Ponyville’s Tiny Librarian
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Chapter 2
Ticket Master
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Part 4
"Now that's somethin' Ah didn't expect to see. D'ya need any help in there?"
Rainbow Dash laughed. “Let me guess. You dreamed of becoming a trophy, but exposed the wrong side by mistake.”
Rarity’s face turned red, though nopony could see it. “This is not what it looks like.”
“Do you… need some help?” Steel Blade asked, staring openly.
“Do Ah need to pull ya like a carrot or somethin’?” Applejack asked in a mocking tone while Rainbow Dash tried to restrain her laughter.
Rarity pressed her forehooves against the wall and pushed. After a few seconds, she freed her head with a loud cracking noise as fragments of the wall decorated her neck and horn.
“Ah see yer tryin' a new fashion thingy. Ah reckon it's an outdoors thingy, 'cause indoors, well, you bring the door in with ya.”
Rarity frowned before removing her unwanted decoration with her hooves and magic, dirting her clean floor as the result. The mud still present on Dash’s and Applejack’s hooves dropping onto the floor quickly fueled her frustration.
“Right. So. We’re looking for Twilight, who’s still being chased around town over a gala ticket. Could we ask for your assistance?” Steel Blade ventured, bravely getting between the mares before the situation could escalate.
The fashionista grit her teeth as she looked over the room. Cleaning it and fixing the hole in the wall now added to her to-do-list. After taking a few calming breaths, she said, “I will gladly help in resolving this issue.”
“Yer… not mad?” Applejack asked.
“Of course not,” she responded while forcing a smile. If she was going to ever become the better pony she wished to be, she couldn’t let such trivial events annoy her.
With the little unicorn nowhere to be found and the crowd dispersed, the pack arrived back home where they regrouped with Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy, who had joined Spike’s and Overwatch’s tea party.
A fuming Angel was sitting in the corner of the room with crossed paws and half-closed eyes. News of the extra tickets only worsened his mood as all his efforts, even being flattened by the mob of ponies, were all for nothing.
Overwatch set down the teapot after pouring yet another cup and shoving another piece of cake in her mouth. “Hey, Phteelie,” she said, still chewing. “Twineeth’s bach.”
Steel Blade started, looking at his partner suspiciously before glancing out the window. Sure enough, a tiny purple blob could be seen approaching from around a distant house.
He turned back to the charcoal mare. “Okay, how did you do that?”
“Eathee,” Overwatch said, before finally swallowing and sipping at her tea nonchalantly. “The air has the distinctive taste of peaches and raspberries. Very delightful. Goes well with the tea.”
At this, Fluttershy also turned to Overwatch, an eyebrow raised. She tentatively drew in a breath, holding it for a moment as she continued to level a calculating glare at the guard mare.
Overwatch simply beamed back at the butter-yellow pegasus.
Steel Blade rolled his eyes. “Figures you wouldn’t give me a straight answer,” he said, before rushing outside to Twilight’s aid alongside a panicked dragon, his partner and the rest of Twilight’s friends.
Noticing them, Twilight galloped before appearing in a flash of teleportation in front of their hooves.
The group looked down at the tiny unicorn in pity as the tired mare collapsed onto the ground, sweat covering her entire body. Twilight raised her head with some effort and looked in the eyes of Rainbow Dash and smiled. “I just,” Twilight took a deep breath, her lungs desperate for air after the torment she endured, “beat an entire town… in a game of tag.” She took another deep breath and pointed her trembling hoof at the pegasus. “Just wait, Rainbow Dash, y-your defeat is coming f-faster than you... t-t-think.”
Applejack gave her pegasus friend a questioning glance. “Mind kindly tell us what’s tha’ all about?”
Rainbow Dash raised her head proudly and responded, “It’s one of those games we athletes play to compete with each other, you wouldn’t understand.”
“Come again?” Applejack asked with a stomp. “Are ya sain’ Ah’m not good enough to be an athlete? Did ya forgot yer humiliating defeats during our hoof-wrestle and wrestle in the mud?"
Overwatch giggled. “I remember that! Very entertaining, I might add.” At the surprised glances from the arguing ponies, she added, “Protecting Twilight is my job. Barring exceptional circumstances like vacation, cake, and angry-moon-goddess-bringing-about-nighttime-eternal, I’m always keeping an eye on Twilight. Also, I won ten bits from Steelie thanks to you.”
Steel Blade let out a deep sigh. “Hey, you have to believe sometimes.”
“Yeah, and your faith led you to ruin and despair,” Overwatch continued with an evil cackle. “You should know better than to bet on a pegasus beating an earth pony in a strength contest.”
Dash pressed her muzzle against Applejack’s and said, “Just wait ‘til I get my earth pony stuff mastered and kick your flank.”
“Yer welcome to try,” Applejack responded with a determined look.
Spike rolled his eyes before bypassing the group and gently picking up Twilight.
Pinkie Pie jumped over the group, landing in front of them and said, “I’m really sorry for my big mouth, I was so excited that I didn’t think about your feelings. I was a really bad friend, can you forgive me?”
“There’s nothing to forgive,” Twilight answered as she looked at her energetic friend from her spot lying down in Spike’s hands. “I do lots of silly things when I am excited, and besides, it was fun.”
Pinkie smiled cheerfully and was about to hug the little mare, but Spike walked backward in time to avoid it and shoot Pinkie a glare of disapproval.
Fluttershy slowly emerged from behind Pinkie Pie and lowered herself to Twilight’s level. “And I am really sorry for cleaning your room just to get the ticket.” Angel kicked a pebble before sitting next to Fluttershy’s left foreleg.
“Please, stop apologizing, I understand.” Twilight added cheerfully, “Besides, I already decided to give you the ticket since Rarity refused.”
The shy pegasus rubbed her foreleg nervously. “Oh… about that.” She glanced at Rarity in worry and asked, “Should we tell her?”
Rarity nodded and took a few elegant steps forward. “Darling, the lack of tickets is not a problem any longer. Princess Celestia send additional ones for each of us alongside an apology letter.”
“What?” Twilight shouted, almost jumping from her spot before reasserting herself in Spike’s embrace. “When did she send it?”
Upon receiving glances from the rest of the group, Spike blushed. “Well, about that…”
***
Spike took Twilight back into the library and put her exhausted body into her basket, which was now equipped with a pillow that served Twilight as bed for past thirteen years. The young drake expected the reunion between the pillow and his pony mother sooner or later, but was surprised it would be delivered so quickly.
“Twilight, I am really really sorry, it fell over behind the bed when I was sleeping,” Spike started before showing Twilight the scroll and additional tickets as now all of Twilight’s friends and guards with him included had one.
Without wasting a moment, the little unicorn beamed and levitated over the letter to read it, curiosity and excitement overcoming her exhaustion.
My Dearest Little Faithful Student, Twilight Sparkle.
I would like to apologize and tell you the entire truth behind the tickets I had sent you.
I know that you have five great friends and Spike, who is like son to you. Yet, I sent you only two tickets to the ‘Grand Galloping Gala’ despite my sister’s wishes to invite them all.
The true reason why I did such a shameful thing is because I wanted to teach you and your friends a lesson. I wished to see how you would react when forced to choose between your friends while being able to please only one.
In the end I was going to send all the tickets anyway.
I am deeply sorry for this manipulative act and I hope you can forgive me.
I also hope that I managed to send you additional tickets before their lack caused any trouble.
I wish you best of luck on this new chapter of your life.
Your Forever Grateful Mentor, Princess Celestia.
Twilight smiled as she rolled the huge scroll and levitated it into the chest next to the bed. A few firm words left her mouth, “Spike, take a letter.”
In a burst of green flames, a letter appeared in the air and fell onto the floor, catching the attention of a certain princess as a midnight-blue aura surrounded it.
“What is this?”
Slowly, the letter unrolled as two curious eyes started reading it. “It appears that thy student has finally responded to thine apology letter. Would you like to hear what she wrote?”
Feeling a few movements under her silver shoe, she smirked and read aloud.
“Dear Princess Celestia,” Luna started as she took deep breath and continued.
“I am afraid that the additional tickets, as well as the letter, has arrived when I most likely left to visit my friend Applejack for my first day of studies on the topic of earth pony magic. I must say I was surprised by their reaction when I mentioned that I had two tickets.” Luna raised her eyebrow as she felt the alicorn crawling from under her hoof and looked down, seeing her tiny sister’s head emerge a little from under the shoe. “It seems that thy apology letter arrived a bit late, sister.”
“Luna!” Celestia yelled while still feeling the undying metal pinning her to the floor. “It is not very polite to read other ponies’ correspondences.”
“Tsk, tsk, tsk,” Luna mocked as she gave her sister a disappointed glare. “As thy trainer, We must take direct action when teaching thou about honesty and heal thee from thy manipulative ways. We cannot ignore a letter that thine student sent after thou had lied to her.”
Celestia bit her lip before sighing in defeat, now listening to Luna who was reading the letter from her student. Despite feeling a bit uncomfortable under the weight, she decided to accept her sister’s punishment as it was a fair trade for the exciting adventure they had earlier today. Celestia winced at the unpleasant feeling coming from her healed wounds. Maybe ordering her guards to use lethal force wasn’t such a good idea after all.
Luna turned back to the letter and continued, “All of my friends desired to go to this awful party no matter how much I tried to convince them otherwise, while Rarity, who I expected would love to attend, has learned an important lesson about generosity, giving up her life's dream for her friends. As for me, I still think that this party will turn into a disaster, but I am going to stick by their side.” Luna chuckled at the sentence she noticed next, catching her sister’s attention.
“PS: Once the ponies in Ponyville learned I had two tickets, I ended up playing in the biggest and longest game of tag in my entire life. I can proudly say I have defeated an entire town, and if I keep practicing, I may one day defeat Rainbow Dash and become the unbeaten world champion at it.” Luna lowered the letter to the ground as she spoke the last line, “Your Little Faithful Student, Twilight Sparkle.”
Celestia’s ears fell as she smiled awkwardly while her bigger sister looked down at her.
“Thou hast caused quite a disturbance in this peaceful town, sister.”
Celestia took a deep breath, even though as an alicorn she didn’t need to breathe to survive, something her sister proved by enduring a thousand years banishment on the moon. “There was a happy ending. So... no hard feelings?”
Celestia’s hopes were crushed the moment Luna levitated the hourglass, which counted her 15 minutes of punishment. Half of the sand that had already passed through was levitated back to the top. Celestia released her breath and lowered her head, feeling cold floor making contact with the lower part of her muzzle.
“We wish to expand the time of punishment for the trouble thy action caused, dear sister. Unless thou got tired of us squeezing out thy manipulative ways?"
Celestia grit her teeth and put more strength into her legs as she lifted Luna’s foreleg slightly. Feeling the weight of a giant leg on her back for so long was rather uncomfortable, but she didn’t want to end this, quite the opposite. Was it her desire to regain her sister’s trust? Was it her student resolve to fight against any challenge that inspired her? No, it was more than that. Maybe her guilt for banishing her sister for a thousand years that haunted her for an millennium, an inner desire to be judged, to be punished for all her mistakes she made during her long rule.
The realization struck her like lightning. She wanted to be judged, to have a pony point out her mistakes. She wanted her sister to have her revenge, to make her happy. For the first time in a millennium she had a pony who could tell her what she’s doing wrong, who could inflict a proper punishment suitable for an alicorn of her power.
“I trust your judgement, Luna. After all you had to endure, this punishment is a mercy. Even at my size, my body is full of power and my punishment should be heavy so I can learn from it.” Celestia looked at her sister while drops of sweat were falling down her face, easily noticing a cheerful smile. “You are really enjoying it, sister?”
“We would be lying if We said We didn’t,” Luna answered as she put more strength into her hoof, overpowering Celestia’s resistance and silencing her for the time being. Aside from feeling pleasure from being atop her sister for once, in more ways than one, was something she wasn’t proud of. She also felt pride towards Celestia, knowing that she was more than willing to accept punishments and atone for her mistakes.