//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: Fun? // Story: Past, Present, and Future // by Bpkyle777 //------------------------------// It was fun to walk through the marketplace, alright. And by ‘walked’, I mean ‘shoved my way past dozens of ponies just to get in, and nearly break my neck every other step’, and by ‘fun’, I mean ‘TOTALLY NOT FUN AT ALL!’ There was hardly any room to get through. The show never made Ponyville seem so… populated. The gender ratio was even a bit more leveled out than the show made it look. I guess that just comes down to lazy animators. I tried to push my way through the marketplace, bumping into everypony along the way. “I’m sorry,” I apologized to a pink earth pony. “My bad,” I said to the teal Pegasus I almost knocked over. I tripped over somepony and got up before a green earth pony could step on my head. “Excuse me.” “I’m so sorry.” I paused for a moment. Wait, that sounded like Fluttershy. I turned back to look, but she was nowhere in sight, consumed by the crowd again. Oh well. Maybe I’ll get to meet her later. “Oof,” I shouldn’t have stayed still for that long. A grey Pegasus backed up into me, knocking me down. Why is it suddenly so hard to breath!?! I glanced back to see the Pegasus’ flank resting on my ribcage. Bubbles? Holy cow, it’s Ditzy! “Oh! I’m so sorry! I didn’t see you there,” Ditzy said, frantically trying to get up to help me. I grabbed her outstretched hoof and she managed to pull me up, despite the minimal breathing room we had to move. “It’s quite alright. It’s actually my fault. I shouldn’t have been standing still in the middle of the pathway like that.” I brushed myself off and looked back at her. “My name’s Blast Shield. I’m actually trying to get through to the library.” The wall-eyed mare looked at me, excited. “Oh, a new pony in town? My name’s Ditzy Doo, but all my friends call me Derpy! It’s always nice to meet new ponies.” We started walking towards Town Hall so we wouldn’t get trampled. “Uh,” here’s a question I’ve always wanted to ask her, “Why do they call you that? Sounds kind of mean, if you ask me.” “It’s not a big deal.” She smiled at me. “It’s just a nickname. Like calling a short pony ‘Tiny’ or something like that. I actually really like the name ‘Derpy’.” She stepped over an apple core. “Hmm.” I just don’t feel comfortable calling her that. I mean, it’s a cute name for a fictional character, but when I’m conversing with her right here in front of me, I just feel mean using it. “Well, if it’s all the same to you, I think I’ll just call you Ditzy. Y-you know, if that’s all right.” “That’s fine,” she grinned. “You know, you’re the second pony to insist on calling me ‘Ditzy’.” “Really? Who else calls you that?” I asked as a crème colored mare shoved past me. “The town’s librarian. She said something similar to what you said about ‘Derpy’ seeming mean.” “Oh, Twilight Sparkle?” She nodded her head. “Yeah. You know her?” “No, not personally. I'm actually on my way to meet her right now.” I sidestepped a blue filly and her mother. “Oh, yeah. You did say something about heading to the library, didn’t you?” She asked. “I can walk with you there, if you want.” “No, you don’t have to do that for me.” “I insist. It’s the least I could do for sitting on you,” She giggled. “Besides, I have to walk by there to get home anyways.” We had just made it to the Town Hall and the number of ponies walking around drastically decreased. Looking around, I realized I had no idea which way to go from here. I can’t even see the library’s treetop! “Heheh, I guess so. I might get lost, otherwise.” “You know you’re a Pegasus, right? You can just fly up to see where you need to go.” I knew that tomboyish voice. Or is it ‘tomcoltish’? I looked up in time to see Rainbow Dash landing next to me with a smirk on her face. I had to come up with something, quick. “If you must know, which you mustn’t, but I’ll tell you anyways,” I stalled, “I… sprained my wing recently, yeah, and I’m not allowed to use it for a few more days.” Yeah, that’ll work. Dash visibly winced. “Oh. Ow. Sprained my wing once. Not a pleasant experience.” “Oh my gosh! What happened? Are you alright? I didn’t mean to sit on it. I didn’t know it was injured.” Ditzy sounded really concerned and inspected my wing. Dash raised an eyebrow at her. “You sat on him?” Ditzy blushed and backed away from me. “Haha. Don’t worry about it, Ditzy. I clipped a branch while coming out of a dive. It doesn’t hurt anymore, so it’s not a big deal.” I turned back to Dash. “Yes. She knocked me over in the marketplace by accident.” “Not a surprise,” she mumbled. I was about to say something to her about being mean when she cut me off. “I’m Rainbow Dash, by the way! Fastest flier in all of Equestria!" She did a flip in the air. "But I’m sure you knew that already.” I couldn’t help but roll my eyes and laugh. “My name’s Blast Shield, and yes, I did know that already. I’m actually visiting from Canterlot to see Twilight Sparkle. Ditzy was just walking me there.” “I can come with y’all. I needed to see her anyways,” Dash said. She started to fly off, and Ditzy and I quickly followed behind on hoof. After a few minutes, the rainbow-maned Pegasus turned to me, flying backward. “So what brings you all the way from Canterlot to see Twilight?” she questioned. “Well you may not believe me, but I’m actually an old friend of Princess Celestia’s. She’s told me so much about her faithful student that I just had to come meet her.” Did I ever tell you that I’m good at lying? I think I got it from my father. Ditzy gasped. “Oh my gosh! You know the Princess?” “Yep. Even helped her out with a major decision or two.” Understatement of the century, right there. Dash crossed her forelegs and raised her eyebrow at me. “There’s no way you’re friends with the Princess.” I glared at Rainbow Dash. “What’s that suppose to mean?” I put on a Canterlot accent, “Do I not seem noble or royal enough to know her?” Ditzy giggled at that. Dash stopped, pressed her forehead to mine, and poked my chest with her hoof. “Well then, how do I know you’re telling the truth, huh?” Poke. “You could be lying just to get to Twilight!” Poke. “Are you a spy or something?” Poke, poke. I had to push her away so I could breath. “Uh, no. I’m not a spy. I’m as much a spy as Twilight was when you first accused her.” Ow. She pokes pretty hard. She immediately backed up and looked at me puzzled. “How did you know I accused her of being a spy?” “I didn’t, until you just said so,” I smirked. She was so easy. Dash facehoofed and groaned. “Fine. I believe you,” she glared at me, “for now.” She started back towards the library with me on her tail. Literally. Dash slammed down to ground, giving out a quiet ‘ow’. As quickly as she could, she stood up and yanked her tail out from under my hoof, glaring at me when I started to laugh. “What the buck was that for?” “For yelling and calling me a spy.” Not really. It was just for the lols. “You shouldn’t be so rude to new ponies you meet.” That much is true. She grumbled something about an egghead and launched toward the library. Ditzy and I had to sprint to keep up. “Dash, wait! Slow down!” Ditzy yelled. After a few minutes of running, we finally caught up to her in front of the library. Rainbow smirked at us and flew in through the second story window. I heard what sounded like a crash and winced, “That sounded like it hurt.” The library stood three stories high, three and a half if you count the leaves on top. It had various windows placed randomly about. The front door had- Wait, why am I describing it? It looks like it does on the show. Nuff said. Ditzy turned to me, “Well, here we are, I guess. I’ll see you at the party, right?” “Wait, what party?” I asked. “You’re new in town, right? Pinkie Pie throws every new pony a party,” she said. Huh. Forgot about Pinkie Pie’s Parties. “Alright, I guess. See you then.” Ditzy turned and left, waving goodbye and not watching where she was going. “Hey! Watch out for that…” *Smack* “…tree.” She quickly got back up and shook it off, clearly embarrassed. I laughed and turned back to the library door to knock. Wait. Why do I need to knock? I decided to just walk right in and saw Twilight storming up the stairs, probably to yell at Rainbow Dash for crashing into her room. Spike was on a ladder reorganizing the closest bookshelf, grumbling something about having to clean Dash’s mess again. I was about to get Spike’s attention when Twilight and Rainbow Dash came down the steps. Dash looked away from Twilight sheepishly while the purple unicorn ranted. Okay, unicorn. Definitely before the ‘princess’ thing. “-the fifth time this month! Do you not have somewhere safer and preferably further than my house to crash? I swear sometimes you just- Oh!” Well it’s about time she noticed me. I waved at her with a huge grin on my face. “I didn’t hear you come in.” “Oh, I just let myself in.” “Without knocking?” Spike said as he climbed off the ladder. I raised an eyebrow at Spike, “Uh, it was my understanding this was a public library.” I looked back at Twilight, who appeared shocked, “I didn’t know I had to knock.” After a few awkward moments, Twilight broke the silence. “Finally!” She exclaimed, “Somepony with common sense! You’re the first pony in two years to come to that conclusion. Everypony else sees fit to knock first and it gets really annoying having to constantly answer the door.” “Well I don’t knock, and you yell at me for barging in!” Dash steamed. “That’s because you crash in. Usually in my bedroom upstairs!” Twilight countered. Dash shrunk back and sat down on a nearby couch. Twilight turned her attention back toward me. “Anyways, my name is Twilight Sparkle. I’m the local lib-“ “Librarian,” I cut her off, “faithful student to Princess Celestia, and savior of Equestria from the evils of Nightmare Moon, Discord, and, more recently, the changelings.” Twilight looked at me confused before I could explain. “It’s just, I’m sure pretty much everypony in Equestria knows who you are by now. I didn’t mean to offend.” Twilight relaxed a little and smiled. “It’s fine. I just don’t usually get that much recognition. What can I help you with, mister…?” “Blast Shield, but you can call me Blast. I’m actually here to talk to you about something private involving a certain Princess of the Sun.” I glanced at the other two, hoping they would catch the hint. Spike did, at least. “I’m gonna go clean the mess Rainbow Dash left upstairs.” Rainbow, on the other hoof, missed it completely. Instead, she flew right up next to my face, glaring at me again. “Yeah, Twi. He claims he’s an old friend of Princess Celestia’s, and came here to just to meet you.” Thank you, Rainbow Dash. Hashtag:Sarcasm. “I think he’s lying, though.” Twilight looked at me, intrigued. “Really? What makes you think he’s lying?” “U-uh, well… he, uh…” Dash scratched the back of her head. Twilight glared back at her friend. “Is it because he doesn’t look or act like Nobility?” I laughed and brought a hoof to my chest. “That’s what I said. But noooo, I must be a spy, instead.” “Dash, you need to stop accusing everypony who knows about us as being spies!” Twilight berated the Pegasus, “It’s kind of rude.” Dash looked angry. “Well sorry for trying to protect my friends,” she huffed. Twilight sighed. “Could you at least apologize to Blast?” Dash huffed and looked away. “I’m sorry.” “What was that?” I asked. “I said ‘sorry’.” “Didn’t quite catch that.” I was just screwing with her now. She turned to me, “I said ‘I’m sorry’, alright!?!” I laughed again. “It’s alright. You’re forgiven.” Dash huffed and was about to leave when Twilight stopped her. “Wait, what did you need, Dash?” Dash looked confused for a moment before realization struck her. “Oh! I just came by to check out the third Daring Doo book again. I wanted to read it to Scoots. I read her the first two and she absolutely loved them!” Twilight grabbed a book from a nearby shelf with her telekinesis and gave it to Dash. I sighed. Did I mention I miss my horn? “I thought she would. She reminds me of you in a lot of ways, Dash.” “Yeah. I’m sure before too long, she’ll be the second fastest flier in Equestria.” Rainbow started to leave out the front door. “Thanks, Twi!” she yelled as she closed the door. I looked back at Twilight to find her staring at me expectantly with an eyebrow raised. “So, how do you know Princess Celestia?” “Well, the long and short of it is that I met her and Luna a long, long,” I looked Twilight in the eye and moved hilariously close to her face, “long time ago,” I snickered and backed off a bit, “and after helping them with a few problems here and there, we sort of became pals.” “Interesting…” Twilight said, still a bit wide eyed at the, ahem, close encounter. When she finally relaxed a bit I decided to ask her for a favor. “Can I ask you for a favor?” I needed a favor from her. Twilight looked at me suspiciously, “Depends," she said, real slowly, "What do you want?” I couldn’t help but chuckle at her reaction. I did seem a little creepy at the moment. “Well, I just need you to send the Princess a letter for me. I actually haven’t seen her for a while and thought it would be best to send her word on where I am and how I’m doing.” Twilight was skeptical, “How do I know you’re telling the truth, though? I don’t mean to sound like Rainbow Dash, but you are being awfully vague.” “Well, how about this,” I proposed, “You send the Princess a letter. Whether or not she responds to knowing me would be your proof. I mean, it wouldn’t be that big of a deal to ask your mentor if she knows the mysterious stallion standing at your door, would it?” I grinned at her. She put a hoof to her chin to think. “No, I… guess not. But no funny business. If she doesn’t know you, you’re out of here. Deal?” “Deal.” I shook her outstretched hoof. “Spiiiiike!” Twilight called. The little dragon came running down the stairs to see what Twilight wanted. “Yes, Twilight?” “Can you take a letter?” “Sure. Is it another friendship report? It’s a bit early in the week for that, isn’t it?” Spike asked. I snickered while Twilight just glared at her assistant. “No Spike. I just need to confirm something with the Princess.” Twilight cleared her throat as Spike pulled a quill and piece of paper from nowhere. “Dear Princess Celestia, I apologize if this comes across as inconvenient, but a mysterious stallion by the name of Blast Shield has come to my library, claiming to be an old friend of yours.” I thought for a moment, and then suddenly remembered something only Tia and I would know. “Oh, oh! Tell her that I said, ahem, ‘Only two knew when the sun rose from the west,’” I said in my best Clint Eastwood impression. Spike looked confused but wrote it down anyway. “From… the… west…” Twilight continued, “Please let me know at your earliest convenience if you do indeed know this stallion. Signed, your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.” “Twi… light… Sparkle… Is that it?” Spike asked. “Yep. Please send it immediately.” Spike rolled up the letter and burned it, sending it towards Canterlot. Twilight looked back over at me. “She’s in Day Court right now, so we may not get a reply until this evening.” “Hmm. Somehow, I highly doubt it’ll take that long.” If Tia remembers me, she'll probably want to see me ASAP. “Why?” Spike asked, “And what did that mean, ‘Only two knew when the sun rose from the west’? Everypony knows the sun has always risen in the east.” “Haha, well that’s a funny story actually. One night, when the moon was about to go down, Tia decided to-” *BURP* “Oh! Took her long enough! I guess I’ll continue the story some other time.” Twilight was surprised that the Princess had replied that fast and immediately grabbed the letter to read it. As she read it, her eyes grew wider and wider, frequently glancing between me and the parchment. After a few minutes, I was growing a little impatient. “Don’t keep us in the dark, Twi. What does it say?” That seemed to knock Twilight out of her trance. “Oh! Um… ‘Dear Twilight Sparkle, Thank you for telling me of his arrival to your library. I would like for both you and Mr. Shield to come to the castle immediately. I have much to discuss with the both of you. A chariot is already en route and should arrive within the hour. Signed, Princess Celestia.’” I grinned at Twilight. “Oh, goody! So she does remember me! You’d better get packing, Ms. Sparkle.”