As usual, the Ponyville marketplace was bustling with activity. The sun gleamed from above, the progress of the sunlight all but unhindered due to the profound lack of clouds in the sky. The various ponies went about their daily business, whether it was shopping or simply chatting with friends, there didn't seem to be anyone who didn't have something to do.
Amongst the flood of ponies, one in particular stood out, being of a light purple color, and a mane of dark purple and pink. The horn that jutted outwards from her forehead was glowing with a magenta aura as she sifted through the various stalls assembled at the market occasionally checking the sheet of paper hovering in front of her, defying gravity due to her magical influence. "Now, where was that book stall again...?" she muttered to herself, trying to find it amongst the thrall of bodies. The pony's name was Twilight Sparkle, and she was shopping for books, as was per usual for her daily routine.
But then, Twilight thought she heard a noise from the distance. It sounded kind of like an engine of some sort, and the sound seemed to be getting louder. Twilight didn't seem to be the only one to take notice, as many of the others stopped their business and tried to determine the source of the sound.
They didn't have to search for long, though. A rather large figure was visible a ways away from the market, but appeared to be increasing at rapid speeds. The ponies began curiously staring at the approaching mass, and when the details became apparent, it wasn't one entity, but rather a sizable cart containing various bags that were filled to the brim, as well as having some form of a rocket propulsion system on the back.
An earth pony was inside of the cart, shoved up against a corner, his expression panicked. He had skin of a greyish green color, and was wearing a bright red vest with narrow white stripes, and had a smooth mane and tail of black coloration that were both flapping wildly due to the air rushing towards him, in addition to an assortment of black freckles near his cheeks. He also wore circular, black glasses that he had a difficult time keeping on, and his cutie mark was an assembly of four black gears.
As it became increasingly apparent that the vehicle wasn't going to stop, the ponies assembled at the marketplace began fleeing, but Twilight ended up being too slow on the uptake. The contraption crashed through a few stalls and ran right into Twilight, the impact sticking her to one of the colossal bags. After a few moments, she managed to fall back to the cart's surface.
The machine was flying through the streets of the town as the bespectacled pony was fiddling with some form of remote, presumably that was supposed to control the contraption, to no success as the cart continued its path. "Come on...come on..." he said, up until he was simply mashing buttons, trying to get it to do anything other than go forwards.
Twilight, blocked from going back to see what he was up to by the wall of bags, was forced to look forwards. Disconcertingly enough, the vehicle began hurtling straight for the library. If this hulking mass were to slam directly into the structure, the results could be catastrophic. However, with no visible method of stopping it, she simply closed her eyes.
Then, the supposed driver finally managed to stop the vehicle...sort of. The vehicle did indeed stop, but the main body of the cart quickly and unexpectedly tilted forwards like a catapult, propelling Twilight, the unknown earth pony, and the cargo towards the library. Luckily, the weight of the bags was enough for them to harmlessly hit the tree and fall back down, or in some cases not even reach the building. But the two ponies, being much, much lighter, were shot higher and farther, towards a window that led to the upper floor, the living quarters of Twilight and Spike.
Spike, meanwhile, was simply laying down on the floor, somewhat bored. He had already organized the newest books in the library as Twilight had asked him to do, and he had a profound lack of anything to keep him busy, as Twilight had gone book-shopping. And, since she always took ages when she was book-shopping, Spike decided not to go. In hindsight, he admitted that book-shopping would probably be better than simply staring at the ceiling all day.
However, his lazing came to an abrupt end when Twilight and the other pony unexpectedly crashed right through the window, landing on the spot of floor next to Twilight's bed. Spike let out a startled yelp, and hurriedly stood up to figure out what the source of commotion was. As it ended up, the earth pony had landed right on top of Twilight.
After a moment to adjust to his new surroundings, the pony who had been driving...or, rather, attempting to the vehicle earlier let out a gasp and was quick to scramble off from on top of Twilight. In his hasty movement, he tripped and fell to the ground, dropping his glasses. Twilight righted herself, staring at him as he blindly fumbled about, head close to the ground in order to locate his spectacles, which were on the floor not far away. He ended up bumping into a nearby bookshelf, the majority of the contents falling and landing on his head.
Spike let out a snicker at the pony's disoriented demeanor, but was quickly silenced when Twilight shot him a hard gaze. Not wanting the guy to hurt himself any further, she located his glasses. "Here," she said simply, handing them to the pony, before turning her attention to the numerous books that had fallen to the floor in his daze. She gave a sigh. "It's going to take a while to reorganize those..." she said somewhat solemnly.
Upon her saying this, the green pony's eyes widened in shock. "This is your place?" he asked, somewhat fearful. "Oh, I'm sorry! I...I didn't mean for that to happen! I just thought that I c-could use the rocket to make the t-trip faster, but then..."
He then started going on a very panicky rant, casting occasional fearful glances at Twilight, who simply gave him a confused stare. "So...who are you?" she inquired, partly to snap him out of his current state.
"All of the supplies i-in there hopefully...huh?" he said, taking a moment to realize that a question was being asked. "Oh...I'm L-Linus. I-I'm sorry about your belongings..." As he spoke, he cowered somewhat, as if expecting Twilight to hit him. His voice was like that of a child caught doing something wrong.
"It's okay...you didn't break too much..." she said, looking through the room. Linus had managed to throw numerous books right onto the floor. Resorting those would be time-consuming. Then there was the broken window, which would have to be fixed quickly. "What was that thing, anyway?"
"It was something I had made to transport my things...I was moving here from Canterlot. I had installed a-a rocket to decrease the amount of time it would take to get here, b-but I miscalculated on how fast it would go. I-I managed to stop it just in time, but..." Linus explained, his sentence trailing off as he gave a glance at the window.
"It's fine." Twilight dismissed the matter. He looked ready to burst into tears at any given moment as it was, so getting angry at him would likely hurt his feelings further. "Trust me, it won't be too much trouble to fix it. I'm Twilight Sparkle."
Linus's expression then turned to that of shock. "Wait. Twilight Sparkle? The Twilight Sparkle?"
"Well, duh!" Spike replied before Twilight could say anything. "How many other unicorns are there that are named Twilight Sparkle?"
Linus let out a gasp of recognition. "Oh my gosh, I never thought I would see you here! You...you and your friends were the ones who saved us from Nightmare Moon! And you imprisoned Discord after he broke free of his curse! And you defeated the Ursa Minor, and..."
As Linus went on, he spoke with an almost childlike reverence and became even more enthusiastic. "Well, I don't really like people talking about it all the time..." Twilight said with a somewhat embarrassed grin.
Linus stopped while recalling an event with a mighty sea serpent, and gave one blink. Then another. "Oh. I can understand that. Sorry, I just didn't imagine to see you here, of all possible places. Fame isn't for everyone, I guess."
Linus then picked up a fair bit of commotion coming from outside, and gave a look outside of the shattered window. "Oh dear," he murmured, once again growing a bit anxious.
A crowd of ponies had gathered around Linus's device. Naturally, because the thing had caused quite a disturbance. "They're going to want to know who caused this...oh dear..." he continued to whisper to himself. He hated being in crowds, especially if he was supposed to be the center of attention.
Twilight also saw the ever-growing mass. "It's going to be alright. They probably won't be too mad. These kinds of things happen a lot," she said, trying to calm Linus, who had began trembling at this point. This guy was easier to scare than the fillies during Nightmare Night. "C'mon. It'll be a nice time to introduce yourself, too."
Twilight and Spike then began walking out of the building, and Linus was about to follow her, before he realized that, in an attempt to get a better look at the scene, he had situated himself at a precarious angle, his weight shifting and sending him crashing out of the window and into the ground below, leaving a rather impressive imprint at the impact point.
He uttered a weak "Ow...", only to find that he had landed near the horde of ponies, and was quick to try and rearrange himself, adjusting his glasses. Due to having crashed into things multiple times at this point, his vest had a few dirt stains on them, and his mane was ruffled. Twilight had just then reached the front door, her reaction to Linus's fall an exasperated sigh. This one seemed to get himself into antics like this a lot. The ponies began turning their attention to him, and a slew of murmurs began flowing through the crowd, some of them recognizing him.
Upon seeing everyone staring at Linus, Spike gave him a nudge, as they were probably expecting him to say something. But instead, he simply started sweating, nervously tugged at the collar of his vest, and began stammering so badly it was nigh impossible to figure out what he was trying to say.
"Everyone, this is Linus. He's moving in from Canterlot," Twilight said towards the group, speaking for Linus. "Yes, he did just kinda rampage through the town with a rocket-powered machine, but no worries, it won't happen again."
And then, preceded by a loud gasp, Pinkie Pie came rushing in from the midst of the crowd, approaching Linus with almost no warning at all, bouncing up and down excitedly around him.
"Oh my gosh! There's finally someone new in town! It kind of gets boring around here seeing the same ol' ponies each and every single day. So your name's Linus? That reminds me of a duck for some reason, which is kind of weird, 'cause I'm pretty sure I've never met any ducks named Linus, or anyone else named Linus, really. I'm Pinkie Pie! Pleased to meet you! You know, this kind of like when I met Twilight. Although, she was all huffy and grumpy and wasn't paying attention to a word I was saying. You're paying attention to a word I'm saying, right? I hope you are, because not many other ponies do. They keep saying that all I do is talk and talk and talk, but not talking at all is no fun! Neither are big, nasty grumps. Kind of like that one griffin I met. Speaking of which, have you met Rainbow Dash yet? She's probably one of the best fliers in all of Ponyville! Which reminds me of that one time when we started pranking just about everyone here, but then that silly griffin I told you about earlier showed up, and then she was all, 'Why would I hang out with you dweebs?, and she was really, really mean to the other ponies. Sorta like that 'Great And Powerful Trixie' we met that one time, who just went 'blah, blah, blah, my magic's better than all of you, blah, blah, blah', but when the Ursa Major...no, wait, it was Ursa Minor, never mind! Sorry, I tend to get things mixed up a lot, even though it's important to know the difference between those two, because..."
Linus simply tried to keep track of what the pony was saying as she continued chattering, completely changing the topic on a constant basis. "Um, Pinkie Pie?" Twilight said to her energetic friend. "I think you're confusing him."
"Oh, okay! Nice chatting with you!" She then bounced back away, Linus giving a sigh of relief.
"Anyways, he has to get going to his new place, so everyone feel free to go back to whatever it was you were doing," Twilight said, and the crowd quickly began dispersing. Linus then managed to find the remote among the site, and returned the cart to its normal state. He then began placing the bags back in, followed by attempting to push the cart. Now, the reason behind needing a form of propulsion became even more apparent; he was barely able to move the thing.
"Um...do you need help?" Twilight asked, but Linus didn't respond, continuing to try and push the load. "At this rate, it'll take you all day. Are you sure you don't want any help?"
At that point, Linus realized the futility of his efforts. "Yes, please..." he said, panting in exhaustion. He was obviously not built for physical activity. Twilight then lifted it using her magic, and began walking, following Linus to his place.
"So, you made that thing?" Spike inquired, gazing at the contraption.
"Yes," Linus said. "I must admit that I hadn't tested it fully before coming here, probably because I was in such a hurry to move out of Canterlot. Things there are far too...hectic for me."
"You know, you haven't even been here ten minutes and you've already caused a big disturbance," Twilight noted. "Do you always get yourself into this much trouble?"
"Yes," Linus answered simply. "My inventions malfunction a lot, as you've seen. So, of course, they go out and cause a gigantic mess. Which then makes the local civilians angry with me. It's a wonder that I hadn't been kicked out of Canterlot before I came here." As he spoke, his head noticeably drooped.
"Hey, don't get so upset about it," Spike said. "Even though it was just running things over, that thing is really cool. And you built it all on your own? You must be really good at making things!"
"Well, whether or not they work is something else, but I guess you're right..." Linus replied.
"So, where are we going? Twilight asked, not knowing where Linus's place of residence is. During their walking, they had already reached the outskirts of town, and the density of buildings had noticeably decreased.
"It's right over there." Linus pointed to a house that was a symmetrical mess. It looked like what was supposed to be a normal home that had been hand-crafted by a blind pony, with various parts of the building looking like they had been pieces from different buildings smashed together, and jutting out from various spots were rotating gears. Twilight laid down Linus's bags near the doorstep.
"I'm sorry to have caused you so much trouble," Linus apologized. "I hope things work out a little better. Not that I would count on it, but a pony can hope, huh?" With that, Twilight watched as he began carrying his various bags into his home, forgetting to shut the door behind him.
"Twiiiiliiiight!"
The voices were from none other than Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Apple Bloom, the very latter of which appeared to be carrying a scroll of some sort, and they all looked somewhat panicked. They were rapidly approaching on Scootaloo's trademark vehicle, and came to a stop before Twilight. "What is it?" Twilight asked. They seemed unnaturally anxious over something.
"We need this delivered to Princess Celestia, pronto!" Scootaloo urged, Apple Bloom thrusting the piece of paper into Twilight's hooves. It was noticeably old, and a few pieces of it were burned, and others appeared to have been torn off.
"Okay...did you guys write this?" Twilight inquired. These three never really bothered with many official matters - what business would they have with the Princess?
"Actually, it's from..." Sweetie Belle was about to speak, but she cut herself off rather quickly, much to Twilight's suspicion.
"We can't tell you. Just send it!" Apple Bloom said hurriedly. Twilight, deducing that it was best not to ask, handed the message to Spike, who, with a quick puff of breath, made the message disappear amidst a swirl of purple and green energy.
"So what was that all about...?" Twilight was about to ask, but the Crusaders had already left. Deciding not to worry about it, she walked back towards the library, in order to sort all of those books that had been strewn across her room because of Linus. That was going to take a while, that's to be sure...
Celestia was sitting in her quarters, when a quite disheveled scroll of parchment appeared before her eyes in a swirl of energy. It was surprisingly haggard, if its rough edges, odd scent, and tarnished surface was anything to judge by. Celestia gave the scroll an inquiring gaze, inspecting the exterior thoroughly. The seal had no form of identification, and the letter's condition made her wary. Still, she opened the scroll, reading the contents to herself, only to let out a gasp of recognition as the handwriting and wording seemed to take on a familiar form, yet one she had not seen for ages.
"No...how did he..." she whispered disbelievingly to herself as the Solar Princess quickly stood and bolted out of the room, leaving the note laying on the ground, the words carrying all of the weight and finality of a death sentence:
EQUAL LIGHT.
EQUAL DARKNESS.
THIS IS WHAT I HAVE SOUGHT, AND AFTER CENTURIES OF BANISHMENT, I SHALL HAVE IT AT LAST.
REMEMBER ME, CELESTIA?