Time Turner continued on, his hoof steps clacking rhythmically in Twilight's ears. It was quite a nice sound, and had Twilight almost asleep by the time they had finished moving through the several long streets. However she was awoken from her daze all too soon by Time Turner's voice ringing out loudly.
“We're almost there! But there's one thing I have to do first.” He turned around to meet her gaze. Twilight looked around a bit. They were still in the city, but far away from where they had begun. She surmised that about an hour had passed.
“Do what?” She asked, her head tilting to the side as she voiced her curiosity.
Time turner walked around to the side of Twilight and retrieved something small and black from his bag. He slipped a blindfold over Twilight's eyes, causing her to panic a little.
“What? Why are you putting this on me?” She shook her head slightly to work it off her face to no avail.
“I'm sorry, call me crazy, but just in case you decide to tell people about us, I'd like our place to stay hidden. Only for a short while, just until we can trust you. No hard feelings?”
Twilight hesitated, lifting her hoof into the air as if to turn around and run away.
“Well.. I understand... but at the first sign of something suspicious, I'll make use of this.” She tapped her horn gently to demonstrate her point.
Turner flinched slightly, but nodded all the same, an action unseen by the blindfolded mare. He quickly rectified this by saying “Fair enough.”
He put a hoof on the unicorn's leg, guiding her forward ever so gently. Walking without your eyes is pretty daunting, as Twilight soon discovered. The ground beneath her was uneven and coarse, with a few holes and rises. Every now and then Time Turner would give her a short vocal queue to steer her away from trees and deeper holes.
To Twilight's relief they soon entered a doorway, the ground smoothing out and becoming echoed. She heard faint noises from far away. They sounded very strange, attracting Twilight's attention. The noise grew louder as she walked further inside, evoking a strange feeling in Twilight's chest.
Time Turner decided they were far enough, and slid the blindfold away from Twilight's face. Her entire body froze as she looked around her surroundings, the sudden flashes of colour overwhelming her senses.
Ever had one of those times where you haven't eaten anything for a couple of hours, and your mouth is really dry, and then you bite into something with a really strong flavour, your mouth's taste buds exploding in shock from the sudden change in taste?
This is what Twi felt, only it was the visual equivalent, as she glanced around the room, awe struck.
Her brain ticked for a couple seconds, trying to work out what was around her. It was so alien to her, yet familiar.
“Co-Colours.” was all she could make out as she admired the various paintings, stained windows and sculptures all around her. It was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen, and it invoked all sorts of new feelings in her chest.
Time Turner moved closer to her, nuzzling her gently. “Yo Twilight, are you okay? Equestria to Twilight...”
Twi's ever curious nature took over as she squealed and got to her hooves, bouncing around the room to observe everything she saw. Firstly she approached a large stained window of the god of chaos in a frightening pose. The frame had rainbow colours around the draqonnequus. She gasped in awe. Next she bounced over to a statue of a strange looking pony, almost double the size of Twilight. She had a mane that drifted out in front of her, and a tail that looked similar. Her cutie mark was the sun.
“Who's this?” She asked, her spurt of hyperactivity brought to a halt.
Time Turner chuckled a little, a hint of sadness in his voice. “That's Princess Celestia. Surely you have heard of her...?”
Twilight's metaphorical brain hamster ran around madly on it's wheel as she thought. With one final push the hamster ground to a halt and passed out.
“Nope. Not a thing. Was she important? She looks very beautiful.”
Turner was shocked beyond belief. He had almost forgot about the restriction on any knowledge about the royal pony sisters. Even knowing about that, he still had an intense feeling of disgust in his gut. Not towards Twilight, but towards the leader of that insane country.
“Celestia. The Princess of the sun, used to rule Equestria. She was kind, loyal, honest, generous, and playful. She had magic beyond any other being. She raised the sun every morning, and her sister Luna rose the moon every night. But more on that later... I have some ponies to introduce you to!”
Time Turner grabbed the unicorn by her forehoof before she could look around any further and lead her towards the source of the sound.
Twilight was utterly perplexed as she racked her brain to try and work out what that noise was. It wasn't machinery, or voices, it sounded a bit like the time she found a sound file in the archives.
Her brain ticked. It was music! She wiggled out of Time's grasp and ran down the hallway, past numerous other knick knacks and through a large wooden door.
There she found several ponies, all with brightly coloured manes and coats staring at her. The music that had been playing previously had stopped, and the pianist left her hooves lightly touching the keys as her jaw dropped.
The ponies entered panic mode and looked around for a place to hide out of instinct.
One mare, a small filly walked towards Twilight with her ears flattened and shaking legs. “Are you going to take us away, miss?” She asked, her voice quaking.
Time Turner burst through the door, grinding to a halt behind Twilight. “Everypony I'd like you to meet miss Twilight Sparkle! She's not an official, she's here to learn. I would like you all to treat her as an honoured guest.”
At this, the ponies nodded and relaxed, the white unicorn filly running over to Time Turner to cling onto his leg. She whimpered softly. “I-I was so scared they had found out, T...” She buried her muzzle into his leg.
Twilight instantly felt insanely guilty and dipped her head down low. “I'm r-really sorry I scared all of you... I wasn't thinking straight. Will you forgive me?”
An orange earth pony stepped forward, grinning. “Course we will, new comer! Whai, if Ah remember mah first time down here, ah'd say ah was as excited as you!”
A unicorn mare nodded enthusiastically. “Why darling, it's understandable!” She trotted forward and patted the mane of the smaller white unicorn. “Come now Sweetie Belle, it's alright.”
Twilight's face lit up. “Oh good! Again, really sorry.”
As Twilight scanned the room, she recognised the faces of just about every pony to have gone missing in the past 30 years or so, along with some others she had seen about town.
One earth mare with a cream coat trotted up to her, with a mint green unicorn close behind. “My name's Bon Bon, this is Lyra. Do you have a cutie mark yet?”
The rest of the ponies went about their activities, chatting away, painting, sculpting, singing, you name an art form, it was being practised.
Twilight nodded gingerly and lit up her horn, revealing her cutie mark that had been hidden from the public eye previously.
Lyra stepped around to her side and eyed it in awe. “Ooooh, that's a unique one! What's it for?”
“I think it's about my magic... I haven't been able to fully explore it yet.” She glanced down at the purple star on her flank, admiring it. It felt incomplete somehow.
“Wooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” The unicorn let out a long display of admiration. “That's so cool! A magic talent... so I bet you're super good at spells, huh?” She asked.
“Well yeah, just a little. I don't like to brag...”
“Show us!”
“It's not that impr-
“It'll be like woosh! And zoom!”
“ It'll be a waste of time I think,”
“And we can invite the whole group to watch!”
Twilight froze. “The whole group? How many of you are there?”
“Last time I checked about 40 of us.” Bon Bon cut in. “Why?”
“Oh my leader. That's insane! How'd you all get here?” Twilight asked.
Bon Bon winced slightly at the mention of the leader, but continued on. “Well, some of us stumbled upon the place by happen stance, that was only one or two, but the rest of us were scouted out by TT over there.” She pointed to him momentarily. “He's kind of like the father around here. What he says goes, and we all look up to him.”
“He found me when I was playing my lyre. I thought I was quiet, but I must have gotten distracted. He brought me here a few days after and I decided to stay.” Lyra added in.
“I found this place after I ran away from the hive.” Bon Bon said, a slither of sadness in her voice.
Twilight nearly jumped ten feet in the air when she felt a hoof upon her back. She turned around quickly to see the grinning face of TT. “Hello there miss Twilight, making friends already?”
Twilight nodded in affirmation. “Yep. But what I'm really curious about is learning some new magic. Are there any unicorns around that can teach me?” She enquired hopefully.
“Why I know just the mare! Follow me!”
Twilight waved a hoof in a goodbye gesture to her new friends as she quickly trotted after Time Turner. He lead her through a door and into an empty room where a blue unicorn and pink earth mare seemed to be having a light hearted feud.
The earth mare shouted out “Ear flop, eye flutter, knee twitch!” And jerked back from the door.
“Pinkie that's absolutely ridiculous!” The blue unicorn demanded, before the door hit the blue unicorn mare in the behind as she yelped. She growled in frustration. “Lucky guess!”
“Heeeeeelllooo there miss Trixie, Pinkie. I trust you are doing well?” Time Turner chirped happily, bouncing into the room. “This here's a new mare I want you to meet! Her name is Twilight Sparkle, and she's come to learn!”
The unicorn known as Trixie turned round to meet Twilight's gaze, instantly transforming her persona. “Hello miss Twilight! Sorry about that awful first impression. Pinkie here and I were just having a heated discussion.” She smiled cheerily back at Pinkie, who proceeded to scratch her back.
“Back's itchy! Back is suuuuuuuuuper itchy!”
Trixie rolled her eyes and turned back to Twilight. “What do you need, TT?”
“Miss Twilight here wants to learn some magic!”