Fictional

by Meteorite Shower

Chapter 12

It wasn't long before Sugarcube Corner threw open its doors again for the party. Populating the place wasn't too problematic, as Pinkie personally plucked ponies from the public, particularly pursuing those from the previous party in the past. Though initially bewildered from their arrival, many of the ponies quickly shrugged it off in favor of enjoying the party, whatever it was for.

All the while Rarity and Meteorite sat and chatted nearby, having enjoyed their alone- well, mostly alone time beforehand, and watched with mild interest as the place filled up.

"I'll be honest," Meteorite said after a while, "I kinda expected it to be just us for the re-party."

"Oh heavens, no!" Rarity exclaimed. "Though I'll admit, as much as that would be nice… I simply could not have demanded Sugarcube Corner to stay closed this long. I only requested a private hour or so around you showing up."

"Good thing I didn't dawdle."

"Very much so."

At that moment, Meteorite caught sight of a very familiar orange pony stepping in through the door. Watching her slyly, Meteorite waited until they made eye contact before speaking up.

"'Too plumb busy', huh?" she accused with a tiny smirk.

"Alright, ya caught me out," Applejack grinned, raising the brim of her hat slightly. She took a few steps closer to the table. "Ya owe me for this, Rares."

"Ah," Rarity gasped, clutching a hoof to herself. "But of course, Applejack! I know how important Meteorite is to you." In a swift movement, she laid her other hoof on top of one of Meteorite's on the table, and rubbed it slightly. "Your farm must be in such a shambles that you had to come all the way here just to find her!"

"Yup, that's exactly right," Applejack replied, still grinning. "Ah don't know how ya do it, Rarity."

"I have my ways," Rarity said, her eyes lidded before dropping the act. "Seriously though, thank you Applejack for sending over my dear Meteorite. We really appreciate it."

"Aw shucks, t'weren't nuthin'," Applejack said dismissively, lowering her hat to hide the blush she felt coming on. "Anything fer two good friends of mine."

However, glancing over at Meteorite, Applejack saw that she didn't appear to be paying much attention to the conversation, instead staring down at the table with a troubled expression. Not an unusual sight for the mare over the years, Applejack had noted sadly.

"Everything alright, suga'cube?" Applejack prompted pointedly.

"Hm?" Meteorite looked up quizzically, before breaking into a smile. "Oh! Yeah! Just remembered something, that's all."

"If ya say so," Applejack remarked, glancing over at Rarity. Meteorite followed her lead and found herself being pinned under Rarity's concerned focus.

"Well Ah'll… leave ya two to it," Applejack continued, turning away. "Y'all have a good time, y'hear?" she instructed.

Meteorite nodded stiltedly to the sound of Applejack's hoofsteps, fading away along with the sounds of the party into a solemn silence as Rarity continued to bore her gaze into her.

"You're terrible at covering up your lies, you know that?"

"I know…" Meteorite quietly admitted, her shoulders sagging as she glanced away guiltily. She wondered if she just wanted to be caught at this point.

"I'm assuming this is… more of what we talked about the other day?" Rarity asked discreetly.

Meteorite hesitated, but ultimately shook her head quickly. "Not here."

Rarity clucked her tongue as she quietly mused on the matter. After a while, she got up from the table, smoothing her coat and fixing her mane in the process.

"Well then, shall we go?"

"What, just leave?" Meteorite asked incredulously, glancing at the rest of the party. "Are you sure?"

"Darling, if you don't want to be here, then don't. Nopony is going to force you to stay. Pinkie will understand, trust me." Extending a hoof, Rarity gestured for Meteorite to take it. "Now then, do you want to go someplace else? More secluded, perhaps?"

With a weak smile, Meteorite nodded carefully and reached for the offered hoof.

---

The pair walked through Ponyville in silence, without a set destination in mind, Meteorite following only the absence of ponies wandering by them. Though anxious to hear more, Rarity made no move to push forward with the prior conversation until they approached a small park area on the other side of town. Meteorite approached a bench and hopped up onto it.

"How are you feeling?" Rarity asked quietly, joining Meteorite.

Meteorite chose to remain silent, thinking about her response.

"I'm feeling like I shouldn't tell you any of this," she remarked carefully.

"You don't have to if you don't want to," Rarity told her, but Meteorite shook her head in response.

"I think we're well past the point of not talking about it," she said with an empty smile. "So… from where we last left off, I guess?"

Rarity sucked her cheeks in as she mulled things over, but nodded.

---

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

---

A little more than a week had passed since Meteorite's impromptu welcoming party, and much to the pegasus's relief went by largely uneventfully. She continued to train under Steel while working with all three co-workers at various points, practically receiving a crash course each day on at least one task to be done. Still, Steel was patient with her as she had put her initial attitude to the side, and wasn't shy about piping up when needing help. Sometimes needing help with the most mundane of tasks, but Steel hadn't sensed any malice or trickery behind the requests.

Privately, Meteorite continued to practice her hoof grip with small objects, succeeding here and there, but coming no closer to understanding how or why it worked. All in all, it made for a frustrating experience each time, but she sure as sure wasn't going to let herself be stopped by herself any time soon, so she might as well get used to it because she wasn't about to back down now!

She also continued to be purposely annoyingly confusing in her threats.

On this particular morning though, as they walked along the path to their assigned task, Meteorite found herself being called out to by Flo.

"H-Hey Meteorite?"

Meteorite paused in her step and half-turned to face Flo who had stopped a few steps earlier. She appeared fidgety, not looking Meteorite directly in the eye.

"What is it, Flo?" Meteorite asked, concerned.

"Um…" Flo hesitated, pawing at the ground slightly, as a blush crossed her face. "L-Look, I'm not a pegasus, s-so I… I don't know if what I'm about to say is considered rude or anything…"

Meteorite bristled slightly. She was about to be called on for her knowledge of pegasi, wasn't she? She was gonna have to fake it, wasn't she?

"But uh…" The blush deepened. "Is- Are you… taking care of your wings?"

Meteorite blinked unsurely. Slowly looking back and down at her sides, she realised that her wings were in quite a state of disarray, feathers jutting out at awkward angles. It occurred to her that she hadn't really done anything with them since she woke up in that forest. Mainly because she didn't know how.

Oh good. This was much more embarrassing than she envisioned.

"Uhh…" Meteorite droned, apparently just now casually considering the issue. "Pf, yeah nah, I… guess I hadn't been. To be honest, with everything going on last week… yeah, I guess I just forgot! Thanks for reminding me though! Hoo boy, that would've been embarrassing if it got any worse!"

"You're not upset?" Flo asked hopefully.

"No no!" Meteorite dismissed with a grandiose wave. "No, nah, I'm super glad you told me, silly me, I would've just carried on forgetting about it, heheh!"

Flo exhaled a sigh of relief and smiled. "Whew, okay! I was worried I was crossing some sort of boundary!"

"Oh, no, don't ya worry about that!" Meteorite continued to heavily dismiss, grinning broadly. "Yeah, I'll… take care of this later, after work and all that!"

"Well, okay!" Flo beamed, walking onwards now. Meteorite turned to follow behind, her face instantly falling flat as she did.

Great. How the fuck am I going to figure this out?

---

The morning passed by as the two mares worked side by side, slowly it would have seemed, though Meteorite chalked it up to being anxious about her wings. And it didn't help that her train of thought needed restarting every time Flo cheerfully spoke to her. Which was often.

Still, she spent enough time searching her mind for ways on how to get the information she needed. Obviously there was no internet, and she certainly couldn't ask anypony lest they'd started asking too many reasonable questions she didn't have reasonable answers to on why a grown mare her age needed information on basic hygiene.

But… there was a library. Twilight's library. If there was information to be had, it'd be there. Meteorite squared her jaw as she realised she would need to step fo- hoof into Ponyville later that day. She hoped it'd be a quiet affair for once. Hoped, but wasn't willing to bet any bits on it.

When lunchtime rolled around and went, it wasn't too far into their afternoon applebucking that Applejack came trotting down the path, smiling pleasantly.

"Hiya girls, y'all doing good here?" she called as she passed by.

"Uh-huh!" Flo responded while Meteorite silently nodded.

"Great!" Applejack beamed, slowing to a stop. "Hey, have either of ya seen Pinkie nearby?"

The two looked at each other quizzically for a moment before shaking their heads. "Should we have?" Flo asked.

"Naw," Applejack said with a dismissive wave of her hoof. "Was just curious. Ah invited her to a barn-raising this afternoon, but it looks like she's a mite busy." She paused briefly before suddenly turning to face them. "Hey! Either of ya want t' join in? It'll be one whale of a time!"

"Aw, I can't," Flo said regretfully. "I'll be busy making a new recipe for dinner tonight."

"Ahh… this isn't like," Meteorite gestured unsurely with a hoof, "job-required or anything, right?"

Applejack chuckled. "Naw, Ah just thought ya'd like to take part in it, fer fun."

"Right yeah, so uh… today though?" Meteorite clucked her tongue. "I kinda had plans to go into Ponyville later on today."

"Sure," Applejack smiled. "We don't need that many; already got four of us so that oughta be plenty as it is. Maybe next time."

"Oh, for sure, yeah."

"Heh," Applejack lowered her hat down slightly with a wry smile as she started walking off. "Don't go making promises ya don't intend t' keep."

A chill ran through Meteorite as she watched Applejack leave. Fuck, she saw right through me there. Shaking it off, she turned to readjust her bucking stance when she spotted Flo looking at her questioningly.

"You're going into Ponyville?"

"Ah uh, yeah," Meteorite admitted. "I was gonna go and get to the library."

"Oh!" Flo perked up. "You're going to get some books to read?"

Meteorite briefly considered the question. "No, I was actually thinking on eating a sandwich there."

Flo looked absolutely confused. "At the library?"

"It was a joke, Flo," Meteorite deadpanned, dropping the act. While Flo stammered over a flustered response Meteorite continued, more to herself than anyone. "Evidently not a very good one."

---

As the day settled into the afternoon and everypony was back at the cottage, Meteorite was alone in her room, slowly strapping on the saddlebags Flo had gotten her. She didn't know exactly how many books she'd end up getting, but if nothing else the saddlebags hid how disgraceful her wings were.

Satisfied that she had secured her saddlebags, Meteorite made her way to the front door, and drew in a deep breath as she prepared to face Ponyville once more. However, that preparedness was cut short once she left and saw Pinkie hopping by, along the main path.

"Oh! Pinkie!" she instinctively called out, almost instantly scolding herself for unnecessarily drawing attention to herself. It's okay, just casual greetings and all that, she told herself, and trotted down the hoofpath to meet with Pinkie, who had turned to face her while still hopping up and down on the spot.

"Sorry to interrupt you," Meteorite began, "just thought I'd let you know Applejack was looking for you earlier." Well duh, she then realised, that's why Pinkie's here, obviously.

"Ohh! She was?" Pinkie said cluelessly, still hopping and smiling.

"Uh, yeah. Something about a barn-raising?"

"Oh, sounds fun!"

Meteorite chose to not remark on that.

"Okay, thanks!" Pinkie continued, waving as she bounced away. "Bye Metric!"

"...Metric?" Meteorite muttered under her breath as she watched Pinkie hop over the horizon. "Okay, that was weird. Even for Pinkie." Frowning for a few moments in thought she then vigourously shook her head and turned her snout up and away, holding up a hoof at where Pinkie had gone. "Whatever, it's not my problem. Whatever's going on with Pinkie, it's got nothing to do with me. I've got my own shit to sort out."

---

A short while later, Meteorite found herself before the library once again, looming over her. She breathed in deeply and exhaled before timidly knocking on the door. A few seconds later, the door opened to a curious-looking Twilight Sparkle.

"Yes?"

"H-Hi," Meteorite began, suddenly wishing she never came here. "Is… the library… open? I-It just occurred to me just now that… it might not be… and um…" She trailed off, looking down as she dug into the ground with her hoof.

Thankfully, she heard Twilight titter lightly. "Yes of course it is," she said warmly, stepping aside. "Please, come in!"

Relieved, Meteorite wiped her hooves and stepped inside, Twilight closing the door behind her. Once more she marvelled at the sheer selection of books around her, failing to notice Twilight stepping in front of her.

"So, is there a book I can help you find?"

Meteorite blinked and lowered her gaze down to meet Twilight's, now noticing the small dragon by Twilight's side. Spike smiled and waved casually, to which Meteorite returned the gesture.

"Yeah actually, uh… I'm looking for… um…" Meteorite blanked for a moment. She had intended to slyly search the shelves until she found a book that looked helpful, but now that she was here, that method seemed… insurmountable. She cleared her throat.

"I actually don't know if there's a book like this but… do you have anything that uh… goes into detail on wing maintenance? F-For pegasi, I mean." There goes her plan of not asking anypony.

Twilight furrowed her brow in thought. "Hm, it's not a subject matter I'm familiar with, I'm afraid," she said, trotting over to her shelves, using her magic to pull books out and inspecting them one by one. "To be honest, you might have more luck asking at the local hospital."

Meteorite tensed up, mentally kicking herself for not thinking of that herself. As Twilight continued to search though and offload books to a waiting Spike, she glanced back over her shoulder. "You were in here last week too, weren't you?" she asked with a smile.

"A-Ah, yeah," Meteorite admitted, rubbing the back of her head nervously. "I… I didn't get anything though; I was just browsing. Did- Was everything okay after I left?"

Immediately Spike went wide-eyed and with his back to Twilight, subtly but frantically made a silence gesture across his neck with a free claw. Fortunately, Twilight had her eye on Meteorite. "What do you mean? Did something happen?"

"D'ah, no! No, I was just- worried! Because you weren't there, I wasn't there… so y'know. I don't like leaving places unattended."

"Aww," Twilight cooed, "don't you worry about that. Spike here is more than capable of looking after the place by himself. Aren't you Spike?"

"You bet, Twi!" Spike chirped, before both looking relieved and glaring at Meteorite, right before another book floated down onto the pile in his arms, blocking his face from view. Meteorite bit the inside of her cheek to counteract the adorableness of it all.

"Ah! This might be what you're looking for!" Twilight cried happily, staring at a book in her magical grasp as she fully turned around. She opened it and quickly flipped through its pages. "It's more of a medical text-heavy book, but it does cover proper body care for all three pony types, including preening for pegasi. Is that enough?" she asked, looking away from the book and at Meteorite.

"It… might be?" Meteorite ventured as she took the book in both hooves. "Certainly sounds useful enough."

"Right then," Twilight nodded, her horn flaring slightly more as a ledger and quill floated over in front of her. "I'll just record that you've…"

Her gaze slowly drifted up from the floating ledger and straight at Meteorite, unnerving her, even moreso when Twilight adopted a lopsided grin.

"...you're new," Twilight slowly realized. "You've never taken out a book here before."

"Uh… yeah?" Meteorite agreed uneasily as she took a step back while lifting a foreleg, ready to bolt.

"That means…" Twilight's eyes began to sparkle. "That means you don't have a library card yet!"

"Uh-" Meteorite barely had time to stand her ground and avoid being pulled by the drag as Twilight rushed by her in a blur and up the stairs to the second floor. With a raised eyebrow, Spike peered around the pile of books in his arms before glancing at Meteorite and shrugging, hopping up the stairs after Twilight.

Now left alone, Meteorite nervously rubbed one foreleg with the other. Good manners told her to wait where she was, but unbridled curiosity wanted to see the upstairs for herself. Setting hoof on the first step, she decided maybe it would be alright if she just waited at the doorway to the second floor…

When she got there, Meteorite was greeted by the sight of Spike casually leaning on the pile of books he had set down, not that far off from an excited Twilight rummaging through a chest of drawers.

"Everypony who regularly comes here already has their card," Twilight called out to Meteorite, somehow sensing she was there despite having her back turned to her. "And nopony new ever shows up to check out books!"

"Until you," Spike further explained, pointing finger guns at Meteorite. Claw guns? No, that sounded stupid, Meteorite reasoned.

"Which means…!" Twilight continued, finally pulling out an old parchment. She blew on it, blowing off a cloud of dust and briefly stared at it lovingly before hugging the parchment tightly. "I get to fill out a library card application!"

"Oh, brother…" Spike murmured, rolling his eyes. However, Meteorite simply faintly smiled to herself. Twilight mildly blushed as soon as she realized what she was doing in front of her guest and quickly adopted an air of professionalism, magically smoothing out the parchment as she cleared her throat. She gestured to Meteorite to join her.

"First things first, let's start with your name."

"Ah, it's Meteorite," she said, taking a few steps towards Twilight, already carefully writing with her quill. Meteorite's ear flicked as she thought she heard a low rumbling.

"Right then, second question!" Twilight began, but soon became just as perturbed as she looked around. "...what's that noise?"

Meteorite turned her attention to a nearby window that was slightly ajar. "Sounds like it's outside…"

Twilight nodded in agreement as she stood up. "Excuse me for a moment, would you?" Meteorite gave a sharp nod in response and stepped aside as Twilight hurried downstairs with Spike in tow. A short moment later, she heard the front door open along with the roar of an upset crowd, only to be muffled again by the door closing. Whatever was happening, Meteorite wanted no part of it.

But… she did want to know what the fuck was going on.

Carefully sidling to the window, her ears pricked up trying to hear anything that stood out. The only thing she could make out though was Rarity's shrill voice saying '-Pinkie hurricane raging through my shop!'

Of course the only fucking thing I hear is Rarity, she thought sourly. Before she could pay any further attention, the sound of the front door swinging open reached her ears, along with Twilight's voice flitting through as she desperately tried to calm the crowd.

"-hang on while I try to figure something out!"

Now more curious than ever, Meteorite carefully tiptoed over to the stairway back down, pressing herself against the wall up top. Peering down, she saw Twilight and Spike desperately searching through the shelves, tossing discarded books into a pile in the middle of the room. It wasn't long before Spike apparently found something, along with falling back into said pile. Meteorite winced at the painful memory of her similar experience the week prior.

"Aha, here it is!" Twilight cheered, having plucked the book Spike had found and scanning through it. "'The Legend of the Mirror Pond'! It describes a spell I can use to send them back where they came from!"

"That's perfect! Let's go!" Spike said, getting up and reaching for the doorknob of the front door.

"But there's a catch," Twilight warned with a worried grimace, "If I can't figure out which one is the real Pinkie, I might send her back by mistake!"

'Real Pinkie'? Meteorite mouthed, feeling troubled by what she was hearing. She thought back to her meeting with Pinkie only an hour earlier. Was that a… fake Pinkie?

"-shouldn't be too hard," Spike shrugged.

With that, Spike and Twilight quickly fled outside, the door closing behind them. Left alone again, Meteorite lifted a hoof to sneak back downstairs, but paused as the sprawling stairway with no guardrail stretched out before her. Going up was easy, going back down… not so much. It was several minutes later that Meteorite realised she was still contemplating walking down, unable to summon the courage to actually step forward.

Oh god, she slowly noted, I'm actually paralysed with fear, aren't I?

Staircases never bothered her before; she usually was able to maintain her balance freely up or down. But this was a body she was still getting used to, and she lacked confidence in her ability to balance herself out. One misstep could send her careening down the entire fligh-

She violently shook her head, trying to rid herself of those thoughts. Okay, okay… I can't stay up here forever. She glanced back behind her at Twilight's living area. …as nice as that would be. She looked back down and swallowed hard. Pushing past the barrier that her fear put before her, she timidly stepped down, hugging the far wall as she did.

Okay… one down, several, several more to go…

---

Finally reaching the bottom of the stairs, Meteorite hopped down onto level ground with all four hooves, exhaling a sigh of relief. Quickly trotting over to the front door, she noticed it had been left slightly ajar and so she carefully nudged it open with her hoof. Peering outside, whatever crowd was there seemed to have dispersed, and in the distance she saw a cloud of pink bouncing away, slowly followed by Twilight and Spike, along with an oddball of a Pinkie, sullenly dragging her hooves as she walked.

Wide-eyed, Meteorite slowly pulled the door to and stepped back inside, her back against the wall beside her.

"Well. That was a terrifying sight," she remarked carefully. Shaking her head clear, she decided to ignore whatever that was, and considered her next move.

She had the book she was after -a quick pat on her saddlebags to confirm, yup still there- but Twilight was now busy with… whatever was happening with Pinkie. Something about a mirror pool? Brr.

But she couldn't just leave with the book. Even though she had every intention of returning the book, just taking it without Twilight fully acknowledging it was hers to take? She might as well have sucker-punched her in the gut for the same sort of retribution she'd receive. But… she also couldn't just wait. She needed time to herself to study what to do, and the longer she waited the less time she had where she would be certain Flo wasn't going to be in their room.

Flicking through the pages of the book she found the section she wanted, but there was just so much text and several illustrations to take in. There was no way she was going to remember all of this later on without studying it further. Sighing, she looked around the library. I wish photocopiers were invented…

A gentle breeze blew the door beside her open, accompanied by birdsong. Meteorite turned to stare it down, debating what she should do.

---

The door of the cottage swung open to the sounds of repetitive chops. Cautiously looking over her shoulder, Meteorite stepped inside and headed to the kitchen where she found Flo in the middle of putting chopped vegetables into a baking pan.

"S'up, what're you making?"

Flo turned to her with a mildly confused smile due to the unusual greeting. "Hi, welcome back! I'm making a casserole! It's one of my mother's recipes, and I think it's going well!" Her smile faltered slightly as she turned back to examine her work. "At least… I hope it is. It's my first time trying it, and I've used some of the vegetables from my garden so I'm really hoping it turns out alright."

Meteorite lifted her head up above the counter to peer at the pan. "That's a casserole?" she asked, confused.

"Uh, yeah, what else would it be?"

"I'unno, just… hm. I just thought casseroles were… like a big crock pot with… some sort of gravy."

Flo furrowed her brow. "That's stew, isn't it?"

"Is it?" Meteorite questioned, though accepting that she might be wrong on the fact. "Huh. Mum always called it casserole."

"Huh, strange," Flo muttered, returning to chopping more vegetables but almost instantly perked up. "Hey, if you want though, next time we can try your mother's recipe!"

Meteorite's ears instantly fell flat as she glanced away, speaking quietly. "Ah… she… never taught me."

"Oh," Flo said with mild disappointment, but continued to push. "Well, maybe you can ask her and-" she hesitated as she looked back at Meteorite, and judged from their expression that it wasn't an option. "Well, maybe not…" Flo finished softly as she awkwardly focused back on her casserole, carefully placing more into the pan.

Meteorite kept quiet, allowing herself a brief moment of reflection on the past before blinking her thoughts back to the present. She blew away a strand of her mane that had fallen down on her face, and turned to leave.

"Well, I'm gonna go and… freshen up, y'know?"

Flo nodded, before something occurred to her. "Oh, what books did you get?" she asked, curious.

Meteorite stumbled for a moment, briefly unsure what to say. "Ah… didn't get anything. Nothing caught my eye."

Flo frowned as she continued chopping. "Oh, that's a shame."

"Yeah it is," Meteorite brushed off casually, and steadily left the kitchen at as much of an average pace as possible.

---

Once inside their room, Meteorite surreptitiously closed the door with a faint click, and then hurriedly over to her side of the room. Undoing her saddlebags, she slipped out of them and reached inside, pulling out the book she needed. Clutching it to her chest, she looked about the room and clambered onto her bed, propping open the book up against her pillow and began carefully reading it.

"Ah fuck, I've got to do this every day?" she muttered to herself. She also realised she was going to have to manipulate her wings with her hooves, since she couldn't unfold them naturally. And… was most likely going to have to use her mouth to help keep her feathers in top condition.

"Ergh," she spat in disgust, but solemnly accepted this was what she had to do, as she bent her head down towards the first of many preening sessions.

---

After what seemed like several tense hours of praying Flo wouldn't walk in on her, Meteorite had finished preening, or rather, finished what felt like an acceptable job of preening. Her wings no longer looked unkempt, with only one or two feathers askew with the rest. She figured that was good enough; it's not like she was going to be flying any time soon anyways, she bitterly told herself.

Still, she felt an ounce of pride at learning another horse skill- or was it a bird skill? A pegasus skill, yes that's it, she had learnt one step of how to pegasus.

Her eyes fell to her bed covers, and the dozen or so discarded purple feathers scattered around her. She carefully scooped one up in both of her forehooves, examining it with fascinated curiosity. These were her feathers, a part of her, or… well, had been a part of her. It was a strange fact to behold.

It occurred to her that she was being fascinated by what was pretty much the equivalent of hair and nail clippings, which left her feeling a little skeeved out, but it wasn't every day that you got to call a feather yours. Unless you were a pegasus. Hm.

Soft thuds from outside the door alerted Meteorite, and in a panicked swoop she closed the book and shoved it underneath her pillow. She began scooping together the loose feathers just as the doorknob turned, with Flo walking in a moment later.

"Ah don't mind me," Meteorite said hastily with a brisk wave of a hoof, "just cleaning up and all that."

"Ah okay," Flo smiled, "just wanted to let you know dinner will be ready soon."

"Sweet, cool, thanks Flo," Meteorite beamed, before gesturing here and there about her wings, "Oh and um, thanks again for reminding me about… y'know."

"Oh, no problem!" Flo replied, happy she was able to help.

---

Meteorite stared up at the leafy library, dreading her inevitable encounter. Her saddlebags felt heavy with guilt as she cautiously stepped forward and pushed open the door to the library.

"H-Hello?" she called out as she stepped inside. "Twilight? Spike? It's me, Meteorite. I'm… I'm returning a book."

An eerie silence greeted her as she wandered further in, only to be extremely startled by the door slamming shut behind. Yelping, she turned around only to see a very angry Twilight Sparkle glaring at her.

"You took one of my books, didn't you," Twilight accused with the calmness of a raging sea. It wasn't even a question; just an absolute fact being stated.

Meteorite shook as her legs began to give out from underneath her, mustering all her strength just to stand before the intensity of Twilight's furious gaze. She nodded timidly. "Y-Yes, I'm sorry, I'm so very, very sorry! I didn't mean to I-I-"

"LIES!" Twilight roared, wind whipping around her while her eyes glowed a brilliant white. Meteorite cowered on the ground with her hooves over her head.

"I'm sorry I'm sorry I brought it back I promise that I did!"

"NOT GOOD ENOUGH," Twilight bellowed, rising into the air with magical energy crackling about her. "You have proven yourself untrustworthy, Meteorite! You will steal whatever you desire without thought! If not my books…!"

"I'm sorry!"

"Then ya've gone and stolen mah apples!" Applejack suddenly announced from a dark corner of the library.

"I'm sorry!"

"You stole fizzy lifting drinks!" shouted Gene Wilder from the opposite corner.

"I'm sorry!!"

Suddenly, Meteorite felt herself being picked up off the ground and turned upside down, unable to even squirm as she was tightly wrapped in Twilight's magical aura. She was reeled in closer, forced to stare into Twilight's pupil-less eyes.

"W-W-What are you going to do with me?" she asked, trembling with fear.

Twilight said nothing immediate in response, only turning to leave the library, with Meteorite forced to tag along.

"There's only one thing to be done," Twilight said icily as she levitated Meteorite out in the middle of the street. "Hold you still until vengeance is delivered."

Curled up and unable to move, Meteorite could only watch in horror as the skies grew darker, a large shadow forming above her.

"No, please…!" she wept, unable to look away.

"That'll teach you to have a crush on Rarity as well!" she heard Spike yell.

"I'm-"

"-sorry!"

Meteorite panted heavily as she sat upright, now in a darkened room. It took her a few calming gasps to eventually realise she was actually in her room, in bed. She patted her covers, just to touch something she could feasibly call reality. Across the room was Flo, still asleep in her own bed and looking peaceful. A few forceful gulps, Meteorite slowly slid back under her covers, pulling them up tight around her as she shivered.

Just a dream, just a dream, just a nightmare, that's all…

Her eyes flitted to the base of their closet door where her saddlebags sat sagging with her secret shame.

T-Tomorrow… she told herself, before blinking a couple times and glancing out the window at the night sky. Or later today, I'unno.

Giving way to a yawn, Meteorite slowly closed her eyes, hopefully avoiding any further nasty dreams.

---

Meteorite stared up at the leafy library, dreading a foretelling of what was to come. There was no turning back at this point; she had to face the consequences of her actions. Nervously she approached the door and knocked, closing her eyes and breathed in and out to try and stay calm.

The door was soon answered by Twilight, whose smiling face fell upon seeing who was there. "Oh. Hello," she greeted politely, but Meteorite could tell there was no sincerity behind it. Saying nothing more, Twilight retreated back inside and over to a nearby desk, waiting for Meteorite to approach.

"I saw your note," Twilight explained flatly, lifting up in her magic a pencil-scrawled scrap of paper that read:

twilight
took book
Sorry :(
be back
tommorrow — M.

Meteorite nodded numbly as Twilight looked at the note once more with restrained annoyance.

"What's this supposed to mean?" she asked, pointing at the symbol in the middle of the page.

"...ah, that's… um, a sad face." She watched as Twilight furrowed her brow at it, trying to see it. "Y-You have to um- turn it sideways."

Twilight flipped and rotated the note until it made sense. Well, some sense, at least. "Why didn't you just draw it the right way up?"

…habit.

"Whatever," Twilight muttered, not waiting for a response and disregarded the note to face Meteorite. "Do you have the book with you?"

Meteorite nodded, lifting a hoof to her saddlebags. "Y-Yeah, it's in he-" She was cut off as her saddlebag was magically opened and the book flew out and over to Twilight as she inspected it. Satisfied the book was still intact, Twilight turned her attention back to Meteorite.

"What made you think it was okay to just take it?!" Twilight shrilled, no longer holding back her emotions, and causing Meteorite to flinch. "This is a library! There are procedures! You can't just skip them because you felt like it!"

"You weren't here," Meteorite mumbled into her chest, almost inaudibly.

"I was dealing with a crisis!" Twilight stamped her hoof while shaking the book at Meteorite. "You could've waited! What was so important that you so brazenly disregar-"

Twilight's tirade was interrupted as she watched a lone purple feather fall out of the book, gently floating down until it landed between the two mares. Confusion tore through her anger as she picked up the feather with her magic. Glancing between it and the book, Twilight recalled why the book had been requested in the first place, and finally looked back at Meteorite, who was still shamefully hanging her head. A heavy pause hung in the air as she slowly connected the dots.

"You," Twilight swallowed, speaking calmer, "really needed it, huh?"

Meteorite silently nodded while still hanging her head, and Twilight sighed internally. She paced the library a few times, thinking to herself, before turning to face Meteorite.

"It won't happen again?"

There was another pause as Meteorite chanced a glance up at Twilight and saw her patiently expecting a response. She started nodding before frantically switching to shaking her head.

"Yes, no! I mean, no no it won't happen, I promise!" As she said that, she felt the sting of Applejack's words from the previous day. She breathed in and spoke again, calmer this time. "I mean… I'll do my utmost to avoid doing it again. I don't want to do it; I didn't even want to do it this time…"

Twilight quietly listened, considering the book as she did. "Well… I appreciate your honesty. And you did bring it back. And you did leave me a note about it, hastily-written as it was."

The 'hastily-written' note had taken Meteorite over half an hour to write, including the time to find and correctly stick a pencil in her mouth, along with eventually holding down the paper with both hooves just to keep it still while writing.

Twilight gave Meteorite one more glance. "Do you… still need the book?"

"I… might?" Meteorite admitted. "There was a lot, and I didn't get to read it all last night."

"Well," Twilight began, now with a small, but genuine, smile. "I suppose that means you still need your library card, doesn't it?"

"You'll… still give me one?" Meteorite asked hopefully.

"M-hm," Twilight nodded, making her way to the stairway. "Although… I think this time we should start with your address, so I know where to find you," she said with a playful wink.

Meteorite tittered lightly as she followed.

"Sounds fair."

Comments

[PaprikaBluesAndCo]

this series has been a delight to read oh my gosh
keep up the good work!!

[Boltstrike58]

Poor Meteorite. At least she didn't get caught up in the Crisis of Infinite Pinkie Pies.