Papyra shook her her head, and took stock of her situation. She was on her back, her wings against the hard dirt road. Laying across her stomach was the thing that had hit her, pinning her down. She looked down to see what it was. She was surprised to find that it was actually a pony, and a pegasus pony at that! She was sky blue, with a mane that formed a beautiful, perfect rainbow and a matching tail. This pegasus looked back at Papyra, The big purple eyes looked back into hers. Papayra'sponymemories knew this pony, but the new pony memories refused to let her remember the name. The pegasus laughed as she got off of Papyra.
"Sorry about that," The pegasus spread her wings to launch into the air again, "A random gust got me, probably just somepony playing a prank. Hope I didn't hurt you."
Papyra found that her wings were spread too when she picked herself up. "It's okay, I don't think I'm hurt." She noticed the cutie mark on the pony in front of her. A rainbow lightning bolt coming out of a cloud. Theponymemories were screaming at her who it was, and were acting very excitable. But again, the pony brain refused to give in. This arguing in her head was giving her a headache. The pegasus gave her a strange look.
"I don't think I've seen you around town before, are you new?" She asked Papyra. Papyra ran her fore-hoof in the dirt before responding.
"Ya, I just came from Oatburg." This was where her pony memories had told her she was from.
"I don't think I've heard of Oatburg," The other pony puzzled, "But welcome to Ponyville!" The pony struck a pose. "I'm Rainbow Dash! If you need some help, let me know!"
Papyra looked down and smiled a little shyly. "Thanks, I'll keep that in mind."
Rainbow Dash smiled at Papyra, "Anyway, I have to get going. It's supposed to rain soon, and I still have to gather up some more clouds." In a rainbow arch she flew into an already cloud filled sky.
'Crap,' Papyra thought to herself, she hated rain. 'Better find cover before it starts.' She picked up what had fallen from her bag and ran into the town. As she galloped through the streets, she looked into shop windows trying to find a place that she could hide from the oncoming downpour. Everypony was starting to close their shops, as it was starting to get late. Finally, at the center of town was a giant tree with a sign; Open. She dashed inside just before the rain started falling. She stuck her tongue out at the rain in victory. It was a little immature, but she felt she had earned it. When she turned around, she saw she was in a library. With a pony shrug she started to see what there was to read. After all, there could be worse places she could be stuck, right?
The door opened and lightning struck outside, silhouetting two figures in the doorway, a pony in a cloak with glowing eyes, and a smaller shape with sharp claws and a wicked looking spine. Papyra shrieked, crashing into the bookcase. An avalanche of paper and binding fell down, covering her.
"Oh my goodness!" she heard a gentle voice exclaim. She felt the books being moved off of her, and soon saw a unicorn pony using magic to unbury her. Running around the room, a purple baby dragon was also helping. The unicorn pony was purple with a star cutie mark that had six points and a smaller six pointed star behind that. Her mane was cut into a practical style which kept it out of the way of her eyes, while still being stylish.
"Are you okay?" The purple pony asked.
"I think so," Papyra laughed, "It's not the first time I've been buried under books." she smiled. This was true in both her pony andponymemories, and faced with the realities around her, she wasn't sure if theponymemories were even real.
"So what are you doing here?" The new pony inquired.
"I saw the sign saying this place was open, so I ran inside before the rain started. I figured there are worse places to be stuck in than a library."
"Oh," The pony replied, "I was actually just about to close down the library for the night, especially since nopony wants to go out in the rain. But, I suppose I can let you stay until it stops in a couple hours, miss...?"
"Papyra Scribe." She replied. The other pony gave Papyra a strange look and suddenly Papyra realized how she must look without having had a chance to clean up. "I'm sorry, I know I'm a mess. It's been..." She thought a moment, searching for the right word, "An interesting day." Papyra started to help pick up some of the mess she had made. A couple times when she went to pick a book up, the little dragon zipped by, grabbing and shelving it before Papyra knew what had happened.
The unicorn pony giggled, "I remember my first day in Ponyville."
"How did you know it was my first day here?" Papyra stopped what she was doing, suddenly curious.
"I ran into my friend Rainbow Dash on the way home, and she told my she had crashed into an onyx colored pony who was new in town, so I came to a reasonable conclusion that the new pony was you." she smiled, "That and Rainbow told me what the name of the new pony was, I'm going to assume that there's only one Papyra Scribe in town at this point."
"Right..." Papyra gave a sheepish grin. News apparently spread fast in Ponyville. The bookvalanche was soon cleaned up andeveryponywas settled.
"I'm sorry, I never gave you my name." The other pony realized, "I'm Twilight Sparkle, and this is my number one assistant, Spike." She motioned to the baby dragon.
"It's nice to meet you two." Papyra bowed her head down. "And again, thanks for letting me wait out the rain."
"Don't worry about it," Twilight pulled down a couple of books from the shelves. "Sometimes it's nice to have some company besides Spike when I'm studying."
"Hay!" Spike didn't seem amused.
"Relax," Twilight turned to him, "She's only going to be here for a little while longer, and I actually need another pony for some of the spells I want to practice." She smiled at Papyra a little too big for comfort.
"Um..." Papyra had to think this through for a moment. She should help out because Twilight had kept the library open longer just for her, but having spells cast on her the first day in she was in Ponyville didn't sound like the brightest idea. On the other hoof, her day really couldn't get much worse from it, right?
"Okay..." She reluctantly agreed. Twilight jumped in the air for joy.
"I'll be right back, I just have to grab some notes from my room." With a flash of light from her horn, she disappeared.
"You might want to be careful about letting her practice some of them with you." Spike told Papyra, "She's started to invent spells, and I think the one she wants to test is the one that'll make another pony teleport like she just did. She hasn't gotten a chance to test this version of it yet." He ran over to a nearby stool and sat down. "This should be good!"
A flash of light announced Twilight's return. She had a bunch of scrolls with her that flew to nearby stands, opening to reveal their contents to her. Surrounding herself with the stands she set a clear workspace in the center of the room. "Now just stand right there in the center of the room and hold VERY still."
Papyra nodded, and with a gulp did as she had been told. Standing there, she looked at Twilight with a little bit of fear. The pony's horn started to glow.
"What's this supposed to do exactly?" Papyra asked, nervous.
"It's a spell that should teleport you upstairs." Papyra responded looking over her notes and making adjustments here and there to the magic.
"Why can't I just take the stairs?" The feathers on her wings hidden under her cloak were starting to get ruffled.
"Because," Twilight responded, not realizing Papyra's worry, "If I can teleport you up the stairs, It would be a huge leap in my research." Twilight closed the scrolls. "I'm ready!" she announced.
Papyra steadied herself, as Twilight started to send the light on her horn toward her. On his stool, Spike had somehow produced some popcorn and a pair of sunglasses. Munching contentedly, he watched as the light surrounded the pony that had agreed to be a part of this experiment.
Papyra's view was completely concealed by the light wrapping her up snuggly. It felt physical, like a blanket, but cool instead of warm. This was it, now or never! She closed her eyes, afraid of the outcome...