Someone has been leaving presents in Twilight's castle while she sleeps, and she's getting sick and tired of it!
After telling Pinkie that she doesn't believe in the "Hearths Warming Pixie", mysterious objects start to turn up in Twilight's castle. Is this the work of her friends, or something far more sinister? And what in the world is she to do with all these birds and pear trees?
"Thanks for helping me decorate for the holidays, girls." Twilight said as she hung a garland over yet another doorway, "With Starlight spending the holidays back at her old village, it would take Spike and I days to get everything ready with how big the castle is."
"It ain't no trouble Twi," Applejack responded , "I've got plenty of time with the last of the harvests in."
"Yes, and ever since Sweetie Belle lost her front tooth, her gap-toothed smile has been making my winter line sell like hotcakes." Rarity added as she attempted to hang all of Twilight's tree ornaments in the most aesthetically pleasing way possibly. "This is the first holiday in years that I've had enough early profit to take a few extra days off."
"An besides," Applejack grinned amicably, "Helping out your friends is what Hearth's Warming's all about."
"And cookies!" Pinkie chimed in, an enormous tray of baked goods balanced on her head. She bounced across the room, somehow managing to avoid dropping even a single gingerbread pony, and set the tray down on the table. "Not to mention cakes, pies, puddings, and especially holiday trifles!"
Twilight chuckled as she slowly descended back to the floor. "Yes Pinkie, and the sweets too. Though I personally never thought much of holiday trifles. Too creamy and not enough substance." She paused as she took in the truly tremendous tray of holiday goodies Pinkie had presented. There were numerous pies and cakes, or course, but also nearly a dozen puddings, a pile of peppermint hay swirls, and a whole gingerbread village, complete with replicas of well known buildings and denizens of Ponyville. "Pinkie, isn't this a bit much? I know you like the holidays, but I don't think we can eat all this."
"Oh, these aren't all for you silly!" Pinkie giggled, "Most of this is for the Hearth's Warming Pixie! Don't want to make her angry you know."
"The what now?" Applejack questioned as she joined the other two by the table.
"The Hearth's Warming Pixie," Pinkie restated, "You know, she's a little magical creature that flies all across Equestria on a magic golden horseshoe, delivering presents to all the good little colts and fillies who leave her treats."
"Well I've never heard of her." Applejack said.
"Nor have I," Rarity added.
"Same," Twilight agreed, "Are you sure this isn't something you just made up?"
"Whaaat?!" Pinkie gasped, "How could you have never heard of the Hearth's Warming Pixie? She's one of the best known embodiments of the holiday spirit. Did none of you leave her treats when you were fillies?" They shook their heads. "Really? My family's been doing it for generations!"
"Now hold on there," Applejack interrupted, "Iff'n you recall, I spent last Hearth's Warming with your family, and I don't remember you saying or doing anything about it then."
"That's because her celebrations don't take place on Hearth's Warming day, you do them during the couple of weeks before!"
"Ah, here it is." Rarity called out. During Pinkie and Applejack's tangent, she had apparently acquired a book from one of the nearby shelves. Its green cover read Holiday Tales for Foals in swirling gold letters. "I found a passage about it in this book that seems to sum it up nicely."
The Hearth's Warming Pixie: it read, The Hearth's Warming Pixie is a small and sprightly creature. Standing on its hind two legs, the Pixie has the hindquarters of a pony, the upper body of a dragon, and a horned head that has qualities of both. Nopony knows for sure where she came from, but she lives far away in the Western mountains, where she spends all year making new toys and presents for good little colts and fillies. Once a year, in the weeks before Hearth's Warming, she will leave her mountain home upon a flying enchanted golden horseshoe. In the dark of the night, the Pixie enters the homes of foals and will leave them presents in exchange for sugary treats.
"Well whad'ya know, it's a real legend." Applejack remarked, "I guess you were right Pinkie, sorry for not believin' you."
"Hold on," Twilight interrupted as her magic leafed through a significantly larger book, "Just because the legend exists doesn't mean the creature it describes does. Ah, here we are. I believe The History of Equestrian Mythos is a better reference than a foal's storybook."
The legend of the Hearth's Warming Pixie dates back to the twelfth century, shortly after the Minos War. The Pixie was originally a Minotaurian myth known as the Khorosho Zima Feya, and was the spirit and symbol of their Midwinter's Eve festival. This aspect of their holidays was introduced into Equestrian holiday lore in order to promote cultural acceptance and ease post-war tensions between species. However, many facets of the original legend were altered during importation in order to make it easier for Equestrians to accept. The pixie's description was changed from being primarily bovine to equine, and its home was changed from the Minos based Mt. Thunder, to the unspecified "Far West". Despite government promotion and its targeted appeal to foals, the legend failed to successfully catch on in Equestria, excluding several primarily Earth pony farming settlements.
"No, she's real!" Pinkie protested, "The Hearth's Warming Pixie always came to visit us every year, and she'd always leave us all sorts of nice presents."
"Sorry Pinkie, but books don't lie. The Hearth's Warming Pixie is an old mares tale, and nothing mo-"
With a speed that surprised everyone, Pinkie shot forward and clamped Twilight's mouth shut mid-word. Her expression had shifted from general concern to what looked like actual fear. Panic hinted in the corners of her eyes. "Don't say that!" she hushed, "If the Pixie finds out that you willfully don't believe in her, then you'll have to face the wrath of... gulp... the Naughty Hearth's Warming Pixie!"
"Mwhe mwhut?" Twilight murmured through her still locked jaw.
"The Naughty Hearth's Warming Pixie:" Rarity read, having picked up the book Twilight had dropped, "Like many Minotaurian legends, the Hearth's Warming Pixie contained an element of duality, specifically a dark counterpart. This being, known as Plokho Zima Feya, was thought to punish and chastise those who either did not keep the spirit of the holidays in their heart, or failed to properly acknowledge some traditional aspect of the holiday. Legends differ as to whether she is supposed to be a sister, companion, or alternate persona of the good Pixie. While the legend as a whole generally failed to be accepted in Equestria, this aspect was often ignored or forgotten intentionally, as most deemed it too frightening for foals and not fitting the proper spirit of the Equestrian holiday season."
"That's right!" Pinkie agreed, nodding vigorously, "And if you make her mad, then she leaves strange and confusing presents in your house until you either renounce whatever you did or go crazy! It happened to my great-uncle Humble Pie. He said he didn't believe in the Hearth's Warming Pixie, and then his house filled up with so many exotic fruits and decorative lawn ornaments that he had to move."
Finally, Twilight's magic managed to overcome Pinkie's vice-grip on her lips. She gasped as her lungs finally received some much needed oxygen. "Pinkie, I know I shouldn't just dismiss my friend's beliefs, especially when it's something related to you, but this is just ridiculous. No mythical spirit is going to drive me to insanity via giving me bad presents. How would that even work? Wouldn't she have been punishing me for not believing in her all the years before this?"
Pinkie shook her head. "She doesn't punish ignorance, just willful disbelief." With that, Pinkie's mane began ringing. She stuck a hoof inside her curls, and after a few moments of rummaging, pulled out a pink Pinkie-Pie-themed alarm clock. "And that's my cue. Sorry to bake and run girls, but I have two other decorating parties to help with today." She stuffed the clock back into her mane and headed towards the door at a brisk pace. She disappeared around a corner, only to pop her head back around a moment later. "And remember to believe Twilight."
"Thank you for your concern Pinkie, but I'm sure I won't need it."
Pinkie sighed as she shook her head slightly. "Don't say I didn't warn you."
Twilight awoke with the morning sun, as she had done since becoming the student of the princess that orchestrated its movement. Getting out of bed, she yawned as she spread her wings, cramped from a night of habitually sleeping on her back. This was an old habit she wished would be easier to break, since sleeping on top of a pair of wings is never a pleasant experience. Unfortunately, years of back-sleeping had left her unable to fall asleep any other way, despite the discomfort. She gave them a few test flaps, stretching the ligaments to a satisfying series of cracks and pops. Sighing, she headed from her bedside to her en suite bathroom. A few minutes later, she emerged with her mane freshly combed and her breath no longer strong enough to wake the dead.
Deciding to be a bit more spontaneous than usual, she jumped off the top of her spiral staircase, taking it in a slow glide. The crystal walls of her castle had retained some of the evening chill, causing the air in the corridors to be refreshingly crisp. She closed her eyes as she glided, her near-photographic memory allowing her to navigate the twists and turns of her castle without so much as scraping a primary. She sighed contentedly as she banked around a sharp corner. Things were about as good as they could get. There had been no friendship problems for some time, all her friends were in good financial and social standing, and the upcoming holidays promised days of fun and frivolity with friends and family alike. There was nothing that could ruin her good mood.
It was about this time that Princess Twilight Sparkle flew face-first into a tree.
Her startled yelp, more from surprise than pain, echoed through the castle as she skidded and spun out on the well polished floor. She opened her eyes, reeling for a moment as she regained her bearing and tried to think of what she possibly could have hit. As her double vision fused back into a single image, she noticed the tree. Not the remains of her former home; that was still hanging faithfully from the ceiling. No, this was a new tree. Inside her castle. In the middle of the hallway.
It was a sturdy sprout. Too large to be called a sapling, but not so big as to be called full grown. Too large for a pot, its roots were housed in a large wooden barrel much like the ones the Apple family kept their half-century aged cider in, (though this wasn't one of those as it lacked their distinctive branding). To its branches clung small, delicate leaves and despite being completely out of season, from each branch and bough hung plump and juicy green pears.
Twilight sat dazed for several long moments, staring at her leafy intruder. She probably would have stayed there even longer if her stunted thought train hadn't been interrupted by the scritching scratching sound of claws running across crystal.
"Twilight!" Spike called as he barreled in her direction, toothbrush still hanging out the side of his mouth, "I heard you yell and hit the ground. Are you alright."
She shook her head a few times to clear the remaining fog. "I'm fine Spike. I just hit this tree."
Spike looked up, actually noticing the botanical barrier for the first time. "Oh. Hey. There's a tree." He turned back to Twilight. "Why is there a tree?"
"I don't know. It's not yours?"
He shook his head. "Not mine. Why would I want a tree? How would I even get it in here?"
"That's true." Twilight raised a hoof to her chin in thought, "You don't think it's Starlight's, do you? No, nevermind. I just remembered she hates pears. Plus, it wasn't here yesterday."
"Maybe it's a gift?" Spike mused as he walked around, checking out the tree from other angles. "You are kinda famous. It could be an early Hearths Warming gift from somepony you helped with a friendship problem. Weird thing to give though..."
"I... suppose that makes sense..." Twilight said hesitantly. "It is kind of thoughtful, in a way. Fresh fruit anytime we want. We'll have to find somewhere to put it for the time being, though. It won't last long outside with the winter snow coming so soon."
"How about the ballroom?" Spike offered. "It's pretty big, and has a ton of windows for sunlight and stuff."
Twilight looked at him incredulously. "I have a ballroom? Since when do I have a ballroom?"
"Uh... since always, I guess? You never use it, so I've been using it as a storeroom and reserve sunbathing spot."
Twilight blinked several times. "I really need to map this castle out, if only to make sure I'm not neglecting anything as important as an entire ballroom. Sweet Celestia, imagine what Pinkie will say when she finds out she'd been missing out on prime partying real estate."
Spike chuckled. "Heh, I can imagine it'd be a sight to see. Let me know when you're going to tell her so I can watch."
"Deal." She took a good look up and down the tree. "I guess I'd better move it then. Doesn't seem too big, I think I can manage it with basic telekinesis." She ignited her horn, as the tree lit up in a similar magenta glow. As the tree began to lift, however, a rustling came from the branches. In a flurry of leaves and feathers, something shot out of the tree directly at Twilight's face. She yelled as she cut off her magic, the tree dropping several inches to slam on the floor. Twilight flailed about madly, screaming and hollering as she attempted to remove the creature hugging her face. In a surprisingly steady and swift motion, Spike darted forward and grabbed it securely in his claws. Twilight continued to flail for a moment more before realizing she was fine. Panting slightly, she turned to her assistant. "T-Thanks, Spike. I may have panicked there a little."
Spike rolled his eyes at her understatement. The bundle in his claws cooed.
Twilight cocked her head. "So..." she began somewhat awkwardly, "What kind of terrible monster was using this tree as a Trojan Pony?"
Spike shifted his claws slightly, allowing a head to pop out. It cooed again, apparently quite content to be held twixt the claws of a fire-breathing reptile. "Oh cool, it's a partridge."
"A partridge?" Twilight asked, "Why was there a partridge in my pear tree? And how can you recognize a partridge on sight?"
"You remember that old tree that grew next to your tower back in Canterlot?" Spike asked. She nodded. "Well, there was a family of partridges living around its base. I got to be pretty friendly with them. Not like a Fluttershy level, but I taught them to fly through hoops and return on command. I kinda miss them, now that I think back on it." His gaze turned thoughtful. "Hey, you think I can keep her Twilight?"
"I don't know..." Twilight began, only to be hit with a dose of puppy-god eyes. Her tentative resolve melted instantly. "Oh, alright. You can keep her." She smiled as Spike's grin widened. "I suppose I was prepared to let you raise Pee-Wee back before we realized it was best to return him to his parents."
"Yes!" Spike exclaimed as he claw pumped in victory. The remarkably calm partridge cooed softly in his other hand. He stroked her head tenderly with a single claw, and she nuzzled it softly. "I think I'll call you Surely."
"Surely?" Twilight questioned. "Why would you call a bird Surely?"
"Wordplay and pun potential." He responded promptly.
Twilight chuckled. "Oh, Spike." Reigniting her horn, she once again lifted the tree in the air. "C'mon, let's move this somewhere sunnier. Now, which way is this supposed ballroom Spike? I think it's about time I see my home in its entirety."
Twilight woke to the sun on her face. What had been a chilly night led to a chilly morning as well. She shivered slightly as her hooves made contact with the floor. A pink light glowed from beneath her bed as she pulled out a set of warm and fuzzy slippers. As she meandered towards the bathroom, she instinctively began to generate a mental checklist of tasks for the day. She had a lunch meeting with the caterers who would be handling her big Hearths Warming party. They needed her approval on the budget, as well as several potential menu substitutions. She also needed to meet with Rarity to be remeasured for her holiday gown. An active lifestyle as a world-saving princess tended to leave one with a rather slimmer physique compared to that of a mostly sedentary researcher. She also hoped to finally finish her current book, Broad Horizons's A Year and a Day in Court of Lady Sapphire.
Twilight meandered through the halls as she continued to plan out her day. As she reached the staircase, she opened her wings to glide again... but stopped just before takeoff. She remembered her unexpected face-plant with the unexpected plant and cringed. She still had a minor bruise on her foreleg from the incident. Of course, there was absolutely no way it could happen again. The tree was unobtrusively tucked away in her ballroom now (a remarkably large room in the West Wing of the castle, which she could have sworn was a dead-end hallway just days prior). But still, the fact that the collision had happened (and the unexpected new room) had shaken her confidence in her ability to navigate the castle blindly. Shaking off her concerns with a shake of her head, she began gliding down the stairs once again... keeping her eyes open this time.
Thinking of the tree brought Twilight back to her mental checklist. She needed to do some research into pear trees. What kind of subspecies was it and would it need any special requirements? Maybe she could go scouting for a spot to eventually transplant it to, assuming the weather warmed up later. She also needed to go with Spike to the pet store. While Twilight may not know about partridges in particular, her friendship with Fluttershy had given her a general idea about the care and upkeep of birds. They were going to need birdseed, obviously, but also water and food dishes, pet-safe cleaning supplies, perches and climbing apparatuses. Wait, weren't partridges ground-based birds? Would they need perches then? Or maybe a special diet? Twilight's expression soured slightly as she realized just how little she really knew on the subject, then brightened again as she realized how much research it would entail. Maybe, after enough experience with Spike and Surely, she could write a book on the care of partridges, but told from a magical and scientific perspective.
As Twilight's thoughts wandered off to explore the land of Maybe on their own, her body began navigating the halls on autopilot. Left turn here, straight for a bit, open and close the door with magic to ensure a smooth flight, navigate around the tree. Wait, tree?
For the second time in as many days, Twilight flew face-first into a tree.
Admittedly, this landing was better than her last one. Twilight righted herself just before hitting the floor and skidded to a stop on all four hooves. She turned back to stare in confusion at the leafy menace that once again had so rudely interrupted her calm morning. She walked over slowly and poked it, as if getting half of its twigs stuck in her mane wasn't proof enough. It looked identical to the one from yesterday; same height, same pears, same unlabeled barrel holding in the roots.
"Spike!" she called, her voice echoing through the castle halls.
A moment later. "What?" His reply was faint, but Twilight could still hear just a twinge of annoyance coloring his tone. She must have woken him, or so she reasoned.
"Did you move the tree back into the hall?" She shouted, hoping her voice would carry all the way across the castle to Spike's room.
It still took several long moments to get a response. "What?"
She rolled her eyes. "Why is the tree in the hall?" She yelled even louder, shortening the message for his benefit. She waited again, ears perked and primed to catch his response.
"What?"
She grumbled under her breath, frustrated by the lack of forthcoming answers. She inhaled deeply. "Tree! Hallway! Why?!" The very recently created Royal Ponyville Voice boomed through the castle, rattling loose furniture and making the crystal chandeliers dance about. Through the ringing in her own ears, Twilight could just barely make out the sound of someone yelling her name. A few moments later, Spike came around the corner, still in his powder blue nightshirt (and for some strange reason, a top hat), yelling his head off. Or at least it looked like he was. Twilight still could barely hear a thing.
"Sorry Spike!" she said loudly, but in a less shouty manner, "I got a little frustrated!"
"What?" he yelled back, equally deaf.
"What did you say? I can't hear you!"
"I can't understand you Twilight! My ears are ringing!"
This cheap vaudeville skit went on for several minutes until the ringing had finally subsided and their hearing was restored, though their tempers remained somewhat frayed.
"Now," Spike began, "What's all the yelling about?"
Twilight took a deep breath and pushed a hoof outward from her chest, as she tried to let go of her tension and frustration. "I just wanted to ask you about the tree in the hallway."
Spike glanced at the tree, which had been somewhat forgotten in the shouting. "Oh hey, the tree." He gave Twilight a sideways glance. "I thought you said it was in the way. Why'd you move it back?"
"I was going to ask you that." Twilight admitted, "I didn't move it."
"Well, neither did I."
They both turned to stare at the tree. The light reflecting off the pears made it seem as if the tree was staring back. They turned back to each other.
"So... I guess we put it... back?" Twilight ventured.
"I guess so." Spike agreed.
With a wave of magenta magic, Twilight took the tree in her hold. She raised it an inch, then stopped, and set it back down. Cautiously, she gave the tree a good shake.
"What are you-" but Spike was interrupted by the sudden flapping of wings. A partridge, of all things, flew out from within the branches of the tree and landed on his hat.
Twilight smiled smugly. "Ha. Thought so. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Nice try Spike, now I know you moved the tree and planted Surely in it to startle me again."
Spike shook his head, then pointed to the bird on his hat. "That's not Surely." He reached towards his hat and opened a small door on the front. A feathery face poked out and cooed. "This is Surely. Plus, that new one's a guy."
Twilight's mouth gaped open. Eventually she closed it and sighed. "Fine. Whatever. So now there's two of them. Let's put it in the ballroom with the other one." She lifted the tree in magic, only to once more set it down as she saw what was behind it. "Oh, come on!"
Nestled in a small alcove, tucked into a little nest behind the tree were two small birds. They were mostly white, but with vibrant monarch-like orange and black wings. They huddled close together, either terrified or ignorant of the pony and dragon bearing down on them. Spike walked over and picked up the nest gently.
"Look at that, more birds. You think they came with the tree?"
"I... I can only assume so." Twilight admitted, her brain not quite firing on all cylinders after so many surprises in rapid succession. "I guess we'll take them to the ballroom as well, for the time being." She chortled slightly, "Though at this rate, we're going to have to either rename it to the arboretum or the aviary."
With a tree in her magic, two birds on Spike's head, and two in his claws, the duo once more set off to the ball-arbor-iary.
Twilight was startled to consciousness by an unbearably loud bird call. She sprang from her bed with a yell, wings instinctively spreading in preparation for fight or flight. Unfortunately, this caused them to catch the curtains on either side of her four poster bed. Her startled leap proved to have more momentum than the curtain rings could take, causing them to snap off. Her fall quickly turning into a somersault, the rotating motion make the ripped curtains entangle themselves around her body. Within moments, the all-powerful Element of Magic and Princess of Equestria was reduced to a large wad of curtains and fuzzy blankets with a grumpy and dizzy face peering out from a convenient hole in the center. From a distance, one could have easily mistaken her for a large purple egg. As she sat there, dazed and disoriented, a chicken walked into her field of vision. It clucked at her curiously, and then proceeded to at peck her horn like it was a juicy, fat worm.
"Ow! Ow! Hey! Cut that out!" Twilight tried to summon her magic, but each fresh peck to the horn shattered her concentration before she could even begin to form a spell. With her primary trump card out of play, she resorted to more... primitive solutions. "Shoo! Shoo! Sh-Ow! Get out of here you- you- you pitiful poultry!" She tried to shift her weight, either to loosen her wrappings or roll away from her tormentor, she didn't care which. She swayed slightly, but this only served to further make her horn look like a wriggling worm. To make matters worse, rather than scaring away the chicken, her shouting and yelling apparently attracted two more. Rather than fight over pecking rights, they positioned themselves around her horn (which resulted in one bird standing on her face) and started up a steady tempo of pecking where each bird's head came down as soon as the previous one's was clear. Like a trio of miners with pickaxes all working the same spot, the chickens showed a sense of coordination which could make a cuckoo clock envious. Though not particularly painful, it was incredibly annoying and prevented any usage of magic. Outnumbered and overpowered, Twilight opted to tag in some assistance.
"Spike! Spike!" Twilight yelled as loudly as she could while trying to avoid causing a repeat of yesterday's incident. "Spike could you- ow!- come to my bedroom please! Ow! I really need your he- ow!- your help! Please hurry!" She continued yelling until she could hear his claws outside the door.
"Alright, alright already!" he groused, still rubbing the sleep from his eyes, "Are these early morning tree problems going to be a regular thing now? Because if they are, then I- oh." Finally opening his eyes fully, Spike took in the situation. The somewhat destroyed bed-sheets. Twilight, cocooned as effectively as if she'd been visited by changeling (or a mad seamstress with an unhealthy egg fascination), who winced periodically. Three chickens who pecked at her incapacitated horn like mechanical miners. And a pear tree resting casually in the corner of the room. After a moment, he summed up his thoughts. "Well this is new."
"If you're done -Ow!- gawking, I could use some -Ouch!- help here please!"
Spike hurried over to Twilight's rescue. While a trussed-up pony's yelling had had no effect, the chickens scattered quickly before the oncoming dragon. Twilight sigh in relief at the reprieve. As the she waited for the stinging to go down, Spike began experimentally prodding and tugging wherever her bindings looked loose. "So how'd you end up like this?" he asked.
"I think one of them clucked right in my ear and woke me up," Twilight admitted, "I sprang up, got tangled, fell forward, rolled, and became even more trapped. Then I couldn't even use my magic because they kept pecking at my horn!" Spike laughed a little to himself, praying it was silent enough for Twilight to miss it. Within a few minutes, the pain became bearable enough for Twilight to use her magic again. She tugged at her bindings, looking for a free end or at least a loose section, but found none. In a burst of frustration, she gave up and simply teleported across the room. She sighed as she looked at her shed husk of blankets and curtains, as well as the tattered ends still clinging to the bedposts. "Well shoot, looks like we'll need to go shopping again."
Spike stuck his head in the opening she'd left, finding he could moe in and out freely. "Man, you were really stuck weren't you," He chuckled ruefully, "Heh, it's a good thing Chrysalis or Sombra or any other villain didn't decide to invade us today."
Twilight smiled morosely. "I suppose that's true. Well, at least it was something new today. No pears trees, ey Spike?"
"Uh, Twilight..." He pointed a claw behind her. She turned, and her eyes widened at the sight of yet another pear tree in her home. The chickens had settled down around its base, and she could see three more bird heads poking out from the branches. The room seemed to heat up as her frustration grew.
"Alright, that's it!" She declared angrily with a mighty stomp of her forehoof, "Once is chance, and twice is coincidence, but three times is conspiracy! C'mon Spike!" She grabbed him roughly with her magic and set him on her back. "It's time we brought in an expert!"
"Now, why exactly am Ah here?"
Twilight and her companion walked along the crystal corridor which led to the ballroom, where all the new arrivals had been moved for safekeeping. Twilight sighed. "Look I- Well- There's been some strange things going on, and I just thought it might be time to bring in an expert opinion."
Applejack smiled. "Well, you know Ah'm always willlin' to help you out Twilight. Though Ah'm not sure what kinda 'strange things' Ah could be an expert on. Frankly, unless your problem relates to farmin', honesty, or buckin', you may have called the wrong mare."
Twilight chuckled nervously. "Yes, well, about that..." She pushed open the doors to the ballroom. As far as ballrooms go it was quite grand in design. The room spanned some distance in each direction, easily able to hold well over a hundred ponies (not including flying pegasi). While the floors and walls were made of the same material as the rest of the castle, the crystal here seemed more geometrically placed, creating a series of spiraling fractals just beneath the surface. In the center of the floor, some of the crystal was slightly discolored, creating an image of Twilight's cutie mark. A wall of large windows and matching skylight filled the room with sunlight, though the glass of the windows seemed to be made of a much thinner version of the floor material. A series of arching staircases along one wall led up to spacious balconies halfway up the walls. Banners of purple and gold adorned the walls, while filigree of the same colors added a delicate flair to various accents around the room. All in all, it was everything one would expect of the ballroom of a royal princess.
Applejack whistled appreciatively as she cast her gaze about. "Well Ah'll be. Don't reckon Ah've ever seen this room before. Pretty sure Ah'd remember it if Ah did. Still not sure what you need my help with though."
Twilight pointed to the center of the room where Spike stood waiting and waving. Behind him stood the three trees, each with a chicken at its base, and two of which had turtledove nests on top. The three partridges had apparently decided that Twilight's blanket-and-curtain chrysalis would make a perfect new home, and could be seen just within. They began walking towards the menagerie.
"You see AJ," Twilight began, "As of two days ago this... stuff... starting showing up in my castle. First it was one tree with a partridge in it."
"I named her Surely." Spike contributed.
"Then yesterday there was another tree and bird, along with a nest and two doves. And finally this morning, there was yesterday's things again as well as these three blasted chickens pecking away at my face."
"They're Prench chickens. Hens, really. Blasted chickens have black feathers, sharper beaks, and are a lot shorter."
"Er... thanks?" Twilight offered, "But what I really wanted your thoughts on was the trees. Anything you could tell me about them would be great."
"Twilight, Ah'm an apple farmer," She stated plainly, "What makes you think Ah'd know anything about pear trees?"
"Well, I..." Twilight fumbled awkwardly, "Aren't all fruit trees somewhat similar? Or at least isn't there a close enough relation between apples and pears that some knowledge should overlap?"
Applejack narrowed her eyes at Twilight. "For the sake of our friendship, Ah'm going to forget you just said that." She relaxed slightly, "But also in the name of our friendship, Ah'll still give it my best shot."
She walked over to the trees. She studied them, taking them in from all angles. She leaned in and sniffed them. After several more minutes of similarly unscientific experiments, she was ready to deliver her verdict.
"They're pear trees, sugarcube. Not much else Ah can really say. Seem healthy enough, though they could use some water."
Twilight approached cautiously. "I was kind of hoping for a bit more than that. A subspecies maybe? Or anything out of the ordinary who might pick up with your Earth pony magic?"
Applejack gave her a level stare. "Twilight, they look like pear trees," She gave one tree a light kick, "Feel like pear trees," she inhaled and grimaced, "Smell like pear trees, and if Ah didn't care about soilin' my mouth with their unnatural juices, Ah bet they'd taste like pear trees too. That's really the extent of what Ah can tell you."
Twilight sighed in resignation. "Well, thanks for coming out anyway AJ. I'm just a little upset and confused over this whole situation."
Applejack placed a conciliatory hoof over Twilight's shoulder. "Don't worry, you'll figure it out. If anypony can, you will." She moved the hoof to her chin as her gaze turned thoughtful. "You know what this kinda reminds me of? That thing Pinkie was talking about the other day?"
Twilight's ears perked up. "Pinkie? What thing?"
"You know, that legend of hers about the dragon-pony or whatever that trades presents for candy? Wasn't there a second part about it filling up your house with junk if you didn't believe or something?" She shuffled her hooves nervously, "Ah admit Ah wasn't paying real close attention at times."
"Yeah right," Twilight scoffed, "I'm sure there's a much more reasonable explanation than me angering some mythical creature nopony's ever heard of."
"Ah don't know Twilight, we've seen some strange things these past few years. We all thought Nightmare Moon was an old mare's tale too, and see how that turned out."
Twilight scoffed again. "Pinkie's Hearths Warming Fairy is not nearly on par with Nightmare Moon. We have written evidence of the legend being imported to help amend cultural fences after the Minos war. Evidence from a book. And you can always trust books."
"If you say so," Applejack shrugged, "Ah'm just saying: keep an open mind, y'hear?"
After the events of the previous morning, Twilight chose not to sleep in her master bedroom that evening. Instead, she decided it might be safer to bunk with Spike. His room, after all, was easily large enough to accommodate a second bed, or possibly a third if the occupants didn't mind hopping over the hoofboard to get in. Though it had taken some rearranging of his comic book collection, Twilight found herself that night next to the window in Spike's room. The room's placement in the castle gave it a stunning view of Luna's moon, as well as the gently rolling hills which eventually rose into Mount Canter in the distance. The area was dotted with groves of trees and small tributary streams which weaved between the hills. At this time of year, everything was covered in a light frost. Just enough to make the world glitter like diamonds in the moonlight.
Despite all this, Twilight's restless mind could find neither peace nor tranquility in the unfamiliar bed. Though Spike snored peacefully across the room, her thoughts were in turmoil, roiling and frothing over a singular topic.
The "gifts".
Though they lacked any of the care or sentiment one would expect to come with a gift, she had taken to calling them such all the same, if only for lacking a better collective term. They were annoying, true. Hazardous, possibly. But until she had tried to go to sleep, she had not fully grasped what a danger they might present. A realization which had led her to switch rooms.
Somepony had been in her house.
Somepony had been in her house, without her knowledge and right under her very nose on three separate nights. Not only that, but they had been in her room. They had been in her bedroom, while she slept, completely helpless and unawares. It was only the thought that this was all some sort of forced lesson or prolonged prank that let her still sleep at home at all. Maybe even it all actually was intended as legitimate gifts, only from somepony with cripplingly weak social skills. As always, rationalizations had calmed Twilight down. She was perfectly content replacing an "unlikely but terrifying" potential scenario with a "more probable, and only slightly unsettling" one. It was these thoughts that finally allowed the panicky purple princess to get some sleep.
Surprisingly, it was Spike who woke up first the following morning. Rolling out of bed, he made his way over to his own bathroom, scratching his scales idly as he did so. He walked over to his sink, which was conveniently located at just the right height for him, and gazed blearily into his reflection. He smacked his lips a few times, grimacing at the taste of dragon morning breath. He took a deep breath, held it a moment for a few internal chemical reactions to to initialize, then quickly craned his head upward and released good-sized fiery blast. This had the simultaneous effects of releasing any flammable digestive gases that may have built up overnight, as well as burning off all morning-breath causing bacteria. Now fully awake, he smiled at himself as his heat treated teeth glinted in the mirror. He reached for the mirror, only to suddenly pull away and look back into the main room. Twilight, as far as he could tell, was still fast asleep. Confidence restored, he turned back to the mirror and pressed a small defect near one side with a single claw. The mirror tilted inward until it clicked. Releasing the pressure, Spike drew back his claw as the mirror swung forward, revealing a secret door.
After checking once more to make sure Twilight was still asleep, Spike open the door fully and looked in. It was a small space, roughly and irregularly cut out from the surrounding crystal. It was barely large enough that he could hide inside, though such a venture would be incredibly cramped. A scrap of cloth lined the bottom, a cast off piece from one of Rarity's old projects. Carved into the top was a red sigil, filled with and surrounded by archaic-looking runes. With a small breath, he puffed out the tiniest wisp of dragonfire. As flame met sigil, the runes turned green and began glowing softly. This held for a moment, until five small objects fell from the center of the circle with barely audible clinks against the fabric lining. Snatching them, Spike quickly closed the door and the mirror resumed its innocent facade.
Licking his lips, he opened his claws slowly. A little suspense always enhanced the flavor. Then again, Twilight could wake up at any time. Choosing safety over presentation, he opened his claws the rest of the way to inspect today's haul. Two quartz, a garnet, a lavender amethyst, and... was that a black pearl? Ember must have been feeling generous today. Popping the other four bite sized gems in his mouth, he tucked the pearl away for later. As he crunched, he could hardly stop himself from moaning. Today's combination was just so good! The soft flavor of the quartz blended perfectly with the rich garnet, while the tangy amethyst overrode the normally bitter aftertaste left by the quartz. He almost regretted not adding the pearl to the mix, wondering just what kind of flavor it would have added. But a rare stone like that was worth saving, regardless of the recipe. So absorbed was he with his snack that he failed to notice the soft sound of hooves on crystal.
"Good morning Spike!" Twilight called out cheerily.
"Gah!" he responded as he jumped in shock and surprise. It was only sheer luck that he had just swallowed the last of the gem bits, or else Twilight would have received a faceful of rocky shrapnel. Completely ignorant of the bloody accident she'd so nearly missed, Twilight continued around the hyperventilating dragon to his sink. She knelt down, as it was the only was to reach the shortened sink and mirror without straining her neck, and turned on the water. As she began rinsing and gargling, Spike's pulse finally began to slow as his breathing returned to normal levels. "J-Jeez, Twilight," he stuttered "Give a dragon a little warning why don't you?"
She rinsed once more and spit before turning back to her sort-of host. "Sorry Spike, I thought you would have heard me coming." She grabbed a towel with her magic as she dabbed the moisture from her muzzle. "What had your attention so focused you didn't notice me?"
"I- uhh..." he glanced about nervously, looking for an excuse. "I was... looking at myself in the mirror. Yeah, that's it. Trying to see if I hit a new growth spurt or anything!" He finished with an enthusiastic, if somewhat hammy, grin.
Twilight raised an eyebrow, but let it slide. "Well... okay then. Just pay more attention to your surroundings."
"Y-yeah, sure," he chuckled awkwardly, "I'll make sure to do that."
Morning rituals complete, they headed towards the kitchens together for breakfast. The chatted amiably for a time about little things. Plans for the day, anecdotes about dreams, thoughts on the weather. Simple casual morning conversation you could hear in any given household in Equestria. And then Spike just had to go and bring up the one thing that made their mornings special.
"So, you think there's going to be more stuff today?"
Twilight groaned. "For Celestia's sake I hope not." She hung her head morosely as she continued, "This is getting to be a real pain, and I'm starting to run out or reasonable explanations. "
"Well, maybe it'll be something good today?" Spike offered optimistically. "Who knows, after all these birds maybe we'll get something useful? Like a bundle of fresh quills. Or maybe some cans of scale polish? Hey, for all we know there might be a pre-release edition of the new Power Ponies comic!"
Twilight chuckled as the mood lightened. "Thanks Spike, you're right. Who knows. Maybe we'll get lucky and get a swarm of parasprites who'll eat everything else then leave."
Spike gave her a look. "Jeez Twilight, good thing Fluttershy didn't hear you say that."
"Yeah... good point. Forget I said anything. I haven't had my coffee yet."
As they approached the kitchens, they could clearly here sounds coming from behind the doors. It was indistinct, but clearly there. Twilight huffed in frustration. "Sorry to disappoint, Spike," she groused, "But from the sound of it, we've got even more birds." She vented some frustration on the kitchen doors as she slammed them open. The sound of door meeting wall was not a discreet one, and it managed to successfully frighten the multitude of birds resting in and around the pear tree located on top of their food preparation counter. The hens were off first, and began running about like their heads were chopped off. The turtledoves took to the skies, though they always remained close to one another. Accompanying them in the air were four small black birds, which alternated between flying and hopping across the cooking implements. The partridge remained cool as a cucumber, and was apparently unfazed by the noise. Twilight frowned at the chaos, until she noticed the new birds and her face lit up with an idea.
"Spike," she stated as she headed away from the kitchens, "see if you can corral them into the ballroom. Applejack may not have been able to help us, but I have a better idea now of just who might."
"I'm sorry, I don't quite follow. Could you explain it to me again, please? If that's alright."
Twilight sighed at her friend's timidity as she led the way to the ballroom. "Let me show you first, and maybe it will make a bit more sense."
Once more Twilight opened the doors to the grand ballroom with her magic. It was just as stunning as the previous day, though this seemed lost on the new pony witnessing it. Her eyes were focused on the menagerie at the center.
"Oh my stars!" Fluttershy gushed as she sped over to where the birds were roosting in and around the small grove. "Twilight, I had no idea you were starting an animal sanctuary in your castle."
Twilight's hopeful expression fell. "So they're not yours then?"
Fluttershy looked up questioningly from the chicken she was nuzzling. "Mine? What do you mean?"
"As I tried to explain on the way over, these birds and trees have been showing up in the castle while Spike and I sleep. First it was just one, then two, then three, and now four! I didn't think much of the birds at first," she explained, "Partridges are ground based and don't fly south, Prench hens aren't native here and are likely pets or livestock, and turtledoves don't migrate. But those!" She pointed at the quartet of new birds, "I don't know what they are, but their size and shape looks very much like a migratory species to me."
"Oh! Those are Colly birds!" Fluttershy exclaimed as she she leaned forward for one to climb into her mane. "I'm surprised to see some here. Not only are they not native to Equestria, but they should be far south by now."
Twilight nodded. "That essentially was my line of thinking. I thought that maybe you had been putting them here since they missed their chance to head south. But I take it that it wasn't you?"
Fluttershy shook her head, "I'm sorry Twilight, but I didn't put these birds in your house. I've never even seen a Colly bird outside of my books."
Twilight hung her head. "Figures..." she muttered. Her head rose again as an idea came to her. "Say, do you think you could maybe house them? It's not that I don't like birds or anything, but I'm sure they'd appreciate your warm and cozy cottage to this cold stone castle."
Fluttershy hesitated, but after a moment of fighting shook her head. "I'm sorry, but I really can't. My cottage is already filled to capacity with other little critters who couldn't stand the cold. I'm completely full." She turned to look longingly at the Colly birds not currently in her mane. "But... could I come back regularly please? If only just to see them?"
Twilight smiled, though not without a twinge of disappointment. "Of course, Fluttershy. You can come by any time to see them. You're always welcome here."
Twilight gasped as the air was pushed from her lungs by the sudden (and surprisingly forceful) hug. "Oh thank you, thank you, thank you!" Fulttershy cheered, before finally releasing Twilight from her bear hug. She turned back to the birds. "Good-bye for now little bird friends! I'll be back soon to visit!" With that she began to fly back towards the main doors. "Thank you so much Twilight! I'll be back to see them in just a little while! I just need to go make sure everyone gets fed back at the cottage before they start to turn on each other!"
And with the sound of doors slamming meekly, she was gone. Twilight looked to where Fluttershy had flown off for a moment before turning back the her cluster of "gifts". "Well, I suppose that went about as well as it could have. I'm honestly not sure what else I should have expected."
Twilight woke slowly. Having become so accustomed to waking up with the sun on her face, she now felt slow and lethargic waking up without it. She knew this would change once she found an east facing window to bask in front of for a few minutes, but until then it she was stuck feeling like she had a mild head cold. Her ears perked up as a strange sound reached them. A kind of muffled crunching noise, occasionally interspersed with low sounding moans. Her mind's gears began to whir, still slowed though they were by the gluey entanglement of pre-sun pre-coffee not-quite-awake-yet-ness. Slowly but surely, her reasoning faculties started booting up and began interpreting her observations into inferences.
There is a noise in her room. Noises are made by things. Therefore, there must be some thing in her room.
Normally, she should be alone in her room. There is some thing in her room. Therefore, she is not alone. Therefore the situation is not normal.
Analysis: Some thing has been entering her home at night. It is currently morning, the last part of night. There is some thing in the room, which is not a normal situation
Conclusion: The mysterious nocturnal present bringer is currently in the room, making crunching noises.
Twilight's eyes snapped open. The intruder was here?! Now?! Wait, this isn't her room. It's Spike's room. Where is Spike? She scanned the room frantically. There was his bed, still unmade. The crunching moaning sounds still emanated from somewhere. She swiveled her ears, desperate to pinpoint the source. There! The bathroom! With a powerful flap of her wings, Twilight flung herself into the air, simultaneously casting a shield in front of her. A quick teleport put her right outside the bathroom door, all of her upward momentum redirected forward. She burst through the door, shards and splinters of wood flying in all directions!
Spike screamed out in surprise and fear, multicolored shards of crystals spraying from his mouth. He leaped to the side, just barely avoiding high-velocity impact with a supersonic Sparkle. She slammed into the back wall, cracking the crystal and utterly destroying Spike's shower. She rose, woozily, before shaking off her haziness. Her gaze caught Spike, slowly rising back to his feet. She rushed over and held him protectively. "Spike! Thank goodness you're alright! Where's the intruder? Stay behind me, I'll keep you safe!"
He pushed her off grumpily. "What intruder? There's no one here but us!"
She slowed her frantic scanning, but didn't power down her horn. "But I heard a noise! There was this crunching, and the most unearthly moaning!"
Spike hesitated for a moment before sighing. "That was me." He admitted glumly. Clearing his throat, he hacked up several blue and red gem shards into his claws, and offered them for inspection. "See?"
Twilight lowered her wings and shut off her magic. "So, there was nopony here? No intruder?"
"No, Twilight," Spike said, "Just me and a morning snack."
"Oh"
She looked at the damage caused by her fear and recklessness. The broken door, the shattered shower, the cracked and fractured wall. All this from a moment of panic. From a moment when she led her fear take control. Lighting her horn, she cast a repair spell on the wall. She turned back to Spike, her head hung low. "I'm- I'm sorry Spike."
He patted her neck. "It's okay Twilight, you're under a lot of stress. You made a mistake. You're scared and confused. I am too. But we'll get to the bottom of this. Together. We'll figure out what's leaving this stuff, and put a stop to it."
Twilight sniffled. "Thanks Spike. I needed that."
He smiled. "Anytime Twilight, anytime. Now, let's go see what's downstairs today."
She nodded, and they began walking. Spike tried to to keep her spirits up by filling the air between them with useless small talk. He rambled on endlessly about what today's items could be, the reasoning behind the older items, what old villains or new could be behind it. Everyone from Nightmare Moon to Mane-iac to Golden Harvest. Twilight added a few comments here and there, slowly contributing more and more to the conversation until she was giggling along with his suggestions and even contributing her own. "It's funny Spike, how we've transitioned from 'will there be more things today' to 'what will the new things be'."
He chuckled along. "Yeah, I guess you can get used to anything."
She strode forward with renewed confidence. "That may be true, but we will not accept living like this. I will get to the bottom of this, Spike, and I will find out who is responsible!" She punctuated her her declaration by slamming open the doors to the main hall. Sitting centered between her and her friend's thrones was the fifth pear tree. Again, nestled in its branches were a pair of turtledoves, cuddled together in their nest. A partridge rested nearby, nonchalantly preening it's feathers. The three chickens wandered about the tree's base, absentmindedly pecking at the ground. The four Colly birds sat in a row on a single high branch, chittering quietly. Of it wasn't for the circumstances of their arrival, it would have been a picturesque scene, worthy of any canvas.
"I don't see anything new," Spike commented, "Do you?"
She shook her head. "No, neither do I. Let's take a closer look."
They walked closer, careful not to startle the birds or cause a panic. As they approached, Spike's keen dragon eyes picked out a glint in the dirt around the tree's base. He leapt up, vaulting over the heads of the chickens and began digging. After several moments, he popped back up, a large golden ring in his mouth. Twilight took it from him with her magic, and shook off the dirt. She inspected it closely as Spike went back into his hole. It was a large ring, too big for a hoof but without a clasp to indicate to was meant to be worn around the neck. The metal was polished, and without flaw or defect. Spike's head popped up out of the dirt as he tossed out four more. They clanged loudly as they clattered to the floor. He hopped out of the pot and shook off the dirt. "I think that's all of them," he remarked, "Well, all I could find at least."
"Curious," Twilight remarked, "This falls out of pattern with the others. Neither a bird nor a tree this time. Unless there's some hidden connection I'm not seeing... hmmm..." She trailed off as her monologue slipped into internal soliloquy. Spike raised his fist to his chin as he tried to find a pattern as well. The partridge landed on his head. It bent over to look into his eyes and cooed. Spike smiled as an idea came to him.
"Hey, I got an idea!" He exclaimed, "Let's get Rarity to help!"
Twilight snapped out of her thoughts to look at him. "Rarity?" She asked, "How could she help? If these rings were gem-studded maybe, but being plain as they are, I'm not sure what she could contribute."
"Well... she's good with jewelry?" He offered weakly, not really having thought his idea through all that much.
Twilight smiled softly. "You just want an excuse to see her, don't you?"
He blushed visibly. "What? No, no that's totally not it. I just thought that maybe, you know, she might have some input."
"I suppose it's worth a shot," Twilight shrugged, "At least until a clearer pattern merges."
Rarity turned the rings over in her magic. "I may not be an expert, but I do try to keep abreast of everything fashion related. And I can honestly I've not seen any accessories like these before. While they are very finely crafted, I can find no makers marks or other identifying features." She passed the rings back to Twilight. "I'm sorry I can't be of more help. If there were gemstones involved I could probably tell you which designer made it, when it was made, even what region the gems are from. But as it stands, all I can say it that these are nothing like anything I've come across in Equestrian fashion."
"Thank you for your input," Twilight said as she stacked the rings on a nearby table. "I wasn't really expecting much, but Spike thought it might be worth the time to ask anyway."
"He did, did he?" Rarity asked, a note of compassion entering her voice, "He's such a dear. I must remember to save a few choice gems for him next time I go collecting."
"Don't get him too many," Twilight joked, "I think he may have a secret stash somewhere."
Rarity laughed, light and airily. "I'll keep that in mind. Now I must be off. With my winter line sold out, some ponies have been asking if they can pay extra for any remaining pieces. So it's back to the sewing machine for me. A designer's work is never done! Ta ta, darling!" She turned back as she headed out the door. "And good luck finding your secret admirer or whoever it is who is leaving all those gifts!"
Twilight scrunched her face in confusion. "Secret admirer?" The idea hadn't even occurred to her.
Spike awoke to find his room empty. He glanced over to Twilight's guest bed. The sheets were made, and the edges tucked in. So either she had left very early, or slept elsewhere. Shrugging it off, Spike got up and began his morning routine. After a quick burst of fire to cleanse his teeth, he took a few minutes with a cloth to give his scales a good buff, since he'd been neglecting it for a few days. He opened his mirror cabinet and activated the portal with a sparkling green wisp. It whirred silently for a few moments longer than usual, before spitting out something unexpected. There were three gems this morning, an orange one, a green one, and one with a mottled blue pattern. What made them was unique was how they were skewered on a thin length of obsidian rod. A small scroll was rolled around one end. Grabbing his delivery, Spike closed the cabinet and unrolled the note.
"This one needs a bit of prep." it read in Ember's angular script, "Spin the gems while roasting over a medium flame. Not too big, you know, just, like three claw-lengths long. You'll know they're done when the rough edges soften and smooth out. Eat while still hot. The rod also works as a toothpick and palette cleanser after."
Spike smiled at the care shown in the message. Friendship was still a new thing for Ember, but he could tell she was making progress. A few more weeks of sharing correspondence and recipes, and he was pretty confident he'd be able to get her to open up about personal things in her messages. Or at least include conversation beyond cooking instructions and basic greetings. It was a slow process, but Spike knew he'd picked up enough friendship lessons by proxy to pass them on to another. He smiled thoughtfully as he walked back to his room. He placed the gems and message in his bedside dresser atop a small pile of similar letters.
He left his room to hunt down Twilight. Snacks from Ember and mysterious presents aside, it was still her turn to cook breakfast. However, after nearly half an hour of searching, Twilight failed to be found. Her room was the obvious first place he checked, but it was just how Twilight had left it several days ago. The guest rooms were next, but they were likewise all in their spotless unused state. Room by room he checked, but all were equally abandoned. Even Starlight's room was shut and locked just as she'd left it. The kitchens, libraries, sub-libraries, even the science labs. There was no sign of Twilight in sight. Eventually, Spike came to the last room in the castle he expected to find her: the ballroom. Even at a distance he could just barely make out the sound of birds within.
With a grunt of effort, the little dragon pushed open one of the large doors just wide enough to slip inside. He immediately tripped on a mug on the floor. He pushed himself up from the floor with a groan, rubbing his snout. He glanced to where to cup had spun off to, and his eyes widened as he followed it to another mug, which led to another and that to another. The trail of empty mugs led over to the near corner of the room, where sat an alarmingly large pile of discarded cups. He was about to go over and investigate further, when a purple blur suddenly materialized in front of him.
"Hey there Spikey-Spikey-Spike-Spike!" It rattled off. He tried to focus his eyes on the rapidly moving (and even faster talking) figure. "I have so many theories, so many ideas, Oh! Ideas like you wouldn't believe Spike! My mind has never been so clear!"
Spike managed to refocus his eyes just enough to make out some details. He could just about make out a pair of wings and a split-color mane. "T-Twilight? Is that you?"
"Of course it's me!" she replied speedily, "I've been working working working hard trying to unravel the mystery of our particularly perplexing and passionately proficient puzzling parcel presenter!" She dashed over to the nearby wall, which was covered in an alarmingly large collage of notes, pictures, copies of book pages, and red yarn. Lots of red yarn.
Spike picked up a mug as he gazed about in awe. Or possibly terror, one of those two probably. Maybe a little of both. "Did- did you even go to sleep last night Twilight?"
"Nope! I enchanted the kettle see?" She poured a long stream of coffee from the kettle. She moved the flow from one cup to another, which kept dispensing piping hot coffee far beyond what should have been its capacity. Snagging two of the mugs in her magic, she downed the coffee like shots. "I've been working nonstop since Rarity left yesterday! She gave me an idea; What is the reason behind somepony leaving us these things? We've been thinking it might be some kind of threat, or a misguided present. But now I see there's just so, so many options we haven't considered!" She produced a large scroll. "So I made a list of more reasons we hadn't considered! 'Secret message from a scientist trapped between dimensions', 'unorthodox marriage proposal', 'leftover effect from Starlight's meddling with time', I thought of everything!"
Spike tried to back away, but Twilight zoomed back to his side, random sprigs of curling mane brushing against his face. "And then I remembered what you said, oh clever and genius assistant. You said there might be a pattern between the items that we weren't seeing, or that it could be from practically anypony!" She teleported back to her conspiracy wall. "So I correlated the data, analyzed, cross-compared, and re-analyzed every one of our ideas from yesterday, as well as every new one on my list." Her manic smile faded. "But none of my leads have panned out. I'm this close!" She held her hooves a fraction apart. "So close! But I'm just missing some small piece of data. Some... final key which could tie this all together! But what! Could! It! Be!" She punctuated her declaration by slamming her head into the wall, causing a few papers to fall, though she caught and fixed them before they hit the floor.
Spike approached cautiously. He knew Twilight's dangerous manic state when he saw it, and this was a bad case. A virtually unlimited supply of caffeine probably wasn't helping things either. "Don't worry. I'm sure you'll figure it out." He needed to redirect her to break the spiral. "Why don't you take a quick flight around town, huh? You've been cooped up in here all night, you need some fresh air. Get... inspiration for new ideas."
Twilight slowed her movements a bit. "I... guess that's a good idea. It is possible that looking over the same sets of data over and over and over again has blinded me to some extraneous possibilities. Plus a good flight would help stimulate blood flow." She smiled as her mane almost returned to normal. "Thanks Spike."
"Heh, anytime."
With a few powerful beats of her wings, the overly-caffeinated under-slept alicorn lifted off the ground and sailed towards the doors. They opened with her magic, and Spike used the opportunity to exit as well. He smiled as he headed towards the kitchens for a well-earned breakfast. In her current state, Twilight would probably continue circling the town until she made a perfect circle or calculated the most efficient route between every house or something similarly time-consuming. Regardless, she'd work off the caffeine and would be back to her normal self upon her return. As long as nothing reignited her current mania, everything would be just fine.
"SPIKE!" Twilight's voice shook the halls of the castle. It wasn't quite the Royal Ponyville Voice, but it was pretty close.
"Oh no..." He uttered as he reversed directions towards the main hall. As he skidded to a stop, he found Twilight half-hugging, half-strangling a large white bird while five more stood around, popping out eggs in shell-shocked fear.
"Spike!" She exclaimed as she raced over and grabbed his face, meeting him nose to nose. "Eggs! The answer was eggs! That was the key I was missing. Trees lead to birds and birds lead to eggs and eggs lead to egghead! That and the rings make it so clear! Oh I was so blind!"
"Twilight," he gasped, recoiling from her close-range rant, "I don't understand! Birds and eggs and what? What in Equestria are you talking about?!"
"No time!" She exclaimed as she spread out her wings to take flight, "I need to find Rainbow Dash!" With a whirl of feathers, she vanished out the door.
"Hoo boy..." Spike exhaled as he turned to a nearby a nearby goose, "This isn't going to end well."
Rainbow Dash sighed as she collapsed onto her cloud sofa. She'd given herself an extra tough workout that morning in preparation for the upcoming snowstorm. She needed to be in peak physical condition to get all those clouds where they needed to be in time. She was about to take a quick post-work-out nap, when she felt something... off. She sat up. There was something wrong in her house. She couldn't put her hoof on it, but her instincts were screaming danger. She tensed her muscles, ready to fight off whatever came at her if need be. A loud creak emanated from the hall door behind her. She whirled around, pumped up on adrenaline and ready to engage in glorious combat. "Alright whoever you are, I hope you know who you're messing with! Now get ready for a hoofful of- whoa!" Her intimidating speech was cut off as she twisted in midair to prevent her flying roundhouse from hitting Twilight in the head. The rapid turn sent her off-course where she smashed into (and partially through) the staircase. She recovered quickly, shaking bits of cloud out of her mane. "Twilight! Be careful, I almost hit you!" She exclaimed, before her senses reoriented where the feeling of danger was coming from. "Wait.. why are you in my house?"
"I know it was you Dash." Twilight said quietly, making eye contact with the floor.
"Uh... what, what was me?" Rainbow Dash asked slowly, slightly off-put by the mixture of feeling between what she was feeling and who she saw.
"Oh come on." Twilight deadpanned as she slowly began to walk closer. "Take credit for your work. Don't be chicken."
"Is... is this about a prank?" Dash asked, slowly backing away. "Whatever it was, it wasn't me. I've been really busy with weatherpony stuff and haven't done any pranking in like, a month."
"Oh don't be coy. I've seen through your plot! You thought I wouldn't be clever enough to think that you were smart enough to come up with something so complex, didn't you? So deep and so layered. But you underestimate me Rainbow Dash. You underestimate me greatly." Twilight chuckled menacingly as she began to circle, like a predator around a cornered prey. "Oh it was a challenge, I'll concede you that. You gave me every reason to think it was everypony except you. First you had Pinkie plant that story, so I would think it was her trying to prove it to me." She took a step closer. "Then there was the trees to make me think it was Applejack. " She took another step. "Then the birds, to redirect my suspicions to Fluttershy." Another step. "And then you threw Rarity in my path with the jewelry." She was nearly nose to nose with the genuinely scared pegasus. "But then. You. Messed. Up."
"Wha- What did I do?" The panicking pegasus squeaked out.
Twilight leaned in, close enough that she could whisper directly in Rainbow Dash's ear. "The eggs..." she breathed. She pulled back quickly, and resumed her half-circling half-pacing. "That was the last clue I needed. The only connection eggs has to me is the nickname 'Egghead' which only you call me! After that everything fell into place!" She pointed an accusatory hoof. "You are the one who's been sneaking all these things into my castle! Skulking about in the shadows of the night! And all because of your disturbingly deep crush on me!!"
"I- wah?" Rainbow Dash blanked, the sudden accusation supplanting all her fear with confusion. "My what?"
"You didn't think I would figure it out, did you! The gold rings: an ancient pegasi ritual symbolizing deep affection. The partridge: A bird which can't fly, referencing when I'd just gotten my wings and you had to teach me. The Prench hens: a symbol of new life from the city of love! Veery clever double meaning on that one. And the Colly birds: which are black which is the opposite of white which is the combination of all the colors of the rainbow! And the turtle doves: 'Turtle Doves' has a numerical value of 142, which is almost half the value of out names combined! I see right through you, Rainbow Dash, and I won't stand for this subterfuge any longer!" She reared up on her hindlegs, using her wings for balance, and placed her forhooves on her hips. "If you want to confess your love Rainbow Dash, I cannot say if I will reciprocate it, but now is the time."
As Twilight's tirade had gone on, Rainbow Dash had become less and less scared and more and more bored. By the time it was done, she was completely apathetic. "Twilight, I am not, nor have I ever been in love with you."
"Ah ha! Just as I expected!" Twilight declared, "And I'm sorry, but I must turn down your advances!"
"Twilight, I said I'm not in love with you. Hay, I'm not even into mares!"
"I- You- Wha?" Twilight stumbled, all the wind gone from her sails. "But all the presents? All the secret meanings and ancient traditions?"
Rainbow Dash sighed as she raised a hoof to her forehead. "Well first off: breaking into my house. Not cool. Let's just clear that one out of the way. Second: that 'ancient pegasi ritual' hasn't been done since before the Unification, and even then it was a gold horseshoe, not rings. Third: The rest of your speech. Really? Just, really?"
Twilight rubbed the back of her head. "I... suppose some of my conclusions might have been the smallest bit stretched."
"'The numerical value is almost half of our names?'" Dash quoted with a raised eyebrow.
"Yeah... That was a bit much." She admitted, before slamming her hoof into the floor. "But I was so sure! Everything looked like it fit so perfectly! I thought I finally had an answer!"
"Well, whoever's doing this, it's not me. You can check with my supervisor. I've been pulling night shifts all week to get things ready for the big snow shipment." She smirked. "But from what I've heard so far, you've gotta tell me everything about this prank. And I wanna meet the pony when you figure out who's behind it." Her smirk turned into suppressed laughter, which quickly broke down into full blown guffaws. "Imagine! Somepony pranking you hard enough to make you think me being in love with you was a more likely scenario! Bwahahaha!"
Twilight groaned as her caffeine finally wore off and she collapsed on the floor.
Once again, Spike could not find Twilight. After her caffeine crash the previous day, Twilight had slept most of the day away, only to finally awaken in time for dinner. After a very silent meal, she had slunk off, asking not to be disturbed. Now night had come and gone, and Spike was starting to get concerned. She wasn't back at her conspiracy wall. In fact the whole thing had been torn down and, judging by the pile of ashes, incinerated. Nor was she in her room, the library or any of her other usual haunts. Worried and concerned, Spike returned to a side hallway where he'd found the new presents. He hoped that the birdsong might clear his mind, or give new insights as to where Twilight might be, or... anything really.
He sidestepped around the geese, who squawked protectively over their eggs. With a shimmy, he nestled himself between the barrel of the pear tree, and the giant crystal sphere. One of the hens pecked at his feet briefly before he shooed it away. He loosened one of the rings from the dirt, and started mindlessly spinning it around one claw. "Oh Twilight," he muttered, "where are you?" The ring began picking up significant speed before his claw slipped and it went spinning off down the hallway. It hit a crystal pillar and reversed course, landing snugly between the giant crystal sphere and the wall. Sighing, Spike got up and walked over to retrieve it. As he reached down to grab it, he noticed something odd in the surface of the sphere.
It was a solid blue, much like the walls of the castle it now resided in. What surprised him, was the small purple section near the wall. It was roughly a six-pointed star, not unlike Twilight's cutie mark. Tentatively, he reached out to touch it. As claw met stone, he felt it depress somewhat. He kept pushing until it clicked. A moment later, the sound of a scratchy recording came from within the orb.
Welcome to the Sphere of Solitude. It began in a morose, even depressed tone. What you are hearing is a pre-recorded message made by one Twilight Sparkle. If I have activated this spell, then a situation has occurred where either 1) I feel so ashamed as to hide away, 2) uncontrollable events have occurred which I have completely failed at analyzing, predicting, or understanding, or 3) the quesadillas have finally made their move and are invading Equestria. Due to limited recording space, for further instruction please refer to "User Interface Guide for Sphere of Solitude" located in the personal library of one Twilight Sparkle, unicorn residing at Tower 314, Marigold Lane, Canterlot.
Spike remembered this spell. It was originally Twilight's final project for her Crystallurgy class, which she'd expanded and modified after an extremely embarrassing miscast in front of Celestia and several nobles. She'd been in a very dark place and decided the best way to handle it was to hide herself away until everypony forgot about the incident. It had taken Celestia hours to reassure her and coax her out of it. Spike stood up resolutely. He wasn't going to let Twilight lock herself away, not again! Celestia might not be around, but Twilight had something better now. Friends who cared about her and her well-being. He dashed off to gather them, hoping that they'd be able to help lift Twilight's spirits in this time when she most dearly needed it.
"You sure she's in there?" Rainbow Dash asked as she flew around the orb, which had been rolled out into the main hall.
"Definitely," Spike confirmed. "Twilight made this spell. There's no way it could be active without her being in there."
"Isn't it rather... cramped?" Rarity asked, as she mentally measured the ball and estimated now much interior space it could have.
Spike shook his head. "No, there's a few spatial enchantments woven into it. There's a good-sized sitting room on the inside."
"Well, she can't stay in there forever. Right? She has to come out sometime." Applejack asked.
Again, Spike shook his head. "You don't understand, you weren't there back when Twilight made this. She was still young, and wanted to be able to disappear and stay gone long enough for everypony to forget her embarrassing mistake." He began ticking off items on his claws as he listed them. "There's enchantments for fresh air, a self-renewing fireplace, a perpetually rebrewing teacup, a book which can transform into a copy of anything she's read before. It's gyroscopically stable so even it being rolled won't affect her. Technically, she could stay inside for weeks."
"Goodness," Rarity exclaimed, "That's quite a piece of spellwork. And how old did you say she was when she made this?"
"Thirteen." he replied, "She only ever used it once before, and that took Celestia herself to get her out. If she feels so bad as to get it out again..."
"Oh my," Fluttershy murmured, "I didn't realize the birds were wearing down on her so much. Oh, I should have taken some in when she asked. I could have made room by giving them my bed. Oh, bad Fluttershy, bad!"
"I don't think it was the birds that did it," Spike interrupted, "She's been handling most of this pretty well-" he paused as some of the finer details of yesterday's rant came back to him, "Uhh, mostly anyway. But something must have happened between when she said she solved it yesterday and when Rainbow Dash brought her back here passed out."
All eyes turned to the pegasus in question, who had taken a perch on top of the sphere. She rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. "Yeah... I might have an idea what this is about. Twilight broke into my house and uh... she..." She trailed off as she gazed everywhere but at the ponies looking at her. "Let's just say she thought I was pranking her with all this stuff, and somehow came up with a really weird and badly reasoned idea as to why. She was really confident and didn't take it well when I poked a bunch of holes in her argument."
"Well what in tarnation did she think it was that made her so embarrassed that she locked herself up!?" Applejack demanded with a stomp of her hoof.
"It's... really better if I don't say. For Twilight's sake."
"I really wish there was some way to talk to her," Fluttershy redirected, "Even if it's only to make sure she's okay."
Rarity smiled as an idea came to her. "It's fortunate then that she made her hideaway out of crystal. Allow me a moment and I'll find a harmonic focal point in it's structure." She began walking around the ball, her horn alight.
"Thanks, but I don't think it'll work," Spike said sadly, "She designed this to be impenetr-"
"Found it~!" Rarity trilled. Her she focused her magic on a particular point on the sphere, visually identical to the rest. Casting her gaze about the room, she grabbed a vase from a nearby pedestal and placed it's base on the area she identified. "Here. Speak into this and I believe Twilight should be able to hear us and hopefully, us her."
Spike approached slowly, torn between trusting Rarity's talent with gems and trusting Twilight's talent with effective spellcasting. "Twilight, can you hear me?" He finally ventured.
Meanwhile, Twilight was curled up in a cozy armchair near a roaring fire. A cup of tea sat on the end table beside her, full and steamy. A peaceful smile stretched over her lips. All thought of mysterious presents and mistaken intentions lost in her book on complex waveform equations. She was just starting to get into a particularly riveting Farrier Transform when she was startled by a voice echoing from all around her.
"Twilight, can you hear me?" it said. Though the voice was unmistakably Spike's, it had a strange echoing quality and seemed to reverberate from all directions at once.
"Spike, it that you? How did you manage to get your voice through my Sphere of Solitude? I designed it to be impenetrable!"
"Rarity found a uh... what did you call it again?"
"A harmonic focal point, darling." Rarity's voice chimed in with the same ethereal echoing quality.
"Yeah, that."
Twilight groaned. "Why is Rarity there?"
"We all are, Twi." Applejack chimed in. "Well, us and Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash anyway. We're worried about ya."
"Whatever for?" Twilight asked to the walls of her lounge.
"Um, because you're so embarrassed that you locked yourself away inside a crystal ball and cut yourself off from all your friends and family?" Fluttershy's voice offered.
"What, do you mean the thing with Rainbow Dash?" She asked. An awkward cough echoed back in reply. She sighed. "I'm not in here because of that. Did I make a mistake? Yes, I was too eager and made logical assumptions I shouldn't have. Was I wrong? Yes, so... very yes. Was I embarrassed? Of course I was, who wouldn't be after accusing her friend of being madly in love with her?" A sound almost like a fashionable unicorn gasping and a speedy pegasus falling off a large sphere echoed through the chamber, but Twilight ignored them. "I'm in here... because of this."
Spike stepped back from the speaker-vase as he felt the familiar rumble of a message coming through via his fire. In a burst of vertical green flame it materialized. Rarity picked it out of the air with her magic and began to read.
Dear Ponyville friends,
Super-duper sorry for not being available, but I am currently unable to accept any new party requests until after Hearths Warming. Starting this afternoon, I'll be heading back to visit my family for the holiday season and won't return for two weeks. Please redirect any emergency party requests to Gummy, located within.
Happy Holidays Everypony! And may you always be in the Hearths Warming Pixie's favor! -Pinkamena Diane "Pinkie" Pie
"I found this tacked to the outside of Pinkie's door at Sugar Cube Corner." Twilight's voice echoed out. "It's dated almost a week ago."
"So what?" Rainbow Dash asked impatiently, "What's Pinkie being gone have to do with you being in the ball of boring?"
"'Sphere of Solitude'," she corrected, "And I'm getting there. After my failure with Rainbow Dash I reassessed all my potential theories with a clear head. I came down to only one possibility."
"And that was?" Rarity prompted.
"That Pinkie was doing everything in order to convince me that her mythic Hearths Warming Pixie is real." Twilight responded, "But when I went to confront her, I found that note. So it couldn't have been her! So I decided to run a test. I activated the Sphere of Solitude to cut myself off from the world. If the gifts still showed, even in here, then I could concede that there may be some sort of mythic gift-giving creature involved. If not, then it's clearly the work of a pony. So once the gifts show up tomorrow, I'll have my answer."
"Uh, Twilight?" Spike interrupted, "It is tomorrow. Almost lunch, really."
Her ears perked up. "Oh?"
"Yeah, and there was a bunch of stuff piled outside your ball."
A loud cheer echoed out from the vase into the main hall. Suddenly, the whole sphere began to glow brighter and brighter. Three ponies and a dragon backed away as they did their best to cover their eyes. A moment later, the sphere was gone, and a triumphant Twilight stood in it's place. "Then I-" She was cut off, however, when the vase (no longer supported) dropped and smacked her on the head, knocking her to the floor.
"Twilight!" They all cried as they rushed to her side. She gazed back at them woozily.
"Did anyone get that pegasi's license number?" She mumbled incoherently.
"She needs medical attention!" Rarity exclaimed as she looked about. "Where did Fluttershy go?"
"I'm here!" she called as she ran back into the room, her coat dotted with large white feathers and damp patches. She immediately began looking over Twilight's wound. "She should be okay, it's very minor. Spike, could you go get some ice please?"
He nodded and ran off. Twilight mumbled again and Fluttershy leaned in to listen. One of the feathers fell off of her head and landed on Twilight's face. "Flutter..." she mumbled, "Why are your flying fluffs all white?"
"What?" She noticed the feathers stuck to her for the first time. "Oh! These. I ran away when the ball started glowing, and found a group of seven swans playing in tub in the bathroom. They were so cute and they- Twilight? Twilight?!"
But her story about the swans would go unheard, as the purple alicorn had passed out completely.
It was dark when Twilight woke up. While not totally out of the ordinary, what made this particular morning special was that the bedside clock claimed it was nearly three hours after dawn. Without the sun, she woke up groggy and grumpy.
"Spiiike..." she whined, "why did you close the curtains? You know what a state I get into if I wake up without the sun."
Spike exited the bathroom, clearly more awake than she was, and with a scale polishing rag covering something in her claw. "Me? I thought you closed them to shut out the moonlight. It's been pretty bright lately, so I figured you shut them after I went to sleep."
She groaned at the inconvenience of it all. "Well, whoever did, let's get some sunlight in here!" She reached out with her magic to grab the curtains, but found only air. "Huh?" She muttered blearily, chalking the miss up to darkness and poor horn-eye coordination. She tried again, and missed. Once more, and missed. Again, missed. Half-snarling in grumpy frustration, she poured an excessive amount of power into her horn, bathing the entire room in a n eerie lavender luminescence.
The curtains were not fully closed. In fact, they were pulled back entirely, still snugly held back by their tasseled ties. The glass of the window could be fully seen, only nothing could be seen through it.
"Where... where did Ponyville go?" Spike asked, his voiced threaded with confusion and fear. Twilight unlatched the window, and opened it ever so slightly. A small amount of the darkness fell inside, where it turned purple in the light of Twilight's magic. Spike picked up a piece of it. He squished it, rolled it into a ball between his claws, and after a moment, popped it into his mouth.
"Spike!" she exclaimed, her light flickering as the focus shifted, "What have I told you about putting mysterious dark substances in your mouth?"
He finished chewing and swallowed. "It's just snow Twilight." He picked at a tooth with his claws. "Kind of... tingly snow. But still snow."
"Snow?" Twilight's mind raced to come up with, analyze, and evaluate theories as to how Spike's fifth floor window could be completely covered by snow. A moment later she finally vocalized her conclusions. "Ah, the big seasonal snow storm must have been larger than usual, and a significant amount fell off the roof to pile up on your balcony." She smiled confidently, " That explains it."
"Uh, Twilight?" Spike interrupted to crash her pleasant mindset. "I don't have a balcony."
"Well, then that means the only possible explanation is-" Twilight froze. A few sprigs of mane started to curl and a faint sound like a pane of glass shattering could be heard. In a flash, she was airborne and speeding through the hallways. Library windows? Blocked. Her bedroom balcony? Inaccessible. The main doors? Despite pulling with all her magic, sealed shut. The castle was well and truly buried.
Spike finally caught up to her in the map room. The memory infused strings of gems hanging from the roots of her chandelier lit the room in a subtle array of colors. Not enough light to read by, but plenty to navigate around obstacles. He found Twilight near one of the windows, puffing and panting hard. Wisps of smoke came off her horn, which she lit periodically to no visible effect.
"Oh my gosh!" he exclaimed as he ran to her side, "Twilight are you okay? What happened to your horn."
"Tried.. to teleport... outside the castle..." she panted, "Not... working. Spell fails... every time."
"So you're saying we're trapped here until somepony can get us out?!"
"Looks... like it."Her breathing slowed as she finally caught her breath. "We need to get a message out. Let ponies know we're okay and find out what happened. But how?" She started pacing. "If something is blocking teleportation, then I'm not sure what other magics might be able to break through."
"I think..." Spike half-started before clamming up.
"What is it Spike?" She probed. "There are no bad ideas and I'm frankly open to options."
"I think my dragon magic might be able to get through it." He admitted.
"That's certainly an idea," she acknowledged, "but I don't want you to get hurt. If your magic does get repelled, you could be hit with magical backlash like I did when I tried to teleport. And you're a lot less magically durable then an alicorn is. So maybe let's keep that idea in far reserve."
"No, I'm telling you Twilight. My magic can get through to the outside." He insisted.
"But how do you know?" She pointed out. "There's no way you could know for sure and I don't want to risk you getting hurt when there could be a safer option."
He sighed. "I was hoping to keep this a secret a while longer..." He raised his voice and his eyes. "Look, I've been corresponding with Ember, alright?"
Twilight blinked. "Ember? The dragon Lord? What does she have to do with this?"
Spike sighed again, figuring he might as well come clean entirely now that this much was out. "We started talking not long after we first met, but it was really hard trying to find anyone who would deliver mail to the dragonlands. So Ember showed me a pattern of dragonic runes which let us send messages and items instantly. So we started an exchange. I taught her about friendship and how to rule a nation, and she's been teaching me about dragon magic, history, and cooking." He held out a few red, blue, and green shards. "She just sent me a sampler of a new recipe this morning, so I know dragon magic still works."
Twilight didn't respond for a moment as she processed all this. Eventually, she chose her response. "Is the portal in your bathroom somewhere?"
He nodded in surprise. "Yeah, how'd you know?"
"I had some suspicions, but I only thought you had a secret stash somewhere." She smiled as she drew him close. "But I'm also so proud of you Spike! So young and already with your own friendship student!"
"Yeah, yeah, save the mushy praise for Starlight." he made a half-hearted attempt to wriggle out of her hug, "We still need to get a message out."
Twilight sobered up quickly. "Right. You need to send a message, but being snowed in seems rather too insignificant of an issue to take directly to Celestia, even if it is magic blocking snow."
Spike tut-tut-tutted with a smile. "Did you forget already? I've been learning more about how dragon magic works. I haven't tried it too much, but if you have a feather or bit of fur, I should be able to send a message to whoever you want."
Twilight's smile grew quick and fast. With a poof, she disappeared, only to reappear a moment later with a blue feather in her mouth and some paper and an ink well under her wing. She spit it into his hands as she dropped the ink and paper. "Ptoo! I'm glad I can still teleport within the castle. So, all you need is a feather to send a message?"
He nodded as he gathered up the ink and paper. "Anything with a strong magic signature really. Though I've only tried it with scales so far. Why do you have one of Rainbow Dash's feathers?"
"Oh, she crashed into my study once when a trick went wrong and broke nearly all my quills. It was just before molting season, so after her feathers came out she had them made into new quills as an apology."
"Huh, that was oddly thoughtful of her." He dipped the blue quill into the ink and set it to the paper. "Er... what do you want me to say?"
"Ahem," She began:
Rainbow Dash, Hopefully this message gets to you, we haven't tried using Spike's magic in this way before. I'm not sure what happened, but we seem to be snowed in. Entirely. As in we've yet to find a window or door though which we can see sunlight. Also, I can't teleport through it. Only Spike's dragon magic seems to be able to pass through. Not sure what's happened, but could you gather some ponies and try to lend us a hoof?
Thanks, Twilight.
P.S. Spike here. To reply, write on the back of this page and set it on fire. In theory it should head back to me.
Spike wrapped the page around the quill, and with a whoosh of flame both floated away as a small cloud of green smoke.
"So, now what?" Spike asked.
"It will probably be a while before she responds, if the message gets to her at all." Twilight replied, "I suppose until then we should get to lighting candles."
With a nod of agreement, the pair split up, each tackling different sections of the castle. Luckily, the halls came pre-lined with candles in case of an emergency such as this (or for just as lighting for nighttime events and gatherings). Spike lit the candles he came across with his fire breath, while Twilight relied on a low-power ignition spell. It wasn't long, however, until the pair was forced back together.
"Twilight!!" Spike's voice echoed, "Come to the ballroom, we've got a problem!"
In a swirl of magic she arrived. "What is it Spike?" she asked, "What could possibly be worse than being buried alive in magic-blocking snow?"
He pointed out into the ballroom, which was significantly more crowded than it had been the previous day. "Not being buried alone."
Twilight turned to follow his finger, and soon stared in slack-jawed shock. Near the grove of pear trees, and avoiding the protective mother geese, was a herd or cows. Eight of them, precisely. They used their tails to swat away at the birds who tried to land on them, but otherwise stood still in a small, worried lump. Upon seeing the alicorn, a chorus of whispers spread amongst them. After a moment, one particularly confident individual (or possibly the least lucky of them) left the group to make her way towards Twilight. She lowered into a kneeling bow as she approached.
"Your- your highness." The unnamed cow said reverently.
"Um, hi?" Twilight started awkwardly, "I mean, greetings. Why are you in my castle?"
The heifer looked up in confusion. "Oh. I was hoping you could tell us that."
Twilight and Spike shared a glance that was equal parts worry and confusion. She turned back to the cow. "Please, there's no need to bow. What's your name, and how did you get here?"
She rose and coughed briefly before beginning. "Thank you, your highness. My name is Mirabelle. The girls over there and I are part of a much larger herd based just outside Whinnyapolis. We all went to sleep last night, same as normal, and when we woke up we were here, in this room. We'd really like to apologize for the inconvenience, and would just really like to go home."
Twilight rubbed her forehead. This was not going to be fun. "I'm sorry as well. Strange things have been going on lately, causing random objects and beings to start appearing here. We're working on a solution now, but I would like to make it clear that it is through no fault of your own that this happened to affect you." Mirabelle nodded in thanks. "As for getting you home, as you can see from the windows, we're completely snowed in. We've sent out a request for aid, but it should still be a couple of hours at the least. But once a path is cleared, I promise you'll all have tickets on the first train back to Whinnyapolis for your trouble. First class, of course."
Mirabelle thanked her, and returned to her herd to disseminate the news. Twilight turned back to Spike. "I don't like this, Spike. Plants and birds are one thing, but now innocent beings are getting pulled into this."
"I don't like it either." He agreed. "I hope at least this is like the rings, and we go back to birds after. If worst comes to worst, I don't think we have room to house too many guests."
He would have continued, but just then Spike felt the familiar tingle of a incoming message. He released his fireball, which quickly reconstituted into a parchment with slightly singed edges. Twilight grabbed it and began to read.
hey I'm glad you guys are okay. a storm escaped the Everfree last night that nopony saw coming. we all left our posts to go deal with it, and nopony was able to react in time when it merged with the season's snow shipment. Long story short, it buried everything. and cause its from the everfree, the snow resists magic. even our pegasus magic isn't working, so we're trying to clear everything the earth pony way. Mayor Mare's made a priority list of who and what to dig out first, mostly ponies who either will be really useful at clearing snow or who don't have a lot of stored food. we're working hard as we can, but the Mayor put you down kinda far on the list. you've got a lot of food stored in the castle cellars, right? anyways, we're doing what we can but it could be a few days before we get to you. sorry about that. -RD
also, I hope this message gets through. I had to hit it with lightning to set it on fire.
Twilight groaned as she finished the message. "I'll go and break the bad news to our guests. Spike, could you go prepare some guest rooms and then maybe check our stored supplies? This is going to be a looong couple of days."
Again it was dark, but today Twilight was prepared. As her wind-up alarm clock hit 7:30, a miniature ball of artificial sunlight emerged from the top. Thought insignificant compared to the real thing, it still lit up the room brighter than any candle or lantern ever could. As she rose from her sleep, she glanced at the adjacent window. Despite an entire day passing, it was still as dark and occluded as it had ever been. She sighed silently, apparently other ponies were on a higher priority than she was. The practical part of her mind agreed that is was the most efficient decision. With the snow resisting everything from magical fireballs to simple telekinesis, clearing it would be like Winter Wrap but with harshly reinforced rules. Without magic, her only other contribution would be organization, and for once the Mayor seemed to have that well in hoof. Plus the castle stores were well stocked with provisions (in case of the however unlikely event of a siege) and Twilight was more than capable of keeping the interior livable despite the snow.
Speaking of which, is was due time to refresh those enchantments. Forgoing her usual morning routines, Twilight made a beeline to the map and throne room. It being the magical nexus of the castle, she had chosen it as the ideal location to establish several large scale habitation spells. With a wave of her horn, the previously invisible spell matrices faded into view. Each was a large circle hovering in the air, composed of a myriad of shapes and colors which conveyed details regarding each spell's purpose and condition. Seeing as several were already running red with low power, she canceled them so they could be cast again. The air recycling spell, as well as a wind generating spell and dehumidifying spell were all recast quickly and easily. The heating spell, however, was still going strong.
Twilight took a moment to once again wonder at it's design. Spike had cast this one himself, using his growing knowledge of draconic sorcery. Unlike her spells, this matrix was carved directly into the top of a crystalline box. The indecipherable runes glowed constantly, as a constant blast of toasty warm air poured forth from the open end. It was a marvel of magical engineering, and one she hoped to study in much greater detail once her unjust house arrest was lifted.
She was startled from her thoughts by the sound of clinking and rattling coming up from a hallway behind her. She turned to see Spike wearing a white chef's hat and wheeling in a large cart of breakfast items. The upper level was stacked high with toast and bottles of various condiments, while the lower section held tray after tray of still sizzling hay-bacon strips. Surely poked her head out from a little door cut into the front facing part of Spike's hat. He stopped pushing in order to both acknowledge Twilight and catch his breath.
"Morning Twilight." He said.
"Good morning Spike." She took in his trays of food. "Is this for our unfortunate house guests?"
"Yeah," he acknowledged as he snagged a slice of hay-bacon that was about to fall off. He popped it in his mouth with a satisfying crunch. "I'm not sure what cows eat, but I guessed it couldn't be too different from us."
Twilight nodded. "This should be fine. It still seems like a lot though."
"Oh," he started, "I guess you haven't been down to the ballroom yet today."
"No," she admitted, "I've only just gotten up. What's happened down in the ballroom?"
Spike deadpanned. "I'll give you three guesses and the first two don't count."
"No..." she breathed.
"Yep."
"But... but how? We're completely blocked in, both physically and magically! There's absolutely no way more things could have showed up today!" Twilight exclaimed.
He shrugged. "You can believe me or not, just help me push this there and you can see for yourself." He began pushing the cart once more in the direction of the ballroom. "And I don't think they'd take too kindly to you calling them 'things'."
The first thing to reach Twilight and Spike was the sound of music. It was a classical piece, something tangentially related to the holidays, but Twilight could quite put her hoof on it. More surprisingly, it despite sounding very much like instruments, if one listened closely it was clearly made of birdsong.
The pair opened the double ballroom doors to a stunning sight. The most noticeable thing was the dancers. Nine ponies, an equal representation of the three races, were dancing across the center of the ballroom floor. One stood apart, occasionally barking instructions to the other eight. It appeared to be some sort of ballet, or something similarly acrobatic. The cows had also apparently doubled in number, and were watching the performance from an opposing wall, safely out of reach of the kicking legs and gliding jumps. The birds, numerous though they were, had apparently somehow been corralled into a decent musical accompaniment. Even the usually troublesome forty-five geese and swans were providing the low notes to the collective song. Unfortunately, somepony had left the golden rings in a large pile by the doorway, and several had slid away. One caught under the wheel of Spike's trolley, causing it to teeter and tip.
Twilight quickly stabilized it, but not before a tray of hay-bacon slid off, clattering loudly on the crystal floor. The noise spooked the birds, whose song abruptly devolved into a panicked cacophony. This distracted the dancers, several of whom suddenly took awkward landings, falls, and one unfortunate pair who collided headfirst. The unicorn who had been giving them directions spun around, a fire in her eyes.
"Jou!" she declared angrily as she singled Twilight out with a pointed hoof. Her pale yellow mane was done up in a tight, professional bun, and her flawless orange coat was only slightly faded with age. Her cutie mark was a pair of crossed ballerina slippers en pointe. She marched right up to Twilight's face in a frustrated huff.
"Do jou haff any idea how hard it vas to get zoze blazted birds to zing togezer?" She demanded, nearly spitting in Twilight's face. She turn back to one of the other ponies to bark an order. "Feazer Flight! Get zem back in line!"
One of the earth ponies rubbing her head snapped to attention. "Yes, Madame! Of course Madame!" She raced over to where the largest congregation of birds was without a moment's hesitation. The angry madame turn back to wards Twilight.
"Now, voo are jou, and vhy are jou here?"
Twilight's gaze gardened. "I could ask you the same thing. This is my castle after all."
The unicorn faltered and her gaze wandered to Twilight's back, apparently having now noticed the wings before. Twilight gave them a quick ruffle, just to make sure she saw them. The new mare's anger quickly transitioned into shock, followed by terror. She immediately prostrated herself on the ground. "Your majesty! I- I am zo zorry! Pleaze forgif me, I did not recognize jou!"
Twilight sighed, still not happy with the affect her alicorn status had on ponies who didn't know her well (even when it stopped them from being angry at her). "Please, it's alright, there's no need to bow. You didn't realize and I made a mistake. Raise your head." The unicorn rose, but still failed to meet Twilight's gaze. "Now, back to who you are and why you're here."
"Ov... ov course." The previously imposing unicorn practically trembled in front of a princess. "Zese ponies and I are part of ze Royal Canterlot Ballet Studio. I am zeir instructor, Margot Ponyteyn. Vee vere practicing late lazt night, rehearzing for our holiday performanze in two veeks time, vhen vee vere all zuddenly hit vith a vave of fatigue, all ov us at vonce. Ven vee avoke, ve vere here." She gestured to the halls around her.
"And so you... just arranged music and kept practicing?" Twilight asked, both curious and surprised.
"Yes. Vat else could vee do? I had to keep my girls in shape and on zeir hooftips!" She quickly turned back to her students as her old anger returned. "Do not ztop just becauze ze muzik is gone! Practize your stretches until Feazer can restore the birds to order!" She turned back to Twilight. "I am zorry about zat. Jou haff to be strict or zey vill slack off."
Twilight nodded hesitantly in agreement. "I... suppose so. Anyway, I'm very sorry for the trouble you've found yourselves in, but until the ponies outside can get the snow cleared, you're as trapped in here as the rest of us."
She sniffed disdainfully. "It matterz not. Zis place is az good az any for my girls to practice."
Spike pushed his cart forward a little. "Well as long as you're here, I brought breakfast."
Ponyteyn regarded to little dragon briefly before once more turning back to her students with a shrill whistle. "Alright ladiez! Fifteen minute break for breakfast!"
The team of tired ponies headed over quickly as Twilight and Spike backed away. Within moments, the cart was ravaged by the hungry ballerinas. Despite their petite statures, they tore into the food like starving Timberwolves. Spike sighed as he watched all his hard work get scarfed up and realized he'd have to prepare nearly twice as much for the cows, who hadn't even been served yet. Feeling a wing o his back, he caught Twilight's gaze as she indicated they should put a little more distance between them and their guests. He followed her until the sound of the dancers eating had faded to a dull background noise.
"Spike, how did they get in here?!" Twilight asked in a frenzied whisper.
"How should I know?" He rebutted, "The same way as everything else I guess?"
"But we're completely cut off! There's no way in or out of the castle, magical or otherwise!"
"Except dragon magic." He pointed out.
"Right," she acknowledged, "But what dragon do we know that would want to kidnap ponies, and fill my house with them?! And that's not even taking into consideration the birds and the trees!"
As Twilight vented her spleen, Spike put a claw to his chin as he gathered his best 'deep thinking' expression. This was starting to feel a little bit... familiar. But how? He knew it might involve draconic magic, maybe. It also involved lots of unwanted and useless items showing up in the castle. Oh it was just on the tip of his brain but he just couldn't quite put his claw on it! Something must have kickstarted the whole process, right? When did this all start? Well, they'd only ever gotten one pear trees a day. He glanced at the miniature grove, where most of the birds had reconvened. Nine trees. So that's now many days it had been. So what happened ten days ago that could have started everything? Wait, hadn't that been when Pinkie-
"Spike? Are you okay?" Twilight interrupted, concern obvious in her voice.
"Huh? Yeah, just thinking. Why?"
"Oh," she sighed in relief, "You were making this terrible face, I thought you were having an attack of some kind."
"Hey Twilight, what was that thing you were telling me about the other week?" he ventured cautiously, "That Pinkie told you while she helped you decorate?"
"What, her little 'Hearth's Warming Pixie' myth?" Twilight asked in surprise.
"Yeah that. Didn't you say the pixie was supposed to be half-dragon or something?"
She sighed. "Yes, Spike I did say that, but it's a myth. I read it from a book about how the myth was brought to Equestria, specifically and intentionally. It's just an old story, nothing more."
"Isn't that what they all said about Nightmare Moon?" he pointed out cleverly.
Twilight paused, torn between herself for a moment, before shaking her head. "It's not the same thing. This is completely different." She rationalized. "Whoever is behind this, however they're behind this, I guarantee you it's a simple, easily explained answer which will satisfy all our questions without having to resort to mythological creatures which definitely do not exist."
"Time iz up!" Ponyteyn's shrill voice echoed across the hall. "Everypony, take your places! Vee start from ze top!"
The birds launched back into their chorus, magnitudes louder than they had been before. Spike and Twilight covered their ears as Twilight quickly teleported them back to the map room. Even there, they could still here the sound of the music and Ponyteyn shouting "Wrong! Again!" at some mistake. Spike grumbled as he turned to walk back towards the kitchens.
"In any case, I guess I'll get started on breakfast for the cows then. Hopefully those dancers won't eat all of this too." He turned back towards Twilight with a grumpy expression. "And for both our sakes I hope you figure this one out soon Twilight. Our supplies aren't going to last forever."
In the distance, they could hear Ponyteyn yelling at some pony in particular. The high notes of her voice rang off the crystal like a tuning fork. Twilight held her head as she felt a migraine coming on. "If our sanity even lasts that long."
Twilight did not wake up the next morning. In order to wake up, she would have first needed to fall asleep, a feat she found utterly impossible. The ballet instructor's voice had a peculiar quality to it. Even if she could not make out the words, Twilight could still somehow hear the tone of her voice resonating throughout the crystal of the castle. It carried far and wide, audible at a barely perceptible level in every nook and cranny. It was inescapable, from the lowest cellar to the highest tower, the incessant sound haunted her. So she spent the night where she always did when she had a headache: the library.
Even there, the noise haunted her, but it was at least bearable between the soothing covers of her books. She spent the night studying anything that could be relevant, anything at all. Her limited selection of books on draconic magic, a slim few volumes on unexpected teleportations, and the entire shelf of mythology. Though the rational part of her brain hurt at admit it, Pinkie Pie's 'Hearth Warming Pixie' was rapidly becoming the most plausible explanation to her situation. True, Nightmare Moon had also been considered a myth, but her legend was primarily passed on word-of-mouth, with little to no records or writings about it. The Hearths Warming Pixie on the other hoof, was easily indexed and researched across multiple sources. She could trace the legend's date and reason it was introduced to Equestria, how it had been changed and modified during and since then. She could produce pages upon pages of artist's depictions of the Pixie, sorted with specific variances based on region and age. With a bit of digging, she even found the supposed origin of the myth; an ancient minotaur hero who supposedly slew a dragon, formed it's hide into armor, then retired as a local guard to deal out punishments to the misbehaving youth of his village. The Pixie couldn't hold a candle to Nightmare Moon.
Still, the thought worried her. No one had believed her about Nightmare Moon, could she now be the one on the wrong side of history?
Still, she researched every option available. She even initially began to suspect it all of being one of Discord's elaborate pranks, before she remembered a conversation she had had with Fluttershy several days before when she had come to see the birds. Apparently, despite being strongly on the road to redemption, Discord still had a strongly adverse reaction to the holidays. To quote Fluttershy's paraphrasing "all the systematic cheer and ritualistic goodwill played havoc with his sinuses", and he was spending the holidays safely in his pocket chaos dimension.
Though she did not sleep, Twilight did eventually fall into a trance-like stupor, where she sat staring at a single page for over two hours, re-reading the opening paragraph. This was how Spike found her the next morning, staring at the page like Pinkie Pie at drying paint.
"Uh, Twilight?" He shook her shoulder. "Twilight are you awake?"
"I... ugh... what?" She shook herself out of the stupor.
"You spent the whole night in the library. Again." He chided.
She rubbed her eyes blearily. "Sorry Spike, I just couldn't get to sleep, so I spent the night researching."
"Find anything?" he asked.
"Not really... I don't know enough about dragon magic to really analyze if it's even being used here, previously recorded events of spontaneous teleportation are wildly different from what we've seen here, and most of these legends are either ridiculous or contradictory! It just doesn't make any sense!"
"Speaking of not making any sense..." Spike began.
"Oh no."
"Oh yes. We've got more guests."
In addition to the music, Twilight and Spike could hear arguing emanating coming from ballroom as well. The scene they opened the doors to was worse than yesterday. The number of ponies seemed to have tripled, and the chaos was greater than before. Two sets seemed to be dancing still, while another was bouncing about aimlessly. For some reason, they seemed to have springs attached to their hooves, and were moaning helplessly.
'You! You there! Unicorn by the door! Please help us!" A middle-aged earth pony with a greying mane called out. "These springs seem to be enchanted to keep bouncing, and neither of those bickering unicorns over there will help! Please!"
Instantly moved by his plight, Twilight halted him and his bouncing compatriots in midair. Removing the springs (which continued to bounce about on their own in a corner) she set the ponies back down, the one who had spoken closest to her. Meanwhile, Spike headed off to see what the dancers were arguing so loudly about.
"Thank you so much! I don't know how much longer we could have stood that torment!" He thanked her profusely, nearly in tears. After a moment he regained his composure and checked over his similarly fated companions. "Is everypony alright? Alright, everypony other than Pencil Pusher once he finishes spoiling his breakfast in the corner? Good? Okay then." He turned back to Twilight. "Well then, I suppose proper introductions are in order. My name is Legal Notary, Vice-Mayor of Trottingham. These assorted ponies with me are some of my assistants and various other office staff. "
"Let me guess," Twilight interrupted, "You all either went to sleep or collectively passed out in your office, and awoke here mysteriously? With no other clue regarding your arrival?"
"That's- That's exactly right!" He exclaimed, "But how could you possibly know that."
She sighed. "You're not the first ponies this has happened to. The same thing happened to the Royal Canterlot Ballet yesterday, and a herd of cows from Whinnyapolis the day before."
As she spoke, Spike retook his place by her side. "Also the Manehattan Ballet Corp." He added. "They just arrived today as well. Same story as everypony else, they all passed out during a rehearsal and woke up here. No one from the Canterlot troupe saw them arrive however. Apparently everyone in this room passed out simultaneously as well. Also, seems the head instructors from each school are old rivals or something. They've been yelling at each other about proper interpretations and a bunch of stuff from their pasts for a while now."
Twilight nodded in thanks before turning back to Notary. "As you see, this is an ongoing problem we're dealing with. We're working on solving the issue and restoring everypony to their homes as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, we're currently snowed in as well, though we are in communication with ponies on the outside."
He nodded in gratitude. "Many thanks, Princess. We will try to be hospitable guests during our time here, and cause you as little trouble as possible."
Twilight smiled. "Thank you. Now if you'll excuse me, my assistant and I will see about getting something to eat for everypony."
Twilight turned away quickly and began walking down the hallway. Spike hurried to catch up. As soon as they turned a corner, her regal posture and demeanor fell away as she slumped down. "More ponies!?" she muttered in disbelief. "It's just impossible!"
"Well, dragon magic does get through the barrier." Spike reminded.
Twilight shook her head quickly. "No Spike, I made sure to run a magical scan on them while I was removing their springs. There's not a trace of dragon magic on them anywhere. As far as I could tell, they all were pure earth pony bureaucrats. Nothing strange or out of place at all."
"Well..." Spike hesitated, "It still could be Pinkie's Pixie. You said the legends varied right?"
"No!" She half-shouted, "I resolutely refuse to believe the cause is this Pixie! Even now the facts and data are starting to contradict that theory, what with the lack of dragon magic; a clear and repeated trait in nearly all the legends!"
Spike sighed as he walked ahead towards the kitchens. "Fine, believe what you want, but this Pixie is sounding more and more plausible to me. Could you at least help me with the breakfast please? We're going to need some powerful growth spells or else our one hay-bacon tree just isn't going to last feeding this many mouths!"
Tonight, Twilight was ready. Someway, somehow, someone was sneaking things into her home. But whether their origin be magical or physical, they had to be entering from some point in the castle. The castle was too big to be patrolled by a single alicorn and dragon team. Things could easily be snuck in in whatever part of the castle she wasn't actively monitoring. No, what she needed was a team. And, thanks to her rapidly growing unexpected entourage, she finally had one.
The cows agreed readily. There were over two dozen of them, luckily all from the same herd. They were primarily thankful for the hospitality and stellar food, and wanted the help out any way they could.
The bureaucrats had been trickier to convince. Most were middle-aged government officials and not keen on the idea of keeping watch all night, even if the job was done in shifts. But an impassioned speech about the power of friendship and cooperation and ponies coming together against adversity soon rallied them. Before long they were drawing up maps of the castle, plotting out the most efficient patrol routes and most likely points of magical or physical ingress.
The dancers... The dancers had been both difficult and straightforward. After her friendship speech failed, Twilight tried using their rivalry to spur them to each try and outperform the other at defending the castle. Unfortunately, the dancing instructors saw through this very easily and failed to take the bait. Eventually, Twilight was forced to put her hoof down and, by royal decree, conscript both dancers and dance instructors as an impromptu guard force. The older mares grumbled, but didn't dare disobey a direct order from a Princess.
They divided the castle into sections, each section having a hoofful to teams assigned to it, each team composed of three members. The plan was to patrol the castle in shifts. Cycle through the halls along a determined path, checking each room, before rendezvousing back with the others to trade responsibility with another team. It was a simple, elegant plan, with a zero chance of failure. After all, with so many teams patrolling and searching, how could they possibly miss the expected arrival of nearly thirty ponies and cows?
Twilight strode to the ballroom with a confidence the belied her fatigue. It was time to see the results of her plan. Her perfect plan that would one hundred percent without a doubt definitely work. Either they would catch the culprit in the act, thus solving the mystery, or no new gifts would appear, thus proving the culprit merely a pony instead of some logic-breaking myth. Or possibly new gifts could somehow appear anyway, thus proving... Twilight did not want to think about that possibility.
For once, it was quiet in the ballroom. No cacophonous bird cries. No tight-lipped dance instructors berating their students. Even the quiet undercurrent of occasional lowing seemed to have abated. Everything was quiet and still...
With trepidation, Twilight opened the grand doors and poked her head in. Most of the teams seemed to have returned already. A few who had late shifts were still sleeping, but most were awake, conversing in hushed so as to not disturb the others. The birds and trees were stored off to one side, each grouped with like members of its kind. Notary noticed Twilight's arrival and trotted over.
"Your Highness," he bowed briefly before straightening, " I can report with confidence that nothing appeared in the East wing over the course of the night. No ponies, cows, poultry, or otherwise."
"Thank you Notary," Twilight acknowledged as a few more teams trickled in, " Have you heard from any of the other sectors yet?"
He nodded, stepping aside so another returning team could walk past. "Miss Metronome from Manehattan tallied reports from the teams in the central sector, who all reported nothing unusual.
As he spoke, a cranberry-maned yellow foal walked up to the two of them. "Captain Butterscotch reporting Miss Twilight Princess Ma'am!" He struck a serious, if lopsided, salute. "My team saw nothing strange in the West wing, the library, or the kitchens."
"Yes, thank you for your hard work." Twilight praised. The foal maintained his determined and rigid salute. "Oh yes, you're dismissed." With a smile, he turned and ran back to a group of similarly aged ponies.
"Its nice to see them taking this so seriously. " Twilight commented as she watched him run off. Vice-mayor Notary scrunched his muzzle in confusion and concentration.
"Princess..." he began, "Perhaps sleep deprivation is getting to me, but I don't recall there bring any foals present when we broke into teams last evening."
Twilight had been in the middle of waving to one of the foals when she froze. Slowly, she turned to meet his gaze, then turned back just as slowly to stare at the group of laughing playing foals. She stared at them for several long moments before turning her attention to the room as a whole. Did the geese seem quite that compacted when they were placed in their holding area last night? Did the line of pear trees really extend that far down the side of the room? And didn't it seem to be taking a remarkably long time for all the teams to return to the ballroom?
"Everypony! Single file lines!" Twilight demanded in a voice that shook the room and immediately roused everyone who had been asleep. "Cows in one line, dancers in the next, anypony not covered by those two categories in the final line! Now hop to it!"
Canterlot trained soldiers couldn't have responded half as efficiently as these creatures did. Within moments, every being stood rigid in their lines, as Twilight conducted a rapid headcount. She stomped over to Mirabelle, who had become the de facto leader of her rapidly growing herd. "Mirabelle," she began alarmingly sweetly, "Your teams found nothing out of the ordinary all night long, correct?"
"That's- That's right P-Princess."
"Then, could you please be so kind as to tell me why your herd suddenly has eight more members than it did last night!?"
"I-I-I don't know, Princess!" She cowered, frightened by this new side of the previously pleasant purple pony. "We did our rounds, we never strayed from the assigned routes or shift rotations. I can't imagine how this happened!"
Twilight sighed, knowing she'd get nothing else out of the frightened heifer, assuming she even had anything else to offer. Cows were well-known as a honest and straightforward people. She turned her attention to the row of dancers. "Alright then who among you is from the Canterlot Ballet Studio? Raise your hooves, up, up now." Nine hooves flew into the air. "Good, good. Hooves down please. Now, who is from the Manehattan Ballet Corp?" Again, nine hooves were raised. Twilight turned to the pony nearest to her who had not yet raised a hoof. ""You. Who are you, where are you from, and when and how did you get here?"
The frightened pink pegasus yelped quietly before swallowing her fear. "M-My name is Golden Slipper, your highness, and I-I'm from Las Pegasus. I'm part of an evening dinner show there. And I... I... I don't know how I got here!"
Twilight raised an eyebrow. "You 'don't know'? Explain yourself."
"I-I remember walking home from a late show last evening. I waved goodbye to some of my friends, then took a shortcut down an alley. Then-" She paused, and her eyes widened as if realizing something. "Then I was walking down a hall made of crystal, with these two other ponies I'd never seen before. I-I didn't think it was at all odd at the time, but now I- oh, Oh! Oh, crumbs where am I!" She began to look about in a panic, her eyes darting every which direction as if looking for some means of escape. Several other ponies also began to realize they had gone though remarkably similar experiences, and began to panic. The room began to dissolve into chaos.
"QUIAT!" Twilight yelled. She was thoroughly fed up with everything not making sense, and two days with no sleep was not helping her temper. As the room returned to it's hush, she turned her fiery attention to the newest group of arrivals. The foals. Remarkably, they seemed completely unperturbed by her yelling. They were all roughly the same age, maybe a year or two below her friends' sisters. Twilight took a few deep breaths to try and calm down. No good could possibly come from scaring eleven delicate young foals. The one who had identified himself as Butterscotch earlier stepped forward, and gave another cheery salute.
"Anything I can do for you Princess Highness Twilight Commander Ma'am Sir?"
Twilight sucked in a sharp breath, pushing herself to remain calm. "Yes, ah... Butterscotch, was it? Do you know how you got here?"
"Noooo~" He trilled through a gap-toothed grin. "I remember going to sleep back at the orphanage, and then I had a dream about marching through some halls, and then we were here!"
Something from his speech caught her attention. "Orphanage?"
"Yes Ma'am Sir. 'Helpin' Hooves Community Orphanage'," he recited, "Two, four, six, oh, one Fleeters Street, Baltimare." He looked at Twilight sweetly. "Are you going to be our mommy now?"
Her jaw dropped as she stumbled over a response. "I- Wha- Our?!"
The foal nodded. "Yeah, our." He gestured to the ten foals behind him. "We's all orphans, all of us."
Twilight groaned as she fell into a sitting position. She rubbed her temples as she tried to wrap her mind around this new development. Orphans!? Cows and dancers and pencil pushers were one thing, but orphan foals?! What kind of a monster could even consider such an idea? Butterscotch, as if sensing her distress, came over and patted her withers. "Don't worry new Mommy," he consoled, "We'll cheer you up with a song. We've been practicing for the benny-faxors ball." He stepped back to his compatriots, each of whom Twilight subconsciously noted had a three-note wooden whistle on a string around their necks. All were very clearly hoofmade, and several of them quite poorly. They took a collective deep breath in, and began to play.
The music, if one was deaf enough to call it such, was terrible. Several of the pipes were so badly made they couldn't even produce proper notes. Those that could were almost never in the same octave as the others. The players themselves were terrible too. Even those that had working pipes could barely play one proper note out of three. It was loud, it was screechy, it was downright painful to listen to. But the orphan's little faces gleamed so brightly as they played their hearts out to please their 'new mommy'. One look was enough to know that they thought they could rival the Canterlot Philharmonic.
Twilight fell to the ground in a silent scream. Despite the wrong notes, despite their terrible lack of tempo and coordination, her analytical mind could still decipher what the song was supposed to be. It was an old song, still occasionally played around the holidays but mostly forgotten. Twilight herself hadn't heard the tune since she was a filly, but in a flash the memories came rushing back. It was fitting, strangely enough, but for the worst possible reason. As Twilight collapsed and ponies began running to her aid, the name of the tune and it's implications rang throughout her mind like a church bell.
Twilight did not want to get up. What was the point anymore? So she didn't.
And that was how Spike found her at nearly lunchtime, balled up under her covers.
"Twilight?" He ventured forward cautiously. A low moan oozed from beneath the covers in response. He sighed, and hopped up on the bed beside her. He kicked his legs idly. "Twilight..." he started, but the words died in the air. The awkward silence hung between them. Twilight in a terrible place, and Spike not knowing how to give her the help she needed.
"I don't know what to do Spike..." Her words were so quiet they barely reached him. "How can I call myself a rational scientifically-minded pony, when faced with all this..."
"I wouldn't know," he replied, "I've never been in any sort of situation like this."
"I could make it end," she whispered, "And all I'd have to do is give up my pride and sacrifice my belief that science and magic can explain the world."
"Well, not really." Spike admitted, "You've done it before."
A section of the Twi-lump moved. Almost like an ear had perked up curiously. Spike didn't notice.
"I mean," he continued, more voicing his thoughts than anything else, "I'm pretty sure this Pixie is behind everything, and I'm fine admitting that. I'm not as scientifically-minded as you, so maybe it's easier for me to accept the impossible. But you've done it too, before." He gazed upward, thoughtfully. "The way I see it, this Pixie is a lot like Pinkie. Pinkie's done a lot of impossible stuff, hay, she's constantly doing impossible stuff. And you tried to explain it. You spent weeks studying her every move, running every physical and magical test in the book. And in the end, you found nothing. You couldn't explain her impossible tricks. But that doesn't mean you suddenly denied that they ever happened. You gave up, shrugged, and decided 'That's Pinkie'. The same thing with Discord. There's not a single magical theory that can explain what he does, but you just accept that that's fine because he calls it 'Chaos Magic' and separates it from 'normal magic'. Sure there's a lot of legends about the Pixie, but I bet there's plenty about Discord too if you went looking."
The lump behind Spike rose, like a pony raising her head.
"It's like, you can't accept things because they don't fit in your definition of the rules of how magic works, but you're also willing to ignore exceptions to those rules so long as they're classified as something outside of normal magic, like Pinkie or Discord. Can't you just call the Pixie something that works outside of normal magic?" He scratched his chin thoughtfully. "I think it's kinda like that thing with the bumblebee you told me once. About how there's no way they should be able to fly but-" He stopped as he felt a thin bit of magic holding his lips together. He turned, to see Twilight looking at him.
"That'll do Spike," She smiled at him, "I think that's exactly what I needed to hear." She hopped up onto her hooves, renewed confidence and energy emanating from her like an aura. "I may not like the word 'believe', but I suppose I can accept that such a creature as the Hearth Warming Pixie could potentially exist, and perform feats through the use of some kind of unknown magic such as those seem here over the past two weeks."
Spike grew a cheeky grin. "That sure sounds like belief to me."
Twilight laughed as she jumped to the floor, performing an expert flip as she did. "Call it what you will, but I say it's time we appease this Pixie."
"You have a plan?"
Twilight's grin bordered on manic, but there was a sneaky spark in her eye. "Pinkie said this Pixie thrives on holiday cheer, right? So let's appease it with all the holiday festivities we can!"
Twilight threw open the doors to the kitchens. With a flare of her magic, every stove, oven, and cook-top flared to life. In marched the dancers, four by four, who took their places at various work stations. Twilight stood proudly at the head of the room. "Alright everypony! I know you're not bakers, some of you may have never cooked so much as a bowl of soup, but today, if we're going to stop these dislocations from happening to more innocent ponies, then we're going to need as many sweet treats as we can churn out!"
One mare raised a hoof. "And you're sure this will work? Baking will stop more ponies from showing up?"
The fiery gleam of confidence echoed in Twilight's eyes as she responded. "Yes I am. To help you all out, I'm leaving my dutiful assistant Spike in charge. Please treat him with the respect you'd treat me."
She swiftly exited the room as Spike hopped up onto the long table that ran the length of the room. "Alright ladies!" he barked, "We've got a lot of baking to do! Stations one through four, you're on cookies. Five through eight, puddings. Nine through twelve, get me some cakes, pronto! Team thirteen, gingerbread village, on the double! Use your friends if you have trouble, but I am also here to answer your questions as well as provide assistance and advice. Do I make myself clear?" There was a general murmuring. "What was that? Did I hear a 'Yes Chef Spike'?"
"Yes, Chef Spike!" the mares cried in unison.
"Now that's what I like to hear!" He grabbed a stack of cookbooks from the end of the table and tossed them back over his head. A book landed in front of each team, falling open to pages relevant to exactly what he'd assigned. "Now let's get cooking!"
Twilight led the bureaucrats and the cows in decorating the castle proper. Though some had been done with her friends days earlier, most work had been forgotten in the recent chaos. The bureaucrats, they found, were especially good at coordinating decorations. Everything available was placed as efficiently as possible, every bauble evenly spaced, and every string of garland spread to cover the most possible area. Some of those with stronger stomachs even reapplied their enchanted springs, using the additional height to decorate higher balconies and window tops.
The cows couldn't help as broadly as the others. Lacking the magic that allowed ponies to grip objects, they instead utilized their brute strength. Working in teams, they were able to coordinate moving large items of furniture into proper places or away from where they weren't needed.
The orphans practiced their music in the ballroom. Once Twilight had presented them with new crystal pipes (repurposed from Spike's still broken bathroom) they actually weren't half bad sounding. Twilight teamed them up with the band of drummers which had shown up that morning (a marching group from Seaddle). While the drummers weren't trained on woodwinds, they could still teach the tots about tempo, rhythm, and hitting the right notes. The birds also helped with this, as one of the ballet dancers had a secondary talent of bird-keeping. This made them far more manageable, even useful.
By that evening, everything was prepared.
It was a party to remember. The food was unending, and the music was actually good. Twilight unlocked the deep cellars and rolled out the good drink. Wine and spirits flowed freely, though a few ponies made sure to keep it clear of the foals. Spirits were high as laughter and frivolity filled the normally reserved halls. Even Twilight's sacred library was not immune to the powerful force of partying. The orphans competed to build the strongest holiday book forts, and tested them through combat by pillow. And after a few drinks, some of the adults joined in as well. Even Twilight joined in the festivities, though she worked hard to ensure the party would compensate for everypony missing Hearth Warming, as they probably would if the snow wasn't cleared soon.
You wanted frivolity? You got it. Twilight thought to herself, Sweet snacks? I've got tables full. Holiday cheer? It's here in spades. She smirked as she thought of everything this Pixie had put her through. You want me to keep the holidays in my heart and acknowledge you? Well here's my response: When it comes to working together and friendship, you messed with the wrong pony, Pixie. Hit me with your best shot.
~~~ On the Thirteenth Day~~~
Twilight awoke, groggy and maybe a little hungover. She rubbed her eyes as she struggled to stand. Why was her bed so hard and uncomfortable? Oh, she'd slept on the floor, that would explain it. She stretched out, hearing her neck and back crack several times. She tilted her head left and right, producing two more distinct cracks which echoed through the silent halls.
Wait, silent halls? Twilight strained her ears. Everything was quiet. Not a 'there's nopony her quiet', not a 'everypony is asleep quiet', this was a 'there is no one anywhere nearby' kind of silence. Shaking out her stiff muscles, she trotted down the halls at a brisk pace. The remains of a party were everywhere. Empty cups and half-finished plates festooned nearly every flat surface. A few pieces of garland were hanging loose by one end, causing them to drape across doorways like hanging vines. Twilight finally reached the ballroom doors, which were slightly blocked by a mini-fortress of mattresses and pillows. Brushing them aside, she forced her way through the doors.
The hall was a mess. If the hallways were the results of a minor scuffle, then the ballroom was a warzone. It was impossible to take a step without landing on something. A crushed party hat, a slice of unfinished cake, a large vegetable oil slick. Twilight took great care to avoid the latter at all costs. She eventually made her way to the center of the room, where a large pile of debris pulsed slightly. She brushed aside the pile to reveal a slumbering dragon wearing a lampshade. With a soft cooing, a partridge poked it's head out from the top of the shade, creating the comical image of a dragon with a partridge's head wearing a strange dress. Twilight shook his slightly.
"No Princess..." he murmured, "I'll make sure she doesn't study too late..."
"Spike." Twilight shook him again, "You need to wake up, something's wrong."
Slowly, the adolescent dragon rose from his slumber. "Ugh... my head... What's the problem Twilight?"
"Look around you."
He turned about as he rubbed his rapidly widening eyes. "Whoa... what a mess. I hope I'm going to get some help cleaning this up Twi."
"No Spike, not the mess. Listen." She paused so they could both listen.
"I don't hear anything." he eventually responded.
"Exactly. Nothing. Silence. We're alone."
"Alone? But what about-"
"Gone. I haven't seen so much as a bird since I woke up."
The partridge still on Spike's head made itself known with a curious coo. "Not counting Surely." Twilight recanted.
Spike's stunned expression slowly grew into a smile. "Did- did we do it? Did we win?"
Twilight smiled back. "Yes Spike, I think we did. We're finally free."
Just then, a sound echoed through the halls. It was faint, but but occupants of the ballroom heard it. They swiveled toward the source of the sound. There was another, it was a dull echoing thud. Nodding in instant agreement, Spike vaulted onto Twilight's back as she spread her wings. She sailed into the hall, shifting direction every time the noise repeated. The pair soon found themselves at the front hall again, where the noise echoed too much to pinpoint.
"What do you think it is?" Spike asked as he cast his gaze about the room.
"I don't know Spike," her horn was already lit, prepared for whatever it could be, "But I won't take too kindly to a new problem so soon after we sorted out the last one."
They waited for the noise to repeat. It didn't. The tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife. Suddenly, without warning, there was a knock on the main door. A perfectly normal innocent knock.
Almost instinctively, Spike hopped off Twilight and opened the door.
As soon as he opened it, a very familiar purple pony walked in.
"You know, they say it's hard coming back after a long time away, but I don't think this is what they meant." Starlight Glimmer quipped. A tiny smirk grew at the corner of her mouth, though she visibly fought it. "I heard you've been having some difficulty getting out of the house Twilight, so I thought I'd come back early to lend a hoof." She looked confused for a moment, before frowning and smacking her face with her hoof and a groan. "Shoot, I said both! I worked so hard on choosing a line for my big dramatic entrance and I mucked it all up!"
"Starlight!" Twilight cried as she ran over to her friend and student. "You came back from your trip early! What happened to Hearth's Warming with your village?"
Starlight smiled. "When I heard about how you were stranded in your own home by magically insulated snow, well, what kind of friend would I be if I didn't come to your aid?"
Spike glanced behind her, seeing a pony-sized tunnel that ran for an incredibly long distance, at the end of which a pinprick of light marked the exit. Meanwhile, Starlight and Twilight continued talking.
"They gave up on trying to dig the houses out from the top down," Starlight reported, "it was just too deep. So now instead everypony is digging out tunnels from one door to the next, and along all the major roads. The pegasi aren't too happy about it, but it's working effectively for now, or at least until we can come up with a better solution." She glances behind Twilight and finally noticed the party carnage behind her. "Whoa, looks like you made the most of your time trapped. Are there other ponies stuck here as well that they didn't know about?"
Twilight smiled, but shook her head. "It's a long story, Starlight, but one I think you'd be interested in hearing." She turned, her foreleg on Starlight's withers as they began the long walk toward daylight, "Tell me, have you ever heard of The Hearth's Warming Pixie?"
