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Scootaloo
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Scootaloo woke up from one of the best dreams she has ever had, it even rivaled the one Princess Luna visited. She found herself in a familiar room. It was painted light blue, and Scootaloo found herself laying on the one bed; while, the only other furniture presented themselves to her, a nightstand and a dresser, as her eyes settled from their sleepy haze. It was the guest room of the Cake’s, above Sugarcube Corner. Pinkie Pie usually snuck her in here during the winters. It wasn’t winter, so why was she here? She was still groggy from her dream, so she couldn’t remember. Scootaloo tried to get up, but froze when her roaming, sleepy eyes fell on the other side of the bed. There slept Rainbow Dash, her chest slowly rising and falling, a wing draped over Scootaloo like a soft warm blanket. Scootaloo’s mind raced, eradicating any sleepiness she had in an instant.
’I-I wasn’t dreaming?’ She thought in disbelief. Tears formed in her eyes. ‘Th-this is real?’ she thought, smiling brightly as tears started to roll down her cheeks. Scootaloo didn’t know why she was crying, she felt the complete opposite of sad right now, in fact she’s never been happier. She rubbed her eyes clear and snuggled closer to Rainbow, eliciting Rainbows wing to briefly hold Scootaloo tighter. She couldn’t sleep. She was too ecstatic. So she closed her eyes and enjoyed the time with her ‘big sis’.
*Click*
Scootaloo opened her eyes to the brief flash of light that had shone through her eyelids and the sound that had caught her attention. It didn’t take long for her to find the source; Pinkie Pie, holding a camera ad picture. When she noticed she was being watched, she waved with a smile at Scootaloo, then quickly yet quietly backed out of the room. Scootaloo stared at the closed door in confusion shortly, before snuggling closer to Rainbow, who hadn’t woken up. Scootaloo was certain this was the beginning of something awesome.
On the other side of the closed door, Pinkie looked at the picture, smiling. This was a memory that would never fade. Her talent was to make ponies happy; and Scootaloo had been one foal who had needed a lot of cheering up. She had done much, and so had her unwitting friends; and now, her job was done. The torch had been passed on to Rainbow Dash. A perfect choice, if her Pinkie Sense had anything to say about it, which it did it. Speaking about jobs, she had one she had to get back to, but she knew this was a great new beginning in their lives.
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Manehatten
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Manehatten Museum of Magic and Art is a place for ponies to learn and explore their heritage in magic and arts; from the Old Pegasi Guard’s wing blades, to the unbreakable tools and armor who’s origins were lost during the reign of Discord, and even the relics of The Gathering, the unicorns who first raised and lowered the sun and moon when Equestria was first founded. Just these three were naught but the tip of the highest spire of Canterlot Castle. Art and artifacts of every age, even before the Princesses, were exhibited for ponies to learn about. There was so much, that the museum had to rotate what was on exhibition for lack of room in the approved public areas, and even then it loaned out some relics to other museums to save storage space. Of course, with so many ancient relics of power and tools that could be used for many things, whether they be good or evil, it stood to reason that the security of The Museum would be top of the line. Locks, and spell activated runes were placed on every door and window to prevent intrusion, cameras watched every entrance, hall and room, and multiple spells protected the various relics, usually meant to stun would-be thieves and alert the security and the local guard of an attempt at theft. The guards themselves were equipped with specialized armor enchanted with a spell diffusion matrix that prevents magic of any complexity from affecting them. As a final measure, the more dangerous exhibits sat in a caged null box that only the strongest of magic users had an inkling of forcing through. All in all, this building was arguably third in terms of security, behind Canterlot Castle in second, and Canterlot Vault in first.
But none of these compared to the true ultimate weapon that the Museum possessed.
Misdirection.
The relics and artifacts on display were naught but replicas, fakes to stop the power of legends and sudo-gods from coming into the hooves of villains. No one but the Curator and the Princesses were supposed to know. If a Curator were to retire, he or she would sign a magical contract with Celestia alerting her that he or she is breaking the contract. Allowing Celestia to either save, warn, or punish the retired Curator as seen fit.The real artifacts and relics were secured strictly in the storage area of the same museum, in multiple layers of null-metals to prevent their influence, as some actually radiated dark magic.
Of course, even such measures had weaknesses.
It just so happened that the previous Curator had a daughter, a filly named Lotsa Thoughts. The dark gray earth pony filly was always thinking and writing, researching and finding out how things worked. Said filly had noticed that when she and her father had went to a storage area as part of the tour for Father’s day, that boxes with artifacts in there were more protected and more expensive than the entire museums security combined. So, as any good kid, and scientist would do, she asked about the security system, and the guard was all too happy to share, then later she researched them and their flaws from the Manehatten library. All this was written down in a single, plain blue and green journal. One that was lost when Lotsa, or Lotty, as she liked to be called, was cornered by the local bullies, who dumped the entire contents to the wind. The journal fell in a pile of newspapers, and sat there for months, until one particular stallion tripped on a soda bottle and revealed it to him. When he found out what exactly was detailed there, and being that he was low on cash, decided to sell it to the highest bidder. A nice pegasus mare asked him about it interested in what he had. So he gave her slightly more details on what it contained, she looked and sounded so innocent in her reaction to what he had, that he knew she wasn’t interested in buying. He told her to scram, but she didn’t budge. He recently got laid off his job, and his attempts at finding a new one have failed thus far, so he needed bits. She offered him a hug, which surprised him. It felt nice and gave him something that he was losing, hope. She asked him to do the right thing and give it to her so she could return it to its rightful owner. Confused he hesitantly did just that, which she rewarded with another hug and quick pep talk before taking off. It happened so fast he was almost sure he just got swindled, but at the same time she seemed like a pure soul. He decided the latter and went back on the job search, filled with hope.
Tonight, the journal would serve it’s current owner well. The cloaked mare grinned, watching from the rooftops as the Curator left the Museum. Her sapphire eyes gleamed with excitement. An hour passed, and that excitement was replaced by boredom, the movies make this much more interesting than it actually is. At moon high, she made her move.
Spreading her wings, the mare flew in a zigzag pattern towards the window nestled just underneath the sloping roof of the museum. The window locked from the inside automatically, but was high enough that the Curator wouldn’t have noticed a small stripe of clear tape preventing the locking mechanism from accomplishing its purpose. She pulled out a small nullstone, and prayed it’d be enough to stop a spell from activating a small rune on the outside of the window that would stun her. The rune began to glow slightly, to her horror, as she applied the stone, but it quickly blinked out, to her relief. Flying in, the mare found herself in the main hall, a statue of Celestia and Luna in regal and leader-like poses, marble and onyx respectively, standing tall in the center. The two story tall statue was a gift from a stonemason by the name of Carver, created the masterpiece from a single block, a specialized piece meant to show unity between the two sisters, soon after Lunas return. But, like some of the other pieces in the Museum, it was a fake. It actually served as a magic battery, keeping the spells running, with plenty of backups, and consoles so the guards wouldn’t be affected by them, or trigger the lasers. The cloaked mare grinned, showing pearly white teeth. Flying down, she rummaged in her cloak, pulling out a small, orange gem with a ring around it. Twisting the ring and putting the gem on the neck of the marble Celestia, an orange glow spread over the top of Celestia’s head, and the white marble quickly faded into transparency, revealing the mechanisms and consoles inside. Studying them for some time, the cloaked mare reached out with a bright yellow hoof, and tapped the neck a few times. The spot where she tapped hissed, revealing a flawless white gem. The mare unceremoniously dropped her nullstone in, which, on contact with the gem, flared green, before fading into a dull orange. Then she retrieved the nullstone, and resealed the gem.
In the museum's ‘official security room, which really didn’t hold more than the screens for the cameras and a button to call the Guard, a lone stallion sat at the desk, pigging out on a veritable bouquet of fruits and pastries that a bright orange maned mare had been kind enough to give to him. As he chewed on his third jelly filled doughnut, he couldn’t help but think about her. She’s been working here for two weeks now as a tour guide, and has made it her mission to show him that his job is appreciated. Today she did that by giving him something to feast on; while he would otherwise be looking at unchanging screens for hours on end. It was both mind numbing and soul crushing. He was so distracted with his meal that he failed to notice that the screens above beheld some movement.
The mare swiftly darted in and out of various camera's line of sight, hoping her distraction was working. The alarms haven't gone off yet, so she continued on heart racing. She finally made it to a door that said ‘RESTRICTED ACCESS.’
After fiddling with a lock she pushed the door open, revealing a large room that would otherwise be small thanks to a spatial-displacement spell. Feeling her bought time running thin she strolled in leaving the door barely open behind her.
The room was lined with five shelves with signs at the end presenting an alphabetical order. She went to the one on the far left labeled ‘A-F.’ As a final act of defense from thieves Celestia had each magical item enclosed in a box of null metals, while the more mundane but equally important items were encased in a glass box lined with null metals. All of them were chained down by good old iron, and padlocked with null metals. Being a pegasus none of this affected her efforts.
After some searching she found what she was looking for, a small null box just a little larger than her hoof. If it wasn’t for that journal she would have never figured out how these locks worked, and wouldn’t have been prepared with the tools needed. They’re a lot more complicated than the door locks, which gave an amateur thief like herself a false sense of accomplishment, only to hit a enchanted brick wall later. Luckily, she brought the figurative pick and literal picklocks needed to deconstruct it piece by piece. It seemed like forever to her, but in reality it hadn’t been more than a few minutes when she finally unlocked the chains, leaving but one more obstacle in her way.
Her sense of urgency didn’t waver, making this seem more agonizing than the chains, she was so close. She didn’t need this item, but the story about it; that she’s been repeating for the last two weeks to visitors, really peaked her interest. If it could do what the story suggested, then her life would be so much more easier. With a click, the lid popped open revealing a brown cloth bracelet, with a small black shard, unease instantly washed over her, but that disappeared as soon as it came and she suddenly felt attracted to it. She slowly reached for it, and upon contact felt cold chill go up her spine, crawling unnervingly like a bunch of insects. That to disappeared as a wave of warmth and welcoming replaced it, she felt a kinship to this bracelet as she could tell its original purpose and her life up till now were pretty much one in the same.
She knew that with this bracelet she would accomplish great things, for herself at least, and it would be the beginning of an easy life.
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Elsewhere...
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“It’s time to go,” a male voice said quickly.
Excitement, urgency, happiness in his voice?
*Sigh* “Alright, one moment please,” a female voice responded, “I know you’re there,” the female said. After a moment, I came out of my hiding spot, “Now come here and give me a hug,” I did just that, and hugged tight, I was worried. Something's missing, but I couldn’t figure out what, “Now, don’t fret we wouldn’t be doing this if we didn’t have a plan. The Queen has everything well in hoof, I won’t have to worry about your future once this is done,” she happily said. Then she bopped my snout, while making a *bop* noise. She giggles and I’m annoyed, but join in soon after.
Next we’re walking outside, and I just got done hugging him and I’m waving them goodbye and good luck, as they go off in the distance.
It’s been a week, or at least for some reason I know it’s been a week, and it failed. They’ve been filtering in, sometimes in groups other times by their lonesome. Still no sign of them, I’m worried sick. Suddenly there’s excitement, they’re all gathering at the entrance so I do to. I watch as the Queen limps in badly, eyes brimmed with defeat, and head hung low. She keeps going like none of us exist, and we let her pass as she slowly makes her way to the throne room. That’s not who I was looking for, so I go back.
A few days pass by, or at least it feels like a few days, and the Queen hasn’t left the throne room; not that I care, I’m still waiting on them, but lots of others have been coming and going. Finally she sends for me, I fear the meeting for some reason, shouldn’t I be happy? I don’t want to accept it, but they urge me to see her, so I do.
Next thing I know the Queen is in front of me, “My Queen” I say while bowing. I’ve done this several times before, it’s been awhile, or has it? For some reason I feel the need to get away from here, why does this seem so familiar.
“Rise,” she says with a wavering voice, “I have some unsavory news that I must inform you of, it’s about your parents... they didn’t make it.”
My fears confirmed, my eyes water and everything goes blurry.
I wake up, eyes moist, and lay there. That nightmare has been plaguing me ever since it actually happened, and I’m still waiting to wake up. I never do though, I’m stuck here.
I get up and head for the throne room, maybe there will be some hope for the future yet.