looked back in surprise and asked, “Hey, that’s not very pleasant, is it? Listen, can’t we just let this go?” The burgundy unicorn walked towards the stallion as she answered, “Well then, in exchange for us not telling the law, you’ll make us ensembles for free.” The dark green unicorn said, “Right that is! You know how to thread the needle, it seems.” The gray foal added, “That’s right, you tell him. You’ll make me one too.” The unicorn stallion stepped away from the three, his backside facing them, and said, “I… I don’t see how I could do something like that…” The burgundy unicorn replied, “We’re doing this just to be obliging now.” She would’ve said more, but a lavender unicorn suddenly appeared out of thin air, landing on her back between the mares and the stallion! The three mares let out squeaks of fear as Twilight looked up at them, the burgundy unicorn exclaiming, “W-what are…! Where d-did…!” The light brown unicorn turned around and, upon seeing Twilight on the ground, asked, “Who are you?” Twilight tilted her head upwards at that question, looking at the stallion behind her. She felt an unusual sensation inside of her as she took in his appearance. The voice of a young male stallion came from the edge of the square seconds later, asking, “Lucian, what’s going here? Shouldn’t you be at home by now?” The burgundy unicorn noticed a gray pegasus pony with a slightly wild red mane and tail flying towards them. Under normal circumstances, she wouldn’t be happy to see this particular pony, but this was anything but normal, so she said, “You! Fetch one of the royal guards! This mare just suddenly…” She then looked back at Twilight as she stood up, standing next to the light brown unicorn now identified as Lucian, and an idea took root in her head. She spoke, “I see now! It was you! Your little friend here called for help. Sneaky little foal!” The dark green unicorn said, “Why, the little…! He must be arrested at once!” Lucian asked, “What?! What the buck are you talking about?!” He looked over at the gray pegasus as he came to a landing next to the gathering and said, “Red Shield, they don’t know what they’re talking about!” Twilight turned to look at the pegasus as well. Now that he was closer, she could see his cutie mark. As one might expect from his name, his flank displayed a shield. The pegasus looked back at her and asked, “Who are you? I’ve never seen you before.” Twilight was about to say something, but the burgundy unicorn beat her to the punch, “She just suddenly appeared out of nowhere! Clearly, your little friend didn’t like being outnumbered, so he decided to call for help!” Lucian said, “I did no such thing! I’ve never seen this mare before!” The dark green unicorn asked, “Is that right? Then why did she suddenly appear while your back was turned? You must’ve done something!” Red Shield spoke up, “Are you actually accusing him of doing something or are you just trying to raise a ruckus like you three nags are known to do? Because it seems like you’re trying to do the latter!” The burgundy unicorn said, “Watch your tone, pegasus! Or I’ll put an end to those dreams you cling so tightly to!” The arguing continued to go back and forth, quickly degrading into one big incoherent mass of noise. Twilight tried to remain calm as she kept looking back and forth between the two opposing sides, but eventually she couldn’t take it anymore. Rearing up onto her hind legs, her eyes and horn lit up a bright magenta as she screamed, “QUIET!” While not nearly as deafening as Luna’s Royal Canterlot Voice, it was certainly louder than she normally screamed. And it certainly did the trick too. The talking immediately came to a stop, Lucian and Red Shield looking at her in shock while the three female unicorns backed away at the sight of her glowing horn and eyes. The burgundy unicorn demanded, fearfully, “W-what do you think you’re doing?!” Twilight glared at them, “Listen carefully! Stop bothering this stallion and go home! Do as I say and no harm will come to you – this time.” She then turned to look at Red Shield and Lucian as she continued, “And you will all keep what happened here a secret. Understand?” Red Shield recovered enough to speak and nodded, “Y-yes.” He looked over at the other unicorns and said, “Well, you heard the lady. Give your word!” The burgundy unicorn nodded, “I p-promise. Forgive us, please.” The unicorn foal begged, “Please.” Red Shield looked back at Twilight and asked, “Uh, will that be all, miss? If it is, you could perhaps stop that now.” He then looked over at the three unicorns and said, “And all of you, go home already. Go on, get!” The three unicorns quickly ran out of the square at that. Twilight stopped channeling her magic into her horn after they disappeared from her sight, her eyes returning to normal. Silence ruled the square until Lucian spoke up, “Hey, uh, thank you, miss. You really helped me out. But who are you…?” Twilight turned to him and said, “Uh, I’m nopony you need to be afraid of. Sorry about that display just now. I guess I kind of lost it there.” Red Shield shook his head, “Ah, don’t worry about it. Those three like to start things whenever they get the chance, especially for my friend here.” Twilight replied, “I see.” She then remembered Dante and asked, “Oh shoot! Hey, did either of you see another unicorn stallion? He’s about your age…?” She gestured to Lucian as she said the last sentence. Both Lucian and Red Shield looked at each other before turning back to her and shaking their heads. Twilight looked down and murmured, “Oh… that’s not good.” Lucian spoke, causing Twilight to look up at him, “Listen, why don’t you stop by my house? It’s not far from here. Princess Celestia has just raised the moon, so we can’t stay out here. We can continue this inside.” As Lucian and Red Shield walked past her, Twilight asked, “Princess Celestia? But she…” She stopped herself, remembering that she was about 400 years in the past. Therefore, Princess Luna was still imprisoned in the moon. Casting her gaze up at the moon, she could swear she could see the image of the younger princess on its face like she did at the beginning of the Summer Sun Celebration when she first came to Ponyville. She was snapped out of her thoughts when Red Shield called, “Hey! Come on, it’s this way!” She turned around and saw the pegasus and Lucian waiting for her, so she quickly trotted over. When she reached them, Lucian spoke, “I don’t think we ever properly introduced ourselves. I’m Lucian.” The pegasus next to him nodded, “And I’m Red Shield.” Twilight smiled at them, “Well, I’m Twilight Sparkle.” Lucian nodded, “It’s very nice to meet you, Twilight Sparkle. Shall we?” Twilight nodded and followed the two ponies as they started walking, all the while noting to herself the similarities between her Canterlot and the Canterlot of the past.