“All aboard!”
With ponies going and coming, to and from, all over Equestria, this had proven to be a particularly busy week. Reports of increasing strangeness had the population in distress: objects and even entire buildings blinking in an out of existence, and even a few disappearances, caused everypony to massively flood the mail and traveling via trains from their hometowns, business meetings, among other situations, to “safer” zones. Ponyville in particular had become a central spot for the many mares and stallions to reside until a better climate was met.
For this and a handful of other reasons, a certain purple alicorn had locked herself into the Library of the new castle in the village, relying on Spike and teleportation for any of her needs outside of the building. After all, it wasn’t easy to do research on what could be the disaster of the year when panicked ponies rushed to your side in search of answers you can’t even give. It didn’t help that the other Princesses weren’t reporting as much as she would have expected. It wasn’t until earlier that morning that Princess Celestia had finally sent a letter through Spike, giving a more detailed report about the current situation. If it weren’t for the fact she and her friends were finally getting on good terms with Discord (and vice versa), she would have rushed to put the blame on him.
Still, on the meeting she had with her friends immediately after receiving the Sun Goddess’ letter, she made sure to keep him as busy as she could: He and Fluttershy agreed to visit Zecora and meet with Princess Luna at the old castle ruins to assist her in search of clues, Rarity had some important business in Manehattan but agreed to report any unusual and relevant sightings, same for Applejack as she was attending a family meeting at Appleloosa. Rainbow Dash had been called to the Wonderbolts Academy as they had been requested to patrol different locations and report sightings as well, so they were busy too. She and Pinkie were the only ones left in the village, though she did confirm, and gleefully as usual, that Maud and her family had been constantly sending her letters, being worried about her, but they had nothing to worry about, at least for Pinkie’s side. She could understand her situation, as her parents, her brother and Cadence had been covering her in letters as well, which she made sure to reply back to immediately.
Twilight let out a deep sigh. “I don’t understand. As particular as all this occurrences seem, there’s no clues at all on these books…hopefully they should manage to find something at the old castle…” she whispered. Not having knowledge at all of anything in existence indeed stressed her, but it was worse when it was something of this magnitude, and that was affecting everypony. The fact she just noticed she skipped lunch wasn’t helping much either, as she felt her stomach growl.
“Well, even if there were clues, I wouldn’t be able to study them fully with an empty belly.” She told to herself. Being aware that Spike was outside running some errands for her and Pinkie, she prepared a note for him and made sure to place it near the entrance, where he wouldn’t miss it, and grabbed a hooded cape, wearing it so it properly covered her face. When she was ready, she focused on her teleportation spell once again, her horn blinking into life, and with a flash of light, she was off to the restaurant.
When she arrived, she was met with the sight she was expecting: Lots of ponies all over the place, rushing for a meal as well. The owners of many establishments had placed community boards outside their places, which were filled with Missing photos, many ponies were gathering around the boards as well, hoping for news of their loved ones. With a soft sigh, Twilight adjusted her hood, and went into the restaurant, hoping no one noticed the Princess of Friendship was around; not having answers was a thing, but not being able to give them to the ponies that really needed them was almost too painful.
She quickly paced to the counter and made her usual order to go, making sure to take something for Spike as well. As she waited there, she took a look around to make sure she remained unseen, and hoping for clues to pass right by her face; at that point she was willing to accept hints from almost anywhere.
After a few minutes, she noticed something.
Another hooded figure had apparently been staring at her general direction for a while now. Her discovery didn’t last long, as the figure noticed her realization, and calmly lost itself among the crowd.
Twilight blinked for a few seconds, confused, before the attendant brought her order. She quickly turned around, left some bits, and took her package. As she headed outside, she took quick glances around, trying to spot the other hooded figure, with no luck. Just as she was walking away of the establishment, she spotted Pinkie and Spike nearby, waving her hoof as she went to meet them.
“Hey Pinkie!” She greeted her, a bit silently as she noticed Spike was lumped on her saddle, it must have been a long day already, and it was far from over.
“Hey Twilight!” replied the cheerful pink pony, almost a bit too loudly, making Twilight jump for a moment, looking around to make sure nopony had turned their attention towards them.
“Sshh, Pinkie please!” Twilight whispered, relieved that nopony had turned around. “We’ve talked about this; you KNOW why I’ve chosen to remain as hidden as possible nowadays.”
Pinkie just giggled and tilted her head at her. “Oh come on, I still think this is a silly way to hide.” She replied on a slightly quieter tone. “Why don’t you just disguise yourself with your magic? Oh! Imagine all the possibilities! A cake, a cupcake, maybe even a piñata!” Pinkie continued, slowly regaining her higher volume.
Twilight couldn’t help but let out a quiet chuckle at her friend, trying to picture a living pastry strolling across the village, as they began to walk towards the castle. She could have certainly gone for a more practical method and use her magic to adopt a better disguise, but with most of her time spent on analyzing the reports she received from her fellow Princesses, and the stress involved as well, she simply didn’t have enough energy left to even attempt solid transformations. Sure, as an alicorn she had increased capabilities, but she was still working on being able to better control her newfound powers, and the last thing she wanted was to blow up half the village while trying even the simplest spells.
“So how are things at the bakery?” she pondered towards her friend, shaking off her previous thoughts for the time being.
“Quite lively actually!” she responded. “With all the ponies coming from all over Equestria, the Cakes and I have been very busy trying to cover all the orders! I just managed to sneak out for a short while to bring lil’ Spikey here back to you!” she continued, pointing at the sleeping baby dragon on her saddle. “You should have seen him back at Sugarcube Corner, he was helping us lots!”
She smiled warmly at Spike as she imagined him running from table to table, taking orders and delivering a variety of pastries along Pinkie to the expectant customers of the confectionery.
“What about you?” Pinkie asked Twilight as they approached the castle.
Twilight shook her head. “Not much progress, I admit, other than confirming some of the previous reports with the others. Applejack and Rarity confirmed the rumors of some of the landmarks in Appleloosa and Manehattan acting up, with a few disappearances as well, things are as messy over there as they are here, if not worse.”
“As for Rainbow, she hasn’t sent any replies just yet, but with things as they are I wouldn’t be entirely surprised that she indeed confirmed the reports of those strange constructs appearing all over Equestria.” Twilight continued. “Fluttershy and Discord should have met with Zecora and Princess Luna already, let’s hope they have better luck finding some clues…” she finished, thinking about all the knowledge still buried deep within the ruins of the old royal castle.
“I’m pretty sure they’ll find something in that old castle, it seems there’s always new stuff every time we visit!” Pinkie assured her friend, trying to lighten up the mood, gaining a gentle smile from Twilight, as they finally arrived back at the village’s castle.
The large building, dubbed by Twilight and her friends as the “Friendship Castle”, stood ominously near the edge of the village, around the spot where her previous home, known as Golden Oak Library, once stood. It had only come into existence after their latest struggle with one of Equestria’s greatest villains, and while Twilight highly appreciated to have it, not only as a new home but also as a major step towards her true destiny, she sometimes missed the humbleness of the old library, which she had grown quite fond of.
“Oh! I didn’t know you had a visitor!” Pinkie said as she looked towards the castle.
This brought Twilight back to reality. She wasn’t expecting anypony in particular other than her friends, but there it was, standing at one of the castle’s balconies, a familiar hooded figure that almost looked like a shadow in the sunlight, looking over the village and into the distance, as if it was in deep thought.
“HEY!” Twilight shouted at the figure. “Who are you, and how did you get in there!?” With all the recent events, a burglar was among the list of things she wanted to deal with the least.
The figure jumped at Twilight’s voice and looked down from the spot it was standing on. With a flash, it suddenly teleported from the balcony to right outside the castle, in front of Twilight and Pinkie.
“Sorry about that.” The figure said on a sunny yet still apologetic enough tone. “I get carried away quite often when I find places with nice views, and that balcony certainly counts as such.”
Twilight just stared at the pony right before them, as if trying to analyze it. By the way it teleported, it was clear it had some proficiency with magic, which meant it was probably a unicorn. She couldn’t quite tell just yet as it still remained with its hood on. Before she could bring up another thought, however, Pinkie jumped towards the figure.
“Hi! I’m Pinkie Pie! I’m not sure we’ve met before, are you new in the village?” Pinkie asked on the cheerful tone she usually used when new ponies arrived to Ponyville. “If so, we totally need to make you a Welcome-to-Ponyville party! It will be so much fun!”
The figure stared at Pinkie, letting out a chuckle. “That sounds fun indeed!” it said. “However! I’m afraid there’s some important business I have to take care of.” The figure continued, looking back at Twilight as she took off its hood, revealing her light yellow coat and horn, blue eyes and mane, with purple glasses hanging from a thread around her neck, and performed a small bow before her.
“Sorry again for the intrusion.” It continued. “My name is Misty Evening, and you must be Twilight Sparkle. I was told that I could talk with you if I needed some assistance with some…issues.”
Twilight stared at the mare doing a reverence in front of her, feeling uncomfortable. A thousand years would pass before she could actually feel alright with having anypony bow down in front of her. Alicorn or not, she just didn’t feel it was right for others to look up to her that much.
“Um…I’m glad you thought of me as someone who could help.” She replied. “…However, I’m afraid I’m very busy right now, with all that’s been going on in Equestria, the whole deal with blinking buildings, disappearing ponies…”
The figure raised its head, letting out a soft chuckle. “Actually, it’s just about that.”