Colgate was a relatively normal pony. She was Ponyville’s main dentist, the only one constantly waging the war over the health of ponies’ teeth, her opponents being the dastardly Bon Bon’s Bon Bons and the infamous Sugarcube Corner. Still, Colgate liked Ponyville-it was an interesting town, though even she, as a long-seasoned resident, could attest to the weirdness that the town attracted on nearly a daily basis.
Still, when Colgate woke up that morning, she felt strangely calm, mixed with a touch of euphoria, which was odd. She checked her wall calendar. Nothing special on that day, and Pinkie Pie was not scheduled for an appointment until Colgate could get her window replaced. Preferably with unbreakable security glass. Indeed, the only thing that she had to do today was some basic accounting, as well as follow up with a few bills. Colgate cocked her head to the side. She couldn’t hear any singing, and she certainly hadn’t said anything about how today was a fine day, or that morning in Ponyville shimmered, or even the ultimate taboo of ‘everything will be just fine’.
Deciding that she’d just gotten a good night’s rest for once, Colgate threw open her shutters, and inhaled the fresh morning air of Ponyville. Fresh earth, a slight scent of burnt sugar coming from Sugarcube Corner and the scents floating up from Ponyville market were all normal.
The trail of fire leading through Ponyville, and ending at the Golden Oaks Library, that was less normal. Sometimes. It depended if Twilight Sparkle had decided to pick up researching pyrokinesis again. Colgate worried about her, sometimes. The number of times that mare had nearly blown herself, or her surroundings, into a lot of little pieces was worrying.
As Colgate continued to survey the more-or-less normal Ponyville morning vista, there was a snap-crackle-pop-boom in the skies over head. The next thing that Colgate knew, Twilight Sparkle was embedded in her window box. She was also partially on fire, so Colgate put her out with her watering can.
“It works!” cackled Twilight Sparkle, “It works! I’ve finally managed to stabilize the spell matrix to the point where I can get a stable opening in the space-time continuum!”
Just then, Twilight appeared to realize where she was.
“Oh, sorry about your window box,” she said, turning to face Colgate, “and thank you for putting me out, too. Note to self: It appears that the positioning spell for the return didn’t quite work. And the being on fire when exiting the portal is a problem that needs to be solved soon. But it works! This was an excellent test run! Take that, mister Thought Experiment!”
As Twilight devolved into a stream of techno babble and rants against various scholars, Colgate decided that perhaps today was not a good day to leave the house, so she closed and locked her shutters, and went back to bed. Accounts could wait until Twilight Sparkle had finished trying to destroy the universe.