• Published 12th Mar 2016
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Ponyville's Tiny Librarian - CommanderX5



Twilight has been a tiny, hard-working student for many years, willingly deciding to stay bite size after discovering a love for the adventures and challenges that came with it. Now it is time to start a new chapter of her life in Ponyville.

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Ch7 - Race to Canterlot - Part 1

Ponyville’s Tiny Librarian

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Chapter 7

Race to Canterlot
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part 1

“Shreee...” Twilight yawned loudly as she straightened her legs.

It had been a long nap, which Spike convinced her to take before going to Canterlot so all of her friends could have time to organize a small farewell not-a-party, much to Pinkie Pie’s disappointment. Twilight looked around slowly from her spot on the floor in a room much smaller than what she was used to, surrounded by tiny bookshelves containing books she could hold in her hooves.

She sighed deeply and looked at the watch hanging on the nearby wall. I better not keep the princesses waiting. She stood up and walked towards the door when a familiar voice caught her attention.

“Leaving already?” Steel Blade asked as he walked downstairs.

Twilight turned to her no longer giant guard, looking very presentable in his polished armor, which upon closer inspection was actually more polished than usual.

“Your friends were shocked when Spike told them you were leaving for two whole weeks, especially after you singlehoofedly saved the town.”

“Yeah,” Overwatch added as she came out of the kitchen and levitated a hay sandwich towards Twilight. “At least eat something before we go.”

Twilight looked at a sandwich before gulping it down in one go as if she were Pinkie Pie. Having taken care of the breakfast, she gave her guards a questioning glance. “Where are my friends by the way? Is Pinkie organising a farewell party for me?”

Overwatch shrugged. “Kinda. We tried convincing her not to. You're only going to be gone for two weeks, but the Mayor insisted that they organize a ‘public farewell celebration’ for you at the train station as a thank you gift for saving and repairing Ponyville. Pinkie Pie volunteered to assist with the preparations, so it’s basically a farewell party.”

Twilight sighed. “Great, now I need to visit the train station on my way to Canterlot,” she said in disappointment.

Steel Blade blinked. “Well, you need to go to the station to take the train anyways, Twilight, so it’s already on your way there.”

Twilight shook her head. “Who said anything about taking a train?” She turned back to her two confused guards as she pushed at the door. Unfortunately, she had forgotten about her present size, and her strength blew the door from its hinges, explosively throwing it through the air to land a few meters away in a heap of splintered wood and bent metal.

"Oops." Twilight blushed as she cautiously walked outside and picked the remains of the door up with her magic. It only took a moment to cast the familiar repair spell, but as she was fitting the door back into its frame, Steel Blade called out to her.

"Twilight, wait up!" The guard flew out of the window, staring warily at the glowing door as he landed next to her. "You forgot these."

She took a close look at what her guard was holding in the flat of one hoof. It was her miniature saddlebags with her tiny equipment inside. She shed a tear of nostalgia and placed the little saddlebags into her new normally sized ones. “And to think that something so small had served me for so many years,” Twilight said nostalgically before smiling at Steel Blade. “Thanks.”

“What about all those items in the chest in your room?” Overwatch asked as she checked the repairs on the door.

"Leave them—" Twilight put a hoof on her mouth and sighed before continuing in a much quieter voice. "Sorry. Leave them be. After all, I'll be back here in two weeks. Right now, we need to be going.”

With a swirl of dust, Twilight sprinted in the direction of the train station, her guards straining to stay at her heels.

Mayor Mare and most of the ponies in Ponyville gathered at the train station to say farewell to Twilight with a Goodbye-Not-A-Party worthy of a hero. The mayor took a quick glance at all the banners and ponies standing around before she noticed a baby dragon approaching her.

“Thanks for organizing this," said Spike. "I know we aren't leaving for long, but I will miss this crazy town.”

Mayor Mare coughed at the words ‘crazy town’ before speaking. “We would not dare let your owner leave without showing our gratitude for her heroic behaviour.”

Spike frowned. “First off, she’s not my owner. She is my adoptive mother.”

"Oh yes, right, my deepest apologies,” Mayor Mare said in panic as Spike looked at her suspiciously."Oh? Oh! Of course! My deepest apologies," Mayor Mare said, recovering from her initial panic as Spike eyed her suspiciously and continued.

“Still, why are you in charge of the preparations? Why not have a normal farewell party like Pinkie Pie wanted to throw? Are you trying to get on Twilight’s good side?”

The older mare refused to meet Spike’s gaze. “No…umm...”

“Aha, I knew it! So what can it be? Do you want to get on the good side of the Princess’s pupil, or are you afraid of her now that you saw what she’s capable of at her real size?” Spike poked a claw at the mayor and raised one eyebrow ridge as he waited for a response.

“It is always a good thing for the town to stay on the good side of a powerful and influential mare like Twilight, no matter what size she is. We are very grateful for what she did to both stop the Ursa and restore the town afterwards." The mayor blushed slightly and looked off to one side, adding, "And it saved us a lot of taxpayer bits."

If you don’t know what it’s about, it’s about money, Spike thought and rolled his eyes. He murmured to himself, “Hmn… politicians,” before noticing a cloud of dust on the horizon. He beamed, “Twilight is coming!”

Every pony started to cheer as Twilight stopped in front of them, the dust slowly vanishing to reveal a unicorn dripping with sweat after many minutes of nonstop galloping.

She smiled and waved at them. “Hello, my little ponies,” she said, receiving many confused glances in response.

Mayor Mare approached and smiled. “Allow me to be the first one to thank you for saving our town from that monstrous beast, as well as all the hard work you have done for us during the repairs.” She extended a hoof for Twilight to shake.

Noticing the gesture, Twilight reached out and shook hooves, only to stop after a single shake when Mayor Mare collapsed to one knee. Twilight released her vice-like grip and took a quick step backwards, trying not to break anything or anypony else.

Fortunately, the Mayor only appeared slightly ruffled instead of broken as she rubbed her hoof and let out a tense chuckle. "Oh my! Are you sure you're not a relative of the Apple family?"

"S-sorry," Twilight stammered as the Mayor struggled to her hooves, or at least the uninjured ones.

"Don't worry about it, Miss Sparkle. You're just getting accustomed to your size again." The Mayor chuckled again. "Maybe you should take some lessons from Big Mac."

It didn’t take long before a group of Twilight’s friends emerged from the gathered crowd, ready to say their farewells.

"Before any of you say something, allow me to say that I’ll miss all of you,” Twilight whispered, “and I swear I’ll return in time. Two weeks should be enough to introduce the princess to my Canterlot friends and make her feel welcomed."

Steel Blade finally caught up, allowing Overwatch to release her hold on his neck and drop to the ground before landing next to her and closing his wings.

“Ah'm gonna miss ya, Twilight. Once yer back, Ah’ll gladly assist ya with yer research on earth pony magic and traditions." Applejack shook hooves with Twilight and, to her surprise, was easily overpowered by the unicorn.

“And I’ll work hard on your farm as I promised,” Twilight responded quietly, keeping her eyes away from Applejack’s.

"Ah'll miss ya." Big Mac shook hooves with his not-so-little-any-more friend, cautiously testing his grip against hers and finding the two of them fairly evenly matched.

“I will miss you too,” Twilight whispered as she returned Big Mac’s gaze, finding a touch of familiarity in having to look up at a bigger pony.

“Yeah, good luck in Canterlot with Luna. I hope you can show the princess how to have a good time." Rainbow Dash flew to Twilight, lowering a hoof down to her. “Hoof bump?”

Twilight nodded and hit Dash’s hoof with her own, inadvertently sending the pegasus cartwheeling towards a nearby tree as the result. Rainbow Dash, now sprawled across the wooden surface, shook the stars from her head and looked at Twilight. “Now that’s a hoof bump.”

Twilight breathed a sigh of relief when Rainbow Dash got back up and shook herself off. The very idea of the damage she could do if she tried to use too much magic or too much strength for small tasks sent chills down her spine.

Before she could react, Pinkie Pie grabbed her in a strong hug, and although it was not nearly as crushing as being stepped on by Princess Celestia, it still had a lot of 'squish' in it. Her squeeze in return made Pinkie Pie act as if she were made of elastic gum. “I know, Pinkie, I’ll miss your craziness too.”

Upon noticing that Pinkie started to cry, she released her. “S-sorry. I didn’t mean to hug you so hard.”

“That’s not it.” Pinkie rested her cheek on Twilight’s cheek as she continued sobbing. “You’re leaving usss…”

“You know I’m going away only for two weeks, right?”

“Just two weeks?! Two weeks without a good friend are three weeks too long!” Pinkie said as she continued to cry.

Twilight just sighed and tried not to facehoof. With her luck today, she would wind up giving herself a concussion. Pinkie would get over her drama after a couple of cupcakes, and Missus Cake was headed their way with a whole tray of them, so it shouldn’t take long.

“A farewell gift from Pinkie and me,” Mr. Cake said as Twilight nodded.

After saying farewell to Rarity, Gilda, Fluttershy, and even Angel who tagged along and gave her a few random glares she couldn’t translate, Twilight turned around and walked towards Canterlot under cheers of the crowd, only to see a pony flying directly at her.

Reflexively, she reared up, opening her forelegs and bracing for impact. The grey pegasus crashed into Twilight’s open legs, causing her to skid a few meters backwards. After stopping, Twilight placed the pegasus securely on the ground and looked into her eyes, or at least one eye at a time, as neither of the grey mare's eyes pointed in the same direction at the same time, much as the bubbles on her flank seemed to be also oddly unbalanced.

“Thank you, ummm…” the grey pegasus said cheerfully as she paused and thought for a moment.

“Twilight.”

“Thank you, Twilight, for saving all my muffins. They didn't go to waste thanks to you!" she said cheerfully, a smile beaming on her face.

“You’re welcome, I guess,” Twilight said hesitantly, “and your name is…?”

“Ditzy Hooves, but everypony calls me Derpy! Nice to meet you.” She stuck out a hoof to Twilight, who smiled and shook it very carefully. To her surprise, Derpy's hoof seemed just as strong as her own, as if Twilight were shaking a magically enhanced anvil.

“Nice to meet you too, but we need to get going. The princesses are waiting for us, after all,” Twilight said in panic, only to notice Derpy lifting a gift basket towards her with her wing.

“I brought you some muffins as a thank-you gift. You've got blueberry, cherry, apple-walnut, blueberry, and of course, strawberry!"

"You said blueberry twice," said Twilight.

"Everypony loves blueberries," said Derpy. "Bon App-ette!"

Deciding to keep what little sanity she had left, Twilight nodded and put the gift into her saddlebag. Derpy fluttered into the air and dropped with a thud into the crowd next to a young unicorn filly, who was frantically waving while bouncing up and down.

If I can't be the size I was, I wish I could at least shrink down to that little filly's size to keep the disasters down. Oh, well. The faster we get to Canterlot, the faster I can return to... normal.

With one final wave, Twilight walked away from the train station, only this time seeing Mayor Mare and the rest of Twilight's friends galloping in her direction, with Rainbow Dash in the lead. She sighed in disappointment, already missing the evasion maneuver she had to pull whenever her giant friend dropped on her like a bomb. “What’s wrong, Dash?”

“What’s wrong?!? That’s what I want to know. The train is waiting on you,” Rainbow Dash said in confusion.

Once all of Twilight's new friends had gathered around, she realized why they all looked a little confused and had held the train for her. She put on her best and softest polite tone of voice and said, "Girls... I really appreciate your effort, but I'm not going back to Canterlot on the train."

"Yippie!" declared Pinkie Pie with a backwards somersault. "You're staying!"

"No!" said Twilight a little too firmly, if the way Fluttershy flattened her ears was any indication. "I'm running back to Canterlot along the mountain road. I'm looking forward to the exercise. It won't take nearly as long as it would have when I was shrunk."

"But, Twilight!" Rainbow Dash crossed her forelegs and frowned. "It's a two hours trip by train! The road is a lot shorter without all of those train switchbacks, sure, but it's also way more difficult and will still take more time."

"Rainbow, I spent many years shrunk down to bite-size. Despite my best efforts to act as if nothing is wrong, I'm going a little crazy with everypony being my size or smaller now,” Twilight said with a shake of her head. “I wouldn't last long in a moving enclosed space with so many ponies my own size. I might even hurt somepony by accident. I'd rather run the whole way.”

Dash polished a hoof on her chest. "Or you can hold my neck while I can get you there in ten minutes flat."

Twilight chuckled. “You should know by now that I’m not a fan of easy solutions. Some time alone to get used to my new size and adjust my magic and strength to match it will do me good." She glanced at the towering mountain. "Besides, it will be fun!" She smirked. “Actually, it may be interesting to see who will reach Canterlot first. Me, or the train? It looks like I can actually come up with a challenge after all.”

Applejack snorted. "Ya sound like some of them big lugs who like to pull the entire train around Appleloosa. They gotta take a break every so often, and it makes the trip take longer than the normal way." She looked up the mountain at the city perched on the edge, then back at Twilight. "Are ya sure you got the stamina to run all that way up the mountain?"

“Applejack has a good point,” Spike spoke up. “Twilight, I know you’re very athletic and strong, but you're a sprinter, not a marathon athlete. Are you sure you can pull it off?”

Twilight smiled and raised her head proudly. “I’ve some earth pony magic inside me now, so I’m about to find out.” She strolled over to where the mountain road to Canterlot parallel the train station and gave the train driver a short nod. "Good luck!" she called out. "Do your best, but don't expect me to go easy on you!"

The train driver looked a little puzzled, as he most probably had never been challenged to a race up the mountain before. He rubbed the back of his neck and smiled back a little awkwardly.

As Mayor Mare walked closer to give the signal, Twilight whispered, “I came up with some rules to keep it fair. I’ll not use magic, but also won’t run the same way the train does. I will go straight towards Canterlot.” She pointed at the hills. Her shortcut was going to involve a lot of climbing and jumping over obstacles.

“Those rules are acceptable.” Mayor Mare nodded before giving the signal, and the moment she dropped her hoof, the race started with no reward but just pride and fun on the line.

***

Twilight was sweating as she climbed up yet another hill, moving for the past half-an-hour with occasional breaks while taking breaths of fresh air. She was already halfway, leaving the train a long way behind. Not wasting a moment, she ate a cupcake and a muffin to replenish her weakening energy similarly to how a train uses coal to fill its boiler.

“Isn’t it amazing what magic in a pony’s body can do. I don’t have wings, and yet I’m faster than a public transportation powered by coal,” she whispered as Rainbow Dash and Gilda nodded, both having decided to accompany their no longer little friend in this race as an audience.

“Sure, Twilight!” Rainbow Dash shouted enthusiastically. “No train can beat you in speed. You’re like five times faster.”

“Maybe not that fast,” Gilda interrupted. “Not that I doubted your speed or anything, but running for so long must be very tiring.”

Twilight nodded. “You have a point. I assume my earth pony magic is starting to help me deal with my weakness.”

“You’re not out of the bushes yet,” Dash commented before pointing up. “You may be close, but there's a lot of climbing ahead of you.”

Twilight looked at the large platform Canterlot was build on, and next at the stone-wall she would need to climb up soon. “You mean that little mountain, please.” She waved at her friends dismissively. “I have seen bigger ones when I was tiny. This climbing will be a breeze.”

“That’s a cool-pony’s speech if I ever heard one,” Gilda said, only to receive angered glare from Dash. “Just kidding. Your speeches are just as cool.”

***

Another half-an-hour passed while her flying friends returned to Ponyville. Twilight’s hooves trembled as she was still climbing up Canterlot mountain.

Finally, after her long efforts, Twilight reached her destination. “Stop right there!” She heard a voice of a guard, and while she hung onto the mountain just a meter before reaching the stone platform Canterlot was built on, a pegasus guard flew over.

“Who are you... and do you need any help, citizen?” the guard asked, wondering if the pony in front of him had fallen from the edge of the capital. Suddenly, he looked at her suspiciously, wondering if maybe she was a criminal trying to sneak into the city or escape from it undetected, away from the public eye.

Twilight looked at him and smiled. “My name’s Twilight Sparkle, and I’m fine. I was just climbing towards Canterlot so I could meet with my mentor and…”

“Twilight Sparkle had been shrunk by the princess herself, and you’re a normal-sized pony who’s in a big trouble for trying to impersonate Her Highness’s student,” the guard said with authority and hostility in his voice as he placed a basic magic restraining ring on Twilight’s horn. “You’re under arrest in the name of Princess Celestia, do you have anything to say in your defense before I escort you to my commanding officer?”

Twilight smirked as she lit her horn and shot a beam of magic at the stone wall she was climbing, leaving a hole in it. The guard looked upon the damage from the attack in awe before looking back at the unicorn. “But… restraining...”

“Ring? Oh please, next time use a military customised model instead of the basic one if you hope to restrain even half of my magic at this point,” Twilight advised pridefully as the ring on her horn shattered into pieces. “Here’s fifteen bits, should be enough to acquire a more advanced model. We wouldn’t want any dangerous unicorn criminal to escape arrest because of poor choice of equipment, right?” She levitated the bits from her saddlebag.

The guard looked to the side and blushed. “R-right… that would be a shame.” He opened his saddlebag and took out another ring, this one a bit bigger and red. “I actually have an advanced model as well. Now stay still while I–”

Twilight levitated the ring over and examined it, much to the guard’s surprise. “This one seems to be much more durable. Any reason why you didn't use it on me in the first place?”

“Can I please have my ring back?” he plead, his voice no longer firm and commanding as sweat appeared on his forehead. "Please." His many years experience of patrolling the peaceful town certainly didn't prepare him to face a criminal, more or less a powerful one. Retreating and calling for reinforcements seemed to be the best option.

“In a moment,” Twilight responded as she touched the ring with tip of her horn and cast one spell after another. After a moment, she returned the ring and said, “Done. I enhanced it with my magic. It should handle twice as much raw power before breaking, and I even added a magical rune which will zap the prisoner with a jolt of electricity, should he or she try to cast a spell.” She smiled warmly. “Can I proceed? My hooves are killing me after all the running and climbing I just did.”

“Massive raw power, knowledge in arts of magic and athletic capabilities.” The guard pointed at her as he spoke in fear and confusion, “You… you’re Twilight? But you were rat sized when you left Canterlot.”

“Not anymore. Now, please excuse me,” she said with a relaxed voice before climbing up towards the edge, and with one quick jump, she was in Canterlot, “I need to ask my mentor to shrink me again.” She walked towards the castle, feeling far too tired to gallop after her long exercise.

The guard immediately started to fly beside her and asked, “Is there anything I can do to assist you, Miss Sparkle?” He gulped. "I'll do anything, just don't report this incident to your older brother."

Twilight glanced at the stallion. “Sure, go to the train station, and when the train from Ponyville arrives in around fifty minutes, tell the driver that I won the race.”

The pegasus guard saluted and did as he was ordered, trusting Twilight who gained quite a reputation over the years, not daring to disappoint the no longer tiny sorceress.

Author's Note:

Sorry if there are any grammar issues at last section of the story. My top editors covered 75% of the story, and I didn't want to delay release of this chapter any further.

For those of you who wondered how Twilight felt at her new size and how it affected her, I hope this chapter was satisfying. Despite her efforts to keep herself in check, she occasionally failed to restrain herself, resulting in some casualties around her.

As always, I'm looking forward to your feedback and to learn what do you all think of the normal sized Twiny?

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