Pony's Island

by No One and Nobody

Chapter 5

Chapter 5: The Eggheads Have Been Doubled!

The Professor was astonished at the sheer volume of literary work which filled the walls of the library room in Twilight’s Castle.

“You live here?” Said Mr. Howell in a slightly shocked voice.

“Actually, this room is available to anypony since the town library was umm… relocated after an incident with an escaped convict,” said Twilight, wincing.

“Was there a big shoot-out?” Said Gilligan with boyish excitement.

“You could say that,” said Twilight with a pained expression on her face.

“Hmm,” said the Professor looking through some of the tomes on the shelves, “I think I have some of these books.”

He pulled one of the books off the shelf and looked at the title.

Integrated Calculus by Zimmermare.

“Never mind,” he said putting it back.

“Wow, did you ever see so many books in all your life Skipper?” Asked Gilligan walking towards the nearest shelf.

Skipper grabbed him by the shoulders and steered him gently away saying to himself, “Maybe we shouldn’t have left Pinkie behind.”

“Don’t worry Grumpy,” said Pinkie appearing out of nowhere and nuzzling Skipper’s knee, “I’m right here.”

“Ahhh!” Skipper yelled and jumped sideways away from the pink pony who sported a letter filled basket on her head, “Where did you come from?”

“Sugarcube corner, silly. I’m done with your big welcome party, and here’s your invitation,” said Pinkie as she presented the basket to Skipper and Gilligan.

Skipper and Gilligan leaned over the basket as Gummy surfaced amid the sea of letter with five invitations gripped in his toothless mouth. They drew back and stared at the crazy card-carrying reptile. Gummy looked back at them and slowly blinked asynchronously, as the letters remained fixed in his gummy grip.

“Well what are you waiting for?” said Pinkie, “Go on, Gummy doesn’t bite. Oh wait, yes he does but it never hurts.”

Skipper reached out tentatively and took the invitations which were addressed to the Howells, the Professor, Gilligan, himself and Twilight.

“Umm, thanks?” said Skipper, wiping saliva off the paper.

“Don’t mention it,” said Pinkie as Gummy resurfaced with another envelope clenched in his gums. Pinkie took it out of his mouth, “What? An invitation for me? Oh I’d be glad to come. After all what kind of a party would it be without me?”

The Professor stared at Pinkie and then said to Twilight, “We just left. How did she-”

Twilight rolled her eyes and said, “It’s Pinkie we’re talking about here. Trust me you’ll get used to it.”

---

After the Howells were situated in their rooms and Gilligan returned with their bags, Twilight and the Professor began the process of researching. Meanwhile Pinkie dragged Skipper and Gilligan out of the castle on something she called the “Practically-Perfect-Pinkie-Pie-tour-of-Ponyville”.

Skipper and Gilligan didn’t quite know what to make of it and were a little hesitant in hanging with the happily hyper pony until the Howells asked to join them on their excursion.

As they left Mrs. Howell turned to her husband and said, “Thurston do you suppose this is real sightseeing. Last time we did this was in that little town you asked the butler to build in our backyard, what was its name again?”

“Beverly Hills Dear,” said Mr. Howell with a chuckle.

“Oh yes, a lovely little place. Nowhere near the size of our mansion though. Oh and darling you did remember to bring our large and small change wallets. After all we don’t know what kind of currency these ponies accept.”

“I have it right here,” said Mr. Howell hefting a small satchel.

When they walked into the main street of Ponyville many of the ponies walking around stopped to stare at the newcomers. Up until now they had only really heard rumors from Pinkie about the huge party she was planning for the new guests to Equestria.

As they passed by a sales stall run by a purple pony with a strawberry and a bunch of grapes for a cutie mark Mr. Howell stopped for a minute.

The pony appeared to be sampling her own wares and when she saw Mr. Howell stop for a look she hastily corked the bottle and stored it under the stall.

“My name is Berry Punch, can I ‘hic’ help you?” she asked with a pleasant if somewhat goofy smile.

“Look Lovey, a new kind of bubbly,” said Mr. Howell.

“Oh Thurston, always the connoisseur,” said Mrs. Howell turning back towards the stall.

“What would you suggest?” asked Mr. Howell politely.

“My own brand is my personal ‘hic’ favorite,” said Berry Punch, passing Mr. Howell a small cup and pouring him a sample.

“Not bad, not bad at all,” said Mr. Howell after tasting it, “Very fruity, don’t suppose you have anything a little stronger though?”

Berry started to speak but was interrupted by Pinkie.

“Nope-dopy, we don’t have anything stronger than Berry Punch’s special brew, after all this story is-” she turned to look off into the distance and said in a deeper, and strangely serious stallion’s voice, “Rated ‘E’ for everyone.”

Mr. Howell looked at Skipper and Gilligan who just shrugged, and turning back to Berry Punch he said, “I think I’ll take a few bottles for the road.”

“Sure ‘hic’ thing mister,” said Berry Punch passing him three bottles as Mr. Howell took three large bills out of his money belt and handed them to the pony.

Berry stared at the bills for a second as if she didn’t really comprehend them and then said, “What are these ‘hic’?”

Mrs. Howell gasped and looked at Mr. Howell with wide eyes, “Thurston. They’re off the gold standard!”

“Oh no ‘hic’,” said Berry, politely handing back the bills, “We take gold. You just ‘hic’ use bits.”

“Well that’s a relief,” said Mrs. Howell, “For a minute there you had me worried. Looks like we’ll just have to dig into the large change wallet. Thurston?”

Mr. Howell smiled and reached into the small satchel he had with him, “One brick or two?”

With that Mr. Howell plunked a large gold brick onto the counter and waited for a reply from the purple mare who just sat there with her mouth hanging open and her eyes popping.

“H-h-how did you ‘hic’ carry that?” she gasped.

“Oh the Howell family has always had an affinity for gold,” said Mr. Howell as though it were nothing, “Finding, handling, accruing, spending, you name it and a Howell can do it with gold. It’s our special talent.”

“I’ve never seen a gold-carrying ‘hic’ cutie mark before,” Berry Punch muttered to herself.

“Yes, in fact when my father was only slightly younger than me he could lift well over two hundred pounds in gold,” said Mr. Howell, smiling, “I remember for my ninth birthday he got me a solid gold weight set. I got bored after a week or so, after all a hundred pounds of gold is chump change for me now.”

“I wish you could carry suitcases like you could carry gold,” Gilligan said, rubbing his still sore back.

“With this kind of change,” said Berry Punch, “You could buy my entire stock ‘hic’, for the next four years.”

“Well then,” said Mr. Howell putting the brick back in his ‘large change’ satchel and pulling out a smaller set of gold coins, “Take these and keep the change, after all I’ve got a million of them back home.”

“Yep, that’s why he’s called a millionaire,” said Gilligan, trying to be helpful.

“Indeed,” said Mr. Howell with a raised eyebrow, “Now, on with the tour.”

They left Berry Punch mumbling, “Mom always warned me this stuff would ‘hic’ give me hallucinations,” and continued the tour.

---

“You know, we should contact Princess Celestia,” said Twilight not long after the sightseers had left, “She and Luna are the most powerful creatures in all of Equestria, Spike, take a letter.”

Spike pulled out some parchment and a quill pen.

“Good grief! You mean that ponies still have not invented the ballpoint-pen? Here, Uh, Spike try this. I think you’ll find this much more efficient,” The Professor handed Spike the pen that he had been using to take notes.

“Whoa! This is nice!” Spike said as he inspected the pen.

“Now then. Dear Princess Celestia,” Twilight dictated as Spike wrote, “Earlier this morning some creatures called humans appeared in a boat at Sweet Apple Acres. I was hoping you might know how they got here and how to get them back.”

She sighed, “No, that’s all wrong. I just don’t know how to say ‘Gee Princess Celestia, I found some creatures that I’ve never seen before and I need you’re help figuring this out!” She collapsed into a chair.

“Is she always like this?” Asked the Professor.

“You should have seen her when she was tardy on her weekly report,” Spike said rolling his eyes, “Now look Twilight, this is fine. Add a little more to the letter and I’ll send it off.”

Twilight stood up and said, “You’re right Spike. Anyway, I have already… Uh… Sort of cleared Discord. He has an… Acceptable alibi, for Discord, anyway. I have begun an investigation to determine the guilty party. I shall keep you updated on my progress. As always, your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.”

Spike rolled up the letter and blew a column of fire at it, sending the message to the princess at Canterlot.

“What did you just do?” Said the Professor, “Now you’ll have to write a whole new one.”

“No we won’t,” Said Spike, glancing at the Professor with a sideways look, “I just sent it.”

“But- It- Just- Fire- HUH? Fine, whatever…” Said the Professor, almost going back to the state of mind he’d been in when Discord was around.

“Anyway,” Said Twilight, turning to the bookcases, “While we’re waiting for her reply, let’s start researching.”

With that, she started levitating books off of the shelves. The Professor stared on in awed silence. Twilight began on a History of Equestrian Magic, while the Professor wondered where to start. He knew nothing of magic, so he picked up Introduction to Basic Magic.

An hour later, the Professor was beginning to grasp the basics of magic and Twilight was nowhere closer to discovering the magical culprit.

All the likely candidates have either been banished or destroyed, or, in the case of Discord, reformed. The Sirens, Tyrek, Nightmare Moon, all defeated. Plus, if a creature possesses magic strong enough to transport them here, why wouldn’t he or she try to take over Equestria? Then there is the universe in general. Nopony truly understands the universe. Fluctuations in time and space could have sent them here, I suppose. But I think it best if I explore all the alternatives before I assume anything.

After she had finished that thought she turned to see Spike belch. Princess Celestia’s reply!

Twilight levitated the rolled up parchment with the royal seal and opened it.

Twilight read the letter aloud, “My faithful student Twilight Sparkle, don’t write Discord off as innocent just yet. Remember that the creature that brought them here may not be from Equestria, in which case even I wouldn’t know about it. Thank you for your diligent studies, I can always count on you. Princess Celestia.”

Twilight lowered the letter, “I didn’t think of that. Princess Celestia might be right, a creature from your universe might have done this!”

“Highly unlikely” The Professor said, looking up from his book, “As far as we know, our universe lacks actual magic.”

“Then we’re back where we started,” Twilight said with a depressed look, “Let’s get back to the books.”

Author's Note:

We do not own any of the rights to anything depicted in this story.
References, quotes, characters, lyrics, etc. all belong to their respective owners.

Comments

[Brony1314]

Man you're getting every characters personalities down packed. I'm glad to see that there's people out there who like Gilligans Island.