Chapter 3
Return To Diamond Alley
After Twilight teleported from the Apples' fireplace, the purple unicorn found herself traveling at light speed. Just when Twilight thought she was going to get sick, she suddenly landed on the floor, feeling dizzy. She got back up to realize that she was in an unfamiliar room. It looked nothing like Diamond Alley.
Twilight was about to explore this unfamiliar place when she heard hoof steps walking towards her direction. Thinking fast, she hid herself in a nearby closet. After a few moments of hiding, Twilight took a peek out the closet to see two ponies walking into the store. One of the ponies was someone who Twilight recognized as her rival from Canterlot, Trixie Lulamoon. The other pony was a unicorn just like Trixie, expect he looked a lot older and had a coat with a darker shade of blue, along with a dark grey mane. He wore a black cape around his neck and had the cutie mark of magician hats. He stared at Trixie with the sternest of looks.
"Touch nothing, Trixie!" the pony ordered before making his way to the front desk where he met the owner of the store.
"Ah! Mr. Lulamoon! What can I do for you?" the storeowner spoke in a creepy voice that gave Twilight chills
"I'm have a couple of items at my mansion that I have no use for anymore." The unicorn spoke in a business tone.
"So, they are items that you are willing to sell?" The store owner guessed.
Trixie's father nodded. "Precisely! I shall come back here to bring my items and we can discuss the price. Farewell." the unicorn bid the storeowner goodbye before leaving.
After a few moments of waiting, Twilight heard the hoof steps of the storeowner walking away from the counter. Once she was sure it was safe, Twilight rushed out of the store. One look at the street told Twilight that she was not in Diamond Alley. Instead, she was in a dark dirty alley inhabited by ponies who didn't look friendly to her. This wanted her to get out of this alley as soon as possible.
"Hey! You're lost, aren't you!" called out one of the ponies. "Perhaps I can help you find the way out."
There was something about the pony that Twilight didn't trust, so she politely declined. "Uh, no thank you!"
Twilight turned to find another way out only to find herself surrounded by the rest of the ponies. The purple unicorn slowly backed away, when she suddenly heard a familiar voice.
"Hey! What's going on down there? Twilight? Is that you?"
Standing at the top of a set of stares was Big Mac, the groundskeeper from Canterlot.
"Big Macintosh!"
Wasting no time, Twilight rushed up the stairs before giving Big Mac a hug. She hadn't seen him since she left Canterlot at the end of her school year, so it was a relief for her to finally see a familiar face.
"Come on, Twilght! Let's get you out of here!"
The two ponies hurried out of the alley until they eventually reached Diamond Alley.
"Well, that was close!" Big Mac sighed. "You should really stay away from that alley, Twilight. It's not the type of place for ponies like us. What were you doing down there, anyway?"
"I got lost after using magic powder to teleport to Diamond Alley. I'm sure that Applejack's family is looking for me right now." Twilight realized.
Big Mac gave an understanding nod. "Then what are we waiting for? Let's go find them!"
With that, Twilight and Big Mac searched Diamond Alley for Applejack and her family. While they didn't find the Apples, they did end up finding someone else who Twilight was happy to see.
"Twilight? Is that you?" A familiar white unicorn walked in front of Twilight and Big Mac.
"Rarity!" Twilight smiled before she and Rarity hugged each other. "I didn't know that you were here!"
"Of course! I ran into Applejack and her family, who were looking for you." Rarity explained. "Follow me. I'll show you where they are!"
"Well, looks like this is goodbye for now, Twilight! I'll see you at Canterlot!" Big Mac turned to leave.
"Bye, Big Mac!"
After waving goodbye to Big Mac, Twilight followed Rarity through Diamond Alley. She felt so lucky that Big Mac found her when he did. She couldn't imagine staying another second in that creepy alley. It wasn't long before Twilight took notice of the Apples' standing outside a store, so she rushed over to greet them.
"Oh, Twilight! There you are!" Pear Butter breathed a sigh of relief. "We hope you didn't teleport too far away! Are you hurt?"
Twilight shook her head. "No, Mrs. Apple! I'm fine."
"Then it's good to know that you're safe, Twilight!" Bright Mac stepped forward. "You are just in time too! A famous pony named Blueblood is right in this store signing books!"
Rarity let out a surprised gasp upon hearing that name.
"Blueblood? You mean the Blueblood? We have to go in and see him right now!"
Applejack had never seen Rarity so excited before. She had never even heard of this Blueblood pony before.
"Who in tarnation is Blueblood?"
"What? You've never heard of Blueblood?" Rarity gave Applejack a surprised look. "He is only one of the most famous ponies of all time! Everypony in town read his books! We must go inside to meet him! I'm sure that he will be so kind and humble!"
The moment that Twilight, Applejack, and Rarity entered the store, they were surprised to see a crowd of ponies cheering for a white unicorn with a blond mane and a star shaped cutie mark. He stood in front of the crowd as he addressed them with a smile.
"Thank you! Thank you! I know it is such an honor for me to grace you with my presence! For the low price of 100 bits, you can have my newest book and find out how I selflessly defeated the manticore!"
"Uh, Rarity? Kind and humble wouldn't be what I would use to describe this pony." Applejack whispered.
The egotistical unicorn posed for another picture when he noticed Twilight in the crowd. His mouth hung open as he couldn't believe what he was seeing.
"It can't be! It's Twilight Sparkle!"
The whole store when silent the moment Blueblood mentioned Twilight's name. In the midst of the silence, Twilight gave a sigh as she couldn't believe that she still wasn't used to how ponies acted around her by now.
"Everypony, Twilight Sparkle is here! Twilight, come up here and take a picture with me!" Blueblood said.
Reluctantly, Twilight moved to the front of the store where she and Blueblood stood in front of the camera.
"Now Twilight, I want you to give a big smile for the camera. Me having a picture with one of the most famous ponies of all time would be good for my reputation." Blueblood whispered to the purple unicorn.
Twilight was temporarily blinded by the flash of the camera. The pony took a few more pictures until Blueblood was satisfied.
"Excellent! Now, as a special announcement I have just been accepted to be the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Canterlot School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."
As Blueblood said that, everyone in the store, burst into applause. However, Twilight didn't know how to feel about that. As much as she didn't like Blueblood, she supposed that anyone would be better than Discord.
The applause died down as Twilight returned to the Apples, hoping to forget about this embarrassing experience. As Pear Butter carried Twilight's books for her, Twilight heard a familiar voice.
"So, you just had to get the attention of Blueblood, didn't you?"
Twilight turned and gave a glare towards the unicorn.
"Trixie!"
"Typical Twilight Sparkle! Can't even go into a book store without being famous!" Trixie mocked.
Before Twilight could argue, Rainbow Dash flew in front of Trixie to defend Twilight.
"Hey, back off! She didn't ask for any of this!" Rainbow yelled.
Trixie was not fazed by this in the least. "So who are you, Twilight's girlfriend?"
"Now, that's enough, Trixie."
Upon hearing the voice, Twilight looked up to see the pony from the store she got lost at. She looked from the pony back to the Apples, who didn't look happy to see him.
"Crescent Lulamoon! What are you doing here?" Bright Mac demanded.
"Oh, I'm simply here to observe how peasants like you spend your money." Crescent moved his gaze over to Twilight. "And you must be Twilight Sparkle. I have heard so much about you! Like, how you managed to defeat the dark king. Foal or not, it is foolish of you to stand up to the most powerful unicorn in the world."
A frown formed across Twilight's muzzle. After the day that she had, talking about Sombra was the last thing she wanted.
"King Sombra killed my parents! He was nothing more than a murderer!" Twilight shot back.
Everyone froze in fear at the mention of Sombra's name. At least, all except for Crescent, who stayed calm.
"My, you must have a lot of bravery to mention his name."
"Big deal!" Rainbow Dash flew in. "The dark king doesn't scare me! I would have been able to take him out easily!"
"Such big words for a peasant!"
"Peasant? Why I oughta-" Rainbow was ready to charge at Crescent when he stopped her at the last second.
"Now, there's no need to get violent. To show that there are no hard feelings, you can have an extra book of mine." Cresent took out a book before slipping it into Rainbow's cauldron, much to her confusion. "It's the least I can do for the needy, and what the heck? I'm feeling generous today." Cresent then tossed a tiny gem into the cauldron as well. "You'd better make some good use out of that gem. We know that you peasants can't live without it!"
With that, Trixie and her father laughed together before they left the store. Twilight had only just met Crescent, and she already hated him. Despite that, Twilight knew that she couldn't let that bother her because she still needed to get the rest of her school supplies.
Once Twilight and her friends got everything they needed for school, they met up at the train station to board the Canterlot Express. They stood in front of the wall between platforms 9 and 10. Rarity and Applejack's family were the first to run towards the wall as they disappeared through it.
Even though Twilight and Applejack ran through the wall before, they still felt as nervous as the first time they tried it last year. The two ponies closed their eyes tightly before they ran straight towards the wall. Instead of running through the wall like they intended, Twilight and Applejack ended up crashing into a solid wall, causing them to fall to the ground, along with their luggage. This caught the attention of one of the ponies who worked at the station and he rushed over to check on them.
"Are you two alright? What happened?" he asked, helping Twilight and Applejack up.
"Uh, it was nothing. Our luggage just spun out of control." Twilight lied.
"Well, just be more careful next time."
Once the pony left, Twilight placed a hoof on the wall, bewildered by what just happened.
"I don't understand. Why isn't it working?" Twilight wondered.
"I'm not too certain, Twilight, but we have to think of something. The train could leave at any minute!" Applejack explained.
Before the ponies could think of a plan, a whistle blew, indicating the departure of the trains. It was at this point when Twilight began to panic. She couldn't miss out on her second year of Canterlot.
"Oh no! We missed the train! What are we going to do?"
As Twilight began to panic, Applejack suddenly thought of an idea. "Twilight, I think I have an idea. Follow me!"
AN: So, I'm sure that it would come as a surprise to nobody that Prince Blueblood is Gilderoy Lockhart in this story. I couldn't really think of a character to be Trixie's father in this story, so I decided to make up a character of my own. I hope everyone is enjoying the story so far, and I hope to write the next chapter soon.
