My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is owned by Hasbro, The Hub and of course Lauren Faust who seems to have gone out of her way to make a show about pastel colored ponies with names like "Twilight Sparkle" completely awesome. This story is just for fun and no profit shall be made so please above mentioned people don't sue me. You're not gonna get much. Any OCs that pop up in this fic belong to me and can be used with permission. Please don't steal from me. Now with that out of the way, on with the show.
The Elements of Discord
Chapter 3: So Many Questions, So Little Answers
Twilight sat at one of the outdoor tables in front of Smoothie Hooves, sipping idly on an orange and hay smoothie. She had tried to enjoy the rest of the day, but her encounter with that earth pony Star Gazer from this morning kept repeating in her head. She couldn't quite place her hoof on it, but there was something about the whole thing that just seemed...strange. She didn't want to fall into the same trap as the others by calling him odd but he was definitely...different. Like how he know her name when she was sure she had never met him before.
Well...I guess it wouldn't be that hard to learn my name, right? She asked herself. I mean I am Princess Celestia's top student after all and I did save the town from the Ursa Minor so those kinds of things could get around. So yea maybe that's where he learned my name from. Simple.
She nodded to try to convince herself that was all it was, but her brows furrowed as she took another sip from her straw.
But he also said that "she" is coming back, she recalled. So who is "she"? Her eyes widened in horror. No. He couldn't mean...but we beat her. She's gone and Princess Luna is back. So it couldn't be. Unless it's a different "she". But then...who could it be?
She let out a low groan and propped her head up on her hooves before she took another, longer sip of her smoothie.
Maybe I'm over thinking this and he really was just an eccentric pony, she told herself. But then why am I so uneasy about the whole thing? Even thinking about it now makes my mane stand up on end and my tail twitch.
Her eyes suddenly widened and her face took on a shocked and pained expression. A reaction not only caused by sipping too much cold smoothie at once but also due to that last thought that crossed her mind.
Great now I'm starting to sound like Pinkie Pie, she frowned as she rubbed her now throbbing forehead. Although she actually did end up being right so maybe...
"Twilight! Twilight there ya are!" the sound of Applejack's voice called out, breaking her train of thought.
She turned to see the orange pony coming towards her in full gallop with a worried look on her own face. She stopped in front of Twilight's table and took a moment to catch her breath before she spoke again.
"Twilight. There's something I need to talk to you about," she started with one last exhausted huff.
"What is it AJ?" she purple unicorn asked, turning her full attention to her friend.
No sooner had Applejack opened her mouth to talk than another familiar voice cried out hysterically.
"Twilight! Applejack!" Rarity shouted as she galloped over to them. "Terrible, awful, horrible, dreadful news!"
The other two ponies glanced at each other as the white unicorn took a haystack seat at the table opposite of Twilight.
"Sooo...what's up?" Twilight asked.
"Oh it's just awful," Rarity stressed dramatically.
"We got that, but what, pray tell, is just so awful?" Applejack pressed.
"Well after my trip to the spa with Fluttershy I was feeling so good that I decide to hold in impromptu fashion show outside my store. You know, to help bring in new clients and show off some of my latest creations, which are some of my best if I do say so myself," she explained while pointing a hoof to herself.
"That doesn't sound so bad," Twilight shrugged. "In fact it sounds like a good idea."
"Oh I know!" Rarity agreed with an energetic nod. "But as soon as I got all beautiful dresses out, these horrible black clouds started to appear and ruined everything!"
Applejack and Twilight looked at each other again, clearly not understanding the crisis the fashion designer faced.
"And your point is?" Applejack asked with more than a hint of annoyance.
"My point is that I can't show off my wonderful dresses in that dingy light!" Rarity shot back. "They have to be seen in the sun! That way the natural light hits their highlights and threading just perfectly to show off the love and care that went into their making. Not to mention help all the gemstones sewn into them shine brightly out and attract the wondering eyes."
Her own eyes sparkled like the gemstones in her dresses at the thought of her hoof woven items displayed brilliantly in the midday sun. But it quickly fell when she remembered what had caused her distress in the first place. She let out a loud huff of annoyance as she plopped her chin down on the table to give her friends the biggest, saddest eyes she could.
"Needless to say I had to drag all my pretty garments back inside because of this," she said as a way to finish her tale of woe. "It's been a very bad day for little Rarity."
"Yeah, Ah feel for ya darlin'," Applejack said rather dismissively as she turned back to Twilight. "Anyway, like Ah was tryin' to tell ya, Ah think there may be a real problem kicking up in Ponyville."
"Why? What's going on?" Twilight asked.
"Well, Ah was doin' some applebucking when I spotted two old farmhooves we had to fire cause one was stealing apples from us and the other said some rather...unlady-like things to a certain pony," she explained.
Before Twilight could respond, Rarity let out a horrified gasp then leaned closer towards Applejack.
"What did the roughen say to poor, dear old Granny Smith?" she pressed in concern.
For her part though, the orange pony look more annoyed with the question.
"It wasn't her," she answered back.
Again the white unicorn let out a gasp of horror and disbelief.
"Not little Apple Bloom! She's still just a filly! She hasn't even gotten her Cutie Mark yet!" Rarity exclaimed in her usual overly dramatic way.
"Ah was talkin' 'bout me!" Applejack finally snapped, stopping her left hoof on the ground in irritation.
Rarity just blinked a few times before an embarrassed look crossed her face.
"Ooooh. Well, that is horrible and I'm sorry for the confusion it's just..." she trailed off weakly.
"Just what?" the other pony pressed.
"It's just that you used the term unlady like which meant to me he had offended a lady and well..."
"'Well' what?" Applejack repeated again, her face looking more angry by the second.
Rarity noticed this and did her best to think of the right phrasing for her explanation that wouldn't set the often quick tempered earth pony off.
"Well..it's just...that...Applejack, dear, darling, you're not really what one would think of when they think of a 'lady'," she started.
As predicted, it looked like Applejack was gearing up for a long winded, heated tirade against Rarity, but she was quick to shake her hooves in front of her friend to cut off such an exchange.
"Ah ah ah ah," the unicorn quickly chided. "That's not to say you're a bad pony or anything, in fact far from it. It's just that you have a certain...down home quality that doesn't quite befit what one would think of when using the term 'lady'. But we still all love you for that quality, right Twilight?"
"I'm staying out of this one for now," the other unicorn stated wisely then took another sip of her smoothie as she continued to watch the display in front of her.
Rarity glared at Twilight for a second in a silent "Gee thanks" look before she turned her attention back to Applejack who in turn was glaring at the purple maned unicorn. Rarity tried to speak up in her defense but this time it was the earth pony who cut her off with a raised hoof.
"Well excuse me, if Ah don't live up to your hoity toity, high falootin, better than any other pony, definition of what a 'lady' is!" Applejack snapped. "But Ah'll let you in on a little secret there Rarity, Ah did try to enter into high society when Ah was a blank flanked filly cause Ah thought that's what Ah wanted. But Ah hated it! So if me lovin' buckin' apples and getting my hooves dirty every once and awhile doesn't qualify me as 'a lady' then Ah guess Ah just ain't ever gonna be a lady!"
A tense silence fell over the table as the heated words sank in. Rarity closed her eyes and turned her head away in shame as she tried to think of what she could say to make it up to her friend. For her part, Applejack let out a few short breaths to calm herself after her tirade and began to feel bad herself when she saw how upset the unicorn had gotten from her remarks. They had both seemed to come to a mutual, if silent, agreement that they never meant to offend the other, but they were unsure of how exactly to put it into words. Or perhaps they were afraid to break the silence for fear that it would start up another argument.
Thankfully, Twilight did that for them with a loud slurping sound from her cup as she finished off the last of her smoothie. They both looked at her in surprise and slight annoyance to which she smiled nervously and shrank back a bit.
"Oops. Sorry," she offered.
"No, no it is I who should apologize to you Applejack," Rarity spoke up. "I didn't mean any harm by my comment I was just...well thinking out loud without doing much thinking."
Applejack chuckled a bit. "Yeah, Ah guess you were. Still, Ah wasn't asking much better and Ah didn't mean to snap at ya like that. Ah guess it just brought up some bad memories is all. We okay, sugar cube?"
"But of course. We are friends after all, aren't we?"
"Of course we are," Twilight interrupted. "And with that settled, what were you talking about before AJ?"
"Huh?" the blonde pony asked in a moment of confusion but then quickly remembered why she had come to Twilight in the first place. "Oh right, Sledge and Hammer."
"Who?" Twilight asked.
"Those are the two varmints Ah mentioned earlier. The ones we kicked outta Sweet Apple Acres."
"Wait, are they two large, rather rude earth ponies? One grey and one purple?" Rarity guessed.
Applejack gave her a surprised look, but still nodded slowly.
"Yeah that's them. How do you know about 'em?" she asked in confusion.
"Because I heard how they cause such a dreadful commotion in the town square today. They were berating Caramel for something or other and from what I heard made him cry, the poor dear," she related the story.
"That's them alright," Applejack remarked bitterly.
"Well, it certainly sounds like they're jerks, but I don't see what the actual problem is," Twilight noted.
"Well, for one they're always up ta no good, but what really struck me today was that they were with some dark blue unicorn Ah had never seen before," Applejack informed her. Her face then suddenly scrunched up and she started to rub her chin with her right hoof. "Waitaminute. Rarity, you said you had to cancel your show cause of some weird dark clouds, right?"
"Unfortunately," she pouted again. "And when I asked a nearby Pegasus about it, he didn't have any idea what was going on."
"Neither did Rainbow Dash," the earth pony added. "She was helping me on the farm, but had to stop when all these dark clouds appeared. Said she was goin' to the weather factory ta check it out."
"Okay, now that is weird," Twilight mused. "I suppose it's not completely out of the question for the factory to break down but it is highly unusual."
"Especially since those clouds seemed to disappear once that unicorn walked off with Sledge and Hammer," Applejack noted. "Ya think she had something to do with it? Can unicorn magic actually do that?"
Twilight and Rarity glanced at each other.
"No unicorn I ever heard of could do that," Twilight said with a shake of her head.
"Nor I," Rarity added. "Unicorn magic is usually used to help increase a specialized skill. I've near heard of one that could control the weather. That's usually a Pegasus' job."
"Though Trixie was able to conjure up a storm cloud to fight off the Ursa Minor," Twilight noted. "So it's not completely out of the question." She tapped a hoof on the edge of the table in thought. "Okay, I'll go back to my library and see if I can find anything on unicorns controlling the weather. Applejack, you and Rarity ask around town to see if anyone else had dealt with those black clouds or if any of those three ponies have turned up elsewhere."
"Gotcha sugar cube," Applejack nodded enthusiastically then turned to Rarity. "Come on Rarity, we got ourselves a mystery to solve."
"Alright, but I do wish you wouldn't sound so excited about this," the unicorn remarked as she slid off the haystack seat.
"And why not? Not 'lady like' enough for ya?" the other pony snapped back as they started to walk off.
"No, I just don't see the thrill in heading off into a potentially dangerous situation."
Applejack couldn't help but let out a dismissive chortle.
"Honey, the only thing those two are a danger to is common sense," she chuckled.
"And what about this unknown unicorn?" Rarity pointed out. "The own that could somehow control the weather? We don't know anything about her, now do we?"
The orange pony turned her green eyes up in thought as they walked. After a moment she finally gave her head a small shake as she shrugged just a bit.
"All right, fair enough, she could be a problem," Applejack agreed. "But we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. And don't worry, Ah'll be right there beside ya to do all the fightin' so you don't have ta worry about gettin' your pretty, manicured hooves all scratched up," she said with a slight snicker.
Rarity let out a small huff and turned her head up away from her rather crass friend.
"I should certainly hope not," she remarked. "I went through a lot of trouble to get these done just the way I liked them, so I would like to keep them polished for just a little while longer." She then turned her head back around to give her friend an appraising look. "While we're on the subject I know you're not one for the 'hoity toity, high falooting' treatment, but still say it wouldn't hurt you to get a quick make-over just once. I'm sure that spa can work wonders at getting the knots out of your back and shoulders from all the applebucking you do."
Applejack rolled her eyes. "Ah really don't think this is the time for that."
"Just think it over. That's all I ask."
"Fine. Whatever. Let's just get ta finding these yahoos before they get away."
( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - )
While Applejack and Rarity searched through the town, Twilight returned to her library dwelling with the hopes of finding some clue to this bizarre mystery in one of the many books there. Unfortunately, the moment she stepped inside she received a huge shock as she found several books scattered around the room and a familiar purple and green form laying prone on the floor. Her heart skipped a bit as she galloped over to the baby dragon to see if he was alright.
"Spike! Spike are you okay?" she cried out in a growing panic.
For his part, Spike merely let out a few tired groans as he stirred before he finally set up right and stretched with a loud yawn.
"Hey Twilight," he muttered, still rubbing the sleep from his eyes. "What's going-AAAAAHH!" His scream came from the same surprise Twilight had received when he noticed the state of the library. "What happened here?"
"You mean you don't know?" the purple unicorn asked in confusion.
He shook his head. "No. The last thing I remember was straightening up a bit and then...you waking me up."
Twilight's face scrunched up in further confusion and annoyance as she surveyed the damage.
"Well somepony was in here," she remarked. "And it's obvious they were looking for something. But what?"
"A book?" Spike guessed with a shrug.
"Well obviously. But why go to all these lengths? And what kind of book was it? And does it have anything to do with those weird clouds everypony's been seeing?"
"Weird clouds?" the dragon asked, scratching his head.
Twilight turned her full attention towards him and shook her head.
"I'll explain it later when I know what's going on. For now we need to find out what book was taken and if any of the ones we have here have something on free roaming clouds."
"But...that could take hours," Spike groaned as he looked over the numerous messy piles of books.
"I know. And unfortunately we may not have hours," she remarked. "But I think I know somepony who might be able to point us in the right direction. Somepony I should have gone to from the start."
With her mind made up, she headed straight towards the door. She was just about to leave when she suddenly stopped and an embarrassed blush crossed her face before she looked back at Spike sheepishly.
"Hey Spike, I hate to ask but could you...?" she started.
"Yeah, yeah, I'll pick the place up," the baby dragon muttered even as he was already starting to collect the discarded books.
"Thank you," Twilight smiled in appreciation then headed out.
In her excitement, however, she forgot just one crucial thing: she had absolutely no idea where Star Gazer lived. If he even lived in Ponyville at all. Still he created such a ruckus this morning that somepony had to have seen where he went. She looked around the marketplace for anypony that didn't look too busy to talk to her for a moment. Eventually she spotted a sandy brown coated, green maned pony with a floating rock Cutie Mark looking over the carrots in a nearby kiosk. She took a second to compose herself so she wouldn't come across as a raving lunatic and frighten the other pony off. Instead she walked up calmly to her and even glanced at the carrots so to start up a conversation.
"Good carrots they have here, huh?" Twilight asked awkwardly.
"I guess so. They smell good at least," the earth pony replied disinterestedly.
"I...guess they do. So, this morning with that weird Star Gazer pony. What was that all about, right?" she rambled just a bit.
"Dunno," she shrugged nonchalantly.
"Yeah crazy stuff. Say I don't suppose you saw where he went after that, did you?"
It was at that point the other pony smirked before she turned her head towards the sound of Twilight's voice. Through the green bangs over her face, Twilight could see that her pupils were very pale in color and almost blended in with the whites of her eyes. The unicorn had never seen anything like that before but she had read about it and when she realize what it meant and what she had just asked, she suddenly felt really stupid and ashamed.
"Oh my gosh! I'm sorry I didn't know you were...um..." she stumbled on a polite way to say it.
"Blind as a bat?" the earth pony finished for her with a slight chuckle.
"Yes. No! I mean not like that. And actually bats aren't really blind they see through a sense of echolocation where-" Twilight rambled uselessly.
"Aw don't worry about it. She loves pulling that trick on everypony," a voice to the side advised her.
Silently thankful for the distraction, Twilight turned her to head to see that the unicorn walking towards them had too perfectly functioning golden eyes. He also had a long blonde mane he wore in a braid that hung down the right side of his head as well as a long red coat that covered most of his peach colored body including his Cutie Mark. He smiled brightly as he came to a stop just in front of the girls.
"Let me guess she didn't introduce herself either, huh?" he remarked, glancing at the earth pony.
"Actually, I didn't really give her a chance to, so that's kind of my fault," Twilight explained.
"Probably wouldn't have even if you did, right sis?" he joked.
Twilight blinked in confusion before her eyes darted back and fourth between the unicorn and earth pony.
"Wait. 'Sis'?" she asked, with a quirked eyebrow.
"Yeah, she's my sister," the unicorn explained. "See our dad was a unicorn and our mom an earth pony."
"Duh," the blind pony scoffed. "Not that hard to figure out."
"Well, I know, I just not used to...okay this is starting to get out of hand again," Twilight muttered with a shake of her head. "How about we start over again?"
"Good idea, name's Castor and this my sister Rockslide," the unicorn greeted formally.
"Hiya!" Rockslide said cheerfully with a wave of her right hoof.
"Please to meet you. I'm-"
"Twilight Sparkle, I know," Castor cut her off.
She gave him a surprised look. "How did you know that?"
"Hard not to know Princess Celestia's top student, especially around these parts."
"Oh. Right. I guess that makes sense," Twilight remarked, confirming one of her earlier suspicions.
"Dunno, I couldn't recognize her face," Rockslide joked.
"Stop that," Castor chided then looked at Twilight again. "So what can we do for you?"
"Well, you know that pony from this morning? Star Gazer?"
"Yeah? What about him?"
"I don't suppose you know where he lives do you? If he leaves anywhere around here at all I mean."
Castor paused for a second and brought his hoof up to rub his chin in thought.
"Hmmm...I think he leaves right on the edge of town that way," he replied, pointing to the west. "In a broken tree I believe."
"A haunted broken tree! Oooooohhhhhh!" Rockslide added dramatically, standing on her back legs so she could wave her right hooves around like a ghost.
"I told you to cut it out!" Castor snapped again.
"What? It's what I heard," she returned as she lowered herself.
"I'll...take my chances," Twilight said then nodded gratefully. "Thank you for your help. If you ever need anything let me know."
"I wouldn't mind getting a chance to look through the royal library in Canterlot. I heard it has a lot of great magic books in it."
"It does and I'll be happy to show you there myself sometime, but for now I gotta run," Twilight said hastily as she took off in full gallop. "Thanks again!"
Castor waved to her until she was out of sight then turned back to his sister.
"Yes! We got an in with the Princess' protege! It is gonna be so cool to see that library!" he cheered.
"Eh, library never did a thing for me," Rockslide waved off.
The peach color unicorn just sighed and rolled his eyes at her lackluster attitude.
( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - )
Twilight continued her gallop through town and before she knew it she found herself at the edge of Ponyville. Thankfully it was the other side of the town from where there Everfree Forest lay so she wouldn't have to go through there again to find her answers. Even if she did like occasionally visiting Zecora for idle chit chat or sharing new spells, she really didn't want to take the chance of being turned into stone again right now. Or ever really.
Come on. Come on. Head in the game Twilight, she scolded herself as she gently thunked her forehead with her right hoof. Okay, they said he lived in a broken tree. So if it's a house then it'd have to be a rather big tree even if it is broken.
She looked around the meadow she found herself in and while it was true there were very few houses this far out there did seem to be quite a lot of trees. Quite a lot of big trees. And none of them seemed broken. She let out a soft sigh then lowered and shook her head.
"Of course it wouldn't be that easy," she muttered.
Despite the setback, Twilight lifted her head with a look of fierce determination on her face then set about looking for a broken tree among all the full standing ones. She was actually a little surprised how many trees there were on this side of the town and for a moment thought that maybe she had ended up in the Everfree Forest. Soon enough, though, her search came to an end when she found the broken tree. She was positive it was the right one as not only was it a very large broken tree it was also the only one with a door and window in the truck. There was even a chimney carved out of some of the remaining stump on top. It was actually quite an impressive site and one she would have liked to known how he pulled off at some other point in time. Right now she had more important business to attend to. She walked up to the tan colored door and raised a hoof to knock on it but as she did so, a voice called out from inside.
"The door is unlocked. You may enter, Twilight Sparkle," it encouraged her.
"Okay, that was a bit weird," she muttered even as she pushed the door open.
When she stepped inside that much like the library where she lived, the hollowed out tree made a surprisingly cozy looking home. Obviously it was smaller than the library as it appeared to be just a one room house but it was also fully furnished. She could see a couch under another window to her left, a bed at the far end of the room, a closet next to it and a series of bookcases carved out of the trunk itself which held books even she hadn't seen before as well as various vials and other trinkets, none of which she recognized. What cause her attention the most, thought, was the round table that sat in the middle of the room. It was covered with a star patterned table cloth and topped with a small crystal ball. She had to refrain some rolling her eyes for fear of offending her host who sat behind the table to face her. Though he didn't seem to be paying much attention to her more so than he was staring into his crystal ball. She was about to make her presence known but again he cut her off.
"Time," Star Gazer said cryptically.
Twilight just stared at him blankly.
"Excuse me?" she ask after an awkward pause.
"Time," he repeated, finally looking up at her expectedly.
"Umm...flies when you're having fun?" she asked unsurely.
"Time," he said again, giving her a more serious look.
"Heals all wounds?" she tried again.
"Time."
"Um...uh..." she muttered, scratching her head in confusion. "Bandits? Wait, no that doesn't make any sense."
"Time."
Twilight's brow furrowed in annoyance. "What about time?"
"Exactly," he replied then looked into the ball again.
"What? What does that mean?" she huffed, walking over to the table.
"No one truly understand how time works," Star Gazer finally told her. "They believe it simply goes straight towards a final, inevitable end. But the truth is time is much more circular and that to accomplish any great task, you much understand the one, single truth about time."
"And...what is that?" Twilight asked, already starting to feel a bit lost.
He took his dark blue eyes off of the ball to stare directly into her purple eyes intently.
"All of this has happened before. All of this will happen again," he recited prophetically.
Now she was sure she was lost.
"All of what?" she demanded, slamming a hoof down on the table. "What's going on here?"
"I cannot tell you that," he said remorsefully, looking away from her.
"Why not? You can blather on about time and drums, but you can't tell me what's going on around with all these weird dark clouds? Because that's what I need to know about!"
"Aww...the drums," he muttered then began to tap his hoof on the table to the four toned beat he tapped out this morning. "They're getting louder. Closer. It's almost here."
"What? What is almost here?" she screamed then gave an exhausted sigh.
"That...you will have to discover for yourself. I cannot offer you the help you seek."
Twilight growled as she continued to glare daggers into him. "But you do know what's going to happen, don't you?"
"I know what may happen. Just as I know what has happened and what is happening," he clarified. "But there are forces even one such as myself must obey and I am forbidden to directly interfere in these matters. That is the price of true knowledge Twilight Sparkle, always to watch, but never to act."
"But...that doesn't make any sense!" Twilight blurted out, throwing her hooves in the air. "If you know what's going to happen then you know what I need to know and you can simply just tell me so I can prevent...whatever's supposed to happen!"
"I already told you that I cannot," Star Gazer repeated with a firm shake of his head.
"And why not?" she snapped.
"Simply put, it is because this is not my story that is being written Twilight Sparkle, it is yours. So you must see this through to the end. You have all the tools you need at your disposal. You simply have to stop and think about it. Take in the dark sky that has fallen upon you and your friends and know that for every element of harmony in the world this is always an element of...discord," he advised her in the same cryptic tone he had used earlier before he went back to looking into the crystal ball in front of him.
Twilight lowered herself from the table and stood still as she tried to understand what he had just told her. Most of it sounded like complete gibberish but something about his last few sentences stood out to her. Why was it focused so much on her and her friends? And why mention the Elements of Harmony? Did they have something to do with it? Why put so much emphasis on the phrase "dark sky"? And what was that last bit about elements of discord? Was that...?
"Please," she said, turning back to him. "I need to know just a little more."
"I have told you all that I can. Perhaps even a bit too much. You must go now and see if you can break the cycle," Star Gazer instructed with a wave of his left hoof.
"But-" she started to protest, but was caught off by him in a more unusual manner this time.
"Time begins and then time ends
And then time begins once again
It is happening now
It has happened before
It will surely happen again," he sang softly
Twilight stood in an awkward silence following the song then mustered the best, noncreeped out smile she could before she slowly started to back up towards the door. Once she was half way across the room she quickly turned to sprint the rest of the way towards the door, threw it open and then broke into a full stride out of the tree house and back towards Ponyville.
"Why do half the ponies I meet end up being crazy?" she screamed to the trees around her.
( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - )
By the time she made her back to the library, Twilight was beginning to feel exhausted from all the running she had done that way. Still there was many questions that needed to be answered and she wouldn't allow herself to rest until she found them. When she stepped inside she was pleasantly surprised to find most of the books that were on the floor had been put away in their correct spots. There was only one small stack left and when she looked at where it should have gone she found Spike standing on the rolling ladder with a square piece of wood in his right hand and inspecting something she couldn't see.
"Spike, what are you doing?" she asked gently.
He jumped a bit in surprise at her voice which unfortunately caused him to lose his balance on the ladder and fall off. Thankfully he was saved a rather painful fall by Twilight's magic catching him and gently setting him on the floor. He let out a relieved say as he wiped his forehead.
"Thanks Twilight," he said.
"No problem," she replied as she bent her head down to look at the object he was holding. "What's that?"
"Oh this?" he asked, holding the piece of wood open. "Dunno. Found it lying in with the books all over the place and when I went to check it out I found a hidden compartment in one of the shelves."
"A hidden compartment?" she asked in disbelief.
"Yeah. Looks like whatever was there was taken by the same pony who messed up all the books."
"Okay, this is seriously starting to get weird," Twilight muttered, taking a few steps forward. "Spike, take a letter."
The baby dragon nodded then tossed the bit of wood away in his race to his writing podium. He unrolled a piece of parchment and yanked the writing quill out of the bottle of ink and prepared himself to take down whatever dictation Twilight had in mind. She nodded when she saw he was ready and started her latest letter the same way she started all of them:
Dear Princess Celestia,
Strange occurrences have been happening all around Ponyville today. There are reports of a unicorn nopony knows, strange black clouds appearing and disappearing around the town with no assistance from the Pegasi and I have personally talked with a rather...unusual pony who I believe made a veiled reference to objects called "The Elements of Discord" and a "dark sky". There was also a hidden compartment in one of the book shelves in the library where I live that was discovered and raided.
As always I shall do my best to uncover this mystery myself, but if there is any information from the royal library that may help me in my investigations then I humbly ask that you refer me to those materials.
Your Faithful Student
-Twilight Sparkle"
"And...done!" Spike said happily after her finished her named.
He then rolled it up and sent it to the princess via his magical, green fire as always. Once it was gone, however, he had one important question to ask:
"So what do we do now?"
"I suppose start looking through the books here and see if we can find anything about these 'Elements of Discord'," Twilight suggested. "I suppose the best place to start would be with the book about the "Elements of Harmony."
"Gotcha!" Spike said excitedly then ran off to fetch the desired book.
Twilight smiled softly at his eagerness to help, but it quickly faded as that bad feeling she had from this morning slowly started to return. In fact, her talk with Star Gazer made it even worse. She hoped it was just a wave of paranoia but she was starting to have flashbacks to just before she first arrived in Ponyville. But when she was trying to prevent the reemergence of Nightmare Moon. While it was true she eventually defeated the Mare in the Moon, and gained some wonderful friends in the process, she hadn't actually stopped her from coming back. If there was some other force that was planning to return she had feeling she had to stop it before it did this time or it might not work out as well this time.
No! She protested with a shake of her head. I can't think like that. I have to stay positive. Whatever's going on here I know my friends and I will be able to defeat it. We're the Elements of Harmony after all, what could equal that? Her smile returned in a moment of bravado but it quickly vanished. Maybe something called the "Elements of Discord". Whatever those are! Argh! This is so frustrating! I need to have some answers to all these questions! I just hope Princess Celestia writes back soon.
As if the Princess herself has heard her, no sooner did Spike return with the book than he let out a small belch of green flame which produced a rolled up scroll with the royal seal on it. He set the book down then quickly discarded of the ribbon holding the parchment closed then unrolled it and cleared his throat before he began to read aloud.
My Faithful Student,
If what you said is true then it is imperative that you return to Canterlot immediately. There is much I must tell you and I wish to do it in private. I have sent an air chariot for you and it should arrive shortly. Please do not tell anyone of your trip and tell only those who must know about the information I am going to give you so as to avoid a panic. Please to not write back and get on the chariot as soon as it arrives. Time is of the essence and the fate of Equestria and you and your friends may hang in the balance.
Your Concerned Mentor,
-Princess Celestia
As soon as he finished reading the letter, Spike lowered the parchment to give Twilight a confused and somewhat frightened look.
"Twilight, what's going on here?" he asked desperately.
"I don't know Spike," Twilight answered rather grimly with a shake of her head. "But that bad feeling I've had all day has just gotten a lot worse."
To Be Continued...
Author's Notes: All right well this chapter too longer than I thought it would. Course that seems to be true of all my chapters lately. Though I'm a little disappointed in myself for that as it is a shorter chapter and a bit of a filler one at that. Well not really "filler" but a "move the story along" type of chapter. Still I definitely had fun with it, especially when writing the scene between Apple Jack and Rarity. Those two are fun to play off each other. Heck this whole cast is just really fun to write. Shame I have I put them in a such a dire situation. But that's how I roll!
So I am trying to cut down on some of the references I throw into my stories so it won't be as confusing for people who don't get them, but a few did sneak in here and there. Mostly in the scene with Star Gazer with all that time talk. But I had fun doing it so I'm not going to apologize for it. Heh. Also the two ponies Twilight ran into might seem a bit familiar to some and I threw them in there mostly for fun as well. Though they might just come back later in this fic. Perhaps. We'll see.
So what does Celestia need to tell Twilight? What's the big secret that she's been keeping for a 1,000 years? Well you'll have to wait a bit for the answers to those questions as next chapter we'll check back in with Dark Sky and the boys to formerly introduce the Ponies of Discord and find out what their ultimate goals will be. Can you figure it out? Probably cause it I don't think I've made it that big of a secret at this point. Meh, the hazards of keeping everypony, even my own OCs, in character. Still I hope you guys will enjoy the rather bumpy part of the ride coming up.
You know, I think this may be one of my shorts author's notes yet. Which I'm sure some people are thankful for.
Anyway see ya at the end of the next chapter!