Chapter 2.4, Here It Stays, Twilight Sparkle's Story
"So we meet again, Twilight Sparkle." Trixie sneered.
"Um, yeah. Hi, Trixie," Twilight said.
The two of them were in Twilight's room, a place Trixie had explored the last time she was here. And she was definitely glad that she didn't just start destroying the books last time. She had to admit, that bed was comfy.
"First off, were you worried about me when I didn't arrive yesterday?" Trixie fired.
"What? Does this have anything to do with anything?"
"Just answer the question."
Twilight looked down. "Well, sure. But really, there were other things on my mind yesterday."
"So you didn't care about me at all?" Trixie's eyes widened sadly, and she bit her lower lip.
"I'm not saying that, Trixie. I did invite you over, afterall."
"That's true." A deep breath helped Trixie regain her usual swagger. "Anyway, let's begin. Do you have any idea what that note meant?"
Twilight shook her head. "I can't even think about what it might mean. I don't know who would call themselves Stars either."
"Then why don't you take me through your day?"
"Okay. The morning was..."
The morning was chilly, but fine. Twilight was looking forward to the new year and all that it would bring with excitement. There were so many new experiences and lessons to learn. Ponyville was covered in a layer of snow, and clouds lazily drifted through the sky. Enjoying the view through the window next to her was a purple dragon, her assistant, Spike.
Later that day, Pinkie was throwing the It's a New Year to Cheer party at the library. A lot of things still needed to be cleaned up, mostly odd research material that she had been looking at the night before and random diagrams.
"Come on, Spike," she said perkily. "We should put these away for the party."
"Sure thing, Twilight!"
Their first visitor came much earlier than they had anticipated, however. Whilst in the middle of putting away books and other things in the main room, Rainbow Dash came bursting through the door.
"Twilight! Hey, Twilight!" the pegasus called out.
"What is it? Is everything alright?" Twilight asked.
"Better than alright, check this out!" Rainbow thrust out the shimmering, rainbow-toned present. "It's from Princess Celestia! Did you get one, too?"
Twilight eyed the present suspiciously. "Princess Celestia? What is it?"
"I have no idea!" Rainbow exclaimed. "I'm not supposed to open it until tomorrow." She placed the A card onto the table. "This is so wow. I've never gotten anything from Princess Celestia before."
Twilight mumbled to herself, reading out the content. It merely stated, "Only open in the new year, Princess Celestia." It was definitely the princess's magicwriting.
"Yes," Twilight mumbled. She shifted her gaze away from the card to the gift. A careful air was around her.
Why would Princess Celestia send something to Rainbow Dash? Twilight hadn't gotten anything important in the mail at all, just a bunch of advertisements. It wasn't that she believed Rainbow Dash wasn't deserving, but what exactly was sent? Was it a magical item of some sort. Just from a quick examination, she could tell that there was magic inside the present. A soft glow enveloped both her horn and the present. It was carefully levitated into the air.
"Hey!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed. "Get your own."
"I didn't receive anything like this," Twilight noted. "I'm not sure, but I think I should take a look at it, make sure it's safe." She didn't want to sound like an alarmist.
Rainbow Dash made a swipe for the gift, but it floated away. "Come on, what's the worst that could happen?"
"I don't know how much you remember, but last time Celestia sent something, it completely changed your true self."
"Wasn't that because you were poking with it?" Rainbow Dash shot.
"Well." Twilight looked away. Okay, that part was true. But this time, she would be much more careful.
"And look how that turned out." Rainbow spread open her wings. "Hey, maybe I'll become an alicorn, too! Give me!" She surged up towards the present with hooves outstretched. Just before making contact, the gift flashed away.
Twilight had teleported it, and herself, to the center table. She gave a quick tap to the card. "You're not supposed to open it yet anyway, according to the card."
"How are you going to examining it, then?"
"I have ways. Don't worry, Rainbow, I won't do anything to it." Twilight smiled at her crestfallen friend. "You'll get it back. I just want to make sure it's not something magically obtuse."
"You promise to give it back, right?"
Twilight nodded. "Of course, Rainbow Dash. I have no intention of keeping your present." She started her work immediately. "Spike, get me that book on magic detection."
"Aw," the small dragon groaned. "I just put that away." Still, he dutifully climbed up a stepladder to pluck out a thick, green book from the shelf. He merely held it out for Twilight to levitate over.
Every movement Twilight did seemed to make the hair on the back of her neck stand up. She looked around to see Rainbow Dash staring. Even a simple page flip caused her friend to become more alert. "You can sit down, if you want."
"I'm fine right here," Rainbow Dash said.
Twilight forced the uncomfortable sensation out of her mind and returned to the present. It looked normal, but magical energies were pouring out from it. The feeling was faint, something she couldn't feel unless her cheek was near touching it. From her book, she cast several spells. It confirmed that the gift contained magic as all of her attempts to check was it was slipped right through. That did not help with figuring out what was inside at all.
"Spike, get me the magnifying glass, and the book on detection spells, volume two," Twilight ordered. A mess soon piled up on the table again.
Fluttershy and Applejack dropped by, interrupting Twilight's concentration. The others began chatting, mostly about the present. There was no way she was going to be able to work with all the noise, and she was getting frustrated at how none of the things she tried worked. She decided to take a break and chat with her friends for a bit.
Pinkie Pie was the last to arrive, bursting in with bags upon bags of party decorations. The pink pony shot down any chance of concentrating in the main room. Pinkie wanted to start decorating, so everyone was asked to leave. Twilight went back to her room, where she could research in silence. For the moment, she left the present where in the main room. Mostly, it was just to reassure Rainbow Dash, who didn't seem to want to leave.
Spike had been conscripted to help Pinkie Pie with the decorating, so it was just Twilight. But that was fine with her. Being alone in her room was how she focused best. The huge pile of materials sat on the study desk, waiting to be perused.
Time seemed to pass by silently, and the world melted away when she started looking over the spell books.
("Oh, Twilight," Trixie interrupted.
"What is it?"
"This reminds the Great and Powerful Trixie, there was a book I wanted to borrow."
"What book would that be?" Twilight asked brightly. "I've got all kinds, though you're oddly one of the few ponies that actually want to borrow anything."
"Prestidigitation Tactics," Trixie said.
"Yeah. I'll find it for you we're done here. Anyway, where was I?")
While researching, time seemed to pass by silently, and the world melted away. Someone tried to get Twilight's attention, but she merely waved her hoof and said, "Okay." She was currently at a good part of her research and put all of her attention into that.
Her initial bright-eyed optimism dipped when she realized that the spell wouldn't help much. And Twilight was finding it increasingly hard to concentrate. The words just seemed to jumble together into an unreadable mess.
She staggered away from the desk in a daze. Her body, limbs and wings all strained as they were forced to move again. The early night had fallen. Twilight let out a small gasp. Though the clock read it was still an hour to the party, hopefully, it was still on the same day. It had been known for her to read for a long time before.
Twilight rushed downstairs, almost crashing into Spike.
"What day is it?" she asked.
"New Year's Eve?" he said uncertainly, as if this was some sort of trick question.
A sigh of relief escaped her mouth as she realized the party hadn't yet started. Going downstairs, Twilight found the main room barely recognizable under all that colorful decoration. It was bright and cheerful, with balloons, streamers and a banner hanging across the middle.
"Ooh, the space looks wonderful," Twilight said.
"I helped," Spike pointed out.
"And you did a nice job."
Pinkie hopped with her hooves fluttering cheerfully. "My first two guests!" She tossed party hats on the two of them.
"The party isn't starting for a while, Pinkie," Twilight said.
"It's never too early! Here, have some punch." While speaking, she had already gotten them some punch. "You know, it's really strange but Trixie still isn't here."
"Yeah," Twilight said. "I wonder if she found something else to do?"
"And I had gotten eight shares of everything too," Pinkie said glumly.
Twilight suddenly had both arms on Pinkie. "If Trixie doesn't arrive, will everything portion out evenly?"
"Um, sure?"
Twilight began pacing around. Her drink was floating by her head through use of magic. "Cutting things into seven is so annoying. It's not like we can just do three slices, sixty degrees apart from one another. Maybe we could mush everything up and do it by weight."
All Spike could do in response was slap his own forehead. "This isn't the time to worry about that, Twilight."
Pinkie Pie collected the party food meant for Trixie. "Why don't we just put it away for now and give them to Trixie once she's here?"
That was a satisfactory solution to Twilight. She took a nice, calming sip of punch.
("I'm certainly glad that you didn't give my portion to the others," Trixie said.
"Yeah, sorry. But you hadn't arrived yet, and it seemed unlikely that you would come later. But, hey, you're here now. We still have it saved up for you."
"I already got some, thanks.")
Everyone else started to arrive. Rainbow Dash was relieved to see that her present was still sitting on the table. Twilight hadn't really found any answers for the present yet and still regarded it with suspicion, but there was no need to bring down the mood right now.
"So, we're going out afterwards, right?" Applejack asked.
"Yeah. It will be nice to enjoy the new year outdoors," Twilight said.
Rarity shook her head. "If you insist. I still don't see why you would insist, however."
Rainbow Dash was grinning near her present for most of the party.
Overall, things went great, and Twilight even forgot about the present for a while in the middle of all the drink, food and fun. Her dancing skills had gotten slightly worse with the addition of wings, but she boogied all over the floor only accidentally knocking over a few stacks of decorations.
After her wings nearly knocked over the punch bowl, Twilight decided to stop. She smiled when she noticed the clock hanging on the wall. A small pendulum swung underneath, bringing the second-hand ever-closer to the end of the current year.
"Hey, girls," she called out. It was less than a minute until the start of the next year, at least according to the library's clock.
Rainbow Dash pushed up her cheeks into a broad grin. "Almost time to open my present!"
Pinkie cheered, "Come on, come on. It's almost time for the new year! In Ten, nine, eight!"
Twilight joined in with the others as she counted down, "Seven! Six! Five! Four!"
"THREE!"
"TWO!"
"ONE!"
"HAP-"
But then, a loud crash shook the walls. Sounds of glass hitting the floor ringed out, and then a great gust of wind blew out all the lanterns in the room. The room was suddenly plunged into darkness. Everyone let out gasps of surprise and yelps of pain as they crashed into each other. All the moving brought down more crashing noises as decorations and books tumbled down. Everyone was trying to talk over one another, so no one was understandable.
"Calm down!" Twilight shouted.
A bright glow, coming from her horn, lit up the room, though it was still rather dim. Shadowy shapes flickered across the walls. A lot of the shelves were messy while much of the decorations have been pulled down. Rarity added her light to the mix.
"What happened?" Fluttershy asked. She was curled up on the ground.
"Someone broke the window," Rarity pointed out. "Who would do something as barbaric as that?"
There were shards of glass and pieces of the wooden frame on the ground. Using light steps, Twilight moved over to the window. She looked outside, but all that she could see were the lights from the rest of the village celebrating. There weren't even any hoofprints outside.
The loud exclamation of, "Hey!" brought her attention back inside.
Rainbow Dash pointed towards the central table. The present had vanished! "Alright, who took it?"
(That was when Twilight stopped talking. When it became apparent that she wasn't going to speak again, Trixie asked, "So? What happened to the present?"
Twilight let out a nervous chuckle and rubbed the back of her head. "I'm not sure. One moment, I went to check out what had happened to the window, the next, the present just vanished. I have no idea what happened to it."
"It was there before all the lights went out?" Trixie asked.
"Yes. I think so at least. I was more focused on the party." Twilight gave a weak laugh.
"And how long was it dark before you lit up the room with your horn?"
"Hmm, about fifteen seconds? Maybe." She shrugged. "We looked all through the library, but no one found anything. I hoped that we were just missing it because it was dark, but we didn't really find anything this morning either. So I'm not sure what happened to the present."
"Ah, ah." Trixie swept her hoof up dramatically. "You might not, Twilight, but the Great and Persistent Trixie is getting ever closer to the answer. You just sit tight for now. I still have a more ponies to interview!" The unicorn walked off leaving Twilight sitting there, bemused. There was something about that story that felt off, but there were still other tales to hear.)