Chapter 2
Bell, Book & Candle
Chapter 2
"Clover?"
"Yes, dear?" Turning her head, the teal-colored unicorn walking beside Bellbray smiled for him. Even in dreams, he had never quite grown accustomed to the simple beauty of that smile.
"Did Master Star Swirl say anything about why the new chancellor wanted this meeting?"
Clover was silent for a while, picking her way along the cobbled road. When she spoke, her voice was quiet. "He didn't say anything, no. But he seemed... nervous. I think he's worried that the earth ponies' appointment of this new chancellor, Puddinghead, is a rejection of Sugar Cookie's old policies."
"...Has to be something you can do."
The dream rocked like a ship in rough seas. The cobbles melted into pools of liquid color and a cage of wooden walls erupted from the surrounding emptiness. Bellbray found himself sitting beside Clover, meeting with the new leader of the earth pony tribe. They were in an enormous hall, and earth ponies of every hue had congregated to watch in a gallery overlooking the chancellor, his extensive retinue, and two overmatched representatives of the unicorn tribe.
"Our ponies will not continue to... to give tribute to the unicorns in this fashion." Puddinghead's face was red with anger. "We are no slaves, not to your people nor to the pegasi."
Bellbray felt his hackles rising, but Clover touched her hoof to his arm and shook her head. Taking a deep breath, Bellbray tried to calm himself. "Chancellor, sir, the unicorn tribe has never asked the earth ponies for tribute. But you must recognize that your good harvests owe as much to the cycles of the sun and moon as to your own tribe's unique talents."
"So now you claim credit for our own work? The insolence!" Puddinghead slammed a hoof down on the table, rage twisting his face. "If you're the ones responsible for the growth of our crops, why do you need anything from us at all, eh? Why don't the unicorns just farm for themselves?"
Clover spoke quietly. "You have made your feelings clear, Your Excellency. I am sorry we could not be of more help. I think, perhaps, your inquiries would be better put to the leaders of our tribe." She began to rise.
"I can't find the source – it’s almost as if it doesn’t exist yet. But that's not the biggest problem."
The air swirled with crawling fingers of red-purple fog. "Now wait a minute." Bellbray stood, his own anger getting the best of him. "I think His Excellency's question deserves an answer. Why doesn't the unicorn tribe farm for itself?" Clover shot him a frown, and he heard a few surprised titters from the watching earth ponies. "What do you know of magic, sir?"
A brief look of surprise flashed across the chancellor's face. "I hardly see how my own knowledge of magic is rela—"
Bellbray galloped over the chancellor's objection. "And how many unicorns do you think are needed, sir, to maintain the cycle of the sun and moon?"
"...Do you mean, 'that's not the biggest problem'?"
Puddinghead rose to his hooves as well, and his carefully stage-managed anger was replaced with cold fury. "Too many are needed, boy. Too many. Perhaps we can't do without your kind yet, but we will find a way. And then the unicorn tribe will pay for the humiliation they have heaped on us these many years. Guards!"
The ring of armored earth ponies constricted around Bellbray. A cloak of nightmare black shrouded the image, and he felt the bite of spears tearing across his hide. The world evaporated in a damp cloud of putrid yellow that clung to his coat even while the sun burned it away. As the fog cleared, Bellbray found himself sitting beside Clover at the bank of a trickling stream a few hours' walk from the earth pony settlement. Holding a wet strip of cloth, the teal-coated unicorn was tending to a cut over her companion's eye.
"Stars above, Bellbray. He just wanted to show his tribe what a big stallion he was. Why did you have to go and argue with him like that?"
"It's something the books describe as a fixed point. The longer you’re here, the more unstable..."
"I didn't like it," Bellbray muttered. "The way he was talking about us, like unicorns were some kind of... I don't know. I just didn't like it."
"Oh, Bells," Clover sighed. "What am I going to do with you?" Suddenly, the sun snuffed out and panic overwhelmed Clover's voice. "Bellbray? Bellbray!?" The air was choked with dust. Rocks crashed down in a thunderous cacophony.
"Bellbray?"
His eyes shot open, and for a moment he didn't understand what he was seeing. The face of a light-blue unicorn with a blue-and-white mane. Minuette. He was lying on a bed – and a surprisingly comfortable one at that. For a moment, it felt like he was still breathing the dust-filled air of the cave. He wheezed painfully, and then his whole body shook with a fit of coughing.
Minuette helped him sit up and rubbed his back with one hoof. "Easy there, fella. How long were you out there in the snow, anyway? I hope you're not getting sick on us."
The snow. Like a key opening a lock, those words unleashed a surge of memories. The cold winter night. The strange town. The play, stranger still. And... "Clover. You said—" Bellbray gave another cough. "You said you were playing Clover the Clever?"
The blue pony gave him an odd look. "Yes, I did say that. Right before you decided to pass out. Mighty nice of you, that was. Makes a filly feel downright special." She sighed. "But I suppose it's not your fault, being caught out in the storm and all."
"...The storm?" His voice sounded dry and cracked.
"The pegasi said they had a big one planned for this Hearth's Warming Eve, but I don't think anypony expected it to be that big. We must have had more than three feet of snow last night. That is why you're here, right? In Ponyville. You needed to get out of the snowstorm?" Minuette's words sounded suspiciously leading.
Bellbray cleared his throat. "Umm. I don't mean to impose any further, Miss Minuette, but would you happen to have some water?"
"Oh! Of course!" The blue pony looked a little abashed at not having thought of it herself. "Just wait right here, and I'll go fetch some for you. And it's just Minuette, no Miss." She cantered out of the room, leaving Bellbray blessedly alone.
Why I’m here... And where, exactly, is here? The answer to that question seemed as immediate as it was impossible.
"And just because the answer is obvious, that means you shouldn't have to think it through?" How many times had he heard Star Swirl say that, to Bellbray himself or to one of the others?
Okay, let's make a list. What do we know? I went into a cave with Clover. There was some sort of rock fall, Clover vanished, and it looks like I came out of a completely different cave in a completely different place. Now I'm in a town called Ponyville. Ponies of all three tribes are living together here, and I don't recognize any of the architecture. By all indications, it's winter now and not spring. Moreover, the ponies here tell stories about Clover the Clever and Star Swirl the Bearded. And they seem to be celebrating some sort of holiday commemorating Clover, or at least her role in discovering this new land. Equestria?
What explanations would fit the available data? Well, there's the obvious one. Or Clover could have found some way to pull an extremely elaborate hoax. Or... Bellbray's imagination failed him – and the idea that Clover could have arranged anything of this magnitude was, frankly, risible. Between the change of seasons and the stories of ponies he knew participating in events he didn't, there was only one reasonable explanation, however insane it sounded.
"This is the future." The words came out as a whisper, and their utterance seemed to crystallize the idea into a tangible reality. The normally well-tuned gears of Bellbray’s mind shuddered once and ground to a halt.
After a minute, Minuette returned with a glass of water. She gave it to Bellbray, who drank it down dumbly. The blue unicorn watched him in silence for a moment. Were her eyes red from crying, or were Bellbray’s thoughts still addled by his predicament? It must have been the latter, because when she spoke again, Minuette sounded as cheerful as ever. "So, stranger! You were going to tell me how you got caught out in that snowstorm?"
The truth, Bellbray thought, was probably not the best option here. "Ahh. I was... um... visiting family?" Even to Bellbray, the answer sounded feeble. Maybe some elaboration would help it. "Or returning home, actually. My aunt and uncle live a few days south of here, and I live in... the north?" Sun and Stars, how was he supposed to come up with a believable story when his knowledge of this new land couldn't even fill a thimble?
Minuette's little frown told Bellbray how unconvincing his story had been. "It's okay, we can talk about it later. But if you're feeling up to it, there is somepony I think you should speak to." She glanced over her shoulder at the room's open doorway. "Doctor?"
As if on cue, a brown stallion entered the room. He had a dark mane and an hourglass-shaped mark on his flank, a match for Minuette's own. And he was an earth pony.
Bellbray felt himself stiffen instinctually. An earth pony serving as a doctor? What madness was this? He shot a panicked look at Minuette, but her attention was focused on the brown stallion.
The doctor planted himself at the side of the bed, offering his hoof to shake. Bellbray stared at the hoof for a moment before accepting the gesture. Was this how earth ponies greeted one another?
"Bellbray, is it?" The stallion's voice was energetic and commanding. He sounded much more like a typical unicorn than Minuette herself did. "My name is Time Turner. I hope you don't find any of this too unnerving. I know it can be difficult, being taken by exhaustion and waking up in an unfamiliar place." He sounded like he might have some personal experience with that scenario.
"N-no, I'm fine. Just a little... disoriented. Doctor." It felt strange and uncomfortable, calling the earth pony by that title. For that matter, how did an hourglass relate to the curative arts? Suspicion got the better of good judgment. “You really practice medicine? Where I come from, only unicorns—”
Time Turner’s deep laugh cut him off. “Shame on you, Minuette. You know you shouldn’t be leading our guest on like that. No, Bellbray, I’m not that kind of doctor. Medicine’s not really my gig. I’m more interested in... exploration.”
Bellbray’s eyes narrowed. “What does that mean?”
“It means I travel, of course.” The stallion’s tone was peremptory. “Lots of places. The past, mostly.”
The words hit like a hammer blow. “You... you what?”
The earth pony’s eyes blazed with a mad intensity, blazed like the fires at the heart of the sun. Bellbray could half imagine he was looking into portals that stretched back, ancient and forever, to the center of time itself. Suddenly, the doctor’s muzzle split wide in a manic grin and he spoke.
“Trust me. I’m a doctor of archaeology.”
“The study of... the past. Of course.” Sun and Moon, Bellbray. You’re going soft in the head. What did you think he was?
“Now, my apologies for eavesdropping, but did I hear you say that you were on your way north?"
"Yes," Bellbray muttered. "I suppose I did say that."
“Fantastic! Then perhaps we can be of some help. Minuette and I were just planning a trip up north – there’s an excellent new dig that’s been uncovered at the base of the Crystal Mountains – and we’d be happy to help you get home.”
Shame welled up in Bellbray. To be caught out in a lie so easily... Why had he made that fool claim? If there are any clues to what's behind all this, they're likely to be in that cave. Here is where I need to stay, at least for the moment. Is there any harm in telling these two I’ve nowhere to go? Well, perhaps to my pride, but that can be endured. "I find I must apologize. I was not entirely honest before. Truth to tell, I don't really have a place to call home right now.”
He'd expected to see some veiled horror on the faces of Minuette and the doctor. Isn't that how he'd react, learning that somepony was an outcast from tribe and society? But Minuette only nodded. Time Turner gave Bellbray a knowing look and a small – one might almost say victorious – smile.
"In that case," Minuette said, "You can st—"
"Minuette, aren't you forgetting that you have prior commitments?" Time Turner's tone was friendly but chiding. "You can't leave poor Bellbray alone here while we’re off traveling, can you?"
A spear of ice raced up Bellbray's spine. Master Star Swirl had tried hard to instill in him the value of all three pony tribes, but despite the friendly tone, that had sounded like an earth pony giving orders to a unicorn. The idea was just... unnatural.
Sighing, Minuette shook her head. "I suppose you're right, doctor. What do you think we should do?"
"Well, if Bellbray is up to it, perhaps you could take some time to show him around the town? I'll go speak with the mayor and see if we can arrange some accommodation for him."
"Oh, that sounds like a wonderful idea! Do you think you're up for it, Bellbray?"
"I should hope so," Bellbray muttered. It wasn't as if anything were really wrong with him, aside from an unknown amount of temporal dislocation. He rolled off the bed and stood facing Minuette and the doctor. Minuette, mostly – he found it difficult to look at the earth stallion after hearing him offering to provide the charity of a place to stay in town. Whatever his master's ideas of equality, that thought rankled.
"Good," Time Turner said cheerfully. "Then perhaps I'll see the two of you later today." The stallion gave a nod of his head to Minuette and left.
"So he wants me to show you around Ponyville, does he?" Minuette tapped a hoof to her lips thoughtfully. "Well, come on then. It's a big town and there's a lot to see. I don't really know what you'd find interesting, though."
Bellbray thought for a moment. "I don't know. Is there anywhere I could read up on a little history?"
There was an awkward pause, and Bellbray realized how odd his request must have sounded. Thankfully, Minuette seemed ready to fill in the gaps. "Is that... I mean... So, you study history too?"
Bellbray only nodded, no longer trusting himself to avoid saying something he shouldn't.
Minuette seemed to accept that, and she led the way out of the house and onto a small, snow-covered street clustered with thatch-roofed buildings. "Well, I have a few books, but I don’t know if they’d be what you’re looking for. I suppose there's the library, too. I don't really know what sort of books are in there, but if you were looking for information about history – for whatever reason – that would be a good place to start."
"Yes, a library. That would be good." The air was still chilly, though the afternoon sun shone down on the town. Bellbray glanced at the buildings along the path Minuette was following. "I'm a little surprised you have one in a town this size, though."
"Ponyville's not that small," Minuette said as she turned onto a wider thoroughfare. "And anyway, I've been to plenty of towns smaller than this. These days, they've all got libraries. Though ours is a little... different."
As they moved up the street, they passed a lilac-coated pegasus mare shoveling snow to the side of the roadway. She nodded to them agreeably, and Minuette nodded back before continuing on.
Bellbray stared back at the pegasus as he followed Minuette. He thought he remembered her from last night's play, but that wasn’t what trapped his attention. A pegasus shoveling snow? And she seemed so meek about it. Had she been exiled from the sky for cowardice, like old Tawnyfeather? No, this was not his world. Who knew why such things would happen here.
They continued along the road for another minute, and then Minuette pulled up in front of an enormous, snow-covered tree. "Here it is! The Ponyville Library."
"That?" Bellbray couldn't keep the disbelief out of his voice. "Somepony built a library in a tree?"
"Well... yeah. I don't really know how that happened. But this is our library!"
It does make an ironic kind of sense, though, doesn't it – storing books inside a tree. Bellbray stared at the structure in open fascination. It was such a daft idea that it might just be brilliant. He stepped forward to have a closer look.
"Hey! I know!" Something seemed to have caught Minuette's attention. "You've gotta be some sort of a librarian, right?"
Bellbray turned his head and gave the blue unicorn a quizzical stare. "Why would you say that?"
Minuette's face fell a little. "Oh. I thought, maybe..." She waved a hoof at the front of the library.
He turned to look where she was pointing. A sign bearing an open book stood beside the library door. That door, in turn, was painted with a candle and a ringed chamberstick. He frowned. Was he missing something? Bellbray turned back to Minuette. "I don't think I follow what you mean."
The blue unicorn gave an exasperated sigh. "Your cutie mark! A bell, a book, and a candle. I've been wondering what it meant ever since Time Turner..." Her voice trailed off, as if she didn't want to finish the thought aloud.
Bellbray turned back toward the library, careful to keep from looking at Minuette. She didn't know? She had to know. Not even this world could be that strange. The start of the familiar chant echoed in his mind, unbidden. With this bell, rich-resounding—
He coughed. "Aah. Yes. Well, more a scholar than a librarian I suppose. But you get the idea." Forcing a smile, he turned to face Minuette.
The blue unicorn wore a very self-satisfied look. "I knew I'd figure it out, sooner or later. I'm sure the doctor already knew, but he never tells me anything."
Time Turner knew? That seemed unlikely. "In any case, I would like to get a look at the sorts of books you have in there." Bellbray gave the library a hungry look. He was sure he'd be able to find answers to his questions inside. The easier ones, anyway.
"Sorry, Bellbray, but I don't think we can. It's really Twilight's library. I assume she'll be back from Canterlot today, but it doesn't look like she's home yet. Anyway, Time Turner wanted me to show you around town. I don't think he meant, 'Just show him the library.'" Minuette's hooves made dull thuds in the snow as she turned to leave.
Bellbray gave the library one last regretful look. He needed to get in there. He needed to learn more about this place, or more properly this time. How can a unicorn, any unicorn, not know the Aubade? That was our purpose! Seeing earth ponies and pegasi acting out-of-character set him on edge, but it hadn't prepared him for the idea that unicorns could be so changed in this place as well. With a sigh, he turned to follow Minuette. There would be time for the library later.
The rest of the tour was a bit of a blur. Minuette introduced him to many of her favorite spots around town, though few of them held any interest for Bellbray. In addition to a gluttonous overabundance of cafes and bakeries, the town seemed to have no end of clothiers, habersashers, spas, and mane stylists – one of which was, indeed, housed in a tall horsehair-thatched building.
Minuette seemed to be taking this tour thing very seriously. After slogging through slush-covered streets for close to an hour, Bellbray imagined there could hardly be a block of this town he hadn't seen. Finally, Minuette led the way up one of Ponyville’s widest roads and brought them to the plaza around the town hall.
The center of town was very different from how Bellbray remembered it in the darkened night. The air still carried a wintry chill, but somepony had plowed the night's snow into tall banks around the plaza's perimeter. Now in the light of day, the entire area was bustling. On the east side, an array of colorful tents sheltered a garden market. Southward, a frozen river snaked around the plaza. Young colts and fillies were down on the ice, skating and playing in the snow. A team of pegasi came out of the town hall carrying props and stage elements from last night's performance. They loaded the set dressing into a cart pulled by two other pegasi.
"And that's about all there is! Ponyville isn't a big place, but everypony's really friendly and there's always stuff to do." Minuette led Bellbray through the crowd thronging the plaza as she spoke. "It's much more exciting than most of the places I go with Time Turner. But I suppose that's just me complaining that I didn't know what I signed on for. I'm not saying it's not fun, mind you, just that..."
Bellbray lost track of Minuette's rambling as a muscle-bound white pegasus pushed by him and took flight on vestigial-looking wings. Bellbray watched the retreating pegasus with some irritation. You couldn't expect much from pegasi, but basic civility was incumbent on everypony. Not everything here is different, I suppose. Some pegasi are still prone to thinking with their muscles rather than their heads.
A deep shout rang out from somepony standing behind Bellbray. "Oi, Snowflake! Why'n'cha look where y'are goin'?"
The huge white pegasus turned in mid-air, looking abashed. "Sorry Ace! Cloudsdale Gym's offering a three-for-one deal on protein bars. Gotta get there before they run out. Nothing personal!"
Snowflake? His name is Snowflake?
The pegasus-drawn cart of set dressings was aloft now, heading south from the town hall. Snowflake, flying backward, was no more than a yard from the cart. Bellbray's throat caught. He watched the white pegasus turn, already beginning to speed up. But there was no room behind Snowflake. The huge stallion crashed into the side of the cart with surprising force, shattering the wooden beams that connected the cart to the two pegasi in their traces.
The commotion overhead attracted the attention of the crowd around Bellbray, but by that time the ruined cart was already plummeting toward the frozen river below. Three small fillies were skating directly toward where the cart would hit. Bellbray felt a stone drop into the pit of his stomach.
His eyes darted left and right. Nopony else seemed to have grasped the situation. Cursing under his breath, Bellbray watched the falling cart. He had to do something. His horn flared purple, and with a pop Bellbray found himself standing on the icy river. Behind him, the air reverberated with an enormous crash. The ice trembled and a rush of frigid water surged around Bellbray's hooves, threatening to unbalance him as he turned. The cart had smashed itself against the frozen river, leaving smatterings of debris and an enormous hole in the ice.
The three skating fillies wore panicked looks. They were trying to stop, but the water-soaked ice gave no traction. One of the three, an orange pegasus filly, flitted her wings wildly and threw herself to the side. She careened into a short, white unicorn filly and the pair spun out, crashing into a snowbank at the edge of the river.
The third filly, an earth pony, wasn't so lucky. Her high-pitched scream was silenced when she hit the water and slid beneath the river's frozen crust. Bellbray heard a thump from the ice beneath his hooves. She's caught in the river's current now. Hopelessness gripped Bellbray's chest. If he'd just had more talent with levitation spells...
"Be calm. Magic needs clear thinking." Star Swirl's voice, so ingrained in Bellbray's mind, cut through his fear.
Clear thinking. She was trapped beneath the ice, and with the river's current, it was anypony's guess where the little filly would be now. If Bellbray was going to save her, he'd need a way to find her and a way to bring her out. A memory echoed back to him, of a spell he'd seen the other night: a spell to create ice. Could he use that? Best to test it. A brief glow surrounded Bellbray's horn and a thick lattice of ridges formed on the frozen water beneath him. This magic seemed easy enough. It could work.
But how to find her? Could he make the ice transparent? Was there some sort of locating spell he was forgetting? Think, blast it! You're running out of time!
Like a spark of lightning, one option raced through his mind. It was his second-best talent. It was also sheer idiocy, but that was all he had now. Idiocy and – Bellbray’s horn flashed purple once more – teleportation.
Icy water rushed in around him. The current dragged at him and thundered in his ears. He forced his eyes open. There was hardly any light, but he could just make out a yellowish blur drifting a few yards ahead of him. Fighting the numbing cold, Bellbray focused his mind and a purple glow formed in front of the filly. The water seemed to resist Bellbray's spell, but slowly the glow resolved into a rock-hard net of ice tendrils. The current swept the net along as well, until Bellbray could anchor it to the river's frozen surface.
Even seconds were too long down here. Already, the cold was making Bellbray's mind sluggish, and he yearned for air. That little filly had to be in even worse shape. He fought the current, trying to maneuver himself in her direction. She was almost to the net now. That net didn't need to hold, it just needed to...
His control of the magic lurched as the filly’s body slammed against the icy cords. The net broke its mooring to the surface, but it had served its purpose. The filly was momentarily stopped, and the current swept Bellbray close enough to reach out to her. He stretched, wrapping a hoof around her limp frame. A purple glow enveloped them both—
And they thudded heavily onto the ice above, a bubble of frigid water splashing down around them. Bellbray coughed and then sucked in two lungfulls of precious air. The filly lay beside him, unmoving.
"Somepony!" Bellbray shouted, his voice raw and harsh. "She needs—"
But he didn't have to finish. The crowd of ponies was already descending on them. Thankfully, the townsfolk had the foresight not to rush out onto the frozen river en masse. Only Minuette and a few others ventured onto the ice, and all but Minuette seemed intent on the filly.
Something in the corner of Bellbray's eye tugged at his attention. The filly still wasn't breathing. Maybe there was something more he could do, but... What was it he thought he saw? He looked up toward the ponies on the riverbank, and there at the front of the crowd was that thrice-damned muscle-bound pegasus who had caused this whole mess. Anger boiled up in Bellbray, thick as burning pitch. He took one step away from the filly, then another. Surely somepony would see to her. Surely they'd know some way to... to...
The anger consumed him and he broke into a gallop, pushing past Minuette and bearing down on the pegasus. "You! Sun and Moon curse you, you damned filthy pegasus!" Bellbray thundered, drowning out the murmurs of the crowd.
As Bellbray reached the bank, he leapt forward and crashed into the pegasus with his shoulder. Snowflake – such an idiotic name – went sprawling in the snow, knocking aside other ponies. Watching him collapse brought Bellbray a rush of pleasure. "Nothing changes, does it? You pegasi are as reckless and uncaring as you ever were."
Snowflake, looking dazed and genuinely fearful for all his size, was struggling to his feet. Bellbray's horn blazed purple, and thick ice grew from the ground to bind him in place. "Oh no, you're not running away from me. One of you infernal pegasi is going to get what you deserve, for once. The Sun help you if you've killed that little filly."
The crowd had fallen silent, and the pegasus stallion's eyes were filling with tears. "It was an accident. I never meant to hurt anypony. And... y-you saved her, right?"
The words hardly registered in Bellbray's red-fogged mind. For this, for all the pegasus tribe's crimes, this pony had to pay. The ice around the stallion began constricting.
And then it shattered. Bellbray felt something resisting his magic. A small party of ponies pushed their way through the crowd, led by the gray-maned earth pony mare he had seen in the play. Behind her stood Time Turner and a purple-coated unicorn whose horn glowed with a fierce magenta light. All three wore deep frowns.
"Never have I heard such..." The gray-maned mare seemed to choke on the words. "That anypony would talk like... If you hadn't just saved young Apple Bloom, why, I would..."
Time Turner stepped forward, speaking softly. "He has had a difficult few days, Mayor. You must allow that he isn't entirely himself yet. This was the exhaustion talking. Nothing more." He gave Bellbray an angry look that carried a clear message: say you're sorry and stop acting like some wild mustang.
To his surprise, Bellbray found that he was sorry. The anger was leeching out of him, perhaps cooled by the frigid river-water still wetting his coat. And the mayor had implied the filly wasn't dead. He turned to look, and out on the ice he could see her sitting up beside her orange pegasus friend, surrounded by medical ponies. Bellbray looked at the pegasus, Snowflake, and saw tears in the big stallion's eyes. Sun and Moon, what would Master Star Swirl say if he'd seen me acting like that. Am I such a poor student I can't even follow his teachings about the tribes? A flood of shame rushed through him, and he bowed his head. "My temper got the better of me. I... should not have said those things. Or attacked another pony. For what it may be worth, I apologize."
The mayor gave a disgruntled snort of acceptance, and the doctor nodded to Bellbray. The purple unicorn at the mayor's left shoulder still wore a stony expression, though, and the glow around her horn hadn't faded.
"Well then. Let it not be mentioned again." The mayor huffed, trying to get her composure back. "Yes. Well. Time Turner has told me about your... problem. We are looking for a place where you can stay, but so far—"
A delicate cough echoed from behind the mayor, and a white unicorn stepped forward with the filly's other friend trailing at her heels. "Mayor Mare? I believe perhaps I can offer some assistance in that regard. I didn't see all the events as they transpired, but my sister was just telling me of what happened out on the river."
The glow faded from the purple unicorn's horn, and she turned surprised eyes on the newcomer. "After what he said, Rarity? You can't seriously—"
"Now Twilight, don't be so quick to judge." The white unicorn, Rarity, gave a small flip of her mane. "Whatever else he may have done, he saved one of my sister's best friends from drowning. I think those actions deserve some measure of appreciation. He can stay in my home for the time being." She turned to him. "If you are amenable to that, Mister...?"
"Bellbray," he finished. "Yes. I'm sorry you had to see me like that, Miss Rarity. But if you're still willing to offer me your hospitality, then I will, of course, accept."
The little white filly, Rarity's sister, gave a pleased squeal. For her part, Rarity's mouth curved in a warm smile. "Well isn't that interesting," she said to the purple unicorn. "When he's not yelling at pegasi, he can talk like a proper gentlecolt."
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Well, it's finally up!
I want to give a huge thank you to PoweredByTea and GhostOfHeraclitus for taking up the mantle of pre-reading this story. Their help has definitely made this chapter, and what's to come, better than it would have been were I just bouncing my own ideas around.
That's about it. Hope you enjoy!
Might give this a look just for the excommunication reference.
Earth Ponies still grow food, Pegasi still control the weather, but Unicorns? They no longer keep the heavens in turn; the Alicorns took that from them. Their old purpose is lost (and so they have 'fallen to nobility'. Or something equally flowery).
I'd never thought of it like that before.
Anyway, Tea sent me and I am glad he did. I'm definitely looking forward to more of this.
Sounds like someone needs a lesson in modern friendship, not to mention race relations. I imagine Rarity will soon take him well in hand about that issue.
The race relations thing is interesting. It's one thing to have lofty ideals about the way the world should work, but it's clearly another thing entirely to live and have grown up in a world that's always worked like that.
Can't wait to see how Twilight reacts if and when she finds out where he came from.
This is pretty great
2191292
I've had musings that improved farming methods and, well, something something magical science studies for weather would mean less ponies farming and directing the weather over the centuries.
Holy crap am I glad Ghost posted that this had updated. It had gotten lost in the shuffle when it went up, and I had forgotten all about it.
This is pretty interesting. And anything involving he Doctor is going to be good. That's about all I got for now. If you want more, you gotta post more.
I get the feeling Starswirl would love it here in Ponyville. And Twilight is disappoint Bellbray.
I do have a question though. What does "Aubade" mean? My vocabulary has failed me. And I don't feel like looking it up.
2238246
Oh bah. I meant to respond to this earlier.
It's all 2067536's fault, really. He'll even admit it, I wager.
Don't worry, more is in the pipeline. With end-of-quarter upon me, though we'll have to see whether I can get something to the pre-readers in the next couple weeks or if the wait will have to be a bit longer. Gotta tell you, though, Time Turner really is an archaeologist (if still a doctor). There are digs and all. This will be a thing. And I think it will be enjoyable.
As for 'aubade'? I'm not clearing that up any more than I cleared up the story's cover image.
2244530
Ah, so that wasn't just a cover story by the Doctor then. Interesting.
So aubade is supposed to by a mystery? Alright, that makes me feel better about myself actually.
Looking forward to the next part, regardless of when it arrives.
2245062
Aubade is a real word, meaning "a song or instrumental composition concerning, accompanying, or evoking daybreak."
Remember that in Bellbray's time, the unicorns still had to raise the sun themselves, and it was considered the fundamental task of unicornkind.
The in-story meaning of Aubade thus becomes pretty obvious with a quick Google.
2246551, 2245062
I said I wasn't going to clear that up. I didn't say it wouldn't be relatively easy to clear that up.
2246907>>2246551
2307549
I've... never heard of it. I'm guessing if it's a thing one plays that it must then be a game of some sort?
2309052
That's probably because it's a fairly famous phrase used to denote excommunication used in a fair amount of classic literature (and alluding to the old ritual of excommunication where a bell was rung, a book closed, and a candle snuffed out). More recently, it was the title of a play and movie in the... 1950s I think?
2309052
2310272
Bradel has it right.
The bell represents a death knell, symbolically representing the offender's death (in the church's eyes); the book is closed, which means the liturgy is closed to them (they cannot take communion or participate in any other church function); and the candle is snuffed, representing the removal of God's light from their life.
This is keeping in mind that at the time the standard church dogma was that any contact between the common people and God had to happen through a priest or other intermediary. They believed that an individual couldn't pray or anything on their own. (Well, you could, but it didn't do anything unless a priest was there to make sure God was listening. Or something like that.)
Because of the association with those excluded from the church, the phrase "bell book and candle" got quickly attached to witchcraft as well -- the 1958 movie by that title is about a witch living in modern New York City, for example. And the line from the play Cats: "Can you ride on a broomstick / to places far distant / familiar with candle / with book and with bell?" (Referring to a witch's familiar spirit, natch.)
Alright, you hooked me with this chapter.
- Upvote
- Favorite
- Watch
I look forward to the next installment!
2533578 Well, with any luck that'll be coming in the next few weeks. It's waited long enough now, and I have it sketched out. It's just a matter of writing, but most of my time goes to the thinking so that's not a big issue. Headlines was a two-day project from start to finish, so it's just a matter of finding time to write and being able to get my words in order.
It feels slightly perverse that I've taken so long to get around to reading this. Mostly because of that blasted real-life responsibilities thing that continually seems to get in the way of ponyfic. Ah well, on with the show. Overall, this is amazing; it's rare that I get sold on a story when it's barely left the runway.
Some things that stood out:
The dream sequence is a bit iffy. The colourful visual transitions seem a bit off, like you're trying to write a how a dream sequence would be represented on the TV screen. I can only speak from own experience here, but I have never known dreams to work that way. Non-sequiturs just happen without being announced. (Ironically, a good example of this is in a film: eXistenZ was a bit of a mess, but it's transitions felt properly dreamlike).
It also feels as though the dream sequence is a bit gratuitious. Flashbacks might work just as well. But! I can hardly criticise on these grounds. I love adding gratuitious bits into stories.
When Bellbray rescues the CMC: I have something of an aversion to phrases like "orange pegasus filly" and the like. I see them far too often in ponyfic. From Bellbray's viewpoint, I doubt he'd pay much attention to colour and tribe during a situation like that. From a standpoint of getting information to the reader, I think it could be done more subtly. Once we know they're the CMC (which is pretty much given away by them being three fillies in peril), the fact that one uses her wings suffices to identify her as Scoots. Once we know she crashes into Sweetie Belle (identifying Sweetie as a unicorn would be al lright here, I figure), that's all that's needed. (This, too, comes with the caveat of arising from my subjective aversion to something trivial.)
When Bellbray goes after Snowflake, the pacing feels a tad jumpy. This is probably my biggest issue (and it's not a particularly big one at that). For one thing, if he's just been underwater, it doesn't seem like he'd be in a good state to go galloping up the river bank. Second, the commotion seems to have died down very quickly. Nearly-drowned (and soaking wet in freezing temperatures) Apple Bloom would still be drawing a lot of attention. I also think that Rarity would be a lot less composed at this point - and probably fussing over Sweetie Belle still.
Looking back, that seems like a load of criticism. A lot of words for three pretty minor things.
Oh, yes. The handling of Bellbray's racism is absolutely masterful. Being a productive of his time, if an enlightened one. It feels authentic and does not make him unsympathetic in the slightest.
2563676 These are all great points (and I mean that very seriously – thank you for taking the time to highlight these), though I'm a little torn on whether to edit for them. On the one hand, the story's still in progress and it wouldn't be hard to go back and improve this section. On the other hand, I really should be focusing on the production of new material. I'll have to think about it. Some of the easier edits like LUS-avoidance are probably so easy I could just jump in and do them.
The dream sequence... now there's a thing. It's very greatly changed from its original formulation, and basically all the things you disliked were late additions based on my pre-readers finding the original version just downright bland and uninteresting. I still trust their judgment on that, but it seems like my fix may not have worked as well either then. I think I'm going to take this as a sign that I need to just not engage in dream sequences until I have a much better idea of how I want to construct them in the future.
The bit with Snowflake... I have an awful suspicion that I may just rush things as I close in on the end. I can definitely understand your criticisms on this part. I'm very glad you liked the overall racism arc. I was very worried about where the sympathy line would be and whether I'd wind up crossing it, especially with his actions at the end. But... this is the bit that gives me the most pause in going back and editing, because I suspect it needs some heavier clean-up to make it more plot-wise sensible. The end points shouldn't have to change any, so it's not hard to go edit in terms of overall structure, but it could turn into a bit of a morass. Then again, my hope is to really get some more BB&C under my belt this week, so maybe I'll take a crack at it.
Thank you very, very much for the criticism here. This is definitely helpful.
SPOILER ALERT!!!
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"It's something the books describe as a ‘fixed point’. The longer you’re here, the more unstable..."
-Going to be bringing Doctor Whooves into this? Or just Starswirl and maybe Minuette as experts on time magic?
The pegasi said they had a big one planned for this Hearth's Warming Eve, but I don't think anypony expected it to be that big.
-He brought some Windigoes with him? They shouldn't be TOO hard to get rid of if the legends are true... OTOH if the Fire of Friendship only held them at bay or powered Star Swirl's spell to send them into the future... well, Twilight is out of town, and Ponyville could end up cut off without the rest of Equestria realizing the magnitude of the problem.
And it's just Minuette, no Miss.
-I am poor with my female titles. Does this mean she is unattached?
"This is the future." The words came out as a whisper, and their utterance seemed to crystallize the idea into a tangible reality.
-Logical one. But with how much you make Star Swirl the Bearded sound like Sherlock Holmes in his dedication to logic, that makes sense. I wonder if he will be able to get back?
Were her eyes red from crying, or were Bellbray’s thoughts still addled by his predicament?
-Why would she be crying? Were the voices from her discussing him, and she is crying for his sad fate that she ALMOST can set right, but not quite?
She glanced over her shoulder at the room's open doorway. "Doctor?"
-We shall see which sort of "Doctor"...
As if on cue, a brown stallion entered the room. He had a dark mane and an hourglass-shaped mark on his flank, a match for Minuette's own. And he was an earth pony.
-Right... would not have expected this based on the first chapter, but it makes sense. I wonder if he is in the TARDIS or some more mundane location? Probably a mundane location.
My name is Time Turner.
-Ok. Well, that allows the possibility he ISN'T a Time Lord... could just be good with time spells.
being taken by exhaustion and waking up in an unfamiliar place.." He sounded like he might have some personal experience with that scenario.
-Similar to Regeneration?
Medicine’s not really my gig. I’m more interested in... exploration.
-Time Lord. Almost certainly. Although he could explore time without being a Time Lord.
The earth pony’s eyes blazed with a mad intensity, blazed like the fires at the heart of the sun. Bellbray could half imagine he was looking into portals that stretched back, ancient and forever, to the center of time itself.
-Right...
“Trust me. I’m a doctor of archaeology.”
-Almost certain... you are either meaning to leave it ambiguous or he is a Time Lord.
"I find I must apologize. I was not entirely honest before. Truth to tell, I don't really have a place to call home right now.”
-Well, that was quick.
Master Star Swirl had tried hard to instill in him the value of all three pony tribes, but despite the friendly tone, that had sounded like an earth pony giving orders to a unicorn. The idea was just... unnatural.
-Interesting that you make Star Swirl that enlightened. Still, I guess it makes sense that he would at least be philosophically open to the idea of some CLOSE to equality given how Clover the Clever turned out.
he found it difficult to look at the earth stallion after hearing him offering to provide the charity of a place to stay in town.
-Thinks it should be his due or just that needing help from an earth pony is beneath him?
Well, I have a few books, but I don’t know if they’d be what you’re looking for. I suppose there's the library, too. I don't really know what sort of books are in there, but if you were looking for information about history – for whatever reason – that would be a good place to start.
-Yeah, looking more and more like a Time Lord thing. An expert on time magic would have history books around.
"Ponyville's not that small," Minuette said as she turned onto a wider thoroughfare. "And anyway, I've been to plenty of towns smaller than this
-Towns got smaller as Equestria got safer? Or is it just that only large cities had libraries in his day?
Though ours is a little... different.
-The librarian and the basement are unusual. The selection of books... well, I guess if Twilight had a while to order new books and change the filing system it could be weird. Or is she just talking about the fact that it is in a tree?
And she seemed so meek about it. Had she been exiled from the sky for cowardice, like old Tawnyfeather?
-Interesting.
Well... yeah. I don't really know how that happened.
-So is that all it is? Or is there more to her thinking of it as unusual than that?
I've been wondering what it meant ever since Time Turner...
-Plucked him away from certain death? I wonder if he will have to go back and meet his fate, and either his last words will inspire Clover, or he will be critical to the creation of the Fire of Friendship in some other way in his death?
The start of the familiar chant echoed in his mind, unbidden. With this bell, rich-resounding—
-Well, his magic is for banishment of evil spirits so he could have something to do with the creation of the Fire of Friendship.
How can a unicorn, any unicorn, not know the Aubade? That was our purpose!
-Summoning and banishing the sun and moon?
mane stylists – one of which was, indeed, housed in a tall horsehair-thatched building.
-Was that actually on the show? If not, good thinking!
Minuette seemed to be taking this tour thing very seriously.
-After resuming after a long break this is where it occured to me that the Aubade might be the way the Windigoes were held at something like bay... although I doubt it, given that the sun and the moon were called out as the unicorn's responsibility. I could look up the definition of Aubade, but that feels like cheating (if it isn't, you should consider turning that word into a link to a definition on Wikipedia or some place like that).
It's much more exciting than most of the places I go with Time Turner. But I suppose that's just me complaining that I didn't know what I signed on for.
-So maybe he really is an archeologist? Or maybe she is just maintaining her cover story... or she isn't in on Time Turner's secret (yet), but he did still transport our main character, and that really was his voice from a memory?
Not everything here is different, I suppose. Some pegasi are still prone to thinking with their muscles rather than their heads.
-Some more than others... I suspect he will not have a high opinion of Dash if he meets her... or Fluttershy, but for different reasons.
The huge white pegasus turned in mid-air, looking abashed. "Sorry Ace! Cloudsdale Gym's offering a 3-for-1 deal on protein bars. Gotta get there before they run out. Nothing personal!"
-Ah, I see... Bellbray's expectations are called out and then subverted.
Snowflake? His name is Snowflake?
-Not a very Pegasus name, or just not very fitting with how he looks?
The huge stallion crashed into the side of the cart with surprising force, shattering the wooden beams that connected the cart to the two pegasi in their traces.
-Going to see Ponyville pull together to rescue any injured ponies? Maybe even see a tiny fraction of Twilight's mega-telekinesis in action? And her repair abilities?
Three small fillies were skating directly toward where the cart would hit. Bellbray felt a stone drop into the pit of his stomach.
-He's going to save them? And then realize that they are both best friends and from all three tribes?
One of the three, an orange pegasus filly, flitted her wings wildly and threw herself to the side.
-Good touch... she has thrust figured out, just not lift. Also the most athletic of the three.
She careened into a short, white unicorn filly and the pair spun out, crashing into a snowbank at the edge of the river.
-I wonder if Scootaloo was intentionally trying to save Sweetie Belle, and just did it a bit clumsily?
Idiocy and – Bellbray’s horn flashed purple once more – teleportation.
-Teleportation is his specialty and he can't go a few hundred feet with good accuracy? I wonder if magic has advanced that much, or if it is that Twilight is just THAT good?
is control of the magic lurched as the filly’s body slammed against the icy cords.
-Flexible ice? Or just going with the "net" analogy?
Maybe there was something more he could do, but... What was it he thought he saw?
-Telekinetic Heimlich/CPR?
"You! Sun and Moon curse you, you damned filthy pegasus!"
-I see... and here he gets introduced to how easily Ponyville forgives, even on top of its lack of prejudice?
and crashed into the pegasus with his shoulder.
-Well, Bellbray has lost his mind...
Snowflake – such an idiotic name – went sprawling in the snow, knocking aside other ponies.
-Didn't expect it, or is he just really top-heavy?
purple-coated unicorn whose horn glowed with a fierce magenta light.
-Well, this should be interesting, I wonder how much of her power he will feel. Also, you have too much space between "a" and "fierce".
He has had a difficult few days, Mayor.
-Cover story, or was he out that long after fainting?
Am I such a poor student I can't even follow his teachings about the tribes?
-Ok, so Star Swirl was probably pragmatically progressive, rather than just theoretically.
and a white unicorn stepped forward with the filly's other friend trailing at her heels. "Mayor Mare? I believe perhaps I can offer some assistance in that regard.
-Makes sense that she would keep a spare room available for those in need... I just hope he is tidy enough not to annoy her too much...
"When he's not yelling at pegasi, he can talk like a proper gentlecolt."
-Easier with a unicorn? I am surprised he didn't even think of the fact that he was being chewed out by an earth pony.
-I look forward to the next chapter.
2568771 Thank you again for the nice point-by-point! I have some hope that the next chapter will be forthcoming before too much longer. I'm pleased to say that this time around, I think most of your questions are exactly what I want them to be at this stage: questions. I will respond to a few of them, though.
No allusion to attachedness or unattachedness here. It's merely Minuette expressing that she's uncomfortable being called by a title all the time instead of just called by name.
Historically (speaking of Earth history here), libraries in the classical era were pretty much confined to large population centers. Here I'm speaking of public libraries (or at least research libraries), rather than personal libraries which were something of a fad back in ancient Rome.
You can definitely expect clarification on this point later, but let's just say it's an open secret at best. It's a perfectly well-defined English word, if a seldom-used one. It's like the cover image – I like hiding information in plain sight.
Time Turner graciously granting a cover story. I think I made it clear in the first section (before you took a break reading) that this was all happening the day following the first chapter.
Again, thank you very much for the feedback! (And now I'm off to fix my bad kerning)
2569333
You are quite welcome.
*Goes to look up "aubade" and "kerning".*
I don't usually read incomplete stories, for fear that they'll go on indefinite hiatus and also because even if they don't, a certain amount of emotional impact is lost when the consumption of the story is spread so thin. On the other hand, it is nice when a story you've been following updates, and you get to pick up a familiar thread and get new value from it, assuming you're not following so many that all the threads get tangled in the memory. Since I'm only tracking one other incomplete at the moment, I guess there's room for what looks like it will become an incredibly awesome adventure.
You really do like your subtle cues. I always knew exactly what was going on, even when you never explicitly say so. The town is Ponyville, the big cylindrical building is the town hall, the event is the Hearth's Warming play, Twilight is with the mayor casting a suppression spell, and while you never set aside any time specifically to describe Bellbray, you compare his color to Cloudchaser on stage, and have his cutie mark show up as a topic of conversation, and by the end, I do really have a pretty clear picture of his appearance. No details are wasted, the hair-thatched shop from the opening is a stylist's shop later, the prop cart is set up before it gets crashed, the CMC are described before Applebloom is saved. Everything seems set up to reward the attentive reader in little cycles.
On that topic, I don't understand some commentators' objections to the use of color adjectives in describing newcomers to a scene. Ponies only have a few defining characteristics in the show, and color is one of the major ones, along with cutie mark, race, eye color, sex, and mane style, and the latter would probably be difficult to succinctly describe, not to mention that it would be a lot less likely for a quick glance in a stressful situation to result in an accurate description of a potentially complicated, obscured, or missing, cutie mark. "Lavender unicorn syndrome" exists because it's suited to the setting, and should only be considered a problem when it is providing redundant information. This strikes me as a "goto considered harmful" sort of situation, where people have been conditioned to reject any solution containing it, even in cases where it is, in fact, the best/simplest/most elegant solution. It's also not enough to simply reveal who was involved afterward. Deliberately concealing information that would be visible to a viewer in a narrative is always something that grates on me, as it gets my visualization of a scene stuck in limbo on my mental "stack", and consumes far more time than it ought to when I have to go back and edit in details to something I've already "seen".
So, back on the topic of the story, the "Doctor" and Minuette clearly have a pretty good idea of who Bellbray is, (As they set out to ambush him together at the end of the play) but are clearly wary letting him know what they know. My only question is why, and how much do they really know, and it can only be answered by moar story. In the meantime, it looks like the story arc being set up is one in which Bellbray learns to appreciate the wisdom of his mentor and discovers the value of harmony between the former tribes. I await his reaction to learning of the existence of the alicorn princesses.
So yeah, have your long overdue watch, and you better not forget about this story.
2586942
No worries on that. I've promised in a few different places now that Ch.3 will be the next thing I publish, and the whole story is mapped out – it's just a matter of finding time to write, given that this project takes a lot more focus than a 6000-word one-shot.
I love that somebody appreciates the little cues. It's been long enough since I tackled Ch.2 that I've already forgotten some of what I did there, but you can probably make some educated guesses about what details will be seeing further mention as things move forward.
Anyway, thank you for the watch, I'm glad you like this, and I will endeavor to not disappoint!