The Signs - NMM Arc
Twilight closed her book with a snap, deep in thought. The Elements of Harmony. She’s heard of them somewhere before. Twilight frowned as her memory failed her. She huffed in displeasure, sending a small puff of smoke out her nose. The spiny dragon stood up and shook herself, sending tiny bits of grass flying everywhere. Her scales gleamed a pleasant lavender and her dark purple twin spiraled horns sat atop her head like a crown. The smaller spikes around her forehead only furthered that image.
She grabbed the book in her claws, taking care to not grip too hard lest she ruin the cover, and launched herself into the air. Her leathery wings beat the air heavily as she flew like a large purple rocket to her tower. Her spade-like tail and the light purple fur on the back of her back legs streamed out behind her.
Twilight ended up bursting through the doors to her private quarters so hard that they rebounded on the wall and smacked poor Spike along with them. The poor pony in question held onto his sore nose and groaned in pain. That was one problem with her being so big and him being so small. She could too easily lift him up with one paw or trample him accidentally if she wasn’t careful. So far, her track record was rather good for her clumsy self.
“Oh, stars! Are you alright Spike? I’m so sorry for hitting you,” Twilight’s dash for her mini-library was halted as she made sure her son was ok.
“Aw pony-feathers,” Spike muttered under his breath as he got up off a crumpled-looking box, uncaring of his mussed-up green mane.
He carefully shook himself off, his green mane spiking up and his purple fur smoothing out from where it got scuffed from his tumble. The pin that marked him as an authorized pony to enter the guard’s quarters clinked slightly on his brown vest as he shook.
“What’s that for?” Twilight asked once she was sure he was ok. It wasn’t often that Spike made gifts.
Her attention was back on trying to find the reference manual for the Elements of Harmony. She expertly brushed past several bookshelves. Her enchantments and wards prevented the items in her room from scratching and most things were fireproof.
“Well, it was for Miss Moondancer’s party…” Spike explained as he watched his mother magick several dozen tomes around her head.
“You mean that pony that doesn’t ever do anything else but study? She’s hosting a party?” Twilight asked between mutters of ‘no’ ‘not this one’.
Spike snorted at the irony, “Yeah, I was invited,”
Twilight felt a small stab of envy. She hadn’t gotten an invite. Almost immediately after, she brushed that thought off to the side. Not every pony appreciated a dragon at a place filled with very edible ponies. She was all too aware of her appearance.
Sharp teeth, prickly scales, and a tendency to breathe fire on anyone who infuriated her. Not to mention that practically everyone in the city knew what family she was from and whose student she is. She knew people whispered about her behind her back or when they thought she was out of earshot. Spike knew it too, despite how much Twilight tried to shield him from it.
“Alright, be back before dinner and make sure you eat more than just punch and cupcakes,”
Spike gave her an innocent look, green eyes shining, “Who me? Never,”
Twilight rolled her eyes good-naturedly, “Have fun, Spike. Love you,”
“Love ya too,” Spike picked up the stuffed bear he salvaged from the ruined box and galloped outside.
She turned her attention back to the book, which she had managed to locate just as Spike’s short green tail disappeared from view. Her claws expertly flipped through the pages without causing damage.
She remembered a time when her clumsy claws destroyed any book she attempted to pick up and had to rely on magic. Now that she had hands and thumbs, she wondered how she managed to live for four summers of her life without them. Hands were much easier to use than hooves. She could pick things up, actually grasp small items, and do it all without interrupting her delicate spell casting during her projects.
“E, E, E, Aha!” She gripped the book to bring it up to her snout, “‘See Mare in the Moon’?”
That old pony’s tale? Twilight left that particular book on the book stand as she flew up a story to pull another reference book from her shelves. She landed on the second landing with a thump that had dust scattering before her. She quickly turned away to sneeze, a gout of bright orange flame lighting up the entire room. She really needed to do some spring cleaning soon.
Pulling the book from the shelf, she flipped to the correct page and read aloud, “‘Mare in the Moon, myth from olden pony times.’ No kidding. Must be a thousand years old at this point,” Twilight commented to herself wryly, “‘A powerful pony who wanted to rule Equestria, defeated by the Elements of Harmony and imprisoned in the Moon. Legend says on the longest day of the thousandth year, the stars will aid in her escape and she will bring about Nighttime eternal’!”
She scrambled to pull another book to check. She was right, this year would be the thousandth anniversary of the banishing of Nightmare Moon and the origin of the tale. It might’ve been called an old pony’s tale, but Twilight knew there was always some truth hidden in myths and legends. Sometimes it was a lesson or it was a dramatized version of history. The myth of Discord was an example of actual history.
Her claws itched to send a letter to the Princess, but common sense told her that her mentor was probably too busy with the Summer Sun Celebration preparations to be bothered by her student. And even if she responded, it would probably be cryptic and leave her with more questions than actual answers. Twilight decided to put that thought onto her checklist to come back to later.
She sighed despondently. Right as she did, the familiar catch behind her throat had her spitting a ball of green letter-fire out. The scroll dropped into Twilight’s waiting claw. She shelved the book and glided back down to the ground floor to read the letter.
“My Dearest Student Twilight. I am sending you to supervise the preparations of the Summer Sun Celebrations in this year’s location: Ponyville. And I have an even more important task for you to complete: make some friends! I have arranged for your accommodations to be in the local library. Your mentor, Princess Celestia. Head of Day Court,”
The other scroll that was wrapped in the letter was her supervision checklist. Twilight grimaced at the mention of friends. What ponies would want to associate with a dragon like her? She sighed once she realized she needed to pull Spike from the party sooner than anticipated. By now, she expected the impersonal touch of the closing. It would hurt when she was younger but not anymore. It was easier to expect nothing and get nothing than expect something and get nothing.
It was Twilight’s ‘break’ as Celestia put it, but here she was, giving her student an assignment that had to be done with no questions asked. Bitterness twisted her mouth into a frown. She walked over to her desk and dipped the waiting quill into ink.
“Dear Spike, I am sorry, but you need to come home. Celestia is sending me to Ponyville in an hour. We need to pack. See you soon, Mom.”
Carefully she blew air on the parchment to dry the ink faster and then rolled it up. It was left on the desk as Twilight quickly did a small clean-up. All the books were put back, the parchment was neatly stacked, and the quill cleaned and set back on the desk.
A few minutes later, she picked up the letter. She engulfed it in letter-fire with Spike in her mind as the destination. One too many times, she’s straight-up set fire to scrolls she intended to mail when she was distracted.
Knowing her son, he would’ve spent the last half-hour stuffing his purple muzzle with as many cupcakes as he could find. Absent-mindedly, she put ‘adding more hay and oats to Spike’s diet’ on her mental to-do list. As she waited for Spike to come home, she began to put together her pack.
Her blankets and Spike’s favorite stuffed animal were some of the first things she packed. A little later, the door to the tower opened, showing Spike’s disgruntled face, rainbow sprinkles dusting his mouth.
“Aren’t you on break? How come the Princess is sending you to Ponyville?” he complained, trotting further into the room.
Twilight shrugged, “Maybe she’s overwhelmed and doesn’t trust anyone else?” Twilight knew better but Spike didn’t need to know that.
Spike hummed sadly. He shook his head rapidly to rid it of confetti and he tried to brush away the remaining scraps from his little brown vest.
“You got everything?” Twilight asked kindly, reaching out with her claws to gently brush away the crumbs on his face.
“Can I bring a few comic books?” Spike asked hopefully, pushing his face away as all children do.
Twilight smiled and grabbed a few of his comic books off the shelf to slip into the pack. Twilight bent down so Spike could clutch onto her shoulders like a backpack. Their belongings were tightly gripped in Twilight’s claws.
“Ready?”
“Yeah!” Spike was always happy to fly with her since they didn’t get to do it very often.
Twilight took a running leap to jump through their balcony windows. She knew the castle maids would shut the doors later tonight. Spike whooped as they glided over the city. Many ponies from the street below simply shook their heads. He laughed in delight but clutched tighter when Twilight banked sharply and slipped into an updraft.
Over the winds roaring into her ears, she heard Spike start to read the royal degree the Princess sent her. Pride flashed through her when she heard Spike sound out the words he didn’t know.
“The Princess wants you to make friends?” Spike shouted over the wind, “What for?”
“Beats me, Spike,” She sighed. Her mentor meddled too much for her own good.
“Woah, Canterlot looks so small,”
Twilight smiled at Spike’s awestruck voice. It reminded her of the first time she flew too high and Canterlot ended up looking like she could’ve held it in her arms. It was the first time she realized how big the world was and how small her little bubble was. It’d been a dream of hers when she was small to travel Equestria, but her duties as Student of the Sun kept her too busy.
The updraft carried the two quite aways before Twilight had to start flying again. It was nice to feel the wind stretching her wing membranes and the breeze in her fur. The wind flattened her fur to her back and felt very freeing. The flight was peaceful and filled with a comfortable silence.
Ponyville came into view as they broke through the clouds. The Everfree loomed darkly nearby. It was a small down in regards to buildings, but it was large in terms of acres. Ponyville was a farming town on the very edge of the Everfree. Even from afar, Twilight could feel the wild untamed magic of it. It was confusing. Some parts were violently roiling like crashing waves, while other parts slowly drifted around like fog.
The other surprising factor was just how many leylines were scattered around the forest and the town itself. There wasn’t nearly enough unicorn activity in the past thousand years for even one leyline for form, let alone a dozen of them. She would need to study that later.
A few moments later, the pair touched down in the stunned town square. Twilight nearly overshot and crashed into the fountain since she was so distracted, but she managed to slow and twist away from it at the last moment. As per usual, many ponies screamed and ran. With a small farming village like this, a dragon swooping out of the sky was probably grounds for panic. They did live next to the Everfree after all.
Twilight ignored it and scanned the ground for the nearest leyline. Just as she’d hoped, the library was situated very close to one. Now that Twilight wasn’t focused on flying, she could finally closely observe the leylines properly. The town nearly had more leylines than Canterlot which was rather shocking. However, the leylines nearer to the Everfree were dormant. That was odd. She was shaken out of her thoughts by Spike.
“And what are you staring at?” Spike snapped at the terrified ponies, his Canterlot accent coming out thicker than usual.
“Spike!” Twilight hissed between gritted teeth, “Don’t be rude,”
“But-” Twilight fixed him with a small glower and Spike’s indignation wilted.
“Hello everyone, I was sent by the Princess to supervise the Summer Sun Celebration preparations. Please carry on,” Twilight said in a professional voice.
Her accent was a far cry from the posh Canterlot one her son sported. Her vocal cords and mouth shape just couldn’t properly enunciate words and if she were being honest, she probably sounded like she was slurring her words half the time. It was hard when most words required lips to say properly when she, for lack of another term, didn’t have any. When she was younger, she figured out how to hum the ‘m’ sound in the back of her throat. It wasn’t perfect, but passable.
Despite all of that, her aura was only a little ruined by the fact that she’d nearly plowed into the fountain moments earlier, but she kept her head high and raised an expectant eye ridge. She honestly got a better reception than she expected. Well, it would only be a matter of time before everyone knew she wasn’t going to eat them.
The rest of the ponies that had held fast did as bade, quickly scurrying along. However, one pony, who was very pink and had an even poofier mane, let out a dramatic gasp that had them lifting off the ground despite being an earth pony. Twilight didn’t even know that was possible since most earth ponies had a deathly fear of heights. Even more vexing, the said pink earth pony sped away so fast, they turned into a pink blur. Twilight didn’t even get enough time to properly take in all their features.
Twilight attempted to rationalize what she had just witnessed and came up dry. That was a lot more dramatic than most. Sure, she expected screams, gasps, and fleeing ponies, but usually all of the above happened all at once. Not several minutes after her presence had been established. She looked at Spike who looked just as baffled.
“Well, that was… interesting,” Twilight said, eyes still trained on where the pink pony disappeared, “Where’s the first destination?” She asked to distract herself. She already committed the list to memory, but it helped to hear Spike’s voice sometimes.
“Banquet Preparations: Sweet Apple Acres,” Spike dutifully recited off the list.
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I always love tricks like this, how did it happen this time,
Okay, I feel a description of Spike would help, and you misspelled 'Acres', but overall very good!
You have met the Village Idiot.
I'm happy to see my stories have inspired you to write your own! I like what you have so far, so I'll have to keep reading :)
10980793
O.o holy crap the Winter Quill has seen my fic
i-
I'm just sitting here laughing in disbelief
Off to an interesting start. I will continue this story with much interest and anticipation. No major thoughts so far but I will endeavor to include my future notes and ideas for your perusal.
Keep up the good work,
Shadow Quill, Messenger of the Moon.
10978063
Or the village idiot just came in the town?
I feel a description of twilight and spike would of been more helpful, like how tall exactly is twilight? Does she look like the cover photo? Does she stand on 2 or 4 legs? Is her neck long? Does she have a mane? And is spike a filly or a fully grown stallion? What was is his hair styled? How did twilight get a hold of him?
this is really good so far
interesting
11020737
That's a good question. I thought this version of Twilight was as big as a T-Rex, but because of how she entered the door, it left me with confusion.
Give me wings and as I'm taking off I'm either doing a deranged dragon roar or
I don't seem to see any mention of Spikes phenotype. Pegasus seems slightly unlikely given Twilight lowered herself so he could climb on but is he a Unicorn or an Earth Pony?
This whole story will be a long read...
I wonder how far I’ll get to
Let’s goooooo!
11020737
around Celestina's size maybe?
If you ever need an OC for this story, I will gladly offer my services through what some call a Private Message.
11063176
The Nazguls sound like a woman's scream from tv's black and whight days.
10981222
I have a few questions about Twilight.
1. How tall is she?
2. Does she walk on 2 or legs?
3. This is not about Twilight but are you still working on this story?
Well this already makes me not want to send Celestia and Twilight's family to the moon so that's an improvement.