The alarm clock was swatted away by the grey hoof as lying the pegasus rolled around in her bed. Slowly, Derpy Hooves regained consciousness and her mouth stretched in a big yawn. She finally threw the covers off of her and got out of bed, stretching her wings and heading to the bathroom. The cold water splashed on her face helped her wake up further, and from the mirror that hung in front of her, a tired wall-eyed pegasus with a messy mane looked at her. She passed a hoof through her mane, frowning at herself. Shaking her head, she went to the shower.
Hot water ran down her body, warming her in the chilly hour before dawn and cleansing her. She basked in the comforting sensation before finally shutting the flow, picking the towel to dry herself vigorously. As she passed through the bathroom, she looked briefly at the mirror again, seeing a couple of wide open eyes which rolled in different directions, causing her to only be able to focus one. She turned her head and exited the bathroom, checking the hour on the alarm clock at the side of her bed: five and a quarter. Leaving her room, the pegasus walked to the door next to hers, knocking hard on it.
"Girls, wake up! You've gotta get ready!"
There was pure silence coming from the other side, and she sighed, before knocking even louder. "Sparkler! Dinky! Up and about!" She could then hear the creaking of a bed, and an annoyed grunt, before the sound of hooves hitting the ground, and then Sparkler's voice. "Coming, mom, chill down! Come on, Dinky..."
Derpy smiled, and turned to go to the kitchen. Derpy's house was a small one, compared to others in Ponyville. From the door, to the right, there was a small living room, followed by the kitchen that dubbed as dining room and a small bathroom used by Dinky, Sparkler and the rare visitor, which meant for the most part Whooves, Lyra, Bon Bon and Swift Stroke, her boss at the mail office. In the outside part of her bedroom's wall, there was hung a portrait of her whole family, or what used to be her whole family. She entered the kitchen, and began rummaging through the shelves; she selected a milk carton, a couple of bananas, a sweet mango, a box of cereal and a bag of oats, and began to peel and chop up the fruit as she heard the girls' door being opened.
"Mornin', mom!" called Dinky out with her squeaky, but still sleepy, voice.
"Mornin', muffin! Remember to wash yourself good, I'll check on you!" answered Derpy, before looking down and realizing she had cut the banana in very, very small cubes instead of slices. Letting out a big sigh, she poured it into a cup before continuing with the mango. Fortunately for her, the slip ups were very few, and soon she found herself with a dish of cereal with fruits for Dinky, and sliced fruit with oats for Sparkler and herself. She organized the table, setting up the plates, and within minutes, her younger daughter appeared, smiling widely at her. She received her daughter with an strong embrace.
"Well, let's see that..." Dinky nodded, and turned herself around to allow her mother to look at her. Derpy focused as well as he could, checking her daughter. After a minute, she nodded. "Well done, muffin. Now go and pick up your school stuff."
Dinky hurried out of the kitchen, and Derpy began to clean the counter with a rag. She was midway through it, when the small filly ran to the living room with a saddle in her mouth and Sparkler entered the kitchen. "Hi, mom."
"Hello, Sparks. Breakfast's ready. Let's sit down."
Both ponies sat down, followed by Dinky who entered the room and climbed to her seat.
"Thank you, mom!" cried Dinky, followed by her sister, and Derpy smiled. "You're welcome, girls."
For Derpy Hooves, this was one of the most special moments of her routinary days, as she spent it chatting with her daughters and bonding with them before going out to another tough day of work. And so her smile faltered briefly when she found herself at the table, Dinky and Sparkler both having left to school. She picked up the dishes and washed them, before heading to her room again. She checked a list fastened to the back of the door, containing her work for the day. She picked up a blue mailmare hat from her closet, along with her old, brown saddlebags, and headed out, towards the post office.
Twilight blinked, before catching herself, and heading forward to hug her mother, burying her face into the older mare's mane. "I'm glad to see you all..."
"I know, my darling. How about we go inside, yes?"
The young unicorn separated herself from her mother, and nodded, her eyes watery. She led her parents and brother inside, where the elder mare found herself tackled again by a green and purple blur. She looked down, smiling.
"Hello, Spike, how have you been doing?"
"I've been fine, Mom! I've missed you so much, we haven't had much time to talk..."
"I know, dear, that's why we're here."
Her father and Shining looked around the library. The dark blue stallion let out a whistle, his golden eyes scanning the shelves around them, as did his son.
"This is one fine library for a small town like this, Twilight."
Twilight turned to her father and smiled. "I know, dad. But hardly anypony comes over here, except foals looking for school assignments and the casual reader. I'm already accustomed to it, though."
"Still, I wonder who would have the idea to set up such an well equipped library. And carving out a tree in such a way that it is still living. Do you know something about who created this library or its owner, Twilight?"
Twilight looked at her father, her mouth wide open along with her eyes. She imitated her father and looked around the library, taking in the structure of the tree for the first time. She of course had noticed the sheen of the leaves and the life of the tree before, but for some reason had never even thought about it, and it had been her home for quite a while now. She had never seen in any book something pertaining to magic that allowed one to carve a house out of a tree. In Ponyville, and in what she knew of Equestria, buildings were constructed with very traditional methods, even when aided by magic...
"Twily!"
She was snapped out of her thoughts by her brother's voice calling out to her rather loudly. She shook her head and looked at him, questioningly.
"Never change, sis. Hey, we were just wondering, what was Lyra Hearstrings doing here, so quiet?"
Twilight turned to where his brother was pointing at and found Lyra smiling at them, but in a manner that was almost mechanical; the forced smile could be detected from leagues afar. Twilight's father smiled.
"Oh, you're the famous lyre player, aren't you? I'd never had imagined you'd come from Ponyville, with the metropolitan air you give off. I once went to a concert you gave in Canterlot with my wife; she's here. By the way, my name is Nachlicht, yes, don't laugh, my father was obsessed with Germane culture, and this is my wife, Stargazer Sparkle. And of course, you already know Shining, don't you?"
Twilight's mother walked over to her father, standing by his side and smiling to the musician, whose face now sported a more genuine smile.
"Thank you for your kind comments," said Lyra, approaching them to shake their hooves.
"Think nothing of it, girl. Are you a friend of Twilight, then?" asked Nachlicht, with a friendly smile. The smile on Lyra's face dropped again, and she turned to look at Twilight, a sweat drop falling across her face. Stargazer noted this and approached Lyra with a concerned expression.
"Lyra, darling, are you ok?"
The addressed mare sweated even more, her eyes avoiding those of Twilight's parents. Stargazer, Nachlicht and Shining Armor looked at her curiously and with concern. Shining walked over to her sister and whispered to her. "Is everything right with her, Twily?"
Twilight threw a look over to Lyra and then looked back at her brother. "I don't know, she had never acted like this before."
She walked over to Lyra and touched her neck very gently. "Is everything fine, Lyra?"
The green unicorn turned to look at her, and coughed before answering.
"Yes, yes. I'm sorry... May you excuse me? I'll come back later, Twilight..." She walked out of the library without waiting for any answer, her exit made evident by the sound of the door hitting hard its frame when closing. They all, including Spike, looked at the door, before Stargazer looked at her daughter with a frown on her face, her right eyebrow lifted questioningly.
"What was all that about, Twilight? We didn't say or do anything bad to her..."
"I don't know anything about that... I'll have to ask her about it, she talked to me about her parents once, but now I think we've never talked about you..." She lifted her head from her thinking to find the three unicorns looking at her; her mother's eyebrow was even more raised than before, almost floating, for a very comical effect. Twilight looked at them, her tail flicking from one side to the other.
"There's another thing I haven't told you about... Lyra Heartstrings is my marefriend."
The grey pegasus trotted through Ponyville, her saddles almost half empty, the sun climbing almost to its zenith. Even though the town was nowhere near the size of the big cities, making deliveries across it was still a huge job; fortunately, the deliveries were organized by sections, with addresses being close to each other in a certain order, beginning near the office. She had already done her round uppertown, and was now a block away from the park, going for the other half, when she saw Lyra Heartstrings running across the street. She looked as the unicorn dashed through, following her with a focused eye; she wasn't paying attention to anything or anypony and instead went up to the park, where Derpy saw her disappearing to the left, concluding she was headed towards home. She looked back to where Lyra had come from.
"The library's over there. Did something happen?"
Derpy's feet almost turned back to follow the musician, but she shook her head and continued on her route, marking in her head to visit her friend later.
Derpy crossed the entrance to the post office with a slow trot, her saddlebags lying flat on her flanks, empty of all the letter and packages she carried during her shift, with only the delivery receipts on it. She walked towards a large blue counter going almost from wall to wall of the main room, functioning as service desk, behind which stood an earth pony mare with a dark yellow coat, green apple colored eyes and a grey mane and coat, with a stamp as cutie mark; behind her could be seen mountains of envelopes and packages in two. Dry Drop was the mare in charge of sorting the entering mail and deliveries, ordering them and passing them to their assigned delivery ponies, and she did an excellent job at it, making sure the routes were easy to follow. She waved a forehoof as she said Derpy approaching, and the pegasus responded in earnest.
"Hi, Dry! Had a nice morning?" asked Derpy as she made her way to the counter. The other mare shrugged.
"There's been a heavy load today, I'm halfway done sorting...
Derpy smiled again at her. "Well, good luck, girl. I'll be sure to bring you muffins when I prepare." She pulled out the signed receipts, putting them on top of the counter. Dry Drop checked them with evident skill, passing the sheets quickly. After finishing, she clipped them together and stamped a red seal on it.
"Good job, Derpy. I'll see you later."
"Later, Dry! Good luck!"
She exited the office again to find herself in the busy streets of Ponyville at noon. School wouldn't be over until another couple of hours and so she headed home to prepare lunch. A quick and delicious soup was all they would need. On the way back, she bought a loaf of fresh bread, her mouth already salivating. A block before her house, she looked towards Lyra's house, and saw Bon Bon standing in front of her home, with her usual display of desserts, selling to a pony who went away as Derpy approached her.
"Hello, Bon Bon." The earth pony turned towards her and smiled softly.
"Good morning, Derpy. How are you?" The pegasus stopped in front of the counter, and the smell of the freshly baked confections invaded her nostrils as well as the music her ears were now registering, the slow playing of a harmonious lyre, which was everywhere around her; she looked down and saw puffy cupcakes calling out to her.
"I'm fine as well. And how about you? These cupcakes smell great!"
"Thank you, Derpy. I'm experimenting, these are orange flavored cupcakes."
Derpy pulled out a couple of bits from her saddlebags and passed them to Bon Bon. "I'll try one and may buy more later, if there are any left," said Derpy, bringing a wider smile to Bon Bon's face.
"Hey, Bon Bon. I saw Lyra running around madly earlier. Is she fine?"
Bon Bon's smile diminished and she threw a quick glance behind her. "I don't know, Derpy, but always that she feels troubled, she spends quite some time with her music before coming out and talking to me. I'll figure it out later."
Derpy considered this, and nodded. "Ok. Can I drop by later, then?"
"Sure, we'll be waiting for you."
"Thanks, Bon Bon." She bid farewell to the earth pony and continued her route, the notes from the lyre resounding on her head.
She arrived home at last, leaving the bread on top of the kitchen counter and her saddlebags on her bedroom. Forty five minutes later, the smell of a delicious vegetable soup came from the pot on top of the stove, filling the pegasus' nostrils. She enjoyed it, turning off the stove and pouring some soup for herself, leaving it to cool while she organized her bedroom. After finishing, she picked up a sheet from the table next to her desk, checking it; that list contained the extra jobs Derpy picked up along, such as helping with a moving, that had somehow ended up with a piano falling on top of Twilight Sparkle. Derpy still wondered how that mare had survived. She left the document in its place and went back to the kitchen to take lunch.
A strand of hair from Twilight's mane was swept by a passing breeze, causing it to block the young unicorn's view before she brushed it aside, and then turned around, looking for the source of a wind current in a closed space. Finding nothing, she turned back to look at her family. She was concentrated on her parents, failing to notice a shine passing across her brother's eyes. Her mother raised a hoof, taking it to her mouth, coughing affectedly into it.
"It is true, Twilight? Why didn't you say anything of the sort to us until now? It's not something to be taken lightly, after all."
As Twilight opened her mouth to answer her mother's question, the very same hoof interrupted her. "As much as I'd like to know about it, we'll save that for later. We're here because of another cause, Twilight." The younger mare closed her mouth slowly, tilting her head to the side, inquiringly.
"Your brother told us about the events that unfurled at the castle yesterday, which he was told about by Princess Celestia herself, when he inquired about you. Normally that would be a great state secret, but as it involved you, we were trusted about it."
The confusion on Twilight's face faded, to be replaced by the shadow that had been covering it after the truth of Albert's fate had been revealed to her. She had sought to chase away the thought that hammered the back of her brain, which returned with all its might after her mother's words. She felt her eyes turning watery, without being able to stop it, as her tears overflowed.
She felt ridiculous, letting her emotions take over her once again, but a voice inside of her, which she wasn't sure about whether it belonged to her reason or to her heart, told her that it was natural for such a thing to happen; a wound would not close in a simple day, even much easier as another distraught thought entered her mind, with the flash of a certain soft green and white unicorn running away from her suddenly appearing. She then felt another pair of hooves holding her, looking up to find her mother with a calm, soothing smile looking at her. Still Twilight let the river of her turmoil take over her, until the flow stopped, and she felt her eyes dry and heavy, and tasted the salt of her own tears on her lips, between sobs and hiccups.
"I can't understand this, mom, no matter how many times I process it in my head... And why did Lyra run?"
"Hush, Twilight. Taking in so many things at once will lead you nowhere. I think it's best if we go solving this step by step, don't you agree?"
Twilight nodded slowly, still sobbing. Her mother cleaned up her tears and looked towards Spike. "Spike, I think a good warm tea would help us very much right now. How about you prepare it, please?"
Spike rushed towards the kitchen, and Stargazer led Twilight towards one of the chairs around a table, with Nachlicht and Shining sitting next to them.