//------------------------------// // Busy Work // Story: Alienation // by Longtooth //------------------------------// I practically fell through the library door, my body aching and my stomach flip-flopping with the after-effects of the black magic and the long-distance teleport. The teleport itself had just drained most of my recovered magic reserves, but that was more than enough to depress me. The residue the dark power left behind was worse, leaving me feeling like I had swallowed tar. I expelled it with little puffs of shadow from my horn during the walk from the Everfree Forest back to Ponyville, but that had resulted in a clinging miasma around my head that made the air taste stale and the normally enticing smells of the morning market turn sour and rotten. The sun was well up and the town wide awake by the time I made it home. All I wanted was to collapse into my bed and try to get some of the sleep that had eluded me in Canterlot. Before I could do that, though, I had to confront the little purple dragon sitting in the middle of the library and watching the door with eyes as tired as I felt. “You were gone all night,” he said. There was a hint of accusation in his voice, a touch of anger. Even as out-of-sorts as I was, however, I could tell that this was just a mask for the worry that had clearly kept him up and waiting for me. “Sorry, Spike,” I said. I started to fake a smile, but gave up halfway through, realizing that the deception was only going to make this worse. “There was an explosion. In Canterlot.” I had been idly working on a cover story on the walk. I hadn’t settled on details, but the explosion would figure prominently. “I know. Heck, everypony knows.” He frowned at me. “There were ponies banging on the door all night, trying to find out if you knew what was happening.” “Oh.” I hadn’t considered that possibility. “Sorry.” “You weren’t here, Twilight,” he continued, sighing. “I had to lie about where you were. I said you were busy. I said you were talking with Princess Celestia and finding out what had happened.” “That’s... not too far from the truth,” I said. “I wasn’t talking to the Princess, but I was looking for information.” “You were gone for hours before the explosion happened,” Spike said, and this time the accusation wasn’t just a hint. “Where were you?” “The Everfree Forest,” I replied. “I took the… the sky-kraken core out there to study it away from the town, where it couldn’t hurt anypony.” The lie came easily, molded as it was from a core of truth. From the way his frown shifted, I could tell he believed me, though he didn’t like it. “Whatever happened in Canterlot, it was connected to the core. They were both done with the same dark magic. I spent all night dealing with that power, fighting it.” His eyes widened as he shook off his fatigue and took a really good look at me, picking out all the little signs of stress and combat. His eyes fastened on the burned patch of my leg. “You’re hurt.” “Just a little,” I said, managing a small smile. “It’ll take more than a little black magic to take me out. I am exhausted, though. I need to get some sleep. It looks like you do too. What do you say to calling this day a wash and just starting over again tomorrow?” He opened his mouth to respond, but all that came out was a deep yawn. I couldn’t help but smirk. He’s still a baby dragon, after all. He shook his head and re-focused on me. “The other girls are going to be looking for you, Twilight! There’s a war or something going on in Canterlot! We can’t sleep all day!” “Can’t we?” I asked, winking. He stared back at me incredulously, and I deflated a bit. “No, I guess we can’t. Do you think you could take a letter? I need to ask Princess Celestia what happened and if there’s anything we can do to help.” “Of course, Twilight!” he practically jumped at the request, grabbing a nearby quill and scroll. Resigned to not getting any sleep, I began dictating a letter asking for information that I already knew, but had no way of justifying. Spike was more animated in writing than he had been throughout the preceding conversation. I suppose sending a letter to Celestia is a very Twilight thing to do, and he was looking hard for reasons to still believe I was who I appeared to be. The response was swift, polite, and a clear attempt to keep me away from the action. You know the type: ‘dear faithful student, bad ponies made a big boom, no need to worry, all under control, go back to bed, signed Princess Celestia.’ No mentions of trapped hospitals or dead crystal addicts or the Canterlot vigilante making an appearance. All-in-all, exactly what I expected. Of course, now that I had official word, I was obligated to spread it. So I sent Spike out to gather the most important or chatty ponies in town and tidied myself up as best I could. Then I went out to the town hall, got up in front of a hundred worried faces, and lied about how everything was going to be okay. The Princesses had it handled, the Guard was taking care of it, and Ponyville was, for once, safe. I wasn’t intentionally lying about that last one, I was just wrong. Then again, how could I not be? This is Ponyville, where fresh disaster is always just a week away! Heh. Had I known… Well, some forewarning would have been nice. If I hadn’t been so focused on events in Canterlot, and just thought for a minute and put it all together… If. Only if... Sorry. I suppose you’ve long ago grown tired of these digressions. Anyways, my reassurances calmed the naturally panic-prone citizens and everypony went back to their daily lives save Twilight’s friends, who gathered around me in search of different answers. “I don’t like it,” Applejack began once we were out of earshot of other ponies. “Bein’ told to sit tight down here when there’s trouble up in the city.” “Yeah! We’ve saved the whole world before, why can’t we do something now?” Rainbow Dash said, scowling up at the distant spires of Canterlot in prideful indignation. “Girls, it’s not that simple,” I said, forced to play the role of the dutiful student. “I was in Canterlot when this began, and it’s not like what we’ve faced before. Shining Armor and Cadance are there right now, and I’m sure they can handle it.” Oh, the effort to keep from snorting and rolling my eyes after I said that. “Oh, I hope they’ll be okay,” Fluttershy fretted. “They’ll be fine,” Dash said, dismissing her concerns with the wave of a hoof. “And even if this is different, we should be still be in on it!” She hopped into the air and did a quick circle around the group. “Come on, we’re missing all the action! I say we get on the next train up the mountain and kick some tail!” Despite my exhaustion and my injuries, I felt heat flush through me at those words. If I’d had much dark magic taint still in me, I might have jumped her right there in the street. As it was, I was forced to surreptitiously bite my lip and take a steadying breath. I could imagine her on the dark streets of Canterlot, facing down a horde of addicts with a cocky grin. “Kick whose tail?” Rarity asked, unpleasantly dragging my thoughts out of my fantasies. “Even if we were to go to the city, we have no idea who we would be facing.” “Plus, the Princess told us to stay put, right?” Pinkie asked me. I could see the twitchy exuberance in her eyes, just burning to be let out. How she managed to stay on topic and ask a relevant question, I doubt I’ll ever know. “She did,” I confirmed. “She said that she wants to keep us safe in case worse comes to worse and we need to use the Elements.” Applejack huffed. “Not that they did much good last time we put ‘em on. You still have them, right Twilight?” I nodded, feeling a little trepidation at that. I had originally assumed that Celestia would take the Elements back after our failure, but she hadn’t said anything about them at all. They remained in their shielded case, shut away in the lab under the library. “Now, I’m not keen on just sittin’ around when there’s somethin’ I could do to help. But I also gotta agree with Rarity here. We don’t even know who to fight yet, so just up and leavin’ for Canterlot won’t do nopony any good. Twilight, what do you think?” “I think...” I began, pausing for a moment as I put some actual thought into my answer. Erotic fancies aside, I really didn’t want any of Twilight’s friends getting involved in the fight. The complications to my plans would just spiral well out of control in no time at all. On the other hoof, they had surprised me before. If they saw what was going on, what it would take to win, they just might begin to see things my way. Not having to hide my activities from them would be a boon of immeasurable worth. In the end, of course, I decided that the risk was too great. “I think we should do as the Princess asked,” I said. “Stay here, keep doing what we do, and wait to see if she’ll need us.” “Come on, Twilight! Don’t tell me you’re just going to do nothing!” Dash said, giving me a plaintive look. “No, I’m not going to do nothing,” I said. “I’m still studying the core we took from the sky-kraken. From what Shining Armor’s expert said, it’s something that was made by King Sombra. Maybe somepony found a cache of his weapons or something and decided to use them.” As I said it, the idea struck a chord in me. Perhaps I had been thinking on Sage Advice’s words subconsciously, putting scenario’s together for why the black crystal was manifesting Sombra’s particular magic. A hidden weapons cache would certainly explain the sky-kraken, but not black crystal itself. I still maintain that Sombra would never willingly share power out like that, regardless of how effective the resulting addiction would be. “Well, what are the rest of us supposed to do, then?” Dash asked. “Get the town ready,” I replied. “Somepony sent that killer cloud at us. They might do it again. We need to have everything in place in case that happens. Remember all the disaster-proofing we did a while ago?” “Is that from when you went all crazy because future-you went back in time to tell you not to go all crazy because future you went back in time to tell you not to go all crazy because–” Applejack conscientiously stuffed a hoof in Pinkie’s mouth to stop the oncoming infinite recursion. I gave her a thankful look. “Yes. That. I think we should do that again. I’ve still got some checklists from then that you can go through.” “You won’t be co-ordinating?” Rarity asked. “I’ll be too busy,” I said. “That core is… difficult. I’ll be out in the Everfree Forest doing tests on it, I won’t be able to oversee everything going on here. I’m trusting you girls to make sure everything gets done here.” “You can count on us, Twilight!” Dash said, landing and puffing out her chest. “We’ll get Ponyville whipped into shape in no time!” “A good project’ll take everypony’s mind off of what’s goin’ on in Canterlot,” Applejack said with a satisfied nod. The others all agreed in their own ways. Fluttershy squeaked something timid, Pinkie bounced and talked about having a ‘disaster-proofing party’ or some such nonsense. Rarity was the only one who didn’t seem entirely enthusiastic about it. As the others departed, she hung back. “Not that I’m unhappy with it, dear, but it isn’t like you to not try to manage both your research and the other projects,” she said. She was angling towards something, which came out in the saccharine tone and false smile she used. What it was she really wanted, however, I didn’t really know. “Are you feeling well?” “Perfectly,” I said, my own false smile and sweet tone a counter to hers. “Though, there is something else I’d like you to do for me.” “Oh?” An eyebrow rose in intrigue. “Name it.” “The gems you got for me are working,” I said. “But I need more of them.” “That won’t be easy. There aren’t a lot of that quality around.” “Still, I’m going to need as many as you can get your hooves on. I can pay–” “Oh, I don’t doubt that, Twilight,” she said, cutting me off. “But whatever could you need them for?” It was a supreme effort of will not to snap at her. I managed it, but barely. Instead, thinking of what I had planned I smiled. “I’m doing some disaster-proofing of my own,” I said. “By the way, I could also use your advice on fashion.” “Really?” She blinked in surprise. “Well! I’m always ready to help my friends with that! What were you thinking of? A new dress? A nice hat?” I may despise Rarity for her insipid nature, but even I have to admit that in her area of expertise, she is a master. “I was thinking jewelry, actually,” I said. “Tell me, how do you think I’d look with earrings?”