“Tricks! You need to just sit down, sweetie! Ponyville’s still ten minutes away!” Witch says with a touch of irritation. The train ride to Ponyville was only a half-hour from Canterlot, but Witch is convinced Rusty had slipped extra sugar into Tricks’ pancakes and juice because the colt had been virtually bouncing off the walls the entire trip.
“Ponyville Station, five minutes!” the conductor calls out, making Tricks give his guardian a smug look.
“The conductor just said it was only five minutes, Witch Doctor!” he retorts as he hops up to the seat next to Witch only to jump back down and press his face to the window. Witch sighs, knocking her glasses askew as she presses her hooves to her face.
“Tricks… Please… Dancing about will not make the train arrive any sooner…” Witch replies, sighing heavily. “Why don’t you focus on practicing your levitation some more?”
“Can’t!” Tricks responds, bouncing up again, grinning. “Too excited! Can’t focus! Tell me about Princess Twilight’s friend again!”
Witch smiles slightly, resigning herself, again, to Tricks being overly rambunctious. “Well… The princess and I haven’t talked much about her, but I know that Miss Fluttershy is fond of animals, and she watches over some of their other friends’ younger sisters from time to time.”
“Do you think they’ll visit Miss Fluttershy while I’m there?” he asks eagerly, making Witch chuckle.
“I’m not sure, Tricks. That’s up to their sisters,” Witch answers, “but they’ll be in school with you, so you’ll be able to see them plenty during our stay.”
Tricks smiles happily and opens his mouth, no doubt to ask another question, when the train makes a slight lurch as the brakes are applied, starting to slow the locomotive. With a high pitched squeal of joy, Tricks immediately presses his face back to the window, looking at the passing buildings as he practically vibrates from excitement.
Witch chuckles slightly to herself as she puts the few books she’d carried on with her back in her bag. Tricks ‘ooh’s and ‘aah’s over the different storefronts that come into view, practically bouncing when he sees one that looks as though the designer had a hankering for frosting at the time of making it. Monkey had been right when she said that if Tricks got excited enough, he might take flight.
Finally, the train stops, and Tricks immediately heads for the door. If he’d been a bit bigger, he might’ve knocked a few ponies over in his over-eager haste. Since moving in with her and Monkey, he’d hit a growth-spurt, his legs lengthening and his cheeks losing their youthful roundness. He’s easily the same size as Piano Treble now, though notably lacking the diminutive Sound Lab Director’s muscle tone and fierce persona.
“Tricks! Slow down!” Witch grabs their bags with her magic and chases after him, shooting apologetic glances at their fellow travelers. Finally through the crowd heading for the doors, Witch catches up with Tricks on the edge of the platform. The colt looks around, head whipping from side to side in hopes of sighting Princess Twilight and her friends. Chuckling, she perches his saddlebag atop his back, making him stop long enough to put it on properly. This respite gives Witch the time she needs to spot Twilight standing at the edge of the platform with a small yellow mare with her face half-hidden behind a pink mane.
“Are they here yet? I can’t see!” Witch almost misses the high-pitched question in her correspondent’s direction over the noise of those either boarding or disembarking. Her brief wondering at who would’ve asked that is answered when, over the heads of the other ponies, a wobbling tower of foals peeks up. She couldn’t see more than the pink and lavender mane of a unicorn foal but, atop the unicorn, an orange pegasus filly half-hovers/half-stands, her hoof shading her eyes and pushing back her wild orchid-colored mane.
Witch can’t help smiling at the antics, and admittedly, she feels some relief that the foals Twilight had mentioned are there to meet them as well. While Tricks may still go a mile a minute the whole time, at least there would be foals to keep him occupied. “C’mon Tricks… They’re over here… Seems Princess Twilight brought along those foals she mentioned.” Before she gets the last three words out, Tricks is already running in the direction of the teetering tower of fillies, his suitcase forgotten beside Witch.
Shaking her head and smiling, Witch takes both the suitcases up in her magic and pulls them along with her as she winds her way through the milling crowd of ponies. Rearing to her hind legs briefly, Witch waves towards Twilight. “Incoming!” she calls out, and none too soon, as Tricks makes a small yelp of surprise and the pony tower suddenly collapses with feminine shouts of dismay. The pegasus manages to hover briefly before her laughing fit makes her fall atop what is undoubtedly a hidden pile of tangled foals.
Witch finally makes it out of the mass of ponies to see that her assumption is correct. The trio of fillies are certainly an odd mix, but she couldn’t really say anything about their choice in friends, as most of her own are her coworkers or patients.
“Witching Hour! I hope your trip didn’t have any problems!” Twilight greets enthusiastically, approaching her while the yellow mare - that Witch can now see she’s a very slight pegasus, even by pegasus standards - helps the foals right themselves.
“Aside from someone slipping my ward too much sugar at breakfast, everything’s gone as planned so far, your highness,” Witch replies, executing a quick bow. Rising, she raises an eyebrow at the awkward and shy expression this brings to Twilight’s face.
“Um… if you don’t mind? Just call me Twilight… It’s what everypony around here calls me… I’m not so much with the formalities…” she says, her eyes averted in a somewhat nervous expression.
“Then I’ll tell you the same thing I told my landlord,” Witch concedes, smiling in an attempt to soothe her awkward friend.. “Call me Witch or Witchy… Or Doc, if you prefer…”
“Hey! You don’t have a cutie mark!”
Witch goes stock still and blanches as one of the fillies calls attention to one of the many things she’d worried about as regards Tricks’ reception amongst the foals here. He’d had enough trouble back in Canterlot… He didn’t need it here too! However, before she could open her mouth to intervene, the three all line up and proudly show that they, too, had no cutie marks. “We’re the Cutie Mark Crusaders!” the small red-maned yellow earth pony filly announces before the trio form a pyramid with the orange pegasus filly back on top, breaking into a simultaneous cheer.
Letting out a long, shaky breath, Witch relaxes as the yellow pegasus helps Tricks to his hooves. She and Twilight take the few steps to join the foals and the small mare that Witch assumes is the princess’ friend, Fluttershy. Tricks quickly attaches himself to Witch’s side, behaving oddly shy or scared of the girls’ antics. Smiling affectionately at her ward, Witch turns slightly so the colt would have to face their hostess. “Tricks, this is Princess Twilight Sparkle… She’s the friend I’ve been writing to about my research. Twilight, this is Trick Step, a royal ward that Princess Luna put in my care.”
Twilight gives Witch a sharp look, letting Witch know she had caught the meaning of being a royal ward, and also that she’d be getting asked a lot of questions about it before they could get to their research. Shaking her head, obviously filing that away for later, Twilight smiles brightly at Tricks. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Trick Step. You can call me Twilight like your guardian does…” she says. Witch feels more than sees Tricks relax enough to not be glued to her side as Twilight steps to stand next to her friend and the fillies. “This is my dear friend Fluttershy, and these three are sisters to three of my other friends; Applebloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. You met Sweetie Belle’s sister, Rarity, at the Grand Galloping Ball.” Each of the fillies nod, smile or jump respectively as they’re named, making Witch cover her laughter.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you all,” Witch says, smiling genially at the gathered ponies. The fillies all have face-splitting grins on, while a gentle murmur comes from the mare’s direction.
Twilight chuckles slightly at her friend’s shyness. “Fluttershy’s happy to meet you too. We should get going though! It’s not a short walk to Fluttershy’s cottage…”
“Can we take Trick Step to see our clubhouse?!” the unicorn filly, Sweetie Belle, asks Fluttershy as they step off the platform and start walking through the town.
“Let’s get him settled in first, shall we?” the shy pegasus replies, her voice barely audible from Witch and Twilight’s position at the back of the procession. “Then we’ll see if he wants to go play with you,” she adds, staving off the beginnings of disappointed pouting from the three fillies.
“He’ll be fine, Doctor,” Twilight says giving Witch a sidelong smile. “Fluttershy’ll keep the girls in line and Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle and Applebloom will no doubt keep him busy and having fun…”
Witch sighs. “I’m too transparent for my own good, aren’t I?” she asks drily. The three girls walk around Tricks and Fluttershy, circling and talking excitedly about their club and everything they’d done recently in their joint efforts to get their cutie marks. Tricks still sticks close to Fluttershy, but Witch can see him smiling and laughing some at their stories.
“Not in a bad way… With a Royal Ward, there’s always something to be concerned about, I’m sure.”
Twilight’s response makes Witch sigh, shaking her head with self-deprecating thoughts. “I’m just glad he’s starting to explore and find things that actually interest him instead of constantly trying to do things to win approval from… adult authority figures…”
“We can talk more about that later,” Twilight says firmly, but with an undercurrent of understanding, and Witch nods. When one anecdote of the filly trio drifts back to the bookish pair, she snorts in amusement and looks at Twilight.
“Do they ever do things that they’re actually interested in?” she asks quietly, covering her mouth with a hoof to smother her amusement.
“They came close once…” Twilight responds, grinning at Witch with violet eyes bright with mirth. “There was this talent show that the teacher was putting on…”
“Spike! I’m back!”
Entering the Golden Oak Library, Witch smiles at the aroma of home cooking filling the air, the contrast between fresh ingredients and books reminding her of times spent in her father’s workshop. Almost immediately, a small purple dragon with a green belly and spines wearing a chef’s hat comes into the main library area from a side door, the aroma intensifying with the open door to the kitchen.
“Hey Twilight!” the dragon greets cheerfully, turning his green eyes on Witch. “You must be Witching Hour! Nice to meet you! I’m Spike, Twilight’s faithful assistant!”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you as well,” Witch replies.
“Spike? Can you take Witchy’s suitcase up to the spare room while we get the research area set up?” Twilight requests as she starts up the stairs to a lofted area that’s in the same sort of chaotic order that Witch had seen in Vellum Trace’s office space.
“Sure thing!” Spike turns back to Witch, and looks between her two suitcases and saddlebag with no small amount of confusion. Helpfully, Witch separates the suitcase that carried her research books and supplies, and levitates the other suitcase and her saddlebag over to the waiting dragonet. With one in each clawed hand, Spike scampers up the stairs, and goes to a door further up before disappearing through it.
Witch pulls her other suitcase with her up to the lofted study, watching in amusement as Twilight desperately tries to put things away and clean up. “Sorry about the mess. I was hoping to get a head-start on the research but nothing -”
“None of your books had anything substantial, or if they did, it was based on assumptions that were poorly founded?” Witch suggests, still smiling. Twilight stops mid-cleaning frenzy and stares at Witch in surprise before laughing sheepishly.
“I suppose you already ran into this problem, didn’t you?” she asks, gaining a sympathetic nod from Witch.
“Exactly. I brought all the books Princess Luna gave me, along with my notes on how to translate Arabic and Coptic without losing context,” Witch replies, opening her suitcase to reveal said books.
Twilight quickly levitates a pile of books off the desk to make room for the new additions, allowing Witch to place them all there. “How’d you learn to translate Coptic?” she asks eagerly.
“My brother and his marefriend are constantly roaming about in foreign countries, exploring and the like…” Witch smiles slightly, her eyes glittering with mirth. “You could say they’re what would happen if Daring Do had a partner with useful knowledge of plant life…”
Twilight’s violet eyes go wide with eager curiosity. “So they’re constantly in and out of tombs and such?”
“Pretty much… Leaf wouldn’t tell me a whole lot about what he does on his trips with Double Dee, but…” Witch trails off with a shrug. “Leaf taught me Arabic, and Dee helped with the Coptic…” The unicorn pulls a notebook from the pile and floats it over to Twilight, who takes it and rapturously starts reading. “There’s… one other thing I should let you know about…”
At Witch’s hesitant tone, Twilight looks up, worried. Instead of trying to explain, Witch pulls the pink crystal’s case from her luggage, holding it up for the princess to see with her hooves instead of magic. “This crystal was allowing pegasi to use magic… and for some reason, when it was out of this case, I wanted nothing more than to smash it to bits. Somehow, it’s connected to my bracelets, and to Equus.”
“Wait… Did they call themselves the Shadowbolts?” Twilight asks, pulling her gaze from the crystal to look at Witch.
“That’s what Princess Luna said… I didn’t hear it myself…” Witch responds tentatively.
Twilight presses her hoof to the bridge of her nose with a slight groan. “Looks like this project is getting more and more complex…” she replies, sighing. “Let’s eat dinner first and figure out what we both already know about the situation…”
“Sounds like a good plan…” Witch agrees.
“I’ll take notes,” they add in unison. Shocked, they stare at each other for a long moment before they laugh.
“How about we add each other’s information into our own notes?” Twilight suggests, smiling broadly.
“Agreed.”