Doe
Ruffled papers zoomed through the air, set into neat stacks atop the tables. Books thudded onto shelves in the proper order, their spines facing outward. Hooves galloped against the wooden floors of the Golden Oaks library, as the unicorn librarian Twilight Sparkle earnestly went about organizing the already-clean space in preparation for the royal delegates who were on their way to Ponyville.
Twilight managed the grand effort with only minor difficulty, directing every aspect of the cleanup like a conductor leading her orchestra. A simple glance, a nod of her head; her attention turned to each task to adjust or change what was otherwise happening automatically all around her. Each individual spell programed for a particular task allowed Twilight some more time to decide on other more complicated ones. There was more attention paid to the several dusters making their way through the stacks and shelf tops than there were the chairs being set at the long table, or the pony bust turned just so to face the front door. Everything was checked, then double checked, then double-double checked. Twilight knew well enough by now that everything was going to turn out alright—the daily exercises Cadance had recommended in this week’s letter had seen to that—but even then she couldn’t help but feel the anxiety chew away at her.
To his credit, Spike was chugging along well. As he darted throughout the tree house, he triple checked the detailed checklist that Twilight had given him to make sure that everything was done properly. It was a bit of surprise just how much autonomy, though still with guidelines, he’d gotten to help with preparing the library for visitors, but it was greatly appreciated.
Since dawn had broken and breakfast had been eaten, Twilight and Spike had barely exchanged so much as a greeting. Now that things had finally settled down and they'd accomplished their respective tasks, they sat down as the sun shone high in the sky. Spike wiped his brow as Twilight inspected everything around her that could possibly bring a poor impression. Any negative marks she caused could possibly reflect on her teacher and even Equestria, after all.
Princess Celestia had begun to reach out to Equestria’s neighbors quite frequently as of recent, first with the Saddle Arabians in the east and now with the Deer on the western continent, where several pony towns had recently sprouted. Since Ponies and Deer have only had sporadic contact in the past, whatever bad impressions that were made on the official visit to Ponyville by the Deer delegation had dire effects for Equestria as a whole. At least, Twilight feared as much.
She paused for a moment and took a deep breath in and a long, slow exhale to reset her worried thoughts into positive ones. Feeling much calmer and clear headed once more, Twilight got back to work.
A quick inventory of what foodstuffs were available made it obvious that what she currently had wasn’t enough for a large group of guests. In addition, Twilight knew she would have to go into town for some food in case the delegates were to stay in Ponyville for longer than just a simple tour.
“Spike, I’m going to pick up some food!” she announced, keeping to the mantra that her mind focus on each successive task, then began making her way to the front door.
“Alright!” she heard him call back just as she left the library and trotted down the cobblestone road to the market square with her saddlebag ready to be filled. Passing by a cart full of hay, Twilight spotted the grocer and his carts just ahead.
“Morning, Twilight!” The grocer greeted her along with a smile. It would have caught on to brighten her mood if she wasn’t so focused on the preparations. She scanned the grocer’s selection with a keen eye and the Deer diet she had read about in mind. Kale, spinach, brussel sprouts, onions, mushrooms; oats, almonds, barley and corn. She used her magic to grab enough of each item to supply a small-sized buffet, not worrying about the cost since her student’s allowance provided much more than she ever cared to spend on a weekly basis.
“Will that be all, Twilight?” the grocer asked her plainly, not at all disappointed to see her take as much of his inventory into her saddlebags as she did.
Distracted for a moment from checking off the list floating in her magic beside her, she registered the grocer’s question and returned an embarrassed smile. “Hmm? Oh, yes. Thank you for your trouble, Greensleeves,” Twilight replied with a nod.
“Not at all,” he said in a familiar way and accepted the bits that she placed onto the counter. “Oh, Twilight, you should pass by Carrot Top’s cart,” Greensleeves added. “She’s got quite the harvest this season.”
“Sounds like a good idea.” Twilight nodded in appreciation for the tip, checking one last time that she had everything she could get from the grocer in her saddle bags. She wasn’t originally sure about heading further into market until later in the week, but was open to the idea of seeing what else there was. She added one more bit to her payment, much to his appreciation, and started down the direction to Carrot Top’s cart.
The pony in question lived just outside of town and always grew an interesting assortment of things. Besides her staple crop of carrots, Twilight recalled seeing arugula, parsnip, basil, fennel, eggplants, pumpkins, and various sorts of squash, depending on the season. Carrot Top never really seemed to be in competition with the Apple farm but Twilight couldn’t help noticing how she and Applejack seemed to enjoy promoting a sort of rivalry between them when they hawked their produce.
Though she’d have to do some backtracking, Twilight was fairly relieved that a good portion of the groceries was already finished. She figured that after checking out what Carrot Top had to sell, she could head straight back to the library to begin preparing the food and then run through the final checklist before the delegates were supposed to arrive. Twilight by this point felt happy enough to begin humming as she passed by a cart full of leaves.
“Strange,” she commented to herself, unable to recall if that cart was like that before, or if she was just imagining things. Twilight stopped and looked back over her shoulders, having sworn that that wasn’t there before. She looked around in wonder and when she took a second glance at the cart it was once more filled with stacks of hay. Twilight first wanted to call Pinkie and Rainbow out of hiding, but already understood that this wasn’t their usual sort of thing. Far be it for her to assume that they would never try to change their modus operandi, but Twilight understood that changing stacks of hay was too subtle a trick to play. Unlike something more involved like switching regular writing ink for the quick disappearing kind. And to be honest, if there was some sort of switcheroo going on, it happened much faster than even a speedy pegasus like Rainbow Dash could be expected of pulling off.
But most of all, Twilight’s instincts told her that something else was involved. She sensed…magic.
Looking around, the charged feeling continued to brush against her coat like a faint breeze. The familiar tingle gave her reason to believe that neither an earth pony or pegasus were involved—at least directly, if at all. Though at the same time the sensation was unlike a unicorn or either of the princesses’ signatures, each distinct in their own ways. The aura of this magic covered a surprisingly large area from what she could tell, hinting that she must have entered some sort of passive area of effect. A variation of the designation spell, if she had to guess. This involved selecting a specific zone and marking up everything within that zone with something akin to an imagined coordinate grid, which would allow a spellcaster a greater ease of use and versatility for what she wanted to accomplish. It took time to set up an area effect spell, but such magic greatly enhanced the effectiveness of using projectile spells, transposition spells, or in the current case, quick, simple illusions.
Another drawback was that it would require the spellcaster to have a direct line of sight. Given that she couldn’t sense any tracking or detection protocol alongside the area effect spell, Twilight figured that her instinct about this unfamiliar magical form was correct. She looked around for potential vantage points, glancing at the roofs and any places or large objects along the road where a pony could hide behind. The magic floating around her was weak, more a mist than the characteristic fog of energy for an area effect spell. She figured that she was likely standing toward the very edge of the designated area. Twilight retraced her steps, heading back toward the grocer’s direction then continued past his carts.
Toward the buildings the magic was near to nonexistent. The caster either didn’t want to or didn’t have the wherewithal to extend the magic inside. ‘Good,’ she thought to herself, her worry about having to inspect every house now abated. Twilight proceeded down the road until she reached the park, impressed with how much wider the area of the spell was than she first thought. She looked around, feeling the greatest concentration of this magic here than anywhere else in town.
“I know you’re there,” Twilight called out, hoping to make the caster react. Her ears pointed this way and that to help her scan her surroundings. The magical fog did not shift or waver. The caster hadn’t reacted as she’d hoped, but Twilight knew for sure that she or he had heard her. Twilight scanned the clearing that she was currently in, comparing it to her memory of last week’s pet get-together with her friends. She walked around and saw maple, oak, paper birch, elm, poplar and dogwoods trees all around, grouped in a number of aesthetically pleasing ways as the gardeners intended.
However there was one suspicious tree in the mix, which she came across near the other edge of the park. While she was no expert dendrologist and only had a faint interest in silvology, Twilight knew well enough that Ginkgo were not a native species to this part of Equestria. In fact it should only have been found outside of Equestria altogether, in the Western Forests. If a pony wasn’t searching for what didn’t belong, this solitary conifer with fan-shaped leaves didn’t really look that out of place amongst its cousins.
Now the question floating in her mind: was it another illusion that was meant to keep the spell user hidden? Twilight tapped her hoof against the trunk, feeling that the bark clacked as solidly as any other tree. She backed up in order to take in the sight of the whole tree and once more switched to trying to trace any distinguishable magics. There was a faint awareness dispersion spell that radiated from the crux of the largest branch where it jutted out from the trunk. If it weren’t for its echo against the trunk that diffused the light around a pony-sized form like an image seen below the surface of water, Twilight didn’t think she’d ever spot the anomaly—as it was designed to do in the first place.
“I see you,” Twilight confidently declared, now training her eyes directly at the hidden culprit.
“Oh wow, you’re the first one to notice me,” a voice immediately giggled out. Twilight continued looking at each individual branch, trying to parse where exactly the voice had come from without much success. The leaves rustled from a quick movement between branches that Twilight tried to track as best she could with her eyes. The blurry form became all the more difficult to see amongst the shaking foliage. And then, as though jumping through the surface of a bubble, a very vibrant, very hard-to-miss figure dressed in a pink knitted sweater took shape.
Contrasting quite obviously now against the backdrop of green fan-shaped leaves, a blue colored deer hopped down from the branches, landing with ease on the grassy lawn of the park. Standing about the same size as Twilight, if just an inch shorter, two small horns about a hoof’s length each jutted out from the deer’s head when not covered by her messy tuft of medium length blue hair. Her ears pointed up and her eyes open wide with curiosity, the deer did not spare a moment to introduce herself. “Hi! My name’s Larkspur. What’s yours?”
“Uh, hello.” Twilight wasn’t aware that deer could also have bright coats like that of ponies. According to her books, they were only said to be brown, or gray, or dark orange with white spots to match the color of the forest floor. Though she had read a single account of a purely white colored one. Unfortunately the reasoning for that variation wasn’t very clear in what was available in the library. It seemed that deer more often than not made sure to seclude themselves from outsiders.
“I’m Twilight,” she said, finally reciprocating the introduction. “Twilight Sparkle.”
Larkspur suddenly laughed. “Just so I don’t get it wrong, did you mean that your name is ‘Twilight Sparkle’ or “Twilight Twilight Sparkle’? I heard that ponies are named a bit differently from us deer, so I don’t wanna be rude in assuming.”
‘That’s...surprisingly straightforward of her,’ Twilight thought before saying, “It’s Twilight Sparkle. Though you can just call me Twilight.”
“Sure thing, Twilight!”
‘Considering how far they’re supposed to live, what is a deer doing in Ponyvi-’ Twilight began to wonder when she quickly made the obvious connection. “You...wouldn’t happen to be part of the delegation, would you? From the Western Forest?”
“To meet Princess Celestia? Yeah,” the deer replied openly and nodded her head. Then she asked in return, “Why’d you ask?”
“Well, I guess I’ve been expecting you. Though, you’re a bit earlier than I expected,” Twilight admitted. She then looked about, trying to sense if there were any more magical auras in the vicinity. “Where are all the other deer? Weren’t you all supposed to arrive with Princess Celestia?”
“I...scouted ahead,” Larkspur slowly explained. Not even a beat passed when a flash of inspiration lit up in her eyes. “Yeah! I’m a scout. Scout Larkspur! Though my name isn’t really Scout just like how you’re not Twilight Twilight!”
“R-right...” Twilight chuckled at the excitable doe.
Less than a moment after she floated her saddlebags onto the ground, Larkspur squeaked in joy and bounced in place for a few seconds. “Oh, neato! I’ve never seen pony magic up close, before! Totally different than deer magic. That was so cool! Can you do more? Can you?”
Twilight was happy to hear Larkspur’s enjoyment and modestly nodded. An idea quickly formed in her head, since her books had been quite lacking in regards to different aspects about deer culture besides how they were generally said to live in the Western Forests. “I’d gladly show you some more things that pony magic can do. But, if you wouldn’t mind, could you show me a bit of deer magic?”
“Oh, sure thing!” Larkspur chirped and spun around to face the tree. With little effort the deer hopped up to one of the lower hanging branches and tapped it with her front hoof. Immediately the wooden limb bent down as if it was natural to catch Larkspur just before she touched the ground. While humming and singing a wordless tune she was thrown up to the next highest branch that immediately bent to catch her upon being tapped as well.
Twilight watched how Larkspur danced in the air as though she were moving through a trapeze act of moving branches before finally landing onto a bush that sprouted from the ground.
“Tada!” Larkspur said with a flourish, standing on a single wiry branch with her hind legs as though she were lighter than air.
“Wow. That’s amazing!” Twilight said in awe and cheered with a quick succession of hoof stomps. “From what I could tell, you’re attuned to nature magic, but it’s obviously different from that of pony nature magic. Almost as if there’s a synergy between yourself and nature, so instead of trying to mold and control the tree using a spell, it’s as if you have a direct connection with the tree itself! And as for the way you managed to remain undetected for so long would require more than just an illusion spell... no, just like you did with the tree, you actually redirected the flow of the energies around you without needing to produce a counter current of magic that an aware diversion spell would require. Was I anywhere close?” Twilight then asked, excited by the prospect of learning more about this under-researched form of magic.
“Y-yeah,” Larkspur said softly. The corners of her lips turned up in a wide smile and she hopped off of the bush and landed just before Twilight. “That settles it!” she announced in a loud cheer.
“Settles what, Larkspur?” Twilight asked the odd doe, taking a small step back while watching Larkspur with a fair bit of puzzlement. She couldn’t help but chuckle from how infectious her bubbly energy was, rivaling that of Pinkie Pie’s own.
The deer closed the distance between them in the blink of an eye, her swiftness something that Twilight was unable to keep up with.
"Will you marry me?" Larkspur asked, her doe eyes opened wide and glistening in excitement.