Inkwell - Reflections and Phantoms

by Archmage Ansrit

Chapter 2 - A Brief Shake

This was a split chapter because it was getting way too big...

Also, a little tease of future events, since it's going to be a while before catching up to them. It seems that, unfortunately, there are a lot of things I have to clear before getting to the Phantom Thief's first appearance; Gem's character, some events and some knowledge, all converging in the final revelation.

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Three types of ponies. There were three types making up the inhabitants of the land; two of the three would have actually fit her. Pegasus ponies had an affinity for air, which fit her ‘breath’ quite nicely; while Earth ponies had a profound connection with the land and strong physique, which she could benefit from all around. And she just had to be a unicorn… at least she had a good energy flow and high overall sensitivity.

Still, that wasn’t going to stop her from bouncing after Twilight all the way to the bakery; the stares she was getting were more effective in starting to get her to begin considering stopping… but not enough. There was sugar in her future, darn it! That was reason enough to be happy!

Yes, she was aware her dress was stained green and covered in dirt, not to mention her hair still had a twig or two on it, and yes, Twilight already said bouncing was something Pinkie herself was prone to doing. No, she was not stopping. Each landing after each jump made the nagging, niggling feeling of something being wrong fade away a little bit more and blur at the edges; after all, what was wrong was that she hadn’t had a meal yet.

She wasn’t scatterbrained, she actually had incredible memory; it wasn’t that she forgot what she had to do, just that she wasn’t going to stress about it. Not right now, at least, since there were sweets in the near-future.

They were going to throw a party for a complete stranger. She was tempted to ask what they would do for their friends, but she figured she’d rather find out by herself.

More and more ponies walked down the streets with each passing minute, the day finally getting started. And she could see it would be a great day! She let herself slip back to her ‘normal’ state just a little bit, nothing too noticeable, just enough to enjoy her surroundings. Everything was full of vibrant colors, and a gentle autumn breeze blowing over all of the fruit stands filled the whole area with pleasant aromas that sent shivers all over her body; it was truly wonderful! Each color and scent awakened all sorts of emotions and sensations deep within her being! Passionate red! Mystical purple! Symphonies of colors, sounds, smells and sheer energy that put such pep in her steps, making them so light, that it was as if she was connected to the earth only by the barest of tethers.

She felt, for an instant each time, how the feelings pouring in through each of her senses during that moment of weightlessness made her drift through a breeze only she could see and feel… every brief landing resonating with the rivers of energy in the ground under her hooves and sending ripples through her being… blowing a fresh breath of air down to her very soul. Even while still trapped inside her little glass cage it was so much different from the pittance of stale air it usually permitted, given the sheer amiability in the ambient; she could almost taste the possibilities. Metaphors aside, these personal moments between her and nature were something she wished to share, but for those not like her it would be rather hard to understand…

And, for the crowning piece; she found that, contrary to previous experiences, these ponies waved hello and were being nice to her -even if they didn’t know her! She liked it when others were nice to her. Why couldn’t there be more places like this? She liked- no, scratch that, she loved this place!

A hat-wearing orange pony, with a blond mane and tail held by hair bands, waved at them to get their attention and began walking towards the group. She had saddlebags filled, without a doubt, with apples, going by what the scent wafting through the air told Gem. That’s what she smelled like, apples, trees and rich soil, not to forget hard work and… oh, it wouldn’t be polite to focus on that too much.

There was it again, though, something that was beyond regular senses. It was similar to Twilight, Rainbow and that other unicorn, something… strong even when it was at the edge of her perception; it nevertheless felt natural, inviting and warm. She was unsure of what it could be, but she did know that it was bright and pleasant… though it reminded her that she had to take measures not to get her secrets revealed.

Maybe, just… maybe, once everything settled down, she’d trust them with them. She had to size them up first, though. She didn’t want to… she couldn’t live through any of those terrible events again. It would kill her on the inside.

“Howdy girls!” The orange mare’s voice was warm like a soft summer morning and sweet like honey, flashing a kind smile as she approached her friends. “Who’s yer new friend, and why does she look like she went applebuckin’ in that dress?”

“New trick.” Both Lyra and Twilight spoke at the same time, and the look on the farmer pony’s face, a curl of the lips and a roll of her eyes, revealed what she was thinking: ‘No wonder’.

“Hey, I’ll have you know that ducks have no respect for my air space!” Rainbow Dash said, half-insulted, half-embarrassed that just those two words could explain everything.

“Just like yesterday when that cloud came outta nowhere? Or th’ day before that?” Said the hat-wearing pony with a wide grin, making Dash grit her teeth and turn red.

“My name is Gemini, or just Gem.” She decided to act before things escalated, cutting in front of the pegasus mare and standing between the two of them; else she could be stuck there all day. “And it was nothing, really, I’ve had worse.”

She found that one of her hooves was off the ground and being shaken vigorously, making her whole body vibrate. “A pleasure meetin’ you Miss Gem, mah name is Applejack!” The blonde mare presented herself, a playful glint in her eyes still present.

“L-l-l-like-w-w-wi-wise.” No, really, it was. Each shake, each heartbeat, each breath of air that the pony took allowed Gem to feel –truly feel- the sheer vitality that Applejack held within; it was as if she had the very strength of the earth the same way Rainbow Dash had the sky’s. It was… quite the experience, not many shared her enthusiasm when it came to a simple greeting.

Just when she was getting numb, she was released. She twisted and shook her hoof for a bit, making her joints pop and restoring feeling to her limb. If there were ponies just half this intense, Gemini figured that everything she had to do would require the very best of her efforts.

Still, the precautions that she had taken made sure that her identity was not going to be found out from just this. Usually, a touch of her ‘hair’ would be enough, since she recently decided to stop bothering with hiding it, but for today -and hopefully only a few days more-, she needed utmost discretion.

“So, what brings yah here to Ponyville?” Applejack asked her with that same friendly smile from a moment ago, as if the previous display was nothing important -or everyday news.

“The promise of the best baked goods in all of Equestria.” Gem replied in all seriousness, savoring the golden opportunity that had presented itself, just like that, to her. Oh, she began to imagine the flavors of red velvet cake, chocolate cookies, jam-filled muffins…

Rainbow Dash couldn’t hold back a smirk of her own; it was obvious she was not going to let such grievous offenses slide just like that. “And the best they are, Gem, as long as the baker’s been getting enough sleep.” She said, punctuating that last word with a kind of glee that bordered on malicious, her grin widening once she saw the earth pony’s face change colors.

“Why you!” Applejack fumed, stomping her hoof on the ground and walking towards Rainbow Dash with a glare that could cut through walls. “Ah thought we agreed to leave that be!”

“And what are you gonna to do about it? Bake Gem some muffin spectacles?” Dash chuckled, taunting the farm girl. In response, Applejack wiggled out of the belt while mumbling something unintelligible of likely threatening intent, tossing the saddlebags aside.

Twilight raised a hoof in protest, not wanting to see her friends fight, much less during such a beautiful day. However, Gemini had moved between them before the scholar said anything.

She breathed out, head hanging down, relaxing her body to rid it of any needless tension, before drawing in a large breath of air. She shifted her weight so that it fell solely on her hind legs in such a way as to create a strong, stable base while freeing her front hooves.

She concentrated deeply on the sensations swelling inside her chest; her focus was purely on the energy drawn to and stored within her body through her nose and horn by her inhalation. At least a horn’s properties were still useful.

Feeling the air itself around her, making it become part of her and the other way around. She held her breath.

The breeze stopped.

Her forelegs began to rise, placing one under each pony; then she released her breath, feeling the energy flow through her limbs and strengthening them. She liberated a big part through her hooves, using it to push both rivals apart; as this happened, a soft wind caressed the manes and faces of everypony standing close.

Had somepony cared to ask either Dash or Applejack, she had stuck an iron pole between them; they stopped in their tracks and had to stand on their hind legs because the cherry-haired pony just didn’t yield. The wind continued its slow travel through the street as if it had never stopped.

“Don’t fight!” Gem pleaded; a small hint of panic could be heard in her voice and felt in the way her breath became quicker. Fear began to touch not-so-old memories with its icy claws, threatening to make her live through them again. “I didn’t mean to cause trouble.”

She took a couple of steps back, letting the two surprised mares back down on all fours, avoiding crashing face to face by a quick flap of Rainbow’s wings.

“I… I just wanted a party… if it just causes trouble I’ll leave, I’m used to it.” She added, though the weight in her heart made those last words sound shaky, making her smile seem so artificial it was scary.

“Hey now, that was… uh…” Dash scratched the back of her head as she tried to explain, begging her brain to string up the right words together. This was a new pony she was talking to, one with quite a few problems by the look of it… this was one of the times she had to ‘take things slow’.

“It’s just some friendly teasing… that got a liiiittle out of control.” She added with a sheepish smile, barely gathering the willpower needed to avoid poking her nose in the other pony’s affairs by asking for an explanation; it had been a surprise to see somepony go from blissful delight to the verge of tears so quickly.

“So it wasn’t my fault?” Gemini asked, feeling more hopeful; pain’s claws were still ready to rend her heart, but their grip was becoming weaker by the second.

“Nah, Ah… that was me.” Applejack answered, not really wanting to recall that particular incident. “Ah might have been too stubborn for mah own good. In the past.” She blurted that last part a little faster and louder than intended; she glanced around quickly, suddenly very busy in retrieving her saddlebags.

Gemini didn’t reply, just letting out a relieved sigh that made that cold pain recoil and lose its hold. She pushed it away, far, far away. She didn’t like it whenever she managed to upset anyone. She liked being nice, she was trying to be a nice pony.

“What did you mean by ‘used to it’?” Lyra made her snap back to attention, the mint-colored unicorn arched an eyebrow and eyed the visitor strangely.

Rainbow Dash put a hoof to her face as she heard Lyra dive headfirst into territory she herself had decided against exploring; it had taken all she had to err on the side of caution and finally keep her muzzle shut.

“Oh! Uh, nothing much, you know, just that trouble seems to follow me and others don’t like it.” Gem tried waving it off, chuckling nervously. She so didn’t want to continue this line of conversation, not so soon; she needed to change the topic, fast. “Did you shrink or something?” She asked, looking around her and feeling that something wasn’t quite right.

“Well, you’re still standing on you hind legs alone.” Twilight pointed at the red-haired pony as she answered, making Gem look down and see for herself.

“I am.” She said absent-mindedly, thinking about how some habits were hard to break. She took the opportunity to flex her knees a little, testing her pony body. Taking a few tentative steps, she found out that it wasn’t as difficult as she had imagined; she was very conscious of her body’s movements, though how in the name of everything sugary and good she had managed to miss the radical change in posture was still a mystery to her. Again, she thought that pure habit might be the answer.

“You make it look easy.” Said Lyra, who couldn’t quite believe somepony would be able to not notice. It was uncommon, save for some types of dancing or… hey, that could be it, no? “You love music, do you dance?”

“While I do, that’s not it. More like habit, sorta training, I guess.” She answered before letting herself fall down on all fours again. “I suppose I’m just very aware of my body.” The movements just came naturally! The pony body was just so flexible! It made it easy for her; flowing from one state to the next, as it has always been and always would be with her kind.

“Training? For what?” Twilight threw her a curious glance as she asked. “What you did a moment ago?”

Oh for the love of-! Of course she noticed! She was standing right over there.

“Uh… that was… I mean… how can I say it?” Alright, it had an explanation. Yeah, it was possible for her to say it. The problem would be to use terms they would understand, since she had no idea if these ponies had even heard of some of the words she would use. Somewhat rude assumption, yes, but given just how far away she was from home, it was not out of the question… in fact, even back there they didn’t have the right words. It was still rather foreign, and thus, sometimes words didn’t mean the same or the way they perceived the concept was different. She prayed to whoever might’ve been listening in hopes that it wouldn’t cause any problems.

*****

Meanwhile

“Alright, who is there?!” Mayor Mare said slightly nervously, looking around her office and even behind the furniture only to confirm that nopony was there. Again.

Just what was going on? First she had heard a noise, a wet ‘plop’ like when Pinkie discovered the strange and miraculous properties of water with cornstarch mixed in and tried to juggle a bucket’s worth of it. Mayor Mare had thought it could have been… alright, she didn’t know what to think outside of somehow making… granted, she had been up rather late each night recently, so it wasn’t be the first time she had left a mess by accident and then just completely forgot to clean up… still, despite how tired she had been while working last night, peeking through the door revealed that her office was relatively tidy right now.

And yet she felt something was off.

That hadn’t been the only noise; before entering, there had also been the turning of pages. In and of itself it wasn’t that weird; as a mayor, her office had to emit a certain feel of authority, to that end she had several books on ‘cultured’ subjects in her office’s bookcase (saving the good stuff for her private collection). She found one of her history books lying on the floor, opened in a section about events that transpired a relatively recent hundred years or so (what a weird thing to think, but given that they had to face much older problems like Nightmare Moon and Discord…). But no, that couldn’t have been the source; even if she had yet again taken the wrong book out in a daze, even if she had dropped it and forgotten about it when she had tried to clean up before hitting the hay… the window wasn’t open for wind to flip the pages.

Oh, yesterday’s newspaper was on the floor by her desk, instead of atop it as she vaguely remembered, so maybe the noise had been its fall after finally succumbing to the pull of gravity.

A minute ago, she would have been satisfied by this explanation, dismissed the first sound and moved on.

If not for… OK, she was a grown mare, but she was also alone, and quick-moving shadows seen out of the corner of her eye still made her hair stand on end.

Twice, it happened twice. She was going to wait a little bit more; if it had really just been her imagination, she would seriously consider adjusting her sleep schedule and cut back on the coffee. If there is something there, then… uh, there has been an oversight in her plan of action.

*****

Ponyville’s Hospital – The day after the theft at Canterlot

“Quick-!” The doctor pushed the stretcher, but a hoof poked him hard in the ribs.

“Shut it doc, you’re too loud.” His patient reprimanded him, as if he was merely being overdramatic.

“Stop moving! You’ll make your injuries worse!” In his mind, though, he added: If that is even possible.

“Stop yelling…” His patient said. “This is nothing, to me at least; it’s the poison and the infection what worries me.”

“Poison?! On top of everything the creature was poisonous?!”

“Yes, so don’t inject me with anything, or I’m going to be soooo mad at you…” The patient trailed off, exhausted. Keeping all of the loot in one place might have been a good idea, perfect bait… but it was supposed to be somewhere far out of town. A single delay in the movements, just about half a day, and suddenly this happened. That the princesses figured out just enough to decide to show up with some guards didn’t help any. And their timing was horrible, too, like it would have killed them to show up sometime before the remains got burnt to ashes.

At least… none of the townsfolk hurt…