"Twilight!" Spike shouted. "Twilight!"
"I'm here Spike," Twilight Sparkle replied as she stepped out of the library’s small kitchen. Her friends had planned an evening outdoors near Fluttershy’s cottage, and she had been double-checking the basket she had prepared for the picnic. The meeting was still hours away, but she always prefered to be too early than too late. "What's wrong?" she asked a bit annoyed partially for being interrupted.
He was carrying a large dusty brown book, which Twilight easily identified a tome about magic-matter transformation. "It's the third book we...” he started before remembering that keeping the inventory of book was his direct duty. “I've lost this week." He had a hard time with admitting to losing or misplacing a book. While not as maniac as Twilight about checklist and order, he had a deep pride in his ability at keeping the library in order. He knew almost every book’s names, author and location by heart. Which was quite a feat considering Twilight research surges that occurred a few times per month and would end up with large quantity of books piled up randomly all over the place. He raised his claw to show the book he was holding. "And I found the last book I... lost two days ago."
She stared at him skeptically. "Are you sure you simply didn't misplace it?" She regretted asking it as soon as the words came out of her mouth. He always kept her library, in Canterlot or here, in order even against the worse situations, some she had created herself, and that for years.
"Twilight!" he whined.
She let out a small laugh. "Just kidding. I know how well you keep this library ordered." She sighed and pointed at the kitchen. "Any idea where the sandwiches I made for today's picnic disappeared to?"
Spike frowned. "Well, don't look at me. Unless you put a diamond on top of it, I wouldn't go eat it. You know… grass," he replied with a scowl of disgust.
"Right," she said with amusement.
They stared at each other as they both thought about the situation. "You’re thinking what I'm thinking?" Spike asked playfully.
"Owloysius doesn't steal books!" she countered.
"Twilight!" he exclaimed while rolling his eyes. His feud against the resident owl ended month ago, but somehow Twilight kept thinking there was a relationship issue between them. Sure, he would probably never call the bird a friend, but he accepted Owloysius as a much needed help when Twilight would go on a research frenzy and would turn the place into a general mess. "I meant I think we may have an intruder."
"Right! That makes more sense." She put a hoof to her jaw. "That's actually a good thing! I will be able to try that new life detection spell I learned last week!" she cheered while hopping around like an excited jumping bean. She was always excited by new magic spells and this one was no exception.
"As long as it's alive," Spike added for himself. He wasn’t as cheerful. Considering this town propension to attract troubles and monsters of all kind, he wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out to be some kind of ancient, evil, twisted world-ending monster bent on destroying the world, one book at a time, with a side-taste for sandwiches.
She simply ignored the comment and stepped in the middle of the library. She closed her eyes and started to focus. The spell wasn't an easy one as it required sending magic in all directions and making it resonate when coming in contact with the magic residing in any living being. Her horn started to glow brightly as she kept pouring more magic into the spell. When she felt the structure of the spell was holding, she released it. A sphere of bright purple energy expanded outward like an explosion.
"Woah!" Spike exclaimed as his scales started to glow in a deep green hue, color of his internal magic flow.
Twilight opened her eyes and looked around. She could see the ponies walking outside, unaware of her spell. They appeared outlined with the color of their inner magic. She had made sure only she and Spike could see the highlighted color as she didn’t want to cause any panic to Ponyville’s already jumpy population. She looked around, watching for anypony that would be inside the library. She couldn't see anything coming from the kitchen, bedroom or restroom. Finally, she looked down toward the basement and spotted a small dot of aqua. The source was too small to see any proper shapes.
"There!" she said while pointing at the floor. "There's somepony in the basement."
She opened the door leading to the basement with her magic and they both walked down the stairs trying to make as little noise as possible. Spike was protecting himself with the brown tome he was still holding. Once they reached the last step, Twilight pointed at the back of the room. Her spell was slowly fading away, but she could see a small blue form behind a bookshelf.
"I think it's sleeping," she noted as the small shape lay unmoving on the ground, breathing slowly.
They adopted a defensive posture as they got ready to jump around the furniture. They nodded to each other, ready to face whatever was behind. They leaped... and froze. They dropped their aggressive stance as they found a small filly sleeping wrapped in a bed sheet. Her head was resting inside a large open spell book. Beside her there were some leftovers from Twilight's picnic meal. Her coat was a light metallic blue and her mane was jet black with a vibrant strip of blue, almost the color of the sky on a sunny day.
Twilight made a sign to Spike to not make any sound. She focused on Spike, the filly, and herself and closed her eyes. She ran the magic flow up to her horn and let it go as a spell she was quite used to. When she opened her eyes, they were all in the middle of the library, the filly still sleeping. Usually she needed a direct view on her teleportation destination, but she knew the library by heart and could do without it.
The sunlight bathing the main floor was much brighter than the darkness in the basement. It slowly pushed the filly out of her sleep. When she opened her eyes to find out where all that light was coming from, she found a purple mare and a small dragon who both appeared to look at her angrily. Of course they were not angry, but Spike had his defensive posture he took in front of any unknown and Twilight were displaying that face of inquiry she had in front of an unsolved mystery. Combined with the fact that she had been found trespassing and stealing sandwiches, it was enough to drive the filly to panic. Her slumber disappeared all at once as adrenaline poured into her veins. She jumped to her hooves and quickly dashed for the nearby door.
Twilight focused some more magic and quickly summoned a metallic gate over the library's exit. The filly stopped as fast as she could, almost hitting the gate head first before turning around to find herself trapped between the dragon and the gate.
"I'm sorry! I... I didn't mean to," she quickly apologized. "Don't send me back. I don't want to... I..." She let out, almost to the point of crying.
Twilight and Spike looked at each other, puzzled by her reaction. “Don’t worry,” Twilight said, trying to sound as reassuring as she could. “We won’t be sending you anywhere. We don’t even know who you are!”
She looked at the floor. "I'm Azure," she said softly.
"Azure who?" Twilight asked again.
"Azure Tomato," she said in an inaudible whisper. Had Twilight not had experience understanding Fluttershy when she was being shyer than usual, she might have missed it.
"Tomato? Of the Tomato family?" Twilight asked puzzled.
Azure didn't answer; she only nodded as tears began coming up to her eyes. Twilight walked to her and sat. She put a hoof forward and raised the head of the small filly. "Now, what's wrong? Where don't you want to go back to?"
"Back home, to school, outside, anywhere… I..." she let out in one shot before starting to cry.
Twilight moved forward and hugged the small filly, waiting for her tears to run dry. When she was only sobbing, Twilight got up. "Come in the kitchen. I have tea, milk and some honey."
Twilight was sitting in front of Azure, sipping from a red cup. "Feeling better?" The smell of green tea was slowly rising from the steaming water.
"A bit." Azure was trying her best to not cry again. She was holding a similar cup and slowly sipping it. She put the cup back on the table. "I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to stay long or to steal food. I... But... but you got some incredible books," she explained while staring at her tea.
"Think you can explain what you were doing in my basement?" Twilight asked.
Azure looked around; she needed to tell her story to somepony. Anypony. She was tired of running away. "I'm sure you know of the Tomato family?" she asked.
Twilight rested her head on her right hoof. "I know they are the biggest producer of tomatoes in Equestria. The biggest competitor of the Apple family, if I remember right." She remembered Applejack mentioning them a few times, in less than kind words. However, she wouldn’t take her word for it; Applejack could be so competitive when it came to her family business.
"Right." Azure agreed. "The Tomatos all have a strong bond with the land. Their ability to grow plants in some of the worst conditions is quite renowned. They are all strong earth ponies with a passion for agriculture." She lowered her head in shame once more. "I'm not," she sighed.
Twilight banked her head, more puzzled than ever. "What do you mean?"
"I... I found my... my special talent a few months ago." She stood up and showed her flank. Twilight frowned at the white eight pointed star that was displayed on her blue coat. She quickly sat back down, happy to hide her sides.
Twilight blinked a few times. She had a good idea of what this cutie mark could mean as their meaning had been analyzed countless times through the ages, but she needed to ask. "What is it?"
"Magic." Azure answered as if it was the most shameful topic.
Twilight's eyes widened. Her heart had already told her the answer before her head did, but the later kept repeating it wasn't scientifically possible. "How is that possible? You're an earth pony!" she almost yelled. Seeing the filly was about to start crying again, she stood up and went around the table to hug Azure once more. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to yell,” she said while trying to calm the filly.
After a few moments, the filly pushed her away. "I... I have no future in this world," she mumbled between two sobs.
"That's not true!"
"It is!" Azure countered.
"Is not!" Twilight claimed.
The filly stared at the mare, trying hard to keep her tears inside. "What would you have done if you were born without a horn?"