Creatures and Magic

by EpicGamer10075

Chapter 1: White and Black

“You’re reading too much into it.”

Twilight looked back over her shoulder to see the small Changeling sitting on her saddlebag-covered back. “What do you mean, Spike? Clearly it’s only ponies they’ll like!”

“That map had a bunch of place names on it, and like, all of ‘em had a pony pun in there somewhere,” Spike replied casually in his young, slightly buzz-filled voice. “And besides, Zecora said this place was good, so...”

Twilight sighed heavily, and looked back to the wooden sign in front of her, marking the entrance to ‘Ponyville’ a short ways in the distance, with all of its thatch-roofed buildings and relatively structured look seeming somewhat pleasant to the Zebra in the light of early afternoon. “We’ve travelled all this way, so I guess we should stay...” She muttered to herself, and took a deep breath before heading down the dirt path into the town.

“So...” Spike started as he looked around the many similar-looking buildings that comprised most of the town, “Where is this ‘Library’ thing Z told us about?”

“Umm, I don’t know...” Twilight looked around as well, though much more tensely as she started to see a few other creatures roaming the town, making her add hesitantly, “I... guess we should just go..?”

Wandering further into the town, they slowly started to notice more creatures starting to populate the streets, though still a ways away from them, as well as some small signs hanging above the doors of a few buildings around them, but with seemingly little purpose to them. However, none of them had ‘Library’ on them, so they weren’t all too inclined to enter and find out what they meant.

Getting a bit more worried at the prospect of being lost in the town, Twilight took another deep breath as she walked, and Spike, sensing her nervousness, ran a hoof down her flat black and white mane to try and calm her down. “This place seems a lot larger from the inside...” She muttered to herself, and tried to look down some of the streets, but didn’t find anything but more buildings. “Where’s that Everfree Forest...? It continues to hide...”

“Eh... with how Z described that place, I don’t want to just run in there, you know?” Spike replied, sounding a bit worried about the prospect.

Nodding as she kept fretting about her location, Twilight then seemed to realize something and looked back over her shoulder and asked him, “Are you alright? I don’t have enough medicine to make it through the night...”

Shrugging casually, Spike said back, “I feel fine right now, but it’s been a while my last attack...”

Sucking in another worried breath, Twilight looked around them at the many buildings and creatures around her, but still didn’t find any hint of the ‘Library’ or Everfree. “Well... hopefully we can find that Forest soon enough.” Doing a full turn to see how far they’ve gone through the town, she started to add, “I know that’s--”

“Hi!” A pink face suddenly chirped at her.

“Gah!” Twilight jerked back in shock, lowering herself and spreading her stance defensively, with Spike yipping in surprise and holding on to her mane and saddlebags while Twilight stared intensely at the creature that was now before them, which happened to be a pink Deer smiling over-enthusiastically at them.

“Welcome to Ponyville!” The Deer spoke with an energetic voice, “I guess you already know that, ‘cuz of the sign out front! It’s still ironic, given all the not-Ponies in Ponyville, but that’s just ‘cuz its founders were Ponies! Apple Ponies! They still live here, and farm here--for apples, obviously--but they made the place!”

Twilight and Spike both blinked in bewilderment at the Deer’s rambling, which seemed like it was to draw their attention at all costs. Almost instinctively, Spike flared his green magic and opened one of Twilight’s saddlebags, and pulled out a vial of a vibrant teal fluid, and when Twilight herself raised one of her hooves up and back to receive it, he moved it toward that hoof so that she could ready it to throw at the Deer.

“...gotta be a little careful around ‘em! They still really don’t like not-ponies! They’re about the only ones that still do that here! The place would probably be named Creatureville if they weren’t so stubb--wait, what is that?” The Deer suddenly stopped rambling to look at the vial curiously.

“It’s a potion,” Twilight responded tersely as she kept it ready.

“Yeah, and it’ll glue your face shut!” Spike called out.

The Deer tilted her head for a moment in confusion as she continued to look at the potion, but Twilight soon pulled it back a little farther as a threat, and that sharply snapped the Deer to attention.

“W-wait, I-” She stuttered and pulled back in fear, then closed her eyes and took a deep breath, then spoke more cautiously, “Sorry about that, I, um... I always get very excited around new creatures, ‘cuz they always give me new opportunities to throw a party and I just...” She trailed off for a second, seemingly trying to put her thoughts together, but when Twilight shook the potion in her hoof a bit, the Deer cleared her throat and tried again, “I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to spook you.”

“And you’re not trying to distract us so that another tribe or hive will try to capture us?” Twilight asked her.

The Deer blinked in confusion. “...No?”

Twilight and Spike observed her for a couple seconds, the latter eventually saying, “Doesn’t seem like she’s lying.”

Continuing to leer at her for another few moments, Twilight eventually sighed heavily before pushing herself back to a more normal posture, and reached back to put her vial back in her saddlebags. “So...” She started, looking the other creature in the eyes, “If you really are so tame... do you mind telling me your name?”

“Oh, how could I forget!” The Deer cried and pulled back in some manner of surprise, and quickly shook herself and replied jubilantly, “I’m Pinkie Pie! Party planner extraordinaire and second best baker over at Sugarcube Corner!”

Twilight nodded cautiously at the energy and the strange titles, but Spike was more focused on something else, asking with some enthusiasm, “Wait, is that a sweets shop?”

Twilight blinked at the follow-up, but couldn’t say anything before Pinkie replied with clear joy, “That’s right! Sugarcube Corner is the most popular bakery of light and sugary treats that you’ll just love to--”

“PINKIE!” Twilight shouted with effort at the excitable Deer, quickly silencing her and letting the Zebra heave a sigh and look back to the changeling on her back, admonishing him, “Spike, you know our bodies cannot handle that much sugar--it may be even worse than getting attacked by a cougar.” Turning back to Pinkie, she apologized, “Sorry, Pinkie, but we’ll be going; we both have better things to be doing.”

“Oh, okay then,” Pinkie said, oddly quiet as Twilight turned around and headed off, carrying a slightly put-out Spike with her, but still called after them, “Maybe I’ll still see you at a party later!”

Twilight ignored her, trodding down through the streets of Ponyville, looking around and turning mostly randomly as quite a few other creatures milled about around her, Spike grumbling to himself atop her back. Eventually, though, he looked back up and around at his surroundings, and muttered, “Maybe we should’ve gotten directions from Pinkie...”

At that comment, Twilight immediately stopped in her tracks, making Spike jerk forward from the moment, stumbling onto her neck and grabbing it with his forelegs before he fell off, where he swiftly moved his attention to his caretaker, who suddenly cursed under her breath.

Twilight almost frantically started spinning and looking around for the ‘Library’ they were there for, forcing Spike to yelp in surprise and grab a tighter hold of her neck to stay on, but she didn’t find it, making her freeze again. “We should have...” She eventually muttered to herself, then sighed beleagueredly and hung her head down in despondency.

“Uh--” Spike sputtered in shock at the emotions in his caretaker’s body language, but looked around at all the other creatures still around them, and asked, “Well--we can just ask some other creature, right?”

Twilight tensed up at the suggestion of interacting with another creature from this place, and looked up towards the sky to try and process her thoughts. She tried to weigh just how worth it it would be to talk with them--with the one creature she had already met giving them a poor first impression--against just wandering around until she found what she was looking for, but something caught her eye; a blue thing was zipping around the sky and pushing some clouds over to the side into a large pile.

The thing, presumably some sort of flying creature, then pushed the large pile of clouds off further to the side, before pausing for a moment, and then darting away, curving its flight down towards the ground and flying right towards them!

With only a few moments to react, Twilight could only bare her teeth and get back down into a defensive posture and intensely stare at that creature as it continued full speed ahead at her, and when it was just near enough, she rolled to the side to dodge it and let it sail.. past her...

Or not.

The creature instead slowed to a stop just before them, hovering a slight distance above the ground, and revealing themselves to be a cyan hybrid between a Pony and a Gryphon--a Hippogryph, if Twilight wasn’t mistaken--that had a rainbow-coloured mane and tail, and looked to be a female.

“Woah,” They--she spoke in a boyish voice as she noticed the other creature looking really defensive back at her, “You didn’t need to do that, y’know; it’s not like I was gonna run into you!”

Eyeing the almost laughing Hippogryph in stupefaction, Twilight shot back at her, “It was fair assumption to make, you fool. You were coming at us like those ponies, that worship only Celestia’s rule!”

The Hippogryph only looked amused, possibly more from the faltered rhyme than anything else, but she then rolled her eyes and responded, “Whatever, dude. I just haven’t seen you around before, and I wanted to show you just how awesome I am!”

Twilight couldn’t anything in response to that, only gaping in the sheer incredulity and offense in that sentence, leaving the pair in silence but for all the noises of other creatures, both sentient and otherwise, all around them.

At least, that was until a young, buzzing voice came from behind Twilight, stating somewhat scathingly at the Hippogryph, “We don’t care, ‘dude’.”

Hopping up onto his caretaker’s back, Spike stared annoyedly at the other creature as she pulled back a bit, seemingly insulted by the statement.

Twilight, though, having registered her charge’s presence again, sharply looked back to him, multiple questions in her expression, but he swiftly cut her off, “I’m fine; I jumped off of you just before you rolled out of the way of that idiot.”

“Oh,” Twilight muttered, slightly guilty of how she just forgot about him, but tried to shake it off as she added, “Well, good.”

“Hey!” The Hippogryph shouted back at them to get their attention, sounding very insulted, “I’m not an idiot! I’m actually a Wonderbolt in training!” Flapping her wings a bit more to raise higher into the air, she started speaking louder, seemingly trying to shout out to the heavens, “I’m Rainbow Dash, the fastest flier in all the land, and I make everything at least twenty percent cooler when I’m even near it!”

Twilight and Spike just stared at her in deadpan annoyance, and even some other creatures who had noticed her were giving her an irritated glare. Twilight pursed her lips for a few moments, then stated simply, “We have no idea who these ‘Wonderbolts’ are, so we have little reason to care--but your arrogance is far worse than that, too, and it gives us no reason to care for you.”

“Yeah, and you still almost ran us over,” Spike added, deadpan, “So I don’t really think you’re all that ‘awesome’.”

Rainbow scoffed a pointed at them with a single talon, and said condescendingly, “But I didn’t. I was fixin’ to stop right in front of you, and I did, so you got no reason to be so uppity about it.”

“Given the incredible rudeness with which you speak...” Twilight started, staring annoyedly, yet beleaguered at the Hippogryph, “You seem to be nothing but a reckless freak. We never were here for just you to see, so just... leave us be.”

“What the heck’s your problem?” Rainbow retorted, and let herself fall down a bit and pushed forward towards the Zebra’s face, “I ain’t doing anything wro--hrrk!” She gut suddenly by a lasso getting thrown over her, and tightened hard around her waist and pulled back away.

“That’s enough of that, Dash,” A thickly-accented voice spoke, and as Rainbow fell to the ground from being winded, a female orange Earth Pony with a pale yellow mane and a brown hat stepped forward and pressed a hoof down onto the Hippogryph’s barrel, keeping her down. “Now, what are y’all here...” She looked towards those Twilight and Spike, and the energy sapped from her voice, finishing in a dry, almost emotionless tone, “...for.”

Twilight eyed her warily, and simply thought about leaving, but Spike leaned a bit to the side and caught side of the Pony’s mark; a trio of red apples. “You’re part of that Apple family, right?” He asked cautiously.

A terse nod and an ‘Eeyup’ were all he got from her in response.

Twilight turned her eyes back to her Changeling, and she recalled what that Deer had said, and then realized the importance of the question. Sucking in a tense breath, she remembered why the two of them were there in the first place, and decided to ask of the Pony, “We were just looking for this ‘Library’ place; we haven’t found it at all in this space.”

The Apple Pony stared back at her for a moment, then replied curtly, “It’s the big ol’ tree south of here, ‘bout thataway,” She gestured with her head down a street to her side.

“Alright, thank you,” Twilight nodded with a short bow, “I didn’t what else I’d do.”

“Mm,” The Earth Pony grunted in acknowledgement, and took a couple seconds before looking back down to Rainbow Dash, then pulled her up and onto her back, then trotted off in the opposite direction of the ‘Library’.

“...What’s her deal?” Spike asked offhandedly, and Twilight shrugged in response, turning and starting to head off towards their destination. “Um, I...” He stuttered, seemingly realizing something, getting a bit more of his caretaker’s attention, “I-I thought you’d ask for the Everfree Forest...”

Slowing her pace just a bit, Twilight sighed. “I know, I just suppose... a forest would be easier to find. And, well...” Picking her pace back up, she continued somewhat tensely, “That Pony was far from kind.”

Looking back in the direction of said Pony, Spike watched her continuing to haul Rainbow with her off into the distance, and he muttered a conflicted, “Yeah...”

Twilight continued to trot through the streets in relative silence for a while, neither herself nor Spike speaking from the thoughts going through their minds, even while the many creatures of the town milled about around them. Now more inside the town, they could at least spot some more interesting buildings; a few restaurants with tables just outside, some larger, more professional-looking buildings with varying styles, including a rather odd circular one of white and purple.

Eventually, they managed to spot a very wide tree with windows through the streets, and they headed for it, realizing that the ‘Library’ must’ve been a building akin to the myriad around them, with the caveat that it was made of a hallowed-out tree, like the one they recalled that Zecora lived in.

When they finally reached the building and arrived at its entrance, they spotted the small metal sign near the doors that read ‘Ponyville Library’.

“Okay, this truly is it,” Twilight said in relief, and reached for one of the door’s metal handle and pushed down before being able to pull it open. Heading inside and closing the door back up behind her, she added, “Thankfully that Apple Pony wasn’t lying about this bit...”

“Yep,” Spike commented as he hopped off Twilight’s back and landed on the flooring made of many wooden boards, letting the two of them look around at the many, many books that lined most sections of the walls of the main room. “Uh...” He tried, but couldn’t find the words.

“I do hope those aren’t bound in what I think they are...” Twilight said in something nearing horror, having known very well the rather... awful material her tribe of Zebras bound their books in. Hesitantly approaching a wall near the door--one that oddly had a staircase going up above where the books laid--she leaned close to the books and eyed them warily, and sniffed them. Not getting anything but an odd smell somewhat akin to a severed tree, she slowly reached a hoof out and pressed it against one of the books, but found the material under her hoof rather different that the tanned material she was used to.

Watching her from a distance, Spike kept himself still close by the door, and tentatively asked, “What is it?”

Twilight pulled the book in her hoof from the wall and felt its cleaner cover material against her fur, and realized it wasn’t what she originally thought it was. “I believe it’s some sort of stiff parchment, oddly enough,” She relayed back to Spike, who seemed slightly confused, yet relieved at the answer. “It’s far from a tanned coat devoid of fluff.”

“Oh, okay then,” Spike said back, turning his attention to the staircase that went up the wall of the room. “So, do you want to see what’s up there?”

Twilight looked up at the stairs and to the entrance to the next floor they led up to, and replied, “I think that would be good, yes... Places like this seem to have upstairs reserved for rest.” Putting the book back in the space between the others it came from, she looked over at one of the small windows in the wall above the staircase, and saw the sky was still rather bright. “It may only be the afternoon, but after our trek and those creatures... sleep would certainly be a boon.”

Spike nodded and started up the stairs, letting Twilight head over to them so she could follow, but he did ask back to her as he neared the top, “Alright, so first thing after we wake up is to find Zecora?”

“The first thing we do is eat,” She admonished him, trekking up to the dimmer corridor above where he stopped. “But, yes, after that, finding her will be our main feat. I do hope that we will have enough time,” She added as she neared the second floor herself, “For I would hate your pain to be our wake-up chime...”

Comments

[Moproblems Moharmoney]

Very interesting. I'm eager for the next chapter.

[EpicGamer10075]

11571802
Thanks, I knew you were one of the people that wanted more of an insight into this world, and I’ve gotten a lot of ideas for it since since writing that original story.

[Moproblems Moharmoney]

11571817
Excellent!

[Ze1a7in]

It took me until they got into the library to realize that in almost every instance of Twilight speaking two sentences in succession, they rhyme. Nice job, even if some of the attempts didn't work as well.

Curious where this goes.

[EpicGamer10075]

11571891
That’s intentional.
Twilight’s rhyming is due to her nature as a Zebra, but no-one said she to be that good at it.