First Impressions - Setting Up
Dear Diary,
Today's been pretty slow, so I decided to continue where I left off last night. Although I guess that's obvious.
I'm not really sure what I want to write next, though. Part of me wants to continue where I left off last time, but I'm not sure how important my second day in Ponyville really was. All I really did was clean my part of the basement, set up the safety wards I needed, and unpack the rest of my things. And set up the lab, and inspected everything to make sure nothing had been damaged in the move. And run a few errands, too, I think? Oh, and there was the 'Day After We Welcomed You to Ponyville' party, or whatever it was called. Which...
Actually, come to think of it, maybe enough did happen that day to make note of. Not a whole lot, but still. Who knows what tiny detail could be important in the future?
I guess I'll start from the beginning again – though in this case, that's a bit earlier in the day...
Sunset awoke at the sound of hoofsteps on a hardwood floor. It started with a particularly squeaky stair being tread on, slowly, multiple times, continued on via the tremors felt through the solid single piece the floor was made of, and finished with another creaky stair.
“Wha...?” Sunset murmured after a groan, finally stirred enough from her less-than-restful slumber to wonder what was going on. So groggy was she that she didn't even register any change in the sound, she just looked around through bleary half-asleep eyes and tried to figure out her surroundings.
Where was she? Her back ached, she felt lower to the ground than she thought she ought to be, she couldn't make sense of what was around her, she was in a sleeping bag...
“Sorry,” somepony whispered, and Sunset propped herself up enough to see a familiar purple pony in front of her.
“Twilight...?” she said, squinting at the other pony. The totality of where she was and what she'd done yesterday came back to her all at once, and that was enough to purge the sleepiness from her. Well, some of it anyway. Enough to sit up fully and try to shake away the rest of it, though not enough to succeed.
“Sorry, again,” Twilight said, standing in the bedroom doorway. “I saw that you were sleeping and I didn't want to wake you up, but I guess I did anyway...”
“What time is it?” Sunset asked, largely ignoring her friend's explanation in favor of looking around for some kind of time piece. There wasn't one in view of her makeshift bed.
“Umm... about a quarter after seven,” Twilight answered after a moment.
Sunset blinked at her, slowly. “Who gets up at a quarter after seven?”
“I do?” Twilight replied, sounding confused. “And so does Spike, at least sometimes.”
“What? Since when?”
“Err... well, Spike's always been an early riser, though he has been sleeping in more in recent years...”
“Not him,” Sunset said, giving her head a quick shake. “I meant you.”
“Oh! Well, um, always,” Twilight answered, happily adding “You know what they say! Early to bed, early to rise-”
“-makes a mare healthy, wealthy, and wise,” Sunset finished, a slight tinge of annoyance in her voice. “I get it.” With a grunt she pulled herself out of her sleeping bag, stood up and yawned, then gave her legs and back a good stretch.
“You don't have to get up now if you don't want to,” Twilight told her, and even half-asleep Sunset could register the concern. “I didn't mean to wake you...”
“It's no big deal, Sparkle,” Sunset replied, walking toward her – or rather, the door. “I'm already up, might as well stay up...” She yawned again.
“Oh! Well, okay then!” Twilight said, sounding a little surprised and not entirely convinced. She stepped aside and let Sunset go past, turning and following about a step behind her. “So... how did you sleep?” she asked after a moment.
“Meh,” Sunset shrugged. “I've had better. But I've had worse, too.”
“Right. Well, I'm sure you'll get used to it in no time. Especially once we get you a new bed!” Sunset could feel the smile on her muzzle even though she couldn't see it.
“Are you always this chipper in the morning?” she couldn't help but ask.
Twilight seemed to pause. “Chipper? Am I chipper? I don't think I'm chipper...”
“Anypony who can talk that fast this early is chipper, as far as I'm concerned,” Sunset told her.
“...if you say so,” Twilight conceded, though Sunset guessed she still had her doubts. Which was confirmed when she said, at a bit of a lower volume, “Never thought of myself as much of a morning pony before... Usually I don't really get going until I've had breakfast. Maybe I'm chipper now because of the unusual circumstances? I do feel more awake than I usually do...”
She continued on in that regard as they continued down the stairs, and as it was clearly just an internal monologue made public Sunset decided to tune it out. Though the notion that Twilight talked to herself when she was alone was... surprisingly fitting, she thought.
As they approached the small landing where the bathroom branched off, Sunset's ears pricked at the sound of movement behind its closed door. Sure enough, a toilet flushed and soon after she heard the sound of running water. That shut off, and moments later Spike emerged into the stairwell.
He took one look at the mares who had stopped just before the landing, and smiled smugly. “Gooood morning,” he greeted. “Looks like I made the right call in waking up extra-early to get to the bathroom first. Have fun figuring out who gets to go first! I'll be making breakfast.”
He scampered off before either mare could reply, snickering into his claws.
Sunset and Twilight shared a look, then rolled their eyes. “You go ahead,” Twilight said first. “You only just moved in, I want you to be comfortable.”
“Hmm...,” Sunset murmured, thinking the offer over. Part of her wanted to decline out of principle, not wanting to inconvenience her new roommate. But nature overruled that part fairly quickly. “Fine with me,” she shrugged, cutting in front of Twilight and laying claim to the library's sole bathroom.
A few minutes later, all three were in the kitchen making breakfast – Spike doing most of the work by frying up pancakes, Twilight brewing up a kettle of her favorite tea from the Griffish Isles, and Sunset slumped over a countertop desperately waiting for her coffee to finish percolating.
“You can always have some of my tea if you'd like,” Twilight offered once she was finally able to pour herself a cup.
Sunset barely spared her a glance before saying “Thanks, but no thanks. I know what I like, and it isn't tea.”
“If you say so,” Twilight said, once again sounding like she still had her doubts.
“You two and your caffeine,” Spike said, probably shaking his head even if Sunset couldn't see it. “If you're so tired in the morning, why don't you just sleep in? Or at least get to bed earlier...”
“And waste time we could be using to do research? Are you crazy?” Sunset asked, lifting her head a bit as her brew neared completion.
“I'll admit our sleep schedules haven't always been the best,” Twilight admitted. “But like Sunset said, sometimes you just have to push yourself into the night in the pursuit of knowledge.”
“But you two didn't do any research last night,” Spike countered.
“Well... true, but...,” Twilight tried to say, though she didn't sound like she knew where she was going.
“...but we have a lot of things to do today,” Sunset continued for her, picking up her coffee pot in her teal aura. “The sooner we get up, the sooner we can get done. Right?” she looked to the side and asked her friend once her coffee had been poured.
“Right,” Twilight nodded. The two mares took a sip of their respective beverages, and sighed contentedly.
“Well, if you say so...” Spike said, eyes on the pancakes he was flipping.
It didn't take long for them to finish cooking, and the three sat at the kitchen table for their first meal living together. Pancakes were enjoyed, the merits of different toppings were debated (Twilight preferring a pat of butter and fresh blueberries on hers with maple syrup currently out-of-season; Sunset liking basically any form of preserves on hoof; and Spike, ever the dragon, liking small gems), and plans were discussed.
Sunset, of course, would be getting her lab set up – which reminded her that she needed to relay a message back to Canterlot to confirm with the shipping company she'd hired that she needed a later delivery date for her remaining artifacts. Twilight would be catching up with the research and other tasks she'd had on hold since her trip to reunite with Sunset, as well as spending time with her friends. She'd already gotten it all scheduled out. And Spike, in his own words, would be 'doing whatever' – whether that meant helping somepony else, or simply lounging around reading comic books.
Sunset expected it would be more of the latter than the former, though she didn't say as such out loud.
Before they went about their business, however, a question occurred to Sunset. “So, does Ponyville not have a newspaper, or does it just come later in the morning than in Canterlot?” she asked, looking around for any sign of a periodical.
Twilight and Spike shared a look that made Sunset raise an eyebrow. “Well, there's the Ponyville Express,” Twilight answered, “I just don't have a subscription.”
“Really?” Sunset asked, surprised. “I thought you'd jump at the chance for something new to read every morning.”
She shrugged. “Yeah, but my reading list is pretty full as-is so it's easier to just buy a copy when there's something interesting in it. Or just borrow a copy from one of my friends.”
“Don't you wanna stay informed about what's happening in the world?” Sunset asked, becoming incredulous.
“Like I said,” Twilight replied, “if there's anything important in it I can find out from my friends.”
Spike scoffed. “Like you'll even need to. The Ponyville Express is so dull, even the funny pages are boring. And that's practically a crime!”
Sunset rolled her eyes. “It can't be that bad. And even if it is, I'm still getting a subscription. You two might not care that much, but I wanna stay informed.”
She must have been more heated than she'd realized, as Twilight quickly went on the defensive. “Well, I mean, it's not like I'm objecting to it or anything,” she sputtered. “It's just...,” she quickly glanced at her empty tea cup, “not my cup of tea!” Her muzzle relaxed, and she added “If you need directions to the Express, just let me know.”
“...right,” Sunset said after a moment, willing herself to calm down but not acknowledging she'd been at all riled up in the first place. “I'll do that once I'm done setting up my lab.”
And with that, the three finally parted ways. Sunset made a beeline for the stairs, but stopped on the first step downward. “Right, the shipping,” she murmured, taking a step back and altering course for the bedroom. She wasn't about to head all the way back to Canterlot just to let the shipping company know not to deliver her things yet, meaning she'd have to tell them indirectly. A pegasus courier would be a little expensive at the Post Office's same-day express rate, especially since she'd used a good chunk of her monthly stipend on the move, but she hardly had another choice.
Inwardly, she berated herself for not just scheduling the delivery for tomorrow (or even the day after) in the first place. They'd wanted quite a bit more money upfront just to keep the possibility open, and Sunset had been just impatient enough to want the earlier delivery, yet clever enough to foresee the possibility of a delay, to agree.
It was going to be a bitter letter for her to write. But it had to be done, and she had to be in the bedroom to do it – that's where she'd put her quills and parchment, after all. It didn't take her long to gather what she needed, but before she could start composing she was interrupted.
“What are you doing, Sunset?” Spike asked, and Sunset looked over her shoulder to see him standing in the doorway. “I thought you were going downstairs to clean your part of the lab.”
“Unfortunately, that's gonna have to wait,” Sunset told him, returning her focus to her letter. “I have to let the shipping company know not to send the rest of my things today.” Parchment unfurled on the table and quill held firm in the grip of her magic, Sunset thought for a moment then began to write.
“Oh,” Spike said, and a few quick footsteps told Sunset that he'd come over to watch. “I can help you with that letter if you want. I take dictation for Twilight all the time!”
“Thanks, but no thanks,” Sunset replied with a shake of her head, not taking her eyes off the letter. “I can handle this.”
There was a slight pause, and Spike said in a rather disappointed voice “Oh, okay...” For a minute or two Sunset thought that would be the end of it, but as she finished up the letter he spoke up again. “Well, I can at least send that letter of for you.”
That gave Sunset pause. She knew very well that Spike's dragonfire could be used to teleport burnable objects to another distant location; that was how Twilight had corresponded with Celestia for years. But she wasn't actually certain of how it actually worked, as enchantments on living creatures were notoriously difficult to make work. What she did know, however, was that the destination was tied to an individual rather than a place.
“Can't you only send things to Princess Celestia?” Sunset asked, looking down at him and raising a brow.
He squirmed a bit under her gaze. “Well, yeah. But I'm sure she'd be willing to forward it to the shipping company if you asked her!”
“Mmm... yeah, no,” Sunset replied, quickly dismissing the idea as she looked back at her letter. “I'm not about to ask the Princess to pass along a message for me, especially when it's my responsibility to keep in touch with the shipping company. She has better things to do.”
Sunset finished off the letter with a quick stroke of her quill, then rolled it up and tied it. She walked over to grab her saddlebags, and Spike finally replied with a noncommittal “I guess...”
Sunset was out the door and down the stairs moments later, and after about two seconds of looking around found Twilight in the library looking through the books.
“Change of plans,” Sunset announced, striding calmly towards the front door. “I gotta send something to Canterlot. I'll sign up for the Express on the way back from the Post Office.”
“The Post Office?” Twilight repeated, looking away from whatever she was doing. “You know you can just ask Spike to send any letters you have, right?”
“Would you want to ask Princess Celestia to relay a simply request to delay a delivery?” Sunset countered.
“Point taken,” Twilight said flatly. She looked back at the bookshelves but only briefly, soon looking back at Sunset with an expression of dawning recollection. “Oh! You need directions, don't you?”
Sunset nodded. “Yeah. To the Post Office, and the newspaper if it's close enough. I don't wanna spend too much time walking around when I should be setting up the lab.”
Twilight tapped her chin in thought a few times, then looked back at her. “I could come with you if you want, I'm not busy.”
“I'm not a little filly, Sparkle,” Sunset replied, rolling her eyes harder than she had in weeks, perhaps even longer. “I'm not going to get lost without somepony to hold my hoof and show me the way.”
“I, I didn't mean it like that!” Twilight spluttered, her cheeks flushing in embarrassment. “I just thought that, well...” She trailed off as she met Sunset's gaze, which was now stern and questioning. “...the Post Office and the newspaper are both on Main Street but they're about a block away from each other,” she said quickly, ears drooping. “Just head west out of the library and cut across the park, they'll be on the far northwest side of Town Hall.”
Sunset frowned at the sight of how down Twilight was feeling, but said nothing. She forced herself to repeat the directions under her breath, then nodded. “Thanks,” she told Twilight, putting on a genuine smile. “I'll be back soon.”
Twilight smiled back, and her heart soared.
The first thing Sunset noticed upon leaving the library was how, even in the morning, Ponyville was busy. Not that she wasn't used to hustle and bustle, having been born and raised in Canterlot, and Ponyville still wasn't as busy as that big city, but the fact that it was busy at all still surprised her. She'd always assumed that small, unimportant towns like Ponyville were always quiet and lazy; an assumption she clearly needed to get rid of. In hindsight she should have done away with it yesterday after stepping off the train and seeing the town for the first time, but she hadn't.
She blamed it on the time of day. Who would expect anywhere to be busy at 8 o'clock? Not Sunset, that's for sure.
And yet, busy it was. Ponies going to work, ponies running errands, ponies selling produce, fillies and colts too young to do any of the previous simply running about and playing... No matter how she looked at it, Ponyville was active. And considering just how many ponies were walking around, Sunset shouldn't have been so surprised when she bumped into one of the five that she actually knew.
“Good morning Sunset!” chirped Pinkie Pie rather unexpectedly from her blind spot, and Sunset had to do a double-take to confirm that the mare was actually bouncing alongside her. “How was your first night in Ponyville? Pretty good, huh?”
“It was... pretty okay,” Sunset answered halfheartedly, not looking at Pinkie and wishing the mare would get the hint.
She didn't. In fact, she giggled. “I knew you'd like it here! I mean, yesterday you were all worried about how you'd made such a big decision in your life, and about whether or not you would fit in! But you still had a pretty good night, and even though that may not be the bestest of best nights, it's still pretty good.”
“Uhh... thanks?” Sunset replied, unsure of what else to say or, indeed, how to interpret Pinkie's mouth-running.
“For what?” Pinkie asked, apparently oblivious.
“...nothing,” Sunset told her, sparing a glance but quickly looking away again.
“Okie dokie!” the pink one replied. She didn't miss a beat before continuing. “So, whatcha up to this morning? Doing something fuuun?”
“Not really,” Sunset answered, trying to keep her patience. “Unless you think sending a business letter is fun.”
Pinkie immediately came back with “They are if the business is fun!”
Sunset laughed the laugh of a pony who wanted to be doing anything else. “Well, this business isn't. It's just me telling some ponies not to deliver the rest of my things today since I won't be ready for them yet.”
“Aww, too bad,” Pinkie said, audibly frowning. “At least you'll have some fun at your 'Day After We Welcomed You to Ponyville' party tonight!” she added, back to being perky.
Sunset tensed up at the mention of the party, but only for a moment. “Yeah, uhh, about that...”
“Oh, did you finally figure out what kind of cake you want?” the pink mare asked, looking straight at Sunset with big, bright eyes.
“Nnnno, not that...” Sunset answered, trying to work up the nerve to admit she didn't want a party. For whatever reason, she was finding it difficult. They were heading past Town Hall now.
“Is it the decorations, then? Or, or the games?”
“None of those, either...”
“Hmm...,” Pinkie murmured, frowning thoughtfully and rubbing her chin. “This is a toughie. Oh!” She brightened up again, and asked “Is it about what time you want the party? Because I don't think we ever agreed on that. I mean, I was just going to have it this afternoon because that's my favorite time to party, but I totally understand if you want it later. Or even earlier, although that would mean I'd have to kick it into high gear to pull everything together in time.” She giggled.
Sunset laughed as well, if that pathetic and halfhearted thing could even be called as such. Again, Pinkie didn't seem to notice. “Uhh, I think later is better for me,” Sunset said. “I have a lot of things to do today that I don't really want interrupted.”
“Got it!” Pinkie replied, snapping off a sharp salute. A couple of passersby gave the pair odd looks, but Sunset noticed the looks soon turned to knowing smiles. Pinkie soon followed up with “So, what time are you thinking, then? Seven? Eight?”
“Uhhh...,” Sunset said, stalling as she forced herself to accept that it was going to happen and thus make a decision. “Seven, I guess. Closer to dinnertime.” She paused for a step, then added “Hey, is this going to be at the library again?”
“Hmm... nah,” Pinkie answered, her show of thought followed by a decisive head-shake. “You're going to be doing stuff there all day today, right?”
“Pretty much,” Sunset answered, looking at her and wondering if this was going where she thought it was.
It was.
Pinkie nodded, and put on an oddly serious expression for such a strange mare. “Exactly. I can't very well set up the party where you're going to be working, can I? So I'm thinking Sugarcube Corner instead.”
“Sugarcube Corner?” Sunset repeated, trying to recall what Twilight had told her about the place.
The question caused Pinkie to gasp rather dramatically. “Ohmygosh, you haven't been to Sugarcube Corner yet have you!”
“I only just got here yesterday, remember?” Sunset replied.
To her surprise, Pinkie grinned and started bouncing even more enthusiastically. The she squealed. “I'm so excited! That means your very first visit to the best place in all of Ponyville is going to be for the very first party thrown for you in Ponyville! That's like the best first visit to the best place ever, ever!”
“I'll take your word for it,” Sunset said, forcing herself to smile no matter how blandly.
Pinkie suddenly grabbed her by the shoulders. “Oh, you'll take more than just that! You'll take the cake, take the load off, and take the plunge!”
“The... the plunge?” Sunset repeated, suddenly nervous.
“It'll make sense eventually,” Pinkie told her. “See ya later, Sunset!”
And just like that, she was gone – a pink blur speeding off to who knows where, leaving Sunset in stunned silence. After allowing a few moments for her brain to process what had happened, she scowled and moved on.
“Why didn't I just tell her to cancel it...” she muttered to herself as she headed down Main Street.
It didn't take her much longer to find the Post Office, though the fact that she didn't pass the Ponyville Express office first was moderately annoying if only for the extra distance it meant she'd have to walk.
The Post Office was, as she expected, a moderate bustle of activity – ponies of all sorts were coming and going from the ground-level entrance, while uniformed pegasi carried postage-laden bags to and from the upper stories. Sunset even bumped into a pony that was exiting as she came in, a gray-coated pegasus mare with a blonde mane.
“Oops! Sorry,” the mare said in a dopey sort of voice before flying off in a hurry. Sunset was momentarily too distracted by her wall-eyed expression to notice why, but eventually she realized the mare had been wearing a postal worker's uniform and carrying a mailbag stuffed with letters.
“Why didn't she just use the worker's entrance?” Sunset muttered to herself as she stepped inside the building. But she quickly dismissed the question as one she didn't care about, and took a look around.
One long-ish line of ponies mailing packages, another much shorter line of ponies picking up undelivered mail. Or attempting to, based on one stallion's heated argument with the clerk.
Sunset ignored him, and found the line for express delivery. There were just enough ponies in it for her to frown in annoyance.
“Typical,” she muttered under her breath.
Fifteen minutes of impatient hoof-tapping and sarcastic inner monologue about how some things never changed later, and Sunset was finally at the front of the line.
“Good morning! How may I help you, ma'am?” said the clerk, an earth pony mare with muted blue coat and mane. Shockingly to Sunset, she seemed almost genuinely cheery.
“Hi, I need an express courier to Canterlot,” Sunset said, levitating her sealed scroll out of her left-side saddlebag and setting it down in front of the clerk.
“Mm-kay, let's see here,” the clerk replied, picking the scroll up in her mouth and setting it on the plate of a beam-balance so old Sunset was amazed it hadn't fallen apart. The clerk started fiddling with the sliding weights, and Sunset raised an eyebrow.
“You're seriously weighing it? It's a single letter, the postage can't be more than half a bit!”
“Rules are rules, ma'am,” the clerk answered sweetly, continuing to fiddle with the weights.
Sunset groaned, and looked around the office. It was just as busy as when she'd came in, and there was still nothing of interest to look at while she waited. Just a lot of other impatient ponies she didn't recognize.
Fortunately, either time passed more quickly than she realized or the clerk didn't take much longer to finish her pointless task. “Okay, that's all settled,” she cheerily announced, garnering Sunset's full attention again. “You said this is for Canterlot?”
“Yeah, as fast as you can get it there,” Sunset answered.
“Okay, ma'am, fill out this address form,” the clerk said, sliding a quill and piece of parchment across the counter. When Sunset picked them up, she pulled an adding machine over and started punching in numbers.
Sunset made quick work of the form, finishing before the clerk finished calculating the price. “Okay, that'll be a total of one bit then,” she finally said, and Sunset fought the urge to roll her eyes. She instead fished a single coin out of her bag, and handed it to the mare while she looked over the address form. To Sunset's surprise, her mouth quickly drew back into a thin line.
“The Steady Shipping Company, is that right?” she said more than asked.
“Is... there a problem?” Sunset asked more than said.
“No no,” the clerk replied with a shake of her head that Sunset found suspicious. “I'd just recommend against getting anything airlifted here by them. Especially on the weekends.”
“Bad part-timer?” Sunset asked, catching the mare's drift almost immediately.
She saw the clerk tense up for a moment, and her eyes darted around quickly before she leaned in and whispered “Well... let's just say she's a bit... clumsy...”
Brow still raised, Sunset replied with “Well, good thing I'm getting my things delivered by train. But I'll keep that in mind for the future, at least.”
The clerk leaned back, pulling Sunset's coin with her. “Okay! We'll get this sent off right away, ma'am. Have a nice day!”
“You too,” Sunset replied blandly, turning and leaving. As she wordlessly navigated the other ponies, Sunset mulled over what she'd been told. Airlifting was still a lucrative service for any shipping or postal service even with the budding railway industry, and the very notion that any company would willingly hire a clumsy deliverypony, even just a part-timer, bordered on absurd. It was practically asking for something to get dropped from the lower stratosphere.
But considering how the clerk had been acting while sharing that little tidbit, how she didn't look like she wanted anypony to hear what she was saying, Sunset guessed it was nothing more than a piece of slander to make the Steady Shipping Company look bad. They were basically in competition with the Post Office, after all.
Sunset frowned, realizing that she found the move somehow... disappointing. It was the type of maneuvering she'd come to expect from certain circles in Canterlot, and of a good portion of the upper class in general, but to see it from some nopony clerk in a podunk place like Ponyville was disheartening. Almost to her surprise, she had honestly expected better of the ponies living in Twilight's current Favorite Place.
She was in the middle of the street by the time she realized she needed to turn. Lifting her head and getting her bearings, Sunset quickly recalled both the direction she'd originally come in from as well as the directions to the Express. She'd been told the newspaper's headquarters was about a block from the Post Office, hadn't passed it on the way here, and so concluded – again – to head in the opposite direction from 'home'.
Just like Twilight had said, the Ponyville Express office was only about a block away. She almost missed it at first, since it had the same thatched-roof style that made it nearly identical to most other buildings in town, but she saw the sign hanging outside its window. It didn't look very busy, at least from the outside.
Inside, it was... cramped, to say the least. The front desk was only about two yards from the door, nestled against a low wall cordoning it off from the rest of the room. To her right led further in, to two rows of desks with typewriters only a few ponies were actually working at. Beyond that and around the corner, Sunset presumed, would be the printing press. It didn't sound like it was on.
“What can I do ya for, miss?” asked the eager earth pony stallion at the front desk, yellow-coated and slick-voiced. Sunset guessed he was somewhere from around Manehattan or Baltimare. He was looking at her with a wide smile and keen interest, and Sunset decided to return at least some of the sentiment.
“I just moved here yesterday, and I figured I'd subscribe to the local paper,” she explained.
“Say no more!” said the stallion, speaking quickly. “I'll hook you up with a subscription to our fine newspaper right away!”
He pulled open a drawer, and Sunset took the opportunity to look around again – which meant her eyes soon drifted to the right onto the ponies at the typewriters. They were all looking at her with interest, but the moment they realized she was looking back they went back to work.
“Alright, just fill this out and pay the first month's subscription fee and we'll start delivery tomorrow,” the stallion said, sliding a form across his desk to her.
Sunset looked at it and picked up the quill that was on the desk. “How much?” she asked, making quick work of the form – she was mildly surprised how used to writing her new address she had already become.
“The full package comes in at the low low price of ten bits a month,” he answered with clearly-practiced ease. “That gets you the morning news each day, the evening news each week, and special editions whenever they come out.”
Sunset paused, frowning. Ten bits a month was cheaper than the Canterlot Daily, but it seemed a little much for a small town. She spared a look up at the stallion, who grinned back at her.
“Only newspaper in town!” he said helpfully.
Sunset let herself sigh, then finished filling out the form. Either the Express was making the most out of their relative monopoly on the town's news, or he had raised the price for the new mare in town. But since she didn't feel like spending time trying to argue down the amount, Sunset let it slide – with a mental note to check the price with Twilight's friends when she got the chance.
The trip back to the Golden Oak passed, as far as Sunset was concerned, without issue. Oh, sure, she'd gotten slightly mixed up on which direction to head once she'd retraced her steps to Town Hall, but she sorted it out quickly. More importantly, she didn't run into anypony inclined to talk to her – least of all Pinkie Pie. A peaceful walk home at her own pace, safe in the knowledge that the shipping company wouldn't be bringing anything she wasn't ready for this afternoon, put her in exactly the frame of mind for a few hours of cleaning and rearranging.
She found the library deserted upon entering it. “I'm back!” she called into the empty room; if Spike or Twilight heard her, they weren't near enough to reply. “Probably upstairs...” she muttered, taking a few steps towards the stairs before noticing something odd and stopping.
On her right, one of the reading podiums had been turned to face away from the door. A placard was hanging somewhat precariously from a corner, and a silver call bell lay on the angled top. Sunset approached the bell first; even from the door she could sense that it was enchanted from the familiar tingle in her horn. Over a year of training had taught her caution around unfamiliar enchantments, which was why even though she suspected it was benign she reached out with only the barest magical touches. And when nothing happened, she chanced a simple diagnostic spell.
There was only a single spell on it, and a harmless one at that. It was set to activate when the bell was rung, that much was quickly obvious, and there was a definite spatial component to it – several, in fact. Sunset's brow furrowed and her horn glowed with a stronger diagnostic spell, which coaxed out the keyed coordinates from the thaumic framework without damaging or activating the spell. Then it was simply a matter of translating those coordinates into a state of internal visualization, and she could see exactly where the spell was pointed – central points of every room in the building, with a rider that deactivated the closest one to the spell's point of origin.
In short, the bell was enchanted so that its ring could be heard throughout the tree. The spell's metasignature was unfamiliar, though, so it couldn't have been Twilight's handiwork.
“What's a bell that broadcasts itself doing here?” Sunset wondered aloud, finally turning her attention to the placard.
It read, in Twilight's hornwriting, 'The Librarian is on break. Please ring the bell if you need assistance.'
Sunset face-hoofed. “Duh, this place is open to the public! How could I forget that?” she muttered. Shaking her head and walking away, she added “Twilight must've put it out so she could do her job while she studies.”
She corrected herself after only a few steps. “I take that back. It's so Spike could do her job while she studies. Or at least so Spike could make her do her job, anyway.”
Making her way to the staircase, Sunset paused again. As neither of her friends had replied when she announced her return, even after several minutes had passed, it meant they were either too far away to hear her or were simply lost in their heads. A quick glance into the library's study room proved it to be empty, and Sunset reasoned that meant that Twilight, at least, was in her lab downstairs. After all, if she was reading then why wouldn't she use the dedicated reading room?
So Sunset headed down the first half-flight of stairs to the little curving hallway with the simple door at the end. It was open, which confirmed her suspicions – and also caused her to frown at the implications. If she was going to be doing research in a heavily-warded laboratory, she needed to make sure she had some privacy. The last thing she needed was some random pony wandering downstairs and touching a dangerous or sensitive artifact, and not just because that could cause her to lose the licenses allowing her to do the research here in the first place.
She'd have to ask Twilight if she could keep the door magically locked when she had the chance. Which, as it so happened, looked to be in the near future – the mare in question was in her part of the lab, though it seemed to Sunset that Twilight was more organizing her equipment and data than doing any hard research.
“Hey!” she called out as she rounded the final raised bend along the perimeter of the basement.
Twilight immediately looked up at her and smiled. “Welcome back! How did everything go?”
“Flawlessly, of course,” Sunset answered, flipping her mane as she descended the stairs in a mock show of pride that got Twilight giggling. “I sent the message to the shipping company and subscribed to the newspaper without problem.”
“Good, I'm glad,” Twilight replied, turning her attention back to cupboard she was looking through.
“What are you doing, anyway?” Sunset asked her, craning her neck to get a better view of what was in Twilight's magic.
“I'm taking inventory,” Twilight answered without looking away. Instead, she set the thermometer she'd been holding down on the cupboard shelf, picked up a checklist, and made a note of it. “I figured that with you setting up your own lab, it'll be helpful to have a complete and itemized list of what's in my lab in case you need to borrow anything.”
Although Sunset wondered what had become of all the things Twilight supposedly had to catch up on, she didn't say anything about it. “Cool, thanks,” she instead told her friend, smiling. She waited a few seconds before glancing back up at the basement door, and said “Hey, do you mind if I ward the door?”
That got Twilight to stop what she was doing, look up towards the door, and then at Sunset. “Why?” she asked, raising a brow. “Are you still worried about ponies coming in and stealing from us?”
“Yeah, kinda,” Sunset admitted sheepishly. “But more than that, I just don't want random library patrons coming down here and trying to poke around when there's going to be potentially dangerous magical artifacts lying around.”
“Hmm... that does make sense...,” Twilight murmured, tapping her chin in thought. “But nothing too big. I don't want to have to jump through any convoluted hoops just to get my friends down here.”
“Don't worry, it'll just be a simple locking spell with us and Spike keyed in as the only ones allowed to open it,” Sunset told her, waving a hoof. “I'll save the heavy-duty stuff for the door to my lab,” she added, looking at the door in question. It was currently open, which struck Sunset as mildly odd.
She looked back at Twilight, who was at the end of a thoughtful shrug. “Seems okay to me. Let me know when you do it, okay?”
“I will, don't worry,” Sunset replied, already heading towards her lab. And after hearing a few grunts of effort and the sound of sweeping, she wasn't surprised to see Spike inside it with a broom in his claws.
“Heya, Sunset!” he greeted with a cheery wave. “Just thought I'd help dust this place for you, I hope you don't mind.”
Sunset looked around the room in the brief time it took for her to think it over; he had already dusted off two of the shelving units and was making decent headway on the floor around them, but there was still a long way to go before the room could be considered clean. She decided she did appreciate his effort, though, but on the other hoof the room was a fire hazard and a single sneeze from him would be far and beyond dangerous.
“Thanks for the help,” she told him, “but maybe you should wait outside for a bit. No offense,” she added at his hurt look, “I just don't wanna risk you sneezing.”
He pouted. “I'm not gonna sneeze just cause it's dusty,” he told her, sweeping the floor more vigorously causing dust to fly into the air. “And I don't get why it's such a... such a...” He scrunched his nose up in irritation as the telltale signs of an oncoming sneeze started to show.
Sunset's eyes went wide in a bolt of panic, and she quickly got behind him and rushed him out of the room – getting him there just before he sneezed, sending out a small jet of green fire.
Straight into the face of Twilight Sparkle.
“...oops...,” Spike said sheepishly upon seeing her blackened face.
“...yeah,” Sunset echoed, feeling mortified.
Twilight shook the soot away, and asked “What's going on? I came over because I thought I heard you two arguing.”
“Sorry, Sparkle,” Sunset said. “I didn't want Spike to accidentally start any fires because of all the dust. When he started to sneeze, I just rushed him out here without realizing you were there.”
“Sorry, Twilight...” Spike said, hanging his head in shame.
Twilight smiled at them, though Sunset wasn't surprised. “It's okay. Neither of you did anything wrong. Though maybe you should stay away from the heavy dusting for now, Spike.” She giggled lightly, but Spike said nothing. So she said “Come on. I need some help reorganizing.” That caused Spike to perk up, and the pair turned and walked away.
Sunset watched them for a moment, thinking. Wondering. Twilight and Spike had been an inseparable duo for as long as Sunset had known them, practically brother and sister. Sunset wondered how Spike would take it if Twilight ever decided to date...
Then she shook her head to clear away the unimportant thoughts, and headed back inside her soon-to-be lab to finally get down to work.
The dust needed to go first, and she needed something more permanent than dusting which would only throw it all into the air. Magic was the answer, of course, because when wasn't it? But trying to zap away the dust as it was now was likely to result in damaged shelves, even for a unicorn of her skill level. She needed to get it all in place, and fortunately for her Spike had left the broom and a featherduster inside.
Physical labor like dusting was for ponies who weren't Sunset Shimmer, though. But once again, magic was the answer. She took a moment to summon up her magic and shape the spell she wanted to cast, then let it loose on the featherduster. She took a few moments to refresh herself, then cast a similar spell on the broom. Both tools immediately started moving about as though of their own free will, set to sweep up all the dust in the room into manageable piles of a certain size.
Sunset stepped into the open doorway while they worked to keep them from leaving, moving out of it only to follow and supervise. Every time they created a dust pile big enough for her magic to recognize it as a cohesive object, Sunset vanished it – in other words, she teleported it away and out of sight to somewhere it could be 'stored'. In this case that meant as far straight up as her magic could reach, set to drift on the winds of the open sky away from any passing birds or pegasi. Probably.
If anypony got a lungful of dust from her efforts, well, Sunset would apologize to them when they came forward.
But until then, Sunset would keep on vanishing the dust piles as they were created. It was a repetitive task, almost to the point of tedium, but watching the broom and featherduster work provided her with at least some level of amusement. Especially when one or both tried to get into some hard-to-reach nook or cranny, and flailed around as though furious until Sunset moved whatever obstacle was in their way.
The flurry of activity that usually resulted had an annoying tendency to kick up enough dust to make her sneeze, however.
With no timepiece in the room Sunset was uncertain as to when she finally finished, but she guessed that it couldn't have been much more than an hour. After dispelling the magic on the broom and featherduster before they could escape into the rest of the basement, Sunset poked her head out of the room. She immediately noticed that neither Twilight nor Spike were anywhere in sight. Deciding that they must have finished organizing things and gone upstairs, she shrugged and got back to work.
First and foremost were the wards. Actually, no – first came the strenuous task of moving everything away from the walls, and then came the wards. If she wanted to be able to study and do experiments on magical artifacts of class A or higher, she needed to have every square inch of the walls, floor, and ceiling covered, and even a single mundane shelving unit flush with the wall could interfere with the spells she was going to cast.
Levitating the shelves one by one was taxing on her magic, though, and by the time she had finished she was ready for a short break. Closing the door to her lab behind her, she walked back upstairs to the kitchen and got a glass of water. That alone was enough to refresh her a great deal, but knowing that her magic needed a little more time to recharge led her to delay returning to the basement in favor of finding Twilight.
It took all of ten seconds to find her in the library, absorbed in a book.
Sunset briefly wondered if she was lost in her little 'zone', but decided there was really only one way to find out. “Hey,” she announced in a strong, clear voice as she walked over. Twilight's ears flicked, and if that hadn't been enough to confirm her attentiveness then her turning to look at Sunset was. “I finished cleaning my lab and moving everything away from the walls.”
“Great!” Twilight said with a cheery expression. “Do you want any help setting up the wards?”
Sunset shook her head. “No thanks. But I might need your and Spike's help moving all the shelving units back, I'm gonna be pretty drained at the end of everything.”
Twilight frowned. “Well... if you're sure... Just let me know if you change your mind, okay?” she finished, becoming cheery once again.
“I will, thanks,” Sunset told her. She only got a few steps before Twilight called back out to her.
“Oh! Right! Sunset!” she said, both mares looking back over their shoulders at each other. There was a bit of pause that seemed far longer to Sunset as their eyes met and their gazes held, but then Twilight said “I'll let you know when we're going to have lunch, okay?”
Sunset smiled. “Got it, thanks.” Then she walked off, content in the knowledge of a meal in her near future that she wouldn't have to prepare herself. Which meant she could probably push herself magically just a little bit more than she'd planned...
Another glass of water and a roundabout walk later, and Sunset was closed in her lab-to-be preparing to set up the first ward. Since the room had been carved out of the earth, she applied the strongest version of Sapphire's Steadier she knew to the walls and ceiling and floor to ensure the room's structural integrity would be maintained. With it up, even something as big as an Ursa Major standing on top of it shouldn't cause it to cave in. Likewise it would stand strong even if something exploded inside it, and would remain unharmed by any fires – though only the structure of the room and not it's contents.
It took enough magic to cast that Sunset was left extremely tired afterward, more than she'd been after moving all the shelves, but it was worth it. She admired her work as she recharged, tiredly moving around the room knocking the walls with her hoof and feeling the magic stay firm.
Once she'd recharged enough she cast a diagnostic spell to ensure it conformed to the regulations she needed to follow, then left a tag in the metasignature to let any future inspectors know that she'd verified it was up to code.
Next, once she recharged more fully, was a ward to keep any radiant magic contained within the lab. She couldn't predict the sorts of enchantments on the artifacts she'd end up working with, and the last thing she needed was something leaking magic into the surrounding area. Weird things tended to sprout up when that happened, and you couldn't always predict what from the artifact that caused it. Sunset had once heard about somepony in Vanhoover whose flower garden had risen up as some kind of dirt monster after they'd broken an enchanted thousand-year-old crystal ball; needless to say she wasn't keen on anything similar occurring.
That ward – an old classic created by Starswirl the Bearded himself – was carefully layered on top of the first one, weaving the frameworks together at just enough points to keep the spell anchored without disrupting Sapphire's Steadier. Starswirl's Radiant Containment had its metasignature tagged as well, yet another part of the crucial process of safeguarding her lab to the highest official standards.
Next would have been an anti-intrusion spell to keep other beings from teleporting or otherwise appearing inside the walls by magic, but fortunately for her body as a whole and her grumbling stomach in particular it was then that a knock was heard at the door.
“Sunset?” Twilight called from outside a little bit louder than Sunset thought she ought to. “Spike and I are going to make our lunches now, if you'd like to join us!”
Sunset smiled wiping the sweat of magical exertion from her brow and answering the door. “Yeah, I'd love to,” she told Twilight, who looked startled at the door opening.
But she quickly smiled back. “Okay then!” she said as though lost for other replies, and the two mares departed for the kitchen.
To be perfectly honest? I have no idea what we had for lunch that day. You'd think I'd remember the first lunch I had after moving in with the mare of my dreams, but, well... I didn't. I'm pretty sure I said the same thing about the first dinner, too, so sorry for being repetitive. And hey, in my defense, meals tend to blend together unless something major happens during them.
So, yeah. That was the first part of my first full day in Ponyville. Riveting, huh? I told you I didn't think it was that important for a reason, you know. But I also decided there was enough going on to talk about for a reason, too.
Just like with wards, friendship
Things build off each other, little moments and inconsequential actions all adding together to form something far larger and meaningful than you ever could have predicted. But without a foundation to build off of, it all crumbles – this is as true for friendship as it is for wards.
Like I said before, who knows what tiny detail could be important in the future?
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Very detailed chapter, but given Sunset's musings on how any small detail could be important, makes it seem like there's a lot of what's coming set up here. She's making slow, but steady progress and the continuity nods are appreciated. Looking forward to the next chapter. ^_^
Well, since i've read these chapters here I guess I'll go back and read the story that comes before this. Hmm, a bit out of order, but hey, whatever. Good stuff so far.
Totally loving this and eager for more!
I look forward to seeing Pinkie interact with the wards.
If this is anything like the prequel—and thus far, it looks to be—it's going to be a very fun journey. Looking forward to more. And I hope Sunset does earn those wings.
Ahh, I really need to be better with answering reviews closer to when they're posted...
Oh well, better late then never I suppose.
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Haha, yeah. Nods to what may come in the future, and also probably things I will forget about. Such is life.
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Glad you liked it! Though I do hope you did go back and read the original story...
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Always great to hear!
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Hoo boy, what Sunset's gonna go through over the course of a year... And Pinkie with the wards, eh? I wonder what could happen...
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As for Sunset getting wings... even I don't know what'll happen that far ahead yet. At the very least she doesn't have them as she's writing her journal entries.
Oh, yes, there will be fun! And also other things.
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Haha, well, being such a fan of the Discworld series I couldn't help myself... Words have power, even - or perhaps especially - in Equestria.
Higitus figitus migitus mum, prestidigitonium! (I can't be the only one who thought of this.)
Hmm. You mean like being interrupted before you could set up the anti-teleport ward? That's a detail that stood out...
...but nope, that doesn't seem to be important after all.
Whenever someone brings a broom to life, there's only one thing I can ever think of. The Sorcerer's Apprentice. Which is now stuck in my head, by the way.
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Beware of Brooms and Buckets, it usually ends up with a flooded room.