"Finally," Sunset huffed, laying down in her refurbished bed that was themes after her. "It's over."
It had been nearly a week, but Sunset’s move was finally complete. It would have taken only a couple of days for a normal pony, but Sunset was a princess. She had a lot that she needed to bring, not to mention a few lab supplies. She made sure those were a bit discrete so she wouldn’t have her friend Quickfix hounding her about them. She wasn’t ready to deal with a crazy inventor, even if she was supposed to be getting along with her and the others. She needed a bit more time to get used to having friends first.
She wasn’t going to worry about that now. All Sunset wanted was to relax and forget about Nightmare Moon and everything else. The princess need only two things: a good book and her brother. Oh yes, she usually read alone. She did want to, levitating a book called ‘The Fluff’. It was a classic tale about a little fluffy pony, or rather a Fluff as they preferred, going on an epic quest. She honestly found herself enjoying the rather simple tale, what with the Fluff’s cleverness and the dragon Smite.
However, before she could open the book, she frowned. ‘Spike always loves to read Smite’s lines aloud. Even as a kid, he would and...would it be right to read it without him?’ She’d read it a couple times on her own, but it wasn’t as fun. She wanted to dismiss this, but her heart clenched. She nearly lost her brother a week before. She almost never had the chance to read anything with him again. To never see his teasing grin, or hold him against her. She took him for granted and she wasn’t going to do so again. So she trotted on downstairs with a pep in her step. The book levitating overhead.
“Spike, I was thinking we could….” Sunset groaned as she saw her brother chatting up a couple of female workers in the library lounge.
Spike was laughing with them. “You certainly know how to spin a yarn.”
The one mare, some tan earth pony with a duel blue mane and three slices of apples as a cutie mark, nodded. “Oh you won’t believe the kind of stuff that happens in Ponyville.”
“Well, I’ll try to keep an eye out for such events.” Spike smiled. He turned to see a seething Sunset. “Sunset, you came just in time. Miss Ambrosia here was just about to tell me this story about, what was it, Poison Joke as you called it?”
The mare laughed. “Oh yes, nasty plants those things are. They-”
“Play a joke on you pertaining to your favored skill,” Sunset snorted. “I know enough about Poison Joke, thank you very much.”
“Sunset, don’t be rude.” Spike frowned. “They’re guests.”
“Not anymore,” Sunset’s horn lit up. Little sparks of fire flew about, dissipating in the air before they touched something. She wasn’t going to burn her beloved tree library. “Get out.”
“Umm…” Ambrosia and the other mare were frozen in terror, unable to move.
“OUT!” Sunset quickly levitated them into the air, marched over to the door and threw them outside. Closing it behind her with a loud ‘thud’, she snorted. “Now then, let’s get down to business.”
“And what business is that?” Spike grumbled. He was used to his sister hogging him to herself. She was a little overprotective when it came to other mares.
“This,” Sunset pushed the book into his scaly snout. “You’re going to read it with me.”
Spike quirked a scaly brow in question. “Any real reason?”
“Do I need a reason to read with my own brother?” Sunset quirked her own eyebrow to match his. “Spike, you know I can’t get Smite’s voice right.”
Spike chuckled. “I don’t know. You’re just as fiery as that old drake.”
Sunset snort. “Pfft, as if. Now let’s get to reading. I don’t want to waste anymore time.”
“We have all day,” Spike said. “I don’t see the rush. Perhaps we can-”
“No,” Sunset cut him off. “We’re reading. I’m going to spend as much time with you as I can and make up for everything. So move that tail of yours upstairs.”
“Make up...Sunset, what is this about?” Spike frowned, crossing his arms.
“Nothing,” Sunset barked.
Spike sighed. He quickly pulled her into a hug. “We’re fine, Sunset. It’s over, okay. I’m not going anywhere.”
Sunset sniffed and nuzzled him. “I’m going to make sure of that.” Before she could drag him upstairs, the doorbell rang. She groaned and pushed herself, reluctantly, out of her brother’s hold. “If this is another darn mover, I swear…” She let the threat hang in the air as she opened the door.
“Hey,” it was none other than Shade, the former warlock. His eyes widened when he saw Sunset. “Oh shi-”
“Finish that word and I’ll barbecue you,” Sunset growled. “What do you want?”
“Fiddlesticks said this was where the local library was,” Shade gulped, chuckling nervously. “She had a couple of books she needed to turn in, but she was busy. ‘Sides I wanted to check out some myself.”
“Wait, Fiddlesticks reads?” Sunset blinked in confusion. “Huh.”
“Wow, harsh.” Shade cringed.
Sunset frowned, before her eyes widened. “I didn’t mean it like that, Gah!” She smacked her forehead. She wasn’t supposed to be such a pest like that anymore. The last thing she wanted to do was drive her only friends away. “Just forget I said that.”
“Done,” Shade trotted in as Sunset stepped aside. “Hey Spike.”
“Hey Shade,” the two males fist/hoof bumped.
“You two know each other?” Sunset asked. ‘No way my brother would befriend this heretic.’
Spike nodded. “Of course, I paid Fiddlesticks a couple of visits and found this chap living there. Apparently Fiddlesticks convinced the rest of her family to let him sleep in one of their barns if he did some chores around the farm in compensation.”
“Turns out we both love Hoofball,” Shade grinned. “Almost as much as Big Mac.”
“He has quite the collection,” Spike nodded.
Sunset was lost and she really didn’t want to question what they were talking about. “Whatever, just make this quick. Spike and I were in the middle of something important.”
“Well excuse me princess for just talking with...a pal?” Shade gulped as Sunset’s horn lit up. “Wait, I have books!” He levitated his satchel in front of him like a shield.
“You get to live this time,” Sunset snorted, cancelling her fireball spell. She wasn’t about to hurt her tree or the books around her.
____________________________________________________________
The train whistle rang out, signaling the arrival of the local Friendship Express. Trains were a recent endeavor so they weren’t present in many smaller towns. Ponyville was just lucky it was so close to Canterlot to warrant one. There were efforts to fix this, but for now, Ponyville was a large center of trade and tourism. It helped that the Elements of Harmony lived here too. Business was certainly booming.
Several ponies hurried about on and off of said train. Of said ponies, were two unicorns. One of them, who held herself as one would expect a noble woman, pushed her way through the crowd with a little aid of her magic. IIt helped that she was a bit taller than the average mare, coming close to a stallion’s height. She was ginger with a dark brown mane. Her cutie mark was a gingersnap.
The other was a more petite yellow unicorn with pinkish hair. Her horn was flared as she carried a rather large light green holding case in the air above them. Her cutie mark was a saddle.
“Ugh,” the ginger mare grumbled as she made her way through the crowd. “They seriously couldn’t come up with a better way to herd us about? I can’t even see three hooves in front of me without somepony butting into me.”
“It’s not so bad,” the other mare commented as they finally made their way out from the crowds. “At least a large crowd means we’ll get a large audience.”
“A simple deduction from a simple mare,” the ginger snorted. “Giddilee, I am not just some hack. I am the Stupendous Gingersnap. I deserve an audience of caliber and so far I’ve nearly been trampled to death by these ponies.” She side stepped another rush of ongoers. “I just hope the pay is worth it.”
“I’m sure it will be, Gingersnap.” Giddilee smiled. “You’re the best magician in the world...barring Presto of course.”
“And soon, even the Great and Powerful Presto will kneel before my splendor.” Gingersnap smirked, placing a hoof on her chest.
“And how are you going to do that?” Giddilee tilted her head in confusion.
Gingersnap groaned and rolled her eyes. “Just follow the routines and we’ll do swimmingly. Won’t be that hard to win over an Earth hick town.” She pulled out a little map out of the bag her companion was carrying with a spell. She scowled. “Great, this doesn’t isn’t begin to tell me where the Mayor’s office is? How is anyone supposed to do anything properly if they don’t have decent maps?” She crumbled it with her magic and threw it away. She snorted. “We’ll just give them a bit of a taste of what I can do today. A little market will do for now.” ‘It’ll probably be some disgusting backwater kind of deal,’ she thought to herself.
“Is that before or after we buy a new caravan?” Giddilee asked, earning a glare from Gingersnap. The petite mare gulped and flinched back. “I mean, we can’t keep faking tickets for free rides on the train.”
“We’ll buy ourselves a new caravan with today’s earnings,” Gingersnap smirked. “Ponyville is going to love me.”
“Then let’s get to it,” Giddilee smiled and trotted over to a blue filly with a bow and arrow cutie mark and another little tan filly with a red mane and glasses. She was a blank flank, just as the both of them were Earth ponies. “Would you mind telling us where the market place is? Maybe a large open space to perform?”
“There’s a market close to town,” the blue filly spoke up. “What’re you going to perform? Is it archery? I love archery. I just got my cutie mark for it. See.” She proudly showed off her cutie mark. Given her enthusiasm, Giddilee rightly guessed the filly only recently got her cutie mark.
Giddilee giggled. “No, we’re magicians?”
“You don’t look like magicians,” the second filly said. It was clear she had a thick lisp as her ‘s’s sounded like ‘th’.
If there was one thing Giddilee loved, it was children. There was just this air about them that made her smile. “Oh? And how do you know what a magician looks like?”
“They have capes and pointy hats,” the filly responded.
“You mean,” Giddilee’s horn lit up and she jumped to her front hooves. Instantly, she was wearing a yellow cape and pointy hat that bore Celestia’s holy sun mark. “Like this?”
“Yeah,” the archer filly nodded. “You really are magicians. Ooh, can we have front row seats? I’ve always wanted to see Presto’s stuff, but my parents don’t have the money to take me.”
“We’ll see,” Gingersnap trotted over and magicked off the cape and hat in a flash. “I can assure you. Presto’s tricks are child’s play compared to my own. The Stupendous Gingersnap is unequal in the arts of magic.”
“Like Princess Sunset?” The lisp pony spoke.
Gingersnap’s right eye twitched and she restrained herself from snarling. “Yes, like Princess Sunset. Although, I can assure you that I’m better than her in every way?”
“Prove it,” the archer filly snorted. “She took down Nightmare Moon. That’s awesome.”
“But did any of you see it?” At the shaking heads, Gingersnap mock gasped. “Oh dear. Then Princess Sunset Shimmer can’t claim the title of the greatest magician in the land. Fret not, I won’t make the same mistake. All of Ponyville will see my magical talent and be in awe. I am, of course,” she stomped the ground and fireworks seemed to blaze around her, spelling her name out above her. “The Stupendous Gingersnap!”
“Awesome,” the archer filly grinned. “Come on. There’s plenty of good places to show off in the town square.”
“Proceed,” Gingersnap nodded, grinning. The two unicorns followed the little earths, giving them a bit of distance so they could talk freely without being overheard. “That went better than expected.”
“Yeah,” Giddilee nodded. “You usually don’t do well with children.”
“I don’t care for them, but they have their uses.” Gingersnap snorted. “I’m just glad they’re Earths. It’s easy to appease them. Just show them a simple fireworks spell and they’ll eat it up.”
“Don’t you think that’s a bit tribalist to say?” Giddilee frowned.
“Like I care,” Gingersnap said. “‘Sides, it’s not like I’ll say it to their faces. I need their money after all. A mare’s got to make some bits and if I happen to upstage a certain princess, then that’s just icing on the cake.” ‘Do you really think you’d get to have all the attention, Sunset? No, you can’t forget about me. I’ll make sure of that.’