Twilight awoke at around 7:00. She yawned, stretching her limbs like the petals of a flower in the sun. Running a quick comb through her hair, she headed downstairs to fix herself and Spike some breakfast (She didn’t know if Shift could eat anything)…
…To find the library in complete disarray. Books lay in massive towers like she was in the middle of downtown Manehatten. At her reading desk sat a familiar extra-equestrian, leafing through a gargantuan novel. As she approached him, a casual thought entered her mind,’ Good Morning Twilight. Sorry if I woke you, but It seems my sleep requirements are much lower than yours, seeing as how I only slept 3 hours. So I decided to do something productive of my time and read up on this worlds history. ‘
She smiled. They had another thing in common now; love of knowledge. ‘…And you’re reading Tom Prancey?’
He shrugged,’ I finished all the non-fiction a while ago, and the book is really good! It’s about these three fictitious countries; Amareica, the United Stalliongrad Socialist Republic, and the Pony’s Republic of China…’
‘Yeah,’ she interrupted him, ‘It is a good book, isn’t it?’ She looked at the shelves of her library, all of them almost empty. ‘Did you read all…?’
‘Oh, Oh!’ Shift suddenly shouted through the mental link, jumping out of his chair like a coiled spring. ‘I found out something I can do!’
‘What?’ She asked, curiosity getting the best of her caution.
‘Watch this! ‘Twilight’s jaw dropped as Shift’s silvery coat, starting at his white-ish tail, began to ripple, the color changing to black, purple, and even pink as it worked its way up his body. The process took a couple seconds, but in the end, Twilight stared back at a perfect, grinning copy of herself.
“Well?” Shift asked (in her voice no less, which was both amazing and creepy at the same time). “Cool, huh? I found out how to do it after I…”
They both jumped when they heard a noise on the stairs. Turning their heads, they saw Spike at the bottom of the stairs, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. “Twilight? Can you keep it down? I’m trying-ing-ing-ing…!” he stammered after opening his eyes to see not one, but two Twilight Sparkles staring at him in confusion. Spike blinked once, before saying, “…I… er, yeah… I’m… I’m going back to bed…” It was almost comical how he raced up the stairs, running as fast as his stubby little legs could carry him.
They both erupted into fits of laughter as Spike’s door slammed shut. Shift once more resumed his normal form, the bright purple coat fading to its lustrous silver sheen, and the horn sinking back into his forehead. He nodded to Twilight, ‘That was unexpected. Care to explain to your cohort why he just got double vision?’
‘Later,’ she thought back at him. ‘Rarity and Applejack are coming over for lunch soon, and I wouldn’t want Spike all riled… up…’ Her eyes widened as she shot her head to her right. Her eyes fixated on the antique grandfather clock in the corner of the library, which read 11:27. She spun towards Shift, ‘They’re going to be here in three minutes! We’ve got to hide you!’
‘What? Why?’ He asked, confusion scrawled across his featureless face.
Twilight’s horn lit up as she began frantically resorting the novel skyscrapers back onto the shelves, ‘You yourself said you needed to stay incognito, and Rarity is many things, but a keeper of secrets she is not. If she knows about you, we might as well hang a neon sign above the door saying, ‘Come see the Amnesiac Robot from Space’!’
‘I am not a robot,’ he protested. ‘I am a nanite based life-form with a personality matrix not unlike your own brain, thank you very much!’
‘Alright, so you’re a nanite based Alien. There’s still the problem of you getting discovered and hauled away to be cut up into little pieces and studied. You cannot be seen as you are!’
His head dipped, and his milky white eyes studied the floor deep in thought. A few seconds passed, ‘…What if I’m not an alien?’
‘Come again?’
Rarity trotted down the street, her saddlebags filled with food she’d prepared for their lunch. She trotted into the Ponyville market, her eyes pivoting left and right as she scanned the stalls for a particular pony. In seconds, she had found her; a well built orange earth pony mare with a large tan Stetson adorning the locks of her blond mane. Rarity shot through the crowd, weaving through the crowd of ponies looking to buy everything from toilet paper to hand-crafted jewelry. Rarity walked up to the stall and rapped her hoof on the counter to get her friends attention.
Applejack popped up from behind the stall with a bucket of delicious looking red gala apples, a content smile on her freckled muzzle. The grin widened as she saw her pearly white friend. “Well good mornin to yah Rarity!” She whistled over to her brother Big Macintosh, “Hey Mac! Can yah man the stand for a bit? Me an Rarity are going to go have our lunch at the Library!”
Big Mac nodded once, absentmindedly chewing on the piece of wheat sticking out the corner of his mouth. “Thank you Mr. Macintosh!” said Rarity. In one seamless motion, Applejack flipped a couple apples into her saddlebags, and the two mares trotted off in the general direction of the Ponyville general library.
A few minutes later, still a ways from the Library, Rarity glanced over at her companion to see the burnt-orange cowpony grinning. “What’s so funny?”
Applejack looked at her with knowing eyes, “Since when have you been callin my brother ‘Mr. Macintosh’?”
“Well since I don’t know him personally, I refer to him in his surname.” She said, her cheeks becoming a little reddened, “Its…er… Proper Canterlot etiquette! Why do you ask?”
“…An you’re using eti’whatsit on Big Mac… Why?”
Rarity could feel her heart skipping over many figurative beats now, “It… It’s just a polite thing to do!”
Applejack’s grin widened, “Are yah sure that’s it?”
Rarity, her face now blushing furiously, stammered, “Y-yes, of c-course it is!”
“Then why are yah blushin?”
Rarity’s stammering only grew worse as her mind tried to find a way to lie to the element of honesty. “Erm, well you see…” The pair turned the corner and, like a sunrise over the horizon, Ponyville library towered over the low-rise shops and houses just ahead. Rarity gasped in delight, “Oh look at that, we’re here!”. The snowy white unicorn galloped away from her orange companion, and the embarrassing conversation, toward the tree house. Applejack sighed,’ I guess ah’ll just hold that topic fer a later conversation,’ she thought, running after her friend. Rarity was already knocking rapid-fire on the large oaken door by the time Applejack made it to the patio.
“All right, spill.” The cowpony demanded.
Rarity, gaining her composure, rolled her eyes at her companion, “Come now, You can’t possibly be thinking that…”
Crash!
Both ponies turned their attention to the house, where they heard a shrill mare’s voice shout, “An elephant? Where in Tartarus did you get an elephant from? There isn’t even an elephant on this page!” There was an awkward pause, in which both of the ponies on the patio traded confused/concerned looks, before the voice came back, “Yes, very funny. Hardy har har.” Another pause, “No you can’t stay like that! Now hurry up and change into this one before…”
Rarity knocked on the door again, a little more forcefully this time. “Twilight, darling, are you all right in there?”
Following an array of sounds ranging from a cannon-shot to an oven timer, the door opened, revealing a slightly disheveled Twilight Sparkle. “Morning girls!” she said. “Come on in, I have our lunch ready.”
Both mares walked into what appeared to be a warzone, or maybe a failed attempt to recreate the living conditions of Pinkie Pie’s bedroom. Furniture lay in piles like makeshift barricades. There were four massive indentations in the floor, shaped like elephant tracks. Most confusing was the presence of the random stallion, his head cocked to the side, large neon-green eyes studying them.
Silence reigned.