//------------------------------// // 2. The Calm Before... // Story: Ten Years Gone // by Some Other Guy //------------------------------// Chapter 2: The Calm Before...   ---   "Whitetail?" I muttered, staring sidelong at the little albino-tailed snivel-rat who had just walked me straight to the gates of Hell. The atmosphere in the room was about as tense as an impending nuclear blast, with its center being that impossible pink pony who now stood gaping at me, as still as a rock. At least until she started buzzing with excitement—literally. I wouldn't have been surprised if the universe about to implode right then and there.   "...Yeah?" He looked a little nervous when he responded to my inquiry. Good, that meant he could see the murder in my eyes. But by then, it was already too late, for the Pink Apocalypse had arrived at last.   "Ohmygosh!" My world suddenly became a whirlwind of pink and high-pitched noise, and I learned then and there that it was indeed possible to speak ten thousand words per second. It was downright impossible to make out everything she said, so I just tried to filter most of it out, standing at attention like an army recruit who was getting ripped to shreds by R. Lee Ermey. I had to wonder, what would be the results of a shouting match between the two?   The gist of it was more or less Pinkie introducing herself, thinking about throwing a party, being excited to see a new face in town, planning on throwing a party, commenting on my infernal resemblance to Spike, talking about throwing a damned party, mentioning something about an emergency stash of elephant tranquilizers... My head was pounding from me trying to keep my gaze on her as she bounced all over the place—forget that her voice was like a jackhammer to my eardrums. Taking in a deep breath, I spoke my next words as calmly as I could, given my current situation.   "Leaving now!"   For my completely rational decision, I turned around and vaulted through the nearest open window—opening the door would've taken me too long—landing onto a table outside and sending it crashing onto its side. I hardly registered the commotion as its contents scattered or the shocked exclamations of the two mares that occupied it, though I took pride in the sound of Whitetail audibly choking on his own spit as I scrambled to my feet and ran off into the street. I didn't care which direction I was going in, so long as it took me as far away from that bakery as possible.   Unless Ponyville happened to be a black hole in the sense that every direction only took one closer to its center—I've heard of prisons in Canissia South which were spell-crafted to work that way.   Street by street, I kept up the pace, and only slowed to a walk when I glanced back saw no trace of the bakery or a pink whirlwind coming after me. So she wasn't chasing after me like Twilight was; I didn't know whether to consider that a good thing or a bad one, because that could've meant just about anything. What I did achieve was another quiet moment to myself, with nothing but me and my thoughts as I took one step after another, surrounded by quaint buildings and ponies whose names I either never known or had long forgotten.   In a sense, it was all so very ironic; being here now brought me back to a time when I had seen this town and its inhabitants once a week through a flatscreen monitor. I knew for a fact that quite a few people would commit murder to be in my position, and yet here I was, making plans to put an ocean's worth of distance between it and myself at my earliest convenience.   What those hypothetical people didn't seem to acknowledge was that ponies had an instinctive phobia of the unknown. In this regard, I was lucky to have been receiving stares from them at the worst, for I already looked enough like someone they were already used to seeing. Had I woken up on the first day as a human in this very town, I wouldn't be running from them—they would be running from me. And that would become the very least of my problems.   But as my breathing grew steadier and my heart rate slowed to normal, I had to wonder if I wasn't blowing things hilariously out of proportion. I mean, sure, my uncanny resemblance to the only other civilized dragon in the entire nation was going to warrant quite a few questions, but that didn't mean the Element Bearers were going to tie me to a chair and interrogate me...   Well, I wouldn't put it past Twilight Sparkle to do just that, but as for the others? Pinkie was hardly more than a physics-defying chatterbox, and I just made a fool of myself in front of her, Whitetail and just about everyone who was walking by the bakery just then.   "I'm never going to hear the end of it..." I huffed. Knowing him, my stunt was probably going to be the butt of his jokes for a few weeks in the least. But if that was the worst that would come of our rest stop before the trip to Canterlot, I would gladly leave it as such. In the meantime, I tucked my hands into my pockets and tried to admire the scenery.   Somewhere along the way, I found myself back on the street with the market stalls, and my pace slowed to a stop as I observed the town in the golden glow of late afternoon. For a moment, I felt as though I was back on one of many camping trips in the Appalachians. A slice of my old home, and one that I still cherished as deeply as the memories I had of my family.   The crowd from before had gotten smaller in the short time since I had last been here, but perhaps that was more due to some of the stalls closing down for the day. My hand moved to my gut as an innocuous pang reminded me of what I was doing wandering around Ponyville to begin with... And I just fled from a bakery of all places.   I resisted the urge to plant a hand to my forehead and shrugged to myself, moving into the now-thinning crowd for a second time. It probably wouldn't matter much, given that Canterlot was bound to make up for it in spades, so I walked up to a nearby stall that was laden with apples and—   Apples? Let me take a wild guess...   And sure enough, when I looked to the stall's owner, it turned out to be none other than Applejack—trademark stetson and all—and she turned to me at the same time, eyes widening in surprise as she took in my sudden appearance.   There must have been a bored deity out there somewhere who thought it would be hilarious to put me through this ridiculous series of events—from Twilight to Pinkie and now to the mare right before me. The only way this could get any more contrived was is if Rainbow Dash tackled me through What's-It-Called's window and had Rarity and Fluttershy cart me to the hospital in a wheelbarrow. Perhaps I should make changes to my current strategy while I still could... I was getting hungrier by the minute anyway, so I gave the vendor a smile and tried to clamp down on my growing anxiety.   "So how much do you charge for a half-peck?" I asked, digging into my pockets for whatever spare change I had stuffed into them. She blinked at me a few times before shaking her head to come to her senses, mumbling something under her breath as she adjusted her hat.   "...It's three bits, sugarcube." Applejack snatched up a paper bag from the side of the stand and tipped into it over a dozen of her fare, and I managed to excavate four coins from the pocket lint. We silently made the exchange, and I made a mental note to find Grizzly to take back some of the money I left with her. Alas, I only took two steps away with the bag in hand when she spoke up again. "So what brings you to Ponyville? We don't really get dragons stopping by 'round these parts," she inquired, western drawl and all. At least it wasn't unpleasant to listen to.   "It's more or less the last rest stop on my trip to Canterlot. I'm taking the train out first thing tomorrow morning." I could see where she was trying to lead this, but where was the harm in telling a few truths and evading whatever hit too close to home?   "So soon?" I nodded, crossing my arms. And now for the million-dollar question... "I don't mean to jump to conclusions or anythin', but I was thinking you were here to visit someone. D'you know that there's a baby dragon in town who looks just like you?" I raised my brow, and was in the midst of putting the finishing touches on my list of excuses when I saw a familiar old minotaur wander into view, and he had apparently just gone on a shopping spree to boot. I burst out into giggle fits at the mere sight of him.   "Alcaeus, if you were carrying any more bags, I'd swear you were trying to outdo my grandmother." When he stopped to look at me, the expression plastered on his face made me regret the fact that it was Whitetail who always lugged our camera around. The resulting picture would've been priceless—and knowing him, he would've been ready for it too.   "Well, that's hardly fair. I'd never be able to compete with someone who can sit down and flatten a house," he retorted. I had to hold a hand to my gut to keep myself from doubling over at the mental image he just gave me. My grandmother was neither a dragon nor heavy by human standards, but I was reminded of a joke my dad told about the bags she always took with her on trips; one which involved that one theory about dropping a penny from the Empire State Building.   "And you're forgetting something important, Kaz. It's going to take an entire day for our train to scale that mountain. That means food which isn't going to stink up the train by the time we have breakfast the day after tomorrow." To emphasize his point, he spread his arms out, displaying each and every one of the paper bags that hung from both of them. To me, he looked like a giant hairy bat with its wings ripped, and Applejack looked at him like he had grown a second head.   "If you don't mind me sayin', that looks more like a week's worth of food than something to last a day..."   "That's because we've got two others coming with us whose stomachs are bigger on the inside," I half-joked, wondering at how abruptly I came to feel more at ease. Then again, maybe it was just the fact that I could always count on the minotaur to pull me out of the metaphorical fire. The next smile I gave the farmpony was genuine this time around. "Speaking of food..." I began, pulling an apple from my own bag and biting into it. And as far as apples went, it was definitely one of the best I've eaten in terms of overall quality. The look of pride on the mare's face wasn't lost on me as I chewed a few more bites with relish, and I decided that it couldn't hurt to fan that pride a little more. "You know, I haven't tasted an apple as good as this in forever—"   "FOREVER!"   At that same moment, something erupted from the stand, sending a number of apples flying as it emerged from its depths. Something that was pink all over and staring at us with a wide grin. I didn't stick around to see who it was, putting myself behind the graying minotaur like the world's most effective meat-shield. But I still had to ask one very important question:   "For the love of God, Pinkie! Why?!"   "I'm more concerned about how you snuck into my cart without me noticing!" Applejack huffed, bending down to snatch up what had fallen from the stand.   "And I'm more concerned about what you are doing in there to begin with," Alcaeus deadpanned. With the bags still on his arms, he stepped forward and hoisted the Pink Menace from the stand, setting her gently back onto the ground like it was just any other day for him. "Now, would you care to explain yourself, ma'am?"   So she did.   ---   "I hope you learned your lesson well, you old bull."   "What lesson? That if you ever need something in a pinch, just ask the pink mare who works at the bakery?" Alcaeus guessed, motioning to the trolley cart that trundled close behind, now laden with three times as much as what he had been carrying before. Half of it was now food from the bakery, and with the odd addition of a classy suit tailored to a stallion's build. He apparently caught the scowl I gave at his answer, even with the evening sky getting steadily darker in the last moments of the sunset.   "That you should under no circumstances ask Pinkie Pie to ever explain herself. That tangent took long enough for what's-her-face to pack up and leave, and for Whitetail here to catch up to us while carrying his own weight in baked goods!" I snapped, jabbing a thumb in the direction of the cause for today's crisis. The unicorn in question let out a chuckle that came out more as a pained groan as he hobbled along.   "Yeah, remind me not to try that again. I really underestimated the weight of those cakes..."   "You just need to learn to tolerate others better. And I mean inwardly, Kaz. Keeping your mouth shut doesn't do much if you feel like you're going to go flying off the handle at a moment's notice. Speaking of which..." Alcaeus trailed off, turning to face the silhouette of an approaching griffin. And from the way she was moving, I could tell right off the bat that she wasn't happy either.   "You probably can't see it right now, but I just got a massive bruise on my cheek from being sucker-punched for the worst of reasons." Grizzly's words came out clipped and laced with a sarcastic tone, which I came to understand meant that the perpetrator got off lightly for their transgressions. As she fell into step with the rest of us, I took a small, selfish comfort in not being the only one who had a bad day.   "Trust me, we can see it just fine. The question is, how'd you manage to earn that in a place like this?" Whitetail asked, his laughter now sounding much less like an expression of pain. Which was a perfectly valid question, considering that the worst I ever got from any of the town's residents was a glare from some brown pony with an hourglass for a Cutie Mark that had been downright terrifying—and he happened to be the lone exception to the rest of the town's residents.   "Oh, I didn't have to do much. I just happen to bump into some wallflower pegasus who starts freaking out at the sight of me, and then her wildcard friend just so happens to mistake me for another griffin she knows and sees that as good enough reason to slug me in the face! I swear, if she hadn't had the decency to apologize..." And as she continued to vent her indignation at us, I found myself guessing the names of the two pegasi that had crossed paths with her. For a moment, I felt tempted to ask if one of them had a rainbow-colored mane and flew like a fighter jet, but it would've only served to further complicate things.   "So, first thing tomorrow then?" Alcaeus interjected, an innocent grin plastered on his face, and the griffin gave him a passionate nod.   "Yes. And be glad that you stocked us up on food supplies, because we're not stopping for anything tomorrow morning. And I mean anything: It's straight to the train station for us," Grizzly declared, and I could've jumped for joy. In truth, Whitetail was the only one who looked disappointed at this news, and he mumbled something about a mare he wanted to invite to a local restaurant. So was that how a suit ended up with a bunch of our groceries? "Anyway, I rented us a place for the night, and funny enough, we're all headed more-or-less in the right direction. So let's try to make the best of what's left of a bad day, shall we?"   ---   "So you actually got her name?"   "I sure did, and the names of her companions too!"   Twilight and Spike both exchanged looks of excitement at Pinkie Pie's news, mingled with relief that their fruitless search had finally turned up a lead to go on. She shook her head as Spike pulled out a quill and a scrap of parchment; they had spent over an hour searching across the whole town, and it turned out that the stranger hadn't gone nearly as far as she assumed. It was like one of those puzzle mazes where the endpoint was on the most straightforward path, but she had never noticed it until after getting fed up with every other option.   "Ready when you are."   "The dragon's name is Kaz, and there was a pony called Whitetail and a minotaur called Alcaeus, I think. Though there might've been another whose name I didn't catch, but..."   "S'good enough for me!" A smile grew on the little dragon's face as he wrote down all he needed to, but there was something about hearing those names together that gave Twilight a feeling that she had heard of them before. And the longer she dwelt on it, the more she felt she knew where to look to find the answer. Something involving a recent discovery and the vague beginnings of a backup plan at the time of Nightmare Moon's return, somewhere to turn to in case the Elements of Harmony hadn't worked...   "Just a heads up for you two; they're taking the train to Canterlot tomorrow morning. You'd best be quick if you want to catch up to them!"   "Well, at least we'll know where to look. Thanks, Pinkie!" Wasting not another moment, she levitated Spike onto her back and sped off, hardly noticing as his ankles dug into her sides to keep balance.   "Whoa! What's the rush?"   "I just remembered something when she brought up those particular names. Trust me Spike, it'll be worth it," she reassured him. Running through the darkened streets, she could almost picture another figure sprinting away far ahead of her, and once again, the alicorn silently repeated the same line of questions that had plagued her for the past hour. Why did that dragon Kaz run away the moment she saw them? She and Spike clearly had some sort of blood relation; had she already known? What did it all mean, now that there was a solid link to the origins of Spike's egg? All of these things, only the stranger held the answers to, and as much as she didn't want to put anypony through a hassle just to hear them...   With the library in sight, Twilight slowed her pace enough to allow Spike to hop off, before flinging the door open and hurrying inside. She didn't stop at any of the shelves; most of those books wouldn't have had what she was looking for to begin with. Instead, she made her way to the door that led to the basement.   "The basement? What's down there that's going to help us?"   "Newspaper articles," Twilight answered, flicking the light switch and taking the steps two at a time. "Remember all those boxes we brought in from our old home in Canterlot?" Without another word, she trotted over to yet another door, this one leading to what had become a sort of storage space that was now packed full with stacks of boxes. Each one had been clearly labeled on its side, and it didn't take long to find the one that was marked Newspaper Collection, Year 1890. And as soon as she pulled the box from the stacks and pulled off the lid, she knew exactly what she had been searching for.   It was impossible to miss; it was the January 1st article, sitting proudly atop the rest, its front-page title boldly announcing 'INTREPID EXPLORERS REDISCOVER THE LOST SUNSPIRE', with a black-and-white picture directly beneath displaying four strangers huddled together against the backdrop of what was called the discovery of the century. Standing there with one arm around the minotaur's shoulder and the other forming a V-gesture with her fingers, smiling away at them without a care in the world, was the same dragon who had walked into the library earlier that day. Right down to everything except for the odd jacket that she wore in the photo.   "Wow, she's a real-life Daring Do?" Spike breathed. She scanned the front page for the first time in eight years, and started to flip to the page which continued the news story when that failed to bring up what she was looking for. It was with a sigh that she gazed at the personal interviews that the journalist had taken with each of the four—she had been so caught up in the actual discovery back then, and didn't even bother to read more about the ones who discovered it.   And there were the names, just as she had suspected; Grizelda le Aurélie, Alcaeus of Minostead, Whitetail of Equiferus, and Kazimira 'Kaz' Blackwell.   "Do you see that, Spike? It was what the unicorn tribe pooled their magic into so that they could raise the sun and the moon, at least until the Windigos forced them all to relocate. I remembered this just now because the Sunspire was going to be my second option if the Elements of Harmony didn't work when Nightmare Moon returned. I never really had the chance to make an actual plan, but..."   "But look what it just led us to," Spike finished, hushed and wide-eyed. She lowered the newspaper to the floor, and together in silence, the duo read the interview from eight years past.   ---   "Right, thank you for speaking with us. Could you tell the dragoness it's her turn on your way out?"   "Of course! But just a heads-up for you, Mister Prose; we aren't kidding when we're saying that she's a shy one. So be careful not to spook her too badly, yeah?" With that forewarning, Grizelda stood up and walked out of the room, and Purple Prose grabbed another roll of parchment with his magic and readied his quill. By the time the next interviewee stepped in, he had already started writing yet another preamble. But when he looked up, she was still standing by the door, shuffling from foot to foot with an anxious look on her face.   "There's no need to feel nervous, ma'am. Would you please take a seat?" he offered, taking care to heed the griffin's words and spoke more gently than he normally did. The way she reacted made Prose wonder if a ghost hadn't slapped her in the face.   "Right, sorry about that, I was just..." she trailed off, hurrying over to the chair that sat across from him. The dragoness sat down on her own tail in her rush to be where he told her to go, and though she jumped back up with a scowl, it seemed to make her less jittery. She broke into a rueful grin. "I'm only nervous because they're all telling me that our discovery's going to make us famous. I've always had a bit of stage fright, you know?"   "I understand completely, Miss...?" he began, noting silently how she seemed to flinch at being called Miss. Widowed, perhaps? Or was it something else?   "Call me Kaz... Or Kazimira Blackwell, whatever floats your boat."   "To be honest, Miss Blackwell, it truly is a staggering discovery. The Sunspire's location has been lost since the founding of Equestria, and it's been an outright myth ever since the Days of Discord. You may not become an outright celebrity, but I can say for certain that you and your friends have just earned yourselves a spot in the history books that can be found in every school." To his surprise, Kazimira burst into laughter at his last sentence.   "Real charming, sir. Little foals will be cursing my name for the rest of time as they're forced to write essays about me. I'll die happy knowing that one."   "So you feel accomplished, then? You're the second dragon to play a big part in recent history, you know," he said, making a smooth attempt to put the interview back on track. Humor was all well and good, but it still had to go somewhere by the end of it all. Kaz's mirth was replaced with confusion for a moment, and then realization.   "Oh, you're talking about Spike—!" Again, she flinched, and seemed to be in a panic before finding her words again. "But yeah, it's an accomplishment. Please go on." Purple Prose kept himself from grinning as he continued to write—her body language spoke volumes, and he was having a field day with it. Just as soon as I jot down that interesting little tidbit, my dear...   ---   Twilight lifted her head from the article, finding Spike gazing back at her, looking just as speechless as she was. For a moment, they both simply sat there in silence, which grew ever so deafening before she took in a deep breath to speak what they already knew.   "So... She knew about you all along. And she never once thought to..." she trailed off. That dragoness knew for a fact that Spike was growing up alone among ponies, and not once did she even think to come along and offer him any insight into his own heritage? Not after at least eight years, not even after his greed-growth, identity crisis, and everything else along the way?   How dare she?   "What does it mean, then?" he asked, still looking half-stunned. Fuming, Twilight took in another deep breath, slowly let it out to calm herself down. She already knew what it meant, and she was going to make that dragoness regret every single year of it.   "Take a letter, Spike. It means that we're going to have a little royal chat with this Kazimira. And I won't take no for an answer."