In the pre-classical era, Star Swirl the Bearded was more than just a legendary conjurer - he was the unicorn kingdom's premier teacher of magic. Now, one of his pupils finds himself exiled across time, looking for a way back to his own world.
Before the founding of Equestria, before the final alienation of the three pony tribes, Star Swirl the Bearded was famed as the greatest teacher of magic in unicorn history. Now, one of the legendary conjurer's students finds himself exiled across time, trapped in a world he hardly recognizes. As he struggles to uncover the forces that displaced him, the unicorn Bellbray must use all his magical training to find a way back to the life he left behind. — Featured on Equestria Daily.
"Okay, Clover. Good one." A trickle of sweat ran down his neck as he laughed nervously. "Now can we get out of here?"
The only answer was the low groan of stones settling against one another. She'd had her fun, but this silence wasn't like her. Clover was always there with a joke whenever anypony fell for one of her pranks. Why not now, after that awful rockfall? Surely that had been her doing. Clover enjoyed nothing better than scaring him. For a few moments, Bellbray had been convinced the whole cave was collapsing.
"C'mon, Clover. This isn't funny anymore."
Was it possible that she had something more elaborate planned? Was she still waiting for the other horseshoe to drop? Bellbray shivered. The air seemed colder now, though he couldn't explain why. And... what was that? As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he noticed a fading magenta glow in the air, almost lost to sight. He turned back toward where the mouth of the cave had been, and found it silhouetted against a moonless midnight sky. A part of his mind registered that the entrance seemed further away than it had a few minutes before.
Bellbray scratched his mane and gave another nervous laugh. "Well, if you're not talking to me, then I'm heading back to the cottage." He attempted a light spell to help him pick his way through the dark cave, but his horn only flickered weakly. With a sigh, Bellbray released the spell. Creating light had never been much of a talent for him. Happily, the last traces of the magenta glow still clung to his hooves, giving him a rough idea of the ground around him.
He paced off the distance back to the entrance. It really was further away. Could the rockfall inside the cave have been caused by some sort of avalanche? No... An avalanche might have covered the entrance, but it couldn't have made the cave longer. I must be imagining it. The thought wasn't very reassuring. Maybe Clover had seen the rocks start to shift and galloped away to find help.
When he reached the mouth of the cave, Bellbray was so lost in thought he almost walked off the edge of a mountainside.
He leapt back with a yell. "Clov—!" The name died on his tongue. She had woken him in the night and brought him to a cave, but that cave had been at the base of a small cleft in the land, in sight of the old castle where they said the unicorn kings used to live generations ago. Bellbray took a tentative step toward the drop at the end of the cave, peering out at the surrounding landscape. The stars gave scant illumination, but there was no way to mistake this for the area around the old castle. Moreover, the land outside looked to be covered with a thick blanket of snow. Something was very wrong here. And whatever had happened, he couldn't believe Clover was the cause.
In the far distance, on the floor of the valley below, Bellbray could make out a faint glow. A village?
Momentarily, he turned back toward the cave's interior. "Clover!" he called, and waited in silence for any hint of reply. Could he hear breathing, out there somewhere? He paused for a minute, then another. No, there was no sound coming from the cave. It was as silent as... Best not finish that thought, he told himself with a shiver. Whatever had happened, Clover didn't seem to be here with him. That fact brought a sharp pain. He had hardly been parted from her in the month since their engagement. Now...
"Reason is oft left idle, lost between head and hoof." The voice of his mentor rang in Bellbray's mind. Whatever had happened, he wasn't going to figure it out standing in the mouth of this cave like a slack-jawed earth pony. If that really was a village he had seen on the valley floor, perhaps Bellbray could find some answers there. If not, he could always return to the cave on the morrow. Daylight might help him find clues to explain this misfortune, maybe even tell him where he was and how to get home to Clover and his studies.
That left the problem of being stuck halfway up the side of a mountain. Bellbray swallowed hard, pushing down his fear. He could see no clear path up to this cave. That meant using magic to get down from the mountain. His mouth drew into a line as he sat back on his haunches to consider the problem. Levitation spells weren't going to get him out of this; he was almost as bad with them as he was with light spells. Teleportation? "Unreliable over long distances!" his mentor's voice thundered in his head. But what choice did he have?
With a sudden smile, Bellbray clapped his hooves together. That ought to work. He hopped into the air and for a brief moment his horn glowed with a weak purple aura as a bubble of protective force appeared around him. Unfortunately for Bellbray, the floor of the cave wasn't completely level. The bubble in which he had suspended himself began rolling toward the mouth of the cave.
The idea of trusting his life to this force field while he careened down the mountainside didn't strike Bellbray as an appealing one, but he'd counted on having more time to focus on getting a teleportation spell right. He drew his lips tight as the bubble neared its long fall, and he could feel sweat beginning to stream down his face and neck. With eyes as big as teacups, he stared down at that glow of light on the valley floor. The bubble began to roll out of the cave, and a purple aura flared around Bellbray's horn as he activated the spell.
Pop!
He saw flashes of color and the facade of a small shop as he fell, dropping almost twelve feet to the ground. The protective bubble crashed into a thick blanket of snow and burst around him. Flakes scattered into the air and Bellbray shivered at the sudden cold of the snow, shaking his mane to dust himself off. Then something seemed to snag at his memory, and he turned to stare at the shop for a few moments. Its roof was shaped like a court jester's hat. Nearby, a larger shop looked to be roofed in horsehair. How is that even possible?
There were no lights in the windows of the jester's hat shop, nor in any of the other buildings behind it. He turned a slow circle. All of the houses and shops looked dark and empty – except for a tall, round building at the center of an open ring of snow-covered ground. It was lit up like a lantern, glowing from every window. Bellbray thought he could hear the sound of voices coming from inside. That glow had seemed so faint from the mountainside – he had been sure it couldn't belong to more than a village. Instead, it was a darkened town with only a single lit building. How strange. Had the place been abandoned?
A moment of panic stole over Bellbray. Ever since the rockfall in the cave, the world seemed to be getting stranger and stranger. His hooves froze up for a moment as he stared at the round structure, unable to move himself forward. What would he find in there? If there were residents in this place, would they even be ponies? The buildings around him looked nothing like the unicorn towns he knew. Nor like the structures he remembered from the few earth pony settlements he'd seen.
With a shake, Bellbray pulled himself out of his worries. "Reason is oft left idle," he muttered quietly, forcing one hoof in front of the other. He worked his way around to the building's entrance. It had a pair of tall magenta-painted doors. Working up his nerve, he grabbed the handle of one of the doors in his teeth and pulled it open, slipping inside.
Bellbray stopped dead in his tracks. The building was jam-packed with ponies – unicorns, yes, but pegasi and earth ponies too. He looked at the gathering in shock. Was this some sort of grand assemblage? No, the ponies here weren't dressed in their best, and all of their attention was turned to a raised platform at the front of the room where two unicorns, two pegasi, and two earth ponies seemed to be yelling at each other in loud voices. Or rather, three of them were yelling. The other three looked frightened more than anything else.
From the back of the crowd of ponies, a unicorn turned and hissed at him. "Shut the door! You're letting all the heat out!" Abashed, Bellbray turned and pulled the door closed behind him. It did seem much warmer in here than outside. Some sort of heat spell, maybe? He looked around the room, but everypony was watching the arguing ponies with rapt attention. A brown earth pony with a dark mane to match turned to look at Bellbray for a moment, his eyes narrowing, but just as quick he was back to watching the argument with the others.
Bellbray turned his own attention to the stage, stepping forward to get a better view.
A black pegasus stallion with a silver-white mane and a suit of black armor was pacing across the platform, shouting at a unicorn wearing a purple-and-white cloak. "Great. Now there's no way out! We're trapped!" Meanwhile, a mist of white confetti blew across the stage around them.
This must be some sort of play, Bellbray thought to himself. But I've never heard of an acting troupe with non-unicorn players before. How strange.
Now the unicorn in the cloak, an aquamarine-colored mare, was shouting back at the pegasus and an improbably-dressed purple earth pony with pink mane and green eyes. "You two deserve this horrible fate. You've done nothing but argue and fight with each other."
"You've been fighting, too, 'your highness'!" The voice of the black pegasus dripped with scorn.
"Yeah! Worse! I haven't been fighting nearly as much as you!" That from the purple earth pony with what looked to be a bowl of pudding balanced on her head. As she spoke, the light-blue glow of somepony's magic covered her hooves, and ice began creeping up her legs to freeze her in place. Now that he looked, Bellbray could see the same thing was happening to the pegasus stallion and the unicorn with the purple-and-white cloak. The three kept trading insults until, finally, they were encased in ice from head to toe, leaving the stage to the other three ponies.
As Bellbray watched, ice began to coat the stage as well – that was a clever-looking spell – and the three remaining ponies huddled together in fear. A low howling noise filled the room as white streamers and painted images of things that looked like monstrous white horses were made to dance several feet above the stage. One of the three, a pegasus with an ice-blue mane and a coat almost the same shade of lilac as Bellbray's own, looked up toward the ceiling and asked, "What is that... thing?"
The unicorn who responded was light-blue with a mane of blue and white. The mark on her flank looked suspiciously like an hourglass, but she wore a brown cloak which covered part of it. "They must be windigos. My mentor Star Swirl the Bearded taught me about them. They're winter spirits that feed off fighting and hatred. The more hate the spirit feels, the colder things become."
Bellbray found himself nodding along. Yes, he could remember his mentor telling him and Clover just that. Wherever this place was, the ponies here knew of Star Swirl the Bearded. That, at least, was a good sign. One of Star Swirl's first students must have come to this place, wherever it was, and spread word of his wisdom. Somepony would surely know the way back.
"Then this is our fault, we three tribes," said the earth pony of the three, a stallion with a caramel-colored coat and a brown mane. "We brought this blizzard to our home by fighting and not trusting each other. Now it's destroying this land too."
"And now our bodies will become as cold as our hearts," the unicorn replied. "All because we were foolish enough to hate."
The ice continued to creep across the stage, reaching out toward the hooves of the three ponies. The pegasus stared at it for a moment before turning back to the other two. "Well, I don't hate you. I actually hate Commander Hurricane a lot more than I hate you guys." That, with a meaningful look at the frozen pegasus with the silver-white mane. The earth pony and the unicorn laughed. "Actually, I don't really hate him – I just really, really, really, really, really dislike him."
All three laughed together this time. "Well, I don't hate you guys either," the earth pony declared. "Nor do I," the unicorn added.
The ice was beginning to encrust these three as well, but before it reached their heads, the earth pony said, "No matter what our differences, we're all ponies." And then they, too, were swallowed in ice – but only for a moment. The unicorn's blue horn flared to life and suddenly a blazing heart appeared in the air above them. The ice had vanished from the three, though it still covered much of the stage as well as the three ponies who had been arguing.
The three who had been freed from the ice stood stunned for a moment. Then breathlessly, the pegasus asked, "What was that?" The earth pony nodded his head vigorously. "I didn't know unicorns could do that."
"I didn't either. Nothing like this has ever happened before." The unicorn looked as mystified as she sounded. "But I know it couldn't have been just me. It came from all three of us, joined together – in friendship."
A tan mare with a very light-gray mane and the mark of a scroll on her flank ascended the stage while the three ponies began to pantomime. She looked out over the audience and, after a moment, began to narrate the rest of the story. "All through the night, the three ponies kept the Fire of Friendship alive by telling stories to one another, and by singing songs, which of course became the winter carols that we all still sing today. Eventually, the warmth of the fire, the singing and laughing, reached the leaders – and their bodies began to thaw." As if to match her words, the ice finally began receding around the three ponies who had been arguing, and all six joined in the pantomime. "And, it even began to melt their hearts."
A flare of light erupted above the stage, where the 'windigos' had been a minute earlier. It drew the attention of the six actors as well as every other pony in the room, but the narrator continued to speak. "The three leaders agreed to share the beautiful land, and live in harmony ever afterwards. And together, they named the new land..."
"Equestria!" All seven ponies on stage said the name together, along with most of the audience. There was a brief clang of bells, and then the ponies on stage began to sing. It appeared to be a song that everypony knew well, and the audience joined in without hesitation. It was a song completely unknown to Bellbray.
As the singing continued, Bellbray began to feel a deep unease. Something about the play nagged at him. This was all starting to feel very wrong. Even more than in the cave on the mountainside. He listened to the song for a few moments, but it only seemed to magnify his discomfort. Bellbray turned back toward the door, not sure where he wanted to go but eager to get away from the source of his unease.
Another pony was approaching him, however – the light-blue unicorn mare from the play. She was still wearing her costume, the simple brown cloak with a hood. She must have slipped offstage just as the song started. As the other ponies sang, she stepped toward him with a smile. "Hey stranger. I don't think I've seen you in Ponyville before. New here?"
"Y-yes, but... I think maybe I should be leaving now."
"So soon?" She looked disappointed, and shot a quick glance at somepony in the crowd. "But I haven't even learned your name."
"Bell... Bellbray," he replied, eyeing the magenta doors. He was so nervous, he didn't even care if she laughed at the name just then.
"Excellent!" Part of his mind registered the fact that she didn't laugh. She seemed oddly resolute. "Mine's Minuette. And you can't leave yet, not on Hearth's Warming Eve! I insist!" She looked past Bellbray for a moment and seemed to give somepony a tiny nod. "You can stay at my place tonight. If you don't have anywhere to go, that is."
Bellbray gave a nervous laugh. "Um. Thanks. Minuette." He swallowed hard. Well, he could hardly turn down an offer like that. He eyed her costume, looking for something else to talk about. "I didn't see all of it, but that looked like an excellent play."
"Oh, gosh! Thank you!" The mare beamed back at him, and for a moment she seemed much more candid. "I've never gotten to play in the pageant before, and I was sure this year Twilight Sparkle was going to get to play Clover the Clever, but she and her friends..."
Minuette kept talking, but the words became a drone for Bellbray. He felt like somepony had just smashed him over the head with a hammer. When he replied to her, his voice was very quiet. "Did you say 'Clover the Clever'? Student of Star Swirl the Bearded?"
The mare looked at him oddly. "Of course. Don't you know the story of Hearth's Warmi... Bellbray? Are you oka—"
Whatever else she had to say, Bellbray didn't hear it. He had fainted dead away.
"Yes, dear?" Turning her head, the teal-colored unicorn walking beside Bellbray smiled for him. Even in dreams, he had never quite grown accustomed to the simple beauty of that smile.
"Did Master Star Swirl say anything about why the new chancellor wanted this meeting?"
Clover was silent for a while, picking her way along the cobbled road. When she spoke, her voice was quiet. "He didn't say anything, no. But he seemed... nervous. I think he's worried that the earth ponies' appointment of this new chancellor, Puddinghead, is a rejection of Sugar Cookie's old policies."
"...Has to be something you can do."
The dream rocked like a ship in rough seas. The cobbles melted into pools of liquid color and a cage of wooden walls erupted from the surrounding emptiness. Bellbray found himself sitting beside Clover, meeting with the new leader of the earth pony tribe. They were in an enormous hall, and earth ponies of every hue had congregated to watch in a gallery overlooking the chancellor, his extensive retinue, and two overmatched representatives of the unicorn tribe.
"Our ponies will not continue to... to give tribute to the unicorns in this fashion." Puddinghead's face was red with anger. "We are no slaves, not to your people nor to the pegasi."
Bellbray felt his hackles rising, but Clover touched her hoof to his arm and shook her head. Taking a deep breath, Bellbray tried to calm himself. "Chancellor, sir, the unicorn tribe has never asked the earth ponies for tribute. But you must recognize that your good harvests owe as much to the cycles of the sun and moon as to your own tribe's unique talents."
"So now you claim credit for our own work? The insolence!" Puddinghead slammed a hoof down on the table, rage twisting his face. "If you're the ones responsible for the growth of our crops, why do you need anything from us at all, eh? Why don't the unicorns just farm for themselves?"
Clover spoke quietly. "You have made your feelings clear, Your Excellency. I am sorry we could not be of more help. I think, perhaps, your inquiries would be better put to the leaders of our tribe." She began to rise.
"I can't find the source – it’s almost as if it doesn’t exist yet. But that's not the biggest problem."
The air swirled with crawling fingers of red-purple fog. "Now wait a minute." Bellbray stood, his own anger getting the best of him. "I think His Excellency's question deserves an answer. Why doesn't the unicorn tribe farm for itself?" Clover shot him a frown, and he heard a few surprised titters from the watching earth ponies. "What do you know of magic, sir?"
A brief look of surprise flashed across the chancellor's face. "I hardly see how my own knowledge of magic is rela—"
Bellbray galloped over the chancellor's objection. "And how many unicorns do you think are needed, sir, to maintain the cycle of the sun and moon?"
"...Do you mean, 'that's not the biggest problem'?"
Puddinghead rose to his hooves as well, and his carefully stage-managed anger was replaced with cold fury. "Too many are needed, boy. Too many. Perhaps we can't do without your kind yet, but we will find a way. And then the unicorn tribe will pay for the humiliation they have heaped on us these many years. Guards!"
The ring of armored earth ponies constricted around Bellbray. A cloak of nightmare black shrouded the image, and he felt the bite of spears tearing across his hide. The world evaporated in a damp cloud of putrid yellow that clung to his coat even while the sun burned it away. As the fog cleared, Bellbray found himself sitting beside Clover at the bank of a trickling stream a few hours' walk from the earth pony settlement. Holding a wet strip of cloth, the teal-coated unicorn was tending to a cut over her companion's eye.
"Stars above, Bellbray. He just wanted to show his tribe what a big stallion he was. Why did you have to go and argue with him like that?"
"It's something the books describe as a fixed point. The longer you’re here, the more unstable..."
"I didn't like it," Bellbray muttered. "The way he was talking about us, like unicorns were some kind of... I don't know. I just didn't like it."
"Oh, Bells," Clover sighed. "What am I going to do with you?" Suddenly, the sun snuffed out and panic overwhelmed Clover's voice. "Bellbray? Bellbray!?" The air was choked with dust. Rocks crashed down in a thunderous cacophony.
"Bellbray?"
His eyes shot open, and for a moment he didn't understand what he was seeing. The face of a light-blue unicorn with a blue-and-white mane. Minuette. He was lying on a bed – and a surprisingly comfortable one at that. For a moment, it felt like he was still breathing the dust-filled air of the cave. He wheezed painfully, and then his whole body shook with a fit of coughing.
Minuette helped him sit up and rubbed his back with one hoof. "Easy there, fella. How long were you out there in the snow, anyway? I hope you're not getting sick on us."
The snow. Like a key opening a lock, those words unleashed a surge of memories. The cold winter night. The strange town. The play, stranger still. And... "Clover. You said—" Bellbray gave another cough. "You said you were playing Clover the Clever?"
The blue pony gave him an odd look. "Yes, I did say that. Right before you decided to pass out. Mighty nice of you, that was. Makes a filly feel downright special." She sighed. "But I suppose it's not your fault, being caught out in the storm and all."
"...The storm?" His voice sounded dry and cracked.
"The pegasi said they had a big one planned for this Hearth's Warming Eve, but I don't think anypony expected it to be that big. We must have had more than three feet of snow last night. That is why you're here, right? In Ponyville. You needed to get out of the snowstorm?" Minuette's words sounded suspiciously leading.
Bellbray cleared his throat. "Umm. I don't mean to impose any further, Miss Minuette, but would you happen to have some water?"
"Oh! Of course!" The blue pony looked a little abashed at not having thought of it herself. "Just wait right here, and I'll go fetch some for you. And it's just Minuette, no Miss." She cantered out of the room, leaving Bellbray blessedly alone.
Why I’m here... And where, exactly, is here? The answer to that question seemed as immediate as it was impossible.
"And just because the answer is obvious, that means you shouldn't have to think it through?" How many times had he heard Star Swirl say that, to Bellbray himself or to one of the others?
Okay, let's make a list. What do we know? I went into a cave with Clover. There was some sort of rock fall, Clover vanished, and it looks like I came out of a completely different cave in a completely different place. Now I'm in a town called Ponyville. Ponies of all three tribes are living together here, and I don't recognize any of the architecture. By all indications, it's winter now and not spring. Moreover, the ponies here tell stories about Clover the Clever and Star Swirl the Bearded. And they seem to be celebrating some sort of holiday commemorating Clover, or at least her role in discovering this new land. Equestria?
What explanations would fit the available data? Well, there's the obvious one. Or Clover could have found some way to pull an extremely elaborate hoax. Or... Bellbray's imagination failed him – and the idea that Clover could have arranged anything of this magnitude was, frankly, risible. Between the change of seasons and the stories of ponies he knew participating in events he didn't, there was only one reasonable explanation, however insane it sounded.
"This is the future." The words came out as a whisper, and their utterance seemed to crystallize the idea into a tangible reality. The normally well-tuned gears of Bellbray’s mind shuddered once and ground to a halt.
After a minute, Minuette returned with a glass of water. She gave it to Bellbray, who drank it down dumbly. The blue unicorn watched him in silence for a moment. Were her eyes red from crying, or were Bellbray’s thoughts still addled by his predicament? It must have been the latter, because when she spoke again, Minuette sounded as cheerful as ever. "So, stranger! You were going to tell me how you got caught out in that snowstorm?"
The truth, Bellbray thought, was probably not the best option here. "Ahh. I was... um... visiting family?" Even to Bellbray, the answer sounded feeble. Maybe some elaboration would help it. "Or returning home, actually. My aunt and uncle live a few days south of here, and I live in... the north?" Sun and Stars, how was he supposed to come up with a believable story when his knowledge of this new land couldn't even fill a thimble?
Minuette's little frown told Bellbray how unconvincing his story had been. "It's okay, we can talk about it later. But if you're feeling up to it, there is somepony I think you should speak to." She glanced over her shoulder at the room's open doorway. "Doctor?"
As if on cue, a brown stallion entered the room. He had a dark mane and an hourglass-shaped mark on his flank, a match for Minuette's own. And he was an earth pony.
Bellbray felt himself stiffen instinctually. An earth pony serving as a doctor? What madness was this? He shot a panicked look at Minuette, but her attention was focused on the brown stallion.
The doctor planted himself at the side of the bed, offering his hoof to shake. Bellbray stared at the hoof for a moment before accepting the gesture. Was this how earth ponies greeted one another?
"Bellbray, is it?" The stallion's voice was energetic and commanding. He sounded much more like a typical unicorn than Minuette herself did. "My name is Time Turner. I hope you don't find any of this too unnerving. I know it can be difficult, being taken by exhaustion and waking up in an unfamiliar place." He sounded like he might have some personal experience with that scenario.
"N-no, I'm fine. Just a little... disoriented. Doctor." It felt strange and uncomfortable, calling the earth pony by that title. For that matter, how did an hourglass relate to the curative arts? Suspicion got the better of good judgment. “You really practice medicine? Where I come from, only unicorns—”
Time Turner’s deep laugh cut him off. “Shame on you, Minuette. You know you shouldn’t be leading our guest on like that. No, Bellbray, I’m not that kind of doctor. Medicine’s not really my gig. I’m more interested in... exploration.”
Bellbray’s eyes narrowed. “What does that mean?”
“It means I travel, of course.” The stallion’s tone was peremptory. “Lots of places. The past, mostly.”
The words hit like a hammer blow. “You... you what?”
The earth pony’s eyes blazed with a mad intensity, blazed like the fires at the heart of the sun. Bellbray could half imagine he was looking into portals that stretched back, ancient and forever, to the center of time itself. Suddenly, the doctor’s muzzle split wide in a manic grin and he spoke.
“Trust me. I’m a doctor of archaeology.”
“The study of... the past. Of course.” Sun and Moon, Bellbray. You’re going soft in the head. What did you think he was?
“Now, my apologies for eavesdropping, but did I hear you say that you were on your way north?"
"Yes," Bellbray muttered. "I suppose I did say that."
“Fantastic! Then perhaps we can be of some help. Minuette and I were just planning a trip up north – there’s an excellent new dig that’s been uncovered at the base of the Crystal Mountains – and we’d be happy to help you get home.”
Shame welled up in Bellbray. To be caught out in a lie so easily... Why had he made that fool claim? If there are any clues to what's behind all this, they're likely to be in that cave. Here is where I need to stay, at least for the moment. Is there any harm in telling these two I’ve nowhere to go? Well, perhaps to my pride, but that can be endured. "I find I must apologize. I was not entirely honest before. Truth to tell, I don't really have a place to call home right now.”
He'd expected to see some veiled horror on the faces of Minuette and the doctor. Isn't that how he'd react, learning that somepony was an outcast from tribe and society? But Minuette only nodded. Time Turner gave Bellbray a knowing look and a small – one might almost say victorious – smile.
"In that case," Minuette said, "You can st—"
"Minuette, aren't you forgetting that you have prior commitments?" Time Turner's tone was friendly but chiding. "You can't leave poor Bellbray alone here while we’re off traveling, can you?"
A spear of ice raced up Bellbray's spine. Master Star Swirl had tried hard to instill in him the value of all three pony tribes, but despite the friendly tone, that had sounded like an earth pony giving orders to a unicorn. The idea was just... unnatural.
Sighing, Minuette shook her head. "I suppose you're right, doctor. What do you think we should do?"
"Well, if Bellbray is up to it, perhaps you could take some time to show him around the town? I'll go speak with the mayor and see if we can arrange some accommodation for him."
"Oh, that sounds like a wonderful idea! Do you think you're up for it, Bellbray?"
"I should hope so," Bellbray muttered. It wasn't as if anything were really wrong with him, aside from an unknown amount of temporal dislocation. He rolled off the bed and stood facing Minuette and the doctor. Minuette, mostly – he found it difficult to look at the earth stallion after hearing him offering to provide the charity of a place to stay in town. Whatever his master's ideas of equality, that thought rankled.
"Good," Time Turner said cheerfully. "Then perhaps I'll see the two of you later today." The stallion gave a nod of his head to Minuette and left.
"So he wants me to show you around Ponyville, does he?" Minuette tapped a hoof to her lips thoughtfully. "Well, come on then. It's a big town and there's a lot to see. I don't really know what you'd find interesting, though."
Bellbray thought for a moment. "I don't know. Is there anywhere I could read up on a little history?"
There was an awkward pause, and Bellbray realized how odd his request must have sounded. Thankfully, Minuette seemed ready to fill in the gaps. "Is that... I mean... So, you study history too?"
Bellbray only nodded, no longer trusting himself to avoid saying something he shouldn't.
Minuette seemed to accept that, and she led the way out of the house and onto a small, snow-covered street clustered with thatch-roofed buildings. "Well, I have a few books, but I don’t know if they’d be what you’re looking for. I suppose there's the library, too. I don't really know what sort of books are in there, but if you were looking for information about history – for whatever reason – that would be a good place to start."
"Yes, a library. That would be good." The air was still chilly, though the afternoon sun shone down on the town. Bellbray glanced at the buildings along the path Minuette was following. "I'm a little surprised you have one in a town this size, though."
"Ponyville's not that small," Minuette said as she turned onto a wider thoroughfare. "And anyway, I've been to plenty of towns smaller than this. These days, they've all got libraries. Though ours is a little... different."
As they moved up the street, they passed a lilac-coated pegasus mare shoveling snow to the side of the roadway. She nodded to them agreeably, and Minuette nodded back before continuing on.
Bellbray stared back at the pegasus as he followed Minuette. He thought he remembered her from last night's play, but that wasn’t what trapped his attention. A pegasus shoveling snow? And she seemed so meek about it. Had she been exiled from the sky for cowardice, like old Tawnyfeather? No, this was not his world. Who knew why such things would happen here.
They continued along the road for another minute, and then Minuette pulled up in front of an enormous, snow-covered tree. "Here it is! The Ponyville Library."
"That?" Bellbray couldn't keep the disbelief out of his voice. "Somepony built a library in a tree?"
"Well... yeah. I don't really know how that happened. But this is our library!"
It does make an ironic kind of sense, though, doesn't it – storing books inside a tree. Bellbray stared at the structure in open fascination. It was such a daft idea that it might just be brilliant. He stepped forward to have a closer look.
"Hey! I know!" Something seemed to have caught Minuette's attention. "You've gotta be some sort of a librarian, right?"
Bellbray turned his head and gave the blue unicorn a quizzical stare. "Why would you say that?"
Minuette's face fell a little. "Oh. I thought, maybe..." She waved a hoof at the front of the library.
He turned to look where she was pointing. A sign bearing an open book stood beside the library door. That door, in turn, was painted with a candle and a ringed chamberstick. He frowned. Was he missing something? Bellbray turned back to Minuette. "I don't think I follow what you mean."
The blue unicorn gave an exasperated sigh. "Your cutie mark! A bell, a book, and a candle. I've been wondering what it meant ever since Time Turner..." Her voice trailed off, as if she didn't want to finish the thought aloud.
Bellbray turned back toward the library, careful to keep from looking at Minuette. She didn't know? She had to know. Not even this world could be that strange. The start of the familiar chant echoed in his mind, unbidden. With this bell, rich-resounding—
He coughed. "Aah. Yes. Well, more a scholar than a librarian I suppose. But you get the idea." Forcing a smile, he turned to face Minuette.
The blue unicorn wore a very self-satisfied look. "I knew I'd figure it out, sooner or later. I'm sure the doctor already knew, but he never tells me anything."
Time Turner knew? That seemed unlikely. "In any case, I would like to get a look at the sorts of books you have in there." Bellbray gave the library a hungry look. He was sure he'd be able to find answers to his questions inside. The easier ones, anyway.
"Sorry, Bellbray, but I don't think we can. It's really Twilight's library. I assume she'll be back from Canterlot today, but it doesn't look like she's home yet. Anyway, Time Turner wanted me to show you around town. I don't think he meant, 'Just show him the library.'" Minuette's hooves made dull thuds in the snow as she turned to leave.
Bellbray gave the library one last regretful look. He needed to get in there. He needed to learn more about this place, or more properly this time. How can a unicorn, any unicorn, not know the Aubade? That was our purpose! Seeing earth ponies and pegasi acting out-of-character set him on edge, but it hadn't prepared him for the idea that unicorns could be so changed in this place as well. With a sigh, he turned to follow Minuette. There would be time for the library later.
The rest of the tour was a bit of a blur. Minuette introduced him to many of her favorite spots around town, though few of them held any interest for Bellbray. In addition to a gluttonous overabundance of cafes and bakeries, the town seemed to have no end of clothiers, habersashers, spas, and mane stylists – one of which was, indeed, housed in a tall horsehair-thatched building.
Minuette seemed to be taking this tour thing very seriously. After slogging through slush-covered streets for close to an hour, Bellbray imagined there could hardly be a block of this town he hadn't seen. Finally, Minuette led the way up one of Ponyville’s widest roads and brought them to the plaza around the town hall.
The center of town was very different from how Bellbray remembered it in the darkened night. The air still carried a wintry chill, but somepony had plowed the night's snow into tall banks around the plaza's perimeter. Now in the light of day, the entire area was bustling. On the east side, an array of colorful tents sheltered a garden market. Southward, a frozen river snaked around the plaza. Young colts and fillies were down on the ice, skating and playing in the snow. A team of pegasi came out of the town hall carrying props and stage elements from last night's performance. They loaded the set dressing into a cart pulled by two other pegasi.
"And that's about all there is! Ponyville isn't a big place, but everypony's really friendly and there's always stuff to do." Minuette led Bellbray through the crowd thronging the plaza as she spoke. "It's much more exciting than most of the places I go with Time Turner. But I suppose that's just me complaining that I didn't know what I signed on for. I'm not saying it's not fun, mind you, just that..."
Bellbray lost track of Minuette's rambling as a muscle-bound white pegasus pushed by him and took flight on vestigial-looking wings. Bellbray watched the retreating pegasus with some irritation. You couldn't expect much from pegasi, but basic civility was incumbent on everypony. Not everything here is different, I suppose. Some pegasi are still prone to thinking with their muscles rather than their heads.
A deep shout rang out from somepony standing behind Bellbray. "Oi, Snowflake! Why'n'cha look where y'are goin'?"
The huge white pegasus turned in mid-air, looking abashed. "Sorry Ace! Cloudsdale Gym's offering a three-for-one deal on protein bars. Gotta get there before they run out. Nothing personal!"
Snowflake? His name is Snowflake?
The pegasus-drawn cart of set dressings was aloft now, heading south from the town hall. Snowflake, flying backward, was no more than a yard from the cart. Bellbray's throat caught. He watched the white pegasus turn, already beginning to speed up. But there was no room behind Snowflake. The huge stallion crashed into the side of the cart with surprising force, shattering the wooden beams that connected the cart to the two pegasi in their traces.
The commotion overhead attracted the attention of the crowd around Bellbray, but by that time the ruined cart was already plummeting toward the frozen river below. Three small fillies were skating directly toward where the cart would hit. Bellbray felt a stone drop into the pit of his stomach.
His eyes darted left and right. Nopony else seemed to have grasped the situation. Cursing under his breath, Bellbray watched the falling cart. He had to do something. His horn flared purple, and with a pop Bellbray found himself standing on the icy river. Behind him, the air reverberated with an enormous crash. The ice trembled and a rush of frigid water surged around Bellbray's hooves, threatening to unbalance him as he turned. The cart had smashed itself against the frozen river, leaving smatterings of debris and an enormous hole in the ice.
The three skating fillies wore panicked looks. They were trying to stop, but the water-soaked ice gave no traction. One of the three, an orange pegasus filly, flitted her wings wildly and threw herself to the side. She careened into a short, white unicorn filly and the pair spun out, crashing into a snowbank at the edge of the river.
The third filly, an earth pony, wasn't so lucky. Her high-pitched scream was silenced when she hit the water and slid beneath the river's frozen crust. Bellbray heard a thump from the ice beneath his hooves. She's caught in the river's current now. Hopelessness gripped Bellbray's chest. If he'd just had more talent with levitation spells...
"Be calm. Magic needs clear thinking." Star Swirl's voice, so ingrained in Bellbray's mind, cut through his fear.
Clear thinking. She was trapped beneath the ice, and with the river's current, it was anypony's guess where the little filly would be now. If Bellbray was going to save her, he'd need a way to find her and a way to bring her out. A memory echoed back to him, of a spell he'd seen the other night: a spell to create ice. Could he use that? Best to test it. A brief glow surrounded Bellbray's horn and a thick lattice of ridges formed on the frozen water beneath him. This magic seemed easy enough. It could work.
But how to find her? Could he make the ice transparent? Was there some sort of locating spell he was forgetting? Think, blast it! You're running out of time!
Like a spark of lightning, one option raced through his mind. It was his second-best talent. It was also sheer idiocy, but that was all he had now. Idiocy and – Bellbray’s horn flashed purple once more – teleportation.
Icy water rushed in around him. The current dragged at him and thundered in his ears. He forced his eyes open. There was hardly any light, but he could just make out a yellowish blur drifting a few yards ahead of him. Fighting the numbing cold, Bellbray focused his mind and a purple glow formed in front of the filly. The water seemed to resist Bellbray's spell, but slowly the glow resolved into a rock-hard net of ice tendrils. The current swept the net along as well, until Bellbray could anchor it to the river's frozen surface.
Even seconds were too long down here. Already, the cold was making Bellbray's mind sluggish, and he yearned for air. That little filly had to be in even worse shape. He fought the current, trying to maneuver himself in her direction. She was almost to the net now. That net didn't need to hold, it just needed to...
His control of the magic lurched as the filly’s body slammed against the icy cords. The net broke its mooring to the surface, but it had served its purpose. The filly was momentarily stopped, and the current swept Bellbray close enough to reach out to her. He stretched, wrapping a hoof around her limp frame. A purple glow enveloped them both—
And they thudded heavily onto the ice above, a bubble of frigid water splashing down around them. Bellbray coughed and then sucked in two lungfulls of precious air. The filly lay beside him, unmoving.
"Somepony!" Bellbray shouted, his voice raw and harsh. "She needs—"
But he didn't have to finish. The crowd of ponies was already descending on them. Thankfully, the townsfolk had the foresight not to rush out onto the frozen river en masse. Only Minuette and a few others ventured onto the ice, and all but Minuette seemed intent on the filly.
Something in the corner of Bellbray's eye tugged at his attention. The filly still wasn't breathing. Maybe there was something more he could do, but... What was it he thought he saw? He looked up toward the ponies on the riverbank, and there at the front of the crowd was that thrice-damned muscle-bound pegasus who had caused this whole mess. Anger boiled up in Bellbray, thick as burning pitch. He took one step away from the filly, then another. Surely somepony would see to her. Surely they'd know some way to... to...
The anger consumed him and he broke into a gallop, pushing past Minuette and bearing down on the pegasus. "You! Sun and Moon curse you, you damned filthy pegasus!" Bellbray thundered, drowning out the murmurs of the crowd.
As Bellbray reached the bank, he leapt forward and crashed into the pegasus with his shoulder. Snowflake – such an idiotic name – went sprawling in the snow, knocking aside other ponies. Watching him collapse brought Bellbray a rush of pleasure. "Nothing changes, does it? You pegasi are as reckless and uncaring as you ever were."
Snowflake, looking dazed and genuinely fearful for all his size, was struggling to his feet. Bellbray's horn blazed purple, and thick ice grew from the ground to bind him in place. "Oh no, you're not running away from me. One of you infernal pegasi is going to get what you deserve, for once. The Sun help you if you've killed that little filly."
The crowd had fallen silent, and the pegasus stallion's eyes were filling with tears. "It was an accident. I never meant to hurt anypony. And... y-you saved her, right?"
The words hardly registered in Bellbray's red-fogged mind. For this, for all the pegasus tribe's crimes, this pony had to pay. The ice around the stallion began constricting.
And then it shattered. Bellbray felt something resisting his magic. A small party of ponies pushed their way through the crowd, led by the gray-maned earth pony mare he had seen in the play. Behind her stood Time Turner and a purple-coated unicorn whose horn glowed with a fierce magenta light. All three wore deep frowns.
"Never have I heard such..." The gray-maned mare seemed to choke on the words. "That anypony would talk like... If you hadn't just saved young Apple Bloom, why, I would..."
Time Turner stepped forward, speaking softly. "He has had a difficult few days, Mayor. You must allow that he isn't entirely himself yet. This was the exhaustion talking. Nothing more." He gave Bellbray an angry look that carried a clear message: say you're sorry and stop acting like some wild mustang.
To his surprise, Bellbray found that he was sorry. The anger was leeching out of him, perhaps cooled by the frigid river-water still wetting his coat. And the mayor had implied the filly wasn't dead. He turned to look, and out on the ice he could see her sitting up beside her orange pegasus friend, surrounded by medical ponies. Bellbray looked at the pegasus, Snowflake, and saw tears in the big stallion's eyes. Sun and Moon, what would Master Star Swirl say if he'd seen me acting like that. Am I such a poor student I can't even follow his teachings about the tribes? A flood of shame rushed through him, and he bowed his head. "My temper got the better of me. I... should not have said those things. Or attacked another pony. For what it may be worth, I apologize."
The mayor gave a disgruntled snort of acceptance, and the doctor nodded to Bellbray. The purple unicorn at the mayor's left shoulder still wore a stony expression, though, and the glow around her horn hadn't faded.
"Well then. Let it not be mentioned again." The mayor huffed, trying to get her composure back. "Yes. Well. Time Turner has told me about your... problem. We are looking for a place where you can stay, but so far—"
A delicate cough echoed from behind the mayor, and a white unicorn stepped forward with the filly's other friend trailing at her heels. "Mayor Mare? I believe perhaps I can offer some assistance in that regard. I didn't see all the events as they transpired, but my sister was just telling me of what happened out on the river."
The glow faded from the purple unicorn's horn, and she turned surprised eyes on the newcomer. "After what he said, Rarity? You can't seriously—"
"Now Twilight, don't be so quick to judge." The white unicorn, Rarity, gave a small flip of her mane. "Whatever else he may have done, he saved one of my sister's best friends from drowning. I think those actions deserve some measure of appreciation. He can stay in my home for the time being." She turned to him. "If you are amenable to that, Mister...?"
"Bellbray," he finished. "Yes. I'm sorry you had to see me like that, Miss Rarity. But if you're still willing to offer me your hospitality, then I will, of course, accept."
The little white filly, Rarity's sister, gave a pleased squeal. For her part, Rarity's mouth curved in a warm smile. "Well isn't that interesting," she said to the purple unicorn. "When he's not yelling at pegasi, he can talk like a proper gentlecolt."
Bellbray was trapped, like a rabbit in the jaws of a timber wolf. His back legs were bound tightly, and he couldn’t move his head more than a few inches without sending stabbing pain through his neck. Tawnyfeather had told him of the ways pegasi interrogated their prisoners. For all the terror such methods evoked, Bellbray thought they could hardly be more torturous than this.
“Sweetie Belle, be a dear, would you? Get me some of the red thread in the top drawer of the sewing cabinet.”
The little white filly, who had been sitting in front of Bellbray and watching his ordeal with fascination, darted out of view.
“Is the work…” The words trailed off as Bellbray tried to draw another breath into his iron-bound lungs. “…going well, Miss Rarity?”
A considering hum answered from behind him, followed by a few moments of silence. “Mmm. Oh. Did you ask something, Bellbray?”
“Is it… going well?”
The drum of hooves announced Sweetie Belle’s return.
“Yes, I suppose so.” Rarity didn’t sound very sure.
Bellbray felt magic humming to life behind him and tensed instinctively. A few of the pins clustered around his left shoulder pierced his hide, drawing little droplets of blood. He pinched his eyes shut and tried to calm himself. The pain was minimal, of course – one could hardly lead an Aubade without a little tolerance for pain – but torture came in many forms.
“Darling!” Rarity harrumphed. “You must stop fidgeting! In all my days I don’t think I’ve ever met a more restless stallion. Now you’ve gone and gotten blood on one of the gussets. Honestly! I’ve had to re-cut three pieces already!” The hum of magic returned, and Bellbray felt his bindings loosen as pins came loose and basting came undone.
“I don’t wish to tell a master her craft, Miss Rarity, but perhaps you could simply make the vest a little less tight?” Bellbray allowed himself a deep breath, his first in nearly a quarter hour, as the thick brown muslin that had bound him floated out of view. “Or could you not spare us both the trouble and use one of those… umm…” He gestured vaguely at the strange pony-shaped objects tucked against the back wall of the boutique.
“They’re called ‘dress forms’,” Sweetie Belle offered helpfully.
“Yes.” Bellbray smiled at the unicorn filly and nodded his thanks. “Could you not perhaps use one of those instead?”
“For a stallion of refinement like you, darling? No no no, it simply wouldn’t do for you to appear tomorrow in anything but the best. Especially not if you’re going to be working wi— That is to say, what would everypony think? You’ve been our guest for nearly a fortnight now. The vest must fit you properly, or I’m liable to lose my reputation as a seamstress.”
As had happened often in the last two weeks, Sweetie Belle was quick to jump to Bellbray’s aid. “But you could still use a dress form, right Rarity?”
The seamstress sighed and shook her head. “No, Sweetie. The forms are only for prêt-à-porter. We never use them for tailored outfits. If I had an adjustable form like they use in Canterlot, perhaps, but I simply can’t fit the pieces properly without the client.”
“But that’s not what you said when you made the gala dresses. And anyway, it’s just another Winter Wrap-up vest. It’s not like it’s really important or anything.”
“Not important?” Rarity gasped. “Not important? Sweetie Belle! Every outfit is important, and even if it weren’t, our Bellbray has to—”
A knock on the door of the boutique interrupted Rarity’s nascent harangue, and the head of a familiar blue unicorn poked inside. Minuette took one look at the scene and her cheeks flushed. “Oh. Hi Rarity, hi Sweetie Belle. I’m not interrupting anything, am I?”
Whatever Rarity had been about to say, she swallowed the words into an unintelligible garble. She steadied herself with a deep breath and turned to the new arrival. “Of course not, Minuette. Please, won’t you come in?”
“I’m a little short on time, actually. I just wanted to talk to Bellbray before I left.”
“Oh?” A note of surprise entered Rarity’s voice. “You’re going somewhere?”
“Yeah. Time Turner just got a letter this morning, from the lead archaeologist up at the—”
Sensing that this might be his best chance to escape from the seamstress, Bellbray plastered a smile on his face and trotted toward the door. “Would you like to take a walk, Miss Minuette? I’m sure we wouldn’t want to bore Miss Rarity and her sister with these sorts of mundane discussions.”
“It’s not mundane, though. It’s really quite exciting!” But Bellbray had already turned Minuette around and prodded her out onto the street in front of the boutique. He reached back with one hoof and pulled the door shut behind him, cutting off the sound of Rarity’s voice. The evening air was crisp with the bracing chill of winter’s last night. Bellbray breathed deeply and savored the momentary rush of freedom.
“Well, Mister Bellbray, if you’re going to insist on interrupting me, perhaps you’d at least be so kind as to tell me where you’d like to go on this walk of yours?” Minuette’s eyes twinkled and she gave him a smile. The smile reminded him of Clover, and the memory prompted a small shiver.
“Ah. Yes. My apologies, Miss Minuette, but I must confess that my primary interest just now was less about taking a walk and more about escaping from Miss Rarity before she could truss me up for another fitting. But please, let me at least do you the service of seeing you safely home.”
Minuette nickered softly. “You really are something, you know? Certified vintage model. I didn’t think they still built stallions like that.”
Bellbray opened his mouth to respond, but after a moment he realized he had nothing to say. Minuette was a nice enough pony, but once or twice a conversation she said the strangest, most incomprehensible things. It seemed better to keep silent than to risk a further demonstration of his ignorance – or worse yet, to give offense to the pony who had shown him the most kindness since his unfortunate arrival.
The Carousel Boutique stood on the south edge of Ponyville. Instead of taking the road into town, Bellbray turned west and began walking behind the last row of houses. Snow still blanketed the ground here, as well as the trees of an enormous orchard stretching away to the left. They strolled through the gathering darkness, and for a while, the only sounds to break the evening’s quiet were those of their hooves cracking the ice-rimed snow.
After a few minutes, Bellbray began to find the silence uncomfortable. “Miss Minuette? I believe you had said you wanted to speak with me about something?”
Minuette sighed. “Yeah, I suppose I did. Sorry, Bellbray. I guess I was just enjoying the quiet.” She stopped and turned, looking back toward the boutique. “But there wasn’t really much more to say. I just wanted to let you know I won’t be here for Winter Wrap-up tomorrow.”
Bellbray turned as well, and paused for a moment before replying. Once again, he had the nagging impression that Minuette was speaking at cross purposes with him. “That’s… um… very kind of you, Miss Minuette. Though I must confess I do not understand why you wanted to inform me in particular. Was there something you wanted me to do for you, while you’re away?”
“Something I wanted you to do for me? No, of course there’s nothi—” Minuette’s voice cut off and she dropped her head, smacking one forehoof against her brow. “Oh Celestia, she didn’t even tell you, did she? I swear, if Rarity doesn’t stop trying to meddle in other ponies’…”
“No, please, Miss Rarity has been nothing but kind and solicitous in the time I’ve been staying with her. If there is a fault of misunderstanding, I assure you, it must be my own.”
Minuette shook her head and muttered something Bellbray couldn’t hear, then turned back to face him. “Anyway, it doesn’t matter now. But Twilight – Twilight Sparkle, she’s in charge of organizing the whole thing – decided it would be good if you were assigned to help me with waking the animals tomorrow. I think she wanted to make sure you… had an easy time fitting in.” Minuette's cheeks colored a little.
She wanted to make sure I had a minder, you mean. She wanted to make sure I didn’t repeat my performance with the pegasus. The thoughts were unseemly and Bellbray did his best to quash them. Instead he said, “Wouldn’t it make more sense to pair me with Miss Rarity or her sister, then? Seeing as we’ve spent the most time together, at this point.”
If anything, Minuette’s blush deepened. “Well, Twilight didn’t have a very good experience working with Rarity last year. What Rarity does is a little… specialized. And the colts and fillies don’t really take part. They’ll still be attending school tomorrow. So I guess I was the next logical choice, right?” Minuette laughed, but it sounded oddly half-hearted.
School. For all colts and fillies, regardless of tribe and regardless of ability. The idea was so alien to Bellbray that he found it easy to forget where Sweetie Belle went most mornings. Almost as alien as this Winter Wrap-up nonsense. Pegasi were responsible for the weather and the seasons. And if, for some reason, a unicorn had to assist them, why, that meant magic. Expecting unicorns to do the same jobs as earth ponies wasn’t just counterintuitive, it was downright inefficient. Bellbray nickered in irritation.
“Hah. Yeah. Dumb idea, I guess. But they’ll pair you with somepony else now. Don’t worry, I’m sure Twilight will figure it out. I’ll just… I guess… I can see myself home from here, if you want to head back to Rarity’s.”
Bellbray blinked, trying to sort through Minuette’s rush of words. After a moment, he understood – he’d let himself be distracted by thoughts of this strange new world, and he’d lost track of the conversation. “Wait. No. I was just thinking about…Ahh, I apologize Miss Minuette. Of course I’ll accompany you the rest of the way. And I’m sure you would have made a wonderful partner. I did not mean to suggest otherwise. But as you said yourself, you and Time Turner have to depart for… that archaeological expedition you’ve been telling me about? The one to the north?”
“Yes! I mean, no. I mean—” Minuette shook her head and resumed the walk back toward her house. “Not exactly. The letter we got from Professor Squareleaf – he’s the pony in charge of the dig team – well, it asked us to go to Canterlot, actually. Or, it asked Time Turner anyway. They’ve found some interesting stuff up north, but they don’t recognize all of it. And since Time Turner’s taken an interest in what they’re doing, Squareleaf figured they might as well ask him if he had any insights. Time Turner isn’t sure about what they’ve found either, but he thinks we might be able to dig something up in the Canterlot Library, and maybe help out with the team’s work.”
“But didn’t you tell me that there’s a library right here in Ponyville?”
“Golden Oaks Library? No, we need an academic library and that’s just a lending library. Or it’s supposed to be, anyway.” Minuette leaned closer and added in a conspiratorial tone, “Twilight doesn’t really like giving them up.”
There are different kinds of libraries? Bellbray wanted to ask Minuette for elaboration, but once again the desire not to look ignorant held his tongue.
They walked in silence the rest of the way to Minuette’s home, Bellbray lost in his thoughts and Minuette seeming to take pleasure in one of her last looks at this year’s winter. A minute further on, the pair turned north and slipped back into Ponyville proper. As they made their way down the last row of houses to Minuette’s door, Bellbray caught sight of the library’s spreading branches further up the road. The windows in the top floor still appeared lit, and he considered for a moment whether he might stop there before returning to Rarity’s boutique. But he rejected the idea quickly, just as he had done every time he thought of visiting the library. Bellbray had no desire to confront the unicorn with those cold magenta eyes.
“Well, this is me.” Minuette pulled up, and it took Bellbray a moment to realize they’d already arrived at her house. “Thanks for walking me back, Bellbray. It was really nice of you.”
Bellbray shook his head. “It was nothing, Miss Minuette. A mare should hardly be asked to walk alone at night.”
Minuette paused in the act of pulling open her door, and turned to give Bellbray a considering look. “Hey, Bellbray, would you do me a favor? Tell Rarity that maybe I don’t mind so much. This time.”
Accustomed as he was to not understanding half of what Minuette said, Bellbray nodded. “I will give Miss Rarity your—”
“No. No, nevermind. Just… thank you, Bellbray. I hope you have a fun time tomorrow.” And with that, she slipped inside and pulled the door shut behind her, leaving Bellbray alone in the cold.
The thought of returning to Rarity’s boutique so soon held little appeal for Bellbray. She would insist on further fittings, he was sure, and he’d had quite enough of those for one evening. Bellbray turned north again, staring at the golden glow coming from the library’s windows. What he wouldn’t give for an hour alone in there. Or even one good book of history. As a colt, he’d been fascinated by Mareodotus’s accounts of the ancient pegasi wars. All the more ancient now, he realized. Those old stories must seem like no more than myths to the ponies of this world.
For nearly a minute, he stood in the cold and stared at the shadowy oak. The tree of knowledge, ruled over by this Twilight Sparkle. Bellbray knew the mien of a unicorn potentate, and if ever a pony were cast from that mold, it was this Twilight. The raw power: brushing aside his magic with barely a thought. The air of command: dictating how the residents of Ponyville were to go about ending winter. And the eccentricity. In all his years, Bellbray had never known of a unicorn with her own private library. Even Minuette seemed to think it outlandish, and she was as close to a unicorn scholar as anypony he’d met in this era. A private library, built in a tree. And according to Rarity and Sweetie Belle, she had a tame dragon to serve her.
Bellbray had met unicorn royalty on numerous occasions, and aside from his master Star Swirl, they were an ugly, grasping bunch. Perhaps this Twilight Sparkle was different. Perhaps. But she conformed to the very worst conventions of her kind, and Bellbray had already earned her ire once. He had no desire to risk another confrontation with her; not when she was so much stronger than he, and certainly not in the center of her power. All the knowledge of that library – so close, and yet so far beyond his reach. Bellbray gave a snort of irritation and turned away once more.
The trek back to the boutique took only a few minutes, and as he walked, the full moon crested the treetops of the forest he’d heard called Everfee. Pale light reflected off the snow, holding back the night a little longer. A chill breeze ruffled his mane and carried the scent of wood smoke from the houses of Ponyville. Off to the southeast, the jagged peak of a lone mountain rose above the…
Bellbray blinked. The mountain. The cave. He stopped in his tracks. He had gotten so caught up in adjusting to this new era that he hadn’t thought about the cave in more than a week. It was still the likeliest place for clues about whatever had happened to him. He needed to get home.
He needed to get home. Clover was waiting for him, and his studies with Star Swirl. And the Aubade. This was not his place, as friendly as it might seem. This could never be his place, without the Aubade.
I’ve been getting complacent, haven’t I? The thought brought a shudder.
The Carousel Boutique was less than twenty yards away, but Bellbray turned his steps southeast, toward the mountain. Its base couldn’t be more than a half-hour walk. Rarity and Sweetie Belle might wonder after him, but he doubted they’d get too worried if he was only gone an hour or two. His memory of the mountain indicated that climbing it would be difficult if not impossible – and pure foolishness to try at night – but he could at least get a closer look at the thing and see if he could piece together a way to get up to the cave.
About a hundred feet from the edge of town, Bellbray passed beyond the edge of the Everfree forest. The whispers of nocturnal animals and the peaty scent of moss and decay closed in around him. After so long in Ponyville, he found the wildness both surprising and refreshing. These ponies had done much to tame the land around them, and yet somehow this forest felt like a relic from Bellbray’s own time, completely unlike the world beyond its borders. He looked back at the lights of Ponyville for a moment, and seeing from the outside for the first time in weeks, those lights seemed stranger to him than all the voices of the forest. Not unwelcome, but unaccountably alien. This world was like some mad dream of Star Swirl’s, beautiful and terrible at the same time.
He turned his back on those lights. The cave called to him, and so he went to it.
As he moved through the forest, the skeletal branches overhead grew denser. But those branches were still leaf-bare and snow-covered, the full moon remained visible from the ground, and Bellbray had no trouble picking his way between the trees. A few minutes on, an awful roar split the quiet of the forest. It came from somewhere to the south – well away from Bellbray’s path – and so he didn’t let it disturb him overmuch. Bellbray had spent enough time in the wilds of the world, traveling on behalf of his master, to have long ago learned the lesson that few creatures were openly aggressive toward ponies. If he didn’t pose a threat to them, it was unlikely that they’d pose one to him.
The forest stretched further than Bellbray had expected, and before long he was sure he’d walked for more than his expected half-hour. The mountain loomed larger, but off to the left the moon now sat more than ten times its height above the horizon. He decided he would give himself another quarter hour before turning back toward Ponyville, and with any luck that would be time enough to reach the base of the mountain and begin looking for a way up.
A sharp crack echoed through the woods, startling Bellbray much more than the roar. It was an alien sound amid the forest’s natural order, and before long a golden glow flickered across the trunks of nearby trees. Fire. And in this cold, with the ground still snow-covered, fire must mean other ponies. Curious, Bellbray turned toward the glow and pushed his way through a tangle of underbrush.
It didn’t take long to find the fire, or the pony who started it. Bellbray caught a glimpse of an azure coat through the lattice of branches, but before he could see more, an authoritative voice boomed out into the forest. A mare’s voice.
“Stop right there! I don’t care what you are, I’m not afraid of you. And I know plenty of magic to defend myself, so just you stay back!”
“My apologies, Miss,” Bellbray called back through the branches. “I merely saw your fire and wondered who else was in these woods this evening.”
The mare didn’t reply, which Bellbray wasn’t sure how to interpret. After standing in silence for a minute, he decided to approach further despite her warnings. Bellbray pushed his way through the remaining scrub until he reached the small clearing where the fire burned fitfully. The mare – a unicorn, but that was to be expected after her threat of magic – watched his approach with wary eyes. Her mane was a few shades lighter than her coat, but both were dirty and unkempt. Not at all like the ponies of Ponyville. She looked as out of place in this time as Bellbray himself, and he began to wonder if perhaps she was.
The mountain wasn’t far, now. Was that cave some sort of portal? Had it brought other ponies here after him? Or possibly before him? Another unicorn, one with more conventional talents, might have found another way down from that mountainside.
“Well?” The mare’s voice interrupted his thoughts. “Here to make fun of me, are you? I knew I shouldn’t have come back this way.”
“Excuse me, Miss?”
“Oh, come on. You’re from Ponyville, right?” She huffed, tossing her mane. “You can’t tell me you don’t remember the Great and Powerful Trixie.”
“The Great and… who?”
The mare’s expression curdled, as if Bellbray’s words had been a spear through her heart. She squeezed her eyes shut. “Just go away. Let me have some peace for once, or would that kill you ponies. Oh, Celestia, I hate this place.”
Bellbray frowned. His words had given offense. The mare – Trixie – clearly expected to be known around Ponyville. Sighing, he settled to the ground and sat facing the mare across the fire. “I’m sorry, Miss. I’m… new here. I’ve only been in Ponyville about two weeks. The—” what had she said? “—Great and Powerful Trixie?”
The mare opened her eyes and looked up at him. The hint of a sad smile touched the corner of her mouth. “Yeah, well, nevermind that. It’s just Trixie now. Plain old Trixie Lulamoon.”
Somewhat awkwardly, Bellbray lifted his hoof and held it out for Trixie to shake. “I am pleased to make your acquaintance, Miss Lulamoon. I’m Bellbray, of the—” He cut off the words as soon as he realized what he was about to say. Why on earth would he give his herd name to a pony from this era? He had seen no sign that those social structures persisted here. Then again… His eyes began to wander up the mountainside, and he had to force them back down to the mare in front of him.
Trixie stared at his outstretched hoof for a moment before shaking it. The gesture seemed awkward for her as well. “Bellbray of the… what?” she asked with a small smile, mimicking Bellbray’s own question of moments before.
Bellbray of the Keep Your Mouth Shut, Bellbray. “Nothing. Nothing important, in any case. So, Miss Lulamoon, what brings you out into the woods on a cold night like tonight?”
Her eyes narrowed warily. “I’m not here by choice, if that’s what you’re getting at. I meant to head south, maybe to Appleoosa. They say a filly can get a fresh start in a place like that. But ever since the business with that rock farm, things haven’t been going quite to plan.”
“A rock farm? How does one farm rocks?”
“I never did figure that out.” Trixie gave a sad laugh. “Maybe that’s why I wasn’t any good at it. I don’t know why I even tried. Farming is supposed to be something earth ponies do, isn’t it?”
Bellbray chuckled at the echo of his own thoughts. “Indeed. That hardly seems like a fit line of work for a unicorn.”
Across the fire, Trixie was silent for a while. “I needed the money,” she said slowly. “It wasn’t like I could go back to doing what I used to do.”
“And what was that, Miss Lulamoon?”
A cold breeze swept between the trees and the fire danced in response, kicking up a fountain of sparks. Trixie shivered in the moonlight, and when she spoke, it seemed the words were being dragged from her. “I used to be a magician,” she said. “Celestia knows why I’m telling you, though. But it’s been so long since anyone’s just talked to me.”
Magician. The word was both familiar, and not. “You were some sort of mage? But that work must be important, even now. Who would dare to enjoin you against that?”
Trixie cocked her head at him. “You know, I don’t think I’ve ever met another stallion who talks like you. But no, that’s not what I said. I was a magician – like, stage magic. Tricks to delight foals and entertain adults, that sort of thing.” She seemed to read the confusion off of Bellbray’s face and continued. “Rope tricks, light shows, a bit of weather manipulation?”
“I’m sorry, Miss Lulamoon. That is... unlike any vocation I know. I’ve never heard of unicorns using their magic for—” For such vulgar purposes, he wanted to say. “For entertainment.”
How had the unicorn tribe fallen so far? Was this the world’s shape, when the Aubade and the Serenade were denied to them?
“Well, it doesn’t matter anymore. Nopony pays to watch a washed up fraud, and if you can’t make a living, what does it matter what you’re good at?” She dropped her head and sighed. “Anypony who wants to get by in this world, she’s gotta have at least two bits to rub together.”
The words were a kick in the chest. This world. This wasn’t how the world was supposed to work. You served a king, or a master, or the leader of your herd. You got protection and a place to bed down – even the rudest rulers gave their subjects that – and if you were talented, or hard-working, or lucky, you got a lot more.
In this world, unicorns had to do the work of earth ponies just to survive. In this world, magic was good for nothing but base labor and entertaining foals. He stared into the fire, and he could feel his anger building. Bellbray closed his eyes and tried to calm himself, but it was like fighting the tides.
“Hey. Um... Bellbray? Are you okay?”
Star Swirl’s dream be damned, if this was what came of it. If he could find a way home, back to his world, perhaps he could prevent this. But until then...
Until then, it was Bellbray’s duty to serve his tribe. And in this world of everypony for himself, that meant being a shield for his people, watching over them when they couldn’t look after themselves. Bellbray had no royal blood, nor was he a proper unicorn lord. Sun and Moon, he’d be chastised for even entertaining that thought back in his time! In truth, Bellbray was scarcely better off than this unkempt mare sleeping out in the woods – with no home of his own, and living under the charity of others. But duty did not make allowances for one’s situation.
Trixie sat quietly, staring across the fire at him. Bellbray forced a smile onto his face and met her eyes. “Miss Lulamoon, these woods hardly seem a fitting place for you to spend the night. Surely you would be happier to sleep in a bed this evening. I would be glad to help you, if you’d like.”
She looked at him with an unreadable expression, and the silence stretched for half a minute before she replied. “Where do you live? Would we have to go through town to get there?”
Bellbray’s smile widened. “No, not at all. I am boarding at the Carousel Boutique. Properly, I should not offer the invitation myself, but Miss Rarity is a generous sort, and I’m sure she would not refuse to… Miss Lulamoon?” Trixie’s eyes had fallen back to the fire, and now it was she who looked angry. Was his protection to be rebuffed so easily? “If I have said something to offend, I am sorry. I know I shouldn’t offer on behalf of others, but—”
“No, it’s not that.” Her voice was tight, but controlled. “It’s… kind of you to offer. Bellbray. But I’ll be fine out here. It’s just one night. I’ll be on my way again in the morning. Maybe I’ll take another stab at the trip down to Appleoosa.”
“Please... Don’t.”
It felt like the tide rushing out. All his resolve of a moment before, thrown back in his face as if it were nothing. Bellbray held tight to the scraps. He had to do this. “At least wait a day before departing, Miss Lulamoon. Perhaps I can find some other way to be of help.”
Again, his words were met with silence and a stare before she chose to answer. “I suppose… A day? Well, it’s not like I’m working to a timetable anymore. Sure. I’ll stay here a day.”
Bellbray nodded and rose to his hooves, feeling much less relaxed than he had a few minutes earlier. “Until tomorrow, then, Miss Lulamoon.” He gave a quick glance at the mountain and at the moon’s position, but it was well past time for him to return. Rarity and Sweetie Belle might already be growing worried.
As he turned to go, Trixie’s voice cut through the darkness. “Bellbray, you might want to avoid mentioning me to… well… just don’t tell anypony I’m here, okay?”
“Miss?”
“Don’t you mind why.” There was a subtle change in her tone now – something Bellbray would almost describe as imperiousness. “Think of it as advice. Good advice, from The G—” She cut off, and her voice mellowed. “From a friend.”
Bellbray made no reply as he slipped into the darkening forest.
