~Flare~
Morning was heralded by the smell of waffles and stewed berries wafting into their room. It wasn’t enough to actually stir Flare to wakefulness, but it was a start. The real kicker was the sudden burst of sunlight that streamed into the room when their aunt drew the curtains open. Two ponies groaned, Flare being one of them.
“Time to get up, colts,” Pure Rain called out. “Breakfast is almost ready. If you stay in bed, your brothers will get all of it.”
“Okay Auntie…” Flare yawned, still sleepy. Reluctantly, he left the nest of sheets that had taken all night to form and crawled out of the soft bed before he drifted off again. He stretched, trying to get the stiffness out of his muscles, flapping his wings a bit, and checked on his brothers.
Sliver had burrowed deeper into his covers, though the faint and muffled complaints coming from the lump testified to the fact that he was still awake. Proud hadn’t moved at all, and was still curled up and tucked under his covers, snoring lightly. Flare picked Silver as his first target, prodding at him until the reluctant lump shifted towards the other end of the bed.
“Hey… get up, Silver,” Flare said, poking again.
“…o uwaay…” came the muffled response, the lump sliding a bit further.
“You’re gonna be sorry if you don’t,” Flare grinned, prodding him some more, watching his brother blindly head toward the edge of the bed. When all he got was another refusal, he poked one last time, and was rewarded with a yelp as Silver slid right off the edge of his bed and hit the ground with a thud. “Told ya.”
The fall made Silver even grumpier than he had been, and he just scowled when he dug himself out from the blankets, wadding them into a rough ball and tossing it on the bed contemptuously. “What time is it?”
“Breakfast time,” Flare said, looking at his own tangle of sheets and deciding that it wasn’t worth the effort to put some order to it.
Silver just yawned and headed to the door. He stopped just long enough to give Proud’s bed a solid kick, jolting their older brother to wakefulness. “Go back to sleep if you don’t want food,” Silver told him before leaving.
Proud, still in a daze, looked around. Flare sighed. If he left it up to Silver, Proud would slip back into sleep and miss breakfast. So he stomped his hoof a few times to get his brother’s attention, briefly reflecting on the time when he would clap. “Hey! Proud! Wake up. Auntie Rain has breakfast.”
“Huh?” Proud asked, still not that far from dreamland.
“Just come on,” Flare said, tugging on the blankets Proud was sitting on with his teeth. It was enough to get the yellow colt moving, albeit in a dazed fashion. When they got down to the kitchen, Silver was already there in the middle of a conversation with their Aunt.
“There’s nothing wrong with having hot chocolate. It’s tasty even in the summer,” Silver said fussily, playing with his plate, the small jars of sugar, syrup and cinnamon and the spoons. “And a small cup of milk too.”
“If that’s what you really want,” she said in a resigned fashion as Flare and Proud took their places. “I don’t suppose you two want hot chocolate as well?”
Flare shook his head. “Some apple juice would be fine, Aunt Rain.”
Proud just blinked, staring blankly at his plate, not yet awake.
“It would, wouldn’t it?” Rain said in a bemused fashion. Soon enough she set a bowl of stewed blueberries on the table, a matching bowl holding hoof-made whipped cream. A tall stack of waffles followed. The last thing, a bowl of scrambled eggs, came before Rain got their drinks and joined them at the table.
Silver immediately sprinkled some cinnamon in his hot chocolate and added a bit of the milk, stirring it well. Rain put a waffle on Proud’s plate, since the half sleeping foal seemed too out of it do it himself, adding a dollop of whipped cream and stewed berries to it. Flare tackled the eggs. It wasn’t long before all four members of household were making happy inroads into to the meal.
“Auntie Rain, how come you never told anyone you cooked this good?” Silver asked after swallowing a mouthful of waffles, cream and berries.
“Because then they would ask me to cater for family functions,” Rain said honestly, cutting her waffles into bite sized pieces. “I don’t enjoy cooking for large groups.”
“I’m gonna make sure and tell mom you cook awesome!” Proud said, having somehow fallen into his plate before waking up, berry juice still under his chin.
“I’ll deny it,” Rain responded blandly.
Flare sipped his juice silently; content to watch the others for now without making any comments on his part. He didn’t think it was easy for Pure Rain, suddenly being the guardian for three foals after establishing herself as a single for so long. To be honest, he wasn’t sure what she did for a living. Something to do with the dam and her cutie mark.
‘Flare’ didn’t know much more than that, mostly because he was never really interested and didn’t see his aunt more than a few times a year, generally around holidays when there were cousins around to play with. ‘James’, on the other hand, had more knowledge to draw on, and figured it would have something to do with power generation for the town. Water plus lightning bolt equaled hydroelectric power plant. But even that was just a guess.
“Blue Flare!” Aunt Rain’s voice cut into his introspective daze.
“What?” Flare jolted, looking around. His plate was pretty much empty, having been eating mechanically as his thoughts roamed, the other three at the table staring at him with different expressions. Aunt Rain’s brow was furrowed. Silver’s eyebrow was raised, but he snorted and rolled his eyes, turning back to his food, specifically his cooling mug of chocolate. Proud still hadn’t gotten the berry sauce from his chin and was watching Flare, chewing.
“Sorry. What did you say Aunt Rain?” Flare asked, ducking with a bit of embarrassment.
“I asked if you had any plans for the day,” Pure Rain repeated herself.
“Um…” Flare thought about it. Rumble said his brother had an early shift with the weather team, so even if he did say yes, that wouldn’t be until the evening. Aside from that there was just trying to find Twilight and getting to Princess Celestia. Oh, and the Summer Sun Celebration! “No, not really. Just exploring town and waiting for the Summer Sun Celebration.”
For some reason Silver glared at Proud when Flare mentioned the Summer Sun Celebration. Flare didn’t have much time to reflect on that as Aunt Rain nodded. “You three can explore town today, but don’t wander far out of town. And do not go anywhere near the Everfree Forest. It’s one of the most dangerous places in Equestria.”
Flare nodded and swallowed nervously, even as Silver and Proud tried to look haughty. Aunt Rain looked disapprovingly at them. “Do not test me on that one. The Everfree is deadly. I left your saddlebags by the door, and there are some bits in them in case you want to buy something in town and a sandwich for each of you. Do not lose or tear the bags; they are the same ones you will be using for school.”
There was a collective groan at that one.
“Your mother wouldn’t let me hear the end of it if I didn’t put you three in school,” Aunt Rain said, looking at the time. “I have to get to work in a while. Are you all finished?”
They all nodded, and she set about clearing and washing up the dishes before she left. It would have been fine if she didn’t leave Proud in charge. Personally, Flare didn’t mind, but Silver was fuming.
“This isn’t fair,” he muttered, angrily flipping the pages of his old copy of A Foal’s Guide to Magic, refreshing himself on the basics of unicorn magic.
“I am the older brother,” Proud said, humming happily to himself as he poked around the saddlebags. One set was green, a plain light blue shield clasping it, another was avocado and had open books for clasps, the last being the same blue as Flare’s hair, with lightning bolts.
“But I’m the more responsible one. I did all the planning and came up with all the ideas,” Silver complained. “I was even the one to plan the trip. You can’t even read a map.”
“So? Auntie Rain still put me in charge, so there!” Proud said, sticking his tongue out at Silver.
“You can’t even keep a secret! You told her about trying to get to Celestia. Again! Even when I said don’t!” Silver snorted before turning his attention back to the book.
“Guys, don’t start again,” Flare pleaded as he fumbled with the straps of the blue set, not quite understanding how he was with hooves, but not complaining either. One last tug of the straps secured the bags in place, and he stood up, shaking his barrel and flapping his wings a bit to make sure the fit was right. “Let’s just get through the day. It doesn’t matter who’s in charge and who’s not.”
The other two colts looked at him, Silver glaring, Proud grinned because he was the one teasing for once. Silver rolled his eyes and set the book aside while Proud responded happily. “No problem.”
“So where are we going first?” Flare asked.
“I’d say the library, so we talk to Twilight right away,” Proud responded, grabbing his own saddlebags and started getting them on with no problems.
“As much as I hate to admit it, I can’t think of a better idea,” Silver sighed. He pointed his horn at the last set of saddlebags, and a green glow surrounded it, lifting it up off the ground and onto his back. He did the straps with his hooves. When he looked up, he noticed both Proud and I staring at him with varying degrees of shock. “What?”
“How did you do that?” Proud asked.
“Last night you couldn’t even lift your toothbrush,” Flare added. He remembered. They laughed about both it and him running from the fillies.
“That was last night. I, I mean ‘Silver’ me, already knows how to use simple things like levitation. But I have more than thirty years of memories in here,” Silver scoffed, tapping at his head. “I don’t even think a year of that is how to use magic right. So I read up on the basics again so I could sort it out. Like reminding yourself how to do long division. I’m a fast reader.”
“You just used magic,” Flare said slowly, looking at his brother with a new light.
“I know,” Silver broke into a grin. “It’s awesome!”
Proud pounced on Silver; tackling him to the ground and wrapping him in a rough hug. “You did magic! That’s so cool!”
“Hey, lay off!” Silver laughed, trying to push Proud away. “I know I did, I was there!”
“Flare! Help me glomp Silver!” Proud ordered. Flare rolled his eyes, finding it pointless, but jumped in anyway, laughing along with them.
Eventually, they did calm down and actually head out. The morning bustle crowds were just getting started, and there was a palpable buzz in the air. The snippets of conversation they could hear almost always shared a common theme; the upcoming celebration. The Princess hosting the ceremony in Ponyville got everypony excited, and everypony working hard to make everything look the best. Everywhere they went; ponies were either cleaning, sprucing or freshening up something and, in a few cases, somepony.
“Maybe we can stop by Sugar Cube Corner,” Proud suggested, envisioning the treats.
“No way, we just ate,” Silver pointed out.
“And we have a bunch of leftover treats from the party,” Flare added. “Pinkie would have gotten them from their anyway.”
“But these would be freshly made, and we could see the Cakes, maybe the twins,” Proud said, pleading.
“Come on, Proud,” Flare started, but he was interrupted.
“Oh, good morning,” a vaguely familiar voice called. Flare looked up at the stallion smiling at them, a wagon covered with a tarp hitched behind him.
“Oh, good morning Mr. Turner,” Flare said, recognizing him from the party the night before.
“What are you colts up to this morning?” he asked in a kind fashion.
“Not much,” Silver said, not even exchanging a glance with the others. “We plan to look around town some more, learn where everything is. Aunt Rain said it was okay and everything. What are you doing?”
“Oh, the mayor asked me to do a check up on the clock tower before the celebration. You know how it is. It wouldn’t be proper if the clock tower was off on the most important sunrise of the year and all,” Time Turner said in a slightly quickly manner, wrinkling his muzzle. “You know what would be a good idea? Stopping by Town Hall. They have a lovely gift shop and maps of the town. Can’t beat a map for learning where everything is. Unless you have a tour. A map and tour guide. That’s grand. But I don’t suppose a couple of colts want a guide, you want to do it yourself, right?”
Flare couldn’t help but smile at the clocksmith’s rambling speech. For some reason, he reminded him of someone with his vaguely connected ideas. The map did sound like a good thing to get though. It would be much better than just wandering around town, hoping for the best and not letting Proud get the directions again.
“A guide would be nice,” Proud said.
“But doing it ourselves is better,” Silver interjected. Flare grinned at the look on Proud’s face as silver went on. “Do you know how to get to the library from here, Mr. Turner?”
“Oh, that’s easy enough,” he said, looking over his shoulder. “Just keep on this street till you reach the Café and go right until you hit the fountain. Veer left from there and take the second avenue; then left at Nails and Things, then one last right at the Quills and Sofas and keep going until you see the big tree. Easy enough.”
Silver murmured the directions under his breath to himself a few times and nodded confidently. “Got it.”
“Thanks Mr. Turner,” Flare grinned at the stallion.
“Ahhh, not a problem. You go off and have fun now,” Time Turner said before heading off to his task again.
Another thing Ponyville had in its favour was that it was somewhat used to rambunctious foals galloping across town, especially on a day like that one, with an important celebration only a few hours away. Armed with their directions, and led by the more navigation savvy of the brothers, the colts charged off to their destination
Of course, the enthusiasm died down, especially after Proud veered right at the fountain instead of left. The gallop had quickly decayed to a canter, then a trot, and by the time the large living library was in sight, they were walking.
“We’re finally going to get help,” Proud said, prancing a little. “And we get to meet Twilight while we’re at it!”
“Careful, you might get lost again,” Silver said in a surly manner.
“I can see the library,” Proud huffed with a little snort. “What makes you think I’d get lost between here and there, Silver Prose?”
“Past experience,” Silver muttered, looking around with wary expression.
“What’s eating you?” Flare asked, concerned. He had depended on Silver’s instincts the day before. “You’re starting to get all weird again. Like last night.”
“I dunno…” Silver sighed.
Proud wasn’t having any of it. “Nuh-uh! You got out of it last night, not this time. What’s wrong?”
“Fine…” Silver said, drawing it out as if it was the hardest thing in the world. He stopped and looked up at the sky and at the respectable amount of clouds shading the town. “Doesn’t it seem too convenient? I mean, we wake up here, we know things, we even have family waiting for us and a party, not to mention two chances of meeting the two people who might help…”
“I don’t get it,” Proud said after a moment. “We talk to Twilight and get her to send Princess Celestia a letter. What’s weird about that?”
Flare ran Silver’s thoughts through his head. He was right about the coincidences lining up, but was it strange enough to warrant that sort of unease? “You sure you’re not just over thinking things?”
“Okay, look at it this way,” Silver said, starting to sketch a rough diagram in the air with a hoof. “Proud wanted us to be closer together, right? We became brothers. You wanted a better quality of life. We moved to Ponyville to live with our well-off aunt. I wanted things to be exciting and not monotonous. I don’t really see that happening yet. It’s like I’m, we’re missing something obvious. Obvious and important. So I’m just waiting for the horseshoe to drop.”
“Did you just say ‘horseshoe’?” Proud asked, trying to lighten the mood. “You got to stop trying to blame yourself. We already told you that. We sung about it.”
Flare groaned at that memory, but only half-heartedly, being more caught up thinking about what Silver said. Aside from waking up a pony, nothing really dramatic happened. Unless you counted Silver’s behaviour the night before; and that wasn’t anything unusual.
“I’m not trying to blame myself, I’m just… trying to be prepared,” Silver said firmly. “And if ‘horseshoe drops’ bugs you, I can go with ‘the bit is in the air’. Better?”
“Aren’t you the guy that likes to do everything by the tip of his wings?” Proud asked, using a pony term, only to ruin it by using a human one the next sentence. “It’s a blue moon when you want to plan everything.”
“No, it couldn’t be…” Flare realized what they have been overlooking. And Silver was right; it had been obvious, staring at them in the face the whole time. He galloped off, leaving Silver and Proud behind as he made for the library, not hearing their yells of surprise. “Please tell me I’m wrong.”
Since yesterday, ‘James’ had mostly taken backseat to ‘Flare’, but he was pretty much yanking the wheel back at the moment. Not many ponies were around, most being busy elsewhere, so it was pretty clear and empty. The library looked different from what he expected form the show, but then, most things did. It was larger, for one, more of a landmark or regional wonder, considering the width of the tree trunk. It had the windows and balconies he expected, but there were no telescopes. There were no telescopes.
It had been staring them in the face, and they had been too caught up being ‘themselves’ to notice it. He skidded to an awkward stop by the door. There was a note pinned to it, one carefully written in the cursive script of common unicorn, copied below in the runes of earth pony script.
Dear Library Patrons,
As much as it saddens me, the time has come for me to put my final book away and charge my final fine. I have served long as Ponyville's librarian and enjoyed every year of it. It is with fond memories I look back at introducing foals to the magic of books for the first time, and aiding stallions and mares in learning something new.
But it is long past the time for me to retire. For many years I have provided for you, and for years before that I provided for ponies in Canterlot, but even my old bones know when to close the chapter and put the books away.
In a show of appreciation, the Princess has appointed a new librarian to serve you, one who she is confident will be able to provide for you just as well as I did, and who shares my love and passion.
With fond memories and many stories told and read,
Dusty Page
Flare’s eyes widened as he read the last words and all the pieces fell together. The beat of small hooves on the ground heralded his brothers’ arrival.
“Jeeze… what was that for?” Silver panted.
“That was fun and all, but running, why?” Proud agreed.
“The horseshoe… I found it,” Flare said, pointing to the note. Proud looked up and started reading. Silver did as well, his green eyes darting across the sheet as he read far faster than Proud could match. The string of curses that he uttered would have drained his allowance for two weeks.
“How did we miss that,” Proud said slowly, plopping on his haunches.
“We never thought about where in the timeline we were,” Flare groaned, realizing the confusion of dealing with the conflicting memories caused them to forget to even consider it. “We didn’t even wonder why we never remembered the Return of Nightmare Moon and Princess Luna. We don’t remember any other Princess aside from Celestia.”
“Bucking horseapples…” Silver swore again. “We somehow got here for the start of the series? On the eve of Bucking Nightmare Moon’s return?”
“So… we just have to get to Twilight before everything happens,” Proud said uncertainly, but hopefully.
Silver groaned and tried the library door. He wasn’t too surprised to find it open, and stomped in. Flare nudged Proud and they both followed Silver in. Inside did look like what he would expect. A small foyer area and a large room, with every wall covered with books. It had an oddly empty feel to it, probably since it was cleared out and waiting for Twilight to move in.
“Okay... that’s a bad idea,” Silver said, looking around the room. “I don’t know what’s with this place, this world, but it’s already different from what the show showed.”
“He’s right,” Flare nodded, thinking things over, drawing connections. “The town is bigger, Canterlot is huger, there are more airships too. Hay, just think about what we know about Vanhoover.”
“So what?” Proud demanded, stomping a hoof. “That doesn’t have anything to do with anything.”
“Celestia sent Twilight here in the show, and a lot of things happened that led to her meeting each one of the bearers before Nightmare Moon struck,” Silver started. Flare realized that he’d found his way over to one of the book shelves and was scanning the titles.
“And anything we do might change that,” Proud realized, going a paler shade of yellow. “We might make Nightmare Moon win…”
“So until everything is finished, we can’t do anything,” Flare said, thinking of the myriad of ways one mistake on their part could doom the nation. What if they delayed Twilight and caused her to miss crashing into Rainbow Dash? That would make her miss meeting Rarity and her generosity as well. His head was starting to ache again.
“I never said that,” Silver said, sounding smug. He carefully bit the spine of a book and tugged it out from its place.
“Say what now?” Flare asked. “We could end Equestria!”
“We could prevent Luna from coming back!” Proud added. He always had a soft spot for Luna.
“So that’s why we have to be careful,” Silver said. Flare realized he had that look in his eyes again. The one that normally heralded either a pretty clever plan, or a total disaster. “We just have to be a little… covert.”