//------------------------------// // The Town Part 1: The library // Story: The Four Strangers // by The One and only One //------------------------------// The Four Strangers The Town Part 1: The library "Child of my enemy, why have you come? I offer no forgiveness, a father's sins, passed to his son" - Gravemind (Halo 3) The four flood/ponies stood there dumbfounded at the pink mare's words as she continued to ramble on and on about how great the 'party' going to be. "Sorry, but a what?" Tolerance asked, interrupting the pink pony's thoughts The pink pony looked at him for a few moments before say, "You know, a party!" The four unicorns still didn't understand what the pony was talking about, this fact was plastered on all of their holographic faces. Pinkie gasped, "You don't know what a party is?" The unicorns said in unison, "No?" "NO! This is bad if you don't know what a party is it can't make you smile...unless I explain a what a party is!" The Ponyville folk started to break away from the area to continue what they were previously doing except for the mane six and Spike, who snook into the groups in order to help, even thought Twilight told him to stay in the library. Before Pinkie could explain anything a hoof was put into her mouth by Rainbow and Twilight stood up to face the unicorns. "I'm sorry for Pinkie's behavior, she just energetic and likes meeting new ponies." Obligation stepped forward to reply, "It's okay, everypony is different and others shouldn't be bothered by it." "Thank you for being so understanding, oh we haven't introduced ourselves, my name is Twilight Sparkle, personal protege of Princess Celestia and the local librarian and these are my friends, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rarity, also this is Spike, we lives with me and works at the library and don't worry he's only a baby dragon." as Twilight spoke she pointed at each pony and said dragon. "Nice to meet you all, my name is Obligation and these are my brothers." Each one of the unicorns moved forward as they spoke. "Greetings, my name is Tolerance," "My name is Restraint." "And my name is Mercy, it is really nice to meet you all." The ponies started to give them strange looks, at this point the four Juggernauts thought it was already over until PInkie popped up behind Obligation, "Those names are funny, but they kinda suit you four, don't you think so girls?" The girls snapped out of their thoughts and agreed with their party friend, Applejack then got up and said, "Well, It was mighty fine meeting ya'll, but I need to get back home and put Applebloom to bed." Rarity also got up and said she needed to put Sweetie Bell to bed and Rainbow said that she needed to take Scootaloo to her home, saying that she also needed rest. The three ponies took the fillies and went off their separate directions, leaving Twilight, Fluttershy, Twilight, and Spike, but before anything could happen also Fluttershy left saying that she needed to take care of the animals back at her home and Pinkie said she needed to start preparing for the party later that say, leaving Twilight, Spike, and the four unicorn holograms. Their was silence for the longest time until Spike nudged Twilight, telling Twilight that it had been silent for too long and that she should probably show the new ponies around town. "Um, well, I think we should all head to town so I can show you around, if thats fine with you four?" Mercy jumped at the chance to learn new things and joyfully answered yes for himself and his brothers. ===== As the group entered the town, Twilight could see that everything had returned to normal, well as normal as the town could get anyway. The four unicorns behind her were quiet the entire time and that worried her, all they have done since she met them was look around at everything with much detail, Mercy being the most excited of the four. By the time they had gotten into the more active parts of town Spike had started a conversation with Restraint about the things that go on in the town. Twilight finally decided to head to the first place she could think of at the moment, the library. "This is were we will start at, the library, which is also my home so if you need any books I will always be here to help you in finding anything, Spike will also help you with things if I am out." "What kind of books does the library contain?" Tolerance asked. "Well, it contains a large amount of books from all genres, but it mostly has spell books and history books." Tolerance noted that he would need to stop by to get some history books. "Do you want to look inside?" Spike asked, knowing that said unicorn wanted to look inside, but thats when Tolerance realized a problem with his plan, that their cloaked bodies would not fit inside any of the buildings in the town, being as tall as most of the buildings themselves. He just hoped that the holograms could handle be some distance away from its source of power. He decided that it would not be the best of time to do so until he was sure it would work. Everypony noticed that Tolerance was sweating nervously. "Uh, something wrong Tolerance?" "Oh, nothing, its just that its hot out here, um I'll be right back, my brothers and I need some private time to think about something, um be back." And with that Tolerance took hold of his cloaked brothers and ran over to a secluded area. "What is it Tolerance?" Asked an annoyed Obligation. "I don't know if our holograms can enter structures and I don't know how we would navigate them!" "We at least need to try and hope that it does work and we can just look through the windows to navigate." Suggested Restraint as he was in a mood to explore the unknown, even if it may blow their cover. Tolerance knew his brother was right and that if they didn't try, it might them even more suspicious than they are already acting. "And if it doesn't work, what then!" Stated Mercy as nearby ponies looked at them with looks confusion and curiosity. The four ponies noticed this and quickly decided with a vote on what to do and they ended up deciding to take the risk. Afterwards they walked back to the library were Twilight was waiting for them. She wondered what they were talking about but did not bother with it because she didn't want to be rude. Twilight opened the door to the library. Tolerance, being the one that was the most worried, hesitantly entered the tree/library/home, he then stooped to expect the worst to happen, he waited, to him what felt like an entirety, both the hologram and the actual thing. But nothing happened, his real body walked over to the open window and began to control the hologram, telling it to continue inside as his brother's holograms had already done, each on at a window, having them partially open to their hands could be used to simulate levitation. Spike walked in from the basement after getting bored waiting for the ponies to come in. "So...what were you guys talking about that was so private?" Twilight stopped levitating her books and gave Spike a glare and yelled, "Spike! That was very rude of you, you don't ask ponies things that are private. I taught you better then that!" Twilight turned around to face Obligation, "Sorry for that." "It's okay, the conversation was Tolerance being Tolerance...he's very superstitious, isn't that right brother?" Tolerance looked over from facing the books, "Ya, I'm just superstitious, thats all." "Oh, okay, I'll be right back, Spike come in the kitchen with me will you." The dragon sighed, "Yes Twilight." And with that Twilight left the room with Spike following. Two of the unicorns continued to look around the library as Twilight continued to lecture Spike while the other ones were reading book from book on Equestrian history, by the time Twilight was finished with her lecture they had read all of the books from basic Equestrian history to the more complex writes. They were in the middle of putting the books back when Twilight reentered the room to find a whole row of books being put back in place simultaneously, but what seemed odd to her was that there was no aura surrounding the books, once the books were put back into place Twilight walked over to the unicorn brothers. "What was that?" The unicorns turned their holographic heads towards Twilight, with the word 'What?' slapped on it. Twilight saw this and continued, "All those books levitated back into the bookshelves without any aura, I didn't see any aura?" The four unicorns realized the problem with that, but Restraint quickly thought of an idea, “That's something that we've always had; no aura when we use magic. None of use know why, but I personally like it, I think its cool." Her eyes widened as Restraint explained, “But you can't not have an aura! It's always been a part of magic!” “I don't think that we don't have one per se, I think it's just completely translucent. The aura is a physical manifestation around the object getting manipulated, it's what actually moves the object, or teleports it, shrinks it, enlarges, whatever you're doing to it. It has to be there, but who says it has to be visible? Twilight looked on in interest as Restraint explained how he thought of the aura, or lack thereof aura that his brothers and himself had, for a lie, he put in a lot of effort into it. After that they all left the library as Twilight, feeling less tense around the four brothers, as they headed off to Sweet Apple Acres.