Long fingers of light drew sharp lines across the cityscape as the daylight slowly faded away. There was a crisp chill in the air as the season began to turn from summer into autumn. The oncoming darkness of the night heralded the end of a work day for adults and children alike. Escaping office buildings and school grounds, they filtered into the streets, with children happy over a few hours of freedom before bedtime, and adults looking forward to dinner and perhaps some quality time in front of the TV.
Standing in solitude among the throngs of somber and tired people, with the occasional group of giggling teenage girls and shouting children, was Ann Winters. Measuring five feet and six inches above the ground, she was a slender-built woman with short cut, reddish-blond hair.
Ann drew her simple, beige coat tighter around herself as a shelter against the cold. The young woman loathed the cold. She much preferred the warmth offered by the summer as opposed to the cold and rainy weather that the oncoming autumn so readily displayed.
Moving bodies flowed around her like streaming water as she lingered on the curbside. Unwittingly she ran a hand through her hair while scanning the dense traffic for a certain type of vehicle. With a yell and a wave of her hand she managed to attract the attention of one of the many ubiquitous taxis that roamed the city streets.
The yellow colored cab swung towards the curb and Ann found herself inside the taxi with her apartment as the destination soon after. She found herself staring blankly at the city as it passed outside the car window. People and buildings merged into a mass of shadows that danced and played over the scuffed vehicle glass.
Her late afternoon shopping squared away she felt tired and was in a somewhat despondent state of mind. She felt her life was stuck in a rut, that she was doing nothing more than eat, sleep and work.
“Ma’am? Ma’am?!”
The deep and slightly wheezy voice cut like a knife through her internal musings. Looking up, she saw the cab driver looking at her through the marred safety glass with concern painted on his face.
“We’re here. Are you alright, ma’am?”
“Ma’am.” A polite way to address her, yet it made her feel old.
“No, I’m fine, thank you.” Her curt answer followed by a thin smile was enough to deflect any concern on the driver’s behalf. A set of bills exchanged hands, and with that Ann stood on the curb in front of the house where she lived.
A deep, distant rumble drew her attention skyward where ink black clouds leisurely rolled across the dark blue sky, stealing away the final rays of light that lingered. The wind had begun to pick up and carried a distinct smell of water and ozone with it. A shiver ran up Ann’s spine and she made for the green colored door that led to her apartment.
An uneasy feeling began to manifest itself within her stomach and a flicker of pain surged up through her body. An involuntary shaking cut through her thin frame, leaving her keys rattling in her hand as she feverishly fought with the door lock. Ann was acutely aware of what was about to transpire and wanted nothing else but to get indoors as quickly as she could.
With a soft click the lock finally gave way to her frantic turning motions and she was able to enter. A narrow stairwell led up from the small entrance to the apartment proper. Each step became heavier and heavier as she navigated the stairs upwards. The world began to shrink away around her as she staggered up the final step.
Ann woke up with a jolt and a gasp. Eyes snapped opened and she violently drew her breath as if breaching the surface after a long dive underwater. Her body trembled slightly where she lay on the cold, naked floor.
She blinked several times as she was unable to parse what her eyes were telling her. Strange, deep blue colored shadows drew long lines across the oddly shaped room she was in. A pale but bright white light, emanating from somewhere behind her, shone an alien pattern that crept over the floor and up the high walls before joining with the cream colored ceiling.
She couldn’t quite make out where she was as the perspective was all wrong. Ann retrieved her head from the floor, an action that was immediately followed by a smashing headache. She winced as she immediately came to regret moving. Her body had seen fit to join the pain train and protested vigorously over her slightest movements.
Hazarding a glance down at herself, reality came screeching through her mind like a runaway car. Her normal female body was no more. Instead what met her gaze was a mockery of nature, a horrid twist of reality, something out of a poorly written horror story.
Ann averted her eyes from her estranged body and once more took in her surroundings. As her eyes adjusted to the odd light scheme she realized that she was lying on top of stairs that led from her front door. The prone position, change in body, and the evening darkness had skewed the perspective so that she barely recognized her own hallway.
A set of odd lumps lingered in the shadows, strewn around her like mounds around a mountain. It took a moment until she recognized the items as part of her discarded clothing. The obviousness of her situation was that she had, once again, transformed into the horrible thing she loathed, and per usual the effect of her transformation had been her fainting.
She slowly took to her feet, all four of them. Her newly transformed body painfully protested. Her joints popped and snapped in response to her stretching her limbs. The splitting headache receded into a dull pain pressing down on her head.
Ann gently shook her head in a failed attempt to rid herself of the effects of the unwanted transformation. She let out a tired sigh and stole a glance towards the hallway window behind her. It was clearly illuminated by the outside street light, the source of the pale white light.
She briefly pondered how long she had been out but with no access to a timepiece there was no obvious way of telling. She loudly smacked her mouth. The palate was bone dry and her tongue adhered unpleasantly to it. Ann steered her path towards the kitchen in order to remedy her thirst.
Circular shaped feet clopped against the naked floor tiles of the apartment kitchen. Her movements were slow and deliberate as she navigated past the kitchen table and towards a stainless bowl that stood on the floor by the sink. Her current affliction was scarcely the first time it had brought itself upon her. The bowl was the product of foresight on the young woman’s behalf.
She dipped her head towards it and drank heartily. The taste was metallic and stale, yet she didn’t care. She paused briefly and stared at the blurry image reflected in the small pool of water that remained in the bottom of the bowl. A roundish face with freakishly large eyes stared back at her.
She turned her head quickly to rid herself of the horrible image. She had no wish to dwell on her affliction but rather the remedy for it.
A blinding white light suddenly flared up, momentarily ridding the young woman of all sight. Panic stabbed her heart and froze her transformed body into an unmoving statue.
The light faded between heartbeats only to be followed by deep rolling thunder that rattled the windows. Heavy droplets of rain began to burst against her kitchen window at a slow, almost lazy pace only to vigorously increase in fervor almost instantly.
Ann remained still, eyes transfixed on the window, where the raw display of nature played out. A second blinding flash followed by deafening thunder sent the young woman stumbling through her apartment. She almost tripped over her discarded pair of jeans that she had so carelessly tossed on the worn linoleum floor in the corridor.
She kicked it away with an irritated sigh and continued to trace her route to the living room. The pale light from the neighborhood, filtered through windows painted with streaks of rain, gave the room an eerily ethereal ambiance that was broken every now and then by fresh stabs of jagged lightning. Ann wished that she could pull the curtains but her current diminutive form would make such an endeavor arduous if not impossible.
With a grunt she jumped up onto the sofa. There she pulled a familiar blanket over her body. The steady percussion of rain against her windows, interspersed by heavy thunder, served as a perfect overture to the nightmares that were to come. Ann didn’t wish to experience them but if she was to become human again she had to sleep, and as such endure the horrors of the night.
“Why would you do this to me? I thought you were my friend!”
The dream scape swirled and danced around her. Barely tangible forms appeared, briefly solidifying into shapes before dissolving immediately. Ann knew that she had done something wrong, something terribly, horribly wrong. A persistent wind roared in her ears and tore at her hair where she stood. A rotating, swirling mass of clouds began to form in front of her. Within moments it turned into a maw of rotating black clouds, the inside lined with jagged forks of lightning.
Naked fear gripped her. She wanted nothing more than to flee in terror but she found that she couldn’t. Despite her desperate efforts she was frozen in place as if held by an unseen force.
“Help me!” a female voice desperately pleaded. The voice sounded familiar. Ann was certain that she knew it from somewhere, though she couldn’t readily recall who it belonged to. Whoever it was crying for help had been caught in the maw and was drawn into it.
Ann twisted and turned in her sleep. A part of her knew that it was all a dream, that she wasn’t in any immediate danger nor was the other female, yet she was terrified of what was transpiring and the horrifying part was that she knew it was all her fault.
Somehow she managed to finally force herself to move forward towards the nightmarish surge of dark sinister clouds and the other female in distress.
“No! Don’t!” This was a new voice, male in nature, who protested Ann’s attempt at a rescue. She knew that she didn’t have time to consider any protests nor the idea of personal danger whatever her own or others’ feelings.
Whatever she had intended in terms of rescue was quickly dashed as she was drawn into the rotating gap by the howling wind. Pain and darkness swallowed her up. A heart wrenching scream, filled with terror, tore through the blackness and with a gasp Ann awoke from her nightmare. Her heart was pounding like a jackhammer in her chest.
The scene that met her was one of tranquility. Bright sunlight filtered through her windows together with the soft chirping from a group of house sparrows. Her heart rate slowed as she drank in the serenity presented before her, only to have her drowsy mind snap to attention when a piercing, ringing tone sang through the apartment.
Ann stumbled to her feet when she paused and shot a glance down her naked body. Two slender legs protruded beneath her. She moved her arms through the air; everything was back to normal. No more short, stubby legs, fur, or other odd appendages were present any longer. The tone sang yet again, prompting her to fetch the blanket with her right hand. With it draped over her shoulders she moved through the apartment towards the kitchen, her naked feet slapping against the floor.
Arriving in the kitchen she grabbed the yellow handset from her wall-mounted phone and croaked out a dry ‘hello’ into the receiver.
“Ann? Why are you still at home?”
It was her manager; hard nosed, no-nonsense Christine. Ann was hard-pressed to believe that Christine would buy her explanation for being tardy for work that she had turned into alien-looking creature last night. Again.
“I…” Ann began only to starting to cough, her throat bone dry.
“Ann? Are you sick?” There seemed to be a flicker of genuine concern in Christine’s voice. Something that actually surprised Ann who, from experience, knew that concern usually was the last thing Christine expressed, especially towards members of the staff.
“Yeah, I don’t feel too good.” It wasn’t an outright lie, she was feeling slightly under the weather, though she wasn’t sick per se.
“Well, I would have appreciated if you had seen fit to let me know that this morning.” Ann swore that she could hear over the phone how Christine was knitting her brow into deep furrows while pursing her lips in irritation. “Honestly Ann, perhaps you should reconsider your aversion to smart phones. You are rather difficult to get hold of.”
Ann shuddered at the thought of a smartphone; for some odd reason she couldn’t stand the feeling of her fingers pushing against the smooth, plastic touch screen surface of a smartphone. It just seemed weird compared to the tactile feeling of buttons on a handset.
“Sorry. I overslept.” Ann offered as an explanation, neatly sidestepping the last remark from Christine. “I’ll be in tomorrow, I promise.” She bit her lower lip in hope that her placating offer would hold up.
“If you are well enough, then you are welcome back. I won’t have you infecting the rest of the staff.”
“I understand.”
“It’s good that you do.” And with that the conversation was over. Christine hung up the phone with nary a word more offered.
“I promise,” Ann whispered into the handset with no-one to answer. She slowly hung up. Ann lingered in her kitchen for while staring idly at her right hand. She wiggled her fingers tentatively before letting out a frustrated sigh.
She was in dire need of a shower, clothing, and fresh, hot coffee, preferably in that order. Gingerly she picked up her garments from the hall floor where they had rested since last night and set forth towards the bathroom.
A long, warm, and life-giving shower later, Ann wiped her bathroom mirror clean of mist and stared at her face. It was a plain face with thin lips, a long, slightly crooked nose, and underneath a pair of emerald green eyes were a set of pale freckles.
Ann pushed an errant strand of hair to the side and took a good look at the state of her face. It featured a pallid complexion with black bags underneath each eye. When was the last time she had a good night’s sleep? The nightmare that had plagued her last night was not unique for when she had been transformed. It was a recurring nocturnal horror that visited her every other night.
With a fresh sigh she abandoned her reflection and made for her bedroom where she dumped her clothing from the previous day and picked up a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt to wear instead. Having gotten dressed she found herself sitting on the edge of her bed, feeling tired as the effect from the hot shower wore off. The notion of having a few more minutes of rest burned in her mind. She could have breakfast later. It didn’t take long for her to make up her mind; she stretched out on her bed and within seconds she had drifted off into a deep, dream-free sleep.
When she awoke again it was past the lunch hour. Her eyes felt gravelly and it took a moment for her to parse what the clock on her bedside table was telling her. An insistent growl from her stomach reminded her that she had not only managed to miss breakfast but lunch as well.
She rose to her feet and stretched out in her full length with her arms up towards the ceiling, a series of soft pops emanating from her back followed suit. With a wide yawn she lazily traced a path to the kitchen, her mind still a bit blurry from sleep.
She paused and considered what to eat in order to alleviate her hunger. A brief look in the refrigerator yielded nothing that interested her. Instead she turned to a kitchen drawer where she knew she had a couple of fast food fliers. Ann was certain she had one from her favorite restaurant.
It was when she retrieved the leaflets she saw it. Like a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming car she froze in place, staring at the object that had lay hidden beneath the fliers. It was an ornate necklace, intricate in its nature, with uneven parts of different colors held together with thin white strands. In the center part of it there was a large, yellow colored jewel in the shape of an eye staring back at her.
A pair of pegasus ponies lingered on the crest of a hill overlooking Ponyville, both a picture perfect silhouette against the rose red fire of the setting sun. In the village residents were milling about, children wearily returning home after a day of school and afternoon play, shopkeepers closing shutters and pulling carts from the market.
They barely noticed the slow pace at which the town was closing for the day. Weary and dusty from a long flight they took a moment to compose themselves.
“So, where are we?” the pale green female of the two asked, leisurely stretching out her wings at full length while attempting to stifle a wide yawn.
The second pegasus, a brown stallion, stared dreamily at the bodily display that his female companion, Dewdrop, was putting on. After a few seconds of silence had idled by, punctuated only by a group of pigeons cooing nearby, the stallion suddenly realized that the object of his admiration was staring back at him with a smirk.
“Let me check,” he hastily noted and buried his muzzle in one of his saddle bags, and after some rummaging managed to procure a map. His teal eyes flew over the lines, marks, and names while quietly mumbling to himself as he tried to get his bearings.
“Well, Stormbringer?” the female queried with a bemused look and a raised eyebrow as the increasingly flustered stallion struggled with the map.
“Ponyville… I think,” he managed after trying to make sense of what the map was telling him about the surrounding landmarks.
“Ponyville? Why does that sound familiar?” Dewdrop replied with a ponderous look on her visage.
“Wasn’t it here that whole business with princess Celestia being kidnapped at the Summer Sun celebration happened?” he replied, his voice betraying some uncertainty as if he wasn’t quite sure.
“No, wait, I know!” she blurted out with excitement. “Cupcakes!”
The stallion dropped the map and stared flabbergasted at his female companion.
“Cupcakes?!” he replied, giving vocal weight to his bewilderment over her apparent non-sequitur.
Oblivious to Stormbringer’s bewilderment, Dewdrop had a distant, almost dreamy look on her face. “Yes, delicious, moist cupcakes.”
Before he had a chance to further inquire as to why Ponyville would be known foremost for its delicious cupcakes, a soft gurgle escaped from the female pegasus.
Dewdrop let out a chuckle while flashing an embarrassed grin. “Sorry?”
“I think it’s time to get something to eat. Say… cupcakes?” he suggested with a sly smile.
The mare beamed back at him with an even larger grin. “I bet there is a place still open.”
The wayward map was quickly retrieved and together, side by side, the two pegasus ponies made their way towards Ponyville in search of a place to eat and rest.
What neither of the two pegasi knew was that a certain pink party pony had a tail shake and a double twitch in her left hind leg. A broad smile split her visage, growing so wide that it threatened to engulf her entire face. For her this meant that there were not one but two new ponies in Ponyville this early evening, and new ponies meant a welcome-to-Ponyville party!
Princess Celestia slowly navigated the spacious hallways of the Canterlot castle. They lay largely empty as most of the castle staff was busy finishing up for the day. Dusk was drawing near and it was time for her to lower the sun. However, the moon needed to be raised as well, a task which was within the purview of her sister’s responsibility.
Yet her dusk-colored alicorn sister was nowhere to be found, and Celestia had looked in all the places where she usually could be found. Having exhausted all alternatives where her sister could be there was only one option left; her bedroom.
Moments later the solar princess paused briefly outside Luna’s residence. A soft knock on the ornately carved wooden door yielded no answer. With a slight tinge of worry manifesting within her, Celestia opened the door and slowly strode into the chamber. “Sister? Are you unwell?”
Again there was no reply. This time however, Celestia saw why her sister chose not to answer. Luna lay on her spacious bed with her head gently placed on her front legs. Her horn had a bright band of white colored magic wrapped in thin strands around it.
Celestia recognized the form of magic that was so brightly illuminating her sister’s horn. She was visiting the dreamscape, a place where the solar princess could not follow. Though Celestia was at a loss as to why her sister had decided to go there before ponies generally went to sleep, she didn’t have to wait long as her sister awoke with a wide yawn.
Luna shook her head, trying to clear her mind from the last cobwebs of sleep that lingered. She was surprised to find her older sister waiting by her bedside.
“Celestia? What has brought you to my chamber?”
Her older sister smiled warmly at her. “It is time for us to perform our duty.”
Luna blinked a couple of times while trying to parse what her sister was referring to. Her confused demeanor made Celestia let a soft laughter escape her. “Lowering the sun and raising the moon?”
The proverbial light bulb went off in Luna’s mind as she realized what her alabaster colored sister was referring to. She glanced over to an ornate clock set beside her bed with befuddlement brimming in her voice. “Is it time already?”
Celestia nodded, still smiling, and turned to leave the room. Luna was surprised that the afternoon had passed into nightfall. The lunar princess descended from her bed with a swift jump and followed her sister into the corridor.
During their walk towards the tower balcony, Luna described why she had been deep into the dream scape even though it was late afternoon. It had begun quite some time ago. There was a nightmare emanating from a pegasus pony, which wasn’t unusual in itself, but the nature of the dream was anything but normal.
The pegasus mare seemed to be far beyond the borders of Equestria, the distance almost impossible, leaving the nightmares she dreamed to be faint, almost intangible. The intensity of the nightmares the poor pegasus dreamed was anything but, however. She could feel the pegasus suffer greatly in the dreams that the mare dreamed.
To Luna’s great consternation all her attempts at entering the dream and manipulating it had been for naught. The princess of the night could only feel the outline of the nature of the nightmare. Yet she was drawn to it every time the pony dreamed it.
Celestia had patiently listened to Luna explain the nightmare as the pair approached the balcony. She offered no rebuttal until after she had lowered the sun and Luna had raised the moon. Walking back towards their chambers her older sister mused on the story about the dreaming pegasus pony.
Luna studied her sister intently, hoping for a deep insight or advice. “A magical storm? Something about that sounds quite familiar,” Celestia noted with a quizzical expression before continuing. “I recall receiving a missive some time ago that might be of aid to us.”
Luna perked up. If Celestia knew something that could help her with the nightmare she would be elated.
Before Celestia had a chance to further dwell on what she might know an earth pony mare from the castle staff approached the sisters and with a deep bow addressed them with a problem she wished some assistance with. Her alabaster white sister stepped forward and gave some advice, which saw the young mare almost dance away as if a great weight had been lifted from her body.
This was not the first time Luna had seen this happen. It seemed that everypony went to her sister for any problems they may have.
“Sister?”
“Yes, Luna?”
“To whom do you go when you seek assistance?”
“Why Luna, I ask you, of course,” Celestia replied with a soft smile.
The midnight-colored alicorn pondered her older sister’s reply. A thought occurred to her regarding this notion.
“Sister, I turn to you for the very same.”
“How astute, for where else would you turn?” The princess of the sun was now wearing a mischievous smile.
Luna opened and closed her mouth before giving her older sister a frank stare. “Are you playing me for a foal?”
“Dear sister, I would never,” Celestia replied with a barely contained laughter as she made for her chamber with a brisk trot.
Luna followed her older sister with a conflicted mind. She remembered her sister to be generous, kind, and protective, traits that Celestia still exhibited, yet somewhere along the millennium between them, her sister had been imparted with an impish streak to her personality.
The solar princess abode was, just as its inhabitant, warm and welcoming in its nature, and Luna felt a sense of care and kindness swell in her chest as she entered.
“Now, where did I leave that letter?” Celestia consider a pile of tightly rolled up letters neatly stacked on her desk while wearing a ponderous expression. Luna in turn planted her plot on a soft pillow and watched her big sister rummage through her correspondence in search for the specific letter she had previously mentioned.
Luna studied Celestia, attempting to discern further differences in her personality. After a while her attention began to wane and her gaze began to drift to minute details of Celestia’s chamber.
A sliver of brown, almost hidden behind a dresser, drew her attention and without a word she retrieved her plot from the pillow before making her way to the dresser.
There she inspected the sliver, only to find that what she had seen was the edge of a tightly rolled up letter. With a flick of her horn she retrieved it and called her sister’s attention to the missive.
“Sister? Is this the letter you seek?” The alabaster alicorn nodded as she laid her eyes on the seal.
“How on Equestria did it end up there?” Celestia voiced her surprise over finding the missing letter hidden in a place she had not readily considered. With her magic she grabbed it from Luna and let it unfurl in front of her. A quick glance at the neatly written text confirmed that it was the letter she had been referring to previously. She let it float over Luna.
The princess of the moon let her blue eyes wander over the parchment presented. Unease began to burn within her as she took in the details within the missive. “Sister… this is…” Luna found that she couldn’t put her feelings into proper words.
Celestia in turn was knitting her brow into a deep furrow, giving her a stern expression. “Discord.”
"So, who is he?"
Ann paused, hands resting on the keyboard before her, eyes transfixed at the computer screen and the blinking cursor there. She sat perfectly still, while a couple seconds idled by until she shifted her gaze towards Beth, who was mischievously peering over the cubicle edge with a pair of deep brown eyes.
She let a sigh escape her, and her hands slid off the keyboard before she leaned backwards in her office chair, the worn piece of furniture creaking in protest.
"What?"
"Oh come on. You had ‘plans’ for the afternoon and then you call in sick the whole day after?" Beth placed her arms on the cubicle ledge and rested her head on her arms with a wide grin playing on her face. Her brown colored hair spilled over edge like a frozen waterfall.
Ann realized that any attempts at verbal deflection by this stage were probably for naught. She had acknowledged her colleague’s prodding regarding the previous day's activities. With folded arms across her chest Ann gave Beth a contemptuous stare.
"I had to buy some batteries and order a new filter for my dishwasher. That was the extent of my 'plans'." Ann noted with a hint of irritation in her voice. "As for yesterday I really did oversleep because I didn't feel well."
"You're sucha bore!" Beth replied with an even wider smile. Clearly she was enjoying the consternation she was causing Ann. This enjoyment was over right quick as her smile slid off her face as she caught the eye of someone fast approaching. She shifted her head and bolted upright.
"Wicked witch approaching!" Beth hissed and ducked behind the cubical wall with such urgency that it looked as if she had been yanked down.
Ann in turn quickly sat back up, a maneuver that rewarded her with a fresh creak from her chair, and peered over the edge of her cubicle. The person that had caused her office neighbor such concern was their manager, Christine.
Christine was in her mid-thirties, with raven black hair tightly tied into a bun and narrow, square-shaped glasses that balanced on a pointy nose that was almost aggressive in its nature. Thin, red lips were drawn into a constant sneer. Her grey eyes stalked the room as if in search of prey. She was wearing a grey and white striped pencil dress. She had what Beth referred to a 'hard face', that constantly seemed to be set into one singular emotion of disdain.
Ann quickly sat down in her chair, which let out a quiet squeak in what seemed like a frightened tone, one that encapsulated her own reaction. Was Christine out for her? She made a concentrated effort to return to her job, yet Ann found it hard to focus on the document before her as the sound of Christine’s heels drew ever closer.
The steady beat increased in volume until it abruptly stopped. The young woman hazarded a look towards the narrow gap which was the entrance to her cubicle, and sure enough there Christine was, hands lightly clasped together, a sliver of a smile present in a corner of her mouth, yet it conveyed no semblance of warmth.
"Ah. Ann. How good of you to join us today. Feeling better I hope?" There wasn't anything resembling genuine concern in her voice, as if the words spoken were a mere formality to be presented.
Ann knew that there was more to come and she replied with a curt smile of her own. "Yes, I'm quite well."
The smile presented by Christine hitched a mere tenth of an inch further up, conveying the same interest as a predator would a wounded prey. "Glad to hear it. I want you at the scanner today."
Ann blinked in surprise, she had not expected this. "But I have two stacks of documents to go through today," she offered as a protest; no-one had covered for her during her impromptu day off and she had a whole extra days’ worth of documents to go through.
Christine let her thin smile evaporate in the wake of Ann’s attempt at opposition. "I’m certain that Elisabeth can handle them as well," she noted with an even voice as she shifted her gaze from Ann towards the drab cubicle wall that separated Ann and Beth’s cubicle.
There was a moment of silence where the only sound present was the background noise of the ventilation system, clatter of keys being pressed at a rapid pace, and the occasional cough. Then the scraping sound of a chair being pushed back and Beth poked her head over the edge.
"I... I can do Ann's stacks as well," she noted with a touch of uncertainty lingering in her voice, only to have a Christine stare back at her with an emotionless expression.
"Good."
With that their manager simply turned around and marched away towards her office.
Beth let out a burst of air. "Oof. There she goes. The wicked witch of the west.” She shook her head in disbelief. “And with no please or thank you either.”
Ann locked her computer and began to shuffle her papers together. "I'd best be going. Can you really manage my stacks as well?” she asked with sympathy painted on her face.
Beth gave her a snort in reply. “I’d better well try, shouldn’t I? Now off you go, before Christine is ‘concerned’ about your performance.”
"I'll catch you for lunch," Ann offered and departed her cubicle at a brisk tempo. The office scenery didn’t give much to look at with the lines of cubicles, drab wall colors, and sterile fluorescent light.
Instead of watching the dreary room she instead considered what had transpired. She’d been working as a data entry clerk for about a year and she still wasn’t used to Christine’s brand of management. Luckily Elisabeth, or Beth as she preferred, had been there for her since day one, supporting and helping her along the way. Beth could be a bit of a tease at times, but she considered the rambunctious woman a good friend.
Letting her idle thoughts wander, she pondered what she would rather do than work as a data entry clerk. She did nurture a dream of becoming a professional singer, but she knew that particular career path was anything but easy. Another major stumbling block for her desire to sing was the fact that she got very tongue-tied even considering the notion of standing in front of a crowd and sing.
Arriving at her destination, she paused briefly in the doorway. The room consisted of a large document scanner, the kind you’d generally find at a printing shop. It was able to scan a sizable amount of documents in one go, regardless of size and thickness of the paper. Ann knew from experience that it was also a fickle beast that displayed a very temperamental attitude towards anyone attempting to make use of it.
Lining the walls were steel shelves which in turn were beset with large cardboard boxes filled to the brim with documents. A small table stood at one end of the scanner with an old and exceedingly worn wooden stool to keep it company. The same naked fluorescent light was present in this rather cramped room down to the slight flickering.
A dusty smell hung in the air and tickled her nostrils. The walls were of the same drab colors as the rest of the offices and featured no discernible details save from a wall mounted phone with its garnish plastic making it stand out like a sore thumb.
With a tired sigh Ann picked up the manifest list from the small table. The work she had to do was rather simplistic in nature; pick out the appropriate box of documents from the list, empty the content on the table and then feed the stacks of paper into the scanner. Next was to start up the scanner with a three-finger-salute and log on; pick out the proper network drive where the scanned documents were to be stored and press start.
She feverishly hoped that the thing would start least she had to make a call to IT. She really wasn’t in the mood to deal with the thinly veiled distrust they had for anyone’s capability to handle the office equipment in a proper fashion. As luck would have it, the scanner sprang to life and began feeding paper into itself at a rapid rate.
While the machine was working away to the symphony of mechanical sounds Ann sank down the uncomfortable chair resting her head in her hand. Taking a brief break her idle thoughts strayed back to the events of the previous day.
It wasn’t the first time she had gone through her involuntary transformation into a strange, four legged beast. She’d been suffering from this manner of affliction the past year which incidentally was as for as long she’d had the necklace.
Ann had a very strong suspicion that this necklace was somehow tied to her transformations. It gave her the creeps and she could have sworn that the eye shaped jewel actually moved to stare at her whenever she wasn’t looking at it directly.
She couldn’t readily remember from where or even how she had gotten in possession of the necklace. It was as if it had appeared out of thin air and she worried that she had gotten under inauspicious circumstances that she couldn’t readily recall. Never would she freely buy such a garnish thing by her own volition.
She had on numerous occasions tried to get rid of it to no avail. It had been thrown in the trash, flushed down the toilet, dumped in a storm drain and even sold off at a pawn shop at one point. The necklace would always show up in her apartment within twenty four hours and she usually find it at the most innocuous of places, much to her dismay.
With a soft repeating beep the scanner declared itself finished with the first pile and Ann rose to her feet to begin the cycle of squaring away the scanned documents, pick up a fresh box, load that into the machine and update the manifest all over again.
After the fifth loading and unloading of the machine the young woman paused to stretch out, her joints popping in protest, back aching. Ann let out a wide yawn, accentuating just how tedious this work was for her.
"Hey! Busy bee! It's lunch!" a voice cut through the noise from the scanner. Ann almost jumped out of her shoes in fright over the sudden call. Her head spun in the direction of the caller and sure enough it was Beth standing in the door with a grin plastered on her face.
"For someone who hates her work your sure do a great job," she pointed out with glee brimming in her voice.
Ann shot a glance at her wristwatch. "It's time already?" she noted while incredulously staring at the timepiece where the blue colored hands confirmed that Beth’s statement was indeed correct.
"It sure am Sam," her co-worker confirmed in a sing-song voice.
“What is it with you today Beth?” Ann queried as they made their way to the cafeteria located at the bottom floor. “And I don’t hate my work,” she continued while eyeing her short stature co-worker as if she could ascertain Beth’s state of mind by merely looking at her.
Beth rolled her eyes and gave her a wicked smile in return. “It’s girls’ night out.”
Ann shot her friend an inquisitive glance. “Uh-hu. Is this going to be another drink incident?”
“Pfff. That was definitely not my fault.” Beth replied dismissively as they stepped out of the elevator and walked through the spacious foyer towards the cafeteria.
The food in the cafeteria was very good and she knew from previous experience that the daily special usually was both tasty and affordable but Ann didn’t feel very hungry on this particular day.
Instead she opted for a single sandwich and a couple of apples. With her choice of sustenance done and paid for she navigated the crowded room until she found a free table and sat down for her half-hour lunch; the sole reprieve from the drudgery of repetitive work.
Beth joined her shortly with a selection of her own and hardly had Ann had chance to take a first bit out of her sandwich before he co-worker addressed her.
“How about you join us tonight?” Beth underscored her question by skewering a piece of salad rather studiously.
“Me? Tonight?” Ann let out a short incredulous laugh, the very notion that she would join Beth and her crew of rambunctious friends on a night out was absurd. Firstly she wasn’t much of a party-girl and secondly, her transformations were usually something that transpired under the cover of darkness.
“Or do you have a dishwasher filter waiting for you at home? Wouldn’t want to tear you from something exciting?” Beth teased while working through the portion of salad she had picked out for lunch.
“I don’t have anything to wear.” Ann tried in bleak attempt at weaseling herself out any commitment.
Beth waved her fork in circular motion. “Don’t worry, I can swing by your place with a few things after work.”
“And do want? Doll me up?” Ann pointed out slightly amused while not quite sure what to make of Beth’s suggestion.
“Precisely!” Beth noted with a hungry expression on her face leaving Ann to wonder what she was getting herself into.
Stormbringer stared unblinking at his female companion where she sat opposite him. She was devouring cupcakes at an alarming rate, going through a large plate that sat between them.
He knew that Dewdrop was fond of sugary treats, though the notion that she was so infatuated by cupcakes was news to him. The way she more or less had attacked the served treats had been almost unsettling.
Then again, it wasn’t as unsettling as the bright pink earth pony that had accepted them inside the pastry shop. The smile the mare had been wearing was so wide that it had threatened to engulf her entire face.
Who would be this happy over meeting new ponies? They had been sprayed with confetti upon arrival and even been treated to an impromptu song. How had she even known that they were new in town?
"Did ya like the cupcakes? Do you want some cake? Muffins?" the sudden reappearance of the pink earth pony mare startled him.
The cascade of words that flowed over him gave weight to the unease he felt regarding just how exuberant she was.
"Um, we're fine right now," he replied with a glance at his companion, who was clearly enjoying herself quite a bit as she wolfed down cupcakes. Then a thought occurred to him. "Say... Pinkie Pie was it?” Stormbringer asked with hesitation palpable in his voice.
"Yes?" The smile Pinkie Pie was wearing seemed to grow ever so wider, a feat that somehow managed to both impress and unsettle the dark brown pegasus at the same time.
"Is this place popular? I mean, do a lot of ponies come here?"
"Oh, yes! Everypony in Ponyville comes here; from fillies and colts to my very best friends," she replied with joy radiating from her. "I'm the primary pink party pony of Ponyville after all!"
Stormbringer winced slightly at the alliteration that she had served up as a finale. This mare was certainly a hoof-full and he couldn’t even begin to guess who, in their right mind, would be friends with a pony like this. He caught a look from Dewdrop who had taken a momentary break from shoveling cupcakes into her mouth as if they were going out of style.
She gave him an odd repeated side movement of her head, to which he could only reply by blinking in confusion. Dewdrop knitted her brow into a deep set of valleys and repeated her side movement; it was like a sideways nod that he didn’t know how to react to.
The pink party pony did, however, notice. “Ooh. Are we playing charades?!” she crooned with joy brimming in her voice. Dewdrop placed a hoof in her face while sighing heavily.
“The picture, Stormbringer! Show. Her. The. Picture!” Dewdrop growled with frustration dripping from every word.
He shot her a grumpy look. Why couldn’t she just have told him so from the start? What was it with Dewdrop today? With his mood turning dour he began to rummage through his voluminous saddlebags. He quickly procured a photograph which he deftly displayed for Pinkie Pie.
There was a singular pony in the picture. It was a blue colored pegasus mare with an immaculate combed mane and tail, staring off-camera with a forlorn look.
"Have you seen her? The blue colored mare?" he queried while tapping lightly on the picture with his hoof.
The pink pony before him scrunched up her face in an almost comical fashion, eyes narrowed, brow deeply furrowed, her lower lip pouting and a hoof scratching her chin as she considered the photograph. He could almost hear the cogwheels in her mind catch one another and turn with a grinding noise.
"Nope! Haven't seen her!" she noted with a cheery demeanor before skipping away.
"Wow. That mare is... wow," he noted while staring at the retreating pink conundrum. He shifted his gaze back to his female companion. "So… now what do we do?”
Dewdrop chewed down a large piece of cupcake before replying. "Perhaps we should go to Canterlot?" The angry look previously worn by Dewdrop was now washed away.
Stormbringer looked hesitant in turn. "We never got a reply to our letter from Princess Celestia, remember?"
Dewdrop placed an outstretched front leg on the table and in turn rested her head on the leg. "I know." She said with a tired voice while staring idly at her hoof.
“Are you… okay?” Stormbringer asked with a tinge of worry in his voice. Her strange shift in mood was leaving him unsettled.
“I’m fine. I’m just tired you know. It feels like we have been looking for her forever.” Her voice trailed off leaving the last words hanging in the air.
Before he had a chance to answer, Dewdrop shifted her gaze to look directly at Stormbringer. "But if we speak directly with the princess perhaps then we can get help?”
He blinked as he was surprised by how quickly she changed the topic. A frown grew on Stormbringer's face. "Hmpf,” he grunted. “As if we'd get a chance to have an audience with Princess Celestia or Princess Luna.”
Dewdrop snapped her head upwards, staring at him with a hint of desperation in her eyes. "Don't say that!"
"Oh, you want to meet Princess Celestia? I know someone who can help you!" It was the brightly colored pink pony that had appeared once more, seemingly out of nowhere, and was now interjecting herself into their conversation.
The two pegasi stared at one other before both turned their heads towards Pinkie Pie. "What did you say?" Stormbringer said slowly, his eyes boring into the pink mare before him.
“If you need to meet Princess Celestia, Twilight can help you.”
Stormbringer blinked and shook his head. “Twilight?” he noted nonplussed, “Who’s that?”
“She’s Celestia’s personal student and she’s reaaally smart. I can take you to her!”
This confused Stormbringer even more. What would the princess’s personal student be doing in a small town like Ponyville and how would this pink mare know someone like that? Before he had a chance to enunciate his misgivings about what Pinkie Pie just had said there was a sharp intake of air.
“Twilight Sparkle?! Here?! Can we meet her, can we? Please? Pleeeeease?” Dewdrop was suddenly displaying an exuberance that was rivaling the level of joy Pinkie Pie had given when they had first arrived in the pastry shop.
Stormbringer was quietly wondering if everypony else was going insane or if fatigue from traveling all day was finally catching up with him.
“Sure we can. Come on!” Pinkie Pie said, easily matching the exuberance Dewdrop was currently displaying.
It didn’t take long until the trio was moving through Ponyville. The sun had by now been lowered by the solar princess and dark, deep shadows shrouded the streets and corners of the village. Stormbringer was tired, each hoof step heavy, and he wished nothing more than to bury his muzzle into a pillow.
He shot a glance towards Dewdrop, who seemed very excited. He wasn’t really sure if it was all the sugar she had ingested or the fact that they were about to meet this Twilight Sparkle. To be honest, he'd never had heard of a pony by that name before. Then again he’d never been much for following gossip out of Canterlot, even less so if it pertained to anything regarding Princess Celestia.
“Say Dewdrop. Just how do you know of this… Twilight Sparkle?” he queried out of curiosity, as far as he knew, she wasn’t much for idle gossip either.
The green pegasus mare came to a full stop and gave him a stare. “You don’t know Twilight Sparkle?! Really?!” Her face was a mask of disbelief, and he could even detect a hint of anger in her voice.
Stormbringer could only give her a muted shake of his head in response.
“After all the newspapers from Equestria I tracked down when we were in Saddle Arabia, the ones that I read out loud to you? And you don’t know who Twilight Sparkle is?!”
The brown stallion could only shake his head meekly once again. He was well aware what Dewdrop was alluding to. The problem was that he hadn’t paid attention to what she specifically had said; rather he had merely stared, love-struck at her when she had read different news articles for him.
She let out a sigh and rolled her eyes. “Why won’t you ever listen?”
“Because I lose myself in your dazzling beauty?” he retorted with a placating grin.
Dewdrop stared at him for a moment before an involuntary laugh escaped her. “Oh Stormbringer, you charmer, you.” Her laughter shifted into a stiff smile. “Seriously though. You really need to pay attention.”
“Yes, dear.”
A fresh chuckle came from Dewdrop as she leaned over and gave him a quick kiss on his cheek.
“Come on, or we might lose our guide.”
Stormbringer shifted his gaze forward where the pink pony jumped, humming to herself, seemingly filled with energy before them. The mare’s bright colors stood out in the encroaching darkness though it was getting harder to spot her. “Right,” he murmured and quickened his steps.
It didn't take them long to reach their intended target: a tree that had been made into a building, complete with a doorway, windows, and even a balcony with what looked like a telescope. This was something he'd never seen before, and he had traveled all across Equestria and beyond its borders.
"We're here!" the earth pony chimed with a sing-song voice.
"What is this place?" Dewdrop wondered with awe and confusion in her voice as her eyes wandered over the strange tree building.
"The library, silly!" Pinkie Pie chirped with a giggle before letting her right hoof rap against the wooden doorway. It took a moment before both Stormbringer and Dewdrop noticed the sign posted by the door that quite clearly indicated that this was, indeed, a library.
This was a tad confusing for the pair as they couldn’t quite understand why they were coming to the local library if they were to meet Princess Celestia’s personal student.
After quite a while the front door swung open and it wasn’t a pony that had answered the door, instead it was a fresh surprise; a small, purple colored baby dragon stood in the doorway with a weary look on his face. He gave Pinkie Pie a look before turning his head back towards the interior.
“It’s Pinkie Pie!” he called, his voice bearing a hint of irritation.
“Let her in. And don’t think you’ve gotten away from sorting books!” a mare’s voice called back at him.
“Fine,” he muttered grimly. “Come in, Pinkie.” With a wave of a claw bedecked hand he didn’t linger on the doorstep but disappeared into the depths of the building.
“Oki!” the pink mare replied cheerfully and jumped after the retreating baby dragon.
Stormbringer and Dewdrop gave each other an uncertain look before following Pinkie Pie inside. The inside was, as expected, filled with bookshelves. Each crammed with books of all manner of sizes and colors. Following the pink mare further into the building there among the shelves of books was a lavender colored unicorn mare, busy with shelving books, meticulously placing them in the right category.
Their pink colored guide skipped up to the serious looking mare. "Hi Twilight!"
Twilight turned her gaze towards Pinkie Pie, a soft smile gracing her face. "Oh, hello Pinkie Pie. Who are your guests?"
Her voice was even and pleasant to listen to. Was this really the student of Celestia? Stormbringer had to admit he more or less expected somepony more regal in appearance, perhaps haughty or even arrogant in her manners. She looked like any mare you would pass in the street, unassuming in nature, not one intimately familiar with the ruler of Equestria.
He took a step forward in order to introduce himself and Dewdrop. He had scarcely opened his mouth before Dewdrop flew past him. She came to a complete stop in front of Twilight.
"You're Twilight Sparkle?! THE Twilight Sparkle?" she blurted forth in a breathless manner.
Twilight stared at Dewdrop with slight confusion painted on her face.
"Yeeess?" Twilight answered hesitantly.
"It's soooo amazing to meet you! I've read all about you in the papers. You’ve saved Equestria so many times, Nightmare Moon, Discord, you are fantastic! No, no, AMAZING!" Words of adulation gushed forth from Dewdrop in an almost incoherent manner.
"Well... it wasn't just me, I had help from my friends," Twilight replied with an awkward chuckle.
Before Dewdrop had a chance to fan-girl herself all over Twilight, Stormbringer decided that perhaps it would be for the better if he stepped in. "We're actually here because we are looking for somepony. Pinkie Pie here told us that you could help us."
The lavender unicorn mare listened patiently as Stormbringer regaled her about who they were looking for, what had transpired before the disappearance of their friend, as well as the unanswered missive to Princess Celestia. Every now and then Dewdrop filled in with comments or details of her own.
Twilight even went so far as to fetch a piece of parchment and quill, taking notes as he, with the aid of Dewdrop, expanded on the background for their yearlong search. The small dragon had quietly and deftly fetched tea and, much to Stormbringer’s delight, sandwiches which he served the assembled group of ponies. Even Pinkie Pie had momentarily settled down enough to quietly listen to his tale.
"That's... odd," Twilight remarked upon hearing about how the letter sent to her mentor had gone unanswered. "Celestia would never turn a pony in need of help away." She tapped her chin with the quill while considering this piece of information.
“That’s why we came here. Your friend Pinkie Pie said you could get us an audience with Princess Celestia,” Dewdrop filled in.
Twilight shot a glance towards the pink mare that was doing silly faces at the young dragon who was trying his best not to laugh. A battle he seemed to be on the verge of losing.
"Spike!" she called out, beckoning at the small dragon, trying to get his attention.
He tore his gaze from the silly antics of Pinkie Pie. "Yes, Twilight?"
"Take a letter." With that said the small dragon promptly fetched a quill and parchment before he began to note down what Twilight Sparkle was dictating. The unicorn kept the missive short, detailing a very abridged version of what Stormbringer had told her and made special note to mention the previous, unanswered message that the two pegasi had sent.
This action confused Stormbringer slightly as he expected Twilight herself to write the letter, considering she had just then used a quill to take notes.
When finished with his writing the dragon folded up the parchment into a tight roll and with a puff of green fire he let it burn; the fire quickly consumed it until nothing remained.
Both Dewdrop and Stormbringer stared in disbelief at the small dragon. They had expected that the letter would have been sent by traditional means. “What was that?” Dewdrop murmured quietly.
"Oh that? It was just dragon magic," Twilight noted reassuringly.
Hardly had Twilight given this short explanation for Spike’s action when the dragon in question suddenly burped up a fresh scroll.
“That was quick,” Spike remarked with surprise.
Twilight deftly caught the scroll in question with her magic and unfurled it. Her purple eyes flew over the page, quickly devouring the short message contained within.
“What does it say?” Dewdrop asked with anticipation noticeable in her voice, unwittingly having taken a step forward, eyes transfixed on the lavender unicorn mare.
“Oh. We’ve been invited to Canterlot by Princess Celestia and Luna.” She tilted her head slightly. “It seems that they’ve found your letter.”
“They have?! But it’s been over a year since we sent it! How can the princess have found it just now?” Dewdrop was incredulous over what Twilight had said. There was a tinge of disappointment noticeable in her voice.
“It… it doesn’t say,” Twilight replied, sounding unsure.
Dewdrop didn’t reply, instead seeming to deflate where she sat. Stormbringer moved up to her and with an unfurled wing he draped it gently over her frame. “Well, at least we’re invited,” he offered as a consolation for Dewdrop before turning his attention towards his host. “Twilight, when are we going to meet the princesses?”
“They wanted us there at noon tomorrow. We’ll take the train to Canterlot in the morning. You are welcome to stay here for the night.” She finished her sentence with a flourish towards the back of the library.
“Here? In the library?”
“Of course, I have plenty of room here.”
A wide yawn escaped Dewdrop. “Thank the heavens. I’m so tired.” Stormbringer shot his companion a glance with a brow arched in slight disbelief. He considered her statement quite contradictory considering her previous display of excitement.
Twilight smiled gracefully. “I believe that it’s time for bed for us all.”
With Pinkie Pie having said her goodbyes and their host having withdrawn for the night, Stormbringer found himself nuzzled up tightly against Dewdrop in a narrow bed. A pale moonlight filtered into through a small window, giving the dark library a soft, ethereal atmosphere.
He felt relaxed for the first time in a very long time. Perhaps it was because they finally might get help, or that he finally got to rest for the day, or maybe it was because of this place; it felt homely and inviting in a strange way, especially when bathed in the light from Luna’s moon.
He was about to drift into sleep when Dewdrop interrupted his attempts at getting rest. “Storm? Are you asleep?” she whispered in a soft voice.
“No,” he murmured quietly into his pillow. His left ear flicked a couple of times.
“You think the princesses can really help?” she asked in a thin voice, filled with anxiety.
“I don’t know. I hope they can,” he said sleepily. It wasn’t the first time that Dewdrop had pursued this line of questions. She nuzzled his side a couple of times as if to try to elicit further answers from him.
“I really miss her,” she continued when Stormbringer failed to answer.
“I’m sure we’ll find her,” he managed to yawn.
“Storm?”
“Yes Dew?”
“Thanks.”
A smile flickered over Stormbringer’s visage. He turned slightly and gave Dewdrop a gentle nuzzle in return. She pushed herself closer and together they fell asleep.