• Published 5th Oct 2022
  • 2,637 Views, 533 Comments

Forgotten: Mists of Bridlewood - milesprower06



A new student has come to Sunset Shimmer's fledgling magic school in Bridlewood, and she immediately begins to arouse the headmare's suspicions...

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Into the Past, Part I

Sunset's future lesson planning was interrupted by a soft knock on the door, followed by Izzy coming into the school.

"Evening, Sunset. I just finished dinner, and Alphabittle says the Keeper has stayed over to talk to you if you're available," Izzy said from the doorway.

Sunset closed the planner she had been writing in, and looked up at Izzy.

"Well, he certainly didn't need to stay over just for me, I'd plan my visit around his schedule," Sunset replied, putting her pen down.

"We've been busy with classes all day, so we really can't help it. Come on, I've just finished dinner."

Sunset returned the planner to a drawer under her desk, grabbed a file folder, and got up from her seat, strapping on her saddlebags, passing the tables and joining Izzy at the front door. They stepped outside, closed the door, locked it, and headed deeper into town.

While Sunset sometimes missed the waves crashing against the cliffs of Maretime Bay, she had quickly grown to love the ambience of Bridlewood. The owls, woodpeckers, songbirds, chittering of critters, and the wind moving through the leaves and branches; it was positively enchanting, and dare she say, more fitting for teaching magic than the halls of Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns.

"So I know you haven't had a lot of time yet, but got a plan for that scooter you found?" Sunset asked as she walked next to her assistant teacher.

"Well, I've been thinking, I love unicycling, making old things new and all that. I think fixing that scooter up could help me bring my unicycling services to the rest of Bridlewood so much more easily. I could call it... Izzy Does It!" the unicorn answered gleefully.

"Certainly catchy, I'll give you that," Sunset commented.

"Thanks, I thought so too! Fixing it up will let me bring my fixing-up to all of Bridlewood, and maybe even beyond! There's gotta be plenty to unicycle in Zephyr Heights and Maretime Bay, too. But, one step at a time Izzy. One step at a time," the unicorn told herself.

Sunset chuckled at how Izzy wanted to tackle her new project at a breakneck pace, but was proud of how she wasn't forgetting her commitment to the new school.

While most Bridlewoodians considered the large tree that was now her school to be the center of the village, the fact was that Bridlewood was quite far spread out through the forest. Sunset had honestly thought about asking Izzy if she wanted to move in closer to town, be closer to the other villagers, but she had a feeling that her assistant was happy where she was. She never minded the walk into town, and was closer to the open fields than anypony else for practice. While she sometimes worried that Izzy was lonely all the way out there, she remembered that some ponies preferred their solitude, at least at home. Some ponies needed that to recharge their social batteries.

And judging by the amount of work that scooter was going to take to get up and running, being that far away from others would probably spare the rest of the village from the noise of tools that it would take to get it into working order.

"Aaand here we are!" Izzy announced, as they came to another hollowed-out tree structure, and the first thing Sunset thought was how this treehouse was entirely too small to be even comparable to a studio apartment, let alone anything with enough room to serve as an archive of any sort.

"This small place is the Bridlewood Archives? Bit small, isn't it?" Sunset asked as she came up to the door along with Izzy.

"If it was in the tree, yeah, probably. Luckily, it isn't!" Izzy said, opening the door, and she was right; the inside was quite small, but right there almost at the entrance, was a descending staircase, going underground. Sunset followed Izzy down the spiraling stairs down to what could be considered the basement. At the bottom of the stairs was another thick wooden door, which Izzy pushed open.

Now, Sunset was impressed.

The staircase under the tree had descended into a wide open cavern, which had been repurposed into the Bridlewood Archives. Aisles of shelves lined the room, each stacked with books and scrolls. At the front of the room was a small desk, where an older dark gray unicorn stallion sat, who looked up from his paperwork to see his two visitors.

"Izzy Moonbow! How have you been?" the archives clerk greeted elatedly.

"I've been well enough. Sunset Shimmer, you may have seen him around town, but allow me to formally introduce Portfolio, Elder Keeper of Bridlewood," Izzy said with a smile.

"Ah, Miss Shimmer. A pleasure to finally make your acquaintance."

"Likewise, Mr. Portfolio. I wish my intentions were more clear, I never wanted you to be down here waiting on me to be available," Sunset replied.

"Nonsense. You're our new magic teacher, and your schedule is undoubtedly more full and busy than mine is. I knew any new arrivals would have questions about the history of our forest village, and I'm happy to assist in any way that I can. So, Miss Shimmer, how may I help you?" Portfolio asked, giving the unicorn mare his undivided attention.

Sunset cleared her throat.

"Well, this is just a hunch, and probably a long shot, but... How far back do your records go? How long do you keep them before you make room for more?" Sunset asked.

"Myself, and every Keeper before me has tried to keep everything up to date for at least our lifetime, if not longer. Anything significant in the last 50 years hopefully won't take me long to find. Anything past that, might take some time. Things get old, misplaced, sadly," Portfolio answered.

"What about something like missing pony reports?" Sunset asked.

She saw Portfolio's attentive ears droop for barely a moment, and his expression turned somber.

"Ah. Well, that narrows it down almost completely. Not too many of those. One moment."

Portfolio got up, and went down three aisles, before disappearing behind one of the rows of shelves. His hoofsteps got softer, before stopping for several moments. The two mares waited as he softly hummed to himself from behind the shelf he was at, using the tip of his hoof to peruse the lines and rows of records.

Two minutes later, he returned with a trio of file folders in his magical grasp, and he carefully set them on the desk in front of Sunset.

"Runaways are exceedingly rare, but every once in a long while, a unicorn wondered what laid beyond our forest. Most of them came back before getting too far. Have a look," Portfolio said, motioning to the folders.

Sunset opened the first two folders, seeing a photo or artist's rendition attached to an incident report.

"Those two were well before my time, I'm afraid. Both left the forest and weren't heard from again," the Keeper commented.

Sunset turned her attention to the third folder, and when she opened it, her heart skipped a beat.

"That one, sadly, is much more recent. Nearly twenty years ago, I think. Poor thing vanished from her back yard," Portfolio commented.

Sunset hadn't looked at the report, because her eyes were glued to the photograph of the light blue unicorn filly, who didn't look to be even two years old.

Portfolio noticed how the expression of Bridlewood's new teacher had changed as she stared down at the photo.

"Miss Shimmer?" He asked softly.

Sunset took a deep breath, turned to her saddlebags, opened the flap, pulled out a file folder of her own, opened it, and pulled out the instant-developed photo of her most mysterious student, Misty. She held it out, and let it drop right down next to the twenty year old photo in the report.

"Look familiar?"

Author's Note: