One Week Later
Twilight sighed as she checked the clock. The library had been open for four hours, without a single visitor. Didn't anypony in town ever visit the library? So far, the only consistent patron was Cheerilee, who liked to read romance novels.
Living at the library was a little lonely for Twilight, now that Spike had gone to live in Trixie's house with her and Scootaloo. Twilight didn't grudge him that—Trixie was the pony who hatched Spike from his egg—but she missed having somepony around to talk to.
Twilight also had more free time than normal, now that the research on the Elements of Harmony was finished. She secretly wished that she would be given another top secret project.
I know I'm Princess Celestia's honorary student, but...I'm not researching or studying anything! What kind of a student am I?
Twilight considered writing a letter, but she ended up reading a book to pass the time. About twenty-five minutes later, the door to the library opened and a voice called out her name. "Twiliiight!"
Twilight turned to the doorway. Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo were both standing there.
"Oh, hey, Scootaloo!" Twilight said brightly. "Are you finished with school today?"
"Yep," Scootaloo said. "My friends were, um, busy, so I thought I'd visit!"
"And Rainbow Dash, this is a surprise! You don't usually come to the library," Twilight said. She halted in her movements. "Wait, we don't have flying lessons today, do we? Did I mess up my calendar?"
"Yeah, that's why I'm here," Rainbow Dash said. "See...we're gonna have to cancel the flying lessons for a while. I'm going into training."
"Oooo, yeah!" Scootaloo said. "You're gonna enter too, right, Twilight?"
Twilight sighed. Not this again... "No."
"But you gotta enter, Sis!" Scootaloo pleaded. "You just gotta!"
"I'm too busy to enter any contests," Twilight said, setting up a pile of books. "I've got...library stuff to do!"
"But you're the second best flier I know!" Scootaloo said.
Twilight paused. "Second best?"
"Heh, told you she wouldn't enter," said Rainbow Dash. "Everypony knows that I'm going to win the Young Fliers Competition!"
"Sure," Twilight said, unconvinced. "So is that all, or do you need help finding a book or something?"
"No way," Rainbow said. "Reading is for eggheads! I just wanted to see you chicken out."
"Chicken—?"
"But hey, don't worry about it," Rainbow said. "I understand if you're too scared to challenge me. After all, I can fly circles around any pegasus in town."
Twilight arched an eyebrow at her cyan friend. She didn't know Rainbow Dash had such a competitive side.
"Twilight's not scared of you!" Scootaloo said. "She's just busy, that's all!"
"Suuuure," Rainbow said. "Look, if you don't want to compete, could you come watch the show anyway? It'll be a lot of fun, I promise."
"I'll try to attend, if I'm not too busy that day," Twilight said. A trip to Cloudsdale sounded like fun.
"Busy doing what? Nopony ever comes to this boring library!" Rainbow Dash said. "I bet you could close it, and—"
"The library is not boring!" Twilight said, slamming her hoof on the table and causing the pile of books to tumble down. "Augh! Now I have to re-sort all those!"
Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo shared a worried look. "Are you okay?" Scootaloo asked.
"Sorry, it's been a rough day," Twilight sighed. She started picking up the books, and her hoof stopped over a copy of Daring Do and the King's Wager. Suddenly, a brilliant idea came to her. "Hey, wait, that's it!"
"What's it?"
Twilight stretched out her wings. "Let's make a deal, Rainbow Dash. I'll enter your flying competition...if you check out a book from my library."
"What?" Rainbow asked. "But I never read books!"
"Those are my terms," Twilight said. "You want to see me in Cloudsdale, you're gonna have to read for it."
"I...uh..."
"Come on, Rainbow Dash, you can do it!" Scootaloo said.
"Yeah, you're not chicken, are you?" Twilight asked smugly.
"...Fine," Rainbow said. "What's the book?"
"Hmmm..." Twilight said, trying to think of a book that Rainbow Dash would like. Maybe a biography of the Wonderbolts? Twilight looked down and saw the Daring Do book again. She picked it up.
"Okay, I'll take it easy on you and give you a children's book," Twilight said. "How about something from the Daring Do series? She's a pegasus who travels the world and has adventures."
"I...I guess an adventure would be cool," Rainbow said. "I mean, I wouldn't know because I don't read, but..."
"Daring Do is fun!" Scootaloo said. "I read two of them last year."
"Then it's settled!" Twilight said, clapping her hooves together. "Why don't I give you the first book in the series? Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone."
"Fine," Rainbow said, wondering how she had gone from getting a flying partner to getting a reading assignment.
"The competition is next Wednesday, right?" Twilight said. "So turn in your book report on Tuesday, and I'll be at the Young Fliers' Competition."
"Whoa, back up!" Rainbow said. "Nopony said anything about writing a book report!"
"Well, how else am I supposed to know whether or not you read the book?" Twilight asked. "Unless you'd rather have Cheerilee write up a quiz to make sure you read it?"
"I'll do the book report..." Rainbow Dash groaned.
"Wow, it's like you two are switching places!" Scootaloo said.
"What?" Twilight and Rainbow Dash asked.
"Well, you have a flying cutie mark, and you have a book-reading cutie mark!" Scootaloo said, pointing at them. "But now you're going to read, and you're going to be flying!"
"Huh. I guess you're right," Twilight said.
"Yeah, well, when this is over, we'll see who has the cooler special talent," Rainbow Dash said smugly.
"We certainly will," Twilight said, just as smugly.
About five minutes after her guests left, Twilight flew into a panic.
"What was I thinking?" she asked. "I can't enter a flying competition! I don't know how to do any stunts! I can barely do a loop-de-loop without falling! This is bad! This is bad!"
From the cover of one of the library's display books, Discord chuckled. Was there anything more fun than driving a wedge between two friends?
Rainbow Dash seemed like the easiest to manipulate, out of the six Elements of Harmony. While that was good, Discord had no idea what the end goal of his manipulations was. If she was the Element of Loyalty, he could easily convince her to run away and abandon her friends, but apparently, she was the Element of Honesty.
"Am I supposed to get her to lie to her friends, or what?" Discord asked. "Too bad she's not a unicorn, because then I could make her Liar Heartstrings."
Across the room, Twilight almost dropped her copy of The Physics of Flight. "Hello? Is someone there?" she asked.
Discord frowned and hid behind the title on the book's cover. Twilight Sparkle. She's not one of the Elements of Harmony, but maybe I should keep an eye on her, just in case.
Discord stealthily followed Twilight for the rest of the day, only taking a brief break to turn Carrot Top's carrots blue. Twilight's schedule consisted of boring, boring and more boring, in Discord's opinion. Most of her time was spent reading, which made spying on her an incredibly tedious operation.
Twilight eventually left her house—Discord had to hold himself back from setting off fireworks to mark the historic occasion—and she went to City Hall. Discord was intrigued when Twilight asked the mare at the desk for a requisition form for a property near the edge of town. Twilight followed this with a request for a copy of the rules for the Cloudsdale Young Fliers' Competition.
Discord groaned. A rule book? That's what she wants? Seriously, how can she even read that book? There's no pictures!
While Twilight was waiting for her items, Mayor Mare came out of her office. She was humming to herself, but she stopped in her tracks the instant she saw Twilight.
"Mayor Mare!" Twilight said.
"Yes?" the mayor asked. She wore the same worried look that Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo had shared earlier. If Twilight didn't know any better, she'd swear that some of the ponies in town were worried that she'd turn evil again.
"It's lucky I ran into you!" Twilight said. "I was just wondering if there are any big jobs I can do!"
"Big...jobs?"
"Well, I've got some free time now that I'm no longer planning the Summer Sun Celebration! Maybe I can help with Ponyville's next big event! Like...Winter Wrap Up!"
"...It's July."
"That's no excuse for not planning in advance!" Twilight said.
"I'm sorry," Mayor Mare said. "But there's nothing for you to do for the city right now. Maybe you should return to the library."
"But what if there's a freak snowstorm?"
"If that happens, I'll eat my collar," Mayor Mare said disdainfully.
Discord chuckled. I know I don't want to expose myself too early, but...this is too good an opportunity. He snapped his fingers.
Suddenly, the doors to City Hall burst open. "MAYOR! MAYOR!" shouted a pony. "There's a freak snowstorm! We need an emergency Winter Wrap-Up, now!"
"But—!" Mayor Mare said.
"Yes!" Twilight said, pumping her hoof in the air. Finally, a chance to show everypony that she was still useful!
"Call a town meeting once the snowstorm is over..." Mayor Mare said, hanging her head.
The snowstorm lasted all day and all night. School was cancelled the next day, much to the delight of the children, and most of the businesses were closed for the Winter Wrap Up. Everypony gathered around City Hall to start the day. Mayor Mare, not wearing her usual collar, started things off with a short speech.
"Welcome, everypony! It's so heartwarming to see how the community has responded to this natural disaster. With your help, we can get the snow cleaned in no time. Before we begin, let me introduce our leader for this project...Princess Celestia's personal student..."
Twilight took a step forward.
"The Great and Powerful Trixie!" Mayor Mare said.
"WHAT?" Twilight asked. Nopony heard her over the applause of the crowd.
"Thank you, thank you!" Trixie said, stepping up to the podium. "I am glad to help lead this event. With my magic, we can easily—what?"
The mayor started whispering in Trixie's ear. "But I'm the Element of Magic!" Trixie said back to the mayor. "How can I not...oh. Okay."
"We are going to wrap this winter up, Earth pony style!" Trixie said. "It hasn't been snowing that long, so it should be easy to get everything cleared up. Team leaders, come to me so we can—what?"
The mayor started whispering in Trixie's ear again. "A song? But the Great and Powerful Trixie does not sing!" Trixie protested.
Trixie had a rough time that day, as she went around to all the teams and tried to help them.
"Why do we need to wake up the animals?" Trixie asked Fluttershy. "Don't they wake up on their own?"
"The poor dears have been confused by the snow, and we need to stop them from hibernating," Fluttershy explained.
"Okay. Trixie can take care of this," Trixie said. She reared up on her hind legs and spoke in the impressive voice which she normally used for her non-magical levitation trick. "Forest creatures, the Great and Powerful Trixie commands you to arise!"
"Um...you need to wake them up nicely..."
"ARISE!" Trixie shouted. She stomped on the ground and made fireworks appear outside of the animals' homes. That quickly got all the animals' attention, and they ran away screaming and chattering.
"You scared them!" Fluttershy gasped.
"I woke them all up in less than ten seconds!" Trixie bragged. "See, magic can be useful in—"
"RAAAARGH!"
"AAAAAA! AN URSA MAJOR!" Trixie shrieked.
Fluttershy shook her head. "That's just Harry the Bear—Harry! Leave poor Trixie alone!"
"He's trying to eat me!" Trixie cried, running away. "He's going to—ouch!"
After getting her leg bandaged, Trixie went to visit the Earth ponies working on the town's farms. "What are the teams here doing?" Trixie asked Applejack.
"We're running the snow plows! Well, to be honest, they're just the normal field plows, but we're using 'em to clear the snow."
"Hmmm..." Trixie said, as she looked out at the fields. "What pattern are you following?"
"Shucks, there ain't no pattern! We just let everypony go wherever they want. The whole thing'll be cleared up eventually!"
"That's not at all an efficient way to go about things, Applejack," Trixie said. "What you need is some magic!"
"Nuh uh. This is an Earth pony operation!"
"Look, a simple spell will take care of the situation," Trixie said. She levitated the snow around them and formed it into a large ball above them.
"See? I can do this for all the fields to make it simpler to move the snow!" Trixie said. She smiled, closed her eyes happily and trotted forward. Unfortunately, she didn't see the metal shovel lying on the path in front of her, and she stepped on it.
"Ow! Who left a shovel there?!"
"That's mine! Sorry!" Applejack said.
Trixie lost her concentration when the shovel hit her in the face, and she naturally stopped supporting the levitation spell. A few seconds later, the large snowball fell down on top of her. "Ouch!" Trixie cried.
Applejack winced. "Well, you cleared up some of the snow?"
Trixie shivered as she walked back into town. She had just come from visiting Pinkie Pie's team, which was assigned to helping the town's water resources. Thanks to a mix up, Trixie had fallen through a patch of thin ice and almost drowned in the cold water. She was almost certain that her mane would never be normal again.
After that, Trixie had spoken with the pegasi, who seemed to think that all their work was over, once they finished clearing the clouds. Trixie told them that they should clear the snow off of the rooftops, because they had an easy job reaching the top of buildings. No less than twenty seconds later, a huge sheaf of snow fell off a roof, directly on top of Trixie.
"Whoops! Sorry, Trixie!" Derpy said.
"Grrrr..." Trixie growled.
I don't know why I got volunteered for this job, Trixie thought miserably. I'm a magician, not a community organizer! Why didn't they give the job to Twilight "I'm so organized" Sparkle?
Twilight, obviously hoping to help out, had approached Trixie with a list of suggestions and improvements for the Emergency Winter Wrap Up campaign. Trixie stopped reading when she reached #9, "Hats and capes do not protect well against the cold. Earmuffs and jackets should be worn instead."
To Trixie's displeasure, she found all of Ponyville's unicorn residents, relaxing in the town courtyard. As somepony who had been working all day, Trixie felt like screaming at them.
"Unicorns! What are you doing here? Why aren't you helping?"
"It's Winter Wrap Up," Lyra said. "Unicorns aren't allowed to participate!"
"But that makes no sense!" Trixie said. "We could use warming spells to melt the entire—"
"Shhhh! You want somepony to overhear?" Vinyl Scratch asked.
"Wh-what?" Trixie asked.
Rarity walked up and kindly explained things to Trixie. "You probably haven't been told this, because you're new in town. Every Winter Wrap Up, the unicorns take a free holiday from work."
"Last year, it took the Earth ponies four whole days to clear up all the snow! We almost had the entire week off!" Lyra said enthusiastically.
"Are...are you serious?" Trixie asked. "Don't the Earth ponies know we could melt all the snow with magic in under an hour?"
"Dunno. I'm not even sure they know that snow melts by itself, to be honest..."
Trixie rubbed her chin. "Well...since I'm a unicorn, I suppose I could take a little break...it's been a rough day."
"I wasn't going to mention it, Darling, but I can tell that you fell in some snow," Rarity said. "Let me fix your mane for you! You'll look and feel better!"
Trixie took the rest of the day off after that.
"Today has been productive," Discord decided. Trixie Lulamoon, the Element of Magic, was actually quite powerless in situations where magic couldn't be used. He now knew that he could easily defeat her by making her horn disappear.
Then there was Trixie's daughter, Scootaloo. It seemed that she could also wield the Element of Magic in certain situations, maybe because she was a princess. Discord was certain that he could easily nullify Scootaloo's abilities.
What was her special talent, again? Believing in her friends? Ha! I can fix that.
Over near Sweet Apple Acres, Applebloom walked side-by-side, with her new best friend, Sweetie Belle.
"We could get our cutie marks in shoveling snow!" Sweetie Belle said.
Applebloom made a face. "I don't want a cutie mark that means I have to do work!"
"No, it'd be great!" Sweetie Belle said. "You'd only work three months out of the year! The rest of the time, you don't have to do anything!"
"Hey, yeah! Good thinkin'!"
Their discussion was interrupted when an orange filly chased after them. "Wait, hold up!" Scootaloo called. "Sweetie Belle! Applebloom! Waaaait!"
"It's her again," Applebloom muttered. This would be awkward.
"Hi, Scootaloo. What do you want?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"I was hoping I could spend some time with you for a while," Scootaloo said brightly.
"Um...we're gonna be busy today. Sorry."
"But that's what you said yesterday!" Scootaloo said. She stomped her left hoof on the ground. "You two have been avoiding me all week! Why?"
The two fillies looked reluctantly at each other. "Well...we sorta formed a new club, called the Cutie Mark Crusaders," Sweetie Belle said. "Our goal is help all ponies get their cutie marks and find their special talent."
"That's a neat idea!" Scootaloo said. "How can I help?"
"You can't."
"What? Why not?" Scootaloo asked.
"The Cutie Mark Crusaders is for blank flanks only," Applebloom said. "And you can't join, because you already have your cutie mark."
Scootaloo looked at the heart-and-star cutie mark that she got from fighting Nightmare Moon. Since she didn't look at her flank all that often, she sometimes forgot that her cutie mark was there.
"I'm really glad you found your special talent, but Applebloom and I haven't," Sweetie Belle said. "So I guess that means we can't hang out as much anymore. Sorry."
"...Oh." Scootaloo said.
"Besides, you're a princess now! I'm sure you're real busy, right?"
"...Right. I'm busy...with princessy stuff," Scootaloo said. She turned around so her friends couldn't see the tears beginning to form in her eyes. "Goodbye, then."
"Bye, Scootaloo!"
"Goodbye! See ya in school!"