//------------------------------// // Meant to Be // Story: Shadow of Twilight // by GreenS21 //------------------------------// Twilight and her friends and family walked out of an auction house, stepping out onto Canterlot’s streets as the mare who owned the house called, “Thank you for joining us today, Ms. Rarity! Come back soon!” Rarity called back, “I’ll certainly try to, miss!” It had been a short while since they left the art museum, Twilight’s friends having enjoyed the trip and Twilight feeling better after talking to Eckart with Princess Celestia. Speaking of the princess, she left along with Princess Luna when everypony had looked around enough, needing to get back to the castle before their guards came looking for them. Before they left, Luna suggested that they should try to get together for dinner later, which everypony agreed to. Both princesses then took to the skies, flying back to the castle. As visiting the art museum was the main thing they had wanted to get today, they were left with a couple of hours until it would be time to start thinking about dinner. So Rarity suggested they go to an auction to kill time. Although not everypony was particularly excited about this idea, nopony had a better idea, so they all agreed to it, walking around the city until they found a house where an auction was being held. “Well, that was pretty pointless. Even without all that bidding, they didn’t really have anything that would be worth the prices they were asking for,” Rainbow Dash complained as she flapped her wings. “True, but it was nice to see what they had, right? Some of the stuff they were auctioning is pretty hard to find,” Twilight shrugged. “That’s one of the beauties of coming to this sort of thing, darling. There’s something quite uplifting about being a part of the crowd of ponies in an auction and seeing what’s being sold,” Rarity replied. “Iffin’ ya say so, Sugarcube,” Applejack said. They all began to walk down the street, heading away from the auction house. As they walked, Fluttershy looked up at the sky and noticed the gray clouds in the sky. “Oh my, it looks like it might start raining soon,” she pointed out to everypony. Spike, who was walking next to Twilight, asked, “Guess we should’ve picked up the weather report for today, huh?” Pinkie Pie giggled, “Aw, come on, Spikey! There’s nothing wrong with rain, especially not chocolate milk rain! I LOVED that! It’s too bad Discord was such a mean meanie pants because I would love having chocolate milk rain every now and then!” Everypony looked at her for a moment before Rainbow Dash said, “Yeah, uh, I think we all kind of knew that already, Pinkie Pie. We should probably get going before it starts raining and we get soaked. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I don’t particularly want to get wet right now.” Applejack mumbled, “This comin’ from the pony who ain’t got a problem dropping rain on anypony else, whether they want it or not.” Twilight’s father spoke, “Okay girls, just follow us. You can all stay at our house until the rain lets up.” Rainbow said, “Eh, I don’t think we’ll need the shelter. Those clouds don’t look like they’re going to open up anytime soon. I’m sure we can get back to our suites before it even thinks about…” As if on cue, a raindrop suddenly fell on the end of her muzzle. Then another landed on Applejack’s hat. Seconds later, a downpour had started. Everypony looked at Rainbow Dash with different expressions on their faces, who sheepishly said, “You know, your offer sounds pretty good right about now, Mr. Twilight.” Twilight’s father shook his head at the name Dash had come to address him by and said, “Come on. We’re not too far.” With that, he turned and started running, his wife, Twilight, Spike, and the other ponies running after him (or in Rainbow’s case, flying after him). As they continued running through the streets of Canterlot, Twilight started to get closer to the back of the group. Rarity was obviously running faster than normal to keep her mane from getting ruined, Pinkie Pie kept pace with the others just by hopping, both Fluttershy and Spike wanted to get out of the rain before it got worse, and Rainbow Dash and Applejack were just naturally suited to moving fast. She guessed she just didn’t have as good a reason for getting out of the rain as the others. Unfortunately, that was not the case. If she had looked behind her, she might have noticed a pair of eyes watching her. She might have noticed a green glow that was steadily moving towards her while floating through the air. And she certainly would have noticed what was underneath the glow if she had been looking, especially when it came shooting at her, aiming for her back… As she ran, Applejack glanced back to check on everypony and noticed they were short one pony. She skidded to a stop and turned around, doubling back and calling, “We lost track of Twilight! Ah’m gonna go find ‘er!” She then ran back up the street, following the path they had taken while looking for the lavender unicorn. She soon found the mare and her eyes went wide at what she saw. Twilight was lying on her front on the street, not moving. In the center of her back was a knife, its blade firmly embedded in her skin. Applejack could already see red tears beginning to leak around the blade, staining Twilight’s saddlebags as they flowed freely. “TWILIGHT!” Applejack screamed, running towards her friend and praying to Celestia that this wasn’t actually happening. ________________________________________ Twilight sat with her back up against the head of the pony statue, looking down at the wooden floorboards with a downcast expression. Homunculus was watching her, looking down at her from up on top of the door frame. “Are you all right?” he queried. Twilight sighed, “Not really. I got stabbed in the back once already. I can’t believe it happened again, even though I was with my friends and family…” Homunculus said, “You know, being around other ponies isn’t the only way to avoid being stabbed to death.” Twilight tore her gaze from the floor, looking around for a moment before looking up at the black pony sitting on top of the door frame and asking, “There are other ways?” Homunculus nodded, “Sure. What about putting something like an iron plate under your saddlebags? And if you make good use of that, perhaps… Please, don’t get discouraged so easily. Remember, I’m counting on you.” ________________________________________ “Ah! Do you hear that? It sounds like an auction is going on in there right now! I knew we would find one!” Rarity exclaimed, gesturing to a house. “I must say, Rarity, you really do know your way around here in Canterlot,” Twilight’s mother commented. “Are you sure it’s safe in there, Rarity?” Fluttershy asked. Rarity replied, “I’m positive, Fluttershy. And don’t worry; auctions can actually be quite exciting. I only wish I had time to go back to my suite and put on something a little more appropriate.” Applejack sighed, “Look Rarity, y'all suggested this as a way to kill time, and that’s what we’re here ta do. Ah’m sure they won’t mind if ya don’t look yer fanciest. Ah doubt anything’s gonna show up that any o’ us will want, but even if somethin’ does, I’m sure nopony’s gonna mind.” Dash said, “Yeah, Applejack’s right. Let’s just go in and see what all the fuss is about.” She then turned to look at Pinkie Pie and added, “Hopefully without causing an ACTUAL fuss.” The pink pony merely smiled back at the cyan pegasus, seemingly oblivious to what she was implying. With that, they walked up to the doors of the house and Rarity knocked. They were greeted by a butler, who, upon recognizing Rarity, allowed them to enter. Inside the house, they stayed near the back at Rarity’s insistence, as the white unicorn didn’t want to make her presence known just yet. As they all settled in, the auctioneer introduced the next item for sale: a small sculpture depicting a unicorn mare displaying a powerful burst of magic (Twilight could swear that the sculpture looked a bit like her). The ponies in the audience talked amongst themselves for a bit before they all started to place their bids, the group watching as the offers began to pile up. As the auction continued, everypony but Rarity began to lose interest in watching the upper class ponies bid for items. Even Fluttershy (who was letting Spike lean against her leg while he took a nap) and Pinkie Pie looked a little bored. They might have joined in, of course, but nothing was really grabbing anypony’s attention. Eventually, Twilight glanced back at her left saddlebag, remembering the book Eckart had lent her. “Maybe nopony will mind if I give it a quick little peek,” she thought to herself, levitating it out and bringing it up to her face. As she flipped it open, something fell out between the pages, Twilight noticing it as it landed on the floor. She used her magic to pick it up and examined it, finding it to be a black-and-white photo. “The pony in this picture looks like Mr. Brum. And those two must be his children,” she thought to herself. She then slid it back between the pages of the book, closing it and putting the book back in her saddlebag. Almost as soon as she slid the book back inside her bag, she noticed a now-familiar glow coming from her other saddlebag: the Z-pad. She glanced around and noticed that most of her friends were currently paying only minimal attention to the auction and probably wouldn’t notice if she disappeared for a little while. She leaned over to Rarity and whispered, “It’s a little stuffy in here. I’m going to step outside for a bit, okay?” Rarity replied, without taking her eyes off the auction, “Sure, sure. If they don’t let you back in, just wait there. We’ll come find you when the auction is over.” Twilight nodded and then whispered the same thing to her parents, both of them telling her not to go too far if she couldn’t get back in. As she stepped into the adjacent room, Twilight absently wondered if time traveling would count as ‘going too far’. She then glanced around, noticing that the room was empty. The butler was probably near the front door, just in case anypony else came knocking. “I can probably get away with performing a time travel in here,” she thought, taking one last look around just to be sure. Seeing nopony else around, she summoned the Z-pad from her bag and examined it, finding that she could now visit a time she had not been to before. “This is about a hundred years ago… What will I find here?” she wondered with a slight excitement as she pressed her horn up against the Z-pad, lifting off the ground a moment later and disappearing after a green time travel bubble surrounded her. ________________________________________ Twilight’s bubble faded and her hooves touched solid ground, her knees bending for a moment before she stood up straight again. She looked around; she was standing outside of the auction house, but she could clearly tell she had arrived at her destination: there was snow on the ground, although there were no Hearth’s Warming decorations up anywhere she looked. In her time, Ponyville’s Winter Wrap Up had already come and gone. “I only looked at the year I was traveling out to. I guess I landed in the middle of winter in this time,” she murmured to herself. She then shivered and added, “Make that a cold winter.” Holding back a sneeze, she thought, “I guess I’ll look around and see what’s different before I decide what to do next.” She then started walking through the city, noting that the walk would help warm her up a little. As she walked around the city, she noticed that Canterlot was still developing into the Canterlot it would eventually be in her time. It was definitely bigger than that of Lucian’s time, but it still had a ways to go. She saw a lot of tents pitched while she walked, something she didn’t see a lot of in her time. She also noticed, at one point, a sign dangling from a pole in front of a photo shop. “That sign looks pretty thick. Maybe the owner of that shop should opt for something a little less thick if they decide to replace it,” she thought as she passed by. Her wanderings eventually brought her to the former squire’s manor house, which she figured was an art museum now. Standing on the path leading up to it was a light blue unicorn stallion with a black-gray mane and tail. She couldn’t see his cutie mark because he was wearing a suit top, but she was sure she knew who he was. She couldn’t see his face, due to his back being turned to her, but she guessed that he was the pony she had seen in the picture. She trotted up to his side and, when he didn’t notice her, gave a small cough. That seemed to snap the stallion back to reality, for he turned his head to look at her and spoke, “O-oh… Yes?” At this point, she could see he had a mustache much like the one she had grown on Spike’s face when she had been testing her magic. Twilight said, “Hi. Do you work at this museum?” The stallion turned to face her and asked, “Museum?” Twilight blinked, “What? This building is…?” The stallion turned to look up at the building, saying, “This? This is my home. We’ve been here for generations, as the descendents of the Princess’ former squire, but now…” His voice then took on a mournful tone as he continued, “First it was my parents, now my wife, all in such short time. That leaves just myself and the two children in this castle of a house. You’re right; it’s too large for just the three of us. Perhaps it ought to be a museum, just as you say.” Twilight lowered her head and murmured, “I’m sorry…” The stallion turned to look at her again and said, “No, no, I didn’t mean that as sarcasm. Don’t be offended.” Twilight raised her head to look up at him as he went on, “Actually, I’m grateful for the advice.” He then turned his head to look at the building again and continued, “To tell you the truth, I’d been thinking that I should just get rid of this house – too many memories of my wife to bring me sorrow.” He looked back at Twilight and then up at the sky before saying, “But a museum… that’s something I hadn’t thought of.” He then looked down and added, “Maybe a good thing, a museum. Perhaps this is meant to be.” Twilight asked, “You really think so?” The stallion looked back at her and said, “It’s certainly a good idea. There are enough pictures in that collection of my forbearers. It seems he had an artist he favored.” Twilight tilted her head to the side, “An artist? You mean Horn Kraft?” The stallion looked at her in surprise, “Yes, how did you know that?” He then looked at her funny and asked, “Are you checking into this house? I don’t remember telling anypony that it was for sale yet.” Twilight took a step back and said, “No, no, that’s not... Please don’t misunderstand. It’s just that I happen to like Horn Kraft’s paintings, and it’s not like – you know…” The stallion seemed to relax at her words. He then said, “Well, all right then. I’ve made up my mind. I’ll…” He turned to look back up at the building and said, “I’ll turn a part of this building into a private museum, put up that old anti-magic ward, and open the collection of paintings to the public. That way, I can take care of the children while I work…” He then glanced over at Twilight and added, “Besides, I know there’s at least one admirer of Horn Kraft’s work. All right, that’s what I’ll do! I owe you many thanks.” He then took a step closer to Twilight and said, “By the way, allow me to introduce myself, if somewhat belatedly. My name is Alfred.” Twilight smiled, “Nice to meet you. I’m Twilight.” Alfred nodded, “I’m grateful to you, Twilight. Princess Celestia will surely be pleased to hear about this.” Twilight gave a nervous chuckle at that, remembering what her mentor had mentioned about the museum. Alfred gestured to the building, saying, “Come inside, we’ll have tea or something.” Twilight nodded, “Okay.” She then followed him up the slope and into his house. When they stepped inside, Alfred pointed to a door on the right wall and said, “You can wait in there. I need to fetch my daughter, Sibylla.” Twilight nodded and walked over to the door, opening it and stepping inside the room. Alfred then walked over to the door on the opposite wall, pulling it open and stepping inside. Almost immediately after he stepped through the door, his daughter, a young unicorn filly with a red-black coat and brown mane and tail, held up a hoof and whispered, “Shh!” Alfred looked next to her and noticed that her baby brother was asleep, his chest moving up and down softly. “Oh, sorry!” he whispered. Sibylla spoke softly, “He’s just gone to sleep, finally.” Alfred replied, in an equally soft tone of voice, “All right, then. Come out by yourself, Sibylla. Will you please make tea for our guest?” Sibylla rolled her eyes and stood up, murmuring, “…If I must.” She then followed her father out of the room and then headed for the kitchen to start boiling the water for the tea.